Dooku had vanished. He had simply left, telling no one where he was going. That in itself was not alarming, of course not, he was a free man, after all. But still, Alamys felt highly suspicious of the other's sudden departure. A few days had passed since their last argument and they had not debated since, both too busy to talk. Which was a relief, in Alamys' eyes. Now, though, he wished they had talked, and he would perhaps now have a lead on where the Count had vanished to. It was never good to lose track of a potential enemy. A calculating expression appeared on the Jedi Master's face as he pondered his options. Perhaps there was still someone who might know more of Dooku's plans.

Alamys stalked down the hallway of the Masters' Quarters and went down the stairs to the next floor, where the Knights were housed. A quick search found his quarry. Knocking at the door, he waited patiently for the other to open. A young human, dark blond hair worn in a long braid at the nape of his neck, deeply set blue eyes inquisitive, finally dragged the door open.

"Master Jorka," he said reservedly. "An honor. Please, come in."

"Thank you, Knight Jinn, but actually I have a request."

Qui-Gon Jinn gave him a questioning glance. "Please, go ahead. I hope that I can help you."

"I am certain of that," Alamys answered benvolently. "You see, it has been some time since I was last called away from Coruscant for duty, and I am a bit anxious over losing my edge when I stay idle for too long. The practice droids simply do not meet my standards." He raised his brows meaningfully. "I heard that you are accounted the best swordsman of your generation. Perhaps you would honor me with a practice duel?"

Jinn bowed respectfully. "The honor is all mine, Master Jorka."

"Good. Then let's go."

Alamys Jorka's duty within the Order was that of a battle expert and tactician. He was called upon when the Republic was experiencing troubles with minor local skirmishes, and Alamys would be the one who would accompany a mediator to the scene, to back diplomacy up with emergency plans on evacuation of civilians, the most effective pressure points and so on. In fact, he had acquired such a reputation that his mere presence could serve to subdue a minor rebellion and turn it into peaceful negotiations. Alamys was also deemed one of the best swordsmen the Order had ever seen, a reputation he shared with Dooku, and a few others, including Master Yoda.

All that had to be going through Qui-Gon Jinn's head as he followed the Jedi Master to one of the gyms reserved for lightsaber practice. Keeping a close watch over his companion, Alamys found that he could detect a slight hint of apprehension and guilt. The youngest of seven siblings, Alamys had learned very early on how to read the mood surrounding him, even before he had been brought to Coruscant for training, a four-year-old farmer's son hailing from Tyreena. In the thirty years he had spent with the Order so far, Alamys had only returned to his homeplanet once, to attend his father's funeral. He was a stranger there now, and home was Coruscant.

"No practice blades, Knight Jinn," he said quietly, when Qui-Gon had shrugged out of his cloak and moved to take up one of the leather-bound staves used for exercise. "Do not worry. I will take care not to hurt you, or get hurt by you," he added, a rare smile lighting up his hard face.

Qui-Gon shrugged again, then detached his lightsaber handle from his belt. "I am ready when you are, Master Jorka."

"Excellent."

As student of Count Dooku, Qui-Gon Jinn would certainly be a good match for Alamys' fencing abilities, but his reputation would distract the younger man, allowing the Jedi Master to focus Jinn's concentration on the duel, while he probed both with questions and the Force. Taking up the classic guard position, Alamys nodded, and Qui-Gon attacked at once, a test of his opponent's reflexes no more, and easily thwarted. Alamys did not bother with tests. Bringing his lightsaber down one-handed, he forced Jinn to retreat, then took the handle in both hands and brought the blade around in a powerful vertical slash, a combination that was delivered with quick, precise movements. Jinn retreated a few steps more, trying to gather his defense.

"Watch your feet," the Jedi Master told the younger man calmly. "So. I hear you passed the trials without difficulty."

"No more than expected," Jinn replied, frowning in concentration, before he took a sliding step forward, feinting a direct attack, then pivoted on one heel and stabbed at Alamys' right flank.

Alamys blocked that one by whirling around, his back toward his adversary, and hammering his blade down hard on the other's weapon, only a hand-breadth from Jinn's own hand. "I am glad."

Jinn stumbled for a moment, but caught himself again to thrust upward, driving Alamys back. "But I can see you are going to make this exercise difficult," he grated out, prompting Alamys to smile.

"You have plans for your future, Knight Jinn?"

"Teaching," the other replied, trying another feint.

Alamys brought his lightsaber around, a high block again, his favorite stance. "I would have thought you would be joining Count Dooku in his own missions. The two of you make an excellent team."

"He would not take me with him."

"A pity."

Suddenly Jinn started a quick barrage of short jabs, that were designed to push Alamys into the defensive, and aimed at throwing him off balance, to deliver a more dangerous blow in the end. Instead of retreating, though, Alamys stepped toward Jinn purposefully, narrowing the other's range even more, and thus breaking into the inner circle of defense. The only escape for Jinn now was to retreat himself and fend off his opponent with wider slashes.

"Of course," Alamys began anew, "if he has personal business to attend to, he would not want you with him."

"Personal business?" Qui-Gon asked, startled. "I do not know anything about that."

And that was very true, Alamys could feel it, and the note seemed to disturb the younger man somehow. "His studies," Alamys pressed on, bringing his lightsaber around in a leisured arc. "I doubt he would want you to know." The flash of guilt from Qui-Gon was unmistakable. Triumphant, Alamys stopped his blade on the reverse and drew it back, just as Jinn lunged forward to meet it with his own weapon. He stumbled straight into Alamys' side kick, and fell to his knees with a loud gasp.

"You never meant this to be an excercise," he accused the Jedi Master, his blue eyes almost sad. "You only wanted information."

