Today's attraction is a Star Wars one-shot brought to us from the fevered depths of Paul's mind. The playing population numbers the rest of the regular crew: Dan (Mik Torr), Bruce (Zunoon), Chuck (Rander Guttersnipe), Chris (Ice Tray), and Tim (Tz'kri).
The characters find themselves aboard a consular cruiser, escorting the Senator Pance McDon as part of a New Republic diplomatic mission. The second Death Star has been destroyed and the Emperor is dead. The Empire is steadily retreating in the face of the forces of the Rebellion. Corsucant has fallen, and is part of the New Republic. Many people have thrown in with the New Republic, but Imperial loyalists remain strong in many quarters.
The characters' task is to escort Senator McDon to the fringe world of Coranna. The world's Queen has sent word that she would be interested in joining the New Republic, but there are several powerful local factions that are not necessarily friends of the New Republic. The Senator is charged with the duty of persuading the Corannan factions that joining the New Republic is their best course of action. He hopes to leave Coranna with a formal agreement of allegiance to the New Republic.
The characters have little to do aboard ship, as the normal crew take care of the flight. Near to their arrival upon Coranna, the Senator summons them to his conference room to discuss the situation on the ground. The characters note that the conference room is particularly lush and elegant, even more so than the rest of the ship. The characters all seat themselves respectfully in the comfy chairs, except for Guttersnipe, who places his feet on the inlaid table.
The Senator explains that the political situation on Coranna is complicated at best. It is located in the Issiben Sector. The world's capital is city city of Contille. Queen Eurenia Xelices is the traditional ruler of the world. She was deposed with the arrival of the Empire, and spent the Imperial years as a fugitive. General Adantis Heliar is Queen Eurenia's military commander, and is given the most credit for driving the Imperials from power. The Queen's son is the Prince Celsior Xelices. He is young, and generally held to be unready to ascend to rulership ("Just a low-level noble..."). Governor Chan Kirrets was the original Imperial Governor, since deposed by General Heliar's troops.
One of the chief problems faced by the Senator is the fact that there are a lot of locals who feel that the New Republic is at fault for not sending aid to the world sooner, thus preventing massive loss of life. These folks want General Heliar to set up his own government, independent of the New Republic. By all reports, the General is loyal to the Queen, and this loyalty is all that has kept him from following their ideas. It doesn't hurt that the Queen is beloved by the people, and is the most-respected public figure on Coranna besides the General.
There are other factions, including the pro-Imperial faction and the neutrals who think that the New Republic will fail, dooming all who threw in with them publicly. From Senator McDon's point of view, these forces must be neutralized.
Senator McDon knows that the Queen is eager for the New Republic to agree to send troops to protect Coranna. Unfortunately, he also knows that the New Republic's forces are thinly-spread, and that it's ability to bring actual troops or ships to protect Coranna may be somewhat limited. This may be even a larger problem than the remaining local factions.
Senator McDon informs the characters that the consular cruiser will be landing at the capital, Contille. The ceremony to bring Coranna into the New Republic should happen within a week of it's arrival. He suspects that the characters will be useful in uncovering the local political undercurrents. He also suggests that Mik Torr should avoid making his force powers obvious, as they might freak out the mundanes. This comment, combined with the nature of the rest of the team (Fringers, Scoundrels, Scouts, and syphilitic lizard-things), causes Ice Tray to suspect that the New Republic is clearly spreading their people really thin if this is the best they can come up with for a bodyguard.
In the days prior to arrival, Ice Tray goes through his wardrobe and discards everything that is red. Tz'kri takes the opposite strategy, and deliberately sets out to wear his red shirt. Watching this behavior, the Senator emphasizes that this is a diplomatic mission, and that the characters should practice restraint in their behavior.
The group loads up into the consular cruiser's shuttle and heads down to Contille. The shuttle's initial flyover makes it clear that the city's architects have made heavy use of marble and light-colored stone in constructing the many open-air arenas and coliseums. Tz'kri squints and squeals in pain when he sees it. He and the Rodian Zunoon compare their skittering and squealing styles until Ice Tray threatens to break all their legs in three places if they don't lay off.
