FIVE
Carth pulled his arms over his head, several vertebrae popping as he stretched. He'd spent the last three days helping replace the temporary infirmary with a permanent building. The plasteel temps that the Republic donated after the attack had served well enough, but with the strong weather on Telos, they really needed something stronger and anchored into the ground. The whole town had moved Dr. Coran's equipment into the new building that afternoon. Some of the kids had drawn smiling pictures of themselves and put them up around the office and waiting area. Coran even got a little teary. It had been a nice reward for everyone's hard work, and the town was getting together for a small celebration in the square that evening.
"Sore muscles, Captain?" a voice behind him asked. Carth turned to see Sulan Valenta in the hallway. He and Mission were staying with the Valentas, as the town still didn't have temporary lodging. Tallen Valenta, Sulan's husband, had been in the Fleet with him, and the two families had been friends. Tallen had died at Malachor V.
Carth smiled. "Flying a spaceship and firing a blaster don't use the same muscles as putting up a building. I guess I'm out of shape."
"A short stay in the colonies will fix that in no time, Captain."
"Just Carth, please, Sulan. We never stood on rank when I lived here." He disliked the hero-worship he'd received from everyone since their arrival.
She smiled, crinkling her eyes. The years of tragedy showed in her face and made her appear older than her thirty-five or so years. "I'll try my best, but I don't think you'll convince Jan to call you anything but 'Captain.' He's always looked up to you. It's been hard on him—on us both—since Tallen died, and then the attack, and now with Jirin—" she trailed off, then clapped her hands together. "But enough. Are you ready for the party? It's all anyone's talked about all week!"
Carth nodded, and they left the house, making for the square. The sounds of music and the crowd grew as they approached. Carth could see Mission, huddled with a group of girls on some benches in the one corner. She saw him and waved, then went back to her conversation. It hadn't taken any time at all for Mission to be embraced by the other young people in Marne. There were less of them than there had been when he had lived here, but they were as boisterous as ever. Mission had joined the group of young people restoring the farmland nearby, and any spare time was absorbed by the loosely organized sports and games of the town. In fact, she hardly had time to say two words to him before she went to her alcove to sleep at night. He was glad she could act her age without worrying about the fate of the universe or blaster bolts flying her way. It was too bad that Dustil couldn't do the same.
He'd received just one heavily encrypted message from Dustil since arriving on Telos two weeks ago. It had been a brief text message only, just word that he and Case were inside the Academy and still safe. There had been two messages from Case, both just requests for acknowledgement of the message, but he had deleted them without reply. He just wasn't ready to talk with her again, especially if they couldn't be face-to-face. In truth, he'd been so busy with his work on Telos that he hadn't had time to think about her much. It was only at night, when he was staring at the ceiling after waking from the nightmare, that he allowed himself to miss her at all.
"You're thinking too hard for a party, Onasi!" Mitch Ando clapped him on the back and shook him out of his thoughts. Mitch had been elected director of Marne each year for the last fifteen years. It had been his steely determination that had kept the town together after the attack, and his drive which had allowed them to rebuild as much as they had since then. The white haired man grinned and shoved a cup of ale in Carth's hand. "Come on, Captain, Sulan won't mind if I borrow you for a while. There's forty people here who haven't gotten to talk to you yet."
Carth groused good-naturedly and allowed himself to be dragged into the crowd. Mitch expertly maneuvered him from group to group, and for the next several hours, Carth discussed the state of the reconstruction, caught up on local politics, grumbled about the bureaucrats on the Senate, and deflected attempts to pry war stories from him. It was all pleasant enough, but he was glad to find a seat away from the central lantern and actually eat something to counteract the ale he'd been drinking all night.
He'd only managed half a bite of fish when he found himself flanked by two bodies sitting down simultaneously on either side. He tensed and instinctively reached for the blaster he wasn't wearing. Three more people sat down, and he realized belatedly that it was only the town Council. Still, it was obvious that they'd planned to corner him, and he didn't like it. He forced himself to relax and took another bite of fish.
"Scare you, Carth?" Mitch asked innocently, and the group laughed.
Carth shook his head ruefully. "You should know better than to surprise a soldier like that. What is this all about? I thought we were having a party."
The person on his right snorted. "You mean you don't know? I thought Fleeters had spies everywhere."
