In Sheep's Clothing

[Akasha Khan]

It was not uncommon for Akasha to rise from her bed in the small hours of the morning. She'd drop silently from her perch on the upper bunk, pull on a tunic and her lightstaff, and slip out the window onto the grounds below. On the rare occasions that Kala stirred while Akasha was preparing for a morning hunt, the Nautolan halfbreed scarcely spoke more than three words before dozing off again. Even the Cizerack marines and Alliance peacekeepers patrolling the perimeter had become used to seeing a stocky black felinoid slinking off into the wilderness under the cover of darkness for an early morning hunt.

It meant that when she changed course every so often, no one ever noticed.

Akasha labored up the steep, scrubby slope of the mountain peak north of the colony, moving easily from cover to cover, scaling nearly vertical faces of loose rock and scree with the help of her claws where it suited her. It wasn't until she reached her target that she had to be extra careful again - the hyperspace comm antenna on the mountaintop was always guarded against Ysanna attacks. But she had discovered the soft spots in the automated surveillance where she could slip in undetected, climb up to the service access just behind the guard house, and tap into the Alliance broadcomm.

Comfortably ensconced in the maintenance crawlspace away from prying eyes and ears, she pulled the red crystal pendant from around her neck and laid it on the metal grating at her feet. She laid her thumbpad on its reflective surface for several seconds until it chimed and began to glow. It had found its connection.

Akasha crouched next to the pendant on one knee, looking more like a predator about to pounce than a self-abasing supplicant. "Master De'Ville. I'm here."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville's face appeared as a tiny hologram above the pendant, and in her hand on board the Aranar her apprentice's visage also appeared, hovering above the pendant's twin. "Akasha." She smiled slightly in greeting. "Tell me of the Jedi. What progress have they made on Ossus?"

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha couldn't help tilting her head from side to side trying to see the environment around Master De'Ville, but the projection simply didn't reach that far. She could have been having a manicure at a pleasure spa on Zeltros for all her Orryxian apprentice knew. And from Akasha's memories of their last encounter, she probably could have used one.

"Their numbers continue to grow," she said. "There are now more than fifty padawans and initiates to thirty-five knights. It seems every week there's a shuttle dropping another one off. They operate freely throughout the Alliance and even into neutral systems. Mostly diplomatic missions. They're very eager for the Alliance worlds to see them at work in the galaxy again. I've been on several sorties myself."

None quite so eventful as her trip to Ilum with Halajiin Rabeak, unfortunately.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena listened intently, updating the datapad on her desk. The Jedi were growing at an impressive rate, especially considering how thoroughly the Empire had tried to eradicate them. She had wondered if she would feel...a need to join them? But no such feeling had come. Whatever the Jedi had meant to Lilaena De'Ville, it seemed that they had no hold on her any longer.

Akasha canted her head to the side, and De'Ville felt the familiar bubble of anger rising. Salem had placed her apprentice with the Jedi, perhaps as much to gather intelligence on the group as to keep Lilaena from growing more powerful. Now that she'd cut ties with the Sith, rather drastically, she needed to get the Orryxian away from Ossus before Darth Callidus managed to tear her away completely.

"Has anyone from Onderon tried to contact you?"

[Akasha Khan]

"No."

The lie rolled off Akasha's tongue without hesitation. She had planned for this question - she knew Master De'Ville had fallen out favor with Lord Callidus's inner circle, and each would now maneuver to use her as a pawn against the other. The Orryxian didn't intend on making it easy for either of them.

"Oh, Minster Ave was here," she said, as if bringing up an entirely new topic. "He was interested in the Jedi's progress as well. But you probably know that. It wasn't an official visit of state, but it wasn't a secret, either. I just thought that was interesting."

That was enough to let De'Ville know that there were other suitors for Akasha's service, and not enough to betray her confidence if Salem Ave was indeed listening in on these conversations as Akasha suspected.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville nodded. She was aware of Minister Ave's travels for the Alliance. "What are your feelings about the Jedi, Akasha? You have been with them a long time now. Are you ready to leave them?"

