Chapter 13 – Deadly Details

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Deep in the downtown core of Cambrielle, the capital city of the financial powerhouse planet of Ralltiir, Jaina wove her way through the crowds of people in business attire rushing through the streets feeling a bit out of place in her leather jacket, white tank top and baggy forest-camouflage cargo pants. Just about everyone was in a suit, except for a small group of tourists across the street snapping holographs of the tall towering buildings.

Jaina took a moment to look up at what they were taking pictures of and she realized she was standing beside the Galactic Exchange Building. The entire area she was standing in had been leveled by the Yuuzhan Vong near the end of the war, but in the eleven years since everything had been rebuilt and restored to return Raltiir to its former glory. She also remembered that the Galactic Exchange building was her destination, so she climbed the steep embankment of stairs to reach the revolving main entrance.

The four doors arranged together in an X spun around in a circular entrance way, always keeping the interior closed from the exterior with two doors while allowing sentients to enter the building. Jaina joined four other people and shuffled through the revolving door, trying to ignore the looks of distain she was getting for her clothes. Or maybe it was her sun shades that she refused to remove. Either way, three seconds later she was in the expansive lobby, looking up at the beautiful mosaic on the ceiling depicting the long history of Raltiir. She felt someone bump against her arm and looked beside her to see an irritated man scowling at her.

"Gawking hours are after midday," he growled. "Keep moving or get out of the way."

"Go piss up a rope," Jaina advised him and shook her head. But he was right. She had work to do. She looked around and saw the small Border-Planet Café on the left side of the lobby, which was what she was looking for. She crossed the lobby and got into the line to wait for her turn to order. About ten seconds into the wait, she did what everyone else seemed to be doing – she pulled out her LinkCom and played a game. After about ten levels of sling shoting little birds at Stormtrooper helmets, she was four people from the front of the line.

She looked over at the barista, a muscular, clean shaven man about her dad's age with greying brown hair and a name tag on his green apron that said "Qu." She waited as he processed the next two people, staring at him intently, until he finally looked at her. Their eyes locked for a brief second and he went back to processing the next customer. When it was finally her turn, Jaina stepped up to him.

"Give me a white hot chocolate, no whipped cream on top," Jaina said. "And add a bit of powdered chakroot."

"Ten twenty-five, please."

Jaina handed him her credit card with a data chip discretely hidden behind it, and he swiped it through the machine. He handed the card back, and Jaina did not even notice that the data chip had disappeared into his hand.

"Name for the cup?"

"Kylie."

"Cute."

"Thank you," Jaina flashed him her girliest smile and walked around to the other end of the counter where a six-armed female Besalisk was assembling multiple drinks under two machines at once, adding and mixing ingredients, steaming them, and pouring them into the appropriate cup with uncanny precision, not even pausing when calling out the names scribbled onto the cups by her partner Qu.

"Kylie, white hot choc."

Jaina barely had time to reach for her cup by the time "Jenny" behind her was called for her black caf. She grabbed her drink and retreated to one of the empty tables across the lobby from the café. She spent the next hour playing games on her LinkCom and watching anxious business people bustling about, waiting for Qu to take a break. She glanced up from time to time and watched as he tirelessly ran through what seemed like hundreds of patrons until the line finally died out. Qu retreated into the back area of the café and emerged five minutes later wearing a leather jacket in place of his apron and a drink in each hand. He crossed the lobby and sat down across from Jaina putting one drink in front of her, and sipping on the other one himself.

"I never pictured you as a barista," Jaina said. "Have you been bench pressing that caf machine?"

"I like my job," Kyle Katarn said quietly. "Nobody chasing me with a lightsaber, I'm well-poised to gather financial intel from clients, I get all the free drinks I want, and a complementary gym pass."

Jaina leaned forward against the table and looked up at him over the top frame of the sun shades she was still wearing, fully aware that by doing so he was getting a good look down her shirt. It amused her to note how hard he fought to keep his eyes locked with hers when he realized she was not wearing anything under her low cut white tank top. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a young man sitting a couple tables away stop in mid bite of his sandwich and stare at her, and he was definitely not looking at her eyes.

Maybe those holonet reports about me were right, Jaina thought to herself. Or they're both desperate.

"How about a job in your old line of work?" Jaina said quietly. "Wedge is trying to add super lasers to a fleet of Star Destroyers. We need to infiltrate a Bogan warship to get their laser schematics to get ours to work. Nobody knows how to get in and out of a ship crawling with Force-sensitive hostiles like you do."

