There was something odd, something peculiar about the thing. It felt light as feather, it seemed clearer than a clear sky, but he couldn't see right through it. A deceptive blade it would form. Not to mention the strange coldness it seemed to radiate. As if the crystal was cursed. Kyle liked the idea of a cursed lightsaber. It would make him unique, but he knew better than to believe in curses. No, this lightsaber was empowered with the dark side of the Force, he concluded. It wasn't just any saber, this would become his saber, his sidearm, his one and only friend in battle. He couldn't wait to start crafting the hilt.

Sariss walked in with a fierce, fixed look at Kyle, who jumped up at the sudden opening of the door. He greeted her with a smile. He enjoyed company. The crew seemed to stay out of his path, but Sariss was his only equivalent on the ship. She wasn't very talkative though.

"Katarn, we need to talk," she started. She sat herself on his bed, as the only chair in the room was taken by Kyle himself, and folded her legs. Kyle couldn't help thinking that was an attractive move.

"Yes, we do," agreed Kyle.

Sariss was to the point. "Don't ever contradict me in front of the crew again, you hear me?" She looked at him with a strict stare.

"Excuse me?" Did he hear that correctly? She came to his room to tell him this?

"You heard me, Katarn." He voice sounded cold, but Kyle noticed her swallow a lump in her throat. Did his eyes deceive him or was she a little uncomfortable?

"Does it bother you that much that you come over here?" He decided to play on her nerves.

"You…," she paused for a moment, trying to search for the right words. "You just… I really should just…" Suddenly she rose from the bed and kicked the wall. Kyle noticed the glass of water hover a little.

"Hey, calm down," Kyle said calmly. "No need to get uptight. You just need to approach the crew more kindly. If you treat them with respect, they will earn respect for you and will owe you more."

"Rubbish!" spat Sariss as she turned around and faced him. "They fear us, Katarn! They are useless rats in our laboratory, if we want to. They owe their jobs to us! If we want we can destroy them with our mere thoughts! That is our respect!"

"Respect out of fear."

"They are not our equals, Katarn!" She came closer and started hissing. "We are not here to make friends. Friendship is a weakness and to be exploited by your enemies."

"I'd say you should know to separate enemies from those on your side and aim your hatred towards the former, not the latter. If you think to pay respect to those aiding you in any way possible is a weakness to be exploited by your adversaries, then your whole body of power is a lie, an untruth. True power is to overcome fear, not to fear losing it." She backed off a little and he had trapped her in the corner of the room.

"I don't fear losing m.." She was taken aback by his words.

"Of course not. Your way of maintaining it would suspect there is no power to lose." He didn't know how he found the words, but it felt so good criticizing Sariss and to see his remarks hit her hard made his heart beat faster. Sariss didn't share the excitement and gasped. She came closer with her face to his and gave the coldest of looks.

"You're lucky Jerec forbids it," she breathed. "Or else I would strike you down. Right here, right now." She suddenly felt like leaving, but Kyle had her trapped.

"No, you wouldn't," he ensured her, and he kissed her on her mouth. He expected her to withdraw and slap him, but instead she kissed him back. Sariss felt tense, but soon relaxed more and surrendered to his lips. Kyle put his arm around her, but that was where she shook up and pushed him away. With a terrified look on her face, she hastened away. Kyle sensed the fear within her as she fled.

He felt times would change now. How would Sariss react now he got in touch with her softer side? Was there even a softer side to the woman? He doubted it. But his senses did not deceive him; what he felt during that brief moment their lips met was sincere.

Jerec sat down behind his desk and numbly stared into nothing, or so it seemed, Jerec could not stare. The reports given bothered him. Especially since he had been to the Valley of the Jedi and felt very powerful. It all took so long, he was getting impatient. So much Force power flowing through his veins, yet he couldn't use it… not yet.

Before him Maw awaited a reply from his master. The half-man knew all too well not to force an answer out of Jerec and kept waiting patiently. He carefully eyed Boc, who was standing near the wall and also waited. The Twi'lek almost always moved bent, as if hunchbacked, and came across as a harlequinade most of the time. Only if you got him angry one would see there was no reason to laugh anymore; at least not for anyone who was not on Boc's side. He loved confrontation and had a sick sense of humour, which was why Maw rather stayed away from him before they got together under Jerec.

Maw preferred to act a lot less underhand. He didn't fake a false smile and a wretched attitude to mislead people. Though only to a certain degree, he favoured pure honesty and raw battle. Where people needed to be punished, punishment was due and where praise was to be, Maw simply would not show. Boc used to talk about him as a machine "good for killing, nothing else".

