Tor Panics

Tor-nenko shuffles home through the crisp night air. There remains the light buzz of late-night traffic, but he is unnoticed as he walks in the back door to the Reactor Core, the first to return after a crazy mission. As he closes the door, he hears the Baron in the front, strumming his lute, but the cantina is closed. Marv is in his room, already asleep. The Baron calls out for Tor to join him for a nightcap. “You look like you have been hit by a hover-tram, Tor-nenko. How did the evening go?”

Tor-Nenko walks at a brisk pace from the door to the back room, seeming not to acknowledge the Baron, seeming a bit colder than his usual ‘professional’ attitude. After depositing his jacket he returns to the Baron, again not so much acknowledging his greeting but dropping straight to business “I will need anything you can tell me about D’Gane. Anything more you can tell me besides what we got from the briefing.”

Tor finally takes a seat; seeing the drink in front of him he immediately shoots it back. “Either someone’s wised up to…” Tor stops, taking a glace around the Reactor to make absolutely sure no one else is listening before telling the Baron what he had seen - Via's tattoo of an Azure Sunset. He confesses, “Provided this is not some kind of coincidence, either someone in the know is trying to reach me, or there’s a possibility that somewhere in the network there is some kind of compromise.”

“In any case, I’m going to have to take an extended leave. I’m going to have to head to Coruscant and check my father’s hidden notes, see if I can make a positive identification of that tattoo, and not making some wild goose chase out of this. I trust nothing in the bar will break in the meantime”.

Tor looks at the Baron for approval, and starts to get up out of his chair to leave.

Swift lays his hand on Tor's shoulder. “Hey, Tor, relax. Before you do anything rash, talk it through with me. Heading to Coruscant is not without risk, either. It might be worse since we are not there to back you up.”

“If the tattoo is in fact referring to Azure Sunset, and this passcode is known only to the family and trusted employees, then a tattoo might actually be the safest way to signal at this point. If I saw it, I certainly would not be thinking it was a code - all sorts of people have them, and they range from ritualistic to just plain creative expressions - but a whispered phrase to the wrong ears would raise suspicions quickly, and who knows how closely the Empire listens.”

“So the tattoo itself would only be dangerous if the Empire had already cracked the passcode - it would not reveal the code itself. It could just as easily mean “sapphire sunrise” or maybe she likes suns and blue is her favourite colour. But you are right - we need to be careful to investigate. I have your back - if you want to protect your family, I will gladly talk to D'Gane cautiously in your stead, see if I can pry out information without exposing you at all. You can make a decision about Coruscant afterwards, once you have had some rest. If she is an assassin or crafty Imperial agent, well, I have dealt with those before. I'll just have to comm the others to come and pick me up - hopefully they have not killed themselves with agent 63 - I have a bad feeling about him!”

The Baron pours Tor another shot, takes one himself, and changes the subject. “About that datachip you picked up - why don't you try to crack it and see what the data is while I talk to the others?” He walks to the comm system in the back room.

Tor sighs, drinks, and nods. “I'll check it out. And Swift, if my past needs to be revealed… I'll leave it up to your discretion.”

He inserts the datachip into his datapad and begin- analyzing it while the Baron briefly contacts the rest of the team. Failure, 4 Advantage. Tor cannot decode it entirely, but exclaims at the title of the file: “Blaster Miniaturization Study”. The method of encryption is reminiscent of what his family has done in the past, but is possibly evolved since then. He is able to make two copies of the encrypted data, and hands the datachip to the Baron. Tor shuffles off to bed as Swift heads out the door to join the others to unravel this mystery.