Lord Darth Yoda - Don't worry, I have Aurine's death (and all major character's deaths) in mind. They'll all be appropriately heartbreaking. You underestimate Pravin though, I think. He's really had a 'come to Jesus' moment (if I may steal that phrase), and I think he'll be a real ally to the Jedi.

Mr Insane - Good points - Pravin's going to have to win back the faith of the Ubroran populace and especially the army - specifically because he was the general that helped kill many of their fellow soldiers. It's an interesting tightrope to walk, but I wonder if Pravin can handle it. At least the Jedi will (probably) vouch for him.

Speechbubbleme - That's good that you thought Pravin was actually in danger. I have to say that I'm actually quite fond of Pravin. Sure he's kind of spineless, but he's kind of honorable as well.

A/N - Nothing to say! Moving on.

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 42: A Simple Plan, Part Two

"Am I a hero? Or am I a villain? Sometimes the lines seem so blurred I cannot tell. I'm alive though, and that is all that counts…for the moment at least."

-From the Journal of Pravin Ecalt, twenty-five days in to the Invasion of Ubrora

Back in the relative safety of Hesse base outside of Gamudo, Aurine and Tiplee had gone directly to the med center where they released Pravin into the care of a few guards. Once that was done, Aurine was treated by the staff doctor, who put her left hand in a cast and bandaged her remaining cuts. She had taken quite a beating from those Mandalorians, but besides the broken hand and concussion, whose effects were fading, she didn't think of herself being too badly hurt. Relatively speaking, at least. Once the doctor was done with her, she and Tiplee quietly excused themselves and found a quiet spot where they could conference in private. She watched as the Rishati applied an Ubroran medical pack to some of the various cuts and bruises that she had sustained in the rough and tumble battle with the Mandalorians and their droids.

The Rishati noticed her staring, "I would prefer bacta, but it will have to do," she observed sardonically. "I've gotten quite good at doing first aid on myself over the years."

"You okay?" Aurine asked.

"Am I okay?" Tiplee replied, bewildered. "It's not me that has an uncountable number of bandages on her face and her hand in a cast."

"It's not as bad as it looks," she said, knowing that all the wounds she had gotten had been superficial, though she might have a couple of small scars. Meh.

"How is your hand?" the Rishati asked.

Aurine glanced down at her bandaged hand, "It's broken. Guess those Mandalorian helmets are made out of strong stuff. Should heal fine though."

"That punch wasn't exactly the stuff of training holos, was it?"

She adjusted her belt with her right hand, her only good hand now, "No, but I've never really been the type to be confined to 'proper' Jedi techniques."

"Well I won't argue its effectiveness," Tiplee said dryly, "though don't be offended if I don't offer to spar with you."

She smiled at her fellow Jedi Knight's joke. While she knew Tiplee was considered to be something of a serious minded Jedi Knight among her peers, the Rishati definitely was not humorless. Humor was always something that she had appreciated in a companion. Jedi confronted the worst in the galaxy, and being able to laugh about some of the absurdities of their job was a nice release. It was something that her Master had lacked and she had pledged that it would be different with her apprentice, and it was. Sascha, while not an out-and-out jokester like his friends Doro and Trigg, had a lightheartedness to him that had endured even through his darkest moments.

Pausing on that thought, she wondered if her Padawan was still holding on to his sense of humor, wherever he was. This was the longest time she could ever remember going without seeing her apprentice since she had chosen him. Their connection in the Force still seemed relatively strong, and she would experience flashes of emotion from him every now and then. The most common emotion she seemed to get from him lately was sorrow with more than a little hint of exhaustion. She decided that when she had some time, she would contact her Padawan and just try to talk to him, not about the war…in fact she would talk to him about anything but the war…maybe she would throw in a comment about not getting too close to a certain Togruta…

Snapping back to reality, she found that Tiplee was staring at her with a concerned look on her face. "I…sorry…I got distracted."

"Thinking about the Padawans?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

The Rishati gave her one last evaluating look before inclining her head, "I think about them constantly," she admitted. "But we can only help them by doing our job. Which is what we should do now. I think we should talk to Pravin Ecalt, now that he's had his injuries treated."

"Alright, let's go see our…prisoner? Our prize?"

"Let's go see Pravin," Tiplee clarified, leading the way back towards the med centre. The med centre at Hesse base was pretty much what you'd see at any med centre in the galaxy, with one major exception - there were no bacta tanks. Aurine was so used to being treated in the best medical facilities across the galaxy, it was a bit jarring to see one that didn't have a bank of bacta tanks anywhere along the walls.

Shaking her head, and wondering if fighting this war had made the Ubrorans realize that importing bacta would probably be a good idea, she made her way towards Pravin Ecalt's bed. Pravin Ecalt was sitting up on the side of his bed, his hair still matted with sweat and his uniform tattered. Yet there was an air of nobility to the middle-aged man now. Rather than the ruffled, harried, at-the-end-of-his-leash Pravin that they had been dealing with in the city, this Pravin was calmly looking at a datapad with a badly cracked screen.

