Well, I received one from a blue rewards box I got doing one of the dailies on Belsavis, I don't remember the name of the quest off the top of my head, but involved releasing some crazy jedi. The rewards were some epic mods, and then the blue box. Best I can do to help, good luck. edit: Should have specified, I got the helm in the box, but it's definitely a random drop from it, since I got a medium armor chest the next time.

I think the assumption that diving straight into HMs after hitting 50 and finishing the story really is a bit too assuming, and honestly, needing to gear up in regular dungeons and dailies isn't any different from WoW. I played WoW for almost 7 years, and when I hit 85, I wasn't able to walk into Heroics, I had to run normal dungeons first, like Normal Flashpoints here, which shouldn't be disheartening, or a turn off, it's basically just doing the same thing as HMs, just easier.

Well, I can answer atleast the last question. My sith 'romanced' her, used the cult to get what he needed and killed the old leader of the cult. He let her down gently the next time they met to get the computer chip, and then yeah, she still pops up as a ghost on Voss. Edit- Also, since I chose to kill the old cult leader, Rylee and the other guy ran the cult, and when the three cyborgs popped up, I force persuaded them to join me, and it seems to have worked.