Request and threats

Marai

I felt rather than heard the chime. I was up, walking toward the communications panel as it rang again. I tapped the annunciator. It was from Soko Linu. A face flashed on the screen, with a badge. She was a TSF officer, probably assigned to our door. I touched the accept key. "Yes?"

"Excuse me, you have a visitor. An Ithorian named Moza. He represents the Ithorian combine in charge of the Restoration project. He has asked to speak with you on urgent business, and Captain Grenn has approved the visit if you wish it."

"Give me a moment. Is it possible to get some tea?"

"Of course. I will have some sent up."

The door into the bedroom opened and Kreia came in. "We are expecting a visitor."

"Keen Jedi senses?" I asked.

"Good human ears and a speaker set too loud." She harrumphed.

"You know if you spent five minutes not complaining, I'd probably fall over dead from a heart attack." Atton came out of his room.

"Don't tempt me to find out." Kreia snarled.

The door opened, and the Ithorian came in. Right behind him was a motorized tray, and a droid. It bleeped and whistled at me.

"Did you check for needle spine?" It bleeped an affirmative. "Good. If we die it will be something really esoteric." It replied with something that sounded like a chuckle.

"Thank you for granting me some of your time." The Ithorians sound like the woodwind section of an orchestra. They have four throats and use all of them when talking. Their language was highly complex, and only those with a rare skill can reproduce it with any clarity. However he surprised me by speaking basic with a bagpipe intonation. "I have come at the behest of Chodo Habat, our leader on this station."

"What do you wish to speak with me about?" I asked.

"Are you familiar with our purpose on this station?"

"The restoration project? I have heard of it, but I cannot say I know much about it beyond that."

"The ecosystem was almost destroyed in the Sith attack. It is not something that can be repaired overnight. It is the work of millennia or more for a planet to heal itself, and the people cannot wait. We have labored to do so with as little impact on the native ecosystem that has survived." I nodded. Humans had always been too short sighted when we tried our hand at ecosystem manipulation. They had imported a vine that grows on Corellia to Sandial three centuries ago to help in curbing soil erosion caused by over harvesting of the Diamond wood tree there.

Unfortunately nothing on Sandial ate the vine, it was incredibly invasive and grew rapidly. The forests were almost choked to death before someone had acted. Instead of merely burning out what they had planted, they had imported an herbivore that fed on the vine, only to discover that not only would nothing on the planet eat the animals, but they bred like rats, loved the taste of Diamond wood bark, and their feces was lethal to the local vegetation.

Diamond wood had been extinct outside of botanical gardens for almost a century. It had taken the Ithorians less than a decade to eliminate the problem, and if they ever replanted Diamond wood on that world, it would be safe again.

"We have worked hard, but now there is a problem we cannot combat. Have you heard of Czerka Corporation?"

"Yes, I have."

"Eight and a half years ago, Czerka took control of some of the shipping to the system. They have wormed their way into the government and within less than a year, they were the only major transport company licensed. They have been pressing for seven years now to have the contracts that we were originally awarded revoked so they could be given them in our stead.

"Their efforts in this regard have greatly hampered our efforts."

"How so?"

"Areas we had reseeded and repopulated with wildlife have been transferred from our control to Czerka's on the grounds that these areas are completed. This is not the case, of course, but they use compelling arguments to the local government. The areas immediately begin to deteriorate because we can no longer monitor or repair damage while it is under their purview. A mission they refuse because we would hamper their efforts. Some have gone from reseeded to devastated in less than three months.

We have reported this to the planetary government, but they refuse to listen to us. If they continue their wasteful manner, all of the work of years will be undone in a season."

"Why are they doing that?" I asked.

"I wonder myself why a human company that has specialized in shipping and weapons for 500 years suddenly wants to get into planetary reconstruction. It has never been a lucrative market. Our herds do this for the stipend we get and to ease our own pain at seeing such destruction.

"Perhaps it is that they wish unrestricted access to the planet. There are a number of sites where strip mining would give them high returns."

"How are they able to wrest areas from your control?"

