Chapter 46

As soon as the Companions walked into the Computer Room they were greeted by a young man who couldn't have been more than twenty. He was dressed in the typical orange and black jumpsuit all Republic Soldiers wore, complete with the shovel-back helmet.

He swaggered up to the motley crew with a smug expression plastered on his face. "So, you're the one that's going to try to get into the Sith base, eh? HA! Good luck with that."

There were many things that set Carth off, insubordination was one of the highest on his list. He had to put up with Skye's sauciness, the occasional lip from Mission, the condescending baiting of that Mandy but he wasn't going to put up with crap from this kid.

Carth pushed forward and looked at the ensign's lapels and barked "TEN-HUT!"

Immediately the younger man snapped to attention. But Carth was far from done. "Is that any way to greet a superior officer, Ensign?!"

The kid was dumb enough to look Carth in the eyes. "Ah no... sir?"

"Are you looking at me boy?"

The eyes immediately lifted to above Carth's shoulder. "Ah no sir."

"I saw you clearly looking at me. Now are you calling me a liar, son?"

"No sir!

"So, then you were looking at me!" Carth got nose to nose with the kid.

Behind him Mission snorted, unable to keep her amusement to herself. Even the others were smiling a bit at Carth's dressing this kid down. Maybe Wann upset him more than he had first let on and was now taking it out on this poor little grunt.

"Yes sir. Sorry sir."

"Working for a diplomat in a cosy little office make you go soft in the head, boy? Go lax in protocol? Think you can run your mouth like that?"

"No sir!"

"So Wann allows you go address superior officers like this?"

"Sir..."

"If I wanted excuses son, I'd stayed in the Academy with the raw recruits taken from their mothers' apron strings. Now shape up before I bust you down and reassign you to the front!"

The kid swallowed hard. He cut a glance to the four Jedi and the others.

"Did I give you permission to look at the Generals?"

The head shook. "No sir," another champion swallow.

"SitRep now! And you are going to explain to me why a tech can't crack codes. Why have you failed?"

The sweat was dripping off the lad now but he dare not move from the ridged stance of attention. "The encryption is incredibly difficult sir. We have been able to decode the numeric system they use but there are holes in our terminal sequence patters."

"Terminal sequences?" Carth barked not letting the slacker off one bit.

"The strings of numbers that end the code sequences. If we could complete those strings, we would have the key to the encryption code. The encryption system is composed of six matrices. Each is based on a mathematical method. The holes we're missing are the final number in each string. Most are simple, but the final two matrices seem to be much more difficult."

Now it was Revan who stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Carth. "If you lack the skills to do your task, why then did you not A) acquire an astromec droid to do the work for you, or B) find someone smarter. Military Command would have sent you someone who specialises in cryptography with the appropriate security level. Indeed, I'd say far higher than yours, since you have proven so inept. Is your pride blocking your path? The Republic war effort against the Sith is crippled because of people like you."

"I put in a request sir, but Roland wa... wanted this in-house."

"You know I find it amazing the Orange Coats even won the war against my people." Canderous shook his head. "Snot-nosed lunk-heads like this manning your enigma codes makes me sick."

"Be sick on your on time, Ordo." Revan said. "Right now, we've got a code to brake. T3," she nodded her head to the terminals, "do your thing."

The little droid bleeped what was no doubt a very smug chirp of affirmative.

The ensign didn't dare move or look behind him to where the small droid rolled off too. He managed to stammer out his own discoveries.

"The second-last matrix has a pattern looping back on itself or something and the last is divvied into smaller subparts. Maybe a pattern for that is within each part. I have to admit this is a bit over my head. I haven't even been able to slice part of the first matrix, and I've been at it for hours.

"I've ruined a dozen cards already... but the good thing is we have a whole box of them, so you don't have to worry about running out of them anytime soon."

