Chapter Ten
Near the end of the fourth month of the first full year to follow the horror of Alderaan and the battle of Yavin, N'Lola's fleet received a new set of emergency orders as they reached the imperial world of Reecee. As Aerla informed her of the incoming transmission of a document containing orders from imperial naval command, N'Lola retired from the bridge to her ready-room while Aerla patched it through. Once there, she sat down and tapped the touchscreen, to activate the holo-emitter for the communique.
Admiral Vurkoth,
We have recently lost contact with Admiral Dellus Tavares, during routine transit between two known worlds.
His last known coordinates placed him in orbit of the planet Reecee, where your patrol fleet has just arrived.
His last known destination was the Selvaris star system, at which he should have arrived no later than 0300 hours on the 13th day of this month. It is now the 33rd day of the month, and his fleet is nowhere to be found.
You are instructed to search throughout the Inner Rim for Admiral Tavares, other patrol fleets have already been dispatched in the Expansion Region, Mid Rim, and Outer Rim. If Admiral Tavares is in the Inner Rim, you are to discover what caused the disappearance of his fleet and, if possible, recover the admiral, retrieve his fleet, and return to Reecee.
Imperial Naval Command
Confirmation Code: 0339-4482-175R
"Lovely, some bureaucratically appointed idiot gets a fleet, and I'm to go look for him," she said to herself, rising out of her seat, "At least I'm not the only admiral assigned to this goose-chasing expedition, and better still, I'll not have to see my fellow goose-chasers. He probably took a detour to see some paramour he doesn't want his family knowing about." Either way, she returned to the bridge and retook her seat, tapping her fingers thoughtfully on one of the seat's inherent armrests.
"Helm, set a course for the Selvaris system, imperial command wishes us to participate in a rather spectacular waste of time chasing wild space-geese," she said, rolling her eyes faintly, though the fleet nevertheless went promptly into hyperspace anyway. On their arrival in the Selvaris system, they hailed the planet and following a brief description of who they were looking for, learned he had never arrived and they had had no idea an imperial fleet meant to come to their system. From their position in the Selvaris system, the fleet's long-range scanners could detect neither imperial starship nor even inhabited world anywhere in the immediate vicinity of the planet, not for at least another thousand light years at least.
"Welcome to the first galactic goose hunt," she said to herself with a soft sigh and a shake of her head, though in truth she was beginning to observe the many opportunities represented. Wandering around in a portion of the Inner Rim, which was also considered part of the Unknown Regions, with the ability to make a legitimate claim of imperial orders bringing them here despite no imperial worlds in the vicinity? There was something to be said for that, certainly, and she decided to take her time on the grounds of making a much more methodical search.
"Helm, plot a winding course through this sector of the inner rim, and record the stellar cartography onto an external databank. We will do an extensive search of this region to determine the location of the missing admiral and his fleet," she said, and her Bpfassh helmsman nodded immediately in answer.
"Run a continuous scan with long-range sensors; document on the external databank every star system having lifeforms either in or on the surface," she instructed, which likewise received a nod of subordination from the bridge crewmen responsible for navigations and long-range sensors.
Since she suspected it would be a while before she would be needed for anything, she rose from her seat and turned, departing the bridge to the fourteenth deck of the Vindicator, where the ship's training hall was located. She took a quick shower before she proceeded to the training hall, wherein she crossed through the room to enter a large changing room where she could undress and switch into training clothes, accessible by a relatively narrow, open doorway. Once she had stripped off her dark-coloured clothes down to purely lingerie, she dressed herself in the thick, white wool of the training clothes, which consisted of two articles of clothing. The first was a pair of pants that went to her lower calves but not quite to her ankles, which buttoned on each side at the hip, accompanied by a half-sleeved shirt with a shallow V-neck, pulled on over the top of the head. On her emergence from the room, she laid both guns and lightsabers on a table near the corner of the room, far from either door, before picking up a long-handled training saber as she felt two familiar Force-energies approaching.
"What were you planning to practice, today, N'Lola?" queried Nuav as he and his twin moved to a table and laid their own weapons down, though they had not yet changed into training garments.
"I was strongly considering practicing my Ataru form, as it is the earliest form I have yet to master entirely," N'Lola replied, looking over her shoulder toward her mentors.