"Primarily it is a legal loophole." He admitted. "In the last election over 80% of the politicians who were elected campaigned using funds Czerka supplied. The same government definition decided upon for restored land was the equivalent of the covering of a landfill. Such a covering is not assured for a decade or more after the sod has been laid down. But they are accepting grass and trees planted less than a year ago as complete.

"As I have said, they had done everything but buy the local government officials and when we refuse to concede they are not above strong-arm tactics and sabotage. Our ships have been damaged in their hangers. Our supplies are contaminated with pests that we would never have even considered introducing. Our people have been injured and killed."

He looked confused and sad. "We are a peaceful people. The idea of war itself is anathema to us. We cannot face such actions. We are a passive people who only wish to restore the natural beauty of the planet."

I was moved by his words. He had laid it all out, but at the same time there was no demands, only a plea for help. "How can I help?"

"Chodo Habat, is our leader but among our people, only a priest and healer can lead in such an endeavor as healing a planet. He sensed something when your ship arrived in the system. A disturbance, and echo if you will, in the Force. He felt that if he offered to heal you, it would help our efforts to heal the planet below."

"Heal me." I replied.

"I am unsure what he meant by this. I am no priest, not even an acolyte. He told me to tell you this directly. 'Tell the young one within the Force that I felt her pain as if it were my own. I feel the way in which this pain was inflicted, and by the grace of nature perhaps I can heal the wounds inflicted so long ago'."

"Perhaps this shaman of yours should concentrate on the planet below and his own people if he wishes to ease pain." Kreia purred dangerously.

"Forgive me. I may have misunderstood what Chodo was saying, and translating from our language to yours is tiring. However if this offer of mutual assistance has an appeal to you, he will be glad to receive you at our compound in Residential module 082 East."

"I will consider this, and let him know when I am free to move around."

"This pleases me. I will inform Chodo, and hope to speak with you again."

He left.

Kreia grumbled, "Now perhaps we can get some sleep-" The com panel bleeped again. "The next person that interrupts me will suffer my wrath!"

I walked over to the com panel. A droid looked back at me. "Greeting human. I am B4D4, administrative assistant for the Citadel Station Branch of Czerka Corporation. I am at this moment trying to connect you with the Regional Chief Executive Officer, Jana Lorso. Please hold."

Interesting. The Ithorians have to go through the local chief of police. But Czerka gets to call right in.

A woman with tattoos running in a cornet around her forehead looked up, and gave me a brilliant smile as fake as a glass diamond. "Hello! As my assistant has told you, I am Jana Lorso."

"Yes. May I ask the nature of your communication with me?"

"I am reliably informed that the Ithorians intend to contact you. Doubtless they will try their overweening attempts to gains assistance in fighting the windmills they have created. No doubt with implied guilt and veiled threats."

"Oh?" My eyebrow cocked.

Lorso nodded sadly. "Yes, they do play the downtrodden victim so well, don't you think? Everything is an evil plot to stop them, and they need someone to 'rescue' them. They were no doubt emboldened by the rumors going about the station that you are a Jedi knight."

"Rumors?" Everything she had accused the Ithorians of had done were already in her comments so far.

She looked surprised. "Oh I am sure you have heard them all! That you are Jedi in hiding, that you are wanted by the Exchange, but have challenged them to do anything about you. That other organizations both good and ill even now are heading here to gather you in. But your standing with the Jedi is incidental to why I have called you."

Really. Lets see, you said 'we know you're a Jedi. The Exchange is looking for you here, and if you don't run or agree, the weight of the galaxy will fall on you. Just knuckle under, get under the Corporate wing, and we'll protect you. Oh, and don't try to run. We handle all shipping out of here and all of our passenger berths will be booked, so sorry for the inconvenience'.

"Go on."

"What I do believe is you're a person of respectable demeanor, and we can always use such people as employees. Someone aiding me in helping the Telosians regain their home, not a bunch of mystical tree huggers who are unable to accept reality.

"I am not asking you to help for nothing. I am asking that you accept a contract with the Corporation as an adviser on military affairs. I see from what we have discovered, your background is in infantry tactics. Our contracts are very lucrative, and a wise woman can make her fortune here."

