“CZ!” Sabine screamed as the Morai came to rest, the rear bay door slamming to the ground, and the view beyond too hazy to see clearly, “CZ!!” She shouted again through complete impatience.
“I am here Miss Wren, what is the…..oh dear.” The med droid responded then withdrew somewhat as his photoreceptor found the Mirialan tethered to the small med bay alcove. He immediately rotated his outward appendages inward and rotated surgical implements forward as he fired a cable from his central torso at a small terminal just below the right monitoring screen. Sabine stepped back a little to give the med droid more room watching as the appendages burned bright with an orange glow just before a fine mist encased them in its cooling embrace. He hovered directly over the unmoving woman, burning through the strap that keeping Kowani’s right arm and shoulder from falling away from the rest of her. He allowed the wound to open slowly with the aid of small but effective robotic arms that dropped from the alcove’s ceiling above. CZ stabbed Kowani’s neck with a small syringe, eliciting no response or movement from her at all.
Sabine fell backward further, pushing her back into the frame of the small room across the corridor, lifting her hands to her mouth and cheeks to keep from voicing the horror she was witnessing. She knew CZ was proceeding with care but understood little beyond what appeared to be the med droid re-damaging the wound all over again. Tool after tool rotated into and out of his work area, sizzling flesh anew, bathing the wound in extensive mists of Bacta and other solutions, cooling the area, only to bake it again with finely tuned lasers and infinitesimally small ceps tongs that repeatedly pulled desiccated organic materials from the wound. “Her right lung is badly damaged, I will need to remove it now.” CZ said as he worked, assigning the robotic assistants to provide support at Kowani’s shoulder as he slipped two tools inside her chest cavity. The rending Sabine thought she was hearing caused a subtle internal retch and involuntary convulsion, tears beginning to obscure the sight entirely as CZ removed the organ in question and dropped it to the floor. Sabine turned into the other room in an effort to find something she could use to aid the calm and steady droid.
“Sealing up intrusion, but that may need to be reopened, infection is immanent and scar tissue will need further removal.” CZ said for Sabine’s benefit as she came back into view with a small plastoid container. “Beginning dialysis, renal failure is emergent…”
He trailed off, processing any inherent wisdom in continual recitation. ‘BP is dropping, cardiac arrest immanent, liver failure’ CZ deemed it unnecessary to ululate the prognosis. “Miss Wren….I am afraid there is little that I can do….” He admitted. “The injected inhibitor will slow the processes but not reverse them, however she will be free of pain.” He continued, letting his appendages fall idly to his sides. “I do not expect she will be responsive, but her brain activity is stable, for the moment. If there is anything you wish to convey….now would be the time.” His own voice crackled quietly as he too found a certain emptiness despite there being no parameters within his programming to define it.
Sabine let the tears fall unhindered as she let the droid’s voice continue without listening. She could see the sister lying before her, whole, smiling, and peaceful. Her mind erased the wounds entirely from her view as she focused on Kowani’s closed eyes. The minute sounds of rhythmic chimes, beeps and forced oxygen whirling into the melodies and songs she would always remember the Mirialan playing whenever time allowed. Sabine dropped her head to kiss the woman’s forehead, running a finger needlessly through the purple strands of hair that were already tucked behind the yellowing ears. “I love you Ani. Always.” She whispered for the woman alone, brushing a hand over Kowani’s cheek one last time. She turned from the scene and walked slowly forward into the cargo bay, her mind reeling and dizzy through understandable incomprehension. She continued forward, using the bay’s wall to support her. Her eyes found Rex’s as she shook her head back and forth lightly, conveying the sorrow she felt creep through her from head to toe. She fell to her backside without protest and pulled her knees into her chest, sobbing with heavy attempts to breathe through the pain within. She folded her arms over her raised knees and planted her head upon them, her body shuddering around her as the tears began anew.
Rex turned from Sabine, his chin lowering in the process as he rolled off of his knees and onto his back, ‘another sister lost…’ His mind said for him as he began to process his own grief. He blinked several times through the bright lights far above that he stared at, seeking answers where there would be none to find. “Ahsoka…” Rex said quietly to the woman at his side, still regaining her own breath, yet through less laborious means.
“I know Rex….I know.” She admitted just as quietly in return, Rex unsurprised as he continued staring into the bright light. He could hear her push herself from the ground, blowing out a final deep breath, and her soft padded boots as they walked slowly up the cargo bay ramp.
