Author's Note: This chapter contains significant spoilers for Act I of the Sith Warrior's story, which I consider to be the best of the storylines in The Old Republic. So if you'd like to be surprised when you play through, don't read on.
…
Okay. Anyone who's played a Sith Warrior knows that at the end of Act I, you confront Nomen Karr on Hutta, defeat him in combat (three times!) even after the Jedi Master taps the dark side to gain more power, and finally face both Master Karr and his Padawan, Jaesa Wilsaam. A Light Side Warrior shows Jaesa what a hypocrite Karr is, and she abandons him out of disgust, joining the Warrior but staying true to the light. A Dark Side Warrior goads her into slaying her beaten master and turning to the dark side. I went with the latter when playing, but one result it produced that I didn't like is that Jaesa isn't a very good Sith apprentice. Even after embracing the dark side, she's utterly devoted to the Warrior, and has no interest in one day challenging and overthrowing the Warrior as a true Sith should.
But what if Jaesa Wilsaam never got the chance to see what a hypocrite Nomen Karr was? What if the Warrior immortalized the Padawan's love for her master instead of destroying it? Read on…
Chapter Seven: Heaven's Fire
Hutta
Two years after the death of Grendil Torbaane, Shen stood on the bridge of the Imperial cruiser Viper's Grin again, once more preparing to face a Jedi Master. This time, though, she was prepared for the confrontation, far more so than the Jedi who even now marched toward his doom.
In this hunt Shen had not been the prey but the predator. On Nar Shaddaa she had silenced the last of Baras' vulnerable spies, and cut down a Sith Lord in the process. She had learned the name of her quarry as well: Jaesa Wilsaam, Master Nomen Karr's Padawan and secret weapon. She had also fought a covert war against the Republic, interceded in a gang war to strengthen Imperial proxies and even descended deep beneath the Smuggler's Moon to unearth a secret hidden by Darth Revan himself.
Pursuing Wilsaam's trail to the desert world of Tattooine had also brought Shen face to face with a number of unique challenges. In a cave that seethed with Force energy she had been confronted with a shining simulacrum of herself that questioned the dark path she walked, the blood on her hands. Perhaps its words would have given her pause once, but that Shen was dead at the hands of Grendil Torbaane. The Sith she had become didn't care to debate the wisdom of her choices with a Force illusion, and so she had reached out with her power to collapse the roof of the cavern, burying the Force nexus under tons of rock.
Her time on Tattooine had also resulted in her first contact with the lost technology of the ancient Rakata; Shen had been forced to divert from her primary mission to contain an outbreak of infectious Rakata brainwashing technology unleashed by the Imperial Reclamation Service. She had eventually captured the imprisoned Rakata responsible for the plague, delivering it and all its secrets to Imperial hands.
Soon after, Shen had tracked down Jaesa's first teacher, a Jedi hermit living in the deep desert where even the Sand People feared to tread. Despite being robbed of Vette's assistance in the battle by the old Jedi's mind tricks, Shen had killed him and his current student both, and moved on with knowledge of Jaesa's background, that she was a native of Alderaan.
On that idyllic but war-torn planet Shen had chased down Jaesa's family, in service to the Republic-backed House Organa. In the course of her hunt Shen had also been recruited into the proxy war on behalf of House Thul, the Empire's puppet on the planet. After ensuring their ascendancy by cutting down the pretender king Boris Ulgo, Shen had fought her way into Organa's palace, butchered the Jedi and soldiers who defended her quarry, and killed Jaesa Wilsaam's parents, her only family. Shen even made a holorecording of those deaths and forced one of the house's surviving retainers to send it to the young Padawan.
Now her work had paid off. Jaesa's first attempt to surrender to Shen had ended in a Jedi ambush on a remote space station that had resulted in death for the ambushers, but now Nomen Karr was truly desperate, and had challenged Shen to a duel on Hutta, which she had accepted.
"My Lord, the connection is ready," Quinn informed Shen. "Our spies report that Master Karr is nearly at the rendezvous."
