Even before the doors open, Tahiri knew this was going to be trouble. She could feel that one of the seven persons on the lift was a Jedi. A Jedi that she knew well but Tahiri wouldn't ever consider her a friend. As the doors open she saw that she guessed right, along with six GA soldiers was Jedi Knight Alema Rar. Just when you think the sandstorm has peeked … Tahiri thought. Alema and old 'Tahiri Veila' have worked together in the past, was knight in the same ceremony, but no one could claim that they had been close or even friends. They had both had tried to work out their differences, Master Skywalker felt that their animosity towards each other was a bad example for Jedi to show the rest of the galaxy. However, when Tahiri was born, all the work they had done disappeared. It was like mixing a rancor with a krayt dragon with neither willing to mend bridges. Alema was happy to hear that Tahiri was sent along with Zonama Sekot stating that all Vong should be locked up together and away from normal people. That had been the nicest comment she had made.

"Lt. Jillian I understand you have a scar head," Alema said crossing the room reaching out to test each person in the room. As soon as Tahiri recognized Alema, she went into her 'Vong' mode, which is both good and bad. Good because she won't know it is Tahiri under this 'man skin' but bad since she won't show up at all in the Force. Tahiri decided that even if they figured that she was a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, her and Rat could figure out a way to get free later but if they find out that she is still alive it would be known through out the galaxy by sunrise on Denon.

"He is a scar head?" Rat asked pointing to Fusty with a confused look on her face; both Jillian and Rar ignored her.

"I believe so ma'am," the agent said looking over the small group, "and you are?"

"I am a Jedi and that is all you need to know, understand?" Alema said in a frosty tone, and then she turned and gave Tahiri a bitter smile full of malice. "But you are correct it is a scar head."

"Then my work here is done, Jedi and I wish to go back to cabin." Mr. Fusty said from his seat, even without trying Tahiri could see the waves of anxiety flow off him. Moreover, if she could feel it while in her Yuuzhan Vong state then Alema must be getting it in 1000 times worst. "I do believe I have done my duty as a citizen."

"Of course Mr. Fusty you are a loyal citizen and would never have anything to do with the Peace Brigade." Alema said in a mocking tone.

"Or with a certain Mr. Vu-try," Lt. Jillian said in a frosty tone.

"Who?" Even though he face was calm, the aurora that he was projecting some how got even more powerful. Lt. Jillian looked like she didn't believe him, Tahiri knew that she didn't believe him; therefore she was surprise when Alema spoke up in his defense.

"That will be enough, he is a loyal citizen Lt, and his actions today prove that much. You and your guards are free to go we will handle it from here." Alema said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Ma'am I think …"

"You are not paid to think Lieutenant," Alema snapped, "have your guards' escort Mr. Fusty back to his cabin and you and that droid will wait below."

As Jillian waved the other to follow her Tahiri could feel her anger at being dismissed from her own case, Tahiri would be more sympatric if she hadn't been the object they were fighting over in the first place. With three guards behind Tahiri, 1 in front and two covering Rat, Alema sat down at Tahiri's table across from her and gave her a smile that was praetor in nature. The feelings that she gave off were like a Fero Xyn would give its prey just before it attacked, the guards were waiting with anticipation for the fun to begin while Rat braced herself to help Tahiri in any manner that she could. A thought struck her out of nowhere, how can I feel them at all I am in Yuuzhan Vong mode?

When she was in her Yuuzhan Vong mode, the Jedi was as dark to her as the Yuuzhan Vong was to them. Although she could flip between the two without even thinking about it, this was the first time they actually bled over. It was like looking at them with a foggy lens, hard to make out details but she could see the shapes. This was a new development that she was going to have to explore in more detail after she gets out of this trouble.

"Now are we going to do this the easy way or the fun way," Alema asked lazily.

"What do you think …?"

As one, the guards grabbed Rat, one holding her arms behind her back and forcing her to stand while the other punched her in the kidney area. The three guards on Tahiri also acted, one using his rifle under her neck, forcing her head up and the other two pinning each arm to the chair. The reaction from the guard behind Alema was very telling as he raised rifle up, he must have seen the anger flash thru her eyes even though she was wearing brown contact lens to disguise her eye colors.

"I guess that answers that, we do it the fun way," Alema said as she stood up from her seat. She concentrated her attention on Tahiri, "Listen very closely scum because I am only going to say this once," there was no mock cheer only deadly seriousness in her voice now, "I am authorized to use whatever means I deem necessary to eliminate the Peace Brigade. Lucky for you two, I'm in a good mood this morning …"

"If this is what you …" Rat started to say but was cut off by another blow to her kidney.

"Now I ask the questions and you answer, any wrong answer will get her hurt." Alema said jerking her head towards Rat, which got Rat another blow. Tahiri struggles against her captures but they had the advantage of position … for now. "I would hurt you but knowing you scar heads, you would just enjoy it. And that would just defeat the exercise, understand."

"Yes," Tahiri bit out as she reached out with her own brand of the Force to check on Rat and to plan her escape.

"Good, now first we want to remove that skin."