"Dano, control yourself!" Mitch admonished. He explained, "You'll have to forgive Dano—he has a bit of an attitude about the Republic. Thinks they didn't act fast enough to stop this flu that's going around."
"You don't know, Mitch!" Dano shouted. He stood and pointed a shaking finger at the rest of the Council. Carth put down his plate and got ready to break up a fight. Dano continued, "Your wife isn't at home with barely enough breath in her to live! Your baby isn't crying for her mother and starting to cough! Speak that way again and I will shut you up myself!" Just as suddenly as the outburst began, it ended. Dano dropped to his seat and his face in his hands. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't—"
Mitch looked truly apologetic. "No, I'm sorry, Dano. I didn't know that Shani has gotten worse. Who is with her now?"
"Her sister," Dano said dejectedly. "I thought, maybe, if I came, that Captain Onasi might know something, might be able to help us."
Carth looked around at the Council and was humbled by the honest hope he saw in all of their faces. He clasped Dano's shoulder. "I hope I can help, but I'm afraid that I don't know much about this flu. When I arrived at the Republic base, I had to get a vaccine for some kind of problem with the water. Is that what you mean?"
Dano shook his head and stared at the ground, his vehemence seemingly spent in his outburst.
Dr. Coran spoke up. "We don't know what it is. It started about a year ago—several people became ill all of a sudden. It started with the usual cold symptoms—cough, fatigue—but the person gets so ill, so quickly. I couldn't find a cause for their problems. Several of them died." She looked at the ground for a moment, her graying hair orange in the reflected lanternlight. "So I reported it to the Republic base, and they sent over their doctors. They didn't know what it was either. They went away, and more people died. Other towns were having the same problem. Then, one day, the Republic doctors came back and said that it had been the water, and they had a vaccine. Everyone got it, and for a while, no one was sick. But then, two months ago, it started up again."
"The same thing?" Carth asked.
Coran nodded her head. "We can sometimes slow it down, but we can't stop it. Sometimes they recover on their own, but if a fever sets in, we can't do anything else. All told, it takes a week for the person to die, sometimes ten days."
"Ten days? But that makes this a Class-one disease! Telos should be quarantined!" Carth exclaimed. He was glared at all around by the Council. Quarantine would set back Telos' reconstruction by years.
"It would be, Captain, if it were contagious." Coran said dryly.
"It's not contagious? Then what causes it? Is it the water?"
"We don't know. And the Republic doctors haven't been back since they vaccinated all of us. We hoped that you brought some answers with you."
Carth shook his head helplessly. "No, I'm afraid I don't have anything. But I will go to the base in the morning and see what I can find out. I heard at the base that people are being reported missing, though? Is it related?" Maybe he could get some answers from the Council about his investigation.
Mitch shook his head. "It's not related, but it's made all of this even worse. People have been disappearing while they're out working the fields. We never see them again."
"Disappear? No one sees anything?" Carth couldn't keep the skepticism out of his voice. Telos was a fairly provincial place, but even it had vid technology. All the gates were monitored.
Mitch shook his head. "We never see them go. After the first two, we started requiring people to go out in pairs. It didn't matter—one second they were there, the next, gone. And the vids at the gate never report anything. We've lost four people that way, including Jirin Valenta, Sulan's boy. He was the third—Sulan's taken it pretty hard." He cleared his throat. "We all have, to tell you the truth, Carth. People are scared—several families have already left the colony. If we don't get this under control, I'm afraid all of our reconstruction efforts will be for nothing."
Carth couldn't believe what he was hearing. The briefs he'd received had woefully underreported the problem. People dying, people disappearing—it sounded like Sith work to him. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "Before I go to the base tomorrow, Doctor Coran, I'd like to get more detail from you about how the disease progresses, who has it, that kind of thing. The more patterns we can draw, the better. And Dano," he turned to the man, still staring hopelessly at the ground, "if I can do anything to help your wife, I will. I promise you that."
Dano clasped his hand. "Thank you, Captain. And now I should return to my home. Good evening, all of you." He faded into the darkness outside the lantern circle.
Mitch clapped his hands together. "All of you, we'll meet again at the regular Council session. Go, now, enjoy the party." The group started to dissipate.
