Knowledge is Power

[Salem Ave]

The sky was full of stars. Salem stood a short way from the shuttle he had arrived on, staring up at them. In the shadow of the transport's starboard wing, a glowing circle of orange light and a rising thread of smoke betrayed the location of the Minister's pilot. Salem wrinkled his nose at the smell and took a few steps away, further onto Ossus's soil and towards the nearby Jedi camp. When he looked down at the ever-growing community, he could see dozens of figures drifting among the squat, utilitarian buildings that had supplanted the Jedi temple. None of them seemed in the least concerned or curious at the presence of the Alliance shuttle, that Salem Ave had arrived on. There were Jedi sharing food and stories under the stars, Jedi engaged in solitary meditation, Jedi... living their lives, without fear of oppression or persecution from the Galactic Empire.

Salem's white eyes narrowed a fraction. There was one Jedi whose whereabouts he couldn't place, though he hoped she would join him soon. He had sent a message in advance of his arrival:

I must speak with you. Alone.

[Serena Laran]

Gokobs were raiding the supplies again. Serena Laran pressed two fingers above her nose, rubbing her forehead between her brows, and used the Force to swirl some of the unfortunate stink of the rodents away from her. She'd tasked Knight Oolong and his youngling class with capturing the offending creatures, and the Bothan Jedi had enthusiastically set the children to their task. The younglings were just happy they could stay up past their bedtime, and chasing gokobs through the dark was a good test of their abilities. Memories of the past, of her own class of younglings who lived and learned in marble hallways rather than dirt paths crossed through her mind, and were quickly put aside. She did not have time to dwell on the past at the moment.

I must speak with you. Alone.

Serena looked up, the touch on her mind surprising her. She recognized it - Salem, A'na's former padawan who had abandoned his training after the Purge and had since risen in politics. Apparently he had not forgotten all he had been taught. I am at home, she sent to him, accompanying the message with an impression of her cabin and it's position in Sanctuary. She stood up, walking to the edge of her porch and looking toward where the landing pad was illuminated against the night. The planet was dark, but not oppressively so, lights in windows and some along the main road doing little to press back the splash of stars that filled the sky.

[Salem Ave]

The pilot barely noticed him go, absorbed as she was in her cigarra. If any of the Jedi saw him, there were no friendly calls of hello or good evening. Salem followed the walkway from the landing pad, the shape of him briefly obscuring the lights set into the path as he walked. The cabin was not difficult to find; Serena had left an echo of it in his mind, like a half-remembered song or smell. At the threshold, he gave a soft knock at the door.

"Master Laran?"

[Serena Laran]

"Come in," she called through the door, and Salem opened it to find her standing by her stove, a kettle heating water for tea. It was her own blend, one she'd grown quite fond of while in exile. When Rhianna had returned to her, and come to Ossus, her former padawan had brought her a cache of seeds which she had used to grow the plants necessary, as well as many she'd come to depend on in her work for their medicinal purposes. Serena turned to face Salem as he entered, trying to divine the nature of his visit.

"I was surprised to hear from you," she said carefully, reaching for another cup with a questioning glance. "Tea?"

[Salem Ave]

Stepping in from the night, Salem pulled the door closed behind him with a click. With the door shut, the warmth in the small cabin rolled over and around him like a blanket.

"No tea, thank you. I - can't stay for long," he paused, then gestured to a seat. "May I?"

[Serena Laran]

"Of course," she said, pouring herself a cup and joining him at the table, her long hair braided and draped over her shoulder. "What troubles you, Salem?"

[Salem Ave]

Salem considered the question for a moment, in silence. When he spoke, his words were slow and measured.

"I've received some.. troubling information, about a Force user operating outside of the awareness of the Jedi Council."

[Serena Laran]

Serena frowned, swallowing a sip of tea. "One of our Jedi, do you think?" She tried to think of all the Jedi from Sanctuary who were off planet. It was a short list. Most Jedi preferred to remain close at hand, though there were others, like Sol, who ventured far in search of adepts to bring into the fold. He was on one of his trips right now, in fact. But no, it couldn't possibly be Sol.

"What is it about this adept that troubles you? Are they ...on the path of the Dark side?"

[Salem Ave]

“I don't know. Until tonight, it'd been years since I touched the Force,” Salem said, with the conviction and self-assurance of a man who had been telling the same lie so long that he could have convinced himself it was true.

