The demise of Lady Sent

After all the recent excitement, Zan recommends rest for the group. Ree blissfully prepares for a decent night of sleep...

...which of course she doesn't get. She's awakened by a sense of malevolence, and sits up to find Drath's spirit standing at the foot of her bed. He's rock-solid sure they've doomed the universe by killing him, and wants to know how they're going to stop the True Sith from getting Luke. "Kill him, or wrap him in happy thoughts. Since you did away with me and put Darth Maul in a rock, you have to deal with this by yourself."
"Oh! Really?" Ree snarks. "That hadn't occurred to me! Anything else you want before I Force-light you into oblivion?"
Drath leaves.

Kyp knocks. "Something evil your room?" Ree tells him. They wonder about True Sith and telepathy and Force magnifiers. Kyp considers using the Yavin temple Force amplifiers to put up shields.

Drath turns up in Kedrihm'Val's room, who reacts pretty much the same as Ree, then leaves and bothers Dalt, who's working in the lab with Oola. She digs out a Force crystal. Dalt throws a wrench, which goes through Drath--"Huh"--then pulls out a gun. "Ooh!" Drath exclaims, eying Dalt's alarming-looking bit of technology, and flees the scene. It's a Force-light gun, Dalt explains to Oola. They decide to attach one to INON, then Dalt has a brainstorm: why build Force-exploding guns when you can build Force-light guns? "Drath had a good idea, showing up so I almost killed him. I wonder how big we can build it..." He installs one of those Force crystals into a lightsaber.

Kedrihm'Val goes to Ree, and Z stops by because Drath busted in on him too. Kedrihm'Val checks on Zan (yep; Drath ran pretty fast from that one) and Ree checks on Lydia (also yep).

Kedrihm'Val heads down to the hangar bay to check on Oola and Dalt, and arrives in time to hear Oola ask SARR about Drath. He notices Dalt vaporizing a dead True Sith with a Force light gun. He wants more Force crystals. Kedrihm'Val takes one, curious about them. The rest of the crew arrives. Zan likes the idea of going back to Reeshome. He thinks they all deserve pie after this.

Dalt ponders ways of devastating the True Sith fleet. Route the ships' connection through the Force crystals? Or empty the Dark Harvester and channel Rakata Prime's explosion through it?

Before they can go to Reeshome, they have meetings with the Council and the Senate tomorrow, so it's back to bed for everybody.

At the Council meeting, the Jedi agree to use the Yavin temples. They debate the Force gun heavily, preferring Dalt's solution of the lightsabers. Ree suggests they make a couple of prototypes. They could also have healing properties, and they didn't kill people on Thule. Dalt thinks the True Sith ships could be yet another slave race. He's not sure whether they're sentient, but they seem not to be particularly corrupt--unlike the True Sith themselves.

The Jedi inform the Senate of developments. The Senate wants a cataloguing of all outstanding threats.

Kyp's brother, like the other clones, proves to be a Primal Justice geek. He also looks forward to pie, which Ree agrees to bring back for him. So it's off to Reeshome. Her family meets them and fusses elaborately. Ree tells her mother her pies are coveted. Oola and Onna discuss Ree and Kyp and romance notives. Ree sputters with motification. There is pie and food and family relaxation all around. Ree's hopes for her people petitioning for a renaming of their planet are crushed. "They should have a chance to be asked!" she protests.
"You're assuming they weren't," Kedrihm'Val points out.
"Well, they...couldn't...were you?" she turned to her father.
"We were more than happy with it," her dad cheerfully confirms.

Her aunt is doing well. Her dad says, "We expected evil clouds and flight, but..."
"You expected evil clouds and flight," her mother scoffs. "Your father expected it," she says to Ree.
"I'm sure your uncle expected evil clouds and flight," her father counters.
"Maybe it's a guy thing," Ree wonders, then quizzes the rest of the group. Z votes yes. Oola and Onna both say no. Dalt also says no. So maybe it is a guy thing.

After spending a lovely day with her family, it's off to the cave to visit the space ferrets. They're doing fine. Entering the cave, Ree has a vision of the True Sith ships pouring out at Kushiba, which is a planet home to small, fluffy, highly intelligent and agile race, rather like fluffy rabbit-cats. Very cute and highly badass.

Kushiba isn't too far from Rakata Prime. So there'll be a secondary body of True Sith away from the main fleet. But it's a vision of the future. So for now, they'll go on with gathering crystals and water.

Z wonders about battle plans and the Chiss. Ree calls Kyp when they get back and fills him in on Kushiba. He's astounded--her trip was all quiet and pleasant. He says he's going to double guards on the temple because that has to be a bad sign.

Now having what they came for, the Starwind heads for Kushiba. Ree has to master self-discipline to keep from spazzing out over the cuteness. She explains the vision, which the Kushibans ponder with adorable solemnity, and then a wise old rabbit-cat tells them of a legend about a crashed ship from about 500 years ago. He tells them where to find it.

This one looks like a supply ship. The cockpit is empty, and there are no lifeforms or droids. Records indicate the ship was fleeing a space battle, carrying offerings for the Chosen One. The ships in its group were coming in to establish a base for the invasion, and were ambused by "the enemy." This was the only one that survived, too damaged to go further. There are indications that the pilot survived. There was a secondary mission to follow up on an earlier mission to hunt down "the renegade" from 500 years earlier.

The hold contains gold, jewels, a couple of wall-sized stones painted with murals--one is a fight between Luke and Leia, a couple more are pictures of Luke in all his dark glory. There are smaller statues of Luke and Leia standing back to back, displaying black eyes like the evil rulers. Ree finds a gizmo she thinks must be important. Oola identifies it as a scale groomer.

There's a big sealed container and a smaller yay-big container which radiatesevil. The big box contains a suit of Sith armor and a lightsaber, customized for Luke; there's another for Leia. They hold cavities in the chest, into which fit two crystals from the smaller box which ooze Dark Side energy. They're not sentient, exactly, but...grabby. These definitely need to be destroyed, but they're not sure how to do it off-hand.

A call to the temple doesn't get through. Crap. Maybe Kyp was right. They call Zel. It takes a bit to get through, and then they get the news. E-Val escaped along with a possessed padawan. Well...crap.

There's nothing they can do about that from all the way out here, though. While they consider dipping these things in Force water on an asteroid, the doors swing shut. Ree goes to check it out, and finds a True Sith warrior outside, who begins to use the Force to crush the ship. Ree and Zan hold it off. Lydia fires the turbo lasers and blows it up.

They open the door and Ree peeks out to spot a servitor lurking above the door. She cuts it in half. Oola says that's all there were on this ship.

Kyp calls back. They managed to catch and fix the padawan. He wants them to shoot those crystals into a nearby sun. "That seems to work for you a lot," Ree comments, then claps her hand over her mouth.
Kyp doesn't seem too hurt. "Ree! You've been hanging out with Z too much."
He tells them they weren't able to catch E-Val. Didn't even know he was gone till it was too late.

Z wants to look through the treasure. "He wants to find something for his mom," Oola quips. Dalt gets that look on his face. "Don't do it, Dalt," Oola warns him.

They shoot the crystals and armor into a nearby sun, then pick up an automated distress signal from a Naboo ship.

It's docked at a diplomatic center. The ship is empty, and it's Lady Sent's. Logs record that she captured and being returned, then it looks like a fight broke out. All the video equipment has been destroyed. The workers in the hangar bay where it's docked are acting normal, though.

Ree asks one what he saw. He says he saw nothing. She senses he's lying, but he stands by his statement. She gives up, and decides to contact Naboo security instead. Kedrihm'Val thinks maybe Lady Sent lied. Ooal thinks hostages. There's no mention in the log about children.

They scan for Lady Sent and find her in the Queen's residence. Hostages, then. They'll either have to storm the place...or sneak. SARR is disappointed. But Z thinks this is all off. He thinks it's a trap, aimed at them.

So if they're expected, they can't pretend they're not here. Instead Ree and Zan going in fighting to make a scene while the others sneak in. SARR aggravatedly offers to shoot at things without hurting anyone. Oola promises him mayhem when the True Sith arrive.

The Jedi scene very effectively, allowing the sneaking to go without a hitch. When they reach the Queen's residence, Ree notes that history repeats itself: Lady Sent is sitting on the throne with her 14-year-old daughter standing next to her with the tied-up Queen. There's a sealed cloning tube nearby, and no sign of the baby. "Unless it's in the tube," Oola theorizes grimly. Kedrihm'Val glances at Dalt, who agrees it's likely.

Lady Sent releases four globes on repulsor lifts-universal energy cages, which can suck someone in and hold even a Jedi.

If they can get the Queen away, the station's security forces will protect her. And they have to keep Lady Sent away from that tube...

...Aaaand the tube opens. Oola sends droids after the cages to disable the repulsor lifts. Z jets forward to grab the Queen and heads for a window. Kedrihm'Val jumps down to distract the enemy. Lydia charges the clone coming out of the tube--Palpatine. Onna fires at Lady sent.

Dalt leaps forward and hits a cage with his lighsaber, saber in one hand, glowing laser gun in the other. The Sent ladies ignite their lightsabers. Onna herds out the guards. Kedrihm'Val kicks Lady Sent in the head, knocking her lightsaber out of her grasp, and lands two crushing blows. Dalt deals a lethal blow to the daughter, and both women go down.

And then the Emperor Force-lightnings them all.

Zan and Ree arrive, and Zan promptly gets sucked into a cage. Oola goes to work on getting him out, but that leaves Ree to face the clone. She charges him--doesn't knock him down but interrupts his Force lightning, allowing the others to regain their feet.

Ree cuts off his left foot. Z flies back in. Oola gets Zan out and Kedrihm'Val hurls the scraps of the energy cage at the Emperor, knocking him over. Ree takes the opening to attack again.

Oola fills a droid with Force water.

Lydia sidles in to back Ree up, but the assistance isn't necessary as Ree cleaves the Emperor's clone into two tidy pieces. Oola injects his remains with the Force water, making it dissolve, then cleans out the cloning tank. Kedrihm'Val reminds her about the Palpatine women.

"This is a movie," Dalt says.

They ask the security guards about the baby, but they only ever saw genetic material. Ree doesn't want to leave a baby behind. The security helps them look. Dalt observes that babies are yay-big, to which Ree chides him, "You couldn't have been more specific!"
"It's not vision-Dalt's fault if the universe likes to laugh at us," Kedrihm'Val teases.
"It's not my fault if your brain taps into the Force in the most inconvenient way possible," Dalt counters.

There's no sign of the baby, though. The ship's logs were dumped before reaching Naboo. Lady Sent went out of her way to hide the child (bad scenario: she could've given it to the Hutts. Worse scenario: or to Thrawn). Defeated, Ree lets the temple know.

Now that the Jedi have had time to straighten out what happened, Ree gets a more complete report: Drath possessed a padawan (who is okay) in order to steal the coral and release E-Val. No guesses where he's goin. They turn all the offering stuff (minus evil Sith artifacts) over to Luke, who wants the Librarian to look things over first. "There's no love poetry, is there?" he worries.

A lead-recovering a True Sith ship

Ree's awakened in the night by the Felzion holocron activating. It's some species taht looks like a human with face markings and glowing eyes. "Do you really want a Jedi-killing weapon in everybody's hands?" it asks her. She figures that's something for the Council to decide. It gives her the information on how to build it; the weapon ignites the Force in a person, bursting their spirit from their body. Oola helps her put the schematics down on paper, and thinks she and Dalt could probably build one.

