Chapter Forty Five

Later that day Aurra Sing stared at a computer screen going over the information they had on Aayla Secura and her master, which included quite a bit more than the Order possibly knew. "You're certain that girl's your niece? She doesn't look anything like this picture, hells her colors completely different, and I couldn't sense even a whisper of Force from her."

"I'm certain. I have no idea how she changed her skin color like she has, but I would know my own niece in a crowd of a thousand." Pol Secura said sharply. He was one of the heads of the slave operation that had the Jedi and his own planet's senator so incensed. Indeed, while Jabba had been the one to supply the resources, most of the planning and footwork had occurred under his watch.

Aurra stared at him for a long moment, making the man shift uncomfortably before turning to look at Jabba. Jabba nodded, and after a moment Aurra turned back to the screen to keep reading. "Do you have any Toydarians, Trandoshans or others with a good sense of smell working for you? I'll need their help to find him if he's able to use the Force to the extent that I can't already sense him the Toydarians might be able to find something. And very few Jedi realize they need to cover their scent as well."

"You will have whatever you need," Jabba said in his own language waving one meaty hand while a protocol droid translated his words for his listeners. "We cannot allow them to shut our operations down, I'm making far too much money to worry about weak Republic laws. Bring him in alive however, I will want to question him about how much his Order has already learned."

With that he chuckled voluminously, pointing at Bib Fortuna. "The girl however, probably has found some way of faking that skin disease she is supposed to have Which means you can have fun with her if you like before killing her."

"Wait! Why kill her?" said Pol Secura shaking his head quickly. "She would be worth a lot of money, she is after all a Rutian Twi'lek like me, and quite attractive to boot. You have any idea how many credits she would be to the right buyer?"

Jabba nodded his head, but his large reptilian eyes were flat. "Yes, I have a good idea of that. But I also have a good idea of how much Jedi trouble keeping her around would bring. If you can find a buyer for her within the next 24 hours, that's fine. But after that, once Bib Fortuna has had his fun, I want this Aayla creature killed immediately. I haven't built my empire this far, expanded it unseen for so long, for it all to come crashing down because the Jedi became involved because I was stupid."

Pol scowled, but nodded. "Very well, just give me the chance to try and find a buyer first. And if I cannot, record your play with her. I want to watch her suffer for her part in seeing me jailed!"

Jabba waved him off, and Bib Fortuna turned to the bodyguard that had come in with Pol. "Will you join Aurra in her hunt?"

The two bounty hunters looked at one another and shook their heads rapidly. "That's my money and my kill," Aurra said angrily to Bib.

"Bounty hunters tend not to work well together, unless we've set ourselves up as part of a group." Said the human male with a shrug. "Though I'll help you capture the girl at least."

"That will be simple, and there will no need to pay you for the work!" Jabba said with a laugh, his deep booming chuckle echoing around the control room as he gestured to one wall. A droid situated there began to manipulate controls, and several video cameras came up, little holograms popping into existence from several holders on Jabba's large hover bed.

A few of them showed live footage from the slave quarters, two large rooms where all the female slaves were kept in each with their own small cubicle carved into the rock of the palace as beds. Four girls were currently changing out of their outfits. Jabba was somewhat generous in terms of clothing as he never wanted to see a girl wear the same thing one after another, though of course all of the clothing was very brief. Two of them were sponging themselves off with a small bit of precious water, the only thing they were allowed to clean themselves with, while Aayla was pulling herself up into her bed cubicle.

She looked around as the cameras came online, subtly, but Jabba now knew what to look for as Aayla subtly covered her body as she got into bed. It was evident that the Jedi's force powers had warned her she was being watched, but there was little she could do to saver herself from the threat to come. Indeed, the idea that she would sense it coming merely added to Jabba's amusement. "I will simply gas them all, and then when that is done one of us will go in and retrieve her.

