Chapter 6

Pieces on the Board

Imperial Galaxy - Outer Rim - Dagobah

Ten thousand-million planets covered the Imperial cosmos; many being uninhabitable lifeless rocks circling distant stars which were cataloged and measured but nothing more. So it was no surprise that Dagobah remained a mystery to the vast majority of the population. Teeming with over-nourished vegetation, animal life, molds, and fungus, it birthed many oddities of creature both large and small. But none of these attributes made it unique, only it's intelligent permanent resident, known to some as the most celebrated Jedi Master the galaxy had ever seen, made the planet truly remarkable.

On the surface, a usually dry shoreline of an unimportant bog flooded with water.

Torrential rain pooled and swashed along the ground, overflowing into the surrounding area and collecting near the foot of a large tree. A small dwelling had been hollowed out and erected in the trees immense shadow, its exposed roots forming the basis for the walls and roof. Through the small glassless windows, the last remnants of firelight flickered beneath a suspended pot of stew. And there, in the firelight along a narrow passage sat Luke Skywalker, the last hope of the Rebellion.

His dirty drabs of clothing matched his equally unkempt hair and facial stubble. Many months had passed since the evacuation of the Hoth base. Sent to Dagobah by his old mentor Obi-Wan, he had trained under his new master. Now Yoda's shaky claw reached for the corner of the well-worn blanket.

"Yes..strong are you," strained Yoda while struggling to turn himself over to face his apprentice. Despite Luke having only trained for a few months, his progress surprised even the ancient Jedi Master. Luke smiled as he pulled the blanket higher towards his master's chin; the small fire unable to warm the room.

"Master Yoda…" so many questions raced through the young man's mind. In his short stay on Dagobah, secrets of the Force unveiled themselves, an untold power lay waiting to grasp. With no distractions and his friends safe, he had concentrated, trained, and understood. Strange images still swirled in his head, cloud cities, battles above a forest moon, futures that may or may not have existed. One possible future... Each day the visions became more fragmented, disjointed and harder to discern.

"Nothing to say…" coughed Yoda, closing his eyes and seeing his own images flash before him. For all Force users, the future seemed mostly unreadable due to unknown interference, but when the mind was calm as it was now, flashes of the true future could be seen. "Luke... Luke….your training is not over…you will have to learn all that there is to learn."

A look of surprise flashed across Luke's face,

"I am not a Jedi?"

"A Jedi?!" Yoda snickered before a wave of coughing overtook him. "A Jedi? ...no … no. Vader...you must confront Vader." Luke hung his head low and closed his eyes. He had experienced vivid dreams of a climactic battle aboard a Deathstar, and a lingering question remained. Is it my destiny? He shook his head in disbelief when he felt a brittle claw raise his chin; he looked up into his master's eyes. Yoda's soft smile disarmed him, and for the next few seconds, each remained calm and quiet. For with each passing moment Yoda became closer to the Force. For only the strongest could see the truth at the end of their long journey. No more distortions, no more fragmented visions. He could see.

The future.

The past.

Old friends long gone.

"Remember...a Jedi's strength flows from the Force, luminous being are we... not this crude matter," he shook Luke's chin with emphasis. Several minutes passed in silence before Luke asked his last question,

"Will I face him?" Yoda lay still, and at first Luke thought the firelight played tricks with his eyes. In reality, his master's form shifted into another phase of existence, like previous masters before him. It was the way of things, the way of the Force. The moment seemed to last forever, but in a final second of semblance, a message.

"When it is your turn to pass... a Jedi you will be."

Then he was gone.

Luke sat back against the cold wall and stared out into the sheets of rain. I am the last one. Instantly he felt intolerably lonely, first Obi-Wan, and now Yoda,

"I am all alone…"

"Not exactly,"

Luke's neck snapped sideways,

"Obi-wan…"

Out in the pouring rain stood his old friend, his force ghost shimmering in the storm. Struggling to his feet, Luke walked out into knee deep water to greet him. The torrential downpour in conjunction with blistering wind limited visibility to a few feet, and even in a foot of water, waves churned and splashed along the surface. "Ben... I can't do it" he pleaded. Upon his arrival on this overgrown planet, he was cocky, willing, and brash. But the failure in the cave now haunted him. Luke had faced his deepest fears, the ramifications boring deep into his core. Yoda had told him that he did not need his weapons, that only his mind was required. Fear lay in wait, deep inside him; Vader's broken helmet had revealed himself, that within him lay the potential for evil.

