Bavinyar's ocean surged and receded, rose and fell, occasional whitecap waves breaking the monotony of deep-blue water that reflected the textureless color of the sky.

And then, the explosion. Water geysered ten meters in the air and fell back to the sea, sending ripples that distorted the uneven mass of waves into widening concentric circles. When the foam died down the rounded, oval shape of the airspeeder/submersible could be seen, bobbing slightly on the ocean surface.

"There it is," Azlyn Rae said, "Take us down."

It hadn't been necessary to give the order. The pilot of her amphibious transport, a Mon Calamari member of the same survey team that had discovered the Tho Yor beneath the ocean, was already cutting altitude and lowering them to the same spot.

Azlyn was anxious; she couldn't help it. She and Master Rasi Tuum were the first Jedi to arrive on Bavinyar, but they were still too late to have caught Marin Solo before she went down to make contact with the ancient ark. As they were still without the Force, there was little Azlyn or Rasi Tuum could do with the Tho Yor, but just knowing the black pyramid was waiting a kilometer beneath them filled her with tension, excitement, and even hope.

The pilot guided them to the ocean surface and laid them to rest behind the recently-emerged craft. The Mon Cal tapped the communications panel and said, "This is Mokhvar. Sauk, Wreskar, are you there?"

A gruff voice replied, "We're here, Mokhvar."

"Did you locate and contact the Tho Yor?" asked Rasi Tuum.

There was a pause, then new voice, one Azlyn vaguely recognized as Sauk's, said, "There's been complications."

Azlyn should have expected that. "Can we speak to Marin Solo?"

"Not right now." Another grave pause. "You'd better come aboard."

Mokhvar nudged their amphibious craft alongside Sauk's. The speeders were of similar models and magnetized their hulls to keep together on the churning waves. Instead of connecting via airlock, Azlyn and Rasi Tuum had to get out of their own craft and step carefully across the water-flecked deck to the other.

There was little room inside the cabin, and Rasi Tuum hovered in the doorway rather than try to squeeze his bulk inside. Azlyn slipped fully through, and her eyes instantly locked the on the gray-haired woman lying face-up on the cabin's deck. It looked like she'd been hastily removed from her pressure suit, which hung deflated off the wall. Sauk and a Quarren, apparently Wreskar, crouched on either side of her while the assassin droid AG-37 had compacted himself to fit in the rear of the cabin.

Azlyn crouched next to Marin and saw the old woman's eyes were open, staring into nothing. Small tremors twitched her face and her fingers were trembling. Despite that her breathing looked regular.

"What is this?" gasped Azlyn. "Did the Tho Yor do this?"

"I think so," said Sauk. "After Marin went into her suit she got close to the pyramid. This… portal of light opened up and swallowed her. Maybe thirty seconds later, it spat her back out."

"She didn't reply when we commed her so we had to recover her manually," added Wreskar. Azlyn wondered if the Quarren had any idea what kind of mission he'd been enlisted in.

Sauk added, "This sounds like what happened to Cade Skywalker, after he went into the Tho Yor. They say he came out of it on his own after a couple of hours…"

"How long ago did you recover her?" growled Rasi Tuum.

"Less than ten minutes," said Wreskar. "I think we should get her medical attention."

Azlyn tensed. Whisking Marin off to a hospital would alert more people to their discovery, which was the last thing they wanted, and it sounded likely a hospital wouldn't know what to do with her anyway.

Fortunately, AG-37 said, "Free Agent has a competent sick bay where we can perform neural scans and evaluate her condition."

"Good idea," said Azlyn. "We'd better get her moving."

"I will go back to the other craft and tell Mokhvar to return to base," said Raasi Tuum. "Azlyn, please stay with the patient."

Azlyn nodded and watched the Cathar go. A minute later the hatch was sealed and the other airspeeder detached from theirs. Wreskar moved to the front control panel and commanded their own to rise skyward. Once they'd attained a steady altitude he fired engines and propelled them over the ocean, on the long trip back to the nearest floating refugee camp.

