EDIT: Hi all! Just kinda passing through, but I figured I'd leave this here.
Prompt: Lost and Found
Characters: Adwynyth, Vette, Quinn, Jaesa, and Pierce
Timeline: Ch. 2, Sometime during Quesh
Spoilers: Nothing really (identity of a contact on Quesh)
The distinct sound of carnage issued forth from the quarters of the galaxy's most capricious Sith. Vette, Pierce, and Jaesa barely looked up from playing sabacc. Carnage was pretty much standard operating procedure on this ship, and short of explosions or droids offering foot massages, there wasn't much that would draw more than token attention.
"Do you think she's winning?" Vette asked.
"When isn't she winning?" cracked Pierce, laying down his hand to groans from the others. "Gimme."
While he raked in the pile, Jaesa glanced toward her master's quarters. "Winning at what?" She was still a little naive in matters of...well...things that made a Sith's quarters go "bump".
Vette guffawed. "What do you think? What else is usually happening when that kinda noise happens?" She lasciviously made a hole with her thumb and forefinger and pointed aggressively at it with the other hand. Pierce huffed in amusement as he finished collecting his winnings and started shuffling the cards again.
Jaesa's eyes widened. "Ohhhh...do you think that's what they're doing?"
"What who is doing, Miss Jaesa?" said Quinn as he strolled in from the medbay. All three jumped slightly, assuming the captain to have been the other occupant of their boss' bedroom.
"What? How? You..." Vette pointed back and forth between the Sith's quarters and Quinn.
"I see you've retained your usual level of fluency in Basic." Vette stuck out her tongue in response.
Pierce piped up. "Well, if you're not in there with her, mate--"
"Lieutenant, you will use a proper form of address when speaking to me." Quinn snapped.
"Well, if you're not in there with her, pipsqueak, who is?"
Quinn was about to dress down Pierce further when the door to Adwynyth's quarters flew open, slamming against the wall. "Which one of you was it?"
"Which one of us was what, master?" Jaesa asked innocently.
"I was saving a bottle of Hutt tequila for today's Huttball match, so when the Frogdogs lose, I could go on a proper drunken bender and rant and rave at the holo as befits a Sith of my stature and level of inebriation. I'd been saving it since YESTERDAY!"
Pierce couldn't resist. "Yesterday, m'lord?" Quinn slipped into parade rest.
"Well, I drank the other five. Around here, I need it just to get through the day. Malavai?"
The captain stiffened to attention. "My lord?"
"I want a thorough search of this ship, from fore to...whatever you call the back. I want that bottle found. Full." She emphasized the last word while staring straight at Vette. "No Twi'lek logic this time."
Vette just stared back, mock-innocently. "Hey, last time this happened, I just figured you'd want it quicker, and empty bottles are lighter and easier to carry."
"Yeah, especially when you can't walk a straight line anymore," Adwynyth retorted.
Quinn, ever the bureaucrat, relished this opportunity to do something organized. Ever the weasel, he also relished the opportunity to turn up dirt on his fellow crewmembers. "Right away, my lord. Allow me to fetch my clipboard..."
As he wandered off to search for the bane of everyone else's existence, Vette called after him. "Hey, Quinny, speaking of missing things, I can't find my lucky headdress!"
Jaesa looked at the Twi'lek. "I thought you looked different. That is a different one, isn't it? The lines--"
Adwynyth cleared her throat for emphasis. "I'm not getting any drunker here, people. Move it! Quinn, what's taking so long?"
The Imperial emerged from his medbay, looking for all the world like he'd lost a friend. Never mind that he'd likely never had one, it was so out of character that everyone stopped. Pierce simply couldn't help himself. "What's wrong, Captain?"
"My clipboard...it's gone. I--" He looked as if he was about to burst into tears. In an uncharacteristic show of camaraderie, Pierce stood up and went over, patting the smaller man's shoulders. "There there, mate, have a swig of--" He hunted through his pockets, unable to find the flask he usually kept for emergencies: fashion shows, bored Sith, and any sort of lecture by Quinn. "Awright, you lot, who took my emergency hooch?"
A dark-skinned balding man in uniform fairly stomped in from the cockpit. "Seriously? I ask for the Empire's best, and I get you? And you're this clueless?" He strode over to Jaesa. "She hasn't even noticed that I walked right up to her and stole her saberstaff!" He turned to Vette. "And you, you opened the door and let me on the ship! You didn't even ask who I was!"
While Jaesa blushed furiously, Vette meekly offered, "Well, it was early, and I don't do early."
"And not a single alarm on the ship when vital systems are touched, doors to quarters sliced, communications accessed without authorization?"
Adwynyth stomped over to him. "The damn alarm kept going off for no reason."
Quinn cleared his throat discreetly. "Yes, um...you see, the ship shakes whenever we, um...well..."
The Sith had heard quite enough. "SEX! It's called SEX! You can say the word, can't you?!" She whirled back to their accuser. "Who the hell are you, anyway?"
"Moff Dracen!" The look of utter incomprehension on Adwynyth's face spoke volumes. "Really? A prominent SIth doesn't know the man who's basically in charge of the entire Imperial presence on a planet?" He tossed the missing items on the lounge-area table. "I'm utterly disgusted with the lot of you. I'll be calling Darth Baras shortly." He strode out, looking for all the world every bit as imperious and humorless as Quinn on his best day.
Adwynyth looked at the table. "Wait, where's my tequila?"
---
Ten minutes later, Dracen returned to his office to find his staff just tuning into the Huttball match.
"Ah, sir, you're just in time. Was it really worth all that just for a bottle of tequila?"
"Well, the Frogdogs are certainly going to lose."