Chapter Twenty-One
Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR.
One ridiculously-long lift ride down to the floor of the planet later, the group was wandering around the Shadowlands hoping that the Force would see fit to guide them to the Star Map at some point in the near future.
"Revan?" Bastila asked hesitantly. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
Valiantly resisting the urge to point out that she already was, Revan nodded at her. "Certainly, Bastila. How may I help you?"
"It's just…you've impressed me," Bastila admitted.
Revan's eyes lit up. "Really? Do tell me more."
"You may not be the most enthusiastic person around – to put it mildly – but you've also done quite a bit of good recently. Even since just arriving on this planet you've managed to help free Matton and clear up what happened to Rorworr without allowing Jaarak to become a scapegoat. I'm a little jealous, to be honest."
"Jealous?" Revan couldn't believe it. "Of what? Yes, I found the truth faster than you could have but I have no doubt that if I weren't there then you would have still managed to figure out what had happened and resolved the situation."
"Maybe," Bastila said dubiously. "Oh, I'm explaining this all wrong. Do you ever have problems adhering to the Light Side? The expectations we Jedi face are difficult to measure up to sometimes or so I've always found. Do keep in mind that I'm not in favor of you having doubts as well, but…well, I guess I would just like some sort of verification that I wasn't alone."
"I can't say that I really have had any difficulty adhering to the Light Side," Revan replied, almost laughing at the thought. Seeing Bastila's face fall, he hastened to add, "But really, I don't pay much attention to that whole idea of a 'Light Side' of the Force or a 'Dark Side.' To me, the Force doesn't fit neatly into our preconceived notions of morality and so the good or evil is really found within ourselves rather than inherently in the Force. Still, you have to know that if it weren't for you then I doubt that I would have done have the so-called 'Light Side' things that I've done since we met." If only because he knew that she would do them anyway and wanted to save time.
"That's very kind of you, Revan," Bastila said with a small smile. "I'm not sure that I believe that since I have definitely seen some good in you and the idea that you could end up saving the galaxy just because it was too much of a hassle not to is…rather bizarre. Just the same, thank you for trying to make me feel better."
"I'm not just trying to make you feel better, Bastila," Revan assured her. "You and Carth have some of the strongest moral fibers that I've seen in some time. Most people are willing to compromise their beliefs for their own gain or to prove themselves hypocrites by preaching about how we're supposed to do good and protect people and yet when good needs to be done and the people are in need of protection then they just sit pretty in their ivory tower and condemn those who actually strive to hold up their ideals. You're different, though. You really care and you almost make me think that it's not so pointless after all."
"Almost?" Bastila repeated, a warm look in her eye.
Revan shrugged. "I am who I am, Bastila."
Bastila's smile widened and she opened her mouth to say something but before she got the chance to, another voice rang out.
"You know, I could have sworn that we talked about you bringing your dates here, Revan."
Revan turned around to see a dark-skinned man in Jedi robes smirking at him.
"Bastila's not my date, Jolee," Revan explained. "Well, not at present, at least. She's here with me because we're looking for the Star Map."
"Again?" Jolee asked, surprised. "Couldn't you and Malak have just made a spare copy of the data in case you lost it? I told you that that was a good idea but would you listen? Noooo. Young people these days…"
"It's not like the data was lost," Revan corrected him. He glanced over at his companions but Bastila was apparently still worrying about her apparent lack of zealotry towards the Light and the others didn't appear to be listening either. "Malak still has it, we just had a bit of a…falling-out, I guess you could say."
"And so you'd rather traipse across the galaxy revisiting all of the Star Maps instead of just swallowing your pride and asking for the information back," Jolee surmised, shaking his head. "Honestly, that sort of stubbornness is just going to get you in trouble some day."
"Well, since I'm already here could you maybe help me get to the Star Map?" Revan suggested.
Jolee shrugged. "Sure, why not? Of course, Czerka might have just built a huge force field that I know how to get past and that can't be gotten past any other way. Well, it would probably take you at least ten minutes to do it but no one else could do it. First, though…there's some young people a little ways down who won't stop being loud and annoying. If you could get rid of them for me, I'd be extremely grateful and help you."
"Wait," Mission said, tuning into the conversation. "Are you saying that you want us to help you chase some kids off of your lawn?"
Jolee shot her a sour look. "Well how about it, Revan? That's the price of my help. You either do it or you call Malak and apologize for whatever it is you did this time."
"What do you want?" the annoyed Czerka hunter in charge asked rudely.
"Some old guy wanted us to get rid of you," Revan answered.
"So you're going to try to kill us?" the hunter asked, his hand straying towards his blaster.
"You know, I think he really sounds open to the idea," Canderous spoke up.
"We could kill you," Revan agreed. "But we could also point out that the Shadowlands are really, really boring and that if you sabotaged those machines you've got keeping away the more dangerous wildlife then you'd have no choice but to leave."
