Personnel on Ryloth have orders to allow the crew wherever they need to go. They're given friendship badges which signify that as guests of Twilek, rather than tourists or traders, they are permitted in Twilek parts of the city. When some of them voice their concern, Sareth Fenn tells them he's amused at the idea of someone trying to assassinate Lo Tser.
The crew has been to Ryloth before, but this time Oola's whole family is assembled, and they're given formal introductions. Nat is her oldest brother and the one who works in the Senate. Ulu, her older sister, is a language instructor at the Jedi temple, though not Force-sensitive herself. Serdo is her youngest brother, a smuggler and pod-racer on Tatooine and Coruscant. Looking uncannily like their father, Oola explains that he's expected to take over the 'family business' when Lo steps down. Oola's mother, Ree, is a Force Adept and martial artist. Kedrihm'Val asks if she'd be willing to teach him some things.
Lo is less concerned about being targeted for assassination than why Grand Admiral Thrawn is so interested in them. He makes fun of Oola for failing to keep a low profile...but what can you do when you travel with Jedi?
On the topic of the assassination, they have a week left before the attempt is to be made. Z suspects the fat, corrupt Portmaster. When Oola accesses his personal files, she finds out that Z has a point: the Portmaster has not been discreet about her father's dealings, and has been skipping checks on certain ships. His daily itinerary indicates that he's attending a meeting in an hour and a half at the floating rock gardens, which is enough time for the crew to get there ahead of him.
From their hidden positions, Ree, Z, and Kedrihm'Val watch one the Portmaster's assistants meet a dark, cloaked figure. He hands over a box and papers, and then they part. The three follow the cloaked figure back to one of the ships--a small Zeltron transport--that weren't checked by the authorities. Ree has Oola lock down the ship's stardrives, and then they follow the figure to a larger freighter.
After their target leaves the Zeltron ship, Oola sends her little droids to retrieve the box and papers left on board. The papers turn out to be detailed maps of the spaceport and the city, including a hidden lower level that Oola has never heard of before, about halfway up from the city cistern. There's also a rough itinerary of her family's movements for the day of the assassination. The box is locked with Sith markings--some kind of puzzle lock. Kedrihm'Val is able to open it, revealing another map to something building-sized buried on Ryloth. The map is covered with old Twilek writing that indicates it's an ancient Sith academy. According to Jedi lore, it was a training site for assassins.
They switch the Sith map with a fake, copy the map of the missing level, and Oola's little droids slip everything back onto the Zeltron ship. Sareth plants traps for the assassin along the family's expected movements, then bugs the Portmaster's office. Thus, they learn that he's meeting someone else tonight at Maala's Kitchen, the local cantina. Maala's a good woman. After Oola speaks with her, she agrees to help bug the Portmaster's table.
Lo Tser thinks the lower level of the city must have been added during the Empire's reign. The Empire did a lot of work on the port, refitting it to accommodate Imperial transports. Since Oola's still concerned about the Zeltron ship, Kedrihm'Val leaves to take another look at it, and discovers that she's right: it's saturated with Zeltron rage. But as the Zeltrons themselves don't seem to be here, the good money is that it's Asajj Ventress under that cloak.
They're proven right that night. Listening to to conversation at the Portmaster's table, they hear her asks if "the troops" are ready. She complains that it's humiliating to use so much strength to destroy a single family, and demeaning to be used for this when the Portmaster already has an army on tap.
While monitoring the bug, Oola notices that another spy is listening in from the freighter that Ventress visisted earlier. Ventress set up some kind of relay, but Oola can't tell whether someone is listening from the ship, or if the ship is beaming the signal out. Oola sends her little droids onto the freighter. It's empty, which means the signal's being beamed elsewhere. Sareth tells her to disable the ship's hyperdrive to keep it from leaving. While she's at it, Oola tightens up the job on the Zeltron ship as well.
Asajj asks about "the rest of the payment." The Portmaster tells her it's on the secret level, and promises that he'll retrieve it when they're done. When her attitude changes suddenly, becoming more oily, the Force users realize that she's responding to some image from his mind. Z notices that the Portmaster keeps referring to "the boss on Tatooine" the way they used to talk about Jabba: it's the fear associated with a real crime lord.
