Leavestaking
Darth Gladiolus woke with a harsh gasp on a morning early into the December of 1999. She blinked and then frowned, surprised she woke so. She sat up in her bed, allowing the sheets to pool over her hips. She closed her eyes and meditated on the Force—why had she woken so? The dark side churned around her, through her. Power burned in her veins, potent and virile. She sensed eddies and currents swirling around Earth, slowly drawing her attention from her homeworld and to the galaxy beyond.
She saw many worlds, but only one stuck in her mind: a city-world, basking in the dark side even as the beating heart of the Cosmic Force's thralls lived and died, unaware of the tragedy to come.
Understanding struck her. Darth Gladiolus recognized the guidance of the Force prying at her, seeking to whisk her from her backwater homeworld. Her ears rang with the desire to step out into the galaxy beyond. Her time to fly the Dearg Due from Earth was nearly at hand.
Her impulse was to reject the pull. She recalled what Lady Bastila had taught her of the Cosmic Force, the dreaded aspect that made slaves of the Jedi. Yet Gladiolus knew enough of the Force and its mysteries to realize she would gain boons from her ventures: greater power and authority, chief among them.
And perhaps an apprentice greater than Myrddryn in potential.
She sighed and shook her head. Gladiolus knew her student plotted to slay her once she returned from her sojourn in the stars. Myrddryn, more than Gladiolus, longed for the day the Dark Lord of the Sith would depart Earth. On that day, she would be free to plot against her master without worry of being watched and foiled. Sir Wilberforce's team had yet to finish the holocomm system necessary for Gladiolus to contact Earth while away. Perhaps it would be finished before her departure—or perhaps after she left. but she had no cause to believe they would finish the system adequately to ensure contact.
Gladiolus rose from bed. "Kreacher," she shouted, not caring to look for the house elf. "Draw a bath and prepare my gear. I have meetings to arrange."
"As you wish, Mistress Gladiolus."
Once the elf vanished to fulfill her commands, she murmured to herself: "The time has come, Lord Salazar. You shall return home. Once more, the galaxy shall know the Sith; let them tremble at my coming."
"Will you return?" asked Madam Bones after Minister Fudge stormed out of the conference room. Gladiolus found the minister's frustration over her impending absence to be amusing. After all, he would be left to the tender mercies of Darth Myrddryn. They all knew her apprentice would be tempted to remove Fudge and raise another in his place, selected for loyalty to her and her alone. "Or should we prepare to be lashed to the will of your apprentice?"
"I will return. I cannot abandon my world forever. I plan to ensure our world will be strengthened after my return. Until then, I must leave you in the… capable hands of my apprentice."
Madam Bones sighed. "I should hate you for leaving me in this position. I once hoped you would select Lovegood to be your favored apprentice."
"And not Longbottom?"
"He was too bound to the Wizengamot and the traditional ways of ruling our society. Your apprentice should be capable of overriding normal boundaries as necessary."
"So a tyrant."
Madam Bones nodded, an understanding gleam behind her monocle. "You are most certainly a tyrant, Lord Gladiolus. Do not fool yourself into thinking I believe you are a wise, just ruler. You shackled us to you, using the blood of Dumbledore and V… Voldemort to deprive us of any choice in the matter." She sighed. "I only wished to know if I should expect a permanent change in master, or if we will be left to seethe under the rule of a regent."
"You will only seethe for a time. I shall return, Amelia. With my return, Earth shall become greater. Stronger."
"So you say." Madam Bones rose to her feet. "Be careful in the wild yonder beyond the safe borders of our blue world. I would rather you return than be lost to us, Gladiolus."
And with that, she stormed out. Darth Gladiolus watched Madam Bones go. What had the woman expected? Had she deluded herself into believing that Gladiolus's departure would free magical Britain of the Sith? Or had she hoped that with Lovegood, they could overthrow all Gladiolus had wrought?
Amelia, Amelia. Never would I have thought you a fool. And to think, I once admired you.
