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Return to Trigalis	By : handcuffgirl Category: Star Wars (All) > FemSlash - Female/Female Views: 4374 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, or any of the characters in this fic, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 1-Return to Trigalis
- 1
Authoress's notes: The following story is a sequel to Transformations, in which Tahiri Veila, while working as a bounty hunter, is captured by a swoop-bike gang and turned into a gang slut, and rescued by Jedi Knights Ta'tan'ia and Wyric Torrin. This story also includes the character Colonel Drasi, who is the son of Ysanne Isard, Instead of running the ProCorps Academy like he did in my Imperial Prostitute stories though, Colonel Drasi is now a high ranking member of Imperial Security. Stormie, who was the ProCorps Academy's tattoo artist in those stories, is now a member of Imperial Security as well. This story takes place in the 'legends' universe.

Return to Trigalis: Twi'lek Trap

Lieutenant Stormie Tarkin, granddaughter of the late Grand Moff Tarkin, stared at the holozine Custom Swoops Weekly in shock. Like most speeder and swoop-bike holozines, this one featured plenty of holographs of sexy half-naked women with the tricked-out speeder and swoop-bikes. As a swoop-bike enthusiast, Stormie didn't pay too much attention to the women, other than the occasional interesting tattoo, or fetishy jewelry or high heels they were wearing. This one had caught her eye though. The holograph was of a heavily—and freshly—tattooed and pierced blonde woman posed on a swoop-bike.

The woman was sprawled out on her back on top of the swoop-bike, naked except for a pair of black short-shorts, and a pair of black platform ankle boots. The stiletto heels of her boots were hooked on the hand grips, and her hands were cuffed underneath her, arching her back and causing her tits to thrust upwards. Besides the wrist cuffs, a black durasteel collar was visible around the woman's neck. Stormie could make out the word PROPERTY on one side of it.

The woman was obviously a swoop-bike slut. She had flames tattooed around the base of her breasts, and another tat of flames on her lower stomach. The most important thing about the woman though, was that she was that kriffing schutta who had murdered Grand Admiral Pellaeon; Tahiri Veila!

Stormie had to find this schutta, and bring her to Imperial Justice. The Jedi-loving Rebels obviously weren't doing a thing to find her. Stormie's eyes glanced at the swoop-bike, and she caught sight of the rancor on the side, just below Jedi-girl's naked calf. While Stormie wasn't an expert on outlaw swoop-bike gangs, everyone in the Outer Rim knew of the Zoloz.

The location the holo was taken could be tracked by tiny digital codes embedded in the data. Slicing into the holozine's computer database to find out the HoloNet address of whoever had sent it would probably be faster though. Stormie stood up, and headed towards the crypt section. As she stepped into the corridor, she lifted her durasteel wrist comlink to alert the techs she was on the way.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Colonel Drasi thought the mission was a bad idea, but she insisted. Since he couldn't fully authorize the mission anyway, he contacted the head of Imperial Security. Director Abbrums said he would consider it, and get back to them as soon as possible. Stormie was in the comm center when she received the message. Instead of Director Abbrums though, it was the Imperial Head of State.

“Moff Reige, Lieutenant Tarkin, Imperial Security,” Stormie identified herself once his hologram appeared.

Thanks to her grandfather, the name Tarkin was notorious in the galaxy. Because of that, Stormie mostly used the last name Kintra, much like Colonel Drasi didn't use his real last name of Isard. Of course High Moff Riege knew who both of them really were.

“Lieutenant Tarkin, I've heard a lot about you,” the Imperial Head of State greeted her with a nod. “And I want to hear more about this mission you're proposing.”

Stormie didn't bother to ask him what he'd heard about her. She didn't care. “Your Excellency, I've located the murderer Tahiri Veila,” she told him, holding up the holozine. “We've tracked this holograph to Trigalis, in the Juris Sector. I want to take a team to arrest her.”

“I believe Trigalis is in the Galactic Alliance. The Empire doesn't have jurisdiction,” he replied dryly. “Also, didn't High Moff Fel pardon Miss Veila?”

“Those Jedi-loving rebels aren't going to do anything about her murdering Grand Admiral Pellaeon, Your Excellency. As for former High Moff Fel, he's married to one of the Jedi! Tahiri Veila being free is a disgrace to the Empire, Your Excellency. Let me take a team to bring her in. No one will even know we were there,” she assured him.

“You're sure she's on Trigalis?” High Moff Reige asked her after a few moments' pause.

“The computer techs are positive, Your Excellency. This holograph was taken on Trigalis, about a week ago. I don't know why she's with this swoop-bike gang, but that means she's most likely still there.”

High Moff Reige considered that a moment. “I can contact Boba Fett and send some Mandalorians after her. That way the Empire isn't directly involved.”

“Mandos!” Stormie answered in disbelief. “We don't need that scum! My team and I can handle one murdering Jedi.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

By the time Stormie and her team arrived on Trigalis, they had learned that nine Zoloz had been killed and nearly two dozen arrested at a warehouse with about two thousand blaster rifles. The incident had happened in New Coronet, where Veila was supposed to be, less than twelve hours ago. Stormie wondered if she had had anything to do with it. She still had no idea how or why that murdering schutta was with a gang of outlaw swoop-bikers.

Unfortunately Moff Reige had only allowed her to bring two Security Operatives with her. They were supposed to find out if Veila was still on Trigalis, then Moff Reige would send a full team in to assist in apprehending her. Stormie wanted to bring about six people to take her down as fast as possible, but Moff Reige was more concerned with the Galactic Alliance discovering them on Trigalis.

Stormie had chosen Whytte as the first member of her team. She had worked with him several times before, and trusted him to get the job done. Her next two choices for her third team member were unavailable though, so she had had to take an Agent Broxn, whom she didn't know at all. Whytte had worked with him though, and said he seemed okay. Since she was in a hurry, she took Broxn and his glowing recommendation from Whytte.

They had also brought three ysalamiri along. Each one was about a meter long, and created a bubble about ten meters in diameter where Jedi couldn't use the Force. One was in a compartment in the bulkhead near the cell on board their ship. The other two were on portable backpack frames. When they got Veila, she wouldn't escape.

Once they landed, she took her team and one of the ysalamiri to the tattoo shop where the holograph had been taken. Stormie sent her two subordinates to the back to gain entry and secure the building, while she went go in the front to keep the proprietor occupied.

“Hey, welcome to Wild Ace Ink. I'm Vik, what can I do for you?” a bald, heavily-tattooed man asked as she entered the shop.

Stormie paused a moment in mock nervousness as she glanced around the shop and checked out the tats on his exposed arms and neck. They weren't too bad. The walls of the shop were covered with flatholos of tattoos he had done.

The flatholo of Veila from the holozine, enlarged to about a meter across, was displayed prominently, almost right in the line of sight of anyone entering the shop. There was also another one of Veila posing naked except for a thong and her ankle boots. Her arms were stretched up over her head displaying a flaming pattern down her right side from around her breasts to her ankles. Stormie had to admit it looked pretty sexy.

“Yeah, I was like wondering, do you do belly piercings?” she asked him in her best brainless socialite voice.

She needed to distract him long enough to let Broxn and Whytte clear the rest of the building.

“Yeah, that's no problem,” Vik answered with a friendly smile. “I can pierce your belly button. Or just about anything else you want.”

“Cool,” Stormie replied with her own flirty smile as she set a hand on her stomach. “What about a tat around it too?” she asked. “Maybe a sunburst or something?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” the tattoo artist repeated. He was about to say something else when there was a barely audible noise from the back.

He paused and glanced towards the corridor a moment, then quickly turned back and reached underneath a nearby table. As he pulled the hidden blaster out, Stormie fired a stun bolt into him from her own blaster. He fell to the ground, unconscious. A couple of seconds later Broxn and Whytte stepped out of the corridor, their weapons drawn and extended.

“You two want to be a little louder next time?” she demanded in annoyance. “I don't think they heard you on Bastion.”

Both of the Security Operatives stared at her silently a moment, then holstered their blasters and began moving the tattoo artist towards the back. Stormie turned off the shop's sign, and locked the front door. Then she headed towards the back to join them.

A few minutes later they had the tattoo artist in his office, on a metal chair. His wrists were tied together behind his back—and the straight back of the chair. His feet were tied together underneath the chair about twenty centimeters apart, and tied to his wrists through the chair rails.

When they were ready, and the stun bolt was wearing off, Stormie moved to finish waking him up.

“Hey Vik, wake up. Vik, you awake?” she asked him as she tapped his thigh with the edge of her datapad. “Come on Vik, I've got some questions for you.”

“Look, just take whatever you want,” Vik said groggily, still regaining consciousness.

Stormie ignored the remark, and held her datapad up for him, displaying the holograph of Veila on the swoop-bike. “Do you know who this is?”

“What?” he replied in obvious confusion. “Who are you?” he asked, glancing from the datapad to Stormie, to Whytte standing off to the side, and back to Stormie.

“Hmmmm,” Stormie mused, lowering the datapad. “I guess I need to explain something to you real quick. I am the one that's asking the questions,” she told him, gesturing towards herself with the datapad. Then she tapped his chest with the corner of it as she said, “You are the one that's answering the questions. Understand?” She paused a moment, then added, “Next time you try to ask a question, this is going to happen.”

With that Broxn, who was behind Vik, pressed a shock stick into his back between his arm and the chair.

The muscular tattoo artist writhed in pain from the electricity coursing through his body, his jaw clenching shut.

Stormie gave him a few seconds to recover, then leaned down closer to him. “Now, are you going to ask any more questions?” she asked.

Vik shook his head no, still clearly in agony from the shock stick.

“Good,” she answered with a friendly smile. “Now, do you know who this is?” she repeated, instantly turning serious again, and holding up the datapad for him.

“Ye-yeah,” he replied painfully. “Her name's Torri. She came in to get some tats and piercings a week or so ago.”

“Who was she with?” Stormie prodded.

Vik hesitated a moment before answering. “Some swoop-bikers,” he finally said.

“What swoop-bikers?” she asked calmly.

He paused again, obviously reluctant to mention the Zoloz. Stormie wasn't sure if it was from fear or loyalty, or even just stubbornness. Either way, she was going to find out what she needed to know.

She glanced at Broxn, who already had the shock stick just centimeters from Vik's back. He pressed it into the exact same spot as the first time, and the tattoo artist strained against his bonds in agony again.

“What swoop-bikers was she with?” Stormie demanded after he stopped twitching.

“The Zo-loz,” Vik finally sputtered.

“Which Zoloz?” she immediately asked him. “I want names.”

Vik took a couple of breaths. “Look, do you know who the Zoloz are?”

As soon as he spoke, he realized his mistake. “Wait! Wait!”

Stormie caught Broxn's eye, and stopped him before he shocked the tattoo artist a third time.

“I'm just saying they're dangerous,” Vik explained. “You don't want to kriff around with them.”

The Imperial Security Operative reached out, and set her hand on his shoulder. “I appreciate your concern,” she told him in mock sincerity. “But you let us worry about the Zoloz.” She paused dramatically, withdrawing her hand, then added, “Now tell me which Zoloz were with. . . Torri, you said her name was?”

Vik muttered a curse before answering. “When she came here she was with Cyllir, and Torch, and . . . and, Jahn, I think the last one's name is.”

Stormie knew Whytte was looking those names up on the HoloNet, along with the local police's computers they'd sliced into, and any other sources of information they had.

“And is Torri still with these Zoloz?” she asked.

The tattoo artist took a deep breath. “I don't think so,” he began. “They had a huge party last night. A bunch of them came in from off-planet somewhere. There was this Twi'lek babe there too. A few hours after I got there, one of them found out another gang was hitting a warehouse they had. Most of them that weren't completely wasted took off for that, and the Twi'lek sneaked her outside, where someone picked them up.”

Now that was unexpected news. Stormie was really going to be pissed if they had gotten here just too late to get that schutta . . .

“Who was this Twi'lek?” she asked him. “Have you seen her before?”

“I think her name was Tania or something,” he responded. “She was with Dirc I think. Real sexy. I hadn't seen her around.”

“Dirc is a Zoloz?” Stormie asked.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“And you're sure you've never seen this Twi'lek before?”

“Na. I would have remembered a sexy-ass purple-skinned Twi'lek around here,” he said.

That definitely caught Stormie's attention, not that her expression changed. There weren't that many purple-skinned Twi'leks in the galaxy. In fact, Stormie only knew of one. Since Trigalis didn't have a large Twi'lek population, it was pretty unlikely another one would be at the Zoloz party.

“Was this Twi'lek wearing a durasteel collar and wrist cuffs?” she asked him.

Vik flashed her a puzzled look. “She was wearing a collar,” he confirmed. “Like that Torri chick you were asking about. But she had some sort of nerfhide things on her arms with a bunch of straps on it.”

Stormie nodded her head absently—mostly to herself—as she quickly pulled up an image of Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia on her datapad.

“Is this the Twi'lek that took Torri from the party?” she asked Vik, holding up the datapad.

“Yeah, that's her,” the chair-tied tattoo artist agreed.

If the Jedi already had Veila, that would definitely complicate things. Ta'tan'ia had served Admiral Daala as her Jedi Liaison when she had been Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. Stormie also knew that the Twi'lek had been basically Admiral Daala's sex slave, until just before she left the Rebels. She had been pretty upset when her pet chose to stay with the Jedi.

“Now when you say she sneaked Torri out, was she forcing her, or was it more like they were leaving together?” Stormie probed.

If the Jedi had forced Veila to leave, then it might be easier for Stormie to get her—if she could find her, that was. Maybe she would even escape the Jedi on her own, and she could just scoop her up.

“It looked like the Twi'lek chick was mostly carrying Torri,” Vik answered. “She looked like she had passed out, and the Twi'lek had just thrown her arm over her shoulder, and was carrying most of her weight.”

Stormie considered that a few moments. “Give us a minute,” she said absently, catching Whytte's eye as she reached for his datapad.

He handed it to her. She began scanning the information he had pulled up during the interrogation as she walked out of the room. He followed her, towards the back door of the tattoo shop. Broxn stayed put, guarding Vik.

“Thoughts?” she asked once they were out of Vik's earshot.

According to the local Security Force's files, Cyllir was the Vice President of one of the local Zoloz chapters, while Torch and Jahn were members. Dirc was the Sergeant at Arms. Cyllir, Dirc, and Jahn all had several arrests, but only Jahn within the past year. Cyllir, Dirc, and another one named Sidd had been stopped by the police less than two weeks ago, along with a Torri Antilles. The flatholo on Torri's identichit was of Veila, but without the piercings and tattoos. She was wearing the same collar from the swoop-bike holozine though, and she looked high on spice or something as well.

“Any idea who the Twi'lek is?” Whytte asked.

“Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia,” Stormie replied, still reviewing the information on the local Zoloz. “The one that was Admiral Daala's pet when she was G-A Chief of State.”

“Oh, her,” Whytte said with a faint smile. He paused a moment, then asked, “Well, if the Jedi have Veila, do we need to waste any more time on these swoop-bikers?”

“I didn't come all the way to Trigalis to give up based on what some tattoo artist remembers from a drunken party,” she replied without looking up. “We are going to get one of these Zoloz, and find out for sure if they still have Veila. Then if they don't, we are going to find her, and take her down. And if Jedi Ta'tan'ia gets in the way, then we'll deal with her as well.”

“Okay,” Whytte agreed, obviously reluctant. “We finished here then?”

“Yeah, go let Broxn know,” Stormie told him, still studying the datapad.

“'Firm,” he answered, heading back up the corridor.

A moment later she heard the sound of a single blaster shot from Vik's office. Then Broxn came out, tucking his blaster back into its disguised holster inside his jacket.

“You shot him where you shocked him, right?” she asked him, glancing up from the datapad. That would destroy the evidence of the interrogation, which was standard for field ops like this.

“Of course,” he responded, flashing her a look of annoyance. “I have conducted field interrogations before.”

Stormie turned her attention back to the datapad without replying. She barely noticed Whytte returning with a hand full of credits from the shop to make it look like a robbery a few moments later. The three Imperials left out the back, got into their speeder, and headed for the New Coronet Zoloz' clubhouse.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie gazed across the street at the run down speeder repair shop, then glanced at the Zoloz clubhouse down the block, and back to her datapad. Broxn was in a tapcafe a little closer to the target. Whytte was out in the speeder, riding around a little, then stopping a bit, then riding around some more. One of the ysalamiri on a portable frame was in the speeder as well.

Broxn was facing towards her in the tapcafe, but he had a clever holocam sitting on the table next to him pointing towards the clubhouse. All three of them could monitor the feed from their datapads, so no one had to actually stare at the clubhouse. They had been pulling surveillance on the Zoloz clubhouse for well over an hour.

There were only five swoop-bikes parked in front of the clubhouse. According to the police computer, they had towed about four dozen after the shootout at the warehouse last night. The club's president was among those arrested at the warehouse. The police had also searched the clubhouse, but didn't find anything linking Veila to the Zoloz, which was what Stormie was interested in.

About twenty minutes ago, a pair of Zoloz had emerged from the clubhouse, and climbed onto their swoop-bikes, and left. Stormie didn't want to risk taking on two of them if she could help it though. Three-to-two odds weren't ideal if they wanted to keep the mission quiet. If she had a choice, she wanted to get Cyllir or Dirc. They were almost certain to know if the Zoloz still had Veila, or have the best idea of where she was.

While she was poking around the local police database, Stormie had also learned that five members of another swoop-bike gang, the Blood Riders, had been killed at the spaceport last night. An unknown blue-skinned female Twi'lek, possibly wearing a durasteel collar, and possibly with a human male accomplice, was listed as the prime suspect. The police suspected she and her accomplice were bounty hunters. Stormie was reasonably sure that they were Ta'tan'ia and her Jedi partner, in spite of the inaccurate description.

Admiral Daala knew what she was doing when she had tried to lock tracking collars on all the Jedi. It certainly made it easier to identify them, even if you couldn't actively track them with them.

The two Jedi had left in a ship registered to a Terri Rapuung, who was listed as an active bounty hunter. Stormie assumed that was an alias Jedi Ta'tan'ia was using. The spaceport computer had also logged the unauthorized departure of a ship registered to another bounty hunter named Kyle Rimex just a few minutes before that. Stormie pulled up a holo of Terri Rapuung, and was shocked to see Tahiri Veila instead of Ta'tan'ia.

What the kriff!? Rapuung was Veila!?

Stormie read the file on Terri Rapuung, and found a membership to the Bounty Hunter's Guild dating back almost to her escape from the Galactic Alliance after her trial. The schutta's been working as a bounty hunter! There were even quite a few entries of her capturing members of the Zoloz who had arrest warrants. In fact, the swoop-bike gang seemed to be her favorite targets until a couple of weeks ago, when her captures stopped completely. If Veila had been collecting bounties on Zoloz though, then why was she with them all of the sudden?

As Stormie thought about that, she pulled up a holo of Kyle Rimex. She didn't recognize him, so she told the ship's computer to run facial recognition on him, starting with Jedi. If there were two Jedi—besides Veila—she needed to know who she was dealing with.

Killing five swoop-bikers didn't seem like something the Jedi would do, but maybe they were trying to stop them from taking Veila. Stormie frowned a moment, then glanced back at the file on the Blood Riders. It said they were rivals of the Zoloz, so they probably weren't trying to save the Zoloz' gang slut from the Jedi. Oh well, it wasn't really her concern anyway.

Maybe the Jedi had sent Veila to infiltrate the gang for some reason, to stop the weapons they had smuggled to the warehouse, and they had simply extracted her. If that was the case, then getting all those Property of Zoloz tats and piercings was really dedicated. Or maybe the Zoloz had somehow captured Veila, and were forcing her to be their gang slut in retaliation for her hunting them. After a few moments' thought, Stormie decided that reason made a little more sense than the infiltration angle, considering the tats and stuff. Either way, she was extremely annoyed she had arrived less than a day too late. Still, she was going to get that kriffing Veila, one way or another.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As the waitress brought Agent Broxn a refill on his caf, she saw a glimpse of the Zoloz clubhouse on his datapad. She had already seen the compact holocam sitting on the table but hadn't wondered too much about it, other than its odd placement near the window. She frowned in thought as she walked away. She liked the Zoloz, and knew they would want to know about someone watching them. A minute later, she was out back in the alley. She quickly commed Torch, and told him what she had seen.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie put the clubhouse feed on half of her datapad screen, and used the other half for her research on the Zoloz, and Veila. Several minutes later a lone figure emerged from the clubhouse. Stormie immediately notified Whytte to head this way.

The Zoloz took a long swallow from the bottle he was carrying, then headed—a little unsteadily—towards the nearby swoop-bikes. After he climbed onto one, he took another swallow from his bottle, put the top back on it, and stashed it in a compartment on the side of the swoop-bike. The Zoloz started up the swoop-bike, and took off, heading away from Stormie at a leisurely pace.

Perfect.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As Stormie awoke, the first thing she felt was the lingering pain from the stun bolts. Then she felt a sharper pain in her shoulders. That was probably because her arms were restrained over her head, and supporting most of her weight. Durasteel binders bit into her wrists. Her legs were spread apart, with shackles on her ankles and chains out to each side. Frakk.

“Hey there,” someone—a human male—said in a friendly voice. “You awake?”

A moment later Stormie felt someone pinch her nipple and twist it—hard—at which point she realized she was naked as well. She did her best not to show pain as she lifted her head, and opened her eyes. In a glance, she took in her surroundings.

She was in some sort of garage, probably the one in the basement of the Zoloz' clubhouse. One was in front of her—still twisting her nipple—while another one was standing further back on her left, and a third was sitting in a chair on her right. He was holding a blaster in his lap as well.

“I'm goi—awake,” Stormie spat out. “What do you want?” She had been about to say she was going to kill all of them, but she had quickly decided not to antagonize them. It probably wasn't the best idea at the moment.

“Good,” the Zoloz said with a predatory smile, finally letting go of her nipple. “Now who are you, and why are you here?”

The Zoloz that was doing the talking had V. President on one of the patches on his vest, and Cyllir on another one.

She bit back another sarcastic comment as she came up with a plausible story. She was pretty sure Whytte was dead, so she didn't have to worry about him contradicting her. Broxn had stayed behind at the tapcafe, so he should be working to extract her by now. With the club president in jail, Cyllir here was probably running things for now.

After a few seconds thought, she decided to stick sort of close to the truth. “A bounty hunter. My partner and I were looking for another bounty hunter named Kyle Rimex, and his partner, a purple-skinned female Twi'lek.”

She assumed the Zoloz weren't happy with the two Jedi, so she wanted to put herself against them as well. The whole enemy-of-my-enemy thing. Telling them anything was risky, but she wanted to hold off on the rougher stuff for as long as she could. Maybe Broxn would figure something out before they got started on that. Maybe they'd even believe her.

“Your partner,” he said thoughtfully, changing the subject. “That's the guy that was in the speeder with you?”

“Yeah.” A heartbeat later she asked, “Is he dead?”

Stormie was pretty sure Whytte was, but she wanted the Zoloz to think she was really concerned about him for personal reasons. Mostly she just needed to get control of the interrogation.

It didn't matter anyway. Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she screamed out in agony from an intense pain in the middle of her spine. It was a shock stick.

She had forgotten how much they hurt. A few seconds later, after the electricity stopped, she realized it was probably her own shock stick, which made it even worse.

“Hey!” Cyllir shouted. “I said start her on low!”

“Damn! Sorry,” someone replied from behind her. “I thought it was.”

A moment later Stormie felt another jolt of electricity—not quite as intense—on the back of her hip, just above her ass.

“There, that's it,” the Zoloz behind her announced triumphantly as she grimaced in pain. Then Cyllir stepped forward, and grabbed a fist full of her hair.

“You should be more concerned with telling me what I want to know,” he told her. He jerked her head back as he let go. “Now, why were you and your partner looking for these bounty hunters in New Coronet?”

“We had a tip that they were here,” Stormie answered, hoping he didn't ask for more details.

“Ronko shavit,” he responded forcefully. Then he paused thoughtfully a moment. “You seriously expect us to believe two sets of bounty hunters just happen to come sniffing around the same time one of our major operations gets shut down and nine of us get killed?” he demanded.

He didn't seem to question the story that Ta'tan'ia and her partner were bounty hunters. They must have already learned that from the police or somewhere, not that that was actually true.

“We were just tracking our targets. I don't know anything about any of your operations, or your people getting killed,” she told him.

“Ronko shavit,” he said again. “Why were you even going after these other bounty hunters?”

“Embra the Hutt paid them a deposit on a bounty. They didn't deliver by the deadline, so we were sent to deal with them.”

Stormie could tell he wasn't going for it.

“So why were you at Wild Ace Ink?”

She opened her mouth in shock. How could they know about that?

Now Stormie had to be careful. The tattoo artist could lead them to her real mission—Veila. She couldn't have them asking too many questions in that direction.

“We weren't at a Wild Ace Ink,” she told him in bewilderment. “We were just tracking our targets.”

“You know, I'm sort of glad you said that,” Cyllir replied with a smile.

Then Stormie was screaming out from the shock stick hitting her again. This time it went on for several seconds. In the middle of the eletro-torture, Cyllir punched her in her solar-plexus, knocking the wind out of her.

“Now, one more time,” the Zoloz began slowly, leaning in close to her. “Why were you at Wild Ace Ink?”

“I—I must have followed Kyle and his Twi'lek schutta. I wasn't paying attention to where exactly they were going,” she responded breathlessly.

“And who shot the tattoo artist there?” Cyllir asked, his mouth just centimeters from her ear.

“I—I don't know!” Stormie answered in mock fearfulness. “It must have been Kyle and the Twi'lek.”

Suddenly Cyllir held the shock stick up in front of her. He made at point to let her see him turn it up to maximum. Then he shoved it several centimeters up her sex.

“If I find out you're lying to me, I'm going to fry every single nerve in your pussy.”

Stormie stared at him in horror. For once, she was really helpless. She couldn't imagine that thing shocking her in there.

“I swear me or my partner didn't kill anybody,” she told him, staring straight into his eyes—and lying through her teeth.

“Oh, I know you didn't kill him,” Cyllir replied casually. “He's not dead. He's just in a bacta tank. He should be fine in a week or so.”

Stormie was absolutely stunned. That kriffing idiot hadn't killed him! How the frakk could anyone frakk up something so simple!? Vik would tell them everything. When she got out of this, she was going to kill Broxn. Slowly.

While she was contemplating Broxn's Hutt-sized incompetence, and what she was going to do about it, Cyllir was sliding the shock stick out of her. Suddenly she felt a jolt of electricity on her pussy lips, and screamed in a combination of pain and terror. In a split-second she realized he had turned the power down to low. It still hurt like hell though, and had scared the shavit out of her. The Zoloz merely laughed at their joke.

One of the other Zoloz caught the Vice-President's attention, and gestured towards the door. He looked over, then back to Stormie. She followed his glance to see yet another Zoloz standing just outside the doorway.

“Be right back, babe,” he said cheerfully, tossing the shock stick back to the Zoloz behind her.

As Cyllir left, Stormie glanced between the two Zoloz in front of her. Neither was shy about staring at her naked and in chains. The one behind her was probably eyeballing her ass too. She thought about trying to talk them into letting her go, or at least loosening her cuffs. They weren't torturing her at the moment though, so maybe she should stay quiet for now. Then again, she needed to get control of the interrogation. She wasn't going to get out of this by hanging around doing nothing.

“Please let me go,” she finally pleaded with the one on the left, who was standing. His name patch said he was Koda. “If you want credits, I can pay you whatever you want.”

Koda flashed an amused smile, while the other two laughed.

“Anybody ever tell you you got a nice ass?” the Zoloz behind her said as he ran his hand across her backside.

Before Stormie could respond, she yelped in surprise—mostly, but a little in pain as well—as he spanked her. Then she heard the shock stick activate. She held her breath as she felt it get within a centimeter of her ass. She recoiled as much as her chains would let her, but he kept it almost touching her skin. After a moment he moved it up to her right side, and she twisted away as much as she could again. Next he moved the shock stick around her to the underside of her left breast. The Zoloz sitting down laughed, while the one standing off to her left merely grinned in amusement as she flinched and twisted away from the painful shock stick.