At Jabba's order another droid tapped a few buttons and gas began to come out of nozzles set into the floor and walls of the slave's quarters. It was tasteless, scentless and unseen. Even Aayla, tense as she was, only noticed it as the two women sitting on the floor cleaning themselves succumbed quickly, falling onto their sides.

Jabba watched as the young Jedi leaped other feet, summoning up some kind of Force technique that made Aura, watching from nearby narrow her eyes in surprise. But the shield, if that was what it was, didn't keep the gas out, and the Twi'lek girl attempted to hold her breath. Jedi could probably hold their breaths for a long time, but the gas wasn't an inhalant but rather absorbed through the skin. A second later the young Jedi gasped, falling back against the side of the cavern, slowly dropping to her knees.

"You see, that was easy!" Jabba said, shaking his hand with a chuckle before turning serious. "Her master, this Kiffar, Vos, will be a tougher fight."

Aurra smirked evilly. "Jedi aren't really that tough if handled appropriately Lord Jabba. They are noble creatures, and that can be used against them. I'll handle Vos, don't worry."

OOOOOOO

Moving through Mos Eisley Quinlan avoided everyone else around him by rote, using Force Cloak and Stealth almost absent-mindedly as he concentrated on thinking about what else he could be doing to help the investigation. Having putting most of the weight of finding actual evidence on Aayla's thin shoulders he wanted this mission done as soon as possible.

If Aayla can figure out if Jabba is connected to this illegal slave trade, we won't be able to move against him here. The Hutt was simply too strong on Tatooine, with a literal battalion's worth of toughs to call upon. But we might not have to. If we can trace a connection from him back to Ryloth, we can go from there and wrap up the tentacles of the slave trade which are actually in Republic space shutting off the source of the slaves at said source. Further, that would show Jabba the Order knows about his evolvement. Jabba's a careful creature, if a prideful one and he would pull back from Republic space rather than dare our further involvement.

But Quinlan was never one to leave anything to chance. And if they couldn't attack Jabba out right, that didn't mean they couldn't tried to assassinate him if it came to that. Quinlan was a pragmatist, and while he had a Jedi's respect for life, he loathed Hutts with a very un-Jedi like passion, and slavers were even worse. He'll be in public during the Mos Espa pod races in two days. That would be the best time to do it. I'll head there tonight, scout out the lay of the land, find a...

Just then he heard an explosion somewhere nearby, and felt the deaths of at least three people through the Force, their last moments filled with pain and fear. Turning quickly Quinlan looked in that direction, seeing fire explode out of the door and windows of one of the houses set along the edge of the town. Through his Force senses he could also feel two other people inside the blazing inferno, though from here he could only barely make out their panicked cries.

At this time of day there weren't many people in this section, and those that were had begun to run away at the explosion, uncaring that there might still be living people within the house. For a brief heartbeat Quinlan stood unmoving, then cursing raced towards the fire intent on doing what he could.

He had just reached the fire when the two lives inside were snuffed out, and the building exploded, sending stone shrapnel in all direction. Quinlan quickly ducked away, raising his hand to aid in directing the Force to ward off the shrapnel heading towards him. But the explosion hadn't begun to die down before a sudden flare from his Force Precognition hit Quinlan. It's a trap!

Rolling away Quinlan dodged an incoming blaster bolt that would have taken him in the back before pulling out his activating it just in time to intercept another bolt of super-heated plasma. Turning in the direction the shots had come from Quinlan flung off his cloak between rounds before moving forward to block blocked two more. Falling into a defensive stance Quinlan now moved forwards randomly towards the position of the blaster bolts, leaping around and bouncing off the walls of the nearby stone houses to close faster. Despite that the blasters still tracked him unerringly, and Quinlan had to admire the gunman's speed and accuracy.

Leaping up onto the roof the blasters were coming from, he stared for a split second at a blaster rifle set on a pintle mount. The gun was firing automatically set up at with a small sensor of some kind. "Kriff!" He shouted, pushing himself up and off the roof of the building as it, like the one he had initially responded to, exploded underneath him. The rock shrapnel caught his legs despite his attempt to put some distance between himself and the explosion, but thanks to his Force Precognition he had jumped just in time to avoid serious injury, and he quickly pushed the pain from the impacts and cuts away with the Force.

