3627 BBY (The Present)
Ruuria System, Xappyh Sector , Outer Rim Territories

Until I had experienced marriage with a husband instead of a wife, I never really understood the concept of 'Marital Bliss'. I had seen it, in old movies and TV Sitcoms, it had been everything from harridans and shrews browbeating timid and long suffering men as the butt of jokes either tongue-in-cheek at best and truly nasty at worst. Every now and then we'd see an example of a couple who did love each other in a movie, generally by elderly bit characters or as something 'quaint' and old fashioned.

The image of Ida and Isidor Straus holding each other in bed as their cabin floods on the RMS Titanic will haunt me to day I die.

My own experience of marriage was one of failure, and constant reminder of that failure from a woman I thought I loved. A woman who had in fact used me with that love, for the material things I could provide and when we were all swept up and delivered to the hot, sandy Dune Sea just before the Jundland Wastes of Tatooine, I finally saw the real face of who I had married. Seeing her prospects exponentially expand thanks to being in the body of the Chiss bounty hunter she now had, Lanaka Fargo dropped me like a bad habit.

That betrayal had gnawed at me, even as I was being courted by the man who would be my husband. It had grown when that man, my brother and my best friend were kidnapped by the Will of the Sith and tortured to draw me out and Lanaka had had the unmitigated gall to attempt to convince me to abandon them and flee.

Once I had been proud I had not killed her for it. Now? Well, there aren't many things I regret.

I wasn't surprised when, returning from the honeymoon trip I had taken with my Husband, I was informed by Silas she had packed her things and left. Of course, she had attempted to convince my spiritual brother to come with her, but had been rebuffed. Once upon a time I would have been enraged and probably gone hunting her. Fortunately, for her, I had just come from dream like trip from being pampered, showered with affection and made thoroughly and completely glad I was a woman. By that point I had washed my hands of her physically and mentally. Now, no longer my concern, I concentrated on learning how to be a good wife, and before long, a good mother. I gave Torm Belos, my husband, everything I had wanted from my wife; loyalty, devotion, children and love as only a Sith can feel and give. Then I discovered what marital bliss was and I got to enjoy it.

They say love is what lust turns into when the initial fire of passion dies down to the ember of routine. I wouldn't know; the fire of our passion hasn't died down. Our kids roll their eyes sometimes when we kiss or hug in front of them, but my ally is The Force. Through it, I can feel the warm feeling of being safe and loved Kale and Bree experience when Torm and I physically show our affection for each other.

I find that, as a descriptive phrase, 'marital bliss' should be taken at face value. If you have it, and you know it, it is bliss. That warm, contented feeling that everything is right with the universe and you are doing your part in it. Afterglow comes closest, for the benefit of those that aren't married, to describing the feeling. When you have just had really great sex with someone you really care about and who really cares about you. That's what Marital Bliss is like. I know when I walk past Torm's chair and we're alone, or it's just family, I am going to get my rear goosed. He doesn't look up from what he's reading, I don't squeal or berate him. He does it to show me he still loves me, and I always walk by his chair in arms reach to show him I still love him.

Truth be told, I rather like feeling my husband's hands on me.

But there is a perversity to the Universe; a mindless force that seeks to destroy happiness like that. Call it Entropy, or Evil or even karma, that force that breaks things down seems to be drawn to happiness like a moth to a flame.

It was that feeling, that sense of something not quite right, that woke me from my slumber. I was in Torms arms, the taste of him still on my lips, the smell of him in my nose and the warmth of him around and in me like The Force itself, but something away from us, but also near to us was wrong. I stood, gently extracting myself from his arms without waking him and stood. My sabers were on the night stand, plugged into their charger, nothing untoward there.

As my eyes fell on them, I got a vague feeling that my sabers were not needed.

That wasn't what was out of sorts. I was nude, but I didn't care as I walked over to the doors out to the balcony the bedroom opened out onto. They opened for me and a cool breeze caressed my skin, calling up goosebumps and causing my nipples to stiffen. Still, even cool, the night was pleasant and the sky exceptionally clear. The balcony overlooked the Banudan Bay which gave the illusion there were stars both above in the sky and in the inky waters of the bay.

I sank down on the stone of the balcony, still warm from the sun that had shown on it all day, into the lotus position and laid my hands open on my knees. I closed my eyes and looked inward first. I was coming close to my time of the month and if Torm and I kept carrying on like teenagers my son and daughter would get a new playmate. I remembered my previous pregnancy and the ten hours of my labor, the indescribable feeling of giving birth and again wondered why anyone would suffer all of that and then I remember the feeling nursing my children. The looks of absolute love as they nursed from me and in my breast I felt a longing.

Yes, I was actually ok with having more children.

“Motherhood suits you, my apprentice,” a familiar voice declared softly. I opened my eyes to smile into the face of my mistress, long dead and yet unchanged and untouched by time sitting on the bench across from me by the railing of the balcony.

“Hello, Mistress,” I greeted her with a smile. “I have missed you.”

“I may not appear often, but I am never very far from you, Nyeomi,” Jaydis Vannacen declared, a smile on her oh so slightly transparent fact. She winked at me with a gesture at my nudity and declared, “I see you've kept up your workout routine.”

“I had the advantage of knowing what middle age was like when I didn't and have no desire to repeat it,” I told her with a smile. I stood, reaching out my hand and calling my robe to me. Wrapping it around me I joined her on the bench. “What brings you to me this time, mistress? Some cryptic warning of approaching hardship?”

She smiled and reached out to caress my cheek and even though I could see through her body I felt her skin on mine, warm and soft against my cheek. “You don't need me for that,” she told me. “You're a mother, you should know hardships are always approaching.”

I couldn't help chuckling with her as I reached up to cup her spectral hand in mine. “I have wished so many times you had been here with me,” I told her. “That I could have leaned on your wisdom when I was new and overwhelmed with all of this.”

“You didn't need me,” she admonished softly. “You did well enough without me to hold your hand and whisper what you already knew.” She sighed and took my hands up in hers. “Remember these happy moments, my apprentice. They will bare you through the trials you have ahead of you. Cling to them, and know, the Force will be with you. Always.”

“Mistress?” I asked, confused and more than a little concerned.

“The Force is with me, and I am one with the Force,” she replied, then I couldn't see her for a blinding white light from behind me washed her out. I brought my hands up to protect my eyes, instinctively curling into a protective ball when I realized for a moment I could see through my eyelids, then it was gone and I was blinking back spots. The hair on my arms stood up for a split second as the House deflector shield snapped on which protected us from both the heat flash and the massive pressure wave that slammed into it.

I staggered to my feet and looked, seeing a gigantic mushroom cloud rising up from where the City of Banudan used to be. I gaped, awestruck at being so close to an explosion of this magnitude, before the soldier in me asserted itself. I turned and bolted back into the house as at last the rolling thunder of the explosion had crossed the distance and washed over the shield. “Torm!” I shouted, snatching off the robe and running to the closet. “We're under attack!”

I needn't have shouted, the sound of the house alarm reacting to the explosion had woken him. He was already dressing as I pulled on my 'working clothes', the white and gray armored leathers. “The children!” he ordered as he finished pulling on his clothes and reached past me to snatch out the 'go' bags we kept there.

“Two minutes!” I replied as I grabbed him long enough to kiss him, then called my sabers to me as I ran in the other direction from our bedroom to the bedrooms of our children. In the hall, Fable was in the process of pulling on her armor as she fell in with me. The room she shared with Silas being just across the hall from us and yes, that armor is in fact designed to be donned in a great screaming hurry.

“I can't raise the planetary defense directorate,” she told me.

“Banudan is gone,” I told her as we ran. “Either a thermonuclear device or an impactor big and fast enough to be an equivalent. Get Kale!” I ordered as I stopped at Bree's room and my thumb opened the door for me.

“Done!” she replied as she kept running.

Bree was coming to the door, dressed, her go bag in her hand and her eyes full of tears. “Mommy, I'm scared!” she admitted as I clutched my daughter to me and held her tight.

“I know baby, courage now, be brave,” I whispered into her hair as I reversed myself and swept her out the door and up to a trot. The ground shook, another impactor, much closer, but we were still alive and the shield was holding. Kale was standing by the emergency slide, watching Fable's feet disappear down it as she went down weapon and head first. “Go!” I shouted at him as we ran up.

He threw his bag into the slide and then followed it. I picked up Bree and dropped her through, then scrambled into the darkness after her. Being royalty did have its perks. Chief among them was that Torm and I were able to have this house built from the ground up. It had the deflector shield as was already noted and was hardened against direct orbital bombardment. As if I would accept anything less having lived through the special hell that was city planet Taris.

All of the systems were shielded against electromagnetic pulse and other ionized based anti-systems attacks, and below the plateau the house sat on was a little bunker hanger that housed the Aces and Eights. The slide we were riding now took us right to it. My feet hit the ground to find the lights in the hanger on, with Torm and Silas quickly disconnecting the shore power connectors. As I trotted over to the entry ramp I keyed on my comlink and set it to the house frequency. “Attention, this Countess Fens, all staff attention. Institute emergency plan one. I repeat, Emergency Plan One. This is NOT a drill. May the Force be with us all!”

The staff taken care of so they knew to get into the shelter in preparation of their own evacuation, I charged up the ramp and towards the cockpit while Bree and Kale climbed or descended the ladders down into the turrets. Fable and I brought the Aces and Eights up as quickly as we could, but even taking every short cut it would be nearly five minutes before we'd be in the air.

The comm system came up first and I got the headset on my ear as my hands moved by themselves over these now very familiar controls. “Top turret check,” Bree's voice came in my ear.

“Bottom turret check,” Kale added.

“Ok, kids, make mom and dad proud,” I replied as the engines came up and I activated the repulsors.

“Honey, GO!” I heard Torm shout from down the hallway by the hatch, just as I began to realize we were being shot at. Out the canopy I could see a dozen...somethings scrambling out the escape chute with blasters. It could be some kind of full armor, or it could be robots, I wasn't sure. Either way I slapped on the deflector screens, and began to ease forward towards the opening doors of the bay. I was worried that the ramp hadn't closed yet.

A pair of blaster bolts from my son slammed into the group of combatants and either humans in armor or robots, they were destroyed. At last the ramp closed light lit on the board and I firewalled the throttle. The Aces and Eights shot from her hanger like a thoroughbred given whip and spurs, pinning Fable and myself back into our seats for a moment until the acceleration compensators kicked in. “Yahoo!” Kale shouted into my ear through the intercom.

Pulling back on the yoke, she began to climb Ruuria's gravity well as Fable pointed from the co-pilot's chair out the canopy. “By the Force, what is it?” she asked, awestruck.

It was, in fact, the largest space station I had ever seen. Dwarfing Vaiken Spacedock and hanging in the sky like a new moon. It was roughly octagonal, with a massive pair of arms that were reaching down as if to embrace or swallow the planet. It dominated the sky, visibly seven or eight times the size of sun. Instinctively I turned the ship away from it as we climbed up to the defense of our home. “Ruuria Defense Net, this is Countess Fens, check in.”

The frequencies were awash with scattered units, desperately trying to mount a coordinated defense, but we were well back on our heels from the suddenness and viciousness of the attack. All of the ground unit channels were crowded with chatter of units bravely trying to link up, but the devastating orbital strikes had been followed up with a massive invasion of ground forces, as I could now see as we fled our home. From this altitude I could see a dozen of the massive mushroom clouds climbing to the stratosphere.

“Fighters!” Bree's voice all but shouted in my ear. “Eight O'clock high, incoming!”

I looked as much over my shoulder through the canopy as I could and caught sight of six of them, breaking off from a troop drop ship they were escorting to come after us. They were odd fighters, of a design I had never seen before, not old Sith Empire, nor any Republic design I was familiar with. Come to it, they were so sleek and spindly while obviously having been optimized for atmospheric work, there didn't seem to be a space large enough for a pilot.

Not that I was given much time to ponder such things.

The Aces and Eights responded to my inputs, snap rolling on her side as the blaster fire I had anticipated passed harmlessly where we would have been and I began a series of acrobatic maneuvers back towards the surface, trading altitude for speed. “What are you doing?” demanded Silas from the flight engineer's chair he was busily strapping himself into. “We have to get clear to get to hyperspace!”

“Angle the deflectors!” I ordered Fable, as I concentrated on my flying and not being hit by an angry rainbow of blaster fire. “We won't ever outrun those fighters to orbit, but we can out maneuver them and use the home court advantage!”

The flash of an explosion caught my attention for moment as the closest fighter vanished in a fireball of ionizing fuel and explosive vapors. “I got him! I got him!” exalted Bree over the com link.

“Don't get cocky!” Torm cautioned her from the navigator's place behind me. He pointed over my shoulder out the canopy. “There, see it?”

The landing support cruiser Warspite was rising up from her landing pad, her shield positively glowing from the withering barrage of enemy fire she was soaking up that was trying to keep her from launching. I ran the Aces and Eights through a half roll and split S turn and dumped what little altitude I had left until we were only a few meters off the deck. The blaster bolts were landing all around me as the fighters anticipated what I was doing, but it wasn't enough to keep me from it. Robbed of almost all of my maneuvering room, Bree's fire from the top turret began to become more accurate as two more fighters blossomed into fireballs from her handiwork. Some of the guns of the Warspite noticed us, and began to assist Bree, convincing those fighters they wanted to be somewhere else.

We shot under the cruiser, shielded by her and finally free of pursuit. Out the other side, I nosed us up again, doing my best to screen for the Warspite so she could get clear enough for her thick hide and bigger guns to be of use. I emptied the Aces and Eights magazine of proton torpedoes into the largest of the ships attacking the Warspite a frigate that exploded in a dazzling flash and fireball as one of those torpedoes found her reactor and destroyed it.

That gave us some breathing room as we made it up, into space and I had a moment to stop reacting and start acting on my own initiative. The blue sky gave way to black and even with the bulk of the space station on the other side of the world from us, I could see the flashes of explosions as our enemy took the Ruurian Orbital docks.

I flipped over to the star fighter networks and tried to increase our forces beyond the meager guns of the Aces and Eights, and the Warspite. “Any Imperial craft this is Blacksheep One,” I announced looking about as we reached the emergency rally marker to begin to muster a counter attack. “Rally all, I say again, Rally All, all ships acknowledge.”

“Blacksheep One, this is Pride Leader,” and I felt relief that Tari, my senior apprentice and practically my second daughter was alive. “I am on your six, with about three squadrons worth of mixed fighters.” The Aces and Eights was surrounded by a little cloud of fighters and gunships, even a pair of corvettes I could see coming up from the surface and taking position around the Warspite. Now we could make a fight of it.

Or so I thought, for no sooner had I begun to plan our counter attack a powerful signal broke through and the commanding voice of my mistress' master boomed from the speakers. “This is Prince Marr. All forces are to coordinate to rally point Alpha. All ships with functioning hyperdrives are to flee and return with the Imperial fleet. This is Prince Marr.” The message began to repeat so I clicked it off and turned to Fable.

“What is the status of our hyper-drive, Major?”

“Up and operational, my lord,” she replied softly. I took a deep breath and let it out as I exchanged glances with Torm and Silas in the cockpit.

“Mom?” my children asked in stereo.

“Major, set course for Dromund Kaas. Pride Squadron, all ships, follow me.”

“Yes, my lord.”

My eyes cold and hard on the invaders of my home I vowed to return and wreak vengeance on them as my little rag tag fleet of surviving fighters and small ships formed up around me. The invaders had taken notice of the formation of the little fleet, sending four times our numbers to deal with us. Not that it mattered, we had made our getaway.

The Aces and Eights leapt into hyperspace with my little fleet.

3627 BBY
Hyperspace, aboard the INS Warspite, en-route to Dromund Kass, Outer Rim Territories

We were about half way to Dromund Kass when we got the news.

The networks and information spheres had been critically disrupted as part of a dedicated cyber-attack before the primary invasion. Ruuria had not been alone as the target of this invasion. This unknown aggressor had attacked from the uncharted regions across a front tens of thousands of light years across. Key planets and facilities had been first wave targets, and with Ruuria being the primary shipyard of the New Revanite Sith Empire, it had also been in the first wave.

The reach of this enemy was staggering.

Drumund Kass, Korriban, Coruscant, Tython, the attacks had targeted the capitals of the Sith Empire, the Republic, the Jedi and the Sith orders and they had all fallen. There were battles raging, but the size and firepower of this mysterious enemy were overwhelming. Each attack, all coordinated to within minutes of each other, had read the same, a massive fleet would leap out of hyperspace, towing one of these massive battle stations while tens of thousands of capital ships would engage orbital defenses while millions of troops would land, overwhelming any defense.

Emperor Malgus and his wife's, Empress Eleena, whereabouts were unknown.

The Republic Senate had been captured with a quorum of senators present. There were rumors the Republic had already surrendered. Tython was burning and Korriban and its tombs had been dealt incalculable damage to its artifacts and history. In the interstellar void, I had my little rag tag fleet drop out of hyperspace and called a war council. The fighters were able to land on the Warspite, and when her bays were full, I reassigned them to the corvettes Moff Ceptor and the Indefatigable, then called a meeting with the senior officers available to me.

Captain Tucmax Barsal, commander of the Warspite, hosted Lieutenant Commanders Antdami Alliswin, and Joy Ireclay of the Moff Ceptor and the Indefatigable respectively in his wardroom. In addition to three squadron commanders, myself, Torm and Tari. We had been joined by four escort frigates and even two additional cruisers, the Hotspur, and the Witch of Endor, but even with that level of resupply, we didn't have the resources to take back even a single planet, let alone defend our Empire. For good or ill, the only Sith in our company were former apprentices of mine, or apprentices of my apprentices.

That gave us a grand total of five Force users, but I was not willing to accept defeat quite so easily. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” I began as I retook the podium after the succinct report of an obviously overwhelmed young ensign who had briefed us on the situation as was then known. “As you know, I am not one to give up easily. That said, our foremost priority now is acquiring a force capable of fighting back against...”

I was interrupted by the somewhat excited arrival of a young lieutenant, who, despite being out of sorts, remembered himself to bow to me, then rushed over to Captain Barsal and whispered in his ear. “Captain?” I asked.