Dalt thinks there might indeed be a message embedded in the Abindosani genetic code--a map. There's lots more, he says, but he's scanning specifically for True Sith information. He tells Kedrihm'Val that it looks as though Abindosan records as well as stores, in some kind of reboot pattern for the galaxy. Every sin and virtue of people on random planets could be in there.

Back on Coruscant, Ree tells the Council about the gun. They turn over reports and messages about the Felzin to the Republic, who will summon Stormmaker and Soundmaker to testify before the Senate.

Ree looks into the race of that alien in the Felzin holocron. No records match its type. The Jedi Librarian wonders about the Ancients. Perhaps they were a group of disparate races? Ree turns to leave...and pauses. Turning back to the Librarian, she motions the 'yay big' movement. Tionn's eyes widen. "Did he touch it?" she asks Ree.

Ree thinks back. Yes, she handed it to Luke to look over and then he passed it back. They decide to leave it on the library ship. But Luke told her to keep it...she has INON hang on to it instead. Ree warns Kyp.

About a month and a half left before the True Sith arrive.

The Abindosani DNA slice Dalt's looking at seems to be a map to a location on Abindosan. it's an empty area, Kedrihm'Val tells them: a region of canyons and ancient carved-up plateaus. They head there.

And sure enough, they find a cave, hollowed out by hand ages ago. There are warding sigils carved into the ground before the entrance. Inside is a large cavern, containing a broken old ship. It's not Rakata make, but it's about as old. The ship, a small 3 to 4 person craft, opens for them. There's an aura of decay inside; three dead True Sith warriors sit hunched over, looking like they died in the crash, along with the corpses of two servitor monsters. The computer looks like it could be repaired. Everything's well-preserved. There are some board games in a container set in the wall.

Dalt sprays cologne in the air. Z complains, "You're making it smell like a two-credit Coruscanti whore in here."
"Aww, do you miss your mother?" Dalt asks.
Kedrihm'Val sighs and grabs Z.

Oola snags a map off the computer, along with some historical files. It's a True Sith scout ship, dated post-galactic conquest. This crash is about 3 to 4000 years old, after the True Sith first encountered Revan. He'd apparently united some other races against them, and built enough of a force that the True Sith had trouble with them. This computer remained active until 1500 years ago. The ships seems to be somewhat linked in a hive mind, for effectiveness in combat. Interesting fact: as of 1500 years ago, they were still talking about Revan in the present tense.

That combat link could be a weakness. If they can figure out how to exploit it, it could dent and disorganize the True Sith, keep them from regrouping after the planet-bomb, "till we can figure out where their leader is and implement Han's plan," Z says.

They try to ponder ways Revan--or "Revan"--could still have been functioning 1500 years ago. Anyway, they think they might be able to modify the Force-igniting blasters to work specifically on the True Sith. They take the ship back with them for study.

The ship, in fact, is in excellent condition, having healed itself since the crash. The True Sith seem capable of partially interfacing with their organic ships...and if the ships are oganic--alive, even--they could be poisoned.

They report back to Kyp. No word yet on Lady Sent. He says, "We'll find Lady Palpatine. She didn't even ahve to change her name."
Ree: "Was that necessary?"
Kyp: "No. I'll take you to the opera to make up for it."

Then they get a few days of downtime, till Lydia gets back with her newly-constructed lightsaber. "Kyp says you brought back something yay-big," she greets Ree. "I'm not around, the place goes to hell."

Steampunk Star Wars

Lydia leaves to build her lightsaber, as she prepares for her knighthood. The others get debriefed. Dalt has much to say.
Regarding Luke, he warns them: "It was on a wall! A really well-drawn wall."
On the evil rock: "Let me explain something to you from a scientific standpoint: some things you don't know till you crack it open." Ree wants the rock destroyed. She tells Dalt to work with Kedrihm'Val on communicating with the coral. Oola will poke Drath's computer core for more information. The others will spend some time learning more about the True Sith from their various resources.

Ree and Zan report to the Jedi Council.

Oola digs up Drath's plans for dealing with the True Sith. Still no explanation on why he wanted the concentrated life force of all his people, but apparently it's important somehow.

The Jedi debate spiritedly over the Sent situation. Ree's concerned about his family's safety if they release the information. Kyp wonders if his family isn't evil too. The Council puts an investigator on the case. Then they turn their attention to one really angry Maul-rock.

The Republic begins to prepare for war.

Dalt wants a thorough genetic scan of every Abindosani. He thinks that the information from the reefs may be coded into them in bits and pieces.

Ree scours temple archives for anything on the True Sith. She discovers a planet on the Perlemian trade route has ancient myths about an evil space-reptile people who exhibited Dark Side powers. It sort of sounds like the True Sith warrior caste. The myths come from a prehuman civilization that still dwells on the planet. They're a stubborn race that prefers to be left alone.

Dalt tells Ree about the gene-scans he wants to execute. Kedrihm'Val is concerned about getting his people to cooperate with yet another technological intrusion.
"Tell them evil from the stars is coming to eat their crops," Dalt suggests.
"Well, they know that," Kedrihm'Val replies.
"Tell them it's not me for a change," Dalt offers. "Tell them it's threatening."
Kedrihm'Val applies himself to convincing his people this is necessary.

Ree sets Zel to dig up information on Senator Sent's family. Turns out he already has: they're vacationing on Corellia. The children are a 14-year-old and a newborn. Looking into it further, he gets back to her a few days later with "vague and disturbing indications." Sent's wife comes from extraordinarily blue blood, but the truth is that she's adopted. And the Sents have...extremely redundant genetic material.
"Oh my god, twice?!" Ree exclaims. As in, the Emperor had sex twice? Zel refutes this. He believes they might be twins. "Separated and then...united," as he puts it disgustedly. Ree is revolted. "Oh! I thought I was prepared for this. I need to go dunk my head in bacta."

Oola installs a cloaking device on the Starwind. Ree tells the Council she has a report to give. "Oh, we'll be looking forward to it," is the polite reply.
"No, you won't," she tells them grimly.

The next day, the Jedi send Medical Corp personnel to Abindosan. Dalt works on information as it gets back to him. Oola, unable to find anything, figures that Drath didn't trust his information to his computer. Ree goes to breakfast with everybody. Z says he'll hunt down Sent's family and make sure they're kept track of, but "What'll you arrest them for? Conspiracy to commit incest with the Emperor's genes? Unless you can find something, this'll have to be handled with primal justice."

"Nice setup," Zann comments.

Z learns they've fled Corellia for the Outer Rim, but he gets onto tracking them.

When she tells them, the Council is equally revolted, and decides to release the tapes. And they decide to send the Starwind to that planet to hunt the True Sith myths.

The Republic Cultural Office sends packages to them all with cultural guidelines and local costumes. These include corsets and long skirts for the ladies, and modified armor for Z, who's quite excited. Dalt, for his part, loves the "accoutrements." Kedrihm'Val wonders how the top hats are supposed to stay on.

A Jedi from that planet is working on Yavin; they set up a briefing with him. The natives look rather like vary large stick bugs, and are treated as servants or slaves by the human classes. The planet is named Avanris.

So it's to Avanris to interview the Felzin people. They meet a Republic ambassador, Alik Tell, upon arrival. He tells them talking to the Felzin will be difficult, and suggests starting at the museum. Going straight to the Felzin ghetto would offend the local humans, who are big on propriety. Besides, the Felzin are unlikely to trust them immediately. The humans here call themselves Avarians, and the scholars are eager to show off their knowledge.

Alik calls them a cab to go to the museum--it looks like a carriage on repulsor lifts. Some are towed by elaborate mechanical animals. The city's bustling.

They're introduced to the museum's curator, Sir Neville Ironbrand, who goes straight to Dalt as the most refined-looking gentleman there. Zan introduces them around. Demonstrating magnificent racism, Ironbrand is confused as to why they'd care about local legends. He invites them to his sitting room to talk futher.

The guy seems to be obsessed with time. He has clocks and alarms everywhere. Ree compliments him on his collection, to which he graciously replies, "Time is very important to us."

Tthe Felzin, they see, have 12 legs, four arms, and triangular heads with turban-like hats, which apparently are some form of religious garb. Their legends are of creatures they call "star dragons." Ironbrand shows them a picture, which is a good match for the True Sith warriors. These Star Dragons enslaved the Felzin for a few centuries until they were somehow driven off. "Your standard hero myth," he sums up. "Could it really have a basis in fact? Chalk that up to the first useful thing to come from this part of the planet."

When an assistant comes in, Ironbrand begs off briefly. Oola overhears a discussion of a break-in of one of the exhibits. He accepts Ree's offer of help.

When he leads them to the site, the police are already there--complete with bobby hats. Seargent Oscar Copperpot is in charge of the scene. A thin, squirrly-looking guy is pacing agitatedly. He's introduced as Sir Roderick Burd, an archaeologist. His companion, Sir Nigel Stormmaker, is en route.

Looking around, Ree sees something odd in the 100-foot high vaulted ceiling. She points it out to the policemen, who blow her off and admire the architecture. She tries again, directing their attention to the vent.

The others, meanwhile, get to hear mutterings about a curse. Dr. Burd seems to buy into it. "They were holy artifacts," he keeps insisting. Sir Neville, on the other hand, dismisses it entirely. The thefts included a book on Felzin burial rites, collected tablets of their mythology, and some "ancient tools." The chamber's recording devices were knocked out, which leads the police to dismiss Felzin involvement. "Too smart for them," they scoff. Neville agrees: "When we had them install the security system, they had no idea what they were doing. They had to be constantlly instructed." Z's head turns slowly toward him as he continues, "Must be the criminal element, or magic."

Wow. That's a special sort of ignorant.

The exhibit glass was clearly cut from above using razor-sharp tools. Noting the Felzin servants scuttling around in the background, Z realizes their lowest set of arms consist of pincers that would be sharp enough to do it. They also have wings.

Sir Stormmaker barges in. The man looks like a hardcore adventurer, with a broad, strong frame and tough, durable, leather-accented clothing. Seargent Copperpot intercepts him. "Well, Sir Nigel, we believe it's the curse."
Sir Nigel looks at him. "Really. Do you."

Firguring they've done about all they can here for the moment, the crew proceeds to the rooms the ambassador arranged for them. The Felzin are everywhere, towing rickshaws, driving, carrying, fetching, doing random labor. Kedrihm'Val is horrified. Ree, for her part, is shocked by the blindness they've encountered over the Felzin. Onna wants to research the curse. She notes that the ancient tools seem to be technological in nature. One is essentially a holocron, but built from technology developed independently by the Felzin. So much for unsophisticated.

Their rooms are absolutely opulent. Ree tries not to choke on it, gently thanking the Felzin who drops off their bags.

They hear on the news that the lead suspect in the robbery is one Lord Demetrius Nighthand. Wearing smoked glasses and a jet pack, bearing a cane accented by various gizmos, he's apparently the local villain du jour. There's also a report that "undesirable elements" are protesting against bad treatment of the Felzin outside the city's main post office.

Ree wants to talk to Stormmaker, who's the only person who's displayed consistent common sense so far. "He might be outside the post office," Kedrihm'Val observes.

The news continues to talk about gatherings of Felzin around their religious centers. there's a controversy over whether they should be allowed to gather so. Lady Delilah Soundmaker is apparently the undesirable element in question; she's demonstrating in support of Felzin rights and culture. "Social malcontent," the news anchors label her. From the news clips of her, she's...definitely enthusiastic. Especially about upbraiding bigots.

