"So why are you all pretending to be dead?" Shalla asked Face and Kell as they sat down for evening meal. Face looked over at Kell as the big man shrugged innocently, his signal that he would accept Shalla in the fold. While Road Kill was helping her settle in, Shalla was still leery of Tahiri and Ratnena, Face and the others had a quick meeting about this latest development. No one said much either way, Tahiri pointed out that if she was a plant that it would be the biggest con job in the universe. The amount of planning and timing would be baffling even to the Force. However, Shalla was, to the young Wraiths, an outsider and a potential security risk that could compromise their safety. They were, however, willing to follow Face's lead. Squeaky, being Squeaky, just complained about another mouth that he had to cook for and his precious supplies.
"We had a few security leaks," Face answered, Kell and him filled her in on everything that has happened to them since they started rebuilding the Wraiths. "Given the evidence that we have uncovered already about the Peace Brigade, the Yuuzhan Vong, the 'Vong Free' movement, and the Senate; we felt that letting everyone know we were alive would just add to the number of blasters pointed at us."
"Do you really think that the military wants to kill you all?" Shalla asked taking her plate from Squeaky.
"They did issue orders to eliminate Peacekeeper," Squeaky said hading Face and Kell their food. "When you try to kill one of us you better be ready to face us all."
"Are you sure that you read that memo right?" Shalla was trying hard to defend her superiors, which is what Face expected of her. He admits that on the face of it, the whole story sounded like a bad holo-drama and he would question it too, if he hadn't witnesses most of it himself. "I mean why would they want to kill Tahiri."
"Because she is a half Yuuzhan Vong," Kell answered simply.
"Oh come on, do you really believe that? I can't believe command would waste the time and energy to eliminate some one with a delusion."
"It is not a delusion Shalla, have Elassar show you some scans later but lets say she is suffering for a mental condition. Delusion or not so far both sides have spent a quite bit energy and resources to eliminate her, so you are an analyst. Answer this question, why?"
Shalla was quiet as she looked at Face, Kell and Squeaky, her face set in confusion.
"Alright," she said at last, "I'm sure the Vong wants her dead because she is a Jedi and the Jedi made hash out of their plans."
"And command would want her gone because?"
"That one I have to work on but I am sure it is either an innocent mistake or am error in your reading of the data."
"You can look at everything we have; in fact we kind of would like your help on that part."
"We're kind of short handed around here," Kell said, "even with Squeaky and the rest of the droids we have more work then we have bodies."
"Not that I have a choice anyways," Shalla said bitterly.
"We would rather not release you but we won't hold you against your will," Face said sincerely, "I can trust you not to tell anyone about us. Nevertheless, as Kell said we are short hand, the more help we get the sooner we can stop these groups. This would be beneficial to everyone."
"Especially me, Tyria is going to kill me when she finds out."
"You haven't contacted your wife yet."
"Can't, I'm not really sure where she and Doran are right now. If I try to contact her then they will know that we are all alive and then we will have them breathing down our necks."
"Who ever 'they' are? The military will be after you guys anyways for what you have done, attacking government ships yards, raiding supply warehouses; they'll throw you guys in a deep hole and forget to get you out if you turn out to be wrong about all this." Shalla said looking seriously distressed, "you guys could lose your careers, and everything you have fought for all these years, your freedom."
"But if we are right Shalla, we stop a bunch of money grubbing slime buckets trying to bring down the very government we swore to protect and stop the Yuuzhan Vong and the Peace Brigade on top of it. A win/win for all persons involved."
"We have taken great pains on the targets we hit, we have enough information on the Admiral's secret fleet to know which docks and ships to hit and limited the lost of lives at the ones we do hit. As far as the Peace Brigade and the Yuuzhan Vong targets are concern, those are well within the scope of our normal operating protocols."
"If you think about Shalla," Face said, "everything we are doing is within our standing orders to eradicate all threats to the safety and security of the GA."
"That is a very liberal interpretation of your orders Uncle Garik"
"Maybe but we are confident that we are doing the right thing."
"Based on the word of a convicted killer and a crazy Jedi with delusions?"
"Look over the evidence Shalla, tell us what you think." Kell said easily, like Face, Kell had learned to trust the two young women, they maybe a bit eccentric but they were both very intelligent and crafty. They been right about traps, how to by-pass security procedures and in their annalist of not only what the data says but what it means.
"An if I find out that you are all being led down the wrong road by the psycho sisters you let me help you turn yourselves in?"
"Sure," Face said while Kell just nodded around the face full of food. "So does this mean you will finally join the Wraiths."
"I'll look over the data for now, Uncle Garik," Shalla said after a long pause, "but I am not a pilot or a commando; I am an annalist and I am not going to be trudging through swamps with a vibro-blade stuck between my teeth looking to kill anyone."
"How about crawling thru the sands of Tatooine?" Kell asked innocently.
"Or Hoth, it is really nice there this time of the year."
"True, Hoth is so pretty in the spring," Kell said easily.
