A Toast!

[Darth Inheris]

​

"And with construction completed on Kuat Drive Yards, we are happy to finally reopen these great bastions of the Empire, see the great men and women back to work so that their families might live safely again. And to show the enemies of the Empire that, despite setbacks, we will stand" with that the press conference was over, the flash of cameras went off all around as Saorise descended the stairs and tarried forth, though she meant not to be in the sharks lair like last time.

Tonight was different. Behind them had been set a great display, waiters and waiteresses with canapes and drinks, tables to stand and chat while they reviewed photos and received a more personal view of the newly reconstructed Drive Yards. All in an atmosphere of relaxation. There would be no time nor mind to harder questions as the many loyal reporters gawked out the great windows at the view of Kuat below. Tonight, she won, and she meant to prove it.

Though how long that would last she couldn't be sure.

From her place in the crowd she spotted an altogether familiar, and somewhat unwelcome face,

"Mr Tagger" she spoke up, pacing over to him from the crowd,

"I think you and I need a little chat"

@Lucid

 

[Jacob Tagger]

"Ah! Ms. Kallig! Splendid party," Jacob said, taking a sip of the fine Kuati brandy that the occasion warranted. His voice was even and cheerful but his eyes...his eyes were cold and predatory. "It would seem though that you and I do need to have a little chat."

He slid an envelope along the bar. It contained only a portion of the evidence he had of her wrong doings and illegal acts during her Kuat Drive Yards reconstruction charade. Some of the more damming stills from the security footage Aila had risked so much to get, along with the forged documents and hours of painstaking forensic accounting findings. He grinned at her. "It seems you've been quite busy. Those are yours to keep, of course I have many copies.

He took another sip of his drink as she reached for the envelope with trembling hands. He didn't enjoy what he was doing but he did get a certain satisfaction from knowing that he now had what he needed to take her irritating and dishonest person down.

"The question is," he continued, pulsing a subtle warning through the Force--something unexpected and revealing--that this was neither the time nor place for a violent confrontation. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

@Nightfall

 

[Darth Inheris]

How cruel a fate this was. That in what had been an hour of victory, a little insect like Jacob Tagger could slip in and prick her right where she was weakest. However he came into possession of such information and images hardly mattered now, though she would see to it to find out soon enough.

No. What mattered was what she did from here. Whatever happened, the Drive Yards were still repaired, House Dalaigh still maintained control of a large portion of the newly built sections. But her personal image would be struck. Every Sith knew in their hearts that these were the actions that kept the Empire running, that when things floundered, as her house had been beneath her fathers rule, some must step up to take control, ensure everything continued. For the greater good.

And yet somehow, some way, she knew that line wouldn't play. No, clean up from this mess wouldn't be so smooth,

"Mr Tagger" she replied to the mans question, drawing her words out slowly as she slid the files back in the envelope, hissing his name like a viper as she felt his little pulse "I won't bother asking how you got a hold of this" she didn't dare move her eyes from his now,

"Would you not do what it took? To look after the greatest number? To keep them safe? Sometimes what's needed might be distasteful Jacob, but it must be done. I'm sure you know that yourself" she would never outright admit to the charges he no doubt would propose, but she could play with them,

"Shall we take a walk, Mr Tagger? I'm sure we both have more to get off our chests" her voice softened, taking a breath, a smile returning to her face. She would not let this phase her, no matter what

"Off the record, of course"

@Lucid

 

[Jacob Tagger]

Theme

"I'll save you the trouble, Ms. Kallig," He said, truthfully. He wanted her to know--perhaps not the exact details--but just how brilliantly she had been played. "A group of concerned citizens, a slicer collective I'm sure you've heard about called The Nine, uncovered this information and sent it on to me." It was an elegant doge, one she's have no reason to suspect any direct involvement on Jacob's part. "They are part of a growing movement within the Empire to make sure that in these troubling times, those responsible for the people are kept in line. I'm sure you can appreciate such a noble cause as in our earlier meeting you were abject that transparency be maintained."

He took another sip of his drink, looking at the smile that worked its way across her face. It did not reach her eyes. "Ms. Kallig, I'm quite comfortable here," he said. "I also feel, given the revelations in the security tapes, that finding myself alone with you might not advantageous for my continued health." He turned his attention back to her question and answered truthfully.

"Ma'am, I'm not at all sure what I would do. If doing whatever it took to look after the greatest number meant setting aside morals and principals that have made up human society for ages gone by, I would not. There are other ways, they might take longer but in the long run the well being of the people is not something for a single person to decide or take action upon." He looked straight at her, the intensity in his eyes leaking out into the Force around him. "What you have done is wrong. You have done things that are unthinkable for the sake of personal power. Very Sith like, but not and I repeat, not, the actions of a person truly looking out for the best interests of her people."

