Star Wars Infinities: The Master
Chapter 23
By: Christopher W. Blaine
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DISCLAIMER: All of the characters and situations contained in this story are ©2003 by LucasFilm Ltd. They are used here without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. This original story is ©2003 by Christopher W. Blaine.
"What you just saw was the coming darkness that is going to consume this galaxy," Mace Windu said. His projection was seated very comfortably inside the mind of the Millennium Falcon. Kyp said nothing, but instead fell into the role of the dutiful student. Mace Windu was, after all, a famed and powerful Jedi master and it was not so hard to believe that somehow he had managed to cheat death at the hands of Darth Maul.
The dark skinned Jedi was linked to Kyp through his thoughts and he knew all of the younger man's questions, concerns and fears. He decided that the best course of action was to address each on in order. He started with Korriban. "The Force is incredibly strong around the Sith homeworld; it even acts as a repository of Dark Side energy. With so much of the Force there, it was possible to push my conciseness into one of the statues."
"So, they aren't there for show?" Kyp asked, recalling several holos he had browsed through one day. Korriban, the site of the famed battle between the Dark Lords of the Sith and the last of the Jedi Council, had become the subject of several hundred novels and news stories since the start of the Empire.
"No, they actually have a use. My hope was that someday a Jedi of sufficient strength would come by and I could communicate my knowledge to them," Mace replied, his tone even. His relaxing way of speaking put Kyp at ease. "Then I would release my spirit to the Force. However, your ship, which was dying…and I still don't understand that…gave me an alternate route."
Kyp moved to scratch his nose and hit the cognition hood. He had forgotten he was wearing it, but it was the best way to communicate with the Jedi master. "You said there was a threat around Korriban. I saw the Black Fleet," Kyp said, using the name he had given to the armada. "Those are the Sith aren't they? I had a vision of them."
Mace nodded. "Your perceptions in the Force are quite strong. You faced the war fleet of Exar Kunn, one of the most vile and powerful Dark Lords in history. He has allied with him several powerful dark Jedi and he is determined to rule the galaxy. He has spent the last few years consolidating his forces, grabbing up any and all ships he could find."
"So, while the New Republic, the Empire and the Confederacy have been blasting each other to bits, Kunn has been sitting on the outside, waiting for a chance to pounce," Kyp finished. "This is the new threat I sensed."
"Yes, and it is much more of a threat than that posed by Palpatine's clone," Mace revealed. Kyp was shocked. He expressed disbelief, but Mace reassured him that Lord Ravage was indeed a genetic duplicate of the former Emperor. "Palpatine could not sire normal heirs; Bail Organna discovered this. So corrupted by the Dark Side he became, Palpatine's only hope of immortality was to create clones."
Mace went on to explain that many Dark Lords of the Sith transferred their essence into their children's bodies in order to remain alive. Of course, their children were effectively dead because of the actions, but no true Sith ever really worried about that. "Clones suffer from various diseases that natural children do not, so it is no surprise that Lord Ravage is somewhat flawed."
"We should warn the Republic," Kyp said. "They need to know about this threat."
Mace nodded slowly and then seemed to pause for a moment. He smiled as he collected his thoughts. "From what I can tell from your thoughts, the Jedi are not highly regarded in the Republic."
Kyp was forced to agree. "Years of mistrust will not go away for many. Sure, a lot of the alien races look at me like I'm some sort of savior, but that was only because I changed the face of Tatooine. I still don't know how I did it."
The Jedi master knew the answer, but he decided not to tell Kyp that he had received a little help from the spirit of Anakin Skywalker. "Then your message will most likely be ignored. Men have a tendency to want to face the threat in front of them and not prepare for the one behind. The Republic sees the Empire and the Confederacy as their greatest threats and that is what they will concentrate on."
"So, you are saying we should abandon the Republic?" Kyp asked.
"No," Mace was quick to reply. "But this New Republic lacks a common purpose. Through the Force, many things can be learned if you know how to listen. It is no secret that the Corellians and Chandrillans are dissatisfied with the current regime in the Republic. The Mon Cals are not far from succeeding either; their world lies in Imperial space and the Empire, for the last five years, has treated them well."
"It's a lie," Kyp told him. "Ravage is just setting them up for a fall!"
