Chapter 14- Sleheyron's Bishop
I had the ship on route to Malchor V. Somehow it had only taken two days to work my way back to Theed, so I began rethinking how long it may have actually been getting to Thalia in the old shrine of Exar-Kun. Malachor was on the other side of the Galaxy and I had a real long time to wait. From Malachor I planned on visiting the Sith Academy on Korriban to finish some unfinished 'businesses'.
I had worked out the perfect hyperspace route from the two planets, that shouldn't be quite as long a ride as the one I was partaking in now. It was a special skill I had, I could memorize things better than… well… better than the wisest Jedi on all of Coruscant. It was a skill I'd been training up. Back at Theed I had tried to speak to Queen Raia, but she was busy ordering her subjects around. She had Dark Jedi around her, two who I sensed were planning to meet with the Sith operative who had informed me where the shrine was. As a habit most Dark Jedi got used to peering into the minds of all the people in the area, it helped them locate a target. I turned to my ship and began considering different hyperspace routes to get to the Trayus Academy of Malachor. As I did so I felt one of the Jedi try to tear my mind open, but thinking of something as complex and insignificant as Galactic trade or hyperspace routes blocked off all entrances into ones mind.
It had been a half hour since I had engaged lightspeed. I worked out that a bad smell was going throughout the cockpit and immediately set out to work out what it actually was. Turned out it was me. It had been a long time, about three weeks to be a little more exact, since I had had a proper shower with fresh water. I removed by dark blue robes there in the cockpit and wandered the halls of the ship butt-naked. There was something odd about being naked in my own ship, and I'm not just talking about walking over vent shafts with the wind blowing. I was free for the first time since I first met Revan on Nar Shadaa all those years ago. Really, I could decide to forget about going back to Malachor and disappear into the unknown space. I really was free.
I walked into the shower room and turned the taps. Steaming hot water burst from the showerhead and down my back. I always preferred it warmer – I liked it hot, as I used to say. As the water washed off the dirt, most of my grief flowed with it. The grief of losing Thalia…
Thinking of her…
I remembered her every feature, her every beauty…
Her long black hair, dark blue eyes, slender arms, soft skin…
My gut tightened but I resisted throwing up. I braced myself on the wall with my right hand and held my stomach with my left. I couldn't do it. Together we were going to take on the Galaxy. Together everything was going to be okay. We were only together for a short time, but I had known her for my whole life as it seemed. I loved her.
Tears dripped down the sides of my face.
I couldn't control it, I shook with sadness. This had been the first time I'd cried since leaving Alderaan behind me when all I wanted to do was become a smuggler. I cried. Come on, Atton. Don't be such a baby. This was when in those chick-vids the other best friends stood up and said, 'don't worry bro, cry it out.' Stupid holovids. Every thought of her nearly killed me. Every time I pictured her I felt as though I'd felt a heavy blow to the gut. Soon enough it became unbearable and I found myself lying on the floor of the shower wondering why my life had taken so bad a turn. I trusted Revan, but the son of a blaster tricked me and ruined my life before my own eyes.
I stepped out of the showers, the water still running. I was in such a bad place I couldn't be bothered getting dry. The Bishop had a timer, after a certain time with no one in the room the taps would switch off and the water would stop running.
I loved Thalia. Why did I have to kill her?
I stepped into the cockpit once more and instead of slipping on my clothes sat in the pilot's chair. I had lost all state of mind. I was broken beyond all possible saving. It took a while before I realised that I was in fact still naked. I proceeded to remove my clothes from the room and place them in my quarters. The Sleheyron's Bishop had enough room for a crew of six, but only I populated it's empty halls. I was alone. There were perks of being alone, I could lounge around the ship naked. But that got boring after the first few minutes and I proceeded to place a Dark Jedi Master's robe on.
I studied the navicomputer. I was too sad to sleep and to bored to do anything. So instead I stared down the navicomputer until something appeared. And something did. A red light blinked over the image of Dantooine. I pressed down on it and another window appeared in red stating 'Error.' Last time there was an error on a planet I had to update the map. So I did, and four minutes later Dantooine's error message disappeared but was still red. I pressed down on it again. Another window popped up, instead of 'Error' the message 'Purge' appeared.
How interesting.
I wandered over to the pilot's seat and looked at the program window. I searched through the files and new information appeared. Apparently the JediAcademy landing pad was wiped from the map and the new Khoonda landing pad had been neutralized. What had happened? Surely if it were destroyed it would be the Sith, but not even the Sith would sacrifice so many Jedi young and old for Galactic domination. No, it had to be the Malachor storms.
The space storms around Malachor V must've been playing hell with the tech on board. …but we weren't near Malachor yet. Yes, I could expect some miscalculations by the ship a little closer to home but not while we were this far from the Academy.
