Chapter 32
Eclipse
"Ahsoka!" Nat shook her shoulder, holding onto her seat for balance as the ship spun out of control. "Ahsoka, wake up!"
Ahsoka Tano stirred in her seat. "Wha... why are we spinning?"
"We're going to crash on that planet!"
"I told Skyguy that it was risky, but he went ahead anyway." Her eyes were unfocused.
"What are you talking about? Ahsoka, we need you. I can't land the ship like this!"
"Sure thing, Rex. I'll take the controls." Ahsoka started to get up out of the pilot's chair, but the centrifugal force pushed her back down. "Whoa... better check the inertial dampers."
She took the yoke and tried to focus.
"Hmm. That's interesting," said another voice. "You've been touched by the dark before."
"Yeah... but tha's not important now," she responded, her voice slurred. "I gotta land the ship."
She reached into the Force to find balance, and her head cleared up. She had probably gotten a minor concussion, but a good meditation should be able to clear it right up. For now, she was focused enough to deal with the problems at hand.
She flipped a few switches and reset the ship's inertial sensors. It stopped spinning, but it was still trailing smoke. The pressure inside felt a little low too. There was probably a minor air leak somewhere. She put the ship into an approach vector for the atmosphere. With a damaged hull, it wouldn't do to hit the atmosphere too fast. The ship might not be able to take the heat of reentry.
"That's right, little girl. Focus on the task at hand."
"I am focusing," she said.
"Who are you talking to?" asked BLX-5.
"I dunno. But he won' shut up while I'm tryin' to fly," she mumbled.
The ship entered the atmosphere. Whatever the planet below was, it looked like a desert world. Craggy canyons and jagged mountain ranges were the only visible features. An alarm went off on the console.
"Heat sensor. That's not good. Rex, transfer power to the coolant system."
"Okay," said Nat as he leaned over to the engineering console.
"Your lower hull armor is ripped open. You should flip the ship over. Come in upside-down until you reach a slower speed."
"Thas a good idea," Ahsoka said, and turned the yoke. The ship slowly flipped over, and now all the incoming friction was hitting the top of the ship, where there had been no major asteroid impacts. "I can' see much though. Gotta rely on insrumens."
The alarm stopped beeping, but the cockpit viewscreen was covered in red-hot air, trapped between the ship's shields and the hull.
"Okay," said Nat, "I don't know who she's talking to, but if it keeps us alive, I think I'll go with it."
As the ship slowed down, the cockpit started to clear. The ship appeared to be heading towards a long canyon.
"Um... Ahsoka... now might be a good time to flip us over and land."
"Good idea, Rex. Extend the landing gear." She slowly rolled the ship over, and flew down into the canyon. The ship set down surprisingly gently, and Ahsoka stood up. "Well, any landing you can walk away from."
"Ahsoka, you need to go into a healing meditation. You aren't in your right mind." Nat took her by the hand and guided her down the hall to her bunk. "Don't fall asleep. Heal. I'm worried about you right now."
"Sure thing, Nat," she said. "Hey... where's Rex?"
"He's not here. You need to meditate and heal. Sit down."
Ahsoka sat cross-legged on her bunk. "Right. My head hurts. Meditate."
"That's right. Focus. Clear your mind. Meditate."
She opened her eyes to respond to Nat, but he was already gone.
"Commander, it's urgent! The Seppies are in the caves."
Her eyes snapped open again. "Rex?"
"Right this way, Commander." The voice was coming from outside of her cabin. She hopped up out of her bunk and followed it. The voice spoke again, this time from the ramp, "Come on, we don't have much time!"
Ahsoka ran out. The sun was setting outside, and the rocky formations made the entire canyon look like a bizarre collection of strange, shadowy shapes.
"This way, Commander! They're setting up a defensive line, if we don't take them out now, they'll overrun our position."
"Where's Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked, her voice still slurring a little bit.
"He's guarding our flank. Come on, we don't have much time."
Ahsoka ran into the rocky opening where she heard the voice, and found herself in a cave. She lit her lightsaber and strode in. "Rex?"
"Follow this tunnel and take the second right. It should lead you there."
Ahsoka dashed forward, a little awkwardly because her balance was a little off. But she was a Jedi. She could power through anything. She passed the first turnoff to the right, and saw what looked like a room full of what looked like statues, all clustered around a glowing cone-shaped crystal that stretched from floor to ceiling.
"What on Shili is that?"
"Ignore it, Commander. We've got a job to do."
"Right. Sorry, Rex." Ahsoka started to dash forward, then stopped. "Wait... you're not Rex. Where am I? Who are you?"
The voice laughed, a nasty laugh that bubbled up from nowhere. "I am Darth Nadir, the one and only. It took you Jedi millennia, but you finally managed to almost kill me. But I will not be denied. I will be reborn anew. And you, little Jedi, will be the one to do it."
"I'll never help you do anything."
"Of course you will. Even broken apart, my mind and soul shattered into pieces, I am a Lord of the Sith. I am more powerful than any Jedi. As long as you have desires in your heart, you are mine. Desire leads to fear. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the dark side, and you will be mine."
"I'll never join the dark side."
"Never is a very long time, child. You've been the servant of the dark side before. You will be again. That much is certain."
"I will never serve you." Ahsoka peeked back into the room she'd just passed, and saw that the crystal wasn't just glowing. It was swirling with a vortex of light inside. When she stepped in the room, the light reacted. It started churning frenetically, bouncing back and forth across the inside of the crystal.
Even through her concussed haze, Ahsoka could feel the energy inside. It wasn't normal energy. It was life. It was the Force.
It was people. Six statues clustered around the crystal, all crawling along the ground and reaching out. There were six minds inside the crystal. Six minds and souls, trapped forever.
Those weren't statues. Those were bodies, carbon frozen. Centuries of dust lay on them. The bodies inside must have long since decayed away into nothing, but whoever made this monument to eternity wanted the minds inside to see glimpses of the life they once had, and glimpses of an eternity of being one with the Force that they would never have. This was more than just wrong. This was sick.
The voice in her head laughed again. "Oh, so punishing my enemies is sick and wrong, now? I suppose I should just stand there serenely and let them kill me. Is that truly the Jedi way? A Jedi never strikes an opponent, oh, except when they defend themselves or others. Then it's all right to strike someone down. At least I didn't waste the life my enemies gave. I used it. For power. For knowledge. I used it to create something wonderful."
"You created something horrible. Get out of my head!" Ahsoka put her head in her hands and tried to push the other mind away. She could feel grasping hooks of darkness in her mind. One by one she struggled against them.
"A fine attempt, child. But ultimately futile. I, Darth Nadir, will be reborn. You will reforge my holocron for me. And you will transfer the remnants of my mind and soul into it. I will live forever."
Important author's note: I have not been able to get as far ahead in writing Exile's Journey as I would have liked. I have a full episode, e.g. 4 chapters, written. But I will be busy writing for another project in the month of November, so I probably won't be able to write any more until the end of the month. I'd like my reader's opinions on what and how I should post chapters in November. There's a poll in my profile, please vote. I'd like to know what the readers want. :)
I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying writing it, and I hope to get back to it as soon as I finish my NaNoWriMo novel.
Tirade