A/N: My apologies for taking much too long to update my silly story. I promise to make a better effort about updating in a timely manner!

Chapter 21—Wrench in the Works

Lorrd: Twenty-one days before Jacen is shot.

After finishing her story, Danni shrugged and looked up at Nelani, "So, that brings us to where we are now: me sitting in your apartment." An uncomfortable silence followed as the two women stared at each other, both clearly uncertain as to how to proceed. Finally, unable to stand Nelani's unflinching gaze and overcome with the immense guilt that came with knowing that she had been flirting…flirting…with the young woman's killer, Danni dropped her gaze to the floor, her voice barely a whisper, "Jacen trusts me—I'll arrest him…bring him to the Council—they'll know what to do." Truth be told, the blonde woman knew she could not arrest Jacen, not be herself; he was much too powerful for her to take on. While she could probably convince Jaina and Tenel Ka to help her with the arrest, they were in trouble if Jacen decided to resist. If they could not appeal to whatever decency he had left, this was going to get very messy. With the resigned sigh that can only come from acknowledging a painful decision, Danni looked back up at the young woman and saw her apprehensive look. Apparently, Nelani was having the same concerns.

Still, what choice did Danni have? The evidence of what Jacen had done was 'sitting' right in front of her and he had admitted to killing another person during interrogation. What happened to you, Jacen? Danni wondered again as she gave the younger woman a wan smile and tried to project a confidence she did not feel. "It'll be okay…" Danni's voice dropped to a whisper, as if she was trying to convince herself, "…there is still good in him."

Nelani gave her a small nod and looked as though she was going to try to communicate again via charades when the front door opened and the gravely voice of the landlord reverberated through the apartment. "Miss Quee? Will three boxes be enough?"

Standing, Danni looked over her shoulder into the closet and saw that she had gotten most of Nelani's dresses and slacks with her first 'grab' of clothes. Shrugging fractionally, the blonde started to return her attention back to the Force ghost, "Do you have any more…" she started to ask before trailing off, finding herself once again the lone occupant of Nelani's bedroom.

"What was that, Ms. Quee?" The elderly gentleman asked as he entered the room, three collapsed boxes and a roll of clear tape in hand, pausing at the obvious look of befuddlement on the pretty blonde's face as she was staring absently at the dresser. "Ms. Quee?"

The man's question shook her out of her confusion, and Danni quickly shook her head. "Sorry, I thought I saw someone sitting on the dresser."

The man snorted once in laughter, "My wife always said the dresser was haunted. Rumor has it that some husband caught his wife flagrante delicto with a young stable hand a hundred years back and killed the both of them in his rage."

Scowling at the elderly man, "And you bought it anyway?" she asked as she took one of the boxes from under his right arm and started folding it into shape.

"It was a good price." The landlord replied as he shrugged unapologetically, his green eyes sparkling with mirth.

Shaking her head, Danni grabbed the tape from his left hand and taped the bottom of the box. Hearing the gentleman fold one of the other boxes, she handed him the tape dispenser and flipped the box top-side-up, laying it next to Nelani's clothes on the bed. Sighing sadly about having to box up the dead woman's clothes, she reached for the pretty satin blouse on the top of the small pile and paused when she saw a business card poking out of the left breast pocket, a business card she could have sworn wasn't there before. Removing it from the pocket, she let out a small gasp: on the front of the card was a small message, written in small, neat lettering.

Danni,
Head to MZX32905—Bimmiel System
Save him if you can.
Nelani

Hearing her gasp, the landlord looked again at the blonde woman. "Find something?"

Recovering her composure, Danni shrugged as she pocketed the card, "Maybe…or it might be just the number of some guy she met while out and about." Inwardly, she cringed at the lie, but how do you tell someone she had just received a note from a ghost?

The elderly man recognized her answer for the dodge it was, but knew more than to press the issue; secrets were a way of life in an apartment complex. Nodding in response, he again turned his attention to the box and the two of them started packing up Nelani's sparse apartment.

