Ascension/Part 8

The door opened, and Darth Alecto walked in. She had chosen to wear one of her Anzat-style longcoats, though this one had a hood which shadowed her face and might have been mistaken for Sith robes at a distance. She threw it back to expose her mostly-regrown red hair, took the room in with a glance, then advanced and nodded. "You summoned me, Darth Hokhtan?"

If she was surprised or annoyed that he had done so by direct comm to her secret camp on Lisal, she did not show it. As long as he had known her Alecto had been adept at hiding her thoughts; he wondered what secrets were hidden behind those violet eyes. Perhaps he would soon know.

"We were all summoned, Darth Alecto," Hokhtan answered, gesturing to where Sar-hent, Rhutizh, and Darth Shakelli waited. "We were commanded to wait here."

She looked at them and nodded, but remained close to him rather than joining them. If she was waiting for him to elaborate, she was destined for disappointment. If she felt no particular connection to any of them, even Shakelli…well, that was something worth knowing.

The holochamber was unremarkable within—gray-paneled deck, overhead, and bulkheads, with only five triangular holoprojectors, each the size of a Gamorrean's fist, set into the floor at one end of the room. Darth Saleej's mutant bodyguards stood sentinel outside, but Darth Hokhtan was confident Darth Saleej himself would not be putting in an appearance—at least not in person. Looking around the room, he thought Rhutizh suspected what was going on as well; had Darth Saleej shared his suspicions with Rhutizh as he had with Hokhtan, or did the Devaronian have his own eyes even in the deepest shadows of the Empire? Or had he simply reasoned out the obvious truth? This room was used for only one purpose, and Rhutizh, like Hokhtan, had been here before.

Alecto, Sar-hent, and Shakelli were new to the chamber, and none of them seemed to have done the math, but Alecto's eyes kept drifting to the holoprojectors, and Hokhtan thought she was getting there. Before she could put the pieces together, however, a voice issued from a concealed speaker, deepened past the Human vocal register and digitized so it was unrecognizable; the speaker might have been any species, or even a droid.

"The password is Vindican," the voice said.

Hokhtan looked at Rhutizh, who nodded in agreement, and both men dropped to their hands and knees, foreheads pressed to the floor. Hokhtan's mechanical right knee ached a little with the movement, but he ignored it; he had found the ache somewhat diminished in the last months, since Halicon Karzded had died in shame and Lady Gasald's entire campaign for the Core had staggered. Darth Alecto knelt a moment later; Hokhtan wondered whether it had been the last piece she needed, or the sight of Rhutizh and he acting in total accord was so odd that she followed suit on faith alone. Sar-hent joined them, and Shakelli last.

Ready for it, Hokhtan did not stir as the room's lights went out and plunged the chamber into pitch black. He sensed Shakelli's anger stirring, suspecting a trap and rousing himself for battle; Alecto and Sar-hent were colder in the Force, but no less dangerous. Before any of them could do anything foolish, the five holoprojectors buzzed to life, and the same distorted voice commanded, "Kneel."

Hokhtan shifted back to sit on his heels and beheld five charcoal-and-crimson holos—five robed and hooded beings, faces hidden in the shadows of their hoods, hands clasped in their opposite sleeves. The central holo's red lines pulsed bright as arterial blood, and the voice said, "We are the Council of Five."

Unmistakable shock and awe rippled through the room; Hokhtan heard Alecto's indrawn breath. The first holo on the right brightened and said with a distorted voice identical to the center figure's, "The Sith called Darth Saleej is no more."

A second revelation, a second stunned ripple flowing into the Force from the epicenter of the Council's impact—but like the first, a ripple that passed Rhutizh by as much as Hokhtan. So he did know. Darth Hokhtan studied each of the cowled figures in turn, wondering whether he might see even the chin of a familiar mask graven with Sith sigils, but the darkness beneath the hoods was absolute.

He could feel the three junior Sith around him reeling from the revelation. Don't let Shakelli say anything, he implored of the Force. The younger man did stay silent, though Hokhtan rather thought it because his natural impulse to cause destruction had deluded him into the belief that he had found kindred spirits.

"Darth Hokhtan." A new holo, the same voice.

He bowed from the neck. "My lords and masters."

"You are elevated to the rank of Sith Overlord," the holo continued, "and we give to you all that belonged to Darth Saleej—territory, Sith Lords and their disciples, armies and fleets, taxes and revenues, slaves and worlds. We empower you to anoint your subordinates as full Lords of the Sith and of the Empire.  We charge you to defend this fief on behalf of the Council, and to ensure that which Darth Saleej accomplished is not lost through your failures."

"Thank you, Masters," Darth Hokhtan heard himself saying as if from a distance; the dark side's triumphant roar inside all but drowned him out. "I will not fail you."

"See that you do not," warned another holo. "That which is given in one moment may be taken away the next."

Darth Hokhtan bowed his head, and a holo said, "You others present, and all your fellow lords and disciples, will obey Darth Hokhtan as your Overlord, and as vicar of this Council and of the dark side of the Force."

Darth Hokhtan looked at his fellow lords—no, his lords—and saw them bowing their heads. After a moment the center holo said, "The next password will be Adas. Serve us well."

The holos derezzed, plunging the room into darkness, and Darth Hokhtan drank it into himself, the infinite potential of the unseen. Even when the lights came back on he was slow to rise, savoring the memory of his elevation, the reward for decades of faithful service and mastery of the dark side. Only when he stood at last did it occur to him that the others had waited to rise as well.

He looked them over one-by-one, fixing on Rhutizh when the Devaronian stepped forward. They locked eyes for only a moment before Rhutizh dropped to one knee and bowed his horned head. "Master."

Darth Alecto knelt beside him. "I'm yours to command, Master."

Sar-hent managed to get his ponderous bulk to the floor a second time. "All my powers are at your disposal, Master."

Again Shakelli was last, but this time he wore a predatory grin. "Let's crush the Republic, Master."

"Let's." Darth Hokhtan gestured, and his four foremost Sith Lords rose. "Darth Saleej laid us a proper foundation, and we have the duty to carry it on—particularly now that my…colleague Vedya Gasald has failed to maintain the momentum of her own campaign."

The scarred skin of his cheek stretched as he smiled; Shakelli grinned back, and Alecto's lips curved into a thin, cruel line of amusement. "The Council will look to us to lead—to continue to drive the blade toward the Republic's heart—and so we shall. We will do what no other Overlord has done.  The death of the Republic and the fall of the Jedi begin today."