Part 5

"I'll do it, but the object goes back to whom it was stolen from to begin with." The Jedi's voice was firm and when she looked up, Shania noted the obstinate glint in his eyes.

She chuckled. "That's acceptable. I can just steal it again anyway."

He glared at her. "Not if we succeed," he reminded her. She gave him a grin. "So what's the setup? How do I get in? What's the security like?"

"I truly have no idea, Qui-Gon, so you'll have to figure that out all on your own."

He reared back in surprise. "I thought you were going to train me?"

"No, I'm going to give you some ideas and advice when asked. I said nothing about training you." Qui-Gon whirled around to leave the room. "I would suggest some different clothes. That should be easy enough to arrange. I will give you a week to do this and then we'll work on this drug business."

He didn't turn as he spoke. "You are enjoying this, aren't you?"

Shania considered it. "Yes, but it's not my intent to override your precious morality, Qui-Gon. If you don't get accepted within certain circles, no matter what your skill or crime, you are dead and you'll take me with you as well. No one trusts anyone in the underground, Qui-Gon. If they don't know you, it will only be a matter of time before you are a corpse."

She placed the napkin down after wiping her mouth. "It took me years. We have to get you infamous in less than a month. Only one big job of stupid magnitude is going to bring you temporary infamy and recognition just long enough to get what we need and get the hell out. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

Qui-Gon reached out and pulled her in front of him. "Where are we going after I pull this off?"

She tipped her head to one side. "Hell's Watering Hole."

He drew in a shuddering breath. "I was afraid of that. Shania, they'll smell Jedi on me before we set foot on the planet."

"A Jedi who stole something?" She seemed amused. "Hardly. I did some checking. Your Jedi High Council has told no one of where you went. As far as anyone knows, the Jedi knight named Qui-Gon Jinn disappeared about two weeks ago, with no contact with anyone. There is no mission assignment, no communications that can be traced and the Council has put an alert status on your whereabouts to other knights within the Republic." She threw her head back. "Good cover those muckety-mucks gave you. A knight gone AWOL."

Qui-Gon wasn't amused. "I knew I should have sent a message," he murmured to himself.

"Good thing you didn't, otherwise we'd be screwed. I suggest you eat and get to work. I'm available as a reference guide and I can arrange transportation, but that's it." She turned on her heel and strode from the room, heading somewhere he wasn't allowed, no doubt.

He took her advice.

Three days later, Qui-Gon entered her study area and waited for her to acknowledge his presence. She finally looked up from some readout and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm ready."

"Equipment?" she asked.

"None."

Both eyebrows raised. She shrugged. "Transport?"

"Just to Tattoine, drop me off near Mos Isley." Qui-Gon held her green-eyed gaze with his steady blue one.

She shrugged again. "Talk to Shinoba. If you return and I'm not here, I have another job."

"Two jobs at once?" he asked dirisively.

She smiled at him. "It's personal."

"Just like the last one?"

"No, not personal gain. Personal."

Qui-Gon couldn't formulate a response so he nodded. "Any last parting words of sage wisdom?"

"I'll leave that to you Jedi. It's seems your philosophies are quite well known. I've been studying up on you." Shania gave him a long considering look. "This is quite a break in rules that you're doing, isn't it? Practically against your very nature. That impresses me and restores what little faith I had in you, Jedi."

"Thank you." His voice was laced with sarcasm.

"I'm being serious, not deriding." She stood and walked around her desk. "I did not realize how harsh this would be. If you wish to not do this, I will understand and we can continue. However, I might add that Jabba may have his dirty mitts in this Siren's Song, since Tattoine is a drop point that I discovered, so you may find something useful while there."

Qui-Gon watched her as she spoke. She was all business, not the teasing bundle of sensuality of moments earlier. "I'll take the chance. I'm sure it'll get me in hot water with the Council, but with the statue being returned to it's rightful owner," he noted her grimace, "it should smooth things over a bit." She merely grunted. "I want to leave tomorrow morning. Early."

She shrugged. "Good hunting." He watched the soft swish of her hips and swallowed, immediately trying to center himself. Gods, but was she beautiful. "Oh, and Qui-Gon?" Her head popped out around the doorway she had just exited. He jumped, so immersed was he in recentering. "Leave the lightsaber and take the box I gave you on Sola's Planet. You're going to need it."

Yoda was seated in one of the meditation rooms, deeply engrossed in the Force. There was no danger here and therefore he looked for none. Security in the Temple was one of the best, what with Jedi knights and students milling everywhere at any given time. The ancient master did not hear the door swish open and shut.

Within seconds, though, he sensed the other presence. His green eyes opened and scanned the room. Seeing nothing they closed. One's senses could not always be trusted, but the Force could always be trusted. "Speak you will. Work to be invisible you have. Important your identity must be."

"The Jedi knight you have sent for Siren's Song is the concern I have to bring before you, Jedi Master Yoda." The voice was disembodied, mechanical and devoid of emotion. It was done on purpose to negate the possibility of voice recognition.

Yoda wondered what the intruder had to hide. "Speak you will of Qui-Gon Jinn."

"He is well and doing his assigned job. He cannot contact you because of circumstances that put him at extreme risk. This is a tricky business and the stakes are higher than you think. Call off the alert on your brethren, for if he is found and his cover blown, lives will be lost." The voice seemed to move around the room at random. One word was filtered from the left, another seemed to come from above, and none of them came from the same location.

Yoda opened his eyes and made his way to stand. "Information he has?" Yoda looked around curiously, trying anyway to see who this mysterious windfall of information was.

"He has acquired a partner of sorts. He is occupied at the moment. I have taken it upon myself to tell you what has been found. To you, and you alone, will this be given and I expect it to stay with you until his mission is completed." The voice brooked no argument.

"Agreed," Yoda replied easily. The Force told him this stranger could be trusted, for now.

"He has learned that there is another two and a half Standard months before the first shipment will make its way to the Republic. He seeks now to find out the suppliers, drop points, amount and origin. Qui-Gon Jinn must not be revealed as a Jedi." The voice paused, uncertain. "Is this acceptable to the Jedi? You seem bound to your Code to great extremes."

Yoda laughed, a huffing sound that often drew smiles from those around him. "Never one to follow rules, Qui-Gon is. Knows his limits, he does. Trust him to get job done and still maintain himself we do. Trust Qui-Gon implicitly we do, or this mission he would not be given. His unorthodox methods is why this mission he get."

"I understand." The voice seemed amused to Yoda. "I agree with your assessment. If I can I will keep you updated, but we will not meet again. This meeting must be kept from all others, including your Council. From Qui-Gon's words, he respects your wisdom and being wholeheartedly. Therefore, I must too, for now."

"Why trust me you should, because Qui-Gon does?" Yoda demanded, thumping his gimmer stick against the floor, a strip of the wood falling to the floor at the impact.

Yoda feared the visitor would leave without answering but after a few moments that Yoda sensed was an inner struggle, the disembodied voice replied. "I am the partner. I am Si'Haad."

The gimmer stick fell from Yoda's hand in total shock. The presence of the infamous thief vanished from his Force vicinity and Yoda struggled to leave the room in a hurry, to follow it, but when he entered the hall from his private meditation chamber, he felt nothing.

"Sith!" he said with some heatedness. "Disturbing this is. May the Force be with you, Qui-Gon." Mocking laughter came to him from nowhere that he could discern.