Chapter Text
General Veers wasn’t sure why he was being involved in this.
He was positive it was the first time any of them had been into the gutterworks, and boy, was it a contrast to the rest of the ship. The passageways were narrow and poorly lit- or not at all in many areas. Pipes and bundles of wires cut the width or the height of the walkways even smaller, forcing them to duck or step over hazards. Lifts were far and few between, and the only safety was a simple railing to keep its riders from dropping off into the darkness. Ladders and steep, nearly impossible to navigate stairwells were far more common, dotted here and there as they loomed out of the shadows, occasionally on display by a single light.
He had been in warzones that were easier to cross. It made the rumors of people living down here all the more bizarre.
Behind him he could hear the Admiral hit his foot on a zipping mouse droid, muttering curses under his breath. It made the surreal situation more bearable, knowing Ozzel was absolutely miserable. The man hadn’t been happy when he and Lord Vader turned up in the middle of a training session with a new Walker upgrade to pull the General away. The situation hadn’t been explained, and Vader only demanded his presence and nothing else. Whatever it was, it made Ozzel look very smug despite Veers’ inclusion- at least until Vader stepped into a maintenance door and marched into the gutterworks as natural as the open corridors of the upper decks.
They had been walking for over fifteen minutes now, Veers keeping in step with the swish of his Supreme Commander’s cape. Ozzel’s grumbling had become a near constant presence, pitched with the occasional thump whenever the man stumbled on whatever it was he’d ran into. Veers said nothing, but if a rumor of the Admiral being an entirely useless klutz made its rounds in a few hours, well, he’d certainly had no hand in that. After all, if the giant Sith Lord could snake his way through the maze without once faltering in his step, then a normal officer could learn to pick up his feet after kicking the second jutting pipe.
Twenty minutes in, and Veers could hear something under the rasp of Vader’s mask ahead of him and the angry muttering behind him. Ozzel nearly ran into the back of him when he stopped, surprise jolting his veins. It was whisper of the Bivaran violin, and growing louder with each step.
“Move, you stupid man,” Ozzel snipped over his shoulder, and Veers hid a scowl as he strode forward, continuing to trail after Vader. It seemed as if the Sith was leading them towards the music, the melody bouncier than A Wanderer’s Requiem, faster in pace that he wouldn’t be surprised if it was a dancing song. It continue to call them with a chipperness that didn’t suit the murky corridors or the menacing Vader that was heading right towards it.
The maze finally opened into a cavernous space, the ceiling disappearing far above them. In the middle was a tall figure, perhaps only an inch or two shorter than Veers himself, cap perfectly perched on her tightly curled hair despite swaying with the music. She had her back to them, the bow dancing across the violin as the song peaked and wallowed. A pair of gloves were stuffed into her back pocket, her nimble fingers free to join the jig only she was invited to.
Ozzel had to cough into his hand, causing the bow to stop mid-note. Silence consumed the empty space, the only sound being the eerie mechanical breathing of Lord Vader. The woman turned- it was Lieutenant Yuul, the one who brought Waterlee to the medbay just days ago. She blinked at them, the instrument dropping from her chin in surprise.
“Sirs!” She was quick to recover, heels snapping together. She couldn’t salute, but held her arms at her sides, the bow and violin still in her hands. The surprise that flashed over her face was gone in a blink, expression falling into neutral no-nonsense. Veers had to respect the quick recovery time- maybe he could get her to teach some of his men how to hold it together when Vader appeared out of the black.
“Lieutenant Valhalm Yuul.” Veers blinked as Vader spoke, the vocoder rumbling and echoing through the room. He hadn’t known his Commander would know her name, but with his weird Force abilities that included choking people from across the ship, he wasn’t all that surprised. Yuul, to her credit, didn’t even flinch under being known by the Sith Lord. “You will lead us to your Captain.”
The direct order didn’t faze her either, and she gave Vader a crisp nod.
“Right away, my lord. Sirs.” She flicked her gaze to Veers, who gave a curt nod back, then to Ozzel, who sneered at the sight of the Kiffar clan markings on her face, before pivoting on her heel and marching across the room and to another corridor without stopping to see if they were following. Ballsy- not bad for a naval officer. He’d seen higher ranking men turn into sniveling messes when being in the same room as Vader, and in the very first meeting Yuul didn’t so much as stutter.
