DANCE TO THE DAY

You think you've captured me, my body, and my soul

You think I'm yours in your command and your control

You bid me dance for your pleasure and your glee

And I could stand here stubbornly

But now, I will dance

But my dance will be only for me

I dance to the day, I am free

Suu watched her children play with their younger cousins and shook her head.

Cut slipped his arm around her shoulders. "You've got that look on your face. Is something wrong, Love?"

"Not wrong exactly." Suu considered. "Well, no, there's a lot wrong in the galaxy. I've just been thinking."

"Uh-oh, that could be dangerous." Cut dodged a swat from his wife with a laugh. "But really, what could you be thinking about so seriously when what we've got here is so perfect."

He pointed out the twins learning limmie kicks with Genna's new boyfriend and Echo and Riyo's godson taking his first steps, and there were Crosshair and Ka'ra's adopted children getting in on the action with their own Shaeeah and Jek and their aunt Omega. It was quite a raucous family reunion.

"That's just it," Suu explained. "We have it so good here, but there are so many who don't. I've been thinking about the work that the defection network does helping all those poor souls find a new life and I think I could be doing more. When I was able to go along and help Romana and Eve, I felt like I was really making a difference."

"You want to go to work for the defection network?"

"I don't know if that's it exactly but something like that, yes."

"Well, I think that's a great idea!" Cut beamed at her.

"Do you really?" she asked. "It would mean my traveling a lot, leaving you with the kids, and I might be getting into some dangerous situations."

He shook his head. "The kids are a little older now so we could handle it if you were gone sometimes. And I know for a fact you can handle yourself in just about any situation. I think that the network couldn't ask for a more qualified recruit. Of course you know we'd miss you like crazy. I would miss you."

They had hardly spent more than a day apart since they had vowed to be committed to each other till death would part them and hopefully that still would not be for many many years. Suu was a wonderful mother and she had shared those duties gladly with Cut since they had run away from the war together with her children. Now she was ready to step out and help someone else, or many someones if that were possible, to find the same contentment.

"I would miss you too, and Shae and Jek, but you really don't mind? I could talk to Riyo and see if she could give me an introduction to Dalla. I mean we've met before but I imagine there would be some sort of interview process…"

"You really have given this some thought, haven't you?"

"I have, but I didn't want to bring it up unless I really thought it might be the right thing to do, not just for me, but for all of us." She looked out again over all the clone families who were gathered together for the occasion.

Cut stood behind and wrapped his arms around her. "We'll talk to the kids, of course. But I think they would be proud of their mom going out there and rescuing people from the empire."

"I'm so glad you think so. I wouldn't even consider it if you weren't on board." She sighed with contentment. "We'll talk to the kids tonight and then I'll talk to Riyo before she has to go back to Coruscant."

"And I'll be right behind you every step of the way."

…

"If you think you're going anywhere near the Outer Rim by yourself, you've got another thing coming!"

"I'm going to have backup!"

"Not enough!"

Yularen knew what was going on before he even laid eyes on the situation. The tone of a mother putting the fear of God into her children was apparently universal, and it only took a few seconds before he spied Agent Divo squaring off with Detective Herman.

"It's our only chance to catch these guys," Herman protested. It was a little difficult to take her seriously when she was wearing her undercover getup, looking half her age with pigtails and a baggy sweatshirt, but that was her targets' downfall. Ever since Herman graduated and joined ISB's special victims unit, they were rolling up cases left and right. "I have them on the hook. If I don't follow through, they'll get suspicious and run."

"I don't know Mer," Officer Jividen, Divo's newest addition, wrung his hands. "It sounds kinda dangerous."

"That's why I'll have a whole team watching me," Herman assured him. "I go in, they take me to their hideout and the team moves in."

"That's one scenario. The other is you winding up on a Zygerrian auction block and me not having the credits to buy you back!" Divo snapped.

"I'm not going to wind up on Zygerria."

"Really? I didn't know you had the foresight of the Jedi!"

That drew Herman up short, if only because nothing good came of the Jedi's foresight, but it wouldn't be for long. Yularen didn't want to get involved, but he needed to intervene before this became even more of a spectacle. "Is there a problem here?"

The trio collected themselves in the presence of a superior.

"No problem, sir," Herman chirped. "I was just telling Agent Divo about my assignment."

"That she's not going on." Divo's hands reached out like they had a mind of their own, and Herman had the grace to take a step back.

"I see." Yularen was just glad it wasn't his kid this time. "Would you care to explain the assignment, Detective?"

"Sir, one of the decoy characters I portray is a fourteen-year-old naval cadet named Jaci. Part of her character is that she's struggling with the program and being away from her family, and she was recently contacted by someone offering to help her leave the academy and start a new life."

Crap, it was his kid. "Defections?"

