(Continued from Revolt on Serra Toga and Tracking the source)

Rane was looking out the viewport when they arrived, looking at the green and brown planet that was nearby. So that’s Trandosha. He thought. Beside him, two lumps under the bed covers stirred: it appeared the two younglings sensed they were close to their homeworld. After moment, one, then two sleepy looking Trandoshan heads poked out from underneath the covers. The pair stretched and pulled themselves off the bed, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.

“Are we there yet?” One of them asked.

“We are.” Rane replied. “Shall we head to the air dock? I’m sure your father is waiting to meet you Silonik: I sense him nearby.”

The young Trandoshan’s eyes lit up. “Does he know I’m here?” The youth asked as they left the room.

“I seriously doubt it, so it would be a nice surprise don’t you think?” Rane flashed a mischievous grin.

They soon arrived at the airlock, where Lavality was waiting for them. “Admiral Lavality.” Rane bowed. Silonik instead of being focused on Lavality, was focused on something beyond the airlock. Without warning he dashed off. “Oh dear…his father must have come to meet us.” Rane said with a smile. “Shall we?”

***

“Madam.”

Asri’s silent brooding and thinking were disrupted when a pair of female Trandoshan’s entered her room. “Yes?” Asri asked. She quickly realized these must have been the two helps Lavality told her about earlier.

“We have arrived at the Tissuss shipyard. Do you need any assistance disembarking?” One of the females asked.

Tissuss….Tiosk is in charge of that right now if I remember right. From here I can be sent back to the Clan Grounds and see Trazu again. Asri thought. “Yes please, I don’t think I can trust my legs right now.” She replied.

Both females nodded and moved to one side of her bed. Carefully, they helped her down from the bed: the moment her feet attempted to accept any weight they threatened to collapse on her. The two assistants quickly secured her and kept her upright. “I hope this is only temporary…” Asri muttered, her pride not liking the idea of having to have help with a task wush as walking.

“I’m sure it is.” One of the assistants reassured her. Slowly but surely, they made their way to the airlock. Fortunately the more she used her limbs the stronger they got, though she still needed the two female’s support.

***

“You don’t need to come with me Lord Trazu.” Tiosk said as they walked toward where Lavality’s ship docked.

“If Lavality brought Asri with her, I want to be there to meet her.” Trazu said definitely.

“Well, can’t argue with that.” Tiosk said with a shrug.

“By the way…were you really going to threaten that man’s family?” Trazu inquired.

“Hmm? Oh no…I just said that to make him think I was.” Tiosk said with a grin. “Worked like a charm didn’t it?”

“Aye…but it also worries me.” Trazu admitted. “In the past we dealt with people that were definitely crazy or otherwise misguided and used their powers and abilities for evil. This man made me realize that we could be up against a bunch of ordinary T’Doshok that just have one radical idea in common.”

“That young one….is the very nature of conflict.” Tiosk said with a sigh. “On both sides are ordinary people, just wanting to live out their lives and for whatever reason are driven to fight for their particular leader’s ideals. The Empire is a good example of this. Their ordinary citizens are just that: ordinary, but believe the paraphernalia their leadership spouts at them, causing them to believe alien’s like us are inferior and the enemy. In reality, beyond our difference in appearance and culture, we are the same: just ordinary folk wanting to live out our lives the best we can. The main difference is the ideals the leadership have and it’s those ideals that cause war or make peace.”

“That doesn’t make this any easier Tiosk….” Trazu grumbled, to which Tiosk just shrugged.

They arrived at the dock and no sooner had they arrived when a small green blur came out and pounced on Trazu. It took a moment for Trazu to recognize his own son. “Silonik!?” He exclaimed, shocked to find his son here.

“Daddy!” The youth cried, hugging him tightly. “I missed you!”

“I…I missed you too son…but why are you here?” Trazu said, glancing up at Tiosk, who looked as puzzled as he did, then turned his gaze toward the disembarking tube, where Lavality was just coming out.

The air smelled a bit stale, she wondered if the scubbers were doing their job. As she walked out of the air lock she spotted Trazu and Tiosk, "Ahhh... Lord Trazu, Captain Tiosk. Nice to see you two again," she said and gave them a curtious bow.

