Gaya woke up in blackness. At first, the darkness was so complete that she could not see mere centimeters past the end of her nose. As she waited for her eyes to adjust, she tried to use the Force to probe the room, letting it make a kind of radar outline in her head. She sensed solid masses that were probably furniture of some kind, shelves perhaps; the heat of a running engine somewhere under the floor- which felt like metal sheeting- and, lying about two meters away…

"Jaina?" she called. Or tried to. For the first time, she became conscious of the rag tied around her mouth. With a combination of the Force and spasmodic head jerking, she managed to loosen it. "Jaina?" she hissed.

"Mm," replied the being. There was wriggling, and then Jaina whispered, "Are you okay?"

"I think so. And you?"

"I'm fine."

"What happened, do you think?"

"I think they used a blaster set to 'stun.' My Mom got hit with one of those once. She says it's like being drugged, but cleaner and instantaneous."

Gaya recalled something from one of the Temple classes. "Imperial blasters have a 'stun' setting, right? Aren't they the only blasters that still do?" Most weapons now had rays which caused paralysis, but did not stun the victim so as not to risk damaging brain function, which stunning in rare instances had been known to do.

"Yeah. Man, we could really use Cody right now."

"Who else is in here?"

"Just the three of us. Linxo's next to me. It looks like they put some kind of muzzle-thing on her. They probably believed all those awful 'Anzati are vampires' myths. We can't get it off with the Force because it's got a buckle clasp."

"Right. We were going to learn those the week we came back, Master Witicca said."

Wait a moment, said a voice in Gaya's mind. With a start, she realized it was Linxo's. I am going to see if I can perceive the minds of our captors. I want to find out who they are and where they are taking us. Meanwhile, you two should get untied and arm yourselves.

After some more Force-manipulation and squirming, both girls were untied- the ropes were of thick but primitive cords of bantha leather woven together- and were doing their best with Linxo's knots. With an abrupt feeling of suction in the Force, these suddenly unraveled in the girls' hands. "Did you do that?" whispered Jaina.

Removing the muzzle, Linxo smiled bashfully, her white cheeks blushing pale pink, as she nodded. It was not so difficult…anyway, I have learned a few things. Our kidnappers are bounty hunters who have been supplied with Imperial resources. They wish us and our masters to believe they are slave traders, but in reality, they are delivering us to Eidolon base, and from there, off the planet. To a place called Byss.

"Byss?" Jaina raised an eyebrow. "That's where the Emperor's palace used to be. Well, it still is. Maybe we've been captured by the Imperial provisional government."

"Who runs that?" asked Gaya.

"Sate Pestage."

"Palpatine's old prime minister."

"That's right," Jaina confirmed in a way that struck Gaya as strangely narratively convenient- as narratively convenient as their whole exchange had been, she realized, but then put it out of her mind. They had too much to worry about without her weird thoughts.

"What does he want with us?" she asked instead.

"Ransom, probably," said Jaina. "Or demands. Look, we can probably escape as soon as we've found our-"

The room they were trapped in was flooded with light.

It took Gaya a minute to process the fact that the door had slid open, but all at once the knowledge hit her, and she reacted, running in the direction of the door as fast as she could, skidding on the metal, certain that at any moment she would be shot.

But her feet carried her out into the hall, where she perceived Jaina and Linxo standing with her, catching their breath. Unable to fully believe that something so simple as running past their captors- who had just realized what their prisoners, with the speed of Force-users, had actually done- had worked, the girls ran in the direction where they thought weapons might be, Jaina activating the door's locking mechanism and shutting their captors in the hold as she ran.

Their instincts proved correct as they came to a small room, with a counter on which several blasters lay, newly filled with fresh laser cartridges, waiting to be picked up by the accomplices they had been issued to. "Do you and Gaya know how to use these?" Linxo asked Jaina nervously. Now that there was no more need to be quiet- their escape would shortly be known- she had reverted to physical, sound-based speech. "We have barely learned how to handle lightsabers."

"I've used one in sim games," said Jaina.

