Entry 16

Ben, Jedi Har'shi and I exited the village caverns and made our way down a hill to a Rancor corral I had seen earlier on my ride to the village.

"So," I said to Ben. "How were things on Bastion?"

Ben chuckled. "Jaina in spoiling Valla and Zylie. They have been going on dignitary tours and visiting expensive spas. Meanwhile your father—under the pretense of doing research for the Indupar Military—has finagled his way into the Imperial quartermaster supply warehouse and has been checking out their uniforms. According to your dad, the Imperials always had the best uniforms."

I shook my head. "He loves playing dress up…but anything is better than the ridiculous Indupar dress uniform he wears. I can understand why he wants to consider other options."

As we approached the corral I noticed the Rancors were removed from their hold and were replaced by the mob of captive slavers. The witches had given them rags to gird their loins, so they were no longer naked. It wasn't much, but it was better than having to interrogate naked men all day. That would be a bit awkward.

Ben glanced over to me. "You interacted with them. Is there anything you can tell me?"

As we approached the enclosure I looked for the talkative slaver I encountered earlier. Eventually I spied him pacing within the confines of the corral, glaring at the other men, and obviously looking for a weak spot in the security so he could attempt an escape. I smiled, hoping he would try. The witches had tied their mounts to the outside of the enclosure. Anybody getting too close to the fence risked becoming a Rancor snack.

I pointed to the slave spokesman. "That one there I think is the leader. He's who you need to talk to."

I eyed Ben when he chuckled. "No, that is the last person I need to talk to." We walked around the fenced in area scrutinizing the men while trying to remain out of Rancor reach. Eventually Ben stopped and stared at a small man sitting on the ground, knees up to his chest and rocking back and forth while moaning pitifully. "That's who I need to talk to."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Why? He looks like a nobody."

Ben grinned. "That is exactly why I want to talk to him. The leader has nothing to gain and everything to lose. He knows we won't make a deal with him." Ben gestured to the sobbing man. "That fellow is not a hardened slaver. He's either new or weak. Either way, he will break. Once we have his information it will be easier to crack some of the other low level criminals. By the time we make it to the leader we will have enough evidence to put him away forever." Ben moved to the witch guarded corral entrance before turning back to me. "Cover me with your blaster. I'm going in." He walked past the guards while unclipping his lightsaber. The other prisoners made way for my cousin until he reached the sobbing man. He bent down, talked to him and then stood and walked toward the exit. To my surprise the cowardly slaver stood and trailed behind without complaint.

"What did you say to him?" I asked as they exited the holding pen.

"I told him to follow me." He winked. "And yes, I did do a mind trick to get him to cooperate."

"If you wish to question him, there is a place in the caverns to do so," Jedi Har'shi offered. "Please follow me."

The mind trick must have worn off because the prisoner hesitated and tried to go back to the enclosure. I grabbed him by the upper arm and practically dragged him up the hill and into the cavern entrance. We followed Har'shi to a small room with a seating area carved into the cave walls. I pushed the man toward the stone bench and told him to sit.

He was nervous, twitchy and refused to look any of us in the eye. "Please don't kill me. I'm not a slaver. I'm a slave." His knee bounced up and down nervously as he began to hyperventilate. "My mother was a slave. My father was her owner. I get light work in the main office, but I'm still a slave." He started to look up from the floor, but his eyes stopped at Ben's lightsaber and then glanced back down. "I'll cooperate. I'll tell you anything you want to know." He risked a scan of his surroundings. "This isn't a Alliance facility. Why did the Jedi bring us here? Is it a Jedi dark site?"

"What?" I turned to Ben. "Do you know what that means?"

He nodded. "It is a term used for a government facility not on the record. A place where the rules don't apply." He turned back to the man. "Why would you believe the Jedi brought you here?

He raised his head but didn't make eye contact. "Because a Jedi was in charge of the men who captured us."

Ben and I looked at each other in confusion. "Was he in Jedi robes?" Ben asked.

The prisoner shook his head. "They all were in Void Jumper Armor except the pilots. The leader had a lightsaber clipped to his side. I know what they look like. I've seen action holos of Jedi Knights."

Ben rubbed a hand over his chin in thought as he paced the room. "Was the leader tall…over two meters tall with an amber lightsaber blade?"

The man shook his head. "He never ignited his saber…so I don't know what color the blade was, but he didn't look two meters tall. He was shorter than the rest of his men. He was normal height…if he was human. I couldn't tell."

"Did you hear him talk? Did he have an accent?"

The man ran a trembling hand through his greasy hair while shaking his head nervously. "They were communicating between themselves through their helmets, I think. The leader was moving his arms like a man talking. He was pointing and turning to various jumpers."

"How do you know he was the leader if you didn't hear what was being said," Ben asked.

The prisoner shrugged. "He was dressed differently. He had a gold cape." He reached up to his left shoulder. "It was clasped with an emblem of a setting sun with a curvy line beneath it. And when he pointed to a Void Jumper that guy turned and moved out. He was a leader."

"You said the pilots weren't Void Jumpers," I said. "What did they look like?"

"I don't know. They were in flight suits and had full face headdresses like the old Imperial Tie Fighter helmets."

"Do you think they were imperials?" I glanced over to Ben. I didn't think Jagged Fel was involved, but his empire might not be the only remnants of Palpatine's Empire in the galaxy.

The scrawny prisoner shook his head. "They had a sun logo on the helmet, not an Imperial crest. I've never seen it before. But I was near the front of the ship, so I heard these guys talk. They had a thick, thick Basic accent…that is when they talked in Basic. They spoke to each other in a language I've never heard before, but when they communicated over the transceiver they used Basic. I didn't recognize the accent."

"What were they saying?"

"The people communicating to them had a slight rimworld accent. They told the pilots to fly us to the coordinates given and they complimented them on a job well done. They said they did a great job for a first run."

"First run," Ben muttered before turning to me. "That means they may be going after other slave operations." He returned his attention to the slave. "Did they say anything else?"

The prisoner blew out a nervous breath. "I didn't understand what they said exactly because of their accent, but it sounded like the pilot said they 'will swerve to the right path'.

Ben looked to me. "Does that mean anything to you?"

I shook my head. "No. It doesn't make any sense at all."

Entry 17

I am so glad I am a Jedi Guardian and not a Sentinel. Ben's job is BORING! He talks to a prisoner, and then he asks the man the same questions over and over. He said it is because most people can't remember the details of lies. Eventually they will trip up and then you press them to explain the discrepancies. Ultimately the prisoner gets tired of answering questions and either refuses to talk or starts telling the truth.

From piecing together all of the stories it appears our slavers were attacked a little before dawn. Two jump platforms laid down suppressive fire to soften the target before a large contingent of Void Jumpers (possibly a company of men) jumped down and began Urban Offensive Operations (often pronounced as 'U-Ops'). There was a fierce firefight, but the Void Jumper armor was impervious to blaster fire and even slug throwers didn't have much affect on them.

The people in the operational buildings were captured, stunned and while unconscious they were stripped and secured in a freighter that must have arrived after the battle. The prisoners didn't know what happened to the slaves. They woke up on the ship about a day out from Dathomir. They were given bottled water, but no food. They did not have much, if any, communication with their captors.

Ben questioned the men for eighteen hours straight and we are no closer to finding out who did this than we were at the beginning of the day. Ben was able to use some of the files recovered by his sister and Valin to positively identify the slave masters. The Alliance has been notified of their presence on Dathomir and the GA government will soon be take possession of the prisoners and also this investigation.

That is fine with me. There is nothing more for me to do here and I want to get back to Zylie.