"I read your data chip," Kyle whispered, leaning forward and taking her hands in his as if they were two lovers having a passionate discussion about each other's most desirable features, mostly to avoid her distractingly low neckline. "I can't leave. I don't get holidays until next year."

"Kyle..."

"It's Qu, and you have no idea how hard it was to get a job in this building in the first place. The intel I'm gathering is helping our leader track the flow of half the credits moving between the core and the outer planets. She's been using it to gain insight into...well, I can't talk about that."

Jaina leaned back and crossed her arms, taking away the view of her cleavage and clenching her jaw to show her displeasure. She glanced at the young man who had been staring at her, oblivious to the fact that his sandwich fell apart in his hand until her glare met his. She watched with detached amusement as he embarrassedly scrambled to reassemble his sandwich.

"But I can still help."

"Go on."

Kyle looked around once again and back at Jaina. "Not many people know this, but when the schematics for the first Death Star were found, they were found by different people in several parts and assembled by your mother for transmission back to Jan Dodonna. I was the one who sent her the super laser schematic. And I kept a couple copies."

Jaina's eyes went wide as Kyle reached into his jacket. He held something against his chest with his left arm and yanked on it with his right hand. He pulled his hand out to reveal the separated handle of his Bryar pistol. Using the Force he popped a release inside it and removed half of the brown casing. Stuck to the inside were two data cards held on by a strip of tape, one of which he peeled off and handed to Jaina. Three seconds later the handle was reassembled and back on his hidden blaster. Kyle drained the last of his latte, stood up and took a step toward her.

"I'm sorry, Kylie," Katarn said loud enough that anyone who might have seen them nearby would be able to hear. "I don't think it's going to work out between us anymore."

"One last question, sweetie," Jaina leaned back with her hands behind her head to stretch out her chest and look up at him, mostly so she could speak a bit quieter. She also fully knew she was teasing both members of her audience as the thin white material of her tank top stretched across her breasts, leaving very little about her physique to their imaginations. "Who's Qu?"

"Ask your uncle," Kyle said, and on an afterthought he grabbed handful of coins from his pocket and tossed them onto the table. "And buy some clothes on your way off planet. You're dressed like a cheap prostitute."

Jaina laughed and took another swig from her drink, finishing it off. She winked at the young man across the way and smiled at him as she picked up the coins from Kyle, laughing again as the sandwich fell apart for the second time. Before he could recover his sandwich, she was gone.

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

With their prisoners zip cuffed and tied to a shelving unit, Jacen and Zara retreated out of earshot to discuss their interrogation strategy. Having dismissed her idea of putting a lightsaber into the gut of one of them and waiting for them to tell their secrets, Jacen drew some new inspiration from something Corran and his uncle had once told him.

"You stand there and look as malevolent as you can," Jacen said. "I'll ask them the questions. If this works, you won't need to say anything."

"How does one look 'malevolent'?"

"Think Hutt with eyebrows."

Zara scowled at him and Jacen nodded. "Perfect, keep that up."

Jacen could feel her eyes trying to bore a hole in the back of his head as he walked back to the line of prisoners, but chose to ignore her. He looked the prisoners over and made note of their emotions. Of the ten prisoners, five of the men were terrified into genuine hysterics. They were sobbing in fear, not even looking at their captors. Of the other five, two of the men were scared but were putting on a brave face, the Rodian did not even appear to be aware of his surroundings, likely due to the effect of the double kick to the jaw he received, the woman was surprisingly calm and calculating, and one man was confident. The last two worried him the most.

"I know who you are," the confident man called out. "You're Jacen Solo. You're a Jedi. You won't hurt us. Jedi are the good guys."

"I do look a lot like him, don't I?" Jacen said with a level of indifference. "I get that a lot. Maybe I am him. But her, she's definitely not a Jedi. She's one of Darth Krayt's assassins. And she's hasn't killed anything in at least seventy-two hours, so she's really on edge. I suggest not upsetting her."

"You're bluffing," the confident man said. "Jedi and Sith don't work together."

"Bogan," Jacen corrected. "She's a Bogan warrior. They're not Sith. It's a rebranding or something. I don't quite get the marketing aspect behind it, but it doesn't seem to be working. Anyway, I'm just looking for some answers."