"That is an excellent choice, particularly since you have also mastered both Shien and Niman," replied Nuav.
"Indeed, other than the seventh form, Ataru is the only one you have not mastered," observed Xuax, quietly. In answer, N'Lola nodded, and waited as the twins went to the changing room, returning a few minutes later wearing training garments that matched her own.
"I have no intention nor desire to learn the Seventh Form, only to learn how to counter it. It crosses perilously near to the dark side, and that is a seduction I will not risk; serenity and focus have been my greatest allies," she said, as they returned. In answer, both of her mentors nodded their understanding and acceptance of N'Lola's perspective.
"Ataru is the most acrobatic of the seven forms practiced by both the Sith and the Jedi," Nuav said, "This is also called the aggression form, because it is a style that will force an adversary into a defensive posture in most melee battles. However, Ataru is also an excellent defensive discipline, because it places an emphasis upon the enhancement of the practitioner's physical abilities through the continuous channeling of the Force, and acrobatics that may be used just as easily to evade as it can to attack."
"Let us today focus upon your acrobatic talents. You have already proven to be a master of making sweeping, forward gliding appear as effortless as breath; let us turn our concentration now to other leaping movements, instead," continued Xuax where his twin had begun, and N'Lola nodded in answer.
"We will attack, and you will defend: do not block or dodge, only evade. Express an economy of your muscle movements through a maximization of the Force you channel," said Nuav, as he selected a long-bladed training saber for himself, before tossing a second to his twin.
"I understand," she replied, making a sweeping motion with her weapon so that others who were practicing in the hall before abandoning it to observe, would move back and ensure they were not obstacles, unintentionally, in the path of training. N'Lola took a position standing with the long-handled lightsaber behind her at a left to right angle, her hand near the top of the handle with the rest of it pointing at the ground, the five-foot training blade directly behind. In the current position it rose considerably above the right shoulder, a weapon clearly better suited to Ataru than to a form with the defensive orientation of the third form, Soresu.
Sensing her readiness to begin her training, Nuav nodded, and then leapt forward, making a wide, sweeping strike toward the midsection which was, itself, utterly characteristic of the fourth form. She leapt backward, the long strands of pure black hair fluttering ahead of her as she swept a full four feet backward from the attempted torso-strike, and the Epicanthix assassin nodded.
"Good, but you can go further than that," Xuax observed, standing to one side, allowing Nuav to begin in the session, where he would conclude this time, and begin the next time. Nuav then leapt forward a second time, making another wide, horizontal slash, this time toward the bottom of her ribcage. N'Lola focused and leapt backward, slipping seven feet backward through the air this time, and channeling her concentration into the task of making leaps as long as possible each time she had to move backward. As Nuav lunged and sliced a second time, she leapt back for a third time, N'Lola channeled more of her Force than ever before into her leaping movement, and swept back twenty feet to land far enough away that both Epicanthix assassins nodded in satisfaction.
"Good. Now, let us switch to the task of reverse somersaults," Xuax continued, and Nuav motioned for her to come near once more. N'Lola nodded and approached, taking a prepared stance once more, and then Nuav lunged forward once more, this time making a low sweep toward the centre of her calves. This she was able to perform easily, a quick backflip to manoeuvre out of the path of which, landing back on her feet smoothly, while continuously keeping the training lightsaber behind her back, without attacking or striking herself.
"Let's try for altitude, now, and work on using the Force more. Control your movements, accelerate the leap, and attempt to hit the ceiling with your feet as you do," Nuav instructed, and N'Lola looked up for a moment at the training room's ceiling, five metres from the floor, before furrowing her eyebrows slightly at the task. She leapt back, as Nuav abruptly lunged with a slash toward her knees, using the Force to carry herself up and accelerate herself, as well, her heels swishing smoothly through the air about a half-metre from her goal. Nuav did not delay, leaping ahead with another strike, this time at her lower thighs, and she concentrated again, leaping quicker and higher than before, though her feet did not quite reach the destination. Twice more, Nuav swept in and struck at her, and twice more, she was able to evade, though it was not until the fifth try that there was a loud metallic clank as her feet struck the metal ceiling before she landed. Even as the sound registered in their ears, she was landing on the floor of the high training hall once more, her muscles burning slightly and her breathing quickened, with the faint hint of perspiration covering skin the same shade of grey as platinum. Finally, Nuav nodded in satisfaction at the accomplishment, satisfied as she learned to make such a leap outside of true combat, which meant it would be that much easier for her to use it in battle.
