Back at the ship, the 4 humans, 3 nonhumans, and 2 droids crowded around the table in the Ebon Hawk's main room. Andra looked around at the group that somehow still trusted her to lead them. Well, mostly they trust me, she amended, resisting the urge to sneak a glance at Carth, who had seated himself between Mission and T3. "Ideas on how to get into the hangar?"

"We could do something like you and Carth did to get into the Lower City on Taris," Mission suggested. "We still have the uniforms plus the robes they gave you and Juhani on Korriban. One of us can pose as a Sith master and two more can be bodyguards."

"Statement: this plan is rather clever... for a meatbag. The disguise is believable given the purpose of the hangar, the uniforms limit other organics' ability to see your faces, and it uses items we already possess."

"Uh... thanks, HK. So who's going to be the Sith and who're the bodyguards?"

"Observation: we do have a genuine former Sith among the crew."

"Yes, yes," Andra said in a scathingly sarcastic tone, "It would be terribly ironic to have me disguised as a Sith master. But I'm the last one who should actually be wearing that disguise. That person's face will be more visible than the bodyguards, and if anyone's face is going to be on wanted memoranda all over the Empire, it's mine. Juhani would be the best choice, I think. She's the only one who the Sith never saw when the Leviathan captured us. That is, if she's willing to go, of course."

The Cathar nodded. "Your reasoning is sound, and I will gladly help with our mission. Do you intend to go as one of the bodyguards?"

Andra nodded. "Of course. This is still technically my mission... well, mine and Bastila's, anyway," she amended, her mouth twisting briefly into a grimace. "I wouldn't want to just sit here while others' lives are in danger."

"And who will be the final member of the party?"

All eyes in the room fixed on Carth, but he shook his head. "Flying and fighting are my strongest skills, not sneaking. Jolee can fly the shuttle almost as well as I could and he's much better at avoiding detection. Plus, if you run into trouble, his ability with the Force might be able to salvage the situation."

"I agree, I should be part of the infiltration group. Mission can use her stealth generator to sneak in with us; we may need her talent at hacking security systems and opening doors."

"See, us young whippersnappers are good for something after all," Mission teased, grinning broadly.

"Alright, that part is settled then. Jolee, you'd better make sure Carth's armor will fit you. Now, we need to figure out how we're going to get past whatever security is in the hangar... without knowing exactly what we're dealing with." Andra sighed, grimacing at the enormity of the challenge. Canderous muttered a Mandalorian curse under his breath, Zaalbar moaned plaintively, and Mission's lekku twitched with agitation. "Most likely there will be guards checking identification against a list of expected passengers. The shuttle is probably also passcode locked. And while there are no Selkath holocams in the hangar, we can't be sure the Sith haven't installed some of their own."

"Not to mention, the flight controllers at the base may ask for landing codes," Carth added.

Jolee stared blankly at the table, his hand absentmindedly stroking his beard. "If need be, I can fool the guards into thinking we are meant to be there. And if the base has any security codes for landing, they'll probably be in the guards' minds also. The passcode on the shuttle might be a problem, though, unless the guards also happen to know that."

"Don't worry, I can slice into the shuttle's computer and get it running," Mission reassured everyone. "I can't do anything about the cameras if there are any, though; not without a lot more time to prepare."

"If we don't get caught by any of the other security measures, hopefully the people monitoring the cameras won't notice anything out of the ordinary. Or perhaps we'll get lucky and they haven't installed any. Let's plan on leaving in... 30 standard minutes," Andra decided after a glance at her wrist chrono. "No sense in leaving that data in Sith hands any longer than we have to." Her gaze traveled around the room until everyone had indicated acknowledgment, then she turned to leave.

As it happened, the Sith's hangar bay was just a few doors down from where the Ebon Hawk was docked, so it was not long before the Republic defenders found themselves marching up to the soldiers stationed at the entrance, doing their best to act as if they belonged there.

"Who are you," barked a male voice, distorted slightly by the helmet's faceplate. "We weren't expecting any visitors until this afternoon."

"We made better time than expected on our trip," Jolee answered.

"You made better time than expected on your trip," the guard repeated back, his tone betraying no sign of the control Jolee was exerting on his mind.

"We are free to board the shuttle."

"You are free to board the shuttle."