Barsal stood and bowed, his face somewhat pale. “My lord, we have received a properly coded and verified order to stand down. With it is an announcement of the formal surrender of the New Revanite Empire.”

I frowned. “Emperor Malgus has surrendered?”

“No, my lord,” he replied after a quick consult with the lieutenant. “This order is from Naval High Command by order of the Dark Council.”

“The Dark Council cannot...” started Commander Alliswin heatedly, but he calmed himself at a soft gesture from me.

“Captain,” I asked him, “What is your opinion of this order?”

Tucmax Barsal was a fine figure of a Navy man, grey at the temples with a mustache giving his face a bit of rugged authority. “My lord, Commander Alliswin is correct that there has not been sufficient time for the Dark Council to issue such an edict with the whereabouts of the Emperor unknown. However, that may be only unknown to us. I don't doubt we're back on our heels, but a complete surrender seems premature, unless the Council has information we do not.”

I considered that for a moment, then with great weight, I removed my lightsabers and laid them on the podium, then walked around it to the table. “Friends, we are deep in it, that is no lie. I interpret my oath to require me to draw every fighting man I can to my banner and to throw off these invaders of our nation.” I saw the officers nod around the table and swallowed my fear as I made my decision. “Captain Barsal, proclaim this through out the fleet. Any man who feels it is his duty to obey this stand down order is released from my service and I will arrange passage for them to the closest outpost of the New Revanite Sith Empire. As for me, gentlemen, be damned if I am going roll over like a whipped dog! I intend to fight. Who's with me?”

“ Warspite!” Captain Barsal shouted, followed closely by the commanders.

“ Moff Ceptor!”

“ Indefatigable!”

I nodded grimly and turned to my apprentices. “What of you, my lords?”

Tari got laboriously to her feet, her gravid state hindering her just a bit, as she sank down to one knee. “Ten years ago I swore to follow you anywhere, my master,” she declared gravely. “Nothing will change that now.”

Next to her, Darth Akee sank to his knee, his yellow skin flushing a bit. “I am yours, Mistress. To whatever end.”

I nodded again, and with a gesture called Bree over to me. I gave her a hug and turned her to face her godmother. “Tari, this is your daughter until I return.”

Bree turned, a look of hurt and worry on her face. But even in her emotion, she didn't forget herself. “Mistress...?” Tari stood and took Bree into her arms.

“Gentlemen, we have a large task ahead of us. Captain Barsal, send out individual fighters to every corner of the Empire. Have them bring everyone with a belly to fight here.” He nodded and strode out, already barking orders. “Tari, loan me your fighter.”

“It's yours, mistress, but where are you going?”

I sighed. “Back to Ruuria. I am going to get Darth Marr and anyone else I can rescue. I am a fighter, but Darth Marr is the greatest tactician of this generation. We need him.” Looking back to the other commanders I squared my shoulders. “The rest of you, get on the holonets to every friend you have. Tell them Darth Fens is going to fight. Anyone with the stomach for it is welcome.”

“Empire!” they shouted.

I was going through my go bag back in the cabin Torm and I shared on the Aces and Eights when he caught up with me and locked the door behind him. I turned, braced for a fight, but he just caught me up in his arms and kissed me. A part of my mind was nagging at me that time was of the essence, that minutes counted, that...

Have I ever mentioned how amazing of a kisser Torm is? Yes? Well, it bears repeating.

I didn't need the Force to remind me my family had needs I had to consider. Maybe I didn't have time to make love to my husband, but I did it anyway, flinging the half packed bag off the bed so it could be put to its proper use. We had been apart for two months on my homecoming from the adventure that took me to Belsavis and Alderaan. For a week we had been making love like teen agers, but even with that, he had not been so forceful and needful in a long time.

When I was sure he was sated, I lay in the hallow of his arm to listen to his heart beat for a while and write the memory of his scent into my mind again. Quietly, he asked, “I can't talk you out of this, can I?”

I squeezed his chest with the arm I had laying over it. “Would you really want to?” I asked him. “When have you ever given up on something you wanted or believed in?”

“When I was single, I could behave that way and not have second thoughts,” he told me. “Did I ever tell you I couldn't sleep the night we met? Thinking about you was exciting in a way I can't really describe.”

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. He laughted and kissed my forehead.

“Oh, my better judgement was screaming at me, about how all but suicidal it was to even think about trying to seduce a Sith Lord.” His hand absently stroked my hair. “There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank the Force that I ignored that voice in my head.” I kissed the side of his chest and laid my head back down.

“If you had left, even after our first night, I wouldn't have been angry. I'm so glad you didn't, but I know how the Republic loves to slander my Order.”

“Come now, my darling,” he scolded me softly. “We both know how many of your fellow Lords put in overtime making those slanders true.” He sighed, lightly trailing his fingers down my back, tracing designs in the sweat. “But now, now I am a family man. I have responsibilities, people who depend on me so I cannot take reckless risks the way I once did.”

“Do you think I'm being reckless?”

“I think you're being a Sith,” he replied.

I raised up on my elbow. “If our positions were reversed...”

“If our positions were reversed,” he interrupted me. “I would surrender. Without a second thought. For you, for Bree and Kale, I would grovel to keep them safe.”

I shifted a bit until I was laying on top of him so I could look him directly in the eye. “Do not think for a moment, my husband, that I do not fear for you and our children. Yes, when I met you I was young and reckless and I did many stupid things I regret! You and our kids will not ever be one of them.” I leaned down to kiss him and his arms came around me and held me against him and we kissed for a lifetime it seemed before we finally separated so I could look him in the eyes once more. “No one threatens my family without paying for it, Torm. If it was me, yes, I would surrender too. But its not just me, they came after me, and you and the kids. And mark my words they won't stop coming for me either.”

His face pulled into a frown. “You speak like you know who they are.”

“I do,” I whispered. “It's Vitiate. He's finally come for us.”

“How...” and he paused and nodded. “Oh, yeah, right, The Force.”

I smiled at him and nodded. “I swear I will come back, husband.”

“I swear I will come for you if you don't, wife.”

“I love you, Torm.”

His hands pulled me against him and he kissed my forehead again. “I know,” he whispered.

3627 BBY
Ruuria System, Xappyh Sector , Outer Rim Territories

The S-12 Blackbolt was one of the many variants Tandankin shipyards built upon their remarkably successful Mark VI Supremacy star fighter. It was predominately an octagonal pod for the pilot and engines, then a pair of swept forward delta wings, reminiscent of half of a TIE Interceptor wing, but tacked at the 'top' edge at a forty five degree angle. The S-12 was a scout configuration of the platform, losing none of the incredible speed of the Mark VI, it traded offensive fire power for a magnificent sensor suite to be packed into such a small fighter. It did have a pair of the original four rapid-fire repeating blasters, the generator equipment for the upper pair being traded for the antenna of the sensors.

Likewise, the missile launchers were loaded with a pair of probe droids and a pair of hyper drive equipped message buoys instead of ordinance. This would increase the already formidable 'ear' of the ship letting my gaze cover practically all of what our enemy was up to. While she did have shields, they weren't much, as the S-12 depended on her speed and not attracting attention rather than the 'reconnaissance in force' approach.

I had deliberately jumped into the system via it's most traveled approach, and as I had hoped, my exit from hyperspace had been lost into the background of several bulk freighters arriving. I kept to a pretty low energy approach to Ruuria, taking in what I could and doing my best to keep my temper. The ship yards were a flurry of enemy activity, mostly freighters that seemed to be busy looting. As soon as I dropped out of hyperspace, I fired the probes, one towards the ship yards, the other to investigate the massive space station the Eternal Empire had brought with them.

I launched one of the buoys to park itself equidistant from the two probe droids where it would serve as a relay back to the other I merely ejected from the launcher to drift. The two of them would relay information back to the fleet and Imperial High Command, if there was such a thing anymore, until they were noticed and would then flee.

Until then, we needed all the intel we could get.

My home, the blue green jewel of the Imperial Crown was cracked and marred. The crater that used to be Banudan could be seen from orbit. Inside, I seethed, but I knew there would be a reckoning for this, I only had to be patient and count on my memories and I could beat Vitiate and his Eternal Empire. So far, I had gone unnoticed, and the sensors had been writing books, comm chatter, network frequencies, encryption samples, in addition to the number and classes of ships.

I nosed the S-12 over to one of the larger communication satellites to mask, I hoped, my signature a bit longer. My arc and speed matched with it, the satellite, the size of a bus, coasted next to me as I tuned the radio to the master disaster frequency I knew Darth Marr, if he was still alive, would be monitoring. I squirted my friend or foe code and waited. The minutes stretched out until, at last, the encryption light came on for the main holo, and the blue tinted head and shoulders of Darth Marr appeared before me. “My fair haired daughter returns,” he declared and even though I couldn't see his face, I could tell that behind that mask he was smiling. That said, he had been through interesting times, his hood and robes were scorched.

“I am still a brunette, my master,” I chided him.

“Trivial details,” he assured me. “What strength have you, my right hand?”

“I am here for you, Master, and any else we can quickly rescue.” The Counter ECM computer began to blink angrily at me; the enemy knew I was here and was looking for me. “Where are you Master?”

“Ruuria's importance to the Empire...” he started, but I shook my head.

“Master, Ruuria is lost, the Empire may be lost, but I will keep fighting! For that I am coming for you to help us fight. Where...?”

“The Redoubt,” he declared, then the transmission cut.

I only used the attitude thrusters to depart the satellite, hoping that while they were still looking for me, that I had not been seen yet. I was well into the atmosphere before I began to use the S-12's engines. Slowly coasting down in the wake of a bulk freighter and letting it mask me. But the time it turned off towards one of the commercial space ports that had been spared, presumably for our enemies use, we were low enough that I could dip down to the nape of the earth, well below most of the sensor nets. It made for...interesting...flying, but it kept me off the eye of our enemies.

Still, paranoia was a good thing, so I took a very circuitous route to the hidden Imperial base known as The Redoubt.

As you might imagine, The Redoubt is one of those kind of bases; it doesn't have a perimeter that is in any way marked as military. It is, in fact, marked as a toxic waste dump. It didn't have line items in the budget, or the usual flotsam outside a military base; brothels and illicit gambling dens poorly disguised as 'day spas' or 'entertainment restaurants'. Indeed, it was well away from everyone and everything, serviced by a single road and mostly only accessible by air. It was high up in the mountains and there was enough activity that it even looked like a hazardous waste disposal area. Most of the military stuff was deep in the mountain it sat near. On the opposite side there was a hanger, well hidden, at the end of a long box canyon.

I didn't approach until I was certain I wasn't being tracked, so it was several hours before I was finally tractor beamed into the cave. You've never been more grateful to simply stand up than after spending eight hours in the cockpit of a fighter. That said, a brief glance around the hanger was not reassuring. There were only eight other craft, none of which had a hyperdrive and all were being worked on. The deck boss cleared me through to the base and I wasn't even given time to change out of my flight suit before being ushered into the presence of Prince Marr.

If he looked the worse for wear in the hologram, in the flesh Darth Marr had been ridden hard and put away wet. His normally spotless armor was singed, pockmarked and dirty from several tough encounters. There was even a long burn on one side that looked suspiciously like a light saber strike.

I started to sink to one knee, but, to my immense shock, he reached out, took hold of my arms and pulled me back up to standing. “We have no time for protocol or social niceties, Darth Fens. What have you to report?”

It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but he flustered me, and it took me a beat or two to be able to jump start my brain again. “My lord, I have come here in an S-12 Blackbolt, that has valuable intel on the situation in orbit, and the ground, the techs are probably down loading it now. I have been able to assemble a small fleet around the cruisers Hotspur, Witch of Endor, and Warspite. That includes two corvettes and four frigates with approximately four squadrons of operational fighters and gunships.”

“None of the dreadnoughts?” he asked.

“No, sir,” I told him with some regret. “My lord also, in your ear...” I leaned forward and he bent over just enough for me to whisper, “We also received an order of surrender from the Dark Council...”

He jerked back up right and his fists clinched. “I sense Darth Acina's hand in this, the coward!” he fumed. A fist came down on the holo-table he had been studying in a rare display of anger. Marr had always been cool and level headed, it was required of a soldier as he himself had declared many times, but I could always sense that temper boiling under the iron hand of his Will. The mask turned back to me and demanded, “And have you...?”

I squared my shoulders and raised my head. “All of the captains swore loyalty to me and I have ordered them to send word throughout the Empire that Darth Fens will fight, and anyone who is willing to defend their Empire is welcome.”

“Excellent,” he announced, then pointed a gloved finger at me. “Except for why would you abandon your post on an ill-advised rescue attempt?”

My chin raised a bit. “I know my strengths and my weaknesses, Lord. You are the greatest tactician in the Empire and I took a calculated risk to come here and get you, and as many others as possible out.”

The expressionless mask stared at me for several moments, then he turned to one of the officers. “Show me the most recent intel we have on Banudan Spaceport.” The officer, a youngish looking one, who could probably do with a day or two of sleep, saluted and made an adjustment. The hologram on the table shifted.

Most of Banudan City had been on the mouth side of the Bay of Banudan. There was a magnificent suspension bridge that crossed the mouth of the bay, the ruin of which was still about half standing, in testament to the skill of the engineer's who had built it. On the southern shore there was Banudan Space port, on the same side of the bay as my house, on the western side of the Bay, by the Skynx River. Fortunately, the Space Port was also protected by an automatic deflector screen and had survived the blast, and subsequent Tsunami that filled most of the crater.

There was a lot of light and medium freighter activity, more looting it looked like, but the Prince's personal dreadnought, the Courageous, was still sitting on the field where it had landed, awaiting a refitting. He cupped the chin of the mask as if it was his own. “What was the last status report of the Courageous?” he demanded.

“Landed and in stand by, my lord,” the youngster replied. “I don't see that work has started, but if her power plant is cold...”

“You're not thinking...?” I started as the mask came up and looked at me.

“Was the authorization to shut down the plant given?” he insisted.

“N...No, my lord.”

“If the plant was hot she would have fought, and been damaged, if not destroyed...!” I protested.

Marr shook his head. “There would only have been a skeleton crew aboard, to mind the reactor, with out it being cold, there would not have been enough aboard to either get her off the ground, or fight.”

“You want to try and steal the Courageous?” I asked him.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Not daring enough for you, my rainmaker?” I smirked at him and shook my head.

“Do we have enough men to crew her?”

He pointed at a makeshift POW camp on the runway with what looked like four or five thousand men, waiting to be processed. Well, Grand Theft Starship, won't that be fun?

It wasn't terribly hard to get close to the spaceport.

The entire area was in shock, from the bombardment and destruction of Banudan, to the disorganized occupation, there were people everywhere, begging, being 'processed' but for what was anyone's guess as well as the general confusion of warfare. Darth Marr ordered every man and woman he had into civilian clothes, though, he only put a somewhat tattered cloak and hood over his armor. I gave him a look, but he only stared at me with that blank mask, almost daring me to say something.

Meanwhile, I had swapped out my flight suit for my working leathers and put a little cloak over them myself. We had emptied the Redoubt's armory such that every man had two, in some cases three blasters, which we would use to arm the military personnel we were hoping to liberate. Then it was a simple matter of blending in to the stream of refugees being 'herded' to the spaceport.

My memories of the game told me the Skytroopers that were occupying Ruuria, were just very advanced battle droids, not that I had to order our men to be forgiving to the invaders of our home. Even if they were men in armor, we would delight in killing them. They were fashioned to resemble heavy armor, standing more than two meters tall with hands and carrying normal blaster rifles. What made things odd was the dependence the Eternal Empire had on these robots. Why not build the weapons into the robot? While there were some humans mixed in with the invasion forces, but at extremely low numbers, and usually they were in some kind of decision making role, the ratio was not forgiving. As it was, there was only about one human for about five hundred Skytroopers or so.

At the main gate of the space port there were a pair of humans and perhaps a hundred troopers, there to funnel all the refugees through a tent for processing. The armor was tough, but the men had learned where the weak spots were and would be engaging at bad breath range. Our slicers had already taken out their weapons scanners so the gate detail never saw it coming. It's an odd sound to hear several dozen blasters all go off practically at once. But the Skytroopers were junk, and my lightsaber and Darth Marr's had the pair of humans captive.

“Make a sound, and I'll carve you like a Life Day Bantha,” I warned mine as a couple of the men seized him and stripped him down to his BVDs. Their uniforms were quickly swapped with two of our men they would fit and we put them at the head of the column as we moved to the holding area.

There were less Navy men there than there had been, but still enough, it looked like between what we had to bolster the numbers with. “Remember, I whispered to one of our imposters, “be in charge.”

He nodded as we walked up to the largest of the troopers guarding the group. “I have orders to take this lot and yours into that ship,” he declared with a vague gesture towards the Courageous.

The head of the robot swiveled its red eyes at us. “On whose orders?” it demanded.

“Mine!” Marr hissed as he whipped off his cloak and at the same time activated his light saber.

“Down!” someone shouted.

Military men, especially Imperial Military men are exceptionally well trained. When someone yells 'down', they drop, and if someone wasn't moving near them, they pull them down. Within three seconds the chief robot's head was off, thanks to Darth Marr's lightsaber, and the crowd of POWs in front of us were all on the tarmac, giving us perfect shots at their captors. There was a brief, intense flurry of blaster fire, then silence.

“To me, Imperials!” Marr shouted as, in the distance, an alarm began to wail. “To the Courageous!” The crowd got to its feet, blasters were handed out, and something like four thousand people rushed to the Dreadnought. The specialists were separated to get the ship up and going, and sent in with armed guards in case there were boarders who were not invited to our party. The rest formed a perimeter around the ramp. Even with a ramp that size, four thousand people do not board quickly.

Within a few minutes we were coming under counter attack, but with a deep, throaty roar, the engines of the Courageous began to come to life. I started to think we were going to get away with this, and that's when the attack came. Dozens of Skytroopers came pouring out of buildings, blasting as they charged.

That's when things went really south.

