Chapter 11: A Search on Atzerri

Atzerri wasn't the most despondent planet Tahiri had ever seen- Eriadu was still the proud holder of that dubious distinction- but it came in close. Looking out the cockpit window as Memories descended towards that murky orb of filthy, slime-filled marshland and cities that were only marginally cleaner, she found herself silently blessing the fact that since her integration, she had become rather more comfortable with footwear. Going barefoot in that mess would be about as smart as marching into a krayt's lair with a fresh bantha steak hung around your neck.

"This is a depressing place, Tahiri Veila," Ziil observed beside her. "It reminds me of the older, poorer worldships where my kind were forced to live. Is this a world of Shamed Ones?"

"You might say that," Tahiri said. "This is a planet where the local government is really weak and corrupt, so it winds up a gathering place for all sorts of smugglers, bounty hunters, and criminals in general. I bet it's been seeing a big upswing in business, too, after the Hutts took a beating during the War. In other words, it's exactly the kind of place where our thieves would hang out in their downtime."

"And the Jeedai allow worlds like these to exist?" Ziil looked dubious.

Tahiri snorted. "It's not like we have much of a choice. There's just not enough of us to clean up even one planet like Atzerri, especially since what government there is just wouldn't be willing to help us take out the people who are paying all their bribes. Besides, criminals are never going to go away, so another world like this one would just pop up sooner or later, and nothing would change. There are some battles you just can't win."

"I see," Ziil said, though it was clear from his tone he didn't- or maybe he just didn't like the idea of the Jedi being fallible. "But you do expect to find information here on the ones who trouble your dreams?"

"More like their errand boys, if I'm looking at things right. But Master Skywalker's information said that this Captain Hassk and his crew operate off this slimy rock, so if there are leads, we'll find them here. That's more Corran's department than mine, though. He's ex-CorSec - that's Corellian Security, sorry- and I may be the Jedi who knows the Yuuzhan Vong, but he's the one who knows criminals."

"You have much respect for the Slayer of Shedao Shai," Ziil observed.

"Yeah. Corran's seen and done a lot. He's not as great a Jedi as Master Skywalker- who is?- but you're right- I do have a lot of respect for him." She shook her head and smiled sadly. "I think me and Anakin almost drove him crazy during the whole Yag'Dhul mess, though. Though you would think that a guy with two kids would've been able to handle something like that…" Tahiri's voice trailed off as memories of that near-disaster played through her mind.

"You are both great Jeedai," Ziil said with absolute conviction. "The gods watch over you. You will succeed at anything you put your minds to."

Tahiri gave a short laugh. "I'm not a great anything, Ziil- just a girl who's seen too much and had really bad luck. I wish I had your faith." She of all people knew that even the greatest Jedi wasn't infallible- Anakin had been greater than her and had the potential to be greater than Corran or almost any of the other Masters (except maybe his uncle) and it hadn't saved him in the end.

The young Jedi shook herself. "Get a hold of yourself, Tahiri," she muttered under her breath. "It's just a smelly, dirty outlaw planet and a then a chase after some pirates. Nothing to worry about…"

/

She brought Memories down to rest at a docking bay in one of Atzerri's larger spaceports. From the information Karrde's people had put together on the mercenary crew, this was one of their favored haunts, though they'd been seen in other spaceports around the planet. Still, this was the place they showed up at most often- if there was anyone who knew where they'd most recently gone, that person was probably here. And according to Corran, in the underworld there was always someone who knew. Jaina hadn't arrived yet, but she and Corran had felt it was best to get the hunt for Hassk underway as soon as possible.

Tahiri was a bit worried about leaving her ship unattended- its unusual design might well attract attention, and if there was anyone who recognized it as one of the near-legendary Sekotan vessels, it would be Life Day come early for every greedy ship-thief in the city. Still she reasoned that Memories could take care of herself- and no one could fly her without Tahiri's permission in any case- so that the ship should be fine for the brief time she'd be away.

Quieting the engines and pulling away from the controls, Tahiri hurried back to her cabin and dug among her supplies for a thin strip of cloth, which she bound tightly around her forehead to hide her Yuuzhan Vong domain markings. That done, she returned to the cockpit where Ziil sat waiting.

