(Authors notes: Sorry about deleting the story the first time, FanFic wouldn't let me edit the first chapter. But it's good now, so enjoy!)
Galen Marek was in a meditative pose, legs crossed over each other as he sat, arms extended out along his legs, hands open with fingertips touching. His head was bowed low, eyes closed and the only movement of his body was the slow rhythmic heaving of his chest. He wore only his black tunic and pants. He was floating a meter off the ground.
She watched him with guarded interest.
"You know, I'm glad that you decided to stop brooding. It's good that the men see you in action. Your very presence inspires them and brings fear into their hearts. Fear breeds out incompetence."
"Really? It has been my experience that fear stagnates a man. Those officers will not take the initiative on anything. They will simply do their best to carry out my orders and take no risks whatsoever to accomplish any other goals."
She smirked.
"That's not the way the Emperor sees it." she paused for a moment. "Or Lord Vader."
Marek opened up one eye and stared at her. She returned the gaze without flinching.
"How well do you know Lord Vader?" he asked softly.
She shrugged.
"One does not know anyone in the Emperor's service, particularly a Lord of the Sith. I merely served with him on some assignments that required stealth and finesse. Lord Vader is more on the brute force side of the equation. If you want something done quietly with no questions asked or created, you come to me or one of the other Hands, that is what we're here for. If you want to subjugate a planet or crush the rebellion, you go to Lord Vader." She paused. "Or Lord Marek I assume at this point."
Marek nodded and remained silent. He closed his eye again and there was a stillness in the chamber for some time. She slowly stretched out on the sidelines, keeping an eye on him but working on her muscles and tendons, she needed to be ready to defend him at a moment's notice.
"I know the real reason why you are here. I am not a fool." he spoke suddenly in that soft voice of his. Quite a contrast to Lord Vader. He did not look much older than the boy that she knew he was, only some lines around the eyes and cheeks betrayed the anger that welled in him constantly. It did not look as if he had a face that suited such a lifestyle.
"I'm not sure I understand, Lord?" she replied evenly.
"Lord Vader, my master, is uncertain of his latest Sith Lord. He wants to make sure that I do not stray a whit from the Dark path. Should I falter, it will be your blade in my back, I'm sure." he answered coldly, but did not open his eyes.
"My lord, my duty is clear, to protect you, advise you and assist you in anything you need." she protested. He did not open his eyes, did not even look in her direction. She was guarding her thoughts. But he was a Sith, he was powerful and her thoughts betrayed her. He made no move or sign to betray that he had learned the truth.
Inevitability weighed on him like a cloak.
"They are coming." he said casually. She moved like a tigress across the chamber and stood by the door as it opened.
Daala strode in, followed by Kratas and chief of security Pegin. Pegin was a fat man. This was odd in Imperial ranks, as there was a strict fitness regimen among the officers but Pegin had friends. He also had a gift for interrogation and torture that made him indispensable.
Marek opened his eyes and looked down at the men, he floated slightly higher now, slowly rising as if on an invisible wind.
"What is it, Admiral?" he asked.
"Lord Marek, I have the report you requested."
"We were attacked again?" Marek asked casually.
"Yes, Lord. This time there were forty cubes. We destroyed them with no or little damage to ourselves."
"There will be more." Marek concluded.
Daala remained silent on the matter. She knew better than question Marek's intuition in these matters. He had so far proved infallible.
"Go on, Admiral."
Daala nodded to Pegin who stepped forward, eyeing Marek suspiciously as he started speaking.
"Lord Marek, my men have finished analyzing the relevant materials we recovered from the wreckage of the first battle. We have managed to ascertain the following. Pegin took out a small holoprojector from his pocket, only Marek noticed his bodyguard tense for the briefest moment, ready to kill the man.
She eased as he activated the projector. The body of one of their fallen enemy was projected for all to see. It was a human, no doubt but it was covered with cybernetic implants, grotesque implants.
"They call themselves the Borg. They are a cybertnetically enhanced species the likes of which we have never encountered before. The tech level of the enhancements is inferior to our own but serve their utilitarian purposes rather well. They have enhanced strength, endurance but due to inferior construction and neuroprocessing, they are a bit slow and cumbersome. Of particular interest to us are two things. Each of the corpses we recovered had special units that contained a transmitter of very high power that kept in constant contact with each other and a central processing core believed to be half a galaxy away."