Toward the square's center, someone started a lively tune on a draba. A flute joined in. The ale was still flowing, and people started clapping along or dancing with the music. Carth tried to speak over the din. "Mitch, can you tell me more about—"
Sulan swung up to them with two other women, all of them breathless and red-cheeked. "You two have been hiding over here too long! Come dance with us!" she cried.
Mitch laughed and shook his head. "No, lass, I'm too old for that. You'll have to be satisfied with Carth." Sulan grabbed Carth's hand and started to pull him toward the crowd.
"No, I'm really—I should—"
Mitch grinned and saluted. "We'll talk later, Onasi. Good luck!"
With half the crowd laughing and looking their way, Carth had no choice but to be a good sport and dance. He wasn't a particularly good dancer, but he knew the steps from his childhood, and managed not to embarrass himself. Sulan, on the other hand, fairly flew around the square, and one dance turned into three and then five. Finally, the music died down, and they moved to the side. Sulan was out of breath and smiled up at him. Carth caught himself staring and quickly dropped his arms.
"Gee, Carth, I didn't think old guys danced like that!" Mission came up behind them with Jan.
"No, indeed, they don't, Mission," Sulan said knowingly, winking at Carth. "Did you two have fun tonight?"
Jan nodded but said sourly, "I bet no one'll get any work done til noon tomorrow, though. And the hifa has to be tended tomorrow or it's all going to go to seed."
Mission slugged him in the arm. "Don't be such a spoilsport, Jan. I swear, nothing makes you happy. I'll be up and I'll help you with the hifa, okay?"
"I'll have to show you how to do it," he grumbled as the two went back toward the Valenta house. Mission had a sharp retort and the bickering went on ahead of them.
Carth and Sulan followed more slowly behind. Carth began planning his trip to the Republic base in his head. It was already after midnight, but if he left before sunrise, he could be at the base before the daystaff started its shift. Guards were always willing to talk at the end of the nightshift, and maybe he could get some more information about the disappearances. He had the uncomfortable suspicion that Roland Wann knew something about what was going on. After he had the information, he could go—
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his back. He turned in surprise and saw Sulan looking up at him. They were outside of the house. She leaned closer. "We don't have to go inside right away," she said softly.
It took Carth a moment to realize what she meant. "Oh, I, er—" he fumbled.
"I'd forgotten what a kind man you were, Carth. And not a bad dancer, either." The moonlight softened the tight lines around her eyes, and stray hairs fell around her like a halo. In that instant, he saw what could be. He could kiss her out here in the moonlight, and eventually they would marry, have a baby girl together, rebuild their world, grow old together. It would be a happy life. And he could make it happen, just by leaning down—
He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sulan. I've given you the wrong impression."
She jerked her hand away as if it had been burned. "Oh. No, I'm sorry. I didn't realize—I thought you—" She laughed mockingly. "You must think me old, and desperate."
"No, it's not that, not at all, it's just—I'm sorry."
"Is it Ana, still?" she asked. "It's been almost five years."
Carth sighed. "No, it's not Ana. It was, for a long time, but I finally found peace for her death. I should—I should go inside."
Sulan stopped him with a hand on his arm. Carth looked at her, and she smiled sadly at him. "You should find her, Carth, or else let her go, whoever she is. You deserve a happy ending." She turned and walked back toward the square.
Carth went inside and found the room he was sharing with Jan. The kid was already sound asleep and snoring in his bed. Carth rolled himself up in the blankets on his cot and pressed his hands hard against his eyes. He'd given up a lot of happy endings. He wasn't sure he had another chance left.
Case knew she was running out of time. She had been on Korriban for three weeks now and hadn't found anything that would help her understand the threat pulsing inward from the Outer Rim. The need to know, and the knowledge that she used to know, was like a itch she couldn't reach. She had to know what was on Korriban to find.
Case placed her palm flat on the rocky wall before her. She was deep in the ancient part of the Academy, far beyond the student rooms and practice grounds to the caves that were here before the Academy was built. The pulse of the Dark side was strong here—these caves were Dark long before any modern Sith decided to train students here. The wall before her looked the same as every other surface in the dark and dusty hallway, but when she listened with her Force senses, she could hear the small warping of the Force at this location. There was something drawing the Force inward, something right behind her hand.
