Order of Battle
Marai
I had everyone seated around the mess deck table as I began the briefing. I had included Admiral Onasi and Bastila because someone might have to go after me, and I didn't want them unclear in what they faced if they did.
"Almost ten years ago, the battle of Malachor was fought. Malachor was once a system the Mandalorians used in their rites of passage for Togar, their War God. They only had picket ships in the system because it is on one of the shortest approach routes to their home system. The ships fought then ran when we attacked, except for one, which shadowed our fleet. Once we were sure everyone but that one was gone, we split our forces. One section of the fleet, commanded by Revan with me as her Marine commander remained. We watched the enemy vessel until it departed. We had left 30 ships, enough for bait, but if they did what we anticipated, not enough to face their home fleet.
"But even with Revan in command we weren't sure we would win it, and I had found out about the Mass Shadow Generator.
"The concept is simple. In fact the Interdictor type cruisers above are based on the technology. An artificial gravity well is created, and that either drags a ship out of hyperspace, or, if they are in normal space, blocks them from engaging their hyper drives. We had almost a hundred of those smaller units with us, and had scattered them among the asteroids of the system, boosting some to orbits farther out so that when the entire system was activated, we had two light hours of space entrapped.
"But fool that I am, I still worried. The Republic's applied gravitonics laboratory had been experimenting with a graviton super emitter. A device that when activated, would create a much greater field than the ones we already had there. The standard models create a field equivalent to an inhabitable moon such as Nar Shaddaa with an area of effect of around 60,000 kilometers from the generator."
"How much greater?" Carth asked.
"Equivalent to a B9 star. with an area of effect of 1.9 million kilometers" I replied. Only two people, Carth and Bao-Dur winced. I sighed. "The Telosian sun is a G0 star. 1 million 392 thousand kilometers in diameter. A B9 however..."
"402 million, 336 thousand." Bao-Dur said tonelessly. Telos orbits at 148 million, 59 thousand 944 kilometers. If this sun became a star that big, we'd be halfway to the core. In fact no planet could even form within just under a billion kilometers. Just under a light hour from the center of the star."
"But we wouldn't have the star, we only have the gravity." I said. "That in it's own way is much worse. The sun of Telos requires an escape velocity of 671 kilometers per second to leave the system. The B9 would be around 10,000. In terms of gravity, Malachor is 50 times as strong as a standard G, while the B9? Try two or three million times." I reset the hologram, anchoring it on the star and the seven planets. Malachor V was a huge gas giant. There was a blip marked TF4.1 "Our starting position in the battle was here, 7,000 kilometers above Malachor V. Ravager was supposed to enter the system with TF4.3, commanded by Sanso, an old friend. But at the last minute, thanks to orders from High Command, she had been added to our task force section instead."
"Quintain." Bao-Dur said. "He didn't want to come in and just be part of it. He wanted to be in the center, at the hub of the action, damn him."
A rash of red dots appeared as the Mandalorian fleet arrived. Revan had left Ravager and five other ships to protect her, and moved away from the planet. Then there were a series of blue circles, the effect areas of the mass generators. A few moments later, other green units arrived. TF4.2 Malak TF4.3 Sanso TF4.4 Karath and finally TF4.5, Vitoris.
I sped the battle up then paused it. There was now a huge blue circle enveloping a swath of the system almost four million miles across. The Mandalorians had rammed forward, well within the effect area of the device. Revan's command ship was just outside it but most of her own fleet was within it. Sanso had pushed forward to protect Ravager as she was supposed to and every one of her ships was inside it. Vitoris' ships were also inside the perimeter. Malak and Karath were on the fringes of it.
"This according to the records, was the location of the ships when it happened. I was here." I touched a Mandalorian frigate that was outbound, just past the rim of the effect area. "What happened next took less than three seconds to occur." I set it for a ninety to one. Ninety seconds passed for that first second in real life.