Leading these troopers were humans. Humans in silver armor with gold accents. Who carried lightsabers. I looked at Marr just as he looked at me, and I knew what he was going to do. We had to buy time for the crew to board, and that meant those humans could not be allowed to reach the ship. In my mind I saw my twenty year old self on Balmorra, another bitter retreat, another last stand to buy time for others to get on rescue ships.

When my mistress had sacrificed herself to save me.

Marr started running towards the threat and I ran after him. If we had any chance left of getting away with this, he needed someone to watch his back, and the only one capable of that was me. Lightsabers flashed through the air, hissing and sparking as the blades clashed. If only I didn't have to watch Marr's back, my Ataru style was meant for open areas against multiple opponents, just like this. But I had to move on my own, I had to be able to move nonstop.

Distantly, I heard someone give an order to set the blasters to stun, to take us alive.

George Lucas took a significant amount of heat about the battle of the Jedi Temple, that troops armed with blasters and a single Sith Lord wiped out scores of Jedi. Well, I can testify that, when you are facing dozens of opponents, while trying not to be cut in half by men with lightsabers who know how to use them, the blaster bolt will get through.

I dodged and weaved, and blocked and parried then a sharp, electrical sting ran up my spine. My lightsabers slipped from my hands as I fell, hard to one knee. I truly thought I would be more upset, meeting my death. But I had the children I had wanted to have and the love of a spouse and my youth a second time to enjoy it. No one could really ask for more than that. I was strangely content as I fell, some part of me reaching out to the Force. I turned, seeing the Courageous begin to lift into the air, and I was happy that the men would get away, that none of this was in vain. Then a white boot filled my vision, and only darkness followed.

3627 BBY
Zakuul System, The Eternal Empire , The Unknown Reaches

Somehow, I thought being dead would hurt less.

Pain was what pulled me back out of the darkness, a dull, throbbing agony that seemed to possess my entire body. The taste of blood was in my mouth and my left eye really did not want to open. I found myself looking at my lap where both of my arms disappeared into a massive looking set of binders. They enclosed my entire hand up past the wrist and was chained to a belt around my waist. Thinking was very difficult as I remembered how to make my neck muscles lift my head and look about. I was strapped into a jump seat, like you would find on a shuttle or troop transport.

No frills, just metal braces with canvas slung between them.

Across the cabin from me was Darth Marr. His head hung limp and I didn't know if he was unconscious or dead. The spikes on his armor had all been cut off and it seemed to diminish him somehow. I heard voices to my left and managed to turn to see a pilot and co-pilot flying this shuttle and out the canopy beyond a marvel.

We were over a planet, covered in clouds, but up through them rose spires, shining gold and transparent crystal, to impossible heights. One, the largest, we seemed to be flying to, and there was no way the top of this gilded, transparent masterpiece was still inside the planet's atmosphere. It was an unimaginable level of engineering, even for this galaxy. The Spire gleamed gold in the sunlight, beckoning the shuttle that was flying towards it. Behind the pilot stood a man in white and gold robes, his back was to me, though his head was bald and for some reason his left arm and collar was gray and stood out against the white and gold.

I blinked, slowly, trying to make my eyes work and keep myself awake by my mental fingernails.

He shifted and my vision sharpened just enough to realize it wasn't his clothing that was gray, his entire left arm from the shoulder down had been replaced with a repulsive, grossly mechanical limb, like one that might be cut from a labor droid and grafted onto his body. This rose up the left side of his head and face, covering his ear and that eye, and his mouth and nose. There was just enough skin beyond that was puckered and scarred as if he had been near some terrible fire or explosion.

His right eye, still human, was full of hate and the Bogan coiled around him like a serpent.

The shuttle came alongside an airlock into The Spire and mated to it.

The man in white walked by me, his human eye glaring as he did so. “Get them up,” he ordered and even his voice was raspy and mechanical. Not the smooth, Shakespearean basso menace of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, this was a mechanical, low-fidelity rasp more like General Grievous. “Father is waiting.”

Soldiers in armor, humans like we had fought at the Banudan Spaceport, unstrapped us from our chairs to haul us unceremoniously to our feet. Marr suddenly became alive and shouldered into his guards, which would have killed them if he still had his spikes, but he was speared by three others with some kind of electroshock prod. His rage and cry of agony were palpable, but he fell to one knee. I felt the Bogan move through the compartment and take hold of Darth Marr almost before the mechanical arm raised to direct it. “Don't try that again, or you'll die here and now, no matter what Father has decreed!”

I tripped over my feet to fall hard on my knees next to him. “Master, I'm here,” I whispered, and the mask turned just enough so I knew he heard me. Then the soldiers took me by my arms and nearly wrenched them from their sockets as I was hauled to my feet.

The pain gave me focus and my mind continued to become clearer.

We were propelled through the airlock and down a corridor from the docking arm, then into a space that almost defies description. It was a throne room, set inside a diamond, hundreds of meters tall and across. A golden throne lay at the edge of a second, magnificently worked platform, with carpets of arterial blood red and every twenty meters was another of these knights, for lack of a better word, each armed with a light saber pike, half again his own height.

With every step my mind got a bit clearer and the Force seemed to re-connect with me. I'd never been stunned before and it was more than a little disorienting. But as my senses returned, I began to get over my awe of this place and see the overwhelming wastefulness of it; everything was gilded, everything was so over the top as to become nearly a caricature of decadence and excess. For the rest of my life, when I hear the phrase 'the sky's the limit,' I will doubtlessly think of that throne room.

That's when I became aware of him.

He sat on a golden throne that fit that room in its excess and sheer magnitude. I've rented apartments that weren't as big as that throne. Not the room, the chair. Sitting on it, sprawling on it, was the last thing you might expect from how I have described the Sith Emperor Vitiate before. Now, before me was a handsome man, just stepping from his middle age to a somewhat premature 'grandfatherly' look. His greying hair still had plenty of dark beneath it and his dark, full beard had just enough gray to be distinguished, like a Victorian Admiral on his way to Portsmouth and just as impeccably groomed.

The hair was brushed back from a high forehead over piercing blue eyes and the beard was combed straight. He wore robes of white with accents and trim of gold as well as enough armored pieces to give him the look of a soldier, but it mostly seemed for show. Everything was brightly polished and spotlessly clean. But under him, there was the unmistakable coldness of unspeakable evil. A feeling of unrivaled power in the Dark Side, but Darth Marr had been accurate in his description of 'Cold as a grave.'

We were hauled up before him and jerked to a stop, perhaps ten to fifteen meters away and below the dais the throne sat on. You'd think we would have been struck, or forced to kneel, but the guards let us go and returned to their ceremonial place at the end of the row of flanking honor guards. The bald man in white with the robotic arm did kneel, declaring, “His Imperial Majesty, Immortal Master and Protector of Zakuul, Emperor Valkorion.”

“Welcome,” the Emperor purred in a dulcet, cultured low baritone, as lovingly rounded with an Eton Received Pronunciation as mine was, and just as classically, regally British.

Darth Marr squared his shoulders and took a step ahead of me. “A new name, a new face, but these are not enough to hide yourself from me, Vitiate.”

“Your presence is unmistakable,” I added as the son stood and walked off to one side.

Vitiate, or as he called himself now, Valkorion gave a grandfatherly chuckle as though gently correcting a loved grandchild. “Oh, I think a mistake has been made, but by whom?”

I felt Darth Marr's anger begin to boil under this armor and he took another menacing step forward. “Your constant silence across our history,” he snarled, tightly controlled and seething with rage. “This, this was your distraction?”

The Emperor gave an idle, dismissive gesture, as if he had been offered sugar instead of honey for his tea. “This was my focus,” he corrected the Lord of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire. “Everything else? The means to an end. This end.” He stood and stepped down the dais from the throne, an infuriating, smug smile on his face. “You and your lovely little toy have been chasing me for ten years.” He reached out and cupped my chin and it was as if the Grim Reaper himself had touched me. “Well, here I am. What do you want?”

I jerked my face away and snarled, “To destroy you! Once and for all!”

The beard parted revealing a smile of movie star teeth, before parting like a curtain before the most debasing, insulting kind of chuckle; as if the thought that we desired his death and would attempt it if given a second's chance, amused him. “You say you know me,” he gloated, turning his attention to Marr. “If that is true then you know the depths of my power, as surely as you know, deep inside, that you cannot succeed. But, I can be merciful, and to prove it, you need not stand against me. Instead, you may kneel.”

He made a gesture and the binders fell away from Marr's hands as his legendary temper wormed out from under his control. “Never!” Darth Marr thundered. “I will never again kneel to you!”

The beard curled up into a sneer. “You would rather die than acknowledge my superiority?”

Marr's arm shot up and pointed like the finger of Death itself. “It is you who fears death, 'Valkorion'! I do not! I will not kneel!” Marr whirled and I felt the Bogan flow through him like the sluice gate of a dam full open. He ripped one of the saber pikes from the guard's hand and struck the platform with it like the fist of a Titan. The Force washed over me like a cool summer breeze, but the knights were all blown off the platform as though they stood before a hurricane. The son was even shoved back as he threw up his arms and braced himself.

Not even a hair of Valkorian's beard was misplaced.

Marr turned, his blood on fire and he had but one thought or goal now, but before he could take that step, Valkorian casually raised a hand and lightening as I have never seen flew from his hand. I was on the edge and it arced like liquid agony across my body. I screamed and was thrown to my knees, but Darth Marr, my master's master took the blast full on.

I could see his skeleton through his armored suit as every muscle clinched and, rigid, he was flung a hundred meters back down the platform to land in an unceremonious heap. The stench of cooked flesh was in the air and I did not need the Force to know this man who I had come to trust and admire, who had written the names of my children as subjects of the Empire into the Sith Rolls was dead. I staggered to my feet, stunned, heartbroken and yet still seething that for all my adventures I would have come this close, and failed. “Darth Marr was ten times the man you will ever be!” I told him, low and angry. “He gave the Empire hope and direction, life! You are nothing compared to him!”

The Emperor again gave a dismissive gesture. “He was narrow minded,” he stated as if that were obvious. “Bound by irrelevant, ancient dogma. But I think you might be different. In all my centuries, you alone have merited my full attention. You leave your mark upon the galaxy wherever you act; just as I do. I have noted your attempts to turn the Sith from their obsession with anger and rage.”

He stepped down from the dais, and for once a fire seemed to pierce the dismissive, aloof air he cloaked himself in. “Look around you. Zakuul is poised to become the greatest civilization in the history of the galaxy! I have forged this empire to surmount all my previous works. To span eternity as will I, it's Emperor.”

He towered over me now, his eyes bright with zeal and a horrible, loathsome expression on his face. “The Eternal Throne commands a fleet more vast and powerful than any ever built. It has the power to reshape the galaxy into any image I choose.” He paused and if possible, the lustful expression became even more vile. “That we choose.”

I looked at him and I would swear he had been watching every time my husband and I made love. “I will share all of this, with you, my one worthy adversary. If you will only kneel.”

I don't think I could be any more disgusted. “Share?” I demanded, remembering the charred corpse of my master behind me and the fate that doubtlessly awaited me. “You don't share anything! You enslave! You devour! I will never be a part of that!”

Valkorion seemed almost disappointed. “So be it,” he declared, turning to his son. “Kill her.”

Ponderously, he began to mount the dais again as the son stood between us, igniting his light saber and holding it high. The words of Bouris Ulgo rang in my ears and I held up my head high, my gaze direct into the eye of my killer. I would meet my death on my feet and defiant. I love you, Torm and Bree and Kale.

As I stared into the son's eye, I felt his thoughts waiver, then his own rage exploded like a volcano. “You wanted to kill him,” he whispered. “Now is your chance!”

His light saber came down, between the shackles of the binders that held my hands. They fell away to clatter at my feet. I was free! He turned and leapt over Valkorion's head higher up the dais and tried to strike him with the blade, but the Emperor merely raised an empty hand and turned it aside. That seemed to amuse the Emperor, and he demanded, “First your brother, and now your father?”

The son merely continued to beat against his fathers' hand, trying to force his blade to harm him. “Does my ambition truly surprise you?” the younger man asked.

Valkorion was as dismissive as ever. “You do not have ambition, only jealousy.” The other hand rose and again that massive lightening storm blasted out. The son was knocked back, senseless, but alive. “That is why you fail,” he declared.

Having made my peace with death, I seized my moment. I ran, pulling one of the sabers to me as I did so. As Valkorion stood, gloating over his son, the saber snapped on and I thrust it through his back, all the way to the emitter. He cried out as the blade destroyed his heart and seared his lungs and I was amazed I had actually been able to strike. “That is for all the people you've made suffer and die!” I shouted, then snatched the blade free, preparing to deliver a coup de gras.

But then he spun to face me and he was smiling. Smiling! Like I had just fallen into his trap. “So be it!” he somehow managed to declare, and then the Force rose great and terrible into him, the very air becoming electric and crackling with energy. It rushed into him like torrent and then exploded outward. I was flung to the far side of the platform and struck my head so hard stars danced before my eyes.

It was a new kind of agony as the waves of power washed over us.

I didn't hear the door open, but suddenly there were guards taking hold of my hands and yanking me to my feet. I heard a woman's voice scream, “Father!” with more hate and rage and grief than I could imagine.

The son's mechanical voice cried, “The Outlander has murdered Father! Take her away!”

I was drug, half in and out of consciousness, my head being hammered such that thinking was hard. I probably had a concussion, perhaps worse. I was thrown onto a table, for a moment, I thought perhaps I would be given treatment, then I heard a familiar grind of machinery and the high pitched whine of a carbon freezing chamber being activated.

Then came a cold from which I will never be warm again.

In the darkness, I drifted, sightless, surrounded by nothing, vast empty and desolate. I felt nothing, not the soft touch of life around me, nor The Force it created and for a life age of Man, I was utterly alone. For a time I mourned my husband and my children, defenseless against this terror from the unknown that I, in my arrogance, had failed to stop. It was a conceit I lamented bitterly as I realized how smugly I had rushed off, certain of my invulnerability as if I was still playing a game at my computer in a body, on a world I could only just remember.

Your arrogance clouds your judgment.

I had no sense or feel of a body, no light to see or illuminate the darkness, but I was certain I had heard something. I tried to speak, to cry out, to demand my antagonist show themselves, but I could make no sound, nor issue any challenge. I tried to remember my husbands face, the feeling of my daughter in my arms, the pride of watching my son, it was like a dream where you know you are dreaming, but are powerless to act.

Slowly, across uncounted years there seemed to be lights in the darkness, stars in an inky blackness of night. I wondered if I was dead now, or if I had always been so and only now was drawing near my Creator to face Judgment. Perhaps I had already been judged for there is some truth to the axiom that Hell is the absence of God. Certainly I was utterly alone, wasn't I? I had used the Bogan, reveled in its warmth, called upon its power and channeled its might to blast living beings into pieces, but I hadn't been evil...had I...?

Still you do not understand the nature of Power.

I tried to turn about, and it felt like I was both turning muscles I couldn't feel to move a head I wasn't sure I had, but no matter how the lights did not move and the stars remained the same. Again I tried to shout, tried to speak, but the silence of my captivity remained unbroken. I forced myself to remember, to repeat over and over what I thought I had heard, to cling to my sanity or to lose myself to madness, I did not know.

Then, as I chanted, I felt for the first time in so long I could not begin to remember. Under me there was a firmness, an unyielding solid that pressed against me. Under my side, my right side as the epiphany of discovery came to me and I could feel again. I don't know if I opened my eyes or if I stopped being blind, but there was a world around me again, things, hard, rocky things. A desolate, rocky wasteland under an endless night of stars.

Foolish infant, what could you hope to accomplish against me?

I was laying down, I had a body that I could feel was laying down on that hard, but indistinct wasteland. Everything was fuzzy about the edges as if my eyes were caked in slime. But I could feel my body, the tightness of the leather of my working clothes, the rigidness of the plasteel armor, the feeling of my breasts being supported and compressed. I sat up and looked down, almost in tears that I could see again and that I could see the body I had come to call my own.

Standing, I could at last look about, but there was nothing as far as my eyes could see. Just rock and dirt without grass, or cactus or any sign of life. Was it a dream? Where was I? How did I get here? I remembered the death of Darth Marr and once more I felt pain, the overwhelming sense of loss and sadness at his fate tempered with just the tiniest drop of respect and pride in the manner he met that death. And then a tidal wave of guilt that I had stood by, awestruck and watching as he did so and I should have been helping him and did not.

Pity for the dead is a hubris you can ill afford.

“Show yourself!” I shouted, and exalted in that I could shout again. I heard the earthy contralto of my voice with it's rounded, posh Eton accent. Still, there was silence and I once more took stock of my self. My light sabers hung at my waist and I could feel their heft, and drawing one, it snapped on with all of the hum and florescent glow I expected of it.

I had not had them on the shuttle. I remembered, I was certain it had been someone else's saber I had stabbed Valkorion with. I had been defeated, bruised and beaten, but my free hand came up to my face and I felt no bruise on my eye, and I felt the supple calf skin leather of the glove that had been made exactly to fit my hand. Where was I? Was I dead? Was this Hell? Why would I have my light sabers in Hell?

Even in death, the childish turning of your mind to find meaning amuses me.

I glanced at my saber, humming in my hand and deactivated it. Once more on my belt, I looked about, picked a direction that I arbitrarily labeled 'south,' mostly because it was down hill, and began walking. If I was dead, it would pass the time and if I was alive, it might bring me to civilization.

As I walked, I began to try and piece together my recollections, to pick out the details as I ordered my thoughts. Why had the son waited until ordered to kill me to rebel against Valkorion? Was not Marr better suited to help him over throw Vitiate? Again I marveled at his strength in the Force by which he had blown all the guards off the platform, hurtling to their deaths. Was the scarred man really the child of Darth Vitiate? I shuddered to recall the death of Darth Marr and the agony I had experienced beside him as he died. I remembered the mushroom cloud over the grave of Banudan, and I wondered how many billions had died because I had become comfortable and given up chasing the ghost of the Sith Emperor.

Mommy, I'm scared!

My eyes filled with tears as I thought of not being able to comfort my daughter. I tried to be grateful for the time I had been given, the second chance I had seized to have everything I had wanted on Earth and been denied. Though try as I might, I could only lament for time 'taken' from me, not the remembered joy of what I had had. “I'm so sorry, Bree,” I whispered as the tears ran down my face.

