The Force Wills - Chapter 152

Our speeder hummed through the skies above Coruscant’s sixth sublevel.

No matter how long I’ve lived on this world, a tiny part of me still cringes at the thought of venturing into the sublevels. The thought of how much sheer mass was suspended above me never failed to produce a frisson of angst in my spine that wouldn’t go away. Level 6 was still well in the ‘secured’ zone of the planet. Law enforcement down here was mostly guardian droids and the occasional organic overseer, but Coruscant Security only went anywhere on this level in large groups for mutual support. Level 6, especially this far from the sky trenches, was therefore a place that could almost be considered the Wild West-lite of the city planet.

Taria kept our course to official air lanes, where security buoys with sensors and auto-turrets hovered in long lanes. Venture too far away from them and you could easily fall prey to swoop gangs, who would like nothing more than to force you down to relieve you of all your possessions, leaving their victims stranded. If they were particularly lucky, they would also be offered a ride back to the surface levels by the gang, for a modest 10k credits or even more. The worst case scenarios didn’t bear thinking about.

We even passed a swoop gang battle at one point. A dozen or more speeders and bikes of every variety visible in the distance, having an aerial duel against each other with blasters.

Finally, after a three hour trip, Taria abruptly pulled us out of the air lane and dove the speeder rapidly.

“Our destination,” she said, her voice calm despite the chaos of the level and laced with an odd weariness. She seemed visibly tired and the healer in me didn’t need to probe her with the Force to know that something was wrong. I could feel her drawing more from the Force to keep herself in tip-top shape, but you could only do so for a certain amount of time without addressing the root cause.

I put that out of my mind for the moment and looked ahead.

It was a sprawling structure set between two of the towering level support pillars.

It stood starkly in undercity gloom, a facade of salvaged starship hulls, restored to perfection in such a way that it looked like their fore sides were just hovering there and ready at any moment to shoot themselves back into the sky. Neon holograms of the female and male variety, human and twi’lek, were writhing in the air around the huge multi-winged building, which spanned an entire block. A number of those holos, while they were ‘basic graphics’ only, clearly showed what the main attraction of this place was. Showing the figures writhing against each other in couples, triples and even an orgy, complete with throaty moans booming through the air.

The name of the establishment hovered in Basic above it all, The Black Nebula.

“Not exactly a place that the Council would approve me bringing you to,” she said dryly and shrugged. “But this is where my contact is, so…”  She took a deep breath and I could feel the Force surge again, her weariness falling off her like a discarded cloak, replaced with a vibrant vitality.

“Are you all right, Arli?” I asked with a frown.

“Oh, don’t you worry about me, Yashah, nothing to be done about it.” She twisted the speeder controls, bringing us down to land right in front of the Black Nebula.

Two huge human bouncers armed with blaster pistols and supported by a well armed gang of gamorreans with force pikes stood guarding the huge entrance.

Our speeder was approached by another huge human with visible cybernetics jutting out from his skull.

Taria opened the transparisteel canopy and hopped out without pause, handing over a speeder keycard and a credit chit.

I followed her lead, easily adopting the body language that this was a place I had no discomfort with, that I belonged here.

The cyborg jumped into our speeder and drove it off into a nearby sublevel to park.

“Relax, Yashah, the owner of the Nebula is very invested his client’s safety, which includes their speeders. Come along.”

We joined a queue for entrance, which was filled with mostly males and a smaller number of females and others, depending on what species you were looking at.

The lead bouncer, with arms as big as my waist, tapped his ear before intently scanning the queue. His eyes sparked with recognition as he saw Taria and he gestured for her to approach.

She grabbed my hand eagerly and led us forward.

“Miss Cetorr, welcome to the Black Nebula,” rumbled the bouncer. “You can go right in. Mr. Ulbac will meet you at the lower bar as soon as he can.”

“Thanks,” she smiled brightly, practically skipping with energy as she pulled me into the club proper.

The first thing to hit me was the wall of music; steady beats, huttese lyrics, and synth backing tracks.

The smell of spice infused smoking was heavy in the air as I regarded a vast open space, with a crowded dance floor, which was overlooked by two floors of balconies with yet more sentients, gathered together around tables, standing or eating. The place was bathed with flashing and strobing spotlights and holos with colors that bled beyond the typical human spectrum. The waitstaff, mostly scantily clad twi’lek and humans with outfits that made future Leia’s slave outfit look modest in comparison, glided through the crowded club on repulsor-skates, serving glowing cocktails that likely promised euphoria or oblivion. I felt the entire place pulsing with a dangerous energy in the Force, teetering constantly towards the dark. Everywhere around us alliances were forged in whispers and violence kept at bay only through fear of greater retribution.

Taria kept a firm hand on mine, leading us through the throng. I could feel her applying the Force very subtly to a variety of sentients, mostly to discourage anyone from copping a feel as we passed.

We stopped in front of an expansive bar, which was being tended by three serving droids running on tracks behind it and a single zeltron woman who fit perfectly in the role of eye candy for the club patrons. She wore a black top that showed impressive cleavage, which barely looked like it could contain her ample bosom and it showed off an expansive well toned abdomen, with clingy synleather pants complimenting the outfit.

