Loyalty/Part 12

Lisal hung in space, a dark marble whose nightside was barely marred by the lights that marked sentient civilization. Past the terminator line that had just crept beyond the visible edge of the sphere, the planet's smallest continent was a riot of blue ocean and green forest and grass. No ground control reached out to the starship surveying the world, but this far from the heart of the Empire—or the Core—on an off-Hydian backwater, ground control was a fantasy. Somewhere below—what seemed only millimeters from a clump of light, but was in truth over a hundred kilometers—Darth Alecto had made her lair.

Azeykus Nonzi studied a monitor, then shook his head. "Nothing, my lady."

Lady Basrasht leaned forward from her passenger's chair, scowling out the viewport. "Something."

Azeykus looked like he wanted to argue, but he caught himself at the last minute and amended, "Nothing on the scanners, my lady."

Neun-Jai Vertec saw nothing on any sensor either, but he knew better than to back up his colleague now. Lady Basrasht laced her clawed fingers together, her four, slit-pupiled eyes tightening as they gazed at Lisal and its atmospheric environs. An Annoo-dat Prime, Lady Basrasht dwarfed even Azeykus and Neun-Jai, loath though she was to put her phenomenal physical might to work in direct combat. She traced one sharp tooth with the point of her tongue, then hissed, "Caiacan?"

More than one visitor to Dromund Kaas had made the not-infrequently-fatal mistake of assuming Caiacan Duliys was Lady Basrasht's pet. Neun-Jai would never say it aloud, but he understood where they were coming from—next to Lady Basrasht's bulk and nearly two-and-a-half-meter height, little Caiacan looked like a twig that had sprouted limbs and come to life. The four-armed Xexto unfolded herself in the passenger seat behind Neun-Jai, set her two pairs of palms together, and cocked her head. Neun-Jai felt her stretching out her perceptions—not as subtle as Lady Basrasht's, maybe, or as refined, but broad, her mental sensors sweeping millions of kilometers in a few seconds.

"Something," she decided. "I don't know what it is, but something."

Lady Basrasht nodded, the matter decided. To give Azeykus a moment to swallow his annoyance, Neun-Jai asked, "Do we abort?"

Lady Basrasht hissed. "Of course not. Whether they're aware of the intrusion or not doesn't matter; Alecto's offworld, so now is the time to strike."

"What if her people contact one of the other Sith Lords, Master?" Neun-Jai asked. "Or Darth Hokhtan?"

Those four pitiless eyes narrowed, and Neun-Jai braced himself. "No one but the runaway knows who I am, and she'll be dead soon, and all the others with her. My informant tells me Alecto has tried to keep this little rat hole secret; she won't rush to betray her secrecy, or allow her minions to do it to her.  And that will be their downfall; by the time anyone could come to her aid, we'll be gone."

She left unspoken the additional requirement of the mission—Darth Alecto's other disciples had to die not only to chastise Darth Alecto for sheltering an escapee, but because they knew Azeykus and Neun-Jai's faces. Lady Basrasht had been livid when they had returned empty-handed, and when they had dared to ask what they could have done in the face of an anointed Sith Lord who told them no, her mood had only grown fouler. The past months on Dromund Kaas had been bleak; Neun-Jai had wondered if the constant apprehension, the ever-present fear that Lady Basrasht would erupt and kill him, was how the adepts beneath him felt all the time. She had even been short with Caiacan, which was really saying something.

Until, of course, the mysterious informant had offered her heart's desire on a silver platter; things had been much more pleasant since then.

Lady Basrasht would not name her source, nor tell any of them what deal she had struck for the chance to wound her enemy, but she spoke enough of "shared goals" and "mutual benefit" that Neun-Jai suspected the mole in or around Darth Alecto's camp might consider Darth Alecto's suffering recompense enough.

Lady Basrasht gave the viewport one last glower, then waved a clawed hand as big as Neun-Jai's head. "We're wasting time. Go."

Azeykus pointed the ship's nose toward the heart of the largest continent while Neun-Jai followed their progress on the monitor, keeping one eye on the scanners in case his master's hunch came to anything. Neither ship nor short-range transmission challenged them as they descended on Lisal, passing over the lights of Cundassa in favor of the dark forest. Neun-Jai wondered what would happen if some or all of Darth Alecto's trainees were away from their central base—judging from her reputation, Neun-Jai doubted Darth Alecto would allow them to sit around twiddling their thumbs just because she happened to be absent—but he didn't raise the point. Lady Basrasht had declared The Plan, and whenever she settled on The Plan, her adepts' and Acolytes' only task was to execute it.

