The end of their quest was the sole habitable planet in a system the Gree called Rohakalla. There was no name for the system in any other language they could find. It didn't even appear on standard galactic star charts. Located at the very edge of the galaxy, past the Gree Enclave on the outermost rim, was a system that matched the vision Cade Skywalker had received in the Tho Yor: binary white and blue stars, orbited by four planets. Outermost was a blue gas giant, then a red one, then a grey dead rock, and finally, closest to the double-stars, was a single inhabitable world.
The description matched one in the index from Eli Horn's recovered Gree archives. With those coordinates as a guide, Mynock and Eli's shuttle tracked each other from the Deep Core to the Outer Rim's edge, to a place surrounded by the starless black of the intergalactic void, with the galactic disk a distant streak of lights. It was a strange, lonely, desolate place left behind after the Gree empire collapsed tens of millennia ago. It was the place they needed to be.
Cade felt like he was coming here a second time. His visions inside the Tho Yor no longer crowded out his waking thoughts as they had when he'd returned to consciousness, but they were with him still, less clear and ordered than true experience but more vivid than remembered dreams. When Mynock exited hyperspace above the planet, however, the recalled images matched perfectly with what he saw before them. Sitting in Mynock's co-pilot seat, he shuddered.
The others, thankfully, didn't notice. Jariah was at the helm, with Deliah and Lowbacca strapped into seats at the rear of the cockpit. They'd come here prepared for anything, including a waiting Sith-allied fleet, but all they saw was a lonely planet, dark against the intergalactic void, lit ghostly blue-white in the overlapping glow of its suns. Mynock's sensors detected strange radiation, presumably coming from the stars, that was hindering their communications. They were effectively sealed from the greater galaxy, locked in a place of ancient mystery and uncertain danger.
Cade's mouth had gone dry; he found it hard to speak. Lowbacca roared, asking whether there were any ships in orbit, and Jariah checked sensors. "Nothing yet."
"The shuttle?" asked Deliah.
"No, but he might be a little-" Jariah paused. "Yep, there he is. Just dropped out behind us."
"Shields up?"
It took a moment for Cade to remember that was on him. Since Tython it was hard to stay focused; that was why he'd insisted Jariah fly them in. With effort, he worked his console and turned on Mynock's shields. Thankfully, Eli Horn wasn't coming in with blazing guns.
Horn began hailing them a minute later, as his shuttle settled in orbit alongside Mynock. Cade turned on audio and said, "Welcome to Rohakalla. How's your prisoners?"
All he got in reply was static. Cade scowled.
"Interference, remember," said Jariah.
"Yeah, that." He strained to glance out the viewport. The Sith seemed to be holding steady on their flank. Likely he was scowling at his own comm unit right now.
Deliah checked her console. "I think visual sensors are still working. I'll drop up into low orbit so you can scan."
"Right," said Cade, "And hope we find it before Talon's bukee does."
Lowbacca gave an optimistic roar; he was just glad no Sith fleet was waiting for them.
He could say that again. On the long ride out from the galaxy's center to its edge, Mynock's crew had kept checking the news feeds and gotten a semi-coherent a picture of galactic affairs. The shattering of Nihl's war fleet must have broken what was left of the One Sith, hopefully forever. According to Talon, Nihl hadn't placed much priority on the hunt for Khat Lah. That meant Horn was without any of the backup he'd surely tried to arrange, and that meant Cade and company had the clear advantage.
Cade would have felt better if they'd been able to salvage any backup of their own. The situation on Coruscant was a mess too, the Jedi Council incommunicado. They said Marasiah Fel was dead, but deep down Cade doubted. He'd never been close to his cousin, not at all, but they were two of the last Force-users left in this galaxy and Skywalkers besides. He'd believed he'd feel her death in some way.
Whatever had happened to Marasiah, he couldn't do anything for her now. The mission he'd taken on after his mother's death was finally close to completion, but he felt no fulfillment. It wasn't Eli he was worried about, or the hostages still held by an ex-Sith apprentice out of his depth. It was that damned planet, bathed in ghostly light. It was manifestation of his vision in the Tho Yor and the final proof that everything he'd seen there, everything strange and overwhelming and horrible and grand, was truth he'd need to reckon with.
As Mynock and Eli's shuttle drifted in orbit over Rohakalla, Cade watched the scans of the surface for anything that might mark the hypergate. This planet had greater cloud cover than Tython, making it difficult. As they waited for something to show, Jariah asked, "You feeling anything?"
"Like what?" Cade grunted.
"You getting anything from the Force? You know, guideposts, roadsigns…"
"I'm not seeing any big banners sayin' Hypergate Here. Sorry."
"Just thought I'd ask."
Jariah was trying to cover her nervousness; Deliah and Lowbacca remained conspicuously silent as they waited for something to show. Finally, as they slipped over the planet's nightside face and escaped the binary star-glow, Cade picked up something.