"All right," she said to him. "There's no Master Skywalker out there to bail you out if you get into trouble, and if you're following me around gawking at everything like you've never seen it before, people will notice, even with the masquer. So please, please stay in the ship this time, all right?"

"I promise, Tahiri Veila," the former heretic said solemnly.

"By the gods?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"May Yun-Yuuzhan devour my soul every day if I break my word."

"A little more graphic than I was looking for, but that'll work," Tahiri said. "Don't fly off and leave without me, either. That was a joke," she added, seeing the mystified and rather insulted expression on his face.

"I see," Ziil said in a tone that said he did not see, but would try to if the Jeedai-Who-Was-Shaped wished it of him. Tahiri chuckled quietly at that, and then turned and lowered the ship's hatch, descending into the Atzerri spaceport.

Stepping beyond the entrance to the docking bay, she found the city to be crowded, noisy, dirty, and smelly. She wrinkled her nose slightly at it all- Tahiri had grown up in a desert and then a jungle, Riina on a worldship, and neither half of her personality was overly fond of cities. Quickly scanning the area, she found the booth where the being in charge of the docking bays- a rather bored-looking Twi'lek- lounged and hurried over to pay him, and then turned her gaze back to the crowd, looking for Corran. She'd offered him transport on Memories, but he'd wryly remarked that the last time he'd let her fly him they'd ended up in the gullet of a giant maw luur, and that he preferred to take his own X-wing. Seeing as he was a Rogue Squadron caliber pilot and she was an amateur of no particular talent, Tahiri had to admit that he had a point.

She felt a familiar Force presence flicker nearby, and then a voice spoke from directly behind her. "You're looking a little lost and dazed, Tahiri," it said, and she turned to see Corran leaning casually against the docking bay wall.

"It's just been awhile since I've been anywhere like this," she said. "At least the cities on Mon Calamari were clean."

"Benefit of having an entire planet's worth of water on hand, one would imagine," Corran remarked. "In any case, this is no Coronet either, but the kind of beings we're looking for shouldn't be that hard to find- they'll show up anywhere you get enough sentient life gathered together. Let's get going." He turned and set off down the street, pulling his hood up over his head. Tahiri followed.

"So," she said, "what kind of beings exactly are we looking for, Master CorSec? I think I can guess, but it's probably best to hear it out straight and up front."

"Well," he told her, "in any society that lasts for any amount of time, you end up with beings who aren't terribly interested in following that society's rules- for fun, for profit, or just because they don't fit in anywhere else. In a society as big as a galaxy, you sometimes get whole planets like that- this one, for example, though there are worse. I think that the Vong ("Yuuzhan Vong," Tahiri put in) did us all a favor when they steamrollered Nar Shaddaa. And wherever you get enough criminals together, you get another kind of being- not precisely criminals themselves, but more than willing to dig up information on them and rat them out to the highest bidder, be it other criminals or more respectable beings, like law enforcement- or us. Sometimes they work for big information brokers like Talon Karrde, but since we're looking for someone local, they're probably on their own."

"And you think someone like that will have information on out Captain Hassk and his merry band of thieves," Tahiri said, nodding.

"There you go. And who says your generation never listens to what their elders are telling them? Trandoshans tend to stand out, and Hassk is a frequent visitor here. If the first sneak we find doesn't know anything solid, odds are he'll know someone who will."

"So it's Horn and Veila, Sneak Hunters, then?" Tahiri asked. "The glamorous life of a Jedi."

"Don't get used to it. Depending on where Hassk is heading, we may have to do something really embarrassing at our next stop."

/

As the two robed figures walked past, a heavily shrouded being pulled his partner further back into the shadows of an alleyway. "Don't stand out so far where they can see you!" he hissed. "Or do you want to get caught?"

"Of course I don't want to get caught," the second, shorter being said. "But I think you're getting all worked up over nothing. They didn't even look at us!"

