A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...




It is more than five centuries prior to the birth of the one prophesized to bring balance to the Force. The Old Republic, grown fat and comfortable after a long period of peace, totters on the brink of civil war. Some senators, full of idealistic zeal, call for change, only to find themselves branded as radical seperatists. Less scrupulous individuals, seeing the opportunity to advance their own positions, back these so-called seperatists, and heavy rhetoric fills the air. The Senate is ineffective, crushed beneath its own weight, as enemies both without and within plot to remake the Republic in their own image.

Conflict has broken out between seperatist and loyalist forces, but to date, these conflicts have been mainly isolated skirmishes restricted to the outer rim. Even so, tensions run higher than ever before, and it seems but a matter of time before concrete battle lines are drawn, sides are chosen, and full scale war begins.

Meanwhile, the Duro passenger vessel Kul Kura makes her way toward an inner rim world carrying not only passengers, but a secret cache of illegal spice. Thom Dulo, the captain, is cunning and successful at what he does, but this is the day that his misdeeds finally catch up to him...

From his place on the Kul Kura's bridge, Mercury watched the dark gray viewscreen of hyperspace transition first to glowing rivlets of light before settling into a familiar starscape. His time aboard the Duro vessel had given him this experience a few times already, but so far, it had yet to grow old. This time, he had been allowed to sit at the promary sensor station as they arrived in system, and was feeling very important.

He glanced down at his terminal. "All clear, cap... wait." the young man bit off his routine report. "Captain, there's another vessel very near and closing fast!"

Duros do not possess facial features capable of expressions readable by most other humanoids, so it was impossible to read the look on Captain Dulo's face. Even so, there was no mistaking the tension in his voice. "Increase speed," he ordered. "Get us to the planet!"

The Tanaab system was a backwater inner rim world with few resources, one that the republic just didn't see necessary to divert much military power to. As a result, pirate raids and such were common. Everyone on the bridge knew this fact, and the tension level on the bridge grew quickly.

Unfortunately, the Kul Kura was a transport vessel, lightly armed and not overly maneuverable. The chances of reaching the relative safety of the planet itself was not overly high, and everyone knew it. Still, they wouldn't just sit here and hope for the mercy of these marauders. As confirmtion of their intent the other vessel fired a warning shot off to port.

They were not yet in range, but at the rate of closing, it wouldn't be long.

"Full power!" the transport's commanding officer odered. "Try to raise communications with Tanaab's defnese fleet." He keyed the intercom to the engine room. "Get me as much power as you can spare!" he barked.

Another Duro activated a distress signal, and the civilian crew hurried to obey the captain's wishes. The Duro, a male by the name of Kola, looked up a moment later. "Captain," he reported, "they are asking to speak with you."

One of the viewscreens flared to life to review a nasty-looking human with a bdly scarred face. "Dulo," he spoke, "Pulda the Hutt sends his regards. He is not happy to see that you did not accept his offer concerning your sideline spice business. He will, however, take your ship and your life as payment."

Chcukling, the man cut the comm feed.

******************

In the engine room, a goggled human male suggested minor alterations. "Damnit, Ziv, I don't have time for this!" scowled Lana, the Kul Kura's chief engineer, mechanic, and mistress of odd jobs.

"Lana, I know, but if you bypass these relays," he indicated them. "you'll get a little more power for the next ten minutes or so."

"And burn them out!" she retorted angrily.

"And maybe stay alive longer," Ziv answered with a grin.

Lana blew out her breath, momentarily moving her bangs out of her eyes, but nodded. "Do it."

********************

In the main passenger berths sat a quiet, introspective man. While he may not have noticed the subtle increase n the engines' hum, and certainly did not feel the added speed, he had been aware of the crew's anxiety for several minutes now. There came The slightest sound of a footstep, and he turned to face another passenger.

