Entry 92
My father sent a text message to Mokk Streke stating it was clear to release the virus on Coruscant. Of course he wasn't using his own name but his 'secret society' alias: Muninar Cerar. I had to roll my eyes. "That's Mando'a for Big Mountain, isn't it? You really went with that for an undercover name? Why would you use an covert name that hints to your identity?"
My dad blushed slightly. "That is one of your mother's nicknames for me."
I shuddered as I remember the Mandalorian armor I had seen in his closet. "Ugh, enough said. At least it is better moniker than Cuddle Buddy." I walked across the flight deck and gazed out the viewport to the city-world below. "How long will it take?"
My father joined me. "Midichlorians die minutes after exposure. The scientists involved believe it would take an hour for the viral spores to saturate the upper levels of Coruscant. It may take longer for it to seep down to the lower areas…but I doubt Sith are down there sitting in squalor."
"How long will the virus be active?"
"A week or two. Jaden is working on a vaccine. When the Jedi want to return they should get immunized."
I turned to my father. "How will the Coruscanti police identify the Sith?"
"The seers knew the identity of some, but not all." He looked slightly uncomfortable. "Marcus funded a search that's been ongoing for the last two years. We hired slicers to weed out any possible Sith. They investigated every Jedi hating reporter, politician and media spokesperson. When a Sith was suspected someone would try to get near the person with a ysalamiri. If the person is a Force user you will always get a startled response. We think we identified most of the Sith. That information was recently passed on to the Chief-of-State."
"Okay," I said with a weary nod. "And once you have them…what charges are you going to hold them on? Unless they have done something wrong I don't think there is a law against following a Sith philosophy."
My father smirked. "They are on Coruscant illegally. If they can't provide proof of citizenship or a proper visa they can be deported…right back to their home planet."
"Mark," Deke called to my father as he held an earphone up to his ear. "Streke is sending two Coruscanti law enforcement officers to arrests the first Sith. They are accompanied by a couple of our Vong Void Jumpers," He put his hands up and made a 'quotation' gesture. "Who Streke believes are Private security personnel paid by the Order of the Canted Circle." He chuckled as he muttered under his breath, "Streke's such an idiot."
He walked over to a holovid transceiver and pushed a few buttons. "I'm going to try to patch into the helmet cam of Shik'etii-git…Hitsk'etii-got…oh kriff it, those Vong names are tongue twisters. I am patching in the feed from one of our Vong."
There was static for a short moment before the shaky image of people rushing into an office came into focus. "Coruscanti Police," I heard one of the humans yell out. "Stay where you are and keep your hands where we can see them."
All the office workers nervously raised their hands with the exception of one man. He scowled at the police as he ignited a red bladed lightsaber and ran toward the door. Both the Vong and security personnel started to fire stun bolts at the Sith. He turned and attempted to deflect the blaster fire, but only managed to rebound two before a third hit him in the leg. A surprised expression crossed his face as he crashed to the ground.
"Ha!" Deke guffawed. "Did you see the look on that dark-spook's face." He turned and started pantomiming a person with a lightsaber, "Hey, who turned off the Force?" He broke out in loud bouts of laughter.
My dad chuckled. "You love this, don't you Deke."
"You know I do." The man grinned widely. "I should be down there, seeing that I have more confirmed Sith kills than anybody else in the galaxy."
I looked to Deke and then to my father. "What?"
My dad threw a thumb in Deke's direction. "We found out the people who attacked the Hapan Royals were a group of Sith. They appear to put the same value on beauty as the Hapans. That's why they were all attractive."
Deke pointed to me. "The last time we talked you theorized the people who attacked the Hapans might be doing a dry run for an attack on Coruscant…and you were right."
I shouldn't be surprised at that revelation; after all, Ben thought the attackers were Force users. I turned to my father. "Are you sure?"
"We compared the DNA from the Hapan attackers and the man I killed in Streke's office and they have similar DNA markers suggesting they are from the same planet."
"Oh," was the only response I could come up with. My brain was a bit overwhelmed at this point.
We continued watching to bodycam vids from various arrests. They appeared to follow the same pattern. The Sith is accosted, he resists and attempts to escape, only to be stunned, cuffed and hauled off to Mokk Streke's new Force-cage wing of the local penitentiary.
I frowned as I thought about all the innocent Force-users that suddenly lost their powers. "You know, you could have just went in with ysalamiri. You didn't have to use the virus to capture these guys."
My dad nodded. "True, but this is a trial run for attacking their planet. If it works on them, it should work on the Sith on Kesh. If not," he hesitated for a moment. "Well, if the virus didn't work then other measures would have to be found to deal with Kesh." He turned to Deke. "Keep close observation, they may need more Vong reinforcements. Those Darksiders might not have the Force, but those sabers can do damage to an unarmored security officer."
"You got it."
"Then off to Kesh?" I asked.
My father shook his head. "No need. The King's flagship, Absolution, is on the way to the planet with about a thousand aerial dispersion canisters of the virus.
"Won't the Sith try to escape the planet when a Vengeance-class dreadnought shows up in their orbit?"
A lopsided grin graced my dad's face. "They would, if they could see it."
My brow rose. "You put a cloaking device on a dreadnought?"
"Not me personally," my father said with a snicker. "But yes, it is outfitted with a cloaking device." My dad moved from the holoprojector to the bridge viewing port. "Hopefully the information I gained from the Sith Meditation sphere is correct and we have the exact location of the Sith homeworld."
