Barriss eventually found Stumau and greeted him "Hey Stumau."

"Barriss, haven't seen you in a while," said Stumau.

"Yeah, been a bit busy with stuff I've been doing for Bail," replied Barriss, "been thinking of how I could entertain you for an evening, but the only area I can take you that you probably haven't been is my ship, and that's generally a bit of a mess."

"I see," said Stumau.

"Wow, please curb your enthusiasm," said Barriss.

"No no, I'm interested, I am, and I'm sure I'll enjoy what you present to me, it's just ... I've hardly seen you since that last night."

"Okay, well if we hang out a bit more, I might get a better idea what to do for you, and I don't have a lot going on at the moment, unless Bail comes to me with an emergency, I should be available for a few days, so, what's your schedule like?"

"Most evenings I'm down the Cantina, show up there, I'll cover your drinks."

"Okay then," said Barriss.

As Barriss entered the Cantina, she noticed Asajj dancing with a Zabrak woman, looking like she was attempting to pull her.

Barriss remembered how Asajj had been coming back frustrated the last couple of nights, so she did wonder if this was more frustration than bisexuality.

Barriss shrugged and went to the bar, and the bartender had a drink ready for her, telling her "compliments of Stumau," nodding towards the table where Stumau was with the rest of the gang.

She accepted the drink saying "thanks," and made her way to the table.

Barriss had told him to get a life.

That wasn't working. He wasn't feeling any better. He was still a loser.

Well, if he was going to lose, he was going to make others lose with him.

So he approached the cantina, his coat concealing the baradium charges he had packed around his waist.

Some people were complimenting him on the longcoat he was wearing, others calling him a try-hard. All would shavit themselves when they hear about this.

Well, maybe not, depends if anyone could figure out it was him that dunnit.

He entered the cantina, everyone having fun as always, always everyone else having fun including-

He saw Barriss. Sat with those ...

Well, time to do it.

Barriss looked his way as he grabbed the controller in his coat pocket.

He felt something on his elbow.

He realised he wasn't blown up.

He looked down.

His arm now ended at the elbow, the forearm and hand on the floor.

Barriss and Asajj were now approaching him.

He tried reaching the pocket with his other hand only for his remaining hand to be held by some invisible force, knowing that Barriss and Asajj were force active, he knew his plan was no longer viable.

Barriss told Asajj "hold him while I render him safe."

Asajj took over telekinetically holding him saying "Got him," and Barriss opened his coat.

All the other customers now knew what was going on. They were all watching.

There was nothing left for him to do. Just had to wait this out.

Barriss was eventually done as the settlements security forces arrived.

The pain from the end of his arm started to arrive.

"How was his arm severed?" asked one of the security crew.

"I severed it telekinetically, only way I could prevent him from blowing this place up," she then checked the charges again and said "enough baradium."

"Where the kark did he get Baradium?" asked Asajj, "that shavit's not exactly cheap."

"Our mines," said the lead security officer, he then told another "check the stores, that's where he was working."

As Barriss helped the medics pack up his arm, the answer came back saying "Stores manager and his son are dead, son knifed, manager shot, baradium safe is open."

Lead security looked at the attempted suicide bomber and simply told him "you stupid boy."

"And you get to judge me how?" asked the attempted suicide bomber.

"Errr, 'cos ... I'm not a psychotic karktard?" replied the lead security officer, confused by the question.

The attempted bomber then looked to Barriss and asked "what about you? Why do you get away with what you did?"

Barriss replied "I was trying to rescue the Jedi and the republic from the downward spiral they were in, and then I tried killing Palpatine, neither attempt worked, but that was the purpose of my actions. For what cause were you going to evaporate a cantina full of random people here to relax and enjoy the music and booze this establishment provides?"

He didn't have a reply. He started a long string of derogatory language about Barrisss sexual history.

Barriss finally told him "you know, I promised nasty consequences if you made me regret leaving you to sort your life out, but ... I just can't be karked, you're just the most pointless person I have ever encountered, and you're perfectly capable of destroying your own life unaided." Barriss then asked the lead security officer "what has he earned?"

"Unless his defence council is force active, death. We can't do whole life sentences, given his actions so far and the apparent motives, which seem to be him being a complete mentalcase."

Barriss nodded, telekinetically retrieving her drink and sipping, saying "well, that's that then."

Stumau and Barriss arrived back at Stumaus place.

"So ... how close to death were we?" asked Stumau.

"Well, very, I mean, if he had been on any level force active, he could have hidden his force signature from me and Asajj. Having said that, if he was force active, he might have gotten on with others. Then again, any girls he would have had would have been subservient until they get clear of him and then I can only imagine the mental health implications, that scenario wouldn't have been much better either," said Barriss.

She then realised something about her way annoying him and she asked "alright, what's up?"

