The Fall of the Infinite Empire

Chapter 56

The shafts leading down to the cavern in which the Old One was held prisoner contained no technology. No elevator, certainly none of the Kwa's teleportation technology. One simply had to walk. As they had been built for the Kwa, with their hunched, nearly quadrupedal form of walking, to use, the ceilings of the passages down were low. There was no light. Zhed-Hai had been forced to remove the uniforms from the Rakatans he had killed and set them on fire. So he walked down the stairway with the ball of crumpled up clothing smoldering slowly, giving off barely enough light to see. He could have simply relied on his Gift to show him the way. With a bit of focus one did not need eyes, but he did not like the dark. But he rationalized his choice to himself differently. He needed, he thought, to focus on other things than using his Gift to feel the surfaces around him. Specifically, he was focused on constructing the defenses in his mind. And while it took no more effort to use his Gift as a substitute for sight than it did to levitate the smoldering pile of clothes, it was true he needed to concentrate on reinforcing the fortress within his mind. The walls, the mazes of lies, the innermost stronghold. What would he have done without Gran-Nock to show him the way? It was that lost warrior who had shown him that what could be pictured in one's mind could be made as real there. What gave the structures created by cognition their reality, their strength, was emotion. The full engagement of the mind. Or of the spirit, he could almost hear the Celestial say. It did not matter what you called it, he said to himself, so long as it worked. And it would work. He allowed himself to feel the hope Myra had urged on him. He gave into it as fully as he could. This was Gran-Nock's greatest insight. The rage and the anger were not enough to build something lasting. Their creations were brittle. They crumbled. He pictured Gran-Nock floating on his peaceful sea and smiled. It would work. He would not fail now. He was going to win. He was going to set everything right. He pictured Myra and her children walking through fields of swaying grain under a sunny sky. He thought of all the humans he had found over the years, and all their progeny, protected. He thought of the creatures he had created, and of the galaxy in which they could live free. He thought of the ships of the Infinite Empire, empty and dark, floating in space. And he thought of his own people, the ones who would survive. The ones who would rise from the rubble, rebuilding with nothing but their wits and the strength of their bodies. And thus was his fortress constructed.

Myra caught up to the rest of her party as they reached the docking bay. It stuck out from the main body of the space station like the spoke from the center of the wheel, except at the other end were the two ships that would take them all to their new homes. Each was reachable through a docking portal on either side of the far end of the bay. The docking bay itself was wide, with walls of glass, from which you could stars and Lehon below. The doors connecting the docking bay to the main station were large sliding doors which opened for Za-Hell, as the system recognized him as a member of the military. Myra wondered whether she could have done all this on her own, without Za-Hell's assistance. She was not sure she believed Zhed-Hai's explanation that the holocron had been kept separate from the computer systems of the wider Empire, as a way to keep its programming secure, and so was useless on the space station. It had only ever interfaced with those systems indirectly, from behind the protections built into the Zhed-Hai's compound's systems. This all ensured, Zhed-Hai told her, that when they were finally away and established on those new planets, that the holocron could be safely used without any risk that it could be used to find them.

She told herself to stop worrying, for everything was going well. She had neither seen nor heard any signs of fighting that might have resulted from her separating Halvor and his friends from the rest of the group. They would be alright, she told herself. They would just get there a few minutes late, and it would avoid the conflict and argument that they did not have time for. There was no way Halvor would have taken the change of plans calmly, or simply accepted that she was not going with him. His head was filled with dreams too similar to Zhed-Hai's. He wanted to be at the head of a powerful clan of warriors, and with Myra at his side he would stand unopposed. Well he could have his war, and his warriors, but he didn't get to use her to do it. Of all the lies she had told recently that one saddened her least.

Za-Hell was ushering her people through the doors, instructing them to make for the far end of the docking bay when Myra caught up with him. He turned to her and asked, "How do we know which ship is which?"

"He had them marked. A sword for the rich, inhabited world, and a sun for the empty one," she answered as she walked past him, looking for her family. She did not have to look long, as they had stepped out of the line to wait for her. Corus ran to her and jumped into her arms as she spoke a mile a minute.

"Momma, we're in space! Look at the stars, did you know there were so many? Does anyone know what they are called? Are we going to live on one? Do you know which one? Can you show me?"

Myra gave her a big squeeze, and Corus switching from peppering her with questions to simply squeezing back with her little arms. Sani looked nervous. Myra guessed it was the number of people packed into a small place. Tytus rubbed Corus' back while smiling. Brun had something of a wild expression in his eyes, as though he had too much excitement within him and no way to let it out. Myra smiled at him and reached out her hand for his. He looked at his older sister first to make sure she couldn't see, and then took his mother's hand. Myra would have stayed in this moment forever if she could, and in later years she would return to it many times in her mind, each time wishing there had been a way to extend it.

But in reality, Myra called out to Za-Hell, saying, "I think we should open the doors to the ships, start getting everyone in."

