A Matter of Force by: Elsbeth For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

Captain Illian Drako sat comfortably in a small room overlooking the Space Port medical complex. Displayed before him on numerous screens were the inner hallways, rooms and the surrounding area of the medical center. In addition, the office of a human female named Trinna Yavok.

Hooking into the hospitals hologrid and computers had been simple enough, something he learned how to do on the streets. Most agents would have had a computer or even a droid look through all of the data however; he learned that sometimes it often took a human eye to spot small details.

After several hours, he sat back rubbing his eyes. What was he doing? For one thing, an Imperial Agent had better things to do than hunt down smugglers and their cargo. Unless this drug posed a serious threat to the Imperium there were dozens of other things that he should be doing.

In fact, this little adventure on the surface seemed nothing more than a reaction to something that happened many years ago. He did not think Aya would want him to spend all of his life trying to get revenge.

However, an inner voice inside him kept the Agent from leaving. That drug reminded him of something from his childhood. The same something that made him escape with his sister into to the streets of Coruscant.

Running his fingers through his hair, Illian stood up and poured himself another stimulant. This Trinna Yavok had been an interesting character to watch. For one thing, although it seemed she worked in medical, she had actually never met a sick patient.

Now this didn’t mean she didn’t meet with people, all of whom according to what he could tell were for the most part in good health. However, she continued to meet the same people with a few of them coming back a few days later, sometimes not.

“She is using them for testing.”

Such dealings could pay well, especially for those who were in desperate need of credits. He could remember well, while living in the lower parts of the city, the unscrupulous scientists taking advantage of those in need. Unfortunately, more often than not the poor test subjects never returned, as the failed experiments were, more often than not, fatal.

Once again, the legality of those dealings should not come under his prevue, especially in some backwater planet. The Imperium didn’t particularly care if half the denizens of this planet died from some out of control experiment.

“Enough of this.” Rising from his chair, the Imperial Agent went into the other room to take a sonic shower and change. He would need to shake things up a bit and see what came crawling out from under the floor.

The man he killed the other day told him that there were other teams in the area. He confirmed with his command, no other Imperial agents or their teams were currently working in the town. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what to believe. There were plenty of operations that no one but the upper command knew were running.

Perhaps the man he killed had been Republic security, or special Ops. However, why protect a drug smuggler and his supply. If one were to believe what the Imperium drilled into him at the Academy, he shouldn’t be surprised that the Republic dabbled in such things. However, he knew better, due to meeting with his counterparts a number of times while on missions.

Truth be told, he didn’t really think if the Republic ruled the galaxy things would be better off. This planet and its Hutt’s would continue to exist; smugglers would still roam freely. He would be protecting a different way of life, and perhaps on some worlds, things would be better but perhaps not. Still, such things weren’t important. He had a job to do.

Gimbal sat in the hot office, half looking at the vids in front of him. For the most part, those that actually lived in the town couldn’t afford to come here for treatment. Those who did were normally travelers coming in or out of the Space Port and of those, only a few needed treatments. If they would just listen and hydrate themselves, Gimbal would have a very quiet life.

“I need to speak with Doctor Trinna Yavok.”

Yawning, he looked up at the man with disinterest. The dark haired human didn’t appear injured, nor did he appear to be suffering from the heat. Good to see that someone paid attention and kept hydrated. Obviously, whatever brought the armed individual into the hospital had nothing to do with being ill; therefore, he had no business being here.

“Sorry, she is no longer seeing new patients. We have limited facilities, so if you are ill, I would suggest that you walk down the yellow marked corridor and see one of the medical droids. Just run your card through the slot on the side of the droid for service. After an initial scan, which is not free, a list of prices will appear that will deal with your particular problem.”

Gimbal looked back down, hoping that the person in front of him would just leave but of course, he didn’t.

“I’m sorry; you must not understand the local dialect. Let me get a protocol droid for you.”

The sound of credits hitting the table immediately got his attention but nothing more. Soon a few more rattled around in front of him.

“Doctor Trinna Yavok you say?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see if she is working, should I tell her your name?”

Even more credits fell from the man’s hands. “No.”

“I see, room A475.”

Captain Drako walked by the Chiss, amused how little that had actually cost him. So, either she didn’t expect company or she came prepared for it. Reaching down, he unsnapped the holster.

The men who followed him out of the bar proved to him that the doctor’s importance, although the two could have been trolling for information about her, if so, why come heavily armed. Moreover, why did the one he dropped kill himself?
Well, let’s see what this little visit turns up.” Without knocking, he keyed the door and entered.