Upon landing, the characters and Senator McDon are met by a delegation of four local guards led by a female officer with incredibly impressive shoulder pads and "very interesting" weaponry. The officer speaks first, in a cultured, high-class accent: "Oy, Guv'nor. Welcome ter tha planet Coranna." She introduces herself as Corvee Tellum. The Senator presents his credentials to her. In response, she informs the Senator that the group will be walking for a distance through the city before arriving at the palace. The characters offer security objections that last until the officer notes that "measures have been taken".
The female officer asks the characters to leave their guns on the ship. The characters universally react badly to this demand (The referee comments that he expected the characters to whine like stuck pigs about the guns thing). Some of them simply abandon their obvious weapons, retaining a collection of concealed arms. The remainder, led by the persuasive tones of Mik Torr, offer objections in no uncertain terms, suggesting that they must be armed to carry out their function as bodyguard. Tz'kri improves the situation by attempting to press her with money. Corvee informs the characters that this sort of weapon must be licensed, and that bribery is not an acceptable way to expedite these licenses.
Resigned to the fact that weapons will be hard to carry around openly, Rander Guttersnipe makes a big deal of taking his heavy blaster back into the ship and putting it into his locker, then hiding it in his jacket. Tz'kri, upon realizing that "Hide" lets him hide objects other than just himself, tries the same trick. Ice Tray disassembles his heavy blaster and hides it among his droid repair tools.
During the walk through the streets, several characters note that the local guards are eyeing the aliens with the sort of suspicion that you might expect of British soldiers looking at a gang of Zulu savages. There are signs upon the streets of a recent celebration. In fact, some folk look like they are still celebrating.
After a short walk, the officer Corvee leads the characters and the Senator McDon into a rather shabby-looking open-air amphitheater. Nobody else appears to be present. Both Zunoon and Mik Torr try Spotting for things. Neither of them see anything, but Mik Torr is overjoyed because he managed to get a bonus equal to Zunoon's (+11) thanks to his Sensor Pack.
The officer explains that the amphitheater is a traditional greeting-place for ambassadors, and that it hasn't been used for years due to the Imperials. She assures them that the Queen will arrive soon. The officer and her men take up positions on the perimeter of the amphitheater. As her men take position, she still pointedly refuses to turn over weapons to the characters.
The characters start to become suspicious when the soldiers take up defensive positions with cover against the characters, and open fire. The characters start to suspect that something is very, very wrong. Their suspicions are confirmed when they notice that everyone is rolling for initiative.
Corvee Tellum draws out a horrible-looking double-barreled blaster weapon that burns clean through Tz'kri on the first shot. Tz'kri acts stunned. The rest of the characters rush about in a mass of confusion. Guttersnipe rushes to the wall and clambers up over the side, hoping to close the range to the officer. Mik Torr tries using a Force trick to make some of the attackers surrender, then thinks better of it and drags the Senator towards the stage. Ice Tray drops into a supported-fire position and tries to pick off one of the goons. He hits one right between the eyes, knocking him out of the fight. Zunoon double-shots a holdout blaster at one goon, mildly injuring him. He complains about it's ineffectuality until Mik Torr offers that at least it was easy to hide (Tz'kri offers: "Hey, look at me! All I can do is divert fire from the rest of you..."). Hoping to extend his lifespan, Tz'kri tries to make it up over the wall, learning the true meaning of the term "kill zone" in the process. He belatedly realizes that there are stairs available, and runs up them instead.
The nameless soldiers drop with clockwork regularity as several characters pick them off one by one. The officer Corvee does much better, even under the effects of Tz'kri's and Guttersnipe's attacks. Both of them cheer when Mik Torr whips up a quick Force trick and pulls the bipolar blaster from her hands. They stop cheering when she pulls out her oddly segmented whip and powers it up. She takes a shot at Guttersnipe and misses by an uncomfortably slim margin. The whip shatters the flagstones where it hits., leaving frozen fragments. Mik Torr calls out, "That means it must be really hot!" Zunoon wryly shoots back, "Observations like that must be why you can be some kind of Force wizard." Angered, Corvee draws back and makes another strike, wrapping the whip around Guttersnipe's torso. He is flash frozen, and his status changes to "dying." Mik Torr rushes up the wall and uses his Force tricks to save Guttersnipe's life. Guttersnipe remains in bad shape, but Mik Torr reassures everyone, "I'll Force him up to snuff in a moment."