Stormie almost let him just shock her, but she knew the pain would be worse than the humiliation—barely. She kept dancing and twisting in her shackles for the Zoloz amusement, while cursing herself for getting captured, and cursing Broxn for not killing that kriffing tattoo artist.

Several minutes later—although it seemed like a lot longer—the asshole behind her grew bored with his game, and let her relax, at least as much as she could hanging from her wrists. A couple of minutes after that another Zoloz came in, carrying a black durasteel collar. She had a pretty good idea who that was meant for.

The Zoloz whispered a few words to Koda. Stormie could make out the word PROPERTY on one side of the collar, just like the one Veila had been wearing in the holo. Then she wondered if it was the same collar. Wouldn't that be a blaster bolt to the gut?

“Well well,” Koda said, turning back towards her. “It looks like we're going to have to take a break here.”

Stormie almost asked if that meant she could get a cup of caf and use the 'fresher, but quickly closed her mouth without saying anything. Something wasn't right. Why would they stop interrogating her? Maybe they were just checking out her story. . . or maybe they had another source of information that seemed more promising. . .

Under Koda's direction, they lowered her arms until her wrists were just above her head. Then he gathered her hair, and pulled her up by it until she was standing on her tip-toes. The new Zoloz closed the durasteel collar around her neck, and Koda let her go. Next they put some slack in one of the chains separating her ankles, letting her feet come to a little more than shoulder-width apart.

“That's real sexy,” Koda told her, reaching up and tugging on the leash ring of her collar.

The Zoloz that had been torturing her with the shock stick and the one that had brought in the collar left, leaving her with Koda and the one that had been sitting off to her right.

“We're just going to hang out a while, okay?” Koda said as climbed onto a stool next to a table with some tools and speeder-bike parts on it.

Stormie looked around the garage a few seconds, then between the two Zoloz left to guard her.

“So, how long you guys been with the Zoloz?” she asked with a friendly smile.

“It's our first day,” Koda answered promptly. “Now shut the frakk up.”

Stormie sighed, and looked around the garage some more. There wasn't anything within reach that looked useful. A few minutes later she asked for some water.

This time she felt a shock from her collar.

Frakk. That wasn't good news.

“Anything else you want, babe?” the one on her right asked with mock-concern.

She wisely didn't respond.

The jolt definitely hurt, but not as much as the shock stick on low. There was no way she could avoid getting hit by a collar maglocked around her neck though. She didn't see Koda use a remote or anything, but since she hadn't been expecting it, she hadn't paid attention. Next time she got shocked, she would.

With her wrists cuffed only right above her head, and her feet shackled about half-a-meter apart, Stormie was comfortable enough in her chains, at least for now.

About fifteen minutes or so later, Cyllir returned, along with another Zoloz. His name patch said he was Lonn. She thought he was the one who had been shocking her earlier, but she wasn't sure, since she hadn't gotten a good look at him.

Cyllir grabbed a chair and set it down about a meter and a half from her. The second Zoloz took his place behind her again.

“Hey, what'd you say your name was?” Cyllir asked, straddling the backwards-facing chair.

Stormie had gotten around that question earlier by just saying that she was a bounty hunter looking for two other bounty hunters they were also looking for. The Zoloz had seemed more interested in that story then her actual name.

“Valliry Plaxx,” she answered confidently, giving the name on the phony ID she had been carrying.

“Yeah, that's what we thought,” Cyllir agreed with a nod. “Funny thing is though, we just had a talk with your other partner from the cafe down the street, and he says that your name is Lieutenant Stormie Kintra, and that you, Cole Whytte who was in the speeder with you, and he are all Imperial Security agents.”

HOLY FRAKKING EMPEROR! Stormie thought in stunned silence. Broxn was captured, and actually TALKING! I'm sooo frakked!

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Stormie quickly assured him. “I don't know who this person from some cafe is, or why he would tell you something like that. I'm a bounty hunter named Valliry Plaxx. The only 'partner' I had was Tam Lenzo, who was driving the speeder when you captured me,” she explained, doing everything she could to make him believe her. “If he's alive, he'll tell you the same thing.”

“Sure you don't,” Cyllir replied with a chuckle. “You see though, my buddies weren't as nice to him as I've been to you. Or maybe they're just better at getting answers in situations like this,” he said with a shrug. “We know who you are, and why you're really here.” He paused again, then added, “The good news for you is, we're gonna have to take a longer break while I talk to some people about some things.”

As he finished, Stormie sensed the Zoloz behind her almost touching her. She flinched away, anticipating a shock, but instead she felt a spray hypo on her hip.

“Wait!” she shouted, trying to stop the shot. She couldn't keep control knocked out. It didn't matter though. Before she could open her mouth again, she felt the drug hitting her. In seconds she was hanging limply in her shackles, unconscious.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ta'tan'ia brought her speeder-bike to a stop a few hundred meters up the street from the Zoloz' clubhouse. Master Solo had told her to take the small skiff from Wyric's ship and return to Trigalis. Since the local police were notoriously corrupt, she didn't trust them to properly follow up on the Zoloz' weapons smuggling.

Ta'tan'ia had landed her skiff at a smaller spaceport about a thousand klicks away, and rented the speeder-bike to come to New Coronet. She didn't want anyone at the New Coronet spaceport—which was the main one for Trigalis—to spot her and tip-off the Zoloz. Ta'tan'ia climbed off the speeder-bike, retrieved her gray cloak, pulled it on, then headed towards the clubhouse on foot.

Beneath the knee-length cloak with three-quarter length sleeves, Ta'tan'ia was wearing an armored black bodysuit with matching fifteen-centimeter wedge heeled boots. Her lightsaber was horizontal across the back of her nerfhide belt, while her blaster was in a drop holster on her thigh. A second blaster was in an inside pocket of the cloak. The bodysuit mostly hid her beskar wrist comlink and chrono, and collar. Her beskar chastity belt was locked in place underneath the bodysuit as well.

The outline of the waistband of her chastity belt was a couple of centimeters above her nerfhide belt, which was stiffened with a thin layer of durasteel inside it. A strap went from the nerfhide belt down the outside of each of her hips to another strap that encircled each of her thighs. Her holster was attached to the right strap. She also had a chest harness formed by straps running from each side of the front of her belt over her shoulders, and back down to the belt again. A nerfhide strap encircled her chest just below her tits, and another one just above them. Both harnesses had a assortment of black plastex D-rings to attach weapons and equipment to. Her nerfhide head harness matched the chest harness, except without the D-rings.

While she was waiting for landing clearance at the spaceport, she had learned that there was an arrest warrant for a female blue-skinned Twi'lek and a human male accomplice. They had allegedly killed five members of the Blood Riders swoop-bike gang at the same docking pit Tahiri's ship had been at. She and Wyric had had a shootout with the Blood Riders, but they just stunned them. The Zoloz had arrived just as they were boarding Tahiri's ship. They must have killed them after she and Wyric had left with Tahiri, and somehow her and Wyric had been blamed. She would have to do something about that, if she could.

Maybe tip off the police. Anonymously, of course. The Zoloz couldn't smuggle weapons if they were in prison.

As she approached the clubhouse, Ta'tan'ia reached out with the Force . . . and was surprised to sense someone in distress inside. A human woman, by the feel of it. She wasn't panicking, but she definitely didn't want to be there. As far as she knew, the Zoloz hadn't been holding anyone hostage when she had been at the party the day before. Well, except for Tahiri, who did want to be there, because they had drugged her. Ta'tan'ia thought a few moments, and decided to do a little investigating. If the Zoloz had kidnapped someone to replace Tahiri, then she felt a little responsible for it. And if the Zoloz had been able to kidnap someone else so fast, that was all the more reason to deal with them as quickly as possible.

A minute later she was peeking through the same window she had climbed through nearly two days ago when she had been looking for Tahiri. There was a single Zoloz sitting on a chair watching a datapad. Ta'tan'ia recognized him from the party. He went by Skifter, if she remembered correctly. The woman they were holding was behind a nearby door. Skifter didn't seem very attentive. He was probably just there to make sure the prisoner didn't escape. She could sense at least four or five more Zoloz upstairs in the clubhouse as well.

At first Ta'tan'ia was going to try putting the guard to sleep, but he didn't feel tired enough. In fact, he felt very alert, almost like he was high or something. After moment's thought, she reached out with the Force and gave him the urge to pee. It didn't seem to be working at first, but after about half-a-minute or so, he got up and headed towards the 'fresher, still engrossed in whatever was playing on his datapad.

Ta'tan'ia watched him go into the 'fresher, set the datapad on the counter. . . and leave the door open. She let out a silent curse in frustration. A Jedi couldn't let something like that stop them though.

The next thing Ta'tan'ia had to do was unlock the window with the Force. That barely required an effort.

After the window was unlocked, she used the Force to keep Skifter's attention away from her. At the same time she lifted herself up, and opened the window. Then she made sure he hadn't noticed anything, and quickly and as silently as possible slipped through it into the garage. Her wedge heeled boots were designed for stealth—at least as much fifteen-centimeter heels could be. They didn't make a sound as they hit the duracrete floor. The fact that she wore towering high heels basically every waking minute of every day didn't hurt either.

Once her feet touched the floor she moved out of Skifter's line of sight in case he glanced towards her. As she hurried towards him across the garage, she pulled out her blaster, and double checked that it was set to stun. It might be heard by the other Zoloz upstairs, but if she didn't take him down quietly, a fight would definitely be heard.

In a few seconds Ta'tan'ia was next to the 'fresher's open door. The guard was still peeing. As she stepped into the doorway she raised her blaster. A startled expression had barely formed on his face when she fired a single stun bolt into the side of his head.

Ta'tan'ia quickly leapt forward to catch him before he hit the ground. She holstered her blaster, and quietly lowered him the rest of the way down. Then she stepped back out of the 'fresher, closed the door, and locked it. If his buddies came looking for him, maybe it would buy her a couple of seconds or so.

Next Ta'tan'ia went to the door Skifter had been guarding, and was mildly surprised to find it wasn't locked. She opened it, and found a closet about one meter wide and two deep. There was also a naked woman sitting on the floor. A black durasteel collar with PROPERTY OF ZOLOZ on it was locked around her neck. Her wrists were cuffed in front of her and her ankles were shackled together. Both sets of cuffs were also locked to a restraining ring anchored in the floor.

“I'm here to free you,” she told her as she examined her chains. “The name's Seha,” she added after a few seconds. She didn't want to reveal her real name if she didn't have to. The Zoloz might learn who she really was, and connect the Jedi to Tahiri.

“Thanks,” the woman replied after a couple of heartbeats. “Valliry Plaxx. These swoop-bikers kidnapped me.”

Something didn't seem right, but Ta'tan'ia didn't have time to figure it out. “How do they unlock your cuffs?” she asked her, gesturing towards her wrists with the toe of her boot.

“I think there's a remote,” Valliry responded, glancing down at her cuffs. “But I don't think they keep it anywhere nearby, though,” she explained, raising her cuffed hands. “They tortured me some, locked this shock collar on me—”she paused to tug at the band of durasteel around her neck—“then injected me with something that put me out for at least a few hours, I think. I haven't seen one since they got me,” she said in dismay.

Ta'tan'ia hadn't really thought about her being restrained. Her lightsaber would cut the chains easily, but she didn't want to use the one thing that would almost certainly identify her as a Jedi.

“I'll be right back,” Ta'tan'ia said, heading back towards the 'fresher.

She quickly searched Skifter's pockets, and found a remote device. It just had a simple slide dial on one side, a blue button, and a red one. Hopefully it would unlock all of her shackles. Ta'tan'ia took a moment to put the Zoloz into a Force nap to make sure he stayed out, then closed and locked the 'fresher door on her way back out.

“Found it,” Ta'tan'ia told her, displaying the remote.

She glanced down at it, and promptly hit the blue button.

Valliry let out a yelp of pain and grabbed for the collar—which was still locked securely around her neck.

“Oh stang! I'm so sorry!” Ta'tan'ia said apologetically, realizing she had accidentally shocked her. She quickly hit the red button, but nothing happened.

“What the. . .” She trailed off, frowning as she hit the button a couple more times. “I guess this isn't it.”

“I think you have to hold down the red button a few seconds,” Stormie suggested with a painful grimace.

“Oh.”

Ta'tan'ia held the button down, and after a few seconds, heard the distinct—and familiar—sound of a maglock unlocking.

“Thanks,” Valliry said as she reached up and pulled the collar apart in the back. She set it on the floor, then asked, “What about these?” she asked, tugging at her cuffs so the chain rattled a little.

The slide dial on the side of the remote was probably just to adjust the power. That meant it wouldn't unlock her cuffs. Ta'tan'ia didn't see any other choice but to just cut the chains, especially with the other Zoloz upstairs.

“Hold out your wrists,” she told her as she dropped the remote, pulled out her lightsaber, and ignited it.

Ta'tan'ia was expecting her to be surprised, even a little scared of, the lightsaber's blue blade. She simply held her cuffed wrists and ankles out towards her though. She made a few quick slices, and the chains fell to the floor, leaving just the durasteel cuffs and shackles locked around her wrists and ankles.

“Thanks,” Valliry said as she held her hand up towards her.

“You're welcome,” Ta'tan'ia responded, obligingly reaching down and helping her to her feet.

“You wouldn't happen to have anything I could wear?” she asked, glancing down at the shock collar on the floor.

“Yeah,” Ta'tan'ia replied after a moment's thought, sliding one arm out of her cloak.

A couple of seconds later she handed it to the naked woman, who quickly pulled it on as they both headed for the window. First Ta'tan'ia helped Valliry up and out. As she pulled herself up to the window, a Zoloz descended the stairs behind her.

Ta'tan'ia muttered a curse and threw herself through the window, just ahead of a blaster bolt. Valliry mostly caught her, saving her from the duracrete.

“Thanks,” she muttered as she jumped back to her feet.

“No problem,” Valliry replied with a matter-of-fact nod.

“I've got a speeder-bike around the corner,” Ta'tan'ia told her, taking off towards alley's exit. “Come with me.”

Even in her fifteen-centimeter wedge heels, Ta'tan'ia made it to end of the alley in a matter of seconds. Valliry wasn't quite as fast though. For one, she was running barefoot in an alley strewn with broken glass and other debris. She also wasn’t a Jedi.

Ta'tan'ia paused at the end of the alley, and turned to wait on her. She looked back just in time to see a Zoloz step out from the garage door.

“Get down!” Ta'tan'ia shouted, pulling out her blaster.

Valliry didn't hesitate. She was on the ground in an instant, the Zoloz blaster bolt passing where she'd just been. Ta'tan'ia's bolt missed the Zoloz by mere centimeters. She fired a couple more as he ducked back into the garage.

“Move,” Ta'tan'ia told her, keeping her aim on the garage, and letting the Force guide her on when to shoot again.

Once again Valliry didn't need to be told twice. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted towards Ta'tan'ia, making sure she stayed out of her line of fire.

Ta'tan'ia fired another stun bolt as the Zoloz peeked out of the doorway. He dropped to the ground, but another one leaned out behind him, firing his own blaster.

By this time Valliry had turned the corner at the end of the alley. Ta'tan'ia fired a couple more stun bolts towards the garage, then turned and followed her.

They made it to the speeder-bike without being shot at again. Ta'tan'ia still felt imminent danger through the Force though. Just as they were climbing on, a swoop-bike appeared from around the corner in front of them. Ta'tan'ia fired off a quick stun bolt, and missed. Instead of shooting back, the Zoloz was talking on his comlink.

Frakk.

As Valliry climbed on behind her, Ta'tan'ia slid her blaster back into her holster.

“I can shoot while you drive,” Valliry commented as she turned to watch the Zoloz turn around to follow them.

“What?” Ta'tan'ia asked in surprise.

“I can shoot them while you drive,” Valliry repeated, leaning closer against her.

“Inside left pocket,” Ta'tan'ia replied over her shoulder, also watching the Zoloz. She hoped she could handle the blaster well enough not to kill anyone—except the Zoloz chasing them.

Valliry reached into the cloak, and pulled out a compact blaster. “Thanks,” she answered, checking the setting. “By the way, where exactly are we going?”

Ta'tan'ia hadn't really worked out that part of the plan. The Zoloz' swoop-bikes were much faster than her rented speeder-bike, especially with two of them on it. Her ship was too far away for them to get to, and only had room for one person anyway. She guessed they would just have to evade the Zoloz, and hide out until it was safe.

“I don't know,” she called back. “Pretty much anywhere but here.”

“I've got a ship at the spaceport,” Valliry said, shouting over the sound of the engine and wind. “You know how to get there?”

“Yeah,” Ta'tan'ia answered as a blaster bolt went by them a couple of meters to their left.

Valliry turned and fired back at their pursuer. He responded with a couple more blaster bolts—both of which missed.

“You're not from here?” Ta'tan'ia shouted back at her.

“Na,” Valliry replied. “I'm a spacer. I was just on Trigalis making a delivery.”

Something about the uninformative answer seemed off to Ta'tan'ia. She was probably a smuggler, she decided after a heartbeat. If she was freighter pilot for some company, she'd say so. A smuggler was also a lot more likely to be associated with scum like the Zoloz.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia swerved hard to avoid a speeder emerging from a side street, and heard a curse from her passenger.

“Hang on,” she called back belatedly. It felt like she was hiding something, but she was a bit busy at the moment.

“I dropped the kriffing blaster,” Valliry shouted, reaching for Ta'tan'ia's thigh holster.

Ta'tan'ia silently nodded her head in consent as she pulled the blaster out. Valliry twisted halfway around and shot back at the pursuing Zoloz once again. Ta'tan'ia hoped some kid didn't find the kriffing blaster.

Two more Zoloz quickly joined the first one. Since the Zoloz' swoop-bikes were faster than hers, Ta'tan'ia had to make a lot of last-second turns to keep them from catching up with them. She could have actually cut some of her maneuvers a lot closer and lost them, but she didn't want to lose her passenger at over a hundred klicks an hour. She also hoped no innocent bystanders got hurt during all this. Either from a blaster bolt or a crash.

As they entered the spaceport Valliry told her which pit her ship was docked in, and fired another bolt back at the Zoloz.

“You got a comlink?” Valliry asked her. “I can open my cargo hatch, and we can just fly this thing in before they catch us.”

That'd be nice, Ta'tan'ia thought. Since hers was permanently maglocked on her wrist though, she didn't use a hand held one. For that same reason, she had rented a speeder-bike without one built-in. It saved the Order's expense account five credits a day after all.

“It's maglocked around my wrist,” she answered, keeping her eyes on where they were going.

“I got an idea though,” Ta'tan'ia said after a few moments' thought. She quickly pulled the sleeve of her bodysuit back to reveal her comlink. “Hold on.”

As Valliry wrapped her arms around her waist, Ta'tan'ia put both her hands back on the handle bars, and accelerated. If she could get to the docking pit and be out of the Zoloz sight for a few seconds or so, she had an idea on where to hide long enough to stop and let her use her comlink.

Half-a-minute later they arrived at the docking pit Valliry's ship was in. Two of the Zoloz were still close enough that they could see them go in. Ta'tan'ia slowed down as little as possible, and swung around behind the ship. Then she adjusted the speeder-bike's repulsor, and flew up onto the top of the ship. She came to a stop facing aft, on a flat part of the hull, with the higher center line between them and the entrance to the docking pit.

Ta'tan'ia began hurriedly tapping and sliding her finger across comlink. In seconds she had isolated the frequency of Valliry's ship, and synched with it. The ship's security seemed a bit complex for a mere spacer, even a smuggler, but she didn't have time to worry about that right now. She wasn't trying to slice in anyway. Ta'tan'ia twisted around, held her wrist out towards her so she could use the comlink, and told her to hurry.

While Valliry opened the cargo hold, Ta'tan'ia kept watch for the Zoloz, and listened to the Force for danger. She could hear their swoop-bikes enter the docking pit, and one coming towards them. She held her breath as he came around behind the ship. . . and kept going, not thinking to glance up a few meters.

“Let's go,” Valliry shouted, pushing her wrist away.

As Ta'tan'ia took off she felt her grab her chest harness strap going across her back. They dropped down to the ground and she turned hard back towards the ship, coming within a meter or so of the docking pit wall. The cargo hold was opened almost completely. Just as they reached the top of the ramp, Ta'tan'ia felt the Force completely disappear.

Ysalamiri!

Ta'tan'ia slammed onto the brakes as hard as she could. A heartbeat later she felt Valliry's arm around her neck, and the barrel of the blaster—her blaster—in her back. As the speeder-bike came to a hard stop against a bulkhead, she felt the numbing pain of a stun bolt. Luckily her armored bodysuit dissipated most of the effect. Ta'tan'ia reached up and grabbed her forearm around her neck with her left hand, and reached back for her lightsaber with her right.

Valliry's thigh and forearm blocked her from reaching her lightsaber. Then Ta'tan'ia grunted as she fired another stun bolt into her.

The bodysuit did its job again. Ta'tan'ia kept trying to get her lightsaber, but the kriffing schutta kept blocking her with her leg and arm. Suddenly Ta'tan'ia changed tactics, grabbed her wrist and forearm around her neck with both hands, and twisted to her left, trying to break her grip.

With Valliry's legs and arm tight around her upper body though, they just both came off the speeder-bike together. Ta'tan'ia hit the deck, with Valliry on top of her. By that time, Ta'tan'ia had changed her grip from her wrist to her hand. As they landed, she bent Valliry's hand down, and drove her elbow into the deck. She felt the schutta's wrist snap, and heard her howl in pain.

Valliry's head also landed on the thick part of her tchun—her left lek—which hurt like hell, and dazed her a bit. She reached back for her lightsaber again, and felt yet another stun bolt in her side.

Next Ta'tan'ia tried to turn out from underneath her. The traitorous schutta managed to stay on top of her though, and shot her again.

Still stunned from the spacer's head landing on her tchun, and with the bodysuit's armor weakened from the previous bolts, this one almost knocked her out. She grabbed for her broken wrist, and squeezed it as hard as she could. She was rewarded by another howl of pain from the schutta.

The next thing Ta'tan'ia knew something was hitting the side of her head, hard. Then she let out a gasp, and went limp.

Somehow she wasn't completely unconscious though. She was vaguely aware of Valliry straddling her lower back, then putting something around her neck. Then she felt her weight disappear from her hips. Sometime later, it didn't seem like very long, she felt her arms being pulled behind her back. She did her best to resist, but quickly felt something being wrapped around her wrists. When she let go of them, her hands stayed together behind her back. Next she felt her push her feet together, cross her ankles, and wrap something around them too. After that she felt her pull her biceps closer together, and wrap something around them as well.

After that Ta'tan'ia was rolled over to her back, and she felt someone grabbing the back of her chest harness. Then she was dragged a bit. They stopped, and she was was dropped, her head hitting something hard. That jolt knocked her out.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ PART II ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie Tarkin sat in the. . . closet, she guessed it was, bored as hell, and trying to figure out a way out of there. She had been there chained up ever since she had woke up from whatever knockout drug the Zoloz had injected her with a few hours or so ago. Not long after she woke up, she had yelled enough to get one of the swoop-bikers attention. He rewarded her with a hard shock from her collar, and a stiff kick to her thigh. Awhile later they brought her a bottle of water and a ration bar. They responded to her thanks with a derisive snort, and one commented that if she wanted some desert, he had something she could suck on.

The cuffs and shackles were comfortable enough, although the shock collar was a little too big. She had thought about masturbating, but she didn't want to risk the embarrassment of them catching her, so she just sat, idly playing with her cuffs, and testing them for weaknesses.

The door opened again. She looked up, and was absolutely shocked to see that kriffing Jedi, Ta'tan'ia—Admiral Daala's pet—who had gotten that kriffing Veila less than a day ago, just before she had gotten here.

“I'm here to free you,” Ta'tan'ia said dramatically, standing in the doorway like some sort of holovid heroine. She hesitated a moment, then added, “The name's Seha.”

“Thanks,” Stormie replied, in honest surprise. “Valliry Plaxx,” she added letting a little fear creep into her voice. “These swoop-bikers kidnapped me.”

She didn't know why the Jedi was using an alias, but she gave hers almost without thinking, like any well-trained Imperial Security Operative would. Mostly she was thinking; well, if I can't get Veila, I guess I'll take Ta'tan'ia.

The Jedi was wearing a gray cloak over a black bodysuit. Stormie could see some sort of chest harness, and wide belt as well. Very commando looking. Then she missed her asking something about her cuffs.

“I think there's a remote,” Stormie answered, guessing she was asking how to unlock them. Then she pretty much told her the truth. They had tortured her—she made sure to add that for sympathy—locked the shock collar on her, then injected her with some knockout drug.

Ta'tan'ia disappeared a minute, and returned with a remote, which she promptly used to shock the shavit out of her. The Jedi looked so pathetic apologizing Stormie almost felt sorry for her. She had a low tolerance for incompetence though, especially when it affected her so directly.

However, since she still needed her to free her from the collar and shackles, Stormie kept her thoughts to herself. The Jedi hit a button on the remote a few more times—she assumed not the same one, since she didn't get shocked again—but nothing happened.

Stormie had some knowledge of shock collars; from her Imperial Security training and from some personal activities. She had much more experience with the remote than the collar though. She politely suggested the undercover Jedi hold down the red button a few seconds.

Ta'tan'ia did, and Stormie was finally able to take off the collar while the Jedi apologized again for shocking her. The first thing Stormie wanted to do was lock the collar around her neck, and take the remote from her. She was still cuffed and shackled though, which was a more pressing issue at the moment. She rattled her cuffs a bit and asked her what she could do about them.

Since Ta'tan'ia hadn't said she was a Jedi, and was using an alias, Stormie was mildly surprised when she dropped the remote and pulled out her lightsaber. The Jedi made a few deft cuts, and she was free. At least of the chains. The cuffs were still maglocked around her wrists and ankles.

Once Stormie got up, she asked for some clothes, mostly to distract her while she figured out how to pick up the collar and remote without her noticing. The purple-skinned Jedi stripped off her gray cloak, and passed it to her. Stormie muttered a thanks and started to put it on. The sleeves ended a little short of her wrists, leaving the durasteel shackles exposed. Ta'tan'ia paused a moment, then turned and started out into the garage.

Stormie quickly grabbed the shock collar and remote as she followed her, to an open window leading outside. Then Ta'tan'ia helped her up and out. While the Jedi was climbing through, Stormie heard her mutter something. Then she dived out the window, practically landing on top of her before she could get out of the way. A split-second later she heard a blaster bolt hitting the wall near the window.

After Ta'tan'ia got up and thanked her—for what, Stormie wasn't exactly sure—she said she had a speeder-bike, and took off running down the alley. Stormie ran behind her as best she could. Running barefoot with heavy durasteel shackles—even without a chain connecting them—cutting into her ankles wasn't helping. As Stormie followed the Jedi, she noticed that she was wearing very high heeled boots—probably fifteen-centimeters or so.

Who wears fifteen-centimeter heels in the field? Stormie wondered incredulously. Maybe it was Admiral Daala's training, or maybe she was just a natural bimbo. Her ass did look incredible though. Stormie didn't mind chasing it one bit.

The chest-belt-thigh harness looked more than a little like a bondage harness, especially with the multitude of D-rings attached to it. Stormie wondered if she realized that. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of her realizing it or the idea of her not realizing it more. Her Twi'lek head harness only added to the submissive bondage image.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia turned and yelled for her to get down. Stormie dived for the duracrete, and felt the sizzle of a blaster bolt pass just above her. The Jedi fired a couple of times back at the Zoloz, then yelled at her to run again. Stormie jumped up and took off, moving to the other side of the alley to give her room to shoot.

The Jedi and Zoloz exchanged fire a couple more times before Stormie got to the corner. Ta'tan'ia fired a couple of departing bolts at the garage, then turned and followed Stormie out of the alley.

