Sith Rick bolted out of the bar and headed down the corridors looking for Jace and Thunder. An hour later, and still on the same deck level, he realized that Seven had lied to him.

"Stupid kriffing Seven! I should have known he was only after one thing in the barWhyren's Reserve. Stang."

He grumbled his way to the lift and headed up to the various levels that housed the Siths' cabins. He had started off the day on the Bridge and knew that, overlooking Captain Vanicus and some of the crewers, the Siths had long ago stumbled off to other regions of the ship. His last resort was to check the very cabin suites of the Sithsdangerous, but necessary if he was going to get any good answers.

The lift doors swooshed open and cool dry air rushed into the compartment. This was it-the deck level housing the cabins and, he assumed, the recovering Siths that he had not yet seen today. The main corridor lights were off and only the soft dim glowpanels lighted Sith Rick's way. He became uneasymaybe he should waithe could turn back before it was too late--shit, too late! It hit him like a maddened Bantha charging over the dunes of Tatooine--Jace Sidrona was heading toward himand the Dark Side of the Force, with the power of a Whyren's brawl, were preceding him. Sith Rick froze where he stood, wishing he could just melt himself into the bulkhead and become invisible. Jace Sidrona--the Jace Sidrona, destroyer of Darth Ane's infiltrating droid. He could hear Jace's footfalls now, shattering the silence of the dark passageway.

Jace seemed to just materialize out of the darklike a Super Star Destroyer dropping out of hyperspace into, what was only a moment ago, the dull vacuum of space. Sith Rick braced himself, the approaching Sith could probably sense Rick's intentions. Rick took a deep breath and quietly whispered reassuringly to himself, jagoff. Jace continued forward. His face hard. His eyes cold. His steps deliberate. The Force swirling ahead of him.

The Jace Sidrona strood right up to Sith Rick and stopped. He slowly bent his head down to gaze upon the terrified face of the smaller Sith. Lowering himself into a crouch, Jace looked straight into Rick's eyes. Rick held his breath, unable to move, and waited. Jace squinted his eyes hard at Rick and then opened them wide into a glare. He took a deep breath, got right into Rick's face, opened his mouth, andbelched the most foul and fierce Whyren's belch that Sith Rick had ever in his entire life been forced to inhale. Jace's eyes suddenly rolled back into his head as he collapsed to the deck floor--obviously still drunk.

Sith Rick gagged and spit, desperately trying to gain control over his body after taking in Jace's Whyren belch. After finally composing himself, Rick stepped over Jace's limp body and headed down the corridor once again. Jace's drunken voice slurred curses about wanting to take over as the Commanding Officer of Sith Squadron and other such ranting. Rick ignored him and turned down a new corridor.

Stang! Colonel Lord Pilot Thunder had left the door of her cabin suite open. Just to be on the safe and polite side, Rick decided to use Thunder's door chime. He pushed the button and listened to the most unusual sounding accent he had ever heard stream out of a chime, Why must I be surrounded by frickin' idiots! He glanced at the door chime again and read the fine print label: Dr. Evil Door Chimes. He had never heard of a company by the name of Doctor Evil, but Thunder was known to have been born on some Unknown Region planet. Rick carefully eased over the threshold and stepped in.

"Colonel Thunder? Colonel Thunder are you in here?" Rick wandered through the foyer of Thunder's cabin. The place reeked of Whyren's Reserve. The lights in the foyer and in the main living room were off. That meant only one place was left for Colonel Thunder to bebehind the closed door and in her bed/bar room. He eased over and tapped on the door. No response. He activated the panel switch and the door slid quietly open. Sith Rick's mouth nearly fell to the floor. He had certainly found Colonel Thunder alright. She was at her personal-open-bar and was playing with what looked like Baron Reno's Sith Squadron Replica dolls.

