Private Whatever Happened to Those Files?

[Jacen Nimdok]

The following day, Nimdok arrived at the cafe slightly early. He had spent the morning gathering notes and going over the files again just to be sure he wasn’t missing anything.

Most of the intel was related to the Eternal Alliance, a short-lived coalition of Jedi and Sith. They were more or less defeated by the Order of Zildrog—or rather, the attacks by Zildrog reignited old tensions, and the allies quickly returned to their original factions. Jedi and Sith fought against each other once more, and whatever was left of the Alliance joined with the Republic.

As three o’clock approached, Nimdok checked his chrono, then looked around. He was sitting at a table outside, beneath the shade of the awning overhead, quite impossible to miss.

Telani​

 

[Telani]

“You’re early.” She said to him, roughly five minutes before three, as she approached.

He’d notice that she dressed a bit more modestly than yesterday, though not so concealing as it could be (she was still a twi’lek after all). She sat down across from him with a smile, she brought out her own datapad and was ready to open up the files. She had gone over them, reviewing what was there and making sure she was familiar with what was there so that the conversation they had actually went somewhere.

“How are you?”

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Better to be early than late,” he remarked as Telani approached. She had changed her appearance compared to last night. He didn’t particularly care what she wore, although it did make plain that she was no longer trying to seduce him. At least, not openly.

“I’m fine,” he replied politely. “And you?”

Once she answered, he figured they better get down to business. “I assume you had a chance to take a look at these files for yourself. Was there anything in particular you were interested in?”

 

[Telani]

“On that we agree.” She told him. “Good to hear you’re doing well, so am I.”

“I looked at the layout more than anything, looking for any anomalies, or places where there might be something that shouldn’t be there or maybe some odd detail that doesn’t make sense. I found one or two, and I wanted to aske fin you’ve ever actually been to the base that these files map.”

With her she had a data chip, which contained a virus. A very cleverly designed virus meant to hunt down specific files and their duplicates. Namely the files that he had in his datapad, and it would embed itself in his datapad, and transmit to any nearby computers to hunt for those same files. She had already sent Ravenous the files, now all she had to do was dispose of all of his copies.

She needed to keep his eyes away from his monster for a moment, so that she might put the chip into his datapad, upload the virus, then all she needed to do was find the twi’lek, destroy her files, and leave. But how to hold his attention was the question. Hmm.

She pulled out her hologram projector, and set it down between them and it brought up the map. She pointed out the areas she had noticed looked odd. “I feel you have been there before, do you know if you were in Anya of these areas? I feel so, did you see anything odd?”

While his attention was held, she tried to use her force powers to levitate the chip over and insert it into his datapad, it only needed to be in there’s for five seconds and the virus would be embedded.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Oh yes,” Nimdok replied. “In fact, I retrieved the files from the base in question. The pirates who had set up shop there damaged the structure in the ensuing firefight…” He trailed off, thinking about how he had turned into a voxyn and spewed acid at them, biting and tearing limb from limb in the rain… The second expedition had been much more fun than the first, if nothing else.

“Anyway, much of the base had fallen into disrepair, as you would expect from a fortress built thousands of years ago. We were unable to enter most areas, although the pirates had apparently managed to gain access to the central computer systems and get them working again. Shocking, I know, but they built such things to last in the olden days.” He had been unable to retrieve the data himself, but he had stolen the disk containing the files from the pirates shortly before they left, by disguising himself as one of them. Then it was simply a matter of bringing it back to his crew’s camp. Really, he was surprised by how easy it had been. Well, not quite easy, it was still rather time-consuming, tiresome and annoying, but far less difficult than Samovar had been. Samovar… he shivered as if he were still trapped on the roof during that blizzard.

The shiver was followed by a sharp warning from the Force. While not as strong as danger sense, it was prodding him about something important. He glanced at Telani as she spoke and frowned slightly.

“Anything strange?” he echoed, sitting very still. His datapad was sitting on the table, his hands folded on top of it. “To be honest, what with all the excitement going on, I didn’t have a chance to really explore the base itself. Any useful parts had been stripped from the site long ago, or fallen victim to the elements. No, all of the oddness I witnessed during the expedition came from my fellow crewmates—”

He cut off abruptly as he sensed something moving near his chest and immediately moved to grab it. The rest of his sentence came out quietly as he held the chip between two fingers, staring at it.

