Ebon Hawk

Kreia

My hand felt like it had been dipped in acid. I know it lay aboard Harbinger still, but I could feel every finger clenching. There was a whisper in the Force, and Marai stood there.

"Have you come for more answers you will not hear? What little I had you have already heard, and refused to accept."

She held up the emergency medical kit. "I came to help."

"This is a physical thing." I snapped. "It will fade with time, and be forgotten. It was a necessary loss and some lessons are taught best with pain."

She knelt, pulling my arm to her. Wordlessly she injected some anesthetic, and began to clean the wound delicately. "I wish I could have helped. If I had to do this again, I would have stood beside you."

"Save your pity for one that needs it. I was here to save you, not the other way around."

She sighed, bandaging the stump. "Kreia, if we are going to travel and work together, then we really need to work on being 'together'."

"I do not need your pity, your condescension or your lectures. If anyone needs training and guidance, it is you."

"The pain." She said. "I felt it when your hand was cut off." She looked at me. "What if it had been more intense?"

I sighed. "I do not know. I fear the consequences for you would have been more extreme."

"It felt like my hand had been dipped in raw plasma then in carbonite. What could possibly be more extreme?"

"Pray that you never find out. The pain at my death might be as bad, though it will end much quicker."

"End quicker. Do you mean I might die from it?"

"Possibly. I fear this bond may work both ways. It is not something I would willingly test. Do me the decency not to try and find out."

"But it would be distracting in a battle." She mused. "To feel all of your pains and you feeling mine."

In battle you are more focused, as I would be. Our minds would be better prepared for injury and loss. I think we will not have a repeat of this."

"I have felt the link between master and Apprentice. This is like nothing I have ever heard of before. I have never even seen a reference to it in the Jedi archives."

"I must confess I have never heard of such a link either. Its very nature eludes me, and it is rooted very deep. It seems that the Force flows readily between us. Like an alternating current in electricity if you will. When one of us manipulates it, especially working with those abilities that affect our own bodies, it causes a reaction within the other, making their own power resonate with it.

"A new and powerful technique indeed, though as we have noticed, it is not without it's drawbacks."

She put away the kit, kneeling beside me. "What happened?"

"What do you remember of the Mandalorian Wars?"

"We fought, took back our planets, besieged the enemy in their home worlds. After Malachor V Revan and the others went on and confronted them in the Mand'alor system themselves. She defeated Mand'alor in personal combat, stripped them of their honor and weapons, and was supposed to come home."

"But the Council had decided to punish all of you for even going into that war."

"I know." She whispered. "Every one of us was to be demoted one rank. Those in command were punished further. For daring to go against the Council's will I became an Apprentice again. I was no longer a Padawan Teacher, not even a learner."

"Yes. The Council wanted the time to assess what was happening even as the Rim burned. You put out the fire, and that was your reward."

"But afterward? All I heard were rumors after that."

"Revan and Malak returned, but it was as if all the pity had been burned from them. They became like the Mandalorians, despising weakness in any they faced. In the end the Mandalorians had won. They had forged a weapon of those Jedi. Forged them into a dagger that thrust into the Republic."

"But we only had a few left by then! Couldn't the Jedi stop them?"

"You knew Revan. What is the first rule of strength?"

"If you need it, find it."

"And she did. She found an ancient artifact, something that had been unused since before there was even a Republic. When she needed more soldiers, she gained them by embracing the Sith and becoming their leader."

She shook her head in horror. "How could she do that? The woman I knew-"

"The woman you knew was as scarred and torn by that war as you had been. What would you have been if she had not sent you home? At the head of an armada of ships made by this Star Forge, manned by the Sith, she began to lay waste to the Rim.

"The Republic reeled back. The same fools that had been in charge when you led them outward had returned to favor. The factories that should have been replacing their losses had been shut down for lack of funds, and unlike the Republic, Revan had but to snap her fingers and have a hundred more. The Sith with Revan in command were unstoppable.

"So they ambushed Revan. They captured her, unleashing an even worse horror, for without Revan, Malak was a beast without a leash."

"What happened to Malak?"

