The galaxy at peace and prospering, on every planet children, adults, human, Yuuzhan Vong, just about every species you can imagine working side by side to help keep their precious ecological system in perfect balance and harmony. From Coruscant to Tatooine to Zonama Sekot, from one end of the galaxy to the other all creatures live life according to the will of the Force as preached by Sekot. No creature is in need, no creature has more then their need or do they have the desire to horde or deny anyone anything. Greed, violence, oppression was eliminated by Sekot's love and the love that It shared with all.
Well almost by all …
The mighty fleet struck hard and fast, the Dark Side was a terrible thing that refused to love as Sekot preached and demanded from all. There was but one land left in which defiled Sekot's love and she was sent to pass judgment on them. She didn't want to, she begged Sekot to give them more time to learn its love as she had. She reminded Sekot and the Voice how she too resisted before understanding Sekot's love but to no avail. They continued to raid and spread discounted, oppression, death and destruction; they preached the Lie. Sekot, too, did not wish to fight them but they must be stopped for the good of all.
With a heavy heart she drove the fleet against them, only she would suffer the agony of the battle. These special creatures that were part alive and part mechanical must never leave the battle site to contaminate the rest of the galaxy. It was her burden, her heart that must accept the pain, so that others didn't have to suffer as she would as she has.
She saw him off to the left, the last Jedi to exist, no more were they needed in the galaxy. Many had simply joined Sekot, praised Sekot as all did; they had special places among Sekot and often lived on Zonama with Sekot instead of out in the galaxy like the others. They shared with Sekot, advised Sekot, praised Sekot, but some fell to the evil tongue of the Dark Side. She fought them all, to give them a choice to love Sekot or …
She knew he would be here, he was the last and it pained her greatly to have to pass judgment on him but she must for today the galaxy would be at peace. All around her were hundreds, thousands, millions of the dark side forces laying dead in the afternoon sun on Bothawui. None shall ever draw another breath, to defile Sekot, to spread the lie, young, old, human, Bothan, Yuuzhan Vong all the traitors to the True Way.
He saw her, she knew she had no choice by the look in his eyes; they gleamed with the Dark Side. Without a word she launched into an attack, calling on the power of Sekot to help her defeat the last one. Light sabers crashed, sparking and hissing as they connected, signing as they sliced through the air. He was strong, she knew this, she has always known this but nothing would save him today. She had the power of Sekot on her side, she could feel Sekot added It's strength to her own and the Force flowed through her like a great river of life. She sliced off his right arm at the elbow; he fell back on some pieces of a building cradling his damaged limb with his left arm. His blue eyes staring back defiantly into her green-gold eyes, he never said a word, not in anger or in love.
"The last of your kind," she heard herself say, "the last of my kind." She hoped he would say something any thing but he just stared at her, damning her for what she had done. Before she swung down she heard "Tahiri!" She turned to her right and saw Face, legs bleeding crawling to her, not to help but to hurt her, to stop her from her destiny. His betrayal hurt even more then Luke Skywalker's had. She sent a command to the creatures under her control not to hurt Face anymore; she had to talk to him. But first she had to judge Luke Skywalker, and with a single stroke she did.
With tears in her eyes and a heart weighted down by sorrow she walked over to Face. He had found a rifle from somewhere; before he could aim it she ripped it out from his grip.
"Face please," Tahiri said kneeling down at his side, "I don't want to judge you. You were my friend, my commander, I have always looked up to you, loved you like a sister. Please join me in praising Sekot!"
"What about Luke?" Face screamed back, his eyes blazed angrily. Tahiri always wonder how the Dark Side, the Lie could steal such pure souls as these. "Han and Leia, for Force sakes they were like your parents!"
"Sekot loves them and wish no harm to come to them as I," Tahiri said tears flowing freely. "But they believed in the Lie …"
"The Lie is Sekot, Tahiri!" Face shouted back angrily, "That thing controls the galaxy and you helped It!"
"No, Sekot has only shown the galaxy love and peace …"
"It controls everyone's mind Tahiri, they are nothing more then little robots doing Sekot's biding!"
"You don't understand Face, you never did …"
"But I do understand Tahiri, I seen it for myself. Look at the paradise you created, what do you have but trillions glassy eye people who can't think anymore? Who do nothing but work themselves to death like some hive creatures! No one travels, no one explores, and no one creates!"
"No one dies because of war, starvations or though neglect! No one lords over others, destroys something because they don't like the way it looks or talks! They gain so much peace and security for nothing more then letting Sekot into their hearts!"
