With the limited resources they had at their disposal, Sith Saber and Captain Gavar Khai of the ChaseMasterX frigate Khai Pride knew that his ship and the two other ChaseMasters he commanded—the Memory of Tahv and Exiled Warrior—couldn't simply go wherever they wanted in the Transitory Mists, home of the Hapes Consortium and rumored sanctuary of the Jedi Order. Instead, the three ChaseMasters hovered within an unclaimed, nameless system by the Consortium. From there, multiple members from each ship were dispatched to several well-known trading planets and stations within a mere few lightyears from each other, and for five days, Khai and the commanders of his ships waited patiently to see what their scouting parties came back with.
By the end of those days, Khai's holocomm pinged for his attention from his command salon's desk. With tentative hope that this next call would secure him seeing his daughter again, he activated it.
The blue-tinted holographic visage of Sith Saber Voush Koul immediately said, "Saber Khai, Saber Toug and I think we may have a lead as to where the Jedi could be hiding in these Mists. After spending three days talking to some traders and deliverers, as well as a few spice smugglers-"
"Get to the point, Saber Koul," Khai interrupted sharply. "Where are the Jedi?"
"Andalia," Koul answered nervously. "We believe they might be on Andalia."
Khai quirked a confused eyebrow. "Andalia, you say?"
Koul nodded, still nervous. "It seems like the most likely place based on-"
"It's a lie," Khai interrupted, this time more casually.
"Saber Khai?" Koul asked.
"Andalia is well-known for being run by the anti-Jedi Ducha Lorangal," Khai explained. "There's no way they'd be hiding there. Not without causing severe tensions with the Queen Mother. No, Andalia is a feint; no doubt the Jedi have seeded spies throughout the Consortium to lead us astray. What else have you got, Saber Koul?"
The subordinate Saber swallowed fearfully. "Well, we have about two other, um... possible candidates, Saber Khai."
"And they are?"
"Gallinore and Shedu Maad."
Now Khai perked up in his seat. "Shedu Maad?"
"And Gallinore, sir."
"Yes, yes, another unlikely contender. But Shedu Maad... return here immediately. I'll let the others know that we may have found the Jedi."
Koul looked slightly cheerful now. "Yes, Saber Khai."
Khai then shut off his holocomm and began inputting the numbers for the other search parties.
It would take a lot of sneaking around through the Mists, he thought, but that would only slow him and his people down, not outright stop them. And when he reclaimed Vestara, he would also be the Saber who rained hellfire down upon the Order and their precious Temple.
. . .
The sun shone brightly upon the manicured field of grass that bordered Shedu Maad's Jedi Temple, so it was a perfect day for the students who were below the age of fourteen to frolic and play instead of devoting their mental and physical efforts to honing their Force-potential or learning other subjects. Indeed, the vast majority of the younger students were playing various games that either involved a ball or tag.
However, among the few who simply walked around aimlessly, not wanting to interact with any of his peers, was Ben Skywalker. In his solitude, there were two thoughts going through his head. The first was his impatience in how long the fifteen minutes of outdoor recreation he was forced to take were; he wanted nothing more than to just go back to his dorm and sleep his life away, because these days, it was better than reminiscing over the fact that his cousin, Jaina Solo—or Darth Judicar, or whatever she wanted to call herself—was still alive and free.
The second thought that went through his head, however, was about where that new girl, Vestara, was. Since he last saw her earlier this morning in Master Tionne's levitation class, Vestara was nowhere to be seen.
Which was too bad, because Ben had a few questions for her. The foremost of them being why she lied about who she was.
"Ben!"
He turned to the sound of his name being called and saw Master Tionne heading in his direction with a concerned look on her face. Ben waited for her until she stopped a meter away from him, and then she asked, "Why aren't you playing with any of the others?"
He looked up at her in confusion. "Because I don't want to, Master Tionne," he answered simply.
"But you have to, Ben," she countered calmly. "You can't just allow yourself to be closed off from the other students. We discussed this already."
"None of them interest me, Master Tionne," Ben said flatly. "I don't wanna play any of their games or get to know any of them."
"That is an unhealthy attitude to take, Ben," Tionne said patiently.
"Yeah, so you told me before," he snapped.
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Don't you use that tone on me, young man," she said sternly.
"And what if I keep doing it, huh, Master Tionne?" Ben hissed. "Worst you can do is send me to detention. I like it better there anyway; it's quiet."
Tionne sighed in exasperation. "Ben, I can't just keep doing that to you. You need to socialize with the others; it's good for you."