"Desperate to end the carnage, the Council used the woman that had once been Revan as a weapon. Her mind was now not that of the Revan you knew, but a lowly soldier whose memories had been pressed into place. She regained her Jedi abilities, as you have done, and went out to find the Star Forge yet again, but this time for the Jedi. She faced and defeated Malak, destroyed the Star Forge, and gave the galaxy a respite.

"Without Malak to lead them the Sith fell upon themselves. They have been busy destroying themselves for the last five years." I held my arm. "But no longer."

"But what of Revan?"

"No one knows, least of all I. She returned to the Council to report, then left the Republic. Why she left and where she went was a secret maybe only she knew. Perhaps the Council did, but our own troubles would have stopped us from discovering it."

"So after saving the Republic, she was sent away?"

"Saving the Republic?" I echoed. "Maybe from one point of view that is what she did. That war still resonates in the wounds that were inflicted, and bleed still. We shall see if the Republic has the strength of will to survive."

"Then every breath I take, every fight I face will give them time to recover."

I shook my head. How could she be so blind? "A culture and its teachings are defined by the conflict they have within their lives. Fighting to stand gives you the ability to balance. Learning the sword teaches you discipline and control. You find yourself in that struggle, or you find yourself lacking.

"20,000 years the Republic has existed, and in that time there have been few chances to test and teach it what was necessary. No one wanted an organized central military because of the fear that it might control the people, so there was none. Trade is the lifeblood of the Republic, but restrictions on trade slow the pulse of that blood, so there were few. Planets want a central government, but gods forbid such a government have any power, so the Senate is a bunch of whining sycophants bought with more types of coin, not all of it money, than I would dare to name.

"For too long, the Republic has been a bloated sleeping beast. For untold millennia it has been unchallenged, or the challenge was so small that it would be crushed as the beast rolled over in its sleep. But now that beast is wounded, bleeding to death, gasping for breath.

"The Jedi were supposed to be the keepers, but instead of leading it, they chose to guide it instead. Instead of controlling it and exercising it, they stood back like doting parents that spoiled the child rotten. Now that beast, that child does not have the Jedi any more to cozen it and keep it safe. How long do you think the Republic will last?"

"Can we do anything?" She asked appalled.

"Thanks to the Star Forge, the Sith Armada seemed endless. Even with the defeat of Malak, the destruction of that creation of hell they still have the ships they captured, the ones given to them by the fallen Jedi. Their resources look infinite, but the Republic's resources are not.

"Think you. How many fleets of our own did you see shattered on that offensive Revan led? Add to them the fleets, the planets, the people lost trying to stop Revan on her return!

"Over 20 planets were laid waste. Billions if not a trillion or more dead or dispossessed. Even with all of it's strength, it is a burden even the Republic can not bear forever. Now comes this new threat. It does not ride the light road in thousand of ships, millions of troops. No it comes quietly, like a deadly gas seeping in through a tiny crack in the wall. It drives not at the strength of a faltering Republic. It seeks just one thing, and that thing is you."

"Why me?" What makes me more important than the entire Republic?"

"The Republic has never been important. It is merely the stage where our drama is being played. No, the Republic is merely the theater around the Actor that was and is the Jedi Order. Just as the skills, the training, the knowledge imparted is but the shell of the Jedi within.

"Forget your visions of what war is. It is not mighty fleets or brave armies marching out. They are but the crude material of the universe set in an obstacle course that our will drives us to face. The true seat of war lies within. It is the hopes, the angers, the pleasures and sorrows all of us face, the belief of every living thing locked in mortal combat with all around it. It is our darkest fears and desires, our most glowing ideals and beliefs. That is where the struggle is, and where it will be fought.

"You are that battlefield. If you fall, the Republic will fade away and be no more. Without a whisper, without even noticing, and no one will lay a stone of remembrance for it. The darkness to come will merely be the soil falling into the grave."

She stared at me, then her breath wuffed out like a reverse gasp. "I need to think on this."

"Before you get too deeply into thinking, I would check on that fool in the cockpit. I expect any second to find he's flown us into a sun. I know he said that the only destination he could find was Telos, but I would not put it past him to go somewhere anywhere else if he can."

She smiled. "I don't think he is a fool, Kreia. But he does have a weird taste in the Force."

