Condemnation
Marai
It took three days to clean things up enough to even think about what to do. I kept coming back to the pad with 'my' casualties on it.
Forty men and women had survived. Of the 200 I had led into that horror, forty. I had been almost devastated just looking at the carnage, and the idea that we had faced 1500 and annihilated them earned me no kudos in my own mind.
I kept trying to find a way I could have done it differently. If I had placed the mines closer in; if I had flown one of the swoops myself, if my men had been better placed.
No one second-guesses themselves as much as an infantry field commander after the fact. A Naval officer sees just the shattered ships. The snub commander sees the empty seats.
But an infantry commander sees the bodies torn by the horror of war. Feels the blood on them, or on the ground as they tread over that field. These aren't statistics; x percentage killed and y percentage wounded. It is real men who depended on you, looking shell-shocked because somehow they survived, in pain, still in death. You can't help feeling that you have failed them somehow just by surviving.
Until the pursuit was completed I was still technically their commander. About 150 Mercenaries had not been either killed wounded or captured, and we could not let them run free. They were a danger that must be ended. If they surrendered, we'd let them live. But if they did not, the Administrator had ordered that they must die.
Those farmers who had saved us at the end were the ones pursuing the mercenaries. It was not my choice, but every one of us that had fought the entire battle was honestly too tired to even consider the necessary pursuit. Once Zherron and his uninjured men were back on their feet, I had sent them out to mitigate the slaughter I knew would occur. No one is more willing to commit murder than those that you have harassed and brutalized.
I had already had the ones we had captured under guard with the Mandalorians watching them. If I had not the fifty odd that had surrendered would have been murdered already. They had been disarmed, and as soon as another ship arrived, we were going to send them off to some other world.
But I ended up in charge of that. Masters Kavar and Zez Kai Ell had arrived, but neither had been willing to speak with me. They had instead closeted themselves with Master Vrook. I was merely waiting for Atris to arrive.
The Sullustan Arrekke was brought in, and I stood. "Explain this please." His face stiffened as I handed him the hydrospanner Bao-Dur had dug from the innards of one of the droids.
"My sister. She needed money and-"
"Spare me." I said. "Constable, find out where his sister is. Assure that she has enough money to take care of her needs. Lock this man up for treason, murder and attempted murder."
"What! I don't kill anyone!"
"If my people had not been here, if we had not worked miracles on the defensive systems, those droids would have been sitting waiting for you to strip them even more, those turrets would have still been offline. I will not let someone who put every life in danger walk away free." I nodded to the constable.
Kreia came to see me. "The Masters are ready for you now."
"Atris has arrived?"
"Atris is not coming." She said softly. "They are waiting for you at the Enclave."
I sighed, standing. The girl that had been my secretary looked up as I left the office. "I am going to the Jedi enclave. When Captain Zherron gets back, tell him that I was dragooned into this, and I am done. He can have his job back."
She grinned at me.
The land was still torn, and there was the stench of death in the air. You couldn't have almost a thousand people die in such a small place without it. But droids were already smoothing the landscape, plowing the gobbets of uncollected flesh and spills of blood under. A few weeks from now it would be a peaceful trimmed greensward again. But they had placed a marker. I had told them that no one would care, but I had. I had found a large stone, and had it moved to the area where we had faced that final charge on the East near the door into the building. I had set my lightsaber to a narrow short beam setting. I was not good at carving, but this I was good enough for;
FOR THE MILITIA MEN WHO DIED HERE SO
THAT THEIR WORLD WOULD BE FREE
I SHALL NEVER FORGET YOU
MARAI DEVOS
I walked, breathing the air, feeling the life returning. The animals that had been terrified by all of that thunder had come home, and even knowing that a Kath hound would consider me a meal could not keep me from the wonder of watching a bunch of puppies frolicking around their mother.
I stopped before the hill that would reveal the enclave to me. I still remembered the total devastation of it. I didn't want to see this again. Kreia looked at me, smiling slightly. "Do you think they hunker in the center of a disaster still? There are rooms of the Enclave that survived."
We came over the hill, and I stared at the shattered buildings again. Part of me wanted to die.
"Come." Kreia said.