Za-Hell, still by the entrance to the docking bay nodded and hurried towards the ships. Myra walked slowly with her family to follow him. When she saw he had reached the door to one of the ships, Myra put Corus down and said, "Ok, I want you all to get on the ships as quickly as you can. I will be there in a few minutes. I just want to make sure everyone is clear about where they need to go."

Sani's face showed even more anxiety. She said, "Mother…," before being interrupted by the sound of an alarm. The lights built into the ceiling of the docking bay began to flash in time with a klaxon honking out loudly. Everyone in the docking bay grabbed their ears, and Myra looked toward Za-Hell, who was frantically pushing buttons on the security pad by the door to the rightmost ship.

She sprinted towards him, pushing people out of her way even before she touched them. By the time she got to him he had managed to get the door to one ship open.

"They must have changed the security protocols," he said. "That or I am not in the system anymore!" He turned towards the ship door opposite the one he had just opened, and had to push through the crowd that was now surging towards the open door. "There will be guards headed here!" he yelled as he fought his way around panicked humans.

"Everyone calm down!" Myra yelled. "We are still getting away, but make sure you go to the correct ship. Everyone with Halvor is on the right, everyone with Tytus is on the left. We are going to get both doors opened and both ships away, but only if you keep your heads!"

She sprinted towards the door into the bay, passing Tytus and the children on the way. "Get in the ship! Tytus, make sure people get onto the correct ship!" As she continued her run, she saw through the glass walls two Rakatan guards running towards their docking bay. She turned around and yelled, "Everyone from the top level come to me!"

From the small number that came back to her it was clear many either had not heard her or were unwilling to run towards the Rakatans. Myra cursed herself for sending Halvor's group the long way. Whatever else could be said of them, they were not likely to shy away from a fight. Myra kept running to the door, but, realizing the Rakatans would get there first, closed them with the Force. The two Rakatans stopped in their tracks, surprised at seeing humans in the first place, and absolutely shocked to see one with their precious Gift. After a second or two they got past their sense of shock and tried to open the door. Myra held it fast without too much trouble. When they saw this one of them ran back the way they had come. Going to get others, Myra thought. She had to hold them long enough to get the ships away. She looked behind her at the dozen or so men and women standing with her. Behind them came Za-Hell, spear crackling with energy, and more of her people following him.

She looked back at the door and saw the Rakatan on the other side turned to his left, yelling out instructions she could not hear. She turned to her right to see 10 Rakatan warriors, each with a spear in hand, running towards them. She had a moment of fear, and took a step back. When she did, she heard some of the people behind her groan and yell out in fear when they saw the guards coming. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment of the room in Zhed-Hai's mind, with the tiny mother. She thought of her refusal to give in, the fierceness of that last attempt to save her children, and how that moment had upended the world. These guards were coming for her children. They would kill them all if Myra didn't stop them. And so she would stop them.

Za-Hell reached the door, and she could feel his fear. She gently placed her hand on his arm and said, "Back my people up. We take down as many of the guards as we can, they fight only the ones who break through." Neither of them missed and neither of them commented on the remarkable fact that she had just given him an order which he promptly obeyed. Myra started walking backwards while keeping her attention on the doors. The eleven guards were trying to open the door, and their combined strength was, she could tell, enough that she would eventually be overpowered, despite its weight being on her side. She pulled back until she felt she had enough room to do what she intended. It was as though she could see the fight that was about to happen before it happened.

Za-Hell was running back towards her when she let go of the door and it slid open. The guards on the other side seemed surprised for a moment and then lowered their spears and charged.

"Get behind me!" Myra yelled at Zhed-Hai as she lifted her hands in the air.

The Rakatans stopped in their tracks as the Force wave hit them, and unlike Halvor's group none of them was knocked over. But they were distracted enough that the two of them closest to Myra were unable to keep hold of their spears, which leapt from their hands to hers. She lifted one of them high into the air, pointed at the Rakatans before her, and brought the other one across her body like a shield. The two disarmed Rakatans turned to their comrades as though wondering what to do, when one of the guards still holding his spear yelled out, "Attack!"

They rushed forward quickly, but to Myra it seemed slow, like they were running through water. Fear and anger rose up within her, and she could feel her power flowing into the spears in her hands. She saw them light up with the white lightning. Her mind went back to the Sith in his cell and how the lightning had shot out from the spear to strike him. She could do it again, she knew. Lash out with her fear and anger and she could kill several of them. But she saw in her mind's eye the body of the Sith slamming against the wall, and falling limply to the ground. No, she thought, not again. She would kill these guards if they forced her to. She would not let them get their hands on her family. But she would not let the fear and anger overwhelm her again, make her into something she was not.

So, as the Rakatans advanced towards her, no lightning hit them. The lightning just coiled more and more and faster and faster around the front half of her spears, until they glowed like swords of fire.

At that moment Zhed-Hai reached the bottom of the passageway and, entering the cavern, saw something like the inverse of the prison he had made for the Celestial. In the center of a huge cave there was a translucent, shimmering orb of light, partially obscuring, but not completely hiding, the darkness within. The orb illuminated the entire cave, so Zhed-Hai let the burning mass of clothing fall to the floor.