I waved the hand I still had, dismissing him. "He is a fool and an imbecile. His path leads down in a spiral that has no end. I trust him as far as a human can throw this very ship, and you should follow my lead in this. He thinks of his own pocket and skin first, and his 'allies' will rue the day he was born if they are lucky. Now go."

Ebon Hawk

Atton

Marai was thoughtful when she came forward again. Honestly I think Kreia did it just to make her feel bad. "How were you babes doing back there?" I asked lightly.

"Babes?" She walked forward, sitting silently in the co pilot's seat. "I checked her arm, bandaged it, and we talked some more."

"So the fem fatale feels more comfortable without testosterone in the air?"

She gave me a funny look. "I think you bother her. Maybe it's your devil take the hindmost attitude."

"Hey she wants to run ahead, I don't mind watching."

"I think she's had a hard life."

"If you say so."

"Are we on course?"

"If she's worried that I might get lost, why not check the Navi-computer yourself?"

She stood, walking back to the console. I hated to think I'd spent the entire conversation talking about the other woman aboard, so I felt a need to run my mouth. "So what type of Jedi were you?"

"What do you mean?" She asked coolly.

"I heard you're all either sentinels, guardians, or consular."

"I was a Guardian."

"Oh! One of the big guns! What kind of saber did you carry? Single, a pair or one of those nasty double ended types?"

"I carried a saber staff." She looked at me askance. "That is the correct term for it."

"So Guardian. I know that a lot of guardians got into the saber staff right before the war ended. More slaughter for the slash, or something. I know your basic Guardian has a blue blade, but a lot of you get into off the wall colors. What was yours?"

"Is there a point to this conversation?" She snapped.

"Hey, just curious."

"Fine." She walked over, standing over me like a titan. I could almost see the fury in her eyes, but I knew it wasn't that. She was angry because she felt so damn much pain, and didn't have an outlet until I opened my damn mouth. "Those who carry a saber staff have to learn a lot of fine motor control the others do not. It isn't like a single, where you can whip it through a series of cuts in your sleep, or like a pair where both arms move independently, but power strokes are done with both blades simultaneously.

"Both arms have to move in a precise and clear rhythm and just breathing the wrong way when you're learning can hurt. Believe me, I know. You learn to use your entire body fighting with a saber staff. The all of seventy-five of us, about one half of a percent that used the saber staff during the Mandalorian wars were in the forefront because of the need for rapid punching of holes in the Mandalorian defenses. There, all you ever need to know about why someone chooses a weapon in one neat, wrapped with a bow package." She went back to the console.

For a long time, we sat there in a very uncomfortable silence.

"White."

"What?"

"You asked about my blade crystal. It was a milky white stone I found on Onderon. The blade was a greyish white like liquid silver."

"Oh. Hey, I'm sorry."

"Why?" She looked at me, and I could see the pure misery in her face. "Because I left that life ten years ago and you rammed my face into it? Reminded me of what I had that was torn away from me?"

"Because I usually try to think of someone else's feeling, and for once my mouth ran ahead of my brain."

"For once." Her tone said 'yeah, right'. "I'm going to see what this tub has in the way of food. Can I bring you anything?"

"Anything but E- Rats."

She came back a moment later. "There's some stores in the cooler, but nothing that can be eaten raw. So it's either wait about twenty minutes for me to whip up a stew, or E-rats."

"If that's my choice, I would rather wait for the good stuff."

"Anything to be useful."

"Hey, Marai, maybe..."

"Maybe what?" She asked softly.

"Maybe when they see you've gotten your abilities back, and how you're handling it, maybe they will let you back in."

"I don't know if there is anything to go back to, now." She said in a whisper.

Ebon Hawk

Marai

Babe? Fem fatale? 'She want to run ahead, I don't mind watching'? I sighed. Let's face it. Atton was a raging hormone running amuck. I was wondering if I'd get wolf whistles by dressing up T3 at this rate.

And he was a motor mouth that didn't know when to shut up. I shouldn't have let his questions get to me. Every one knew or thought they knew about Jedi. When you don't understand, you make thing up. The Saber staff had been common before the war of Exar Kun almost fifty years ago. But Kun had been a master, and he'd used it specifically. A lot of his men had followed him, and that meant that for a long time there was a ban on using it. I had used that light saber last almost a decade ago. Showed my contempt for the council and gave it up in one last shot.