"How are you so calm?" asked Stumau.

Barriss joined the dots and said "Been at this longer, my first fight I was bricking it, right? Post fight, shaking, feeling too sick to eat, I had fought good enough, everyone I was supposed to protect and support came out of it alive, but then to a certain extent combat, killing, dismembering, all that gets so ... Normal ... And you end up getting less and less normal, that can be slightly scary actually, knowing what you can inflict on another sentient."

"I see," said Stumau.

There was a sort of awkward silence.

"Stumau, responses to trauma, to terror, there are mode average features, but no two people respond the same way, we're generally talking about a massive burst of adrenaline or whatever analogue your body uses that keep you twitchy for hours, and then you come down hard."

"What's mode average?" asked Stumau.

"Mode average means most frequently occurring," said Barriss, "as opposed to median average which is the centre of a range of recorded values, and mean which is the sum of the values divided by the number of measurements."

"Right."

They stood around quietly for a few seconds.

Barriss eventually asks "Care for some sexual intercourse?"

Luun finished scrubbing out the cell that the drunk had puked and shavat all over.

How the kark can someone get that drunk without the bar tender cutting them off? Karking ridiculous.

Of course they didn't do a particularly thorough test for other substances, in fact there wasn't any test. But given the interest Luun's crew had in selling spices she wasn't about to suggest such a check.

Of course that meant she'd be cleaning out cells that had held disorderly drunk spiceheads for the next year.

She spent a minute or two washing the shavit out of the mop and then emerged from the cell, hearing the custody sergeant asking details and an arresting officer giving them of ...

Holy shavit.

That weird human, who had murdered a couple of people and tried to blow up the cantina. ...

She arrived at the intake desk.

It was him. He laughed as he noticed her asking "what are you in for."

"Attempted sabotage," said Luun. She then went on to say "I suppose your murdering and attempted mass murdering shouldn't be that much of a surprise."

"That cell clean Luun?" asked the custody sergeant.

"Spotless for now," said Luun.

"Good. He's missing an arm, so you're going to be helping him dress, wipe his arse, feed him," said the desk sergeant.

"You what?" asked both Luun and the failed suicide bomber.

"Do I get to kark her?" asked the failed suicide bomber.

"Karking try it mate," said Luun, bearing her teeth. She then asked "why's he not getting a cyberarm?"

"Because we'll be killing him in a couple of days," replied the desk sergeant, "about the rest of the day for scientific services to finish up with the crime scenes, couple more days for the prosecution and defence to sort their shavit out, but really, not doing his arm is about all we can save in terms of expenditure here, and Luun, you're still serving your sentence, so you're seeing to his needs while his case is pending."

"Yeah, I know," said Luun as she went to put the cleaning equipment away.

Eventually the security people were done processing the man and Luun accompanied him to his cell.

"Can I get a rim job when I take a shavit?" asked the human.

"Not really, but if you get conspitated, I'm up for kicking the shavit out of you, has it seriously not sunk in how upside down in the shavit you are?"

"Has it seriously not occurred to you that me being this upside down in the shavit removes any incentive for me to please you?"

"Well whose fault is it you're in this mess to begin with?"

"Barriss Megaslut Offee."

"How the kark does that work?"

"She got in my way."

"You were going to blow everyone up, karking of course she was going to get in your way. All you had to do is not murder a couple of people and not strap on a bomb and try to kill everyone. It's not that hard."

"Yeah, conform, obey, let everyone walk all over me-"

"Or just don't be a creep."

"Yes, don't be a creep, by the way, what's the process for nominating a designated creep for everyone to pick on anyway? Do you just pull a name out of a hat, or is there some kind of rationale for it?"

"What the kark are you even talking about?"

"Sworn to secrecy, fine."

"Ughhh, karking conspiratard."

The process that turns a person into a spree killer, be they a shooter, a suicide bomber, was generally understood to take years, and generally down to accidents of social interaction.

Part of averting this is for everyone to be tolerant of differences that might trigger instincts that had evolved over millennia, "something about that person is creepy, let's shun the person" is based on the kind of fear of outsiders that every social species evolved to protect their social group.

The specifics of every case are too divergent for any specific signs to be reliably used, so these spree killers keep coming out of nowhere.

From what Sionver was hearing through the eavesdropping devices Barriss had placed, this was exactly the picture that was developing.

Apparently Barriss consented to being tied up for sex, that was interesting considering Barrisss experience, and Sionver made a mental note to have a wank later, Barriss had also bugged the attempted suicide bomber, his interaction with Luun was revealing.

There seemed to be talk of hiring Barriss in by the group, but that was being talked down owing to the shonky nature of their operation being a protection racket rather than a legitimate security service.

Unes'Busi, the female Twi'lek in a relationship with Vince, seemed to be able to get many of her suggestions through unchallenged. He's nominally the leader of a crime syndicate, but he didn't have much of an ego.

