Emergence: Pirates!

Serena spread her hands open. "It is true. I am a Jedi Knight, as the General says. I am a healer, as I said before. I was raised to Knight during the Clone Wars, and my only participation in the war was a benevolence mission to the Outer Rim.

"I was attacked by my clone troopers and left for dead. When I managed to leave the planet I received an automated message from the Jedi Temple, warning all Jedi that the Republic had turned on us and that we were not to return to Coruscant. I made my way to RX-279 where I have lived in exile for the past twenty-odd years." She looked at Tomahawk as she spoke. "The General was one of the few non-clone commanders in the Republic fleet. She was part of my task force on my last mission, although she never came down to the planet surface."

"YOUR tak force? I think not. While you were kissing botha, we did our duty two systems away making sure no droid army was coming there next. Wsting time with benevolence when there was a war..."

Bit of lie couldnt hurt. Tomahawk had skipped out as soon as the Jedi went planetside and went looking for a fight as what she felt her duty was, stuff holding snotty hands when her troops were about to fight and die...

Wait a sec. What had she said? Turned on the Jedi?!?! Her hand whitened with the pressure on the grip, her self control winning out against the fury..... but only just. Something kept her in check.

We didnt turn on you, traitor she wanted to say. It didnt come out.

Byl stepped back from Serena and moved to the General, whispering in her ear.

"We need to talk, elsewhere."

Morgan looked at Serena, and for a little while, his brain wasn’t working. They were supposedly extinct, but damned if it didn’t make all the sense in the world now. He was used to dealing exclusively with shady characters, but he had never really gotten that impression from her. Serena had been too… direct, if secretive. With everyone else, there was a catch.

Well, here was a Jedi. Aside from the unusual directness, she seemed like another person. Morgan wondered what the big deal was.

"If a society has been devastated by a war they took no part in the Jedi Council did not consider a humanitarian mission to be a waste of time." Did not. The past tense of her words brought the old sadness back.

She had touched the General with the Force, carefully calming her before she did anything they would regret later. Now she gently released her, satisfied that for the moment a crisis had been averted. However, the woman spoke untruths. The planetary system they had been visiting had seen little Separatist activity after the main skirmish with the Republic that had brought Serena there to assist the people who lived there.

It did fit with her memories - the General had taken her ship and left while Serena was on the planet, but at the time it had seemed good fortune. It had allowed the Jedi to make her escape from the clones without being shot dead in space.

She turned to Morgan, sensing no animosity from him. "I apologize for my secrecy, but you can understand my reluctance to reveal my identity."

"No Mr Laprovik, we dont need to talk"

She felt a lot calmer now, even her growling voice seemed more relaxed. Tohmahwk may not be suspectible to mind tricks, but she had an odd susceptibility to being calmed.

"For twenty years I and my crews have been out in the botha pit of the Outer Rim, scraping a living. We've been running from the Empire, ever since the day of Order 66. Up to then, I had thought the Jedi were warriors for the Republic. But they were all killed and all we ever heard was they tried to kill the Chancellor and take over the Rebuplic. I personally buried two Jedi who were with us in that day - I personally gave them the respect I thought they deserved but all I have heard since that day is that the Jedi failed us all and because of their failure we had the Empire. I want to know how the Jedi could have possibly fought with me and then suddenly turn on us and then be slaughtered - I finally want answers. She's going to give them to me"

"Dammit."

Byl cursed under his breath, turning away from the General. He was losing control of the situation, and needed his bearings. He hoped that the Jedi and her friend could give him an opportunity.

Morgan kept his mouth shut. If they weren't shoved out an airlock, he could tell Serena that he understood why she had kept her being a Jedi secret.

Serena bowed her head under the weight of the confirmation of the deaths of Jedi Knight To'ii and his padawan learner. When she lifted her head her green eyes seemed sharper, though her face was as smooth as glass.

"General, I will be more than compliant with your request. However, I do not know that I have all the answers you seek. I was newly raised to the rank of Jedi Knight, and not privvy to the full knowledge. actions, or reasoning of the Jedi Council." Serena paused, eyes downcast for a moment. "I do know that my trusted clone commander shot me in the shoulder, and then once in the back as I was crawling away."

She slipped her tunic off her shoulder, revealing the scar high on her chest on the right side. "My only answer is this, General. The Jedi did not turn on the Republic. From what I have figured out since returning from exile, Palpatine was a Sith Lord. His second-in-command called himself Darth Vader - a Sith honorific.

"While I was on that planet's surface being hunted by Commander Kata, all of the younglings and padawans were being murdered in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant." Her voice broke, but she brought herself under control again. "Babes in their cribs, who's only crime was that they were Force sensitive."

Serena looked Jaime Tomahawk in the eye and asked, "Tell me General, what did they do to deserve a traitor's execution?"

"They had children murdered?!? No one would do that, not ones of the Republic, no matter what the Jedi did. No one would be that evil"

She inwardly had to admit it - she knew Jedi didnt lie, the carpet was out from under her. She glanced at Laprovik with a look that read her surprise and sudden beginning switch in the direction of her disgust. And what happened to her was something of a confirmation. She glanced about, found a chair pulled it to her, sat down.

