Before they had even returned to the asteroid belt hideout where their division of Gorog resided, Alema and Tahiri had felt a profound message run through the hive-mind: they had found a suitable planet to inhabit. In the nearly two weeks that it had taken the Dark Nest since they had to flee from the rest of the Colony, it seemed too good to be true that they had been able to find any home out here in the Unknown Regions that wasn't either within Chiss territory or inhabited by some other faction.
This new home had been discovered by a scoutship consisting of a few Joiners and multiple members of their Killik brethren. The planet in question was primitive by many standards; indeed, it seemed that the world's biped occupants had yet to invent the wheel, which would make it perfect for Gorog's colonization. Moreover, this new potential home for the Dark Nest was about a week away from the asteroid belt hideout.
Nearly all of Gorog was in jubilation over this news.
Nearly.
"Do you believe this to be a trap set up by the Chiss and the Jedi, Tahiri?" Alema said out loud from the pilot seat of their stolen ship.
In the copilot seat, Tahiri looked anxiously at her. "I-We don't see how. We don't doubt what the scoutship found."
Instead of receiving more pressure in her mind, Alema simply smiled, as if she were regarding a particularly stupid child. "Perhaps we have been too hard on you lately. We understand now how hard it is for you."
Tahiri looked surprised. "What?"
Alema tilted her head as she regarded her. "We feel the pain that you hold for Tesar's death. He was a good friend, Tahiri. It was truly unfortunate that he had to die. But you killed him without hesitation, even if it was just to avoid the agony we have been giving you. There is hope for you yet."
A hopeful expression brightened Tahiri's face, even as it was somewhat dimmed by her grief for Tesar and her guilt for not being a complete part of Gorog. "I am sorry that I haven't been able to join fully yet."
"And we are sorry that we have been literally pressuring you into conforming to our ways as hard as we have been," Alema said with a sincere tone. Tahiri could certainly feel the sincerity through Gorog's hive-mind. "We thought that breaking you was a suitable response, especially given your history with Riina Kwaad. But with Tesar's death, we understand now that it is much more complicated. We need to give you time, and for that, we will allow you a greater level of individuality."
"How long?" Tahiri asked warily.
"For as long as it is needed," Alema answered. "Because as long as you feel as if you are forced into joining the hive-mind, we fear you may never truly become part of us."
Tahiri nodded. "Thank you, Alema. Or, I'm sorry, thank you, Gorog."
Alema renewed her smile. "No thanks are needed from you. We should be thanking you for your continued loyalty to us, even after the pain that we have given you. Now let us turn to our new home."
Yet, even as Tahiri sat back in her seat, awaiting to head to that primitive planet, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of something coming from Alema's Force-presence. It felt elusive, but when Tahiri couldn't reach out and feel for it, nor did Alema respond outwardly either to the light probing, the human simply shrugged her shoulders and relaxed in her seat with a newfound sense of personal security.
. . .
Jacen paced anxiously back and forth outside the hospital where he sensed that Corran and Lowie had both been brought to. He also felt that as overcrowded as the building was with wounded from the Guardian's orbital bombardment, he could feel that both his fellow Jedi's conditions had been stabilized and that they were probably resting as peacefully as possible right now.
Minutes after arriving there himself, Jacen spotted a close-topped landspeeder with two familiar faces visible through the front viewport; at the helm was the Brubb Jedi Knight Wonetun, and in the passenger seat was Jedi Master Kyp Durron. Wonetun parked the speeder along the curb several meters from Jacen, and he and Kyp disembarked to meet the human Knight. Without having to say a word to one another, what with Jacen having briefed them over their last comm call and with Kyp and Wonetun being able to sense Corran and Lowie's conditions, the trio of Jedi headed inside to see if they could get their wounded fellows out.
Thankfully, it wasn't that difficult; with more critically wounded arriving every ten minutes or so, the doctors and nurses there seemed to only give Kyp, Jacen, and Wonetun half their attention at allowing them to take Corran and Lowie. The latter had been given a fresh dose of sedative that kept him groggy but at least numb to the pain in his leg; he was also given a fresh tourniquet over his stump. Corran, meanwhile, was completely unconscious, but Jacen felt relieved that he was at least mostly washed—the stench from the sewer was still quite noticeable, unfortunately—and his wounded stump had been given a fresh tourniquet, too.
Because of the buzz of activity in the hospital, Kyp, Jacen, and Wonetun were able to bring the two amputee Jedi out in less than thirty minutes on hoverchairs and had them sitting in Kyp and Wonetun's rented speeder's backseat; Jacen was seated in the spare fifth seat between them while Wonetun and Kyp took their previous positions in the speeder.
