21: The Color of Shadow
They met back up with Carth nearly twelve hours later as the scientists finally finished attaching the prefabs to the Foundry's surface. Revan opened the door to the hangar and found him waiting at an almost perfect parade rest.
"You're all right?" he asked, quickly scanning them both. She nodded, pulling off her breather. Khemmaa followed suit, growling when the strap got stuck in her fur – Revan took a moment to help her untangle herself.
"No defenses, T3's scrubbing them right now. I'll reactivate once we figure out their IFFs. Just a lot of dust." She motioned to the door. "Until Yondo and I deal with the energy, I'd prefer we limit exposure to the Foundry's interior. The energy should be worse on Force Sensitives, but —"
"I can feel it. It's certainly—"
"Well, that'd be because you're Force Sensitive."
Carth blinked. "I … oh. Right." She'd said that before, on Korriban, and told him not to think too much of it. ("Well, don't say anything around Bastila. She'll probably haul you off to Vrook, too.")
Revan started by him, patting his shoulder. "It's okay, flyboy. It's more of a hassle than it's worth."
Carth started after her, Khemmaa lagging behind and closely studying the prefabs. HK waited by the Foundry door, eyes flickering and gun ready.
"On our end, we've set up the living quarters, lab, and fixed the docking tube. So, we're done."
"And I saw you moved into a blockade position?"
"Yeah. I figured if the Empire's going to find this place, we may as well be ready."
"Good. That's what I was hoping you'd figure."
"How long until we can get the factory rolling?"
Revan shrugged. "Nothing looks damaged. Like I said, I'd say a week to full production – if I work slow. I've already got T3 feeding some schematics into the system for testing so we'll see what he says."
"Also." Carth stopped. Revan took a couple steps further before realizing it, and turned back. "Yondo wants onto the station."
She sighed. "Of course he does. Has he said anything else about it?"
"Just that he wants to see what he's dealing with. I said he'd have to talk to you, first. Apparently…" Carth grinned. "He thinks I have some control over you."
Revan laughed, smoothing out the collar of his uniform. "Well," she replied, looking up at him through her lashes with a smirk. "Only sometimes. Where is he?"
"Still on the ship. Given what… well." He glanced back towards the Foundry's door, looming and threatening in the distance. "Given what something like this did to you, I trust your assessment of it over his."
"What was his?"
"That you're overreacting."
Revan snorted. "If Yondo steps on here — underprepared, I'm sure — every negative emotion he pretends he doesn't have will completely overwhelm him. If he thinks that's a risk he's willing to take then by all means, he can come aboard."
"You'll tell him that. The Jedi complement is your responsibility."
She thrust her lip out. "Yondo doesn't want to listen to me."
He shook his head. "He won't listen to me either, gorgeous. You've never had the experience of a Jedi walking all over your non-Force Sensitive crew. You've been said Jedi."
She pouted more. "I never—"
"I distinctly recall horror stories from the Mandalorian Wars about you."
"Carth Onasi! I was a model commander!"
"Says you. I had a friend on your flagship. He said you were a nightmare."
"After everything I've…" Revan frowned and trailed off. "Fine. Maybe I was a bit of a nightmare. But only because there were Mandalorians everywhere."
Carth chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Go take care of Yondo. Khemmaa, where are you heading?"
Khemmaa shrugged and mumbled something. Revan laughed. "Yes, I'm sure they've set up the mess, K."
#
The look on Yondo's face as Revan led him off the Valiant was not one she would forget quickly. He was already displeased from being around her, so the thick, negative energy looming a little further into the station gave him a poetic expression of fervent disgust.
"As I'd said earlier," Revan was saying as Carth rejoined her aboard the Republic's living quarters. "The energy here is nasty, and I'm slightly insulted that you didn't believe me."
Yondo frowned. "I have never felt this type of… evil."
Revan stared at Carth with an indescribable expression of long-suffering. He coughed into his hand. "It's negative, not evil," she replied. "You haven't seen evil. This is just the Force in a bad mood."
"Your flippancy is not welcome." The Twi'lek's tone was sharp. Revan repeated her look, and Carth coughed again. "I am well aware of what evil feels like, Revan. Perhaps you need to reacquaint yourself."
"Well, frak you too." Revan's reply was just as sharp. "I don't have to show you the Foundry. Hell, I don't even needyour help. I can go about using the Foundry for its intended purposes, and you can oversee your people clearing the energy yourself. All it's doing is giving me a headache."
