Hey Al,
I don't know if you have seen this yet but here's a fanfic about Palpatine Sith apprenticeship. Its one of the best non-space battle SW fan fics I've read. Enjoy!
Title : The Apprentice Sidious
Author: Brendon Wahlberg
Author email:
bwahlbrg@pitt.edu
Category: Old Republic
Keywords: Palpatine, Sith, Sidious, Darth
Spoilers: This story contains spoilers for Dark Horse
comics detailing the history of the ancient Sith
Summary:
This story details the hidden history of how Palpatine
became a Sith Apprentice. It is a prelude to the six-part
fan fiction series, Dark Emperor, by the same author.
It is a time of deceptive peace for the Republic. The star
spanning government appears outwardly strong, but it is
rotting from within.
The respected Senator Palpatine is, in truth, the sinister Sith
Lord, Darth Sidious. Lurking unsuspected among his peers,
he plots the downfall of the Republic and its defenders, the
Jedi Knights.
Palpatine's true origins have been carefully hidden from
everyone. But now the Sith Lord is about to reencounter the
one person who knows where it all began -- his own father...
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations
created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made, and
no infringement is intended.
The Apprentice Sidious
A prelude to Dark Emperor by Brendon Wahlberg, based on
characters and situations created by George Lucas
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
It is a time of deceptive peace for the Republic. The star
spanning government appears outwardly strong, but it is rotting
from within.
The respected Senator Palpatine is, in truth, the sinister Sith
Lord, Darth Sidious. Lurking unsuspected among his peers, he
plots the downfall of the Republic and its defenders, the Jedi
Knights.
Palpatine's true origins have been carefully hidden from
everyone. But now the Sith Lord is about to reencounter the one
person who knows where it all began -- his own father...
Prologue: 20 years before the Battle of Naboo...
Senator Palpatine was home, and the people of Naboo were glad
to have him back, if only for a brief visit. They listened to
his every word with respect and admiration; their adulation was
impossible for the Senator to miss. He paused in his speech to
bestow a warm smile upon the crowd.
Good looks were not the source of the senior politician's
undeniable charisma. The Senator's face was dominated by a large
nose that jutted over a small mouth and a deeply cleft chin. He
had watery blue eyes below a receding hairline, and a thick mass
of reddish curls behind his head. It was the kindly, mild face
of middle aged man, homely and unremarkable.
Perhaps his strong effect on the crowd arose from his
connection to them. He seemed like one of them, their equal, a
companion who worked tirelessly on their behalf. It was a
message that Palpatine encouraged with his words. "The Republic
needs more of you to follow in my footsteps," he told the crowd.
"The galaxy needs the values of the Naboo people to counter the
rising tide of corruption and disregard for the common good."
The audience proudly murmured their agreement. Their
voices washed across the cavernous audience hall in the Royal
Palace of Theed. Palpatine's gaze swept over the mass of people
and came to rest upon the quiet, silver-haired Queen Breha seated
at his side on the platform. A nearby floating hovercam adjusted
its view to encompass both the Senator and the Queen,
broadcasting images of the popular figures across Theed and far
away to the great city of Keren.
The Senator seemed to address his next remarks to the Queen
herself. "The Republic would benefit from the Naboo traits of
rationalism and nonviolence. All too often, the worlds of the
Republic clamor for war. The galaxy will continue to increase in
needless suffering, without the guidance of those who value
peace, art, and philosophy above destructive power. Our own
history shows that we were able to overcome our own warlike
nature. We must lead others to do the same. I have had some
small success as a voice of reason in the Senate..." The crowd
applauded warmly in support, and Palpatine smiled appreciatively
but humbly. "...but the more voices that are joined to my own,
the louder our message will be. If I can make my voice heard,
despite my humble beginnings, how much more can some of you
accomplish?"
On Naboo, it was well known that as a child, Palpatine had
been an impoverished orphan. It only added to his popularity
that he had taught himself what he needed to know in order to
take up public service in politics at age sixteen. For four
years, he had served the elder Naboo Senator at home. Then he
left Naboo to go to Coruscant with the Senator, who took the
young man into his inner circle and groomed him as a replacement.
"I ask the nobly born among you, those of wealth and
privilege, the leaders of your communities, to consider what I
have said here today," Palpatine concluded. There was more
applause, and many receptive, thoughtful faces looked back at the
Senator. Of course, if the audience knew that the good Senator
was actually Darth Sidious, the only living Dark Lord of the Sith
and a true Master of the dark side of the Force, they would
certainly be justified in questioning his motives for making that
speech.
Lord Sidious knew he wanted to use, and even sacrifice his
people at some point, for the sake of his personal rise to ever
greater power. Among the many possibilities of the future, he
could foresee the pain and suffering of the Naboo along the
pathway of his ascent. But his plans for them were not
immediate. For now, it would help him in general if the Naboo
were to shed their isolationism and expose themselves to the
outside galaxy. At the very least, some of them would be
influenced or corrupted in a way he could later exploit.
Additionally, a significant, though little spoken of, Naboo value
might spread to the rest of the galaxy in exchange, namely the
Naboo penchant for pro-human racism. Palpatine smiled pleasantly
at these thoughts.
That was when he looked down and made direct eye contact
with a man in the front row. The spectator looked back at
Palpatine with intense interest. The Senator took in the man's
long, thin face, and tall, lanky shape. He didn't seem to fit
among the well dressed audience. His modest clothing contrasted
with the elegant attire of his neighbors, and with Palpatine's
own expensive blue and green cloaked and vested finery. It was
as if he had snuck in where he did not belong.
For a suspended moment, the Senator and the stranger gazed
at one another. Then Palpatine took a step backwards, his mouth
falling open. In the space between one second and the next, the
man was no longer a stranger. A lock clicked open in Palpatine's
mind, and a door of memory opened. He found himself looking down
from the high platform at his aging father.
The usually calm and collected Senator was shaken. He
realized he had not spoken for half a minute. People were
beginning to notice. He broke eye contact with his father, who
did nothing but continue to stare openly, an expression of wonder
dawning on his face.
Palpatine glanced hastily around the crowd. Pulling
himself together for a moment, he managed to speak to the
hovercam. "Thank you all very much for coming here today. I
look forward to speaking with many of you individually before I
return to Coruscant. But for now, I regret I must leave your
company." He quickly bowed to Queen Breha, who looked at him
with a strange expression. Palpatine spun on his boot heels and
strode away from the platform. His thoughts reeling, he hurried
into the columned hallways of the Palace, not even seeing those
who stepped aside to make way for him. The eyes of his father
seemed to float in front of him all the way to his private rooms.
Palpatine shoved the heavy door to slam shut behind him. He
began to pace across the red carpet next to the scarlet
bedspread. Finally, he sat down on the bed to try to regain his
composure. It was no use. His father. He had seen his father.
