Wind Chimes

[Karmack]

Chapter 8: Hornet's Nest

I knew Ken was not happy with me.  But someone had to pilot the Wayfarer, there were only two DCC's, and he'd picked paper against his mother!  Paper.  As if Arnor would go with ANYTHING other than scissors.  I mean, anyone who knew us knew that I was the "rock" type and she was the "scissors" type.

It was obvious.

The thought made me chuckle, distracting me from the extreme discomfort of my current position.  Umnub was your typical moon - gray, airless and utterly lifeless.  The satellite was riddled with mines, most of which had been played out long ago.  Some had remained in production longer, removing smaller amounts of high-value ores.  Our target was one of the former, a long-abandoned iron mine which had been terraformed into a low-G resort and had been billed as a duty-free "playground" of the rich.  That, too had passed, and the site had served as a hospital and research facility for decades before finally being sold to an eccentric entrepreneur as a private residence. How Juwynn had acquired it was unknown, but one rumor passed to us by the Front was that one of her 'harem' members was the heir and current owner, and had offered it up willingly when the people of Fulluusub had turned on her Warren-Clan.  What we would find inside was anyone's guess.

I looked over at Arnor.  I could sense her own discomfort - and anxiety - radiating from her own perch.  The DCC's - Droid Combat Chassis - gave Mutt and Two amazingly good cross-country speed, but the cost was a hammering, jarring lope that made me feel like someone was slowly pounding me into a very small puddle of goo.  A quick check of our position confirmed that the ride was nearly over, however.  The fireworks should be starting any second now...

From the surface we could actually see the Wayfarer drop out of hyper.  It helped to know where to look, but realizing that Vegan had run the calculations to drop into normal space between the planet and moon made me shudder slightly.  Still, the emergence was spectacular, not something you got to see with the naked eye often...

The Star Destroyer reacted.  Massive ion engines sprang to life, and despite the extreme range turbo-laser bolts sparked into existence.  Ken's song rang clearly in the force as he concentrated, bobbing and weaving toward the main landing platform.  The instant reaction of the Star Destroyer seemed to confirm the idea that they were there over-watching the activities on the moon.  It was now up to Ken to convince them that they had thwarted an attempted landing, and perhaps even draw them away into a pursuit.

Ken's piloting was amazing.  Even from the ground, barely able to see the ship maneuver, I was impressed.  He even managed to put a few turbo-laser shots into the Star Destroyer, hammering it with weapons far heavier than they could have been expecting.  The results were telling: shoals of TIE fighters erupted from the Star Destroyer's bays, moving to hem the nimble freighter in and limit its ability to maneuver, making it an easier target for the Destroyer.

Two whistled and beeped.  "Yes, I'm sure he sees them, Two." I replied.  "He'll pull out soon."

And he did.  With a masterful helix course he carved a fiery pathway through the fighters before steadying on course long enough to engage his hyper drive and jump back out.  The Star Destroyer did not follow, but two Nebulon-B Frigates, which had been thrusting in to join the fray - did move in pursuit and jumped out after him.  The fighters milled about for a time, covering shuttles on SAR runs before all the auxilliaries returned to the Star Destroyer, now moving back into it's higher orbit.

That was our signal.  The secondary entry point we'd selected was on the opposite side of a ridge from the main entrance to complex 27, but it was still serviceable.  As long as it had power...

Arnor and I unplugged our exo-suits from the DCC's piggy-back life support modules and dismounted while Mutt and Two plugged in and tried to hack into the port controls.   Indicator lights blinked, so there was power, but after several minutes it became apparent that nothing the droids could access would allow them to open the hatch.  I listened as the chirps and beeps between the two gradually grew more and more frustrated and finally decided we had to take a more drastic approach.  "Two, this isn't working.  Can you scan into the interior?  Is there air inside the lock?"

The answering beeps were accompanied by a series of hums as the droid's sensors probed the interior.  "Thanks."

Arnor looked the question at me.  "No, no air.  The space inside the lock is void.  So..."  I drew and ignited my lightsaber.  "Shall we?"

Yellow and teal fire sliced through the thick door, making short work of the outer airlock.  Even with two of us we barely made a hole big enough for the DCCs to enter, and the area inside the lock was extremely crowded.  "Now what?" Arnor asked.

