It took three days for a Galactic Alliance rescue team to discover the state of the Errant Venture, and it was only after one of the children on the Star Destroyer used one of their dead parents' comm numbers to call for help. As such, all of the friends and family of everyone who died on the Venture were informed by the GA authorities who were dispatched of what had happened, though they were all warned to stay away from the Destroyer until any and all evidence could be collected by the forensic teams.
Once everything had been collected by those teams about a day later, the bodies were finally moved off the Venture and returned to their various homeworlds for identification by their loved ones and subsequent funerals. Booster Terrik's body was, of course, returned to Corellia and was being visited by the Horn family for his burial. Mara's body, meanwhile, was returned to Shedu Maad, and her corpse was personally set up by Master Cilghal in the Jedi Temple's medbay in preparation for Luke seeing her.
In the Grand Master's current fragile emotional state, he had to be aided by Han and Leia by the elbows toward the 'bay. Indeed, following Luke's emotional breakdown when he felt Mara's death through the Force, Kyp Durron had to board the Jade Shadow—which had required placing himself in a vac suit and using the Force to open up the yacht's airlock—and take over piloting duties. In the meantime, the near-catatonic Luke was promptly moved to his quarters as the subordinate Jedi brought the Shadow the rest of the way back into GA space with the other Jedi X-wings from the Empire of the Hand's space (Kyp's own X-wing was slaved to the Shadow for the remaining trip through hyperspace).
Now, as Han and Leia brought Luke over to the slab where Mara's body lay, he whispered flatly to his sister and brother-in-law, "Leave me be."
Carefully and wordlessly, Han and Leia obeyed and left the medbay. Once the sound of the door closed behind him, Luke immediately sank to his knees and broke down sobbing next to Mara's pale form. With both hands, he grabbed her right one and placed it along his cheek.
"I can't feel you anymore, Mara," he croaked. "I can't feel you anymore... through the Force. Why... why won't you... why won't you reach out to me, my love? Why... why can't you tell us where Ben's gone?"
There was no response; only the same emptiness that had pervaded Luke's soul since Mara died. He was as confused as he was aggrieved; why couldn't she reach out to him from the Force, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, or Luke's own father, Anakin? Did it have something to do with how Mara died? Did her killer do something to her with the Force that prevented her from being as one with it as Luke's teachers and father?
Of course, he couldn't even begin to muster the objectivity to even consider the answers to those questions. Never before had he felt so lost, helpless, or defeated. Not even the deaths of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, the sacrifice of Obi-Wan, his own loss to Darth Vader on Bespin, or the subsequent revelation of who he was had brought the Grand Master of the Jedi Order to this emotional low.
Indeed, that very emptiness, though he may not know it consciously yet, had weakened his powers considerably. But for now, all that he cared about was working his way through this very grief, even if he didn't think that he could.
. . .
Even with the funeral preparations and rites for Booster Terrik, his daughter Mirax, who was legally granted ownership of the Errant Venture upon her father's passing, still had the wherewithal to demand that the Star Destroyer not be moved from where Booster died until she returned from Corellia. As such, it was guarded by several ships from none other than the Smugglers' Alliance, all of whom were friends of Booster's and whom could be trusted not to pilfer anything from the Destroyer while Mirax was off grieving with her husband and children.
In spite of this, and even though it took a while to get in touch with Corran and Mirax over hypercomm, Jacen was granted permission by the Horn spouses, and, by extension, the Smugglers' Alliance ships, to board the Venture and see if there was anything he could find that the Galactic Alliance investigators might have overlooked.
Once he was aboard the Destroyer and set foot in one of its hangar bays, he let out a deep breath, closed his eyes, and did his best to engage the technique for Aing-Tii flow-walking.
Unfortunately, when Jacen opened his eyes, all he could see were grey blobs outlined in distinct shapes. And even then, those shapes, as well as the surrounding reality around him, ended up distorting at various moments, as if they were about to collapse and yank Jacen back to the present.
He sighed. Just as he was unable to fully use Fallanassi White Current illusions after he felt Jaina "die" through the Force a year ago, his ability to flow-walk had also been irrevocably compromised. Now he wasn't sure if he was going to find anything more useful than whatever the GA investigation teams discovered; his visions here might be just as helpful as the damaged and destroyed records that the Venture had.