Suddenly the entire swirling mass of the ships plunged not toward Malachor V, but toward Ravager's position. Sanso's ships except for Ravager were already gone, smashed into blobs the size of my fist in the first ten thousandth of a second. As more ships entered the effect area, they could watch as each went from a standard gravity to two million, ships ripping apart as the section closest to the effect underwent the same horrible change. It paused again. Over half of our ships, and more than three quarters of the Mandalorian ships had just... disappeared. The sun's bulk leaped toward that sudden attraction in a massive solar flare. Three of the inner planets were shattered by the shock wave and were engulfed by the jet of plasma. The one on the opposite side took a radically different orbit as the sun moved away from it's position. The outer two, also on the opposite side continued on their merry way without the gravity of any of the inner system to affect them
"But at the same time, the atmosphere had been ripped away and was now centered on Ravager. It was at this point, the gravitational force caused Malachor V to attempt fusion ignition." A small dot marked the core of the gas giant, and the atmosphere slammed into the space around Ravager. It swirled like water going down the drain, becoming smaller and smaller then ignited. But the explosion of fusion without a stabilizing core instead blew the gas ball apart, sending it sleeting outward in an explosion rivaling a nova. "The ship I was on was flung aside like a fruit seed. The ships that had been either aimed at the explosion or aimed across the wave front were slammed by the blast, and as it went onward, cast into the depths.
I stopped it. Everyone stared in horror. "Of the over 700 Mandalorian ships in the battle less than thirty were able to escape, none undamaged. Of the 500 odd ships we'd brought, fifty-two survived, four undamaged.
I stared at it, blinking back the tears. "But Quintain had the last laugh still. Of all the ships, only Ravager was safe. You see the generator creates a field of gravitation around the ship but away from the ship at the same time. He was safe in his mother's arms until the plasma shock wave hit him. So he must have altered the detonation programming. The entire event from ignition to shut down was supposed to last only one tenth of a second. It operated a full five seconds before Revan hit the control which deactivated it."
"A survey vessel inspected the system right after the Jedi civil war, we checked it again a few months ago." Carth told us. He brought up the new view of the system. The representation had expanded to ten light hours, necessary since it still held all of the original planets. Planet number three, the sole survivor of the inner system had been in such an eccentric orbit that it had plunged into the sun. Planet six was seven and a half light hours out headed off at about the ten o'clock position, with planet seven at about three o'clock just under ten light hours from where it had been. Only the core of Malachor V still sat almost exactly where it had originally-
Wait a minute...
"Carth. Is this a copy or a computer representation?"
"A copy."
"And they surveyed the system about five years later?" He nodded. "Did they make sensor records then?"
"Of course." He looked confused. What's wrong?"
"I just think what I am seeing cannot right." I sighed. "Can you combine all of them into one representation?"
He started to say he couldn't but T3 rolled in, and whistled at me. "So you can you little jewel!" He burbled, and I would have sworn he was embarrassed. He moved to the slot for a droid access panel, flipping it down, and inserted his control arm. He bleeped at me.
"First bring up the system when it was intact all planetary positions in blue." He did so. "Now, superimpose the system after the battle, new positions in red."
He did so. Of all the planets, Malachor V remained unchanged. The star was 2 million kilometers closer than it had been.
"All right, T3. Is there enough data to extrapolate the orbits of the bodies remaining?" He blurped at me. "It doesn't have to be perfect." He gave a whistle. "Very well. Concentrate on only one body then. Malachor V, extend it for the next portion I am adding.
"Now, the last surveys. Add normal planetary movement, including orbits of the original system the new positions in green. Where Malachor V should be in yellow." Everyone gasped. Everything was wildly out of position. Everything except Malachor V. The yellow dot of where Malachor V should have been had moved literally through the sun, and was out the other side.
In fact, Malachor V's orbit had altered enough that it was right where it would have been if the device had never been activated, if you could use such a term for something completely impossible.
"Close up on the core."
