Chapter Two

Vector placed his palms on the holo terminal and leaned forward on his arms, his head down and eyes closed. A great sigh left his lungs before he heaved himself upright to face the crew, even Scorpio was present.

"She said that no one had detected Darth Marr's death, which means that if he is still alive, then Rey'elle could be also. We must make haste to return and search for her."

Scorpio spoke for the first time. "There is a high probability that if they did survive, they are either living on borrowed time or have been captured. Your assessment may be hopeful but not prudent, the numbers are not in her favor."

Vector turned to Scorpio's dispassionate face. "Prudent or not, search, we will. We suggest you use that great intellect of yours to monitor transmissions, look for patterns, or do a calculation that, for once, doesn't annoy the shit out of everyone."

"Wishful thinking and childish emotion will not change the outcome, but I will comply."

Vector turned to Raina next. "How long until the refuel is complete?"

"Another two hours at least. We are fortunate that Bakura is, currently, not under Republic control. They are an independent democratic society not aligned with any faction at the moment. There is a cantina not far from here. Might I suggest that a few of us go and check with some of the locals to see if we can glean any information about this new fleet?"

"Good idea, Raina. You go and take Dr. Lokin with you."

"Why Lokin?" pouted Kaliyo.

"Because we can trust him to stay out of trouble, a talent you have yet to develop. We need information, not entanglements with local law enforcement."

"Fine," she spat as she left the room.

"I am so relieved that Vector did not saddle me with Kaliyo," said Raina as she and Lokin walked out of the hangar.

"So am I, my dear. I know, first hand, how unpredictable she can be. She is pure survival instinct and adrenalin mixed with a cunning mind, a dangerous combination. Plus I believe she was born without a conscience, if such a thing can be. I think our agent is the closest thing she ever had to a friend and I dread what she will become without her guidance."

Raina glanced sidelong at Lokin's face. "Oh, I am sorry, doctor, I forgot about your relationship with her."

"Not to worry," he laughed. "I never expected any permanence from our little tryst. Kaliyo is not built for anything long lasting, and perhaps neither am I. We tested each other's limits and parted before any damage could be done. I look back on it now as an experiment, a very satisfying experiment."

The cantina was small, likely designed for spacer traffic and an after work hangout for spaceport employees. Raina and Lokin walked up to the bar and were greeted by the bartender.

"So, what can I get you folks? We don't get much from the core worlds but we have a nice local ale and wine."

Lokin turned to Raina for a moment, then replied, "I'll have the ale, and the lady will have a glass of wine."

Lokin took a sip of the ale the barkeep set in front of him, it was a little bland for his taste, but he still complimented the drink. He turned slightly on the stool and scanned the room, not many people were present, likely due to the hour.

"So, you guys just passing through?" asked the barkeep, trying to be congenial.

"Stopped for a refuel, but we are looking to expand trade into wild space. Spacecraft technology to be more specific."

"Won't find much of that here on Bakura. Closest thing we have to tech is the repulsorlift coil factory, we import most of what we need, tech wise."

"I see," said Lokin. "We have heard rumors of a large fleet that prowls these sectors and were hoping that we might gain access to new technology, if the rumors are true, of course."

The bartender laughed. "You mean the 'ghost fleet'? We hear about it from spacers and freighter pilots from time to time, but we ain't never seen such a thing on Bakura. It's mostly just bullshit tales from someone who's had too much to drink or trying to get female company for the night. I wouldn't put much stock in it, if I were you."

"That's what we were afraid of, sorry to say," said Lokin as he and Raina got up to leave. He slid enough credits to pay for the drinks, plus a little extra and they walked toward the exit.

They were barely out of the cantina when they heard someone hailing them. "Hey, hey you! I seen that fleet once."

Lokin and Raina turned around to face a small thin man in spacer garb. His sandy hair was greasy and he had a scar that ran across his nose and onto his cheek. His pale blue eyes seemed twitchy, which put them both on alert, but they wanted to hear what he had to say nonetheless.

"Do tell," said Lokin. "And just how much will you want for this tale of yours?"

"Umm, just enough for a drink or two, I don't want no trouble."

"Please, regale us with your story. You will get your credits if the tale is worthwhile."

"Uh, ok. It was a few months ago. I had dropped out of hyperspace a few thousand parsecs from Bakura to fix a burned out wiring harness that would have caused some serious problems with my sublights. Anyway, there in the distance I saw them. So many ships they blocked out the stars behind them, then they were just gone, disappeared like ghosts.

"Big things they were, weird configuration, all in perfect formation like nothing human was at the controls. Gave me the creeps, I tell ya. Ain't nothin' I ever want to see again."

"Any idea where they came from or went back to?" asked Raina.

"No, ma'am," he said as he shuffled from foot to foot. "Who would have the resources to even build something like that?"

"Who indeed?" pondered Lokin as he pressed a twenty credit chip into the spacer's hand.

"We'd better get back to the ship or Vector will be furious," said Raina.

"I expect we will be seeing a lot of that from him."

"I worry about him more than any of the rest of us."

"As do I, Raina, as do I."

Vector was pacing again when Raina and Lokin entered the ship. He stopped when they approached.

"Well, did you learn anything?"

"Nothing beyond the fact that the fleet exists. On Bakura, at least, it has been relegated to a ghost tale, however, we did speak with a spacer who had seen it, but only briefly. He has no idea where it hails from nor its destination."

