It was strangely tranquil being able to stand on top of the Distant Star and stare out across open space. The suit itself was bothersome to wear, feeling bulky and somewhat clumsy to move around in. But it was very quiet, and for a while, she could simply enjoy the peace surrounding her.

Until Cecile waved all four of her arms around frantically from the other side of the ship. The lower right one pointed to what had been their comm dish on her right.

"Dana, I found the problem. Looks like I might have accidentally burned the dish off during that maneuver." With plodding steps, Maarani carefully walked across the small corridor connecting the starboard rooms to the core of the ship. As she drew closer, the scorch marks on the port side became evident. "Shit, a paint job isn't going to fix this. It's going to need a proper hull repair."

"That's fine, I'm sure we can find a place that will do that and the weapon systems. And the scanners. And the thermal coils. And the…"

"Yes yes I get it." She bit down on her lip to distract herself from the nerve wracking process of crossing the other corridor to the port rooms. There were no indicators of micro tears, but a lot of the exposed circuitry and plating had been badly damaged. "It'll have to be a space port. Too much of the heat plating is burned out, and I don't want to risk a slow descent without any way to contact landing authorities."

An exasperated sigh came as Cecile continued to wave her hands about frantically. It was impossible to tell if she was trying to say something, or was just having a mad moment. "Dana, anything on long range scanners? Cecile's acting up, and apparently Carmen didn't think she'd need a vocal transmitter."

There was a long pause. Odd considering that the scanners were on the undamaged part of the ship, and Dana was supposed to be right in front of the readout.

"Nothing I can see. I suppose she'll just have to come back inside and tell us there."

"Fine. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get Izan to help with getting into a secure drydock." Maarani tediously turned around to return to the hatch, back on the other side of the ship. She still couldn't see anything of urgency around them. And while she wasn't outright dismissing the potential for danger, she also wasn't feeling any desire to hurry with her space walk.

It was a very tense moment when she finally reached the path down to the airlock. Because the suit was so inflexible, she had to put her right foot out into the void while powering down the magnet in her left boot in order to properly approach the door. Going up had been notably easier because of how much more surface area there was to latch onto. Three metres of metal seemed like a hair's width against the endless starry void.

"Take a breath, and just do it. Nothing to worry about."

"Teegs, what's wrong."

She drew a long breath.

"We also need to get one of those newer spacesuits."

She exhaled that deep breath.

"This clunky piece of junk…"

Her right foot left the safety of the hull lock, stretching out into space. Her weight began to move forward with it.

"...is so inflexible…"

The lock on her left boot disengaged. She was completely detached from the ship. Another long inhale came.

"...I couldn't climb down the way I came up."

For a few terrifying seconds, she continued to drift forward. Her instincts wanted her to start flailing around in a pointless attempt to push her back to the ship. It would only take a light tap against the hull to send her floating off altogether, and there was no telling if Dana or Izan would have the skill to rescue her.

She brought her right foot down slowly. It didn't make contact with any surface.

Her heart began to pound violently as the realization hit her. "Dana! Do your Force thing quick!" It was impossible to see exactly how much she had drifted away from the ship. Apparently more than enough to render her boots ineffective at drawing her back in.

Her heart jumped as something grabbed hold of her leg. It quickly turned to relief as she was pulled back down to the hull. Cecile had ceased in her flailing in favour of bringing her from the brink of the abyss.

As soon as they were back inside, and she had freed herself from the suit, Maarani threw her arms around the droid. "I'm sorry for being so dismissive. You really came through out there."

"I was trying to warn you…" Cecile's head twitched around as her processors tried to make sense of what exactly was going on. "There was a red light flashing on the enviro-suit. I believe it was meant to warn you about the power system becoming depleted."

Maarani's face quickly turned to horror as she looked at the suit again. There had been no warning to her inside at all. "In that case…" She released her hold on the droid to physically kick the suit back into the airlock. With a final poke of her tongue out at it, the entire mess was jettisoned out into space.

"Good job. You just threw away the one thing that could mean life over death if something goes wrong." Izan was far from feeling anything positive at that moment. A big purple bruise had spread over his right temple from where his eyebrow had smashed into the wall. And he looked ready to give the Twi'lek an identical bruise of her own.

"Oh yeah, because floating around in a literal death trap is better."

"Hilarious calling that space suit a death trap right after what I went through." He yanked a small datapad out of his pocket and tossed it at her. "Take your pick. Every shipyard and drydock within five hours hyperspace that I wouldn't consider too dangerous to stop at." As Dana returned from the cargo hold, he nodded to Maarani and wandered back to his quarters. "Come by later, if you would."

