Katha tried to analyze her surroundings by reaching out with the Force, but she only felt a void. The ysalamiri must be around still, she thought. Her head ached, and when she tried to move, the sudden pain made her swoon. She attempted to balance herself, but the bindings on her hands prevented her. Katha was forced to crumple to the floor with a painful thud. For a moment she couldn't move and her vision blurred. After recovering she could see that the room was so dark, that no contrast could be seen between furniture and walls. Katha slowly sat up in the darkness and felt around for the knot of the bindings on her feet. She subconsciously reverted to her old habit of biting her lip as she concentrated on untying the complex knot. Suddenly she heard the dorrr creaking open. She tried to sit back in the chair she had been placed in, but the dizzying pain returned and she crumpled to the floor again. The light suddenly blared on, and Katha couldn't help squinting. A figure was standing over her when her eyes began to adjust.
"Ah, look who finally decided to wake up," the familiar voice said, sardonically. All Katha could see about the figure, was that he was wearing dark clothes, but she knew exactly who he was.
"Why are you doing this, Xanin?" she demanded. He chuckled and bent toward her.
"I've already told you, Katha." He reached out and flicked a piece of hair out of her face.
"Answer me!" she yelled, glaring at Xanin. Suddenly he jerked Katha to her feet by the back of her hair, which was still pinned up from the party. Katha winced as the sharp pain returned, with full force, to her head.
"Anger does not become you, my dear," he scolded, twisting his hand through her hair, "You should really learn to control it."
Katha could feel her legs beginning to buckle. She seized the moment in Xanin's silence to slam her head into his face, despite it's increasing pain. He stumbled backwards, pulling her with him. Luckily, he let go of her hair to catch himself, but she couldn't move from her bindings to regain her balance and fell to the ground. She tucked up her legs as best she could to lessen the force of the fall, but when she came out of the roll her legs pounded onto the floor knocking the breath out of her. She laid there regaining her breath.
Xanin was meanwhile leaning against a nearby cabinet, his lip bleeding. He chuckled, as he wiped away the blood from his lip. "Katha, Katha, Katha," he said, walking towards where she was sprawled in the floor, "still as feisty as ever." He stood over her, but not close enough where she could kick him. Xanin called in some guards, who hoisted Katha to her feet and slammed her back into the chair. This time they secured her to the chair so she couldn't move. Xanin paced around her as the guards finished and left. Katha watched him, glowering. Finally she broke the angry silence.
"What do you want with me, Xanin?" she snapped. Xanin stopped pacing and walked toward her.
"Katha, do you have any idea how you leaving has effected your family? Do oyu know how selfish it was for you to leave?" he replied with a snarl, "and what about us? Didn't you even care enough to think about if you left our betrothal would be broken?"
"What . . .?" Katha said, "but I didn't - "
"Oh don't play sweet and innocent with me, I won't fall for it now. Don't tell me you had no idea. Why else would our parents even let us talk to each other?"
Katha didn't know what to say or how to calm Xanin down so she could get some clear answers. I have to get out of here, she thought.
Zevon watched Xanin pacing the small room. Their prisoner, Katha, was sitting silently in the chair she was tied to. She wasn't answering Xanin's questions and Zevon could see he was enraged.
"What about your father's factory? Your sister can't inherit it since she renounced your mother's culture. So who knows which of you incompetent cousins will take over." Xanin said, throwing his arms up in frustration.
"Well I'm sorry that you and everyone else seem to suffer so much from my leaving, but I couldn't stand to be there one more day. Don't my feelings matter at all?" Katha shot back.
Zevon winced from behind the window. He watched for Xanin's reaction. Don't give in, Xanin, you'll ruin everything. Xanin's face went blank and pale for a moment. Then he turned from her and looked up at the hidden window. His features turned into a scowl as he wheeled on her.
"Your feelings stopped mattering to me the day you betrayed us, Katha!" He whirled to face the door and left in a huff. She still sat there with hardly an expression on her face. Zevon turned around to find Xanin slouched in a seat mumbling curses to himself.
"Why is she being so difficult?!" Xanin yelled.
"Maybe because she truly believes she didn't do anything wrong," Zevon offered casually. "She clearly has no desire to go back."
"Yes that is a problem. Her father wanted her to come back willingly or the deal was off. If we don't resolve this soon, Quinn Sagara might get impatient and send a search party."
"What if she had a reason to go back?" Zevon suggested.
"Yes that's it!" Xanin said, jumping to his feet. "I'm approaching the situation the wrong way. Instead of trying to make her feel guilty about leaving, I'll make her feel she needs to return to save her family. She surely doesn't care so little that she would abandon them if they need her help." Xanin's eyes gleamed with vision and excitement. "I'll tell her that a powerful rival company is plotting against her father and family. That will certainly make her think about returning, at least long enough to close the deal with Quinn Sagara. Then Balmorra's largest factory group will be within my grasp and quite under Offworld's thumb." He turned to Zevon for his reaction.
"Will that work though?" Zevon asked. "What if she starts to suspect something?"
"She won't, and if she does she won't be able to connect anything to Offworld or me until it's far too late." Xanin replied proudly.
"I hope you're right." Zevon said quietly as he saw Xanin return to the interrogation room.
Xanin returned to the interrogation room with a solemn look on his face. "Katha, I should not be speaking so harshly to you. My behavior has not helped my purpose at all. Truly, I was sent by your father," he explained, kneeling beside her chair, "but during my attempt to find you I have discovered a plot against your family."
Katha felt her breath stop in her throat. So that man was telling the truth, she thought. Against her better judgement she spoke, "What have you learned?"
Xanin's heart leaped at the sound of her voice. Finally she is beginning to listen. "One of the more powerful rivals of Sagara Industries is plotting an internal take-over."