She backed up to the far wall and took a breath. The wall was solid, that much she knew from her last visit down here. She could Force Push all day and not move the stone. Her only option was to go through the wall. Case had heard stories of the ancient Jedi being able to walk through solid stone, but she had never known a modern Jedi to even attempt it. But she heard the whispers at the Academy from the students. It seemed Revan knew how to walk through walls. And if Revan could do it, that meant Case could.
Case closed her eyes and listened for the hum of the Force around her. She walked slowly toward the wall, trying not to flinch as the rock came closer, and instead hummed through the Force to clear a path before her. She felt a slight brushing, as of cloth, and then nothing. She opened her eyes.
She was inside the room. She couldn't quite keep from grinning, but then the room spun around her and she dropped to her hands and knees. Case's forearms were shaking with the intensity of her exhaustion. She knelt there for several long minutes while she slowly regained her strength. Apparently, walking through walls wasn't something one did on a whim.
She finally regained her composure and tossed a ball of Force Light into the air to illuminate the room.
A lone figure at a table jerked her head up. Case gasped and ignited her saber. "Who are you?" she barked.
The other occupant blinked in her direction for a long moment, then returned to the book in front of her. The girl's blond hair was pulled into a messy ponytail behind her head. Case deactivated her blade. It looked like she had been in this room after, all, a long time ago. She was seeing ghosts of herself again.
"What did you find, Revan? Help me remember," Case whispered, throwing the Force behind her words.
The girl—no, not a girl, she corrected herself. By now, she had already defeated Mandalore-- looked up again, and Case was pleased to see no signs of the Dark in her aura. So she wasn't yet Darth Revan. Revan squinted in her direction. "Are you a ghost?" she asked finally.
Case smiled. This was why she had come to Korriban. "To you, probably," she replied. "You know who I am?"
"We're the same person, aren't we?" Revan asked. She folded her arms on the book before her and leaned across the table. "But there's something different about you, besides your age."
"I go by the name Case, now. But that's a long story and I don't know how much time we have. I know you found something here, but I can't remember what it was."
Revan frowned suspiciously. "I see a lot of ghosts here. Maybe you're not who you say you are. Why should I tell you anything?"
Case sighed and looked around the room. Ancient books were stacked in dusty heaps on stony shelves around the room. A few Sith holocrons stood in formation on the far wall. No doubt they whispered to Revan while she studied. They were probably feeding a paranoia that Case was beginning to suspect had always been there. She reached forward and grabbed Revan's hand. She had to make the girl understand. "I know you're continuing the research that you were doing before you left for the Mandalorian War. I know you told the Council that the Mandalorians were being driven by something else, something Dark. I know you can feel them out there, just like I can. I haven't found them yet, Revan, but I hear them every night. And I'm afraid that I'm running out of time."
Revan stared at her with wide dark eyes for a long moment, then looked at Case's hand clasping hers. She slumped down in her chair and sighed. "I thought I would find them soon. I'm so close. . ."
Who knew what would have happened if Revan hadn't fallen? A thought suddenly occurred to her. What if she didn't have to? What if Case could stop her now? Her words tumbled out of her, "I don't know how it happened, but you lost—I lost my way, and I fell. Maybe that's what they, the true Sith, wanted. Whatever it was, however it happened, you have to be careful. Please, don't—"
The girl jerked her hand away like she'd been burned. Her blade, bright yellow, was suddenly between them. "I knew it! You were sent here by the Council, weren't you? You're trying to keep me from my work!"
"No, Revan, I'm not—"
"Quiet, ghost! I'm not weak-minded like the Council! I defeated Mandalore in hand-to-hand combat! I will not be stopped by your lies!" Her eyes were dark holes in her head, and Case saw a lightning strike of red through her aura. Revan stalked away from the table and walked through the wall.
The hand that had been holding Revan's was suddenly cold. Case rubbed it absently, staring at the wall after the girl she had been. Unlike Case, Revan hadn't had to gather her courage to walk through the wall. She had never doubted that she could. But Revan was dead, killed by Bastila's blade and her own overconfidence. Case felt suddenly old.
She walked around the table and sat down in front of the book Revan had been reading. It was ancient, the pages brown and crumbling around the edges, the glyphs fading into the paper. It was in Rakatan, but so old a dialect that Case couldn't puzzle out every word. She had to skim the pages, listening with the Force for a rough translation. Unfortunately, when she listened with the Force, she could hear the Sith holocrons hissing at her from the wall. It was the same sound that haunted her dreams.
