"Sen!"

Sen looked up as he was about to key into the classroom. "Hey boss."

"Are you still looking at those injury reports?"

Sen shrugged. "I guess. Not sure what else I can get out of them unless you want to bring in a medical analyst."

"I don't. I have one more report for you though."

Sen took the datapad Iella handed him. "Did our liaisons miss one?"

"No. This report is from a little over a year ago, from a planet called Formuth. It's not a member world, so not one we would have gotten anyway. But the aggressor in this case was definitely a Force user."

"The victim someone you know?"

"The file has been scrubbed of identifying information. But let's just say the victim has many of the same qualitative characteristics that Valah identified."

"Check."

"Use it as a baseline and go through the reports again to see what you can find. Brianna has a meeting today with the Internal Security Committee that I want to sit in on. I'll be back a bit later."

"You got it boss."

Iella walked into the meeting room. It was partially full, but it looked like Brianna wasn't there yet. She headed for a seat on the far side of the conference table.

"I don't recall that you were invited to this meeting, Assistant director Wessiri."

Iella turned. Representative Kra'fey was seated at the head of the table with his data gathering assistant, Envir Seveth to his side, and 'Phil' across the table. She hadn't really considered whether she'd be allowed in. "I'm just here to observe."

"This meeting is by invitation only," Kra'fey said. "Unless you have some specific NRDI activity related to unmanaged Force users you'd like to inform us about."

Iella opened her mouth, not quite sure what she was going to say, when she felt a slap on her shoulder.

"Iella, hey! Glad you got my invite!" Brianna plopped into a chair next to Envir and slapped the table on her other side. "Have a seat, have a seat!"

Iella didn't know if Brianna really wanted her there, or if this was just a fun way to spite Kra'fey in the moment. Probably the latter, but it also probably didn't matter. Iella sat.

"Good morning, Master Jedi," Envir said.

"Hello there! Barry…right?"

"Envir. Seventh."

"Yes, right, terribly sorry. I'm rubbish with names. Hi Phil, nice to see you!"

"Master Jedi, are you prepared to participate in this meeting today?" Kra'fey asked.

"Yeah, sure absolutely. What is this meeting for again?"

"Unmanaged Force users."

"Oh, good. Me. My favorite topic."

"This is not about you."

"Well, that's disappointing."

"Master Jedi, in your testimony, you advocated that Force users should not have to be Jedi."

"No, I'm not interested in keeping a slave system. I shouldn't think you would be either."

Iella interpreted Brianna's snark as her willingness to take this meeting seriously.

"What I am interested in, Master Jedi, is keeping this Republic safe from threats."

"You consider all Force users to be threats?"

"I am sure everyone in this room can name at least two or three."

"Yeah, probably the same two or three," Brianna said. "Representing a distinct minority of Force users, historically."

"And yet, ones who have shown the capacity to inflict significant damage on civilian populations when it suits them," Kra'fey said. "You said yourself that there could be thousands of Force users in the galaxy. If they aren't under the purview of the Jedi, I think that represents a significant potential threat to the security of this Republic."

"So what are you suggesting? We lock up every Force user in the galaxy with an ultimatum of Jedi or jail? That won't solve your problem. It'll just make it worse. Not that you could actually accomplish it, in any case."

"I am asking what you suggest, Master Jedi."

"I'm already doing what I suggested. Not making the same mistake as the Old Republic Jedi Order and letting people live their lives without having this lifestyle or government service imposed on them. You clearly don't like that idea."

"And what about the people on Praxis?" Kra'fey asked.

Iella glanced around the table. She was well aware that Brianna had no qualms brazenly lying to people, but she did wonder just how long she could get away with it.

"What people on Praxis?"

"Don't be coy Master Jedi. I know you've seen the security footage."

"Security footage of what?"

"Of the three people who engaged each other with red lightsabers"

"Red lightsabers?! How do you know they were red lightsabers?"

"That is how they were described to me."

"Ohh," Brianna said. "So you didn't actually see this. The person who described this to you, was it someone who actually knows about lightsabers, or just some schmuck on the street?"

"There was one Elomin left hacked to death in the street," Kra'fey said, ignoring her deflection. "These were not simply people 'living their lives'. If there are truly thousands of such people across the galaxy, that is a threat and it is the purview of this committee, who work for the citizens of this Republic, to know what, if anything, the Jedi plan to do about it."

"Oh, friend,'' Brianna said, dragging her words out. "Of course I have a plan." She paused. "I mean, look at Egbert here, he's super excited about my plan."