Perhaps fifty ships or what was left of them still orbited the core, but of Ravager, there was no sign until he marked a light code on the surface of the core itself. I touched it, and it expanded. The core was about a third the size of Telos, and had gravity about as strong. Half a dozen ships had crashed onto the surface, and I looked at the light codes for the ships in orbit, IDed by their failing systems. Endeavor, Ralshia, Dreamer, Bosturico. All had come to this system with Ravager.
"That is where the Trayus Academy must be. I don't know how, or why, but that is where I must go next."
Carth and Bastila left the ship. They would await the transport that would take the records to safety. I bid them farewell, and we lifted off.
As we left the atmosphere, Atton called me. "Hey, Marai, you have got to see this!' He shouted.
The fleet was still in orbit, and as the Ebon Hawk passed through them, every ship started blinking the same code with their running lights. "What the hell?" Atton asked.
"Signal honors given to a fleet flagship." I whispered. "They are honoring us." I ran my hand down the controls, and found the running light system. I tapped in a command, and our lights flashed the reply required. "Take us out, Atton."
Preparations.
Darth Traya
The old woman strode down the rock tunnel. It had been years, but the fools hadn't changed anything, which was good.
A team of Sith assassins faded from the rock around her, and she looked at them coldly. One moved toward her, and she moved her hand. He dropped as if someone had cut his strings.
"Anyone else?" She purred dangerously. The others attacked, it was what they were trained to do. She left them scattered in heaps as she went on. The smooth vitrified stone of the walk felt comfortable after so long. No more metal or dirt to walk on. She was home.
At the center of the core sat the meditation focus. It was circular about fifty meters across, with the wide spread five meter tall 'fingers' as they had taken to calling them. Halfway to the center, another set of them only half as high reached up. In the red mosaic center knelt her old apprentice.
"It has been a long time." She said.
Sion looked up, blind eyes seeking her in vain. "Why have you come back here you old witch? I allowed you to live-"
She laughed, interrupting his diatribe. "Allowed? Think you fool. It took both of you to unseat me. Without Nihilus, you do not have the power to do so again."
"I struck off your hand!"
"I let you strike off my hand. A trap must be properly baited, and this one needed exquisite care, for what I bring here had to come willingly." Kreia said softly. "When I left you both thought I would wander alone, powerless, to finally die. But I went searching for her even as both of you did. I discovered the secret Nihilus didn't care about, and you weren't interested in. The part we have been missing all these years, and that keeps us in service of this.
"I found the secret to our freedom."
"What?" How-"
"Serve me one last time, my old student. One last time, and we shall be free of it. As Nihilus is free."
Enroute to Malachor
Ebon Hawk:
Atton
"I was bothered by something." I said as we entered hyperspace. "You and Visas keep calling this Sith lord Quintain. But who was he?"
"Admiral Valentine Quintain of the Republic is who he was." Marai said.
"But... Maybe I'm behind the curve, Quintain wasn't a Jedi."
"I know that." She bit her lip.
"But he was what, almost sixty at the time of Malachor? How did he live his entire life without..."
"Without realizing?" She gave me a sad smile. "At our height, there were less than ten thousand Jedi throughout the Galaxy, almost all of us concentrated in the temples and academies. We traveled, but there are what, over a quarter million known worlds? Assuming all of us moved around constantly, which we couldn't do because over half of that number were students, teachers or apprentices, that would have left each of us 25 worlds apiece to survey for more Jedi. So if half are being trained, that left 50 worlds to each of us.
"But Jedi almost always move in pairs. A Padawan teacher with an apprentice, or a master with an apprentice. That leaves us 100 worlds each." She stood. "Come with me, we can get better data by asking someone who knows."
We moved back to the mess hall. She pulled out a bowl of tubers, gathered the others around, and as she peeled them, spoke again.
"Mira, how long have you been looking for the Jedi?"
"The first bounty I heard of was eight years ago, during the Jedi Civil War." She replied.
"And in that time how many prospective Jedi have you checked out?"
