2023-11-23
T3-N1 checks what counterintelligence Glolabur has gathered on the group. The main unexpected point is that they know about Dessa’s great trial: her master raised and trained Dessa and another student, Endi Divera, as foster siblings. Six months ago, Mandalorians killed Endi in front of Dessa. Dessa went on a six-month retreat to master her anger before beginning the current mission.
Sahl and Teni stake out the Deen brothers’ office. A courier leaves the office, and they follow him to a street tapcaf an hour away. There, the courier orders a drink, finishes it, puts a package in the cup, and puts both in a garbage can.
Teni rolls up to the can, but realizes that a Rodian started toward it at the same moment. Teni casually moves on, while Sahl tails the Rodian around the block. The Rodian leaves in a taxi. Teni returns and grabs the package, which proves to be a data tape.
Dessa takes Gai to pay a visit to Mr. Temple. They are expected at his building. Their weapons are taken and Gai is directed to a lower suite of rooms while Dessa meets with Temple.
Temple greets Dessa in a dining room. He has sent all his servants away and prepared her favorite meal himself. His body is excellently manicured, but Dessa notices that he still has a network of faint scars and calluses, and that his teeth are so perfect as to be the result of reconstructive surgery rather than mere dentistry.
Dessa and Temple have a tense, guarded conversation in which very little is said. Temple offers his help, saying that he was once in a situation where he needed a Jedi and didn’t have one, and that supporting the Jedi is his way of aiding the station. Dessa doesn’t trust him, but asks if he knows about the shipping container full of Sith books. He tells her that one of his associates, Rhoro Olan, once had the books but no longer does.
While Sahl and Teni are returning to the Deen hideout, they are followed by men in suits. They duck into a department store and out the side, but more men are there waiting for them. They are ushered into a car and taken to a disused warehouse.
Teni is restrained, and Sahl is brought before Zino, a Terellian Jango Jumper in hot pink armor. She sharpens a kukri on her forearm as she talks. She tells him that her gang-cum-armed-escort-service is a mutual enemy of the Red Serpents. She offers him information on Adni Swocimo if, when he finds the Red Serpents on Kayan, he lets her team deal with them and take the first turn at looting their hideout. She emphasizes the need for haste, as the Red Serpents are already underway. Sahl extricates himself and Teni without committing to anything.
In Temple’s drawing room, Gai meets an advocacy group of young corporate heirs planning a letter-writing campaign on behalf of school lunches. He convinces them to consider more direct action and begins training them in the blade. A small group of them, including the humans Nej Tamarsh and Tanis Aran and a Kage, Aarti Johur, show promise in the Force.