Just as they got to the speeder-bike, a swoop-bike turned the corner ahead of them, coming their way. Ta'tan'ia shot at the Zoloz, who was talking frantically into his comlink, but missed. Stormie straddled the bike behind her as she glanced first down at the blaster she was holstering, then back at the Zoloz, who was turning to chase them.

“I can shoot while you drive,” Stormie told her as she grabbed her waist. While that was true, she really wanted to get Ta'tan'ia's blaster. Disarming her would be a big step in getting her into chains on board her ship.

Stormie squeezed the Jedi's hips with her legs to help her hold on, and her hands settled into place just above her nerfhide belt. The bodysuit felt a lot stiffer right there than it should be. She felt a little higher and lower, and didn't feel the same stiffness. It almost felt like she had a band of durasteel or something around her waist underneath the bodysuit.

Is she wearing a chastity belt?

Ta'tan'ia must not have heard her the first time. Stormie repeated the question, and to her disappointment Ta'tan'ia told her there was a second blaster in the pocket of her cloak. Stormie thanked her as she pulled the blaster out. Then she decided to start guiding her towards her ship, and the ysalamiri on board.

She asked Ta'tan'ia where they were going. Luckily she didn't have anywhere particular in mind. Stormie helpfully suggested her ship at the local spaceport.

“You're not from here?” the Jedi asked in obvious surprise.

It took Stormie all of a fraction of a second to remember that she had only told her her cover name back at the clubhouse.

“I'm a spacer. I was just here making a delivery,” she lied quickly. She wasn't about to mention her cover of being a bounty hunter either. Best to keep her thinking she was just an innocent, helpless victim of the evil Zoloz.

Stormie wondered if Broxn might have told the Zoloz where their ship was docked. That would mean the Zoloz would have a good idea where they were going. They might already be there, trying to break in or something. Oh well, I'll just have to deal with them if they are. She had to get Ta'tan'ia into her shackles on board her ship.

The Zoloz chasing them fired another blaster bolt that was way too close for comfort. Stormie twisted around, fired back at him, missing. She immediately lined up another shot. Just as she pulled the trigger, the speeder-bike jerked hard to the right. That, and the recoil, caused the small blaster to slip out of her hand, and tumble to the duracrete.

Frakk!

Then Stormie realized that dropping the blaster wasn't so bad. She told her friendly Jedi what had happened, and Ta'tan'ia obediently nodded her head in agreement as she pulled her other blaster out of her thigh holster.

As Stormie shot back at the Zoloz again, she wondered if she could get her lightsaber without her noticing. After a moment she decided it was too risky. Once she got her on board her ship and in the ysalamiri's Force bubble, she could deal with her.

Stormie fired off another blaster bolt towards the pursuing Zoloz, and missed again. Actually, she wasn't really trying to hit him. With the Zoloz chasing them, Stormie knew that Ta'tan'ia was distracted, and easier to manipulate. However, if the swoop-biker got off a lucky shot—Ta'tan'ia, who was driving the speeder-bike, was a Jedi, after all—then Stormie would probably be dead, either from the blaster bolt or from hitting the duracrete at a hundred klicks an hour. That meant she had to shoot close enough to help keep him back, but not actually shoot him.

For the next several seconds Stormie held on tight as Ta'tan'ia made a few tight dodges around traffic. When she turned back to shoot again there were two more Zoloz behind the first one. Now she could take out that lead frakker.

Hitting a target moving and dodging at over a hundred klicks an hour from the back of a speeder-bike moving and dodging almost as fast was a lot harder than just almost hitting him though. She did manage to put a bolt in the steering vanes of his swoop-bike. It might have slowed him down a bit. Then again, it might not have.

They made it to the spaceport with all three Zoloz still chasing them. Stormie told Ta'tan'ia where her ship was docked, and she headed for it. As Stormie was shooting at the Zoloz yet again, she thought of another problem. She wanted to take her just as they entered the ship. Ta'tan'ia would feel the Force disappear though, and might be able to react in time to escape the ysalamiri's influence. Stormie needed for them to be able to fly straight into the cargo hold. That way, by the time Ta'tan'ia realized what was happening, they'd be too far inside the ysalamiri's Force bubble for her to get away.

With Ta'tan'ia sitting in front her on the speeder-bike, she could just stun her as they entered the ship. If they got off and went in on foot, she wouldn't have that advantage.

Unfortunately the Zoloz most likely had her comlink, which she would need to open her cargo hold door. She asked her soon-to-be-prisoner for her comlink, and explained her plan, leaving out the part about capturing her, of course.

“It's maglocked onto my wrist,” Ta'tan'ia shouted back, raising her right hand a bit to expose a centimeter or so of silver beskar.

“Oh yeah,” Stormie said under her breath. Admiral Daala had permanently maglocked her pet's chrono and comlink cuffs around her wrists, and her collar around her neck. That reminded Stormie that she was going to have to do something about the shackles on her own wrists and ankles when she had the chance.

“I got an idea, though,” the Jedi added a few seconds later. “Hold on.” Even though the the spaceport was more crowded that the city streets, she accelerated hard.

Stormie wrapped her arms around her waist, grabbing her right wrist just above the cuff with her left hand and pulling tight. She kept the blaster in her right hand. She held her breath for a couple of particularly close calls as Ta'tan'ia weaved and dodged their way through the spaceport traffic.

Stormie had to give the Jedi credit. She was good. She knew she couldn't have matched her flying skills. The Zoloz, on their more powerful swoop-bikes, were even falling behind. Most importantly, Ta'tan'ia managed to make it to the ship without killing them.

As Ta'tan'ia entered the docking pit, Stormie glanced back to see that two of the Zoloz were still close enough to see them. Once they got inside, Ta'tan'ia slowed down, and circled around behind the ship. Stormie was about to point out that hiding back here wouldn't give her enough time to program her comlink to open the cargo hold doors. Before she could though, Ta'tan'ia flew the speeder-bike up onto the top of the ship, and stopped near the center, on the side away from the entrance to the docking pit.

Not a bad idea, Stormie thought as the speeder-bike came to a stop. Maybe the Zoloz wouldn't think to look up here . . . for about twenty seconds or so, anyway.

Ta'tan'ia tapped rapidly into her comink a few seconds, then twisted halfway around towards Stormie.

“Here,” she said, holding her wrist out for her. “Hurry.”

Stormie thought about handing her the blaster back for about a half-a-second. Then she wedged it down between her crotch and the Jedi's lightsaber on the back of her belt, and grabbed her comlink cuff with her left hand. Ta'tan'ia already had it synced in with her ship's secure frequency. Stormie was impressed. She quickly punched in her security code, and got to work.

The first thing she did was power up the engines and start pre-flight. Then she programmed her cargo hold hatch to open for sixty seconds, and automatically close. Next she programed the ship to take off the moment the engines were powered up enough, and head for space.

Stormie was also impressed with the feel of the beskar cuff, and touchscreen interface of the comlink itself. Her durasteel comlink cuff was on her ship, but maybe she'd try to get herself a beskar one. And maybe a matching chrono as well. . .

“Let's go,” she shouted, nudging the Jedi's wrist away as she let go of it, and grabbing the blaster. She felt the weight of the shock collar in her pocket. She couldn't wait to try it out on her.

Ta'tan'ia accelerated off the top of the ship heading aft. Stormie reached up and grabbed the lower strap of her chest harness with one hand, and squeezed her hips with her thighs to hold on. The repuslor whined as they dropped to normal ride height. There was a single Zoloz near the entrance to the docking pit. Stormie would have shot at him, but she was busy changing the setting on the blaster to stun.

They did a hard one-eighty back towards the cargo hold, barely missing the docking pit wall. Just as they reached the top of the cargo ramp, Ta'tan'ia suddenly slammed on the speeder-bike's brakes. Stormie knew she had sensed them entering the ysalamiri's Force bubble. As she grabbed her by her neck with her left arm, she pressed the barrel of the blaster into her back. She fired a stun bolt as she held her in tight. To Stormie astonishment, it didn't put her out. Ta'tan'ia reached back for her lightsaber, but she blocked her with her leg and arm as she shot her again. The schutta grunted, but still didn't go out. The frakking bodysuit must be armored!

Stormie kept squeezing tight with her legs while blocking her from getting her lightsaber. Even though her arm was tight around her neck, she wasn't really trying to choke her, just control her upper body. She could feel her beskar collar underneath her bodysuit anyway as she fired another stun bolt into her ribs.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia pulled down on her arm with both hands and tried to twist away. Stormie stayed with her though, and they both fell down to the deck, landing almost face down, with her mostly on top of the Jedi. As her left elbow hit the deck, she felt an intense pain from her wrist from the Jedi schutta pushing down on her hand. Stormie yelled out in pain, but held on. She quickly pressed the barrel of the blaster back into her side, and shot her with another stun bolt. Ta'tan'ia suddenly stopped reaching for her lightsaber, and twisted her body hard, trying to get out from underneath her. Stormie held her tight and fired another stun bolt into her. It still didn't knock her out, but this time, it definitely dazed her.

Suddenly the schutta grabbed her wrist again, and squeezed it. Stormie screamed in pain, then, a heartbeat later, hit her head with the side of the blaster as hard as she could. Furious, she immediately hit her again, just as hard. The blaster-hits seemed to do the trick. The Jedi let out a weak gasp, and went limp.

Stormie took a couple of deep breaths as she sat up, still straddling her. Her wrist was definitely broken. Her elbow hurt almost as much. She rested a few seconds, then snatched the lightsaber off the back of the Jedi's belt, and tossed it across the cargo hold. Next she pulled the shock collar out of her cloak pocket, and put the the blaster in.

Just as she had suspected, the collar had PROPERTY OF ZOLOZ engraved on it in letters about four centimeters high. Stormie's broken wrist throbbed in agony as she locked it around the Jedi's neck. She had to pull down the collar of her bodysuit to get it to fit over her beskar collar, which was awkward with only one good hand. She couldn't wait to try the shock collar out, especially since the schutta had broken her wrist.

With her prey unconscious and collared, Stormie climbed to her feet. Even with the ship programmed to take off as soon as possible, she didn't have time to waste right now. She had to get the Jedi secure as fast as she could. With a broken wrist, she'd be at a serious disadvantage if she woke back up.

She took a few steps to the tool box, and found a roll of spacer's tape, which she used to tape Ta'tan'ia's wrists together behind her back, while excruciating pain shot through her own wrist every time she tried to use her hand. Still, she finished the job, making sure to cover the touchscreen of her comlink several times. Then she crossed her ankles, and taped them tightly together. Stormie paused a moment then wrapped several layers of tape around her upper arms as well. She needed to get a plasticast and bacta shot for her wrist. The kriffing Zoloz' cuff wasn't helping either.

Next Stormie squatted down, and rolled Ta'tan'ia over to her back. Then she grabbed the roll of spacer's tape, tucked it under her left arm, grabbed her the back of her chest harness, and began dragging her out of the cargo bay. Frakk, her wrist hurt. Luckily though, the lithe Twi'lek didn't weigh much. She carried her to the cell they had for Veila, and dropped her upper body. Her head hit the deck, but she didn't really care at the moment. Besides the ysalamir on the other side of the bulkhead, it was a standard Imperial Security cell.

Stormie rolled her prisoner over onto her stomach, brought her feet up to her ass, and taped her ankles to her wrists. That would have to do until she had a chance to get her into some shackles. With a nod of satisfaction, she stepped out of the cell, activated the energy barrier, and hurried to the cockpit. Her wrist would have to wait a few more minutes at least.

The first thing Stormie did once she settled into the pilot's chair was make sure the engines were at full power, and activated the shields. After that she put the holocameras' feed from the cell onto a screen so she could keep an eye on her prisoner. Then she checked the sensors for incoming ships. There were a few nearby, but none on an intercept course. There were also several indignant messages from the spaceport demanding her to land immediately.

The next thing Stormie did was send self-destruct messages to her teams' two datapads and their comlinks. They would physically destroy their circuits and memory automatically if they weren't accessed with a correct code every three hours, but she didn't want to take any chances of the Zoloz being able to slice them.

As Stormie made it into the ionosphere, she detected a system patrol craft on an intercept course. Not only was it too far away to catch her before she entered hyperspace, she was confident her ship was faster, so she didn't worry about it. Before she went into hyperspace though, she needed to contact Imperial Security.

Stormie reported that the mission was a failure. She told them Whytte had been killed, and she and Broxn had been captured. She explained that she had escaped, without mentioning having help from a Jedi, but Broxn was still being held. He had revealed the teams' true identities, and probably their mission, and that she wasn't in a position to extract him. All classified Imperial property—meaning their datapads and comlinks in this case—had been secured.

She was pretty sure what would happen to Broxn at this point. They had been on a black-op in enemy territory. If he somehow wound up in Galactic Alliance custody and they didn't know who he was, the Empire could just file an extradition request on him, and maybe get him back. Since he was being held by an outlaw swoop-bike gang though, they'd just send a team in, and mostly likely kill him, along with anyone else they had to. Considering who her grandfather was, they probably would have put more of an effort into rescuing her. Then again, she knew of a few Moffs that would probably put more of an effort into killing her if they had the chance.

In a few seconds Stormie got a reply from Imperial Security. They acknowledged the mission failure, Whytte's death, and that the classified items had been destroyed. Then they asked her if she would be able to deal with Broxn, or if they needed to send a clean-up team in. She paused in thought a few long moments, then told them to stand by.

Stormie reached for the comm, then remembered she was still only wearing Ta'tan'ia's cloak that wouldn't stay closed, and the cuffs and shackles the Zoloz had locked on her wrists and ankles. She checked her scanners for hostile ships nearby, and the holofeed from the cell. Since there weren't any external threats, and Ta'tan'ia looked to still be unconscious, she felt safe enough to leave the cockpit for a few moments. Before she left though, she programmed her ship's computer to slice into the New Coronet Security Force's database.

Then she ran to her cabin, threw off the cloak, and grabbed one of her jumpsuits. The jumpsuit was black, but looser fitting than the one Ta'tan'ia was wearing. More importantly, it didn't show most of her tits like the cloak did. Lastly she grabbed the shock collar remote and Ta'tan'ia's blaster from the cloak's pockets.

One the way back, Stormie grabbed the medic pack from the Medical Station. She had to do something for her wrist. Back in the cockpit, Stormie checked her sensors and the cell holofeed again. Then she gave her left wrist a bacta shot. She wanted a painkiller as well, but she didn't want to take it until she was safely in hyperspace. After the healing bacta shot, she pushed the durasteel cuff up her forearm as far as she could, and put the plasticast around her wrist and hand.

By the time she had pulled the jumpsuit on, the computer had finished slicing into the New Coronet Security Force's computer. She quickly confirmed that a Tam Lenzo, the alias Whytte had been using, had been killed the day before. They had listed his cause of death as murder. That was no surprise considering the Zoloz had shot him at least four times in their ambush. That was one potential security leak she didn't have to worry about. Now she had to take care of the other one.

Next Stormie programmed her ship's computer to find the Zoloz' clubhouse's comm frequency. Once she had that, she commed them, requesting a visual transmission. A few seconds later a Zoloz appeared on her holoscreen.

“Who the frakk is this!?” he demanded.

Stormie didn't recognize him. She just knew he wasn't Cyllir, who she needed to talk to. With the gang's president in jail, Cyllir should be running things at the moment. He certainly seemed to be in charge during her interrogation.

“This is Valliry Plaxx,” she informed them, giving her own alias. “I need to speak to Cyllir. I think I left something at your clubhouse.” As she spoke, she had the navicomputer start plotting a hyperspace jump of a few dozen light years. She wanted a quick escape ready in case she needed it.

“Frakk you!” the Zoloz shouted back. Then he smirked. “Just come on back and pick it up, then. I'll be waitin' on ya, baby.”

Stormie ignored the last part of his comment, and glanced at her scanners and the cell holofeed. She was still clear of any nearby threats, and Ta'tan'ia was still gamorrean-taped where she'd left her.

Before she could respond, the Zoloz continued. “Or send that sexy Twi'lek back here. I'd love another blowjob.”

Stormie frowned a moment, then realized he thought she was working with Ta'tan'ia. Maybe she'd be able to use that to her advantage. “If I come back, I'm going to blast your clubhouse into a crater,” she told the Zoloz. “Now please let me talk to Cyllir, so I won't have to do that.”

The Zoloz stared at her for a few heartbeats, then began tapping on the controls of the holoprojector. A couple of seconds later she saw him talking again, but didn't hear him. Then she heard another voice over the link.

“This is Cyllir, what the frakk do you want?” the voice demanded.

Stormie wished she could see him face-to-face, but he must have been away from the clubhouse. He had probably been out chasing her and Ta'tan'ia.

“Hello,” she began politely. “Sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye. I know this man you found at a cafe claims he knows me, and that I'm something I'm not.”

“You mean your partner,” Cyllir interrupted.

“If you say so,” Stormie answered. “Now I've talked to my superiors, and they seem to think this man from the cafe is some sort of potential security leak. Normally they would send a team to clean up this sort of problem. In that past that's gotten a bit. . . messy. If I could tell my bosses that this problem is taken care of though, then things won't have to get so . . . messy.”

While she spoke, she watched the Zoloz on her screen, to gauge his reactions to what both she and Cyllir said. If the Zoloz vice-president didn't do what she needed him to do, maybe she could convince him to.

“Send whoever the frakk you want. We ain't afraid of shavit,” Cyllir assured her.

“Look, I know about the shootout your friends had with the local security officers, and the warehouse full of blasters. How is whatever passes for law enforcement in New Coronet going to react to another stack of dead bodies linked your swoop-bike gang?”

She didn't say that the dead bodies would be Zoloz. She didn't want him to react with foolish bravado. She wanted him to think of what was best for him and his little outlaw swoop-bike gang.

“Frakk the cops,” Cyllir told her. “And frakk you.”

“How would they react if someone told them who really killed those Blood Riders at the spaceport the other day?” she answered smoothly, playing a hunch.

“Tawnia and her kriffing bounty hunting partner killed them,” Cyllir proclaimed. “And maybe you helped them,” he added after a moment's hesitation.

“If you say so,” Stormie replied with a shrug. “But will the police believe that, or will they believe the same people that just killed some Security Officers killed them?”

The silence she heard told her she had scored a hit. The Zoloz on the screen seemed shocked at her question, although he quickly regained his composure. Maybe all the Zoloz didn't know what really happened? That information might be useful at some point. Stormie almost mentioned tipping off the Blood Riders, but as far as she knew they weren't a big enough player for the Zoloz to seriously worry about.

Cyllir muttered a curse over the comlink. “Like I said. Send in whoever you want to.” He paused a moment, then added, “Or we'll take fifty thousand credits for him.”

Stormie figured one of the reasons they had stopped questioning her was that they were planning on selling her and Broxn to the highest bidder. A swoop-bike gang—even one as large as the Zoloz—wouldn't have much use for an Imperial Security Operative. A lot of other beings out there would pay quite a bit for one though.

“Well, my superiors don't pay in situations like this either,” she told him. “They feel like it would only encourage people to do stuff like this in the future. And just so you know, they have already started taking steps to minimize the value he would have to people who would be interested in having him. You won't get nearly as much for him as you thought you would.”

Stormie knew that while the Empire would occasionally make a deal for an Operative with a legitimate government, they practically never paid for one's release, especially to outlaw types. Personally she didn't think Broxn was worth fifty credits, much less fifty-thousand. Then it occurred to her that she might pay them to take care of Broxn. She considered it a moment, and decided that she would only bring it up as a last resort, and only maybe five-thousand or so. Colonel Drasi was already pissed enough at her.

“Look, I know who the Zoloz are,” she continued when Cyllir didn't respond. “Big, bad, tough-ass, swoop-bikers. But you know who we are too. This isn't a fight you want.”

Ta'tan'ia seemed to be wiggling around on the deck a bit now.

Cyllir muttered another curse. “What do you want?” he finally asked.

“I just need you to take care of the security leak,” Stormie told him. “On holocamera, so I can confirm to my superiors that it's done.”

There was a few moments of silence. “I'm gonna need about ten minutes to set that up.”

Stormie checked at her sensor screen again. The system patrol craft had given up, but was still shadowing her at a distance. Suddenly there was an alert from the comm detection system. Someone was attempting to send an unauthorized signal off the ship.

What the frakk!?

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When Ta'tan'ia woke up, the first thing she felt was a throbbing headache—and a duller aching in her right side. She instinctively tried to use the Force to clear the pain, and was stunned to feel nothing. Then she remembered that traitorous schutta, and the ysalamiri. Besides the pain she was in, Ta'tan'ia realized she was gamorean-tied on the floor of what looked like a cell of some sort.

That schutta, she thought vehemently.

Ta'tan'ia quickly took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. Anger was of the dark side. Without the Force though, she felt almost powerless. It was like she was still half-asleep. That schutta, she thought again, pulling against her bonds.

No mere spacer would carry something as exotic as ysalamiri, and no mere smuggler would have a full blown prison cell on their ship, especially one with an energy barrier instead of a regular cell door. That meant the schutta was probably a bounty hunter. Ta'tan'ia didn't know any bounty hunters that went after Force-sensitives, which would be the only reason to have ysalamiri, but she also knew that some did, and the only ones that lasted very long didn't advertise it very much.

Ta'tan'ia twisted back to get a look at her restraints, and found out that her wrists and ankles were spacer-taped together above her ass. She also felt tape or something around her biceps, pulling her arms together. She wasn't sure if it was on purpose or by chance, but the schutta had taped over her comlink's touchscreen. Since the comlink was voice activated as well though, she didn't have to be able to touch it to use it.

Who should she comm though? The Temple was pretty far away, not that she knew exactly where she was at the moment. Still, there was always someone on duty to receive emergency messages. With her luck Wyric would probably be asleep or something if she tried to comm him.

The first thing Ta'tan'ia did was find out from her comlink what time it was. She wasn't sure exactly when everything had started, but she didn't think she had been out very long. As a matter of fact, the subtle vibrations from the ship felt more like sublight engines than a hyperspace drive. Ta'tan'ia frowned in thought a moment, she felt sure she had been out long enough for them to escape the planetary gravity well, and enter hyperspace. Just as she'd suspected, she had only been out maybe fifteen or twenty minutes or so.

Ta'tan'ia quickly composed a message. She explained that she had been captured by a human female, probably a bounty hunter, going by the name Valliry Plaxx on Trigalis less than an hour ago. They were currently en-route to an unknown destination on the bounty hunter's ship. She also told them that the bounty hunter had ysalamiri, and probably hunted Force-sensitives.

Ta'tan'ia instructed her comlink to send the message to the Jedi Temple, marked as urgent. She could tell by the subtle vibrations the comlink was making that it was sending it. Instead of the longer confirmation vibration though, after several seconds she felt the shorter vibration indicating it was attempting to resend the message.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia felt an intense shock from her collar. The memory of the schutta putting something around her neck in the cargo hold flashed through her mind as she screamed in pain and thrashed against her bonds. The electricity kept hitting her, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally she fell back into unconsciousness from the pain.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie immediately activated the audio in the cell. Ta'tan'ia was still gamorrean-taped on the deck all alone, but her head was turned back and she was talking. Stormie frowned in confusion a heartbeat, then realized the Jedi's wrist comlink must be responding to her voice, and she was trying to use it to call for help.

The ship—and especially the cell—was specially shielded to block unauthorized comm signals, but that didn't mean she was going to risk letting her test it. Stormie yanked the remote out of her pocket, pushed the power setting to maximum, and pressed the shock button.

The little Twi'lek screamed in pain as she thrashed against her bonds from the electricity. Stormie held the button down to keep shocking her. Then she remembered that Cyllir and the other Zoloz were still listening in. She quickly looked back at the Zoloz who was waiting on screen.

“Ten minutes,” Stormie confirmed absently as she turned the remote's power down to about halfway. “Comm me as soon as you're ready.” She was still shocking Ta'tan'ia. She didn't want her able to mutter a single coherent word.

The Zoloz on the screen was looking at her with a puzzled expression.

“Yeah,” Cyllir replied, obviously annoyed.

“I'll be waiting,” she told him.

Stormie shut down the link, then glanced at her sensor screen. The system patrol craft was still shadowing her. Ta'tan'ia seemed to be knocked out again, so she stopped shocking her. Then Stormie double checked that her hyperspace jump was still ready to go, and rushed to the cell.

Ta'tan'ia was out of it, but still conscious. Before Stormie went into the foyer, she grabbed a hypospray from a drawer, held it with her teeth, and grabbed a set of binders. Then she deactivated the energy barrier, and stepped into the cell.

The hypospray was loaded with a sedative that should keep her out a couple of hours or so. Stormie set the binders down, and went to administer it into the meaty part of her hip, but worried it might not penetrate her bodysuit. Instead she pulled down her bodysuit's collar, which was awkward while holding the hypospray in her one good hand. Ta'tan'ia tried weakly to twist away, so she straddled her upper body to hold her still. Then she injected her at the base of her neck, just below her beskar collar, and the shock collar. In a matter of seconds the cuffed Jedi was unconscious.

Next Stormie unwrapped the spacer's tape around her wrists, and snapped the binders on, below her chrono and comlink. Without the tape around her wrists holding her ankles up in the gamorrean tie, her bent legs straightened out and her still taped feet dropped to the deck. Then Stormie began examining Ta'tan'ia's beskar comlink. She wanted to find out for sure what had happened, and make sure it didn't happen again.

The comlink seemed to be waiting for input. Just as Stormie had suspected, the Jedi had been trying to comm for help. The comlink was displaying a message that it had been unable to deliver a message due to interference. Stormie tapped the screen and what looked like her contact list appeared. She had just been been trying to comm the Jedi Temple. Stormie took a few seconds to scroll through her contacts. There was all sorts of useful intel here. It even displayed the dates and times she had spoken with them. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to investigate it right now. She had to deal with Broxn first.

Stormie gave the comlink a few verbal commands, but it didn't respond to her voice. She figured it was coded to Ta'tan'ia's voice, but thought it was worth a try. She definitely didn't want the Jedi to wake up and try to comm her friends again, or activate the comlink's security. After trying to figure out how to disable the voice response a couple of minutes, Stormie gave up on that too. She'd just have to get back before the sedative wore off.

Once she got back to the cockpit, Stormie checked her sensors again, and the comlink. Then she turned the audio in the cell up to to maximum. She wanted to hear Ta'tan'ia if she made so much as a peep. Cyllir had about four minutes to comm her back. While she was waiting on him, Stormie commed Imperial Security, and reported that she anticipated having the security leak taken care of momentarily. They acknowledged, and told her to keep them appraised.

At ten minutes Cyllir still hadn't commed her back. She waited patiently, figuring it was a power play. She'd probably give him twenty minutes before she tried to comm him. It was possible he was having some sort of trouble. Outlaw biker types weren't known for their reliability. She frowned in thought a moment. They had seemed to be on top of things when they had captured her. Either way, she wasn't too worried yet.

Nearly five minutes after the agree-upon deadline, Stormie finally got the comm. She activated the link, and saw a masked man in a long sleeved black shirt in front of a nondescript brown wall.

“No names,” he said without preamble.

“Sure,” Stormie agreed with a shrug, recognizing his voice as Cyllir. “You ready to take care of this?”

“Oh yeah,” Cyllir responded. “But me and my friends had a talk, and we decided we can't do this for free. We got to have something.”

Stormie sighed in annoyance. She'd half expected something like this. “I can give you two thousand,” she told him.

“Five,” he replied without hesitation. “You guys have plenty of credits.” He shrugged, then added, “Besides, you'll spend more than that sending your clean-up team in from. . . where ever.”

“Twenty-eight,” Stormie answered. “The people they send for stuff like this'll be pissed about missing out.”

“Forty-two hundred,” Cyllir responded.

“Look, I can give you thirty-three hundred,” Stormie told him. “I'm gonna have enough trouble explaining this anyway,” she lied smoothly.

He paused a moment, then said, “I'm gonna need at least thirty-eight. I just took over and all, and I can't afford to look too weak in front of my people.”

Stormie flashed him an annoyed look. He didn't seem too interested in what his buddies thought when they were interrogating her. She was pretty sure he knew she knew that too.