"Excellently done," said Xuax agreeably, "Now, let us focus on your forward somersault. Keep the training lightsaber in the defensive position for now."
"Understood," N'Lola replied, and Nuav backed up so that he was roughly seven metres distant from where she stood, and motioned her to him.
"First, let us work on distance," Nuav advised, "I want you to reach me in one jump. If you fail to reach me, I will back up until I am the same distance, and you can try again." She looked at him with a little skepticism, but she determined that since he asked it of her, it must have been an achievable goal, and therefore she determined she would make the leap. She focused on him, closing her eyes for an instant as she concentrated, then opened her eyes and leapt, making a three-metre-high arc that carried her across the twenty-three foot distance. N'Lola landed near enough that she could have fallen into him if she lost her balance, but she steadied herself, and her Epicanthix mentor nodded, and then instructed her to it a few additional times, until she was able to land without unsteadiness. Then, Nuav motioned once more toward the ceiling while moving out of the way to give her space.
"Now, altitude," said Nuav, motioning to the table. N'Lola walked over to it, setting the training lightsaber on the table, "Pick up your pistol. I want you to somersault high enough to click the base of the handgrip of your pistol on the ceiling twice; this will require great control in both the speed and altitude of the movement."
"And remember, this must not be a simple flip. You must remain in the rolled position and slow your descent enough to strike twice," Xuax advised, and N'Lola nodded. She took a breath and concentrated, she understood what the challenge was and she understood the point of it and with the pistol in hand, she leapt and performed the desired somersault. As she leapt, N'Lola came close, but she knew she would be unable to reach the ceiling without extending her hand, which was not the task. She attempted it twice more, before accomplishing the desired task of double tapping the ceiling, two soft metallic clicks twice in a row. Then, she swept down gracefully onto bare feet once more, with a huff of breath from the effort of it, her skin covered in a thin sheen of perspiration.
"Excellent performance," Nuav praised once more.
"Next, let us work on the various manoeuvres for the use of Falling Leaf and Rising Serpent," Xuax advised, and N'Lola nodded, and waited for further instruction. As Nuav adopted a defensive posture, lightsaber positioned as a horizontal bar, N'Lola switched from one of her guns back to the long-handled training lightsaber.
"First, let us work on your forward-rolling backward somersault, show me your withdrawing Falling Leaf," prompted her mentor as she stood in front of his twin. N'Lola nodded, somersaulting as desired as Nuav came forward, bringing his blade up in the air as a horizontal bar to be hit. The short-distance reverse movement proceeded smoothly, until she unfurled and brought her blade down in a powerful sweep that came with the loud hum of the training blades striking one against the other. Twice more, she performed the manoeuvre followed by performing a forward-rolling, forward-arcing somersault that likewise ended in the technique known as Falling Leaf.
"Now, let us work on your withdrawing manoeuvre for Rising Serpent," Xuax said, and N'Lola nodded once more, as Nuav maintained his position once more. She took a deep breath and then leapt in a double reverse somersault, rising off the ground and rolling fully once before extending her blade in an upward-arcing slice that whipped across. It struck the training lightsaber of her mentor and slid across it, the nature of the strike being light enough that it would not disrupt the manoeuvre if the attack were blocked. Twice more she repeated this before switching to a forward-arc Rising Serpent, a forward double-backflip that would allow her to press in on a withdrawing enemy while remaining on the offensive and acrobatic. Even Nuav was breathing heavily by now with the exertion, as he switched places with Xuax, who nodded to her and then motioned toward the ceiling.
"Rise there. Our next task is going to be working on your skill with using the Force to counter gravitational forces," Nuav said, as he caught his breath, though in great need of a shower.
"I am exhausted," admitted N'Lola, her own form covered in a thick layer of perspiration, with the simplistic garments clinging against her skin.
"Focus on the Force. Let the Force restore your energies, you still radiate power in the Force, you can do it," replied Nuav, as he used Force Healing himself, to replenish. She nodded and took a breath, focusing herself on the Force, channeling it into a replenishment of her stamina, vitality, and readiness to continue her training.