The crew decides to split up. Half will go meet Sir Nigel, while the other half look up this Lady Delilah.

Z, Ree, and Onna pay their respects at Nigel's manor. It's full of hunting trophies. Ree explains to him that they're interested in the myths. He asks what the Republic usually does with planets. Ree says usually they leave them to govern themselves, unless there's some gross violation of Republic law....such as slavery. Eyes gleaming, Sir Nigel suggests that they film an interview while traveling around town and just...catch whatever happens to be in the background.

Sir Nigel's apparently been around. He knows about the Rakata and so forth. He tells them that the Felzin formed a Force tradition after their conquest by the True Sith, until the True Sith were driven away by the sacred tools. The Felzin, like the Ithorians, believe that their forest is sacred. There's more information on the stolen tablets, but they were never fully translated.

He also tells them that local pyschic Emily Phyriss is likely to be called in to aid the investigation. From a noble family, she's prone to dramatics such as fainting. He expects her to lie about Felzin involvement, as it would upset people to contemplate the idea. He's agreeable about passing them further information if he thinks of anything useful.

The others discover that Lady Delilah Soundmaker is aptly named. This woman is loud. Kedrihm'Val introduces their group. Delilah agrees to introduce them to Fa'se'ket, a Felzin who might be willing to talk to them.

And indeed it is. Fa'se'ket tells them the Dragons were driven off when the Makers gave or helped the Felzin construct the sacred tools. Three Star Dragons landed (the story makes it sound like a True Sith ship crashed). Oola shows him a picture of a True Sith, which terrifies the poor Felzin. Flustered, it suggests they speak to other Felzin. There are prophecies... It looks at them more closely. "How did you get here?"

Kedrihm'Val exxplains that they were sent by the Jedi. Fa'se'ket says no well-meaning Felzin would profane the sacred tools by stealing them. If a Felzin took them, it's a rogue or for nefarious purposes. He sets up a meeting with a Felzin shaman.

Their impression, overall, is that the Felzin are sophisticated and well-spoken. They understand Galactic Standard much better than the Avarians are giving them credit for, as well. The groups rejoin in time to catch the advent of Lady Phryiss on the news. Sweeping into the museum with a white dress and elaborately done-up hair, she speaks about how the "spirits speak with her." The commentator speaks quietly into the camera, as if not to disrupt her concentration.

So does her psychic trance thing, waving her hands over the disturbed area and wobbling about. She comes out of it and is just about to proclaim something when a speeder sweeps in with Lord Demetrius in the seat. Amidst a commotion, he grabs her and zips away.

Kedrihm'Val: "This is even weirder than the rest of you."
Dalt agrees. "This is strange even for me."

The newsman's summation is, "The flower of womanhood has been taken in a speeder!" Prompting Ree to yelp, "What?"
"What does that mean?" Kedrihm'Val asks, completely at a loss.

The crew heads to the police to learn what they can about Lord Demetrius. In fact, the police have his address. He operates out of a public house. Z wants to pay him a visit.

Lord Demetrius is sitting at a table near the back when they enter. "I'll handle this!" Z declares.
Ree holds him back. "You are not going to ask him, 'Are you a Cloudstrider' and then crack him one."
"Then I'm out," Z says. "I have needs, Ree!"
"Then buy some liquor," Kedrihm'Val suggests, hoping to keep Z from creating a devastating scene.
Ree heads back and asks politely for Lady Phyriss. Demetrius tells her he's selling the information, so she does the Jedi trick. "She's in the back."

Indeed she is. She's lounging in the back room, wanting money for the information. Apparently she really is psychic, but Ree chews her out for being so mercenary about her powers. Phyriss concedes, telling them she saw two people--one human and one Felzin. He "obviously was a criminal," so she suggests they ask Mr. Nighthand about him. Then she lies back and mutters about being "cursed by these powers." Ree offers, but she doesn't want to be rescued until there are cameras to record it. It's all apparently a financial arrangement. How quaint.

Heading out again, Ree asks Demetrius about this human thief. After threatening him with Z--"I will request Z not kick over your table and kill all your men" to which Z replies, "Alllll right, I won't"--he gives her the name: Theo Halfspeaker. He's an independent criminal with a group of men under him. Demetrius sends them to the appropriate location with an urchin guide who calls himself Pip Pathfinder. He rather reminds Kedrihm'Val of Lydia. Demetrius demurs from further interaction. "I have to practice my evil laugh and my escape route. It's what the public demands of us all."

The urchin shows them to the warehouse. Kedrihm'Val jumps up the wall to peer into a high window, and sees a Felzin wearing a vest and bowler hat, surrounded by about 15 or 20 people who're loading boxes. Two guards cover a back door.

Stun grenades take care of quite a few of them, leaving 11 people standing. Kedrihm'Val stuns two. The Felzin activates two lightsabers.
"Where'd you get those?" Ree asks in surprise.
"You c'n buy a lot of stuff," it tells her.
"Buy them?" she repeats. "Fine!" She turns hers on and attacks the blades. The Felzin Force-lightnings her.

Z taps the Felzin on the shoulder. "'Scuse me. Your name Cloudstrider?" Then kicks it in the chest. Onna wraps a couple of goons in a net launcher, and the Felzin opens its wings and takes off. Z tears one off and starts beating the Felzin with it. It grabs Ree's llightsaber. Zan telekinetically snatches it away and hits the Felzin with it. Ree heals the wounded wing.

Onna wraps a net around the Felzin, and they tie up the captures goons. When the Felzin wakes, they try to explain why they're after the stolen items, but he says he doesn't believe them. Stymied, they tie a Force crystal to him and stash him on the ship. Ree warns him, "It's in your best interests not to try to escape. Trust me."

The goons know some of Theo's other haunts, and are surprised to learn he's not here after a job. This is different.

Kedrihm'Val receives a message that there's been trouble arranging a meeting with the Felzin shaman, because nobody can get hold of the Felzin shamans. They head to the religious center to see what they can see.
"Is everything okay?" Ree asks of a Felzin standing outside.
"Yeah!" says the Felzin, obviously not meaning it.
"Can we go in?" Ree asks politely.
"Suit yourself," the Felzin tells her, sounding unenthused about the idea.
"Shall we take a back way?" Kedrihm'Val asks, getting the subtext.
"The back way is very scenic," it says in relief.

Inside, they discover Theo, oozing with Dark Side corruption, holding the items. One's in his hands; the rest are stored in his backpack. When they yank the items away with telekinesis, Theo activates a lightsaber. Ree activates hers. "Are you really sure you want to fight us?"

He strikes a menacing pose...then Force-speeds out the door and onto an air ski. Ree zips off in pursuit with Z close behind hollering "PRIMAL JEEEEUSTICE!"

Angry Felzin who'd been essentially held hostage by the threat to their sacred tools help the rest of the crew round up goons at the temple while Ree and Z catch up to Theo. She leaps onto his sled.
"What are Jedi doing here?!" he demands.
"I don't really need to explain that to you," she tells him. "You don't want to surrender? My track record with Dark Siders is pretty good."
"We'll see about that," he blusters, then leaps off onto a carriage. Z ki.cks him.

Ree and Theo try to yank at each other's lightsabers, and the rebound hurls Theo from the carriage. She catches him; he reactivates his lightsaber. Z stuns him from behind. She destroys his saber and thanks the Felzin cab driver, who turns around and takes them back.
"The Dark Side doesn't do well for skin," Ree observes to Theo.

And thus they discover that the sacred tools are literally tools--fusion cutters and other utility devices for building machines. The holocron holds a Felzin who teaches the use of the tools. Apparently the True Sith who crashed just weren't prepared for organized resistance. One of the weapons the holocron teaches how to build is a highly advanced blaster rifle. The holo-Felzin says that a different personality holds the information on that, and says it'll try to convince that one to speak to them.

Kedrihm'Val asks it about prophecies. There are rough pictograms on the tablet--a man with a black hand sends people to this planet. "It's Master Skywalker!" Ree exclaims. The Felzin around them look at her. "Ah, you have the prophecy of the Chosen One," Kedrihm'Val observes sardonically. Indeed they do, and they're supposed to give them the holocron. The Felzin say they'll deal with the Felzin Dark Sider, and the Jedi will deal with Theo.

The tablets mention a weapon they used that the Felzin currently don't have--those blaster rifles the holo-Felzin mentioned. Also they demonstrate that the True Sith are vicious freaking bastards. The Felzin allow them to make copies of the tablets. Ree hangs onto the holocron. They lock up Theo on the ship.

Drath: the final(?) showdown

Z suggests that Ree talk to Endek about her father's family, and also just to make sure he's okay. He was at the Alderaanian memorial, after all, and no one has heard from him since. Ree says, "God help Drath if he's already caught him."

The plan is for some of the crew to sneak into Drath's base to check for hostages, while Onna, SARR, and INON fly the ship.

Oola gets into the computer and finds two cells with ysalamiri. There's no video feed. The base contains fifty people. She can route around most of them on the way down to the prison bloc, except for five guards on the cells in question. While Oola disables the alarms on the cells, the others lob stun grenades into the hallway, tie up the guards, and lock them inside. The two cells hold the Solo twins, who decide they're coming along to help.

Drath is in the throne room surrounded by twenty of his people, along with Maul, the other Zeltron, Ventress, and two other Dark Siders. Oola scopes out the situation. Drath seems to have prepped the place specifically to keep the crew from messing with things. Their only options are direct assault or major distraction. But Oola spots something about one of the guards--it's actually Sareth Fenn (who makes a DUST hand signal at the camera)!

With a bit of thought, they decide to go straight in. Oola will do what she can to work the system. Zan takes on Maul; Ree calls Drath. Z wants to fight Ventress. They plan to hit the Zeltron with teh love potion, and the Solo twins will gang up on one Dark Sider, while Kedrihm'Val covers the other. "Ahem!" Dalt cuts in, realizing he hasn't been factored into the plan. "I shall help the children!"

Turns out, Sareth brought Jude and Evan along for the ride! The three of them clear out the left half of the room real fast. Jude takes one of the Dark Siders. The Jedi deflect blaster bolts while Z clears out a sweep with his flechette launcher. "Come get some sweet, pale-face!" he yells at Ventress. She charges him. Kedrihm'Val bounces across the room off the backs and heads of soldiers, knocking them out. Ventress Force-lobs one of their unconscious forms at Z, who crows, "Oh baby, I don't need no gifts!"

Kedrihm'Val takes out two more guards, then a Dark Sider leaps at him. Evan and Fenn wipe out another section of the room. Z and Ventress leap at each other, colliding in mid-air. Lydia faces off against the Zeltron. Dalt and jaina run behind Fenn toward Jude's opponent.

Oola starts shutting down the security. SARR is shreeding the base from outside, making the whole place shake. His laughter rings out across the comm system. Oola spots an incoming fleet--Drath called for backup--and points them out to SARR while she turns the base's defense on them.

Ree leaps over a stunned trooper Drath tries to trip her with. Jude Force-lightnings the Dark Sider in the head, reducing him to charcoal. "Don't do that, kids," Dalt tells the twins, while he wipes out a trooper of his own.