I pulled out some Cassis bird, and vegetables, and began chopping. My original Master had been of the mind that the best way to let the mind work on a problem was to cook. Keep the hands busy, feed the body, let the mind do what it had to do. He was good enough that he could have been a chef in a capitol restaurant. It spoke of all the problems he had faced.

We had been on Onderon as I had told Atton. What I had not said was the stone had been delivered as if by the gods into my hands.

My original master was a Consular. He had always hoped that I would follow his path; learn the arts of persuasion, to talk because as he said, 'talk talk is always better than war.'

But I was almost born to be a Guardian. I had mastered the first stances of Te-rehal-Vor, (which is the unarmed form based on the Echani Sword dance, and called 'the dance of death by hand') before I was ten. When I told a Senator to his face that his head was so full of helium that only the lead in his butt kept him from floating away when I was eleven it pretty much sealed my fate, though he still hoped I would grow up.

Onderon was not yet a member of the Republic, and while their moon Dxun was a Mandalorian Stornghold, they pretty much left the Onderoni alone. We had come to negotiate a new treaty for some resources, I was thirteen and feeling put upon.

Something had been left in the air car, and my master had told me to go fetch it and I said something like 'What, you expect rocks to fall from the sky?' as I left. I fetched the case, had taken about ten steps, when something blew me off my feet.

I rolled then bounced up and spun expecting an attacker, and saw that our air car had been blown in half. Guards poured out, assuming an assassination attempt.

Four hours later, a man had come toward my master, holding a rock the size of his fist.

"A meteor. A damn meteor!" He told us.

My master looked at the stone for a long time, then turned and dropped the hot stone into my hand. "You asked for it, you got it."

We were on the way home in our Judiciary courier when I discovered the stone's secret. I was examining it. It looked like a geode, but those are caused by massive pressure over time. I tapped it with a sensor hammer to test the readings and it shattered like glass. Inside were two matched crystals of exactly the same weight and shape. One was milky white, the other as clear as quartz. I showed them to my master, and he felt them in his hands. "What do you feel?"

I rubbed them closing my eyes. "It feels like they are running electricity through them!"

"They are lightsaber crystals. But like none I have ever seen." He replied.

"Can I... Can I use one in my lightsaber?"

"Why not?" He asked.

"But I thought my lightsaber had to be blue!"

"Nothing is forever little one." He replied.

I poured the minced vegetables into the water. Only a fool got mad and cooked, as my master used to say.

You were so right. I wanted to tell him now. I thought the order would go on as it had for millennia yet here I stand being told I am the last. I thought my being part of the order would be forever, and they cast me out. I thought that stone would be the only one I would ever need, and it still sits in a lightsaber I threw away, and is probably shattered dust by now.

I paused, about to ram the paring knife into the cutting board. I thought friendship was forever. But the same woman I gave the twin crystal to was the one that condemned me before the council and voted to not only cast me out, but went so far as to suggest that they execute me.

I set the knife down before I really did ram it through the cutting board.

One thing that bothered me was why did everyone think I had been hiding? Sure I had wandered, never really paying attention to where or why. But for the last two years or so Consega had known exactly where I was.

But wait. Did anyone in the crew really know me? I was a stolid presence at staff meetings. I was the 'Chief' to my men and women. I was "Chief Of Security' to the many constabulary and Security forces I had dealt with turning over thieves, and bailing out the more stupid crewmen. All taxes I might have owed were taken out by the company and automatically paid. Consega even had its own group of tax accountants when it came filing time. The ship didn't have to return to Corellia more than once or twice a year.

Instead of letting the thoughts keep up, I pulled out the pad and began to go through the logs we had gotten from Harbinger.

They had been diverted from their orders to the Onderon Sector to stop at Casini station. Two days later, three passengers had been brought on board. The captain had not liked that. He was in command of one of the most powerful units the Republic had, and they had made him a cruise ship! Then he had reported a distress signal, but the ship had an ID he had never seen before. He'd bucked it up to command.

