Luminara Unduli sat talking with the brown haired twin girl, who occupied her common place at the back of the classroom. Clearly Jess was waiting for Owen Lars to enter, at which point she would take him aside to await the moment of his expulsion. Sensing the girl's unease, Luminara considered voicing her sympathies, but instead took the conversation down another path, "May I ask a question about your species?"
Jess shook off her preoccupation, "Certainly, ask away."
"I have noticed that you and your Twin, as well as the other two twins, seem to have special abilities. Is this common among your people?"
"Oh yes, almost everyone is born with one. Admittedly, many end up with rather unhelpful special abilities. The little girl who lived next-door to us, she could turn things into candy."
"I imagine a young child would highly prize such a skill."
"Perhaps she did, but it was rather problematic since she couldn't turn things back to their original form." The girl paused, "She transformed our house, the entire house."
"That must have been hard for you."
"Yes, though it hardly matters now."
"You and family live somewhere else I assume?" Luminara asked, though she could tell from the Twin's emotions the true answer promised to be of a more unhappy nature.
"Of course my family has a new home, but we aren't likely to see it again," realizing that the wording of "we" left several possible meanings, she elaborated, "My Twin and I." Luminara watched as the girl breathed deeply, on the outside she appeared nearly calm, but the jedi could sense internally Jess neared a breaking point. Then the girl mastered the overwhelming emotions and began to speak again, "Everything that has happened here is because of a security breach, which will be attributed to criminal negligence on our part. It isn't fair, the security system was supposed to be infallible, and it always runs, we made no error. By the laws of our people, we must stay and attempt to fix what has happened, but after that… This was no simple mistake in the eyes of the law, the Zealots are involved, the chief purpose of our people endangered. We will be tried once all of you have left, at once, and with a verdict of "guilty" a certainty."
"I am sorry that our presence here has brought such pain into your life," Luminara forced eye contact.
The Twin shook her head, "It isn't your fault, Master Unduli."
"May I ask what your punishment will be? If it is an intrusion?"
"Not at all. Society here tends to mistrust twins, you might've noticed. Lann and I are powerful in our own way because of the meshing of our abilities, and we can speak to each other telepathically. Fortunately, it's still rather taboo to separate twins, so we'll be shipped off together, possibly so that our talents can be used in a mundane capacity at some backwater government outpost, probably to hard labor on some prison planet. It's… rather distressing to think about, really."
"My apologies." Sensing Owen Lars enter the room, she stood, "I believe I should join my roommates, thank you for your time."
"You're welcome."
Minutes later the blond Twin began to speak, berating the students for not solving the day's puzzle, "Not even Room 4 suggested a solution," he drummed his fingers on the podium, "my Twin and I have decided to extend this puzzle through tomorrow also. So at least give it a try next time." Walking away from the podium, Lann stopped at the edge of the platform, "I'll be brief. By a unanimous vote of eight, Owen Lars has been convicted of being a programed Zealot. He will now leave the room and Bri will discover his affiliation. Then my Twin will send him home, regardless of the outcome, because Matran believes Nick's theory that this will make all of you wiser somehow. Can we just get this over with? I believe Bri is waiting outside the room." He watched as his sister lead the young moisture farmer away.
Perhaps ten minutes later Bri re-entered the room, slamming open the door. "Gah!" she screamed, throwing out her hands from her sides and sending a wave of pain through everyone present. Once the various exclamations of pain subsided, she spat out, "I must declare him to be UNKNOWN." She abruptly flung the door shut in Jess's face, speaking with derision, "Twin has sent him back. If you inferiors do not begin to select obvious Zealots soon, then I will begin to dole out punishment accordingly. Now get out of here. Go!" Again everyone doubled over, crying out, then straightened and quickly left, though most still tried to hold on to their dignity.