Chapter Sixteen
BASTILA
Despite her exertions of the day before, Aithne was ready to return to the Council early the morning after her trials. Bastila had risen before her, of course. She had finished her breakfast and was onto her second cup of tea by the time Aithne emerged into the main hold dressed in a belted, sleeveless rust-red tunic, with khaki arm bindings and leggings. The colors and style suited her somewhat better than yesterday's plainer fare. Her hair was plaited back away from her face at the top and sides but left to tumble freely down her back, and there was another, smaller braid pinned atop the larger. Alas, Bastila did not think any one master had bound it there, accepting this one as a pupil for however brief a time. There was a sad shortage of teachers nowadays. Like Bastila after her master had been slain aboard Revan's flagship, Aithne would have to serve as Padawan to the Order as a whole. But even if there had been teachers aplenty, Bastila wondered if any Jedi would have been willing to risk Aithne Moran as a Padawan, as desperately as they all needed her.
She would begin to address that need today. "Eat quickly, please," Bastila told Aithne. "We have been ordered to the Council for assignment."
"You'd think they would have seen enough of me lately," Aithne said, and before Bastila could rebuke her, the golden eyes flashed up and caught hers. "Relax, Bastila. I'm almost done. You think the Council would let us bring help out to the ruins today? Yesterday made for a nice change, but everyone around here has been bored to tears lately."
"Hear, hear!" Mission piped up from her seat next to Aithne.
Bastila hesitated, twisting her hands. "I don't know," she said.
"It might be nice if one of us could go to keep informed of the situation," Carth said, rather too casually to be believed.
Aithne glanced at him. "Carth, would you like to come along with me and Bastila?" she asked, as if responding to his cue.
"Well, it is my assignment from the Republic," Carth told them.
"Oh, don't even ask me," Mission said, folding her arms and pretending to pout, but when Aithne turned to her, the child grinned and waved a hand. "Please. It's fine. I wanna do some more reading anyway. Later me and Big Z will probably go out shooting more kath hounds with Canderous."
The Wookiee glanced at Aithne for release, and she nodded her agreement. "Just don't be too disappointed if they aren't as aggressive, or there aren't as many. We've beat them pretty bad the past few weeks and got rid of a nasty stressor in the immediate area."
"Take a shield anyway," Carth advised, and when Mission started to turn violet, he swept his gaze over to include the Wookiee. "Both of you."
"We should fully equip as well," Bastila said. "Doubtless the Council intends to send us to the ruins Aithne and I dreamed of, and we should be prepared for whatever may await us."
"Gotcha," Carth agreed. Aithne said nothing, but she threw a fruit rind into the ship's compactor and did move to obey. It was nice to know she was not always pert and insubordinate.
The Council was waiting for them when they arrived, talking among themselves when Bastila, Carth, and Aithne walked in. Before they were within earshot, however, the talk all ceased, proof positive it had been about them, or, more likely, about Aithne. No doubt she herself would realize this. Bastila did wish the Council had been somewhat more circumspect about their doubts the first day they had arrived. Aithne had been suspicious of the Jedi since before their arrival, thanks to Carth, and perhaps to other factors that were actually working in their favor, but since they had arrived, Bastila had sensed a wholly new wariness and apprehension within her feelings. It was mostly self-directed, and again, could possibly work in their favor, putting Aithne on guard against her inner Darkness, but it could easily backfire as well.
Vandar opened the conversation. "It is good to see Juhani has returned to the way of the Light," he told Aithne. "You are to be commended for your role in this. Your actions give us great hope for the future. Your training is now complete, young Padawan, and perhaps now it is time we dealt with the matter of the dream you and Bastila shared."
Actually, within the ranks of the Order, attaining the rank of Padawan did not mean that one's training was complete, only that one progressed to a stage of learning best accomplished within the field, outside the walls of the Jedi academies. Padawans were considered full members of the Jedi Order, yes, but they were always supervised, guided until the day they passed a new trial to become true Jedi Knights. Aithne knew this, but to Bastila's great relief, she did not choose this moment to prove she knew Master Vandar had misspoken. She simply bowed and waited.