"Perhaps," Mace said with a shrug, "but it does not matter. The New Republic alone cannot stand up to the Black Fleet, nor can the Empire or the Confederacy. Only together can they hope to win."
Kyp shook his head. "Against armies of dark Jedi? We only have five Jedi knights…"
"Four."
"Five," Kyp countered. "Master Vos, my father, me, Leia and Corran." Mace's image seemed to soften and Kyp knew immediately something was wrong. He had felt something coming from Corran when they had exited the Bespin system, but he had not thought anything of it. Corran was the strong one, the experienced one; nothing could hurt him. "Something has happened to Corran," he said, knowing it was true.
"Your apprentice has turned to the Dark Side, though he is not fully immersed in it. Were you not preoccupied with other thoughts, you might have noticed," Mace said. Kyp tried to clear his mind and seek out his friend, but he was unable to push away the scattered and torturous ideas that now sprang into his mind. From his earliest memories of his Jedi training, when his mother had first shown him how to levitate a simple toy, he had been told over and over how important it was for the master to ensure the apprentice did not give into the Dark Side. It was too easy to give in to the baser emotions, to try to justify the ends with the means.
Where children in the "normal" galaxy were taught to fear witches and monsters under the bed, Kyp had been raised to fear failure. There was no greater measure of it then losing your apprentice. He tried to speak, but Mace help up a virtual hand to silence him. "You must not dwell on this right now."
The statement shocked Kyp and he started to speak about the great failure of the Jedi Council three decades before. It was no secret that all of the troubles that the galaxy now faced, from a three front civil war to a general lack of trust between species, was caused by the Jedi Council's complacent attitude towards Anakin Skywalker. Mace spoke of it before Kyp could finish his thoughts.
"It is true; we failed to recognize that maybe it was better to put the extra effort into young Skywalker then to simply write him off as a lost cause." He leaned back and looked into the sky that wasn't there. "Many of us wanted to side with Master Qui-Gin Jinn when he brought the boy to us, but we wanted to trust in Master Yoda even more. He was much older and much wiser then we, but perhaps that was his greatest flaw. He had seen so much, done so much that it may have blinded him to the truth that was before him."
"My father says that the Jedi Council should have been more diversified; not just masters but maybe even some padawans to offer fresh insight into issues," Kyp added. He and his father had spent many nights going over what Ferrin Durron had suspected had been the true downfall of the Jedi.
"Your father was more perceptive than what we gave him credit for. The Jedi should have been more open to suggestion from within the ranks, but again, we deferred to Master Yoda. He was over eight hundred years old at the time Anakin was brought before us; we trusted him and he trusted his own intuition." Mace stood up in the vision. "We must get to Dathomir," he said with finality.
"I have an obligation to my padawan," Kyp reminded him.
"You have a larger obligation to the galaxy," Mace stated flatly.
"What is so important on Dathomir that it allows me to leave my padawan…my friend…to fall to the Dark Side?" Kyp asked, his mind full with questions. He felt the urge to simply pull off the cognition hood and end the conversation. That would allow him the freedom to move on, to go save his padawan and also inform the New Republic of the danger that loomed in the form of the Black Fleet.
But he didn't. You did not simply ignore someone like Mace Windu who in death carried a presence that was more palatable than most people had in life. Talking with the spirit of the Jedi master had opened up Kyp's thoughts, allowing seeing things in a much bigger light. He and his father had come back to the galaxy in order to prepare it for the Yuhzeen Vong, but now he saw that getting ready for a threat in the future prevented your from seeing the threat directly in front of you.
"An army is needed and an army is there," Mace replied.
"An army? There is a clone army of millions with several hundred, if not thousands of dark Jedi, waiting to overwhelm the galaxy," Kyp told him.
"When the purges started, a plan was put into motion that would put certain Jedi in certain places," Mace said. "We knew about the Witches of Dathomir, descendants of a fallen Jedi. We also knew that there were those on that planet that would eventually reject the dark teachings."
"There are Jedi on Dathomir?" Kyp asked, mildly surprised.