The Queen frowned as she set her cup down. Gladiolus had been pleasantly surprised she was permitted to meet with the Queen so easily when she came calling on Buckingham unrequested. The aging court mage Hendrick stood off to the side, staring at her with hard, unflinching eyes. Were it his choice, Gladiolus knew she would have never been permitted the chance to come within a thousand yards of the Queen, let alone meet with her. But his opinion did not matter here. Any meeting was the Queen's prerogative, whether or not she approved of Darth Gladiolus's choices.
"So is this why you have commanded Sir Wilberforce's team to focus their effort on building ships that can hover and fly with extraterrestrial technology?"
"I do. With the Dearg Due absent from Earth, efforts must be made to build ships and shuttles that will permit expansion. First, we colonize and mine our system, and then we push into the systems surrounding ours." She paused, considering her words carefully. She had grown more comfortable in the Queen's presence, but sometimes she wondered how much the Queen understood of the strange things she heard from Darth Gladiolus. "My apprentice will remain on Earth, acting in my stead. Lord Myrddryn is to not be trusted."
The Queen hummed a low troubled sound. Gladiolus almost feared she had overstepped and finally demanded too much—but then she sensed curiosity and a trace of amusement from the elderly monarch. She did not fear Lord Myrddryn and how she would peddle influence in Gladiolus's absence. Gladiolus found the lack of concern foolish. But if the Queen refused to see the danger before her, and failed to reconsider then she would be forcibly enlightened.
"She desires power above all else. With my absence, the main force that blocks her ambitions will be lost."
"Then I will assign Hendrick to watch Lord Myrddryn. She did not impress me as you did in our first meeting, but then you had a year to prepare and develop yourself into the young woman I met so long ago, while Lord Myrddryn was fashioned into what you desired: an apprentice. She has the potential to inherit your titles and claims, but you will not permit her to claim them until she is, by your reckoning, ready."
"I am pleased you understand me so well," Darth Gladiolus lied. She had not realized the Queen knew her well enough to perceive that about her. "Still, you must understand that my apprentice can pose a danger to your realm. I will do all I can before I depart to ensure she does not—"
The Queen raised a hand. Darth Gladiolus's mouth snapped shut. "I will handle her as I see fit, Lord Gladiolus." She paused and then leaned forward, setting aside her teacup and saucer. "You should take care with how you command her when you leave if you wish to avoid whatever you fear your apprentice may or may not do in your absence. That is your prerogative, not mine, Lord Gladiolus."
Gladiolus nodded. She had already made that decision. Yet, she could not help but appreciate hearing her thoughts repeated by another—especially from a source who she could trust and even admire if she permitted herself to feel either emotion.
She rose to her feet. "I thank you for your time. I will let you know when I plan to depart. You are welcome to be present for my departure."
The Queen smiled pleasantly. "I will send someone to attend the event and report back. I can imagine a solemn, secretive affair. You are not one to openly reveal your actions, Lord Gladiolus."
The Sith Lord smiled stiffly. "I look forward to seeing who you send to witness me."
The wind swept her hair back from her face. Her lips peeled back in a fierce snarl, teeth exposed only to the dry heat slamming into her. With only goggles and a carefully wrapped bandana to cover her face, Darth Gladiolus feared not the dust in the wind. She trusted the craft and quality of the speeder bike provided by Sir Wilberforce's team. She had no cause to suspect an untimely death from faulty equipment. After all, she was their patron. She was the one who provided them with the knowledge and industry necessary to produce a speeder bike, regardless of quality.
And the Force confirmed her trust in their work. Nothing was amiss, or so she sensed.
"Bring her back in, your lordship," an American soldier ordered over the comm in her ear. She could hear his discomfort with her title. But it was the only thing she would respond to from the Americans. They were nearly as prideful as her, for she would not allow them to enfold her in their hierarchy and vice versa. "You're about to reach civilian lands, and we don't need them causin' trouble."
