I studied lightsabers for the better part of ten years, preferring the efficiency of a single saber as opposed to two or flinging about as many as I could until I hit something. I learnt their dangers, how to tweak their settings from the deadly beam known by all to a harmless laser pointer that could be shone from Onderon's surface and seen on Dxun. Jen became involved, refusing to be a workbench widow.

We fine tuned our Jedi tools to such extremes that we could solder microchips onto a motherboard with them. Upgrades were plentiful; we sold artifacts we 'found' during our regular Sith hunts. With enough credits to buy a planet, we sampled the knowledge and wisdom every known planet had to offer. We had nothing but time, so we made ourselves useful. We forged casings from quadranium and agrinium that could withstand a direct lightsaber hit, extracted the fusion core of a hyperdrive engine so that it could be used as a power cell fixture, and crystallized the solar flares of Hasaq's sun into focusing crystals and lens emitters. Our lightsabers made fast friends with rogue Jedi, but we crafted them so that only those attuned to the Light Side of the Force could use them. Those of the Dark Side would receive a nasty shock and, if they were really evil, would be rendered unconscious and our lightsaber would disintegrate of its own accord. We needed no patent simply because nobody could or ever has duplicated our design.

Despite their lifetime warranty and safety features, the Council at the time considered our lightsabers unholy, and banned them. That is why the lightsabers of today are little more than glorified fusion cutters with a shiny hilt, and not the supreme weaponry Jen and I crafted them to be. The Council never understood power in the way we did, subsequently never teach their students how to handle power and that is why they feared the impact our creations would have. We knew that we had no power, and only possessed the Force. Without it, we might as well have spent our lifetimes knitting turtlenecks for the Ithorian herds.

After mastering their design and utility, I explored the riskiest aspect of a lightsaber: moving its focusing crystals out of alignment. The reason a cheap droid is used to activate newly made lightsabers is that if its crystals are not perfectly aligned, it will explode on a grander scale than a thermal detonator. This is why lightsabers are never mass-produced in factories: it requires a Force adept to align the crystals, because there is no mechanical tool in creation that can position a crystal better than the Force. Knowing this, I went ahead and threw crystals out of alignment using all the Sith lightsabers I collected over the years.

Moving a crystal more than a hundred micron away from its centre causes the beam to become violent and erratic, shooting nearly forty five degrees off its intended path, spitting laser energy hundreds of feet to pierce and incinerate anything it hits. I performed this extremely hazardous experiment on Dantooine's plains and often immolated innocent kinrath. Jen stood well behind me and put out fires I made.

My pyrotechnics attracted the audience of beast riders, because I never went within a hundred kilometers of any population centre. They wondered why I was trying to kill myself with the "laser gun" and I informed them that, if I could control the beam, I could cut apart a starship without the use of heavy cannons. They asked me why I would want to do such a thing, so I shrugged and said it was a "scientific venture". Their children clapped and laughed when the beam misfired and dredged a trench five kilometers long, depleting the saber's power cell and melting the casing.

I destroyed over two hundred Sith lightsabers before I perfected the art of controlling the violent beam. It required a great deal of Force to move around the crystals and hold the energy in place lest I eradicate all life as far as the eye could see. When I showed Jen how to do it, we carved our initials on the largest overhanging cliff we could find and surrounded them with a heart. As it was also our wedding anniversary, I presented her with a Hurikaine gem pendant. To this day, successive generations of beast riders tell their children about the "crazy Jedi" and show them our initials that can never be erased from that rock face where we sat watching the sunset together.

888

While searching galactic byways, the Force spoke to us.

"You are ready for my purpose."

"What is it?" ventured Jen.

"You will prevent my… other half… from extinguishing life in the galaxy."

"So you are schizophrenic. I knew it!"

"It is my nature; therefore it runs through the lifeblood of the galaxy."

"How did you become two?" Jen queried. I felt a cosmic shrug, and the 'voice' was more of a sigh.

"When life first burst upon this unsuspecting galaxy, I was born with it. However, death is the counterbalance to life. Within me exists two tendencies – one towards life, the other towards death. These two are in constant conflict. One argues that life is what gives purpose. The other argues that, in this universe, the presence of nothing far outweighs the presence of something, and seeks to eradicate whatever fills the void."

"The Dark Side is truly an empty path," Jen mused.

"You need not lecture me on the Dark Side. This galaxy is the dejarik board, and you, Stargazers, are my pawns."

"I loathe your comparison. I prefer Pazaak."

"Trust me, mortal man, if we played Pazaak, then this galaxy would be far more chaotic than we could handle."

"Very well, we shall play your game," said my wife. I opened my mouth to protest but who else but an adamant woman and a deity with a sense of humour would hear my complaint?