"Let's not keep him waiting, then," Shen replied, stepping up onto the holopad set up to one side of the bridge, sinking to her knees as the device flared to life, its beams of light playing over Shen from every angle. The starship's pristine bridge faded away, replaced by a dingy storeroom.
Twenty kilometers below them, on the planet's surface, the concealed twin of the projector sprang to life in the bunker where the duel was to take place, recreating Shen's image. This was no crude holotransmitter that projected a pale blue image of the user at the other end. This was a high-end device that worked over a range of kilometers rather than parsecs, but transmitted an image constructed of almost a billion points of light, creating a completely lifelike hologram of the user at the destination. It was the first part of the trap Shen had set for Nomen Karr, but the image by itself would not fool a Jedi Master. That would require another trick altogether.
Shen closed her eyes and sank into the Force, letting the dark side fill her. Then, she sent her senses questing outward, down to the planet that pulsed with the dark side energies of millennia of Hutt greed, cruelty and pollution. Finding the projection of herself manifested through technology, she suffused it with her own dark, rage-filled aura, while simultaneously making her own Force presence aboard the Viper's Grin as small as she could.
Most Sith her age hadn't mastered either technique, and using both at the same time was taxing, but Shen relished the strain. Testing the limits of her abilities was the only way she could grow. Hearing footstep through the audio pickups in the bunker on the planet, Shen knew she had gotten ready just in time. When the steps stopped, Shen heard the snap-hissof a lightsaber. Opening her eyes, she saw Nomen Karr standing before her holoimage.
"Would you strike me down before I even draw my blade, Jedi?" Shen asked.
An angry frown marred his handsome features. "For all the innocent lives you've taken I'd do it in a second, Sith. Your trail of blood ends now."
"The arrogance of Jedi is unbelievable," Shen said mockingly. "You turned that girl into a weapon and pointed her at the Empire. Did you really expect us to ignore that?"
"I'm not going to debate the merits of your actions, Sith. Take up your lightsaber."
Shen rose to her feet slowly, deliberately, focusing on maintaining her techniques, on maintaining the illusion that she was on Hutta, standing in front of Master Karr. "All right," she said. Drawing her lightsaber from her belt, she ignited it, the red blade springing to life by her side.
Drawing her lightsaber was the signal she had agreed on with Quinn. Through she couldn't hear him through the holopad's sound buffers she could sense him passing orders through the ship's captain to the gunnery crew. She saw the alarm on Nomen Karr's face as he sensed his doom a moment before the hologram dissolved into static. Still projecting her aura down onto the planet, she had a sensation of blinding heat and light, and a massive burst of energy bleeding into the Force as Nomen Karr's corporeal form was vaporized. An instant later, the holopad shut down, fading to inactivity, and Shen was back on the bridge. She could hear the turbolasers of the Viper's Grin firing, the sound distinct through the hull. Shutting down her lightsaber and releasing the Force techniques, she strode over to Quinn at the gunnery section. "Direct hit, my Lord," he said. Shen focused her senses below. She couldn't feel Karr's presence at all. "He's dead," she confirmed. "Continue the bombardment until the surrounding Evocii camps are gone. Let's make this look good." The gunners continued firing on the swamp from orbit, now vaporizing encampments of renegade Evocii slaves.
Shen allowed herself a satisfied grin. Why duel a Jedi Master when she could erase his existence from low orbit? The bribes to Nem'ro and the other Hutts to allow it hadn't been cheap, but Baras, whose hatred of Nomen Karr exceeded Shen's, had enjoyed the plan she suggested so much he backed it. Shen drifted over to the command section, staying out of sight of the three-way conversation that was going on between the Viper's Grin's commander Captain Yurlin, an agitated-looking Republic commander on one of the Republic ships in orbit, and a sinister-looking Twi'lek who served as Nem'ro the Hutt's majordomo.
"- is an outrage! This Imperial bombardment has claimed countless lives, including Republic personnel! Will the Cartels allow this violation of their sovereignty and neutrality?" The anger of the Republic's emissary was visible. This one knows who was down there, Shen realized with glee.