The music changed to a deep, thrumming bass, electronic backing and a deep male vocalist singing in throaty huttese. It overwhelmed casual conversation and Taria had to practically shout her order to the zeltron.

“I want a Corellian Nebula Culler and my friend is feeling adventurous tonight, so give her the Shadowport Slicer!”

The zeltron woman nodded and immediately got busy making the drinks as we both settled down into empty barstools.

A few minutes later we had our drinks and I was confronted with a short, squat glass that smoked faintly with chilled CO2 vapor. The drink inside had been made so quickly that I couldn’t really spot what had gone into its mixology, but my nose reported a distinct wood-sweet liquor aroma that had to be Kashyyykan dark rum. The glass also came with a thin slice of blood-orange that floated like a dying star on the surface of the void black liquid inside.

“Arli, am I going to regret drinking this?!” I shouted into her ear.

“Would I do that to you, Yashy?!” she shouted back with a mischievous innocence in her eyes that I didn’t believe for one moment.

I gave her a look of weary sufferance and took a cautious sip.

Immediately I had to use internal Control to prevent myself from coughing.

It was potent as hell and I detected not only the rum but something else, a spice based liquor, which smoothly burned over my tongue and down my throat. The aftertaste also had the flavor of a tarty tarine tea. It was actually… quite good!

“See?!” she asked smugly.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

We settled in our drinks and nursed them to pass the time, only drinking as necessary. The music changed again, this time to something I recognized as a klatoonian singing, which was just heavy grunge screaming to my montrals with heavy drums and electronic synthkeys behind it.

The dance floor seemed to appreciate it, with a lot of jumping, arms in the air and head banging going on.

It was only when a much more pleasant dance track from a twi’leki female singer, that the volume went down to a level where conversation was possible without blowing out your own vocal chords in the process.

“Nice place,” I admitted.

“The owner has literally had to fight a small war to establish it. Keeping it a protected and safe, neutral haven where everyone can let their guard marginally drop.”

“You’d think he’d find an easier spot to open a nightclub then.”

“He could’ve,” Taria smiled. “But then he’d have to obey so many regulations and inspections. He’s just not built like that and… here he is.”

Approaching us from behind the bar was a tall arkanian male, dressed in a tailored black synleather suit that caught the club’s strobing red light like brief flashes of crimson blood. He had milk-white eyes, four fingers on each hand with nasty claws and bone pale skin, marking him as a pureblood of the species. His hair was perfectly styled white locks that fell to his shoulders. For a brief moment, I could imagine I was being approached by a weird alien vampire. A single diamond stud glinted in one ear and he moved with a precise grace.

“Ah, Miss Cetorr, a pleasure to see you again. It’s been a while,” said who I assumed was Mr. Ulbac.

“That it has,” she replied easily.

“If you and your friend will follow me to a much quieter location, we can discuss business there.”

We picked up our drinks and followed Ulbac away from the bar and up a nearby set of stairs, climbing two floors before walking out into a hallway that overlooked the dancefloor on our left.

I could tell just by the people up here and their general demeanour that we were now in the VIP area. There was always just a level of snootiness and swagger that sentients adopted when they felt they were in the ‘exclusive’ parts of a place.

Ulbac waved his hand over a scanner next to a door, which swished open silently.

Beyond was a cosy small room with wall to wall couches and a central table with a holo emitter - which was currently showing a twi’lek exotic dancer going through a routine. It was a place where private parties with no more than ten to twelve people were held.  

He waved his hand and the holo fizzled off.

“Please, have a seat,” he invited, returning to the door. He closed it before fiddling with a control pad.

I sensed an impressive amount of anti-listening and other security devices activating as we lounged back on the couches.

“So, Miss Cetorr, who is your friend?”

“A student, I’m showing her the ropes at my division of CSF,” Taria said smoothly.

Ah, so Ulbac didn’t even know that she was actually a Jedi.

“I see, recruiting them rather young are you?” he smirked, his eyes taking me in from head to toe briefly.

“It helps to catch them young, teaches things before bad habits can be molded that have to be unlearned.”

“True, true, so, what can this old arkanian do for you?”

Taria took a sip from her drink, before throwing a chit containing the DNA code at him.

He caught it without blinking and removed a small datapad from a pocket to slot it into. He frowned at the screen as it displayed the data.

“As nice as it would be to catch up, we’re not here for frivolities. That life code trace belongs to a human woman, professional escort, likely hired for a long term con. She targeted an abyssin maintenance worker, fed him nanodroids. I need to know if she’s on your roster.”

At the mention of nanodroids, his hands tightened on the datapad briefly, before he nodded and began tapping rapidly on it. It didn’t take long and I felt the arkanian’s anger spike dangerously as he undoubtedly had a match.

He sat back and was clearly debating something with himself, “Yes, she’s one of mine, Niri Sytaphe is her name and as far as I was aware, she had no long term con jobs going.” His jaw muscles flexed as he stared at the closed door.

“Oh dear, I’d ask that you refrain from doing anything too permanent to her, we need her able to speak,” Taria grinned at me. “You see Yashah, a con like that is big money.”     

