As the Dark Times fade.

{} is for alien languages.

This is for canon lines.


"Naturally." Karrde replies, causing the girl at his side to snicker simplemindedly. "Besides, a little birdy told me to expect a visit from a core-man. Is a little forgery all you need, Mr. Deler?"

"Most certainly not." Carlin replies before the million credit question. "What's at Yavin IV?"

Karrde instantly loses his mirth, leans back, and huffs. "Right about now, only half the Imperial Starfleet. I can have the Identicard in ten minutes, but the other thing'll be faster if you ask her." He explains, causing Carlin to look to the arm candy before he hears a noise in the corner of the room he's in, and turns to see a person with a bird perched on one shoulder, who he knows was not present when he walked in, removing a hood to reveal herself to be a female of a species Carlin has seen a few times but doesn't know the name of.

"I am Ahsoka Tano, a Togruta, and this contains the first of the answers you seek." She says as though aware of his inability to identify her, and hands him a small triangular object.

"A Busy Box? It's finely crafted, but how is it supposed to give me a history lesson?" He asks skeptically as he glances between it and her.

"It ain't a toy, kid. What you got there is a Holocron. Not sure what they do, but i think i heard about one being stolen by a bounty hunter a while back." Karrde says aloud.

Carlin notices Tano twitching an eye at the last half of the comment. "That... is unimportant now." She says flatly while shaking her head. "To activate it requires concentration. Reach out to it."

Carlin looks to the object again and takes a breath. "Holocron, The Force commands you to reveal your secrets to me!"

No reaction.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy." He says to himself as Karrde and his girl are laughing at him.

"It'll be never work at all when you say it like that." She says, rolling her eyes.

Carlin calms himself, shuts his eyes, and tries again. "The Force connects us now. I implore you... i beg of you to share that which i seek." After a moment, the Holocron trembles in his hands, then begins to glow, and the projection of an old and extremely unkempt-looking man appeared.

"You've activated the Holocron of Jedi Master Quinlan Vos... say something or get lost." It says, causing him to gawk at it before raising an eyebrow at Tano, who is pretending she didn't hear it.

"That used to be one of the Jedi Knights?" Carlin asks her. "He looks like he ingested an entire shipment of luna-weed!" He exclaims, only for the projection to point at him.

"I only use a camtono's worth every four months, Bishwag." "He" replies, startling Carlin.

"The masters of the order didn't really care how we chose to look. Master Vos, this padawan wishes to see the last message of Council-member Kenobi." Tano says to both of them.

"Padawan?"/"Is that all, little miss dropout?" Carlin and Vos ask one after the other, and the latter is replaced by a well-groomed man before the former could ask what "dropout" meant.

"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both the Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi: trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple; that time has passed and our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged- our trust, our faith, our friendships, but we must persevere, and in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always."

"Master Kenobi made this after he altered a recall broadcast that Darth Vader set up so his clone legion, the 501st, could finish off the few survivors of Order 66 the night before." She explains quietly.

"The Purge... am i to be under the impression that I'm this "new hope" he spoke of?"

"That is much more difficult to tell. There were three other's like you until recently, Kanaan Jarus and Ezra Bridger; but the first was killed during a rescue mission, and the second vanished during the liberation of his homeworld."

"And the third?" He asks, and the lights in the room increase in brightness until the room is gone.

The blindness fades to show a vast, mostly shadow infested room made of extremely large stone blocks. "What just... where are we, where's Karrde?" He asks until he notices the vehicles around him. Four Y-Wings, nine X-Wings, and the most battered looking light freighter he'd ever seen, but the location is otherwise empty. "And where are the pilots for these craft?" He asks next, then turns to see the person standing next to one X-wing with what seemed to be five red marks on the lower wing.

"They're still around; i just chose a certain day to bring you here."

Carlin is not sure what this strange woman means, but he is sure that this has to be Yavin IV. "So, connect the nav-points for me here, please... Fulcrum, was it?" He says, and gestures around when she does not acknowledge his having noticed the symbol on her forehead. "Both of us were sent whole light-centuries to this location? And considering the walls here, just how long has this base been operating?"

"We are here by one of many things The Force is capable of. Neither it, nor the visions Major Naughlen showed you can be denied." She tells him next as the bird preens itself. "As for the other part... This structure was built thousands of years ago, but that's besides the point."