"The Empire of course would never take such an action in Hutt Space without the knowledge and permission of the Cartels," Captain Yurlin replied smoothly. "The glorious Nem'ro requested our expertise in precision orbital bombardment to remove a troublesome group of Evocii terrorists, and we were more than happy to come to the aid of such a good friend of the Empire. Isn't that right?" Yurlin asked the majordomo.
"Indeed it is," the Twi'lek replied in Huttese. "Those Evocii rebels have been a thorn in our side for years, and the Empire's assistance is appreciated. Visitors from the Republic have always been welcome on Hutta, but a more suspicious mind than mine might wonder why Republic personnel would be visiting an area that contained nothing but empty bogs and several encampments of insurrectionist Evocii. Surely the Republic was not consorting with known enemies of the glorious Nem'ro?"
The Republic commander paled, suddenly aware that he was treading on dangerous ground. "The Republic of course respects the sovereignty of the Hutts, but I feel compelled to protest the lack of warning of this endeavor. If some warning had been offered we could have extracted our personnel-"
"Make a general announcement and alert those terrorists?" Yurlin retorted. "That would defeat the purpose of the exercise! I'm sure I speak for the Cartel as well as the Empire when I say I regret your losses, but your people shouldn't have been there."
"I agree," the majordomo added. "Commander, please carry our regrets to your Senate. In person." Shen glanced at the sensors and saw a pair of Hutt cruisers dropping into orbit near the Republic frigate that their emissary was presumably transmitting from.
The Republic commander glanced at something off-screen, and then glared back at Yurlin. "You haven't heard the end of this." Then he ended the transmission and the frigate broke orbit, followed by the Hutt cruisers. Nem'ro's majordomo cut his signal a moment later.
"Well played, Captain," Shen congratulated Yurlin.
"Thank you, my Lord," he said with a slight bow. "The Hutts have been paid and your Jedi foe is dead, so I believe our business here is done. Shall we return to Vaiken Spacedock?"
Shen was about to reply in the affirmative when a peculiar sensation tickled at the edges of her awareness. She could almost hear an animal howl of rage, pain and grief that echoed through the Force from the planet below near the site they had bombarded to ash. For a moment Shen feared Nomen Karr had somehow survived, but this didn't feel like him. It felt like…
"Captain, prepare a shuttle with a medical team. Quinn, you're with me. We're going down to the bombardment site." Both captains looked at her in surprise. "Now!" she commanded.
"Yes, my Lord," they echoed each other. Shen strode to the turbolifts rapidly, Quinn struggling to keep up with her.
The shuttle descended into the atmosphere and over the polluted swamps of Hutta. Shen extended her senses, locking onto the burning beacon of agony and sadness that called out to her in the Force. She guided the pilot down until they reached a ravaged stretch of swamp on the edge of the bombardment zone. The trees in the area were either fallen or on fire, and in places the ground steamed from the release of heat when the turbolasers struck. "Open the ramp. Find a firm landing zone and send the medical team to me." Shen made her way to the back of the shuttle. As soon as the ramp opened she dropped free, cushioning her landing with the Force and making her way to the Force presence she sensed.
Shen found her quarry in a shallow circular depression gouged out of the soft ground. The hole was filling up with water as the ground settled and the swamp seeped back in. Lying half submerged in the filthy water was a badly burned and barely conscious human form. Shen drew close enough to confirm what she had suspected: she had found Jaesa Wilsaam. The Force in the area practically vibrated with the gravity of recent events, and Shen opened herself to it.
She saw a Force memory; Jaesa, disobeying her master and following him to his confrontation on Hutta. Shen could feel the girl's determination to save her master, even if it meant surrendering herself. Jaesa had lagged behind Nomen Karr as he made his way to the rendezvous; she had been on the outer edge of the bombardment zone when the firing started. She saw Jaesa's horror as fire rained down from the sky and her master passed from life into the Force, then fear for herself as the strikes widened. One turbolaser blast had struck near Jaesa; the Force had given her warning and she had desperately thrown up a barrier, but it wasn't enough. Some of the energy got through, and superheated air had seared her; blinding pain and being thrown through the air were the last sensations.