"He certainly wants Jaci to think that, but we aren't so sure. He doesn't seem to be interested in any political talk and he's way too pushy. He's basically ordering Jaci to abandon her position and when he's not talking about that, the conversation immediately becomes inappropriate. It looks like trafficking."

This could go one of two ways, and neither was good. "Do you have the decoy's comm?"

"Yes sir." She handed him a comlink in a glittery rainbow case and Yularen went through the conversation. The good news was that it wasn't any of Dalla's people. The bad news, it wasn't Dalla's people.

"I agree with your assessment, Detective. The scare tactics employed are particularly alarming."

"My squad thinks so too, sir, and we're sure he's done this before. That's why we're performing a sting operation. I'll meet him as the decoy, and when he brings me to their base of operations the team will raid it."

"One officer alone in a slavers' den," Divo interjected. "It's not safe."

He couldn't fault Divo; if Dalla had proposed going undercover then he would certainly balk. But on the other hand… "I assume all safety measures are in place? Subcutaneous implants, recording devices, surveillance?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I believe the risk is justified. Good hunting, Detective."

He left before Divo's throttle hands returned and pulled out his comlink.

"Young lady, there's something you need to know."

…

"They're slavers. Slavers pretending to be handlers."

A chorus of swear words in half a dozen languages rose from the handlers attending the holo conference. All the transmissions were cloaked, and she was the only one who knew everyone's names, but handlers didn't need identifying features to express their rage.

"How long have they been operating?" Riyo demanded.

"Hard to say. Dryden Vos is keeping his mouth shut, so it's even odds if he doesn't know or just doesn't want to piss me off, but Isa Durand thinks it's a newer operation and I hope she's right. We need to nip this thing in the bud."

"If word of this gets out, then our perception will be shot," Lux argued. "No defector will work with us if they think we could be slavers."

"I couldn't agree more. Luckily, ISB's helping us out with this one. They're going to raid the place and I think we should let them do it. That way we can focus our attention on any defectors being held captive."

"Use the raid as cover for a mass rescue? That's gutsy."

You don't know the half of it, Lux. "With luck –." If luck was spelled Y-U-L-A-R-E-N "- they won't have an accurate headcount and we can rescue the defectors without anyone noticing. ISB rolls up the ring, anyone with a similar idea gets a clear message, and we have defectors to offset any PR blowup. Game, set, match."

"How do you propose getting inside?" another handler asked.

"We're sending an undercover agent."

"One of us?"

"No, a non-handler with very specific skills. If anyone can handle it, she can."

"Oh my gods, my defector isn't calling me back." A previously silent handler looked close to hyperventilating. "I thought he was busy, but what if they have him? He's terrified! He'd follow a loth-cat if he thought it could get him away quickly."

"Speculating won't do any good. Keep trying to reach your defector, but send me his file just in case. Is anyone else missing defectors?"

Thank gods, no one else was. Dalla rolled up the meeting and moved to the back room where her undercover agent was waiting.

Suu was putting the finishing touches on her disguise and making sure all the trackers and concealed comm devices were in place.

Dalla sighed. "I didn't want to throw you into the fire on your first day."

"I'm happy to get started. Do we have any new information?"

"We used a fake chat profile to find the ring, and they've agreed to go out for drinks tomorrow. Before you ask, yes. It's the same account that our contact said was luring an ISB decoy."

"So I'll show up to the bar, act a little drunk, and let them take me. I can do that."

"If it's time for us to move in, hit the beacon. A mercenary will be standing by to extract you at a moment's notice."

"And we're sure the mercenary won't change allegiances?"

"I wasn't, which is why I secured his loyalty with a bonus of three times your value on the slave market pending your safe return. And just in case he decides to quadruple dip…"

A metal clang sounded from the other side of the room and Echo emerged from the corner where he was putting on his helmet.

"I'm sure Echo can take them."

"Roger roger," he said and closed the visor. "Does Cut know you're wearing that?"

"Does Riyo know you're wearing that?" Suu fired back.

Echo sobered. "Please don't tell her until it's over. She hates when I pretend to be a droid."

Dalla cleared her throat. "Moving on to other complications, one of the handlers thinks her defector might have been taken. He's a teenage stormtrooper who was getting too much attention from an Inquisitor, and he's jumpy as hell. I have his file here and if you see him, he's your priority."

Echo took the file. "And the bantha in the room?"

"The ISB agent." Dalla cringed. "I'll admit, I wish we were doing this before the raid. Your undercover cop's HoloNet pictures are edited, but they're better than nothing and in our case, they're a goldmine. I actually met Agent Herman here during Francesca's defection."

Echo, who knew the story, took a closer look. "Is this the one Francesca almost brained with a crowbar?"

