Last time: Sasha and Viran had a hell of an experience in an actual Sith Temple.
Now: An unexpected call comes to Sasha.
Chapter 9- Do We Trust Her?
And as the migraine subsided into a dull headache, another pain in Sasha's head entered. She immediately recognized it to be Cien reaching out to her again. Taking a quick glance sideways at Viran, who was moving toward the cockpit to talk to Kyr. Sasha closed her eyes as she remained in her forward leaning position. The world then swirled to black and soon she wasn't alone in her head again. At least this time it wasn't a random Sith voice taunting Sasha or threatening her death like at the temple. The entire time they were in there, she heard that damn voice, but said nothing to the others. Once the doors closed, the voice left her alone.
Cien raised an eyebrow at Sasha's state, carried over into mind space. She still looked a little disheveled and very green. "Did I call at a bad time?" She said, trying to hide her amusement so as not to antagonize her erstwhile ally.
Sasha shot Cien a glare. "What do you think?" Sasha spat coldly as she really wasn't in the mood at the moment as her body was still recovering.
"I'm thinking yes." She said, failing to hide a grin. "Anything I should know about?" Cien asked with feigned interest.
Sasha sighed. "I guess only a Sith would have knowledge of other Sith things," she mumbled under her breath. "We have been looking for something and in our search we stumbled upon a Sith Temple. Let's just say the Temple and I didn't get along in the Force."
That piqued her interest, "a Sith temple? Where?" She asked.
"The planet doesn't really have a name on the star charts, but the planet is mainly made up of red rock and it has blood red skies. Sound familiar?" Sasha explained.
"Yeah, about a dozen Sith temples from… my time might match that. I'll need to visit it someday." She said with a grin.
Sasha turned a bit red at that. "Yeah…" She then shook her head as she didn't want to tell Cien that Tac just blew the temple to dust. She then continued. "Well while we were at the temple there was this holocron and it… it showed me and Viran something. A vision."
"Oh?" Cien asked, curious what a Jedi's vision might have been from a Sith Holocron.
"There were thousands of people," she began, her voice already shaking. "They were all mindless drones that were attacking innocent people. And there was so much blood and death. Red lightning filled the skies and there were so many screams of pain and anguish. And I heard Dracul's laugh… it was chilling like it always is." Sasha shuddered as she wrapped her arms around herself as if to keep herself together. She could feel her stomach turn again when she was telling Cien about the vision. Her throat still burned from the bile she had upchucked earlier and she wasn't ready to repeat the process again.
"Yeah, that sounds correct." She said with a grimace. And she admitted she found it almost… cute, that this Jedi was affected so by such visions of suffering. "That is actually why I contacted you, to let you know I've gleaned more of his plan."
Sasha's head shot up to look at Cien, her already pale face was now white as a sheet. "What is it?" She asked carefully.
"I need something from you first." She said, keeping her bargaining chip in reserve. "I need to know how your boyfriend got on the ship all those months ago. I need an escape plan, and if I take my ship or any of the others… Let's just say our ships have countermeasures against traitors stealing them. We never found out how he got on board, though." She asked.
Now Sasha was the amused one. "He mentioned to me during our search for Oppie that he had secured to the bottom of the dreadnought. It should still be there if it hasn't been ejected, which I am guessing from your response means you haven't found it yet," she said.
Cien rolled her eyes. "I'm going to need something better than the bottom of the ship, that's nearly six square kilometers to search." She said with an annoyed raise of her eyebrow.
Sasha paused for a moment, unsure if she should give Cien the answer of how to get off the ship. But Sasha wasn't cruel. She wasn't going to hide information that could save someone's life, especially if it means they won't die by Dracul's hand, even if they were her enemy. Or if they were to work together potentially. "Let me ask him real quick," Sasha groaned.
"I'll wait." She said with evident impatience.
Sasha left the darkness of the mindspace and returned to the real world. She was still sitting in the lounge of the Shadow, alone. Getting up from her seat, her still recovering head caused her to see stars for a moment. But once the moment passed, she moved towards the cockpit where she could sense Viran. When she got there, she stuck her head into the cockpit.