Shen looked down at what was left of Jaesa Wilsaam. Her whole body was badly burned, skin seared away entirely in most places, the flesh below cracked, blackened and bleeding. Her arms ended in charred stumps at the elbow; she had thrown her hands up to ward off the blast, and they had been disintegrated entirely when her barrier failed.
Jaesa's once beautiful face was a burned, unrecognizable mess. Her eyelids were burned away and her eyes were smoking, blackened ruins. The last remnants of her hair were still burning, and Shen extinguished those flames with a thought. Crouching beside the Padawan, Shen sent her senses inward. Jaesa's injuries continued inside her body. Her eardrums were ruptured, and blood trickled from the holes on the sides of her head; her ears were gone entirely. Her vocal chords had been seared away and her lungs badly burned by a reflexive breath of superheated air. The shock wave had damaged or ruptured several other organs, and driven bits of toxic filth from the swamps deep into her body.
By all rights the Padawan should have been dead, and Shen felt a kinship with the young Jedi; like her, Jaesa's strength in the Force kept her alive in spite of injuries that should have killed her. But even the Force couldn't sustain such a battered body indefinitely. Jaesa was dying. Her heart faltered, her blood becoming toxic from contaminants and lack of oxygen. Laying her hands on Jaesa's body, Shen focused on the Padawan's damaged heart and lungs, pouring her own vitality into the girl, keeping her alive. "Quinn, get those medics here now!" Shen barked into her comlink.
"Hurrying, my Lord," Quinn said. Soon the medics poured into the depression. As wearying as it was to sustain the young Jedi, Shen kept at it as the medics started stabilizing Jaesa. When their ministrations started to take effect, Shen tapered off the flow of energy into the wounded Padawan, shaking with exhaustion herself. Once they got Jaesa onto a hover stretcher and took her back to the shuttle, Shen trailed behind with Quinn. "My Lord, is that…" he trailed off questioningly.
"That's our elusive Padawan, yes," Shen said wearily. "She followed her Master here and very nearly shared his fate."
"Then… forgive me, my Lord, did Darth Baras not want her dead?"
Shen smiled faintly. "He wants her neutralized, and she is. I can feel her hate and her grief. Not very becoming of a Jedi Padawan, but a promising start for a Sith apprentice."
"You mean to turn her, my Lord? Will she be receptive to your instruction?"
Shen gave Quinn a cold smile. "Most good Sith apprentices hate their masters, Captain. She'll have a better reason than most. Besides, I can always kill her later if it doesn't work out. Let's get back to the Viper's Grin and see if they can salvage her."
Hours later, Shen stood behind a wall of transparisteel, watching as medical droids and surgeons worked to save what was left of Jaesa Wilsaam in the sterile medical bay of the Viper's Grin. Beside her, the ship's chief medical officer was briefing her on his patient's status. "We've stabilized her vitals, and saved as much living tissue as we can with kolto injections. Truthfully I can't explain why she's still alive; I've never seen anyone survive burns this severe."
"The Force holds great power, doctor. Will she recover?"
The medical officer got out his datapad, tapping away at it. "That's what I needed to talk to you about, my Lord. Kolto immersion is a powerful tool, but it won't restore the lost muscle mass or reverse the most severe tissue damage. Without massive cybernetic intervention she'll be bedridden even if she does pull through. Removal of dead tissue is complete, and we're in the process of replacing or augmenting her vital organs. We're still in triage mode at the moment, trying to keep what parts of her we can functioning. If she doesn't die of shock in the next few hours she'll survive, but restoring functionality is another matter." The doctor cleared his throat. "Muscle and connective tissue can be replaced with cybernetics, but given the level of damage and the need to clear anchors for the implants… my Lord, she will be more machine than organic by the time we're done."
Shen considered that, and then raised her prosthetic left arm, baling a fist and unclenching it. "I'm a third cyborg and it hadn't slowed me down much, doctor. Do it."
"Yes, my Lord. In that case, the only other issue is the cranial reconstruction. She will require implants to restore her sight and hearing. Over that, we can create synthetic flesh and skin that will at least closely replicate her appearance before the injuries took place. All we need are holoimages of her to begin the fabrication."