"When we heard of the ruins in your dreams," Master Tokare continued, speaking to them both now, "Master Dorak recognized it as one of a series of ancient structures here on Dantooine. This one in particular lies to the east of the Enclave. We sent a Jedi to investigate . . . but he has not returned. Perhaps sending him in the first place was a mistake." Master Tokare paused, and Bastila felt his sadness within the Force. "The Force is guiding your visions; it may be that exploring the ruins is a task tied to your destiny. That is why the Council has decided you should be the one to investigate this. The secrets to stopping Malak may be hidden in those ruins. You must investigate them and find what Revan and Malak were looking for."
"You mean that thing that had Malak convinced the two of them could never return to the Jedi Order and might have been tied to their fall to the Dark Side," Aithne said, face neutral. "That thing?"
"Yes. That thing," Master Lamar said, eyes flashing with irritation.
"You two must travel to the ruins together," Master Tokare said. "There is a powerful link between you, and you will need to draw strength from each other during the trials ahead."
That was partially true—the Council did not believe Aithne Moran could now attain the information they would require without her bond to Bastila, and it was possible that Bastila would be unable to withstand the strain of what they were to face without her bond to Aithne. But the Council also wanted to make sure Aithne Moran was aware of the importance of keeping Bastila as near to her as possible. She was to serve as an early warning system in case Aithne Moran fell to the Dark Side, and hopefully an anchor that bound her to the Light. They had impressed upon Bastila privately how crucial the link she had forged with Aithne Moran was to her task—she would be the first to recognize anything at all amiss with Aithne, not only those things which might be apparent to anyone, and their bond might also give her more sway with Aithne than anyone else could have. The difficulty was, of course, accomplishing this part of her task without Aithne realizing. The woman was cleverer than Bastila, more experienced, and stronger with the Force. The Council had said she must never forget this, and indeed, Bastila had seen for herself that she must not.
Even now, Aithne was looking intently at the Council. "Trials. Plural. Do you want to give me a hint as to what comes after Bastila and I investigate the—"
But then the chamber doors burst open, and an angry, middle-aged human male strode in, despite the protests of the apprentice outside. "I demand justice!" the man cried out. "The Sandral family is a blight upon Dantooine! They must be punished!"
Master Tokare seemed displeased, but he answered the man wan with patience and kindness. "The Council will look into this matter, Mr. Matale. You must be patient. Your accusations have no proof, and we do not want you stirring up trouble with the Sandrals if there is some mistake."
"Mistake?" Matale demanded, outraged, "My son Shen is missing! How can there be any doubt the Sandrals are to blame?"
Bastila sighed. It was possible the situation between the Sandrals and the Matales had indeed escalated to kidnapping. It was a blood feud in the making if she had ever seen one, but if the Sandrals were not to blame for Shen's recent disappearance and Matale acted, the feud would break out for sure. Master Tokare explained this. "There are other possible explanations for your son's disappearance."
"Bah!" spat Matale. "You Jedi are good for nothing but talk! I shall only wait so long before I take action on my own!"
At that, he stormed out of the Council Chamber with as much rudeness as he had entered.
Master Tokare seemed troubled. "As dangerous as the threat from Darth Malak and the Sith may be," he said, "we Jedi cannot simply abandon our other responsibilities. The Council has promised Ahlan Matale we will look into his son's disappearance. Should you have time, Padawans, you may want to investigate this matter."
"I don't know," Aithne muttered, "Is Shen Matale politer than his daddy?" Carth smiled at this, and Bastila intervened before their banter could start up again.
"Yes, in fact, though I fail to see what bearing that should have on whether he is abandoned to kidnap or a fate that is possibly worse."
Aithne looked annoyed. "You really know how to kill a joke, Bas," she remarked. She bowed to the Council. "We'll see what we can find out."
Master Lamar explained the significance of the Matale-Sandral relations upon Dantooine. "The Jedi are not a cloistered order," he added. "Our influence and teachings must spread beyond the walls of our academies. It is in the real world that we truly prove ourselves worthy of the title 'Jedi.' You would do well to remember this, young Padawan," he finished.
"Not to mention that I wouldn't mind getting out of this enclave for a while," Carth put in. "I mean, c'mon, how bad could it be?"
"Potential blood feud?" Aithne answered, with a look. "Bad. But never mind. Jedi intervention: not okay until it is. Got it. Carth, Bastila, let's go."
As the three of them left the enclave, Aithne asked her about the dream. She was somewhat guarded as she did so, and Bastila felt she could hazard a guess as to why. Any knowledge they gained of Revan and Malak might prove . . . problematic. She would have to handle this with care. "It was less of a dream and more of a vision," Bastila said, "a vision the two of us shared. But I am certainly willing to answer any questions the Council did not."
