Kylo Ren's room was pleasant enough, spartan as he expected it to be, but the bed was comfortable and the chairs were soft. Dark shades lifted to reveal a large bank of windows looking into a courtyard set up as some sort of garden, with a maze of rectangular raised beds and cult members busily tending them. The sun was high overhead, even though he had only seen it rise a couple of hours ago. The remains of his breakfast lay on a small table nearby, simple fresh fruit and cheese with bread. He took a moment to notice how similar the architecture was to his own outfit, with thin lines of red breaking up expanses of black walls, always arranged in squares and rectangles rather than curves and ovals.
After he had finished eating and lying down on the bed for a moment, he sat in the chair facing the windows and simply watched the gardens until he felt tranquil and focused again. It was restful to his soul, and he felt more like himself - inasmuch as he ever knew what 'himself' was supposed to feel like - when he rose and walked back to the door. In the corridor, outside his door, the man who had first greeted him was waiting. "I'm ready to try again," Kylo Ren told him. "I'm ready to pick my target."
"Very good, Emperor," he replied. "Would you like me to conduct you back to the throne room? You might not have memorized the layout yet, and it can get a little strange."
"Thank you." Kylo Ren fell in step beside the man. "I've noticed a lot of right angles here. It seems strange that something so simple can be so complex."
"We look to nature for our inspiration," the man explained. "Crystals, for instance. The Jedi like to imitate winding curves and rounded pillars, but crystals are as much a part of nature as rivers or trees. It is fitting. We use the parts of the Force that they deny themselves."
That reminded Kylo Ren of the names that his other guide had given him. "A woman who calls herself 'Despair' said that your chosen name was 'Envy'. Is that something you can tell me more about?"
"Sure," Envy told him easily. "I have always dreamed of being a Force user, myself. As a child, I swung sticks and pretended that they were lightsabers. Back then, I thought I would make a good Jedi. Things changed… and I have accepted that a large part of me will always want something that I will never have. Everything is a part of the Force, including me, but I will never wield it."
"And I'm a Force user." Kylo Ren frowned, cautious. "Is this going to be a problem for you?"
"No, not at all!" Envy beamed. "Not only is your presence an honor for us, but it is very exciting for me personally. You can do what I've only dreamed of. When you use the chair that I helped build to direct a ship that I helped raise up, I see my dreams come true. I see a Force user forming the galaxy, and I have been an important part of it." He looked back earnestly at Kylo Ren. "I envy you your power, but that does not destroy me or pose a threat to you. It fuels me. It makes me better willing and able to serve you."
Somehow, this made Kylo Ren less easy. Envy apparently had no problem with him, because he was going to change the world in the way that Envy wanted - in the way that the Sith wanted. That was what he wanted too, right? His unease grew as they continued down corridors, taking turns at intersections, until suddenly he felt a strange sensation that he could not explain. "What is that?" he asked, pointing in the direction of the feeling, and realizing that he saw a barred door there. "What's in there?"
"Something that every Sith temple has, Emperor," Envy told him. "Just as every Jedi temple has its reverse. That is a Light Side vergence, a place torn into being by the balance of dark forces around it. It is not dangerous. We have contained it. Even if it grows in power, that only means that we have grown in power first." He resumed walking, and Kylo Ren joined him reluctantly. "Powerful light, powerful darkness. The Jedi will use theirs to test acolytes sometimes. We just let ours coexist with us. You could find out more, if you wanted, in our library."
The library sounded tempting, but Kylo Ren wanted to try the chair again. "Maybe later," he told Envy. "I am curious. But I think I'd better send the ship and do my job first." Yes, his job. The job that Envy and the others wanted him to do. But it was what he wanted, too, right? "Where is the woman called 'Despair'?" he asked Envy, as he began to recognize the path and realize that they were approaching the throne room.
"She has gone to rest," Envy replied. "She had been awake for the previous day and two nights."
Kylo Ren was impressed. "That's a long time for someone who doesn't use the Force. Is it some sort of training? Can many of you do this?"
Envy was amused. "No, Emperor. Merely a benefit of living on a planet with a five-hour day and a five-hour night."
