Chapter 10
"I have captured Darth Apostas," Hal spoke to Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The Chiss officer observed the transmission from his personal quarters on the Septic. "Is she damaged?" Thrawn asked.
The Alderaanian replied, "Negative. I've placed her in a stasis cell. She should survive the trip back to Byss."
"You have served the Empire well, Lord Mortis," Thrawn said. "We are about to assault Kessel. Vader is reckless. He will take the bait and assault Dantooine."
"You play a dangerous game, Grand Admiral Thrawn," Darth Mortis commented. "My master will not be pleased if you fail."
Thrawn guarded his thoughts from Mortis. The Chiss believed the game the master played was more dangerous still. "I shall contact Byss to inform your master that all is going according to plan," Thrawn said.
"And I shall wait for the confirmation of Vader's demise," Mortis told him before closing the transmission on the other end.
Another holonet transmission arrived in Thrawn's quarters. Without waiting for acceptance, the beacon activated, projecting a tall blue-white image of a young man with blonde hair and piercing eyes. He wore a black synthetic leather trench coat and gloves to cover his body. Only his face and neck were exposed.
Thrawn quickly bowed before the true Emperor of the Galaxy. "Lord Sidious," he spoke, casting his gaze towards the floor.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn," the Emperor Reborn greeted him. "I trust your plan is moving along smoothly."
"Of course it is, Lord Sidious," Thrawn replied. "The defenses of Kessel are helmed by backwater brutes. They will not be difficult to defeat."
"Have you heard from my apprentice?" Sidious asked.
"Lord Mortis has captured Vader's heir," Thrawn reported.
"Excellent," the Emperor commented. "Deliver the Death Star coordinates to the Rebels so we can deal with Vader once and for all."
Thrawn looked up to the Sith Lord. "It shall be done, my liege."
The Emperor Reborn's hologram disappeared, leaving Thrawn alone in his quarters to prepare for battle.
Kyle Katarn waded through the darkness of the Imperial prison. It was mostly abandoned and reeked of the dark side. The Dathomirians that followed him seemed to be overwhelmed by the oppressive darkness within.
"So you say you are a Jedi trying to restore the Republic?" Kirana Ti, a younger warrior asked him. She kept in step behind Kyle, still somewhat in awe from learning he had bested a Nightsister.
"That's the idea," Kyle replied without turning to address her.
"We should take him back to camp with us," Teneniel Djo suggested to her comrade. "He'd make a powerful slave."
Kyle whirled around and placed his hand on the hilt of his lightsaber. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going back as anyone's slave," he told them. "If that's all you want from me, leave. I don't want to have to protect myself from slavers."
"Teneniel is right," Kirana said. Her tone of voice was as plain as her looks, but it was clear she was an experienced warrior for one her age. "You would make a powerful slave. But I really don't think we can take you back with us."
"Smart," Kyle quickly remarked. "You don't enslave Jedi."
"I can certainly dream, can't I?" Teneniel asked. She was the pretty one of the group, but her obvious athletic skills made Kyle hesitant to grapple with her.
Kirana smirked. "Well, he is handsome," she admitted. "That beard would have to go."
"Hey, stop talking as if I'm not here!" Kyle exclaimed.
A bright light shined on the trio and two assassin droids emerged from the shadows. "Intruders!" one droid announced.
"Perfect!" Kyle growled before drawing his lightsaber. The blue blade emerged just in time to deflect an onslaught of blaster bolts. It was what the Soresu form was designed to face. Kyle was not comfortable enough to use Vaapad on a regular basis.
"Do something!" Kyle told the Dathomirians.
Teneniel and Kirana began chanting a spell. Suddenly, a gust of air knocked the assassin droids off their feet.
Kyle leapt into the air and landed by the fallen droids. With a swift downward swing, he decapitated the machines. Sparks flew from the severed connections of the lifeless droids. "The Empire should spend its credits better," Kyle remarked.
"Jedi!" an old woman rasped from a holding cell near the broken droids. "Are you a Jedi?"
