Aelyn

While Dante got to work on his alternate solution, Aelyn busied herself as much as she could by interacting with the CoreSec officers. Unfortunately other than getting her telling of events down in the mine, they mostly seemed to want her to wait around. Whatever they thought of the trustworthiness of a Jedi Knight, it was clear they wanted to hear each individual's telling of the event individually to make sure they got the most accurate version of it. The prisoner himself was whisked off to some other part of the precinct when they arrived, still unconscious from the stun blast or just starting to come around. Aelyn was confident that justice would eventually find its way to him, but the law was slow and her matter was urgent. And so when an officer finally came down the hallway to where she was sitting, she immediately perked up. "Can I see him now?" she asked. The officer nodded. "You and your associates are cleared to question him, Knight Talis," he responded. "But he hasn't been the most forthcoming. Please come this way." The cop led the way to a part of the hallway with two adjacent doors. He opened one of them, showing that it led to an observation area with a one-way pane for viewing into what was behind the second door -- a small room with a table and a stun-cuffed Skakoan sitting stoically behind it, another one standing behind him equally stoically. "That's his legal counsel," the officer stated, pointing at the standing one through the pane. "I'll be watching in here. You might consider not all going in at once." Mellanie offered to play bad cop, and Aelyn shrugged. "Um, okay," she said, thinking about the holofilms where she'd seen this done. "Maybe you two observe with the officer here. If I'm not getting anywhere, I'll make up an excuse to step out for a moment and we can switch." A moment later she opened the door and tried to look confident. "Hi there," she said lightly to the two aliens inside as she moved to sit down. "We met down in the mines but I'm afraid we didn't get to introductions. I'm Jedi Knight Aelyn Talis, and I have a few questions."

Aelyn shrugged. "A holding cell should be fine, but interrogation is a harsh word," she said. "The Governor has her own agenda, but CoreSec won't deny us a chance to talk to the prisoner." At least she didn't think they would. So far governments seemed only too happy to work with her as a Jedi, and the Governor had requested all three of them get involved here. As the lift arrived, it turned out that Dante's estimate of how long it would take CoreSec to get on site was way off and they wouldn't have a choice anyway. The place was already swarming with uniforms. Aelyn stepped forward, pointing down at the incapacitated alien at her feet, her Jedi robes brushing past him. "Here's the casualty," she called out to the officers. "See if you can get him help. This other Skakoan is the one who shot him." There was a medical team on hand and they swept in to the injured being. Other officers moved to remand the prisoner, and a captain approached Aelyn. "I assume you're Knight Talis?" When she nodded, he continued. "If you don't mind, can I ask you to come with us to the station, ma'am? We need to hear your account of what happened in the mine." "Of course," Aelyn answered. "I'm happy to cooperate. But I have my own investigation as well. I would like to talk to the prisoner as soon as he is in custody." "I can permit you to question him once we've initially processed him," the officer answered. Aelyn glanced at Dante and Mellanie. "That's fine. Let's go."

"We need to get out of here," Aelyn said when everyone looked to her for a decision. She indicated the Skakoan with a scorch mark in his back. "I don't even know for sure if this one is dead. If someone can carry the stunned one back to the lift, I should be able to float the other one there with the Force. We need to get them both to the local authorities and question the assassin." She looked between the two of them. "Let's move," she urged them, calling on the Force to lift the injured-or-dead being off the ground and move him back towards the elevator down as fast as she could manage. It was admittedly a bit difficult to concentrate on the task with the threat of impending danger, but this kind of application of the Force came easier to her each time she used it. They managed to make the lift before the droids came back online. As soon as Aelyn set the alien down and started the lift ride back up, she pulled her commlink and called the local authorities. "This is Knight Talis. We have a casualty and an unconscious prisoner who shot him. We need an ambulance and law enforcement at shaft Besh at the quarry immediately." She cut the call once they'd acknowledged. "I think our best plan is to try to question the prisoner," she told Mellanie and Dante. "In the mine the Force showed me an echo of an event where two Skakoans were talking about the recent rash of workplace accidents and how one of their agents is behind it," she explained. "They seemed afraid we would find a place they called the Foundry. I have a strong feeling that if we can find whatever that is, we will start getting some answers." The lift continued up and Aelyn resisted the urge to pace anxiously, instead trying to remain calm so she could focus on what the Force was guiding her to do. It was just hard with this much on the line.