As they entered the throne room, Kylo Ren realized what Envy meant. Although the sun had still been high in the sky when he had left his room, it was beginning to set. The room, already decorated in blacks and reds, was filled with a reddish light that deepened as Kylo Ren sat back down on the throne and looked out again over the compound through the large windows. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused. He knew where the Resistance was. He remembered the briefings. He even remembered that the First Order had not focused on them because it was busy putting down other, smaller rebellions and being short on ships and staff. Well, Kylo Ren would fix that. He could see the planet in his mind now. "There," he murmured very quietly. "Destroy the ships… the technology, not the planet." It was, after all, a pretty planet, and devoid of sentient life aside from the miscreants sheltering there.
He opened his eyes to see the red lines glowing, flowing across the room, the sunset darkened even further, the viewscreen active. "Alright," he said in satisfaction. "We're back in business."
"Very good, Emperor," Envy told him. "The ship will take several hours - about a day and a half, by planetary reckoning - to arrive."
"Do I need to stay here for the entire time?" Kylo Ren asked, looking at the glowing red lines again. "Am I fueling this ship somehow? What are the lines for?"
"You are only lending it willpower, Emperor," Envy explained calmly. "The lines will slowly fade over time. If the ship needs more guidance, someone will be sent to ask you to return to the throne room. You should have many hours before that happens, if it does. We have built this system, but it could not even be tested without a Force user. All we can do now is estimate, watch, and learn."
"In the meantime," Kylo Ren offered, "I could go and check your library."
The last member of her group freed from his room, Captain Phasma led the five First Order soldiers down hallway after hallway and through intersection after intersection. She finally paused outside of a set of double doors. "The communications suite is part of this area," she told them quietly. She held up a datachip.
"That has everything the First Order needs to know about this place, right?" asked one of her men.
She shook her head solemnly. "No, FN-2457, it has everything we currently know about this place. There is much more that we have to uncover. But the First Order needs this information as soon as possible."
That one man was fairly quick on the uptake. "We'll need to do this again," he noted.
"And, of course, it will likely be much harder next time," Phasma pointed out. "I already checked this area before I freed you. I have a plan that should minimize casualties." She handed the datachip to one of the other soldiers. "FN-2208, you follow close behind me. Once you have an opening, upload the chip's main program into the system. It'll take care of everything, as long as we hold the communications node for long enough. Stay with it until the work is done - that's your order. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am." He hadn't spoken otherwise. He didn't speak when he didn't have to.
"Good." She spent a moment tapping a couple of codes into the security pad for the double door, and it opened to reveal a cavernous room. It was, in fact, both tall and deep. They hovered on the edge of a walkway, one of an entire network of multi-story walkways winding around multiple huge machines lining the walls. In the distance, where the room opened out even further, the front peak of another Sith Cult ship could be seen, apparently resting at berth.
FN-2457 recognized it, of course, as a twin to the ship that had destroyed the Mediator. "They have two?" he murmured quietly in horror.
Phasma corrected him grimly. "They have an undetermined number of ships that is greater than one."
"We are completely out in the open here," FN-2457 noted. "We might get to the communications computer, but we'll never hold it long enough to send a message."
"Leave that to me," Phasma told him calmly. They lingered in the doorway, watching a couple of robed figures move from one machine to another. There were only a few figures within sight. As one of the figures started to work at the nearest comm device, she quickly gestured and led her group onto the walkway. They moved as quietly as they could until she gestured for them to halt - then she crept forward silently and took the robed figure, a man, by surprise. His attempt at a yell was strangled off by her hand at his throat, and then the pressure eased and a combat knife took its place, just close enough for the man to sense the sharpness of the blade. "Don't move," she murmured. "I don't have to kill you." She glanced to the side for just a moment, ready to tell FN-2208 to start uploading the chip. The First Order trooper was already working at the console. "Excellent," Phasma said softly. "This will only take a moment…"
It didn't take long, of course, for the other robed figures to realize what was going on. One of them hurried off, probably for reinforcements, while others approached slowly until she brought the knife just a little closer to the man's throat. As she had calculated, they paused and backed off slightly. "FN-2457," she ordered. "Come up and take my place."
A little careful maneuvering, and Phasma was free. She stepped back, then stepped back again. FN-2457 half-turned and shot her a panicked look. "We can't hold them forever…"
"I know," she told him. "The information must come through, and I must survive, in order to gain more. I see FN-2208 already understands." Her man at the communications device offered a short nod before turning back to his work. She lowered her head slightly. "Your memory will be honored," she told them, and then she fell into a quick retreat and led the remaining three away with her.
As she passed back into shadow, two blaster shots could be heard from the near side of the cavernous room, in the close vicinity of the communications device.