Dana barely caught sight of him as she approached the others, still feeling uncertain about his presence on board. "What was that about?"

"I'm not sure…" Maarani shook her head to put the confusion out of her mind. "We've got a list to go through now at least. Let's make a shortlist each and compare what's left after that." She passed the datapad to Dana, and was about to head on to Izan's quarters when another thought occurred to her. "Don't forget we might be looking at a week's stay, possibly more. Try and stick to ones that have tolerable accommodation."

"Good idea. I'll let you know what I come up with. At the very least I think I can find somewhere we can call on for help in the meantime."

With a nod, Maarani strode past to make her way over to the other side of the ship. The door to Izan's quarters had been left open, and from the corridor she could hear him using another datapad, presumably one brought with him from the station.

In her best casual manner, she sauntered into the room and leaned against the door frame. When he didn't lift his head to meet her gaze, she closed the door and made a soft cough. "What's up?"

Izan slipped the pad back into his pocket before finally looking up. His face was still stern, but now lacked the angry look. "I know you're lying about something, my guess would be the job given how things turned out. If you cut the crap with me, I'll consider staying on and helping with your massive droid problem. For starters anyway."

"And what if you don't like the answer? Somehow I get the feeling that the truth is going to end with me having to put a hole through your head in self-defense. Wouldn't be the first time for me."

While she remained quite motionless, her mind was focused entirely on being ready to draw her blaster at a moment's notice. Izan was no powerful demi-Sith Lord. She could take him down if the moment called for it.

He took a short breath and stood up, outstretching his arms and keeping them that way. "Enlighten me. What did I say that made you think we'd come to blows? So far all I'm recalling is saving you from at least three bad situations." There was no doubt that she was capable of killing him if she wanted, even in cold blood. A dead glimmer behind her eyes told more than enough. But for once, he had reason to try and appeal to someone's rational side.

"Dropping the fact that you're Luxa's son scared me half to death. Three guesses why."

It was a long minute for them both as Izan went through the possibilities in his head. Connecting up all the facts, noting observations about Dana and the way she spoke to Maarani. Most importantly, the shouting about cold conditions pointed to a few specific locations.

"You're scared of me because you're Jedi? Hate to break it to you, but the Exchange stopped hunting your lot when Goto bit the dust. And Czerka certainly doesn't have a reason to want your head..." He finally dropped his arms down, then began stroking around his bristled chin. "I am kinda pissed that Surik got away with what she did, only for everyone to call her a hero. But like you said, that's the hard truth about legends."

A scoff followed as he watched the Twi'lek's face start to shift towards a purple hue. "So much for iron guts." When her embarrassment became all too clear, he approached again and took hold of her shoulder, firm enough to make her really take notice. "I appreciate the honesty, including the death threat in a sense. You seem like a good person, if not really tempermental with that gun of yours."

"Don't try and read any kind of 'envy' into that." Her face was still flushed, and no amount of awkward pacing on the spot was going to get rid of it, however much she tried. "Well now that's out of the way, first off I'm not actually Jedi. I lost my Force stuff years ago, and Dana's helping me get it back. I really have no clue why these HK droids want to capture me though."

"That I didn't doubt." Izan finally sat back down on the bed with a great sigh of relief at not having to stand and act firm any longer. "I really don't like the idea of tangling with HK droids, but I'm holding onto that good feeling I got about you when you walked into the cantina."

He lifted his hand up as soon as he noticed her disapproving glare. "Relax, I don't skirt chase other skirt chasers. All I mean is that I've had more to think about and do in the space of a few hours than I've had for the past few years, and it's hard to go back to being a bored drunk."

Maarani had gotten over the torrent of surprises by that point, as well as her brief irritation. Boredom seemed such a mundane reason for him to risk his life for the sake of a stranger, but he had been insistent on removing the deception between them. Perhaps it really was that simple.

"I think we can stay ahead of them if we don't stick around places too long. Let's just say that there are forces out there aside from the Jedi and the Sith that are making stuff happen and leave it at that."

"Fine by me. You do your magic-hand-wave-suggestive-tone thing, or try to anyway, and I'll see what I can dig up from some of mother's associates. Seeing as we're not speaking very often these days. You know how it is?"

