Lord Darth Yoda - I think the whole experience really humbled Sascha. You are right to say that he doesn't expect to be taken on the mission, because he's humble enough to know that he massively screwed up, so he doesn't expect to instantly get right back in Aurine's good graces. Aurine, of course, wants to get back to normal as soon as possible, and that means taking her Padawan on missions again. I'm looking forward to writing all these characters in the Clone Wars (if they survive that long) - going to be a lot of fun.

thejoker122 - Tyra's not going to be a big factor in this fic, but she'll return to the series...I mean I spent like two books setting up her character, she' not just going to go away!

A/N - I combined two chapters into one because they both were a little short. On to the mission :).

Please enjoy the next chapter! As always your favourites and follows are appreciated!

Chapter 13: First Steps/Understanding

Nara Nalto collected herself for a brief second outside her Master's room. She didn't have the slightest idea why she had been summoned. But she didn't think that she had done anything wrong...recently, so it probably wasn't going to be a lecture.

She hoped.

She rang the chime before entering, "You wanted to see me, Master?" she said as entered her room.

Master Tiplee's room was one of the barest in the entire Temple. Most Jedi's rooms were pretty much the same, but many had customized them in some ways, whether that be having favoured possessions quietly displayed or various bits of species specific furniture in their room, no two rooms were exactly alike. For example, she had painstakingly carved the insignia for Shili into the ceiling of her room, as a way to make the room hers. Master Tiplee's room looked like it wasn't even being lived in.

But that was her Master. She was something of an enigma to her still, even after spending more than a year as her apprentice. While their relationship had become much better, they still weren't exactly close.

Inside the room, Master Tiplee was sitting with her legs folded underneath her, which was her standard meditation position. Mentally, Nara steeled herself for another meditation session with her Master. While the older she got, the more she was starting to see the uses of meditating, she was still too restless, too much of a predator to enjoy sitting in one place for hours on end. Her thoughts always ended up drifting away from the Force and on to inane things like a recent episode of a holodrama she watched. Or she would find herself wondering what was going to be served for dinner at the refectory. Meditation wasn't exactly supposed to go like that.

"We have a mission," Tiplee said, her feathery hair wafting around languidly to the unseen currents of the room.

Nara felt her eyes widen, "Already? We just got back from Deneba like two days ago!" Their mission hadn't been particularly hard or eventful, but she was used to getting at least a week to unwind between missions.

Her Master nodded soberly, "The demand for Jedi seems to be ever increasing, my apprentice. It seems like the days where we had time to rest may be in the past." Tiplee stared at her, "Are you ready for another mission, Nara? This mission is not so demanding, you could stay and work on your studies if you wish."

Nara wasn't about to take the offered excuse to stay behind, "I'm not that far behind on my coursework, and I can work on it if I get the time."

Despite being almost full Jedi in their own right, there were still mandatory classes that all Padawans took, luckily lessons were taught in a way that they did not need to be at the Temple itself. Nara had fallen behind schedule, partially because she had been busy with missions and partially because that sort of work didn't come that easy to her. She wasn't dumb by any stretch, but writing essays and compiling reports was not her forte.

Her Master shrugged and a small smile appeared on her face, "I didn't think you would be eager to take my offer, but remember you cannot delay your schoolwork forever. I don't want to see you denied the rank of Jedi Knight because you didn't want to do your reading."

"I'll get to it," she promised.

"Very well, you can come along – I think this should be a straightforward, relaxing mission, you might even have time to do some homework during the mission. We are being sent to Ubrora."

Nara racked her brain for anything related to 'Ubrora' and came up empty, "Am I supposed to know this planet, Master?"

Tiplee unrolled herself from her meditative position, "Unless you are an avid consumer of Thys root, no."

"Thys root?"

Tiplee sighed, "Thys root is ground up and used in pricey dessert dishes across the galaxy. Ubrora is the only place in the galaxy where it grows, despite many attempts to grow it offworld. Anyways, Ubrora has finally decided to join the Republic and we will be negotiating the treaty that brings them into it."

That sounds boring, Nara thought to herself. Not all missions that seemed boring ended that way she knew. She once had a boring trade negotiation turn into a very exciting mission filled with intrigue, assassin droids and bounty hunters. It had gotten perhaps a bit too exciting at points.

Master Tiplee was a respected diplomat and they often got missions that required hard negotiating rather than hard fighting, so she wasn't surprised to see another diplomatic mission be handed to them. "Is it just us going on the mission, Master?"