"Not filling me with a lot of confidence here, Ensign." Revan said. "Those cards are not unlimited and Wann should never have assigned someone who might be good at hooking up a stereo system to an entertainment center and good at playing sim games in charge of code-breaking. Commander," she deliberately used Carth's rank "reassign this boy not to the fount lines but a garbage scowl. Better he's serving on of those tubs than mucking things up here. At least there the whole mucking thing will come in handy."

The Jedi looked at the very chastised young man before continuing: "Even in this little outpost we cannot abide such incompetence. I will also request a reassignment of personnel. If Wann is stupid enough not to realize the limitations of his people and is unwilling to adapt and overcome than he does not belong in the office of a governmental representative. If it were up to me, I'd make him a quartermaster on some outer rim patrol frigate. Maybe that same garbage scowl this boy is going to?"

"I'll take that under advisement General Ravensong. As you said in wartime we cannot let slip-shod operations to continue." Carth played his hand, though he did not seem to be playing. For all intents and purposes, he was quite genuine about noting reassignment for the kid. He may not have the authority to do so, but the luckless grunt apparently didn't know that.

By this time T3 chirped being very pleased with himself. "Excellent work T3." Revan praised the little droid. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind that you couldn't work it out." She looked at her chrono. "And in record time as well."

The Tech looked at the small droid in wonder. "I—I don't believe it! How did he do that?"

"He's an astrodroid, dumbass." Mission rolled her eyes in a way only a teenager could. "Math is easy for him, even the base ten stuff and quantum mechanics too."

T3 chirped explaining about the mathematic puzzle saying that were very simple math equations that any organic in grade-school should have been able to figure out. He gave an example of the first problem he had faced.

"Oh... let's see… 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16..." Bastila smiled "That one is very easy. The answer is 22. You simply add the digit to the position it holds in the sequence. One and one is two. Two and two is four. Since four is the third digit in the sequence you add those two numbers together to get seven."

T3 offered a string of bleeps and chirps that caused Revan to snicker but it was Bastila that spoke, "Yes indeed T3 it is very elementary, any youngling at the age seven should be able to figure out such a very easy problem. And this stumped you?" her dark eyebrows shot up as she looked over the Engsin.

"I...I..."

"Nevermind," the Sentinel shrugged him off. "I imagine that the Sith no doubt change their passcodes very regularly. We will have to do this very soon or not at all."

"Agreed." Revan said. "However, ... I want to see what that prisoner has to say. While I do that- Commander, Jolee avail yourself to the computer's archives and see if what you need to defend Sunry is in there."

If there was a protest on the Ensign's lips about access to confidential records he didn't dare utter them. He already put his foot in it with the Commander, and knife-eared Jedi General. There was no way he was going further down that road. Besides Roland had already granted them full access so whatever they were after it wasn't his business.

He kept a wary eye on the Mandy and Wookiee. Zaalbar was the first wook he'd seen up close. He had heard they were huge but he didn't realize until now just how massive the rugs were! To him Zaalbar looked strong enough to pull the ears off a gundar and he looked mean enough to do it to.

While he was watching the men, he had failed to notice Mission having a nose about the place or that she slipped more than a few of the blank passcards into her pockets or a few data storage cubes.

Revan, Bastila and Juhani strode over to the force-cages where a weary man stood in the tube-like cell. He moaned out a bit but otherwise there was no other reaction from him.

"So, you're the one Roland has got to help us interrogate this prisoner." A balding older man greeted them. Like the Ensign before him seemed to have lost the capacity to not only acknowledge a superior ranked officer but formal address as well. From the insignia on his uniform this man was a Sergeant.

"I hope your Jedi powers will come in useful, this one has been most resilient. He's a Sith spy we picked up a little while ago snooping around outside trying to get in. We thought he was suspicious and brought him inside when the Selcath weren't looking."

"And it never occurred to you that this is exactly where he wanted to be?" Revan titled her head and raised a questioning eyebrow. "I mean if I were trying to get into a secure place... say my enemy's stronghold I may well allow myself to be captured.

