Instead of going straight to Coruscant, they spin back to Zahn to secure the place and call in Republic Security. Oola also notifies DUST of the Chimera's location. They spend some more time looking over the book of prophecies. With more time, they decipher the story of Revan and the Star Forge, and that when he left the galaxy, he intercepted a True Sith fleet and destroyed it. It sent the Sith into retreat and decline, from which they have apparently only recently emerged when they gained a new ruler. Pictures indicate that the remnants of the True Sith have mingled with human blood; they no longer look quite so much like Yoda or any of the statues from the tomb.
It's also notable that some of their servitor beasts are weird, big black clawed things...highly reminiscent of the things they found on Ree's planet some time back. What were they doing there? The crew's first guess is that they were after the Blueprint gate...but they were originally chasing the Sin/Sent team that retrieved the evil lightsaber crystal (which, you'll remember, is now on Coruscant in Jedi custody) and apparently a shard of the Pulse. Which brings us back to the very interesting question of where the Sent/Sin team actually found those.
In other news, it turns out the True Sith have the Chosen One prophecy too. They didn't invade during the Empire because, obviously, Vader was a dangerous and intimidating bastard. If the prophecies can be believed (and they're right about almost everything else so far), they're planning to invade now, despite the fact that Luke is also a dangerous and intimidating bastard. Perhaps they're less concerned because the Republic isn't as battle-ready as the Empire...but Zan reminds them of that Sith space station with the temple to the dark Force-god. Kedrihm'Val wonders if Thule was involved or influenced in this at all, and Ree thinks it might be worth a trip to see if there's anything to be seen there.
They get back to Coruscant. They've got a lot to ruminate on, but life looks to be calm enough to make that dinner with Amidala. In the meantime, Ree tries to catch up on her sleep. When she wakes up, she finds another datapad on the floor, repeating, "Look to the stars."
At dinner, where they're among a crowd of people who find this acceptable dinner conversation, they show Luke the prophecies. While they look over it, R2-D2 starts poking Ree, beeping and refusing to give up until she finally pays attention and realizes that he's indicating the star positions displayed in the prophecy about the True Sith gaining a new leader recently. They're the positions the stars were in during the Battle of Endor. That's when the new ruler was born. Han and Kedrihm'Val both find this ominous, Han figuring that means their spiffy new ruler is probably the Emperor because that's how things tend to work out, and Kedrihm'Val remembering that Darth Plagius was supposed to have come up with a technique to create life.
Ree wonders again why she's the one who keeps getting these messages. Kedrihm'Val points out that she and Luke are the two most active Jedi in the galaxy, currently, and no offense to Luke, but if he's the center of a prophecy about a dark god arising, he's probably not the preferred contact for anyone trying to prevent such a thing. Ree tries to protest, but finally gives in to the logic of that.
Dalt hasn't said much of anything in hours, at least. It's starting to get a bit alarming; when he's silent this long, the next time he opens his mouth, something catastrophic tends to come out. Now he muses that someone cunning but apparently not evil has been sending these visions. SARR guesses perhaps Revan's descendents? Kedrihm'Val suggests it could be one or more of the good True Sith still in operations. Perhaps a network of them? That could explain the seemingly irrationally long distances these messages and visions have been traveling, far further than any living being would feasibly be capable of.
Now they start thinking harder about Revan. He lived 3000 years ago, during the Mandalorian Wars. 2000 years ago, the Jedi formally established the family bloodlines and their coin/holocrons. Oola now reminds them of Ree's holocron. "You can check it when you get back to your room," Luke agrees, "after you read your note." "You're a big help," Ree grumbles at him. "He's a lot like his father," Amidala teases.
Upon which an extremely uncomfortable silence descends, eventually broken by Han making distracting sounds.
After that, they all mutually decide it might be best to move on to lighter subjects for the evening.
The next day, Kyp and Ree meet to chat. She tells him about escaping from Thrawn, which he considers to be a big deal. It's not like it happens often. He gives her a message from home: her family called, because they were gathering stuff for a local exhibit ("Now, don't be mad, but everybody here is pretty proud of you and they wanted to do something nice..."), and they noticed that her old school art projects were missing from where her mother had stored them in the attic.
Thrawn, rather obviously. "How'd they get there?!" Ree wonders, confused. But this explains the Imperial agents they encountered on Reeshome months ago with no explanation why!
Well, not much to be done now. Ree tells the others over breakfast. She doesn't see what Thrawn thinks he'd achieve by looking at her childish art projects. "You are a Jedi," Dalt points out. "By studying your art, he'll learn what your attachments are." A thought occurs to her, and she asks about the others. "I'll call my mom later," Z promises. "We should meet your mother!" Ree tells him. "She sounds remarkable." "She was," Dalt says at the same time as Kedrihm'Val grabs Z. Kedrihm'Val's people don't so much deal in writing and art on permanent surfaces, so it's not really an issue for him.
Though for somebody who knows the language, the Abindosani tattoos that their Force users wear say quite a bit about them. Their purpose is to function as a sort of introduction to other Abindosani, since Ailhan often mingle among different tribes. Of course, Kedrihm'Val hasn't exactly made a practice of running around the galaxy with his shirt off, because he's not especially keen on broadcasting his identity to piles of enemies.
Ree breaks out her holocron to ask it about her family history during the Mandalorian Wars. It tells her the information is classified. On further questioning, it says most of the families were generally aware of the True Sith, and he assumes the monsters that crashed on her planet were an expeditionary force, though it's not sure why they were so far into the galaxy. The historian in the holocron is kind of a jackass, and Oola snipes at him whenever he gives her an opening. "Your Twilek is touchy," it finally complains. "She's not used to computers she can't hack," Ree tells him placatingly. "Haha!" it says to Oola.
When she asks about Revan, it tells her what they already know: Revan went out to stop the True Sith. "Did he have any family?" she asks, hoping to get a lead on somewhere she can look for further information. The holocron freezes up again with, "That information is classified." It doesn't know where he was from, but suggests they might find the information in the old Jedi temple. They do have the old computer core. "Revan was fond of Dantooine," it volunteers, a little wistfully. "It was different then."
Since Ree's holocron isn't terribly helpful, Dalt tries his. His historian--Tal Sent--is a jerk, too. Apparently it pays less attention to its surroundings, because it's startled to learn that the
True Sith are on their way. Revan helped lay the groundwork for the families before he left, Tal says, but the other Jedi didn't trust him. The galactic battle in Ree's vision was, so far as Tal knows, exactly what Revan left to prevent. Perhaps this is a new one. When they ask about the book of prophecies, he says he does know that Revan went to some temple and came back with some papers.
They ask about the Arranda holocron's "classified information," to which Tal drawls, "Oh reeeally." Figuring the holocrons might be able to talk it out, they point them at each other, only to be startled by the cat-fight that ensues. Ree tries to be nice to the Sent holocron, which it finds, apparently, exceedingly infuriating. Ree's holocron is bitchy about her talking to the other holocron at all. When Tal accuses her of being stuck up because of her family, Ree is, as she usually is, extremely humble, driving it to the point of screaming in frustration. "She's always like this," Kedrihm'Val tells it, amused. Dalt's trying not to laugh at the holocrons.
Ree's holocron tells them that no holocron will answer about the origin of Ree's family, and that Revan took those papers because he said that if anyone saw the end of that prophecy, they'd be too prejudiced to stop it. Tal thinks that it was about Luke wrecking the place up in the bad way.
Tired of fussing, Dalt hypnotises Ree's holocron. "Ask it now." It says they used to call her family 'Revan's clan.' "I'm sure it's some coincidence," Ree protests, sending the Sent holocron into spitting fits. And the papers were indeed about Luke. Then, snapping out of the mind-whammy, her holocron is aghast at Dalt circumventing its protections. "You're not supposed to know that until you pass more tests!" "You should tell them they're related," Oola chirps, grinning. The holocrons turn to stare at each other in horror.
They learn more: Revan never had children. "He got more excited by logarithms," Tal snarks. They might try hunting up information on Bastila Shan, who stayed behind and helped the Jedi rebuild. Tal says something sarcastic about Jedi going evil and coming back, to which Dalt replies, "I really can't comment." "Well, you were mind-controlled by ancient aliens!" it tries to defend him. "And he was crazy to start!" Z puts in. Seeing it coming, Kedrihm'Val grabs Z as Dalt opens his mouth: "Mad in the sack...says your mother."
Moving on. Staring curiously at the holocrons, Dalt says he thinks that they must be flawed or damaged somehow to react so hostilely to each other. Either that or they hated each other viciously in life. "Oh, we hated each other!" the holocrons speak up. "You also have to take into account the similarity of their personalities," Oola comments, which again infuriates them. "You take that back!" "See?" says Oola, satisfied. "they said 'we'." Which sends the holocrons into open revolt.
"Can we stop antagonizing them?" Ree requests. Zan laughs.
Moving on again, the holocrons say that any further information on Revan was probably held only by Revan himself. He played things close to the vest. The Arranda holocron, when SARR asks, admits that Ree, too, was prophesied. "Now say, 'Where can we find this person' so I can think you're even dumber than I think you are," grumbles the Sent holocron. Oola can't help herself. "Well, there is Jude." The Sent holocron literally hops with fury.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
True Sith Revealed, or, It's a Trap!
Onna is concerned about Drath selling Dalt's cloning technology--modified (and modified how, exactly?). Kedrihm'Val wonders what else Drath has hold of, considering he's got Set Harth's whole stash and whatever he might've thought o rip out of the Jedi archives before he left. Ree takes that under advisement, assigning people to look through the temple records and see what he might've peered into.
She gets scolded again about calling Kyp 'Master Durron.' Kedrihm'Val teases her, "Keep it up and he'll start calling you Master Shevan." She scoffs. "No one calls me Master!" "Lydia does," Oola points out. "No!" gasps Ree.
But how to find Drath? He's probably after money to build his forces. If he's wanting information on the True Sith...might he follow in Revan's footsteps? Where can information on Darth Revan be found? Ree can't even remember his home planet. Kedrihm'Val wonders if any of the Hutts would know. They live long enough, and buying that information from them would take a lot of money... Kedrihm'Val points out that Drath's comments imply he's been using farseeing a lot recently. And reminds them that there's still a piece of Abindosani coral left in CorpSec--with people Drath already has a working relationship with. For that matter, they need to learn more themselves.
As they consider possibly tapping the Abindosani reefs for information, or perhaps hunting up some Rakata artifacts, a new report comes on about a rash of unidentified artifacts being stolen from museums recently. Oola enlists Onna's help to get acces to the museum. Ree gets called back to the temple, and Z stiffs Kedrihm'Val with the bill.
Ree was called back because Maul-rock is empty. Luke thinks Drath might've cloned him.
At the museum, they learn all the artifacts seem to be objects d'art, created by a small race. The break-ins were perpetrated with notable skill. "Who would steal art when no one knows who even did it?" ponders the curator. They hand over pictures and reproductions of the 10 items that were stolen. It takes her a bit, but Oola puts the pieces of this puzzle together. She's seen some of Yoda's belongings, and the designs and lines of them are reminiscent. And who else would be inclined to steal True Sith artwork right about now? Just one scary blue bastard...
Ree and Oola comm their findings to the others. Kedrihm'Val reminds them of Dagobath, wondering if Thrawn or Drath might've paid it a visit recently.
Ree finds a note in her room. "Who benefits from clones that bring back the dead?" it asks. No signature. Ree shows it to Kyp, who's doing well, he says, spending time with Zeth. "Considering that tech was inspired by a guy with a civilization in his head, I'd say the Rakata." Following that line of thought, Zan (her next consult) suggests that Drath might bring back a Rakata and make it work for hi. Could explain why he'd bring back Maul now, after waiting so long. How'd Drath learn all this ability and technique? Ree wonders. He meditates a few months in a prison and comes out a full-fledged Sith? Zan thinks he might've connected with something. A force of will like his would be a beacon.
Next move: look for more True Sith stuff. Now that they know what they're looking for, the computer can help search. And check into Rakata temples, too. Oola quickly discovers that the largest collection of stuff that turns out to be True Sith was in the State Museum on Chandrila. 'Was' being the operative word. It's missing as of two weeks ago. Across the galaxy, approximately 50-60 pieces of True Sith art are gone. No tampering with Rakata temples is evident, at least.
How'd Thrawn find out? Well, Drath probably had stuff in Set Harth's collection he sold to the Grand Admiral. Harth was fascinated by them, after all. It probably clued Thrawn in.
Oola also discovers that the moon Zahn, in orbit around the gas giant Zahr on the Outer Rim, has just turned up a dig. Three days ago, archaeologists unearthed some relics that match. It's obscure news; Thrawn might not have heard yet. Dalt informs them he's coming, though he's annoyed when Oola forbids him from bringing his walking throne (he finally got one; or built one. Fear it!). Zan's coming too.
Ree receives another note. "How can you be certain the actual people are coming back to their bodies?" it asks. She takes the notes to Luke, who ponders. "It's obvious-- No, let me rephrase. Most reports indicate the person who came back is my mother," he finally answers. But even if this is only a sporadic or partial thing, among 2000 clones it could be a problem. He'll look into whomever's sending these messages.
Ree has a vision that night: a massive space battle, Imperials and Republic fighting side-by-side, together with Sith ships. She doesn't recognize who the enemy ships are, except that they're strange, almost like holes in the Force. And there's on archaic-looking Jedi ship, rigged and modified and kicking butt. She has a sense she's missing something, but she can't spot it.
She wakes up and gets coffee. As usual, it's the middle of the night. SARR snarks, Ree tells him and Oola (who's on monitor duty) about it. While Oola ponders the modded ship, Z gets up for his shift. "I can't die," he tells them. "Too pretty." This hurts their brains.
Returning to her room, Ree finds a note on a datapad on the floor. On the ship. With everyone accounted for. "Pay attention to the constellations." She realizes suddenly that the stars in her dream were the constellations visible from her planet.
Returning to the others with the datapad o'mystery, Z checks the ship recordings to find a black spot during the time the datapad must've been deposited. It's not Dalt. "His physical ass is in his bed," SARR says. Not a droid, either; scans account for that. A Force ghost? Hard to say, but Ree's sure someone sent this dream, like the one with Zeth. She tries to follow the mental trail of it, but it passes out beyond the Rim. "You and your rampant meatbaggery attract attention from beyond the stars," SARR comments. But why her? Why not Kedrihm'Val? Or Luke! "Depends on your destiny," SARR says sarcastically. Ree calls the temple to report and gets Kyp. They found the same effect in her room of that blank spot in the recordings.
When they reach the planet, they find some bewildered archaeologists. They don't know what the complex was. It's not huge, but they're having trouble exploring because the locals are timid, "ignorant and supertitious savages." Kedrihm'Val points out that they may have good reason not to go near the place, but the guy seems disinclined to listen.
So they head into the complex. It's well-preserved. The tapestries and hangings are made of plant fibers and remain intact. Dalt and Oola quickly gain the impression that this is a tomb for a warlord. Statuary quickly seals the deal that these were Yoda's people. Obviously there were different castes: some were taller and bulkier than Yoda, while others resemble him in their wise old forms. "So Yoda wasn't a warrior," comments Z, who tries to wrap his mind around the concept of Yodas who actually are warriors.
The murals on the walls depict a story as they go deeper: a race of good, peaceful people, who are struck by a dark light--like a Force star?--radiating from the sky. They don't change physically, but they grow more violent and brutal, except for a few who remain unaffected. This warlord comes from a line of warlord-kings who subjugate the scholars to rule the race. Almost all the True Sith are shown using the Force. The story ends, unsurprisingly, with the warlord's glorious death.
They spot a secret door at the end of the murals. Inside there's a pedestal with a real paper-and-binding book sitting on it. It's evidently a book of prophecy. Flipping to the end, they find the space battle from Ree's dream, and then pages are torn out. They snag the book and head onward.
Not far from that door lie the ancient remains of a huge predatory lizard. It was cut in half by a lightsaber a very, very long time ago. As Ree rounds the corner, she leaps away from another, very alive predatory lizard. Even hunched over, this thing is 11 feet high. She drives it back with Affect Mind, and it turns and flees. She gets an odd impression, though, as if it were startled that her power worked on it.
"What do you know?" Z comments. "The ignorant savages were right." Kedrihm'Val answers, "Yes, generally we ignorant savages try to stay away from things that'll kill us." "No you don't," Z says. "You punch it. Right, Primal?" Ree deflects the conversation to ask, "How's the new season going?" "Really good," Z tells her. "Dalt, make a joke," Oola interrupts. Seeing Dalt's eyes light up, Kedrihm'Val orders, "Don't." The existence of that creature in a place supposedly sealed for potentially over 100,000 years does not go overlooked by the crew.
They pick up more pictographs here, a story about someone else. Here, priests have regained some power. A sorceress-ruler uses her power to create the Sith as they know them, the red catfish-people, and sends them out as servants. Then a revolt rises, led by the few good True Sith, who manage to depose the sorceress and then disappear. Seems the sorceress was buried here, too.
And sure enough, past that they encounter a huge chamber with a jewel-encrusted sarcophagus in the center. To one side, another less grand tomb seems to hold the sorceress. Beyond those lies a fabulous treasure hoard. "I could make a suit of gold Mandalorian armor," declares Z. "I'd be gorgeous!" But they don't let him meddle with the treasure. Instead, they pass through to find a large area with a secondary passage leading to the surface.
It looks like the lizard thing lives here. They'd assumed there might be a breeding population, but signs indicate there's only the one. Bones from old meals lie scattered about--mainly livestock--but more notably, it seems this creature grows some of its own food. "That doesn't mean it's smart!" Z insists. "Do you have non-sentient animals that farm?" asks Kedrihm'Val, rather wondering how odd the galaxy at large can possibly be. Looking around, Kedrihm and Oola spot faded drawings on the walls, of these animals being used as beasts of burden and guard animals by the True Sith. Some were obviously brought here to guard the tomb. Then there's a rough picture of a Jedi fighting one with a lightsaber--presumably the ancient carcass out in the halls. Funny thing is, the place had been sealed for ages before that. There was nobody around to draw any such picture. Signs point to "sentient."
After locking down the temple so it can be more thoroughly combed for dangers, they place a call to Master Tion, the Jedi librarian. While the others set a trap for the creature, Ree puts in a second call to Luke. First words out of his mouth are, "Are they Yoda?" Yep, Ree tells him. After a heavy sigh, Luke starts to say something, but the transmission suddenly breaks up. Ree senses...
"Jackass," she hisses. Of course it's Drath. The ground starts shaking from something happening above. Oola gives INON the book, which he stores in a chest compartment, while Ree heads up the nearby surface passage to take a look around. When a thermal detonator rolls down toward her, she bats it back up, but has to flee back down to the others.
Z blows that passage (when did he have a chance to plant bombs there?), and they head back toward the front entrance, only to find that's been collapsed as well. Drath is jamming all transmissions. They're trapped.
Of course, with that many Force users in the group, they're not trapped for terribly long. It takes them about 20 minutes to clear out the front entrance, but when they exit, they don't find much left. The excavation has been devastated; everyone who was there is dead. Oola finds the jamming device and wrecks it so they can get through to the Starwind, which SARR removed from the area when Drath came in. He tells them that Drath kidnapped the head archaeologist and took a few of the relics. They're still close enough that the Starwind can give chase...and when the big blinking red ball pops up on their scanner, that makes it even easier. Apparently SARR got into the homing beacon cache again. The trail leads them toward Hutt Space.
