"Wait!"
Nelani and Brisha froze in place. It had immenated from deep within Jason's being, enhanced by the force. His eyes slowly opened as if he had been deep in thought. He had. The possibilities of how this event would shape the future had ran through his mind in nanoseconds, but seemed to have taken hours to play out. He had latched onto something surprising. Brisha would kneel, feigning surrender as a means to throw off he, and Nelani's suspicion.
"I am at your service." She would say as an appeal to Jason, thinking it would keep her from being arrested.
The thought had just began to germenate in her mind, and he quickly chose to use this to his advantadge.
"If you will serve me you must surrender." Jason sighed. He said this with an air of finality as if he had came to the same conclusion oblivious to her schemes. For a moment, Brisha's eyes were still locked with Nelani's, but after some thought her hand relaxed, and hung motionless at her side.
"cuff her." Jason said. Nelani powered down her orange lightsaber and took out her stuncuffs. "I'm going to go check on my other apprentice." He assured Brisha in the force before turning to leave.
Brisha blinked as if she had somehow missed something, but said nothing.
Nelani wrinkled her nose up perplexed with what he meant, and then shook her head. Obviously, he had gotten too sure of himself; already viewing her as his new apprentice apparently.
"I've been a knight for two years." She said under her breath. She almost laughed, thinking at first that he had refferred to Brisha as his apprentice. But, then again, had he really said, "serve?"
Jason reached out in the force and found Ben curled on the rock floor when he arrived back in the dark cavernous mined out section of the asteroid. He sensed that Ben was in pain and unconcious, and felt his face redden with anger. His hand automatically reached for his lightsaber, and he began to wheel around to go cut down Brisha, but caught himself. He had forgotten how strong the dark side was inside the asteroid, and his anger had almost gotten out of control. A light sweat began to chill him again. By now they were all soaked though. He hopped from one spot to another. It was a difficult unmanageable terrain. However, the artificial gravity generators didn't reach this far, and a lower gravity made it easier. Ben lay on the craggy cavern floor. In the dark he resembled a heap of ruffled robes.
Jason continued in thought as he approached. He was treading on dangerous ground in more ways than one, and had better figure out how to resolve this, or he'd get Ben and Nelani killed.
At the same time though, allowing Brisha to be wasted was an equal tragedy, or possibly even worse. All of the possible futures he had seen with Brisha being arrested by Nelani ended in a nightmareish reality, but the ones where he had allowed her to teach him were much better for the galaxy. He knelt, placing a hand on Ben's shoulder, and concentrated in the force to help heal his wounds. It was more difficult to do here with such a dark aura surrounding them.
Ben was in some pain, but it wasn't very bad,thankfully. "Wake up." Ben heard, groggily opening his eyes. "Hunh? Mom?"
"What?" Jason was taken back.
"Uh, nothing. Where'd that force phantom go?" Ben asked.
"I don't know. Probably gone for good. Let's get out of here." Jason said.
Nelani met them on their way back as she held Brisha's arm and guided her along.
"Ok?" She asked them.
"yeah, I'm fine." Ben said even though his stomach was sore still. He was always trying to act older than his age, and hated being patronized by adults, so he acted tough.
"We need to go back for a second." Jason told Nelani, holding up an open palm to stop her.
"What for?" She asked
"There wasn't any time to check the area before we decided to leave."
"Can't we just come back later?" Nelani said, "Wouldn't it be best to take her in first?"
"ben, watch her." Jason said referring to Brisha, motioning away with his chin to Nelani.
They walked out of earshot, and turned to speak to one another facing away.
"we need to rest first." He said in a low voice. His face was serious. "We can't afford to risk transporting her on the ship while we're all so tired. If she were to cause trouble it could be a fatal mistake."
"Oh…." Nelani thought out loud. Her facial expression was grave. "Well, alright. What's next then?" She glanced over her shoulder, then leaned in close to Jason as he whispered something to her.
Nelani could feel his soft breath on her ear and the back of her neck, and suppressed a shudder. She quickly turned her head to hide a smile, looking back at ben and Brisha. "Okay." She agreed.
Brisha smirked at Ben while Jason and nelani were a distance away talking. "find some friends in the cavern to play with?"