The blue-skinned twi'lek started slightly at the blind man's quick reaction - for surely he was blind. Dime had met this man several times during the passage, and had never seen him remove the scarf that covered where a human's eyes should be. Even so, the man always seemd to know exactly where he and everything else round him was.

"The crew is nervous," the blind man stated calmly.

"They should be," the twi'lek responded. "Looks like a pirate vessel is chasing us; they're trying to make it to Tanaab before they catch us."

If the blind man felt any concern, he did not show it.

Instead, he merely nodded. "That would explain it, then."

********************

Ziv's idea has worked, and for a few minutes, they not only held the distance between the two ships, but even increaed the gap. The crew bgan to allow themselves to hope that they would escape.

And then, the relays blew, smoke filled the engine room, and the engines stopped functioning.

"Damn you to the foulest hells, Ziv!" Lana screamed as she struggled to get the engines operational once more.

"I knew I shouldn't have listened to you!" He paled, but before he could respond, the ship rocked with the impact of a lucky shot.

It wouldn't matter much longer.

********************


Just as Captain Dulo was preparing to surrender, three new blips appered on the sensor screen. "Three more vessels," Mercury reported with a dry mouth, "one medium duty DR-400, two AT-150 fighters." Old, but serviceable.
The comm channel sparked to life. "This is Commander Albari of the Tanaab defense fleet. Both vessels, you are ordered to hold your positions!"

The Kul Kura, lacking the ability to disobey, complied; shockingly, so did the incoming pirate ship.

Almost as shocking, however, was the next transmission from the TDF. "Captain Dulo, you are hereby under arrest for illegal distribution of spice, intended distributon of spice, unlawful possession of spice, and arms smuggling. Prepare to be boarded."

Mercury wiped his nose with his sleeve, his eyes darting on the array of instruments on the Primary Sensor Console. What first was nothing but the emptiness of the expanse of space became more claustrophobic when the EMC Display began to show the blue outline of an oncoming vessel. The outline of the blue ship rotated in a lighter blue haze that pulsed back and forth; numerical characters and indicators began to measure speed and size.

He glanced down at his terminal. "All clear, cap... wait." the young man bit off his routine report. "Captain, there's another vessel very near and closing fast!"
There was no answer from behind him at the COMM console. No surprise really, and perhaps for the best becase when Captain Dulo spoke Basic he was rather hard to understand anyway. Mercury gave the captain a look.

"Increase speed," he ordered. "Get us to the planet!"
Tebbo Huun was at the helm, and Mercury was somewhat envious; he loved pilotng when he had the chance, but it was apparent the Duros were not about to let him take over when there was trouble. Still, the feel of the drive's thrusters would be good through the main throttle, Mercury thought. It had to be pirates - who else would be attacking them out in the Tanaab system?

Mercury rubbed his nose. Being a transporter, they had little in the way of overt weaponry and could be easy prey for pirates. All considerations that the oncoming vessel was friendly dissipated when there was a shot off the Kul Kuura's port bow.

"Full power!" the transport's commanding officer odered. "Try to raise communications with Tanaab's defnese fleet." He keyed the intercom to the engine room. "Get me as much power as you can spare!" he barked.
Kola Dulo, the captain's brother, activated a distress signal, and the civilian crew hurried to obey the captain's wishes. "Captain," Kola reported, "they are asking to speak with you."
One of the viewscreens flared to life to review a nasty-looking human with a badly scarred face. "Dulo," he spoke, "Pulda the Hutt sends his regards. He is not happy to see that you did not accept his offer concerning your sideline spice business. He will, however, take your ship and your life as payment." Chcukling, the man cut the comm feed.
"A Hutt?" Shot Mercury. That's all they needed: to be either boarded and taken as slaves or be blown to spacedust. He gave a thought about the limited ship's gunnery because he didn't want to be taken without a fight. "Captain?"

It appeared to Mercury that Captain Dulo was contemplating surrendering. The young Corellian scratched his head, thinking about the blaster he had in his locker and how far he might get with it if they were boarded. Suddenly there was a whirring alarm from the console and Mercury checked.

