Chapter Text
You didn’t need to be a Jedi to sense the tension that filled Nocturne. Whether it was through the occasional worried whispers or the look of uneasiness when the crewmates met each other’s eyes, those aboard the ship were constantly reminded when they were in each other’s presence that they were flying through the Unknown Regions.
Some took this experience better than others, but the fact remained that they were very deep in uncharted territory, where anything could potentially happen. The subjugator-class ship wouldn’t have gone out that far under normal circumstances, but intelligence suggested that a high-end smuggling operation would be going down, and what better ship to send on the journey through space than one that appeared outwardly Imperial, yet was Republic at heart?
Jedi Master Loke Sanna had all but let out a sigh of relief when they caught the smugglers with their goods in hand and waiting for the recipient. “The hardest part’s over,” she thought. “The sooner we get back into charted territory, the better,”
And yet, something buzzed dully in the back of the Jedi’s mind, as if reminding her the mission wasn’t over yet. Loke made note of this small intrusion as she entered the interrogation room, but she refused to let it cloud her senses.
“I must admit,” Loke said as she took a seat across from one of the smugglers, “I expected there to be more of you,”
“We’re just the middle men,” the human smuggler said. “We don’t know nothing,”
Loke suspected the man was being somewhat truthful. Based on the little she was able to gather on the three they apprehended, they appeared to be the go-betweens between the vendor and buyer, nobody high ranking yet respected enough to transport something from point A to point B. Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t provide at least some insight into the larger operation at hand.
“You must have been told something if you were transporting goods,” Loke pressed. “Like where the drop off site is,”
The man shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t see a way out of answering that question, but at the same time he wasn’t willing to give up information so easily. “Look lady,” he said, “The shipment was set to arrive at a very precise time,”
“Well then, I’m sorry to have disrupted your schedule,” Loke said cynically.
The man leaned forward, a hint of exasperation now showing. “It was timed accordingly. That container we were transporting has an egg in it, one that we were told to deliver before it hatched, and we already got a delayed schedule thanks to an asteroid belt,”
Loke’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of egg were you transporting?”
The man shrugged. “I don’t know. We were just told to take it to the buyer,”
Loke abruptly stood up. There was more she wanted to ask this man and his cohorts, but first she needed to send orders to have the container scanned. An egg in and of itself was innocent enough, but they needed to find out exactly they had brought on board.