Chaotic memories rushed to his mind, undesired but unstoppable.
He was drawn steadily into a past he had tried to forget, a time
of weakness he had rejected and buried. He stared blindly at the
red dÈcor he favored, and all at once, the memories crystallized,
focusing on the image of an old red cap, a cap his mother had
made and given to him, a cap which he had last seen a lifetime
and another world ago...
* * *
Part One: Naboo
50 years before the Battle of Naboo...
Ten year old Espaa Pestage, the boy who would one day name
himself Ethril Palpatine, sat in his favorite place at the edge
of the cliff, and dangled his red cap above the long drop visible
between his legs. The cap, his favorite item of clothing in his
favorite color, was a gift from his mother, and a comfort to him.
The dangerous, beckoning fall in front of him was not a comfort,
but he liked to sit there nonetheless. He often wondered what it
would feel like to fly downwards, before and after he hit the
rocks below. Sitting there gave his life an element of danger, a
small thrill he could control. That was sometimes necessary in
the rather dull Naboo wilderness where he lived.
The warm colors of sunset drenched the cliff face with its
rough ledges and natural stone stairways, creating a multitude of
interesting shadows that Espaa loved to watch. Behind the boy,
wide gravel road wound its way up to his house. It was a lonely,
mountainous region, with no other homes or people living there.
Espaa didn't mind the isolation. By nature, he was a
loner, a moody child who his mother gently accused of being too
sensitive. He favored the solitary arts of reading and painting.
When, rarely, other children came to their home, Espaa tended to
shun them until their families concluded their business with his
mother and left.
Espaa was a small child, thin and pale, with a serious
face, and wavy brownish-blond hair. His yellow eye color was
quite rare among humans. He wore loose clothing with bloused
sleeves and pants, and knee-high boots, all colored in shades of
brown and gray. The red cap was the only bright thing he wore.
At the moment, Espaa was thinking about the dream he had
had last night. In it, a Jedi, robed and menacing, had come to
take him away. When he had told Gemsaa, his mother, about the
nightmare in the morning, she had hugged him, and told him that
dreams cannot tell the future. Yes, the Force sometimes allowed
a trained Jedi to glimpse what might come to pass, but Espaa was
neither trained nor a Jedi. His mother had promised again to
keep him safe from the Jedi, and apologized for letting her
concerns give him nightmares. She had told him not to worry.
Espaa couldn't help but worry. He knew he was Force-
sensitive, and he knew that part of the reason his family lived
so far away from the city was so that the Jedi wouldn't discover
him. Any Jedi might sense his potential if they came close
enough. His mother and father didn't want him to be taken to the
Jedi Temple against their will. They thought it was horrible,
the way the Jedi broke up families and removed helpless children
from their homes in order to train them in the Force. Usually,
those children never saw their parents again. From the day his
mother told Espaa about this, he had been afraid it would happen
to him.
Espaa's mother had a low opinion of the Jedi in general,
even though she was a Jedi healer herself. Gemsaa saw the Jedi
Order, and especially the Jedi Council, as isolated and arrogant.
She claimed they had forgotten how to help the people who needed
them. In obeying their strict code, they refused to step in when
they should help, and interfered when they should not. Gemsaa
shared these views with her son frequently, and that combined
with Espaa's fears to give him a strong dislike for the Jedi
without his ever having seen one.
Hiding Espaa was not the only way in which Gemsaa defied
her Order. Ignoring a rule that she found especially offensive,
Gemsaa was happily married to Espaa's father, Sate Pestage.
Espaa had never understood why Jedi were so strongly discouraged
from falling in love and marrying. Like so many of their rules,
it made no sense. It was obvious to Espaa that his parents loved
each other very much, and that they both loved him. That was what
a family was all about. Were the Jedi anti-family? If so, how
could they call themselves good?
Espaa couldn't stand the thought of being taken from his
family, especially from his mother. In a way, he felt as if he
owned his mother. She was his. As long as he had her, he really
didn't need anyone else. Through the Force, Espaa and his mother
could sometimes sense each other's feelings. That enhanced their
bond in a way that was impossible for Espaa and his non-Force-
sensitive father.
Although he never said it out loud, his father was less
important than his mother was to him. He was more distant from
his father, who was as introverted as Espaa. This similarity
pushed them apart instead of drawing them together. While Espaa
read history, Sate, a scholar of government studies, would do his
research. Both of them spent days without really talking to each
other in a meaningful way. It was up to Gemsaa, who was so
different from both of them, to draw her family together from
time to time. They needed some togetherness, living as they did
so far from others.
The other reason the Pestage family lived in the
wilderness, far away from Theed, was that Gemsaa's healing skills
with the Force were so well known. Her curative powers were so
great that her fame spread far and wide in a short time. Her
reputation reached to other planets. When they lived in Theed,
so many sick people in need of her talents came to her, that she
was overwhelmed. To cut down on the sheer number of supplicants
and attain some peace and privacy, she insisted years ago that
her family move to the mountains. Now, despite the distance,
people still came to her for healing, traveling by landspeeder or
atmospheric craft. But there were fewer of them, and Gemsaa felt
she could handle that.
Sometimes Espaa worried that his mother might be too much
like the Jedi she disliked. Like the Jedi, she isolated herself.
Weren't there people she didn't help, who didn't know where she
was, or who couldn't make the trip out to see her? But then
Espaa told himself that she was nothing like the awful Jedi. She
did help everyone who came to her, without question, while the
Jedi refused those in need because of their code. Obviously, his
mother understood the code better than the Jedi back on Coruscant
did.
Espaa never wanted to see Coruscant or the Jedi. But he
couldn't get the nightmare out of his head. The Jedi in his
dream had been powerful, dark, and irresistible. There had been
nothing Espaa could do to escape being taken away. His mother
might say it was just a dream, born out of anxiety, but it felt
real.
Then, as if in answer to his thoughts, the setting sun's
light glinted redly off of a distant approaching starship, flying
low through the atmosphere towards his home. Espaa stood up and
put on his cap, staring intently at the growing shape. A wave of
cold fear washed through him. It was a ship, coming for him. It
was his dream, coming true. It was the Jedi, coming to take him
away at last. Espaa swallowed against a suddenly dry throat and
watched the ship until there was no doubt of its direction. Then,
he turned and ran as fast as he could up the rocky slope to find
his mother.
* * *
Senator Palpatine did not want to remember what had
happened next, but he understood why those particular events were
coming back to him. He had just found his father for the first
time since he had lost his family. Finding ever goes hand in
hand with losing...
