Scourge raised one brow ridge at Ky, and the corner of his mouth twitched momentarily upward. "Into the Wampa den would be the likely choice, little sister."
A dry chortle escaped her throat. "Then let's go hunting."
Rows of overhead lights flickered to life as she guided the ship through the opening, revealing walls carved from the native rock of the asteroid shored up by metal girders. She used the repulsors on minimal setting due to the low gravity of the asteroid and the maneuvering thrusters to guide them down the corridor. The passageway opened into a vast area cordoned off into six individual docking bays; she chose the second from the left. Tiny bursts eased them toward the back wall and with mere feet as leeway on all sides, she rotated the vessel to finally come to rest with the bow pointed toward the only avenue of escape.
An amber colored forcefield dropped in front, and the hiss of pressurization reached their ears through the skin of the ship. The dull thud of the landing struts settling to the floor echoed around the enclosed area as Ky checked the readouts for external temperature and breathable atmosphere. All in the green except for an elevated level of carbon dioxide, likely from dirty scrubbers.
She cut the engines and rose slowly from her seat, fighting off the rush of dizziness that tilted her surroundings to a nauseating angle. Steadying hands gripped her shoulders, and she leaned into the support of Corso's body.
"Perhaps you should remain with the ship," said Scourge.
"Not on your life," she retorted. "Why don't you two go get whatever it is we'll need while I take a minute."
"You sure?" asked Corso.
"I'm fine," she replied and brushed his hands from her arms to brace herself against the console. "Go on, babe. Already I don't like this place and the sooner we leave, the happier I'll be."
The Perigen patch dulled the throbbing in her temples to a tolerable level, but her head still felt like a shaken can of Fizzyglug. The pressure behind her eyes made them water and blood still oozed from her nostrils one minuscule drip at a time.
Propped against the console, she locked her knees to abate the shaking in her legs and grasped the web between the thumb and index finger of her left hand with the thumb and index finger of the right. She closed her eyes and relaxed her shoulders, applying pressure, relishing the steady decline of pounding in her skull. Chloris, her Zabrak arena partner, had shown her this technique years ago and it seldom failed to relieve those stubborn impact headaches she'd incurred while zigging when she should have zagged.
Chloris. Stars, I still miss her.
Ky pushed herself away from the console, blotted at her nose again and proceeded to the airlock to wait for Corso and Scourge, her strength and balance returning with each step.
Corso was the first to show up, placing her blaster holster in her hand. "Need help with that?" he asked.
"I think I can handle it," she replied and fastened the belt snugly around her hips. "I see you're bringing the Sergeant along." She noted the slug thrower strapped to his back.
"This place is giving me the creeps and we ain't even left the ship yet," he said. "Also filled my belt pouch with kolto injectors, patches, and gel, just in case, and a couple extra cartridges for our blasters. That's one thing I envy about Scourge; not a lot of moving parts to lug around for a lightsaber."
"It does have that advantage," said Scourge as he approached, rucksack in hand. "You two ready?"
"In a minute," replied Ky as she grabbed the front of Corso's jacket and pulled him close. "A kiss before you go all game face on me," she smiled.
"Always happy to oblige my lady." Corso lowered his lips to hers.
Scourge looked on as the two merged, mouths locked as if they breathed each other's oxygen, bodies welded together and arms entwined around neck and torso. He wished he could feel something; jealousy, longing, irritation, but all he felt was the passage of time. Minutes reduced to logic and thought and knowledge of purpose to find a way to end the monotony of his existence.
He closed his eyes and for a moment entertained the fantasy of taking his knight on a bed of Lashaa Silk strewn with the petals of Ithorian Roses. Her pale thighs open for him, her creamy flesh moving beneath him, rosy nipples taught with desire and she would sigh and moan and make a benediction of his name.
The tendril rings bumped against his chin as he shook his head, eyes opening to the reality of the present and the two lovers frozen like statues in an unbroken embrace.
Scourge cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt this sweet interlude, but we need to go."
Corso's cheeks flushed slightly as he and Ky separated while Scourge opened the airlock and extended the ramp. Stale air wafted through the opening carrying the smell of dust and disuse and the decay of forgotten places. Scourge led the procession down the incline and across the floor to the control panel by the door leading into the primary structure. The ship's ramp retracted, and the hatch lock clicked behind them.
Ky perused the area while Scourge worked on the panel, noting security cameras hanging immobile and lifeless in their mounting brackets.
"They had security at one time," she remarked. "There's likely some sort of control center inside."
The lock on the door clicked, and it slid open to reveal a dark passageway beyond. "We will find the secrets of this place," said Scourge before turning to Corso and handing him a short range communicator. "The ship is in lockdown, and any forced entry will initiate an auto-destruct. You will need this should I become incapacitated to override TooVee's directives and allow you inside." He ignited his lightsaber and stepped through the door. "Stay alert," he added. "I detect the faint signatures of life."
