A call for help

[ Stories ]

The people of Scir encountered a political embarrising situation that could get out of hand. The senator asked for help from the jedi to solve the issue as they needed a neutral party. Nalan Passik, Shebi Ajava, Jedi Fecta Trigiel, Nathan Miodrass Asillion and Ariana Danacia went to solve the issue.

Upon arrival the 5 jedi were briefed by Representative Lophos. It seems that a ship arrived carrying someone who claimed to be a descendent of king Pometia. The alleged heir demands that control of the planet is turned over to him, as encoded in the oldest laws of the Interregnum Democracy of Scir. A simple DNA scan has already shown that the alleged king does indeed match the superficial DNA profile retrieved from the remains of the royal family. The senator asks the Jedi whether they, as a neutral party, can investigate the matter.

The jedi shortly discuss their plan, before splitting up. Ariana Danacia and Jedi Fecta Trigiel start with checking out the DNA analysis. Nalan Passik, Nathan Miodrass Asillion and Shebi Ajava will visit the ship to speak with the alleged king. While there, Nalan will try to slice into the ship's computers and gather information such as flight logs.

Ariana and Trigiel quickly determine that they need to double check the DNA analysis. As they wish to use fresh samples, Ariana contacts Ajava through telepathically to ask for a new sample from the king. They arranged for the lead field researcher of the Scir DNA analysis team to take them to the tomb of the royal family.

In the meanwhile, Nathan, Nalan and Ajava go to the vessel. After a short exchange with the guards, they are allowed on board. Nalan splits off from the group to find a good terminal to slice, while Nathan and Ajava speak with the alleged king. Unfortunately, Nalan gets caught by a Kaminoan woman, for whom Nalan was apparently not warned through the force.

While Ajava and Nathan listened to the king regale them about his travels, Ariana and Trigiel visited the royal tombs. They discover the tomb was welded shut after the last visit by the investigative team because of recent vandalism. Nalan talked the woman into guiding her back to the other two padawan, as if she were lost. At the same time, she informs Ajava of the fact that she was not able to gather any information from the ship.

The first phase of the investigation is closed off with the alleged king promising Ajava to transfer the necessary documents, such as family trees and travel documents, to the possession of the Jedi for inspection, while Ariana arranges for the detective that lead the tomb-vandalism investigation to be available for interrogation.

After returning to their temporary HQ, Ariana busies herself with redoing the DNA analysis using fresh samples they gathered from the tomb and the alleged king. At the same time the others talk the vandalism case over with the detective. He informs them that the vandals were everywhere in the tombs, and that they probably went to lay down next to the corpses (or what remained of those). There was one peculair thing: the alcohol bottles that were found, they are different from local bottles.

Nalan explains that she was caught by someone who claims to be the wife of the king. Apparently this woman was not sensable through the force. Ajava tells her that people that can't be felt that way are worrisome.

The bottles were of little use. As sale of such bottles is not tracked or recorded, the group resorted to analysis of the genetic material on the bottles. Unfortunately, the only thing that could be deduced from this was that Gammoreans handled the bottles, which was an interesting fact as there are nearly no Gammoreans lived in Scir.

Ariana's initial DNA analysis clearly indicates that the king is genetically related to the samples taken from the royal tomb. In fact, the DNA sample from the king indicated that no genetic tampering had been done, not even to fix his predisposition for heart failure. The would-be king's genetic profile perfectly matched 28 unique markers determined from samples taken from the tomb.

However, based on the family tree from the king's documents, significant inbreeding had occurred during the first few generations of the royal families exile. Because of this inbreeding, the 28 matched markers weren't nearly enough as the level of inbreeding suggested that at least 32 samples should match.

The Jedi went through a round of brainstorming to determine come up with possible theories as to how the alleged king could have faked his genetic profile. Trigiel comes up with a complete overview of evidence gathered by the Jedi so far.

In the end, they decided to go through with a second round of investigations, and Ajava handed out tasks:

• Nathan Miodrass Asillion and Nalan Passik will try to gain access to the ship's computers from the outside
• Ariana Danacia will find out whether someone knows another tomb that might contain members of the royal family
• Jedi Fecta Trigiel and Shebi Ajava will go back to the ship to gather DNA samples from the crew and wives of the king

Nathan and Nalan quickly made their way onto the ship undetected. At the same time, Trigiel and Ajava met with the king again, to get his permission to gather further samples from the crew, and Ariana discovered that a member of the royal family, viscount Orlin, had a separate cemetery near the north pole.

Nathan and Nalan made their way to the server room without problems. However, the equipment that was there was brand new, at most a few weeks old. This posed a problem, as there was little information of interest on these new servers.

Trigiel quickly took more samples, with the crew coming to him for the sample-taking. Ariana gained access to the Orlin cemetery equally easy, as senator Lophos pulled on some strings.

Ajava and Trigiel brought the samples back to the lab, where Ariana analysed them. She also analysis the samples from the Orlin cemetery, and came to a surprising conclusion: the samples from the crew matched with expectations, but the samples from the Orlin cemetery did not match anything else!

Just after Ariana shared the results of her analysis, Ajava asked Nathan to make sure Nalan came back, as she suspected the twi'lek padawan of withholding information. While Ariana, Trigiel and Ajava waited for the return of the slicers, Ajava explained to the other two how she came to the conclusion that Nalan is withholding information.

However, just as the Jedi were all together, the king made his entrance into the room.

The king started of by offering a bribe of significant proportions to the Jedi's home worlds, and by claiming that he can easily explain why the DNA from the Orlin tomb does not match any of the other DNA. He explains that viscount Orlin was killed and replaced by a double – as evidence he brings forward the fact that the DNA does not match. When his bribe was refused, he put forward an ultimatum: the Jedi have to verify his claim to the throne within the hour, or he will go public and announce that he is the long-lost heir to the throne. After positing his ultimatum, the king left the Jedi alone.

Ajava turns the subject onto the fact that she suspects Nalan of deceiving them. Nathan speaks up first, asking that the matter be postponed. After a heated exchange of words, with Trigiel declaring that he wants to hear Nalan explain as well, Nathan leaves the room upset. Nalan finally explains that she had only explained a little bit of the encounter, and hadn't told Ajava the rest. Satisfied for now, Ajava explains that she and Ariana had an encounter with another group of operatives that couldn't be sensed through the force.

With the subject back on the would-be king's legitimacy, Trigiel uses his comms to ask Nathan to come back and discuss with them. Trigiel then presents a list of pros and cons of acknowledging the kings legitimacy. Ajava, Ariana and Nalan are in favour of acknowledging the king's claim, Nathan proposes to take the king out.

The jedi decide to send their report to Jedi Master Screetor so the Jedi Council is aware of the facts, than deliver the report to the senator, and finally to the king. It is proposed that the Jedi convince the king to allow the Jedi at court, and to allow us to use the resources of the Scir government. Master Screetor agrees that it would be good to get the king to allow the Jedi at court.

The five Jedi deliver the report to Representative Lophos, who takes the news well, considering the impact. Ajava tells him that she will ask the king to wait with the public announcement, to allow him time to make the necessary arrangements.

Ariana and Trigiel join Ajava as she visits the king again to inform him of their verdict. After hearing their proposal of delaying the announcement, and allowing the Jedi at court, he agrees.