Chapter Two: Assignment
"Dagobah? I've never heard of that system before; it's in the Outer Rim, I assume, master?" Shane looked questioningly at Revii.
The Jedi master shrugged, "I assume so. It is an ancient system, and home to some ancient Sith ruins – this was one of their holy places in the far antediluvian days. Dark apprentices would make pilgrimages to the place, a mark of passage before their knighting. The Council has erason to believe that darkness is stirring there once more, even though most of the holy places were destroyed in the early days of the Sith Wars."
Sham picked up her lightsaber and weighed the ornate weapon in her hand, "so we go to investigate this darkness?"
Revii waggled his eyebrows and grinned.
"Of course, pack your rubber boots though; this is a boggy spit of rock."
Shane rolled her dark eyes and groaned "yay!"
The older Jedi snickered and tossed a datapad to his sulking padawan.
"Here, do some research while you pack your kit."
Shane idly shoved a rain jacket into her kit bag as she listened to the datapad listing off facts about the lone planet of the Dagobah system.
Home to swamps and swamp sentient life forms, and a natural Force hot-spot, Dagobah was a basic, undeveloped planet with little to no intelligent life.
That was about it, other than, of course, the ancient ruins left by the extinct Sith Lords.
Which were what this mission was to be about, apparently.
Not that Shane was displeased, she was quite interested in archaeology and the study of unpopulated planets with remnants of ancient societies hidden in the mists of time – but the appeal of studying a darkness possibly caused by these ruins, Sith ruins to boot, was slim and wavering. After all, who really wants to hang out in the ancient temples of the most nefarious beings of all time?
Certainly not Shane; but who was she to complain?
Once the datapad finished its recitation it deactivated and the sparse room was silent except for the sounds of its occupant's methodical packing.
The silence carried over into the chambers of the apartment's other occupant.
Revii frowned – this silence held some sort of foreboding, a shadow of a threat.
Reaching out the master tried to detect the source of this shade, but as he touched it the tendrils of darkness receded and disappeared into the dark mists of being.
Deciding to meditate on this at a later time, Jedi Knight Revii Aelfhald flung his kitbag over his shoulder, checked once more around his own ascetic chamber to be sure that he left nothing behind, and strode out into the common room to meet his padawan.
Shane had just finished changing into her one of her favourite outfits – a long cobalt over coat with a matching hooded cloak and half veil, bottle green tunic and leggings in traditional Jedi fashion, burgundy wrist bracers, and, of course, her belt with both lightsabers hanging at her side and a blaster strapped to her inner thigh.
Revii shot a questioning look at his heavily armed apprentice.
"I don't think that any of the mummies in the Sith sarcophagi will jump up and attack us for checking out their holy place," he commented slyly.
Shane looked at her master in shock, "sarcophagi? Say what?"
Revii laughed, "I'm just teasing you, padawan. But truly, you won't need all that."
The cloaked and hooded apprentice grinned under her veil and swung her large kitbag over her shoulder, "better safe than sorry, eh?"
The trip to Dagobah was as uneventful as to be expected.
Revii spent most of the two week trip in meditation, while Shane found contentment in practicing katas and tinkering with the droids on board.
In his meditations, Revii could only find the barest traces of the darkness he had sensed before leaving Coruscant, but ominous feeling refused to be expelled from his thoughts.
Often the Jedi master sighed in melancholy fashion – this shadow was having a negative effect on him and was the cause of two weeks worth of sleepless nights while aboard the Sage Fox.
A loud beeping caused the last of the Jedi's concentration to slip and he landed heavily back into the conscious world. The computer was announcing the ship's arrival at the co-ordinates set for the end of the hyperspace jump.
Revii could sense that Shane had already reached the cockpit and had begun the landing cycle and approach.
Making his way to the front of the ship, Revii frowned as the ship began to hum and bounce from a considerable amount of turbulence in the planet's upper atmosphere.
'Padawan, what is happening?'
'Come quickly, master. I cannot see a thing, the fog in unimaginable!'
Revii grimaced in pain as he whacked his elbow on a computer consol, 'reach out with your feelings, sense the planet's living Force. Use it to guide you, my padawan.'
'Do you not feel the darkness here, master,' Shane thought despairingly, 'it blocks my senses – I can barely make out you, let alone the planet's signature. It is so dark!'
Revii threw himself into the cockpit and saw for himself how thick the murky fog was.
The older Jedi took his seat at the consol and reached out to help guide the rapidly descending ship, only to recoil in horror.
"I told you it was dark, master," Shane grunted as she pulled back with all her strength on the controls. "I cannot sense anything outside the ship's hull – only fog and evil."
After strapping himself down into his chair, Revii grunted as he tried to slow the ship's descent, but to no avail.
