Chapter Three: All Along the Watchtower

"Mentions of the so-called Iduxians in early versions of the Despotica presents a puzzle for Ximologists. Given their base on the planet now known as Ossus, some have tried to tie them with the Jedi despite the lack of archaeological evidence. Some secondary sources credit the Iduxians with supernatural abilities or try to position them as a third faction that stood between the Hutts and Xim, but such flights of fancy are common in pre-Republic literature. What facts remain point to human organization whose actions disproportionally favored the human empire. The logical conclusion is that they were a faction of mercenaries with no special powers."

Sal Ransen, The Despotica Revisited: A Textual-Historiographic Analysis

Year 29 of Xim's reign
537 LE

The Star Forge was not a living thing, but sometimes it felt like one. The behemoth drifted lonely through space, touched only by rare comings and goings of attendant starships, themselves like tiny gnats against its giant frame. Three angular arms stretched perpendicular from its spherical core, and the extensions angled toward the system primary like fingers ready to pinch. And in a sense, they were.

No one alive could have constructed this device: not the humans, not the Hutts. Its makers were long gone from this part of space. They were alternately called Tyrants, Wardens, or Rakata.

To Shen they were his people, and he was still coming to grips with that.

The Forge's control room was a great bowl nine tiers deeps. Its technicians were mostly humans, with a smattering of other Tionese races. Though Shen had spent most of the past five years with them, exploring and remaking his race's ancient construct, they still gave him a careful berth. He'd learned their language and customs but he—almost three meters tall, with conical head, jutting eye-stalks, blue-green skin and claw-tipped hands and feet—was always the image of their ancient oppressors.

He was relieved when Daneel Kayn entered the chamber. The Zabrak Jedi Master, human-like save the horns atop his gray head, had his own ancestral reasons to hate Rakata, but he was better at mastering his revulsion. Together they'd combined their knowledge and Force talents to rehabilitate the Star Forge.

And now, hopefully, they were going to accomplish a feat not done in five hundred years.

"How are we looking?" Kayn asked as he descended the long steps.

"I was waiting for you. We are ready to begin." Shen gestured to the three ringed tiers, each manned by human technicians. Many were Federation engineers who'd been working on the Star Forge for a decade; others were new additions, Imperial defectors or civilians.

When Kayn reached the bottom of the bowl, he joined Shen before the luminous display in the center of the chamber. The Tionese hadn't developed the technology for holograms such as this, and it was a testament to Rakatan engineering that it still worked after centuries dormant. The luminous shapes depicted a three-dimensional schematic of the Star Forge's core: its spherical heart and the conduits branching out to power generators and foundries. Small snaking exhaust shafts extended all the way to the exterior and one great tunnel, kilometers long and two hundred meters wide, extended to a sealed portal at the bottom of the Forge's sphere.

When the Federation resurrected this machine a decade ago, its hollow core had been filled with raw matter: iron and other heavy metals brewed with hydrogen and helium and heated to a liquid state. During the war with the Empire, those elements had been extracted, cooled, filtered, and turned into ships and weapons in the foundries. When the Jedi took possession of the Forge and moved it to this forgotten system, the core had been two-thirds depleted. Now, after producing ships for the Iduxians on a more modest scale, it was nearly emptied.

Which meant it was time to refill the Star Forge.

Growing up, Shen's mother Quoll had told him of their peoples' great mobile factories, which drew the raw materials of the universe from the hearts of stars. He'd come to realize, after his years of traveling with Mal-Oba Talyak and his deeper exploration of galactic history, that these Star Forges had been terrifying as well as miraculous. With them the Rakata had despoiled countless planets.

Traveling the galaxy made him realize what a bane his ancestors had been. At first he'd been afraid to return such a weapon to full strength, but Gedor had encouraged him.

"Evil this has done in the past, yes," the Prophet had said, "but possible redemption is, as long as the Force still flows in it—and in you. Long have you wondered why the Force is with you, when abandoned the rest of your race it has. Its reason, this is. Your chance to atone for ancient sins."

