A/N: Once again, italics are shown by _underscores_.
Jacen watched his sister carefully as the walked to the cantina, but her face was carefully guarded behind her best sabaac face. She hadn't responded when he asked how she had managed to discover the cantina, leading him to think she had done something very illegal to find it. He had questioned Tahiri when Jaina wasn't looking, but the younger girl didn't seem to know what his sister had done. At one point during the walk - they had elected not to take another breakneck taxi ride - he had gently nudged Jaina's mind with the Force, but her only response was a mental sort of "Trust me. You're happier not knowing." It wasn't that he didn't trust Jaina. He just knew that she was always a little lax in following rules. That wasn't a good trait for most military officers to have.
"Here it is," Jaina said, gesturing to a seedy bar. Jacen involuntarily wrinkled his nose as he passed through the door and into the almost over-powering scent of alcohol. Why anyone would think to run a terrorist organization from here he couldn't even start to understand. He scanned the room with the Force, sensing half-conscious intoxication from almost everyone present. Every here and there he found a mind that was still sharp, but they were a definite minority.
Jaina elbowed him. "Look over there at that sabaac game," she murmured, nodding towards a table. "See that very large man with the gray hair? He's one of the ones who 'accidentally' led us here."
"One of them?"
"Yeah. Listen. Don't question anyone directly, but see if you can find anything out. I'm going in." She took a step towards the table, but Jacen stopped her with a hand on her arm. "In case you haven't forgotten, sis, you're not here to gamble."
"I'm not," she snapped. "I'm following a lead."
"In a card game?"
"A card game against a man who has consumed quite a bit of whiskey, by the looks of those glasses next to him."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Just leave that to me. Come get me if you find anything a little more reliable than this." With that, she shook him off and walked over to the table. Jacen sighed. "Let's split," he murmured to Tahiri. They parted ways and mingled in with the drunken crowd.
Jacen wound his way towards the bar and ordered the least potent drink he could. He opened his senses again to the rest of the cantina. He was jerked out of this state when someone leaned against the bar next to him. "Buy me a drink?" the young woman asked.
"Don't push your luck." He glanced at her. For a moment he felt pity for her. She didn't look more than seventeen and had apparently already thrown her fate to the winds. "Are you in business for yourself or do you work for the club?" he asked sharply on a reflex.
"Does it matter?"
"No, but either way leave me alone." A mental Force push clouded her mind long enough for him to slip away again, shaking his head. He looked around for Tahiri, but she was lost in the swirl of people. He hoped she was having more luck than he.
*******************
Tahiri Veila carefully studied the Twi'lek leaning against the wall, searching his mind carefully. At length she stepped forward and attempted to engage him in conversation. "Did you hear about that explosion earlier? I saw holos. A fine piece of work, it was." All she got in response was a loud belch. He didn't even seem to notice her existence.
She heaved a sigh in frustration and forced her way back into the crowd. Once she turned around, she didn't see the Twi'lek suddenly seem to regain his awareness of the world around him. He watched the retreating Jedi for a moment before roughly shoving his way towards a door at the back of the room.
The girl reached out with the Force and found Jacen. She slowly but surely navigated over to him. "Anything?" she asked.
"Nothing aside from being hit on by a cheap hooker."
"How's Jaina doing?"
"I think she's winning."
*********************
Jaina pushed through the patrons towards the table, falling into a Corellian swagger and attitude. Pausing by an empty chair, she tapped the false-wooden surface with one finger. "Got room to deal in one more?" she asked, allowing the accent of her father's homeworld to sink into her voice. She sent a flirtatious smile at the men around the table. For a moment they just stared at her, and she knew why. The Jedi had abandoned her usual flightsuit and opted for a thin-strapped shirt, light jacket, and low-riding pants, all in black and leaving part of her flat stomach bare. If Han ever saw her dressed like this, if he even knew she owned clothes like this, he would not have hesitated to severely discipline her. Her hair hung loosely about her shoulders, and she twirled a strand impatiently around her fingers. "Well?" she prompted.
