LordDarthYoda - Yes, that parallel is one that should be noticed. Fortunately, it might work out slightly better for the Jedi Order this time :).

SpeechBubbleme - Please is not usually in Mace's vocabulary...but he's often not in the weaker position. It was definitely supposed to show that Mace felt that they needed these Jedi.

Lime-lensed Lord - I like Yoda a lot, but holy crud is his speech hard to write. That's why Mace talks more than Yoda ;).

A/N - I've been having pretty bad writer's block the past few days. I know where I want the story to end, but I have less of an idea of how to actually get there. I also really, really hate this chapter. I wanted to delete it or completely rewrite it...but I didn't have the time. Publishing once a week is hard when you don't really have the right words to write down. I don't know. I'll do better next time :).

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 23: The Planning Stage

Sascha Whitestar stretched out his neck, working out the kink that had manifested itself. He had spent a long few hours burying himself into researching the man that had been known as Jedi Master Dooku.

The three Padawans were in his small room, which meant that seating was in short supply. Normally they would have went to the library and did their research in those spacious confines, but with them having to do research in secret, they were somewhat confined in the locations they could operate away from others. Master Brynar had suggested that the task force rent a room in a decent hotel somewhere in Coruscant, somewhere away from prying eyes. Sascha thought that was a good idea, but no one had taken action on that quite yet.

"Dooku is confusing," complained Nara as she placed her datapad on the floor. "He's been a part of some of the most important treaties that the Jedi made in the past thirty years, he was invited to be on the Council several times, yet her never accepted. If he wanted to change the Jedi Order to be different, why didn't he work towards it?"

"It's hard to change something as rooted in tradition as the Jedi Order. It changes very slowly," said Tyra. "I guess Dooku just gave up hope that he'd ever be able to get the Jedi to change in a meaningful way."

"I just think its odd that with someone that has as much force of will as Dooku, to just give up and walk away," said Nara.

"You forget the most important thing about Dooku. He's proud," he chimed in. "He knew that he was a part of Serenno's aristocracy from birth, so he had been taught to be proud of that before he came to the Jedi. That sense of pride and arrogance never left him, it appears. If he can't have things his way..."

"That's why he thinks he can do better, I guess," said Nara. "He's proud enough to think that only he can fix the Jedi Order."

"Somehow, I don't think his 'New Jedi Order' would end up being very democratic," speculated Tyra. "It would probably end up being a dictatorship, in practice if not in name. We can see Dooku has accumulated quite a bit of wealth, quietly. I can't imagine that he will give it up lightly. Money is power as they say."

"And we've only found the accounts of his that are public," Sascha pointed out. "He could have accounts in many banks outside of the Republic and we'd have no ability whatsoever to find them."

"Yeah, but he's already rich," said Nara.

"Well, there's rich. And then there is 'buy yourself an army' rich," said Sascha. "We don't need to be concerned about the first one, but we might be concerned about the second one."

"You really think he'd be interested in conquest?" asked Nara.

"No. I was just drawing an example," he said. "But there are different levels of being rich. We need to be cognizant of that. As Jedi, we aren't really the best at knowing the different between rich and ultra-rich."

"The money talk is interesting," said Tyra. "Why has Dooku gone and acquired so much money? What does he need it for?"

"That's a question to add to the list," said Sascha. He pulled up the master list of questions that the task force needed to answer, and added that question to the list. "We are up to 28 questions," said Sascha, faking a cheer.

"Well, maybe we can get them at the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit," said Tyra. "You still think that we should propose that the three of us go?"

"I do, actually," replied Sascha.

The Tykon Youth Leadership Summit was perhaps the preeminent conference from young, prospective leaders to meet up and discuss the issues of the Republic. Six of the last eight Chancellors of the Republic, including Chancellor Palpatine, had attended the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit. Delegations from all across the Republic (and outside) came to participate in the Summit. The host of the Summit varied from year to year. This year it was supposed to have been on Icart IV, but the sometimes tumultuous weather of Icart IV had turned against the event organizers and they were forced to look for another planet to host on short notice. Serenno had volunteered to take on the event and the organizers had accepted not too long ago. On the list of speakers at this event was one Count Dooku, making a rare public appearance. So if the Jedi wanted to get close to Dooku, that was about as good a time as any to do it, because they would at least know where he was.

"Do you think we should send word to the organizers, or just show up?" asked Tyra.

"I, personally, think we should just show up," said Sascha. "We can tell them we are here to participate in the summit, and years ago the Jedi used to send a small delegation of Padawans to the summit, so we can just say we are continuing that tradition." He shrugged, "Or we can just say we are providing security, one of the two. It's not like they are going to turn us away."

