“Strap in, CZ stabilize...where hitting this running.” N’dali informed everyone aboard the Morai, both Sabine and Kowani hurrying themselves into the cockpit with renewed efforts.
“What’s the hurry? Attract attention already?” Kowani beat Sabine to the question.
“Any attention at the moment is directed well away from our current position.” N’dali responded quickly through the ship’s comms, “the banter between Imperial entities within, and outside of, Ciutric proper is quite intriguing though.” She continued while angling the ship modestly to starboard before rising the bow and swallowing the view into an instant blue corridor. “The hurry lies within our destination, although Botajef is somewhat close.” She concluded, lurching the ship forward, even through hyperspace, with another burst through the hyperdrives reactor core.
Sabine instantly understood N’dali’s reasoning for strapping in, noting the struggling inertia dampening that was working to match pace with the ships forward progress.
“It will only be uncomfortable a moment longer…” N’dali voiced, Sabine gripping the arms of the co-pilots seat with a little more vigor than necessary. Kowani, enacting a similar pose, gritted her teeth to prevent them from smashing together. Both of them squinting through the brightest center either had ever witnessed through hyperspace travel, the brilliant white filling the interior cabin with the intensity of a collapsing star gone nova. One more surge forward left them both with the sensation that flesh was parting from skull, Kowani feeling the dizzying effects and tunnel vision of unconsciousness quickly approaching. She wanted to turn her head slightly to check on Sabine, hoping the Mandalorian was already there but found that she couldn’t move at all.
Feeling her body fall forward, lax from the pressures that had pushed against it, Kowani shook her herself free of the receding lightheadedness and borderline vertigo the jump had created and turned toward Sabine who was already beginning to unstrap her harness.
“I don’t think that’s wise.” Kowani stated flatly, “we still need to come OUT of hyperspace.”
“I’ll buckle back in Ani, don’t worry about that…” Sabine was ecstatic, her face upturned in the widest smile Kowani had ever witnessed, “do you have any idea how fast we are going?” Sabine continued, eyeing the ships navigational display, “N’dali, how did you bypass the drive’s kill feature….ok, that’s a dumb question, how about the coolant reserves...ugh...how are we not a ball of fire right now!” She decided to shout once free of the questions that became rhetorical the moment she voiced them.
“Quantum physics Sabine, we exist in our dimension and hyperspace is, in itself, another dimension calculable within our own. The same relationship exists within hyperspace itself, but only calculable through it...if my theory is correct, there will exist multiple layers of that occurrence….” N’dali sounded quite thrilled that she had an audience to speak to.
“THEORY?” Kowani shouted before either CZ or Sabine could.
“We are traveling eighty-six point seven times the speed of light and all systems are stable, what are you complaining about?” N’dali responded with a dose of sarcasm.
“No one is complaining sis, just an odd time for experiments…” Kowani stated, casting a glance toward Sabine with a worried expression.
“The difficulty lies with our terminus, the calculations posit a shift of the eleventh integer between two values that defy reconciliation.” N’dali continued relaying her assessments, making sure everyone was on the same page.
“What N’dali is saying is that an irreconcilable equation could have annihilating consequences.” CZ voiced for clarification.
“Yeah...thanks buddy, appreciate that.” Sabine responded, her own expression changing quickly beyond the giddiness first experienced, and the reality presented her. Again, both Kowani and Sabine shared a concerned glance before simultaneously blowing out deep exhales.
“Well, nothing to be done about it now I suppose, we trust you N’dali.” Kowani stated, shifting her shoulders into a shrug of increasing indifference, “we need to prepare for that stated terminus, but please help me to understand what happened on Ciutric.”
“Honestly, that is a good question for you as well Ani.” Sabine said calmly, “I understand dispatching Sylde...maybe too well.” She added, turning her chin down in a moment of self-reflection but quickly, “but I don’t understand what happened to you Ani…” She finished, lifting her head with a renewed concern, “you were there over the stones, then you were just gone…”
Kowani was certain the question was going to be asked at some point but thought she had more time to decipher it for herself before having to answer to it, “I cannot explain it Sabine, not that I won’t, I just don’t know how to explain it.” She relayed as much truth as she had been able to decrypt for herself. “It was like staring through the sights of my rifle at the eyes of that beast on Ambria, an overpowering sensation that I was no longer in control of anything I did.” Kowani tried to interpret the dark descent in terms she had already expressed to the Mandalorian some time ago.
“You were incapable of pulling the trigger I remember you saying.” Sabine offered.