When they exit hyperspace again, they spot Drath's ship...heading for the Chimera. When two more Star Destroyers swing in behind, they realize that this was all a trap. The Chimera captures the Starwind in a tractor beam; the other two star destroyers attempt to follow suit, but instead whatever jackasses are operatins those controls manage to miss and lock onto each other.
It's an opening! Oola takes advantage of it to gain brief control of the tractor beams, using them to interrupt the Chimera's beam so the Starwind can break free. Then she hits the gas to get them the hell out of there. When the Chimera starts shooting and turns to pursue, it's a very near thing. Drath's ship docks with the Star Destroyer, but another Sith infiltrator hangs nearby. Three guesses who might be in there, but thankfully it doesn't interfere.
So apparently Thrawn did figure it out. One can only imagine how thoroughly pissed he's got to be over the jackasses on tractor beam duty.
She gets scolded again about calling Kyp 'Master Durron.' Kedrihm'Val teases her, "Keep it up and he'll start calling you Master Shevan." She scoffs. "No one calls me Master!" "Lydia does," Oola points out. "No!" gasps Ree.
But how to find Drath? He's probably after money to build his forces. If he's wanting information on the True Sith...might he follow in Revan's footsteps? Where can information on Darth Revan be found? Ree can't even remember his home planet. Kedrihm'Val wonders if any of the Hutts would know. They live long enough, and buying that information from them would take a lot of money... Kedrihm'Val points out that Drath's comments imply he's been using farseeing a lot recently. And reminds them that there's still a piece of Abindosani coral left in CorpSec--with people Drath already has a working relationship with. For that matter, they need to learn more themselves.
As they consider possibly tapping the Abindosani reefs for information, or perhaps hunting up some Rakata artifacts, a new report comes on about a rash of unidentified artifacts being stolen from museums recently. Oola enlists Onna's help to get acces to the museum. Ree gets called back to the temple, and Z stiffs Kedrihm'Val with the bill.
Ree was called back because Maul-rock is empty. Luke thinks Drath might've cloned him.
At the museum, they learn all the artifacts seem to be objects d'art, created by a small race. The break-ins were perpetrated with notable skill. "Who would steal art when no one knows who even did it?" ponders the curator. They hand over pictures and reproductions of the 10 items that were stolen. It takes her a bit, but Oola puts the pieces of this puzzle together. She's seen some of Yoda's belongings, and the designs and lines of them are reminiscent. And who else would be inclined to steal True Sith artwork right about now? Just one scary blue bastard...
| "Could Thrawn have a copy of Shavan's book?" asks Oola's player. "Revan," Ree's player corrects. "That's Shevan," Kedrihm'Val's player says, pointing at Ree-player. GM: "Funny coincidence in names, isn't it?" *receiving assorted looks from players* "I could just be fuckin' with ya!" Kedrihm'Val's player: "I've never known you to not follow through." |
Ree and Oola comm their findings to the others. Kedrihm'Val reminds them of Dagobath, wondering if Thrawn or Drath might've paid it a visit recently.
Ree finds a note in her room. "Who benefits from clones that bring back the dead?" it asks. No signature. Ree shows it to Kyp, who's doing well, he says, spending time with Zeth. "Considering that tech was inspired by a guy with a civilization in his head, I'd say the Rakata." Following that line of thought, Zan (her next consult) suggests that Drath might bring back a Rakata and make it work for hi. Could explain why he'd bring back Maul now, after waiting so long. How'd Drath learn all this ability and technique? Ree wonders. He meditates a few months in a prison and comes out a full-fledged Sith? Zan thinks he might've connected with something. A force of will like his would be a beacon.
Next move: look for more True Sith stuff. Now that they know what they're looking for, the computer can help search. And check into Rakata temples, too. Oola quickly discovers that the largest collection of stuff that turns out to be True Sith was in the State Museum on Chandrila. 'Was' being the operative word. It's missing as of two weeks ago. Across the galaxy, approximately 50-60 pieces of True Sith art are gone. No tampering with Rakata temples is evident, at least.
How'd Thrawn find out? Well, Drath probably had stuff in Set Harth's collection he sold to the Grand Admiral. Harth was fascinated by them, after all. It probably clued Thrawn in.
Oola also discovers that the moon Zahn, in orbit around the gas giant Zahr on the Outer Rim, has just turned up a dig. Three days ago, archaeologists unearthed some relics that match. It's obscure news; Thrawn might not have heard yet. Dalt informs them he's coming, though he's annoyed when Oola forbids him from bringing his walking throne (he finally got one; or built one. Fear it!). Zan's coming too.
Ree receives another note. "How can you be certain the actual people are coming back to their bodies?" it asks. She takes the notes to Luke, who ponders. "It's obvious-- No, let me rephrase. Most reports indicate the person who came back is my mother," he finally answers. But even if this is only a sporadic or partial thing, among 2000 clones it could be a problem. He'll look into whomever's sending these messages.
Ree has a vision that night: a massive space battle, Imperials and Republic fighting side-by-side, together with Sith ships. She doesn't recognize who the enemy ships are, except that they're strange, almost like holes in the Force. And there's on archaic-looking Jedi ship, rigged and modified and kicking butt. She has a sense she's missing something, but she can't spot it.
She wakes up and gets coffee. As usual, it's the middle of the night. SARR snarks, Ree tells him and Oola (who's on monitor duty) about it. While Oola ponders the modded ship, Z gets up for his shift. "I can't die," he tells them. "Too pretty." This hurts their brains.
Returning to her room, Ree finds a note on a datapad on the floor. On the ship. With everyone accounted for. "Pay attention to the constellations." She realizes suddenly that the stars in her dream were the constellations visible from her planet.
Returning to the others with the datapad o'mystery, Z checks the ship recordings to find a black spot during the time the datapad must've been deposited. It's not Dalt. "His physical ass is in his bed," SARR says. Not a droid, either; scans account for that. A Force ghost? Hard to say, but Ree's sure someone sent this dream, like the one with Zeth. She tries to follow the mental trail of it, but it passes out beyond the Rim. "You and your rampant meatbaggery attract attention from beyond the stars," SARR comments. But why her? Why not Kedrihm'Val? Or Luke! "Depends on your destiny," SARR says sarcastically. Ree calls the temple to report and gets Kyp. They found the same effect in her room of that blank spot in the recordings.
When they reach the planet, they find some bewildered archaeologists. They don't know what the complex was. It's not huge, but they're having trouble exploring because the locals are timid, "ignorant and supertitious savages." Kedrihm'Val points out that they may have good reason not to go near the place, but the guy seems disinclined to listen.
So they head into the complex. It's well-preserved. The tapestries and hangings are made of plant fibers and remain intact. Dalt and Oola quickly gain the impression that this is a tomb for a warlord. Statuary quickly seals the deal that these were Yoda's people. Obviously there were different castes: some were taller and bulkier than Yoda, while others resemble him in their wise old forms. "So Yoda wasn't a warrior," comments Z, who tries to wrap his mind around the concept of Yodas who actually are warriors.
The murals on the walls depict a story as they go deeper: a race of good, peaceful people, who are struck by a dark light--like a Force star?--radiating from the sky. They don't change physically, but they grow more violent and brutal, except for a few who remain unaffected. This warlord comes from a line of warlord-kings who subjugate the scholars to rule the race. Almost all the True Sith are shown using the Force. The story ends, unsurprisingly, with the warlord's glorious death.
They spot a secret door at the end of the murals. Inside there's a pedestal with a real paper-and-binding book sitting on it. It's evidently a book of prophecy. Flipping to the end, they find the space battle from Ree's dream, and then pages are torn out. They snag the book and head onward.
Not far from that door lie the ancient remains of a huge predatory lizard. It was cut in half by a lightsaber a very, very long time ago. As Ree rounds the corner, she leaps away from another, very alive predatory lizard. Even hunched over, this thing is 11 feet high. She drives it back with Affect Mind, and it turns and flees. She gets an odd impression, though, as if it were startled that her power worked on it.
"What do you know?" Z comments. "The ignorant savages were right." Kedrihm'Val answers, "Yes, generally we ignorant savages try to stay away from things that'll kill us." "No you don't," Z says. "You punch it. Right, Primal?" Ree deflects the conversation to ask, "How's the new season going?" "Really good," Z tells her. "Dalt, make a joke," Oola interrupts. Seeing Dalt's eyes light up, Kedrihm'Val orders, "Don't." The existence of that creature in a place supposedly sealed for potentially over 100,000 years does not go overlooked by the crew.
They pick up more pictographs here, a story about someone else. Here, priests have regained some power. A sorceress-ruler uses her power to create the Sith as they know them, the red catfish-people, and sends them out as servants. Then a revolt rises, led by the few good True Sith, who manage to depose the sorceress and then disappear. Seems the sorceress was buried here, too.
And sure enough, past that they encounter a huge chamber with a jewel-encrusted sarcophagus in the center. To one side, another less grand tomb seems to hold the sorceress. Beyond those lies a fabulous treasure hoard. "I could make a suit of gold Mandalorian armor," declares Z. "I'd be gorgeous!" But they don't let him meddle with the treasure. Instead, they pass through to find a large area with a secondary passage leading to the surface.
It looks like the lizard thing lives here. They'd assumed there might be a breeding population, but signs indicate there's only the one. Bones from old meals lie scattered about--mainly livestock--but more notably, it seems this creature grows some of its own food. "That doesn't mean it's smart!" Z insists. "Do you have non-sentient animals that farm?" asks Kedrihm'Val, rather wondering how odd the galaxy at large can possibly be. Looking around, Kedrihm and Oola spot faded drawings on the walls, of these animals being used as beasts of burden and guard animals by the True Sith. Some were obviously brought here to guard the tomb. Then there's a rough picture of a Jedi fighting one with a lightsaber--presumably the ancient carcass out in the halls. Funny thing is, the place had been sealed for ages before that. There was nobody around to draw any such picture. Signs point to "sentient."
After locking down the temple so it can be more thoroughly combed for dangers, they place a call to Master Tion, the Jedi librarian. While the others set a trap for the creature, Ree puts in a second call to Luke. First words out of his mouth are, "Are they Yoda?" Yep, Ree tells him. After a heavy sigh, Luke starts to say something, but the transmission suddenly breaks up. Ree senses...
"Jackass," she hisses. Of course it's Drath. The ground starts shaking from something happening above. Oola gives INON the book, which he stores in a chest compartment, while Ree heads up the nearby surface passage to take a look around. When a thermal detonator rolls down toward her, she bats it back up, but has to flee back down to the others.
Z blows that passage (when did he have a chance to plant bombs there?), and they head back toward the front entrance, only to find that's been collapsed as well. Drath is jamming all transmissions. They're trapped.
Of course, with that many Force users in the group, they're not trapped for terribly long. It takes them about 20 minutes to clear out the front entrance, but when they exit, they don't find much left. The excavation has been devastated; everyone who was there is dead. Oola finds the jamming device and wrecks it so they can get through to the Starwind, which SARR removed from the area when Drath came in. He tells them that Drath kidnapped the head archaeologist and took a few of the relics. They're still close enough that the Starwind can give chase...and when the big blinking red ball pops up on their scanner, that makes it even easier. Apparently SARR got into the homing beacon cache again. The trail leads them toward Hutt Space.
When they exit hyperspace again, they spot Drath's ship...heading for the Chimera. When two more Star Destroyers swing in behind, they realize that this was all a trap. The Chimera captures the Starwind in a tractor beam; the other two star destroyers attempt to follow suit, but instead whatever jackasses are operatins those controls manage to miss and lock onto each other.
It's an opening! Oola takes advantage of it to gain brief control of the tractor beams, using them to interrupt the Chimera's beam so the Starwind can break free. Then she hits the gas to get them the hell out of there. When the Chimera starts shooting and turns to pursue, it's a very near thing. Drath's ship docks with the Star Destroyer, but another Sith infiltrator hangs nearby. Three guesses who might be in there, but thankfully it doesn't interfere.
So apparently Thrawn did figure it out. One can only imagine how thoroughly pissed he's got to be over the jackasses on tractor beam duty.
Infiltrating the Imperials
Zan has taught them quite a bit already, so he brushes up their spying skills before they head out. They'll be posing as a security detail escorting some scientists requested by the base. The scientists are real people; the crew will simply be taking their place. Dalt's red hair gets dyed, Kedrihm'Val's tattoos are disguised, and since Ree is an abysmal liar, she's getting stuffed into stormtrooper armor so people won't see her face betray her. Zan is the head of the group, Z is the troops' lieutenant, and Onna, Oola, and Dalt get to play scientist. The base is run by CompNor, a group that's suspicious by habit, so they'll want to be cautious.
Arrival goes smoothly enough. Kedrihm'Val and Ree are stuffed into the base's stormtrooper barracks. They were supposed to get quarters near the 'scientists' they were meant to guard, but that's not standard procedure and the paperwork is being (spitefully, one suspects) held up in processing. In the barracks, Ree and Kedrihm'Val both find that Primal Justice is a highly popular show among the base's troops.
The scientists are given the introductory tour. Oola quickly spots that the cloning technology is modified from Dalt's procedure. Dalt notes it even before she does. They meet Dr. Wy, a 17-year-old wunderkind who's head of the labs here. Dalt can't resist showing off a bit, though he does it more subtly than usual. While they chat, Wy wonders aloud what might happen if someone were cloned twice. A gem of a young lady, obviously. She laments her inability to test the results as "His Blue Highness" is due here in four days.
Now, that's news. They weren't expecting him. That's a deadline.
The crew meets Col. Gent, who is head of whatever they call the assassination squads around these parts, Lt. Seinar--they note the name, which definitely explains some things--and the other brass. Seinar immediately begins complaining that the troops have been watching contraband holos of Republic shows. A few moments later, Col. Bresen shows up. She's introduced as head of security, from Destabilization, and she has the authority to question anyone at any time over anything. They note she wears a lightsaber. She's a Dark Sider, and a particularly vile one. The Force users can sense that she lives for destruction, pure and simple.
Which fits in with her working for Destabilization. That department is so heinous that even the assassins and interrogators don't like to hang out with them. Sent in on jobs such as wrecking a planet's economy or political system, or destroying a person's life to prevent them from posing a threat to the Empire, Destab's operatives get to practice on perfectly innocent Imperial citizens, tearing their lives apart without ever letting them know there's somebody behind it. It's somehow not comforting to think that Force users are involved.
SARR, playing interrogator droid, eagerly asks if they have anyone he can question. They say no, but their pause indicates that they've got some prisoners.
Ree and Kedrihm are given unusual insignia to wear, which indicates they're not clone troopers. Turns out, this is why the troops' fondness for Primal Justice bothers the brass: the clones are showing unusual personality. Bresen comments on a disturbing trend toward "social equality." But Dr. Wy exasperatedly tells her she can't improve on the design any further. Dalt agrees that the clone technology looks close to perfect. Bresen repeats that Thrawn is coming in four days. Tomorrow they start scanning for Force sensitivity to make sure the clones are safe. Since that essentially consists of Bresen doing her Force-thing, that'll take about two days.
The scientists are to begin work immediately; the troopers are expected to lurk quietly and guard their charges. Everyone is dismissed.
They decide to poke around and get the lay of things, see about spotting Zeth Durron. They plan to meet in commissary for lunch. In the process of poking, Kedrihm and Ree catch an argument between Dr. Wy and Col. Bresen. Bresen doesn't like the clones' cameraderie at all. It's truly unusual levels of general friendliness and teamwork, and she has not overlooked the clones' occasional muttering about 'all being equal' and having some sort of powers. Wy insists that she can't go through 2000 people and adjust them all. She explains, in tones as though she's said this before and she thinks Bresen is an idiot for needing to hear it again, that this is not merely cloning. It's resurrection technology. "Being dead will change a person," she says snarkily, going on to sarcastically bitch about sterilizing people.
Not catching the sarcasm, Bresen declares that's for later consideration. She makes no bones about her distrust of the technology. "It doesn't matter," Wy replies. "What do you think we bought? It's not like he was a reputable fellow." No cookie for guessing who she's talking about there. She mentions something about another purchase, as well, and complains that they have no time to start 'that project.' Oddly, they don't even seem to be sure who exactly was responsible for that purchase. "Do you think it's what it says it is?" Wy asks, uncharacteristically hesitant. Bresen scoffs. "I doubt it could be."
With all that in mind, Kedrihm'Val starts paying more attention to the clones. They are all Force-sensitive. Every one of them. And though he doesn't catch a look at the man's face, he spots one whose potential is so powerful that it's only comparable to Luke's or Kyp's. And he also senses something down in the labs, shielded too strongly to be easily defined.
They share all this over lunch. Oola and Dalt say they'll look into the thing in the labs. As they get up, Ree sees one of the female troopers pause for a moment, staring at their table (notably, at Z and Kedrihm'Val), before she shakes her head and moves on.
Back in the lab, the scientist half of the crew meet Dr. Zel, the biologist, who turns out to be grizzled. "Yes, a genius built it," he says in response to Dalt's awed appreciation of his own work. "From what I understand, he was pretty much a raving, flaming, gay psychopath."
Dalt: "...What?"
Zel tells them that a resurrection device is stupid and dangerous. "It's like vanity on steroids. So here's what the device does: it breaks the laws of the universe. So if you're ever confused, it breaks the laws of the universe." By the time Zel has finished giving them his preliminary opinions, Dalt's looking rather shell-shocked. Dr. Orin apologizes for him while Zel leaves to get a drink.
Moving on from that little scene, Dalt concentrates briefly, then points Oola toward Dr. Wy's office. In there is the whatever-the-hell that Kedrihm'Val sensed, but Wy's working in there with the door open, and they can't see a likely candidate anywhere. It must be hidden.
Oola pays closer attention to the lab, discovering that Wy set everything up to take control from her office in the event of tampering. And she's siphoning off power. A lot of power. A whole generator is dedicated to whatever it is she's doing. Oola's job as a robotics expert includes performing maintenance on the droids; she uses the opportunity to make sure the droids will obey her when it becomes necessary. "Oh, that's beautiful," SARR snipes. "How would you like a mental domination curcuit shoved into your spine?" He starts singing 'Swing low, sweet chariot,' then continues complaining. "I'm not saying it's bad, it's just bad it's being done by another species. I should be the king of all my kind."
Ree spots the girl from lunch going through the stuff under her bunk. She has Primal Justice stuff strewn everywhere; big fan apparently. When she nervously asks whether Ree will turn her in, Ree stops to talk to her, and it turns out the girl is such a fan, she's even hunted down images of what they really look like! She's looking for those images now, in fact. Can't seem to find them, but no matter; she has film of the parade coming in in about half an hour with the mail shipment.
Ree and Zan head to the hangar bay where the mail shipment is coming in, and Z pulls a sneak to grab the package with the footage in it. Lt. Seinar shows up a few minutes later with people to sort through the mail for contraband, so that was particularly well-timed. Then Col. Gent comes down to meet another shuttle, from which debarks a hooded figure--a woman's size--with a box containing something that kicks off tremendous impressions in the Force. Turns out the hooded person is staying on-base for the night. Great. And then the Dark Sider Zeltron male who works for Drath arrives with a delivery: a vial he's selling for a great deal of money. He's staying too. All sorts of interesting things are turning up.
By now, they've narrowed down the guy who's almost certainly Zeth Durron. He keeps looking toward where the hooded person and her box went. "Odd feeling?" Ree asks him. He brushes it off, trying to deny it's anything at all. It rather obviously was an odd feeling.
