Father and Daughter
Nomi woke up to the throbbing pain in her broken leg. The effect of the painkiller had apparently worn off.
She stood up carefully and limped into the refresher. As she looked in the mirror there, she wondered why her injuries weren't treated with bacta. The Jedi assumed they didn't have enough. Since the Krytos plague broke out on Coruscant, bacta had become scarce and expensive.
Using a Jedi relaxation technique, Nomi attempted to ease the pain, but as soon as she stopped focusing on controlling pain with the Force, the pain immediately returned. This wasn't good, because she knew that if a fight with her father broke out, her chances of survival were slim and she would be unable to fully concentrate and use her Force abilities.
Suddenly the realization hit her like a blaster bolt. They acted with intention. Her injuries shouldn't heal quickly, otherwise she would be able to use her Jedi abilities without restriction. She wondered if her father was afraid of her, afraid that he might lose another lightsaber duel. Then she had an idea.
She had healed Dash when he was injured with Force lightning by her father. So why shouldn't she be able to heal herself? Nomi smiled at her image in the mirror before leaving the refresher and limping towards her cot.
There she sat down and ran her hands over her right leg, concentrating the Force on the broken bone. With joy, Nomi felt how the two bone parts slowly grew together.
However, it would take a while for the fracture to fully heal. But she knew the healing time would be much shorter than her father expected.
After a while, a stormtrooper brought her something to eat and drink. The Jedi had just finished her meal when he reentered her cell.
"Lord Bel-Baal wishes to see you, my lady," the trooper said in his amplified voice.
He then approached her with handcuffs and tied her up. Nomi let it happen without resistance and left the cell, followed by him.
They took different hallways than the day before, when the stormtrooper who captured and abused her met an untimely end at the hands of her father.
It didn't take long before they reached their destination. The door opened itself and they entered.
"The prisoner, my lord," the trooper said, snapping to attention.
Nomi found herself in her father's private quarters, which were sparsely furnished and devoid of luxury, something she hadn't expected after what she had seen in the former Imperial Palace.
"Dismissed," she heard her father's voice and turned her head in the direction the voice came from as the trooper left the room.
Ulic Bel-Baal stood in front of a holo image showing Nomi's daughter Tasherit lying in a crib. The image must have been taken on Algarian when the Dark Jedi held her and the triplets captive.
"She looks like you, daughter," Ulic said, turning his attention to Nomi. "It's a shame I couldn't take care of you when you were her age. I could have trained you in the dark side. You would be very powerful now and not as weak as you are. Can't you see Skywalker is holding you back? That he's afraid of your potential?"
Nomi stared at the man in the red Mandalorian armor, memories of her captivity on Vjun flooding back to her.
Ulic raised an eyebrow.
"Vader? Have you met my friend and mentor? It was he who showed me my true potential, who showed me the path to true greatness."
Frightened, the Jedi put up mental blocks to prevent her father from intruding further into her thoughts.
"You paid a price for this greatness, father. He did that too. You both lost everything," she said, looking her father straight in the eyes. "But unlike you, Vader found his way back to the light and became Anakin Skywalker again, sacrificing his life to rescue his son."
"It was his downfall," Bel-Baal replied, turning his back to Nomi and looking at the holo image of his granddaughter again. "It's better that you go now."
He pressed a button and seconds later a stormtrooper entered his quarters and snapped to attention.
"Take Lady Bel-Baal back to her cell," the Dark Jedi ordered without turning around.
The trooper acknowledged the order and led Nomi out of the room and back to her cell.
There he took off her handcuffs, left the cell without a word and locked her in.
Rubbing her wrists, Nomi limped to the cot and sat down after the stormtrooper left.
Meeting her father again had shaken her up. She used a relaxation technique to calm down and think clearly.
There had to be a way to tell Dash where she was being held captive and who was behind it all. Could it be possible to contact the triplets? They had proven many times to respond to her calls in the Force. But never from such a great distance. She just had to try and trust that it would work.
The Jedi closed her eyes, concentrated, and reached out with the Force to touch her sons' minds.
"Dash, Biggs, Corran, can you hear me?"
At first there was only silence, but then she heard her youngest son's voice.
"Mama?"
Nomi allowed herself a smile.
Her smile faded and gave way to desperation as the connection broke and she heard her father's voice in her head.
"You call them in vain, daughter. I will finish your training and make you a powerful Dark Jedi. It's pointless to hope for escape. Even if your husband finds us, he won't be able to save you. If he tries to thwart my plans with you he will die. This time even you won't be able to save him. There are 8,000 stormtroopers aboard this Star Destroyer, my child. What can one man do against such superior numbers if he isn't a Jedi?"
Bel-Baal broke the connection and left his daughter alone with her fears. Her father was right about the slim chance that a possible rescue attempt by Dash could be successful. Nomi sighed. Maybe she should contact Luke next time. He would be more capable of determining her whereabouts than her children. Her father wouldn't turn her into an instrument of evil.
She must have fallen asleep because she was woken again by the throbbing pain in her leg. The Jedi slowly sat up and used the Force to treat the broken bone before standing and limping to the refresher. There she looked in the mirror and ran her fingers over the wounds on her face. They were starting to heal and from the looks of it there wouldn't be any scars left.
The door hissed open. She turned around and saw her father standing in her cell. When Nomi saw him, she turned her back on him. Ulic walked up to his daughter and put his hands on her shoulders. Their eyes met in the mirror.
"Don't worry, my daughter, your face won't be disfigured forever."