"They're Jedi!" the human said, looking down at his Sullustan partner. "They don't need to look at you to find you. They can see with just their minds, or something like that."

"Then why would pulling back into the alley stop them from seeing us?" the Sullustan asked. "Never mind. What makes you think they're Jedi, anyway? All I saw was two humans wearing robes. Jedi wear robes, but so do lots of people. Matter of fact, that includes us. What's your point?"

"I saw the wind blow the girl's cloak back," the human said. "She had a lightsaber. 'Lots of people' don't carry those!"

"And not just Jedi do either. What if one of them killed a Jedi and took it, or something?"

The human shot his partner a nasty look. "Are you really as thick as you sounded there? Someone dangerous enough to kill a Jedi and take their weapon would be even worse than a Jedi, especially if they're bounty hunters."

"They didn't seem to have anything to do with us. They just walked right on past us and ignored us. What's up with you anyway?" The Sullustan was clearly beginning to get irritated- this was a stupid conversation, and they'd both be better off forgetting the whole mess and slipping off to a cantina or tapcaf nearby.

"The reason they're a problem," the human said slowly, as if spelling things out to a monkey-lizard or a rather dim child, "is because one of the beings Jedi or bounty hunters might be looking for on this rock happens to be paying our salary!"

The Sullustan nodded slowly in recognition of that point. At the beginning of the missions his employers had sent him on to locate Sith artifacts, the Trandoshan Captain Hassk had recognized that his activities might draw unwanted attention for a variety of factors. Consequently, he had hired various lowlifes on Atzerri to keep watch for anyone who came snooping into his business and inform him at once- or, if he was off-planet, to deal with the problem themselves.

"We still don't know that's what they're after, though," the Sullustan said, more out of stubbornness than to make a serious point.

"I don't think that's a risk we should take," the human pointed out. "Let's deal with them anyway. Better safe than sorry."

"You do have a point there. But what can two of us do against a couple of Jedi- or bounty hunters as good as Jedi?"

The human smirked. "I've got a plan." The two snoops nodded at each other, and then slipped off into the crowd after the supposed Jedi.

/

Tahiri could feel something nagging at the back of her mind, and she didn't like it one bit. When one was a Jedi, something like that usually meant that the Force was whispering a warning, and the threat was close but not immediate. The result was a sensation that was both irritating and maddeningly vague.

Beside her, Corran stopped and tensed. "I felt it too," he said softly. "Keep going, but be ready to go for your saber if you have to. Until something shows itself, keep walking."

"Got it." Tahiri picked up her pace again, but more warily this time, with a hand resting lightly at her side near where her lightsaber hung. They passed several more blocks as nothing happened, but the sense of danger increased. Then pandemonium broke out behind them.

Both Jedi spun to face a human in a ragged cloak who pushed his way through the crowded street, expression wild and hateful. "Murderers!" he screamed, seeming about to hurl himself at Corran and Tahiri.

Corran stepped forward. "Listen," he said, "I don't know who you think we are or what you think we did, but-" He was cut off by the man's screaming.

"Jedi murderers! You're supposed to be our protectors, but when the Vong attacked my planet, were any of you to be found? No! You left us out to dry, and my planet was nearly destroyed, all because of the Jedi!"

Something about the man's sense in the Force struck Tahiri as off, and it took her only a moment to realize he was faking it. That didn't mean his words weren't having an effect on the crowds around them, however. Most beings on the street were backing away, but others were advancing, expressions hard. Maybe they'd lost family members during the war and also blamed the Jedi, or maybe on a planet like Atzerri they simply had more selfish reasons to resent the Order. In any case, what had started as an anonymous search looked about to turn into a full-scale riot.

"Just once," Tahiri muttered, "I'd like something to go according to plan. Once."

/

Another pretty straightforward chapter, and a somewhat lighter one after the villain backstory and portentous foreshadowing from the last two. Tahiri and Corran were fun to write here, as they play off each other really well, and their exchanges gave a chance to see more of Tahiri's purely human side. Duos of dumb criminals are always diverting as well, but these two have actually whipped up a not-insignificant problem for our intrepid Jedi.

-MasterGhandalf