But Jerec didn't mind. All of his servants were useful in their own way and he looked forward to see where Kyle would fit in. A little competition was never wrong and his selection of Dark Jedi was one of the finest groups of warriors he had ever known; objectively thinking. It was one of the least of worries he had. He knew they valued each other and respected one another enough not to start bitching.

What occupied his mind at the moment were the disturbing reports from both Maw and Boc. The fact that Jedi tried to find out what happened to Kyle was predictable. In fact, Jerec had counted on that to happen. He was very disappointed in Mara Jade's escape, not to mention how the Sulon Star had to flee from the rebel fleet in the following battle. Calm before the storm it was, concluded Jerec. Let the New Republic have their little meaningless victory. It wouldn't take long before he would conquer Coruscant and terminate their government.

Boc's report was more disturbing. Luke Skywalker was missing. His spies had infiltrated the government, but lost track of the Jedi Master. If one man would be able to stop Jerec's plan, it would be Skywalker, Jerec knew it. But he felt Kyle Katarn would play a vital role as well, which is why it was so important for him to keep Kyle near.

"Boc," spoke Jerec. The breaking of the silence cut the tension both Maw and Boc felt.

"Master?" His voice was extremely high-pitched and slightly husky, but his tone was humble.

"Keep monitoring the Alliance's com-channels. And find Luke Skywalker!"

Boc bowed and turned around. As he marched to the door he gave Maw a comforting look. He pitied the half-man. To Boc, Maw was more of a mammal; an animal that raged blindly and didn't control himself enough, which was why he pitied him. Maw knew the Twi'lek disliked him and didn't at all like his look. He merely grunted at Boc, as the latter left through the door.

"Maw," began Jerec and he rose up. Maw feared the worst. "You realise your failure at the Sulon Star would have been unacceptable under normal circumstances." He paused as if waiting for a reply, but quickly continued when the Boltrunian opened his mouth. "I say under normal circumstances, Maw. This petty Alliance and their equally petty victories don't matter anymore. I have a new plan and for that you will be forgiven your unimportant failure." Jerec walked in circles around his servant. "The time has come that I unleash my new powers upon the Alliance, dear Maw. But first I have to find Luke Skywalker. You" – he pointed at Maw – "will search and destroy Skywalker. Don't let anything obtrude you. Kill him, extinguish him. Only then I can truly reveal myself to the public."

Maw couldn't bow, not even just his head, for his neck was too short, but instead just grunted. Jerec thought that was usually good enough. "Now, leave." As Maw grunted again, Jerec witnessed him float out of the office. He couldn't get used to him without the legs. In Rahn's attempt at murdering him, Rahn in fact only made him deadlier. The big muscled torso that was now Maw, filled Jerec with pride. He remembered how dramatic the future looked for the Boltrunian, but he took the change remarkably well by adopting the skill Jerec referred to as Force flight.

If Skywalker was to be found by Maw, he would face a hard time, but would Maw be strong enough to kill Skywalker? Jerec wasn't sure. He would have loved to face Skywalker himself, but he had a bad feeling about such a confrontation. His power was beyond anything ever heard of before, but somewhere in the back of his mind there still was the fear of losing it.

"Oh my, we have to contact Luke right away!"

"But where is he?"

"Mara, you have to tell us! Tell us now!"

Her arrival on the dreadnought and her report about what happened aboard the Sulon Star unlocked quite a bit of panic in Mon Mothma and General Madine. Though completely understandable, they weren't so comfortable with the idea of having lost Kyle Katarn as a friend and ally, and especially not like this. The news of Jerec and the Valley was already known, but now confirmed. Not to mention the loss of the talented Aamer Kun, which hit them hard, but perhaps that was more of Mara's imagination. They hadn't really known him after all. She turned around and faced the wall for a while, with eyes closed.

"Mara, we need to find Luke!" continued Mon Mothma. "These are way too dangerous times for a Jedi to be fooling around with missions this secret. Where is he?"

The Jedi shook her head and without facing them she left.

Crix Madine looked at Mon Mothma. "What should we do? We have no clue where Jerec is hiding; we don't know where Kyle Katarn is being held; and the dreadnought is in need of repairs."

"Thank you, general." The supreme chancellor turned to him. "Thank you for summing up our miserable situation." She needed a break. "I'll be off in the com-center." And away she went, on to meet Han Solo, whom she agreed to meet there.

"All right, Han, listen." She wondered how he would be convinced to this plan. "We must find Luke."

"I don't know where he is," Han shouted defensively.

"I know, Han, but Leia does."

Her words sounded like poison to Han. They were unworthy of the supreme chancellor. "You want me to convince her to break her promise?"

