Lies we tell ourselves.

Space was at a premium with Luna flying in the co-pilots seat of the Battle of Baham. We were only going to be making a short trip from the Reaper Academy. Luna's voice hummed in my auditory canals, "There is an ancient Keldon who lives on the Union starbase one sector over. Uchi no Neko is what it is called."

I was a bit annoyed to be given directions to by a female barely out of her clutch who had never brushed her tail on ground outside Ska'ari dominated space. I bit my tongue and set the coordinates into the navi-computer.
"What is this ancient going to do for us?"
"He can show us what is on this droid." I could hear her claws tap the top of the small metallic sphere that sat on her lap.
"The far-cousins who gave it to you didn't tell you anything?"
"What I don't know can't be tortured out of me."
I realized then that she and I came from worlds light-years apart. Literally and figuratively.

I landed the Baham in the small craft hanger on Uchi no Neko. I looked at Luna, "One of my clutch-brothers, named Gunnar, commanded this base for a time. I wonder if he knows your ancient?" Luna's eyes narrowed.
"I doubt this Keldon would have presented himself to this bases commander as anything but a common cyber-cipher." she said.

We came to the largest common area on the habitat ring adjoining our hanger bay. After asking a few questions and passing along a few credits we discovered the whereabouts of the ancient. The cheapest habitat ring, nearest to the fusion reactors that powered the station is where he kept his quarters. Much to my dismay there was only one working turbolift that went down that far.

"There is only one way out of there," I muttered to Luna, "I don't like it."
She responded quickly, "There is only one true way anywhere." and she walked towards the turbolift.

I quickly discovered that in the neutral zone maintenance crews don't work on the lowest levels of even the biggest starbases. I had to turn on a handlight as we navigated the corridors. We came to the door that supposedly hid our ancient. I keyed the door bell. There was no answer.

Luna sounded tense when she said, "Force it open."

I wondered if she was just bothered by the poor atmosphere here in the under decks as I jammed my multi-knife into the door control keypad and turned the lock. The door whooshed open and my nostrils were filled with the acrid smell of smoked mixed with the metallic smell of blood. With my right hand I swept Luna behind me and I fished my blaster pistol out with my left. Holding the weapon out in front of me I stepped in to the dark room. The bulkheads were smashed in as if a Gornz had thrown a tantrum in the quarters. A stack of datacards burned on the floor in the middle of the room.

Luna saw him before I did.
"Uncle Jarshee!" She ran out from behind me before I could stop her.
"You know him?" I half-shouted as I rushed to the old Keldon's side. His legs were broken and my stomach turned when I saw that his tail had been cut off three quarters of the way down. Luna was covered in the ancient's blood.
"Jarshee who did this to you?" Luna cried.
The old lizard coughed blood. "Lies." he said.
"Who lied?" I asked.
Jarshee's eyes widened as they locked with mine.
"Dex of Sirion?" he retched.
"You know me?"
"You... you must protect my niece... and you must tell them."
My jaw was a bit slack as I fought off a wave of nausea at the sight of all the blood.
"Tell them what?" I managed to stammer.

"The Don is a lie."