Wrecking Up the Tapani Sector

They lose the tracker signal leaving hyperspace. By the time they arrive in the Tapani Sector, Erin has discovered that Grand Moff Tarkin's clan are involved in this somehow, but the paper trail is obscured. Ree calls Commander Teris, who is not overjoyed to hear from them considering what happened last time, but is willing to help. He grudgingly agrees to help hunt down the person who holds the deed, and suggests they check the central real estate agency.

Ree tries to gently explain to Kedrihm'Val about buying and owning planets. He still thinks it's weird, but he's accustomed himself to the notion well enough to handle the thought of buying his world back. Whatever it takes to keep it safe. Oola tells him he has three million credits in his account, as well as the Krayt pearl. But why is Sienar involved? They're connected to the Empire and Thrawn, right? Are they spying on Drath?

Onna calls in a favor to get a meeting with House Barnaba, which owns Abindosan. The planet isn't valued highly on the deed, so she holds out hope that this won't be too complex. The deed is in the possession of one Sien Torenns, a spoiled rich girl who seems to be bent on having fun and looking good while doing it. Her financial assistant is Trista Graf, a woman with her head far more firmly attached. Onna warns them not to try to explain anything; just express interest--to the tune of 1.5 million credits. Trista comments in their first meeting that it's odd how everyone is suddenly interested in this planet. She's had two other parties query her about it so far.

It seems like a sensible idea to hunt down these "other parties," since the good money is on them being representatives of Drath and the Empire. Z wants to bribe some House employees, because servants are likely to see a lot. He sets Ree on the job by feeding her a story that happens to be true: "Your mistress is dealing with dangerous people."

The maid swallows that readily, because "How many hooded people do you have to deal with before you realize something is wrong?" She describes a human female and a Bothan who've come to visit Sien so far. Ree talks her into checking the Lady's appointment book for those two, and learns that Sien is meeting tomorrow morning with the Bothan, and tonight with a "Jek Schild" at an art gallery. The gallery is owned by a friend of Sien's named Meetha Orn. Apparently Jek disturbs Sien, she she's keeping him clear of her own house.

INON runs a check on Schild. He's young, but an older Schild, a widower, worked on the Death Star. Could be this guy is his son.

They finagle invitations to tonight's exhibit, which is ironically Alderaanian art, a fair amount of it created by Meetha herself. Looking around at the gallery, they notice that the artiste in question spends a lot of time around Schild. SARR tells them that he hates Alderaanians.

Sien and Meetha are both hanging around a lot with a charismatic young man who looks maybe in his mid-twenties. He lurks closer to Meetha than Sien, and Meetha positively drips off him. It's easy to overhear him telling her about how heartles the New Republic is. They've been positively cruel to the Alderaanians. She practically swoons in horror, and Sien buys in with visible schadenfreude.

Z: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need more information." This guy is obviously playing the two women, and Trista clearly finds the whole display disgusting. When Jek mentions going to a back room to complete a business transaction, Ree grabs Dalt and sends him at Meetha to ask about a painting. Oddly enough, he does rather fit in with the limp-wristed artsy crowd. Dalt does it the easy way and simply Force-whammies the woman. "Now what?" he asks Ree. "That was my plan," Ree tells him. "'Do something.'"

Z, failing his Wisdom check, walks up to Trista and asks her, "Is your name Cloudstrider?" She says, "No," of course, so he punches her in the stomach, snatches her satchel, and breaks for the window.

Jek follows him out as Z leaps for a speeder but gets held up by Ree's confrontation of him. "I know who you are and who you're working for," she tells him. "Really?" he asks, clearly amused. "Who?" "I know who you are," she repeats, more emphatically.

Kedrihm, meanwhile, spots a Bothan pursuing Z and grabs another speeder. He's not a great pilot, by any means, but he's able to make the thing go forward long enough to get within range to drain the energy from the Bothan's speeder. Z launches skyward with his jetpack; Kedrihm notices that he left the satchel on his speeder, which is quietly following his trajectory, keeping close to the ground.

