HAD ABADDON
The SuperStealther reached the acidic surface of Had Abaddon just over the mountaintops where Ultor's castle was located.
By now, Tahiri had been placed in bindercuffs and stuffed in a small compartment, where Talon and Nihl were now pulling her out, gripping her tightly.
She tried vainly to punch and kick her assailants, but was reduced to squirming as they led her to the awaiting Ultor.
"I'm still alive," Tahiri snarled at Ultor with defiance, "Isn't it your job to kill Jedi scum like me?"
Ultor laughed with amusement. "Oh, it is. But we have yet to determine how slow your death will be. We'll be keeping you alive for now."
"Whatever you plan to do, you're wasting your time," Tahiri retorted fiercely.
Ultor squatted down and leaned forward so his eyes were level with Tahiri's. She could not withhold a small yelp of fear as Ultor's breath trailed into her nostrils.
"I think you'll change your mind before long, Jedi girl. Tahiri, is it?"
Ultor beckoned for his apprentices to follow him as he exited the SuperStealther, which this time was docked in the main landing platform.
Talon and Nihl sadistically held onto Tahiri's arms with crablike grips as they dragged her along after their master.
As Ultor led them towards the dungeon, he was approached by another young apprentice, followed by two armed Shadowtroopers.
"What is it, Darth Kallus?"
"Master," the young Sith apprentice said, "We've got a host of new Twi'lek recruits from Ryloth. It seems that much of that population is sympathetic to the Coalition cause."
"Good work," Ultor replied without breaking stride or looking at Kallus, "The Republic knows well by now that we are not to be dismissed."
In the distance, the Twi'leks were being fitted by the mysterious Shadowtroopers with their new armor and weapons, ready to do the bidding of the new Sith movement via the Freedom Coalition.
The dungeon cells each consisted of a scan grid bound to the walls where prisoners were tortured for information. That was really the only reason why the Coalition took prisoners in the first place, and even that was very rare.
Tahiri cried out in agony as the tiny metal propeller blade cut into her hand and sent a jolt of burning through her bones.
Ultor stood in front of her with a sinister grin.
"Now that you've gotten a taste of what you're in for, maybe now you'll see things from our point of view."
Tahiri lashed in pain, trying desperately to get rid of the poison that she felt inside her.
"You won't be affected either way, so you may as well tell me to make things easier. I want the location of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy. You know how well he keeps the secret of where it is."
"I'm not telling you anything, slimeball," Tahiri growled at him, still clenching from the pain of her torture.
Ultor growled impatiently and flicked a switch that sent a small electrical current through Tahiri's veins. She cried out as her blood literally boiled inside her, screaming so that her cries echoed throughout neighboring cells.
"Quite a performance you're putting on there," Ultor mused, "Why don't we skip the drama and cut to the chase?"
Tahiri didn't reply once she had stopped screaming, and couldn't have if she had tried.
"One more time- on what planet is the Jedi Academy?"
Tahiri gasped for breath as the pain seared through her. She managed to look up cross-eyes at her captor.
"Too bad you couldn't find it after five years of looking," she breathed, "You must feel pretty silly."
Ultor raised a leather-clad hand as though to slap the teenage girl, but instead put it gently against Tahiri's smooth cheek.
Tahiri's insides shuffled with more intensity than anything else he had dared through at her.
"Such a pretty young face," Ultor said, as calm as ever, "Full of potential."
"Get..off..." Tahiri panted.
With a roar, Ultor slapped down on another switch, which brought another small propeller up to Tahiri's face on one side, and a needle on the other.
Her screams were even louder as the tools dug into her cheeks, before suddenly becoming hoarse from exhaustion.
HYPERSPACE
"What in the universe was that?" was Sam's irritated question as he sat up.
Setting the Harvest's course on autopilot, Kira slid down and squatted next to him.
"I'm sorry for doing that, Sam," she said, more calm than she had been on Ord Mantell, "But awful things could be happening to Tahiri now."
"I could get in a lot of trouble for this!" Sam snapped at her, causing some of Kira's bad feelings to begin to resurface, "I hope you'll hold yourself just as accountable as I will be."