Sometimes Caiacan could get away with a critique, but if she had any to give this time, she didn't offer them.

Raindrops spattered the main viewport as the transport ghosted low over the treetops; after they had come straight down last time and found Darth Alecto's Anzati waiting for them, Azeykus and Neun-Jai had privately agreed on a stealthier approach this time. Neun-Jai was confident he and Azeykus—and, because the galaxy could never just give him a win, no doubt Caiacan—could handle Darth Alecto's collection of misfit adepts, but there was no point giving them forewarning.

"How long?" asked Lady Basrasht.

Neun-Jai checked the display. "About a minute. Two at the most."

"Go make sure the fodder are ready."

Azeykus was piloting, and Lady Basrasht would never lower herself to checking on adepts. Caiacan was closer and doing nothing useful, but Force forbid his master's precious pet Xexto be put to some useful work for a change…

Neun-Jai managed not to grumble as he got out of his crash webbing, but when he reached the hold and the cockpit door sealed behind him, he switched the hold to red stealth lights and vented on the adepts instead. "On your feet! If you've managed to learn anything at all, I expect you to show it now, but if you can't even manage that, try to die usefully."

Some of the adepts looked eager to prove themselves, while others plainly wondered how useful their deaths could be. It was the division, Neun-Jai knew, between those Lady Basrasht favored and those she merely used.

"These scum are harboring the runaway." The adepts had not been told exactly who their targets served; Azeykus had pointed out, and Lady Basrasht had grudgingly agreed, that they couldn't afford their bait fighters breaking and fleeing at nothing more than Darth Alecto's reputation. Neun-Jai wondered if he should brief them on the Anzati, but decided against it; that would give the game away, and besides, the snot vampires didn't even have the Force. "Kill them all, but leave Megaera for Lady Basrasht."

Lady Basrasht hadn't said exactly what she had in mind for Megaera, and the squeamishness that flitted over a few faces in the ruby light told Neun-Jai the adepts didn't want to know any more than he did.

"Coming in," Azeykus's voice squawked from the intraship comm, and Neun-Jai took the double-bladed lightsaber hilt from his belt and pushed through the adepts to the rear boarding ramp. He slapped the drop panel, then grabbed a support strut as the wind tugged his pants and tunic. The Lady's Night spun to reverse onto the mesa that supported Darth Alecto's encampment, and even as he watched, Neun-Jai saw figures moving in the construction lights that started to wink out.

"Run them down!" he roared, and the adepts started leaping to the ground five meters below, rolling or cushioning themselves with the Force, red blades snap-hissing to life. "Leave no one alive!"

A little Squib, smaller even than Caiacan, brought up the rear, but Neun-Jai seized her by one tufted ear. As she yowled, he said, "Not you. You wait here for Lady Basrasht."

By the time the Lady's Night settled down, Caiacan had joined Neun-Jai in the hold. Lacing both her pairs of hands together and cracking one set of knuckles after the other, she hopped onto the grass and strolled forward. Her lightsaber was just as long and nearly as wide as the miniature torso at the root of her six spindly limbs, so she carried the weapon on a bandolier, but she seemed in no hurry to draw it. Waving a hand, she sent a crate of supplies crashing across the plateau and down into the forest.

Wincing at the clamor, Neun-Jai spat, "Subtle."

Caiacan shrugged her upper shoulders. "They know we're here anyway, and fear and disorientation make easy prey of lesser minds."

Darth Alecto's adepts seemed to have fear in spades already; at the far end of the mesa, the last few fled down the cliffside into the forest. Neun-Jai was disappointed; he had hoped for a chance to try himself against the gargantuan Irrukiine or the mysterious Ubese. He would just have to hunt them down in the forest instead, but if he wasn't quick enough, the adepts might kill them before he even got there.

He was a little surprised, though, that they had fled before taking even a warning shot…

"Well?" Lady Basrasht demanded. Ducking her bulk as she strode down the ramp, she flicked her tongue and sucked air through her two vertical nostrils; Neun-Jai was given to understand the senses worked together. "Why aren't you after them?"

"Testing the adepts, Master," Neun-Jai replied.

"A rare opportunity to give them a viable test that could provide you useful feedback, Master," Caiacan added. "One or two of them may have the potential to become more than fodder."

