Like a thief in the night, Lippy quietly dropped from a ceiling access panel into the room below. It was an engineering space, a real one, cramped with conduits and power couplings and the like. There was one door and one computer station by the wall next to it.

The description of her mission was simple: knock the tractor beams off-line. The execution was not. Throwing a switch here or typing a system command at the terminal there were only effective in the short-term. Any junior engineer could undo that level of interference. No, disabling the system was not enough. It had to be destroyed.

The problem, though, lay in the confusing tangle around her. While the markings on the walls confirmed that she was in the right place, very little of the equipment matched her memory of the plan drawings for this ship. Unfortunately for Lippy, ship’s engineering spaces rarely remained as pristine as their original complement and installation. This ship’s equipment had been upgraded, patched and field-modded over the years. Nothing was where it should have been, and therein lay the rub. While the Jedi light saber was a great tool for sabotage, hacking into the wrong power coupling could produce a fatal explosion.

It would certainly get the job done, Lippy wryly thought to herself.

Calming herself, Lippy reached out to the Force and felt its power surge through her veins. Within its grip, she became aware of the contained energies around her, within the conduits, the power couplings, the very atoms around her. In one corner of her mind, however, she was also aware of the hive and its multitudes. She could feel them watching and … understand? … approve? … love? At the last, in her distraction, she thought of the one called moif and, in grief and anxiety, the Force left her abruptly.

Still, the memory of the experience was powerful. With a sharp hiss, the saber flared to life and the Jedi Mistress went to work.

—

The air in the maintenance office was thick with tension.

“I still want to know why she’s here,” Budo said forcefully. Turning to Lucretia, she said, “I don’t trust you.”

“She has a point,” Issa agreed. “While your assistance back there is greatly appreciated, I don’t like being diverted without knowing why.”

Lucretia sighed and took on a pained expression, vivid through the noise of her skin. “I can’t tell you. All that I can say, I’ve said already. The artifact is not where you think it is.”

“Well then, where is it?” Issa demanded.

“I can’t tell you!”

“Why?!”

Lucretia paused, then said hurriedly, “Ebony says that knowledge of the future is a great responsibility and a great burden. Even so, nothing is guaranteed. Undue influences can turn certainties into whimsical predictions. That is all that I can say and all that I will say. I have to go now.” With that, Lucretia faded into invisibility.

“Where are you going?” Budo angrily asked the space around them.

With a quiet whoosh, the door slid open as a voice answered, “A friend needs me.”

After the door slid closed, Budo said, “I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I,” Issa agreed. “Still, she could be right. We really don’t know where the artifact is. We’re just guessing.”

“But, it’s not a blind guess, Issa. If it were me, I’d've kept it on the bridge. That’s my center of power and that’s were I’d be spending most of my time. If anything, I’d want it nearby at all time.”

“Too many people, though,” Issa replied. “Remember, subterfuge did her in last time. The last thing she’d want is to have the artifact near a bunch of strangers, any of whom could be a long-lost Feld relative. No, Lucretia has a point. We could wind up fruitlessly assaulting her base of power and get nowhere.”

“So, where is it then?” Budo thought a bit before continuing, “Her quarters? Where does she sleep? Captain’s quarters? VIP quarters? Some unused room somewhere?”

Issa’s face brightened up at that last question. Without explanation, she fired up a nearby console and queried the system for information. In a far-off room, Luthy busily noted the ‘Barscape’ password and silently granted priority status to the requrests.

When Issa saw the results, she smiled and said to Budo, “I know where it is.”