Chapter 34
"I told you, the Togruta said to meet his droid here!" shouted the grey-skinned Twi'lek trying to be heard over the dance music.
"Yes, we've been over this, and as I've already explained to you, we don't have any droids in our service!" pleaded the head waiter. The head waiter, a Twi'lek himself, had hoped to appeal to their racial similarities to calm the man and perhaps turn him away. His description of the infamous Sith Lord Syriu'us still made him feel uneasy, and the time spent waiting for the Askajian woman – how I hate working with her, but I'll never divulge that – to turn up and settle this man's issue was lasting longer than expected, even for his own safe estimates to keep his neck intact.
"He promised me forty thousand credits!"
"But sir…"
"How long before your supervisor arrives?"
"I'll double check on her," replied the head waiter leaving exasperated.
The grey-skinned Twi'lek relaxed into his booth and took a sip of his drink, no strong drinks… can't let them pin me with being drunk… and then scanned the dance hall again. He said 'no droids,' maybe it's a hoax, and I can't see any… wait, there!
Across the dance hall emerged a small, squeaky, black box rolling around on four wheels. A droid! This had to be his lucky day after all, because it seemed to be winding its way through saloon dancers, dancing patrons and servers toward his booth. As the little droid drew near, it rolled to a stop and squeaked rapid, wavy, high-pitched tones. Let the Sith have their way; let the riots go on; let my livelihood suffer; but now everything will be set right, and I can return to my kinsfolk without any shame at last, he thought.
"Hello there, fella," said the grey-skinned Twi'lek, smiling as a sense of relief slowly flooded into him. "I believe you can help me with this," he said, smiling and holding out the transponder that had been given to him by the Togruta Sith Lord. Who says a Sith can't be trusted? he thought. The droid seemed excited as it beeped some more and strode in a tight circle.
Subtyr slammed his lightsaber into Oblivia's blade and shoved her backward. She recovered her footing quickly and swung her blade around as Subtyr unleashed more lightning at her, which she caught harmlessly on her lightsaber until she could thrust her own arm into his direction releasing her own Force attack. He flew backward, but was able to flip out of the telepathic push and land squarely on his feet on the other side of his quarters. Much of his furnishings had already been reduced to rubble either as improvised weapons or collateral damage, wisps of smoke rising gently from random piles of clutter.
"Your thoughts betray you, lover boy," she taunted, He hates that, I can feel it! Good! He's more focused… "Explain it to me, then: why is this catalyst so important as to hold an entire viable armada of the Sith Empire back from purifying the Core?"
"She will destroy the Sith!"
"Not likely!"
"Yes!"
"Not this Sith!"
"Insolent…."
A ripple in the Force stirred within them both leaving them speechlessly staring at each other. Simultaneously they extinguished their lightsabers. Subtyr used the Force and dashed toward the entry. He needed to get to the bridge. The Force ripple indicated to him that matters were falling apart on the planet's surface, a turbolaser bombardment may be in order to help matters out, he thought.
Oblivia turned as if to follow him, and then shot her arm out just as the door slid open. Subtyr lifted into the air clutching his throat. He instantly remembered why getting caught in Oblivia's grasp was reputably fatal. Her power with telekinesis made her fearsome and virtually invincible in the field of battle, the lightsaber action merely an obstacle to death by the Force, a delay of the inevitable. This isn't going to end well….
Thera soared into the air a mere moment before the explosion from somewhere else shook the entire saloon facility. She had to deflect a random blaster bolt from a stunned patron before she landed. As she did she felt the Force flowing through her limbs carefully deflecting the bolt at her opponent, the larger Askajian Sith Lady. The Askajian had barely managed to keep her balance when the blast struck her near the collar bone. She was stunned for a moment dropping her lightsaber, but she was quick to recover herself and call it with the Force to her other hand before it hit the floor and resume a defensive stance.
The whole duel had gone wrong for Thera until she felt the impression in the Force to jump. The Askajian carried a heavy build, but she moved her limbs with admirable control, power and speed. Thera was quick and strong, too, but she could not seem to find the edge in the Force to penetrate the Askajian's technique. It was all Thera could do to keep her occupied in the duel to prevent her from being able to use the Force against her directly.