He scowled at her but wasn't sure enough of himself to say anything, so just fumed silently. Jason and Nelani quickly returned.
"I want to explore the mansion here first." Jason said, and began to lead Brisha by the arm that way.
"Make up your mind whether or not you want me to play prisoner or tour guide." Brisha chuckled in a melodious tone.
"tour guide for now is good." Jason grinned nonchalantly shrugging.
Stone in this part of the asteroid was like polished onyx, and the mansion struck an odd scene. The group quickly strolled through the mansion together, but Jason seemed more interested in practical reconnaissance than a leisure tour. "Where are the living quarters?" He asked.
"On the second and third floors." Brisha said.
There were busts of different individuals, statues, and artwork scattered among the marble columns of the first floor. All had been souvenir's of darth Vectavis, Brisha informed them that she hadn't changed much of the layout from it's original form.
Ben trailed behind bored from lack of anything that interested him. Abruptly he halted, and back peddled a few steps to stop in front of a curious sculpture. If someone had been in just the right position they would have seen the bare back of a twilek statue with Ben on the opposite side admiring the front of the statue.
The twilek statue had been carved from an aqua green marble that was probably rare, astonishingly resembling the skin tone of a real twilek. She was casting a flirtatious smile back over her shoulder, her toga perpetually frozen in a manner suggesting that it was falling off.
Ben's eyebrows raised in amusement with a boyish expression on his face. He silently whistled to himself as his blue eyes skimmed down and up again at chest level admiring the art. His eyes seemed to happily jiggle like a bantha caught in headlights.
"Ben? You coming?" nelani's voice prodded him along.
In time they made their way up to the second floor, Brisha finally making the most of things and acting as travel guide showing off Darth Victavis's old mansion. This seemed to be where most of the sleeping quarters were. Jason stopped in front of the door to what had been identified as one of the guest bedrooms. The house architecture was Naboo and antique, but did have some modern conveniences. The hallways were a stuccoed creamy tan with hardwood floors.
"Are these doors programmed with security codes?" Jason asked.
"they were, but I had a droid reset them all when I moved in." Brisha responded. Her facial features showed her a bit perplexed. "Now, it's just the simple press to lock from the inside."
Jason pressed the open button on the keypad that was built into the doorframe and wall. It swooshed open to reveal a room that was about twelve by twelve feet. Not much was inside beside standard items, like the bed. "Yes!" Jason said under his breath after his eyes had skimmed it over.
The windows were transparasteel, and not a weaker antique glass. Perhaps Vectavis had been paranoid. In whatever case, it would work perfectly as a holding cell for Brisha while he went to comm back and check in before Luke and everyone back on coruscant grew suspicious.
He took Brisha by the arm and led her into the room. When they got to the side of the bed she blinked a few times as the blade of Jason's lightsaber snapped to life. The familiar smell of ozone cut through the air. The room was silent and the low hum was the only sound heard. Brisha could feel the warmth from the blade centimeters from her chin.
"Nelani." He began. "Uncuff her."
A few minutes later Ben found himself standing guard, pacing back and forth, outside Brisha's bedroom… er, cell door. Since she was confined he guessed he would just call it that. He was wondering when he could go back downstairs to sneek another peek at the… "art." Nelani was nearby exploring the rest of the mansion's second floor and the third.
Brisha, however, lay on the bed stairing up at the ceiling uncomfortable, her hands cuffed above her to the headboard. She was irritated as much by one of her loose bangs laying over her forehead, as much as her predicament. She puffed the whisp of hair up out of her way with her breath, and began to feel sleepy. "Long day." She muttered to herself.
Minutes later, the railcar reached the top of it's track. All the time Jason had been mulling over what exactly to do. It was a difficult balance. He had to stay in contact enough with the jedi counsel so as not to arouse suspicion, but not give away what he was really up to. Jason wondered if this was what it was like to be a double agent. Even more complicating was how he would manage Brisha, Nelani, and Ben without letting his guard down enough for Brisha to kill them.
He knew he was playing with fire, so he would have to remain vigilant, but the knowledge Brisha had to offer was too valuable. He hoped that, at least, if he ended up dying from taking the gamble Ben and Nelani might benefit from it somehow. If the galaxy would be better off, it was fine anyway regardless of what happened to him.