"Now..." I gestured to the inner lock's port.   "Try again.  And let me know before you actually open the door, guys."

Two answered with a rude string of low chirps while Mutt twittered the equivalent of laughter.  The inner lock apparently did not have the same security in place, and Two made short work of it.  "OK, wait one."  With a mental pull I dragged the severed door back into place and Arnor and I made a sloppy patch along the cut.  "OK, that's going to have to do it."  Arnor and I braced against Two and Mutt.  "Hit it."

Two twittered one last time and triggered the inner lock. The chamber was immediately filled with a hurricane of swirling air, which immediately died down as the space pressurized.  "GO GO GO!"

Arnor and I slammed into the corridor followed by Two and Mutt.  We kept going, Mutt right behind, as Two turned to plug back in and close the inner hatch again.  We didn't quite make it in time: The hasty plug failed under pressure and blew out, and the corridor instantly became a hurricane of wind.  Arnor and I were physically picked up and hurled backward, only to slam into Mutt, who used his chassis to pin himself in place.  I heard Arnor grunt as she hit, and felt a wave of red agony erupt from her in the force, even as her thread in our shared song suddenly dimmed.  I saw her slipping to the side, away from me, and I struggled against the escaping torrent of wind to lay hands on her.  I caught her just as she started to roll off of Mutt's chassis and held on with desperate strength as Two finally managed to insert his data connector and closed the hatch at last.

Instantly the wind stopped.  Freed from it's pinning power, Arnor and I slid down the DCC's legs and to the floor.  I rolled my wife over, eyes scanning her ExoSuit's tell-tails. Far to many were yellow and orange, indicating broken bones and internal trauma.  Her eyes fluttered open, filled with panic and pain.  I abandoned the suit's medical diagnostics, tore my gauntlet off, opened her helmet and made physical contact, laying my hand against her face.

The song enveloped me...  I turned, found Arnor's thread, saw the pain and hurt there.  I joined the song, shared her pain...
And I sang...  A song of healing, learned long ago, flowed from me into her, easing the pain, repairing the damage...

heal   ...   heal   ...   heal   ...   heal   ...   heal

I opened my eyes, startled.  The crystals are ... singing my song?

I leaned back and felt healing energy, focused by the song now echoing through the force, flow into both Arnor and myself.  It wasn't enough to instantly repair all the damage - bones took time to knit, despite the force, and tissue still needed time to repair - but the bleeding stopped and if nothing was completely healed then everything was partially healed.   More importantly, the pain receded, allowing Arnor to take over the healing song herself and drop into her own healing trance.

I sat back, relishing the power coursing through my own body.  The crystal "explosion" in Fulluusub had hurt me more than I'd cared to admit.  Now the song was coursing through me, replentishing my endurance and healing the hurt.  It was refreshing in ways that could not be described.  But it was also puzzling.  Why is this happening?

I stood and walked over to the wall, laying my hand on the stone.  It was practically pulsing with power, like a naked electrical relay, but the power was ... unfocused.  Just a chiming chord, like a wind-chime in the wind.  Random, beautiful in its own way, but with no real melody or harmony or rhythm.  Exactly what I would expect from a natural crystal lattice, though even Pontite wouldn't normally carry this kind of carrier power.  Softly I focused and sang, injecting a song of peace and tranquility.  Nothing radical, just ... peace.  Calm.  I felt it radiate out from me, propagating through the crystal lattice.  Maker, what a powerful weapon...  Even in the 'Tragedy of Vyth, when Kage Odjina defeated the Two despite their dark manipulations of the song, nothing like these crystals is mentioned!

And the realization dawned.   "Where is Julwynn?"

Two, standing close over Arnor's unconcious form, beeped a question.  "This lattice should be HAMMERING us with power, like the alleyway in Fulluusub, only exponentially more powerful.  Instead the crystals are passively accepting my songs.  Why not hers?"

More beeps, this time laced with rude grunts.  "No, I don't expect you to know.  I'm just thinking out loud."  I turned and lifted Arnor with the force, carefully draping her back into the carry harness we'd rigged on the back of DCC.  "Plug her back into your life support, Two, and go to the extraction point.  Your job is to keep Arnor safe.  Do you read me?"