"Understood," she replied, ignoring frustration as she accepted orders from a simpleton. Gladiolus understood those beneath her operated under the same need for secrecy that she had long operated under. And while it had served them well in the past, she knew a day would come when they would need to reveal all that had been done and prepared. Though it pained her, she worked to adopt a mindset that would permit her to be comfortable with revealing long-kept secrets.
Gladiolus turned in a wide, sweeping arc before accelerating back toward the base. It was the best of the three working prototypes they had. She refused on principle to use the other models, leaving them to the half-mad test pilots the American Air Force provided to Sir Wilberforce's team. They had long returned to the base, unwilling to travel as far or as fast as her. Eventually, they would dare more. Risk more. They might even match the speed and distance from the base she dared.
But she doubted those odds. The speed and duration of her ride relied on her reflexes and processing ability. And she possessed them thanks to her connection to the Force. Had she not been Force-sensitive, she doubted she would have matched either. Her senses reached all the way to the base, detecting the pleasure and frustration her decisions produced. She had brushed past five hundred miles per hour before she turned to return to the military base.
How fast can I go? Gladiolus wondered. The speedometer just managed to reach a thousand miles per hour. There's only one way to know. She grinned widely, leaned forward, and accelerated.
.
Gladiolus came to a screeching halt upon returning to the base. The chassis shook while the engine whined down. Most of the scientists stood in the limited shade provided by a few towering tents, either arguing over the data received from her ride or staring at her with a hero worship she could easily twist. The military personnel present pretended as though the entire venture had been their doing, free of external influence. After all, she had embarrassed their best test pilots. She had reached a speed of eight hundred sixty-three miles per hour before needing to slow down. Had the base been ten or twenty miles further from where she turned around, she might have reached nine hundred before needing to slow.
"Fantastic! Fantastic!" Sir Wilberforce shouted as she strode forward. "Why, I did not think it was possible to near those speeds and maintain control!"
Gladiolus yanked down the cloth over her face and pulled up the goggles over her eyes. "Do not forget I have superior reflexes, Sir Wilberforce. I doubt any of the Air Force men could reach and maintain the same speeds as I."
Their egos roiled and writhed from the insult. They would seek any future opportunity to force her to eat her words. Gladiolus knew that desire would make them easy pawns. They would act how she wished, for she could easily frame anything to make it appear that she was the better pilot. That she could go faster, push through more than them. From these test pilots, she hoped to gather the first batch of snubfighter pilots; they would streak through the stars, harassing and dismantling the foe.
Day by day slipped away before her departure. Whatever Gladiolus must do to further her aims of preparing Earth for an inevitable galactic conflict, she would see it through. No cruelty was beyond her.
Even mercy could be wielded by a Sith Lord when furthering their goals.
The pilots operated through ego and so they began arguing with her. Yet when she dared the pilots to match her speed, they paused or quailed. They knew they were not as capable as her.
A glance at Sir Wilberforce revealed his gaze glowed with curiosity. He suspected something. Through the Force, Gladiolus learned he had realized something she did not wish any present to know. More so, he had other matters to relay to her. He remained her most valuable ally, regardless of his judgments upon her.
.
"We have finished developing the telecomm network you desire, though I cannot speak to its reliability beyond the boundaries of our solar system," Sir Wilberforce said once they were alone. They retreated from outside to the small office Wilberforce had near the commander's office. It reminded the military men of Wilberforce's importance, along with the influence he could wield once possessed with the will. "My team will do all we can to prepare the system so that it might be of benefit during your time away. I understand you desire it for the future beyond your journey, but I think it would be foolish to not develop it as much as we can, here and now."
"That is a wise decision, Sir Wilberforce," Gladiolus declared. "If there is a means by which I can use this system to further humanity's advancement into the stars while I am away, seek it out." Her gaze wandered from Sir Wilberforce. "Otherwise, I want you and your team to focus on planetary defenses: snubfighters, orbital platforms, and small capital ships. Frigates and corvettes, or similar classification. While the technology of other worlds would benefit the population as a whole, the threats to our way of life demands we safeguard Earth before we push forward development."