“Yes, and no. Then, I resisted the urge to pull the trigger, despite the whispers I had heard to the opposite. It wanted me to fire that rifle in the same way a cavern below those images here drew me to them.” Kowani relayed slowly, closing her eyes as she revisited the memories.
“Something, or somebody, is reaching out?” Sabine pondered the suggestion the moment it escaped her lips.
Kowani was hesitant to respond, although not out of any breach in trust.
“You feel shame.” Bane whispered into Kowani’s mind, “when there is none to feel.”
‘Is it though? I think not.’ She thought in response, ‘there is a relation between Ambria and Ciutric that needs to be explained, that is why I hesitate.’
“I am the only relation between the two that is worthy of your comprehension. Through that, you will achieve the power you require.” Bane replied quietly.
‘Not good enough.’ Kowani didn’t hesitate, ‘by whatever means, your fate is now tied to my own. What is it you hope to gain because I do not understand…’
“What is to understand beyond the power you covet?” Bane answered, “is it that I have my own agenda?” He continued, a whisper of his baritone voice. “Everything has its own agenda Mirialan, everything. Best you understand that beyond anything else if power is what you seek.”
Kowani knew there was so much that hadn’t been said, buried beneath the spirits candor and residual calm, a beast lie in wait, ready to pounce if she were to remove any of the guards that Ahsoka had taught her. She felt pulled in contentious directions, magnified by the voracity of her own dedication, but helpless to answer the questions her own morality was asking of her. ‘Do I justify my own thoughts through malevolence?’
“Haven’t you always?” Bane responded quickly, the spirit able to work around certain safeguards Kowani had erected, “you think me a beast Kowani Y’mmat, or suppose that through an extremely limited understanding of Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. But have you not yet considered the beast that had already resided within you?”
“I am only what I was engineered to be!” Kowani blurted into the cabin, “sorry...sorry…” She said quickly, placating the eyes and photoreceptors that found her just as quickly after the outburst.
“Ani?” Sabine didn’t waste any time.
“I’m fine...I just need to think.” Kowani followed closely in response, blowing out a breath just before expressing a weak and timid smile.
“Take the time you need sis, we’re all here for you..” Sabine answered just loud enough to be heard over the thrumming vibrations rocking through the ship, the hyperdrive units extended well beyond any manufactured parameters.
Kowani wanted to voice her appreciation but could only stare into her open palms resting meekly on her lap. ‘...only what I was engineered to be…’
“Engineering only gave you the fangs and sharpened teeth to devour your enemy, training only supplied the skills to channel your aggression, but the beast, Ani, has always been….alive.” Bane had waited with an unnatural patience for the opportunity she had presented for herself, and struck the heart of the matter, the shatter point of her own truth with just a subtle nudge.
“Why didn’t you pull the trigger on Ambria?” Bane had waited long enough, his previous statement still lingering stoically within the Mirialans’ mind.
‘Because I couldn’t.’ Kowani thought the reply and immediately winced through it.
“Because you wouldn’t.” Bane’s tone was direct, instant, without emotion or expression in any sense of the terms, “because it was yourself. You are a monster Kowani Y’mmat, a ruthless killer with sharpened talons designed for only one thing.”
‘Get out of my head!’ Kowani wanted to shout, grateful that she confined the statement to her mind alone.
“I am not here out of choice, remember that.” Bane insisted with tenacity, “I am here because you chose closure to the very saga you had buried within your own memory, why Sylde was hunting you, why Keno was destroyed, why thousands have died and why tens of thousands more will follow.”
Kowani had no response, only closing her eyes as her mind was being forced to view the only memory specific to the charges. She dropped her chin into her chest, grateful that her eyes hid the profusion of tears she knew remained dammed by her own eyelids. She stifled the howl that would erupt through a confused vocater, one that would never be able to perceive the pain that welled so impenetrably deep within her soul.
“You are a beast Kowani Y’mmat, a dragon, and you will always refuse to die.”
✦
“Cee Cee, why are you still here?” Areti was shocked to see the droid in the same place they had left him, her breath stolen from her the moment she turned into the small control room several stories beneath Capital City, from the mass of humming server consoles just below their elevated perch.
“Although Miss Fardi’s data feed has come to a conclusion, there remains the task of directing information toward appropriate hubs for extraction and cataloguing purposes...I may be here quite a bit longer than anticipated.” CC-7 responded as Areti, having resumed normal functions, sidestepped the protocol droid, and took a seat at her work station. “Your estimates were very close Areti.”
“So that extra hub DID come in handy...and all the doubt…” Areti leaned over her keyboard and inserted the spherical cam device into her consoles data access port with a slight smile creasing her lips.
“I will admit, I had my doubts, but yes, Areti, it did.” CC-7 conceded with slight variation in his vocater.