Azlyn mostly watched Marin's rapid movements and unblinking eyes. Cautiously, she reached out to take one trembling hand and squeeze lightly. The shaking stopped but Marin didn't squeeze back, and nothing else changed.

"What do we do now?" Sauk asked weakly.

"You heard what A-gee said. Get her to sick bay, and then get her stable. Hopefully she'll wake up in a couple hours. If not, we might have to risk a run to a hospital."

He shook his head. "All the doctors in this camp are used to treating Mon Cals and Quarren. We might find some who are familiar with human neurology…"

But the real experts would be among the human-populated islands, like the capital Cephalia. That would definitely start ringing alarms. Azlyn felt torn; Marin might be suffering serious damage, and delaying they might make it worse. But to take her to a human hospital would blow their secret wide.

"Take her to Free Agent for now," she said. "Do you know how to contact the rebels?"

From the rear of the cabin, AG-37 said, "We have that capacity."

"Then I think you should let them know what's going on and ask for backup."

Sauk blinked huge eyes. "What do you mean? Aren't the Jedi coming to help?"

"Yes, but Master Tuum and I are the only ones here right now. Some are coming from the other side the galaxy and won't be here for days." Azlyn lowered her voice. "And to be honest, we can't fight a war for you. Even when we did all have the Force…" She shook her head. "There were always limits."

"The resistance has very limited resources," AG-37 warned. "They may not be able to help."

"We can at least ask."

"Do you really think Chalk will find out about this so quickly?" asked Sauk. "I've done everything I can to keep it secret. The Resettlement Authority has even barred the local government from these waters."

"I know. But word gets out. We don't know when there'll be a reaction, but there will be one, and we have to be ready."

The Mon Cal nodded grimly. Azlyn didn't need the Force to know what he was thinking. He'd come to Bavinyar to find a peaceful life with his own kind. He'd settled into stable work the Resettlement Authority and maybe found himself a mate to raise a school with. His days of adventure and danger were behind him, or so he'd thought.

Well, things never went the way you planned. Just when you thought you were settled, something sudden happened and upended everything you knew. It was the story of Azlyn's life. At this point, she was as close to used to it as could be, and whatever happened next she was prepared to ride the waves.

-{}-

Hogrum Chalk's typical day was packed with annoyances both routine and unexpected. The report of failure from Eli Horn had been neither of those things; both pragmatic and pessimistic, he'd braced himself for any outcome.

That Marasiah had escaped Milagro with the help of a shipful of Yuuzhan Vong and a former Sith assassin had shocked even him. He had no idea what that could mean for the future of his government. If Marasiah had been alive all this time, why hadn't she helped the rebels? And would being chased off Milagro finally stir her to action? In theory, she could topple his government with a few select comm transmissions. In doing so she'd spark chaos, possibly another war.

Hogrum was in no mood, therefore, to deal with an unexpected annoyance. When his aide Astraal Vao came into his office, saying that Senators Gahan and Jacovi were outside and demanding to speak with him, the regent barely held in a volley of curses. Astraal had been an inheritance from Marasiah, and while she was competent enough in most tasks, she was too weak-willed and pliable to turn back insistent visitors. Hogrum would have released her from her position years ago, were it not for the fact that her brother Shado was a Jedi. He'd hoped keeping her close- and bugging her personal communications systems- might give him hints as to what the Jedi were doing in their quest to bring back the Force. Unfortunately Shado Vao had turned hermit on a backwater world; nonetheless, Hogrum kept Astraal on, just in case.

He was tempted to chase her out of the office now, but composed himself. An unexplained outburst would raise questions; more, he found himself curious. Monia Gahan was, of course, the representative for the survivors from Dac, Mon Cal and Quarren alike. Alin Jacovi represented the Farstine sector and specifically his homeworld of Bavinyar. Those two often butted heads over the resettlement operation, and he'd lost count of the number of times one had come to him complaining about the other. That they'd found enough agreement to come to his office together peaked his interest.

So, settling a baleful look at Astraal, he relented. "All right, Miss Vao. Send them in."

