Danika

The unaligned people of Rwookrrorro stood aside as we entered. I could hear Freyyr's name whispered as we passed. Those that would have stopped us were either pushed ahead by our vanguard, or died when they refused to listen to Worrroznor. The throne room was blocked by a group of not only Wookiee but Czerka as well. We dealt with them, and pushed our way inside.

Chuundar sat on his throne, surrounded by both Wookiee and Czerka allies. I saw the chief of Czerka Security standing to the side, his hand on his com.

"Well, Father and brother have both returned. We have a family reunion!" Chuundar said. Then he motioned at me. "I think this is your business, Commander Velek."

"Danika Wordweaver, I arrest you for complicity in a native revolt against Czerka Corporation-"

"Silence, Human." Worrroznor growled. "You have told us constantly to stay out of your affairs, and you would return the favor. This is an internal matter of the Wookiee of Rwookrrorro. You have no authority here."

"That woman is a criminal-"

"That woman has been named Shrromarrik by Freyyr, once our chieftain, and perhaps soon to be again. She is Wookiee under our laws, which you ignore at your peril."

"But I set the laws of my village, Worrroznor!" Chuundar roared. "I am chieftain here! Not you, Law-speaker!"

Worrroznor gave him a pitying look. "The Law-Speaker bows to none save the laws of our people. It is he that determines right and wrong. The chieftain is he who commands his people within that law. He is also the one who holds Bacca's blade, Chuundar. So it has been since we first moved from being animals." Freyyr held up the blade. There was a sigh among the gathered Wookiee.

"So he had the blade. I have the hilt!" Chuundar pulled it out, brandishing it. "Both you and this creature that was my father said it was important! Who will the people follow, father? You, an old and weak leader? Or me, with the might of a Galactic corporation behind me?"

"Enough!" Zaalbar stepped from a corner. "Both of you are fighting over who sits in the chair? The people of our village, of our planet deserve better!"

"Listen to your other son, Freyyr." Chuundar purred. "If you win our village will be gutted, ripe for another to take us over."

"Zaalbar..." I said.

"He has been speaking with me since you left, Danika Wordweaver. Much of what he says makes sense."

"Sense? To sell others, even of other tribes into slavery? To use them," I waved toward the Czerka, "To tell you what to do? They must discuss this, let the law decide what is right."

"The law!" Chuundar laughed. "I am the law! And Czerka agrees with me." He stood, towering over me. "Attack!"

I spun, and Commander Velek went down. It was a madhouse in the close quarters. A dozen Wookiee all told fighting each other, and any Czerkas that were wise diving for cover. Those that were not wise tried to shoot at those who supported Freyyr. They went down in a welter of blood. It was heavy blaster cannon at five paces, and only someone who was lucky or very fast was going to survive.

Chuundar was backed into a corner, and he was screaming for his supporters outside to rally to his defense. But outside the fight was also total. None could force themselves to his side. He drew a Sith Assassin's pistol, and aimed it at Freyyr.

I saw a shape flash, and Worrroznor was there. The blast took him in the stomach, and he collapsed as Freyyr caught his son by the throat. That one shot stopped the fight as if he had flipped a switch.

"Freyyr, no." Worrroznor gasped.

"Listen to him, Freyyr!" I shouted.

The Wookiee growled, throwing Chuundar into the arms of his supporters as the fighting died. Everyone was astonished by Chuundar's attack on the law-speaker.

"Worrroznor. You will live." Freyyr said, holding the ancient in his arms.

"No, Freyyr." He gasped. "Even the mighty Freyyr cannot stop the Black Wook from collecting me. "But this must end, as the law requires."

"Don't speak to me of law when my best friend lies dying!"

"Freyyr." The ancient shook his head. "The law is what makes us beings, and not animals. I will speak the law even as the Black Wook comes for me. Will you hear me?"

Freyyr bowed his head. "Yes, old friend. I will."

"You are our rightful chief. Chuundar has broken the law in that he has allowed out-worlders to determine our policy and ways of life." He reached out toward me, and I took his hand. "You, Shrromarrik have a duty to the people you have sworn to protect. Another Law Speaker will be appointed in my place, but you must speak for the law until that time. Freyyr needs advice of your world beyond our trees, and none of us can give such. Will you accept this charge?" He squeezed my hand.

"I am not worthy of this responsibility."

He chuckled. "Was I when it was handed to me? Only in dealing with the out-worlders will he need your advice. Guide him." He squeezed my hand, then I felt it go limp.

I lifted it to my cheek, looking at him. "I will give him good words within the law." I promised.

