STAR WARS
Conflict of Balance
by Christopher George
Chapter One
The Stars looked particularly bright as they gleamed through open chasm that loomed over the command deck. Then again, Emera reflected, the stars always seemed brighter during battle. The harsh glare of exploding ships seemed to bring the background into sharp focus. Emera stood solitary on a burning deck surrounded by the corpses of the bridge crew. She paid no care to the death surrounding here. Her focus was solely on the cruiser that was firing upon them. She could see it clearly, though it was still some distance away. It seemed almost so close she could reach out and touch it through the shield that protected her. She knew every inch of that cruiser, after all she was standing on one very much like it.
The ship rocked as the enemy cannons tore across the foredeck, the bright flare of the shields erupted across the command deck that protected her from the destruction that had wrought the rest of her ship. As she glanced out she could see small flickers of flight, bursting into vision and then quickly disappearing. It was almost beautiful; they were like dozens of new stars being born and then quickly fading into darkness. Emera didn't need to be told what the light meant though. She could feel it. They were snub fighters exploding in shrapnel.
Through the force she felt each death of the pilots, both those that served her and those that served her enemy. Each terror stricken moment before that fateful last gasp was brought to her through the force. She remained with them until the end. It was the least she could do. She wondered if they could feel her presence as she sought to bring them comfort and peace in their final moments. She liked to think that they could.
"You're losing. You know this." a harsh voice burst into her head. She quickly glanced at the control panel to the left, hoping against hope that the sound had come from the panel. No such luck. The panel was beyond repair, much like the rest of her ship. it was little more than a burning console with smoldering wires hanging from the ceiling.
She didn't bother to answer the unwanted intruder in her head. No words of hers would placate him. She knew this all too well from past experience. Her hands gritted into fists as she attempted to ignore the unwanted advances, but the voice was relentless.
"This is the end my Lady," the voice continued, "There is no need for this to continue. But give the word and I will be merciful. I will allow your men to live."
Emera wasn't taken in by words whispering promises in her head. She knew them for what they were. Lies - Riam was the prince of lies. He wouldn't allow anyone who had stood against him to walk away from this. Only complete dominion would satisfy him.
"The Republic is finished, it is pointless to continue this," Riam pressed, "You need only submit and all this will be over. Lord Revan is right. The old must be washed away so that the strong might rise."
Emera sneered at Revan's logic. She'd dismissed it the first time she had heard it. She had no interest in hearing it parroted by Riam. Emera's hands almost went to the lightsaber hanging from her belt and gritted her teeth to curb the impulse. Her enemy was far away. Her act had only announced her fear and Riam would have sensed it through the force. Riam, to his credit didn't mention the lapse and Emera calmly moved her hands back to her sides and attempted to find the calm that would make it possible to bring the power of the force to bear.
"I have men on your ship, you know," Riam murmured, almost conversationally, "They have orders to bring you to me. One way or another, you will be brought before me. I have foreseen it."
"I'll kill them." Emera hissed, letting her anger once again overwhelm her control. As the anger washed over her, the battle outside the window receded and her world was once again limited by her own senses with one notable exception - Riams voice.
"Oh no, My Lady," Riam mocked, "You won't. You know you won't. You might be able to lie to yourself, but you cannot lie to me."
With a growl Emera pulled her lightsaber from her belt and held it in her hands. Its weight provided a sense of familiar comfort as it fit snuggly into her calloused hands. It felt right. When Riam's soldiers came she would overcome them and save what remained of her crew. She knew that they would be coming for her first and once they had collected her, they would deal with the rest of the ship. They would simply blow it from the sky. Riam wouldn't care about saving lives then.
It didn't take long for them to arrive. Emera had expected at any moment to hear the sound of a cutting laser applied to the door, or perhaps the sudden discharge of explosives breaking the door down. She tensed and readied herself for what would hopefully be a quick battle that would soon be over. She didn't expect was a simple knock on the door.
"Lady Emera," a polite voice called through the door, "We are here to escort you to the Lord Riam."
The door opened smoothly several seconds later, they must have hacked into the main controls. This wasn't surprising, with the bridge in the state it was, there was very little to stop them from gaining control of the ship. An honour guard to troops marched into the room in state uniform.
"Lady Emera," the officer bowed, "We have come to rescue you."
Had they been wearing body armour, and bearing weapons, the battle would have been over in seconds, but she couldn't kill them, not like this. Not when they thought they were rescuing her. She scanned their minds and her fears were confirmed. She could almost hear Riam cackling to himself. He had bet these men's lives in this gambit, but it wasn't much of a gamble. He knew her, he knew her like no other had. He knew that she would have no choice but to comply. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and the lightsaber hung dully in her fingers.
"My Lady, we will need to be quick," the officer smiled, as he ushered her forward. His mind was tense, ready to battle, but not expecting an attack from her. What lies had Riam told him? Given time Emera would have been able to pull the information from the officer's mind, but time was something that she sorely lacked. She needed to do something; she just had no idea what. Unfortunately her options were kill the troops, which she was loath to do or submit.
She chose submit. Placing her lightsaber back on her belt, she nodded briefly and allowed the soldiers to surround her. They didn't even try to take her weapon. As she glanced around each of the soldiers was blissfully unaware that they were guarding someone who could and would take their lives in an instant in normal circumstances. It wasn't even really their fault that they were on the wrong side of this conflict. Civil wars are kind of difficult like that. It's the leaders who make the decisions. The average fighting man has more in common with their direct opposition than their commanders. Riam had chosen to betray the republic. She had remained true. It doesn't get any simpler than that. That wasn't going to help these men though.