* * *
In the Pestage family home, a single story, many-roomed
complex that perched atop the highest point of the small
mountain, Espaa's parents were sharing a tender moment in the
kitchen, embracing each other closely. The evening meal was
over, and there was time for simple relaxation. Sate Pestage
towered above his smaller wife. In the Naboo fashion, he wore a
brown leather vest, with bloused sleeves and pant legs above high
boots. His pointed chin rested on Gemsaa's long light brown
hair. Gemsaa was smiling and reaching up to run her fingers
through her husband's thick black hair. Sate's hands were gentle
upon her multi-layered gown of simple fabric and flower patterned
embroidery.
All at once, Gemsaa sensed her son's fear. She turned to
face him as he burst frantically into the room. As soon as
Gemsaa and Sate saw the look on their son's face, they separated,
and knelt by him. "Espaa, what is it?" asked Gemsaa.
"A ship, coming here! Like in my dream! It's the Jedi,
coming to take me away from you!" Espaa squirmed when Gemsaa
tried to hold him. He was too scared to stand still.
Gemsaa and Sate listened, and they could hear the sound of
a ship's engines, growing steadily louder. "There is a ship,"
said Sate. "I wonder who it could be? Someone needing to be
healed, I imagine."
"Listen to your father, Espaa," said Gemsaa. "I know
you're worried about the Jedi. But it isn't them. I'm sorry I
got you so upset. Try to calm down, all right?" She looked
directly into her son's yellow eyes, and he settled down a
little. She regretted sharing so many of her fears with her
young son. Now they had gotten to him and troubled him deeply.
Granted, there was always a very small chance that Espaa might be
discovered by the Jedi as having a high Force potential, but
rationally, she thought that living in the mountains would
prevent that from ever happening. Furthermore, the older he got,
the less likely it was that the Jedi would want him even if he
was discovered. The Council frowned on training older children.
And so, Gemsaa felt guilty for troubling Espaa when there was
probably nothing to worry about.
Still...there was something about the look in Espaa's eyes
that troubled Gemsaa in turn. He still looked afraid, and there
was a certainty in his expression that seemed so adult, it gave
her pause. In response to that, Gemsaa reached out with the
Force to the approaching ship. What she sensed surprised her.
Standing up suddenly, she startled both Espaa and Sate. She
looked in the direction of the ship, even though the kitchen's
wall stopped her vision. There was a Jedi on the ship, but only
one, and she didn't think he was going to be interested in her
son at all. The Jedi was dying.
Just in case, she told Espaa to stay inside the house, stay
out of sight, and watch from the window. It was a plan they had
developed long ago, when Espaa was much younger, and a Jedi
visitor was a greater threat. Espaa had an escape route through
the back of the house, and out into the mountain pathways if
necessary. At the moment, however, Espaa wasn't thinking of
flight. He was older now, and part of him wanted to stay and
fight with his parents if necessary. The Jedi were not going to
take him easily, he vowed.
Sate and Gemsaa went out to meet the ship. It was a long,
narrow Republic Cruiser with three large engines and a huge
sensor dish at the rear, and it was coming in for a clumsy
landing. Dropping too fast towards the wide, sloping road, the
ship was using braking jets instead of gentle repulsors. It
settled heavily with a reverberating crash in a cloud of dust and
flying gravel.
The dust cloud billowed past Sate and Gemsaa, sending them
into coughing fits while the cruiser's engines shut down in the
distance. When they could see the ship again, they waited
patiently for the boarding ramp amidships to lower. But other
than the random noises of the ship settling, there were no
sounds. Aside from the dust drifting, there was no movement. The
ship's exterior lights blinked in the dusk. Sate and Gemsaa
stood expectantly. Espaa watched nervously from the window,
peeking over the sill. Gemsaa glanced back at him, still sensing
his fear.
When Gemsaa's comlink beeped, she jumped. Staring at the
ship with apprehension, she removed the device from her belt and
held it up. The voice which emerged was weak but gruff. "This is
Master Usby Thape calling Gemsaa Pestage. I demand to speak to
her at once."
Gemsaa scowled in surprise. Master Thape, of all people!
He was the second most powerful Jedi Master on the Council, and
the one Gemsaa disliked the most. She looked at her husband, and
Sate frowned back at her. He knew how stubborn, self-righteous,
and self-important Thape was, from the times Gemsaa had
complained about her years at the Temple. The man embodied
everything Gemsaa thought was wrong with the Jedi. Reluctantly,
she spoke tersely into the comlink. "This is Gemsaa. What do
you want?" At the same time, she half turned back to the house,
her hand ready to give the signal to Espaa to flee.
The officious sounding reply brought her up short, and she
lowered her hand slowly. "Don't bother to hide that child of
yours. I'm not here about him. The council has known about him
for a long time. We're just not interested." Thape gave a
ragged cough. "Why would we want to train the offspring of a
rebel we expelled years ago, a child who is far too old to be
molded into a proper Jedi anyway? I'm here about one thing, and
one thing only -- my own survival. I'm dying, you see, and I
demand that you heal me."
Gemsaa, offended, answered with equal rudeness. "Why
should I help you? I know what you think of me-"
"Good," Thape interrupted. "Let's not waste time
pretending to respect each other. You're not a Jedi anymore, but
you can still serve the Jedi. You're a healer. I need help, and
you're the only one who can give it to me." He coughed again,
sounding pained. "As much as I dislike having to ask you, I have
no choice. I'll be dead before I reach another healer, and the
Jedi can't afford to lose me. So, will you do it?"
Gemsaa was speechless for a moment. Sate put a supportive
hand on her shoulders. She drew strength from his touch,
collecting her thoughts. "I need a moment, Master Thape," she
said into the comlink with as much dignity as she could muster.
"I'm turning this off so I can speak privately with my husband."
Gemsaa emphasized the last word.
But when she turned off the comlink, giving Thape no chance
to protest, Gemsaa fell silent, deep in thought. Sate let her
think, standing by patiently at her side. The only sound was the
beeping of the comlink as Thape tried to call her back without
success.
Gemsaa concentrated on the problem at hand, fighting back
her dislike of the Jedi Master. Her feelings about him were
irrelevant. He was a person in need of healing who had come to
her for help. She was a healer. It was what she did, and who
she was. She couldn't turn down his request. Besides, now she
knew that Espaa was in no danger of being taken away, and once
the Jedi Master was healed and on his way back to Coruscant, her
family could go back to their lives with one major worry removed.
"I think I have to help him," Gemsaa said to her husband,
"whether he deserves it or not." Sate nodded his understanding,
giving her a squeeze of approval. She had never turned a patient
away before, and this time would be no different. At least
Sate's admiration of her would be intact, and even increased by
her choice to be generous to an old bastard like Usby Thape.
When Sate looked at her, he saw a good and beautiful woman who
was full of light. She loved him for that, and many other things
as well.
Gemsaa motioned Espaa to come and stand with them.
Hesitantly, disbelieving, he emerged from hiding and stood in the
doorway. At her insistent gesture, he walked up to stand behind
her.
Turning on the comlink again, Gemsaa called on her reserves
of patience. "Master Thape," she said, "what seems to be the
problem?"
