[right]Aboard the Serith, en route to Korriban
Kurin Tonaal[/right]
[hr]

While the past couple of days had seen some progress with the two new acolytes, Kurin was not satisfied. Particularly with not with the human. She locked herself down far too easily, ignoring lessons. In hindsight, it might have worked better to have them isolated from each other, but it was not as if he had actually [i]planned[/i] to have two of them on board.

It wasn’t easy to admit it, but he was clearly out of his depth here. There was only one viable choice at this point if he were to deliver two primed acolytes to the academy instead of two without any real preparation. He would have to contact his master.

He closed the door to his quarters before sending the request through a private, encrypted channel. While they were far too loyal to listen in, his crew were not the only ones who might listen in to an unencrypted channel. It took a good half-hour before a response came in. Fairly rapid response, he had to admit. 

As the image of his master appeared on the holoprojector, he knelt down on the floor, not looking up at the hologram. “Master. I seek your guidance.”

“Kurin…” Darth Theya Katherion whispered as she shook her head. “Always so [i]formal[/i]...” She liked to see him squirm. “What do you seek my guidance with?”

Kurin didn’t know how to respond to that. He never did with his master. One moment, she was informal like this, the next she might demand every ceremonial protocol he had ever learned. Some small part of him was certain she was toying with him, but he had learned never to take a chance with her. The lesson for not meeting her standards could be… [i]painful[/i]. It was always better to be overly formal than not to be so. She could crush him without even straining herself and they both knew it. “Master. I have a pair of Force-sensitives locked up in my hold now. They are proving difficult to prime for the academy.”

Darth Theya looked at her apprentice, choosing to show mild irritation. “And you have had them for several days. Without contacting me before.”

“Yes, my master.” He stated, swallowing in fear that she would punish him. He had not expected her to know about his passengers, though in hindsight he should have known that she kept track of his movements and actions. He didn’t know who, if any, of his crew reported to her, but it mattered little. He had no intentions of betraying her, and it was better they report to her than to one of their rivals.

She chuckled softly, “You need to keep better control over your emotions, my young apprentice. You are still far too easily jostled.” she spared no opportunity to educate him or any of her other apprentices. “Describe your passengers to me.”

“As you wish, my master.” he replied by rote, collecting his thoughts. “One is a human girl, roughly fourteen to sixteen years old. She has shown some talent for telekinesis, but appears to lock herself down easily and has limited self-confidence.” he paused, thinking about how to describe Dashara.

“And the other, Kurin?” the Darth queried.

“The other is a half-human, half-Zeltron hybrid with criminal roots of a similar age. Apparently someone within the Exchange has put a bounty on her head. I intend to see them go to sleep unsatisfied. She is more talented and has some training from a rogue Jedi. I suspect a runaway padawan, given the limited knowledge she has expressed so far. This Jedi poisoned her mind against us Sith.”

Darth Theya listened to the descriptions, but did not immediately respond. She shifted in her seat, taking up a more comfortable position before doing so. The pause would also unnerve her apprentice, which was always satisfying on a primitive level. After letting him mentally squirm uncomfortably for a little over a minute, she gave her response, planned out in advance. “I will arrange to have suitable material and instructions transmitted to your vessel, apprentice Tonaal.”

“Thank you, master.” he said, pleased to have gotten what he desired. Before he could even think about asking any other questions, the transmission was terminated from the other end. Not surprising. His master was no doubt busy.

He had barely risen to his feet before his terminal lit up with the notification about an ongoing transmission. He quickly read the attached message from his master before unsealing his quarters. This was a suitable task for Erek to deal with. Fortunately the ship had the suitable components in storage for setting up a pair of vidscreens before the cages and the appropriate monodirectional speakers.

At first the prisoners would be permitted to watch what they wanted from the recordings Darth Theya had provided him, but if they refused then he would definitely ensure that they had no choice about it. Stubbornness would only get them so far at this point.

Considering their previously destructive tendencies, he also decided that it would be wise to lock the crates in the hold down. Crates and surveillance cameras were all cheap things. Vidscreens like the pair to be set up were considerably more valuable and he did not have replacements on hand.

The haphazard stacking of the crates had been intentional from his end, to see whether his two passengers showed much in the way of initiative and talent. It was good for them that the ship was not going to have to fight its way through anything with the cargo not stowed properly, considering how heavy some of the crates were. It did not matter how powerful or weak someone was with the force. Crushed underneath several tons of metal is dead either way.