"They have no freedom, they have no soul!"
Tahiri had to listen to the Force and ignore Face for a report from her army. The last of the Dark Side was gone, both on the planet and in the space above. No one had escaped into Dark Space to flee to another planet; at long last she had brought peace to the entire galaxy. Her army and fleet, saved the one ship that was coming to take her back to Sekot, were in the process of self-destructing. No longer would she need them. She gazed sadly down at Face, who was in the process of removing his combat armor.
"Its over Face, they are all gone." She said wiping the tears from her face, "I don't want to judge you Face, please let Sekot into your heart. Join me and the rest of the galaxy in praising Sekot!"
"I have fought evil long before you were born Tahiri," Face said, "the Empire, the Warlords, Yuuzhan Vong; no matter what form it took I fought to preserve freedom. You have a choice now, kill me or join me."
"Face please …"
"No, Tahiri," he said softly, "You see you have a choice. You could either help me destroy this nightmare you help create or kill me. I will never join evil."
"Sekot is not evil, Face! Yes, people have no choice but to follow Sekot but in exchange they have peace, security, and want nothing!"
"A prison is still a prison no matter who beautiful it is, Tahiri," Face reached out and guild her arm that held Bangor to his now exposed chest. "When you kill me, you will destroying everything Tahiri, there will no going back."
"Face," she said through the tears, imploring him to surrender. But it did no good, she could see that clearly. "Face, I have to judge you now." She tried to keep her voice even but the tears made it impossible. Face just nodded, never taken his eyes away from hers. "I'm sorry Face."
"So am I, you truly are an Abomination."
"NO! How could I do all this!" Tahiri screamed out as she watched an old version of her kill millions, kill Luke Skywalker, Wedge, and now Face! What could possible cause her to destroy everything she valued?
"I don't know," a voice said from behind her, she tore her gaze from the older her crying over the lifeless husk of her friend, and turned to see another 'Tahiri', this one wore regular combat armor and carried a amphistaff and a light saber. She wore her scars proudly on her forehead. It started at her, though her and said, "why would you?"
Tahiri jerked in her seat, held in place only by the restraining straps or else she would have taken a header in to the control panel. She blink a few times to get the sleep out of her eyes and to remember where she was going. Right, I'm on a shuttle heading to Hawk-bat Base, she though as she ran her hands through her short blond hair. They were still several hours away from the Halmad system where the base was located. That has to be the worst vision I have ever received! She thought as she settled back in her seat. The first part hadn't been so bad, the sight of trillion happily living without fear or despair had been glorious sight to be held. It was intoxicating, to be honest, she had never felt anything like it before. But the cost, why would I do that? Was that the cost of being that safe, that secure, worth the sacrifice of everything that she believed and loved? She rubbed the spot on her forehead where her Domain Marks should be as she tried to make sense of it all. She looked over at Ratnena sitting in the co-pilot seat, sound asleep. Tahiri didn't want to wake her up to talk about this, even though Rat has never minded in the past. Even if on the surface Rat would show disinterest, deep down she was always willing to help Tahiri understand was what going through that 'blender brain' of hers. But after glancing at the control panel she saw that they would arrive at the base in 6 hours, better to let her rest for now.
Quietly as she could, Tahiri unbuckled herself and went back to the main compartment. The lights were low back there as she felt her way back to refresher that Squeaky had installed along with the different control and sensor stations in the main compartment. Build as a troop transport; Squeaky had made extensive alterations to the shuttle to suit the unique requirements of the Wraiths. After she visited the refresher, she sat down at one of the open station, the rest of the Wraiths were asleep, and finished working on her light saber. She figured that she wouldn't have much time once they landed at the base to work on it; it has been almost a year since they were in circulation. She was sure that whoever their new 'boss' was would have a ton of work back logged for them. Plus, not that Tahiri would ever admit it to anyone; in case she screwed this up she wanted Rat and Little Brother to be able to look at it before they left.
Tahiri Veila had built three of them to replace the ones that had been damaged or destroyed but she wasn't quite Tahiri Veila and Riina Kwaad wouldn't have touched a circuit board to save her life. Unfortunately, in this case she took more after Riina Kwaad then Veila. She could operate machinery without much difficulty, most of the time, but she couldn't repair, service or reprogram anything no matter how many gods blessing times she tried. Both Rat and Little Brother have tried in the past to teach her but they have given up. It was better just to do it themselves and in those rare times when she did have to help they would talk her through it step by step. Well, building the light saber would show them that she could learn she excelled at some many different things that she hated the idea of not being able to learn this. There was no need to show them that she could do it, Rat and Little Brother would never think less of her if she couldn't. Just like she accept those two without reservation but she had something to prove to herself.