"They have long range communication technology very similar to our own holonet." Marek added.
"Yes, Lord. They also had, implanted just under the epidermal layer a series of energy transmitters, the smallest I have seen in use for a living organism that allows them to generate a personal shield of sorts. We have been unable to activate this property and we have discovered that it is somehow linked with their vessels, with the vessel providing the power to the shields."
Marek nodded for Pegin to continue.
"We have no way of noting the power and strength of this personal shield, save that by extrapolating the power levels of their shields to date in our two encounters, it is likely that a standard Stormtrooper side arm can probably penetrate the shield."
"I sense some concern regarding that statement." Marek interjected, glancing at Daala.
"I have had my tactical crews run extensive analysis of their attacks and there is a danger." Daala stated gravely.
"Go on."
Daala took out her own holotransmitter and activated it. The first battle played back, save that this time there was a host of technical data streaming along the top and bottom of the screen as well as detailed sensor data superimposed on every object on the screen.
"Note, my lord, that when the Adjudicator opens fire for the first time in a standard ripple fire mode, the first cubes hit are instantly destroyed, the power of our turbolaser batteries proved to be too much for theirs shields and hull. Note however the time display above." The image was enhanced and the playback slowed significantly. The first two cubes hit exploded instantly. The next two exploded as well, but there was a brief time lag and the power level displayed over the cube increased slightly.
Marek's eyes narrowed on this.
The next cube also exploded but it did not do so for a fraction of a second later, and its own power level increased. The last five cubes took tertiary hits, and instead of instantly exploding as the others, great gashes were made in the hull.
"The Borg seem to posses a technology that allows them to adapt to any form of attack, particularly energy weapons. Their cubes increased in defensive capability with each strike of our weapons, so that in the end, the last cubes were struck by light turbolaser batteries and were not destroyed, only damaged. Even in this damaged state they were able to release a powerful attack, in fact we calculate that these cubes can continue to function at almost 100% combat effectiveness with 75% of their vessel damaged severely."
"They will eventually become dangerous even to this fleet." Marek concluded.
"Correct, my lord. Although they are starting from a significantly lower power and technological level than our own, they will eventually adapt to the point where they will be able to bring us down through sheer numbers."
"We can use mass drivers." Kratas noted.
"Yes, their shields cannot adapt to that type of weapon." Daala replied.
"Have we calculated their fleet strength?" Marek asked.
"We have a very rough estimate, Lord. Using calibrations made to our sensors we can now see this area that they call subspace. There must be hundreds of those cubes converging on us as we speak and we can only detect Borg signals around us for hundreds of light years."
"Is this galaxy solely composed of these beings?" Marek asked pointedly.
"No, Lord Marek. We recovered what we believe to be a computer core or information node from the wreckage of one of the cubes. It has a very detailed database that we have only begun to download, from a isolated computer work station for security purposes, and have been able to deduce that while the Borg control an expansive area of this galaxy, there are several smaller empires along the fringes of their territory. One would be of particular interest to us." Pegin answered, glancing furtively at Daala in annoyance. If anyone was going to curry favor with the new Sith Lord it would be him not the Admiral.
"How so?"
"According to the Borg data, this empire has had the most experience with spatial and temporal anomalies in this galaxy."
"How much experience do we have?"
Pegin frowned. "Quite frankly, Lord Marek, from the amount of incidents cataloged by the Borg alone I would say it is a wonder this galaxy has not fallen apart with the anomalies and wormholes that criss-cross this area."
"Then it is imperative that we immediately cease any further hostilities with the Borg and make our way to this empire to gain from them the knowledge that we need to return home." Marek concluded.
"You mean to retreat from this cybernetic scum, lord?" Pegin stammered.
"Are you questioning me, commander?" Marek asked darkly and he stopped floating, slowly settling back to his feet until he stood face to face with Pegin. Despite Pegin's greater bulk there was something about Marek that made him seem larger somehow.
"No lord, I am sure that Pegin misunderstood."
Marek glanced over at Daala, genuinely surprised that the admiral had come to Pegin's aid. He hid the surprise however and instead turned his attention back to Pegin.