"Dooku will be unhappy to have a bunch of Jedi on Serenno," Tyra pointed out.

"Let him be unhappy," said Nara.

"I'm saying that he'll suspect something," said Tyra, raising her voice just a little. "He'll suspect that we aren't just showing up at this summit just to pal around with the future diplomats of the Republic."

"Then...we do something unexpected," Sascha said, thinking on the fly. "We show up at the event, but we play it completely straight. We don't look into Dooku at all."

"That defeats the purpose," complained Nara.

"Hold on," said Sascha, raising a hand. "Then we slip some other Jedi undercover and while Dooku is focused on them, the other Jedi go undetected and snoop around Dooku's stuff."

Tyra shook her head, "Nope, you've got it almost right. What we do is we show up, not as Jedi, but as the delegation from some distant planet, wanting to join in with the Summit. That way we don't have to announce ourselves as Jedi beforehand."

"But we have to hope that the organizers are so useless that they forgot an entire planet's delegation," he pointed out. "We can't exactly claim that it got lost in the mail."

"And I think that it adds too much complication to the whole thing," said Nara. "It means we will have to do so much additional research so that we can play the part of participants in the summit. It just seems like a lot of work for minor reward."

Tyra chewed her lip, a sign that she was unhappy, Sascha knew from experience, "I say we propose both of our plans to our Masters and let them sort it out."

That was Tyra taking the diplomatic way out, but Sascha saw the sense in it. Personally, he liked the first plan. "Anything else we want to propose to our Masters?"

"We should follow the money," said Nara. She hefted her datapad, "There's lots of money from Dooku's accounts that just seem to disappear into a thousand sketchy banks around the galaxy. Where the heck is his money going?"

"I like that idea," Sascha admitted, "But I haven't the faintest idea how to start doing a financial investigation that complicated without tipping off Dooku that we are sneaking around."

Nara seemed to deflate a little, "It's a good question. I have no idea. Most of the banks are outside of the Republic and thus we have no jurisdiction."

"And even if they did, someone would just send word to Dooku that someone is investigating," said Tyra, glumly.

"This sucks," observed Sascha. "I can only imagine what kind of progress our Masters are making."

Aurine Brynar didn't enjoy it when people argued. She liked it even less when her colleagues did. So, suffice to say she was not very much enjoying herself right now.

"Investigation into a Jedi Knight should only begin when we have a reasonable suspicion that he or she or it may be a traitor to our cause," shouted Teff Nal'ma. Aurine wasn't sure how good the sound proofing in her room was, but it was absolutely being put to the test today.

"This is not a legal proceeding, Master Nal'ma," replied Tiplee. "We do not need reasonable suspicion to start an investigation. Our task was simple, find who Dooku is recruiting to his supposed new Jedi Order. If we wait until we have reasonable suspicion of each person we investigate, we may be too late. I do hate to be the pragmatic one, but if the threat to our Order is real, we must be willing to act."

"Have you ever stopped to think that this is what Dooku wants?" countered Teff. "We could destroy the Jedi Order from the inside if our investigations are revealed."

"So we don't get caught!" replied Tiplee, the usually placid Rishati losing her cool a little. "We can't be paralyzed by indecision. We will be careful and decisive in our investigation. Hopefully we will minimize any potential blowback."

Teff folded his arms across his chest, and suddenly Aurine's not-very-large room seemed even smaller. "What we are doing is immoral."

"We are doing what we've been tasked to do," replied Tiplee.

"That doesn't make it right."

"Then how would you like to proceed, Master Nal'ma?" asked Aurine.

"We shouldn't bother investigating Jedi. That's what Dooku wants us to do. He wants dissent to be spread within the Jedi Order."

"We don't know that's what he wants," said Tiplee. "We have no idea what he wants."

"We can suspect," said the Twi'lek. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. Investigation our fellow Jedi is pointless, because it would be impossible to find evidence that they are communicating with Dooku. All we can do is search the communications records of the Jedi that we suspect that might have had contact with Dooku. But no one raised in the Temple is stupid enough to have open communications with Dooku. They would be sneaking out and having communication through intermediaries. So unless we are willing to find a target and track them through every waking moment of the day, we aren't going to find anything."

Grudgingly, Aurine had to concede that Teff was probably right. If someone was communicating with Dooku, they weren't going to be stupid about it. And because they weren't going to be stupid about it, the investigating them was going to be fruitless. "So what do we do, then?" she asked.