Command was very interested, though the bridge log hadn't said why. They had gone to the ship's rescue. There had been two ships when they arrived. The freighter we were in, and a Sith Attack Corvette. If you think it was the one that got destroyed at Peragus, award yourself a gold star. But except for one survivor, everyone aboard the Corvette had been dead, frozen at their stations.

I checked the briefing room logs. As I had thought, the Captain gave vent to his feelings there. He had questioned why his passenger, 'the woman' was so damn important. When he'd tried to avoid the order to assist Admiral Onasi had told him to render aid with all speed. Onasi had sounded... Eager for news of it.

Onasi. I remembered the name. Carth Onasi. He had only been a brand spanking new lieutenant when I met him. A head and a half taller than I am, seven or eight years older and full of himself. To make Admiral in ten years spoke of a lot of losses in the upper echelons.

The medical records showed the most. The doctor had reported extensively on the injuries of the one survivor they had found. She described the madman we had seen in the Harbinger passageway, and said that it looked like every bone in his body had been broken repeatedly. She worried because she was feeling like people were watching her, and considered what no one else had. That the Sith had slipped infiltrators aboard.

On that last day almost a week ago now, all hell had broken loose. The security team she had called arrived, and in seconds all of them were dead. The injured man had awakened in his tank, and blew it apart. Then he leaped down, and the record ended.

I took a bowl to Kreia, who was meditating and she ignored it. I took another to Atton who fell on it like he hadn't eaten in days. Come to think of it, he hadn't. Can't say it said a lot about the quality of my cooking. One who didn't eat, and another one who probably wished he'd eaten the E-rats. I went back to the mess deck. One of the hatches off the common room was still closed, and I opened it cautiously. I fell backwards, clawing for my ritual brand, but the droid that had alarmed me was just standing there.

It took me a moment to relax. It wasn't an HK 50 model. No, they had changed the flexor armatures in the arms after the 48 series. So it must be an old original HK model.

I felt saddened. A veteran of my own war, I thought. Left in a compartment to rust alone and forgotten. I dug through what parts there were aboard. Then I popped the service hatch. It was missing some major parts, and one of them was the vocabulator. I found one. The fitting were different, but after some rewiring, I inserted it and anchored itself in place.

"There you go, HK." I patted him on the plastron. "If I can, you'll be up on your feet in no time."

I felt so good from the satisfaction that I went and found T3. I brought a bottle of oil, emery cloth and a polishing rag, and he almost purred as I polished his head cylinder. He sounded sad when I left.

Telos: Remembrance

As much as history points at Dxun as the turning point of the war, as a ground pounder I know that we couldn't have fought on Dxun if we hadn't proven that the Navy could deliver the goods.

The war was stalemated, though the Republic was trumpeting victory. The Mando'a salients were like a dinner fork, the left hand tine had been stopped short of Carida at 1st Carida. A victory only if you expect to drown the enemy in your own dying blood. Grand Admiral Yilden of Coruscant had met the enemy there, and in a battle that lasted almost two days had sent them packing. But he'd gutted our own 3rd and 4th fleets doing it. He'd lost a staggering ten to one in men and four to one in ships to achieve that victory.

I remembered an old sarcastic saying from pre space times, a battle where both sides were pretty much decimated. When a General had declared it a great victory, his King had replied, 'May all the gods save us from another such victory'.

In the center we had a holding action. As much as everyone wanted to push forward, whoever tried first was going to be chewed up and spat out. On the right, the Mando'a advance had stopped at Exo III just before the Hapes Cluster. A separate unaligned polity, the Hapans had joined us in the fight only to assure others would come to their aid. I knew there weren't enough female fleet commanders among the Mando'a to win there. The Hapans are a matriarchal society. If any mere man tried to fight them, they would fight that much harder.

We were in what is called a strategic pause, whoever was able to build enough forces to advance first would do so. We knew that while our ships were superior, and our men were brave, most of the officers we had were idiots. We of her leaders, what Atton had called the Horsemen had tossed it back and forth over the last of my Tihaar. While I still knew more than they did about ground action, and the Mando'a attitude, all were far better at fleet actions and snub fighter operations than I will ever be. We agreed that it all came down to resources. This was the largest war the Mando'a had ever fought, and the six 'home' systems could not keep up the supply.

