Knights of the Old Republic: The True Sith

By rosso-bass

Chapter 8 – The Dead Star

AN: The character's in this story are not mine, nor is the Star Wars Universe.

Staring at Jolee Bindo, Revan's shock melded into angered curiosity.

"How the hell did you get on this ship?!" He roared, not realizing he still held his activated lightsaber aloft. "And- and why?!" Jolee gave Revan a dismissive expression. Grow up, his expression said. Ignoring Revan, he hobbled over to the co-pilots chair, sitting down. He sighed, smiling, snuggling into the chair.

"Oohh," he groaned. "Two days hiding out in a trash compactor will make a chair feel like the throne of heaven."

"The trash compactor?" Revan asked, his voice still raised. Jolee clucked his tongue.

"Quiet down, for Force's sake, will ya son? I'm not deaf. And put that damn lightsaber away before you stick it through something keeping us alive." Revan took irritated notice of his lightsaber, which he deactivated and slipped in his belt. Uneasily, he sat down, checking the control console to make sure the alien ship's hyperspace wake had not dropped off. Once he had confirmed, he spoke to Jolee without looking at him.

"Explain yourself."

"Who, me?"

"Out with it old man, I mean it."

"Oh, you mean it do you? That's veeery convincing." Rage crept up in Revan's chest and the muscles in his body contracted, clenching his teeth and his fists. The old former Jedi hadn't been around for five minutes, and he was about to send Revan back to the dark side all over again.

"I swear Jolee, I'm gonna- I'm gonna-"

"Gonna- gonna- what?" he taunted. Revan slammed his fists down on the arms of his chair.

"Force-be damned son-of-a-Tach, Jolee!" he screamed. Jolee let out a snorting laugh.

"Settle down, youngling," he scolded in a satirical tone. "Don't you know that anger leads to the Dark Side?" He gasped with another chuckle. Revan willed himself to relax. The old man would obviously continue until the galaxy collapsed as long as Revan encouraged him. Taking a deep breath, he blew out it out gently.

"Please explain to me how and why you're here, Jolee," Revan asked in the most passive tone he could muster. Jolee laughed even more, nearly sending Revan over the edge again.

"Alright, alright, don't get your robes in a bunch," he started. "I jumped on the Ebon Hawk while you were in Serenno. Stayed in the storage hold while you did your business, and I jumped ship while you were rounding things up in the Hawk's cockpit. I hid out in the trash compactor- glad you didn't decide you had to use it- and managed to avoid detection long enough for you to hit the point of no return. Speaking of which, you're the worst Jedi I've ever met." Jolee was only taunting him again, of course, but there was some truth to his insult. How had Jolee managed to evade his Force sense for three days? He voiced his question.

"Every single one of you Jedi who has ever had a better than average command of the Force thinks that you're impossible to outmaneuver or outsmart," Jolee began. "Do you really think that after 60 plus years of using the Force and having fought in- and survived- a war with dark Jedi that I haven't picked up a trick or two? Natural talent isn't everything."

"Well... yes. I just…"

"That revelation surprises you does it? Hmph."

"Alright, so how did you know I would be at Serenno?"

"I didn't! I was there enjoying vacation when I saw you touch down, figured I'd come along for the ride!"

"Don't start this again," Revan grumbled wearily.

"Dammit kid… Alright. Canderous contacted me, said you were off on some crusade. He said you were going alone, and he wanted someone out there with you. He mentioned that you were off to Malachor and that Serenno was the closest planet with a station, so I could probably catch you there. I figured if you got Canderous to back off, you were pretty intent on going alone, so I didn't leave you a choice in the matter."

"Since when did you and Canderous become buddies?" Revan asked, genuinely curious.

"We didn't." he said simply. "Has it ever occurred to you that Canderous has never had an actual friend? Sure, he had his war buddies, whom I'm sure he actually cared about, but with them, I'm sure it was always 'glory to the clan, this. Glory to Mandalore that.' Did you ever stop to think that he'd ever confided his personal feelings and struggles to anybody else besides you? I'm sure he had some good times with Davik's slaves, but I don't think his mind was on unloading personal burdens. Canderous didn't stick by you because you kept things interesting, Revan. That wasn't the sole reason, anyway."

Revan soaked in Jolee's long, if intuitive, speech. He felt a stirring of compassion for the tough Mandalorian he'd left behind. He'd considered Canderous something of a friend of course, but he had never pondered Canderous' position on their relationship. Shamefully, he realized that he had made superficial judgments concerning the man, assuming him too hardened and battle-focused to ever have need of a simple thing like…friendship.

"Make's you feel a little guilty huh?" Jolee asked, noticing Revan's contemplative status. "Considering you might never see him again. Or anybody else for that matter."

"Alright," Revan said, dismissing his thoughts. "That still begs the question: why are you here? I doubt it was just as a favor to Canderous." He looked over to Jolee, relaxing in the chair with his eyes closed. He nodded his head to the side, pursing his lips.