"Why can't I decide that for myself?" Ben asked with a mild tinge of anger in his tone.
"Because you're still too young, Ben," Tionne answered evenly. "What you think is good for you now might turn out to be bad for you later in life."
"So if I wanted to find out more about that new girl, that would be bad for me?"
Tionne raised a curious eyebrow. "Vestara? You're talking about Vestara, Ben?"
He nodded. "I haven't seen her since your class this morning, Master Tionne. Why isn't she out in recess with everyone else?"
"Vestara... has some special needs, Ben," Tionne answered hesitantly.
"What kind of special needs?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
"Why not?"
"It's confidential, Ben. It would be an invasion of her privacy."
"Invasion of her privacy, huh? You mean like how you're invading my privacy right now, Master Tionne?" Ben retorted.
She looked aghast. "Well, if that's your attitude, Ben, perhaps some more detention would do you some good. I don't want to hear another word from you." She grabbed his shoulder and began steering him back toward the Temple.
As they walked past the number of children, Ben couldn't help but commune to Tionne through the Force an image of Vestara standing next to her at the front of the class. Accompanying that image was the sentiment that he knew that Tionne made the girl lie in front of the class.
Tionne gave nothing away in either her Force-presence or body language; it was as if she didn't feel Ben's sentiment at all.
So she was ignoring him, Ben realized. Fine. If Tionne didn't want Ben to know who Vestara really was, he'd find out for himself after he got through detention.
. . .
When Jacen's vision cleared from unconsciousness, he found himself in a jail cell that looked as rundown and dirtied as the bar from which he had been knocked out. He sat up on the lumpy and stained cot—he didn't want to know what those stains were remnants of—and stood up before he walked to the cell's bars.
There, he saw the overweight human guard reading a holozine from behind his desk. And right on the desktop was Jacen's lightsaber.
Without hesitation, he used the Force to bring the weapon to his hand, and it was only when he activated it did the guard look up from whatever he was reading with shock.
Jacen had already cut through the bars by the time the guard stood up and aimed his blaster at the Jedi. But the latter used his free hand to telekinetically yank the other man's weapon from his grasp and toward a distant corner.
The Knight then deactivated his lightsaber, hooked it back to his belt, and started to ask, "Okay, where am I, and-" He abruptly stayed the guard's hand via telekinesis when he tried to move for an emergency button. "-and why am I here?"
"Security, help!" the guard cried out in fear.
Jacen shook his head. "I have a sound-bubble around us, pal. No one can hear you."
"Oh, shavit!" the overweight man exclaimed. "Please, don't hurt me! I got a family, I-"
"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you," Jacen interrupted. "I just wanna know what's goin' on. Again, where am I and why am I here?"
"You... you're in Sedju's police department!" the guard answered. "We found you and your lightsaber in the bar; the patrons told us you started the violence in that cantina, with some woman with another lightsaber, against three other patrons."
"Those three patrons shot at us first," Jacen clarified. "I don't know why any of the others lied. You know, if you and your buddies knew I was a Jedi, why didn't you take better precautions in securing me?"
"Oh, c'mon, man, look at this place!" the guard retorted as his fear was temporarily replaced by mild anger. "You think we can afford one of those fancy Force-repressing stuncuffs to use on you? I can barely afford to feed my wife and two kids every month!"
"So just what exactly was the plan when I woke up?" Jacen asked.
"Uh... I... I don't know. I thought I'd just stun you before you got to use the Force or whatever."
"Well, you're doing a mighty fine job there," Jacen said sarcastically. "Really attentive. By the way, what was so interesting in that holozine?"
"Oh, shut up!"
"I think not. Can you tell me where that woman who was with me went?"
Reluctantly, the guard answered with, "The other patrons in the bar told me he ran off with the patron neither of you didn't kill. No one knows what to make of it, and my pals are doin' their best to look for her."
"Thanks," Jacen said before he waved his hand. "Now go to sleep; when you wake up, you'll have no memory of how I escaped."
And just like that, the guard slumped in place and Jacen allowed him to collapse back into his chair. Then the Jedi ran forward to escape the police department and look for his sister.
As he did, though, he tried looking for her through their twin bond; but right now, she was making herself small through the Force.
. . .
Judicar didn't say anything to her rescuer, Herush Klass, for nearly half an hour as they ducked between various alleyways and side passages through Sedju until they made it to the exact same spaceport where the Solo Quest II had been docked.