"You know, we can get you another datapad, Pravin" she said as she strode over.

Pravin looked up in surprise, and then closed down the device, "I was just trying to see what useful information I could get from it. The codes for communicating with the droid army have all been changed, obviously. But I have records of troop movements, communication between myself, Admiral Varless and others. I also have a list of Ubrorans that we paid to be friendly to our cause." Pravin glanced between her and Tiplee nervously, "It's all yours, I'm aware that I'm your prisoner, and that I will be awaiting a trial for war crimes whenever you choose to constitute such a panel that will confirm my guilt. Nonetheless, my information is yours, and I give it freely."

Aurine hadn't realized that Pravin had such a melodramatic side to his personality. Maybe it was just the adrenaline dump that came from being chased across the city by a pair of Mandalorians that had made him so maudlin. "I really don't think you qualify as our prisoner," said Tiplee. The Rishati crossed her arms across her chest, "And we certainly don't think you are a war criminal."

"We haven't really decided what your status is," Aurine admitted. "But I don't think that we risked our lives to rescue a war criminal."

Pravin bowed his head in relief, "I…am happy to hear you say those words, Master Jedi."

"We're glad that we were able to help rescue you from your…predicament," she replied.

"It was nice to do something that was something of a typical activity for a Jedi Knight for a change," commented Tiplee offhandedly.

"Well I'm thankful that you came to help me…and I am sorry that I couldn't see how I was being used by Vash Varless." Pravin closed his eyes in silent pain, "I'd been with him so long, I just felt helpless, like there was no way to escape him." He opened his eyes and met her gaze, "I was wrong to doubt you. You told me that I was braver than I thought I knew. Only when I had no other path available to me did I finally see the truth to those words."

She knelt to bring herself closer to his eye-level, "Pravin. What you did was brave beyond belief. A lesser man would have stayed and followed orders for better or for worse. You stepped forward. You made a stand. Be proud of that."

"If I may add," said Tiplee staring intently at the middle-aged former General, "I have traveled the galaxy, seen many different planets and beings, but bravery, true bravery is something very rare. I think we get used to it too much as Jedi, because we are…taught to be brave in a matter of thinking. But most beings just want to live a quiet life, have a few adventures, and be entertained. Yet you Pravin Ecalt, have done something that many would not have even dreamed of. You did the right thing, even knowing that it would likely cost you everything. There are even some Jedi that cannot do that."

Pravin lowered his head for a moment and Aurine thought that the speech might have reduced him to tears, but when the man looked up again, his eyes were clear and there was a new vigor in his expression. "Thank you, Master Jedi. I…uh…have a gift for you."

"A gift?" she replied warily.

Pravin removed a small device from his jacket. It was smooth and round, and it looked almost like a stylus with buttons on it. Aurine squinted at it, and then shrugged, "What is it, Pravin?"

"It's a one-use communications device. It can send a message of about five minutes in length to just about anywhere in the galaxy, provided a signal can reach there."

"That looks very much like the types of devices favoured by spies and spice dealers, if I remember my briefings," said Tiplee, leaning against a nearby wall, arms folded against her chest. "What are you doing with one, Pravin?"

"This was specially made by my father, Ravar Ecalt. He promised me that if anytime I needed to get a message to him, that this device would allow me to do so. It's probable, even likely that I can get a message through the jamming over Ubrora."

Aurine blinked, processing this information, it seemed far too good to be true. "What kind of message can you get through the jamming?" asked Tiplee.

"A short one," admitted Pravin, "and it would be audio only, but the programming is sophisticated enough to defeat the most advanced jamming procedures. But it only goes to my father. I can't get a message to the Jedi Council, for example. Though of course, I could request that he take a message of yours to them."

She shared a look with Tiplee, but the Rishati's face was a blank slate, obviously her thoughts were elsewhere at the moment, "I think," Aurine said, "that we'd be better off sending a message to your father asking for him to intercede personally, than hoping that he could get a message to the Senate or the Jedi Council. The Senate will not authorize military action outside of its borders, whether or not Ubrora was going to join the Republic anyway. And the Jedi Council…it would take too long for them to gather up the force needed to confront Admiral Varless. And that's if they even believed your father and they wanted to act unilaterally outside of the borders of the Republic, which we are generally loathe to do."

Pravin looked back and forth between the two Jedi Knights, obviously confused, "So, what message do you want me to send? My dad has fantastic resources at his disposal, resources that I'm sure would allow him to cobble together a rescue mission at the very least."

She waved her hands in an expansive gesture, "No, I don't want a rescue mission, I want a battle fleet."

That finally startled Tiplee out of her silence, "Aurine? Have you lost your mind?"

Pravin eyed her curiously, "I tend to agree with Master Tiplee. A rescue mission would allow us to escape the planet, and with our evidence of this illegal invasion, we could return with resources from the Jedi or the Republic."

