"Without strife, the victory has no meaning. Without strife, one does not advance. Without strife, there is only stagnation." ―Yuthura Ban

Sith Gothic 2

Part 5

"What is your business here?" The Rodian guard asked as he placed one hand on his holstered blaster.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Atton respond in kind, and I got the feeling that he was more than capable of firing his weapon before the alien could.

"Luxa sent me. For Slusk" I told the green skinned creature.

Quickly the Rodian backed down, and his body moved into a more relaxed posture.

"It's your head" the alien said just before he opened the door and calmly away.

So far so good.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this" Atton stated.

Hearing that made me sigh.

"Would you stop saying that" I requested.

Rather than say anything else we all walked inside the Exchange's HQ.

"Hello. Do you have an appointment?" The secretary asked as she smiles at us.

I noticed that she was keeping one hand under her desk. Most likely there was a button down there that would trigger an alarm, another possibility was that the lady had a hidden weapon, but she didn't seem like a fighter.

"You will let us inside" I commanded "We have an appointment"

While speaking I used a Jedi Mind trick in order to make her obey. Her eyes glazed over as her will became submissive to my own.

"You have an appointment. I will..." the woman started to say.

Suddenly she broke free of my control and slammed her hand over a button on her desk, while at the same time pulling a blaster out from under her desk. Clearly I'd underestimated this woman, she had a stronger will than most, and she more of a fighter than she seemed.

"Intruders! Lock down the..."

Before I could figure out what to do next, Atton pulled out his blaster, which she used to shoot the console on the secretary's desk, then he expertly disarmed the woman by shooting the blaster right out of the woman's hand. She yelped, more in surprise than pain before running past us, out the Exchange headquarters.

"Well, so much for subtlety" I whispered.

I really needed to properly reforge my connection to the Force.

(Line Break)

I casually yanked my blade out of a Gamorrean's stomach and then pushed the dying alien to the side so that the bulk of the creature didn't end up pinning me down on the ground. That would have been rather embarrassing. Not that I had time to worry about such things as I was currently knee deep in Exchange thugs.

As soon as one of the pig men was down I was facing another. The Gamorrean squealed and raised the axe into the air, only to get shot in the back a few times by Atton, the pig men were tough, but they weren't blaster proof, and soon the creature fell to the ground.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe we should have brought the crone" Rand said as we stepped over the dead bodies "She could have gotten that secretary to let us in no problem".

That I didn't doubt, and in my defence I'd never been very good with the whole Mind Trick thing, Sith didn't tend to use them much, we tended to have little trouble getting people to do whatever it is was we wanted.

"Can you sense Slusk?" Rand wondered.

I tried to do just that, now that we had a moment of quiet for me to think, I reached out with the Force, an action that allowed me to get a sense of the area and the life within it. My range was limited but not as much as it had been before I'd reached this station. It helped that the Citadel was full of life and that I'd had chance to meditate.

The minds of the Gamorrean's were slow, and simple, not as animal like as I would have expected, but they were dull compared to that of a human. On the subject of humans there were some around, they were tense, waiting.

Beyond them was an alien mind, prideful, it was filled with the illusion of control, the local Exchange boss, or maybe just someone high ranking among his staff.

"He's... that way" I told Atton while pointing to one of the doors "I think. Maybe. There's a lot going on over there".

I could tell that my lack of confidence was not inspiring.

We moved on to the next room, only to find it empty. After that there were several more rooms, within only a few Gamorrean guards stationed inside. They were slow enough for me to take them down before any one of them even raised an axe. Clearly Gamorrean's were hired as bodyguards due to their size rather than fighting prowess.

"How can they get away with having this many thugs and still pretend to be a normal business?" Atton wondered.

I knew why.

"On my world we call it a A polite fiction, that's when everyone is aware of a truth, but pretend to believe in some alternative version of events to avoid conflict. The cops here don't want a war with the Exchange and the Exchange don't want to disrupt business" I said "So everyone just pretends something other than the truth",

That was when I remembered something.

"If you see Slusk, don't shoot him unless you have to" I instructed Rand "We might be able to strike a deal with him".

Atton didn't seem convinced.