Quinlan hit the desert floor, rolling only to once more feel the Force warning him of a nearby threat. He turned just in time to block a lightsaber attack at his back, and he stared at his attacker recognizing her just as Aayla had. "Aurra Sing!"

Having a visible enemy in front of him Quinlan actually let a smirk appear on his face. A use of Ataru he pressed Aurra back leaping around, forcing her to backpedal under a flurry of attacks from every direction, his lightsaber blade moving with speed and precision. "You'll find I'm a little different than your normal targets!"

"That's right, you are!" Aurra grunted her speed barely able to keep up with Quinlan's and his lightsaber coming just a little too close to cutting her. "You're even more gullible!" She ducked under one his blows, her free hand pulling out another lightsaber from her belt, stabbing upward.

Yet Quinlan recovered his balance too quickly, putting his lightsaber between this thrust and his body carrying the blue of her blade to the side with his own dark green one. Kicking out he caught Aurra in the stomach sending the slighter woman skittering backwards, unable to even cut at his leg before he had flipped himself up and backwards out of her range. His feet touched the sand, and Quinlan once more hurled himself towards Aura. He didn't care why she had attacked him, or how she had even detected his presence, all he wanted to do was deal with the enemy in his way right now.

Aurra seemed surprised at the ferocity of his attack, but then Quinlan had caught many a fellow Jedi off balance with the bruising nature of the pace he could set in a duel, or how aggressive he was. But despite being pushed back, Aurra didn't panic, and actually led Quinlan towards another building which she had rigged like the first two. Jumping backwards quickly she used the Force herself to leap up and over the wall of said building, igniting the mine set against the wall of it as she did.

It was only his Force precognition that allowed Quinlan to throw himself away but this time he grunted in pain as his back was perforated by several bits of shrapnel, and he rolled desperately, shaking his head and trying to fight back the pain with the Force. Damn it, I should have just shielded, not only this time but the times before! I'm acting like an amateur here, have to get over the surprise at the ambush and start controlling my emotions! I need to think!

He didn't have long to get over the pain or prepare himself however, because then Aurra was on him once more cutting down hard. Quinlan rolled forward, gasping as her lightsaber caught him in the leg, slicing away a bit of his fleshy part of his calf. But since he had already been using the Force to keep the pain away, Quinlan was still able to fight.

Quinlan brought up his lightsaber to block a few blows, but Aurra knew she had the advantage now. The cut to his leg badly hampered Quinlan's movement hurting Quinlan's ability to fight even more than it would have another Jedi given his style of Ataru. Aayla used that ruthlessly, turning and forcing him to use that leg more. Another stinging blow from Aura's lightsaber cut across his shoulder, not deep, he blocked enough to keep the lightsaber from searing into his skin, but enough to cause that arm to fall to Quinlan's side, the pain too much for him to keep using it despite deadening the pain with the Force as much as possible.

But Quinlan wasn't finished yet. In reply he twisted to the side, dodging Aura's second lightsaber and aiming for her first. She pulled back in time to save her hand but his blow sliced cleanly through the emitter at the top of her lightsaber right above her hand.

"Kriff you Jedi!" Snarling Aurra pulled her second lightsaber up and towards Quinlan's now unprotected body. There was no way he could interpose his lightsaber in time to save him.

To her shock Quinlan didn't even try. Instead his injured arm rose from his side and suddenly something like a shield of Force power appeared around it, blocking her lightsaber. Aurra stared in shock as her lightsaber fizzled and hissed against that shield, never even seeing Quinlan's lightsaber come around, bisecting her from one shoulder to the other.

