Chapter 36

Admiral Jordan sat silently on the bridge of the Rebel cruiser Sholank. The ship was a standard heavy cruiser – its armour would withstand bombardment for hours if needed, and its large weapons, while slow, would cause significant damage to any target. Though the Sholank was not different to the majority of cruisers at the Rebel's disposal, it had become the de facto flagship for the Rebels. This was solely down to the fact that Jordan was in command.

The loyalty that he inspired in the people who served under him was unmatched – a fact which had made him many enemies, even amongst the Rebels. His brilliant tactical mind had earned him credit for many victories.

His only weakness was something that he might not even consider to be a weakness. He had a very short temper – a temper which had led him in the direction that he was heading now. After Garin had attacked the Rebel base on Tatooine, Jordan had not even hesitated before giving the order to pursue. He was furious, but he had also felt vindicated – he had sensed from the moment he saw him that Garin was hiding something, and in the instant that the first explosions rocked the base he knew for certain that Garin was an Alliance spy.

And now he would hunt him down and destroy him before he could reveal any tactical information about the Rebels.

At least, he used to be convinced of that. Shortly after they had left word reached them that there had been just a few minor injuries and zero fatalities as a result of Garin's attack. In fact, it seemed to Jordan that he had purposefully targeted areas which were unpopulated and housed no critical systems. It was definitely not the work of someone trying to cripple them – more the work of someone trying to provoke a reaction.

And that wasn't all. Jordan was having a hard time understanding why Garin would risk coming back to the base. The Admiral had spent some of the journey reading his file – extensively reading it. Garin was a high ranking officer before his disappearance during the attack on the Endor, with high level security clearance. What could he possibly have learned in his short visit back to the Rebel base that he didn't know before? The pieces just weren't fitting together.

Jordan leaned to the console next to his chair and pressed several buttons. After a few moments, Admiral Connor's image appeared on the front view-screen.

When Connor had first insisted on joining the pursuit, Jordan was apprehensive – it was no secret that Connor and Garin were close friends, and Jordan suspected that he only wanted to come to try and prevent Jordan from killing Garin. But now… with these doubts surfacing in his head, he was glad that he had someone like Connor to talk to.

Connor's face filled the massive screen. "Admiral", he said as a greeting.

Jordan didn't speak for several moments. He simply sat in his command chair, with his chin resting on his hands and his hands covering his mouth. Eventually he moved. "What do you think is going on here?" he asked, bluntly.

Connor's face twisted in genuine confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Jordan smiled faintly. "I'm having second thoughts", he said, and wasn't surprised when he saw the relieved expression on Connor's face. "Don't get me wrong", he added quickly. "I still want to see Lieutenant Garin punished severely for his actions. But I don't think he was an Alliance spy – it simply doesn't make sense".

Connor nodded. "As I told you, Garin has always been loyal". He looked away from the screen, as though contemplating something. "To be honest", he continued, "I think that he just wanted us to follow him. He knew before he left the base on Tatooine that the ship he had stolen contained a tracking beacon, and he knew how to switch it off if he had wanted to".

Now it was Jordan's turn to nod in agreement. "Yes", he said. "I think he's leading us somewhere too. But where?"

"Admiral". A young, female crew member approached Jordan and saluted. Jordan nodded to indicate that she could speak. "We are due to make our final cooling down stop. Sensors indicate that the shuttle stopped several light years further ahead, around a small, virtually unexplored planet beyond the outer rim. We should be able to reach it in one more jump".

Jordan sighed. He had long been irritated by what he saw as a limitation in large battleships. They were too slow, he thought. "Alright", he said wearily. "Take us out of hyperspace".

Seconds after the Rebel ships had exited Hyperspace, alarms started to sound throughout – proximity alerts. Jordan winced as the deafening sound pierced his ears. "What is it?" he shouted.

"Sir!" the female crew member answered. "There are several small battle ships in front of us. They appear to be Jedi".

Jedi, Jordan thought as he considered his next move. But… Grey Jedi, or not?

"Try to get them on communicators", he ordered. There were over a dozen ships, and Jordan knew that if they were hostile they would struggle to overcome them.

Several agonising seconds of silence followed, as they tried to raise the Jedi ships on their communicators. The longer the silence went on, the more Jordan prepared himself to give the order to attack. But, just as he was about to, a voice echoed around the bridge.

"We mean you no harm", it said. "We are members of the Grey Order, and we have urgent matters to discuss with you. May we come aboard your ship?"

Jordan paused momentarily. Deep down he was greatly relieved to hear that the ships were not hostile, but he held a great distaste for the Grey Jedi and would prefer to keep them off his ship. He sighed. "You're welcome to board", he said reluctantly. The communication was ended. Jordan leaned back in his chair. "Someone get Admiral Connor over here as well", he ordered. "I'm not seeing those bastards on my own".

Three Jedi boarded the Sholank – two men and one woman. They were dressed casually – the men wore brown jackets and baggy black trousers, and the woman a white top tucked in to brown pants. This was typical of the Greys, who made a point of avoiding the all-covering robes that had become typical of the Jedi Order. Neither Jordan nor Connor were fond of the Greys – they both believed that they were thrill seekers, and often caused more trouble than they were worth. But at least they were approachable – they didn't try to build up an air of mystery to keep people distant like the Jedi Order.