"Careful with those promises, Bas," Aithne murmured. "I may have more questions than you are willing to answer." As she spoke, Bastila felt a slight pressure on the shields between their minds, then an awareness pushed deliberately across their link from Aithne. She looked sharply at the taller woman, and Aithne merely raised her eyebrows.
As irritating as Aithne's levity could be, her mockery of every small flaw and fallacy she detected, it was these moments of seriousness and terrifying insight that were the more unnerving, Bastila thought. "Very well, perhaps I should clarify," she said. "I will answer any questions that I can, both within the bounds of my own knowledge and my authority from the Council."
She felt a brief flicker of contempt, but also gratitude for the honesty. Unfortunately, she also saw Carth focus in upon their conversation. She wished desperately that she and Aithne were in private. Letting Aithne know only as much as she needed to know would be difficult enough without having to consider the suspicions of Carth Onasi and his own bond with Aithne Moran, how the two of them could compare notes later and get even further than either could get independently. She wished she had grounds to request a new liaison from the Republic, or none at all, but there was no way for her to do this without doing more harm than good.
"Let's start, then," Aithne said, "with why you believe that we shared this vision."
"Are you wondering why we shared the vision?" Bastila asked, "Or why we even received it in the first place? To the first, I can only repeat the answer that the Council told us. Our fates are linked, and for two as strong as we are in the Force that amounts to a near physical bond." Again, it was a partial truth. She relied upon that to shield her, for the time being. The lie would be more difficult. "As for the second, I don't truly have an answer for you. The Force works as it will, and perhaps we should be grateful for what we have been given."
Aithne pursed her lips. "Next question, then. Do you buy the Council's line that our bond started at the swoop track?" Her eyes were keen.
"How else do you imagine it originated?" Bastila bluffed. "Believe me, I certainly don't find the prospect of being joined to you to be enjoyable in any fashion."
Aithne smiled at that. "Oh, you're breaking my heart, Bas," she murmured.
Bastila flushed, but better Aithne's mind had moved to crude insinuations than her imagination to the other ways their bond could have originated. "Please forgive me. I did not mean to imply that you are repulsive in any sense of the word," she said. "That we shared something so personal is just not something I'm used to."
"Well, now that we've established we're not homophobic in any sense of the word," Aithne murmured, mouth twitching, and when Bastila opened her mouth to stutter another protest, she groaned. "No, Bastila, I don't want you. We can just be friends, and our bond kinda freaks me out too. Okay? We good?"
Bastila couldn't help her gaze from sliding to Carth, who looked like he was making a valiant effort not to laugh. How she wished he wasn't here! He caught her eye, closed his eyes, and lost his battle, letting loose a low chuckle. And she was flaming with embarrassment.
Of course, that was the moment when Aithne decided to push her on the immediate topic again. "So—you've said you don't know, but I'm going to invite you to speculate: why do you think we dreamed of Revan and Malak?"
Bastila tried to collect herself, looking ahead at the ruins now rising up on the horizon. "Perhaps because we desired to. Perhaps because they came to this planet and were strong enough in the Force to leave a . . . a trace."
She kept her shields up, her mind focused solely upon the line of the broken stones against the rising sun, but she could sense all Aithne's attention upon her and everything she wasn't saying once again.
"And you don't find it a bit convenient the pair of us are dreaming about the lords of the Sith?"
Bastila rounded on her. "What else should we dream about except that which is most important to our fate? We dreamed about Revan and Malak either because we were meant to or because we needed to. There is no other way to look at it."
"Don't limit yourself to multiple-choice solutions," Aithne advised her, looking ahead herself now. "Cuts out all the both-and options and any multilateral thinking." Once again, Bastila could feel that terrifying awareness from the other side of the bond, could feel Aithne letting her feel it. She did not think Aithne had guessed the truth—but Aithne knew that she lied. "We'll leave it for now. Don't want to push your ability to speculate on origins of visions and powers you don't understand or your loyalty to the Council too far for one day."
Beside them, Carth's eyes had narrowed, and he was gazing between them as though he understood some of what Aithne was implying, even without access to the Force bond between her and Bastila.