Thankfully the droid responded with only a serious and affirmative response.  "Thank you."  I brushed a kiss onto her cheek and re-sealed her helmet.  "Mutt, you're with me."

As we advanced, my mind kept returning to the old sagas. My saber crystal, "The Ancient One", was supposed to be a crystal so strongly embedded in the song that it would only draw the strongest singers to itself.  Some of the legends surrounding it were fantastic, but I could attest from my own experience that the crystal did indeed sing to me and even reinforced my own song in the force.  Other stories, like the sagas of the Dark Times, the Tales of the Reaving, and the Tragedy of Vyth all told of Dark Singers who had threatened the Mak'Tor or others and had ultimately been defeated not by brute force but by the song itself.  As Master Chillum had taught me, the point was that whether for good or ill, whenever a Singer bent the song to his or her own will, the ultimate outcome was tragic.  Even the good intentions of Kage Dorian, who created the Crystals of Balance in their shrines on the Spire, ended up hurting more than helping in the end.  Always the final lesson: Trust the Maker.  Trust the Singer.  Not the song.

I shook off the wool-gathering thoughts, reaching out to mentally caress Arnor one last time in the force.  I felt her stir in response.  That was good.  She was out of danger...

Mutt turned a corner and let out a warning squeal just as a flurry of blaster bolts cascaded into his personal shield.  He began returning fire while emitting a series of hoots and screaches that should have made him blush.  "Mutt!  Language!"

I ignited my saber and did a forward shoulder roll past Mutt, bringing myself fully into the main chamber and into the fight.  The song of battle hummed in my chest and there was no reason to fear it now.  My blade described a golden shield around me as red, blue and green blaster bolts arced away in multiple directions, some at crazy angles, others into enemies wielding weapons.  Mutt was also in rapid-fire mode, showering the Sith Shadow positions with a steady stream of fire, using his heavy blasters to concentrate on weapons positions and anyone firing from effective cover.  Meanwhile, bouyed by the force and the power still flowing through the crystal lattice around me, I launched into a full-blown Ataru attack, spinning and slicing my way through the enemy from one side as Mutt worked the other.  Together we met in the middle, where a trio of Dathomirians attempted to make a final stand.  Several times I severed a hand or fore-arm only to have my target ignore the injury and pick up a weapon with his other hand.  None stopped until they were either dead or unconscious.  In the end I found myself surrounded by fallen foes, mostly dead.  "Mutt!  Status!"

Mutt answered with a string of chirps and whistles.  "Understood!  Try to conserve weapons power.  Right now I need you to look for a computer terminal so that..."

"You'll find nothing.   She's apparently taken her favorites and flown the coop, as it were." called a silky baritone from across the room.  "And there's nothing in the computer, either.  I checked."

I turned, spied a comm port and gestured to Mutt to plug in.  "You won't mind if we check for ourselves Mr....?"

"Lord Cha, at your service, Master Jedi...?"

I shifted uneasily, reaching out and feeling the raw power of the man.  Sith for sure, the hammer of the drums was unmistakable.  But not a singer, or I'd feel him in the very walls of this place!  "Ka'Ah'Re Mack of the Mak'Tor."  I replied.  "There are no Jedi here.  Your Master saw to that."

Cha chuckled.  "Did he, now?  Considering what I just saw I find your assertion ... disappointing.  I was hoping for more of a test."  I sensed the massive force push building, the lighting, and brought my own blade up and prepared to block, but the Sith didn't attack me directly.  Instead, the push and lighting snapped out and struck Mutt, slamming him away from the data port and burning out the interfaces of his DCC, leaving him alive but trapped in his shorted-out body.  Meanwhile the Sith closed with me, a pair of red blades snapping into existence in his hands as he closed, laughing.

I smiled, the song of battle swelling within me, and I sang it into the force.  I adopted a middle guard and waited for his attack, letting my song echo and break around me, swirling like a dervish in the force.

Sing, master.  Sing sing sing ... KILL KILL KILL KI...

I snapped myself back out of the song, confused and slightly panicked.  What was that?

The Sith had also stopped, his eyes wide, filled with sudden recognition ... and fear.  Without saying a word, Cha turned and ran.