"I'm dying, that's the problem," Thape said sarcastically.
"Would you like to trade places with me? No? Then perhaps you
can use your Jedi skills to save my life."
"I meant, what's wrong with you?" Gemsaa asked, gritting
her teeth.
"Come on board, and then maybe you can tell me," Thape said
weakly. "I'll respect your judgment, even though you don't
follow the Jedi code. You have a good reputation for being able
to heal exotic diseases. I have to trust in that, especially if
I want to live. And I do, let me tell you that...I do. After
seeing the way the others died..."
"Is your disease exotic? What was the infectious agent?
Tell me what you know, before I come on board." Gemsaa wanted to
know as much as possible before she risked the dangers of an
alien virus or bacterium.
"It isn't any kind of microorganism," Thape replied. "Our
biosafety scanners and containment systems are top of the line.
This is a diplomatic ship, which has to land on all sorts of
planets, with all the diseases you could imagine. The truth is,
I have no idea what it is that's killing me."
"Where did it come from, then?" Gemsaa demanded.
"We picked it up on our way to Ophichi for the peace
conference. We had to come out of hyperspace to plot another
jump, and as we passed an uncharted world, we sensed an enormous
disturbance in the Force emanating from it. Our mistake was to
land and investigate. None of us was a scientist, but once we
took a look around, we could see that something awful was
starting to happen to that place. It was like the entire
ecosystem was sick, and beginning to die. Trees, birds, animals,
insects. Bacteria too for all we knew. Fear of illness, plus the
terrible feeling in the Force, made us get out of there quickly.
The ship's scanners said we hadn't picked up any infections, so
we continued on our way. But this was something new, something
the scanners weren't programmed for, I think." Thape fell
silent, but Gemsaa could still hear his hoarse breathing. He
needed to rest before saying more.
"A day later, before we could reach our destination, Master
Solannan got sick. Then Master Arc-shan. Finally, I did too. At
first, we wanted to keep going, but when Master Solannan died,
Arc-shan and I decided to find a Force healer before it was too
late. You were the most famous, and the closest. This is no
ordinary sickness. It has something to do with the Force.
Before they died, the other Masters lost their connection to the
Force. I can feel mine weakening now. I don't have much time."
Gemsaa considered the information. There certainly was the
danger of the unknown on that ship. But she trusted her
abilities; she was a healer, and a patient needed help. The
decision was made.
"Very well, Master Thape," Gemsaa said into the comlink.
"I'm coming aboard as soon as I get my instruments." She kept a
variety of advanced medical tools in the house, knowing that
sometimes, the Force was not enough to get the job done.
When Gemsaa turned to walk back up to the house, however,
she found Espaa blocking her way. "Don't go on that ship,
Mother," he insisted. "Not if you could get sick and die too.
He's just a Jedi, right? He's not worth it, is he?"
Suddenly annoyed, Gemsaa frowned at her son and went around
him. But Espaa followed her closely all the way to her bedroom,
pestering her all the while. Sate Pestage trailed behind at a
distance. With her medical backpack in hand, Gemsaa turned on
her clingy son. "That's enough, Espaa. I've made up my mind.
Just...stop bothering me about it. This is my job. It doesn't
matter that he's a Jedi. He needs my help. I hope you can
understand that. Would you like it if someone refused to help
me, just because I used to be part of the Jedi order too?"
"I don't care who he is!" Espaa admitted. "I just don't
want you to go on the ship."
"Why not?" Gemsaa confronted him seriously.
Espaa faltered. "I don't know. I just...it's like a bad
feeling or something. Like I'm going to lose you." His mother
softened. "Espaa. I love you, and I'm glad you worry about me."
She looked at the concerned face of her husband, who was standing
in the bedroom doorway. "You too. But please, both of you. Just
let me work. The sooner I get started, the sooner we can get rid
of that...that old monster."
Espaa still protested, but she silenced him for the time
being with a warm hug. She gave the same to her husband. Gemsaa
passed the comlink to Sate. "Keep in touch with me on this. I
really don't know what I'm going to find in there. I may need
something I don't have with me." She gave him a long kiss. "Wish
me luck."
"May the Force be with you," Sate said, surprising her. He
rarely said anything about the Force, or her Jedi past. She
nodded gratefully, and went past him out the door. As Gemsaa
walked down the rocky road to the Republic Cruiser, she heard
Espaa come running out of the house after her. She turned and
sternly pointed back towards the house, stopping him in his
tracks. He stood still while she drew close to the ship and
waited for the boarding ramp to lower. Gemsaa took one last look
at her son's fearful face, and walked up into the ship where Usby
Thape had quarantined himself. The ramp raised itself behind
her, sealing the healer in.
Gemsaa took a lift to the upper level, and walked down a
short deserted corridor to the cockpit. There were three chairs
there, and Usby Thape was slumped in one of them. Gemsaa had
seen sickness many times, but she was still shocked at his
condition. Her memory of the robust Jedi Master could not be
reconciled with this wasted, corpse-like figure. Once an
overweight man, he was now shrunken and deflated.
Thape coughed and summoned his energy to talk "About time
you got here," he said gruffly. "Now get to work. I haven't got
all day." He choked out a grim little laugh.
"Where is the crew?" Gemsaa demanded. "And where are the
other two bodies?"
"There was no crew. The Ophichi Council refused to let any
Republic people on their planet, except the Jedi. So we came
alone. Arc-shan was the pilot, I was the co-pilot. I had to
space my friends when they died..."
Gemsaa nodded, and took out her diagnostic scanner.
Kneeling next to Thape, she ran it across his body several times,
then waited for a read-out. When she saw the results, Gemsaa
gasped. "Full body necrosis," she said out loud. Thape had
widespread cellular death in every part of his body. Diagnosis
unknown, the scanner reported. Gemsaa agreed. Nothing she had
ever heard of could do this to a person. Gemsaa used the scanner
again to check for any kind of infection. She shook her head and
frowned when it found nothing. No foreign bacteria or viruses.
Remembering what Thape had said about losing his connection
to the Force, she decided to examine the Force-sensitive node in
his brain. She closed her eyes and reached out with the Eyes of
the Force, peering into Thape's dying body. Navigating though his
brain tissue, she found the node where normally, a heavy
concentration of midi-chlorians marked a Jedi as sensitive to the
Force. Usby Thape's node was nearly destroyed. That part of his
brain seethed with corruption and decay. The midi-chlorians
themselves, usually so easy for Gemsaa to see with the Force,
were completely gone. No, Gemsaa realized with horror, not gone,
but changed into something else. Changed into a deadly disease.
Gemsaa opened her eyes and looked into Thape's wasted face.
"You are dying," she confirmed. "You're losing the Force because
your midi-chlorians are altered. They are what's killing you."