"Hah! So an out worlder will seal my fate!" Chuundar shouted. "After all of your words on it, Father, that is rich!"

"No I will not." I stood away from Freyyr, away from Worrroznor's body. "I will not judge you under your laws. The one who is appointed in his place will." I waved toward the body. "He asked me only to guide the Chief in the laws of his kind." I waved toward the body of Velek. "That I can do."

"Yes." Freyyr stood away from his friend, catching his son in one great paw. "He has murdered the law speaker, tried to use out-worlders to control our village, spat on our laws. Does any stand with him on this?" He turned, but no one stepped forward in Chuundar's defense.

"Then I shall use his own methods to deal with him." He waved and walked from the room. The guards dragged Chuundar to the netting that separated the village from the forest beyond. Freyyr loosened a section, taking his son by his throat. "I exile you. Return when you have gathered enough honor to wash this stain clean."

"Father please-"

"I have no sons! One was exiled, and awaits my judgment on his return. The other starts his journey as an exile this day." He flung the boy out into space. They watched him fall.

"He might live." I commented.

"If he has the brain and heart my blood gives him, he will. But he must cleanse himself before he returns. That He might fail in."

I spent the next hours saying no. Like the Republic Senate, it isn't the one who is right that gains the day; it's the one who screams loudest. "Freyyr we cannot merely kill all of the out worlders-"

"They have battened on my people long enough-"

"Will you listen?" I roared. Freyyr took a step back. I moderated my tone. "The Galaxy will awake tomorrow with this world in your hands. Do you want them cheering as Czerka comes in to slaughter you?" He stared at me. "The news that the revolt has started is already going out. There is no way to avoid this. Czerka, would have tried to conceal it but there are enough ships of independent merchants and those Companies not linked to the Corporation with hololinks they can't control. So instead they will try to use your actions to condemn, make you look like animals slaughtering, maybe even devouring their people.

"So you must give orders that any that fight you, that any that attack you, will die. If they do not, if they are wounded and disarmed, if they surrender, if they try to run, you must let them. You must also announce that this is what you have said.

"You must assure that all who fight alongside you will accept this, and the same rule must be used for every Czerka outpost. You must also punish publicly those that violate this order."

"But-"

"But nothing! When the Galaxy reads their news tomorrow and in the coming weeks, they must see a people forced to fight. That killed the enemy that faced them, that killed those that attacked them, but showed mercy to all others.

"It is hard to make the Wookiee evil when they see pictures of your people helping out worlders in maintaining order. When they see the abject misery of those freed from Czerka Dream, and their return to Kashyyyk, they must say to themselves, 'good for the Wookiee!'."

Those pictures were already being broadcast. Czerka Dream had been designed for rough world cargoes where pirates or natives might raid or try to capture them. But she had little firepower compared to Ebon Hawk. Canderous had boarded them, taken the entire crew captive, and used shuttles to return freed Wookiee slaves to the planet. Among them had been several hundred slaves of other races. The scenes with Wookiee removing their collars, then carrying humans and Twi-lek among others from their servitude had already made waves in the Republic.

There was already a dozen different news services vying for the inside story. I had yet to get to a proper communication facility, but Canderous had set both Komad Fortuna and Dayso Cooh on it. They had broadcast pictures of the tach, showing people drinking Tarisian ale, then the gentle creatures that gave the beverage its kick. This was followed by Czerka's own recordings of the hunts.

Komad had found something better than hunting. It was called revolution. Dayso Cooh needed restraining. He was talking of 'people's court's and rough justice.'

"It is unacceptable!" One of his councilors roared.

"Then kill me now." I snarled back. He took a step back. "Kill all of my crew but Zaalbar!"

"But you are Shrromarrik! You are as Wook as I!"

"Most of those who you would kill swore no allegiance that linked to slavery. They were looking for work of their hands. They joined Czerka for work, nothing more. They wear the uniform, but they are innocent of wrong doing. Some are not even linked to Czerka, they are merchants that came for goods Czerka made from your world, or to run the shops.

"Those that took your people, that put collars on them, that used the pain boxes on your people, that sold your people into slavery, they are the enemy. They must die if they fight you. If you would start killing those not of your race begin now with me!"

The one arguing with me backed away, bending low to show he was not a threat.

"It is agreed. Is there anything else we must do before we attack?" Freyyr asked sarcastically.

"Yes. You must first deal with your son."

Freyyr growled. He walked over to Zaalbar. As an exile he could not be part of the war council of the last hours. Instead he had been working on Bacca's blade. When we came to him, he flicked the switch, and the blade came to life. He shut it off, and held it out with his eyes down.

