**

Dear Tam,

I'm writing to you from the hold of the cargo ship Pride of the Galaxy, but whoever named this ship must have been mistaken. There's nothing to be 'proud of' here!

What happened was this.

Nico agreed that something was funny about Luda's going away, so we went to her place in Coco town. Nico is really good at 'hiding' so it looked like I was all alone, even though he was with me. Her place was all messy, like she had been going through stuff, and there were a couple bags on the floor like she was getting ready to leave in a hurry, but she smiled (really weirdly) when I said I was Luda's friend and told me to come in. (Nico sneaked in after me and thank the Goddess she didn't even notice!)

The Force felt really bad in here – not all darksidey, but 'sick', but she was still being 'nice', and as we really wanted to find out about Luda, I pretended not to notice.

She asked me to sit down while she got me some fruit and while she was in the kitchen (for a long while) Nico whispered that something wasn't right, and maybe we should go, but then she came out (with that big fakey smile) with some shurra fruit and cream. All at once I got the image from the story about the evil princess and the poisoned shurra fruit, so I only pretended to eat it, and I saw Nico wave his hand and whisper to her that I really was.

Her smile became really creepy then, and she said she would be back in a few minutes, and to 'stay right there' and she left to go back into the kitchen.

Nico got all anxious and told me what I already knew – that she expected me to be fast asleep when she came back – and that we should get out of there quickly, but I said that we needed to find out about Luda, and asked him how easy it was to get into her head.

He made a face and said it was really easy, that her mind was like soft mud, but she was just really sick. I quickly grabbed a cushion and threw my cloak over it and told him that we had to make her think it was me there while the real me stayed dim. Thank the Goddess it worked! She came out a few minutes later with a BIG nasty needle and stuck it in what she thoughtwas my leg, and then she had the nerve to apologize to 'me' and said that 'it was better this way for me because when I woke up, she would be gone and I wouldn't even remember why I came, much less what she looked like!'

I was so mad and wanted to kick her, but Nico held me back (good thing because she almost noticed that she had just given that nasty shot to a pillow!) Then he 'pushed' her really hard and asked her where Luda really was. She smiled all sweet and happy and said that she was 'with friends on Ryloth, learning how to be a proper tw'ilek' and that 'with help she would come around!'

I got really mad then, and asked her if Master Fin knew, and she seemed to 'wake up' for a moment (sick and soft doesn't mean dumb, sadly!) and she looked at the cushion and blinked. Nico gave me a "Shut up, stupid!" look, and 'pushed' her until she was all happy again. Then Nico 'reminded' her how very hungry she was, and how yummy that shurra fruit looked, (I know this was making him tired, but Force bless him, it worked!) Before she could finish the whole bowl, she dropped down to the floor like a sack of rocks!

Nico sighed then, and I saw that he had a nosebleed! Poor Nico!

Nico wanted to go back to the Temple and get help, (he would have made her do it when she woke up, but that would mean staying until then because he can't 'push' people unless he's right with them like Uncle Kay can) but I told him that all the Jedi there were in a meeting, and we couldn't just leave Luda there because the longer we waited, the less chance that we could save her! He said, "what can we do? We're just little kids?" and I told him that my Grey-pa had won a pod race when he was nine, and as Jedi (even in training) we had to do something and at last he agreed. I managed to find her stash of credits, and promised that when it came to getting transport, I could do the pushing for once.

I know that as Jedi, we're not supposed to hurt innocent people, but I couldn't help myself. As we stepped out of the apartment, I stopped and gave her a couple of hard kicks, right in the back.

If she's lucky, she won't even remember we were there at all and we should find Luda long before the adults get too worried.

Love,

Pem