A real shame she wasn’t Army. He could use someone with that kind of spine.
There was a change in the corridors the further into the bowels of the ship they went. Lights were a bit more common, and the walkways were clean from constant use. Ozzel stopped hitting himself on things, which ceased the grumbling, but Veers could still feel his discontent on his back.
With Yuul’s course further into the gutterworks, it only sealed the unbelievable rumor as truth- that there really was people who were living below the decks. Veers thought only droids ran amok down here, but here they were, tramping through the maze in search of Yuul’s commanding officer. He had heard some talk about Ozzel having put someone in the brig for allegedly trying to kill Captain Kest (and oh, had that gossip spread like wildfire. It wasn’t every day the Executor lost her Captain in a fashion that wasn’t transferring or strangulation), and now they were down in the gutterworks looking for a wayward Captain.
These two things were related, weren’t they?
(Also- why was there a Captain all the way down here to begin with?)
Yuul had disappeared into a doorway that Vader had to actually tip his head forward to get his helmet through. Veers pretended not to notice as he followed after the swish of fabric, and found himself in a cramped bunkroom. There were three bunks- six beds total- along one long wall, but eight storage chests lining the wall with the entrance. There was a golden-brown haired lad collapsed on one of the top bunks, a strong arm hanging over the edge and dead to the world still in his uniform. An older man in the bunk below looked up from his datapad, steely blue-grey eyes staring for a moment before he dropped the datapad to the mattress and rose carefully to his feet, confusion marring his brow.
“Sirs-?”
“They’re here to see the Captain,” Yuul interrupted, shooting the man a look that conveyed something that Veers couldn’t read, but the man could loud and clear, judging from the frown that was tugging the corners of his lips but nodded all the same. Nothing else was said as Yuul breezed by to the far wall on the left, where a light shone from the room within. If Vader was displeased by the borderline rudeness, he didn’t show it, instead following after the musician with heavy bootfalls. Veers followed suit, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the disdain written all over Ozzel’s face as he regarded the room at large akin to someone who had just walked into a filthy fresher.
Yuul had shifted the bow to the same hand that held her violin, freeing herself to knock on the doorframe to the tiniest closet of an office Veers had ever seen. “Captain, Lord Vader is here to see you.”
A plain man with a tired face blinked up from his stack of flimsiwork but was quick to rise to his feet and into smart attention, hands tucked neatly behind his back when he caught sight of the three outranking officers.
“Lord Vader.” His eyes flickered over to Ozzel, a twitch in the corner of his mouth quickly disappearing the instant it arrived, but his gaze had turned flinty. He wasn’t surprised, nor was Ozzel a stranger to him. Curious, as he didn’t seem to be the man Veers would peg to hang around Ozzel and his ilk, and the regard he had for the Admiral was rather chilly. Definitely not friends. “General. Admiral. May I inquire as to this visit?”
Veers wanted to know too, since he seemed to be the only one in the damn room who didn’t know what was going on. Even Yuul, who had moved to stand just to the right of her Captain after setting her instrument carefully on a nearby shelf and turning and mimicking her commanding officer with hands clasped behind her, didn’t appear confused.
“You threatened the Admiral.” Well that was a loaded sentence despite Vader saying it as if he were stating the weather. Veers took a quick glance out of the corner of his eye to Ozzel, who was radiating smugness again. Well, something, happened, and if Veers was a betting man, he’d put all his money on Ozzel having gotten a tad out of hand when detaining one of this Captain’s crew, and the Captain hadn’t been happy about that. The man didn’t cut the figure of someone who would go toe-to-toe with the Fleet Admiral, considering he only came to Yuul’s shoulders, but Veers only need to take one look at his eyes to know this man would throw hands with Vader himself if it came down to protecting his men.
Did the Navy hide all their strong-willed and durasteel-spined men down here or something?
“I did.” The Captain was calm, his chin lifting just a tad. He wasn’t ashamed at what he had done. Good man.