"My son, I have shamed myself in this. I believed what I was told, not what was true. I cast you out, made two decades misery without thinking." He reached past the blade, touching his son's head. "I have no excuse."

"I still forgive, Father." Zaalbar answered his eyes still down. "I learned a great deal in the outside world. A lot of what Danika tells you now I know to be true from seeing them."

"You and she have put into my people the backbone we needed. I will erase the slavers from this world. None of ours will ever go into that again as long as I live.

"I have sent quick climbers to the other villages. They took apologies from me for what Chuundar has done to them, and asked for them to ally themselves with us against Czerka." He grunted a laugh. "My other son could have made himself ruler of the planet if he has merely said 'fight against them' instead of letting Czerka have their way. Out-worlders shall be rare here for a time, but knowing such as this one lives makes me happy to be part of the galaxy.

"But I owe you for all that time, Zaalbar. For what I did in error." He turned, opening the door. "Hear me! Zaalbar has returned to us, for his sin was actually the doing of Chuundar by his own admission! He is once more a member of our tribe and my family. And no one would make me more proud than what I received in return for that act!" He turned to his son. "There is a place by my side, soon to sit upon that throne if you are worthy." It is hard to describe a Wookiee voice as plaintive, but Freyyr's was.

"I thank you my father." He stood, and for the first time looked his father in the eye again. "I have learned much in the galaxy beyond, not all of it good, not all of it light. I must say no to you father. I cannot return home yet."

"My son!' Freyyr wailed. "What must I do to atone?"

"My father you have accepted me back and that I will treasure for the rest of my life! But I have sworn a life debt to Danika. I must pay that back before I can return home!"

"How can family claim life debt from family?" Freyyr demanded. My crew and I had been declared part of Freyyr's honor family. We were Wookiee in all but flesh. Plus I still held the title of Shrromarrik and was being called 'Human law speaker' even by the children. I could see his point.

"Zaalbar-"

"Please, Shrromarrik." He said to me gently. "That is true father, but I gave that life debt, and there is the mission our Shrromarrik must complete. I cannot in honor foreswear that. Even to return home. And as she is of our people now, that debt looms larger, for family must always be ready to protect their own."

Freyyr cried. "You see this? I bowed to your wisdom Shrromarrik, now I must bow to the wisdom of my own son! The Galaxy shall know that Wookiee can judge in faith and honor. Go with my blessing. But before you leave, we owe you Shrromarrik, Danika Wordweaver, much honor. We shall sing songs of you and what you have done until the lights in the sky grow cold. But if there is anything we have that you desire, ask for it."

I was stumped. What could I ask for that I needed?

Again Zaalbar interrupted. "Father I would ask one thing. Let me use Bacca's sword. It came from out there before we were people. Let it draw blood of the enemies of all people everywhere!"

"That seems fitting." I said.

"I am tempted to say no, my son. But I owe a debt to you and her. You know what you ask. Chieftains of our clan have held it since Bacca found it. Do you know what you ask?"

"I do father. The Wookiee cannot think of this one world any more. We are part of a galaxy of worlds and people who think of Wookiee and pictures a slave. We must teach them otherwise."

"Yes my son. Take it. Make the world's tremble at Wookiee wisdom and strength." He passed the precious relic to his son, who bowed low.

"I will, father. And it will return, whether I do or not."

"I would much rather my son and heir return. Guard him well, Shrromarrik!"

"I will."

Against any other enemy, the Czerka defenses of walls and auto turrets might have worked. But as Jolee had pointed out, they had made a fatal blunder. The Wookiee knew how those guns worked and how to disable them. The Wookiee were also as comfortable climbing as they were walking, and netting will not stop a determined Wookiee.

We reached the gate. The guns tracked on us, but did not fire. Beyond the door carnage began. Wookiee had climbed over, eliminating the guards on it, then used the guard officer's own control box to deactivate the weapons.

I ran up to a cowering guard, slapping aside the bowcaster of a young Wookiee. "He's wounded! He's unarmed. He is to live!'

"Who-" Zaalbar slapped him hard enough to bounce him off the tree trunk.

"I am Zaalbar, son of Freyyr, and this is my Shrromarrik 'Human law speaker'!"

"Forgive, noble ones." He ducked his head. "It is the excitement of finally striking back."

I bent to the Czerka. He was pinning a rag to a spurting wound, and I pulled a med-kit from my pack. I cleaned and bandaged the wound, then handed him the injector of painkillers. "Lay quiet. They'll come for you."

"Why?" He almost screamed. All he saw behind me were Wookiee faces, the stuff of nightmares at the moment. "So they can cook me?"

"No. How long have you been on Kashyyyk?"

"A week!"