Vector rubbed his forehead. "We are no worse off than where we began but no better either. The refueling is completed and the bill paid. Raina, if you would, please take us away from here and back to our previous position, we have little time to waste."

Raina nodded and proceeded to the cockpit. They felt the repulsorlifts engage and the slight drag of gravity as the Phantom eased out of the spaceport and began its ascent into the sky.

Vector was about to leave when Lokin grabbed his arm. "How are you doing? Have you eaten anything yet?"

"Membrosia will sustain us, doctor, we have little appetite for anything else."

"Only part of an answer, Vector. How are you doing?"

Vector looked at him with those bottomless black orbs. "We dare not speak of other things. We will do what must be done and face the future as it presents itself. We have nothing but tenuous hope and memories now."

He disengaged Lokin's hand and headed toward the cargo hold where he would spend most of the next two days practicing with his staff to the point of exhaustion, only to rest a while and start all over again.

They exited hyperspace amid giant chunks of debris left by the destruction of Marr's destroyer and the other vessels. Raina cut immediately to booster rockets to navigate through the huge pieces of torn metal that floated all around, each rotating slowly but dead nonetheless.

Tiny pieces of debris pinged off the hull and twice a body somersaulted toward them, limbs frozen akimbo, mouths locked in a silent scream and slid over the cockpit window. A terrible reminder that space is a lonely place to die and kills with equal aplomb.

They scanned for lifesigns and any signs of the escape pods, monitoring wideband frequencies for any indication of life. They found two damaged escape pods and docked carefully with each, sending 2VR8 inside to scout, and although there were bodies on board, none were Rey'elle.

They had been searching for nearly two days, going in a grid pattern with agonizing slowness until they were nearly outside the area of debris. Kaliyo had taken over the controls and Raina was exiting the cockpit, when suddenly she grabbed the door frame to keep herself from falling. She had paled beneath her dark complexion and Vector moved to steady her.

"What is it Raina?"

"Just a dizzy spell, probably over tired, I'll be fine."

"Come with us," said Vector as he took her arm and helped her to the crew quarters, shutting the door as they entered.

"Raina, we know about you and the force. Please tell us what actually happened."

"She told you? I cannot believe she would break such a confidence with me."

"It was so we could help protect you if needed, Raina. We would never divulge your secret and we believe you know us well enough by now to understand this. Please, it could be important."

Raina sighed and sat on the edge of her bunk, still visibly shaken. "My force abilities are meager at best, but even I felt this. Someone of immense power has passed beyond the veil and the ripple was unmistakable."

"Do you know who it could have been?" asked Vector.

"I am not strong enough in the force to determine who. I am sorry."

"We must contact Minister Beniko with all due haste. She will know."

Vector left Raina and punched in the code to connect to Sith Intelligence. He would let it chime on their end until someone picked up, even if it took all day.

At last the same young man picked up on the other end. "Ah, Mr. Hyluss. Minister Beniko is unavailable at the moment, I'm afraid. I am not in a position to divulge any further information. Perhaps if you tried again later?"

Vector struggled to keep his voice level. "Later will not do. We have had an occurrence here that requires we contact her. I assure you, we will not take much of her time."

"Very well, let me see what I can do."

Several minutes passed before the image of Lana Beniko appeared. "Be quick, Vector. I have no time, too much is happening."

"We felt a change, Minister Beniko. Something very strong, we assume you have felt something also?"

"I did not realize joiners were force sensitive."

"We are not, but we do listen to the universe and the song has changed, something monumental has occurred," Vector lied.

"We felt the passing of Darth Marr. The ripple was very strong and there is no doubt that he is dead. Too many things are happening for me to spend any more time on this. They have already begun to engage our forces and we are not doing well.

"I must go, but I do request, again, that you and your crew return to Dromund Kaas. There will be no repercussions for your previous insubordinate action. We will have need of every able bodied person if we hope to stem the tide. Beniko out."

The confirmation of Marr's passing did nothing to ease Vector's already tortured mind. He stood by the terminal, unable to speak, while the inevitability of Rey'elle's death crashed against him again, drowning him anew in despair.

"Vector?" Kaliyo called from the cockpit. "What do you want me to do now? We are well outside the debris field."

Vector was replaying the scene of Marr's exploding ship again in his head, trying to see it from any angle that would reignite just the tiniest flicker of hope, and it always ended the same way with the white light and the end of her song.

Dr. Lokin placed his hand on Vector's arm, interrupting his thoughts. "Vector, what do we do? We cannot stay here forever and search in the same area indefinitely."

Vector delayed his analysis long enough to respond. "Doctor, it was approximately six days from the time Marr's ship exploded until his death was sensed. That means that he was taken prisoner, for a time, and a ship can travel tens of thousands of parsecs in five or six days.

"The problem is that we do not have a direction to follow, it could take months or years to find out where, since wild space is basically unexplored and unmapped. It would take another expeditionary foray into this region and we all saw how that ended.

"If Rey'elle is still alive, she is here, somewhere and we may never find her. We must wait for more information. Kaliyo, we will sweep the debris one more time, then go back to Dromund Kaas. It will be a long journey from this end of the galaxy back to sith space."

"Are you sure, my boy? How do we know we won't be arrested on sight?" asked Lokin.

"Because Beniko didn't ask us to trust her, she simply stated fact. We see no other avenue open to us, and though it tests our soul, it seems we must abandon our search for Rey'elle, for now, but we will never give up until we either hold her again or lay her bones to rest."