Operation Arrakis: The Departed by Sylvana Lorrdain and scifantasy "...Just a big-ass selfish dead king." Kristy's voice came over the comm. Sci groaned. Kristy, can't you ever stay focused? Academics. You never know what's next. Suddenly he whirled, causing Arrek to jump. Fes stood in the doorway, rather surprised himself. "You're good." Sci nodded. No need to tell the other agent that Nat had spotted Fes and relayed a warning. "Shouldn't you be guarding Rouddim?" "Perhaps," Fes shrugged, still standing easily against the doorframe as he watched, his eyes a bit curiously narrowed at the amazing feat of being detected. "But he's dead. I was just coming up here to let you know I'm heading out." Sci's blaster seemed to appear in his hand. He wasn't aiming at Fes, but if eyes were lasers, Fes got the impression he would be a smear on the deck. "How did he die?" "He attacked me, I disassociated his trachea." Fes made a good show of not responding to the threat. "He attacked you? Out of the blue?" Sci, hand moving visibly this time, returned the blaster to its holster. "Not exactly," Fes admitted, his eyes strangely calm about what he'd done. "Though it was roughly fifteen minutes after a rather...heated debate." Sci took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly through pursed lips. "Did you make the first move, or did he?" "He tried to strangle me," Fes told him - feeling it'd be best to be open as needed. Suddenly, as Arrek opened his mouth, Sci's attention shifted. "One, Blade? Report." "Hidden door, Boss. I think we found the Magician's lair," Kristy responded. Sci nodded and turned back to Fes, leaving half an ear open. "Self-defense, then?" His voice didn't have the edge it did a minute ago-- he clearly was far from completely satisfied, but with lack of more evidence he was willing to trust Fes' word. "Ja, Yes," Fes nodded. "Self Defense." "Good," Sci said, his tone neutral. "I tolerate a lot more than I should, but not cold-blooded murder. What do you want to do now? We could use some help with the ground insertion." "Lieutenant Clark said something about his wingmate missing...?" "Yes, I have Blade and Terra One looking into it. If you want to catch up with them, get going--here." He tossed the other man a datapad. "It has a map you can use to where they are. Be subtle about it." "As ordered," Fes smirked and disappeared from sight... literally. The only mark of his passing was the swish of the door closing behind him. Sci sighed at the theatrics and turned back to his console. With a few keystrokes he brought up the holorecording of the exchange between Fes and Rouddim. As he watched, Fes got very agitated once Rouddim mentioned this Crawler. Sci wouldn't have been surprised if Crawler was the other NRI agent on Terra, though he couldn't prove it. No matter. He couldn't see what Fes showed the other man, though, since Fes was between the camera and Rouddim. Still, the sequence was pretty clear. Sci couldn't say he was thrilled with Fes' conduct, but he did restrain himself until it was his life on the line. He'd be submitting a detailed report to General Cracken, but officially, Fes didn't cross the line. He merely redefined walking the edge. Sci took a few minutes to send a report to SACUL about Rouddim, then headed to the room that the Arab had been in. There was something surreal about this image, he knew, but there was nothing else to do, so he gathered the body and took it to the med bay. He would have to keep the body in a cryo unit until it could be returned to his family for burial. SACUL would make up a cover story to account for the disappearance. He detailed a droid to clean the other room, then stood a second before the body, now on a slab to be put in the chamber. After a second of contemplation, he sealed the unit. He didn't know the right prayer for Rouddim, and he didn't think the Arab would enjoy the Kaddish.