No Bothans Died to Bring You This Cousin
Rumors said that Lady Ciaran, one of the most influential people in the galaxy, had a secret vault, full of all her most prized possessions. Given they had been deemed worthy of being collected by Lady Ciaran herself, the rumors held that even one of the artifacts in her vault was enough to make a lesser person for life. But rumors said similar things about literally anyone of importance, meaning that despite everyone knowing about her vault, no one believed it was real.
Oki had been flabbergasted to find out it actually was real. Finding out where the vault was and who had access had been difficult, but actually breaking in had been child's play for someone with her unique skillset. And what she found was awe inspiring.
A lot of the stuff was clearly sentimental. Posters for businesses Lady Ciaran owned, some banners from organizations the Coruscant undercity thief didn't recognize,
multiple dead bodies, and letters from various important people framed on the walls. Other things were clearly valuable, but impossible for Oki to get out, like the life size statue of a Hutt. The artwork looked pretty enough, but Oki was no expert, and the paintings were too bulky to carry out anyways.
Then there was the category of stuff that was small enough to take, but completely unknown to Oki. Various holocrons that were either invaluable or worthless sentiment, some tribal looking masks, and one artifact she couldn't even begin to describe. Oki snapped out of her reverie. She had no idea of when someone would wander in, and she was a thief, not a fighter. She settled for stuffing a literal crown into her bag, a few of the holocrons she
hoped were valuable, and what looked like a lightsaber in case she needed to fight something. She wasn't even sure if the thing worked, but she also wasn't planning to get in a fight in the first place.
In theory, sneaking out of the vault was the easy part. In practice, the door opened as she was placing the jeweled crown in her bag, and she was caught red handed.
"Hey, who are you?!" shouted the Bothan who had walked in on her. Not wasting any time, Oki printed towards him and threw the bag at his face. He caught it, but it distracted him long enough for Oki to slip between his legs and take off running down the hall. It was a tight fit, but Oki could be small when she needed to.
Her bad luck continued as the Bothan apparently elected to trigger the alarm rather than try and chase her through the corridors. That was a mistake though, since the moment she wasn't being watched, Oki threw her disguise back on. The Abyss Watchers would be looking for an intruder, not one of their own men. She slowed her pace, acting calm but alert just as a competent security guard should while an alarm was blaring.
Fate however, had other plans. Oki walked around the corner and almost ran into a group of two old men and a more youthful, though still older than her, Zeltron. One of the older men looked at her in confusion. "A Bothan? I thought Gulan was our only Bothan agent. And since when do we supply such outdated blasters?"
Panicking at her crumbling disguise, Oki raised her blaster and shot at the group several times. The group looked just as stunned that she had shot at them as she did seeing the blaster bolts hanging in midair, crackling with energy. Grasping at straws, Oki threw the blaster itself, and turned to run. The blaster hit the Zeltron in the face, who took a knee and started cursing up a storm. "Son of a bitch!" Oki didn't look back, which meant she didn't see the Zeltron pick her blaster up off the floor. She certainly heard the blaster's retort, and felt the searing pain in her leg as she dropped to the floor.
"The hell was that? You stop the shots but not the fucking gun?" Oki looked over her shoulder, gripping her leg and trying to think of some way out of this.
"I apologize." Despite his words, the old man in the robes seemed like he was holding back laughter more than tears. "I didn't expect such an unorthodox attack."
"I oughta shoot you too." he grumbled, brandishing the blaster. "But I'll settle for asking this guy why the fuck he shot us. What the hell man?"
"Oddly enough I have the sneaking suspicion that this isn't one of our men." said the other man, bending down to look at her. Oki tried her best to meet his gaze defiantly, but the pain in her leg was making that difficult. "Considering we don't employ children either, I'm going to say that she is definitely not a member of the Abyss Watchers."
"Hah, maybe she's one of your grandkids old man. Guess someone else wants you dead and didn't get the memo of who you work for now." Oki's eyes widened as she saw her out and took it, no matter how long the shot. It had to be better than doing nothing.
"Grandpa!" she shouted, jumping forward and hugging the old man's leg. Oki managed to be pretty convincing, given she didn't even know who her parents were, let alone her grandparents. It could be true.
The Zeltron began laughing loudly. "So tell us Silas Cata, was she one of the more canine looking Bothans, or are you an equine guy?"
"As a matter of fact, Galvin, neither." said the man, now identified as Silas Cata, narrowing his eyes menacingly at Oki. "I have done a great many things in my decades roaming the galaxy. A Bothan has never been one of those things."
Oki swallowed as she tried futilely to calm down. Realizing her plan had backfired horribly, she played her final trump card. Her mammalian countenance receded, and her body became reptilian in nature. Silas winced, and he took a deep breath as he stood up. "Fuck."
"What just happened?" asked the other man.