"Three more vessels," Mercury reported with a dry mouth, "one medium duty DR-400, two AT-150 fighters." Old, but serviceable. It made him want to cry - but the new ships could only be security forces.

The comm channel sparked to life. "This is Commander Albari of the Tanaab defense fleet. Both vessels, you are ordered to hold your positions!"
That will do it, Mercury hoped. Captain Dulo ordered his brother to immediately stand down, and Mercury was surprised when it appeared the stance of the pirate vessel did as well. Maybe the Tanaab Defense Force had more pull than he once believed ...

"Captain Dulo, you are hereby under arrest for illegal distribution of spice, intended distributon of spice, unlawful possession of spice, and arms smuggling. Prepare to be boarded."
Mercury scratched his head. The Duros were smuggling contraband? Oh - this was just great - great. Yet ... no ... he wouldn't believe it. There were some tubs and crates hidden in the aft hold but ... spice?

Well. Force cage time, no doubt ...

Disquiet.

Tension.

Fear.

All of these things assailed the young padawan’s perceptions as he sat in the passenger berth of the Kul Kura. The emotions seemed to ripple from a greater majority of the sentients on board the Tanaab-bound transport but flowed the strongest from the crew. Amongst the passengers, it seemed, annoyance, aggravation, and uncertainty were more predominant than anything else - at least until the transport was rocked by what Caise imagined must have been a shot from one of the pursuing pirate vessel’s blaster cannon. A wave of anxious fear crashed over a number of the passengers at that point, as well and, for a moment, Caise felt himself unbalanced by the sudden emotional spike in the Force.

There is no emotion, he reminded himself as he drew in a long, slow breath, attempting to refocus his thoughts. There is only peace. 

“For a Jedi, this is true,” Master Trask’s voice whispered in his mind, “but do not fail to realize that, for others, emotion is very real and very powerful, my young padawan. You would do well not to translate the Code as literally as you have been…”

 
Though Trask’s words were but a snippet of his own memory, recalled from a much earlier conversation with his master, Caise knew that the wisdom imparted to him then was meant to be carried forward, meditated upon, and applied every day and in every situation. Caise’s shortcomings in the realm of social graces and diplomacy had very nearly caused the Council to deny Master Trask from taking the young miraluka as his padawan and, as such, a majority of the missions that Caise had accompanied his master on had served as exercises on those very subjects.

“…especially when it comes to dealing with and understanding others.”

Caise nodded a silent affirmation and drew in another slow breath to dispel the wish that Trask was here at his side rather than halfway across the galaxy. This was Caise’s first mission without the elder Jedi, after all, and if Trask had been with him and guiding his every step, it would have meant that his own steps on the path to becoming a Jedi were still far from even approaching that goal. “Perhaps Trask foresaw this,” Caise mused, “and my meeting with the Master’s colleague on Tanaab is not the true test…”

 
A faint smile curled one corner of the miraluka’s mouth as he calmly rose from his seat; “Diplomacy with pirates, Master? Interesting.”

He inclined his head to the twi’lek, whom he had come to know as Dime, and rose calmly from his seat. “Excuse me, my friend,” he intoned, stepping gracefully around Dime, “I think that…”

A slight tremor of what Caise recognized as shock or surprise rippled through the Force at that moment, and caused the padawan to pause and re-evaluate what his senses and training had told him thus far. Tentatively, he reached out with his mind once more and sampled the ebb and flow of the Force. “I think,” he continued softly as he drew the deep cowl of his cloak over his head, “that perhaps it is something more than pirates that will be delaying our arrival.”

With that, Caise Jhorap strode for the portal that led from the passenger berths to the central corridor of the transport. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was he had sensed, but there was a subtle shift in the energies that emanated from the crew and, as a Jedi, he would be remiss if he did not, at least, seek out the captain of the Kul Kara and offer whatever assistance he could.