Behind her a squad of eight marines approuched and then went to the side of her. They kept their weapons to their sides, but at a moment notice could whip them up ready for action.

"Forgive the display, there's something very important I must discuss..." Lavality said. I need a damn vacation after all this crap.... shit.. if its not one thing its another! she thought to herself and looked at the two Trandoshans.

She wasn't sure what to say to Trazu, but after some thought she spoke. "Asri is in medical right now, although I can sense her presence getting closer. Seem's shes headed this way," she said to Trazu, "If you want, go ahead and meet up with her and talk to her. But what I need to discuss with Tiosk and Sha'tor Rissonik is something that you should hear as well." She said and then looked at the Captain.

Tiosk gave her a slightly sad smile. “As much as I would like to be Captain again, Miss Lavality, I’m not. I am unfortunately a Vice Admiral now, not so much fun as a Captain.” He said. “I imagine what you want to talk about is related to Silonik’s…sudden arrival. Sha’tor Rissonik is waiting in my office. Shall we?”

Trazu, after dislodging Silonik so he could walk, meanwhile had headed into the tube, eager to see Asri again: Silonik was following him. He hadn’t gotten very far in when he spotted a face he hadn’t seen in years.

“Rane….?” Trazu said, uncertain. When the man nodded, he tried to say something else but the words got caught in his throat.

“I knew my appearance would be a shock to you Trazu.” Rane said. “It has been a long time hasn’t it?”

“Aye….” Trazu said, finally finding his tongue. “Last time I actually saw you…was the night before you left me behind on Talus…to fend for myself.”

“And to find yourself.” Rane added. “If I had continued to be a crutch to you, you would never have become the man you are today.”

“Yes…I understand that now, though I didn’t at the time.” Trazu blinked then looked at his old mentor sharply. “You’re Force Sensitive….”

“That I am.” Rane confirmed.

“Then…why didn’t you…” Trazu started to say, but Rane guessed his line of questioning.

“You cannot teach someone who is not willing to learn Trazu.” Rane explained. “You’re mind was closed to even the possibility of the Force existing at the time, even though you were using it subconsciously even then. Besides that I am no expert: I only received minimal training before I left the Order in disgust many years ago. I had returned to the Jedi Order recently to see if it had regained it’s former glory, only to find it much the same state and worse….”

“That must be why Silonik is here then…” Trazu said, looking down at his son.

“Mortor too.” Rane added and Trazu noticed for the first time his son’s best friend hiding behind Rane. “Things are dire indeed, which Lavality and I will reveal.”

This bothered Trazu. If things were getting that bad, why hadn’t he sensed it? Because I was too worried about Asri…. He realized. He had been so concerned about his own interests that he had ignored anything besides that. What a pathetic excuse for a Jedi I am… He thought. Good thing I decided not to officially become one.

“Trazu?” A voice came to his awareness, not Rane’s, but definitely familiar. He looked past his old mentor to see the one he had originally came up into the ship to see.

“Asri!” Trazu said as he moved past Rane and toward her. Her appearance distressed him: she looked very weak, two other Trandoshans helping her walk didn’t help that image, and her left arm was in a cast and sling. As he approached, Asri knelt down so that she would be closer to his height and the pair embraced each other upon meeting. “I was so worried about you…” Trazu said softly.

“I feared I would never get to be in your arms again…” Asri said in turn, tears in her eyes. They released each other and Trazu looked at her in the eyes and saw something different about her, but he couldn’t quite place what yet. “What is Silonik and Mortor doing here?” She asked, noticing the pair behind him.

“I don’t know, but Lavality and Rane will be explaining in a meeting with Tiosk and my father. We should attend as well.” Trazu said. He looked up at her two assistants. “One of you go find a wheelchair or something for her.”

The two looked at each other with a ‘now why didn’t I think of that’ expression on their faces before they both ran off to do just that. In short order they came back with a wheelchair and helped Asri into it. Trazu took over getting her around, though he could barely see over the top of her head. He asked the two that were helping Asri before to look after Mortor and Silonik: the two got a look of horror on their faces. “So you watched them before?” He asked and they nodded in response. “Ok you two…” He addressed Silonik and Mortor. “No giving those two nice ladies any trouble you hear?”

