I paced back and forth on the bridge, wishing that Rebel was here. I heard the door slide open, startling me. Rex stood looking small in the vast command deck entrance. "What do you want?" I said turning away and looking out at the stars, now streaks across the black expanse since we were in hyperspace. "You alright, kid? You seem kinda lost." I sighed. "I'm fine." I looked at him from over my shoulder. "Thanks for asking." I forced a smile, but it wasn't too hard, I appreciated his concern. "Incoming transmission, sir." One of the technician clones said from the trench where all of the mechanics for the cruiser were done. I nodded to him and walked past Rex to the room where the holotable was, he looked at me as I tried not to look at him. I stood in front of the table with my hands behind my back, expecting a transmission from the Outer Rim command. Rex joined me and stood by my side giving the technician the signal to project the message to the table. I held my breath as the fuzzy blue shape warbled and cleared up. "Rue, can you hear me?" Rebel said her voice hushed. I relaxed. "Rebel?" I could see her on the hologram glancing behind her shoulder and hunched over to make sure no one was listening. "Yes, it's me. I need to talk to you. The both of you. About Palpatine." She lowered her voice even more at his name, so I almost couldn't hear it. "It's not safe to contact us through Republic channels." Rex said in a whisper. "They could trace it." "Okay, okay, well what am I supposed to do?" She asked redundantly. I thought for a moment. "Go to the lower levels. Find a communicator down there." Even through the glitchy hologram I could see the shock in her face. "Down there? How am I supposed to get away without anyone noticing?" She liked to pretend that she was fearless but really everyone was afraid of the lower levels. The sketchy characters, the trash, stray cats. Never underestimate the stray cats. "I don't know, that's your problem." I disconnected the transmission. "Now we wait." Rex said facing the bridge. It wasn't long before the table beeped at us and before the sergeant could say anything I accepted the message. Rebel's voice came through immediately. "So, he approached me and-" She started right where she left off. "Palpatine?" I asked worriedly. "Yes, and he put an offer on the table." She continued quickly as if she was running out of time. "What did he say?" I was confused, he didn't seem like the negotiating type. "His deal was that if I kept quiet he'd let me join the mission, but if I told anyone, he'd keep Dooku after us." I tried to wrap my head around this. "Obviously we can't keep this a secret, right? We'd be committing treason, then the Republic would be after us too." Rex put his hand on my shoulder. "But we can't take on Dooku ourselves either." He said, looking at me. "We wouldn't be alone though. We'd have the Jedi to help us. If we don't tell anyone it'll still just be us." I said, shaking my head. "Well, not exactly." Rebel spoke up and I'd almost forgotten she was there. "I have an idea that involves neither one of those options." She looked at us trying to see if we were thinking what she was thinking but it was a mystery to us. "I think it's time we start a Rebel-lion against Palpatine." She said sneakily emphasizing the word play on Rebellion.