The Twi'lek bowed obediently, then stepped outside. Mere seconds later, Gahan and Jacovi arrived. They might have agreed to come together but they couldn't agree on who'd go through the door first. They smashed shoulders as they pressed through but Jacovi reached his desk first.

"Regent, thank you for seeing us on short notice." The senator, a middle-aged human with a trim, graying beard, exuded angry energy. But at least he'd remembered formalities.

"Senators, take a seat." Hogrum gestured to the two modest chairs on their side of the desk. Maybe if they sat down they'd calm down.

Gahan dropped into her set first. Jacovi reluctantly followed, but leaned forward so far he was inches from falling out. "Regent, I would like to express my government's firm displeasure with the actions of the Resettlement Authority."

"Which specific actions, Senator?"

"The Authority's cartographic teams have been granted license to chart our oceans between latitudes fifty and seventy degrees north, longitudes sixty to one-hundred east of the meridian."

"Among four other habitable, aquatic zones," Gahan put in. "We've already started construction of one settlement within that range."

"Yes, on approval of the Federation Arbitration Commission," Jacovi wagged a finger. "However, they did not grant you permission to settle south of the sixtieth latitude. You've only been given a right to explore there."

"And explore is all we have done," said the Mon Cal, quite reasonable.

"If exploration is all you're doing south of the sixtieth, why have you refused to allow us passage in those waters?"

"We haven't barred your people passage anywhere," insisted Gahan. "We've merely marked off portion of the ocean to be accessed with extreme caution."

"Cephalia's governor sent out several scouting expeditions, both air- and sea-based, into the zone south of the sixtieth longitude and east of latitude eighty." Jacovi turned a meaningful gaze on Hogrum. "They were all turned away by patrol ships used by the Resettlement Authority."

"And your people didn't try to force the issue?" Hogrum asked.

"The confrontations were heated. We thought it best to withdraw and protest peacefully, to the highest channels." Jacovi edged back into his chair, as though he'd said his piece.

Hogrum looked to Gahan. "What kind of safety concerns leads you to cordon off such a huge part of the ocean?"

"Regent, I just finished speaking with a chief cartographer for the Resettlement Committee. He says their most recent expedition discovered a potentially volatile volcano breaking through the ocean floor. He insisted that for everyone's safety the area must be cleared until drones can estimate the risk of eruption."

"A volcanic site? There?" Jacovi shook his head. "My people have been on Bavinyar far longer than yours, Senator. There's never been any tectonic activity in that portion of our world."

"That you have noticed. But as we all know, Senator, your people have been content to settle on Bavinyar's islands. You've left the vast majority of its ocean unexplored. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do these charting missions in the first place."

"If there is dangerous volcanic activity in the region, why hasn't the Authority published its proof?"

"I can't say. I'm not a geologist. Are you? I expect they wish to survey the area further and make expert consultations before making a public statement." A little coyly, Gahan added, "Scientists are generally more patient than politicians."

"How long has this area been cordoned off?" Hogrum asked.

"Less than two standard days." She turned one large eye to Jacovi. "The senator is making a fuss over nothing, I assure you."

"This isn't just about a strip of ocean," the human insisted. "As part of our agreement with Empress Fel, the Bavinyari agreed to cede ocean space to settlers from Dac, but not our right to access that territory. This was a key part of her provisions. That ocean is ours as much as theirs and we will not be forbidden access to part of our own home."

Gahan sighed. "Senator, your people have never used those waters. It was never your home."

Hogrum was used to this kind of bickering. After hearing the issue, he was almost glad Astraal had forced the senators on him. This was a small problem, easy to solve and a relief from his bigger woes.

Drumming fingers on the desktop he said, "Senator Gahan, talk to the Resettlement Authority. Tell them I want preliminary results from their survey on my desk within a standard day. It doesn't have to be polished or final, I just want to see what you're dealing with. Until then, Senator Jacovi, your people will abide by the Authority's request and stay clear of the area."