I nodded in understanding, “She was doing it off the books, cutting out the middleman to pocket everything.”

“And this middleman is not impressed,” Ulbac said dangerously.

“Is she working in the club today?” Taria asked.

“A moment,” he swiped on his datapad, referencing schedules. “She’s due to check in for a shift in six hours. However, I doubt she’s going to show. A long term con job like that, I charge minimum 90k credits, which can go up to 150k depending on the client. That’s more than enough for her to relocate offworld and disappear into a new identity, even buy herself her own ship. Not sure about whether she has the skill to pilot, but she could buy an astromech to do it for her. Add in whoever her powerful benefactor is, the one who gave her the nanodroids… She’d be a fool to come back.” He pulled out another datapad, fiddled with it briefly and handed it over to Taria.

It turned out to be his own personnel file on Niri, which was kept as insurance more than anything else.

She was quite attractive, though a huge part of that was the makeup helping, at least in this profile pic; athletic hourglass figure, auburn hair, 1.7m tall, green eyes and pale skin dusted with freckles. It listed her as 32 years old, born on Coruscant Level 2688, Uscru District. She was lucky enough to be given into the creche system that the Coruscant government managed to establish on some of the deeper levels.

“That file is the best I’ve been able to gather. She’s very adept at changing appearance and identities, but at least with how I knew her, that’s how she presented herself to me and the rest of the staff.”

“We’re reasonably quick on her trail, it may be that she’s not in a hurry, confident she could disappear into Coruscant’s levels. She may show up,” I opined carefully. The current probability line actually showed her arriving at the club in four hours. Ulbac would have his bouncers immediately try to apprehend her and it’d end up in a rather thrilling chase. Sytaphe was as slippery as an eel and would evade them quite easily. If Taria and I joined in, we’d end up easily catching up and one Force Sleep later we’d have her in custody. It would expose us as Jedi to Ulbac and burn him as Taria’s contact.  

“Maybe,” Ulbac acknowledged. 

“Perhaps we can also lure her into a trap here. Let her into the club, you present a normal front, she goes about her day and then we stun her from behind,” I suggested further.

He gave me a long look, then narrowed his eyes at Taria. “Well, that would certainly be one way to do it, but we must first talk about my… compensation for helping you with this.”

She chuckled, “How much?”     

“45-”

“Ridiculous,” retorted Taria immediately, narrowing her eyes dangerously. “You may get away with taking 30% from your companion girls, but I’m not not one of them, Ulbac.” 

He scowled in response, “Fine, 35.”

“I still have a direct contact with the Arkanian Dominion, Ulbec,” she threatened mildly.

A weary sigh was his response, “25.”

“15.”

“20.”

“Deal,” Taria smirked and without fanfare threw a programmable credit chit from her pocket to him.

He caught it and rolled his eyes as he checked the amount of money on it. “I’ll begin making arrangements among my staff. Consider your tab tonight on the house.”

“Thank you, Ulbec,” she nodded.

The arkanian waved her thanks off and left without further word.

“So I’m curious, what blackmail do you have on him?” I grinned after the door closed.

“Many years ago, I was tracking down a rogue Arkanian scientist who had managed to get his hands on Jedi life code samples in dangerously large quantities. Enough to attempt all manner of experiments and even cloning. That scientist was Ulbec’s younger brother and while it wasn’t his idea precisely, he did aid his brother in the scheme. I saw… potential in Ulbec, and didn’t turn him in along with his younger brother. I let Ulbec walk away and he in turn fled into Coruscant’s underworld to avoid the anger of their government - who take a dim view of any scientists who go rogue.”

“And he in turn built an entertainment empire down here.”

She nodded, “Don’t let the looks fool you. It’s also a facade that lets him experiment in genetics and cybernetics. Most of which would see him arrested if he had tried it just two levels higher. Every staff member has been ‘adjusted’ for their role here.”

I leaned forward, putting my empty cocktail glass down, casually brushing my hand ‘accidentally’ as I sat back along Taria’s shoulder and rested my left arm along the couch’s backrest. The Bond settled with some difficulty, but that was mostly because Taria initially resisted it.

‘All that and he doesn’t know you're a Jedi?’

‘No, I passed myself as someone assigned by the CSF to the Order as a consultant. If I pursued them openly as a Jedi, their desperation to evade me would’ve led them to undertake rather catastrophic means to resist. Ulbec’s younger brother was also quite adept at viral engineering and they certainly had the means to create a weapon to use as leverage and bargaining power. Sometimes the Jedi Order’s reputation can get in the way of our work. You must be ready to shed your primary identity, means and ways in a heartbeat, Ahsoka.’

‘One thing I’m curious about. You were rather certain that we would find our target here. How did you know?’

‘A suspicion and one which I was hoping would prove false. As a Shadow, you must learn to shed all naivety and consider all paths and suspects, even if they point to your fellow Jedi. You must be ready to one day take on a mission to hunt down a fallen brother or sister.’

My outer masks managed to show a convincing level of surprise. ‘You think another Jedi is behind the bombing.’

