"You may enter." Revan pivoted her chair around to the small conference table. A slight nod and a sweeping motion with one hand gave him permission to be seated.
After nearly three years in the Sith Lord's service, her mask still unnerved him. The blank visage of black and red sheltered in the folds of a dark hooded robe hid more than just her face. It hid her very humanity. Whether through some mechanism embedded in the mask or her fine control of the Force, even her voice sounded inhuman to his ears. In many ways Malak's vocabulator was far more natural.
The robes hung loose enough around her to hide any suggestive curves of femininity. Only those few who had survived the Mandalorian Wars by her side could remember what she looked like. Saul Karath had not seen the dark brown eyes behind the mask since the day they smiled on the Mandalore's beheaded corpse. He wondered if anyone had.
The mask stared in his direction, but that was no guarantee the eyes beneath focused on the same target. He imagined she was looking toward the doors right now. And given Malak's tardiness, considering whether or not to punish him the moment he entered.
"Your report, Admiral." She held out her hand for his datapad. Perhaps she wasn't concerned about Malak's presence after all.
Saul gave her the report and sat in silence as she appeared to browse the contents. Even if she read every word twice over, he knew she would still demand his oral presentation of the same material. Written information could be easily falsified or exaggerated. One, however, would find it much harder to deceive a Sith Lord in person.
Especially the Sith Lord Revan. She was brilliant in the Mandalorian Wars. And now with the dark side fueling her ambitions, she was nearly unstoppable.
He was beginning to notice, however, that as her war progressed she cared less and less for the condition or concerns of her inferiors. Loyalties that were once unbreakable were now tenuous at best. She ruled with terror where she once inspired devotion.
An uncomfortable cold sensation crept from the back of his neck down the length of his spine. Revan's attention was focused on him. "Your report on the Jedi."
As he suspected, she wanted to hear the details directly. "It would appear, my Lord, that the Tetmar Corporation honestly believed the Knights to be mere Republic soldiers. However, the Tetmar family maintains estates on Hesperidium and Coruscant where the Karfeddion Senator is a frequent guest. They have much to loose when the system falls under your command."
"The Jedi?"
"They are awaiting your interrogation, my Lord."
"And the Karfeddion delegation?" she asked.
The doors hissed open as her question concluded. Malak entered as he answered, "They are currently comfortable. But that can be easily remedied." He took his seat without waiting for an invitation.
"My poor apprentice," she mocked. "He hasn't tortured anyone in nearly a week. If you're very good, perhaps I will give you one of the Jedi to play with."
"I would rather command the assault on the Karfeddion System."
"No." The mask turned to face Malak. Saul wondered if her apprentice had any insight into what lay beneath. "I will accept their surrender."
"What?" Apparently he did not. Malak's fist slammed into the table. "They were harboring Jedi Knights. Knights who were intent on using the system as a base of operations to sabotage our fleet."
"The Tetmar Corporation is not the Karfeddion government," Revan explained. "We will leave the system intact under the scrutiny of an appointed governor."
Anger sparked in Malak's eyes. "Those who dare oppose us must be made to suffer."
"The Tetmar will." Revan's voice remained calm. "Karfeddion will not."
"Why?" Malak demanded.
Saul felt the tension fill the air.
"Because it was Dorell's home world?" Malak's rant continued. He was on his feet now, his hands braced against the top of the table. "Is this what his services bought?"
"Dorell is dead, Malak." The mask did not hide the contempt in her voice.
"Is this what his services bought?" He loomed over her. "Did he sell body and soul to you to save his home?"
Saul became very still. There would be violence and he wanted to ensure he wasn't caught in the crossfire.
Revan's mask still faced forward, but beneath it her eyes must have been locked on the man daring to taunt her.
"Tell me, Revan, did you kill him while he slept beside you peaceful in the afterglow? Or did you choke the life from him even as he—"
There was a flash of electric blue light and silence. Revan was on her feet her fingers inches from the vocabulator that served as Malak's jaw. Tendrils of grey smoke slithered away from the metallic prosthetic and dissipated in the charged air. She had destroyed the power supply.
"You will speak to your Master with reverence or you will not speak at all." She flicked her fingers and Malak tumbled back into his chair. "Sit, Apprentice, and listen. Next time, you die."