"What do you think Revan and Malak were doing?" Aithne asked then, in a welcome change of subject.
"I have no idea. It was obviously important, however."
"Yeah, the whole 'if we pass through this door we can never go back' bit was rather ominous," remarked Aithne.
"And that is why we must investigate this further. Is that all you wished to know?"
"And we're back here again," Aithne sighed. "No. It's not all I want to know. It's so far from all I want to know I don't even know where to start. But it's all I think you're going to tell me, at least for now. And it's perhaps all I'm ready to hear."
That last sentence showed a self-awareness that was paradoxically as comforting as it was deeply troubling. As was Carth's decision to interject at this point. "You don't think we should maybe explore this more?" he asked.
"I get the feeling if I poke this more now, this is the kind of thing that either starts bleeding or gets broken," Aithne answered. "Since a good portion of it is happening in our heads—" she gestured between them— "I'm okay not taking it as far as I could, for now."
"Well, that's fair," Carth admitted. "Guess it's a better idea not to mess too much with the effects the Force and freaky Force bonds can have on minds—or yank too hard on where a bond like yours and Bastila's started. Still—it's . . . it's a little strange."
"Agreed," Aithne said shortly. She nodded her head at the path ahead. "Kath hounds."
Her intervention in the grove the day before had definitely had a positive impact. It was the first time they had encountered the kath this morning. Within the next two minutes, they had passed the kath hounds and through the pillars which marked the entrance to the ruin they had dreamed of. Aithne stared at a massive black door made of a metal difficult to identify.
"There doesn't seem to be a keypad," Bastila said.
"I don't see any handle," Carth seconded.
Aithne walked up to the door. She ran her fingers over it and closed her eyes. Then, she depressed a button in its very center. The door divided into columns and separated like teeth, retreating into the floor and ceiling of the ruin.
Aithne led the way into a low, wide hall, in surprisingly good repair. There was another door like the first at the end of the corridor. When they opened it, they were faced with an ancient, corroded droid. It was shoulder height, with four long, sharp legs. Its central processing unit turned with a shriek of unoiled metal and spoke in a groaning shriek impossible to comprehend.
Aithne turned to Bastila. Bastila spread her hands.
"What language is that?" Aithne ventured at last. "What are you trying to say?"
The droid clicked and whirred for a few seconds. Then it began speaking again, this time in a whining growl similar to Shyriiwook but far enough removed to be unintelligible.
Aithne looked back at Bastila. "Get anything there?"
"I think the droid is trying to communicate with us by cycling through a variety of ancient languages," Bastila guessed. "Each time it spoke it was using a very different alien dialect. The droid can probably understand us. The only problem is it may not have been programmed with the phenomes of a language we can understand."
/I can reproduce any of the languages spoken by the slaves of the Builders,/ said the droid in a gurgling croak.
Aithne straightened. "Droid, I understood that."
"I recognize this language as well," Bastila said.
"That makes two of you," grumbled Carth.
"It is an archaic variant of the Selkath dialect spoken on Manaan," Bastila explained. "The droid claims it was a language spoken by the slaves of the Builders, whoever they were. Why would a droid on Dantooine be programmed to speak ancient Selkath?"
/Communication was vital to ensure that the slaves constructed this temple according to the wishes of the Builders,/ the droid answered. Behind Bastila, Aithne translated in an undertone for Carth. /But you are not of the slave species,/ the droid continued, turning its processing unit so its ancient sensors faced Aithne. /You are like the one who came before./
"The droid must be referring to Revan," Bastila mused. "The Dark Lord and Malak most likely encountered this droid when they explored these ruins."
Aithne's face twisted. "Any particular reason why I'm like—" she began, under her breath, then cut off. "Never mind. Droid, what are you? Why are you here?"
/I am the Overseer,/ the droid replied. /The Builders programmed me to enforce discipline among the slaves while this monument to the power of the Star Forge was constructed. At project completion all slaves were executed. I was reprogrammed to serve should a Builder ever return to search for knowledge of the Star Forge./
"And how long have you been here?" Aithne wanted to know.
/My chronological circuits have marked over ten full revolutions of this system's outermost planet around its sun since the Builders left,/ the droid answered.
Bastila calculated the time in her head in a moment. "Ten revolutions—that would take more than twenty thousand years! If this is true, then this droid is nearly five thousand years older than the Republic itself! There must be some mistake."