She gave me a wry look, showing I hadn’t succeeded in fooling her. ‘Ahsoka, do give me more credit. I know you’ve made the same conclusion already. With the level of discontent in the Order to the role the Senate has dumped on our shoulders, I’m more surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. Someone among us in the Temple has fallen, not to the Dark Side completely, not yet at least, but have decided enough is enough. They see no recourse and believe that approaching the Council openly with objection would be pointless and futile. So they have spoken in the language that they believe the Council would have no choice but to respond to - violence and blood.’

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My minor suggestion to Ulbec resulted in Niri Sytaphe's apprehension without much drama at all.

His idea was to send her straight to our VIP room and perform a private dance, with the option of going further, for a pair of very wealthy high-rollers from the surface, who were very loose with their credits.

The woman’s greed led her straight to us.

Rather awkwardly, Taria let Niri dance her complete strip tease on the table and both our laps.

I had to admit, in terms of raw appeal and sensuality, especially when she was performing her dance, Niri was easily a nine out of ten. I could sense in her biology the genengineering that had been done. Her breasts were perfection, high end Ds with a sharp perkiness that looked like they could stab someone and I couldn’t help my hands grabbing both softly to give a brief massage, which she let me do before coyly pulling back in a teasing fashion. There was also something in her fingers that I had only caught a glimpse of.

She sent more attention to Taria than me, which I could somewhat understand. I was visibly the younger and it was a safe assumption that Taria would be the richer or more important between us.

It was only when Niri was straddling Taria and in a complete liplock that our trap was sprung.

The small holdout blaster pistol that she produced from somewhere, was angled straight into Niri’s back from behind, before the blue rings of two stun bolts hit her.

Taria’s Tutaminis easily shrugged away the residual bleed through.

“Was there a reason you let her do that?” I asked, calming my inner frustration and a considerable amount of energy in my lower regions.

“We might be CSF, but we are not heartless. She’s going away for a long time.” ‘I had to also see how you respond in such a situation. In the future, going undercover, you might need to use your sexuality as a tool or even a weapon to achieve an objective. It’s not something I’ve often done myself, but the option must be there in our toolkit.’

She stood carefully, carrying the insensate woman under the arms briefly before dumping her on the couch. “Gather her clothes, we can’t exactly carry her out in only her skin.”

“And we can carry her outside without suspicion?”

“Ulbec has made arrangements. We’ll be escorted by a pair of his bodyguards directly to our speeder in the landing lot using staff access routes.”

The two bodyguards arrived barely a minute later, humans who stood well over two meters in height and one of them had complete cybernetic arms.

“Follow,” said the cyborg in a deep artificial tone.

I ended up slinging Sytaphe over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and Taria followed behind me as I walked in the massive wake of the bodyguards.

Thankfully, in the few public areas we were forced to walk through, the people there didn’t bat an eye at us. Showing one of the key rules for survival in the Coruscant underworld - if you saw something suspicious, alarming or even a fight - you ignore it and move on.

We were led through a security door and passed into a veritable labyrinth of controlled access passages and side doors built into the nightclub’s main structure that were meant for employees only. They would also be very handy for Ulbec’s security if they ever had to fight off a determined invader looking to take over the place.

Our XP-18 was waiting for us in a sublevel lot, parked among six other speeders of varying styles and quality.

I dumped Sytaphe’s unconscious form in the middle seat and secured her with cuffs and seatbelts that Taria threw to me.

“Mr. Ulbec wants a word before you leave,” declared the cyborg and pointed his palm to the side. The arkanian’s holoform shimmered into transparent existence.

“Miss Cetorr, thank you for your business and ridding me of many potential future headaches. I’ve already discovered that Sytaphe had a number of other schemes in the works and are busy dealing with them.”

“You’re welcome, Ulbec.”

“Be careful with that one, don’t give her a centimeter of opportunity. She’ll make you regret it swiftly.”

“Did you happen to install any cybernetic or genetic surprises we should be on the lookout for?”

He shook his head, “She only received a genegineering package and improvements to her performance and efficiency with clients. Of course, I can only attest to what was done on my end. She may have independently acquired other enhancements, which are available even on this level, but are nowhere near my quality. So I suggest you put her through a thorough scan before you let her regain consciousness.”

“We’ll do so. Thanks again, Ulbec.”

“Safe flight, Cetorr. Do call again.”

The holo vanished and the bodyguards left without further word.

“Off we go, Yashah.”

We hopped in and Taria carefully guided the XP18 out of its landing slot.

Navigating the landing lot itself was fairly straightforward, Ulbec having thoughtfully used standard signage around the multilevel lot.

Soon enough we were blasting upward and away from the Black Nebula, angling towards the nearby sky lane.

Taria settled us into a cruising speed, “Do we have anything to truly worry about, Ahsoka?”

“I gave her biology a thorough look whilst carrying her, it’s mostly as Ulbec said, except for her forefingers. Each has a small injector in the tips that can carry any number of payloads. It took me a while to figure those out, but one of them is definitely a potent neurotoxin that’s powerful enough to stop anyone’s heart in seconds.”

“Do keep a close eye on her, the stun from this holdout blaster is only rated for about eighty minutes of unconsciousness.”

“I’ll put a Force Sleep on her the instant I sense it wearing off.”