Both they and Admiral Connor had been escorted to the Sholank's meeting room. This was a large, round room with a brown, circular table at the centre. The wall was all white, apart from the section that ran along the ship's hull which had been made into a window. The room was designed to hold twenty people, so with just five it still appeared empty.

They had been sat for several minutes and, save for a few pleasantries, no one had spoken. Jordan was getting impatient. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "You said you had something you needed to discuss", he said.

The Jedi looked at each other. None of them had revealed their names, but it was the woman who spoke. "First", she said hesitantly, "would you mind telling us your destination?"

Jordan frowned, but Connor remained still – he was sat back in his chair, his hands clasped in front of his face as though in contemplation. "Why are you…" Jordan began, but was interrupted.

"We just wish to find out how much you know about the current situation", the woman said. With this, Jordan looked over at Connor. He hated answering questions – whenever he was asked something he felt as though he was being interrogated. Connor, though, simply nodded.

Jordan sighed loudly, not bothering to hide his frustration. "We are pursuing a member of our crew", he said, slightly twisting the facts. "We're unsure of his destination, but our sensors indicate that he stopped in orbit around a distant planet". Jordan had decided that this was enough information to give them – he did not tell them that shortly before they had boarded the signal had disappeared. This meant that either the signal was being blocked somehow or that the ship was no longer there.

Again there was a pause as the Jedi glanced at each other. Then, hesitantly, as though she were revealing a secret, the woman spoke again. "Around a week ago, every member of our Order sensed a massive disturbance in the Force – something unlike anything any of us have ever felt before. It was massive, and the power that we sensed is, potentially, Galaxy threatening. At the instant that we felt it we were all overcome with… desire. Lust. We wanted that power, and in that instant we were willing to do anything – kill anyone – to get it.

"That feeling passed quickly, and the disturbance fell out of our sight. But in the last day or so it reappeared – weaker than before, but still shining like a beacon throughout the Galaxy. Any Force sensitive will be sensing what we are sensing".

Jordan was interested – there were echoes of Garin's story here – but he was anxious for them to get to the point. "And?" he said, impatiently.

"And…" the woman repeated. "The signal is coming from the place that, it appears, you are heading. And we must warn you… everyone will be heading to the same place. The Jedi, and the Alliance if they know about this. If this power falls into malevolent hands then it would be… very bad, to say the least. We request your help to prevent that from happening".

Jordan looked at Connor and could tell from his expression that he was thinking the same as him. Garin had been telling the truth. They both knew that if this… orb that Garin warned them about was as powerful a weapon as he claimed then they had a responsibility to make sure that it didn't fall into Alliance hands.

Connor moved for the first time, taking his hands away from his face. "We've been told of… a weapon", he said. "The person we are following warned us that there is an artefact on this planet with devastating power… Force power… and that there are already several parties trying to claim it. His intention is to prevent them from acquiring it, and we're beginning to think that we should aid him in his plans".

Jordan cleared his throat. "In other words", he added, "we agree to helping you prevent the Alliance from laying claim to this weapon. Hell… we'd be stupid if we didn't".

This seemed to please the Jedi. They thanked the two Admirals for their time, and were escorted back to their shuttles. Jordan and Connor were left alone in the meeting room. They sat facing each other in silence for several minutes.

Finally, Jordan spoke. "A weapon…", he breathed.

Connor nodded. "A weapon powerful enough to win this war for whoever controls it", he said, the anticipation lighting up his eyes. "We need to claim it for the Rebels".

Jordan smiled and nodded. He was glad that they were both on the same page. He leaned over to a console that had been built into the table and pressed several buttons, opening up communication with the bridge. "This is Admiral Jordan", he said. "Start making preparations for our final jump. We'll begin as soon as Admiral Connor is back aboard his ship".

The two men looked at each other one last time, and then Connor stood up and left, heading back to the hangar bay and back to his own ship. Jordan was left alone to contemplate what he had just heard.

Gabe let out a loud cry – the knife had dug deep into his lower back, and blood was quickly pouring down his legs. He had known that it was coming – he had seen in Jani's eyes that she intended to kill him, he simply didn't care anymore. But that didn't stop it hurting like hell. He fell forward towards the pedestal at the centre of the room – he was desperate to reach it before Jani could finish what she had started.

But he had fallen short. He started to drag himself forward, grunting in pain as he did so. Jani stalked him, following behind him. Her face was filled with glee – she had got what she wanted. When Gabe was inches from the pedestal, Jani walked over to him and put her foot on his back, squeezing him into the ground.

"Ah ah aah", she said menacingly. "It's not yours anymore. It's mine". She walked around in front of Gabe – between him and the fragment – and knelt down. She grabbed his hair and lifted his head up so that he was looking into her eyes.

"You were never anything to me", she growled. "Nothing. Nothing but a cheap fuck, a way to get the satisfaction that I needed. As soon as I found something better I got rid of you. And now you're dead, and the orb is mine".