Still unsure how this would work, he approached the orb slowly, trying to determine from where the energy that powered it was coming. The prison he had created for the Celestial was built around the trapped minds of Rakatans he had sacrificed. But Zhed-hai could not see any source for the energy maintaining the barrier. This posed a problem, for without that information he had no way of knowing what manner of energy he was dealing with, and how safe it would be for him to approach the barrier.

Well, he thought to himself, if it turned out not to be safe then he would die, and Myra would be able to trust to hope against the Sith, as she wished. So he stepped forward until he was close enough to reach out and touch the barrier. It both gave way beneath his touch, and pushed back against him. He withdrew his hand to consider what that meant when he heard a voice.

"Why have you come?" it asked. The voice sounded like nothing, for it was in his head. But to him it was like he was hearing a something composed from the sound of air bubbling up through oil, or mud sliding into stagnant water. It provoked in Zhed-Hai a level of disgust he was surprised by. He had long ago forced himself to overcome such emotional reactions, his work involving the examination, dissection, and manipulation of countless species. The sound of the thing's 'voice' could not on its own have provoked such a response. It was as though the Force was screaming at him to run. Zhed-Hai looked up and tried to peer through the barrier to what lay within.

"You are not one of my captors, you are one of their servants. Why have you come?" it said, more insistently this time.

"We are no longer their servants. We have chased them from the stars," Zhed-Hai said.

"They are subtle and clever. You should not be so confident," it replied.

"My people have sacrificed everything to free ourselves. We know their ways. The only ones of their kind left broke from them long ago and have hidden themselves away," Zhed-Hai replied.

"I know the beings of which you speak. They remain dangerous, and being the enemy of one, you are the enemy of all. They are relentless. They will emerge from their hiding places one day, and destroy all you have made. Your victories are not secure," it insisted.

"I see. And I suppose I need you to make them so?" Zhed-Hai said drolly.

"There is much I can do to help you, if you are truly wise enough to see they must be destroyed. There is much we can do for each other," it replied.

"You are far more likely, Bogan, to get what you want if you cease acting as though I am a fool," Zhed-Hai said firmly.

"Bogan? You have spoken with them of us," it said, suspicion in its voice.

"Yes. I keep one of them locked away in my home, just as they have locked you away in here," Zhed-Hai said boastfully, feeling ridiculous as he did so. If the Old One thought him a fool, Zhed-Hai would lean into that. Fools are often afforded opportunities by the carelessness of their opponents.

"They put me here because they were unable to kill me. Are you unable to kill them? How then did you chase them from the stars?" it asked derisively.

"I could kill it anytime I wish! But why should I? I have taken much information from it. I alone of all my people keep a Celestial as a pet," Zhed-Hai crowed.

"Hmmmm," the Old One grumbled, "And what did your pet tell you of me?"

"Nothing. It resisted all my attempts to gain information from it, even unto death. With a being so powerful, the tools at my disposal for…persuasion were crude and coarse. I brought it to the edge of death and still it did not give up its secrets. That is how I knew," Zhed-Hai said, "that you were something truly impressive."

"Yes," it said. "Now, tell me, why have you come?"

"There is a task I need done, which I cannot do myself. My people are consumed by internal strife, and they do not see the enemy coming, one we could easily deal with if only we were unified," Zhed-Hai said, trying as much as possible to paint a picture of a galaxy in shambles, a galaxy ripe for the Old One to conquer. Temptation could blind just as much as overconfidence.

"What is this task? How might I help?"

"The task is death; one I am sure you have a great deal of experience with."

"Indeed. But surely you must know that I can do nothing from within this cage."

"And you can do too much from outside of it. The Celestials did not put you here because you were easy to deal with."

"The Celestials!" it scoffed. "A title appropriate for those arrogant upstarts. And yet your people have defeated them, as they defeated us. What need you fear from me?"

"Yes, we would defeat you of course," Zhed-Hai stated bombastically. "But I will not make a new war for my people."

"Then we are at an impasse. If you do not release me, I cannot help you."

"I will hear how you could help me, if you were released."

"What death do you wish?"

"There is a species on a faraway world, a world of Force users. A violent and barbaric people. The Sith. I would see them dead."

"Violence and barbarism. A red world? To match their visage?"

Zhed-Hai's breath caught in his throat. "How is it you know of them? They have never left their world."

"You think it a coincidence that they are a species of power? There are no coincidences. That world was found long ago. A lush world. Abundant. Life everywhere. A great feast."

"Were you there?"

"No. I had worlds of my own, but others made it their abode. They were weak and foolish. They stayed there feasting too long. They were discovered. They were trapped. They were destroyed. But they left their mark on what remained."

"So the Sith are your children," Zhed-Hai said.

"No! Scurrying wretches hiding in caves imbibing on the power in their midst! We have no children. We do not pass on. It is beneath us! To live only that one might reproduce and then die is to be nothing. Merely an instrument for some blind pattern to weave itself into flesh, generation after generation. We freed ourselves of this. The Sith are naught but a byproduct, the accidental emanations of weak fools who deserved the fate the enemy visited upon them."