"How are the Ithorians ignoring reality?"

"Their methods to be blunt are haphazard and confused. Meandering like a river. They started on the region of the planet that used to grow their grain crops, leaving more important work unfinished! Sure they cleaned the oceans and have built catch basins to purify the runoff, but really, what about urban sectors? What about resort facilities? What about forty million tons of Redrocite near the south pole that could fund the restoration into the next decade, untouched because it would mean strip mining?

"They have already spent billions and at the rate they are going, a decade from now there will be nothing but a few dozen meadows and forests and a weather control station the size of a small continent."

"I understand your view point, and I will consider your offer."

"Very well, I will be anxiously awaiting your answer."

I keyed off. "If it is all the same to you two, I am going to take a shower before you go off sulking again." I walked past them into the fresher.

Citadel Station

Atton

I waited until I heard running water. "Explain something to me."

"If it is not too complex. I have neither the years remaining nor the desire to indulge your curiosity."

"She served during the Mandalorian wars. Most of the people I know that fought in it are mean old bastards that you'll have to hammer into the ground when they die. Or they're the kind that flinch at a violent word, and would stand there and let you beat them. Why is she so... confused? It's like she's two different people. Oh she's capable enough in a fight, but the wrong word makes you think she's going to bawl her eyes out. That isn't like any Jedi I ever saw."

"Yes. There are those that fell apart rather than go on. There are those that drew strength from the fray as they should. Her last act at Malachor wounded her deeply, and for a long time she has believed that she deserved much worse than the Jedi Council gave her. But on top of that loss in the war she lost the Force."

"Why is that so big a deal?"

She sighed. "Just this once I will explain and we will not speak of it again. Having the Force is like being able to see when those around you are blind. It guides your actions, supports them as your bones support your flesh in standing upright.

"Yet let us continue that analogy; after years of having those bones, or seeing with your eyes, picture suddenly being blinded, or having the bones removed. You go from being an upright person to suddenly being a lump of undifferentiated flesh.

"Jedi learn to depend on the Force the way you depend on your bones as a baby to support you when you learn to walk. More than bones because every human has bones, but every human does not have the Force. They depend on it so much that having it taken or torn away from them is as catastrophic as the physical infirmity I have described. When it is taken away they are crippled in ways you cannot even hope to imagine.

"Picture yourself with all of the knowledge of how to operate your hand snipped from your memory. Picture trying to learn all over again how to pick up a fork, how to hold a cup, how to cradle a child. Everything you have learned to do in your years which now comes automatically has to be done by consciously thinking about what you intend to do."

I stared at her. I remembered a man from a station I had been on a decade or so ago. He'd taken a nasty blow to the head, and had lost the connections between the mental dictionary we create in life, and the motions of his mouth to use those words. Catastrophic aphasia they called it. I pictured the frustration and anger I saw on his face just trying to do something as simple as ask for a drink in a Cantina. "I guess we that do not have the Force don't understand how important it is to the Jedi."

"Do not be surprised. In this instance you are without a doubt more efficient than a Jedi."

"Me?" I laughed.

"Yes you. You have not spent your entire life learning to sense and control the Force. When an emergency occurs, you do not think of what you can do with the Force, instead you think of what your muscles, your memories, your mind can accomplish. She has had to learn a new way in the last ten years, and still she does not wear that loss well. Having the Force return to her life has made it all the more disturbing."

"But to just rip it away like that! The Jedi abhor execution, but that seems a bit extreme to me."

"It is not done that way as much as you might think. A Jedi can no more rip the Force free from another living being than you can fly unassisted. They use a series of mind disciplines known only to the Masters that attunes the mind of the person so that they cannot feel the Force any more. Like a physician smoothing synthflesh into a wound to fill the void until healing can begin. The person walks in able to use the Force, and walks out knowing they had that ability, but also knowing they no longer have it."

"But... How did she regain it?"