Hidden sensors triggered overhead lights that winked on in long rows bathing the corridor in a harsh white glare. The stillness of the place was unsettling with each crackle and creak gouging into the nerves like bony fingers. The floor, ceiling, and walls were carved into the stone of the asteroid just as the landing bay had been. The rivets of the support beams showed signs of oxidation, leaving a residue of rust on the index finger Ky swiped along the surface.
"How could he have even built all this?" questioned Corso.
"The emperor's power is unfathomable; however, I suspect droid labor," said Scourge. "The asteroids themselves could provide the raw materials required, perhaps some smelting facility that no longer exists was employed to create the beams, girders, and plating. It is all speculation, of course."
They came to the first junction of corridors branching off from the main. "We should split up," said Ky. "Corso and I can go left while you go right. We need to cover more ground. I passed something at the periphery of my senses as I came through the Drift, another ship and it will arrive, sooner rather than later."
"Agreed," said Scourge. "Yell if you get into trouble."
Untold anguish and agony roamed the halls like specters, and the walls themselves would scream if they had mouths. Nightmare and terror flashed like strobes at the back of Ky's mind, and more than once she jerked away from some unseen phantom that brushed against her arms.
"This place ain't natural," said Corso in a hushed voice.
"His presence permeates the air, and I feel filthy inside just breathing it," she responded while opening the last door to another room resembling barracks.
"Seems they had some humanoids housed here," said Corso. "Nothing but barracks and 'freshers."
"Let's head back and see if Scourge found anything different."
Corso laid his hand gently on her arm. "We need to talk once we're out of here."
"I figured as much," she said, moving away to backtrack down the hall.
The next four halls uncovered much the same; sleeping quarters, 'freshers, storage closets and a couple of kitchens with eating tables. A few cleaning droids stood scattered about, most shut down with a couple eternally stuck in repetitive, jerky movements, servos whining pitifully. Ky, mercifully, turned them off.
The final branch of hallways before the sealed entrance at the end of the main corridor proved the most interesting. At Scourge's prompting, they remained together to investigate the remaining rooms.
"What's in the bag?" asked Ky, finally taking the time to make the inquiry.
Scourge stopped and looked down at her. "The book and reliquary and also detonite, timer caps and four thermal detonators," he answered.
Her eyes narrowed at his face and her head tilted in thought until the truth exposed itself. "You intend to crash this place into the black hole," she said without judgment.
"Yes," his simple reply brooked no tolerance for rebuttal. "Shall we continue?"
Fewer but larger rooms lined the hallway. Most appeared to be small laboratories with shelves of equipment and rows of data collection computers lining the walls, all silent and covered with a thin layer of dust.
Ky emitted an involuntary gasp as they opened the last door on the left leg of the junction. Several desiccated corpses lay in a loose pile in the center of the otherwise empty room. Twenty or thirty of varied species, Neimoidian, Anomid, Nautolan, Bith, but mostly human given the shape of the skulls. Their visible skin stretched dry and cracked over yellowing bone, and the lab attire each wore was frayed and graying with age.
"It appears that Vitiate is quite thorough when shutting down one of his laboratories," observed Scourge. "I see no signs of physical trauma; poison gas was the likely means of extermination, and the droids used this room as a dumping ground. Pity. I would have liked to have interrogated a live specimen."
Corso slowly and reverently closed the door on the makeshift crypt and took his place at Ky's side as they proceeded down the other arm of the hallway. He glanced sideways at the double doors as they passed the junction, deepening the feeling of dread that had encapsulated them all since they first entered this accursed place. He'd be happy when they put all this behind them, and that included the Sith Lord, truth be told.
All the rooms except the last held no interest, but that door opened into the hub of operations. Banks of computers still whirred and clicked, and readouts spilled down various screens, the symbols hazy behind the buildup of dust. A stair at the back of the room led downward into the core of the asteroid, the hum of the reactor rising up through the opening.
Scourge paused by one of the inactive computer banks and turned it on then brought his fist down on the keypad in frustration. "All the data has been wiped. Everything is gone," he growled. "There are no answers here. Perhaps the large room we have yet to explore will hold something."
"Yeah, perhaps," said Ky, "but you need to do whatever you have in mind and be quick about it. Go lay your bombs. Corso and I will check out what's left. Meet us there when you're done."
Scourge picked up the bag he'd set on the floor and strode toward the stairs. "I shouldn't be gone long," he said before he disappeared beneath the lip of the opening.
Corso latched onto Ky's arm and rotated her into his arms as soon as they'd reached the double doors leading into the last unexplored part of the base.
"Don't think for a second that I don't notice how heavy this is weighing on you, babe," he murmured into her hair. "You've been as jumpy as a sandmouse ever since we stepped inside."