Nevertheless, Jacen advanced on foot. He saw figures around him dropping like flies and little explosions going off overhead and in the corners of the bay. Even with the distortions and extremely muted sight, Jacen still felt horrified and sick to his stomach that someone had the will to do this, let alone have the power to do all this.
Someone. As if he truly didn't know who did all this.
He shook his head as he proceeded throughout the ship; until he was sure, he couldn't go about blaming Jaina for all of this until he had hard evidence that all of this was her fault. Yet the more death he encountered, the more he started to feel his sister's dark and tainted presence, the very same presence he felt when he fought her on Vongformed Coruscant, permeate throughout the desolated and darkened corridors of the Venture.
It wasn't long before he came across a corridor where he saw a figure leap from an open turbolift door and roll inside. From there, the figure seemingly used the Force to throw back another figure to the wall behind them before pulling the second person inside. A brief brawl ensued in which the second figure began strangling the first, and all the while, the two of them were saying something to each other with words that were as distorted to Jacen's hearing as the sight around him.
Only when a third, smaller figure called out from behind Jacen, which prompted him to look away to that figure, the Jedi quickly returned his sight to the first two people once he heard the distinct sound of a lightsaber piercing flesh.
And when he did, he froze in place as both of the larger figures abruptly solidified in form and took on the appearances of Jaina and Mara.
And the former had her red-bladed lightsaber plunged into the gut of the latter.
That was when the flow-walking shattered completely, and Jacen was left in the darkened corridor, unable to take a step from where he was. He dropped to his knees, closed his eyes, and began sobbing as the full extent of Jaina's darkness, of her betrayal to her family and the Jedi Order, began to sink into his heart and mind.
It was one thing to kill all those people and the World Brain on Coruscant, and that was more than bad enough. But for Jaina to do this... she had crossed a line that should never be crossed.
And as that thought occurred to him, Jacen was brought back to what Mara had told him when he had last seen her face-to-face.
"...you have to kill her."
As disgusted as he felt with himself right now, he couldn't help but feel great regret that he was not only unable to do so, but that he had dismissed Mara's advice out of hand. At the time, it hadn't even occurred to Jacen that Jaina was so far gone that she would resort to killing her aunt for unknown but undoubtedly selfish reasons, and the enduring fact that she was his sister had made him blanch at the idea of killing his twin. But now even that was fading away from his mental calculations; and with Ben missing, and probably enduring a fate worse than death as Jacen feared, the Knight was beginning to wonder if he had been wrong to think that Jaina could be saved.
"You can't think that, Jacen."
Jacen's tear-streaked eyes flashed open and he looked up.
In front of him, the blue-shimmering form of his long-dead brother stood before him, regarding him with a worried expression.
"Anakin!" Jacen exclaimed, though he didn't stand up. "What are you-"
"There is something left of the old Jaina left in her," Anakin interrupted. "She can still be saved. Don't give up on her. And Ben, he..."
The ghost of the Jedi began to rapidly fade in and out, and he realized this as he looked at his hands. When he looked back at Jacen, he said, "I... orry... have... a mat... bef... to go... to the Neth..."
"Anakin, what's wrong?" Jacen found himself asking.
"Ben... near... Bimmiel!"
With that, Anakin's form disappeared altogether. and Jacen was once again left alone. But this time, he had a new and urgent purpose.
He stood up and hurried to the nearest stairwell that would take him back to the Solo Quest II so that he could return to Shedu Maad and let Luke—or whoever would lead the Jedi Order now that he was severely aggrieved—know where they could start looking for Ben.
. . .
Although Adumar may have been one of the planets in the galaxy that wanted out of the Galactic Alliance because of the ongoing Chiss War, that didn't mean that the Chiss didn't see them as a target regardless. As such, the GA had no choice but to help this world defend against the invaders, and among the defenders was Captain Klauskin's Dodonna.