Tz'kri turns the situation around by seizing a rifle from a fallen trooper and landing a couple of solid shots onto Corvee, who visibly slows down. Tz'kri snarls viciously and calls out, "I bet you feel unfit now, bitch!" Ice Tray finally puts his heavy blaster on stun and knocks Corvee down.
On closer examination, Corvee's weapon proves to be a cryogen whip. Nobody happens to have WGP (exotic weapon) for this weapon, so it remains little more than an unusual trophy.
Ice Tray heads out of the amphitheater to find a security speeder approaching. The two men on board are dressed in the same uniforms as the soldiers involved in the ambush, but they seem clueless enough to convince Ice Tray that they're not involved. They want to know why the characters didn't land directly at the palace like they were supposed to. None of the characters have a particularly good answer, beyond the fact that they weren't instructed to go that way by the delegation that met them.
With the relative hazards of the situation on the ground clear to everyone, all the characters equip themselves with weapons from the available supply. Tz'kri pulls the bipolar blaster and retrieves his two blaster pistols (giving one to Mik Torr). Everyone else grabs a blaster rifle (DMG 3d8, RNG 40m, Critical 19). Ice Tray thinks about stripping Corvee's powered armor off, but then concludes that it would be a touch rude.
The characters are escorted to the Xelices family palace. Nobody asks them for their weapons again.
The characters are ushered into the presence of General Adantis Heliar. He says that the security forces are his responsibility, and that he is shocked by what happened. He claims that the security forces have been infiltrated, and that false messages were sent to the consular shuttle's pilots, telling them to land in the wrong location. He goes on to tell the Senator that the Queen is unable to meet with him, as she is in poor health. The Prince and the General are willing to meet with them instead.
Before any diplomatic meetings occur, the General suggests that both the Senator and the characters are likely to be quite tired after their ordeal, and has them shown to their quarters in the meantime.
The characters are given two adjacent suites, each containing three bedrooms and a sitting room. The sitting rooms include large, totally indefensible windows that stretch from floor to ceiling. The bedrooms also have big windows, but they're not nearly as bad. Ice Tray make sure that the blinds are drawn, for all he thinks that might be worth. Tz'kri searches the place and finds lots of bugs. He scrapes them off and disposes of them by giving them to Guttersnipe, who disassembles them.
It is at this point that the characters notice that they are the entirety of the Senator's staff. They recall (rather belatedly) that he has a reputation for deliberately throwing himself into the politically hottest situation he can find and then fighting his way to the top of the pile.
Tz'kri recons the palace, looking for interesting things. He finds out where the Queen's chambers are without trouble. He notes that they are quite well guarded, and suspects that he would need a near-godlike roll to sneak in past them. He makes sure that if he needs to Trailblaze his way out of the palace later on he will be able to.
Most of the servants in the palace are droids. They are extremely subservient, and only a few of them are equipped with vocoders. Guttersnipe uses his Information Gathering trick to grill several of them about the Queen and her state of health. He finds one droid who has been with the Xelices family all through the Imperial occupation. The droid says that the Queen contracted some rare disease about a year ago, and her health has been declining ever since. The palace doctor is afraid that she might be on death's door right now. The stress of retaking the government has been a huge strain on her. The General has been a great help to her, and has cared for her every day.
Tz'kri presumes that this pretty much proves that the General is evil.
Mik Torr uses his diplomatic abilities to try the same thing that Guttersnipe was doing, but by talking to the local nobles, guards and human staff. The nobles are concerned that if the people learn about the Queen's weakness the people might want to go back to the Imperials. The nobles are thus trying to restrict this information. They are very concerned about her health, and worry for their own positions. They think that the Prince is too adventurous and impetuous, and doesn't know how much discipline is needed to run a world. They depend upon the General to be a stabilizing influence upon the Prince.