"I would of course have the means to escape when I chose to and more likely than not cause as much havoc as possible whilst I'm at it, unless of course I wanted information: such as numbers of enemy forces, the demeanor of enemy leaders and the moral of their personnel. Everything this man now knows."

The Sergeant opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"I do not believe neither he nor Roland gave that much of a thought." Juhani said.

"Poor lack of judgement." Bastila shook her head.

"Is it any wonder the Sith gain ground so quickly. Seems to me we are scrapping the barrel for adept soldiers these days." Revan baited the man before her.

"That or no one has used chlorine in the gene pool for a very long time," Bastila tossed back. "Such a pity."

The words incited the man in the cage to snicker a little which in turn caused the Jedi to smirk. So... he was listening.

The Sergeant fixed his jaw as he ground his teeth. "Look, I was only following orders."

"How often have those words been trotted out to excuse just about any boondoggle created by a solider. Never mind. Shall we get on with this?" Revan looked at the spy as a saber cat looks to a gazelle. "There is work to be done, no?"

The Sergeant found his voice once more. "The Sith have done a pretty good job of conditioning this guy. We haven't been able to break him yet. The Sith protect their really important spies with some sort of mental Force feedback system. They can turn their minds in on themselves, so Force compulsions would not affect them. Combine this with conventional training to resist interrogations and it sometimes take months to get them to tell what they know.

"It is a method the Mandalorians used during the war." Revan said. "There is always a way around it. A couple of times we used more than one Jedi to Force persuade a very resilient mind. Though that method sometimes leaves a scar. It's a matter of finding the right motivator," she said with a very knowing voice.

Then she frowned.

Those were not her... Skye's memories, they were the Revanchist's.

"What methods have you used, Sergeant?" Juhani questioned. "You said he is resistant to Force persuasions. Then you have had another Jedi make the attempt?"

"Not on this man no. But we have done so in the past with other prisoners. There are hooks you might find useful. He was with another man when he was first spotted. We think this was another spy, but we didn't manage to catch him."

"Or he did not allow himself to be taken as this one was." Juhani commented.

"Maybe." The Sergeant wasn't looking to get into a verbal battle with the Jedi. "We also seized some personal documents he had on him when he was captured. It would seem that he's married to a woman named Tela."

Revan frowned. No spy or scout ever carried personal documents with them while in the field. That is a very rookie mistake. Never give the enemy anything they can use against you. Never a hook they can land... it is a poor spy that forgets this very fundamental rule.

Not so clever after all, or was this a suicide mission and he didn't expect to make it back out alive? That can make someone rather sentimental- especially if family is involved, even on the periphery.

The Sith were not above such tactics. 'You will die during this mission but your service and sacrifice to your Empire will grant your family a boon. Prosperity, health and education for your younglings, spouse, mother, father... etc, etc.'

"Verified?" Revan asked now watching the cadged man with different, more calculating eyes.

"We checked. And it seems to hold up. We've sent a couple of agents to investigate, but it may be a while."

Revan nodded. "As my colleague asked, what have you tried?"

"Standard issue truth serum. It should make him spill his guts in no time, but there is a catch."

"I would imagine that it is his conditioning." Concluded Bastila. "Did you not say he was conditioned to resist typical integration methods? This would include drugs, would it not?"

"Exactly," the Sergeant nodded. "He has been able to resist it in small doses and when giving him too much his body realizes that we're trying to do and shuts down his mind completely. We have to wait several hours for him to wake. He's just coming around from our last attempt. He had to be injected with an antidote that neutralizes the truth serum. Unfortunately, that too has its drawbacks."

"I'm detecting a pattern here." Revan commented dryly.

"It caused short term memory loss. That may work to your advantage, because you can try the same tactic over and over again. But if you use it too much, he may forget everything we want to know."

"Noted."

"So, do you want to start, Master Jedi?" The Sergeant asked Revan seeing her as the leader of the trio of women.