Unfortunately, as the battle over Adumar proceeded, the GA forces protecting it were taking a more severe beating than usual against the Chiss. There was little wonder to that, as the Chiss' own Admiral Iosha, who was acting separately from her co-commander Ulaska, was part of the invasion of Admuar. In the hours since the battle began, virtually all of the GA fighters squadrons were wiped out to the last man and all of the capital ships were currently in the process of being slagged by the Chiss' superior firepower.
The Dodonna was no exception.
Hull breaches were numerous throughout the battle carrier, and well over half of the crew were dead. Only a quarter of the Dodonna's turbolasers were still operational and firing at the clawcraft that continued to make runs against her.
At this point, any sane commander would have demanded a tactical retreat to save what was left of his own ship, even if his superior officers in the defending fleet hadn't called for it.
But Klauskin was not that sane.
"Sir!" one of the sensors officers called. "We're detecting a core overload! We have only a few minutes before the ship blows! Orders, sir?!"
Instead of responding immediately, Klauskin looked back toward his ship's viewport. There, his wife Edela looked back at him and said, "Let them evacuate, my love."
With a grimace, Klauskin pressed a button on one of the arms of his command chair as Edela faded away and said, "Attention, all hands! This is the captain. Abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship!"
Naturally, he stayed as the remainders of the bridge crew cleared out. From there, he took manual control of the Dodonna and, once he was sure that everyone on the ship was out in space via escape pods, began plotting a course towards the nearest Chiss Star Destroyer at ramming speed.
. . .
When the New Purpose dropped out of hyperspace, Darth Judicar was just in time to see, in the distance, a very punctured and holed Dodonna collide with a Chiss Star Destroyer and erupt in a brief ball of flame that consumed both ships. Judicar barely even registered the losses that the rest of the GA fleet was taking as the fact that the one person in the entire Alliance fleet that Lumiya had full control of was now gone.
Now what was Judicar to do? Had she, in her new official life as a Sith, lost her purpose even more quickly than Jaina Solo had?
Before she could plot an escape route with the rest of the now-retreating GA fleet, Judicar felt a sudden presence caress her mind.
What have we here? Another Sith?
Judicar ceased her escape and allowed her ship to hover in place as she addressed the presence.
I am Darth Judicar. To whom am I speaking?
Oh, a Darth, huh? My, my. How ambitious of you. I wonder, then, if my own Master would look fondly upon you.
You threaten me? Judicar intoned through the Force.
I am in place to do so, with the fleet that I now command.
Judicar's eyes flashed in shock over this revelation. You're Admiral Iosha of the Chiss Ascendancy?
Yes, I am. Of course, as a fellow Sith, we need not fight. After all, the Jedi are the true enemy. An alliance between my Order and you would not be unspeakable, now would it?
I suppose it's worth considering, Judicar replied warily.
Then shall we meet?
What guarantee do I have that you won't kill me?
You don't, if I'm being honest. However, I am willing to meet with you aboard your own ship, where you have the advantage. Does that sound fair to you, Lord Judicar?
After a while, she said, I will accept your terms, Admiral Iosha. I await to welcome you aboard.
. . .
Scarcely had Ben's training in the dark side of the Force begun before he was escorted from his room in the Home by a pair of Bothan mercenaries. To make sure that he couldn't use the Force against them, the human child was injected with a dose of sedatives that kept him lucid and just barely unable to use any telekinetic abilities against his captors.
Once he was aboard the cargo space for their ship, a Z-95 Headhunter, and fitted with an oxygen mask to make sure that he didn't suffocate, the leader of the mercs, Captain Byalfin Dyur, turned to Lumiya and asked, "So, as we agreed, a third now, and the second third when he gets there."
"And the last third for when I recall you back with him," Lumiya said with a nod. She held up her datapad and, after several beeps on it, looked back at Dyur and said, "You're all set, Captain."
Dyur held up his own 'pad to look at and, after a moment, returned his gaze to Lumiya. "So I am. Nice doing business with you, Miss Syo."
The two of them shook hands before Dyur turned and headed to his X-wing while his subordinates boarded the Z-95. Once they were gone and returned to their pirate vessel Boneyard Rendezvous, which was in orbit around the Home, Lumiya turned away and began her preparations for the fight that she had foreseen in her most recent vision.