Zunoon offers some political commentary upon hearing what Guttersnipe and Mik Torr have learned. He suggests that the General currently runs things, in the name of the Queen. The General may worry that he's not able to control the Prince, making him quite sensitive to the continued health of the Queen. Senator McDon compliments him, saying that his commentary is "astute". Zunoon is happy: "He called me astute!"
The Senator proposes meeting with the Prince that evening. He suggests that if the Prince shows up with the General in tow, that may prove that the General is really in control of the Prince.
Prince Celsior has the sort of weak-chinned, watery-eyed look that robs the entire room of a sense of confidence. The Senator greets him and offers him a chair. The Prince notes that the characters were attacked on their arrival, and says that he wants to hear about it. Ice Tray gives him the concise version. The Prince asks if the characters know who is behind it. Ice Tray asks the Prince if he knows an officer who uses a cryo-whip "like this" (pulling out Corvee's unique weapon). The Prince is very impressed by the weapon, but says that he's never seen one like it before. He also mentions that she's probably being held in the prison in the basement of the West Wing, and that he'd be happy to take the characters to see her. The Senator sighs in frustration and lets the characters go with the Prince. Mik Torr volunteers to stay behind despite not being much of a shot, until both Tz'kri and Zunoon agree to stay behind as bodyguards.
Ice Tray notices on the walk down to the basement that the Prince is accompanied by only a couple of guards and not much more. On the way, the Prince asks if the characters have ever had any really high-profile jobs. Guttersnipe spins a deeply fictional story about how he blew up the Death Star. By the end of it, the Prince is rapt but Ice Tray is asking lots of questions like, "I didn't know we had Space Elephants at that battle?" The characters conclude that the Prince is really interested in heroic individuals, but isn't necessarily all that discerning on Alliance v. Imperial: he would probably be really impressed if he were told that the Emperor could throw lightning bolts.
Mik Torr uses the moment to cast an Affect Mind on the Prince, trying to pass himself off as some kind of physician. He asks if he can see the Queen and perform a diagnosis. The Prince himself is putty in Mik Torr's hands, but he points out that the General will have to approve an appointment.
Corvee Tellum is down in the West Wing basement prison, securely locked up. She glares at the characters as they walk in and gawk at her. Mik Torr opens up with the Force tricks, trying to get her to spill. She looks at him spitefully and says, "Never!" Mik Torr decides that he's not getting anywhere fast, and turns to the two captured goons, who reside in nearby cells. He tries hitting the least-damaged one up for information. A moment later, the other characters become rather less impressed with Mik Torr's mind tricks as the guard simply glares back.
The prison guards helpfully explain that Corvee and her goons have resisted all interrogation thus far. They may have been conditioned, which really isn't all that uncommon among the Imperial forces. Ice Tray takes the opportunity to ask the guard if he's ever seen anyone using a cryo whip before. The watch officer remembers a local cult whose high muckety-mucks often used such weapons. He's not sure about how the Imperials felt about these cultists, though he suspects they may not have been too friendly, given the way the Imperials wiped out all the Jedi ("If you even believe in Jedi, that is").
Some of the characters' more morally bankrupt plans are derailed by the watch officer's insistence that he must record any interrogation the characters (or anyone else) might hold with any of the prisoners. Ice Tray gets the Prince to agree that it will be okay to lie to a prisoner under interrogation ("real hard-core detective stuff, right?").
The characters decide to leave one goon in an interrogation room for a half-hour. In the meantime, Guttersnipe tries to get the Prince to log onto a nearby computer terminal ("I bet you've got some neat games here...") so he can lift the Prince's password. He figures out that the Prince's login is "Prince" and that his password is "prince1234".
A half hour later, Guttersnipe starts up on the first goon, hoping that some time in the dark might have softened him up. He tries to get the fellow to believe that he's destined for a miserable, short life in the leech mines, followed by a perfunctory execution, if he doesn't admit to what he knows. Sadly, Guttersnipe's bluffs are weak and the goon practically laughs at him.
