Star Wars: Infinities – The Apprentice
Chapter 14
By: Christopher W. Blaine (darth_yoshi@yahoo.com)
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations contained in this story are used without permission for non-profit entertainment purposes only and are ©2002 by George Lucas. This story (pertaining to this chapter and all subsequent chapters) is ©2002 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in any form, except hard printouts for personal enjoyment, without the express permission of the author.
The non-descript transport reverted to real space in the blink of an eye, star lines transforming into brilliant points of light. The ship's pilot engaged the sublight engines while the navigator pulled up a local star map. The sensor officer was the first to call out the alarm. "We've got two incoming capital class ships."
The co-pilot looked out the viewport and spied two of the stars moving closer. "Do we have a preliminary identification?" They were all hoping that it wasn't a pair of the newly-commissioned Victory-Class Star Destroyers. The Imperial shipyards were churning them out at a frightening pace. Giant salvage droids floated in orbit above several prominent worlds, taking in older Republic vessels and breaking them down into their raw components. In this way, Emperor Palpatine was building up his military at ten times the previous rate.
"No," the sensor officer replied and everyone breathed a little easier. If they couldn't identify the vessels, then they were most likely Hapan. "Suggest we make contact first, Captain."
The captain agreed and keyed for the general broadcast frequency. He turned to the co-pilot. "I sure as hell hope they speak Basic."
The Twi'leck co-pilot shrugged. "I could curse at them in Rhodian if you want."
The navigator chimed in as well. "I could offer to sleep with them in Hutteese."
"I'm sure if I have any problems, I can have one of the Jedi in the back influence their minds," the captain responded with heavy sarcasm. It had been a long trip and he was hoping that it would be over soon.
Before he could speak, a female voice sounded over the compartment speaker. "Attention unidentified Republic vessel, you have come out of hyperspace into restricted territory. Power down and prepare to be boarded."
"Attention Hapan warships, we are an unarmed transport vessel with refugees seeking asylum in the Hapan Cluster," the captain said, trying to sound as neutral as possible. The Hapans were a very touchy people as he understood it.
The response was not what he anticipated. "You have failed to comply with our orders. You were told to power down and you have not."
The two warships suddenly accelerated, bright plumes from their engine exhausts lighting up the space behind them. The navigator started to comment on the effect when the nearest vessel fired.
Brilliant beams of blue light instantaneously crossed the space between the vessels and struck the hull of the transport. "Ion blast! Systems going off line!" the co-pilot yelled out as he desperately tried to route auxiliary power to the engines. Another blast hit the vessel, causing no physical damage, but overloading the remaining active electrical systems.
With the loss of power, the artificial gravity disappeared as well and the cabin crew strapped themselves in. "Get me power now!" the captain roared.
The Hapan ships came within point-blank range and opened up with their turbolasers. The effect was devastating as millions of kilojoules of energy reduced the components of the transport and its occupants to free atoms. So complete was the destruction that even the debris atomized, leaving no trace of the vessel.
The captain of the Hapan vessel that had contacted the transport turned to her weapons officer and threw back her long, blonde hair. "Excellent shooting, Gunner."
The Weapons Officer smiled and bowed her head slightly. "Not much of a challenge, my Captain."
The captain shrugged and regarded the rest of her bridge crew, all female except for one or two male enlisted ranks. "Challenge or not, our duty is to protect the borders of our worlds from the corruptive influence of democratic pacifists and Jedi tricksters. Excellent job to all…even the males performed adequately."
There were hoots and clapping as the women patted the men on the back and the men responded with large smiles.
"By the Force, how can one small child cause so much pain?" Lindia Jade bellowed as she was wheeled into the medical facility. She gripped tightly to Ferrin's hand, so hard that he started to wince.
"Why do you hurt me? I didn't get you pregnant?" Ferrin asked as he was pulled along. "This is not duty fit for a Jedi Knight!"
"I'll trade you places," Lindia said before she began her breathing exercises. "Anyway, you know that the father is dead, killed at Dathomir."
Ferrin knew he had misspoke and wanted to apologize, but the words refused to form as long fingernails dug into his skin. "By the gods! Let go of me woman!"
