JDR – He was just recovering from whacking his head against Womprat...you bash your head against a solid chunk of metal and see how well you recover ;) Jacen reaching out with the Force basically wipes the slate clean...it hides any possible evidence of his time travel injury because now there's nothing there. He's back to his old Force-loving self...he can claim he just wanted to not use it for a bit and they can't prove otherwise. WRT General Cooper...it was more of him trying to talk down to Jacen...make him feel like he was inferior like the guy did in Shatterpoint to Mace Windu.

Onimi – Nope, studied business and way too much stargate ) Thanks.

Lelouch – going back to what I wrote for JDR above, Cooper was trying to put him down to bully him into joining. Jacen didn't like that considering he doesn't want to be there and really wants to go home and be with TK. He can either dance around one more roadblock, or cut through it by pulling rank and at this point his frustrations are coming out. It is much easier to pull rank, especially if Jaina's not around to question how he got a Vornskr ring.

The delicious smell of caf brought a rare smile to Squeak's face as he spun around his chair to accept the steaming mug from Tahiri. He took a moment to breathe in the mildly nutty smell of the black liquid saturated with the essence of ground, roasted beans and smiled before taking a sip of it, nearly burning his tongue and splashing himself with the caf in the process.

"It's hot," Tahiri said. "Be careful."

"Could've told me that three seconds ago," Squeak said. He put the mug on the desk beside his computer terminal and looked back at Tahiri. "Any luck?"

"Nothing," Tahiri said. She had spent hours searching through news reports with Parmis and Blade while Lanos and Trigger searched through police incident reports. So far there had been no sign of their quarry on Coruscant. "You?"

"I think I know how we can focus our efforts," Squeak said and turned back toward his computer. He activated the three-dimensional display in the centre of the room, grabbed the tablet interface, and gestured for her to join him at the rotating model of Coruscant.

"As you know, the planners of Coruscant have compartmentalized most of the redevelopment of the planet-city."

"Something about efficiency and aesthetics, if I remember correctly."

"Yes," Squeak said. He tapped the tablet and the model zoomed in to display a section of Coruscant in the South Eastern hemisphere. "Take this area for example. This is largely an industrial zone, pushed far away from the political, tourism, and more prestigious residential sections of the planet. This actually works to our benefit."

"How so?"

"Security is lax here." Squeak smiled. "Anyone can slip through claiming to be a cargo ship going to pick up a shipment from any of a thousand warehouses. Credentials are easy to forge, if they're even examined."

"So we have an entry plan? That doesn't help us..."

"Hang on."

Squeak played with the tablet and the map shifted slightly north. A section of approximately twenty city blocks began glowing red against the blue backdrop.

"This is the largest consumer technology development area in the galaxy," Squeak said. "This is where almost every new comm device, computer, droid, or anything you can think of is developed. It is also the heart of some of the largest software firms, including four major data mining companies. Two of which have contracts with the government, and all four work with the media. The best part is that this..."

He hit another button and the area around it turned yellow.

"...is where the vast majority of these developers live."

"So you think Sekava will try accessing these specialists to help him with his data search."

"It's where I would go if I needed access to the best of the best," Squeak admitted. "Well, Talon Karrde's people, aside, obviously.

"They're close to the industrial zone, they've got all the talent and skill to find anyone famous almost as quickly as the government could, if not faster, and there are only two small space ports. It wouldn't take us long to search them."

"Good work," Tahiri said. "I'll have Parmis take us down. Can you forge documentation?"

"Done." Squeak pulled data card from his pocket and tossed it to her. "This should get us through any security checks as long as they don't dig into the manufacturer database. I've been working on this ship ID for months, slipping docking references into spaceport databases across the galaxy. It should stand up fairly well."

"You're pretty good at all this," Tahiri said with a rare genuine smile. "I'm glad we have you here."

"Thanks." Squeak blushed and turned back to his computer. "I'll start cracking into the local traffic databases and see if I can find them."

