The Jedi and the Sith, dressed back in their casual clothes, leave Jori's ship and look around. "How d'ya like it?" Rylo asks, gesturing around him. He has set up a tent for himself, a more sophisticated stove over the fire, a water purification station, a solar generator, a sonic dishwasher, a sonic shower, and even a high-scale holoprojector. Pointing proudly at the last item, he grins, "Bet you'll love watchin' Huttball on that!"

"I don't care about sports," Jori says flatly.

"Huttball's too barbaric for my tastes," Loneva says hesitantly, "But I can think of plenty of other uses for it. You did well."

Jori examines the other items. "The stove is an improvement, at least. The shower is unnecessary, though. We have a nearby hot spring that we bathe in."

"The shower's mainly for me. I didn't think you ladies would take too kindly to my sharing the bath with you. Not to mention a sonic shower's more effective."

"It's unnecessary and a drain on our resources. The hot spring is more than adequate. We can simply take turns," she says, pointing at the shower. "Take it down."

Loneva puts a hand on Jori's arm and whispers to her. "Try asking him nicely."

"No."

"Fine, fine, I'll take it down. Where's the hot spring anyway?" Loneva points to it. "Okay, I'll be there when I'm done here if you need me." He dismantles the walls of the sonic shower, loads them into a repulsor wagon, and has it pilot them into his ship. When it's gone, he takes the towel he'd hung on the sonic shower and heads off.

"I don't know what you see in him," Jori shakes her head. "He's arrogant, he's hypocritical, he's wasteful, and he's unprincipled."

"He's also fit, handsome, funny, and I think he's proven himself helpful. So you had a disagreement with him. Can't you get over it?"

Jori sighs. "I don't see how I can. It's...it's just such an important thing to me."

"You and I disagree far more on politics than you and him, but we don't let that come between us."

"But we come from different perspectives. You don't cling to democracy out of malice, you like it because you genuinely believe it's what's best for the galaxy," Jori argues.

"So what? What was it you said about democracy? It's 'nothing more than glorified mob rule'? Do you view me as a supporter of mob rule?" she lifts Jori's hand.

Jori squeezes the Jedi's hand. "No, I honestly don't believe that's what you want."

"Then why are you so hard on Rylo? Maybe there's more to him than you can see right now."

"Time will tell." She kisses the back of Loneva's hand and checks on their holonet surveillance. "Oh, look at this. It seems there are reports of a missing Eternal ship in the Mid Rim."

"Really?" Loneva taps her cortical implant, downloading the information into it. "Looks like from its trajectory, the ship was headed for Dantooine."

"I think it's worth checking out," Jori says.

"Alright. I'll leave Rylo a note on a datapad and set our transmitter to scan only and encrypt the controls," Loneva offers.

"Do you have the parts from his ship?" Loneva picks up a box that opens to her fingerprints and shoves the ignition coil and transceiver from Rylo's ship in it. "Perfect. Lock your ship and we'll take mine."

"Why yours?"

"Because the Zakuulans haven't seen it, and because it has an Isotope 5 engine. This seems like an endeavor that we'll need it for," Jori explains.

"Fair enough," she finishes typing out the note and sets the datapad on the survey station. "Let's go."

They climb into Jori's ship and Loneva looks around. "You know, even though you've been here for over two years, I've never really had a good look inside your ship, other than your bedroom."

"I just didn't think you'd care for it. Other than my bedroom, there's really nothing interesting in here. I particularly didn't think you'd care for the decor or the lighting scheme, since they're both rather Imperial." She turns on the engine, closes the ramp, and lifts off the ground. The ship circles around the falling moon and blasts into the sky.

Several hours later, the Dantooine system pops into view. "Ah, Dantooine. I thought of going here."

"Why?"

"It's out of the way, and there's not much here besides farmers. I probably could have found a safe spot to lay low for a while."

Jori raises an eyebrow. "What changed your mind?"

"The kinrath. Not to mention, the Zakuulans would probably have looked here since they'd think a Jedi would hide in the old academy."

"Ah, yes. The Jedi Civil War. That academy was destroyed by Malak, wasn't it?"

Loneva nods. "Mostly. Part of the building still stands, but it's infested by laigreks, and they're even worse than the kinrath. It was also prominent in the Jedi Order's salvation years after Revan and Malak."

"Really? I'm afraid that's a part of Republic history I'm not familiar with."

