Jedi Adept: A Path in the Dark Ch. 11

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Tahiri glanced around her, and reached into her desk to pull out a small device. She set it on top of her holonet station, and pressed a small button on its side. The light flashed yellow, then red, before finally settling on blue.

Smiling, Tahiri entered a string of numbers into the terminal, and a few moments later Leia's face appeared in the air before her.

"Tahiri," the older woman exclaimed, obviously happy to see her.

Tahiri smiled. "Hello, Leia. I hope that Jacen's little attack didn't hurt either of you?"

Leia shook her head, a bitter smile flashing across her lips. "No worse than anything else he's done to us over the past few months. How are you?"

Tahiri sighed slightly. "I'm inside."

Leia's eyes widened slightly. "You are? The Guard?"

Tahiri nodded her head. "Yes. I… I just wanted you to know right now, that I'm going to do what it takes to make Jacen trust me. So despite what you hear in the future, please remember that I love you and Han both, all right?"

Leia frowned for a moment. "I'll remember, if you promise me that you won't forget who you are; and that if you feel like you're starting to, that you'll come and find us. We'll always be here for you."

Tahiri felt a tear slice down her cheek as she smiled at Leia. "I promise, and thanks."

Suddenly a loud chimed sounded throughout her room. She reached out with the Force and felt the barest hint of Jacen on the far side of the door. Then she looked down at Leia's face on the screen. "Jacen's here. I'll try and contact you later, but I doubt I'll be able to."

Leia nodded. "I understand. May the Force be with you."

Tahiri smiled and shut off the holonet and then waved her hand at the door. It snapped open, revealing Jacen standing there in his black Guard uniform, complete with flowing black cape. She looked at him, her eyes flicking up and down instinctively, and then she smiled. "Jacen, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

For a second, the grin on his face seemed to falter, but it was so fast, that she was not certain she truly saw it. He stepped into her quarters, and the door behind him closed.

"I just came to tell you that I have your first assignment," he said as he held up a small datachit.

Tahiri reached out with the Force, and it flew from his hand to hers. She shoved it into the appropriate slot on the desk terminal, and a map of the undercity appeared. Frowning, she let her eyes flicker around the map, and then she touched the attached file.

She quickly scanned the executive summary and gasped aloud as the implication of what she had read sunk in. She read it a second time.

The ZAITA project concerns the forced evolution of Vong Life in effort to better patrol lower levels. We believe that we can utilize the slave-seed coral infected sapients, commonly called Ferals in the lower levels, as a wide-area defense network. If successful, we can then utilize these Ferals on other worlds. In worse-case scenarios, the creation of a plaque which renders the population of worlds currently in an open state of rebellion into mindless automata is still an effective use of resources.

She then read it a third time, a part of her appalled that Jacen would even consider such a course of action. After her third read through, she lifted her head, to see him still standing there at ease, a grin touching one corner of his mouth, lifting it slightly.

"So," he began. "What do you think?"

Tahiri watched him for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders. "I think I'd need to see how effective they are first."

Jacen nodded his head. "Well, as far as we can tell, our preliminary efforts have not really yielded a productive attack force. On the other hand, they are effective guards, and share a sort of common bandwidth on which they communicate."

Tahiri sectioned a portion of her mind off, shoving the horror she felt at Jacen's words into that hole, and then slamming the door. Emotions such as those would give her away to Jacen, and that was a risk she was unwilling to take; especially with him so close, and she without an escape route.

"So, what exactly is my mission again?"

He grinned. "Collecting Ferals and other specimens for the scientists in that particular division, as well as patrolling the lower levels. We've had some troubles with a subversive group hiding down there. I'm giving you a half platoon to command. That's five squads total. Four for you to direct, and then a fifth that will be under your direct command. On the datachit is the information about your soldiers."

Tahiri waved away the background information file, and pulled up a second file showing a roster of soldiers. She nodded her head, and looked at him. "Sounds good. When's my next lesson?"

He grinned. "That depends on how good you are at this task."

Then he spun around, his cloak wrapping around his body, and strode from the room. She watched as the door closed down, and then sighed, quickly scanning the information about the soldiers Jacen had just assigned her.