O O(_)O O

The Dark Lady of the Sith stormed out of the Administrative Office Building and crossed the plaza, her black cape whipping behind her as if it were alive. As she fumed, she noticed with satisfaction how everyone gave her a wide berth as she marched by. To say she was immensely frustrated with one Jacen Solo would be an understatement. How had it come to this? Solo was supposed to be indifferent, confused…malleable. Then, all of a sudden, he had become decisive. Worse yet, Jacen suddenly had a plan. All those years of watching, planning, conniving to get where she was; all those months of work getting her apprentice to appreciate the subtleties of being a Sith—gone. All because her bleeding-heart student had gone and found his crusade. Even more disturbing was the way he had out-maneuvered her: Jacen skillfully played his hand knowing that she would not really be able to object. With a shake of her head, she had to admit that his plan of running for the planetary council shows a certain amount of political foresight. After all, she had been preaching about the virtues of a long-term view, and it would be disingenuous to tell him otherwise now. Furthermore, he had removed her ability to block any negotiations in the Senate by doing an end-run around them and going straight to the Imperials and Hapans. Despite her frustrations, she was impressed by Jacen's maneuvering.

"Damn it." Lumiya muttered to herself, ignoring the shocked look of a grade-school student that she had gently nudged out of the way as she passed. "I should have picked the other Solo brat." Jaina might have been harder to persuade initially, but her impatience and impulsiveness would make it easier to keep her on the 'Sith' path.

Stopping at the edge of the plaza, her cloak gathering around her like a warm embrace, the Sith woman realized that for the first time in months she had no way forward; all of her 'what if' plans failed to account for Jacen's seemingly random turns. Now what? What would Vader do in this position? Snorting once, she realized what Vader would do: capital punishment. She again shook her head; loathe as she was to admit it, killing Jacen would be too much of a setback: it would take years for her to find someone else as ideally suited to be a Sith apprentice. Torturing him might relieve some of her stress, but his year as a Vong prisoner made it impractical: his pain tolerance could probably outlast her ability to mete it out. Armand Isard would've recommended arresting Jacen's family, but only a fool takes on the entire Solo family.

Sighing to herself, she realized she needed to do something or her already tenuous hold on Jacen Solo would evaporate like the morning mist. Who else would serve as … she stopped, a predatory smile crossing her face. Yes, she'll do nicely. Not only would it serve as an example that the Sith were not so easily brushed aside, it would throw another part of the galaxy into chaos. Perfect.

Later, as she approached Ship, she could almost feel his (her? Lumiya still wasn't sure) indignation. I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me.

"Nope." Lumiya replied warmly, "I was just tending to my student."

And how is that going? There was no mistaking the condescending tone in Ship's 'voice'.

The veiled woman allowed a mirthless chuckle, "He needs a lesson about what it means to be Sith."

Ah. Where to then? Ship replied, knowingly.

"Coronet." Lumiya's green eyes sparkled with glee, "Where else can I teach a lesson and start a war?"

O O(_)O O

Corellia: Nineteen days….

Awakened by a knock on his bedroom door, the Prime Minister Dur Gejjen disentangled himself from the three young women in his bed, slipped on a robe and cracked the door to the Master Suite. "Yes?"

With a bemused sigh, his butler replied, "Sir, there is a veiled, older woman here to see you,"

Gejjen shook his head, "Not today Emil…" he nodded his head at the bed, "…I've got enough women for today."

The butler gave him an amused smile, "She mentioned that you would say that." Slipping a small piece of flimsi through the door, he continued, "She also said you'd change your mind."

Unfolding the flimsi, Dur read the contents:

Imperials and Hapans and treaties….oh my!

Grimacing in distaste, Dur looked up at his butler, "Tell her I'll be right down."

The older man nodded once, giving him a knowing smile.

"She said that too, didn't she?" Shaking his head, the Corellian Prime Minister closed the door and walked over to the drapes, opening them and flooding the room with light. "Sorry ladies, Daddy's got to go to work…out you go."

With a few whines of protest, the three women slowly grabbed their clothes from the floor piece-meal and started to file out of the room. Shaking his head at the nearly-naked women leaving his room, Dur headed to the refresher to get a quick shower before meeting with the woman who knew about the offer of diplomatic negotiations with the Imperials and Hapans—an offer his Foreign Office had only told him about the previous evening.