"It involved a rather strange breed of Sith who waged a covert war against the Jedi Order. They were stopped by Meetra Surik, a Jedi who had been exiled from the Order for defying the Council and following Revan to war against the Mandalorians. Honestly, that's pretty much all I know about it," she shrugs. "Anyway, I can look that all up later if you're interested. We should look for that Zakuulan ship now."

"Agreed. Where do you suppose it could be?"

"Well, there's only one planet in this system. Let's try scanning the whole place first."

"Right." Jori sends out a pulse to detect active ships. "Nothing on the other side of the star."

"Why would there be?"

"Perhaps to hide."

Loneva rolls her eyes. "I don't know if you paid attention to my last finding, but I discovered that the ships in the Eternal Fleet are unmanned."

"Then how do the Knights of Zakuul get from one planet to the next?"

"Well, there are exceptions when that's necessary, like when they want to smack down a planet's population and keep them under control." She pauses. "But we don't know if that's the type of ship we're looking for."

"Nor do we know it isn't," Jori points out.

"Fair enough," she shakes her head. "Sorry, I'm a bit sensitive to people insulting my intelligence. I know you didn't mean to. It's just a sore spot with me."

"No harm done," Jori says, continuing the scan. "Ah, there we go. Faint electromagnetic signatures, coming from the planet...the southern continent, which appears to be otherwise uninhabited. That could very well be our ship."

"Let's go in for a landing." They fly in and set the ship down in a clearing five kilometers from the signature and burst out of the ship. "It's due south," Loneva says, and with a push of the Force, starts running.

Jori speeds off, following her. "What if the ship is full of Knights? Could we handle them?"

"I doubt it is," Loneva says, "They would have called for help and had reinforcements here. If it's manned, it will probably be Skytrooper droids. I imagine they're a lower priority than Knights."

They close in on the ship. "We're about to find out." They jump over a gorge and come to a standstill. The ship shows no signs of activity. "I can't sense anyone inside," Jori says, reaching out with the Force. "It should be safe to approach."

Loneva puts her hand on the ship. No response. "Give me a moment. I think I can slice the door." She lifts her hand and the bolts fly off the panel as it pops off. "Hmm...strange, very strange."

"Is something wrong?"

"I've never seen this configuration before." She senses Jori's apprehension. "Don't worry, I'll be able to get it open. I just need a little time."

"I'll keep a lookout." Jori turns away and closes her eyes. She stretches her senses all around here. There are a few animals in the distance. One has simple, predatory thoughts. A kath hound, most likely. Another has simple thoughts, but these are more docile. Probably an iriaz. To her relief, the two animals are far from each other, or she would be tempted to prevent the kath hound from hunting the iriaz. She senses a number of other creatures under the soil with complex thoughts. Not intelligent, but complex. Must be laigreks. Though she would not say so in front of Loneva, they're the creatures she wants to see the least since she doesn't think she could keep her composure around them.

"Got it!"

Jori snaps out of her trance and walks back to Loneva. "We must be ready in case there are droids inside." She unhooks her lightsaber from her belt.

Loneva steps inside. "I'm not sensing any droid activity. Are you?"

Jori shakes her head. "Only a faint electrical hum from the front."

Loneva presses her implant and the rest of the doors open. She leads Jori forward. When they pass through the next door, Jori ignites her saber to light the way. What they see makes them both jump. "Yeah… we'd better not activate this whole ship." The sides of the hall are lined with Skytrooper charging booths, most of them occupied.

"Perhaps we should see why they're non-functional in the first place."

Loneva puts her right ring finger on a line, sending a small charge from it. It relays back and her implant processes the information. "Ah. It seems the main power feed is severed. Must have short-circuited when they crashed."

"Then there's no harm in starting the main computer."

"If we can even find it." She continues through the hallway and into the cockpit. A simple press of a button starts the computer. "Nice...accessing their systems."

"What should we do with this ship?"

"I, um...didn't think that far ahead. Maybe we could take it to the Republic and have one of their engineers look at it."

"Do you have any contacts? Any who will not be noticed by the Zakuulans?"

Loneva shakes her head. "No. Do you?"

"If I did, I wouldn't have asked."

"So dismantling it and finding out its secrets isn't an option. Unless...maybe we could take it back to Eol Sha with us and do the work there!"

"No, it might start transmitting. That would expose us, and Rylo as well," Jori says.