Your mission will take you to Tanaab, a system at the edge of the inner rim. There are rumors there of the military planning separist activity. We would like to go and try to find proof of these allegations. We will be sending additional spies, but it will be in everyone’s best interest if each of your identities are kept confidential. We have booked you passage on a small unmarked transport. All relevent information has been uploaded into your datapad. You will need to select your encryption password.

Do you understand your mission? 

He did.

It wasn’t surprising in the least that this mission started out rocky. Flying around outside Republic jurisdiction was risky business. He could deal with pirates though. Does it for a living. Non-Repubic planetary officials, on the other hand, he had less experience with. Especially ones who were the target of his mission. The sheer irony was that the Republic booked him passage on a spice runner ship... One that happened to bring his targets straight to him.

He would need to weave quite the web. Or perhaps not. Maybe it would be better to take the innocent passenger angle. He would likely be detained, have to answer a few questions, and then would be released.

The blind Jedi had other plans. The man could obviously sense enough around to get around with assistance, but how he managed that lightsaber in combat was quite beyond Dime’s comprehension. As he made his way to the door, the young blue-hued Twi’lek grabbed his arm and wispered in his ear.

“My name is Kol Nuro, and I am a wandering musician coming to this world to learn of it’s exotic dances, should anyone ask.”

Dime had given the Jedi his real name in confidence, although it is not often that someone would need to do so. In his line of work, however, a name could carry much weight. Only a trusted few of the Order and the Republic were given that knowledge.

After the door closed, Dime ran to his pack and grabbed a Slitherhorn, and began working on a march he learned back on Corellia with the Coronet Quartet. He would wait for them to come to him…

The March was a bit shaky. Dime had played the Omnibox on his tour of Coronet City. The group was small and young, but good. Thankfully none of them ever used their real names with the band, Kol Nuro was his alias in that instance, and his trademark outlandish and unrevealing costumes allowed him to now keep a low profile. He would bet some hard creds that only the first few rows of their concerts would even guess he was a twi'lek. Good thing his Lekki were flexible. Now that it crossed his mind, it wouldn't be a bad thing to get back into character.

Dime put the horn down for a sec, and opened his costume chest. He grabbed a large human hairtie, and pulled his Lekki back in a single tail. He shuffled his large yellow and purple cloak to cover them. Finally the headgear he chose was both stylish and strategic. It was a plethora of colors, starting with light blue and running entire spectrum, ending in a fiery red, which both clashed and melded with the yellow back of his cloak. The arrangement of colors hid his blue-tinted skin, and made it appear more green, or at least more made-up. He slipped in his colored contacts to hide his piercing violet eyes.

With his new bright blue eyes to further mask his skin tone, Kol Nuro was reborn. Dime looked himself over. All that was missing was his black bow-tie. As he bent to grab it out of his chest, he caught a glimpse in the mirror of his former self. It suddenly struck him how few years have actually passed since he joined the Republic. He took a moment to grieve the past. It was nice to have no cares except pleasing a crowd. Now he must worry about keeping aliases straight, his friends close, and his enemies closer.

Oh well, thus was the life of a secret agent.

The sound of the high-pitched slitherhorn playing in it's uppermost range rang through his chamber, and likely into the rest of the ship. If they would be boarded, he would at least make it entertaining. (OOC: For those of you who have not played Galaxies, a Slitherhorn sounds like a synthesized Clarinet)

Captain Thom Dulo’s voice came over the intercom in the engine room. "Get me as much power as you can spare!" he barked.

Ziv and Lana scrambled around the tight space of the engine room, searching to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the Kul Kura’s engines.

Exasperated, the chief engineer threw her pliers across the room.

Her assistant looked up. “We’re going to need more than that,” Ziv stated, matter-of-factly.

“There is no more!” Lana shouted back.

“We could try what we were talking about yesterday,” suggested the young man, coolly.