"Um, yeah, of course," one of them stuttered, indicating the empty chair.
"Thank you ever so much," she smiled as she sat. She was glad that, as the game continued, the other players turned their attention back to their cards. As the hands played, she carefully scanned the mind of each one in turn. She wasn't entirely paying attention to the game. Despite this, the pile of credit chips in front of her was growing.
One by one, the other players left the table as they ran out of money until the only ones left were Jaina and the man she had seen in the holo. Jaina slid a pile of credits to the middle of the table and watched as a light sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead. _Crap! He can't meet the bet!_ His eyes darted nervously from side to side before he pulled a chip out of his pocket and held it up. "Six bottles of brandy."
"How old?"
"Twenty standard years. It was a good time for brandy."
"All right. Show your hand." Jaina had to admit it was an excellent set of cards, but it wasn't good enough. With a smirk the Jedi leaned forward for the credit chips. "If you'll excuse me for a moment while I get change for these, I want to go collect that brandy."
"Of course. Meet me over there by that door." He pointed to a door at the back of the building.
*********************
Jacen started when he suddenly saw Jaina at his elbow, stuffing a credit tab in her pocket. "How'd it go?" he asked.
"Not bad. 2,571 credits, six bottles of twenty year-old brandy, and a ticket into the back room." Jacen frowned for a moment before understanding. "In other words, we're in?"
"You got it. Come on. Where's Tahiri?"
"She was here a minute ago." He reached out with the Force. "Sithspawn, she's already back there."
"How'd she pull that off?" Jaina asked with a frown. "Well, we can catch up with her on the other side."
*************************
Tahiri was startled to find herself suddenly surrounded by four rather bulky beings. All were heavily armed and glaring at her. "Can I help you?" she asked, trying to sound calm.
"Word has reached our ears that you've been poking your nose in the business of that bomb earlier today. We're here to tell you to knock it off." Tahiri nodded her understanding, though she didn't plan to stop asking around. One of them leaned closer, squinting at her. "However, we've learned not to trust little girls who just give their word that they'll shut up. You're coming with us." Two grabbed her arms from behind and, ignoring her protests, pulled her through the crowded cantina to the back of the room and through a door. It shut behind her and locked with a click.
They shoved her into a chair in an empty room and left, ordering an armed guard to stay behind. Tahiri took a moment to compose herself before reaching out to probe the Rodian's mind with the Force. She was about to try and convince him to let her go when the door to the bar opened again. She jerked her head around and gasped in surprise to see Jacen and Jaina stroll in with the man from the sabaac game. Jacen gave her a severe look, telling her not to recognize them.
"Now then," the card player was saying, "I'll just run along and get the brandy. If you will wait here a moment, miss?"
"Certainly." Jaina turned to the Rodian and said, "You know, you really ought to go and help him."
"Yes, I'll need help. You should come with me." The Rodian nodded and they left, completely oblivious to the Force mind trick Jaina had used on them. Jaina gave a mirthless smile and said, "It's sad that it's that easy." She gestured towards a second door and led them through.
All three Jedi were open to the Force, spreading their awareness over first the corridor and then the rest of the base, carefully dissuading anyone coming in their general direction. Jacen pressed his ear against a door labeled "Maintenance." He heard and felt nothing. He opened it cautiously.
The gloom eased back slightly when the three activated glowrods. The pale yellow luminescence fell on a computer terminal, turned on but inactive. Jacen waved his hand at it to Jaina. She nodded and proceeded to break into the base security systems. At one point she called for a datapad and downloaded the area schematics for future reference. She hit Jacen in the arm and pointed to the screen. "That's probably where we're going to find that file."
"Wouldn't it be in here?" Tahiri asked.
"Negative. They wouldn't keep something that important in a network. It's most likely saved on only one or two computers in the network system. Over there has the most security and has functions resembling those of a 'head office' or its equivalent."
"How do we get there?"
"All the way to the end of that corridor we were just in, then hang a left. Go past three side passages on the right and turn into the fourth one. It's the second door on the left."
"All right then. Let's be off," Jacen said. "The sooner we get it, the sooner we can leave."