“Thirty-five,” she told him, displaying the cuff maglocked around her right wrist. She made sure her left wrist, and the plasticast, were out of the holocam field. “And you have to unlock the cuffs and ankle shackles. Send the code or whatever.”

Cyllir grinned at her a couple of seconds. “Thirty-five. But I like you wearing cuffs and shackles, even if I don't see them, so I'm not unlocking them. He paused a moment, then added, “Or we'll take just a thousand if you'll put our collar back on and destroy the remote.”

Stormie briefly wondered if they'd take Ta'tan'ia wearing the shock collar with PROPERTY OF ZOLOZ on it, but quickly discarded the idea. She didn't want to reveal any information she didn't have to. The Zoloz thought she was working with Ta'tan'ia, she didn't see any reason to tell them anything different right now.

“Thirty-five,” she agreed. “Send me an account number.”

“Of course,” Cyllir responded with a nod, glancing off to the side.

A few seconds later the account information appeared on Stormie's screen.

“By the way, since you're not going to wear the collar, is there anyway you could send it back to us?” Cyllir asked her.

“Nope,” she answered as she transferred thirty-five hundred credits from one of her drop accounts to his. “I want a souvenir.” She paused a moment, then added, “Besides, you got my shock stick.”

Cyllir chuckled, then glanced off screen again. “Alright, my man says everything is good to go on our end. Anything else you want to talk about before we get to this?”

“Nope,” she repeated. “I'm waiting on you.”

A moment later another masked Zoloz half-dragged Imperial Security Agent Broxn into the holocamera field. Just as Cyllir had said back at the clubhouse, they'd been pretty rough on him. He was naked—at least from his stomach up—and his hands were bound behind his back. Most of his visible skin was covered with cuts, bruises and electrical burns. One of his eyes was swollen completely shut, and the other was bruised as well.

Stormie watched Broxn recognize her on the holoscreen. Behind him, Cyllir produced a blaster, and raised it towards his head. Broxn must have realized what was about to happen. As he muttered a curse, Cyllir shot him just behind his ear. He dropped to the ground like a . . . well, like a dead guy.

“That good for you?” Cyllir asked nonchalantly.

“Let me see him,” Stormie replied.

Cyllir stepped forward, and a moment later the holocamera tilted down. Stormie looked into Broxn's lifeless eyes, then to the centimeter-wide hole the blaster had left in the side of his head.

“Okay,” she said after a few seconds.

The holocamera tilted back up, and Cyllir came back into view. He glanced into the holoscreen a moment, then back down at Broxn.

“So you guys gonna tell his wife and kids he died a hero or something?” he asked as he looked down at the body.

“I don't frakking know,” Stormie replied in exasperation. That sort of thing had honestly never occurred to her. She didn't even know if he even actually had a wife and kids.

Cyllir stared down another heartbeat. “Oh well,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and looking back up. “Anything else?”

“Hell no,” she answered, leaning forward. “Goodbye,” she said, her finger hovering over the comm controls.

“Yeah,” he responded sarcastically, already looking away.

Stormie shut off the link, and double checked her hyperspace jump. Then she reached for the controls, and made the jump. Seventy-five seconds later, the ship reverted to subspace. She was just a few light years outside the Trigalis system, and coreward of it. She changed course about ninety degrees, and programmed in a system a little over midway to her real destination. That trip would give her a couple of hours to get both herself and Ta'tan'ia settled in. Then on her next stop she'd be able to get any messages or anything before making the final leg of her trip.

Before she entered hyperspace again though, Stormie commed Imperial Security and told them Broxn had been killed as well. She glanced at the cell holofeed, and saw that Ta'tan'ia was still out. A couple of minutes later Imperial Security commed her back, acknowledging Broxn's death. Then Stormie commed Colonel Drasi directly, and told him she needed a couple of days before she came back. He told her it was no problem, and that he'd cover for her.

With those two things taken care of, Stormie pulled the hyperspace levers back, and made her next jump. Once she had safely entered hyperspace, she headed back to the cell, to have some fun with her Jedi.

The first thing Stormie did was move the unconscious Twi'lek up onto the bunk. That took quite a bit of effort with just one good hand. Next she took off the Twi'lek's head and thigh harnesses. Her chest harness wouldn't come off without uncuffing her, so she just unbuckled it, and left it tangled around her upper arms. The second thing she did was take off the unconscious Jedi's wedge heeled boots. Her wrist didn't help her with that either. They were ankle boots, and had a wide strap fastening them at the top, around her ankles. Stormie couldn't say she was really surprised the Twi'lek's boots had built in ankle cuffs.

Then Stormie cut the spacer's tape around her upper arms, and pulled her bodysuit and chest harness down to her cuffed wrists. That revealed that the Jedi wasn't wearing a bra. Next Stormie wrapped a five-centimeter wide nerfhide strap around her upper arms, and pulled it tight. Once that was done, she uncuffed her, and pulled her chest harness off, and her bodysuit down past her hips.

Stormie quickly re-cuffed her, then pulled the bodysuit all the way off her, revealing a silver chastity belt. That made her remember that Admiral Daala had locked a beskar one on her while she had been her Jedi liaison. Damn, she's sexy, Stormie thought as she admired the mostly naked and cuffed Twi'lek. The purple skin, the chastity belt, the permanent beskar chrono and comlink cuffs, and especially the collar. She definitely understood why Admiral Daala liked her so much.

There was a cut on the side of her head, probably where she hit her with the blaster, but it didn't look too bad. She didn't see the cut from the second blow. After a couple of heartbeats, she decided she probably hit her nerfhide head harness one time. It felt thick enough to protect her from getting a cut from a blaster to the side of her head.

Next Stormie put a pair of cuffs on her ankles, and strapped her to the bunk, still face down. Then she paused in thought a moment, then wrapped a few layers of spacer tape around her fingers and thumbs. Now there was no way she could get into trouble.

With Ta'tan'ia secure, Stormie grabbed a chair from her cabin, settled down next to her, and began investigating her comlink.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A little over two hours into the hyperspace jump . . .

Stormie leaned back in the pilot's seat, watching the timer countdown. During the hyperspace jump, she had poked around in Ta'tan'ia's comlink a while. Unfortunately she didn't find anything really secret though. She suspected there was another layer of security. She did read some interesting sex chat between Ta'tan'ia, Syal and Myri Antilles, Jysella Horn, and a few of her other friends in the Jedi. What a bunch of kinky sluts!

After that she had programmed her ship's computer to mimic the code to unlock the shackles around her own wrists and ankles. The cuff on her left wrist was trapped underneath her plasticast, so she couldn't take it off yet. Then she replaced the cuff on her right wrist with her durasteel comlink. What could she say, she liked the feel of durasteel around her wrists.

The timer reached zero and the starlines shortened to points of light. Stormie glanced at her sensors a couple of seconds. There wasn't anything for over a hundred thousand klicks in any direction. She was just outside the nearest star system. Next she checked the comm. She had a message from Colonel Drasi, wanting her to comm him immediately. First she changed course though. While the navicomputer was plotting her next hyperspace jump, she turned to her comm system.

A minute later Colonel Drasi appeared on her holoscreen. He was in his office, but had taken off his uniform tunic, revealing his undertunic. She knew it was well past his normal duty hours. “Colonel Drasi,” she greeted him. “You needed to talk to me?”

“Moff Reige,” he began with a sigh, “is a bit upset with you.”

“What did I do?” Stormie responded, more than a little concerned. Even with her family legacy, she didn't want to annoy her Emperor if she could avoid it.

“Well, to start with, he didn't really want you going after Veila. Come to think of it, neither did I. Then you lost a good man in Agent Whytte. And then, to top it off, it turns out that Broxn's uncle is General Gharstill, and he's raising hell that his sister-in-law's baby boy died on some backwater Outer Rim world chasing some ex-Jedi schutta.”

Stormie did notice he didn't say Broxn was a good man. “I'm real sorry about Whytte,” she told him. “And I'm sorry for upsetting High Moff Reige.” Then she paused a moment. “If you don't mind me asking Sir, can you tell me if he's more upset about Agent Whytte dying, General Gharstill causing problems, or me going after Veila?” she asked him.

“Well, since you going after Veila caused the other two, I think it's mostly that,” Colonel Drasi told her. “But if it wasn't for General Gharstill, he probably wouldn't be as annoyed, and thus I wouldn't be as annoyed.”

“I'm sorry, Colonel,” Stormie apologized sincerely. While she had nothing but respect for Moff Reige, she cared more about what Colonel Drasi thought. “It was my mission, and I pushed it against both your and his advice. I really don't know how all three of us were made, but it's my responsibility.”

“These things happen. The nature of our work is often dangerous. Moff Reige, and even General Gharstill knows this. But this really isn't the reason I wanted to talk to you.” He paused a moment, then added, “At least not completely.”

Stormie frowned warily. Before she could respond, he continued.

“I see that you paid this Cyllir character thirty-five hundred credits to kill Broxn. Do we still need to send a team in to clean up?”

“I don't think so, Sir,” Stormie told him. “He talked, but I seriously doubt outlaw swoop-bikers even know what sort of questions to ask an Imperial Security Operative to learn anything really damaging.”

Colonel Drasi considered that a moment. “But he likely told them we were going after Jedi Veila?”

“Yes Sir,” Stormie answered. “They were already going to find that out from that tattoo artist that he didn't kill like he was supposed to though. And even then we just go back to the word of a bunch of outlaw swoop-bikers. If we send a clean-up team back in, it would only expose us even more to the G-A government.”

“Okay,” he replied thoughtfully. “We've already implemented standard security protocols for a compromised operative. That should be sufficient.”

“Yes Sir,” she responded with a nod.

“Now the last thing is, before you got captured, did you find Jedi Veila?” he asked her.

“No Sir,” Stormie answered. “I got some intel that the Jedi got her literally the day before we got there. I was trying to confirm that when the Zoloz ambushed us.”

“Okay.” Then he leaned forward, and asked, “Are you still looking for Jedi Veila?”

“No Sir,” she replied.

“Good. Keep it that way,” he instructed her. “Moff Reige has made it clear that you are not to go after her in anyway.”

“I understand Sir,” Stormie responded with an affirmative nod.

Colonel Drasi stared at her a few seconds. “I'm serious, Lieutenant Tarkin. Do not pursue her. That is a direct order.”

He only used her real last name when he really wanted her attention.

“I got it, Sir,” she answered defensively. “I'm not going after Veila.”

“So when can I expect you back here?” he asked her.

“Probably the day after tomorrow, Sir,” she told him. “Probably late, though.”

“You. Will. Be. Standing. In front of my desk by eighteen-hundred-hours the day after tomorrow, Lieutenant Tarkin,” he instructed her.

That would be pushing it a bit, but Stormie just wouldn't be able to visit as long as she had hoped.

“Yes Sir,” she replied obediently.

Colonel Drasi shut down the link, and Stormie relaxed a bit. That hadn't gone too bad. Then she reached out, and made her next comm call. A few moments later, Admiral Daala, a close family friend and former ruler of both the Empire and Galactic Alliance, appeared on her screen.

“Hello Stormie,” she greeted her once the link was made. “It's been a while. How have you been doing?”

“Fine, Ma'am, just fine,” she answered with a smile. “I was just in the sector, and I thought I'd drop by for a quick visit. With your permission, of course?”

“All of the Tarkins are always welcome on my ship,” she responded.

“Great, Admiral,” Stormie replied with a smile. “I'm bringing you a little present as well.” With that she pulled up the feed from the cell, and sent it across the link.

“Ta'tan'ia!” Admiral Daala said incredulously, looking at the unconscious and bound Jedi on the cell bunk. “How in the name of the Emperor did you get her?”

Stormie grinned. “Well, you could say she was so eager to get on board my ship she evaded blaster bolts to get here.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically.

Stormie locked eyes with her a couple of heartbeats, then said, “I got in a bit of a tight on Trigalis. The next thing I know, there appears Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia to my rescue. I get her to fly her speeder-bike, with me on the back, to my ship. When she hit my ysalamiri's anti-Force-bubble, I took her down. She doesn't even know who I am. She thinks I'm a just a spacer that was making a delivery on Trigalis.”

“Nice job,” Admiral Daala said in admiration. “I hope you didn't hurt her too badly?”

“She's fine,” Stormie assured her. “I just knocked her out, then gave her something that will keep her out for a few hours or so. As a matter of fact—” she paused to display her broken left wrist—“I wound up hurt more than she did.”

“I guess she spent more time in the gym training than I thought,” Admiral Daala commented, seemingly mostly to herself. “Still, you managed to capture her, with just one good arm.”

“Yes I did,” Stormie replied with some satisfaction. “Even without the Force, the little Twi'lek put up a good fight.”

Admiral Daala thought a few moments. “Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't take her. If she went missing, the Jedi would automatically suspect me, and a purple-skinned Twi'lek wearing a beskar collar and wrist cuffs is kind of hard to hide. I don't need the hassle.” She paused a heartbeat, then added, with a friendly smile, “I'd be happy to have my people come get her, and drop her off back on. . . Trigalis, you said you found her?”

Stormie frowned. She hadn't anticipated her not taking Ta'tan'ia. While the Jedi didn't know her real name, and she never planned on going back to Trigalis, she didn't really want a Jedi on the lookout for her. “Um, Admiral, she's a Jedi. I'd rather not have her coming after me.

“No problem,” Admiral Daala responded. “I had planned on wiping the last few hours of her memory anyway.”

“Sound great Ma'am,” Stormie said with a smile. “I'll need to make the rendezvous soon though. I have to be back the day after tomorrow.” Then she paused, and grinned slyly. “My superiors don't even know I have her.”

Admiral Daala smiled back at her. “Very nicely done, Lieutenant Tarkin. I'll have one of my ships meet you. It doesn't have any ysalamiri on board though, would it be possible to get one of yours?”

“No problem, Ma'am,” she answered. “I have one on a portable frame, ready to go. I can just say it was lost on Trigalis with the other one.” She paused again, then added, “I was on Trigalis looking for that schutta Veila. She was there, but Ta'tan'ia here”—she paused to nod towards the shackled Twi'lek on the holoscreen—“and another Jedi got her right before I got there.”

“Reige sent you after Veila?” Admiral Daala asked questioningly. “I didn't know the Empire cared about her.”

“He didn't, Ma'am,” Stormie admitted. “I found out Veila was with some outlaw swoop-bikers, and I talked them into letting me go after her. They could care less about justice.”

Admiral Daala shook her head in sympathy. “Look, I know the schutta killed Gilad, but she was just a pawn,” she told her. “She's not worth you wasting your time worrying about her.”

Stormie leaned back and thought about that a few seconds. If Admiral Daala didn't care about bring Veila to justice, then maybe she should really let it go.

“Alright, Ma'am,” she finally responded.

Admiral Daala was obviously relieved with her answer. “I mean, if you happen to have her in your crosshairs or something, then by all means, feel free to take her out. Or if she wanders into your ship, bring her to me. But I don't want you running all over the galaxy after that piece of trash out of some obligation to me, or to the memory of Grand Admiral Pellaeon.”

“Yes Ma'am,” she answered obediently.

“I need to arrange things on my end on my end for Ta'tan'ia,” Admiral Daala told her. “I'll send the coordinates for you to meet one of my ships in a few minutes. Also, I need to know exactly where you captured her, and any suggestions for the best place to leave her, along with the time line, so we know how far back to wipe her memory.”

“Yes Ma'am,” she repeated with a nod. Even if the memory wipe wasn't one-hundred-percent, the Jedi wouldn't remember enough to even began to track her down.

A moment later Admiral Daala's image disappeared. Stormie shut down her end of the link, and leaned back in her chair to wait. Ta'tan'ia was still unconscious in the cell. A couple of minutes later, she received a message with the name of the ship she would be meeting, as well as a rendezvous location and time. The new coordinates were only a little off course from her original destination. Once the navicomputer had plotted in the new jump, Stormie pulled back the hyperspace levers, and was on her way.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ PART III ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Admiral Natasi Daala smiled in anticipation as she contacted her secret medical research facility, and one of her most gifted scientists. A few seconds later her hologram appeared. She was human, heavyset, and looked to be in her seventies. Most importantly though, she was brilliant, and despised the Jedi.

“Doctor Gast, Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia will be in my custody in a few hours,” she told her. “I'm sending you to the Dark Horizon to go meet her. How soon can you be ready to travel?”

“It depends on how long will I have to work on her?” Doctor Gast responded. “And exactly what you want done?”

Admiral Daala considered that a moment. “No more than a day, at the most. We have to leave her on Trigalis, and not have her suspect we've had her. Wipe her memory, make her loyal to me. That can be on the subconscious level, so before long, she'll voluntarily leave the Jedi and come to me, like we discussed.” Admiral Daala hadn't mentioned that part to Stormie. No need to let anyone know that who didn't have to, not even someone she trusted as much as her. “Then we can make her more loyal, and absolutely obedient to me.”

“Of course,” Doctor Gast answered with a nod. “And the physical changes?

“Why not?” Admiral Daala asked with a shrug. “Not the breast enhancements though. Just the less obvious stuff. As long as we're making the other improvements.”

“In that case I'll need about forty-five minutes to get ready, Admiral,” Doctor Gast told her.

“Excellent,” Admiral Daala replied with an appreciative nod. “Ta'tan'ia will be unconscious, and have one ysalamir with her, to keep her from using the Force.”

“Of course, Admiral,” Doctor Gast repeated.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A couple of hours later . . .

When Ta'tan'ia woke up, the first thing she felt was a dull headache. A heartbeat later she felt—or didn't feel—the Force. That brought everything back. The schutta Valliry Plaxx. The ysalamiri. The cell on her ship.

Then Ta'tan'ia realized she was now naked; well except for her beskar chastity belt. She went to move her hands, and discovered her wrists were still cuffed together behind her back. She felt shackles around her ankles, and something tight around her upper arms just like before. She was face down on the bunk now, but she wasn't gamorean-tied anymore. Her fingers were extended, and taped together as well. There was also an unfamiliar weight of another collar around her neck, over her beskar collar.

“How was your nap?” a cheerful sounding voice asked from close—very close—by.

Ta'tan'ia turned her head back to her left and saw that traitorous Valliry Plaxx—if that was even her real name. She was sitting in a chair next to the bunk, doing something to her cuffs. A split-second later Ta'tan'ia realized she was tapping on her beskar wrist comlink's touchscreen.

“Hey!” Ta'tan'ia shouted, trying to twist away from her.

Unfortunately she only managed to move her comlink a centimeter or so. Not only were her wrists cuffed behind her back, she was also strapped to the bunk at her ankles, thighs, waist, and armpits.

“Calm down,” Valliry told her, casually slapping her bare ass, and getting a better grip on her wrist.

Last time Ta'ta'nia had woken up she had used her comlink's voice recognition to comm Master Solo for help, and had been interrupted by a hard shock from the collar the bounty hunting schutta had locked around her neck. She had been shocked into unconsciousness, leaving her comlink unsecure.

“What are you doing?” Ta'tan'ia demanded.

“What ever I want to,” she answered calmly. “Now be still.”

Ta'tan'ia paused a moment, then turned her head further back towards her cuffed wrists and shouted, “Security lockout!”

While the most secret information in her comlink was still protected, some of the less sensitive information was unsecure. The security lockout would protect everything though. Ta'tan'ia didn't want her learning anything that might hurt the Jedi.

Valliry paused a moment, then replied, “I disabled the voice on your comlink.” She seemed to be reassuring herself as much as informing her. Then she reached out and pinched the tip of Ta'tan'ia's tchun. “And be quiet!” she added, giving her sensitive lek a hard tug.

“Frakk you!” Ta'tan'ia shouted at her, trying to pull away again.

Valliry laughed at her this time, and turned her attention back to her comlink.

“Do you know who I am?” Ta'tan'ia demanded.

“Well yes,” she answered with sarcastic smile. “Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia. I have been going through your files for a while now.” Stormie had even turned off the shielding around the cell during her last course change, allowing the Jedi's comlink to receive any messages she may have been sent. There were a couple of interesting ones too.

Ta'tan'ia frowned a moment. “Then you know you'll never get away with this!”

Valliry laughed again. “I'm shaking with fear.”

Ta'tan'ia ran through a quick Jedi calming exercise. Anger wasn't going to help matters. Besides, since she had ysalamiri, she had obviously prepared to capture a Jedi. . . or at least a Force user. That might explain why she hadn't heard about any bounty hunters going after Jedi.

“I rescued you from those Zoloz,” she reminded her.

“Thanks,” Valliry answered blandly, still investigating her comlink.

“And this is how you repay me!?” Ta'tan'ia asked her. “By betraying me and kidnapping me!?” She wished she had the Force. Kriffing ysalamiri!

The traitorous woman paused a moment, and glanced over to her. “Seems that way,” she responded. “As soon as I saw you in that doorway, I knew I just had to have you in shackles on my ship.”

Ta'tan'ia frowned at her again. “And just where the frakk do you think you're taking me?”

“Oh, I know someone who'll appreciate having a cute bondage-loving Twi'lek Jedi around,” Valliry answered casually. “You'll probably even like it.”

Ta'tan'ia flashed her an indignant look. She was even more annoyed by the fact that the bounty hunter wasn't even looking at her. She was still snooping around in her comlink.

“And just where is that?” she probed. She knew that her fellow Jedi could remotely activate the tracking device in her collar, or track her through her comlink. They wouldn't do that for a couple of days though. She'd much rather get free herself anyway.

Valliry merely laughed in response. Then she paused, leaned back in her chair a little, and looked over at her. “Tell me, what sort of Jedi wears fifteen-centimeter heels and a chastity belt on a dangerous field mission?”

Ta'tan'ia felt a flash of embarrassment. “None of your business,” she declared.

Now Valliry laughed again. “The chastity belt and collar and these cuffs look great on you,” she told her, tugging her comlink a bit. “The boots did too. Sorry I had to take them off.”

Ta'tan'ia didn't quite know how to respond to that. Then she realized that she hadn't asked why she was wearing her collar. Her comlink was at least functional, but there was as little reason for her to wear a six-centimeter-wide collar on a mission as there was for her to wear a chastity belt and fifteen-centimeter heels. While it wasn't exactly a secret that the tracking collar Chief Daala had put on her was permanent, it wasn't widespread knowledge. Maybe the bounty hunter knew more about her than she was letting on? That made Ta'tan'ia wonder why she had been on Trigalis. Maybe she had been tracking Tahiri, but that still wouldn't explain knowing about her collar.

“Look, however much you're getting paid, I can double it,” she told her. “Just let me go.”

The bounty hunter chuckled yet again. “Sorry. I've already promised my client delivery of one sexy, submissive Twi'lek Jedi. I'd hate to disappoint them.”

Ta'tan'ia stared back at her again. “You won't get away with this,” she assured her.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie smiled in amusement at the Jedi's proclamation. She was inside her ysalamiri's anti-Force bubble, shackled, and wearing a shock collar. Still, Ta'tan'ia was confident that she 'wouldn't get away with this.' She sounded like some heroine from a holomovie or something.

“Get away with what?” Stormie asked her innocently. “From what I understand, you love being cuffed and shackled. I'm just indulging your fantasies.”

“Don't try to twist this around, you traitorous bounty hunter,” the sexy Twi'lek replied after a brief hesitation. “This is kidnapping and assault.”

“Assault? You're the one that broke my wrist,” Stormie pointed out as she displayed the plasticast on her lower forearm.

“Only after you lured me into your ship and started shooting me with my own blaster that I gave you!” Ta'tan'ia answered. “I was just trying to defend myself.”

Stormie laughed in reply. “You were the one flying the speeder-bike,” she reminded her. “And you mean to tell me that being helplessly shackled doesn't turn you on at all?” she prodded. “I bet if we took off this chastity belt we'd find out your purple pussy was practically dripping in arousal,” she suggested as she patted the vertical band of beskar running between her ass cheeks.

The Jedi responded by looking at the bulkhead in front of her defiantly.

“I found the code for it, by the way,” Stormie informed her with a smile. “You sure you don't want me to unlock your chastity belt—” she snaked a finger underneath the top of the vertical band and gave it a tug— “and we can have some fun while we're in hyperspace?”

Stormie suddenly thought of her vibrator, and realized she should have taken off the Twi'lek's chastity belt, shoved it into her pussy, then locked the belt back on her. That would have been loads of fun. Oh well, maybe next time. Or later . . .

“No.” Ta'tan'ia stated firmly.

“Well, how about you just lick my pussy?” Stormie asked her. “Every time you make me cum, I won't mess around with your comlink for . . . say thirty minutes?”

“I will not,” Ta'tan'ia said just as firmly, but after a slight hesitation. “Anything you could have learned, you probably already did. And since you can't slice my comlink's second level security anyway, there would be no point in licking your pussy for that, even if I did believe you'd stop.”

While Stormie was confident the slicers back at Imperial Security could, eventually, she knew that that was true for all practical purposes. She actually hadn't even bothered to try. She suspected the attempt might somehow alert the Jedi. Admiral Daala would probably have the facilities to ensure that didn't happen though.

“Come on, I hear that when you were Admiral Daala's pet Jedi you licked her pussy whenever she wanted you to,” she said with a mischievous smile.

Ta'tan'ia stared back at her indignantly.

“It wouldn't have to mean anything or anything,” Stormie told her with a shrug when she didn't respond. “Just a way to pass the time. Two sexy women having a little casual fun. You licking my pussy. Me spanking your ass. We both get something out of it.”

“Free me and lets finish what we started in the cargo bay,” Ta'tan'ia suggested. “I'll even let you keep the ysalamiri. That'll be loads of fun,” she said sarcastically.

Stormie laughed again. “What if I did this until you made me orgasm?” Stormie asked, reaching into her pocket and giving her a low shock from her collar.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ta'tan'ia knew Chief Daala had told a few people just how intimately she had served her when she had been her Jedi Liaison, but she wondered how a mere bounty hunter knew about it. Maybe Chief Daala had hired her to capture some rogue Jedi, or something. That would explain why she had ysalamiri. Then Ta'tan'ia realized that Valliry had referred to her as Admiral Daala, and not Chief Daala. While that didn't mean anything in and of itself, it was mostly Imperials that called her Admiral.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia grunted, more from surprise than pain from the electricity hitting her. The schutta must have kept the Zoloz' shock collar. She vaguely remembered her putting something around her neck in the cargo bay before she had completely lost consciousness.

If Valliry really started torturing her, maybe she'd eat her out, just so she wouldn't be too exhausted to fight when they got to where ever they were going. Maybe she should do it anyway, to get on her good side. She might be able to get her to take off some of her restraints, and she might be able to escape. Then again, there was the principle of the thing.

“I promise you won't get away with this,” Ta'tan'ia repeated resolutely.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A little before Stormie's rendezvous with the Dark Horizon, she gave her Jedi prisoner another shot to put her to sleep awhile. She didn't want her trying anything during the transfer.

When Stormie exited hyperspace she had another urgent message from Colonel Drasi, instructing her to comm him immediately. She also had a routine inquiry from the Dark Horizon, which was already waiting a few hundred thousand klicks away. She told them to stand by, and commed Colonel Drasi.

“Lieutenant Kintra, there's been a change of plans,” he began once the link had been established. “The weapons the Zoloz had came from the Empire. I want you to go back to Trigalis, and find out who their source is. The Galactic Alliance is sending a Jedi in as well. You'll work with—” he paused and glanced down a moment before continuing— “Jedi Ta'tan'ia. She was Admiral Daala's Jedi liaison, if you remember. I'm sending you the security dossier we have on her as well.”

Frakk.

Stormie's mind raced to work out a plan. Even though Colonel Drasi was one of the people she trusted the most, there was no way she was about to tell him she had Ta'tan'ia cuffed and shackled in the cell on her ship. She especially wasn't about to tell him she was about to deliver her to Admiral Daala.

“Sir, I broke my wrist during the mission,” she explained, holding up her plasticast encased arm. “I'll obey my orders of course, but I'm not at one hundred percent for this.”