Jacen unleashed a torrent of emerald-green energy and knocked out all of the prisoners except for the confident man and the calculating woman. As they all slouched onto their restraints, Jacen turned to his last two conscious prisoners.

"One or all of you is Black Sun," Jacen said, carefully watching for any reaction, but neither even flinched. "My guess is you two are. The others are too scared to fit the profile. You can either tell me what I want to know, or my friend there can start using her considerable skills in the art of torture. It's a bit of a hobby for her."

"Pain will not loosen our tongues," the woman said. "Black Sun will do worse to us than you ever could if we talked. You will leave here empty-handed with our blood on your hands. Can you live with that, Jedi?"

"So both of you are Black Sun," Jacen surmised. He looked over his shoulder back at Zara. "Okay, all yours. You can try pulling their brains out of their noses like you wanted to. Make sure you get a really good grip– they can be slippery."

"Gladly," Zara growled and sauntered toward her target, eyes locked with the man's. Jacen felt fear break through his confidence.

"Wait," the man said, suddenly panicking. "I-I'm not Black Sun. I've just done some stuff for them. L-little stuff. Moving boxes of important stuff. I don't know anything!"

Jacen held a hand up for Zara to stop, so she crossed her arms and glared at them both as if she had been deprived of the greatest joy of her life.

"Tell me what you do know."

"What will you give me?" the man said. "I'm already dead. I have no reason to help you."

"I'll drop you off at the next pla..."

"Done. She's an agent," he sputtered. "Recruited me to do odd jobs. Last week I collected credits from the baker on Drury Lane, and the week before we picked up boxes from the governor's palace. They wanted to recruit me, but I'm not joining if the Sith are hunting us!"

"Bogan," Zara growled. "We should kill this one. He knows nothing. And is annoying."

"No! I told you everything I know. We had a deal!"

"Yes, we do. You've been a good boy," Jacen said in a patronizing voice. He punched the man's jaw, knocking him out. "Now stay."

Both Jacen and Zara approached the remaining conscious prisoner together and eyed her with malevolence.

"I want to know your name, rank within the Black Sun, who your boss is and where I can find him," Jacen said. "Please. And if you can't do that, I want to know who the leader of Black Sun is, and where I can find him."

"It will do you no good," she said. "I have already failed for letting you find me."

"Same deal as him," Jacen offered sincerely. "A chance to disappear."

"You don't get it, do you?" She asked. "There is no disappearing from Black Sun. If they want to find you, they'll hunt you to the corners of the known galaxy."

"I have friends in the unknown regions," Jacen said. "Powerful friends that would not tolerate the corruption of the Black Sun by any means. They can protect you."

"No, they can't."

A small crack from her mouth caught Jacen's attention and he grabbed her by the jaw. The smell of almonds wafted up at him, turning his stomach. Using the Force he pulled as much of the liquid from her mouth, but she had already swallowed most of the cyanide in the capsule and began to breathe rapidly and shake.

Jacen looked around quickly for a supply of water and saw a case of bottles in the corner of the room. He yanked one of the bottles across the room to his hand and began pouring it into the woman's mouth, using the Force to relax her muscles and force her to swallow it. As the water gurgled down her throat, he adjusted the chemical composition of it, increasing the strength of the antidote as she drank it to counteract the hystotoxic hypoxia effect of the cyanide. When all the water had gurgled down her throat, Jacen stepped back to Zara's side.

"I didn't expect them to have suicide pills," Jacen said. "We'll have to watch for that as we move up the chain."

"What did you do?"

"Hopefully I counteracted the poison."

The woman took that as her cue to wake up and cough. When she realized what happened, she looked up and saw Jacen and Zara glaring down at her.

"Ready to tell me what I want?" Jacen asked. "Or do you have some other way you want to fail killing yourself by?"

The woman looked at him bitterly. "Who is it you know in the Unknown Regions?"

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The value of the information gained from Jaan Waba, the Black Sun agent that Jacen had offered sanctuary to, proved to be far greater than he had initially expected. With a bit of Jedi motivation, she revealed not only the names and home bases of two Vigos, but also her suspicions on how the Black Sun came to power. If her suspicions were accurate, the problem was much bigger than Jacen had considered.

After dropping Jaan off at Commenor with the means to arrive at Black Vornskr safe house and a bit of a memory wipe for safety, Jacen and Zara returned to space and tapped into the Holonet to update Darth Krayt on their progress. Despite being a forearm-high holographic image, Krayt was still able to make Zara radiate fear.