Jacen watched his sister carefully as the walked to the cantina, but her face was carefully guarded behind her best sabaac face. She hadn't responded when he asked how she had managed to discover the cantina, leading him to think she had done something very illegal to find it. He had questioned Tahiri when Jaina wasn't looking, but the younger girl didn't seem to know what his sister had done. At one point during the walk - they had elected not to take another breakneck taxi ride - he had gently nudged Jaina's mind with the Force, but her only response was a mental sort of "Trust me. You're happier not knowing." It wasn't that he didn't trust Jaina. He just knew that she was always a little lax in following rules. That wasn't a good trait for most military officers to have.
"Here it is," Jaina said, gesturing to a seedy bar. Jacen involuntarily wrinkled his nose as he passed through the door and into the almost over-powering scent of alcohol. Why anyone would think to run a terrorist organization from here he couldn't even start to understand. He scanned the room with the Force, sensing half-conscious intoxication from almost everyone present. Every here and there he found a mind that was still sharp, but they were a definite minority.
Jaina elbowed him. "Look over there at that sabaac game," she murmured, nodding towards a table. "See that very large man with the gray hair? He's one of the ones who 'accidentally' led us here."
"One of them?"
"Yeah. Listen. Don't question anyone directly, but see if you can find anything out. I'm going in." She took a step towards the table, but Jacen stopped her with a hand on her arm. "In case you haven't forgotten, sis, you're not here to gamble."
"I'm not," she snapped. "I'm following a lead."
"In a card game?"
"A card game against a man who has consumed quite a bit of whiskey, by the looks of those glasses next to him."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Just leave that to me. Come get me if you find anything a little more reliable than this." With that, she shook him off and walked over to the table. Jacen sighed. "Let's split," he murmured to Tahiri. They parted ways and mingled in with the drunken crowd.
Jacen wound his way towards the bar and ordered the least potent drink he could. He opened his senses again to the rest of the cantina. He was jerked out of this state when someone leaned against the bar next to him. "Buy me a drink?" the young woman asked.
"Don't push your luck." He glanced at her. For a moment he felt pity for her. She didn't look more than seventeen and had apparently already thrown her fate to the winds. "Are you in business for yourself or do you work for the club?" he asked sharply on a reflex.
"Does it matter?"
"No, but either way leave me alone." A mental Force push clouded her mind long enough for him to slip away again, shaking his head. He looked around for Tahiri, but she was lost in the swirl of people. He hoped she was having more luck than he.
*******************
Tahiri Veila carefully studied the Twi'lek leaning against the wall, searching his mind carefully. At length she stepped forward and attempted to engage him in conversation. "Did you hear about that explosion earlier? I saw holos. A fine piece of work, it was." All she got in response was a loud belch. He didn't even seem to notice her existence.
She heaved a sigh in frustration and forced her way back into the crowd. Once she turned around, she didn't see the Twi'lek suddenly seem to regain his awareness of the world around him. He watched the retreating Jedi for a moment before roughly shoving his way towards a door at the back of the room.
The girl reached out with the Force and found Jacen. She slowly but surely navigated over to him. "Anything?" she asked.
"Nothing aside from being hit on by a cheap hooker."
"How's Jaina doing?"
"I think she's winning."
*********************
Jaina pushed through the patrons towards the table, falling into a Corellian swagger and attitude. Pausing by an empty chair, she tapped the false-wooden surface with one finger. "Got room to deal in one more?" she asked, allowing the accent of her father's homeworld to sink into her voice. She sent a flirtatious smile at the men around the table. For a moment they just stared at her, and she knew why. The Jedi had abandoned her usual flightsuit and opted for a thin-strapped shirt, light jacket, and low-riding pants, all in black and leaving part of her flat stomach bare. If Han ever saw her dressed like this, if he even knew she owned clothes like this, he would not have hesitated to severely discipline her. Her hair hung loosely about her shoulders, and she twirled a strand impatiently around her fingers. "Well?" she prompted.
"Um, yeah, of course," one of them stuttered, indicating the empty chair.