None of the guards noticed the faint shimmer of a cloaking device or detected any sound from the young Twi'lek who followed just behind. "Wow," Mission whispered once they were aboard and she had settled into one of the shuttle's passenger seats, stealth field deactivated to conserve power. "It's one thing to know the Force can do that kind of stuff, it's another to actually see it."

"A Jedi does not use the power of the Force lightly, especially when it comes to manipulating the mind of a sentient being," Andra intoned with exaggerated solemnity. "At least I think that's what Bastila would say if she were here," she added, rolling her eyes at the memory of the many lectures Bastila had inflicted upon her even as she winced at the torture the young Padawan was likely enduring at Malak's hands. "Compared to the Council implanting a whole false identity in my mind, what Jolee did was a simple parlor trick."

"Point taken. Jolee, did you find any sign of a passcode to unlock the ship or codes to land at the Sith base?"

"Yes to both. The guards knew the codes for landing but not to unlock the ship's computer."

"Say no more. I'll have us off the ground in no time."

As it turned out, 'no time' was only slight hyperbole. With the help of a few data spikes, the shuttle hummed to life within a minute, and the Republic infiltrators were on their way within 5. Everyone held their breath as Jolee gave the landing codes he had learned from the guard's mind, and an audible sigh of relief went through the cockpit of the shuttle when the traffic controller gave them permission to land. Still, Andra could feel her pulse continue to race even after they had successfully landed inside the Sith embassy. Every sound, every flash of movement in her peripheral vision, seemed to be a guard about to discover them and doom their mission to failure. With the Force, she could have easily pinpointed the location of every sentient being in a radius of several hundred meters, but when she reached out, she could feel nothing beyond the storm of pain and guilt which continued to rage in her heart. Thank the Force I'm not the only Jedi in the group.

The hangar guards let them pass with a respectful bow and no questions. On the other side of the door, a short hallway opened up into a vast room with passages branching off in many directions. Only some were marked with signs indicating what lay in that direction, and Andra wished devoutly there had been time to have Mission obtain a floor plan. Then again, they would hardly have a gigantic label on the map reading 'Stolen Republic probe droid'. So where would they keep it? Maybe some sort of security station or computer room? Aha, control room! She nudged Juhani slightly, pointing at the sign, and the Cathar nodded. The three Jedi turned to walk in that direction, with Mission cloaked trailing behind them. Though the building claimed to be an embassy, the uniform construction, lack of adornment, and heavy guard presence gave it the appearance of a military base. At the end of the hall was a door, but halfway down they passed another door. The human woman paused and pursed her lips, looking back and forth between the two doors. No sign marked what was behind either door; she glanced at Juhani and Jolee but neither of them gave any indication whether they wanted to investigate the room or continue to the end of the hall. After a moment of deliberation, she opened the door. A soft moan drew her attention to a Selkath in dark grey Sith robes lying crumpled on the floor. Drops of blood pooled around the being's nose and mouth, and dull red patches stood out against the skin of the... man? Woman? I still don't know how to tell, nor do I know how to tell how old this person is. Face straining with effort, he raised his head to look at her as she stepped inside, Jolee and Juhani following close behind.

"Tell Shasa the Sith..." he whispered, the words so slurred that she had to work to decipher what he was saying. She quickly crossed the room and knelt beside him to listen more closely.

"Did they do this to you?"

The Selkath nodded and pressed a token into her hand. "Give this to Shasa and..." he paused to take a few shallow breaths, "Tell her that the Sith are... evil." His head sank back onto the floor and his eyelids slipped closed, the rise and fall of his chest becoming weaker and more infrequent.

Andra nodded. "I will. Where is she?" He did not reply, however. The human woman frowned anxiously. If we try to help, we risk blowing our cover and failing the mission, and he may die anyway. But how can we just stand by and do nothing? "Can any of you think of a way to get this Selkath out of here unnoticed, and quickly? He needs help." Jolee had already joined her beside the young man, his fingers feeling for a pulse. After a minute, however, he stood and shook his head.

"It's too late. He's gone."

With a soft sigh and a grimace hidden behind the mask of the Sith armor she wore, she reached to close the eyes of the unfortunate stranger they had stumbled upon. "Back to the search, then. Afterward, we can see if we can locate this Shasa to pass on the token and the warning."

"That may be a task more easily said than done given that apart from her name, we have only assumptions to go on," Juhani observed.