“Awwww….” They said in mock disappointment.

“They ate recently and just woke up from a nap.” Rane said with a chuckle. “No wonder they are dreading it.”

“At least Silonik isn’t prone to mischief like his brother.” Trazu said with a sigh as she started pushing Asri in the direction of Tiosk’s office.

“You’ll have to tell me the stories…or hell stories if you prefer…when it’s more appropriate.” Rane said.

“Actually most of them occurred while I was…away.” Trazu said sorrowfully.

“I understand. Let’s not worry about it right now: we have a meeting to attend.”

As Lavality made her way to Tiosks office, another officer stepped behind behind. "Ma'am?" The officer said, causing Lavality to stop and turn. "Yes Leutinent?" Lavality asked curiously.

The Leutinent handed her a data disk, she looked at it curiously and placed it in her datapad, a smile went across her face, and even a slight chuckle. "Ah... I see.. thank you."

"Your communications officer had asked me to give that to you, said if I valued my life I better find ya." The LT said, Lavality shook her head. "Is there anything else you need?"

"Yea.... a god damn vacation.." Lavality said and turned around and headed back toward Tiosk's office.

The Leutinent stood there, dumbfounded. "Vacation?" she repeated the word before shrugging and going back to her duties.

When they arrived at Tiosks office, Lavality's eyes set upon Rissonik. "Ahh, Sha'tor Rissonik, its a pleasure to see you once again." She said and gave the older Trandoshan a curtious bow.

“And it’s a pleasure to see you again as well, Grand Admiral Lavality.” Rissonik said, returning the bow.

“Admiral Lavality, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Natira.” Tiosk said proudly, gesturing to the green scaled, orange eyed female in the room. “Natira, this is the leader of one of our biggest allies, Grand Admiral Lavality.”

“A…pleasure, madam.” Natira said, though she only nodded her head instead of bowing: it was evident that she was having difficulty accepting that Lavality was a leader of ‘anything’ due to her obvious age. A stern look from Tiosk bide her to keep her mouth shut on the matter.

“We recently discovered each other.” Tiosk explained. “Long story I’m afraid, but the gist of it was that she was hired by Force Hunters to try to off me. Devious...if I hadn’t seen her mother in her I would have killed her and since she ‘failed’ to kill me she’s a target of these Force Hunter as well now: an attempt had already been made on her life. Heh…here I go blabbing about when you no doubt have something just as important if not more to discuss with us.” Tiosk offered Lavality a seat, then took one himself. Shortly after, Trazu, Asri and a scruffy looking human he had never seen before entered the office.

“F…father…that’s a…!” Natira said when she spotted Asri, starting to rise from her seat.

“A female T’Doshok, like you.” Tiosk said flatly, Trazu glaring at Natira while Asri simply sighed.

“Aye.” Rissonik added. “She has proven her worth a thousand times over, so don’t even think of applying that ‘title’ to her.”

Natira, flustered, settled herself back down in her seat. “You’re right father…the Clan you are a part of is weird.”

“Everyone.” Trazu said, getting everyone’s attention. “I’d like you to meet Rane Kraski, my old mentor from what it seems like ages past. Rane, this is my father, Rissonik, Sha’tor of our Clan. Vice Admiral Tiosk and his daughter Natira. Obviously you already meet Grand Admiral Lavality.”

“Yes, but we were never formally introduced.” Rane said with a smile before bowing. “A pleasure to meet all of you.”

“So you’re the one my son told me about, whom took on the role of a father to him in my unfortunate absence.” Rissonik said, rising to shake the man’s hand. “An honor.”

“I raised him to the best of my ability, though I would like to hear the circumstances behind my needing to later. Not that it wasn’t an honor to care for a child of noble birth.” Rane said, accepting Rissonik’s hand.

After everyone was seated, Rane spoke up. “I feel it is appropriate that since I was the one that brought word of this to Lavality that I should bring it up.” He said. “I’ll be quick to the point: the Empire is in the process, if not already taken, the planet of Naboo.”

