"Well, frell."

"What?" Aayla asked as Leo glanced up from the holo-screen for the first time in two hours. The elaborate computer set-up he and SIS had arranged dominated a corner of the bridge. At first Commodore Huntley hadn't wanted that, out of concern that he might be able to access their files, but after he demonstrated that he could access their files regardless of his position on the ship, it was decided not to worry about his location and instead to worry about him.

"I was right. It's leaked."

"How do you know?"

"Mostly because the Trade Federation just leaked every false identity they know about. Fired me. And," he typed for a moment, "why yes, they have blocked access to all Trade Federation accounts."

"I thought they'd already done that."

"Formally, sure, but back-channels were still open. Though that may have been unintentional. Which also might explain this action. Des is so touchy about his black-ops accounts."

"I can't imagine why. Wait, if you were still using Trade Federation funds, why all the push for additional money? What happened to the funds from Jiptal?"

"They're still available, so I can continue operations when this inevitably happened. Despite the fact that I have every right to use those funds it was eminently predictable that Des was going to be a pain about it but—Oh, that's a clever bit of misdirection."

"What?"

"They leaked my real identity along with all the fake ones and are claiming there is no Leonath Theoprus. Rather I am a spy who infiltrated the Trade Federation like I did everything else. Not bad, Des, and you do emphasize computer manipulation and forgery. Not bad at all. Tell the Separatists I exceeded my orders to rescue Aayla, tell the Republic I'm probably a Separatist spy and that any documents I produce are forged, not a bad move at all. And there was no Trade Federation spy, but who knows how I got control of the tactical droid or for what purpose. So obviously they withdraw the request they were manipulated into making. But they don't actually accuse me of any crime, because me in a Trade Federation cell is as good as me in a grave for triggering the dead-man's switch and they don't actually know what files I stuffed in there."

"General, communication from the Jedi Council," one of the crew announced.

"Which will probably be to tell you to detain, or arrest me, depending on how they choose to proceed," Leo noted, voice totally level. Aayla noticed Bly moving behind the other man, pistol coming out. At the same time, SIS was moving to the very edge of Aayla's vision. This had all gone spectacularly wrong in a remarkably short amount of time.

"Let's go see, shall we?" she asked, turning on her heel and leading off her little party. Two more guards fell in with Bly as he brought up the rear.

There were only three of the Council present, Master Yoda, Master Gallia and Master Mundi, "Master Secura," Master Mundi began. "Your spy has lost the support of the Trade Federation and the Senate. We have received disturbing information regarding his activities."

"Information from the Trade Federation, which he just betrayed?" Aayla asked. "Information provided immediately after they discovered he betrayed them?" She felt a flush of warmth from behind her as Leo enjoyed her defense of him.

"Information which, nevertheless we have been able to verify. Your spy is a skilled infiltrator and liar—" Master Mundi began.

"Which is not news at all. Let's cut to the chase, Masters, all that has changed is that the Trade Federation disavows any control over the man. Why is this a piece of bad news? Him not being a Trade Federation agent strikes me as good news, even if I admit I doubt its accuracy."

"Master Secura, you yourself admitted you did not trust the man and that was when we thought we knew who he was," Master Gallia pointed out.

Aayla flinched internally at Leo hearing that, but kept it under control. "And yet, his information has proven useful in my operations. Did it not prove useful in yours?"

"His information was entirely accurate and quite useful. I do not dispute that, but two things have changed. First, we no longer have any idea what his true goals are, which makes predicting the point at which he will betray us much more difficult. Second, we are no longer being subjected to pressure from the Senate to force us to accept him. This is a risk we are no longer required to take."

"Spies, we do not need," Master Yoda put in.

"Need? No. Use? Yes," Aayla countered. "He has provided significant assistance against the Separatists, including being injured in service of the Republic and revealing the information which has caused the Trade Federation to take this action."

"Revealed, his purpose is not. Trust him, we cannot."

"Even the Trade Federation has recognized that trying to deal with him is not a wise course of action, Master Secura," Master Mundi put in.

"We aren't saying kill him, or even arrest him. Merely detain him until you reach a safe harbor to cut him loose," Master Gallia concluded. "Taking a viper to your breast merely ends with you poisoned."

"Not if you're careful," Aayla countered. "But I bow to the will of the Council, if this is an order."