"Die, murderer." Quinlan gasped out, backing away from the bounty-hunter's body, a wave of exhaustion now hitting him like a hammer between the eyes. This wasn't the first time he had to use a Force Shield in battle, but he hadn't used them against lightsabers before outside spars with his own padawan, and that on top of the strain of using the Force to deal with the pain of his wounds and the blood loss from the wounds in his back was exhausting.

Yet Quinlan's fight wasn't done. He twisted around, nearly collapsing as he was forced to pivot on his wounded leg, his lightsaber barely deflecting a series of plasma bolts coming at him from nearby. Over the sizzle and fizzing noise of the bolts impacting his blade and the pounding of his own ears he heard a voice shout "The bounty bitch is dead, means more creds for us! Down the Jedi, he's already hurt!"

"Kriff it!" Quinlan shouted, losing his Jedi self-control, which he had never really had that much of in any event, once more. His lightsaber still moved this way and that, blocking or deflecting the blaster bolts back to his attackers, but he could feel his body beginning to fail, and couldn't concentrate enough to call up another Shield. The blow to his leg and the shrapnel in his back, which was still bleeding, was sapping his strength.

He tried to turn and move away from the ambush point, but wasn't able to before several stun bolts came at him from another side street, and he fell, unconscious next to Aura's body. He never saw the trio of humans who came down the street towards him. The last thing he heard was, "Fools, Lord Jabba want's the Jedi alive for questioning, the bounty bitch might've well been killed herself for disobeying that order. Tie him up and let's get going."

OOOOOOO

"I can't feel her!" Harry moaned, shaking his head, his hands grabbing at his hair as his eyes shut in pain, his psyche questing out trying to find the now silent connection to Aayla. "I can't feel her!"

Harry, please calm down!" Lily commanded, wishing again that she had a physical body so that she could comfort her son. Fay was doing an alright job, her arm around Harry and her Force powers around his mind, trying to calm him down. But Harry was in no mental state to let her do so, and tried to shake her off physically. It was only when Lily's own ethereal hand touched his own that Harry began to calm down.

"Tell us more Harry, if you can't how are we supposed to help her?" Fay asked calmly, reasonably, hoping to calm Harry down just as much with her tone as her words. "What do you mean that you can't feel her?"

"I," Harry paused, thinking. They were rushing through hyperspace towards Tatooine, and the two of them, Harry and Aayla were now closer then Harry could remember them being since the last time they had physically seen one another. As such he should've been getting more out of their link, not admittedly enough to exchange thoughts, direct thought exchanges apparently had a light-speed limit. You couldn't do it without being in the same solar system.

But he wasn't getting any information anymore. "There was a moment of panic Masters, a sudden realization I think. She tried to reach out to me, but something happened, and she, she fell asleep? No not sleep, her mind shut off, so unconscious? And I can't find her! Without her mind actually active, I don't know where she is!"

"All right Harry," Fay replied soothingly. "Keep some of your attention on the link, we're coming out of hyperspace soon, so we'll be able to start trying to find Aayla quickly. Just keep calm."

The last thing either Fay or Lily wanted was for Harry to start reaching out to the Force in anger or frustration. The corrosive effect of doing so was something neither one wanted to contemplate happening to Harry.

From the cockpit of the small system patrol craft Dooku came through to the equally small sitting room, nodding his head to both women and Harry. "Master Fay is correct, we will be coming out of hyperspace within 5 minutes. Tatooine has a remarkably shallow gravity shadow, so we'll be almost on top of the planet itself. I did the piloting personally, and as you know Jedi can always do a little bit better there than even asked her back droids. I would make it about an hour before we are able to touch down on the planet. I don't expect we'll have any issues of course, but we should be ready to begin our search promptly."

As they came out of hyperspace, Harry was still concentrating more on the connection between himself and Aayla than on the physical plane around him. He nearly smacked his forehead into the hatch of the cockpit, only a gentle Force Push downwards on his head from Master Fay saved him from possibly concussing himself. But it was his attention on the connection between Aayla and himself that saved her so Harry might well have thought a concussion was well worth the price.