The characters give up and try the next goon. The second goon believes Guttersnipe's bluff. This is worth less than it might otherwise be, as the goon seems to be more afraid of the consequences of giving information than the consequences of not giving information. The goon doesn't even think that going to another planet would protect him. "You don't know what you're up against."
At this point Mik Torr takes over the interrogation. He asks if anyone has a sledgehammer to smash toes until he remembers that he's actually pacifistic. Fortunately, just the mention of smashed toes upsets the goon enough to let Mik Torr get an Affect Mind through on the guy. The characters learn that he works for Corvee, for free. She told him and his comrades that the characters and the Senator were going to try and drive the planet away from the Empire and into the clutches of the New Republic. The goon has clearly been heavily brainwashed, as he things that the Empire is his family, while the New Republic is nothing more than rebel scum. The Empire is his friend! As an added bonus, Mik Torr manages to wrest out the names of two Imperial sympathizers in the security forces. It looks like the goon is about to admit even more useful information when he starts to choke, after noting that the Emperor is all-powerful. Mik Torr sees the fellow turning blue and chirps up, "He's choking! That's the Dark Force!" Attempts to clear his windpipe and help him are unsuccessful. The characters call the watch officer, but none of their efforts are able to save the goon. As it turns out, the characters are fairly glad that they have a recording showing that they didn't actually do anything to the guy.
Ice Tray is describing to the other characters his theory that most of the security forces are loyal because they've managed to keep the woman Corvee and her goons in custody when General Heliar appears on the scene. He is clearly deeply upset that the characters were interrogating the prisoners without his permission, and puts the watch officer on disciplinary action because he didn't ask if the General had okayed the interrogation. Ice Tray notes that Prince Celsior had given permission. The General tells the Prince that he shouldn't be giving approval to do that kind of thing. The Prince folds up like a scolded puppy.
After the characters describe the goon's last words, General Heliar comments that a cult has risen up in the city that worships the Emperor as a God. The cultists believe that the Emperor isn't really dead, and will return to life. The Empire obviously encouraged the spread of this cult. The General hasn't heard anything about priests of this cult using cryo whips, though he agrees that it will need to be investigated (the cult had previously been held to be harmless, and the Queen does not generally approve of discriminating against anyone for their religious beliefs).
The General dismisses the characters back to their rooms for the evening.
Guttersnipe decides to use his purloined password to hack the palace computers. Tz'kri finds a nice quiet hacking spot for him, and Zunoon keeps watch while he works. He is looking in specific for servants who have had consistent access to the Queen during her entire illness. He learns that five servants (two human women and three droids) have had consistent access to her. Guttersnipe has already talked to one of the droids. He also looks up the two names the captured goon let slip. They are on the roster of security officers assigned to the city of Contille.
Confident with his success thus far, Guttersnipe decides to try and look into the Queen's medical files. He rolls a twenty-seven on his attempt and crows this fact out as loud as he can. The latest diagnosis is that she has Trowgut's plague, a fairly obscure disease. The Royal Physician has found mention of similar symptoms in a Jedi missionary's journal that is (unfortunately) written in Force-based terms "not useful to a medical doctor." The doctors have been able to treat her symptoms, but they've made no progress in treating the actual disease. Ice Tray offers to run this information over to the ship. He suggests that the Queen's disease sounds a lot like a Dark Side-related thing. Mik Torr is inclined to agree. The Senator points out that he brought some equipment to transmit information securely; Ice Tray uses it to transmit the medical information up to the consular cruiser.
While everyone else works on interpreting the Royal Physician's notes, Guttersnipe continues to play with computers, looking for lists of Imperial sympathizers. He learns that the former Governor, Chan Kirrets, is still onworld. Kirrets currently claims to be a legitimate businessman who was just "following orders." This story holds up at least in part because during his time as Governor he didn't commit too many atrocities. He has a reputation as a financial wizard who treats his people well, and had been a local figure of some note when the Empire arrived. His current businesses are hard to define, as he just seems to make money. The characters deduce that he does a lot of investing and securities trading, and has a knack for making money at it.
The next morning, the characters are wakened by a tremendous explosion. They tumble out of bed grabbing clothes and weapons as they go. The more collected characters think that the explosion came from the wing of the palace that had housed the prisoners.
