* Chapter 6 *

Over the comm, Admiral Mo'Ari and the other officers on the bridge of the Reliant heard Mek Dain's scream transform into panicked yells between quick breaths.

"What's wrong?" Lieutenant Nobrian asked into the comm. "Are you okay?"

"No!" exclaimed Mek. "The gravity just came on! I'm going to fall!"

Everyone exchanged worried looks. If Mek was beginning to feel the effects of Coruscant's gravity, then it meant that the Reliant's orbit was decaying, and it would not be long before they crashed into the planet below. "Is there anything you can grab onto?" asked Nobrian.

"I'm hanging from a broken pipe! You need to get me out of here!"

Nobrian's face contorted into a confused expression. "Are you hurt?"

"No! But I'm going to be unless you get me out of here!"

With an exasperated groan, the lieutenant threw his arms into the air and shook his head. "You're fine," he said in disgust. "Just keep going." He consulted the holodisplay that showed Mek's location. "You're about nine meters from the hallway you need to take."

"I can't keep going!" Mek replied anxiously. "I'm not strong enough to hold on! I need help!"

"Listen to me!" Nobrian made no attempt to hide his contempt for the traitorous commander. "You are not going to fall! We're still in orbit, so we're still moving fast enough—oh, this is a waste of time. The point is, right now, you'll feel like you weigh a lot less than you normally do, so you are strong enough to keep going. But, over time, you'll feel yourself getting heavier, so you need to hurry. Just nine more meters, then climb into the hallway. Once you get far enough, the ship's artificial gravity should kick in, and you won't have any more problems. Understood?"

For a long moment, nothing could be heard but the continuous sound of panicked breathing. Gradually, however, it grew calmer. "Understood," Mek responded breathlessly.

Mo'Ari sighed with relief. He had begun to fear that Mek would lose his nerve and be unable to complete the task of saving the ship. Then again, there was still time. The fate of the Reliant, its crew, and thousands of people on Coruscant's surface, depended on the courage of a coward.

Force save us all.

It took all of Mek Dain's self-discipline to keep himself from looking down. He knew that if he did, then he would likely go limp with terror and lose his grip. He could not believe how callous Lieutenant Nobrian had been. After all, he was literally hanging hundreds of kilometers off the ground! That would be enough to terrify anyone!

Mek had been clambering along the side of a cutaway of the Reliant, using pipes and other parts as handholds, when an odd sensation overcame him. It felt as though someone had grabbed his ankles and was slowly pulling him up until his body was horizontal with the ground. Except there was no ground below him, only the vast emptiness of space. He quickly realized that he was not, in fact, facing down; "down" had moved to what was formerly "behind," and he was being pulled down by Coruscant's gravity!

Admittedly, he was embarrassed by his reaction to the change, but that did not give Nobrian or anyone else the right to ridicule him for his understandable panic. As he began to calm down, he realized that the lieutenant had been correct. Although he no longer felt weightless, Mek still felt incredibly light, which helped to alleviate his fears. Cautiously, he released one hand from the pipe he had been grasping for dear life and found that he had no difficulty holding onto it with only the other hand. He reached for another handhold and let go of the pipe. And then he grabbed another handhold, repeating the process so that he was swinging along the ship with ease.

After a couple minutes, he looked up into the hallway he was supposed to take to the relay room. The first several meters had been damaged by the explosion, but it otherwise appeared intact. That wasn't so bad, he thought. Now, how do I get up there? Mek still felt light enough that he believed he could pull himself up into the hallway, except he could not see any handholds to grab onto. Then, he noticed the recessed wall lights covered by panels with rounded vertical slats—except, to him, they were horizontal—that made perfect hand- and footholds. One such panel was directly above him, close enough that he believed he could reach it.

Mek pulled himself up with both hands until his face passed his hands. Then, he pushed himself up as far as he could and raised one hand toward the panel. But it was not quite long enough. After a moment's thought, he decided to try something risky. He lowered himself back down so that he was hanging once again. Then, after taking a deep breath to steel himself, he pulled himself up with as much force as he could and let go of his handhold. His strength against the low gravity was enough to propel himself up far enough to insert his hands into one of the slats.