Teff grimaced, "What Master Windu and Yoda were too afraid to tell us to do." Teff sighed, "One of us must seek out Dooku and try to join him."

"I..." Aurine was about to say that was a bad plan, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Dooku, if he was truly forming this 'New Jedi Order' would be eager to have new recruits join him. However, expecting Dooku to reveal his plans to someone who had joined him voluntarily was a bit too much to hope for. Real life was not like a holomovie, where the villain told his underlings his exact plans in excruciating detail. Still, it could give them the sense of what Dooku was actually doing. It seemed to be a move with not much to lose and much to gain.

"That is patently absurd," replied Tiplee, her back straightening. "And it is far too dangerous. Our mission is to investigate Dooku and what he is planning, not to deceive and antagonize him."

Before Teff could rebut the Rishati, Aurine jumped in, "I agree with Master Nal'ma, his plan is a good one."

The Twi'lek nodded and bowed slightly towards her, "I am glad to hear you say that, Master Brynar."

"And I am yet to be convinced," said Tiplee, shooting her a stern glare.

"It costs us nothing, but could gain us everything," said Aurine. "Lets face it, Tiplee, our task is basically impossible. Find out what Dooku is doing. He's not exactly going to sit down and give us an interview, so we have to be creative. We have to do the unexpected."

"This, is poking the beast," said Tiplee.

"We are going to poke him anyway," said Aurine with a sigh. "We might as well make it a good poke."

Tiplee paced for a few moments, "It is at least worth giving a try, I suppose. But we must do it carefully. Dooku is a careful and experienced Jedi Master. He is not to be underestimated." She paused again, "Who out of the three of us should be this fake mole?"

"Me," said both Aurine and Teff at the same time.

Teff chuckled, "With respect, Master Brynar, it should be me. My distrust of the Council is well known, and while you having a Master that is famously free spirited, that has never applied to you."

"If Dooku even knows my name," Aurine said, but she had a sinking feeling that she was losing this argument.

"He may not. But he probably knows me. My spat with the Council has been...an ongoing affair for many years now," Teff admitted sheepishly.

Tiplee and her exchanged a look. The Rishati gave her a slight nod. "Sounds good," she said. "Now we should call the Padawans so we can all meet together."

"Which raises the question of where we should meet," said Tiplee. "We can't exactly all fit into this room."

"We need to get out of the Temple," said Teff.

"But its a bit odd to have six Jedi wandering around Coruscant," said Tiplee.

Teff put a hand gently to his head, "This is going to be a logistics nightmare. We need access to the Temple, but we also can't be seen always wandering around as a group. We also need space to meet in private."

"We could just do calls from within the Temple," Tiplee suggested.

"It's a temporary solution, I suppose," said Aurine. "Let's call the Padawans."

"Wait," said Aurine. "I have another idea."

Sascha Whitestar had very few complaints about his ship, The Emerald Dream. One of them, however, was that his ship couldn't exactly hold a lot of people in the lounge. It fit about 4 with no problem, provided that they were slender. 5 was pushing it. 6, no way.

So, the six Jedi had to make do.

Teff was leaning against the wall on the far side of the lounge room, while he, Nara and Aurine sat at the table. Tyra and Tiplee decided that they would pace around the room, a pair of moving targets to focus on.

The Padawans explained what they wanted to do with the upcoming Tykon Youth Leadership Summit, and had received preliminary approval, though the question of who exactly would be leaving for Serenno seemed to still be up in the air. On the other hand, the three Knights seemed very divided as to how to progress. Teff Nal'ma was apparently going to see if he could be recruited by Dooku, but that seemed like a longshot at best to Sascha. He wasn't quite sure what Aurine and Tiplee were going to do though. No one seemed to have any amazing ideas about that.

"Nara has suggested that we try to investigate Dooku's finances," Sascha said. "Though we admit it would be a tough investigation, seeing where Dooku's finances are flowing may give us the ability to anticipate his moves."

"A good thought," said Tiplee, nodding her head towards her apprentice, "But as you might have discussed, Dooku will keep very little of his wealth within the Republic, and thus our ability to investigate will be curtailed. "

"We should pay someone to look into it, then," said Sascha, blurting out an idea. "We could...feed a tip to a journalist or...hire an auditor..."

"Master Yoda requested we keep this investigation small," said Aurine gently. "Letting other people in on it is clearly not the point."

"Oh," he said. "Of course. Ignore me." Sascha felt his cheeks warming in embarrassment as Nara gave him a little tap on the arm as if to say, 'Don't worry about it.' He gave her a little grin in return.