"Are you even listening to me right now?"
"Where are we, anyway?"
"I don't know," Kira answered ruefully, "I don't even know where those people took her to."
"Well, since you've knocked me out and hijacked my ship up here..." Sam began.
"Please don't tell me to turn back," Kira pleaded, "I just can't go back to everyone else right now. I really can't."
She gave the commander her big brown eyes, and he sighed with a mix of sympathy and annoyance before continuing.
"Since we're all the way up here," Sam said, "I suppose you would have some kind of plan by now, at least?"
"You're always out fighting the Coalition across the galaxy," Kira replied, feeling comforted by Sam's tacit agreement to help her, "I'm sure you know where they have ships that travel to and from wherever their main base is."
Sam climbed up to his feet, and seeing him struggle, Kira took his hand with both of hers and pulled him up.
"The Nimban system might be a safe bet," Sam replied, sitting in the copilot seat next to Kira, normally occupied by Captain McCallum.
"All right then," Kira said, looking to her right and smiling at her new mission partner, "Setting course for the Nimban system."
"Wait!" Sam suddenly exclaimed.
Kira frowned in confusion. "What is it?"
"We shouldn't do lightspeed."
"I don't know if you heard what's happening to Tahiri, but we can't exactly afford to take our time."
"We won't, it's not a far away system from Ord Mantell," Sam promised, "but it'll be crawling with Coalition ships, and they'll be able to detect a Republic command shuttle if it comes out of lightspeed near their system."
Despite the situation, Kira could not help but genuinely feel impressed.
"You really do know your way around, don't you?"
"Like you said, I deal with the Coalition a lot," Sam replied with a shrug.
"Well, now I have some experience too," Kira retorted lightheartedly as she sped on forward.
CORUSCANT, CORE WORLDS
Even from space, the differences between Coruscant during the New Republic era from the time of the Empire were very visible.
Luke and Leia had each been to Coruscant many times since the end of Palpatine's reign, and Leia had even regularlyvisited with her father before the Rebellion had risen up. For his part, Luke had originally hosted the Jedi Order in the former Jedi Temple on Coruscant before Skyler's betrayal.
Yet even now, the massive city planetwas a novelty to them as they soared through the clouds, to the many hangars and spaceports directly on top of the skyscrapers, which varied greatly in shape.
Aerial traffic was as busy as every through the sky lanes, as was the public train system, far more advanced than that of Ord Mantell.
The domed Senate building now had four additional towers attached to it, dwarfing the original structure by several hundred meters.
The Skywalker twins flew the Falcon towards the Senatebuilding.
The easternmost tower consisted of thousands of garages for individual transports to be parked, including a place designated for Corellia's representation.
Luke and Leia flew towards the small, metallic shedand prepared to dock the Millennium Falcon.
"How I missed this place," remarked Threepio.
"I can't quite say the same," Leia murmured as they climbed down from the cockpit.
"Come on," Luke said as they all proceeded from the Falcon's ramp onto the garage floor. The droids followed their owners from the hangar floor into the corridor dangling between the domed Senate and the tower, which turned into a staircase.
"Senator Organa Solo, Master Skywalker," came the greetings of dignitaries passing by.
Luke and Leia nodded and waved in return before proceeding to join Leia's handmaidens and staff, who silently followed her lead towards the Senate floor.
NIMBAN
Sure enough, there two Sith cruisers looming over the neon green surface of Nimban, while Syck and Kihraxz fighters were traveling back and forth between the Coalition command ships and the planet surface.
From the vantage point of the Blue Harvest, the planet's spherical surface seemed very small, as they could only approach it very slowly.
"We'd better make sure to stay away from those ships," Sam advised.
"Good point," Kira replied, steering the shuttle farther away, towards the southern pole of the surfaceof Nimban.
"You know...I didn't see a lot, but I think you were a good match for those two," Sam piped up.
Kira gaped at him, slightly startled as well as pleased.
"You really think so?"
"I mean you and your friend...Tahiri, was it?"
"Right, of course."
"You know, your parents know that you're tough, right?That you can handle things."
