The Resolve’s Landing Bay:

While the senior officers are in their meeting, Izek Korona, along with Gate and Forty, has decided to get to the bottom of the X-Wing mystery.  He and the droids are working on Guardian Two in the secure repair bay where all of the Guardians are docked.

Gate is looking through the security data and Forty is checking the maintenance logs while Izek goes over his X-Wing.  Forty is the first done and he discovers nothing out of place.

Izek, on the other hand, has found something out of the ordinary.  A device, attached to a port in the servo that controls the strike foils.  It is approximately the size of his little finger and designed, apparently, to look like just another connecter at a casual glace.

"Gate, Forty, come look at this,” Izek says, looking through a magnifier.

[I am in the middle of a search, 4T, you go.]

Forty disconnects and rolls over.  The device appears to be some type of relay.

"Now that I know what to look for, we can get the other ships repaired.  But first, let's make sure there's nothing else here."

For the next three hours, they pour over Izek's X-Wing and find nothing else out of the ordinary.  At about the same, Gate signals that he discovered nothing in the security tapes, either for the x-wings or the ship's guns.

The trio then proceeds to repair the other x-wings, finding the same types of devices in each.

After the Meeting:

The meeting is letting out and Ghaloon falls in step with Captain Nadur, who looks none too pleased.

"Nadurr,” Ghaloon says, “I rrealize you'rre busy, but if I could sharre moments of yourr time in between you dirrecting people....   can you apprraise me of the whole situation?"  

Nadur relates a general idea of what happened, being careful not to get into specifics.  "Right now," he says, "we're in the middle of the investigation.  I'll let you know what comes of it."

“Thank you, Captain,” Ghaloon says, “Please call upon me if I may be of use.”

Ghaloon stops and spots Ambassador Justinian heading, slightly unsteadily, down the corridor towards the turbo lift.  As Ghaloon catches up she stops and turns to him.

"Hello, Ghaloon," she says, "How can I help you?"

"Ah, so you'rre up and about,” Ghaloon says,  “Good.  Now, that we have moved on from Correllia, I would like yourr thoughts on the afterrmath of that exerrcise.  I would like yourr thoughts not on the obvious outcome of me leading an expedition that rrescued you and uncovered Imperial stuff, but the way I went about it.  Would you have liked me to have done anything differrently?  Do you have any questions about why I did something the way I did?  That sorrt of thing."

"Personally," she says, "I am not in favor of solving problems with weapons before words.  However, in some cases it is warranted."

She begins to walk down the corridor again and motions for Ghaloon to walk with her.

"I am certainly grateful for your help, but I think that you may have acted a bit hastily."  She sees that Ghaloon is about to interject and holds up a hand.  "Please, let me finish.  I do not know the situation you were in or what pressures you were under.  I've read Tehl's report, and I've talked to him, but I know there are some things that he is keeping to himself."

"Now, while you did accomplish quite a bit with your intervention, which followed the moral reasoning behind the ‘never negotiate with terrorists’ policy, I think that you may have waited a few more days to gather more information.  Keeping Commander Genfore out of the loop was probably a mistake and I don't think he will be soon to forget it."

They enter a turbolift and head toward her quarters.

"I do not mean to sound ungrateful, but I would have handled things differently."  A slight smile creeps onto her face, "Maybe that is why I am a diplomat and not a Jedi."

"Having said all of that," she continues, "I really do appreciate what you did for me.  There is no way I can repay the debt I owe you."

"In the days of Qel-Drroma,” Ghaloon begins, “beforre the Empirre hunted us Jedi to almost extinction, therre werre 6 disciplines, orr ways of thought if you will.  While, therre was a Warrriorr Discipline, I do not considerr myself to be one.  

“I didn't tell Tehl, what I'm about to tell you out of rrespect for Harrkonan.  Just prriorr to my going planet side, I went to brrief Harrkonan what I had found and seek his counsel.  I found him balling in frront of a holo-vid begging Diktat forr inforrmation about you and what was being done to find you. One of the things I was going to brring up to Harrkonan was that I strrongly suspected Diktat of masterrminding this and my rreasons why.  That is why I decided to do what I did.  