She coiled her arms around his waist and mumbled into his chest in a voice so low she would have been unheard but for the eerie quiet. "Maybe it's this thing in my brain, or it could just be my imagination now that I know, but I can sense the spirits here. I feel them brush against my body, and it's cold with rage and pain."
"Then let's be done with it." He kissed the top of her head and released her to slam his palm into the door panel.
The lights blazed to life as soon as they entered and what they beheld stopped both of them in their tracks. The room was massive, divided into separate workstations with steel tables, and shelves holding glass jars of body parts and wicked looking instruments that winked obscenely in the light. Inactive medical and interrogation droids stood neglected around the area, but what caused them pause were the rows of tanks down the middle, each with a sentient being suspended in a ghastly green liquid.
Corso and Ky advanced delicately as if they stepped over freshly dug graves. Ky knelt to look at the readout panel at the base of the nearest tank holding a naked human male. She brushed away the grime to confirm that the readout was green across the board.
"Stars! He's alive," she exclaimed as she stood and moved further in among the rows of tanks, each displaying the same affirmation of life. "There must be thirty or forty at least."
The further she moved into the room the more paranoid she became as if something at the center contained a nexus of power. In the middle of the rows of living corpses, she spied a single tank, set apart from the others. Inside was a male child, perhaps ten or twelve, his vacant eyes open and observing. She froze in his gaze, and her world changed.
Ky shivered at the whispers caressing her ears, intimate as a lover's sigh, malevolent as a death threat. The dead, long gone and jealous of the living, converged in this room. They pressed close with shallow hope that contact with the spark of life would ignite their extinguished fire and make them corporeal once more.
Despair and terror spread like disease, oozing from the walls, dripping from the ceiling, crawling across the floor, a contagion that would not be forestalled or denied.
Ky clutched her head, covered her ears in an attempt to ward off the incursion, insidious in intent, malicious in intensity.
Gruff hands gripped her arms, fingers bruised her flesh, her head bobbed back and forth as strong arms shook her, and words cut through the fog that imperiled her hold on reality. "Mind games, Ky. He corrupts everything he touches, twisting all to his purpose, leaving a residue like clotted blood to clog the mind. The spirits are real but cannot harm you. The boy is real but cannot touch you. Come back to us."
She looked up into the face of the Sith Lord, his crimson eyes markers to find her way back, his hands lifelines to hold her fast against the pull of the abyss. She nodded once, and he released her to a more loving embrace as Corso folded her into the sanctuary of his arms.
"We are not alone," Scourge said. "Take her up there, away from this abomination. I sense something in this room I must find. Be quick, stay hidden."
Corso led Ky toward the front of the room, hiding them both behind a partition while Scourge strode from one work area to the next following the direction of what called to him. At the rear of the room, he found what he sought. A glowing splinter suspended in a glass container, the object clearly labeled 'Sutta iv Basuoti;' the Spear of Division. The Wrath who felt nothing could feel the power radiating off the object bringing him to the threshold of pain and he basked in the sensation. His hand cramped as he lifted the object from the shelf and dropped it into the rucksack he still carried.
A precious key had been found, the lock had yet to be discovered. He pivoted on his heel to return to the others but slid behind one of the tanks instead. The voice echoing through the chamber confirmed what he'd sensed earlier, they were no longer alone.
"Scourge!" the voice boomed. "I know you are here as well as...another. She carries father's mark, how unexpected and delightful."
The arms that held Ky were strong but contained no love. She glanced up at Corso's face, his jaw and furrowed brows set in hard angles, unreadable flinty eyes projecting no warmth. He abruptly pushed her behind him and raised a single finger to his lips. Game face on.
"Vitiate has abandoned us all, Tajno." Scourge's voice boomed back. "This is folly, there is nothing here for you but death."
"These tanks contain what remains of the Emperor's Children, and they will be mine to control. As for your pitiful bombs set around the reactor..." Tajno scoffed, "my men will quickly take care of that little problem."
"You fool!" snarled Scourge as he stepped from behind the tank to face his adversary. "Any tampering with the doors will trigger a cascade effect. An hour will be reduced to mere minutes. I have lived for far too long, have you?"
"I have hired the best, your threats mean nothing," Tajno retorted.
"Your best won't be good enough," countered Scourge. "Let the others go, and we can embrace death together."
Tajno, pulled twin lightsabers from the folds of his robes, each igniting with a buzzing groan. Rotating his wrists, they sliced the air with a whoosh before he stilled them both, pointing at the floor in an inverted V, a pose of open invitation.
"I will enjoy dismembering your aging body and throwing each piece into a different sun. And when I am done, I will tear apart your young friend's brain one cell at a time just to sate my curiosity. I may leave her body alive to entertain my men."
