Force Rising: Dead in Space/Part I

"NOO!" I yelled, bolting upright on my bedmat. I had just woken up from another nightmare. They seemed to be coming more and more frequently, and, without fault, they all vanished as soon as I awoke. I had the vaguest recollection that they were all different, and in some sort of order, like the chapters of a story. The kind of story your mom would read to you once or twice when you were a little kiddie, but now, you can't remember what it was about.

"Telem? Are you OK?" came Master Saa's voice. I looked up (way up, considering she was eight feet tall and I was lying on the floor on my bedmat), and saw her standing just inside my doorway, concern etched on her face.

"I had another nightmare", I said, sure that the blatant relief of returning from... wherever it was I had just come from... had spread across my face, making me look very pitiful, indeed.

"You don't remember anything, again?" Asked Master Saa.

"No, I don't. Master Saa, why do I keep getting these nightmares? I mean, if the Force were trying to get something across to me, wouldn't the Holonet be more economical? Or at least letting me remember what the heck happened?" I knew what Master Saa would say next, so I cut her off before she could reply. "I know, I know. The Force is very mysterious and I should just wait. But if I don't get some sleep, I'm going to-". I couldn't finish the sentence before an explosion rocked my room. My lightsaber and datapad tumbled off the desk, Master Saa pitched forward, barely catching herself on the doorframe, and I somersaulted into the wall with a bang. When my room finally went level again, Master Saa stood to her feet, grabbed my wrist, and practically dragged my dazed form to a safe room. I shook myself back to reality, and saw troops and marines running past. I stood up before we got to the safe room.

"I'm fine, Master. What's going on?" I said.

"Trooper. Report." Master Saa ordered one of the men running past. He immediately stopped and snapped to attention.

"One of our engines exploded, Ma'am. That's all I know."

"Dismissed"

As the trooper saluted and began running to his station again, Master Saa did a 180 and ran to the starship's bridge. As I followed, I briefly paused at my room to grab my lightsaber with the force. Just when I had grabbed it, one of the technicians ran into my chest at full force and knocked me over.

"Hey! Watch where you're going", I yelled after him. He didn't even stop, just kept running, turning to the escape pod corridor and entering. I thought this was strange, but wanted to speak to the admiral before I took any action. I recalled a time I had done something stupid to a technician who looked as though he was abandoning ship. I startled him as he was doing some routine maintainance on one of the pods, and his accidentally hit the launch all pods button. The next thing I know, the pods are flying out into space, I'm locked in my quarters for the rest of the day, and the technician is given five week's leave (He was a Thakwassh, and needed the time to recover all of his multiple personalities emotionally).

When I arrived at the bridge, Master Saa and the Harch Admiral Klaxon are already discussing strategy and damage reports.

"I'm sorry, General, but until we contain the radiation, we cannot launch an investigation into the cause of this explosion", the admiral was saying.

"You can't even send a droid in?" Master Saa said. I had never seen her this incredulous before.

"I'm sorry, General. The radiation is enough to melt even neuranium."

Suddenly, one of the communications officers spoke up. "All escape pods have been launched, Admiral."

"Oh?" said the admiral, raising half of his eight eyebrows as he turned his head towards me.

"I didn't have anything to do with it", I said, throwing my hands up in mock surrender.

"I'm sure you didn't. But do you have any idea of who did?", Master Saa asked.

"There was a technician. He ran into me when I hooked my..." I looked at my belt. No lightsaber.

"Hooked your what?" Admiral Klaxon asked.

"When I hooked my lightsaber onto my belt... that's funny. It's not there." I said, a puzzled expression on my face.

Master Saa sighed. "Did you get a good look at the technician?"

"No, I didn't. He was defenitely furry, though", I said.

"Furry? Oh, no. Admiral Klaxon, are there any-" began Master Saa.

"I'm afraid I do still employ Thakwassh technicians. Oh, dear", said Admiral Klaxon, klicking his fangs together as was his specie's odd habit, approximating a sigh.

"Nah, this guy was too tall to be a Thakwassh, and waaaaay too strong. Felt like a Wookiee, maybe", I said.

"Wookiee, you say? There aren't any Wookiees on board the Esvelde, however... there is a Clawdite who can shapeshift into a Wookiee", answered the admiral.

"Sir, incoming transmission from an unknown source", piped up a Chadra Fan communications officer.

"Put it onto the holoscreen", barked the admiral.

A grotesque, green, scaly face appeared on the screen. "Hello, everybody. This is Kaox Kruhl, here. Although, you all know me as Temi Selsin."

"Temi? Is that the Clawdite technician?" I asked.

"Technician? Hah. That's a good one, kid. Try more along the lines of Sith Lord", said the face on the screen.

"Kaox Kruhl died centuries ago on Balowa in duel against Crian Maru and Dree Vandap", stated Master Saa. "Also, he was a human."

"Wrong, T'ra. Being a shapeshifter yourself, you ought to know better than to stereotype species. I used the Force to teleport away from Crian when I killed her", came the high pithced, crackling noise again.

"Shapeshifter?" I asked.

"Neti, kid. Your master didn't even think enough to tell you that? Boy, what a sucker you've been", the voice said, then broke into horrendous laughs.

I looked to Master Saa, who looked thouroughly embarrassed.

"Come with me, kid, and I'll tell you so much more than just that. There's plenty your master doesn't tell you."

"No! Telem, don't listen to him! He's a Sith! A madman!" said Master Saa in an urgent voice.

"You know, Master Saa, if you want to capture me, all you have to do is find the one escape pod that didn't launch. They all registered as launched, but that's because I hacked the system. Which is also why you can't trace this. I bounced this call all across the galaxy before ending up right back here on the Esvelde."

"Ok. I'll do that. You just stay away from my Padawan", Master Saa said. When the screen deactivated, she whirled around and walked toward the door.

"Oh, no you dont. It's not going to be that easy" came the disembodied voice of Kaox Kruhl. Immediately, ray shields closed off every door, and internal defense turrets deployed and began systematically cutting down officers and troops. I instinctively reached for my lightsaber, and when I realized it wasn't there, I dove for cover under one of the computer panels. Immediately the holoscreens and projectors across the ship lit up with Kruhl's image. In his hand, he held a lightsaber. My lightsaber.

"Looking for this? I nabbed it so I could have a weapon. It's been so long since I've held one. Crian's and Dree's were both vaporized, and I dropped mine when I teleported. It corroded due to the fact that I was hovering over water when I was quote-unquote killed" he said with another horrendous laugh. The last of the turrets were finally offline, leving only myself, Master Saa, Admiral Klaxon, and two communications officers, the Chadra-Fan and a Xexto, alive. The Xexto was badly wounded. Master Saa sliced the doorframe open deactivating the ray shield. She quickly offlined the turrets in the hallway.

"Stay here. I shall deal with him myself", she said, walking down the hallway.

"No, Master. I'm not going to let you deal with that madman alone. You've seen the computer tricks he can do. He also has my lightsaber, and obviously knows how to use the Force and use it well."

"You must stay here, Telem. I must face him myself."

"No!"

"Admiral Klaxon, restrain him."

"As you wish, General." One of Klaxon's six arms reached to a computer console and flicked a button. A ray shield immediately trapped me.

"No, master!" I screamed.

"Stay here. Admiral Klaxon needs your help to get this ship online. You're an excellent computer slice, maybe you can knock out Kruhl's computer", Master Saa said. "Release him when I'm gone, Admiral."

"Of course, General."

With that, Master Saa turned and walked away. The bridge's blastdoors shut behind her.