Maybe there is a bit of evil in all of us...

"Luke, you have to be strong. There are challenging times ahead, the future is unknown," said Kenobi.

Luke wiped his eyes and looked back at the small hut through the downpour.

"I wanted to know, is it my destiny to face Vader?" Luke turned back, but Obi-wan had vanished.

Now the desolation of his situation became apparent; there is nothing left for me here... Luke gathered his gear, clothing, supplies, and stowed them into the belly of his X-wing. R2D2 chirped and whistled as the astromech droid secured itself into the navigator position. On the screen, Luke read the following,

-Priority message

-Increased Imperial activity in Caleise System

-Kuat Drive Yards producing probe droids

-Increased fleet rotations

-Contacts within Imperial Navy are showing longer deployment times

-Bounty-Hunters are being recruited

-Keep Safe

Luke switched off the encoder and sat in silence. He knew he would never return, never again to train under a master. And as he sat, one question continued to haunt him, what is my destiny... what can I control? He did not know. No answer could be given. Then his train-of-thought stopped as his eye caught a random raindrop as it ran down the X-Wing canopy. It started off small and as it fell towards the bottom of the windshield, colliding with other water droplets which joined the whole. Luke followed it carefully, watching it grow larger and larger as it collected more droplets into itself, down and down until the droplet came within a few inches of the lock-seal. It then switched directions and headed diagonally across the canopy towards the other end.

The wind had shifted, and so too had the droplet.

Luke shook his head and took one last somber look outside, his master's hut hidden in the distance.

"So long," he whispered as his X-wing climbed into the sky, disappearing from sight.

Milky Way - Alpha Quadrant - Enterprise

Not a sound came from the dark and quiet bridge of the Enterprise, no light or instrument panel flashed or blinked. Deep within a gaseous nebula and running in 'silent' operation, the crew readied themselves as the final calculations were completed. It had been hypothesized after dozens of failed attempts that the random appearances of these unknown ships cropping up across Federation space were not random at all. Instead, Spock believed they followed a precisely calculated distribution path within Federation space. Multiple attempts to capture one of these ships had failed due to insufficient data, but as time wore on, Spock felt confident he had discovered a pattern. Forty-eight failed captures in the last three weeks from many ships across Federation space allowed for an ever decreasing margin of error.

"Spock?" whispered Kirk. "Spock… Spock?" the Vulcan raised his finger while finishing the last calculations in his head,

"Now,"

Kirk did not need to hear another word. He jammed his thumb into the communication button, connecting the bridge to the phaser control room,

"Fire!"

A blanket of deadly energy penetrated the swirling gases of the nebula and out into the void beyond. A wide-angle, low-power firing pattern sought to bring the crew their prize. Everyone on the bridge tingled with excitement, eager to see if their plan worked. Energized Nebula played havoc with Federation sensors, and Kirk had gambled, or perhaps hoped, the Enterprise would remain hidden long enough to spring the trap.

The ship eased slowly out from the energized particles,

"Sensors coming back online now Captain. Scanning... detecting a small craft…" Spock turned back towards the Captain, "Only sixty percent damaged, but I believe the self-destruct device has been disabled."

"Well done Mr. Spock, well done," said Kirk with an appreciative smile. While the trap had been his idea, it would not have been possible without the diligent work of his first officer. Best officer in the fleet then, best officer in the fleet now. He ordered the Enterprise to retrieve the crippled ship and bring it into the shuttle bay for inspection. Starfleet's Admiralty had been waiting almost three months for someone to catch one of these ships, and now the wait was over. Hundreds of tons of debris had been collected up to this point, but the thorough self-destruct system left nothing but inoperable shredded metal.