"Fifteen, twenty. Mainly people traveling through Nar Shaddaa, or within maybe a day's travel."
"And how did you decide who was or wasn't a Jedi?"
"Midichlorian count of course. Everyone has a count, but it has to be above 4500 to make the person a Jedi."
"How close did your prospective targets come?"
"Closest was 2820, lowest was 1100."
"And the lowest you have heard of?"
"I don't know... 500?" She shrugged. "One of those damn HKs told me that the odds of someone being a Jedi were one in about a billion."
"So, odds of one in a billion..." She picked up the next victim. "And there are how many people in the last census?"
"100 trillion, four hundred seventy-five billion, 220 million, 478 thousand, 221." Goto replied.
"So the numbers are about right. But if you use the 2800 mark instead... Goto, how many times did you get a report of someone between 2800 and around four thousand?"
"Since my bounty began, I was receiving reports of a hundred times the number that were between those two figures."
A count of 4500 is the average, not the cutoff. Remember, I lived my entire life inside the Order, and the lowest they took in to teach were closer to three thousand. Also that ignores the fact that the Sith could have as many if not more; though the life expectancy of a Sith is not that good. So instead of the 10,047 we had, there should be?"
"Over a million." Bao Dur commented. "1004752."
"Which means there should be 1 million four thousand and about 800 Jedi." She glanced at me. "A great disparity from ten thousand, don't you think?"
"But..." I shrugged. "How the hell are there so few then?"
"First, assuming an equal spread, which is specious since no two planets have exactly the same population, that would place 4 potential Jedi on each planet. It isn't true, but let's pretend that it is for a minute. Those people would be between the ages of newborn and 120. so, if they are spread equally through time as well,, there would be one at birth, one at age forty, another at eighty, up to one doddering along at 120."
"But the Jedi only accepted children up to what, six?" Brianna said.
"Five is preferred, but up to eight." Marai picked the next tuber. "So three of the four are too old, and we ignore them. But that still leave about a quarter million.
"To detect a person with that capability, you need someone looking for them. How do you think I got the job? Through an advertisement? 'People wanted with special abilities to manipulate the world. Requirements, Midichlorian level 3,000 or more. Age, no older than seven standard years. Intensive training required. Prerequisites; few. pay non existent, hours long, danger great. Apply at 2151 Jedi drive, Coruscant'."
Everyone laughed. "No, a prospective Jedi is found when they display abilities that amaze or alarm their neighbors. Or when their parents notice this and let us know. I was three in an orphanage less than ten kilometers from the temple on Corellia when one of the women that worked there reported my existence to them. If she had not done so, I would have grown up in the social welfare system and probably ended up as a secretary of some executive. Instead they came, took me from the only home I had known up until then, and gave me a new one.
"The group among the Jedi called Sentinels are charged with this duty, because they specialize in detecting the smallest variations in the Force. They are the watchmen that hunt for the evils people do as well, so they honestly do not have time to go planet to planet and seek the nascent Jedi. Look for evil, fight the evil, and oh, by the way in your copious free time, look for kids that will one day take your place.
"Now add into the equation that while there are a quarter million planets, something like ten to 20 percent of them are not members of the Republic, so the Jedi would very rarely go to them unless our assistance was requested. Both the Twi-lek and Hutt control their own colonies, and unless one joins the Republic of it's own choice, we have no business there without the authority of those peoples. There are also corporate sanctuaries where we have no authority at all. Tatooine for instance is a planet wholly owned and operated by Czerka and no Jedi would go there except on business agreed to by Czerka.
"But a lot of them are passed up because of pure chance. Think of it this way. You're walking down a city ramp and find a com link. You know what it is supposed to do, but is the ship with that frequency in port right now? Is it within range to pick up your signal? Will you get a response if you use it? Does it still have battery power? Do you even waste the time checking? After all, it's only what, half a credit value. Cheap enough that it could have been thrown away."