He tried to use the Force to push her hand off of his, but was rewarded by her own ability working against him. He relented and allowed her to continue to pass on her pain to him. With each contraction, a little more blood came forth from his aching hand, but he supposed it was his destiny to suffer.
It was he who had suggested the raid onto Korriban, but it was he who was given the task of escorting the pregnant Jedi to Alderaan to oversee the dispersal of their children. He was too close to the dark side to be risked on the mission to stop the Sith and had been given the "lightest" of duties.
Ferrin reached out with the Force, trying to calm Lindia, but she shoved him away. "I have enough dark thoughts at the moment, young man!"
His anger was beginning to show in his voice. "Young man? Lindia, you are only five years older than me!"
"Getting pregnant will age you!" she roared as she finally let go and was pushed into the operating theater. A pretty young nurse with the typical dark hair of a native Alderaanian came up and asked him if he was the father. When he responded that he wasn't, he was told he could wait where he was at.
"She's a Jed…a special case. I really think I should be there," he said. Master Windu had warned him of some of the potential problems associated with Jedi births. All of the Masters had confirmed that Lindia's child was strong in the Force and it was imperative that a Jedi be near in order to try and help Lindia sooth the child upon birth.
"The slap to the backside," Master Ovos had said with a wry grin, "makes the child very angry."
The nurse assured him that she understood the nature of the problem and that Bail Organna himself had arranged for a Jedi Healer to be present. That brought a wave of relief to Ferrin. Truly Alderaan was a good place to be a Jedi, but at the same time, he could feel the fear and apprehension in the people around him.
His clothing was giving him away. Lindia had warned him to change into something more civilian as their ship had landed, but then she started having contractions and all hell seemed to break loose.
"Excuse me, son," a uniformed security man said as he stepped up to Ferrin. "Are you a Jedi?"
Ferrin could read the man's emotions and thoughts like a book. He waved a finger in front of the man's face. "You do not seek the Jedi."
The man smiled. "I do not seek the Jedi."
Another wave. "You want to report to your superiors that there are no Jedi on Alderaan."
The man nodded and then put a finger to his chin as he appeared to contemplate a deep thought. "I believe I will tell my superiors that there are no Jedi on Alderaan. Good day to you citizen."
Ferrin wished him well and sighed. Once again, he had used the Force to influence the mind of someone else. He hadn't even thought about trying something else, it was just so much easier to make the man do what he wanted. That was the path to the dark side and that was the reason he was here and not going to Korriban.
He moved over to a seat and sat down, using the Force to blur the perceptions of those around him. None of them would remember the sullen Jedi Knight as he waited for his friend to give birth to the next generation of his kind.
"I have noted a disturbing trend, master," Darth Maul's image said. Even though the image was in two tone blue and white, the dark lord's eyes seemed to blaze with a fire of pure hate. "I have hunted down several Jedi and have found none with child."
Palpatine nodded. "The records that Zsinj received from the Jedi Temple indicated at least seventy pregnant Jedi. Even if they fled, surely you would have encountered one by now." Jedi children, especially infants, would provide virgin genetic material for several of the cloning experiments that Palpatine was working on. "What are your thoughts?"
Maul sneered. "The Jedi are receiving aid, despite all of our efforts to discredit them. I suspect it is Bail Organna."
Palpatine considered that. "He is a problem, but not one I can afford to rid myself of right now. He has much power in the senate."
"Bah! Kill the senate, disband it and we will place their heads on the walls of their chamber." Maul shuffled back and forth on his feet. Palpatine assumed that the winds on the planet Hoth were picking up. A barren ice world far from the Galactic Core, it had held a small band of Jedi hidden in the snowy wastes. The smugglers that had dropped them off there had turned around and turned them in for the reward.
"I can't do that yet and you know it," the Emperor snapped back. "We do not have the requisite military governors to maintain order in all of our systems." He thought about it some more. "Still, perhaps Senator Organna needs to be put in his place. If he does have Jedi on Alderaan, he can't stop us from arresting them if we find them there."