"The Wookiee will not eat you. I just hope the clinic wasn't caught in the fighting." I pulled him from the area where he'd stuffed himself, and pointed at the young Wookiee. "Carry him."

The Wookiee slung his weapon, and gently picked up the unbelieving man. "I know where the clinic is. I will take him there."

There were still knots of fighting. When possible, I called for them to surrender. However at one such, the leader of the men within fired at me. The Wookiee overwhelmed the men, throwing their bodies off the walkway.

Ebon Hawk was landing as my team came up to it, and we hurried aboard. Carth's friend Jordo had delivered the information he had promised.

Carth

I ran to the berthing area as we came aboard. I had to soak my head. I stood there, water dripping off me. My mind was still reeling from what had happened in the Shadowlands. Danika had answered the computer, but the answers disturbed me. Betray your friend, allow millions to die in an attack you could have stopped so that you could win a war? Allow the same millions to die just to bolster your power? Saul had made these kinds of decisions. Malak had destroyed Taris, slaughtered off billions of people in the name of his power.

If she could be like Saul, like Malak, like Revan, I wasn't even sure I wanted to see her! I dried my hair and face. I wanted a stiff drink but we had to get out of the system first. I decided I'd settle for a cup of tea. I poured, sipping the acrid brew, then turned to head toward the cockpit, and stopped.

Danika sat at the table. She was hunched over a mug, hands clenched so tightly I expected it to shatter. Her eyes were closed, and silent tears coursed down her face. Sasha was sitting beside her and crooning gently at the obvious pain on her guardian's face.

"You're disappointed." Her voice was a husky whisper. I said nothing.

"Whoever programmed the computer knew what kind of person they trusted. They wanted people like the Dark Jedi, like the Sith to find them. I understood that when it told me that there were specific parameters to match."

"Revan must have-"

"No. I can't see someone everyone admired that much giving such answers without realizing why they were correct. The programming had to have been original. But what could I do?

"If I gave answers I felt right, it would have locked me out, we would have been stopped without the Star Map. So, I did what I had to do. Think like a conqueror, like a Sith." She looked up at me. There was no emotion in her face or her voice. As if the tears were just water splashed on her face. "Do you know why the answers I gave were correct?" I shook my head. "Because the builders were self-centered egoists that didn't care about their own people let alone any others. Any other Jedi, even a Master would have failed. Only she and I could do it.

"Because I was a soldier as she was! You served. You know what the mindset is like. How many orders have we given that sent others to their deaths? Because the mission was more important than their lives." She set down the cup hard. "I was a squad leader for a little over a month. I sent others to their deaths so we could win the battle. I left three men I considered my best friends in the world to hold a corridor so we could do an end run around the defenders to the bridge. Only one of them lived. Lived!"

She slammed her fist on the table hard enough to hurt. "He's in a life support chair now, a quadriplegic. He'll never walk, or play with his children, or make love to his wife. He can't even have enough control to touch her! My orders did that! I did everything but pull the trigger myself!

"I must speak with the masters on Dantooine. If I am no better than Revan, no better than Malak, no better than Saul, we've already failed."

"I served with Saul, and I can tell you you're nothing like him." She started to speak. "Shut up and listen for once. Looking back at him, I knew Saul was ruthless. I watched him on the bridge of the ship and he never flinched. Even when his orders fed ship after ship into the meat grinder. When he was in command as captain, then as admiral, he never settled for a stalemate. It was victory or nothing.

"Now let's see you in comparison. A woman that worries constantly because I don't trust her. Yet when someone needed money, you gave it to him. When we had to go into the Undercity of Taris, you gave those kids money. I would have shoved them aside. You went to rescue Zaalbar because you hate slavers. Oh yes, I saw your face when you heard who had him. Then you turned around and instead of collecting a reward, you pushed Zelka Forn into making sure the people down there were safe for the first time from the Rakghoul plague.

"Look at us!" I waved toward the ship. "You risked your life bringing Juhani back from the dark side. You brought closure to Bastila, to Mission, to Zaalbar. You talked instead of fighting with the Sand People. Got them vaporators so they could move in peace. You freed the Jawa. Maybe you failed in ending that war, but you mitigated it. Would Saul do that? We know what Malak would have done." I shook my head.

"If you want to judge yourself, answer this question. Hypothetical. You command a fleet. Someone you hate and fear is hiding down on a planet among billions of innocent civilians. You can keep on searching, even though you have spent almost a week looking. You can go down yourself, hoping that you enemy will be drawn out to attack you, or you can reduce the planet along with all of those people to ruins. Along with that you will kill a few thousand of your own, but what's a few more lives tossed in?"