Rick noisily cleared his throat, hoping to attract Thunder's attention. Thunder, however, was too involved using the dolls to re-enact what looked like a wrestling match between her and Baron Reno. He was about to speak up when Digger came rolling and hooting out of the refresher to Rick's right. The little astromech droid had spotted Rick and was valiantly trying to bring the intruder's presence to Thunder's attention. Whatever the little droid was doing in the refresher, however, remained a mystery.

Thunder used her Telekinesis Force talent to wing a couple of empty bottles at Digger's already dented dome, "Digger, please, I have a headache!" The little droid continued its piercing babble until Thunder finally turned around. She jumped when she saw Rick and used her TK talent to shove the dolls behind the bar.

"Three!?! You better have one very good reason for being in my bed/bar room!"

Sith Rick, trying to hide his satisfaction of having snuck up on Thunder, walked over to her, "I wanted to talk to you about some things that have happened in the past couple of days, Colonel."

"Why don't you go find Jace to talk to, I'm kind of busy hereyou know, being the temporary Commanding Officer and all."

"Sorry, Captain, but Jace is passed out in the corridor just down from your cabin," Rick paused a moment to think that over, as well as Thunder's open door, but was quickly interrupted by Thunder.

"What? Jace passed out in the corridor? You must be mistaken. I'm sure that if you run along right now, you'll find Jace up and rearing to talk to you in his cabin. Now, I need to get to the Bridge and do some work or planning or something like that." Thunder straightened her flight suit and threw on her Sith robe. She seemed to glide pass Rick who was racing to keep up with her.

"Colonel, please. I want to know some things about Sith Squadron. Colonel Thunder! Wait for me!"

"Rick, I do not have the time to answer every question that every person on the SSD would like to ask me. I am not a bartender. I do not get paid to listen to your problems and shove Whyrens down your throats in hopes that you will pass out. JeniViolet is the Executive Officer. Find her and talk to her." Thunder was growing more weary of her young charge. She had decided against using the main lift and headed for a side lift that would take her directly to the Bridge--or the Bar Deck, whichever.

JeniViolet had efficiently placed her cabin suite the closest to the side lift, which was up and around another corner from Thunder's cabin. Thunder quickened her pace and tried to put some distance between her and Sith Rick. She would later thank the Force for its mysterious guidance. As Thunder rounded the last corner and turned towards Jen's cabin, her way was blocked with Tyros in the process of torp-locking Jen's six. Using Force-enhanced speed, Thunder managed to whip off her Sith Robe and throw it over Sith Rick's head as he rounded the corner. She turned back to lash out at Tyros and Jen, but found the corridor to be empty. Eleven, in the throws of drunken passion with Tyros, must have projected the very amorous image into the minds of those passing by. Luckily, Sith Rick seemed to have not received the image.

"Colonel Thunder?! I don't appreciate your robe being dashed into my face," Rick bit out in Zahn fashion as he tossed the cloak back at Thunder.

"Sorry, kid. I thought I sensed danger of the visually disturbing kind," Thunder remarked as she donned her cloak back on, "Maybe we should head back to the main lift, just to be on the safe side. Come on, you're my wing."

"Whatever." Rick tromped behind Thunder, disappointed that she was more receptive, "Colonel, I just want a few questions answered. Please?"

"Fine, you've got until we get to the main lift, so start," Thunder spoke as she quickened her pace again.

"Well, I was wondering why you didn't eliminate the intruder, I mean, why did you leave for the Bridge and let Jace take care of him-it? What if Jace couldn't handle it? What if Jace was killed? What if the droid had actually been the Lord Darth Ane himself?"