O O(_)O O

After the butler returned to bemusedly tell her that the Prime Minister would be down momentarily, Lumiya waited patiently, making herself busy by using the Force to juggle the breadfruit that had been sitting in the silver bowl on the caf table in front of her. After about fifteen minutes or so, she finally heard footsteps coming from the other side of the double doors and quickly replaced the fruit to the bowl, completing the task just as the door opened. Standing, she addressed the Corellian, "Thank you for seeing me, Prime Minister. I trust that I'm not interrupting anything?"

Smiling knowingly at the mysterious veiled woman, Dur Gejjen allowed a small chuckle as he politely made the banal double-entendre common to political gatherings, "Not at all, it was just a long night."

Lumiya's eyes twinkled in amusement, "I can imagine…. so many affairs of state to attend to."

"Indeed." The Corellian replied drily. His tone became more serious, "So tell me, Miss Syo. How is it you learned about a back-channel request from the Hapan External Affairs Ministry only twelve hours after I did?"?" He paused, looking at the older woman expectantly.

"Well…" Lumiya purred, "…I happen to work with the author of said plan." Letting that hang in the air for a second, the Sith woman hid a smile at the young politician's feigned indifference. "I also know these negotiations are hiding their true objective."

O O(_)O O

The problem with asteroids, Danni discovered, was that they were constantly in motion, a fact that made docking with one a bit of a challenge. MZX32905 not only spun about a vertical axis, it also tumbled slowly about it's lateral one, forcing Danni to match two different planes of rotation with the Survivor as she flew the approach. Not impossible, of course, but far from easy, not for her. Knitting her brow in concentration, Danni found herself wishing that she would have asked Jaina to join her on this 'fact-finding' mission-the eldest Solo twin would have laughed at the challenge and landed on their first attempt. Danni, however, was no where near as accomplished a pilot and had to 'go-around' on her first three attempts, and was getting more and more frustrated. Finding solace in the fact that she was getting better at lining up with the hangar, the blonde took a deep breath to calm her nerves and tried to channel Jacen's relaxation techniques. Tweaking the rudder pedals a tiny bit to the right, she lined the Survivor once again with the hangar mouth and adjusted the yoke a little left to match the rotation of the opening as she orbited the asteroid. Fourth time's the charm! Pushing the throttle forward ever so slightly, she made another slight adjustment with the rudder to maintain zero movement relative to the hangar. Nice and easy…Another couple of inputs and the Survivor remained in position relative to the door.

Encouraged by the fact she was now closer than on her previous attempts, Danni took another deep breath to quiet the negative thoughts lurking in her mind; she was closing in on the point-of-no-return and if she screwed up this approach now…well, it might be a long time before anyone would find her here…she'd commed the Queen Mother before she left Lorrd to inform her that she was headed to the Bimmiel System to track down a lead, but had left out the exact destination, not trusting the connection enough to admit she had gotten her travel plans from a Force ghost. Only now was Danni realizing the folly of her actions: the Bimmiel system contained quite a few asteroid belts and it might take a long time for the Hapan navy to find one Lambda-class floating amongst all of the flotsam.

Inhaling a long breath to steel her nerves, she again advanced the throttle a tad, and made another couple additional inputs with the rudder and the yoke to keep her ship lined up with the hangar entrance. As it got within five meters, the Survivor started to drift downward relative to the hangar opening and Danni jammed the throttle forward in panic, hoping to not hear the sickening grind of durasteel against rock. Thankfully, no such sound came, and the Survivor was suddenly in the hanger floating about two meters off the hangar floor. Surprised at herself, the astrophysicist pulled back the throttle and gently lowered her ship to the hangar floor. As the quiet thunk reverberated through the ship, Danni slumped into the pilot chair, wiped the sweat from her brow and let out a quick breath; she was exhausted. Running through the 'Engine Shutdown' checklist, she tried to ignore the slight trembling of her hands and again found herself reliving all of those pre- and post-mission briefings with the Wild Knightz; briefings in which she had paced nervously at the back of the room, trying to hide her shakes from the rest of her squadron mates.