For a moment, Maarani was ready to lash out with another bitter sarcastic remark. The reopened wound wasn't going to fade away anytime soon. Instead, she took a few moments to calm herself in the manner Koor had taught her. "We don't speak at all, actually. Maybe when we're not on the run I'll tell you why. Unless you figure it out first." By then she had turned away from him in her pacing. It was an opportune moment to get the raw emotion out of the way so he wouldn't see her in such a pathetic state.

When it passed, she turned back around and leaned against the doorway once more. "I'll let you know when we come up with the shortlist." Her hand brushed past the door panel as she prepared to leave. "I'm sorry for that bitchy moment just now. It's more because I'm a Twi'lek that I get bothered about men getting flirty than anything. They get certain expectations because of the whole slave thing."

"Hey, I get it. Just keep in mind that you don't have to tell someone every five minutes that you're not interested, okay?" He cracked a smile as she turned to leave. "Doesn't mean I can't admire from a distance, right?"

"So long as it's not through a hole in the wall." As she left the room, she brushed her left lekku out in front of her shoulder, a curt smile on her face as she wandered back to the cockpit. She didn't expect Dana to notice any difference while she was pouring over the datapad.

"I've got about five marked within an hour's trip. Some of these spots he listed are run by the Hutts, and I know you don't want anything to do with them."

"Would you want to do business with the race that loves to enslave your people? Can't blame Izan for not knowing though." Maarani slid into her seat and leaned over to look at the marked out places. Only one of them was Republic, and under other circumstances that would be her first choice. Republic bases were also far more insistent on maintaining records, something they didn't need.

"Cross that one off. I really think we should try and stick to neutral stations. Keep the whole thing grey market." She pondered on the other four at length, trying to recall any important fact or report that had been issued that could be of relevance to them. It wasn't an area she had been posted in at any point though.

At a second glance, another name stood out to her. "That one! I'm fairly sure that'll work out great."

Dana looked at the location in question, Twa'janii Tradeport in the Sagarus system. A slight frown formed as she realized the name was Ryl in origin. "Teegs, you're not just saying this…"

"What? I'm a nice Twi'lek. I'm sure they'll be fine with helping me out. And my employer. And whatever cover identity Izan comes up with." She began punching in the coordinates. "Besides, the last Twi'lek I met called me a schutta several times. It'd be great to meet one that's less hostile." Her smile grew a little more as she pictured herself amongst her own kind at last. No overabundance of humans, and not-so-friendly aliens for once.

"Just remember, we're leaving in a week. I really don't want to see you getting upset when that time comes."

Maarani didn't bring up one of her quips for once, merely shrugging it off while she waited for the hyperdrive to charge. "If I really wanted to spend more than a week with other Twi'leks, I'd have gone back to Ryloth by now. I just feel like my people will be more open to helping us out than other neutral places, for a fair price anyway."

There were lingering doubts for Dana, mostly based on what she knew Maarani wanted. Friendly company was definitely one of those desires. On the other hand, detachment when necessary was something she had to learn in her own way. "Fine, I'm trusting you to be responsible for your own conduct. Someone will need to watch Cecile so she doesn't call the whole station a whorehouse in front of the crowds."

"Could just yank out her vocalizer. She does need an upgrade for it anyway, but if it takes a little longer…"

"Teegs."

"Well I was sorta joking?" She glanced at the indicator light as it switched to the ready state. Just before setting the jump, her hand flicked across the intercom again. "Izan, we're ready to jump to Twa'janii Tradeport. You ready?"

There was a few cluttered sounds before he responded. "Wasn't sure you'd go for it given what happened at the cantina, but okay. I'm ready."

"A prissy dancer is hardly representative of Twi'lek hospitality, believe me." With one last look at the long range sensors, and finding nothing, she activated the hyperdrive. "Good food and friendly company, here we go."

There were quite a few armed Twi'lek on the deck when Maarani cautiously descended the ramp. Her hands were quite high above her head even before she caught sight of them, swallowing nervously once she reached the deck floor. "Would've called ahead, but our relay got burned off. Sorry?"

For the most part, they weren't really threatening. Unamused at best, and understandably so. The presumed leader continued to glare at her silently as she approached him with continued timidity. "Uh, I heard this was a Twi'lek station. I'm Tegama'Arani, and my ship could use some repair and upgrades, all of which I can pay for of course. Unless you're mad at me?" She made her best smile, cheesy as it was, in the hope it would spare her from further glares.

The lead Twi'lek frowned a bit more, his gaze briefly moving to the ship in thought before returning to Maarani. "Are the rest of your crew Twi'lek?"