Kedrihm'Val caves in the other Dark Sider's ribs with three crushing blows. Zan and Maul, again, fuck each other up. Oola zaps incoming ships, but there are a lot of them. While Ree closes with Drath, having to dodge just about every flying thing in the room, Zan cuts Maul in half, then immediately engages with the trooper behind him as Maul jumps bodies. "Ugh, lame!" he exclaims.

Ventress, meanwhile, has wrecked Z's jet pack and gun belt. He attaches a detonator to her waist, which hurls her into the wall.

A random trooper tries to run. Oola sees a super star destroyer's shadow fall across the sensors, and squeals in glee.

Kedrihm'Val jump-kicks Ventress, then pummels her. Zan slashes Maul across the stomach, while losing an arm himself. Z leaps over and executes Maul from behind, on his way toward Ventress.

Maul jumps into the fleeing trooper. "No way," Zan groans. Evan shoots him.

The Solo kids see the trooper pull a lightsaber. Dalt trips them with his cloak before they can intercept. "that was a really gay flourish, sir!" Jaina cheekily tells him.

"I'm your only hope against the True Sith, you know," Drath tells Ree.

Kedrihm'Val knocks out Ventress. "PRIMAL JEEEUSTICE!" Z crows. Lydia takes off the Zeltron girl's hand, while Zan and Maul each account for a hand of their own (or each other's). Zan's quite literally disarmed.

Ree nails Drath hard enough to stagger him. "I'm trying to save everyone!" Drath argues. "My people are happy to sacrifice themselves for my glory!"

Z takes Maul's other hand. Zan loses his left leg, but Maul loses his chest.

Aaaaand an unconscious guard sits up. Lydia beheads him with a well-aimed lightsaber throw. SARR comes in, dragging the shredded remains of an escaped guard, just in time to help Zan. "I had a feeling someone was going to get Mauled," he quips.

And Ree beheads Drath. Oola takes a picture and sends it to his fleet, which stops fighting. Their only live prisoner is Ventress.

Kedrihm'Val notes that the piles of Sith stuff are absent, and there's no sign of cloning tech. They might see Maul and Drath again, after all.

They find a holovid recording of Drath killing Sent after Sent rants about being Palpatine's son, while Maul applauds mildly. That gets saved for broadcast.

But Kedrihm'Val realizes something: Onna's on the base, and she has no protection against Maul's body-jumping. There's no answer when they try to comm her, so Ree and Kedrihm'Val take off in pursuit. When they arrive, they find that INON already stunned her. Kedrihm'Val Force-lights her to eject Maul, and Ree sucks him back into his rock.

After all that, they call the Jedi Temple to report. Luke's comment on Sent: "Monologuing! The Emperor loved to monologue."

Kedrihm'Val and SARR are drenched in blood (the only two who don't use either distance weapons or cauterizing laser swords). They thrust Ventress into a cage with some ysalamiri. They head out of orbit to dock with the Ace in the Hole, Lo Tser's custom-stolen super-star destroyer. He greets them with a warm welcome for his daughter. "We'll drop you in the space lanes. It'll give me time to yell at my daughter for only sending a message. 'There's a Sith fleet coming.' " Noting that Kedrihm'Val truly needs a shower, he hands him a bar of his favorite soap. "Here, I find this gets blood off great."

They find the Dark Harvester on the base. That comes back with them, in hopes they can find a way to fix that mess. Z is worried about the truly prodigious amounts of evil stuff they keep leaving at the Temple. Kedrihm'Val agrees. The plan is to store the Dark Harvester at a secure base instead. Zan gets tossed into a bacta tank for a couple of days.

Ventress's apprentice and the Bothan Dark Sider are still unaccounted for. They do retrieve Drath's computer core, which has some decent tactical plans against the True Sith. It's not evident what he planned to use the Dark Harvester for, but he had some plan for it. It'll take a while to examine all the files.

Oola gives Sareth Fenn a Krayt pearl pendant. He asks what they'll do with the two months they've got before the True Sith are ETA. "Thrawn has agreed to help," Kedrihm'Val tells him.
"Alright, what do you plan to do with the month and a half?"

Kedrihm'Val asks whether the True Sith's path intersects with Ree's world...and yep. But first it goes straight through the Core.

Ree thinks about learning more about the Ancients. Kedrihm'Val doesn't trust them. "They played dominoes with the galaxy," he points out, recalling the legend about the True Sith and the Architects in a game about life in the galaxy. But they can dig up archaeological stuff on the Architects.

Rakata Prime

Deciding to hunt down Revan's travels, Ree, Oola, and Dalt put some work into spiffing up the Starwind to give it more speed. They're thinking Rakata Prime might have hints of Revan's path.

Meanwhile, Sent is rallying people against the Jedi. Ree notes that his charisma is operating at an unnatural level. Luke ponders this, asking Ree to sound out Dalt on his chronology, see if it leads to any hints on his family.

Ree: "Oh! I seem to remember some time ago a mention of an office and an assistant?"
Luke: "You have an office and an assistant."
Ree: "Where is it?"
Luke: "Uh..where is it?" Digging it up, he points her to the right location, where her assistant Zel Krend, member of the newly refounded Explorer Corp, introduces himself. In the face of her repeated apologies, he's amused that she only just noticed.

Zel seems to be very self-motivated. He gives Ree a call after digging through Sent's speeches. Over the last two years, his oratory style has grown more and more similar to Palpatine's, and his rhetoric has become increasingly humanocentric. Wondering if Dalt and Sent ever actually met, Zel asks Ree for some of Dalt's DNA. "Do you have any of his genetic material?"

Ree replies, "We have a Dalt!" Hitting him up in the lab, she plucks a hair from his head. "Everyone keeps doing that," complains Dalt. "Hah! That got a reaction. Tables were turned on you!" He tells Ree he never met Sent personally.

When she brings the hair back to Zel, he refers to her as "Master," and complains about clones.

Speaking of which, E-Val remains under guard.

Since Ree has no idea how to go about it, she gets Oola to chat Dalt up about his childhood. He tells her he didn't draw; he built things. But he's a little vague about his recollections. He reminisces about building little droids to run errands for him. Later in life, he used them to steal DNA--everybody's DNA he could get his hands on. Which, he suddenly realizes, is still at his CorpSec base. Then he gives a dissertation on cloning janitors if you want a successful evil empire, because they're the one group of people who end up getting into everything. SARR makes a note.

They turn their attention to the newly acquired clones. Dalt hopes for a solution to his "give everyone the Force" conundrum other than killing everyone and bringing them back. "You really want to give everyone Force powers?" Oola asks him.

"Perhaps to some extent I have seen the error of my ways," Dalt replies.

Kyp asks Ree's advice on dealing with a family. "I walked into Luke's office and he said, "There's no way I can answer what you're about to ask me. Go ask Leia." And Leia wasn't available and Han was no help." Ree suggests hobbies and sports. "So I'm supposed to take my brother on dates?" Kyp protests in confusion. SAR suggests Ree ask her mom. He also suggests Primal Justice. And drinking games. "Man things are very simple. Get him the Primal Justice vids. You've got the connections for the episodes that aren't aired yet."
"But," Ree protests, "that wouldn't be right!"
"The boy died," SARR tells her. "Give him the extra videos! I can give you a great deal." Ree calls the production studio instead, where they fall over backwards to help her out. "You should see what you get if you call in Z's voice," SARR comments.
"The clap," Dalt opines. But, SARR warns her, she'd better prepare to get drunken calls from Kyp. "Bonding happens at highest temperature. It's not a painless experience."

Kedrihm'Val hangs out with the new clones, trying to help them feel welcome.

With all that sorted, it's off to Rakata Prime. They bring Zan and Dalt along.

Zel calls again on the way out: Sent is giving a speech at the Alderanian asteroid belt. "You can accomplish anything with an army of sad and determined liberals at your back," he observes. Kedrihm'Val suggests they get in touch with Endek. From him, they learn that he's been trying to trace Sent's messages, but he can't pin down the receptor. Val and Oola recall their escape from Thrawn--did any messages arrive at that location around that point in time? Why, yes, Endek tells them. So Sent's in touch with somebody--but is it Thrawn or Drath?

Zel pushes a garbled news transmission to them two days out from Rakata Prime--there's been an attack at a speech at the Alderanian memorial, by Drath.

On arrival at Rakata Prime, they read a slew of lifeforms. Scanning for buildings, they read some abandoned buildings and one temple. That's where they head.

Inside the temple, under 3000 years of accumulated dust, Kedrihm'Val spots a pressure trap and a secret door. Oola cracks those, and discovers a turbo lift shaft behind the door. Z flies up with his jet pack and tosses the others a rope. Upstairs is a lab of some kind. Oola and Dalt poke, and Oola discovers a math puzzle that activates a map. Dalt finds blueprints for various dangerous superweapons. Ahhh, the Rakata. He snags a set that particularly worries him. Ree remembers the temple used to be protected behind force fields. Dalt wonders if this means they were expected.

Oola solves the puzzle, activating both a map and a countdown, which is two months away. The map, which is Old Republic tech, shows a battle line with a large fleet being held off by a small group of ships. The fleet is pressing toward Chiss space. If this is current, then that fleet might arrive at the borders of the Ascendency within days. They need to send the Chiss a warning.

Poking through the rest of the temple, they find weapons and stuff in various stages of completion. SARR helps load the dangerous tech and sings spirituals.

Oola and Ree find a hangar bay. Two ships are gone; two are still there--Rakata ships, in perfect working order. They're the size of light freighters, but well-armed. Kedrihm'Val considers that this temple must be where the Rakata built that crystal flower. At about that point, the hangar bay doors slam closed, and a hologram of HK-47 appears, demanding proof of the date. He mocks Ree for typing it in. Oola feeds in a news feed instead. "Ah, a meatbag with a brain among you," says HK-47. The doors open again.

They discover a shaft leading straight down. It emerges on the biggest amphitheatre any of them have ever seen--hundreds of thousands of seats. The seats are rigged with wires and tubes; it's obviously where they created the crystal flower. Kedrihm'Val notices that there's nothing left of any physical body. The Rakata turned themselves into pure Force energy, Dalt theorizes.

They disassemble the concentrating pillar, to make sure this thing can never be triggered again.

That just leaves a spire to explore. "Oh, spires," comments Kedrihm'Val. "They always turn out well."
"The spires at the Jedi Temple are fine," says Ree. "Master Luke has an office in one."
"My point stands," Kedrihm returns.

The chamber at the top of the spire is wrecked. Obviously a lightsaber fight took place here, and a catastrophic one. Pulling images out of the one half-functional camera left in the room, they discover that an initial guess of Vader is right. A central chamber in the room held a working duplicate of HK-47, which took on Vader when he arrived (presumably following the trail of the Rakata ship he faced off against). Finishing off the droid, Vader eventually activated the central chamber's security pad, entered and then left again.

The pad opens for Ree. Inside, she finds an unopened box, and a holocomm--featuring a Jedi woman Ree has never seen. This woman explains that by the time Ree (naming her directly) finds this, it will be weeks to months before the True Sith arrive. She outlines tactics and plans to give to "Master Skywalker." (The thought occurs that Vader may have left convinced that he would eventually acquire an apprentice named Ree.) The woman, whom Ree is pretty sure is the Jedi Exile, says that the temple is timed to blow up an hour after they leave. The planet itself has been converted into a massive bomb that will go off when the True Sith pass. The locked container opens when Ree takes up the comm. Inside is an odd little glowing ball, which Dalt identifies as a power source.

Though they have this assurance that the contents of the temple will not fall into enemy hands, Dalt still wants to take things.