Case shook her head fiercely and tried to concentrate on the book. She didn't think that Revan had come back here after their visit, or else the book would not be lying here in the same position that Revan had left it. The answers she sought had to be here.
The book was a history of the conquest of Korriban. The Rakata had come here at some point in the ancient past and driven out or slaughtered the native people. Case flipped back a couple of pages and began an account by Tarmakta, a Rakatan prophet. At this point in the story, Tarmakta was a soldier who had been assigned to lead his army through the caves of Korriban and kill the remaining the natives who were hiding there. The natives could control the Force in ways that the Rakata did not know, and many of Tarmakta's soldiers died. Finally, Tarmakta came to a cave that was too small for his war machines. His remaining soldiers begged him to stay and let them go ahead, but Tarmakta insisted on going alone. He entered into a wide cave containing a circular pool. Tarmakta asked the pool to tell him the destiny of his people, and he received a terrifying vision of plague and war. He returned to the surface and took his soldiers away from the cave. At first, no one believed Tarmakta, but he had gained new Force powers that no one had known before, and so the Ratakan elders sent an expedition to Korriban to find the cave, but no one could find it again. Tarmakta drew a map and even went back himself, but the cave was gone.
Case looked up from the book and frowned thoughtfully at the wall before her, chin in hand. She had been in every cave on Korriban with Carth and Canderous, and had certainly never seen anything like what Tarmakta described. But she knew without a doubt that this was the cave she had seen in her dream of Revan before meeting with the Council on Coruscant. Revan had found this cave, and that meant Case had to find it, too.
She stood and reached her arms to the ceiling. How long had she been sitting at the table? Case glanced at her chrono and was shocked to find that she'd lost half the day in this room. She had missed her fencing class. Case walked toward the wall, and with only a little less trepidation than last time, passed through it.
She was back in the dim corridor. The absence of the hissing holocrons was an unexpected relief. She breathed deeply, trying to shake off the renewed exhaustion from walking through the wall.
"Impressive, Revan," a low voice said from the darkness.
Case forced herself not to jump or clench her saber. "Hello, Huntak," she replied with deliberate casualness.
The tall Twi'lek appeared in front of her. "I have heard rumor of such a power, but I have never witnessed it myself. Truly, greatness walks among us at the Academy."
Case rolled her eyes and kept walking toward the practice grounds. Huntak fell into step beside her. She needed to get out to the grounds behind the Academy and look for the cave, but she would have to wait until she wasn't being watched. Maybe tomorrow, or the night after the fencing trials when the students were celebrating and the instructors kept to their quarters. The feel of wrongness from the Force was increasing, and Case didn't know if it was the threat beyond the Outer Rim or the pressure of the Dark side here at the Academy. She knew she had to find what she was looking for and get off this planet as soon as possible.
"What did the holocrons tell you, Revan?" Huntak asked quietly beside her.
Case glanced sharply at him and then looked determinedly forward. She didn't think he could walk through the wall to the room, so he must have been able to hear her through the stone. How much had he heard? "I've never been one to listen to those holocrons, Huntak. Too many lies to sort through."
The Twi'lek master laughed. "You weren't afraid of the holocrons when you were Lord of the Sith. Or don't you remember meeting with me?"
Case wished she could shake Huntak and go back to her quarters. She couldn't read him and she worried about what he knew. "I met a lot of sentients. You were something of a holocron scholar, weren't you? You weren't the type I would notice."
They finally emerged from the back hallway into the main chamber. Even the dim light in the large room seemed bright compared to the dark corridors. Case angled wide toward her quarters. Huntak grasped her upper arm and leaned in close, his dark lekku nearly touching her face. "I know that you're looking for the next great artifact. You're not the only one looking, Revan. I'm no weak sycophant like Malak was—I will use the power I find with finesse, and I will destroy you. The Sith need leadership and they will find it in me."
Case grinned hard and brought her face even closer to his. "You have no idea how much power I hold," she whispered. "I'd watch your back around here, Huntak. The true threat is always a surprise." She flicked the tip of his lekku with her finger and jerked her arm away from his hand.
She felt his angry eyes on her back all the way back to her chambers.