Tenel Ka was generally not one to pace anxiously, but she found herself doing so as she and Trista waited in the garden they'd last met in while Taryn made her way directly from the landing bay.
When her cousin arrived, Taryn snapped a quick bow and said with uncharacteristic formality, "Apologies for the delay, Your Majesty. I got her as quickly as I could."
"It's quite all right, Taryn," Tenel Ka waved her hand. "Please, tell me what you found on Gallinore."
Taryn summarized as quickly as she could, describing her visit to the research institute Tenel Ka herself had visited during the Yuuzhan Vong war, along with Jaina, Lowbacca, and Kyp Durron. Jaina had slipped away several times on that visit, and what Taryn described now seemed to confirm Tenel Ka's growing suspicion that her friend had been meeting with this dangerous, unethical scientist all those years ago. Jaina had been full of anger then over the loss of Anakin and- so she'd thought- Jacen too. Tenel Ka couldn't bring herself to be angry with her friend for an act of dishonesty so long ago, but she did find it a sober reminder of the lengths people went to when afflicted with grief.
She felt some of that anger herself when Taryn described her conversation with Ducha Markessa. Hapan politics was as ever a web of lies and intrigue, suggestions and feints; she'd almost gotten used to it over the years, but finding herself entangled in this web, so fresh after losing Jacen and her father, made her wonder why she hadn't let the Consortium crumble to anarchy a long time ago. Chaos and death was the lot most of the nobles deserved.
She chided herself for the cruel thought and listened to Taryn until the end. When she was done, Tenel Ka looked to the other Zel sister. "Now, Trista, please tell Taryn what you just told me."
Trista nodded. "Of course. I haven't found proof that Ducha Markessa, or any other noble, had been in contact with the Imperials yet, but I have found some-thing more important. Or, I should say, something more important found us."
"Meaning?" asked Taryn.
"I've been working with several of our independent clients operating outside the Consortium," she said, using the polite term for the mercenaries the hermetic Hapans often employed to keep track of outside affairs. "One of them has located the source of the bioweapon. Apparently, they've been receiving help from a Jedi."
"A Jedi?" Taryn frowned and looked to her cousin.
Trista answered instead. "We don't know which. They haven't explained; they just said they've got a Force-user who's been helping them."
Taryn still kept her eyes on Tenel Ka. Her cousin showed nothing; as much as she wanted to know what Jedi was working with their clients, she had no better idea than Trista.
When it became clear her cousin couldn't explain, Taryn asked, "Do we know where Sinsor Khal went?"
"We don't know he's there yet. I've ordered our contractor to head there at once."
"Jedi in tow?"
Trista nodded.
"I would like you both to go as well," Tenel Ka said. "We can wait to investigate Ducha Markessa. This is the highest priority."
"Of course," Taryn nodded. "Where are we going?"
Tenel Ka took a deep breath before pronouncing the word that had become the black hole at the center of her life. "Myrkr."
Taryn's eyes went wide. She knew what Myrkr was, knew something of what Tenel Ka had lost there- though she could never understand the whole of it. Even Tenel Ka couldn't wrap her head around it fully. It hadn't just been Anakin Solo who died there, or the last bits of her youth. More and more since Jacen had begun his fall to the dark, she'd found her dreams taking her back to the moment when he'd followed Vergere to hunt the voxyn queen, pausing before he turned to look at Tenel Ka. They'd seen in each other's eyes the shared desire to lean forward for one kiss, one confession in extremis of the desire both of them had had for so long but never allowed themselves to admit to themselves or eachother.
But instead of taking that step, Jacen had turned, and she'd let him turn, and she couldn't help but wonder if, someone, it would have all been different after that if they'd stepped forward for that one kiss.
She wondered if she could ever get over her guilt for that broken promise.
"Myrkr," Trista repeated, gently jarring Tenel Ka from her reverie. "Probably on the Yuuzhan Vong worldship, if it's still in orbit. We should get going soon, sister."
"Agreed." Taryn looked at Tenel Ka with a hint of trepidation. "Cousin, is there anything you can tell us about that worldship? Anything that might guide us?"
