Hey I don't own the Star Wars universe but most of the characters are mine.
Author's note: Barabels talk with a strange accent. If an "S" comes at the end of the word they pronounce it with a "Z" sound. It is just how they talk. Read any of the NJO books or the Dark Nest Trilogy to check it out.
Feel free to read and review.
Chapter 6
"Any luck?" Elydyn asked Mieqel as he stepped from the lift.
"None." Was the reply, barely audible from beneath the communications console. The blonde Jedi slowly extracted his upper body from the tangle of wires and fried circuit boards that he had pulled out of the system. "Whatever the Crimson Law did to the comm. system he did it well, every board is fried. It must have been some bug he planted." He sat down on one of the other disabled consoles and shook his head slowly.
"So basically we're stuck here?" Elydyn asked warily.
"At least until Eaichu decides to show up here. Of course we decided that unless he heard from us then he wouldn't come for at least a week and by then he would have collected a decent attack force."
"Well keep up the good work." Elydyn commented hastily as he cast a final look about the ruined communications area. "Do you need anything?"
"Well some help would be nice." Mieqel stated stretching his stiff arms. "Could you send Dineyl up?"
The blue robed Jedi's eyes narrowed slightly. "Well I was planning on sparring with her for a bit, we both know she needs the practice."
The blonde Jedi looked back at his friend. "Oh so now I'm not a good enough teacher eh?" He smiled in half amusement as he examined one of the circuit boards he had pulled from the communications console.
"You can teach most Force skills well enough," Elydyn shrugged slightly, "but you and I both know that I have far more to offer her in saber skills than you do."
The rooms other occupant's eyes lit up at the thinly veiled challenge. "Care to test that hypothesis?" He countered pulling a short handle from amongst his robes. It was inlaid with gold and two emeralds were attached to both the center and the bottom of the hilt. He pressed the center gem causing a bright blue blade to jump to spring to life.
Elydyn was not one to take the bait. "You want to make even more of a mess of things?" He asked, sweeping his hand across the ruined communications equipment. "I thought we wanted this repaired."
"I do, but I can't let a challenge to my skills go unanswered."
"Well we can settle it later after the repairs are completed. Sound good enough?"
"Fine, fine. Send Psion on up then, Chiss are supposed to be good studies so hopefully he'll be able to help out with this."
"Well I've never seen him work on any equipment but his gauntlets, but I suppose he should know what he is doing." Elydyn shrugged again. "He should be bored anyways. I just wish I was able to have my brother along he would be able to fix this a lot faster."
Mieqel looked hurt for a moment. "Not that you aren't doing your best I know that this type of equipment is not your used to working with." The brown haired Jedi added hastily.
"Just go get my help for me and do your training." Mieqel said waving Elydyn away. The senior Jedi bowed slightly and headed back into the lift.
Psion was easy enough to find though, he was heading back to check on the three apprentices guarding the prisoners. Elydyn diverted him to the proper destination and took over his mission.
"Sarick how goes the prisoner watch?" He asked the massive Barabel that was sitting with his back to the door. The reptile's tail slapped the floor in surprise.
"Master! It goez well." Sarick answered, standing up hastily and knocking his chair over in the process. "Nothing haz happened since you left."
"Good, good." The master Jedi said. "Where is Apprentice Taalar?"
"She iz watching over Windscar. He hasn't responded much since we locked him up, though he haz been eating but not much."
"Well go ahead and relive her, I have some things I need to talk about with her."
Sarick bowed. "Yez Master." He stated as he moved from the room.
A few moments later Dineyl walked into the room.
She bowed formally "Yes Master Taalar?" She asked.
Elydyn tossed her a small cylinder. "You, me, hangar bay, now." He responded before walking from the room.
The fuzzy blue image wavered and hissed in main audience chamber. Two figures sat on opposite sides of the table that the holopad was mounted on. Both men were dressed in long red cloaks, their hoods covered their faces, letting not even a sliver of light shine upon their faces. The man on the right was the Lord of the Crimson Mind, head of the Crimson Order. His company for the evening had his long cape draped about his shoulder and pinned it on the left side with a large black needle. Beneath his cloak he wore grey body armor on most of his body. This was the Lord of the Crimson Flame, third member of the Order's tribunal behind the Lord of the Crimson Rock.