I was starting to feel a bit teary myself. I remembered all of those people. Zelka, Gadon, the Outcasts, the people in the street of the upper city. Were they all dead now? Everyone in the upper city most assuredly. I pictured Zelka Forn standing there, unwilling to leave his patients as the plasma ate the city away around them.

The only home Mission had ever known, gone.

I walked over, laying my hand on her shoulder. "I trust from what I have seen that you would have found another way. Maybe not a perfectly clean way, but one where billions didn't have to die." She looked up from the mug. "If I can trust you, why can't you trust yourself?"

"I feel the pull of the dark side." She whispered. "It would have been so easy to just let the Wookiee have their revenge in full. There are over 100,000 of them still out there enslaved. If I could I would have published all those names, those owners, called the wrath of all of the Gods of all of the races on them." She stared at the mug again. "It would be so easy to get this done the quick way."

"I can't see you doing anything the easy way. I think you were probably the best person for this mission. Someone so unsure of themselves that they second-guess everything. If you can't succeed, no one could."

She shook her head. Sasha moved toward her, and she hugged the girl. "Thanks Carth."

"That's what I'm here for. When I'm not slaving away on the controls, I'm the head cheerleader of the good ship Ebon Hawk." I walked toward the cockpit.

"Carth." I turned back to her. "Watch me. Don't trust me. If I start to slip to the dark side, you'll tell me right? Stop me in any way you can?"

"If I have to die in the attempt."

"Don't let it get to that point." She looked away. "Set course for Manaan. It's closer than Korriban. I'm sorry."

Ebon Hawk

Enroute to Manaan

Bastila

I could feel her misery even before we took off. But I had to wait until Carth relieved me. Danika was sitting in the mess hall in her own huddle of misery. Sasha was in her arms, crooning as Danika cried.

"I don't want to become like that." Danika whispered. She looked at me, eyes luminous with tears. I wanted to go to her, to hug her, to tell her it would be all right. As she had done for Mission, as she had done for me. "I want to go back to Dantooine. Beg the Masters to send someone else."

"You are strong, Danika." I said. "You have resisted the dark side so well. Don't give up now."

"I don't know if I can be strong enough any more." She husked. "What if there is another test when we reach Manaan? What if I have to kill a companion, or do something that will damn me for all time? Revan must have been stronger than I. Yet she fell!"

"Revan was strong but in her own way." I replied. "She was also more impulsive than you are."

"I found out some things about Revan. We picked up a passenger at Kashyyyk. An old man named Jolee Bindo."

Of all people! "Yes, I have heard of him. Where is he?"

"I don't know. He said something about getting a bath and some decent food."

"Well what you need to do is go into the crew compartment and meditate. You will feel better after that."

"Maybe." She looked down at Sasha. "Want to come meditate?" The little girl slipped off her lap, taking her by the hand, and dragging her toward the crew quarters. I sighed, then went to find Jolee.

He was in the men's crew compartment, in the 'fresher, singing. What is it about running water that makes people think they can sing? I sighed again, and leaned against a wall waiting. He stepped out, a large rugged man with a fringe of white hair, rubbing his head with a towel. He saw me, and the towel went from his head to his crotch so fast I almost believed in teleportation. "I thought there were 'freshers on the other side for the women."

"There are." I told him. "I had to see you about Danika."

"Danika. You know-"

"Yes. I know who she is." I took a holocron from my pouch, and handed it to him. "View that."

He knotted the towel around his waist, and activated the Holocron. I stood there as he watched it.

"Damn fools on the Council. Why are they surprised?"

"They didn't anticipate what would happen. Now we must complete this mission. I will need your help."

"Why? She seems to be doing pretty good so far."

"But she feels that she is weakening. I will need your help to bolster her self-confidence."

'Why? No one thought I was worth the effort way back when."

"Jolee that was almost twenty years ago. I only remember you because your departure was still a subject of talk. Your leaving was more fun than the apprentices had in a decade Rather loud fun as I recall the stories."

"Yeah. Because she was one of my best students, and they didn't like my teaching style."

"For her sake that must be put behind us. Will you help?"

He stared at the holocron, and his voice was soft. "Yeah. I can't let them screw it up again."

Ebon Hawk

Enroute to Manaan

Danika

I felt much better after meditating. I showered with Sasha. Now that she had accepted us, being close no longer bothered her. I dressed, and had her put on some of the clothes we had gotten for her on Tatooine. It was funny really. Most of the people there didn't have children, so the shops didn't carry a lot of children's clothes. We had to fill out her wardrobe from a Jawa kiosk. Seeing that earnest little face thrust out of a Jawa hood was funny. Kashyyyk had shops and we had gotten her more clothes, but those Jawa robes were still her favorite.

