Because the Pledos Police Department knew that Luke and Jacen were the famous Jedi that they were instead of their false identities, the Jade Shadow had, of course, been fixed with docking clamps that kept her to the deck of the hangar bay in which she had been parked. And as the Shadow was trapped, she was being raided by about a dozen cops who were clearing her of everything that wasn't bolted down so that it could all be taken outside the city limits and destroyed; just as any trespassing Jedi were to be killed if they were discovered on Andalia, their possessions would join them into oblivion.
However, before anything valuable could actually be taken, Jacen and Luke had teleported into the Shadow's cockpit, both reeking of the smell of the sewer from which they had just vacated. They both looked out through the open cockpit door, where they found half the cops carrying some things from Luke's quarters.
The cops, in turn, stopped at the sight (and smell) of the two Jedi who had inexplicably appeared in the cockpit. A second later, all of them dropped whatever they had in their arms to reach for their sidearms and call for their fellow officers.
"Sleep," Luke said with a wave of his hand.
Immediately, all six of the cops collapsed to the deck; three of them even snored.
"You take care of the rest," Luke said to Jacen. "I'll cast a White Current illusion in the hangar bay so you can deposit their unconscious bodies." He emphasized the penultimate word in that sentence to make it clear to Jacen that he didn't want to kill any police officers. "But hurry up; I can only maintain the illusion for so long."
Jacen nodded and headed further into the ship while Luke sat himself in the copilot seat. He then concentrated as he brought up an illusion of a massive krayt dragon in the hangar bay before him; naturally, everyone there—workers, security guards, fellow passengers, and other cops—reacted with screams of terror before either fleeing or opening fire on the illusory creature.
Luke was able to maintain the illusion even as he heard blasterfire ring out through the Shadow; since he sensed that Jacen wasn't even injured, Luke's only concern now, outside of making sure the dragon didn't disappear, was whether or not anything valuable was damaged or destroyed aboard his ship.
It didn't take long before Jacen finally made it to the cockpit, sat himself down in the pilot seat, began the ignition sequence, and then reached out with the Force to break away the docking clamps holding the Shadow to the deck. When that was done, Luke finally allowed the krayt dragon to disappear as Jacen piloted the ship up and away from the hangar to eventually reach Andalia's skies.
"Now comes the hard part," Luke said. "Hopefully, I can still cast an illusion to get us out of here."
Even before the Shadow cleared Andalia's atmosphere, it was being pursued by a full squadron of Miy'til starfighters that began to pepper the Jedi ship's stern with lasers. Jacen began to swerve the Shadow this way and that to avoid getting hit, but even with his piloting skills, there was no way the yacht wasn't going to be hit.
And because of the bumps that the Shadow was enduring, it was hard for Luke to concentrate well enough to summon another distracting illusion. But after a few moments, he managed to have several mynocks appear before the viewports of four of the Miy'tils. The illusion prompted two of the starfighters to crash into each other and create a sizable explosion, while the other two ended blowing each other apart by firing upon their own fake mynocks with their lasers.
Luke then widened the number of mynocks out in the field around the Shadow and her pursuers. However, even as he did so, he finally felt himself start to tire.
Still, three more Miy'tils were lost from the pursuit; one was blown into smithereens by one of her compatriots, while the other two ended up colliding into one another as the first two had. And even now, the remaining five were firing wildly at the false mynocks that were blocking their vision.
But just as it seemed as if Jacen would be able to lose the pursuers and jump into hyperspace, the mynocks completely disappeared and they were firing upon the Shadow again; Luke, for his part, was breathing heavily from the exertion of casting those illusions.
With a grunt, Jacen threw the ship into a series of maneuvers and set her to autotarget the other Miy'tils; but even now, two more squads of the Hapan fighters rose from Andalia. And while Jacen did manage to blow away four Miy'tils with the Shadow's automatic fire in conjunction with his erratic piloting in the span of ten seconds, he knew that if they didn't get out of there soon, they were done for.
However, before either of the backup squads could reach the Shadow to aid the sole survivor of the previous squad, a Battle Dragon dropped out of hyperspace before the fighting ships.
The Shadow's comm frequency picked up a transmission from a voice that was mildly familiar to Jacen.
"This is Admiral Serash of the Dragon Queen. Disengage immediately or we will be forced to open fire on any and all uncooperative Miy'til fighters."
Surprisingly, all of the incoming Miy'tils simply turned around and returned back to Andalia; even the surviving fighter from the first squad didn't even try to continue firing on the Shadow before turning to join her brethren.
"Jade Shadow," Serash's voice said, "please dock in Hangar Bay One of the Dragon Queen."
. . .
About half an hour later, after Luke and Jacen had separately showered away all of the muck in which they embroiled themselves, they met with Allana, Danni, and Admiral Serash in the Dragon Queen's throne room.