Shen prayed this was true. If it was, then he was about to take the greatest step yet.

Kayn called out to different sections of the crew, and each affirmed that they'd checked all systems and had prepared the Forge for activation. The Jedi Master had studied Rakatan technology extensively back in the Core and understood its machinery better than Shen himself. If today's operation was a success, Kayn deserved the most credit.

Yet, once the crew confirmed ready systems, he turned to Shen and asked, "Would you like the honor?"

The Rakata nodded, then lifted his head and looked around the room. These Tionese weren't comfortable around him, but today they'd take a Tyrant's orders.

"Initiate the extraction," he said in their language, loud and clear.

And so they did. Reports ricocheted across the room. Repulsors on the lower limbs increased power. The doors to the central shaft opened. Protective energy shields activated around the lower arms. Ablative armor was holding. Artificial gravity was steady. And, propelled by topside engines, the Forge dropped closer to the system's primary.

So far, so good.

The next part was where it got dangerous. As the Forge neared the blazing star, the repulsors on its lower arms would reverberate with each other to create a cyclonic effect. Their anti-gravity would create a vacuum-like channel extending past the arms' reach, into the shell of the star itself. And then, it would pull.

There was no danger to the star itself; the Forge wasn't powerful enough to destabilize it. The danger was that the Forge wouldn't be able to contain the raw, superheated matter it was retrieving. The engineers had spent years studying and reinforcing the Forge to endure this moment.

Shen watched the hologram, claws balled to fists. Kayn stood with arms crossed. The engineers said that a channel had been created with the repulsors and stellar material was being pulled toward the Forge; within minutes it would be drawn through the open mouth into the emptied core.

At that point they'd either succeed or choke on their bounty.

The blue-tinted schematic began to fill with red representing stellar material ascending the intake channel. The techs said, tensely, that the channel was holding. Red began to color the spherical core.

Shen and Kayn saw this, they heard the reports, and they felt the deck tremble under their feet as the ancient machine began to gorge. But most of all, they knew it in the Force.

The Star Forge was a machine, but every Jedi to come aboard reported feeling a sense of hunger or desire, like a miasma in the air. Now the Forge did not seem hungry; it seemed happy, satisfied, like an animal filling its stomach after long starvation. More: it felt proud of the meal it had caught. Shen and Kayn had told themselves that what they felt in the Force was a mere echo of the Forge's previous owners, somehow trapped for centuries inside the great metal body. But it seemed there was still a mind to this machine.

Shen tried to comfort Kayn without words. Yes, the Forge was still a beast, but it was their beast now. They had tamed it and turned it for a nobler purpose. With the core refilled they could create more and bigger ships for the Iduxian cause. This was a step forward, not back.

Kayn nodded, hopeful but uncertain.

It took a while to drain a star. They watched as the core grew increasingly red. Technicians reported that the sphere and channel were both holding. The star showed no major changes as they sucked a bit of it away.

Once the core was two-thirds filled, it was time to enter the last stage. They'd succeeded in pulling energy from the star; now they had to stop the process safely.

"Cycle down repulsors," Shen commanded. "Initiate thrust away from the star."

The deck rattled a little more beneath them as engines began pushing the mighty Forge against the star's gravity. At the same time, the repulsors in the lower arms began a carefully-prepared shut-down procedure that channeled the last current of stellar energy while ending the suction effect. Once the last of the stellar matter was inside the channel, the mouth's heavy doors sealed tight and interior repulsors continued to swallow the remaining energy, until a final set of doors locked it all inside the core.

There, preserved in the sphere that was both the Forge's belly and its heart, the raw material of the cosmos would swirl encapsulated until it was drawn out and remade into tools and starships. It would sit like that for five hundred years if need be.

Crews ran checks for another thirty minutes, making sure the energy was contained and all machinery undamaged. Shen and Kayn listened and gave orders, but they were also acutely aware of the great machine in the Force. It felt like an animal that had finished gorging and now hunkered down to sleep with a full belly.