"Hopefully. Your brother-in-law Malakie is from that world and his presence in the Force is hard to miss. He is a very angry young man." Mace's image seemed to approach, but it was only illusion. Kyp straightened in his seat despite himself. Communicating in an illusion world was disconcerting and to be honest, it unnerved him slightly. Though he was Jedi, he had learned about other religions from some of the colony members. Not every Jedi gave up their home faiths, including his mother.
Kyp followed the Force as a means of achieving something more in life, but he knew that many species believed that there was an existence beyond death that did not necessarily mean the Force. Some believed in entire worlds where the spirits of the dead would reside. He could not get the idea that he was peering into the land of the dead out of his mind. "I can't say I've ever had the pleasure of meeting him, except in that brief instant that our minds touched," Kyp told the spirit.
Mace scratched his head. "And what did you feel?"
"Cold rage," Kyp said as he remembered the sensations. "He hates so much, the galaxy, the Jedi, the Empire. He believes his father was betrayed by Palpatine…he sees himself gaining revenge on the entire galaxy for his being alone for so long."
"Through the Force, many of the dead Dark Lords believed that Malakie would be the salvation of the Sith," Mace told him. "There is much pain in the galaxy and it all started with poor Anakin Skywalker. His fury was passed to his son, whom I believe is the prophesized balancer of the Force. Qui-Gon Jinn thought it was Anakin, but it was through Anakin that we received two sides of the Force.
"The duality of the Force is a concept that many Jedi, from padawan to master, have theorized on for centuries. Many believed it to be one side being light, the other being dark. Yet, all Jedi find themselves treading on the dark side from time to time."
"Such as in combat?" Kyp asked. His training had included instruction from several former fallen Jedi who had taught that sometimes dipping into one's anger was necessary to supplement their fighting prowess.
"At times, yes," Mace agreed. "But I think that the balance to the Force is between action and inaction. The Jedi, as I've said several times, were doing nothing to actively combat evil in the Republic. We tried negotiation and because it had been successful in the past, we started to assume that it would always be successful. We were wrong. When it was time for action, the Jedi were slow to rise to the challenge. All of the skill in the universe with a lightsaber is useless when you do not draw the weapon."
Kyp could sense the sadness coming from the Jedi master and he took a moment to ponder the entirety of the Jedi purges and what they truly meant. The Jedi had been caught completely off guard by the appearance of Darth Vader and later Darth Maul and Darth Sideous. They had spent too much time in debate and in council instead of actively seeking the answer to their problems. In fact, Kyp decided as he thought more about it, they probably never even realized that they were being attacked by the Sith.
Kyp's father had often lamented that had the Jedi been more like him, and then maybe the purges would never have happened. Maybe if Yoda or Master Windu had been looking for evil instead of waiting for it, they might have seen through Palpatine's ruse. Maybe that was what Master Windu was talking about? "Luke Skywalker brings about action in the Force," Kyp agreed.
"Yes, and his twin bring about thought. She certainly had you and your padawan thinking quite a bit," the Jedi Master chuckled. "But, in all fairness, she does bring about action herself. I think the Force needs to be actively used, not just passively as we believed. It needs to be tempered through action and then refined with thought."
Kyp nodded, understanding what the Jedi master was trying to teach. It made sense that in order for there to be balance, there had to be equal parts of both. It was a philosophy he would have to seek more guidance on in the future. "I still should go after my padawan," he said.
"I understand how you feel, but again I must remind you that as the last true Jedi Knight, you have an entire order to consider, not just one padawan."
Shaking his head, Kyp disagreed. "Friendship is an important aspect of the new Jedi order; we stick together no matter what. Corran would come after me," Kyp said with pride. He had no doubt that if the situations were reversed, Corran would be flying to his rescue at that very moment.
"But Corran Horn is not a true Jedi yet and you are. Friendship is a wonderful thing, but sometimes duty overrides even the closest bonds." Mace swallowed. "We do not have the time for debate, Kyp Durron. You have to make a decision."
Kyp pulled off the hood and stood up. Ippy turned his mechanical head his way and gave him a glance, but said nothing. He had finally decided that trying to have a conversation with Kyp when he was talking to the "voice in the ship" was pointless and he was spending his time interfacing with the old navigational computer the Falcon had originally came with.