Areti was only half listening as her monitor displayed the contents of the device’s storage files, each labeled meticulously, date stamps that stretched for years. She knew it would be easy enough to locate the information Audenhoen had referenced by date alone as the files themselves presented only two items of interest captured within the last three days. Areti was quite surprised, and a little intrigued, when hovering over a file labeled ‘supplemental’ containing numerous short entries that dated back only several months.
“A rebellious curiosity…” She said quietly.
“Pardon Mam?” CC-7 asked just as quietly, rotating his photoreceptors toward her screen.
“Nothing Cee Cee…,” She paused briefly, “just lyrics…”
“Perhaps some ambient melody would be a good…” The droid began.
“..no no, quiet is fine.” Areti cut in quickly, opening the first of the two captured files and focusing all of her attention on the monitor. ‘Coburn.’ Areti said to herself, watching the captured video of her old Director dismissing his personal staff through the grand entry way in his apartment. He nodded and waved his hand before turning quickly toward the cam, the door closing behind him on its own. She watched to see if he would reach for the doors interface and narrowed her eyes as the old man simply bypassed it, ‘expecting company then…’ Areti thought.
“Good, I am glad you’re here…” Sandr voiced his approach through the control room, “Cee Cee your still here?”
“Still much to be done.” Areti responded for the droid without diverting attention away from her monitor.
“In any case, the wound on the former Director’s chest….there was a data chip jammed just under his skin below his left shoulder.” Kallus admitted, holding the mentioned chip in his palm toward the Chalactan as she turned his way.
“We can dual purpose if you wish Sandr.” Areti offered, turning back toward her access terminal. “I’ll pull it up on screen two.” She continued holding out a hand and offering the man a minipad in return. Kallus took the pad and gave Areti the data chip, which she quickly placed in a small open socket with the terminal port. She flipped a switch on her control panel and lifted her head to ensure the monitor complied, while Kallus was pulling up an elevated chair that swung his legs over. Just as quickly, Areti shifted her attention back to the recorded feed of the former Director.
The old man shuffled through the entry hall, leaning heavily to his right, placing a hand on the nearest wall in support before shifting his gait, and support to his left the moment he reached a chest level partition that separated his common room and kitchen area. He continued walking, rounding a full one hundred eighty degrees into the kitchen area and began fumbling out of view briefly before returning to an appliance with small kettle and two mugs.
“Multiple headings but almost all of these files are empty…” Areti heard Kallus say behind her. She shifted her gaze toward the second monitor noting a few of the mentioned files,
“Void Eclipse...Second Sun...Swarm…” Areti said as she scanned the headings.
“Void Eclipse, Second Sun, both empty files...Swarm on the other hand…” Kallus said as he worked the minipad in his hands. “Is quite extensive.”
Areti forced her gaze back to her own monitor, the Director now placing two mugs of steaming liquid on the countertop divide between the kitchen and common room. The man’s head lifting to view something toward the entry doors. Areti was quite certain the feed originated from some distance away, capturing a still image of the video to measure a baseline. A few moments passed before the man moved again, retracing his steps with precision before the feed itself began to waver slightly, long curved lines of static bending through it that bordered on complete obscurity. The moment Areti was certain the screen would lace into complete static, a solid refresh line of white bisected the image vertically, passing to the right of the screen. Everything to the left resolved into crystal clear view. Although the image revealed only base color bathed in cool blue tones, the visage of Ysanne Isard was clearly visible, the old man shaking her hand with another on her shoulder in the entry hall.
“Project Swarm is going to be a problem.” Kallus said into the room, Areti pausing her own attention with a keystroke and shifting her attention to his screen. The scrawling Arabesh was clear in its defense of the man’s statement, providing galactic coordinates that appeared random that, she knew, were anything but.
“Cee Cee, pull up that galactic map if you could please...the one N’dali supplied within her downloads.” Areti asked quickly.
“Two dimensional or three?” CC-7 responded.
“Two, on screen three.” Areti responded, shifting her data pad input output capabilities to the suddenly collective project, “Sandr, suspend your data search for a moment and send me all the coordinates you’ve come across.” She could hear him tapping away at the pad in his hands and gentle vibrations through her own device as she eyed the third screen on the array. Data points began to populate the generic map CC-7 had erected. Noting a pattern, Areti directed a superfluous line of connection to all points transferred, sitting back against the back support within her chair. A creak shot through the room as the little used feature, in all its simplicity, seemed to garner everyone’s attention, despite every set of eyes and photoreceptors glued to the screen.
