"I am attacked!" the Bothan shouted into his comlink as he drew a blaster pistol and hauled himself to his feet. "Shadoran has allied with the prisoners and a jedi! They seek to take back the ship! Backup needed at once!" 

What?! The thought shot through his mind quicker than the first bolt left the barrel of the Bothan’s pistol. No! Who’s Shadoran? Take back the ship? What? No!!! Just as quickly, Caise let go of the emotional response of shock and surprise to Burukt’s embellished distress call.

What had he expected the outcome to be after he had made his move to stop the TDF uniformed creature? He had offered no warning - there hadn’t been time - and it was likely that any number of the others in the cabin might have perceived his actions as an unprovoked attack… Blast! he fumed, So much for any sort of diplomatic resolution to this one, Master. I am sorry…

Shadoran must have been the name of the red-headed soldier that the Bothan had intended to kill just a moment ago, Caise surmised as his lightsaber hummed in intuitive arcs to deflect blaster fire. Furthermore, if the human soldier hadn’t heard the Bothan implicate him in the fabricated passenger uprising, it put the young padawan in a rather precarious position - directly between the treacherous bothan and his intended target, with that target, perhaps, believing that Caise had acted against a TDF soldier as opposed to a deceitful assassin. Despite the numerous complications and possible divergent outcomes that his actions had set free, though, the blind padawan found it in himself to focus on the here and now…

…The other passengers, the captive crew, and the remaining troopers had all reacted within nanoseconds of his saber barking against the bothan’s rifle and, while many of those reactions may have been delayed by surprise or confusion, it wouldn’t be long before the TDF troops remembered their training and began selecting priority targets and the remaining sentients on board chose between fight or flight.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Master Trask’s voice whispered in his mind. Multiply the threats to the soldiers, Caise’s mind translated as, at the same time he noticed Ziv ducking for cover and furiously scrambling for a means to defend himself. The young engineer’s energies, although momentarily frantic, still pulsed brilliantly in the miraluka’s sight as did the other crewman Caise first saw on the Kul Kura’s bridge, the twi’lek Dime - in fact, there he was ducking for the door to his room... an air of dependability had formed around that one as far as Caise was concerned; he'd be sure to keep any eye on him - and, yes, the red-haired soldier. The auras of the remaining crew and passengers were not quite as pervasive in his vision but they did seem to be aligning against the TDF soldiers - if only because they realized that Burukt’s call for back-up had implicated all of them in the heretofore non-existent rebellion or, simply, because the uniformed guards effectively cut off all egress from the passengers berth. Again, Caise found himself with very little time for contemplative thought and, with an unspoken plea that the Force be with them all, the padawan let go of conscious thought and allowed that great flow of energy continue to guide his actions.

((OOC: I think it would be wise to call up Battlemind +3 right about now, yes?  Caise’s priorities at the moment are 1)defend himself and any “civilians” from Burukt’s blaster fire, 2) assisting in freeing the crew from their bonds (Ziv first, most likely, as the lad is actively looking for an escape and Caise probably notices him first) as the opportunity presents itself, and 3) getting the frak outta this room ASAP!))

It had been nearly three hours since the TDF had gotten the Kul Kura back underway again and had steered the limping transport into orbit around Taanab. The ambient mood in the passenger berth had steadily deteriorated in that time - annoyance, frustration, irritability; all of these emotions had begun to permeate the atmosphere that clung to the passengers of the Duro vessel. The soldiery stationed in the compartment, too, had succumb to boredom and impatience it seemed and the nervousness of the detained crew members had increased exponentially throughout the trip; many of them actively wondered or worried after Captain Dulo as, even after what seemed would have been a sufficient amount of time for the TDF to have heard the Duros recount his life story, the captain had yet to be delivered to the passenger berths to join the rest of them. That little oddity hadn’t escaped Caise, of course, and he knew that others were wondering about the missing captain, as well…

There is something else, though, the miraluka realizes as a series of messages begins to be broadcast over the soldiers’ comlinks announcing that the Kul Kura has been relegated to a holding pattern and that passengers and a bulk of the troopers were to be offloaded. Caise had been prepared to extract himself from the quasi-meditative surveillance he had maintained on the room as the comm channels crackled to life but, just as he was about to release his grasp on those vibrating threads of energy, the Force called him to action.

Deceit.

Treachery.

Malice.

The red-haired soldier that he had taken note of just hours earlier literally flashed in Caise’s sight and an angry streak of scarlet-hued energy stabbed at the soldier’s aura, it’s point of origin dangerously close and emanating from the bothan soldier who had stood post on the other end of the detainees’ bench during the last few hours. Caise did not have the luxury of trying to determine why the Bothan suddenly wanted the human dead - the act was already in progress; the barrel of the blaster rifle was aimed at Damanil’s back and a furry finger was curling around the weapon’s trigger…

Even before this thought had completely passed through his mind, Caise found that he was on his feet, lightsaber in hand, and swinging the weapon down on either the bothan’s arms or his weapon - the energies of both were indistinguishable from one another at the moment, the bothan, the weapon, and the act were one in the same as far as the Force was concerned…

((OOC: Woohoo! Party time! Caise, as described above, is going after the bothan in hopes of stopping the attack, whether that means that he carves through the blaster rifle or the bothan’s arms… all the same in Caise’s eyes. What happens next, I suppose, depends on whether the attack lands and/or what other reactions occur after this… standard attack, no blatant use of the Force just yet.  )