"Go beyond the Outer Rim, Stargazers. There await the other side of the dejarik board… and its player."

888

As Stardust cruised out of known space, we felt the Force fall away. It was as though we had descended a high mountain and felt the sudden change in air pressure – it pained and disoriented us.

"It is not as it was with the ysalamiri but it grows fainter every parsec we travel."

"Astrogation charts are useless, but we're going somewhere. Going to hyperspace…"

The stars stretched into impossibly long lines and we were gone. When we emerged into orbit, it was as though the Force had disappeared altogether. We had read of such things in the Sith libraries of Korriban and Malachor V (that was an academic detour accomplished with stealth and mind tricks). We stood on the threshold of the true Sith Empire.

"Is that a planet below us?"

"It has the shape and size to be one, but I detect no life… By the Force, look at the viewscreen!"

There were no stars. We had left them behind. The Republic is the domain of the Jedi, but here, on the edge of eternal darkness, is where the Dark Side broods, contemplating the annihilation of all life.

"You are… not welcome."

Those were the first 'words' the other side of the Force spoke to us. We felt plainly the menacing energies suffusing this entire unknown region, how they crawled through the hull, ensnaring us, the only beacons of Light for light years. What were we to do here? The answer came soon enough: fighters with neither mark nor insignia glided from the 'planet' below, emitting no fuel trail and seamlessly camouflaged against the starless void. We only noticed them by the startlingly hollow presence of their pilots who seemed to be guiding their craft by sheer Force. They fired on us immediately. This is why no Republic ship ever returns once it ventures beyond the Outer Rim planets. We realized the Republic has been corralled all this time, unable to expand its territory without facing total destruction. This was a terrible place where only Jedi and Sith could survive, encountering an utterly alien threat that moved only with the Force.

Stardust nimbly avoided the blaster fire. We hadn't spent the past century twiddling our thumbs when it came to piloting. We outran the fighters to the planet's muggy atmosphere, only to be greeted by anti-air guns that fired neither bullet nor beam, but pure Force, incredibly concentrated, that would bypass any deflector shield and rip through our hull – and us. This extreme hazard required all of our concentration to negotiate, performing barrel rolls and sidewinders that nearly turned our internal organs inside out. We landed only after firing on and destroying a Force Cannon, as we coined it, in the immediate vicinity. Stardust's quadlasers were perhaps the only light to touch that planet, for you see, this planet orbited no sun. It just… floated through space, alone. There was no oxygen to breathe on this planet, either, because no plants could survive here. How had life sprung into being, attaining such Force potency that its arsenal was immaterial?

"The fighters did not follow us. We can use enviro-suits," said my only companion.

"To go where? To do what, and see what? There isn't even starlight!"

Jen touched my hand, calming me.

"We are not blind. We have the Force. It is faint, but we were told it runs through everything in the galaxy."

"But we are outside the galaxy. Nevertheless, meditate with me."

It was not easy. We, gods among men, masters among Jedi, were reduced to frightened children when we confronted the magnitude of our dilemma. The Dark Side enveloped us, even our breathing was tainted with its iniquity. We reached out and touched nothing. There was no hope, only emptiness.

"Jen… I am… afraid."

"Hold me."

I did. There was life within her, innumerable biological processes, 'a galaxy within a galaxy' as I once read. It was a soft, faint thing, the Force, but it lay within her. It whispered through the blood and bones, it pitter pattered along her pulse, it hushed my fear. From each other we drew strength. Despite terror, we had learnt another truth of the Force.

888

The sensors considered the atmosphere to be almost entirely nitrogen gas with trace elements of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

"Life probably did exist here, and then died."

"Or perhaps these Sith are attempting to mimic life."

Wobbling in bulky space suits, we tramped across the sooty ground, kicking up cinders on our way to the remnants of the Force Cannon, the only sign of (hostile) life we'd encountered.

"Or perhaps these Sith are attempting to mimic life."

"Why would they do that, if they're trying to eradicate it?"

"The best vaccine is made with the corresponding poison."

"So learning about life helps them destroy it… now they seem so cold and calculating."

"You expected any less?"

"I don't think they're Sith. Not truly. Sith have a code. But these… people, if you would call them that, have no code, only annihilation."

"That is code enough. Sith seek dominion. So do these."

"…an empty dominion."

"Dominion always is."

We prodded and poked about the twisted metal.

"Is this old grade iron? Nobody uses that anymore."

"They just needed something to direct the Force. They have no technology."

"But those ships we saw?"

"They were hollow shells. There were no energy oscillations."

"By the Force," she murmured. I gave an ironic laugh.

"What Force?"