Shalla looked at the both with an expression of strain patience but her eyes shown with amusement. Before she say anything Sparks and Piggy came out of the conference room and headed to the patio. They had been in there with Tahiri and Ratnena going over the data that they colleted from Mr. Fusty stateroom on the liner. Sparky kept looking over his shoulder and Piggy wore the expression of amusement.
"What did they do this time?" Face asked, not sure, he wanted to know.
"I think Bora pushed it too far this time," Sparks said watching the doorway.
"No, I am sure Tahiri would hurt her," Piggy said sitting down next Face.
"I don't know sir, she looked kind of mad this time."
"What did Ratnena do?" Kell asked, his expression one of disinterest but Face knew better, Kell had worked with Ratnena since she joined the Wraiths and didn't want anything nasty to happen to her.
"Tahiri was correcting her on the proper way to address a Yuuzhan Vong warrior and Ratnena made up a new cheer for her." Piggy said as he signal to Squeaky for some food and Squeaky muttered something as he walked away, "in stead of saying Yuuzhan Vong, Ratnena said 'You are so Vong, You are so Vong, you blow my mind, hey Tahiri' and she was doing a little dance at the same time. It was quite humorous."
"You though it was funny, I thought it was funny, what Tahiri thought about it is the real question."
"What did Tahiri say about it?" Face asked, with a smile; he smelled a good round of practical jokes on the way.
"Nothing really, ah thank you Squeaky, she just sat down in Ratnena's lap and asked if she could have a moment alone with her."
"Yea sir, but she was wearing that weird smile of hers, you know the one that just seems to say 'I am going to enjoy killing you' smile."
"And you left her alone with Tahiri?" Shalla asked Sparks in an amazed voice and starting to get up from her seat.
"It is best not to interfere with them Shalla," Kell said grabbing her arm and motioning her to sit back down. "It would be like taking on a Rancor with a tooth ach."
"Besides, they are as close as sisters," Piggy said as he ate his meal, "Tahiri and Ratnena would never do any last physical harm to one and another."
"We may have to wake up Elassar to set a broken bone …"
"Or two," Kell said cutting in.
"Or three," Face said with a nod, "but she wouldn't do all that much damage."
"We hope," Squeaky said setting down Spark's meal.
"Naturally …"
"That goes without saying …"
That is when Tahiri walked out, alone, from the room, with a small smile and humming a tune to herself. She walked over to Face, looking very pleased with the world. Face leaned slightly to look down the 'trench' and still saw no Ratnena.
"How is everything going Flight Officer?" Face said cautiously.
"Going well sir," Tahiri answered back smiling and in a light easy tone, "there is a lot of data to go through, plus those odd transmissions that Sparks reported on but I think we made some head way tonight."
"I still like to know why Sparks, Road Kill and I all heard those calls but Little Brother and the ships computer couldn't save them."
"Or why we didn't hear them in the shuttle," Shalla said, she kept turning her head with the rest of them to see if Ratnena would come walking out.
"Or why Little Brother never heard it either, he told me he just recorded that channel due to Sparks request. The only chatter he heard was the same that we heard, just between the liner and the planet but not between the attack force."
"Could it have been the Force at work?" Face asked.
"I hope not sir," Tahiri said losing her smile and looking distressed, "that would be quite a powerful Jedi to be able to pull all that off. I know Alema is not that powerful in the Force so that would mean we have a new player on the scene."
"Would you be able to tell if it was a Jedi around?" Shalla asked.
"Not while I am in my Yuuzhan Vong mode," Tahiri answered easily but without going into too much elaboration. "While I am like that Jedi and I talk differently, I can't sense them and they see me like another Yuuzhan Vong."
"Which is how you fooled Alema on the liner," Shalla asked while she kept peeking around Tahiri to look for Ratnena.
"Yes," Tahiri said around a yawn, "sorry, getting tired. Sir, I would like to have a bull session tomorrow about those transmissions. I think it could be important."
"Agreed, we will do it during the noon meal. In addition, we will spend most of the day poring over that data you and Ratnena collected. How is she doing on that?" Face asked trying to sound innocent. He was beginning to wonder where the other half of the team was.
"She said she should have a preliminary ready for you by noon meal, sir." Tahiri said around another yawn, "between what she worked on today and the stuff she looked at on the trip back she found some interesting facts."
"So she be ready tomorrow," Kell asked innocently.
"Yes sir."
"Ok, she must be working hard tonight," Face asked in a tone he hoped was relaxed and easy going.
"You know Rat sir, she gets wrapped up in her work." Tahiri answered easily and with a bright smile, "I going to hit the bunk sir, I see you in the morning."
As Tahiri made her way to her bunk room the rest eat in silence, as soon as her door was closed Kell, Shalla, Sparks, Piggy, Squeaky and Face got up as one and headed down towards the conference room. As soon as Face entered the cargo container, he almost lost it. Hanging over the table, fighting furiously to free her self from the gray tape that Kell and her use as an all-purpose repair tape and pieces of flimsy and printouts stuck to her in various places, was Ratnena with a sweet stick in her mouth. Face felt the others standing behind him but they didn't say a word. When he cleared his throat, Ratnena stopped struggling against her bonds and looked up with an expression of resignation on her face. Face walked in the room and pulled the sweet stick from her mouth. He tried to keep the amusement out of his voice and expression as he crossed his arms and stared at her.