Mek breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that he had not missed and fallen to the planet below. However, he had not yet reached the intact portion of the hallway, so he still had a ways to go. There was a blast door frame a few meters above him, so he decided to aim for that as his next handhold. He pulled himself up again so that his boots were inside the bottom slat and then jumped up. He rose past the door frame and extended his hands to catch himself on it. Then, he pulled himself up again so that he was standing on the frame. And then he leapt again, aiming for another recessed wall light.

Suddenly, he was yanked sideways and hit the wall hard. No, not the wall—the floor. He had reached the intact portion of the hallway, where artificial gravity still worked. Realizing he was safe, Mek stood up and allowed himself to relax. That had been the most nerve-wracking experience of his life. Still, he had found the effects of low gravity interesting. This must be how the Jedi feel, he figured, being able to leap higher than everyone else.

"Very good." Mek was startled by the unexpected voice in his ear. He quickly remembered that Lieutenant Nobrian was still on the other end of the comm. "It should be very straightforward from here. Just keep going until your reach the end of the hall, then turn left."

Mek did as he was told, running as fast as his suit would allow him. For the first time, he believed that he might actually survive this.

It was dark. The plumes of smoke rising from the buildings obscured all sunlight, casting everything in shadow. Ben Skywalker was only able to find his way by the light of the fires consuming the buildings around him. The air smelled heavily of smoke and a chemical he could not identify. He saw very few people in the streets as he ran toward Obsidian Towers. Either most of them had gotten out already… or they were still trapped in the burning buildings. He hoped for the former.

Flocks of flying probe droids circled each building like carrion birds, shining bright spotlights every which way. Ben surmised that they were scanning for life-forms, structural integrity, or anything else that would aid Fire and Rescue in their efforts. Sure enough, within moments, fire gunships flew overhead, spraying fire suppressant foam from their multiple independently rotating cannons. Then, a procession of massive truckspeeders raced past him, each coming to a stop in front of a building.

These speeders were equipped with foam-spraying cannons, hoverplatforms that could carry people to and from the upper levels of buildings, and a wide plethora of tools and equipment to fight fires and treat injuries. Dozens of firefighters quickly dismounted from the speeders, dressed in flame-retardant jumpsuits, helmets with holographic displays inside their visors, and large backpacks with air recyclers and hoses connected to foam tanks.

Ben heard one firefighter in front of the nearest building yell, "Eleven life-forms inside, flames at thirty-eight-sixty-four to forty-three-sixty-six degrees, collapse in about nine minutes, thirty seconds! Let's move, move, move!" The workers went right to work; some of them began spraying foam at the bases of some of the fires while others fearlessly charged into the building. Ben considered helping them but thought better of it. They knew how to do their job, and he would just get in the way. Besides, he did not have the proper protective clothing or equipment. So he continued on in the direction of Obsidian Towers.

He had barely run three steps when something landed heavily on the pavement less than two meters in front of him, causing him to skid to a halt. To his shock, he saw that it was the body of a man, staring up at the smoke-obscured sky with dead, unblinking eyes. Ben looked up at the building towering above him and wondered if someone had pushed this poor man from one of the upper floors. Then, to his horror, he saw that another person was falling to their death. Reacting quickly, he used the Force to slow their descent and set them safely on the ground. It was a woman, visibly shaking with terror. Ben put his hands on her shoulders reassuringly and said, "Hey, it's okay. You're safe now." Once she had calmed down a bit, he asked, "Who pushed you? Was it the same person who pushed him?" He tilted his head toward the body next to them.

The wide-eyed woman answered shakily, "No one pushed anyone. We jumped."

Ben stared back at her, equally wide-eyed. Before he could question her further, she ran toward the nearby firefighters, no doubt hoping they would get her to safety. He was left to dwell on her last statement. They jumped. They must have given up hope and wanted to make their deaths quick and painless. It was a horrible thing to comprehend, and it left him wondering how many other people had willingly jumped to their deaths that day.

Would Nysilla jump? he wondered. Then, he reminded himself that she worked as a receptionist, so she would most likely have been on the ground floor of the hotel when the explosion occurred. But what if she hadn't been? What if she had been on one of the upper floors? How long would she hold out before deciding to jump? That thought bolstered his resolve to find her quickly, and he kept running.

A minute later, Ben slowed to a stop as he passed another building which was still ablaze. It was Tegralla's, where he and Nysilla Zabeth had had their first—and only—date barely a week prior. It had been such a nice restaurant, but now it had been completely consumed by the explosion and was being reduced to a charred metal shell. It pained him to see it in such a ruined state.