“That's why I came to you, Master Laran. I know that I can trust you.” Ave folded his hands on the table between them, clawed fingertips laced together. The mask of the Minister of State was slipping ever so slightly, giving way to a fleeting glimpse of the often-frowning Padawan that Serena had once known, in spite of the flecks of grey creeping into his dark hair.

“During recent diplomatic discussions with representatives of the Empire, I was approached (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?56598-Chalice-and-Altar&p=1048325&viewfull=1#post1048325) by an individual who claimed to be a Jedi – a Jedi living under a false identity as part of the Imperial military.”

[Serena Laran]

She sat forward, tea forgotten as she unconsciously used the Force to judge whether what Salem was saying was the truth. "A Jedi, among the Imperial military?" Her mind hopped to several possibilities, but quickly settled on one. Had the Alliance gone so far as to use Hal's impulse for adventure to convince him to go undercover in the very heart of the Empire? He was reported lost during a mission...if Alliance Intelligence was hiding the truth from the Council -! Serena's emotions surged with righteous anger, which she quickly quelled. Perhaps it was not Knight Rabeak after all, though she couldn't not imagine another Jedi getting into such a predicament without informing the Council.

On the other hand, perhaps the so-called Jedi was no Jedi at all, but someone trying to gain access to Alliance secrets via the Minister of State. Secrets pertaining to the Jedi. "Was this Jedi a Nehantite?"

[Salem Ave]

He felt the flicker of anger, like a spark springing to life out of flint and steel, but it was extinguished within an instant.

"Yes, his name was Hal." Mirroring Serena's posture, Salem sat further forward, concern written into the sharp lines of his face.

"When I saw him, he was standing guard over the Empress herself."

[Serena Laran]

"He was what?" Serena blinked, mentally caught up short by the news. "...the Empress herself?" What have you gotten yourself into this time, Hal? She briefly considered that he might have turned traitor, but just as quickly rejected that thought. He had some sort of plan in mind, no doubt.

"And he asked you to tell us this? To what end?"

[Salem Ave]

A small, rueful smile tugged at the Arkanian's lips.

"He wants to escape from Coruscant," Salem said, letting the weight of the words settle for just a moment before adding what Serena might well have already guessed.

"With the assistance of the Jedi."

[Serena Laran]

"A complicated request," Serena said slowly. "Why did he not just sneak away and stow aboard your shuttle?" Tension was growing inside her head; she should name all of her headaches Hal. "If he guards the Empress surely the...Royal Guards? Imperial Knights? They must trust him."

She was talking too much. Trying not to think of her time in the hands of the Empire on Coruscant. The emotional wounds had healed, but there was still a pocket of infection beneath the scar, that would inflame from time to time. The Jedi master took up her tea and made herself sip it slowly. Find peace in routine.

"Does the Minister of State for the Alliance have any suggestions?" Serena searched his face, and added, "You haven't told the Alliance yet, have you."

[Salem Ave]

“No, I haven't.”

Whether or not Salem intended to share the information with his colleagues remained unspoken. As did what the Minister would have done had Hal attempted to stowaway aboard his ship. Ave held the Jedi Master's gaze as he continued.

“The consequences of his discovery within or disappearance from the Empire would be... severe.”

[Serena Laran]

"I can imagine," she said, dryly. "A diplomatic nightmare. He cannot stay, and ...we cannot extract him." The Alliance would never condone a mission. The ones who put Hal in this position would probably order a sniper to put a bolt in his head if they knew he was still alive, just to keep the loose end tied up. Her lips compressed into a line, that anger threatening to bubble up again.

Serena's hands were tightening around her tea cup, and she forced them to relax. "Perhaps the most we can do is make sure the Alliance does not hear of his continued survival. At least that way 'our side,'" her lips twisted a bit, "will not be gunning for him. And any potential leaks within the command structure would not be able to pass on his true identity to the Empire."

[Salem Ave]

Salem laid his hands palm-down on the table top then spread them apart, as if he was smoothing away the wrinkles in a tablecloth.

"To my knowledge, I am the only individual aware of Hal's current position. It... may be best if details of his whereabouts remain between the two of us. For now."

The Minister reclined, considering his next words as he watched the steam rising from Serena's cup. He licked his lips before he spoke.