Tension left the chamber after the last system check. Kayn, better at working the crowd than Shen, raised his voice and said, "You all did incredible work today. This was a complete success and we couldn't have done it without every one of you. You were all working the will of the Force today!"

The crew cheered and clapped. Many rose from their seats to embrace their neighbors. Shen and Kayn stood at the bottom of the bowl, the center of a happy hurricane, untouched by the celebration but basking nonetheless.

Once the cheering died down, they noticed that a technician from the lowest tier, a young human female, was calling for them. Shen and Kayn stepped toward her.

"Sirs, I thought you should know," she said, "six starships just exited hyperspace and are heading in to dock. We also have a message from the lead ship, Guardian, saying that was quite a show."

Guardian was Ashar Gell's, and if Ashar had returned so had the team from Moralan. And they were sure to have a story to tell.

Smiling broadly, Kayn said, "Assign them the closest airlock and tell them we'll be there to meet them."

-{}-

The new arrivals were in good spirits too. Kayn had last felt them battling over Moralan and near to burst with desperation, but they'd survived and won the day. There were so few Jedi here, and each one of them was precious.

"I have to admit, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it," Ashar Gell said as he, Kayn, Shen, and Vediah walked down the corridor leading from the docking ring. "Most ships just plug in fuel cells or burn deuterium. This thing slurps up a star. I'm amazed you could do it."

"We did," Kayn said. "Everything went exactly as planned."

"No bad effects at all? Not even a little heartburn?"

"Nothing," Shen affirmed.

"When can you start making more ships?" asked Vediah.

"We can start drawing from the core once the elements stabilize. That may take several days, or a week. The technici-ans are not certain."

"Well, when you resurrect a thousand-year-old machine there'll always be kinks to work out," Ashar said. "What you two have done here is amazing. I'd never thought I'd see the day."

Kayn hadn't either, at first. The task had seemed so enormous, the Star Forge so alien. Nonetheless, he'd thrown himself with ardor into the task. He'd studied Rakatan technology—or what traces were left in the Tythan system—all his life. Here he could work with an original specimen, and what a specimen it was. As he explored the behemoth he learned more and more, and with learning became confident the Force was moving him.

He'd needed that. Before coming to Idux, his mission at the Corellian system had ended in disaster. Worse, that disaster was his responsibility, because he'd been the sole Jedi Master present. His two knights, Jecca and Moorai, had clashed too much, and Kayn had never been able to knit a compromise between them. He might have been a Master, but he'd much rather manage machinery than people.

"I know more ships docked," Kayn said. "Are more Jedi on the way?"

Ashar shook his head. "Erakas took the Hand of Light to Idux. Jecca and Koltatha stayed behind."

"To guard Moralan?"

"Jecca's being hosted by the Moralan government," he said with slight regret. "Koltatha and the Noghri think they can help one of the resistance groups fighting the Hutts."

"Sounds like everyone has something to do," Kayn said, but it worried him. They were getting drawn out too thin, and a Jedi alone was vulnerable.

Vediah said, "Erakas wants to regroup and strategize. That's why he went ahead, to talk to Gedor."

"It sounds like he has something major planned."

"I don't know. But after Moralan… I think it's going to be harder to stay out of the spotlight."

There was warning in her eyes. The Jedi had accumulated more followers on Idux than Kayn had thought possible. Their deeds had earned them thousands of faithful, and they wielded more power than they had in Corellia. But they were still a mere speck against mighty empires. Not even the Star Forge guaranteed them safety and the more attention they drew, the more likely enemies were to strike.

Kayn had no solution to that problem. He hoped that, by mastering the Star Forge, he'd help Erakas and Gedor solve the greater puzzle.

-{}-

There was little left of Morning Star as Erakas had first found it. The town had numbered just a few hundred then, and its people lived in structures welded together from the wreckage of a crashed spaceship half-buried at the base of the mountain. There was almost nothing left of the ship, and what remained was occluded by the sprawl of new buildings. Beyond the town, just a kilometer from the mountain itself, were a trio of modest but functional landing facilities for incoming spacecraft. Docking towers rose from the flat, scorched-black launch pads like spindly rivals to the higher peak.