Suddenly, a shape leapt through one of the restaurant's windows, and Ben was horrified to see that it was a person wreathed in flame. They were screaming in agony as they ran about, desperately trying to extinguish themself. Before Ben could think of helping them, they keeled over in front of him and lay still as their body continued to burn.

Ben immediately felt nauseous as the vividly familiar stench of incinerating flesh wafted over him. Then, he was nearly blinded as a fireball flared from the restaurant, which reminded of the flash of lightning. The building swiftly collapsed with a sound like thunder. And the licking of flames seemed to Ben like the sound of heavy rainfall.

As his senses began to overwhelm him, he found himself transported back to Dromund Kaas. He was standing in front of the furnace, preparing to feed the body of a fellow slave into the roaring fire. No, he thought desperately to himself. This can't be happening again. The base was destroyed! We were all freed! Yet, as he slowly turned in a circle, he realized that that was not the case. In every direction, he saw innocent beings of all ages being forced into hard labor. They moaned and cried in despair and pain as Sith slave drivers yelled and kicked and cracked their electrowhips.

And then Ben felt a searing pain arc through his back, causing him to fall to his knees. The pain flared up again as an electrowhip lashed him again. He wept as the whip cracked again and again and again. Just when he thought he was going to be flayed to death, it stopped, and he found himself lying in the mud while Sith stood over him, laughing at his misery. In that moment, Ben prayed for death, for some release from this monotonous hell.

Suddenly, he found himself bent over, scrubbing the inside of one of the giant vats where the slaves' dinner of fetid stew was prepared. When he straightened up to relieve the pain in his back and knees, he was in front of a kitchen counter, butchering bloody carcasses of raw meat to be put into the stew. As he brought the butcher's knife down to make a cut, it turned into a hammer, which he was using to assemble a speeder bike to be used by the Sith army. Then, he was assembling pieces of Sith armor, and then he was carrying a load of ax-rifles to the furnace that powered the base's generators. When he looked down at the load, he was dismayed to see that it had turned into the body of a dead slave.

He fed the body into the flames and squeezed his eyes shut as a wave of searing heat and rancid stench washed over him. When he opened them, they beheld a mound of dead slaves unceremoniously piled on top of one another, all of whom destined to be incinerated in the furnace. The sight would have made him lose his dinner, except the kitchen had run out of stew again before he could get any. So he fainted instead.

Ben awoke in the middle of the night, lying on a wooden bench covered in straw, which served as his bed on Dromund Kaas. The hovel was tightly packed with dozens of identical benches, each with a slave sleeping on it. He let out a faint sigh of relief; this was the only aspect of his life that was somewhat pleasant. Night was the only time when any of the slaves were allowed to rest before beginning another grueling workday.

As he lay on his bench, waiting for the blare of sirens to compel him to get up, Ben thought about everything he missed about his former life—the love of his family, the comfort of his home, the comradery of his friends, the beauty and vibrancy of the many worlds he had visited, the taste of food, the warmth of a bed, the softness of clean clothes, the joy of freedom, and the security of knowing he would survive another day.

For far too long, every day of his life had been exactly like this. And far too often, he contemplated committing suicide, as too many of the other slaves had done, to end his suffering. For a while, the only thing that kept him going was the hope that the Jedi would come and rescue him. But, as the days wore on, that hope gradually faded until it had burned itself out. By then, however, he had found a new reason to live—Nysilla. Every word between them, every touch, every kiss was like a spark that recharged them and gave them the energy to make it through each day. As she lay on top of him, gently caressing his chest, the warmth of her embrace lulled Ben into a peaceful slumber.

Unexpectedly, she began to sob loudly into his shoulder, prompting him to open his eyes. They were no longer lying down but standing up amid a crowd of slaves gathered in the middle of the base. Ben found himself staring straight at Mari Zabeth, who was kneeling on a raised platform for everyone to see. She stared back at him as her head was separated from her body by the ax-rifle of the Sith standing above her.