Shen had been thinking about this since she had seen the unfortunate Padawan's injuries, and had done some research in the interim. She shook her head at the medical officer. "No. First, you're going to use combat enhancement models for the hearing and vision replacements." Stepping forward to one of the room's consoles, she called up the prototype designs she had found in Baras' files. The optical implants were sensitive enough to see microscopic stress fractures in metal, and the auditory enhancers could pick up an insect walking a hundred meters away in a rainstorm.
The medical officer looked shaken when he saw what Shen was showing him. "My Lord, these are experimental, and early trials indicate that users rapidly develop neuroses due to sensory overload."
"Those tests weren't performed on Sith, doctor. She will adapt or perish," Shen said with finality, giving the doctor an unblinking stare until he looked away from her yellow eyes and nodded reluctantly. "As for the surface body and facial reconstruction, synthflesh won't be necessary. You'll fabricate this and use it to replace the skin and facial structures that have been destroyed." Shen called up another set of schematics on the holoprojector.
The medical officer's eyes widened. "Are you certain, my Lord? This patient will most likely suffer from severe trauma when she awakens; these modifications could trigger additional neuroses."
"I'm sure. You have your orders, doctor. Fix her, and send for me when she's functional."
"Yes, my Lord."
With its specific mission on Hutta concluded the Viper's Grin resumed its normal duties, reporting back to Vaiken Spacedock for resupply, and then setting out on patrol of the sector. Shen remained onboard as she supervised Jaesa's reconstruction. It was weeks after she had pulled the Padawan back from death's door that she felt an awakening in the Force followed by a surge of rage nearby.
Meditating on the dark side in her chambers, Shen smiled faintly when she felt it. The initial surge faded, but she continued to sense an angry, confused and distraught presence. Rising to her feet, Shen collected a few effects, left her quarters and headed for the ship's medical bay. She was in the turbolift when alarms started going off and her comm implant came to life. "Apologies, my Lord, but there's a situation with your patient in medical." It was Captain Yurlin, professional as always but with a detectable note of distress in his voice.
"I know. I'm already on my way, Captain. What happened? I instructed the medical teams to keep her sedated unless I was there."
"I don't know. The recovery wing is sealed per your standing instructions, but several members of my crew didn't make it out before the lockdown."
"I'll try to find them when I get there. Out," Shen replied, stepping off of the turbolift as it opened onto the medical level. The emergency bulkhead was deployed, and a tense group of Imperial marines were stationed in the corridor, weapons ready. Their commander looked relieved when he saw Shen. "My Lord!"
"Open the door and close it behind me. I'll signal when it's safe to open again." The marine commanded nodded and commed back to the bridge. Shen could feel Jaesa's presence beyond, awake, aware, but swirling with anger and confusion. The bulkhead slid open and then shut after Shen entered. She passed several droids that looked like toys torn apart by an angry child. At the first junction one wall was smeared with blood where an unfortunate soldier had been thrown into the wall hard enough to tear him half open.
A grin spreading across her face, Shen followed Jaesa's presence and found it in the recovery ward. The large room's door hissed open, revealing darkness within. The lights were all smashed, the room lit only with starlight from the viewport along one wall. The room was in disarray, equipment and furnishing smashed and strewn about. Close to the door was a dead medic, a large surgical knife buried in his back as he had tried to flee. Shen could see an arm and a leg in a pool of blood sticking out from under a diagnostic machine that probably weighted at least half a metric ton.
None of the material chaos interested Shen, though. She focused on the still, human figure standing silhouetted by the darkened room's long viewport, staring out at the stars, hands clasped behind her back. She was dressed in the flowing, high-necked white robes with black trim that Shen had left for her.
"You killed my master," Jaesa said, her voice strangely flat, artificial. She sounded almost like a female-model protocol droid with the mechanical voice the doctors had given her.
"Oh yes," Shen purred in a satisfied tone. "He challenged me, challenged my master. He was dead the moment he took you from Alderaan and made you into a weapon."
"Alderaan. Where you murdered my parents." Jaesa managed to inject venom into that statement even with her new voice.
"You know I did. I sent you a recording of their last moments. Did you enjoy it?"
She could feel Jaesa's anger building at that statement. "Master Karr never showed it to me. He only said you butchered them."