Once she was restored, she looked up at the ceiling, and then leapt toward the ceiling with a half-somersault, rising high enough that her feet struck flatly against the ceiling. She focused herself on the Force to hold herself to the ceiling, managing it for several seconds, before losing the connection and beginning to float downward, rotating her body to land back on her feet, and took a breath. Then, she leapt up to the ceiling a second time, rotating to land on it in a braced crouch as she placed one palm against the ceiling as well in an attempt to further connect herself to it. She managed to hold her position for nearly a minute, before the pull of gravity overwhelmed her, and forced her to rotate herself back into the upright position where she could land gently on the training room floor. However, hers was not a nature inclined to surrender or quitting, and she took a breath before immediately leaping again, holding to the ceiling for a full seventy-nine seconds. Then, as before, her focus and control faltered, and she floated down toward the ground once more, bare feet touching the ground gently.
"Excellent performance, N'Lola," praised Xuax as he observed, even as she made a fourth upward leap, and pressed the soft palm of one hand and the soft soles of her feet against the ceiling. She focused, channeling the Force into forming a palpable connection between her palm and the metal, between the soles of her feet and the metal of the ceiling. Her Force pulsed and coursed in a circuit, passing from her body to the ceiling plane through the sole of one foot and then back into her through the sole of the other, while her palm became almost adhesive through her use of the Force. For nearly two minutes, she held her position, though she had been training for more than two hours, their audience having already long-since dispersed as their free time expired.
"Yes, I did… whoa!" she started, in excited self-satisfaction, before abruptly falling from her position, with her body reflexively rotating in the air to land on the floor in a braced crouch with a faint grunt at the force of impact.
"… you lost focus," Xuax observed coolly, stating the obvious. She winced faintly and rose from the crouch, nodded in answer to the statement.
"Yes, well, achieving success in a challenge of such difficulty is somewhat of a distraction," she replied, and Xuax chuckled a bit in understanding.
"That is enough for today. If you wish, we will revisit your Ataru training tomorrow, and we will work with you until you have it mastered. Ataru is a form used by ancient masters, as this form allows a practitioner to counteract the effects of aging upon their body and their physical abilities. For instance, Ataru is used by certain Jedi who survived the terrible purge that was inflicted upon them from the rise of the Empire until the battle of Yavin, survivors who are of a truly ancient maturity," explained Nuav.
"One such ancient you might someday become, N'Lola," Xuax continued, "As members of your species are extraordinarily long-lived, compared to the rest of us." She nodded her understanding, taking a deep breath, though at present, her clothes were more than slightly moistened from the perspiration of a lengthy training session, and she was herself in definite need of a shower.
"Thank you for the training session," she said, bowing her head respectfully to her mentors, who were a fair deal older than she was. The twins were grown adults already by the time they met her when she was twelve, but the visual age difference had broadened since she reached full maturation herself. As the natural restorative factor of her species' biology reached full maturation and came into effect, she seemed to have not aged in the last five years since she turned eighteen. In contrast, Nuav and Xuax now looked a full two years older than they did when she had reached full maturity herself, though they still did not yet appear to be thirty years old in human terms. She didn't know how old they really were, but she suspected the answer was somewhere in the area of being old enough that either one was easily old enough to be her father. She knew the Epicanthix aged gracefully, lasting up until they were as much as a hundred and thirty years old, dying of age-related effects somewhere in the area of what a human would have assumed to be their seventies to eighties.
Then, she proceeded to collect her gear and her clothes, moving directly to the showers to bathe for a second time, washing away the sweat of exertion. As she undressed and stacked her sweat-moistening training garments and perspiration-dampened undergarments, she considered the possibility of including some kind of laundering machines being added to the shower chambers. It would certainly have been a lot more convenient under current circumstances, but she put that from her mind and brushed her teeth, tending to her personal hygiene, before taking her shower. When she emerged, she redressed in most of her clothes before delivering the moistened ones to the ship's laundering rooms, depositing the training garments in one basket and her personal garments in a niche with an electronic signboard with her name on it. Then, she returned to undress, don fresh lingerie, and then replace her combat gear before she returned to the bridge of her ship. As she stepped onto the bridge, Aerla turned her head immediately toward the young admiral.
