In the far corners of the galaxy, a voice whispered in the dark. It called out, not with words, but with thoughts, spreading, like ripples on the surface of a pond:

Come to me. Come to me, and I shall make you great. You shall lord over all the pathetic creatures of this galaxy, crushing them beneath your almighty heel. But most importantly, you shall help me take my revenge. Revenge against the Jedi, revenge against the Sith girl, revenge against that thrice-cursed grandson of Vader. Come to me, and together we will kill Ben Skywalker!

~O~

Karick Pyial sat up with a start, shaken from his sleep by what he had now come to think of as "The Voice." Every time he tried to rest, he was almost immediately waken from his slumber by the recurring dream. The terrible voice whispering to him out of the dark. And no matter how many times he checked his room, he could never find a source.

At first, it had just been a feeling. An inexplicable need to travel. And so he had, all the way across the surface of the planet, walking or jumping onto moving vehicles from the walkways. But it hadn't been enough. Eventually, he decided to ignore the call, and go back to his life as a tramp, and for a time, it left him alone. But then it had returned, haunting his sleep, the same message over and over again. Karick may not have been privy to the holonet news much, living as he did in the undercity, but even he knew who Ben Skywalker was. What he couldn't figure out was why the voice wanted to kill him. Karick didn't particularly like the Jedi, as they had never tried to help him, but he wasn't stupid enough to try to kill one, either.

Rolling over on the hard duracrete floor of a long abandoned building, Karick found himself facing a patch of Yorik Coral. Hardly an uncommon site in the underlevels, but one that he hated, nonetheless. Karick had only been a child when the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated, but it was then that he had lost his mother. He never knew where he had been born, but as a child he had been brought to Coruscant, or "Yuuzhan'tar" as it was called then, to be sacrificed. He barely remembered his mother's face, but he had never forgotten her last words to him, as he was carried away on in the arms of a shamed one, who had disrupted the sacrificial ceremony.

Karick Pyial, she had said You will survive this, and you are destined to be-

That was as far as she had gotten, before they were swept apart in the tide of battle. He remembered little else about the war, except hiding in the dark recesses of the deepest parts of the Vong-formed city, starving, but afraid to venture forth for fear of being killed. In the years that had followed, with the so-called Galactic Alliance trying to clean up the city, Karick had fallen into company with an old woman by the name of Caleya, who had used him to run errands for the smuggling ring she was in charge of. Awful, dangerous work, but at least she had fed him and taught him to read and speak basic. Six years later Karick, age ten, had arrived at the meager apartment they shared to find her lying on the rug in a pool of blood, her eyes staring at nothing. Karick had run, fast and far, to escape that awful sight. Since then, he had been on his own, a constant hunger gnawing at his belly. Finally, a year ago, he had decided to try to find work on the surface, and had worked for a time, as a dishwasher in one of the restaurants near the Jedi Temple. At least, until it had been demolished in the fearsome battle against the being known as Abeloth. The restaurant had caught fire and burned to the ground almost taking Karick with it. He had escaped, but just barely, partly due to the agility he had gained from climbing from building to building in his youth.

He had fled back down into the undercity, content to live his life in peace, even if it meant being hungry. And so, after years of horror and starvation, he lay in shadow, shivering under his scrappy blanket.

I'm so sick of this, he thought to himself, Living in fear and hunger all of my life. Surely my mother didn't mean that this is what I'm destined to be. Or did she? I'll never know. He sighed. Then straightened as a thought occurred to him. Maybe she meant that I was destined to follow "The Voice" and become Lord of the Galaxy. He wasn't sure what had prompted him to think this, but it instantly felt right.

"Yes." He said, standing, and began gathering his things. "I will follow The Voice." As he spoke, his voice rose in pitch, until he was shouting. "I shall lord over all the pathetic creatures of this galaxy. I will take revenge, and I will kill Ben Skywalker!" He laughed, long and loud until he was cut off by a fist-sized chunk of duracrete that slammed into his stomach. A disembodied voice floated from the darkness,

"Shut your trap, you kriffin' barve! Some of us is tryin' to sleep!"

Karick shouted back, "I will be your master, you cur! And soon you shall bow at my feet!"

"Nutjob." came the reply, in a resigned tone.

Karick just smiled.

~O~

Six days later, Karick was regretting his decision. Not the decision to follow The Voice, which had been successful up until this point. He had hopped aboard a small freighter bound for Nal Hutta, and remained hidden until the ship had cleared planetary security, and then he had snuck up to the cockpit and killed the pilot and co-pilot. It was this decision that he was regretting, as he realized too late that he had no idea how to fly a ship. He had managed to input the coordinates that had flashed through his mind, and entered hyperspace without too much trouble, but now he was about to re-enter realspace, and he was going to have to land the ship sometime. Soon, he realized, as he glanced at the string of numbers, counting down toward zero, when he would have to revert. He put his hand on the lever, not exactly sure how he knew which one it was, and pulled.

The stars resolved into lines before his astonished eyes. He tried to take everything in. Before his eyes was a sun, as red as blood with a glowing sheen of black surrounding it. Karick hadn't even known that black could glow until now. His eyes shifted towards the planet which he knew was his destination and as they did, his hands steered the ship towards it, too. A dusty red with patches of what could only be lava, it seemed wrong to Karick, probably because he was used to a planet where there was never night, and everything was made of metal. Without thinking, he plotted an approach vector, thankful that he could at least pilot the ship, albeit without actually being in control of it.