Inside Zhed-Hai recoiled from what heard, at what it meant about the galaxy this thing would create if given the chance. But on the outside, he was all excitement. "You would have no objections then to killing them?"

"None. I will go to their world and consume them all. Burn their world clean."

"I cannot let you off this world though."

"Then why should I help you? What do you offer me?"

"This world. I can free you from your prison and in return you do as I wish. When it is done, I leave this place to you. The Celestials are gone, they will not find you here. There are some of my people here, but I am comfortable leaving them to you. You can have this place, Belsavis, to yourself," Zhed-Hai said. He knew that once released the Old One could not be contained here, but with luck the Old One would not know that he knew that.

"How can I do as you wish from here?"

"Do not lie to me. I know what you are capable of. The Celestial did not mean to reveal it, but when I first broached the subject of coming here to find you, it tried to dissuade me. It suggested sending a machine, which tells me that you would gain power from my presence. The servants of the Celestial we found here ran from us when my people first arrived, but they refused to run down here. They did not wish to give you access to them. If you were to gain access to me, I think there is much you could do."

The Old One waited before answering, finally saying "Yes."

It thinks it has tricked me, Zhed-Hai thought. He thought about simply going for it now, not going forward with the next stage of his planned manipulation. It felt as though he had the Old One where he wanted. But years of the discipline required by his larger plan, by The Plan, strengthened his resolve. If he was too eager, it could blow the whole thing.

"Now, you must do what I ask but then you must let me go."

"Of course."

Zhed-Hai smiled. "Of course, of course. I wonder though, what reason would you have to let me go once you have me? If having me gives you strength, opens up abilities you do not have in your current state, why would you do that?"

"I have agreed to."

"The past is dead; our words die with it. When the time comes your word will mean nothing, like everything else that is gone."

It paused again. Was it rethinking the deal? Or was it, as Zhed-Hai intended, now worried the deal would not happen? Overconfidence, Temptation, and Desperation, they would be enough, Zhed-Hai thought. They would have to be enough.

"True."

"We are both of us in luck, for I can give you a reason. But I want you to know it is there. You are caged here. I believe I can break through this cage, that it was not designed to keep others out. Those who made it never believed any but themselves would stand here, and none of them would free you. But there are other ways to cage you. I have come prepared. If you do not let me go, if I do not take certain steps, fail safes will go off, burying us both here."

"You would die."

"I will die if you do not let me go anyway. You can have my people on this world. There are a few hundred across its entirety. You cannot have me. I will walk out of here. I will leave you behind. When I am gone, I will disarm the devices I have left here. And you will have this world."

"What reason have you to do that, once you are gone? As you said, even if you live, your word is dead and gone."

"Having you here will be useful to me. I may return again to strike another bargain. I will have enemies in the future, some that I cannot anticipate now. You are useful, that is my reason."

Silence ruled again, and Zhed-Hai kept a calm demeanor even as within his mind all was anxiety and fear. Would this convince the Old One? Who could know? If the Celestial had told the truth this thing was older than the stars, than the universe itself. How could one anticipate its decisions? All he could do was develop the plan that would have worked against the most duplicitous, cunning, cruel, and ruthless being he knew; himself. All his life he had been smarter than others, and so overconfidence had become his weakness. He had pursued one singular goal for centuries, and knew all too well the temptation such an overriding goal could bring. And he knew the fear of failing to achieve that goal. Zhed-Hai knew well the weaknesses of evil. They would be the path to his redemption.

"Agreed."

As the dance of words concluded beneath Belsavis, the dance of battle raged above Lehon. Several Rakatans had fallen while attacking Myra. They had loosed their purple lightning and with her blazing white spears she had redirected those attacks, felling more than one guard with the assaults of his companions. Most focused on her, unsure of how to proceed against an enemy who did not attack, but did not surrender, who used their own weapons in this strange way, only to defend herself. They could not bring her down from a distance, and to approach meant coming in reach of her blades.

Some had gotten around her, only to meet Za-Hell. He had heard Myra's command, to get behind her. She, whom he had wronged, protected him. She, whom he had captured and brought into slavery, willed that he live. The absurdity of it had given him a moment's pause. Then his training kicked in. If the guards got around her, she would fall, so they must not get around her. Za-Hell stepped forward and brought one Rakatan down with a blast of lightning from his spear. Two others sent their own bolts his way, which he absorbed with his weapon. They turned away from trying to get behind Myra to meet the new threat. Za-Hell charged forward, and turned as he reached Myra, putting his back to hers. Zhed-Hai had told him that he was strong, but that he lacked the temperament to be a true warrior. He hoped now that he could summon that warrior spirit, if only for a little while. He had stolen from this woman, taken the life of one of her people, her family. He would not let them take more from her. He would honor his promise to Zhed-Hai, the promise that had saved his family.