"You fear a hostile alien race could discover Earth in your absence."
Gladiolus nodded as her gaze swiveled back to Sir Wilberforce. "I also need to remind you to remain wary of my apprentice. She will make efforts to ensure that, upon my return, I perish in a disaster which cannot be blamed on her." She raised a hand when his mouth opened. "I want you to know that this is the way of my order. The strong cull the weak, and often apprentices prove their mastery by slaying their master. I already accepted that she will make her attempt. I would be disappointed if she did not. But I will not roll over for her."
Sir Wilberforce sighed and shook his head. "What troubling ways you practice, Lord Gladiolus. I would tell you to remain on Earth if this is the case. But I imagine your absence will not impede her growth."
"I would be alarmed if her growth was impeded, regardless of my absence. I cannot say how long said absence will be. I think it will be a year or two. Three at the most. The Force has been… uncertain beyond my need to leave. That is all I know. No doubt what I will achieve will aid Earth in the decades to come."
"You might die out there and never return home."
Gladiolus nearly snarled. "It will take a hundred Jedi to kill me."
Sir Wilberforce nodded instead of arguing the point. He waited several seconds before asking, "And what of the Dearg Due? I would prefer longer with the ship—"
"But it is the only starship we possess," Gladiolus said. "Had you managed to reproduce a similar ship, perhaps I could leave the original with you."
The elderly scientist nodded. "I understand. You are welcome to reclaim your ship once my team and the base commander have cleared it for departure. He will wish to ensure the airspace around the base is clear enough that you do not cause further trouble for the Americans."
Gladiolus nodded. She would oversee their efforts, and then head on her way.
The day was nearly upon her. Soon.
Soon.
Darth Gladiolus stepped before the force field separating Hermione Granger from her freedom. She was curled over a data pad, busy typing away. The woman's output had increased since introducing her to Darth Myrddryn. Gladiolus had not expected such a feat, but then she had never suspected she would imprison her first true friend deep beneath Hogwarts.
How life changes us, she thought almost wistfully. I have become almighty, while she is barely more than a slave.
"Hermione," Gladiolus said. The woman did not glance up. "I have come to inform you that I shall be away for a time. I will leave soon, and I will return once I have finished the work which must be done."
Seconds passed before Hermione glanced up with a frown. "Then why tell me? I already knew of your intention."
"Because it is a courtesy worth giving to my most useful tool."
"Would that not be Tracey Davis—I mean, Darth Myrddryn?"
"She is a blade with no hilt; you cannot harm me."
Hermione scoffed. "Arrogance will be your downfall, Gladiolus."
"Mayhaps. But I deserve the arrogance I have developed. You, however, have already fallen."
Hermione had no response. Seconds passed before her gaze returned to the pad in her lap. "Thank you for the warning. I hope to still be living when you return, if only so I can prove that I am not as weak as you believe."
Gladiolus tried to not burn at the implicit dismissal. She waited a moment longer before turning from the cell.
She stormed through Ziost Hangar, eventually coming to Lord Salazar's solar. The holocrons once stored within had been removed and taken to Grimmauld Place for safekeeping. Only Lord Salazar remained.
"At last, the Dark Lord of the Sith," he drawled, appearing before her. "Do you not sense it? The Force is clear, girl: your time to leave has come."
"Not yet, but soon," she said. "And when I leave, I shall take you with me, Lord Salazar. I shall return you to Ziost, where you belong."
The ancient Sith Lord paused. His lips moved before he inevitably murmured, "I would like that, Lord Gladiolus. Listen closely: this is how you can remove my holocron from the desk."
She listened and did as beckoned. And when Lord Salazar vanished, she did not worry. He would return in time.