If only I had it to do again, what could I change?

Then something did change. From the ends of my toes, and the tips of my fingers, I felt warmth, then heat, then a searing agony that raced up my hands and feet into my arms and legs. I was consumed in fire and I cried out, screaming for release, then I pitched forward and a hard, delightfully cold, smooth surface rose up to me.

The Vault of the Damned, Zakuul, The Eternal Empire, Unknown Reaches

I grunted from the pain of striking the floor, even though it's cold smoothness was comforting. I was grabbed and turned over and above me shapes, blurry and indistinct peered down. My eye was forced open and a bright light shined into it. “My lord?” a woman's voice with a Public School accent asked. “My lord, can you hear me?”

Weakly, I raised my arms to try and fend off the bright light and make my eyes focus. I tried to speak, but only garbled nonsense came out. “Get her up!” someone, a blur off to my right hissed.

“I'm trying,” the Public school girl replied. “My lord, please, wake up.”

My mouth was so incredibly dry. “Where...? Where am I?”

“Arcann's 'Vault of the Damned',” the voice replied. A moist cloth was pressed against my eyes and I allowed it because it was soothing. “It's where he keeps his political prisoners.” The cloth came away and my eyes finally could focus to show me the very last person I expected to see.

“Lana,” I said. “Lana Beniko! How...?”

The blonde Sith diplomat smiled and helped me sit up. “Nice to see you again, my lord. We have to hurry. Can you stand?” She was older than when I had seen her last, her face was mature now and care worn, though still quite lovely. I noted she had taken my advice and let her hair grow out some, it fell to her shoulders now and was very flattering.

“Hurry up!” the voice hissed. I looked over to see a young woman, in the flower of her youth, standing guard by the door. She was tall, and wearing heeled boots that made her taller. Tucked into them were tight black pants that highlighted both her legs and rear, though there were hard plasteel plates in strategic places, held up by a belt covered in pouches and holders. She wore a black, armored tank top that also didn't hide her figure, her dusky skin was darkened by the clothing. Her hair was a dark chestnut, pulled back into a braided pony tail that still fell to the middle of her back. She held a pair of light sabers with blades that were a warm yellow with hints of orange.

“We're coming,” Beniko assured her as she helped me up to my feet. I was a bit unstable, but was quickly regaining my balance. She reached into a satchel around her shoulders and produced the last things I'd ever expected to see again. With a grin, she offered them. “You'll want these, I expect.”

In her hands were the brushed, stainless steel cylinders of my light sabers. I took them reverently and looked into her face. “How, I thought...?”

She took my elbow and helped me over to the door. “Plenty of time to explain later, my lord. We have to...” She couldn't continue as a klaxon began to blare and strobe lights began flashing. She took a comlink from her belt and held it up to her lips. “Koth, what's going on?”

From the speaker I heard a man's voice, with the same kind of inflection that the son's speech had. “I don't know what you two did in there, but there are lots of people unhappy about it. It's getting very busy out here. Do you have her?”

“We didn't do anything!” she replied peevishly. “Yes, we have her...”

A muffled explosion sounded from the speaker. “I gotta move here. Get to the back up pick up!” A burst of static terminated the connection. I took a moment and reached out to the Force and in a way I could never describe found the feel, the 'taste' for lack of a better word, of it different. But when I called, it answered and I directed it into myself.

This was a trick I'd learned years ago, like drinking a highly caffeinated beverage, it covered the fatigue and exhaustion with energy, but there would be a crash later. This masked the pain and stiffness and I felt myself become more awake and alert. The young woman turned to us and snapped, “Get her to the extraction point, I'll see what I can do in that command center we passed to slow them down.”

She whirled without waiting for an answer and took off running down the corridor. “Wait, come back!” Lana shouted, but she was gone. Turning back to me, she shook her head. “Come, we have to get you out of here.”

That, I am a bit embarrassed to admit, was when I finally looked around this room. It was a cavernous space, full of supporting columns, but I could not tell you much about them, or the walls, because every vertical surface was taken up by a block of carbonite with the grimacing, tortured face of someone captured within. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, each with a little hologram in Aurebesh with a name and the word, Traitor. I turned back to the empty cavity that had held me and before it floated The Outlander, Murderer.

My grip tightened on my light sabers as the Bogan flowed through me. “Just you wait, sonny, you haven't seen murder yet,” I muttered darkly, in promise. Turning back to Lana, I asked, “Which way?”

She pointed in the opposite direction the young woman had run. “This way.”

We moved as quickly as I was able down the corridor and oddly to my admittedly cloudy mind we went down instead of up. I didn't care, much, down was easier. She was dressed for action, the same way the other woman had been, but still favoring greens and blacks in her wardrobe, and to be honest her clothing seemed a little, flashy, for strictly rescue work. Seeing her again brought other Sith Lords to my memory and I again felt the shame of not helping my master. “They killed Darth Marr,” I told her as we ran, I think a part of me was hoping she would blame me for it, but she just kept moving.

“I know,” she replied over her shoulder. “They broadcast all of it, including your spectacular strike against Valkorion. Though I always felt it had been heavily edited.” She paused for a moment, then asked, “Did you really yell 'You won't undermine my evil plans?' when you stabbed him?” I let the expression answer her and she chuckled. “No, I thought not.”

“Who is the head of Defense of the Empire, now?”

“It doesn't matter,” she told me, then stopped short and ducked back towards me from the corner she had almost turned. “Skytroopers,” she whispered in warning. “There's no way around, we have to go through them.”

I nodded and brought my light sabers up, ready to activate them. I peeked around the corner to see a pair of the hulking, armored forms about twenty meters away, at an intersection of several corridors at a lift station. I nodded at her, then went wide, selecting the one on the right. I reached out my arm, then reached further with the Force.

I guess I wasn't thinking very clearly yet. Because, as Lana threw her light saber, I reached out with the Force, intending to break the neck of the thing, forgetting it was a robot. Lana's saber cut the head of hers off, then something very strange happened. As I crushed it's mechanical neck with the Force, it dropped it's blaster and began to claw at its throat. It made a horrible, sick choking sound as if I was actually choking a living being. As the Force lifted it off the ground, to use it's own weight against it, its feet began to peddle, again, just like a person might have. Then, at last, with a sickening crunch, the neck snapped, the head came off, and the body clattered to the floor.

Then fluid began to leak from the body and the head.

“What in the name of all that's holy?” I breathed as we walked over to it.

“You didn't know?” Lana asked, then shook her head. “Of course, you couldn't. Look.” She picked up the severed head and carefully carved at it with her light saber. Underneath the armed helmet like outer covering, inside was a container of transparisteel that was the source of the blueish fluid.

Inside the container was a human brain.

I stumbled backwards, my eyes wide in shock and revolted disgust. “This is what they do to us,” Lana declared flatly. “When they conquer a world, or take a star ship. People disappear and then this happens to you.”

I whirled and threw up, horrified. As the bile spattered on the floor, the blue fluid began to mingle with it and I vomited again. She came over and comforted me. “I...I know, but we have to go, my lord.”

My eyes locked with hers and she took a fearful step backwards, terrified by the expression on my face. The Bogan flowed through me and I held up my saber to punctuate my vehemence as I spat, “I will kill that son of a bitch, if its the last thing I ever do, so help me God! No one can suffer evil of this magnitude to live!”

Her hand made a fist over her heart. “I am yours, my lord, to the bitter end.” The commlink crackled on her hip and she brought it up. “Koth?”

“No, it's me,” the voice of the girl replied. “Our problem's just multiplied. There's three transports landing on the roof, probably a dozen or more Knights, not Skytroopers, Knights and...” her voice got small. “Vaylin is here.”

The color drained out of a Lana's face in a manner that made me extremely uncomfortable. “That's enough! You get to us, now.”

“There's no time and you know it,” the girl replied. Next to us, a turbolift car snapped open and I whirled to face it, light sabers up, but it was empty. “Get in the car,” the girl commanded. “I'm going to route it to the concourse, it's closest to the pickup point.”

“But,” Lana protested, but the girl cut her off.

“Don't worry about me!” she commanded. “Get her out! I'll find my way back, trust me!” The line clicked off and Lana shook her head. She took my elbow and led us both into the lift.

“Maybe you can talk some sense into her,” Beniko groused. “If we live through this.” The doors snapped shut and the lift began to descend rapidly.

“The Jedi are allied with Valkorion? And who is Vaylin?” I asked her. The expression on her face told me she was someone I probably would want to kill shortly.

She shook her head. “Not Jedi, Knights of Zakuul. Force users, evidently trained to use both the light and dark, but neither very well. They are trained to work together so don't underestimate them! They're led by Arcann's sister, the High Justice,” Lana told me. “Her name is Vaylin. I'm not sure why Arcann puts up with her, she's a complete psychopath, who delights in things the darkest of the Dark Council members would find distasteful. And she's powerful, my lord, more powerful than...”

“Vitiate is dead, but his bloodline lives,” I informed her regretfully. “They are every bit as dangerous, perhaps more. This 'Eternal Empire' of Vitiate's seems to be the end game of his plans for the galaxy. There's no telling what dark rituals he's performed on them, or secrets he shared.”

“We're not without friends of our own,” Lana told me earnestly.

“Have you been busy?” I asked her and the brief moment of levity felt good, to let out some of the tension and to feel like we were not as whipped as I might have feared.

Beniko smiled and shook her head. “You have, actually. I've called in every favor I could, Sith, Republic, even in the Hutt Cartel and the criminal underworld, but the core of the Alliance was your doing. The Warspite, the Hotspur, they assembled everyone still willing to fight. When you were drug away, we feared the worst, that's when I began working, keeping what you started together.” She smiled and reached out to touch my arm. “You, you can't know the joy that swept through all of us when we found out you were still alive and in the Vault of the Damned. This rescue is the result of eight months of planning.”

“Eight months?” I asked, startled. “Frozen alive for eight months...”

“N...no, my lord,” she corrected me hesitantly. “It...it took us...time, a long time, to find...”

“How long?” I demanded, and seeing her reluctance, I reached out and took her by the shoulders. “Lana, how long have I...”

“Not quite ten years, my lord.”

The lift spun around me and I staggered, nearly falling. I heard her speaking, trying to sooth me, I think, or keep me conscious. I couldn't make out the words; it was if she were miles away and shouting at me, none of it was coherent. Ten years! My children, my husband, the weight of all of it came down on me hard. Finally, her arms around me, Lana's voice next to my ear finally penetrated my mind. “Breathe, my lord, just breathe, I am here.”

It was nearly the same thing I had said to Darth Marr in the shuttle, minutes ago for me, but ten years in the past. It dawned on me that she, and these others she'd mentioned, they were looking to me be some kind of savior. They had risked everything to rescue me, just as I had tried to rescue my master. Now I had to be Darth Marr, for them. I looked into her eyes and in them I saw the same loyalty I felt when Torm looked at me. I nodded and with great effort, I stood for a moment, my mouth worked, but no sound came out. “I'm sorry,” she said, and it was obvious she held herself to blame, so I swallowed hard, and took her shoulders.

“Nyeomi,” I told her. Her head went to one side in confusion and I smiled. “I am Nyeomi to you,” I reiterated. “Not Countess, not 'my lord,' Nyeomi.”

She stuttered for a moment, then bowed her head. “I am deeply honored, Nyeomi.”

“Lana, help me kill those...monsters, and I don't care if you sit on the throne sideways.” She smiled, and nodded. The lift came to a stop and the doors opened onto a plaza of some kind, strung between this building and the next one. I stepped out and looked about, realizing we were a significant ways up, but Ecumenopolis worlds were somewhat old hat to me, now. She led the way, out onto the plaza, into the sun shine. It struck me how many droids were around, and how few people.

Those I did see were brightly clad, bedecked with jewels and now I realized why Lana had tried to split her fashion between glamour and action girl. Just in case we needed to blend in. I could begin to see that the opulence of the palace spire where I had finally slain Vitiate was the tip of a very large, deep ice berg. These people looked like they had stepped out of an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, indolent, bored and catered to past coddling. “Where are we?” I hissed at Lana who was walking closely beside me.

“This was the Emperor's grand design,” she told me as we skirted round a planter that I swear looked like it was made of solid gold and down a flight of steps. “The entire galaxy enslaved to pay for this, an entire planet with nothing better to do than worship him.”

“I hope he rots in hell,” I growled, looking at these bored, lazy people made my skin crawl. “How much further?”

She pointed to a sky taxi stand on the edge of the plaza as she plucked the commlink off her belt. “Koth, where are you?”

“Fun fact,” the man's voice replied. “Skytrooper's really don't like people breaking into secure vaults! I'll be there in eight seconds. Jump! I'll catch you.” Lana and I shared a look, then began to run just as a little shuttle streaked around the corner of the building, a cloud of jet pack accessorized Skytroopers on his tail. The shuttle was diving hard to get under the plaza. We reached the edge of the plaza and I reached out to take her arm as we jumped out into the air.

I had no idea we were so high up.

As I fell through the air, on my way to a very sudden stop after a long, long fall, a shuttle streaked into my vision, rolled on it's side with the side door pointing up and open. Then Lana and I were in it, tumbling with the sudden stop after a fortunately brief fall. A dark face with a wide grin and a short goatee appeared around the pilots chair. “It's raining beautiful women! Must be my lucky day!”

Lana rolled her eyes. “Nyeomi Fens, Countess of Banudan, meet Koth Vortena, Zakuul deserter.”

“Not to mention best pilot in the galaxy,” he protested jocularly. “You didn't say best...”

“Yes, yes, Koth,” Lana interrupted him. “Get away first, brag later!”

The door to the shuttle slid shut and he began a series of stomach churning maneuvers. “One fast get away, coming up!” he declared as the buildings turned sideways and did cartwheels out the window. He dove down into the cloud bank below us, but that didn't seem to hinder the troopers, and the blaster bolts kept zipping by, ever closer.

“Does this heap have guns?” I demanded, but Lana shook her head.

From the pilot's chair, Koth demanded, “Guns? On the sacred planet...?”

“Fly, Koth,” Lana ordered. A tremor rocked through the shuttle and alarms began to blare.

“We're good, we're good!” he assured, though I wasn't sure if he meant to convince us or himself. The shuttle lurched again and the alarms got louder. “Ok, that's not good. You ladies might want to buckle up...!”

We broke through the cloud layer and below us, but rising very quickly was either a swamp or a park perhaps, either way it was very green and coming awfully fast. Lana and I shared a look, then threw ourselves into seats and frantically fastened the harness. Fortunately, we were able to get them closed just before Koth piloted this shuttle through its final landing. We hit, hard, skipped off murky water like a stone and buried what was left of the craft into the mud.

3617 BBY
The Endless Swamp, Zakuul System, The Eternal Empire

The good news was that we didn't have to worry about the shuttle catching fire or exploding because we had crashed into a swamp. The bad news was the shuttle wouldn't catch fire because it was flooding with black, brackish water and sinking. Fortunately, no one had been knocked unconscious and the shuttle was mostly upright in the water. Free of the restraints, my light saber opened a new hatch for us in the roof while Lana and the pilot, Koth, scrambled to retrieve some bags from the back, which hopefully would be full of things we could use to survive.

I used the Force to augment my jump to the roof of the shuttle, and free of immediate threats, I extinguished the saber to take one of the bags Lana handed me and slung it across my shoulders. “There,” Lana declared while pointing as she clamored out. “There's solid ground over there. Twenty meters.”

“Yeah,” Koth groused as he scrambled up out of the now quickly filling ship. “But I can't juummmppp...!” his protest became a shout of consternation as I picked him up with the Force and propelled him over to the more solid ground Lana had found.

“Can you jump that far?” I asked her. She centered herself, then leapt. Her landing was a bit clumsy, but she had never apprenticed, so it was quite remarkable for someone of her skill level. I soared after her, and yes, I did the 'super hero' landing on one bent leg with the other out sideways. I had been thinking about the little twinge of desperation that had been in her summation of our situation. They really needed Darth Marr, but without him, I had to at least look like I could fill his shoes; that required a bit of flash.

Standing up, I noted the look of awe on Koth's face and mentally decided I chose wisely. Doubtless, by the expression on his face, that little feat would be the gossip of the Alliance when we got back. If...if we got back. I turned back to see the shuttle disappear beneath the vile looking water and at least the crash site would be harder to find. “So, where are we?” I asked, offering Koth a hand up.

“The Endless Swamp,” he declared as he tried and failed to get most of the muck off himself. “One of the last natural places on Zakuul. There was talk of draining it and making a park, but no one cared enough to do it, so here it is. That and a lot of sludge from the city that can't be further recycled gets dumped down here too. Lots of mutants.”

I looked about and decided I was not thrilled to be here. It was everything that was bad about Dagobah turned up a notch. There were massive trees with exposed roots, like Cypress or medusa trees, but taken to absurd measurements like sequoias or red woods. The trees towered over us, some perhaps eighty or ninety meters high with trunks that could have houses carved into them and still stand. It was horribly damp and humid and there was a constant drone of insects and larger, probably more dangerous animals. “What is the chance we can call for a pick up from the fleet?” I asked.

“Impossible,” Lana declared flatly. “Most of the Eternal Fleet is in orbit, any ship trying to land or depart without clearance is suicide. We have passage on a liner that will depart tomorrow, we just have to get to it.”

I arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “No blockade is perfect...” I started, but she shook her head.

“You'll understand when you see it,” she assured me.

After a moment of thought I shrugged and turned to Koth. “So, what is your story?”

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. He was a good looking kid, now that I could see him, early to mid twenties, still a bit gangly and not quite fully grown. He was wearing a T-shirt and cargo pants under a great canvas duster that had saved most of his clothing from the muck and he wore a pair of black and silver goggles over his forehead. He had that anxious energy of youth that older people find so tiring. “Sorry, sorry,” he hedged as he grinned a scoundrel's grin. “I just can't believe it! The Outlander! Right here, I'm just...sorry, sorry. So, yeah, I used to be in the Zakuul Army, a Captain, Twenty Seventh Lancers. We were deployed to the Occupation of Denon, I was overseeing local security for the transports.”