It boiled down to warships. As long as we could overpower them at any one point, we could win; albeit briefly. Maintaining it, as you had to in a ground invasion, was the hard part. They needed resources to build the ships, because it wouldn't matter what they built unless they held the system afterward to salvage what they could. There had been reports for the last two years that the first thing the Mando'a Navy was doing after a system had been captured was salvaging damaged ships down to the wreckage to return to the home systems for repair or as material for new construction.

The resources they held at the moment could not support many new ships, and we all agreed that they needed them. What they were missing most was redrocite. They didn't use the duralloy the Republic used. Instead they used an alloy of their own made up of Calperian and redrocite which was as hard, but more resistant to impact, allowing them to ram if necessary.

Just off to the left flank of that middle way was a small planet named Telos, and there were millions of tons of it there. The Republic was ignoring the Hapan frontier, because they knew as well as the Mando'a that it was foolish to attack there, even if all they did was bypass the Cluster. Instead they were reinforcing the Carida salient. Taking ships from the flank between Hapes and Exo III.

Leaving Telos weakly protected. We could see the hand of Grand Admiral Yildin in this; Telos had been colonized from Coruscant about ten centuries earlier, and the Telosians had chafed under their thumbs until about fifty years ago. They had first declared their independence, then begun to supply as many of their own needs out of their own resources. Soon they manufactured their own weapons except for ships, Coruscant was able to block anyone from supplying the shipyard they would need.

So Revan pretended to be unsure, and asked the Navy high command (Led by Quintain and Yildin) if she could be given a fleet to work with. She selected two officers to command the ships below her, Admiral Yusanis of Echana, and recently promoted Admiral Forn Dodonna. Since the two were the most competent officer we had, and thorns in the side of the combined fleet, it was agreed. She decided to deploy them to protect Telos.

For a few weeks, nothing happened, and except for we Jedi and those two officers, the Republic became complacent. Yildin had decided to do an inspection of the front lines as we knew he would, and when he arrived at Telos aboard the brand new cruiser Immense, we greeted him. Revan was called aboard, and she played what she called her shell game.

She had taken to moving with an entourage of young attractive Jedi, and while 'Revan' marched aboard in full armor, the real Revan came along as merely a clueless girl. She had some of her people insert computer spikes to suborn his own systems, and the entourage departed. Two days later, Admiral Dodonna was ordered to go on maneuvers a few light years away, lowering the defense to merely seventy ships.

The next day, the Mando'a struck. Yildin had a combat record second to none, if you read the official whitewashing reports of the Coruscanti navy. But he was always the last to charge into a fray, throwing his subordinates in first. He also had a habit of going to his Combat Control Center rather than stand on the bridge. There was no contact with him except for his orders, and replies. As the one hundred fifty Mando'a ships came out of hyperspace, he ordered the fleet to attack, and Immense began to inch back.

That was when Revan contacted him in his Command Control Center via Holonet. "I know what you are doing, coward. You expect us all to die, so you can save your skin yet again. But this time, you will not." Then she locked down not only access to the compartment, but all communications, so that all his crew heard was the recorded speeches and commands he had given in dozens of battle before.

I am sure he made threats, but Revan merely replied that he would have to survive the battle first. As the enemy ships closed and began firing, Admiral Dodonna's fleet returned, cutting off their retreat, and we were equal in numbers, but outweighed them in firepower.

In her report, with sixty of the enemy ships destroyed along with fifteen of ours, she praised the Admiral's sacrifice, how he stood toe to toe with the captured Frigates of the Mando'a main line, and destroyed them all before his own ship was lost with all hands.

I know there was a record of Yildin's last moments, but only she got to see it.

Telos: Citadel Station

Marai.

Citadel station was huge. It spread like a massive square umbrella and would have covered almost a quarter of the planet on the main continent if it had not been suspended above it 30,000 kilometers away in geosynchronous orbit. It wasn't the biggest station ever built, but it has the record for being the fastest constructed. Telos had been the opening blow in the Jedi Civil War.

Admiral Saul Karath and Malak had devastated the planet almost nine years ago. The people had tried to work to salvage what they could, but the second winter had been brutal. The filth tossed into the air had come down in acid rains that killed over 90% of the vegetation, and they had finally given up and fled.

