"I still can't believe how stupid I am," Jedi Knight Nal Talla said vehemently in her Nautolan accent as she and her Chiss counterpart, Jedi Knight Ataraxiav'a'lajean, or 'Val,' as most knew him, walked along the corridor on board the Galactic Republic star cruiser, Unity.
Once again the ship was in dry dock at the Kuat Drive Yards for repairs after the beating she had taken, along with the rest of the task force which had been escorting a small shuttle loaded with aurodium. The mission was supposed to have been secret, yet somehow a band of pirates led by the very Sith Warriors which Nal and Val were supposed to be hunting had found out about the convoy and had attacked and successfully stolen the fortune in precious metal.
And despite urgings from the Force, Nal had insisted they go to Corellia to investigate a recent Sith sighting rather than stay on board the Unity.
"Relax, Nal," said the big blue-skinned Jedi. "Anger, even when directed at one's self, can lead to hate, and hate can lead to..."
He was cut off by the other Jedi, "'hate can lead to da Dark Side.' Yes, I know dat. Seems I heard it somewhere before," she said sarcastically.
"It's not a laughing matter. You need to focus on bringing justice to the Galaxy, not on getting revenge for Nylan and those the Sith have slaughtered," Val admonished. "Besides," he continued, "even had we stayed, it wouldn't have mattered."
"How can you even say that?" the Nautolan said incredulously before punching the button to call the turbo lift. "We could have caught them, or at least stopped them from stealing that shipment."
"I can say that for a couple of reasons: One, I've studied the battle data that was sent. We would not have been sitting in our ships waiting for launch. I wasn't our mission. We most likely would have been last to launch in that scenario," the Chiss stated as the two Jedi stepped into the newly arrived turbo lift. "Two, Captain Moklam was only able to launch a fraction of his fighters before this crypto slice thing went into effect, essentially knocking the hammerhead out of commission for the duration of the fight."
"So?"
"So we would have been stuck on board, watching as helplessly as every other star fighter pilot was," he surmised. "Even had we been able to launch, we would have been hopelessly outnumbered and been lucky to survive the sortie."
"I suppose you're right," Nal relented. "It just makes me feel so stupid, though. The Force was telling you to stay with the Unity and deep down I know now it was telling me the same thing," she said as they exited the lift car onto the bridge. "I just feel like we wasted that whole trip when we could have been so close."
"The trip was not wasted, my friend. We learned valuable information about our quarry on Corellia," the blue-skinned Jedi said as they approached the Captain of the hammerhead class star cruiser. "Ah, Captain Moklam. I'm glad to see you looking so well in spite of... things."
Captain Wash Moklam of the Galactic Republic Unity shook the Jedis hand. When they had initially been assigned to his ship to assist in hunting down the Sith, he had resisted, assuming they were going to 'take over,' but they hadn't. This mission really had been a joint effort so far, and now he was glad of the help.
"Yes," the Captain replied. "It got a bit dicey there with high command, but thanks to Spickolly and his taking the brunt of the blame for the fiasco, I not only get to keep my job and my ship, but continue on the mission as well.
"They said the losses were coming out of Spickolly's pay. I sure hope it was a joke," Moklam said chuckling.
A jovial Moklam who is giving thanks to Spickolly? Talla thought to herself. Not the Moklam I remember leaving.
"I take it things are going well, then?" Val asked, his thinking along the same lines as his partner's.
"Absolutely. Spickolly has a plan that should work brilliantly, assuming those Sith bastards continue with their previous habit of wanton murder and destruction," Moklam said. "But I'll let Geoffry tell you about it."
Moklam gestured to a person behind the Jedi, although he needn't have bothered. Both had sensed him already.
"Hey Pusher dudes... General... huh huh huh," said the slicer and holding his hand in the air, apparently in an attempt to slap hands. He held it there for another moment or so until it was more than obvious no one was going to return his strange greeting.
"Anyway dudes, I finally finished analyzing that slicer program. I had to completely wipe all the computer systems on board and repack from scratch," he began. "Let me tell you it was brilliant."
"Your... 'repack' was brilliant," Nal asked, putting voice to everyone's confused looks.
"Huh huh huh, no way fish lady!" he exlaimed. "Nah, I mean that program that slicer uploaded. Putting it all together was like trying to put a grenade back together after it blows up... or something.
"Little pieces of it were every where; They were worming their way into every system. It was so hard because it wasn't like a normal program. This dude... or dudette must have been self taught because some of his subroutines are laborious and round about, while others brilliantly bypass and standard solution to the problems," he told them.
Captain Moklam cleared his throat. "Geoff, can you please just get to the relevant part."
"Oh right, General," he said, momentarily back on track. "I managed to piece it all together, rework the subsytemic routines and algorithms and if we can get close enough to upload it into their computers, we'll have them."
"But that's the trick, isn't it?" Nal asked. "We have to be lucky enough that they decide to continue in their old ways now that they're rich. And then hope we can get close enough, long enough to upload your slice program."
Jedi Nal Talla didn't sound confident that it would work, but it was only because she was repressing her excitement at the possibility of finally exacting revenge on her friend's murderers.
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