As the Brubb took them out of this town to the one where their Blastboat had been docked, Jacen asked Kyp and Wonetun, "So how'd you manage to settle down with the lockdowns going on?"
"Luckily for us," Kyp began, "the law enforcement officers and port authorities here were easy to Force-suggestion even over the comm. We won't have any problem leaving, either."
"Well, that's good," Jacen said in a distant tone.
Kyp turned in his seat and looked at Jacen. "You alright, kid?"
Jacen shook his head. "I can't say I am, Master Durron."
Kyp's lips thinned. "We'll find her, Jacen. I promise you, we will bring her back alive." He looked between Corran and Lowie. "And in one piece."
"I hope so," Jacen replied. "But now I can't help but think what that'll mean for Tahiri, Alema, and Tesar."
"We'll worry about that when we return to Ossus," Kyp said.
"They shouldn't be left to the Chiss," Jacen said. "Nor should Jaina."
"Because of what the Chiss will do them?" Kyp asked.
Jacen shook his head. "Because of what they'll do to the Chiss."
"Well, be that as it may," Kyp said, "with everything that you told us that's happened here, we have to return to Ossus now."
"I understand," Jacen said evenly.
. . .
Orbiting a moonless gas giant that was given the designation 08-12-50-SBTE was a space station called the Common Ground, as it was translated from Cheunh to Basic. It was deemed as neutral ground between the Chiss Ascendancy and several other species of the Unknown Regions.
It was a surprise to both Jaina and Plekos when they learned about it, given how xenophobic and isolationist the Chiss were. But from what the two of them read on the Common Ground's history, it appeared that the blue-skinned race was not as closed off as previously thought.
08-12-50-SBTE's system had been previously colonized by a fairly friendly species known as the Ioulics, who had no idea that they had settled a few parsecs outside of Chiss space. Thankfully for the Ioulics, both they and the Chiss had drawn up a treaty where the space station could serve as a source of shoreleave for the former's Defense Force officers as well as a home for the latter. In the decades since, the Common Ground had developed into a haven for other individual parties who came out here looking for food, water, restocks of certain supplies, and a place to spend a few hours resting.
Of course, the Chiss and Ioulics had been smart enough to set up a checkpoint station several million kilometers from the Common Ground where ships had to dock to have whatever weapons emplacements they had disabled. Moreover, whoever was visiting the Common Ground also had to allow their weapons to be confiscated; even when the Chiss were on their downtime, they still weren't that lax on their security protocols.
Fortunately, Jaina knew how to smuggle her lightsaber past: in two pieces. For her focusing crystal, Plekos helped her out in getting a piece of fiberchord from his storage compartment and applying some glue, which he also had in the same compartment, to both ends of the chord; the glued ends were then applied to the crystal so that it became a necklace that Jaina put on. As for the hilt, Plekos helped her fit a tiny bulb inside so that it looked like a unique, custom-made flashlight.
That just left one problem; though anyone could visit the Common Ground without having to pay for it going inside, there were certain forms of currency that had to be paid if anyone wanted to hole up in one of the space station's lodges or buy food or drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, and Galactic Alliance credits weren't any good out here. Not that Jaina could use her credcard anyway, since even if it wasn't deactivated once the Jedi Order learned that she had turned to the dark side of the Force, they could find a way to use it to track her down.
Thankfully, Plekos ended up being a help in that area, too. He had provided six separate credcards, all with currencies that would be accepted by the Common Ground. The Zabrak explained that he had spent years in the Unknown Regions and had become something of a specialist out here, so he had gained quite a number of identities with different credit accounts within different factions of this section of space for special circumstances that he wouldn't elaborate on. It was only before he gave Jaina the cards that he had slotted them into a port on his ship's control console that made sure that they all aligned with one single identity, even with each of them coming from different planets.
"But won't the banks on these other planets notice that kind of discrepancy?" Jaina had asked after Plekos gave her the cards.
He shook his head. "Don't worry; I have friends in high places there who can change things around on their end so that it won't seem suspicious."
"Friends in high places, huh?" Jaina asked.
"Well, I wouldn't call them friends exactly; more like... sleeper agents with handlers. It's a bit complicated, but it's not something that'll concern you."
Even though this man was a dark sider, and most likely a Sith at that, Jaina couldn't help but trust him; perhaps it was because he understood her desire for revenge and was willing to help her along with that as long as she didn't get in his way of finding Gorog and their wayward Jedi. She supposed it was his way of showing her respect; if it was surprising that there could be honor among thieves, Jaina was doubly so that there could be respect among Sith and Dark Jedi.
As they travelled through hyperspace toward the Common Ground, Jaina asked from the copilot seat, "Plekos, you don't hold anything against me for killing Lomi Plo and Welk, right?"