The droids proved to be no match for Mellanie and the Ensign thanks to some precision shooting and Aelyn realized they probably hadn't even needed her help to fend off the attack. For some reason one of the drones was still standing though when it suddenly ground to a halt and a Skakoan ran up. Aelyn squinted at him, trying to make out what he was shouting and if he could be one of the aliens she'd seen in her vision when abruptly he crumpled. "Kriff!" she exclaimed when she realized what had happened, raising her lightsaber blade again and preparing to chase down a murderer for the second time in one day. There had been so much death surrounding this already... what was happening here was spiraling out of control rapidly. She considered it her foremost responsibility as a Jedi Knight to guard life, and the fact that two people had been cut down in front of her in just a few short hours made her feel maddeningly helpless. But there was still something she could do. There was still justice. Mellanie seemed even more on top of it than she was. Even as she moved after the cloaked assailant, the Mandalorian planted a stun bolt on his back with yet another impressive shot. Aelyn quickly caught up with her, closing down her lightsaber blade but keeping the weapon in her right hand as she used her left to draw back the being's hood and check for signs of consciousness.

As Aelyn moved back up the tunnel the way she'd come down, her strides lengthened. The general foreboding she'd felt during the vision had blossomed into a very present sense of danger. A little bit diffuse, maybe not focused on her directly, but it was building fast. It was like an itch, persistent, demanding attention. She shrugged her cloak off her shoulders and suddenly the distinctive report of blaster fire echoed up the stone hallway. She took a deep breath and her lightsaber leaped to her hand, pulsating power and confidence that she still didn't feel absent its comforting weight in her hand, turning a frightened girl into a Knight. Suddenly she was upon them, azure blade springing to life, the Force carrying her in a mighty bounding leap towards what appeared to be half a dozen load lifters bearing ominously down on the relatively-small forms of Mellanie and Dante, some of which were already weathering a crimson barrage from the Mandalorian's blaster pistols. No longer thinking but giving herself over to instinct and the guiding hand of the Force, she struck. Two slashes in an x-pattern executed mid-leap. They were met by a thick armor plate, and though the blade found purchase, it did not give as much as she had anticipated and the target both withstood it and retaliated with mechanical precision, swinging a large gripper-claw at her place in the air. But she foresaw the attack and bounced herself to the side, narrowly clearing what would have been a bone-shattering impact. Aelyn landed, lightsaber flashing back around to her fighting stance as though she'd been doing it her whole life. She stood apart from Dante and Mellanie, forcing each droid to prioritize a target and hopefully split their numbers. "The Skakoans are behind this!" she called out to them. "We're no longer safe on Talus."

The tunnels seemed to grow darker around Aelyn as she walked. Her eyes drifted closed and yet as in tune with the Force around her as she was, she had no problem navigating. She was following a current. It took her a few minutes to reach where it was leading her, but she could feel it strongly by the time she got there. An item, sitting on top of something about waist high. She grasped it, her eyes still closed... a smooth duraplast surface caked with the dirt of the mine. There was a slight dampness to it. But in the Force there was a story there, the impression left by an event. She focused and it expanded to fill her mind.... ------ "He had to intervene again. Eventually it's going to draw the wrong kind of attention." Two Skakoans walked down the tunnel. The speaker was holding something but Aelyn from her cloudy perspective couldn't make it out. "He knows what he's doing," the other responded. "Mining sites are dangerous places. We can handle the attention if it comes down to it." "What if someone finds the Foundry?" the first asked. "Not a chance. It will soon be too late for that anyway. You worry too much. Why are you carrying that thing around anyway? It makes you look like you had something to do with it. Put it down and let's get back to work." ------ Aelyn opened her eyes. She was holding a dusty and cracked mining helmet. She flipped it over and saw that there was a splash of red that had trickled out onto her hands. Gasping and recoiling in disgust, she dropped the helmet and it clattered onto the tunnel floor. She searched desperately for a moment and found an oil rag sitting on a mining machine nearby and she used it to wipe her hands off, smearing them with black but getting the blood off. She stood for a moment, the sound of her quick breathing filling the tunnel around her until she got it under control. The Skakoans were behind the disappearances, and they were hiding something at a place called... the Foundry? Where was that? The Jedi Knight turned around and hurried back up the tunnel to find Dante and Mellanie.

