The stars came back into focus. Palan looked out at the busy star system they had come out in and had to fight back the hopelessness again. This won't be easy. With this much traffic it will be almost impossible to track a nondescript freighter, regardless of whether it stayed here or left for another system. It is likely the planet's space and flight center won't even have records going back that far anymore. Palan knew far too well that many planets simply deleted their surveillance records after a week or two, because it took up too much storage keeping all that information. They usually kept a text record for the ships that had come and gone, but they had so little to go by that they needed the holovids. I only hope this planet's center hasn't deleted them yet.

"Requesting a stationary orbit, Captain." Palan nodded. He didn't need to tell his crew what to do. The ship would go into stationary orbit, while he would take a shuttle down to the surface along with the droid and meet up with General Cracken's team.

"Any messages for us?"

"Not yet, Captain."

"Very well. Take us into orbit." He would just have to wait for the contact so he knew where to go.

He looked out at the planet looming in front of them and saw how it gently turned to the right. Of course, it was just an illusion; it was really them turning, not the planet. I really hope Jedi Skywalker is still alive. The longer we take, the worse his odds become.

"Captain. There is an incoming message for you, sir."

"Put it through to me, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

Palan pressed the button that would direct the call to his chair. "Captain Palan here."

"Captain, I'm sending you the meeting coordinates," came the response. No presentation of any kind.

"I see them."

"Good. We will meet at 0900, local time. That's in 43 minutes."

"Very well. I shall be on my way."

The call ended without any further comments. Palan knew the special teams weren't known for being chatty, but it was the first time he had experienced it for himself. He got his communications officer to find the right spaceport for him and book a landing pad. Then he left the bridge to his second in command to go meet with Cracken's people.

§ §

Leia was pacing. She hated when she did that, because it meant she wasn't in control like she had been taught, but she couldn't help it. Luke had been captured for so long now and while she was sure he was still alive, she also knew he was in great danger. She could feel it. Cracken and Ackbar both did their best to help and to reassure her, and Winter was deep in her own research, too, but Leia wanted to take action herself. And most of all; she wanted to kill the woman, who was hurting her brother.

Luke wouldn't approve of it; he's a jedi, and wanting to kill someone isn't very jedi. But I don't care; she needs to die and when I find her, she will. Leia made the silent vow, while she paced around her quarters. Oh, yes, that woman would die, suffer and die. Come on, Winter. Please tell me you've got something, anything, by now. I need to find my brother and get him back.

§ §

There was silence all around her except for the sound of the keyboard whenever she touched it. It was late at night and everybody else had long since gone to bed, but she had no reason to go to bed yet, while she had every reason to keep working. She didn't have time to waste on sleeping when Jedi Skywalker was captured by one or more crazy Imperials, who would no doubt kill him as soon as he broke from the torture. And she had no doubt he would break; it didn't matter how strong a person was, everybody broke sooner or later. Hopefully he would be strong enough to withstand whatever he was put through for long enough for them to find him and free him. And hopefully she could shorten that time by finding the right suspects for General Cracken to search through.

Iella rubbed her eyes. Her mind was feeling heavy and it was getting hard to keep track of her thoughts. I should probably go to bed soon. But every minute counts and they need my help. Iella shook her head. She needed to do something that would be helpful, but wouldn't require too much active thinking. What she really needed to do was to find a new angle, some new way to look at this. I've looked through numerous lists of military personnel and the like, but could there be some other way to look at this? She realized she was staring at nothing and had probably been doing it for a few minutes. She rubbed her eyes again. What else can I do? She stared at the wall while tapping her finger on the table. Surely she could uncover more potential suspects, someone from the old Empire, someone, who was a strong believer in Palpatine. There must be a way. The old records? Old holovids perhaps? I've already looked at so many of the records, perhaps holovids would be better. The press always have some interesting ones.

Iella cleared her screen and started a new search. This time she was looking for pictures and recordings from the old court and the palace in general. The gossip press usually have the best; the more gossip, the better here.

Her screen quickly filled up with lots and lots of images and the accompanying headlines and tags. Whenever she saw a woman she didn't know in one of them, she clicked it to learn more about that person. And on her datapad she noted them all down and made a scratch for every time one of them reappeared at a different event. She didn't really think anymore, she just let her mind filter out the men and her hand note down the women without any real thought. She stayed for so long that it was nearing dawn by the time she stopped, close to falling off her chair from the lack of sleep.

Okay, let's see, what I have here. She yawned. She tried once more to focus on her results, but she yawned again and gave up. I need sleep before I can even hope to make sense of any of this. Just a few hours ...

With that thought she finally left the office and let datapad be datapad.

§ §

Luke took a deep breath, slowly coming out of the healing trance. Well, at least I don't feel as bad anymore. I can actually breathe without everything hurting. Big improvement. Now, if I can only keep things this way ... He knew it wasn't likely, but hey, he could always hope.

He opened his eyes. The cave was its usual dim gloom and raw walls and ceiling. He carefully worked his jaw around and found he was almost painfree there, too. I'm getting good at this, he thought. And thirsty. I don't suppose I'm so lucky there's anything to drink ...? Luke looked to his right side, where Mara usually left whatever she gave him. And was surprised to see that there was even real food there today. Wow. She must either be in a good mood or just worried I'll die from starvation, neither of which are real good for me. Luke looked at the plate for a moment then gingerly sat up. He slowly bend down and picked up the water jug and plate with more care than he truly needed. It wasn't so much that he was hurting anymore, but simply that he didn't have a lot of energy left and that he didn't want to show himself too strong. After all, he knew she didn't want him to die before she decided he should, so if he seemed weak she might give him extra food. At least that is what he hoped.

