ELEVEN
The afternoon sun slanted deeply across the glassy water of Tuma Lake, reflecting yellow and orange sparkles onto the shore. Two haln birds, their purple tails like streaks of shadow, dove toward the lake and came up with wriggling fish in their beaks. A breeze blew across the gathered sentients, ruffling fur and clothing and carrying the scent of hifa to the crowd.
Mission smiled and shook a Bothan's hand. "Senator Kamalla, it's been a pleasure. I hope the committee enjoyed this visit to the reconstructed area. We hope to have several more areas repaired in the next year."
The Senator nodded to her gravely. "The pleasure is all mine, I assure you," he said. "The Reconstruction Project has come a remarkable way in only five years. I hoped, but I never truly believed that we would ever again stand on the surface of Telos without containment suits. Your work here has been commendable."
"Not my work, Senator," she quickly protested, smile still across her face. "This has all been the Ithorians' doing. Without the work of Chodo Habat and his herd, none of this would have been possible. I just try to help everyone talk to each other."
"Of course, of course," the Senator backtracked. "The Republic truly owes a debt to the Ithorian people." He looked out toward the lake contemplatively.
"Okay, that's a wrap," a voice called.
The Senator immediately turned away from a lake and toward a harried aide with a handful of datapads. "What's next on the agenda?" he asked.
The aide started to guide the Senator toward the transport ship. "We have a fundraiser on Deralia for its senator's reelection campaign, and then the Trade Council wants to discuss pirating in their sector. After that, if there's time, we promised that medical station that you would check in on the children's wing." He glanced anxiously at his chrono and walked faster. "Then tomorrow, we have. . ." his voice faded as he walked the Senator out of Mission's earshot.
Kaxtrax sidled up to Mission. "Does he care only for what the holonet will show?" the Ithorian grumbled.
Mission laughed as she watched the press gathering up its equipment and Senators being hustled to the transport. None of them even noticed how resistant the grass below their feet was to being trampled. She shook her head. "Nope, but who cares? We got the funding we wanted for the rest of the year. And next year is an election year, so they'll look like jerks if they deny the funding then. Senator Kamalla can have all the interviews he wants, as far as I'm concerned."
Kaxtrax nodded her head. "You understand the political herds better than I. But onto happier topics. Chodo Habat asked me to invite you and your herdlings for the evening meal, to celebrate."
"That sounds great," Mission said, "but first I have to check something out nearby." She walked with Kaxtrax toward her speeder. She had arranged to transport to the surface separately for this reason.
"A disturbance?" Kaxtrax asked. "Is it the same one you have been tracking on the satellite?"
Mission nodded, pulling on a containment suit after she was sure the press had all gotten on the transport. She climbed into the speeder. "Yeah, I keep getting readings like someone is moving around up there, but the satellites haven't shown anything on visual. I think one of the sensors must be malfunctioning or something."
"Are you sure you should travel alone?" Kaxtrax swung her head in a worried fashion.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just a blitzed sensor, after all. I'll see you tonight." Mission pulled down the cockpit cover and accelerated out toward the polar region. With one hand, she fumbled around behind her and pulled out a blaster from the rack. She made sure the safety was on but kept it close at hand. She expected no problems, but it never hurt to be safe.
A couple of hours later, she carefully set the speeder down on a flat patch of ice near one of the old irrigation silos. Snow had fallen recently and made walking on the ice easier. Mission flipped down the sunshade on her helmet to reduce the white glare of the sun. She approached the irrigation silo warily, flashlight in one hand, blaster in the other.
She circled the silo, looking for any signs of entry. This was where the anomalous readings originated, but she didn't see any indication that anyone had been here lately. Of course, she reminded herself, the new snow would have covered any tracks in the slushy ice near the silo. Blaster up, she tugged on the door to the silo. The door made a report like a blaster rifle and she jumped.
"Chill, Mission," she muttered to herself. A small voice inside of her asked what the hell she was doing out here in the polar regions by herself while her husband was on away duty and her children were at home with their play group. What if she died?
She pushed those thoughts away, promising herself she would finish quickly, and shined her flashlight into the dark silo. It was about ten meters in diameter, and she could see the outlines of equipment and old computer systems in the dark. "Hello?" she called. Her voice echoed back to her. "Anyone in here?" She fumbled around the doorway and found the lighting panel. The room lit up, and Mission gasped.