"I do not know. Perhaps it is the fact that she ran away from the war. Perhaps she had already severed herself from it and they just touched the spots they knew. Conflict is the natural way of life, and isolation, refusal to fight is a weakness she had taken to heart, and it weakens her even now. She not only walked away from war, but had done everything she can to forget it for a decade. Add that to the equation and the last piece clicks into place.

"But come. We do her a disservice by speaking behind her back."

The door opened, and Marai walked out, toweling her hair. "Hey, I'm not sleepy. The bed's yours." I waved magnanimously.

She looked at me for a long time, then nodded, and went to bed.

I looked at the floor. As dog-tired as I was I had made the bed I didn't get to sleep in, and would now would not even lie in it. I took off my jacket, bunched it into a pillow, and went to sleep.

Exoneration, Problems, and going on

Marai

It took the TSF almost four days to clear us. When you consider 20 odd hours to Peragus, and the same back, it meant they spent a day and a half trying to lay the blame on us anyway.

When Lieutenant Grenn came in, he looked like they had taken his favorite toy away.

"Our forensic team was able to determine that another ship was in the system. Debris from that ship verifies that the Republic Frigate Harbinger had been there, but the ship had departed before their arrival. Sensor records from the mining station; or rather what was left of it, verified that another unidentified ship were the only ones that fired weapons there. Further those records verified that the miners and staff had died previously to an unverified enemy's actions before you, Marai Devos left your Kolto tank." He stopped reading. He had hoped we were guilty, and it showed on his face. "Therefore you are released from house arrest. However the Republic is sending a ship to undertake their own investigation, and you are required to remain on the station until they have completed it."

"How long will I have to stay?" I asked.

The Frigate Sojourn is enroute, and should be here within the week. Not more than a week to ten days. The Republic has agreed to foot the bill so the rooms will remain yours until they are done."

"What about our ship?" Atton asked. "Is the Ebon Hawk still impounded?"

He sighed. "The ship's I&D is completed. All you have to do is come to my office and complete the paperwork. The ship has already been ordered to docking bay 72."

"And my droid?" I asked.

"Your droid is still aboard the ship. It will be aboard when your ship is transferred. The rest of your gear is in our impound locker, and will be returned when you come in for the paperwork."

"Thank you." He grunted, and left. We had moved from uncaught criminals to civilian.

The door closed. "What now? We need to find a way off the station. Whether it's the Ebon Hawk or some other ship. Where do we head?" He considered. "How about Nar Shaddaa? If you've got people hunting you it's a good place to hide."

I grinned. "Experience or story?"

"Hey, everyone needs some quiet time without someone putting blaster rounds through them." He protested.

Kreia had been silent, and I looked at her. "What do you think, Kreia?"

"It is difficult to say. I think we are on this station for a reason but we may have spent too much time here already. Even if Harbinger was destroyed at Peragus, which I doubt, other Sith are no doubt on the way.

"Still I had been told that some Jedi might still be on Telos. Jedi who might restore your capabilities, or sever the link between us."

"Well?" Atton looked at me.

I considered. "Whether we stay on Telos, or go, a ship is necessary. Let's go get our ship back."

Citadel station wastes no energy on things like atmosphere over its entire surface. Every module is separated by vacuum, and accessible only by shuttle pods that flit back and forth between them. By checking the information kiosk, I discovered that the main TSF armory/office was in module 081, which also housed the shops and cantinas for a third of the station.

It made sense when you thought about it. If someone was going to do something stupid like get drunk and start a fight, that sector was most likely so why not put the local lock up and major police presence there?

We had passes for a day's travel. The problem was, all the money we had was what we might have picked scavenging in the mines on our escape. If they hadn't been paying for room and meals, we would have already been on the streets hungry.

We got off at the access station. The map showed that we would have to pass one of the larger cantinas to get to the offices. Since they had not returned the miner's uniform, I was still in my prison garb, and was drawing odd looks from passerby. I was willing to bet a lot of calls had been made about the 'escaped prisoner'.

We were walking by the Cantina when it happened. A Sullustan slammed into the wall ahead with brutal force. A pair of mercenaries in full gear sauntered out of the Cantina after him. The smallest topped me by almost 40 centimeters.