"Them, and probably a lot of other people in the Organa palace you knew and loved. Your parents died slowly, screaming. They begged for mercy at first, but before I finished with them they begged simply for death," Shen ticked that off on her fingers. "I also gutted that sanctimonious old hermit on Tattooine, and his strapping young apprentice with him. I think that one carried a flame for you, dear. Not that a good little Jedi could ever admit to something as tawdry as love."
"It wasn't enough for you to take everyone I ever cared about, was it? You had to do this to me!" Her aura pulsing with rage and loss, Jaesa whirled to face Shen. Her head was completely encased in an apparently featureless shell of white plasteel that tapered down to meld with her neck on the back and sides and came down to a rounded point like a long chin in the front, interrupted only by a pair of narrow slots on each cheek where the mask's rebreather drew and enriched air to feed to Jaesa's damaged lungs. It resembled a style of mask that certain Sith favored, including the notable Darth Jadus. But unlike those helmets, Jaesa's mask would never come off; it was permanently grafted to her skull, replacing her ravaged features with blank anonymity. It was the only face she had now, and from the horror and despair swirling beneath the rage in Jaesa's aura, Shen knew the young Padawan had discovered this for herself.
The implants built into the shell and integrated to her nervous system allowed her to see and hear quite clearly, and the rebreather even fed a sense of "smell" into her brain based on a scan of the air it drew in, but she would never feel a breeze on her skin again. Her hands, where they emerged from the sleeves of the robe, were mechanical replacements fastened to her ruined arms, built like a droid's appendages although more finely made and dexterous, skinned with a more flexible version of the same white plasteel that made her face, and Shen knew that by now Jaesa had discovered that every centimeter of her body was now covered with the same material, her lost muscle and connective tissue similarly rebuilt from cybernetic parts. "You've killed every person I loved and I can't even weep for them because of you!" Jaesa screamed. Her rage peaked, and that much Force energy had to find an outlet. A heavy recovery bed lifted itself off of the floor and hurtled at Shen, who deflected it past her with a thought. More heavy objects responded to Jaesa's will, flying at Shen with deadly intent.
Centered in the Force, Shen didn't move, simply nudging each projectile away. This confrontation was of vital importance if the girl was to be turned. She had to goad Jaesa into fully giving in to her hate while maintaining total mastery of the situation. When Jaesa ran out of things to throw, Shen spoke. "This is really rather childish. You're going to need a lot more than thrown medical equipment to defeat me." Reaching behind her back, Shen unclipped the extra lightsaber she carried there, that she had carried since leaving Hutta, and extended her hand. "Don't you want this?"
The lightsaber flew from Shen's hands to Jaesa, who grabbed it out of the air and ignited it. The twin yellow blades sprang to life. Shen had recovered Jaesa's lightsaber from the Hutta swamp and repaired it while her prospective apprentice was rebuilt. With a wordless cry of rage, Jaesa leapt at Shen, who drew and ignited her own crimson blade and blocked Jaesa's leaping slash head on, slamming the younger woman's weapon out of position and launching a spinning kick into her side hard enough to throw her into the wall. Jaesa was back on her feet almost immediately, charging Shen again. The yellow saber's blades were blurring arcs flying at Shen from every angle as the enraged Padawan attacked recklessly, often leaving openings for counterattacks that Shen ignored. She focused simply on defense, catching all of Jaesa's attacks in the outer circle of parries, refusing to retreat a centimeter.
Shen allowed boredom to show on her face after a short while, and felt Jaesa's frustration. "I hate you!" the Padawan screamed.
"Not enough, apparently," Shen replied. Concluding that she had seen what the young Jedi was capable of, Shen took advantage of Jaesa's next mistake to catch her in a spinning blade lock that yanked the lightsaber out of her hands and sent it spinning away. Shen kicked Jaesa in the stomach hard enough to knock her to the floor, and called the Padawan's lightsaber to her hand, extending her own blade's tip to hover inches from Jaesa's neck as she lay prone.
The younger woman froze. "Do it already!" she said in a shaking voice. "You've taken everything else from me, why play this game?"
