[center][hider=Atmospheric Music][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJzpYb5Fbj0[/youtube][/hider][/center]
[center][color=gray][h2]“I and I” - Part 1[/h2][/color][/center]
[center][color=gray][i]–a [@LegionPothIX] and [@6slyboy6] collaboration.[/i][/color][/center]
	A voluptuous and well toned form peaked out from behind the an expensive dress whose deep v-cut barely contained the bountifully buxom beauty that bore it. The station’s artificial lights played havoc on the eye as their rays danced through the holographic fabric and caused it to fade in the corner of the observer’s eye—always teasing but never revealing. 
	The Governor's Assistant sat across from Alalia Wallice nearly mesmerized. His eyes slowly wandered up the ivory path from spaghetti strap high heels to her knee, slightly overreaching to a bit of thigh that came exposed as she shifted her weight to cross her legs. 
	She sat perched on her chair, and patiently waited for the man’s attention to reach her emerald eyes, but said nothing when she caught him lingering a little south for a little too long. 
	The pair had been sitting in one of the local drinking establishments, and were both across a small table from one another that two beverages sat atop. A delicate china tea cup helped the attention along as it crossed her bosom and gently kissed her crimson lips. They pressed together gently as to coax out the liquid. [color=FF66CC]“So,”[/color] the word broke the relative silence at their table, [color=FF66CC]“I hear you’ve been questioning my crew about our recent employment.”[/color] The words traveled around her cup as if seeing beyond it was taboo. An [i]enticing[/i] taboo. 
	It was a strange sensation, for the Governor's Assistant, being seated with a woman so far elevated above the rapscallions, brigands, rogues, and thieves that the station otherwise offered. Yet she counted herself among them despite her demure and that was the strangest part of all. Simply being near her demanded the very best of the Governor's Assistant to make a good first impression. [color=F26522]“Y-Yes,”[/color] he managed to say.
	As she lowered the glass it hesitated slightly over her chest, redrawing attention back but he would not be distracted again. She glanced down and a curl of her fiery red hair fell down across her cheek; only for it to be lifted again by her growing smile. It was rare to find a man who was [i]all[/i] business, and she wouldn’t tease him again. Her china cup clicked quietly onto a saucer and she asked: [color=FF66CC]“Is this business or [i]pleasure[/i]?”[/color] Even as she over-emphasized the word she told herself that [i]that[/i] was the last time she would tease him.
	A long, slow, and diligent deep breath preceded the response. It was at this point that the Governor's Assistant realised that he was being messed with and that it was all in good fun. [color=F26522]“Business.”[/color] The matter-of-fact statement was quick and to the point. [color=F26522]“I am told it was your crew who recovered the derelict science vessel and…”[/color] the man took a moment to review his notes fearing that ‘piloted’ would be too strong a word. [color=F26522]“[i]dropped[/i] it onto the first planet– Tortuga I.”[/color] 
	Alalia nodded a simple conformation as the Governor’s Assistant set his notes down in his lap. In the passing moments of silence he realized he had yet to ask a question.  [color=F26522]“Why?”[/color] he simply blurted out. 
	[color=FF66CC]“Don't know,”[/color] Alalia said with a shrug that freed a strap from her shoulder which gently slid down her arm. She gave herself a short but firm squeeze as she reached around to replace it. [color=FF66CC]“Asking ‘Why’ wasn’t pertinent to completing the task I was hired to perform.”[/color] she added while coyly to her companion.  [color=FF66CC]“We in the oldest profession know better than to ask questions that aren’t relevant to the task at hand. It’s called discretion, darling.”[/color]
	[color=F26522]“You’re a–”[/color] the Governor's assistant began but couldn’t bring himself to finish the question that was starting to sound accusatory in his head.