"Midi-chlorians?" Thape scoffed. "Not that old theory.
Pseudo-scientific nonsense if you ask me. Does nothing to
explain the central mystery of the Force."
Midi-chlorians were symbiotic microorganisms that lived
within the cells of all creatures. It was believed by many Jedi
that the organisms somehow acted as intermediaries between a Jedi
and the Force, helping to communicate with the Force or to access
the energy of the Force. They were discovered a few centuries
ago, when Jedi scientists correlated midi-chlorian numbers with
sensitivity to the Force. The numbers depended on the genetic
make-up of the host's cells -- if the specific host biology could
support a lot of midi-chlorians, a lot lived in that host. This
helped to explain why some Jedi were more sensitive to the Force
than others. Midi-chlorians could live in many cell types. They
could concentrate in brain cells, creating what the Jedi knew as
a Force-sensitive node. They could also concentrate in the
blood, and great loss of blood could temporarily weaken a Jedi's
connection to the Force.
What was happening to Thape was much worse then losing
blood midi-chlorian levels. "It doesn't matter what you believe
about them," Gemsaa said. "They're real, and they're killing
you."
"Killing me how?" Thape asked.
Gemsaa shook her head. "I don't know. Somehow your midi-
chlorians have been changed into pathogens. Like disease-causing
bacteria, they're deadly to you now. This is affecting your
whole body because midi-chlorians live in almost all of your
cells. This is very bad, Master Thape. There may be nothing I
can do. But I will try."
Thape looked back at her with watery eyes. "Do your best,"
he told her. "I don't want to die." Then he fell silent, to
conserve his resources.
For the next two hours, Gemsaa used all of her power in the
Force to try to heal the Jedi Master. She sent invisible energy
into his body to give him strength, and looked deep into his
ravaged organs. Everywhere, there was destruction. It seemed to
her that none of his systems could be saved. Thape was going to
die from many causes all at once.
Gemsaa wondered how he was still coherent enough to talk to
her, and to show any of his old personality. She marveled at his
will power, and felt his stubborn strength in the Force. He
clung to life and refused to die. Within him, the few blood
midi-chlorians that were left were changing one by one. It was
as if some sort of chemical signal passed from the altered
symbionts to the healthy ones, telling them to change as well.
It was like an unstoppable chain reaction.
Gemsaa tried to sense what had been done to the midi-
chlorians, so she could try to change them back. But her
attempts were to no avail. The altered symbionts were too alien
for her to understand. The wave of death swept through the Jedi
Master, and Gemsaa was unable to stand against it.
Lost in her efforts, Gemsaa only gradually became aware of
a growing weakness in her own connection to the Force. She found
that she could see less clearly into Thape's body. Her sense of
his life energy began to dim. At first, she thought that Thape
was dying at that moment, but she opened her eyes and saw that he
was stable, thanks to her support.
Turning her Force senses inwards, Gemsaa made a dismaying
discovery. Whatever the signal was that had spread throughout
Thape's body, it had now crossed through the air over to her
body. She had the disease too.
Gemsaa backed fearfully away from Thape, but there was
nowhere to go to escape her fate. With the knowledge of a Force
healer, she was compelled to accept the truth of what had
happened to her. She also had to confront the truth of what
could happen to others. Evidently, this disease could spread
easily from one Jedi to another, because of their high midi-
chlorian levels. Such a thing could eventually wipe out the
Jedi. All of the Jedi. Midi-chlorians, once an excellent
predictor of Force sensitivity, would become an excellent
predictor of mortality. Although Gemsaa disliked the Jedi Order,
the thought of that much death horrified her. Then she thought
about Thape's story of the dying planetary ecosystem he had
found. Midi-chlorians existed in high levels within the Jedi,
that was true, but in fact, all living things possessed the
symbionts to some degree. This disease threatened all life.
Gemsaa swallowed her fear and redoubled her efforts to
fight the change within her body. There must be a way to stop
the disease, she thought. But even though her sickness was in an
early stage, she could feel it progressing rapidly. The change
in her cells was spreading much faster than it had for Master
Thape. With a perverse sense of satisfaction, Gemsaa realized
that her own midi-chlorian levels must be much higher than his.
Then she remembered that her son's levels were very, very high,
although he didn't know it. If Espaa was to come in contact with
her, his life would be in grave danger.
Nothing Gemsaa tried had any effect. The altered symbionts
were shadowy and slippery to her Force sense, and she could not
affect them or rid her body of them. At the same time, her
healing powers steadily weakened. The more she struggled, the
less she could do. Finally, she simply ran out of strength.
Usby Thape had fallen asleep. Feeling weary and
emotionally numb, Gemsaa woke him up. "There's nothing I can do
for you," she admitted. "I tried everything. All I did was
manage to get the disease myself. I only hope it's not too late
for me to fight it off."
Thape sagged in final acceptance. He offered no apology or
sympathy, and Gemsaa knew better than to ask for it. "I want
some time alone," he said, "to record and transmit a message for
my Padawan."
"All right," Gemsaa said. "I'll go to the lower deck and
leave you here. I want to talk to my family too." She stood and
stumbled out of the cockpit, as Thape reached for the comm
system. Pausing near the lift, Gemsaa stood quietly and
eavesdropped on the Jedi Master.
In a faint, halting voice she had to strain to hear, Usby
dictated a message for his Padawan, Mace Windu, who had not come
with him on the mission. Gemsaa knew that Thape was very
conservative and that he preached strict observance of the Jedi
Code. He strongly disapproved of those who followed their
feelings to do what they saw fit, even to the point of defying
the Council. To Thape, those Jedi were loose cannons and
vigilantes who threatened the Jedi order. That was why Thape
condemned Gemsaa even as she tried to save him.
Thape's words were therefore no surprise to her. "...and
as I am dying, this is my last request to the Jedi Council," he
was saying softly, and weakly. "I ask that my seat be given to
my former Padawan, Mace Windu. Mace, I beg you to adhere to the
Code as I did. Let it guide you in everything you do. Live by
it. Please...resist those who want to bring change to the Order.
It is... change... that may be the undoing of us all."
Gemsaa had heard enough. She stepped into the lift and
dropped one level. She needed to talk to her husband and son.
She needed to regain her strength so she could keep fighting her
illness. She needed to get away from the hopeless figure in the
cockpit, the sight of which threatened to rob her of hope.
At the comm station in the salon pod, Gemsaa spent an hour
talking to her husband. They spoke about their years together,
and their hopes for their son. Espaa had been put to bed, though
she knew he must not be sleeping. She told Sate that she
wouldn't give up, but inside, she could feel her connection to
the Force ebbing as her pain grew.
Then Gemsaa began a grim vigil, seated alone in silence on
the tomblike ship's cold floor, marshalling all of her skill,
knowledge, and power in the Force against the disease. At times,
she was delirious, talking to phantom images of her family. At
other times, she passed out. But she never stopped trying to
hold back the destructive tide within her. The night was an
eternity.
