If Wishes Were Fishes (Mike)

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

The Jedi Temple. The very heart of peace and justice in the Republic; a bastion of good against a world of evil. Safe, secure, resistant to all attack. A fortress, resisting dangers like a rocky island enduring the waves of the sea.

What bothered Tez Hakur was that he didn't have the resources or the manpower to attack it. Assembling a neutron bomb on Coruscant would draw attention, and rendering the Temple an unlivable wasteland would, while bringing great honor to Kad Ha'rangir, be practically impossible to achieve. These Jedi could sense potential dangers, and their security forces were constantly vigilant. Just getting a bomb within range would be a monumental feat.

No, the Kel Dor sighed, it was a dream and nothing more. This Temple would withstand far more than he could bring against it. That was simply the fact of life.

May god never condemn me for not doing enough...

Tez turned his gaze away from the long stairs up to the Jedi Temple and back onto the crowd. So many people here to take pictures for their albums, forming memories. Pleasant family vacations to Coruscant... They were all so complacent, so nonchalant about the dangers around them.

Blissfully unaware, like nerfs that could be led to the slaughter.

Luckily Tez had a low profile. He was clad in a simple navy blue robe with a maroon sash, bracers around his wrists. He looked like any other Kel Dor, not conspicuous in beskar. And best of all, he'd done nothing illegal here, no one knew his name, and he was safely anonymous, as he had always been. Additionally, he wasn't even armed.

He wasn't expecting to be approached by anyone.

[Fromikeable]

Vance huffed softly as he sat on the Temple steps, watching the tourists further down the incline chatting and recording images and smiling and going about the parameters of the Temple like the landmark it was. He didn't mind, but he was glad none of them felt the urge to get too close; whether anyone liked to admit it or not, the Temple and Coruscant were two separate worlds.

Vance wiped his brow, his sweat finally gone. He hadn't got the chance to do a lap or two around the Temple in a long time, so when Tal had told him that he was on his own to work on his saber and relax for a few days while she took up a Shadow assignment for the Council, he had stepped right back into his old habits of daily exercise. He was still no athlete, but he had been getting better, bit by bit, and at least now he could still breathe by the end of his second lap.

Vance had also tried a new outfit that day. Tal had made a good point; sometimes it helped not to look so obviously like a Jedi. The Code didn't dictate any mandatory dress code, and Vance had decided that for a change of pace and as a sort of trial run, he'd try clothing that was a little less auspicious.

With that said, Vance was dressed in a blank T-shirt a size too big for him and a pair of exercise shorts. He felt a little ridiculous, to be honest, but from what the outfitter had told him, this was how people normally dressed whenever they were going to sweat. He didn't see it, but he'd donned the clothes anyway. Now that he was good and tired though, he could see why they might prevail over robes (for one thing, they could allow air to flow, which was nice).

But now he got up, looking skyward and wondering what time it was. He had decided that he would try and be done exercising by about noon so that he could begin meditating on his crystal-

My crystal! That made him excited, and he felt like he could do another lap as a surge of happiness filled him. That little green crystal had brought him nothing but joy the last few days, and he was proud to say that it was his. It was becoming a part of him surprisingly quickly, and more than that, it was proof of his progress as a Jedi if not as a person on the whole.

But that leaves a good question. What time was it exactly? Did he have enough time left for one more lap? Was he even up for another lap? He stood up, looking around. No one was staring at him from below, which meant that if he tried, he might be able to mingle. And even if they recognized that he was a Jedi, so what? He'd smile and answer a few questions and then wave and be off.

Stepping slowly down the steps, no one seemed to notice as Vance traveled among the clusters of observers, hoping to get his information without disturbing any in-progress events. Most of the people were chatting or photographing or doing this, that, or the other thing. Few seemed to be unengaged...

Except for one man, a Kel Dor, looking up the stairs at the Temple beyond. Vance traveled down the steps slowly to him, asking over the distance, "S'cuse me! Do you have the time?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Tez glanced at a chronometer on his wrist, taking in the time with a quick glance.

"11:13," The Kel Dor announced in his metallic baritone, a distinctly flat and mechanical sound. Then his hidden eyes took in the young man before him, summing him up in a glance and trying to recollected the direction he'd come from.

The Temple steps?

Perhaps this was the next generation of Jedi investigator...

If so, maybe he was going to show some interest in Tez or his handiwork. Of course running would only convince him of his rightness, and would result in trouble. The very best thing to do was to remain calm and react accordingly.

Tez wasn't about to not probe for information though.

"It is a beautiful building, you came from it yes? Are you a Jedi?"

One of the mixed blessings that came with his race was a voice that didn't carry emotion, one that no one could accurately gauge. It was clinical and straight forward.

It also hid lies very well. his feigned ignorance would seem like just that, unless the youth was a telepath.