“There are far too many data points to account for…” Areti noted, pointing toward collections of three successive coordinates that almost overlapped, small faint green lines of resolution extending from a sole source.
“Because the data itself exceeds the capability of the chosen view.” CC-7 responded, “we do not exist two dimensionally.”
“Cee Cee, change to three dimensional parabolic.” Kallus asked the droid in his own response.
The shift in perspective was all they needed. Within the spherical representation, Areti’s lines of connection revealed three separate rings within it, each data point originating at the same source point.
“Cee Cee, what is that?” Areti rose from her seat, pointing toward the offset point that each line originated from.
“Botajef.”
Areti looked toward Kallus, who was already waiting with his own nervous stare, the concern shared between the two a direct reflection of the warnings N’dali had been voicing for quite some time.
“They appear to be marshalling points...for something.” CC-7 hadn’t removed his gaze from the screen, “is there any further information?”
“Considerably more..” Kallus said, returning his attention to the data pad in his hands, “a list of almost one hundred vessels, called out individually I might add to deliver Viper 11-3k variants in bulk to the coordinates listed. Fleet activity will proceed from those points for distribution to designated sectors and specific systems in a coordinated effort to flood most inhabited worlds.” Kallus raised his head toward Areti, “they’re hunting.”
“Who? Rebels?” Areti turned toward him again, concerned lines creasing her features without thought or care given to them.
“Everyone Areti, everyone….” He responded, his own expression dire in every aspect, “it goes on to describe the parameters given to the collective hive for each volley launched, assembled numbers, make and model of scanned vessels, armament and ordinance cache, shield generator types, anti-orbital point defense...this list is exhaustive!”
“That is disconcerting…” CC-7 offered.
“To say the least!” Areti swiveled raising her hands to her temples, pressing hard to negate the sudden pain welling in her head.
“...no…” Kallus said quietly, as if to himself, but heard nonetheless, “how would they convey the mass of incoming intelligence?”
“What are you talking about?” Areti asked, thinking the worst of the news had already been relayed.
“Imperial hyper relays will be sequentially taken offline…”
“That’s impossible!” Areti understood the magnitude of Kallus’ statement, unwilling to comprehend the validity no matter how she viewed the information, “with those offline, they would have no way of conferring with one another, sharing information, focusing on specific data...that doesn’t make sense!”
“Exactly why I can’t believe it either...sub space comms would take weeks for delivery, physical correspondence would flood the hyper-lanes beyond capacity!” Kallus almost shouted.
“That may very well be the intent. It would secure broadband for their own sub space communications and negate almost all inter system or inter sector travel...keep the quarry in place as it were, while negating any ‘pirated’ means of communication.” CC-7 spoke between the two, adding the potentials that neither Kallus nor Areti were willing to admit to themselves, “inspired really, if you forgive my saying so.”
The permeating silence that followed concerned the droid somewhat, his head spinning between the two as they shared their own tapered eye glances with one another.
“I meant…” CC-7 sounded out, willing to amend his statement before Areti cut him off.
“No, no Cee Cee, you don’t need to rephrase anything. Neither of us disagrees, it’s just...the magnitude…” Areti tapered to a trailing whisper.
“The thoroughness…” Kallus responded just as quietly, “the audacity!” His voice rising with his own temperament, growing angrier with each passing second.
“Sandr, calm down, let’s work on a way to circumvent the issues involved instead of congratulating their ambition.” Areti turned to him, her attention firmly planted internally do just as she had suggested.
“Whatever the case, this is an active operation, others will need to know what is happening…” CC-7 stated.
“Let me finish with this so we can present both cases to Hera, I am sure she is going to need to alert Iskalon at the very least.” Areti turned back to her original project, seating herself to hurry through the remainder of the feed available. She resumed the paused feed as the former Director finished welcoming the Director of Military Intelligence into his own home. Areti noticed Kallus’ undivided attention, “it should be noted that the feed seems to have originated from one of Coburn’s own personal devices, ...and that Isard seems to have an active scrambler.”
“I do not like that woman…” Kallus said, resting an elbow upon the arm crossed over his chest.
“I am sure she’s earned that from most…” Areti added her own opinions. They both watched the conclusion of the greeting give way to the man ushering her toward the divide separating the kitchen from the common room, his hand open gently toward one of the mugs. Areti focused her gaze on Isard herself, narrowing her eyes as she watched every move the woman was making. Several moments passed before Areti forced herself to blink, only sensing the scene unfolding for what it was, a casual exchange between long-time acquaintances if not outright friends.
