Walking in His World

Kol picked up the uniform jacket from the bed and held it for Aittera as she slipped her arms into the sleeves. Then, he held out the black leather gloves for her. "Truly magnificent, you look like that was made for you."

She took the gloves from him and began to tug the first on, smiling up at him. "Don't get too used to it."

Still...when Aittera walked over to examine herself in the mirror before pulling her loose tangle of curls up into some semblance of a ponytail, she had to admit to herself that the uniform seemed cut just for her. Her mind drifted to the dream in which another kind of Imperial uniform hung by a set of polished Sith armor.

"I wouldn't dream of it...well, we both know that is a lie." He gave her a wink as he retrieved the simple black tunic, pants, and boots he had had the droid bring over from his quarters and slipped them on. "Even you have to admit, you like what you see in that reflection."

Kol stepped behind her, looking at both their reflections as he fastened his belt with his lightsaber around his waist before slipping a hand around her stomach. "I know I certainly do."

She leaned back against his chest, her eyes drifting to his face in the mirror. "Now I do."

He kissed her on the cheek, giving her a smile in the mirror. "What would you like to see next Aittera? Besides me naked again, of course."

"Well, if you're going to give me a real tour of an actual Imperial dreadnought, I'd say let's start with the bridge, of course," she replied as though it was the obvious answer. "We can get to the parts I'll want to plant charges in later."

"Don't even think about it. Losing the last one was hard enough. You blow up this one after Kiabe funded it, and she'll be the one coming after you." He was probably not joking. Nonetheless he gave her a wink before heading toward the door.

She laughed as she followed Kol out into the brightly lit corridor. "Alright, some spray paint then. I can tag a few walls in the engine room, maybe write my name on a few of your fighters."

"If you wanted a hangar technician uniform, you could have just asked," he teased her as they stepped onto the lift and he pressed the control for the bridge.

Aittera tapped the uniform jacket. "Hey, I'm Intelligence. We go where we want, you know."

He laughed. "Well, just remember if you order anyone to do anything, imply bad things will happen to their families if they don't do as you say."

Aittera smirked at him. "In SIS, we just told them we knew how to make people disappear."

"We're a much more thorough people." Kol winked at her as the lift door opened, and they stepped out onto the expansive bridge of the dreadnought.

The captain, a blonde woman who appeared to be about a decade older than Aittera, walked toward them from one of the command stations and saluted Ragious with an arm across her chest. "Welcome home, my Lord. It is as always a pleasure to have you on the bridge of your flagship. When it is convenient, I would like to review the Avenger's performance report."

He nodded to the captain before he turned back to Aittera with a wink. "Look around, I'm sure you've been dying for the opportunity to get a look at secrets you can ransom to me later."

"You know me so well," she replied with a nod, watching him walk away from her before turning to look across the banks of computers that lined the perimeter of the dreadnought's vast bridge. Though her experience with larger warships was certainly limited, she wasn't as out of her depth as one might expect. Between her work with SIS and some rather thorough study sessions with Selus before their attack on this ship's predecessor, she found the layout and the ship's systems familiar enough that she could identify what each station was meant for.

Ragious only half paid attention to the captain as he kept glancing in Aittera's direction, noting the way the male (and quite a few female) members of his ship's crew also watch her. When the captain finally finished her report, he strode across the deck to rejoin Aittera near the front viewport, looking down over the ship's long arrowhead shape. "This is my favorite view of the ship. I could stand here for hours and look out on it."

He found her lost in thought, staring out over the bow into the vast inky darkness beyond. If someone had told her a few months ago that she would be a standing on the bridge of an Imperial warship as a guest, she'd have branded them insane, but after the last month with Kol on Nar Shaddaa and the Hope, she was no longer constantly asking herself what she was doing. She was well aware of what she was doing. She was tempting fate.

She smiled easily as she looked up at Kol and nodded. "It's a beautiful view."

Leaning in close, he whispered to her, "Still want to graffiti her?"

Aittera chuckled and whispered back, "I think I've moved on to wanting to steal her."

He laughed, causing a few nearby crew members to jump in surprise. "I don't think she would be a good fit for you, you need to feel the controls and the ship respond as you fly through space."

"You're probably right," she grinned, looking back out of the viewport. Apparently, he'd watched her more closely than she'd realized in their time on her freighter. "Besides, think of the docking fees for something this big."

Kol laughed again, and the crew exchanged looks with each other, wondering who the agent was that put their Lord so at ease. "It doesn't exactly dock, that's what all those shuttles are for."

"Something a captain should probably already know."

"We could always get you into some classes at the Imperial Academy," he teased, leading her back toward the lift. "Or command school classes."

"Oooh! Only if you go with me. We can pass notes during class, and think of the fun of tormenting our instructors with that thing you do with the Force." Aittera held a hand out before her in imitation of the gesture he usually made when using the Force to move something.

"It's a deal. We leave tomorrow." The lift door opened, and Kol stepped in before she could respond, turning and giving her a grin before letting her in too.

Aittera stepped into the lift with a smile that rivaled his own, and once the door closed behind her, she gave him that knowing look he was learning all too well. "You do realize that was not Darth Ragious on the bridge just now?"

"And for that, I am sure my crew is grateful for your presence. Otherwise three or four would be in the morgue just for staring at your ass."