"You think you can cut a deal with him?" he asked.

Not really, but I was wise enough to keep my options open.

"Once we're finished with his minions, he might be in a negotiating mood" I replied.

(Line Break)

By now we were getting closer to the cluster of sentients I'd sensed earlier. Some of them had the dull feel of Gamorreans, but most are sharper and more defined. Humans minds, ready for battle.

"They're in the next room, at lot of them" I informed Rand "Atton, do you have any grenades?".

He nodded.

"Sure I've got plasma, sonic, concussive, frag" he told me "Which do you want to use".

I considered this for a moment.

"Whichever you prefer is good with me, as long as you don't blow us up too" I said.

Atton hosted his blasters, and readied two frag grenades, one of which he passed to me.

"I'll open the door, then we throw" I instructed.

With effort I concentrated on the door controls, and with a twitch of my fingers the door opened.

"Now!" I shouted.

Two grenades went flying into the room, and just as someone started shoot the door closed again. When I opened for the second time, a few moments later, smoke poured out of the room.

"Wait for it to clear a little. Just in case" I said.

I worried over nothing, no one had survived the explosions.

(Line Break)

"He's alone" I told Atton as I once again reached out with the Force "No wait I think he has some droids with him".

Since robots weren't alive they didn't register to my supernatural senses, but I was feeling a threat within that room, more than one.

"Ion grenades?" suggested Rand

Nodding I signalled my agreement with this idea.

"Are they standing close enough for just one?" Rand asked next.

I wasn't sure, and it was at times like this I wished that my Hk droid was working, alas it was currently in peices on board the Ebon Hawk.

"Best use two to be on safe side" I advised.

When the door opened, Atton and I rolled the grenades in. There was a flash, a crackling sound, then four little explosions, the droids' circuits overloading I assumed.

"Slusk!" I called out as I entered the office.

A moment later a Quarren popped his head above the office's desk, and I noted that he had blaster pointed at me, and that the alien was having trouble holding it straight. With the Force I knocked the gun out of his hands with little effort, in times past I could have brought the gun right to my hand, but I didn't have that measure of control or that much raw power

"My name is Gothic and I have a proposal for you" I told the alien.

He seemed surprised by that, and he was right to be as until now it had seemed as if we'd come here to kill Slusk, which we still might do.

"I'm listening" the Quarren said.

Quickly I got to the point.

"Your faithful employee, Luxa, sent me to kill you" I told the Exchange crime boss.

This time he didn't look surprised. This kind of thing is practically expected from Exchange members I guessed.

"I'm giving you a chance to offer me a better deal" was what I said next.

Slusk looked around his office, perhaps he was wondering what his chances were off getting past us. They were zero.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"A shuttle" I told him.

The Quarran's face tentacles twitched, which meant something I was sure.

"I can get you one" Slusk told me "But you need to deal with Luxa, or I won't live long enough to make arrangements".

That was when the pink skinned sexy alien entered the room, along with a couple of the pig-men.

"I can get you a shuttle and credits" she offered.

That was when I turned to face the Quarran.

"Can you do better?" I asked him.

Only one of the crime bosses was leaving this room alive, and I was going to find out which of them wanted to go on living badly enough to pay for the privilege of a longer life.

(Line Break)

Rather than got shot down, and end up meeting that alien with robot arm, I'd had Atton fly the shuttle directly the planet's pole, which as it turned out was the right one. Now I hoped to leave the shuttle behind and recover my ship.

The room was instantly recognisable as a Jedi Council chamber. There were chairs in a circle, and a stone spire in the centre. On the far side, a bridge over a chasm led up to a door set into the rock. It opened, and a woman walked along the bridge towards me.

This woman was older than I was, and she wore the white-and-silver robes of a Jedi archivist. She had ivory-white skin, high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and ice-blue eyes.

"I did not expect for a Sith to ever enter this place, at least not without blood being shed" the Jedi said.

Atris' voice was harsh and cold. Much like the weather outside of this hideout.

"I find it unusual that you are travelling with others. I had thought you had forsaken everyone after the war with Malak" the Jedi said next.