Carth whistled. And the droid answered, /There is no mistake. The Builders constructed my chronological circuitry using the technology of the Star Forge itself. My calculations are infallible./
Aithne's face was a study. "Who are these Builders you keep talking about?" she asked.
/The Builders are the great masters of the galaxy, the conquerors of all worlds, the rulers of the Infinite Empire, and the creators of the Star Forge,/ the droid said.
A list of titles appropriate to the creators of a slaveholding, monument-constructing empire, but ultimately meaningless. The droid might not have been programmed with any information to answer Aithne's question. "These Builders must have been an extinct people," Bastila said, "though it is strange there is no record of their existence. Even the archives at the Jedi Academy make no mention of them. In the years before the Republic, the Hutts were a dominant force in the galaxy, but they never constructed an empire. In fact, I know of no species that would fit this description."
"Neither do I," Aithne answered. "Just because we don't know about them doesn't mean they never existed. I've seen some pretty strange things. Maybe something happened to wipe out the Builders and their records."
The droid objected. /The Empire of the Builders is infinite and everlasting. None can stand against their might and the power of the Star Forge./
Aithne put her hands upon her hips. "Well, have you seen a Builder recently?" she asked the droid.
The droid skittered about on its claws for a few seconds. /I have been here ever since the completion of this monument. In all this time, no Builder has returned to seek information on the Star Forge./
"If a Builder doesn't seek information on the Star Forge, can you provide it to other species?" Aithne asked.
/Now that the slaves are gone, my purpose is to aid those who seek knowledge of the Star Forge,/ the droid confirmed. /If they are worthy./
"Okay, before we get into the questions of who's worthy and who's not and how they prove that, can you tell us what a Star Forge is?" Aithne asked.
/The Star Forge is the glory of the Builders, the apex of their Infinite Empire. It is a machine of invincible might, a tool of unstoppable conquest,/ the droid answered.
Another list of titles. They waited for the droid to continue, when it did not, Aithne looked at it. "You're just the propaganda poster, aren't you? You don't really know what it is."
The droid started speaking again. /The . . . the Star Forge is the glory of the Builders, the apex of their Infinite Empire. It is a machine of invincible might, a tool of unstoppable conquest./
"I believe you are correct about the extent of the Overseer's programming," Bastila told Aithne. "The Star Forge sounds as though it could be a kind of weapon, though in fact it could be anything."
Aithne wrinkled her nose. "If 'Forge' is the correct translation, I doubt it's a weapon as such. More likely, it's a means of producing them."
"Maybe," Bastila agreed, her mind going to the strange design of many of Revan and Malak's ships, weapons, and armor since the war had begun. "That might explain how the Sith were able to amass a fleet so quickly. But I suspect the Star Forge is more powerful than a mere factory. Maybe the droid has more information we can use. It seems to respond to you; perhaps you should ask it something else."
Aithne leveled a look at her, and Bastila detected a reluctance across their bond. But Aithne made no protest. Instead, she turned back to the droid. "Let's get back to what aid you can provide. What's this about worthiness?"
/The ones who came before you—the ones like you, not Builders, but not slaves—sought knowledge of the Star Forge and its origins. They proved themselves worthy. They discovered the secrets of the Star Forge locked beyond the sealed door behind me./ The droid turned its sensors to another door immediately opposite them. /But there was another who failed to unlock the secrets and paid the ultimate price./
Bastila then saw a corpse lying in a shadowed corner. She walked over to it, steeling herself against the tiny insects that had already begun to feed upon the flesh. She rolled the body over, repulsed as her hands made imprints within the corpse's robed arms. And then she recognized the body. It was severely burned, charred on one side almost beyond recognition. But beneath the busily working scavengers on the unburned side were the features of a human Jedi Knight she knew.
"It is Nemo," she told the others. "The Council sent him here to investigate, and it cost him his life. This saddens me. He was kind to me when I was just a youngling."
Using the Force, she pushed the insects away from the body and put the corpse into Stasis, freezing it so it could not be defiled further.
"We'll report his death when we return to the Council," Carth said. "They can send a speeder and a team back for the body."
Bastila stood and went to rejoin the others. Aithne reached out and squeezed her arm. She said nothing, but a sensation of strength, sympathy, and comfort flowed across their bond. Aithne faced the droid. "What can we do to prove ourselves worthy?"