"So Scotty, what do we have?" asked Kirk as he and Spock entered the shuttle bay.

"I don't know yet Captain, may take a few days."

The disabled ship appeared in terrible shape, at only eight meters in length it would generally be easy for a small engineering team to look over every inch. In this case, the protective shell had been melted by phaser fire. Pieces were missing and in some cases fused with others, making it difficult to even sort the bow from the stern.

Over the next several days Scotty, Spock, and an engineering team worked round the clock trying to untangle the mysteries of the alien craft. After an exhaustive effort, and many questions from Starfleet they were able to present their findings,

"Ok gentlemen, what have you found?" Kirk sat at the head of the conference table, poring over notes and figures. Only a few days from Earth, the captain thought it best for a debriefing before the information was confiscated by Starfleet Intelligence.

Spock began,

"This unmanned ship appears to be a probe, a detection ship sent here to gather information. I surmise whoever is sending it is trying to discover all they can about us."

"How does it penetrate our sensor grids?"

"It does not appear it travels using warp technology. It is moving outside of real space, and so we cannot determine its origin. Its computer, communication, and propulsion systems are all unknown to us. The drive system was too heavily damaged to determine the exact nature of its travel."

"Outside of space?" asked Kirk.

"Yes Captain, I believe it is the only logical conclusion that can be made now that I have examined its systems. The drive system while damaged corroborates my hypothesis of how these ships are penetrating our sensor grids; they do not travel in our space."

"Scotty?"

"We have tried to talk to its computer, tried to replicate its mode of communication, we are at a loss," said the Scotsman.

"Spock, could it be from the Dominion?"

"Unknown Captain, we do not have enough data. However, this technology has never been seen before."

Kirk frowned,

"Can we stop them?"

Spock raised his eyebrow, and with everlasting patience he concentrated on strategies that could be used quadrant-wide.

"Not yet Captain, perhaps in time."

The analysis and capture tactics were shared with Sloan in the Communication Branch, which then filtered through to all the other branches of Starfleet. Despite the dissemination of information and possible tactics, probe encroachment continued unabated. Hundreds continued to penetrate Federation space on a daily basis, exploding when approached. The recent capture seemingly having no effect on their frequency or ever-increasing brazenness. What started as a slow trickle now turned to a full-on shower. Federation worlds actively sought out stealth probes hiding within their solar systems, secretly attaching themselves to asteroids or large comets. Others made landfall, entering the atmosphere of many worlds, only to explode a few minutes after touching down. No member world was left unaffected, nor were the surrounding territories of the Romulans, Klingons, Breen, Gorn, Melkotians, Ferengi, and others. Federation listening posts detected communication between other Alpha Quadrant inhabitants, each as puzzled and baffled as the other.

Milky Way - Alpha Quadrant - Betazed - Federation World

Yalick finished the final details of his Inash Zu pastry as four more customers walked into his store. The conversations taking place are a mixture of telepathy and verbal speech, the distinction having no significance.

"Hi Yalick, got any more of that Zu?" Asked a frequent customer unable to get enough of the fabulous food.

"Sure do Nilo, just finishing one now. How did the Admiral like the last batch?" asked Yalick with a disarming smile.

To describe Yalick, one would have to first imagine a piece of granite rock. From there, chisel a perfectly square jaw, a solid chest and back, and sturdy legs and hands. At 6'2 and a solid 220lbs. of muscle, he was far from 'soft'. Atop his head was thick brown hair, cut short and neat on the sides but a little longer on the top where it was combed to one side. But it was his eyes that undoubtedly made the man, and if it didn't seem so absurd, one would say that if you were to stare into them, they would remind you of an eagle. Deep, alluring, and deadly.

"Oh! Loved it. She keeps asking me to run over here and get more, if you keep it up you might become Starfleet's official caterer," chuckled Nilo.

Yalick had transferred from Betazed Colony 17 on the other side of the sector. His new shop only a month old, burst with delicious pastries, desserts, and lunches. "Not sure how you got the permits to open here, but, couldn't ask for a better place." The bakery was situated only a few hundred meters from the Betazed-Starfleet command building, one of several across the planet.