Yondo was silent, but motioned towards the Foundry. Revan resumed walking toward the door.
"That's the problem with the Jedi," she muttered as Carth joined her. "They're too willing to dismiss whatever they don't understand."
"An overly simplistic view of the situation," Yondo said. "And evidence that your own experience has taught you very little."
"On the contrary, it taught me a lot. Perhaps you should try it."
"Look," Carth said as they reached the door to the Foundry proper. "Both of you are here to do a job. Arguing about it won't help anyone."
"Loathe as I am to say it, he's right," Revan said. Carth grinned.
"I'd better make a note of the date."
"Shut up," she replied, raising her hand towards the Foundry door. "Keep your head in here, Yondo, I'd hate tell Satele you went insane."
"I am not worried about me," he replied pointedly. Revan rolled her eyes and pressed a large, square button in the middle of the door.
"Are you coming, Carth?"
"Of course I am."
She nodded, and motioned them after her.
Carth's jaw nearly dropped as they headed inside. He'd gone with Revan, Canderous, and Jolee onto the Star Forge and, though that had been much grander, he'd almost forgotten the magnificence of Rakatan architecture. The halls towered above them, the stone elegantly carved, enormous statues holding spears positioned in niches set every several meters. HK fell in behind them, metal feet clacking on the stone over the echoes of their own boots.
The silence was almost deafening.
"I expected more resistance," Yondo said. "The Rakata left no defenses?"
"Even droids give out after a while. Rakatan droids are robust, but not magical." Yondo's frown deepened. "I was expecting biological agents, but T3 cleared the facility."
"Your droid."
"Yes, my droid. Try to sound less put out about it." Carth chuckled. Revan glared at him as she continued. "He's currently plugged into the Foundry's mainframe."
"Is that safe?"
"Yes."
"Are you placing too much faith in this droid?"
"Hey—" Carth started.
Revan raised her finger. "Don't you dare insult my son again. T3 is smarter than you are."
"I—"
"Wait, do you actually think of T3—"
"Of course I do, Carth. Congratulations on your re-fatherhood."
"Please don't tell me HK…"
Revan looked over at him, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "Murder Son? Of course." He frowned at her, and she motioned to Yondo with her eyes — the Twi'lek's frown had gotten impossibly deeper. Carth shook his head, but couldn't help grinning. Her sniping with Yondo was, at least, distracting him from the aching pressure behind his eyes.
Finally they reached the central platform, rocks drifting down into the Foundry's depths. T3 turned his head back from the console and chirped as they joined him. Revan leaned back against the console, crossing her arms. Carth stared up, gaping openly at the ship above them and the asteroids doomed to being harvested in the Foundry's core. This was enormous! When he looked back at Revan, she was grinning.
"The energy is much stronger here," Yondo said.
"Told you."
"And you are sure this is safe to use?"
"Yes."
Yondo stared at her. "You are sure this is safe to use?"
"Get your hand away from your belt." Carth glanced down at his, before noticing Yondo's hand straying awfully close to his lightsaber. Revan's was hovering over her own. "I don't want to tell Satele that you pushed your luck."
Yondo frowned again. "Is it s—"
"Yes. I know what I am doing. You do not. Now that you have an idea, we should leave."
Without waiting for an answer, Revan stalked past them and back up the ramp. Carth shook his head as Yondo looked at him.
"You heard her, Master Jedi. After you."
#
Carth, once Yondo was back on the Valiant, joined Revan in the central control room with a bottle of painkillers tucked in his uniform pocket. She looked up as he approached and stepped back from the console.
"This really doesn't bother you?" he asked.
"It does, just not as badly as everyone else."
Carth frowned. "Why?" Was she lying to him about her intentions? Had she actually fallen again? Was it not affecting her because — Revan sighed, rested her hands on his waist, and stared up at him with sincerity.
"Carth, whatever doomsday scenario is running through your head, I promise, I'm fine. I'm less affected because I've achieved balance in the Force, that's all. The energy here gives me a mild headache because it's very dark, and very strong. I promise, I'm fine."
"You aren't just telling me that."
"Of course not." She shook her head. "I lied to you once, and I regretted it for far too long."
"I just… I don't understand what it means. I mean, I don't think you care about the Sith, but you're so hostile to the Jedi, and —"
"The Jedi tried to erase my memories and brainwash me into loyal compliance."
"True."