As he leaned close to the sensor board to examine the imaging, he said, "Looks like something in the twilight zone, southern hemisphere, latitude approximately-"
"I see it too," Deliah said as she looked at her scanner.
They waited a tense moment. The Sith ship on their wing didn't contact them and didn't budge. There was no way to know if Eli had seen it or not.
Finally Jariah tapped power to engines and said, "Let's check it out."
Mynock dove into the atmosphere first, but Eli's shuttle was right behind them. As they rocked through initial turbulence, Jariah looked to his friend and asked, "Feel anything now?"
"No roadsigns, nothing calling at me," Cade shook his head. "I'm going in blind same as you all."
That was a comfort to nobody. Gripping the throttle tight, Jariah plunged them into Rohakalla's fast-darkening sky.
-{}-
Eli set his shuttle down beside Mynock at the edge of the canyon in which the hypergate was located. By the time he gathered his prisoners, lowered the landing ramp, and marched them outside, the last hints of twilight had vanished from Rohakalla's sky.
The planet had turned from its suns and the galactic disc both and night was terrifying black, devoid of moons reflecting solar glow, lit only by faint stars drifting on the very edge of the intergalactic void. The night was dark and quiet; no animals sounded in the distant forests and no wind blew.
Jao Assam was still grievously wounded after the fight on Tython, and Kyra was barely able to hold him up as they staggered together down the ramp. Lowbacca was there waiting, and the strong Wookiee gathered the wounded man in his arms and carried him inside Mynock.
After letting Lowbacca take Assam, Kyra sidled beside Skywalker. Lights from Mynock cast half his face in white while the rest remained black. In the harsh chiaroscuro Eli saw none of the smug condescension he was used to.
Softly, eyes on Eli, Skywalker asked Kyra, "How you holding up?"
"I'm in one piece." She hugged arms around herself.
"Glad to hear it."
"Now give me your prisoner." Eli put a hand on the lightsaber at his belt. He didn't intend to use it, but he wanted to demonstrate he was ready to.
Instead of putting up a fuss, Skywalker nodded soberly. "She's all yours."
Talon was brought out from behind Skywalker. Her hands were still bound as Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue roughly pushed her by the shoulders. When they loosened grip enough the Twi'lek jerked free and stepped up to Eli. Her apprentice flicked on his lightsaber and snipped the shackles apart. She nodded in silent gratitude.
"Looks like we all got what we want," Skywalker said. "You know what comes next, right?"
Eli and Talon looked toward the black gash in the landscape. From their perch, it looked like a long fall into absolute dark.
Talon said, "Will we go down together? Or will you make us fight you for access?"
He expected Skywalker to make some sneering remark. Instead, tiredly, he shook his head. "We'll go down together. Just don't try anything stupid. Only one of us has got the Force, remember?"
"Vividly," Talon said.
When Lowbacca returned he brought Mynock's repulsor-sled with him. They loaded on together: Eli, Talon, Skywalker, Kyra, Deliah, Syn, Lowbacca, the blue and white astromech. It seemed only the protocol droid remained in the ship to care for Jao Assam. The sled carried them over the crevasse's edge, then lowered them steadily into the steep-walled gash. Its forward headlights painted streaks of white, sharply illuminating the layered rock walls and the gap's flat bottom. It looked to Eli like a dried riverbed.
The repulsor-sled continued forward. Its headlights lit on their final destination: a great hollow portal, side pillars nested halfway into the crevasse walls, joined together by an arch. Deliah, working the sled controls, slowed them down and put them to rest some twenty meters from the portal itself.
Even after they stopped, nobody got out. Everyone was looking to Skywalker, who stared ahead at the white-lit gate but also at something deeper. He was searching the Force, Eli knew.
It was Kyra who asked, "What do you feel?"
"People," Cade's brows tightened. "They're close. Can't see 'em, but they're close."
"Great." Syn hefted his blaster. "They watching us?"
"Most likely."
Deliah worked the sled's headlights, shifting them to illuminate the slices of canyon wall near the gate. Light revealed nothing except bare rock. "Any idea how many?" she asked. Cade shook his head.
"What about the gate?" asked Talon.
"I don't know. Something feels… off. About everything."
"We can't just stand here forever," said Eli.
"Probably right." Cade squeezed Deliah's arm. "Stay here and man the sled. I'm going ahead."
Her blue lips pressed tight, sealing rebuttal. Cade released her and stepped onto the dried riverbed. Kyra followed, then Eli and Talon. Lowbacca and Syn took the rear, carrying lightsaber and blaster rifle respectively. They stepped slowly toward the gate, long black shadows cast ahead of them. Every few meters they stopped to listen. Eli looked around constantly but saw nothing move in the deep night.
And then they heard the whistle of objects flying through the air. Eli ignited his lightsaber on instinct, though he saw nothing coming at him. He heard the sound of impact on dirt nearby, then another sharp whine. Air brushed his cheek as something passed frightfully close.
