"I'm telling you, the Death Star didn't blow up. It's been hidden in some backwater system somewhere. The Empire is hiding the truth from us. It's all a big conspiracy."
The location was the Outlander Club in the Uscru district of Coruscant. It was here that three cadets, recent graduates of the Royal Imperial Academy, were celebrating their newfound freedom with a night of drinking and gambling. One of these men, a heavily drunk slacker by the name of Vak Bernjac, was once again spreading one of his nonsensical conspiracy theories. His two companions, the serious and intelligent Osrec Deite and the aloof Jit Vegwe had spent the past four years putting up with his ramblings. Most of the time they didn't mind, he was their friend after all, their brother in arms, but he was still an idiot. After finishing off his Jawa Juice, Osrec began questioning his friend.
"Don't be ridiculous, we have footage of the event, it's all over the Holonet."
"It's doctored. Obviously. You can tell if you watch it. There's all kinds of inconsistencies and sloppy details."
"Okay, smart guy. Why would the Empire doctor footage of them losing?"
"To lure the rebels into a false sense of security. Think about it for a moment. Rebel cells all over the galaxy see the Empire's greatest weapon destroyed. They start to think that the Empire is vulnerable. They organize themselves, prepare a big assault, then Bam! The Empire wipes them out all at once. Likely with the very Death Star they thought was destroyed.
"So I assume that Moff Tarkin, Admiral Yularen, Cassio Tagge and all the other officials who supposedly died on that station are...what? Hiding somewhere?
"Yes. The Empire probably has some secret planet somewhere where they plan everything, away from the prying eyes of the public."
"So do you have any proof of any of this? Or are you just making stuff up?" Usually This was the point where Vak would admit he had no evidence and was just rambling as usual, but to Osrec's surprise, Vak actually did have evidence this time.
"Yeah I have proof." Vak continued. "Remember Aime Brelisha?"
"Of course. That's the girl from Logistics, you were dating, correct?
"Yeah well, yesterday we were catching up over on the Plaza, and she told me that she'd been assigned to work on the Death Star. The DEATH STAR Oz! You don't get assigned to work on something that's been blown up."
"So what? That doesn't prove anything. Maybe she's working on a different Death Star."
"A different Death Star." Vak scoffed at the idea. "Sure I guess there could be two Death Stars." He continued sarcastically, "maybe there's ten Death Stars, or there could be a million Death Stars. Maybe every planet in the entire galaxy is secretly a Death Star. Don't be ridiculous. There is ONE Death Star. And it's out they're hiding it from us."
"The only one here who's being ridiculous here is you. As usual. Jit tell him he's being ridiculous."
Jit was not paying attention to his friend's conversation. He was far more interested in the curvy redhead playing Sabacc a couple tables over. She hadn't lost a single game all night, which to him was completely unheard of. Everyone loses Sabacc, even the self proclaimed winners, not her though. It was amazing.
"Jit. Are you listening to me?" Osrec repeated.
"No, he's checking out the Red Queen." Vak clarified. Intrigued that the object of his desire had a name, Jit turned back to his friends.
"The Red Queen?" He asked Vak. "You know that woman?"
"I know of her. She does something with Imperial high command. She's part of Palpatine's inner circle or something. I don't know, it's all above my pay grade."
"I think she's interesting. I'm going to go talk to her."
"Please don't." Vak begged. "I know she's hot, but she's bad news. Men who hook up with her go missing."
"Missing?" Jit was naturally skeptical.
"Yeah missing, I've seen it before. Dudes go chat her up, they leave together, and the guys are never seen or heard from again. I tried checking up on one or two of the guys. Their dossiers got completely wiped, like they never existed." Jit just rolled his eyes at this.
"Maybe she's a recruiter. Maybe all the men she meets get assigned to top secret missions." Jit replied sarcastically.
"Yeah, maybe they're all on the secret planet where they're keeping Tarkin." Osrec joined in.
"C'mon guys. I'm being serious."
"So you mean you weren't being serious before. Give me a break." Jit ceased conversation immediately and walked over to meet the woman. Unbeknownst to him, this would be the last time he'd ever speak to his friends.
Jit fixed his uniform and straightened his hair before deciding to finally speak to her.
"Hi there." He said. "Can I uh..buy you a drink."
"On your salary?" She replied, giving him a dismissive look. "Don't make me laugh. Sit down." She snapped her fingers and the waitress walked over to her. "Get us two Corellians." The waitress promptly brought the drinks over as Jit took his seat. He happily accepted the expensive drink and smiled. This was going better than he expected.
"So..uh. You're pretty good at Sabacc, huh?"
"Yeah. I think I might be the galaxy's best player." She responded, taking a big swig of her drink. "My name is Mara, by the way. Mara Jade."
"Jit Vegwe." Jit replied. "So..uh. You wanna play a few rounds and head back to my place. Or probably your place, I bet it's much nicer."
"I don't do things like that." Mara cut him off. "I'm saving myself for marriage."
"Really?" Jit replied.
"Yep. Lucky for you though." She leaned forward and looked at him directly "I happen to be looking for a husband. If you beat me in a game of Sabacc, then we can get married."
"You're serious?" Jit couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You want to marry me?"
"If you can beat me. I even know of a place where they can do it tonight on short notice."
"Alright then. Deal 'em out." Mara dealt out the first two cards. Jit got a nine of sabers and a ten of coins. Not too bad but he could easily bomb out.
"Fourteen." Mara called out.
"Nineteen." Jit replied. He drew a third card. A three of flasks. "Twenty-two." Jit called out.
"Six." Replied Mara. She then took the opportunity to roll the dice. Double fours, that meant they had to switch hands. Jit grumbled u it'll he saw his new cards. A two of flasks, a three of coins and card zero, the idiot. It was an Idiot's Array. He'd won! He couldn't believe his luck, winning against the "galaxy's best player" Either he was just that lucky, or she'd rigged it to let him win in order to marry him, in which case he was still incredibly lucky.
"Congratulations officer." Mara said with a wink, then she grabbed Jit's arm and dragged him out of the club, onto the streets, and into her luxury air speeder. A classic XJ6 model from the Republic era, painted black and red.
Mara hopped in and took the wheel while Jit sat back and enjoyed the comfortable leather seat. As they rose through the layers of the ecumenopolis, Jit started up a conversation.
