Chapter Thirty Seven

Most of the other children of Clan Saa had yet to be chosen as padawans. Many Masters remained leery about their techniques, their attitudes, and the fact that those new techniques sometimes made the Masters feel as if they were playing catch-up to their own students. While Jedi should've been above such feelings, they really weren't. The fact many young knights such as Knight Ti and the others had learned them and used them at times even better than the padawans did not make that problem any better.

There were a few however who had already who had indeed been chosen, and the first of them was not happy at the moment. Not happy at all.

Aayla looked at herself in the mirror and did not even try to keep the scowl on her face as she did, looking at the slave outfit she had to wear. By the Force, it's more like a barely there bikini than a real outfit! How did I get into this position again?

Flashback:

Aayla allowed the shock she was feeling to show on her face as she stared at the Masters sitting all around her. "Master, you cannot be serious! You know how I… she paused, gathering herself before going on more calmly. "You know how I loathe being stereotyped as a Twi'lek woman like that! Further, I'm only 15, why would I be sent on a mission like this? Surely there are older knights who could volunteer for it."

She didn't even try to keep the sarcastic tone out of her voice, staring at the Masters one after another. Master Gallia met her gaze, sighing faintly and shaking her head, while Master Billabalooked worried but resolute. Master Yaddle looked concerned, but Master Yoda, as well as a few of the others were not there, meeting once more with the Senate on something to do with the Trade Federation.

Master Windu as Master of the order however was, and he was the one who had given her and her master their new assignment. "Quinlan will be nearby, you won't be totally alone," he said, his tone indicating without actually stating it that he was not in the habit of trying to explain the Council's decisions to mere padawans.

Aayla shot a look at her Master, who winced visibly, shaking his head. "I know you don't like it, but this slave operation needs to be shut down quickly. The senator for the Ryloth Sector has been continually banging on about it in the Senate, and it is a rather insidious operation, targeting several hundred planets, planets that…"

"That do not rely on the slave trade for its major export?" Aayla interjected sweetly, her teeth flashing in a not-smile.

Aayla knew Ryloth had no other export that interested anyone else, but the fact that this had basically forced her people into servitude from the moment they tried to expand beyond their planet still bothered her. And she felt that the Jedi should be doing more into looking into a solution to that underlying issue rather than ignoring it and solving the little issues that cropped up from allowing legal slavery just for Ryloth.

"You will be helping hundreds, perhaps thousands of sentients helping us shut this slave operation down Aayla," said Master Gallia, her voice soft but stern.

Aayla stared at her, feeling even more betrayed by Gallia and the other women in the room then she felt from her own Master volunteering her for this. That feeling faded later when she found out Quinlan hadn't actually volunteered her she had been 'volunteered' by the Jedi high Council. "Masters, you do know what happens to female slaves don't you?" She asked, keeping her tone even with a degree of self-control that would have made any Jedi Knight nod appreciatively. "While I of course am able to use the Force to redirect interest, I cannot do it while asleep, nor for days on end."

"Then it is all the more important that you be the one to go," Master Windu said. "Your abilities both defensive and all offensive are based upon your own Force's techniques, not your lightsaber as would be the case with any other Jedi save perhaps Knight Ti, who is currently on a mission on her home planet trying to find the local factor of this very slave ring. Your ability to change your skin tone and your appearance in other ways also makes you the best choice for this operation."

"Again I must protest Masters! For one thing, the Hutts are immune to Mind techniques, and we all know they are almost certainly involved in this in some fashion. Further I cannot use any of my Force abilities save those based on changing my appearance when I'm asleep! This leaves me either having to do without sleep for the duration of this mission, or horribly vulnerable."

"Nevertheless, we have chosen you and your master for this assignment padawan, and you will accept it." Windu said shaking his head.

And that was it, just 'nevertheless'. You couldn't argue with 'nevertheless'!

Her Master however could argue the particulars of the plan, and had.

End Flashback

She looked up as heard the door open, admitting Quinlan and she bowed her head obsequiously. "Is there anything I can do to serve you Master?"

Quinlan shuddered, not just at the fact that she was so much younger than him saying that, or the fact that Aayla's clothing left so little to the imagination. No, he shuddered because he knew Harry Potter would geld him if he ever learned about this, and his equally scary Force Ghost mother would do far worse. He'd seen the way the two of them were around one another, and had even listened in on a few of their talks via Hypercom since.

"Enough of that," he said mildly.

"But I have to stay in character Master," Aayla said somewhat vindictively. "Though I am glad I'm already in the habit of calling you that, Master."

Shaking his head Quinlan looked away, actually voicing his last thoughts. "I really don't want to know what your friend Harry would think about all this."

"No," Aayla said softly, "nor would any of the Council members like it either. Are we nearly there?" she asked brusquely, changing the subject, her skin tone slowly beginning to change from its normal light blue to white mottled here and there with small black dots.

"We're about to come out of hyperspace, that is why I came to get you," Quinlan answered, relieved that they had changed the subject.

The original plan had been for them to start out on Ryloth, letting Aayla joined several dozen other slaves who were supposed to be taken and sold by this illegal group rather than the legal slave trade there. But instead, Quinlan had decided they would first create cover story and back trail, something that had taken them a month in various different Outer Rim systems then insert themselves into one of the planets that was a possible source of the slave trade.

It had been noted that one of the two Hutts operating out of the Tatooine could be involved with the illegal slave trade, though it was the trade back into the Republic that they had to stop, not the trade from Tatooine out into Hutt Space. The Hutts were not answerable to the Republic after all, and the Order had no jurisdiction there. It was the trade into the Republic that was illegal, and the size of the operation that bothered the Twi'lek senator so much.

The two of them would pose as master and slave, with Quinlan of course taking the position as master and a known smuggler out of his home system, with Aayla posing as a regular slave that he had been giving in lieu of a cash payment on his last run. Despite that, Quinlan would endeavor to appear down on his luck, something that was shown in the ship they were using for this mission. Eventually, after a few weeks spent creating a local persona Quinlan might, if they hadn't discovered enough about the slave ring, 'sell' Aayla to Jabba the Hutt to get inside his fortress.

"I'll join you in the cockpit in a moment then Master," Aayla said, looking away for a moment. "I'd, I'd like a few moments to mentally prepare myself for this role."

"Of course," Quinlan said simply, reaching out to touch her shoulder gently before removing his hand and moving back to the entrance of her room. The ship they had was an ancient Corellian tramp freighter, with only a few small rooms for the crew, but the two of them had been able to pilot it well enough on their own, with the aid of an equally ancient astromech droid, who refused to be parted from the ship in any event. Where the Order had come up with the ship Aayla didn't know nor care at present.

With a sigh Aayla made certain that her door was locked, then collapsed into a training pose that would've told anyone who knew anything about her people that she was not a slave as she had thought was posing to be. Putting her hands together, she closed her eyes, concentrating as she reached out into the Force along the connection between herself and Harry. Right now she needed that comfort. As she did, she felt Harry's emotions, always the first thing and easiest thing for her to feel. Concern was there, trepidation, but also a tinge of the eagerness. What is he up to?