My alliance with the Jedi Order hadn't latest long, but it had achieved what I had desire it to. Malak was dead, and since I'd been his last apprentice that meant that his empire had been mine. Not that I'd bothered to try to run it, and without a strong leader the Sith had turned on each other, as they often did.

I'd left for the Outer Rim, hoping to learn more about the Force, but that hadn't proven easy, which was partly why I had returned to the more civilised parts of the galaxy. However thinking on it I was starting to wonder if Kreia had something to do with that. Had I stumbled into her presence while exploring some old Sith World?

"We didn't have much of a choice" I told the Jedi "Now if you would be kind enough to return my ship I'll leave you in peace".

She withdrew the silver hilt of a lightsabre from her robes and ignited the blade. It was my sabre, the dragon pearl gave the blade an odd colour. I figured Atris must have repaired the weapon.

"Answer me this" demanded the Jedi "How did you find this place?".

She was right to be concerned, if one Sith could find this place then others could.

"I was looking for my ship so I can leave Telos" I said truthfully.

Atris eyed me suspiciously.

"Your ship, ah, the Ebon Hawk? It is not your ship. Unless you are admitting to the destruction of the Peragus mining facility" she said.

"The destruction of Peragus was not my doing" I informed the Jedi "That was the work of a Sith Lord called Sion, I don't know if he's always used that name, but I do know that he's one of the Sith who are currently hunting the Jedi across the galaxy. The Sith came for me on Peragus, to kill me, they don't want any rivals".

Atris spent a few moments studying me.

"You speak truly" she said after a while "you have encountered the Sith. And you encountered them on Peragus? But what would they want there? They can't have been looking for you".

No they'd been looking for the Jedi Exile.

"There was a former Jedi at Peragus" I told Atris "She died, and there was an assassin droid there trying to collect the Bounty the Exchange has on Jedi, the machine tried to take me instead, but since then no Bounty Hunter has bothered me. Then the Sith showed me, looking for the dead Jedi and they found me".

Atris had a few more questions, all of which I provided answers for.

"Then I shall send you on your way," Atris said, gesturing dismissively. "It is now time for you to depart"

Three of the handmaidens entered the chamber from behind me.

"I want my weapon back" I told Atris.

Rather rudely she dropped it to the ground before turning away.

"We shall remove him, Mistress," said one of the hot chick handmaidens.

And with that the meeting was over.

(Line Break)

The three handmaidens led me to a small common area.

"Make sure the freighter is properly fuelled and supplied, before they leave" one of the women said to another.

The woman, who I guessed to the youngest of the handmaidens, then turned to face me.

"Is there anything you need for your journey?" she asked.

Nothing I could think of, at least nothing that I couldn't buy elsewhere.

"My companions," I said "where are they?".

Perhaps I should have used the word 'friends' but that was hardly what they were.

"You will find them in the main irrigation channel room in the northern part of the plateau interior," said the handmaiden. "The particle emitters there that once governed the flow of water to Telos can double as force cages".

Poor Atton, he kept getting locked up. No wonder his was paranoid.

"They were caged for their safety until we could determine your intent" the handmaiden was now saying "Atris cautioned us against your tactics, fearing that your allies would create a distraction. Your companions gave us little trouble, however. The male could have presented some challenge if he had resisted, but he chose not to".

Given that I was a Sith Lord they'd have been crazy to do otherwise.

"Who, Atton?" I asked.

He was a good shot with a blaster, but he was no threat to warriors like these women. Then again he had killed Jedi so perhaps I should be more concerned about him.

"He has had some Echani training," the handmaiden replied. "He masks it well, but when you were in danger, his form dropped into a stance we know well".

Well he had fought in the Mando wars and then later against the Republic so it made sense that he'd gone through combat training.

"I have a question for you" the woman then said.

"What did you wish to ask?" I wondered.

The handmaiden hesitated for a long moment.

"You have touched the Force" she was able to say "What does it feel like?"

That was not an easy question to answer. I'd read at least some of the lore of the Sith back when I'd been at the academy, and I'd learned from both living Sith and Jedi, yet despite all that education I had a very limited understand of the Force and what it could do. Even something as basic as how it felt to be connected to the Force could change from person to person.