I let him go.  I was stunned.  The shock was still washing through me, like the after-effects of adrenaline in the system.  My hand shook slightly as I deactivated my blade and hung my saber on my belt.  I walked over to Mutt and opened his systems panel.  The DCC was fried, but with a couple of pushes and tugs in the force I was able to disconnect him and free him from the chassis.  He whistled his thanks and returned to the data port, intent on scouring the computer for anything of value.  

Meanwhile I sent another melody of peace and calm into the crystal lattice, slowly dropping the Sith Shadow survivors into a half-sleep, half-trance that would incapacitate them for a time.  That done, I carefully centered myself, wrapped mental fingers tight around my shared song with Arnor and Ken, and opened myself to the song again.  And I sang...

What are you?

I am Master and Slave.  I am yours to command!  Let us rule together!  Sing to me, Master!  Sing!

I shuddered and pulled back as a wave of desire to sing, to bring all around me into subjection, washed over me.  Where?  Where are you?

Here!  Why do you not sing?  

I stood, focused.  There was now a beacon in the song, a bright, repeating motif.  It was very close.  "Mutt, carry on ... and brace yourself."

Mutt answered with a single whistle.  "Yes, I'll be careful."  I replied, stepping up to the spot where the beacon was shining in the song.  I was facing an inner wall.  "So, here you are..."

I opened the cabinet, expecting wires or some kind of fancy shrine or something.  I was disappointed.  A single, red crystal lay on the shelf.  Pontite.  Perfectly formed.  Visually very plain.

And literally pulsing with power.  I swallowed, and walled myself off from the force as much as I could.  "Mutt, relay to Two.  Contact Ken and execute Extraction Two."  I ignited my saber and closed my eyes.  "OK, here goes nothing..."

Master!  Sing to me!

Sing!

Sing!

SING!

I struck...

[Karmack]

And ... in case anyone wanted to know what the DCC (Droid Combat Chassis) looks like...  This is a BIG one, the ones Karmack and Crew have with them are smaller versions, but you get the idea...   ;-)




Sorry!  I saw this somewhere and I just COULD NOT resist!  LOL...

[Taegin Roan]

I really liked this chapter. The mystery of Julwynn is getting bigger. And now you throw in this Lord Cha. Great. Plus your occasional use of comedy is hilarious. That opening scene is quite possibly one of my favorite yet, and how you constantly throw in the personalities of the droids, and how like mechanics they are. Other than that, the use of the DCC was very cool. I too have seen that pic, though I don't remember where. I am wondering what will happen to Karmack in this next chapter, seeing as Arnor and Ken aren't there when he struck the crystal. What the repercussions will be this time and stuff. Great chapter.

[TheDutchman]

And ... in case anyone wanted to know what the DCC (Droid Combat Chassis) looks like...  This is a BIG one, the ones Karmack and Crew have with them are smaller versions, but you get the idea...   ;-)




Sorry!  I saw this somewhere and I just COULD NOT resist!  LOL...

OMG I LOVE it!

TR is so right: you effortlessly balance action with comedy, especially making use of the droids.  I LOVE how Karm makes use of the crystal and it makes perfect sense: as a powerful Singer, he would automatically have an affinity with them!  Reminds me of what TR said: Singers are PoWeRfUl!  To wit: Namman Cha KNEW that Karm would curbstomp him, ESPECIALLY with pontite to propagate his Song!

I've read a few scenes that have zero-G situations; yours was perfect!  Poor Arbor, though    And Julwynne is one sneaky witch...

Can't wait to see what happens next!

Until next installment friends 

[Lord_S_Gray]

I like the contrast between this 'confrontation' with the Night Sister and Dutchmans...here its the absence of presence that is disturbing contrasting the the all to visceral brutality of Dutchmans scene.  From the perspective o a joint story I think that's a good way of doing it, avoid having just two climatic battles following each other by adding in something more subtle, add more variety to the combined arc.

[TheDutchman]

I like the contrast between this 'confrontation' with the Night Sister and Dutchmans...here its the absence of presence that is disturbing contrasting the the all to visceral brutality of Dutchmans scene.  From the perspective o a joint story I think that's a good way of doing it, avoid having just two climatic battles following each other by adding in something more subtle, add more variety to the combined arc.