"How is that possible?" Katha asked.
"Well, with you out of the picture, so to speak, and your sister all but disowned, the company falls to one of your cousins. He is, as I just found out, in league with the rival company."
"So then there's nothing to be done about it," Katha said.
"Well," Xanin paused for effect, "if you return, all of our problems are solved."
Katha narrowed her eyes at Xanin, "What do you mean?"
"It's quite simple really. You return and the factory is passed back to you instead of your cousin. Therefore, no more threat of internal take-over," Xanin explained.
"Why don't you just tell my father about this threat? Then he can make sure the company is in the hands of a different family member," Katha replied.
"Your father fears that the factory is only truly safe in your hands," Xanin pleaded, "Please, Katha, you must return to Balmorra. Your family needs you."
"Well I - " Katha started, but a voice came over the comm system interrupting her reply.
"Xanin, you're needed at headquarters. We may have an intruder," the voice said.
Xanin's brow wrinkled in frustration. He tuned back toward Katha. "Think on it dear, I'll be right back to untie you and get your decision." Before she could say a word he had already gone out of the room.
Colin sat in the main headquarters of Offworld's base. His job was to monitor the outer parameter of the base for unusual activity and possible intruders. He leaned on his hand, staring at the center screen with boredom. Suddenly a flicker of movement on the far-left screen caught Colin's attention. He watched that screen intently, determined not to miss anything by blinking. Without looking away from the screen he contacted Zevon in the interrogation center. "This is Colin, tell Xanin to come to headquarters. We may have an intruder on the premises." A few moments later Xanin entered the room.
"What have you found?" Xanin asked, looking at the monitors in front of him. The figure walked by the monitored area again. "Hmm . . . follow and zoom in on that," Xanin directed, pointing at the blurry figure.
Colin zoomed the lens in on the figure. It was a man not much taller than Xanin or himself. He appeared to be much older as well.
Xanin chuckled when he saw the poorly dressed old man. "That's just one of the town bums wandering around in search of junk, nothing for us to worry about."
Colin stared at the man on the screen for a moment, not at all sure he was the same figure he had seen moments ago. But there's no one else in sight, he thought. He shook the doubt from his mind. "Alright then, sir. False alarm, my mistake."
Xanin was about to say something when one of the other surveillance guys interrupted. "Sir, there's a craft requesting landing privileges. He has a valid code."
"Let it land," Xanin said, "I'll go to meet the new arrival myself."
Oridin ran from behind the wall to a stack of boxes which would conceal him well. He had spent several minutes watching the surveillance pattern of the monitors in the back entrance area. As he waited for the next safe block he saw an old, raggedly dressed man several meters closer to the building than he. Watching carefully he noticed the lenses zoom in on the man and back out. No one came out to investigate. He must be a regular sighting around here, Oridin thought. Then he prepared for the next run as the cameras resumed their surveillance course. Another quick dash brought him to a concealed spot, only a meter at most from the pipes. Once behind the pipes he would have to determine if the abandoned pipe was the best route inside the complex. The moment the cameras left his spot he darted behind the pipes. He quickly determined that the abandoned section would do and ran silently down it into the subterranean depths of the hill.
"That's impossible!" Xanin yelped, his eyes blazing at the gatekeeper's ignorance. "You know as well as I do that Zevon left and returned to this building the same time I did. How could he have possibly left here in a ship that size without you knowing?"
The gatekeeper shifted from one foot to the other, trying his best not to be intimidated by Xanin, who was much taller than he. "I don't know, sir. It doesn't make much sense now that I think about it, but I'd swear anywhere it was Zevon."
Xanin flipped on his comlink. "Zevon, report to the landing tower immediately." He didn't wait for a reply. "I don't care who you thought you let into the building, " Xanin said to the gatekeeper through clenched teeth, "there is absolutely no way it could've been Zevon. I was in the same room as him no more than ten minutes ago."
Moments later Zevon entered the tower room. "What's the problem?" he asked casting a confused gaze to everyone in the room.
The gatekeeper took one look at Zevon and loudly muttered a curse to himself.
"He let someone into the building he swears was you," Xanin explained with disgust in hie voice.
"He look just like you," the gatekeeper said, looking at Zevon, "but he was wearing a blue shirt and brown pants, not all black like you are."
Zevon looked down at the floor as if he was thinking very hard. When he looked up again his now harsh eyes caught Xanin's. His one word confirmed that he suspected the same as Xanin. "Perin," he said with a grim frown.
Perin was surprised at how easy it was to enter the interrogation room. Whoever was just here left in a hurry, he thought, I bet they'll hurry back too. He was certain it wouldn't take Xanin and Zevon, his twin brother, very long to figure out he was the one wandering around their secret complex. He was not sure how much time, if any, he had. When he opened the door to the room, a girl tied in the chair swung her face around to see. "Are you Katha?" he asked walking closer. She looked cautiously at him before replying yes. He knelt beside her and began untying her bonds ah he spoke. "I don't have much time to explain, they'll be coming back. You have to go through the sublevels to get out. My partner is there, he'll help you out. Go to the lifts, now hurry."
Katha jumped up out of the chair and ran out of the room. Perin did not watch to see that she got to the lifts instead he ran off in the direction of his ship.
Oridin had worked his way through the pipe into the sublevels of Offworld's complex. He soon found an opening in the top of the pipe and climbed out. Inky darkness surrounded him even in this open area. Perin has probably freed Katha by now, he thought as he looked for a direction to go. Oridin silently ran along the pipe , waiting at one point for a patrol to pass by. He hid his pack in a corner, then leaped off of the pipe to the ground below. After a good distance he decided to hide and wait for Katha to show up.