"May as well."

The sergeant went over to the cage's control settings and hit the glowing golden field with his telescopic baton causing it to blitz with energy for a moment "Hey you! Hey wake up. Someone wants to talk to you!" He shouted at the dazed man.

The human man within the cage had a dusky skin, dark eyes and short cropped hair. Above his lip was a thin moustache favored by the upper classes.

"EH? What do you want?" He voice was as rich as his clothing giving off an air of wealth and educational superiority.

"We know about your companion." Revan started keeping her voice extremely neutral. "Perhaps we will keep him and release you to the Sith."

The Sergeant was swift to play his role. "Of course, they would never believe we let you go so easily. But they would all too happily believe you betrayed them."

"You can't do this to me! They would kill me in ways too horrible for you to imagine!" The man said as fear began to rise within him.

"I'm thinking Force Lightning…" Revan drawled. "…to start with. Most unpleasant."

"Very unpleasant." Bastila added. "It is unfortunate however that the Sith do not stop at the one believed to be a traitor. They will go for others… those closest to you. I do pray you've hidden your wife... Tela is it? She is well away, isn't she? Sith Masters will not let her escape their wrath."

"My wife... how… how do you know about her?" The spy paled.

"If we know, your Sith Masters surely know." Juhani stated in an almost vanilla tone of voice rather than explain the fabrication.

"What do you want?" He looked at the three women. "You three are Jedi, right? Help protect her... and I'll tell you whatever it is. They will torture her for..." he stopped. "She has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, I know that." Revan said touching her hand to her chest to appear more earnest. "In fact, we all do. As you clearly noted we are indeed Jedi. Harming an innocent isn't something we do. That is your masters' purview. Your request to help protect her is a simple one, one the Jedi are more than willing to oblige but we need you to help us. "

"What is your price?" the spy said deflated and yet resigned.

"The passcode to get into your base." The Sergeant ordered.

There wasn't even a drop of hesitation before the spy answered. "It... it's... zeta 245698 alpha. Please just do as you promised. Save Tela."

"You have our word." Juhuni promised meaning it.

"But what of him?" Bastila looked over to the prisoner. "He cannot remain here indefinitely. This embassy does not have the facilities for long term imprisonment and the Selkath will never allow it. Setting him free is also problematic. And we do not simply execute prisoners even if they are spies."

"Send me to one of your camps," the Sith man suggested.

"You are willing to become a POW?" Bastila seemed to be astonished.

"Better one of your internment camps than where the Sith Masters can reach me. In that kinda place I'm insignificant. Nothing. I'm freer in one those camps than I am on the streets of Manaan. There all I have to worry about is another Gray-back shanking me for extra rations and steeling my blanket."

"I'll give the order myself." Revan said.

He looked at the Nagai. "Who are you?"

"The Jedi who is going to put Darth Malak in the ground."

Back at the archives, while the interrogation was commencing, Jolee and Carth began pouring though the data banks. T3 warbled a bit which got translated as 'Found something concerning evidence you're seeking Master Jolee. It is not good.'

Jollee read the digital readout of the chirps and inclined his head towards the terminal. "Show it."

T3 twirled and sounded like: 'Ok you asked for it. But you won't like it.'

Jolee and Carth took a seat and watched as CCTV revealed a young human woman entering a hotel room. She set aside her voluminous cloak on one of the chairs circling a small round table. Her lightsaber clearly visible hanging from her belt at her left side. She took a decanter of some sort of brandy and poured two sifters. Nearly an hour later in walks Sunry. The vid showed the two kissing then Elassa turned around to take one of the brandy sifters from the table, and that's when Sunry withdrew his blaster and discharged it.

Sunry turns coldly away and hobbles out of the room. He didn't look around, didn't check for a pulse. Nothing. Not long after, in walks Gluupor carrying a medal which he placed in the palm of the dead woman. Moments later the Alto City authorities along with the Sith Arbiter come to investigate the crime scene.