Oh VERY good point LSG!  SO true!  Sublime descriptions of the contrasting scenes!  Where my chapter is more overt, Karm's has the discernible undercurrent of menace 

[Karmack]

I like the contrast between this 'confrontation' with the Night Sister and Dutchmans...here its the absence of presence that is disturbing contrasting the the all to visceral brutality of Dutchmans scene.  From the perspective o a joint story I think that's a good way of doing it, avoid having just two climatic battles following each other by adding in something more subtle, add more variety to the combined arc.

Thanks LSG!  I wanted to do something other than the 'big fight' and it took a while to come up with it.  That was some of the reason for the delay.  I am also feeding off of a couple of subtle suggestions from Dutchman's story on plot twists.  :-)  As for what happened when Karm took out the crystal....

Stay tuned!  More coming VERY soon!

[Karmack]

Chapter 9: Fractured

I blinked.  Blinked again.  Took a breath. 

Nothing.  No explosions.  No massive energy releases.  Just … nothing.

I could hear Mutt continuing his data search behind me.  I took a deep breath and opened myself slowly to the force.  Cautiously I probed the energy patterns of the room and the cavern beyond. 

Nothing.  Just the normal flow of connections.  The crystals were still there, but where there had been a sense of connection, of tuning and structure before there was nothing more than the normal background hum I’d heard in other places where natural crystals occurred.  The pervasive sense of untapped power was simply gone.  Feeling surer of myself I opened further and listened to the song.  Instantly I found Arnor’s melody, still twisting around my own, Ken’s now dancing a playful counter-melody around our entwined melodies.  But beyond that…

Nothing

It was like the entire lattice-work had simply vanished, the power conduit disappearing into the rock as if it had never existed in the first place.  “Odd…”

Mutt’s chirping response pulled me back into the present.  “No, I wasn’t talking about you.  And I meant it when I said to watch your language.  The other R2 units might not mind but I don’t want you speaking like that around Ken.”

Mutt responded with a rude grunt and whistle combination.  “You can insult me all you want.  Just do it with class.”

I chuckled at his verbose response.  Mutt’s vocabulary was expansive, and not just in the vulgar sense.  “See?  That didn’t hurt a bit.”  A shorter string of interrogative tweets and whistles followed.  “No, everything seems to be OK.  Any luck with the computer?”

The response was a short, low grunt.  “Well, keep digging.  It’s possible our Sith friend was telling the truth, but I don’t want to count on that.”

While Mutt returned to work I decided to experiment a little.  Like before I opened myself up and sang a simple melody of peace and calm into the force.  Again, it permeated the area around me, but unlike before it wasn’t picked up and propagated by the crystals around me.  The crystal lattice, while still there, was totally non-responsive.  The background hum was pleasant, but a mildly soothing tone was its only effect in the song or the force.

The cabinet was scarred from contact with my blade.  The perfect pontite crystal had shattered into dozens of fragments.  I reached into the cabinet and picked one of them up, rolling it over and examining it in my hand…

Sing to me…   Sing….

There.  The voice was the same, but now instead of offering power and control it was just … asking.  Like a small child asking a parent to sing a lullaby… 

I set the fragment down and picked up another.  The response was the same.  Each was small, weak, but still “there”.  Whatever Julwynn had done to the crystal had at least partially survived the shattering effect of my saber’s blade.  Maybe her control could be undone?  I took a small sample container from my belt and gathered up the crystal fragments.  Together, I could just feel the ghost of what they had been as the fragments struggled to “tune” to each other.  “Not yet, my friends.  Not yet.  First you need to learn a new song.”

Mutt, now unplugged from the computer terminal, whistled a response which included a few bars of a local bar song from the M’Tzigon space port.  “That’s an old song, and you know it.  Struck out with the computer?”

Mutt whistled an affirmative.  “OK.  Let’s go.  Get a status from Two on Ken’s approach.  I have one more job to do here.”

Mutt whistled and chirped again, heading down the corridor toward the place where Two (in his still functioning DCC) waited with Arnor.  I looked around the room again, letting my senses trace over the bodies.  Most were cooling in death, but here and there survivors remained.  “So a thermal detonator is out…”

I walked over to the disabled DCC.  Despite the damage, it wouldn’t be difficult to make the chassis operable.  The interface couplers were fused but the bulk of the processors were intact.  Most of the chassis was composed of “off the shelf” parts, but the computer hardware and especially the software were another matter entirely.  I located the appropriate areas of the chassis and ignited my blade once again, making short work of the key components, as well as critical parts of the weapons systems for good measure. 