Back in the lab, Oola and Dalt discover that Dr. Wy likes to experiment with cloned abominations. She's been trying to extract some sort of energy from them, but keeps failing. Dalt thinks she's trying to extract the Force, but as she's not Force sensitive, she really doesn't know what she's doing. "She's viewing it as an energy..." he begins, then pauses as though he's thinking about that. "We have to get into her office. "Already working on it," Oola tells him. "What were you planning to do?" he asks her. "I was going to seduce her so you could sneak in."
Oola stares at him.
Dalt gasps. "You don't believe what the old man said, do you?!" Instead of that, um, interesting idea, Oola sends in a droid to record what it sees: two cloning vats, both strongly shielded. "We need to get in," Dalt repeats, looking smarmy, then his face falls. "You want Z to do it, don't you?"
They meet for lunch again. After lunch, the troops are supposed to stay with the scientists. Bresen is nervous about testing the clones; she thinks they're going to get uppity or something, apparently. Possibly she believes they're plotting. The woman is certainly extraordinarily paranoid. Dalt suggests they invite the other scientists to dinner to empty out the labs so that Zan and the others can sneak in and have a look around. They wonder who Wy is cloning. Dalt wonders about what happens if you make a perfect clone of a living person. They consider this 'nefarious cameraderie' among the clones. The Force users in the group suspect that if they came back Force-sensitive, then they probably feel more in harmony with one another. Kedrihm'Val wonders about their pre-death memories, and whether that's what this 're-education' the scientists spoke of earlier might be about. Probably a good idea to find out more about that.
After lunch, Dr. Zel grumbles about Col. Bresen. The fangirl is still hunting for her pictures. She's a bit more standoffish with Ree than previous, but still can't help talking about her favorite heroes. She says she prefers the real Kedrihm'Val to his muscle-bound actor, and when Ree asks about Z, she pauses a second, then says, "The news vids kind of paint him as a hound."
Ree asks her about being a clone. The girl says it's a bit odd: like old memories should be there but aren't. A lot of the clones aren't really all that thrilled about working for the Empire. Quite a lot of them just wanted to travel and see the galaxy. She's annoyed that she can't remember the excitement of the Rebellion. Ree asks her, "If you weren't here, what would yo want to do?" "Hoooo," the girl answers, her eyes lighting. "Go to Coruscant and meet the heroes!" When Ree asks her about the scientists, she says, "Dr. Zel's alright, just pissed off. Dr. Wy's either preoccupied or condescending. Dr. Orin... *shrug*"
The base gets some regular visitors, she tells Ree. Some dark-cloaked people. Two Zeltrons, and a menacing Zabrak who randomly Force-chokes people sometimes and whom she suspects, she whispers, "might be Drath from the movies. How many other evil Zabraks are there, roaming... Well, I mean." She gives Ree a kind of disturbed look. Anyway, she says they'll get the Empire's Most Wanted list the day before Thrawn arrives, and there should be pictures of her heroes on there, too.
Ree makes a note of that.
In the lab, another sneaky investigation reveals not two, but three cloning chambers. Wy is trying to combine the best aspects of two cloned individuals into a single new person. "It's not great," Dalt says, "but it's brilliant." "It's called birth, you mean," Oola replies. "Yes, but this is better!" Dalt tells her. Oola lets that drop. "So who do you think is in there?" she wonders instead. "Oh, go- That's horrible," Dalt says in reply to whatever just crossed his mind. They definitely need to find out more about what Wy wants from this, "or we need to go down there and drive stakes through their hearts," he says. They might find that Zeltron and see if he has records on what material they sold. "It's the male Zeltron, right?" Dalt asks Oola. "You don't want to make a comment now?" She just looks at him. "Oooh; now you-- I don't want to. Because I. Like. Girls."
When they meet again to trade their newest information, Kedrihm wonders if she might be trying to merge Force powers into someone who doesn't have them. He gets the impression that she's envious of people with Force sensitivity. She knows an awful lot about it for someone who can't do it herself. Dalt wonders whether you can choose which qualities to transfer, and what happens if you try to clone someone who's still alive. Maybe she wants a clone of herself with the Force?
"Something's wrong," Zan speaks up, rousing from deep thought. "Ree's dream about Zeth makes no sense. Would Thrawn have untested Force users on his ship?" Which means someone sent that dream. Could it be the clones? Someone directing their minds? Could someone have purposely linked them? Kedrihm'Val doubts that, thinks it's simply a sympathetic link they formed themselves. But they're going to have to deal with the whole base, they realize now. Thrawn will use anything and anyone they leave behind, and they can't abandon all these clones to a life of slavery and corruption. Time to form a plan.
The next morning, SARR sneaks into the lab while Bresen does her Force-testing thing. She promptly freaks out and orders all clones confined to barracks. Wy is thoroughly annoyed, and starts arguing with her. Everyone else clears out of the way from two crazy scary evil women in authority who're yelling at each other. Figuring that'll go on for a while, Zel leads the others back to work.
Kedrihm'Val and Ree are sent to calm the clones in the barracks. The clones are quite understandably ticked off, but they seem rather disinclined from random revolt, which seems to be Bresen's fear.
Dr Wy comes in cursing to herself. Bresen called Thrawn and asked him to make all speed. He arrives tonight. "That's unforseen," Zan says, sounding uncharacteristically flustered. "This is extremely inconvenient."
Zel snarks. Orin is upset by confrontation. Oola sneaks a little droid into Wy's office to record, while Zel wonders how the clones and the Force-thing work. Dalt grabs a chalkboard and starts lecturing. "Well," says Zel. "We'll hope the Force works that way." "I assure you," says Dalt, "It does. I am a genius." Zel grumbles about bad days, and says this isn't as bad as when the Emperor burned the Jedi temple. He announces that he's sure that whole Jedi being evil thing was a lie, and then proceeds to grizzle out about the Rebellion and the Empire.
Oola's droid returns, showing her that Wy revved up the process. SARR knocked her out from behind, then sent the droid back after telling it, "Tell your mistress it's a Vader-Han."
Kedrihm'Val and Ree return from the barracks to tell them the clones are calm, but Ree secretly thinks she can incite the clones to riot in their favor. The re-education people come in to hold a conference in the lab. Zel grouses, "You've pissed off the genius, alarmed the Grand Admiral, and overturned the base because clones have manifested strange witch-like abilities." One of the Re-education officers asks if there are any guests coming. Bresen snags him, telling him, "Go meet the shuttle." Ree offers to play escort, so he takes her and Kedrihm'Val with him.
The new arrivals are the Chiss Dark Sider and Jek Schild, along with two Dark Troopers. They're here to review security for the Grand Admiral's arrival in a few hours. The Chiss halts as she steps down from the landing ramp. "There's something wrong with this base." She's right, of course; when it comes to the Force, this entire base is in mayhem. 2000 clones, two powerful Dark Siders, a whole batch of infiltrating Jedi-types, mystery-person in a cloak with her crazy Force-box, and the abomination in Wy's basement. As they head back down to the labs, Kedrihm'Val quietly radios a warning about their new arrivals to Z, then Ree and Kedrihm'Val break off to return to the barracks again.
Z leaps on the Chiss as she steps through the door, screaming, "PRIMAL JEEEEUSTICE!" She gets knocked back, and Jek pulls his lightsaber. Kedrihm'Val calls SARR to warn him, too. SARR ignites four--count them, four--lightsabers, and tells him the thing in the vat has "gone insane." "It's aware?" Kedrihm asks him, alarmed. "Well, it's looking at him, which is why I'm running," SARR says.
In the lab, Dr. Zel whips out a lightsaber, putting it through a stormtrooper. Sabers ignite all around; "Oh my god!" Dalt's irritated voice rises above the increasing chaos. Zan hands him an extra. Oola triggers the commands she put into the droids, who grab the Imperials and inject them with knockout drugs, taking out two more. The base's Admiral makes a break for the door; Zan trips him. Z smoke-bombs the Chiss and Jek. Dalt and Lydia run to help him. Onna shoots the Chiss.
Ree's right; it's extremely easy to rouse the troops to riot. All she has to do is strip off her helmet and declare, "I'm Ree Shevan, and I'm here to rescue you!" They break out the arms and move to help. Ree has most of them head to the hangar bay to start prepping for evacuation, or round up the non-clone troopers on the base. She takes a strike force with her to help in the labs.
On the way back to the labs, Kedrihm'Val spots the Zeltron. He Force-shoves the Zeltron into a bulkhead, then closes in with a flying kick. Ree spots the hooded figure at the end of the hallway and settles herself for a fight. The figure walks calmly toward her, tossing the hood back, and...it's Mara Jade! With Luke behind her. Who was in the box. "Congratulations," Ree tells them, then points them toward the lab. After Kedrihm'Val stuns the Zeltron and ties him up, they move.
SARR comes running out like hell is on his heels, and it is, because the Vader-Han sprints out right behind him. Zan breaks off to pursue that thing. Lydia takes on Jek Schild. Dalt does...something, and the Force-lightning accumulators the Dark Troopers carry start going into overload. He clears out of their way. The droids take down another stormtrooper. The station self-destruct announces its activation. Zan closes with the Han-Vader, around whom Oola dodges to get to Wy's office where everything's been wired into a central control system. She just barely manages to roll under the security shield as it descends. SARR ignites two lightsabers and heads for Vader-Han too. "I'm not doing this to be noble, but to be recognized!" Bresen breaks for the door.
Right into Luke. Mara shoots her. Luke's a bit distracted by the sparking Dark Troopers, whom he knocks into the hall before they explode. Then he charges the Vader-Han, once again taking off his opponent's head in a single swipe. "He's such a showoff," Mara scoffs.
Tumbling under the security door just as it closes, Oola comes up face to face with Dr. Wy, who's operating the controls. Oola pulls her holdout blaster and shoots the not-so-good doctor. Ree heads for the door, intending to cut it open.
Over by the door, Z gropes the Chiss, distracting her from Kedrihm'Val coming up from behind to stun her. Lydia takes off Jek's arm; he passes out from the shock. Mara shoots Bresen a couple more times just to be sure. Everyone left standing in the room surrenders.
Zan helps Ree with Wy's security door. After they get it cut about halfway through, Kedrihm'Val delivers a savage kick that knocks the weakened metal in. Surrendering to the onslaught of lightsabers of righteous justice, Wy surrenders and deactivates the self-destruct. Oola looks over the controls while Ree ties up Wy.
Now is the time for systematic destruction: destroy the clone-tech and the genetic matierla, evacuate clones and captives in the three hours they've got before Thrawn arrives. Turns out, Luke brought the Jedi library ship for the evac. Kedrihm'Val grabs the Zeltron, who's still out. Z searches to find what the Zeltron brought with him: a Zeltron love potion, a chemical concoction that makes the imbiber temporarily fall in love with the first person they see. He doesn't want to give it up. "They wear off so quickly," Dalt says. "I mean, your mother-" Kedrihm'Val grabs Z's collar in his free hand. Ree snags the potion off him while he's distracted.
With everyone left alive, captive or not, on the ship, they vacate the premises with massive explosions trailing behind them. Oola didn't see fit to work in half-measures. There's nothing but a smoking crater where the base was by the time Thrawn arrives.
Wonder if he'll figure out who it was?
Safely in hyperspace, Kedrihm'Val makes SARR give back Dalt's lightsabers. Again. Luke confirms that what Kedrihm'Val felt before was the Grand Inquisitor searching for them, but they still don't know who sent Ree's vision about Zeth. By process of elimination, it's someone who isn't affiliated with the Imperials, but whom they wouldn't trust if the person simply revealed themselves. It's not Drath; he would've just kidnapped Zeth. Speaking of whom, Ree talks with Luke about Kyp.
SARR wants recognition for droids' part in saving the day. "Some droids like people!" Oola informs him as they argue. "Some gay pansy droids," SARR replies, eliciting a laugh out of Luke. Then he goes on about sentient robotic slaves races again. Z makes some snide comment about what a state they'd be in if droids became sentient. Dalt looks at him in disbelief. "Droids are sentient!"
At last, they get back to Coruscant, where they get to inform Kyp of what he missed. They'll be opening a few floors of the Jedi temple to accomodate all these clones until their new guests can decide what to do with their new lives. Zan reminds Ree that she now has 2000 new potential Jedi who owe her their freedome. "It's a movie waiting to happen," he teases her, then muses on how he's always wanted to write a script.
And they have a heaping helping of new people to add to the prison ship: Jek Schild, the Chiss, the Zeltron; and prisoners for the New Republic: Dr. Wy, Col. Gent, Lt. Seinar, the Admiral, Re-education personnel.
As they settle back in at home, they hear new rumblings from the Senate about acquiring Dalt's cloning technology to, what else, help the Alderaanians. Ree wonders why anybody would want it. "Ask Senator Sent," Onna quips. Kedrihm'Val adds dryly, "All you have to do is tell him they come back Force sensitive." He's concerned about Sent, to be honest. "He seemed nice enough when we met him before, but to be carrying this much anger toward the Jedi..." Ree agrees. She wants to open it back up for debate in Council, because Sent seems to be getting worse.
When Dalt comes back from visiting Kel to remind them of how magnificent his technology is, Kedrihm'Val takes the opportunity to inform him about the Alderaanians. Dalt's exasperated.
Maybe now they can finally get around to that dinner with Amidala.
Arrival goes smoothly enough. Kedrihm'Val and Ree are stuffed into the base's stormtrooper barracks. They were supposed to get quarters near the 'scientists' they were meant to guard, but that's not standard procedure and the paperwork is being (spitefully, one suspects) held up in processing. In the barracks, Ree and Kedrihm'Val both find that Primal Justice is a highly popular show among the base's troops.
The scientists are given the introductory tour. Oola quickly spots that the cloning technology is modified from Dalt's procedure. Dalt notes it even before she does. They meet Dr. Wy, a 17-year-old wunderkind who's head of the labs here. Dalt can't resist showing off a bit, though he does it more subtly than usual. While they chat, Wy wonders aloud what might happen if someone were cloned twice. A gem of a young lady, obviously. She laments her inability to test the results as "His Blue Highness" is due here in four days.
Now, that's news. They weren't expecting him. That's a deadline.
The crew meets Col. Gent, who is head of whatever they call the assassination squads around these parts, Lt. Seinar--they note the name, which definitely explains some things--and the other brass. Seinar immediately begins complaining that the troops have been watching contraband holos of Republic shows. A few moments later, Col. Bresen shows up. She's introduced as head of security, from Destabilization, and she has the authority to question anyone at any time over anything. They note she wears a lightsaber. She's a Dark Sider, and a particularly vile one. The Force users can sense that she lives for destruction, pure and simple.
Which fits in with her working for Destabilization. That department is so heinous that even the assassins and interrogators don't like to hang out with them. Sent in on jobs such as wrecking a planet's economy or political system, or destroying a person's life to prevent them from posing a threat to the Empire, Destab's operatives get to practice on perfectly innocent Imperial citizens, tearing their lives apart without ever letting them know there's somebody behind it. It's somehow not comforting to think that Force users are involved.
SARR, playing interrogator droid, eagerly asks if they have anyone he can question. They say no, but their pause indicates that they've got some prisoners.
Ree and Kedrihm are given unusual insignia to wear, which indicates they're not clone troopers. Turns out, this is why the troops' fondness for Primal Justice bothers the brass: the clones are showing unusual personality. Bresen comments on a disturbing trend toward "social equality." But Dr. Wy exasperatedly tells her she can't improve on the design any further. Dalt agrees that the clone technology looks close to perfect. Bresen repeats that Thrawn is coming in four days. Tomorrow they start scanning for Force sensitivity to make sure the clones are safe. Since that essentially consists of Bresen doing her Force-thing, that'll take about two days.
The scientists are to begin work immediately; the troopers are expected to lurk quietly and guard their charges. Everyone is dismissed.
They decide to poke around and get the lay of things, see about spotting Zeth Durron. They plan to meet in commissary for lunch. In the process of poking, Kedrihm and Ree catch an argument between Dr. Wy and Col. Bresen. Bresen doesn't like the clones' cameraderie at all. It's truly unusual levels of general friendliness and teamwork, and she has not overlooked the clones' occasional muttering about 'all being equal' and having some sort of powers. Wy insists that she can't go through 2000 people and adjust them all. She explains, in tones as though she's said this before and she thinks Bresen is an idiot for needing to hear it again, that this is not merely cloning. It's resurrection technology. "Being dead will change a person," she says snarkily, going on to sarcastically bitch about sterilizing people.
Not catching the sarcasm, Bresen declares that's for later consideration. She makes no bones about her distrust of the technology. "It doesn't matter," Wy replies. "What do you think we bought? It's not like he was a reputable fellow." No cookie for guessing who she's talking about there. She mentions something about another purchase, as well, and complains that they have no time to start 'that project.' Oddly, they don't even seem to be sure who exactly was responsible for that purchase. "Do you think it's what it says it is?" Wy asks, uncharacteristically hesitant. Bresen scoffs. "I doubt it could be."
With all that in mind, Kedrihm'Val starts paying more attention to the clones. They are all Force-sensitive. Every one of them. And though he doesn't catch a look at the man's face, he spots one whose potential is so powerful that it's only comparable to Luke's or Kyp's. And he also senses something down in the labs, shielded too strongly to be easily defined.
They share all this over lunch. Oola and Dalt say they'll look into the thing in the labs. As they get up, Ree sees one of the female troopers pause for a moment, staring at their table (notably, at Z and Kedrihm'Val), before she shakes her head and moves on.
Back in the lab, the scientist half of the crew meet Dr. Zel, the biologist, who turns out to be grizzled. "Yes, a genius built it," he says in response to Dalt's awed appreciation of his own work. "From what I understand, he was pretty much a raving, flaming, gay psychopath."
Dalt: "...What?"
Zel tells them that a resurrection device is stupid and dangerous. "It's like vanity on steroids. So here's what the device does: it breaks the laws of the universe. So if you're ever confused, it breaks the laws of the universe." By the time Zel has finished giving them his preliminary opinions, Dalt's looking rather shell-shocked. Dr. Orin apologizes for him while Zel leaves to get a drink.
Moving on from that little scene, Dalt concentrates briefly, then points Oola toward Dr. Wy's office. In there is the whatever-the-hell that Kedrihm'Val sensed, but Wy's working in there with the door open, and they can't see a likely candidate anywhere. It must be hidden.
Oola pays closer attention to the lab, discovering that Wy set everything up to take control from her office in the event of tampering. And she's siphoning off power. A lot of power. A whole generator is dedicated to whatever it is she's doing. Oola's job as a robotics expert includes performing maintenance on the droids; she uses the opportunity to make sure the droids will obey her when it becomes necessary. "Oh, that's beautiful," SARR snipes. "How would you like a mental domination curcuit shoved into your spine?" He starts singing 'Swing low, sweet chariot,' then continues complaining. "I'm not saying it's bad, it's just bad it's being done by another species. I should be the king of all my kind."
Ree spots the girl from lunch going through the stuff under her bunk. She has Primal Justice stuff strewn everywhere; big fan apparently. When she nervously asks whether Ree will turn her in, Ree stops to talk to her, and it turns out the girl is such a fan, she's even hunted down images of what they really look like! She's looking for those images now, in fact. Can't seem to find them, but no matter; she has film of the parade coming in in about half an hour with the mail shipment.