"Spite and blood! That bastard did it!" Carth hissed. "He gods-damned shot her in the back; in cold blood."

"Yeah." Jolee answered gravely. He looked down and after coming to a decision he turned to the astromech. "T3 preserve a copy of the data then delete the local copy."

The droid chirped.

"Yes. I'm sure. Just do it."

"Wait!" Carth burst out, causing the Ensign to turn from his post to look at them but he turned away after a harsh glare from the aging Jedi. "Jolee what the hell are you doing?!"

"What's necessary."

"Necessary? Covering up a murder? I'm no friend of the Sith, but this... we can't do this."

"Do what? Cover up evidence? We're not doing that, T3 has a hard copy. We're going to present the evidence was we know it. No one saw the murder. Sunry and Elassa were having an affair, an affair Sunry was going to end. This was disagreeable to the Sith, proving motive for them to act against her as she was now a liability and no longer a commodity. We can mention the medal left at the scene of the crime was a little too convenient. The medal was obviously planted and we have Gulper's testimony to that effect."

"We went from defence to criminal lawyers in a matter of seconds. How is that justice?" Carth frowned.

"It's the law. They are not always the same." Jolee rationalized his own nagging conscience. It was for the good of the Republic. Sometimes there are secrets that needed to be kept silenced. He cut a glance across the bay where a certain young Nagai Jedi had gone.

Yes, Jedi were very good at keeping things secret—hidden. More importantly Jedi were experts at hyperbole. How often was the phrase 'from a certain point of view' trotted out to excuse what otherwise might be seen as a lie?

"No. They clearly aren't but we both know if Sunry is prosecuted, Manaan will very likely sanction the Republic, quite possible expel us from their planet, thus leaving us without a very steady supply of kolto one way or the other. You want to give Malak that kind of foothold, boy?"

Carth looked away and shook his head. "No." He had done a lot of things in the name of the Republic he so believed in. Even some very questionable things like helping out that Jedi kid Zane Carrick who had been accused of slaughtering his fellow Padawans because he believed in the kid's innocence. Saul almost court marshalled him for that stunt. But this... was different.

But for the good of the Republic...

Jolee looked once more to where the women had gone off too. Apparently, the interrogation was going well; the prisoner seemed to be answering their questions. "We don't say anything about this to Skye or the others. Not until we have to. Right now, we stick to the basic defence; none of the witnesses saw the murder take place, the medal was planted and Sunry was ending the affair he was having with a much younger woman who happened to be a Sith spy. We don't talk about him being war hero, being a crippled old man. None of that."

"Might be the letter of the law, Jolee but it still feels... I don't know..."

"It's good you don't know son. Sometimes things 'aint dark or light but all kinds of shades of gray. What good would the truth do now? Sometimes secrets are best left."

"I don't know, Jolee. I like my Jedi either Light or Dark. You can trust that. Gray you have no idea where you stand."

"Is that so, sonny boy?"

"Just take a look what happened to Revan, so yes Grey-Beard. That's how it is. You must have been one hell of a strange Jedi in your youth."

"Pft. What makes you think so?"

"That whole gray stuff couldn't have made you popular with the Masters. Though maybe you had more freedom in your adventuring days when the Masters weren't looking too closely."

"Didn't I say that my past was my affair? You don't see me poking and prodding you with questions, do you?"

"You're just not used to company. Stop being an old coot. Besides we've got a bit of time to spare before the others join us. Humour me."

"Now you sound like Ravensong. I'm not here to satisfy your curiosity! No staring at the old man, that's what the sign says, damnit!" The two continued walking; "Besides you don't really want to hear about me. We've talking ancient history, probably before you were born. History bores kids. Proven fact."

"What are you two talking about?" Mission said in way of greeting when she and Zaalbar came out of one of the stock rooms, pockets filled no doubt with items that someone seemingly misplaced.

"Ancient history." Jolee said.

"The Star Map?" Zaalbar asked.