Muscles in the man's neck tightened. "And after you receive the results?"

"I'm no geologist either, but I'll have the best ones in the Federation look at the data. My scientists will work with the Resettlement Authority and together they'll draw up a plan. Naturally, we'll keep Cephalia abreast of everything and consult with them before making out final decision."

Reluctantly, Jacovi nodded. The human Bavinyari had a long history of stubbornly resisting authority; they'd been founded by settlers fleeing the Old Republic in its waning years and had staged a fierce, if futile, resistance to Palpatine's new Empire. They were currently unhappy with the refugees they were being saddled with and unhappy with the Federation that had saddled them. But for now, it seemed, they'd behave themselves.

Hogrum thought the matter finished, but Gahan said, "I assure you, there's no need to go to such lengths. While we appreciate the offer, Regent, the Authority already had some of the best underwater geologists in the galaxy. I've been told they're well on their way to assessing the situation now."

"Then they'll have no trouble submitting a report for review by tomorrow."

"Of course it's possible, sir, but I really think-"

"You two came here asking me to arbitrate. I've arbitrated," he said firmly. It was like trying to deal fairly with children. Sometimes he got so sick of these politicians' petty squabbles he wanted to blast the whole senate to ash. "My decision is made. Both of you will abide by it."

Gahan and Jacovi exchanged awkward looks. The human said, "Of course, Regent. I'll relay word to Cephalia."

"And I will contact the Authority," Gahan said with a wet sigh.

The two of them rose as one. This time Gahan staggered slightly behind to let Jacovi through the door first. Neither of them looked back as they left.

Hogrum sighed and stayed behind his desk. The dilemma he'd solved was so minor and petty, and nothing had been settled yet. Gahan's attempt at last-minute obstruction had surprised him, and he tried to puzzle it out once she was gone. His request had been simple and, he thought, quite fair. It was almost as though Gahan had been hiding something.

He had no idea what could be worth hiding on the ocean floor of a planet like Bavinyar. There were some mineral deposits on the southern hemisphere that miners had been working for a century; perhaps they'd discovered a great lode of something buried in the northern ocean.

Yes, that made sense. Per the agreement Marasiah had made with Cephalia, the refugees had something of a finders-keepers policy on the territory they'd chart. They were probably trying to keep their webbed hands on something lucrative.

It was all so petty. Hogrum had grown sick of managing little beings and their little squabbles, but someone had to do it, and it had been decades since he'd trusted anyone'd judgment except his own. He certainly didn't trust Jacovi or Gahan. So he turned on the comm system attached to his desk and prepared a call. Though he'd nominally surrendered leadership of Federation intelligence on becoming regent, he still kept a direct line to many competent lieutenants in that organization. There were already some agents on Bavinyar acting as independent observers of both the human government and the Resettlement Authority. They could easily look into this, and likely bribe someone in the Authority to pass along the real results of those cartographic missions. Then he'd compare them to what Monia Gahan would give him tomorrow and decide how much she was lying.

Small beings, small problems, small solutions. Hogrum made the call and gave the order. Then, finally, he allowed himself to contemplate his greater threats.

-{}-

As they were effectively stuck inside the safehouse by the Western Sea with no way off-planet, it had seemed to Saarai, Jao Assam, and Yalta Val that there was nothing left for them to do and nothing that could happen. The bred frustration, most of all in Jao, but Saarai too. They'd laid the groundwork for the mission to rescue Gar Stazi, but the admiral's fate was effectively out of their hands now. All they could do was wait.

And then, instead of nothing happening, it all came at once. First, using an old Rogue Squadron code transmitted to the safehouse's secure comm unit, Anj Dahl had told them that a request had come from the Jedi for assistance on Bavinyar. Since the planet was, more or less, Monia Gahan's home turf, Saarai had passed an enquiry to the senator using the same code. Monia had been aware of the situation but confused. Saarai's message- that an object of great interest to the Jedi had been found inside the exclusion zone, on the bottom of the ocean floor- hadn't done much to clarify things for the Mon Calamari before she went off to discuss things with the regent and Senator Jacovi.