"Well, I've got my human employer, I'm her bodyguard. And uh, a Zeltron who's her secretary and assistant negotiator, and…" She twisted her head around as Cecile began wandering down the ramp. With a curse under her breath, she twisted back to the leader and forced her smile even more. "My droid mechanic. Please please please don't take whatever she says personally. For some reason she has a really poor impression of our kind."

"Oh Maker, more Twi'leks! Why isn't this place covered in neon signs of your females?"

Despite her strong urges to fire a few blaster shots at the droid, Maarani continued with her pleading smile and girlish nature. "I'm an ex-Republic starfighter pilot if that makes a difference? We're only looking to stay a week at most. Please?"

An eyeroll followed from the leader before he finally motioned his hand, indicating for the guards to stand down. "Very well. Bring the human and Zeltron with you to my office, and we can discuss this." He glared at the droid intently. "It will stay on the ship for the time being."

"Fine by me!" She took a few awkward steps back before turning and hurrying over to the ramp. "Cecile, get back inside and shut up. Dana! Izan!"

Izan was first to arrive, his split brow having been mostly healed by that point. His Czerka issue pistol had been hastily remodeled into a more non-descript design with a few parts scavenged from the ship's junk piles.

He noticed the line of guards first, looking to Maarani briefly and receiving an approving nod in response. "Don't have to yell Miss Arani. You know that Ms Lauran doesn't like to be disturbed in the middle of her planning sessions." The fake scowl turned to a fake smile as he looked to the other Twi'lek again. "Ah, they've assembled a procession! Not necessary by any means, but we certainly aren't complaining!"

The leader deepened his frown.

Before Maarani could interject again, Dana descended the ramp as well, now wearing the attire of a Coruscant businesswoman, her short tieback of hair now curled down into a small bun. In contrast to Izan's somewhat floundering persona, she was very quick to approach the Twi'leks and offer a respectful small bow. "My apologies, they are much younger than the employees I requested. You do know the sort I assume?"

It seemed to be enough to soften his sour demeanour, as he extended his hand out in greeting the scowl fading away from his face. "All too well. Seradan'Kulure, station administrator. If you will accompany me to my office, I believe we can arrange repairs and accommodation."

As soon as Seradan's back was turned, Maarani stuck her tongue out at him. This time Dana didn't notice, and thus couldn't give her another glare of disapproval.

The office wasn't too far from the landing bay, but the brief walk did provide her with a very good look around the station itself. While robust in design, there was no shortage of Twi'lek flair in the decorations. Nor was there a shortage of actual Twi'lek. Most barely noticed the procession, preoccupied by dealings with the occasional stranger to the station or each other.

Upon arriving at the administration section, she noticed a holding office for weapons and other restricted items. Another quick glance was exchanged between herself and Izan, as neither liked the idea of having to disarm at all. Dana had no qualms about hiding her lightsaber inside a very secure wall compartment where no maintenance crew could find it.

"Place all weapons, communication devices, surveillance equipment and chewing gum packets on the tray."

"Damn, I was just starting to enjoy this piece…" Maarani hesitantly placed her pistol on the tray, then reached down to the knife strapped to the inside of her left thigh. On the edge of her vision, she noticed Izan drawing out two shivs that slid out from the soles of his boots.

Once the weapons were locked away by the attending droid, Seradan led them through to his office at last. It was surprisingly modest, a notable amount of Ryloth landscape pictures adorning the walls. Beneath them were several native plants in plain pots, all looking quite healthy.

She had barely noticed the fact that the dozen guards they had started with had now been reduced to just two. It was oddly comforting to have fewer scrutinizing eyes watching her every move.

"Now, I get the impression that you and your employees are exhausted from spaceflight, so I will try to be succinct." Seradan had circled around his table, standing in front of the chair rather than sitting down while he accessed the computer systems. "I can arrange a business class and two trader class rooms for your stay, as well as a half day maintenance team, provided you can afford all that."

Dana needed only a brief glance at Maarani to know it was a deal to accept. "That would be most appreciated. Mr Izan will arrange payment." She adjusted her suit while Seradan worked on finalizing those arrangements. "By any chance do you have long range communication facilities? My client on Coruscant expects regular updates; he represents House Rist."

Maarani was quick to notice a flickering expression on Seradan's face at the mention of that name. She had no idea why Dana decided to mention them out of all the houses, but it had clearly struck some sort of nerve for him.

"I understand completely. Once the transaction is done I will take you there myself." He handed a datapad over to Izan, who used the codes given to him earlier in order to access Maarani's limited finances. Enough to cover them for the week, but probably not much longer.

