Scrutinized

(12 BBY)

For a ship the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer, the quarters she had been taken to might not be considered large, but after having to share a room perhaps one fourth of its size with Merik aboard the Ayers' Nest, it seemed huge. And it even had its own refresher area. What more could she ask for?

The trooper had told her, that this type of room was usually reserved for junior officers. "It will probably take some time before Lord Vader returns. When he is ready to see you, he will call you and the guard outside will take you to him. You are to stay in your quarters until Lord Vader commands otherwise. The guard can take you to the nearest mess hall if you are hungry, but you are not to roam around the ship on your own." After explaining to her the controls of the intercom, he had left the room to return to his usual duty station.

Finally alone, Serina sank down onto the bed in the middle of the room. Had it been only an hour ago, that she had been sitting with Merik in that little cafe down on Circarpous IV? For a moment, she considered what might have happened to him, but she quickly pushed the thought aside. Merik was no longer of any concern to her.

Suddenly, she became aware of the lightsaber by her side, still disguised as a holocam. Quickly she removed the gadgets that enclosed it. As she turned the ancient device over in her hands, her mind wandered back to Tantra, her old teacher. What would she say if she knew were I've ended up? She couldn't help the uneasiness that thought evoked. She certainly wouldn't be pleased with my choice of teacher.

But there was no turning back now. Her mind was made up. She would be the best student Vader ever had, willing to learn anything he could teach her. Filled with new determination, she switched on the lightsaber for the first time since Tantra had talked her into taking it, more than a year prior. Instantly an orange-red beam shot forth out of the handle. It was dense to the point of opacity and little over a meter in length. Although she did not feel any heat from it, she was careful not to touch it. Her past studies of Jedi history had given her enough knowledge about what a lightsaber could do.

It was truly an elegant weapon, not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. She could hardly wait until Lord Vader showed her how to use it. And she was certain he would. Touching the button set into the handle a second time she extinguished the blade. For a moment, she considered where to put the precious device. She would have to show it to her new teacher, but others didn't have to know about it until she was able to use it properly. After placing it under the pillow on her bed, she started to get undressed. A hot shower would do her really good. And afterwards, she would get herself something to eat. Her life had just entered into a new stage and she was prepared to meet the new challenges head-on.


A small dinner and a couple hours of sleep later, Serina was just getting dressed again, when a chime sounded from the door.

"Come on in," she called as soon as she had pulled on her new dark blue top. A young officer entered her quarters.

"Lord Vader will see you now. If you are ready, I will take you to him."

"I'll be ready in just a moment," Serina replied.

After the young man had left the room, she removed the lightsaber from under her pillow and attached it to her belt. Then she pulled her dark robe – another inheritance she had gotten from Tantra – out of her bag and completed her attire, effectively hiding the weapon. After combing through her hair a final time, she stepped out into the hallway.

A short walk later, they reached the entrance to Vader's rooms. The junior officer led the way into the dark chamber beyond.

"Lord Vader," he announced into the darkness, "the young woman from Circarpous IV, as you requested." Then he turned and left the room. The heavy doors slid shut behind him.

Slowly, Serina's eyes adjusted to the dimness. The stars visible on the large view screen on the far wall were the only light source. Vader stood silhouetted in front of it, his back toward her.

"Tell me your name and where you are from." The deep, modulated voice was strangely emotionless, as if it was not a man, but a machine speaking.

"My name is Serina, my Lord, Serina Wanders, and I was born on Taanab, on the edge of the inner rim." Serina was careful to keep her voice as even as possible.

"You had some training in the ways of the Force." It was no question. "Who was your teacher?"

"An old woman, my Lord. Her name was Tantra. She taught me for a little over three years, but only very basic techniques."

"And this Tantra, does she still live?"

"No, my Lord, she died the year I graduated from public school, shortly before I left Taanab." In a way, Serina was quite glad that Tantra was already dead. The Empire had been hunting down all the Jedi during the past seven, eight years. Tantra had escaped since she had never been properly trained and because Taanab was such a backwater planet. Serina did not want to think of what Vader might have done to her old teacher, had she still been alive at this time.

"How did you become her student?"

Quickly Serina recounted to him the events from her visions during her childhood and the death of her parents when she was ten, to the time she had visited Tantra together with her Aunt Marisa. But she carefully omitted any details regarding the visions, especially of the one that had revealed to her his true identity, a memory she buried quickly in the farthest depths of her mind. "Right before Tantra died, she made me take this as a gift. It used to belong to a Jedi, whom she had been in love with as a young girl." She unhooked the lightsaber from her belt and presented it to the Dark Lord.

He turned to look at the proffered object. A motion of his hand caused the lights to rise to a normal level. He took the weapon out of her hand and ignited it. For a long moment, he assessed the orange-red beam protruding out of the delicately carved handle. Then he switched it off and handed it back to her.

His next question caused her to hesitate: "Why did you leave Taanab?"

There were various reasons she could give him, but why did she actually leave? For a moment, her thoughts went back to the day Tantra had died. Had it been the sadness about her teacher's death? Or the loneliness she had felt and the need for somebody else to continue teaching her in the ways of the Force? Or had it been her desire to join the Imperial Navy, her longing for adventures, for a different life than that of a farmer on a backwater planet out on the rim?

Vader sensed the indecision in the young woman. "Now, tell me: why did you leave?" he demanded again of her.