"Must it be?" Master Mundi asked.

"Yes."

The Cerean master turned his tall head to Yoda, who nodded, then looked over at Gallia's holo, who also nodded.

"Then it is. In this time of war, we are trying to minimize the unknowns which surround the Order and Republic, not welcome one into our systems, our armies, or our trust. Detain the agent, release him next time you land in a safe harbor."

"I bow to the will of the Council," Aayla said, suiting words to deeds as she bowed deeply and cut the channel.

She turned to face him. Bly was behind the man, his two support troopers behind SIS. "I must ask that you surrender your weapons and allow yourself to be detained."

"And if I decline to cooperate?"

She kept her face blank and calm, "Then I will use force to require it of you," her lightsaber leapt to her hand.

"Good Jedi," the phrase was acid, "Help yourself to my weapons, Bly, wouldn't want a misunderstanding," he said without turning his head. How he'd known the commander was behind him was anyone's guess. "SIS, deactivate weapons systems."

"Yes, sir," the droid said, its head spinning so its most serious painted facet was showing.

Aayla watched closely, waiting for the moment when he attacked Bly to make his escape. It didn't come. He smiled. "Sorry, I know I'm supposed to cackle, reveal my evil plans and attack to make this easier, but since I don't actually have any evil plans and am outnumbered, I think I'm not going to resist."

"Which is not the same thing as cooperate," she said, as Bly retrieved Leo's blaster and then began searching the man.

"Oh, of course not," Leo said with an expression that showed a lot of teeth, but wasn't a smile.

Several more troopers entered the room and began taking the devices and weapons their commander pulled off the ex-agent. Two more blasters, a grenade, several knives, both vibro and steel, a few devices she didn't recognize, a garrote, a set of lock-picks, electronic and manual, went before Bly finally stepped back. "General, to really be secure I'm going to have to strip him and run a medical scan, as well as check out the body vault."

"Are you going to make trouble?" Aayla asked.

"No promises."

"Do what you have to," she said to Bly.

"I do appreciate your attempt to keep me on the team, even if you don't trust me," Leo said to Aayla then turned slightly back to SIS as larger movements were limited by the troopers who moved up and took hold of his arms. "SIS, they'll have to pull our set-up. You can unlock access to the files on Quell," he turned his attention back to Aayla, "best I can do. Everything else," he shrugged and the troopers cuffed his hands together behind him, "well, I need something to negotiate with and my hands are tied."

"As are mine, Leo."

"If somewhat less literally."

"General, should we let the clanker access the computers? Or should destroy it? Or at least disable its weapons?" Bly asked.

Fury rolled off Leo in almost visible waves, though his face remained calm, there was an underlying rage in his voice and posture which set off alarm bells even in the non-Force-sensitive troopers, who tightened their grip on his shoulders. "That would be an error it would be difficult to walk back from," he said, voice as cold as the space outside.

"Are you threatening the General?" Bly asked.

"Not while I'm in your custody, no." Leo answered.

The troopers' attention shifted to him and Bly, which left SIS less watched. The droid began to move, but Aayla spoke first, "Techs and droids will disconnect them from our system, then keep an eye on SIS, while she unlocks the Quell files. Afterwards you can put them in the same cell block, but not the same cell. Good enough to avoid a mistake?"

"No, but it's good enough to make it into one which can be rectified later," Leo answered.

"Go," Aayla ordered and returned to the bridge.

Bly personally accompanied Leo through the search and watched until he ended up in loose trooper-issue clothing, then left him with an entire squad of troopers to take him to the brig while he headed to Leo's quarters with a pair of techs. More weapons, more explosives, more electronic toys which the techs wanted to play with and a few data pads which were extremely locked. "Try to crack the encryption," Bly ordered the techs.

They shared a look, "We can try, sir, but…"

"But?"

"Our training is only as good as our trainers, sir. And on this, ours weren't the greatest."

"No excuses, brother."

"Not making excuses, sir. Just giving you the facts. We've tried to keep him out, even with the ship's computer on our side and just his clanker on his, he won. We've picked up a lot just from watching him, but he knew that and was very careful in what he showed us. But we'll try."

"Understood. Take a team and search the rest of the ship. Anywhere he has been, I want checked for explosives, listening devices, control devices, anything that would let him escape."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, I'm going to go check on the prisoner."

"Yes, sir."