As she worked quietly, she slowly became aware of one of the new Wraiths watching her. Tahiri looked off to her right, Lt. Littlefoot was sitting at one of the sensor stations watching her. Tahiri gave her a smile and turned back to her work.
"May I ask a question Captain?" Littlefoot asked softly as not to wake up the others. Tahiri nodded and move over one seat, pushing her equipment with her and motioned Littlefoot to sit next to her. After she sat down, she cam e straight to the point, "I heard you left the Jedi Order but never why, can I ask why?" Tahiri worked as she considered the best way to answer that particular question. The Lt. must have thought it was too personal and apologized for being rude.
"No, nothing like that Littlefoot, I was just thinking of the best way to answer it."
"It has been my experience ma'am the best way to answer any question is with the truth."
"Many of the truths we hold dear greatly depend on our point of view," Tahiri said looking away from her work to flash a smile before returning to her work. "That was something that Master Skywalker learned early in his training. To find the truth, you must exam it from as many different angles to make sure it is the truth."
"And what angle do you see the truth in," Littlefoot said watching her closely.
"For the question you asked, I have a hard time seeing it from any angle expect from my own point of view. It is hard to see how killing me would fosters any attempt, at the time, to continued my association with the Jedi." Tahiri tried to keep her voice level; she was still trying to work her way through the anger that she always felt when she talked about it. It hurt to know her people wanted her dead, the Yuuzhan Vong reasons, from their point of view was understandable not that she agreed with them, the rogues who wanted her dead with the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong didn't or couldn't see past their own grief and anger to separate her from those who did wish them harm. It was hard to know her people from Zonama Sekot to Denon and Ossus wanted her gone and forgotten. It was hard but not as hard as it was to take from the Solos and Skywalkers, that was an act of betrayal that she couldn't get over yet. It was bad enough to feel suspicion from them, bad enough that they felt at times they couldn't trust her because of who she was, what she was, bad enough that Han and Leia felt that they had to stun her to keep her under control; Jaina had been the worst of them all. All that pain and the desire to protect the Jedi Tahiri had felt from her, had assume that it was directed at the Yuuzhan Vong attacking Ossus. She never would have guessed or believed it was her that Jaina wanted to stop, to protect the Jedi from. Even after she had been shot, she couldn't make herself believe, didn't want to believe. Bangor had believed and wanted to cut her down for hurting Tahiri. It took all of Tahiri strength to keep him from doing that, which is why she returned it to Sekot. Bangor desire to kill anything that harmed Tahiri was almost too strong for her to control and she could not take the risk of keeping Bangor around, that and how anger Bangor was for allowing Jaina to live. But Tahiri, when looking deep in her heart, could not, would not be the agent of Jaina destruction. No matter what Jaina had done to her or want to do to her; she still loved her like a sister.
"They wanted you dead?" Littlefoot said softly, Tahiri could hear the disbelief in her tone and wasn't offended by it. Everything that they went through last year sounded more like a bad holo drama then real life. "Are you sure about that?"
"Well, there was no grand Jedi convention where they took a vote or anything like that but rigging my ship to explode, ordering a undercover agent to rig the bomb and shooting me with a blaster was a good hint, don't you think."
"Does it help?" Littlefoot asked, after Tahiri shoot her a look of confusion, she elaborated, "being sarcastic help you get through life?"
"It is either that or crying," Tahiri said watching Littlefoot, she couldn't read her or her face very well. Which isn't surprising considering they just met. "If you don't mind me asking, but what is with all the questions? You are after something more then my views on Jedi relations?"
"Well ma'am, I just trying to understand what happened in the cantina the other night, you and Bora were pretty mean to those two. Granted they can be annoying at times …"
"Oh I know all about them and you for that fact, or at least what is in your files. I helped screen you for this position." Tahiri turned back to her work but continued to talk with the medic. "What Rat and I did had a define purpose and it worked. We went to relax, enjoy ourselves after a very stressful period in our lives. Rat, for reason that are all her own, don't appreciate men who see her only for her looks and bodies." She glanced over at Littlefoot, "by the way I wouldn't try your psychological tricks on her. She won't even tell me why and we been through a lot together, you she might hurt if you get too nosy. Most likely she will just blow you off the first couple times."