"I know that it's been years since I walked the same path as you, but for what it's worth, I still believe in what the Jedi stood for then."

[Serena Laran]

She smiled wanly, the choice to do nothing for Hal but keep quiet weighing heavily on her conscience already. Had not the Jedi risked all to rescue her from the clutches of the Inquisitorate? Her life was not worth more than Hal's. Could a small mission succeed in infiltrating the Imperial Capitol? Almost certainly - but once there, what could be done? Storming the palace itself to extract a guardsman from the Empress' bedchamber (she mentally winced at the mental picture she accidentally conjoured; I meant it figuratively!) was an impossible task, and one that could spark the war that would take down much of the galaxy.

With the starkillers on the board, they had to do all they could to make sure they stayed out of play. "The Jedi Order of old is dead. In its stead...we are doing our best." Serena sighed, realizing she should not be so free with her doubts in front of a virtual stranger. Their connection through A'na was distant and many, many years had passed. "And we strive to be stronger, better, than the Order was. It was too tightly bound to the Republic, and was mutated from peacemakers to war bringers. The balance with this new Alliance is a delicate one."

[Salem Ave]

Salem nodded at Serena's words. The old Order was dead, torn apart by the very Empire that Salem was now in the process of treating with. This new Order, if it could be called that, had almost died too, and yet here they were.

"Indeed, I have no desire to see the Alliance and the Jedi.. entangled once again. I am sure you will lead the Jedi into a new era of stability and security, without our involvement."

[Serena Laran]

"I appreciate your confidence, Salem," she said quietly. "I can only do my best, such as it is, to help guide us forward." And I see enemies everywhere, even in the Alliance. They were trying to help the Jedi, yes, and they had thus far, but the greatest threat to the burgeoning new Order had come from within the ranks of the Rebellion in the form of an ancient Sith masquerading as a General. He had even wooed one of their own to his side, which made the Jedi even weaker. Could she even trust the Jedi who she lived and worked alongside every day? Any one of them might fall to the Dark side.

Training the new generation of Jedi was a hard, horrifyingly delicate task.

And then there were the Cizerack on the planet, with their amoral attitude toward physical attachments, here to 'help' but stubbornly staying on with their barracks growing more permanent every day they lingered. She had a growing sense that the Alliance and Cizerack remained simply because the other was there, and the Jedi were a metaphysical ping pong ball between their two grabbing hands. Was this all just destined to fail?

All these thoughts flicked through her head as she took a sip from her tea, and Serena calmed herself with some effort. Solomon had warned her that she was growing too paranoid. Caution is good. Naivete would get the Jedi wiped out once more. Paranoia was a path to fear, and making decisions out of fear would lead her to a very bad place.

[Salem Ave]

An uneasy silence settled over the two of them. A familiar sensation, faint yet cold, crept across Salem's awareness like goose-flesh. Without touching the Force, he could only feel the vaguest trace of it, but it was there: unmistakable and alluring. Paranoia. What an easy thing it would have been, to feed that lesser fear, to nurture it so that it might become something more...

Salem rolled his shoulders and inhaled, a deep breath. "I've taken up enough of your time, Master Jedi. I should go."

[Serena Laran]

Serena blinked, snapping out of her momentary reverie, and nodded. Leaving Halajiin Rabeak in the hands of the Imperials was incredibly distasteful, but from what Salem had said it seemed that Hal had managed to somehow land on his feet. If anyone could talk his way out of there, it was Hal.

And if not... She did not finish the thought. His tent in the woods was slated to be dismantled, but she would give the order to leave it be for a few more weeks. They would think her sentimental, and perhaps she was.

"I thank you for the information, and the lengths you went to to get it to me." She pushed up from the table to her feet, seeing a flash of the pre-teen she had known before in Salem's face as he looked up at her. Then he stood up as well, and Serena smiled. "I hope you have a chance to visit Ossus again, under better circumstances."

[Salem Ave]

He matched her smile, though there was no joy in either of their expressions. “I hope so too.”

Taking a step away from the table, he hesitated a moment. A brief compulsion to bow evaporated as quickly as it has crystallised in his mind. Settling instead for a nod, the Minister departed.

It was a short walk back to his shuttle. (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?57013-Anachronistic-and-Impulsive)