"The Council of Reconciliation has allowed me to choose another Jedi Knight to come with us on this mission, I was going to ask my sister, Tiplar." Nara looked at the ground at the mention of Tiplar, not that she had anything against her Master's twin sister, it was just that when the two sisters were together, she tended to be pushed to the background on missions.

"You don't want me to ask my sister," Tiplee observed.

Nara sighed and sat down across from her Master, "I like your sister, and she's a really good Jedi and probably a good pick to go with us, but..."

"…but we tend to ignore you when we go on missions together, yes, I'm aware."

Nara was surprised at the forthright admission, "I don't want to question you Master, but I wonder if maybe we could pair with someone else this time."

"You have someone in mind, don't you," Tiplee said with a half-smile.

There was no use in denying it, "What about asking Master Brynar. I know she and Sascha are awaiting another mission."

Tiplee paused and placed a delicate finger on her chin, "Very well, convince me that we should ask Master Brynar and her Padawan instead of my sister."

Nara took a moment to collate her argument, she knew her Master responded to logic and not emotion, therefore, simply saying that she wanted to go on a mission with her friend was likely to be counterproductive. "First, we can take Padawan Whitestar's ship. It's a good ship that would be acceptable for emissaries to fly."

"It's available to be booked?"

"Yes Master, I helped Sascha with some maintenance last night, and I'm fairly certain that it hadn't been checked out since."

"Having a ship ready to go would simplify things," Master Tiplee admitted, "As there is no public transport to Ubrora."

Nara pressed on with her arguments, "This is a diplomatic mission, and Sascha lacks diplomatic experience, he is often sent on missions that have more to do with security or peacekeeping. By taking him on this mission, we could give him more experience in this field."

"I'm not sure I could authoritatively talk about another Padawan's training, but his talents would seem to make him an excellent diplomat in the future."

"Sascha is also a great researcher and could help you with the negotiations."

Tiplee smiled wryly, "Are you saying that I need help?"

"I am saying that he would be an asset in any negotiation," she replied patiently.

"And you are willing to admit that he is your superior in this subject?"

"Master, I may be a bit too prideful for my own good, but Sascha outclasses me as a researcher and as a diplomat and in a half dozen things I could name off the top of my head." Nara grinned to herself, she also knew that she outclassed him in terms of martial ability and whole bunch of other things.

"Good to hear that you are not a perfect apprentice,"

"At least not yet," Nara joked. "Lastly, Sascha and I work well together, we have a way of understanding the other that I don't have with any other apprentice."

Tiplee raised a blue eyebrow at her, "And this would come in handy on this perfectly routine diplomatic mission…why exactly?"

"Because, Master Tiplee, together we would be capable of being paired together. There is a lot of legwork in ensuring that a planet conforms to all Republic regulations and we could deploy as three teams, Sascha and I, you, and Master Brynar."

"I'm not sure we'll ever need to resort to that, but your points are well made." Her Master nodded sharply, "Very well, my Padawan, I will talk to Master Brynar. Pack your things."

Nara resisted pumping her fist in celebration, "Thank you, Master Tiplee, you won't regret this."

"I know I won't. I'm actually looking forward to you working together with Sascha...but don't tell Aurine I said that."

Nara smiled and then frowned, "Why not?"

"Aurine's a bit overprotective, of Sascha...and she doesn't like it when you two flirt."

Nara sighed dramatically, "That's just fun, Master, I'm not actually interested in Sascha."

Tiplee made a placating gesture, "I know. But since I am doing you a favour, I would consider it a favour if you toned down your flirting."

She nodded in acceptance, "I'll stop flirting with Sascha, though I reserve the right to flirt with any other cute boy that we come across on this mission."

Her Master smiled, "I doubt that I could restrain you, even if I tried."

"If you asked nicely, I would," Nara said seriously. Flirting was fun, and a way to be 'normal,' but she would stop doing it the second her Master told her to.

"It's okay, my apprentice. I'm just asking you to not flirt with this particular boy. Now go and tell him the good news. And then get packed, I don't want you forgetting something like last time..."

Nara blushed, "I'll make sure I have everything packed – and then I'll check it twice." She didn't want to leave her spare robe behind again – wearing the same robe during the course of an entire mission was a good way to have a smelly robe by the end of it.

Tiplee rose, "I'll go talk to Master Brynar, you go talk to Sascha."