"I wonder why he specifically wanted us to warn Shasa. Is she involved with the Sith or helping them somehow?" Mission wondered. The sound of her voice made Andra jump, as it seemed to be coming from empty air.

"If we ever find out who she is, we can ask. Regardless, let's move on before someone notices us and starts asking too many questions."

The crew of the Ebon Hawk passed through a door opposite the one they had entered and found themselves in a training room nearly identical to the rooms the students on Korriban used.

"I don't like this," Jolee murmured. "A dead Selkath in Sith robes just steps away from a dark Jedi training room. Looks like at least a few of the natives don't agree with the government's policy of neutrality."

He was cut off by the hiss of hydraulics as the door to the right slid open, revealing another Selkath in Sith robes. "I thought I heard voices. Wait, who are you?" he asked Juhani. "You are not one of our teachers and you are not a student either."

"I..." the Cathar Jedi stammered, but before she could think of a plausible excuse, her voice was cut off.

"Shassa, come here! I think we have intruders."

At that particular moment, Andra was very grateful to be wearing a helmet that concealed her facial expressions. A few seconds later, another Selkath appeared at the door, this one somewhat shorter and more slender than the first.

"I think you may be right. I don't recognize them either."

"What should we do? Should we call the Masters to come deal with them?"

"No," answered the one called Shasa. "The Masters will think us weak if we are constantly running to them with our problems. We should deal with this on our own." The way her hand rested on her lightsaber hilt made it clear what she had in mind for 'dealing with' them.

"Wait," the Padawan pleaded, holding out the token which she still clutched in her hand. "Do you recognize this? Just a few minutes ago, we met one of your people who was badly injured by the Sith. He gave this to me and told us to give it to you and tell you the Sith are evil."

"Of course I recognize it. That belongs to Galas. He was one of the other students here. The masters told us this morning that he chose to leave because the training was too difficult and they returned him safely to his family. Where is he? What did you Republic people do to him?" Shasa's eyes darted around the room frantically, as if she expected her friend to suddenly appear in a corner.

"I told you, we didn't do anything to him. We stumbled across him by accident just in the next room, but we were too late to help. See for yourself if you'd like."

"Yes, I think I will. Whether or not you are lying, he was my friend and I would like to see him and say goodbye."

It was only a few yards back to where the body still lay. Shasa broke into a run as soon as they entered the room and knelt weeping on the cold tile floor, tightly clutching her friend's hand. The student that had originally spotted them crouched beside her, one webbed hand resting gently on her shoulder.

"We weren't the ones that hurt him," Jolee reminded her gently. "Search the Force if you doubt that we're telling you the truth."

She nodded but made no immediate move to stand. After several minutes, her tears finally began to slow and with a final deep breath, she wiped her eyes and settled into a meditative pose. "I sense no deception from any of you. This is disturbing; the alliance with the Sith was supposed to bring strength to Manaan and our people. They agreed to teach us to use the Force as a sign of good faith and promised to withdraw from the planet and respect our independence once the Republic is defeated. This crime reveals their true intentions. We must leave here at once and alert the authorities! Eska, go find the others and bring them here."

A few minutes later, the two young Selkath plus two more that had joined the group bid farewell to the Jedi.

"Thank you again," said Shasa. "You saved us from making a very great mistake, and perhaps our lives as well. Whatever mission brought you here, we are fortunate that your path and ours crossed."

Andra forced herself to smile slightly. "I believe the Jedi have a saying: 'There is no luck, only the Force.' So may the Force be with you, and I'm sorry we couldn't do more for your friend."

"May the Force be with you as well. You already did more than we could have asked." With that, the former Sith apprentices were gone. The human woman swallowed against the lump in her throat and blinked back the unshed tears in her eyes. It's a shame there wasn't someone there to warn me before I fell to the dark side. Then Bastila wouldn't be a prisoner of the Sith and Carth would still have his family on Telos. Well, I can't raise the dead, but I still have a chance to save Bastila, so that's what I need to do. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she motioned to Juhani to lead the way back into the hall.

Back at the Ebon Hawk, Andra wasted no time in changing out of her Sith robes before the crew went to deliver the data to the ambassador. Once again, it was only a short wait until they were shown into his office, and he was already grinning as they filed in. His grin grew even broader when the soldier-turned-Jedi produced the data module from the pocket of the tan coat she wore.