But instead of the YT-2600, Judicar and Klass boarded, of all things, an ancient-looking Allanar N3 light freighter. Once they entered the cockpit, it only took two harried minutes for Klass to get the ship up and running, and in no time after that, they were soaring out of the spaceport and into Drescus' skies.
"May I ask some questions now?" Judicar asked from the copilot seat.
"Not yet," Klass replied tersely and without taking his eyes away from the forward viewport. "Not until we reach hyperspace."
"Fine then," Judicar replied with growing curiosity.
Several minutes later, they had broken through Drescus' atmosphere, departed from its gravity well, and launched into hyperspace.
And with that, Klass exhaled loudly as he slumped in his seat.
"So," Judicar said, "first of all, why did-"
"Oh, wait, sorry, I almost forgot," Klass interrupted as he straightened in his seat. He then reached over to Judicar's side of the cockpit and opened up a cabinet; from there, he pulled out what appeared to be a scanning gun.
"Hold out your hands," Klass commanded.
"Why?"
"So I can get rid of those stuncuffs, now hold out your hands."
Judicar wordlessly complied before Klass swiped the gun over the bracelets that gave Jacen the ability to electrocute her. Five seconds later, the cuffs opened up and clattered to the deck, allowing Judicar to rub at her wrists.
"Finally," she muttered with a mild grin. "Okay, is there anything else you gotta do?"
Klass shook his head as a sly smile appeared across his face. "Nope. Ask away."
"Okay, Herush, why are you allied with the Lost Tribe of the Sith?" It was a simple question; there was no judgment from her tone.
"I got kicked out of the GA Navy. Insubordination and assault of a superior officer."
"Klauskin?"
Klass shook his head. "It was well after Adumar. It was over Commenor. Dumbass made a decision that got a lotta good people killed over a really stupid decision where he thought we should open up our flanks to some Chiss Star Destroyers. He wanted to close around them, but the clawcraft, they pulled some maneuvers that cost thousands of lives. We just barely won the battle, but I decked the stupid bastard then and there. Lost my commission, too; and it was so close to the end of the war."
"So you figured the Lost Tribe would be a better fit for you?"
"When I learned about them, yeah. Even after what happened at Kesh, they still didn't seem to be as moronic as the last guy I served under."
"Okay then. Next question: why were you posing as a Sith Saber?"
"To lure you out. I figured that since you were basically an advisor on the Lost Tribe to the Jedi and that once you identified me, you'd be the one sent to investigate me."
Judicar's eyes widened in suspicion. "I see. Well, then, why did you save me?"
"So I can rescue you from the Jedi and GA's hands."
"Again, why?"
Klass sighed. "I knew that as soon as the Jedi were done with you in hunting down the Lost Tribe—whether they finally got 'em or they just thought they didn't need you anymore—you'd be executed for what you did to those scientists on Coruscant and to the Errant Venture."
"I'm still not getting an answer to my question. Why did you save me?"
"Because I love you, Jaina Solo."
Judicar's mouth dropped and her head tilted back. So that was it. After that one night they had together, Klass had fallen in love with her.
What a sucker, she thought. But a useful sucker he would be.
"Well, then," she said as she leaned forward, "I guess I should reward you for your chivalry, Herush Klass."
The man closed his eyes, ready to kiss her, before she abruptly put a finger over his mouth. When he opened his eyes in confusion, she asked, "Just one more thing, though. Where are we going?"
"Oh," he said as he leaned back from her. "I got a place with family on Adumar. We could hide out there, I can get a job for myself, set up new identities, and you won't have to worry about the Jedi and GA looking for you."
"That so? But wouldn't the Lost Tribe know about your family and use that as a starting point in looking for you?"
"That won't be a problem. You see, the family I have there are also, well... let's just say they don't adhere to the strict side of the law, if you know what I mean. So they also have their own fake identities."
"I see. So, wait, you're not taking me back to the Lost Tribe?"
He shook his head. "They know you betrayed them, sold Kesh out to the GA. They want you dead, probably more than the Jedi."
"So when you joined them in trying to kill me and my brother, we were hoping we'd win that fight?"
He nodded. "You are well-known as a pretty good swordsmaster, and your brother was no slouch either, from what I hear."
"Speaking of my brother, you know he's gonna be looking for us more than anyone else in the Jedi or GA, right?"
"We'll be ready for him," Klass said confidently. "Trust me."
"Well, if that's the case..."
She trailed off just before she straddled him and started to take off her clothes. Almost immediately, he followed suit in preparation for their second night together.