It was only 27 odd minutes into our flight when I twitched as the future probability lines shifted.

“I sense it too,” Taria declared grimly as the Force screamed in warning.

The skylane buoys ahead of us, for nearly as far as we could see, powered down and fell towards the city floor below.

She abruptly twisted on the steering yoke and slammed on the pedal for instant acceleration that pushed me back into my seat.

The XP18 rolled and banked left, avoiding a fusilade of orange blaster fire coming from below.

I immediately sensed the hostile intent of nineteen sentients, in ten rapidly moving clusters.

“Shabla! A frakking swoop gang,” I grimaced, bracing myself against the canopy as Taria threw us into another tight evasive turn and roll.

It was very tempting to ask the stupid question of just how they had managed to hack and disable the buoys.

The skylane had already devolved into chaos as dozens of other speeders panicked and either scattered or stubbornly kept their course.

Now we also had that mess to worry about, dodging around other speeders that strayed into our evasive maneuvers.

“If we want to fight back, we’re going to need to lose the canopy,” I pointed out calmly.

The actual question I was posing to my teacher was whether we were still keeping our cover. Ulbec and many others on this level would undoubtedly be investigating this unprecedented breach of status quo.

Taria’s answer was to toss me her blaster and press a button on the speeder control panel.

We were momentarily hit in the face with blistering winds before the XP18s small emergency forward deflector came online.

“Ouch,” I said wryly, aimed and fired two shots above and to my right.

The deflection shots slammed right into an attacking swoop bike’s belly, hitting something vital enough that it instantly became a fireball of exploding volatile fuel, taking two of our attackers with it.

In the next moment, I shot once straight upward, aimed left, my hand right under Taria’s chin and sent another bolt of plasma straight left.

Another swoop exploded above us, raining debris and two ganger’s worth mangled body parts down, whilst the other shot clipped straight into the side of a swoop biker, sending him tumbling off to die.

The gang was not impressed, their fear and anger soaring at the death of their fellows.

Their fire rate doubled and whilst Taria was keeping up, the collateral damage of the missed shots was taking their toll.

I felt three innocent deaths in a single moment as a speeder we had raced past exploded.

And yet more deaths as panicking speeder pilots had mid-air collisions to avoid the battle.

“Slightly less perfect shots, my student!” Taria shouted as she twisted the controls left and abruptly applied a bit of air brakes.   

“Sorry!” I winced, as three swoop bikes passed us as they overcooked their speed in trying to stay on our tail.

I let loose with a spray of bolts as fast as my finger could naturally squeeze, sweeping my aim left to right.

Eight shots vanished into the distance, but four found their targets.

One slamming into the back of a rider, another just sparking off the tail of the bike, whilst the next two managed to disable the rear repulsorlift and send them careening out of control into a passing building. The volatile swoop crumpled and exploded, the transparisteel just barely managing to hold, but cracking the entire facade.

It didn’t help that all these swoops were custom kit jobs, usually made as a patchwork of scavenged parts that barely functioned or in some cases worked too well. Yet all of them featured some form of large blaster mounted under their noses. The XP18 could maybe take one hit, but not a second from them.

I jumped onto my seat, standing on my knees, aiming backward at two more swoops sliding onto our tail.

More plasma bolt fire sprayed from my blaster, but I managed to land my shots directly into the chests of the enemy.

They slipped off or slumped forward on their bikes, spiraling out of control to crash into the streets blurring by underneath us.

“Hang on!”

I barely ducked down in time to secure myself as we jinked left then right, which smoothly flowed into a barrel roll.

The world had barely righted itself when three swoop bikes angled into us, each of them had a passenger behind the rider and their own blaster pistols, all of whom were aiming for me.

Taria pulled up immediately and the bolts missed underneath us.

The swoops tried to match and regain a bead on me, but my blaster was already up and shooting a spray of shots.

The bikes tried to scatter, but only ended up dodging straight into some of my ‘lucky’ deflection shots.

One bike blew up, whilst the other two suffered a case of dead pilot.

A ganger managed to throw off his dead comrade, hopping forward to grab the controls.

The other failed utterly and ended up in a mid-air splat with a passing cargo speeder. 

“We need to take this fight away from the sky lane!” I shouted after firing off another spray of shots that I missed intentionally but at least caused those three swoops to veer off.

“These swoop gangers know what they are doing, my student, as much as I am evading, they keep herding us in!”

We jinked up, right and then slalomed so quickly around the other speeders in our path, in a feat of flying that made me want to snark about supernatural Jedi reflexes and the minor bit of hypocrisy.

Instead I kept shooting.

It was only as I killed two more swoops that I sensed their bloodlust had passed the threshold of turning into self-preservation instead.

The survivors pulled away and blasted off at top speed.

Taria stabilized our flight and rejoined the sky lane properly, she shook her head and mumbled something under her breath.

“Something the matter?” I asked with a frown.  

“The last time I had an outright speeder chase and fight, I was a padawan. Now, barely a few weeks into teaching you we have this!” She grumbled, waving her hand in annoyance around her. “I guess the rumors are true then. You and your master are trouble magnets!”

I could only shrug helplessly with a ‘what can I do about it?’ expression and a sheepish smile.