Tenel Ka's mouth was suddenly dry; she swallowed and said, "I have already given a summary of all I remember to Trista. That includes a layout of the inside of the worldship, though if it's been derelict for fifteen years there's no telling what's changed."
"Of course," Trista said. "I've already prepped Red Kiss."
Taryn nodded; the Kiss was a refitted Barloz-class freighter with the hull of a second-hand cargo-hauler and the shields, weapon, and speed of Tenel Ka's own personal transport. Inconspicous and deadly, it was a favorite of the sisters when they went on missions outside Hapan space.
Trista looked at Tenel Ka and said, "We'll get there as soon as we can. I promise."
"I'm still concerned about Markessa," Taryn said. "She has to know we're on to her. Plus, we have no way of knowing what Khal did once he joined with the Imps. They could have taken a whole star destroyer to Myrkr."
Tenel Ka shook her head. "The Moffs are trying to pretend they're behaving now that Jagged Fel is in charge. Whatever they're doing, they're doing it quietly."
"Just like Ducha Markessa," said Taryn. "Still, I'd feel better having backup on standby."
"Then you should trust your Queen," Tenel Ka said with a touch of humor. "I've ordered Admiral Baas to prepare the Dragon Queen for a possible sortie."
Both sisters looked surprised. Trista said, "Dragon Queen still hasn't been repaired after the nanovirus attack. All the bodies have been removed, yes, but I'd heard there was talk of decommissioning it, in respect for Allana's death."
Not even the Zel sisters knew that Allana was now in the care of her grandparents; Tenel Ka yearned to tell them the truth, but right now they'd have to think her callous instead.
"Dragon Queen has been moved to one of our secure shipyards in the Transitory Mists," he said. "As such, no one will notice if it suddenly disappears."
"Ah," Taryn nodded, "So you'll sneak it out that way."
"Precisely. Of course, I hope I won't need to 'sneak out' at all."
"You, Your Majesty?" Trista frowned.
"Of course. Is there a problem with my voyaging on the royal flagship?"
"No. We just, ah-"
"I went to Myrkr once because the fate of the Jedi depended on it," she told them. "I would be remiss not to do so again. If the situation calls for it."
Both of them knew when not to argue with their cousin, their queen. They nodded as one.
"Well," Tenel Ka said, "You'd best get going."
Both sisters snapped a bow and quickly turned to leave. Tenel Ka stood where she was, in the center of the garden, and watched them disappear.
She would see them again. She told herself that because she needed to believe it. With Isolder and Jacen gone, and Allana with her grandparents, the Zel sisters were all the family she had left. And despite it all, despite formally leaving the Order to become a Queen, Tenel Ka still considered herself a Jedi, and she wouldn't abandon another one of her kin to that worldship, no matter who this mystery Jedi ended up being.
If she had to bring Dragon Queen to Myrkr to save them, so be it. That planet had already cost her so much it beggared understanding.
Just as her thoughts had been falling back to the kiss she should have given, they'd also been taking her to a conversation not long thereafter, when the survivors of the Myrkr mission were coming to what they thought would be shelter in the Hapes Cluster. It had been clear than Jaina was falling into the darkness of her own anger and despair, and Tenel Ka had read all the conflicting emotions on her friend Zekk's face. She knew that Jaina had long meant to him something like what Jacen had meant to her, and she'd been surprised when Zekk had confessed he planned to leave Hapes as soon as he could.
In a flash of anger she'd accused him of abandoning Jaina when she needed help most, and had then gone on to promise that if Jacen were the one falling to the dark, she'd surely be there to arrest his fall.
The words were a bitter echo now, repeating over and over again in her memory. She'd had no idea, all those years ago, that she could break that promise in the future. Perhaps she'd already broken that promise the moment she failed to kiss Jacen on the worldship. Or perhaps the kiss would have meant nothing, and Jacen was fated to become Caedus as surely as Hapes swung around its sun.
There was no way she would ever know, and no way she could ever heal the pain.
The only thing she had now was a new promise: She would not allow Myrkr to take anything else that she loved.
It had stolen too much already.