A couple of guards got around both of them and fell on the humans standing some distance behind Zhed-Hai. Two went down quickly under the assault, but while they lacked the strength of Za-Hell or Myra, they used the advantage of numbers to their best effect, swarming the guards and grabbing at their weapons.

Even farther down the docking bay the rest of the humans saw the fight and panicked, pushing forward wildly to get through the doors of the ships. Tytus was able to impose some order on the doorway to his ship, but the doorway to the rightmost ship was a mess. People who did not intend to get on that ship had been pushed into it and were trying to push their way back out, but were struggling against those who wanted on Halvor's ship. Tytus saw the growing problem and turned to Sani and Brun.

"Take Corus on our ship, somewhere out of the way! Don't leave her and stay away from the crowd if you can!" he yelled before running towards the right most ship to try to get the situation there under control. Sani picked Corus up and followed Brun as he headed to towards the back of the ship, thus taking them parallel to the docking bay and closer to where the fight was occurring. They quickly ran out of space and found themselves in a room with a rear facing window. From it they could see their mother fighting alongside Za-Hell through the glass walls of the docking bay. Sani's grip on Corus loosened as she saw her mother keeping three or more guards at bay at a time. When they tried to attack, Myra's blades met their spears with such speed and force that they quickly retreated. Za-Hell tried his best to keep them off her back and occasionally fire a bolt towards any guards that tried to make a break for the humans closer to the ships. Only a couple of the Force-sensitive humans who had joined Myra and Za-Hell remained standing, and even one guard would be enough to get through them and to the helpless and increasingly chaotic crowd beyond.

Brun was entranced, having never seen his mother use the Force in any serious way before. He was not watching as Corus, who objected to the fact that Sani had turned away from the window thus denying her a view of whatever Brun seemed so fascinated by, wriggled loose of her arms. Landing and jumping back up in a flash she ended up in front of Brun, with Sani behind him. That was when she saw her mother under attack.

"Momma!" she screamed and took off back down the way they had come.

"Brun get her!" Sani yelled, trying to grab her sister but unable to reach her because her brother stood in the way, too busy watching the fight.

"What?" Brun said, and too late reached out to grab his younger sister. But Corus was too quick, her speed powered by fear, and she was racing back up towards the door to the ship before her siblings could understand quite what was happening. After a second of indecision, the two adolescents bounded after her. Ordinarily they would have caught her quickly, even with her head start, but the ship was starting to fill up with people who Corus could easily run between, short and small as she was, but who presented obstacles to her brother and sister. Before they could reach her, she had made it to the door of the docking bay.

Tytus was just inside the right most ship, yelling commands to get things sorted out and trying to find someone who could take over the management of the flow of people in and out of it, and so Corus did not see him when she exited their ship, and he was not there to stop her. She turned to run towards her mother as Sani and Brun exited the ship behind her. Brun ran after her as Sani called for their father, but then both their attentions were drawn to the door connecting the docking bay to the rest of the station. Just as Za-Hell brought another guard down with a shot of lightning from his spear, and just the second to last of Myra's attackers fell beneath her blade, the door opened, revealing another two dozen guards, spears crackling and faces grim.

Whereas the previous group of guards had charged in recklessly, unaware of what they faced, this much larger group moved slowly into the docking bay so that they could arrange themselves in a formation. They formed a semi -circle with each Rakatan pointing their spears at Myra and Za-Hell, each of them facing a different half of the formation.

At this moment Corus called out, "Run momma!" Myra turned her head and saw Corus standing in the empty space between the crush of those trying to get into the ships and the handful of humans still standing to Myra's rear after the first Rakatan assault. For a moment Myra almost did break and run. She felt the desire any parent would, to gather their child in their arms and take them far away from the danger. But she knew that the moment she turned and ran the Rakatans would set upon her from behind, she would fall, and there would be no one to protect her little Corus.

Instead Myra started slowly walking backwards, with Za-Hell mirroring her movements, while trying to keep an eye on Corus. She yelled back, "Find Daddy Corus! Go find him now!"

The Rakatans advanced in unison as Myra and Za-Hell fell back. Za-Hell understood what they were doing, as he had been trained in the same way they had been trained. They were pushing him and Myra back so that they would eventually run into the crowd behind them, reducing their freedom of movement. So he stopped falling back. Myra took a step more back before she saw what he was doing.

"Come on," she said sharply to him.

"Their only chance is for us to stand firm," he replied.

Myra considered fighting him on this, or simply leaving him behind, despite knowing that she needed his help if she was to have any chance, but then Brun and Sani emerged from the crowd, with Tytus close behind them. Tytus raced ahead of Brun and Sani and picked Corus up. Myra exhaled with relief and turned back to her attackers, who had closed to almost within spear range. Myra pushed back at them with the Force, but none fell, or even moved backwards. Rakatans were trained in the use of the Force in tandem when operating in formations, each one strengthening those around him and accepting their strength in return. No one of them was as strong as Myra, or Za-Hell for that matter, as the above average warriors were all off on the fleet, but together they formed a wall. It was this kind of cohesion that had allowed them to challenge Celestials in combat, and though these guards were not the kind to fight gods, they could handle Myra and Za-Hell.