I stepped into the mess hall, and felt a wave of fury from Juhani's quarters. I walked over, reaching out, and she spun. "Don't touch me!"

"Juhani. What is wrong?"

She hissed, standing from her crouch with a visible effort to control herself. "I never told you where I came from, where I spent my childhood, did I?"

"No, you didn't."

"Maybe it was because I wanted to deny my feelings. To let it all pass away unnoticed. But I find I cannot. Someone must be to blame. Someone must atone for it!"

"Juhani-"

"Taris! I was raised on Taris! Someone is responsible for the destruction of everything I knew before I was eleven years old! You and Bastila are to blame! If you had not gone there, evaded the Sith, they would have had no reason to destroy the planet!"

I was stunned. "I'm sorry, Juhani, I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" She growled. "That the people there were going to die? That Malak would destroy them when he couldn't capture you? That I heard you and Carth discussing what happened as if it were a party you had both been to where someone accidentally knocked over the punch bowl?"

"Juhani-"

"Just let me vent my anger! Allow me that little bit of feeling!" She raised her hand, and her claws extended and retracted. "I hated that place! Yet everything about me was formed there. Every breath I take every step in the ship's gravity or any other planet reminds me that this is not home! Now all I have is an aching void where all of that was. And in that void, I see your face!"

"Juhani, do you think Malak would not have destroyed that world any way? Since he lost the controlling influence of Revan he had destroyed two worlds so far. I want you to believe me that if I had known Malak was that much of a madman, I would have turned myself over to them before the first Tarisian died. I am not worthy of such a sacrifice."

"I know that. I know your heart, Danika. You would have died instead. But it is so hard, to have your entire past wiped away by a callous hand."

"I can't know it, Juhani. Come, tell me of Taris."

"There is so much we must do-"

"No. At the moment, there is nothing more important than Taris, and your feelings."

She sighed, the anger drained away. "It was a horrible place to live. Especially for non-humans. We were relegated to the Lowercity where the elite would not have to acknowledge our existence. Living in perpetual shadow, living off the refuse cast down from above. Working at menial labor because there was nothing else for us."

"How did you survive?"

"It was a never-ending struggle. My family fought for every scrap to put on the table, to buy what was needed. But it was never enough. Taxes from the government that gave us nothing back. Fees charged by the Swoop Gangs to walk the very streets. Every credit saved from milli-creds to pay for food, clothing, and medicine.

"And always the hatred from those above. Bigotry made policy. When problems would occur, the media would automatically blame the 'creatures' that live below. Lording it over all with their wealth and power.

"Sometimes they would tour the Lowercity as if it were a petting zoo. Laughing behind their hands at the 'animals' that lived in the squalor they created." She looked miserable, remembering. "But I found that some humans were not that way. There was a Swoop leader that had just taken over, Gadon Thek-"

"He was alive, fighting the Sith in a running battle in the Undercity when we left."

She smiled. "If it is the same Thek I remembered, they may have destroyed the planet just to defeat him! There were others as well. Humans that seemed to embody the idea of Humanity." She smiled. "Like the Jedi."

"The one that sent you to the order?"

"No, she could not send me. They had only the ships bound for the front. They could not spare one to take a mere slip of a girl back. But she told me to find the Jedi Academies. Gave me a token to use to show to her teacher, master Vandar. Filled my head with a world that wasn't hatred and shame. I can almost see her face in yours when I look at you." She shook her head. "I wish my parents had never fled to Taris."

"Fled?"

"A story for another time. I think Zaalbar is making some Merdai stew for those with iron stomachs."

Ebon Hawk

Enroute to Manaan

Canderous

I found that I had missed the Story circle of home more than I would have admitted to someone not of my clans. Zaalbar had made Merdai stew for some of us, with a milder form for the rest. I was not surprised when Danika and Sasha got bowls of it. Danika would have been Mando's if she had been born right, and Sasha had learned. What did surprise me was the old man Jolee. He filled his bowl dumped Tracyn Cadir pipalli steeped in tihaar, literally 'fire sauce' on it then almost inhaled it rather than chewing. He filled his bowl again, and this vanished almost as fast.

"Real food again!" He said. Sasha watched him, as if afraid he would inhale her next. He looked at me, leaning back from the table. "You're a big one! What clan?"

"Ordo of Clan Ordo."

"Ah. I fought one of your ancestors. A guy named Ramius."

"You fought Ramius Ordo?" I looked at him. "You don't look to be a hundred years old."