The work of destruction complete, I turned and sliced through the blast door controls as I jogged past, sealing myself out and the Sith in.  Extraction Two called for Ken to hyper in close and do a high-speed approach and landing, then dash out.  It would be tight with the Star Destroyer hovering overhead but his previous performance proved he was up to the task.  The urgency in the song indicated that Ken was already on his way, however, and I for one did not want to be left behind.

First, get off this rock.  Then…

Then get some answers!

[TheDutchman]

...NO!!

Must! Have! Answers!  Karm I've been waiting all week for the chapter!  And now: more questions?!  Julwynn is one tricky...witch 

Now I REALLY want to know what she did to the crystal lattice!  These Dark Singers are dangerous enough without any crystal-enhanced propagation  . I hope that Karm is watching his back; Namman Cha is bad enough but Julwynn too?

I love how you keep us guessing  . This is just getting better and better!

Until next installment friends 

[Taegin Roan]

I love how you set the last one up so that it ended on a huge cliff-hanger. You could feel the intensity of everything as it came to a head at the end of that last one. Then this one opened up, and there was "nothing". You definitely know how to keep us guessing. Can't wait to read more.

[Karmack]

Thanks guys!  I appreciate the comments.  And I do like cliff-hangers.
Watch out, though.  I feel like the droids are taking over.... 

[Karmack]

Chapter 10: Healing

It had taken hours to find the key, but now the chorus was strong.  It echoed around me, the power of each individual voice small but the overall effect was surprisingly strong.  Time to test it…

I listened to the chiming chord for a moment longer, drawing a deep breath, then carefully tapped into the song.  I selected a healing song, a powerful song that would push my healing skills to the limit, as well as my endurance.  I sang, weaving my song into the correct key for my new ‘chorus’ – and wove the song around Arnor.

Heal, my love.  Heal…

The burst of healing energy on Umnub had been enough to stabilize her, but Arnor had suffered several broken bones, including ribs, her left femur, and three cracked vertebrae.  Soft tissue injuries had been equally extreme.  That influx of force energy, amplified by the tuned crystals, had saved her life and her ongoing healing trance was keeping the bleeding and internal injuries in check, but without a fully equipped med center and staff of healers she was in for a long, hard struggle just to stay alive.  My first instinct was to tell Ken to plot a course for the nearest planet with appropriate facilities, but something held me back.  A sense of … urgency?  Danger?  Both?

Time was short.  There was a tense undertone in the song, accompanied by a ripple in the force.  It wasn’t specifically addressing our here-and-now.  It was more elusive.  Indistinct.  An impression more than a warning.  Someone without training might call it a “gut feeling”. 

I trusted my ‘gut’.

Which meant that I either had to bundle my wife into a stasis tube, or leave her in the Wayfarer sick bay, or…

Or. 

The song curled around me, building in power.  Each crystal in the chorus amplified it, adding its power and voice to the song.  The pontite crystals were living entities in the force, with a strength all their own.  They weren’t just focusing the song – they were amplifying it.  I added my own voice, my own strength, and a small corner of my mind was amazed as the healing song built and built and then in the throes of its climaxing crescendo broke over Arnor like a massive, healing tsunami. Her body twitched as it moved over her, force energy pouring through her in a torrent that was almost visible…

Exhausted, I finished the song.  Sweat poured down my head and back, drenching my shirt. I looked down at the array of crystal shards, which I had simply laid on a cloth in front of me. 

They glowed a white-yellow, alive with power…

Arnor blinked, her eyes opening.  “What…   What happened?”

I laid my hand on her forehead, and felt the pin-pricks of force energy still bleeding through her body, like static electricity.  “You were injured when the air-lock blew.  As near as we can tell the initial force of the air blast hit you square, and you struck Two’s DCC at a bad angle as well.  Two also said that something heavy from the corridor hit you.  I was too busy just hanging onto Mutt, so I can’t verify, but the injuries are consistent…”  I looked at the medical scanner and felt my heart lift.  “Or they were anyway.”

“Were?” Arnor sat up.  “Injuries?  I remember the airlock blowing…”  Her eyes clouded.  “I hit Two … something hit me … and I was falling…  and you caught me.  And it hurt.  A lot.”  Arnor turned and swung her legs over the side of the bed, putting bare feet on the floor.  “Then there was … a choir?  A choir in my head?  Singing?”