/Enter the proving grounds to the East and West,/ the droid commanded. /Within them, those who understand the will of the Builders can unlock the secrets and open the doors. But those who fail will be destroyed by the power of the temple itself. More than this, I am not programmed to say./
Bastila looked at Aithne. "Revan and Malak unlocked the sealed door and uncovered the secrets of the Star Forge," she said. "Now Malak must be using the Star Forge to fuel his conquest of the Republic. We have to find out what they uncovered. We have to find a way to unseal these doors to learn more about the Star Forge! The Republic is depending on us!"
Aithne looked back at her. She waited a moment. "You done?" she said then. She sighed, then muttered. "Enemy intelligence. I could've done this without the Jedi training. Come on, then."
She unhooked her lightsaber from her belt and walked away from Bastila toward the room to the west.
A droid that looked much like the Overseer was waiting there. Unfortunately, this droid was not programmed to assist them but to test them. Bastila knew within moments how Nemo had died. A lightsaber defense was no good at all against a flamethrower. Bastila and Aithne were instead obliged to use the Force in acrobatics to dodge the flames and the droid's sharpened legs, moving to the rear and the side of wherever the droid aimed its flame. But soon they found that the metal the droid was made of, like Mandalorian beskar, was invulnerable to the beams of their lightsabers. Only Carth's blaster fire made any impact.
"Carth! Vibroblade!" Aithne shouted, somersaulting under a gout of flame and kicking out at a spindly leg to strike the droid off its balance. "Or a blaster! Anything!"
Fortunately, it had become common practice for Carth to carry at least one extra weapon within his pack at all times. It took another feverish seconds of leaping out of the droid's sights, able to rotate 360 degrees around its body, but a vibroblade came sailing from the doorway. Carth had thrown it at where Aithne had just been rather than the place she had been forced to move to, but she caught it with the Force and switched the vibrational field on. The droid's protective shielding was not built to resist the thrust of the vibroblade's point into its joints and, indeed, the spout of its flamethrower weapon itself. In another tense few moments, Aithne had dismembered the relic and left its exploded central processing unit sparking on the ground.
She stared down at it for a moment. "Are there any other barbarian weapons in your pack, Onasi?" she asked.
"I got a spare ion blaster," Carth offered, holding it up.
Without a word, Aithne passed her vibroblade over to Bastila and accepted the blaster herself. Bastila appreciated the gesture. Indeed, when she was not wielding her lightsaber, she was better trained with melee weapons than she was with firearms. "There's probably another one of these on the other side," Aithne explained. She nodded at the vibroblade. "I want that back."
"Of course," Bastila agreed.
Aithne regarded the ancient console past the remains of the broken droid. It hummed with power, but the symbols upon the keys were all corroded, worn away, or incomprehensible. Aithne pressed a key regardless.
Strange words filled the screen, although the dust made them difficult to make out regardless of the different alphanumeric characters. At the same time, a voice spoke in a language none of them recognized. "Spoken and written components," Aithne observed.
As soon as she had said it, the computer whirred and beeped. Suddenly, a tray shot out, a receptacle of sorts. "The computer seems to want something from me," Aithne said.
"I think it's trying to convert to our language," said Bastila. "Just like the Overseer back there."
"Why don't you give it a datapad or something?" suggested Carth.
Aithne shrugged. She did customarily carry the party's intelligence reserves. She shouldered her pack off her back, rummaged through it, and selected what seemed to be a novel. She placed it into the receptacle. The tray withdrew back into the computer, and the computer seemed to process.
New characters appeared on the screen. These were letters and numerals recognizably in Basic, but the words were nonsense.
"It wasn't enough," Aithne said. She studied the display. "How can I help you understand me?" she asked.
Suddenly, the tray containing her datapad shot out once more. "Language conversion complete," said the computer in perfect Basic. Aithne retrieved her datapad and studied the characters on the screen.
"It's asking me about life-bearing worlds." She wrinkled her nose. "The droid guardian was a challenge, but this—it's a multiple-choice quiz. A five-year-old could pass it."
"Would you prefer access to the knowledge we require to be unobtainable?" Bastila asked, amused.
"Intellectually challenging to obtain, anyway," Aithne grumbled. She pressed a few keys. "Alright. The door past the Overseer has two seals. I've just opened the first one. Let's go face the proving chamber on the other side."