"At least the Padawans are coming up with ideas," Teff said with the hint of a smile.

"We should decide who is going to the Summit," said Tiplee, her pacing coming to a standstill for the moment. "The usual delegation size is two, yes?"

"Yes, Master Tiplee," replied Tyra. "Nara and Sascha are the two best diplomats of the Padawans. I feel like they should go."

"Seems acceptable," said Tiplee. "Then Tyra is of course the natural choice to do some snooping around Serenno."

"With me overseeing her, of course," Teff said a bit haughtily. Sascha could tell that Tyra was annoyed. But Tyra was always annoyed when someone implied that she could not protect herself. Yet, it was probably a good idea to have Teff potentially be with Tyra. His friend was formidable, but a Master and a Padawan pairing was usually just that much more formidable.

"I was under the impression that the Knights would have their own little mission," said Aurine. "And besides, aren't you the one that is supposed to be trying to get Dooku to notice you? How can you do that if you are supervising your Padawan?"

"I can multitask," said Teff brusquely.

Aurine and Tiplee shared a look, obviously they were not on the same page with each other. "Well, I guess that leaves what Tiplee and I should do. I suppose we could attach ourselves to the delegation to the summit."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Master, but you are too old to be there," said Sascha.

"We could go as security," suggested Tiplee.

"What would be the point?" said Nara. "The point is that we are attending this Summit to make Dooku think that they Jedi are keeping tabs on him. Tyra and Master Nal'ma are there to do the actual investigation. Having you there as security serves no purpose."

"We could stay at the Temple and investigate, I suppose," said Aurine dubiously.

"I don't think we should remove ourselves so far from the action," said Tiplee.

"You don't trust me and the Padawans to get this mission completed?" asked Teff, his displeasure evident. Teff, like his Padawan, didn't like to be questioned. Maybe that was part of the reason they made a good team, Sascha mused.

"The trust is there, Master Nal'ma ," Tiplee said trying to placate the Twi'lek. "But we must look at how to allocate our resources. We cannot have two of our three Jedi Knights just sitting on Coruscant twiddling their thumbs. Now, if anyone has any ideas as to what Aurine and I can do, please let us know."

Nara chimed in, "How about talking with some of Dooku's former Padawans. I believe Master Galfond is in the Temple. He was Dooku's Padawan before Qui-Gon."

"Galfond isn't the type to put up with any traitorous talk from Dooku," said Teff. "Those two were never all that close. Neither was he and Qui-Gon. Honestly, Dooku had very few friends amongst Jedi."

"It sounds like you knew him a bit, Master" said Tyra.

Teff paused for a second, "I am the oldest Jedi here," said Teff with a little smile. "I wouldn't say I knew him all that well. But we had some conversations many years ago." The Twi'lek seemed sheepish, "We mainly discussed the flaws that we saw in the Jedi Order, and how the Jedi were not willing to go far enough to achieve their goals. These were ideas that I eventually grew out of. But it appears that Dooku had not."

"What is he like, Dooku?" he asked.

Teff hesitated, "Intelligent, cunning, but cold. I always got the sense that he felt like he was 'above' me. Of course, he was a respected Jedi Master, and I was just starting out as a Jedi Knight, so that might have contributed to it. We were never friendly and I don't think he would remember me unless I was standing right in front of him, but I knew him a little." The Twi'lek paused, "I must also state that he's an immensely powerful force user. He's arguably the best duelist in the entire Order. Only Master Windu can match him."

The six Jedi were silent as they listened to Teff talk.

"Enough of what we are up against, we decide what Tiplee and I should do? We need to make a decision today," said Aurine.

"Why don't we all go to Serenno?" asked Sascha, interrupting what he was sure was going to be impending argument. "Nara and I go as part of the Jedi delegation to this Summit. Tyra and Teff to do some investigations, and Tiplee and Aurine can...I don't know."

"We can investigate any leads that either of the two teams find," said Aurine, nodding to him and warming up to the idea. "We can also arrive first and make sure that everything is normal on the planet."

"It'll give us flexibility," pointed out Tyra. "They can also take the Emerald Dream, meaning that we can have a ship ready to get us off planet if need be."

"I like it," said Teff. All the other Jedi nodded.

"Okay," said Tiplee. "Nara and Sascha, Tyra and Teff, please forward us your itineraries. We'll arrive on planet about a day beforehand, so you can have plenty of time to adjust your strategies if need be. We'll be organizers for the first part, and then it will be up to the individual teams to make their own decisions"

"Any objections? I like this plan," said Teff.

There were none. Their plans were set.