"Damnit, Ziv, I don't have time for this!" scowled Lana

"Lana, I know, but if you bypass these relays," he indicated them. "you'll get a little more power for the next ten minutes or so."

"And burn them out!" she retorted angrily.

"And maybe stay alive longer," Ziv answered with a grin.

Lana blew out her breath, momentarily moving her bangs out of her eyes, but nodded. "Do it."

Hydroscanner in hand, Ziv made quick work of the relays. The engines responded immediately; showing their dissatisfaction to being pushed passed their limits, they whined with such intensity. Lana held her breath, while Ziv grinned all-the-more.

His idea had worked, and for a few minutes, they not only held the distance between the two ships, but even increased the gap.

“You’re lucky,” Lana said with a weak smile.

“What are you talking about?” Ziv retorted. “This is not luck… we went over this yesterday. By-passing those relays was a no-brainer to pumping out more juice. Only one question though…”

“What’s that?” Lana asked, putting her arm around her assistant.

“How long will it hold?” Ziv stated.

And then... the relays blew. Smoke filled the engine room, and the engines stopped functioning.

Ziv looked at his datatimer. “Six minutes, forty-seven seconds, apparently.”

"Damn you to the foulest hells, Ziv!" Lana screamed as she struggled to get the engines operational once more. "I knew I shouldn't have listened to you!"

He paled, but before he could respond, the ship rocked with the impact of a lucky shot. It wouldn't matter much longer.

The young assistant threw himself back into repairing the engines, “You knew I was right, Lana. We’re done now, likely. But if we had left things as they were… we would have been dead seven minutes ago. You knew that.” Hopefully, the captain’s got something up his sleeve to get us out of this mess, he thought to himself

OOC: Ziv will continue working to repair the engines.

“My name is Kol Nuro and I am a wandering musician coming to this world to learn of it’s exotic dances, should anyone ask.”

He had heard the twi’lek introduce himself by that very pseudonym to a number of others aboard the transport, of course, and had surmised some time ago that Dime was traveling incognito for one reason or another. It hadn’t occurred to Caise to question the twi’lek’s motives, though; many sentients in the galaxy traveled under assumed names for one reason or another, whether it was a matter of personal safety (hiding from a Hutt one may have offended, for example) or other, more political subversion. It was none of Caise’s concern as to why Dime had assumed this alter ego, really. He had sensed no malice from the twi’lek … in fact, he had rather enjoyed the man’s company during their few, short conversations… and there had been nothing in any rippling of the Force to indicate that the miraluka padawan should interfere with the deception.

Caise nodded in reply to Dime’s whispered request in regards to his identity. “Of course,” he replied, offering a faint smile and subtle bow, “should anyone ask. The Force be with you, Kol Nuro.” Caise disappeared through the doorway, then, and strode purposefully but cautiously towards the Kul Kura’s bridge.

As he enveloped himself in his cloak and sent his senses spiraling out, one hand brushed across the cool, metal grip of the lightsaber that hung from his belt and he sensed the vibration of the adegan crystal contained within the weapon. This saber wasn’t his own, of course - it had been given to him by Master Trask when the Jedi took Caise on as his Padawan - and, though it was substantially less powerful than the lightsabers carried by the Jedi who had crafted their own, it still proved to be a reliable weapon and he was proud to carry it. Caise did look forward to the day when he would be able to craft his own, however, and, as he understood it, Tanaab had a smattering of mines where he might just be able to locate a crystal to be used for that very thing…

…assuming there is time, of course, the padawan reminded himself, and that visiting one or more of these mines does not take me outside the scope of my mission. 

((OOC: Caise, of course, is heading for the bridge to offer any assistance that may be needed - he’ll be paying close attention to any fluctuations in the Force (at least as closely as he can considering his level.))

Captain Dulo paled at the order and started to sputter a protest, then hung his head. His lack of denial was confession enough for the bridge crew (many of which were likely implicated), and the lack of effetive weaponry on the Kul Kura ensured that there would be no real struggle.