The second guardian attacked them with an ice beam instead of a flamethrower, but the fight was otherwise much the same. It progressed more smoothly with all three of them attacking with weapons the droid was vulnerable to, however. The ion blaster in particular proved effective. Aithne had another conversation with a console that was exactly like the first and answered another question—this time about barren worlds.
Aithne pressed the final keys. "And . . . second seal unlocked. Secrets of the Star Forge, prepare to yield to my power."
Bastila cringed. "Does it ever occur to you that some topics are not appropriate ones for levity?" she asked.
"I usually make jokes about them," Aithne answered, and Bastila sensed a sort of grim resolve as well as a kind of vindictiveness and nonrepentance from the other side of their bond. Aithne was not pleased to be here doing this, and indeed was harboring a level of apprehension equal to or greater to Bastila's own, Bastila realized. She was taking what vengeance she could by being deliberately unpleasant and provocative.
As they fell in line behind Aithne, Carth muttered, "Nice that I'm not the one she's mad at for a change."
"For you, perhaps."
"You want to tell me just what it was you did?"
"No."
They were now standing on the very spot Revan and Malak had stood at the start of their path down to the Dark. Bastila recognized it from their vision, and she was reciting the Code inside her mind to bridle her growing feelings of dread. But where Revan had hesitated, letting the tension build, savoring it like a delicacy, Aithne simply depressed the button in the now-unlocked door's center to let them pass inside.
They walked into a small, low-ceilinged square chamber. Nothing was inside, save a triangular column made of the same metal as the doors to the monument.
"Well, that's impressive," Carth scoffed.
"Shut up, Onasi," Aithne said in a strange, distant voice. Like a woman in a dream, she approached the column, hand outstretched, and as she did so, the column opened. Out soared a luminescent hologram, which began to turn on the spot. It projected out stars and planets in a bluish haze—a view of their galaxy.
"This . . . this must be what Revan and Malak found when they entered this temple," Bastila said. "This must be where their journey down the dark path began."
"I doubt it," Aithne muttered. "They came looking for this and thought they'd be thrown out of the Order for it, which means they were probably well down the road to supervillainy. The question is, what is it?"
Bastila stared at the device. "This is a—a map. Some sort of intergalactic navigational chart. Revan and Malak must have used this to lead them to the Star Forge. We could use this map to follow their path and find the Star Forge ourselves. But we must be wary. They may have laid traps or concealed what they found."
"If they set up operations there or found something vital to their efforts against the Republic, I'd say the likelihood of that is pretty high, yes," Aithne said.
"Perhaps the Council can tell us more about the nature of the Star Forge," Bastila said, "but I believe it is clear that this map is our key to finding it." Certain worlds on the map were glowing, highlighted like brighter suns amid the starscape. "See this world here? This looks like Korriban, a Sith world. And if that's Korriban, then this is . . . Kashyyyk, and Tatooine . . . and here's Manaan."
Bastila frowned. "But there are pieces missing. Incomplete hyperspace coordinates, corrupted data, and there doesn't seem to be anything indicating where the Star Forge itself might be." She held out her hand for a datapad, and Aithne obligingly placed a blank one inside. Bastila began to enter the hyperspace coordinates this map provided.
She confessed she was disappointed. She had hoped to find the data they required as soon as possible. Now she had a feeling her road with Aithne Moran was going to be much longer than any of the Jedi would prefer—or Aithne herself, for that matter.
Sure enough, Aithne was looking sour. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm about to go on a Star Map hunt with you across the galaxy?"
Bastila handed the Star Map datapad back to Aithne and looked her in the face. "I know that Revan and Malak visited Korriban at least once. Perhaps they discovered something more there. They may have found something on each of the other worlds that completed this map. Maybe if we find all the pieces, they will lead us to the Star Forge and some way to destroy it."
Carth wasn't liking the idea any more than Aithne. "That sounds like quite a supposition," he said. "What if you're wrong?"
Bastila looked over at Carth now, annoyed. Sometimes it felt as if the two of them were in league against her. "What if I'm right? We can't ignore this. Finding the Star Forge might very well be the key to defeating the Sith. We must inform the Council of what we have discovered. They must decide our next course of action, though I suspect our task has only just begun."
Her companions said nothing as they exited the ruin, but Bastila didn't care. She was already imagining the road that led to the Star Forge—to the defeat of Malak and the Sith, once and for all.