Over four thousand people lived in Morning Star now. It had a school for children, a market for food, wells and plumbing, a power station, and farmland on the outskirts. Life here was rugged but people had been coming with increasing numbers since the start of the war with the Hutts. They all held a belief in a Force they couldn't feel and waited for their chance to serve it.

Erakas ached for those people. Their faith was touching, their need heavy. They were a constant reminder of the responsibility of being a Jedi.

There was one thing that hadn't changed on Idux. That was its Prophet, the 'Old Man of the Mountain,' the enigmatic little alien called Gedor. Sometimes Gedor went among his growing flock to counsel and heal, but he spent most days in his hermitage halfway up the slope.

Shen had been born on this world. He said the Rakata called it 'Ossus,' which in their tongue meant 'Watchtower.' Maybe that was what Gedor was still doing on his mountainside: keeping watch.

The Hand of Light required no landing tower to set down on the plain outside the town. While Tam'pres and the others took care of the ship, Erakas made his way up the mountain. He and the Prophet had a lot to talk about.

He'd done this trip many times and knew the path by heart. He wished Gedor weren't so hermetic, but the hike had the advantage of being good exercise: his heart beat fast and his breaths were deep when he finally reached the mouth of the Prophet's cave.

He felt Gedor's presence, but his teacher could be elusive. Erakas found the cave empty and started looking outside when a voice called from further upslope.

"Lost something, have you?"

Erakas looked up to see the green, wrinkled, long-eared gnome seated on a higher ledge. "Only you."

"Then found me you have. Pillage my room, you need not."

"I wasn't pillaging," Erakas said as he made the final, thigh-aching trudge to Gedor's perch. "I swear, I didn't touch a thing."

"Hope so, I do. A poor guest you'd be to go poking through an empty home." Gedor shook his head in mock disappointment. "Teach you better manners, your Master did."

"Which is why I didn't touch a thing." Erakas said with a relieved smile. He'd felt the death of Master Sohr in the Force and grief had driven him to Idux in the first place, but that had been years ago and gaining a new teacher had been balm over the loss of the old one.

They sat side-by-side, looking out. Gedor's cave faced away from Morning Star and the landscape was brown and empty. The midday sun was sharp on his face, warm against the cool of the wind.

"So," Erakas began, "thanks for the help."

"Help I did," Gedor nodded, "but your miracle that was, not mine."

Yes, miracle. The Moralans were saying that and the word was spreading over the Empire too. Even Erakas, who'd been at the heart of things, had to use it.

"I left Jecca and Koltatha on Moralan. Koltatha is interested in working with a group of Niktos who fight against the Hutts. Vaatus is with them. I've told you about him."

"Yes. Their choice to stay, was it, or did you assign?"

"A little of both. I said someone should stay, so they volunteered."

Gedor nodded. "Good, that was."

"I expected Jecca to do it. Ashar wanted to stay too, but..."

"Forbid him, did you?"

"I told him I have a job for him back here." He sighed. "Now I need to figure out what that is."

Gedor looked down, saying nothing, hands in his lap.

Erakas had learned to read his silent treatments. "I'm not trying to break those two apart. I'm happy for them." At least, he wanted to be. It seemed natural that those two—both Jedi, both human, both eager to do valiant deeds—should become close. But looking at them, he was reminded of what he'd had, what he'd lost. What the Force hadn't allowed him to keep.

"Counsel you against your love, I once did," Gedor said. "Different, that was. Never could Reina understand what you are. The responsibility you carry. Through Ashar and Jecca both, the Force moves. And bind them close, I believe, it does."

Maybe he was right. When Erakas remembered Reina their happy times felt immaterial, his Jedi powers an insurmountable barrier. He tried not to dwell on Sohren, but he knew his dead son was always with him, like a shadow.

