Kyp standing a little behind her, Ree kneels at the side of the poisoned girl as she breathes out her last word: "Dust..."
Ree doesn't really want to put this in someone else's hands, but Kyp reminds her that there's nothing here that immediately indicates it's Jedi business. Reluctantly, she calls New Republic security. Erin arrives shortly after and Ree exacts a promise from her to call with whatever they learn.
RepSec quickly IDs the girl as Ara Mores; 17 years old, from the Outer Rim, specifically an unremarkable little textile-making planet with no particular name. A diary found in her bags indicates that Ara was on a touring cruise of the Inner Rim, for which she had saved up for years. She was a big fan of Ree and the others. Her luggage contains gifts for each of them. They also a tracker whose signal traces back to Chandrila--not hidden--and, more oddly, two very different styles of clothes: half of her wardrobe contains rather tasteless, plain outfits, while the other half looks like nothing so much as a stripper's wardrobe, along with wigs, makeup, and all the trimmings. The even odder thing is that those clothes come in two different sizes. The trashy clothes fit her better, though that's not what she was wearing. Also, she has an inexplicable tan.
The poison that killed her, Erin says, is one that was popularly used on slaves during the Empire's reign, though it's no longer manufactured. It has the unpleasant property of being programmable to activate when the victim experiences specific stimuli or emotional states. In this case, Erin guesses that the stimulus was extreme nervousness.
Wanting to help, Ree grabs Kedrihm'Val and Lydia, and sends a message to the others. Oola's attention is drawn by the name of the cruise company Ara had chartered her tour with: Outer Rim Tours, a company Oola knows well as it's owned by DUST, her family's crime syndicate.
Ree has Kedrihm'Val read Ara's belongings. Uncertain about the wisdom of trying to gain psychic impressions from Ara's body, he tries the ill-fitting clothes first. The face he sees is not the young woman Ree found. The girl in the vision is younger, plainer and somewhat awkward. She did come from the textile world Erin described, and he gains the impression that these two girls, whomever they are, share the same name.
Erin runs some checks, and discovers that the dead woman's ID was indeed falsified. Oola runs her own data search on this new information, and turns up the girl Kedrihm'Val saw. A trace on the tracker's signal turns up a matching receiver at a bar called the Broken Wave, located on Chandrila. When Z arrives, he quickly identifies the clothes as a style Chandrilan prostitutes wear. Erin lets them know that further tests from the labs indicate that the poison was in this woman's system for six years. It wasn't triggered by nerves, though. It was triggered by hope. That bit of cruelty is the final straw; whomever did this needs to be brought to justice.
No, Z. Not primal justice.
The woman's final diary entry is dated two weeks ago, at her arrival on Chandrila. Z notes that was during the Life Festival. Some things she wrote in her journal indicate that she was a latent Force-sensitive. Erin suggests that they go ID the person receiving the tracker signal, then call the authorities.
After considering the situation, Kedrihm'Val decides to try reading the dead woman's body after all. As he suspected it might, the girl's death scene hits him like a hammer...except it's the wrong death scene! He sees Ara Mores, the drab girl Oola found in her data search, being killed in an alley. The girl lying on the examination table, a Chandrilan prostitute, watches the murder from a hiding place around the corner. She's already worked up, he can sense; on her way to tell someone something important. As Ara dies, the two womens eyes meet, and the prostitute feels the force of Ara's fear drive their minds together, their thoughts jumbling with desperation and the import of news they each carry. Lost in a confusion of identity, Ara's drive to go to Coruscant and meet Ree merges with the anonymous girl's desire to run, which he surmises is what letd them--her--to Ree.
While Oola hunts through Chandrilan databases to find the identity of this missing woman, she finds an abnormal number of recent missing persons reports (which puts up a flag with the group, as Chandrila is where they first encountered the child slavery ring). This hooker, one of those missing, is Zay Vellar. She worked for a crime lord named Doran Nar who's said to be, well, pretty decent as crime lords go. Not a native, she arrived on Chandrila at the age of 13 with the poison already in her system a year at that point. She came from Tatooine. Oola also learns that the detective in charge of Zay's case is named Jondo Bess.
While Oola researches, Z badgers Kedrihm'Val about Primal Justice. "Can you say 'By the beards of my ancestors'? Your character says it on the show all the time." Bemused by the things people come up with, Kedrihm'Val asks him, "Have you ever seen anyone on my planet with a beard?"
