"Really? That would be great, but are you sure you would want to? His term would last... uh, depends on if he gets kicked out, but probably a few years! I thought you wanted to stick with Kina?"

"She can learn languages from the Order; she cannot keep an eye on Senatorial politics while she's Temple-bound.  I'm a bit at loose ends, really.  Regardless, it is not as if I am incapable of using a communicator, nor she of visiting under several pretexts.  Really though, madam, I advise purchasing the parts for a protocol droid and asking my Maker to assemble them for you; I'm an intelligence risk because my loyalty is foremost to her, rather than you."

"I definitely trust Kina!" she responds. "But if you want, I can do that. Kina, do you want to build another?"

"I'd love to!  Especially for one of my friends!"

"...And I can teach them Jar-Jar handling."

"Kina, I know you pretty much beat a Sith Lord, but I'm worried Jar Jar will be a little more of a challenge than that."

Kina giggles.  "...Well, if he's - huh, I wonder if he is Force-sensitive?  That'd be - interesting!"

Padmé presses her hand to her head. "Oh, nooo, that would be so... well, interesting, yes, but... urgh."

"I know, right?  ...Onto only semi-related business, did I actually see a Gungan shield bounce a blaster bolt back at the droids, in some of the footage that the Palace released of the battle of Theed?  Because if so, I really want to learn how they managed to do that!"

"They can't reliably control the direction, but deflection, sure! Hoping to build another addition for your set of gear?"

"I bet that the entire Jedi Order might like to have that ability available!  Lightsabers are not actually built for deflecting blaster bolts, you know?  But yes, I do want to pick one up myself even if the Order doesn't; it seems like it'll be generally handy, just in case."

"Yeah, those would probably be a lot more precise than a lightsaber! I don't think the ones they have would fit you, but I'm sure you can build your own. You'll want to make sure it can strap to your arm; you're starting to run low on empty hands."

"Mmhmm.  Well, no, the thing is that blocking a blaster with a lightsaber requires more precision than using a shield would.  I'll figure something out for spare hands, I'm sure.  Is there someone you'd recommend I ask about getting those plans, though?"

"Yeah, I just meant it could kind of focus its energy to where... well, maybe that wasn't the right word. Anyway, I can talk to Boss Nass - he's the leader of the Gungans, and we're trying to open up some trade. We'll have to pay for it, but honestly, if you make improvements to the design, that'll probably cover everything."

"I'll see what I can do!  Especially if the Jedi Order's buying in, it'd be good potential trade and publicity..."

"Yeah! So how have - "

She's interrupted by a call from her advisors. Apparently, another Naboo politician has been found to have close ties to Palpatine, and it's not yet clear whether this is exaggerated or an actual part of the conspiracy. "I'm sorry, Kina, but I have to leave. I'll see you soon, hopefully. Bye! Uh, may the Force be with you? That's what the Jedi say, right?"

"They do.  And I hope the Force is with you as well, Padmé.  See you soon!  And do let me know if I can help."

Not long afterwards, R2 pulls up to Kina with a message. It seems there's been a bit of a breakthrough in hunting for the Sith Lord, with suspicious purchase history found for machines that seemed to match Kina's descriptions of the Sith Lord's technology. The sender's identity is still difficult to determine, so does Kina want to try her hand at decoding what they have?

Sure, she can poke at it.  What do they have?

It's tricky. After a little poking, they can get the source of several messages believed to have been sent either by or from the Sith Lord. But while everything seems to suggest that it comes from on solid ground - there are even gravitational fields corresponding to a planet being there - the coordinates don't match any planet in the Jedi databases.

Well, does the galaxy at large think there's a planet there?

Nothing's coming up so far. If the Jedi archives don't have it, they probably won't be able to find it anywhere else... hmm. R2's asked some questions online to anyone available on Rishi, which seems to be the closest planet to the origin of the message.

It takes a few hours to get a response. Eventually, though, one person suggests that it might be a planet called Kamino. It seems to have pretty high levels of technology, from the little R2 can find, but it's also pretty reclusive. Still, the Jedi should have had something on them.

Oh, and this is interesting.

Kamino specializes in cloning.

"...Cloning."

"Well."

"That bears investigation.  Even if I posit a more benign interest...I don't trust it."

"Not to mention the fact that the Order should've known it was there before now."

"...For which I am preemptively blaming Count Dooku.  He had recent access to the Archives, and disillusionment with the Order.  If someone were to want to maliciously edit our records...I'd tap him to actually do it."

"R2, good work.  See if you can find any other 'missing' planets this way."

And Kina thinks she's going to recommend that the Order audit everything they operate.  Just in case.

It's C3PO who finds the smoking gun, with his shiny new analysis modules:

There's a large, ongoing expenditure from the Jedi Order's emergency funds, which mostly never get touched - one that's being routed into Kamino.