Take care of my daughter. Mari had never actually said those words to Ben, but the look she had given him right before she died conveyed the same meaning. Take care of my daughter. That sentence echoed in his head. Take care of my daughter. Suddenly, Ben remembered that he was no longer on Dromund Kaas; he was on Coruscant, where the hotel Nysilla was working at had exploded. Take care of my daughter. Mari's daughter was in danger now, and Ben was on his way to rescue her. Take care of my daughter. He had made a silent promise to Mari, one he had no intention of breaking.

That realization was enough to snap him out of his hallucinations and return him to the real world. The buildings around him were still burning, the sky was still hidden by a curtain of dark smoke, and rescue crews were still hard at work trying to save people who were trapped. With newfound resolve, Ben ran as fast as he could, more determined than ever to save the woman he loved.

By the time Mek Dain reached the relay room, the Reliant's orbit had decayed further, and the ship's artificial gravity was beginning to compete with the strengthening pull of Coruscant's gravity. The Star Destroyer was still oriented sideways relative to the planet, so Mek was being pulled both downward and, to a lesser extent, horizontally. The unequal, perpendicular force vectors made it feel like he was walking on the side of a hill. Time was quickly running out for the Reliant—and him along with it.

The relay room was a vast multi-level chamber occupied by a system of catwalks and stairs connecting a series of towers that each contained dozens of electrical conduits. These towers allowed a person to manually disconnect systems from their normal power sources and reconnect them to other sources. This was accomplished by opening the panels that ran the circumference of the towers and unplugging cables from power sockets. This was all far too technical for Mek to understand. He had no idea how any of this was supposed to save the ship.

The voice of Lieutenant Nobrian came over the comlink again. "You should have enough time to engage the thrusters, but you only have a couple minutes to spare, so try to work quickly. First, you need to find the tower marked 'B4.' You will have to go down to the lower level to access the right relays."

Mek studied the nearest tower and saw that 'B9' was stenciled on the side just above the panels. He figured B4 must have been nearby, so he proceeded further into the room, scanning each tower for the correct label. As he passed a row of computer terminals set against the wall, he thought ruefully about how easy it would have been to engage the thrusters if the computers were not locked down. I never should have given the Sith those access codes. Then I wouldn't be in this situation.

He froze as his mind began to whir. The Sith had locked everyone out of the computer systems, but only by accessing the defense mainframe themselves using the codes provided by Mek. Then, they had accessed the weapons systems on all Star Destroyers after locking everyone else out. That meant they must still have had access to the system using those same codes. And Mek had memorized those codes so that he could find and erase them from the mainframe later to further cover his tracks—which meant he knew how to get into the system! Excitedly, he hurried to the nearest computer and began to type.

"What are you doing?" asked Nobrian. "You're supposed to be looking for Tower B4. The computers won't help you." He must have noticed that the tracker in Mek's EV suit had deviated from his course.

At any other time, Mek would have been annoyed by this, but, right now, he was too elated to care. "I just thought of something I could try," he explained. When prompted by the computer, he typed in one of the codes he had given the Sith, hoping he had memorized it correctly.

He had. The computer accepted the code and displayed a menu of all the Reliant's systems. Mek shouted in triumph. "I'm in!"

"What?" asked the voice of Admiral Mo'Ari. "You mean you're in the computer system?"

"Yes! Now I can use the computer to activate the ship's thrusters, instead of having to do it manually!"

"Well, that makes things so much easier!" exclaimed Nobrian. "How did you do it?"

"I input a code that—" Mek stopped himself before he said anything incriminating. "—that I thought might not have been affected by the lockdown."

"You mean a code the Sith used to hijack the fleet," Mo'Ari said drily. "A code you gave them."

Damn. He doesn't miss a thing, does he? All of Mek's excitement dissipated quickly as he was reminded of how Mo'Ari intended to accuse him of treason. He reminded himself that there was a good chance that any charges brought up on him would not stick. After all, there was no proof of his involvement with the Sith—until now. By accessing the computer system when only the Sith were able to do so, Mek had proven that there was a connection between them. That alone might have been enough to convict him.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Nobrian said, "Well, the important thing is, we now have a way to save the ship. So here's what you need to do…"

Mek was not listening to him; he was too deep in thought. If he saved the Reliant and its crew, then Mo'Ari would reveal his secret and he would be arrested. He had seen what happened to traitors, especially those who caused massive casualties. Every single death in the entire attack on Coruscant would be pinned on him, and he would receive the death penalty.

