Nar Shaddaa

With, presumably, Daz working on the droid in one of the ship's rooms, Layne brought up the holocomms, and made a connection to Yavin. The crew, Reshir and Wilhelm, had been sent elsewhere. Some well deserved time off. Whether they wanted it or not.

Jug’tih appears seated on her throne of sorts on her command ship… you presume. She smiles and says, “Layne it is a pleasure, enjoying the life of being free of Baras, assuming he is actually dead.”

"That would be a naieve assumption to make," she said. "I'm sure this is all part of his plans."

She cocked her head then. "New ship?"

“I convinced Vengean that the Massassi need the ability to deploy with impunity, from there it was a simple matter. You should see it, it is rather elegant and deadly. I am calling it the Queen’s Gambit,” she says with a smile.

“I am sure this is more than a social call, so…”

"I have haphazardly taken on something of an apprentice," she said. "But I'm uncertain if he is the one you were talking about or if there's someone else out there."

“Why did you take on this apprentice?” she asks.

"I am uncertain," she said. "I picked him up on Kintan by chance. A bunch of slavers were in my way, and he was their property. I could sense he was sensitive to the force, so brought him along with me. He kind of assumed himself to be my pupil from there, and then Baras showed up on my ship a couple of days and asked if he was my apprentice."

“You think it was really just chance, Layne,” Jug’tih says. “The Force is strongest when bonds are close. It has a way of pulling people together that need to be together. Look at how we have come together across the intervening millennia. Chance is a lie, there is only the Force.”

"Perhaps," she answered. "But... he's... annoying. Arrogant. Overconfident. And no, not in the ways I'm sure you think I am. And he calls things 'wiz' all the time without a sense of irony."

Jug’tih just laughs lightly and says, “He sounds more like you than I had imagined. Search your feelings, Layne, you know the truth, even if he is terribly insufferable.”

Goddamnit...

After a moment she sighs. "Question remains how I'm related to him. His history is vague. He'd given me some clues. A few names. I tried searching for them in the imperial databases, but that's not stuff I'm good at. And I've tried to avoid having outsiders involve themselves."

"You want my help," she says with a chuckle.

"You have resources I don't have. And keeping possible family connections a secret has it's uses. If I'd go to someone on this moon, there's a much greater risk of getting found out and having it used against us."

“Fine, I will see what I can do, but you owe me,” Jug’tih says.

She sighed again. "Please, let's not go there. This benefits you too. I'm sure you'd like to know more about your family and legacy as well. If you really want me to owe you, maybe get me a ship like yours."

"Fine... just send me what you," she says with a roll of her eyes.

She sent the details that Daz had given her.

"By the way, apparently I'm supposed to be Vengeans apprentice now?"

Layne Hoshin wrote:She sent the details that Daz had given her.

"By the way, apparently I'm supposed to be Vengeans apprentice now?"

“He was Baras’ Master, it seems the natural progression, Layne. Does this surprise you?” Jug’tih asks.

She shrugged. "I just hadn't really thought about it I guess. I had to hear it from Xevious. Who then went and offered to be my master instead. Which was kind of funny I guess."

"Xevious is cunning and sees an opportunity, probably just to stick it to Vengean really. He can be delightfully petty like that," Jug'tih explains.

"You decided to stay Team Vengean?"

"I'm assuming it won't matter soon enough. But for now, yes. What can you tell me about Vengean?"

"He has a plan to attack Coruscant, it's everything he is focusing on," she says coyly.

"When's this supposed to go down? During the peace conference? Or after?"

"This is a long term plan after the Peace is made, to give us time to build our forces for the assault," she says in response.

"I see," she said. "Guess Vengean's the cautious type too. Like master like apprentice or something."