"Please." The Sullustan begged. "I do not want trouble. It was an accident, I swear!"

"It didn't look like an accident to me or to my friend. It looked like maybe you wanted me to look stupid."

"That is not so. I did not mean to disturb your drinking. Allow me to leave and I will trouble you no longer."

"Hear that Slim?" The shorter Mercenary said. "Not even an apology. I would be angry if it was me."

"Oh I am angry." The larger one said almost softly. "I'm just thinking of where to hit him first."

"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped. The very idea that these two would beat a defenseless being smaller than I was! I saw the TSF guard at the corner. He looked toward us, and decided there was somewhere else he should be. No help there.

The smaller one looked at me, dismissing me in the same look. "Not that it is any of your business but this little creature elbowed his way to the bar and made my friend spill my drink."

"That is not what happened."

"Shut up you little rat."

"I would rather listen to his side of this story." I told them. They actually looked surprised. As if my standing up to them was unique.

"Pushing and shoving yes, but it was them doing it. Then they so bravely dragged me out here." The Sullustan replied. "Look at them! Do you think any of my race would be stupid enough to force a confrontation with one let alone both of them? I know what they want. To send me bleeding and injured home. My spirit broken."

I had to admit his point. The average Sullustan is only a meter two to a meter three tall. Shorter than I was! To face off against two men one of them almost twice his size wasn't bravery it was insanity!

I must have taken too long thinking, because the large of the two stepped forward, trying to tower over me. Big deal. People had done that all my life. But a small person has all sorts of more interesting targets to hit. "This doesn't concern you, bint. Just walk away or we might have to convince you."

I looked up, and he should have been warned by my smile. It is not how big they are my old teacher in Te-rehal-Vor had taught us that first day. It is their willingness to be hurt. For with what I teach you here, hurting anyone that does not understand the way is all they will get from it.

I automatically fell into the third stance, the one most effective against a larger opponent. He saw it, and grinned. "Look here. We got a wannabe Jedi!"

I didn't correct him. Te-rehal-Vor is a martial art the Jedi use, but it is not wholly ours. The very first Echani to ever become a Jedi had brought it. She had used it to teach herself to fight with a sword even though she was blind. But had discovered that it worked as well with bare hands as it did with a blade. The Echani had learned it in return from us, and there had been a friendly rivalry between us to expand the art for over 20,000 years.

When a Jedi Master went to speak to the Echani masters, he would have to walk the school as it is called. Face all of the disciples of the master he wanted to speak to, and if he defeated them, was allowed that honor. The Grand Master of the Echani in our art would do the same occasionally. I was blessed with having been there the last time such a master had walked our school, and had borne the bruises proudly.

"I don't want to hurt you. But if that is the only option, then let us begin."

"Then you should have walked away." The big man said. "Shall I tell her what happens to Jedi when they mess with us?"

"Nah. Just beat her and we'll find something else more fun to discuss."

The big guy reached out, and the instant he was close enough to touch, I struck. Strike, I felt his arm break inside the armor, then I hit him with what is called Fikhataar. The heart strike. It was meant to plunge the fingers through the chest muscles and rip out the heart. Against an armored opponent, it was meant to pass all of the energy through the armor into their body.

I admit I hadn't done this is a long time. The last time I did I had used the Force to aid my blow, and since I had found it again, I was worried that I might actually rip out his heart. So I pulled the punch.

He gasped, and fell to his knees, clutching his chest. He coughed, and blood came up.

"Slim?"

"It feels like she broke all of my ribs!" He gasped in agony.

I turned, my hand catching the other man's armor in front, my foot slamming into his knee. The armor should have protected him, but Te-rehal-Vor assumed the enemy would be in armor. My blow neatly hit him, and I felt the knee snap as it bent 90 degrees from the way it should. He fell to his unwounded knee screaming.

"You will not pick on the small and weak when I walk these decks." I said to the smaller one. "Is that clear?" He nodded shocked. "Is it?" I demanded of his friend. He nodded unable to talk. I had inflicted what is called a flailed chest on him. Every rib had been broken loose from the sternum. It usually happens in air car accidents. Just breathing would be hurting right now.