Well, now I won't crash, He thought with a smile. Just then, the ship shuddered ominously. Karick was thrown into his restraints as it shook from side to side. Panicking, he started randomly pushing things, which only made things worse. He saw the temperature gauges rising as he entered the atmosphere at far too steep an angle. Pulling up on the yoke, he managed to temporarily right the ship, only to find himself face to face with a red mountain, which was spewing magma. A cold sweat broke out on his brow as he wrested the controls in the opposite direction, causing the ship to turn away at the last moment. Now he was headed towards a flat plain, ringed in on all sides by a towering cliffs. Deciding that this would probably be preferable to landing in a volcano, he pushed the button that he thought would lower the landing gear and pushed the yoke forward again. The landing gear lowered, not that it mattered, as his ship was going so fast that it hit the ground and slid for thirty meters, jostling him so badly that he thought his teeth would fall out. Finally his transport ground to a halt, billowing smoke out of the rear. As fast as possible, he unbuckled his crash webbing and ran, rather tipsily, from the cockpit and down the landing ramp, which didn't even need to be opened, as it was already bent so badly that there were cracks all over.

He made it about ten meters before the ship blew. He was thrown forward into the ground, and out of reflex covered his ahead with his arms as a wave of fire rolled over him. He lay on the ground, panting, until he was relatively sure that there was nothing else coming, and then struggled to get to his feet, which resulted in another fall.

"Kriff!" He swore, still trying to stand. Or at least, he thought that was what he had said, for it was then he realized that he couldn't hear. He gave up trying to stand, and sat down hard, starting to assess his injuries. Nothing seemed to be broken, but his right leg had a small piece of metal in it, and he couldn't see out of one eye. Reaching up to rub away what he thought was dirt, he was shocked when his hand came away sticky with blood.

Just what I need, he thought, grimacing. It was then that he remembered the cause for his injuries.

He stood up fast, forgetting about his leg, and almost fell over again. He stared with utter despair at the crater that had been his stolen ship. Now I have no way to get of this rotten hell-hole.

At least my hearing is returning. And sure enough, he could hear...something. He turned around slowly, trying to hear it better. Halfway around, he froze, staring in disbelief at the sight that confronted him.

And...now I'm hallucinating. Great.

He stared in wonder at the ship, a sleek model he had never even seen, and which he could never have even dreamed of touching. He was so in awe of it, he didn't notice the girl for a full minute. She was rolling around on the ground at the bottom of the boarding ramp, and it looked like she was hurt. He ran towards her, very unsteadily, trying to help her with whatever was wrong. When he got close enough to talk to her, he said,

"Are- are you a-all right?" It was then that he realized she was not injured, but that she was laughing uncontrollably. Laughing so hard she was crying, in fact. Indignant, he stopped right above her and put his hands on his hips.

"What's so funny?!" He demanded. She couldn't even talk she was laughing so hard. He waited for a minute, then sat down and waited some more. Finally, she got herself under control. Sort of. She sat up, trying to make some order out of her long, blonde hair.

"S-so-r-ry." She said, her bright blue eyes brimming with tears of laughter.

"Maybe you'd like to explain what was so funny about my landing?" He asked.

"Y-you call th-that a l-landing? Y-ou're crazier than I th-thought."

Now he was really angry, "Well, excuse me! I've never flown a ship before! How was I supposed to know how to land?!"

She finally stopped laughing, and stared at him with round eyes. "You've never flown before?" He shook his head, causing it to ache. She stood up and peered at him, as if reevaluating her opinion of him.

"Well," she said, "You're either completely insane, or you have a lot of natural talent. What prompted you to fly all the way to the far edge of the galaxy, without even knowing how to do it?"

Now that he had recovered almost fully from his crash, some of his brusque demeanor returned, and he answered shortly, "Why should I tell you?"

She laughed, he was really beginning to hate that laugh. "You think you're so tough, don't you? Well, fair's fair, I haven't even introduced myself." She held out her hand. "Alyah Wakeye, of the honorable planet Bespin."

"Karick." He said, still angry.

"That's all you're going to tell me?"

"Why should I tell you more?" He asked with genuine puzzlement.

"Because it's polite?" She said, and then realizing he was staring at her blankly. "You do know what polite means, right?"

He snorted. "I've never needed to be polite."

Alyah stared at him, "Where were you raised, Dathomir?" She asked incredulously.

"Coruscant."

"And your parents didn't teach you any manners?"

Karick immediately went on guard. "Dead." he said shortly, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see what's left of my ship."

He turned to leave, but Alyah grabbed his arm. "Wait, Karick. I didn't know, I'm sorry."

"Why should you be? No one else ever was." He said, not looking at her.

"Look Karick, don't pretend that you're going to salvage your ship. There's nothing left to salvage. Now will you come inside so we can talk?"

"Fine. But first, why don't you tell me why you're here."

"Fair enough," she said, "I came because for months, I kept hearing this voice in my head, whispering things while I was asleep. Finally, I got sick of it, and flew here."

Karick tried to interrupt, but she cut him off. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true, the coordinates just planted themselves into my head!"

Karick tried to explain, but she interrupted again

"Oh what's the use. You think I'm bonkers."

"No," Karick said, "I was going to tell you that I believed you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, 'cause that's the exact same reason I'm here."

She started to reply, but before she could, something spoke out in Karick's mind.

Now that you've both discovered that you're here for the same purpose, Boomed the voice that Karick had heard so much in his dreams. He looked at Alyah and found that she was obviously hearing the same thing.

Yes, yes, you can both hear me. Now, you have both obeyed my summons, finally, and together you shall train to rule the galaxy. In times of old, your training would have taken you years, but we are limited on time, so we shall compress it into six months. Now, let your Sith training, begin!