Ice Tray and Mik Torr head off to look at the prisoners, or what's left of them.
Tz'kri, Guttersnipe and Zunoon head towards the Queen's chambers on the chance that the blast is a diversion.
Senator McDon hides under a bed with a blaster provided by Zunoon.
Ice Tray and Mik Torr find palace guards fighting fires. The explosion happened on a floor a few levels above the jail, and seems to have created widespread chaos. They get the idea that enough people have gone to fight fires that the prisoners might be unguarded. Ice Tray gets on his comlink and tells the other characters, who head towards the jail as well. When the two lead characters reach the jail, they find that the cells are empty, the guard is unconscious or dead, and that an alien is crouching over the guard, doing something potentially horrible. It is wearing clothes, so the characters conclude that it probably isn't an animal. Both Ice Tray and Mik Torr put their blasters on stun and hose the critter down. They miss so badly that it is embarrassing. The alien leaps up, runs towards the wall, and through a concealed door. Ice Tray warns the other characters while Mik Torr blocks the door with the guard's boot. In passing, he notes that the guard's personal possessions have been ransacked.
Mik Torr blows a Force point to become really stealthy and sneaks into the corridor behind the secret door. He finds that his inability to see in darkness seriously impedes his ability to follow the alien, but his keen hearing balances the matter out. He starts hearing a watery sound, and then the sounds of water and a boat's engine. Mik Torr yells out, "Crap!", pulls a glow rod, and uses a mind trick to get the alien to come back. The alien (who looks to have three eyestalks and a slightly cow-like head) comes back, with a blaster.
By this time the rest of the group has assembled in the jail and been briefed by Ice Tray. Zunoon starts to track the alien and Mik Torr down the passageway up until he hears blaster fire. Everyone abandons stealth and piles forward, blasters out and blazing. They arrive on the scene to find that Mik Torr has subdued the alien with another Force trick. They also find that someone else is firing a tripod-mounted blaster at them from across the lake. Zunoon is the first to learn this: he takes a blaster bolt square on and drops his glow rod.
Tz'kri pulls his new bipolar rifle and starts firing at muzzle flashes. He manages to land a couple of shots on the gun, eventually disabling it. He expresses a great desire to rush across the river in pursuit, but Ice Tray is much more interested in interrogating the prisoner (who, it turns out, doesn't speak our language). Zunoon acts really conservative, because he just got shot up really badly. Everyone else displays an indecision that drives Tz'kri practically to distraction.
Guttersnipe finally agrees that Tz'kri's ideas are sound, and hurls a glow rod across the water to see if anyone is left on the other side. When the light makes it clear that nobody is there and that the big gun has been disabled, everyone runs for the boat. To ensure that he doesn't escape, the characters knock their alien prisoner on the head and ziptie him silly.
The characters emerge into a cavernous hanger lit by a series of archaic-looking globes. The hanger contains berths for three landspeeders, one of which is zooming away as the characters enter. Another is in the process of leaving. The third is unoccupied. Tz'kri bounds towards it, yelling out, "Pilot!" Zunoon calls "Shotgun!" The landspeeder is actually a luxury model, and has a canopy that is supposed to be blaster-proof. Several characters demonstrate that at close range, the canopy isn't nearly as resistant as it might be. Not that this eventually proves to be all that useful.
With everyone aboard, Tz'kri steps on the pedal and tears out of the hangar. Noting that the closest speeder is about 700 meters ahead and traveling about as fast as it can safely fly, Tz'kri elects to be "unsafe". He executes a kidney-bruising series of maneuvers that close the distance by about 200 meters. About this time, the speeders emerge from the cave and into the city of Contille. Things get a bit more complicated, but Tz'kri has still managed to close the distance by another 200 meters when a garbage lifter pulls out in front of him and almost suffers a terrible, terrible accident.
During all this, Ice Tray uses the comlink taken from the prison guard to explain to the authorities what is going on. He notes that the speeder in back that's being driven really badly is "friendly", and shouldn't be shot down.