Serina looked up into the hideous breathing mask that covered the Sith Lord's face. "There were actually two main reasons, my Lord. I had applied for several of the naval training academies, but had been rejected. I wanted to try again closer to the Core. My other purpose was to find a new teacher, somebody who could show me more about the ways of the Force than Tantra had been able to. But there are no Jedi left, at least that I know of. But ..." she swallowed down the lump that had formed in her throat, "perhaps it was my destiny to find you."

For a long time, Vader gazed at her appraisingly, but Serina did not squirm under his intense stare. "You do understand what I have offered you?" he finally asked.

Serina nodded slowly. "Yes, my Lord, I do. Tantra might not have known much about using the Force, but she did know quite a lot about Jedi history. And I've done a lot of studying myself, and not only the history of the Jedi. I learned about the Sith, too. The Sith have always fascinated me." After a short hesitation, she emphasized, "You have always fascinated me." She took a step toward the dark robed figure and knelt down before him. "Your will is my command, master. I will not disappoint you."

Again, Vader regarded her silently for long moments. Did she truly mean what she had just told him? How far was she willing to subject herself to his command, to him becoming her master? There was only one way of finding out for sure. And if her words had been true she would have no reason to object to his methods.

"Very well, Serina, I shall find out if you have spoken the truth. Open yourself to me, do not try to hide anything from me." Then he reached out for her mind through the Force.

At first, Serina's mind prepared to recoil at the malignancy that touched her, as she had on Circarpous IV, but she forced herself to remain calm and not fight against Vader's probing. It was like allowing a black flood to pour into her soul. A cold heavy darkness entered her mind, evaluating her intents and thoughts. Involuntarily, she started to shiver under the forceful presence weighing on her.

And yet, somehow it did not really bother her to feel his mind within her. She had nothing to hide. What she had told him was the truth. What was he expecting her to do? To just wait until he had tested her thoroughly? Or did he expect her to use her own abilities to find out more about him? A strange curiosity overcame her, a compelling desire to return the probing in like manner. Like the sand gets drawn into the ocean on the undercurrent of a wave, she allowed her mind to be carried along the edges of Vader's mental fingers, following them back to their source.

An evil darkness greeted her and yet it was glorious, full of the power of the dark side. For a moment, she was sharing in his pleasure at wielding that power, at holding the lives of thousands and millions in his hands, at being feared and respected by those put under his authority. And she sensed the deep founded satisfaction at eliminating the Jedi, at making them suffer for what one of them had done to him, at besting the best of them in fight and striking the fatal blow at the majority of them during the final show-down between the Jedi and the troops of the Emperor.

But Serina did not stop there. There were two sides to each life's story. Would Vader allow her to go deeper and find his other side, his hidden side as well? Carefully she pushed further into his mind. And behind all the glorious revelry of the dark side she found ... loneliness, bitterness, anger and a hatred so fierce that she at first recoiled, unable to bear the intensity of it.

And yet, at last, she understood what had drawn her to this man, why he had become her destiny. She could relate to that loneliness, that bitterness only too well. It was a result of being different, of having powers that others did not understand, that caused even your friends to withdraw from you, making them suspicious of your very doings.

But that hatred, that was something different. As she was still trying to fathom the cause of such a strong, fierce emotion, she suddenly found herself cast back into her own mind, the link that had built between them, torn asunder as Vader withdrew his presence from her and reformed his own mental shields.

For long moments, her body still shivered from the exchange then she got a hold of herself. Anxiously, she awaited his final decision. Had she overstepped her bounds?

Vader had turned back to the large view screen and was pondering what he had sensed in Serina's mind. Her seriousness and willingness to submit to him had been easy to verify. He had expected more resistance to his probing, but she had held back nothing. And he was quite pleased that she had returned his probing in like manner. She had encountered what he had wanted her to find ... and even more. Her persistence to look behind the obvious, to find out more about what was driving him, had surprised him, but it had been a pleasant surprise. Yes, she would be a good tool in his hands if he could direct her undeveloped potential into the right paths. For a moment, he felt amusement at the irony of the situation. Had she been discovered by the Jedi at an early age, she would most likely have been one of the younglings in the Temple during Order 66. She would have died at his hands as all the others had. Would her fascination with him survive the insight into that fact?

"Arise, Serina, and join me," he finally commanded her. Without hesitation, Serina got up and stepped to his side, gazing out at the displayed beauty of open space. "You have made the right decision. The Jedi were weak, not using the true powers of the Force. Therefore, they perished. But the dark side will allow you to reach your full potential. Once your training is complete and you have proved yourself worthy of my trust, you will have the chance to make a difference, to assist our cause in bringing enduring peace to this galaxy."

Serina could sense the deep desire in the man beside her to accomplish this task. Peace, yes, but at what cost, she wondered briefly. The peace that now existed was a peace through force and based on fear, preserved through unlimited power in the hands of very few, foremost the Emperor and Lord Vader himself.

An uneasy feeling started spreading within her. Would a galaxy, pressed into subjection to the rule of this Sith Lord and his own even darker master over any length of time be really worth living in? With a grim determination, she silenced the uninvited little voice nagging in the back of her mind. Now was not the time for considerations of this sort. Most of the galaxy was just starting to feel the heavy hand of the Empire and the so-called peace was still quite fragile. For now, she would learn whatever he was able and willing to teach her.

Slowly, she nodded to herself. Yes, she would prove herself worthy of his trust. What kind of role she would play in Vader's future plans, now that decision would have to wait until a much later time.