Colonel Drasi stared at her a moment. “If you absolutely can't do it, Stormie, then okay. But I really need you on this. Imperial Intelligence is working on this as well. If they find out who is selling Imperial blasters to a swoop-bike gang before we do, Director Abbrums and I are going to be extremely upset. Especially considering we had one of our best agents on this before they even knew anything about it.”

Imperial Intelligence. Stormie hated those arrogant kriffers. Imperial Security had been created to counter the power and influence of the Intelligence Directorate. The two services had been fierce rivals ever since; but Stormie would have hated those arrogant kriffers anyway.

“You can always let Jedi Ta'tan'ia do the heavy lifting,” Colonel Drasi commented after a few moments of silence.

“I'm on it, Sir,” Stormie finally said. “One way or another, I'll find out who's selling those kriffers our blasters, and before those Intelligence kriffers do.”

“Good,” he answered with a smile. “I knew I could count on you.”

Stormie closed the link, and put her head on the palm of her hand in exasperation. She was so screwed. Then she remembered that Admiral Daala was going to give Ta'tan'ia a memory wipe anyway. Maybe she could get her to go back a bit further, before she betrayed her. She'd have to work out exactly how far back to go, but it was better than anything else she could think of. Stormie breathed a sigh of relief, and commed Admiral Daala.

“Admiral Daala, I've got a problem,” Stormie said once the link was established.

“Okay,” the former Imperial and Galactic Alliance Chief of State replied with a nod. “How can I help?”

“Colonel Drasi has just ordered me back to Trigalis to investigate the Zoloz swoop-bike gang smuggling Imperial weapons.” She took a breath, then added, “And I'm supposed to be working with Jedi Ta'tan'ia.”

“So you need to make sure she doesn't remember you at all, so she doesn't start cutting things off you with her lightsaber as soon as she wakes up?” she answered with an obviously amused expression.

“That'd do it, Admiral,” Stormie answered with a tight smile.

“I have a Doctor on board that specializes in this sort of thing. I was going to have her work on Ta'tan'ia for me anyway,” Admiral Daala said. “Since you'll be there as well though, I need you to promise never to reveal to anyone, not even Colonel Drasi, what happens on board the Dark Horizon?”

“Of course, Admiral,” Stormie replied automatically.

“I mean it, Stormie. As your friend, and an Admiral. You can't mention this to anyone.”

“You have my word, Ma'am,” Stormie answered earnestly, and with more than a little curiosity.

“Thank you, Stormie,” she responded.

Stormie knew one could remove a being's memories, but none of the methods she was familiar with were one hundred percent, especially without close monitoring in a controlled environment. She definitely didn't want Jedi Ta'tan'ia to remember she had betrayed her while she was asleep or something.

“Admiral,” Stormie began. “I captured Ta'tan'ia under the belief that you would make sure she never had a chance to take revenge on me. She doesn't know who I am, and I believed I would be back in the Empire, but I've been talking with her some since then. If she suddenly regains her memories in the middle of my mission. . .”

“I assure you, Lieutenant Kintra, she won't,” Admiral Daala told her. “My Doctor's methods are extremely reliable. All she needs is a couple of hours, and a ysalamir to negate the Force while she works. I trust her implicitly.”

“Yes Ma'am,” Stormie answered with a nod. She paused a moment, then said, “Just please hurry. Ta'tan'ia should already be on Trigalis. If she doesn't show up soon, both the Jedi and Imperial Security will start looking into what I've been up to.”

“No problem,” Admiral Daala responded. “Simply land in the Dark Horizon's shuttle bay, and it will make the trip. It is significantly faster than your ship. It can stop just outside the Trigalis system. When the Doctor is finished with Ta'tan'ia, you can move her back to your ship, make a quick hyperspace jump, and be there, without the Dark Horizon showing up on any planetary sensors.”

“That should work, Ma'am,” Stormie replied with an appreciative nod. “And I'll do my best to get Ta'tan'ia back to you after this, if you want her.”

Admiral Daala let out a soft chuckle. “Don't worry about it, Stormie,” she told her. “It's not like I've been sitting around scheming to capture her like some holocomic super-villain or something. Your mission and safety comes first.”

Stormie couldn't help but smile at that image.

Before she could answer though, Admiral Daala added, “Now if you do happen to get her in shackles where she belongs without your people or the Jedi knowing it, I'd be happy to take care of her for you. You can even come visit her once the Doctor and I get her settled in. But you make sure you complete your mission before you even think about that.”

“Yes Ma'am,” Stormie replied with a nod.

Once Stormie shut down the link with Admiral Daala, she made sure Ta'tan'ia's comlink could communicate with the holonet through the cell's shielding, then headed aft. Ta'tan'ia was still strapped face down to the bunk, with her hands cuffed behind her back. She walked over to the unconscious Jedi, and touched the comlink maglocked around her right wrist to wake it up. Almost immediately she saw a priority notification on the display. She tapped it, and found a message from a Jedi Master Corron Horn. That was the Rogue Squadron one, if she remembered correctly.

The message had arrived about fifteen minutes earlier, as soon as she'd come out of hyperspace. It said that the blasters Jedis Ta'tan'ia and Torrin had discovered had been obtained from a source within the Empire. It also stated that the Empire was sending a Lieutenant Stormie Kintra of Imperial Security to assist with the investigation, and for Ta'tan'ia to work with her if possible.

Stormie tapped on the comlink screen again, then replied to the message with the statement, Yes Master, I will obey.

It was how Ta'tan'ia seemed to reply to most of the directives she received from the Jedi Masters. The male ones, anyway. She replied to Jaina Solo and Octa Ramis with Yes Mistress, although she didn't talk with the latter very much. That still wasn't as overtly kinky as what she said to her friends, mainly Syal Antillies. She had looked for flatholos, but they were protected by the second layer of security.

As soon as Stormie returned to the cockpit, she reactivated the comm shielding around the cell. No sense in taking any chances she didn't have too.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

First Admiral Natasi Daala commed the Dark Horizon, and informed Captain Odiun of his new orders. Then she had him transfer her to Doctor Gast.

“Doctor, there's been a change of plans,” she told her. “You're only going to have Ta'tan'ia for as long as it takes the Dark Horizon to get to Trigalis. About three hours or so. You still definitely need to wipe her memory, but she'll need to be able to participate in a mission once she gets back to Trigalis. What all do you think you'll be able to do to her under those conditions?”

“Wiping her memory will be no problem, Admiral,” Doctor Gast replied. “And I should have time to at least get the physical changes started. I can do those at the same time as the memory wipe. As for the obedience and loyalty. . . that won't be possible without you being here.”

Admiral Daala had been afraid of that. “You can't even plant the seeds?”

“Not without you being physically near her for at least six hours, Admiral,” Doctor Gast told her. “If I tried it without you being here, I can't predict the results. Even if I tried to make her loyal to me, it wouldn't work, because she's never met me.”

“What if you used Lieutenant Kintra? Would that work, even though you are wiping Ta'tan'ia's memory?” Admiral Daala asked after a few seconds of consideration.

Now Doctor Gast thought several moments. “I don't think it will work,” she finally answered. “But it won't hurt to try. Ta'tan'ia won't react like she would with you, because she doesn't have previous strong relationship with Lieutenant Kintra. Not that my methods will have much effect with so little time.”

“Okay. Give her a thorough memory wipe. That's the priority. Lieutenant Kintra will tell you how far back you need to go. Then, start on making her loyal to her, and start the physical changes, as long as you don't think they'll interfere in her mission. She'll need to be able to back up Lieutenant Kintra if necessary.”

“Yes Admiral,” Doctor Gast replied with a nod.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie landed her ship on board the Dark Horizon. The Doctor she had spoken to a few minutes prior was waiting in the shuttle bay along with a young Lieutenant whose uniform sleeves seemed about to burst from his massive biceps, and four Stormtroopers. Stormie took one of the Stormtroopers to get the ysalamiri on the portable frame, while everyone else went to collect Ta'tan'ia from her cell. Then the group headed for the Doctor's temporary lab, with one of the Stormtroopers carrying Ta'tan'ia over his armored shoulder, wrapped in a blanket. Stormie could already feel the subtle vibrations of the hyperdrive engines through the deck.

“I'm Lieutenant Brintt,” the officer introduced himself as they walked. “And this is Snake, Shadow, Stalker, and Slammer,” he added, nodding towards each of the nearly indistinguishable armored figures. “If there's anything you need. Anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask, Ma'a'm,” he informed her. “Admiral Daala instructed us to assist you in any way.”

“Thanks,” Stormie answered with a brief nod. “I'm Lieutenant Kintra,” she introduced herself. “But you can call me Stormie.” She noticed he didn't introduce the Doctor. She also noticed that the corridors were empty of personnel. She suspected they had locked down this part of the ship.

If Admiral Daala's Doctor here could fix up the Jedi, that would take care of her main problem. She might stop by the sick bay and let a med droid take at look at her broken wrist, but that was wasn't a big deal. She needed to think things through more than anything, and come up with a plan for when Ta'tan'ia woke up.

Once they reached the Doctor's lab, two of the Stormtroopers began cutting the spacer's tape around the Twi'lek's fingers, and took off the nerfhide strap that was around her biceps. Then Stormie used her own wrist comlink to open Ta'tan'ia's wrist and ankle cuffs, and they lifted her onto an examination table.

“How far back do I need to wipe her memory?” the Doctor asked as the Stormtroopers began strapping her down.

Stormie glanced at her comlink. “Six hours should do it.”

“I'll do seven, to be on the safe side,” the Doctor responded. “Unless that will erase something she needs to remember?”

“Not that I know of,” Stormie answered.

“Great. Can you unlock her chastity belt for me?” the Doctor asked.

“Of course,” Stormie replied, stepping over and taking hold of Ta'tan'ia's right wrist before the Stormtrooper finished locking the thick nerfhide cuff into place.

Stormie quickly tapped in the command to unlock her chastity belt, then let him strap her wrist to the table.

“Do you need that shock collar off her too?” Stormie asked as the Stormtroopers lifted her ass to pull the chastity belt off her.

“No, it's fine,” the Doctor answered dismissively, attaching an array of small circular devices of some sort to the Twi'lek's head and braintails. “I thought Admiral Daala gave her a permanent collar though?” she asked with a questioning look on her face.

“It's underneath the shock collar,” Stormie answered, reaching out and pushing the Zoloz collar up a little to let her see the beskar one.

The Doctor glanced over at her monitor a moment. “Well, definitely leave that on her,” she finally replied. “Can't be too careful with Jedi.”

“Excuse me, Doctor,” Stormie said a minute or so later, “But do you need me here for this? I do have some things I need to take care of before I go back.”

“No, Lieutenant,” the Doctor replied, glancing up from her computer terminal. “I will once I finish wiping her memory though. Feel free to take care of whatever you need to until then. I'll let you know when I'm done. It should be about two hours or so.”

“Thank you Doctor,” Stormie responded with a polite nod. “I'll be on my ship.” The Doctor didn't respond, she had already turned her attention back to the computer terminal.

“If you don't mind, I'll accompany you,” Lieutenant Brintt said. “Do you have a remote or something for the Jedi's shock collar?”

“Oh yeah,” Stormie answered, pulling the device out of her pocket and handing it to him.

She waited a moment for Lieutenant Brintt to pass the remote to one of the Stormtroopers, then they headed back towards the shuttle bay.

Once they got back to her ship, Lieutenant Brintt helped her remove the ysalamir, and the frame it was on, from the bulkhead near the cell. The other ysalamir had been in the back of the speeder when she and Agent Whytte had been ambushed by the Zoloz. That only left the one in the lab with Ta'tan'ia.

After the ysalamir was taken care of, they went to clean up the cargo bay. Before they started though, Lieutenant Brintt took off his uniform tunic. Even though he still had his undertunic on, Stormie could tell he spent a lot of time in the gym. His chest and abs weren't quite as impressive as his arms, but Stormie liked what she saw. Maybe if she wasn't so preoccupied. . .

Since her wrist was broken, she let him do most of the work. One thing she made sure she did was to find Ta'tan'ia's lightsaber though.

“Why don't you let one of our doctors take a look at that wrist?” he suggested as he secured the Jedi's speeder-bike, and plugged in the charging cable.

Stormie automatically glanced down at the plasticast on her left arm. It still hurt, but the mission came first. “If we have time,” she replied. “As a matter of fact, while you're doing this I'll be in the cockpit, taking care of something else real quick,” she added, heading towards the hatch leading to the rest of the ship.

While he cleaned up the cargo bay, Stormie went forward to the cockpit, and started uploading a software program to her datapad. Then she went back to cargo bay, and helped him finish. Next she had him help her hide all the evidence that Whytte and Broxn had been on board. That didn't take long, as neither had brought much personal gear. After that Lieutenant Brinnt checked in with the Doctor. She said they had plenty of time to get Stormie's wrist checked up before she needed her in the lab.

Stormie barely registered the first crewman they passed in the corridor. When the second one came around a corner in front of them, she realized that they hadn't cleared this section of the ship, like they had between the shuttle bay and the Doctor's lab. She almost asked Lieutenant Brintt about it, but decided not to. She trusted Admiral Daala.

In the med bay, a doctor examined her wrist, and had a medic remove the plasticast. That allowed her to take off the shackle the Zoloz had locked on her back on Trigalis. The doctor seemed to barely notice, while the medic flashed her a suggestive smirk. The doctor finished his examination, and they put another plasticast on her wrist. Stormie thanked them, and she and Lieutenant Brintt headed back towards the Doctor's lab.

As they entered the lab, the Doctor glanced up at them, nodded politely, and returned her attention back to her computer terminal. Lieutenant Brintt stepped over to converse with one of the Stormtroopers, and Stormie went to the Doctor.

“We should be finished with the memory wipe in about ten minutes or so, Lieutenant Kintra,” the Doctor said as Stormie approached her.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Stormie replied politely. “I need too upload something onto her comlink. Can I do that while you're working on her?” she asked, displaying her datapad.

“Go right ahead,” the Doctor answered with a wave of her hand. “Just don't touch any of the transmitters.”

“I won't,” she assured her.

Stormie walked over to the unconscious Jedi, and touched the comlink maglocked around her right wrist to wake it up. Stormie set her datapad down, and began tapping its screen. A few seconds later, the software program she had uploaded to it began transmitting to Ta'tan'ia's comlink.

Nearly a minute later, the datapad indicated the transfer was complete. Stormie looked over at the beskar comlink, and didn't see anything different on the screen. That was exactly how it was supposed to look. On her datapad's screen though, the beskar comlink's exact location was displayed, down to the decimeter. Stormie grinned triumphantly. Now she could both track Ta'tan'ia, and monitor all her communications, outgoing, and incoming.

The program would only be active until the next time she got an update from the Jedi's computers, or wherever she got software updates from. Hopefully that wouldn't be too soon. At least until this mission was over. Maybe not even for a while afterwards. Stormie would love to be able to track her movements and monitor her communications for a couple of weeks or so.

Stormie just wished she could test it out now, to make sure it was working correctly. She didn't want to risk responding to someone, and saying the wrong thing though. She definitely didn't want to risk sending her own message, and having Ta'tan'ia find it later. She'd just have to take her chances that the program would work the way the slicers told her it would.

“Alright, Lieutenant Kintra,” the Doctor began a few minutes later. “The first part of the procedure is complete. Jedi Ta'tan'ia here doesn't remember anything the last seven hours or so. She's also going to start having trouble walking without high heels. Admiral Daala tells me she already wears sky-high heels all the time, so that shouldn't be a problem, as far as your mission. Her ass and the back of her upper thighs are also going to be more sensitive. She probably won't notice though, unless she gets spanked or hit there or something. In fact, that will make her aroused as well as feeling more pain.”

Stormie was more than a little shocked by those last two pieces of information. Before she could reply though, the Doctor had more to say.

“Now for the more. . . complicated part. I am going to try to make our little Twi'lek have a feeling of loyalty towards you. This is going to be more ambiguous than the memory wipe though, since we don't have time to do a full procedure on her.”

While Stormie wasn't surprised Admiral Daala had people that could wipe a being's memory, even a Jedi's, she was definitely surprised someone could do something like this.

“What do you mean, loyalty?” she asked. “And ambiguous how?”

The Doctor smiled. “Exactly what it sounds like, Lieutenant. She will feel an unusual level of loyalty towards you. The ambiguous part is, I'm not really sure how much I'll be able to get done before you have to take her. I'm sure I'll have time to make her as loyal as she would be to say, a friend. Perhaps another Jedi.”

“Okay,” Stormie said, still not quite believing this was possible.

“I'll need you to stay here with her, as close as possible, and talk to her to help things along,” the Doctor explained. “I have some phrases I'll need you to repeat some, which will be recorded, and then we can replay them while you just sit there, if you prefer, although it may not be as effective, especially since we're short of time.”

“Okay,” Stormie repeated.

“Great, let's get started,” the Doctor responded matter-of-factly.

Nearly and hour later, they had to stop. The Dark Horizon was just minutes away from exiting hyperspace outside the Trigalis System, and Stormie had to take Ta'tan'ia back to her ship.

“You'll need to be with her when she wakes up,” the Doctor told her as the Stormtroopers unstrapped the Jedi from the table. “It will help greatly. And the longer you can stay close to her, the more loyal she'll be. Probably at least thirty minutes, but a couple of hours would be better.”

“Yes Doctor,” Stormie replied with a nod. “How long until she wakes up?”

“Ah, yes. We gave her something to keep her unconscious, besides what you had already given her. Without the ysalamir to keep her from using the Force, she'll probably be awake in about two hours or so.” As she spoke, she prepared a hypospray. “Give her this when you're ready to wake her up. It will work slowly, over a couple of minutes, so it will feel natural to her.”

“Thank you,” Stormie said as she took the hypospray from her.

“If you want, my team and I can follow you down,” Lieutenant Brintt told her as they headed back towards the shuttle bay. “To back you up, or whatever you need. We can bring the ysalamiri on our ship as well.”

Stormie considered that a few moments. Having four Stormtroopers, even without their armor, would be useful. The ysalamiri would be too, if Ta'tan'ia proved. . . uncooperative, for whatever reason. She had already risked her career by kidnapping Ta'tan'ia and almost delivering her to Admiral Daala though. If the Empire found out she was working with Admiral Daala's forces on a mission without authorization, Moff Riege would probably try to throw her in prison.

“No thanks,” she finally replied, shaking her head. “I'll have to take care of this on my own.”

“Alright,” Lieutenant Brintt answered.

The Stormtroopers took Ta'tan'ia back to the cell, and laid her on the bunk. Stormie had them lock her chastity belt back on her, but leave the rest of her clothes and weapons in the corner on the other side of the cell. She even remembered the blaster Ta'tan'ia had given her when she had helped her escape from the Zoloz, and made sure to put it back in the Jedi's cloak.

If she was unreasonable when she woke up, she'd be easier to deal with naked. She was also going to leave the shock collar on her for now. Stormie thanked Lieutenant Brintt and the Stormtroopers for their help, and again declined his offer to follow her down to the surface.

As soon as they left her ship, Stormie secured the hatch, started the engines, and headed towards Trigalis. Less than an hour later she landed at the New Coronet Spaceport, using a different transponder than the one she had before. Then she hurried back to the cell, took the Zoloz' shock collar off Ta'tan'ia, and gave her the stim shot. While she was waiting for her to come around, she hid the shock collar and remote in her cabin. When she returned, she laid a blanket over the naked Jedi, and sat down in a chair out in the foyer to wait.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As Ta'tan'ia awoke, she realized she was lying on a hard bunk, in an unfamiliar cabin that looked suspiciously like a cell. A heartbeat later, she realized she wasn't alone. There was a human woman sitting in a chair just outside. She was perhaps mid-twenties, and wearing a gray jumpsuit.

“Where am I?” Ta'tan'ia demanded, sitting up and holding the blanket in front of her, and realizing she was naked under it. Well, besides her head harness, chastity belt, collar, chrono, and comlink. “Who are you?” she asked, expanding her Force awareness.

“I'm Lieutenant Stormie Kintra of Imperial Security,” the woman answered calmly. “We are on Trigalis, in the Juris Sector.”

Ta'tan'ia didn't sense any immediate danger through the Force. She also didn't sense any deception from her, but she didn't feel entirely confident in her Force abilities at the moment. She remembered rescuing Tahiri from some swoop-bikers, then Master Solo ordering her to return to investigate weapons they were also smuggling. She didn't remember arriving though, or how she got on board this ship.

“Okay,” she answered, glancing down and tapping the comlink on her wrist a couple of times to check her location. It confirmed that she was in the Outer-Rim, Juris Sector, on the planet Trigalis, in the capital city of New Coronet, at the spaceport. It had more details, but she didn't scroll down to check them. That was enough information for now.

“How did I get here?” she asked. “On this. . . ship?”

“You don't remember at all?” She paused, then added, “The Doctor said you might have some amnesia.”

Ta'tan'ia shook her head. “Doctor?”

“We are on Trigalis, investigating the Zoloz swoop-bike gang smuggling weapons from the Empire. We were ambushed while we were doing surveillance. I got a broken wrist—” she paused to display the plasticast on her left arm— “and you were knocked unconscious. I brought you back to my ship, and got a doctor to come check you out. He said you'd be fine, but you might have some temporary amnesia.”

Ta'tan'ia sensed that something wasn't right, but she wasn't sure what it was exactly. She definitely didn't remember being ordered to work with any Imperials. The Jedi Masters wouldn't want them to know they had just rescued Tahiri from the Zoloz here, for one thing.

“Where's my lightsaber?”

“Under your clothes,” Lieutenant Kintra said, gesturing towards the corner.

Ta'tan'ia could see her gray cloak, part of her bodysuit, a strap of her thigh harness, and the sole of one of her ankle boots in a pile. She wrapped the blanket around her as best she could, and climbed off the bunk. As soon as she put her weight on her feet, pain shot through both of her calves. She winced, and stayed on the balls of her feet for the few steps to the corner, and leaned over and felt for her lightsaber, and blaster. Then she picked up the entire pile, and carried it back to the bunk. She wasn't sure why her calves hurt like that, but she dismissed it for the moment.

“You mind giving me some privacy so I can get dressed?” Ta'tan'ia asked her.

“I've already seen your chastity belt,” Lieutenant Kintra said with a smile. “Besides, the doctor said I shouldn't leave you alone for awhile.”

“I'm sure I'll be okay for a few minutes or so,” Ta'tan'ia replied. She paused a moment, then added, “I won't be long.”

“Alright, I'll be in the cockpit,” Stormie told her, standing up. “Just take a right when you come out.”

“Thanks,” Ta'tan'ia said as she left.

The first the Ta'tan'ia did was check her comlink for messages. She had a couple from Syal Antilles, and a few from several other of her friends, including one from Aileen and Neelia, Arik the Hutt's slaves. She ignored all of those though, and read the two from her Jedi Masters.

The first one was from Master Solo, stating that she would be unavailable until further notice, and directing her to contact the Jedi Temple if she needed any instructions during her mission to Trigalis. The second one was from Master Horn, explaining that the Empire had discovered that the Zoloz' weapons had come from them. They were sending a Security Operative named Lieutenant Kintra to assist with her investigation, and she was to work with her as far as possible. It also included a flatholo and her basic information for identification.

While that answered Ta'tan'ia most pressing questions, it didn't relieve her sense of unease. She ran through a Jedi calming technique, and commed the Jedi Temple.

“Hey Ta'tan'ia, what can I do for you?” a friendly voice—which Ta'tan'ia immediately recognized as belonging to her friend Jedi Turi Altamik—said a few moments later, once the voice-only link had been established.

“Hey Turi,” Ta'tan'ia replied, holding her wrist close to her face so she didn't have to talk loud. “This is going to sound weird, but what were the last orders I was given?” While she spoke, she checked the power level of her blaster.

There was briefly the sounds of her tapping a keyboard, and a computer terminal working, then Turi answered.

“Let's see. . . Four days ago Master Skywalker ordered you to assist Wyric on a mission marked secret. Yesterday Master Solo said that was completed satisfactorily, then ordered you to Trigalis, in the Juris Sector, to investigate the local chapters of the Zoloz swoop-bike gang smuggling weapons. About five hours ago Master Horn sent you a message ordering you to work with a Lieutenant Kintra of Imperial Security, as the weapons possibly originated from the Empire.” Turi paused a moment, then added, “And you acknowledged the message about fifteen minutes after you received it.”

Ta'tan'ia thought it was a little odd that she took fifteen minutes to acknowledge his message, but pushed that concern aside for the moment.

“Okay,” she replied after a few seconds of consideration. “I just wanted to verify that, is all,” she explained as she checked the power level of her back-up blaster as well.

“Why?” Turi asked curiously. “What's going on?”

“Apparently Lieutenant Kintra and I were ambushed by the Zoloz and I was knocked unconscious. I'm having a little amnesia problem right now,” Ta'tan'ia told her.

“Are you okay?” Turi probed.

“Other than not remembering anything past Master Solo ordering me back to Trigalis, yes. I don't even remember arriving on planet.”

“Are you sure?” Turi demanded. “I can get Master Katarn or Master Ramis to send someone to help you if you need it.”

“No, I'll be fine,” Ta'tan'ia assured her defensively. “Lieutenant Kintra got me back to her ship, and got a doctor to take a look at me.”

“You don't remember what happened though? How do you know you can really trust this Lieutenant Kintra? Maybe I should find out what information we have on her, and send it to you?”

Ta'tan'ia sat in silence a few moments. Unfortunately the Force didn't seem to be leading her one way or the other. Lieutenant Kintra seemed okay though, at least for now. “No, I'll be fine,” she finally repeated. “Thanks though.”

“Are you sure?” Turi asked again. “It'd be no problem at all.”

“Na, I'm good,” she said.

“Okay, just comm me if you need anything; and I mean anything at all, okay?” Turi instructed her.

“I will,” Ta'tan'ia replied. “Talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye bye,” Turi responded.

Ta'tan'ia shut down the link, and ran through a Jedi calming technique. Then she started getting dressed.

Since she was wearing her chastity belt, she didn't have panties. She also didn't wear a bra, as her tight-fitting armored bodysuit had built in support for her D-cup breasts. After the bodysuit she pulled her ankle boots onto her feet. They had hidden maglocks built into the straps to keep them in place. Next came her nerfhide head, chest and thigh harnesses. Her blaster was in its holster on her right thigh, and her lightsaber was horizontal across the small of her back. Her beskar collar, chrono, and comlink cuffs were locked around her throat and wrists, as always. She left her gray cloak on the bunk.

As Ta'tan'ia stepped out of the cell, she vaguely wondered if it was monitored. Oh well, she decided after a few moments thought. Too late to worry about that now. Besides, it wasn't like Lieutenant Kintra wouldn't expect her to contact the Jedi. The fact that she had just been practically naked in the cell never entered her mind. She was only concerned with security.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie sat in the cockpit, listening to Ta'tan'ia's conversation with Turi over her earpiece, while watching her over the cell's holocameras. The cell had excellent audio detection, but she wanted to use the monitoring program she had installed on the Jedi's comlink. The program was working perfectly, and more importantly, so was the Doctor's memory wipe. She had conducted a quick holonet search, and discovered that Turi was almost certainly Jedi Knight Turi Altamik. Stormie really wished Ta'tan'ia had asked for that information. She would have loved to have seen what the Jedi had on her. Apparently Admiral Daala's Doctor's conditioning had made her at least a little loyal though. Maybe Stormie could still get Ta'tan'ia to ask for it though; since she was apparently so loyal to her now.

As Stormie watched Ta'tan'ia step out of the cell, she changed the monitor to show a system's status, pulled the earpiece out, and set it back on its charger. Then she turned her seat to face her as she came in.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Everything good?” Stormie asked her as she stepped into the cockpit.

“Fine,” Ta'tan'ia answered with a nod, pausing just inside the hatchway. “I'm Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia, by the way,” she said, nodding her head and wriggling her lekku in greeting.

“Lieutenant Kintra,” Stormie replied with her own nod. “But you can call me Stormie.”

“Stormie,” Ta'tan'ia repeated obediently. “How long was I out?”

“Just a couple of hours or so,” she answered. “I didn't check the time exactly, as I was a little busy getting you away from the Zoloz, and bringing you here. Then I had a doctor come check you out. He said you'd be okay, but you might temporarily lose some of your recent memories.”