The bulky DR-400 pulled alongside the Kul Kura at matched both velocity and trajectory before sending across a boarding tube. Captain Dulo waved his hand in a defeated motion, signaling that the airlock be opened, and moments later, a platoon of uniformed TDF forces poured into the Duro vessel.

*****************************

Caise had almost reached the bridge when the a squad of soldiers passed him. The leader, a human male in his early thirties, pointed at the jedi. "You there," he ordered, "return to the passenger berth. This vessel has been lawfully seized by the TDF, and will be taken to Tanaab for processing.

Even as they spoke, the hatch to the bridge opened, revealing the crew being placed under arrest. Tebbo, the pilot, was slumped on the ground, his hands covering his face; apparently, he had not complied quickly enough and had gotten the butt of a blaster rifle for his trouble, judging by the soldier standing over him.

**********************

The red-haired human soldier watched impassively as the engineering crew were notified that they, too, were under arrest for suspicion of conspiracy to distribute spice in league with Captain Dulo. Honestly, he couldn't care less about them; he would have much preferred to be on the bridge itself - the bounty on Dulo's head was more than enough to get him back into the good life. Unfortunately, his connection had only been good enough to get him placed as a trooper on Commander Albari's ship - not good enough to allow him to pick his area of deployment.

So, he would have to bide his time. And hope that the locals would be satisfied enough with the spice to look the other way...

Mercury didn't consider himself to be a bad fellow. After all, he was still young and although he's stolen a couple of things here and there throughout his life (mostly power couplings and tunnelers) he's never been involved in any criminal activities - well, at least, not directly.

The young Fringer knew better than to protest (matter-of-fact he had a phobia with authority), so he just sat before the sensor console and waited for the TDF to come barging in. He gave a thought about the passengers, but he'd only seen them in passing. A twi'lek, some self-absorbed human, some other faceless types - a red-haired guy; they would fend for themselves of course and the Duros didn't seem to worry about them.

If it was true - spice smuggling - the captain and the rest of the crew would face some hefty sentences. That's what scared Mercury more: he was an innocent and he would be sent away for something he had nothing to do with.

He twirled around in the console chair just as the TDF came rigidly onto the bridge ...

As the miraluka strode down the corridor he could feel the ambient tension aboard the Kul Kura rising. The crew’s anxiety had increased steadily since Caise had first sensed it minutes ago but, as he drew nearer to the bridge, he noticed that the minor frustrations of the passengers had also evolved into something more comparable to the feelings emanating from the ship-hands.

Something else has changed, he observed, pausing for a moment and turning to regard the passageway behind him. A ripple in the Force seemed to indicate that there were suddenly more people on the transport than there had been… We’ve been boarded... He turned on his heel, his hand hovering close to his lightsaber in case the need to draw the weapon (or quickly adjust the hem of his cloak to conceal it) presented itself, and continued toward the bridge Caise. The doorway to the Kul Kura’s command room practically glowed in his sight as he approached, as if a great deal of emotion stirred the Force in the room beyond and the energies sought escape through the portal. The corridor behind him, too, suddenly brightened and, an instant later, a squad of what appeared to be soldiers rushed past him.

“You there! Return to the passenger berth. This vessel has been lawfully seized by the TDF, and will be taken to Tanaab for processing.”

Caise turned his sightless eyes in the direction of the squad leader only after completing a quiet appraisal of the remainder of his team. The man’s voice was authoritative and stern but not overly aggressive and his demeanor was professional; all outward indications pointed to the fact that this soldier and his squad were simply doing their jobs as ordered. Before meeting Master Trask, this would have been enough for the padawan to have either immediately complied with the order or offered his assistance, the elder Jedi had taught him, though, not to always trust in what may appear to be done in the name of the law.