She looked at us all with that little smile of hers. "Back in ancient times they tried to use radio-telescopes to beam communications protocols at stars they thought might have life on them. A waste of time because for the message to be received, you need a corresponding receiver capable of detecting that frequency, with someone listening for the entire system to work. What happens if they take their antenna down for the four hours that your message is playing for repairs? I for one am surprised we found even the three they did before they closed the project.
"So a lot of them go through life not even knowing that they could have been something more." She stood, pulled out the cutting board, and began reducing the tubers to finger width cubes.
"But Quintain was Corellian!" I said. "He should have been detected."
"Knowing his family, no doubt he was." She agreed. "But think of it. A mother and father of the social elite, both of whom are such great snobs that they breath privilege tell you that 'their son' has all of this capability, and it would behoove us to bring him into the fold.
"So the Jedi that hears this meets the poisonous little monster Quintain was at age 5, so sure of his own superiority that if you gave him the capability, it would be like giving the same child access to the Naval Arsenal on Castagian. Do you run to your master and say 'we have a new hopeful? Or do you say 'He's got the capability, but his personality is already so warped, I cannot guarantee there is a useful being remaining.'?"
She slid the chopped vegetables into the water, and chose the meat to add. "If they found out he had the potential at four or five, I can pretty much guarantee no one bothered to tell the parents he did. Or more likely they were appalled by the idea that 'their son' would be taken away, lose all the privilege they would give him, so they hid it themselves."
"Then he is raised to be this little monster you spoke of with that capability?"
"Capability means nothing without training. Natural ability and most importantly training govern the abilities you have within the Force. The Force is like a muscle. You have to exercise it or it atrophies."
"But you came back after ten years."
"I know." She looked at us, haunted. "Someone took the time to train the maniac, and I think we all know who it was."
She buried herself in the books and holocrons that Mical had left aboard as if she was seeking the answer to all life. She cooked, and I could tell from the quality that she was worried more than she would admit. The more she worried, the more flamboyant her cooking, as if she had to let it all out, and that was the vent.
We came up on the final moments, and everyone prepared. I brought us out of hyper space, and there ahead of us was the rocky core of Malachor V. Bao-Dur acted as co pilot as we began our approach. The star had been damaged in the battle as well, and its life had been shortened. It was now a flare star, and occasionally it would release massive blasts of radiation and plasma in waves that would have shattered any organized attempt to survive here.
"Where did the core get an atmosphere?" I asked plaintively, because while it had a forbidding barren landscape we found atmosphere at about 100 kilometers altitude. It looked like Coruscant from up here. Not massive buildings or structures but massive canyons formed by pressure as the planet had been ripped by first it's own gravity, then the Mass Shadow Generator.
"I don't know." Bao-Dur said. "Perhaps some of the atmosphere of the ship that had been destroyed was released on impact, but there wouldn't have been enough to give it one like this."
We came down, and as we passed through the clouds, lightning struck the ship. It staggered, but kept flying. I grabbed the controls as a second then a third bolt struck us. The systems flashed and sparked as we plummeted through the air.
"Not another crash!" Marai shouted.
"Seems he can't land any other way, General!" Bao-Dur replied. I was too busy trying to balance out the thrust as the engines bounced between operational and dead lined.
"I thought T3 fixed this damn thing! How'd he get out with this crap?"
"T3 said they avoided the storms on the way out. Something you should take into account if you're going to get out of here alive!" She shouted.
"Now they tell me!" I dodged deeper into the atmosphere, but systems had shut down that we would need to get out of here again. In fact some of them would keep us here if I didn't land us just right.
I waited, setting the systems up for what I was about to do. If I missed my chance... We flashed over a wide valley, and I went into a wide sweeping turn. It was a flat field of what looked like crackle glazed glass. Main engines howling in the strain, red lights flashing on my panels, I braked us over it. Maneuvering thrusts slammed on, and we dropped like a rock, hovered over the bottom of the valley. Then we came down.