“I will give you my word though, if I find in the futurre Harrkonan balling, begging and pleading with the perrson/people I suspect is behind the matterr, I will brief LT Rrunaarr and the CAPT of what I suspect and of what I'll do to fix it.  Also, I may know how to be violent, I may even know how to use the Forrce to aid me to be violent.  But, I'm not always the kind of Farrghul to shoot firrst and ask questions laterr.  ...  and finally, maybe I'm civilized enough that when a frriend assists me in something and asks to rremain anonymous, I forrget faces and names and allow them to blend in to the backgrround.  

“I appologize if you feel wrronged by Tehl not prroviding you with a complete rreporrt, but it was at my rrequest and prriorr to him turrning it overr, I prroof-rread it.  I cannot promise you that I will never with-hold inforrmation frrom you again, but, I ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt that if I do with-hold inforrmation frrom you, it is not something of grrave imporrtance norr will it bite us in the rrearr-end laterr forr not collectively knowing it."

"I understand why you and Tehl would keep certain facts from me,” Justinian says.  “It's a very poor diplomat who reveils everything he knows," she says with a smile.

"I would rather you had checked with someone to get some type of approval for your actions," she says, serious again, "but I can see why you didn't, under the circumstances.  Now I want to assure you that Ambassador Harkonan would never be involved in something like that.  You don't need to be a Jedi to see that you don't trust him.  However, I've worked with him before and it was by my request that he be placed on this mission."

They reach her quarters and, as the door opens she turns to Ghaloon.  
"Ghaloon, I don't want to cut this short, but I am feeling very tired right now.  I'd like to talk to you some more about your responsibilities with regards to our mission.  If it's alright with you, why don't you join Tehl and I for dinner this evening?"

Ghaloon brings his hands together, fingertips touching and bows.  "Sleep well, Lady Justinian.  May the Forrce be with you.”

Tehl on the Move:

After taking some of the Resolve’s crew for a total of 10 credits, Tehl excuses himself and heads out to check on a theory he came up with during the game.

After noting the request to arrange dinner for himself, Ghaloon and Ambassador Justinian, he punches a query into his datapad and receives a list of Liberty crewmembers:

•	Kira Thraken – Engineer 6
•	R2-G8 – Guardian 2 (droid)
•	Lieutenant Illyria Antia – Chief Engineer 
•	Lar Panner – Engineer 3
•	Selon Minar – Engineer 4
•	Aleichibek – Shuttle Co-Pilot
•	Captain Anurion Nadur – Executive Officer

“Well,” he says to himself, “Let’s start at the top.”

Tehl heads for the area where the Liberty’s crew is being quartered.  He spots Karcen Thraken getting something to eat. 

He notices Tehl walk into the lounge.

“Excuse me," he says, coming over, "I know we haven't met, but I'm wondering, Mr. Dashwood, if you can give me an update on what's going on?  They haven't told us much down here."

Tehl puts on his best 'you want to play cards with me' smile and says, “First off, call me Tehl.  Mr. Dashwood is my father.  They haven't told me too much of anything either.  I'm kinda like a Fornathian mushroom - they keep me in the dark, and feed me shit.

“Tell you what, why don't we sit down, so you can enjoy your meal, and I'll tell you what I know.”

"Thank you, Tehl.  I appreciate it."

They sit down and Tehl relates what he knows.

"Sounds like they tried to circumvent the firing system for some reason.  But why not take down the shields to ensure that the damage was fatal?  It's almost as if they didn't actually indent on destroying
the ship."

"That's a very good question,” Tehl says, slightly shocked, “Would someone who knew enough to place the interrupter where they did know enough to block the shields the same way?"

"I'd say so,” Karcen says thoughtfully, “Just to come up with that idea in the first place means that they know they way around x-wings and corvettes."

Tehl thinks to himself, “Our saboteur was playing a risky game - if the x-wings hadn't stopped 4 of the 5 suicide ships, then they could have taken out the ship...”

"Karcen, who do you think is responsible?"