“... and the pirates who blindly followed along with Ravenous ‘ madness.”

The chip port on his datapad was facing him, not outward or off to either side. Using telekinesis, she would’ve had to have floated the chip underneath his bent elbow and inserted it in the slot mere inches away from his torso. The movement had appeared as a blur to him in the lower end of his field of vision. At first he thought it was a bug flying around, and so he was quite surprised when his hand closed around the sharp edges of a computer chip instead.

“Where did this come from?” he asked.

 

[Telani]

"Oh." She said in response to his answer. The areas she pointed to looked off mostly because they seemed either unnecessary or wasteful, or both. A hallway that was too long with room on either side for anything but with nothing there. "Well perhaps you will someday. Is it possible that these files are incomplete or corrupted? Because, as you may have seen, it seems to me like a lot of the areas of the map are unnecessarily blank, or seeming incomplete, so I thought I'd ask."

Then he caught the chip, drat. She looked at it, genuinely surprised that he had caught it, and using that surprise to sell a convincing charade. "What do you mean where did it come from? Don't you have data chips for your pad? I'd assume it's one of yours, unless someone left it here."

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“It just floated,” he replied. “In midair. I happen to be exceptionally bad at telekinesis, and I know for a fact that this chip is not mine.”

Still clutching the chip, he glanced at the cafe around them, trying to catch a glimpse of… what, exactly? A prankster giggling behind a pillar? An assassin lurking in the shadows? He stared at the chip, wondering what was on it. He wasn’t stupid enough to plug it in and find out, thankfully, but it still confused him.

He turned to Telani , realizing he hadn’t answered her question yet. “Er… yes, of course. It’s very possible the files are incomplete or corrupted. In fact, they could be both. It has been… roughly 4,500 years since the base was last occupied. It’s been abandoned for most of that time. I wouldn’t be surprised if much of this data was lost. Unfortunate, but that’s the way of things. Time ultimately claims everything.”

Then, still speaking in a friendly, unassuming tone, he asked the obvious question.

“Telani, did you try to insert this chip into my datapad just now?”

 

[Telani]

“You’re bad at levitation? Do you mean to tell me that you’re force-sensitive?” She asked with genuine surprise, she had been warned of his shape-shifting by her employer Ravenous, but she thought it was some kind of biochemically engineered thing, not a force power. “Okay, So it’s not yours. Can you make a guess about where it came from?”

Then he gave her his answer, and asked if she had floated the chip over and she asked. “How? I’m interested in the force sure but I’m not force-sensitive. The extent of my capabilities is moderate acrobatic skill.”

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“A bit,” he admitted, without mentioning that he had gained his Force sensitivity through artificial means. Besides, it was hardly anything to write home about—he hadn’t turned himself into a god, merely opened a spiritual window of sorts. “I’ve never been able to move objects with my mind, is what I mean. The most I could manage is a slight nudge or tremble. I certainly couldn’t make this chip float like that.”

Rather than give a direct answer to his question, Telani denied that she was Force sensitive altogether. The circumstances weren’t exactly ideal for an impromptu blood test to determine her midichlorian count. Even then he knew such a test wouldn’t show her skill level. Still, he had no reason to believe or disbelieve her. He had only met her yesterday.

“Telani,” he began again, still speaking in a gentle, almost kindly tone similar to how he would talk to his daughter when she was being difficult. “I’m afraid this is all just a bit too suspicious for me to simply accept it and move on. I’m not accusing you of anything, but the fact remains that someone just tried to insert this into my datapad.” He put the datapad away out of sight, then held up his clenched fist containing the chip. Finding out what was on it might be a tricky deal. He’d have to bring it to Tremain later and let her examine it.

“Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to be under the impression that there is something else hidden away inside the base on Odessen. Something we weren’t able to reach, and all information on it has been deleted from the files. But I was there at the base—nothing was left but ruins and the data they took from the computer. Every archaeologist knows that the odds of finding buried treasure in a place like that are astronomically low. There’s simply too many factors playing against it.” He shrugged. “You could perhaps visit the ruins yourself, though I wouldn’t recommend it. As for me, two expeditions is quite enough to satisfy my curiosity.”

Telani

 

[Telani]

"I wasn't talking about buried treasure." She said with a giggle. "Besides, it's just curious. And I might visit those ruins sometime."

