solo_sword | Darkmeld HQ- Coruscant- Friday night

The thing about getting this particular group together for Darkmeld was that even if this was their first time all working together, they knew what they were doing. Winter had rented quarters under an assumed name in the residential apartment building closest to the Armand Isard Correctional Facility, where Valin was being stored in carbonite. They'd set up holocams watching the prison and filled the apartment with monitors to watch Seff's activity, and had even managed to figure out where he was staying. So far, so good.

The five members of the team took turns watching the monitors, even Jaina, when she felt safe enough to sneak away from Dab for a while. That was tonight, with Jag sharing her shift. She couldn't say she minded the company.

"His timing is as steady as public transportation on Kuat," Jaina noted, looking over the screen displaying the notes everyone had been keeping on Seff's activities.

Jag nodded. "Seems to be. The eight hours prior to dawn, he's in his workman disguise, mostly underground in front of the prison. The next eight hours he's at his quarters, presumably asleep. The next eight hours we can't reliably track yet, but he seems to use them to acquire gear and maybe get in touch with contacts."

"We need to find out what he's doing in front of the prison. Digging a tunnel? Planting high explosives? Surely he's not that crazy," she said.

"We do," he said. "In fact, at dawn, when Seff leaves, Winter and I are going to do just what you said. See what he's been doing down there."

"Good."

"Got a question for you."

"All right."

"What do you think about bringing Mirax into this?"

Jaina sat back, thinking it over. "Well, she has skills, useful contacts, some funds, and plenty of motivation."

"Right."

"But she'd need to keep it a secret from Corran. He's her husband, a former security investigator, and a Jedi Master. A hard man to keep secrets from. And she and Corran are very, very busy right now." Jaina knew that the Horns had been calling in every favor they could to try and get Valin freed, obviously to no avail, and she'd seen Corran at the Temple enough since this had started to see how much it was affecting him. Mirax probably wasn't any better.

That was why Jaina decided that it might be worth a shot. "Let's designate her an in-case-of-emergency resource," she said. "Maybe get Winter to approach her on a preliminary basis."

And that was when Jaina's comlink beeped, a series of notes that signaled that it was Dab calling. "Oh, no."

"Didn't you say he checked up on you only an hour ago?" Jag asked.

"Yes," she said, a hollow pit forming in her stomach as she glared at her comlink. "That should have given me three or four hours more at least. I haven't heard of any of the observers doing their checks an hour apart."

"How fast can you get back to the Temple and sneak back in?"

"Nowhere near fast enough. He's going to beep again-" Like so, and Jaina winced. "-and then he's going to assume I'm too deeply asleep to hear him. He'll go down to my quarters, which only takes a minute, and start ringing the chimes."

"If he doesn't get an answer then?" he wondered.

"He'll comm the Master on duty and they'll force the door. But I have one chance," she said, reaching for her purse to find a second comlink. "I rewired the door intercom with a comlink matched to this one. I can talk to him as if I'm just inside my quarters. Maybe I can bluff him. Maybe I can convince him he doesn't actually have to see me."

Jaina was not confident in this plan at all.

"What happens if you can't?"

"I get found out having sneaked out of the Temple without my observer. Master Hamner will be obliged to punish me somehow. Teaching basic telekinesis to the younglings out in the Transitory Mists, for example. That's assuming the government doesn't prosecute me, which they might." Even saying she was with Jag wasn't likely to help. They had to sneak around in the Temple as it was.

"Which they will. They're not showing any mercy to the Jedi right now."

Jaina glared at him. "Thanks. You're making me feel much better."

The second comlink sounded, this one with a chime identical to the one at Jaina's Temple quarters. She took a deep breath, then clicked the comlink on, trying to make herself sound tired. "What is it?"

"Hello, Jedi Solo. It's Dab. Routine location check."

"Weren't you- what time is it?"

"I'm sorry. Yes, it was just an hour ago. My randomizer went off again," Dab said.

"Dab, just go away. I'm tired, I'm in bed, you know I'm here."

"I have to see you in person, Jedi Solo. You know the rules." Which were in place to prevent the Jedi from doing exactly what Jaina was doing now.

Jaina switched off the comlink and cursed under her breath. "I'm sunk."

"Maybe not. Maybe the Empire can rescue a Jedi," Jag said, and took the comlink from her, smiling when he saw her looking confused. And worried. Oh so worried. He thumbed the comlink on and got his voice to sound somewhere between demanding and sleepy. "Who's out there?"

"It's Dab. Dab Hantaq."

"Where's my blaster?"

Jaina suppressed a laugh, catching on to what he was doing. "It's under your pillow. Where it always is," she said, stealing something she'd heard Leia say a lot over the years.

"Give me just a second," Jag said. "All right, let him in. I'm going to burn a hole right between his eyes."

"Jag, he's only doing his duty-"

"Vape his duty. Come to think of it, vape the neat little hole between his eyes. I'm going to burn his face clean off," Jag went on. He might've been having fun with this. He didn't get to act out that often. "Closed-casket funeral for him, diplomatic immunity for me. Let him in."

"Um, Jedi Solo, I'm satisfied that you're here," Dab said quickly. "I'm just going to mark this one as confirmed."

Only now did Jaina actually relax. "Thank you, Dab. Good night."

"Good night."

She took the comlink back from Jag and switched it off, tossing it back in her purse. "Staying ahead of the Moffs is keeping you sharp."

[NFB/NFI/OOC OK/ABCDEFG. Dialogue taken from Outcast by Aaron Allston.]