"You can't remove it …"

"Wrong answer," Alema said as the guard gave Rat a kick in the stomach and then a punch in to the other kidney.

"It is true," Tahiri said against the pain she was feeling from Rat. "It is a special ooglith masquerade, it was designed to defeat any attempts to remove it."

"Bull," Alema said reaching out with the Force to rub the spot against her nose that should roll up the skin. Before the skin could react, Tahiri reached out with all her Yuuzhan Vong Force to hold it in place. Alema eyes betrayed her surprise when the skin failed to act like she expected it to but she quickly recovered. Again, Alema pushed harder, the skin was starting to roll when Tahiri forced it to stay in place. Finally, after five tries she growled out and reached over the table to physically touch the spot. The skin rolled about 3 millimeters exposing her forehead before she stopped it.

Alema look of triumph was quickly replaced one of surprise as Tahiri lashed out with her foot. Tahiri kicked her legs out from under Alema causing her to hit the table with her chin and partially knocking her out. Once free to use the Force without giving her self away she pushed her arms out enough to strike one of the guards. Now with one arm free it was just a matter of cleaning up. Rat, also taking advantage of the distraction, kicked out at her attacker, getting him in a spot that no man liked to be kicked in. The guard stationed behind Alema fired a stun bolt at Tahiri, which she blocked by twisting her body and forcing the second guard to take it fully in the back. The one hold her neck was dispatched by a back of her head smacking his forehead. As soon as she was free from him, she jumped up and kicked the one remaining guard in the chest with both of her feet before he got a second shot off. As she rolled to her feet, she grabbed his gun and put a stun bolt into every one in the room except Rat and the guard she was still struggling against and not doing that well either.

"Will you quit playing around please?"
"Hey, anytime you want to help it is ok with …" Rat started to say as the last guard slammed her into the wall; once Rat was clear, Tahiri shot him.

"Why did you do that," Rat asked lying on the floor huffing and puffing, "he had me right where he want me."

"Yes I saw that," Tahiri said helping Rat to her feet, hand-to-hand was not one of Rat's strong points. "How you feel?"

"I'll live, I think," She replied pushing Tahiri's hands away from her side, "hey at least you got your life day gift. You haven't been hurt."

"With you by my side I sure it is just a matter of time," Tahiri said with a smile as she went over to Alema and took her light saber off her belt. That was an act of thief that she would normally never even consider but she may need it to cut thru bulkheads and if thing got to hairy use it to defend Rat and herself. In addition, the way she was acting, more like her 'old self', the one Tahiri knew and despised, made it feel more like justice then revenge. "I think our honeymoon is over, ready to fly."

"Ah do we have to, I wanted to go shopping still." She said picking up one of the rifles and heading towards the lift making the slightly short Tahiri pick up the pace to catch her.

"I swear all you want to do is spend my money, remind me not to marry you again."

"What is with you men," she said with a smirk pointing to Tahiri's 'man skin', "everything with you is mine, mine, and mine. So what is the plan?"

"We go and borrow that shuttle they came over in."

"That was very considerate of them to let us borrow their ship."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shalla Jillian fumed as she paced the deck near the lift that serviced Deck 1 directly; it was her collar after all. She was the one who broke procedure and risked not only her career but also her life identifying that Vong and his companion now she was reduce to waiting around like a rookie. Her aunt had always spoken of Jedi in a very positive light and even considers one a very close friend. This Jedi, however, must have never met her aunt or her opinion would be vastly different she was sure. This Jedi just waltz in and take over her case without any kind of professional manners or a word of thanks for doing her job.

Thanks but no thanks there is the hatch don't let it hit you on the way out, she thought bitterly as she waited for them to head back to their shuttle.

"Lift is on its way back down," one of the five guards who remained with her, the captain wanted them to stay there until the Jedi left his ship with that thing.

"Very well, we'll follow them to their shuttle; if they object let me talk to them." She squared her shoulders as the doors opened. Her Aunt and mother had taught her self-defense since before she could walk, it did seem that way sometimes, but it was a skill she was never sorry about learning. Even before her brain registered what she was seeing, her body was already spinning out of the line of fire. She could feel the hot buzz of stun bolts pass close to her as she dove for the nearest cover but none connected. The five part time ship security men were not as fortunate, all five were knocked out cold.

Why are they using stun bolts, part of her brain asked on one level as she returned fire at the two escaping prisoners. After the rounded the corner, they stopped firing and she could hear the screams of passengers as they fled by them.

"Intruder Alert, Deck Six port side, bulkhead 34, the fugitives is heading port aft." She said in to her comm link as she cautiously followed them. "Shuttle do you read?"

"Son Shuttle two here, read you; I am sending out some surprises for them, who is this?"

She could barely hear the pilot over of the sounds of the alarms and the loudspeaker urging all passengers to return to their cabins. It has been her experience that if you wanted civilians to do one thing you should tell them to do the exact opposite, because they never listen to the damn instructions anyways. Instead of locking themselves in their cabins, they were out in the passageway making it harder for her to do her job.

"Lt. Jillian of GA Intelligence, I am passing bulkhead 45 no sign of rear guard."

"Roger, where is the rest of the team?"