@Nightfall

 

[Darth Inheris]

Hackers and traitors and the like, words he spoke but little had meaning to her. Even if what he said was true, she’d merely pass on the title to Imperial Intelligence, she had her own agents under her command who’d be able to follow a trail, the Republica’s resources were vast, near beyond measure. No little rebellion could survive long beneath its watch.

No what concerned her now was the mans confidence, that smirk of assurance that she so often wore was plastered on the face of this rival. It hit her harder than she had expected, though she didn’t dare betray it to the man. He could not know he’d won, not even a little victory. And yet she knew that if he managed what she thought, then it would take more than a few cool words to save her,

“And yet such actions are what grew this Empire from the ground up oh so many centuries ago. They are what has kept the peace until now. I can admit, not all is perfect, some strive too far, do too much for themselves that they forget they are part of something bigger” she thought to her friends in the Venatori, the ones who looked out for just that. Tagger here, thinking she was some great evil when she had given back thousands their livelihoods, lifted a house from the dust that would have seen so many unemployed. He could never understand, to wrapped up in his own worldview to see past it,

“People must act, Mr Tagger, and if all you seek to do is undermine those efforts I’ll say one thing: when our institutions fail from the inside, when the peace we held is broken and worlds are consumed in fire, people from all dying in the flames of conflict, greater suffering than any you seek to expose. Think of whether you could have helped spare it. If people like you didn’t weaken what we had”

@Lucid

 

[Jacob Tagger]

Jacob gave her the most scorching look of incredulity that he could muster.

"Ms. Kallig," he said evenly. "Things are moving in the galaxy. There will be conflict, yes...but it is like a forest fire. It is rejuvenating. It is kindled by the hearts of the oppressed; change is coming and if my exposure of the corruption and callous, disinterested leadership of the Sith helps to carry it forward, I will be proud."

His gaze softened as he looked at her. Within him, the part that remembered his mother's teachings of 'do no harm', felt sorry for what he had done. It may not have been good but it had been right. "Ms. Kallig, I cannot fault the outcome of your actions. The reconstruction was speedy and without issue; but the steps you took to achieve it were wrong. Very wrong. You killed your own father, forged documents and lied your way to the top. You must answer for your crimes...If people like me didn't exist, then people like you could simply run rampant until there was nothing left for you to take." He sighed.

"Saorise," Jacob said, flagging down the bartender down and ordering two more drinks, one for her and one for him. "My report won't go live for 24 hours, let's have a drink. Each of us needs it...and I guess, has earned it."

@Nightfall

 

[Darth Inheris]

Tssk tssk Jacob, a slippery slope argument? She didn't bite back too harshly though, the man had earned himself a good deal of respect in her eyes after all this. Even if she did still want to bite his bloody head off now,

"You credit people like me with far too little self control. We have our goals, Jacob, and we mean to achieve them. Once we have though..." she looked across the bar for a minute, looking at the gaggles of reporters that still drank and chatted around them, seemingly oblivious to the real story going on right before their eyes. Every one of them would be rather abruptly chewed out by their bosses when the story broke. It made her laugh, just a little,

"You know, I can see where I end this, you might not believe that. But there is an end to my story, all in my head" it was a quiet little confession she offered now, something other Sith might have disagreed with. But the Empire bred loyal subjects, and she was one of them. She knew where her loyalties lay. What Jacob seemed to hate was their depth, the lengths she'd go to to see them through. He would do the same, she was sure. He simply hadn't been pushed yet,

"But you're right Jacob, we both have today" she took up his drink with a smile. Tea with an enemy perhaps, but one she enjoyed, one she'd almost be sad to lose,

"Why'd you start then? Why dig around the dirt of the Empire rather than climb its walls?"

@Lucid

 

[The Storyteller]

DM posting this turn because I was a doofus and forgot about this thread before archiving and credit transferring Jacob.

Jacob looked at Saorise as she sipped her drink and asked some very difficult questions. It had been fun dueling this woman--in a manner of speaking of course. With all that he had done and with all that he was going to do to her, she deserved a truthful answer. He didn't answer immediately, he was collecting his thoughts.

"It goes back a long way, Saorise," he said slowly. He was about to reveal some very sensitive things about his past and his family. "Back before I was Jacob. My family had been forced into hiding. They changed their names, their lives and everything about them to escape the wrath of the Empire. I never knew exactly why and I suppose I never will." He had long since made peace with that fact. Some things were out of his control forever.

"One thing I do remember though, is my mother telling me when I was little to always do what was right. She vanished shortly thereafter and it always stuck with me," he shrugged. He wasn't embarrassed by this, it was simply the truth and there was purity in its simplicity. "I guess we're all more affected by our upbringings than we'd care to admit. It stuck with me strongly enough that I followed through with it.