"It would have to be someone with a working knowledge of x-wings and corvettes.  I'm actually inclined to think that they needed to know the Liberty's layout as well.  She's actually a pretty unique design.

"I'd say it could be one of the engineers, but that doesn't explain how they got those 5 ships to attack us.  Maybe it was someone involved in the construction.  I could give you my personnel files so that you could look through them."

Tehl looks astounded, "You think that someone from the shipyard put the interrupter in when Liberty was built, and now was working with the fanatics? - I will have to take a look at your records.  I can't right now, I've got a dinner with the  Ambassador I have to get ready for.  I'll check back with you in a day or  two - hopefully tomorrow."

"No,” Karcen says, taken aback, “I just meant that whoever is behind this could have been working on her construction.  We'd have found those devises in the shakedown cruise.  Besides, they were also found on the x-wings, and they just joined us a little over 2 weeks ago."

Karcen sees Tehl mark a "check back with K. Thraken" on the datapad.

"I do have to go,” Tehl says, getting up, “It was great talking with you.  If you think of anything else, let me know."

"I will.  Thanks for the talk."

Amzenki’s Dilemma:

At the end of the meeting, Amzenki catches up with Nadur just as Ghaloon jogs towards Justinian.
 
“Captain,” Zir says, “I’d like to request that only those with an absolute necessity be allowed in the hangar where the X-Wings are being stored.”

Nadur nods his head in agreement.  “Your X-Wings are in a secure hanger that only you, Antia, Runaar, the Commander and I have the passcode to.  Korona is in there with the X-Wings already, on your authorization, I understand.”

“Yes, sir,” Zir replies, “I wanted him to do a preliminary check of the fighters.  I’m going to join him now.”

“Carry on, Lieutenant,” Nadur says, “Make sure to report any findings to Lieutenant Antia.”

Zir heads for the nearest turbolift and takes it to the Guardian’s hanger.  After entering the passcode and entering, he yells to Forty to join him in his office.

“I want you to plug in to the system,” Zir says to the droid as he rolls into the office, “and find out who came and who went in the time between the full system we did after I got mine back.”

Using the security cameras, Forty finds that there were very few people who didn't enter the hanger.  It is, after all, where the Dove is docked and there were no security restriction in place.

Forty does find something interesting, though.  There is an hour of time that seems to be looped on the tapes.  It was from approximately 2330 to 0030 2 days before the Liberty left the Corellian System.

“Frosty,” Zir says upon reading the report, “keep this information to yourself.  You are to tell no one.  I am going to go straight to Captain Nadur with this.”
Zir goes to the XO’s temporary quarters, but Nadur sends him to meet with Antia, who is in charge of the investigation.  She is in the middle of meeting with Runaar but she calls Zir in.

"What have you got, Zir," she says.

Zir tells her about the loop and show her the footage.  All the while 
Runaar is standing very rigidly.

"That's very interesting," she says, looking up at you.  "Xamot, why 
don't you tell Zir what your people found."

He clears his throat several times before beginning.  "Zir," he says, "as you know we've started time synchronizing the sensor and communications tapes since the incident with the Z-95's.  After looking at that, we've found out that there was a signal sent out just prior to the Guardians engaging the transports.  We've also determined the origin of the signal."

He pauses a little too long here and it makes you a bit uncomfortable.  "Well," Zir says, "I'm waiting."

"Zir," Antia interjects, "It came from Guardian 2."

As calmly as anyone has ever asked a question...."Where did this signal go?"

"It went over the Guardian Frequency," Runaar says, "so only the X-Wings, or anyone tuned to that frequency, such as the Liberty's Comm, would have received it."
 
"Is there any way,” Zir replies, in an extreme calm tone of voice, “that we can tell if the signal was sent by Izek or is r2 unit?  Just how certain of ALL of this are you?  These are serious accusations whether or not you can prove them.”

"We're certain that G2 is where the signal originated," Antia says, "And that it was not a standard broadcast.  Further analysis of the sabotage devices will tell us if that was the intended recipient.  We can't tell who sent it, though.  It could have been either of them."
 
"Before I take my leave, I would ask you both a favor.  Allow me one hour to meet with Izek.  I will take him to the Captain personally."

