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The Bothan backed up a few steps toward the door. "I--I was told to report to the hangar bay."

"Ah," Tenel Ka said. "Aha. This is not the hangar bay."

"Oh, indeed, sir! Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Em Teedee exclaimed. "I'll escort you there immediately. It just so happens I have business to discuss with one of the astromech units there." The little silvery droid zipped out into the hallway. "It's only one level down.

Your confusion is quite understandable, given the amount of reconstruction still in progress here in the Great Temple.

If you would be so kind as to follow me?"

With a last reluctant look around the infirmary, the Bothan soldier followed Em Teedee out the door and down the stone walled corridor.

Raynar was about to remark on the strangeness of the encounter when Jacen said, "I'm glad you're still here, Lusa. Would you mind if we asked you a couple of questions about the Diversity Alliance? We have to know."

Lusa, who had just begun to relax now that the guard had left, looked instantly wary again. She took a few steps backward into the corner.

"It's important?"

"Very important," Jacen said.

Raynat fixed his attention on Jacen now, hoping that the questions wouldn't upset Lusa too much.

"I need you to promise you won't tell anyone this," Jacen went on, "but we're going to Ryloth.

I don't think Lowie knows what you've told us about the Diversity Alliance, and--"

"Who?" Lusa interrupted. She clacked one hoof on the floor "Who is going to Ryloth?"

Jacen made an all-encompassing gesture.

"Jaina, Tenel Ka, Em Teedee, and I. Raynar was going to go too, but now that he's wounded--"

"You're not leaving me behind," Raynar objected.

"I'll be just fine." - "No! It's too dangerous," Lusa said. "In the Diversity Alliance, hatred for humans is strong.

You would be risking your lives to go there."

"What if we pretended to be on diplomatic business?" Jaina suggested.

Lusa shook her head. "They might not dare to harm you in such a case, but they would most certainly turn you away."

"Then we will not enter through the front door," Tenel Ka said. "We will find another way."

"Did you know that the profits from ryll mining on Ryloth are being siphoned off to buy weapons and hire assassins?" Jacen asked Lusa.

"We just learned that from Tenel Ka's grandmother."

Lusa's eyebrows rose toward the delicate crystal horns that protruded from her forehead. "The news does not surprise me. I never learned where Nolaa Tarkona got most of her funding. I did know, however, that the Diversity Alliance used bounty hunters and assassins."

"A common enough pracicef Tenel Ka interjected.

"We've known for a long time that they used bounty hunters," Raynar said.. "They've been trying to capture my father for months."

"But there is more about them that you may not know," Lusa said.

"Sometimes Nolaa Tarkona sends assassins to... 'deal with' those she believes are traitors to the Diversity Alliance. Nonhumans."

"Well, well, well. I thought Nolaa Tarkona preached that humans were the only enemies of the Diversity Alliance," Raynar said.

"True. And that's one good reason none of you should go to Ryloth," Lusa answered. "But there's more. Once, when I had been with the Diversity Alliance for less than a year, a close friend of mine, a Talz, decided to quit. He never told me why he left, though! suspect I now know him reasons. He simply disappeared. A few days later Nolaa Tarkona invited us all to a 'demonstration' in her private grotto chambers."

Lusa's voice grew rough as she spoke, as if she strained against strong emotions. "She gave a great banquet for several of us whom she called her most loyal followers and told us that we would be promoted, given greater honor and responsibility in the Diversity Alliance. Throughout the meal, her Adjutant Advisor Hovrak did not eat. But when we had all finished, Nolaa Tarkona surprised us by having her Gamorrean guards bring in my friend, the Talz. Then, as we all looked on"--she shuddered--"Hovrak made his dinner out of my friend. He killed and ate him right in front