"Envir.

"So close."

"And what is that plan, exactly?"

"Well, what I can tell you," Brianna said, "is that it does not involve sitting around in meetings. How am I supposed to investigate unscrupulous Force users sitting in a meeting? I suppose I could interrogate Baxter, but I don't think that would be terribly fruitful."

"Does your plan include interrogating unscrupulous Force users? Perhaps you could explain that process to us?" Kra'fey seemed determined to get something out of her.

"I'd be delighted to! Whenever I interrogate someone, I always start with three questions. I'll demonstrate on Fergus." She turned to Envir. "The first question is, what is your name?"

Envir stared at her, probably wondering just how seriously he should take that question. "Envir Seveth."

"The second question is, what is your quest?"

"I am a data analyst for Representative Kra'fey."

Iella was fairly certain Brianna had no interrogation experience. But there were circumstances where directly questioning a person on their name and mission were reasonable. Those questions were usually followed up by asking the person who they worked for.

"And the last question - this is the most important question - what is your favorite color?"

Iella actually felt disappointed.

"I suppose I haven't given it much thought," Envir said.

"Really? At least say blue, or something. Everyone likes blue."

"Fine, blue."

"Fabulous." Brianna Force-pulled a blue lollipop out of her backpack and placed it on the table in front of him. "Congratulations, you win a prize. I'm actually really glad you said blue. This is everyone's least favorite flavor and I have a hell of a time getting rid of them."

"Those are not interrogation questions," Kra'fey said.

"Of course they are. You can learn a lot about someone from their favorite color. You could switch it up too, favorite animal, favorite song, favorite food, last holodrama they watched. Whatever you want."

Kra'fey growled at her. "I am adjourning this meeting. I will find other means to discover these threats. You may well wish you had cooperated."

"So, we're done?" Brianna said. "I can get back to real work now? Phenomenal."

"Good day, Master Jedi."

Brianna started to leave the room, then turned at the door. "Fogley!" Envir turned to look at her. "If you're not going to have a favorite color, at least get a pet lizard. You need to be more interesting."

Halfway to the door herself, Iella briefly considered apologizing on Brianna's behalf. But it probably wouldn't be believed and might even do more damage. Iella caught up to Brianna down the hall, at the entrance to the elevator lobby. Brianna was chuckling to herself.

"Can you believe he actually responded to that? Totally made my day."

"I trust there was a good purpose to all of that."

"My personal entertainment is always a good purpose."

"Hey Boss, I was just about to come looking for you." Sen held the door open to the classroom.

"Are Sir'ren and Vis in there?" Brianna asked.

"Yeah, they're in the practice room."

"Fabulous." Brianna pushed past him into the classroom.

Sen let the door shut, leaving him and Iella in the hallway. "More politicians?"

"I think she didn't take kindly to Representative Kra'fey suggesting that all Force sensitive people who weren't Jedi were potential security threats to the Republic."

"Aren't they though?" Sen asked. "Potentially threats, I mean. Theoretically."

"I think Brianna's response to that would be that Force sensitive people, as a group, on average, are no different than any other group of people. And we don't lock up whole populations of people just because a small minority of them might turn out to be threats.

"She's got siblings and cousins and friends who are all Force sensitive and none of them are full time Jedi. She's got a niece and nephew who are still too young to be trained under anyone's paradigm. She's trying to protect everyone from the kind of pressure and rigid structure she thinks hurt her family."

"Yeah. I guess that's true too," Sen said.

Of course, that was part of the problem. However much Brianna was right about her view, it didn't inherently mean Kra'fey was entirely wrong. "You said you were about to come looking for me?"

"Yeah. I've been going back through those medical reports. Are you sure the aggressor in the one you gave me was a Force user?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I started with one random report from each planet and compared them to the baseline. I'm no medical analyst, but this isn't my first pod race either. All of them were nearly identical to the one you gave me."

"Identical?!"

"Maybe I just got lucky in the ones I picked, but I doubt it. But even if these are the only ones, this is over twenty planets. Even if there are only two of these 'unscrupulous Force users' on each one, practicing their level two skills, that's a whole ground platoon's worth of people. I sure couldn't tell you what they're doing in that practice room, but they better move the plot along."

"Okay. Let's get the rest of the team and go through the remaining reports. We'll separate them by planet and then put them together with whatever else Valah, Divin, and Kyra have learned about these places. Then we'll put together a short list of where to go next. It's time to get deliberate."