Lady Basrasht's tail lashed the air, but she nodded. "A valid exercise. Observe as long as it's useful, but exterminating the vermin takes priority over combat data."

As Caiacan bowed, Azeykus asked, "Do you want one of us to go with you, Master?"

"No." Lady Basrasht looked over the mesa, but Neun-Jai sensed her extending perceptions beyond the physical. "Darth Alecto isn't here—I would sense her if she was. If any of her lackeys have remained with the weed, I'll deal with them.  You go and root out the rest."

"You come with me," she commanded, propelling the Squib forward a few meters with a kick.

Ignoring the little thing's yowl, Neun-Jai strode to the edge of the bluff and looked down on the forest. The canopy was too dense to see any movement, but he sensed sentients slipping through the trees, and here and there red light flickered between shadows. Neun-Jai looked at Azeykus, but before either of them could speak, Caiacan said softly, "You're welcome."

Neun-Jai glowered down at her. "For what?"

"Backing you up. So it seemed like you had a good idea and weren't just dawdling."

While Neun-Jai desperately reminded himself that, though the Council's law didn't protect Caiacan as it did Darth Alecto, Lady Basrasht wouldn't look kindly on him killing her, Azeykus said, "It was a good idea even before you opened your mouth."

Caiacan picked at the corner of her mouth with one thin finger. "I wonder if Lady Basrasht saw it that way…"

Much as it galled Neun-Jai to admit it, she had them there. Neun-Jai and Azeykus's skills had been so profound that even Lady Basrasht could not deny them Acolyte status, but only in Caiacan had she found a kindred spirit.

"You'd best get down after them before they kill all the adepts and escape," Caiacan advised.

"We'd best get after them?" Azeykus repeated. "Now who's dawdling?"

"I can work from here." Rolling up her four sleeves, Caiacan stretched out her hands, wiggling her fingers as she got a sense for the forest below. After a moment of concentration, she pointed, and Neun-Jai heard a faint cry. "See? I'll give you ranged support.  Don't worry, if you make a mess of things, I'll come bail you out.  Again."

Azeykus bared his teeth, and Neun-Jai, recognizing the warning signs, caught him by the shoulder. "Come on, I want a piece of that Irrukiine. Twenty says I kill him, not you."

The Zabrak's eyes flashed, and his snarl became a challenging grin. "Throw in a day of herding the shaaks and you're on."

"Done."

They hopped down the cliff from one foothold to the next, the Force guiding them even in darkness. Neun-Jai listened as Azeykus alit behind him, and after a second he heard the sizzling crash of one plasma blade on another.

"How many, did you get a count?" Azeykus asked.

"Half a dozen, looked like."

"Did you see Megaera?"

Neun-Jai shrugged. "It was dark, and we came in without running lights; I'm lucky I saw bodies."

A flash of pain erupted in the Force somewhere in the forest, and a couple seconds later the scream caught up with it and reached their ears. "We'd better get after them; if they kill all the shaaks, they'll run, and who knows how long it'll take to catch them."

"Keep your ass in one piece." Azeykus grinned, stepped closer, and brushed one finger along Neun-Jai's waistband. "It won't be nearly as much fun for me if your body stops here."

"Well, you'd still have most of the good parts," Neun-Jai replied, snapping his teeth playfully. He stroked one of the horns that crowned the Zabrak's head. "Watch the low-hanging branches here, I don't want you snapping off any of my handles."

Azeykus winked and jogged off into the darkness, and Neun-Jai ran the other way, lightsaber hilt in one hand as he brushed foliage out of the way with the other. The night was comfortable, but even after half a kilometer, Neun-Jai hadn't broken into a sweat. It was the perfect time for him to sneak up on his prey—the forest was obviously fertile and lush, so no dry ground coughed beneath his steps or withered leaves crinkled with his passage, but it had been long enough since the last rain that the ground didn't squish, either. Of course, that might make it easier for Darth Alecto's minions to flee, too—or it would have, if Neun-Jai had been relying on senses as frail as hearing.

Neun-Jai had spent the better part of his life now on Dromund Kaas, and he had journeyed to many other worlds on Lady Basrasht's business, so it didn't take long for the eerie silence of the forest to register; once he slowed to a walk, he wondered how he had missed it at all. No birds sang and no insects droned. When he stretched out his perceptions, he felt the life he couldn't hear, though it was amorphous, clouded by darkness.