"If you send me a copy of the image, I can check them against the Jedi archives," Aelyn suggested. "They might have something the GA doesn't." She brushed a stray lock of her long red hair back away from her face. "Might be best to split up. I won't be much help with the technical stuff, so I'll leave that to you. On the other hand, the Force allows me in some cases to get a sense for past events that happened in a location or with regards to a specific object, so if I do a quick lap around the mine I might be able to pick something up that someone else would miss," she stated. The Jedi glanced at the Mandalorian. "Mellanie, your choice who you want to go with." That settled, Aelyn picked a tunnel and started off down it, beginning to stretch out with her senses. The world around her seemed to slow as she drifted into a trance-like state so she could focus on what the Force was telling her. She began by listening with her ears, picking apart the layers of what she could hear -- first, the scuff of her footsteps and rustle of her robes; then the quiet hum of idle machinery; the gentle buzz of electric lights. The air was close in the mine and there was a profound silence once she peeled away those layers, but then far underneath was what she was seeking: the constant deep tone that she could have been imagining entirely. The background noise of the universe existing. Within that note was the Force, expanding to fill her awareness and then projecting far around her. Everything her eyes could perceive about the mine was just a shadow of all that there was to know of it. She quickly received an impression of the emotional character of the place, imprints left there by the people who worked on it. Humans and aliens, men and women and droids. The sense of routine... but at times with undercurrents of other things, even urgency and workplace stress. She continued to walk and listen, waiting to see if the Force had a more specific tale to tell her.

Aelyn twisted her lip. "Well, actually, the dark side has a way of clouding a Jedi's perception of the Force," she said thoughtfully. "Think of it like something on a river bed stirring up a cloud of mud and silt -- you can tell that there's a disturbance there, but can't necessarily see what's causing it." She was experiencing all kinds of unusual things with her senses so far today. Not only had the Skakoan delegation been equipped with something that had completely blocked her ability to read them with the Force, but since then things had gotten murky. "I do sense danger here," she said. "But if it's caused by a Sith Lord I couldn't say." The idea was decidedly alarming. She'd had to contend with the dark side before, especially on Naboo, but encountering a Sith Lord that was her equal or greater in experience and training would make this way more dangerous than the mining dispute she'd been told to expect. Simply put, it was a possibility she didn't know if she was equipped to handle. "What makes you think one might be here?" she asked.

Bowing in greeting like most Jedi did, Aelyn introduced herself. "I'm Knight Aelyn Talis," she said before indicating the Mandalorian. "This is Mellanie Vevut." She studied the Ensign for a brief moment. Human or close, his most remarkable features were his prosthetic eyes which betrayed neither any emotion at their arrival nor any clear indication of where he was looking, which was mildly unsettling since she couldn't make eye contact with him. There were no immediately visible clues as to why he had prosthetic eyes -- no obvious scarring around them, for example. That plus the fact that both eyes had been replaced probably meant that he had gone blind at some point in a way that wasn't fixable by bacta, which was rare, or he'd opted to have them installed because he liked them better than normal eyes. In any case they made him difficult to read and his terseness didn't help either. "Certainly," she said, taking it in stride and keeping her usual casual tone in her Coruscanti-accented Basic. "Before you fill us in on your leads, though, can I ask how long you've been looking into the case? We just came from a meeting with the Governor and she didn't indicate that the Galactic Alliance had already sent someone down."

Aelyn smiled pleasantly. "Thank you, Foreman, we will," she affirmed. Heading back outside, the young Jedi tried to orient herself. She'd never been on a mining site before, but at first it didn't look that different from a construction site, and she'd seen plenty of those back home on Coruscant. The ground was unpaved and there was a whole lot of heavy and unfamiliar equipment lying about loosely organized. Large floodlamps dotted the area, hunched over as though examining anyone that walked beneath them into the broad swaths of the site each illuminated. Under some of these lamps lay stacked crates of what Aelyn assumed was the actual product -- the ore that was being dug up. A bit curious since no one had seemed to mention just what the whole pursuit of this mining endeavor was that had the Skakoans so eager, Aelyn walked over to one of the long black crates. As she did so, she was startled to note that whatever was inside seemed in tune with the Force. She could actually sense whatever was in there. She glanced over her shoulder back at the office, considering asking permission to open the crate, but she decided not to bother the foreman and pried the lid open herself just for a peek. Inside were neat rows of long, slender, carefully-packed clear crystals that practically buzzed in the back of her mind in a way that was intensely familiar. "Oh," she said, placing the sensation. "Kyber crystals." The Techno Union's greed made a little more sense now. Kyber crystals like the one in her lightsaber she had claimed on Dantooine were very rare and extremely valuable. The sheer number of credits that had to have been changing hands for the rights to mine this deposit had to be astronomical. Suddenly she wondered if they already had buyers, and if it was a military contract related to the brewing conflict going on in the galaxy. Shutting the case again, Aelyn tilted her head toward the mine shaft ahead of them through a permacrete archway emblazoned with a reddish block Besh. "Shall we?" Beyond the arch was a box of helmets and a sign with instructions to take one with which Aelyn complied, then a long elevator shaft down into Talus' crust. Beside the enormous hole was one of the prodigious machines that had bored it, itself a droid of some kind that was currently powered down and being recharged from a field generator. Another droid stood on the elevator, and Aelyn showed it the badge the Foreman had given her. "Can you take us down? I'm looking for the Ensign that came this way recently." The droid beeped an acknowledgement and pulled a lever and the lift started down into the darkened shaft below them, which was sporadically lit by rings of lights tacked onto the metal lattice that maintained the tunnel's structure. "I guess we'll know him when we see him," Aelyn said to Mellanie with a shrug.