Well, her blunder might have a good result. He's smart enough not to put the chip into his computer so he'll take it to someone who knows how to do it safely, possibly even the woman who originally extracted the files, who she herself needed to visit.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Staring at Telani for several moments, Nimdok smirked. “Like I said, I don’t recommend it. Although I suppose you do look like you could handle yourself in most situations…”

Standing up, he checked the time. They hadn’t been at the cafe for very long, only about ten or fifteen minutes. “I hate to cut this meeting short,” he said. “But I would like to resolve this situation with the chip. I can take it to someone who will analyze it safely and figure out what’s on it.”

He truly had no idea what it might be, though his first few guesses were a computer virus or perhaps some kind of message. People had sent him encrypted and otherwise secretive messages in the past, usually because they were seeking his help. That had been the case on both Samovar and Jerrilek, two of his most recent adventures. Still, it was a weird way of sending a message, and you could never be too careful when it came to the integrity of the immaterial…

After saying his goodbyes to Telani, Nimdok left the cafe. He would not be able to tell if the Twi’lek was tailing him, especially if she disguised her presence with the Force, and seemingly made no attempt to be sure he wasn’t being followed apart from a brief glance over his shoulder before he entered a small corner store a few blocks away from the cafe. The sign above the door proclaimed it to be an electronics shop, offering repairs and data wipes among its numerous services.

Nimdok strode in, looked around, then spotted Tremain bent over behind the counter. He waited until she straightened her back and saw him standing there before asking, “Are you busy right now?”

“Not really, just restocking some chit,” she replied, tossing one of her lekku over her shoulder. “I take it something urgent has popped up?”

He held up the chip. “Someone tried to insert this into my datapad using telekinesis. I’d like to know what’s on it.”

“Probably a virus,” she replied, pursing her lips. “But I can run it through our remote decrypter and see if it matches any known viruses. Or if it isn’t a virus, I can just take a look and see what it is.”

“Good.” Nimdok held out his hand for her to take the chip.

“It’s not free,” Tremain added, casting a sidelong glance his way.

Nimdok winced. “... How much?”

She named the price. His breath caught in his throat, but he swallowed and nodded his head before reaching for his wallet. Once he had paid, she took the chip and disappeared into a back room, beckoning for him to follow her.

In the back room there was an ancient computer set up all on its own, plugged into a tiny generator and hooked up to its own private server. Tremain plugged the chip into the machine and waited. “Nothing. It might be designed to only attack a certain kind of file. Here, would you let me copy the contents of your datapad and plug it in here? I promise it won’t hurt anything.”

He gave her his datapad, watching as she connected it to a different computer, downloaded all his files, transferred them to a spare datastick, then plugged it into the same computer as the mysterious chip. The whole convoluted process was worth it, as it would keep the potentially harmful virus from gaining access to any other systems. Once the files were uploaded and within reach of the virus, they still couldn’t see what exactly it had attacked.

“You wouldn’t happen to have all your files memorized, would you?” Tremain asked.

Nimdok stared at the screen and frowned. “I imagine it would be something recent,” he said. “Try the files you helped me transfer, see if it went after those.”

She checked. They were gone.

“Bingo.” Tremain turned to him. “Looks like somebody doesn’t want you to have that data.”

Rubbing his eyes, Nimdok thought back to the cafe. Telani had asked about the data… the chip containing a data-eating virus had showed up in her presence… the evidence certainly was stacked up against her, though he still wasn’t completely sure what was going on here. Not unless she were to suddenly burst in here, red lightsabers ablaze, and demand he give up the data...

 

[Telani]

“Alright then. It was great talking with you though.” She said as he left. And she did follow him, but not from the street, but via rooftop. She got close enough to watch him while remaining far enough away to avoid being seen, and yes, she hid her force-signature from him. That way it wasn’t hard for her to keep up and stay hidden.

He entered a shop and she stood outside and listened closely as he paid for the other Twi’leks services. She took the chip and looked at what it did. Then she knew that she was caught. So she walked in and leaned against the doorframe with crossed arms and an annoyed expression. She preferred to stay hidden but she knew when she was exposed.

“Well it looks like you’ve caught me.” She said with a sigh. “Yes, Ravenous wants those files out of your possession. So if you would kindly make this a lot easier on everyone here, hand over the original chip, and wipe your devices of those files and I’ll leave.”