"So," he said, "you think I should have let both of them stay."

"I think your choice it was. Made it you have. No point in looking back now. Fatal that can be, for a leader."

Erakas had a hard time thinking of himself as a leader. In his heart he was still a student who needed a teacher to guide him. He didn't know what would have become of him if he'd not found Gedor.

"Well, I couldn't have left three of them at Moralan," Erakas decided. "That's too much."

"Your choice it was," Gedor repeated. "At the Star Forge Shen and Kayn are now, testing it."

Erakas straightened. "You mean they've gotten it working? The, ah… refueling?"

"Sip up starfire to fill its belly. Yes, refueling."

"I already sent Ashar and Vediah there..." Erakas looked pointlessly at the blue sky and found the urge to race back to the Hand of Light. He'd wanted to be there for himself, to see and experience it.

But a part of being a leader, as Gedor reminded, was trusting others to do their jobs.

"Do you think…. they'll be okay?"

"Their success, I do not doubt."

He looked at Gedor. "You've felt it in the Force? Or have you… seen it?" They called him the Prophet but his nature as a seer had always been vague.

"Both. Neither." Gedor shrugged. "Certain I am. Doubt me, do you, with your flimsy child's grasp of the Force?"

He said it with a crooked smile and Erakas laughed. "Didn't someone teach you manners growing up?"

"Try they did. Stick it did not," Gedor chortled.

"You were a problem child, then? That's a revelation."

"Nonsense. A disgustingly adorable child I was. Spread far and wide was my fame. Weak-kneed and cooing were even the grumpiest adults. Emblazoned my face on everything they did, to bask in my cuteness." He wiggled his long ears.

"I'm having trouble seeing it," Erakas chuckled, but he had to wonder. Gedor said so little about himself and where he'd come from, though he implied his people had been wiped out in some calamity. Erakas didn't pry at grief; even now, they'd never discussed his son.

"Tell me then," Gedor said seriously, "what next do you plan?"

"If they can refuel the Star Forge, we can start making ships again. The more ships we get crewed and flying, the more we can send to the war."

"And then what?"

That was the question. The Jedi couldn't stand by and do nothing as two giant empires clashed, but they'd never match those empires either. When he, Essan, and Master Talyak left Tython all those years ago, they'd each wondered what the Force was really capable of, how much good it would do in the vastness of galaxy. He felt like he was within reach of an answer but wasn't sure he'd like it.

"We just saved a planet," he told Gedor, "but more worlds will burn if we don't stop the fighting entirely."

"Agreed. But how to accomplish that?"

He peered at Erakas like he expected an obvious answer from his pupil, but the Jedi had none to give. "I don't know," he admitted, "but the more people we have out there, the more good we can do."

Gedor—often inscrutable—showed disappointment. "Ruled by numbers, Empire are. By resources, supplies, bodies and bombs. More than empires are we. Our power comes from the Force, the lifeblood of the universe. Think in its terms you must."

That was sage advice. If only he knew what to do with it. "I'll brainstorm when I can, Master. I should go check on the town. See if they can get a line to the Star Forge."

"Do what you must. Know where to find me, you do."

And that was that. Erakas rose on wobbly legs, straightened, then began a slow descent, leaving the old man to his mountain.

-{}-

After losing his flagship Scimitar to Dojundo the Desolator at the First Battle of Vontor, Xim had spared nothing in construct-ing a replacement. The Deathknell was a third against the size of the previous ship, with improved weapons and armor. In a direct battle, not even the best chelandion could compare.

Nonetheless, Essan felt palpable insecurity from the ship's crew. The victory at Moralan had brought a fresh wave of confidence, but now they were remembering what had nearly happened, and the kind of fight they'd face once they pushed off from Barancar.

As usual, Essan's hemiolia coupled at the airlock nearest Deathknell's command section, and she was escorted down short empty hall by twin war robots so as not to be seen by the regular crew. Nonetheless, she could feel anxiety beyond the bulkheads. It was simply that strong.

