Both the pilot and the warrior were deep in thought, looking at their respective computer screens.

Shammus spoke first. "Sir, I found him."

Xeran looked at the captain. "Where?"

"It was recently transmitted on Imperial channels and recorded. A black market merchant named Brehan Silc was arrested a few days ago, illegal goods were found in his possession and he was imprisoned."

"Then he is alive, and close. It is only a matter of getting him out of an Imperial prison."

"Easier said than done."

"True enough, but I believe I will manage. Congratulations are in order, captain. Of course, I will require your help again in order to smuggle the trader away from this place."

"Anything you want, sir. I shall await further orders."

.

It was quiet around the prison building.

The four stormtroopers the patrol group consisted of were relaxed, enjoying the night breeze as much as their armors allowed. It was one of the few small pleasures this industrial planet had to offer. They did not expect to find any trouble around a small prison for common thugs and a few small-time criminals in Tarkin's own homeworld. Still, that did not mean they were allowed to relax, since a surprise investigation that would mean a lot of trouble for them was likely to happen at any moment.

Suddenly, they heard a cough. Three of the men turned around, only to see the fourth member of their group clutching his neck.

"Are you alright, soldier?"

He coughed and made a weird gesture. "I'm fine, it's just…"

With a loud crack, his head turned to the right as his neck snapped and he fell to the ground.

The men raised their blaster rifles looking around, not realizing what had happened. It finally dawned on one of them.

"It's a Jedi! We must…"

Silent as the night and swift as the wind, the warrior jumped on them from the rooftop he was hiding on and sliced the throat of one of the men with a swift strike of his knife. With the Force, he blocked the blaster bolts that came his way, then, with a leap and a wide sweep while still in the air, he finished of both men at once by slicing their throats.

Xeran sheathed his knife. He regretted not bringing his new warblade, he would have liked to bloody it, but he could not sneak it in the prison and still pass as a stormtrooper. He inspected the man whose neck he had snapped. His armor was still clean, unlike the others', and, as he had calculated, the man was around his height. He wore the armor as fast as he could, picked up the blaster and walked towards the service entrance. The sole guard tried to ask for his identification, but a mind trick was all he needed to enter the base.

He had to be fast. It would not be long before someone noticed the patrol was missing. He walked inside, found the nearest terminal and memorized the prison plans as best he could. Then he headed to the control room. He saluted the guards and, with another mind trick, he entered.

Three men were inside, all of them sleepy, looking at the screens with boredom etched on their faces. They barely turned to look at him when he entered the room. That made his job easier. A few seconds later, he threw one of the three corpses of its chair and sat. The cameras had a view of the inside of all the prison cells. It did not take long to recognize his target from the picture his master had provided. He readied himself, then he pressed the button sequence that unlocked all the prison cells in the building.

For a moment, it was quiet. Then some doors opened, some shouting was evident, although he could not hear what they were saying through the cameras, not that it mattered.

And then, chaos.

Xeran waited a few moments, then he exited the room. He made sure to blend in with all the other guards rushing to contain the riot. Once nearby, he made sure to ditch his armor and ran among the criminals to find his target. He located the man easily, as he was cowering inside his cell.

"Look, I will get your money, allright? It was just a game, jeez!"

"I am not here for your money, Brehan Silc. Lord Maul sent me."

The man's face relaxed and he got up, allowing Xeran to get a better look at him. He looked to be in his late thirties. He was kind of fat, with thinning hair and a feminine face. To Xeran, the man looked pathetic, but he understood his usefulness.

"Oh, thank the Force! Pleased to meet you, sir."

"We need to get out of here, quickly."

"Not without my things."

Xeran frowned. "You do not seem to understand your situation, merchant!"

"No, no, listen to me! What I promised lord Maul is among my things. We really need to get them!"

Xeran nodded. Luckily, he remembered where the storage room was and, amidst the chaos and the fighting, it was easy to recover the man's small satchel unnoticed. Afterward, they made their way to the back of the prison.

"What are we doing here? The exit is the other way.", asked Silc.

"And overrun with stormtroopers. I do not intend to fight the entire prison guard.", said Xeran. "But the wall here is the thinnest, and there is a path to the hangar behind it."

"So?"

Xeran said nothing, but removed something from his pocket and placed it on the wall. Silc understood and covered his face just before the charges exploded, opening a large hole on the wall.

"Now run!"

Both men ran across the alleys of Eriadu, trying to lose whomever could have tried to follow them. Soon, they reached the hangar and got on Xeran's ship.

The moment they got inside, Xeran called for the captain to take off, and the ship was immediately in the air, blending in with the various other vessels leaving the planet.

Silc did not seem happy about this plan. "What if they try to find me? They might stop ships and check inside! What will we do then?"

Xeran looked at the man. "You believe they will stop traffic on and off one of the largest trading worlds of the Empire just to find you?"

Brehan seemed like he wanted to speak, but he said nothing.

The Zabrak did not intend to stay silent, though. "So, in your message, you spoke of something important."

Silc looked at him dumbstruck for a second, then he remembered. "Ah, yes. I did."

He opened his satchel and produced a few papers and a small book. He opened the papers in front of Xeran. They had become yellow over the years, and they were covered in strange runes.

"These items were part of a private collection that was recently sold upon the death of its owner. They are written in the ancient language of the Sith. They speak of a superweapon the ancient Sith constructed during their last war with the Jedi."

The young Force user was intrigued. "What kind of superweapon?"

"I don't know. I don't really speak the language, and the little I can translate is technical stuff, which I do not understand. But I can tell you, it's powerful. I was hoping lord Maul might have had some use for it, but the inscription is incomplete. You see, only half the pages of the description are here."

"And where are the rest?"

"I wish I knew. Not a part of that collection, that is for certain."

Xeran frowned. A superweapon made by the ancient Sith…it was indeed something big, and they definitely needed the rest of the documents. But how where they going to find them? He decided he would let it rest for the moment. He was certain his master, with his infinite resources, would be able to locate them. He then turned his gaze on the book.

"And this?"

"This is something else. It is a book written in the old Sith Empire and used in their Academy. It is a study of the Sith Code and its deeper meaning. I thought lord Maul would have liked to see it."

The young warrior was not so sure. Maul hated the Sith. And yet…the Sith had created him, and, whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was training Xeran like a Sith apprentice. Xeran had heard a few things about them before and he thought the culture was interesting, despite the actions of its current representatives. He decided he wanted to know more about it. He was not sure whether his master would have approved or not, but his master wasn't here right now.

"It is indeed an interesting document. I shall take it as payment for my efforts to save you. The documents about the superweapon have value as well. Lord Maul will have use for them, and you will be compensated accordingly."

Silc did not like Xeran taking the book for free, but he was not foolish enough to complain. After all, his most valuable wares were still in his hands. "Thank you, sir."

"Taking into account, of course, the absence of half of the information."

Silc was indeed smart enough not to protest when he could not afford it.