"She's a Clawdite. Changeling." Silas put a hand to his head as if he were pained. "With a species who can change what they look like, who even knows if I'm her grandpa?"
"Speaking from experience, if you have to ask that question, the answer is yes." said the Zeltron, a big grin on his face. Silas turned to glare at him.
"I'm tempted to let her throw another blaster at your face." he snarked. He turned back to Oki, who was shocked at how much this old man would have needed to get around for her gambit to have not utterly failed. "As for you, it's honestly a coin flip as to whether I should shoot you or give you enough credits to make up for all the missed Life Days." Oki desperately hoped it was the second, but she'd settle for splitting the difference and just taking her life. "So I think I'll just pass the buck upstairs."
XXX
Oki's leg still hurt from where she'd been shot, but she knew better than to complain as she was marched through the halls of the Abyss Watcher's base she had just been trying to rob and placed in front of a red protocol droid. "PR-1. Here to see my granddaughter." said Silas.
"You're in luck. I finished up my briefing with her on systems of the Mid-rim and Expansionist Regions early. The Mid-rim and Expansionist space around the CNS is surprisingly devoid of anything of importance. She should be free at the moment." said the protocol droid.
Oki started breathing heavily in panic at the sight of the woman sitting on the other side of the door as she was walked through. Lady Ciaran was a legend throughout the galaxy, either hailed as the most caring mortal or the only caring divine entity. Oki could only hope her kindness and mercy extended to potential thieves.
"I take it this is our would-have-been thief?" asked Lady Ciaran. Oki could feel her chances of surviving this ordeal shrinking by the second. Why did she ever think this heist would be worth it?
"Yep. Also, she's
potentially out cousin." said the Zeltron.
"Why the emphasis on potentially?" asked Lady Ciaran. Silas let out a heavy sigh from behind her.
"Because she's a Clawdite, which means her grandmother would have been too. They can change shapes, so I honestly have no idea if I've ever slept with one." he said.
Lady Ciaran turned to look directly at Oki. "Show me."
"W-what?" asked Oki, taken aback at the demand.
"Your shape changing. Show me." repeated Ciaran. The woman sounded remarkably calm about the whole thing. Oki obliged her quickly, settling on an old standby for messing with her friends. Lady Ciaran found herself staring at an exact copy of herself, complete with clothes and visor covering her eyes. The visor was an oversight, and Oki just sat in the darkness, hoping that she had gotten it right in her rush to appease the woman who would decide her fate.
"Well she certainly looks the part of your granddaughter." joked Galvin behind her.
"Indeed she does." said Lady Ciaran, and Oki almost wept with joy at hearing the woman's jovial tone. "Well we'd have to shot her if she wasn't related, and we'd have to bring her into the family business if she were…"
"I already have the shooting her bases covered." Galvin chimed in. "Maybe she's learned not to throw blasters at people."
"Feel free to change back." Oki hurriedly assumed her natural form, taking the suggestion more as an order. "What's your name?"
"Oki, ma'am." she said, speaking as little as possible in order to avoid shooting herself in the foot.
"Well then Oki, welcome to the family." Holy shit it had worked. "Of course, just like Glavin doesn't get to shoot Silas, you don't get to steal from me. Understood?" All the relief that had come rushing into Oki's body vanished in an instant as Lady Ciaran grew serious. Oki nodded furiously that she absolutely understood, and Ciaran smiled reassuringly. "Well then, let's take you to the infirmary and see if we can't do anything about that leg of yours, shall we?"
XXX
AN: I had a hard time deciding what species this cousin should be. Bothans are pretty much the go to spies in Star Wars, but that seemed too obvious. I found another shapeshifting race that was sorely tempting, but Felacatian is pretty much the dumbest Star Wars name, and that's saying a lot, so here's Oki the Clawdite. As for why Ciaran accepted, she sees the professional advantage of having a shapeshifter in her debt, and the personal advantage of having a little cousin to bug. Plus, there wouldn't be much point in writing about the intrigue cousin for over a thousand words and then having her disappeared into the night.
I also feel I should address the method of this becoming canon, since unlike Larus and Chori, who require Ciaran to send Silas places to meet them (Jedha and Pantora respectively), Oki just kind of shows up. I'd propose giving Silas the trait for Oki like he has for Galvin and Larana, but not have the trait give him any Intrigue bonus, with the rationalization that Oki is too inexperienced to be of use and raise his stats. A potential hero action for Silas to train Oki would activate that Intrigue bonus, either fixed or variable depending on the roll, and give me an excuse to write fluff of them bonding. Since at the moment, neither really views the other as family.
Then again, it's
@Dr. Snark 's quest, so he can do what he wants. I'm going to write that bonding fluff regardless though.
_) but its just that I don't think that they have enough to be as suspicious as they are/were.
