Shaala sits quietly in the dim room, listening intently to the briefing with the avid focus of someone utterly uncertain which minor details might be useless...And which might mean life or death in a few hours' time. Occasionally, when the officer pauses, those nearby may hear a faint, muffled purring from the tiny voorpak cradled in her lap. The little many-legged beast is all but invisible beneath the belled cuffs of her robe.<br/><br/>The young apprentice Jedi had asked a single question in the officer's pause, a query about the vulnerability of the Mandalorian's intimidating droids to ion weapons. It was answered politely, but the officer's bearing suggested that perhaps the Togruta might have learned about such weaknesses before coming to the briefing, and after that Shaala seemed to become even more withdrawn and quiet.<br/><br/>By the time the lights come up the little stowaway has been returned to its usual place, curled up and hidden in the pouch made by the young Togruta's unused hood. Shaala seems to be the only one of the Jedi not visibly wearing or fiddling with a lightsaber, although by now her companions will have learned that she keeps her slender, curved dueling sabers in the inner cuff-pockets of her robe's seemingly overlong sleeves - and has a habit of producing them without warning, like some primitive festival show prestidigitator. The young Togruta nods soberly to Merryn, folding her hands together and shrugging her robe slightly to let its sleeves drape and cover them.  Shaala stands out somewhat among the other Jedi: not only is her robe of peculiarly loose cut from what has rapidly become the Coruscant Academy standard, but it is a pale, almost neutral gray. She wears it open over a light brown military shipsuit whose myriad pockets bulge with grenades and other equipment.<br/><br/>Shaala chews her lip a moment, inhaling slowly, then exhaling to compose herself. When the young apprentice finally does speak, she has taken on the more erect, almost haughty air that sometimes manifests when she believes she is being tested. "Those shuttles will have little room for survivors, Mistress?" she murmurs. "It will not only be search and rescue, but keeping a path to the docks clear as well so that transports can take on the survivors we do find, will it not?" She glances momentarily away from Merryn, looking back to the briefing podium as if for a final view of the now-deactivated holodisplay.