"I will leave at once, my master," Maul said, a hint of excitement in his voice.
"No," the Emperor barked. "You will continue your search for Mace Windu and Master C'Baoth. They are the leadership in the Jedi community and they must be stopped at all costs." Before Maul could reply, the Emperor raised a hand. "I will detach Lord Vader from Ithorian Campaign."
Maul did not appreciate being passed over for his apprentice and he let his ire have voice in his response. "Vader has become weak because you have allowed him to dawdle with his little whore."
"Do I sense jealousy coming from you, Darth Maul? It must be because I cannot fathom any other reason why you would question my directives." Palpatine stared out at the holographic image of his apprentice, but Maul refused to back down.
"We are the Sith, not cast members of a romantic holodrama! He has forgotten the first law of the Sith: there can be only two, master and apprentice. You are my master, and I am his." Maul stepped closer to his transmitter so that his ruined features enveloped the signal. "By allowing him to marry that…woman, you have given him two masters! I killed his mother to prevent such a thing and yet you still allow this!"
"Choose your words carefully, Lord Maul; everything…and I mean everything is going according to my plans. If you were to quit whining like a simpering child, perhaps my plans would progress even further." Palpatine now stepped closer and the two were literally nose to nose.
"And what then, my master?" Maul asked with sarcasm. "Where there were four, there were three and now there are four again! I do not intend to share my part of the galaxy with some temptress from a backward mud planet! I am a Dark Lord of the Sith, I am the pinnacle of evolution in the Force! She is meat."
Palpatine took a deep breath, ready to lay in full to his suddenly independent-minded student when a cold feeling seemed to overtake him. For one who lived in darkness and survived by co-existing with shadows, the feeling was more than unique. Palpatine actually felt pain, something he had not felt in decades. Only one power in the universe could do such a thing to him without warning.
Maul as well seemed distressed and he opened his mouth to speak, but only vapor came forth. There was confusion in his fiery eyes and they pleaded with Palpatine to explain. "It is the spirits of our ancestors," Palpatine finally said.
"How? Why would they do this?" Maul asked as he doubled over.
Palpatine shook his head and closed his eyes. The Force was more than a tool to the Dark Lord, it was the air that filled his lungs and the blood that coursed through his veins. His talent for tapping the Force had been found early in his life and it's intensity was still growing. Palpatine was unique in that he never stopped gaining power.
Anakin Skywalker was much the same way, which was what had originally attracted Palpatine to the boy's aid. Maul on the other hand was simply a mass of anger and hate and darkness that could be used as a tool. Maul could not begin to comprehend the effect that the spirits of the ancient Sith were having on the Force.
Palpatine moved his mind from the physical body and placed it in the Force, calling out to those who had come before him and who were forever tied to him. Through the Force, all were interconnected. The answers he sought swirled in the air, passed though his body and whispered to him in colored tones. They were there, he knew, he could feel them even though he was so far from their tombs.
Even Exar Kunn, who was buried on the moon of Yavin, was present in the Force, laughing and carrying on. "A failure, a failure you are Palpatine!"
"You have not carried through on your oaths," Darth Bane's spirit said, anger resonating out on the Force.
"What? What is it? Why do you interfere in the plans of the living? Why do you break your vows?" Palpatine screamed out through the Force. "You had your chance and you failed."
"No, you failed," Exar Kunn cackled. "The Jedi have raided Korriban!"
Palpatine's eyes snapped open and his face twisted in a fiery rage. "Lord Maul," he said slowly, clenching his jaw so hard that his grinding teeth chipped. "Come to me now."
Maul was gasping for breath, but he could feel his master's rage. "I obey."
"And I want Lord Vader and his apprentice as well."
Maul did not hesitate. "Of course." He started to end the transmission when Palpatine added one last thing.
"Prepare yourself Lord Maul as you are about to inherit your destiny."
"You are not welcome here," the voice said.
Master Frie Ovos nodded. "Indeed; being here is not a pleasant experience for me either." He turned to Mace, who was going through exercises with his lightsaber, the violet blade dancing through the dark air of Korriban. "He pushes himself too hard."