"Fair enough," he said. "I don't suppose you'd believe that I wanted to protect you too?" He opened an eye, looking at Revan's blank stare.

"Huh, didn't think so," he said, closing his eye again. "I'm gettin' on in years, as you're quick to point out, and I've never been able to sit still for long. I was always on some mission, or fighting in some war. Even after I left the Jedi, I had to shack up in the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk for fear of dying of boredom. I figured that my last days ought to be spent doing something worthwhile and exciting. Saving the galaxy again, for example."

"But you have no idea what my mission is, old-timer," Revan said, keeping a close eye on the energy readings of the hyperspace wake. "I didn't tell Canderous very much."

"Does it matter?" Jolee asked, shifting in his chair. "You wouldn't abandon everything you know and love if it wasn't to do your best to avert disaster. Even I have enough faith in you to understand that."

"Well," Revan said. "I do know that this isn't an enemy that the galaxy has ever seen. I hope you're more useful than you look."

"Aren't I always?" he retorted. "Now let me sleep. Sleeping in five year old Mandalorian trash isn't what I would call comfortable." Revan was silent for a full minute.

"Hey, Jolee," he said. The old man groaned.

"What?" he groaned with irritation.

"Uh… well, I'm glad you're with me."

"Yeah," he said, his tone softened. "No problem, kid," After another ten minutes, he was snoring lightly, his feet propped up on the co-pilots station.

XxX

"There you are," Carth said with a sigh as he opened another door in the mansion-like Jedi Temple. Bastila turned, leaning her body back to look at the person who had interrupted her meditation. She was as beautiful as ever, if visibly emotionally distraught.

"Carth," she said, her demeanor lightening by a fraction.

"Get your things together," he said hurriedly. Curiosity etched itself into her face.

"Why? What's going on?" Carth shrugged.

"Under orders," he explained truthfully. "You've got to come with me." Getting to her feet, she moved to a footlocker placed against the wall of the room, the setting Coruscant sun silhouetting her. She stopped abruptly as she rummaged through her things. She turned to him.

"Under whose orders?" she asked.

"Can't tell you that right now," he said quickly. "But come on, I've got a hot date waiting for me on Corellia."

"Admiral Dodonna's Fleet?" she asked.

She does her homework, Carth noted with respect.

"That's the one," he said. Bastila quickly loaded her things into a pack and shouldered it, moving to Carth's side.

"Ready," she said simply. They left the Jedi Temple quickly, drawing several stares. Bastila, practically a celebrity now, was already leaving after only a few days.

XxX

Revan was effectively staving off his need for sleep, but he was losing some of his concentration as a result. Jolee's slow, rhythmic snoring was no help. Yawning, he watched the energy scan intently. He got up to go have the food synthesizer cook him something up when the energy scan beeped, the first sign of activity it had shown all day. His tiredness dissolving, he sat down again as he searched the continuous stream of data. The hyperspace wake was tapering off. He waited several seconds, gripping the hyperspace disengage lever. Adrenaline quickly reenergized him, and he had to make a split-second reaction to the end of the hyperspace wake if he was to land in the same area.

The energy scan switched gears, showing only darkness. Within a second, Revan threw the lever, and the Mandalorian freighter made the disorienting transition from hyperspace to standard flight. The sight that greeted him was a strange one. Not moving his eyes, he felt along with his hand until he felt Jolee's warm leg. He tapped it rapidly.

"Oh…" he groaned. "What now?" He stretched and sat up in his chair.

"Wow," was all he said.

In the center of the system, there hovered a tiny but luminous star, barely illuminating the few planets hanging silently about. It was a dead star, a white dwarf. They were exceptionally rare. Most stars, after reaching a size where they could no longer sustain themselves, would collapse on themselves, creating a black hole. A white dwarf differed in that only the core of the star remained after the surrounding plasma burned away. The core would continue to burn for perhaps another billion years, but its former glory was long gone. Revan looked to either side from the viewport, noticing the familiar smattering of stars when one looked into the galaxy, but noticed not a single one beyond the dead star. The enigma's mystery was further deepened when Revan deduced that they were on one of the galaxy's spiral limbs. The core of a galaxy was understood to be the oldest part of the galaxy, while the arms were understood to be the youngest. How a star so extremely young in comparison to stars further inside the galaxy had already run its cycle and burned away, was beyond Revan.

Bringing himself back to reality, Revan saw that the ship he had followed to this remote system was gone. There were no objects on the physical scan, and no readings on the energy scan. But he was certain he had landed in the same system. Jolee read his expression.

"Guess we've got a treasure hunt on our hands," he said. Revan looked to him and back at the dead star.

"Not if they find us first."

XxX

AN: Hope you didn't mind this chapter being mostly character development. I don't know about you, but I prefer to know the characters I'm reading about a little bit. Along that line, I think I captured the grumpy old man personality of Jolee.