Seeing that they could not be pushed back Myra tried a different tactic, reaching out and pulling a few of them forward. Their strength directed to prevent a push from the front, they were unprepared for this and the three Rakatans Myra pulled at did fall forward towards her. Za-Hell speared one of them in the head while Myra sliced at their hands to force them to drop their spears. Seeing this Za-Hell electrocuted both, while he and Myra still slowly withdrew. "You kill them, or they kill us!" he barked at her.

"Traitor!" spat one of the Rakatans advancing on them.

From behind Myra and Za-Hell more humans, all of them former residents of the top level of the compound, emerged from the crowd heading towards them. The word had apparently made its way to those who had already boarded the ships that they were under attack. They were northerners and southerners, some followers of Halvor and some who had just wanted to be free of him. They had no weapons to fight with, but still they came. As they passed by Tytus and the children, Brun, caught up in the emotion, started to advance with them. Tytus started to run after him, but Sani was faster, grabbing her brother's arm quickly and yanking him backwards.

"We can fight!" he yelled at his sister.

"Mother can do this! We need your help here! We have to get everyone on the ships! We have to get Corus on our ship!" she yelled back.

Brun turned to look at his mother and saw that the Rakatans had charged. He could not see his mother or Za-Hell in the melee. He turned back to his father and cried, "We have to go get her!" Tytus stood frozen, unsure what to do. If they could overwhelm Myra, what could any of the rest of them do?

In reality Myra had not been overwhelmed, though she and Za-Hell, fighting back to back once more, had quickly been surrounded. Myra's spears, twin blurs of white fire, had already cut down two Rakatans who had led the charge, and were keeping the others near her at bay. Za-Hell was having a great deal more trouble. His single spear, wielded far more slowly and conventionally, could not keep multiple enemies at bay at once. He had failed to block more than one bolt of electricity, and had received more than one cut from their spears. But the real problem was that most of the Rakatans had made it past the two of them, and were headed for the group of Force-Sensitives who had emerged from the crowd. Just beyond them were Myra's family and the still significant number of humans who, the boarding process having broken down again when Tytus had run after Corus, were still stuck on the docking bay.

Myra was running entirely on instinct, which for her involved a significant degree of foresight. She was not stopping to think of the overall situation. Only one thought guided her, she had to keep the enemy away from her children, and to do that she had to keep fighting them. She let the Force guide her blades, to the misery of the Rakatans. Za-Hell, on the other hand, was thinking. He could feel his strength ebbing. He was bleeding from several points and had suffered several burns. If he kept up what he was doing he would fall, and Myra would be taken from behind, and then they would all die. How would Zhed-Hai punish his family if Za-Hell were to fail so completely? He saw only one course to take. Before his strength left him entirely, he let loose a bellow of rage and threw his spear at his nearest opponent. This change in tactics, from trying to ward them off to attacking, took that Rakatan by surprise and the spear went through him, half of it popping out the other side of his torso. Without waiting to see this happen Za-Hell used the Force to push with all his strength at the guard to his left, knocking him backwards, while he lunged at the Rakatan to his right in an attempt to wrest his spear from him. Getting his hands on it he tried to yank it from his enemy's hands, but was unable to. The two of them wrestled over the spear while the Rakatan Za-Hell had knocked backwards got back on his feet and swiped at Za-Hell's head with his spear. The spear point cut through his remaining eye, and Za-Hell's world went dark forever.

Far below them, in the depths below Zhed-Hai's facility, the Kwa sat together still. Inbarra opened her eyes to look at Anluk. His face carried the lines and creases of a lifetime of worry, and more than a few scars from the wars that had pursued him for most of that life. The bright green of his scales had faded over the period of their confinement. A third of their lives had been spent as prisoners, but their time as prisoners was about to come to an end. She was ready. She waited for him to open his eyes. She was glad they would get to do this together, as they had done so much. She wanted to be holding his hand as they were both set free.

He opened his eyes, and looked more at peace than she could remember him looking for many years. She smiled at him, and he smiled in return. It was time. Their people's peaceful future had almost been secured. They had two tasks remaining, but fittingly these last steps would be taken willingly. They had come to care for Myra and her people, for reasons other than Zhed-Hai's. They were necessary parts of his grand plan, but more importantly for the Kwa, they were a people untouched by the sins of Old One and Celestials, of Bogan and Ashla. Those ancient forces had consumed each other, and in the process have perverted the Kwa and the Rakatans. The humans had suffered at the hands of the Rakatans, but they had it within them to move beyond those injustices, in a way the Rakatans had not been able to let go of what had been done to them by the Celestials and the Kwa. They were clean, and they would make the galaxy clean again too. But before they could do so the last battle of the old war had to be fought and won.

The two Kwa stood up. Anluk went to one of the computer stations and began to work at it, while Inbarra opened her mind to their imprisoned master.

"The time has come," she thought.

"I am ready," it said in response. "You have done well."