Five years ago when the Civil war ended the Republic had sent in a fleet of fabrication ships, and started the station, completing it the year before. Even before they had laid the groundwork for the construction they had called in the premier ecologists of the Republic to be in control of the reclamation project. The Ithorians loved nature. They worshiped it as if it were a god, and to some of them it was. They brought plants and animals from every corner of the galaxy, and carefully started rebuilding what had taken nature a billion years. If anyone could repair the destruction, I would have bet on them.

But there had been problems almost from the start.

We skimmed along the path to the station, riding the guide beam. We were supposed to land at bay 72, but right before we got there, we were diverted to Bay 94. As we came in, I knew why. Bay 94 was the Telos Security Force landing bay.

The woman that talked us in was polite, sincere, and as cold as ice. We were ordered to wait until our 'party' arrived, and when it was a Security Commander and a dozen men, I wasn't surprised.

We came down the ramp to face him.

"Dol Grenn. TSF." He said. "You're the ones that just came in from Peragus?"

"Yes." I replied.

"We would like you to come with us."

"Wait a minute. What is this?" Atton asked sharply.

"We received a message from a fuel freighter that the entire planet of Peragus II and the asteroid field was destroyed. We want to find out why. I am in charge of the investigation."

I raised a hand to forestall Atton. "Are we accused of something?"

"Not yet. However TSF regulations requires that we hold you in custody until a determination is made. A TSF Courier has already left for the system to undertake an on the scene investigation."

"Custody?"

He sighed. "We are preparing quarters, but until they're ready-"

"Don't tell me you're putting us in the cells!" Atton almost roared.

"Just for a few hours." Grenn said in what he hoped was a soothing manner. He didn't do soothing that well. "I will have to ask you to surrender your equipment and weapons."

"Of course." I pulled the sheath of my ritual brand free, holding it out.

"Wait." Atton glared. "Are we going to get it back?"

"If you are cleared by the investigation-"

"You mean when." I interrupted. I pulled out the data pad. Handing it to him.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Logs from the Harbinger. She was in the system firing on us when the incident occurred."

"You were running from a Republic Frigate?" By the look on his face, he was already planning to throw the key away.

"A frigate taken by the Sith, and used to attack us." I corrected.

"Yeah, Right."

The cells were silent except for the buzzing on the interdiction fields. Kreia had merely gone into a meditation seat, and after a moment, I had joined her. A prison issue tunic had replaced the miner's uniform I had been wearing. It fit better if you didn't mind slate gray with a small explosive charge that would go off and eviscerate me if I got too far from the control sensor. I was the only one that had suffered this indignity. Of course, my clothing had been the property of the mining company. Atton had gone into the fetal position, the only one that you can maintain if you try to lay down.

Kreia cocked her head. "Someone is coming." We had been informed that someone would be sent to take us to our new quarters, so that was not a surprise. But I felt my muscles tense. Whoever was coming did not have our interests at heart.

He was a tall wiry man in TSF uniform. He walked in carrying a pad in his hand, reading it as he walked. He closed the door, then set the pad down. He leaned against the control console, and smiled.

"So. This is the last of the Jedi." He said through that smile. "I must admit to some disappointment. I thought you would be more sport."

"What makes you think I am in a sporting mood?" I asked.

"The Exchange has offered a lot of money for you. Enough that I will be retiring. But instead of a thrilling hunt, I find you locked up like a beast ready for slaughter."

"The Exchange, eh?" Atton was on his feet. "They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel if they hired you."

"They recognize my skills."

"What, blubbering until the guy goes with you to stop you from crying?"

The bounty hunter looked at Atton and I could see the hatred in his eyes. "I don't need to kill you, but you are making the prospect attractive."

"You two bit bounty hunters couldn't beat a slug in a fair fight. I'd hire a Mandalorian in a heartbeat instead of your kind of filth."

"A Mandalorian." The voice dripped with scorn. "You precious Mandalorian would have tried a frontal assault and gotten himself killed within the first ten meters." He stood stalking over to snarl back at Atton. "A Mandalorian wouldn't have had the brains or the ability to slice the computer system and have his ID picture and DNA profile inserted as a guard."