"So I think both of you should go and see a med tech. Maybe pain is a teacher as my master always said." I stepped back. Treating them with contempt was more painful than the wounds I had inflicted. They helped each other to their feet, and staggered away.

The Sulustan stared at me with wonder in his face. "How may I ever repay you?"

"By going home, and staying away from them." I said softly. "Go before any friends they have might decide to show up."

"If only staying away was easy! Czerka hires mercenaries as their security force, and there are more of them than the TSF can face. There are sections of the station that are patrolled by them instead of the TSF. It is sad that the Republic does nothing about it. If the Jedi were still here..." He said the last plaintively. As if the Jedi would make everything right again.

I watched him scurry off.

Any good feelings I had from rescuing the innocent vanished moments after we reached the TSF offices. Instead of a human the desk was manned by a protocol droid. I asked about my ship, and the day went downhill like a meteor hitting an atmosphere.

I rubbed my head. "So someone transferred our ship not to docking bay 72, but to Telos?"

"That is correct." It replied levelly.

Maybe the voice was supposed to calm me, but it wasn't working. "You impound my ship and then you let someone steal it?"

"I knew it!" Atton raged. "That damn T3 is probably joy riding through hyper space right now!"

"On the contrary that could not have occurred." The droid replied. "While the droid you speak of is not accounted for, there are numerous systems, both civilian and military that survey the space around Telos at all times. There is no record of a ship named the Ebon Hawk or any ship of comparable mass departing the system. It is more likely that the ship has been relocated to Telos as I first reported."

"Wait a minute! Telos has acid rains and every area except for where the reclamation is going on is supposed to uninhabitable!"

"Not uninhabitable merely inhospitable." The droid replied. "The quarters on Module 082 will remain yours until this investigation is completed."

"Oh great." Atton snarled. "They have to investigate to see what happened at Peragus, then the Republic has to investigate it too. Then they have to investigate how a bounty hunter slipped through their oh so efficient security and now they have to investigate who stole our ship!" He threw up his hands. "What next? They investigate why they have so damn many investigations?"

"What about our gear?" I asked.

"Except for the miner's uniform you had appropriated, it is in locker B21 in the impound locker. Since you had clothing already, there is no reason for us to return it to you."

It was good that Atton was there to vent, or I would have been screaming. All I had to wear was my Jedi robes, and I didn't want to wear them. They brought back too many memories. We collected the gear, and I spent a long time looking at them. Yes they were mine. Yes I had been a Jedi. But I did not feel worthy of wearing them and proclaiming to the Galaxy my shame. It was as if I had been a military officer cashiered for cowardice having only an old uniform to wear in public.

But there was nothing else to wear. The droid and the impound clerk assumed I didn't want to look like a convict, and expected me to return that uniform as well. Finally I put them on. It felt so comfortable familiar and wrong at the same time. I felt the loop that would have held my saber staff. I felt naked without it.

Atton took one look at me, and his eyes bugged out. Maybe he was finally realizing that he was actually flirting with one of those vanished Jedi.

"What now?" He finally asked.

I sighed. "Even with the Republic paying for our room and meals unless we intend to stay in those rooms we will need money. To buy passage to the planet, or out of the system." I shook my head. "I think we need to speak with Chodo Habat."

Ithorians

Marai

It was different walking in a Jedi robe compared in that prison uniform. People looked at me and froze. They stepped out of the way, or bustled away from us whispering to each other. Occasionally I saw a look of hope or yearning. We went back to Residential 082, and the information kiosk directed us to the Ithorian enclave.

They had taken an entire housing section, and converted it to their own use. The door opened, and a greeter saw us. I could detect a subtle movement of a hand. If he had felt we were a danger the TSF would already be on the way. I didn't think it was much of a deterrent. They'd probably have to do another investigation.

He gave that foghorn organ harmonic they called language, and I bowed. "I have been asked to attend upon Chodo Habat."