"It brings you pleasure, Doesn't it my lady?" Riam whispered, "to know the power you have over these. They are nothing compared to us. You could end their lives at any point, but you won't. You can't. I know you. You're already walking the dark path. You need only admit it. Embrace it. Kill them and your journey will be complete."
Emera bit back a sharp retort as she was marched through the corridors of her ship. She wasn't surprised to see the blackened walls and bodies of her crew as they had fallen in battle. Parts of the ship were open to space, the glimmering sparkle of containment shields all that kept the rest of the ship from explosive decompression.
Emera walked as if she was compliant, but her mind was working overtime, planning, assessing risks, rejecting and then starting again. The ship rocked as the shields failed and several blasts from the enemy cruiser wracked the hull. The klaxon's blared through corridors as redundancy systems were deployed. The ship was taking one hell of a beating.
"Come My lady, we don't have much time." The officer murmured, "We must hurry."
Through the force Emera could see that the mains sole concern was truly for her safety. There was no deception in his words. She gritted her teeth in frustration. Riam was right. She couldn't kill these men now. She knew where they were leading her. There was a secondary hanger bay used for resupply into the command tower. It wasn't designed for heavy fighters, but a light craft could have docked with the main port and gained access to the bridge. If this was their destination, then she only had a few minutes to figure out what to do. She really had no interest in going with them but doubted that anything less than their deaths would stop them from bringing her before Riam.
Unfortunately, that decision was taken from her hands. Just as the force had alerted her that something was wrong a blaster bolt rang out, followed by several shouts from the down the corridor. The shot went wide, but immediately her honour guard sprang into action. Emera was tackled from behind and pushed firmly against the bulkhead to protect her whilst the rest dropped into firing position. It was difficult to see what was going on through the smoke and haze of the laser blasted corridor. But through the force everything was clear. Some of her crew had found them and were attempting to rescue her. She sighed deeply. She had hoped to avoid this, but there was nothing for it. If the choice was between the lives of those who swore to defend her and those who had sworn to defend Riam. There was no choice.
With a howl, she pushed out with the force immediately shattering the bodies of the soldiers who had pressed against her and sending their broken corpses flying out in all directions. Her lightsaber sprang from her belt with accustomed ease and found its way into her outstretched hand. With a loud hiss the blue blade sprang to life and lanced through several other soldiers who had had the misfortune to be standing too close to her. Caught between the Jedi in their midst and the blaster fire from the hall there was very little chance of survival for her would-be captors.
"Surrender your men!" Emera hissed as her blade passed bare inches from the officer's face, "No more need to die today."
The officer gulped deeply as he stared into the depths of the icy blue blade that must have encompassed his whole world. His eyes switched rapidly between the blade and Emera as he considered his options. He didn't have many. His shoulders slumped in defeat. He waved his hand and his soldiers threw their blasters to the ground.
"Get it over with," he sighed, "You're just going to kill us anyway."
"What's your name Soldier?" Emera demanded.
"SEC 1434" he grunted and had to suppress an urge to salute. It was good that he managed to resist as a salute now would have taken his hand from his wrist. Emera could see beads of perspiration slowly slide from the officers face as he stared into the oblivion that awaited him.
"That wasn't what I asked. " Emera sighed with contempt. Given his age, it was likely that he had once been a republic soldier, she could only hope that something remained of the honour that he had once had.
"Reymand, Reymand Hapsburg." the officer gulped.
"Well Raymand, no more of your men are going to die today."
It was an easy promise to make, but Emera wasn't sure that she was going to be able to keep this one. After all, it wouldn't help these men at all should her cruiser get shot out from underneath her. But she would need to deal with that one step at a time. As loyal troops emerged from the corridor, she switched off her blade and deftly returned it to her belt.
"Lady Emera," one of the soldiers saluted, "We heard the command deck had been hit, we feared the worst."
Emera waved them off as they began to take up positions and collected the blaster rifles from Raim's men. Emera sighed with relief when she recognized one of the officers approaching from the corridor. The grizzled face of one of her senior commanders was a sight for sore eyes. Orne Camar had been with her since that left the republic. He had been a good and reliable officer. It was good to know that he had survived this massacre.
"What do we do with this lot?" Orne flicked a thumb at the prisoners.
"Lock them in the Brig." Emera waved casually, "How many men do we have?"
"Hard to say really," Orne sighed, "There's sporadic fighting on most of the top decks, we still control the hangers, but it's only a matter of time. I don't know why they haven't blasted us out of the sky yet."
"Because our fighters are keeping their bombers busy," Emera informed him, "We're trading blows with their capital ships. There are three of them and one of us, but we're a tough ship. There's still time."
Emera only hoped that she was telling the truth. The force was remarkably silent on this fact, but then when she was in close proximity to Riam her abilities to see the future had always become clouded. She had once thought it was because of her feelings for him, now she wasn't so sure. Her feelings were dead. His betrayal had burned any such feelings from her heart. Together they had followed Revan into the Mandalorian Wars, together they had fought and when the wars were done and Revan called his followers to the dark side. Riam chose to follow. She did not. Now she was the only thing that stood between Revan's fleet and easy access to the core worlds. She couldn't fail in her mission. Should Revan find his way into the core worlds, she didn't like to think of the massacre that would follow.
"Your orders?" Orne saluted, as his men began to lead the prisoners away.
"Who's in charge?"
"Admiral Ghir, He's on the flight deck."
"Let's go."
"You'll never make it," Riam's voice echoed throughout her head.