Ta'tan'ia could sense she was hiding something, but the mission came first. She'd just have to remain vigilant. “Okay. You might as well brief me on where we're at in the investigation,” she informed her as she sat down in the co-pilot's chair.

“Nowhere, really. The computer is tracking the Zoloz' off-planet comm traffic, but they probably have disposable comlinks, as does whoever their source is. We were trying to capture one of them to interrogate when we were attacked.”

Ta'tan'ia considered that a few moments. “So they know we're investigating them?

“I don't think so,” Stormie answered hesitantly. “We were doing surveillance, and they attacked us. I've been more concerned about getting you checked out than anything else, but as far as I know, they don't know about our investigation.”

Ta'tan'ia was pretty confident they would have recognized her from the party, even if they didn't know who she really was. It was possible they had attacked just because they had spotted her in the speeder.

“So we don't know why, exactly, they jumped us?”

“No,” Stormie responded, shaking her head.

“Weren't a bunch of Zoloz arrested at a warehouse with a couple of thousand blasters a couple of days ago?” Ta'tan'ia asked after a few moments' thought. While she didn't know that for sure, she remembered that that was what Wyric had planned to happen.

“Yes,” Stormie answered after a brief hesitation.

“Well let's go talk to some of them at the detention facility,” Ta'tan'ia suggested. “We won't have to worry about being ambushed, or being interrupted.”

“Sounds good to me,” Stormie agreed with a nod. “The local police won't have a problem with us interrogating their prisoners?”

“I'm a Jedi,” Ta'tan'ia said, as if that explained everything. “We have wide discretion in safeguarding peace and justice.”

“Well okay then,” she responded matter-of-factly.

“But first, you said your wrist was broken when the Zoloz attacked us?” Ta'tan'ia asked, gesturing towards the plasticast on her left arm.

“Yeah,” Stormie answered, glancing down at it.

“Let me do a Jedi healing technique on it,” Ta'tan'ia told her. “It's better than bacta.”

“Thanks,” Stormie replied warily.

Ta'tan'ia took her wrist in both her hands, and went into a healing trance.

“Wow, that does feel a lot better,” Stormie said once she finished. “Thank you.”

“Don't mention it,” the Jedi said with a flick of her lekku. “It's the least I can do, after you rescued me from the Zoloz.”

“I think I can take this plasticast off,” Stormie commented, flexing her fingers.

Ta'tan'ia sensed she was still uneasy, but she wasn't sure why.

“By the way, do you know where the rest of my clothes are?” Ta'tan'ia asked her.

Stormie shook her head. “On your ship, I guess. When I met up with you you were on a speeder-bike. Your cloak and what you're wearing is all you had with you.”

Ta'tan'a sighed, and began tapping into her comlink. A few seconds later she discovered her ship was a little over a thousand klicks away, at another spaceport. She had wanted to change into her Jedi robes before visiting the police. Oh well, what she had would have to suffice.

“We just have one speeder-bike?” Ta'tan'ia asked as they passed through the cargo hold.

“Yeah,” Stormie answered after a brief hesitation. “It's yours. You had it when we met up.”

“Well, we can get an air taxi, or we can share the speeder-bike,” Ta'tan'ia said, pausing just inside the hatchway.

“Air taxi,” she replied with a nod.

“Alright.”

When they left the ship Ta'tan'ia was wearing her armored black bodysuit, wedge heeled ankle boots, and gray cloak. Her head, chest, and thigh harnesses were strapped in place as well.

Stormie was wearing black pants and a matching tunic with a military-style cut, and knee boots. The left sleeve of her tunic mostly hid a black wrist brace, and the right one hid her comlink. Both of them had decided it was best if she didn't wear her Imperial Uniform.

“Hey, I meant to ask you,” Stormie began as they went to find an air taxi. “Why do you wear those crazy high heels in the field? I mean they're sexy and all, but they're not very practical.”

“Well, when I was Chief Daala's Jedi liaison, she liked me wearing eighteen-centimeter stiletto heels when I was on duty, which was pretty much at least sixteen hours a day. I started wearing fifteen-centimeter heels during my off-time as well, so now I just guess I feel more comfortable in towering high heels than regular shoes,” Ta'tan'ia explained.

“I see,” Stormie replied with a simple nod.

Ta'tan'ia briefly wondered why she didn't ask about her collar, but after a moment, she assumed the subject had already come up.

They found a air taxi near the entrance to the spaceport. They climbed in, and Ta'tan'ia told the driver their destination.

“You mind if I ask you something else?” Stormie said as they pulled off.

“Sure,” Ta'tan'ia answered politely, checking her messages on her comlink.

“If the comlink maglocked around your right wrist has the time on it, why do you have a chrono maglocked around your left wrist too?” she asked with a smirk.

“Chief Daala wanted me to wear them both,” Ta'tan'ia answered. “Probably because they remind people of cuffs. When she resigned she fused the maglocks, so they're permanent. The collar too.”

“So you ever use them as cuffs?” Stormie asked her.

Ta'tan'ia glanced up at her a moment. “Sometimes,” she admitted.

“Cool,” Stormie replied with a friendly smile.

“You have a chrono to go with your comlink?” Ta'tan'ia asked her, glancing down and flicking her lek towards the band of durasteel around her right wrist.

“Na,” Stormie answered with another smile. “It's just a little hard to use it right now anyway,” she commented, raising her left hand a bit.

“If you need me too, I'll do another healing trance on it,” Ta'tan'ia replied. “When we get a chance.”

“Thanks,” Stormie answered. “But I'll be fine.”

About six minutes later they arrived at the New Coronet Detention Center. There was a lone officer on duty at a counter behind blaster-proof transparisteel. A cluster of small holes in the transparisteel allowed them to speak to him.

“Hi, I'm Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia,” the Twi'lek said as she displayed her identichit. “And this is my partner, Lieutenant Kintra,” she added, waving her free hand towards her companion, and deliberately not mentioning that she was an Imperial Security Officer. “We need to see some of your prisoners, starting with a Quinn Nobi,” she explained, glancing down at her comlink display.

“Wow, a real Jedi,” the officer said in obvious surprise. “I never thought I'd get to meet one of you.”

“Thank you, it's nice to meet you, too,” Ta'tan'ia responded with a friendly nod. “Now, please let us see the prisoner,” she told him, adding a little pressure with the Force.

“Oh yeah. Let me get Sergeant Bakuu, he'll get you set up.”

“Thank you,” Ta'tan'ia repeated.

After he commed Sergeant Bakuu, the officer informed them that he would need to secure their weapons before they entered the prisoner area. As Ta'tan'ia pulled her blaster from its holster, she noticed Stormie glance at her before following suit. She put the weapon into a security drawer built into the desk below the transparisteel, and Stormie placed hers in as well. The officer pulled the drawer through to his side, opened it, and retrieved the two blasters.

“Um, we need your lightsaber too, Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” he told her politely. “As well as both your comlinks.”

“You don't need my lightsaber,” Ta'tan'ia responded with a wave of her hand, backing the words up with the Force. “And my comlink is permanently maglocked around my wrist,” she explained, displaying the beskar cuff. “It doesn't come off.”

“Mine too,” Stormie added, holding up her wrist, showing the band of durasteel around it.

Ta'tan'ia glanced at her, but didn't say anything. Even though she knew she was lying, she could barely sense it.

Before the duty officer could respond, Sergeant Bakuu arrived.

“What can I do for you, Jedi Ta'tan'ia, Lieutenant Kintra?” he asked cheerfully once the introductions were made.

“We need to interview one of your prisoners,” Ta'tan'ia told him. “A Quinn Nobi. Then possibly several more of the Zoloz you have.”

“No problem,” he answered with a smile. “We can have him brought out in just a couple of minutes. Come on back, and I'll get you settled in.”

“Um, Jedi Ta'tan'ia still has her lightsaber, and they both have comlinks,” the duty officer interjected.

“I think we can make an exception for a Jedi,” Sergeant Bakuu replied as he led them behind the counter. “Call the detention level, and tell them to bring Quinn Nobi up to interrogation one ASAP.”

While they were walking to the interrogation room, Sergeant Bakuu was very talkative. Ta'tan'ia chatted with him, mostly small talk, while Stormie pretty much stayed quiet.

“Do you want this recorded?” he asked as they arrived.

“No thanks,” Stormie answered quickly.

“Okay.”

“Could you please provide us with a list of all the Zoloz arrested since the warehouse raid the day before yesterday,” Ta'tan'ia asked him. She hadn't thought about them recording the interrogation, it was probably better that they didn't.

“Sure, no problem,” Sergeant Bakuu answered with a friendly nod.

“As a matter of fact, make that all the Zoloz you're currently holding,” Stormie added.

“Okay,” he agreed, raising his hand towards the comlink attached to his shirt collar.

“Just because they are already in jail for something else, doesn't mean they don't know who's providing the blasters,” Stormie explained, leaning close to Ta'tan'ia and whispering while Sergeant Bakuu requested the list they asked for, and ensured the holocameras in the room were disabled.

Ta'tan'ia couldn't fault her logic.

A minute or so later, two officers brought in the Zoloz president, stun cuffed and shock shackled.

“Hey sexy, he said with a broad smile, glancing at Sergeant Bakuu a heartbeat then eyeing Ta'tan'ia as the officers moved him to the chair behind the table. “Nice to see you again. And I see you brought a friend,” he added, glancing towards Stormie.

Ta'tan'ia could sense mild annoyance from Sergeant Bakuu, mostly boredom from the officers, and contempt from Stormie.

“Nothing will be recorded, like you asked, and I'll have that list of the rest of the Zoloz we have when you finish with him,” Sergeant Bakuu said from the doorway. “Anything else you need?”

“Not at the moment,” Ta'tan'ia answered with a wave of her hand. She was mildly annoyed he had mentioned the list in front of Quinn. “Thank you,” she added with a polite smile.

Sergeant Bakuu and the two officers left, shutting the door behind them.

“I am Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia,” she introduced herself to Quinn. “And this is Lieutenant Kintra of Imperial Security.”

She expected him to be at least a little apprehensive upon finding out she was a Jedi. Instead she mostly just sensed surprise.

“Seriously?” he replied grinning in obvious elation. “You mean to tell me I got a blow job from a real life no shavit Jedi Knight!?”

Ta'tan'ia didn't need the Force to sense Stormie's surprise at that statement. She'd have to tell her that she had infiltrated the party, and that it was to find out about the weapons. Hopefully she wouldn't look into that too much.

“Well it seems like it's going to be the last one you get for a very long time,” Ta'tan'ia responded dryly. “With the nine dead police officers and weapons they're charging you with. Unless you can help us out a little,” she added, backing up the suggestion with the Force.

Now Quinn laughed. “I'll tell you just like I told the the cops. All the weapons at the warehouse are mine, I killed all the cops there, and any Zoloz that were there I forced to be there by threatening to kill them if they didn't do as I told them.”

Ta'tan'ia and Stormie exchanged a glance. If he was claiming responsibility for everything, they wouldn't have much to offer him in exchange for the weapons' source.

“So if you're all set to spend the rest of your life in prison, you wouldn't mind doing us a little favor, would you?” Ta'tan'ia asked in a friendly voice.

“I doubt it,” Quinn responded. “Unless I can get your sexy-ass lips wrapped around my dick again for a while.” He paused a moment, then added, “By the way, I liked your outfit you wore at our party the other night. I mean you look great now, especially with your collar and cuffs, but those shorts and sexy-ass shoes you had were...” he paused a moment and shook his head, “amazing!”

Well, at least now Stormie knew she had been at a Zoloz party.

“Were you there too?” Quinn asked, glancing at Stormie a few moments. “I don't remember you, but I was a little drunk, and busy getting a blow job from our sexy Jedi here.”

“No,” Stormie responded succinctly.

“Tell us who in the Empire supplied you with all those blasters,” Ta'tan'ia told him, backing up the command with the Force, and changing the subject. She definitely didn't want Stormie learning she had been here for any reason other than the blasters.

Quinn laughed again. “Who said I got any blasters from the Empire? And even if I did, why the frakk would I tell you who I got them from?”

“Because we're going to find them anyway,” Stormie interjected. Then she paused, and glanced over to Ta'tan'ia. “And even if we somehow don't, there's no way the Zoloz will ever see another weapon from the Empire.”

Now Quinn leaned towards them across the table. “Like I said, I don't know anything about getting anything from you Imperial bastards. And The Zoloz don't rat on their friends, even to a sexy Jedi and Imperial Security Officer like yourselves.”

“Tell us who supplied you with the blasters,” Ta'tan'ia repeated, backing up the command with the Force once again.

Quinn glanced between them, then to Ta'tan'ia. “Fine. I'll tell you. I got all those blasters from Lieutenant Kintra here,” he said, nodding towards the Imperial Security Officer. “You should throw her over the table and cuff her,” he suggested. “You can use mine,” he added with a chuckle, displaying the stun cuffs on his wrists.

“Who else knows who your source is?” Ta'tan'ia suddenly asked. She had hoped to catch him off guard, and sense a name, but she couldn't read him at all.

“I told you, she brought the weapons in for me,” he replied, nodding his head towards Stormie again. “She just been lying about why she's here. Strip search her, and arrest her.”

While Ta'tan'ia did feel that Stormie was hiding something from her, she didn't think she was the Zoloz' source for the weapons. She sensed that she really wanted to find out who was supplying them.

A few minutes—and several crude sexual suggestions—later, they sent Quinn back to his cell. Sergeant Bakuu was waiting with the list of all the Zoloz being held. There were over a hundred names on the list. Stormie suggested they split up so they could interrogate more of them, but Ta'tan'ia thought they should stick together for the time being. She still didn't trust her completely, not that she told her that.

After a few moments of scanning the list and listening to the Force, Ta'tan'ia picked a name out. One who had been arrested at the warehouse, and had been at the party.

While they were waiting for their next Zoloz, Stormie began tapping into her comlink. A moment later Ta'tan'ia felt the subtle vibration of an incoming message. It was from Stormie.

I don't trust Sgt Bakuu. Can you sense if the holocameras are really off?

Ta'tan'ia stared at the message a moment before replying. Him mentioning that they wanted to talk to other Zoloz, and that they weren't recording the interrogation was definitely sloppy, but she didn't know if that meant he was untrustworthy. She looked over at Stormie a moment, then answered on her own comlink.

Okay. And I'm reasonably sure they are off.

Okay. No Imperial would ever run their mouth like that in front of a prisoner. At least not more than once.

Before Ta'tan'ia could reply, not that there really was a reply to that, they brought the Zoloz Ta'tan'ia had asked for. The one they called Sidd.

He was only facing charges for conspiracy, and violation of parole.

“Hey Tawnia,” he said with a friendly smile. “I missed letting you suck my cock at the party, you here to take care of that for me?”

“I am Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia,” she replied firmly. “This is Lieutenant Kintra of Imperial Security,” she added, gesturing to Stormie on her left. “We're here to talk about the blasters in the warehouse where you were arrested.”

“Quinn told me he would kill me if I didn't help him,” Sidd replied after a moment's hesitation. “I never wanted to mess with blasters, or get anyone hurt. Frakk, especially police!”

Ta'tan'ia had been around some of the most gifted liars in the galaxy. Galactic Alliance Senators. Sidd was okay. With the Force though, she could sense that he was mostly amused by what he was saying.

“Who did Quinn get the blasters from?” she asked him.

“I don't know. He didn't tell us shavit about that,” Sidd answered, still playing being agitated. “He just told us to guard them, and that he would kill one of us for every blaster that was missing.”

“Look Sidd,” Ta'tan'ia began in a friendly voice. “You didn't shoot any police officers, or even have a blaster on you when you were arrested. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. With the Jedi speaking up on your behalf, you don't even have to go back to prison for the parole violation. You can walk away from this right now. Just tell us who in the Empire he got the blasters from,” she told him, backing up the command with the Force.

Sidd glaced between them a few heartbeats, then burst out in laughter.

“Frakk, I bet you get people to tell you all sorts of shavit with that!” he said, grinning broadly. “I even wanted to tell you. . . for about half a second,” he added, winking at her. “I mean, I had always heard you Jedi had powers and shavit, but . . . damn!”

Unfortunately, Ta'tan'ia didn't sense any names when she had asked him the question.

“Who else might know who sent them?” she asked him, while he was still distracted.

“You're wasting your time, Jedi,” he responded. “The blasters just appeared in the warehouse all by their self.”

Ta'tan'ia and Stormie questioned him a couple of more minutes, then sent him back to his cell. For the next three Zoloz, Ta'tan'ia was able to sense fairly quickly that none of them had any idea who the source was. Two of them didn't seem to recognize her from the party though. They must have either been too drunk, or not been there.

Stormie suggested they work through them separately again. Ta'tan'ia declined. She did realize that they would only be able to interrogate a fraction of all the Zoloz in a reasonable amount of time though. She talked with Sergeant Bakuu, and they started keeping Zoloz in two interrogation rooms. That way, while they were talking to one, the officers could change out the Zoloz they had just finished with.

A couple of hours later they decided to end it. They had talked to thirty of the Zoloz, including all of the ones arrested at the warehouse. None them admitted to knowing who had supplied the blasters. Most of them claimed not to have even known that there were blasters there, or blamed Quinn, and said he forced them to be there. When Ta'tan'ia asked them who might know who the source was, though, four names came to various ones' minds. Quinn, Cyllir, Krayt, and Howler.

They had already talked to Quinn. Krayt was one of the Zoloz that had died at the warehouse shootout. As best they could learn, Howler had stayed behind on Trallis II. That left Cyllir.

“You want to try Quinn again?” Stormie asked her.

That's exactly what Ta'tan'ia was considering.

“No,” she finally responded. “We know where he's at if we need him again,” she explained, standing up. “I got a few questions for Sergeant Bakuu on the the way out though.”

“Okay,” Stormie agreed, climbing to her feet as well.

“Quinn Nobi is trying to take the blame for everything, and a lot of them are blaming him as well,” Ta'tan'ia told Sergeant Bakuu as he was escorting them to the front desk. “Any chance of that working?”

“No way,” he replied, shaking his head. “We got six of them on murdering a Security Officer, including two for Quinn. The rest of them we have on conspiracy at a minimum. And most of them were caught with either blasters or drugs on them. Probably half are prior felons too. Maybe a couple will slip through, but not many.”

That was very informative. There was one other thing that had seemed odd to her though.

“None of them seemed to be really worried about going to prison,” she said. “Any idea why?”

Sergeant Bakuu chuckled. “That because all of the prisons on Trigalis, and most in the sector, have plenty of Zoloz already in them. Where ever we send them, they'll just be with a bunch of their buddies.”

That was also very interesting.

“Any idea where we might find Cyllir, the local Zoloz Vice-president?” she asked as they arrived at the front desk.

“If he's not at their clubhouse, no,” he replied. “I can put you in contact with Lieutenant Danills though, he runs the gang unit. He might know where else he might be hiding.”

“Thank you,” Ta'tan'ia answered politely. She could sense he was telling the truth. The part about not knowing where Cyllir was anyway.

The duty officer returned their blasters to them, and Sergeant Bakuu gave them Lieutenant Danills' comm code. He also gave them his own, and told them to comm him if they needed anything while they were on Trigalis. They thanked him, and head back out to the street.

“I'll bet Cyllir knows we're here,” Stormie commented once they were outside. “Bakuu probably commed him before they even brought Quinn to us.”

“Yeah, I had really hoped he'd tell us what we needed to know,” Ta'tan'ia replied. While she didn't know if Sergeant Bakuu had reported their presence directly to Cyllir, between all of the officers and Zoloz they had talked to, word had probably gotten out that a Jedi and Imperial Security Officer were here. They probably knew why too.

“So now we have to find Cyllir, and have a chat with him,” Stormie said. “And he's probably either under the biggest rock he can find, or with as many of his scumbag buddies he can get.”

“If he's hiding, I'll find him,” Ta'tan'ia responded assuredly, signaling for an air taxi. “And if his Zoloz friends try to get in the way, I'll take care of them,” she added, patting her lightsaber at the small of her back.

Stormie nodded her head in agreement. “If it's all the same to you though, I'd like to swing by my ship, and get a blaster carbine.”

“We're just going to check out their clubhouse,” Ta'tan'ia replied as they slid into the backseat of the air taxi. “If there's too many of them there, then we'll back off.”

Ta'tan'ia almost asked her if she had been in combat before. She didn't want to get her hurt if she was just an office agent or something. Almost as quickly she remembered that they'd been ambushed, and Stormie was the one that had gotten her out of it. That actually made her feel better. If they got into another tight, she wouldn't have to worry about her too much.

“Well, okay then,” Stormie said after a few moments. “You want to comm Lieutenant Danills, and see if he knows where Cyllir might be?”

“Na, I got another angle I want to work first,” Ta'tan'ia replied. “Besides, we don't trust Sergeant Bakuu, remember? And he gave us Lieutenant Danills' name.”

“Okay,” Stormie agreed. She paused a moment, then added, “By the way, just how many Zoloz did you go down on at this party?”

“Just Quinn,” Ta'tan'ia answered. “And I let one more fuck me, and practically had sex with a third one in front of a bunch of them while I was only wearing my collar, some black nerfhide armlets, a thong, and fifteen-centimeter plastex heels,” she explained.

“Nice,” Stormie replied with friendly grin.

Ta'tan'ia glanced at her, and flicked her lekku in embarrassment. Why did I tell her all that?

Five minutes or so later, they had the Zoloz' clubhouse in sight. Ta'tan'ia had the air taxi stop a few hundred meters away. There weren't any speeder-bikes out front. She reached out with the Force, and didn't think she sensed anyone inside either.

“Drop us off at the Zoloz' clubhouse,” she instructed the driver as she tapped commands into her comlink.

A few seconds later they came to a stop in front of the doors. Ta'tan'ia stretched her right arm up through the gap in the plastex divider. “Just scan my comlink,” she instructed the driver.

He scanned her comlink, and the air taxi ride was paid for.

“We should have frakking blaster carbines for this,” Stormie complained as they climbed out.

“Relax,” Ta'tan'ia told her as the air taxi took off. “No one's here.”

“So should we knock?” Stormie asked as they walked up to the door.

“It's the polite thing to do,” Ta'tan'ia replied, pulling out her lightsaber. She ignited the blade, and deftly sliced through the locks of the double doors.

Stormie pulled out her blaster as Ta'tan'ia opened one of the doors. She kept her lightsaber in front of her as they walked inside.

The main room of the clubhouse was empty. There was still some evidence of the party, but someone had at least started to clean up. Ta'tan'ia didn't sense anyone else in the clubhouse either. They did a quick sweep of the main floor, then Ta'tan'ia had Stormie wait at the top of the stairs while she checked the basement. It was empty of Zoloz as well.

“Can't you just like, find them with the Force, or something?” Stormie asked her when she came back up to the main level.

“Probably,” Ta'tan'ia answered. “But I want to look around a bit before I get to that.” She paused a moment, then added, “Besides, I they aren't anywhere near here.”

Ta'tan'ia went to the meeting room she had found on her previous visit. Unlike the rest of the clubhouse, the party hadn't extended into here. It did look like the police had been in here though.

The shorter of the two safes in the closet was wide open, and empty. The taller one's door was open a half-a-centimeter or so. Ta'tan'ia walked over, and opened it the rest of the way.

Inside Ta'tan'ia found a strappy red shirt. A heartbeat later she remembered it was the one she had worn to the Zoloz party the other day. There was a blaster next to it.

“Hey, that's mine,” Stormie said as she stepped forward and picked up the blaster. “I must have lost it. . . when they ambushed us.”

She checked the power level, and shoved it into her belt. Then she picked up the top.

“What's this?” she asked, holding it up by its shoulders.

“The shirt I wore to their party,” Ta'tan'ia answered.

“Sexy,” Stormie responded, eyeing the top, then eyeing Ta'tan'ia. “You want to keep it, since you don't have anything else to wear?”

“No thanks,” Ta'tan'ia answered, looking around the room again for anything she had missed.

Stormie shrugged her shoulders, and tossed the top back into the safe. Then they went and did a little more of a thorough search of the other rooms of the clubhouse. When they got to the room where Ta'tan'ia had found Tahiri's clothes and stuff, Ta'tan'ia made sure she searched the closet herself. She didn't want Stormie spotting Tahiri's skimpy biker-slut clothes, or cuffs and shackles.

“I need to make a comm call,” Ta'tan'ia told Stormie as they walked back up the stairs from the garage.

By the time Ta'tan'ia got to the bar, she was already talking to Jedi Turi Altamik again.

While she did that, Stormie stepped around behind the bar, and started looking around.

“Hey, I need some information,” Ta'tan'ia told Turi. “There's a lot of corruption in the local law enforcement here on Trigalis. I need to know if there is someone I can trust in the New Coronet Security Force?”

“Just a sec, let me get to a computer terminal,” Turi responded.

Twenty seconds or so later, Ta'tan'ia heard the faint sound of Turi tapping a computer terminal, then a moment of silence. “I don't have anyone noted here,” she answered. “Let me do some checking around though, and see what I can come up with.”

“Okay,” Ta'tan'ia replied. “Please comm me back as soon as you find out,” she told her.

“I will,” Turi assured her.

Ta'tan'ia ended the call, and glanced over to see Stormie coming back out in front of the bar.

“I hoped to find a blaster rifle or something,” she complained. “There's hardly even any booze left though.”

“Well they did just have a pretty big party,” Ta'tan'ia said, sliding off the bar stool. “And I think we're ready to go,” she added. “Unless you have something else here you want to check out?”

“If there's no Zoloz, or directions to where some are, then I'm good,” Stormie responded, following her towards the front door.

They went back outside, and started looking for an air taxi. They didn't see one, so they started walking.

“So where are we going now?” Stormie asked her.

“Back to your ship,” Ta'tan'ia answered. “To wait for Turi to comm be back, and so I can start meditating for guidance.”

“Good,” Stormie responded. “I can turn the environmental system down to about ten degrees. This place is like an engine exhaust.”

Ta'tan'ia had noticed the heat on her first visit. Her armored bodysuit and cloak certainly didn't help. At least Stormie was wearing a looser jumpsuit, although she didn't have the Force to help keep herself cooler. She also had all that hair on top of her head. Ta'tan'ia was thankful Twi'leks where naturally hairless.

“We are pretty much surrounded by a couple hundred thousand klicks of swamp,” she finally replied.

“You know we can get on the local net and have an air taxi sent to us, right?” Stormie responded.

“I'm not in any hurry,” Ta'tan'ia said with a shrug. “I can meditate while we walk.”

“It really doesn't bother to walk in those heels?” Stormie asked in obvious disbelief.

“They're pretty comfortable,” Ta'tan'ia said. “I walked a lot further everyday in eighteen-centimeter stiletto-heeled boots when I was Chief Daala's liaison.”

“Well, when we get back to the spaceport, I'm going to rent us a speeder,” Stormie informed her. “Something fast, in case we have to chase one of their swoop-bikes. And with a good enviro system.”

“Good idea,” Ta'tan'ia agreed with a nod.

“What if we checked out one of the other Zoloz' chapters in New Coronet?” Stormie asked. “They might know where Cyllir is.”

“Let me see if the Jedi know someone we can trust in the Security Force first,” Ta'tan'ia responded after a few moments' consideration. “There's only two of us. I don't want to try and take on all the Zoloz if we don't have too.”

“If we kill all of them, then they can't buy any blasters,” Stormie countered.

“We're not going to kill anyone we don't have to,” Ta'tan'ia told her firmly.

“I was just joking,” Stormie said dryly.

Ta'tan'ia flashed her a disapproving look, but didn't reply.

A couple of blocks later, they found an air taxi. They got in, and headed for the spaceport. After Ta'tan'ia paid for the ride with her comlink, they went to rent a speeder. Ta'tan'ia offered to have it put in her name, but Stormie insisted that it go in hers, saying that she might not be ready to pilot a speeder so soon after being knocked out. Ta'tan'ia disagreed on that, but let her have her way.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to get the speeder rented. They finally finished it, and were almost back to the ship when Ta'tan'ia received the comm call from Turi.