Darth Myrddryn glanced at Hendrick, the ancient wizard her master reintroduced her to. She had forgotten the man. He mentioned a previous meeting during their reintroduction. At her confusion, Hendrick reminded her that he was the Court Mage for the muggle Queen. She mistrusted his presence, despite understanding his presence was on behalf of the muggle Queen that her master used to broaden and grow her power and influence. Those strange muggle scientists in America had become their tools thanks to the interference of the Queen, though delayed in the eyes of her master.
"You can stop glowering at me," Hendrick eventually said. His voice was remarkably strong for his decrepit age. "I do not understand what I have done to earn your ire beyond being present."
"That's exactly it!" Myrddryn hissed. She glanced over her shoulder at the Dearg Due, which sat patiently as her master finished up her preflight checks aboard. "You do not belong here! It should be my master and I, the sole Sith on this world—perhaps in all the cosmos!"
Hendrick nodded slowly. Myrddryn had the queer feeling he mocked her, yet she could not prove it. "Yet your master invited the Queen. She sent me in her stead, to witness this tremendous occasion."
Myrddryn frowned. "What do you mean?"
He sighed and rubbed his face. Myrddryn had the sudden feeling he liked her little. "Lord Gladiolus will be the first human born on this planet to make contact with aliens. She will go where none have dared. Before this day, the furthest any of us ever made it was to the moon—and that was decades ago."
"What would you say of Lord Salazar Slytherin? He was born on Ziost before he came here."
"As you reminded me, he was not born on this world. He died here, yes; that cannot be denied. But there is a difference between where one ends their life and where they begin it."
Hendrick fell silent after that and stepped away from the Dearg Due, content to watch and witness on the Queen's behalf. Myrddryn had been tasked with sorting and double-checking the luggage and equipment meant to be loaded into storage bays one and two aboard the Dearg Due. Storage bay three was dedicated to a series of miniaturized probes produced by Sir Wilberforce's team and only delivered.
They remained uncertain of the time between Earth and the nearest galactic civilization Lord Salazar had records of, the Chiss. He had written little of his encounter with them beyond a mention of "fair blue skin and judgmental red eyes", declaring them "a suspicious, isolated race". It was written in a fashion that led master and apprentice alike to presume Gladiolus would encounter even odder races during her sojourn.
Her master descended the shuttle's gangplank, velvet cloak rippling behind her. Gone was the old thick cloak her master had oft worn in the prior years. She had embraced a look both the same yet new; her garb retained the look it had always possessed; yet something about the fabric and armor appeared finer. Myrddryn suspected her master was merely using the prospect of leaving Earth to justify new clothes for once. She had been the same as Edelweiss Potter—unkempt except for when she needed to appear a particular way.
"You're both here," Darth Gladiolus said. "Good." She turned to Hendrick. "I would have thought you'd leave by now. Your task was only to see that I had the Dearg Due ready for departure."
"Her Majesty desires I remain present until your ship vanishes from sight. Only then am I to report back to her."
Gladiolus hummed and then nodded. She turned to Myrddryn, who tried to not flinch at the sudden intensity in her master's gaze. "Is everything finished on your end, apprentice?"
"Yes, master. The Dearg Due is ready for your departure. You only need to finish takeoff procedures from the cockpit."
Her master smiled. "Excellent. And what of the probes sent by Sir Wilberforce's team?"
"They're loaded into bay three," Myrddryn said stiffly. "The other two are ready to be stored as well."
"And you know how to handle the Ministry while I'm away, yes?"
"Yes, master. Everything will be as you wish when you return."
"I expect nothing less."
Darth Gladiolus started back up the ramp before suddenly pausing. Myrddryn watched her closely, wondering what stopped her master. Would she command something else, or would she engage in pointless pleasantries?
"Ensure everything continues according to plan, Myrddryn," her master drawled softly. "Our time of isolation and exclusion will reach an ending after I return. We must be prepared to turn aside any foe who manages to learn where our world is." She leaned forward slightly and jabbed a finger toward her apprentice. "If you fail me, you will share the same fate as Lovegood and Longbottom."