"Aye. She sounds like a squeaky mouse and she'll definitely be a convincing teenager. And from what I saw, she has a conscience." Which could mean anything from her unwittingly helping them, to getting in the way and kriffing them over. Dalla didn't want to find out.

Neither did Suu. "Hopefully we're gone before she even shows up."

"I hope so too."

…

On paper, everything went perfectly.

Suu showed up to the date, pretended not to notice when the creep she was chatting with drugged her drink, and let them take her. Mere seconds after she became incoherent, the kidnappers shot an EMP pulse at her "protocol droid" and Echo went down too.

"Are you alright?" He asked in his best droid voice when Suu finally came to in a chain-link cell in some godforsaken basement.

"My headache could be better," she grumbled.

By all means they should have been noticed, but the other occupants of the basement were too busy arguing amongst themselves.

"I'm telling you, that's not a droid!" A reedy young man shrieked.

"If it looks like a droid, moves like a droid, and has a mech arm, then it's a droid!" A short, pink Twi'lek shot back.

"It…it…"

"What, Kip?"

Suu already had her suspicions, but when she heard the name Kip she knew for sure. She and Echo shared a you-have-got-to-be-kriffing-kidding-me look. Looks like they'd found the missing defector.

"It just isn't!" Kip insisted.

"Not a droid," a little girl with short white hair concurred.

"And now you've got the kid talking crazy." The Twi'lek groaned and dropped against the wall. "That's it. I give up."

It was time to make themselves known. Suu rolled over with a moan, and Kip and the Twi'lek turned around.

"She's awake." The Twi'lek hurried over and crouched by Suu's side. "Hey, are you alright?"

Suu allowed herself to rub her aching head. "What happened?"

"You were taken, like the rest of us." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Dahna."

"Eleni." They shook. No need to ask what this place was; every Twi'lek woman knew what being taken meant. "How long have you been here?"

"Too long. I overheard them saying they're waiting to grab another person before they ship us off." She glowered at the basement door through the fencing. "Don't suppose your droid has a vibrosaw?"

"EK-0? I wish he did."

"I concur, ma'am," Echo replied in his droid voice.

"Gods, that's creepy," Kip chimed in from the back of the cell. "It's like the uncanny valley."

"Would you stop it?" Dahna spun around to focus her glare on him.

"Let's not fight." Suu held Dahna back with a hand on her shoulder. The slavers were probably taking the ISB agent now, and their raid would go down breakout or no. If she could convince the prisoners to work together, the mission would be a cakewalk.

The idea hadn't fully formed when the basement door opened again and a Besalisk descended the stairs with a squirming young woman under one of his four arms.

"Let me go!" The girl screeched and Suu's thoughts went from planning escape, to are you serious, why does nothing go according to plan.

Echo muttered "dear gods" under his breath, the sound lost when the Besalisk opened the cell door and threw Agent Herman inside.

…

Suu was not a fan of the ISB. In her opinion, the agency was just a way for the Empire to close its fist on the galaxy, and any good it accomplished was far outweighed by the atrocities it inflicted. But she had to admit it didn't skimp on training. Agent Herman was an actress and a half.

"You can't keep me here!" She shouted, throwing herself against the walls of the cage. "My parents will be looking for me!"

And here's where Suu had to give the ISB credit: even though she knew that Herman was a fully grown woman, her maternal instincts activated and she scooped her into a hug.

"Breathe," she ordered. "Panicking won't help."

Herman let out a few teenagery blubbers into Suu's shoulder. "Where are we?"

"That's a great question. What's your name?"

"Jaci."

"Hello Jaci, I'm Eleni." Two could play at this game. If Herman was going to be the innocent teenager, then Suu would be the comforting mom. "You said your parents were looking for you?"

"Uh, when they realize I'm gone. They think I'm still at the Academy right now."

"Academy?" Dahna spat.

Suu ignored her. "What's the last thing you remember before you got here?"

"I met the guy I've been texting at a cafe," she sniffed. "He bought me a fizzpop, but I didn't drink much because I was so nervous."

Or because she didn't want the slavers wondering why the drugs weren't working. She was sharp, that was for sure.

"I felt dizzy, so we left, and that Besalisk was waiting in the speeder."

Suu rocked her like one of her own children. "Oh darling, I'm so sorry. When did this happen?"

"Maybe a couple of hours ago."

The ISB would be here any second. They needed to get out, now.

Kip cautiously approached, giving Echo the side eye the whole way, and crouched down next to them.

"What academy did you go to?" he asked.

Dahna snorted. "Does it matter? They're all the same."

"Can it." He went back to Herman. "I went to Taanab and if anyone asks, our grav-ball team can take Prefsbelt any day."

Herman giggled. "In your dreams."

"Hey, the nexus might take the championship one day." He indicated the other occupants in the cell. "Dahna over there is kind of a pain, but Shin and I are pretty cool. Can we sit with you?"