Nara nodded at the dismissal and walked out of her Master's room. She was barely out the door when she took out her comlink and dialled Sascha's code, "Sascha, I have some good news…"

Aurine Brynar piloted the Emerald Dream out of the hanger of the Jedi Temple, once again marveling at the smoothness of the flight. The Sluissi designed and built ship was probably one of the finest in its class, boasting outstanding manoeuvrability and shields, though it gave up a bit of firepower to compensate. The Dream had been something of a second home for her over the past few months, as Sascha and her traversed the galaxy, so it was a bit odd to have Tiplee beside her in the co-pilots chair instead of Sascha. Her Padawan was currently occupied with doing some further research for the mission and he had enlisted Nara's help in his task.

Aurine completed the routine flight out of Coruscant's busy skylanes and out into the blackness of space, though it being Coruscant there still was enough traffic to be wary of. Finally the Emerald Dream escaped the gravity well of Coruscant and she punched in the jump coordinates for the first leg of their three leg flight to Ubrora. The dazzing brightness of hyperspace greeted her through the viewscreen, though she had seen it so many times now, it had lost its lustre somewhat.

"Let's see what our apprentices have gotten up to," said Tiplee, rising from her co-pilots chair and heading back to the lounge area of the Emerald Dream.

The Emerald Dream was not exactly the biggest or most comfortable of ships, while when it had been delivered to the Jedi Temple as a present to her Padawan it had come with some of the coziest comforts that money could buy. Over the years, they had just been sold to make room for better shields, better communication equipment and so on and so forth. Jedi did not need creature comforts. Truth be told she did not miss them one bit.

Aurine found Nara and Sascha working together in his room. His room was...kind of a disaster area with datapads, flimsy and other assorted materials strewn across the floor. Sascha had his head buried in a datapad, while Nara was staring intently at a holochart. The two Padawans didn't even seem to notice her arrival, and she doubted if they had even noticed that the ship had taken off and was now in hyperspace. Aurine stood in the open doorway and observed the pair, who were working in tandem, even doing something as mundane as background research.

As the minutes passed, Sascha finally spoke, though he didn't look up from his datapad either, "I think we are being watched."

"You distract her, and then I'll tackle her," Nara replied.

"Okay, on the count of three…"

"That will not be necessary, Padawans," she said, amused by the playful banter of the young Jedi.

The Togruta finally acknowledged her, "We need another hour before we are ready to present our research, Master Brynar," said Nara.

"I suppose I'll meditate until then. When you are ready find me and Master Tiplee." The two Padawans nodded absentmindedly and their focus turned back to their datapads before she even left the room.

She returned to her cabin, it was small and even barer then her room back on Coruscant. The one luxury was that the bed was far more comfortable than her bedroll, besides that, the walls were steel gray and unadorned. Even if given the chance to decorate what she had come to think of as her room, she had no idea what she would do with it. Put up a painting? Amused by that thought, she settled in for some peaceful meditation, allowing the Force to guide her thoughts as she drifted along its current.

Around an hour later she ended her meditation, feeling refreshed and ready to take on a Gundark with her bare hands. Unfortunately, there were no Gundarks to be found. Sascha and Nara were preparing their presentation, she had already read Tiplee's information about the mission, so she was already fairly informed about what she had gotten into. But, there was no harm in having a different perspective, and while Sascha certainly didn't need any more research practice, Nara did.

The lounge of the Emerald Dream had enough room for four people, though barely. Sascha and Nara took the two chairs closest to the holoprojector, while she and Tiplee grabbed the two remaining seats. Sascha started without preamble, pressing a button on the holoprojector. After a brief delay, a picture appeared of a slender humanoid looking creature with short, coarse fur over its body that was brownish-red, along with long wavy hair that was almost black. Aurine noted a long bushy tail as well as intelligent green eyes, and a prominent snout. Sascha waved a hand at the display, "This, is your typical Ubroran, Ubrora is their homeworld. They are shorter than the average human, but their senses are superior to human standard as well. They are mammalian and intelligent though they are fairly fragile, their bone structure won't stand up to much punishment. The standard language of the planet is basic which is nice for us as we didn't need to bring a protocol droid along."

Nara leaned over and pressed another button on the holoprojector and a planet popped up on the display. "This is Ubrora. It is pretty small for a planet, it almost categorizes as an asteroid. The population of Ubrora is small, only around thirty million. There are only four major cities, each of which has a population of about five million. The remaining population is scattered about in towns and farming villages. The only thing of note is that the gravity of the planet is higher than Coruscant standard, which is probably why the average Ubroran is pretty short."