Luke tasted the food. It wasn't anything special, but it was far from the worst he'd had. This is actually better than I would have suspected. I really hope she didn't poison it. He ate on, satisfying his hunger and thirst a little.

§

So just about seven hours then. Mara made a note of it and watched as he picked up the food and water. She smiled to herself. This is really almost too easy. She watched as he started eating the food she had given him. You are mine, jedi. All mine.

§ §

"Captain Palan."

Palan looked with some surprise to his left. He had just been walking down the street towards the meeting point, and suddenly, there they sat. The special ops team. Drinking caf and looking like the most relaxed people in the galaxy. Even their clothes were nothing special, but loose enough to hide extra weapons besides the ones visible. He wouldn't even have given them a second glance if they hadn't spoken his name. Artoo whistled lowly.

"Yes?"

"Sit down, please." The man who had first spoken gestured to the only free chair at the table.

Palan glanced at the coordinates. They were right; this was the meeting point as odd as it might seem.

"Caf?"

"Please."

"I assume this is the droid?" The man made a small hand gesture towards Artoo.

"Yes, this is Sky-"

"Don't say it out loud," the man interrupted him with some irritation.

Palan nooded curtly. Special ops were known to be somewhat zealous of what got said out loud. Probably best to keep sentences as short and on point as possible.

"It has all the data you need." Artoo whistled a confirmation.

Another team member, this time a bothan, produced a datapad out of seemingly nowhere. "We need the data transferred to this. We have a portable port for the droid to plug into," he said as he also produced that out of nowhere.

Where does he even keep those things? Better not ask. "Right."

Artoo plugged in and a moment later he could see the screen flashing as the data ran through the pad. The man, who Palan assumed to be the team leader, leaned in to get a closer look.

"Tricky," he mumbled.

The bothan nodded in agreement.

"There's your caf, sir. I hope you enjoy it." The waiter smiled at him before leaving to serve other customers.

Palan nodded at him and managed a small smile in return. No reason to look too glum.

A female zabrak reclined even further in her chair. "Well, cheers to you, Captain. Always nice when you get the opportunity to see old friends, even if only for a short while."

Old friends? Oh, cover story. Palan nodded at her. "That is how it must be." He smiled at her. "But I'm really only here for the caf."

She laughed a little, while the bothan looked offended.

"Coming here just to drink caf on our bill. Typical."

"Sorry. But it is an excellent caf, I'll grant you that."

"That it is," the man said. He was still keeping an eye on the datapad, but otherwise joining in the conversation and drinking with the rest.

They kept up a light conversation for a few more minutes until the data transferral was done.

"Well, drink up, Captain," the zabrak said. "We really need to get going, but we appreciate you having time to meet us here."

Palan nodded. "Likewise. I won't hold you any longer; you have things to do. I'll just stay for a little while longer to finish my caf."

The zabrak smiled at him. "Good. Enjoy the rest of your caf. See you."

The rest nodded at him for goodbyes, rose from the table and left.

Palan looked down at Artoo. "Just the two of us now. We'll leave in a moment." He sipped his caf while he watched the team disappear into the crowd. Then he drained the last of it and rose, too. His mission here was done. It was time to return to Coruscant and report in full to Admiral Ackbar.

Iella put down her cup of caf and got settled in her chair again. It formed itself to her body. Okay, time to see if I can make sense of what I found last night. She picked up her datapad and started skimming through everything she had jotted down. Sometimes she found she had made two or three entries for the same person and then she joined them. There were also a few she hadn't found any names for, mostly those who had appeared somewhere in the background of whatever hologram she had found from the old Imperial court.

She started sorting them according to who had appeared the most times. At the same time she removed anyone she knew for a fact was either dead, with the New Republic, or whose whereabouts was otherwise known. That helped narrow the list down as a fair deal of old and current senators had been at the court. After that she checked the records of all the remaining ones, at least all she knew the names of. That helped remove even more while some of them was simply marked 'unlikely suspect', because they didn't fit the profile of the woman they were looking for at all. Iella even went as far as checking husbands, brothers, sisters and other known close associates to the women to be sure they couldn't have gotten help from someone else. It took time, but by the time the day reached end afternoon, Iella had managed to get her list down to four likely suspects and two unknowns.

She looked over her list again. This was worth putting past the general and if she hurried she might catch him before dinner. After all, she had strict instructions to keep him up to date and get him a shorter list of suspects. This wasn't her original list, and it was a long shot, but she felt it was worth the effort; they had so little to go by.

She left her office with datapad in hand and tried to ignore the sore muscles in her shoulders.

§

"General."

"Come in." He waved her closer with a hand. He leaned forward in his chair a little as she sat down across from him. "So, what have you got?"

"Well, General, it's a long shot, but I tried a new method last night."

"Go on."

"Well, we have been focusing on those with military experience, but the list is far too long to be realistic in a short time frame. So I decided to try another angle; searching for those with strong ties to Palpatine, namely looking at those who appeared a lot at his court."

General Cracken nodded. "That might give us something. What did you find?"

Iella handed over her datapad with the list. "Four likely suspects and two I have been unable to identify. The suspects all had strong ties to Palpatine's court and ties to military people."

General Cracken leaned back in his chair again with a thoughtful expression. "I trust you have already checked they aren't dead or anything."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then proceed to follow these suspects. Others can keep with the original lists, but we need some results."

"Yes, sir," Iella said accepting her datapad back. "I'll get on it right away."

She nodded curtly before she left the office with some hope she might actually be getting close.