"I dealt with them the same as you, master. You will need another—"
The jabbed finger curled. Myrddryn gasped as her throat constricted. She recognized the sensation of Force choking. Her master had used many Force powers upon Myrddryn, commanding her to sear into her memory how they felt. Gladiolus had used that understanding of their impact to teach Myrddryn many techniques; annoyingly, she found them easier to learn after the experience of suffering under them.
Her master released her grasp. Myrddryn coughed and rubbed her neck. Fortunately, she remained standing. Hendrick glanced between them warily. But he neither acted to interfere nor appeared to judge. He merely stood there and observed.
"Remember the punishment for treason, Myrddryn. Remember the price for failure. You will pay those if this world is not ready as it should be."
"I… I understand, master," Myrddryn growled. She stepped back. Her master nodded, pleased. Darth Gladiolus turned and strode up the ramp. It sealed behind her. The Sith apprentice and the court mage withdrew several yards until the full expanse of the Dearg Due settled in the center of their vision. A few minutes passed before the shuttle rose into the air. First, it moved slightly awkwardly. It spun and revealed warmed sublight engines. The shuttle rose higher and higher still. Eventually, it angled up and rocketed into the atmosphere. Soon, it would pass through the last layers around the Earth, through the growing network of satellites in orbit, past the moon, and then make the jump to Alpha Centauri.
Darth Myrddryn felt the moment her master made the jump. It was though a heavy blanket thrown over shoulders had fallen away. She breathed out easily, realizing her master's pressure had oppressed her.
"So that's it," Hendrick murmured. "A cruel reminder of her power before she leaves us behind, unconcerned about what will happen next."
"That is because I am here," Myrddryn declared. She straightened, shoulders thrown back proudly. "I am here. That's all that matters now."
Darth Gladiolus blinked as she finalized the Dearg Due's calculations for the jump to hyperspace. The navigation computer operated sluggishly. She expected its operation to smooth out as she neared Known Space. She glanced back at Earth; the sapphire sphere she called home. Her heart thudded as she gazed upon her homeworld from such great heights. This was her birthright; dominion came through ownership, whether birthright or conquest. In a way, she achieved both. The Sith were destined to rule the cosmos, making her dominion over Earth her birthright. What threats there were to the rule and dominion of the Sith on Earth were now non-existent. If they did exist, they were so minor and pathetic Gladiolus could not fathom them.
She would not know how dangerous Myrddryn could prove until she returned from her travels.
She guided her shuttle from her homeworld. She used sublight engines, heading for a point beyond Earth's gravity well. Gladiolus knew it was possible to jump while within the moon's orbit, but it would be safer to make it past the natural satellite before initiating the jump.
As Gladiolus neared her exit vector, she recalled something Sir Wilberforce mentioned via the terrestrial telecomm as she prepared the Dearg Due for departure: "Probes have been provided to aid in sending astrological data back to Earth. They're programmed to scan for the materials necessary for the higher-level technology vital to your defensive ambitions. Do ensure a probe remains in-system. Otherwise, we will not be able to retrieve any data. We might not even be able to secure communication with you."
She smiled wistfully. Only that man would think nothing of commanding a Sith Lord.
A line flashed across a monitor to her right: [CALCULATIONS FINISHED. READY FOR JUMP TO ALPHA CENTAURI SYSTEM]
"Good," she murmured. Gladiolus guided her shuttle further from the planet, leaving its gravity well. She deployed a probe from storage bay three. Once distant enough, she triggered the hyperdrive motivator. The stars lengthened into a swirling vortex and as the Dearg Due departed her home system.
Four hours and twenty-five minutes after departing her home, the Dearg Due returned to normal space. The vortex that consumed her vision vanished, revealing the Alpha Centauri system. Gladiolus leaned forward and stared at the three stars which formed the system. Two planets orbited one of the stars; initial scans revealed they were dead and lifeless. Lord Salazar inspected them while passing through, or so his reports claimed. A third object, almost a planet, orbited that star as well.