My look became a bit disbelieving. “You mean the looters, taking their plunder back here?”

He shrugged noncommittally. “We were holding territory on Denon. Locals rioted, and orders were to open fire until they stopped. None of us even wanted to be there... massacring civilians? That's not how Zakuul is supposed to operate.” He shook his head, becoming more somber. “I refused the order. Not that it mattered, the Skytroopers opened up. I was relieved, thrown into the brig. My XO, Len, he and the others thought I'd gotten a bum deal, but nobody was going to really stand up to command for me. Len helped me escape, got me to a neutral port, the Asylum Shadowport, been on the run ever since.”

“I ran into him on Altair 3,” Lana added. “Tracking down leads about you, as a matter of fact. It became expedient to retire from the field together and Koth has been a valuable asset since.” She produced a small holographic imager and it produced a three dimensional representation of the area. The foundation of the two spires was not terribly far, depending on the scale. “We are approximately here,” she said, pointing. “A bit closer to Izak Spire than Capital, which is good, that's where we want to be.”

“Why?” I asked. She manipulated the hologram and showed a good sized liner docked high up on the Spire.

“That's our ticket off Zakuul.” She fiddled with the image again, then turned and pointed deeper into the swamp. “There should be a service road, that way, that will get us to the sub-levels, we can risk a turbo-lift then once we've tidied up.” She looked back at me and smiled. “Then it's just look nice, board the liner and enjoy some hors d'oeuvres and cruise our way out of Zakuul space. I have backup waiting at the first port of call.”

“Well, let's be on our way,” I replied with a chuckle. “Champagne wishes and caviar dreams won't wait for long.”

Slogging through the swamp was exactly the kind of hot, dirty, nasty slog you'd expect. The road was just passable enough that we were able to make decent time, and just poor enough to make it misery. About mid-afternoon we reached the footing of the spire, rising up out of the swamp like a ziggurat, stretching out of sight into the clouds. The lowest opening, a landing platform, was easily two hundred meters above the trees. “Well, there's our first problem,” I declared, looking up at it.

“There's our second,” Koth replied, pointing back behind us. I turned to see a swarm of what looked like official looking vehicles buzzing a few dozen kilometers back in the swamp, obviously looking for us.

Lana put her bag down and opened it to rummage. “I have ascension guns,” she said as she pulled one out and fitted a cartridge of mono-filament line to it. She handed one to me and then a second to Koth.

“Isn't that going to make us perfect targets?” he asked with a worried glance back at the official search.

“We don't have time to be subtle,” Lana told him sharply. I took aim through the viewfinder at a sturdy looking support, just a bit over the landing platform. The launching charge threw the grapple and it implanted itself on the first try.

“You're welcome to stay here,” I told him as I got the gun secure on my belt.

Koth shook his head. “I'm in it this far, might as well go all the way.”

The guns all confirmed they had good locks, but just in case Lana clicked a line between all three of us such that if one failed the others would arrest their fall. Then it was simple matter to key the motor in the gun to retract the line. Once again I am amazed by the simple things in this galaxy, the power density to get a battery with enough oomph to run a motor strong enough to lift all fifty four kilos of me two hundred meters or so, in about twenty seconds.

Fantastic, I tell you.

Fortunately, either no one was looking in this direction, or we just weren't seen, I didn't care which, because we got to the landing pad fine and none of the buzzing troopers and vehicles came this way. Lana ran a lead from her wrist comm. unit to the terminal by the door and after a moment, it slid open for us. The corridor was empty so we got inside and the door closed again while she consulted her datapad. “This is a housing block, mostly for the few people that actually work on this planet,” she informed us. “There's a unit for rent just a few levels up. I'll schedule us a walk through and we can use it to get cleaned up. Then we just take a lift up to the liner.”

“Which way?” asked Koth.

Lana pointed to the left of the hallways at the junction and then led us through a maze of very similar looking halls. Finally, we came to a lift station that arrived surprisingly quickly, but was empty. Once we were all inside, she pressed the button and gave me a smile. “Well, things are going smoother than I'd expected.”

“Lana,” I asked her softly. “Earlier I asked who the new head of Defense of the Empire was and you said it didn't matter. Why?”

She became a little flustered and had to take a moment to get herself together. “My lord, the Sith Empire was conquered by Zakuul. As was the Republic. They are both puppet states to the Eternal Empire in all but name. The only members of the Dark Council you would recognize would be Darth Acina, who is now Empress Acina, and Darth Vowrawn, who was the Sith who formally surrendered the Empire to Zakuul.”

I felt my brows come together, though from shock or anger, I wasn't sure which. “What has become of Emperor Malgus? Or...”

Lana shook her head. “Both the former Emperor and his wife are missing and presumed dead, my lord.”

“It cannot be this hopeless...” I declared and some of Lana's spirit returned to her.

“It's not, my lord!” she assured me. “The fighters you summoned, I've held together. Growing stronger and being joined by both disaffected Imperials and ex-Republicans!”

Koth was quick to add, “Even some Zakuul like me, who know we can do better than this!”

A fire lit behind Lana's yellow eyes. “All we have needed was you, my lord! A leader, a hero, who can show us how to defeat the Eternal Empire.”

I couldn't help reacting with humor and snickered. “No pressure, right?”

“Of course!” Lana affirmed with a smile. The lift stopped and opened onto a thankfully empty hallway. “We do get some illicit help,” she said as she consulted the datapad before leading the way from the lifts. “Both from the Republic and the Empire; planetary governors and Moffs, sympathetic to our cause. They supply us with men, material, a fair number of ships, too. All off the books, and most of it out of date, but it's free and we need all the war material we can get.”

“What about backwards engineering some of the Zakuul technology?” I asked her as we walked, glancing over to Koth. He shrugged with a puzzled look on his face.

“Don't look at me, I'm just a pilot.”

“Here we are,” she declared, pointing her datapad at the door. It clicked and slid open. “Most of the Zakuul technology is droid based, except for the Skytroopers for some reason. They seem to be controlled remotely, but we've had no luck so far in isolating the frequency, let alone what ever encryption they're using.”

We walked in to a fairly generic apartment, two bedrooms, a kitchen that was smaller than the galley on the Aces and Eights, and this central room. It had the virtue of being on the outside edge of the spire so it had a balcony off the main room that overlooked the swamp. The Skytroopers had moved much closer and were buzzing the swamp. Lana keyed a control by the glass door and it turned opaque. “Why do they do...that?” I demanded, but Koth quickly raised his hands defensively.

“Hey, I had no idea they were! I thought Skytroopers were just battle droids! I swear!”

Lana gathered up the bags from us to lay out on the 'breakfast bar' and opened them. The one I'd been carrying had various toiletries, towels and garment cubes. They, the cubes, were an interesting little space saver, put your clothing in it, and it vacuum seals itself. Fold it in on itself and you now had a complete out fit in the space about ten centimeters. Just unfold it and open it and whatever was inside pops back to life, wrinkle free. She handed me a towel, the cube and soaps. “You first, my lord.”

“Nyeomi,” I corrected her, taking the offering.

Lana smiled. “Not in front of the men,” she declared.

Still chuckling, I made my way to the master suite and into the bath. There, I was confronted with my reflection and it felt odd to look at. I was ten years older, now in my middle forties again, but my body was still thirty five. I was dirty and the white and grays of my working leathers needed a good cleaning, but that was nothing new. I reached up and took the pins and the elastic from my hair and let it fall free.

My normal working style was to roll my front and sides up, then gather a pony tail in the back, which was pinned into a bun to keep things tidy and out of the way. Loose, it spilled over my shoulders and down my back. Torm loved my hair and I was more than a little vain about it myself. But the stray thought struck me. I hadn't asked about my family at all!

I turned to do so, then caught myself.

This was yet another instance of keeping a 'face' for the troops. Koth would be watching, and whatever he saw he would doubtlessly talk about. I would force myself to wait while he was taking his turn and Lana and I could be discreet. But there were things I knew I had to get out of my system. One of the down sides of being a Sith is that we use our emotions to reach the Force. Which also means our emotions are much stronger than a normal person, we laugh faster, love deeper, rage harder and everything is never far under the surface.

I had functionally abandoned my family for ten years. Ten years! My children were gone, not the just stepping into adulthood I remembered, they were all but grown now. Yet again I had lost the joys of being a parent I had so wanted to become. I slid down against the wall and let it out, sobbing into my hands so that maybe, hopefully, I could keep it together in front of Koth.

My mind's eye painted a perfect picture of the son's ruined face and I promised myself I would kill him, and not quickly. I would take my time and I would make him suffer. And as I cried and raged, the words of Ferris Organa came to my mind. “No, it won't. But it is something. And that is all I have left.” I sniffed to clear my sinus and nodded while I mentally pledged to send some kind of gift to the only other person in this galaxy who knew what I was feeling.

That done, I wiped the tears from my face and stood up, already picking back up the control of my emotions and forcing them to the back of my mind. Now it was time to be professional. Revenge would come soon; later, but soon. I opened the cube to find a beautiful white shimmersilk gown with a halterneck top that left my back completely bare and fell down to just cover my breasts, then flowed down my sides to encompass my waist. On the right side the hem fell to my ankle, but it sharply rose and was quite daring coming just up over my left knee before looping back down.

Lana knew my tastes well, it was beautiful.

I hung up the dress and stripped out of the armor before I got into the shower. I had to admit, even for working class, the shower was nice. Eight different shower heads, at two different levels and the heat made it wonderfully relaxing. I was able to get the left over carbonite slime out of my hair and came out feeling like I'd scrubbed a layer of skin off.

I put my dirty leathers into the cube, which didn't compact it as much as it had the silk, but it did make it so they would fit into the bag. Koth offered to let Lana go next and she took him up on it, leaving us in a rather awkward kind of silence that I spent rummaging through the bags for something to eat, settling on a ration bar. It must have seemed strange, in that dress and fastening the wedge heels Lana had brought to go with it while I munched a survival ration bar, but my life had taken stranger turns.

Poor Koth was obviously uncomfortable being alone with me, but that wasn't anything I could help so I settled my hair into a completely different style than my normal one in case there were 'wanted' posters out for the 'Outlander'. Satisfied with that, I put on a little make up that would be appropriate for that dress.

“Uh, my lord?”

I turned, to see him standing a respectful distance and with an awkward, hang dog kind of stance. If he'd had a hat, it would probably be in his hands. “Yes, Koth?” I asked, leaving the cosmetics in a organized, but open manner for Lana. “What is it?”

“I...well, I wanted to, um, well, to apologize.” He winced as if he wasn't satisfied with the words his thoughts had taken to try and express himself.

“For what?” I asked in what I thought was a fairly even tone, but I have noted that those who are not used to dealing with Sith Lords, tend to walk on eggshells around us for a bit. Among Imperial troops, there was a certain amount of hazing that went on with new transfers to a unit, trying to get the new guys terrified of the terrible Dark Lord. “I don't hold honest mistakes against people, Koth, I save my anger for treason and willful incompetence.”

His eyes widened a bit and I saw his fear began to gnaw on him. “Yeah...heh...I, uh, I guess you think I'm a traitor...?”

After a moment of consideration, I gave a little half shrug. “It would depend, I suppose, on what oaths you swore in the Zakuul military.” With a sigh, I looked him in the eye to give my words the weight they would need. “I swore an oath to defend and advance the Sith Empire. When I was about your age, it became obvious to me that to fulfill my oath, the Emperor I served, who had abandoned us, had never had the advancement of our Empire as his focus. For me to defend and advance the Sith Empire, I had to side with Darth Malgus, against my Emperor, who you call Valkorion. He would say I was a traitor, I say I was fulfilling my oath.”

“I...I didn't know that,” he said softly. “They didn't go into very much detail about your past in school.”

I nodded. “If you believe you are helping your people by siding with me against Valkorion and his son, then no, I don't consider you a traitor. If you are doing this merely for your own gain? Then yes, we probably should part company.”

He stood up a bit straighter and squared his shoulders. “I'm here because what we did was wrong,” he declared with conviction for the first time in the conversation. “We had no business attacking your Empire or the Republic! If helping you puts a stop to that, it's something I have to do!”

I gave him a little smirk and patted him on the shoulder. “Apology accepted.”

Having gotten Koth sorted, Lana picked that moment to emerge from the shower, her hair wet, but wearing a smart looking tunic and pants suit in her preferred green and black that set off her blonde hair and the scarf around her neck and shoulders was a nice touch. She blinked and asked, “Did I just walk into something?”

I shook my head and gave Koth a little shove at the shower and he took the hint to make himself scarce. “You're fine,” I assured her.

“Good,” she affirmed, heading over to the bar to put her own things in the bag and make use of the cosmetics she'd brought to appear sufficiently 'trendy' for the disguise. “I've never seen your hair like that,” she told me through the mirror. “It looks good down.”

I gave a little shrug as I looked out the sliding glass door over the swamp. The vehicles had increased and the activity looked angrier. “In my line of work, up is usually safer,” I told her absently with a gesture out the door. “Looks like they found the wreck.”

She came over and looked then shared a look with me before she went over to the shower. “Step it up, Koth, we probably should leave quickly.”

“Hey, you two got to take your time!” he protested over the sound of running water.

“Just be quick,” she ordered. She dug into one of the bags and produced a pair of bracelets. “Here, try these,” she said as she offered them.

“Not really my style,” I told her as I took one to look at. It was terribly gauche looking, with swirling overlays in what looked like stainless steel. It would cover my entire forearm and had a pair of odd, U shaped extensions that stood out from the main body of the bracelet, or vambrace, I'm not sure what the more accurate term would be. It certainly fit with this society of conspicuous, public displays of consumption. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly times and places to look your best, even show off a bit, but this place was so over the top it was practically without shame.

She grinned mischievously. “I think you'll like the accessories.” She took one of my light sabers and clipped it into the U shapes, then put the whole thing on my arm. The silver of the bracelet neatly hid the light saber in plain sight as I could never wear my utility belt with this dress.

“Brilliant!” I complimented her and added the other to my left arm to complete the set. She returned the cosmetics to the bag and began tidying up in preparation for our departure. “Lana, what...what is the status of my family?”

I saw her shoulders tense, then she began to pack a bit more urgently. “They...They're fine,” she lied, badly. I think she felt my stare at her back as her shoulders drooped and she turned to face me.

“Tell me the truth,” I ordered her softly.

She took in a breath and nodded. “Torm, your hus...sorry. He...your absence hit him very hard.” she said quietly. “He, he wasn't satisfied with the pace of things and as the years stretched out, he got...reckless. He had to track down every rumor and whisper of you.” She looked up at me, her yellow eyes a touch fearful and concerned. “We all needed you, my lord, but, for Torm, it became a crusade.”

“Where is he?” I asked quietly.

“We...we lost contact...” she mumbled, wincing as she said it. “T...two years ago. Some scientist claiming to have knowledge about how you might be kept, claiming to have multiple instances of backwards engineering the Eternal Empire's technology; ravings really. Torm, well, nothing was too far fetched as far as he was concerned. He made arrangements for the children and headed out. The last we heard he was on Nar Shaddaa.” I closed my eyes to focus all of my energy inward to keep my temper on a firm leash.

After a long moment, I asked, “Where are my children?”

She brightened immediately. “Lieutenant Kale received a field commission from Captain Barsal. He is probably one of the best slicers and ECM men in our little Alliance! He's getting nothing but glowing reviews from the Captain and he's serving on the Warspite.”

The tightness in my chest lifted a bit. “Why didn't he go with his father?”

Lana's eyes met mine. “Torm wouldn't allow it,” she assured me. And that's when Captain Barsal stepped in. He arranged for an academy of the refugees we'd been picking up; a number of them from the Courageous,wanted to enlist. As for Bree, well Darth Mur wanted to give Bree her Lordship, but she insisted she wanted it from you. She means to win your approval.”

“She already had it,” I replied softly. “Where is she?”

Lana's eyes went wide. “She...you didn't...? My lord, she's here.”

A knife of solid ice stabbed my heart as I realized the young woman I had seen with Lana, who had charged off alone, to who knew where... I turned and began to walk to the door, but Lana interposed herself. “No, my lord! I promise you, Bree can take care of herself! I would not have allowed her to come on this mission if she couldn't!” My emotions, shame mostly of not recognizing my own daughter, flared like napalm as I rounded on Lana.

“You brought my daughter into this...!” I shouted, but from somewhere Lana Beniko found the immovable resolve of a mountain.

“My lord, I brought a qualified Sith Warrior, who has faced and completed her trials, with the blessing of her Mistress...”

“I AM her mistress!” I thundered.

“You stopped being her mistress when you left her in the care of Darth Mur and were captured by the enemy!” she shouted back. “Those are our traditions, you know that, my lord! Taybri Fens is an accredited Sith Warrior and she would have come if I needed her or not! At least this way I had hoped to keep her recklessness in check!”

The anger and the rage bellowed up in me and I knew I had to vent it, else I would lash out against my rescuers, so I spun and screamed, letting the Force whip the anger out of me at the glass doors which exploded into a million rainbows as it flew off the spire. Panting, sated for the moment, I turned to Lana, who was even more pale. I gave her a little smile of apology and said, “I think I may have cost you the security deposit.”

“Worth every credit, my lord,” she assured me. “She is very much your daughter. Good and bad, but I know she will be on the liner!”

“Why?”

Lana smiled at me. “Because I know you would be, in her shoes.”

I sighed and gave in to her knowing smirk. Still, I had to know if she was soft pedaling an act of insubordination and asked, “Did you forbid her from coming on this mission?”

Lana shook her head. “No, because I knew if I did she would just stow away. But I trust her, my lord.”

I nodded, lest my control of my emotions slip and my 'face' be shown in front of the men. Raising my voice, I ordered flatly, “Koth, we're leaving. Now.”

“Uh...yes, my lord!” his voice from the showers affirmed as it shut off. Then I heard him frantically dressing.

Lana smirked and laid a hand on my shoulder. “You always were an excellent motivational speaker, Nyeomi.”