Jek doesn't care who Ree thinks he is; he points out to her that her friends are thieves. Ree has to vacate when she sees security forces heading their way; she leaps up to the shadows on the roof of the building. Jek looks a little surprised; without her robes, he didn't notice she was a Jedi.

Kedrihm'Val shuts off the Bothan's speeder; the Bothan jumps an improbable distance to grab hold of Z in mid-air. So it's a Force user. Kedrihm comms Ree to fill her in, then leaps downward to Z's speeder, where he finds that Z has mined the satchel and coded it so that only INON can open it. Jek, on another speeder with Meetha on the back, catches up to Kedrihm'Val, who refuses (quite reasonably, all things considered) to turn the bag over. Meetha draws a pistol on him.

Commander Teris arrives at the gallery. "You're a handsome man," Dalt quips, noting the family resemblance. SARR, unsupervised, steals a large number of small, valuable objects, while Oola, somewhat more focused, steals the security tapes.

Kedrihm snatches up the bag, leaps off the speeder, and runs back toward the building at Force speed. Ree swings in behind him with Jek and Meetha in pursuit. Teris arrests everybody on general principles.

Unnoticed because they haven't raised a ruckus, Dalt and SARR slip out while security takes care of everyone else. Kedrihm'Val tells the Commander about Z and the Bothan, figuring the Bothan might've followed them back to.

In fact, Z groped her, pepper-sprayed her, and let her run, and then he returned to the ship.

After Lydia points out that SARR, Z, and Dalt are their rescue party, Kedrihm'Val reminds them that Dalt is, after all, Force-sensitive. It's not like they're incommunicado. So Ree sends a telepathic message to Dalt asking them not to stage a rescue--yet.

After freaking out at them, Commander Teris gives them 24 hours to return the deed. Turns out, it's not in the satchel. When they get back to the ship, Ree in turn freaks out at Z. Kedrihm'Val cuts in to ask where he actually put the deed. "In my crotch," Z tells him. "Where no one will ever touch it," Dalt quips.

There's a message from Luke, casually wondering why the Jedi are getting reports of someone blasting out of CorpSec and committing crimes in the Tapani Sectory. "Call when you can," he finishes.

Z wants to take off with the deed right now. Dalt points out that it won't help. It's just a piece of paper; Sien can get another one notarized.

So they hunt down information on Jek Schild instead. He's a citizen of the Imperial Remnant, possibly a government employee--the uncertainty of which is an indicator in itself. If he's the Imperial spy, then that means the Bothan is working for Drath. They turn that information over to Teris, who "strongly suggests" to Sien that she not sell the deed, since it's likely to start a war. When Meetha continues pressuring her to sell it, Kedrihm'Val explains that it's his world, and that his people will be in danger if either the Imperials or the, spirits forbid, the Sith get their hands on it.

The Head of House Barnaba is an intensely moral woman, who is not keen on endangering a planet full of innocent people or having her House embroiled in the middle of an interstellar incident. The planet will be a hot commodity in the Tapani Sector after this, so she takes custody of the deed herself to make sure no...accidents happen.

Which is the best they can hope for, for the moment. Returning once again to the ship, Ree finds another message waiting from Luke: "Hey, this is just Grandmaster Skywalker again, calling to see if everything's okay." When she calls back, he innocently answers, "Why, Ree. What've you been up to lately?" Once she gives him the story, Luke seems actually fairly pleased. For him, this probably counts as smooth sailing. Luke tells her that Kyp is on the way back. They've found some stuff on Kessel, but nothing pertaining to what they went for.

Then they receive a message from Commander Teris: "We've found some things missing from the art gallery." Ree turns to the others. "Has anyone accidentally...stolen anything?" When SARR is ostentatiously startled by the things that fell into his storage compartments, Ree growls, "Honestly, pickpocketing Dalt is one thing..." "Wha?" Dalt asks. "That's why your lightsaber keeps going missing," Kedrihm'Val explains helpfully. "And your wallet," Oola adds. "That's Oola, actually," Kedrihm'Val corrects her with a dry expression.