Lies

Chapter One

The sky above Coruscant's towering city loomed blood-red, the sun nothing more than a faint orange globe in the sky. Trails from speeders, transport convoys and small ships hung in the air like the fog from the netherworld.

Only the sound of a faint buzzing coming from a maintenance droid outside filtered into the secure, locked apartment of 500 Republica, home of the wealthiest politicians and other rich people on Coruscant.

The tinted windows merely reflected the feeling that Coruscant was entering its darkest days yet, illuminating patches on the wall where the sun light was intensely focused.

A table lamp lit the cosy seating area and the two occupants were silhouetted against the bright light, one reached out their hand and slowly adjusted the brightness, bringing it down to a bearable level. The light bounced off the blood-red walls and illuminated the two people sitting opposite each other, mere feet away, but judging by the feeling in the room, they could have been galaxies away from each other.

A deep voice sounded and suddenly spoke. "Jocasta, it's for your own good. You know as well as I do that the Clone Wars cannot be contained forever. Eventually some of it must overspill to the rest of the Galaxy and we must do whatever we must to prevent it, and if that fails, we must at least try to minimise the damage done."

Jocasta, her face old and wrinkled and her vocal cords slightly less plump than in the past, spoke, her voice sounding like a melody that would never end and entered peace into the heart of everyone that heard it.

"But, don't you realize that the Jedi will play no part in this? We will not be used as tools of the Chancellor; it is against our Code and goes against everything we ever stood for. True, the Clone Wars are regrettable but surely the Chancellor can manage with his Grand Army of the Republic?" She said querulously, her silvery white eyebrows rose in a questioning manner.

The other figure, now thrown into shadow, spoke, their deep voice resonating around the small apartment. "Jocasta, please, I no longer wish to hear of this. Go, now. Please, go back to the Archives and contain yourself. Certain members in the Senate find the need for the Jedi to step in as Generals of the Grand Army of the Republic and I fully back their views, as well as the Chancellor's."

With that, the figure rose up out of their small, plush seat and gestured towards the door. Jocasta stood up silently from her seat, her whole body tensed with anger. "How dare you! You impetuous, lying, filthy beast!" She attempted to continue but was stopped as she was suddenly flung against the wall and slowly choked.

"Don't you dare insult me!" The figure spoke, their voice having no accent or any type of distinguishable tone. One of their hands was slowly rising higher and higher, choking Jocasta, before letting her fall to the floor and scurry to the door.

Opening it, the figure grabbed her and shoved her out into the deserted hallway.

Then, the door slowly hissed closed and the figure drew a sigh of relief. Turning to face the reception area where they had sat a few moments before, they tidied up the area, before retiring to the bedroom, where they stared silently up at the blood-red ceiling, their face illuminated by the radiance that shone out of the walls and ceiling, before finally falling asleep.

Meanwhile, as Jocasta hurried out of 500 Republica, she didn't notice the ominous looking figures hovering on speeder bikes in a dark corner caused by the overhang on a sky dock.

Hailing a swoop back to the Temple, she rode in relative luxury, before departing and hurrying up, as fast as she could, the steps that led into the Jedi Temple.

Voices murmured and hummed in the hallways, not far down the hall, she could hear the voice of a library search droid dedicated to helping Jedi scholars and who-ever else needed to browse the Archives, beeping in dismay.

She half-ran the last few metres down the hallway, before turning into the Archives and coming face to face with the pleasant, amicable face of the Supreme Chancellor.

"Ah, Chief Librarian, I was just looking for you." He said jovially, about to go on before Jocasta interrupted him.

"Supreme Chancellor, haven't you realised this is an out of bounds area? You haven't got clearance to be in here." She said, her mouth turning down at the corners and her face looking like she was sucking a particularly sour lemon.

Her vivid blue eyes stared at him, defying him, challenging him to defy her. Instead, he merely shook his head apologetically and stepped to one side, allowing her to carry on through the doorway into the Archives, and giving him a quick escape.

Her normally pleasant face looked like it had been carved out of rock, so bleak and strict she looked. Sighing slightly, she pressed a button and announced the Archives would be closed in 3 minutes.

There was the usual scurry for the door, and then silence penetrated only by the boom as the doors sealed shut and followed by the clicking noise that indicated they were being locked.

Getting up from her desk, she headed towards the rear of the Archives and stopped before a door. Next to it were several panels, including a voice recognition one, a retinal scanner and a keypad.