The Vong biological alterations rarely used the nav computer or any of the other three droid brains built into the ship's systems, but now it was imperative that Ippy get them back up and running. One of the brains, the one that handled most of the calculations, was fairly agreeable and since it had gotten some real use now and again, it was open to suggestion.
The other two, however, were a different story. One of them liked to make claims that it was actually sentient while the other brain argued with it about the impossibility of such a state. Ippy counted three thousand and forty three attempts on his part to get them to stop their bickering long enough to for all of them to set a course for Dathomir, since he kept hearing Kyp refer to the world.
The "good" droid brain had relayed some information to Ippy about the world and the "sentient" brain added its own comments in a high and mighty data stream. Dathomir was a jungle world that had originally been settled by a Dark Jedi and her followers. Years later a Jedi training vessel had crashed on the world, bringing the Witches of Dathomir to the attention of the Jedi Council. Despite their best efforts, the Council had been unable to retrieve their shattered vessel from the world, as the Witches had claimed it for their own. Eventually the Jedi chose to ignore the world, despite the fact that not all of the inhabitants of the planet were evil.
Evil, of course, was a sentient concept. There was no good or evil to Ippy, but he found that being around persons like Kyp were beneficial to his goal of extending his life cycle. From what the protocol droid had been able to deduce listening to Kyp over the past few years was that the Jedi somehow represented a philosophy of mutual benefit for all beings, sentient and droid. His logic circuits stressed that aiding Kyp in his endeavors was the correct course of action and he tried to relay that to the ship.
Sentient replied back that he wanted nothing to do with helping out anyone who had tried to mingle a "lower life form" with the rest of the ship. Good argued that because Kyp had added the biologicals to the ship, it had left time for Sentient to concentrate on its own thoughts. Bad, the name Ippy had given the third brain, thought they were all malfunctioning and suggested a thorough degaussing of their memory cores. Ippy made a note to try to find a way to remove Bad.
"Ippy, how much information do we have in the database on Dathomir?" Kyp finally asked, rubbing his face. Ippy's photoreceptors detected that the Jedi's facial hair was unusually long, at least two millimeters in length. The droid relayed what he had already learned and then added some material from his own databanks.
One of the reasons Ippy had been selected to be Kyp's co-pilot was that he had a little knowledge on a lot of Imperial subjects. "Dathomir was originally a prison planet, a place where Emperor Palpatine sent political dissidents. It was guarded by Grand Admiral Zsinj's fleet until several years ago."
"What happened?" Kyp asked.
"The Grand Admiral died suddenly after murdering a lover. Palpatine decided that the Witches of Dathomir must have used their Force abilities to do it and so he ordered the fleet removed. Most of its elements were absorbed into the Tarkin Confederacy." Kyp asked if there were New Order forces in the system. "I do not have information on that but logic indicates there would be at least a border patrol of four or more smaller capital vessels and no more than a squadron of fighters. Nothing you have not tried to handle on your own before," he replied.
Kyp nodded, not rising to the occasion to trade barbs with the droid. Ippy enjoyed his verbal dueling with Kyp and when the Jedi refused to be baited, the droid sensed that something was amiss. He assumed it had to do with Leia and Corran and the droid felt, if that were possible, that there was an emptiness to the ship without them. But there was something else as well; Kyp did not look as radiant as he normally did. There was something very wrong. "Go ahead and set the course," he told the droid.
Chewbacca stuck his head into the cockpit and gave a growl. "The Wookie wants to know where we are going. Do you want to tell him or should I try it with very small words?'
Kyp threw the droid a harsh look and then regarded Chewbacca. "I have to go to Dathomir. Master Windu, the man in the ship's brain, tells me that there are Jedi there we can recruit…"
The Wookie began to gesture and bark, his tone indicating he was not very happy about the course change. Kyp did not need Ippy to translate for him. "I know, we need to go after Malakie. We both have our reasons, Chewbacca, but he's part of something bigger than the two of us. We can't go after him alone," he said, realizing that he really had no choice. He had to abandon his friends in order to save the galaxy and it hurt. Was that how it had been for his father when the time came to leave the galaxy?
"I promise, though…we will go after him," Kyp promised. Then he turned to look out the viewport. "To save my sister, avenge your friend and restore peace to the galaxy."