"Well my age is unimportant. There was a siege before the Sith wars. Your people had landed on a planet named Costigain, and I was sent to negotiate. It came down to adverse discussions-"

"Adverse discussions?" Carth asked.

"Talking with our lightsabers instead of with our mouths." Jolee replied. "Of course this was supposed to be a 'peaceful' negotiation, so the only weapons in the room were fists. Well anyway I think it was someone getting angry on the settler side and defaming Ramius' mother-"

"She died when he was a child. A settler on Subreka shot her from ambush then desecrated her body." I said.

"That would explain why he was so upset. There was only one other Jedi with me, and we had to carry the brunt of the fight. Anyway Ramius beat his way through the others, and saw me. 'You pup! Now you die!' he shouted.

"Well I was a spry one. I finally beat him by bouncing around the room like a demented droid, until he finally fell so exhausted that he could barely breath. I bounced back, disarmed him, then hauled him over my lap spanked him like a ten year old misbehaving."

"You didn't!" Mission said, giggling.

"Yep I did. Shocked the Mandalorians into stopping. Then I dragged that loudmouth over, and whaled the tar out of him too. Almost made the both of them stand in a corner holding hands the rest of the day."

"Now I know you're telling tales." Carth said. He looked at me, and looked confused.

I laughed. No one had ever told that story from the other side before. I had heard it when the ancient Ramius had a little too much to drink. It was at once the high point and low point of his career as a warrior. "It happened just that way." I gasped.

"Tell us more about Revan." Danika asked.

"We fought the Republic over the course of many battle. At the start, they weren't much of a threat. The commanding officers were hesitant and tended to either attack down obvious junctions, or run when they actually found us ready to fight. Oh some were good. Admirals Karath and Dodonna come to mind. But then Revan took command, and things changed.

"The fleets began actually using tactics. Pincer movements mass deceptions, Revan was an acknowledged master when it came to feinting then slamming us to the ground. She abandoned worlds that had little or nothing to defend, using the weapons and ships to make planets we had to capture impregnable. She sacrificed a dozen ships in a feint to draw out our forces in one battle so she could crush one of our fleets against them. She knew how to take risks. I hear she had a way of questioning her commanders. She would pose a hypothetical question, and judge what they should do from the answer.

"We captured a Republic General, and he told us about that. 'You're in a small ship, a snub fighter. There is an asteroid, and you know it will hit a planet of ten billion people, and kill them. There are no other ships in the system, and the planet has no defenses.

" 'Your guns and missiles would be worthless; the only weapon you have is the ship you are flying. If you ram your ship into the asteroid, it will be obliterated, and you will die. But if you do no one will ever know what happened to you. The people you die for are unknown to you. Or you can call them and try to warn them. All they can look forward to is a horrible wait as they die. Or you can ignore the rock. No one will ever know that you did, and they will die unawares'.

"We listened; the riddle is a masterpiece if you think about it. You can tell what the man might do in other situations from it. One of our interrogators asked him what he answered. 'I asked her to repeat it. She sent me here'. He didn't understand why we laughed so hard. He was assigned to a supply depot on an unprotected planet, with few troops.

"What would you have done Danika?"

She sipped her tea. "Activated my emergency transponder, aimed at the meteor, and ejected before the ship hit it."

"Why eject?" Canderous asked.

"Dying would be pointless. If I failed, I can die in shame waiting. If I succeeded, I know I would die at peace."

"Something Revan would have approved of." Canderous said. "In the end Revan proved too much for us."

"You couldn't have won against the entire Galaxy!" Carth said.

"True." I admitted. "But it was so close. It looked like the entire galaxy was in our grasp! Then Revan seized Malachor. It would have destroyed our society if we let it pass.

"We laughed. The fleet she had there was half the size of the one we had routed already, and we could crush it easily. Over seven hundred Mandalorian ships charged toward a 20th that number. We tasted victory. Then she sprung the trap. Five fleets came out of hyperspace behind us. Almost a thousand ships now faced us and the asteroids trapped our fleet in normal space." I looked from face to face.

"It wasn't your ideals that defeated us that day. Not your men or your ships or your 'fight for freedom' that stopped us there. It was one thing. Revan. She out-thought our best; she stood on a ship being pulverized by our fleet, and calmly directed the other ships in decimating us. Less than thirty of our ships broke free. Mand'alor had to order that retreat himself. No one would have dared to give such an order except for him. But we didn't have the strength any longer to resist her advances.

"But you were losing? Why didn't you retreat?" Danika asked.

"It is what we had wanted all along. We wanted to fight a battle against the best the Republic had to offer. A battle that would be remembered throughout history. We got what we wanted.