Ahsoka approached Sabine slowly, dropping a hand to her shoulder just as she passed her, squeezed lightly, then continued up the ramp. She had seen death many times over, its embrace etched through memory as statuary and monument throughout her past. Ahsoka normalized her breath, becoming almost indistinguishable as she lifted her eyes to the woman lying unmoving in the med bay alcove. CZ hovering quietly above the woman’s legs. She bypassed her own assessments, ignoring the wounds and trails of blood, the chimes of attached monitors and equipment and the hum of the life support system that chugged away quietly. She only saw the face of the woman she had come to love, as a sister? As a daughter? Ahsoka was unsure, but it was an unconditional love that could never be broken. ‘Tears seemed so easy when you were with me Ani, tears that seem to fail me now. Perhaps it is the magnitude of my own grief or the knowledge of where you will go. I am not sure. It is because of you, and your trust in me, that I am alive. If that I could reverse this course, know that I would Kowani Y’mmat….know that I would.’ Ahsoka whispered through the Force, what element of it that she hadn’t exhausted, through efforts she still questioned and for tasks she had hardly believed. “You will be loved. Always Ani.” Ahsoka said aloud, quietly.
The firm hand at her shoulder was expected, Ahsoka lifting her own to cover it before looking Rex in the eye and smiling briefly, shuffling out of his way to give him the respect he had given her. He looked at the wounds first and foremost, knowing he’d seen brothers succumb to ones far less gruesome. He shook his head as the tears began again, focusing his own gaze on the peaceful face of the Mirialan lying so still. “You were one in a million kid, one in a million.” He said, kissing Kowani’s forehead, “don’t know if I’d ever let anyone call me ‘Rexxy’ ever again though.” He finished with a subtle laugh, pulling himself away from her and grabbing her hand in his. He squeezed tight as he sobbed heavily, burying his chin in his chest briefly before coughing through the lament. He turned from her and walked back into the cargo hold, Nara passing him by, nodding her thanks for the cloth she still held under her broken nose.
Nara knew what she would see and looked beyond the damage, saw through the detriment, and immediately leaned in close to Kowani’s head, placing both hands over the woman’s cheeks. ‘Your mind is still your own, through it, find the bond that has never been erased. The bond none could take from either of us through time or place Koko. Hear me.’ Nara projected with authority through the cold and dark spaces of encroaching death. A fiery spark resided within the core of the spiritual tether Kowani continued to hold onto, unwilling to flow as it naturally should toward the calming waves of Force energies that willed her to follow them. A voice, distant yet familiar defied the will of the Force itself, its authority alone given the channel to ascend to the place she had chosen for this last encounter.
‘I am afraid Lulu.’ She thought in complete recognition.
‘There is nothing to fear Koko, your soul will reside within the Force.’ Nara responded through the aethereal tether.
‘I do not fear death Lulu, I fear regret….’
‘You feel yourself responsible for things you had no business being around Koko, you were a child.’ Nara knew exactly what regrets her sister would carry with her into the beyond.
‘I killed them.’
‘And we denied the one responsible for those actions Koko. It was Sidious all along, you must take that with you and nothing more.’ Nara assured her, ‘you prevented him from the very things he sought, and by definition took back the sacrifices of your childhood actions, turning them into meaningful acts of love and bravery. What more would your family ask of you.’
‘Then I am ready Lulu. We will see each other again one day, won’t we?’ Kowani asked meekly, her link to the tether hanging in suspension, her voice wavering as death neared its prize.
‘Stay within the waves, follow the currents where you will them Koko. Do that, and yes, we will.’ Nara said, sensing the distance growing rapidly between the ends of the link. ‘Know that I love you Koko….always.’
‘I love you too Lulu….always have……’ And then Kowani was gone, the static tones and rapid beeping from attached equipment aiding Nara in her withdrawal back into her mortal form. Nara blinked through tears that stung her eyes as CZ deactivated the equipment, the whole of the ship falling into a silence as quiet as death itself.
✦
“Admiral, we need status of the station and of the facility!” Ysanne rose to her feet from the desk in her suites aboard the Lusankya.
“And I am trying to tell you Madam Director that there is no active feed by which to convey anything. Networks will remain down until Lord Vader re-establishes them. We are moving with all haste as we speak.” Admiral Yemen Rycket advised her from the projected holoimage, “another three minutes will provide visual at which point we will deploy the bulk of our squadrons to support your recovery effort.”
“A recovery effort that should not have been necessary…” Sate whispered behind her.