Bly moved back to the brig and found both Leo and SIS there. A few quick orders to make sure none of his men trusted anything technical in regards to the prisoner and instead kept the Mark I eyeball on both of them at all times and he returned to the bridge. More techs were working on the, now disconnected, system that the not-Trade-Federation-Agent had been allowed to hook up, with no more success than the ones who were now joining them from Leo's quarters.

"Commander, it's done?"

"He's in custody, ma'am."

"Opinions?" Aayla glanced at Bly and Huntley. The Falleen woman just shook her head. There'd been questions about her loyalties too, given her homeworld's decision to join the Separatists. Though she'd proven the doubters wrong she wasn't going to take a position on Leo.

"None on whether he should be locked up," Bly answered, "that's a risk-reward call I can't make. I don't like the fact that he's still on this ship. And conscious. And alive. We should either interrogate him, or…incapacitate him."

"Let's take a look at what we got on Quell before we make any decisions."

"Yes, General."

XXX

"This is incredibly dull," Aayla said as she flicked through screen after screen of communications, basic data, outputs and statistics.

"I know," Leo said from inside the cell.

"I sort of assumed that your information came from secret sources and cracked computer systems, not government statistics, news reports and gossip."

"Some does, but in order to do that, you need to know what questions to ask. For that, you need a basic feel for what's going on. You also need time and people on the ground, both of which are in short supply, especially without access to Trade Federation networks."

"I'm not even sure what I'm looking for."

"Start with what you know. Why are you going to Quell?"

It's a strategic port in the Outer Rim. We need control over the system to try to sever the Separatist control over the Heriltan Hyperstpace lane. The Separatist fleet is about the same size as ours in the region."

"Okay, was Quell conquered, or did it join the Separatist's willingly?"

"They were willing."

"So, you can expect to face not just Separatist military, but the locals as well. Back when they were part of the Republic, there would have been a report by the Department of Military Affairs, comes out every five years for every system which discusses their military capabilities. The most recent one for Quell will have a lot of needed info."

"Hmm…where is it?"

"Under the root file, government reports-military-Military Capabilities report," SIS put in from the cell across the way. "This is ridiculous, boss. There's no way she's going to be able to do this analysis before we get there. Even with both of us working it, it was going to be close. Trying to hand-hold her through the analysis is not going to work."

"Not in the short term, but as we're getting off this boat, may as well pass along what skills I can. Though, frankly, you'd be better off hiring some analysts, but if the Council won't work with me, it's going to be hard to find anyone they will work with. The professionals are either working for governments, or for corporations. As the Republic won't call up the system militaries and can't trust the corps, that's going to be rough. You could go back to the academies, hire folks right out of school, but they won't have the experience you want."

"I've got the reports. The Quell military looks surprisingly powerful. No capital ships, but it appears they mostly use some sort of exo-suit, since they're basically flying jellyfish, it can fly and do high atmosphere operations. Almost their entire military is basically using a relatively low-end fighter craft."

"Right, so now the question is are they still under their own command, or under droid command? In most societies the senior officers are public figures. Look for news reports, pictures, videos, anything and keep an eye out for non-Quell handlers. The Separatists have generally been unwilling to leave organic troops under the command of their own officers, too much risk of mutiny. If they don't have handlers, then they're not integrated into Separatist operations."

"Without transports, they're basically confined as a defensive force for Quell Prime. If we avoid—" she smiled as she realized something, "we don't even need to invade Quell Prime. We just need passage through the system and a temporary protected base. We take out the enemy fleet, bypass their stronghold altogether and build our own base. Any of these outlying planets are feasible. I'll get Bly on this and a couple of troopers down here to help with the analysis. This is doable. Even if we end up having to invade, at least we're fighting them in separate groups instead of all at once."

She left quickly.

"And now we're stuck here while they build a new base. Remind me why we haven't escaped yet?" SIS asked.

"Because being temporarily detained as, essentially, a trespasser on a military vessel is far superior to being actively hunted for having stolen a Republic military vessel. And that's assuming we could escape without hurting anyone."

"Right, right," SIS said, but didn't say what they both knew, namely that she was still in the ship's systems and continuing to gather information as it arrived. The clones had found some of her bugs, but they seemed to expect them to have flashing red lights or something and they completely missed the purely software ones. "Don't kill the meatbags."

"Not unless we have to."