"But not before Vash could bring in resources of his own," she pointed out, "and he could make retaking Ubrora very expensive in terms of lives lost." She shook her head, "No, the easiest and best way to liberate Ubrora is to have your father gather as large a force as he can and then bring it to attack the Reprisal. Perhaps, with the resources from the Ubroran fighter corps and whatever your father can bring, they could disrupt the communications from Reprisal to the droid army. If that happens…we could end the invasion."

"That was a lot of hypotheticals in that statement, Aurine," said Tiplee.

Pravin shook his head, "Not as many as you'd think. I know I can get the message to my father, and I'm sure he'll do whatever it takes to rescue me, even if it takes hiring every mercenary in the sector to come to Ubrora and fight against Admiral Varless. The Reprisal as strong as it is, is just one ship. And it doesn't have a huge complement of droid fighters anymore"

Warming to the idea, she clapped her hands together, "I think we should do it."

Quickly, Tiplee grabbed her arm, "Can I discuss this with you in private?" Not waiting for her to object, Tiplee half dragged her out into the hallway.

When they were in a private enough area, Aurine forcefully removed Tiplee's arm from hers, "What do you want Tiplee? It's not like we have much choice."

The Rishati's bright blue eyes flared with anger for a split second before calming rapidly, "Aurine, are you sure you want to use our one chance to get a message out to try to convince a business magnate to rescue his son? We don't really know Pravin. A few days ago he was in command of the army that was opposing us. Now we're betting on his honesty?"

"I don't sense any deception in him. Did you?" Tiplee shook her head negatively. "Then I believe that we have to use this potential opening in any way possible, as bizarre as it seems."

"Can Ravar Ecalt really help us? Will he really assemble an impromptu fleet just to rescue his son?"

"I've met Ravar Ecalt. I think he will. Ravar is like Pravin. Honor and family mean everything to him."

Tiplee's eyes narrowed, "How long ago did you meet Ravar Ecalt?"

"It was like six years back, and it wasn't for very long," Aurine admitted.

Tiplee pressed a hand to her head, "Great. You realize that this sounds, well, completely insane right? We are going to trust someone who one week ago was second biggest enemy? And how is this going to play out? Ravar Ecalt gets a message from his son out of the blue: 'Dear father, please acquire a battle fleet and proceed with all haste to Ubrora.' Did you even consider how crazy this will all sound to Ravar?"

"Of course it's insane!" she shouted. "This whole thing is insane! But unless you see a better option, I think we need to be open to every insane risk that we can possibly take!"

"What about a rescue mission. We don't need to abandon Ubrora. Just get the information back to the Senate or the Jedi Council. Then, and maybe only then can we defeat these invaders."

Aurine took her right hand and ran it through her hair and down through her ponytail, "What are we doing here Tiplee?"

Tiplee blinked, "I'm not sure I understand."

"I mean, what is our goal here? If we simply want to get off the planet, we could turn Pravin and Mollek and all the resistance leaders over to Vash and he'd probably give us transport off planet for such a betrayal."

"We could never do that," said Tiplee, her voice hard.

"I agree, it would be unfathomable. But we need to admit to ourselves why we are here. We are here in defence of the Ubroran people as a whole, are we not? We are the Jedi, we are the Generals defending them. Don't you think its a bit of a coincidence that for this extraordinarily minor diplomatic mission, there are four Jedi attached to it? We are here for a reason, Tiplee."

"I'm not sure I buy that," said Tiplee thoughtfully.

Aurine was starting to get animated now, "It doesn't really matter. This is an entire CIVILIZATION Tiplee. The Ubroran civilization only really exists on this planet. If it falls to this tyrant, who knows if they'll ever win it back? Ubrora is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that barely anyone will notice. It'll be a footnote in some chapter of galactic history. But not to these people!" she said, gesticulating emphatically. "To these people, we are the sole defenders in their darkest hour! And thus we must do EVEYTHING possible to defend it, short of embracing the dark side. And if that means eschewing the chance of a rescue, for the faint hope that Ravar Ecalt can conjure a fleet up, than I say we take it!"

Tiplee turned away from her emotional outburst. Aurine felt a bit weak and stuck an arm out against the wall to support her. Well, thought Aurine, that had been coming. But she didn't think it would be quite so...dramatic.

Her fellow Jedi Knight turned around, her expression sober, "I'm never doing this again," she said quietly.

"Doing what?"

"War." The Rishati shook her head, "Never, ever again. This once, I will do it. But never again."

"So I have your support for my plan?"

Tiplee's expression softened, "Of course, my friend. I believe in you. You've gotten us this far. I don't see any need to change course now."

Aurine bowed slightly, "Thank you, Master Tiplee."

Tiplee nodded respectfully, "Of course, Aurine. Now let's go tell Pravin."

Aurine and Tiplee re-entered the room, and she nodded briskly to the middle-aged human, "Send your message, Pravin. Make it a good one, because it might be the key to winning this war. Tell your father we need a fleet. And you can tell him that the Ubroran government will cover his expenses. But we need a fleet, and we need it soon."

For the first time in a long while, Aurine Brynar allowed herself to think that there might be a future where she got off this planet after all.