"It is a difficult thing to describe," I said

"Please, I wish to know" she pleaded.

The handmaiden's voice was tense, almost desperate.

"You don't have a frame of reference that would allow you to understand" I told the woman "It would be like trying to explain what yellow is to a blind person, or what music sounds to a deaf person. You have to experience it to understand it, and even then its mostly a mystery".

The handmaiden spent a few moments thinking.

"I see. Thank you. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me" she finally said.

Although I had no idea why she grateful given that I'd not been at all helpful.

(Line Break)

Kreia spoke as I entered the room she and Atton had been contained within

"Did you find what you came for?" the old woman asked.

Somehow I didn't think she meant my lightsabre.

"That depends. What was I supposed to find here?" I asked back.

Kreia didn't answer, and since I hadn't either I didn't push the issue. No doubt it had been important for me to see Atris, I just wasn't sure why. I already knew she'd been corrupted.

"She had the Ebon Hawk, and she agreed to return, so we're ready to leave" I said.

The old woman nodded slightly.

"Very well, let us depart," said Kreia.

I turned my head as Atton groaned from the floor of his force cage.

"He is only sleeping," said Kreia. "It seems the journey here has fatigued him"

Since I knew what had actually happened there was no sense talking about it, instead I deactivated the force fields. Atton stood up, somewhat groggily, and once he was ready we headed to the hangar. Along the way we entered another room and inside found T3-M4 in a stasis field of his own. T3 tooted an excited greeting upon seeing me.

"Well, if it isn't the one who stole the Ebon Hawk," said Atton accusingly. "Not so smug now, are you, you little thief?".

I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be a fool," chided Kreia, "Atris stole the ship and the droid"

The act had been performed by one or more of the handmaidens, but on Atris order.

"T3, are you all right?" I enquired of the robot.

It hooted and whistled at me.

"You can fill me in later," I told the machine "for now let me get you out of there first."

I shut down the force field and T3 rolled out to join us.

(Line Break)

The crew, such as we were, gathered in the main hold, standing around the holodisplay which also served as a table at mealtimes, as well as form of entertainment. I had some great holodramas.

"Now that we're off that dejarik board of a planet, I say that we burn sky until we see lines" Rand was saying "And forget about the Jedi".

Upon hearing the mention of Jedi T3 started displaying information on the whereabouts of the Jedi Master

"We need their help against the Sith," I said once the robot had finished.

Again I wondered how much of what I was doing was the Will of the Force and how much was Kreia controlling me, because we didn't need the Masters, they wouldn't be any help to me. I had to grow strong enough to defeat the Sith, the Jedi couldn't, they were all either dead or hiding, or simply unimportant.

"Those are Atris' records you have stolen!" a voice called out.

The last of the handmaidens walked into the hold from the direction of the boarding ramp.

"What the hell are you doing on our ship?" Atton demanded to know.

Since I couldn't hide my lack of surprise so I could only hope that no one was looking at me right now.

"I have come to join you," she said. "I can help you against this threat."

Atton crossed his arms.

"Well, we don't want your help. Or any of your sisters" he said.

"It is just me," she replied. "And I am doing this because Atris believes you will need help".

Well we could use the help, and had an interest in the Force which she could learn to use if I was able to train her, with that in mind it seemed wise to keep her close.

"I will take whatever help I can get" I told the handmaiden.

The others weren't so happy to have her around.

"Indeed?" Kreia said derisively. "But of course, what does one more matter to our journey?"

She turned to face me.

"I have had enough of this" the old sith witch declared "I will be in my chambers"

With that she wandered off.

"If she's coming with us, she gets the cargo hold," decided Atton. "Might remind her how fun it is to get locked up".

This was going to be a fun trip (not).

"The cargo hold is enough," the handmaiden said quickly. "I assure you, there is little I need. I will attend to myself"

And spy on us as well. However I didn't really mind as if I had been Atris I'd want to keep tabs on the Sith Lord who was running about the galaxy doing the gods only knew what.

"Do you have a name?" I asked the warrior woman.

"I prefer to be called Handmaiden," she said. "Before entering Atris' service, yes, I carried a name, as all the children of the Echani do. It is not important. My title and rank is of consequence, not my name. I take value in Atris' service, not in myself".