The being spoke again, and a door behind him opened. There were a lot of Ithorians. They tend to be very communal, with a much closer personal space than a human would consider comfortable. I estimate there were about seventy Ithorians living in a space that would have been cramped for maybe 30 humans. Their rooms were buried in vegetation, and there was a smell of growing plants in the air. I breathed in appreciatively. They watched us, and I could feel the nervousness. Ithorians are vegetarian herd creatures. Having meat eating pack animals like humans walking through even peacefully made them nervous.

Oddly Chodo was younger than I was. By looking at the rim of the eye you can see the markings of the young, and he still had traces of it which are only lost when they reach their thirtieth year.

"Ah, it gladdens my hearts that you have come to us, Marai Devos. I am Chodo Habat. Leader of our people on this world. I am sorry that our meeting must be because of our problems, but I had nowhere to turn before I sensed your arrival in this system."

"You are a priest of the Green Path?" I asked.

He was pleased that I had recognized the symbol on his robes. "Yes. As our customs require, all that travel far from our homes must be led by a priest. We of the Green Path are adepts of the Force as you well know."

I did indeed. Over 60 percent of the Conservation corps the Jedi had formed over the millennia had always been Ithorians. They have a larger percentage of their population sensitive to it than any race in the Galaxy, but they are so benign that less than a tenth of a percent compared to one for every 20 of the human populations, ever aspired to the Jedi order.

Instead five times as many had become those that caused deserts to bloom, that took the devastated lands and made them whole again as they wished to do here.

"I suspected that you might be one of the remaining Jedi and hoped that you could aid us. But I also felt that you were in need of healing."

"Your messenger mentioned this to me." I said. "But I still do not understand."

"The echo I felt upon your arrival was tainted, marred by an unbearable pain. It was a pain not of the body, but of the spirit itself. Never have I felt such from a single living being.

"I sensed that your link to the Force had been severed, but never have I felt such as this in my life! It is as if someone had dug into your soul with tools to wrest it from you, and the hollow place within the woman that now stands before me echoes with all that you might have attained."

"I once felt the Force. It was taken as you say, but now, for some reason, I feel it returning to me."

"If the Jedi had done this, they would have been more careful, willing to expend effort so that you were not harmed, but sure that the Force could not return. If you would let me examine you, perhaps I can help you heal yourself."

"Your speech is pretty but the Ithorians do not give away anything. Especially those of the Green Path. You are bold to speak of healing even one person if you cannot do the same for the planet below us." Kreia glared at him.

He looked at her. "Understand, Marai Devos, it pains us to see any being in pain. Yet your companion is correct. We must focus on the planet Telos, and our problems with Czerka."

"I have been apprised of some of those problems by Moza."

"There is much he does not know. Our first task is to begin the reconstruction again."

"Begin again? Cast aside almost nine years of work?"

"It would not be our first choice. However our problems have been many. When we first began, the Republic supplied a droid AI with the capability to oversee intelligence to assure that our efforts were recorded and balanced to assure we did no damage. Yet less than four months after Czerka began to operate here, the droid... disappeared."

"How could it disappear? Was it stolen?"

"I cannot say for certain. It was in the Telos Governmental offices. One day they came to work and it was gone." He considered. "It is possible that the task merely overloaded it, and it wandered off. Ecosystems such as this one are highly complex, and the patterns of intervention necessary are doubly so. However some among my herd believe that it was stolen. Such a droid intelligence could easily maintain a station twice the size of this one, and therefore is very valuable. Others believe that it was destroyed or taken by Czerka in their attempts to control the restoration. Why and how this happened is irrelevant.

"Unfortunately, the Republic is unable to supply another. We have spent our own money to purchase a lesser machine that can handle such affairs on a daily and perhaps weekly basis. But we fear that something will happen to this one as well. We would be unable to replace it if that occurs. It is due to arrive in the morning, and while the TSF has supplied an escort, I would ask you to bolster that team and assure that it arrives here."

I looked at him. "Where must I go?"

"There are other problems." He said softly. "It is not only Czerka we are dealing with. The Exchange is helping them."