As we landed, the ice I had aimed at broke, and the ship slammed hull down into the planet's surface. There was screaming behind me from the mess deck, but as the ship sat there and didn't collapse any further, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"We're down." I told them unnecessarily.
"When we get out of here, we have to get another pilot." Mira moaned. "I have bruises in places I didn't even know I had!"
Marai came forward. The ground was flush with the hull before us, so the ship sat as if it had rested its chin on the ground to think. She looked out over the bare terrain.
"Did you find any power sources down here on approach?"
"A lot of them. There are two dozen or so ships crashed on the surface, and their power supplies are still active. I set us down here because of that." I pointed ahead of us at a crystalline structure about a kilometer away.
"The generator." Bao-Dur whispered.
We headed aft. It took a while, but we were able to ascertain that except for our landing gear, which had been ripped to shreds by our landing, we were reasonably intact. There had been some leaks, but we plugged them.
"All right," I said. "We're here. Now what's the plan."
"There must be an entry way to the core somewhere nearby." Marai said. "We have to find it."
"Marai?" Brianna was at a sensor panel, working the controls. "There is a massive power source three kilometers beyond the generator." She brought up the map that had been made by the sensors on our approach. There were smaller generators still operating out there, but this one rivaled the core tap on Coruscant.
"That must be it." Marai said.
"General, I have an idea." Bao-Dur said. "Assuming you fail, the enemy will continue to attack. But what if we make sure it can't happen?"
"How so?" He pointed toward the bow. For a moment, she stared forward confused then she understood, and paled. "You are not suggesting what I think you are." He nodded, and she shook her head. "That horror got us into this mess!"
"General, if we reset it to continuous operation, it will drag the core into the star." Whatever they have here is not going to survive that!"
"Neither will we!"
"General, analysis. You face the gods alone know how many in there. You have all of us to aid you, but what if we fail? What if they win?"
She considered, face furrowed as she tried to come up with options. Then she sighed.
"What do we need to do?"
"We'll run power boosts from the four nearest ships. They're the only ones close enough to be of assistance. I'll rig it to a dead man circuit. If we can't get out of here, it will activate and all of this will end up in the core of the star in about fifteen seconds."
"All right, we'll do it." She looked at her crew. "Atton, you and Brianna go to this one. Mira, you and Visas to this one. T3, you and Bao-Dur to this one-" Suddenly in mid sentence, Marai froze.
Marai
Kreia stood in the center of a massive alien construct. The segment she stood on was a mosaic of red crystal. It glowed with the light of a lightsaber focusing crystal, and as she looked upward, that glow brightened.
Come Marai. All life ends if you do not. She said.
I found myself standing before her, facing her there. She looked at me, smiling softly.
I will stop you. I said.
You will try. She replied. Yet your powers have not reached their full potential. Only when you stand here with them at full peak will you have a chance. So I am going to help you with that. She reached out, and a bolt of energy hit me in the chest. I screamed-
"Marai!" I felt hands holding me, could feel the others gathered in the passageway and moving into the room. I looked up. It was Atton. I saw-
The flare of force potential in him. He had been chosen by Revan because he was Force sensitive, but she had not seen him as I did now. He would have been a Jedi if we had found him first. I wanted to reach out, knew that if I touched him there, he would come into his full potential even as he knelt here unknowing.
Down the passageway, I felt Bao-Dur, as potent in the Force as Atton could have been. I had felt it before, when I held him as we cried. Him too I could bring into his capabilities.
Mira. Suddenly I realized that it was that touch that had brought her powers to the fore. Brianna had been on the edge of it, and the sparring we had done had brought out her capabilities. Visas had been formed by her world, warped by Nihilus, yet my reaching out to her had changed the course of her life as well.
The masters had seen the equivalent of a black hole, but there is a balance in everything. I was a hole, but I was a white hole, spewing forth the Force at those around me, and if they had the capability, infusing them. They had been right and wrong at the same time! I was a threat only if I lost control, decided that the world should match my view of it rather than the course nature and the Force had chosen for it.
