Unknown Desert, Pakuuni
Hatice chewed the inside of her cheek, beyond irritated. Despite her promotion, she’d been relegated to work on a series of mundane tasks and missions—the kind of stuff that acolytes or hired muscle were better off doing, not Sith Champions. She felt sidelined. Betrayed. She should be out on the frontlines, bringing the war to the Jedi and fighting alongside the Empress, not traveling to some backwater planet nobody could remember the name of. It was insulting, and the fact she was working with a bounty hunter was just the cherry on top.
Jaikus must have had something to do with it. He’d always been trying to look out for her, making sure she stayed safe. He must have pulled some strings to get her assigned to this mission, where the worst thing that could happen to her was a broken nail.
Hatice sighed, sparing a glance at the man seated across the ship’s cabin. She gazed down to her datapad and skimmed over the bounty hunter’s file. “Griffin Lockhart,” she repeated with a raised brow, the first time she’d chosen to acknowledge him since they left Dromuund Kaas. “That might be the worst fake name I’ve ever heard in my life.” She set the tablet aside and smiled. “No offense.”
It was a poor attempt at conversation, but Hatice had never been particularly good at making friends. Not only was he an ordinary bounty hunter, but a man, and all the men she’d ever encountered in her life—aside from family—had all been pains in her ass. She found it hard to trust them, and she certainly wouldn’t start now.
Suddenly, the ship jolted. On instinct she grabbed at her seat belt, as if to make sure it was still there, before letting her hand drift back to her side. Just turbulence, she thought, hiding her embarrassment. For years she’d been tied to her homeworld, rarely leaving outside of the occasional business trip, but since her reunion with Jaikus and her induction into the Sith, she’d been traveling constantly. She hadn’t yet grown used to the feeling of flying.
At least she didn’t have motion sickness. Last thing she needed was to spew her guts out on a man she’d only just met.
@Orbit