"Humans, you are not welcome here."

In our awkward, heavy space suits, we drew our lightsabers. The gloves had magnetic pads for connecting with a ship's hull, so the sabers stuck fast to them. Our decades of training and what we retained of the Force would compensate for the clumsy suits. However, the 'being' inclined its head. Our sabers retracted their light and deactivated much to our chagrin.
"I do not care for your threats."

It – for we knew not what gender its telepathic voice held – moved. Abandoning caution, we followed. A hole swallowed us, leading to a slope downward.

"Does the ground live?"

"No, it obeys its will."

We were new to these rules, where there were no laws. There was only the Force, and not the one we knew. Beings like our host appeared, but we never used our eyes to perceive them.

"What are these humans doing here?"

"They survived our defenses, they earned the right."

"Do they seek to stop us?"

"We are not the army."

"We are the outpost."

So that explained it.

"What is this planet?" I communicated via thought, "We were brought here by the Force."

"As you divined earlier, this is another shell to serve our purpose. It provides a platform from which we may observe."

"Our galaxy?"

"Yes. We ponder what you call 'life' and how it may be removed."

"Why erase life?"

"It interferes with our purpose."

"But life gives purpose."

"Be silent. Your philosophy irks us."

"If truth is a crime, then I am glad to be condemned."

"Death is swifter for those who welcome it."

"And what of you, whose existence is naught but death itself?"

"Do you even have personalities?"

"We are above and beyond such superficial means of being."

"We are one with the Totality."

"We are one with the Void."

888

They took us nearer the 'planet' core. For hours we walked in complete obscurity, following our walking dead hosts. The Dark Side thrummed around us, hating our presence, hating our life. Its whispers creep with delicate precision into your mind, webbing your body and soul in its tendrils that suck your essence little by little. Those touched by it are never truly freed from its embrace. Pallor marks the face. Eyes are sunken, withdrawn, as though reality itself is unbearable to look at. More than anything, fear inflicts the heart. Fear of losing your life, fear of the unknown, fear of worthlessness and meaninglessness. No wonder the Sith are driven so hard to conquer and destroy – they are afraid of the horror inside them, governing their actions. We, who are messengers of light, felt its awful cold touch keenly. We who had basked in radiance were steeped in death's shadow. Yet we survived. We had each other. These Sith… they did not even have self.

"Who are these that descend to deepest hell and yet live?" rumbled a voice whose echoes washed over the planet in waves. Thus we beheld the one who held together this grim outpost with Force alone. If its subordinates were hollow, this Being was a gaping hole in the Force, drawing all life into the Dark Side's ravish.

"We are Stargazers, heralds of the Light you know not."

"Do you fail to comprehend the enormity of the situation?" it mocked, "We are the forerunners. The true Empire is preparing elsewhere."

"If we can delay them by stopping you, then we shall!" Jen proclaimed. Proud of her, I also gave a rebuttal, "We will not allow the galaxy to fall. It is not yet ready."

"You seek to delay the Great War? Pitiful humans, your lives are mine."

The weight of a planet bore down on us, seeking to crush our lives. We resisted mightily, pure energy crackling around the planet core, causing the other Sith to retreat. Yet their leader compelled us, shaking our resolve.

"You belong to the Dark Side. It possesses more power than is imaginable."

A curious moment of lucidity passed between Jen and I. Here we were, nearer to death than ever before, an entire planet cracking down on our heads.

"You desire power?" I gasped, "Then take it! Take it all!"

We directed our Force to that abomination. Absorbing our bodies and mind, it grew in power, until its evil filled that place. A triumphant shout resounded as we fell.

"Yes! The Dark Side conquers all! Power shall set us free!"

"Power? What power?" I whispered, "You have no power. By taking our lives… you become that which your Master hates…"

The planet shuddered. The Being shivered.

"What? But I am stronger than before! I have devoured Life! I…"

To my grim satisfaction, it understood, as the Dark Side encircled it, hissing malevolently.

"NO! I am NOT like them! I have no life but yours! My power shall eradicate…"

The Being, filled with our lives, collapsed under the Dark Side's hatred for all life. It was crushed until its energies were freed, our spirits included. Though the Dark Side howled its defiance, though its claws raked at our souls, it could not prevent life returning to us.

"And that…" Jen breathed to the vengeful spectre, "Is a truth you will never escape."

It roared. The planet dissolved with nothing to maintain it. Hand in hand, Jen and I soared up and out of the mighty fissures appearing all over that dark land, leaping over disintegrating rock and scaling heaving mountains that reared up to crash upon the doomed world. Boarding Stardust, we strained to escape that gravity well that pulled and pulled all matter into it. Snapping free, we achieved hyperspace.