"Those poor families..." Aelyn said. There was so much death and talk of death and it was a constant reminder to how comfortable her upbringing had been even with all the travel and uncertainty of the war. "I'm sure you're doing everything you can to increase safety around the dig site. "It's actually that mysterious signature that put me on this trail," she continued. She hesitated for a split second. "I'm sorry, did you say someone else was here asking about Jarett? The Governor didn't tell me that she had anyone else looking into this. Is this person still here, or perhaps did they leave you with a name?" It was kind of suspicious. It wasn't likely that Aiwah had just forgotten to mention she already had someone looking into what Aelyn had directly expressed her intention to pursue. Unless there was some kind of mix-up, whoever it was that had just been asking about Jarett had been lying about whose authority they were acting on. The Jedi Knight touched the Force, quietly reaching out around her, seeking any sense of danger or deception.

Small galaxy, Aelyn thought with a start when the Mandalorian turned out to be Sabian Devanus' daughter. Not only did her father have a long history with Devanus during his days as the political head of the Rebellion before his eventual assumption of the role of Supreme Chancellor for the Galactic Alliance, but she had recently gotten the chance to meet Sabian herself in person with Aira. This gave Mellanie and herself much more in common than she'd anticipated, even though their paths had diverged dramatically. She wanted to talk a bit more about it, but the speeder had arrived and it was back to the investigation. It did make her feel better about the situation now that she knew that she and her escort were somewhat alike. It didn't change the fact that the Mandalorian was working for Aiwah, though, and they both had their own goals which didn't necessarily align all the way. "Excuse me," Aelyn said as they entered the office to find a man in dirty, comfortable clothes staring at a well-worn datapad looking thoroughly vexed by either the device itself or what was displayed on it. "I'm Jedi Knight Aelyn Talis and this is Mellanie Vevut. We're here on behalf of the governor, looking into a case of a missing person, who I'm told was her liaison with this site. Are you familiar with the situation?"

"This is literally my first full mission as a Knight," Aelyn admitted. She was surprised that Mellanie seemed to open up a bit instead of continuing to play the part of the unreadable professional behind her helmet. It would make working together easier for however long it took to get to the bottom of this. "And as for the path... I was offered a chance to walk it by my Master, Aira Cadan -- to become more than I was and maybe do some real good in the universe. It's not a chance many people get and I couldn't turn it down." It was a curious thing, when she thought about it. She'd basically won the lottery to even have the potential to use the Force. She'd won it again when she'd chanced upon Aira Cadan on Chandrila. That, or the whole thing was sort of predestined or prearragned by some sort of cosmic will, an idea that until she'd started studying the Force she would have rejected out of hand. Now she could see that the Force had a direction to its flow and she knew that by opening herself to it she could follow it to be where she needed to be. When Aira had done the same thing, it had opened new worlds of possibilities for Aelyn and now she was sitting in a speeder, a Jedi Knight responsible for unraveling a plot that already involved one dead body and two missing people. "Vevut sounds Mandalorian, but Devanus certainly doesn't," she observed. "I'm sure you used to get asked all the time if you're related to the former Supreme Chancellor at all. How did you come upon the path you now follow?"