It seemed to be more than that. There was something about the dynamic that was off. She couldn't quite work out what, sociology was a little outside her main discipline. It was just … … jarring for some reason.

That's the hard thing about this kind of feeling, it could be nothing, reality is often counterintuitive, but a feeling that something is off can also lead to a great discovery.

Or in this case not so great, the scope for anything truly universe changing was pretty much kark all, but something was nagging at her sense of continuity.

Aurra entered the hotel room in the Tattooine Bed And Bonk, essentially part hotel, part brothel, part casino, where you could dial up or down whatever you need as you need it.

"Hello Tarkin."

"Not much point disguising myself if I'm that recognisable is there?" asked Tarkin as he removed his cloak.

"I'm also force adept. … So, what does the empire, who wants to arrest me again … want me to do for them?" Asked Aurra, her amusement at the absurdity of the universe apparent in her grin.

"We want this delivered to this address," said Tarkin as he handed Aurra a durasteel block with a post-it stuck on the side.

Aurra red the postit noting "a settlement on an empire world. … Any prohibited materials?"

"Plitex 9."

"mmm-hmmm. … I don't have to be there when it arrives do I?" asked Aurra.

"Nope, just get it there."

"Okay, best get spaceborne now then, there's a sandstorm rolling in," said Aurra as she left.

"Yes," said Tarkin as he similarly got up and left.

"Well, with Barriss getting boned and Asajj learning lesbianism, we might as well kark off back to the village," said Ahsoka, "who knows, by the time we get there, we might be a republic again."

"Super," replied the IT specialist.

They then got back into Swift Justice and left for home.

Sionver was re-reading her notes as she also listened to the audio from the bugs.

She had the distinct impression that Unes'Busi seemed to have some kind of authority over everyone even though Vince was nominally the leader.

Asajj arrived back first saying "The strap on is actually better than flesh and blood, but I don't think my partner was too impressed."

"How do you mean?" asked Sionver.

"She said, 'even for a one night stand that was hollow,' like … … I don't know, it's like she was expecting some elements of a relationship, but not too much or some shavit."

Sionver nodded and mused "not everyone relates the same way, and it can come off as really odd, it's like if someone with good emotional literacy were to try a relationship with someone on the autistic spectrum, the autistic partner won't know what to do while the emotionally literate one will be freaking the kark out that they're in a dead relationship."

Asajj looked blankly for a few seconds and asked "You saying I caught autism off of some one?"

"That's not an infectious … Autism is something that comes about or not as you're a foetus, it's the physical wiring of your brain, it's not something that can be caused by brain damage."

Asajj looked blank for a few seconds and then said "Do you think I'm autistic?"

"I think your case is more likely stunted development than it is to be autism, you grew up craving sex and mostly found partners who would accommodate you without needing positive emotional feedback from you, and now that's not enough for the ones you're meeting," said Sionver.

"And now I'm running into people who are wanting some of the aspects of a … relationship … " mused Asajj.

"Yep," replied Sionver.

"Barriss get back?" asked Asajj.

"Nope, still with Stumau."

"Kark me, she isn't falling in love with him is she? Hope she remembers why she's karking him in the first place," said Asajj.

"So, you must be pretty exhausted about now," said Stumau as he recovered from the last time he ejaculated in yet another condom in Barrisss vagina.

"uh-huh," mumbled Barriss around her ball gag, she was tied face down on the bed, each wrist and angle having a leather cuff with four rings each, the outer rings tied to the side rails of the bed, the inner rings tied to the head rail or foot rail.

Pretty simple, but solid, and Stumau had been karking her for hours, pausing to keep from ejaculating too early, and he had stuck electrostim breastcups on her tits, so all that together had given Barriss a pretty decent ride.

"Well, just because I'm exhausted doesn't mean I can't find some way to continue your pleasure," he said as he got up.

There was a point where being karked goes from being pleasurable to being painful, but painful in a pleasurable way, so in no way was this threatening to Barriss, especially since she had force telekinesis to enforce her veto if he goes too far.

She felt a dildo slide into her overheated vagina and once it was in, it gripped the walls with what might be tractor beam emitters, and slowly, electrical impulses started to tickle those walls.

Stumau got back on and removed her gag asking "so, I know why I am attracted to you, you're this skilled and powerful Jedi who has taken on such powerful figures, you've killed so many enemy troops back when the Republic was good, and when you lost the plot and blew up the temple, you showed a karkload of ingenuity, everything about you is win and win is sexy."

Well, that was complimentary, apparently, Barriss replied "It sure is."

"Just wondering what you see in me though, I mean, I know I pursued you, but you stuck with me, is it just this physical stuff?" he asked as he reached down and adjusted the power of the dildo, ramping up the sensation.