Kyle deactivated his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt. He probed the woman with the Force and discovered no malicious intent. "Yeah," he said. "How long have you been locked up here?"
"One month," she replied. "I'm an exile from the Red Mountain Clan."
"Why were you exiled?" Kyle questioned.
"She probably broke the rules," Kirana suggested. "Dabbling in the dark magics is forbidden in almost ever clan."
"Except for the Nightsister Clans, of course," Teneniel added.
"Yes, I willingly used the dark side years ago and I've been living as a hermit ever since," the old woman said. "Then Darth Apostas found me and tried to get me to embrace the dark side. But I've been trying to atone for my sins for decades. I was not a very good pupil. Apostas had me locked her so she could kill me upon her return."
Kyle used the Force to unlock the cell door. "I'm looking for artifacts from the time of Darth Revan," he told her. "Are there any here?"
"Darth Revan," the old woman said. "I think Darth Apostas mentioned that name. She said she found his holocron in the temple below this prison."
"Did she say what she found?" Kyle asked her.
"Apostas mentioned the Promised Land on Ziost," she replied. "As you can tell, I wasn't privy to her secrets."
"Leave this place," Kyle said. "I will go to Ziost. I have to find that holocron."
"We'll take her with us," Kirana told Kyle.
"Thank you," he told the warriors before taking his leave. He had no desire to investigate the temple. Something in the Force was calling him away from Dathomir. Perhaps it was the Promised Land mentioned by Darth Apostas that drove him towards the next stage of his quest.
Darth Mortis looked to his rival, floating unconscious in her stasis cell. Why his master desired her alive was obvious to him. Darth Sidious still desired to make Apostas his apprentice. Mortis regretted not ending her life when he had the chance, but it was too late. Thrawn and Sidious both knew the princess was alive. Killing her in cold blood now would not be a smart move.
Still, Mortis was not enthusiastic about transporting Apostas to Byss. She proved to be more powerful than he could possibly have imagined. In a direct confrontation, there would be little hope of victory for him.
"Perhaps you can help me if you know the truth," Mortis said before he walked over to the stasis cell. He input a command to deactivate the cell. The process was slow so that the imprisoned would not be harmed. Even so, it was still a much safer form of containment than the carbonite freezing process.
Darth Apostas fell. She was groggy, but mostly functional.
"I trust you rested well," Mortis said. "I swore loyalty to you once. Perhaps I still can exercise that oath."
"Traitor!" Apostas growled before she tried to rise. She called on the Force, but found it denied to her.
Mortis laughed. "I may have taken you out of stasis, but I did not deactivate the containment field," he said. "You're still stuck in there."
"Why have you imprisoned me?" asked Apostas.
"Lord Sidious has requested an audience with you, princess," Mortis replied.
"That's impossible!" Apostas exclaimed. "I killed him!"
"Perhaps your father did not share the fact that Sidious was capable of producing clones of himself," Mortis told her. "The Dark Lord can survive as energy long enough to occupy a host body, which is the purpose of clones. Vader foolishly believed that Sidious was too far away from Byss to survive the transition."
"I have to warn my father," Apostas said. She was obviously torn between her devotion to the dark side and her love for her father, a weakness Mortis hoped to exploit.
"Your brother will destroy Vader," Mortis told her. "My master has foreseen this."
"Luke," Apostas muttered. "He is not strong enough to defeat Vader."
"You've both grown in the Force," Mortis observed. "This is why I am offering you the opportunity to join me in an insurrection against my master."
"After what you did to me?" Apostas asked, obviously shocked by the proposal.
"Only I know how to destroy Darth Sidious," Mortis told her. "Together, we will be unstoppable. You can then claim your rightful place as ruler of the galaxy!"
Apostas looked up to Mortis. "When I get out of here, I will kill you!" she proclaimed.
Mortis laughed. "You can try to get out," he said before reactivating the stasis field. "But you will fail." He then watched as his rival was once again frozen. "You won't refuse me forever, princess."