“Law and justice are not the same thing, Caise,” Trask had once told him, “When law is invoked as an excuse to show power it is almost a certainty that an injustice is being done. Law, my young padawan, is often corrupted and used as a means to quickly gain power…”

The hydraulic squelch of the opening bridge door drew his attention and, though his blind gaze never left the TDF sergeant, he saw the pilot curled on the floor holding both hands to his face as well as the soldier standing over the injured Duro.

“…and when the power of law is used to do harm rather than to prevent it, then law is no longer law and justice must be done. Do you understand?”

“Seized,” the miraluka repeated, offering a slow nod and showing no signs of going anywhere just yet, “on what charges?”

((OOC: Empathy (+3)check on the sarge, please… Caise is trying to get a feel for whether this is a “truly legit” boarding or if there might be something else going on behind the scenes… If it turns out that nothing “suspicious” comes of the check, Caise will return to the passenger berth, otherwise, well… we’ll see. ))

Lana and Ziv both stopped what they were doing at the sound of the boarding tube connecting with the Kul Kura.

“What was that?” Ziv wondered out loud.

Lana’s face paled. “Damn!” she cursed under her breath. “Bad news for us. Boarding tube by the sounds of things.”

Ziv looked at her, right eyebrow cocked, “Boarding tube? You mean like someone’s coming to take over the ship?”

The chief engineer gave her assistant a strain look. “Yeah! I mean some people are coming to take over the ship!”

“Why?” Ziv asked simply, uncertain as to what reason anyone would have to wanting to take over the passenger freighter.

Exasperated, Lana lit into Ziv, “Oh, I don’t know… maybe because, you know, were easy prey just floating out here without any power!”

“Ah, come on, Lan…” Ziv started to protest before the chief engineer tossed her heavy leather glove across the room and hit the young man square in the face. “Hey!” he shouted.

But Lana was fired up, “It is all your fault! You’re always comin’ up with these half cocked schemes to try and push this baby passed what she was built to do… like you know how she was made. Friggin’ by-passing relays. “Ten minutes for sure,” you say. Graaah! I should never had listened to…”

It was at this moment that the boarding party that Lana had suspected was coming showed up – Tanaab’s defense force. The soldiers indicated that Lana and Ziv were under arrest for suspicion of conspiracy to distribute spice.

“Spice?” Ziv asked. He nearly took a blaster’s butt end to the face for the question, but the soldier restrained himself when he saw the young man cower.

Ziv looked over at Lana. She was stone-faced. Caught off-guard, unsure of what was exactly going on, Ziv moved to allow the wrist restraints to be placed on him.

OOC: Looking for some direction from Lana… should she decide to fight… well, I don’t know what Ziv will do.

Lana stiffened even as Ziv looked to accept the restraints, and a wild look momentrily passed over her features. The young techie wondered if she would try something foolish, but apparently the sight of four heavily armed soliders was enough to make her thnk sensibly. With a sigh, she too surrendered.

Once the two engineers were under control, the red-haired soldier keyed his commlink. "Shadoran here, reporting engine room secured." He paused for a moment, receiving a reply, then nodded. "Understood. We're on our way."

He looked at his squad. "Turvin, Julls, commnder says for you two to say here and get this tub moving. We'll take these two amindships with the rest of 'em." After getting an affirmative, he and the other soldier led their captives amidships to the passenger berths.

So close, but still so far away. Only a few meters separated Damanil Shadoran from his ticket back to good life. All he would need to do was to drill a hole into Captain Dulo's forehead with his blaster. Then again, Pulda the Hutt might prefer to have the pleasure of executing the smuggler himself and would probably pay more if Damanil brought Dulo to him alive. Him? or Her? Not that he wanted to continue down that road... Since at least to his knowledge Hutts could be either or both or something. Scary stuff that
Whatever the case, the bounty on the captain's head would easily have paid him back into the guild and within reach of better gigs. It had been so much harder to find well-paying jobs ever since Damanil had been kicked out of the guild for not being able to pay the membership fee. Bounty Hunters could be good in many things, but they certainly weren't good-hearted people or given to show mercy, not even to one of their own.
Members of his profession, previous or not, often had a love and hate relationship with each other. A bounty hunter would respect a fellow guild member, but still would consider him or her competition or even an enemy. And if one would not be able to pay the fee, he would immediately be kicked out until he could.