This caused Barriss to groan a few times before saying "Well, the physical stuff alone is plenty to recommend you on, but there is more to it than that," said Barriss.

"Do tell," said Stumau as he increased the strength of the impulse, giving her abdomen the distinct feeling of being full of insects crawling on every cell membrane, this was slightly more painful but still pleasurable.

A few seconds of moaning later, Barriss said "Well, it's kind of … … I really don't know what this will do to our relationship if I admit this … "

Stumau nudged the setting on the dildo that little bit higher saying "yes?"

"Well, I find you … … adorable."

Stumau took a few seconds to process that and asked "Adorable?"

Barriss added "In a good way, you're adorable in a good way."

"Do expand on that."

"Well, you seem to have this cute confidence in yourself, in spite of your fragility, it's endearing, I just want to be around you to protect you."

"Well then, I guess I'm going to need to do something to regain some dominance then," said Stumau as he dialled up the intensity of the dildo and then got up.

She then felt his weight on the bed again, and felt this slippery tip of another dildo at her anus.

As it slid in, Barriss speculated on how much more she could take, and then it secured itself with microscopic tractor beam emmitters like the one up her vagina, and Stumau dialled up the stimulation from it.

He then picked up the gag and stuck it back in her mouth, strapping it back in saying "goodnight," as he lay on top of her again, pulling the quilt over them both as Barriss started to cum hard and loud.

"I wish they'd describe what they're doing a bit better," said Sionver, trying to work out what was going on, "I don't have a lot to wank to-"

She was interrupted by the sound of the washroom door closing, and she looked around seeing Asajj gone.

"Right, of course if I had force abilities and was in tune with Barrisss force signature … … "

The village computer expert was left with nothing to do as the autopilot piloted the ship and Ahsoka furiously masturbated in the ships washroom.

He would SO love to be sensing what Ahsoka was sensing.

Bail was watching the news when Barriss entered, looking trippy.

"Ready to watch the end of the empire?" asked Bail.

"Kark yes," replied Barriss.

The courtroom was full of the participants and public witnesses.

Barriss and Bail noted to themselves that a lot of innocent people were going to die alongside the emperor, but they were just completely shavit out of options.

They watched as Palpatine entered the room.

Formalities out of the way, the trial began, the reading of the charges, entry of pleas, 'not guilty' apparently.

It started to occur to Barriss that she might have read what she wanted to read, that those contaminants might have been just that …

Well, they would know soon enough.

They got into the prosecution presentation of evidence, it wasn't Tarkin this time, some other flag officer.

They described the shape of the device.

And then the screen went blank.

That would be consistent with a nuclear explosion that close to the camera, there wouldn't be time for the flash to be seen.

The news anchors asked their support teams what was happening, and then the exterior view of the court was shown, there was a part in the middle of the tower where there were no walls or floors and the vertical supports had just bowed outwards, making the whole thing look like a fancy sculpture, panning up, the smoke trail led to a flattening torus cloud with its glow receding inwards, the blast way too big for the required mass of chemical explosives to have been inconspicuous, that had to have been a nuke.

Eventually there was a shot inside of the remains of the tower, and there was this blue forcefield orb in which …

"Oh get karked," commented Barriss irritably. She then pulled her datapad and worked on it as Bail sink into his seat, pouring himself another mug of Twi'lek Liquor. It then occurred to him to ask Barriss "what are you doing?"

Barriss replied "This," with a final tap on her pad.

Suddenly there was another explosion.

"What was that?" asked Bail.

"One of those hyperdrive mines, I was going to use it to blow up that prison I was tortured in the same time we did the ships that were to be attracted to Eriadu, but Kark it, that had better have karking worked."

It was about five minutes later that medical droids emerged with Palpatine on a stretcher, security around him like flies on shavit, and the news anchors commenting "He's alive, he's alive, thank the force for that."

Bail was about to continue to pour the rest of his mug when he stopped and just started chugging straight out the bottle as Barriss pocketed her datapad and telekinetically ripped the door out of its frame to make way for herself as she stormed out to return to her ship.

Bail gave zero karks that his office door was destroyed.

Ahsoka was back at the controls as the events at the trial unfolded.

She suddenly became aware of something happening, "My brother, the science teacher, there's something wrong, they're in pain and terrified."

"Shavit, what could … " the IT specialist started speculating in his mind as he mused "I know it's the empire and they can do what they like, but what possible pretext could they have for invading Shili?"

"I don't know, what I'm thinking is we take some sensor readings and get back out, go over them, see what we got," replied Ahsoka.

"Okay," replied the IT specialist, he set that up along with the nav point to escape to.

As they came out of hyperspace, he set off the sensors noting "not seeing any imp cruisers or anything."

They got back into hyperspace and went over the data.

"No obvious indicators on shili generally, but our village … " They both looked at the sensor recordings of the village.