Ask The Million Crowns of Tion - Part III

[Trini Halrixien]

Trini watched as the cab sped off with the professor, breathing a slight sigh of relief as the vehicle disappeared out of sight. She shook her head, and was about to admonish Laeonas for sending the other human away so quickly, when she turned around to see his expression.

"He... well, I don't think he has to deal with anyone as a person very often." The Amaran consoled, as a battered speeder taxi stopped in front of them. "It took him long enough to acknowledge that I was a sentient being! I'm pretty sure he still doesn't think I'm much besides a warm body to go out and do leg-work for him."

"He didn't even notice me."

Trini grimaced, looking down at Zeezee; the navigator droid had kept a low profile during their expedition.

"That's probably for the best, to be honest... I've never seen him be anything like civil to a droid. The bibliomechs at the university have learned to give him a wide berth, I've noticed."

The cab reached the spaceport after a few minutes, and after paying the driver, the two strode toward Laeonas' ship. Trini rubbed one of her upper arms uncomfortably.

"Listen, though... we are going to need to involve him in this."

@Tom

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

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Words poured from the Amaran's maw as Laeonas stepped into the taxi, the human quietly listening as they all filed in. By contrast, he uttered a single word when the weequay pilot asked where they were headed; "Port." Trini's words would hang in the air even after she finished and the speeder began trundling down the road, with the droid's addition finally managing to snap the Brentaalan out of it. He turned slowly, first to the Amaran, then to the droid. He usually regarded droids as little more than automata; buckets of bolt and scrap fit only to carry out their programming.

Yet after both of them had experienced such blatant disregard, he couldn't help but feel a pang of... empathy? He wasn't sure, Laeonas rarely ever regarded anyone long enough to actually start feeling bad for someone. That he felt this way about a droid was a completely new experience, and an uncomfortable one to think about at that. When he finally spoke up, it wasn't in regards to the droid's testimony, but the Amaran's. "Ai've been dealin' with men laike 'im since Ai was a lad; treatin' other people laike dirt fer any cocked up reason they can think of. Dumbass might've nearly blathered everythin' we know away, but hey, 'e's read more books than Ai 'ave, so th'at makes 'im a certified fuckin' genius." He spat, reclining in his chair with a huff.

As they made their way back to his ship, Trini brought up the fact that they "needed" the professor, to which Laeonas bitterly grunted. "Ya found what we need on yer own, we got t'tha last library cus of ya, and we've only gotten this far cause of ya. All he's done is nearly kark all of it up." He said, venom bleeding through gritted teeth. He wasn't angry with the Amaran, far from it; she'd proven to be a competent partner through all of this. No, he merely resented the mere possibility of having to spend another second in the company of that old, arrogant fuckwad.

"You don't need him. I don't need him-- we don't need him." He declared, enunciating every single word to the best of his ability. "Best we send 'im off somewhere while we do all tha actual work. You'll get yer doctorate, and Ai won't 'ave ta see 'is wrinkly fuckin' mug fer awhile." He went on. He'd been under the impression from the very beginning that the professor would be nothing but a liability, and so far he'd been proven completely right. Dragging him along was not only an affront to his personal dignity, it was dangerous.

​

@AutoFox

 

[Trini Halrixien]

Trini visibly wilted as Laeonas made his case for cutting the Professor out of the loop. He was hardly wrong; they could find the crowns without the old academic's help. Trini was fairly sure she had discovered the location, or at the very least another link in the chain that would lead to it, which was two steps further than anyone else had ever gotten.

"It... guh, you're right, of course!" She blurted. "But he could still ruin everything if we leave him out. He could discredit us if he thinks we double-crossed him! Or pull our-"

She stopped herself, thinking about what she was saying. She had been about to say "pull our funding", as if there was anything official about this mission at all. And discredit them how, exactly? She was already in fairly low standing among her peers, and Laeonas had no academic reputation to slander. They had done all the work so far anyway.

Trini gritted her teeth.

"Alright, no, yeah, kark 'im. Whadda you say, Zeezee, wanna go uncover more ancient secrets?"

The droid's servos whirred as it looked off toward a nearby ship, then back to Trini.

"Well, last time we covered my dark, terrifying past... I suppose rooting through Xim the Despot's ought to be interesting, at least."

Trini chuckled slightly, wincing at several memories, before nodding.

"Okay... you go back to our ship and meet Laeonas and I in orbit."

The little pilot droid gave a salute with a retractable manipulator and rolled off as Trini and Laeonas mounted the ramp to the latter's ship.

"Once we're in orbit, I'll show you what I found."

Meanwhile, in the spaceport's milling crowd, a figure watched from a distance as Trini and Laeonas boarded their ship, lowering a compact pair of electrobinoculars. He then raised a comlink, keying it on and speaking.

"Yes, it's as you thought... they definitely have something they didn't want to share. They're taking off now."

There was a muffled voice from the comlink, and the watcher sneered.

"The tracking device is already planted. Wherever they go, we can follow, your Excellency."

@Tom

END THREAD