The robots took her to the cabin she used during extended stays on the Deathknell. It was spacious compared to the Gravity Scorned or the hemiolia, but it was still cool, plain, and impersonal.

And today, Xim was waiting for her.

As soon as she stepped inside the door closed behind her, sealing her in the small space with the emperor of all mankind. He normally brought this robot bodyguards to these meetings, but there was no room for metal goliaths here. She wondered how much he really trusted her, to be alone with her like this.

This was not the same man she'd met five years ago aboard Indrexu's Stormrider. His face and body had grown even leaner; bags were carved under his eyes, creases between nose and mouth. Short, bristly brown hair was increasingly mixed with gray. Xim was just over fifty, and while he didn't look old for his age he did look severe. Five decades of strife had finally caught up with him.

Nonetheless, his voice was knife-sharp. "I'm glad you wrapped up your expedition. Tell me you found something useful and that it wasn't just a diversion."

She hadn't expected him to be this blunt; it knocked her off-balance. "I didn't make any connection with the other Sith, if that's what you mean. Your researchers can tell you more that I can. Have you read their reports?"

"I'm a busy man. I skimmed them."

"Then you might remember that the Sith have a long valley in which they inter dead kings. And that the oldest king has the biggest, grandest tomb.

"It sounds familiar. What was in the tomb?"

"The king's bodies."

He frowned "Plural?"

"According to the Sith, King Adas transferred his soul from body to body to prolong his life. When one grew old, the strongest boy was chosen from the populace to be his next vessel. He'd claimed his fourth one before being he died fighting by the Tyrants. It's left the Sith with a tradition of blood sacrifice."

Xim's scholars scoffed at the outrageous tale, but his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I've never heard of the Tyrants using their magic this way. Do your Jedi have this power?"

"What Adas committed was ritual murder. Jedi would never do that."

"But they did. You told me as much. In ancient times you were not the saints you pose as now."

"I've never heard of this power before. From anywhere."

"But you think it possible. Otherwise you'd not have brought it up."

She conceded his point. "I found… an object enshrined in the tomb. A device called a holocron, which records the images of its creator.… Think of it as an interactive teaching device. We had very similar ones in the Core. This one featured the image of King Adas."

"So you spoke with his digital ghost?"

"Something like that. It was… an interesting conversation."

"Did you bring it back?"

"The Sith consider it sacred. They would have never let me take it." She didn't need the Force to know what he was thinking. "Only a Force-user can activate the holocron. For you, or anyone else, it would just be a pretty bauble."

"I'll have my researchers confirm that," Xim grunted. "Well, what did you learn from this dead king? Anything to help against the Hutts?"

"I wasn't interested in the power he was offering."

His lip twitched a sneer. "Then you did waste your time. I was generous, letting you run off to Pesegam. Give me some-thing, Essan."

She exhaled. "I have a thought. Nothing more."

"Tell me."

"Adas claimed to have fought back the Rakata... but he said he learned his Force powers, including the stealing of bodies, from someone else, who'd come to Pesegam from the stars."

Xim raised a brow. "And?"

"He wasn't forthcoming. This was centuries ago. I thought of the Hutt's Demon."

That brow went a little higher. The Hutts had thrown off the Rakata, just like humans and Sith, but they also spoke of a so-called 'Demon' that had nearly destroyed the nascent civilization. Details were scarce, but the terrified and lofty way this enemy was mentioned had, to her, suggested a Force-user. Its name suggested a user of the dark side, but the Hutts were hardly reliable witnesses.

"Pesegam is a very long way from the Supremacy," Xim said thoughtfully. "The Tyrants managed to bridge it, but the Demon seems to have been separate from the Tyrants."

"It was just a thought."

"Your 'thought' is that your Force could be a weapon that drives even the Hutts to mortal terror. But you don't want to use it like that, because it's of the 'dark side,' which would corrupt you somehow." His voice was thick with disdain. "Well, if you change your mind at least you know where to go for a reeducation. Did you enjoy the company of your own people in the meantime?"