Suu didn't give her a choice. She scooted over and made room for Kip and the silent little girl. Out of the corner of her eye, Echo looked like he was about to go out of his skin.

She looked up at him while Kip and Herman exchanged names.

"I should have listened to my handler," he lamented. "He told me to sit tight, but I didn't listen."

"You're a defector?" Herman asked, and every warning bell known to man went off in Suu's head. "Like a real one? I just flunked my exams and freaked out."

"Yeah. If we get out of here, you should give him a call. He can help you."

Suu made her move before Kip could identify a handler to the ISB. "How often do the guards come in here?"

"Not often." Dahna pointedly avoided the rest of their group and only directed her answer at Suu. "There's only one way out of here, so they can just watch the door."

"There's a back door by the basement entrance," Herman piped up. "I saw it on the way in. If we can get to that, we can run."

"First you'll have to get out of this cell and past everyone at the top of the stairs. Good luck with that."

Suu stepped back in. "It might be easier than you think."

Kip and Shin regarded her suspiciously, and then shrieked in alarm as Echo took off his helmet.

Kip grabbed the child and scuttled backward. "I knew it!"

"The two of us are from a liberation group, and we're getting you out of here." Echo stuck his mech arm through the cell wall and started working on the door lock.

"We've leaving?"

"I don't think this is a good idea," Herman said. "Do you have a comm? We could call the police."

"So they can shoot first and ask questions later? No thanks." Dahna looked at Suu admiringly. "You're a true daughter of Ryloth."

"Just giving back what I was given. How's the door coming?"

"Almost got it…"

"We don't have weapons or a plan!" Herman protested. "We need to take a minute and figure out what we're going to do when –."

Her sentence was cut off when the very building shook with a battering impact from upstairs and someone bellowed "ISB, PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Suu's heart stopped, Echo stumbled back from the door, and Herman facepalmed. As her hand dropped, so did her teenage persona.

"Perfect timing, Stabler," she growled. "Absolutely perfect."

Kip, who had jumped away from Echo moments before, now wasn't looking too sure about anyone. "You … you're a cop?"

In reply, Herman kicked the door and the tumbler Echo hadn't yet released gave way with a rattling bang.

"Just my luck," she muttered. "We had to raid this joint the day they had a defector. Now the loyalty office is going to be all over this and I'll be lucky to get anything on these guys."

She stormed up the stairs and Suu followed her.

"You don't have to tell them. Just take your slavers and pretend you don't know about Kip."

"So the LOs' can run his chain code, see a defection notice, and bust me down for incompetence while the slavers walk? Not likely," she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. The ring had just sold off the rest of the prisoners; I was the only one here."

Dalla's description ran through Suu's mind: from what I saw, she has a conscience.

"Thank you."

"Herman!" Stabler shouted from further inside the house.

"It's all clear!" Herman called and opened the basement door. "Eleni, you'd better not be here when I get back."

No need to tell Suu twice. She signaled Echo at the base of the stairs and led the way out the back door, leaving the house and Agent Herman behind them.

…

All Herman wanted when she got to the squad room was to finish her paperwork, clock out, and go home. But that plan was foiled by Agent Divo, asleep at Herman's desk.

"Divo?"

Divo's eyes snapped open and filled with relief when she saw Herman. "You're back!"

"How long have you been here?" Herman asked, bewildered as she accepted Divo's hug.

"Since you left for the assignment. I had to know if you were safe."

…

"She snapped at a defector and the undercover agent?" Dalla asked, looking over the file they'd hastily compiled for Dahna. "She's a future partisan for sure. I'll call Saw."

"What about the kid?" Echo asked.

"She's taken to the mercenary who picked you up." Little Shin was still visible, sitting on the boarding ramp next to the bearded mercenary. "I don't see a better placement for her, and he's a decent guy, so yay for adoption."

"I suppose." Suu didn't know how to feel about that. "Kip's back with his handler, so that takes care of everything." She raised an eyebrow at Dalla. "At least, I assume it does."

"Almost."

"You think this might happen again?"

"Oh no, the criminal element of the galaxy knows what will happen if they try to impersonate Mollymauk. I was thinking of something to prove to the defectors what the person they're talking to is a legitimate handler. The handlers and I got together, and we came up with this."

She presented a sketch of a star map, no wider than her forearm.

"It would be a tattoo, done in invisible ink which glows under ultraviolet light. The handlers have all agreed to place it on their left inner forearm, and once it heals there won't be any sign it was ever there. Unless, of course, they show it to a defector."

Suu got the drift. "A secret signal."

"I know you have some skill with a needle. Do you think you could do this?"

"I could. How many people would I be tattooing?"

"Every handler," Dalla said. "And me."