Hearing her mention the visions that she shouldn't have known about causes him to turn back to her. "Alright, then. Who was the third?"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi gave his life to ensure Princess Leia Organa's escape from The Death Star." She replies simply.

"You mean she's alive... I take it she went here after that." He guesses, not noticing the indirectness of her response. "Escape from the what?"

Before replying, she motions for him to follow her through the strangely empty structure to a smaller room with a screen. "The second part is more relevant, so I'll answer that first." She replies as the screen activates on it's own, showing him a city on a plateau. "This was the Holy City of Jedha on the day it was obliterated."

As the word Jedha makes him recall the last conversation he had with his fellow patrollers at the Woozy Gronda, Carlin looks back to the screen as a disturbingly familiar green lance slams into the plateau from what he thought was an eclipse. "That light again; but what does it mean... what can cause such a travesty?" He asks, to which she waves a hand and the scene changes to a bright sphere surrounded by both imperial and rebel ships that showed just how impossibly big it is. "Blessed foliage." He says to himself as it changes again to reveal just what Naughlen showed him, albeit from another angle.

"That was the Death Star. The empire started building it after the war ended as a method of intimidation. As you already know, they destroyed planet Alderaan with it right infront of Princess Leia when interrogation and mind probes proved ineffective." She explains as the bird lets out a sad sound.

Carlin paces around aimlessly for a few seconds to catch his breath. "This monster that Darth Vader commanded... where is it now, Miss Tano?" He asks, it being only natural to know The Emperor's right hand was involved.

"Actually, Princess Leia informed us that Grand Moff Tarkin was in charge of it. Anyway, i can't give the specifics just yet; only that it was defeated 33 standard hours ago due to the courageous efforts of thousands of alliance personnel." She tells him as a younger blonde man in an orange and white flightsuit briefly appears. "This man included; the rebel pilot who delivered the killing blow to the death star. But, like i said earlier, i cannot give his name. Only he can when you cross paths with him."

Once he sorted out all of this, he nods and glances to her. "What else?" He asks, and the brightness returns, this time bringing them to a bridge inside the artificial cavern, along with a glimpse of a colorless landscape to his right that he knows to be the planet few Chandrilans, himself included, approve of, beyond the massive entrance.

"Welcome to the Jedi Temple, Carlin Deler... atleast as i knew it to be back when this planet was still called Coruscant."

"Amazing." He says softly as he is led past people of many different species... mostly in brown and off-white robes. None of whom give any sign of noticing them. It only then sinks in that they were some of the thousands murdered by the emperor and his mindless minions that night 20 years ago.

"Stop." He hears from Tano, and feels a strange chill leaving him. "Trance or no trance, you mustn't let your emotions be at high tide. A Jedi must never act in the negative or the positive. Only fight to preserve life when you're out of better options." She tells him.

"There is no emotion, there is peace... How did i know to-nevermind, who were... are the Jedi exactly?" He asks her as he leans against a column. "How much of the past is imperial fiction?"

With a small grin, she explains. "The "official" lessons you learned in history class are only half true. The order did take children, me for example, but only with the parent's consent. It was a method that enabled them to serve The Old Republic for their shared 25,000 years."

"25,000?" Carlin asks under his breath. "So-so what went wrong? How did they fall so easily, despite all the power at their disposal?"

"To consider The Force as mere power is a common mistake." She scoffed. "The truth is that The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It is around us within. and without. The sensitivity to it depends on the amount of Midi-chlorians, which are believed to be the first micro-organisms in the universe, that all lifeforms have. Neither The Force, or the Jedi relying on it, is fully in control of the other." She explains before sighing. "And sadly, even The Force has it's weaknesses; as we learned millennia ago, the Jedi's sensitivity can be negated by their opposite... the Sith."

"The Emperor and Vader." Carlin guesses.

"Yes. I know this because this isn't actually the first time The Republic has fallen. Once, there were thousands serving both factions. Eventually, the Sith, who were Jedi who let their aggression guide them, were driven back to the planet Korriban, where they plotted a concept called The Rule of Two. One Master took one Apprentice who would replace the former and be themselves be replaced in a cycle that went on and on until one day thirty years ago... possibly before that... when one apprentice became a senator from Naboo, and took it upon himself to bring down the Jedi Order."