"No." Came the old Jedi's answer.

"Ug... boring."

A very smug smile appeared on Jolee's face. "See? Proven fact."

"Yeah? Well old people like to talk about history. Proven fact." Carth shot back.

"Yes, yes. I was an adventurer. Happy now? I wasn't even done with my Jedi training back then. I had a head full of hair and eagerness to see absolute everything. Sound familiar?" his younger audience simultaneously gave a shrug of the shoulders; so, timed the gesture was it was nearly comical. "The Council was never very happy with wilful, brash Jolee Bindo, you see. Even less so when I when I began my smuggling career."

"Wait, you were a smuggler, You?!" Carth was astounded.

"Don't look at me like that, damnit! I wasn't always the wrinkled old coot I am now, you know. I can still fight, too, so wipe off those smirks I see."

Carth chuckled but urged the old man on. At the look, Jolee continued his narrative about time spent in the Ukatis system which was interdicted by its own King. It seemed the potentate preferred to keep his people starving and destitute, all the better to oppress them.

The Senate was trying to negotiate a peace, but they were getting nowhere as usual. Jolee made the decision that he wasn't going to wait. He found himself a ship and a partner and began smuggling food and supplies to the Ukatis citizenry through the blockade.

"Wasn't that dangerous?" Mission asked.

"A better question would be where does a Jedi get all the credits for all those supplies?" the question came from Canderous who had only recently joined the party.

Jolee smiled. "Well we didn't 'buy' all the equipment per say. Donations and a few... found items that were repurposed to the cause. Some had more then they uh... could use..."

"Ha you mean you were a thief!" the Mandy let out a belly laugh which caused several heads to turn. By this time the small group were outside the embassies waiting for Ravensong and the other Jedi to reunite with them.

"Who's telling the story here? They would have donated those goods readily enough if they were compassionate. I considered it a tax on the greedy. We only got caught once. A lone Ukatish frigate shot us down and forced a crash landing. I thought the Force had abandoned me as I remember."

"But what about the blockade?" Mission prompted.

"Ah, right. Well I was a half-decent pilot in those days... and with the Force guiding me, we made it through some tough spots nobody else would."

"You were a pilot too?" Asked Zaalbar.

"Pilot, smuggler... several other things too," he cut a sideways glance towards Ordo. The Mandalorian had nailed it on the head, yes in his youth Jolee had been quite the thief. "Or did you lot think I was always a crotchety hermit?"

"Pretty much." Mission answered with the unfettered honesty of a teenager.

"Well I wasn't, my... au... um..." Jolee trailed off as if he had forgotten his own tale or perhaps wanted to.

"Your what?"

"That time I got shot down? Turned out to be pretty fortunate. It was the day I met my wife."

"I thought Jedi were forbidden love?" came the confused bark of Zalbaar.

"How did you get away with it? Its sorta' romantic and kinda' gross... hard to see you anything but wrinkled..."

"You old dog! Ha I knew that whole celibate thing was kath-hound shite."

"You had a wife? You were married?!"

"You know another way to get a wife? But, yes... that's when I met her," suddenly the sharp tongued old codger deflated—smaller. "Look, if it's all the same to you, I prefer to stop talking now. My mouth is starting to draw flies." He turned and slowly made his way to a café.

Carth and the others watched him leave. "Guess it makes sense why he has no issue with Skye and Bastila being together. There's gotta be a story there."

"Leave the old man his own history, Orange Coat. A man's got a right not to have his dirty laundry dragged out."

Carth whipped his head around and looked at the older man with renewed astonishment. "I didn't expect sentiment out of you, Mandy."

"It isn't. But a man's got a right to privacy. Keeps himself to himself. I can respect that."

"Well you have to admit it's kinda cool, forbidden Jedi love and all that." Mission smiled "I wonder if she was a Jedi too. I mean Jolee's wife. You think she was?"

