Epsilon receives the transmission from the comm, and bleeps: "Jawa named Moke is asking what happened to Thell."

...X translates this into Vespoli.

Also in Vespoli: "Can Moke hear us?"

"Not if I don't want them to."

(X translates this.)

"Mm." He frowns, and begins speaking in Huttese. "Enseven, you told me Thell didn't want his family to know he was defecting?"

"I don't think he expected it to be a long-term secret," Enseven says. "I think he knew he was delaying the inevitable."

"All right. It looks sinister if we don't tell them he defected, at this point, I think. It probably looks sinister that we've been talking it over this long."

"Yeah. Tell him."

..."Thell defected."

...Moke pokes his head back on inside and closes the door.

Athal looks down at her lap.

"So, bullshit, right?"

"I..."

Zubec looks at her.

"We know he... felt a great deal of guilt and moral anxiety," she says. Her voice is soft; in another context, it might be called gentle. "About - many things. Perhaps - "

"What, he's a droid liberationist now?"

"I don't know. The human spoke as though he thought we were committing a grave wrong. It could have triggered one of his - crises."

Moke swears.

"We don't know for sure," Athal says.

"Will they let one of us go talk to Lylat? That's where he said he was going."

She sighs, quietly fretful.  "That sounds like a good idea."