Tales of the Mandalorians

[Dieter Schprokets]

William Bishop stepped nervously on to the deck of the Mhi Motir.

"MY ship!" was the phrase that ran through his mind, making him very angry indeed. Though the only way you would know it is to catch his jaw clenching.

A different door opened at the other end of the ship, and out stepped Diana Blane, who exchanged a look with Billy that said, essentially, "I'm rather be drinking gasoline than dealing with this lot, and I'm pretty sure you feel the same."

Sagg'Tar'Di, the man who had been known to the Mandalorians as Sagitarii, stood from his chair, smiling. He looked like a cat with two mice in hand.

"Greetings! How did I know you'd be coming to visit?" he asked.

Billy grunted. "You indicated that my wife and children would be murdered if I did not meet you here, at this precise time. Pretty sure that makes your question really, really rhetorical."

Diane had been similarly 'encouraged', though she did not say how.

Sagg'Tar'Di waved his hand dismissively, and gestured towards two empty chairs before him. His two 'guests' sat.

Diane looked closely at a man standing behind Sagg'Tar'Di. Her eyes narrowed with hate. "You!", she whispered. The man smiled at her coldly.

Sagg'Tar'Di looked at the two of them, and chuckled. "Ah, you know Dha'wherd Gra, then?"

Diane said nothing. That particular psychopath was reported killed at Omicron Theta. How did he escape her day of knives, when the Dha'wherd were by and large exterminated?

Sagg'Tar'Di provided the answer. It filled her heart with ice.

"Diane, your attempt to terminate the Dha'wherd was, in many instances, a failure. Many of the Dha'wherd survived your assassins' knives, or simply paid them to lie about their fate. They still exist, though not in so great a number as before, and they all report to me, and me alone."

A question then formed in Billy's mind, which his host also anticipated, and answered preemptively.

"So why then, are the two of you still alive? That leads me to why I brought you here." He stood, and began to pace.

"I have found running the Mandalorians.. tedious. I do not have the head for logistics and business that is required to manage it successfully. And such things bore me. I would rather be working with my other 'associates', while you two handle the mundane details and deal with the rank and file pilots. Let me and my men handle the 'wet work' that we always have, and you and yours handle the less subtle matter of blowing target ships out of space."

"I am proposing a Triumvirate."

Diane and Billy were shocked. This was quite a paradigm shift. Like going to a serial killer's house and being given a nice set of porcelain. It simply didn't parse out well in the neurons..

Billy sat and stared, his mind racing. Then he came to a conclusion. The sort of conclusion that lifts the veil of illusion surrounding a situation, and shows reality in vivid detail. The key clue was the fear he could see in the men in front of him.

They were deathly afraid he and Diana would reject their offer. And that could only mean one thing.

And he began to laugh.

"You don't need us because you don't like paperwork! You need us because the rank and file pilots know who you really are now, and unsurprisingly, want to lynch you and your bloody henchmen!"

He stood, and pointed at the 'Mandalore' and his associates.

"You're afraid of another bloody civil war breaking out! You team up with us, you get your legitimacy back! Or tell me I'm wrong?" He knew he sure as hell was not.

Diane was smiling now, also. "How many attempts on your life so far, Sag?", she asked.

Sag sighed and rolled his eyes. "Quite a few. I'm pretty sure that the rank and file are frustrated with covert methods and are going to go to 'Plan B', namely, attack in numbers and blow up this ship with me in it."

"Look", he said, with force, "You don't want a civil war, and neither do I. I see only one way out of this mess now. I had considered killing the two of you, but I know damn well that would just light the fire."

Now he stood and looked William in the eye.

"I need you two to control the rank and file. You need me to control the Dha'wherd. What do you say?"

Diane stood, and she followed Billy in shaking the Dha'wherd's hand, sealing the deal with the devil.

The worst choice. Except for any possible alternative.

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