"Hey Viran," Sasha spoke, interrupting his conversation with Kyr.
Both turned to face her.
"Hey Sash, how are you feeling?" Viran asked, his voice still lined with concern for her wellbeing.
"Fine," she shrugged it off. "Hey, random question. Where did you park our old ship when you came to rescue me from Cien about a year ago?"
"You mean on that dreadnought?" Viran questioned.
"Yeah that. Where did you park it?" Sasha asked.
"Uh… in the middle undercarriage. I think it was near the maintenance quarters," Viran tried to remember. He then snapped as if he remembered. "Actually it was a service hatch, AS-381. Why?"
"How do you remember that?" Kyr mused.
"I always remember where I park my ships," Viran said with a cocky smirk.
"Cool. Thanks," Sasha said quickly before retreating back into a private bunk room in the ship where she could continue her conversation with Cien in private.
"Wait, Sasha!" Viran called after her, but soon she was too far to hear them rushing after her.
She closed the door, locked it, and immediately closed her eyes to return to the mindspace where Cien waited.
"Well?" Cien said as Sasha rejoined her. She was tapping her foot and was not happy about having to wait.
"Check in the middle of the ship, bottom level, maintenance quarters corridor. Hatch AS-381," Sasha relayed.
"Okay, thank you." She said. She felt a little tension ease off her as she now had an escape route. "Dracul is planning to take and hold the planet Talokore, it appears to be key to his plans, but when I asked he would not reveal why. He appears to think it will give him the ability to take out Palpatine and that Darth... Vapor person." She said, trying to remember the name of Palpatine's acolyte. "He plans to move soon." She added. "He is readying the troops aboard the ship, and only said he had preparations to make before he went forward with his plan."
Sasha felt herself pale again. "So we don't have much time then…" She sighed. "I'll tell the others."
Cien nodded. "If anything more is revealed-" She was cut off as, from her side of their shared space a loud clanging noise was heard, like someone was beating on her door with an angry fist. She rolled her eyes and continued. "If anything more is revealed I will contact you when I can." She said, and she left their shared space without waiting for Sasha to acknowledge her.
Sasha watched her go and then the mindspace disappeared. The name of the planet kept repeating itself in her head. She had never heard of a planet named that. She wasn't even sure there was a planet on the star charts with the name. Suddenly, a loud knocking came from the door behind her. It startled her as she leapt away from the door.
"Sasha! Unlock the door now!" Viran's voice boomed from the other side.
Sighing, Sasha unlocked the door and opened it to reveal a very annoyed looking Viran and what she assumed was a confused Kyr under his buy'ce.
"Sash… what the hell?" Viran asked, rambling off questions. "You okay? What was that all about?"
"It's a long story," Sasha said as she rubbed her neck.
"We've got another," Kyr started, he glanced over at Tac, who whistled to him, "thirty-three? Really?" Kyr looked back at Sasha. "We've got plenty of time to kill in between investigating planets." Kyr pointed out.
"Wait, we've left the Sith planet already?" Sasha asked, surprised.
"Yeah… I think we can all agree that was not the planet we were looking for," Viran said with a shrug. He then folded his arms. "Now, what is going on?"
"Cien reached out to me again. She is going to be attempting an escape from Dracul and his forces here soon," She explained. Viran's face fell, but before he could butt in, Sasha continued. "And she believes the vision we had at the temple is connected to what Dracul has planned. We don't have much time before his next move."
"Wait, wait, time out," Viran said, making a T gesture with his hands. "You asked me about our old ship because Cien is looking for an escape off the dreadnought?" She nodded. "Great, at least I'll get my ship back," he mused for a moment. Viran then ran a hand through his hair. "That's also concerning about the vision. Do you trust what she said about it?"
"If anyone can understand a vision from a Sith holocron, Cien could," Sasha pointed out as she folded her arms. "She is a Sith after all."
"I know," Viran grumbled.
"Any idea how little time we got?" Kyr asked. Tac had trundled off back toward the cockpit.
"Based on what she told me, I could guess we have maybe a week or two at the most," Sasha said with a frown.