Kreia
She was like a child returning home, expecting to be punished. We walked down the hill. At the entrance to the enclave there was the scattered remnant of a camp. The scavengers had set up here, but the attack by the mercenaries had put some spine into the local farmers. After having scavengers rip up their land, steal everything not being watched, and lord it over them, they had decided that enough was quite enough. The farmers had taken all of those weapons that the mercenaries had left laying around, and the scavengers had decided that law or no law, there were much safer places to be.
We came to the bridge, and she stopped again. "I remember when it was whole and beautiful." She said wistfully. "I was sent here for three years so I could learn more forceful techniques for my lightsaber work from Master Zhar Diplomacy with Master Vandar, logic with Master Vrook. In a way it was the worst time of my career.
"Master Vander believed the only diplomacy I would ever learn was slapping someone as hard as I could. Master Zhar always said I was too busy attacking to think about defending myself. And Vrook..." She sighed. "Revan and I got along too well from his view. We would argue politics, sports, anything. Not with acrimony mind you, though the floor dripped with blood when we fiercely disagreed. He sent me a message before we departed to the Republic. 'You have stolen my Padawan. That is something I will never forgive'. As if anyone could make up her mind for her."
We walked, and I motioned to the left. "But I was told the only way still accessible was over there." She pointed to the right.
"To the sublevels, yes. But the Jedi were wiser than some realize. Those with the Force could have opened the main door more readily."
She shrugged, and we walked on. The door stood open, and she paused again. The inner hall was deep in dirt and filth. There were areas where bodies once had lain, and to the left of the door was a burnt out pyre. She walked over, touching the ashes silently. Then she walked in. The courtyard had trees growing wild, and grass had forced itself up between the paving stones.
I suddenly felt it all. So many memories I had thought I had forgotten, or no longer cared to remember, but seeing it in this way drove into me how much I had lost. I walked over to the buttress wall around the saplings that had replaced the great tree. I leaned into it then turned, using it to support me.
"Kreia? Are you all right?"
"Yes, yes." I snapped. "An old woman has a right to be tired some times. They are waiting for you in the council room. Go on. I will be along shortly." She turned, walking across the courtyard. "Marai." She turned. "I have not been kind to you, but please remember. I have never lied to you. Trust in what I have taught you. If you cannot trust me, trust your instincts. One more thing; your little droid knows more than he is telling." She turned, and was gone.
Marai
The council chamber had been ripped open; the priceless mosaics commissioned by Master Baas when he had built it were shattered, lying on the floor like a broken child's toy. I stared at the shattered dome with horror. I had so loved that mosaic...
The three masters were standing near the scattered remnants of the seats they would have once occupied. "It is not as it was." Vrook said with a sad tone in his voice.
"Perhaps that is for the best." Zez Kai Ell said. "If the order is to survive, it must be rebuilt and reformed just as this room must."
"I just wish..." Kavar's thought was unspoken as he saw me. The others looked toward me.
"We were wondering when you would arrive." Vrook said coldly. "Obviously you have come for answers. Or maybe it is vengeance you seek?"
"No." I said softly. "I received my answers from masters Kavar and Zez Kai Ell. I have no need for vengeance. I came to ask if I can help."
"As you did here on Dantooine? How many more must die for your bloodlust?" Vrook snapped.
"Master." I looked away. Still he hated me. I sighed.
"We will wait." Kavar said. "Until the enemy finally reveals himself."
"Wait?" I looked at them in shock. "The enemy is the Sith!"
"The Sith are a symptom, not the disease." Vrook snarled. "This is not a physical battle where you can merely chop them to pieces. It is a battle within the Force itself. Something you have no hope of understanding or participating in."
"I sensed it on Onderon." Kavar said. "Something that was trying to drain the very life from the planet."
"A pool of dark force energy wanting to devour all life." I whispered.
"What?" Zez Kai Ell asked sharply.
"Some of my companions stopped a ritual on Dxun during the battle for Onderon. Sith dark lords had entered the tomb of Freedon Nadd and had tried to unleash a pool of dark force as I have described."
"So it was you that stopped it." Kavar replied.
"No matter." Vrook snarled. "Whatever moved through the Force was not there, I have told you that. If the masters that died on Katarr were unable to stop it, how could some force-blinded woman do it?"
"I have asked both of them, now this I will ask, Master Vrook. If the Council did not take my abilities away, what did?"
"Malachor did." Vrook snapped. "It is why you were exiled."
"Because I fought at Malachor?"
"Because you caused Malachor!" He growled.
