The docking proceeds smoothly, with all that settled.

The first thing they notice when the hatch opens is the smell of fresh-baked cookies, the subtle bitterness of the coffee balanced nicely by the lighter scent of the berries. There's a short hallway between the hatch and the main body of the ship, turning at the end to break a blaster-wielder's line of fire and favor a right-handed lightsaber-wielding defender, but a curved mirror mounted in the corner by the ceiling shows only Rafiik and Elcie inside, and that she's seated empty-handed at the table while he's only holding the datapad. Past this chokepoint, they come to the lounge, decorated in an understated but distinctly Sithy style and roomy enough to be only moderately crowded with the seven of them present, especially as Elcie cedes the chair and glides to the kitchen to give them space. The quarters and cockpit are off to the left and the full-sized kitchen is just ahead, open to the lounge, with the workstation Rafiik was calling from along the wall on the right, next to a door that most likely leads to the ship's mechanical workings. The cookies are on the table that the bench and chairs are arranged around, red and black on a grey and white swirled tray, and the poem has pride of place behind the main bench, poster-sized for easy reading and framed in filigreed silver and lit to draw the eye.

Rafiik hands the datapad to Master Ries right away. "Would you like anything to drink?" he asks the group. "Lord Pradnakt said we could have her tea, she's got a few kinds."

(Elsie offers to prepare the tea for them, if they'd like some.  Knight Bani and Master Ries take her up on the offer, the latter rather distracted by more important things than tea alone could ever be, despite their taste for it.)

Master Ries is a bit busy staring at the poem, to actually process that Rafiik has given them the datapad, or that Elcie is making them tea.  (The datapad gets passed to Knight Khotar and W5-H4 almost subconsciously - they're most able to spot any forgeries.)

"...Do you know, of the two of these Sith, which of them was the one who was responsible for the poem right there?"

(Most of the tea is individual bags and most of that is a fairly nice brand of plain black tea, but there are a variety of herbal flavors available in smaller quantities as well as a few whole-pot sachets. Sugar, shelf-stable creamer, and a handful of tea spices are on offer, too, tucked into a complementary decorative basket on the same shelf.)

"Probably Lord Pradnakt, sir, she quotes poetry sometimes. There was a poem in my room when they had me move in that I think she or Daisy picked out for me, too."

"...The idea to put it here was Darth Kalbetis', it should be noted.  Coincidentally enough," and it is very easy to tell by the tone that this droid does not believe in coincidences, "Lord Pradnakt selected a copy of this for guestroom decorations during the time my mistress spent aboard."

"...She did?"  That is the most un-Sithly sentiment that still speaks their language that I've ever seen, he doesn't say.  And Lord Pradnakt put it at a Darth's bedside without fearing murder.

What is going on.

Has Master Ries considered that things may in fact be as they seem?

Yes, and that's the problem.

"She did, yes.  Darth Kalbetis was quite taken with the sentiment."

"...The Force works in mysterious ways," Master Ries mutters, quite discombobulated.  It's their turn to have a lot of meditation to need to catch up on, it seems.

...So, this is their Healer.  Why the Force taught a Sith how to heal, she may never know - Master Ries is quite correct about the Force working in mysterious ways.

Then again, looking at the poetry that caught Master Ries so off-guard, she can almost see it.  To put fear aside...  A shame, then, that this Lord Pradnakt was born in Sith space.  She wonders what this Sith could have been like as a Jedi.

The Darth...

She wonders more about the Darth, because she knows even less in turn.  Even as her - representative - was menacing them, it was to protect?  That seems...  Rather un-Sith-like, in its purposes.  Sith are - selfish.  Though, if this Lord Pradnakt is Darth Kalbetis' apprentice or something, it makes more sense - she wouldn't want to see her own Padawan stolen away by a Sith, that's for sure!

...Except that that can't be how it is, because Sith apprenticeships are, by Rafiik's recounting of Darth Kalbetis' testimony and his experiences under Lord Tuscias, utterly horrible.  And Lord Pradnakt doesn't fear Kalbetis.

She doesn't recall the code of their enemies quite so clearly as some of her party, but having seen them on the battlefield however briefly...

Sith love fear.  It gives them power.  It helps them break the Force to their will, where a Jedi's calm helps them follow the Force's.

...Wait.  Waaait a minute.

"Rafiik - did you say that Darth Kalbetis said that these events were the will of the Force, earlier?  I - want to be sure I didn't mishear you."

"It was pretty strange, yeah. I think she meant it? The Force seems to like her, when I look."

...But...

How?

How can the Force like a Sith?  Like a Darth, almost all of whom hold their positions by defiling it?

"...If anything is going to convince me that this is truly not a trap of some kind, it's likely going to be evidence that that's true.  I can't, can't imagine that the Force would favor a Sith who intended to kill us all.  It's just - so impossible from my understanding of its will."

"I was pretty worried before I looked, too."

"...We shall have to trust in Rafiik's reading, before we can have any hope of investigating the truth of that ourselves."

"...Is that to mean, then, that you do intend to do so?  Darth Kalbetis is, while not inclined to be patient in this matter given the circumstances, nonetheless open to the idea of providing some...further evidence, of her lack of malintent, prior to a collaboration such as this.  Collaboration may be precedented, between Jedi and Sith - but those precedents have usually been in circumstances far more dire, where self-interest as much as altruism bore weight upon the conclusion of its necessity.  Certain recent events on Taris, for example."  An artificial plague, resolved by the disruption of the Force-artifact animus of it.

(Furthermore, that was the doing of 'Lord Sandara', so it's even perhaps evidence itself, if her mistress wishes to admit that persona's connection to Darth Kalbetis beyond what she implied during that mission.  It's highly unlikely, but possible.)

"...yes, I've heard of that one.  I'm surprised your Darth Kalbetis has - news didn't get very far, outside the system."

...That mission report was quite disconcerting, and she's read it cover to cover.  It could turn out to be relevant to her duties, after all.

"...I presume that Darth Kalbetis intends to provide sufficient assurances that this is not a Taris situation?"

"This droid has been told that sufficiently clear-sighted use of the Force makes such a thing trivially easy to spot - quote, 'all the connections entwined with a single locus of twisting sickness, completely unlike a plague no matter its transmissibility' - and that the Jedi on that mission should have been able to spread the relevant technique, based on what Darth Kalbetis knows of what was done during that mission.  Darth Kalbetis has described this alchemical effect in drastically opposite terms, 'each a unique seed of corruptive, twisting, hatred of everything' - and considering that it was not dispersed by the death of Tuscias, well, this droid can only presume from the evidence that it couldn't be too similar to the Taris artifact."

"...We don't study Sith techniques, we're Jedi."

"...Truly?  My mistress has always thought it best to know the tools of those who would call themselves your enemy.  Notwithstanding the large body of seemingly alignment-neutral techniques like Force-based telekinesis; this droid could not dare comment on whether a particular sensory technique might be one of them."

"Some do, but they're specialists, and the Order does not like risking them to the field unduly.  We do all know the basics of what techniques Sith use, but that is hardly something like the knowledge necessary to use such techniques ourselves - as Knight Bani seems to have believed you suggested.  It is, however, likely that this one is alignment-neutral.  Sensory techniques usually are."

"...Regardless.  That does sound like a rather different, and differently concerning, technique.  Especially if the originator is dead and it hasn't faltered at all.  Your mistress was right to want our help, I should think."