[Fromikeable]

Vance sighed, relaxed, as the Tel Dor communicated that he had a good half-hour and then some until he would begin meditating. That gave him some time to kill. As a new habit he was forming, the padawan began to crawl out of himself again, stretching his presence lightly over the crowd, only observing. He would never get any better at sensing if he didn't practice, and while it was a bit sneaky to practice on people who were unaware of the skill anyway, he wouldn't intrude too far.

The Kel Dor mentioned the Temple, and Vance looked up the steps. Indeed, from where they stood further down the incline, the building seemed mightier and more majestic, almost like an odd spot on the otherwise commercial and unnatural Coruscant skyline. The image made Vance smile; there were somethings that would never conform with the times, and the Temple appeared to be one of them.

The question made Vance look back inquisitively. His "disguise", it seemed, was for naught. This man had probably noticed him coming down the steps; a rather large hole in his plot to blend in. That made him more perceptive than most, however, as the rest of the sight-seers were oblivious to the fact that one of the fabled Jedi stood among them. Vance still chalked that off as a small victory.

"Yes, I'm a Jedi. I presume you're a sight-seer?" As he answered, Vance began to retract his presence a bit, focusing in on the Kel Dor. He didn't prod forcefully or press up to close, and provided that the man was untrained in the ways of the Force, it was doubtful that he'd even noticed. Vance cautiously tried to zero in on his thoughts and the way that his essence moved; it was stoic and rigid, as if the man himself was a machine. The padawan smiled a little, however, and waited for his answer.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Tez had learned the intricacies of playing a part quite well thanks to experience, and he had just the idea of what someone would want to see. The tourist was a role best-suited for Aleena, the diminutive grey species so well-known for that role, yet it could be properly done by anyone who showed the right level of curiosity.

In fact, tourist was one of the easiest ways to gather information about a target. People dismissed questions as curiosity alone, and often they let spill valuable secrets. No one truly appreciated secrecy. Not even people in his line of work.

"A Jedi! I wish I had brought my camera. It is still a great honor to meet you Master Jedi. When I came to Coruscant I expected to the Senate and the Temple, but I never expected to actually meet a Jedi. May I shake your hand?"

Tez reached out a scaly golden-brown hand with four fingers, holding it out for a handshake.

Internally he was scanning the young man for any sign of suspicion, and the handshake was usually a good test. If they felt wary, they were more reluctant to make such contact.

The Kel Dor terrorist was full of such little tidbits of information, the by-product of a life lived in the shadows. Most of it was personal experience, the remainder research. It was what made him a formidable opponent.

[Fromikeable]

Vance chuckled a little at being called a Master Jedi. People often mistook him for an adult due to his size, but this Kel Dor man was probably to first person ever to presume he had that much experience. The man then stuck out his hand, actually asking if they could perform the custom.

Vance's laugh died a little as his light prodding turned up one word; suspicion. That, plus the odd question, killed his chuckling into a smile.

Well that's different. Why was this guy thinking about suspicion? Vance hadn't done anything too strange, aside from maybe being a Jedi in regular attire. But even then he'd admitted his status; why would he rouse any sort of feelings?

Vance decided to let it go, shaking the Kel Dor's hand.

"Sure you can. And while I'm just a little flattered by it, I'm not quite a Master." Vance didn't quite replace the faulty claim with an accurate one, however. This Kel Dor seemed nice enough, but the odd way his presence drew into itself and seemed to act with purpose was beginning to rub him the wrong way. He was no master of context or interrogation, but even so, he could tell something was off. It didn't appear to be anything major, however, and so he kept it to himself.

"So tell me; where are you visiting from?" Vance asked purely out of curiosity. He always tried to get to know the people he talked to.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"Dorin," Tez lied effortlessly. "I am a chemist there, I came here with my son Rei. He was ill today and stayed at the hotel."

The Kel Dor felt a little more at ease with the Jedi when his hand was shaken. It told him his cover story was more or less accepted, which was something he appreciated greatly.

His shrouded eyes didn't detect any visible lightsaber on the youth anyway, which was also to his advantage. He could overpower the Jedi as necessary and force an escape if he had to. But why would there be such a need?

It's a pleasant little conversation after all.

Tez spoke again.

"What is it like living in the Temple? I didn't know Jedi came and went by the main entrance."

A subtle inquiry, leading to the topic of alternate entrances. Future intelligence to use if he ever gained the opportunity to strike the Jedi. It wasn't likely, but it was a remote possibility. A dream really.

[Fromikeable]

"We come and go just like anyone else," Vance answered plainly. He began to press his presence a bit closer to the Kel Dor, hoping to the Force that he could get close enough to siphon some complete thoughts without making it obvious that he was trying to. He smiled again; his efforts aside, they were merely chit-chatting.

"But you're a chemist?" That fact intrigued Vance. He'd imagined quite a few times what sort of work he'd try to find if he was in another life, and chemistry and the sciences ranked highly on his list of interests. Then again, so did most things, but science was one of his strong suits in terms of understanding. He liked to be able to put names and measurements to everything in a way that allowed you to reproduce events and happenings and try new methods and combinations, almost like breaking the world down into a bunch of colors and trying to paint a new picture every time. It was a sort of freedom he thought he'd enjoy.