"Of course they do," Kira replied, "And Master Skywalker."
"I think they're always going to think of you as a kid though. Thats family for you." There was a hint of longing in the pilot's voice.
"You don't think of me as a kid, do you, Sam?"Kira immediately knew that his pause before answering was not the answer she wanted to hear.
"I guess not. I mean, you were kind of annoying when I met you, but I have to admire your guts."
"Oh, really?" Kira replied, disguising her internal gushing with smugness, "You'll have to elaborate on that a bit more."
"Look, why don't we focus on landing in a good spot so that we can find a ship to track."
"Do you know how we're going to track them?" Kira asked.
"This was your idea!" Sam replied, "But I've got plenty of tracking devices on my ship."
They circled around until no Coalition vessels were in view. Then, Kira sped down towards the planetary atmosphere, taking in the sight of towering algae and the flowing juices coming in streams from the vegetation structures into the rivers.
The Coalition base was a small, metallic building built next to a lake of algae emerging from it.
A large gunship flew down from the Dor'bulla vessel hovering within the sleek white clouds towards the fungal ground level. The ship was designed to support the weight of least one Hutt inside.
Gorga the Hutt slithered from the gunship as it landed, followed by four IG bodyguards as well as his major domo, an orange Toydarian named Krunge, and a black protocol droid.
Inside the base, where Gammoreans and Niktos stood guard, the Hutt said to Krunge, "Patch me to the Dark Master."
Krunge relayed the orders to the Nikto operating the communication system in the proper dialect.
HAD ABADDON
Darth Ultor stepped out of the dungeon into the castle's main hangar.
"Has she talked yet, Master?" asked Talon, who had been eagerly waiting.
"She's a work in progress," Ultor replied, "But for now, I have a meeting with the Hutts."
"With your permission, may I give it a shot myself, Lord Ultor?"
"If you think you can get her to talk, then go right ahead."
Ultor entered a turbolift leading up to the main communication network, which consisted of a massive holotable where no beings occupied except for the odd Shadowguard hidden in the shadows, as the name would suggest.
Ultor pressed the button to respond to the signal from Nimban. "Mighty Gorga," he said to the life-sized figure before him, "I've gotten your message from your lackey Krunge."
"Lackey?" Krunge protested, before Gorga bellowed, "Quiet!"
Gorga spoke in Huttese, from which the protocol droid, TC-77 translated. "His excellency wishes to know what you think of his threat to pull the Hutt clans out of the Freedom Coalition and suspend military aid."
Inwardly, Ultor was raging up a storm. He could crush this slimy beast with a simple hand gesture, along with all of his slug relatives. But he needed them, at least for the time being.
"Your exaltedness," he said, careful to use tact with his words and tone alike, "I still believe, with due respect, that the Coalition and the Hutt clans can still mutually benefit one another."
Gorga replied skeptically, which translated into, "What about the defeat of Black Sun on Ord Mantell. How do we know you won't forsake us the way you did the Vigos?"
"I hold a great deal of respect for the Hutts," Ultor promised, lying through his teeth with great pleasure, "And I promise you that you will be rewarded for your long years of service in the name of freedom from both the Old Republic and the Galactic Empire. It should be the right of such clans of yourselves to trade and operate as you see fit, regulation notwithstanding. Now, with Black Sun crippled, you have a chance to seize more than you ever thought possible."
"The powerful and supreme Gorga would be appreciative if you would elaborate on such a proposal, Dark Master."
Ultor smiled at his Hutt ally.
"My good friend, do you remember the age of the Old Republic? The Coruscanti underworld was the most powerful stronghold of the Hutt clans, completely unregulated. What if I was to suggest that we could help you take back the Coruscant underworld within a day?"
"How do you propose such an action?" Gorga asked, but Ultor knew that he had caught the Hutt's interest.
"Mighty Gorga, I have powerful apprentices, and you have a powerful army at your service. The Jedi are distracted by the Republic Senate, and the Republic forces are scattered. They will have difficulty maintaining their security presence below the Upper Levels."
"You have a plan of attack?"