Kallus watched exactly what Areti had right up to Barton Coburn mirroring the outstretched arms of Ysanne Isard and embracing the woman with a clap to her back. He kept his own eyes particularly focused on Isard’s hands on the old man’s back. In a shock of action, Barton immediately shot from the embrace, snatching both hands to his throat instantly. Both Areti and Sandr Kallus rocked their heads back, “keep your eyes on Coburn, I’ve got Isard.” Areti called out, watching as the woman recoiled in horror, placing her left hand over mouth, her expression just as shocked as their own. Isard continued her horrific expression in a backpedal toward the entry way and directly out of the doorway. “Sandr, catch anything?”
“Nothing, he continued grasping his throat through his fall backward to the floor.” Kallus responded.
“And she didn’t touch him, nor were those mugs available to either of them free from view.”
“The former Director poisoned himself.” CC-7 chirped between them.
“..impossible…” Kallus said quickly a mocking laughter accompanying the admission.
“In the presence of conclusiveness, impossible becomes improbable at best, or more to the point, eliminating what is impossible leaves only the truth yet to discover.”
Neither could argue the point, though neither wanted to be the first to admit it either, “I’m going to have the tox screen run through the usual, as well as make sure they inspect Coburns back for any puncture wounds.”
Areti had no comment as she absorbed the droid’s comments, knowing they had all watched the same video feed, and affirmed without saying as much that Barton Coburn had been the only one that was alone with them both. Several moments passed as they all thought down paths of their own, trying to work theory into truth as presented by the facts on the screen.
“Look.” CC-7 alerted them both, as Coburn’s arms dropped to his sides.
“What the hell?” Areti offered first.
“What is he doing?” Kallus asked as the old man in the feed lifted his head, pinning his chin to his chest as he looked down the short hall toward the door. In a blindingly fast move for an elderly man, Coburn reached into a back pocket to retrieve a slim tool, inserted something into its protruding end and inexplicably drove the tool lengthwise up toward his shoulder within his chest. “Never mind… that answers that..”
“He went to extreme measures for that chip Sandr…” Areti said, her attention now completely on the chip Kallus had been studying, Alexsandr’s own returning to the data pad in his hands. “Probably best we get that to Hera quickly I would think…” Areti’s attention was pulled to her own monitors once more, the feed changing abruptly to something she had not expected.
“I don’t seem to have much privacy these days, too many begging for attention it seems, whether I know about it or not. But what I do have I share with you...Areti. At least in the only way I can..” Walker Audenhoen’s personal recording began relaying to everyone in the room. Areti in no position to pause the feed, her whole body turning to stone on the spot.
“Cee Cee...let’s get some direct readings from that new server hub please..” Kallus said after clearing his throat.
CC-7 swiveled his head toward the man, “I have been doing just that from here Sandr...I see no reason for redundancy.”
“Just the same...LETS GO!” Kallus barked the command, CC-7 swiveling his head between Kallus and Areti several times, the man in the feed weeping tears as he choked for some form of words to cling to.
“Oh..oh, yes...I do believe you are correct Sandr, the readings are probably far more accurate directly at the source.” CC-7 finally acquiesced, disconnecting his relay appendage from the data terminal set between them all.
“We’ll be with Hera when your done Sigurn...take your time.” Kallus offered before ushering himself and the clanking droid from the room.
Areti didn’t move a muscle as she stared into the emotional eyes, words yet to breach the quivering lips the clear video feed offered. A long pause seemed to defy time, Areti drawn into the moment he had recorded himself, letting her own emotions mimic his by virtue alone. “Know that every minute we’ve been apart I have missed you more...and...despite not knowing if you are well, if you’re alive...inexplicably, I do know. Crazy right?” The exiled Director said slowly, tears exposing emotion she had never known him capable matched her own as she finally lifted a hand toward the monitor, only mildly cognizant that she was alone. “I can’t stand this Areti...I can’t stand being away from you...as unprofessional as it sounds, I just can’t.” The man smiled briefly to the cam before reaching forward, ending that particular file. Areti’s finger tips reached the monitor as she clapped her free hand over her mouth, the terminal instantly accessing the next file in queue.
Walker Audenhoen was alone again, seated in much the same way, and in the same place, the last recording had suggested, “I miss your insight Areti Sigurn, almost as much as I miss the scent of your presence…” Areti clapped both hands on her cheeks, her tears streaming freely down them as she slowly shifted her gaze toward the master file displayed in the lower left corner of her screen, smiling to herself as she saw there were another sixty seven similar recordings. Areti swept the tears from her cheeks and wiped them free of her eyes as she turned from the control room, grabbed Walker’s cam device from its docking and broke into a run for the access shaft that would lead her topside and only another short run to Capital City’s medical center.