Kidnapping of Doctor Tarnis In 3643 BBY , near the end of the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire , the undercover Sith Lord Tarnis arranged for the kidnapping of his Republic scientist alter ego Eli Tarnis by the Black Sun criminal syndicate . With Tarnis ' s inside information , the criminal Zeer and his team infiltrated the Senate Building on the Republic capital of Coruscant and retrieved the doctor in the heavily - guarded structure . While Zeer and his men served as a distraction by barricading themselves in Docking Bay 84 of the nearby Coruscant Spaceport , Tarnis then escaped to the territory of his allies in the paramilitary Justicars ' Brigade and continued his plans to acquire the Planet Prison superweapon . Prelude . In 3643 BBY , during the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire , the Jedi Council sensed a disturbance in the Force on the Republic capital of Coruscant and dispatched the Jedi Master Bela Kiwiiks and her Padawan , Kira Carsen , to investigate . Kiwiiks was able to confirm the dark presence on the capital , though she was unaware that its source was in fact the Sith Lord Tarnis , who was posing as a Republic scientist named Eli Tarnis on the Republic superweapon initiative . Sensing that his position was compromised , Tarnis contacted the Migrant Merchants ' Guild and Black Sun criminal syndicates , and arranged for the theft of the design files for Tarnis ' s project , the Planet Prison superweapon , in order to draw potential suspicion away from himself . When a young Jedi Knight , the former apprentice of Jedi Master Orgus Din , was sent to retrieve the files from the criminals in the Old Galactic Market region , Tarnis contacted Black Sun ' s leader , Salarr . In exchange for Imperial weapons and technology , Tarnis requested that Black Sun conduct his " kidnapping " so that he could escape the Senate Building without suspicion and continue with his plans to acquire the Planet Prison . The kidnapping . With inside information supplied by Tarnis , a team of Black Sun criminals under the leadership of the Human Zeer infiltrated the Senate Building , incapacitating the Coruscant Security Force officers and Republic Military personnel guarding the building , and Tarnis was quickly extracted by Zeer ' s team before alarms were raised . However , the Security forces and agents of the Republic Strategic Information Service , the Republic ' s intelligence agency , quickly realized that Tarnis was missing . SIS Agent Galen immediately ordered Kira Carsen to lead a team of Coruscant Security officers to the nearby Coruscant Spaceport in pursuit of the kidnappers . Aftermath . Tarnis left Zeer ' s group at the Senate Plaza and took an air taxi to Black Sun territory as planned , though he diverted his taxi to Justicar territory , a region of Coruscant under the control of the Imperial - friendly paramilitary Justicars ' Brigade , where he continued his plans to acquire the Planet Prison itself . Zeer and his team barricaded themselves in Docking Bay 84 of the spaceport as a distraction , though Carsen and the CSF officers eventually broke the criminals ' lines with the aid of the Jedi Knight who had been sent to retrieve the stolen design files . The Knight was later sent on a mission to rescue Tarnis from Black Sun territory , though Tarnis ' s deception and true identity was revealed during the rescue attempt . Behind the scenes . Doctor Tarnis ' s kidnapping is first mentioned in " " , a video game released by BioWare and LucasArts in 2011 , at the end of the Jedi Knight class mission " Stolen Secrets . " The subsequent mission , " Kidnapped , " deals with the pursuit of Tarnis ' s captors , but it is not revealed until the following mission , " The Rescue , " that Tarnis himself orchestrated the kidnapping .