As soon as it finalized, he retrieved the datapad and circled back around the desk. "When you have had time to recover, I would invite you to my quarters for dinner with my family. No doubt Tegama'Arani has told you of our customs by now."

"Oh, yeah, they just love Twi'lek food." She shot a sideways glance at Izan. The horrifying thought of showing up at dinner to discover they were actually serving rycrit smoothies as well…

"I am most grateful. Please attend to our possessions Miss Arani."

Maarani returned to her typical childish scowl as she and Izan were escorted back out of the administration block. Having their weapons returned was only of mild comfort, as she couldn't shake the feeling that the other Twi'lek were not giving her good looks. It wasn't the first time she had noticed it amongst others of her race.

Once back out in the main promenade, Izan couldn't help but nudge her firmly to get her full attention. "Tegama huh? I knew Maarani sounded a little weird, but why modify your name like that?"

She awkwardly pulled him to a quieter part of the promenade, at least out of earshot from passers-by. "It's been eight years since anyone called me Tega. I wanted to keep it that way, but Dana decided to call me Teegs instead. Stick to Maarani and we won't have a problem, alright?"

Izan nodded and lightly gripped her shoulder. "Eight years huh? Guess that explains things." Before she had a chance to get emotional on him, he took a look around at the Twi'lek in the vicinity. Now he was starting to notice the dark glances as well. "Except why they're all staring at you. I thought you said that dancer was just a one-off issue."

"Hey, if I knew my people were going to stare at me like that…" She glared back at them whenever they looked at her. A swift encouragement for them to move on. "I wouldn't have come here. I've done nothing to upset my clan. Hell I've been fighting to liberate my people from the Sith and the Hutts. They should be grateful!"

She looked around again. They weren't pausing to look at her anymore, but there was definitely a lingering distrust. It wasn't hostility, or disgust.

"Let's get settled and work it out from there. You need to catch me up on Twi'lek customs after all." Noting her still sour expression, he kept his arm around her shoulders all the way back to the ship. By that point she had become so annoyed by his clinginess that she had forgotten to notice how everyone else was looking at her.

Cecile had kept herself busy by making her own notes on what needed to be repaired, replaced or intentionally left alone, muttering some sort of gibberish in Huttese this time. It further distracted Maarani by infuriating her to the point of shouting until the droid ceased speaking altogether.

By the time Maarani and Dana's clothing had been moved to the rooms, along with some fake business documents and other datapads, her fuming was beyond even what Izan could feasibly ignore.

"Boy you really bottle it all up. So what if they don't like you?"

Another calming breath followed, ineffective as it was for Maarani this time. The general attitude towards her was starting to reflect back out from herself. "I don't know why it's bothering me so much. Every time I stop thinking about it for a while, somehow it comes back." She briefly buried her face in her hands as she tried to reason it out in her head. Big shocks were barely fazing her, while minor annoyances were driving into the core of her emotions.

The conversation she overheard on Telos began to echo back at that moment. Something about having an empathic presence…

"Why don't you take me shopping then? All my stuff is back on Citadel Station, and I'm certainly not going back there to retrieve it anytime soon. I need good clothes for tonight." He grinned at her obvious confusion, one of her more amusing expressions by far. "Can't a guy be concerned about his looks? I am supposed to be secretary to a wealthy mining negotiator, need to look the part."

"Start by shaving. I don't know how you species with hair tolerate the stuff."

Izan ran his fingers and thumb down the length of his jaw, bristling the short beard of his. "It's dignified. If I shave it off I'll look half my age. I wasn't a well-behaved boy."

"It's disgusting. Strands of keratin and gunk growing out of your skin."

"Says the woman with giant tentacles. And what about your eyebrows?"

Maarani ran her finger along the two solid tattoos adorning her hairless brow. "Fourteenth birthday. Best one of my life." Her gaze settled on his scruffy jacket. It really did look like something a drunk would wear. And the attention drawn to her fake eyebrows gave her a different idea. "Fine, you get new clothes, I'm getting my lekku patterned. Never liked the crap that military regs would allow."

"Tattoos right before a formal dinner? Who's the crazy one again?"

"The one funding your new clothes. Don't abuse it." Maarani awkwardly pulled her favourite jacket off and tossed it in his face while she changed shirts. "If they're going to stare, might as well give them something interesting to see. For now I'll check how long we have before the evening cycle." Once her new shirt was on, she retrieved her jacket from Izan's face and pulled it on again.