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A contingent of Clones and Temple Guard led by Master Windu awaited us in the Temple Speeder bay as we came in to land.

“Is this your suspect?” he asked cooly, not even batting an eye at the provocative clothing Sytaphe wore.

“She is, Master Windu,” Taria confirmed, letting me do the work of levitating the woman onto a floating medical gurney that was waiting between the Guardsmen. “She needs a medical procedure before we can safely wake her.”

“All the preparations have been made,” he nodded. “Escort the suspect to the Halls of Healing immediately. No one beyond the specially designated medical personnel are cleared to interact with her. Detain any who try.”

The lead guardsman bowed and personally took charge of the gurney, leading it out of the hangar. I noted that we were completely alone in the entire space, even the local security and surveillance was on the fritz - good.

“Master Damsin, how certain are you of all this?” Windu frowned severely.

“As certain as anyone can be. Direct evidence all points to our suspect and her interrogation will no doubt be very enlightening. Yet, two facts remain unresolved and lead us straight back to the Temple. How did Sytaphe gain access to highly regulated and policed nanodroids of that caliber and how were they reprogrammed? Those skills and knowledge don’t just exist on the Holonet for anyone to learn. Her profile indicates she’s a skilled and very successful con artist and pleasure girl, who spent her entire life in the Coruscant underworld. She may have swindled the droids from someone with access, but all those scientists and engineers are also watched very closely by the relevant authorities. I doubt their vigilance has lapsed in this case, though we must investigate that path anyway. The most likely path for these nanodroids to end up in her hands is she was given them by someone who already has access.

“Fact two, someone disabled the security buoys on a level 6 sky lane, just as Ahsoka and I were flying through it with our suspect. We were also immediately attacked by a swoop gang. That implies that Sytaphe was under remote surveillance by whoever had given her the nanodroids. Who would have access and slicing capabilities to disable Coruscant public infrastructure in that manner? Who would have the resources to bribe or hire a swoop gang to prevent our suspect from reaching the Temple?”

Windu folded his arms, “There is only one group that fits that profile in terms of capabilities, the local cell of Separatists.”

“Incorrect, there are two,” Taria disagreed, staring flatly at her fellow master.

Windu stared at her for a few moments before sighing and looking down, “A Jedi.”

Taria nodded, “My current reading of the intent behind this bomb indicates that it was one of our own.”

“Can you actually prove it?”

“I’m already in the process of doing that,” she gestured toward the inner doors.

“You believe, if it’s a Jedi, they will try to silence Sytaphe again.”

“And I have taken independent measures to keep a close eye on her within the Temple walls. If our traitor makes a move, I will know.”

“Very well. On behalf of the Council, you may proceed. It’s imperative that the truth behind all this be found soon. There are indications that the Senate Loyalist committee will have a meeting soon to decide whether the military police should become involved in the investigation.”

The formation of such an agency by the Senate was something I had kept a sharp eye on these past few months. With the clone trooper numbers growing and their greater role in security operations on Coruscant and other Core Worlds, it was inevitable that there would have to be a police force to investigate and prosecute accidents and misbehavior from clone troopers. As much as clones obeyed orders, they still had initiative and ‘free will’ within their rigid structures and nothing was perfect. As clones and civilians interacted, there was also more potential for criminal elements to prey on them.

I shook my head, “The military police are extremely new, cobbled together from clones whose divisions have been disbanded and being overseen by retired CSF investigators and analysis droids. Them coming on board will just complicate things unnecessarily, master.”   

“I understand the problem, padawan. Nevertheless we must see things from their point of view. Maintenance clones working on the gunships and civilians died in the explosion as well as Jedi. While it happening within the Temple gives the Jedi Order primary jurisdiction, if we don’t produce results quickly enough…”

“They may think we need more help and they’re probably eager to show a need for the military police with a high profile case they can show off to everyone,” I sighed wearily.

“Precisely,” he said with a look of approval.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, Master Windu, my student and I have a sting operation to get to,” Taria and I bowed to him and hurried out of the hangar.

‘Do you have Sytaphe?’ she thought to me, as we walked along the corridor.

‘I have her completely focused with my farsight. No one is getting close to her or doing anything without me seeing it. Interesting bit of misdirection you gave to Master Windu,’ I projected my amusement to her.

‘While I highly doubt he is the bomber, at this point we can’t afford to rule anyone out. He may have agreed to disable the security sensors at my suggestion on our flight back, but he could just as well have done so to play along.’

‘Is this the Shadow mindset? Are we even suspecting Master Yoda?’

‘In this situation, yes. No one is infallible. Not you, not me, not the grandmaster. Until we know or have proof for certain, we must not let any bias cloud our thoughts.’

And I just couldn’t help myself, ‘What about me or you? How do I know you’re not the bomber, Taria? I just recently dealt with brainwashing incidents on Mandalore. How do you know it’s not me?’

‘Oh, I’m watching you very closely, Ahsoka. Your master is also in the background. That is all I will say. In the Jedi Shadows, we call it the Web of Suspicion. When an investigation like this starts, you bring in multiple players who stay in the shadows and watches. Ready to intervene, should it prove necessary.’ 