Aelyn nodded. "I appreciate it," she said. "I'm going to head for the mining site first, try to get a feel for if something happened. I may need to visit the fiancee if nothing obvious turns up, see if she knows where he is." Honestly she wasn't sure if that was doing it in the right order, but she was kind of making this up. She had no history of investigations like these prior to doing fieldwork with Aira and by herself on Naboo. But this way seemed to make sense, and she was really hoping that the Force would lead her to where she needed to be at the right time to pick up on something. She had special senses that most investigators didn't have, and they could potentially turn what looked like a dead end into a breakthrough. Maybe that kind of thing could make up for her lack of investigative training. She glanced at Mellanie expectantly and then headed back up the hallway the way they'd come in. "You're a bounty hunter or something, right?" she asked. "I have no problem admitting you're probably better at finding people than I am. Don't hesitate to set me straight."

Lips pursed, Aelyn continued to eye the black goop. It didn't feel like the Force had been at work here. She thought if it had been she would sense the dark side lingering on the Skakoan's remains. She wasn't sure the Force could even do that anyway. But maybe some really sophisticated technology, like HRD-level stuff that could actually fool humans into believing it was a living being.... The reality was more grotesque, as there was still some part of Sobek there in front of her, murdered by some at-large agent who-knew-how long ago. With a twinge of unease Aelyn realized she might be able to gather some clues about that, but maybe she would shelve the approach she had in mind as a last resort. For now she turned her attention back to those who were speaking to her. Although the Mandalorian, Mellanie, was innocent of murder, she had still performed an illegal hit and she had been working for Aiwah. Keeping the mercenary around under contract didn't make her a third-party agent -- Aelyn herself as a Jedi Knight not being bankrolled by any involved faction was the only one who could fill that role. Aiwah had just proven that she was willing to go to unethical lengths to resolve this situation in a way she found favorable, and her assigning a guard to Aelyn was at worst an attempt to keep tabs on or even control the Jedi's investigation. Aelyn wasn't sure she was willing to make that judgment yet however. Even if Aiwah was unscrupulous, she had asked the Jedi to send a representative and she had to know what she was getting. "Knight Aelyn Talis," she finally said, introducing herself to Mellanie. "I'm happy to have extra help along, but I want you to understand that I'm here to find the truth in this situation and to do the right thing -- however that looks." She looked back at the mortician. "I'd like to be kept in the loop if anything else is found out about the remains. Any information could help the investigation." Then she turned to the Governor. "I think the other prong of this that we need to follow up on -- and maybe the most pressing -- is your missing deputies. Who can I talk to in order to get me started? Who might know where they were last seen?" This whole thing stunk, and there was a lot of work to do. This was probably the best starting place.

Aelyn's eyes shifted between the other two women. Aiwah must have really felt she she had been backed up against a wall if she had hired a mercenary to perform a hit. But surely she had known that taking down Sobek would be unlikely to change the Techno Union's plans... and the fact that she had also requested a Jedi Knight be dispatched to aid in the negotiations knowing that said Jedi would be there when the hit was performed seemed particularly poorly thought out. Did she not realize that a Jedi would investigate any such happening? But those questions could wait for a moment. "She didn't expect this any more than you did," Aelyn told Mellanie, picking up on Aiwah's emotional state clearly through the Force and attempting to soothe the Mandalorian's rage. Although, Aelyn reflected, Devanus didn't sound like a particularly Mandalorian last name, being that of the GA's first Supreme Chancellor. "Something went horribly wrong here." She hesitantly turned her attention back to Sobek's oozing remains, then spoke to the mortician. "Just what am I looking at here? Why would an EMP rifle do this to a Skakoan? Don't they just disabled machinery?"