"We owe you that much," Antia says.  "Zir, ... I'm sorry."
 
Zir excuses himself and heads purposely back toward the hanger.  On the way he contacts Izek and Gate and tells them to meet in his office.

Izek and Gate are waiting when Zir gets back to his office, off of the main hanger bay. Gate waits outside while Izek comes in.

"I think that we've got most of the ..." Izek stops talking when he sees the look on Zir’s face.

In a stern, stoic voice, void of anger, Zir says, "Sit down.  You will be asked once.  If I find out you are lying to me, you will wish you had been killed in that facade that fool Ghaloon led you on.  Do you understand?

He doesn't say a word.  He sits down, nearly missing the chair, and stares blankly at Zir.

"There was signal sent from Guardian 2 just prior to the attack at Corellia.  It was sent only on our frequency, and shortly thereafter, our foils would not go in to the attack position.  Might you know why?"

His eyes grow extremely wide.  "Wait," he says, "You can't think that 
I'm responsible for this.  We were nearly killed out there!  How 
could you think I'd be behind that?!?"

"Izek," Zir says, very quietly, "sit down."  Pressing a button on the desk, he speaks into the intercom.  "Frosty and Gate, get in here."

Still in shock from Zir's accusation and a bit winded from his outburst, he sits down and is quiet.  Forty and Gate enter the office.  Forty rolls over to the nearest terminal and plugs in to it.

[You wished to see us?] he says.

"Gate," Zir says, "I want you to download your memory banks into the Resolve's computer.  Frosty, I want you to monitor him and see if anything's omitted."

Gate hesitates but Zir orders him to plug in.  Moving slower than he normally should, Gate nears the consol.  As he extends his computer arm, sparks start flying from the top of his head.  He turns his main sensor towards Izek as smoke starts billowing from all his compartments.

Gate stands frozen.  Forty, after a quick inspection, determines that his circuits were overloaded by an internal malfunction.

[We'll need to have engineering take a look, but it doesn't look like anything can be salvaged.]

A tear rolls down Izek's cheek.

Izek sits as still as a corpse, starring at Gate's smoking body. He mouths something so quiet it's barely audible above the life support. 

“You killed him...”

He's across the room to Gate in an instant trying to get some response from his systems, not even noticing his hands are getting blackened and burnt. He mutters to himself over and over.

“I should have thought of it.... If they can sabotage the ships they can hurt Gate.... I should have thought of this. I could have stopped
this...”

Zir walks over to Izek and pulls him away from Gate.  Izek moves away with Zir.  He's in shock, so he doesn't fight.  He does keep staring at Gate, however, and doesn't respond to anything that is said.

“Izek,” Zir says, “you are to go to your quarters and stay there until further notice.  Do you understand?”

Izek looks blankly at Zir and then back to Gate.

“Security,” Zir calls into his comlink, “please send someone to the Guardian hanger with a medic.”

{This is Macsen.  I’m on my way.}

The Conversation: 

After Macsen and Starhopper have taken Izek to hi quarters, Metoo and Antia enter the office, followed closely by Ghaloon.  Antia looks at Gate and Metoo gives a low whistle.

"What happened?" Antia says, going over to the droid.
"Gate appears to have been cooked.  It appears he may have been sabotaged," Zir says looking squarely at Ghaloon.

Then realizing the implications changes his focus to Metoo and Antia.  "We need to get everything we can from his memory banks and we need it intact.  I know that is a tall task.  But then, Captain Nadur would not have wanted you on this mission if you could handle the more difficult problems.  Please keep me and the Captain himself advised of your findings.  You may take him whenever you would like."

His tone changes here from normal to a more disgusted tone, "Now, if you will excuse, I need to speak with Ghaloon alone."

"Of course, _sir_" Antia says, "And don't you forget to keep me  informed of _all_ of your findings.  I'm the one the Captain put in charge of this investigation, after all."  She wheels about and leaves.  Metoo drags Gat's remains out of the office.

Ghaloon recoils from her anger and looks a bit troubled.

"How may I help you Lieutenant?" Ghaloon says.

