Sir'ren tried not to take too deep a breath as the team took the short walk through the dusty streets of Praxis to the local security chief's office. It was his first real mission as a Jedi. It was kind of exciting. But also a bit nerve wracking. He knew it wasn't very Jedi-like to want to impress anyone. But he did hope to set a good example.

Sen pressed the buzzer at the door to the building. "Well team," he said. "Let's see what we can make of this." An identity verification droid popped its head out of the slot by the door and Sen scanned his NRDI badge. The droid pulled itself back in and the door opened to a narrow hallway. Sen led them down the hallway to another door where he scanned his badge again. Sir'ren noticed a security camera above the door frame. The door opened to a much wider hallway, brightly lit with several doorways. A human woman stepped out from the nearest door on the right.

"Hi there," she said. "NRDI headquarters told me you were coming. I'm Deputy Arist, the local liaison officer."

"Sen Dherva," Sen said, shaking her hand. "I'm the team lead for this issue. Thanks for taking some time to talk to us."

Deputy Arist led them into her office. "Well, I didn't know what to make of the whole thing and neither did my bosses. I suggested sending it up your way and no one seemed to object." Sir'ren saw Arist looking curiously at him and then take a look at Visalia. "Jedi?"

Sir'ren nodded. "That's right."

"Wow," Arist said. "I didn't think it was that serious."

"Maybe it isn't and we can all go home." Brianna threw Arist a quick smile as she walked past to look out a nearby window.

Arist frowned and Sen cut in. "We read your report and saw the holocam footage. Is there anything else you can tell us? Any ID on the Elomin?"

Arist leaned back against her desk. "Unfortunately no. We don't get many Elomins on Praxis. We looked at port records going back two years. Only five Elomins have come through here and they're all accounted for. We had the coroner take a look at him - or, the pieces of him. He didn't know what to make of it either. Clean slices, all cauterized. I don't even know what kind of weapon even does that."

Sir'ren opened his mouth then closed it again. Should he say it was a lightsaber? He didn't want to scare her. Brianna was still peering out the window.

"What about the other two?" Sen asked, filling the momentary silence.

"Even less on them," she said. "No species, names, port entries, nothing. Kind of a dead end." She shrugged.

"Doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of urgency about it," Sen said.

Deputy Arist shrugged again. "My immediate bosses are interested, but no one else seems to be. I've been trying to get in to see the governor's security lieutenant for weeks on these missing persons cases and he won't make time for me on that either." Sir'ren saw Brianna half turn around.

"We were going to ask you about that too," Divin said. "Along with the government services disruptions and the mysterious injuries that were also reported."

"I don't know much about the other two. I don't track that stuff. I just sent them up because my boss thought it was a good idea. Why, do you think they're related?"

"It looked like the spike in reporting for all three dropped when this Elomin thing happened," Sen said.

"Ohh," Deputy Arist said. "Hadn't thought about that. Not sure how they'd be related though."

"Maybe knowing that will make your governor's office take note," Kyra said.

"I doubt it. He's really popular right now, and probably doesn't want to mess it up."

"Right now?" Valah asked.

"Yeah, it's been kinda crazy," Deputy Arist said. "He came in with a really fractious coalition government. Couldn't get anyone in the legislature in line to pass anything. Then all of a sudden, everyone got on board and they were passing all kinds of stuff. Very popular."

"When did that start?" Sen asked.

"Oh, I don't know. A few weeks ago, at least."

"There must be media reports about it," Kyra said.

"I don't track that either," Deputy Arist said. "I can put you in touch with someone who does though."

"Yeah that would be great," Kyra said.

"But," Sen continued, "just off the top of your head, did it start around the same time as this spike in reporting?"

"Oh, goodness, I don't know. Maybe? You don't think that could be related, do you? That's not something I would have looked into. I look into security threats, not the government."

"That's probably the first place you should look," Brianna said.

Deputy Arist turned around to frown at Brianna.

"Well, look, how about this," Sen said. He pointed to the datapad on Deputy Arist's desk. Does your pad have a contact card reader?"

"Sure." Deputy Arist grabbed the pad and held it up. Sen slipped his contact card into the slot, waited for the lights to blink a few times, then pulled it back out.

"If you think of anything else, or anything new comes up, you can send it to me. And any of that media stuff for Kyra too." Sen looked at the rest of the group. "Any of the rest of you want anything?"

"Anything else on the missing persons," Divin said. "Victim profiles, stuff like that."

"And maybe anything else on the injuries, if you have it," Valah said. "Since we didn't talk about that."

"Sure. I can do that. No problem." Deputy Arist pushed off the desk and headed for the door to see them out. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful."

"Well, we're just starting, so at this point, everything is helpful," Sen said. "Thanks for taking the time to talk to us."

