28. "'Tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil."
Macbeth, .51-52.
The Painted Devil Laughs in the Dark
Eira-Moriah Pajari, Kibh Jeen, unnamed female Jedi and Padawan, 181 BBY
"'Tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil."
Macbeth, . 51-52.
On board the Damned Pirate
Curalin Belt, Curalin System
181 BBY
She was the only one of her team left who had survived the initial attempt to take the command ship, along with the Jedi who had accompanied them. The deaths of those with her including the commanders of the Kanataanian Rangers brigade sent after the Dark Jedi Kibh Jeen and his pirates had shaken her. She could still hear their screams and moans as they were cut down one by one, left to die where they had fell.
Out of a team of twelve, she, a junior grade lieutenant, had been the only survivor. The Arkanian Jedi, Shpresa Aferdita, had told her that it was the will of the Force that she lived where the others had died. Quite frankly, Eira-Moriah Pajari felt like shoving her custom side arm blaster some place where the sun would never shine for that Jedi's comment. Not that the Kantaanian felt that it would do any good: she needed Knight Aferdita and her human Padawan, Nhung Vien to complete her mission.
The Rangers had been tasked with eliminating the scourge of the Jeen pirates. Pirates who had been conducting raids on the outer colonies of Kantaanian space in a sector near the Curalin system. They had raided for well over seven years, killing hundreds of innocent Kantaanians and the Rangers had just barely beaten them back every time. So, when the Jedi Council had offered an opportunity to take the fight to the pirates and end their threat, the Kantaanian Council had jumped at the chance.
So, here was the young dark haired Kantaanian on a doomed mission where more than half the participants had already died after boarding the pirate command ship, the ironically named Damned Pirate. And not only that, but the Kantaanian had to deal with an acerbic and sarcastic Arkanian female and a rather cheeky human male. A combination that did little to inspire confidence in the Kantaanian's mind and made her long for a cup of the finest caf her salary could buy.
Oh how she longed for a cup of caf instead of hunting down dark side controlled pirates and their dark sider master.
Eventually, the remaining members of the strike team separated. Pajari ended up creeping around darkened corners, armed with her blaster set to kill any thing that moved and hand light strapped firmly to her right wrist. Not exactly the best way to confront a Dark Jedi but it certainly held promise in dealing with a surprised pirate.
So long as it isn't Jeen I run into, I should be fine. I've survived this long, after all. She thought to herself as she finally saw a deadly silhouette approach her from out of the corner of her eye.
And she knew that she was in trouble the moment she saw the red glow of a lightsaber resting in a position to take off her head if its bearer so chose.
"So, there is still a Kantaanian Ranger aboard my vessel. How interesting, how very interesting that the youngest commissioned officer of the group should live when the others should die. Shall I tell you another interesting tale, youngling?" the man said with a sneer, face coming into a sliver of light to display that half of his face was covered in an intricate, disfiguring tattoo.
"How about no?" she sneered back, hoping to create enough disturbance to get the attention of the Jedi.
The man simply ignored her and began to tell the tale of how he had come to be. The Almas Sith fortress and the murder of his unsuspecting Master, Qoranah. His first encounter with the pirates and his desire for power, which lead to his assumption of their leadership through a combination of mind control and fear that had solidified as time progressed. And his ultimate plans for conquest, first encompassing the Curlain Sector and then Kantaanian space, before taking on the Jedi Council and ruling the galaxy.
Reads like a bad Sith-Jedi war myth. Just lovely. She thought to herself as he seemed to wander off on a tangent that had nothing to do with his story.
"I see. So, visited dark temple and was seduced. Check. Visited Thugs Are Us rental service for muscle, check. Plotted a plan for galactic domination and possible genocide if some species gets in the way, check. I'd say you have all the bases covered on the megalomaniac's checklist of galactic domination. I'd tip my hat to you, but I don't have one." She spoke clearly, knowing that this should make him angry enough to cause the disturbance that might just get the Jedi's attention.
The Dark Jedi sneered and brought up the Kantaanian's lithe body forward to his face, spitting at her before slamming her full force into the nearest bulkhead. Pajari's head was spinning from the force of it and she tried to steady herself as best she could, which wasn't much. And she was almost certain that the man before her had determined that he was going to kill her slowly and painfully.
And given the whole Dark Jedi/Sith mindset, Pajari could count on it being an inventive death.
"You lack an appreciation of the favour that I'm doing the galaxy. You lack the imagination and the vision. "He snarled.
At this, she had to laugh. Pajari couldn't help herself. The Jedi were right to be worried about the man- he was clearly deranged. The dark side had warped everything about him: mind, body, and soul.
"Enlighten me then." She gasped between laughs as Jeen's face took on an even more murderous gaze.
Luckily, Kibh Jeen seemed to be just as arrogant as he was delusional. He began to spin a tale of how the Jedi were blind to a rising threat: the Sith had survived Ruusan and now followed something called the Rule of Two- a master and an apprentice, no more and no less at one time. They had been bidding their time, which spoke of a patience that Pajari had never thought possible from any of the ancient tales she remembered from when she was a child. He was consistent; she had to give him that even in his mad ramblings.
Eventually, he had enough of explaining himself to a hapless Kantaanian law woman he had captured after he had slaughtered her compatriots. As he prepared to begin whatever it was he had planned for her, the people she hoped would interrupt it did.
"Kibh Jeen, you are under arrest for crimes against the Galactic Republic. Surrender now or be destroyed." Knight Aferdita announced sternly as her Padawan circled around the back to block the Dark Jedi's escape.
The fight was fierce- Jeen wasn't giving up and Aferdita refused to give any quarter. Pajari had been dropped roughly on the floor and with no escape, was a reluctant witness to the duel. Determined to have her own revenge, she pulled out her blaster and been unsteadily firing at the dark sider's feet.
She did manage to hit him in the posterior, something she later would be shocked that she managed given her condition at the time. But it distracted him long enough for Knight Aferdita to make her move and strike the death blow against the crazed former Jedi.
Jedi, having defeated their enemy then checked on their ally. They joked with her that the Force must truly favour her, even as she was on the verge of passing out. In the end, she simply passed out. The very last thing she saw before her eyes closed and would keep surfacing before she regained consciousness was the image of the painted devil who had killed her colleagues and taken her captive.
FIN