"Oh, trust me, I know Coruscant well," Ultor replied, "Once you rally your forces, my apprentices will lead you to the underworld, where you will reclaim the former glory of the Hutt Empire to the maximum!"
Talon, Nihl, Kallus, and the three other young Sith apprentices whom Ultor had recruited appeared before him in his throne room, all kneeling.
"You summoned us, Dark Master?"
"Yes," Ultor replied. "I have managed to convince the sniveling Hutts to stay with us after the Ord Mantell incident. The Coalition will be launching an attack on Coruscant's underbelly, where the Hutt Cartel will once again be in control. This will shake up the core of the Republic and force it to reckon with us like it never has before."
"When do we strike, my lord?" Talon asked.
"I will send you to Coruscant once the Hutts have assembled their army of mercenaries and bounty hunters," Ultor replied, "there you will rendezvous with them. Darth Nihl, you will be leading the attack."
Nihl smiled and replied, "It will be the greatest honor, Master."
Talon rose to her feet, her hand reaching to her lightsaber in protest.
"Him?" she cried, "After I've proven to be the best of everybody here time and time again?"
"Relax, my apprentice," Ultor said, getting up from his throne and walking slowly towards the red-skinned Twi'lek, "I have another mission for you, a far more important one."
Ultor placed his gloved hand on Talon's smooth, flawless cheek, although unlike the prisoner Tahiri, Talon grinned with pleasure at the touch.
CORUSCANT
As Luke, Leia, and their companions made their way through the Senate to the main chamber hall, Admiral Ackbar appeared from the crowd, rushing to wring their hands with his wrinkled, webbed ones.
"Senator Solo, Master Skywalker!" he exclaimed, "Chief Fey'lya is very impatient. You must hurry!"
"Do you think we can get him to budge on the issue?" Leia asked.
"It's only a matter of delaying the inevitable," Ackbar replied grimly as he joined them.
They walked through one of the many sliding doors into Corellia's Senator booth, a full rectangular prism protected by a field of energy. Each of the planetary representatives and their entourage was stationed inside the energy-protected booths, of which there were several hundred inside the upgraded Senate arena.
From down below, a large, round sphere began rising out of the floor, spiraling upwards as the pole holding it up grew in size until stopping in the direct center of the hall.
The Bothan Chief Borsk Fey'lya was accompanied by Vizier Omas, who was also Supreme Commander of the New Republic military. His decorated uniform never failed to remind anybody who came across him. They were both flanked by robed and masked guards, who carried long, metal pikes that reminded Luke of Emperor Palpatine's royal guards.
"Order, order!" Chief Fey'lya shouted with his deep voice.
His face appeared on the translucent screen that filled the center of the arena, giving each individual a clear view of his furry, snouted face.
"As you all know, the Senate is being called to session today to discuss an urgent matter, one concerning the Jedi Order led by Grand Master Luke Skywalker, who is here with us today."
The screen filling the arena suddenly was filled with Luke's unwilling face instead, before switching back to Fey'lya's.
"Master Skywalker is here with us today in order to give his view on the issue, along with his sister Leia Organa Solo, who is also a Jedi Master as well as Senator of the Republic system of Corellia."
"As if everyone doesn't already know all this," Leia muttered to her brother.
"Just wait," he encouraged her in response.
"Now, our vote today concerns the matter of the growing war against the so-called Freedom Coalition," Fey'lya said, "A well-known terrorist organization that is enacting horrific crimes against Republic worlds. Supreme Commander, you now have the floor."
The massive screen now focused on the visage of Cal Omas.
"As strong as our military is," Omas explained to the assembled legislative body, "It is not nearly enough to combat the growing power of the Coalition. This war will not end until the Jedi are in it all the way."
Leia pressed down on the panel on her screen.
"Senator Solo?"
"If I may object, Grand Vizier Omas," Leia said with all of the professionalism and diplomacy ingrained into her since childhood, "I'd like to provide an alternative point of view on the Jedi's role in the conflict. My brother here is as dedicated to the wellbeing of the Republic and the galaxy as a whole as anybody in this Senate chamber. He does not want to Coalition to win any more than you do. But the Jedi are not meant for active warfare. They...I mean we, are not a military body."