In the morning, Gemsaa awoke in terrible pain. She could
no longer feel the Force. Unable to stand, she had to drag
herself to the lift. In the cockpit, she found Usby Thape dead,
and the last of her hope was snuffed out. Gemsaa pulled herself
up into the copilot's chair, and reached for the comm system.
* * *
While his father spoke privately to his mother by comlink,
Espaa nearly went crazy with worry and impatience. He was not
allowed to listen in, but he could sense that his father was very
upset. Waves of sadness were emanating from the normally placid
Sate Pestage. Unable to stand it any longer, Espaa rushed up to
his father. Sate didn't look at his son; he only handed him the
comlink and walked away, hunched over.
Espaa gripped the comlink tightly. "Mother? Are you all
right?"
His mother's voice was extremely weak. "It's so good to
hear your voice, Espaa. I love you so much. I just want you to
know that."
"What's happening? Please, tell me!" Espaa watched his
father close the bedroom door behind him.
Gemsaa didn't answer right away. When she did speak, her
voice was dull and resigned. "This is goodbye, son. I'm dying.
I tried to stop it... but I couldn't."
"That Jedi made you sick," Espaa said, stunned.
"If this disease escapes the ship," Gemsaa said, her voice
almost a whisper, "all of Naboo would be in danger. It would
kill you, Espaa. I can't let that happen. I have to make
sure... it never gets out. Have to go into the sun...while I
still can. I love you. Please, you and Sate... take care of each
other..."
Espaa heard a clatter over the comlink as his mother
dropped it. Then he heard a building whine, both over the
comlink and outside. The ship's engines were starting up. Espaa
ran wildly out of the house and down the mountain road. But
there was nothing he could do. The Republic Cruiser lifted off
majestically, taking his mother with it as he screamed for her to
come back.
* * *
Senator Palpatine now clearly remembered sitting in the
dust of that road and feeling his mother's death through the
Force. She had jumped the ship to hyperspace when it was aimed at
the Naboo system's sun. Her ending was instantaneous, saving her
from the long suffering experienced by Usby Thape. Espaa's
suffering was just beginning.
At the moment of her passing, he had felt like he was being
torn in two. The part of him that was his close connection to
his mother was gone, leaving him with a shattered void inside.
At first, knowing his mother had vanished into the sun, he raged
at its blinding light. But as soon as he had time to think, he
placed the blame for his loss squarely upon the Jedi. Espaa had
always been afraid of losing his mother. He expected that he
would be taken from her, not the other way around. But no matter
how it had happened, she was gone forever, and it had happened
because of the Jedi. That reality provoked a burning anger, and
his life-long hatred of the Jedi was born in that anger.
As a Sith, Palpatine now understood the path to the dark
side very well -- it was paved with fear and anger. But as a
child, he had not understood what was beginning that day.
Because of Espaa's powerful latent Force sensitivity and his rage
at the Jedi, the dark side of the Force began to flow through
him. Without any warning or past teaching about the dark side,
Espaa did not even know what was happening to him. There was no
way that he could sense it, but his anger produced an enormous
disturbance in the Force, which was sensed by a dark being far
across the galaxy.
At that time, the only living Dark Lord of the Sith was an
old woman named Darth Shado. She lived in the hidden Monastery
of the Sith on the isolated planet Horuz. There Shado was
attended by lesser Sith devotees and dark side adepts. She had
been looking for an apprentice to carry on the Sith tradition for
years, since the death of her own Master. It was Shado who
sensed Espaa's rage, newly fed by the dark side. She knew she
had found her apprentice, and immediately, she set out on a
journey to find him. Palpatine knew what critical and essential
events had followed from that moment, thus all of his suffering
had been for a greater purpose. He felt no pity for the boy he
once was.
* * *
A month passed on Naboo, and the new year arrived for Espaa
and Sate Pestage without celebration. Father and son had become
even more distant from each other, each one grieving alone.
Gemsaa had been the common factor that drew them together. Now
that she was gone, Sate neglected his son, and withdrew from life
into a deep depression that effectively blinded him to the
changes in Espaa.
Espaa had taken to sleeping in the daytime and sitting
alone by the cliffs at night. He was irrationally shunning the
sun, resentful of it for reminding him of the death of his
mother. It was her ever burning grave, and he could not bring
himself to look at it.
Darth Shado had already arrived on Naboo and was making her
way to the home of the boy who had created such a powerful tremor
in the Force. His ongoing anger and pain led her into the
wilderness of the planet, away from any human or Gungan
settlements, to a lonely house in the mountains. The boy was
like a beacon of darkness, a slowly growing concentration of dark
side energy. She had to find him soon, while he was still
ignorant of his power. A child with that much newly acquired
Force power could be quite dangerous to himself. He might even
destroy himself, and deprive the Sith of a promising apprentice
whom Darth Shado needed very much.
For Lord Shado, time and life were running out. Her
Master, Darth Nihilus, had died a decade ago from the old-age-
like withering of the dark side, the physical price a Sith paid
for the power given to him. Now Shado was afflicted with the
same accelerated decrepitude. Though she was not yet seventy,
she looked and felt as if she was well over one hundred years
old. But the power of the Force still burned within her as
strongly as ever. She was the Dark Lord of the Sith, and she
truly deserved that title. However, if she could not pass on her
knowledge to an apprentice before she died, all of it would be
wasted. She thought she might have a scant decade of life left
to her. This boy from Naboo might well be her last, best chance
to assure the survival of the Sith legacy.
Darth Shado needed the boy, and the boy needed her. One
like him came along so rarely. His potential must not be wasted.
The dark side responded so easily and potently to him, as if it
had chosen him, instead of him choosing the dark path. Having
dreamt of the boy even before she felt the Force disturbance
emanating from this world, Shado believed his destiny lay with
the Sith. With her guidance, he would be the next Dark Lord after
her.
It was late in the afternoon when a weary Shado finally
approached the mountain house, tired from the exertion of
following her Force sense all the way from Horuz, and then
overland to this mountain. The boy's home was silent, and seemed
deserted. In such a desolate area, the Dark Lord did not need to
conceal her presence. She walked up the center of the rock
strewn road, and, with uncharacteristic openness, stepped boldly
up to the front door and knocked sharply on it.
For several minutes, there was no response. With stony
patience, Shado rapped on the door again. At last, she sensed a
slow stirring within the house. The door opened to reveal a tall
man with a pale face and a hollow stare. He blinked in the
sunlight as if unaccustomed to it. The room behind him was
neglected and in disarray.
"Who are you?" Shado demanded in a sharp tone that partly
shook the man out of his depressed lethargy.
"I'm Sate Pestage. What do you want? Healing? There's no
healing here anymore. She's gone. Go look somewhere else."