The conflict bled into the Force, he thought. Engineering that sort of thing deliberately was more Lady Basrasht or Caiacan's thing, but he knew at once this was beyond Caiacan. The slaughter unfolding here, dark on dark, held all of nature in petrified thrall.

Through a break in the trees, Neun-Jai saw the flash of crimson blades. Enhancing his vision with the Force, he saw a fellow Human he didn't recognize dueling a six-armed Ebranite he did. Both of them wore ferocious expressions as their blades popped and snapped, and after a few seconds Neun-Jai left them to it. Morth, the Ebranite, was one of the few adepts who showed any real promise; if he was worthy, he would prevail, and Neun-Jai would not cheat him of the test.

Farther along he found one he didn't mind cheating—a scrawny Moogan blundering his way through a duel with what looked like a Human teenager. The Moogan—Neun-Jai was sure he had a name, but hadn't bothered to learn it—was attempting a one-handed style that was probably supposed to be Makashi, but the teenager swatted every blow aside with both hands. He was shorter than the Moogan, but in the ruby light of their blades, Neun-Jai saw he was muscular for his age, too. He kept attacking and retreating, as if he hadn't drilled his attack sequences completely, but he always came back for more, and the useless Moogan couldn't get a hit.

Neun-Jai activated his lightsaber, and the boy's eyes widened. The Moogan seized his lightsaber hilt with both hands for a downward slash, but the boy's block stopped the blow cold. Shunting it sideways, the boy wrapped the Moogan's arms with one of his own, then swung down and hacked off both the Moogan's legs at the knees. As the Moogan screeched and dropped, his slender elbows straightened, strained, and snapped against the boy's armlock.

Neun-Jai charged, and the boy turned and ran rather than spend the time on a finishing blow. Ignoring the Moogan's mingled screams and pleas for help, Neun-Jai raced in pursuit, though he struggled to close the distance. Neun-Jai had height and muscle mass on him, but the boy's knowledge of the forest let him spring through gaps in trees and over subtle trip hazards when Neun-Jai had to go around or cut through. When the boy stopped in a lush glen, spun, and held his blade out to guard, Neun-Jai had to dig his heels in to stop himself pitching forward onto it.

The boy jabbed, but he was clearly just testing the range, and Neun-Jai felt confident ignoring it, and his quarry rewarded him by not pressing the attack.

"Neun-Jai Vertec," the boy said, his face set in determination.

Neun-Jai raised his eyebrows, pleased. "You remember me? Or did the little weed…"

Trailing off, Neun-Jai frowned. Did the little weed tell you about me? was where that sentence had been heading, but why would she, unless she knew they were—

"You're not taking her back," the boy swore.

Neun-Jai passed his lightsaber from hand to hand, refocusing on the matter at hand. "Bit possessive there, aren't you? Hoping to fertilize the garden?"

The boy snarled and jabbed, harder this time, but Neun-Jai swatted the blow aside contemptuously and nearly took off the boy's nose on the backswing. A ljttle dun möch is all it takes? "Don't think I'll go down like that Moogan, kid."

"I'm not your kid. I'm Nillan Deys'lro, and you're going to die here."

Neun-Jai blinked, then chuckled. He felt the boy's anger, and the dark side giving him a glance of vague interest, but it wouldn't be nearly enough. "Well, you've got the confidence, I'll give you that. But I'm an Acolyte, kid, and you're going to sound a lot less tough when you're screaming for death."

"You'll be the one screaming soon."

Without warning, Neun-Jai launched a series of cuts, driving Nillan back across the clearing; Nillan had to hurl himself sideways lest one blow chop his entire arm off at the shoulder. Snorting and rolling his eyes, Neun-Jai said, "Exactly how do you see this going well for you?"

He wondered if Azeykus's victims were this deluded…but then, Azeykus probably didn't give them the chance for banter. He was always straight to business; it made him an effective warrior, if a little frustrating in other pursuits.

Wiping sweat off his forehead as he circled, Nillan said, "I've got skills you don't!"

Neun-Jai revolved on the spot to mirror him, staring. "I'm bigger, stronger, older, more experienced, and better-trained. Wow me, kid—what've you got?"

Nillan stopped revolving and paused, silent and focused, but just before Neun-Jai called him on it, the boy's tension broke into a grin. "Teamwork."

Snap-snap-snap-snap-hisssss.

Neun-Jai whirled just in time to see a maw filled with sharp teeth, and four scarlet lightsabers closing in on him.