He was briefly perplexed by the presence of flower and sweet fruit scents from her jacket, but remained silent on that fact. "I'll let Dana know what we're doing then. Anything else?" He stood up after she did, taking a moment to ensure his blaster pistol hadn't fallen out.

Maarani did the same as she got up, taking a bit longer to inspect it on the possibility it had been tampered with. "Find something to bring as a gift to the dinner. Personally I don't bother with exchanging crap, but apparently Seradan does."

"Maybe I'll find something at a gift stall." Another glare followed. "Fine, I'm sure I've got something noteworthy on me. Twi'lek like old rings and jewellery, right?"

"It's personal value that matters. Just so long as it's not some random thing you just stumbled across five minutes earlier. Let's go."

Before actually using the holotable, Dana had made her best efforts to check for any kind of surveillance equipment in the room as soon as Seradan had left. Maarani's insistence on going to a neutral station had left her rather more wary. There was no regulation of privacy for them to follow after all.

After a few minutes, she gave up and opted for a different kind of security. Hopefully one the Twi'leks wouldn't think to look for.

"Ms Lauran reporting in. Is Mr Kudan there by any chance?"

Master Torbut was the one who appeared in the projection, briefly confused by her question until the reason for her behaviour was provided. "Apologies Ms Lauran, we were growing concerned about your absence. I trust you and your… employees are safe?"

"Yes, we are Mr Kudan. I am projecting delays of a week to our agreed schedule. I intend to counteract this damage to our efficiency by negotiating with the local Twi'lek population, assuming they have potential mining sites to be exploited." She cleared her throat to distract any observers from his continued confusion. Otherwise she was thoroughly impressed by his ability to improvise.

"I will inform our contractor of this new development, they will be pleased I am sure. In the meantime, given recent events, we are sending another bodyguard to ensure your safety. A Mandalorian named Jayden Mires."

The name was familiar to Dana, though she hadn't met Jayden in person yet. Having someone with Mandalorian training on their side would be of great help if the HK droids did catch up to them at least. "Very well, I look forward to her arrival within the next few days. The people of Twa'janii Tradeport have been very hospitable already."

"It pleases me to hear that. I certainly hope we can negotiate a deal with them. Good luck to you."

Dana waited for a few moments after the transmission ended before moving from her standing spot. Her hope was that the normal blue hue of the hologram had hidden the fact that she had been speaking to one of the few Chiss in their side of the galaxy, something that would easily raise suspicions. There was nothing else she could do but wait for Jayden's arrival.

"Playback the recording."

Aruga nodded while resetting the holoimage to the start of the session. The conversation was brief, and seemed normal enough for a negotiator communicating with her boss.

Anything but convinced, Seradan continued to scrutinize the recording until the answer finally occured to him. "There!" He pointed right to Dana's hands, which were making subtle gestures throughout the entire message. "Jedi hand signals. I knew there was something off about her group."

"Should we take them down now?"

For a moment, he did consider that possibilty, but logic soon dismissed it. "No, no I think she is the only Jedi of their group. Arani and Izan were both well armed, and childish for their age. Whatever this Jedi's mission is, I do believe she hired those two, but not as bodyguard and secretary." He began to pace around the recording, continuing to watch the hand gestures intently to try and discern what was being communicated.

"What use could the Jedi have for a Republic soldier and a Czerka agent though?" Aruga circled around the control station to Seradan's side, trying to draw his gaze from the recording.

"Make very discreet inquiries with our allies. There was a recent attack on Telos, it is possible this Jedi was the target and fled to us for safety. Two of our fellow operatives did take notice of a Twi'lek and a Zeltron talking closely in one of the station's cantinas." He finally tore his eyes from the hologram, though continued to pace around the room in thought. It was a perplexing situation, so many angles and possibilities had to be considered before action was taken.

After further thought, he finally looked to Aruga. "Have our guards observe the Jedi and Zeltron from a respectable distance. I have something in mind for Arani, but I will not have my daughter spied on."

"Seradan, you're not seriously proposing…"

"She has been lonely all these years. Once the Jedi has been dealt with, I am sure we can convince Arani to stay with her own people. It's about time we had another pilot-in-residence." He reached his hand up to the gold chain hidden around his neck, gently lifting it up to take the pendant in his hand, a print of a tightly clenched fist. "The open hand of friendship is oft burned, while the hidden hand of betrayal finds fortune in discernation."

"And we are guided through life by the way of the shadows."

"Find the mark, strike first. The Hidden Hand prevails."