"You would not believe what I had to go through, I actually started the process back on '17', I wouldn't have moved here otherwise," said Yalick as he placed the Inash Zu pastry into a 'take out' box.

"Well I'm glad you did, this stuff beats the replicator ten out of ten. See you tomorrow friend!"

Nilo left the establishment as he had come, with a smile on his face. Yalick smirked and continued to serve the other customers. He had been so busy he almost forgot the Minar-Rolls in the oven, almost. Yalick never forgot anything, all information in his wonderfully compartmentalized brain was sorted, labeled, and set aside for further or even immediate analysis. As each customer came to and fro only a small portion of his conscience was being used to interact, bake, and tell the occasional joke. His primary-thought concentrated on his sense of perception. He saw inside the Starfleet building, inside the minds of the Admiral and junior officers. Yalick's mind moved through every square inch of the building. His new identity had allowed him around the clock proximity, and most importantly, plausible deniability. The store permit was real; his past was not. Nothing was 'real' in the sense of truth, only in the sense of records. Computer libraries had been changed, minds altered and information adjusted. 'Yalick' was as 'real' as the bedtime stories told to children, the truth only known to the teller. The baker had been busy, and at this moment he was busy listening to a briefing made by Admiral Teller to Starfleet command.

"We searched the lake again, nothing, same as before. We think it may have been another one of those damn probes. If something had been there it was long gone. Maybe destroyed, we do not know."

"There were no traces?"

"None."

"Alright, keep at it. What else Admiral?"

"We have detected eighteen more of those probes in our local sector, all self-destructed before we could even get close. The strange reading in the lake could have been one of them. We just don't know."

What Starfleet did not know was the ship in the lake was no probe, it had no association with the probes. Nearly three months ago, Yalick's ship had been violently ripped out of a hyperspace-tube only a few hundred feet above a forest on Betazed. The expulsion from the hyperspace tube was of such magnitude that his ship began to break apart, causing it to careen into the lake. Yalick had made sure that all traces were gone, a combination of Starfleet computer reprogramming and vaporization. He completed none of these tasks in person, that would have been too risky. From the moment he swam ashore from his sinking ship, he had been busy establishing exactly where he was, lying low and reading the thoughts of the local population. Over the span of several weeks and thousands of digested but unharmed minds, he began setting up his false identity, history, and eventual storefront. Yalick had worked diligently and conservatively to cover all his tracks. Betazoid's being telepaths, allowed for the ability to read the thoughts of most species, but Yalick is no Betazoid, far from it.

Able to control multiple minds at once, he effortlessly played puppeteer as Starfleet officers changed sensor logs without memory of doing so. Debris was dealt with by phaser vaporization, orchestrated by manipulated log entries and shore leave. He had been searching for any hint of his detection, any sign if someone was 'onto' him. After a month of baking in his store he decided it safe to continue his plan. There was a lot to consider at the moment. How do I get home? Was the attack on Ploor the final echelon of control? Why can't Mentor or the kids find me? Is my wife OK? Those were important questions that had to be answered, but there were many others now cropping up as he learned more and more about his current situation.

The Federation is being probed, something or someone wants to learn a lot about them. Someone who had not been in contact with them before, he surmised. C'mon..THINK...can I help these people before I leave? There were many incomplete facts and partial pieces of information floating around in the minds of Starfleet officers on Betazed. A total picture was impossible from this vantage point, though he knew more than all of them combined thanks to his ability to truly think and consolidate the information. But there just wasn't enough information on this member world to determine if he could help them, or to discover what technology could send him home. Time for action...

Several mental instructions passed into the Starfleet building. Some commands were for junior officers in database management, others to security officers and a few to the Admiral. Planting fake information deep within the Starfleet system could not be rushed. There were many computer redundancies and security checks that could not be changed by any single person. Data security was continuously monitored from Earth which forced his 'puppets' to make small incremental changes over a period of time. A slight shift in classification here, Admiral-level overrides there...

Alright Kinnison you old space hound, time to expand