"Hmm...I know!" She pulls a small rod out of her implant and inserts it into the computer.

"What are you doing?"

"Downloading the schematics," Loneva grins. "If I keep them here and we happen to get caught, nobody will ever know."

"Good thinking," Jori smiles, and gives Loneva a pat on the rear.

The Jedi rustles the Sith's hair. "No distractions, please."

The computer's console goes red and sparks. "What's happening?"

"Kriff. This thing knows it's being sliced." She waves a hand and shorts out the transmitter. When she removes the rod from the computer, she checks it. "Too late, the beacon's out. We need to get out of here." She pushes the rod back into her implant as Jori leads the way out.

"Hopefully we can get to my ship in time."

"We probably can. I'll analyze it on the w-" Her sentence is cut short and she seizes up.

"Loneva? Loneva, what's wrong?" The Jedi says nothing as she convulses in the middle of the hallway. A stream of drool drops from her mouth. "Oh, Force." Jori removes the data rod from Loneva's implant. "Loneva?" She collapses forward into Jori's arms. The Sith slings her over her shoulder. "The second time in as many days." She pockets the data rod and runs out of the ship, moving as fast as she can under the Jedi's weight, though the trees and vegetation and up into her ship. She lies Loneva on a bed in her medical bay. "Seetwo, look after Loneva! I need to get us out of here."

"But Mistress Kanath, I am not programmed for medical functions!"

"Just do what you can! Make sure she's secure and give her some adrenaline." She fires up the engines and lifts off, just as she sees several Eternal ships approaching.

"Unknown vessel, you are not on this planet's register. Please identify yourself." Jori does not answer, instead punching in the hyperspace coordinates for Eol Sha. "Unknown vessel, respond immediately or you will be fired upon!"

Jori turns up her ship's engines, flying in a zig-zag pattern through the small contingent of ships as they fire. They miss her and hit one another, causing minor hull damage. Her computer finally finishes calculating and she makes the jump into hyperspace. As soon as the stars streak past her she runs into the back to check on Loneva. The Jedi still isn't responding. Upon closer examination, she sees that her implant's lights have gone off. "Oh Force," she swallows, the bottom dropping out of her stomach. She lifts Loneva up, touching their foreheads together. She feels nothing. "No. No, it can't be!" Her fear grasps her and she puts her hands on Loneva's abdomen. A darker lightning with a black haze courses through Loneva's body.

The Jedi coughs and opens her eyes. Her implant switches on. "Wh-where am I?"

Jori holds Loneva close, shushing her. "Shh...don't speak. I almost lost you...again."

Loneva gingerly pats Jori's shoulder. "What happened to me?"

"It was that data rod from the Eternal ship's computer...it shut off your cortical implant."

The Jedi groans. "I really should've done a quarantine protocol before analyzing it. That's Slicing 101. How could I have been so stupid?"

Jori silences her with a kiss. "Don't blame yourself. We needed data. You couldn't have seen the malicious programming."

"But I should've. Oh well, I'll run it on one of my closed models when we get back."

"That...that sound good." The Sith hangs her head.

"Is something else wrong?"

Jori shudders. "After I pulled the rod out, you didn't come to. I tried to touch your mind, and I got the same response I get from a corpse." She looks up at Loneva. "For almost a minute, you were technically dead."

"Well, I'm not now. So what's wrong?"

"I...I'm just still trying to get over the shock."

Loneva grabs her chin. "Come on. You know you're a terrible liar. Now what is it?"

"To bring you back, I...I reached deep into the Dark Side. I gave into my fear."

"You're a Sith. Don't you deal with the Dark Side on a regular basis?" Loneva quirks a brow.

"Not like this. I can usually control my emotions enough that I can pull out at will. This...was different."

Loneva puts a hand on her shoulder. "You don't seem the worse for the wear. And the fact that you're so uneasy is a good sign. It'll help you avoid it in the future."

Jori sits on the bed next to Loneva. "How do you know? What if you get in similar danger, and I'm tempted again? It'll be even harder to resist then."

The Jedi pulls the Sith onto her lap. "Then I promise to be careful," she says, putting her head on Jori's shoulder. "I love you, and I can't bear the idea of how much it'd hurt you if I died. I'll do everything I can to stick around for you, Jori."