"My people are the Jedi. No one else."

"Good. It's your Jedi I wanted to talk about."

Now for the real hard part. "I heard about Moralan. I felt it too, and I did my best to help, even from Pesegam."

His expression softened. "After all this time you can still surprise me," he admitted. "So can your Jedi. Until now they've been a help half the time and an annoyance the rest… Jaminere's advised me to bomb Idux, you know. Several times."

"I assumed as much." Unlike Oziaf, the viceroy was quite transparent in the Force.

"I've warned him off because I knew you people can work miracles, and I was right. Five billion Moralans owe you their lives. You should be proud." He said it honestly, but added, "This also means you've crossed a line. You've gotten deeply involved in this war and you can't back out now. Do Erakas and your Prophet understand this?"

"I don't know. I haven't spoken to them."

"Then you should go to Idux and discuss it with them immediately. Your ship is prepping for relaunch as we speak."

She blinked. "What do you want me to say?"

"What do you think? I need them now, more than ever." He stepped so close his breath warmed her face. "They've tried to hold a line between Empire and Supremacy but that won't work any longer. I've made allowances for your people, but after Moralan the Hutts will not. You try to intervene again and the worms will vaporize you on sight."

"The Hutts don't even know who we are."

"Of course they do. They have spies all through the Empire. Alien interlopers, hired cowards, Admiral Krenn's traitors. The GenoHaradan is constantly rooting them out. They might not have bothered you so far, but they will."

"And because of that, we should throw in with you?"

"For your own protection."

"I suppose you want us to hand over the Star Forge too."

"Of course. But I'm being realistic. Even if I put a polyreme over Indux and threatened to bomb your Prophet to oblivion, you'd not give it up. You're too noble, too self-sacrificing. But you will lend the Empire your services for my next campaign."

"You're very sure of yourself," she said. But he wasn't. His tone was fierce, but she could sense the cracks. Xim was terrified the Jedi might refuse him but he needed them on his side. Anything less meant failure and the annihilation of his empire. Everything he said and did was a performance above that yawning abyss.

He'd been like this since the Mutiny and Indrexu's death, and the cracks only got wider with time.

"I have no idea if Erakas is even on Idux," she said.

"He departed Moralan on a course for the Tion, leaving two Jedi with the Moralans. One human woman and an alien male. If he's not back on Idux now, he will be soon. You will make an argument to him and your Prophet."

"And what exactly will I argue? That if we don't help you exterminate the Hutts, the Hutts will exterminate mankind?"

"Mankind and the cult you've been growing on Idux."

She sighed. The worst part was, he might be right. "What kind of 'help' are you expecting?"

"I'm not asking you to become soldiers, though I wish you would. You'd be defending planets. Defending people. Lifting the spirits of my men while crushing the enemy's. Yes, I know the Hutts resist your mind control, but you can influence their minions. Don't claim this is beyond you. I know you can do this, and more."

Essan bowed her head. She'd been expecting this moment for years; in a way it was a relief to have it here.

"All right," she said. "I'll take the hemiolia, then go down to Idux alone. I'll make your case to whatever Jedi are there."

"Good. The hemliolia will take you to the Termagant, and she will carry you to Idux."

"The Termagant?" Her jaw dropped. That was a Thanium polyreme, four hundred meters long and bristling with weapons. "You said—"

"I'm not threatening you," he said with a nasty smile. "The Termagant will remain over Idux for your own protection. As I said, the worms may consider you a target now."

"The Jedi won't negotiate with a gun in their face."

"It won't be in their face. It will be far, far above them. Just to remind them of the seriousness of the situation." He tilted his head. "Don't get righteous, Witch. You've been dangling a sword over my head for years."

"The Star Forge is not a weapon."

"That you can say that with a straight face makes me wonder if you Jedi aren't fools after all. The Termagant will take you to Idux, you will speak with your fellow magicians, and when you're done, you will return to me with companions in tow. And if your Prophet hasn't seen that coming for years, he's not much of a seer."