"What was left of the fleet fell back on our home world. The largest of them was the captured cruiser Vikrant, Mand'alor's flagship.

"Then their ships came. Hundreds of them. We braced for an attack that didn't come. Then there was a broadcast. Revan in that battle-mask she wore. 'I am Revan Chadar Bai Echani. I challenge Mand'alor to personal combat. Let none interfere'." I looked at them. "You see she understood our people better than anyone else we had ever fought, except for Marai Devos. She knew that a personal challenge must be answered. And if she won, she would, under our law become Mand'alor, and could order us as did all of those through our history.

"Vikrant surged forward, and from their fleet came a ship of the same class. I think it was named Harvest Moon-"

"Tik-harvest Moon." Carth corrected.

"Yes. The ships went to a small moon, where the battle would take place. Revan defeated Mand'alor as if he were a child.

"Then the broadcast was repeated through the system. 'As the canons require, I have defeated Mand'alor. I stand as Mand'alor now. Does any gainsay my ascension?'

"None could. She had won, and our laws were clear. She ordered us to return to our home worlds, and followed us there. When we arrived, she ordered any ships larger than a customs craft abandoned, and they were taken. Republic troops came down, and under her orders all of our heavy weapons, droids, and all combat equipment that was not personal property were destroyed.

"Then she had our troops marshaled. 'Thanks to those who claim your blood but not your honor, your people for a time will have no honor. Until such time as I release you from this, no honor may be gained. Live with your dishonor. I will not accept honor-death. Those that choose that way to atone go into the darkness bereft. I your Mand'alor have spoken.'. For some that hurt even more. It has always been our way that if you cannot have honor in life, you can gain it in death by your own hand.

"Then she left." I sighed. "Some could not stand the shame. They went into honor-death, knowing that doing so dishonored them more. Others ran, becoming raiders, little more than thieves, as we know from, Dantooine.

"But one day we hoped that our honor would be returned. That is until Revan fell at Zanebra. Now we are trapped, unable to regain our honor, unwilling to surrender our lives. None can claim the title of Mandalor without ritual combat or the Mand'alor's word unless all of the Clans agree, and no leader living now is so beloved.

"We had lost, and Revan won. We don't hold a grudge against her, even against those that fought there against us we have no animus. If she had been our Mand'alor in truth, we would have drunk bloodwine in the Republic Senate instead."

A short time later, the meeting broke up as we went to bed. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to do some tinkering with the lightsabers and crystals we had collected on our journey. I was passing the mess hall when I heard Bastila's voice.

"Jolee, may I have a moment?"

"Sure." Jolee sounded tired. As if fighting the same argument yet again.

"There is something I think we need to discuss-"

"Spare me." His voice was harsh, in pain. "I don't want to hear the whole 'come back to the order, all is forgiven' argument one more time."

"I know you have... issues with the order. But you are a Jedi, Jolee. You command the force as do we all. Without the guidance of the order how have you managed to stay on the side of light all these years?"

"Light side, dark side, you know it doesn't even really matter any more. The concept doesn't mean the same thing to you that it does to me. I just wanted to be left alone."

"So Malak and the Sith can do what they please?" Her voice was sharp, angry.

"Listen, if I can I will help stop Malak and the Sith right alongside anyone that fights them. But I don't have to join the order and kowtow to the council for that. Look at the crew of this ship. Carth, Canderous, Mission, Zaalbar. None of them are Jedi but you trust them to do their part. Put me alongside them if you want, but leave me out of it beyond that."

"Jolee-"

"Damn it woman, what more do I need to say? It's like Danika."

"How do you mean?"

"The capacity for good and evil is in every person. Just as using the force is there in everyone if they can touch it. Our non Jedi crew do what they think is right, just as Danika is doing even now. You didn't see the agony she went through facing that damn computer on Kashyyyk, I did. Her inherent honesty got her through that, and I expect everyone who can't touch the Force aboard this ship will make their decisions based on what they believe is right. Being a member of the Jedi or even of the Sith will not change a person's basic nature."

She sighed. "I can see you are adamant about this. No doubt you had a lot of time to think about what you might say if the discussion ever came up-"

"More than you might think, between dodging animals that wanted to invite me to dinner as the main course."

"I guess it was foolish of me to think that I of all people could sway you in your position just with a reasoned argument."

"If that's your way of saying that I am old and stubborn, thank you. But I appreciate the effort." He raised his voice. "Do you think I lived all those years without knowing when something was watching me, Danika?"

I stepped into the compartment. "Get some sleep, girl." He ordered. "Leave an old man to his memories." He looked at Bastila. "You too."