And who better to further his understanding than an honest-to-goodness chemist?

"I've always found chemistry fascinating. What do you research specifically?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Luckily Tez's fictitious backstory was material he could discuss easily, as he'd been majoring in chemistry during his college stint, before finally being abducted by his brothers and sisters in faith and arms, who had opened his eyes to the true religion.

"I am involved in the production of advanced chemical compounds, mostly corrosive in nature. My company produces akenazine in bulk for use in metallurgy in shipyards. You may not have heard of it. I also participated in radiological research, which is not related. Fissile materials are quite fascinating for me however."

Elements of truth mixed with lies.

Truth be told, Tez had never made akenazine at all, but he was familiar with the production process, as it was extremely simple, just as much so as producing a blistering agent, something he could practically do in his sleep.

Nerve gas was much harder to produce, much more of a challenge. And Tez liked challenging himself, without exception. It was the challenges that made life interesting, made everything worth living.

Suddenly he felt the urge to concoct another batch of nerve agent...

[Fromikeable]

Vance skimmed the Kel Dor's thoughts as he spoke again, and his closer prodding began to pay off. He could pick up something about... nerve toxin? Why in the world was this guy thinking about nerve toxin? As he finished his explanation of his profession, Vance eyed him a little. To the eye, he seemed totally normal. Maybe he'd just heard something about bio-weapons on the news? Or was it that he was thinking of...

Weird. Vance stopped his look at the Kel Dor and resumed his smile, trying to look unchanged. He wasn't in any position to draw conclusions, but he would admit that this sudden nerve-gas idea of his combined with the prior mention of suspicion was, well, suspicious. He tried not to let it show, though, and kept talking idley, leaning back on his right foot, trying to look relaxed.

"It sounds fascinating indeed," he quipped nonchalantly, sounding casual as could be. He then adds, "I'm sorry, but I don't believe I caught your name. I'm Vance." He eyes the Kel Dor again for a second, instituting a small test of his own.

After all, why would a normal person hold back their first name?

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"A pleasure to meet you Vance, I am Jee Ploo," Tez lied swiftly and effortlessly, without any doubt using his alias de jour. It matched all his documents, though he had a pair of spare sets in his quarters.

Truthfully there was no Jee Ploo on Coruscant, though delightfully there were several on Dorin. That gave his disguise a veneer of credibility, though he'd never squared off against a Jedi for so long by himself.

He normally avoided Jedi. They were complications, and complications were never good for the plan.

The Kel Dor man decided now was a good time to delve deeper, to keep the questions flowing so the Jedi couldn't ask his own. He had to maintain the dialogue, to keep him off guard.

"Tell me, have you ever visited Dorin? We have an enclave of Jedi there, and it is extremely interesting. Even the sounds are heard differently through the atmosphere."

[Fromikeable]

Dorin, huh? Vance crossed his arms, cocking his head slightly as he tried to remember everything he'd read about the homeworld of the Kel Dor. He nodded at the mention of the Enclave; he could quote a few volumes that had spoken about the large amount of Jedi that came from Kel Dor and the demand that had been there prior to the Temple's construction. He'd never been to Dorin, but from what he had studied, the odd sounds came from the large amount of helium and other gases in the atmosphere.

"So I've been told. Unfortunately I've yet to visit the planet." Vance smiled once more, trying to put his small inkling of suspicion to rest. There'd been nothing warranting of it this time; just something about curiosity. He examined the Kel Dor skeptically for a moment, but then dropped his examination, quickly letting his own curiosity take up the reigns. Quick as a flash, he formulated a new question and hurled it downrange.

"But how do you find Coruscant? It's certainly a shift from Dorin, no?" For a moment, Vance pressed his presence up as far as he dared to go to this Jee Ploo fellow. He needed the practice, and what was more, he hadn't put down his inkling quite as well as he thought he had. It was back and scratching at the back of his mind.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"Coruscant is most impressive young Jedi, I find the architecture to be especially interesting. Your Jedi Temple is of an architectural style unique to the Jedi Order, and rarely emulated elsewhere. And the aesthetics of the Senate are actually designed to be pleasing to a maximum number of species. On Dorin our sensibilities are rather different, and it is a refreshing change of pace to see this difference."

A neutral answer, geared to avoid strong feelings of any kind, and a rather dry one in fact. Tez was beginning to feel the need to cut off the conversation and beat a retreat, a tactical disengagement.

"I must excuse myself now Jedi, my son will require my attention shortly. I imagine he will be most pleased when I describe this encounter to him."

The Kel Dor made a quick half-bow and uttered a few words with irony and sarcasm in his mind, though his voice remained free of any inflection.

"May the Force be with you."

Tez Hakur turned to leave and started to walk away with even and measured strides, not in the slightest hurry.