Anluk finished his work at the computer and took a few steps back. Above and in front of him a screen turned on, showing the space station where the two ships Myra and her people would take were docked. The satellite beaming the image to them was too far away from the station for them to see the battle going on at that moment, but even if they had seen it, they would have known there was nothing they could do. All they could do was open the gates. Getting through them was Myra's responsibility.

Inbarra walked up from behind Anluk and moved to his side, taking his hand in hers. She gave it a squeeze, and said "I am so grateful for you, my love. Grateful that you were here with me these many years."

He smiled, and then said, "You know, we have lived here longer than we lived anywhere else. This place is our home, as much as any place could be."

She nodded as she looked around. They had spent the most important part of their lives in a sterile research facility which they had slowly made their own. Her life's work had been done here, and done well.

"Yes," she said, "and it's time to leave."

The two of them raised their free hands and began moving them in circles in front of them. In the chamber below them one of the black stones orbiting the Celestial began to slow. As its speed decreased it began to wobble until finally, it fell to the ground.

On Belsavis, Zhed-Hai began to push his way through the barrier. It pushed back against his hand as he approached it. He reasoned that it was designed to keep energy in, and that no power had been wasted keeping forced from penetrating from the outside. He focused his power on a single point in the barrier, driving forward like the tip of a spear. Slowly he created a wedge in the energy field. His hand followed the wedge as it deepened and widened. He could feel now the directionality of the field. Its strength from the outside was not one one-thousandth of the strength from within. The Old One had spent millennia pushing back against this field which was capable of crushing a full starship to atoms. And now he was about to release this monstrosity. His plan had to work. The Celestial was right, this thing could not be released on the galaxy.

As he approached the inside edge of the field the Old One began to make a strange rhythmic noise, which Zhed-Hai only realized after several seconds was laughter. He hesitated there at the last second, second guessing himself. It was not too late, he thought to himself. He could go to Korriban, and try to do this himself. He could leave this thing in its cage, and try to sneak his way to Adas. Once he confronted him in person there could be no doubt of success. He kept his hand paused at the edge of breaking through the barrier. From within it he heard the Old One make a sound somewhere between a growl and a scream. It was an expression of a desire, a primal desire to be free, and it highlighted for Zhed-Hai not the differences in power, knowledge, and experience between them, but their commonalities. Whatever this thing had become it was once a living being, with the same impulses as any, and it had retained that fundamental nature. It wanted to live, it wanted to be free, it wanted control, and it wanted revenge. All these things could be manipulated, all these urges were potential weak spots. His plan would work. All his plans would work. It was like Myra had said, the Force would provide a way. And at this moment he truly believed the somewhat ironic response he had made to her, that he was that way. He pushed his hand the last few inches.

The moment his flesh penetrated the barrier, the Old One entered him. The dark mass within the barrier flowed towards his hand astonishingly quickly for the heavy, viscous fluid it appeared to be. The moment it touched his skin he felt it invade his entire body. It was as though his blood had been replaced with burning oil. It surrounded him and suffused him. It burned him inside and out. The fluid went into him and shot out his eyes, his mouth, even the pores of his skin. It flowed around him in great waves. He was not able to tell if he was breathing, the pain from the heat was so great, but even if he could breathe, there was no air around him anymore. He was drowning in the darkness, and burning in the flames.

Even worse he could feel it in his mind. The moment it had touched him he had pulled back to within his mental fortress, which appeared to him as the Great Temple in Kwashang. He stood on its highest level looking out over the land below at what should have been a city, but was now a great sea of black oil. The sky was without stars and emitted only a faint red glow. He stepped away from the edge and watched as the oil rose around the tower, while the horizon moved towards him, the land and ocean slowly disappearing all around him. He closed his eyes again and found himself in his office, within his compound. For a moment all seemed as it should be. But as he looked around, he saw cracks forming in the walls. And from the cracks black oil began seeping in. Soon the walls were covered with the stuff, sliding down towards the floor where it began to spread from the walls inward.

"Stop!" he yelled. No answer came in response. The oil kept coming towards him. He felt sure if it touched him, he would be lost. He had retreated into his own mental constructs, but there was nowhere else for his mind to run now. If it touched him here, it would have him. It would know everything. It would escape.

"Stop! Stop or I will collapse this planet in on itself. I will activate an Infinity Gate and send its star into supernova. You will die at last," he screamed.

The oil came to a stop. It still poured out from the walls and collected on the floor, but now it was as though there was an invisible wall around him that prevented it from coming closer.

"Do what you promised me!"

"Very well," it said, its voice coming from all around him. It had, Zhed-Hai concluded, accepted that it had failed to overwhelm his defenses quickly enough to avoid upholding its end of the bargain. Zhed-Hai knew that it only complied now to give itself time to get control over him.

"How will I find this one being you wish to kill?"

"I have a mental connection to a Rakatan there. The Sith is close to him. It will be the most powerful being in his vicinity. Can you sense the connection?"

"Yes."

"Can your power reach him?"

"Yes."

"Show me."