"What's up, sunshine?" Jacen asked. "Lose any more warriors to the Jedi?"

"Report." Krayt ordered Zara, ignoring the irritating Jedi.

"We have a lead on two Vigos within the Black Sun," she said. "And an insider's suspicion on the identity of the new leader."

"Continue your investigation and report in when you have facts," Krayt said and broke the connection from his end.

"You will do yourself no favours by bothering him," Zara said. "I suggest you try to make an ally of him before you lose the chance."

"He needs me more than I'll ever need him," Jacen reminded her. "The only reason I'm in on this is to eliminate a threat to the Jedi. It just happens our goals are aligned."

Zara eyed him suspiciously, as if to get a better understanding of him as he worked the controls of the ship.

"Koros, Corporate Sector, or Bastion?" Jacen asked.

"You don't really believe the rumour she told us, do you?"

"Koros is the strongest lead and the closest destination," Jacen said. "But our target may suspect something is going on when Jaan doesn't report in since Koros is outside of both the Jedi and Bogan political movements. Bastion is probably second best for reliability, and I still have a couple contacts in the Imperial administration that might be able to help us."

Jacen leaned back in his chair and turned to face his partner.

"CorpSec is just a long shot right now."

"Koros, then," Zara said indifferently. "I'm not afraid of Black Sun scum."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

For two days the Slave IV had slowly crept around the Bogan shipyard using passive scanners and the cloaking field to gather as much information as possible while evading detection and deploying the mines they had purchased. They developed their plan as they went along, slowly refining the details until they were both satisfied that they would succeed.

"I still don't like it," Han said. "Seems like a suicide mission."

"It is a suicide mission," Fett reminded him. "We're going to die today, Han. No other way around it."

Han shook his head but said nothing for a minute as he studied their plan once more. He stood up and slapped Fett on the shoulder.

"Let's get the last of those bombs together, buddy."

Han set off toward the cargo bay when he heard a metallic clang behind him. He turned around and saw Fett sprawled on the floor, one hand against his armoured chest, the other against his head.

"Fett!" Han shouted and knelt down beside the Mandalorian. "What is it? I'll get a med kit."

"Don't bother," Fett grunted and forced himself to breathe. "It'll pass."

"Like hell…"

"I said we were going to die," Fett said grimacing against the pain as he tried to sit up. "It'll happen one way or the other. My organs are failing and nothing but death can stop it."

Han nodded and grabbed Fett by the arm, pulling him to his feet.

"Together," Han said, looking Fett in his eyes.

"Together," Fett replied.

A warning from the console caught their attention and together they hobbled over to read the alarm.

"The worker ships are retreating," Fett said, reading the Mandalorian script on the console faster than Han could translate it in his head. "The ship must be ready to launch."

"We'll have to stop that one, too," Han said. "You do know that the bombs won't crack through that armour from the outside."

"It would be too simple otherwise, right?" Fett replied with a grim smile.

"Right."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mara turned and sprinted away from Targo, pushing over a table and ducking behind it as chunks of charred Hutt were launched across the room, splattering nearly everything and everyone in direct line of sight. The patrons and employees screamed and scattered, providing Mara the distraction needed to escape the room without the YVH droids having a direct line of sight to fire at her.

She sprinted through the wide corridor toward where Jabba had kept his prisoners and threw herself sideways when a blaster bolt nearly put a hole between her shoulder blades. She lashed out with her lightsaber and caught the bolt with perfect timing to send it right back at the optical sensor of the pursuing YVH droid. She ducked down another corridor and found the long row of cells, some with prisoner arms hanging out of them. About half way down the corridor she stopped on intuition and looked to the right. Alone, curled up on the bed with her back against the wall and her forehead on her knees, was a head of red hair.

"Ami, get up," Mara shouted and slashed at the bars with her lightsaber. On intuition she side stepped another blaster bolt and deflected several more off her lightsaber, returning them to the YVH droids with uncanny precision. "Now!"

The girl in the cell looked up at her and scowled.

"Karrde sent you?"

"Karrde's dead," Mara said, finally turning to face the YVH droids. "Shada sent me. You have something I need."

"Karrde's dead? Then I'm definitely I'm not going anywhere with you."

