I am about to find out.
“Khoth,” she said using his first name without his rank. That and the fact she was speaking to him on a private channel from her quarters without any of her first officers meant that she wished to speak to him outside of their roles in the military.
Still, he answered automatically with, “What can I assist you with, High--”
She waved a hand through the air, cutting off his words. “This is your sister speaking. Not your superior. I need you to hear me, Khoth.”
He paused for a moment then nodded. “What is it? What do you sense?”
“We have searched the quadrant and found no sign of the Khul,” she told him, her expression growing grimmer. She was telling him what he already knew, but he understood that she was listing the reasons for why, logically, she should not do whatever it was that she was thinking of. She tossed her head and the selchilite, the beads in her hair that showed their family’s station, clacked together almost angrily. “But I feel that there is something more here, Khoth. I can almost smell the Khul in this place.”
He continued to be silent. His sister only confided these feelings to him. In the past, she had shared them with their parents, but that had stopped. Both Nova and Thadden Voor had been clear that following instincts was for lesser species, not the Thaf’ell. Let the Neccuk or--the stars forbid--the humans follow their “gut” as it was said. But the Thaf’ell followed logic and left emotion and superstition out of it. Yet her instincts had been proven right more times than anyone’s logic ever had been. It was part of her gift as a strategist.
“What should we do? If the Khul are here, we must find them. This may be the edge of Alliance space, but it is still our territory,” he stated.
She nodded, her eyes distant as she contemplated something inside of herself instead of outside of it. Finally, she shook herself again. The selchilite clacked some more.
“I want you to go down to the surface and speak, face to face, with those who called us here,” she instructed. “T’cklock was the name of the Zols I spoke to. He was sweating like a narlacc in heat.”
“Zols always sweat,” he pointed out with a twitch of his lips.
She smiled back. “Not that much. He was practically in a puddle of it.”
Khoth lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure he was simply not intimidated by speaking to you, Daesah? He likely did not expect to reach the High Commander when he alerted the Alliance to a Khul pod.”
“I do not think so. In fact…” She tapped her lower lip as her eyes grew distant again, “I think he wasn’t surprised to see me at all.”
Khoth frowned. “Perhaps he did not recognize you then.”
A smile played on her lips a moment. “Well, then he could not have been intimidated by him if he did not recognize me, now could he?”
Khoth shrugged. “I suppose. So what do you think the reason was for his nervousness?”
“I think he was lying about something. I know he was lying,” she insisted. “I just need to know about what. And I trust you, little brother, to find out what that is.”
“I’m surprised you do not wish to pursue this yourself. You have a greater sense of other species’ emotions than I do.”
She smiled again. This time it was a fond smile. “On the contrary, you are very sensitive, Khoth.”
He left out a huff. “By the stars forbid!”
“It isn’t a bad thing no matter what Mother and Father say,” she told him softly. “They are caught in the old ways of thinking.”
“They are pure Thaf’ell!” he protested, thinking that nothing could be so good as that.
“If just Thaf’ell thinking could defeat the Khul, we would have done so already,” she said and passed a hand over her forehead.
He was too shocked to say anything at first then he managed, “Perhaps we should ask the Ode or the Grillix or the--the humans for their thoughts about defeating the Khul!”
He had meant his words to inflame her. The species he listed were hardly evolved. They had the most basic connection to the Altaeth, not like the Thaf’ell who's connection was deep and wide. But his sister did not rise to the bait. In fact, she looked sadly at him as if he had disappointed her in his answer.
“Maybe we should,” she said.
This time he was truly struck dumb.
She drew in a deep breath and released it, centering herself, before continuing, “Will you go down to the surface and find out what that Xols was lying about?”
She could have commanded him to do so, but she would not. Not about something like this that seemed like a fool’s errand. He nodded.