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It was late evening and I was in meditation in my Temple quarters, keeping a distant watch on Sytaphe as she was kept unconscious after her surgery to remove the weapons in her fingers. She had her own private secure room in the Halls of Healing, guarded by a rotating shift of Temple Guard and Clone security.

So far no one had made any suspicious move or approach, not even during the surgery, when she was technically the most vulnerable to being messed with. I could think of a dozen ways to slice and hack the medical equipment to cause an ‘accident’. Yet, our bomber hadn’t taken the bait so far.

My encrypted datapad chirping for attention brought me out of it.

A few authorizations, passwords and phrases later and I was in the Fulcrum network and a priority live chat message from Asajj Ventress demanded attention. It was interesting that now, through even this tenuous connection, I could feel the annoyance practically radiating off the datapad.

‘Are you available to proxy to Dathomir?’

That was easy to answer. ‘No. Delicate situation unfolding with regard to the enemy at the moment. Why?’

‘We captured a Jedi Master who was trying to track me down. Quinlan Vos.’

What the frak? My mind raced as I recalled Master Yoda’s mention of said Jedi Master going undercover, but why would that require hunting Asajj?

‘Tell your Mother I thank her for her restraint in not simply killing him.’

‘I will. She would prefer him alive to interrogate anyway. Do you have any idea as to his mission or goal?’

With the Shroud in the way, I couldn’t actively take probability paths that far. I could only fall back on my wits, deduction and knowledge of another timeline.

‘Just to confirm, he didn’t try to kill you?’

‘No. He actually just wanted to talk. I was outside the mountain-fortress on an errand at the time. Trapped him in illusions then knocked him out.’

I could sense there was much, much more to that story, though it was technically true.

‘He’s there to technically recruit you for a mission, as far as I’m aware.’

‘What mission?’

‘What knowledge would only you have, Asajj? What unique qualification do you possess that would interest the Jedi Council?’ I prompted her.

The delay in any response was very telling. ‘Dooku.’

‘You know much of his operations around CIS space, including his homes on Raxus and Serenno. You have a distinct grudge and interest in seeing Dooku dead. And it so happens, so does the Jedi Council now, especially after the CIS’ orbital bombardment of Mahranee a few weeks ago.’

It was an entirely disgusting affair and while it had been decried by the Senate and the general public for days. The Mahran slaughter had soon become just another tragedy belonging to the last news cycle. For a while, the CIS had even thrown their propaganda out that it was entirely justified because the mahran were xenocidal. Hostile beings who delighted in using their natural stinger to kill any non-mahran or outsider.

It was naturally a complete lie, since while the furry mahran had such a stinger filled with lethal venom in one of their arms. They had a natural caveat to using it - the venom would also end up killing the mahran doing it - just like a honey bee.

In the end, anyone who did the most modicum of basic research could tell the entire thing was just a plain resource grab as Mahranee had significant deposits of many strategic minerals. 

‘I must admit, I’m surprised at the Jedi Council. What happened to ‘all life is sacred’ and all the other philosophies they preach?’ Her derision was palpable.

‘Guilt, the cold orbital slaughter of a few billion sentients was the final straw. Remember Dooku was one of the Council, he was Yoda’s own padawan. Before this, the Council had been all for just capturing Dooku and rehabilitation, but now, the general public won’t stand for it. Too much blood has been spilled.’

‘So if I kill Dooku, I’d become a galactic hero? HA!’ I could feel her cackling with amusement.

‘There is only a very small chance, if you and Vos unite your efforts, that you may achieve the true goal that the Council has.’

‘I hate it when you do this, Fulcrum. Speak plainly!’

I chuckled as I perceived her fuming over her datapad in her personal quarters in the Nightsister fortress. ‘Vos has the intention of killing Dooku, he will take the opportunity, but Yoda knows the chances are very slim. The true goal is actually to have Vos ‘infiltrate’, to fall to the Dark Side and become an apprentice. Once there, he will attempt to find anything on Dooku’s master. Yoda understands that Dooku is merely a symptom and the true source of what ails the galaxy is the enemy.’

Asajj was quite understandably astonished and even impressed. ‘I must say, Fulcrum, that I’d never expected Yoda to be capable of that level of deception. He must really be confident in Vos. The Dark Side is not something that you can just shrug off like a disguise.’

‘I know, and that is perhaps another reason Vos is seeking you out. Anyway, my advice is to keep Vos imprisoned for the moment. Tell your Mother, a single word - ‘Shroud’. She will understand.’

‘I will, but are you not going to tell me that I shouldn’t jump on this opportunity to kill Dooku?’

‘No, because you and I both know it’s not going to work. You know how strong he is and I’ve told you about my last fight with him. Do you think anything you’ve learned in just the last year will make a difference? Especially now that Savage is also there, who will have no compunctions about killing you or Vos to maintain his cover?’

Asajj didn’t answer and just cursed a long string of Dathomiri words I couldn’t understand before cutting the chat link.

My attention was drawn to a non-priority notification from HK-47 that had popped up in the background during my chat.

‘Statement: Mission success, master. Exfiltrating now.’