! #$%^&*()

By pulling rank with the Corusca ring, Jacen effectively took command of the entire taskforce. He left General Cooper in command of fleet functions and spent the majority of the next day locked in the General's office poring over various files. Nelani, the only Vornskr aboard with a sapphire ring, reported to Jacen immediately after she was aware that Jacen was in command. They decided it was best to leave Jaina locked up, however, they did provide a more comfortable cell. Jacen even arranged for Womprat to be delivered to her for repair after extracting the droid from the ceiling of the Solo Quest so she would have something to do to pass the time.

Jacen remained tight-lipped about his involvement with the Vornskrs and, to not ruffle any feathers, did not ask any questions in turn. He already knew as much as he wanted to know about the Vornskrs and he really only wanted to see Eriana so he could figure out a way of going home sooner than later.

In addition to providing a means of identification, the Corusca ring was cut in such a way that it provided a unique pattern of light diffusion that could be used as a pass code into the central computer system. Jacen used the ring in the specialized reader on the General's desk and was able to access all of Eriana's data on the Vornskrs in the main databank. What surprised him was that the ring also contained data – and lots of it. Leaving the information in the ship databank alone, Jacen spent hours scouring the information contained on the ring and found a highly detailed history of the next hundred years of Vornskr activity from the alternate timeline. While reading a report about the mission where Eriana and Kyp had bonded, the door to the office opened.

"You wanted to see me, Master Solo?"

Jacen pulled the ring out of the reader and slipped it back on before getting up. At the door was a tall woman with long blond hair pulled back into a pony tail. She wore a fitted leather jacket zipped open to show a plain white top underneath. A pair of lightsaber handles protruded from holsters that hugged her black pants where any other pirate might keep blasters.

"What's this I hear about you starting a pirate organization without me?" Jacen asked.

Eriana's face broke into a grin. The two friends closed the distance between each other and hugged fiercely. Eriana broke the hug and grabbed Jacen by his upper arms.

"What's this I hear that you've kept your sister locked up for almost two days now?"

"She needed to cool down. Besides, we have a lot to discuss that would go over better without her around."

Eriana grabbed his right hand with hers and pulled it up to her face. The two identical rings shone brightly in the white light of the office.

"Something tells me that your story is a lot more surprising than mine."

Jacen shook his head and pulled her toward the couch.

"You don't know the half of it. I guarantee you, this will sound crazy."

"I like crazy."

"I've been to the future." Jacen said, plopping onto the couch. Whatever Eriana had expected, the look on her face suggested that was not it. She slowly sat down while watching his face for any deception, but found nothing but his big goofy grin of success. "You, Womprat and Tenel Ka are the only ones who know about it. I was gone for three hours and in that time I was in the future for months. It was a horrible future. The Sith Lords ruled almost the entire galaxy, and the only areas they didn't control were those under the protection of the Black Vornskrs. I met you in the future and you gave me this ring just before you died – of old age, might I add. I fought and killed the leader of the Sith, a Bothan named Masakra, and spent a while on Zonoma Sekot healing from an injury related to time travel. Time travel using the Force is dangerous. It damages the brain in a way that makes using the Force a potentially fatal experience."

"I could sense you reaching out in the Force earlier..."

"I'm healed now." Jacen pulled a pocket scanner from his pocket. "I've been keeping an eye on it to make sure I haven't caused any more damage, but everything seems stable. Though I do need to train up. A year without the Force has left me a little rough around the edges."

"We can work on that after mid-day meal," Eriana promised. "Forget about the Vornskrs for a minute, what the hell are you doing here? Tenel Ka is expecting! You should be at home with her."

"You are well informed," Jacen said approvingly. "Uncle Luke found out you're running the show. He doesn't seem to know about Lowie and the others you've recruited, but he's convinced that you're trying to pirate your way into making a new dark empire and take over the universe. Jaina's here to shut you down."
"And she dragged you along to talk some sense into me."