"What's the breakdown of land and water?" asked Aurine, posing a question that she already knew the answer to.

"There is only one continent which covers about sixty percent of the planet, the rest is ocean, or small uninhabited islands," replied Nara.

Aurine leaned back, "Seems pretty straightforward, how many non-Ubrorans are on planet?"

"Very few," Sascha answered, "The Ubrorans have some…quirks to their culture that make their planet hostile to 'foreigners.' We'll get to that later."

Sascha glanced briefly over to Nara, who took it as a signal to continue, "We prepared a brief history of Ubrora that will provide some context as to why Ubrora is the way it is." Tiplee looked a bit surprised at that announcement, but Aurine wasn't, she had been been on the other end of Sascha's briefings, they tended to be long and comprehensive. Nara started, "Ubrora was discovered by the Republic during the New Sith War, but its culture and technology was determined too primitive, so it was left to prosper on its own for a few hundred years. When they were finally ready to join galactic civilization, they chose not to join the Republic, and no one cared. Ubrora was a nothing planet in the mid-rim with no resources that wasn't on an important trade route."

Sascha took over, "Much of that changed when a mining company, Jarman Mining Corporation did a survey of the planet and bought the mining rights to Ubrora on speculation that there were undiscovered metal deposits on the planet. The Ubrorans might not be much for joining galactic society, but they fleeced Jarman Mining for all it was worth. Jarman Corp went bankrupt five years after buying the rights, finding absolutely nothing of value to mine on the planet. What they did find was Thys root, one of the crops grown by farmers on Ubrora. They found that when grinding that root, they created a delicious additive, suitable for adding to many desserts across the galaxy."

Nara shrugged, "The Ubrorans don't have much use for Thys root, they tend to feed it to their herd animals, but the rest of the galaxy disagrees."

"That is often the case as you will find my young apprentice," noted Tiplee, "What is one species' trash is anothers treasure."

"Well the Ubrorans are glad of it," Nara said dryly, "Considering they are getting rich off of it."

"That does tend to make a society appreciative," Aurine commented.

Sascha continued, "Ubrora ships its Thys root out once a month, so there isn't much traffic in and out of the system. I couldn't find records of how many Ubrorans are off planet, but I don't think it's too many. All the records I read from the former employees of Jarman Mining indicated that the Ubrorans see little point in leaving their planet. I tend to agree, it seems like a nice planet."

"We might as well get to the culture of Ubrora, because it's the most interesting part of the planet," said Nara.

Aurine tended to agree, and she had formed her own opinions on Ubrora, but she was interested to see what the more impressionable apprentices thought.

Sascha shifted slightly in his chair, "Ubrora is an agrarian society, with a few cities that are more industrial. You could generalize and say that they aren't at the forefront of technology, but it's not a backwater either."

"That isn't particularly interesting," interjected Nara, clearly interrupting Sascha, "but what is interesting was that in the past their society had a problem with raiders and thieves stealing valuable crops. To counter this, every citizen of Ubrora wears a camera that records their every action."

"Every action?" asked Aurine, playing along as if she didn't know all this already.

"The cameras are only viewed by police forces if they need to," replied Nara, "So if there is a crime reported they can look at the archived footage and find the culprit."

"So it's a surveillance state," Aurine said blutnly.

"That is one way to look at it," Sascha responded, "But it has it's advantages. Crime is basically non-existent on the planet, which is a positive, obviously. Plus, they've managed to integrate the surveillance of their daily lives in different and interesting ways. Many, if not most Ubrorans broadcast their surveillance camera footage to the world, so a farmer in a rural area could sit in his home and watch how a person living in the city lives."

Nara interrupted Sascha again - this time Sascha threw a glare in her direction, which the Togruta failed to notice. "I think it's a great thing, and I found a quote from an Ubroran philosopher to prove my point. Arenio Billitz once said, 'Before you judge my life, my past or my character, walk in my shoes, walk the path I have travelled, live my sorrow, my doubts, my fear, my pain and my laughter. Remember, everyone has a story, when you've lived my life, then you can judge me.'"

"Pithy," noted Tiplee, "But not totally relevant."

