Kuat's a weird place. Most of the population actually lives in the orbiting shipyards that ring the world. The planet is barely touched, a pristine nature preserve where only the wealthiest, most noble families may set foot. Onna told the crew how these aristocratic clans marry mostly within their own families. To prevent inbreeding, they employ a "telbun." These are male slaves who're raised and trained to be attractive, athletic, and knowledgeable. They...er, act as stand-ins for the husband... Okay, they sleep with the wife and then stay with the household to fill in as nanny/governess for the children. You can recognize them from their distinctive garb of a purple robe and tall, cylindrical hat.
Oooooooookay.
Z thought this a splendid idea--sleep with a rich woman and then be taken care of for the rest of your life?--but he didn't have the right hat.
Anyway. The crew got clearance to visit the planet, but first they went back to check out Dalt's old place in the orbital shipyards. Before they even went in, they recognized the telltale stench of
Hunting around, Kedrihm'Val discovered a switch set into the floor, under the bed, while Oola realized that Dalt not only had one of his patented Dark Side HVACs hooked up to his room, but had also installed more than thirty of them throughout the driveyards.
Guess what the switch was.
They turned off the system, but it looked like quite a lot of the driveyards were nicely saturated with Dark Side energy. Zan sent Onna, Kedrihm'Val, and Drath down to the planet to see if Dalt had any holdings there, while the rest of them pursued the Dark Side problem orbit-side.
On the planet, they discovered that Dalt did indeed have a cushy little place to call his own. Investigating, they found a very locked box--it was practically encrusted with padlocks, combination locks, puzzle locks, and everything else the man could think of to keep that thing closed. Drath cut it open with his lightsaber. Inside, they found what Onna identified as a nav computer.
Dock-side, the Jedi took their findings to the local authorities. The Force-sensitive head of security assured them he'd do his best to help. They told him to contact them in Dalt's rooms if he learned anything more.
Shortly afterward, Dalt's chambers were jettisoned into space. Luckily, the crew wasn't in them. They'd sort of had a feeling the guy might be crooked. So they headed back in and placed the man under arrest, alerted the Republic, then bulled their way into a high-clearance research facility that the second-in-command told them about.
The chief engineer tried to stop them from getting in, and Lydia attacked him. Ree and Zan were shocked until she pointed out that they'd both missed the fact that he was going for a weapon. Heh, the little girl caught what both of the Jedi missed.
The now-cooperative engineer told them about the project he'd been working on. Dalt had given him plans for a new kind of starfighter. So far, thirteen had been built. Based off the old TIE design, these were smaller, lighter, and infinitely more maneuverable. They were so small, in fact, that upon taking a look at them, the characters realized that they seemed to be almost too small to fit a person in.
So they cracked one open and took a look. I think I forgot to mention that there'd been thirteen unsolved murders in the last few months. Well, the "murdered" (Force-sensitive) individuals were plugged into these things. And by plugged, I mean "at one with the machine" kind of wired-in.
And there were only twelve in the bay. The thirteenth had apparently hied off upon the crew's arrival at Kuat, or something. They're going to sic some Jedi Healers on these poor unfortunates. Hopefully something can be done for them.
Coming back up from the planet, Onna, Drath, and Kedrihm saw the Republic authorities arrive (not far from Coruscant to Kuat, after all). The Millenium Falcon was accompanying, but it peeled off to go chase down that last fighter. Apparently, screwing with the Kuat driveyards is not looked upon fondly by the people who don't want dark Jedi to get Star Destroyers.
Reuniting, the group handed over the nav computer to Oola, who discovered that it contained flight paths into the Deep Core--the center of the galaxy, where gravitational stresses are laid on so thick that it's dangerous to fly a ship.
They also found...from a place I can't remember (was it in the documents Dalt had left?)...that the last of the robo-Dalts was currently on Tatooine, playing negotiator for the Hutts.
They decided to pursue the last robo-Dalt first. That sucker is dangerous, and getting him out of the way would be a big help. Problem is, Tatooine is smack-dab in the middle of "We want that bounty!" space. Zan suggested disguises. It wasn't hard for the crew to pick up a different ship and whip up a the facade of travelling entertainers. Lydia, however, got left behind. Not only does she need to think about whether she wants to become a Jedi, but taking a kid into the middle of bounty-pirahna central didn't seem like a responsible thing to do.
Z, however, had to be talked down from "building up his bounty." Kedrihm'Val accused him of intending to blow up "anything he could get away with." Z said, "No! I-- Anything I can get away with? Well..." He suggested they might drop him on the other side of the planet so he could distract everyone by playing with high explosives, but they nixed the idea on the grounds that he might get himself killed. Ah well. He was somewhat mollified when Ree promised that they'd surely have something for him to decimate later.
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