"Who all did you come across in your little rescue attempt?" Zir says.  "Anyone other than the captors themselves?"

"Firrst of all," Ghaloon responds, "it was a bit betterr then an attempt... it was a success."

"Quite frankly," Zir snaps back at him, "I could care less what you want to call it.  The bottom line is you know what I mean, Ghaloon."

"Pardon me if I have damaged your ego," Ghaloon proceeds, ignoring the interuption.  "Second, no one who would have arrranged this. No, I would say this was morre a counterr attack from Diktat's grroup. He was attached to a grroup that had a good deal of rresourrces. as much as you want to point fingerrs at me." 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Zir says, taken by surprise.  "I am not pointing anything at you.  I have my issues with you sure, but I also have enough sense to know that this is not the way a Jedi operates.  If I implied that I felt you were guilty of this, please, accept my sincerest apologies.  I openly admit that I do not trust you, nor care for your modus operandi, but I do not suspect you to be a traitor."

Forty can be heard to beep softly in the corner.

"What is it, Frosty?" Zir says.

[Just a preliminary report from the diagnostic concerning the strike-foil malfunction.  Do you wish a follow up?]

"Yes.  See to that and give me a full report."

Forty leaves and Ghaloon picks up where he left off.  "I would suggest that you look at the Diktat's suporrterrs. Plus, what I just saw of gate... man, let's look at what rrooms he's been in. it will be difficult to trrack who may have dumped a virrus to him, but that would be one place I would point to. I would also check ourr logs to see if we rrecorrded the trransponderr beacons frrom those otherr ships and see what info the Correlian authorrities can prrovide us with about those. hmmm... now the gun turrretts on the Liberrty II would be quite difficult. I would starrt by asking all ourr engineerrs how they would sabotage all the gun mounts in the easiest way possible. why would I concentrrate on the Liberrty II overr Gaurrdians forr investigation, because it  was prrobably a MUCH LARRGERR FEAT to accomplish that."

"Agreed," Zir says.

"But," Ghaloon says, beginning to pace, "I also see that by messing with the Guarrdians, someone attacked yourr "childrren", yourr prride and so that is morre imporrtant. So, how many engineerrs have you talked to? I see you have talked to gate and Forrty?"  Ghaloon stops and looks at Zir again. "Speaking of gate again, tell me, what did you do to set gate off like that. no, on second thought, Forrty, what happened?"

"First of all,” Zir says, hotly, “my pride NEVER comes before the safety of those under my command.  Secondly this is not about someone attacking my ‘childrren.’   If Gate is the bantha [not sure if the SW universe has "moles" :-)] He was on an X-wing, NOT the liberty at the time he sent out the signal.  The only way he could have done that is obviously by remote, or worse, he had an accomplice or two."
 
"Droids and such can be programmed to lie, as you may know." Zir says, "They, unlike us are not able to...forget, if you will those lies.  I ordered him to download into the resolve's CPU and had Forty monitor it.  He beeped, twirted, whistled before smoke billowed forth from him.  All of this is irrelevant.  I asked you to come here to see just how interested you are in finding the truth."

"I am somewhat akin to the force myself, as you no doubt have noticed.  Though I am not its master, I do understand it, and welcome its help.  I also can generally tell what people are feeling at times.  I asked Izek if he did it.  He SEEMED genuinely offended, I am not saying that he is not.  But as he is also akin with the force, I cannot be sure.  What I want to know is, can you determine when someone is covering up?  He said some things that, in retrospect concerned me."

"ok, let me appologize for judging you." Ghaloon says, apparently seeing a new side of Zir. "I was fully expecting to come in here and you accuse me right off the bat. your opening didn't help. but, while we differ on our methods to get to the goal, it appears our goal is the same, to find the truth. I would be honored to assist you."

"Your apology is accepted Ghaloon." Zir says, a smile beginning to show on his face. "Please accept mine if I gave you the wrong impression.  Gate and Izek were on shore leave on Corellia, it might have happened when they were there.  I do not know if they were together 24-7 or not, but that is as good a place as any to start an investigation.