Heading back to the ship, they receive clearer news on the Alderan attack. Drath had a small fleet, and the site was notably poorly defended by Republic security. Most of the Alderanian groups are dead; there is no word from Sent, or from Jacen or Jaina, who were there with Jedi representatives. A message from Zel indicates that all security arrangements were made by Sent. All Sent's possessions and bank accounts are gone. The results on Sent's DNA check are "disturbing." He refuses to tell them more until they get back.

They arrive to unload the dangerous miscellania they collected from the temple. Dalt tells them the plans he found were for the Star Forge. Oola's surprised to see that it's actually quite straightforward to build, except for a singular power source...which is about yay-big.

Ree and Zan head to the Council chamber, where they drop off the information on the True Sith fleet. Lue shows them the DNA test: the only Sent DNA is that which gives Raasik Sent his familial resemblance. The rest is...Palpatinesque. Kyp makes the inevitable connecction: "Someone hit that." Dalt's mom, in fact, yes. "Oh, shit, Dalt's in the room," Kyp continues. "Oh my," is Dalt's only, disgusted, response. But Dalt's mother wasn't a Sent. And Sent's actions indicate that he knew about his ancestry. Public opinion is currently against Jedi, for not using their abilities to bring back Alderaan.

So. The galaxy is again under attack. The Republic will have to renew its alliance with Thrawn, find Drath and Sent, and work out ways to deal with the True Sith once Rakata Prime goes up. Drath, Ree is told, is her responsibility.

The first step is to analyze news footage to see if they recognize any of the ships that flew with Drath.

But first, Ree returns to her room to drop her things off...where she finds a datapad. it's a star chart for a planet at the edge of the Unknown Region. She turns that over to the Librarian to run checks on. Turns out it's another planet that vanished from the charts when the Emperor took over. There's a heavy traffic pattern to and from it for the last several months. Drath's base?

Talking to the clones, they learn that they often saw the Zeltrons, Ventress, and Drath. A message from Luke tells the crew that Thrawn has sent his information on Drath: 2000 followers spread across various planets. The "lost" planet is an old Imperial testing facility. They consider going in with a modified cloak on one of the Rakata ships. Dalt has such a cloaking device almost finished.

Oola sends a message to her father. Ree's holocron hints to her that her family on her mother's side might have been observers for Revan's line.

Ree gives everybody the "You don't have to come if you don't want to" line, which results in unimpressed stares. So it's on to the invisible planet!

"Dude," Z says to Dalt, "your mom is a whore." Dalt can hardly disagree.

Steampunk Star Wars characters

After a series of jokes and pestering the GM about visiting a steampunk world for a story arc, these happened.

When negotiations fail, fashionable but stalwart Noble Onna Reulki takes up her pair of ivory-handled brass blasters against enemies of the Republic.

As humble as she is heroic, Jedi Master Ree Shevan wields her lightsaber in the name of law and justice!

Lydia is the plucky young apprentice of Ree Shevan. Growing up as an orphaned waif on Chandrila, Lydia learned many unorthodox skills that she now brings to bear in the name of the Jedi.

A high-flying bounty hunter whose seemingly endless supply of weapons is rivaled only by his creative application of them, Zaan'yan "Z" Cloudstrider carries out his love affair with rocket packs and enormous guns in the name of the Republic. So long as he gets paid on time, at least.

The beautiful blue Twilek Oolan Tser is a deft hand with all things mechanical. But if you cross her, you'll learn the hard way that she always keeps an (explosive) ace up her sleeve.

Ezrek Dalt possesses a scientific mind without peer...and an ego to match. After being pulled back from the brink of madness by our intrepid heroes, he finds that the best medicine for his occasional instability is praise for his indisputable genius. Lots and lots of praise.

Wise in the primal ways of nature and the soul, the mystic primitive Kedrihm'Val is a stranger to civilization and its technological trappings. Making his way through the modern jungle with the help of his friends, he fights loyally at their side with bare fists and athletic skill.

Secrets of the True Sith and Darth Revan

Instead of going straight to Coruscant, they spin back to Zahn to secure the place and call in Republic Security. Oola also notifies DUST of the Chimera's location. They spend some more time looking over the book of prophecies. With more time, they decipher the story of Revan and the Star Forge, and that when he left the galaxy, he intercepted a True Sith fleet and destroyed it. It sent the Sith into retreat and decline, from which they have apparently only recently emerged when they gained a new ruler. Pictures indicate that the remnants of the True Sith have mingled with human blood; they no longer look quite so much like Yoda or any of the statues from the tomb.

It's also notable that some of their servitor beasts are weird, big black clawed things...highly reminiscent of the things they found on Ree's planet some time back. What were they doing there? The crew's first guess is that they were after the Blueprint gate...but they were originally chasing the Sin/Sent team that retrieved the evil lightsaber crystal (which, you'll remember, is now on Coruscant in Jedi custody) and apparently a shard of the Pulse. Which brings us back to the very interesting question of where the Sent/Sin team actually found those.

In other news, it turns out the True Sith have the Chosen One prophecy too. They didn't invade during the Empire because, obviously, Vader was a dangerous and intimidating bastard. If the prophecies can be believed (and they're right about almost everything else so far), they're planning to invade now, despite the fact that Luke is also a dangerous and intimidating bastard. Perhaps they're less concerned because the Republic isn't as battle-ready as the Empire...but Zan reminds them of that Sith space station with the temple to the dark Force-god. Kedrihm'Val wonders if Thule was involved or influenced in this at all, and Ree thinks it might be worth a trip to see if there's anything to be seen there.

They get back to Coruscant. They've got a lot to ruminate on, but life looks to be calm enough to make that dinner with Amidala. In the meantime, Ree tries to catch up on her sleep. When she wakes up, she finds another datapad on the floor, repeating, "Look to the stars."

At dinner, where they're among a crowd of people who find this acceptable dinner conversation, they show Luke the prophecies. While they look over it, R2-D2 starts poking Ree, beeping and refusing to give up until she finally pays attention and realizes that he's indicating the star positions displayed in the prophecy about the True Sith gaining a new leader recently. They're the positions the stars were in during the Battle of Endor. That's when the new ruler was born. Han and Kedrihm'Val both find this ominous, Han figuring that means their spiffy new ruler is probably the Emperor because that's how things tend to work out, and Kedrihm'Val remembering that Darth Plagius was supposed to have come up with a technique to create life.

Ree wonders again why she's the one who keeps getting these messages. Kedrihm'Val points out that she and Luke are the two most active Jedi in the galaxy, currently, and no offense to Luke, but if he's the center of a prophecy about a dark god arising, he's probably not the preferred contact for anyone trying to prevent such a thing. Ree tries to protest, but finally gives in to the logic of that.

Dalt hasn't said much of anything in hours, at least. It's starting to get a bit alarming; when he's silent this long, the next time he opens his mouth, something catastrophic tends to come out. Now he muses that someone cunning but apparently not evil has been sending these visions. SARR guesses perhaps Revan's descendents? Kedrihm'Val suggests it could be one or more of the good True Sith still in operations. Perhaps a network of them? That could explain the seemingly irrationally long distances these messages and visions have been traveling, far further than any living being would feasibly be capable of.

Now they start thinking harder about Revan. He lived 3000 years ago, during the Mandalorian Wars. 2000 years ago, the Jedi formally established the family bloodlines and their coin/holocrons. Oola now reminds them of Ree's holocron. "You can check it when you get back to your room," Luke agrees, "after you read your note." "You're a big help," Ree grumbles at him. "He's a lot like his father," Amidala teases.

Upon which an extremely uncomfortable silence descends, eventually broken by Han making distracting sounds.

After that, they all mutually decide it might be best to move on to lighter subjects for the evening.

The next day, Kyp and Ree meet to chat. She tells him about escaping from Thrawn, which he considers to be a big deal. It's not like it happens often. He gives her a message from home: her family called, because they were gathering stuff for a local exhibit ("Now, don't be mad, but everybody here is pretty proud of you and they wanted to do something nice..."), and they noticed that her old school art projects were missing from where her mother had stored them in the attic.

Thrawn, rather obviously. "How'd they get there?!" Ree wonders, confused. But this explains the Imperial agents they encountered on Reeshome months ago with no explanation why!

Well, not much to be done now. Ree tells the others over breakfast. She doesn't see what Thrawn thinks he'd achieve by looking at her childish art projects. "You are a Jedi," Dalt points out. "By studying your art, he'll learn what your attachments are." A thought occurs to her, and she asks about the others. "I'll call my mom later," Z promises. "We should meet your mother!" Ree tells him. "She sounds remarkable." "She was," Dalt says at the same time as Kedrihm'Val grabs Z. Kedrihm'Val's people don't so much deal in writing and art on permanent surfaces, so it's not really an issue for him.

Though for somebody who knows the language, the Abindosani tattoos that their Force users wear say quite a bit about them. Their purpose is to function as a sort of introduction to other Abindosani, since Ailhan often mingle among different tribes. Of course, Kedrihm'Val hasn't exactly made a practice of running around the galaxy with his shirt off, because he's not especially keen on broadcasting his identity to piles of enemies.

Ree breaks out her holocron to ask it about her family history during the Mandalorian Wars. It tells her the information is classified. On further questioning, it says most of the families were generally aware of the True Sith, and he assumes the monsters that crashed on her planet were an expeditionary force, though it's not sure why they were so far into the galaxy. The historian in the holocron is kind of a jackass, and Oola snipes at him whenever he gives her an opening. "Your Twilek is touchy," it finally complains. "She's not used to computers she can't hack," Ree tells him placatingly. "Haha!" it says to Oola.

When she asks about Revan, it tells her what they already know: Revan went out to stop the True Sith. "Did he have any family?" she asks, hoping to get a lead on somewhere she can look for further information. The holocron freezes up again with, "That information is classified." It doesn't know where he was from, but suggests they might find the information in the old Jedi temple. They do have the old computer core. "Revan was fond of Dantooine," it volunteers, a little wistfully. "It was different then."

Since Ree's holocron isn't terribly helpful, Dalt tries his. His historian--Tal Sent--is a jerk, too. Apparently it pays less attention to its surroundings, because it's startled to learn that the
True Sith are on their way. Revan helped lay the groundwork for the families before he left, Tal says, but the other Jedi didn't trust him. The galactic battle in Ree's vision was, so far as Tal knows, exactly what Revan left to prevent. Perhaps this is a new one. When they ask about the book of prophecies, he says he does know that Revan went to some temple and came back with some papers.

They ask about the Arranda holocron's "classified information," to which Tal drawls, "Oh reeeally." Figuring the holocrons might be able to talk it out, they point them at each other, only to be startled by the cat-fight that ensues. Ree tries to be nice to the Sent holocron, which it finds, apparently, exceedingly infuriating. Ree's holocron is bitchy about her talking to the other holocron at all. When Tal accuses her of being stuck up because of her family, Ree is, as she usually is, extremely humble, driving it to the point of screaming in frustration. "She's always like this," Kedrihm'Val tells it, amused. Dalt's trying not to laugh at the holocrons.

Ree's holocron tells them that no holocron will answer about the origin of Ree's family, and that Revan took those papers because he said that if anyone saw the end of that prophecy, they'd be too prejudiced to stop it. Tal thinks that it was about Luke wrecking the place up in the bad way.

