After they had returned to their room, later in the very early hours of the morning, a shadow slipped out the back door of the Inn. Pulling on a long shawl against the crisp night air. “Jolan tru, Honored one.” Another woman, draped in a black robe, indicative of a religious order, hands tucked into her sleeves bowed slightly, “Jolan tru. You have news?” The voice was analytical and soft with an obvious steel to it. The first woman, younger and nervous nodded. “You said to report anything strange. A visitor today, she left the Inn, where I work, very late. At first I thought to warn her about wandering alone so late, but she stumbled several times, acting as if sick, and I was worried about some alien illness.” The older woman nodded. There were such superstitions among those who had never travelled before the sun went nova. “She went towards the landing area. When she returned there was a child with her. With strange eyes, but she did not arrive with a child. They watched the fire dancers until very late. I did not hear them speak but they seemed to be conversing, but I was not close enough to know for sure.”

“Duhatha we have encountered a coded and encrypted message.” Duhatha, black robes whispering silently as she moved came up behind the brilliant communications agent. “Yes?” He was nervous, “I can only get patches of audio. No visual and nothing complete, but…” he pulled up the audio for her. He was frustrated. The message seemed to be spoken in code, but with the snippets he got it could just sound like that. And the encryption was unlike anything he had ever seen. But what had allowed him to even get any of it was the ionization of the Ion Nebula that Rho Pupis was located.

A male voice, “You should static have static Gen, static me static very difficult static I am disappoin static understate static cant abandon static mission and static no static letting Gen go static further, static coming static.”

A female voice, “Mission static damned. static have changed. I would never static me. You are static away, static get here? static meet you, static I static nt staticke static Gen static better static fore static eave. static arrived today static suspicious. static keep static safe. I static se.”

Male voice: “I’ll come alone static there static danger the c static scream static intentions, static keep her safe static no doubt static Gen static dont expect static cookiesstatic look after static I’ll static soon.” The rest was static.

Duhatha nodded, “Some times we can only get what we can get.” She contemplated what was there, not much, but enough to raise her suspicions.

Rikama was sitting in a cafe as he observed who he expected to be a foreigner. They were common on this border world and being on the pathway to Klingon territory made sure that folks could blend in. There was something about her that was just off and he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. He tapped his PaDD and whispered softly “Kjumnaihsou io looks nim iunnh. Thra’s ihdhueeerr’unhr an aehjaeih eyes at moscaernu innaehv a’e” which translate into the more common tongue as “This one looks like trouble. Let’s keep an eye on her”. The recipient was a senior operative who went by the name of Duhatha. Three symbols appeared on his PaDD in the top right of the screen, a triangle with two vertical lines, a snail, and vine wrapped around a snake. To any other observer these symbols would be a part of the book that Rikama was reading, however he simply swept them away after a moment or two. He was to follow her and gather information, do it slowly, and ensnare her slowly. He waved off the waiter and left some credits on the table as he rose, slumped a backpack over his shoulder, and started to ‘do some shopping’.
Duhatha, Rikama, and the rest