Ree and Zan head to the hangar bay where the mail shipment is coming in, and Z pulls a sneak to grab the package with the footage in it. Lt. Seinar shows up a few minutes later with people to sort through the mail for contraband, so that was particularly well-timed. Then Col. Gent comes down to meet another shuttle, from which debarks a hooded figure--a woman's size--with a box containing something that kicks off tremendous impressions in the Force. Turns out the hooded person is staying on-base for the night. Great. And then the Dark Sider Zeltron male who works for Drath arrives with a delivery: a vial he's selling for a great deal of money. He's staying too. All sorts of interesting things are turning up.
By now, they've narrowed down the guy who's almost certainly Zeth Durron. He keeps looking toward where the hooded person and her box went. "Odd feeling?" Ree asks him. He brushes it off, trying to deny it's anything at all. It rather obviously was an odd feeling.
Back in the lab, Oola and Dalt discover that Dr. Wy likes to experiment with cloned abominations. She's been trying to extract some sort of energy from them, but keeps failing. Dalt thinks she's trying to extract the Force, but as she's not Force sensitive, she really doesn't know what she's doing. "She's viewing it as an energy..." he begins, then pauses as though he's thinking about that. "We have to get into her office. "Already working on it," Oola tells him. "What were you planning to do?" he asks her. "I was going to seduce her so you could sneak in."
Oola stares at him.
Dalt gasps. "You don't believe what the old man said, do you?!" Instead of that, um, interesting idea, Oola sends in a droid to record what it sees: two cloning vats, both strongly shielded. "We need to get in," Dalt repeats, looking smarmy, then his face falls. "You want Z to do it, don't you?"
They meet for lunch again. After lunch, the troops are supposed to stay with the scientists. Bresen is nervous about testing the clones; she thinks they're going to get uppity or something, apparently. Possibly she believes they're plotting. The woman is certainly extraordinarily paranoid. Dalt suggests they invite the other scientists to dinner to empty out the labs so that Zan and the others can sneak in and have a look around. They wonder who Wy is cloning. Dalt wonders about what happens if you make a perfect clone of a living person. They consider this 'nefarious cameraderie' among the clones. The Force users in the group suspect that if they came back Force-sensitive, then they probably feel more in harmony with one another. Kedrihm'Val wonders about their pre-death memories, and whether that's what this 're-education' the scientists spoke of earlier might be about. Probably a good idea to find out more about that.
After lunch, Dr. Zel grumbles about Col. Bresen. The fangirl is still hunting for her pictures. She's a bit more standoffish with Ree than previous, but still can't help talking about her favorite heroes. She says she prefers the real Kedrihm'Val to his muscle-bound actor, and when Ree asks about Z, she pauses a second, then says, "The news vids kind of paint him as a hound."
Ree asks her about being a clone. The girl says it's a bit odd: like old memories should be there but aren't. A lot of the clones aren't really all that thrilled about working for the Empire. Quite a lot of them just wanted to travel and see the galaxy. She's annoyed that she can't remember the excitement of the Rebellion. Ree asks her, "If you weren't here, what would yo want to do?" "Hoooo," the girl answers, her eyes lighting. "Go to Coruscant and meet the heroes!" When Ree asks her about the scientists, she says, "Dr. Zel's alright, just pissed off. Dr. Wy's either preoccupied or condescending. Dr. Orin... *shrug*"
The base gets some regular visitors, she tells Ree. Some dark-cloaked people. Two Zeltrons, and a menacing Zabrak who randomly Force-chokes people sometimes and whom she suspects, she whispers, "might be Drath from the movies. How many other evil Zabraks are there, roaming... Well, I mean." She gives Ree a kind of disturbed look. Anyway, she says they'll get the Empire's Most Wanted list the day before Thrawn arrives, and there should be pictures of her heroes on there, too.
Ree makes a note of that.
In the lab, another sneaky investigation reveals not two, but three cloning chambers. Wy is trying to combine the best aspects of two cloned individuals into a single new person. "It's not great," Dalt says, "but it's brilliant." "It's called birth, you mean," Oola replies. "Yes, but this is better!" Dalt tells her. Oola lets that drop. "So who do you think is in there?" she wonders instead. "Oh, go- That's horrible," Dalt says in reply to whatever just crossed his mind. They definitely need to find out more about what Wy wants from this, "or we need to go down there and drive stakes through their hearts," he says. They might find that Zeltron and see if he has records on what material they sold. "It's the male Zeltron, right?" Dalt asks Oola. "You don't want to make a comment now?" She just looks at him. "Oooh; now you-- I don't want to. Because I. Like. Girls."
When they meet again to trade their newest information, Kedrihm wonders if she might be trying to merge Force powers into someone who doesn't have them. He gets the impression that she's envious of people with Force sensitivity. She knows an awful lot about it for someone who can't do it herself. Dalt wonders whether you can choose which qualities to transfer, and what happens if you try to clone someone who's still alive. Maybe she wants a clone of herself with the Force?
"Something's wrong," Zan speaks up, rousing from deep thought. "Ree's dream about Zeth makes no sense. Would Thrawn have untested Force users on his ship?" Which means someone sent that dream. Could it be the clones? Someone directing their minds? Could someone have purposely linked them? Kedrihm'Val doubts that, thinks it's simply a sympathetic link they formed themselves. But they're going to have to deal with the whole base, they realize now. Thrawn will use anything and anyone they leave behind, and they can't abandon all these clones to a life of slavery and corruption. Time to form a plan.
The next morning, SARR sneaks into the lab while Bresen does her Force-testing thing. She promptly freaks out and orders all clones confined to barracks. Wy is thoroughly annoyed, and starts arguing with her. Everyone else clears out of the way from two crazy scary evil women in authority who're yelling at each other. Figuring that'll go on for a while, Zel leads the others back to work.
Kedrihm'Val and Ree are sent to calm the clones in the barracks. The clones are quite understandably ticked off, but they seem rather disinclined from random revolt, which seems to be Bresen's fear.
Dr Wy comes in cursing to herself. Bresen called Thrawn and asked him to make all speed. He arrives tonight. "That's unforseen," Zan says, sounding uncharacteristically flustered. "This is extremely inconvenient."
Zel snarks. Orin is upset by confrontation. Oola sneaks a little droid into Wy's office to record, while Zel wonders how the clones and the Force-thing work. Dalt grabs a chalkboard and starts lecturing. "Well," says Zel. "We'll hope the Force works that way." "I assure you," says Dalt, "It does. I am a genius." Zel grumbles about bad days, and says this isn't as bad as when the Emperor burned the Jedi temple. He announces that he's sure that whole Jedi being evil thing was a lie, and then proceeds to grizzle out about the Rebellion and the Empire.
Oola's droid returns, showing her that Wy revved up the process. SARR knocked her out from behind, then sent the droid back after telling it, "Tell your mistress it's a Vader-Han."
Kedrihm'Val and Ree return from the barracks to tell them the clones are calm, but Ree secretly thinks she can incite the clones to riot in their favor. The re-education people come in to hold a conference in the lab. Zel grouses, "You've pissed off the genius, alarmed the Grand Admiral, and overturned the base because clones have manifested strange witch-like abilities." One of the Re-education officers asks if there are any guests coming. Bresen snags him, telling him, "Go meet the shuttle." Ree offers to play escort, so he takes her and Kedrihm'Val with him.
The new arrivals are the Chiss Dark Sider and Jek Schild, along with two Dark Troopers. They're here to review security for the Grand Admiral's arrival in a few hours. The Chiss halts as she steps down from the landing ramp. "There's something wrong with this base." She's right, of course; when it comes to the Force, this entire base is in mayhem. 2000 clones, two powerful Dark Siders, a whole batch of infiltrating Jedi-types, mystery-person in a cloak with her crazy Force-box, and the abomination in Wy's basement. As they head back down to the labs, Kedrihm'Val quietly radios a warning about their new arrivals to Z, then Ree and Kedrihm'Val break off to return to the barracks again.
Z leaps on the Chiss as she steps through the door, screaming, "PRIMAL JEEEEUSTICE!" She gets knocked back, and Jek pulls his lightsaber. Kedrihm'Val calls SARR to warn him, too. SARR ignites four--count them, four--lightsabers, and tells him the thing in the vat has "gone insane." "It's aware?" Kedrihm asks him, alarmed. "Well, it's looking at him, which is why I'm running," SARR says.
In the lab, Dr. Zel whips out a lightsaber, putting it through a stormtrooper. Sabers ignite all around; "Oh my god!" Dalt's irritated voice rises above the increasing chaos. Zan hands him an extra. Oola triggers the commands she put into the droids, who grab the Imperials and inject them with knockout drugs, taking out two more. The base's Admiral makes a break for the door; Zan trips him. Z smoke-bombs the Chiss and Jek. Dalt and Lydia run to help him. Onna shoots the Chiss.
Ree's right; it's extremely easy to rouse the troops to riot. All she has to do is strip off her helmet and declare, "I'm Ree Shevan, and I'm here to rescue you!" They break out the arms and move to help. Ree has most of them head to the hangar bay to start prepping for evacuation, or round up the non-clone troopers on the base. She takes a strike force with her to help in the labs.
On the way back to the labs, Kedrihm'Val spots the Zeltron. He Force-shoves the Zeltron into a bulkhead, then closes in with a flying kick. Ree spots the hooded figure at the end of the hallway and settles herself for a fight. The figure walks calmly toward her, tossing the hood back, and...it's Mara Jade! With Luke behind her. Who was in the box. "Congratulations," Ree tells them, then points them toward the lab. After Kedrihm'Val stuns the Zeltron and ties him up, they move.
SARR comes running out like hell is on his heels, and it is, because the Vader-Han sprints out right behind him. Zan breaks off to pursue that thing. Lydia takes on Jek Schild. Dalt does...something, and the Force-lightning accumulators the Dark Troopers carry start going into overload. He clears out of their way. The droids take down another stormtrooper. The station self-destruct announces its activation. Zan closes with the Han-Vader, around whom Oola dodges to get to Wy's office where everything's been wired into a central control system. She just barely manages to roll under the security shield as it descends. SARR ignites two lightsabers and heads for Vader-Han too. "I'm not doing this to be noble, but to be recognized!" Bresen breaks for the door.
Right into Luke. Mara shoots her. Luke's a bit distracted by the sparking Dark Troopers, whom he knocks into the hall before they explode. Then he charges the Vader-Han, once again taking off his opponent's head in a single swipe. "He's such a showoff," Mara scoffs.
Tumbling under the security door just as it closes, Oola comes up face to face with Dr. Wy, who's operating the controls. Oola pulls her holdout blaster and shoots the not-so-good doctor. Ree heads for the door, intending to cut it open.
Over by the door, Z gropes the Chiss, distracting her from Kedrihm'Val coming up from behind to stun her. Lydia takes off Jek's arm; he passes out from the shock. Mara shoots Bresen a couple more times just to be sure. Everyone left standing in the room surrenders.
Zan helps Ree with Wy's security door. After they get it cut about halfway through, Kedrihm'Val delivers a savage kick that knocks the weakened metal in. Surrendering to the onslaught of lightsabers of righteous justice, Wy surrenders and deactivates the self-destruct. Oola looks over the controls while Ree ties up Wy.
Now is the time for systematic destruction: destroy the clone-tech and the genetic matierla, evacuate clones and captives in the three hours they've got before Thrawn arrives. Turns out, Luke brought the Jedi library ship for the evac. Kedrihm'Val grabs the Zeltron, who's still out. Z searches to find what the Zeltron brought with him: a Zeltron love potion, a chemical concoction that makes the imbiber temporarily fall in love with the first person they see. He doesn't want to give it up. "They wear off so quickly," Dalt says. "I mean, your mother-" Kedrihm'Val grabs Z's collar in his free hand. Ree snags the potion off him while he's distracted.
With everyone left alive, captive or not, on the ship, they vacate the premises with massive explosions trailing behind them. Oola didn't see fit to work in half-measures. There's nothing but a smoking crater where the base was by the time Thrawn arrives.
Wonder if he'll figure out who it was?
Safely in hyperspace, Kedrihm'Val makes SARR give back Dalt's lightsabers. Again. Luke confirms that what Kedrihm'Val felt before was the Grand Inquisitor searching for them, but they still don't know who sent Ree's vision about Zeth. By process of elimination, it's someone who isn't affiliated with the Imperials, but whom they wouldn't trust if the person simply revealed themselves. It's not Drath; he would've just kidnapped Zeth. Speaking of whom, Ree talks with Luke about Kyp.
SARR wants recognition for droids' part in saving the day. "Some droids like people!" Oola informs him as they argue. "Some gay pansy droids," SARR replies, eliciting a laugh out of Luke. Then he goes on about sentient robotic slaves races again. Z makes some snide comment about what a state they'd be in if droids became sentient. Dalt looks at him in disbelief. "Droids are sentient!"
At last, they get back to Coruscant, where they get to inform Kyp of what he missed. They'll be opening a few floors of the Jedi temple to accomodate all these clones until their new guests can decide what to do with their new lives. Zan reminds Ree that she now has 2000 new potential Jedi who owe her their freedome. "It's a movie waiting to happen," he teases her, then muses on how he's always wanted to write a script.
And they have a heaping helping of new people to add to the prison ship: Jek Schild, the Chiss, the Zeltron; and prisoners for the New Republic: Dr. Wy, Col. Gent, Lt. Seinar, the Admiral, Re-education personnel.
As they settle back in at home, they hear new rumblings from the Senate about acquiring Dalt's cloning technology to, what else, help the Alderaanians. Ree wonders why anybody would want it. "Ask Senator Sent," Onna quips. Kedrihm'Val adds dryly, "All you have to do is tell him they come back Force sensitive." He's concerned about Sent, to be honest. "He seemed nice enough when we met him before, but to be carrying this much anger toward the Jedi..." Ree agrees. She wants to open it back up for debate in Council, because Sent seems to be getting worse.
When Dalt comes back from visiting Kel to remind them of how magnificent his technology is, Kedrihm'Val takes the opportunity to inform him about the Alderaanians. Dalt's exasperated.
Maybe now they can finally get around to that dinner with Amidala.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Dangling plot threads
- Dathomir is mostly cleaned up, but Maul and Dalt collected a lot of bad stuff there that hasn't been accounted for.
- Thule: the planet and fleet are dealt with, but spies remain. And Keldragga the Hutt was funneling money to Thule from various sponsors in Republic space.
- The True Sith
- The Sith space station: synchronous position with Yavin and Dathomir. Given that Z’s idea about ‘four pillars’ played out, are there any others?
- They wanted to talk to Leia about Luke's cavalier attitude re: his father's clone. The clone's gone, but Luke's reaction remains to be seen.
- Yoda: True Sith? Architect? Or are they the same thing?
- The aliens that chased the Sin/Sent ship that crashed on Ree's planet.
- House Mecetti from the Tapani Sector is corrupt, but they can't prove it. Yet.
- They aren't sure whether they destroyed Severan's spirit or not.
- They also aren't sure whether they destroyed Komok-Da's spirit or not.
- Darth Whatsisface, aka Sith-in-a-box. Who is he, and where'd he come from?
- In that maze they got dropped into on Chandrila, Dalt had a bunch of other lightsaber-wielding mysterious types helping him. Presumably those were the corrupt officials...but would those guys have had lightsabers? And how does it fit in with their latest go-round on Chandrila?
- And by the way? There's still no explanation as to how there came to be a whole underground maze complex designed especially for them! ...Wait, how old was that place?
- In the Emperor's private temple on that Dark Side moon, there was a brain--apparently the remnant of an ancient Sith Lord--hooked up to the system to keep it running. And considering the two ancient Sith spirits they found there, how old was that temple? Does it tie in with this whole True Sith thing?
- Even though they know now why Dalt was originally on Miraluka, it doesn't explain how he hooked up with the Miraluka ambassador or where she got her crew of Dark Siders.
- Dalt created some kind of shapechanging goo that he used to try to kidnap Jaina Solo. How much of that did he have?
- Drath is selling alarming things to raise money. For what? An army? Information?
- The Dalt Subsection:
- Dalt's Corporate Sector base, where he stowed marketable inventions.
- Clone!Dalt continues to live happily on Mrialuka with his lovely and slightly psychotic wife, Senal.
- Dalt's old notes from his Rodia base say that he believes he once detected traces of a Force star.
- Mutated Dark Side girl from Dalt's base.
- Dalt's still got more of the technological touch left than they'd realized. And he seems to be regaining many of his memories.
- He's nicer now, but Dalt has not forgotten about his Force Star.
- Oh, and the Imperials apparently want him back.
- Someone who looked like Dalt--another member of the Sent family?--was part of the crew of the Ossus ship, before he left to supposedly join the phantom ship that'd been bothering the slave traders. Could he be the missing older Sent brother?
- Raasik Sent is trouble.
- The Imperial Remnant Subsection:
- Imperials and the slave ring: the Imperials were after Force users they could train up as their own Force sensitive forces against the Jedi (which, Dalt says, was part of the Shadow Academy's purpose). Thrawn's put an end to Imperial involvement, but that only means he's satisfied with what they've got. The Hutts were also involved, and were giving the Imperials the kind of money that could build fleets. They stopped that by blowing up the Bloody Spiral, but why were the Imperials involved? They still have the codes from Ja'len's stolen ship to slip into the Imperial Remnant.
- SARR copied the Chimera's computer data.
- A Chiss Dark Sider working for Thrawn.
- Who was Eidolon Base associating with, or what information did they have, that Thrawn felt moved to wipe out all 2000 inhabitants of a base loyal to his cause? And how did Eidolon Base know they were coming?
- Raasik Sent agitated the Alderaanians into public outrage, and now they're being manipulated by somebody. So far, there are connections between them and the Shadow Academy. And the Shadow Academy's seems to be working for the Imperials.
- Speaking of which, it's looking like various levels of Senate staff--especially the Alderaanian groups--seem to be riddled with Imperial spies.
- The Abindosan Subsection:
- Abindosan's coral: it contains the DNA imprint of every biological entity in the galaxy. Part of the Blueprint? And it seems to form a sort of world-mind, interfacing with everything else on the planet. The Abindosani themselves appear to be part of the reef. What's the purpose of this, and how do their enemies want to use it?
- According to Dalt's detector, Tazarin'Ken had a large amount of coral at his base, but they didn't recover it when they dealt with him.
- On that same trip, before they stopped Tazarin'Ken's transmission, Dalt commented that something else was going on, too: "Something...unappealing." Did they take care of that?
- And on that same trip, they discovered the assassin droid that Maul has assigned to help Tazarin'Ken. Which means that Maul's plan is still in action. What was he doing, and does Drath have control of it now?
- Amalgated, in CorpSec, still possesses some Abindosani coral, where it's being used to "heal" people.
- Where did those evil Force crystals come from that Severan kept feeding people?
- There's a Dark Side cult on Coruscant with spooky relics. Probably worth looking into.
- Three psychopathic Force-sensitive cyborgs serving as Darth Maul's "bodyguards" are unaccounted for.
- They never learned from Luke and Kyp what they dug out of Vader’s Coruscant base. Some of it applied to Dalt.
- Drath has a Dark Harvester device full of Iridonian energy, and another one that's still empty. Oh, and also a Sith ship full of all the goodies he picked up from Set Harth.
- Speaking of goodies, Maul had bases, and they still don't know where most of them are. But Drath probably does.
- They kinda just left Koyi's body lying dead on Ree's planet when they rushed off. Ree's family surely buried her, but y'know.