"Master, as I told Master Zez Kai Ell, I admit to having the Mass Shadow Generator brought there, and I accept responsibility for it. I admit that much. But I did not-"
"It doesn't matter!" He roared over me. "If you had not followed Revan, if you had not disobeyed the Council, this would not have happened.
"We might have cast you out for that reason alone, but there was another."
"Why didn't you tell me what that other reason was? I asked.
"You had come back, the only Jedi to do so. And you had changed." Zez Kai Ell said.
"Changed."
"You were no longer Jedi." Kavar answered softly. "But why that was true would have made no sense if we had merely told you that. You had to come to your own realization."
"What had happened was punishment enough." Zez Kai Ell said. "As much as Atris wanted you to die, we could not agree at that time."
"At that time?"
"If you had remained in the order, it was believed that you would cause us to change, and that we could not allow." Vrook said.
"Changed you? How could a Padawan or even an apprentice change the order just by existing?"
"You know, and if you do not you are more stupid than you realize." Vrook said. "Look at your followers. Have you noticed that when you decide on a course of action, they follow?"
I looked surprised. "When I was a General others deferred to my decisions."
"But you aren't a general anymore. Yet still you are the focal point of those around you. Your followers do what you bid, even when it is against their nature."
Ever since her loss at Malachor V, I have felt incomplete. A hollow shell of a person, desperate to be healed...But this wound felt comfort when I met you. It felt drained as we fought in sparring. Perhaps this wound will be healed. The words of the Handmaiden as she had foresworn herself.
I have found peace in my life for the first time since I awoke on a dead planet and I cannot sacrifice that peace no matter how you ask. Visas swearing herself to me.
I felt... Maybe if I helped you... Maybe the screaming would stop, and I could have a decent night's sleep again. Atton on Nar Shaddaa.
You brought this out, you made me see, if anyone is going to teach me, it's going to be you if I have to pound your head into the pavement to get that idea through! Mira on Nar Shaddaa. She had not even considered another teacher.
I haven't cried in years. Ever since you came back into my life, suddenly it's not as hard to deal with any more. All that anger, that hatred of them and myself. It's begun floating away. I no longer hate myself. Bao-Dur. Did I heal him only to use him?
Before I could always back away from it, leave the bounty alive. But since I've met you, it's like a reflex. I don't like it, and I don't know why it suddenly became easy. Mira on Onderon. And here, she had become a stark warrior with no visible remorse.
I was suddenly terrified that the masters were right.
Kavar was looking at me sadly. "I saw you in combat, Marai. As a leader you earned the title General. But it is deeper than that. I have watched you agonize over those you lost in battle the last days here. You did not even know those men personally, yet you spent as much time agonizing over their deaths as if you had grown up with them. It comes back to Force bonds."
"I don't understand. Of course I know what a force bond is, but how does that affect anyone other than a Jedi?"
"The Force affects everything around you." Vrook snapped. "Between a teacher and a student, between a master and apprentices, a force bond aids in understanding. You knew this as both student and teacher, yet you ignore it here?
"Force bonds help you learn, and teach. But when that bond is with those who are merely Force sensitive like your compatriots, or those who cannot touch the Force, it becomes something that can be turned to evil. When you suffer, they feel your pain. When they suffer, their pains drives you. This is not the first time it had happened to you."
"There was another time." Zez Kai Ell said.
"Malachor."
"Yes, Malachor." Kavar said. The battle of Malachor is in the past, yet it resonates inside you still."
"Over three million men and women, smashed by a planet's gravity, seared by the plasma of a failed star." Vrook spat. "And their deaths resonate inside you at this very moment."
"Such a loss in one place was too much for any to bear." Zez Kai Ell said. "It is a wonder that all of the Jedi in the system did not follow them into death with such a shock. But of all, you worried us the most. Others were hundreds of thousands, millions of kilometers away. You were within that effect wave. The ship you had just captured was almost destroyed by it. Yet you lived."
"You thought we had stripped your powers away, but you had done it to yourself. No person linked to the Force could have survived, and you slashed away that ability from yourself to survive." Kavar said softly. "I felt its possibility at Dxun. Remember I spoke with you of it. Yet you persisted, as did the others. Malachor ripped them apart as it did you, but where they merely twisted what remained into hate, you had no capability to use it any more."
Kreia stirred.She had been listening quietly. The same thought she had in the berthing area awaiting when Marai came back up from Korriban. Would they listen? Or condemn?