"Not meant for active warfare?" scoffed Fey'lya from the Chief's booth, "Do you forget the Clone Wars?"
It was now Luke himself who spoke up before the assembled Senate.
"Chief and Grand Vizier, I have no intention of stepping aside while the Coalition terrorizes the population. We are not neutral by any means. My Jedi Knights are all over the galaxy keeping the Coalition from hurting the innocent. But with respect, I must insist that the Jedi not become generals again. We are here to protect the people and the galaxy. But we will not actively seek out battle. It goes against our very nature."
Fey'lya stroked his bearded chin as he absorbed Luke's speech, thinking of a proper rebuttal.
Omas scowled for all of the Senators to see plainly. It was he who had the rebuke against Luke's words.
"I don't know what moral code you are trying to profess, Master Jedi, but you must realize that sending single Jedi to hop from planet to planet won't be enough," he said with a thinly veiled hint of contempt, "If you let your little...rules interfere with what is truly best for the galaxy, can you really claim superiority over the enemies you claim to stand against?"
Luke paused and took a breath, making sure that his next rebuke did not reflect any of the annoyance or frustration boiling beneath the surface of his Jedi training.
"The Jedi have been serving the galaxy since it first existed. It does not need to be part of a war to keep the people safe."
"Since it first existed, the Jedi have also been duty bound to the Republic," Omas pointed out, "From the Great Hyperspace War to the Clone Wars. Are you intending to desecrate the Jedi's role in the functioning of our free society?"
"Objection!" came a voice from one of the other booths, with Senator Norbreef Traus from Sullust speaking up, "The Jedi are not bound to the New Republic by law, or required to wage war by the Constitution!"
"Oh, I beg to differ!" Twi'lek Senator Dein Free Taa cut in, "The Coalition attack on Ryloth is the responsibility of the Jedi! I don't understand why the Jedi aren't launching mass scale invasions of Coalition friendly worlds like the Hutt Systems when they certainly have the capacity!"
The Hutt Senator Duran spoke up, his Huttese translated by captions on the screen filling up the center of the arena hall.
"The Republic shows it's true colors! No better than the Empire!"
"Order! Order!" yelled Chief Fey'lya, waiting for the angry and passionate rabble to die down.
"Is the Senate always this riled up?" Luke whispered to his twin sister.
"You don't know the half of it," Leia replied.
"Master Skywalker, what do you have to say in response to the discourse here in the Senate?" Fey'lya interrogated, his narrow eyes drilling into Luke from the broadcasting screen.
"I want it known that I have no sympathy for the Coalition or their motives," Luke replied, "Nor does the Order as a group. But we will not make the mistake of becoming subservient to a governing body again."
"Traitor!" shouted Malastarian Gran Roth Teem.
But it was Triclops from Nar Shaddaa who dropped the biggest bomb in the Senate, one that made Luke's blood boil and his heart race with fast intensity:
"I think it is worth mentioning that both Master Skywalker and his sister Senator Solo are the children of Darth Vader, the most evil war criminal in recent history-"
Leia gripped her brother's hand in alarm as Triclops continued his speech.
"And we should not forgo the possibility that their family ties cloud their loyalties to the Republic and concern for its best interests."
This caused even more intense exchanges of verbal sparring between the members of Congress, with both supporters and detractors of the Skywalkers going after one another with vigorous fury.
"We will have order!" Omas declared.
"The Senate will enter recess while we prepare to make the ultimate vote," Fey'lya declared, "All I know is that we cannot continue to debate for much longer."
His furry face disappeared from the screen, which then flickered into nothing.
Turning to her brother, Leia said dreadfully, "I don't think there's any chance of this being a fair vote. Omas and Fey'lya will have intimidated almost everyone into voting their way."
"Whatever they decide, the Jedi doesn't have to go along with it," Luke replied, "The Order is no longer subject to the rulings of the Senate and their mandates."
"But how are we going to explain this in a court of law?" Leia asked.
Luke didn't have an immediate answer, but was left to wonder in contemplation, closing his eyes to enter a state of meditation.