Revan resumed her seat and Saul's attention very pointedly did not linger on the abashed apprentice. But one glance was enough to know that the fury burning in his eyes would not soon go away.
"The Tetmar Family will be executed. Publicly." She turned to Saul, "Have them brought to the capital building, stripped and shot. Children first, you know the routine."
"As you wish, Lord Revan." He did know the routine. This was hardly the first time a planet needed such an example set.
"Install a governor, Quel perhaps, and notify the delegation that I accept their unconditional surrender."
"Of course. Will we be leaving a contingent behind to regulate matters?"
"Unnecessary," she replied. "Karfeddion will behave and I want the entire fleet for the strike on Eriadu. It will be heavily defended. The Republic can't afford to lose it."
Saul nodded in understanding. He saw some of her strategy. Karfeddion was just in the way of her true target. It would be a waste of time and resources to battle when they were already cowering enough to surrender.
It would seem that Malak had yet to learn tactics from his master. He still fumed in mandatory silence either too angry or too dense to understand Revan's explanation. Eriadu was an important economic hub and a large part of that business centered on armor and weapons. Karfeddion was worthless in comparison.
Revan stood. The conference was over. "Admiral, have the fleet ready to jump in twelve hours."
"As you command, my Lord."
Before leaving, she turned to Malak and ripped the prosthetic jaw from his face. She tossed it over her shoulder unaffected by the tiny sparks that still leapt out from the broken electronics. Leaning close to him, she pulled off her mask. Her lips nearly grazed his ear as she whispered something that made the fire in Malak's already furious eyes intensify.
Saul's eyes immediately turned away, but the glimpse of ashen flesh stayed fresh in his vision. Malak's face had become pale since his descent into the dark side, but at least he still appeared human. Revan's sallow skin belonged more to something dead. It reminded him of the first holovid he'd snuck in to watch against his parents strict orders. An ancient creature awoke from its tomb to wreak havoc on the transport ship carrying it to a museum. In the end, only the second lieutenant survived.
Saul kept his gaze averted until he heard the hiss of the doors opening and the soft click as they closed. Revan had left and was probably on her way to torture the captured Jedi.
"I will send for the medical droids," Saul offered to Malak.
Malak made no motion to prevent him. In awkward silence Saul issued orders from the room's console and triple checked preparations for the push into the Eriadu System. He left after the droid arrived. Saul assumed that he would be better off on his own ship when Malak regained the ability to speak.
Revan had pushed him too far. Betrayal was inevitable in any Sith hierarchy, but she had made it imminent. Malak sought only the opportunity to overthrow his Master. And Saul thought there was a very good chance that the offended apprentice would succeed.
He was, however, surprised at who created that chance. Moments before their scheduled jump into the Eriadu System, a Jedi strike force dropped out of hyperspace and assaulted Revan's ship.
Static garbled the incoming transmission, but Saul heard enough to understand. The attack on Eriadu was to proceed as planned.
Malak confirmed the orders from his ship before the signal degraded too far too understand. Revan, perhaps in an overabundance of paranoia, insisted they command separate vessels in battle. The Jedi team concentrated fire on her ship unknowingly leaving Malak free to continue the attack as planned while Revan dealt with them.
But that wasn't what happened. Malak saw his opportunity and seized it.
Saul knew as soon as Malak's ship turned away from their jump formation that Revan's reign was over.
"Get Malak on the comm. Now," he screamed at his closest bridge officer. Saul knew what he needed to do to secure his place with the new Sith Lord. "Turn us about. Target the Nemesis."
He'd all but given the order to fire on Revan's ship. There was no turning back now. If he had misinterpreted the situation, he was dead.
"Admiral Karath, why…...disturb me?" Malak's metallic voice carried through the jamming static of the Jedi ship.
"My Lord," he addressed Malak by his soon-to-be title, "Do you perhaps require, shall we call it assistance?"
Malak's laugh eased the anxiety of the bridge crew and reminded Saul to let go of the breath he'd been holding. "Your loyalty…..noted, Admiral. Fire….will."
"You heard our Lord," Saul emphasized the title for his nervous and confused crew. "Fire."
Revan's ship was lost in a barrage of torpedoes and energy bolts. And Saul Karath's Admiralship in Lord Malak's fleet was secure.