"By creating the disasters that you and Capt. Bentesh spoke of back home." Carlin said in recollection before looking to the side and gasping. "Him!, that's Naughlen over there." Carlin says as he spots the, much younger, figment speaking with another who had a human torso, but an equine's body below it.

"Jori Naughlen. Padawan learner of a Mrlissi Jedi that i hadn't actually met during my short time here." She informs him. "His name was all i knew about him until The Alliance was formed. He and his master were on a planet called Rhen Var when Order 66 went into effect. After escaping, he went into hiding as the other survivor's, including myself, did. He settled down near the Gladean strath, where he met a young lady named Ylaer Faleur."

Hearing this made Carlin recall a student from another school's swim team that Fenla once competed against. "...I see; but what about the other thing you mentioned?" He asks after spotting a green being in the distance who makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up, almost under the impression that it's looking back until he sees Tano staring in a random direction.

He looked as well, though he saw nothing but arches, pillars, and hovering statues. "Miss Tano?"


Elsewhere in the galaxy, Jerec is fuming over the emperor's decision, and at his failure to notice a second witness at the Chandriltech building. "How could i make such an error... and how dare that sack of rotted flesh favor those credit eating fools over me." He thinks as he goes through a bowl of Touchstones before a hologram of a shorter man appears. "Here to gloat, you fashion-crazed dwarf?"

"Simply to say I've foreseen another setback." The person says, referring to Jerec's alleged failure to notice Thracta's conspiracy.

"Setback? I, Jerec of the Inquisitorius, do not have setbacks!" He yells as he swats the bowl away. "So that cursed Jedi managed to have been found by some Balmgrass snorting whelp before he died. What gives that shriveled up Duracrete slug the right to say his overgrown toys are more important than my contributions, Kadann?!"

"Yes, i too questioned the logic of such a costly endeavor against the mere thousands who stand against us. It's almost as if there were a more dangerous foe the emperor intended to unleash it upon." Kadaan muses.

It was a thought that unnerved both of them. "...Those soul stealers from the Unknown Regions, you mean? I would not have thought even the Emperor sadistic enough to bargain with them." Jerec asks him, having heard that Vader and Tarkin had both attempted to convince the emperor not to trade with the Ssi-ruuk.

"That aside, I needn't be Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side to know you intend to do something regardless of his will." The shorter man says aloud, not wanting to recall the description Pestage gave of the creatures. "Your talents would be better used finding the rebel pilot Vader mentioned at the post-Yavin debriefing. Despite the rebel's losing both dear Billaba's padawan, and the boy from Lothal, the return of the Jedi seems unavoidable if they have found two more so quickly."

"As if The Force could be using The Rule of Two against us. It exists only to-"

"Jerec." The inquisitor hears from the prophet, whose demeanor change is clear despite the former's blindness, and knowing that while he outranks the shorter man, he is still very much the inferior.

"...As much as i would love to continue dwelling on this, i have been sensing that i am needed at Carida."

"It may help you that i have foreseen the Chandrilan lamenting some circumstance on Tansarii Point before the next Empire Day. Dispatch one of your followers there to complete this circle." Kadann advised in a dismissive tone and ended transmission.


"...I'd hoped we could have time to speak further, but it'll be better for you to merely see the rest." She tells him, and raises a hand to him, causing various images to race through his mind. Plo Koon... Qui-Gon Jinn... Anakin Skywalker... Obi-Wan Kenobi... Bultar Swan... Rex. These names and faces appear along with a round room containing the small green alien, ten others, and one empty chair... A dozen clones shooting in his, or rather, Tano's direction... the emperor somehow shooting electricity from his hands at a monitor in his throne room... a green-haired woman about his age that he doesn't recognize... and senator Mon Mothma standing infront of him all appear just before he thinks his head is beginning to swell up.

The next thing Carlin knows, he's back in the room, and falls to one knee. "Back already, kid?" He hears from Karrde.

"How long wa-"/"Both of you were standing there for 5 seconds, according to my chrono." The two say before the former glances to Tano.

"You know now your destiny, Carlin Deler." She tells him as she walks out while handing him what looked like a Hydrospanner that was curved in the middle. "Try not use this until we meet again. May the force be with you."

Once she is gone, he stands and heads back to the chair to get down to the other matter. "Now that you have whatever that was taken care of; should i handle the card you want, or do you have any preferences?" Karrde asks Carlin as the girl is pouring a drink. "Too bad you're not here for some of this Tarisian ale; it's from a spaceliner who's relativistic shielding was damaged during the bombardment there nearly 4000 years ago."