He sounded certain, but there were so many cracks inside. The cracks made him all the more dangerous.

Essan closed eyes, breathed deep, and begged the Force to be with her. Then she looked into Xim's harsh face and said, "All right. I'll do it."

-{}-

Morning Star was good news all around. Erakas checked in with various townspeople first, including the former Yutuski policewoman who'd been elected mayor last year. By the time he got to the communications building he had a message waiting. Master Kayn beamed as he reported a fully successful operation on the Star Forge and added that he'd be coming to Idux soon with other Jedi.

After that, Erakas went back to the Hand of Light. Tam'pres was still there, completing extra repairs and system checks, even though he'd given the Tythan ship a good review at Moralan. He was barely twelve standard years old but Saheel-indeeli had shorter lifespans than humans, and for his race he was a full adult. Conscientious, precise, and absolutely devoted to the Jedi cause, he reminded Erakas of his father, sometimes too much.

Pres'carn had been the one to bring him to Idux in the first place. He'd also been the first Iduxian to die fighting for the Jedi cause, but hardly the last. Six had been lost at Moralan alone. It wasn't easy to have people fight and die in your name, but some deaths were inevitable, even necessary. He consoled himself with the belief that he, too, would give up anything if the Force willed it.

Still, that was no reason to let Tam'pres do all the work. As the sun went down over Morning Star, Erakas rolled up his sleeves and started to help the Saheelindeel. They had their faces in an engine access panel when Restiin said piped in, saying, "Hey, we've got a couple ships inbound."

Erakas pulled back from the machinery. "I thought we didn't have anyone scheduled. Do we have room on the pads?"

"I don't think they're that kind of ships."

Erakas wiped grease off his face as he hurried for the Hand's exit. For years he'd known Morning Star was vulnerable, and if Xim wanted them wiped out there was nothing to be done about it. But he couldn't believe they'd be attacked now, after saving Moralan.

When he joined Restiin in the gloom and looked at the lights, he wasn't sure what he was seeing. They were growing slowly brighter, signifying an approach, but he heard no engine-roar. Then he remembered another twilight over Morning Star, another approach by another strangely quiet ship.

He stood beside that first ship now.

Hope outran shock. Erakas sprinted across the dark plain, pulled his lightsaber from his belt, and ignited it. He waved the glowing blade as a landing beacon. Both lights grew brighter. He felt hot air wash over him and heard the hum of repulsors in action. As the ships maneuvered to land they cast their lights upon each other to show their smoothly curved hulls, the flat mandibles extending past the broad cockpit windows, the metal feet extended for soft landing.

Minutes later three Jedi starships rested side-by-side, a neat ordered row.

Restiin, Tam'pres, and various townspeople were gathering at the site, but all kept a careful distance from the arrivals. Landing ramps lowered and beings began to file out. The ship closest to Erakas disgorged two humans, a twin-horned Devaronian, a brown-furred Cathar, a Selkath of mottled blues and greens…

A similar exodus emerged from the second ship. The arrivals, though outwardly disparate, had two things in common. All bore traditional swords of Tythan steel at their belts, and all exuded the wonder of Jedi who'd found a homecoming.

When he saw a six-limbed, thick-tailed, pale-furred Talid descend from the second ship, Erakas broke into a sprint.

"Master!" he called. "Master Talyak!"

Mal-Oba Talyak turned. His eyes went wide, then his four arms spread wider. As he skidded to a stop Erakas thought the Jedi Master, always so reserved, might embrace him; instead Talyak folded both pairs of hands and made a deep bow.

"It is an honor and a pleasure to see you after so many years," Talyak said in Tythan.

Erakas spun on one heel, taking in the Jedi milling about. So many faces, a few half-familiar, most of them strangers but still brothers and sisters in the Force. He spun back to Talyak and said, "This is amazing. How many are here?"

"Thirty-three," the Talid said. "Most Jedi Knights, a few Masters. The fruit of travels far and wide." He added a weary smile. "All of us, here to help."