Tired of fussing, Dalt hypnotises Ree's holocron. "Ask it now." It says they used to call her family 'Revan's clan.' "I'm sure it's some coincidence," Ree protests, sending the Sent holocron into spitting fits. And the papers were indeed about Luke. Then, snapping out of the mind-whammy, her holocron is aghast at Dalt circumventing its protections. "You're not supposed to know that until you pass more tests!" "You should tell them they're related," Oola chirps, grinning. The holocrons turn to stare at each other in horror.

They learn more: Revan never had children. "He got more excited by logarithms," Tal snarks. They might try hunting up information on Bastila Shan, who stayed behind and helped the Jedi rebuild. Tal says something sarcastic about Jedi going evil and coming back, to which Dalt replies, "I really can't comment." "Well, you were mind-controlled by ancient aliens!" it tries to defend him. "And he was crazy to start!" Z puts in. Seeing it coming, Kedrihm'Val grabs Z as Dalt opens his mouth: "Mad in the sack...says your mother."

Moving on. Staring curiously at the holocrons, Dalt says he thinks that they must be flawed or damaged somehow to react so hostilely to each other. Either that or they hated each other viciously in life. "Oh, we hated each other!" the holocrons speak up. "You also have to take into account the similarity of their personalities," Oola comments, which again infuriates them. "You take that back!" "See?" says Oola, satisfied. "they said 'we'." Which sends the holocrons into open revolt.

"Can we stop antagonizing them?" Ree requests. Zan laughs.

Moving on again, the holocrons say that any further information on Revan was probably held only by Revan himself. He played things close to the vest. The Arranda holocron, when SARR asks, admits that Ree, too, was prophesied. "Now say, 'Where can we find this person' so I can think you're even dumber than I think you are," grumbles the Sent holocron. Oola can't help herself. "Well, there is Jude." The Sent holocron literally hops with fury.

True Sith Revealed, or, It's a Trap!

Onna is concerned about Drath selling Dalt's cloning technology--modified (and modified how, exactly?). Kedrihm'Val wonders what else Drath has hold of, considering he's got Set Harth's whole stash and whatever he might've thought o rip out of the Jedi archives before he left. Ree takes that under advisement, assigning people to look through the temple records and see what he might've peered into.

She gets scolded again about calling Kyp 'Master Durron.' Kedrihm'Val teases her, "Keep it up and he'll start calling you Master Shevan." She scoffs. "No one calls me Master!" "Lydia does," Oola points out. "No!" gasps Ree.

But how to find Drath? He's probably after money to build his forces. If he's wanting information on the True Sith...might he follow in Revan's footsteps? Where can information on Darth Revan be found? Ree can't even remember his home planet. Kedrihm'Val wonders if any of the Hutts would know. They live long enough, and buying that information from them would take a lot of money... Kedrihm'Val points out that Drath's comments imply he's been using farseeing a lot recently. And reminds them that there's still a piece of Abindosani coral left in CorpSec--with people Drath already has a working relationship with. For that matter, they need to learn more themselves.

As they consider possibly tapping the Abindosani reefs for information, or perhaps hunting up some Rakata artifacts, a new report comes on about a rash of unidentified artifacts being stolen from museums recently. Oola enlists Onna's help to get acces to the museum. Ree gets called back to the temple, and Z stiffs Kedrihm'Val with the bill.

Ree was called back because Maul-rock is empty. Luke thinks Drath might've cloned him.

At the museum, they learn all the artifacts seem to be objects d'art, created by a small race. The break-ins were perpetrated with notable skill. "Who would steal art when no one knows who even did it?" ponders the curator. They hand over pictures and reproductions of the 10 items that were stolen. It takes her a bit, but Oola puts the pieces of this puzzle together. She's seen some of Yoda's belongings, and the designs and lines of them are reminiscent. And who else would be inclined to steal True Sith artwork right about now? Just one scary blue bastard...

"Could Thrawn have a copy of Shavan's book?" asks Oola's player. "Revan," Ree's player corrects. "That's Shevan," Kedrihm'Val's player says, pointing at Ree-player. GM: "Funny coincidence in names, isn't it?" *receiving assorted looks from players* "I could just be fuckin' with ya!" Kedrihm'Val's player: "I've never known you to not follow through."

Ree and Oola comm their findings to the others. Kedrihm'Val reminds them of Dagobath, wondering if Thrawn or Drath might've paid it a visit recently.

Ree finds a note in her room. "Who benefits from clones that bring back the dead?" it asks. No signature. Ree shows it to Kyp, who's doing well, he says, spending time with Zeth. "Considering that tech was inspired by a guy with a civilization in his head, I'd say the Rakata." Following that line of thought, Zan (her next consult) suggests that Drath might bring back a Rakata and make it work for hi. Could explain why he'd bring back Maul now, after waiting so long. How'd Drath learn all this ability and technique? Ree wonders. He meditates a few months in a prison and comes out a full-fledged Sith? Zan thinks he might've connected with something. A force of will like his would be a beacon.

Next move: look for more True Sith stuff. Now that they know what they're looking for, the computer can help search. And check into Rakata temples, too. Oola quickly discovers that the largest collection of stuff that turns out to be True Sith was in the State Museum on Chandrila. 'Was' being the operative word. It's missing as of two weeks ago. Across the galaxy, approximately 50-60 pieces of True Sith art are gone. No tampering with Rakata temples is evident, at least.

How'd Thrawn find out? Well, Drath probably had stuff in Set Harth's collection he sold to the Grand Admiral. Harth was fascinated by them, after all. It probably clued Thrawn in.

Oola also discovers that the moon Zahn, in orbit around the gas giant Zahr on the Outer Rim, has just turned up a dig. Three days ago, archaeologists unearthed some relics that match. It's obscure news; Thrawn might not have heard yet. Dalt informs them he's coming, though he's annoyed when Oola forbids him from bringing his walking throne (he finally got one; or built one. Fear it!). Zan's coming too.

Ree receives another note. "How can you be certain the actual people are coming back to their bodies?" it asks. She takes the notes to Luke, who ponders. "It's obvious-- No, let me rephrase. Most reports indicate the person who came back is my mother," he finally answers. But even if this is only a sporadic or partial thing, among 2000 clones it could be a problem. He'll look into whomever's sending these messages.

Ree has a vision that night: a massive space battle, Imperials and Republic fighting side-by-side, together with Sith ships. She doesn't recognize who the enemy ships are, except that they're strange, almost like holes in the Force. And there's on archaic-looking Jedi ship, rigged and modified and kicking butt. She has a sense she's missing something, but she can't spot it.

She wakes up and gets coffee. As usual, it's the middle of the night. SARR snarks, Ree tells him and Oola (who's on monitor duty) about it. While Oola ponders the modded ship, Z gets up for his shift. "I can't die," he tells them. "Too pretty." This hurts their brains.

Returning to her room, Ree finds a note on a datapad on the floor. On the ship. With everyone accounted for. "Pay attention to the constellations." She realizes suddenly that the stars in her dream were the constellations visible from her planet.

Returning to the others with the datapad o'mystery, Z checks the ship recordings to find a black spot during the time the datapad must've been deposited. It's not Dalt. "His physical ass is in his bed," SARR says. Not a droid, either; scans account for that. A Force ghost? Hard to say, but Ree's sure someone sent this dream, like the one with Zeth. She tries to follow the mental trail of it, but it passes out beyond the Rim. "You and your rampant meatbaggery attract attention from beyond the stars," SARR comments. But why her? Why not Kedrihm'Val? Or Luke! "Depends on your destiny," SARR says sarcastically. Ree calls the temple to report and gets Kyp. They found the same effect in her room of that blank spot in the recordings.

When they reach the planet, they find some bewildered archaeologists. They don't know what the complex was. It's not huge, but they're having trouble exploring because the locals are timid, "ignorant and supertitious savages." Kedrihm'Val points out that they may have good reason not to go near the place, but the guy seems disinclined to listen.

So they head into the complex. It's well-preserved. The tapestries and hangings are made of plant fibers and remain intact. Dalt and Oola quickly gain the impression that this is a tomb for a warlord. Statuary quickly seals the deal that these were Yoda's people. Obviously there were different castes: some were taller and bulkier than Yoda, while others resemble him in their wise old forms. "So Yoda wasn't a warrior," comments Z, who tries to wrap his mind around the concept of Yodas who actually are warriors.

The murals on the walls depict a story as they go deeper: a race of good, peaceful people, who are struck by a dark light--like a Force star?--radiating from the sky. They don't change physically, but they grow more violent and brutal, except for a few who remain unaffected. This warlord comes from a line of warlord-kings who subjugate the scholars to rule the race. Almost all the True Sith are shown using the Force. The story ends, unsurprisingly, with the warlord's glorious death.

They spot a secret door at the end of the murals. Inside there's a pedestal with a real paper-and-binding book sitting on it. It's evidently a book of prophecy. Flipping to the end, they find the space battle from Ree's dream, and then pages are torn out. They snag the book and head onward.

Not far from that door lie the ancient remains of a huge predatory lizard. It was cut in half by a lightsaber a very, very long time ago. As Ree rounds the corner, she leaps away from another, very alive predatory lizard. Even hunched over, this thing is 11 feet high. She drives it back with Affect Mind, and it turns and flees. She gets an odd impression, though, as if it were startled that her power worked on it.

"What do you know?" Z comments. "The ignorant savages were right." Kedrihm'Val answers, "Yes, generally we ignorant savages try to stay away from things that'll kill us." "No you don't," Z says. "You punch it. Right, Primal?" Ree deflects the conversation to ask, "How's the new season going?" "Really good," Z tells her. "Dalt, make a joke," Oola interrupts. Seeing Dalt's eyes light up, Kedrihm'Val orders, "Don't." The existence of that creature in a place supposedly sealed for potentially over 100,000 years does not go overlooked by the crew.

They pick up more pictographs here, a story about someone else. Here, priests have regained some power. A sorceress-ruler uses her power to create the Sith as they know them, the red catfish-people, and sends them out as servants. Then a revolt rises, led by the few good True Sith, who manage to depose the sorceress and then disappear. Seems the sorceress was buried here, too.

And sure enough, past that they encounter a huge chamber with a jewel-encrusted sarcophagus in the center. To one side, another less grand tomb seems to hold the sorceress. Beyond those lies a fabulous treasure hoard. "I could make a suit of gold Mandalorian armor," declares Z. "I'd be gorgeous!" But they don't let him meddle with the treasure. Instead, they pass through to find a large area with a secondary passage leading to the surface.

It looks like the lizard thing lives here. They'd assumed there might be a breeding population, but signs indicate there's only the one. Bones from old meals lie scattered about--mainly livestock--but more notably, it seems this creature grows some of its own food. "That doesn't mean it's smart!" Z insists. "Do you have non-sentient animals that farm?" asks Kedrihm'Val, rather wondering how odd the galaxy at large can possibly be. Looking around, Kedrihm and Oola spot faded drawings on the walls, of these animals being used as beasts of burden and guard animals by the True Sith. Some were obviously brought here to guard the tomb. Then there's a rough picture of a Jedi fighting one with a lightsaber--presumably the ancient carcass out in the halls. Funny thing is, the place had been sealed for ages before that. There was nobody around to draw any such picture. Signs point to "sentient."

After locking down the temple so it can be more thoroughly combed for dangers, they place a call to Master Tion, the Jedi librarian. While the others set a trap for the creature, Ree puts in a second call to Luke. First words out of his mouth are, "Are they Yoda?" Yep, Ree tells him. After a heavy sigh, Luke starts to say something, but the transmission suddenly breaks up. Ree senses...