"You were deafened." Kavar said.
At last you could hear. For only with its loss did you understand.
"You were broken." Zez Kai Ell added.
Only that which is broken can be healed.
"You were blinded." Vrook snapped.
But only then could you see. Kreia stood. She wished for her old staff. It had been what, five years since she had seen it? She was piqued. So much for a grand entrance.
"When you alone returned from Malachor, we sensed it. A hole within you, a void hungry to be filled. You were a wound in the Force."
"But master, I have found my connection to the Force again."
Vrook waved off my protestation. "It might just be Dantooine, but I do not feel it. If you have regained the Force it is as we feared, for that wound is a sucking void.
"In you we saw the end of the Force. You may feel the Force, but you cannot feel yourself, and we cannot feel it within you even now. You are an enigma. Something that feeds on the Force, feeds on the will of others, dominating and controlling others to assure that you have enough to survive."
"These new Sith teachings speak of it as a given. That all of living flesh is there to feast upon. Those teachings are symptomatic of what we first sensed in you." Zez Kai Ell said. "Have you not noticed that in all of the conflicts you have faced, in all of the battles you have won hundreds die, yet you lived and grew stronger? Whether you admit it or not, you are doing what these monsters have done."
"Master, may I point out the flaw in your logic?" I asked.
"Oh this I must hear!" Vrook sneered.
"Within the cloister of the Academy and temples, there is peace, there is no conflict beyond the occasional harsh word. But for those outside those walls life is pain and struggle. You yourself master Vrook told me that if we stayed our entire lives within these walls we would be pure, and at the same time unable to help because of that very purity. We must 'get our hands dirty' helping others.
"We know this but our knowledge has always been at one remove. We choose what pains we will accept. We choose what conflicts we face. They do not have that option. A woman trying to feed her children cannot merely decide that her job is not worth the effort. Not and keep those children alive. There are those warped by this into evil, but most survive such pain day to day.
"But in war, this is accelerated. You face as I did, not only your own death but the deaths of those that have sworn their lives to you. Even if you do everything perfectly, some of them will die. You know this, you feel this, you worry about them all, and there is nothing you can do to guarantee that any of you will see home again.
"Yet look who led us. Sure there was Revan Malak and the rest of our order they led, but there was Saul Karath, who if he had not fallen would have been an icon to the Republic fleet. There were those too stupid to lead, but for every Quintain the Navy put up with, there was an Admiral Dodonna. For every Trancas the ground forces dealt with, there was a Yusanis. These are not people who touch the Force. They are normal humans without our abilities that transcend what they are to become someone worthy of respect and honor.
"I cast aside my weapons when I returned from war. Not because I could no longer do it, but because I needed a cause worthy of that effort to ever take up arms again. More than the maundering of some senator who feels disabused, or some planetary leader who feels disrespected. If I had not been cast out, I would have fought and died for you against Revan because she had become an evil I could not allow. As much as you feel that I was a step from the dark side, I had seen what it could do and wanted nothing more than to step back, end that war, and live my life."
"But you could use the Force. You were not only a leader, but with this evil attached to you, you had become a threat." Kavar replied sadly.
"I don't understand."
Vrook took on that 'you're an idiot, but I will try to explain' tone he did so well. "You were the possible future, and that future frightened us. What if other Jedi who had suffered as you did, found this link to the void, and made use of it? What if war is the crucible that draw our own to the darkness?"
"For you, that confluence of events named Malachor was that crucible." Zez Kai Ell said softly. "We saw what had come from that mold, and we saw the
end of the Force. Perhaps the end of all life."
"What is worse, is there are such beings leading the Sith against us now. When Katarr died, we discovered that you were not alone. The death of Katarr resonated in the same echoes of what you had become.
"You share this hunger with them. We do not know how, but it must be true." Kavar said almost sadly. "We cannot allow you to remain."
"Our original judgment stands. You must be exiled, but we will do what we should have done then. All ability to touch the Force must be removed. You must be swept clean of it forever."
"We do this to save all life, Marai." Zez Kai Ell said. "It is a step not taken lightly."
Each of them reached for their lightsabers. They obviously expected the monster they thought I had become to fight them. But I understood why they were doing it. If I were what they claimed, Dantooine would be just the first world to die because of me. After all my dead before and now here, I couldn't bear that as well.