"That is not quite true, Knight Jinn," Alamys countered coolly, as he deactivated his blade. "One has to be ever vigilant in the fight against darkness, and vigilance includes knowing a potential enemy's strengths and weaknesses."

Leaving Jinn on his knees, eyes bulging at the thinly veiled insult, Alamys stalked toward the exit and snatched up his own cloak, that he had left on one of the benches. But when he stepped outside a movement at the corner to the hallway caught his attention. "Master Yoda," he said. "You have been watching?"

The tiny Jedi Master nodded gravely. "Watch I did, and see I did a lot. Punish you should not Qui-Gon Jinn for the emnities that harbor you do toward Count Dooku."

"With all due respect," the Jedi Master countered, not caring at all whether Jinn could hear him, "I am used to expecting the unexpected. Qui-Gon Jinn's master is a dangerous man, with dangerous views. He should not be left unobserved, and neither should his students."

"Set in your views you are, Master Jorka. But remember you should this," Yoda explained quietly, "A matter of perspective virtue is. A vice it can become all too soon."

Alamys nodded sharply. "Yes, Master Yoda. That is very true. I will see to it that it will not come to that."

They were en route to Corellia, a five day trip from Naboo, and Darth Sidious had been dilligently studying the report his master had given him. The report had been made by a woman named Alya Maaren, a Sith apprentice, over nine hundred years ago. Apparently she had been apprenticed to Soniva Darval, and that name Sidious knew very well. Soniva Darval, Darth Marr, had been the apprentice of Darth Bane, founder of the new Sith Order Sidious himself belonged to. She had reportedly been quite ferocious in her youth, but that had seemingly changed from one day to the other. According to the report Darth Marr had assisted a scientist by the name of Inyo Di'vitt, a former Sith slave, to develop a deadly virus, the Seed of Doom, or Motha Virus.

The Motha Virus had been designed specifically to target Force-users, Jedi in particular. Yet it had never been set into practice fully. There had apparently been two experiments, one conducted on a Jedi named Zulkur Arden, the other on the Jedi Master Hagen Dycos. Dycos was also known to Sidious, who had studied the scholar's historical works with greatest interest, when he had still dreamed of becoming a Jedi one day. He had been very young then, and, in a way, it was due to Hagen Dycos that he had decided to become something else entirely. Inyo Di'vitt had been based on Corellia, but her experiments had been cut short by what appeared to have been an accident, according to official sources. But Sidious could not quite believe that an accident could have made a skyscraper blow up.

In fact, though the report did not mention it directly, the 'accident' seemed to have been a throwback in Di'vitt's experiments, since apparently it had been Zulkur Arden who had caused the destruction of her laboratories, along with the scienist's death. Hagen Dycos, Sidious knew, had died in the Welmayan Civil War at age sixty. There had never been any reports about any strange behavior on Dycos' part, prompting Sidious to believe that the experiment had not succeeded with the Jedi Master. Strange, that. Looking up from his reading he threw a pensive look at his master, who was snoring in one of the chairs. He was drunk again, and probably not inclined to answer questions. Nevertheless Sidious rose and took a look at what Nexus had been studying. A piece of news, printed out on flimsiplast.

"Female body found on construction premises," the headline read. Intrigued, Sidious read on. "During construction works on a former dump at the city limits of Coronet, workers uncovered the remains of a female human body. Scientists found that due to the chemical fumes and layers of morass on the site the body has been preserved over a long time. Which means this lady has been lying there for over the past nine hundred years! Identifying the body will be impossible, scientists claim." Sidious inhaled sharply and smiled. Oh, he could identify the body all right. The fact that Nexus had read this particular item meant that he suspected these remains to belong to Doctor Inyo Di'vitt.

Suddenly Darth Nexus came awake with a grunt, and his malicious piggy-eyes immediately latched onto his apprentice. "What are you doing there!" he roared, aiming a slap at Sidious' head. The young man ducked out of the way as politely as he could.

"Forgive my curiosity, master," he began, "I merely meant to complete the information given by Alya Maaren's report."

"Fine," Nexus growled. "And what does this tell you?" He grabbed the flimsiplast and gave it a disgruntled stare.

"That these workers have found Inyo Di'vitt's body and that we are going to Corellia to retrieve it. But master, for what purpose?"

Darth Nexus gazed at him dispassionately. "I thought you were a well-read boy, Sidious," the Whiphid snarled. "Have you ever read the Jedi Chronicles by Jedi Master Hagen Dycos?"

"Of course."

"Then you may remember on of the last chapters, where he describes the Motha Virus and its effects."

"He does?" Sidious asked, taken aback. He couldn't remember having read anything like that.

Nexus smiled. "It is not clear what he refers to, and knowing that he himself was infected, it is understandable that he only sticks to hints, but he writes there that Inyo Di'vitt accidentially was also infected by her own virus."

"He wrote all that?"

"Yes, apprentice, he did. You should show more enthusiasm for the natural sciences, you know? They could be the key to the future."

Sidious nodded slowly. "And now you want to extract the virus from her remains, is that so?"

"Exactly! Well done, Sidious." Nexus clapped his huge hands deliberately slow, to show his contempt, as if that were necessary, with what Sidious could sense. "Since dear Master Dycos kept this so secret, we can have some leeway when using the virus for our own ends. Perhaps," and here his small eyes took on a fervent gleam, "we may even find a way to infect the Force itself."

"Forgive me, master, for asking so stupidly, but wouldn't that also bar us from using the Force?"

"Sidious!" Darth Nexus exclaimed. "You are a fool! Why should darkness bar us from using darkness? On the contrary! This would only increase our power! Imagine the possibilities!"

"Yes, master," the apprentice murmured, lowering his head demurely as he spoke. He could imagine the possibilities very well. Smiling, he gave another nod.