After putting the Survivor on auxiliary power, the blonde got up to take a look at the sensors to analyze the asteroids atmospherics. As expected, the hangar bay itself was devoid of atmosphere and the asteroid's gravity was not much, but sufficient enough not to have to wear any special 'gravity' boots. Additionally, the sensors were picking up a pressurized interior just beyond a bulkhead door at the back of the hangar, about 10 meters in front of her ship. Nodding to herself, Danni left the cockpit and made her way to the locker to don her vac suit, yawning on the way. Stopping in the small hallway, she shook her head at the memory of what Mara had told her once on their mission to find Zonoma: nap first, eat second, explore third. Changing direction, Danni made her way to her cabin and fell onto the bed, conking out almost immediately.

O O(_)O O

"Ah." The Corellian Prime Minister replied, his tone smug; "Is this where you tell me that your boss trusts you implicitly and that for just a few million credits you will share your secrets with me thereby ensuring the successful independence of Corellia?" Shaking his head condescendingly, Dur continued his mini-rant as he made his way to the door, "Thank you for waking me, Miss Syo, but I'm afraid your assistance is not really needed in this instance." With this, Gejjen turned to leave and the door hissed open.

"What if I were to tell you that Jacen Solo was my 'boss'?" Lumiya purred.

Dur Gejjen, Prime Minister of Corellia, one of the ten most powerful men in the galaxy, stood silent in the doorway, waylaid speechless by a woman in a veil. Ignoring the curious look from one of his security guards, he palmed the door control closed. "That might change things." He admitted quietly, turning around again to face the woman now sitting calmly in front of his large desk.

The Sith Lord nodded, "I thought it might." As she watched the politician make his way to his chair behind the desk, she continued, her voice smooth. "You recall, of course, what Solo tried to do on his last visit here."

The dark-haired man nodded as he tried to keep calm, "Centerpoint." Gejjen still seethed at the sure arrogance of the Alliance High Command; the audacity of them authorizing a strike against Corellia's most prized possession still rankled. Even inoperable as it was, the station remained a symbol to the galaxy that Corellian independence mattered; that Corellia would not meekly submit to Omas's totalitarian regime on Coruscant.

Nodding, "It seems that Solo is a bit obsessed with the place." Lumiya replied, her green eyes sparkling mischievously, "Perhaps because he's failed twice now to destroy it."

"And he is planning a third attempt." Gejjen added in a cold voice. "Using the 'peace talks' as a diversion to land another spec ops team on the station…perhaps even lead it himself."

Inwardly, the Sith grinned at the way people always fell prey to their deepest fears. Truth be told, she really did not understand the Corellian fascination with what was, after all, a derelict space station. But, here she was, calmly lying to the Prime Minister that Corellia's useless heap of metal was targeted for destruction on his watch, and he jumped at the bait like a ghost fish. Shrugging slightly, "It does seem to be his style; he likes to lead from the front." Despite herself, she could not keep the tone of admiration out of her voice; for all of his faults as a Sith-in-training, and there were many, Jacen certainly did not lack for courage.

"He's as vain-glorious as his father." Gejjen replied bitterly as he leaned back in his over-stuffed desk chair, clearly trying to decide what to do with this newfound information. Leaning forward again, he gave his guest a scrutinizing look, "So what's the catch? Why are you telling me this?"

Carefully masking her joy at being able to successfully bait the Prime Minister, Lumiya leaned forward, "Well...here is what I propose we do..."

O O(_)O O

After the status light blinked green, indicating the door to the pressure-equalizing chamber was closed, Danni put down her glow rod and started to shuck herself out of her vac suit, piling it on the floor next to the door. Stretching out with the Force caused her to shiver involuntary—she could feel a definite sensation of someone pressing against the edge of her awareness, the unmistakable feeling that she was being watched. Oddly, the presence did not seem malicious, just…darker. Even more strange was that it seemed…amused. Bravely, or perhaps foolishly, she ignored the sensation and continued to search the Force for clues, finding only the increasingly amused, dark presence and an underlying feeling of something...oily. The blonde scowled at the sensation as it occurred to her that the last time she encountered such a feeling was in Jacen's office. Jacen. Immediately, she started to get angry as she realized that her friend had betrayed her, playing her for a fool, laughing at efforts to 'save' him from himself. Before she knew what she was doing, Danni angrily stuffed one leg into her vac suit, determined to head back to Coruscant to confront her 'friend'. Nobody makes a fool of…. her thoughts stopped, one leg in the suit, the other foot off the ground as the unmistakable sound of deep laughter started to echo in her head followed by a pleasant baritone: You should have paid more attention to Skywalker, Ms. Quee: the dark side is powerful.