“One that is nonetheless immanent Advisor.” Rycket absolved as Ysanne ended the transmission.
“What did you mean by that Pestage?” She asked turning toward the gaunt man.
“Only that certain elements of a proposed attack on the station defy logic and reason Madam Director.”
“...unless they came from within.” Ysanne pieced together.
“You could be more right than you know.” Pestage responded, his features lacking their usual suspicions and conniving twists, adopting one she was certain she had never seen before.
‘What could trouble him more than the status of his own benefactor?’ She was quick to question his motives through the seriousness of his stature and expressions.
“Madam?” The comms within her desk startled her briefly. Ysanne reached out a hand to activate the link.
“Go ahead.”
“Madam, you should probably come and see this….” Rycket again, his tone a stark contrast to the earlier rebuttal. She narrowed her own gaze as she slowly turned to Pestage, his features offering nothing of substance whatsoever, “negative Admiral, I’ll see it from my shuttle, get your squadrons out there immediately, lock down the hyper lane egress within the system and notify Botajef command that….”
“Ma’am. Cain WAS Botajef command.” Rycket cut her off.
Ysanne recoiled slightly, expecting some minor disturbance or altercation with some rebellious faction or another, not the dire nature the man’s tone conveyed, “get my shuttle prepped, we are on the way down!” She shouted into the comm, turning from the desk, and shooting from the suites at a brisk pace, Sate struggling to catch up behind her.
“He would have augmented his support had he known of greater severity…” Ysanne was speaking to herself in rapid clicks, all but running for the executive decks of top side hangar bays.
“...which he always seems to, something has happened.” Sate offered in follow up, Ysanne preventing herself from succumbing to compelling urges to roll her eyes.
“Thanks for that Sate...truly enlightening…”
“Something beyond his vision Miss Isard, let’s not start bickering, you know what I meant.”
Ysanne took a hard left at the looming intersection, a squad of troopers’ mis stepping their patrol march to make way for the black uniformed officer. Sate, continuing through his efforts to catch up slid slightly on the hem of his robe before correcting himself and quickly falling into place at her side once again.
“He had that...assassin..with him.” Ysanne almost choked on the words, “surely he couldn’t have underestimated anyone enough to proceed so foolhardy.”
“Assuming the wills of our Emperor will only find you on the losing end of blaster….or worse Madam.” Sate offered with a slight sneer, affirming to Ysanne that the situation couldn’t possibly be as dire as the old man had prognosticated.
Another right turn and the pair had entered the top side executive hangars aboard the Lusankya, her Lambda class shuttle prepared and ready for departure as they approached the angled boarding ramp. Her view, as they crested the deck plating of the passenger cabin, engulfed in the sea of red from the innumerable cloaked members of her Emperor’s royal guard. Three squadrons of her own detail bathed the scene in a dramatic white contrast before her personal squad of gray armored guard closed ranks to the hissing actuators of the ramp’s ascendancy. Ysanne paused only to note the silence that pervaded each and every individual within the shuttle, each ready to forego their own lives in the protection of their Emperor and how insane it seemed that they were here, with her, instead of with the man himself. She broke her reverie and climbed the stairs to the cockpit as the shuttle left through the large bay doors overhead, spinning in time for her to catch the massive bridge structure of the Dreadnought before it swiveled toward the devastation that caused the Admiral pause himself. She breathed in a gasp of shock that said what they were all thinking.
✦
The moment she felt herself hurtled through the massive magnetic shield, Nara’s clone was near the end. She breathed in her final breath as her mind was stolen from her completely, a war of ancients and legend taking place in the space of fractions of a second, battles fought at the apex of greed and depravity as Zannah relished every moment of her creation, the maestro of conflict that would see the end she had manufactured so exceedingly long ago.
“You will be remembered...Lunara, for that is your name. You will die without that honor, that dignity as they final tenets of myth and legend fold through the fabric of space where they belong.” Zannah turned her attention to the soul that still resided in the body that had been lost. “The Force embraces you Lunara, let it guide your next journey.” She finished, ‘Lunara’ exhaling the breath as her body was torn from her, her cells, and atoms alike, scattered across the various systems they entered and quickly left, like punctuation to the silent cries of incontrovertible defeat that suffered the same rending demise as the body she had once called her own.