Within seconds, the speeders reach the city gates, only to find that they are drawing to a massive, speeder-crushing close. Mik Torr yells, "Go for the gates! I'll get us through!", then mutters, "...maybe...". Tz'kri elects to super-gun the engine and go for the gates. Simultaneously, Mik Torr spends 16 Vitality points to generate 50,000 kilograms of Force to shove the gates away. Both of them decide to spend a lot of Force points. Tz'kri burns three Force points and accomplishes a "super-heroic" Piloting result. The characters' speeder zooms through the gates with inches to spare, overtaking the escaping speeder in the process.
Mik Torr sees that the aliens are close enough for him to use Force tricks. He decides to flip their speeder, but realizes that he can't muster up enough of a roll to succeed without spending a Dark Side Force point. He agonizes for a moment, but his "evil brain" persuades him to do it anyway. The speeder flips over and skids across the ground on it's roof, shedding parts and occupants as it goes. The characters hop out to investigate. They find that the occupants are trapped inside it. The repulsorlifts are still on, pressing the vehicle into the ground. Zunoon uses a blaster rifle to "Repair" the repulsorlifts, shutting them down.
The speeder proves to contain actual humans, including the one surviving goon from the amphitheater attack. All of them are pretty badly beaten-up. Ice Tray goes through their pockets, pulling everything out and tossing it into a pile. The characters are shocked to discover that they're actually carrying ID badges, though none of the names looks familiar. The speeder trunk contains firearms that Tz'kri moves into the characters' speeder's trunk. A couple of the guys in the speeder are carrying comlinks. One of them clicks active while Tz'kri is investigating it. Tz'kri's efforts to pass himself off as one of the humans in the speeder are less than convincing.
The characters realizes that they've lost the second speeder.
By the time the characters return to the palace, they find that the Senator has been hiding with the Queen all through this traumatic series of events. The characters are ushered into her presence. She looks terribly ill. Mik Torr rushes forth to try and use his Force powers to heal her, but is prevented by the General, who argues that this sort of behaviour is rather against protocol. He suggests that Mik Torr's methods might be more acceptable if the Royal Physician approves.
In due course the Royal Physician, Doctor Rathlore, is summoned. He is an aging human with a deeply respectable air. As soon as he steps into the room, Ice Tray starts burbling out, "I've heard that the Imperials had this cult, and that they had some mind powers, so maybe she's got some sort of Dark Side problem going on." The physician is none too impressed, arguing that false hopes and faith healing are not going to help the Queen's recovery. It turns out that this is all just a ruse: while the other characters have the Royal Physician distracted, Mik Torr uses his Force powers to heal the Queen at range ("It's line of sight!"). She suddenly looks much healthier.
The General rushes over to her side, obviously concerned by the fact that her condition suddenly changed. He suggests that the characters should leave.
Before they depart, the characters manage to have a short conversation with the Royal Physician, who tries to act like he isn't insulted by their behaviour. He notes that all the information he's been able to find on this disease came from projects that the Imperials shut down. However, he suggests that the reason the Imperial shut down the projects not because they involved diseases the Imperials wanted to use as weapons, but because the research was being done by Jedis. He doesn't believe that the Imperials are behind the Queen's illness. He is favorably inclined towards the notion that if the characters could get any of the original authors of the papers to work with him, he would be willing to listen.
The meeting adjourns. The Senator suggests going off somewhere where he can talk to the characters.
The medical droid aboard the consular cruiser has managed to locate the actual papers the Royal Physician was trying to find. Unfortunately, the work was incomplete and does not include either a cure or any specific information on the cause.
The entire group returns to their suites, where Tz'kri locates and disposes of a couple of new listening devices. The Senator tells the characters some new information he has learned:
At this point, Ice Tray asks the Senator how he learned all this. Senator McDon explains that he spent most of the morning talking to the Queen and Spymaster Nwuk. Tz'kri is almost floored by the notion that you can learn anything by simply talking to people.
We end with everyone still sort of confused, but perfectly willing to start blazing away at any Imperials who happen to show up. The characters are all in their suites in the Xelices family palace, trying to piece the local conspiratorial situation together.