With that, she stood up and headed toward Marc, intending to either take the orb from him or take his hand as she would have done before. But before she got three steps she stopped. She heard laughter – strained laughter, laughter through pain. It was Gabe.

She turned to face him and he dragged himself up so that he was sitting, leaning against the pedestal. He was still laughing – the sound grated on Jani.

She folder her arms across her chest. "What's funny?" she asked.

Gabe stopped laughing. "The orb isn't yours", he said. "It never was and it never will be. It's not yours, or mine, or anyone's. It belongs to him". He indicated towards Marc, who had slumped to the ground – he had started to drool.

Jani laughed. "Him?" she snorted. "He's nothing but a mindless vegetable. He can't even stand on his own".

Gabe shuffled in his spot, his face straining with the pain. "I don't know why he's like that", he said. "Perhaps his mind is inside the fragment still. But it doesn't matter. The orb won't work for anyone else. There's unlimited power inside it, but he's the only one who can access it."

"Why", Jani asked, bluntly.

Gabe smiled, but he didn't answer her. Not yet. "You've been getting voices in your head, haven't you?" he asked, though he didn't wait for an answer. "I know you have, because I've heard them as well. But haven't you ever listened to what they've been saying?"

"They tell me about the power –" Jani started, but was interrupted.

"Of course they do", he said. "That's how they lure you in. But after that, when the voices change. All they wanted was for us to bring Marc here. They didn't care about anything else – not you or me, or even the orb. Just him". He leaned forward, staring directly at Jani. "All we are", he said. "Is the method of delivery".

The notion made Jani angry, but she forced herself to keep her face composed. "Why?" she asked, not quite able to keep the viciousness out of her voice. "Why is he so important? Why would a weapon want him here?"

Gabe grunted. "It's not a weapon", he laughed. "It was never built in a warehouse, wasn't broken to keep its power from people. It wasn't broken. It hatched".

Jani was speechless. This was absurd, she thought. "So… what? It's an egg? And Marc is what came out when it hatched?" She laughed out loud. "This is ridiculous. Do you honestly expect me to believe this?"

But there was no answer. "Gabe?" she said again. But there was still no answer. Gabe was dead.

"At last", she smiled. "He's finally stopped talking". She strode over to the pedestal at the centre of the room where the second fragment lay. She didn't pick it up; instead, she gently ran her finger down the side of it. As she did so, a look of sheer ecstasy filled her face, and she cried with joy.

She knew that her goal was now within touching distance, and a cruel smile appeared on her face. She turned to Marc, who knew what she was going to do. His grip on the fragment he still held in his hand tightened.

"I'm going to take it away from you", Jani said, "and there is nothing that you can do to stop me". She seemed to enjoy watching Marc squirm. He knew that he wouldn't be able to fight her off; she was a Jedi, after all. He also knew that, despite having no chance of succeeding, he would try and fight her anyway; not out of some misguided sense of pride, but simply because he was now so consumed by the power of the fragment that the thought of being without it even for a second filled him with a sense of dread that he could barely control.

He screamed, and tried to run past her to the door, hoping to escape and at least prolong his time with the fragment. But his legs – and his mind – were still too slow. She moved too quickly for him, blocking his path. She grabbed him as he tried to run past her and spun him around, sending him tumbling in the direction that he had come from.

Marc lay there for several seconds trying to think of some way – any way – out of this situation. He heard Jani laugh quietly; a sound that grated, and filled him with anger. He stared at her, his rage quickly consuming him, and launched himself toward her. Any rational thought had deserted him; he swung his fists wildly at her, wanting desperately to wipe the smile from her face.

Jani laughed at him. He was fighting her with every ounce of strength that he had, but she just brushed him off as though he was nothing. Marc was knocked down again and again, and each time he got back on his feet and fought her again. Eventually, though, the pain he felt became stronger than his desperation to keep hold of the orb fragment.

He lay on the floor, motionless, while she slowly made her way towards him, smiling. Her eyes were filled with nothing but desire. She felt no pity or remorse, either for Marc or for Gabe, the man she used to love but betrayed. She knelt beside him, extended her hand towards him and wrapped her fingers around the orb fragment. She pulled, but Marc still had a firm grip on it.

A look of irritation passed over her face, and she started to pull viciously on the fragment, trying to dislodge it from Marc's grasp. She dragged him across the rough, sandy floor, and cuts appeared all over his body. After the third or fourth tug, the orb fragment slipped out of Marc's hand. He let out a pathetic moan – a sound that indicated he knew that he'd been beaten.

Jani, on the other hand, let out a primal cry of victory. It was a wordless yell that went on for several seconds, and sounded to the world around her that she had won. She strode over to where the second piece lay and picked it up. She pushed them towards each other, and was surprised when she encountered resistance – like two equal magnetic poles pushing each other away. She pushed with all her might, though, and the two pieces touched for the briefest of moments. It was enough, though. There was a bright flash of purple light which blinded both Jani and Marc. When they could see again, the orb lay on the ground, whole again after thousands of years.