- Speaking of clones: when Tazarin'Ken died, he left DNA strewn across the landscape (including on Z and Kedrihm'Val). In fact, let's list all the DNA Drath might have access to: Obi Wan, Mace Windu, Han Solo, Kedrihm'Val, Darth Vader, Dalt, Ree, Z, Oola, Onna, Zan, Luke, Kyp (if he was plotting ahead, he could've gotten samples from just about anyone on the crew or at the temple), any of the Imperial DNA that Dalt felt moved to share with Maul, Thrawn (not that he's stupid enough to use that)...
- Apparently Grand High Inquisitor Tremaine is looking for them.
- There's an army of battle droids lurking beneath Oola's home city on Ryloth.
- A poison that can be set to trigger due to certain stimuli or emotional states. Exported from Kessel, used on Tatooine, apparently by the Imperial-associated Eidolon Base.
Let's list the unfortunate things the crew has collected in their exploits. Current location noted where I know of it:
- A very old book permeated with the Dark Side from their very first adventure
- The Emperor's shattered-then-rebuilt holocron and three-book collection of everything he knew about the Dark Side
- The yay-big box with the evil orb—library ship
- A holocron from Darth Vader, found in Ree's lightsaber—in Kyp’s possession
- The records of Sith Lord Komok-Da, from the swamp planet—Jedi temple library
- The spirits of two ancient Sith, in bottles, from the Emperor's Dark Side moon retreat
- The "fragment of the Pulse" on Ree's planet—still on Ree’s planet
- Evil lightsaber crystal-growing Dark Side tree
- Powerful Dark Side lightsaber crystal, retrieved by the Sins
- Another Sith holocron, found among Severan's things
- The Sith hibernation coffin—Jedi temple
- A chair that hooks up to the Oracle at Pelgrin
- Darth Maul's body
- Records and anything else Maul or Drath left on the underwater base from Abindosan
- The Blueprint--Jedi temple
- Map to an ancient Sith training facility on Ryloth--Jedi temple
- The ARC trooper...droid...coral thing/guy--New Republic labs
- The deed to Abindosan
- Book of True Sith prophecies, last several pages missing
- Sith-in-a-Box—prison ship
- Additional Thule Force-user—prison ship
- Jek Zillar, the Thule Force-user from Ree's stint as a spoiled brat
- Officers from the Shadow Academy (many of the students were taken away for de-brainwashing)—prison ship
- Nameless techno-Force-user boy—in residence at Jedi temple
- Ezrek Dalt--if he still counts as a prisoner, out with the crew or working at Jedi temple
- E'Val—downstairs in Jedi temple, being studied by scientists
- The Miraluka ambassador and her Dark Side aide
- Two Imperial Inquisitors from their Alderaan adventure
- Darth Maul--in a rock
- Cyndal--prison ship
- Iako Orn, Imperial Guard--prison ship
- Cho Balu and Cas Roke, Imperial spies among Alderaanian faction--New Republic custody
- Dren Wert, Imperial operative from Chandrila--New Republic custody
- Firith Olan, Tatooine crime lord who's really somebody else
- Jek Schild, Force-sensitive Imperial operative from Tapani Sector--prison ship
- Chiss Dark Sider working for Thrawn--prison ship
- Rade the evil Zeltron--prison ship
- Dr. Wy--New Republic custody
- Col. Gent--New Republic custody
- Lt. Seinar--New Republic custody
Abindosan Rescue Mission Concludes
After Lady Arabella, the House Head of Barnaba, takes custody of the deed, Z points out that people will undoubtedly continue trying to steal it. They set up a meeting with her to discuss its safekeeping.
She wants to know who wants this thing and why, of course. They explain that Grand Admiral Thrawn and Drath are both after the planet, but the specific reasons are, sadly, classified (and considering it may well have to do with the Blueprint, they're not lying, either). "It's dangerous," Ree sums up for her quite succinctly. Arabella considers this for a moment, then hands them the deed. "It's yours," she tells them. When Ree stammers her surprise, Lady Arabella explains that this is nothing she wants her House embroiled in. The deed, and the planet, will be safer with the Jedi.
On the way back to Coruscant, Ree dreams of stepping through the doors of the Jedi temple and seeing the place empty. There's coral growing from the walls.
Disturbed and disgruntled, she wakes and gets up to get some coffee. "Meatbag insomnia?" SARR asks her.
"I had a vision," she explains.
"Ah. Magic meatbag insomnia," he corrects himself.
"There was coral in the temple," she tells him.
"I wonder what that could mean," SARR ponders conspicuously.
"Are you waterproof?" Ree asks him pointedly.
She calls Luke, who reports nothing unusual, and shares her vision with him. His eyes flutter closed for a second, then "Just a moment," he tells her, getting up to ostentatiously check the hall outside. "Nope, everything looks fine," he reassures her with a grin.
SARR continues being a jackass. When Ree wonders if everything's really okay, he reassures her that the Jedi tend to land on their feet. "It's almost as if they've got some kind of sixth sense..."
About fifteen minutes after Ree goes back to bed, Kedrihm'Val is up from the same dream. SARR tells him Ree had the same dream, then ponders, "I wonder what that could mean." Following a hunch, Kedrihm'Val stays up for a little while. Sure enough, Lydia comes out about fifteen minutes later, then Dalt ten minutes after that (Dalt: "I had a vision...and also needed to pee."). Each time, continuing to be a jackass, SARR wonders aloud, "I wonder what that could mean." When Dalt asks if the temple knows, SARR tells him, "She called the head magic meatbag, who said *hhhhhhhhhh*" Dalt stares at him. "Too much?" asks SARR.
There's little else to do, so everyone goes back to bed. Ree almost immediately has another dream: in the coral-covered temple, she senses Drath, and someone else. Following the sounds of a lightsaber duel to the Council chamber, she finds Kyp fighting against a Dark Sider with cybernetic implants. She recognizes him as the Grand High Inquisitor Tremaine.
Up again for another cup of coffee, she shares this development with SARR, who points out, "Well, since Master Skywalker said it was fine, I'm pretty sure the Grand High Inquistor isn't roaming the halls."
Again, the others are up in turn with the same vision. While they're sharing their story, Z wakes up and stumps through. "I had a dream," he declares, apparently figuring everybody's up and staring at him in something like horror because they're waiting breathlessly to hear about the latest Chronicles of the Inside of Z's Head. They all breathe a sigh of relief when he describes to them how he was magnificently trashing bad guys in a giant free-for-all street brawl.
And then look faintly sick again when he tells them about this crazy blue-skinned cyborg guy with a lightsaber he had an awesome fist fight with.
After Z wanders back to bed, Dalt shakes off his existential dread. "It's probably just bleedover," he tells Kedrihm'Val, who's still looking a bit shell-shocked. "Think about it, there are how many Force users on this ship, and we all had the same dream at almost the same time? I'm sure it's just bleedover." "I'm afraid to shut down in case I have it too," SARR says, deadpan. "Oo. Ee. Oo."
As they swing in for final approach to Coruscant, Kedrihm'Val seems to see the traffic patterns flicker for a second into the pattern of a coral lattice. He makes a sort of startled noise, and Lydia tells him she's seeing it too. So's Dalt, apparently, who thinks it might be the coral trying to reach out and connect with the lifeforms of the planet it's currently on. The effect seems to be beneficial: crime has calmed down, people are feeling more in tune with each other than usual. Kedrihm'Val finds it rather homey. Even Z demonstrates unusual consideration for his fellow beings by not firing up his jetpack in the temple when Ree comments that they'd better check on the coral quickly.
They hunt up Luke, who says that 75% of the temple's inhabitants have had the dream about the Grand Inquisitor. Ree wonders why they had it on the ship, if it's the coral projecting something. Kedrihm'Val points to him. Luke comments that Force users in general tend to form empathic bonds, and says this might be why the crew works so well together. "That explains why Z had it," Ree answers. Luke looks faintly horrified.
Kedrihm'Val drops in on his evil clone, to find it surrounded by a field of ysalamiri. The Jedi left a space clear of the little buggers just around the clone, since apparently he starts, um, melting if severed from the Force. Kedrihm'Val resists the temptation to knock one of the ysalamiri stands a bit closer.
Everyone finds invitations from Padme Amidala for a dinner, "whenever convenient." She's familiar with the scheduling vagaries of busy Jedi. Ree talks to Kyp, who also looks aghast at the thought of Z sharing the dream. He's doing okay after visiting Kessel, he says; the place isn't what it used to be. They spend some time together.
Z is dismayed by his own mellowness, and worries about the effect of all these feel-good vibes on the show. They'd better get the coral back to Abindosan quickly. It seems to mean well and all, but this isn't where it belongs. It's a good sign that it's reaching out like this, because not only will that make it easier to get the information back in the reef where it belongs, but it's also having a patently positive effect on people, which means that whatever the corruption has done, it hasn't influenced the coral too badly. The computer core will need a power source so they can activate it to transmit the data. Dalt snags a tide-powered generator for the purpose.
And then it's back to Abindosan. Dalt asks Kedrihm'Val to commune with the coral and make sure it hasn't gone all tech-happy during its exposure to Coruscant. It seems fine. Kedrihm'Val talks to the elders, who tell them they trust him to take care of it, and then he does the ritual to summon the Vodne while the others set up the rig. "Tell them not to attack the magic balls," Z tells Kedrihm. "They're good magic balls. Haha!" "Shut UP!" Dalt snaps at him.
After SARR acts like a jackass some more, Z asks whether a droid could become sentient if they're exposed to this coral. Amazed at how much must've gone over Z's head for him to say such a thing, Kedrihm'Val blinks at him, then looks at Dalt. "Droids are sentient," Dalt says. He looks at SARR. "They can also be dicks." Z makes a smart-mouthed comment back at him, leading naturally to Dalt making a Your Mom crack. Recognizing the inevitable, Kedrihm'Val grabs Z.
Z's mother must've been an impressive woman for her son to defend her honor so zealously.
Dalt warns them they'd better stay on their guard. This could take anywhere from a day to a week, and their enemies are likely to come around and try to mess with the transfer. Some Abindosani help stand watch and Ree calls in a couple of Jedi ships to hold orbit around the planet.
That night, Ree wakes from a dream of torrential downpours outside and all the Abindosani passed out. She shakes Kedrihm'Val awake right about as it starts to rain outside. Shortly after that, the Abindosani start passing out. Dalt, looking pleased, explains that he inserted a virus scrub into the system. Checking Kedrihm'Val and the others, Lydia verifies that they all look healthy--healthier than she's ever seen an Abindosani. Dalt's trick seems to be working. "I hope they're okay," he replies. "I could never commit genocide when I wanted to..." Lydia points out, "The bad news is an entire planet of backup is unconscious if anything happens."
But nothing does. By the next day, the Dark Side taint that the Force users always sense in the background on this planet isn't even noticeable anymore. Kedrihm'Val wakes up feeling rather great. After they explain what happened, he leaves to speak with some people about throwing his friends a party. The Abindosani are in a celebratory mood and this is, after all, what they originally sent him out for.
Dalt is quite pleased by all the attention.
They head back to Coruscant a day or so later. Sadly, though the coral's influence calmed them down for a little while, the news shows that the Alderaanians are getting a bit rowdier again.
Ree has another vision that night: she sees Admiral Pellaeon giving some routine orders to a lieutenant, Thrawn standing in the background. Something about the young officer looks terribly familiar to her. The vision cuts to Pellaeon and Thrawn talking in the officer's mess, and then later (as in, it won't happen for about two weeks yet), Pellaeon strides quickly onto the bridge (a brisk walk is Pellaeon-speak for "Holy CRAP sir!") to hand Thrawn a datapad containing a roster of the clone material they got from Admiral Daala. The last name Durron is highlighted.
"Apparently they have a clone of Master Durron's brother, and they'll figure out that fact in about two weeks," she tells Oola the next time she sees her. "You can call him Kyp, you know." "Why are we talking about that?!" Ree asks.
She places a call to Luke. "Just a second," Luke tells her, then makes a show of looking around the room. "Looks okay," he tells her. The humor goes away quickly when Ree tells him why she called. He promises he'll keep Kyp away from the scene. He'll meet them when they land. Reassured as much as she can be, for the moment, Ree goes back to bed. And has another dream, of two possible futures, depending on how this thing with Kyp's brother works out. Either she'll end up sitting down to a nice dinner with them, or else he and Kyp will wind up in a knockdown-dragout lightsaber fight.
Kedrihm'Val is awakened by the sense of someone psychically divining the ship's location. It's no one he knows, but obviously someone saturated in the Dark Side. Focusing on memories of Tatooine, he feeds the observer the impression that they're on their way there rather than back to Coruscant, then goes to tell Ree, waking her out of her vision. Wondering if they can get an idea of who this new person is, Kedrihm'Val suggests calling Malina to see if she can keep an eye on Tatooine to see if anybody comes in looking for them.
Luke sends Kyp on an errand when he gets the message that the Starwind's coming in to land. Meeting them at the port, he tells Ree that the Imperials clone their officers at a certain facility, where some officers are grown carefully to avoid the usual clonal instability. If they move fast, the crew can probably get there in time to intercept. He'll send them Zan, and they'll take Dalt because if this involves cloning technology, at this point there's no telling whether that installation is still using Spaarti, Kaminoan, Dalt's own technology (Dalt bemoans his technology "working for just anyone" as though it'd cheated on him), or Drath's skewed adaptation of it.
The crew has just enough time to see to a few details before they get shipped out. The location they're sent to is a hidden base that dates from the Rebellion; the New Republic uses it as a staging point for clandestine maneuvers. Zan's waiting for them on the landing pad to brief them.
Next up: the glamorous world of interstellar espionage, and Ree flies to the rescue of her boyfriend's sibling!
She wants to know who wants this thing and why, of course. They explain that Grand Admiral Thrawn and Drath are both after the planet, but the specific reasons are, sadly, classified (and considering it may well have to do with the Blueprint, they're not lying, either). "It's dangerous," Ree sums up for her quite succinctly. Arabella considers this for a moment, then hands them the deed. "It's yours," she tells them. When Ree stammers her surprise, Lady Arabella explains that this is nothing she wants her House embroiled in. The deed, and the planet, will be safer with the Jedi.
On the way back to Coruscant, Ree dreams of stepping through the doors of the Jedi temple and seeing the place empty. There's coral growing from the walls.
Disturbed and disgruntled, she wakes and gets up to get some coffee. "Meatbag insomnia?" SARR asks her.
"I had a vision," she explains.
"Ah. Magic meatbag insomnia," he corrects himself.
"There was coral in the temple," she tells him.
"I wonder what that could mean," SARR ponders conspicuously.
"Are you waterproof?" Ree asks him pointedly.
She calls Luke, who reports nothing unusual, and shares her vision with him. His eyes flutter closed for a second, then "Just a moment," he tells her, getting up to ostentatiously check the hall outside. "Nope, everything looks fine," he reassures her with a grin.
SARR continues being a jackass. When Ree wonders if everything's really okay, he reassures her that the Jedi tend to land on their feet. "It's almost as if they've got some kind of sixth sense..."
About fifteen minutes after Ree goes back to bed, Kedrihm'Val is up from the same dream. SARR tells him Ree had the same dream, then ponders, "I wonder what that could mean." Following a hunch, Kedrihm'Val stays up for a little while. Sure enough, Lydia comes out about fifteen minutes later, then Dalt ten minutes after that (Dalt: "I had a vision...and also needed to pee."). Each time, continuing to be a jackass, SARR wonders aloud, "I wonder what that could mean." When Dalt asks if the temple knows, SARR tells him, "She called the head magic meatbag, who said *hhhhhhhhhh*" Dalt stares at him. "Too much?" asks SARR.
There's little else to do, so everyone goes back to bed. Ree almost immediately has another dream: in the coral-covered temple, she senses Drath, and someone else. Following the sounds of a lightsaber duel to the Council chamber, she finds Kyp fighting against a Dark Sider with cybernetic implants. She recognizes him as the Grand High Inquisitor Tremaine.
Up again for another cup of coffee, she shares this development with SARR, who points out, "Well, since Master Skywalker said it was fine, I'm pretty sure the Grand High Inquistor isn't roaming the halls."
Again, the others are up in turn with the same vision. While they're sharing their story, Z wakes up and stumps through. "I had a dream," he declares, apparently figuring everybody's up and staring at him in something like horror because they're waiting breathlessly to hear about the latest Chronicles of the Inside of Z's Head. They all breathe a sigh of relief when he describes to them how he was magnificently trashing bad guys in a giant free-for-all street brawl.
And then look faintly sick again when he tells them about this crazy blue-skinned cyborg guy with a lightsaber he had an awesome fist fight with.
After Z wanders back to bed, Dalt shakes off his existential dread. "It's probably just bleedover," he tells Kedrihm'Val, who's still looking a bit shell-shocked. "Think about it, there are how many Force users on this ship, and we all had the same dream at almost the same time? I'm sure it's just bleedover." "I'm afraid to shut down in case I have it too," SARR says, deadpan. "Oo. Ee. Oo."
As they swing in for final approach to Coruscant, Kedrihm'Val seems to see the traffic patterns flicker for a second into the pattern of a coral lattice. He makes a sort of startled noise, and Lydia tells him she's seeing it too. So's Dalt, apparently, who thinks it might be the coral trying to reach out and connect with the lifeforms of the planet it's currently on. The effect seems to be beneficial: crime has calmed down, people are feeling more in tune with each other than usual. Kedrihm'Val finds it rather homey. Even Z demonstrates unusual consideration for his fellow beings by not firing up his jetpack in the temple when Ree comments that they'd better check on the coral quickly.
They hunt up Luke, who says that 75% of the temple's inhabitants have had the dream about the Grand Inquisitor. Ree wonders why they had it on the ship, if it's the coral projecting something. Kedrihm'Val points to him. Luke comments that Force users in general tend to form empathic bonds, and says this might be why the crew works so well together. "That explains why Z had it," Ree answers. Luke looks faintly horrified.
Kedrihm'Val drops in on his evil clone, to find it surrounded by a field of ysalamiri. The Jedi left a space clear of the little buggers just around the clone, since apparently he starts, um, melting if severed from the Force. Kedrihm'Val resists the temptation to knock one of the ysalamiri stands a bit closer.
Everyone finds invitations from Padme Amidala for a dinner, "whenever convenient." She's familiar with the scheduling vagaries of busy Jedi. Ree talks to Kyp, who also looks aghast at the thought of Z sharing the dream. He's doing okay after visiting Kessel, he says; the place isn't what it used to be. They spend some time together.
Z is dismayed by his own mellowness, and worries about the effect of all these feel-good vibes on the show. They'd better get the coral back to Abindosan quickly. It seems to mean well and all, but this isn't where it belongs. It's a good sign that it's reaching out like this, because not only will that make it easier to get the information back in the reef where it belongs, but it's also having a patently positive effect on people, which means that whatever the corruption has done, it hasn't influenced the coral too badly. The computer core will need a power source so they can activate it to transmit the data. Dalt snags a tide-powered generator for the purpose.
And then it's back to Abindosan. Dalt asks Kedrihm'Val to commune with the coral and make sure it hasn't gone all tech-happy during its exposure to Coruscant. It seems fine. Kedrihm'Val talks to the elders, who tell them they trust him to take care of it, and then he does the ritual to summon the Vodne while the others set up the rig. "Tell them not to attack the magic balls," Z tells Kedrihm. "They're good magic balls. Haha!" "Shut UP!" Dalt snaps at him.
