Dusk fell like a purple curtain. The shadows lengthened and turned deep blue. With the cover of darkness, they felt a bit more secure.

Qui-Gon was beginning to wonder if he was wrong, and Cilia would not contact them. Then, the comlink signaled.

"What is it that you think you can do for me?" a female voice asked.

"Whatever it is you need," Qui-Gon answered.

There was a short silence. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Qui-Gon marveled that Cilia could sound humorous after escaping from a notorious prison. "Tell me where and when we can meet you."

Cilia named a small pedestrian bridge that crossed the river and the hour of midnight. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had passed the bridge several times that day in their looping journey around the city. They were tired later that night as they walked there and stood at the edge, out of reach of the glowlights. The city was silent. Most of the citizens were home. They heard only the soft lapping of the river against the stones of the bridge.

Yet Qui-Gon felt that Cilia was near, close enough to hear them.

"You may as well trust us," he said out loud.

A reply came from underneath the bridge. "It's a little early in our relationship."

Qui-Gon realized that Cilia must be in a small boat, but he did not bend over to look.

"Well, you've come to meet us," Qui-Gon said. "I'll take that as a sign."

A dark shape suddenly vaulted out from underneath the bridge and landed close to them. Cilia was dressed in a waterproof suit, and her short hair was slicked back behind her ears. She was tiny and slender.

The bones of her wrists looked as delicate as a bird's. The slash of her cheekbones created hollows in her face. Her eyes were the dark blue of a river. Underneath them were dark circles, marks of her suffering.

"Why do you want to help me?" she asked.

"Lorian Nod was once a Jedi in training," Qui-Gon said. "He has created trouble for this world. Let's say the Jedi owe the people of Junction 5 their support."

"He was training to be a Jedi? That could explain things. He seems to know things… things he couldn't know, even by surveillance."

Cilia pushed away a lock of hair that had fallen onto her forehead. "I have a plan. Some Jedi help would be welcome. It's dangerous, though."

"I would expect so," Qui-Gon said.

"I've put together a team to travel to Delaluna," Cilia said. "Our idea is to break into the Ministry of Defense and Offense in order to steal the plans of the Annihilator. We can't rely on our government to take action — obviously they are paralyzed with fear — and they are afraid action will lead to reaction. Yet if we get the plans, perhaps we can discover a way to defend ourselves from the weapon. And if the citizens again feel free, the repressive government will have no reason to exist, and we can refashion a more just society."

"Dangerous is putting it mildly," Qui-Gon said. "I'd add difficult and foolhardy to that."

Cilia put one foot on the railing, ready to vault back down into the river.

"Count us in," Qui-Gon said.

They spent the night in Cilia's hiding place, a safe house on the outskirts of the city. Cilia disappeared into an inner room, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were left to share floor space in a small, bare room painted a surprising pink. They laid out their sleeprolls and settled down on the hard floor.

"Master," Obi-Wan murmured, "should we contact the Council?"

"Why?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Well, we're about to break into another planet's government building and steal state secrets," Obi-Wan said. "Master Windu can get touchy about things like that."

"Precisely why we shouldn't bother him. I'll speak to the Council after the mission is over. Don't worry, Obi-Wan. The Council doesn't have to know every move we make, nor do they want to. You worry too much."

"You don't know what I'm thinking all the time," Obi-Wan growled.

"Not all the time," Qui-Gon said "But at this moment I do."

"What am I thinking, then?"

"You are thinking about that turnover at the cantina and wishing you'd had time to finish it."

Obi-Wan groaned and turned his face into his sleep-roll. "I'm too hungry to argue. I'm going to sleep."

Qui-Gon smiled into the darkness. Obi-Wan's breathing grew steady, and soon he had dropped off into sleep.

Qui-Gon rolled himself tighter in his blanket and stared at the ceiling. Flakes of paint had peeled off the surface, revealing a dark undercoat somewhere between brown and green. He had forged his own path apart from Dooku, but there were some lessons he had kept. A certain independence from the Council made things easier on a mission.

Afterward was another story. Obi-Wan was right. The Council would not be happy they had joined Cilia's raid.

Qui-Gon was impressed by the organization of the resistance. Cilia had arranged transport for the team and had even obtained worker identification tags from the Defense and Offense Ministry of Delaluna.

"You must have been planning this for some time," Qui-Gon said.

Cilia nodded as she climbed into the transport. "I planned it from prison. I was tired of peaceful protest. We need to strike one blow — and win."

"How did you communicate with your group?" Qui-Gon asked. "Your husband said you had no visitors in prison."

"The resistance has many friends," Cilia said, setting the coordinates. "There was a guard at the Guardian prison who smuggled in messages. He had joined the Guardians and became disillusioned. He said there were others like him. That's why I have hope."

The transport lifted off and streaked toward the moon of Delaluna. The journey wasn't long, and soon they had exited the craft at the landing platform outside the capital city of Levan.

Cilia had kept the group small. In addition to the Jedi, there was a security expert named Stephin and a weapons specialist named Aeran.

Their passes worked, which eliminated one of Qui-Gon's worries. The ministry was a bustling workplace, and they didn't attract any attention as they walked through the halls.

Cilia had memorized the layout. She led them onto a turbolift and down a long hallway into a separate wing of the building.

"I got the layout from a friend," she told Qui-Gon. "There are also those on Delaluna who don't like this situation. She passed along the blueprints to Stephin."