"Admiral, we are receiving a transmission from a nearby planet," reported her chief communications officer.
"On-screen," N'Lola replied, as she took her seat in the admiral's chair of the Vindicator's bridge. A moment later, a collection of five human males appeared on the screen, though she did not recognize the face of any of them. Each man was what she would have guessed to be between twenty-six and twenty-eight years of age, each one having a light complexion and standing between seventy and seventy-two inches in height. One had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, another had hair of golden yellow with eyes of apple green, and a third had hair of chamoisee brown with hazel irises. The fourth had black hair with eyes of cerulean blue, and the last had hair of lava red with ao green irises; all five had long hair in a braided, shoulder-length ponytail, combed and brushed to a clean shine and of an impeccable neatness.
Each man wore half-sleeved aikidogi woven of a white fabric, the left side closing over the right to form a teardrop-shaped area encircling the neck and a split on each side at waist-level. The garment tied just an inch above the split, though it had an additional four inches of length following the split. Accompanying this garment was a pair of pants of the same white fabric with a split from either hipbone upwards, tied in the same way as the aikidogi was, and roughly ankle-length. Their ensemble was rounded out by a pair of ankle-high boots of bone-coloured leather that seemed like they were custom-made for the wearer, with white laces that matched those of their pants and their shirts. She noticed, also, that each bore a lightsaber hilt strapped to one thigh, with a handgrip twelve inches in total length, in a handmade holster of the same bone-coloured leather, positioned so that it would not impede their range of motion. Each lightsaber hilt was, in addition to a uniform twelve-inch length, made of a white metal she could not immediately recognize over the transmission, as they stood on the bridge of some kind of civilian shuttle.
"My word, my Lady, you have but barely aged at all in these many years," said the black-haired, cerulean-eyed male, "Apologies, you must not be able to sense our presence from so far away; you once spared our lives and advised us to allow the Light to guide us. My name is Jorren Mirkaire; we followed your wise counsel and permitted the Light Side of the Force to offer us guidance, and it brought us to this place." N'Lola blinked in recognition of the name, from roughly nine years prior. She had never expected to see them again and certainly not out in a remote curve of the Inner Rim that was considered also part of the Unknown Regions, for some reason never previously explored.
"The Light brought us here, to this uninhabited world, which we have named Serenna. This planet resonates an unusual calmness and tranquility, which we have enjoyed since our landing here. We have been waiting for you, for you are here, and we sensed that the time for our departure was near-at-hand; we are ready to leave our new home, if you will allow us to accompany you."
"I would be honoured to have you, but where have you been living, all this time?"
"We pooled our skills and our resources, and one month after we left you, the five of us purchased a Taylander shuttle; then, we, ah… acquired… an imperial dropship transport. We dismantled it, eliminated all imperial tracking devices in the engineering, and loaded it into one of the Taylander's several spare rooms. Once we arrived, we simply reassembled it and have maintained it since then, in anticipation of when the time would arrive for us to depart from this world," replied Jorren, taking a breath before he continued, "We will board our IDT now and be on our approach soon; shall I assume you are on the largest vessel?"
"Yes, and I will meet you in the hangar. I look forward to meeting you in peace, and learning the names of your companions," she replied, and the five young men smiled warmly in answer.
"Likewise, my Lady, likewise," he replied, "Jorren out." A few short minutes later, their dropship transport was ascending from the atmosphere and crossing into the stellar vacuum, approaching the fleet at a swift pace. Theirs had been clearly transformed into an unarmed version intended for expressly this purpose, lacking the weapons usually found on such a transport, which at least partially explained why the Empire hadn't bothered to look for it. If they had stripped the weapons when they dismantled it and left those behind, perhaps the Empire felt it had nothing to be that worried about. As they approached, N'Lola descended to the hangar bay to meet the men she had not been in the same room with for nine years and had in some sense of the term, never truly met before now.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. Welcome aboard the Vindicator," N'Lola said, as they disembarked from their dropship once it had landed, "You know me as Selene. My true name, however, is N'Lola Vurkoth."
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, my Lady," Jorren said, bowing his head respectfully to the woman who was almost his age, though she did not at all look it, "Please, permit my companions to introduce themselves to you, who granted us our lives those many years ago."