Tears stream down the Sith's face. "The overseers were right. I am weak. I make attachments too easily. I let them run too deep...they were right to kill my tuk'ata."

Loneva kisses Jori's neck, the back of her head, and her ear. "No, they weren't. They did that because they wanted to make you dependent on them. You are a strong, smart woman. I haven't felt as in love with you as I ever have with anyone." She wipes the tears from Jori's eyes. "Come on. Stop beating yourself up."

Jori wraps her arms around Loneva, sobbing to her heart's content. When she finishes, she kisses Loneva on the cheek. "I love you, too. I never truly believed in myself until I met you. That means a lot to me. Thank you."

"So...tell me more about this tuk'ata of yours."

Jori sits up straight. "Well, I came across him when I was scouring the yard for artifacts. Whatever was genuinely left by the ancient Sith lords was found long ago. The Overseers had buried them in newer spots. I found one spot where the dirt looked freshly-dug and started digging myself when I heard a growl coming from behind me. That was when I saw him. He was actually smaller than most tuk'ata. I approached him and reached out to him with the Force to calm him. He calmed for a second, then started barking at me again. I turned away, and he charged right at me. He stopped when I stood, but didn't run away. He fled when I tried to pet him, so I just went back to digging up my artifact."

Loneva strokes Jori's hair, clearly interested in the story. "Go on."

"The next time I went out to search for artifacts, I saved a few pieces of meat from my lunch and took them with me. I'd made sure to mark the spot where I'd seen him before. He approached me again, still growling, so I put the meat on the ground. That seemed to instantly gain his trust, so I fed him more. When he finished eating, he came over and sniffed my hand. I reached out to pet him, and he didn't bite me, but he fled again after I finished. Day after day, I went out and slowly got him used to me, until he started following me around. I ordered a tuk'ata training manual and used a few of the techniques in there to make him obedient. They worked surprisingly well, and I got to the point where I could order him to return to his den."

"Did you ever see his den?"

Jori nods. "I did. It seems that the larger ones would come by and try to steal his food. He would growl viciously at them. Once, when he wasn't there and they were trying to steal his food, I struck fear into their minds with the Force, and they stopped bothering him. Every day, when my training concluded, I would go out to his den and play with him. He took quite well to fetching balls and sticks." She took a deep breath. "At that point, I was at the head of my class. I could feel the other students' envy, but it never occurred to me that they would actually try anything, since killing fellow students was forbidden. I should have kept in mind that in essence, getting caught was forbidden."

"So what happened?"

"They lured me out into the open when the Overseers weren't around. I never found out exactly what they had planned to explain my death, but they'd plotted it anyway. Three of them said they'd discovered an artifact that they needed me to date, since I'd earned a reputation for identifying periods of Sith history. I looked at it and found it went all the way back to before the Sith species had been conquered by the first Dark Jedi. It was a rare find, and just when I'd finished examining it, I heard one of them cry out. I turned around and saw my tuk'ata, biting his leg. His lightsaber was drawn, and I instantly figured out what was happening, so I hit the three of them with the same bolt of lighting and told them that if I ever caught any of them alone, I'd kill them. They fled, and my tuk'ata came up to me. I rewarded him with a treat whose recipe I had learned in the training manual."

"What happened after that?"

"After that...they went and told the Overseer that I was keeping a pet. He...searched out my tuk'ata, and killed him." She sniffs. "I suppose it was all for the best since otherwise he might have forced me to kill him myself. I knew it had been the other students who told him."

"What did you do?"

Jori's voice deepens and her expression hardens. "I hunted all of them down and killed them, one by one. I was never caught."

"And how did that make you feel?"

"It felt good when I did it, but later I felt awful. Don't get me wrong, they deserved it, but killing them didn't bring him back. A part of me died when the Overseer killed him. A good part of me."

Loneva wraps her arms around Jori. "No, it didn't die. It was buried. You still remember your tuk'ata fondly, and he clearly loved you. I've seen how you act towards the animals on Eol Sha. The way you treat them is something only a good person can do."

The Sith kisses her on the cheek. "You always know just what to say."

"What was his name, by the way?"

Jori climbs off Loneva and walks to the door. "That's the worst part. I never got the chance to decide on one."

"Well, why don't you give him a posthumous name? Just to honor his memory?"

Jori nods. "I'll let you know when I think of one." She steps out. "We'll be back to Eol Sha in a few hours. In the meantime, you should get some rest."