"Cody let me try out his a couple times, after he refilled it and cleaned off the rust," Gaya informed them. "They're not too hard. You hold them like this-" she hefted one onto her hip- "then you lift them like this-" she lifted it to ribcage level with both hands- "and then you point and pull the trigger. But they have kind of a kick, so you have to be standing pretty steady. And you have to keep both hands on them when you shoot, because of that."

Jaina lifted hers. "They're kind of heavy."

"Yeah, they're built for power, and to be used by grown men in top physical condition," agreed Gaya. "Now, I'm not sure, but…" She thought. "In everything I've ever read, they say to either find escape pods or a hangar or else get to the bridge."

"This is a land transport," informed Jaina. "They won't have a hangar or pods."

"Then we should get to the cockpit or the bridge or whatever," Gaya decided, pushing down the fear that kept trying to flood her system. "Before they spot us. Is there a computer with a map or anything?"

"I will find out," Linxo assured her, lapsing into a spaced-out silence. After about thirty seconds, she emerged. "That way, up a ladder. I will show you."

"Quick," ordered Jaina. "Before they get us."


The ladder was most difficult, especially while shouldering the heavy blasters. Gaya missed her own lightsaber, which for now could only be put on a low-frequency, training setting. At the same time, there was something refreshing about the simplicity of blasters. You didn't need much grace, agility, or training to use them. You just held, aimed, and fired. Her brain processed the one-step procedure better, and her muscles performed it faster. But they were big, at least this model. It took all the girls' Force ability to climb while keeping the blasters from falling on the head of the climber below them.

Jaina pulled herself up first, with Gaya in the middle and Linxo below her in case she felt she was going to fall. "Okay, hands up in the name of the New Repub- oh, bugger…"

"They heard us coming, right?" mumbled Gaya, pulling herself up out of the ladder-shaft and finding about six blasters leveled at her and Jaina.

"Yep."

"Dammit. I was kind of afraid of that."

"I should have perceived it," Linxo moaned from inside the shaft. "But I was focused on climbing and scanning below us for any guards…I am so sorry…"

"Okay, man, we're putting the blasters down, already," groaned Jaina. Gaya put her own weapon on the floor with some hesitation. She had enjoyed its weight in her arms and on her hip, and had been looking forward to trying it out.

She observed their captors. The majority of the crew, manning the transport and covering her, Jaina, and now Linxo, were Imperial stormtroopers, which put Gaya vaguely at ease, since it reminded her of Cody- although, since his accelerated growth gene was deficient, he was closer to her age than to theirs.

The others, two of them, were the bounty hunters. One had his blaster leveled at them and looked as if he might fire due to an extreme nervous tic. The other sat in one of the console chairs, keeping an eye on them, his hand within reach of his blaster, yet not overly concerned. This one, a humanoid, wore a plain, mud-colored unisuit, jacket, and weapon belt, with well-worn, comfortable-looking boots and conventional, nondescript features.

His partner, the trigger-happy one, wore a jacket and tight pants made of glittering black patent-leather, with a studded belt. Around his neck and on his fingers (his hands were decked out in glovelets, a bad idea given that these exposed his fingertips, which most bounty hunters knew meant easy fingerprint identification) was platinum jewelry that looked too shiny to be real. His blaster and com looked to be streamlined, advanced models that each had hundreds of buttons and sensors apiece. Gaya, who had grown up in the Orange District and had seen some serious bounty hunters, thuggers, and shady characters, nearly laughed. This guy was new to the business, unlike his partner, and probably put more effort into his style than into his actual work. He wanted to look like a bounty hunter. Real bounty hunters didn't bother trying to look like bounty hunters. They just were, and if you didn't believe them, they'd explain your mistake to you by shooting off one of your ears, and then charging you for their trouble.

Beside her, Linxo had gone rigid. "What is it?" Gaya whispered.

She is coming, Linxo replied, returning to telepathy so as not to be heard by their captors. Darth Bane the First. She is nearly here. I can see her approaching, like a storm.