"Back in school, one of my teachers said that the fundamental purpose of a journalist was to keep accountability. The transparency of the press is what keeps politicians honest (as much as they can be) and that struck something within me. I felt that it it was right to make sure that if something questionable was done, it should be exposed and brought forward for public scrutiny. It's a dirty job. Nobody likes their secrets exposed but it's what I felt was right." He grinned at her openly. "That and honestly, power never really attracted me. The Sith are intimidating and the Force as they use it, I'm sorry, but it feels so wrong. What about you? Why climb the ladders of power for yourself? You could have done so much good with honesty; led your people to a new way of thinking and a new era."

 

[Darth Inheris]

Saorise sipped at her drink quietly as Jacob filled her in, her eyes drifting occasionally out the port windows as new fighters swanned past as part of the celebration that night. His tale was one she could understand, one that seemed to make sense. A meaning to do good, to do something just, she could understand his purpose if not his methods. So, when the man sent the same question right back at her, she placed her drink down, and paused for a moment as she formulated her response,

"You praise me far too much if you believe one woman alone could do all that. What I look for... I don't look for it for its own sake Jacob. Because you're right in some ways, not everything about this Empire is perfect, ladders and lies and goodness knows what else lay within it, and just as much outside" she began almost wistfully, her eyes falling back to the sky outside again, before running their way back to Jacob,

"Change needs a host of things, and I mean to change much. That means I needed to find myself a place in all this, one a little further up the chain if I meant to have the authority needed to move it through. I freely admit to you, the methods I might have used may be the ways of the Sith, but thinking they belong exclusively to us? It's not so true as we even like to think. Every Empire is corrupt, every person needs to hold onto something, seizes on their emotions to make their way. If anything, that is the reason the Empire of the Sith has stood as long as it has. We harness that which others try to stifle. It ends them because they do not know how to use it. We do." Saorise ended this with a coy smile, wiping the side of her lips for the last of her glass,

"Even you, I'm sure, could have an interest in something. Your family" Saorise looked Jacob clear in the eyes now, playing her last piece,

"I do yet have some pull in the Empire. Where, why, how, I could find out what happened to them. If it's of any interest. Consider it a gift, one rival to another" and here was her card now, her smile on staying for it. There was the chance of a deal here. Something for both to gain. Though some part of her suspected he would never agree, it was worth a shot. She knew he wasn't as easy to predict as all that.

@Lucid

 

[The Storyteller]

"Corruption is everywhere, yes," Jacob said tiredly, "but you do not have to foster it to achieve something. I think that, more than everything is where our differences are."

He drained his drink, thinking about the offer to find the information about his family. It was a risk, of course and nothing Saorise offers would come without a price. Still he considered it, not for him though--he had long since made peace with his past and accepted that his parents were likely dissidents or other undesirables--but for his daughter. He family was broken enough as it was and it had driven her wildly out of control at only sixteen. Maybe is she had official information she would understand why her Dad was so disliked by her friends and their parents. If she knew how honestly he came by his views and why she might have some clarity. He was not the best father and he knew it. Ali deserved to have answers that he would never give.

"As for your offer, look into it if you want but my daughter Ali would be far more interested than I am," Jacob said, turning his empty glass in his hand. "I don't know what will happen going forward, certainly you're not about to let me get off the hook for nailing you so cleanly. But if you hurt my daughter, Saorise, wherever you are. Whatever you're doing, I will find you."

He winked and continued. "Thank you, though. It has been a wild ride."

@Nightfall
Phone post so bye-bye formatting.

 

[Darth Inheris]

It seemed she wouldn’t be able to cut a deal for his silence so easily, she’d have to find a new way to cleanse her image then. No matter, the daughter was an interesting lead. And while threats of violence from the man didn’t scare her, there were other ways they could hurt each other, ones that were far harder to heal. For that reason, she stayed her tongue any further. That and the grudging respect he’d earned. Whether she’d ever meet this Ali and follow up her offer remained to be seen, for now she merely filed it away, a tantalising tidbit for her intelligence offices to consider. Though she had some sympathy for the girl, given her fathers actions she doubted he’d live much longer, too much attention too quickly, being left alone was no easy thing, no matter the circumstances that bore it. She knew that all too well,

“Oh there’s time yet for anything to happen Jacob, but don't worry, your daughter is none of my concern, unless it is made my concern" her last words weren't meant maliciously, merely pragmatically, hopefully it would not come to that. Distasteful as some might find it, she had her sights on other things, though her spies would keep an eye out, just in case.

Her eyes fell to the bar, looking over the fine grain of the wood, the bartender clearing up some hearty red wine that had been spilled across it. She laughed beneath her breath. As much as she hated the little trap she was in, part of her relished it, another challenge to overcome. It was all she ever needed,

"And you as well Jacob, I don't think it's one we'll ever be off"

@Lucid

/EndThread