Pestage tried to close the door in Shado's face. She blocked it
open with the Force, and he pulled on it futilely. Taken aback,
the man tried to peer into Shado's deep black hood. "Who are
you?" he asked nervously.
"I am here for your son," Shado told him. "I have come to
take him away so that he may fulfill a very important destiny.
Tell me where he is, so that I may speak to him."
Pestage scowled at her as if she was a senile old woman.
"Take my son away? Are you crazy? Don't you know we just had a
death in our family? We have enough grief without you bothering
us. Go away, and leave us alone!" Unable to close the door,
Pestage tried to retreat into the house. Darth Shado stopped him
with a wave of her hand, which hooked out like a claw from the
long sleeve of her voluminous black robe. Pestage froze and
stared into space. Shado hated the sight of her spotted,
shriveled, and nearly translucent skin. Her gnarled, bony fingers
settled gently atop Pestage's head. "Now we will see what we
need to see," Shado muttered.
The Dark Lord entered Pestage's mind with ease. He had no
mental shields to hinder her, and his grief-stricken thoughts
were painfully close to the surface. Shado immediately learned
everything that had happened in the past month. She saw the
arrival of the Jedi Master, the wife's attempt to heal him, and
her subsequent death. She saw that the boy, Espaa, still lived
at the house, and that he had developed a nocturnal lifestyle.
She saw that it would be easy to take him, for neither Sate
Pestage nor Espaa could hope to hinder her in any way.
Satisfied, she released Pestage from her mental grip. He
slid to the floor, unconscious. When he awakened, he would
believe he had sent the mysterious woman away for good. Shado
walked slowly away, contemplating the best way to approach Espaa.
When she was far out of sight of the house, she seated herself
stiffly on the ground and slipped into a Sith meditation. All
through the night and the following day, she sat motionless, at
one with the dark side. While she meditated, Sate Pestage
recovered, saw that she was gone, and slowly calmed his
suspicions. Both he and Espaa felt secure enough to resume their
empty routines. That night, the Dark Lord emerged from her
trance, ready to confront her new apprentice.
* * *
The terrible sun had set, and the night was bright with
stars and pale light from Naboo's three moons. Espaa was sitting
alone at the cliff's edge, holding his red cap tightly in his
hands and staring at the multitude of softly twinkling lights in
the sky. The stars, so distant and tiny, did not disturb him the
way the sun did. They had nothing to do with his loss. Instead,
they beckoned him to visit them, to leave his ruined home and
escape his sorrow among them in the blackness.
Espaa heard the sound of a single footstep behind him,
Startled, he spun around and saw a black robed and hooded human
figure standing directly behind him. He gasped, and nearly
tipped over the edge of the cliff, stunned that anyone could
sneak up on him so silently. His first instinct was to run, but
there was literally nowhere to go.
"Stand up, Espaa," said the intruder with the thin, raspy
voice of an old woman.
Trembling, he obeyed her, putting on his cap and stepping
away from the edge of the cliff. Espaa recognized the dark
figure now as the one in his dream, the black-robed Jedi who had
come to take him away from his home and family. Aged hands
pushed back the hood and let the robe fall open. Beneath the
robe, the woman was draped in dusty, shadowy gray tatters of
cloth covered by thin black lace in a web-like pattern. Her
hands, neck, and waist glimmered with darkly glowing gems on
ancient rings and amulets. Her face was that of a gaunt crone,
but it was suffused with terrible dignity, and her eyes were
bright with a frightening vitality.
"You're the one from my dream," Espaa managed to say.
"And you are the one from mine." The woman's mouth was a
razor slit in her stretched, desiccated skin. It formed a tiny
smile of satisfaction. "I am Darth Shado."
"Are you a Jedi?" Espaa asked.
"No. A Sith."
Espaa had heard of the Sith, but he only knew that they
were the ancient nemeses of the Jedi. He considered the
possibility that an enemy of the Jedi might be his friend. "What
do you want from me?" he asked nervously.
"I want you to come with me, Espaa. Join me as my
apprentice. I will teach you the ways of the Sith."
Espaa was intrigued by the prospect of joining enemies of
the Jedi. He wanted revenge against them, but he knew there was
little he could do on his own. However, he did not know this
frightening woman at all, and in person, she filled him with even
more dread than she had in his dream. "I can't go with you,"
Espaa protested. "I live here with my father. I can't just
leave him. He's the only family I have left."
Darth Shado nodded in apparent understanding. "I know what
happened to your mother, Espaa. I know how she died. Let me
share what I know with you." The Dark Lord gracefully formed
Sith illusions in the night air, using the information she had
taken from Sate Pestage's mind. Espaa watched with horror and
growing anger as scenes which he had only been able to imagine
played out before his eyes. He saw how much pain his mother was
in, and how ravaged her body had become in such a short time. He
saw how hateful and selfish the Jedi Master had been, and how he
had used and condemned Espaa's mother to death. He saw the Jedi
finally die from his disease, but that was not enough justice for
Espaa. He shivered with an angry desire for vengeance upon the
Jedi, upon any Jedi, upon all the Jedi. An inner voice seemed to
whisper that one day soon, he would have that vengeance.
"I can feel your anger," the Sith said. "I can give you
the power to take your revenge against the Jedi, if you will come
with me now. I cannot teach you here on Naboo."
Espaa was in turmoil. An intoxicating energy was coursing
through him, responding to his anger, frightening him with its
strength, and exciting him at the same time. The Sith seemed to
understand what was happening, but Espaa did not.
"What's happening to me," Espaa asked, shaking. "Are you
doing this? Why don't you leave me alone? Let me go. I want to
go home!"
"You cannot make this decision by yourself," Shado decided,
"therefore I must make it for you, for the sake of the Sith."
Darth Shado gestured strangely at Espaa, and an overwhelming
feeling of exhaustion came over him. His vision went black, and
he fell immediately into a deep and dreamless sleep.
* * *
Part Two: Horuz
Senator Palpatine felt only disgust that he had once
hesitated to accept his destiny. He was glad that the Dark
Lord's wisdom had forced the issue. Neither his father nor his
home on Naboo was worth what he had gained in their place. Being
back on Naboo now did not instill in Palpatine any feelings of
being home. Home was a concept he had discarded many years ago.
The idea of family had been thrown away at the same time.
On the other hand, why had he had such a strong reaction
to the sight of his father an hour ago? Did his father...Espaa's
father...still mean anything to him? Palpatine told himself that
his reaction was merely the surprise of seeing the man again
after all those years. He had not seen Sate Pestage since that
day, thirty years ago, when Darth Shado came to Naboo seeking her
apprentice. After so long, and after so many changes in
Palpatine's life, how could there be any ties remaining between
them? Certainly, it had just been the unexpectedness of the
encounter that had thrown him off.