"The Exchange."

"Yes." He stopped. "They have the bounty upon living Jedi, as you no doubt know. Jana Lorso has agreed to give them... concessions if they stay their hand against you on this station during this time. Concessions worth more than the bounty offered."

"I have heard it is quite a sum." He mentioned a figure, and I blinked. Coorta had been right. You could retire spend like a drunken miner, and still give your children a tidy sum when you died. "But what is worth more than that?"

"Think of all the vices people have, human. Think of one organization being given permission to exercise that franchise. Czerka owns enough of the government that a century from now when the planet is still a wasteland doing it their way, the Exchange will still be allowed to rape it as well."

The thought infuriated me. The planet below was homeland of over a billion and a half people. People wanting to go home, wishing it would be reclaimed, yet if Czerka had it's way, the generation now waiting would be dead and gone before anything substantive was done. All out of greed. I felt a hand on my arm, and looked at Kreia. I could feel her eyes, knew she would suggest I let this burden pass to another.

But once I had been a Jedi. I had put my life on the line for people with less to lose than these. By all the gods if I had regained the capabilities that had made me Jedi before, I was not going to step aside even if my death ended the order itself. I would earn the title again even if only to have it written as my epitaph.

"They will not use just force." I said. "They will use the law if they can, keeping their mercenaries and the Exchange as a last resort."

"You have judged the situation very well. Czerka has already petitioned a judge to have the droid seized."

"On what grounds?"

"The ship carrying the droid was damaged by a proton mine when it arrived at Deresai. We had to unload it, and reload it upon a hired courier."

I understood immediately. Deresai was a shipment point for a lot of illegal drugs and equipment. Since it was not a member of the Republic, the Jedi had never been able to come in and clean out that nest of villainy. Ships were allowed to use their facilities for repairs or fueling, even to deliver cargoes. But Under Republic law, all cargoes from the planet had to be searched and quarantined. Merely picking up any cargo there made the cargo suspect automatically.

"Where was the droid kept while you were waiting, and where was the courier based?"

"The ship held position away from the docks until the courier arrived. It was a Corellian diplomatic courier, and when asked, agreed to carry the droid from there."

"Do you have records of all this?"

"The report that the ship had been damaged and the actions of the captain were sent immediately. When the courier arrived, and had agreed, that information was sent as well. Both in sealed encyrpted packets under Corellian diplomatic seal. Copies are also aboard the courier for inspection."

I grinned. "Don't you know a friendly judge?"

"There are honest men still in the government."

"Then here is what I want you to do." I gave him the basis of the plan, and he agreed. In fact I was surprised it had not already occurred to him.

"It will be done. The ship will arrive tomorrow morning at 0800 hours on pad 4 in module 126."

"Good. I have something I have to do before it arrives." He looked a question at me. "I must find the leader of the Exchange here on the station. Perhaps I can talk them out of this bounty."

"The leader of the Exchange on the station is a Quarren named Loppack Slusk. However he has refused every request we have made for a meeting."

"Then where can I call him?"

"He does not deal directly with anyone leaving all such matter to his assistant Luxa. She spends a great deal of time at the Cantina in Module 044. She is the one you must convince."

"Then I will speak to her."

"Here." Chodo motioned, and Moza handed him three slim bracelets. "These are linked to our accounts. If you are helping us, we would be honored if you allow us to pay for your needs."

Moza

The woman walked out with her friends. I clutched myself near my third stomach. Chodo looked at me. "Did you feel it this time, Moza?"

"Yes, leader." I gasped. "Such pain and suffering. I have never felt such agony within one being before."

"I know." He said softly. "The last time I felt such was when I stepped upon Telos when we came to acknowledge contract. This woman holds more pain and suffering than an entire planet should hold."

"But how does she bear it? A normal being should fall and die just from a tithe of such pain."

"Humans, especially those who become Jedi are much stronger than they look. She bore this pain before she was stripped of the Force, and she bears it now because she will not accept the only alternative, which is to die. Perhaps by helping her heal, the way can be shown for Telos. We must concentrate on that."