I took my lightsaber from my belt, setting it on the ground gently. Then I bowed my head. "I accept your judgment, Masters."
They relaxed incrementally. They spread out, and I saw Kavar raise his hands. "Marai, I'm sorry."
"No talk. Just do it. Please."
The two that were on the outside reached, and I felt a tugging in my chest. Then Master Vrook reached out, and it felt as if they were tearing me apart.
"You will feel no pain. Just relax and this will be over with."
I would have called him a liar if I could have spoken. Agony ripped through me and I collapsed.
Kreia
I stepped in, and felt them ripping the Force from her. I waved a hand, and they were slammed off their feet. "Bullies. Children that see the one that is different and torments them. Worse yet, create reasons to make it acceptable!
"You will not harm her. You will never harm her ever again."
"You!" Vrook shouted. "If there was a beneficent god you would have died at Malachor!"
My reply was not angry, it was sarcastic. "Yes, I know, I know; the author of all your pain, the one that convinced so many to run away. Someone had to be blamed, and it was I that bore the brunt of it. Foolish men that hid away in their cloisters and tried to judge the real world like a blind man describing a Drexl by what he can touch!
"She brought truth, told you of that world, and you still condemn her! By what right do you punish the messenger?"
"So you are the one that brought her here?"
"Fate and the Force brought her here. Brought her to Telos where she confronted Atris, brought her to Dxun and Onderon to save them, brought her to Nar Shaddaa to help the refugees, brought her here to save these people and be condemned! Jedi! She has earned the title of Jedi more thoroughly than any of you Masters ever did, for she did her work this time starting as a normal human being.
"For ten years she walked with no touch of the Force in her life. Ten years of living as do those people we were supposed to be watching out for. Until she truly needed it, she had no touch of the Force. It was not until she needed the Force itself that the first spark was forced to return, took her hand like a gentle father to make her return."
"So you have trained her. The same filth that drew Revan and Malak into the darkness-"
"Spare me your hypocrisy, Vrook! You are the mirror image of the man who sits in his comfortable chair and glories in the wars of the past without realizing that war is death. He would teach how glorious it is, how wonderful it can be, the honor that can be won, then flinch away at its most gentle kiss!
"But you are worse. The kind that sees no reason for a conflict at all if it does not fit your oh so narrow view of what is right or wrong. Who would let billions, nay, trillions die rather than help because it might get your hands dirty! A pox upon all of you!"
Lightsabers blazed in their hands, but I had no need to approach. "As you would judge her, I now judge you all and none of you have proven worthy."
I reached out, and severed the link to the Force that each man had. Vrook looked as if I had eviscerated him. Zez Kai Ell screamed in agony. Only Kavar was able to stand and face me still.
"There. But I will be more merciful. You will not have to go through the hell she has for ten years." I reached out again, and they collapsed bonelessly.
I looked at her, laying there, still quivering in agony at what they had tried to do. She was still linked to me, I could feel it, and that link would only grow stronger. In that much at least they had been correct.
But would it be for good or ill? Had I condemned the galaxy or saved it?
"I finally understand, my student." I brushed her hair with my hand. "How a stark fierce warrior could walk away from all that you had; from the very power that Malachor would have gifted you with. I had thought it was fear that caused it and I was right. But it was fear for those you loved. The men under your command, the planets you protected, the order you still swore to. It was fear that you would not be worthy of all of that, that you would destroy it with a careless thought.
"A fear I find admirable.
"But I cannot stay with you. The final steps must be taken without my interference. They are the steps you must take to reach the heights of your power in wisdom."
I kissed her cheek. "Make me proud."
I could hear people approaching. Her friends, wondering what had happened. I touched one, and she paused, allowing the others to go on. I made myself small, insignificant. I walked past Atton and Bao-Dur. Past Visas and Mira.
The Handmaiden stood outside. I walked up to her, and she flinched.
"I have done great evil my child. I must be judged, and none remain but Atris. You must take me to her."
"But Marai-"
Marai is no more. The masters struck her down, and I struck them down. It is all my fault and Atris is the only Master remaining."
She spun, running toward the land speeder. I smiled inwardly. It had to be done, and only she could get me there before my vengeful student followed.
Pursuit
Marai
I was standing on a night swept plain. Off in the distance, I could see the glow of a force field interacting with the atmosphere. I felt a surge of the Force so great I was driven to my knees.