Nomi struggled to resist the urge to get away from her father's hands.
"I hope so, father. I don't want my children to run away screaming when they see me. And my husband…"
When the Dark Jedi heard this, he turned her around and glared at her with green eyes so similar to her own.
"You will never see your husband again! He is not worthy of you! The daughter of Lord Bel-Baal deserves a better man than this weakling!"
"Dash isn't a weakling, father," Nomi replied in a calm voice. "I love him and have four wonderful children with him. Nothing and no one can separate me from him."
Bel-Baal smiled at her, but there was no warmth in that smile.
"We'll see, my daughter."
He then pointed to Nomi's broken leg.
"You treat it with the Force," he began. "That's smart of you. You thought I wouldn't notice. However, it would heal faster if you could bring yourself to use the dark side of the Force. Come and try it out. You'll see how easy everything is."
He reached out to her, but she backed away from him.
"No, father, you are not turning me to the dark side. If it's so powerful, why didn't Lord Vader heal his burned body with its help?"
With this question she seemed to have touched on a point that her father didn't like.
Bel-Baal took a deep breath before answering.
"Lord Vader, my mentor, couldn't heal himself because he hadn't fully embraced the dark side. This weakness later became his downfall."
His daughter shook her head.
"No, father, not his downfall, but his way back to the light. When he died, he finally renounced the dark side and became one with the Force. The love for his son was stronger than the dark side and the Emperor's influence on him. You too can leave the dark path you have walked for so long. It's not too late yet, father. Anakin Skywalker showed that it's possible."
Her father looked at her with a strange expression on his face. It almost seemed to her as if he was thinking about her words. She carefully began to probe his mind. What was that? In the deep blackness of his mind was a bright spot. Difficult to see, but undoubtedly there. She kept probing and was suddenly blocked and pushed back.
Her father looked at her with anger and yelled at her.
"Don't try that again, daughter!"
Then he turned around and left the cell.
When Nomi heard the cell being locked, she limped back to the cot and lay down.
The thought of the bright spot she had discovered didn't let go of her mind. She wondered if there was still any good in her father and if there was still a chance to save him.
What irritated her was that this bright spot wasn't there when they first met. Back then, she had only sensed darkness in her father. Had their meeting triggered a change in him? If she wanted to save her father from the dark side, she had to stay with him, but at the same time she wanted to be with her family again.
"Mama!"
Suddenly she heard her youngest son's voice in her mind or was it just an illusion?
"Mama!"
So she wasn't mistaken and wondered if she could dare to answer. The Jedi reached out with the Force, touched Corran's mind and spoke to him.
"Corran, listen to me. I'm being held captive on the Star Destroyer Ulic's Revenge. Tell your father that Lord Bel-Baal wants to take me to his fortress on Algarian. If he ever wants to see me again, he has to prevent that. Luke and your father will know what to do. Do you understand all of this, Corran?"
It was amazing that she could talk to her son without her father stopping her. Was he so sure of her that he had let his guard down? Then came Corran's answer.
"Yes, Mama."
Nomi smiled and reached out with the Force again to touch her daughter's mind. The baby was crying.
"Don't cry, sweetie. Mama will be back soon."
The young woman hoped she wasn't being too optimistic.
Then she felt for her husband's mind. She knew she couldn't communicate with him through the Force, but she would be able to read his thoughts and sense his emotions. Nomi gently entered Dash's mind.
She was shocked by what she sensed. Her husband's thoughts were filled with sadness, pain and despair.
Suddenly she sensed a new feeling, in addition to the feelings she had sensed before. The feeling was love, endless love for his youngest son. In her husband's mind, she felt at first disbelief, but then hope and determination. He would find her and free her, even if he had to search the entire galaxy for the Ulic's Revenge.
Before the Jedi withdrew from his mind, she touched him gently again. Maybe he could sense some of that contact even though he wasn't Force sensitive.
"You did very well, my daughter."
Nomi was startled when her father spoke to her. She hadn't noticed that he had entered her cell.
"You have lured your husband and Luke Skywalker, who will surely accompany him, into a trap from which there is no escape. They will both die. When Skywalker is dead, the Empire will rise from the ashes, and I will be the new Emperor," he paused for a moment before continuing. "You will sit by my side and one day succeed me. Together we will destroy the Rebellion and restore order to the galaxy. I planned everything, my child. I intentionally allowed you to contact your children to lure Skywalker here. Your husband is actually irrelevant to me, but he also deserves to die because he dared to enter into a marriage bond with you. Fortunately, he was at least able to produce Force sensitive offspring."
Nomi glared at her father.
"Yes, that's good, my daughter, let your anger out. Here, take your weapon and attack me. You can defeat me with your anger and hatred."
He held out her lightsaber, which he had brought with him, invitingly.
"No, father, I won't fight you."
"Why not? I can feel how much you hate me."
The young woman shook her head.
"No, father, I don't hate you. I just feel sorry for you."
Ulic looked at her blankly.
"Yes, I feel sorry for you because you were so weak as to let Vader seduce you to the dark side," his daughter continued. "You've lost everything that ever meant anything to you. And you will lose me too. It must be clear to you that I'll never belong to the dark side. You must kill me because I and my children will always pose a threat to your claim to power."
Her father turned around without a word and left the cell. Nomi hoped she had hit a nerve.
Nomi sat on the cot and used the Force on her leg after her father left. It was looking better, but it would be at least another standard day before she could put full weight on it again. She realized that her father would never let her go and that she had to escape before Dash and Luke were trapped.