"If I wanted you dead I would have left you in that pestilent Hutta swamp to perish of your own folly," Shen replied. "I saved you for the same reason Nomen Karr plucked you from obscurity on Alderaan: you're a useful tool."
Disbelief laced Jaesa's mechanical voice. "You can't believe I'd ever serve you. I despise you!"
Shen smiled. "Your hate is strong. It makes you powerful! That's an excellent start for a Sith apprentice. It's not as though the Jedi will want you back, broken and tainted by the dark side as you are. How many men did you just kill with anger in your heart, without even thinking about it? You were always meant to be Sith." Jaesa gasped, but through the young Jedi's remorse Shen could feel fear and doubt.
"You want to hate me? Go ahead; it will only make you stronger." Echoing Lord Syan's words gave Shen an odd sense of dissonance for a moment, but she ignored it. "You will never defeat me as you are; you're too passionate to be a good Jedi. Nomen Karr knew that, he only overlooked it because of your talents. You'll never be a stronger Jedi than he was, and he's dead at my hand. As a Sith, your passion will give you strength. Nurture that hate, gain experience and knowledge as my apprentice, and someday you may become strong enough to surpass me and have your revenge."
Shen could feel the Force humming around them, almost in anticipation as Jaesa sat on a razor's edge between light and dark. Shen emptied herself of thought, letting the dark side fill her. If Jaesa refused now, Shen might lose her, and be forced to kill the fallen Jedi.
Then the Force shivered, and Shen sensed the darkness wrapping tighter around Jaesa's heart. "I'll never trust you," she said.
"I don't need your trust, apprentice; only your obedience." Shen deactivated her lightsaber. "Kneel." Wary, Jaesa took a knee in front of Shen. "Jaesa Wilsaam is dead. You will be known as Cyl [pronounced 'sill']." Shen extended a hand once more. "Take your lightsaber, apprentice."
"Yes, master," Cyl said, her mechanical voice once again flat and empty.
"Come with me," Shen said. Cyl fell in step behind her, silent. Shen commed the bridge and the bulkheads opened ahead of them. Outside Quinn and Vette as well as the marines were waiting, training blasters on the faceless figure in white who trained Shen. "Lower those weapons," Shen said sternly. "This is my apprentice. She is not to be harmed." Quinn and Vette obeyed instantly, lowering their weapons out of habit in spite of their surprise, and the marines grudgingly followed suit, moving past Shen and Cyl to survey the wreckage of the recovery wing.
Quinn and Vette fell in step with Shen as she boarded the turbolift, Cyl joining them. Quinn took the news in stride, as he always did, but Vette looked at Cyl curiously. The Twi'lek girl had only heard rumors about what had happened on Hutta. "Apprentice? I didn't know droids could use the Force," Vette commented sarcastically.
Cyl didn't move, or even turn her head to look at Vette. She just lashed out with the Force, slamming the Twi'lek into the wall of the turbolift. "You allow your pet alien to speak in such a manner, master?" Cyl asked curiously, directing her attention to Shen and roundly ignoring Vette, who glared daggers at the alabaster cyborg, knuckles pale from gripping her blasters.
"It livens up long trips, and Vette has been with me for some time. Malavai, Vette, this is Cyl. We'll be seeing a lot of each other, so do try to get along."
"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Mistress Cyl," Quinn said with a slight bow. Cyl just inclined her head in acceptance, while Vette muttered something in Huttese, rubbing the back of her head where it had hit the wall.
When she noticed Shen giving her a look of disapproval, she grimaced. "All right, all right!" Putting on a fake smile, she extended a hand to Cyl. "Lovely meeting you." Cyl continued to ignore her.
Shen suppressed a sigh as she sensed the animosity growing between the two women already. Oh this is going to work out well,she thought. Shen rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Let me phrase that differently: I don't care if you like each other, but you'll work together or I'll hurt you." Vette and Cyl both seemed properly cowed by that, while Shen could sense Quinn's amusement behind his flawless façade of polite attentiveness. Resisting the impulse to glare at him, she stepped out of the turbolift when it stopped on the hangar deck and headed for the Fury, her crew in tow.