"Why would we do th-" the leader started to ask before a giant creature came barreling towards him and he and his men were forced to flee.
"I guess they weren't getting paid enough," Mission remarked.
"Disappointed lamentation: In the old days, we would have just killed them," HK complained.
"I agree," Jolee concurred, turning off his stealth field generator and revealing that he'd been following them. "What? Has your break-up with Malak made you go soft on me?"
T3 beeped something urgently.
"Really?" Jolee asked, stunned. "They think he has amnesia? But…he's going by the same name and doesn't appear to be slightly confused by all the references I've been making to his past, particularly concerning his old best friend Malak. I guess it just goes to show that the Jedi Order isn't what it used to be."
"What kind of a Jedi are you, anyway?" Bastila demanded, outraged.
"I'm not," Jolee said flatly.
Bastila's eyes widened. "Then…you're a Sith!" She reached for her lightsaber.
"Nope," Jolee assured her.
Bastila frowned, confused, before her face cleared. "Oh! So you're just pretending to be Force sensitive but really aren't."
Jolee responded by waving a hand and levitating her lightsaber in front of her face. "I assure you, I am fully trained in the Force."
Bastila yelped and grabbed her lightsaber. "I don't understand. You say that you can use the Force and just proved to me that you know at least a little but you also claim that you're not a Jedi or a Sith."
"What's not to understand?" Jolee asked laconically. "You just repeated my position perfectly."
"You can't not be a Jedi or a Sith but still use the Force," Bastila insisted.
"Why not?" Jolee challenged.
"Because that's just not how it's done!" Bastila cried.
"I'm really more of a neutral kind of guy," Jolee explained. "I don't really care all that much."
"So am I," Revan spoke up. "And people keep calling me a Jedi. I think it's the lack of baby murdering, myself."
"That is true, I am strongly opposed to murdering babies," Jolee mused aloud. "Alright, I guess if you honestly cannot comprehend someone existing that can use the Force but not adhere to either rigid philosophy then you can call me the worst Jedi alive that doesn't happen to be Revan."
"That's all I ask," Bastila said magnanimously.
"Okay, here it is," Jolee announced, gesturing to the Star Map. "I don't know how you managed to get it to open up because I've tried a few dozen times and it wouldn't ever respond to me."
"A few dozen?" Canderous asked, amused. "Guess you must have been really bored down here."
Revan stepped up to the terminal near the Star Map and it immediately lit up.
"Welcome, Revan," the hologram that had appeared said. "It's nice to see that you have returned instead of this being Jolee Bindo's 9487th time trying to access the Star Map."
"I thought you said a few dozen," Mission said, slowly backing away from Jolee.
He shrugged. "Hey, that's only…790.5 dozen."
"Sad," Revan said, shaking his head before turning back to the terminal. "So can I access the Star Map?"
"Certainly," the terminal replied. "Just as soon as you answer these questions. I heard something about you having amnesia and so I wouldn't want you to access the Star Map if you were brainwashed. You can never be too careful."
Revan sighed. "Oh, fine. What's your first question?"
"You travel with a Wookie and have encountered complications. Hypothetical: you and this Zaalbar are captured and separated. If you both remain silent, one year in prison for each of you. However, call Zaalbar a traitor and he will serve five years, while you serve none. He is offered the same deal, but if you both accuse the other, you both serve two years. What do you do? What do you trust him to do?" the hologram inquired.
"I call him a traitor, of course," Revan replied promptly.
"Hey!" Mission complained. "You know that Zaalbar would never do such a thing to you!"
"I do," Revan conceded. "But if I say nothing then I'll be forced to serve a year that I really would rather not serve."
"We would totally end up rescuing you," Mission insisted.
"Especially if it was against impossible odds," Canderous backed her up.
"I know that, too," Revan assured her. "But if I were let go then I would be free to be forced to be a part of your daring rescue and it would go a lot smoother."
That gave Mission pause. "…Alright, you have a point."
"The temperament of a companion is unreliable at best. You wisely trade the thread of one year or five for none or two," the hologram judged. "In this instance, the Wookie is unreliable. His family has been a mire of treachery. I judge the answer correct. You display the proper behavior pattern to match the pattern in memory. Evaluation will continue. Hypothetical: you are at war. Deciphering an intercepted code, you learn two things about your enemy. A single spot in their defense will be at its weakest in ten days, and they will attack one of your cities in five days. What do you do with this information? What is the most efficient course of action?"
"I can't afford to evacuate the town," Revan reasoned. "Because then they'll realize that I have inside information and will probably change their code and their weak spot will be reinforced so I can't take advantage."
"So you'd just let the attack happen and allow all of those innocent men, women, and children to die?" Bastila demanded. "For what?"