"Bora, what are you doing?"
"Oh, I am just hanging around sir and, you know, burying myself in work, sir." She said with a sheepish grin.
"And what have you learned with all your hard work," Kell asked as he walked up next to Face, his posture was the same as Face's but he was also working hard at not laughing.
"Well sir, so far I have learned that this tape is really hard to get out of," she replied with a small laugh, "is there any chance you could give me a hand?"
Face and Kell exchanged a look then they both turned to look behind them at Shalla, Piggy, Sparks and Squeaky. As one they all, except Shalla, began to clap, whistle and cheered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The three Vong ships were easily dispatched since we had overwhelming fire power available as well as fighters. They, for some reason, didn't have any skips along with them." Alema Rar said in the conference call to the Advisory Council. Luke could see that, even in the holo-projection, she was still smarting from losing the mysterious Yuuzhan Vong agent and her light saber. "They didn't do any fancy maneuvers but drove straight at us. However we think that they have a new weapon, although no one here understands what good it would do."
"What new weapon," Chief of State Cal Omen asked leaning forward.
"Some kind of damping field sir," the captain of the Sons of Freedom said taking Alema position. "The planet reported not being able to follow the battle since no communication was heard from us and all our records had been wiped clean."
"Could you communicate with each other?" Luke asked, he knew an enemy that could stiffly communications was one step away from winning the battle.
"Yes Master Skywalker, we had no communication problems reported."
"However this may have been a trial run on the Vong part, sir," Admiral Kre'fey told the others, "I have my best people working on it."
"Very well," Oman said leading back, "that is the last thing we need is to be caught flatfooted again."
"I'm surprise that the Vong would do a field test like that. Usually we don't find out about new weapons until they are positive it would work." Luke asked in a musing voice.
"They're not the Vong that we knew, Master Skywalker, they are in worst shape then the Empire was after the Civil War." Kre'fey said dismissively, "However I am concern that they would throw away three ships to allow a spy to escape."
"Yes that was not their usual pattern, Captain have you any thoughts on this?" Cal asked the younger man on the screen.
"We interviewed Mr. Fusty again, as well as the passengers of the Hollow Nebula but as far as we can tell neither the spy or his partner never met with anyone except for Mr. Fusty for any length of time nor did they receive any thing from anyone. Why they were there or what their mission was we still have no idea. They both seemed to be interested in join the Peace Brigade. Mr. Fusty has been very cooperative and we don't have any reason to believe that he was involved in any activities with the spy."
"Yes, this time he came up clean," Fyor Rodan muttered just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.
"We have been over this before sir," Kre'fey snapped out at the senator.
"If he is so clean why was a intelligent agent assigned to keep a eye on him?"
"Lt. Jillian was not assigned by this office to spy on a valuable supporter to the war effort."
Luke tuned, them and the other senators, out as he thought through this particular twist of events. Yuuzhan Vong agents running around was nothing new, they had been a thorn in their side since the very beginning of the war. People like Nom Anor had caused havoc far out of proportion to their numbers while employing such technology as the masqueraders and tizowyrm to infiltrate the military and civilian forces. They had better scanners and knowledge to detect the spies, which is how Lt. Jillian found those two, but they still haven't found a way to stop them before they struck. Nevertheless, the Yuuzhan Vong usual didn't try so hard to get their spies back as the effort they used to retrieve this particular spy. As the rule went, each spy was to make it back on his or her own or they would die. Moreover, this new orthodox Yuuzhan Vong movement would even be stricter in these cases, figuring that if they get back it was because the gods wished them to have that information. Again the lost of Tahiri was hitting him, if she was still around he was sure that she would …
"What about that YT-1300?" Luke asked suddenly and loud enough so he could be heard over the chatter in the room. Everyone in the room turned to him with confused looks on their faces, Luke wasn't sure himself why he asked it but it seemed important.
"We tracked it as it jumped out; there was no indication that it was involved in anyway with the spies." Alema stated after a long conversation with the Captain and some staff members.
"Are you sure, wasn't there a report of that pirate group that was operating in that area that used an YT-1300?"
"Again Master Skywalker, there was no indication of any connection between the spies and YT-1300," Alema said, looking embarrassed to contracting Luke.
"Maybe we should stick to what is possible Master Skywalker," Kre'fey said before Luke could continue. "Sir I don't think we can learn anymore at this time."
"Agreed, Admiral I trust that you and your officers we keep us briefed on any new developments." Cal said glancing at Luke.
"And any developments with Mr. Fusty," Fyor snapped in looking at Alema and Kre'fey.
"Thank you for your report Jedi Rar, please continual on your mission." Cal jumped in stalling any comments from the Admiral, "now if we could move on gentle beings."
As the holo-projection winked out, Luke wondered again, why the YT-1300 seemed to be so important to him.