He could not let that happen. After years of being ridiculed by his father, Mek was finally about to usurp him and gain the authority he had been denied for too long. It had taken a considerable amount of effort and a high degree of risk to get to this point. He was too close now to let it all go to waste. Admiral Mo'Ari and his crew would have to be silenced—permanently.

Buthow do I do that? Mek wondered. The obvious answer would be to let the Reliant crash and kill everyone aboard, but that plan was fraught with uncertainty. What if someone survives the crash? What if someone escapes before the crash? How would I escape? If I leave now and make for the escape pods, they would be onto me immediately. They could prevent me from escaping or send someone else in an escape pod to tell on me. No, that won't work.

It did not take long for Mek to realize that his only option was to kill everyone before escaping and then letting the ship crash. He had never killed anyone before; the idea of taking another person's life had always made him uncomfortable. But there was no avoiding it now. Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

That led to another question: how would he kill them all? He certainly did not have the time or training to sweep the entire Star Destroyer and gun everyone down. So how would he kill an entire shipful of people quickly without having to engage in violence? The obvious answer came almost immediately.

Now that he had access to the computer, Mek had full control of the Reliant's systems. All he had to do was command every door on the ship to open at once, and everyone would either be blown out into space or suffocate to death. Everyone, that is, except Mek, who was already in a depressurized area of the ship. Then, there would be no one left to expose him.

With his plan in place, Mek navigated the computer until he found the system that controlled all of the blast doors and airlocks. Then, he had to type in several commands to disable the overrides that prevented exactly what he was planning to do. After that, all he had to do was press a single button to extinguish every life-form aboard the Reliant. But he hesitated, contemplating the ramifications of killing thousands of people. One of the reasons he had taken a safe path in his military career was so that he could avoid having to kill anyone. He wondered if he would be able to live with himself after this.

I won't actually be killing them myself, he thought to himself. I'm simply opening some doors. It's the vacuum of space that will kill them. And it's not like they weren't all going to die anyway; the chances of saving this ship were too slim to be realistic. They're just going to die sooner than expected. By that reasoning, Mek decided that he could live with it. Quickly, before he could even think of reconsidering, he pressed the button.

Admiral Mo'Ari stood before the bridge's forward viewport, watching as Coruscant slowly slid in from his right. The warring gravitational forces of the Reliant and the planet made it appear as though he were leaning to his left relative to the floor. In the background, he heard Nobrian continue to recite instructions into his comlink. He hoped Mek was working quickly. If he did not get the thrusters activated soon, it would be too—

As an unexpected breeze swept over him, Mo'Ari felt his ears pop from a sudden change in air pressure. He grunted in pain and inhaled sharply… except no air filled his lungs. His eyes widened in shock at the terrifying sensation, and panic began to set in as every cell in his body screamed for air. His jaw dropped as far as his muscles would allow, but no scream escaped his mouth—nor any other sound, for that matter.

And then he looked out the viewport. Hundreds of small objects were floating away from the Reliant, like flower petals on a soft breeze. As his vision began to blur, he was barely able to discern that they were not petals, but people. Not just any people; they were his crew, floating off into space! Mo'Ari realized with horror that the breeze he had felt was the last bit of air rushing out of his ship to be dissipated in the vacuum beyond.

His legs failed him, and he collapsed onto the deck, rolling over to face away from the viewport. The sight that greeted him was no less frightening. Everyone on the bridge had also fallen, struggling for breath. Lieutenant Nobrian lay still next to the holotable, his face blue and motionless. Ensign Valizia was a few meters away, her entire body convulsing. Mo'Ari wanted to crawl over to her and attempt to help, but he knew it would be fruitless. The air was gone, and there was no way to get it back before everyone left aboard the Reliant died of asphyxiation.

And then his thoughts turned to Mek Dain, who would be perfectly fine in his spacesuit. It did not take long for him to realize that the traitorous commander had been responsible for all of this. Mek must have used the computer to open all of the doors on the ship to kill everyone who knew of his treachery. Mo'Ari had made a grave error in sending Mek to save the ship. He had gambled with the lives of his crew—and the lives of thousands of Coruscanti below—and lost. He had failed them all.

As everything faded to black, his last emotion was dismay, but with a small hint of acceptance. At least he would go down with his ship.

If you didn't hate Mek already, you probably do now! What happens to him next?

Thank you for reading this chapter! If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in your reviews or private messages.