“Shabla, bloody droid,” I cursed, even as I suppressed the urge to jump for joy and dance a jig.

This was just the beginning. It was a small victory only, and it would depend on what intel we manage to snag over the next few months.

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Early the next morning I made my way down to the Temple Detention level.

It was technically my first visit down here in person, whilst I generally knew the layout and what it featured.

It was a deeper sublevel of the temple that had been reclaimed and refurbished to house the fallen Jedi rescued from the Citadel. It was a dungeon in all but name and yet to my eyes looked like I had just entered a very bright slice of Tapioca City on Kamino. White-gray walls, lots of transparisteel, rounded architecture - whoever had built this for the Jedi had clearly taken inspiration from Kaminoan design.

There was also a lot of energy coursing through the walls and ceilings, fragmenting or outright stopping my perceptions through the Force.

“Good morning, Ahsoka,” Taria was waiting for me at the main entrance checkpoint, which was manned by a duo of Temple Guardsmen.   

“Morning Taria, is she ready?”

“Yes, and we need to hurry. Word just came that the GAR is pushing to have her transferred to their custody. The Council is stalling them, but I have a feeling that even the Chancellor may become involved in this.”

The doors hissed open before us, with numerous shimmering blue force fields behind it shutting down.

Another Guardsman was waiting for us on the other side, who escorted us further through a labyrinth of bright corridors with no visual markings or guides. Only someone Force sensitive would be able to perceive the symbology weaved out of energy inside the walls themselves. Those symbols were also a code that only the guardsmen and women assigned down here learned.

Finally, we stopped by a nondescript section of bright wall, which slid open to reveal a door.

Beyond was an anteroom with a huge one-way mirror wall, which showed every inch of a holding cell in which a very miserable Niri Sytaphe, wearing a black jumpsuit, sat huddled in a corner on the small bed.

Taria walked over to the control panel near the edge of the mirror wall and a single tap of the button reversed the polarization. 

Sytaphe was startled as she first saw us, before laughing ruefully. “Didn’t figure you Jedi for being the infiltration type. You both rather enjoyed the show I put on for you.”

Taria folded her hands into the sleeves of her robes, “In truth, you were quite delightful, Sytaphe. Even my student will attest to that. You are very good at your craft.”

“In the lower levels, it’s what I had to do to literally survive. Nothing you surface dwellers would really understand. My whole life I’ve had to do things you wouldn’t believe for the goal to get myself off this cursed planet on my own terms.”

As casually as possible, I walked over to the control panel as well and lowered the mirror wall entirely.

“What are you doing?”

“There is little point in it,” I said airily, even as I walked forward with an easy smile on my face. Thankfully, Taria followed my lead.

‘Ahsoka?’ The Jedi Master was a step behind me.

‘A moment of trust, Taria.’

“My name is Padawan Ahsoka Tano, this is Master Taria Damsin. We’re here to talk about the client who hired you to perform the seduction of Dilen Rhorn and feed him nanodroids.”

Sytaphe nodded, “Not much else it could be. What gave me away? Must have left something behind.”

“As diligent and clean as you attempted to be,” Taria answered serenely. “We found a small number of your skin cells left behind in the closet. You can’t exactly live for months on end in that place in a hermetically sealed suit, can you?”

“Kriffing spire-rat hells, must’ve missed a spot with the vacuum,” she groused in annoyance. “So if you want me to betray my client, I’m going to need-”

She was interrupted by me blurring with speed toward her, my arms pulling her in and hugging her - I extended my Control of the Force around her…

Just in time to stop the invisible fingers of a remote Force Choke that wanted to utterly crush her throat.

Taria was immediately on the ball, also having perceived it. Not letting her disbelief that anyone could manage this get in the way. Her lightsaber was lit and thrown, spinning towards the main visual sensor in the room.

At that moment the Force Choke pulled back and tried again, this time with me as the target.

Big mistake.

My own Control soared, overpowering it and my perceptions surged along the hostile Force energy.

Taria’s lightsaber hit, destroying the sensor with a shower of sparks that also cut a fair bit of the wall. She sent it spinning towards the secondary and tertiary redundant sensors in the room.

It took but a few seconds, but that was an eternity in the battle I found myself in.

There was definitely a Jedi on the other end, one wracked with grief, anger and spiraling towards hatred and contempt. How she was keeping herself hidden and not broadcasting her fall to the entire Temple was a question I’d dearly love an answer to.

She fought through the Force to keep me at bay, using her nascent and rising power, gathered for the moment.

She was strong, experienced, but I gathered my own considerable strength and practically bullied my way through.

The last two sensors died and the link faded away.

Emergency alarms were ringing in my montrals as I came back to my body.

Taria caught her saber before extinguishing the yellow blade, “Ahsoka, did you get them?”

“I managed to catch a glimpse of her face and location. We need to go… now.”

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A/N: So, just who could it be? Ha ha ha ;-) Sorry, but I ran out of time and had to end it there. The only further clue I will give, is that it's a Legends character. I just love Coruscant's underworld, it's such a great potential story sandbox. It makes me despair that the old Star Wars 1313 game concept didn't make it out of dev hell.

Enjoy the weekend and stay awesome folks.