"And just who are we speaking of?" asked Bastila as she, Revan and Juhani reunited with their companions. At which point Mission gave a rundown of the story taking only a few shot breaths in-between sentences.

"Married? I would not have thought it of him." Juhani said honestly

"Not exactly your story to tell, Kid." Ordo chastised the youngling.

"Yeah well, it's not fair we know and they don't," the young Twi'lek pointed to the Jedi females. "We shouldn't keep stuff from each other, right Skye?"

There was a wince, barely noticeable, but there if you knew how to look for it. The Nagai had not been fast enough to school her expression. "If we wish to continue to function as a cohesive team, perhaps not. But Canderous is right, it isn't exactly your story to tell Mission." She kept her voice neutral as not to sound as if she were scolding the girl, after all Mission had been asked and she had answered dutifully. "On the other hand, it was interesting to find out a little more about our resident grey-beard."

"You realize that marriage for a Jedi is not entirely illegal. There are precedents for such, but with very heavy rules attached to them and under certain circumstances." Bastila said.

"Wait... what?" this was from Juhani. She and Beyla had been heavily chastised for their 'supposed' closeness. Both forced to break off their growing attachment before it fully grew. It was what forced the Cathar into the darkness, not her love for Beyla. And here Bastila was saying such attachments were permissible?

"As I said, heavily monitored. And a special license is required. Some Jedi have yes married, even had children." Bastila looked to her lover then to back to her enthralled audience. "The couple in question would only ever see each other on Coruscant. Senior Council members review the couple monthly to insure they stay 'detached.' And only Jedi who have been raised by the Order from birth get permission."

"That automatically disqualifies the two of you." Mission said. "And that's sounds like poodoo anyway. Straying detached- rubbish! You don't get to get your groove on and have fun? Pft. That's no good."

"Getting our groove on?' Revan raised a dark eyebrow. "Aren't you a little too young to thinking about things like that?"

"I'm a hormonal teenager, of course it isn't!" Mission hurumphed. "Besides I like the mushy stuff from time to time."

"And what of children?" Carth asked. "Same sex would not be an issue but what if a heterosexual couple wants to have children; does the Council impose artificial insemination?"

"Who's to say a same-sexed couple wouldn't want younglings?" Juhani countered.

Cath had the curtsey to look abashed; he hadn't actually thought homosexual couples had the whole biological clock since they seemed to be wired differently despite their species.

Bastila looked to Revan once more. "Yes and no. If the couple have a strong link to the Force and wish to preserve their legacy, the Council will allow the couple to have their eggs and sperm harvested and artificially inseminated. But the female Jedi will never carry the child least she forms an attachment to the child. It is instead placed in an artificial womb. If the child proves to be Force-Sensitive, they are taken to the nurseries in hidden locations. If the child proves to be mundane they are taken to an orphanage or if the couple in question still have biological families sometimes the child is given to them."

"Bred like prized pets." Canderous wrinkled his nose the whole idea. "If you want to rut, rut. You want to have a pack of younglings, do it. You want to take the vows of marriage, do it. Don't piss around with suppressing your emotions. HA, and you wonder why so many Jedi go rogue. Strain against the collar long enough and it will snap. No good at stifling what's natural."

"I hate to say it, or even agree with the Mandy, but Ordo's got a point." Carth admitted.

"Not auguring here." Revan held her hands up. "I doubt the three of us will on that score. Besides, I always thought the Code was badly worded. Suppressing emotions and passions is no good; controlling them on the other hand has its merits. You don't want someone with the impulse control of a three-year-old with the power of the Force," she snapped her fingers. "Oh wait... we do have that. In Malak."

"Relatively speaking, that is neither here nor there, nor is Jolee's past. Do we not have missions to complete before we completely lose track?" Bastila reminded all of them.

"Agreed. Let's go back to the ship and start making plans." Revan nodded her head. She then buzzed Jolee on his comm and ordered the aged Jedi to rendezvous with the rest of the crew back on the Ebon Hawk.