"It is this place; even the ground is soaked with evil," Ki Adi Mundi replied as he got down on his haunches and grabbed a handful of dirt. It was brown like everything else, except the sky. That had changed to crimson the moment the Jedi landed on the planet.
It wasn't just the planet either, Frie determined; it was everything. The ground, the air and the wind was tainted with the dark side. From here, the Sith had spread like a plague across the galaxy until they were inoculated through the sacrifice of thousands of Jedi. "If he doesn't stop…"
Ki shook his head. "He won't. Leave him be. This isn't about revenge, it is about setting things right. We are at least partially responsible for Palpatine's rise to power. He supported us and we supported him. We were blinded by our own ambition to unite the galaxy."
"Yet we wished to unite the galaxy under the banner of peace, not subjugation," Frie said as he moved to sit on the foot of a giant statue of a former Sith Lord. He tried to read the nameplate that had been riveted to the base, but he did not understand the language.
"It says Darth Sin," Ki told him, noticing the look on the other Jedi's face. When Frie questioned him, he shrugged. "I once spent an entire month studying the martial arts of the Sith to see how it had influenced the styles of today. In the process, I got a passing knowledge of the Sith language."
There was a crack and both men looked to see Mace cut through the legs of a smaller statue. "That was Lord Kron. The inscription says something about having the shortest reign as Dark Lord." Ki felt back on his butt and threw the handful of dirt. "I'm hungry."
"Have you noticed that nothing grows here that's edible? Perhaps that was the reason the Sith felt the need to increase their empire?" Frie observed.
"Couldn't they just purchase the food?" Ki asked with a smile. "You go to market to buy food; you don't take over the village and kill the inhabitants."
Frie nodded and looked around. "So, who is tempting you to the dark side?"
Ki rolled his eyes. "Evran Zre."
Frie searched his memory for the Dark Lord but came up blank. Sith history was not covered in detail during padawan training, but many masters would later devote study to it. Frie was not one of those people as he saw the Sith as a failed extension of the Force and felt that dwelling upon it wasted time.
"He was the Dark Lord who thought he was a comedian. In my dreams he regales me with two thousand years worth of dirty jokes." Ki rubbed his large forehead. "I hate this place; if they can't make you cross over they'll drive you insane."
Frie wondered how long they could hope to hold out against the temptations of the spirits of the Sith. Mace shut off his lightsaber and turned to them. Sweat ran like tears from his bald head. "They aren't trying, believe me. This is nothing…they are waiting because they know who is coming."
"We will be outnumbered," Frie offered.
"There is no way that Padme Amidala could be trained fully in the Sith arts, not to mention that I cannot imagine her raising a weapon against us," Ki added.
Mace sat down and assumed a cross-legged position. His breathing slowed as he allowed his body to cool. "Padme is gone, replaced by the darkness that lies in each one of us. We all have a dark side, my friends, and some of us are not strong enough to conquer it. In the cells, I met my doubt and fears and they at first bested me."
"In the end, you triumphed over it though," Frie said, deciding to join his friends on the ground. He sat down on a sharp rock and could swear he heard laughing on the wind.
"Yes; it is possible to come back from despair, but her pain runs deep," Mace said as he closed his eyes. "I know little of her except that it must be hard to be thrust into such important positions of power at such a young age."
Ki cleared his throat and cursed the dusty air. "Perhaps she felt that nobody would take her seriously because of her youth."
"I took her seriously," Frie answered. "I guess I wasn't in the majority."
Mace grunted and then looked to the gray clouds set against the scarlet sky. "Anakin Skywalker awakened a primal desire in her, a desire to be in power. All of pretend to be humble, but we all crave power deep down inside. That, my padawans," mace smiled at the jest, "Is the true difference between Jedi and Sith. The Sith do not deny themselves what they can take; the Jedi must practice discipline."
"Have you ever wondered why?" Ki asked.
"Because the alternative is death. Death to the innocent, death to the guilty and death to all that is. In the end, all that matters is life. Life must continue for reasons none of us can comprehend and that is why we must see to it that Emperor Palpatine must die."