“Hey Turi,” Ta'tan'ia greeted her as she stopped walking and raised her wrist so Stormie could hear. At the same time, she glanced around to make sure no one else was within earshot. She noticed Stormie doing the same as well.

“What do you have for us?” She hoped Turi caught the us, and concluded that she wasn't alone, and didn't say anything she shouldn't.

“Okay. I checked with Master Horn, who checked around some, and a Captain Lin Tormond of New Coronet Security is supposed to be trustworthy. I'm sending you his comm code, and he should be expecting your comm.”

“Thanks a lot,” Ta'tan'ia told her. “And tell Master Horn thank you as well.”

Almost simultaneously, both Ta'tan'ia and Stormie turned around and started walking back towards the spaceport entrance.

“You're welcome,” Turi replied cheerfully. “And hello Lieutenant Kintra,” she added. “Thank you for taking care of Ta'tan'ia for us.”

“Hello Jedi Turi,” Stormie answered after a brief pause. “And it was no problem at all. Happy to be of assistance.”

“May the Force be with you,” Turi told them.

“And you,” Ta'tan'ia answered, ending the transmission.

She flashed Stormie a friendly smile, then commed Captain Tormond.

“Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” he greeted her. “I've been told you need my help.”

He sounded almost out of breath, but Ta'tan'ia ignored it.

“Yes Captain Tormond,” she replied. “I'm looking for the Zoloz vice-president, Cyllir.”

“Let's meet. I'll send you the coordinates,” he suggested.

“Alright,” Ta'tan'ia answered, glancing at Stormie. She almost mentioned she would be with her, but decided not to. Best to just make the introductions in person.

“See you in about twenty,” Captain Tormond said.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ PART IV ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Okay,” Ta'tan'ia responded with an unconscious flick of her lek, even though it was a voice-only link.

The Jedi and Imperial Security Operative found their rented speeder in the lot near the spaceport entrance. Stormie opened it with the remote, and climbed into the pilot's seat. As Ta'tan'ia climbed into the passenger side, she stripped off her cloak, and tossed it in the back seat.

About ten minutes later they arrived at the coordinates Captain Tormond had sent Ta'tan'ia. It was a nearly empty parking lot next to strip of shops. Most of the shoppers were parked in the bigger lot in front. Stormie spun the speeder around, backed into a space facing out, and they waited.

Several minutes later a New Coronet Security Force speeder pulled into the parking lot. It quickly backed in next to them, its passenger side nearest to Stormie. She hit the button on the door to slide the transparisteel window down.

“Jedi Ta'tan'ia?” the passenger greeted them, looking more at Stormie than Ta'tan'ia. “I'm Captain Tormond, and this is Officer Pratt,” he added, nodding back towards the driver.

Ta'tan'ia immediately sensed that Captain Tormond was in pain. She also spotted what looked like a bacta patch on his upper arm, partially underneath the sleeve of his uniform.

“Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” Ta'tan'ia confirmed, sensing the question in his greeting. “And this is Lieutenant Kintra of Imperial Security,” she said, flicking her tchun—her left lek—towards Stormie. “She's with me,” she added, also sensing his unease at her presence.

Captain Tormond glanced at Stormie a heartbeat, then back at Officer Pratt a moment, then finally to Ta'tan'ia.

“Alright,” he replied, nodding towards Stormie in greeting. “You said you were looking for Cyllir?” he asked, turning his attention back to Ta'tan'ia.

“That's right,” Ta'tan'ia confirmed. “We've been interviewing Zoloz at the Detention Center most of the day, including Quinn Nobi, the chapter president. We're mainly looking into the blasters your people confiscated from them at the warehouse. They came from the Empire, so that's why Lieutenant Kintra is here.”

“Yeah, one of those bastards shot me,” Captain Tormond said, glancing down at his right arm. “Twice,” he added, gesturing towards his chest. “Luckily my vest got the second one.”

“I'm sorry,” Ta'tan'ia responded sympathetically. “We believe Cyllir knows who they got them from, and we're trying to make sure they can't get anymore from them.”

“Yeah, that sounds like the way they operate,” Captain Tormond replied with a nod. “They know what they're doing when it comes to getting some illegal shavit done.”

“We talked to a Sergeant Bakuu at the Detention Center,” Ta'tan'ia told them. “He suggested we talk to a Lieutenant Danills of the gang unit about where Cyllir might be hiding.”

She almost explained why she had got in contact with him instead of talking to Lieutenant Danills, but decided on tact instead. She was sure Captain Tormond was aware of law enforcement's reputation on Trigalis.

By Officer Pratt's derisive chuckle, she knew she had made the right decision, even before Captain Tormond spoke.

“Yeah, Lieutenant Danills probably can't help you,” he confirmed. “Don't get me wrong, he's not completely corrupt, but half the officers in the gang unit are on the take from someone. Every now and then they'll make a few big arrests for show, but that's about it. The rest of our department isn't much better. There's a select group of us that share information, and try to clean up the city.”

“Well, we weren't too sure about Sergeant Bakuu either,” Ta'tan'ia commented. “That's why we found you.”

The two Security Officers stared at each other questioningly for a few heartbeats, then Officer Pratt shrugged.

“What do you mean you weren't sure about him?” Captain Tormond asked. “I mean, I've never thought much of him—not that I've worked with him much—but he's always seemed okay to me.”

“He said he had a list of all the Zoloz prisoners for us in front of Quinn,” Stormie explained. “And that the interrogation wasn't being recorded.”

The two New Coronet Officers glanced at each other again, then Captain Tormond looked back towards Ta'tan'ia and Stormie.

“Maybe he was just sloppy, but I'm not sure,” Ta'tan'ia told them. “I got the feeling it was conveniently deliberate.”

“Well, we'll keep an eye on him,” Captain Tormond responded. “But like I said, we never thought much of him anyway.”

“Glad to be of assistance,” Ta'tan'ia replied. “But since Lieutenant Danills can't help me...?”

“Well, I'm not sure we can help you either, Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” Captain Tormond said with a sigh. “The Zoloz have a few places they'll go to ground here in New Coronet, but when they really want to hide, they go into the swamp.”

That thought had entered Ta'tan'ia's mind when Stormie was complaining about the heat earlier. She had hoped it wouldn't be true.

“Any idea where?” she asked hopefully.

Officer Pratt let out a laugh. “They probably have half-a-dozen or so hideouts set up at any given time, fully stocked with food, weapons, and supplies. And they move them around all the time. All the criminals go out there to hide out.”

“A bunch of them pretty much live out there,” Captain Tormond added. “Probably more than live in the city, and there's a little over a hundred, across four chapters in New Coronet.”

Ta'tan'ia glanced at Stormie, who had looked back at her.

“Anybody ever go out there looking for them?” Ta'tan'ia asked, turning her attention back to Captain Tormond.

“We've tried,” Officer Pratt responded. “By the time we get up enough officers so we don't all get killed, they've found out we're coming, and went deeper in.”

Even with the Force, Ta'tan'ia wasn't eager to go into a swamp against several dozen Zoloz. Actually, she'd never even been in a swamp. She had been born on Coruscant, and only left a few times up until Master Skywalker had moved the Temple to Ossus. Still, with the Force as her ally, she was confident she could find Cyllir if she had too. She didn't plan on mentioning her lack of experience in swamps to her Imperial partner for now though.

“Any ideas then?” she asked them.

Captain Tormond shrugged. “Bring in a brigade or two of soldiers? If you can figure out about where he is with the Force or whatever, launch some missiles or something at him?”

Ta'tan'ia chuckled politely in response.

“Maybe if you flew your ship, and let a lot of people see you get on it and leave, out into the swamp, and waited a few days or so, Cyllir might think you left, and come back. When he does, one of us can comm you,” Officer Pratt suggested.

“Yeah, that might work,” Captain Tormond agreed. “Cyllir can't stay out there too long, he's got to run things, especially since we have Quinn locked up. That means he's going to have to come back into New Coronet before long. Some of the other Zoloz can stay out there indefinitely, but Cyllir will have to come back if he wants to run the Zoloz, and he wants run the Zoloz.”

“Definitely,” Officer Pratt agreed with nod. “Cyllir's not going to stay out there hiding forever.”

Ta'tan'ia didn't really want to sit around waiting for days, but if that's the only option she had. . .

“Any ideas on getting Quinn to tell us?” Ta'tan'ia asked. “We know he knows who their supplier is.”

Captain Tormond glanced back at Officer Pratt before replying.

“Na, sorry,” he finally said. “We've never been able to get anything out of him.”

Ta'tan'ia sighed, and wriggled her lekku in disappointment.

“Alright,” she responded. “Thanks for your help.”

“No problem, Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” he replied cheerfully. “If you need anything else, you've got my comm code.”

“Let me give you mine too,” Officer Pratt interjected from the other side of the Security Force speeder. “Captain Tormond is supposed to be on light duty,” he added with a hint of tenseness.

Captain Tormond merely smiled at the mild rebuke.

“Thanks,” Ta'tan'ia replied with a smile, noticing Stormie glancing down and tapping her wrist comlink.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie felt a subtle vibration from her wrist comlink, and glanced down at it. There was an urgent notice from Colonel Drasi. It said for her to comm him as soon as possible, when she was alone. She acknowledged without replying.

“By the way, was that you and your partner—Jedi Torran, I think his name is—at the spaceport about the same time we hit the warehouse? With those Blood Riders?” Officer Pratt asked Ta'tan'ia as he sent her his comm code.

It took Stormie a couple of seconds to realize what Officer Pratt was talking about. The five dead swoop-bikers.

“Yeah,” Ta'tan'ia answered absently, as she accepted his message. “They were trying to steal our ship.” It was obvious she didn't want to discuss the matter.

“Hey, no need to explain,” Officer Pratt responded with a smile, raising his hands in mock surrender. “You're a Jedi, and the Blood Riders are known criminals.”

Captain Tormond nodded his head in agreement.

Stormie frowned a moment. She had assumed the Jedi hadn't killed them. Then she realized that Ta'tan'ia probably didn't want to talk about it because she had been rescuing that schutta Veila, and she didn't want her to know about it. The cops though, thought it was because the Jedi had killed the Blood Riders.

She glanced back towards Ta'tan'ia to ask her about it, but quickly stopped herself. Her mission was to find out who was supplying the Zoloz with Imperial weapons, not concern herself with who killed a bunch of swoop-bikers. It wasn't interfering with her mission, so she wasn't going to bring it up, especially considering she seemed to be the only one with the information at the moment. Well, except for the Zoloz, and they weren't likely to tell anyone they killed the Blood Riders. Besides, she didn't want Ta'tan'ia remembering too much about yesterday anyway.

“Thank you again for your help, Captain Tormond, Officer Pratt,” Ta'tan'ia told them.

“No problem, Jedi Ta'tan'ia,” Captain Tormond replied with a nod. “Happy to help,” he added, nodding towards Stormie.

Stormie politely nodded her head in reply.

“Good luck,” Officer Pratt said, sliding up his window and pulling out of the parking space.

Stormie hit the button to slide up her window as she watched them leave. Then she glanced over at her Jedi companion.

“Can you find Cyllir in the swamp?” she asked her.

Ta'tan'ia sat silently for a moment. “Probably,” she finally admitted. “But I'd probably find a lot more Zoloz with him,” she added, flashing an amused smile.

“If you can hold them off, I'll make Cyllir talk,” Stormie told her with determination. “Or at least give the fish something to eat,” she added with a grim smile.

“Then your guy will just sell blasters to another Zoloz,” Ta'tan'ia replied.

Stormie shrugged her shoulders. She just wanted to get this mission over with, before Ta'tan'ia remembered something she wasn't supposed to.

“Back to my ship?” she asked her, Colonel Drasi's message on her mind.

“Yeah, I need to think about things for a bit,” Ta'tan'ia answered, unzipping her body suit a little.

Stormie pulled away, heading towards the spaceport. She saw a quick-serve restaurant, and realized she hadn't eaten since before she'd rendezvoused with the Dark Horizon. Besides a quick nap on that trip, she had only caught a couple of hours of sleep on the first trip to Trigalis. In the last thirty-six hours, she'd gotten maybe three hours of sleep. Still, the mission came before both of those problems. She needed to comm Colonel Drasi back.

Once they arrived at the ship, Ta'tan'ia grabbed her cloak from the back seat, and said she was going to meditate. Stormie almost offered her one of the cabins, but quickly changed her mind. If she was fine being in a cell, she wasn't going to worry about it. Stormie let her go in, while she headed for the cockpit, and the ship's comm.

“Lieutenant Kintra,” Colonel Drasi greeted her once the link had been made. “Status report.”

“We interviewed about thirty of the Zoloz that were in the local detention center. The only one of them who knows who provided the blasters is Quinn, the local club president. Even with Jedi Ta'tan'ia using her mind tricks, he won't say anything. We believe the club Vice-President, Cyllir, also knows who provided them. He is likely hiding out in the swamps, so Jedi Ta'tan'ia is currently meditating on his whereabouts,” Stormie explained.

Colonel Drasi stared at her a few seconds. “What are you doing to find this Cyllir character?”

“At the moment I'm just monitoring local comm traffic for his frequency, Sir,” she said. “When he uses his comlink, we'll know where he's at.”

“Well, there's been a chance of plans. Talk to Cyllir or Quinn or whoever knows who from the Empire is providing the weapons. But we want to make a deal with them. They give up the source, but in exchange, we will keep supplying them with weapons. More, at a much better price,” he explained.

“What!?” Stormie asked in bewilderment. “We're going to still sell the Zoloz blasters?”

“Yes,” Colonel Drasi replied with a nod. “Obviously, the Jedi or Galactic Alliance can't find out about this though.”

“Obviously,” she answered, still surprised. Now she had a whole other lie to sell Ta'tan'ia on. “May I ask whose insane idea this was, Sir?”

“Imperial Intelligence,” he replied tightly. “They probably don't have a clue who the weapons are coming from, so they're trying to set us up to fail. If we don't pull this off, then it's our fault. If we do, they still get some credit, because it was their idea.”

Stormie sat there a few heartbeats. The biggest problem would be convincing Cyllir or Quinn to agree. Well, after not letting Ta'tan'ia find out.

“And they have to give up their source before we ship them anymore weapons, right?” she finally asked.

“We could be a bit flexible on that,” he replied. “But time is of the essence. If whoever stole two thousand or so blasters and sold them to outlaw swoop-bikers finds out about the deal, they could disappear on us.”

“So I can't get them to give us a fake name so the Jedi will be satisfied and leave, so we can do what we need to do,” she commented.

“That would be extremely risky,” Colonel Drasi agreed. “You can tell whoever you talk to that we have someone at the New Coronet Spaceport that will ensure safe transit of all deliveries though.”

“We do?” she asked in disbelief. “That's pretty convenient, for us.” I might have been able to use them when I was looking for Veila.

“We will soon enough, anyway,” Colonel Drasi informed her dismissively. “Infiltrating their spaceport won't be a problem.”

“Okay Sir,” Stormie replied with a nod. “My impression is that they are pretty disciplined, for outlaw swoop-bikers though.” She paused, then added, “If it weren't for the Jedi, the shipment they already had probably wouldn't have been discovered.”

“We could send them some credits as a sign of good faith,” he said after a few moments' thought.

“That might work. How much do I have to negotiate with?” Stormie asked.

Colonel Drasi frowned. “You can go up to seventy-five thousand.” He paused a heartbeat, then added, “But anything over fifty thousand we'll need back after a shipment or two.”

“I'll take care of it, Sir,” Stormie said with a nod.

“Remember, secrecy is of the utmost importance on this, Lieutenant Kintra. If we make this arrangement, and the Jedi or Galactic Alliance find out, it will be extremely embarrassing for the Empire.”

“Yes Sir,” Stormie responded with certainly.

“I'll forward you the details of what we're prepared to provide, and at what price. Also mention that when things start going smoothly, we may occasionally need them to move some weapons or other minor items for us. We'd be willing to pay a nominal courtesy fee for this service, of course.”

“Yes Sir,” Stormie repeated. She immediately suspected that this was a major reason the Empire want to make this deal, but she wasn't about to comment on it.

Colonel Drasi nodded his head in acknowledgment and shut down the link. Stormie closed it from her end, and checked the surveillance holocams to make sure Ta'tan'ia was still in the cell. Maybe that loyalty stuff Admiral Daala's Doctor did to her would pay off. Stormie sighed, and commed Cyllir.

He didn't answer of course. Stormie left him a message asking him to comm her back as soon as possible, saying that it would be worth his while. Then she ran back to the Medical Station, and grabbed a stimshot. On the way back to the cockpit she also picked up a couple of ration bars, and a bottle of water from the galley.

Once she sat back down in the pilot's seat, Stormie opened the stimshot, raised it to the side of her neck, and injected herself. Almost immediately, she felt a rush of energy hit her. That should keep me going another six hours or so. Next she opened her ration bar, took a bite, then a swallow of water. She watched Ta'tan'ia meditate while she waited for Cyllir, and she began scanning the information Colonel Drasi had just sent her about what the Empire was willing to sell the Zoloz.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Cyllir commed her back. She quickly accepted the call. Her tracking program said he was just a few hundred meters from their clubhouse. She was a bit surprised he wasn't out in the swamp somewhere, or at least a lot further away from the clubhouse.

“Hello again,” Stormie said with a friendly smile, once the link was made. She purposely didn't mention his name, since that's what he had wanted last time.

His holofield was tight on his upper body, only revealing a plain brown wall behind him. She knew hers was set up the same way, only showing a little of the blank bulkhead behind her.

“Talk,” the Zoloz' Vice-President said after a few moments of silence.

“I have a business proposition for you,” Stormie told him. “We know you got those blasters that were at the warehouse from the Empire. We want to continue that arrangement. Even expand it.” She paused a moment and added, “It just has to go through the proper channels.”

“All those blasters are Quinn's,” Cyllir replied with a shrug. “We don't know anything about them.”

Stormie glanced at the holocams in the cell. Ta'tan'ia was still meditating. “Look, we are going to find out who sold them to you. You will not get another single blaster from them. You can get even more blasters from the Empire though, on a regular basis. You just have to tell me who you got those from.”

Cyllir laughed. “That's all you got? We already know you're working with that Jedi. You don't seriously expect me to believe the Jedi are going to let us have a few thousand Imperial blasters?”

“Obviously Jedi Ta'tan'ia doesn't know about this,” Stormie told him calmly. She wasn't sure how much to tell him about her relationship with Ta'tan'ia, or what she had been doing on Trigalis before she started working with the Jedi. As always though, less was probably best.

Now Cyllir stared at her for several seconds. “Ronko Shavit.”

“No, really,” Stormie told him. “I am working with Jedi Ta'tan'ia to find out who's sending the blasters, but the Empire would happy to continue the arrangement, as long as it's through the proper channels.”

Cyllir stared at her in thought again. “No frakking way,” he finally said, shaking his head. “You didn't find out shavit at the detention center, and you won't find out shavit from any of us. And if you do find out on your end, then we'll just get someone else to sell us what we want. There are hundreds of millions of beings all over the galaxy willing to sell blasters to just about anyone with credits.”

“Look, the local Security Force has over a hundred Zoloz locked up. The Jedi are on to you, and we'll find out who's selling them to you anyway,” Stormie told him. “If you work with me now though, the Zoloz will have all the weapons they can handle. We even have someone at the New Coronet Spaceport to make sure everything gets through.”

“Sooner or later the Jedi will get called away to something more important, and you'll go crawling back to the Empire,” Cyllir replied. “And even if I did tell you, how do I know you'll really send us anything? What would I do, complain to the Ministry of Commerce?”

“So you want some sort of assurance we'd honor the deal?” Stormie asked him.

Cyllir paused a few seconds before replying. “Speaking hypothetically, yes.”

“How about thirty thousand credits?” she suggested.

“How about the Jedi? Ta'tan'ia. We owe her anyway,” he countered. “Since you're already betraying her and all.”

Stormie considered that a few moments. She knew they had taken down and kept one Jedi, and she had no problem with giving them Ta'tan'ia to close this deal. She was pretty sure she knew what they owed her for too; taking Tahiri from them. Maybe she could even tip off Admiral Daala, who could send a team in to take Ta'tan'ia from them later on.

“That wouldn't work,” she finally answered. “The Jedi know she's here. If she doesn't report in like she's supposed to, they'll send more Jedi to investigate, and they might discover you're still getting blasters, and might learn where they're coming from.”

“Okay,” Cyllir replied after several seconds of thought. “How about you then?”

“What?” Stormie asked in obvious shock.

“You stay with us until we get the first shipment. As our guest,” he explained. “Friendly guest,” he added with a reassuring smile.

“Considering the last time I was at your little clubhouse, I'm going to have to decline,” she responded. “Besides, I don't think our Jedi will let me stay here when she leaves.”

Now Cyllir sat silently in thought for several moments. “Okay. We'll take sixty thousand credits.”

That was double Stormie's first offer, but not quite as much as she had to work with. She did want to make a deal as quickly as possible though.

“Fifty.” That way she wouldn't have to worry about getting anything back from them later on.

“We'll send you our account number,” Cyllir said after several seconds. “When we get payment, you'll get our source.” He paused a moment, then added, “After we work out a few details.”

“Of course,” Stormie replied, glancing at the notes from Colonel Drasi. “We can immediately send a replacement shipment of two thousand standard Imperial blaster carbines, with power packs, at a hundred credits each. That price is for this shipment only. In a couple of weeks we can send another two thousand blasters, for one-fifty each. I know you'll be able to easily move these at six or seven-hundred a piece. If you want more, and our man at the spaceport is comfortable handling them, we can double that for subsequent shipments. If you need blaster pistols, or extra power packs, we'd be happy to provide those as well, at equally good rates.”

“So you want me to pay you two-hundred-thousand credits for blasters we've already paid for, and give up our source before we actually get the blasters?” he asked her suspiciously.

“We understand your reluctance,” Stormie told him sympathetically. “No need to pay until you see the blasters at the spaceport.”

“We're gonna have to take a vote before I can definitely agree to this,” Cyllir replied after a few moments. “Give me about ten minutes or so.”

“Okay,” she responded with a nod. “Also, just to be clear, only the first shipment will be Imperial blasters. After that we'll be sending a mix, but all of them will be equivalent quality. If too many Imperial weapons showed up on Trigalis, it might draw suspicion from the wrong people. The Jedi, for example.”

“Okay,” he said with his own nod. “Anything else?”

“I think that's it,” she answered after a brief hesitation.

“Alright,” Cyllir replied.

A moment later the link was shut down from his end. Stormie turned off her comm, glanced at the cell feed to see Ta'tan'ia still meditating, leaned back in her chair, and waited again. She really wondered what all Broxn had told them before he had died.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

In a Zoloz hideout, several kilometers into the swamps. . .

“So, any questions before we vote on this?” Cyllir asked his Zoloz brothers assembled around the room. “Problems? Comments?”

There was several moments of silence.

“Can we trust her?” Dirc asked.

“We get fifty-thousand, and don't pay until we see the next shipment,” Cyllir answered with a shrug.

“Frakk The Empire,” Grinder commented. “You can never trust those bastards.”

“We trusted the last Imperial,” Torch countered. “And this sounds like a way better deal than he offered.”

“I just wish I knew for sure why she was at Vik's,” Cyllir complained. “He wasn't even part of us, much less knew anything about the blasters.” He paused a heartbeat, then added, “The Jedi Twi'lek sneaks into our party, the cops raid the warehouse, and they take Torri. Then barely a day later, an Imperial team shows up and almost kills Vik. We ambush them casing our place, and she claims to be a bounty hunter tracking bounty hunters who we find out later are really Jedi. Then the Twi'lek Jedi shows back up and rescues her. They leave the planet, then show up eight hours later working together, not hiding who they really are anymore, and claiming to have been tracking the weapons all along.”

The rest of the Zoloz took a few seconds to consider that information.

“And no one saw any sign of the Imperials until after the Jedi had Torri off-planet,” Torch confirmed. “They didn't help rescue her, they didn't help them get to the spaceport, nothing.”

Several of the Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement, although all knew it to be true.

“I can see the Jedi rescuing a bounty hunter, and making sure the cops got our blasters,” Cyllir said. “But why would the Imps even care about a bounty hunter? And I don't buy the Imp schutta's story. As far as we know, she went straight to Vik's, like twelve hours after Custom Swoops Weekly was released with Torri's flatholo in it.”

“Yeah, we should have warned him not to put any of those on the HoloNet,” Torch said. “Especially so close to the blasters coming in.”

“I wish we could have had more time with that other Imp,” Dirc commented regretfully. “I could have made him tell us everything.”

“Yeah, Lieutenant Kintra had that fixed, and quick,” Cyllir responded. “Made sure he got real dead. Didn't even blink at paying us to do it either.”

“Hey, I just thought about something,” Torch began slowly. “Why didn't the Jedi schutta try to rescue the other Imp? Almost as soon as she got Kintra out, the Imp chick commed us about killing him. Even when she was threatening to bomb our clubhouse, she had zero interest in getting him away from us. She just wanted him dead. It doesn't add up.”

The other Zoloz contemplated that a few moments.

“Yeah, that doesn't make sense,” Cyllir agreed. “Luke Skywalker is always talking about Jedi protecting life and shavitt.”

“Maybe the Jedi didn't know about the second Imp,” Dirc commented.

The Zoloz considered that silently a few seconds.

“Maybe,” Cyllir finally admitted. “But how could she not know? There were only three Imperials, and two Jedi, including the one that helped Ta'tan'ia take Torri from us. How could she not know we had captured two of the Imps?”

“You know, Broxn never mentioned them working with any Jedi,” Skifter commented after a few more moments of silence. “He said it was just him, the dead Imp—what was his name, Whytte—and Lieutenant Kintra, and that they were here looking for Torri, but he didn't know why.”

“Maybe Kintra told the Jedi that Broxn was already dead?” Dirc ventured.

“Whatever happened, does it really affect what's on the table now?” Koda asked. “We don't trust the Imp bitch. None of what's going on makes sense. And we still need to make a shavitt load of credits pretty soon.

Once again, the Zoloz sat in silent thought a couple of seconds.

“Speaking of credits, how are we even going to get the other hundred-and-fifty-grand for these kriffing blasters?” Dirc asked. “We put basically everything we had into the first shipment, the rest is for the lawyer. Unless we don't pay him for awhile?”

“That's my plan,” Cyllir confirmed. “I'll talk to him, and tell him we need to delay paying him for about two weeks. He knows we're good for it, all the business we give him.”

“We can make a like three-quarters of a million credits on this one shipment,” Koda commented. “And that's with us keeping a couple of hundred for ourselves. We'll have plenty for that Bothan.”

“Well, it'll be probably be closer to about half-a-million,” Cyllir countered. “Even though this is all us, we're still gonna share some of the wealth with our brothers from Trallis II, and the other chapters here.”

The Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement as they contemplated what they could do with half-a-million credits, and a couple of hundred blaster carbines.

“The schutta's right about one thing though,” Dirc began. “After the warehouse shootout, it's going to be a while before the cops leave us alone.”

“Five hundred thousand credits buys a lot of eyes looking the other way,” Torch countered.

“So as it stands, who knows if or when we'll be able to get another shipment from our source. Lieutenant Kintra sends us one, and we don't have to touch it until we feel comfortable,” Cyllir explained. “We don't have to trust her very far for that, whatever else shavit she's up to.”

“I don't feel right doing this without Quinn,” Dirc complained.

“I know, brother,” Cyllir told him. “Everyone of us knows the Zoloz come first though. He's trying to take as much of the weight as he can for the club. If it wasn't for that kriffing Jedi, we would have been at the warehouse with him and everyone else. Quinn will understand.”

The Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement.

“One more thing,” Torch began. “The schutta said they had someone at the New Coronet spaceport to make sure everything gets through. If he can get blasters through for the Empire, then he can get other stuff through for us. That could sure come in useful down the road.”

“If she's not lying about that too,” Dirc countered.