Nara doggedly wouldn't drop the argument, "With respect, Master Tiplee, it shows the Ubroran perspective towards the way they live their lives. Because you can actually walk a day in someone else's shoes, you might be able to understand why people who live in the city want certain things or vice versa."

"Sounds useful," admitted Aurine, noting that many disputes occurred because one side fundamentally misunderstood the other, "But not worth giving up your privacy."

"It's a choice though, retorted Nara, "You don't have to broadcast your camera's footage to the world."

"But you do have to wear one," Aurine replied, "So your privacy could be violated at any time."

Nara seemed to be ready to continue the argument, but Sascha placed a hand lightly on her arm, which seemed to calm the Togruta down, "Returning to more important matters," Sascha glanced at both her and Nara to make sure the argument was over. "Most Ubrorans generally like to see how celebrities or famous Ubrorans live, but it has also had a positive effect on the politics of Ubrora. All politicians wear these cameras, so if you want to watch your representative negotiate legislation, you can." Sascha looked over to Nara, "Nara, how about you talk about the Ubroran military."

"'Kay. Around ten years ago, a pirate fleet showed up in Ubroran space and demanded that they hand over their Thys root reserves. Having no real military at all, the Ubrorans had no choice but to concede to their request, though they immediately started to create a military worthy of defending their planet."

The Togruta tapped a button on the holodisplay and it shifted to a picture of an ungainly looking ship with two bubbles connected by a triangular hull. It was in Aurine's opinion, one of the ugliest Starfighters she had ever seen. "This is a Sarkiss class fighter, designed by Ubrorans and produced by Balmorra. It's a two person Starfighter, needing a pilot and a gunner, it's got reasonable speed, terrible agility and no hyperdrive. It's got some decent armament at least."

"In my mind I see it as more of a quasi-blastboat," Sascha interjected, "The ship just isn't agile enough to be classified as a Starfighter."

"How many of these…ships do they have?" Aurine asked.

"Sixty, so five squadrons' worth," Nara answered

Sascha spoke up, "I should note that as part of the deal to manufacture these ships, the Balmorran Defence Corps came to Ubrora to engage in some practice manoeuvers. The Balmorrans came away less than impressed."

Aurine raised her eyebrows, this information had not been in the information package provided by Tiplee, "How did you discover this?"

Sascha grinned, "Do you remember the contact we made on Balmorra on our first mission together?"

"Um…Major…Zark?" she guessed.

"Major Zess," Sascha supplied the correct answer, "I sent him a message, thanking him for his service during our short stay on Balmorra, and asked for his help again. He seemed more than willing to provide commentary on the Ubroran military, though strictly off the record. I have his full message if you want to read it later."

"Impressive work, my Padawan."

"Thank you, Master," Sascha replied politely, "Through him I also found out that the Ubroran army is now being headed by an ex-Balmorran Colonel, so if we need to talk about bringing the army into Republic regulations, we'll know who to talk to."

Tiplee folded her hands in front of her, "Very good work, Padawans, I can see why Padawan Whitestar has such a strong reputation as a researcher."

"Nara helped too," Sascha interjected immediately, "She brought a different perspective which proved very helpful."

"I'm impressed apprentices; perhaps if you keep up this level of work, we'll let you handle some assignments together," said Tiplee. The two Padawans grinned, both pleased by the praise and the potential opportunity to work together.

Aurine spoke, "We'll be coming out of hyperspace in an hour, and I want you to manually calculate our next jump."

Nara looked surprised, "Manually? We have the ship's computer…"

"And what if you are on a ship where the ship's computer is malfunctioning?" asked Aurine, "This is a perfect chance to work on your hyperspace math. Find Master Tiplee and myself when you have calculated our jump. We will double check your math."

The two Padawans slumped into their chairs, realizing that their task would likely take hours of long calculations. "This is some reward," mumbled Sascha, rising from his chair to get to work.

"Math, why'd it have to be math?" grumbled Nara as she walked by her.

As soon as the two young Jedi were out of earshot, Tiplee turned to her, "I fail to see why we are rewarding the Padawan's good work with more menial work."

Aurine smiled, "It's simple, Master Tiplee, Sascha and Nara will eventually get what they want, that is to be able to be paired together and away from us. I'm just going to make them work for it."

"You are a cruel Master," Tiplee observed wryly.

Aurine put her feet up on the table, "Sometimes to be a good Master, you have to be a cruel Master."

Tiplee rolled her eyes, gently shoved past her legs and went back to the cockpit.