"Given the fact that I've been to the future, I think I know about your motivations enough to vouch for you, but to explain that without giving away my secret would be impossible. I tried to explain it without telling her, but she thinks my trust is misplaced."

"She's as stubborn as you," Eriana supplied. "Keep the ring. I've been thinking of a second in command, and now that you're here it makes sense."

"I'm going back to Hapes." Jacen shook his head. "Eriana, before you protest, I really don't want to miss my baby's birth. I see the value of what you're doing here, and you know I trust you, but I really do need to go back to Hapes. Uncle Luke and Jaina twisted my arm so hard I couldn't say no. Jaina came after me with my brother's lightsaber telling me it's what he would do."

Jacen held up his Anakin's lightsaber, tears starting to form in his pain-filled eyes again.

Eriana sighed, torn between his emotions and her own needs. She got up and walked over to the viewport overlooking the half of the fleet on that side of the Star Destroyer. When she turned to face Jacen, she looked more concerned than he had ever seen her.

"I planted information that I knew would get the Jedi to send someone high up to see me," she said. "The Jedi don't have operatives in my organization – I have Jedi who are my operatives. Nelani and Doran Tainer have been feeding the Jedi information on me. I've found and recruited every Jedi they've sent into my ranks and together we give back enough information to keep the Council happy while furthering our goals. I was hoping Luke himself would come, not you. I didn't think he would be stupid enough to send you with Tenel Ka so close to being due, but I have to admit I'm glad to see you. I really need your help, Jacen. It can't wait and it is vitally important. I've been trying to get one of you two out here for months, but...well, your injury explains why I wasn't able to reach you, which is why I had to reveal to Luke that I was running the show here. Soora is after something. A..."

"A Sith talisman," Jacen finished. "Masakra stole it from him in the future to extend his life. I haven't been able to track it down yet. I have a picture of it but not a location."

Eriana smiled.

"I should've known you'd be half a step ahead of me."
"It isn't that," Jacen said. He handed her an insulated data chip storage box that he extracted from his pocket. "This chip contains a good chunk of data about the future. About the future I visited. Some of it applies, but my return to the present has already started to change things. I stole most of this from the Sith database on Coruscant. I also have Masakra's personal diary on my ship, but none of it has led me to the location of the talisman."

"If that really is my ring, then the answer is much closer than you thought," Eriana grinned. She plucked her own ring from her hand and dropped it into the computer terminal's data reader. After a few moments she accessed the files within. Jacen noticed that there were only a fraction of the files that were on his ring.

"Here," Eriana said, finally displaying the planet.

"Charnack? I've never heard of it."

"It is just on the edge of the Unknown Regions. Very mountainous, harsh climates. No indigenous sentient species, but a lot of nasty non-sentient ones. Apparently there is a cruise line that passes by there to show off the planetary ring before looping back to the core planets. Karrde was able to find out some details on it for me and he sent out a scout. We think we have a good idea of the location of the talisman. Karrde's people found a temple buried in a mountain range, but we called them off for their safety."

"Karrde is in your club, too?"

"Sapphire ring member." Eriana smiled. She pulled up a list of names from her ring database and let him read it.

"Karrde, Bror Jace, Corran and Mirax Horn, Booster Terrik, Valin, Jysella, Doran Tainer, Kyle Katarn, Wedge Antillies, and Aunt Mara? By the Force, you have a third of our senators on here!"

"If you keep going you'll see a lot more names you recognize, including your cousin Ben." Eriana extracted her ring and replaced it on her finger. "It really shows you how strongly some people believe in what we're doing."

"I knew you were building influence, but I didn't realize how much you gathered already," Jacen admitted. "How long for this mission?"

"A week, tops." Eriana shrugged. "Soora's already after it himself. I figure you, Jaina and myself ought to be able to beat him to it, or beat him into giving it to us before he figures out how to use it."

"Speaking of Jaina, we should probably let her out."