"So it is done then?" Crimson Mind asked the imposing hologram.
"Yes sir." The Lord of the Crimson Rock answered, his head inclined in a slight nod. "I preformed the deed myself, Kovaine is indeed dead."
"Only slightly unfortunate." The Lord of the Crimson Flame said from across the table. He stood up quickly. "What is even worse is that you both failed to accomplish the mission!" His black gloved hand slammed down on the table making the display waver even more. "Windscar is still alive and what's worse he has now seen who is using the shuttles he built for us. We didn't go through the effort of erasing the records of the vessels from his computers to have our plans traced to him. "Crimson Rock, why didn't you destroy the worm and the Jedi while you had the chance?"
"Because Crimson Flame," Crimson Mind interrupted the tirade "I told him to only observe not intervene."
If Crimson Flames face could have been seen behind the hood of his cloak it would have held a look of complete shock.
"Why my lord?" Crimson Flame asked.
"Because there is now way for them to track us even if Windscar could point them in the proper direction, we are quite safe from anything they could try to do. Remember Windscar has never been here, as long as we tie up Gnave's loose end then nobody knows our position." The Mind waved back to the hologram. "Crimson Rock, return here and give me your full report." He then turned his gaze to the Flame. "And you my friend we need to find a replacement for my late apprentice. I suggest you and one of your apprentices go to the Hoth system. Observe Ragni and see how well he performs. Of course if he fails then you have my permission to intervene. Gnave must not survive, he crossed us and now he will pay the price." The Headmaster smashed his fist into his open palm.
"Your will be done master." Both men said in unison. Crimson Rock made a chopping motion with his left hand and the hologram faded into nothingness.
"Gnave should be arriving on Hoth soon." The Mind said turning to the remaining member of the Tribunal. "Make haste, our Jedi scouts will be arriving there shortly after to confirm that his fleet is there. Then the Galactic Alliance will arrive and crush the body after we have already crushed the head."
"A wise plan master." Crimson Flame stated as he rose from his seat. He bowed stiffly and departed from the room; the only sound he made was the soft clicking of the plastoid armored boots tapping each other.
"And now it begins." Crimson Mind chuckled as he took a sip from the glass that he had set at his feet earlier.
Dineyl parried the attack easily enough and brought her other lightsaber in a sweeping arc aimed at her opponent's head. He blocked it with no effort, released himself from the saber lock and batted the blue and white glowing blades away with his dual blue-black ones. Then in one swift motion he stepped in close crossing his sabers like a pair of scissors in front of her neck.
"Ok you win again." The young woman admitted as she turned off her weapons. She paused a moment to wipe the sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her tunic and then dropped lightly into a sitting position on the floor.
Her opponent on the other hand showed no signs of fatigue, but this was expected of a Jedi Knight of Elydyn's status. "You're getting better." Elydyn said patting her on the shoulder, then moving his hand up quickly to mess up her hair. "Soon you should be good enough to make a second saber of your own; though I hope you'll take my advice and make it like mine." He smiled slightly.
"Well I haven't trained much with a staff type saber." The brown haired girl answered her hazel eyes flashing in uncertainty. "I could probably learn how to use it if I had some time." She looked at the two blades in her hand, the one she had built herself and the extra saber that Elydyn always carried around, but often ended up using.
"Well then," Elydyn replied "wish granted." He snapped his two weapons together by the magnetic clamps at the base of their hilts. He tossed the weapon lightly to his sister and force pulled his reserve blade from her grasp. "I'll even start with one weapon until you get used to it." He said in his best mocking tone.
Dineyl jumped up and had the twin blades ignited before her feet hit the ground. "You'll be using two sooner then you think." She bit out as she rushed into attack. Then the two once again began the dance. They practiced for hours not realizing how quickly the time was slipping away.