When she got back, Monia reported, "The regent's asked the Resettlement Authority to submit its data on the site. I told him that was unnecessary, but he didn't budge."

"You can't give him that information," Jao said urgently. The former Imperial Knight had been on-edge since coming here; the revelation from Bavinyar seemed to have pushed him over the brink. "If Chalk finds out what's down there, he will attack Bavinyar. He'll take a star destroyer and pulverize the planet."

Monia's image blinked large eyes in disbelief. "Surely you exaggerate."

"No. He already did it once on Tython." Jao leaned close to the comm system. "The object they've found- the Tho Yor- is the key to reestablishing a connection with the Force."

Monia blinked again. "That is… quite an assertion."

"It's the truth. It has to be protected."

"As I understand it," said Val, "There's already some Jedi on Bavinyar. They've been working with the Resettlement Authority."

"Right," said Jao. "My friend Sauk's with the Authority. He's the one who gave the heads-up in the first place, and he's probably the one who got them to put up the exclusion zone."

"Which aroused the ire of Cephalia, and now the regent," sighed Monia.

"Listen, you have to stall Chalk. Get the Authority to send him false data."

"That is… extremely risky."

"Then don't say anything. We'll get in touch with Sauk and have him send bad data."

The senator looked like her head was spinning, and Saarai wasn't much better. Jao was fiercely intent on protecting that Tho Yor. The man's desire to have the Force back was intense, verging on desperate.

For Saarai, the situation was much more complicated.

"I will try to stall Chalk as best I can," said Monia, "But I will not do anything illegal."

Jao looked ready to snap, but Saarai soothed, "We understand your position, Senator, and we know what risks you took just to contact us. Thank you. We'll be in touch."

Before Jao could say more, she closed the link. Monia's holo disappeared. As calmly as she could, Saarai told him, "There's not much we can do here. You have to accept that."

"There's not much I can do about anything," Jao growled. His hands turned to fists. "Not about the Bavinyar, not about Ania. I'm sick of being helpless."

Val put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm yourself, Jao. We won't help anything by being rash."

"We can't help anything at all," he scowled.

The older Knight looked to Saarai. "We should get back to the resistance and give them an update. They might even be able to help."

A reasonable requested, but as Saarai programmed the comm device to hail Anj Dahl, it was hard to steady her thoughts. As part of the resistance leadership, she'd been kept vaguely aware of the search for another Tho Yor. The Jedi had been scouring far and wide for any hint of an ancient ark that might, apparently, lead to another gateway through which the Force might be recovered. All the while she'd silently dreaded such a discovery, and after three years she'd comforted herself with the thought that they'd probably never find it.

But all that was over. Bavinyar. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that the Tho Yor had been waiting for them there, of all places. A Jedi would start talking about the Will of the Force now. She hated that, just as she hated the Force. As a Sith apprentice she'd been taught to draw strength from it and command its will, but no one, especially not the Sith, really had power over the magnificent, inexplicable energy. Her father had thought himself a master, and his arrogance had doomed him. So, too, Darth Krayt, and every Sith who'd gone before. Saarai knew the dark side, and she knew its intoxicating power that promised everything but delivered doom.

Even before she'd lost the Force, Saarai had been slowly losing faith in what she'd been taught. She'd imposed herself at Porat's side in hopes of using him, but his bravery and idealism had shown her pathways no Sith could have dreamed off. Later, he'd offered her love and forgiveness. Her father had said those things were delusion, but her father had been wrong about that and so much else.

As she finished punching in the code, a chill ran through Saarai's body. She was terrified of the Force. She had to admit that. She had no idea what would happen once it came back. Maybe the purity of light would smother her; maybe she'd fall back to intoxicating darkness. All she knew was that the person she'd become over the past four years, liberated from the Force, would be enslaved again.

With slightly shaking hands she entered the code and stared at the console's blinking green diode, afraid to even punch in the call. When Val asked, "Are we ready?" she nearly jumped.