"How do you know who I am?" The scientist demanded as she removed her leg from the vac suit again.

We've been watching you for a while. The voice admitted, not answering her question. Who do you think has been showing you Jacen's visions?

The scientist reeled at his comment as a wave of nausea almost overwhelmed her. This whole journey had been based on nothing but a cheap con-a simple parlor trick by some faceless Force phantom; she had fooled herself into believing there was a link between her and…Perhaps I misspoke, the voice interrupted kindly, clearly able to read her thoughts, What I meant was that I saw that your link with Mr. Solo was still there and…strengthened it a bit.

"Who are you?" Danni replied as she forced down her anger, mollified a bit by this last admission, her glow rod shining around the dark cavern, vainly searching for whomever it was that was talking to her.

The disembodied voice sounded amused. A friend. A foe. The voice paused, and she imagined him giving her a shrug. It really depends on you.

"Depends on what?" The blonde demanded, continuing to shine the light around as she removed her right leg from her vac suit.

Tell me: is the lugubrious presence you sense here that of Jacen Solo?

Danni considered the question for a moment before shaking her head. "No." She paused, before elaborating. "Jacen always seemed…troubled, I guess, but I never got this same feeling of maliciousness."

Her answer seemed to satisfy the voice, and she got the impression of a warm smile. In that case…welcome to The Home.

With a loud thunk, several arc lights blazed into life twenty meters above her, illuminating that portion of the asteroid. Blinking rapidly to clear the spots from her eyes, the first thing she noticed was a small villa-style residence tucked away about two hundred meters away in the right corner of the large cavern she was standing in, its pastel colors a sharp contrast to the dull grey rock of the rest of the asteroid. "Nice place."

Frowning slightly at the lack of a response, Danni bent to pick up her glow rod and went about exploring the asteroid, trying to match the reality of the place with what she had seen in her first vision. After twenty minutes of exploring a several passageways that turned out to be dead-ends, she finally found one that started to feel vaguely familiar. Taking a deep breath, she continued to explore deeper into the asteroid, her sense of foreboding increasing seemingly with every step that she took. Two hundred meters in, the passageway opened into a medium-sized cavern and her sense of foreboding turned into a raging torrent of panic and she had to fight the overwhelming urge to turn and run. This was it; this was the place where her friend had done something unspeakable. Shining her glow rod around the cavern, she quickly found a narrow, deep, alcove from which she could 'flow-walk' and know for certain what had happened here.

Taking off her utility belt and laying it on the cavern floor, Danni started to wedge herself into the small space, killing her glow-rod as she did. With the only light being what filtered down from the main entrance cavern, Jacen Solo's apprentice reached out with her left hand to feel the rock face and stretched out with the Force and the almost overwhelming feeling of panic starting to fade. After a moment, she could start to decipher the 'timeline' of MZX32905 and just as it was starting to become clear enough for Danni to follow…

"Only pain will you find there, Ms. Quee." The voice interrupted, only this time it sounded not in her head, but came from somewhere out-of-sight to her right.

Keeping her hand on the rock wall, trying to maintain her link to the 'timeline', "I need to know the truth."

"The truth?" The 'phantom' voice asked in an amused tone, "You've spent too much time with the Jedi: the Force won't show you the truth…only your eyes can do that." He snapped his fingers and more lights blazed into being, illuminating this cavern with the same orange-tinted hue as in the other chamber, their buzz clearly audible.

With a resigned sigh, Danni wormed her way out of the small alcove and found herself face to face with another ghost; this one a tall, portly, gentlemen with muscular arms, a round face, and disconcertingly black eyes. "Who are you?" The scientist asked, no longer trying to hide her frustration with all of the ghosts she seemed to be meeting on this trip.