With effort I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Handmaiden it is, then" I said before addressing Atton "I've been thinking about what you said on the station-about Nar Shaddaa, and getting lost. Master Zez-Kai is supposed to be there, and so is Goto, the Exchange boss who posted the bounty on Jedi. I want to deal with him, make him call off the bounty".

The bounty was for Jedi not for Sith, but to most people there wasn't much difference between the two. So it was only a matter of time before the hunters started coming after me, one Hk droid already had.

"I'd say you were crazy to take on an Exchange boss directly, but I saw you handle Luxa and Slusk" Atton replied.

Rand then thought a moment.

"They call Nar Shaddaa the smuggler's moon for a reason-we should be able to get the ship's transponder codes changed. That will lower our profile" he suggested.

That sounded like a good idea.

"Nar Shaddaa it is then" I decided.

(Line Break)

The training remote moved through the air, I couldn't see it, but I could hear it, and that allowed me to roughly guess where it was, but I avoided trying to do that and let the Force control my actions. This was different than calling upon the Force, harder it someways, yet easier in others. Hard because it meant letting go of control, and easier because the Force was doing all the work.

The Force, was a metaphysical, spiritual, binding, and ubiquitous power that held enormous importance for both the Jedi and Sith . Known as the Way in ancient times, the Force was viewed in many different aspects, including, but not limited to, the light side, the dark side, the Living Force, the Unifying Force, the Cosmic Force, and the Physical Force. The first two aspects were concerned with the moral compass of the Force, as manifested by the conduct and emotions of living creatures who were themselves part of the fabric of the Force.

The light side of the Force was the facet aligned with compassion, selflessness, self-knowledge and enlightenment, healing, mercy and benevolence, while the dark side of the Force was aligned with hatred, fear, covetousness, anger, aggression, jealousy and malevolence.

As for the other four aspects were defined by prominent Jedi philosophies: The Living Force dealt with the energy of living things; the Unifying Force, with the entirety of space and time; the Cosmic Force, with life after death; and the Physical Force, with anything within one's surroundings.

Though the Force was categorised in this way, there were no specific abilities or powers that were only usable by a follower of a particular path of the Force; the Force partially existed inside the life forms that used it, and drew energy from their emotions.

Some beings, particularly the Sith, believed that the dark side of the Force was more powerful than the light, that wasn't something I was sure about, I used the dark side because I was a Sith. Unlike the others I didn't limit myself to using just fear and anger, I embraced all passions.

In my view just using hate and anger when calling upon the dark side effected the mind like only eating one or two kinds of food effected the body. To remain healthy a person needed different kinds of food just like how they needed to feel different things. Alas no other Sith seemed to see things that way.

Perhaps one day I would make a holocron and record my thoughts so that someday others would see things my way.

Holocrons were information-storage devices that could fit in the palm of hand. It was common for them to be shaped like evenly proportioned polyhedrons, with facets made from a crystalline material. Some had transparent outer shells that allowed their users to perceive their inner mechanisms, and they glowed when activated. While known Jedi holocrons were cubes, those built by the Sith were usually identified by their pyramidal shapes. They functioned similarly to their Jedi counterparts, and contained the ancient secrets of the dark side and the Sith Order.[

Holocrons acted as repositories of vital, sensitive knowledge and wisdom pertaining to the nature and use of the Force, the interface, for lack of a better term, took the form of an interactive hologram resembling the person who recorded the information. Given the sensitive nature of the lessons they contained, many such devices were equipped with a security mechanism that granted access only to those keenly attuned with the Force, such as myself.

While thinking about that I batted aside very low powered blaster bolts, or to be more precise the Force was using my body to do this. After a while I started to try to control my actions while letting the Force guide me rather than directly control my actions. This was more a Jedi thing than a Sith one, but it worked.

As I carried on reforging my connection to the Force became aware that I was being watched, I didn't know by whom, and when I reached out to get a sense of my watcher I felt no trace, yet I could feel life forms in different parts of the ship all some distance away and there were too few of us for me to be confused. However I was sure that someone was watching me, or at least sensing me.

I would have to find out who.