I sat back, smiling now.  “That would be the crystals in the base, embedded in the walls.  Just like on the planet, but fewer of them.  Ken’s out with the droids collecting them now.”

“Collecting them?  So Julwynn wasn’t on the moon after all?”

I shook my head.  “No.  She had been.  We ran into some of the Sith Shadows we’d been warned about as well.  I thought they were attached to Julwynn, but Mutt pulled a lot of data from her computer.  Nothing that tells me where she went or what she was up to, but we did get enough security log data to match faces and none of the Shadows we killed or captured were a match to any of the recent faces logged in and out.  But we did get a hit on Julwynn as well as two of her entourage.  Both from the “missing persons” databases on Sullust, men who have gone missing in the last year or so. But no clues as to where they went  Just … gone.”

Arnor stood gingerly.  “My leg’s a little sore…”

I grabbed a hand scanner and ran it over her thigh and let out a low whistle.  The read-out showed a fully healed bone!  The clean break that had been there only a few minutes before was fully healed.  I quickly scanned the rest of her injuries.  The soft-tissue damage still showed some heavy bruising and the discoloration of her skin was still present, but the underlying cause – bleeding – was gone.  Her muscles were stiff and sore, but otherwise undamaged. 

"What?  You're starting to sound like one of the droids!" Arnor teased.  I showed her the scans, before and after.  Her jaw dropped.  “What?  How?  I know you’re a pretty good healer and singer, but ... this???”

“It's this Pontite.”  I said, scooping up the crystals and placing them in a leather pouch.  “It was a … ‘control’ crystal is the only way I can describe it.  It sensed that I was a singer and it was apparently programmed to serve a singer.  Most likely Julwynn.  It let me focus and pour a massive slug of healing energy into you right after you were injured, and so I decided to try it again, see if I could make the shards into my own chorus, as it were.  It worked…”

I wobbled and sat down suddenly, the room spinning.  “Karm?  What’s wrong?”

I closed my eyes, opening myself to the force, to the song, drawing healing energy into myself…

Heal…     You must heal…

Again I felt the cyclone of energy building, but it never reached the overwhelming level of before.  Instead of a tsunami it was a gentle wave, washing away the fatigue and injecting a buoying energy and sense of well-being.

I saw Arnor’s eyes widen as she sensed it: the healing song, being sung by a powerful, chiming chorus, but this time without my lead.  Only my suggestion that it was needed…  “They heard me call for the song…”

“And they answered.” Arnor’s eyes were very wide.  “And this is one crystal?”

I nodded.  “Yes.  A fractured one.”  I let my eyes fall. “I ... destroyed it.  It offered me power.  Too much power….”  I looked at the pouch, containing the shards.  “I’m not even sure I should have these.  Except … I think we may need them.  Soon.”

Arnor laid her hand on mine.  “Karm, you know I can’t really sing the way you do.  I don’t understand how this is possible.  How you connect with your saber so effectively.  I don’t really understand even how you can heal so well, crystals or no.”  She tipped my chin up, bringing my eyes up to meet hers.  “But I love you.  You’re wise and strong and good, and you follow the Teachings of the Maker and the Principles.  Trust the Maker.  Listen to the Song.  What is it telling you?”

I stared into her eyes.  Blue into green.  I stared a long time.  “It’s telling me that I have an amazing wife.”

The kiss that followed was very, very good.

“Ewwww, really?”  Ken’s comment was punctuated by a string of whistles and tweets from Two, following behind. 

“Enough out of you!” I pointed a finger at Two.  “You’re already a bad influence on him.  As for you…”  I looked at Ken.  “Hug your mother, then tell us what you found.”

Ken grinned and wrapped Arnor in a rib-bending bear hug.  “Glad to see you back on your feet.  Dad’s experiment worked.  Good.”

Ken released his mom and sank into a chair.  “As you know, we hooked up with a small Alliance unit that was supporting the Cobolt Front here on Sullust.  After our decoy flight and jump-out I met up with them and we hopped back into the system, well out, and burned in-system as fast as we could.  Those Alliance boys were all hot to take on the Star Destroyer, but by the time we arrived all three had pulled out, following a small frigate of some kind down the Sanctuary Corridor.”