"I don't," he answered simply from the pilot seat. "Quite frankly, I hated them; not for any particular reason. It's just the way things are from... where we work. When I heard you killed them, I wanted to congratulate you, even though you were a Jedi. Of course, I do as I'm told by... my boss to find these Jedi who were a part of the Killik nest that Plo and Welk had led."
Jaina knew he wanted to admit that he was a Sith to her, but he sensed that his reticence was more from a fear of whatever Dark Lord he worked for than whatever distrust he had in her. Even with the surprising amount of trust that they had developed in the short time they've been together aboard the Decent Chance, Jaina understood that there were things he couldn't just outright admit to her. Still, she knew that she could trust him well enough once he let her off at the Common Ground.
"Can you tell me what you intend to do with my friends if and when you find them, Plekos?"
"It depends on what happens at their end. If they see me as a threat, and considering my troubled history with Plo and Welk, I think that may be the case, I'll probably have to make a fast escape whether or not I have to kill Alema, Tahiri, and Tesar. But if they see me as a potential ally... well, if you ever decide that you have a higher calling than the Jedi or in killing Jagged Fel, Jaina Solo, I'll be the one to personally let you know what happens next."
"I hope you don't have to kill my friends. Even Alema, as annoying as she is, is someone I respect. Not by much, admittedly, but we went through a lot together, so I can't be too harsh about her."
For some reason, Jaina wasn't as perturbed as she felt that she should have been that this stranger might end up killing her friends. She held so much resentment at Jag for the lives he took on Hlest, as well as physically torturing Zekk and psychologically torturing her when they had been "allied" in finding Gorog, and she still carried a great deal of blame toward Luke and Corran for making her kill Saba. Yet, for some reason, Jaina didn't understand why she was in such an amicable mood with Plekos when it came to the possibility that he would kill Alema, Tahiri, and Tesar; nor did she care why that was the case.
Of course, if attempting to stop Plekos from killing her friends meant jeopardizing her chances at killing Jag, Jaina didn't mind that much that her friends might die by this Zabrak's hands.
Plekos chuckled lightly. "Yes, killing them would be regretful. If it came to that, that is. I hope you won't hold it against me."
"I'll try not to," Jaina said off-handedly. "Though, if there's anyone among those three who's the least likely to be part of Gorog's plans, and the one you're most likely to kill, it'd probably be Tahiri. I won't fault you for her death, even when I grieve for her."
"Why would Tahiri be the one to be the most likely I'd have to kill?"
"My brother told me that was the case."
"Where'd your brother's insight come from?"
"Flow-walking."
"Flow-walking?"
"It's an arcane Force-power found among the Aing-Tii monks of the Kathol Rift, as I understand it. It lets you see into the past through the Force. Though, for some reason in Jacen's case, people from the past can see him, or at least other Force-users can. Raynar Thul, or, rather, UnuThul had seen Jacen on Yoggoy years ago while he was still in Yuuzhan Vong captivity, and Tahiri had seen him the day before we arrived on Hlest."
Plekos' eyes widened in shock at this. "That... has... great implications."
"That's what my friends and I all thought when Jacen joined us on Jwlio. Though, so far, the Force hasn't seemed to break or anything."
"Break?"
"Well, I'm not sure how else to put it. Considering that I witnessed Jacen enter a state of oneness with the Force at the end of the Vong War, I wouldn't be surprised by what he could do."
"Interesting. Very interesting."
"You're gonna tell your boss or whoever when you're done with this mission, huh?"
"I think it's definitely something they need to be appraised of, yes. I'm rather surprised that you're so open about telling all this about your brother to me."
Jaina paused and looked away. Yes, why had she been so open? she wondered.
"Do you see your brother as a threat to you?" Plekos asked, intruding on her thoughts.
She looked back at him. "When I last saw him, I told him that I was willing to cut him off like a rotted limb. His feelings were at least a part of what held me back from killing Jagged Fel before. At this point, I don't think I'm so protective of my brother anymore."
"Ah. You're hoping that I or someone I work with will do the job for you and spare you the pain of killing him?"
"I didn't say that," she said defensively.
"Then why tell me?"
Jaina paused again, but she didn't look away from Plekos. "I don't know."
The Zabrak tilted his head in a dismissive manner. "Alright then," he said casually.
Sensing that the conversation had come to its natural end, Jaina settled back and waited for hyperspace to revert to the 08-12-50-SBTE system. But as she did, she decided to make herself small in the Force, hoping that Plekos wouldn't notice or at least not comment about it, so that she could mask the twinge of anxiety that she felt for whatever the Zabrak was thinking when it came to what Jacen could do.