[Akasha Khan]

That made Akasha straighten up, ears forward, eyes focused with gamma-laser intensity. Was she serious, or was this just another test?

"Leave them," she repeated, "And join you again?"

Master De'Ville was not forthcoming with an answer. Clearly she wanted her question answered first.

"I have learned much from the Jedi," the Orryxian said. "I've grown in power, and seen others grow as well. But they are so cautious. They fear the Dark Side so much, I feel like I've been training with one arm tied behind my back."

She paused as she considered the people she'd come to know, and the lifestyle - hunting in the wilds of Ossus, sparring in the open air, even finding open patches of grass to sun herself during afternoon recesses. This was a comfortable life, one she could easily continue, if she had to. But she could not deny the hunger within her.

"I am ready," she said. "I'm ready to be unleashed."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena smiled thinly. "And unleashed you shall be, my apprentice. I have the beginnings of an extraction plan, but I need you to get yourself onto a transport of adepts headed for Ossus." To make sure Akasha knew what decision she was making, in leaving the Jedi, De'Ville wanted her to make the break in as public a way as possible. There would be no sneaking off into the night for Akasha Khan.

"Can you think of any others among the Jedi who also would benefit from being unleashed?"

[Akasha Khan]

Transport of adepts? There were transports landing every day, and occasionally they brought one or two new bright-eyed initiates along, but only as incidental cargo. Akasha didn't know where she'd find a vessel carrying a whole shipload of them. She hoped Master De'Ville had something in mind.

"As I said, they fear the Dark Side here," Akasha said. "It would have to be broached delicately." She frowned in contemplation, but one name rose to the forefront of her mind, no matter how much she wished it hadn't. "There is a padawan here who desires power almost as much as I do. A human girl, from Syragor. I think she could be persuaded. Others may follow her lead."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena nodded. "Keep an eye on her." There was a moment of silence while she looked at a datapad, out of sight from Akasha. "I have discovered that the Queen of Naboo is sending a group of adepts to the Jedi. Apparently they were discovered in an orphanage. I don't know what it is about orphans, and the Force, but there you have it. She is planning on making a big show of their transfer to the care of the Jedi; a big media blitz that's going to light up the Alliance holonet."

[Akasha Khan]

"All the eyes of the Alliance will be on that transport," Akasha replied. "Sounds like a risky target."

She made this observation in the same way she might comment that the suns were particularly hot today, or that someone she didn't particularly care for had a viper wasp on his shoulder.

"What sort of statement are you planning on making?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"With low risk comes low reward," she said, cryptically. "I wish to make a statement against the Jedi's indoctrination of children. Are these children given a choice? As orphans they do not even have parents to make a decision for them, instead, the government decides. The Jedi decide."

Lilaena brushed a thick curl out of her eyes. "We will put them all on notice that they are being observed. Treat adepts poorly, and you will be treated with the same respect. The Alliance will take notice. The Empire will take notice. And most importantly, adepts will realize they do not have to pick a side in an ideological war that started before their parents were born."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha nodded. Master De'Ville's fervor for adepts across the galaxy was a foreign concept to her - how could you care about beings you had never even met? But then, it had likely been this same strange compassion that had motivated her to steal an Orryxian waif out of slavery on a backwater planet deep in Hutt space. Akasha would not question her sensibilities now.

"Once I am on the transport with the children, what do you want me to do?" she said. "Am I hijacking the ship myself, or am I waiting for a signal--"

Her ears flattened, not at a sound, but at a tremor that reached her other senses. The Orryxian froze in the pale, red glow of the holo-amulet.

"Master," she whispered, "someone is outside."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Do not allow them to discover you," Lilaena warned unnecessarily. "Once you are on the transport, you will know when to make your move. If your cover is blown before then, use the amulet and I will find you."