The Askajian had already lifted her into the air and slammed her into the floor once, along with sucker punching Thera in the stomach, which normally would not have winded her given Thera's physique. But the Askajian had packed the punch with the Force, which Thera had miscalculated. Another error like that would cost her. But now the balance had shifted between them, and she felt the Force flow stronger with her once she landed firmly on her feet to face her wounded opponent.
She stole a quick glance toward her master in time to see her get kicked and then Force-hurled against a wall by the skinnier Askajian. Everything was not going very well. But that was all she had time to assess, especially as more blaster bolts flew past her head. The larger Askajian smiled with poise and bore down on Thera with amazing ambidexterity. While the loss of her other arm did slow her down, she was proving skillful at compensating. Thera grew distraught that she was not gaining the advantage. She felt the Force stronger move stronger through her limbs, but she felt like she was almost struggling harder to penetrate the Askajians defenses.
"Young fool," the Askajian read her thoughts. "You're infected with fear. You'll never be a Sith!"
Thera grew angrier at the taunt and thrust her lightsaber stronger. The Askajian met each stronger blow and managed to twist their blades and free Thera's lightsaber from her hand. Thera immediately withdrew a pace and tried to call the blade back, but instead it floated easily toward the Askajian and into the grip of her weakened arm.
"I'll take care of it for you, Deary," said the Askajian advancing toward her. Thera jumped into a high back flip landing several meters from the persistent Askajian. The Sith Lady drew back with her good arm and sent her lightsaber twirling toward Thera. Suddenly she stopped and a black spot appeared just below her neck with a tiny wisp of smoke emitting from it. She looked angry; Thera felt her disappointment explode in the Force as she put out her own hand and caught the Askajian's lightsaber. Two more black spots burned into her collar bone and she slowly fell forward onto her face. Thera pulled her lightsaber back to herself with the Force.
Thera spotted the Zeltron with his sophisticated blaster still drawn on where the Askajian had been. Thera smiled at him through the haze of the waning confusion, and he winked back at her. All of a sudden a red light flashed in front of him and his arm was severed from his body. He shouted in pain and collapsed to his knees and agonized over his pain. Thera followed the blades flight path as it returned to its origin, the skinnier Askajian Sith Lady.
The skinnier Askajian was clearly the more graceful of the two, obviously from her dancing ability. She packed twists and twirls and magnificent balance into every move. She was nearly A'pratti'ka's match. As the thrown lightsaber drew near, the Askajian leaped over A'pratti'ka guiding the saber's path into A'pratti'ka, who keenly batted the blade away, and spun with her own grace into a clash with the Askajian. The Askajian caught the loose hilt, and magically jabbed the red blade into A'pratti'ka's lower abdomen. Thera saw A'pratti'ka visibly tense with a snarl. She nudged the Askajian, and then swung her blade in a wide circle in front of her before collapsing and rolling away from her grasping her stomach area with her arms. The Askajian woman fell onto her back with a shout bringing her feet into the air and holding where her toes used to be before standing back up less gracefully than before.
I have to hurry before it's too late, thought the blue-skinned Twi'lek as she scurried through the corridors of the Harrower-class star destroyer in orbit above Ryloth. Gerrikan had been unable to complete one point of her plan because of the telepathic presences she kept feeling around her looking for her. This final point kept drawing emotion from her which seemed to draw the telepathic inquiries in her direction. Each time, she had to stop and hide somewhere, anywhere, and draw in every emotion and thought until she felt like she didn't exist. She found each time that she was able to sustain this mental effort long enough to know that the telepathic presence had left her.
Her task was to disrupt the ship's inertial dampers. She had learned from her late engineer friend that the inertial dampers' main purpose was to minimize the effects of physical forces acting on the ship on the passengers allowing them to move about and basically live onboard as if the external environment did not exist. To give her secret hope a chance, she knew somehow, I don't know how I know these things, the playing field would need to be leveled, equally unfavorable and unpredictable to everyone. She felt strongly that this needed to be done, and somehow she knew that time was running short.
Everything else was in place. She could smell the effects of her handiwork in some areas of the ship already, but one would barely notice unless they were paying particular attention, what with other mechanistic odors that pervaded certain compartments, and occasionally some corridors if environmental controls were malfunctioning. An escape pod was already deleted from the ship's inventory, along with an auto sequence and personal security code for controlling blast doors when the time came for escape. The ship was hers for the taking if she had merely wanted to do so, had her imagination graced her with such an idea, but this ship's days were numbered.