"For this one time, yes."

"What happened to honesty? Sincerity?"

"Han, don't get me wrong. Normally I would not go through all this trouble, but this is for the good of the galaxy. For the Alliance!" She forced a convincing smile.

"If Luke doesn't want to be found, he probably has a reason." He didn't like the sound of this at all. Not that he couldn't understand why Mon Mothma was asking this of him. The troubles they were into were much larger than anticipated.

"When Luke went on his… mission, I doubt he knew the scale of the dangers that we're about to face. No-one alive knows as much about the Force as Luke does. If he won't help us, than we're doomed for sure."

"Ooh," moaned Han. "I should've agreed to that next mission…"

"Listen," she sounded stern. "That freighter has cost you and your men enough energy and spare parts. I've heard from Wedge that they've grouped with the Green and Silver teams and continued down the trail. They'll be all right. I need you here, and I need you to contact Leia on Yavin IV."

"Right now?" he looked up into those bluest eyes. She stared into his with the gravest of looks and nodded. "All right then," concluded the pilot. He went for an available com-screen and entered frequency and target. The screen flickered and slowly the background of the Academy came into sight. No-one was sitting on the other side.

"Hello! Anyone?" Apparently, someone heard his shout as one of the older apprentices approached the screen on the other side.

"Hey there," he spoke with a fierce voice.

"Hello, Jaden, could you fetch me Leia, please?"

Jaden nodded and disappeared. Han waited nervously. Mon Mothma was watching him from a distance, and it made him nervous. But he understood why this was necessary.

"Han!" Leia had appeared on the screen, looking sleepy and wearing a nightgown. Apparently it was night over there.

"Leia! Didn't mean to wake you up…"

"It's all right." She smiled faintly. "I have a feeling you have a good reason for that." Han wondered how she knew, but quickly realized she also had that special connection to the mysterious Force he would never understand.

"How're you doing, honey?" He tried to comfort her first.

"I'm sleepy, Han. Don't tell me you woke me up for casual chatter."

"All right, then." He cleared his throat. "Leia, we need to know where Luke is. A lot of stuff has happened. The dangers are growing and we fear there is not much to do against such an overwhelming power."

"What do you mean, Han? What are you talking about?" She looked puzzled.

"It is now certain… Jerec has been to the Valley of the Jedi and Kyle Katarn has succumbed to the dark side in his service. Mara Jade discovered that."

"Y-yes." Her voice was shaking. "Luke suspected that to be… but still… hearing it confirmed… What about Jan?"

"Mara and Aamer didn't find Jan, but we suspect she's been killed. As for Aamer Kun, he didn't make it either."

Leia closed her eyes.

"Where is Luke?" repeated Han.

After a small hesitation she spoke with quivering voice. "Promise me only you and Mon Mothma will hear it and as few as possible. I made a promise to Luke I wouldn't tell anyone. You have to promise me that."

Han nodded cautiously. "All right."

Leia sighed nervously. "Luke is on Dromund Kaas."

"Where?" he exclaimed.

"Your system will know it. He… erm… felt he needed to go there for the good of the war, he said. He was visiting a Sith temple."

"A Sith temple?" The words came out with disgust; as if Han just spat out pure poison. "I will go there myself to pick Luke up."

"Be careful, Han," warned Leia. "That planet is located in former Sith space. Who knows what mysterious forces you might encounter, especially in one of their temples?"

"I'll be all right," he ensured her. "I'll have Chewbacca with me to protect me."

She chuckled. "I love you."

"Love you too."

Disconnect.

From the corner of his eye Mon was approaching. He closed his eyes as he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"What is he doing?" he uttered. "Sith temple… Dromund Kaas…"

"I'll immediately send a strike team to pick him up," decided the Supreme Chancellor.

"No!" Han shook up. "Let me go. Luke's a friend of mine."

Mon had a doubtful look on her face and raised her eyebrows. "You think a Sith temple is a place to go and dwell on your own? Oh, all right, just you and Chewbacca?"

"Then name me leader of the team."

"No." The word came out a little too decisive and Han responded with an offended look. The Chancellor quickly added: "I have a different mission for you."

General Solo looked at her with a look of disbelieve and moodily grunted, "I'm sure you have." Why wasn't he allowed to go? There didn't seem to be any plausible reason or alternative. "Who's going?"

She hesitated with the reply. "I'm thinking general Madine."

"General Madine…," echoed Han with a cynical tone. "Well, you'll probably have your reasons. What's my mission?"

"I want the Falcon and the Blue team within reach of the dreadnought for the time being. Your main duty shall be defending it as we head for Coruscant."