"It wasn't a premonition from the Force that prompted me to save you from Ducha Lorangal's forces, gentlemen," Allana said to Luke and Jacen from her throne. "But I had a feeling that you might have needed our help."
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Luke said with a respectful nod. "You came just in time, as a matter of fact. I was actually getting tired of casting illusions; literally."
"I talked to the Ducha while you two were bathing," Allana elaborated. "At first, she denied ever knowing that either of you were on the planet. She was lying, of course, so I pointed out why she would allow three squadrons of Miy'til starfighters to be launched to go after a single yacht. Lorangal very reluctantly confessed that she had received an anonymous tip about there being Jedi in Pledos; from what I could tell from my reading of her Force-presence, she is sincere about not knowing where the information regarding your presence came from."
"Who wouldn't want to be known to Lorangal for letting her know that there were Jedi on her planet?" Jacen asked. "Especially when it was me and Uncle Luke? I'd think they'd want some kind of special commendation from their Ducha for ratting on us."
"Unless they weren't a Hapan subject," Luke posited.
Jacen looked at his uncle in curiosity. "You mean...?"
"I believe our Sith friend may have informed on us, Jacen," Luke said.
"Sith?" Allana asked with worry. "There are Sith in my Consortium?"
"I'm afraid so, Your Majesty," Luke said. "We didn't want to jump to conclusions about the girl who had convinced my son to leave Hapes to find her, but now we have confirmation that she's a Sith, too."
Now Allana looked more confused than worried. "But if this Vestara Khai really is a Sith, why didn't she take any opportunity to kill me? From what you told me, she was with Ben for months; why didn't she use him to at least attempt to get to me?"
Jacen shrugged. "Maybe the Sith don't wanna kill you, Your Majesty. Maybe they don't see you as a threat."
"I doubt that, Jacen," Allana said. "Considering that my Consortium is essentially a haven for Jedi, notwithstanding a few territories like Andalia, I don't see why the Sith wouldn't want me dead."
"You are a difficult person to get to, Your Majesty," Luke reminded her. "I wouldn't be surprised if kidnapping my son were part of the Sith's plan to get to you."
"I don't see how that would be the case," Allana said. "While I do care about Ben, I don't understand how that would at all decrease security around me."
"You did lose two Jedi guardians," Jacen pointed out.
"Yes, but while I may be young, I'm not stupid," Allana said. "I doubled my security since you went to search for Ben; I even probed deeply with my Force-senses to vet out potential assassins, as Danni taught me to. Believe it or not, what she learned on Zonama Sekot can be even more effective in some ways than traditional Jedi training."
Jacen spared a glance over at his wife; she gave him a slight smile. It was all Jacen needed to know that she and Allana, in spite of the latter's initial distancing from the former, were growing closer now.
"Well, in that case," Luke said as he also looked to Danni, "maybe I can allow you back into the Jedi Order, Danni. We could use a little more expanding in our knowledge of the Force."
"I'll consider it, Master Skywalker," Danni replied.
Allana politely allowed a moment to pass before Luke and Jacen returned their attention to her before she asked, "So now that we know for a fact that there are Sith in my Consortium, what do you suggest we do about it, Master Skywalker?"
"For now, nothing too obvious, Your Majesty," Luke said. "If we tip our hand at this poit, the Sith may act on whatever plan they have sooner rather than later. And while that may make them sloppy, it would still give us less time to prepare for whatever they have in the cards."
"The Sith already know that you know about them," Allana pointed out. "Why wouldn't they think that you'd just tell me?"
"Because they, apparently, gave us some directions to lead Jacen and me to Ben," Luke said as he pulled out the datapad that the Sith gave them back on Andalia.
"Do you believe that you can trust such directions, Master Skywalker?" Allana asked.
"I have my doubts," Luke said. "Especially after the police found out about Jacen and me being down in Pledos. You see, Your Majesty, I believe that although this anonymous Sith provided Jacen and me with whatever is on this datapad, he also informed on us with the police."
"Why would he want to do that?" Allana asked. "Wouldn't that jeopardize whatever kind of trap he would have in store for you? And if luring you to be killed by the police was his plan, why this ruse?"
"I don't think he expected Jacen and me to die by the hands of the police down there, Your Majesty," Luke said. "Quite frankly, they were too easy to escape from."
Allana tilted her head inquisitively. "So what are you saying? That he informed on you while giving you useful information, at least seemingly, so that he could somehow seem more trustworthy?"
"He did help save our lives," Jacen pointed out. "Maybe he called the police to make his alliance with us more genuine."
"Quite a layer of deception," Luke observed. "I'd expect nothing less from Sith."
"Well, then, Master Skywalker," Allana said, "if you suspect that that datapad in your hand will lead you into a Sith trap, why follow it?"
"Because if I don't, Your Majesty," Luke said, "I may not be able to find my son."
"Then I hope you have a way to outwit whatever trap the Sith have in store for you," Allana said.
"I intend to," Luke said, "after I read whatever's on this datapad."