There were gasps all around, save from Lavality, whom already knew, and Natira, whom didn’t seem to care. “How!?” Trazu demanded. “Master Dolash would never have let that happen! Let alone the Jedi Order!”

“I’m afraid there is no Jedi Order anymore. For some crazy, insane reason, Dolash saw fit to disband it. Leaving younglings like your son with no real protection, no guidance. It was only sheer luck I was able to get Silonik and his friend Mortor away before the main fleet of the Empire arrived. There are dozens of younglings on the planet still that may not have been so lucky. There are Sith involved in this as well, if not leading this invasion.”

“Sith…” Asri breathed quietly. “Do you know which one’s in particular?”

“I’m afraid not.” Rane replied. “I wasn’t about to stay around and identify them.”

“I see…” Asri said quietly. “Just wondering….”

Lavality sighed and rose from her seat. "When Rane brought this to my attention, I had a scout ship dispatched to the system edge to clarify their presence...." she said and brought up several images on a near by monitor that was encased in the wall. "As you can see, not only are they there and with force, but it seems they are sporting some new ships.. my own intelligence division went nuts when these images reached them. No doubt the colonel in charge is scrambling to get information," she said with a sigh and then turned her attention to another matter.

"I was able to confirm, that one of my clients was able to evacuate four young jedi children, but I've since lost contact with him. He's suppose to head here but with all the crap going on, odds are the empire might've very well captured his ship." Lavality said, she snarled at the mere thought of what the Sith would do to a jedi child. "Shortly before Rane arrived, I had felt a disturbance, but do to my lack of knowledge I wasn't quite sure 'what' it was exactly.. if only I had realized that the disturbance had come from Naboo, I would've dispatched an evacuation fleet before the imperials had arrived."

She turned back toward the images, every ten or fifteen seconds they would switch to another, some showed Naboo itself, its moon, and others showed the imperial fleet. It was obvious that the ship that was taking the photo's was moving, due to a slight blur in some of the images. "Dolash...." she said and snarled, "why the hell have you forsaken your own order?" she asked herself.

"What are we to do about this?" She asked those in the room. "Its to stupid to think that the Empire will ignore Trandosha, or Kashyyyk for that matter.." she said, and then remembered one very important person she forgot to invite. She let out a sigh before sending a message to communications, the officer had stated that a ship from Tzhali's command ship had docked, and no sooner had she said that had the door opened and a wookie walked through. "Forgive my lateness, if I had known there was something going down I'd have gotten here sooner." He said, and grinned at Lavality, who merely shook her head. I'm getting to old....

Tzhali turned toward Rissonik, and gave him a bow. "Sha'tor Rissonik, an honor to see you again," he said.

Trazu noticed Natira stiffen when Tzhali came in. Definitely not a fan of wookiees…. He thought with a sigh. Granted, even though he didn’t mind them, even he felt his stomach twist in a knot a bit when he found out that Balik was having a relationship with a wookiee. Things won’t change overnight. He reminded himself.

“Tzhali old friend.” Rissonik said, raising to his feet and bowing in turn. “It is good to see you again.”

“Aye.” Tiosk said in turn with a smile, clapping the wookiee on the shoulder. “Good to see you again old friend.”

Natira looked like she was about to run out screaming, or burst out in angry protest at how her father and Rissonik was treating Tzhali. Fortunately for her, only Trazu, and perhaps Lavality, really seemed to notice. She’s going to cause problems during this meeting…. Trazu thought.

“I thought I would never see the day that Trandoshans and Wookiees could be in the same room without trying to rip each other to shreds.” Rane said with a smile, though Trazu noticed him glancing Natira’s way, which reminded him that Rane too, was Force Sensitive, a fact that Trazu still hadn’t let sink in yet.

“Aye. We’ve been allies for months now.” Rissonik said. “And if things continue to go our way, a very long lasting one. Indeed…with the way some things are going, we may only have each other soon.” They quickly brought Tzhali up to speed on what he had missed. “Recent happenings in the Coalition have seeded doubt in our Council that they would be able to provide aid and protection for us much longer.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that one of their provinces has seeded from the Coalition already, due to their recent disgusting display of begging for mercy from the Empire itself.” Rane said. “With the Jedi Order no more there are few left to stand against the Empire.”