Syn turned on the light attached to his rifle-barrel and swept it across the dirt. The lit-white circle passed over a pair of large red insects half-lodged in the soil. Something else sailed overhead and Eli ducked low, pulling Talon with him into a crouch.
To his surprise, Syn didn't duck. To his greater shock, the man shouted into the darkness: "Kor'chak mongark krok'hal churrok! Yuuzhan Vong char'meke norrak mar! Norrak mar!"
Eli understood none of what he said, only that, incredibly, this human was speaking Yuuzhan Vong.
Skywalker and Lowbacca had their sabers ignited as well, and dragging Kyra with them they huddled beside Talon and Eli, but Syn stayed on his feet, spinning a tight circle and shouting the same words in Yuuzhan Vong over and over again. When he finally stopped silence filled the crevasse once more. No projectiles sailed at them and nothing seemed to be moving in the dark.
After a few heavy heartbeats, a series of torches lit up on either crevasse wall. In their flickering glow, Eli perceived over a dozen bodies emerging from hiding-places in the layered rock. Some faces were laced with tattoos and a few with scars; others were totally unmarked. All contained the sloping foreheads, fleshless noses, and thin lips of the Yuuzhan Vong. Some remained perched on the walls, clutching thud bugs and amphistaffs, but others shimmied down the rock to ground level and approached the newcomers.
These, too, carried weapons. Syn put his rifle on the ground, held out both hands, and said to allay them, "Morrak cho'vokh nor'shak. Norrak mar vennak kor'mesh."
The Yuuzhan Vong regarded him with open curiosity, but their attention quickly veered to the three figures with lightsabers. Eli felt their eyes pass over him. They were hard and skeptical; these aliens were easily capable of violence.
The Yuuzhan Vong on ground-level formed a loose circle around them, some clutching thud bugs, others pointing amphistaffs. None seemed to be wearing armor, and Eli thought he could handle at least one if they decided to charge.
"This is all wrong," Cade whispered.
"No, you think?" grunted Syn.
Talon caught the strangeness in his voice. "What do you mean, Skywalker?"
"These Vong… I can feel 'em in the Force. All of them."
Everyone stared at him in shock, even Syn. The dreadlocked man gathered himself, turned to the closest Yuuzhan Vong, and said, "Mor'nak kholla sevvak norsh Khat Lah zhek? Norsh Khat Lah?"
The Yuuzhan Vong passed glanced among themselves. Then a voice boomed out of the darkness: "Drek'kan morakh selnat!"
The Yuuzhan Vong shifted to open a hole in their circle in front of Skywalker. More torches flared out of nothing and bobbed as they approached the circle. The one in front had the size and shape of a human- or Yuuzhan Vong- but the three trailing behind it were markedly different. Though the bodies were draped in robes they seemed tall and long-necked. Eli caught a glimpse of clawed finger-tips peeking through their long sleeves and blunt blue snouts jutting out from under their hoods.
The nearest figure resolved clearly in the firelight: a tall Yuuzhan Vong wearing tanned hides layered over a broad chest. His face was unmarked by tattoos or scars but lined by age around the mouth and eyes, and the long hair that fell straight to his shoulders was black streaked with gray. Eli had never seen a Yuuzhan Vong of that age before, but incredibly, he knew this figure. This was Khat Lah.
It made no sense. He'd last seen the warrior less than five years before. Khat Lah had been a Yuuzhan Vong in his prime, less than thirty standard years. The being before them now looked at least ten years older, but the eyes passing over them were unmistakably Khat Lah's.
Skywalker's memory of the warrior was even dimmer, but he said, "You're Khat Lah, aren't you? We've come a long way to find you."
The Yuuzhan Vong regarded him carefully. In clear, familiar Basic he said, "I've heard the Force has gone silent. The Jedi are extinct."
"Not this one." Cade lowered his lightsaber and closed his eyes. Concentration washed over his face. Khat Lah flinched in surprise as the human touched him in the Force.
Khat Lah frowned. "How is that possible? Who are you?"
"I was hoping you might give me some help on the first one. As to the second… I'm Cade Skywalker. Son of Kol. Grandson of Jade."
The names softened Khat Lah's eyes. He looked over Cade's face, searching for something of the boy he'd known. For Cade, their last meeting had been brief and over a decade ago. For Khat Lah, somehow, it had been even longer.
"We came for you." Cade said and his eyes to the hypergate's arch. "And, I guess, for that thing. Got nudged in your direction on Tython, by a lady named Tasha Ryo."
Eli didn't understand, but Khat Lah apparently did. "Do you know what lies on the other side of the gate?"
"Not really. I was hoping you did."
The robed figures hanging behind Khat Lah stepped forward. Clawed hands pulled back hoods to reveal blue reptilian faces with vertical-slit eyes. In creaking Basic the closest one said, "This gate is the beginning and the end. After eons it has been awakened."
"These are the keepers of the Whills, and they have guarded this place since before our species walked the stars," Khat Lah said. He turned and lifted his torch toward the gate. "There, your old gods sleep."