Corso emitted a low growl, giving away their position. Damn!
"You young pup," mocked Scourge. "You dare to attempt Dun Möch on me? I was a master long before you were born."
"Show me," taunted Tajno.
Booted feet approached where Corso and Ky hid, Scourge rushed forward, skidding the bag in their direction, never removing his eyes from Tajno. The bag hit Corso's foot, and he slid it into a corner before gripping the metal operating table and flipping it to its side, pulling Ky behind and down into a crouching position.
Ky fired at the first man that rounded the partition, the blast bounced harmlessly off the body shield. Corso didn't hesitate, he unshouldered the rifle and put a slug through the man's chest, loaded another slug into the chamber and removed half of the top of the next man's skull. The rest of the assailants would be more careful, trying to outflank and Corso wouldn't be able to reload fast enough for all of them.
Ky crept forward and peeked around the edge of the partition, withdrawing her head as a shot whizzed by and scrambling back behind the table.
She gripped Corso's arm, drawing his attention. "These are mere soldiers, not GenoHaradan and there are at least ten more. Scourge is barely holding his own, and we won't last against shields and blasters."
"And?" Corso quirked one brow at her.
"We double team, just like when I was in the arena. Knives, in close, I'll be the cheese, you be the hammer. Watch my flank and follow my lead, don't hold back. Stone-skipping through an asteroid field isn't the only use for my gift, love. This will work. See if you can take out one or two more with the rifle, we can use the tanks as cover, run their asses ragged."
"Beware tranqs," he cautioned, loading one slug into the chamber and another into the magazine. The rifle was an older model that held only two shots before a reload was needed. It would have to do.
"Ready?" She holstered the blaster and pulled her knife.
He nodded.
Ky sprung up and over the side of the table, rolling to her feet, and sprinting low to tuck in behind one of the tanks. She'd drawn the attention of the men, as she'd hoped, heard the rifle report and the thud of a body hitting the floor. She drew a deep breath and peered around the side of the tank, her mind raced, and the world slowed to a crawl.
The flash of plasma bursts from blasters, the steely glint of a tranq dart hung in suspension, the disturbed currents of air rippled her hair as they blew by her head. A peppering of plasma burned her forehead, and she hissed through clenched teeth. The rifle boomed again, a howl from the other side of the tank and she uncoiled to begin the game.
She sensed rather than saw Corso at her back as she wove through the men, anticipating actions before they happened, keeping their attention on her. Sliding into openings, slicing into flesh, she distracted and slowed them while Corso moved in for the kill. The sting of a knife skimming her ribs, the jolting punch connecting with her jaw was dismissed and she ignored the blood that dripped into her eye and filled her mouth. Her signature move came easily as she swung up the arm of one man and used his own weight to haul him sideways as she sank her blade into his neck and cascaded down his back like quicksilver.
All she saw of Scourge and Tajno were the spark and glimmer of three crimson rods, colliding and twirling like whirligigs in the periphery of her vision.
The floor lurched beneath their feet as an explosion rumbled from deep in the bowels of the asteroid followed by a second and a third. One of Tajno's men lay injured on the floor, four were dead, and three remained standing. The explosions halted the conflict, but it wouldn't last long.
"I warned you," snapped Scourge as he blocked an incoming assault by Tajno while positioning himself to be driven back toward Corso and Ky.
Scourge caught the leading edge of lightning on his blade, a brief expression of surprise widening his eyes at this unexpected tactic by the other man. A Force wave lifted and knocked Tajno back giving Scourge a few seconds of reprieve.
"There is no time to win the fight, and he is too strong for either of you. Get the bag and leave," said Scourge, his gaze never wavering from the face of his enemy. "Give it to my knight, tell her to keep it safe, tell her I love her and I will come to her if I can."
"I don't leave my people behind," argued Ky, swiping the blood from beneath her nose, fighting the aftermath of weakness that was the cost of using her gift.
Scourge directed his next words at Corso. "For once in your life, be the man you need to be and get her the hell out of here. I will clear the way."
Corso moved to gather the bag and drape the rifle strap across his shoulder before grabbing Ky roughly by the wrist and dragging her protesting and cursing figure after him toward the door. Force wave after Force wave knocked Tajno and his men away from the opening. Corso was almost there when the injured man heaved himself off the floor and lunged at Ky, vibroknife in hand.
Corso shielded her, grunting softly as the blade slid through the leather of his jacket and deflected upward along his ribs to be buried in the soft underarm near his armpit. As he twisted away, Ky sunk her blade into the man and shoved him back before a Force wave pushed them through the door which slammed shut behind them.
Corso extracted the knife from the underside of his arm and dropped it, the ringing clang of metal hitting stone seemed far away. He dragged Ky down the corridor toward the landing bays, leaving a thin trail of his life's blood as a testament to their passage.