Sure. So now you hotwire the cells and fry us in an 'accident', right?"

The man tapped his chin. "You know, I hadn't thought of that. The other two of you are not worth a contract, but hey, I'll do you for free. Just an extra added bonus."

"Let's finish this." I snapped. Atton didn't realize that he had goaded the man into a killing frenzy. If he didn't shut up, he was going to die.

But Atton didn't know the meaning of the word moderation. "You want to fight you pissant? Let me out, and we'll see just how much of a man you are!"

"Enough of this." He pulled out a sonic stunner. "Jedi, you know this will penetrate the cell field. I would you suggest you step out nice and quiet, and extend you hands or-" He aimed it at Kreia. "I will fry your little girlfriend by inches first."

The field came down. I stepped out. Atton was throwing himself against the field, bouncing like a demented rubber ball. The hunter pulled a set of restraints off his belt, throwing them at my feet. As I knelt to pick them up, I caught Kreia's eye. She nodded.

The gun flipped sideways as she shoved it with the Force, and in the instant he was diverted from me, I leaped forward. My hand came up, brushing his throat, and he staggered back, choking.

I stood up and away from him as his heels drummed on the floor. The door opened, and the guard walking in beheld the tableau.

"Man down!" He drew, centering the blaster on me. "Freeze!"

Grenn and half a dozen more poured in. One had the tabard of a medic.

"All right, 'Jedi'. Step back into your force cage, or we'll be checking your ID in the Morgue."

The medic leaned back. "He'd dead, sir."

"That's murder right off the bat!"

"Sir?" One of the guards was looking at the dead man. "Who is that? I've never seen him before?"

"What?" Grenn looked confused.

The medic pulled the ID bracelet off the corpse running it through his scanner. "It says Batu Rem." He looked at the corpse, then at his commander. "Sir, I am willing to swear under oath that isn't Rem."

"Of course it isn't! Rem is on leave! He must have put on Rem's ID bracelet by mistake..." Even as he said it, he must have thought how stupid the comment had been. ID's, especially Constabulary ID's are DNA coded. There is no way someone could pick up and use it even accidentally.

"And brought the wrong blaster too." One of the guards was kneeling on the other side of the body. "This is a Systech Model 18. We're issued Blastech 90s."

"So what's the difference?" Grenn could see where it was going.

"Sir, you couldn't afford a Systech 18. They're hand made specialty weapons. They cost more than I make in a year. Whoever this is, he sure as hell doesn't belong here. This is a bounty hunter's weapon."

"Finally!" Atton shouted. "Your security has more holes than a Kaliti nest!"

Grenn turned a nice shade of purple. "So I go back into my cell until the next bounty hunter shows up?" I asked sweetly.

He glared at me. If he had his way he would have sent us on a ballistic course right into the atmosphere of the planet 30,000 below. "We've arranged quarters in Residential module 082. You will be escorted there, and guards will be stationed outside the door. You are technically under house arrest until our investigation is complete." He turned to another guard. "You, me and four men, take them there. Contact Lieutenant Yima and have him get here right now. I want to know who this is and how he got past our security."

We walked through the halls as if with an honor guard. Of course doing it in what was obviously prison garb didn't help. There were two bedrooms, and a sitting room.

"Meals will be brought. If you have any visitors they will be cleared through me before they are allowed to come here. Other than that, I suggest you relax and enjoy the hospitality."

"When you show some, we will." Atton snapped. Grenn glared at him. He turned to go. "Hey lieutenant! Considering the efficiency of your men, why not leave us a blaster?" Grenn gave him a pitying look and left.

"This is not good. We have got to get out of here." Atton said.

I cupped my hand beside my ear. "We can discuss that when we're cleared."

"I hate to do it, but I must agree with our volatile companion." Kreia interrupted. "We must not stay here too long. But something has made sure we would be here, and that intrigues me. I must meditate. If you two wish to argue, do it silently." She went into one of the rooms, and closed the door. Atton looked at me, and I know he wanted to rant, but my look told him to belt up. He went into the other room and slammed the door.

I sighed, looking around the common room. I dropped into as meditation seat.