A morgue, huh? Aelyn thought. She'd never been to one before and she didn't have any fondness for the idea, but if it was required for her duty she would put aside her reservations and go. There was no quiet simple life where she could be isolated from death and battle for her anymore. "Lead the way, officer," she responded. The two women were loaded into the back of a speeder for the trip, which would have to be quick if Sobek's remains had already been taken there during the short chase. Aelyn looked across the seat to the Mandalorian, The warrior was a long way from the rest of her people. Aelyn wondered at the lifestyle she had taken up, working for hire, training for battle so she could fight for someone else's goals. She wondered at who her family was, how she had been raised, how things worked in Mandalorian culture. It was hard to imagine something that would have to be so different from Aelyn's own rather comfortable upbringing. Now that this had happened, it put her future in question in a way that almost made her whole past irrelevant except in that it had brought her here. Did the Mandalorian have people that would mourn her if she got thrown in prison for murder? Surely she'd known the risks that came with the profession she'd chosen. Aelyn frowned. Why did people have to kill other people? Sobek had had a life, a history, friends and family of his own. How could there be justice for him without a high price being exacted on his murderer, and yet how could ruining a second life make anything right? She opened her mouth to at least get the mercenary's name, but her prediction about the morgue being close proved correct and the speeder came to a stop outside a drab building. The officer sitting in front of her got out and opened her door, and Aelyn made her way inside. The air here felt close and still, and the Force seemed to linger about the storied dead deep within. She shuddered, though she tried to mask the reaction by fixing a strand of her long red hair that had come loose from her ponytail during the chase. The officer led the way down to a table with a grisly pile of black sludge and environmental suit fixtures with tubes splayed out like the innards of a metallic beast. Aelyn eyed it warily, keeping her distance. "You wanted to see me, Governor?"

At the last moment Aelyn held off on her Force shove. "You do?" she asked, surprised. She quickly caught herself. "I mean, good. You're making the right choice." It did have a way of raising some questions. Murder sentences were no light thing. The Mandalorian suddenly losing her willingness to fight to escape meant that she expected justice to be something else. Or maybe she thought she would have a better chance escaping from prison than beating a Jedi that had proven to be quicker than she was. There was still a dead Skakoan, a blast Aelyn had witnessed herself, and a Mandalorian fleeing the scene who had even attacked the Jedi who had pursued her. Unless there was something really unusual going on here, it would be tough to find a jury that wouldn't convict her. But Aelyn hadn't lied. When she reached out with the Force, she felt genuine remorse rolling off the assassin and her gut told her there was more than met the eye here. She took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go," she said, directing the other woman toward the CoreSec vehicles that were arriving on scene. "I recommend putting your weapons down so they don't get the wrong idea." As the first officers arrived on scene, Aelyn waved them down. "It's okay, she surrendered. I"m Jedi Aelyn Talis, and I witnessed the incident." She was starting to wonder just what she'd gotten herself mixed up in. Even before this there was the missing deputy and now there was a criminal matter of another sort to unravel.

Aelyn recoiled in shock when the Mandalorian attacked her in hand-to-hand. Her arm somehow seemed able to knock aside a lightsaber blade and she was fast, not hesitating to move in for a series of follow-up attacks. Despite her surprise, however, Aelyn still had the Force and the precognition that came with it. She reacted to the uppercut almost before it had begun, leaning far enough to the side that the armored gauntlet only grazed her cheek. The leg sweep came sooner than she expected however and she soon found herself falling off balance. Halfway down to the ground, though, she seemed to bounce off another Force cushion like she had used during her descent from the crane. Her lightsaber flashed between the two fighters and she backed up half a step. Surely the Mandalorian didn't think she could beat a trained Jedi Knight with her fists? "If you were framed, I will help you," Aelyn said, ready to take another step back if the assassin charged, her blade ready to intercept any attack. "I'm interested in justice, not punishment." She circled the woman for a moment. "I'll give you a chance to think it over," she said, then called the full might of her Force talent as she thrust both hands forward together in an attempt to slam the Mandalorian back against the wall behind her with a telekinetic push. If she somehow remained conscious, Aelyn would keep the pressure up to pin her there. She could already hear from the CoreSec sirens that her backup was just around the corner, so this fight would be over soon no matter what the other woman might have chosen.

In an effort to stay active, Aelyn had taken up jogging as a teenager and stuck with it over the years -- something that turned out to be a huge benefit for this new lifestyle. From her adventures so far, it seemed that dashing headlong around dangerous environments was as much a part of being a Jedi as mediating and philosophizing. But all the jogging in the world didn't adequately prepare her for the acrobatics that were now being required of her to catch a rather-spritely Mandalorian woman with a head start on her. Having to deactivate her lightsaber, Aelyn utterly failed to gain any ground on the assassin as she crossed the dangerous wire-crossed roof, though the toppled canister she was able to lift aside with a hurried application of telekinesis and she had an edge in hopping up the low wall as she was unladen by battle armor. It did however cause her to temporarily lose sight of her target until she was rapidly approaching the edge of the roof, watching her rappel down a level on liquid cable. She reached out instinctively to the Force for guidance. It told her not to stop, not to think, but rather just to act and trust. It was another critical moment, like when she had dove into the dark waters on Naboo to face the Leviathan's gaping maw. A moment where if she hesitated, she could get hurt or even die. She didn't pause. With a mighty leap Aelyn crossed the divide out to the crane, took two steps along its metal face, then kicked off, the wind whipping back her long red hair and the edges of her tunic as she hurtled into the path of the fleeing Mandalorian. Just before she landed, the Force pressed up upon her from below, an even and reassuring pressure that enabled her to land softly. Aelyn's azure blade sprung again to life as she came face to face with Sobek's killer. "Please stop," she said, a touch breathlessly. "Give up and face a fair trial for what you have done." She really didn't want to fight the woman, but neither could she just let her go.