Lunara sensed the instant embrace of the Force all around her, and as an old friend, let it guide her toward a horizon that knew neither up or down. Waves that rolled gently out and away from where she was. With nothing to focus on but the eddying currents and superfluous flows around her, she simply let them take to her without driving forth a will or agenda of her own. She let the Force absorb all that she was as she bobbed and weaved through the steady flows, embracing the silence that comforted what remained of her conscious self before allowing even that to become what she sought most dearly. The Force took her then and there and everything felt peaceful.
✦
“Incoming stream.” Chams said softly through the concentrated silence, flickering a soft blue light through one of the many holo projectors within the cargo bay and aft exterior of the Morai.
“There aren’t words….” N’dali began as she faced them all just inside the ship’s cargo bay, “if there are, I don’t know them.”
“She was a sister to all.” Sabine offered quietly, “but a pain in the ass….” She finished chuckling lightly.
“As stubborn as the day is long…” Rex added.
“And free.” Ahsoka said, following lighthearted chuckles, her own mind ruminating with cheerful memories.
“Yes, Sabine, she was a sister to all.” N’dali commented, turning her gaze downward for added affect. “...Yet, we are not completely out of our current situation. I had been able to recover forty six percent of the stasis pods within that facility, all of which are currently stable. Some were damaged while others I could not convey fast enough. I did what I could.”
“About them, what are they?” Sabine asked, her attention focused beyond the starboard side of the Morai’s aft boarding ramp and at the few hovering pods that hung in the air twenty meters distant.
“People.” Rex said quickly, “people that need our help.”
“That is the conundrum Rex. Lothal does not have the capability to house them, nor the ability to care for their progression in a satisfactory environment. Nor would the attention be welcome I am sure.” N’dali responded.
“We could, I am sure, come up with a multitude of destinations...that isn’t the problem exactly. I will need assistance while I monitor growth and feasibility….” N’dali continued as the four of them thought through the issues, adding another level they hadn’t considered.
“Ambria. I will take that charge with you N’dali.” Nara was the first to speak up, Rex shifting his gaze between Sabine and Ahsoka was on the brink of an idea, its merits on the tip of his tongue as he worked through his mind, specifically, his memory.
“I will help in any way that I can of course, but I may have an idea. Ahsoka, remember Tank?” He said, almost lost in thought.
“That crazy brother of yours with Vos’ crew? Hard to forget.” She turned to him with a grin. Ahsoka’s eyes pulled at their corners as her lips pulled into a genuine smile the same moment she crossed her arms before her chest as she canted her head slightly to the left. “...I think I know where you’re going with this.”
“And if I’m right N’dali, Nara, we’ll have all the help we need.” Rex responded, bounding on his feet like an excited child.
“There is one more item I would like to discuss...an irregularity.. not to put too fine a point on it.” N’dali called attention to herself once more, her projected image turning as a blue pod came into view, its hover repulsing mechanism whirring under N’dali’s own direction. “I don’t really know how to respond. Although I have acclimated myself to human expressions, the particular feeling this creates defies any set of parameters I could ever hope to exceed.” She continued awkwardly.
“Welcome to the family N’dali.” Rex stated with a grin, “it will take a little time to wrap your head around…” He continued but paused abruptly as he considered what not whom he was speaking too.
“It is ok Rex. Redundancy, progeny...continuation, are all quite conceivable through self-awareness. It is the nature of the suspension fluids and gels that eludes me. The subject...the woman...well, me, that is inside. I cannot find any data within the mechanism of the pod to relay its, hers...my, condition.” It was one of the few times any of them heard confusion in the Thebaskens voice. “The rest of them.” N’dali waved a projected hand toward the few green pods that were visible, “are self-sustaining, and will continue to be until the ‘people’ inside begin to awaken on their own. I do not require a facility of any kind for that process.” She pointed toward ‘herself’ again in the blue pod, “this on the other hand will require direct supervision. I suggest you take...um...me...back to Lothal with you, CZ may be able to configure a solution going forward.”
“That is quite agreeable.” CZ stated as he hovered down the ramp, coming to a rest at Rex’s waist.
“Thank you CZ.” N’dali projected a simple nod toward the med droid before the blue pod silently floated between them all, positioning itself in the center of the cargo bay lengthwise.
“N’dali…” Ahsoka spoke up, turning from the pod that had driven her to unprecedented levels of anger not long ago, “...I…”
“...did precisely what you could...nothing more can be said about it.” N’dali cut her off quickly. “And that, Ashla, is why we will do what we can now.”
“I noticed it earlier, but Chams is back I see…” Sabine interjected, unwilling to add any more somberness to the mood they were all wallowing in.