I could be the nurturing mother, or the ravenous beast Nihilus had been, and despite everything Kreia had done, I had chosen to nurture rather than destroy.
I pushed Atton away. "I'm all right." I snapped. He looked hurt, but I realized that there was a reason for everything thing that had happened.
I had been that nurturing mother to the women aboard because as Visas had said, part of me resonated with their present lives. I had been in the same place as each of them, and where their lives had gone other paths, I had followed my own. Encountering me had drawn them to my path, so they had been right in that much, but I had not stamped my will upon them. I had simply reached across, and brought them gently to me. As a good teacher must.
There were like resonances with the two men, but Atton's desire for my body had kept that from occurring, and Bao-Dur looked at me like an icon, and I had refused in my own heart to be his idol. So he had also not been touched as deeply. But both had changed from what they had been. In the fullness of time, they could take the same step that the women had already completed. But I suddenly realized that they were in the least danger.
Whatever the Trayus Core was, it was a focus of vast power, and each of us that had taken that step were in mortal danger.
Atton
Marai shoved me away, and wouldn't speak to me again as we worked on Malachor. She always assured that someone was there, as if she was terrified of my presence.
It took us all day. We had to rig power transfer antennae to transmit the power of the surviving generators to the Mass Shadow Generator. The ships we used satisfied Marai. Two Republic vessels two Mandalorian. She commented that she almost wished Manda'lor had come with us to Malachor. But he and Queen Talia had returned to Onderon together.
We finished, and Bao-Dur adjusted the settings with finicky precision. "We have just enough." He said.
"Good. Everyone, get some sleep. Tomorrow, we go in."
Trayus Academy
Marai
We prepared, tuning and cleaning our weapons, packing air bottles for where the atmosphere was if not toxic, it might not be supportive of human life either. The breathing tanks we had would last, but not for long.
I sat up the night before we went. I have never been able to sleep before I go operational, and this was no different. HK walked in with that smooth glide he had since Telos. "Verification question: My operational status is unchanged?"
"Yes, HK." I told him. "Protect the ship, and make sure the power couplings we have installed are not tampered with."
"Heavy heartfelt sigh: As you wish."
"Don't worry, I am leaving Goto and T3 here to assist you."
"Irritated statement: Leaving a floating beach ball and a tin can as back up will not affect the capabilities of this unit. However I can keep an eye on them as well."
"Do I understand that you feel you organic sentients can complete this mission without our assistance?" Goto asked.
"I do." I sighed. "Goto, if we fail, this sensor will activate." I lifted my wrist where Bao-Dur had attached his dead man switch. I didn't like the idea that everyone else could die and I could survive, but he had insisted. "When it does, the Mass Shadow Generator will activate, and about fifteen seconds later, the planet will be sucked into the star. Nothing here will survive that."
Goto bobbed in the air as he considered. "The ship will be unable to escape in that case."
"That is true." I agreed. "But I feel our lives are unimportant in the scheme of things. If we fail, the Republic falls. It is that simple."
"However that is not the case," He demurred. "The Sith have been beaten back to a manageable level, and the Republic will survive into the foreseeable future."
"I disagree." I motioned toward the heavens. "There are dozens of ships up there they could still capture. If they do, it will almost double their present fleet. A long drawn out guerrilla war on the rim will drain more than the Republic can afford. Also, the Academy itself is a well of Dark Force energy. How long will it be before the Sith discover it again, and start this whole mess over? So win or lose, the Academy must be destroyed." I stood, picking up my tea. "There is no point in negotiating with me on this, Goto."
Three hours later, as the sun rose, we set out.
HK stood on the ramp, watching the people out of sight. He was ready for anything. Goto floated up behind him, and an ion charge fired. HK stiffened, then his arms dropped limp. The droid circled around him, and headed for the farthest ship away from them.