“On top of all that.” Trazu added. “A group of Force Hunters have appeared amongst our people, ones that believe that using the Force would lead to our race’s destruction. They were the ones that were responsible for the attacks on Tiosk and his family and no doubt are trying to find out my identity as well now.”

“So this means Silonik and Mortor aren’t exactly ‘safe’ here on their own homeworld for the time being…” Rane said with a sigh.

“I’m afraid not. Even on the Clan grounds, if an assassin is desperate and resourceful enough, they can get to their target: my deceased wife is proof of that….”

“Back to this matter of the Empire.” Rissonik said. “Even with our combined forces we can’t hope to stand up against them should they come after us.”

“Even if we didn’t incur the losses we did during the Separation Movement we wouldn’t stand a chance.” Tiosk grumbled. “What is needed is another Rebellion…I think….”

Lavality nodded and lifted up her pad. "It just so happens some of my cliants, apart of a smuggling ring, have gotten wind of such a rebellion. Not much information it, and sadly these people are being very tight liped," she said and placed the pad on the table for the others to look at, while most of the information was just in relation to trading goods, the information related to the rebellion had been cleverly hidden within the text.

While she waited for the others to comment, she turned to Tzhali. "How are your people holding out?"

"Some are still weary.. a few have opposed the alliance, but after what they've seen recently, even they think its best not to cause trouble. However, once I inform my government of this deal with the Coalition..." he sighed, "It's going to send a shockwave through the many branches.. but like always, whatever Sha'tor Rissonik and Counculor Naosha decide, we'll stick with." he said.

Lavality smiled and turned toward the images on the monitor. "Even with the ships are my disposal.. even with our level of technology.. we can't defeat the empire head on.." she said and rubbed her chin.

If we can't defeat them head on.. why not strike at their week points? she asked herself. They also rely on trade routes, and most of my ships are small enough to go unnoticed for quite some time.. going to have to talk to Lumier about that

She then turned back toward the group. "By the way, where is Counculor Naosha anyway? I could've sworn she'd be here.."

“Trazu and I originally came here to help sort out some other business with Tiosk.” Rissonik explained. “If we had known what this meeting would have been about I would have had Varcanna go fetch her.”

“The business he speaks of regarded getting to the bottom of my grounding.” Tiosk added. “It turned out Admiral Balik was being blackmailed into doing these Force Hunter’s bidding as part of an elaborate scheme. We were able to ‘remove’ what they were using to hold Balik to his word.” He added with a smile. “Once he hears of our success, I should be getting word of my reinstatement into flying in short order, as he promised as much when we left him.”

“At any rate, as her lifemate I can predict what Naosha would say.” Rissonik said. “She would support the idea of a Rebellion, but would be against having our government ‘officially’ join it. Such an act would bring the Empire down upon us quicker then flies to rotting carcass.”

“Plus since we are still officially part of the Coalition, any action such as joining a Rebellion would put the Coalition as a whole into an even more dire situation.” Trazu added. “Any assistance we provide a Rebellion would have to be ‘under the table’, so to speak.”

“Which would mean that anyone with any high status would be out of contention…” Tiosk said with a sigh. “Oh if I could be just a Captain again…I’d help out in a heartbeat.”

“The fact that you are even thinking about helping a Rebellion is asinine.” Natira suddenly blurted out and once she got going she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “The Empire of old helped our people in the past, why would this one be any different? We should be joining them instead of fighting against them: the fact our people joined the weak willed Coalition is a blight on our reputation! With the Empire on our side we would get the respect our people deserve!”

Everyone was aghast at what Natira just spouted out and poor Tiosk looked embarrassed. But it wasn’t Lavality, or even Tiosk that moved to correct her, but Asri.

“You are either blind or stupid…perhaps both…” She said calmly, though Trazu could see the fury in her eyes.

“I know more then you Akisi.” Natira spat.

