The moment Andra Gelan's ship docked at the orbiting shipyards of Kuat, she grabbed her duffel and took off running. The Endar Spire was scheduled to leave in 2 hours and her superiors would give her no end of grief if she wasn't there to board with the rest of the crew. As she sprinted through the hallways of the space station, she spotted one of the uniformed Republic security personnel and skidded to a halt just long enough to gasp out,

"What docking bay is the Endar Spire in?"

"37," the young man answered, and Andra spared him just the briefest of nods by way of thanks before checking the signs and racing off in the proper direction. When she arrived, she saw the enlisted crew had assembled in ranks and the second rank was already marching crisply up the docking ramp. She slipped silently into the end of the fourth rank and tried to put herself to rights before anyone noticed, but it was already too late. An angry-looking lieutenant came to stand in front of her.

"What's your name, soldier?" he demanded.

"Ensign Andra Gelan, sir," she answered, snapping to attention and giving him her best salute.

"Did your wrist chrono break, Ensign Gelan?"

Andra swallowed nervously. "No, sir. My shuttle only just arrived, sir."

"So you thought it wasn't necessary to plan to arrive on time?"

"Sir, I only received my assignment five days ago. I got here as quickly as I could given that I was on Commenor at the time, sir," she explained through clenched teeth. I was on leave when the call came, and once I received my orders, I dropped everything and took the next shuttle off-world like a good little soldier and he thinks I was being irresponsible! I don't believe this!

"She's right, Lieutenant," a new voice interrupted. The Ensign straightened even more, if such a thing was possible. The newcomer wore black pants and a casual flight jacket in a burnt orange color, but on that jacket was pinned the rank insignia of a Commander in the Republic Fleet. Even the Lieutenant snapped to attention. "She was a last-minute addition to the crew," the commander continued. He added something else in a lower voice, but by then the fourth rank was on the move and Ensign Gelan was too far away to distinguish any of the words over the noise of half a dozen pairs of boots marching.

The more details Andra picked up regarding the Endar Spire's mission, the more uneasy she became. They were headed to Tatooine, a nowhere world in the Outer Rim, ostensibly to garrison it against possible Sith incursion. There were just two problems with that in Andra's view: first, there was hardly anything on the planet that would make the Sith want to invade it. Second, there was the little fact that the Endar Spire had among its crew half a dozen Jedi, led by none other than Padawan Bastila Shan, whose skill in battle meditation was widely acknowledged as the only reason the Republic hadn't lost this war yet. In fact, she was nominally in charge of the mission, though the commander who had come to Andra's defense on her first day aboard the Endar Spire still oversaw most the day-to-day management of the ship. It was on Bastila's initiative that the ship was heading for Tatooine, which made the whole thing just that much more suspicious to Andra. But as a simple soldier, there was little she could do except take things as they came.