"Chandrila's been fucked up ever since Dalt's clone had his way with it," Erin observes. And it's true; they've always suspected that the corruption spread further than what they dealt with the last time they were there. If there's more going on, Ree feels it's her duty to put it right as well as she can. This girl came to her for help, after all. She asks Oola to get a duplicate of the tracker so they won't have to move this one and possibly let people know they're coming, and then it's pack your bags and off to Chandrila.
Their first stop on the beautiful vacation planet is the Broken Wave bar. Everything on Chandrila is elegant, even the seedy underside. Oola notes that the building is attached to a casino complex, which is also owned by her father. She knows that in every business affiliated with her father's organization, there's at least one spy who reports straight back to DUST. This spy's job is to make sure that the business owners keep everything honest. The owner of this particular bar is named Erwal Tr'end, but the hotel's chef, Ordal Sinra, is the DUST operative on site. Oola plans to hit him up for information later on.
It takes about a minute to pinpoint the signal as originating upstairs, where the employee lodging and the freshers are located. Ree tells the others to wait while she sneaks upstairs. Her task isn't difficult. She finds it in a room shared by two girls. Judging by the holo-pictures on the desk, one was Zay, and the other is a waitress named Trinwal Zev. There are other pictures of the two of them with one of the casino's bouncers. It looks like the tracker was a sort of mutual protection arrangement; keeping track of each other in case something happened.
Ree isn't gone long. When she re-enters the room, Kedrihm'Val notices someone visibly recognize her as a Jedi and leave. "Z?" he mutters, indicating the exiting man. "Lots of people around here wouldn't be comfortable sharing space with a Jedi," Z replies, "but it's worth keeping the guy in mind. "
Turns out, the waitress at their table is Trinwal. Ree slips her a note on a napkin that they have news about Zay, and asks her to meet them outside on her break.
On their way out, the Force users feel themselves being watched. The sense is deeply malicious. Ree pinpoints the observer on a rooftop about three buildings down. She sends Z and Kedrihm'Val to investigate.
The roof is a furnished patio above a giftshop, arranged for outdoor parties. It's empty now, but their wather deliberately left a datapad behind, containing information about an 'escort' named Palra Enda. There's a symbol at the bottom of the datapad entry--a hand with a glowing red eye in the palm--that looks strangely familiar. Kedrihm'Val takes a moment to familiarize himself with the departed Force user's sense before he heads back down with the datapad. Oola makes sure it has no tracers or traps.
Trinwal meets with Ree, who tells her the bad news. The poor, grieved waitress can't help much. She doesn't think that Zay even remembered whatever that desperate information was. She gives them the bouncer's name--Evan Srell--and says he'll probably know more. Ree shares her commlink frequency in case Trinwal ever needs to get in touch.
After Oola looks up data on Palra Enda (Doren Nar's ladyfriend, he pays for her lodgings at a swank hotel), they hit up the casino. "Woohoo, blend in naturally!" Z cheers. Giving the others a promise to arrange their lodgings, Oola leaves to find Ordel Sinra. He's curious why Daddy's Little Girl is here. She tells him abut the murder. He says he's been watching Udlak'na Rel, a 'Twilek jackass' who's recently moved in and gaining local influence. Palra Enda has been splitting the difference between Doran Nar and Rel, wanting to make sure she comes out on the winning side. That's all his information on the scene. Before she goes, Oola shows Sinra the symbol on the datapad. Shocked, Ordel identifies it as 'the eye of Thrawn'--the mark of Thrawn's own secret police--and demands that Oola tell her father about this. Sinra doesn't want to be responsible if something happens when Tser's daughter tangles with the Grand Admiral's people.
Meeting back in their suite, Oola tells the others about the new developments. If Thrawn's operatives are involved, then this may've just gotten a whole lot uglier. Of course, he might just be keeping track of the crew, which somehow is not any more reassuring. Deciding there's nothing they can do about that at the moment, Ree suggests they simply look around for now to see what they can see. Kedrihm'Val looks at Z. "There's a good chance we'll get chased around this building, so we'd better get used to the layout." Z agrees. They really do work well together, to Kedrihm'Val's ever-so-faint disgust, because while he likes Z perfectly well, it means he never hears the end of PRIMAL JEEEEEUSTICE! Oola's presence conveniently gets them access to just about everything. She nabs them cards for the restricted access areas.
