Chapter 55
Mount Tantiss
"A ship just dropped out of hyperspace. A small passenger shuttle." Ylenic prodded at the control panel. "And it looks like it has an Imperial transponder."
"Well, no sense in pretending we're not here. We're out in the open, they'll see us on sensors just as well as we can see them. Open up a com channel, I can always say I'm just chasing a bounty and stumbled onto this place." Ahsoka pulled her armored bounty hunter's mask over her face and turned her chair towards the communication console that was between her pilot's seat and Ylenic's sensor board.
Ylenic opened up a com channel. The board pinged at him. "The ship refused the com channel... then sent back a tightbeam. It looks like they don't want to be overheard."
"Yes, because there's so much out hear to listen in to our conversation. Accept it, I guess." Under her mask Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
The face of Master Sifo-Dyas shone in blue-white light above the communications console. Ylenic blinked, in surprise, but didn't say anything, or move into view of the holotransmitter.
"It's best if we keep our conversation to a minimum, Togruta," Dyas said. There was a faint hiss and pop of static that even the sound filtering system couldn't keep up with, but that was a common side effect of two moving vessels trying to keep a tightbeam transmission focused correctly in real time. "We are on the other side of the planet from the base and the satellites. As far as I know there are no other monitoring systems in place around the planet yet. I suggest we come in low so as to avoid detection."
"I only came here looking for you. I found you. Now I want to talk. I want to know what's going on, and what you're doing here." Ahsoka tried to glare at the hologram, then realized that all he could see was her mask. She was still getting used to that, even after having it for a few weeks now.
Master Dyas blinked at her in surprise. "You're not here for the mad Jedi, then?"
"What mad Jedi? What is going on? Where have you been for the last fifteen years? You missed the entire Clone Wars! And why did you secretly order the clone army without telling anyone?" Ahsoka leaned over the hologram, trying to look as threatening as possible. "I've got a lot of questions. I'm not going anywhere with you without getting a few of them answered."
"All right, then. Stay if you'd like. But I'll be landing on the planet." A tiny glowing bluish arm reached for the cutoff switch that was just out of view.
"Fine, we land. Then you answer questions."
"Follow me in. I know how to avoid the sensors." This time he actually did reach for the cutoff switch, and then the engines of the Imperial shuttle flared up as it slowly accelerated towards the green and blue world below.
Ahsoka feathered the Whipclaw's engines and followed the slow path that the shuttle was making.
The trip was fairly unremarkable, until the shuttle fired its engines at full blast at the last minute, and Ahsoka had to skim across uneven ground and around large jungle trees. A mountain could be seen coming up on the horizon, and the sensors showed that, as Hondo had told her, above the mountain there were the faint signals of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
The shuttle set down on a patch of solid stone by the edge of a lakebed, leaving enough room for the Whipclaw to set down next to it.
As Ahsoka set the ship down, she looked out the viewscreen to see several large quadrupeds loping around outside the ship. They looked like predators of some kind.
Pointing them out the Master It'kla, she asked, "Do those look dangerous to you?"
"Perhaps," he replied. "They remind me a bit of panthacs, but a bit bulkier."
The shuttle's ramp extended, and the long-absent Jedi Master stepped down the ramp. He raised a hand towards the animals, and Ahsoka could feel him using the Force to try to convince them to hunt for prey elsewhere.
The pack ambled away, and Master Dyas appeared to be waiting for Ahsoka.
"So how do you want to play this?" she asked Ylenic. "Do you want to be my backup in case he's hostile, or do you want to come out in the open right away?"
"Master Dyas was well known for his ability to see the future. I do not doubt that if he does not know that I am here, he will soon enough." The Caamasi Jedi stood up in the chair and stretched. "Besides, I am not as young as I once was. Sitting in one place too long does not appeal to me... or my lower back."
The two Jedi came down the ramp of the Whipclaw together. Ahsoka stepped forward and walked up to Dyas. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."
"Yes, I do," he said, "But not here. The garrals most likely have radio collars. The mad Jedi in the mountain will be aware that a ship landed here. We should move now. When we find a quiet place, I will give you whatever answers I can."
He turned, giving a two fingered waving gesture over his shoulder. The message was clear. He wanted the two Jedi to follow him.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ahsoka said as she followed him out of the clearing and into the forest.
"You are not the only one," Master It'kla said. "Master Sifo-Dyas has been missing for fifteen years. You were not yet in the Jedi Order when he went missing. But as far as I can tell, he has not aged at all since then."
Eventually the mysterious Jedi found a spot that he was comfortable stopping in, and he sat down on a fallen log. He turned to Ahsoka and Ylenic. "In spite of everything that you have seen, I am glad that you are here."
"Well, you've got a funny way of showing it. First you aid and abet pirates. Then you come at me with a sword and stomp on my foot. Now you're leading us around a jungle." Ahsoka crossed her arms and started to lean against a tree.