"How fascinating," Gladiolus murmured, leaning back in her seat. She had not remained in her seat throughout the journey, but she returned to it before reaching Alpha Centauri.
Gladiolus directed the Dearg Due into the system, activating the shuttle's sensor array while deploying a probe from storage bay three. Information about the stars and planets came in, slowly reporting back anything and everything worth knowing about the Alpha Centauri system.
While nothing particularly interesting was reported concerning the three stars, information from the planets caught her eye. If what she read was accurate, mining colonies on both planets could supply Earth with the raw materials necessary to construct a small fleet. They would need to be careful with the fleet construction else they build one too weak to defend Earth.
She keyed the data relay probe to transfer the information gathered from the scans and send the full data packet to Earth via the holocomm connection between the probe relay system. Gladiolus waited several seconds for the data to begin transmission. She frowned when the data did not immediately send. She toggled her console until a timer appeared:
[ESTIMATED TIME TO FINISH PROCESSING AND SENDING DATA: SEVEN HOURS, TWENTY-THREE MINUTES]
"Ugh," Gladiolus muttered. "Damned ancient technology." She suddenly yawned.
Maybe I should sleep. The probe should finish by the time I wake.
Nine hours later when the Sith Lord rose from her bed in the back of the shuttle, she was relieved to learn the transmission finished over an hour prior. With that finished, she guided the Dearg Due toward the safest jump point from the Alpha Centauri system to the next star along the Orion Arm.
(And if she happened to be trailing Lord Salazar's passage to Earth, then it was pure coincidence or so she told herself as she prepared the next set of coordinates.)
Days passed as Darth Gladiolus worked her way up the Orion Arm. The Dearg Due retained plenty of fuel, though she suspected she would require the goodwill of whomever she encountered first should they resist her Force powers. Knowing races of that ilk were out there troubled the Sith Lord more than she liked; they could be valuable weapons against the Jedi, though she could not recall any warrior races amongst their number. They would be the ones drawn to the allure and strength of the Sith.
Every time she entered a new system, Gladiolus deployed a probe and waited on it to scan the system. She took to sleeping or training while the probes did their work. She disabled the lightsaber droid loaded into the shuttle while in the third system out from Alpha Centauri, leaving her to practice her katas without any manner of foe or opponent. Two systems later, she abandoned her lightsaber practice and meditated instead, narrowing her fury until it burned like plasma condensed to a fine point.
She kept her distance from Lord Salazar's holocron. Disconnected from its perch in Ziost Hangar, the holocron's lifespan had been severely diminished. Why, neither she nor the Sith Lord knew how long the holocron would last now. They had agreed she would restrain from communing with him until she inevitably reached Ziost where he belonged.
And so she continued, journeying between empty systems of stars, planets, and possibilities.
The Dearg Due dropped out of hyperspace. Darth Gladiolus stared at the unnamed system before her. With two stars, five planets, and a multitude of oddly shaped moons around the large gas giant nearest her, she had reached the last wild system between her and galactic civilization. She deployed her final probe, pleasantly surprised to find that Sir Wilberforce had provided her with enough probes to bridge the stellar passage from Earth to the final wild system between Earth and the Chiss Ascendancy. She had reviewed Lord Salazar's brief notes on the people. They had been known to the rest of the galaxy from time to time, a people oft relegated to myth and legend despite some records managing to last hundreds or thousands of years.
She watched her monitors, waiting for the probe to finish its scans and send information back to Earth. About ten days had passed since she left, assuming the chrono she painfully recalibrated to run by Earth's day-cycle worked correctly.
Hours later, a monitor flashed green. Gladiolus smiled and set the navigation computer to calculate her jump into Chiss space. Once finished, she guided the Dearg Due into position.
"Here I come, galaxy."
And with that, Gladiolus initiated the jump. Stars stretched into a swirling vortex as the shuttle vanished from real space.