	[color=FF66CC]“A mercenary? Yes. I sell my services—”[/color] Alalia began before catching the blushing embarrassment that glanced across the governor’s assistant's face [color=FF66CC]“[i]All[/i] of my services when appropriate—to only those whom can be trusted to respect the boundaries of a professional relationship, and I’m [i]very[/i] good at what I do.”[/color] Alalia allowed her shoulders to relax a bit after establishing the ground rules and clarified her role in his investigation. [color=FF66CC]“In short I was contracted to relocate a piece of hazardous debris by a wealthy patron who wishes to remain anonymous. My crew and I performed that task and were paid.”[/color]
	The governor’s assistant was more brusk than he meant to be when he said [color=F26522]“Your patron, I need to speak with them.”[/color] Perhaps he was starting to feel run around, or perhaps it was because his search revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Other than, of course, this lovely lady whom was so far out of his league that his investigation was the only reason she was being seen with him.
	[color=FF66CC]“If they wanted a meeting then I’m sure they would have found you by now.”[/color] Alalia said with a slight chuckle. [color=FF66CC]“Now, if you’ll excuse me, the value of my personal time [i]far[/i] exceeds your…”[/color] Alalia paused to look the man up and down before finishing with [color=FF66CC]“discretionary spending allowance.”[/color] 
	With that Alalia flowed out of her chair into a seductive stance, and she reached into her bra to retrieve some currency to pay her tab. After placing it on the table she twisted like the wind and glided away. The Governor's Assistant watched as she place one heel before the other, and listened for the slight clack of heel to steel to be sure she wasn’t really flying, and then allowed his eyes to wander back up. Though it was a shame to see his only lead go, they both knew he was going to watch her walk away. After all: looking is free and she had more than sent the invitation. 
	As she rounded the corner out of the establishment his eyes lingered on the space where she was last seen before realizing he had been staring at a pair of bright yellow unblinking eyes that pierced the dark of the ill-illuminated halls. In the moments that his eyes adjusted to staring into the dark, from his dimly lit table, the form of a black cat started to take shape. It was sitting on a crate and the more they stared at each other the more he felt like it was staring through him. He turned to match its gaze, to see if perhaps there was someone behind him—but there wasn’t—and when he turned around once more the cat had vanished once again.
	[color=F26522]“That cat…”[/color]

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	Bright and brilliant were the golden eyes of Whisker Wishes. They pierced the dark, and even a man’s soul. They beckoned and the Governor’s Assistant followed through many dimly lit corridors cluttered with crates, and refuse, which collectively cultivated a sense of dark back-alleys and forgotten paths known only to this the station’s mouser.
	They were kind of alleyways only found in a slum of some backwater xeno world riddled in desperation and poverty, and it had been a maddening twenty minutes that the Governor’s Assistant had lost himself in them. He had been completely fixated on catching that damn cat, and as a consequence he had strayed hopelessly far from his meeting place with Alalia Wallace, and the docking ring where his support lie. 
	Every time he would draw near it would dash off through a convenient hole, or around an obstruction that took him minutes to clear. Then once it was just out of sight it would reappear square in the middle of a door frame, where its presence would trigger an automatic door sensor. It seemed to be inviting him to pursue further all the while staring intently with its big yellow eyes.
This time, however, was different because when he closed the cat did not move. It sat statuesque in the door-frame and allowed the Governor’s Assistant to catch his breath and spend some of it reading the name on its collar. 
	[color=F26522]“Whisker Wishes?”[/color] he said as he knelt hunched over with the metal tag between his fingers. [color=F26522]“Just what are you? Why did you bring me here?”[/color]
	The cat sat between him and an empty void that was a blackened room. The light from the hall was lower than elsewhere in the station and did nothing to illuminate the room. It was so dark in-fact that even in the door-frame the cat’s shadow intersected with, and was lost in, the black of that room. Little did he know, the vigilant cat was the only barrier between the human and that which lie in wait for him. 
	True to their lore, it was unlucky for the Governor's Assistant that the cat who crossed his path was black.