Eriana sent a brief message to Nelani from the desk while Jacen retreated to the couch. She joined him a minute later and tossed a package onto the couch beside him.

"A late life-day present," Eriana said as he tore into the package. "They're all the rage on Corellia right now."

Jacen held up the black shirt and laughed at the words scrawled across it. Without hesitation he put it on over his other shirt.

"Don't let it get to your head," Eriana scolded, but Jacen just threw the wrapper at her and laughed again.

"Thanks," Jacen said. "Jaina's going to have kittens when she sees it."

"How did you get as far into the Vornskrs as you did?" Eriana asked, returning to matters of importance. "None of the flags I had set up were triggered until Lowie caught Jaina."

"We've only been in for a week," Jacen said. "You might want to evaluate your training program for outliers in performance. We impressed Stragoron enough to give us a trial and he let us in but, admittedly, we were too good."

"And you thought you'd scale your way up through the ranks with your wit, charm, and skills?"

"No, that was Jaina's plan. I tried flunking so I could go home and leave you alone. Who knew simply surviving was enough to pass?"

"Jacen Solo failed at something. Wow. I am shocked."

"I tried. I really did."

"How do you want to play this? That you've always been on the inside or that I made you number two?"

"Recent addition. I still don't want her to know I visited the future. I can't risk Uncle Luke or any other Jedi asking what will happen next and them making bad decisions on information from a timeline that has already changed. It's probably best that we start ignoring events in the other timeline completely."

"Good call."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the doors opening long enough for Jaina to enter. Jacen could sense Nelani reaching out to try to figure out what was going on, but he did the mental equivalent of a light push to get Nelani's presence out of the room.

"I thought you were trying to not get into bed with the enemy," Jaina sneered at the sight of her brother sitting beside the target of her mission.

"For the record, we've never slept together," Jacen started. "And you couldn't have been more wrong about the Vornskrs. I told you that you could trust me."

He pointed at the words "Trust me, I'm a Jedi Master" written in yellow across the front of his new shirt and Jaina merely glared at him with her jaw clenched.

"Please sit down, Jaina." Eriana gestured to an arm chair adjacent to their couch. "Your uncle isn't aware about some things and I think it might be time for you to fill him in on the secret."

"The only thing I'm here to do is haul your ass back to the Jedi Council to explain yourself."

"A quarter of the Jedi Council members are Vornskrs," Jacen said. "Hell, a third of the government is. There's a lot more to this organization than piracy. What you glimpsed on Kashyyyk was the back half that is run by Jedi and Jedi sympathizers that Eriana has recruited."

"What?" Jaina asked with a mixture of shock and disgust.

"We steal from the Sith and supply Jedi planets," Eriana explained. "The piracy is a front. A collection agency, if you will. The Black Vornskrs were a pirate group that were named to scare the Jedi, but I've turned it into an organization that fights for the Jedi without even realizing it. We do stage hitting the odd Jedi Coalition target to make things look less obvious, but they are completely staged. Usually those are cargo transfers when Wedge needs something moved to a planet discretely. Our goal is to minimize collateral damage while pulling out as many resources and goods from under the Sith noses as possible to funnel into our side through Karrde's organization. Yes, the Talon Karrde. As you saw, the pirates never see the goods, but they're well-cared for and are part of a profit-sharing scheme. For the most part they don't ask questions because we keep them too happy to want to ask questions. Anyone above a copper ring knows that this is more than just piracy, and the higher up you go the more they know. The generals know exactly who I am and what my plans are, but to others I'm just a vicious tyrant that makes them credits if they don't get in my way."

"Those with blue rings are Eriana's inner circle operating in the background," Jacen explained. "They're the link between the front and the back end, and they also do whatever is needed to keep things going. Intel, special ops, you name it. Most of those efforts go into 'selling' material to Karrde so he can turn around and sell it to where it needs to go."

"Karrde really signed up as a Vornskr?"

"It's a retirement project for him. Mara Jade also joined at his request."