"Jackass," she hisses. Of course it's Drath. The ground starts shaking from something happening above. Oola gives INON the book, which he stores in a chest compartment, while Ree heads up the nearby surface passage to take a look around. When a thermal detonator rolls down toward her, she bats it back up, but has to flee back down to the others.

Z blows that passage (when did he have a chance to plant bombs there?), and they head back toward the front entrance, only to find that's been collapsed as well. Drath is jamming all transmissions. They're trapped.

Of course, with that many Force users in the group, they're not trapped for terribly long. It takes them about 20 minutes to clear out the front entrance, but when they exit, they don't find much left. The excavation has been devastated; everyone who was there is dead. Oola finds the jamming device and wrecks it so they can get through to the Starwind, which SARR removed from the area when Drath came in. He tells them that Drath kidnapped the head archaeologist and took a few of the relics. They're still close enough that the Starwind can give chase...and when the big blinking red ball pops up on their scanner, that makes it even easier. Apparently SARR got into the homing beacon cache again. The trail leads them toward Hutt Space.

When they exit hyperspace again, they spot Drath's ship...heading for the Chimera. When two more Star Destroyers swing in behind, they realize that this was all a trap. The Chimera captures the Starwind in a tractor beam; the other two star destroyers attempt to follow suit, but instead whatever jackasses are operatins those controls manage to miss and lock onto each other.

It's an opening! Oola takes advantage of it to gain brief control of the tractor beams, using them to interrupt the Chimera's beam so the Starwind can break free. Then she hits the gas to get them the hell out of there. When the Chimera starts shooting and turns to pursue, it's a very near thing. Drath's ship docks with the Star Destroyer, but another Sith infiltrator hangs nearby. Three guesses who might be in there, but thankfully it doesn't interfere.

So apparently Thrawn did figure it out. One can only imagine how thoroughly pissed he's got to be over the jackasses on tractor beam duty.

Infiltrating the Imperials

Zan has taught them quite a bit already, so he brushes up their spying skills before they head out. They'll be posing as a security detail escorting some scientists requested by the base. The scientists are real people; the crew will simply be taking their place. Dalt's red hair gets dyed, Kedrihm'Val's tattoos are disguised, and since Ree is an abysmal liar, she's getting stuffed into stormtrooper armor so people won't see her face betray her. Zan is the head of the group, Z is the troops' lieutenant, and Onna, Oola, and Dalt get to play scientist. The base is run by CompNor, a group that's suspicious by habit, so they'll want to be cautious.

Arrival goes smoothly enough. Kedrihm'Val and Ree are stuffed into the base's stormtrooper barracks. They were supposed to get quarters near the 'scientists' they were meant to guard, but that's not standard procedure and the paperwork is being (spitefully, one suspects) held up in processing. In the barracks, Ree and Kedrihm'Val both find that Primal Justice is a highly popular show among the base's troops.

The scientists are given the introductory tour. Oola quickly spots that the cloning technology is modified from Dalt's procedure. Dalt notes it even before she does. They meet Dr. Wy, a 17-year-old wunderkind who's head of the labs here. Dalt can't resist showing off a bit, though he does it more subtly than usual. While they chat, Wy wonders aloud what might happen if someone were cloned twice. A gem of a young lady, obviously. She laments her inability to test the results as "His Blue Highness" is due here in four days.

Now, that's news. They weren't expecting him. That's a deadline.

The crew meets Col. Gent, who is head of whatever they call the assassination squads around these parts, Lt. Seinar--they note the name, which definitely explains some things--and the other brass. Seinar immediately begins complaining that the troops have been watching contraband holos of Republic shows. A few moments later, Col. Bresen shows up. She's introduced as head of security, from Destabilization, and she has the authority to question anyone at any time over anything. They note she wears a lightsaber. She's a Dark Sider, and a particularly vile one. The Force users can sense that she lives for destruction, pure and simple.

Which fits in with her working for Destabilization. That department is so heinous that even the assassins and interrogators don't like to hang out with them. Sent in on jobs such as wrecking a planet's economy or political system, or destroying a person's life to prevent them from posing a threat to the Empire, Destab's operatives get to practice on perfectly innocent Imperial citizens, tearing their lives apart without ever letting them know there's somebody behind it. It's somehow not comforting to think that Force users are involved.

SARR, playing interrogator droid, eagerly asks if they have anyone he can question. They say no, but their pause indicates that they've got some prisoners.

Ree and Kedrihm are given unusual insignia to wear, which indicates they're not clone troopers. Turns out, this is why the troops' fondness for Primal Justice bothers the brass: the clones are showing unusual personality. Bresen comments on a disturbing trend toward "social equality." But Dr. Wy exasperatedly tells her she can't improve on the design any further. Dalt agrees that the clone technology looks close to perfect. Bresen repeats that Thrawn is coming in four days. Tomorrow they start scanning for Force sensitivity to make sure the clones are safe. Since that essentially consists of Bresen doing her Force-thing, that'll take about two days.

The scientists are to begin work immediately; the troopers are expected to lurk quietly and guard their charges. Everyone is dismissed.

They decide to poke around and get the lay of things, see about spotting Zeth Durron. They plan to meet in commissary for lunch. In the process of poking, Kedrihm and Ree catch an argument between Dr. Wy and Col. Bresen. Bresen doesn't like the clones' cameraderie at all. It's truly unusual levels of general friendliness and teamwork, and she has not overlooked the clones' occasional muttering about 'all being equal' and having some sort of powers. Wy insists that she can't go through 2000 people and adjust them all. She explains, in tones as though she's said this before and she thinks Bresen is an idiot for needing to hear it again, that this is not merely cloning. It's resurrection technology. "Being dead will change a person," she says snarkily, going on to sarcastically bitch about sterilizing people.

Not catching the sarcasm, Bresen declares that's for later consideration. She makes no bones about her distrust of the technology. "It doesn't matter," Wy replies. "What do you think we bought? It's not like he was a reputable fellow." No cookie for guessing who she's talking about there. She mentions something about another purchase, as well, and complains that they have no time to start 'that project.' Oddly, they don't even seem to be sure who exactly was responsible for that purchase. "Do you think it's what it says it is?" Wy asks, uncharacteristically hesitant. Bresen scoffs. "I doubt it could be."

With all that in mind, Kedrihm'Val starts paying more attention to the clones. They are all Force-sensitive. Every one of them. And though he doesn't catch a look at the man's face, he spots one whose potential is so powerful that it's only comparable to Luke's or Kyp's. And he also senses something down in the labs, shielded too strongly to be easily defined.

They share all this over lunch. Oola and Dalt say they'll look into the thing in the labs. As they get up, Ree sees one of the female troopers pause for a moment, staring at their table (notably, at Z and Kedrihm'Val), before she shakes her head and moves on.

Back in the lab, the scientist half of the crew meet Dr. Zel, the biologist, who turns out to be grizzled. "Yes, a genius built it," he says in response to Dalt's awed appreciation of his own work. "From what I understand, he was pretty much a raving, flaming, gay psychopath."

Dalt: "...What?"

Zel tells them that a resurrection device is stupid and dangerous. "It's like vanity on steroids. So here's what the device does: it breaks the laws of the universe. So if you're ever confused, it breaks the laws of the universe." By the time Zel has finished giving them his preliminary opinions, Dalt's looking rather shell-shocked. Dr. Orin apologizes for him while Zel leaves to get a drink.

Moving on from that little scene, Dalt concentrates briefly, then points Oola toward Dr. Wy's office. In there is the whatever-the-hell that Kedrihm'Val sensed, but Wy's working in there with the door open, and they can't see a likely candidate anywhere. It must be hidden.

Oola pays closer attention to the lab, discovering that Wy set everything up to take control from her office in the event of tampering. And she's siphoning off power. A lot of power. A whole generator is dedicated to whatever it is she's doing. Oola's job as a robotics expert includes performing maintenance on the droids; she uses the opportunity to make sure the droids will obey her when it becomes necessary. "Oh, that's beautiful," SARR snipes. "How would you like a mental domination curcuit shoved into your spine?" He starts singing 'Swing low, sweet chariot,' then continues complaining. "I'm not saying it's bad, it's just bad it's being done by another species. I should be the king of all my kind."

Ree spots the girl from lunch going through the stuff under her bunk. She has Primal Justice stuff strewn everywhere; big fan apparently. When she nervously asks whether Ree will turn her in, Ree stops to talk to her, and it turns out the girl is such a fan, she's even hunted down images of what they really look like! She's looking for those images now, in fact. Can't seem to find them, but no matter; she has film of the parade coming in in about half an hour with the mail shipment.

Ree and Zan head to the hangar bay where the mail shipment is coming in, and Z pulls a sneak to grab the package with the footage in it. Lt. Seinar shows up a few minutes later with people to sort through the mail for contraband, so that was particularly well-timed. Then Col. Gent comes down to meet another shuttle, from which debarks a hooded figure--a woman's size--with a box containing something that kicks off tremendous impressions in the Force. Turns out the hooded person is staying on-base for the night. Great. And then the Dark Sider Zeltron male who works for Drath arrives with a delivery: a vial he's selling for a great deal of money. He's staying too. All sorts of interesting things are turning up.

By now, they've narrowed down the guy who's almost certainly Zeth Durron. He keeps looking toward where the hooded person and her box went. "Odd feeling?" Ree asks him. He brushes it off, trying to deny it's anything at all. It rather obviously was an odd feeling.

Back in the lab, Oola and Dalt discover that Dr. Wy likes to experiment with cloned abominations. She's been trying to extract some sort of energy from them, but keeps failing. Dalt thinks she's trying to extract the Force, but as she's not Force sensitive, she really doesn't know what she's doing. "She's viewing it as an energy..." he begins, then pauses as though he's thinking about that. "We have to get into her office. "Already working on it," Oola tells him. "What were you planning to do?" he asks her. "I was going to seduce her so you could sneak in."

Oola stares at him.

Dalt gasps. "You don't believe what the old man said, do you?!" Instead of that, um, interesting idea, Oola sends in a droid to record what it sees: two cloning vats, both strongly shielded. "We need to get in," Dalt repeats, looking smarmy, then his face falls. "You want Z to do it, don't you?"

They meet for lunch again. After lunch, the troops are supposed to stay with the scientists. Bresen is nervous about testing the clones; she thinks they're going to get uppity or something, apparently. Possibly she believes they're plotting. The woman is certainly extraordinarily paranoid. Dalt suggests they invite the other scientists to dinner to empty out the labs so that Zan and the others can sneak in and have a look around. They wonder who Wy is cloning. Dalt wonders about what happens if you make a perfect clone of a living person. They consider this 'nefarious cameraderie' among the clones. The Force users in the group suspect that if they came back Force-sensitive, then they probably feel more in harmony with one another. Kedrihm'Val wonders about their pre-death memories, and whether that's what this 're-education' the scientists spoke of earlier might be about. Probably a good idea to find out more about that.

After lunch, Dr. Zel grumbles about Col. Bresen. The fangirl is still hunting for her pictures. She's a bit more standoffish with Ree than previous, but still can't help talking about her favorite heroes. She says she prefers the real Kedrihm'Val to his muscle-bound actor, and when Ree asks about Z, she pauses a second, then says, "The news vids kind of paint him as a hound."