Her jaw dropped in shock as the the Skakoan basically ruptured in front of her, and Aelyn's stomach rebelled. She might have vomited at the gruesome display, but the weight of the lightsaber in her hand urged her to act. Someone had just died... it didn't matter one bit that she had a moment ago assigned to him the role of antagonist in what should have been a purely legal and diplomatic proceeding. But she was not the hapless diplomat here, and she had a responsibility to seek justice for what had just happened. She shed her outer cloak and the azure lightsaber blade sprung from its hilt warm in her hand. She took three long strides across the street, the Force swelling around her, and then suddenly she was practically flying through the air to land a bit precariously on the edge of the rooftop far above. For an instant she teetered there, having landed on a slant she couldn't see from below, but another nudge with the Force and she found her footing. Ahead of her she could sense the assassin. Elevated heart beat. Frustration. Shock? Probably hadn't expected to find a Jedi Knight escorting the delegation. Aelyn took off, remembering her training. Her senses were open, her mind focused. This way, she knew no limits. The Force helped propel her up a steep incline as she sought higher ground, casually making a climb that would normally make her muscles burn in protest. From her new vantage point she caught sight of the assassin -- a Mandalorian by the looks of her, much to Aelyn's surprise. She had always thought that such sneak attacks were beneath a people that considered themselves to be proud warriors and mercenaries. "You! Stop!" she called, leaping across to the next rooftop, attempting to improvise as she scrambled over an environmental unit while still grasping her lightsaber with one hand. She managed to scrape her shin on its metal edge, and she winced but kept going. The rooftops ahead of the Mandalorian offered limited options for what paths she could take. Aelyn picked the most likely one and scrambled that way, hoping to make up some more time. Again she tried to take the high ground so she could keep eyes on the fleeing murderer.

Aelyn had to admit that she found the power of a Jedi mind trick to be a frightening thing and she couldn't blame Sobek for being concerned about it being used during negotiations. Not that it was something that she or hopefully any other Jedi Knight would do. Even if if was ethically acceptable to manipulate someone's thoughts without their consent, Jedi could not be bought by any government, organization or individual and she was here to serve as a third party, not to push the agenda of either side. The encounter with Sobek gave her a lot of insight into him though in just a few sentences. He was the aggressor in the situation. His assumption that she was not ethically opposed to using mind control against him probably meant he himself was unscrupulous. He was convinced the law would side with him. He kind of made her skin crawl, especially if he was going to hurt the planet's environment for the sake of profit. Despite this she bowed politely when he and his delegation began to make their exit. "Thank you for your time," she told them. As they filed out, she turned back to Aiwah. "With your permission, Governor, I would like to stay close by for a while and look into the matter with your deputies," she said. "If one of them is missing he or she may be in danger." No sooner had she said the word than she felt a stirring in the Force. She frowned and looked in the direction by which the Techno Union delegation had exited. "Um, excuse me for a moment," she apologized before heading after them. By now they were approaching the door outside and she hurried towards them. Unfortunately her danger sense was maddeningly unspecific. Was the danger coming from the delegation or from something else? Was Aelyn herself in danger or was it directed elsewhere? She stretched out with her feelings, but they were obscured somewhat by whatever the Skakoans were using to block her out. But beyond them, outside and above -- "Wait!" she called after Sobek, reaching for her lightsaber.