Gaya nodded. That made sense. The ancient Sith's powers were pretty close to limitless, so she would probably know where the apprentices were in about five seconds flat. "Um, excuse me?" she asked the bounty hunters. "Can I just say something for a minute?"

"Shut up," said the flashy one.

"Look, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, it's just there's something you should know-"

The blaster went off. Its beam flew within a few centimeters of Gaya's hair and hit the wall behind her right shoulder, leaving a slight singe mark. The younger bounty hunter snarled, "I said to shut up. Or the next one goes between your eyes."

By this point, Gaya herself could feel the metaphysical shadow in the air, like a change in temperature. It became almost physically chilly; she felt tiny bumps raise on her arms. Deciding that these kriffs deserved no further attempts at warning, she obligingly closed her mouth. She reflected that she was probably lucky this one was not an experienced bounty hunter; otherwise he'd likely have already shot her for continuing to talk. But then, maybe if he had been more experienced, he would have listened to her on the off chance that she was telling him something important.

The three apprentices were the only passengers left standing as the port side of the transport separated from the main body and blew off into the scalding white void. Gaya ducked behind the ladder-shaft along with her friends as shrapnel flew through the air, some of it red-hot. Through the cloud of debris and smoke, the captives and the crew- the crew would still be alive; Bane the First would make sure of that- saw the gaunt, elegant figure of a young woman in black appear, seemingly from the air.

She was wearing the form that Gaya knew she associated with warfare, because Bane the First herself had explained it to Gaya a few months ago, when Gaya had tentatively asked. Her black robe was torn and singed, splattered with red-brown stains; blood that was not hers. Her long red hair was a matted, greasy veil that she dragged on her back, and her smooth white skin was painted almost delicately with a thorny latticework of Sith tattoos.

She carried no weapons. Bane the First was the only modern Sith never to carry a lightsaber, even though they had been in use for years before she joined the Order. In life, she had occasionally used a blunt, rusty-edged antique Sith sword. In death, she used nothing except her teeth. Gaya suspected that she had never been comfortable with weapons, but this was no problem, since she by and large didn't need them.

She killed the stormtroopers, or seemed to, with barely a glance. Her gaze turned on the two bounty hunters, and, as the wreck of the transport hung in the desert air, she approached the experienced bounty hunter where he had taken shelter from the debris under the console. With one long-fingered hand, she pulled him out by the collar, studied him a moment with academic interest, and then threw him bodily from the wreck and across the sand. He fell some distance away; Gaya couldn't tell if he was alive or not.

She rounded on the flashy one, who fired two shots directly into her chest. When she took no notice of these or of his third shot into her forehead, the girls saw the blaster clatter to the metal floor, and watched him fall backward onto the deck beside it. "What are you? What the hell are you?"

Bane the First lifted him by the neck until they were face to face. He was shaking. "Please, lady, please don't hurt me. I don't know who you are, but you can have the brats, and I'll never tell anyone what happened, you can have the credit for the whole thing. I don't even want any money, just let me go-"

He was cut off as Bane the First bent and plunged her white teeth into his throat. Gaya looked away until the sounds were done, and then she, Jaina, and Linxo stood carefully.

"Um, hello, Master," offered Jaina. She was unable to keep her eyes from returning to the spot of blood smeared at the corner of Bane the First's mouth, like badly-applied lipstick.

"Thanks for finding us, Master," added Gaya.

After a moment, she heard Bane the First's voice inside her head. This was easier for Bane the First, since the only language she seemed to speak was Sith. Unlike Linxo's telepathy, Bane the First's words were not really words, but rather image-concepts that Gaya mentally translated into messages. Cody contacted me and explained that you had disappeared. I have informed your masters what has happened. I have learned much from the men who tried to take you. Come, we will rejoin your 'New Sith'.

Before the girls could react to the message, all three experienced a moment of unconsciousness- akin to a very long blink, except with all six senses- and then found themselves lying in a canvas tent.

Fighting off the nausea that the sudden teleportation seemed to have caused, Jaina announced, "I think we've found the Thar Tusken, guys."