“Well, the worse that will happen is we get fifty-thousand credits in exchange for an Imperial name,” Cyllir said, trying to spin it back positive. “Hopefully we get a regular supply of blasters at great prices, maybe we get other stuff too.”

“It's not like the Imp is a Zoloz or anything,” Koda said. “Hell, he's not even a friend. We just made one deal with him, and look how that turned out.”

That seemed like as good of point as any in favor. Cyllir paused several seconds, then asked, “Anything else?”

“So we're going to give him up to the Imps and Jedi?” Dirc responded.

Cyllir had been gauging everyone's reactions during the entire conversation, first with the Imp, and then with just his brothers. He was confident he had the votes. Jahn, Cris, Bey, and Little J had died at the warehouse shootout. Nine more members of the New Coronet chapter of the Zoloz had been arrested in the aftermath.

That would leave them short of muscle for an operation this big, but between the other New Coronet chapters, and all their brothers that pretty much lived out in the swamp—where they were currently hiding out as well—they could take care of that. It also helped that Torch had taken out a bunch of those frakking Blood Riders, especially Ringo. Without him leading them, they shouldn't be much of a problem in the future.

For a situation like this, the club could vote without their brothers that were locked up. The remaining ten members accepted the Imperial schutta's deal by a vote of seven-to-three. Only Dirc, Grinder, and Lonn dissented. Cyllir activated the comm, to tell the Imperial schutta the news. He was also going to ask her about Torri. He'd really love to get her back.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie glanced up from watching Ta'tan'ia, and accepted the comm call. It was Cyllir.

“We've decided to accept the deal,” he told her.

“Great,” she replied with relief. “Just send me your account number, and I'll send you your credits.”

Cyllir nodded his head towards someone just out of his holofield.

“However, I don't want you to tell me who your source is just yet,” she told him. “I want you to tell Ta'tan'ia.” She thought another few seconds, then changed that. “As a matter of fact, can you get a message to Quinn?”

“Possibly,” Cyllir answered cautiously.

“Can you to get him to tell Ta'tan'ia who the source is?” she asked as the account number appeared on her screen. “That way, Ta'tan'ia will sense my surprise as I hear it, and won't suspect we're working together.”

“I can see that,” Cyllir agreed. “Give me a few hours. I'll let you know when we're ready.”

“Okay,” Stormie replied as she sent him the fifty thousand credits.

“Hey, I got a question,” Cyllir said. “Why did you and the Jedi go through all that trouble to take Torri—Terri Rapuung from us? She was just a bounty hunter.”

It took Stormie a moment to understand that he was talking about Tahiri Veila. She also realized that he thought she had been working with the Jedi the whole time, and... Does he not know who Torri really is? She wondered.

“I wasn't involved with that,” she told him with a dismissive shrug. “I came here tracking the blasters. I don't know why the Jedi wanted her. I didn't even find out they had taken her until after they already had her off planet.”

The first and forth sentences of that were true. The second and third weren't. Cyllir had to know that too... unless Broxn had kept Tahiri's real identity a secret. If he had, then Cyllir would only know they had been looking for their bounty-hunter-turned-swoop-bike-slut, not who she really was.

Stormie wondered if there was anyway to find out exactly what Broxn had told them.

Probably not, she quickly decided. Cyllir didn't seem like the type to give up any information like that, and with Ta'tan'ia around, she couldn't very well go find and interrogate any of the particular Zoloz who would know what Broxn had said. Then she wondered if she should go ahead and tell Cyllir she had been looking for their swoop-biker-slut too, and had been there when Vik was shot. She decided not to do that either. No need to upset him until her mission was complete, and she was safely off this bug-infested rock.

Stormie also realized that if Cyllir knew who Tahiri really was, he would know why the Jedi had taken her, and why her team had been looking for her. Maybe Broxn hadn't given that up. Her opinion of him went up... slightly. She definitely wasn't about to tell Cyllir that their swoop-bike-slut was really a notorious former-Jedi-turned-scumbag-murder. The deal had been made. Her mission was almost complete. At least this mission. She still wished she could have gotten that schutta to start with.

“Since you're not really working with the Jedi anymore, any idea where they took her?” Cyllir asked her. “I mean, even after we told her who she really was, and what happened, she wanted to stay with us.”

“No idea,” she replied. “Like I said, I didn't even know anything about that till after it was done.”

Stormie would really love to know where Tahiri was herself. If he knew who she really was, then he would be at least a little worried about her taking retribution for what they had done to her, she reasoned.

“Okay then,” He responded after a couple of seconds.

“Oh, before you go, once things are going smoothly, we might need you to move some weapons or other minor items for us, on occasion. We'd be happy to pay a small courtesy fee for this, of course,” Stormie told him, turning her attention back to why they were talking in the first place.

“What sort of items?” he asked warily.

“I'm not exactly sure,” she answered apologetically. “We'll be in contact about it when the time comes though. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

“We should be able to help you with something like that,” he replied. “But I can't make any guarantees.”

“I understand,” Stormie said. “Just send me a message when you've spoken with Quinn.”

“No problem,” he responded with a nod.

Stormie shut down the link and glanced at the feed from the cell. Ta'tan'ia was still meditating. Now she just had to keep her occupied until Cyllir contacted her, and then get her to go back and interrogate Quinn again. Maybe she could cuff her to the cell bunk again or something...

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A couple of hours later, when they arrived at the New Coronet Detention Center there was a different officer on duty at the front desk. They turned over their blasters, but she also wanted them to surrender their comlinks, just like before. Once again Sergeant Bakuu appeared, and told the officer that he would take care of them. He escorted them to an interrogation room, and had Quinn brought up.

“By the way Sergeant Bakuu, did you tell the Zoloz we were interrogating Quinn and the others this morning?” Ta'tan'ia asked him casually, using the Force to get him to answer truthfully.

“Yeah,” he answered quickly. A split-second later his eyes went wide in shock.

“Relax,” Ta'tan'ia told him, using the Force again to back up the command as she set her hand on his shoulder. She could sense Stormie's surprise as well. “Who did you tell?”

“Cyllir,” he replied after a moment's hesitation.

“Do you have his comm code?” Ta'tan'ia asked him.

“It's in my comlink in my locker,” he answered, still obviously in shock.

“You should go to your superiors and resign immediately,” Ta'tan'ia instructed him, using the Force once again. “You don't want to be a Police Officer anymore. And once you've done that, you'll make sure both Lieutenant Kintra and I get Cyllir's comm code. Then clean out your locker, and leave the Detention Center.”

“O—Okay,” Sergeant Bakuu answered, turning to walk away.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Ta'tan'ia called after him. “Do not mention any of this to Cyllir, or any of the Zoloz.”

“I—I won't,” he responded with a hesitant shake of his head.

“BY THE EMPEROR!” Stormie exclaimed once he was out of earshot. “Is he really going to quit?”

“Yes,” Ta'tan'ia replied confidently. “I was just going to find out if he was corrupt, but...” she trailed off with a flick of her lekku, and shrug of her shoulders.

“Does he have our comm codes?” Stormie asked suddenly. “To give us Cyllir's?”

“Oh. I had assumed he would just leave it with the desk officer,” Ta'tan'ia said, glancing down and tapping her comlink screen. “But I suppose that would be easier.”

Sergeant Bakuu had given both of them his comm code on their previous visit, but they hadn't given him theirs.

“I'll give him mine too,” Stormie said a couple of seconds later, as she began tapping the comlink maglocked around her own wrist.

A minute or so later two officers appeared with Quinn Nobi between them.

“Where's Sergeant Bakuu?” the taller of the two asked. “And who are you?”

“Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia,” she answered. “And Lieutenant Kintra. Sergeant Bakuu just left . He seemed to have something important to do.”

“Yeah,” Stormie quickly agreed with a nod.

“Oh, the Jedi,” the Officer commented absently. “Well, where do you want him?” he asked, nodding towards Quinn.

“In here is fine,” Ta'tan'ia replied, gesturing towards the interrogation room.

Once they put Quinn in the room, Ta'tan'ia had the officers make sure they weren't being recorded. Then she went in, along with Stormie. Even though he was as defiant as before, Ta'tan'ia had a better feeling about this time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Let's say I was inclined to tell you who our source was, what would you give me in return?” Quinn asked.

They had been questioning him for several minutes. So far, he seemed to be mostly amused by the attempted interrogation, just like before. Now though, Ta'tan'ia could sense a change in his mood.

“You killed two Security Officers, and helped kill seven more. You're going to spend the rest of your life in prison,” she told him.

“What about some of my brothers, then?” he replied. “Most of them didn't even have a blaster, much less shoot one. What can you do for them.”

“The Jedi aren't going to release a bunch of outlaw swoop-bikers for this,” Ta'tan'ia responded. “The Empire will track down the source on their end sooner or later. Meanwhile, we could set up a task force of Galactic Alliance Security Officers right here in New Coronet dedicated just to stopping the Zoloz from doing anything remotely illegal. Smuggling weapons, having so much as a gram of spice, not having proper registration for your speeder-bikes, anything they can think of.”

“Ronko shavit,” Quinn answered succinctly. “The G-A isn't going to spend that kind of credits on just us.”

“I can think of a few dozen or so Senators off the top of my head that would be happy to help the Jedi set one up.” She paused a moment, then added, “Especially if a Jedi or two is going to be leading the task force.”

“And if not, Imperial Security would be happy to get rid of all the Zoloz in New Coronet, just for the fun of it,” Stormie added with a sneer.

“How do I know I can trust you?” Quinn asked.

“We're just here because of the blasters,” Ta'tan'ia told him. “Once we ensure that's stopped, then the Zoloz will once again be the New Coronet Security Force's problem.”

He glanced between the two of them, then stared off at the wall over their right shoulders several moments. “General Spraugg,” he finally said. “We got the blasters from a General Spraugg.”

Ta'tan'ia could sense he was being truthful. She also noticed Stormie tapping into her comlink. She had taken the brace off, and moved the durasteel comlink to her left wrist.

“And how long have you been getting weapons from this General Spraugg?” Ta'tan'ia asked him as Stormie continued tapping her comlink screen.

“This was the first time,” he answered. “But it was supposed to be a regular thing.”

Ta'tan'ia could sense he was still telling the truth.

“So you set the deal up directly with General Spraugg?” she asked him. “There wasn't anyone else involved?”

“Well, Krayt, but he's dead,” he replied with a shrug.

Ta'tan'ia sensed he was hiding something, but before she could probe further, she felt shock from Stormie, followed quickly by a strong feeling of satisfaction. She glanced over towards her questioningly.

“Just checking into something,” Stormie said vaguely. “I'll fill you when we leave.”

Ta'tan'ia gave her a nod, then turned her attention back to Quinn.

“So what did Krayt do?”

“He's the one that first linked up with General Spraugg. The cops on Trallis II are too nosy to let them move the blasters like we could here though, so he got a hold of us, and we set up the deal,” Quinn explained with a shrug.

Ta'tan'ia could tell he wasn't being completely truthful. She didn't know if it really mattered though. She was confident General Spraugg was the supplier.

“Did you deal with any other Imperials?”

“Just General Spraugg,” Quinn answered.

“Okay, Mister Nobi, we appreciate your assistance. We're going to confirm what you've said. As long as you've told us the truth, the Jedi won't take any unusual notice of the Zoloz on Trigalis.”

“Hey Jedi, I got a question before you go,” Quinn said as Ta'tan'ia was about to stand up.

“What?” Ta'tan'ia asked warily.

“Why'd you go through all that trouble to take Terri from us?” he asked. “Even after we told her who she really was, she wanted to stay. She loved being our Zoloz slut.”

“I'm not going to answer that,” Ta'tan'ia stated as she stood up, she could sense Stormie's curiosity about Terri, and definitely didn't want her finding out too much. Like who she really was.

“Well, can I still get a blow job?” he asked with a grin. “You were good. I mean not as good as Terri, but still, really good,” he added with a shrug, still leering. “I'll even take one from the Imperial bitch,” he added, smiling towards Stormie.

“I wasn't aware Zoloz' had dicks,” Stormie replied dryly.

“Wanna see,” Quinn responded promptly, reaching to open his pants with his cuffed hands.

“Sure,” Stormie answered. “Ta'tan'ia, let me see your lightsaber,” she asked, holding her hand out. “I'll cut it off and take it back to the Empire for proof.”

Quinn burst out in laughter, but stopped trying to pull his dick out in front of them.

Ta'tan'ia ignored him as they walked out of the interrogation room. One of the guards who had brought Quinn was waiting in the corridor.

“I'm Officer Riesdon,” he told them with a friendly smile. He paused a moment to glance inside the interrogation room at Quinn, then closed the door. “Lieutenant Neitta told me to take care of you while you're here. Who do you need to see next?”

“No one, Thank you,” Ta'tan'ia answered with a flick of her lekku. “I believe we're done here for now.”

“Well, okay then,” he replied in obvious disappointment. “I'll walk you out.”

“Thank you,” Ta'tan'ia responded with a polite nod, glancing down at her comlink while Officer Riesdon commed someone to come take Quinn back to his cell. Sergeant Bakuu had sent her Cyllir's comm code, as she had told him to.

Officer Riesdon escorted them back to the front desk, where they retrieved their blasters. Ta'tan'ia could sense his eyes watching her ass as she walked in front of him, but she ignored it. She had left her cloak back on the ship this time, and she knew the combination of her armored bodysuit and thigh harness gave him plenty to see.

“So who's this Terri that Quinn was talking about,” Stormie asked as they descended the steps to the street.

“A bounty hunter the Zoloz kidnapped,” Ta'tan'ia explained dismissively, using the Force to get her not to ask anything else on the subject.

“So where is she?” Stormie prompted as they walked down the sidewalk. Their speeder was about halfway down the block. “We should talk to her.”

“Somewhere safe,” Ta'tan'ia said, glancing at her. “She doesn't know anything. Who is General Spraugg?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Oh, he's second-in-command of the Perinn Sector. At least until I send my report in, anyway.”

“And why the satisfaction when Quinn told us he was supplying the weapons?”

Stormie glanced at her questionably a heartbeat before answering. “Well, the commander of the Perinn Sector is a General Gharstill. Let's just say he recently caused a few problems for Imperial Security, and me in particular. So finding out it was his executive officer is... satisfying.”

“So the Empire is going to punish General Gharstill because of what his second-in-command did?” Ta'tan'ia asked quizzically.

“Well, a commanding officer would automatically take at least some of the heat for something his subordinate did, especially when it comes to stealing a couple thousand Imperial blasters,” Stormie explained. “However, General Spraugg isn't just his second-in-command. They've been together for nearly thirty-five years, all the way back to the Imperial Army Officer's Academy.”

Ta'tan'ia wriggled her lekku thoughtfully. “Well, I'm mainly concerned with stopping the weapons,” she said as they approached their speeder.

“Oh, don't worry about that,” Stormie replied assuredly. “We're going to take care of him real good,” she explained with a nod of anticipation. “General Spraugg will never steal anything from the Empire ever again.”

“Well I think the Zoloz are up to something,” Ta'tan'ia commented as they climbed into the speeder. “That was too easy. It was almost like he was just waiting for an excuse to tell us who their source was.”

Stormie hesitated a moment before responding. “You think he was lying?”

“Not about General Spraugg being the source,” Ta'tan'ia answered after a few moments.

“Well, we'll confirm it anyway,” Stormie told her. “As for the Zoloz, I say let the New Coronet Security Force worry about them. We did what we came here for."

“We're going back to the ship, right?” Ta'tan'ia asked. “I need to report in to the Council.”

“Yes,” Stormie responded with a nod. “I need to report to Imperial Security as well, so we can confirm this.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Nearly twenty minutes later, they arrived back at the ship. They climbed out of the speeder. Stormie locked it with the remote, while opening the ship's hatch.

Ta'tan'ia headed for the cell, while Stormie went to the cockpit. She quickly pulled out her datapad with the monitoring program for the Jedi's comlink. While she did that, she also sent a message to Colonel Drasi informing him who had stolen the blasters, and that she would contact him as soon as she could with more details. Then she listened in on Ta'tan'ia's report to the Jedi, and watched her on the holocameras.

“Master Horn, we've learned from one of the local Zoloz that they got the weapons from a General Spraugg. Lieutenant Kintra is informing the Imperials,” Ta'tan'ia told him.

“Excellent,” Corron Horn responded.

“However, Master, I still think the Zoloz are hiding something. Quinn—he is the local chapter's president—gave up General Spraugg too easy. The first time we talked to him, he basically laughed in our face. So did most of the other Zoloz. This time though, it was almost like he was waiting for an excuse to tell us.”

There was a couple of moments of silence before the Jedi Master replied.

“They're a notorious outlaw swoop-bike gang. No doubt they're hiding something,” he finally answered. “Do you have anything more specific?”

“No Master,” Ta'tan'ia admitted.

“Well, the Trigalis Governor has made it clear he doesn't want the Jedi or Imperial agents on Trigalis any longer than we need to be,” Corron told her. “As soon as the Empire confirms that this General . . . Spraugg is responsible, both you and Lieutenant Kintra need to leave. Until then, stay out of everyone's way as much as possible. If we see an unusual amount of weapons or anything, we can always send a task force back in to clean things up.”

“Yes Master,” Ta'tan'ia answered obediently. “I'll be off-planet as soon as I can.”

They shut down the link, and Stormie leaned back in her chair. She supposed she would have to warn Cyllir about the Jedi monitoring New Coronet for illegal weapons. There was a little risk that telling him might expose her monitoring Ta'tan'ia's comlink, but not too much. Besides, Imperial Security couldn't have anyone shutting down one of their operations before it even got started.

On the monitor, Ta'tan'ia took off her nerfhide chest harness, and tossed it on the bunk. Then she began loosening some of the straps of her bodysuit as she walked out of the cell. Stormie turned off the monitor, and put the datapad back in the drawer. A moment latter, she heard the Jedi's boot steps approaching the cockpit.

Admiral Daala's Doctor had told her that the Jedi would get aroused if someone spanked her, and feel loyal towards her. Up until now, the mission had taken priority, but now Stormie could verify the good Doctor's work. Especially the spanking her ass part.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ta'tan'ia paused at the hatchway, and waited a heartbeat for Stormie to acknowledge her before she went in. “Master Horn wants me to stay until your people confirm General Spraugg is the source of the weapons,” she said as she slid into the co-pilot's chair. “Then we're supposed to leave. Apparently the planetary Governor is upset we're here.”

“That shouldn't take too long,” Stormie answered. “Imperial Security works fast.”

“I suppose I need to get my ship,” Ta'tan'ia told her. “I need to change out of this bodysuit.”

“Oh, you don't have to wait to take off that bodysuit,” Stormie replied with a sly smile.

“You have something I can borrow?” Ta'tan'ia asked, puzzled.

“Nope,” Stormie answered, her smile turning seductive. “But I have autopilot, so we can have some fun while we go get your ship.”

Ta'tan'ia thought about that a moment. The Zoloz weren't likely to find them mid-flight. Besides, there was something about the Imperial Security Agent she had found. . . enticing since she had first woken up naked in her cell. She had been preoccupied with the mission, but now that it was complete, she could. . . submit to her desires.

“You know I'm wearing my chastity belt, right?” Ta'tan'ia asked her as she slowly began unzipping her bodysuit, revealing her purple tits.

“Well, I'm sure we can still find something fun to do, especially since you're already wearing a collar and cuffs,” Stormie replied, still smiling seductively at her. “Until you've earned some pleasure for yourself.”

With that Stormie turned and requested permission to take off for a sub-orbital flight, while glancing back at Ta'tan'ia, who was taking off her thigh harness and armored bodysuit.

Ta'tan'ia's arousal increased as she she stripped off her bodysuit. When she got it down to her boots, she had to sit down to take them off as well. By the time she was naked except for her head harness, beskar collar, cuffs, and chastity belt, spaceport control was giving them an estimated take off time approximately twelve minutes out. She went to stand up, and felt a twinge of pain shoot through her calves.

“You okay?” Stormie asked as she quickly sat back down and gave them a quick massage.

“Yeah,” Ta'tan'ia answered, pulling her boots back on, and dismissing the pain. She felt a lot better—and sexier—when she stood back up with her fifteen-centimeter heeled boots strapped tightly around her feet and ankles. “So, you said we could still find something fun to do?” she asked with another friendly smile, posing seductively. “Or do we have to wait until after we take off?”

Stormie grinned up at her a heartbeat. “Oh, there's no way I'm waiting that long to have some fun with you,” she said, standing up and stepping towards her.

Then Stormie leaned in, and gave her a kiss, reaching up and caressing her breast at the same time. Ta'tan'ia parted her lips as she felt the Imperial's hand on her breast. They pressed against each other a few seconds, then Stormie nudged her back out of the cockpit with a simple, “Come on.”

Ta'tan'ia let her take her wrist and lead her down the corridor. The fact that she was leaving her thigh harness, with her blaster and lightsaber, behind barely flashed through her mind. Stormie mostly eyed her as they walked, only glancing ahead every few seconds or so. They passed a couple of hatches, and Ta'tan'ia realized they were going back to the cell she had been using.

“I knew you just wanted to keep me locked up in here,” she said with a smile as Stormie let go of her wrist just inside the foyer area.

Stormie flashed her a mischievous smile back as she stepped over to a set of drawers against the bulkhead. She opened the top one, then turned back to Ta'tan'ia.

“I don't have to keep you in here to keep you locked up,” she replied, displaying a set of binders.

“Ooh,” Ta'tan'ia cooed as she she obligingly stepped forward, holding her wrists out towards her.

Stormie raised an eyebrow questioningly, then reached out, pushed her chrono up out of the way, and snapped the binder around her wrist. Next she twisted her arm and spun her—with Ta'tan'ia's cooperation—moving her cuffed wrist to the small of her back. As she did, Ta'tan'ia smiled back over her shoulder and obligingly put her right hand behind her back as well. Then she felt her push her comlink up a few centimeters, and snap the second binder around her right wrist.

“Eyes forward,” Stormie told her firmly as she reached up and turned her head to face back towards the hatchway.

“Yes Ma'am,” Ta'tan'ia said with an overly eager smile, looking out into the corridor. She sensed her step away, back towards the set of drawers she had gotten the binders from. Then heard the subtle sounds of her pulling a couple of items out.

“Let's go, Jedi,” Stormie said a moment later, spanking her ass.

As Ta'tan'ia started out of the cell, she felt Stormie gripping her bicep, guiding her along. They headed back towards the cockpit, but took a left down another corridor just before they reached it. A few meters later they stopped at a hatchway on the left. Stormie causally waved her wrist comlink over the keypad next to the hatch, causing it to slide open. Then she gave Ta'tan'ia a nudge, who stepped in ahead of her.

Inside, Ta'tan'ia looked around to see a small cabin. It was perhaps three meters wide, and maybe two deep. Stormie led her to the bunk, which wasn't a whole lot bigger than the one in the cell, gave her another open-mouthed kiss, then had her lie face-down on the bunk.

The next thing Ta'tan'ia felt was Stormie trying to take of off her boots. After fumbling with them a few moments, she asked, “How do you take these kriffing things off?”

“Like this,” Ta'tan'ia replied, lifting her feet back towards her ass, and reaching back with her cuffed hands to pull the maglock on the strap apart.

“The other one,” Stormie told her firmly as she pulled the first boot off her foot.

Ta'tan'ia obediently opened the other boot and let her pull it off her as well. Then she felt hard slap on her ass.

“That's for taking so long,” Stormie explained, reaching over and spanking her other ass cheek.

“Sorry Ma'am,” she responded between moans of arousal from each slap. At the same time, she had unconsciously let her feet drop back down onto the mattress.

“Put your feet back up,” Stormie told her, giving her yet another slap on her ass, this one harder than the others.

“Yes Ma'am,” Ta'tan'ia answered, gasping in pleasure as she promptly put her feet back up, and unconsciously looked down at the mattress in front of her. Next she sensed her pick something up off the mattress, and felt the familiar cold durasteel of a shackle close around her ankle.

Instead of shackling her other ankle though, Stormie pulled her feet up closer to her ass, passed the cable connecting the ankle shackles around the one connecting her cuffs, and then snapped the other shackle around her right ankle, leaving her in a Gamorean-tie.

“Now that's how I want you locked up,” Stormie said, spanking her ass again. “Cuffed, helpless, and ready to please me,” she added, leaning down to kiss her while stroking her tchin—her left lek. “I've got to get back to the cockpit for takeoff though,” she explained, stepping over to a set of drawers against the bulkhead.

She pulled out a small piece of black cloth, and held it up for Ta'tan'ia to see. It was a pair of panties.

“Open up,” Stormie told her with an evil grin, balling them up, and holding them in front of her face.

Ta'tan'ia opened her mouth, and she stuffed them in. Then Ta'tan'ia saw a roll of gray spacer's tape in her hand.

A few seconds later, Ta'tan'ia had a couple of layers of tape all the way around her head, underneath her lekku, covering her mouth completely. Stormie had even put a layer under her chin, holding her mouth closed tight.

“Be back soon,” Stormie told her with a cheerful smile, stroking her tchin again. She took a step towards the hatchway, but paused and glanced at the drawers a few seconds, obviously considering something. Then she flashed Ta'tan'ia an evil grin, and said, “Don't go anywhere,” as she walked out into the corridor, closing the hatch behind herself.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As Stormie headed for the cockpit, she thought of the Zoloz shock collar she had stashed in the lower drawer, underneath her pants. She had almost put it on Ta'tan'ia—back on Ta'tan'ia—but had decided it was too risky. She didn't want her to suddenly remember the last time she had locked it on her, or spot Property of Zoloz etched in it, and start asking awkward questions. Maybe when she got her more firmly under control though...

After settling down in the pilot's seat, Stormie checked her screens. She still had a few minutes till take off, so she commed Colonel Drasi as she began preflight.

“Lieutenant Kintra,” he greeted her with a nod, once the link was made. “Excellent work. General Spraugg should be arrested shortly.”

“Thank you Sir,” Stormie responded with a polite nod. “We need to be cautious with the Zoloz. Jedi Ta'tan'ia is very suspicious of their giving up their source, and has told the Jedi as much.”

Stormie couldn't mention that it was Jedi Corran Horn, in particular, who she had talked to, or that he had told Ta'tan'ia that they would keep an on the Zoloz for blasters. If she did that, then she'd have to explain how she knew that. Colonel Drasi probably wouldn't have a problem with her monitoring Jedi Ta'tan'ia's comlink—at least as long as she didn't get caught—but he would probably want to know how she uploaded the program.

Even if she just told him she had done it while Ta'tan'ia had been unconscious after their 'ambush' by the Zoloz, he might not believe her. She definitely couldn't tell him that she had kidnapped the Jedi, and taken her to Admiral Daala who had had a Doctor perform a memory wipe on her... along with a few other procedures. Could she?

“Of course,” Colonel Drasi answered with his own nod. “Does she suspect you've been working behind her back?”

Now Stormie couldn't help but grin. “No Sir,” she replied. “While she is suspicious that something is going on with the Zoloz, I am very confident she doesn't suspect me, or the Empire,” she explained.

“Be careful, Lieutenant,” Colonel Drasi warned her sternly. “Jedi have proven themselves very dangerous.”

“I will, Sir,” Stormie responded. “I'm keeping her busy while I take her to get her ship.”

“Good,” he replied. Then he paused a heartbeat. “When you finish, feel free to take a few of days off. You've earned it.”

“Thank you, Sir,” she answered with a broad smile. She wondered how long she could keep Ta'tan'ia... busy during that time. She couldn't very well investigate their deal with the Zoloz if she were Gamorean-cuffed with her tongue in my pussy.

Colonel Drasi gave her a friendly smile, and shut down the link.

Less than a minute later, the spaceport commed them with clearance to take off. Stormie acknowledged, and powered the engines. Ta'tan'ia's ship was docked at the next closest spaceport, a little over a thousand klicks away. Even with atmospheric speed-limits, Stormie could easily be there in less than an hour—if she were heading straight there. Instead though, she programmed an elliptical flight-path, and set her ship's engines to a mere two hundred klicks an hour. ETA, seven hours. Plenty of time to have some fun with her new slavejedi.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The End ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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