Suddenly Asri rose and strode over to the arrogant female, surprising everyone since she was previously too weak to barely walk under her own power. “Do you?” Asri asked simply, her voice cold. “Have you lived under the Empire’s rule? The Old or the New? Not the Old surely: you are far too young. The New? With that attitude you must have been sheltered all your life to blind to the truth. Let me open your eyes….

“My father was Besk, one of the most feared warriors among our people: surely you heard of him. He sold me to a laboratory, because he deemed me ‘useless’ to him. This laboratory was financed by the Empire and they performed experiments upon me that made me what I am today. I was left for dead in a junkyard on some god forsaken planet, with nothing, not even my name or memories of my past. I eventually found my way to Corascant, where I was discovered and taken in by a Sith Lord named Lupercus. I remembered my name and most of my memories shortly after, but don’t go thinking I should be ‘grateful’ to him.

“He provided me with training and used me as an assassin. I was too blind then with my rage against my father and lust for vengeance to see that I was merely his pawn, his servant…a slave. It was by chance I met up with one of his special contacts that I learned the truth. This contact was a worker at the very lab I was experimented on and I recognized him. After torturing the man I discovered my usefulness to this Sith was at an end and he was going to arrange for my ‘return’ to this lab, for my apparent survival had come to a surprise to them. I killed that man and made my escape…not an easy task.

“Why? Because aliens like us are second-class citizens in the Empire, if we are that lucky. Aliens are stuck with jobs that the humans in the Empire think they are ‘above’ doing, if they have a job at all. Pay rates were unbalanced as well, with human employees receiving more then double for the same job. Fare rates were nearly triple for aliens to travel as well: I had to resort to stowing away to escape that wretched planet. I know this…because I lived it. We would be selling ourselves to slavery like we did with the Wookiees in ages past.”

Any bluster Natira had was rapidly fading. “But but…the Old Empire didn’t treat us as slaves!” She protested.

“Only because we were ‘useful’.” Asri growled. “Eventually, after our ‘usefulness’ had been worn out in some things, we would have likely been forced into hard labor like the Wookiees. When we got ‘useless’ at that as well, we would have no doubt been turned into stylish boots and handbags.”

“The shipyard…surely that was an act of good will!”

“Good will…BAH!” Tiosk snorted. “They only did it to ensure our loyalty and continued repaid ‘favors’ for generations to come! If the Old Empire hadn’t fallen we would still be in their debt and forced pawns in their schemes!”

“The Coalition may be weak and foolish.” Asri continued. “But we have our freedom and independence. That is what this is all about. Remember that….”

All the strength Asri had suddenly gained seemed to disappear and she staggered, then fell. Tiosk caught her and helped her back to her chair, where Trazu fretted over her. While her sudden lost of strength should have negated some of the effect of her words on Natira, Natira still looked very small indeed with no fight left in her.

“Please forgive my daughter…” Tiosk said finally. “If I was the one that raised her this likely wouldn’t have happened…alas…she has the mindset of her mother though and this was the one topic she and I never agreed upon.….”

Lavality was genuingly angered, but did understand. "It's alright, its natural for someone raised in that enviroment to think that their government is infalable." she said and looked at Natira.

"Asri isn't the only who, in a way, lived under the Empire." She said and looked at the datapad, while she was very relunctant to reveall this type of information, she felt it might help. She switched over to a document that told of the experiments performed on her original, a girl who was merely seven years old.

"I could tell when I meet you that you were curious how a person so young can be in charge of a vast organization, well, here's your answer." She said and handed that datapad to Natira, she had no doubt about the reaction she would get, for the datapad had information related not only to the experiments performed on her original, as stated before, but also the cloning of the original for those experiments to continue and how she came into existence, but she wondered how shock Natira would be to discover that she was half Human, half Trandoshan, possessing the unique traits of a Trandoshan to boot.

Tzhali meanwhile was curious about something. Lavality is certainly playing this cautious.. what is she so nervous about.. he said, he could she Lavality's had shaving, in fact, it wasn't just her hand, but her arms and legs were also shaking, while it wasn't obvious to someone who wasn't paying attention, it was to someone who might be. And why is she so shaky...