After SARR acts like a jackass some more, Z asks whether a droid could become sentient if they're exposed to this coral. Amazed at how much must've gone over Z's head for him to say such a thing, Kedrihm'Val blinks at him, then looks at Dalt. "Droids are sentient," Dalt says. He looks at SARR. "They can also be dicks." Z makes a smart-mouthed comment back at him, leading naturally to Dalt making a Your Mom crack. Recognizing the inevitable, Kedrihm'Val grabs Z.
Z's mother must've been an impressive woman for her son to defend her honor so zealously.
Dalt warns them they'd better stay on their guard. This could take anywhere from a day to a week, and their enemies are likely to come around and try to mess with the transfer. Some Abindosani help stand watch and Ree calls in a couple of Jedi ships to hold orbit around the planet.
That night, Ree wakes from a dream of torrential downpours outside and all the Abindosani passed out. She shakes Kedrihm'Val awake right about as it starts to rain outside. Shortly after that, the Abindosani start passing out. Dalt, looking pleased, explains that he inserted a virus scrub into the system. Checking Kedrihm'Val and the others, Lydia verifies that they all look healthy--healthier than she's ever seen an Abindosani. Dalt's trick seems to be working. "I hope they're okay," he replies. "I could never commit genocide when I wanted to..." Lydia points out, "The bad news is an entire planet of backup is unconscious if anything happens."
But nothing does. By the next day, the Dark Side taint that the Force users always sense in the background on this planet isn't even noticeable anymore. Kedrihm'Val wakes up feeling rather great. After they explain what happened, he leaves to speak with some people about throwing his friends a party. The Abindosani are in a celebratory mood and this is, after all, what they originally sent him out for.
Dalt is quite pleased by all the attention.
They head back to Coruscant a day or so later. Sadly, though the coral's influence calmed them down for a little while, the news shows that the Alderaanians are getting a bit rowdier again.
Ree has another vision that night: she sees Admiral Pellaeon giving some routine orders to a lieutenant, Thrawn standing in the background. Something about the young officer looks terribly familiar to her. The vision cuts to Pellaeon and Thrawn talking in the officer's mess, and then later (as in, it won't happen for about two weeks yet), Pellaeon strides quickly onto the bridge (a brisk walk is Pellaeon-speak for "Holy CRAP sir!") to hand Thrawn a datapad containing a roster of the clone material they got from Admiral Daala. The last name Durron is highlighted.
"Apparently they have a clone of Master Durron's brother, and they'll figure out that fact in about two weeks," she tells Oola the next time she sees her. "You can call him Kyp, you know." "Why are we talking about that?!" Ree asks.
She places a call to Luke. "Just a second," Luke tells her, then makes a show of looking around the room. "Looks okay," he tells her. The humor goes away quickly when Ree tells him why she called. He promises he'll keep Kyp away from the scene. He'll meet them when they land. Reassured as much as she can be, for the moment, Ree goes back to bed. And has another dream, of two possible futures, depending on how this thing with Kyp's brother works out. Either she'll end up sitting down to a nice dinner with them, or else he and Kyp will wind up in a knockdown-dragout lightsaber fight.
Kedrihm'Val is awakened by the sense of someone psychically divining the ship's location. It's no one he knows, but obviously someone saturated in the Dark Side. Focusing on memories of Tatooine, he feeds the observer the impression that they're on their way there rather than back to Coruscant, then goes to tell Ree, waking her out of her vision. Wondering if they can get an idea of who this new person is, Kedrihm'Val suggests calling Malina to see if she can keep an eye on Tatooine to see if anybody comes in looking for them.
Luke sends Kyp on an errand when he gets the message that the Starwind's coming in to land. Meeting them at the port, he tells Ree that the Imperials clone their officers at a certain facility, where some officers are grown carefully to avoid the usual clonal instability. If they move fast, the crew can probably get there in time to intercept. He'll send them Zan, and they'll take Dalt because if this involves cloning technology, at this point there's no telling whether that installation is still using Spaarti, Kaminoan, Dalt's own technology (Dalt bemoans his technology "working for just anyone" as though it'd cheated on him), or Drath's skewed adaptation of it.
The crew has just enough time to see to a few details before they get shipped out. The location they're sent to is a hidden base that dates from the Rebellion; the New Republic uses it as a staging point for clandestine maneuvers. Zan's waiting for them on the landing pad to brief them.
Next up: the glamorous world of interstellar espionage, and Ree flies to the rescue of her boyfriend's sibling!
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Wrecking Up the Tapani Sector
They lose the tracker signal leaving hyperspace. By the time they arrive in the Tapani Sector, Erin has discovered that Grand Moff Tarkin's clan are involved in this somehow, but the paper trail is obscured. Ree calls Commander Teris, who is not overjoyed to hear from them considering what happened last time, but is willing to help. He grudgingly agrees to help hunt down the person who holds the deed, and suggests they check the central real estate agency.
Ree tries to gently explain to Kedrihm'Val about buying and owning planets. He still thinks it's weird, but he's accustomed himself to the notion well enough to handle the thought of buying his world back. Whatever it takes to keep it safe. Oola tells him he has three million credits in his account, as well as the Krayt pearl. But why is Sienar involved? They're connected to the Empire and Thrawn, right? Are they spying on Drath?
Onna calls in a favor to get a meeting with House Barnaba, which owns Abindosan. The planet isn't valued highly on the deed, so she holds out hope that this won't be too complex. The deed is in the possession of one Sien Torenns, a spoiled rich girl who seems to be bent on having fun and looking good while doing it. Her financial assistant is Trista Graf, a woman with her head far more firmly attached. Onna warns them not to try to explain anything; just express interest--to the tune of 1.5 million credits. Trista comments in their first meeting that it's odd how everyone is suddenly interested in this planet. She's had two other parties query her about it so far.
It seems like a sensible idea to hunt down these "other parties," since the good money is on them being representatives of Drath and the Empire. Z wants to bribe some House employees, because servants are likely to see a lot. He sets Ree on the job by feeding her a story that happens to be true: "Your mistress is dealing with dangerous people."
The maid swallows that readily, because "How many hooded people do you have to deal with before you realize something is wrong?" She describes a human female and a Bothan who've come to visit Sien so far. Ree talks her into checking the Lady's appointment book for those two, and learns that Sien is meeting tomorrow morning with the Bothan, and tonight with a "Jek Schild" at an art gallery. The gallery is owned by a friend of Sien's named Meetha Orn. Apparently Jek disturbs Sien, she she's keeping him clear of her own house.
INON runs a check on Schild. He's young, but an older Schild, a widower, worked on the Death Star. Could be this guy is his son.
They finagle invitations to tonight's exhibit, which is ironically Alderaanian art, a fair amount of it created by Meetha herself. Looking around at the gallery, they notice that the artiste in question spends a lot of time around Schild. SARR tells them that he hates Alderaanians.
Sien and Meetha are both hanging around a lot with a charismatic young man who looks maybe in his mid-twenties. He lurks closer to Meetha than Sien, and Meetha positively drips off him. It's easy to overhear him telling her about how heartles the New Republic is. They've been positively cruel to the Alderaanians. She practically swoons in horror, and Sien buys in with visible schadenfreude.
Z: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need more information." This guy is obviously playing the two women, and Trista clearly finds the whole display disgusting. When Jek mentions going to a back room to complete a business transaction, Ree grabs Dalt and sends him at Meetha to ask about a painting. Oddly enough, he does rather fit in with the limp-wristed artsy crowd. Dalt does it the easy way and simply Force-whammies the woman. "Now what?" he asks Ree. "That was my plan," Ree tells him. "'Do something.'"
Z, failing his Wisdom check, walks up to Trista and asks her, "Is your name Cloudstrider?" She says, "No," of course, so he punches her in the stomach, snatches her satchel, and breaks for the window.
Jek follows him out as Z leaps for a speeder but gets held up by Ree's confrontation of him. "I know who you are and who you're working for," she tells him. "Really?" he asks, clearly amused. "Who?" "I know who you are," she repeats, more emphatically.
Kedrihm, meanwhile, spots a Bothan pursuing Z and grabs another speeder. He's not a great pilot, by any means, but he's able to make the thing go forward long enough to get within range to drain the energy from the Bothan's speeder. Z launches skyward with his jetpack; Kedrihm notices that he left the satchel on his speeder, which is quietly following his trajectory, keeping close to the ground.
Jek doesn't care who Ree thinks he is; he points out to her that her friends are thieves. Ree has to vacate when she sees security forces heading their way; she leaps up to the shadows on the roof of the building. Jek looks a little surprised; without her robes, he didn't notice she was a Jedi.
Kedrihm'Val shuts off the Bothan's speeder; the Bothan jumps an improbable distance to grab hold of Z in mid-air. So it's a Force user. Kedrihm comms Ree to fill her in, then leaps downward to Z's speeder, where he finds that Z has mined the satchel and coded it so that only INON can open it. Jek, on another speeder with Meetha on the back, catches up to Kedrihm'Val, who refuses (quite reasonably, all things considered) to turn the bag over. Meetha draws a pistol on him.
Commander Teris arrives at the gallery. "You're a handsome man," Dalt quips, noting the family resemblance. SARR, unsupervised, steals a large number of small, valuable objects, while Oola, somewhat more focused, steals the security tapes.
Kedrihm snatches up the bag, leaps off the speeder, and runs back toward the building at Force speed. Ree swings in behind him with Jek and Meetha in pursuit. Teris arrests everybody on general principles.
Unnoticed because they haven't raised a ruckus, Dalt and SARR slip out while security takes care of everyone else. Kedrihm'Val tells the Commander about Z and the Bothan, figuring the Bothan might've followed them back to.
In fact, Z groped her, pepper-sprayed her, and let her run, and then he returned to the ship.
After Lydia points out that SARR, Z, and Dalt are their rescue party, Kedrihm'Val reminds them that Dalt is, after all, Force-sensitive. It's not like they're incommunicado. So Ree sends a telepathic message to Dalt asking them not to stage a rescue--yet.
After freaking out at them, Commander Teris gives them 24 hours to return the deed. Turns out, it's not in the satchel. When they get back to the ship, Ree in turn freaks out at Z. Kedrihm'Val cuts in to ask where he actually put the deed. "In my crotch," Z tells him. "Where no one will ever touch it," Dalt quips.
There's a message from Luke, casually wondering why the Jedi are getting reports of someone blasting out of CorpSec and committing crimes in the Tapani Sectory. "Call when you can," he finishes.
Z wants to take off with the deed right now. Dalt points out that it won't help. It's just a piece of paper; Sien can get another one notarized.
So they hunt down information on Jek Schild instead. He's a citizen of the Imperial Remnant, possibly a government employee--the uncertainty of which is an indicator in itself. If he's the Imperial spy, then that means the Bothan is working for Drath. They turn that information over to Teris, who "strongly suggests" to Sien that she not sell the deed, since it's likely to start a war. When Meetha continues pressuring her to sell it, Kedrihm'Val explains that it's his world, and that his people will be in danger if either the Imperials or the, spirits forbid, the Sith get their hands on it.
The Head of House Barnaba is an intensely moral woman, who is not keen on endangering a planet full of innocent people or having her House embroiled in the middle of an interstellar incident. The planet will be a hot commodity in the Tapani Sector after this, so she takes custody of the deed herself to make sure no...accidents happen.
Which is the best they can hope for, for the moment. Returning once again to the ship, Ree finds another message waiting from Luke: "Hey, this is just Grandmaster Skywalker again, calling to see if everything's okay." When she calls back, he innocently answers, "Why, Ree. What've you been up to lately?" Once she gives him the story, Luke seems actually fairly pleased. For him, this probably counts as smooth sailing. Luke tells her that Kyp is on the way back. They've found some stuff on Kessel, but nothing pertaining to what they went for.
Then they receive a message from Commander Teris: "We've found some things missing from the art gallery." Ree turns to the others. "Has anyone accidentally...stolen anything?" When SARR is ostentatiously startled by the things that fell into his storage compartments, Ree growls, "Honestly, pickpocketing Dalt is one thing..." "Wha?" Dalt asks. "That's why your lightsaber keeps going missing," Kedrihm'Val explains helpfully. "And your wallet," Oola adds. "That's Oola, actually," Kedrihm'Val corrects her with a dry expression.
Ree tries to gently explain to Kedrihm'Val about buying and owning planets. He still thinks it's weird, but he's accustomed himself to the notion well enough to handle the thought of buying his world back. Whatever it takes to keep it safe. Oola tells him he has three million credits in his account, as well as the Krayt pearl. But why is Sienar involved? They're connected to the Empire and Thrawn, right? Are they spying on Drath?
Onna calls in a favor to get a meeting with House Barnaba, which owns Abindosan. The planet isn't valued highly on the deed, so she holds out hope that this won't be too complex. The deed is in the possession of one Sien Torenns, a spoiled rich girl who seems to be bent on having fun and looking good while doing it. Her financial assistant is Trista Graf, a woman with her head far more firmly attached. Onna warns them not to try to explain anything; just express interest--to the tune of 1.5 million credits. Trista comments in their first meeting that it's odd how everyone is suddenly interested in this planet. She's had two other parties query her about it so far.
It seems like a sensible idea to hunt down these "other parties," since the good money is on them being representatives of Drath and the Empire. Z wants to bribe some House employees, because servants are likely to see a lot. He sets Ree on the job by feeding her a story that happens to be true: "Your mistress is dealing with dangerous people."
The maid swallows that readily, because "How many hooded people do you have to deal with before you realize something is wrong?" She describes a human female and a Bothan who've come to visit Sien so far. Ree talks her into checking the Lady's appointment book for those two, and learns that Sien is meeting tomorrow morning with the Bothan, and tonight with a "Jek Schild" at an art gallery. The gallery is owned by a friend of Sien's named Meetha Orn. Apparently Jek disturbs Sien, she she's keeping him clear of her own house.
INON runs a check on Schild. He's young, but an older Schild, a widower, worked on the Death Star. Could be this guy is his son.
They finagle invitations to tonight's exhibit, which is ironically Alderaanian art, a fair amount of it created by Meetha herself. Looking around at the gallery, they notice that the artiste in question spends a lot of time around Schild. SARR tells them that he hates Alderaanians.
Sien and Meetha are both hanging around a lot with a charismatic young man who looks maybe in his mid-twenties. He lurks closer to Meetha than Sien, and Meetha positively drips off him. It's easy to overhear him telling her about how heartles the New Republic is. They've been positively cruel to the Alderaanians. She practically swoons in horror, and Sien buys in with visible schadenfreude.
Z: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need more information." This guy is obviously playing the two women, and Trista clearly finds the whole display disgusting. When Jek mentions going to a back room to complete a business transaction, Ree grabs Dalt and sends him at Meetha to ask about a painting. Oddly enough, he does rather fit in with the limp-wristed artsy crowd. Dalt does it the easy way and simply Force-whammies the woman. "Now what?" he asks Ree. "That was my plan," Ree tells him. "'Do something.'"
Z, failing his Wisdom check, walks up to Trista and asks her, "Is your name Cloudstrider?" She says, "No," of course, so he punches her in the stomach, snatches her satchel, and breaks for the window.
Jek follows him out as Z leaps for a speeder but gets held up by Ree's confrontation of him. "I know who you are and who you're working for," she tells him. "Really?" he asks, clearly amused. "Who?" "I know who you are," she repeats, more emphatically.
Kedrihm, meanwhile, spots a Bothan pursuing Z and grabs another speeder. He's not a great pilot, by any means, but he's able to make the thing go forward long enough to get within range to drain the energy from the Bothan's speeder. Z launches skyward with his jetpack; Kedrihm notices that he left the satchel on his speeder, which is quietly following his trajectory, keeping close to the ground.
Jek doesn't care who Ree thinks he is; he points out to her that her friends are thieves. Ree has to vacate when she sees security forces heading their way; she leaps up to the shadows on the roof of the building. Jek looks a little surprised; without her robes, he didn't notice she was a Jedi.
Kedrihm'Val shuts off the Bothan's speeder; the Bothan jumps an improbable distance to grab hold of Z in mid-air. So it's a Force user. Kedrihm comms Ree to fill her in, then leaps downward to Z's speeder, where he finds that Z has mined the satchel and coded it so that only INON can open it. Jek, on another speeder with Meetha on the back, catches up to Kedrihm'Val, who refuses (quite reasonably, all things considered) to turn the bag over. Meetha draws a pistol on him.
Commander Teris arrives at the gallery. "You're a handsome man," Dalt quips, noting the family resemblance. SARR, unsupervised, steals a large number of small, valuable objects, while Oola, somewhat more focused, steals the security tapes.
Kedrihm snatches up the bag, leaps off the speeder, and runs back toward the building at Force speed. Ree swings in behind him with Jek and Meetha in pursuit. Teris arrests everybody on general principles.
Unnoticed because they haven't raised a ruckus, Dalt and SARR slip out while security takes care of everyone else. Kedrihm'Val tells the Commander about Z and the Bothan, figuring the Bothan might've followed them back to.
In fact, Z groped her, pepper-sprayed her, and let her run, and then he returned to the ship.
After Lydia points out that SARR, Z, and Dalt are their rescue party, Kedrihm'Val reminds them that Dalt is, after all, Force-sensitive. It's not like they're incommunicado. So Ree sends a telepathic message to Dalt asking them not to stage a rescue--yet.
After freaking out at them, Commander Teris gives them 24 hours to return the deed. Turns out, it's not in the satchel. When they get back to the ship, Ree in turn freaks out at Z. Kedrihm'Val cuts in to ask where he actually put the deed. "In my crotch," Z tells him. "Where no one will ever touch it," Dalt quips.
There's a message from Luke, casually wondering why the Jedi are getting reports of someone blasting out of CorpSec and committing crimes in the Tapani Sectory. "Call when you can," he finishes.
Z wants to take off with the deed right now. Dalt points out that it won't help. It's just a piece of paper; Sien can get another one notarized.
So they hunt down information on Jek Schild instead. He's a citizen of the Imperial Remnant, possibly a government employee--the uncertainty of which is an indicator in itself. If he's the Imperial spy, then that means the Bothan is working for Drath. They turn that information over to Teris, who "strongly suggests" to Sien that she not sell the deed, since it's likely to start a war. When Meetha continues pressuring her to sell it, Kedrihm'Val explains that it's his world, and that his people will be in danger if either the Imperials or the, spirits forbid, the Sith get their hands on it.
The Head of House Barnaba is an intensely moral woman, who is not keen on endangering a planet full of innocent people or having her House embroiled in the middle of an interstellar incident. The planet will be a hot commodity in the Tapani Sector after this, so she takes custody of the deed herself to make sure no...accidents happen.
Which is the best they can hope for, for the moment. Returning once again to the ship, Ree finds another message waiting from Luke: "Hey, this is just Grandmaster Skywalker again, calling to see if everything's okay." When she calls back, he innocently answers, "Why, Ree. What've you been up to lately?" Once she gives him the story, Luke seems actually fairly pleased. For him, this probably counts as smooth sailing. Luke tells her that Kyp is on the way back. They've found some stuff on Kessel, but nothing pertaining to what they went for.
Then they receive a message from Commander Teris: "We've found some things missing from the art gallery." Ree turns to the others. "Has anyone accidentally...stolen anything?" When SARR is ostentatiously startled by the things that fell into his storage compartments, Ree growls, "Honestly, pickpocketing Dalt is one thing..." "Wha?" Dalt asks. "That's why your lightsaber keeps going missing," Kedrihm'Val explains helpfully. "And your wallet," Oola adds. "That's Oola, actually," Kedrihm'Val corrects her with a dry expression.