"What the hell?" she whispered. In the center of the room was some kind of holoprojector, and around the perimeter of the room were half a dozen red pyramids. She knew what they were only because she had seen pictures of the secret Academy on Telos that the Exile had destroyed last year. They were Sith holocrons.
With a loud crack that made Mission jump again, the holoprojector abruptly lit up. A blue hologram appeared, jumpy with static. Mission quickly shut off her light and backed up toward the door. She glanced around outside the silo but saw no one coming. Perhaps this was some kind of automated message. She looked back at the holo. It showed some kind of sentient she'd never before encountered, speaking in a language she couldn't understand. The alien didn't appear to be able to see her on this end. Mission held her breath and walked back into the room toward the holotable. She linked her datapad and downloaded the source of the signal—somewhere in the Unknown Regions.
The static made it difficult to tell what the alien was doing, but it appeared to be typing something in on its end. A ball of white light began collecting in the center of the holotable, spinning like it was a ball of string gathering mass. It grew until it was about half a meter across, then it exploded outward.
Mission yelped and ducked down as the light shot over her head. Looking up awkwardly from her crouch, she could see that it had split into six strands and connected to the holocrons around the room. When the light touched the holocrons, they jumped to life, hissing something ugly into the tiny room. The sound echoed off of the walls of the silo until the whole room vibrated. Mission's datapad started up an alarm—clearly, this was what had been setting off her motion detectors. But what the hell was it? The noise grew, and the light continued to pour into the holocrons until Mission almost couldn't stand to listen to it, and then it suddenly stopped. The figure in the hologram bowed respectfully and then cut the connection.
The sudden silence was almost as terrifying as the noise had been. Mission crouched for another few moments, unsure of what to do. Then the fear reached her brain and she ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She jumped into her speeder and pressed the throttle down as far as it would go. Her only thought for some time was to put as much distance between her and that awful place as possible.
After she calmed down, and when it was clear that no one was following her, Mission sent a signal back to the polar perimeter that would record the passage of every creature larger than a haln bird. If she was right, and those holocrons were collecting something, it stood to reason that someone would eventually come by to pick it up. She had seen enough Sith work in her life to know that something Dark was going on, and she wasn't remotely qualified to handle it.
But now what? She couldn't very well tell the Ithorians about this—they were a great species, but superstitious, and she was worried they might refuse to continue work on the planet if they thought something Dark was contaminating it. Three years ago, she would have contacted Jolee, but the Jedi Massacre had made that impossible. If she told the Fleet, word would get back to the Senate and put her funding in jeopardy.
She finally pulled up her comm and sent a recorded message to the only person she could think of who would help her discreetly. "Carth, I hope you get this message, because you're not gonna believe what's going on here."
Dustil couldn't tell if the hissing was real or just in his head. He couldn't quite hear it, but he could feel it like a dull ache at the base of his skull. If he hummed to himself, he could almost drown it out, but the humming didn't help the crawling anxiety that he could feel through the Bond with Case. He had the terrible sense, growing more powerful by the second, that they were almost too late.
"Dustil?"
"Huh?" he asked, turning around to see his father looking at him with raised eyebrows. Pellek clambered over the lip of the canyon and stood behind Carth, catching her breath. Dustil thought she was smirking in spite of the sweat matting her hair to her face.
"Are you all right?" Carth asked. "Do you know which way to go?"
Dustil realized he had been standing still at the top of the canyon for some time. The mountain range leveled out for a short distance, with two narrow paths gradually inclining toward a series of caves. His first thought was that his father and Pellek must think he was sleeping on his feet. But then he saw the flicker of suspicion on his father's face. The same damn suspicion he'd been seeing since Vintar. "I told you an hour ago that we were close," Dustil snapped, "and we're still close. I'll tell you when we get there." He turned around and chose the right fork.
The static in his head was loud. We're coming, Case, he thought grimly, and the static seemed to dim.
They walked for the better part of the morning, not that Dustil could tell from the sun what time of day it was. The curves of the rocky path were starting to look familiar to him. It was all foggy, like he'd been here in a dream, but he knew that wasn't right. He couldn't remember walking through here with Case, but he could vaguely recall running back through here with a Sith chasing him. He saw a cave entrance with remains of a fire inside and wondered if he had stopped there. Why would he have stopped if he was being chased?
The light changed, and Dustil noticed something on the wall ahead of him, something dark against the gray rock. He squinted at it and realized it was half a handprint in blood. Dustil's breath caught and he looked instinctively at his own hand. He had a flash of himself stumbling away from the wall, hand on his wounded leg to stop the blood. He had been here. They were close.
