The Scarlet Thranta by Andrew Liptak

Dramatis Personae

Zozridor Slayke

Rydar Strike

Harn Galdor

Kira Tk'la

PART ONE: DEFECTION

The calm stillness of the officer's cabin was broken when Captain Zozridor Slayke stalked in, a news printout clamped in hand. The cabin was nearly empty, with only First officer Rydar Strike and Navigator Harn Galdor seated opposite each other, talking. Both looked up as the turbolift door hissed open, discharging it's fierily cargo.

Slayke was in his mid-thirties, with dark hair and a short goatee. Like the rest of the crew, he was dressed in a Judicial uniform, with the distinctive Red Thranta patch on it's right sleeve. Like most of the crew that was on board, he had risen through the ranks of the Red Thranta, often claiming that it was his homeworld, not Coruscant.

Both men jumped to attention as he stalked over. Slumping down into a free chair, he waved away their salutes. "Take a look at this." He told them, thrusting the printouts onto the small table between the chairs.

Rydar picked it up first. After reading through it, he wordlessly handed it to Harn, who in turn read it.

"More Separatist attacks?" Rydar asked. The captain was becoming more and more agitated over the news that came in.

"Not obviously." The captain said, picking up the papers again. "But who else attacks Republic shipping these days? Not after the Jedi task forces have gotten their new star fighters. No, it has to be Separatists."

"They're certainly getting a lot of gall nowadays." Galdor muttered, looking at the printouts. He looked up. "Are we going to be called in to protect the convoy?"

Slayke's face darkened. "No." He shook his head. "No. The senate is still trying to resolve the matter peacefully." He said bitterly. "That sith-damned senator from Naboo had the gall to say that the Judicials were doing more harm than good in times like this."

"What?" Both Galdor and Strike asked at once. "This convoy is not far from our own sector." Galdor said. "We could go out and check it out…"

Slayke shook his head. "Right after this came out, we got word from Coruscant. There is to be no actions against the pirate raiding teams. There are diplomats trying to contact them and any further violence will only hamper those efforts." He sat for a minute, then slammed his fist against the table. "This Republic is going to loose, trying to negotiate. What are they thinking?" Before either of the two men could answer, he swept up and left the room, leaving Harn and Rydar with the articles.

Over the course of the next day, news of the captain's anger with the situation spread over the ship like a fever. In a matter of hours, nearly every one of the one hundred and fifty crew members had heard about the attack on the convoy, and not too long after, also learned of their orders.

Captain Slayke returned to the forward command sections several hours later, several hours before he was slated to be back on duty, something that was entirely normal for him.

What was not normal was the amount of hushed talking that permeated the normal control section atmosphere, something that only increased when he arrived. He glared. The noise dropped down to a near-silent level. "Lieutenant Erikson." He said as the officer on deck appeared. "What is going on?"

The deck officer, Kira Tk'la hesitated. She was only slightly shorter than he was, but now, when he was annoyed by something, that distance seemed to be much more than it was. "With all due respect sir," she started, "we heard about the recent orders sir. To not interfere with the current pirate situation."

"And?" Slayke could tell that there was something else going on.

"We just received word that the convoy has been destroyed. They sent out a distress signal, just under an hour ago. Ten minutes ago, we received word that the entire convoy had been destroyed or captured."

Slayke's face went blank, then darkened slightly.

"Any word on the diplomatic status?" He asked. "And any word on who destroyed the convoy?"

"There was no word about the diplomats at the convoy, but the corvette that responded said that they destroyed a pair of Droid Starfighters patrolling the region around the combat zone. By the time they arrived, there was nothing left of the convoy."

Slayke didn't say anything for a moment. Then, he spun on his heel and stalked off. "Alert the command staff. There will be a briefing in the briefing room in an hour."

Slayke tossed a new printout out in front of the command staff of the Scarlet Thranta, all of whom were seated. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is the results of our fine diplomatic corp. Last night, 1930 hours, we received an alert from the Judicial department, informing us that we were to take no actions against any so called pirate activity in this sector, for fears of disrupting the diplomats who are working to correct the situation. There are no pirates. The people that they were trying to negotiate with were the Separatist movement."

The entire room was silent.

"Two hours ago, we intercepted a distress signal from a convoy, and due to our orders, we could not move in to protect the convoy. That convoy was destroyed roughly ten minutes after the attack began."

[ Prologue | Part 1 (coming soon) ]

Submitted June 16, 2003. © Andrew Liptak 2003.

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