Despite my admittedly mixed feelings, I did give Koth the time he needed to actually be presentable. After all, our disguises were worthless if we didn't blend in. If his hair was a little damp, well, we could chalk it up to the humidity. Weapons carefully hidden, we left the apartment and made our way back to the lift. From there it was ten minutes of awkward silence until we reached the top of that lift on this little border area between the few working class, and the hoi polloi, mixed with the idle well to do that we were dressed to blend in with.

It was actually a little hard to emulate the bored, listless carriage and walking speed of them. As a Darth and a member of the armed forces most of my life, in one galaxy or another, I tended to walk with purpose. Even on vacation, I had never been aimless and to putter around in their not quite drunk, ambling manner as if I had no place to go or be was maddening.

It actually took some work to not start shoving them out of my way.

On the plus side, this lethargic style of theirs meant no one really looked into our faces, nor got close enough to make out the Sith eyes Lana and I both had. Still, I'd had my share of dull, attendance is required 'parties' I'd had to attend as a Countess to know how to fix my face into what I called my 'Official Issue' smile and pretend to be having the time of my life. As we walked, I kept close enough to Koth and Lana to discreetly carry on a conversation. “So, bring me up to speed on what's been happening in the galaxy,” I ordered quietly.

I could see Lana had learned the same tricks I had in her time in the Diplomatic service and you'd never know her smile wasn't genuine. “Arcann rules the galaxy with an iron glove over Vaylin's stone fist,” she informed me sotto voce. “Few will dare oppose him after the war of retaliation he launched when you killed Emperor Valkorion. Five years of pointless destruction for its own sake and an additional five years of back breaking tribute wrenched from the Empire and the Republic. We, the Alliance you created, are the only ones who will oppose him, and even that is done as discreetly as possible.”

“Tribute?” I asked through the vapid smile on my face.

“What you'd expect,” Lana replied. “Valuables, precious metals, objects of art as well as enough raw materials to build a fleet of ships. Then, they got creative. Darth Vowrawn has to come once a year to the throne room and crawl to the throne, castigating himself and the Empire for the mercy of Zakuul. For the Republic it's been a series of different professional ass kissers. I don't know who has to this year.”

My eyes drifted over to Koth. “Lovely people...” I drawled.

“Don't look at me,” he protested. “I did say we were better than this!”

“Once word got out that you were going to fight, regardless of what the Empire was going to do, and of course your spectacular assassination of Valkorion, we began to get offers from sources in the Republic. Therran Shan contacted me,” she intimated, giving me a significant look.

“Did you two finally get a room?” I asked her in jest, but her return look was still annoyed.

“Hardly,” she declared, with disdain dripping from her voice. “However, he has been extremely forthcoming with men and supplies from all over the galaxy. Coming up with protocols to integrate two very different fighting styles and equipment has been a challenge, but we're managing. Freeing you has been our greatest victory so far.”

“Don't start celebrating yet,” I cautioned her, with a nod towards a massive, three story tall hologram of Arcann.

“Citizens of Zakuul,” the hologram's voice boomed out over the plaza. “Terrorists have succeeded in freeing our greatest enemy.” Arcann vanished to be replaced with a picture of me, still beaten and bloodied from my capture. “The Outlander, or terrorists that support her, may be among you now. Extreme caution is advised from this dangerous criminal. Do not interact with them if you see them. Report any suspicious activity to the High Justice immediately.”

“Does this change our plans?” I asked quietly as we walked, but Lana shook her head.

“You don't look anything like that,” she assured me. “Still, it might be advantageous to wait on the liner. This way,” she declared, altering her path towards what looked like a train station.

We arrived at Platform Six of the Twin Rail system that moved people across two axis, laterally out to the other spires and vertically, up higher into this spire. The 'rail' was actually a tube, probably kept in vacuum to make the car's speed as fast and efficient as possible, likely with magnetic 'rails' embedded in the tube for movement. We bought our tickets separately so we wouldn't be marked as a group and were diligently loaded onto the next car that came along.

The car itself was in ten decks, sharing a communal spiral staircase down the core. Each deck was further divided into the private compartments, bathrooms, a lounge and just general seating. The track was laid on the side of the spire so the view was spectacular, as we rode up the side of what amounted to a space elevator; a building so tall it left the atmosphere and stopped out in outer space. Even at these speeds, it would take the better part of a day to climb up to the platform.

I spent the time in the smallest of the private compartments Lana had insisted I take. This kept me out of sight while they could discreetly keep tabs on things. While I did so, I fished out a holocomm from the bag and tried to call Torm. Unfortunately, the account number I had for him now belonged to a kindly old lady in a retirement home on Garel in the Lothal Sector who mistook me for her daughter who doesn't call her enough. We had a nice conversation about the gossip around the home and the flowers she had planted out front with several pointed requests for when I would get around to giving her grand children.

I'm sure her real daughter would dismiss the confusing next conversation she would have with her mother about 'their' last conversation as dementia.

My searches throughout the Net for any trace of my husband did yield some fruit. I learned he had become an outspoken critic of the Eternal Empire and what he had called the Rape of Ruuria which seemed to have stuck as a name. The attempts of the Zakuul authorities to shut him down or censor his posts had only underscored the truth of the Streisand Effect and had made re-posting of Torm's videos a relatively safe act of rebellion. This also made finding anything current about him like trying to find a specific grain of sand on a beach.

The news reports suggested that Arcann wanted me back in carbonite very badly, which perhaps I could use as leverage against him. If he was this worried about me, perhaps I could fan that fire into full on terror. Terrified people make all manner of mistakes that can be exploited. Either way, once I was somewhere he couldn't lay hands on me, becoming a celebrity by updating my Wisdom of the New Sith holo-channel would be a primary mission for my psych-ops team.

Lana's bag also had a tablet that had pictures, so I looked at my children, growing up without me, in little videos and snapshots weeks and months apart with no context. I saw Bree become that lovely young woman I could only just remember from my fuzzy brain trying to work again, free of the carbonite. I saw Kale become a tall, handsome young man, half his father's commanding presence and Alpha Male confidence, half the thoughtful, intelligence I had given him.

So I looked at the pictures and I was glad I had the compartment to myself so I could weep.

3617 BBY
The Alderaan Princess, Zakuul System, The Eternal Empire

I'm not sure what I was expecting as far as how our escape was going. Something between a stop of all outbound traffic or a line of Skytroopers blocking the gangway, but surprisingly things were quite normal as we boarded the Alderaan Princess. I'll admit I was humming a certain Jack Jones song as the papers Lana had provided me with which labeled me Sutti Jin, a marketing executive with Czerka Arms from Naboo of all places, were checked and authenticated. It didn't surprise me that my assumed corporate affiliate would be Czerka, the company was quite friendly with the Empire and a number of passport blanks and travel Ids that were exact matches of those used by Czerka would mysteriously arrive at the Dromund Kaas headquarters of both Sith Intelligence and the Diplomatic Service when needed.

While there was, evidently, quite a bit of attention being paid to the smaller space ports by the authorities, they seemed to have assumed we would never just book passage on a liner to make our get away. The fake documents breezed through the inspection and I was welcomed aboard. A porter took my bag and showed me to the lovely little suite that was mine. It was certainly quite nice with a little cooling unit that was well stocked with little bottles of adult beverages, a table and chairs for private dining and a bed that had me missing my husband. There was a private bath, or head, as we say aboard, with a positively decadent tub and floor to ceiling windows for the far wall. Next door, with a convenient adjoining door was Lana, or VP of Outer Rim Expansion Maayi Ren-Var as her documents labeled her, was being installed and poor Koth was across the hall from me in the smallest, inner cabin.

The porter set my bag on the bed for me, tipped his cap and left a quarter century credit richer for his trouble. It never hurts to be a generous tipper, after all, word will spread and you'll be taken care of as well as the staff 'forgetting' things that investigator types might ask about to protect the new gravy train.

Outside, through massive transparisteel windows, was a stunning view of Zakuul. We were well and truly above the Kármán line, in actual outer space and the planet was breathtaking. Even as an Ecumenopolis the sky was still blue and there were many puffy, white clouds and rising up through them, like mountains were dozes of spires, stretching up into space. It was as monumental an engineering achievement as I had ever seen, to put the Colossus of Rhodes or the Pyramids to shame.

The sky beyond was positively over crowded with stars and the sky was completely unfamiliar to me as I stared, trying to get my bearings for some clue as to where I was. Then, beyond the curve of the planet rose a red, baleful moon obscuring the odd star field and the blue white gas cloud of some kind of nebula or stellar remnant I didn't recognize.

A brief knock heralded the arrival of Lana through the adjacent door who joined me at the window. “It really is a magnificent view, isn't it?” she asked and I nodded.

“I'm just trying to get my bearings, I don't recognize any of these stars,” I told her.

She touched the window, proving it to have a smart glass element and chose a region to zoom in on. “Those aren't stars,” she told me as the viewfinder leapt up and I had to gasp in surprise. What I had taken as stars were, in fact, a massive fleet, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of cruisers, all of the same, vaguely hammer headed design. Now, I understood why she was so hopeless of breaking the blockade; a fleet that was so vast it could be taken as a star field.

“How does he pay for all of this?” I demanded. “Where does he get the crews?”

Lana gave me a glance and shook her head. “No crews. As near as we have been able to find out, everyone of those ships are robot piloted and completely unmanned. We have no idea how, but we are pouring everything we have into finding it out. If we can subvert the Eternal Fleet, we can crush Zakuul with their own weapon.”

“And how is that working out?” I asked and she arched an eyebrow.

“Well, it got us in to get you out,” she offered and I had to concede the point. “But, I come with good news. I just got the code signal. Bree is aboard and waiting in the first class lounge, as ordered.”

“Which way?” I demanded.

Lana sighed and gave a calming gesture with a little sigh. “An emotional reunion for someone who is supposed to be a marketing executive on a business trip will likely get us the wrong kind of notice,” she declared, and of course, she was right. I nodded and she reached up to squeeze my shoulder in encouragement. “I'll go and get her, you try to relax. I'll be back shortly.”

A little tremor ran through the deck, most wouldn't have noticed it, but we were both sufficiently spacers to know the Alderaan Princess was underway. Lana left and I decided to take her advice to try and relax. I rummaged through the little cooling unit and to my immense surprise and delight found a bottle of Bantha Piss that I quickly opened and savored the first sip. I sat down on the bed, with my legs crossed with the bottle and stared out the window, letting my mind wander back ten years to being astonished to be a woman, a Sith Lord and being pursued romantically by a man.

I took a long sip and let the beer wash around my mouth and remembered happier days.

I tried to spread out my awareness to see if I could sense Torm, but between the beer and the strain of using my Force Trick to carry me this far, I was relaxed enough, safe enough that it was time to pay the piper. I remember finishing the beer and setting the bottle on the night stand by the bed, then my eye lids just became too heavy to keep open.

How do I describe a Force dream?

How do you convey the feeling of being completely, lucidly awake and yet also know you are dreaming? There are those, I'm sure who have had lucid dreams, to go through a morning routine and be halfway to work before the alarm clock they hit 'snooze' on goes off again and they realize they dreamed their shower, breakfast and commute. Force dreams have that sharp, bang your hand on the table realism, but they are never about your routine. They are always novel, even when I've had a vision of the past it was different than how I remembered it happening. Almost like the pulling back of the curtain and getting to see a bit of the road you didn't take.

So they are horrifyingly real, except, they are also obviously not; so much so it makes you aware you are dreaming. When you have a Force vision, you know it, almost instantly, you both have agency to change it and yet also are completely helpless and a voyeur unable to turn away. I once spent a nightmarish month as Nyeomi come to planet Earth and waking up in horror to be fat, male and middle aged.

I have never been so thankful to wake from a dream!

It is disturbing, that surreal passage of days and weeks mixed with the rock hard certainty of it taking place. There are days I wish I just got badly spliced and color keyed tunnels of light and tight close ups of people crying. Luke saw himself as Darth Vader because he didn't understand the Bogan, nor the true nature of the Force. No Jedi, in fact, understands the nature of the Force, so Yoda could not answer Luke's questions. That ignorance, coupled with his teacher's inability to explain it to him frightened him and in his fear, he saw himself lost and turned into his father.

You can never come to the Force with fear.

Fear robs you of reason and rationality, it folds and contorts on itself, warping reality and your perception of it and worse, it amplifies that fear. Fear is the mind killer. To touch the Force with fear was to throw wide the Gates of Hell and unleash the very worst of the psyche to indulge itself. The monsters of the Id are unchained and no one is safe. I had collapsed on the bed, spent and weary of the torture I had endured and into darkness, the Force brought me back ten years in time to the throne room of the Eternal Empire. Once more` I saw Darth Marr die as I stood by and did nothing. My heart was filled with shame as his shade rose from his charred and blackened corpse, as horrific as Anakin after the fire, his finger pointing with all the judgment of victim to murderer, directly at me.

I felt the horror and the terrible fear that I could not, indeed would never amount to more than a pale shadow of his glory, that I had doomed our resistance to Valkorion before it was even properly underway. The terror gripped at my heart and the Bogan whipped it into a fury as I heard Darth Vitiate's laughter as my chest was on fire. I looked to see, to feel the light saber that had melted my heart and set my lungs on fire.

I screamed and felt, felt that horrible heat in my body as I was cooked from the inside out.

As I lurched and writhed in pain that seemed it would never cease, suddenly Darth Marr's mask was before me, his strong, massive hands gripping my shoulders, forcing me to look him in the face. “Fight, Nyeomi!” he shouted at me. “You can win! Fight!”

***

I jerked awake, the sheets soaked with sweat, my thoughts as scattered and broken as a stained glass window just after a rock is thrown through it. The room was lit by the blue white chaos of hyperspace making crazy patterns and swirls on the walls like light reflecting off a pool. My heart was pounding in my chest, making me reach up to assure myself I did not have a two and a half centimeter hole in it.

“Mom?”

The voice was lower than I remembered, very similar to my own earthy contralto, but just a note or two higher. My eyes were immediately brought to the little table by the window where Bree was sitting, her eyes, the same golden yellow of the Bogan mine were. Her face had filled out from the round, smiling visage of the little girl I had helped make her first light saber and now was a subtle mix of my own oval with full lips, and her father's high, prominent cheek bones and his cleft chin. She was so tall and regal and beautiful!

I scrambled out of the bed as fast as I could and pulled her into my arms.

It was more than a little awkward as she was my height now and had, I discovered, inherited my generous bust line, but none of that mattered. My daughter was in my arms where she belonged again. “Mommy I've missed you!” she cried into my shoulder and that set my eyes to tears and for a long time I just held her as we cried together.

I became aware I was babbling, “I'm sorry!” over and over again, so I forced myself to stop and just revel in the moment. After an entirely too short eternity, she stepped back reluctantly and sniffed to clear her sinuses, which set both of us to laughing. I took her face in my hands and tried not to start crying again. “My beautiful daughter!” I exclaimed, making her smile and her dusky skin darkened a bit.

“Look at you!” she declared. “You...you're just like I remember.”

“You're grown,” I replied, melancholy and sad.

She fetched some tissue she shared with me and we dried our eyes. “Twenty one,” she told me as we made use of the tissues. “Lana didn't want to let me come, but...”

“No, that doesn't matter,” I told her. “First things first. Kneel.” She sank down to one knee, looked up at me as I laid my hand on her forehead. “Taybri Fens, for dedication, by example through skill and aptitude, I bestow upon you the rank of Lord of the Sith.” I saw her eyes fill with tears again, so I reached down and took her shoulders. “Rise, my apprentice, my Lord.”

“Th...thank you, Mistress,” she whispered, and we hugged again. Parting, she had that crooked smile on her face that I remembered from her childhood as the normal expression on the face of my little girl. “Commander Beniko told you I wouldn't let Aunt...er, Darth Mur award me?”

“She did,” I admitted. “Not that I needed to hear it from her. You have always made me proud, Bree.” I wagged a finger at her. “Though I am more than a little concerned about this reckless streak of yours...”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, mom! I haven't done anything you wouldn't have!”

“As our current situation should underscore,” I told her sternly, “I can and do make mistakes! This last one was the worst in my life!”

She rounded on me, quick to take up my defense, even against myself. “You did what needed to be done, mom! You were right to try and rescue Prince Marr and that brought us the Courageous! That ship saved...”

“Mom?” I demanded with playful sternness. She suppressed a giggle and gave a very mocking bow.

“Forgive me, my master!”

We shared a laugh and then were up the rest of the ship's night and well into the next day, catching up, reminiscing and bonding as mothers and daughters, after too long a separation, do. But, those are the kinds of things that are particularly private, so I think I'll skip ahead just a bit.

***

3617 BBY 
The Alderaan Princess, Keskin System, The Outer Rim Territories

The Alderaan Princess emerged from hyperspace and the Eternal Empire in the Keskin System. No, I hadn't heard of it either. It gives you an idea of exactly how far out into the Unknown Reaches Zakuul was that the system closest to civilization from it was this little nowhere planet, on the tail end of an unused trade route, such that Hoth and Bespin are the closest well known planets. You know, those two scenic places picked by the Rebel Alliance for their secret base...because they were so remote?

Keskin, who's entry in most tour guides and navigation databases only list it as a star system, and the trade route it's on, had suddenly become relevant because it was the gateway to the Eternal Empire. There was a nice little third world shithole city that had sprung up on the planet, mostly made of garbage and prefabricated everything. However, most of what went on took place in the space stations in orbit. Yes, stations, plural; one for the Galactic Republic and one for the New Sith Empire, they were both required to take this long way around to get to Zakuul so as to pay homage to their lord and Master Arcann.

The Alderaan Princess docked with the Republic station, named Thon Station after the ancient and mysterious Jedi master who stated his home world was deep in the Unknown Reaches, as she held Republic registry. Though the Princess did offer a shuttle service to Exar Kun Station, likely named in a bit of tit for tat digging by the Empire naming their station after Master Thon's enemy. You might have assumed we would take that shuttle, but we didn't, for several reasons. First, our documents had us as Republic citizens, but, more importantly, it was known that the 'Outlander' had been a Sith Lord so if the Zakuul forces were watching for me, it was hoped their focus would be there.