"Deck One condition unknown." She caught sight of the two when they reached the pomade staircase leading to deck eight, bypassing deck seven. They were both leading over and firing at someone. This time she could see the male shooting with lethal shots instead of stun beams, the woman turned and spotted her and opened fired with stun bolts. "They are at the pomade stairs."

"Roger, our back up got them pined, Sons of Freedom is preparing to launch another shuttle and a flight of fighters, you are to returned to Deck One and report on the condition of our men, over."

Shalla replaced the comm link on her belt and ignored the pilot, she was on the tail of her prey and they weren't going to get away from her. She was going to take a page from her aunt's playbook. Her aunt and the other Wraiths would …

It hit her like a jolt of lighting Ratnena Bora! That is where she had seen that face before; she looked up her file after hearing that psychotic wacky job had been transferred to the Wraiths. There had been a lot of discussion and side betting going on in the office, after they had learned that the famous Wraiths were taking on the woman who tried to kill her squad mates to keep them from reporting her to the proper authorities, about how long before she was standing trail for their murders. It had been a joke until the Wraiths were wiped out by the Vong. Moreover, if Ratnena was sill alive that must mean she sold out the Wraiths! Gripping her rifle tighter, she made a silent vow that no matter what that Sith bait was going down and pay for her crimes … without the benefit of a trial.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Great," Ratnena said just loud enough for Tahiri to hear as she returned fire with the woman Lt. that held them earlier. "Just what I always wanted Vong droids."

"Yuuzhan Vong," Tahiri said returning fire at the droids, she could barely hear the droid shout instruction to the crowd to seek cover over the noise of the firefight and the ship's alarms. "Hey I think I know one of them, you think I should drop in and say hi?"

"Sure, I hold your spot in line," Ratnena said as she changed her power pack, she couldn't see Tahiri but she was sure that she was getting her self ready to do some close in fighting. The woman was aggressively inching her way forward against the fire Ratnena was sending her way. "Don't forget to bring back some snacks for me."

"Yes dear," Tahiri said in a sarcastic voice and then yelled out in a voice that sent chills down Ratnena's spine, "Do-ro'ik vong pratte!"

Ratnena slowly worked her way down the staircase hugging the outside wall as much as possible while still being able to fire at the very persistent agent above her. She tried listing to the noise below her to gauge the way the fight was going between Tahiri and the droids but wasn't able to hear much over the noise of the civilians were making, she did, however, notice what was missing; the hiss of a light saber cutting thru the air.

Ratnena swore as a near miss zipped past her head, unlike her, the other woman was using her rifle at full power instead of stun setting that Ratnena had been order to use. This was Tahiri's mission so she was in charge and she has to decide how they did things. She knew why Tahiri issued that order, on a civilian cruise liner there was just too much of a chance that they would accidentally kill an innocent by-stander. For the most part, except for few rare medical conditions, stun setting will incapacitate a person and not leave a smoking carcass that they will have to explain later.

"Let's go Prankster," Tahiri yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Tahiri laid down the cover fire as Ratnena hurried down to the lower floor. She saw all three droids in various stages of disassemble, one had half of its head blown off the other had a gaping hole in its chest while the third was missing its head.

"You did all that with a blaster?"

"A blaster and my amphistaff," Tahiri said as they started running down the passageway.

"I always knew males went to pieces around me but you take that to a whole new level."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Scratch three droids," Shalla said as she passed the junk pile and headed aft, "I see them, they are at bulkhead 57."

"Roger, all transfer shuttles are standing by away from us, all escape boats are locked down." The captain said over the comm link.
"Roger, Sons has launched a back up force E.T.A. 4 minutes, they also report planetary security is in route E.T.A. 15 minutes."

"They are at bulkhead 61," Shalla said, then she notice a emergency bulkhead closing in font of them and then one closing behind them, in effect capturing them. "Captain, they are trapped bulkhead 64 thru 66."

"Good, thank you for letting us know where they were headed. That section of the passage way has no doors or any other place to hide. Shuttle informs your back up that we have them trapped."

"Captain this is 1st Mate at bulkhead 67 all secured on this end."

Shalla leaned against the passageway breathing a sigh of relief, now they just had to wait for the back up to get here and then open only one side. Best part that annoying Jedi will take the blame for them getting lose in the first place. As she stood there, she thought she heard a snap-hiss coming from the other side of the bulkhead.

"Shuttle this is Rar … warn them … light saber … missing." The very strained voice filled with pain came across the speaker.

"Captain to Rar, say again?"

"They stole … my … light saber."

"This is this Captain all units report in now."

"1st Mate all clear."

"Jillian all clear." At the long pause waiting for the shuttle made her stomach drop, she knew what had happened. "Where is shuttle in relation to me?"

"They were directly over A-09"
"Open this damn bulkhead now!" Even as the door was opening, she dropped down and rolled under it. There in the middle of the deck was a neat hole cut out of it, leading down to deck nine. Without thinking, she jump down through the hole and was greeted by the sight of Ratnena propping the shuttle pilot against the bulkhead. With an almost animal growl, she charged the traitor, knocking them both back into the shuttle as the hatch closed.