Mara bit back a curse and caught a blaster bolt on the palm of her hand. Using the Force, she amplified it and launched it back at the YVH droids, blasting through two of them at once with the enhanced blaster bolt. With another flick of the Force, she ripped the head off another one and launched it a fourth, disabling all the current pursuants at once. She pulled her blaster out and shot it over Ami's shoulder, nearly causing her to jump off the bed with surprise.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Ami shouted. "First you leave me, now you're shooting at me?"

"Aren't you a little old for the wounded teenager routine?" Mara asked. "Get your ass out here or I'll drag you out!"

Ami reluctantly got up and grabbed her backpack from the corner of the room. Mara yanked a YVH blaster rifle to her hand and tossed it to Ami. She could hear more of the YVH droids approaching, and it sounded like there were a lot more.

"Not exactly the best plan, eh?" Ami said. "Maybe I should stay here where it's safe."

"Not going to happen," Mara muttered and pressed a finger to the device on her ear. "Ben? Are you in position?"

The ground shook from a not-too-distant explosion, and Mara smiled.

"What was that?" Ami asked.

"We're getting into position right now," Ben reported. "We'll aim five metres north of your position."

"Go south," Mara said. "Ami, get back in the cell."

"Didn't I just...?"

Mara grabbed her by the arm and pushed her back into the tiny room as a dozen YVH droids came around the corner. A second later the ground shook like an angry rancor and streams of sand fell from the ceiling around them.

"All set!"

Mara grabbed Ami's arm again and pulled her out of the cell against her protests to the new hole in the ceiling, under which a dozen YVH droids rested in pieces. Looking up through the new tunnel, Mara could see her ship hovering above them lowering a cable down from the ventral hatch as planned.

"You take the line up," Mara said. "I'll be right behind you."

"I still don't..."

Mara grabbed the descending line, wrapped it around Ami's arms and chest with a self-tightening loop before she could complain and sent the signal through the Force for Ben to retract the line.

"This is not safe!" Ami screamed, but Mara turned away. While Ami screamed various profanities from multiple languages as she ascended up the hole, Mara grabbed three of the explosives from her belt and threw them down the hallway toward the next oncoming wave of YVH droids, but used the Force to redirect them to the ceiling. As Ami cleared the hole, Mara used the Force to jump out and triggered the explosives, burying the droids with sand and rock from the bored tunnel. Mara waited on the surface of Tattooine for the still screaming and cursing Ami to disappear into the ship above her before she made another Force-enhanced jump into the ventral hatch. She grabbed onto the rungs of the ladder and pulled herself up so she could close the hatch beneath her feet. After an empathic pulse to Ben, she felt the ship angle upwards and accelerate out of the atmosphere.

"You crazy bitch!" Ami shouted down at Mara as the older woman used the Force to release her from the cable and lower her to the deck. Her cheeks were flushed red from shouting. "You almost got me killed!"

"You're welcome!" Mara shouted back, climbing out of the hatch access tunnel to the deck inside the common area. She felt the ship shudder slightly and knew they had broken through the atmosphere.

"Why couldn't you just stay out of my life?" Ami demanded, her face glowing a brighter red. "You didn't think the last thirty years were worth your time, but now you're interested?"

"I need your help," Mara said evenly. "I would've broken out anyone who was in that cell if they knew what you know."

"So I'm still too insignificant for you to care about? Well you can go shove whatever it is you want right up your..."

"What is going on here?" Ben's meek voice came from across the room. Mara and Ami both turned to look at him and he noticed that their hair colour and facial features were nearly identical. "Why are you shouting at each other? And...who are you?"

"No," Ami said in disbelief and rounded on Mara again. "You didn't! You didn't tell him about me?! You are one seriously messed uppathetic excuse..."

"Ben," Mara interrupted wearily. "This is Amidala Jade. She is your sister."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

General Stragoron's fleet dropped out of hyperspace around Shumogi, joining up with General Pulastra's fleet to create a blockade consisting of nearly a thousand Black Vornskr capital ships. The space around Shumogi, a sparsely inhabited planet with a large population of Bogan supporters, lit up with more activity than it had seen in almost five hundred years as the ships took up formation around the undefended planet.

Eriana began issuing orders, directing her fleets to begin preparations. She ordered the cargo from Fondor transferred to General Pulastra's ships, ships to deploy in a defensive array, ships to attack military bases on the planet, and battle strategies prepared for the inevitable confrontation. After three hours, all they had left to do was wait.

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-