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Turning around to face Telani, Nimdok showed no reaction to her arrival. Tremain’s gaze darted between him and the unexpected newcomer, her eyebrows raised as she waited to see what would happen next.

“ Ravenous sent you?” he said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given how doggedly he pursued this data. But what I told you is true—there’s nothing special among the files. Unless, of course, Ravenous wants a bunch of worthless information about a base that hasn’t been used in thousands of years.”

Nimdok didn’t understand what the big deal was, but he wanted to find out. “Tell me what Ravenous wants with this data, and perhaps I will give it up. Otherwise, I’m under no obligation to delete anything.” He smiled. “I stole it, fair and square. It belongs to me now.”

Telani

 

[Telani]

She sighed, “look, I don’t want to hurt you, either of you.”

Lightning danced across her hands, “but orders are orders, and while I won’t kill you, I won’t hesitate to fry this whole building to destroy your copies of those files.”

She let loose a stream of lighting to a nearby computer, and fried it as she had threatened to do to everything in the room.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Whoa, hey! You can’t do that! Hey!” Tremain yelled progressively louder in protest until Nimdok grabbed her and pulled her out of the way of the leftover sparks and lightning streaks from the attack. The computer beside her was fried, the machinery smoking and crackling. She made a sound of wordless rage at the sight

Nimdok shot Telani a death glare. He was sorely tempted to call her bluff—perhaps threaten to call the police, or get in touch with less merciful friends of his and have them exact retribution for this act of terror, but he wasn’t sure how she would react. So far, her behavior had been quite erratic and unpredictable, although he had a feeling she had expected this to be much easier and less complicated than it turned out to be. He doubted Ravenous had properly prepared her for it.

“This is idiotic,” Nimdok said. “Stop this now. Take the damned files.” He removed the chip from his datapad and threw it at Telani, then deleted them from his datapad and showed her the screen as proof. “I haven’t had a chance to send them anywhere else. This is the only copy I have.” He turned to Tremain. “Do you have any copies of it?”

Tremain blinked in surprise, her brow furrowed. “I… I don’t keep copies of customers’ files. That would be a breach of privacy. I already deleted it when I wiped my systems last night—I can show it to you if you want, the memory is completely blank.”

“Good. Now, Telani,” Nimdok said, his attention back on the Sith Twi’lek. “You got what you came here for. I’d prefer not to have to deal with you any more than I have to, so I suggest you leave before I call the cops.”

 

[Telani]

She caught the chip, and watched him delete the files. The violation of privacy wasn't much of an assurance, but now she could believably say that she had tried to get the files away from him.

So she said simply, "thank you."

Then she turned around and left. And on her way out laid a sum of credits on the counter saying, "for the damages."

Once outside she contacted Ravenous and told him that she was on her way back.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Tremain watched as Telani stormed out of the shop. Once the door shut behind her, the Twi’lek computer wiz looked down at the credits she had left on the counter, counting them up. “Y’know, that computer she destroyed was an antique original… gonna be a pain finding another one like it…”

When Nimdok didn’t say anything, she kept talking. “I wish you had stood up to that witch. At least then my stuff wouldn’t have been fried in vain.”

“She would’ve burned the whole place down, as she had already threatened to do,” Nimdok replied.

Tremain looked up, her brow furrowed. His tone sounded weirdly cheerful, and now that she paid attention, he was humming under his breath as he picked up a gadget and idly examined it. She watched him for a few moments, then whispered, “Did you trick her?”

In response, he cupped her chin, kissed her cheek, then whispered, “Yes,” in her ear.

Her face growing hot, she saw that he had already turned to leave. “Wait!” she cried. He stopped and turned, raising an eyebrow, and she asked, “Well, how did you do it?”

“I lied,” he replied. “Someone else already has a non-traceable copy. A scholarly colleague of mine who specializes in the Eternal Alliance, and will put the information to better use than I. That’s all this boils down to, Tremain—I save and preserve the knowledge so that others can do something with it, whether now or later. But now, I really do have to go. I have plans that won’t require me to stay on the Scintilla for very much longer. I’ll keep in touch, though!”

Setting aside the gadget he had been playing with, he waved goodbye over his shoulder and walked out the door.

THE END​

 

[Telani]

(And that’s a great place to end it! This was fun, thanks.)