But she composed herself, nodded, and pressed the button. Thirty seconds later, Anj Dahl's face re-appeared over the console. Jao jumped in before Saarai could, quickly explaining their conversation with Monia.

"Time's running out," he insisted, "Do you know if anyone's gone down there to contact the Tho Yor?"

"I've been told somebody has… Still not sure who," Anj said. "Apparently that person, whoever they are, is still recovering from the… after-effects."

"I've heard about those," Jao nodded. "But is the Tho Yor still on the ocean floor?"

"The object hasn't budged, no."

"Well, Chalk will be coming for it, probably within a few days."

"Wait a minute," Anj said, "You said all he wants is the survey data-"

"They have to send him a fake package. Get online with Sauk and tell him that. Tell him I told him that."

"Wait, wait, wait," Anj waved both hands. "I can tell them that. Fine. But we've got our hands full right now."

Saarai's heart rose. "Is the operation to Selvaris underway?"

"The team should be inserting into the system any minute now." Anj glanced at Jao. "Your friend Kyra's with them."

The man took a breath as that sunk in. It allowed Saarai a word in edgewise. "What kind of forces have you committed to Selvaris?"

"Nearly everything we could spare. The insertion team is pretty small- just twenty people- but we've got half the fleet on standby. Remember, there's not much in that system but it's right close to Bilbringi. As soon as they realize something's wrong at the prison, they can call a whole fleet for backup."

The resistance only had a meager fraction of what the Federation stocked at Bilbringi alone. Hopefully Saarai asked, "So you don't have the forces to commit to Bavinyar?"

Anj shook her head. "No, especially not in the timeframe you're talking about. I'm sorry."

"You have to do something," Jao pleaded. "This could be the key to defeating Chalk."

The pilot looked skeptical. "Are you saying the Jedi could help us win the fight? I don't think you're in the position to make those promises. You're not even one of them."

"Captain Dahl," Val interjected, "I am still an Imperial Knight and I can promise you this. If the Force does come back to us, I will be able to share all I've learned. The Knights will never stand with Chalk, knowing all he's done."

"That's good, Master Val, but we both know your Knights aren't close to Chalk like they were to the empress."

"She's right," said Saarai with feigned regret. "I'm sure the Knights and Jedi will help all they can… But I don't know what it will amount to. Chalk has a whole navy on his side."

Jao sighed. "Captain Dahl, let's be honest. The resistance is weak. You can barely muster ships for one small battle. You can't win this war because you're not even fighting it. If we- the Jedi and Imperial Knights- do get the Force back, we can help you in ways you desperately need. That's worth at least a few ships."

Anj considered. "You say Chalk will send a star destroyer to bust this… Tho Yor thing up. What do you expect us to do? Hold it back indefinitely?"

"You might not have to do it at all. That depends on if we can make contact with the Tho Yor, if we can get it to move or defend itself."

"It can do those things?"

Jao looked uncertain. "I think it could. Once."

"Well from what I've heard, it hasn't done much recently except collect seaweed," Anj said. "Listen, we're committed to Selvaris. That's our top priority. But I'll talk to the other leaders about this."

"You can't pull anything away from Selvaris," Saarai said. She told the two Knights, "I'm sorry, but rescuing Stazi has to be our top priority."

"It is," Anj affirmed, "But we may be able to do something for Bavinyar. We've talked a lot about our shortage of ships and what to do in an emergency. If we really need it, we have funds put aside for use on mercenaries."

"Mercenaries?" Saarai and Jao said it together, neither pleased.

"I'm sorry, but it might be the best we can do," said Anj. "Right now you three sit tight. If you can keep a line open with Monia, good. We'll do what we can here. I'm sorry we couldn't do more"

Reluctantly, they signed off. Val and Jao became sullen with the thought that their precious Tho Yor would be overwhelmed, and with it chance to recover the Force. Saarai was terrified that it wouldn't. Lost in their separate doubts, they fell back to restless waiting for the next burst of news. Whatever it was, wherever it came from, it was all out of their hands.