"For victory, Bastila. The sooner the war ended the less people would die," Revan declared. He smiled. "And isn't this an excellent example of me being the paragon of virtue to your lax morality? In any event, if there were an opportunity to subtly reinforce the city so that our losses wouldn't be catastrophic while the enemy didn't realize that we had advanced warning, I would take it despite how valuable such a loss could be for spurring the men on."
"You know, it's almost embarrassing just how soft you're getting," Jolee said disgustedly.
"Agreement: Jedi always ruin everything!" HK added.
"Oh, not everything," Revan disagreed. "Just all the fun. Between them and the Sith, however, I'd say that your statement is true."
"Very good. If you had moved to evacuate the city, you would have alerted the enemy to their lost codes. Ultimate victory required the deaths of the people in that city. You wisely ignored sentiment in your decision," the terminal declared.
Revan coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'called it.'
"Hypothetical: remove the ongoing war from the previous example. Consider enemy states to be weak and remote. With no external threat, your empire stagnates. Y our people become complacent and begin to question you. Same scenario as before: you discover an impending attack but also a weakness that will come after. How do you react?" the terminal inquired.
"Let me guess," Bastila said, a little bitterly. "You let the attack happen."
Revan shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry but I really do feel that that's for the best."
"Why?" Bastila challenged. "There isn't even an enemy that needs fighting."
"But you heard what he said. The empire is stagnating. If we continued to stagnate and allowed others the opportunity to grow then we might face a threat we could not so easily defeat or predict," Revan explained. "War allows for growth and if the people are really so dissatisfied then they may rebel and that could cause so much more rampant death and destruction than allowing the attack will do, especially if those small and remote enemies decide to take advantage of our weakened state and to go after us."
"But what if you just stopped the attack?" Bastila queried. "Then you'd be a hero and your people would love you for it."
"People have short memories," Revan told her. "They'd more easily remember a tragedy that I brought us back from than one narrowly averted. 'Almosts' and 'would-have-beens' are never quite enough, you know."
"How ever they managed to call you a Jedi again is beyond me," Jolee murmured.
"That may be so," Bastila said softly. "But that doesn't mean that it's okay to just sacrifice so many people for your own ambitions! There has to be a better way."
"There might be," Revan admitted. "But this scenario doesn't offer us any third options or other details we could exploit. It's a dichotomy and I had to pick one. I pick let the attack happen."
"Of course you do," the terminal said almost condescendingly. "It makes the most strategic sense. Your people will rally beneath you against the common foe. As their eyes turn outward, your rule will strengthen. The trappings of war grant many opportunities. You have matched the pattern in memory. I recognize you, and will fulfill my designed function. Activation of the Star Map commencing. Parameters reset. Stasis initiated. End communication."
"So now I'll finally get to see a Star Map," Jolee said, rubbing his hands together.
"Why didn't you get a chance to see it when Revan and Malak were here?" Canderous asked him.
Jolee shrugged. "Oh, you know. HK was telling me all about how to drive Malak to the brink of frustration and he really does turn the funniest shade of purple when he gets all worked up. I would have done the same with Revan, of course, but he's practically impossible to get all riled up. He just doesn't care enough."
"It does have some benefits," Revan allowed.
"So…is that it?" Jolee asked, somewhat disappointed as he observed the now-open Star Map.
"Well, what did you expect?" Bastila wanted to know as she copied the information down into her datapad. "It's called a Star Map and, ancient or not, it is a map of stars."
"I suppose so," Jolee said with a sigh. "But to think that I spent so much time and effort trying to break into it and it really isn't even all that impressive-looking."
"Maybe the Star Forge will be impressive," Revan suggested.
"The Star Forge…" Jolee repeated. "I've heard that name before. That's where these Star Maps lead to, right? Well, why not? Kashyyyk is really, really boring. I'm coming along with you guys."
"Excellent," Bastila said, greatly cheered by this news. "We could always use another Jedi. Now all we've got to do is to find a way to deal with Freyyr or else just kill everybody in Rwookrrorro so that Zaalbar can come with us."
"Or we could just leave him here," Canderous pointed out. "But I'm in favor of killing everyone."
"Predictable agreement: As am I," HK seconded.
"Did you just say Freyyr?" Jolee asked curiously.
Mission nodded. "Yeah, apparently he's Big Z and the Chieftain's father and the Chieftain wants us to kill him for some reason he never really saw fit to mention to us. I think they said he was another 'madclaw' and was bothering Czerka."
"Freyyr is an old friend of mine," Jolee said slowly. "I can take you to him but I want your word that you won't try to kill him until he's had a chance to explain."
"My word?" Revan snorted. "For all that's worth."
"Did somebody say Freyyr?" a Wookie – presumably Freyyr – asked as he dropped down in front of them.
Jolee slapped his forehead. "Timing!"
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