They locate Evan Srell that evening at the bash for the casino's nightly opening. In truth, he's hard for the Force users to miss; a glowing ball of Force-sensitive despair and rage. Most of the bouncers wear stun-sticks. He has blasters. And he's not just sensitive; there's a telltale sense of control about him that indicates he's had training. Z tries awkwardly to talk to him while Oola and Onna canvas the room. Quietly looking around, Kedrihm'Val notes that the waiter ferrying complimentary drinks is the one who ducked out of the bar earlier that day. When he grabs a drink from the man's tray for Lydia to check, she designates it as "wrong." Kedrihm tries to close in on the guy quietly, but the man spots him, trips him, and runs for it. Ree catches him in the kitchen and after she flips him into a wall, Kedrihm knocks him out. Z grabs the unconscious man and pulls eight of his teeth out in a bloody, impromptu dentistry session. They're fake, he replies to the others' shocked questions. And sure enough, the teeth Z's torn out contain poisons and explosives. Evan, having followed Z to the scene of the trouble, approves.
With the man subdued and disarmed, they take him to security. He's resistant to interrogation. Kedrihm'Val, figuring the alternative is to leave the guy to Z's and Evan's 'tender mercies,' mentally compels him to cooperate. Giving his name as Dren Wert, he tells them he's an operative for the Imperial Remnant. The Force users can tell he's also lightly Force sensitive. He explains that he attacked them because they're with a Jedi, and confesses that he's the one who killed Ara Mores after she overheard him having a clandestine conversation in an alley.
Then, prodding at his sore mouth, he exclaims, "All of them? I only have one secret tooth left." Ree grabs him by the face while Z snags the tooth. When Ree chides, "Z, try not to..." Dren interrupts, "Wait, wait. Z?!" He hadn't realized who this bunch actually was.
Dren was here to make contact with "y'know, criminals." Ara overheard them talking about collecting recruits or, "You'd call them slaves." This is clearly why people have been disappearing. Ree surmises that they have agents in the government who are looking the other way. Dren confirms that, and goes on to complain, "Slavers. Stupid slavers. They lost a whole operations procedure a few days ago." Which is, coincidentally, about when he killed Ara. None of the operatives know who took it, he tells them. He guesses it was probably one of the hookers. He has been here for four or five years now, and he knew about the Shadow Academy. He's working with Rel's new crime syndicate, which is funneling the slaves off-planet, but another syndicate (DUST, is the crew's good bet) keeps interfering...though Dren doesn't believe they took the plans. Rel's group must be working for someone significant, he tells them. He has excellent funding and connections. But Dren can't tell them much about the slaves. Their disposal isn't his bailiwick. Only Rel knows what the next step is, which is why those missing procedures are so important.
Kedrihm'Val suddenly realizes that he's smelling gas. It's seeping under the door. Opening the door, Kedrihm finds himself face-to-face with an assassin droid...which he promptly trashes. As it goes down, it shoots a ball out of its head. Ree chases it down and snatches it: a record of their conversation. She calls Oola, who was still downstairs keeping an eye on the room with Onna.
Heading up, Oola is attacked by two men wearing Mandalorian armor. She fights back with her knife-droids. Roaring "Don't ruin that armor!" Z grabs Kedrihm'Val and they go running to her aid, but the Mandalorians have already had enough of Oola's knife-droid and come crashing up through the floor on their way to escape. Z jumps on one, while Kedrihm puts his fist through the other's jetpack. Then, to the crew's surprise, Evan opens fire like some kind of Force-using gun-ninja. Looking at their defeated foes, Kedrihm'Val figures that since Ree's not there, someone needs to do the honors, so "Care to surrender?" he asks them. As they bow their heads in apparent assent, some kind of hidden blade decapitates them.
Z calls dibs on a set of the armor.
Inspecting the suits, Oola notes that the blades are remote-controlled. They could have been activated from a distance. And the pod with the record of their conversation is programmed with directions that lead them nowhere informative.
Dren isn't surprised at being targeted. The crew knows that whoever was behind this will try again; they need to get him, and his information on the spy network, someplace safe. Ree tries to reach Erin, but discovers they're being shielded. In fact, her commlink explodes when she tries.
Evan suggests they talk to Jodo Boss, the guy he hired to find Zay. Oola manages to hack through the block and send a message to Erin, but it'll be a while before she gets here, and they can't trust the potentially compromised Chandrilan security forces. Which means there's only one place safe for their captive in the meantime...
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