It had taken him a lot of work to finally find an assignment which could change everything, but unfortunately his lousy contact had only been able to arrange Damanil a place in TDF as a trooper. The data had been good though. Dulo's ship had appeared at exactly the given time. As a trooper and a newcomer, it had not been easy to deliver the info to Commander Albari without drawing too much attention to himself. But a little word here and another there had eventually done the trick.

As he watched Kul Kura's engineers taking in the news that they too would be seized, Damanil could see the surprise on their faces. Either they were decent enough actors to fool him or the techies didn't know anything about the smuggling their captain was accused of. Shrugging to himself, Damanil watched them with only one eye while thinking about his chances to get the bounty.

"Spice?" The young engineer's question brought Damanil back in time to see the human almost wet his pants as a fellow trooper raised the butt of his rifle to quiet him down. One of the other soldiers chuckled at the cowering, but the former bounty hunter didn't even grin. In fact he couldn't care less about the whole situation, as it started to appear once again that he would not be the one to deliver his prey.

The restraints were quickly put on even though the woman seemed to consider resisting. Fortunately for her she didn't put up a fight and accepted the situation quietly. Damanil grabbed the comlink on the shoulder of his armor and reported in: "Shadoran here, reporting engine room secured." He paused for a moment, receiving a reply, then nodded. "Understood. We're on our way."

Swallowing the bored sigh, he turned his attention at his squad. Turvin, Julls, commnder says for you two to say here and get this tub moving. We'll take these two amidships with the rest of 'em." After getting an affirmative, he and the other soldier led their captives amidships to the passenger berths.

A studied read of the TDF sergeant’s emotions revealed that the man was none too pleased at having been questioned by a civilian but, otherwise, nothing in the energies that swirled about the man indicated that he was doing anything more than his job. "On charges of illegal spice distribution," the sergeant grumbled, "Now I repeat, return to the passenger berth."

Caise arched a curious brow at the mention of spice but, satisfied with the soldier’s answer, offered a curt nod and turned to pace the length of the corridor back to the passenger berth. Had this incident occurred close to the Core Worlds, or at least closer to the borders of the Republic, Caise, perhaps, would not have thought to question soldiers boarding a transport vessel - minor skirmishes and the detention of starships had become common place there in recent times with the upheaval in the Senate and the resultant partisanship of “loyalists” and “separatists” - but out here, this close to the Outer Rim, those lines were not as clearly defined and, quite possibly, were even obscured all the more by the workings of regional powers. The myriad layers of politics confused the young miraluka, though, and even as he strode for the passenger compartment, he wondered if he had made the proper decision in abandoning the bridge crew to the whims of the obviously aggressive troopers. His pace slowed as he searched the archives of his memory for some guidance on the matter from Trask (or any number of the other Jedi who had had a hand in his training since he was a youngling) - this mission was a test, he knew, as it was the first Caise had undertaken without his master but, for a moment, he found himself wishing that the Alderaanian Jedi were with him so that these decisions could be made by a wiser, more adept mind.

Before the TDF sergeant could turn to join his squad on the bridge, Caise’s progress back toward the passenger compartment halted completely and, without turning to face the soldier, asked; “And what of the other ship, sergeant? I was led to believe that a pirate vessel had been pursuing us; have you detained that vessel, as well?”

((OOC: Yes, Caise is going back to the passenger berth… He’s been more or less reassured that he’ll still be making planetfall on Tanaab, so there’s no “interference with his mission”, he just suddenly happened to wonder about the other ship… Perhaps not the wisest idea to provoke an already agitated trooper, but the padawan’s still not keen on “appropriate interaction.” ))