Ree asks her about being a clone. The girl says it's a bit odd: like old memories should be there but aren't. A lot of the clones aren't really all that thrilled about working for the Empire. Quite a lot of them just wanted to travel and see the galaxy. She's annoyed that she can't remember the excitement of the Rebellion. Ree asks her, "If you weren't here, what would yo want to do?" "Hoooo," the girl answers, her eyes lighting. "Go to Coruscant and meet the heroes!" When Ree asks her about the scientists, she says, "Dr. Zel's alright, just pissed off. Dr. Wy's either preoccupied or condescending. Dr. Orin... *shrug*"

The base gets some regular visitors, she tells Ree. Some dark-cloaked people. Two Zeltrons, and a menacing Zabrak who randomly Force-chokes people sometimes and whom she suspects, she whispers, "might be Drath from the movies. How many other evil Zabraks are there, roaming... Well, I mean." She gives Ree a kind of disturbed look. Anyway, she says they'll get the Empire's Most Wanted list the day before Thrawn arrives, and there should be pictures of her heroes on there, too.

Ree makes a note of that.

In the lab, another sneaky investigation reveals not two, but three cloning chambers. Wy is trying to combine the best aspects of two cloned individuals into a single new person. "It's not great," Dalt says, "but it's brilliant." "It's called birth, you mean," Oola replies. "Yes, but this is better!" Dalt tells her. Oola lets that drop. "So who do you think is in there?" she wonders instead. "Oh, go- That's horrible," Dalt says in reply to whatever just crossed his mind. They definitely need to find out more about what Wy wants from this, "or we need to go down there and drive stakes through their hearts," he says. They might find that Zeltron and see if he has records on what material they sold. "It's the male Zeltron, right?" Dalt asks Oola. "You don't want to make a comment now?" She just looks at him. "Oooh; now you-- I don't want to. Because I. Like. Girls."

When they meet again to trade their newest information, Kedrihm wonders if she might be trying to merge Force powers into someone who doesn't have them. He gets the impression that she's envious of people with Force sensitivity. She knows an awful lot about it for someone who can't do it herself. Dalt wonders whether you can choose which qualities to transfer, and what happens if you try to clone someone who's still alive. Maybe she wants a clone of herself with the Force?

"Something's wrong," Zan speaks up, rousing from deep thought. "Ree's dream about Zeth makes no sense. Would Thrawn have untested Force users on his ship?" Which means someone sent that dream. Could it be the clones? Someone directing their minds? Could someone have purposely linked them? Kedrihm'Val doubts that, thinks it's simply a sympathetic link they formed themselves. But they're going to have to deal with the whole base, they realize now. Thrawn will use anything and anyone they leave behind, and they can't abandon all these clones to a life of slavery and corruption. Time to form a plan.

The next morning, SARR sneaks into the lab while Bresen does her Force-testing thing. She promptly freaks out and orders all clones confined to barracks. Wy is thoroughly annoyed, and starts arguing with her. Everyone else clears out of the way from two crazy scary evil women in authority who're yelling at each other. Figuring that'll go on for a while, Zel leads the others back to work.

Kedrihm'Val and Ree are sent to calm the clones in the barracks. The clones are quite understandably ticked off, but they seem rather disinclined from random revolt, which seems to be Bresen's fear.

Dr Wy comes in cursing to herself. Bresen called Thrawn and asked him to make all speed. He arrives tonight. "That's unforseen," Zan says, sounding uncharacteristically flustered. "This is extremely inconvenient."

Zel snarks. Orin is upset by confrontation. Oola sneaks a little droid into Wy's office to record, while Zel wonders how the clones and the Force-thing work. Dalt grabs a chalkboard and starts lecturing. "Well," says Zel. "We'll hope the Force works that way." "I assure you," says Dalt, "It does. I am a genius." Zel grumbles about bad days, and says this isn't as bad as when the Emperor burned the Jedi temple. He announces that he's sure that whole Jedi being evil thing was a lie, and then proceeds to grizzle out about the Rebellion and the Empire.

Oola's droid returns, showing her that Wy revved up the process. SARR knocked her out from behind, then sent the droid back after telling it, "Tell your mistress it's a Vader-Han."

Kedrihm'Val and Ree return from the barracks to tell them the clones are calm, but Ree secretly thinks she can incite the clones to riot in their favor. The re-education people come in to hold a conference in the lab. Zel grouses, "You've pissed off the genius, alarmed the Grand Admiral, and overturned the base because clones have manifested strange witch-like abilities." One of the Re-education officers asks if there are any guests coming. Bresen snags him, telling him, "Go meet the shuttle." Ree offers to play escort, so he takes her and Kedrihm'Val with him.

The new arrivals are the Chiss Dark Sider and Jek Schild, along with two Dark Troopers. They're here to review security for the Grand Admiral's arrival in a few hours. The Chiss halts as she steps down from the landing ramp. "There's something wrong with this base." She's right, of course; when it comes to the Force, this entire base is in mayhem. 2000 clones, two powerful Dark Siders, a whole batch of infiltrating Jedi-types, mystery-person in a cloak with her crazy Force-box, and the abomination in Wy's basement. As they head back down to the labs, Kedrihm'Val quietly radios a warning about their new arrivals to Z, then Ree and Kedrihm'Val break off to return to the barracks again.

Z leaps on the Chiss as she steps through the door, screaming, "PRIMAL JEEEEUSTICE!" She gets knocked back, and Jek pulls his lightsaber. Kedrihm'Val calls SARR to warn him, too. SARR ignites four--count them, four--lightsabers, and tells him the thing in the vat has "gone insane." "It's aware?" Kedrihm asks him, alarmed. "Well, it's looking at him, which is why I'm running," SARR says.

In the lab, Dr. Zel whips out a lightsaber, putting it through a stormtrooper. Sabers ignite all around; "Oh my god!" Dalt's irritated voice rises above the increasing chaos. Zan hands him an extra. Oola triggers the commands she put into the droids, who grab the Imperials and inject them with knockout drugs, taking out two more. The base's Admiral makes a break for the door; Zan trips him. Z smoke-bombs the Chiss and Jek. Dalt and Lydia run to help him. Onna shoots the Chiss.

Ree's right; it's extremely easy to rouse the troops to riot. All she has to do is strip off her helmet and declare, "I'm Ree Shevan, and I'm here to rescue you!" They break out the arms and move to help. Ree has most of them head to the hangar bay to start prepping for evacuation, or round up the non-clone troopers on the base. She takes a strike force with her to help in the labs.

On the way back to the labs, Kedrihm'Val spots the Zeltron. He Force-shoves the Zeltron into a bulkhead, then closes in with a flying kick. Ree spots the hooded figure at the end of the hallway and settles herself for a fight. The figure walks calmly toward her, tossing the hood back, and...it's Mara Jade! With Luke behind her. Who was in the box. "Congratulations," Ree tells them, then points them toward the lab. After Kedrihm'Val stuns the Zeltron and ties him up, they move.

SARR comes running out like hell is on his heels, and it is, because the Vader-Han sprints out right behind him. Zan breaks off to pursue that thing. Lydia takes on Jek Schild. Dalt does...something, and the Force-lightning accumulators the Dark Troopers carry start going into overload. He clears out of their way. The droids take down another stormtrooper. The station self-destruct announces its activation. Zan closes with the Han-Vader, around whom Oola dodges to get to Wy's office where everything's been wired into a central control system. She just barely manages to roll under the security shield as it descends. SARR ignites two lightsabers and heads for Vader-Han too. "I'm not doing this to be noble, but to be recognized!" Bresen breaks for the door.

Right into Luke. Mara shoots her. Luke's a bit distracted by the sparking Dark Troopers, whom he knocks into the hall before they explode. Then he charges the Vader-Han, once again taking off his opponent's head in a single swipe. "He's such a showoff," Mara scoffs.

Tumbling under the security door just as it closes, Oola comes up face to face with Dr. Wy, who's operating the controls. Oola pulls her holdout blaster and shoots the not-so-good doctor. Ree heads for the door, intending to cut it open.

Over by the door, Z gropes the Chiss, distracting her from Kedrihm'Val coming up from behind to stun her. Lydia takes off Jek's arm; he passes out from the shock. Mara shoots Bresen a couple more times just to be sure. Everyone left standing in the room surrenders.

Zan helps Ree with Wy's security door. After they get it cut about halfway through, Kedrihm'Val delivers a savage kick that knocks the weakened metal in. Surrendering to the onslaught of lightsabers of righteous justice, Wy surrenders and deactivates the self-destruct. Oola looks over the controls while Ree ties up Wy.

Now is the time for systematic destruction: destroy the clone-tech and the genetic matierla, evacuate clones and captives in the three hours they've got before Thrawn arrives. Turns out, Luke brought the Jedi library ship for the evac. Kedrihm'Val grabs the Zeltron, who's still out. Z searches to find what the Zeltron brought with him: a Zeltron love potion, a chemical concoction that makes the imbiber temporarily fall in love with the first person they see. He doesn't want to give it up. "They wear off so quickly," Dalt says. "I mean, your mother-" Kedrihm'Val grabs Z's collar in his free hand. Ree snags the potion off him while he's distracted.

With everyone left alive, captive or not, on the ship, they vacate the premises with massive explosions trailing behind them. Oola didn't see fit to work in half-measures. There's nothing but a smoking crater where the base was by the time Thrawn arrives.

Wonder if he'll figure out who it was?

Safely in hyperspace, Kedrihm'Val makes SARR give back Dalt's lightsabers. Again. Luke confirms that what Kedrihm'Val felt before was the Grand Inquisitor searching for them, but they still don't know who sent Ree's vision about Zeth. By process of elimination, it's someone who isn't affiliated with the Imperials, but whom they wouldn't trust if the person simply revealed themselves. It's not Drath; he would've just kidnapped Zeth. Speaking of whom, Ree talks with Luke about Kyp.

SARR wants recognition for droids' part in saving the day. "Some droids like people!" Oola informs him as they argue. "Some gay pansy droids," SARR replies, eliciting a laugh out of Luke. Then he goes on about sentient robotic slaves races again. Z makes some snide comment about what a state they'd be in if droids became sentient. Dalt looks at him in disbelief. "Droids are sentient!"

At last, they get back to Coruscant, where they get to inform Kyp of what he missed. They'll be opening a few floors of the Jedi temple to accomodate all these clones until their new guests can decide what to do with their new lives. Zan reminds Ree that she now has 2000 new potential Jedi who owe her their freedome. "It's a movie waiting to happen," he teases her, then muses on how he's always wanted to write a script.

And they have a heaping helping of new people to add to the prison ship: Jek Schild, the Chiss, the Zeltron; and prisoners for the New Republic: Dr. Wy, Col. Gent, Lt. Seinar, the Admiral, Re-education personnel.

As they settle back in at home, they hear new rumblings from the Senate about acquiring Dalt's cloning technology to, what else, help the Alderaanians. Ree wonders why anybody would want it. "Ask Senator Sent," Onna quips. Kedrihm'Val adds dryly, "All you have to do is tell him they come back Force sensitive." He's concerned about Sent, to be honest. "He seemed nice enough when we met him before, but to be carrying this much anger toward the Jedi..." Ree agrees. She wants to open it back up for debate in Council, because Sent seems to be getting worse.
When Dalt comes back from visiting Kel to remind them of how magnificent his technology is, Kedrihm'Val takes the opportunity to inform him about the Alderaanians. Dalt's exasperated.

Maybe now they can finally get around to that dinner with Amidala.