Doctor Trinna Yavok appeared to be an attractive woman, not more than thirty or so cycles. With her black hair pulled up conservatively, dressed in white, she gave the appearance of a normal doctor.

“I’m sorry, but I am not seeing any patients today.”

Surprisingly, or not, the good doctor did not appear to be upset about him entering the room unannounced.

“I’m not in need of your services, I am looking for someone.”

Setting down her datapad, she made a face. “I’m sorry; I don’t think I can help you.”

“Even if it’s about Captain Vi’car of the ship Moondancer?”

From her slight body movement and widening of eyes, Captain Illian had most definitely touched upon something. He kept an eye on her hands; any sudden movements would cost the woman dearly.

“I’m sorry, what has he done.”

“Not my business to ask.”

“I see, so you’re what….a bounty hunter?”

“And, I am in need of information, so I can collect that bounty.”

The good doctor shrugged her shoulders. “I haven’t seen Vi’car in months, and if you asked the people, who told you about me, they would have said the same thing.”

“I see, so you have no idea where he went or his cargo?”

He doctor took a better look at the Captain, frowning. “I see no reason why that would concern a bounty hunter.”

“I’m sure that you’re not aware, that after capturing someone like Vi’car once the cargo and his ship is sold, the lucky person who brought him in gets a percentage of the profits.”

“So you do it for the money?”

“Is there any other reason to get into this business?”

Reaching for her datapad the doctor started to read. “As I said before, I have no clue of her whereabouts. I’m sure his friends who told you about me would have more information.”

“Well then, sorry to have bothered you.”

As she turned to leave, she said. “You are rather polite for a bounty hunter.”

“Do you know many?”

The woman laughed. “Actually no, you’re my first.”

“Well a pleasure doing business with you, perhaps our paths will cross again.”

“No offence, but I hope not. Good day to you Mister Bounty Hunter.”

Walking down the corridor, the Imperial Agent did not head for the front of the building but off to a side entrance, one that he actually didn’t exit. Several nights earlier, he had spent time in the building setting up for this very meeting. Removing a panel on the wall, he walked inside, closing the it from behind.

Entering an unused part of the medial center, the Agent sat in front of a vid screen to watch events unfold. The doctor had been too unconcerned about an armed man barging into her office. No yelling, no screaming not even “I’ll call security of you don’t leave.” The whole thing had been rather civilized.

Moments later, several men entered the building, and from outside he spotted two more. As expected, he thought happily. So he had read the whole thing correctly, although he didn’t exactly expect the presence of a security team but whose?

Scanning their faces had been easy enough; of course, such things were changed and often were in his line of business. While allowing the data to be crunched, he took note of their armaments, mercenaries perhaps, well-funded ones at that.

Another group entered the buildings, but the one who seemed to be in charge caught his attention. Black robes covered his body, and he moved with the grace of a dancer or a predator.

For some reason, Illian immediately started to turn off the active vids, leaving only the one inside the Doctor’s office in passive but receiving mode. Reaching for his gear, he moved towards the back of the building and out into a small alleyway. He did not need to stay and watch: any data collected would be sent to his ship.

Captain Illian Drako sat in his patrol craft staring at the walls. He had gone over all of the data once again, not surprised that the doctor along with all of her companions had removed everything from her office and left. He didn’t expect the good doctor to be returning.

Apparently when they initial team didn’t find him, the robed man decided to pull the entire operation. Clean, quick, and most likely would be moved to another part of the planet or in another sector. He had planned on following them but their leader gave him pause.

Tapping lightly on the console in front of him, he now read orders that would take him far away. If he had gotten them the night before, he wouldn’t have thought anything of it. If what had been found inside the Moondancer hadn’t brought up memories of his time in the orphanage, he would already be in orbit.

Removing his hand from the confirm button, the Imperial Agent sat back putting his hands together in front of his face. So, the black robed individual most likely was a Sith. Now, he could be wrong of course but he didn’t think so.

That little revelation should make him immediately accept the new orders and leave the planet. Obviously, if they were an Imperial Ops team they already knew his existence. If so, why the subterfuge? He could have easily been ordered out at any time. No, what that told him was the Sith wasn’t working through normal channels, not that he needed to do such a thing.

Once again, he looked at the confirmation button. He should leave, getting involved with those beings would be a mistake. Going into the back room, he pulled out a case and started to add some items into it. Aya always said he didn’t know when to quit and he owed her not to stop now.

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

And least we forget:
Star Wars The Old Republic and the characters featured in this fanfic belong to George Lucas, Bioware and Lucasfilm. There are also quotes from the Star Wars films. No copyright infringement is intended. All other Trademarks and images are the property of their perspective owners.