The Order
Chapter 2
Vance slowly settled himself into the pilot's seat of the diplomatic yatch assigned to the Nal Hutta mission. Before joining the Jedi, he had been a pilot with his father's courier service. It had just made since to him that he pilot the ship so that the citizens of the Republic didn't have to pay extra for their government to assign a pilot for this mission.
Sitting beside him, acting as his copilot, was the mysterious alien known only as Viskette. To Vance he appeared to be little more than a shadow. Perhaps he would have thought him a ghost in his childhood. But he knew from experience that Viskette was more than his appearance made him seem. Countless times Viskette had advised visitors to Ossus who sought divine enlightenment and refused to listen to most of the priests there. He would just seemingly become invisible and whisper enlightenment into a pilgrim's ear. The pilgrim would leave Ossus, believing they had been enlightened by a god.
"Looks like we're all set to go," Vance said, strapping himself in.
"Indeed so," Viskette replied. "We've already received permission to leave, came in while you were making sure everyone was secure."
"Just what I like to hear. OK, cut in the repulsorlifts on my mark." Vance flipped the throttle over to repulsorlift before grabbing the lever that controlled it. "Three... two... one... mark."
Viskette wasted no time in obeying orders, knowing full well the Corellian would only give him a split second before he started feeding power to the repulsorlifts. He then turned his attention to the ship's gauges. "Repulsorlifts are on line and at ten percent and rising."
"Naturally."
"Fifty percent. Our altitude is two feet. Six feet. Twenty-two feet. Forty feet. Repulsorlifts at maximum. And I couldn't ask for a smoother ride."
"Cut in the secondary sublights and prepare to shut down the repulsorlifts."
"A thousand feet. Secondary sublights on line. Standing by for repulsorlift shutdown."
Vance began cutting power to the repulsorlifts until they were near to hovering. "Shut 'em down."
Again Viskette was quick to obey. The yacth was soon hovering on the secondary sublight engines, though both knew they wouldn't hold them at this altitude for long. Vance quickly switched the throttle back over to the sublight engines and began slowly running it up again. "OK, bring the main online."
"The main sublight drive is up and running."
Vance slowly increased power being feed to the sublight engines until the yacth was screaming for space. And yet the increase in thrust had been so gentle that none of his passengers even realized they were moving with any kind of speed until they looked out the passenger cabin's viewport. Within a mere handful of minutes the ship had reached the first jump beacon and entered hyperspace.
"Viskette, can I ask you something?"
"Knowledge can not be attained by those who refuse to seek it," Viskette replied simply.
"Is that a yes?"
This brought a laugh from Viskette. "Indeed it is my friend. Please, what is your question?"
"By using the Force we Jedi can do all kinds of things. You were already a priest when we first met. Which naturally means you have learned more about using the Force than I. That helped you to become a Knight so quickly after the role the Jedi play in this galaxy changed. I was just wondering if you could teach me how to become invisible like you can at times?"
"I am afraid that is something I can not teach you," Viskette told him with a heavy sigh.
"Why is that?"
"Because it is not something I need the Force for." Viskette stared out the viewport as if contemplating what to say. "My people's name in basic is Defel, though humans and a few other races also know us as Wraiths. This is because of our ghost-like appearance. We have a natural ability to bend light around our bodies, which allows us to appear to vanish into the world around us. Though it is far easier to do when that world is dark or in shadow. The only way to see us as we truly are is in ultraviolet light. We can see in both ultraviolet and standard light, by the way.
"Few people have ever visited our homeworld. And most of us prefer not to leave it. Based on our appearance, I suppose that's a good thing. Most beings tend to be frightened of us when they actually see a Defel. After all, we do remind them of ghosts. And those who leave aren't exactly ready to reveal where our home world is for fear that the other races of the galaxy to seek to exterminate us."
"Makes sense. But why did you leave?"
"All my life I was able to do things that those around me could not. Things that were deemed magical or of a supernatural nature. Then one day a Jedi high priestess crashed on our homeworld. She showed no fear of us when we came to her aid. It took us weeks to repair her ship, and in that time she and I came to know each other very well. She sensed that what set me apart from everyone else was the ability to use the Force. So when she offered to take me with her so that I could learn to use these abilities I'd been gifted with, I readily agreed.