They reached the top of the path. The incline flattened out into a circular crater, heavily shadowed by the next mountain range. The dark overhang above the open space had the effect of making Dustil feel simultaneously exposed and oppressed. The wind whipped strangely through the crater, kicking up mini-tornadoes of dust and battering the scrub brush around the perimeter.
And the Darkness was nearly overwhelming. Pellek actually coughed and stepped backward toward the incline. "What is this place?" she gasped.
Dustil barely heard her, his attention taken up entirely by the pull of Case's aura through the Bond. She was here, somewhere. He was sure of it. There was something odd about the feeling, though, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. . .Dustil shook his head, trying to clear it. He just had to find her, that was all. She had to be in one of the caves circling the interior wall of the crater.
"What are we expecting up there?" Carth asked. "Pellek, can Atton scout for us?"
Dustil looked at Atton for the first time in several hours, and was surprised at what he saw. The ghost was barely there, flickering in and out like a long distance hologram. "No good, Admiral," Atton wheezed, voice echoing as if from a long distance. "Too Dark here—can't stay—"
"Atton?" Pellek asked. She reached toward him. "Will you—will you be okay?"
Atton placed his palm next to her outstretched hand. "I think so, but not here. Sorry, babe. Thought I could do it, but I can't hang on—He faded out.
Pellek made a choking sound and turned quickly away. Carth glanced sidelong at Dustil, clearly looking for an explanation, but Dustil shook his head. Carth's eyes narrowed but he didn't push the issue.
Pellek ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath. Still facing out toward the path, she asked loudly, "Is this the only way out of here?"
You're wasting time! Dustil thought. He knew in his head that Pellek was voicing a legitimate concern that they would be trapped in the bowl with their exit route blocked, but he still felt a spike of anger at the delay. You're being irrational, he told himself firmly, but the anger fed his connection to the Force and it was hard to pull away from the heady feeling of power. "Yeah," he said finally. "Someone should stay here and guard the entrance while the other two hit the caves."
"I'll do it," Carth volunteered. "It might take both of you to get Case out."
Pellek shook her head. "No offense, Admiral, but you don't stand a chance against a group of Sith. They'd have you in Stasis before you could shoot. You should go with Dustil and keep back for cover fire. I'll guard the entrance."
Carth's jaw clenched, but he nodded. "You're right," he admitted. He squared his shoulders and checked his blasters. "Are you ready?" he asked Dustil.
Dustil nodded, glancing anxiously toward the caverns. "This way," he said, and started toward the cliff wall. He could feel the pull of his Bond with Case, but something in the feel of the Force was off. It was like she was just ahead of him, but also far away. That, of course, made no sense at all. Maybe it was just the Dark fuzz of the planet that was making it hard to see clearly though the Force. He hoped that was what it was.
Dustil followed the thread of the Bond toward a wide cavern near the back of the bowl. He turned back to his father, who had both blasters drawn. "This is it," Dustil said.
Carth looked warily into the cavern. "Why isn't anyone guarding the entrance? Something about this doesn't feel right."
Dustil agreed, but he couldn't articulate why. Nor could he explain to his Force-blind father why he had to go into the cave even knowing that there was something wrong. She was his Master, connected to him through the Force in a very real way. They had spent the better part of the last five years practically inside each other's heads. When it came down to it, he didn't really have a choice—his choice was made five years ago on Telos when he created their Bond.
He opened his mouth to explain, but his father spoke first. "It doesn't matter, does it?" Carth asked with a grin. "We're both going in there."
Dustil looked at his father in surprise, then grinned back. "Yeah. Let's do it." He projected a shield around them both, ignited his lightsaber, and walked determinedly into the dark cave. Carth followed a couple of meters back, fingers on blaster triggers.
The glow of his lightsaber cast wavering shadows on the walls of the cave. The rasp of his breath echoed strangely around him. It was too quiet. He stretched his Force senses to their limit, and he was positive, as positive as he had been about anything, that the thread to Case ended here. She was here, just ahead—
Then, abruptly, the cave ended. On the ground, leaning casually against the wall, was Case's lightsaber. Case herself was nowhere to be found.
Dustil stared, anger flaring up in his head. "No," he whispered, staring at the discarded saber.
"Dustil," his father started.
"No!" Dustil shouted. He spun around, blade before him. "She was here!"