"You got it. Good luck!"

Sir'ren followed everyone else out the door and back down the narrow hallway to the street. It had been fascinating, watching them all work, picking up on key phrases to dig deeper. He wished he'd been able to participate more. He glanced back and saw Brianna was further behind him, walking backwards, still taking in the small city. He slowed down, letting the rest of the group get several meters ahead of him. She finally caught up.

"Problem?"

"You aren't making a very good impression," he said.

"I'm not here to make a good impression," Brianna said. "I'm here to get work done." She pointed at him. "You are here to make a good impression. And, if I may say, you're doing a phenomenal job."

"People need to trust us," Sir'ren said. "People won't trust us if we don't make a good impression."

"Ah, I see. Is that why you didn't tell her that lightsabers make those kinds of injuries?"

"I didn't want to scare her!" Sir'ren said, trying to keep his voice down. "Besides, you didn't say anything either."

"I'm not the one who's overly interested in what other people think of me," Brianna said.

Sir'ren sighed. "You don't actually think the government is involved, do you?"

"Government involvement is my default assumption," Brianna said. "I'm more than happy to be proven wrong."

"Hey, come on, let's go!" Sen called to them as the rest of the team filed onto the shuttle. "One more stop before we go home."

Brianna picked up her pace and looked over her shoulder. "Well, come on Mr. Good Impressions. Let's see how you do at stop two."

Sir'ren grumbled and jogged to catch up.

Sir'ren followed the team into the Charapath NRDI office. It was much bigger than the office on Praxis. The main space was filled with cubicles and people coming and going. Several of them looked up as the team walked in.

A large human male came to greet them. "Hi there," he said, reaching out to shake Sen's hand. "I'm Assistant Chief Deputy Reiga. Sorry my bosses couldn't be here. They're making rounds at substations today."

"It's a nice building," Sen said. "I don't get to the out stations very much. Anyway, we don't want to take up too much of your time. Just ask some questions."

"Sure, sure," Reiga said. "Headquarters told us why you were coming. Not sure what we can offer you though. We couldn't really figure out why you were interested." Sir'ren saw Reiga notice his and Visalia's lightsabers.

"Charapath wasn't the only one making these kinds of reports," Valah said. "We're doing some fact gathering to see what kind of connections we can make."

"Sounds good," Reiga said. "Ask away."

Sir'ren listened as the team asked similar questions to the ones they asked on Praxis, though, Sir'ren noticed, with additional emphasis on any odd political happenings.

As Sen continued to talk to Deputy Reiga, Sir'ren watched Brianna wander around the room, poking her head into people's cubicles and over people's shoulders. Finally, she wandered over to a cubicle near the door, where a pale skinned male human looked like he was busy working. Brianna leaned up against the cubicle wall and peered over his shoulder. "Hello there!"

The man jerked his head up. "Oh! Uh, hello."

Brianna shook her head. "Man, I'm never gonna get anyone to say the right line."

"Oh, um -"

"Whachya doin'?"

"Oh, I was just -"

"Playing Gallaga?"

"What? No."

"It's okay, I play games at work too."

"This is Serrick," Reiga said. "We're allowed to hire local people as contractors for certain jobs. Serrick just started a couple weeks ago."

"Oh, new guy, congratulations," Brianna said.

Serrick looked up at Reiga. "I - I wasn't playing games."

"No, I didn't think you were," Reiga said, taking a sidelong glance at Brianna.

Sen interrupted the interaction. "Well, we appreciate your time," he said. "If anything else weird comes up, you can send it straight to Valah. She works this sector normally."

"Sure, no problem," Reiga said. "I'm still surprised headquarters sent some people out here, especially, uh, some Jedi." He glanced at Brianna again. "But whatever comes up, you'll get it."

"Thanks. We'll be in touch if we come up with anything." Sen led the team back out of the office, through the building to the street.

Once again, Sir'ren found himself lingering, watching some speeders and other street cars go by, waiting for Brianna to catch up.

"Now what's your problem?"

"Can you stop harassing people?"

"No."

"People won't trust us if you keep being weird and harassing them."

"Some people won't trust us anyway." Brianna turned to face him. "What did you sense out of that contractor?"

"I don't know," Sir'ren said. "Nothing."

"Nothing threatening or nothing at all?"

"I," Sir'ren frowned. He hadn't really been paying attention. But if it was threatening, he'd know. Right? "I don't know. Just nothing."

"Okay, listen up," Brianna said. "Part of my job here is to make sure you have the training you need for these little excursions. So here's lesson one: You need to be 'on' all the time. If you're watching me, you're doing it wrong. If you're watching the five of them, you're doing it wrong. Your job is to notice the things they can't notice. Clear?"