Thunder was astonished at the rate of the kid's ability to utter so much in such a short amount of time. I wonder if that is a Force talent like the Super Duper Fast Force Running Talent. She snapped out of her train of thoughts, "Well, I wasn't sure who was invading us. I wasn't even sure that it was Darth Ane. I certainly wasn't expecting a Reno-look-alike droid. And you shouldn't underestimate Jace Sidrona. He is an excellent fighter and very strong in the Force. If he wasn't, then Baron Reno would not have chosen him to be his apprentice. Plus, by waiting we knew it wasn't Darth Ane himselfand if it had been, well, I guess Baron Reno would have to find a new apprentice or Jace would have some bionic parts. Was that it?" Thunder asked hopefully as she strode for the lift door and noticed the prone figure of what looked like Jace on the floor.

Rick uttered as many questions as he could when he noticed the lift ahead of them. "Well, no. I want to know some other things like: How come we are a big group of Siths? Why don't we fight and kill each other? What is up with all of that Whyren's Reserve stuff? Who is this Janson freak that you and Jen fight over? What is going to happen to me now?"

Thunder began wishing that she was capable of the Super Duper Fast Running Force Talent. She stopped in the corridor and turned to Sith Rick, "Look kid, we don't have a 'Sith Squadron manual'. Yeah, we've got a code of rules and stuff, but no manual that is ever going to answer all of your questions to your satisfaction. You are just going to have to trust your training to us. After some training, you'll begin to understand our ways and your place in our web of power. But, to give you a quick run-down of things: (1) The Sith were once a group until they murdered each other. Darth Bane set up some new rules about adding certain Jedi virtues like patience and crap-stuff. (2) Baron Reno took Darth Bane's new rules and added some more to ensure our ability to cooperate with each other. For example, Sith Squadron has a goal unlike previous Siths who only strove after power and dominance. We, Sith Squadron, will forever pursue every drop of Whyren's Reserve that we can possibly find and consume. (3) Secondary goals to our primary goal of obtaining Whyren's Reserve: domination, power, Janson, the destruction of Rogue Squadron, and more Whyren's Reserve. (4) We each have different jobs to do. Baron Reno lead us into the heat of battle as we pursued Whyren's Reserve and he rambled all of the timeI mean, you should have heard this guy. He could go on and on and on about anything, everything, and nothing all at once. It was amazing. No wonder we work well under the influence of Whyrens--drink enough and you get this buzzing in your ears that could drown out the most annoying of rambles. Anyways, I digress, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, your interrogation. The second in command, that would be Eleven, is to take up command in Reno's absence. When she is off duty, she puts me in charge. She is also the Executive Officer, which for you lay people, means that she issues Reno's orders to the rest of the Squadron as well as fulfill any of his needs. Wait, that didn't sound good, but you know what I meant. Anyways, we all have different jobs which are often governed by our different Force talents. Now, I'm not going to ramble on about each of the Sith's Force Talents. You can go and ask them yourself. So, moving on, (5) we don't kill each other because we are too co-dependent from our addiction to Whyren's Reserve, which in my opinion is the best addition to a new order of Sith. I can't wait for you to meet Baron Reno, the man is just a kriffing genius".

Suddenly, from down the hall, Jace screamed incoherent babble, "Huuto wee, eentu waa, kuubo seento. Subtitle: Zip it!!"

Thunder and Rick just stood there for a moment. Thunder sighed heavily and rolled her eyes, "You know, Jace, if you think you know all the answers, then why don't you just take over as Lead, Mr. Tatooine Sith!"

Jace sat up, "Alright. Deal."

Thunder smiled her wicked, but sexy, Sith smile, "Good, then as Lead, I guess it is up to you to explain the ways of Sith Squadron to your new charge SithRick. Congratulations. I will be on the Bridge executing or whatever it is that an substitute Executive Officer does."

Colonel Thunder stormed into the lift and shut the door. Jace turned to look at the now confused Rick and chuckled, "Confusion to you, huh Rick? Don't worry. That's just Thunder. Every now and then the old Adumari Tundre ya Silens comes out for a show. Come on, let's go to the Bar Deck and announce the good news-Jace Sidrona is the acting Commanding Officer until Baron Reno returns."

Continued...