"I am just doing my job ma'am," Littlefoot said stiffly.
"I know you are, the commander knows you are, Rat will know too even if she won't admit to it but whatever the reason it is she will tell me when she is ready. So far it hasn't affect her performance, she is there when we need her."
"I will take your word for it ma'am," which sound like 'I don't believe you' to Tahiri, which was ok with her. They all will learn soon to trust Rat as much as Tahiri does. Like the old saying goes, 'seeing is believing'. "And what was your purpose at the cantina ma'am."
"I'm not really interested in any romantic involvement right now, no matter how brief or how long," Tahiri said as she maneuvered the crystal in to place.
"Or is that any involvement?" Littlefoot asked casually.
And like the click as the crystal falling into place on the light saber, the real reason behind her question became clear.
"Ah," Tahiri said, giving the medic a bright grin, "so that is what this is about. You want to make sure I'm not one of those burned out veterans who only live to be killed and won't make friends with anyone because they are too fatalistic to believe that they or their new friends will last long. So instead of risking the pain involved in seeing people they care about die they just cut off all contact so they won't get hurt."
"Yes ma'am," the medic said blushing, "sorry if I offended you but your actions at the cantina and from the stories Squeaky were telling us, well you can understand my caution."
"Don't worry about," Tahiri said while assembling the outer casing. "You are doing your duty."
Ratnena chose that moment to come out of the cockpit area; she was never much of a morning person.
"Morning Rat," Tahiri said brightly. Lt. Littlefoot also told her morning and Rat just did a half wave looking unhappy.
"How do you guys stand it anyways?" Rat asked around a yawn.
"Stand what?" Littlefoot asked looking confused.
"Something you should know Cathy," Tahiri said finishing up her light saber. "Rat here does not like to wear clothing when she sleeps. So don't barge in on her in the middle of the night." Tahiri then twisted around to stand up, "that goes the same for you Killjoy."
"I would never do that," Killjoy said no longer pretending to be asleep.
"Good Jake," Cathy said twisting around too, "I don't want to see what sort of shape she will leave me to fix."
"That is assuming I let you find the body," Rat said glaring at Killjoy who was smiling back innocently. "Anyways, just because you like to wear 16 layers of clothes, does that mean I have to sleep in this flight suit."
"Because it makes me uncomfortable to see you naked, Rat."
"I would be glad to switch places with you captain so that … ouch. You're a medic, your not supposed to cause pain." Killjoy said rubbing his head when Littlefoot slapped him.
"I am doing my job Jake, it is preventive medicine. It is design so Lt. Bora doesn't gut you like a fish."
"I don't do that much anymore, I hate having to get blood out of my clothes," Rat said offhand as she watched Tahiri go to a clear spot in the middle of the cabin. "Um, Vo … Ta … Ma'am what are you doing?"
"I just finished my light saber I want to test it," Tahiri said innocently. Rat's eyes got huge, it was hard for her not to laugh when she saw that.
"Oh no you don't," she said waking up fully and walking over to her. Tahiri just gave her a strained patient look. "Sorry, I rephrase that, oh you don't ma'am."
"Relax, Rat. I think I got it right."
"Oh sure just like that sniper rifle you caused to burst into flames after you fixed that."
"You know, no one has yet to explain to me how that happened."
"Or the time you crashed the computer system and it took us three days to fix the computers."
"That could happened to anyone you know."
"Or when you crashed the power grid in the barracks when you tried to make hot chocolate."
"Don't you trust me Rat?"
"Of course I do ma'am," Rat said giving her a quick hug, "it is your very apparent lack of mechanical skills I have no trust in." Rat held out her hand, "now give me the nice light saber and let me check it before you kill us all."
"I follow the plans, you know."
"Yes ma'am I am sure," Rat said giving her a ghost of a grin but still had her hand out.
"I out rank you, I could order you to let me test my own weapon," Tahiri said in jest. Killjoy and Littlefoot watched all this wide-eyed, probably wondering what was really going on.
"Yes ma'am but I have a date in few hours and really don't want to die yet."
"Is that date with a charming blond hair pilot that thinks you are adorable Lt.?" Killjoy piped up from his seat.
"If it was Killjoy, I would let her test her light saber and kill us all." Rat said with a grin that was as cheery as a sarlacc.
"You can't kill him yet, Rat," Tahiri said with a grin and handed over the light saber, "at least until after he cooks us some breakfast."