“A frigate?  I’ll bet that was our friend.” I said, turning to Arnor.  “Someone else, called himself ‘Lord Cha’, was also looking for Julwynn.  He’s familiar with singers – and the crystals.”

“So, a new player.” Arnor frowned.  “What’s his part in this I wonder?”

“No good, I’m sure.  Ken, did the Front take the surviving Shadows into custody?”

“Yes sir, and happily.  They were also EXTREMELY happy to see the Empies de-camp.  Seems they’ve been a real crimp on business recently.  They even stuck around to help me collect these.”  Ken nudged a satchel with his toe, making it clink slightly.  “We found them all through the place, usually just sitting in small cubbies or in access points.  They’re Kyber, though, not Pontite.”

I reached over and picked up the satchel, pulling out several of the crystals.  They were clear, pure kyber crystals. Not very big, but with a peculiar cut…  “Two, scan these.  Do they fit together?  In a lattice or pattern of some kind maybe?”

Two rolled over and scanned the crystals as I pulled them out of the bag.  There was a long pause, then he activated his holographic projector, showing a complex grid that accommodated the pieces we had, placing them into a far larger matrix.  “What is your confidence level on this reconstruction?”

Two beeped and chirped.  “Fifty-four percent?  That’s a little weak.”

More beeps.  “Alright, alright!  I know, it’s a small sample.  I don’t expect miracles!  The point is, they could be part of a larger grid, even form a far larger crystal, right”

Two’s beep this time was a simple affirmative. 

“Where are you going with this, Dad?” Ken asked.

“These came from somewhere.  There’s Pontite and Kyber both on Sullust, but not in large quantities.  The Adegan crystals that Julwynn used for her amplifier on the planet were microscopic crystals embedded in the building materials.  It only worked because it had a powerful focusing crystal and there were literally billions of them in range.  Here, on the moon, she used the kyber crystals as her matrix and a powerful “gateway”, as it were.  These crystals have reverted to a near-natural state now.  The lock to the gateway was broken when I shattered it.  But they’re still aligned, physically and within the force.  These were part of a bigger construct, and not to long ago.”

“The only thing anywhere nearby with that much crystal was the Death Star, at Endor.” Arnor replied.  “Do you think these came from there?”

“I do.  And our friend had some reason to go that direction – and take reinforcements with him.”

Ken nodded.  “It makes sense.  She was compromised here, so she headed to Endor, where she would have better cover in the force…”

“… and more raw materials to build a stronger crystal network.” Arnor finished.  “But why leave the ‘gateway’ behind?

“I don’t know.” I said, patting the small pouch of crystals.  “Temptation?  Another trap that failed?  We could speculate all day and get nowhere.  I think we should call in a quick update and head for Endor.  Any objections?”

My family – human and electronic – maintained silent agreement. 

We were going to Endor.

[TheDutchman]

Nice to see that these crystals are working for the GOOD guys for a change!  Excellent Karm; Arnor's injuries had the undercurrent of severity, so having Karm utilize the Pontite for Healing was an incredible scene.  Your ideas concerning the "Ancient One" crystal has given me an idea...

I always get a kick from the interaction between Karm and Arnor; just the rapport that YEARS of being together and having a level of TRUST that most people will NEVER have is an amazing and enjoyable thing to see.  Plus: Ken's "disgust;" who of us would rather read a VCR instruction manual instead of seeing our parent's intimacy 

I like how the clues have lined up to send Karm&Co. to Endor next.  I wonder what awaits them there...

Keep up the great work Karm!  I'm liking where you're taking us 

Until next installment friends 

[Taegin Roan]

So now you've moved off of almost killing Karm, to almost killing Arnor. Who's next? Ken or Illian? (BTW, I'd love to see Illian make another appearance sometime.) Definitely some interesting ideas floating around here. Very good, and like TD said vvv

Keep up the great work Karm!  I'm liking where you're taking us 

Me too. Endor was always one of my favorite planets/moons.

[Lord_S_Gray]

Between this and Darth Mendax in Dutchmans interlude...it seems the Gray at entering into a far larger game than they initially thought...Night Sisters, Darths, this odd Lord Cha...they had best be careful they don't wind up pawns in someone elses game....