Telos, I was on Telos. Above me glowing in the sunlight was Citadel Station. I reached out, how I do not know, and was shooting upward like a missile. Something was happening...
Ships had come out of hyperspace, a fleet of nightmares. Republic ships cruised alongside Mandalorian and Sith vessels. But the bulk of that fleet had been ripped apart by some massive force. There were rents in the hulls, drives with their fairings ripped away.
At their center came the largest warship I had ever seen. One I knew well, because I had seen it in dry dock, sections of the hull still not emplaced. Naked ribs shown through those tears, and within it I tried to feel what should have been there, but it was not.
The fleet closed on the station, fighters racing ahead. It began firing on the defensive weapons on the station, smashing guns and men away as it closed. Then suddenly I felt a wrenching.
I was on the deck of a module. Men were running toward their stations when suddenly they clutched their heads, screaming. Then they fell. On every deck I knew it was happening. One and a half million men women and children dying, and the out-rushing of the Force from them ripped at me as well, but I was still here.
Then I felt it from below. The animals, trees, all of the effort the Ithorians had put into trying to bring Telos back to life undone in seconds.
I was alone on a dead station above a dead world...
Atton
I froze when I saw her collapsed. I had failed, she had died and I hadn't been there to protect her. I ran over, lifting her from the ground. I almost screamed with joy when I heard her breathing.
Visas and Mira had walked past me. Visas had gone to the bodies, but Mira was looking at the ground. "She walked in, stood there. They had been moving around, but stopped when she arrived and took up defensive positions."
"What?"
"Their placement. One facing her in the center, two others flanking and slightly forward. If you attack any one, the others sweep in and assist. They expected her to fight. But she did not move forward. Everything that was done was from a distance. And back here." She moved back toward the door. "Another stood. Kreia."
"These men are not just dead, they are drained of both life and the Force." Visas leaned back, head tilted. "Yet it was not done as my old master would have. They have joined the Force in death. But it was ripped from them first. Almost as if the killer wanted them to feel the pain of loss first."
"So Marai-"
"No. She's still here. This was Kreia's doing." Mira was adamant. "After all, Marai saw both Zez Kai Ell and Kavar alone. She could have killed them without this... cantina gunfight motif."
Bao-Dur was looking around. "Where is the Handmaiden?" He and Mira ran out.
They came back. "The other speeder is gone. They must have left together."
"But why?" Visas asked. "She feels for Marai as we do. Why would she abandon her now?"
"She wouldn't unless Kreia told her they'd murdered her, and the Handmaiden would have run home to Telos." I snapped. Marai groaned, and I held her tight.
"Atton?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"I don't want you think I dislike you..."
"I don't think that."
"But if you don't let me go, I am going to vomit all over you."
My father once said you can tell true love when you hold your date's hair out of the line of fire when she vomits. Must have been love.
She wiped her mouth, and allowed me to help her stand. She looked at the Masters' bodies and all she said was "Kreia."
We hurried out pouring into the land speeder. It only sat three comfortably. But Mira sat in Marai's lap, and Visas sat primly on mine as Bao-Dur almost burned out the engine getting us back to Khoonda. Before we breasted the hill a square nosed ship was already taking off, and we'd IDed it as the one Kavar had arrived in.
The Administrator was waiting when we arrived with Captain Zherron.
"General-" The Administrator started.
"I do not have time." Marai said softly but adamantly. "One of my people has murdered the Jedi Masters, and is enroute to Telos even as we speak. A force of Sith will be attacking there in the next few days and I must be there to fight them."
"But..." She looked at Zherron helplessly.
"Which one? The old woman or the girl?" The man asked.
"It was the old woman that killed them."
"Then..." He also looked confused. "Then why did she tell me to get as many of my men as possible together to go with you?"
"What?"
"She stopped by my office." The Administrator said. "Told me that Telos would be destroyed if they did not get help. Said 'if Telos dies, so does the Republic' then she and the girl departed to contact the Jedi on Telos themselves."
"Then she found me when I got back here, and told me to get ready to follow you." Zherron said.
"I do not know what is happening, but she was correct in saying that the second death of Telos will kill the Republic." Marai told them. "The one thing that has held us together since the war has been hope. Hope that we can bring the dead worlds back to life. If Telos dies, there will be no reason to spend the money, the hope will fade, and soon we will be squabbling planets without even the old Galactic Trade Authority to hold us together.