The Senator had relinquished all ties to Naboo as a home
long ago, but now that he thought back to his first arrival on
the planet Horuz, he recalled that Espaa had not found it easy to
let go of such attachments...
* * *
Espaa woke up in a small dimly lit round room. He could
see blinking control panels, engine parts, and the sort of
machine clutter that told him he was on a spaceship. He was
seated in one of two acceleration chairs, restrained for flight
but not trapped. He easily opened the buckles and slipped out of
the straps, standing up on wobbly legs. Almost everything was
colored a gloomy rust brown, and the cramped space made Espaa
feel closed in. The only sound was the steady hum of the engine,
and there was no one else in sight.
There were two exits, a closed airlock that presumably led
into the vacuum of space, and a small closed blast door,
presumably leading to the cockpit. Espaa guessed that the Sith
woman was at the controls. Not finding a way to open the door,
he pounded on it, yelling for her to open up. When that didn't
yield a response, Espaa picked up a hydrospanner and used that to
beat on the door. Again, there was no answer. Discouraged,
Espaa dropped the tool and slumped back into the chair.
He felt miserable and angry. Still grieving over his
mother's death, he had been kidnapped and taken from his home by
a total stranger. Now he was on a ship, and he didn't know where
he was going. He missed his father, and most of all, he missed
Gemsaa. At least there was a chance he would get out of this and
see his father again. His mother...never. Espaa touched the red
cap that was all he had left of her. He felt another surge of
anger, thinking about how she had died because of the Jedi. As
angry as Espaa was at Darth Shado for presuming to take him away
like that, it was nothing compared to his fury at the Jedi.
Once again, the quiet voices in his head began to whisper
to him. Espaa had been hearing them more and more over the past
several weeks. They didn't speak to him in words. They were
more like feelings...feelings and ideas. When Espaa felt most
angry about his mother, the whispers came to him quickly and
easily, and they seemed to speak to him about power.
Now an image of Darth Shado flickered across Espaa's
thoughts. He was angry at her for kidnapping him, yes, but
perhaps he should be grateful instead. Standing under the stars,
she had told him that she would teach him the ways of the Sith.
She would give him the power to take his revenge against the
Jedi. Wasn't that exactly what he wanted? The voices whispered,
and hinted at what he could become. He could be a Sith himself.
He could be strong, and terrifying to his enemies. He could rule
over others. Wasn't that what he wanted? Espaa was confused.
He didn't know what he wanted. Too much had happened, too
quickly. Actually, he wanted to go home. Maybe there, he could
sort out his feelings, and decide what to do.
Suddenly, a round cover hiding a transparisteel viewport
slid open with a metallic grinding noise. Espaa stood again and
hesitantly leaned over to peer out the window. He experienced a
jolt of panic at the sight. They were not in space. They were
flying low over the surface of another world. It was too late to
simply go back to Naboo. With a sinking feeling, Espaa realized
he was a fool to think he could go back. Shado had carried out
her threat to take him to her own planet, which could be anywhere
in the galaxy. Espaa was helpless, and at Darth Shado's mercy.
Wherever they were, it was definitely not a hospitable
place. The small ship sped over a smoking, glowing volcanic
landscape, like nothing ever found on Naboo. A haze of simmering
air and toxic gasses lay over a range of fiery cone shapes that
stretched far away over the horizon. As Espaa watched, a volcano
erupted in the distance, sending a hot cloud of ash and magma
cascading down its slope. The ship stayed well clear of the
active region, passing over a long stretch of hardened lava
fields and plateaus. The ground below was littered with sharp
boulders of all sizes. They flew past the cinder cones of
several extinct volcanoes and approached a broad, gently sloping
shield volcano. The ship slowed near the wide vent of the
volcano, and gracefully descended into the crater-pipe.
Espaa watched the walls of the pipe rise past the viewport
until the ship settled gently on the bottom. A minute later, the
ship's ramp lowered, letting in a swirl of hot air. On the other
side of the hold, the cockpit door slid aside, framing Darth
Shado, cloaked in black, a deep hood hiding her face in darkness.
Espaa whirled to face her, fear and accusation warring in his
throat.
Before he could speak, Shado pointed sternly at the ramp.
"We have arrived on Horuz," she said. "Go outside, now."
Espaa stood his ground. "Wait a moment! You have to tell
me what's going on here. We were talking, and you put me to
sleep, didn't you? You kidnapped me, and took me here against my
will."
The Sith woman only pointed, her face inscrutable in the
shadows. Espaa faltered and backed down the ramp, not taking his
eyes off the menacing figure. Shado followed him out, keeping
her distance. Espaa found himself on a rough hardened lava
floor. The air was dry, stifling, and sulfurous. High above, the
open vent of the volcano revealed a sullen red sky. The silvery
ship they had arrived in rested before him. It was indeed quite
small, consisting of a spherical main body and an egg shaped
cockpit. Eight angular landing struts gave the little craft the
shape of a crouching spider. It suited its owner, Espaa thought.
Darth Shado glided past Espaa and gestured for him to
follow. Profoundly anxious, but helpless to do otherwise, he
complied. The Sith woman led him into a series of lava tunnels.
The tunnels were ancient conduits, big enough to walk through,
that had once carried molten lava below the surface, away from
the main volcano. The walls were lined with glow-strips and had
a melted appearance. Old lava stalactites hung from the roofs of
the tunnels, but the floors were flat and well worn. Smaller
tubes branched off from the main one, creating an underground
maze leading in all directions. Espaa was quickly lost.
Stopping to gawk at the high ceiling of a vault-like cavern, he
almost lost sight of the Sith woman as she slipped into another
tunnel. Hurrying after her, he was surprised to hear her speak
gently to him.
"Ask your questions," she told him.
"What is this place?" Espaa said at once.
"This is the monastery for the preservation of the legacy
of the Sith. It is a sanctuary for the Dark Lord of the Sith and
the Apprentice Sith Lord. It is a haven for dark side adepts and
devotees of the Sith tradition."
Emboldened, Espaa replied, "I haven't seen anyone else. How
many people are here?"
"Twenty-eight," said Shado. "Including yourself."
"And all of them are Sith?" Espaa wondered. "No," said
Shado seriously. "Since the time of Darth Bane, a millennium
ago, there have only been two Sith Lords at a time, a Master and
an Apprentice. When there were more, there were power struggles
that nearly wiped out our order. You and I will be the only Sith
here, once you become my apprentice."
"Why me?" Espaa asked defiantly. "Why not one of the other
people already here?"
"Only you have the potential," said Shado. "The others are
mere adepts, lacking your rare gift. They are here because I do
not wish them to be elsewhere. The
"The enemy outnumbers us a paltry three to one. Good odds for any Greek...."
"Spartans. Ready your breakfast and eat hearty--For tonight we dine in hell!" ~ King Leonidas of Sparta.