"I wouldn't do that," he said.
"Do what?" she asked. Then her Force danger sense flared up, and she jumped back.
What had looked like a vine wrapped around the tree hissed and lunged at her. Master It'kla caught it in a telekinetic Force grip, then tossed it towards some bushes several feet away. The long snake hissed again, then slithered away.
"Why was the vine a snake? What the kark kind of planet did you lead us to?" Ahsoka yelped. "You know what, don't answer that. Answer my first questions. The ones I asked before we started going through a jungle full of panthacs and vine snakes!"
The dark haired Jedi sighed, and said, "The truth is... I don't know many of the answers you seek. I am Jedi Master Sifu Dias, and I many of my memories are fuzzy. All I know is that I found myself in a strange place, without weapons. And I knew, through the Force, and through what little I can remember, that I needed to come here. That mountain needs to be protected from the mad Jedi that is there now. He has slaughtered everyone who was there. And he must be stopped. So I stole a shuttle and meditated until I could see a clear path to this point in time. Playing pirate, building a lightsaber... meeting you. That was all the will of the Force."
"Then how about we start with what you do remember," Ahsoka said, checking the tree for any other animals before she leaned against it again. "You know your name, you know this place, you know about a mad Jedi. Do you remember going to Kamino and ordering a few hundred thousand clone troops for the Republic?"
"I... vaguely. I had a vision of the future. I knew that if something wasn't done, the Republic would be overrun by dark forces. I do not remember the details. I know Kamino was a dark and wet world, the people there were tall and fragile. And I know that the Force led me there, just as surely as I know that I must come here now."
Master It'kla walked over to Master Dyas and kneeled down in front of him. "Do you remember me?"
"I... I think so. Master... Ylenic?"
The Caamasi nodded and breathed in heavily through his nose. "Yes."
"I do not know exactly what awaits us at Mount Tantiss. I do know that before I lost my memory, I must have been told something. I remember that I cannot trust what I see with him. He will look like a friend, but he is not who he appears to be."
"He will look like a friend," Master It'kla repeated. "Tell me, Master Dyas, what do you know of clone flash imprinting?"
Master Dyas looked confused. "Not much. I know clones can be taught with it, as a way of making up for the time they would normally spend growing up naturally."
"More than that. Flash imprinting is a way of creating and reinforcing neural patterns. It is not a perfect way of transferring memories or thoughts, but it is a way of passing on certain traits, thoughts, and some memories of an original template to a clone."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Do not listen to your thoughts, they will betray you. Listen to the Force. Master Sifo-Dyas went missing fifteen years ago, after having a clandestine meeting with a group of cloners. Fifteen years, and you can barely remember any of it. Fifteen years, and you look like you have not aged a day."
"Master It'kla, are you saying..." Ahsoka's voice trailed off.
Ylenic took the man's hand and sniffed it with his large triangular nose. "And after the Clone Wars, I have spent enough time around clones to be able to smell certain hormonal differences in men who have undergone an accelerated aging process. The real Master Sifo-Dyas would know how to pronounce his own name properly."
Sifu-Dyas stared at the Caamasi in horror and drew his hand back. "No... I... I can't be. I remember who I was! Not well, but I remember! The Jedi discovered me on Ord Canfre. I grew up on Coruscant. I remember the first time I saw a hawk-bat come down out of the sky and pluck a granite slug out of a crack in the pavement. I remember the first time I was chasing a criminal through the underbelly of Coruscant and my Master and I accidentally blundered into a club where boys my age weren't normally allowed. I remember building my lightsaber. I remember... Dooku. By the Force... my old friend... he... killed me."
The Jedi clone's eyes were closed tightly, and Ahsoka wasn't sure if it was sweat from their sojourn through the jungle, or if there were tears on his cheeks.
Ylenic stood up and put a hand on the clone's shoulders. "You are Sifu-Dyas. It does not matter where your memories came from. It does not matter how clear they are. You are who you choose to be. And if my guess is right, the memories you have were inserted to guide you here, so that you could stop another clone. One who, perhaps, didn't come out of his flash training completely mentally stable. One who will probably wear the face of someone you and I both knew."
"If someone is cloning Jedi and setting them loose on the galaxy..." Ahsoka said, "What does that mean? He said he stole a shuttle from where he woke up. He was in an Imperial shuttle."
"The Emperor is trying to destroy the Jedi," Ylenic replied. "Perhaps he hopes to clone them, and use them one by one for his purposes. I just wish I knew what his purposes were."
"Yeah," Ahsoka said, "I think we really should look into that when we're done here. And if you're right... that means that we're cleaning up his mess right now."
"I know," Ylenic said, "and I don't like it any more than you do. But a Force user driven mad can be a terrible thing."