The hissing in his head rose to an unbearable volume, drowning out everything else. A shadow slid across the front of the cave, blocking the dim light. Dustil could barely make out the shape of the figure, but he knew that it was the same figure who had taken Case. The figure was flanked by several smaller ones, more of the Sith they had faced in the canyon.
"Where is she?" Dustil shouted. Beside him, Carth fired off a quick round of blaster shots, taking down three of the Sith before a shield snapped up around the group. His next round of shots were deflected away. None of them came close to the central figure. "Where is she?" Dustil shouted again.
The creature shrieked wordlessly in response. Through the Force, Dustil could infer the meaning of the scream. Too late, it said.
"No!" Dustil shouted. He concentrated on the Force, pulling it around him like a cloak. He could feel the emptiness around the Sith, where it was taking in the Force without returning the favor. Farther away, less severely, Dustil could feel Pellek doing the same thing. He gathered the Force inside of him and flung it toward the Sith in a burst of white lightning. The smaller Sith fried instantly, falling to the ground as dust as they joined the Force. Before Dustil could act, the central figure snatched their energy and pulled it in to strengthen itself.
The creature screamed. Join us.
Dustil leapt high in the air, lightsaber above his head, and brought it down over the Sith. His blade crashed into the shield around the creature and he felt it give a little before he was knocked backward. Dustil caught himself in the air and dropped lightly to the ground. He grinned hard at the Sith and sent another burst of Lightning toward it. The hissing in his head dropped out a little bit. He had hurt it.
"Where is she?" Dustil asked again, Persuasion strong in his voice.
"Dustil, what are you doing?" Carth asked behind him. Dustil spared him a quick look and saw his father looking at him with suspicion and confusion all over his face. Carth didn't even glance at the Sith still looming at the end of the cavern. Dustil realized that Carth must not be able to see it. As if the Dark creature existed only in the Force.
Shall I kill him, Jedi? the Sith asked. Dustil glanced at the Sith and then back to his father. Carth was now walking toward Dustil, blasters in their holsters. As far as Carth could see, all of the enemies had been defeated. The hissing in Dustil's head kicked back up.
"Father, get back!" Dustil said. As he spoke, the Sith sent a wave of energy toward Carth that flung him back against the cave. "No!" Dustil cried and yanked desperately at the Force. He managed to pull the impact back from killing speed. Even so, his father hit the back wall with a crack of armor and dropped senselessly to the ground.
Anger surged through Dustil's chest and this time he hung onto it, following the emotion to a well of Force power. "You've messed with the wrong Jedi, Sith," he growled. Tugging hard on the Force, he flung a blast of Lightning and Whirlwind toward the Sith. While the creature was busy deflecting the Force attack, Dustil threw his lightsaber like a javelin toward it. It struck the Sith and then. . .passed through.
The Sith laughed loudly over the hissing. Before Dustil could move, a blast of Lightning broke through his shields and hit him in the chest. Dustil fell backward, scream sucked away into hot air. As he tried to force his himself to his feet, he felt the Sith towering over him. Another blast of lightning. My masters have her now, the creature said through the Force.
Dustil could barely raise his head. Pain coursed from his eyes to his toes. But in the fog of his brain, he realized what the Sith had said. There was another Sith more powerful than it. Dustil swallowed. He raised his hand, ignoring the pain in his arm, and Pushed the Sith backward. It wasn't far, but it was enough for him to flip himself to his feet. "Where are your masters?" Dustil asked. He blocked a Force Choke and countered with a burst of Lightning. The Sith backed up a few steps. Dustil felt the creature's fear, and pulled it into himself. He would beat this Sith here and now. Dustil called his lightsaber to his hand and held it menacingly before him.
The Sith shrieked again. She was weak when she left, it said. My masters will break her. Though the Force, it sent a burst of images into Dustil's head. Case, exhausted from blocking attack after attack, stumbling. Lightning pouring into her. Blood. Anger coursed into Dustil again, and he slashed hard across the Sith. It screamed, the hissing echoing through Dustil's head. Dustil flinched at the sound, and the Sith took the opportunity to flee. You will both join us, it sent as it left.
"No!" Dustil shouted. He had to stop it, had to make it tell him where Case was. He flung a wide Whirlwind toward the Sith.
"Dustil!" he heard behind him from his father. "What are you doing?" There was anger in his voice now. No doubt Carth thought Dustil had been the one who tossed him back into the wall. Dustil felt Carth's hand on his shoulder, holding him back.