"I still don't trust her," Viran voiced.
"I know, but this isn't something to ignore whether it's the truth or a trap," Sasha said. She then looked at Kyr. "But I think we may only have time for one more system, then we should return to Haven to prepare."
"Well, Tac just said we have thirty three systems left to scout." Kyr said, the frown evident in his voice if obscured by his buy'ce. "Don't suppose you've got a chance cube handy-". Tac came wheeling in at that point, interrupting them with an excited warble. Viran looked at the droid and blanched, and Kyr's body language betrayed the same reaction to what the droid had said.
Sasha, sadly, didn't pick up every word the droid uttered. She caught the words found, new, and systems. But not the number. "What was the number he just said?"
"The search vector just crossed a hyperspace route. It's over 9,000." Viran uttered in a shakened voice.
"WHAT?" Sasha nearly yelped as if the droid just spoke basic. She leaned against the wall rubbing her head that was now throbbing again as she too paled at the number. This was too much. "Okay… I'm done with today."
"I think we're just done, we need a new plan." Kyr said dowerly. "It was a good shot, but I think the constellation is a wild bantha chase, unless we can figure out some way to narrow it down."
"Agreed," Sasha and Viran said at the same time.
Then the name Cien mentioned popped into her head. "Wait, Tac, look into a system called Talokore," Sasha said. "Cien mentioned it. Maybe, it's connected."
Viran gave her a skeptical look, but didn't say anything.
"Sasha." Kyr asked, as Tac consulted the databanks. "Do you think you can trust her? And not because we need to since it's our only lead, not because you might want to, do you really, actually trust her?" He asked, quietly.
Slightly taken back, Sasha looked to the floor. She thought about it for a moment. Did she trust Cien? Up to this point, Cien had her moments of dishonesty but that was when she wanted to make Sasha an acolyte of Dracul. Now… well… she wasn't entirely sure.
"Truthfully… I don't know," Sasha admitted. "I have plenty of reasons not to trust her, but… my gut and the Force is telling me to at least just hear her out. I mean I trust her about as far as Kyr could throw her, but… I can't ignore what she has told me. I have to believe that there may be some semblance of good in her. Because I have seen with my own eyes how fearful she is of Dracul. We have to help her take him down. The enemy of my enemy is my friend." She looked up on that last line and stared at the two men before with her fierce determination.
Kyr nodded and stayed silent. Viran, however, sighed and looked away from them.
"I don't like this," He grumbled then looked into her eyes. "But I trust your judgement. For now, we will listen to what Cien has to say. But if Cien tries to pull anything, then I will see to it that she is punished."
Sasha frowned at him, but nodded. "I understand."
Tac spoke up then, and Kyr translated for Sasha; "He says Talokore is a gas giant, it has a habitable forest moon, but nothing of note. No space ports or cities, no registered settlements of any kind."
"So it's a dud too," Viran said, rolling his eyes. "Great."
"No, it's not a dud," Sasha responded. "I mean for our search it is, but that is where Dracul plans to move on with the next phase of his plan."
Kyr lifted his bucket off his head and wiped his eyes, shooting Viran an annoyed glance before asking Sasha another pointed question as he looked her directly in the eyes with a more gentle demeanor. "You said you've seen how afraid she is of Dracul. Afraid enough to betray him, or just afraid enough to stay as his servant? Is she terrified of him, or just wary of him?"
"Terrified," Sasha said, meeting his gaze straight on.
"If there's one thing we know about this girl, it's that she will act in her own self interest. And right now it seems like that means her goals align with ours, for now." Kyr said, more toward Viran than anyone, but just speaking his mind. "I agree with Sasha that we can probably trust her on this."
Viran sighed. "Alright. Then we trust her. For now. But we need to be cautious, this could still be a trap."
Sasha nodded at the two of them.
"Yeah, fun thing about traps, if you see them coming then that means you can spring them on your own terms." Kyr said with a grin.
That made Sasha smile and even Viran, though it was obvious he was trying not to.
"Then let's go back to Haven and tell the others," Sasha said with a nod. "We are going to need all the help we can get."
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