“You should be put down like the mongrel you are!” Ozzel couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer, face flushing as he snapped at the Captain. Yuul’s posture became rigid, honing in on the Admiral with the barely restrained promise of violence. Oh, she hadn’t liked the Admiral insulting her Captain at all. “No respect for your commanding officers at all! You are a shame to this Navy!”
The Captain didn’t even defend himself. In fact, he didn’t even look at Ozzel, his attention focused entirely on Vader. Veers didn’t need to read minds to know who the Captain respected out of the three, and it certainly wasn’t Ozzel.
The Captain and Lord Vader continued their silent staring contest for another minute, Ozzel realizing he was being ignored at around the fifty second mark. His mustache shivered as he opened his mouth to continue laying on the insults, but Vader cut through the tension before he could start on his tirade.
“I expect you to be on the bridge at first shift. General Veers will assist you in moving your things to the appropriate accommodations.”
Veers stared. The small Captain stared. There was a thump behind them as the sleeping lad who hadn’t been sleeping anymore and instead eavesdropping fell off the edge of the bunk.
“I-I beg your pardon?”
Vader hooked his thumbs into his belt loops, looming in the tiny space as an inky apparition.
“The Executor’s new Captain cannot stay so far away from the bridge,” was his simple statement.
“Now wait a minute-!” Ozzel spluttered- clearly this wasn’t something he had been expecting. “He threatened me and you’re rewarding him-?!”
“I apologize, my lord, but I must decline.”
Both Veers and Ozzel were in different states of gawping as the Captain politely blinked up at Vader.
“I am honored, my lord, but I cannot-“
“First shift.” Vader unhooked a hand to wave a finger at the Captain, whose mouth opened then closed as his argument died in his throat. “Don’t be late.”
A flick of his cape, and Vader turned around. There was a scramble from the bunkroom, and Veers realized once he could see around the bulky Sith that they had gained an audience. The older man with grey staining his temples had dressed during the discussion, the Lieutenant Commander pips displayed on his chest and stood closest to the door. Across from him bracketing the other side of the door was a clone of all people, the grey uniform holding no ranks at all and angry scars crawling up his throat he watched them with eyes a vibrant amber and face as expressive as the bulkhead. Alongside the Lieutenant Commander was the golden-brown haired lad, his curls a mess but the Ensign uniform perfectly straight on his broad shoulders and standing tall beside the slightly shorter man. Across from him was a tiny girl with hair as white as snow, green eyes as brilliant as the clone’s amber, only heightened but the angry bruise along her face and bacta bandage bridging across her nose. Across from one another was another set of Ensigns, a pair of black-haired and fair-skinned boys who couldn’t be older than twenty, watching them with unblinking dark eyes. At the very end on the Lieutenant Commander’s side was another small figure, a teen even younger than the twins who could only have a few inches on the Junior Lieutenant, the tarnished-copper strands falling over the Ensign’s cloudy eyes as he ducked his head. There was a spot bare where Yuul would’ve stood- eight men strong and one Captain that made up the Gutterworks’ Crew.
The Junior Lieutenant caught his eye and openly grinned regardless of Vader’s presence, flashing sharp canines as she sneered at Ozzel, who pretended he didn’t flinch at the display. The others at least kept up their expressions to a military flat, even the boy on the end who was staring very intently at the floor across from him as Vader strode past them all. Ozzel picked up his feet and hurried after him, no doubt about to go on the fruitless, suicidal mission of trying to change Vader’s mind.
A stillness settled in the room as the heavy footfalls dissipated into the maze. It was barely a heartbeat later when the Junior Lieutenant broke rank, completely disregarding the General as she darted into the office and bodily flung herself into the Captain, arms around his waist. She nearly bowled the man over, who grunted and was steadied by Yuul’s hand, the gloves having gone back on at some point.
“Congratulations!!”
The bunkroom dissolved into cheers that would’ve put the Army to shame as the Captain’s crew crowded into the office after her- all except the clone, who chose to hang out in the doorway with his arms crossed, content in simply watching the chaos unfold.
The poor Captain looked horribly lost, hazel eyes catching Veers’ gaze.
“Did I… just become the ship Captain?”
Veers couldn’t help it- he laughed.