I had, reluctantly, swapped out that lovely silk dress for a more casual look of black leggings under a red tunic dress I wore with my utility belt while keeping my sabers on the bracelets and a pair of sandals that would have been at home on a mountain trail. Really, the tread and grip of them were remarkable! While not as dressy, if I had to fight in this outfit, I could, without fear of flashing everyone watching. So, Sutti Jin disembarked on Thon Station, followed by her executive assistant, a twenty-something BeAnn Sundar from Tattooine along with VP of Outer Rim Expansion Maayi Ren-Var and her body guard Koffi Tan.

We got through customs with a minimum of fuss, largely because 'Koffi' had all the permits for his blaster pistol and weapons scanners have a lot of trouble picking up light sabers. Why? I hear you ask. Well, it's simple. There might be ten thousand Jedi, give or take a dozen right now, with an approximately equal number of Sith. Now, even if the Eternal Empire's Knights of Zakuul had the same numbers, that's around thirty thousand people who use a supremely unique weapon in a Galaxy. While that sounds like a great number, consider,there are more planets than there are Force users of these three orders. Most people in this galaxy would never see one, Jedi, Sith or Knight, in their entire lives.

Put another way, most security wouldn't think twice about an older man leaning heavily on a cane, not realizing the other uses that steel cane would make a truly excellent use of. In fact, more than a century ago on Earth there was an entire martial art built around walking sticks and canes; did you know that? More to the point there are dedicated groups of slicers employed by the Jedi and Sith whose sole job is to crack the firmware of every scanner on the market so that when it 'sees' a light saber, it marks it as something innocuous. 'Industrial Tool' is a common favorite. Between that and most people living their entire lives never seeing a light saber, most of the guards didn't even know to look for one.

We didn't head directly anywhere, just in case we were being followed, so we meandered through the concourse of the star port, looking at overpriced junk in the shops before we stopped at a food stall and has something that was a mix between a falafel and a taco, with odd looking vegetables and a meat. I'm not sure what kind of meat, I'd long since learned not to ask about things like that in this galaxy if I wanted to enjoy a meal. It was meat and it was delicious and that's all I needed to know.

No one seemed to be inordinately interested in us, more than healthy males taking note of three attractive, athletic women. I noted that Bree chose to sit between Koth and myself and her body language seemed to me to be expressing more than casual interest in the young man, which I filed away for follow up later. I was about to suggest that we make our way to whatever Lana had planned, when we all felt it.

People strong with the Force cast ripples, if you will, throughout it; like a stone dropped into a lake. The stronger one is with the Force, the more powerful the ripples. Torm said, from years of being near me, that he could tell when I entered the room because he felt a thrill, like being young and excited again. This, however, was like walking into a graveyard at midnight. It was the opposite of everything warm and inviting, with just a hint of...it's hard to describe the 'flavor' of someone who is both strong in the Force and also mentally damaged. A number of Sith became damaged because they concentrated so much on anger, but I'd never felt someone who was...broken...before they learned how to touch the Force. This wasn't malevolence, it was apathy, a complete disregard of anyone or anything else. Like a child on a playground, holding all the toys and screaming “Mine!” This was that creeping sensation of someone who looked human, but very much was not; a monster in human guise.

In a word, evil.

Koth had noticed us and asked, “What?” Just then, the station's PA system clicked on and a voice I remembered well came over the speakers. It was a raspy, nasal voice, with the same odd intonation that I was coming to associate with Zakuul, but like nails on a chalkboard, or teeth scraped over a metal fork. It was the voice I remembered, half conscious and being drug from my killing of Vitiate, that was so outraged.

“Subjects of Zakuul, this is High Justice Vaylin. The terrorist known as 'The Outlander' may be among you. Everyone on the station is to report to the central concourse to have your IDs checked. If you see The Outlander, report it at once!”

“How well will your documents hold up?” I whispered to Lana, who shook her head.

“That isn't the problem, my lord,” she assured me. “The documents are fine, but they will likely be using facial recognition.”

“Vaylin isn't easily fooled,” Koth added. He pulled out his tablet and made some adjustments. “Worse, looks like Vaylin brought a good chunk of the Eternal Fleet with her,” he said, holding it so we could see. I'm not sure how many ships she had, but thousands would be a good rough guess.

At least.

Then, the last thing I expected happened. The fleet opened fire on Exar Kun Station and within seconds it was a ball of rapidly cooling plasma and expanding gas and debris. She had ordered the entire station destroyed on the off chance I'd gone there. I turned to Lana and whispered urgently, “We have to get out of here, now! Where are your people?”

We stood from our half eaten lunch as her already alabaster skin paled. “This way,” she declared. We blended into the crowd making it's fearful way to the main concourse, but the stench of fear was everywhere. It would not take much at all to turn this mob into a panicked riot. We worked our way to the 'outside' edge of the flood of people, towards the outermost edge of the station, where the individual docking ports were for small ships.

It was here, we began to move against the flow of the crowd and so, we stood out. “Hey! You four! Halt!” The shout was actually in front of us, so we couldn't play that we hadn't heard. There were already Zakuul soldiers on the station and fanning out to herd us to their choke point. Ahead of us was one of the humans in the armor with four Skytroopers at his back. His lightsaber was in his hand and he ignited it.

Like all of the other Knights of Zakuul I'd seen, it was blue and I wondered for a moment about that before I hissed, “No one do anything before me.” I led the group to him, stopped just at the edge of conversational distance. “We need to get our documents from our ship,” I lied and he held up his empty hand.

“Then I'll accompany you...” he started and began to reach for his commlink. I snatched my saber off the bracelet and snapped it on. I have to give him credit for how quickly he dodged, but I was still able to hit the radio, destroying it.

Next to me, Lana and Bree both acted fractions of a second faster than Koth, who I must admit, has excellent reflexes. Lana's strike severed the head of one Skytrooper, while Bree bifurcated one and decapitated the other on her backstroke while Koth's blaster walked three holes up the troopers armor in a Mozambique Drill center mass, neck, forehead. “You!” the Knight shouted as he got back on his feet's center of balance. His saber came up into a double handed Ko Gasumi guard that brought me back to my Kendo days. “For Zakuul!” he shouted.

I settled into my Ataru ready stance, left arm out and the saber pointing at him at shoulder height. My right saber parallel to it, over my head. “You don't have to...” I started, but he was already moving, coming at my left side, angling to get around to my back. I whirled, clockwise away from him, drawing his strike that my right hand saber came down on, forcing it out of line. My left saber entered his body, just under his right armpit, slowed slightly by skipping off the armor that resisted it.

Not that it mattered.

Bree's left blade had taken his left leg from the knee down, right below where the armor stopped so the knee joint could bend. As he fell, she spun, rolling her right saber over the back of her hand to seize it in a reverse grip. She swung at the opening in his helmet, which was a type that showed his face called a Barbuta. The blade tip struck exactly where the T shaped opening was wide enough and sank about five centimeters into his forehead. The precision of her strikes was fluid, masterful. He was dead before he hit the floor. It had all happened in perhaps three seconds. She stood up to face me, her blades snapping off with a hiss. “Forgive me, mistress, their armor is resistant to light sabers, and they never surrender.”

I stood up, extinguishing my own sabers. “You've fought them before, apprentice?”

She looked down, her face hard and her anger welled up a bit. “I delight in killing them, Mistress.” Her eyes came back up and they were full of hate that was slowly fading as she looked at me. “For taking you away from me.”

I looked at the dead knight for a moment, hearing Lana's voice, but not really able to make out what she was saying. I had fought many Jedi in my life, and more than my share of other Sith. Some of them could be reasoned with, nearly all would engage in what we Sith called Dun Möch or the Way of Domination in which we taunted our opponents into making mistakes, battling against their will to fight. I'd never encountered a Force User who would so blindly attack with neither defiance or call to surrender.

I'd never fought a Force User who was a zealot before, and it meant that our war had just become orders of magnitude harder.

Lana's hand on my arm pulled me from my thoughts as she forced me to turn and face her. “My Lord, we must flee!” she shouted, finally breaking through my mental fog. I nodded and we took off at a trot around the outside perimeter of the station, finally coming to a halt at a Defender-class Light Corvette that was painted red in broad stripes over the gray metal, meaning that it was an ambassadorial craft, in service to the Jedi Order.

The Defender-class was a horizontal hammerhead style of ship, popular in this era, with a flat, somewhat boxy body that went down the lateral axis to a pair of large, round engines at the rear. It was a contract ship, built by Corellia's Rendili Vehicle Corporation, for both the Republic Diplomatic Service and the Jedi Order. It's armament was nothing special, a pair of dual laser cannons mounted on either end of the hammer head that only rotated on one axis that were remotely controlled from the bridge.

Which meant they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.

They did have excellent shields for the power plant making them a very good choice as a get away vehicle. I wondered briefly how Lana had stolen one. After a few seconds of frantically pushing buttons on the console by the airlock, it cycled open, revealing the airlock of the ship, but there was no one in it waiting for us. We quickly got inside and cycled the door shut, then opened the inner door.

I'm not sure why the Republic loves odd design choices with stairs, but this ship was a prime example of their love affair with them. This was, as I'd mentioned, just a catwalk, around a central stairwell that went down and forward to where the boarding ramp was that lowered in the nose of the ship. To the rear was a pair of stairwells, one going down to the engine room and cargo hold, the other going up to the galley and main lounge. Forward were more stairs, going up slightly to the captain's cabin, port, a conference room starboard and the bridge. We hurried to the bridge and still there was no one on board. “Where are your people?” I asked as I began the pre-flight checks to bring the ship up.

“If they followed orders they left the station six hours ago,” she informed me from her own work on the pre-flight from the co-pilot's chair. “If they didn't, there's nothing more I can do for them, you're too important.”

My hand hesitated over the button that would unlock us from the station. “They're going to open fire on us as soon as we unhook,” I warned, but Lana only grinned at me.

“No, they won't,” she assured me, then brought the comlink on her left bracer up to her lips. “Starfall,” she commanded it. The ship lurched as the station uncoupled from us and the last bit of air in the airlock shoved us away as it rushed out into the vacuum of space. Out the window, I saw every other ship I could see also expelled and every escape pod on the station launched. “Punch it!” she commanded me.

Our deflectors snapped on as I fire walled the throttles and the little corvette responded spiritedly. I ducked under the broad, mushroom dome of the station to put it between us and Eternal fleet which was already beginning to shoot the escape pods and suddenly drifting starships. This caused the star ships to begin to flee in a panic, further confusing things nicely. I ran the corvette down the isolation spire to the station's power plant hanging nearly half a kilometer below the main body of it. This gave the Navicomputer time to plot the jump to hyperspace.

We had only just started drawing fire when the stars rushed at me and we were safe once more in hyperspace.

***

3617 BBY
Hyperspace, aboard The Messenger, Gendius sector, on the Cerean Reach Trade Route

After five hyperspace jumps in random directions, Lana had finally given me a heading that would bring us to the fleet. Our choice of destinations had been something of a debate, that had Lana and I dismiss my apprentice and her 'best pilot in the galaxy' to busy themselves somewhere else while the Brass had a disagreement out of sight of the men. Lana had been dead set to get us back to the little fleet I had summoned ten years ago and she'd held together and added to over the years. Getting me safe to serve as some kind of symbol and to begin the planning of the strategy of toppling the Eternal Empire was her only concern.

I had wanted to go to Nar Shaddaa as that was the last known location of Torm and, frankly I wanted my husband back, but she managed to convince me that I was being selfish. I was in command now, and I had people for that sort of thing. Trouble was, I was used to being Darth Marr's 'people for that sort of thing' and I knew that if you wanted something done right, you do it yourself. I finally relented and begrudgingly programmed the navicomputer for her rendezvous. I didn't like it, but then I didn't have to.

So I sat, pouting frankly, in the pilot's place, watching the tunnel of hyperspace go by and wondered what I would do next. Vitiate was dead and that was a very satisfying thought, but now I needed to find a way for his children to follow him into the hereafter. Arcann had basically put the entire Galaxy to the sword with five years of rape, rapine and pillage while his psychopathic sister destroyed a space station killing God only knew how many people just on the off chance I'd gone there.

As they say down in Texas, 'They need killing.'

As we hurtled through hyperspace, Lana had sensed my sour mood and withdrawn, to the galley based on the smell of coffee brewing, to let me sulk. I had to admit, I had absolutely no idea of what to do or how to proceed. I worked best as a soldier, give me an objective or a target and I would build a team and accomplish it, but I wasn't a politician, nor did I want to be. I wasn't comfortable picking the targets and the objectives. Especially not for others to go risk their lives without me in the front, leading and braving the dangers myself.

I read the summaries Lana had left me and tried not to get emotional.

Algon and Jadzeea Fens, the parents of this body...no, my parents, were dead. Their calendar had them both in Banudan at the time of the attack. Their remains, like so many, had never been found, so I was now the Duchess of Ruuria and my daughter was the new Countess of Banudan, Countess of a city that didn't exist any more. I was already indulging myself, so I didn't hold back the tears that flowed when I gazed at the statue of my mother and father that had been erected in the little memorial to the one and a half million people who had perished in the first nanoseconds of this new war.

Silas, my spirit brother, was waiting at the fleet, having finally, married Fable. I don't envy him being in his forties with three kids under ten. But, at least, there was a feeling that life was springing back. But there was still plenty of tragedy to go around. Darius, my best friend, had led the team that had extracted my whereabouts and planted the data spikes that had allowed Lana and Bree to gain entry to free me. That team had made it back because he had sacrificed himself to cover their escape.

So much death, I sobbed to myself and immediately felt more than a little ashamed and hypocritical considering I wasn't even sure how many lives I had taken in the years I had spent in this galaxy. Was that different? I asked the cosmos, Wasn't I just defending my home? Or was I as guilty as the children of the man I had killed?

“Don't suffer alone,” Lana's voice scolded me as she entered the bridge once again and offered me one of the coffee's in her hands. I shook my head, grateful for the beverage and let it's warmth flow through me.

“Do you ever get tired of war, Lana?”

She looked out the view port for such a long while I thought she wasn't going to answer, but finally, almost to herself, she said, “Darth Marr always said that war was the crucible that perfected the Empire.”

I chuckled darkly to myself as I finished the quote, “Savagery was the forge and desperate odds the hammer that tempered the Empire to a razor's edge.”

Her eyes came back to me, to the here and now. “You don't believe that?” she asked philosophically. “You, the war hero and Darth Marr's Good Right Hand?”

“I fought to prove myself, to protect my home, and those I loved,” I told her. “My mistress, Darth Vannacen asked me once, when I was her apprentice, if I knew why we fought. I told her what I just told you, and that, honestly, I didn't know why the Empire fought. She started to say that we, the Sith and Jedi have hated each other for so long we've forgotten how to set our differences aside, how to let the other live and be left alone in return.”

She took a sip from her cup and licked her lips. “Sounds like she was very wise,” she told me. “What else did she have to say?”

I shrugged and took a sip myself. “I don't know. The speeder we were in crashed just after she'd started talking this way. She never brought it up again.” I sighed and looked out into the bright chaos. “I wish I knew what she was going to say and never did.”

“I suppose we'll find out soon if we can live and let live,” she told me cryptically. “About half of our force are ex-Republicans. Not to mention a third of the Force Users are Jedi.”

There was no stopping the eyebrow I cocked as I looked at her askance. “Jedi have joined us?” She nodded with a little smile.

“It hasn't been easy,” she admitted. “Keeping this coalition together. Having the goal of freeing you has helped, but now that it's accomplished, I worry this fragile alliance may fall apart. And we can't spare to lose anyone.”

“Having lost Marr and Darius, I don't know that we can win against Zakuul, Lana.”

“He said you'd say that, and that if he didn't make it back, he told me to say to you, 'Even the pacifist has a right to protect himself, and the moral obligation to protect others he can protect.' Do you know what he meant?”

I smiled and nodded, holding back my tears, being brave for his memory. “He belonged to a religion that espoused Pacifism. He always said he fought to reach the day he could stop fighting.”

She stood and drank the last of her coffee. “I'm not sure how well we'll fair without him, but we'll try. We have you, your grace,” she said, for the first time, recognizing my new status as a Duchess. “That's important. Perhaps all the difference. I am here for you, Nyeomi. For whatever you need.”

“Thank you, Lana.”

***

It's very hard to commune with the Force in hyperspace, due to its relative isolation from life itself. It wasn't impossible, mind you, just hard. After being reminded by Lana of just how much the idea of me being the key to throwing off the oppression of the Eternal Empire had become required, I decided to get my keister in gear and put my professional face on.

Or, more to the point, take my sulk out of sight of the men.

So I took myself to the captain's quarters, which boasted a private head, complete with a shower, and a fairly sizable bed, stripped myself naked and sat on the bed to get back in touch with The Force. I had long since inured myself from the instinctual reaction of flinching away from the incredible emptiness that is the Force in hyperspace and began to reach out to what life there was around me. I touched Lana's mind and was surprised to find it so un-shielded and the worry that both she and I were not up to this task bothered me, but I kept my curiosity to myself, moving on before she became aware of me accidentally eavesdropping.

Koth and Bree stood out like a beacon as they were, ahem, indisposed.

It took me quite a bit of self control to not stand up and go running to the defense of my daughter's virtue in permanent ways to the Galaxy's Best Pilot. That was the mother in me. The Sith Lord in me was able to remember my daughter was a grown woman and she could have sex with whomever she wanted; with, or without my approval. Still, there was a portion of my mind thinking of both how much pain I could inflict and for how long should he break her heart.

Very, very long and unspeakable agony, I assure you.

Then I reached out into the endless void and sought the mind I knew best from years of love making and affectionate, playful exploration. I knew everything about Torm Belos; his taste in women and how many he'd been with. The heady mix of lust and fear that had driven him to pursue me, the cocky, self congratulatory high he got when he gave me multiple orgasms as we made love and the amazement that he had found a woman who could love him back just as hard as he loved her.

As my awareness went further and further, I came to realize just how much I had leaned on Torm, for more than just love and validation. I came to realize that a great deal of my surety and confidence was anchored around him and his approval, frankly, of me. The little part of me that was still Edward needed Torm to feel as if this was more than a stolen body and role he was playing at. The Nyeomi part of me had not been alone for a long time and she didn't like it.