"Hey, come on, let's go!" Sen yelled from the shuttle ramp.

Sir'ren nodded deeply. "Yes master."

"And knock it off with that crap." She strode off toward the shuttle. "Let's go."

Sir'ren jogged to catch up. He had been watching her and the five of them. But he also hadn't sensed any threats from anywhere. Especially not from a nervous contractor. Still, Brianna was probably right. No point having someone Force sensitive on the team if he was just looking at the same things everyone else was.

"Problem?" Sen asked.

"Just a discussion," Sir'ren said.

Dom half turned from his co-pilot seat as Divin started up the engines. "Was that about the contractor guy?"

"It was probably nothing."

"Yeah, why?" Brianna said.

"Ah, he definitely caught my attention."

Sen looked down at him from his perch in the cockpit doorway. "Why?"

Dom turned fully around in his seat. "You three might have noticed," he said, pointing to Brianna, Sir'ren, and Visalia, "but you attract a lot of attention. Everywhere we go, whether it's around headquarters, getting lunch, around ports, down streets, in offices, people notice. Most people won't see one Jedi their whole lives, much less three in one day. So they turn, they gawk, they whisper. It's a big deal." He glanced up at Sen. "Not this guy. He took one look at you all and went right back to what he was doing."

"So?" Sen said.

"And then," he pointed at Brianna, "you had to go and spook him."

"That was kind of the point," Brianna said.

"Well, whatever your point was, it worked, because he sure looked like he got caught doing something."

Sen turned to Brianna. "What did you accuse him of?"

"Playing video games."

"Was he?" Kyra asked.

"No, of course not."

"What made him catch yourattention?" Sen asked.

"I didn't sense anything out of him."

Sen frowned and looked at Sir'ren. "What did you get?"

Sir'ren shook his head. "I didn't get anything threatening."

"Not getting anything threatening and not getting anything at all are two different things," Brianna said.

The ship rumbled as it finally jumped to hyperspace. "Okay, explain this to me again, because I still don't get this whole 'sensing' thing," Sen said.

"Think of the Force as a signal propagation medium," Brianna said.

"Okay."

"Everything - people, other organic items, objects, droids, events, and even intentions - all generate signals, simply by virtue of existing. Force sensitive people," she gestured to herself, Sir'ren, and Visalia, "have the capacity to pick up those signals. Force users can also deliberately generate signals in order to do some action. Like the way a tractor beam is technically an energy signal that you send out to do a thing."

"So, you're saying that contractor wasn't even generating a signal?" Valah said.

"Precisely."

"Is that unusual?" Sen asked.

"Well, yeah," Brianna said. "Not completely unheard of. Yuzong Vong, as a species, don't generate signals, as I understood it. There's at least one non-sentient species I know of that creates a sort of Force-negative bubble around itself. But this guy looked human. All else being equal, he should create a signal."

"Can someone deliberately prevent their signal from going out?"

"Yes, though it's an uncommon skill." Brianna shrugged. "I taught myself how to do it."

"You did?!" Sir'ren said.

"That's possible?" Visalia asked.

"Of course it's possible," Brianna said. "How do you think the Sith kept themselves hidden from the Jedi for a thousand years?"

"You taught yourself a Sith practice!?"

Brianna rolled her eyes at Sir'ren. "Oh stop. There's no such thing as a Sith practice."

"If the Sith are doing it, it's a Sith practice."

"Sith also use lightsabers. Are lightsabers a Sith practice?"

"That's not the same thing."

"Oh? Why not?"

"Because -"

"All right, all right, you two can argue Sith semantics later," Sen broke in. Sen looked back and forth between Brianna and Sir'ren. Sir'ren had a feeling he was about to get scolded again. "You two aren't really team players, are you?" Sen asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"For the record," Brianna said, "I told Iella I was not a team player when she first pitched this to me. She thought that was wrong. So you can take it up with her."

"Uh huh." Sen turned to Dom. "And you."

"For the record," Dom said, "I'm used to being a lone operator too."

"Well, look, no one here is a lone operator anymore," Sen said. "From now on, every time we leave a place, we're going to go around to each person to say what they thought. So, if you two have something to say," he pointed at Brianna and Sir'ren, "especially if you have something different to say, I want to know about it."

"Yes, absolutely. I understand," Sir'ren said. Brianna threw him a sloppy mock salute.

Sen sighed. "Not to leave the rest of you out, I'm happy to hear from you too."

"Gee, thanks," Divin said.

Sen gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder and dropped into another cockpit chair. He pulled out a data pad and started typing.

Brianna retreated to a rear corner of the shuttle by herself. Sir'ren found himself a seat next to Visalia. He probably wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to meditate on the way back to Coruscant. But he certainly had some things to think about.