After submitting the information to the small computer inside the panels, she waited for a few brief seconds before the door hissed open and she stepped into the dark, dim room as the door slowly shut again.

Here, she was inside the Outer Holocron Room. Arranged in a ring emanating from the centre of the room, were several holocrons all protected via force-field cages and a very thin plating of cortosis.

In the centre of the room, stood a large computer terminal, if she needed to access a holocron, all she had to do was simply log in, select which holocron she wanted and then enter the 25 digit security code, voice recognition code and another code that was entirely unique to the Chief Librarian and no-one else knew it.

Next to the terminal stood a small desk and embed in it, was a flashing red panel. If she were to encounter trouble, all she had to do was press that red button and it would seal down the Archives for 8 hours, before deploying enough oxygen to last that long. Then, 2 minutes after the alarm had sounded; it would open up a secret passageway leading out of the room, ensuring the occupant would get to safety in time. In theory it should work, though in practise, well… it hadn't yet happened.

Jocasta paused for a moment, brushing down her yellow robes, before advancing to the terminal and logging in. Scrolling down the list of holocrons, she ignored all those she had seen before, until one entry caught her eye. She couldn't believe how she had missed it before; after all, it dated back to beyond the Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation. Indeed, it dated back a fairly long way. Examining it closer on the screen, she paused and stared at the title it had been named. No, it couldn't be!

Yet here she was, staring down at possibly the only recording that had ever managed to capture the identity of the elusive Sith Lord, Darth Sidious.

Ignoring it for the moment, she cast her mind back to her chance encounter with the Chancellor and reflected on what she had done. True, she loved the man, but he had a habit of going into out of bound areas all too often. Sighing, she knew in her heart that she loved him, and would apologise to him later, but right now, more important things were at stake.

Suddenly, she sensed someone else was in the room. Tensing her body, she whirled round, and encountered darkness, still, she heard the sound of breathing continue, turning round, she almost screamed in fright, as Darth Sidious stood mere feet from her, blocking her access to the computer terminal.

"Master Jedi, your plan won't work." He said in a gravely tone as he probed her mind. "You intend to show this to the Jedi High Council, but now, you'll never get the chance." He laughed mirthlessly and she took a risk. Shooting her hand forward, she banged down on the emergency button and ignited her lightsaber, though it was all in vain.

Darth Sidious ignited his and with a swift thrust, disarmed her, her lightsaber being thrown into a dark, shadowy corner of the room.

Her mouth turned bone-dry and she breathed a slight sigh of relief when a beeping noise sounded near the terminal. Meanwhile, as Darth Sidious was occupied in deleting all evidence from the terminal, she dived forwards and leapt down the flight of stairs that had appeared in the floor.

Glancing back, she saw the black robes of Lord Sidious approaching, but the tunnel door sealed before he could reach her.

Nearly about to cry, Jocasta stumbled down the dark tunnel and eventually, she reached what seemingly felt like a wall, but to her touch, silently swung open. Looking out, she realised that she was in the room with 1000 fountains. It was quiet, apart from the gentle bubbling of the fountains.

Hearing nothing behind her, Jocasta stepped out and glanced around the room, before walking briskly to the door and entering the busy main hallway.

Accessing a nearby terminal, she logged in to the public announcements sector and spoke, her voice being heard throughout the Temple. "Members of the Jedi Order, a Sith has breached the Temple. I repeat, a Sith has breached the Temple! I encountered a Sith Lord in the Holocron Room. Be on your guard."

She logged off and quickly hurried to the Council Chamber, before repeating her story to the Jedi High Council.

"Master Yoda, members of the Council, I have grave news. A Sith has penetrated the Temple and accessed the Holocron Room. His name…" Here she paused, before continuing. "The Sith Lord I encountered was Darth Sidious."

There was a shocked silence, before chaos broke out. Voices spoke across each other and Master Yoda looked gravely at Jocasta. "Dark times, the Jedi have entered."

Suddenly, there was a whirring noise and the hologram projector near the door suddenly sprang into life. Appearing twice the normal size in the screen was the Supreme Chancellor.

"Ah. Master Jedi, I come bearing terrible news. A tragedy has occurred right here within our own sector. The CIS have attacked Corellia, Coronet to be precise, and…well. See for yourself." The image of the Chancellor was replaced by an image of the planet wide devastation that the CIS had caused when they attacked Coronet hours earlier.

"By the Force." Jocasta said breathlessly, tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of the thousands, and millions now dead.