The Jedi Adventure
--sparkvallen
Original characters belong - of course - to Lucasfilm and used for entertainment purposes only. Other characters are based on real personages and are used for entertainment purposes too!
Chapter Eleven
"M'Lady?"
Darth Demetra had been staring at a monitor within a secure bunker. She stared dumbstruck at the trio of Jedi that had been caught on recording before the blonde woman destroyed the camera that had been tracking them. A blonde woman. With a lightsaber. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Not only did she know the woman, but she saw that Spark had been among the chosen that the Jedi had taken to Yavin IV.
"Well. Isn't this just freakin' ducky!"
"M'Lady?" the officer behind her repeated.
She whirled in her seat and shot crimson tendrils of Force lightning from her palms. Demetra smiled and purred seductively as the tendrils writhed around her as well before dissipating.
"Anyone else want to push me?" she snapped.
None of the technicians so much as looked in her direction. Satisfied, she turned back to the recording. Demetra knew that Lady Raefen would be similarly displeased with this development: where there was one Jedi, there were three. Where there were three, there were sure to be more. While the Sith operated from a Master-Apprentice only system, the Jedi flourished like bunnies.
"Where was this recorded?" Demetra wanted to know.
"About 600 miles southwest of here, Mistress Demetra," one of the officers replied without looking over at her.
Smiling, she stood and caressed the speaker's cheek with her fingers. He shuddered under her touch, fearing Force Lightning being zapped into his skull. Demetra laughed, feeling his fear and feeding on it. Toying with the lightsaber hilt in the palm of her hand, Demetra re-sheathed it in her customized sheath that hung off her thigh, matching the one on her opposite leg.
"Ready a transport for me. I'll deal with these Jedi myself." Oh yes, I will, she thought. What a way for us to come face-to-face, but I cannot let Spark or any of her 'friends' stand in my way…
"Yes, M'Lady."
"Here we go then…" Z'Trooper muttered under his breath.
The comment, even so quiet, earned him a knock to the back of the head by the trooper's rifle butt. He rubbed his hand to his head and frowned. Sapharin remained silent and looked straight ahead, working through a meditation to get her through the ordeal of riding up to the prison ship. She was as uncomfortable as Z'Trooper was physically having had her arms shackled behind her back for her earlier insubordination.
The transport's journey was quick enough, but that only meant that the mission was coming to its crux. The Jedi had already had their backpacks containing their lightsabers confiscated upon their capture. Now, aboard the ship in orbit over their world, Sapharin and Z'Trooper were separated and relegated into pens designated by gender.
/Force be with you, Sapharin. I'll do what I can here too./
Sapharin nodded through the Force to Z'Trooper, her face a mask of cold determination. She knew that he would do everything in his power on the opposite side of the ship just as she would among the Force sensitive women who had resisted the Sith's persuasions.
"In here, little one," barked the cruel voice of one of her Sith guards.
Saph stumbled as she was shoved into the common area for the women. She wondered at the fact that non-Force sensitives were responsible for guarding those who were. Months ago, there would never have been such a distinction of people, but to Sapharin now, it was abundantly clear. Her fellow prisoners had such a glow about them in the Force that her captors did not. Despite her bumps and bruises, the Jedi Knight couldn't help but smile because she saw this as a great advantage to their plan.
Though she and Z'Trooper independently kept track of time, it was hard to say how accurate they were able to be as the hours had begun to drag by. The prisoners, the Jedi learned, spent most of their time in the common areas which was exceedingly convenient for the mission. Sapharin had only been in the common area a short time when her natural charisma began attracting the attention of the other prisoners.
"You don't seem like the rest of us," one tall and broad woman finally ventured, sitting down beside her.
"That so?" she asked mildly.
The woman nodded. "Myrna. And yeah, you seem different somehow. It's not a matter of having seen the sun or having strength because you just arrived. What is it?"
Sapharin smiled. This is going to be too easy.
"We're held captive by the Sith. Who opposed the Sith in the films?" she asked.
"In the what?" Myrna replied.
Saph reconsidered the ease of this, if she kept to this tactic. If the woman or many of them were unfamiliar with the fiction, rallying them based on it would be useless. "Nevermind - you are right that I'm different. I've had the chance to be trained the very things the Sith find interesting about all of you."
This caught Myrna's attention as well as those close-by. "What do you mean? You're one of them then?"
Sapharin shook her head no. Patiently, she explained how there were the Jedi who sought to defend and assist others and then Sith who sought to control and exploit people. She explained how she was the former and not the latter. The women listened with rapt attention: before them sat hope!
"In you all is the power to turn the tide of this occupation, this battle," she said emphatically. Saph's brown eyes looked from one woman to the next. "I can teach you the simplest skills that will allow us to overcome our captors here and then we can go back to the surface to stop the Sith!"
"What if we just want out of here and don't want to be involved?" a woman asked.
Sapharin pursed her lips, thinking. She had to tread this carefully - it would be wonderful to free everyone, but having their help was a critical component of stopping the occupation. Perhaps some of them could even become Jedi. Saph thought carefully how to respond.
"If you choose to remove yourself from the conflict once we're free and back to the surface, that is your choice," she said eventually. "However. It will be your conscience you have to live with while the rest of us make a stand to see that everyone is free and safe. I am hardly threatening you - these are just the simple facts of the matter."
There was a murmur among the women captives at her words. Myrna became the voice of the prisoners as she responded to Saph. "I speak for all of us in saying that at least for right now, we're with you, Jedi Sapharin!"
On the port side of the vessel, Z'Trooper knew he was not going to have the persuasive speaking skills that would rally the male captives in the way that Sapharin would have been able to convince them. They couldn't have known they would be separated by gender as they had been.
Sitting with his face in his hands in the common room on his side of the ship, Z'Trooper contemplated exactly how he was going to fulfill his end of the mission. Men being men, if they noted an intuitive difference about him, they weren't about to voice it; instead, everyone just gave Z'Trooper a wide berth, leaving him be as he sat there.
Finally, he asked one passerby, "So what are you going to do now?"
The man's surprise was palpable. "Excuse me? You talkin' to me?"
Z'Trooper turned in his seat. "Yeah. You're just going to lie down and die now, aren't you? It was good to resist the Sith - very good, in fact - but what are you going to do now?"
Hesitation etched itself on his face. "Well, we're trapped so what kinda dumb question is this?"
Z'Trooper smiled knowingly. "What if I could tell you I know a way out of here?"
"Didn't you just arrive?"
"Captured for this purpose."
"Are you serious! What the heck would you do that?"
Z'Trooper said simply, "Because this is my calling. Now. Are you ready to help me with this?"
"Carl." The burly man thrust out his hand in a handshake. Z'Trooper took his hand and felt the Force vibrating strongly in him. He had to wonder at that - before leaving for Yavin IV, none of this had been conscious in him. Now…
"Carl, Z'Trooper. Let's get to work. Do you know the others around here well? I want to pitch to them logically why they need to use the gifts the Sith want from them."
As Lady Raefen's shuttle arrived aboard the vessel and she disembarked, the Sith Mistress spat in disgust. She knew this was more potent than just the sense of a gathering of strong-headed Force users. Raefen strode in her high-heeled boots down the white-washed corridors of the Sith vessel; she reached out with her Darkside powers, seeking out the power she could feel, just as the two Jedi aboard her prison ship incited the quickly-trained Force adepts to action.