"I am Owen Furth," said the man with the golden yellow hair and apple green eyes, who looked as if he were the same twenty-eight years of age as Jorren.
"I am Seamus Quartermaine," said the man with dark brown hair and eyes to match, who looked to her as if he must have been twenty-seven years old.
"My name is Caradoc Murrow," the green-eyed redhead, who at an apparent age of twenty-six years was the youngest in the group, of which N'Lola had no doubt. The last, like Seamus, appeared to be twenty-seven years old, though he was a brunette of lighter pigmentation, with chamoisee brown hair and hazel irises.
"I am Luan Corr," he said in greeting, "Please allow us to learn your way."
"Even I am still learning my way," N'Lola advised, "However, I would be glad to have additional company in the course of that journey. You may trust that unlike the Blackguard, I will not send you on fool's errands or suicide missions, though I will want you to provide me with all you know of their order."
"In truth, we do not remember much of our former lives, nor what has happened since we departed from the Blackguard, but knowledge, knowledge we retain," replied Jorren, "Knowledge we will share with you, our Lady."
"Before knowledge, you must have rest," N'Lola advised, "Come, let me show you to somewhere you may take as your own bedchambers. I hope you do not mind sleeping in the same room, as our ship quarters are presently full, but there are a few empty cargo rooms which you could convert one of into a living space with a little effort." At that, they nodded readily, collecting their belongings, lifting the satchels and large canvas bags against their backs, to follow her to the nearest empty hold. It was about one hundred metres on a side, which allowed them an area that was large proportionate to the rooms of any other crewman, though about comparable in total to the accommodations that were provided to any five.
"I will see that appropriate beds are acquired so that you need not sleep on the floor in sleeping bags, though, unfortunately, the hold cannot provide all the conveniences of a standard living quarter," she advised, but they nodded.
"That is no trouble, we do not mind walking to the showers or the ship's cafeteria for those needs," replied Luan with a warm smile over his shoulder at the youthful admiral.
"We are simply thankful that you have welcomed us to commit ourselves to your way, Lady Vurkoth," said Caradoc, and she could sense the sentiment of contentment that emanated from each in this moment, "Your discipline and strength are impressive."
"The attack on the fleet commanded by Admiral Golm was not a random occurrence. The Blackguards were contracted for it with the promise of considerable remuneration from Emperor Palpatine," said Jorren, "Our orders in the mission were to eliminate all possible avenues of escape on each of several ships by destroying everything in their hangars. We were then to locate and execute the captains, and in the case of the Indomitable, eliminate the admiral."
"The Blackguard organization believes that there is no Dark Side of the Force, and no Light Side of the Force, only the light and the darkness within each person. The teachings of the Blackguard advocate balancing between these two extremes: that every Blackguard should master not only the light, but master also their darker impulses," continued Luan, informatively, "Of course, we have since learned otherwise, ourselves, by your wise counsel. The Blackguard belief system is that to understand the Force better, we should study every Force tradition or culture, but should remain in the process objective, and true to our own way, uncorrupted by either side."
"The Blackguard organization is led by one person, whose title is the Kursk. The Blackguard headquarters is on Mustafar, in the southern Jedi ruins therein, founded a thousand years ago by Vulta Daanat, a former apprentice to the Sith Lord Skere Kaan. Emperor Palpatine," Caradoc went on where his companions left off, "promised to deliver the organization a payment of one hundred million credits and one thousand Force-sensitive children to raise in their culture, as well as acknowledging the Blackguard as an accepted Force tradition in the Empire. It was a promise seen as too good for the organization to miss, regardless of how many lives it might cost to achieve success. The Kursk badly underestimated Golm's Fleet, and failed to account for you."
"The Blackguard is organized somewhat similarly to the Jedi Order, though I suppose that means little to one who was trained by a Sith Lord," observed Owen, to which N'Lola chuckled and nodded lightly.
"You would be correct in that supposition," she replied, "Thank you for all the information. It is enlightening, as well as being damaging to the Empire. I will see to it that the greater population somehow… discovers… that the Emperor ordered the butchering of several thousand people including several loyal starship captains and an admiral." She then excused herself, leaving them to settle into their new quarters and to wait for the delivery of spare beds that would permit them to rest without doing so on the floor.