"What is the name of this empire?"
"The United Federation of Planets." Pegin replied, trying not to be cowed by this young boy and failing miserably.
"Do we have any navigational information at hand?"
"We are endeavoring to download a usable coordinate system for our hyperdrive calculations. We should have some within the hour."
Marek seemed to be looking somewhere else for a moment, somewhere far away.
"They will attack us before then, be prepared for a major assault, Admiral." Marek snapped at Daala then returned his attention to Pegin.
"We are leaving this system as soon as possible. Alert all commands to be prepared to make the jump to hyperspace even if we are engaged in battle. I feel time is slipping away from us while we engage in fruitless combat."
"Of course Lord, Marek." Daala answered coolly.
Marek turned from them and began to walk away. Daala and Kratas also turned to leave, Pegin glared at Marek and also began to leave. Marek stopped.
"Your thoughts betray you, Pegin."
"Lord?" Pegin stammered. He suddenly felt his throat become too tight. He started gasping.
"You think that I am a coward at worst or I am still stained with my rebel past." Marek spoke coldly, his back still to the assembled officers. Daala held Kratas back. She had served long enough in the Imperial Navy to know when a man's career had come to an end in the service of the Emperor's agents.
"You bloated fool. Can your addled mind even remember what our original mission was?" he hissed and Pegin suddenly lurched off his feet and hung suspended in the air several feet. He clutched desperately at his throat, eyes bulging.
"Admiral Daala, what was our mission when we left orbit of Coruscant?" Marek asked casually. He remained back turned to them.
"The Emperor charged us with the utter destruction of the Ssi Ruvi. We were also ordered to field test the new weapon system installed on the Iron Fist." Daala answered without hesitation. She realized that they were all being tested at this very moment.
"A weapons system of vital importance to the Empire. A new super laser that can be mounted on a new class of Star Destroyer. We have been granted the distinct honor and privilege of using it on the Ssi Ruvi homeworld. Instead we find ourselves here, in this forsaken galaxy far from home. It is my intention to carry out the Emperor's will to the best of my ability. I am a servant and an agent of that same will and you will not question that, do I need to explain myself any further?" His voice was ice.
Pegin was black now, his gasps and struggles slowed as he slowly slumped down, still floating a meter off the ground.
Daala shook her head. "No need at all, Lord Daala. We are all servants of the New Order."
"Remember this object lesson well. I am loathe to waste any more of my time or yours with nonsense. Loyalty is expected and demanded and now you know that in this fleet, even your thoughts are under scrutiny. There can only be absolute loyalty to the Emperor."
He turned finally to face them. His face was stony and his eyes lanced into each of them with a frightful intensity.
"Absolute in thought and action." There was a loud sick wet snap and Pegin's body completely slumped, lifeless. The body hovered for a moment then landed with a thud on the metal floor.
"That is all." He started to wave them away when his eyes fell on his bodyguard.
"Admiral, unless I am mistaken, you will need a new security officer?" Marek asked.
"Yes, Lord." Daala answered slowly. Her eyes did not move an inch to see the body of his dead officer. She ignored the two stormtroopers who quickly whisked the corpse away.
"She will do quite nicely." He indicated with an inclination of his head his bodyguard. She hid her surprise well.
Daala looked uncomfortable for a moment then cleared her throat.
"If she is to be head of security, might I the know her name?" She asked and looked intently at her. She glanced to Marek who nodded.
"Mara Jade."
"Very well, we have much to do, Lord Marek."
"Yes, Admiral, do go on, and don't forget, the Borg will attack us again. Get those coordinates."
"Yes my lord." Daala bowed her head slightly and left with Kratas. Marek regarded Mara with detached interest.
"Lord Marek?" She asked, a little uncomfortable with his sudden attention.
"Don't just stand there Mara, you have a job to do. Get those coordinates, I want to be in Federation space as soon as possible."
She bowed slightly and started to walk out. She paused at the open door and looked back. He stood stock still, back to her.
"What if this Federation doesn't want to share their knowledge?"
"Share, Mara? No, that would require too much time. Talking and debating, no. We will take what we wish." She smiled in agreement and walked out.