Sighing, she stood up and stripped out of the tunic and shirt she had been wearing. Dropping the clothes in a pile on the floor, she walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a Guard duty uniform. It was similar to the clothes she normally wore, except that these were all black.

She wrapped the belt around her waist, getting used to the array of gadgets that a soldier wore on it, and then hunted for a place where she could connect Anakin's lightsaber. Finally, she pulled off the glow, and tossed that on her bed, and in the space created snapped the lightsaber to the belt. Her hand caressed it, and she could feel the sympathetic thrum from the lambent at its core.

Then she snapped her name plate, and rank insignia onto her jacket, just above the heart. With a quick glance in the mirror, she strode from the room, and took a lift to the lowest level it traveled. Then she went down four more flights of stairs, finally ending in a series of hallways that dripped with water.

Frowning, she advanced, her fingers once more seeking out the familiar reassurance of the lightsaber at her hip.

She arrived at a metal door, and pressed her hand against the plate next to it. Green light shone brightly for a moment, and then disappeared as the door rolled open. Tahiri stepped through the doorway, and found herself in a small room. Another door was on the far side, but there was no activation plate this time.

Confused, she stepped forward, closer to the second door, when the first door rolled back shut, plunging the room into darkness.

Startled, she snapped her blade of her belt, but before she could ignite it, a blue light came on, and flashed over her. She felt her skin crawl for a moment, before a tone sounded. Then the lights came back on and the second door opened once more.

Slowly, Tahiri advanced, to find a Guardsman standing at attention on the far side. Encased in full body armor, Tahiri could only tell that the Guardsman was humanoid and female. The guard snapped a salute. "Commander Veila. Welcome to ZAITA section."

Tahiri nodded her head slowly. "Right and you are?"

"I'm Private Zora Rekim, sir."

Tahiri sighed. "Take that silly hat off, so I can talk to you normally."

She could feel Private Rekim's Force presence tense. A sudden onslaught of conflicting emotions, and Tahiri guessed that standing orders required them to always keep the helmets on.

Finally, her need to obey orders won out, and the girl unsnapped the line feeds to the helmet. With a hiss, she pulled the helmet off her head, and shook out her blond hair. It was cropped as long as the military restrictions would allow. Then she lifted her face and focused on Tahiri with her calm, blue eyes.

Tahiri felt her chest constrict, and for a moment she saw Noelani's smiling face.

"Commander?"

Zora's voice sounded different when not filtered through the helmet. It sound young, hopeful and with just a trace of a Coruscant accent.

Tahiri blinked a few times and then shook her head. "Sorry about that Zora, you just reminded me of someone for a moment. And please, call me Tahiri. This 'commander' nonsense annoys me."

Zora frowned for a second, and then nodded her head. "Yes sir."

Tahiri sighed, and gestured down the hallway. "I assume you're here to take me to my quarters, and get me introduced to the appropriate people?

Zora nodded her head, and put her helmet back on; turning her youthful voice into the mechanized substitute which the vocoders on the helmets produced. "Yes sir. If you'll follow me, the squad room is down this way."

The girl turned, pivoting on her left foot, and walked down the hall. Tahiri smirked slightly, as she fell into step two paces behind her.

Arriving at one of the doors, they stepped into the room. It was set up like a lecture hall, a raised dais at the front of the room, closest to the door, and then seats with desks in front of them on tiered levels in a half circle around the dais. Her eyes flickered out across the group, noting the predominance of humans; especially, young blond female humans.

She frowned as she wondered if Jacen had done this on purpose. A subtle swipe at her issues with the Jedi, and the fact that they had taken her daughter away from her. No, she thought to herself. The fact that Noelani is my daughter is known only by the Council and Ben. I doubt Jacen has learned that. This is because they took my apprentice away from me. He's probably watching to see how I'll react.

Sighing, she took the two steps until she was standing in front of the dais. Zora took a seat on the lowest level, next to three other girls, removing her helmet because they were in the briefing room. Tahiri looked over and saw that they were all blue eyed, and blond haired, and that they all had the same unit patch next to their rank insignia. In an instant, she knew that this was the four that comprised her own squadron. She knew that Jacen had done that to keep her on edge, to keep her emotions roiling, to keep her confused, hurt and resentful; especially towards the Jedi.

She was not that surprised to find that it worked.

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