“Yes. She will guide your Morai going forward. I am needed here.” N’dali responded, projecting her view all around them.
“They will come looking for the ship N’dali, how will you...well..” Ahsoka began the question but found herself lacking any appropriate terms to define what N’dali had become.
“Through one of the 11-3k’s for a time...although something more suitable will be required soon as their mainframe’s will not be able to compute fast enough. As for your concerns regarding this vessel, it will be tasked with its own destruction far from Ambria once we are finished with it.” N’dali responded, everyone quite sure she had already conceived the plan some time ago.
“Well, Nara...I guess this is where we part ways.” Rex slapped a hand on the woman’s shoulder, pulling her attention away from N’dali’s projection.
“Thank you for everything Rex, your company will not be forgotten.” She replied with a gentle smile, pulling the man in for a hug he had not expected. Despite his surprise, he returned the favor and wrapped his arms around her tightly, almost taking her from her feet.
“Thank you for your trust Ahsoka. Through that I am truly alive.” Nara said over Rex’s shoulder, the Togruta only responding with a smile as she nodded silently, matching the knowing gaze with her own as the bond that had formed months ago was sealed between them eternally.
Sabine turned from them all, a tear trailing down her cheek as she walked quickly back up the boarding ramp.
“Farewell N’dali and Mirialan I do not know….although you do have Miss Y’mmat’s eyes….” CZ warbled lightly to the parting company.
“Take care of them CZ.” N’dali winked through her projection and just as quickly deactivated the feed.
“I will...N’dali Fardi….I will.” The med droid said quietly as he turned to follow Rex and Ahsoka up the ramp, activating it as he reached the steps leading to the main cabin. With its whirring completed, the ramp hissed its locking seal followed by the whine of the Morai’s engines, Chams bringing them online swiftly.
CZ was uncertain whom to follow. Rex had proceeded up the steps and Ahsoka had walked slowly forward toward the med bay alcove. He remembered the message he was to deliver but the circumstances for doing so required certain protocols that had not been met as of yet. Whirring his head between the two choices, he decided on the stairs for the time being, intent on seeing to those protocols above all else.
✦
“N’dali Fardi….” Nara stated as she walked through the vast hangar bay, reaching a hand up occasionally to run her finger tips over the translucent casings of various stasis pods, each housing a different individual from species and races across the galaxy following the Morai’s departure. “We have a difficult task ahead of us.” She continued for her own benefit, understanding that the artificial intelligence was anything but artificial. “I am to assume that you have the ability to monitor them all simultaneously?”
“That is correct, Lunara Y’mmat.” N’dali voiced through the hangar’s PA system, echoes rebounding from every angle. As the family name repeated itself through the vast chamber, she couldn’t help but smile. Something deep within her felt warm and inviting, a feeling she had not heeded despite feeling for some time.
“I had spared a certain amount of the 11-3k droids as well, and can function them autonomously or through direct insertion, but as stated, a suitable replacement will be needed in short order once we reach Ambria.”
“I cannot state my level of appreciation in this N’dali, without you this is not possible.” Nara responded, stopping at one of the pods, its inhabitant a young male Twi’lek, his eyes closed peacefully as small bubbles streamed slowly past his face.
“And without your guidance, they would be lost Nara. They will need you when the time is right...to provide in ways they can’t even imagine.” N’dali conveyed a certain sorrow, even through the raucous PA, Nara turning from the young man to assert her own understanding as she cast her gaze upward toward the hangar bay’s lighting.
“She has always done what she could N’dali, for all of us. Perhaps not as much as we would have liked in those moments….” Nara conceded the breadth of her knowledge and understanding, “...but...what then, what would we have gained without the lessons….”
“She is only one person.” N’dali responded after a moment of hesitation.
“She is only one person.” Nara agreed, “but we have the opportunity to change that, don’t we?”
“That we do Miss Y’mmat.”
“I am definitely going to work on a more suitable host for you N’dali….I don’t like talking to a ship.” Nara laughed for the first time in weeks, an open hearty laugh that came from that warm place deep within.
“And I don’t like talking through one!” N’dali replied, already considering a source for a suggested host. “When presented the opportunity, I would like to seek out Massad Thrumble.”
“I have never heard of a Thrumble, but it would be an honor to assist you in any way that I can N’dali, and if my assumptions are correct, we’ll have a host of willing souls to back that up.” Nara assured N’dali openly, her own memories of the Vos encounter bringing with it a renewed anguish and refreshing delight in what was to come.