Jaina's eyes widened in disbelief, but her brother's quick nod told her the truth.

"You're telling me Uncle Luke sent me to uncover the truth about an organization that his wife is a secret member of?"

"Yep."

"And he has no clue?"

"Nope."

"I don't believe you."

"You're going to doubt the former Emperor's Hand's ability to keep a secret?" Eriana interjected.

Jaina's silence provided Eriana the opportunity to push on.

"We aren't here to cause problems for the Jedi," she said. "We're here to help. Everything the Vornskrs do is to help the Jedi. We have no desire to cause any harm to anyone unless we have to."

"Like the freighter that your command ship destroyed three weeks ago?"

"That was an unfortunate accident..."
"That was murder."

"It isn't murder when the idiot captain decides to overload his own reactor!" Eriana shouted. "We tried to disable his ship before the reactor went critical but he dumped all his power into shields. We told him no harm would come to him, but he decided to take his own life before listening to us. Do you have any idea how much bacta was on that transport? We could've saved tens of thousands of lives on Bortras if that greedy bastard didn't decide to go down with his ship.

"I realize that sometimes we push the envelope too far, but sometimes mistakes are made. We need to keep up our cover story so the Sith don't believe we're pushovers. We've been carefully covering our tracks and working our asses off to make sure nobody knows what we're really trying to accomplish. I'm sorry if the Jedi Council can't see past the curtain we've created, but that's the point of having a curtain to hide behind. There are a lot of Jedi who have joined us who can see what it is we're doing and they agree with us through their own free will. Any Jedi who needs help can hide within our ranks. We are a perfect cover for running Jedi operations, and every Jedi among us knows it. And I could really use someone with your skills."

"What?"

"I want you to join the team," Eriana said. She held out a blue sapphire ring. "And if you can convince Luke of our importance, even better. I'd be glad to have him, too."

"I don't trust you. It sounds like you're trying to run the galaxy. And take over the Jedi."

Eriana closed her hand on the ring and shook her head.

"I don't command the sapphire rings. I work with them. My part is running the Vornskrs. Their part is making it worth doing. Without the Jedi, the Black Vornskrs are meaningless."

"Jaina, we have a mission," Jacen interrupted. "Eriana and I are going after something that Soora is after. We can't let him get his hands on it. You can come along, but we have to leave very soon."

"I'm taking Eriana in," Jaina said. "She can explain this to the Jedi Council. I'm not letting her out of my sight until she's in front of Master Skywalker."

"Good, then you're coming with us," Eriana said. "If that's your prerogative, and unless you've learned a lot about a lightsaber since we last met, I don't think you'll have any other choice."

! #$%^&*)

Jacen entered the designated deserted hanger bay and found a large cube of stacked crates sitting in the middle of the room. He could sense Eriana's presence inside the crates and found a narrow path on one side of the cube. As he entered the giant cube of crates through a narrow path he noticed that a ceiling of crates had been created, likely by fusing the empties together to make it appear that there was nothing interesting within to outside observers. Inside, Eriana was running through an intense training pattern on a large sparring mat using an interesting combination of switching between one and both lightsabers.

"New pattern?" Jacen asked when she stopped.

"Yeah, I'll teach it to you some other time. New toys?"

Jacen pulled the satchel from his shoulder and dropped it on the floor.

"Something fun for later."

"The usual routine then?"

"Just be careful. I haven't used one of these properly in a while."

Drawing on what they learned from the Jedi Masters of old, Jacen and Eriana delved into the depths of Shii-Cho, Makashi, Soresu, Ataru, Shien, and Djem So. After hours of drilling through the forms and reminding Jacen's muscle memory of how to fight, they finally launched into Vaapad. Their strikes, slashes and parries hummed and clashed in rapid succession as Jacen rekindled his connection to the Force and found his centre within. After catching Eriana off guard and disarming her, Jacen surprised her further by producing a couple of lightfoils from the mysterious satchel.