"Thank you ever so much," she smiled as she sat. She was glad that, as the game continued, the other players turned their attention back to their cards. As the hands played, she carefully scanned the mind of each one in turn. She wasn't entirely paying attention to the game. Despite this, the pile of credit chips in front of her was growing.
One by one, the other players left the table as they ran out of money until the only ones left were Jaina and the man she had seen in the holo. Jaina slid a pile of credits to the middle of the table and watched as a light sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead. _Crap! He can't meet the bet!_ His eyes darted nervously from side to side before he pulled a chip out of his pocket and held it up. "Six bottles of brandy."
"How old?"
"Twenty standard years. It was a good time for brandy."
"All right. Show your hand." Jaina had to admit it was an excellent set of cards, but it wasn't good enough. With a smirk the Jedi leaned forward for the credit chips. "If you'll excuse me for a moment while I get change for these, I want to go collect that brandy."
"Of course. Meet me over there by that door." He pointed to a door at the back of the building.
*********************
Jacen started when he suddenly saw Jaina at his elbow, stuffing a credit tab in her pocket. "How'd it go?" he asked.
"Not bad. 2,571 credits, six bottles of twenty year-old brandy, and a ticket into the back room." Jacen frowned for a moment before understanding. "In other words, we're in?"
"You got it. Come on. Where's Tahiri?"
"She was here a minute ago." He reached out with the Force. "Sithspawn, she's already back there."
"How'd she pull that off?" Jaina asked with a frown. "Well, we can catch up with her on the other side."
*************************
Tahiri was startled to find herself suddenly surrounded by four rather bulky beings. All were heavily armed and glaring at her. "Can I help you?" she asked, trying to sound calm.
"Word has reached our ears that you've been poking your nose in the business of that bomb earlier today. We're here to tell you to knock it off." Tahiri nodded her understanding, though she didn't plan to stop asking around. One of them leaned closer, squinting at her. "However, we've learned not to trust little girls who just give their word that they'll shut up. You're coming with us." Two grabbed her arms from behind and, ignoring her protests, pulled her through the crowded cantina to the back of the room and through a door. It shut behind her and locked with a click.
They shoved her into a chair in an empty room and left, ordering an armed guard to stay behind. Tahiri took a moment to compose herself before reaching out to probe the Rodian's mind with the Force. She was about to try and convince him to let her go when the door to the bar opened again. She jerked her head around and gasped in surprise to see Jacen and Jaina stroll in with the man from the sabaac game. Jacen gave her a severe look, telling her not to recognize them.
"Now then," the card player was saying, "I'll just run along and get the brandy. If you will wait here a moment, miss?"
"Certainly." Jaina turned to the Rodian and said, "You know, you really ought to go and help him."
"Yes, I'll need help. You should come with me." The Rodian nodded and they left, completely oblivious to the Force mind trick Jaina had used on them. Jaina gave a mirthless smile and said, "It's sad that it's that easy." She gestured towards a second door and led them through.
All three Jedi were open to the Force, spreading their awareness over first the corridor and then the rest of the base, carefully dissuading anyone coming in their general direction. Jacen pressed his ear against a door labeled "Maintenance." He heard and felt nothing. He opened it cautiously.
The gloom eased back slightly when the three activated glowrods. The pale yellow luminescence fell on a computer terminal, turned on but inactive. Jacen waved his hand at it to Jaina. She nodded and proceeded to break into the base security systems. At one point she called for a datapad and downloaded the area schematics for future reference. She hit Jacen in the arm and pointed to the screen. "That's probably where we're going to find that file."
"Wouldn't it be in here?" Tahiri asked.
"Negative. They wouldn't keep something that important in a network. It's most likely saved on only one or two computers in the network system. Over there has the most security and has functions resembling those of a 'head office' or its equivalent."
"How do we get there?"
"All the way to the end of that corridor we were just in, then hang a left. Go past three side passages on the right and turn into the fourth one. It's the second door on the left."
"All right then. Let's be off," Jacen said. "The sooner we get it, the sooner we can leave."