Aelyn would have preferred that the negotiations at least waited until she had arrived to begin, especially since she was running on time. As it was, she hadn't even been briefed. It meant she was going in blind to a situation in progress and she wouldn't have any time to waste figuring out the positions of both sides while also finding the path that would reconcile them. Her father would have called the situation unprofessional; she could recognize it as such but also trust the Force and her own instincts to see her through. As she approached the room she could sense that there was already a heated argument going on, and even when she entered she seemed to go unnoticed for a moment. On one side there was Aiwah Lanis. Frustrated, outraged, almost unbelieving of the situation that had developed. She felt like she was being cheated out of something that was really important. On the other side, the Skakoans that at times seemed synonymous with the Techno Union. Concealed within the pressure suits they needed to survive off of their homeworld, they were difficult to read physically, but in the Force she could see past the breathing apparatus. At least... she normally could. For some reason, when she stretched out with her senses to the Techno Union delegation, she felt nothing whatsoever. Her brow creased in consternation. She had lived almost her whole life without these powers, but now when they didn't work she found it incredibly disquieting. She did not need the Force to see that the lead Skakoan -- Chairman Persei, she'd thought she'd heard Aiwah call him -- was apparently bleeding from a head wound. Hopefully, Aelyn reflected, things had not gotten so heated that he had received it here. Finally she approached the table and caught Aiwah's eye. "Hello," she said as she crossed over to her to shake her hand. Her tone was bright and friendly in her smooth Coruscanti Basic, offering a reprieve from the frustrating development for a moment. "You must be Ms. Lanis. I'm Aelyn Talis." She had made no attempt to conceal her status as a member of the Jedi Order: she wore traditional brown Jedi robes over a tan-colored tunic, and her lightsaber hung upon her belt, visible from the right angle if not prominently displayed. Her boots still had traces of Galan soil on them, now mixed with the dust of the Talusian road. She turned and offered a pleasant smile and a gentle bow to the Skakoan delegation. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance as well," she offered. She hoped the distraction and the pleasantries would at least break off the emotional high in the room and allow things to reset to a more civil state so that they could start again.

Starlines collapsed into points of light around the Open Road as it exited hyperspace over the binary planets Talus and Tralus. Longtime members of the Galactic Alliance, New Republic and Rebellion, the Corellian system was not unfamiliar ground to Aelyn and she had visited each of its worlds multiple times. Tagging along on one of her father's longer-term business trips or even vacationing, as a girl she had built a very firm liking to the unique peoples and cultures of the system from their fierce pride to their carefree spacer reputations. But never before had she visited in these circumstances. This time her father was not the mediator, but it was she, and she was a Jedi Knight. She stretched out with the Force as her ship passed near where Centerpoint Station once had been, feeling the echoes of the era-defining conflict with the Arach'tar years before even as she descended towards Talus. She had been provided with only a very basic idea of what to expect. Her presence had been requested by one Aiwah Lanis who had been having trouble with the Techno Union in a situation revolving around mining rights. She'd been provided with directions to Aiwah's office and she took the Open Road to a nearby public hangar straightaway before walking the remaining distance. She couldn't help but continue to reach out with her feelings, take in the feel of the place as she walked much as she had begun to do in every new place she visited. Worlds and cultures almost had a scent to them in the Force, something otherwise-undefinable that reflected in many ways the character of their population. Aelyn was delighted to be able to sense the cultural complexity of a world like this -- she passed humans, Selonians, Drall, and other species during the short walk and could feel how they were all different and yet distinctly Corellian. Soon she arrived at the office and approached the receptionist. "I'm Jedi Knight Aelyn Talis," she introduced herself. "I believe Ms. Lanis is expecting me?"

When Aelyn returned to the Temple, she made the necessary introductions. As she had promised, the Order was benevolent, and Aelyn was not the only one within its number that had compassion on those who had fallen upon hard times. Though the encampment she had discovered in the ruins of the New Republic base had managed to find some sort of maintainable stability, no one was there by choice. The Order had more connections than it had funding, and through a number of partner organizations and charities they could accomplish quite a lot. Aelyn was content to stay and see the process through, learning what she could about these partnerships the Order maintained. After all, she was a serial charity volunteer herself and had a soft spot for noble causes. If the Order could be a gateway to her making a difference in organizations like these -- especially if they needed Knights with a passion for such service work -- she wanted all the information she could get about it. It wasn't long into this new venture, however, that she received word through channels leading up to the Council that there was a mission for her to investigate on Talus, mediating a dispute between the Techno Union and some locals. She had to admit she thought it was encouraging that the Order saw her as a diplomat -- it was something else she had a passion for doing despite how difficult it could be. Indeed, the fact that Talus had decided a Jedi needed to be involved promised a complex situation. But Aelyn trusted the Force. She said her farewells and made her way back to the Open Road, then set out for the Corellian system.