"I hope this is worth interrupting my breakfast, Flynn."

Auriga looked at his first officer over his spectacles, across a steaming plate of eggs.

Flynn stood in the doorway to the Captain's private dining room where the porter had left him, holding a datapad. "Apologies, Cap, but I think it is." He gestured to another seat at the table, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

The Captain matched the gesture and nodded, "Please," closing his lips over a forkful.

"Well, you said you wanted the latest Intel report as soon as we had it," Flynn said, easing himself into the seat.

Auriga cut him off before he could continue. "I didn't mean immediately, Commander. Have you eaten?"

"Well, the information I'm looking at here, I think, warrants delivery in person. And yes, I have."

"Very well. Deliver at will. I trust I wouldn't be rude to continue eating." Auriga smiled.

"Right, right, I don't mind. Sir." Letting his eyes dart a moment as he pulled his chair in, Arkwright set his datapad down and began point by point.

"First thing is Heinrich. He stonewalled McCathan quite a bit but, as we trusted he'd be oft to do, slipped up a bit in his contexts and dropped a clue or two."

"Oo. Any good secrets?"

"Yeah. We learned that the Void Deamons and various other groups like Kodos were specifically attacking Rebel ships, in some cases capturing and retrofitting them in the case of the Karah Wind, and they were being assisted by the Empire. They had Imp weapons, a few Imp ships, and full use of Imperial infrastructure, including Holonet."

"That's hardly a secret - we were guessing that for the past week."

"I know. The secret is, the pirates weren't actually working for the Empire."

The captain frowned in thought, his hand halting with his glass in midair. "I don't understand."

"Neither do we, really, that's all we could figure out. Yes, they were being assisted by the Empire in attacking our ships, but nobody in the Imperial Fleet gave the initial order to have the pirates do this."

"Vader, perhaps?"

"Nope. Including Vader and the Emperor. The Imps just noticed that these guys were heavily targeting Alliance ships and decided not to look a gift pack-beast in the mouth. So, they lent a hand."

"So some third party had Kodos and Void after the fleet?"

"Seems so. But we've got no idea who."

"Hutts, perhaps," Auriga suggested. "Or some other Imperial party, like the Ubiqtorate?"

"They're all possible, but we've got nothing to point at anybody just yet. The jamming signal that the Void Deamons used to get away with snagging so many of our ships - nearly including this one," he added solemnly, "had been traced back to the Hutts, which led us to their headquarters in Tatoo system earlier, but the Hutts have no real reason to suddenly make us their enemy."

"The Rebel weapons market is quite profitable to them, I'm sure."

"Absolutely. So, as far as that's concerned, we're back to square one."

The Captain frowned. "Not a position I'd like to be in, but I suppose something will turn up." He was just finishing his breakfast, washing it away with the remainder of his juice. He smacked his lips and said, "Something always does."

Arkwright rose with his captain, gathering up his datapad while the porter gathered up the Captain's dishes. "That may not be the biggest of our worries though."

"You mean the mysterious Imperial science project?" Auriga asked as he followed Arkwright out of the small dining hall into the main room of his quarters, stopping in the center of the room.

"Well, there's that too, but I was referring to what Heinrich said after that. Draco had been busy on him for about an hour with some psychological abuse, you know, breaking him down verbally, and he brought up the fact that when we had to play House for Commodore Inspector Heinrich at the deep space checkpoint, we got out of the system scot free despite the fact that we failed the inspection so miserably even I was surprised we weren't all as good as dead. Heinrich's reply was, well, here." Arkwright scanned through his datapad, looking for a certain part of the recorded interrogation. Heinrich's recorded voice issued from the device.

"You really think after your pitiful display I would be so stupid as to actually let you through? ... narrow-minded cuss."

Arkwright stopped playback. "Perhaps he was just being smug ... but ... "

"A spy?"

"We might have one after all."

Auriga stared at the wall pensively. "Sithspit."