Carlin cringes at Karrde before giving him the name he made up for the freighter operators. "Have your slicers make a profile for a Chaelo Sigal; former Imperial army driver born on-" He says as he goes through a list of locations from each region except the Deep Core. "Here... Hosk Station." He suggests. An space station isn't even an option for any Chandrilan to hide at due to their all but religious devotion to nature, and therefore the only option.

"Sure thing, my young friend." Karrde tells him, and brings up a projection of a short, thin alien with four arms.

"Who is this, if i may ask?" Carlin wondered at the sight of such a strange being, not certain how anything so thin could be alive.

{Never seen an alien before, have ya? I'm a Xexto named Zontogi, one of Mr. Karrde's best slicers.} The hologram's subtitles say while the Xexto places both of his... or atleast Carlin thought it was a male from the vocal pitch... right hands over his tiny chest.

"Er, all i know is that the media guild isn't allowed by COMPNOR to give non-humans any positive roles." Carlin tells him, again not wanting to find out if he ever inadvertently arrested anyone this slicer worked with, only getting a shrug in response.

After several minutes, it is done. "That'll be 1500 I-creds, Mr. Sigal." Karrde tells him.

"Chaelo" twitches an eyebrow despite having suspected it would be at a high cost, and hands over the money and his previous identicard, leaving him with only 71 in his credfold. He considered asking the infochant to show him if his family is being interviewed about the occurrence at the spaceport, but couldn't bring himself to see their distress.

Instead, he headed back to the main room to find Jraan and Ralth watching a re-run of The Galaxy's Least Competent before the latter notices him. "You're back already?" The Vurk asked him, and Chaelo says he missed the tour group. The three watch a bit more before getting the bill, and head back to the ship so they can have Chaelo employed at the nearest Baobab station. Partly because he offered, and partly because he tossed out some of the contents from the crate before hiding in it.


As they are landing, Chaelo, now having removed his sideburns with the cheapest grooming tool he could afford, sees two Duros and Vurk waiting for them next to a deactivated Binary Loadlifter. "Your family members?" He asks, having spent the jump from Berchest studying Obo Rin's sentientology database, or what little of it he thought to be accurate.

"My fawhth son out of twenty-one, Gord, and his wife Kuuda, who have eighteen of deir own."/"And the other is one of my two hatchlings; Frarnk. He has a sister too, named Lezruh. Their mother Orrrnkelle works over in the station's advertising department." Jraan and Ralth explain on the way to the ramp.

The numbers given by the former making him inwardly blanch a little bit, not at all wanting to imagine whether their mother had those 21 all at the same time or not.

"You must be dad's new shipmate." Frarnk says to them. "What commune are you from?"

"Commune?" Chaelo asked Jraan quietly.

"Family."

"Oh. I'm Chaelo Sigal, from the Kalarba system." The human replies, and they head to the Ghireh quarters while a service droid boards the ship with a few pre-requested overalls for Chaelo. Once he gets over the wave of moist heat from it, he looks around, seeing it as sparsely decorated when compared to his family home. One thing he notices is a flat-holo of another Vurk in armor. "That's not you, is it?"

"That was my elder brother, Uproat." Ralth says as he and his children look to it mournfully, and explains that he was an Antarian ranger in the 11th sector army during the Outer Rim Sieges. "He fought in General B'dard Tone's division until he deserted and died at Grievous' hands on the other side of the galaxy. After that, Uproat was assigned to a General Rahm Kota(1). He and 73 others served with valor alongside his clone forces... but those troopers turned on him at the battle of Toprawa. Scoffing at the idea that the Jedi could have done what the clone traitors claimed, my brother and the remaining rangers stood with their leader to the last being as they fought their way to an LAAT, though they didn't make it."

Hearing this, Chaelo closes his eyes as he is reminded of his own loss. Following supper with them, he heads to his new quarters, which he is told belonged to a man who was fired for spying on behalf of Xizor Transport Systems. He found his new identicard on the table, and has a sleepless night.


Four months after that, the trio is entering the Contruum system to pick up stasis generators holding seafood for delivery to Void Station when Jraan tells him to get to the turret. "What is it?" Chaelo asks, and is answered by a jolt from below. "Ah." He says to himself as he climbs up. "What are we up against, this time?"