Dustil pushed Carth backward, the anger he had held to attack the Sith still blinding him. He raced to the mouth of the cave and flung a bolt of Lightning toward the escaping Sith. Just as he let the bolt go, he saw Pellek getting to her feet, still weaving from the Whirlwind attack. She must have been coming up the path when he sent it. It was too late to stop the blast and the Lightning struck her in her upraised arms. She screamed and went down.
"Gods forgive me," Dustil heard behind him. He turned just in time to see Carth pull the blaster trigger before the bolt hit Dustil squarely in the chest.
Everything went black.
Pellek rolled onto her back, cursing the Onasi brat and his father and everyone else who came to mind. Her forearms burned where the Lightning had impacted and her body ached where it had coursed through. She had been guarding the crater entrance when she felt a strong disturbance in the Force and abandoned her post to help. She had just reached the cave when she was hit by Dustil's attacks.
Pellek called on the Force and sent some Heal to her arms. She couldn't do anything about the scorched armor, but at least the pain eased. She shoved herself to her feet and approached the cave cautiously, lightsaber extended. Inside the cave, Carth was crouched over the prone form of his son. "Is he—?" she asked.
Carth shook his head without looking up. "He's just stunned. I shot him." He looked at the blaster in his hand before reholstering it. "His eyes were yellow. After we—after Case wasn't here, he was so angry. He was yelling, fighting something that wasn't there. And then he attacked you—I had to stop him."
Pellek felt for Dustil's aura and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. "Something that wasn't there," she murmured. She remembered seeing something flash past her as she ran up, something on the edge of her vision, but which spiked her Force senses as something very Dark. "I don't know, Carth, he might have seen something in the Force. . .I'm sure he didn't mean to attack me."
Carth finally looked up at her. "Give me the collar," he said.
"The—are you sure?" she asked, surprised. "He ought to be reasonable when he wakes up—"
"And if he's not?" Carth challenged her. "Can you stop him? Because I sure as hell can't."
Pellek considered his words. He was right, she knew. She had been lucky to defeat Dustil on Dxun, and she was sure it was only by surprise that Carth had managed to shoot Dustil here. If he awoke out of control, there was no telling what he would do. She nodded and handed Carth the neural collar from her pack. Carth carefully fitted it around Dustil's neck and locked it shut. The collar gave off a nasty hum that plucked at her Force senses. Pellek looked away from the kneeling Admiral and his son toward the back of the cave.
It looked like someone had been here, perhaps several weeks ago. There were remains of a fire pit, an empty canteen, and a discarded datapad. A lightsaber leaned against the wall. Pellek picked it up and extended the yellow blade away from her. It seemed to be in good condition. She could tell without looking at the inscribed name on the hilt that it was Revan's. A Jedi's lightsaber was intensely personal, and it gave off an aura almost as strongly as the Jedi herself. This saber had Revan's blue-gray aura, her force of personality. She had been here, of that there was no doubt. The question was where she was now and why had she left her saber behind. Had she joined the Force?
Carth approached her. She extinguished the blade and handed it to him. "It's hers," she said.
Carth nodded, almost absentmindedly, and placed it in his own pack. He picked up the datapad and turned it on. "There's something on here," he said as he scrolled through the memory, "but the display is damaged. I might be able to read it on the Hawk." He looked over at Dustil, who was starting to come to. "It's a long walk back. We should get started." She thought Carth's self-control must be stretched taut, like a lyre string about to break. After all of this, for Revan to still be missing, for Dustil to be acting like a Sith, to be forced to fire upon his own son—it was a lot for a man to bear. She thought she should say something, show some sympathy, but Carth walked away before she could think of something to say, and the moment passed.
They got a barely-conscious Dustil to his feet and out of the cave. Pellek figured they could at least make it down to the canyon tonight, and hopefully be back to the Hawk in three days. Carth shifted Dustil's weight to her. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up in a second."
Pellek rearranged Dustil's arm across her shoulder and made her way across the bowl. The crater still had a Dark feel to it, but it wasn't nearly as powerful as it had been when they arrived. She looked back to Carth, who was still at the mouth of the cavern. He pulled out a blaster and fired at the roof of the cave, over and over, until the rocks crumbled and blocked the entrance. Pellek could hear Carth's voice raised in a wordless cry as he fired. Only after the cavern entrance was reduced to a steaming pile of rubble did he holster his blaster and turn away. He walked back and took Dustil's weight back onto his own shoulder without meeting her eyes. "Let's go," he said, and started down the path.
Pellek followed silently. There was nothing she could say.