If there are troops on that hidden level, they're either droids or soldiers in suspended animation. Probably Imperial, or maybe even Trade Federation. Whatever Ventress wants down there, it could be something that Dooku left.
Passing that information on to Lo causes a family argument. Serbo thinks it's unfair that Oola can go down there while he gets yelled at for pod-racing. In response, Lo suggests (strongly) that Oola would be most useful staying up here to monitor and hack the hidden level's systems. She agrees and sends SARR and INON down with the others. To make sure there are no live soldiers being held in stasis, Oola's mother suggests scanning for energy drain due to life support pods. Oola finds none of that, but there is a massive shield drawing half the power for the city, wrapped around a person-sized case. Z makes sure people are equipped with EMP guns to face combat droids.
SARR on the subject of killing droids: "I'm not saying I'm against it, I'm just saying I find it morally repugnant. They're two completely different things." Evan: "Are they really?"
When they go down, they find loads of battle droids and about 150 super battle droids stored in an enormous bay that runs most of the length of the level. Oola nails the transponder for the battle droids to keep them from activating, but she warns them that the super battle droids are autonomous. If something activates them, they'll still be a threat.
The other end of the vault is blocked off by two huge doors. Kedrihm'Val senses powerful emanations of the Force coming from the other side. Oola opens the doors to reveal a cloning tube containing something cloaked and hooded. It's difficult to see clearly through the shielding, so Ree steps toward it just as Kedrihm'Val heightens his senses to get a better look. He grabs her right before she triggers a pressure-plate trap on the floor. On closer inspection, the whole area around the tube is trapped to activate who- or whatever is inside.
Oola deactivates the floor sensors for them, but whoever set this trap up was canny. Deactivating the sensors triggers the battle droids. Evan heads out with Z to hold them off while the others deal with whatever's in that tube.
Able to get close enough to see clearly now, Kedrihm and Ree recognize Emperor Palpatine! It's another bloody clone. Ree ponders the right course of action. Kedrihm doesn't hesitate at the thought of destroying it, but doesn't have a weapon that can punch through the glass. Keeping an eye on the battle outside, SARR informs them, "You have one minute." Oola counts. When she gives SARR the signal, he spins and puts a lightsaber through the tube. Ree is dismayed, but Kedrihm distracts her with a reminder that they need to help the others with the battle droids.
150 super battle droids against a Jedi, a gun-ninja, a regular ninja, Onna, SARR and Z; it doesn't last long, but it sure does look pretty. Once they've finished off all the droids, they tell Z and Evan what they found. Z is surprised Ree even needed to think about it. Evan's just glad it's dead. Ree and Lydia are a little less hard-edged. To distract from their philosophical differences, Kedrihm'Val redirects their attention back to the clone, asking "Proper protocol is to burn this, right?"
Once that's handled, they arrange a trap for Ventress if she comes down here. Using the battle droids that didn't activate, Oola recalibrates their blasters for stun and resets the pressure-plates. They create a hologram of the clone and its tank, and reverse the shields so that if someone steps on the plates, it will trap them inside. They wait for some time, but the trap never activates.
After a while, Oola checks the port's cameras to discover that Ventress stole another ship and left while the group was exploring. The freighter, however, is still transmitting a signal. Just in case, Oola rigs shields around it and Sareth Fenn calls for bomb procedures "after the unfortunate death of the Portmaster." Turns out, though, it's not a bomb at all. It's a recorded message from Drath. "I'd like to thank you for taking care of the one rival I had to worry about. And since you're there, since I've forseen it (I really hate saying that), I assume you've switched the maps and I have nothing. But I've got a dead Palpatine, so that's okay." He also comments on how "weird" Tatooine is and that he keeps running into Thrawn's people.
Fenn tells them that whomever is in charge of the new crime syndicate is running things from Jabba's palace. This is a new development in the past three or four months. Lo tells them his people will get the Sith map back to the Council, and Ree calls Kyp to give him an update. He'll pass word on to Han and Luke, he says, and commends them to Lady Valerian, the other major syndic boss on Tatooine. He's sure is involved in this and be very interested in what they have to say.
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