"No more support from the Republic. Mercenaries pirates and bandits taking what they can as they tried here, repeated on a quarter million worlds." She shook her head.
"I must go. I may fail to stop it but I must try! The dead Masters would have wanted it."
"Give me ten minutes." Zherron snapped, running away.
We boarded the ship. Marai went to the com room, and spent the time talking with several people. Manda'lor came in, went in and was with her for some of that time.
Eight and a half minutes later, Zherron and twenty men came running aboard. All but six were soldiers that had fought under her earlier. The rest were farmers with grim expressions. "Captain-"
"You said we had to hurry ma'am or everyone would be here. I'm, sorry."
"Not that. Why?" She waved at the men behind him. "How did you convince them so quickly?"
"I told them you needed help. It was all I had to say."
There was a thud, and one of the Mandalorians came running up the ramp. He saluted Marai then bowed his head to Manda'lor. "Chu!"
"All of the men. Take that ship and go directly to Telos." Manda'lor ordered, pointing on the larger ship Zez Kai Ell had used to arrive.
"Chu!" He ran down, and a flood of Mandalorians began throwing equipment aboard.
Manda'lor looked at Marai. "We will be there."
Marai looked at me. "Atton, take us to Telos. I have an old friend to see before we arrive at the station."
Onderon.
Queen Talia stretched. It had been a long day in a long week. The rebellion had fizzled out, and now it was just cleaning up the mess. She stood, pulling on her robe. Her servants had set up a breakfast, and as always, there was a stack of pads beside her plate.
She looked at each only in passing, nothing to... She found herself frozen. One hand at her mouth with a piece of fruit held between her teeth. The other with the pad she had just read. She set down the slice of fruit with the over-control of someone beyond fury.
"Where is my Chamberlain?" She snapped.
"Your grace?"
"Bring him here. Now!" The girl scurried off.
The door opened, but it was not the chamberlain. A woman in Beast Rider leather came forward then dropped to one knee.
"What means this."
"Your grace, I am Bekkel. When the young Jedi first came, I was a lost cause to our people. She made me see what I had become, and I have redeemed myself in the eyes of our beasts. Last night I felt an urge to come back to the city, and when I did I knew why.
"I feel she is in mortal peril, and needs our help. I must repay my debt even if it means my life. I ask for a ship to take us to Telos."
The door opened, and the Chamberlain came in. He had served under Talia's father and grandfather, and his walk and stance bespoke years of being the power before the throne. He bowed, but before he could speak, the queen thrust the pad into his hands. "Explain this."
"It was received four hours ago, your grace. You were still asleep, so I told the woman that I would bring it to your attention when you woke."
Talia took a step forward, and her full body was behind the fist that slammed the man off his feet. She stood over him, towering in rage. "How dare you impugn my honor in such a manner! You were there when I said to this very one, 'ask anything of us and it will be done. I swear it upon my life'." She stalked toward him and the old man scuttled backwards.
"We owe this woman our very lives you pusillanimous worm! Our world and all that live on it lives thanks to her! Master Kavar told me that if the Sith had released that horror from Dxun everything on our world would have died and you didn't think her request was important enough to wake me?" She reached under a table beside her, and with a shriek flung it across the room, spinning to those that stood stunned around her.
"Call the fleet. Every ship that can fly is ordered to descend and load troops. I will be with them shortly. Thanks to this fool I must apologize in person. You." She pointed at Bekkel. "All that wish to go with you be at the star port. I will show these monster what the people of Onderon can do." She glared at the chamberlain
"As for you. You will come with me to explain to a woman that risked her life for our people how honor is not important. Vaklu argued it with her and died." She turned, seeing everyone frozen in shock
"Do I have to use a prod to get you moving?"
Mical sat in the chair. This would be kind of hard to explain. The holo-com before him lit up, and Admiral Carth Onasi looked at him. "Admiral, I found the Exile. She was on Dantooine until recently, and I met her.
"That is good to hear, but it could have waited."
"No it could not. According to her the Sith intend to attack Telos and destroy it completely this time. She has gathered people from here to assist in the defense of the system, including almost a hundred Mandalorians. However I will not be there."
"You won't?" Carth looked surprised. "You always wanted to see a space battle first hand. What kept you from coming?"
"Well it seems some droid stole my ship..."