Leaving the subject alone I decided to continue upgrading the engine. The upgrades I wanted to chuck on were to prevent further route errors with Malachor. Recently the storms over the planet were far stronger and often intercepted signals with my ship.
I fixed the engines with heaps of travel time to spare. I could play pazaak. Where are the pazaak cards? Are there pazaak cards? How are there now pazaak cards on board? Wait, don't tell me. Has it seriously been that long since I last played pazaak? I remembered playing it like it was yesterday, I wasn't just good at pazaak. I was pazaak.
I needed pazaak.
No, you don't understand.
I need pazaak.
Then it hit me. "Pure Pazaak." I said out loud, (that's a lot of pazzak in such little time).
Play pazaak in your head. So I did. I had to teach myself of course. And I couldn't really play the game in my head so instead a practiced playing the game while counting cards. It was amusing for a while. I remembered all that stuff about stopping Jedi Mind tricks – Thalia hadn't used them. Deep down I knew that she hadn't. But I killed her anyway. See she died, since Jaq died I had been slowly losing my ability to use the Force. I couldn't use all those Enchanci mind blockage things, instead I had to start counting cards. Over the course of the journey I would try other things such as list off engine sequences, recite hyperspace routes, picture myself opening and closing a plasteel container for hours until the container exploded, I'd count the ticking in the power couplings and I'd recalibrate the destination routes even though they were already accurate. It kept time going, and it would in time prevent submission of thoughts.
…switch the face of the +1/-1 card, the totals are nine-ten. Switch the face of the +2/-2 card, the totals are eight-eleven. Switch…
And now I was bored.
No. I was really bored.
In my quarters there was a corrupt holovid that had been sent to me while I was with…with Thalia… I wasn't able to read it as there was pretty much nothing left of it. So I decided to put my mind to work and tasked myself to fix it.
I approached the holoprojector on my bedside table and opened the back of it with a hydrospanner I had in my drawer. Why would I have a hydrospanner in my drawer, you ask? Because I'm Atton Rand, that's why!
After fiddling with some faulty wiring, a minute later a message popped up. Instead of the usual blue image on the message giver, there was just a red glow. I hadn't repaired the visual so I had to rely solely on sound.
"Jaq, it's Khar." The message began. "I'm on Malachor now, all my missions have been suspended, as have yours. Something's happened…"
All targets suspended? Did Malak know? Did he know about her?
"… yeah, well the Academy has fallen. Malak is no longer in control of us and we have been taken over by a Sith Lord Darth Sion."
Sion? Who was Sion? Was that the one they called the Lord of Pain?
"He's making us where new Assassin uniforms now. They're like black robes with red goggles. He's not such a bad leade- No, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. A woman came to the Academy two days ago, that's why you haven't been hearing from me. She… she did something. She was old and wise and claimed to be the rank of Sith Lord though none of the other assassins recognized her. She came and brought the storms with her. The storms have spread across all of Malachor, not just the savage lands. And now the savage lands have stretched as far as right out side of the Academy. Storm beasts are infiltrating the Academy and we are in lockdown. When you get this, when you come home land in the interior docking bay."
The whole program had gone to hell. While I was away the Jedi Academy had been destroyed, Malak had lost control of the Assassins, Lord Sion had been our cult, the Trayus Academy had been overrun. What was happening with the world. Maybe nature didn't flow on since her death… her death…
Still the red light filled the room, unusual considering the message should have ended. Then my confusion was replaced with fear and horror. A woman appeared, a Dark Jedi. She was young and slender in appearance.
"Jaq? My name is Bastila Shan, I am the representative and apprentice of Darth Malak."
I knew this woman instantly. She was the one who had killed Revan all those years ago, the databanks were filled with intel on her. Malak had a personal vendetta against her and her crew. I assumed he had successfully managed to turn her.
"My intel states that you received this message six days ago. Today I arrived at Rakata Prime, the Temple of the Ancients is where I am contacting you from."
Temple of the Ancients? I thought that was on Lehon.
"I have managed to intercept this message with a warning. You are in grave danger, everything you have been led to believe is false. If my plan here fails, if I fail in adopting my new master and rising against Malak than I suggest you retire from being what you are, from being an assassin. I have never seen you, only your dossier. If you truly as strong and cruel as you file suggests and I succeed in killing Malak or fail in persuading my new master, I want you to be my apprentice. I know what you are, you are a force user. I felt it, so did Malak and from the second Lord Revan met you he knew too – he knew what you would become. If you receive this message, I would like a reply. I don't have long as my ship, the Ebon Hawk is arriving from Korriban soon and if you don't contact me soon I fear I won't be able to accept your call…"
What?
What was that all about?
So on top of all the things falling apart for the Sith, someone was planning on betraying the current Dark Lord of the Sith and offering me the choice to join them…
No.