"In the future the Sith had minions that they trained in using these," Jacen explained. "They heavily rely on Makashi to use them properly. I was one of the few to make anything of it. Most of them used it like a club."

"Let's play," Eriana said and took the intriguing lightfoil. This time Jacen taught her the basics of using the lightfoil and found himself both annoyed and proud when she quickly surpassed him. Once they were both comfortable, they took turns attacking the lightfoil wielder with a lightsaber, then paired it up to two lightsabers against a single foil to assess the viability of using lightfoils instead of lightsabers. They came to the consensus that they would provide a measure of surprise, but not much else. The elegant lightfoil style was of little use against the more forceful lightsaber styles favoured by the present day Sith Lords.

After their tests with the lightfoil, Jacen used the portable brain scanner to ensure that his injury was stable, which it was. They proceeded to perform various Force exercises including fine telekinesis, manipulating energy, and mental intrusion exercises. They also spent a couple hours working on many other techniques that Jacen had picked up, including making himself small and modifying the molecular structure of matter. Jacen still felt behind on his game, but after their sixteen hour refresher course, he definitely felt better about facing Soora.

"Okay, spill it. What did you learn?" Eriana asked after they had decided to call it quits for the day.

"I told you much of what I already know," Jacen said. "I could put together a more extensive report if you'd like."

"That's not what I meant." Eriana eyed him suspiciously. "The future you saw was obviously horrible enough for you to come back, but you spent over thirteen months without using the Force. I followed you all over the galaxy searching for hundreds of new ideas of how to do the craziest things we could think of and more. You looked everywhere and found things in places nobody would have ever guessed. Based on the fact that you disarmed me after a year of not fighting with the Force, I can tell you found something."

Jacen could not help but grin. From the glint in his eye, Eriana knew he stumbled onto something big.

"Jedi have always seen the Force as something to study and that to grow deeper within the Force one must keep studying it and spend more and more time in its presence."

"You're telling me it's the opposite?"

"I don't know for sure," Jacen admitted. "But I feel more in tune with the Force than I ever have. By not using it, it has slowly reconnected me with everything at a more subconscious level. I think I've learned how to accept the will of the Force more readily opposed to being more of a wielder of the Force."

"It shows," Eriana said. "Your technique is still rustier than that bucket of bolts your dad flies, but your intuition is better than it's ever been."

"Thanks," Jacen said. "I think."

"I have a few things to arrange before we can depart tomorrow." Eriana paused, checking her wrist chrono. "Where did you send Jaina and Nelani?"

"Nar Shadda," Jacen said. "Womprat said he had some stuff there he wanted to pick up. They should be back shortly. I had to twist her arm into going. She thought we would've left without her, but I convinced her I wasn't going to leave Womprat behind on a mission to hunt a Sith Lord."

"She still thinks I'm a Sith Lord in training, doesn't she?" Eriana asked with a shake of her head. "Let's hope they get back soon. Our transport leaves in ten hours."

! #$%^&*()

"Here." Squeak jabbed his finger on an aerial survey map of the section of Coruscant they were investigating.

"That's a spaceport," Parmis said, correctly identifying the structure Squeak had indicated. "Wait a minute..."

"That's where we are," Blade said.

"Brilliant job, Squeaky," Trigger grunted. "We're not looking for us. We found us. We want find them. Them not here."

Momentarily slack-jawed from Trigger's simplistic grammar, Squeak shook his head and pointed back at the spaceport.

"Correct," Squeak said. "And this is where they were."

"Explain," Tahiri demanded.

"I was able to find them and track them on the regional traffic database, being the awesome slicer I am. Using the time codes on the store videos and correlating it to traffic movements I've learned that they've been meeting with a programmer working at the search giant..."

"Cut to the chase," Lanos demanded.

Squeak looked somewhere between excited and terrified, but grinned broadly just the same.

"They transferred to the other spaceport in the tech district three hours before we arrived," Squeak finally said. "We should probably transfer, too."