Alarms blared and all sorts of warning lights started blinking as the computer noted the distance between ship and planet growing smaller at a very distressing rate.
The hull of the ship seemed to groan as tree tops began beating against it – both Jedi closed their eyes, bracing themselves for impact while still using all their powers to slow the ship.
When the crash came, both Jedi were jarred in their seats and chaos took over the cabin as objects went flying and the hull crunched in on itself. The last thing Revii saw before darkness overtook him was his padawan's limp body thrown out of her seat and through the broken duroglass window.
Master Mace Windu felt a tremor in the Force during meditation – reaching out for the source, he sensed a familiar Force signature. Knight Aelfhald, Windu's former apprentice, was the source of this tremor. Mace frowned while in deep concentration; his former padawan had been sent on a simple exploratory mission with his own padawan, young Zemmeck. Rising out of his meditations, Master Windu left his quarters in search of Yoda. The diminutive master would know more on this issue, Windu felt assured.
Shane opened her eyes narrowly, the pain in her head seemed to roar and flare at such a simple movement. Her eyes quickly found themselves shut once more as the young Jedi's eyes were nearly blinded by the light.
Shane tried to reach out with the Force to see the extent of damages to her body and begin healing them, but could not grab hold of the golden tendrils of living power.
She was so exhausted.
The Jedi let herself rest for awhile longer and even, for a few moments, felt herself begin to drift into sleep, before attempting again.
Once she did, Shane only became more confused. Why was she lying on her side and in so much pain? And why was she lying in a puddle?
Shane's eyes flew open, despite the bright light, and saw that she wasn't lying in a puddle, but sprawled out in a bog next to the smouldering debris of the Sage Fox.
Panic overtook the youth's mind.
"Master?"
Shane came up against a blank wall where her master had once been.
"Master?"
Shane called and called her master through the Force, but no replies came.
Breaking down in tears, Shane let her head fall back onto the grassy hummock that possibly had been the only thing that kept her from drowning in the dirty and unpleasantly warm water.
'You can't just let yourself go, idiot,' Shane heard a voice inside herself say harshly, 'get up and find him – you know he's not dead, he can't be dead! Get up!'
"Be quiet!"
'Get up, get up you lazy kid! For all you know your master could be unconscious and lying in a bog about to drown, get up and save him.'
"I can't, my leg is broken and so are three ribs, and I think my arms are both dislocated. How can I stand in this shape?"
'Dumb child, did you never listen to anything you were taught?'
"What do you mean? Oh, why won't you let me alone – I'm so tired, I want to sleep."
'Use the Force, child! Reach out! You cannot sleep or you and your master will surely die, now get yourself up and find him.'
Obeying the voice, Shane found herself levitating herself out of the water and drifting over the bog towards the ruined ship.
Scanning the rubble weakly while still keeping her broken body in the air, Shane found a weak life signal coming from the wreckage of the cockpit.
Directing herself through the still hot metal ruins, the Jedi finally came to a terrible sight.
The front plating of duroglass was shattered and covered in blood – her blood, Shane realized. Inside the cocoon of twisted metal Shane could see an arm sticking out at an odd angle.
"Master!"
Without thinking, Shane jumped to her feet and darted the last few meters over to her master before collapsing in pain as the broken ends of bones crunched and grinded together.
With her last strength, Shane reached up with a pain-numbed arm and grasped the protruding hand. Before passing once more into the darkened void she noticed something that could only be good – the hand was warm and a strong pulse ran through it.
Yoda's long green ears twitched as he listened to the worries of fellow Jedi master Mace Windu.
"Master Yoda, should we send another team out to check on them?"
Yoda let out a chuckle.
"Worried are you for your former apprentice, master Windu? Adult now Revii is, his mother you are not."
"But did you not feel the tremor," Mace demanded, "it came from him and his padawan. They are in danger."
Again, the small master chuckled, "know you more than others, always in motion is the future – and always in danger are Jedi on missions. Wait, Mace, to see what will come of this. Message they will send if help they need."
Mace rose hastily from his chair, and paced the room.
"Calm yourself, Master Windu. There is no emotion…"
"Yes, yes, master. There is no emotion there is peace, but that is not meant to apply to the bond between master and padawan. Revii is in danger and in pain – I can sense it."
The small green master shrugged and let out a sigh, "again I say – restless are you. Wait you must until messages they send."
"And if they are incapable of sending a message, master?"
"Then, my friend," Yoda eyed his worried friend carefully, "we must wait to be sure."
Mace took three deep, calming breaths.
Bowing to the wise master, Mace took his leave and departed from the fountain room.
As he walked away, the tall master felt a small, nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him that his padawan and young Zemmeck didn't have time for the council to wait.
Action must be taken, yet Windu knew that the council would not send anyone to search for them without a clear message from either the Force or the two Jedi in distress.