"Lets say that's true however, which I find hard to believe as I never heard anything of that before my crews and I... decided it was wise to be scarse - lets start from the beginning of what you do know, help me understand. And could someone tell me what the kryst a Sith is supposed to be? Anyone else here know anything of this supposed slaugher that can back the Jedi's words?"

"I don't know about the Jedi extermination directly, but I've witnessed enough Imperial atrocities to write a novel on."

Byl glanced at Serena and the slicer. He risked compromising himself by getting into personal history, but with enough half-truths, he could probably smokescreen the sensitive details out.

"I was stationed with the Alliance at their temporary command headquarters on Hoth, a little over two years ago. The initial evacuation barely got off the ground, and the support staff and non-essentials got cut off in the fight and were left to find their own way out. I was stuck in the ice caverns a week before I could steal an Imperial transport and escape, but that was enough to see the Imperials deal with the rebels they captured. To save tibanna stock, they removed their winter clothing and sent them topside to let exposure do their work for them. Thats negative forty-two degrees celsius."

Byl's facial expression had turned into something utterly uncomfortable to look at.

"Best example I can think of."

Morgan snorted.
"I've been in Star's End. Let's just say parts of it were nicer than what the New Order has let the Corporate Sector do. It gives a damn about itself and will do anything to gain power. I mean, cmon. A Death Star? Rule By Fear? There are no frelling fluffy kittens here. There is a reason my grandparents quit the Diplomatic Corps a year after Palpatine rose to power, and it wasn't because he cut health benefits."

Serena listened to the two men, but her eyes were on the General. "I do not see how you, or anyone, believed Palpatine when he set up the Jedi as enemies of the Republic. We were only a stumbling block to his plan to set up his New Order, and an enemy to all who use the Dark Side of the Force, as Sith lords do. And you have obviously been at odds with the New Order that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine set in place of the Republic.

"Why else are you pirating in Hutt space, General?"

"We weren't" she had to admit, "We were testing a grav trap. You just had the dumb luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time"

Frankly she was struggling to keep up. Time to start from the beginning, clearly she was missing a lot here - she put her boots up on a cot, closed her eyes as she did when listening carefully.

"Presume I know little after Palpatine is declared Emperor, until this attack at Endor that caused us to come in closer. And no one's told me what a Sith is yet and why Palpatine was one is important. Start from the beginning"

"I don't have time for the history lesson."

Byl stepped toward the door, paused, and turned back to point at Morgan.

"Help me get this sick girl off your boat. Time's wasting."

Relief colored Morgan's face. He followed Byl's brisk pace out of the medbay and back into Serenity. Once back into Serena's quarters, he picked Rhianna up.

"It's ok, she's light. I've got her." He told Byl.

"You're gonna be ok, we've got a decent medical facility around." But Rhianna didn't respond as he carried her back to the airlock. He gave her a gentle jostle as he walked quickly.

"Rhianna?" Morgan's concern deepend. "C'mon girl, wake up." He whispered as they crossed through the doors to the medbay.

Serena looked at the General blandly after the men left the room. "Let us not play around, Tomahawk. Are you trying to tell me you have been as out of the loop as I have for the last twenty years?"

"Yes" she snapped, more than just a touch irritated Laprovik had left without a by your leave. This was her boat and she'll be damned if anyone treated it otherwise. But that was for later.

"Do you really think a General who's got a list of commendations a yard long along with a decorated crew chose to survive like this? We've been on the edge of Unknown Space for 20 years, news of the Core doesnt reach that far except vague rumours if we're lucky. We heard of the Empire in disarray and decided to take a chance and come closer for a bit. Since then we've been trying to catch up but it's all confusion, rumours. Like the one I overheard on Coruscant a few weeks ago... the Empire destroyed a whole planet with a battlestation. It's proving a headache to find fact from fiction"

"Down, over here."

Byl supported the girl's ankles as he and Morgan eased her onto one of the exam tables. The rebel could feel the General's harsh eyes on him, but he let it slide. They might both be military, but their relationship to each other was a bit more entrepeneurial than anything else.

Byl looked to Serena, and stepped back from the table.

Serena crossed to Rhianna's side, and placed her hands on her. For a few moments it was blissfully quiet in the medbay, until the General cleared her throat noisily.

She found herself wishing she could have stayed on Rhianna's homeworld. Life alone in the forest had offered her no distractions, and it was hard to sleep with so much noise all around her now. Even on the ship the constant sound of the hyperdrive had kept her awake. And the Smuggler's Moon...!

The Jedi delved with the Force, checking Rhianna as quickly as she dared. Serena closed her eyes, concentrating on finding out if any brain damage had been done when she had so suddenly withdrawn from the girl. The shock seemed to have placed Rhianna into a coma. Her immune system was slowly recovering, but for now she was immobile and still in danger of other infections.

Jaime cleared her throat again, and there was a loud thump as her boots landed on the deck plating. Serena lifted her hands from Rhianna, and turned to face the General. "I had planned to go to Alderaan as my first stop after getting Serenity retrofitted. However, Morgan informed me that there is nothing left of the planet but a large asteroid field."