Creating Chaos in CorpSec
Kedrihm'Val and Dalt both remain tense about E'Val. Dalt considers it an abomination, and says this is pretty much the sort of thing that happens when you clone an Abindosani imperfectly. Ree has no advice when Kedrihm asks her for her opinion.
Oola has determined that the signal leads to Arken Multinode AgriCorp, a group handling farm supplies and products, and several fast food companies. It seems to be a fairly aboveboard operation, but it is CorpSec. Republic jurisdiction doesn't extend there.
Z: "Are we taking TechnoGay?"
Ree: "Well, we are visiting one of his-"
Z: "Haha, you knew who I meant!"
Leia arranges permits and travel papers for them. Ree promises to try to be discreet. "Given who I'm married to," Leia responds, "I have no expectations." When Ree asks what Han did, Leia mutters something about blowing up floating prisons, then says, "Whatever you do, don't mention his name." Dalt is familiar with CorpSec, and Oola knows some people. Looks like they're sitting pretty.
After they play 'follow the bouncing transmission,' the signal ends at Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals, one of CorpSec's top outfits. They're a big exploration group that explores planets for useful chemicals and other such items. Dalt tells them these guys aren't aboveboard in the least. The own about 600 systems outside CorpSec, which they exploit brutally for profit. Currently, they're holding an expo for their various products and services, so it won't be hard to slip in. They arrange false IDs as rubes, as SARR puts it: wealthy but clueless investors desperate for a 'good cause' to throw money at. Ree and Z will play the wealthy couple, and Lydia will fill in as their impressionable young niece. Oola, Onna, Dalt, and Kedrihm'Val are their entourage.
Some of the group find themselves uncomfortable with the level of opulence at the hotel they book. Z, however, makes up for any possible gaffe on anyone else's part by portraying an outstanding reckless playboy.
There are CorpSec security swarming the place in riot gear. Millennium Entertainments dominates the displays at the expo, featuring ads for Primal Justice and the movies. Bank of the Core is more discreet but ubiquitous, and ZZip Product Concepts advertises all sorts of custom-made luxury goods for the wealthy. Galaxy Publishing has apparently been hired by the Hutts to improve their public image, which it turns out is not actually possible, though they give it their best shot. The group are given invitations by all and sundry, sorting through them to find likely targets, especially anything relating to the Amalgamated.
Z hauls Kedrihm'Val to Millennium Entertainment's booth while the others head to Amalgamated. He wants to show him the teasers for next season, which apparently introduce a love interest for Kedrihm'Val's character who's an upper-class police woman. He buys Kedrihm a "By the beards of my ancestors" shirt.
Ree, meanwhile, frets over Kyp. "I hope he's okay." "They sent him with Han, Chewbacca, and Lando," Dalt replies. "You should hope Kessel's okay."
Amalgamated's showcase is a cylinder filled with water. They demonstrate how you can immerse an injured person and they are quickly healed to almost perfect health. To the Force users, it's as if the person's pattern is reset to their ideal condition. The core component of this device, the product demonstrators proudly declare, is located on only one planet. "Won't that make access difficult?" Ree asks. "It depends on who owns the planet by the end," she's told. The demonstrator avoids being engaged in further discussion about the contents of the cylinder, so Ree asks about a tour. While the booth operator looks into that, the crew discusses the buying and selling of planets. SARR suggests they'd better look into the history of Abindosan.
The tour is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Oola has Z buy some movie merchandise for her that she doesn't own yet. When the group collects again in their rooms, Ree tells them she suspects they're using coral to translate the information to heal people. If they can buy Oola's droids time to retrieve the computer core they stored the reef information on... Z says he can do that easily; he'll just act like a total jerk so everyone has to kowtow to his every whim.
Kedrihm is concerned about the use of the coral. The information from the reef has to be the first priority, they can at least look into getting the coral out.
Things go pretty smoothly. Oola's droids head back to the ship with the core. The droid they attached Dalt's coral detector to didn't get a bead on any (though it did register Kedrihm'Val), but it picked up something else: four people gathered around a holo relay--three Amalgamated staff and one Seinar Tech representative (Severan's old corporation), talking to Drath via uplink about getting the deed to Abindosan. He schedules a rendezvous in the Tapani Sector. Someone has apparently owned the planet since the time of the Old Republic, and the deed at some point made its way to the Houses of the Tapani Sector.
They send a message back to Coruscant about looking up records of Abindosan. Oola notes that their message is intercepted, and tracks a cloaked ship along the transmission path. They can't get identifying marks with its cloak up, but Dalt suggests scanning for gravity fields, which shows that it's a very small ship: too small to be Drath's. Oola sneaks up and levels an ion cannon at it, which knocks out the cloak and reveals it to be a Sienar design--Dalt's technology.
Ree wonders aloud if they're in trouble. "We're not in trouble if we kill them," Dalt points out. Compromising, they try to capture the ship, but the thing powers up to avoid them. It dodges Oola's shots at its engine with uncanny dexterity, marking the pilot as a Force user. By this time, they're drawing attention from CorpSec security, so Oola sits Dalt down and makes him help as she fires a tracker at the little vessel and then they clear out.
Z attacks the security ships to hold them off, and they chase their small target out of the sector. It's running hard to prepare for hyperspace. Oola locks in its final coordinates, and sure enough, it's heading for the Tapani Sector. Ree resends her earlier message to Erin and then they jump to hyperspace and follow it out.
Oola has determined that the signal leads to Arken Multinode AgriCorp, a group handling farm supplies and products, and several fast food companies. It seems to be a fairly aboveboard operation, but it is CorpSec. Republic jurisdiction doesn't extend there.
Z: "Are we taking TechnoGay?"
Ree: "Well, we are visiting one of his-"
Z: "Haha, you knew who I meant!"
Leia arranges permits and travel papers for them. Ree promises to try to be discreet. "Given who I'm married to," Leia responds, "I have no expectations." When Ree asks what Han did, Leia mutters something about blowing up floating prisons, then says, "Whatever you do, don't mention his name." Dalt is familiar with CorpSec, and Oola knows some people. Looks like they're sitting pretty.
After they play 'follow the bouncing transmission,' the signal ends at Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals, one of CorpSec's top outfits. They're a big exploration group that explores planets for useful chemicals and other such items. Dalt tells them these guys aren't aboveboard in the least. The own about 600 systems outside CorpSec, which they exploit brutally for profit. Currently, they're holding an expo for their various products and services, so it won't be hard to slip in. They arrange false IDs as rubes, as SARR puts it: wealthy but clueless investors desperate for a 'good cause' to throw money at. Ree and Z will play the wealthy couple, and Lydia will fill in as their impressionable young niece. Oola, Onna, Dalt, and Kedrihm'Val are their entourage.
Some of the group find themselves uncomfortable with the level of opulence at the hotel they book. Z, however, makes up for any possible gaffe on anyone else's part by portraying an outstanding reckless playboy.
There are CorpSec security swarming the place in riot gear. Millennium Entertainments dominates the displays at the expo, featuring ads for Primal Justice and the movies. Bank of the Core is more discreet but ubiquitous, and ZZip Product Concepts advertises all sorts of custom-made luxury goods for the wealthy. Galaxy Publishing has apparently been hired by the Hutts to improve their public image, which it turns out is not actually possible, though they give it their best shot. The group are given invitations by all and sundry, sorting through them to find likely targets, especially anything relating to the Amalgamated.
Z hauls Kedrihm'Val to Millennium Entertainment's booth while the others head to Amalgamated. He wants to show him the teasers for next season, which apparently introduce a love interest for Kedrihm'Val's character who's an upper-class police woman. He buys Kedrihm a "By the beards of my ancestors" shirt.
Ree, meanwhile, frets over Kyp. "I hope he's okay." "They sent him with Han, Chewbacca, and Lando," Dalt replies. "You should hope Kessel's okay."
Amalgamated's showcase is a cylinder filled with water. They demonstrate how you can immerse an injured person and they are quickly healed to almost perfect health. To the Force users, it's as if the person's pattern is reset to their ideal condition. The core component of this device, the product demonstrators proudly declare, is located on only one planet. "Won't that make access difficult?" Ree asks. "It depends on who owns the planet by the end," she's told. The demonstrator avoids being engaged in further discussion about the contents of the cylinder, so Ree asks about a tour. While the booth operator looks into that, the crew discusses the buying and selling of planets. SARR suggests they'd better look into the history of Abindosan.
The tour is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Oola has Z buy some movie merchandise for her that she doesn't own yet. When the group collects again in their rooms, Ree tells them she suspects they're using coral to translate the information to heal people. If they can buy Oola's droids time to retrieve the computer core they stored the reef information on... Z says he can do that easily; he'll just act like a total jerk so everyone has to kowtow to his every whim.
Kedrihm is concerned about the use of the coral. The information from the reef has to be the first priority, they can at least look into getting the coral out.
Things go pretty smoothly. Oola's droids head back to the ship with the core. The droid they attached Dalt's coral detector to didn't get a bead on any (though it did register Kedrihm'Val), but it picked up something else: four people gathered around a holo relay--three Amalgamated staff and one Seinar Tech representative (Severan's old corporation), talking to Drath via uplink about getting the deed to Abindosan. He schedules a rendezvous in the Tapani Sector. Someone has apparently owned the planet since the time of the Old Republic, and the deed at some point made its way to the Houses of the Tapani Sector.
They send a message back to Coruscant about looking up records of Abindosan. Oola notes that their message is intercepted, and tracks a cloaked ship along the transmission path. They can't get identifying marks with its cloak up, but Dalt suggests scanning for gravity fields, which shows that it's a very small ship: too small to be Drath's. Oola sneaks up and levels an ion cannon at it, which knocks out the cloak and reveals it to be a Sienar design--Dalt's technology.
Ree wonders aloud if they're in trouble. "We're not in trouble if we kill them," Dalt points out. Compromising, they try to capture the ship, but the thing powers up to avoid them. It dodges Oola's shots at its engine with uncanny dexterity, marking the pilot as a Force user. By this time, they're drawing attention from CorpSec security, so Oola sits Dalt down and makes him help as she fires a tracker at the little vessel and then they clear out.
Z attacks the security ships to hold them off, and they chase their small target out of the sector. It's running hard to prepare for hyperspace. Oola locks in its final coordinates, and sure enough, it's heading for the Tapani Sector. Ree resends her earlier message to Erin and then they jump to hyperspace and follow it out.
Coral on the Brain
Ree gets back to investigating the ARC trooper they captured during the Festival.
The technicians who've been interrogating and studying him say that he seems to be a droid. They don't know where he came from or who was running him. It was set to wipe its instructions if it was captured, and is extraordinarily well-programmed. Ree asks Oola to take a look, but she's unable to discover much more. The droid's construction is a very strange mix of mechanical and organic. In fact, she tells Ree, it strikes her as "Dalt's sort of weird." She's right; Dalt finds it intriguing, and agrees to look into it further.
While he works on that, the crew heads back out to Eidolon Base with a New Republic team, but when they get there, they find the whole place wrecked. There were 2000 inhabitants: they're all dead. Lightsabers and toxic gas killed them. Oola's able to retrieve some more information from their computer, and they gather some personal effects and diaries to get an idea of what happened, but their best first guess seems to be the right one. Thrawn sent someone out to do 'clean-up.'
Dalt doesn't even wait for them to reach Coruscant, calling them in transit on the way back to tell them that it's the weirdest android ever. "It's insane technology," he tells them, and he means it quite literally. This thing is not a cyborg; it's a person who was made into a robot. An organic lifeform modified to work with technology. "A brain scan might work better on it than a computer scan," he says. He theorizes that it was programmed to watch them extensively, and it got so bored that it made a game of the task in its own mind. Hence the games with Ree and so on. He has more to tell them when they arrive, but he doesn't think he should share it over a commlink. Something about his descriptions leaves Kedrihm'Val feeling uneasy. Ree doesn't notice; she's feeling too sick over all the death they've encountered recently. Z and Onna are concerned about her.
They drop in on Dalt as soon as they get back. "Whoever did this didn't have a firm grip on science," he tells them, showing them the...remains. Its organs are carved with sigils. A piece of coral is embedded in its brain. Kedrihm'Val recognizes it all immediately as Abindosani.
The strange being has Dalt wondering what happens to Abindosani when they die, and just how they're connected to that coral. The tainted coral begins influencing Abindosani who stay near it for too long, Kedrihm tells him, having felt such an effect himself. How far that twisting could go, he doesn't know and isn't keen to find out. But he remembers that Dalt wasn't the only Force user interested in such subjects; Maul experimented extensively on Kedrihm's people too. Hunting through all the artifacts and documents they retrieved from the underwater base that made its way to Dathomir, he finds Maul's lab records from those experiments.
Maul tortured Abindosani Force users before killing them. At first, he wanted to see if their spirits would be drawn back to the reefs when they died. Then, figuring that since torturing good people could just as easily bring out their best qualities--courage, hope--as their worst ones, Maul posited using that to herd and concentrate whatever taint lurked in the reefs. He theorized that a Dark Sider native to the planet would grow more powerful as the reefs grow darker, and that by carrying a piece of coral, an Abindosani Force user could remain linked to his planet no matter where he went.
He looked for Abindosani Dark Siders to help him with his project. There are some, as Kedrihm'Val explains to the others, but most of them are simply hostile and anti-social, which was no use to Maul. He wanted someone who delved into the Dark Side because they were awful, not because they couldn't control themselves. He found only one promising candidate: Tazorin'Ken, a man with an unhealthy fascination with technology.
Kedrihm'Val knows the name, but it's hard for him to believe. The figure of Tazorin'Ken is almost legendary. He lived over a hundred years ago; parents use tales of him to frighten their children into behaving. Of course, Kedrihm'Val has seen stranger things, at this point, and on the other hand, it could simply be a different person using the same name. In any case, Tazorin'Ken agreed to work with Maul, performing experiments like this...bio-droid on Imperial soldiers. On the tapes, Maul muses that he never understood why the Abindosani were so anti-tech. Tazorin'Ken seems to have taken the idea of breaking that taboo and run with it; he sees technology as being more perfect than nature. The cyborg fishmen the crew ran into on Abindosan before were Tazorin's. Maul simply used the tools he found at hand, though he thought he could achieve better results, given more time, and found Tazorin's work rather unaesthetic, but promising.
This casts an even grimmer light on the damage to Abindosan, and makes healing Kedrihm'Val's planet a priority. Kedrihm'Val gets Dalt and Cilghal together to see if they can come up with any ideas. Dalt has several, but they're all in conceptual stages at the moment. Still, they're pretty certain this can be done without destroying whatever personality or mind is at work in the coral.
Before leaving for Abindosan, Kedrihm stops to talk to Zan, who helped heal the Vodne before. He says that Force Light does help, but the taint is more like a disease. He tells Ree that the Council will send someone to keep an eye on Kessel and hunt up what they can learn about that poison that killed Zay. Then he asks Kedrihm'Val what he expects to find on Abindosan. "Hopefully nothing," Kedrihm tells him. "I expect to find a man pretending to be a bogeyman who has drafted a few Dark Siders to his ends. I fear I'll find a bogeyman who has cyborged himself and organized people toward his goals using knowledge Darth Maul gave him."
Dalt comes along for this trip. He brings the coral-scanner he created in CorpSec so they can search for a heap of coral that isn't in the oceans where it belongs. SARR recommends not wandering blithely into a place that someone might have held for hundreds of years. Kedrihm agrees. He plans to talk to people first and see if word of mouth can give them any idea of what to expect.
Ree talks to people too. They may be primitive, but there's a limit to their superstitions. Tazarin'Ken is a child's story, but they're willing enough to tell her the stories. Kedrihm'Val explains to the elders that it may be someone using his name, which they can believe more readily and are somewhat concerned about.
Oola detects a concentration of coral about four days into the forests out of the remnants of the Imperial base. She also picks up three lifeforms and an odd electrical signal coming from that location. There's a village about two days out in that direction. They leave SARR and INON with the ship while they scope things out from the village.
When they camp the first night, Kedrihm'Val gets a strange staticky feeling in his head. Ree and Lydia sense it too, though not as keenly. It's almost like telepathic feedback. Ree tries to get a clearer sense of it, but she can only tell that it leads toward the ocean. When she suggests that Kedrihm'Val try it, he passes out as he successfully taps into the signal.
"It's a computer," declares Dalt after listening for a bit. "They're hacking the planet like a computer." Lydia is able to wake Kedrihm, who tells them the information is being drained from the reef. It's heading toward dawn by that point, so they decide to pack up and head toward the village. Kedrihm'Val notices that none of the animals that should be out and about at night are anywhere to be seen or heard.
They reach the village at dawn. Everyone there is unconscious, locked into the signal. It's being sent through them like a radar dish. There are tracks all around, all belonging to the same person over several days. Whoever they are, they were moving faster than a normal human, and with a limp, as Tazarin'Ken was said to have. He apparently comes down sometimes to check on people, especially the more Force-sensitive ones, as though he were fine-tuning a remote receptor.
Dalt asks Kedrihm'Val what information is being taken from the reefs. Kedrihm tries again to tap into the signal, more delicately this time, and finds himself muttering aloud in the Architect language. Dalt says it's "science stuff," then goes on a bit about sentient Architect reefs and Kedrihm'Val's people as coral-droids, sentient feelers evolved and sent out by the reefs to go out and pick up experiences and new information. Kedrihm'Val asks if it's the same with the Mon Calamari. Dalt says perhaps, and it could be a similar thing with Ithor as well, maybe even Dathomir or Kessel. But what kedrihm'Val got out of that data stream wasn't the core information; Dalt thinks it sounded more like a firewall. He might still be trying to break in.
That night--the signal obviously travels better at night--Kedrihm accidentally taps into the signal again, better this time. Tazarin'Ken is obviously reading the reef's mind. Enormous amounts of information are being transmitted.
The next day, they head up toward what seems to be the man's installation. Four hours out from it, Kedrihm'Val spots a dart trap. Z disables it, then has Dalt take a look. The thorn is wired with tiny thrusters as a heat-seeker. Meanwhile, checking her sensors, Oola sees signs of a broadcasting signal. He must be transmitting the information he gets from the reefs somewhere else. Off-planet. It's heading out toward the Outer Rim. Dalt says there's something else bad going on here; "Something...unappealing."
Kedrihm'Val and Z dismantle a pit trap and then a 'shoot an angry animal at someone's face' trap. It looks like a sort of cyberized badger. As they get closer to the installation, Kedrihm snags some hair the man left on his trail so they can check it later. Z climbs a tree for a better look, and spots a big satellite dish, a couple of huts, and large cables running between them. A n old-looking man wearing skins and extensive cybernetic adaptations is puttering about with two patched-together destroyer droids in tow and a new-model assassin droid. Either the assassin droid or the old man is giving orders.
They contact SARR to have him try to track the signal before they blow up the dish. SARR doesn't find any dish registering on the ship's sensors, but the signal is easy to track outside the atmosphere. He says he can reverse the signal and overload the dish.
The crew skulks closer to the installation. Kedrihm warns them to keep an eye out for modified plants, and sure enough, they're all over the place. Z suggests taking an ion blaster to the whole thing, but Ree wants to bring the old man out. The plan: cut the cables leading to the dish, use the Force to float two grenades over to the destroyer droids so they get inside their shields, and take on the man and the assassin droid themselves. But upon reconning the place a bit more, they find that the cables lead into two people who are hooked into the system somehow. Cutting those cables might kill them. After Kedrihm'Val reminds Oola of her little droids, she sends them to investigate the people. One is apparently a relay; the other is a power source, drawing power out of the reef.
