Jedziah sat behind her desk, scanning over her datapad and the hardcopy sheets scattered around her desk one more time. As a Director of The Bastards Pirate Alliance, she wanted to be sure she had all the information she could on today’s subject, Colonel Roc Wieler. She had known he had been coming, in fact it was she whom had personally signed his “Bastards Pass” allowing him high standing with their Alliance. Basically, he wouldn’t be shot on sight. Mynxee had presented her initial argument of why it would be profitable to work with this militia officer, and Jedziah had let the promise of easy pickings blind her judgement. 

Now, as she went over the report, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to this man than met the eye. She had pulled the AI recording from Mynxee’s neural implant. She would’ve taken the data from the pod, or even from the Jaguar class assault frigate, but both had been destroyed. Mynxee’s debriefing report had stated she had  lured and opened fire on Roc Wieler when he arrived in Evati, testing him to see if he lived up to the hype, and he had reduced her to minimal structure, and quickly. It then states that they talked and laughed, and she got sloppy, being scanned down by three superior vessels for that engagement, which had easily reduced her and her ship to slag.

It wasn’t that Jedziah contested the report. It what wasn’t in the report that bothered her. Where had Roc Wieler been when Mynxee got attacked? He was conviently in warp on his way back to a local station. It just didn’t sit well with her. She wasn’t prone to believe in coincidences, good or bad. How was she to believe that this Colonel hadn’t setup one of her pilots? For all they knew, it was he that had given up Mynxee’s coordinates, allowing other pirates to quickly track and destroy her. Or those pirates may have been a non-descript militia escort. Jedziah wouldn’t put it past him. Sure, it wasn’t common for a militia man to conduct himself in such a way, but then again, here he was working with pirates in lowsec to begin with. 

There were too many unanswered questions. 

The chime to her office door sounded, and Jedziah ushered Mynxee in. Mynxee sat across from the desk, a look of eternal fire smoldering in her grey eyes, her posture straight, bordering on cocky, but proper and refined moreso than any other woman she knew. She respected Mynxee. That’s what made this all the more difficult.

“I’m considering grounding you.” Jedziah said.

“I’m sorry, mommy. I won’t do it again.” Mynxee replied without missing a beat, a mischevious smirk on her face.

“I’m serious, Mynx.” Jedziah continued. “I think you may have lost your objectivity recently. You’re like a teenaged girl with some crush. It’s not becoming of you.”

Mynxee’s expression turned from one of playful disrespect to one of outright indignation, the fire in her eyes only increasing. Even before Mynxee lashed out at her, Jedziah knew this conversation would be explosive. “Who are YOU to tell me I’ve lost objectivity, Jed? Where’s your head been at the last few weeks? Nobody else seems to know, and you don’t seem to want to share. So I tell you what, dear. You get your shit together then you can talk to me about mine.”

Mynxee stormed out of Jedziah’s office a dark and swirling storm cloud. Jedziah had thought it unlikely the conversation would go well. She was becoming discouraged about so many things recently. But what could she do really? The relationship they all shared was co-dependent, but in a healthy way. They all needed each other to survive and thrive. They were loosely akin to a family, working towards a common goal in this pocket of the universe. But was it really a common goal? She doubted that lately. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda at the front of their mind, often pushing everything else to the side, even corporate and alliance responsibilities. It was simply wearing her down. 

Mynxee was right, though she was a bit of a bitch about it. Jedziah had been distracted lately. There was a lot on her mind; a lot on her conscience. 

She leaned back in her chair, and stretched her arms behind her head. There were just so many things in her life that needed answers, and it seemed she was just always left with more questions.

Roc Wieler was just one more headache waiting to happen; a pain Jedziah didn’t want to be bothered with, but inevitably knew she would be.