"Five Scyks, an Arc-170, and a CR92. I think they've got Freeholder markings." Ralth tells him as he activates the ship's chin gun. "We're going to be speeding up a little, so hold on up there."

Despite having practiced on asteroids with it, Chaelo takes a breath as he thinks back to the stormtroopers he faced at Hanna. "Could yuh, i dunno, blow up those pirate slimes befawh dey get us first?!" Jraan tells him.

Chaelo watches as one of the light fighters zooms up from the front left, and when it gets to a distance where he can almost tell what species the pilot is, begins blasting away at it. He then follows and destroys a second Scyk when the Arc-170 strafes them. "I can't believe i used to draw those things." He says to himself as he fires back at it, only to see the Corvette turning away, which is explained by several X-Wing fighters showing up.

He heads down to the cockpit. "Only one light cruiser and three corvettes in this system?" He asks as he looks over Jraan's shoulder at the scanner screen.

"Mostly becawze of dat." The Capt. tells him as he points out what was left of an Imperial Nebulon-B. "De rebel's drove de empire out of dis system a few months ago."

Hearing this lifts Carlin's spirit. He can barely wait for the ship to touchdown.

With the pirate threat gone, the Drifting Dream touches down somewhere in the northern hemisphere. "How's the readout, Jraan?" Ralth asks.

"One mawh hit and we would have lost our gravity, dey took plenty of bites out of de hull, and our starboard hypuh engine should be out fawh a few hawhs." Jraan tells him. "We'd bettuh tell dem tuh skip de first part so we can save some time."

"What do we do until then?" Chaelo asks, and Jraan says they wander around until the ship is fixed. As Chaelo is looking around for anybody with a ring like the one Lokmarcha possessed, he feels someone run into him.

"Aw, holy mother of meteors! I'm so sorry." He hears from the person wearing a helmet he can't see into, but who is clearly female from the outline.

"To pla da banki danko, skocha-kloonkee." Jraan tells her as she is brushing Chaelo off.

"I said i was sorry." She says to him.

Chaelo thinks he sees her fist clenching, and grabs her wrist when she turns to leave. "You can easily compensate me by giving it back, please." He tells her with a feigned smile, only to experience another vision: the green haired woman Tano showed him, in some room watching him be gored by a Zabrak. As he instinctively looks to his torso, he is tossed to the ground. "...Stop her, she's got my cred-fold!" He shouts as he gets back up.

The three follow her to a three-way crossing. "Damn. I think we lost her." He says, fearing the possibility that she could encounter/work for any left-behind imperials while looking around for the most likely direction she could have taken, but notices a strangely familiar animal heading straight. "What is that doing here?" He thinks to himself. "Capt, I'll go on ahead." He tells them, and follows the bird until it perches itself on a second level apartment's ledge, which he notes is perfect for a thief to spot potential "prey".

He makes his way up the stairs to find the bird looking at the seventh door. "In here?" He says to it like the fool he knows he looks like for doing so, and puts an ear to the door, hearing nothing within. He looks around to ensure nobody is watching. raises a hand, and focuses as he did with the Holocron. After a few seconds, it unlocks, then he enters and shuts it. The same room from a moment ago. It seems normal enough as he stays close to the walls. "Thought you lost me, I'll bet, you wanna-be Vigo." He thinks to the absent dweller. Glancing around, he sees every manner of discarded item. A Westar-40, 2 Swoop racing trophies... though in one corner was a sort of alter for a holoplate with a looped recording of either a human, or near-human, woman in even less clothing than Karrde's moll, dancing for someone out of view.

That mystery is answered as he hears footsteps from outside, and rushes for a hiding spot. As the mysterious thief walks in, she removes her jacket and helmet with a sleeveless shirt under the former, revealing a slightly tan complexion, and the words "Bash or dice? Please say yes." tattooed in aurabesh on her right arm. "Whew, that was almost a bad cosmic deck i got today, mom." She says aloud, presumably to the 'plate, while placing 12 cred-folds on the table, but he couldn't tell which was his.

As he watched, Chaelo found himself feeling the same way he did the first time he and Toln met Fenla and when he saw first saw his favorite actress, but shook his head before seeing her go to the refresher. "What am i thinking, she just robbed me." He told himself inwardly, and took the chance to get his property back.


Chapter two.

(1) The Force Unleashed doesn't exactly happen in this universe.