Z arranges blazing electronic death, daisy-chaining a series of ion grenades together. He fires his rocket pack to fly right into the installation, Kedrihm'Val and Ree leaping in behind him. The assassin droid turns on a double-bladed lightsaber and attacks Ree, who cuts it in half. Tazarin'Ken makes a run for the forest, but Z brings him down first, ramming him into the ground. Knowing Z's about to get lightning-bolted by an angry Dark Sider, he chases after, kicking the guy in the head.
Instead, Tazarin lets out some weird howl, summoning a bearlike animal that's been modified to about twice its normal size and had two extra arms cybernetically attached. It's 22 feet high! Ree calls helpfully, "It's not as big as the Krayt Dragon!" Kedrihm'Val retorts, "I can't reach its sinuses." Oola hits the bear-thing with a knife-droid. After Tazarin nearly gets loose a second time, Z unloads his flechette launcher into Tazarin'Ken's head at point-blank range, leaving him and Kedrihm soaked in gore.
Kedrihm'Val: *spit* "Thank you, Z." Z: "You're welcome. Or are you being facetious?" Kedrihm'Val: "Mostly." Z: "Are you proud of me for knowing that word?"
Ree attacks the bear, smoothly removing its left arm and head.
The poor souls Tazarin'Ken hooked into his machines are nothing but burnt-out husks. Oola is able to track the signal's coordinates into CorpSec after following it through a couple of relay stations. Dalt reminds them that Maul had a base there. Ree reminds Dalt that he did, too, but Dalt doesn't recall doing such a thing. He laments the devastation of the Dark Sider, wondering what they might've learned from him if he'd stayed in one piece.
Oola checks the assassin droid's brain. It's a tough crack, but she makes it in. Maul sent it to advise Tazarin. He was after this information because these reefs hold DNA coding for every lifeform in the galaxy. That seems like a far-fetched claim, but Dalt thinks it might be the DNA for their final evolutionary forms. Why is it there, though? Another component of the Blueprint? Maybe the Blueprint holds the record of worlds, and Abindosan's reefs hold the records of lifeforms?
They'd placed the villagers on nutrient support. Kedrihm'Val reminds them they should disconnect that before anyone wakes up. When he comments on clearing out the abominated flora that Tazarin'Ken left behind, Dalt suggests that SARR use the ship to do a controlled burn. This pleases SARR.
They return the two burnt-out captives to Kedrihm'Val's people who, as Kedrihm warned they would, pretty much offer the opinion that they're dead in the ways that matter. Let them go and give them a funeral pyre.
Ree checks on the reef before they leave. The parts that were the most damaged in the previous go-round seem to be find now. She leaves some Force crystals with the Abindosani, who say they'll try to get them to the Vodne, who can probably do a better job with them. After setting Dalt and Oola to look over the recordings they've taken, she calls Luke, who tells her she'll be expected at a Council meeting.
On the way back to Coruscant, the Alderaanian groups are in the news again. "Eventually someone will have to talk to Senator Sent," Ree muses. "I'll go," offers Dalt with a laugh. Commenting on the Sent family resemblance, Z: "Can't wipe away ugly."
Dalt: *silence*
Kedrihm'Val: *moves to sit next to Z.*
Ree: "Z, that was uncalled for."
*pause*
Dalt: "I tried with your mother."
Kedrihm'Val grabs Z.
SARR asks about the reef data. It wasn't copied, but actually removed. It needs to go back in, but how do they do that? They might have to hook up some coral to the computer to, er, translate. But...Maul just wanted the reef emptied? What did he want to put in instead?
When they reach Coruscant, Ree learns that Han, Chewie, and Kyp went to Kessel. She frets over how Kyp will handle that.
Dalt and Oola talk. "If you were Maul and had a planet-sized computer to put stuff in, what would you put in it?" he asks her. He'd go about making a Force Star, he tells her. He also wonders what effect this might have on the planet. If 85% of the information has been drained from the reefs, then that's more room for the reefs to be changed...or to change themselves. Dalt advocates killing E'Val, to which Kedrihm'Val agrees. But there are guards, so they'll have to convince the Council to agree to it.
Back to getting the information back into the reefs: Tazarin'Ken channeled it out through an Abindosani, so channeling it back in through one would be an idea. But... "People are made to collect information for the planet," Dalt says, "but that much information will kill people." "Well, if all else fails," Kedrihm tells him, "I am here to do whatever I need to save my planet." Dalt agrees, but thinks that's an extreme solution. A radio signal through water, or a giant computer with coral built in, patterned on an Abindosani brain pattern, might work.
This somehow morphs to a long, involved talk about stealing brains. Dalt wants to lurk about till somebody dies, says he can remove a brain and put the skull back on in 2.5 minutes. Oola and Kedrihm find this alarming information indeed. Feeling morbid, Oola decides to call SARR and see if he has an extra brain lying about. He doesn't (thankfully), and wants to know why they ask. "Dalt wants it," Kedrihm tells him. SARR responds, "Aren't you supposed to be weaning him away from that?"
Luke is worried about sending them to CorpSec. That sector of the galaxy is under its own governance; Jedi and the New Republic have no authority there. This'll be a sensitive operation. He talks to Leia.
The technicians who've been interrogating and studying him say that he seems to be a droid. They don't know where he came from or who was running him. It was set to wipe its instructions if it was captured, and is extraordinarily well-programmed. Ree asks Oola to take a look, but she's unable to discover much more. The droid's construction is a very strange mix of mechanical and organic. In fact, she tells Ree, it strikes her as "Dalt's sort of weird." She's right; Dalt finds it intriguing, and agrees to look into it further.
While he works on that, the crew heads back out to Eidolon Base with a New Republic team, but when they get there, they find the whole place wrecked. There were 2000 inhabitants: they're all dead. Lightsabers and toxic gas killed them. Oola's able to retrieve some more information from their computer, and they gather some personal effects and diaries to get an idea of what happened, but their best first guess seems to be the right one. Thrawn sent someone out to do 'clean-up.'
Dalt doesn't even wait for them to reach Coruscant, calling them in transit on the way back to tell them that it's the weirdest android ever. "It's insane technology," he tells them, and he means it quite literally. This thing is not a cyborg; it's a person who was made into a robot. An organic lifeform modified to work with technology. "A brain scan might work better on it than a computer scan," he says. He theorizes that it was programmed to watch them extensively, and it got so bored that it made a game of the task in its own mind. Hence the games with Ree and so on. He has more to tell them when they arrive, but he doesn't think he should share it over a commlink. Something about his descriptions leaves Kedrihm'Val feeling uneasy. Ree doesn't notice; she's feeling too sick over all the death they've encountered recently. Z and Onna are concerned about her.
They drop in on Dalt as soon as they get back. "Whoever did this didn't have a firm grip on science," he tells them, showing them the...remains. Its organs are carved with sigils. A piece of coral is embedded in its brain. Kedrihm'Val recognizes it all immediately as Abindosani.
The strange being has Dalt wondering what happens to Abindosani when they die, and just how they're connected to that coral. The tainted coral begins influencing Abindosani who stay near it for too long, Kedrihm tells him, having felt such an effect himself. How far that twisting could go, he doesn't know and isn't keen to find out. But he remembers that Dalt wasn't the only Force user interested in such subjects; Maul experimented extensively on Kedrihm's people too. Hunting through all the artifacts and documents they retrieved from the underwater base that made its way to Dathomir, he finds Maul's lab records from those experiments.
Maul tortured Abindosani Force users before killing them. At first, he wanted to see if their spirits would be drawn back to the reefs when they died. Then, figuring that since torturing good people could just as easily bring out their best qualities--courage, hope--as their worst ones, Maul posited using that to herd and concentrate whatever taint lurked in the reefs. He theorized that a Dark Sider native to the planet would grow more powerful as the reefs grow darker, and that by carrying a piece of coral, an Abindosani Force user could remain linked to his planet no matter where he went.
He looked for Abindosani Dark Siders to help him with his project. There are some, as Kedrihm'Val explains to the others, but most of them are simply hostile and anti-social, which was no use to Maul. He wanted someone who delved into the Dark Side because they were awful, not because they couldn't control themselves. He found only one promising candidate: Tazorin'Ken, a man with an unhealthy fascination with technology.
Kedrihm'Val knows the name, but it's hard for him to believe. The figure of Tazorin'Ken is almost legendary. He lived over a hundred years ago; parents use tales of him to frighten their children into behaving. Of course, Kedrihm'Val has seen stranger things, at this point, and on the other hand, it could simply be a different person using the same name. In any case, Tazorin'Ken agreed to work with Maul, performing experiments like this...bio-droid on Imperial soldiers. On the tapes, Maul muses that he never understood why the Abindosani were so anti-tech. Tazorin'Ken seems to have taken the idea of breaking that taboo and run with it; he sees technology as being more perfect than nature. The cyborg fishmen the crew ran into on Abindosan before were Tazorin's. Maul simply used the tools he found at hand, though he thought he could achieve better results, given more time, and found Tazorin's work rather unaesthetic, but promising.
This casts an even grimmer light on the damage to Abindosan, and makes healing Kedrihm'Val's planet a priority. Kedrihm'Val gets Dalt and Cilghal together to see if they can come up with any ideas. Dalt has several, but they're all in conceptual stages at the moment. Still, they're pretty certain this can be done without destroying whatever personality or mind is at work in the coral.
Before leaving for Abindosan, Kedrihm stops to talk to Zan, who helped heal the Vodne before. He says that Force Light does help, but the taint is more like a disease. He tells Ree that the Council will send someone to keep an eye on Kessel and hunt up what they can learn about that poison that killed Zay. Then he asks Kedrihm'Val what he expects to find on Abindosan. "Hopefully nothing," Kedrihm tells him. "I expect to find a man pretending to be a bogeyman who has drafted a few Dark Siders to his ends. I fear I'll find a bogeyman who has cyborged himself and organized people toward his goals using knowledge Darth Maul gave him."
Dalt comes along for this trip. He brings the coral-scanner he created in CorpSec so they can search for a heap of coral that isn't in the oceans where it belongs. SARR recommends not wandering blithely into a place that someone might have held for hundreds of years. Kedrihm agrees. He plans to talk to people first and see if word of mouth can give them any idea of what to expect.
Ree talks to people too. They may be primitive, but there's a limit to their superstitions. Tazarin'Ken is a child's story, but they're willing enough to tell her the stories. Kedrihm'Val explains to the elders that it may be someone using his name, which they can believe more readily and are somewhat concerned about.
Oola detects a concentration of coral about four days into the forests out of the remnants of the Imperial base. She also picks up three lifeforms and an odd electrical signal coming from that location. There's a village about two days out in that direction. They leave SARR and INON with the ship while they scope things out from the village.
When they camp the first night, Kedrihm'Val gets a strange staticky feeling in his head. Ree and Lydia sense it too, though not as keenly. It's almost like telepathic feedback. Ree tries to get a clearer sense of it, but she can only tell that it leads toward the ocean. When she suggests that Kedrihm'Val try it, he passes out as he successfully taps into the signal.
"It's a computer," declares Dalt after listening for a bit. "They're hacking the planet like a computer." Lydia is able to wake Kedrihm, who tells them the information is being drained from the reef. It's heading toward dawn by that point, so they decide to pack up and head toward the village. Kedrihm'Val notices that none of the animals that should be out and about at night are anywhere to be seen or heard.
They reach the village at dawn. Everyone there is unconscious, locked into the signal. It's being sent through them like a radar dish. There are tracks all around, all belonging to the same person over several days. Whoever they are, they were moving faster than a normal human, and with a limp, as Tazarin'Ken was said to have. He apparently comes down sometimes to check on people, especially the more Force-sensitive ones, as though he were fine-tuning a remote receptor.
Dalt asks Kedrihm'Val what information is being taken from the reefs. Kedrihm tries again to tap into the signal, more delicately this time, and finds himself muttering aloud in the Architect language. Dalt says it's "science stuff," then goes on a bit about sentient Architect reefs and Kedrihm'Val's people as coral-droids, sentient feelers evolved and sent out by the reefs to go out and pick up experiences and new information. Kedrihm'Val asks if it's the same with the Mon Calamari. Dalt says perhaps, and it could be a similar thing with Ithor as well, maybe even Dathomir or Kessel. But what kedrihm'Val got out of that data stream wasn't the core information; Dalt thinks it sounded more like a firewall. He might still be trying to break in.
That night--the signal obviously travels better at night--Kedrihm accidentally taps into the signal again, better this time. Tazarin'Ken is obviously reading the reef's mind. Enormous amounts of information are being transmitted.
The next day, they head up toward what seems to be the man's installation. Four hours out from it, Kedrihm'Val spots a dart trap. Z disables it, then has Dalt take a look. The thorn is wired with tiny thrusters as a heat-seeker. Meanwhile, checking her sensors, Oola sees signs of a broadcasting signal. He must be transmitting the information he gets from the reefs somewhere else. Off-planet. It's heading out toward the Outer Rim. Dalt says there's something else bad going on here; "Something...unappealing."
Kedrihm'Val and Z dismantle a pit trap and then a 'shoot an angry animal at someone's face' trap. It looks like a sort of cyberized badger. As they get closer to the installation, Kedrihm snags some hair the man left on his trail so they can check it later. Z climbs a tree for a better look, and spots a big satellite dish, a couple of huts, and large cables running between them. A n old-looking man wearing skins and extensive cybernetic adaptations is puttering about with two patched-together destroyer droids in tow and a new-model assassin droid. Either the assassin droid or the old man is giving orders.
They contact SARR to have him try to track the signal before they blow up the dish. SARR doesn't find any dish registering on the ship's sensors, but the signal is easy to track outside the atmosphere. He says he can reverse the signal and overload the dish.
The crew skulks closer to the installation. Kedrihm warns them to keep an eye out for modified plants, and sure enough, they're all over the place. Z suggests taking an ion blaster to the whole thing, but Ree wants to bring the old man out. The plan: cut the cables leading to the dish, use the Force to float two grenades over to the destroyer droids so they get inside their shields, and take on the man and the assassin droid themselves. But upon reconning the place a bit more, they find that the cables lead into two people who are hooked into the system somehow. Cutting those cables might kill them. After Kedrihm'Val reminds Oola of her little droids, she sends them to investigate the people. One is apparently a relay; the other is a power source, drawing power out of the reef.
Z arranges blazing electronic death, daisy-chaining a series of ion grenades together. He fires his rocket pack to fly right into the installation, Kedrihm'Val and Ree leaping in behind him. The assassin droid turns on a double-bladed lightsaber and attacks Ree, who cuts it in half. Tazarin'Ken makes a run for the forest, but Z brings him down first, ramming him into the ground. Knowing Z's about to get lightning-bolted by an angry Dark Sider, he chases after, kicking the guy in the head.
Instead, Tazarin lets out some weird howl, summoning a bearlike animal that's been modified to about twice its normal size and had two extra arms cybernetically attached. It's 22 feet high! Ree calls helpfully, "It's not as big as the Krayt Dragon!" Kedrihm'Val retorts, "I can't reach its sinuses." Oola hits the bear-thing with a knife-droid. After Tazarin nearly gets loose a second time, Z unloads his flechette launcher into Tazarin'Ken's head at point-blank range, leaving him and Kedrihm soaked in gore.
Kedrihm'Val: *spit* "Thank you, Z." Z: "You're welcome. Or are you being facetious?" Kedrihm'Val: "Mostly." Z: "Are you proud of me for knowing that word?"
Ree attacks the bear, smoothly removing its left arm and head.
The poor souls Tazarin'Ken hooked into his machines are nothing but burnt-out husks. Oola is able to track the signal's coordinates into CorpSec after following it through a couple of relay stations. Dalt reminds them that Maul had a base there. Ree reminds Dalt that he did, too, but Dalt doesn't recall doing such a thing. He laments the devastation of the Dark Sider, wondering what they might've learned from him if he'd stayed in one piece.
Oola checks the assassin droid's brain. It's a tough crack, but she makes it in. Maul sent it to advise Tazarin. He was after this information because these reefs hold DNA coding for every lifeform in the galaxy. That seems like a far-fetched claim, but Dalt thinks it might be the DNA for their final evolutionary forms. Why is it there, though? Another component of the Blueprint? Maybe the Blueprint holds the record of worlds, and Abindosan's reefs hold the records of lifeforms?
They'd placed the villagers on nutrient support. Kedrihm'Val reminds them they should disconnect that before anyone wakes up. When he comments on clearing out the abominated flora that Tazarin'Ken left behind, Dalt suggests that SARR use the ship to do a controlled burn. This pleases SARR.
They return the two burnt-out captives to Kedrihm'Val's people who, as Kedrihm warned they would, pretty much offer the opinion that they're dead in the ways that matter. Let them go and give them a funeral pyre.
Ree checks on the reef before they leave. The parts that were the most damaged in the previous go-round seem to be find now. She leaves some Force crystals with the Abindosani, who say they'll try to get them to the Vodne, who can probably do a better job with them. After setting Dalt and Oola to look over the recordings they've taken, she calls Luke, who tells her she'll be expected at a Council meeting.
On the way back to Coruscant, the Alderaanian groups are in the news again. "Eventually someone will have to talk to Senator Sent," Ree muses. "I'll go," offers Dalt with a laugh. Commenting on the Sent family resemblance, Z: "Can't wipe away ugly."
Dalt: *silence*
Kedrihm'Val: *moves to sit next to Z.*
Ree: "Z, that was uncalled for."
*pause*
Dalt: "I tried with your mother."
Kedrihm'Val grabs Z.
SARR asks about the reef data. It wasn't copied, but actually removed. It needs to go back in, but how do they do that? They might have to hook up some coral to the computer to, er, translate. But...Maul just wanted the reef emptied? What did he want to put in instead?
When they reach Coruscant, Ree learns that Han, Chewie, and Kyp went to Kessel. She frets over how Kyp will handle that.
Dalt and Oola talk. "If you were Maul and had a planet-sized computer to put stuff in, what would you put in it?" he asks her. He'd go about making a Force Star, he tells her. He also wonders what effect this might have on the planet. If 85% of the information has been drained from the reefs, then that's more room for the reefs to be changed...or to change themselves. Dalt advocates killing E'Val, to which Kedrihm'Val agrees. But there are guards, so they'll have to convince the Council to agree to it.
Back to getting the information back into the reefs: Tazarin'Ken channeled it out through an Abindosani, so channeling it back in through one would be an idea. But... "People are made to collect information for the planet," Dalt says, "but that much information will kill people." "Well, if all else fails," Kedrihm tells him, "I am here to do whatever I need to save my planet." Dalt agrees, but thinks that's an extreme solution. A radio signal through water, or a giant computer with coral built in, patterned on an Abindosani brain pattern, might work.
This somehow morphs to a long, involved talk about stealing brains. Dalt wants to lurk about till somebody dies, says he can remove a brain and put the skull back on in 2.5 minutes. Oola and Kedrihm find this alarming information indeed. Feeling morbid, Oola decides to call SARR and see if he has an extra brain lying about. He doesn't (thankfully), and wants to know why they ask. "Dalt wants it," Kedrihm tells him. SARR responds, "Aren't you supposed to be weaning him away from that?"
Luke is worried about sending them to CorpSec. That sector of the galaxy is under its own governance; Jedi and the New Republic have no authority there. This'll be a sensitive operation. He talks to Leia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