"I have asked for your assistance for one sole reason.  Izek, for whatever reason, (Not said in any kind of demeaning way, simply stated matter-of-factly) trusts you.  He seems to value your opinion.  I want you to talk to him about all of this.  See if he seems sincere in his answers, or if he is hiding something.  Thoughts betray the words that actually leave our lips sometimes.  If this is the case, I need to know.  Izek is young, naive and brash.  Not unlike myself at his age.  He may have acted in a hasty manner or without thinking things through thoroughly.  Gate IS just a droid.  (no offense Forty, if he is still in the room.)  Though they seldom judge and are great companions, I cannot imagine someone being as traumatized as Izek was, if he did not feel guilty about something.

"Maybe he just feels he should have paid more attention, or checked it out earlier.  I suspect that we should have tried to make a back up of Gate before ordering a download.  My gut also tells me the results would have been the same." 

"Whetherr you delete the data orr not is irrrelevant,” Ghaloon says, “a download orr backup is still a download although I think exterrnal access would be most apprroprriate in this case.  So yes, yourr gut is corrrect.  Plus, some drroids have been known to develop a sorrt of sentience or Arrtificial Intelligence, if they go forr long perriods of time without being wiped.  

“My experrience is that as a drroid moves morre towarrd this sentience, it becomes morre whole if you will.  Not so much 2 dimensional but morre 3 dimensional like a human.  Forty had prrovided some good suggestions while we werre planetside., on ourr ‘rrescue attempt.’  Based upon gates habit of logging into chat rrooms as a ‘norrmal userr’ I would say that he had developed some degree of sentience.  

“As you have rrequested, I will talk to Izek and give you what I see in him.  but I feel I must tell you that my initial obserrvation is one a good frriend dieing rright next to you and not someone acting suspicious.  Rrest assurred, I will be imparrtial and thorrough in looking forr the trruth."

“Perhaps you misunderstood,” Zir says, “What I mean is not about him after Gate was fried, but his reaction and feelings before gate 
was even brought in as well as that.  I understand the emotions 
involved in losing a friend.”

"Ah,” Ghaloon says, “well, I will still see what I can find and rreporrt my findings to you.  Is therre anything else that you wish me to look into?"

“Nothing else that I can think of,” Zir says.

Ghaloon turns to go but Zir places a hand on his shoulder.  Ghaloon looks back and sees, not an officer in search of a saboteur, but a man concerned for a friend.

“Thank you,” Zir says.

Ghaloon nods and leaves to find Izek.

Engineering:

After checking on the progress of the diagnostic, Forty sends a message to Me-too sharing the information regarding the diagnostic program on the X-Wing and how it has been tampered with.  He suggests a check of the maintenance code for the main guns since a similar trick might have occurred there.  Metoo signals that he will check it out in the diagnostic as that does seem probable.
 
Satisfied, Forty heads to the engineering level on the Resolve and finds Gate's body in one of the repair bays.  Sparks and Antia are there.  Sparks is shaking his head.
 
"There's nothing we can do," Sparks says, looking up from his diagnostic board.  "His memory core is completely fried.  There no was we can recover any information at all."

Izek’s Quarters:

Ghaloon enters Izek’s quarters after a brief chat with the security guard outside.  He finds Jania Starhopper sitting in a chair and Izek sitting on his bed, knees tucked up and arms wrapped around his legs, rocking back and forth.

"Would you like to go flying afterr dinnerr?" Ghaloon asks him and gets no response.

Jania shakes her head and says, “He’s been like that since we got him here.  I just gave him a tranquilizer to help him sleep.  It should take effect shortly..”

Ghaloon looks at his chrono and realizes that he should get to his dinner engagement.

“Take good carre of him,” he says on his way out.

Dinner:

Justinian, Ghaloon and Tehl are sitting at a table in one of the Junior Officers’ Messes, which has been given over to their sole use. 

Dinner is finished but the conversation is just getting interesting.

“I know that your both curious as to why I asked you to dine with me tonight,” Justinian says, “But I wanted to try and define what your role with us will be, Ghaloon.  Please, tell me what you think Master Skywalker’s purpose was in having you assigned here?”