But Edward was afraid.

Immediately, I returned to myself, lest I allow that fear to touch the Force. I stood and walked over to the mirror above the sink and looked at myself. It wasn't a girl in the glass, but a woman, full on and grown. She was still beautiful, but her beauty was due now to an exercise regimen, not the flower of youth. Her chestnut hair was around her shoulders still, in the disguise, and her critical eye found the gray hairs in it. Her yellow eyes were intense, but tired and the strain of what she had just done was plain on her face. “I don't know if I can do this,” I whispered to her, doubting everything I had done and every choice I had made in ways I hadn't in years.

The face in the mirror raised her chin a bit and her eyes narrowed. “You are a Lord of the Sith,” she told me. “The Duchess of Ruuria! You can accomplish anything you desire. You must do this, for our home, our Empire and our parents!”

“I cost us ten years!” I told the stern face. “I did that! How do I...?”

“Stop!” the Sith Lord commanded. “There will be time to grieve. But that time is not now. Now is what is important! Now is when you are living. Don't waste time now wailing about what happened then! Use now! Live now! Nothing else matters!”

I swallowed and nodded into the mirror. “I will,” I promised myself. “I just miss Torm...”

“I miss Torm,” the Sith Lord admitted. But that admission didn't diminish her. Her eyes bore holes in me and made me feel ashamed for being weak and wallowing in self pity. I splashed some water in my face, then changed my mind and scrubbed the makeup off my face. My reflection was clean, fresh faced and her hair was a bit damp. “No more hiding,” she ordered. “Time to make them pay.”

Conscious of everything, even my posture, I walked, ramrod straight and head held high to the bed. I needed rest for now, and when we arrived, the real work would begin. I climbed into bed and tried to get comfortable, though I have to admit the buzzing awareness of how my daughter was spending her evening was more than a bit distracting.

After an hour of tossing and turning, I grumbled at the holographic display of the chronometer, “Even a train has to stop...!” It was then, with a soft tone, the door to the cabin slid open and framed Lana in it, back lit, her face in shadow. “Lana?” I asked.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot and looked over her shoulder as if she was wary of being seen. Finally, she turned back to me. “I...I could feel how lonely you are feeling, my...Nyeomi. I...I know I put a heavy burden on your shoulders, and I'm sorry for overwhelming you.”

I turned my head a bit, as if changing my perspective would help me understand her better. Suddenly, her mind, which had thoughts and fears spinning all over made a decision and locked to it. She stepped across the threshold and allowed the door to close. “I said I was here for you, for whatever you needed,” she declared softly. “I meant it.”

Like a bolt from the blue, I finally understood why she had always been scornful about my teasing her to get a room with Theron. Now she was getting a room, but I wasn't Theron. “Lana...I...”

She crossed the room and sat down on the bed next to me, her eyes glowing in the darkness. “I'm not asking for forever,” she said. “I know how much you love him, but I can feel you don't want to be alone, do you?”

Oh, Torm, please forgive me.

***

3617 BBY
The Messenger, Endor System, Modell Sector, The Outer Rim Territories

The next morning, I awoke early, feeling more than a little strange that Lana was in the bed with me. I had a very unpleasant mix of emotions, to be honest. While our vows had not had the traditional 'forsaking all others' line when Torm and I married, I felt more than a bit guilty about not being stronger and gently refusing Lana's offer. I had been weak, and I had been lonely, but, I told myself, I mustn't let that become an excuse. I swore to myself I would confess everything to Torm the moment I saw him again.

Which lead to the disquieting thought of, what if I never see him again?

I found it wonderfully ironic how easily I'd allowed myself to be with Lana. I had been with Torm for so long, I had stopped being self conscious with him years ago. I wasn't just comfortable making love to him, I desired it; to revel and relish being a woman with a man. I hadn't really looked at another woman sexually in a long time. I guess it really is like riding a bike, except it was very much different too.

Also, I had to admit, I was more relaxed and rested this morning than I had been on the Alderaan Princess. I had to admit to myself that I had enjoyed being with Lana and the differences underscored how much being with a man was different than being with a woman. Even though I, well, Nyeomi, had been a virgin, Torm's past history with women hadn't bothered me. I could see in his mind he felt me superior to all of them, but now that I had this on my conscience, how would I feel if he had sought solace with someone in the decade I had left him alone? After a long and unhappy line of thinking, I resolved that if that was the case, we would be adults and discuss things rationally.

Yeah, and while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony for Christmas.

I shook my head as I got my working leathers from the cleaner unit and put them on, then returned my hair to it's normal style. Being 'me' would help me think and decide what to do. I couldn't ignore the fact that being with Lana had been beneficial to me, and I needed to decide how I was going to proceed. I supposed I would also have to have a conversation with Lana. As far as Torm went, I would hope that men in this galaxy were like men from my own galaxy and that the thought of his wife being with another woman he wouldn't mind so much. First things, however, did come first. I spied Koth walking from the refresher, so I changed course, walked by him as I let the Force reach out and grab him, pinning his arms to his sides and physically picking him up to float after me. “Koth, I'd like a word, if you don't mind?”

“Uh, of course, my lord,” he stammered as he floated behind me, down the steps into the engine room.

A glance at the control and the hatch slid shut with rather ominous finality. “Koth, I want to express to you how grateful I am for your part in my rescue,” I told him as I turned to face him. He started to stammer out how it was nothing, but I held up my hand so I could continue. “As a token of my appreciation, we are having this conversation this morning, rather than last night.”

His face paled as I kept my gaze direct. “My daughter's choices are her own, she is now a grown woman even if, from my point of view, she was eleven three days ago. So you can imagine just how angry a Sith Lord could become over someone taking inappropriate liberties with her eleven year old daughter?” He nodded vigorously, his eyes wide. “Fortunately, for you, my daughter is twenty one, not eleven.” I sighed. “It's very, very hard for me to internalize how much of my daughter's life I've not gotten to take part in, the pain of not being there for her is very new and deep in my psyche. So, as a word to the wise, Koth, if you are trifling with my daughter's affections, you'll be far better off putting that blaster in your mouth and blowing your own head off compared to what I will do, and how long I will do it, to make my displeasure known to you. Do we have an understanding between us?”

He tried, several times, to speak, and when his voice failed him, he just nodded vigorously.

Looking him in the eye, I let the mask slip a bit and said, “I can only imagine what they said about me in your history classes school; the terrible Outlander, am I right? They probably went on and on about how evil I am, my depraved indifference to life, my sadistically creative streak, goodness only knows what kind of terrible monster they painted me as. While, I am hardly any of those things, if you break my daughters heart, Koth Vortena, I will do everything in my power to live up to those slanders and surpass them.”

“I...I would never...!”

“Good!” I told him with a smile as I released him and he staggered back to the deck. “And so long as my daughter is happy, you won't ever find out otherwise. I'm glad we talked! Good morning!” I cupped his cheek and went back up toward the galley, keeping my self congratulatory snicker at his reaction to myself.

Yes, sometimes it's good to be a Sith!

So, Mr. Vortena put into his place, I ascended the steps to find Lana in the galley, toasting bagels with the coffee making. “Smells delicious,” I complimented as I poured myself a cup. She just rolled her eyes and kept spreading butter.

“Yes, I can toast with the best of them,” she declared.

My coffee sufficiently creamed and sweetened, I took a fortifying sip and turned to face her. “Lana, about last night...” That drew her eyes from the toast and she actually smiled.

“Don't over think it,” she scolded me. “I told you I wasn't asking for commitment. I take happiness where I find it, and I encourage you to do to the same. If you need me, I'm here. I'm not in competition with Torm.”

I laid a hand on her shoulder. “That seems terribly selfish of me,” I replied. “Just using you...”

“If you start 'using' me, I'll let you know,” she promised. “Otherwise, we're both adults, and we both know each other's situations. You haven't lied to me, nor I you.” She took a sip of her coffee and winked at me. “We both know that battlefield friendships can be...intense. At least, I assume...”

I couldn't help but chuckle as a bit of anxiety penetrated her confident exterior. “I've been in many battles, but I've only had two lovers...”

Her eyes went a little wide. “Oh, oh, I see. Really? I mean, I beg your pardon...”

“I thought we were being 'adults'?” I teased her and she finally relaxed a bit. “I certainly see now why Theron wasn't your type.” She shrugged around her bite and leaned against the counter.

“Theron isn't my type because he's a professional liar,” she told me. “Not because of his gender. You never know where you stand with a spy, and that makes me nervous.”

I felt my eyebrow ascend my forehead. “And diplomats don't lie?”

Her chin lifted in disdain. “Diplomats are vague,” she declared haughtily. “Spies are liars.”

I almost lost my sip of coffee via my nose, and the look on her face told me she'd timed it that way on purpose. I would have taken her to task over it, but the autopilot alert began to sound, meaning we were arriving at our destination. We finished our breakfast on the way to the cockpit and settled into a nice, relaxed routine of bringing the ship back to manual control.

We dropped out of hyperspace in the last place I expected, above the moon of Endor.

Yes, that Endor. Of course, there was no under construction Death Star, nor was it a trap, thankfully. Those events, if they happen at all, are well into a future I won't live to see. There was an admittedly startlingly large fleet, a collection of ships worthy of that name. There were nine Dreadnoughts of the Harrower-class, Courageous, I was delighted to see, was one of them. In formation with them were three Valor-class Republic battleships, faster and more nimble than the Harrower, but had neither the punch, nor the armor of them. While the Harrower resembled the Star Destroyers of old, or rather the future from my point of view, the Valor were a cross between the outboard motor shaped Nebulon-B medical frigate and the bulbous spheroid of the Mon Calamari MC80. With and around them were hundreds of smaller ship and thousands of fighters flying a C.A.P. around them. Several had already broken off to meet us, and Lana sent the code to identify us.

It wasn't a fleet large enough to defeat the Eternal Armada, but it was a far better start than I had accomplished. It was a fleet capable of showing the galaxy that the Eternal Empire could be fought, and with the help of the Force, beaten. Already, my mind was turning on how to best take advantage of these assets, to take the fight to our enemy. There was still a lot of work to be done, but I had to hand to Lana, she'd taken my Hail Mary pass and ran with it.

“Well done, Lana,” I complimented her as we picked up the escort and were guided to the flag ship. “Well done.”

We shared a glance and she smiled at me. “Thank you, my lord.”

***

3617 BBY
The Courageous, Endor System, The Outer Rim Territories

Of all the changes I have recommended, in tactics, in training, and doctrine, the one I am most grateful to have been adopted is Darth Marr's indoctrination that Sith be able to work with the military first. All of the Sith that had rallied to my call, both the initial, ten years ago, and over the years to Lana since, all of them had been younger than me, and thus trained from their first day in the academy how to work with the military. I knew this because I'd made time to read Lana's summary of the current state of the fleet and I knew that the ability of my Sith Lords to cooperate to achieve group goals as a way of proving their individual worth and thus their individual power via awards and promotion meant the scuffles between the Jedi who had answered my call and those same Sith Lords had stayed as arguments and debates and only a couple of fist fights and 'spirited' training sessions.

So, in a very calculated manner, I had put on my dress uniform to address the fleet. This meeting, broadcast by Holo fleet wide, was both my assuming command, and our collective decision of what comes next. My medals jingling slightly on my chest, my daughter a step behind me, also in her dress blues, we not quite marched up to the small assemblage of commanders, Tari, the senior Darth in command of my Sith, Jedi Master Tunan-Obi Vost, of all people, the senior Jedi, Admiral Bey'wan Aygo of the Republic Navy and Commodore Tucmax Barsal, formerly of the Warspite for the Imperial Navy.

It was hoped, this formal ceremony would take these groups of factions, and make them a team. I hoped so, anyway. I started with Commodore Barsal, who, with his back to the pickups could grin at me. I saluted. “I relieve you, sir.”

“I am relieved,” he replied, returning my salute, then marched smartly behind me. A sharp right face then a left brought me to my senior apprentice who, for a change, was not pregnant.

“My lord, I relieve you.”

“My Mistress, I am relieved,” she replied, returning my salute then she joined the Commodore. I repeated my maneuver to reach Admiral Aygo. Aygo was a Bothan, a vaguely dog like species with a short, wide muzzle and tall, triangular ears. Though he was quite short and I loomed over him by better than thirty centimeters.

I saluted. “Admiral, I am grateful for the Republic's answer to my call for assistance.”

His arm came up crisply. “It is our honor, Duchess Fens.”

“I appoint you Admiral of our combined fleet, under my leadership. Carry out your orders, sir.”

“Aye aye, Ma'am!”

Master Vost was last on the platform, a grayer, more weathered man than my memory painted him as from Alderaan. He bowed, which I returned. “Duchess Fens, my Jedi are honored to answer your call to the defense of our galaxy, if you will have us.”

“The honor is mine, Master Vost, you and your Jedi are most welcome.” We bowed again and he joined the little crowd at my back. I took a few steps forward to the podium that had been erected. “As of this date and time, I, Nyeomi Fens, Duchess of Ruuria, Lord of the Sith, take command of this fleet. Duty officers of each vessel shall so note in your respective logs.”

There came a brief pause as, simultaneously, the flags, which were actually cloth, but held out rigid in respect to old naval traditions were lowered on each ship, Republic and Empire, to be replaced by the flag of our rebellion, a flag designed to show and honor two sides that had been at war, who were now united in common cause. Half the winged phoenix of the Jedi Order, half the Sith pictogram for Order, the symbol of chaos contained that was the heraldry of the Sith Order. The colors properly changed, I took a hold of the podium. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are, all of us, in desperate defense of our galaxy. We are many, from many different worlds, of many different species, united in the defense of our homes. The governments we once served cannot, or will not resist our conqueror, so that falls to us.

“I do not promise you victory, nor even that you will pass the coming conflict unscathed. But I do promise you this, on the graves of the destroyed city of my world, that I will fight the Empire of Zakuul until they surrender, or I die in the attempt of it!”

There are times I am sad there is no air in space, for I am sure if there were, the shout that rose up from every one of these ships would have been deafening. “Our first order of business is a base of operations. It will be difficult, carving a safe haven from the wilderness, but it will give us a place of safety for the families we have brought with us, and a fortress to gather our strength. There is much hard work ahead, but together, we will throw off the yoke of our oppressors and free the galaxy! Captains, see to your individual vessels.”

I turned to Admiral Aygo. “Admiral, deploy the fleet!”

He saluted. “May the Force be with us! Captains, on the One MC, Hyperspace!” The stars leapt forward and we were under way to our rendezvous with destiny.

***

“So, where are we going?”

A grayer, more fine-lined face of my spirit brother Silas asked. We had retreated a bit from the somewhat excited introductions of his children to their aunt for the first time. Now, in a quiet room off the quarters he shared with Fable, he, Lana, myself, Bree and Koth, along with Tari had gathered, my 'privy council' if you will. It was Lana who answered him. “Odessen,” she declared. “Remote, unsettled... and strong in the Force. But unlike Korriban or Tython, Odessen is altogether balanced.” She sighed and looked around. “Between that, and it's location deep in Wild Space, we should be able to come and go as we please, and have a secure base of operations.”

Koth shook his head from where he sat next to Bree. “Odessen, huh? Could it be there's really a place where no one wants to kill us?”

“There shouldn't be anyone on Odessen,” I replied. “It's a blank slate. But, we'll have raw materials to upkeep the fleet, food to feed everyone and a safe place for kids. Seems ideal.”

“And then we get serious about killing Zakuul?” Fable asked darkly. I looked at her, wondering who she had lost to make the easy going Special Forces trooper I remembered be so anxious to spill blood.

“Hey!” Koth protested.

I crossed my arms. “It's war, Koth, there's going to be a lot of blood shed, so grow a thick skin.” He raised his hands defensively, but I could tell he'd taken the message to heart. “We're going to have to figure out how to hurt them, to bring them to their knees.”

“I'll keep putting effort into figuring out how the Eternal Fleet is controlled,” Lana replied. “If we could just capture one...”

Koth shook his head. “Forget about it,” he declared. “No one has ever been able to board one of the ships of the Eternal Fleet.”

“Do they have an interior at all?” Fable demanded. Koth nodded. “Then they can be taken. We just need to figure out how.”

Tari, who I could see had a bit of gray around her nose and her eyes were so much older than I remembered turned to me. “Mistress, there is one ally we could seek.” A shudder ran down my spine as I instantly knew what she was suggesting. I walked over to the window and looked out at the blue white chaos of hyperspace.

“I'm not ready to try to make a deal with the Void, Tari.”

“I pray you don't wait until it's too late, my mistress.”

“We'll see,” I said, mostly to myself. “We'll see.” I made my decision and turned back to them. As much as I wanted to go myself, I was the Alliance's Darth Marr now. I had to send others to do what I needed done. “Apprentice,” I called and at once Bree stood and knelt before me.

“What is thy bidding, my mistress?” she asked formally.

“You will take a ship and go to Nar Shaddaa,” I instructed her. Seeing Koth's expression, I added, “Take whomever you need to accomplish this task. You will seek out your father and inform me of his fate. If he is alive, you will bring him to Odessen. If he is dead, you will report that to me.”

“May I avenge his death, my mistress, if that was his fate?” she asked softly, and I felt her emotions well up in her, buoyed on an ocean of anger at the thought of her father being dead. I realized she had inherited my temper and I felt more than a little guilty for passing on my bad traits along with my better ones.

“If possible, you will capture those who are responsible and bring them to me, alive,” I ordered, one part of my mind, and I'm sure, a part of hers, pondering what unspeakable things a Sith was capable of in vengeance of the death of a loved one. “Once we are both avenged, the killing blow shall be yours.”

“Thank you, mistress.”

“Go. Let no one hinder you. Do what must be done and return safely to me.”

She bowed low over her knee. “It will be as you command, my Mistress.”

Bree stood, her eyes on fire, before she turned to her lover. “Koth,” she commanded. “Come with me.” She strode out without waiting and the Galaxy's Best Pilot looked at me. I gave him a little smile as he left.

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, I thought. I turned back to hyperspace and sighed, knowing that was true to both of us, now.

Now, the War of the Eternal Alliance had begun.