"The Sith just, well." Revan scratched her chin. "I'm neither, and both. It's hard to explain. I'd say I have the benefits of both without their limitations, but I've only had a few months of real-life testing. Before this, it was mostly contemplation while in stasis." He nodded. "That, and it would be somewhat pretentious."
"You are nothing if not pretentious, gorgeous."
"Rude. But I am not whatever you're afraid of, I promise. I'm not… I'm not going to be her again."
Carth nodded. "I didn't think you were. I do trust you."
"Even after I lied to you for like, three months about leaving?"
"Even after that. I'm just understandably concerned."
"I know." She laced her fingers into his and smiled. "Want to go see the lines in action, Admiral? Inspect the Republic's newest factory?"
"Lead the way."
Revan led him out of the control room, into one of the branching arcs off the main halls. The lines stretched much deeper underneath the control room, holding a silent vigil to the asteroids floating downward. He didn't see any actual assembly lines.
"Where are they?"
To their left, a triangular structure in the ceiling flashed, and he jumped. Underneath it appeared a regular protocol model that took a couple steps forward, saw them, and stopped.
"Right there." Revan dropped his hand and approached the droid. "State your operating number?"
"MD-18A."
"Hm." She frowned. "It's been an hour and it's only turned out eighteen?" Revan opened her comm. "T3, Line A is being sluggish."
"Eighteen in an hour?!"
"It's a bit slow, right?"
"What? No! A normal factory line turns out ten droids an hour — how —"
"Just be thankful these are friendly. Continue to your endpoint, 18A." The droid started deeper into the factory. "Remember on the Star Forge, when Bastila locked you and Jolee out and I had to continue on without you?"
"Yeah."
"There was one of these rooms in between me and Malak." She waved her hand at the production apparatus. "He decided to weaponize them."
"You're kidding."
"Trust me, you haven't known fear until six of these start firing at once with hostile spider droids."
"Why spider droids?" He'd think Malak would have chosen a heavy tank droid or something, especially to stop the woman who was both his former master and one of the most powerful Force-users of her generation.
"He always had a thing for arachnids."
"Forget I asked."
"Done." She took his hand again. "Down here is the testing area. I have a couple military models running right now."
"I thought you weren't doing military models yet."
"Just for testing."
She led him to a small room that overlooked a vast, wide arena. Two tank droids were battling it out, while a protocol droid took notes from the windows.
"Carth, meet TS-13. She's freeing me up to do other things by overseeing testing."
"Greetings, Admiral Onasi," the droid said, glancing over her shoulder before returning to the testing floor ahead of them. "The tank droids are performing well, master. They should easily outstrip comparable Imperial models."
"Good." They watched for a moment. Finally, one droid stumbled to the floor and went dark on TS' screen. Revan winced. "I never like seeing droids die. Can we run a group fire simulation?"
"I will contact T3-M4 and request the appropriate units."
They waited less than five minutes before two sets of droids streamed through opposite sides of the testing room, two tank droids and around ten battle droids, tall and bipedal with narrow heads.
"It's an older model, but I've always liked it," she said. "The head has the major processing units, and it's compact, so harder for anyone but a dedicated sniper to hit. These test models have limited functionality — makes me feel better about losing them."
Carth nodded. TS tapped her stylus against her datapad. "Testing proceeds in three… two… one."
The two groups of droids started into combat. The tank droids targeted one another, almost immediately, while the others skirted around the edges and sniped at one another from the sides of the tanks.
"Huh," Revan said. "They're showing a surprising amount of group cohesion for having minimal programming."
"Hm?"
Revan pointed out the droids' tactics, with the smaller droids using the tank for cover and the tank relying on them for support. Carth nodded, listening as she mused over their combat programs, often dipping into droid theory far too obscure for him to understand. One group's tank finally went down, and the remaining smaller droids were easily picked off without their cover.
"I wonder if there's some base programming the Foundry inserts into their droids," she mused.
"You could always ask."
"Yeah." Revan looked over at TS. "Hey, TS, is there some base unit code that the Foundry inserts into their droids?"
TS' head tilted towards her with the most incredulous look a droid could manage.
"I meant the computer," he said.
"Oh. Right. Sorry, TS. Can you copy the testing holos to my datapad? I'd like to send a decent bit of information to Rans on the first report."
"I'll forward them to T3, master."
"Thanks."
Carth looped his arm around her waist, pulling her into him as they started back towards the Republic base. "I see why you said this could win the war."
"Let's just hope it does."