Immediately and without warning, Zhed-Hai was pulled out of his mental representation of his office and into the stars. He could see before him what looked like footpaths of pale, transparent white. They twisted and turned this way and that, and along them there appeared gates, portals of black. He felt himself being pulled along as the Old One raced along those pathways, looking, Zhed-Hai assumed, for the correct gate. Countless of them shot past them, until at least one came into view and through it Zhed-Hai could see the red planet of Korriban. He felt himself passing through the portal and it was as though he was now in space above the planet, and falling towards it. As he fell, he thought of Gran-Nock, trying to focus on his presence. Zhed-Hai knew he was not really on Korriban, that his body was back on Belsavis suffering who knows what level of damage as the Old One's power burned through him. But as pure mental substance he felt as though he had only to think of Gran-Nock and towards Gran-Nock he would go.

Sure enough he seemed to be falling in an arc towards a high mesa. It seemed to him as though he fell through the stone, into the cave where Gran-Nock was held prisoner and into the poor warrior's mind. For the briefest of moments, Zhed-Hai felt one last time the sunshine of a Lehon day, and smelled the sea air.

That day on Korriban Adas had decided would be the last day for Gran-Nock. He had, he felt sure, mastered his fear. He would squeeze the life out of his prisoner in front of his assembled servants. The first word had come back from the colonies he had ordered founded on Ziost. Travel between the worlds was slow, and not many trips could be made, as they did not know how to fuel or repair the Rakatan ships. But they had returned as he had commanded them to, and they would carry back with them the story of Adas the great conqueror killing the last Rakatan on Korriban.

He was walking slowly down the stone steps to Gran-Nock's cell with his entourage some distance behind him and above him on the stairwell. He did not want them to see the struggle he endured to do this. He would master himself then call them in to witness the execution, or so he planned.

But when Adas reached the cell he found Gran-Nock not slumped over or lying down as his broken body tended to do, but floating in the air. There was almost no flesh left on him, he was just scaly skin stretched over a skeleton, and it appeared at first as though he had become so light that he had begun to float away. Adas's terror increased at seeing this. The fear Zhed-Hai had placed in his mind had led to nightmares, and images like this, of Gran-Nock floating above him had been in some of them. He was just able to stop himself from screaming in fear. His servants were close and would hear him if he lost his self-control. It was time, he thought, to get this done, to put this mistake behind him.

"Come here!" he ordered those waiting outside.

Within Gran-Nock's mind Zhed-Hai appeared suddenly on the shore. He saw Gran-Nock stand up in the water, which reached up to around his waist. Its level was always whatever Gran-Nock needed it to be. Zhed-Hai looked on this lone Rakatan, standing in the sunlight in a peaceful sea. A sea that reflected the peace the warrior had found in his own mind and spirit, a peace Zhed-Hai, with all his plans and purposes and goals, had never known. Zhed-Hai knew there was no time, so he said only one thing.

"I am sorry."

Gran-Nock opened his mouth to ask why, when his world, the world he had created to hide from the pain, was destroyed. His suffering came to an end, and he did not even have the chance to scream. In an instant the peaceful sea was turned into an ocean of black sludge. It pulled Gran-Nock under, into the darkness. A black spot appeared in the center of the sun and then spread out until the entire star was consumed. The sand on which Zhed-Hai stood began to shift beneath him, and as he looked down at it, he could see the black oil seeping up from below the dunes, swallowing the grains of sand. Zhed-Hai watched as the idllyic scene was transformed into a hellish darkness and was reminded of the interior of a Star Map. He closed his eyes and, just before he exited Gran-Nock's mind, or what was left of it, spoke to the Old One.

"Do it."

Adas stepped towards the Rakatan floating like an apparition when Gran-Nock's head turned slightly downward as though to look at him. But in the place of the Rakatan's eyes there were merely black orbs.

Adas stopped in his tracks, but forced himself not to run away. He was sure it was some kind of trick, and by now his followers had entered the cell. He could not run now, or he would lose face. He lifted his hand to prepare to electrocute Gran-Nock. He looked at the black eyes and the unmoving, skeletal face and found his hate melting away before his fear. His last breath caught in his throat just before a massive amount of electricity erupted from the Rakatan's body. It hit Adas and a few of the Sith standing closest to him. Those who were struck died instantly, their bodies incinerated along with Gran-Nock's, but a few survived. They would in later days tell the story of their great King who died in combat with a Rakatan enemy who he valiantly overcame. They did not tell how they could still, when they dreamed, hear his high-pitched scream as the flesh of his mighty body melted off his bones. Or how those bones shattered from the heat of the Force lightning. They each instead made up their own story of his death, with each of them telling of how Adas had selected him to succeed to the throne with his dying breath. The stories would create wars which spread to the new worlds the Sith had started to settle, wars which distracted them from learning how to reproduce the Rakatan technology they had found. The stories lasted long after the Sith on the various worlds had lost touch with each other, and on each world fell back into the same bloody anarchy that had characterized Korriban before the Rakatans arrived. The great task was done.