"Who I am is unimportant." He grinned mischievously, "Who I was is what matters."

Exasperated, Danni rolled her eyes, "Fine. Who were you then?"

The ghost ignored her tone as he gave her a deep bow, and affected a Coruscanti accent, "Milady, you may call me Vectivus."

The way he said it made it sound more like a title than a name, causing Danni to frown slightly; the only people who would use a title like that were… "You're a Sith?" she demanded harshly.

His grin fading, Vectivus tsk-ed as he stood and his tone became accusatory, "You know nothing, Danni Quee. Jedi, Sith, Light, Dark…these are all just adjectives. Used by people to explain what they don't understand." His expression turned quizzical, "Surely Mr. Solo has explained this to you."

"Yes. But…"

"You didn't really think about what it meant." Vectivus interrupted, shaking his head as he did. Sighing, he continued, "It means that it is possible to be a Sith and not be a megalomaniac-or that you can be a Jedi and be one."

"Yes. But…"

"Judge me by my name, do you?" The ghost asked in a mocking tone.

Letting out a defeated sigh, the scientist shook her head. "No." At the time, she had assumed her and Jacen's discussions about the nature of the Force were purely academic, merely philosophical musings by two like-minded people. Now, faced with the obvious fact that there were Sith, some of them even possibly alive, and that believed that there was no Dark Side made her skin crawl. At its core, the Sith mantra: Through strength, I gain power was totally at odds with everything she went into science for. Still though, she was forced to admit there was nothing inherently wrong with power…it all depended upon how one wielded that power. Returning her attention to the Sith Lord, "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to look." Vectivus smiled, and gestured at the medium-sized cavern, "What do you see?"

Scowling, Danni turned and cast a cursory look around the cavern. "I see…." nothing, she was about to say, but stopped herself: she did see something. After taking a few steps forward she knelt down to look closer at the footprints visible in the dirt floor. Her frown deepening, she ran a finger lightly across one of the depressions and suddenly the unmistakable sound of clashing lightsabers broke the silence. Startled, the blonde yanked her hand away and glanced at the former Sith Lord.

"Find something?" Vectivus asked in a bored tone as he sat on the stool he had conjured up.

"You didn't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Shaking her head, Danni tentatively replaced her hand and the sound of a pitched battle resumed. Seeing the apparent direction of the footprints, she shuffled forward, making sure to keep her fingers running over the imprints. As she did, the feeling of panic resumed and the battle sounds became louder and she could make out each separate clash, each grunt of exertion or pain, each rapid breath, the ever-present hum of two lightsabers; she saw watched as the footprints became less precise, more chaotic, matching to desperate clashes and slashes she could hear. Following her 'trail', the battle got even louder, the clashes of the lightsabers faster, the breathing more rapid and then….nothing.

Suddenly she was overcome by a sense of despair and guilt so powerful it caused her collapse onto all fours and she lost her lunch right there on the cave floor. Forcing her self not to collapse in agony, her breath ragged, the guilt and despair started to fade and she took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm her nerves. As her stomach settled down, Danni suddenly recognized that she was kneeling over an impression in the dust that could only have been made by a body and another wave of nausea caused two more rounds of dry heaves. Finally, her stomach empty, she forced herself up to a kneeling position, wiping her chin as she did and glowered at the former Sith. "I thought you said the Force wouldn't show me the truth?"

Shaking his head sympathetically, Vectivus floated her canteen over to her as he explained, "I did nothing…your mind is much more powerful than the Force; you only heard and felt what your mind wanted you to hear." He waited for a moment as Danni wiped her hands on her grey cargo pants and took a quick drink from her canteen. After she had replaced the cap, he asked quietly, nodding at the wall behind her, "What else do you see?"

Danni did not want to look around any more. For the first time since she first boarded the Survivor after that first vision, she wanted nothing more than to return to Zonoma and hide from life…let someone else clean up this mess. Willing herself to her feet, she slowly turned to her left and saw a freshly disturbed section of the cave floor some four meters away. Rectangular in shape, the section was about two meters long and a meter or so in width…slowly the realization of what this section was became apparent and the blonde scientist seethed and failed to notice as her world faded to black until it was too late.