"Master Vos was more intrigued with my natural abilities than she was with teaching me to use the Force, so Master Areemus took over my training. In fact, it was his idea that I whisper in a pilgrim's ear when they were seeking enlightenment from someone they believed to be more spirit than living. I wouldn't be surprised to learn my natural abilities are what made him select me for this mission."
"Were I in his place, I'd probably have done the same thing," Vance admitted. A sudden beeping forestalled any further conversation. "One minute to reversion. Prepare to cut out the hyperdrive on my mark."
"Hutt society is largely clan based," Ambassador El'Jeta told his four Jedi companions in the yatch's lounge. "Loyalty to one's clan is more important than loyalty to one's friends. Even if you are closer to your friends than to your own family."
"Kinda a blood is thicker than water thing," Quiot Andrek said.
"Very much. And until few hundred or so years ago, this clan devotion basically meant constant clan wars. In fact I believe clan wars played a large part in the destruction of their world of origin."
"What do you mean?" Viskette asked.
"The Hutts originated on a world known as Varl. It's location is known only to the Hutts, but the story of it's destruction is known to anyone who's held any kind of friendly conversation with a Hutt.
"According to the Hutt story, Varl's system had been a binary system, it's two stars actually being gods and lovers. One day one of the two fell into a blackhole to be lost forever. The remaining god grieved so heavily that it quickly wasted away, becoming a dwarf star. The other planets, grieving for the loss of the two lovers exploded. Only Varl refused to grieve to such a point because the lives on it's surface were too precious to kill with such grief. Sadly, the asteroid remains of it's sibling planets bombarded Varl for the next forty years, killing the planet and decimating all life on it's surface. Except the Hutts.
"That is the story they tell. However, I find it unlikely that they would have survived such a prolonged asteroid bombardment. It seems more likely to me that they caused Varl's destruction.
"For a year now I have been studying the Hutts. And one thing I learned is that, as I said before, until a few hundred years ago, clan wars seemed to be the norm within Hutt society. Though destructive in terms of life, they rarely deviated large areas of land. But there are other Hutt stories that point to far more destructive clan wars on Varl. Wars so destructive that whole nations would be wiped out. So destructive that where a mountain range had stood for eons, one could find a torn up plain after only a few days of fighting. It seems that these far more tame clan wars came about shortly after Varl's destruction.
"If they did indeed survive an asteroid bombardment that wiped out all other life on their planet, why would the Hutts suddenly choose to become tamer in the way they conducted their clan wars? I do not believe they would have. I believe they know they caused their world's destruction and that those who survived were not on Varl when it was destroyed. They found themselves a nearly extinct race and no longer wish to have that happen again."
"You mentioned a few hundred years ago the Hutt's ceased with their clan wars," Vance said. "Why did they do this?"
"In actuality the clan wars are not truly gone. But today they rarely escalate into an actual war. Instead, the Hutts prefer to be more cunning in dealing with a rival clan. Harm them in such a way that it will be virtually impossible to prove you did it. As for what happened to bring about such change, it was their war with Xim the Despot.
"As you all know, Xim was a despotic emperor who lived before the Republic was founded. He conquered many worlds and many peoples through his military might. One of the peoples he waged war with were the Hutts.
"Due to the fact that their clans are so important to them, the Hutts found it impossible to fight back against Xim. This is because they were trying to fight him as individual clans and not as a unified peoples.
"Then came the first great leader of the Hutts, Kossak. Kossak the Hutt called the leaders of all the Hutt head clans together and made them realize that it was only by working together could they defeat Xim. He then negotiated with other races a treaty that had them working for the Hutts. Under his leadership, the Hutts were able to defeat Xim. And after he was gone, Kossak managed to maintain his leadership of the Hutts.
"Kossak was a virtual emperor to his people and those they had subjugated to help them defeat Xim. That rule ended in the bloodiest clan war in recent history only a hundred years ago. Diraa the Hutt, of the Casjax clan, lead his clan to victory and took Kossak's place as leader of the Hutts. And it is Diraa who we are dealing with."
"Well, I hope we get to meet him during our visit," Vance said, getting up and already making his way to the cockpit. "After our next hyperspace jump, the Rain Love will be in the Nal Hutta system."