"Yes, that is the module we were looking for. I will have the techs review it overnight if you don't mind waiting until morning to hear what information the droid managed to get. I will also instruct the mechanics to have one of the deep sea submersibles ready for you first thing in the morning."

Carth bit his lip. "Time is of the essence, but it also won't do us any good to rush in unprepared and get ourselves killed. If it will take until the morning to have everything prepared, we will come back then."

"I vote for waiting too. It's getting later in the day and I don't want to be down there with who knows what danger in the middle of the night," Mission agreed with an emphatic shake of her head.

"Does anyone object?" questioned Andra, looking around at all the members of the crew. "No? Then we'll meet back here as soon as the embassy opens in the morning."

The ambassador nodded agreement. "I will have everything ready. Thank you for recovering the data; you saved the Republic from a huge catastrophe."

Back outside the embassy, Mission was abuzz with plans for how to spend the free time. "Apparently there's a comedian visiting from Corellia; we could go see his show. Or they have a swoop track that's almost entirely aquatic! Lucky us, the Ahto City league is in season right now. We could catch a holovid, too. We've been running around the galaxy so long I don't even know what vids are out right now but I'm sure there's something."

"Mission..." Andra sighed.

"Nope, not going to work. For a change we're not undercover on a Sith planet or deep in the wilderness dealing with some crisis that requires our immediate attention. We are in the middle of a city full of tourist attractions and I'm taking you out for a night on the town!"

"But..."

The Twi'lek shook her head, emphasizing the gesture with a flick of her lekku. "No buts. I won't let you spend another night sitting on your bunk moping."

"Moping? I'm not moping!" The Jedi slumped slightly. "Okay, fine, maybe I'm moping a little." She glanced over at Carth, who seemed to have become very engrossed in some program on his datapad. When she spoke again, it was in a tone quiet enough that Mission had to lean in to hear her. "Or a lot. Who am I kidding? If you insist, as soon as we get back to the ship I'll change into something and we can have a girl's night out. Sitting around chewing the same regrets won't accomplish anything, and we've done all we can for today. You can pick where you want to go."

"Yay!" the teenager exclaimed, looking as if she might start running back to the ship to make preparations. Andra shook her head, making sure her companion couldn't see her amused eyeroll.

The question of what to wear proved more difficult than she might have expected. Most of the clothes in her closet were either Jedi robes or jumpsuit/tunic combinations meant for practicality rather than fashion. The few that might have been suitable for an evening social event were mostly the things Carth had bought her after their crash on Taris. She pulled out the tight-fitting red blouse she had worn to Sarna's party there and studied it for several long moments, her mouth twisted into a grimace. When an unmistakably male voice interrupted her reverie, the shock was nearly enough to make her drop the shirt.

"I did tell you you looked beautiful that night, right? That shirt was a good choice."

She mentally braced herself for the sight she knew would greet her when she turned around. The dark circles under his eyes made him look far older than his 38 years, an effect amplified by the wistful regret in his expression. "I don't remember, Carth. It seems so long ago now."

"Yeah. Back then, I couldn't wait to get off that planet. Never thought I'd find myself missing those days." He shook his head. "But that's not what I came here to talk to you about. I heard about what you did with Shasa; the news spread like wildfire as soon as they escaped from the embassy. The Selkath government has stripped the Sith of all legal protection. Ahto City security forces will no longer respond to calls from their embassy, and the courts will no longer accept cases relating to incidents that occur there. I just wanted to say... whoever you are, and whatever ends up happening, I'm glad you were able to save those young people from being caught in the Sith's web of lies."

"Uh, you're welcome, I guess. Now if you don't mind excusing me, Mission is waiting for me to get changed so we can go see the town."

"I'll let you go, then," he agreed amiably. "I was going to run some errands anyway, restock our supplies since we don't know when we'll have another chance."

Andra found her eyes following him as he left until finally she tore her gaze away with a silent scream of frustration. Blast it, I hate this! If the Force has a sense of humor, it must be a perverted one to make us keep working together like this, to keep taunting me with the reminder of what I had and lost through my own fault. Well, I suppose it could be worse; at least he didn't turn me in to the ambassador. With her gaze determinedly focused elsewhere, she didn't see the backward glance Carth cast in her direction before he hit the door's control panel. Once he was gone, she slid the red shirt back onto its hanger and instead opted for a sun dress covered in a bright pink, orange, and yellow floral pattern. Her preparations complete, she went in search of Mission.