Chapter 36
Soryu
The Situation room was large and quiet, the shadow of defeat lying as heavily as the sting of betrayal. The Council at around the central dais were blue lit consoles showed the footage from the Ginii Spaceport and the East Hangar alongside various details of the two…
Destroyers.
Valens he knew all too well, the Sith of Cygrat now identified as “Jarys” leader of an elite squad in the Sons of Kessel he had met all too recently, his joints and ribs still sore from the introduction.
Kimar leaned heavily on the central projector table, his face still bruised from Valens backhand, horn cracked and skin glistening with bacta-seal gels.
“There can be no doubt, we are facing the Sith Lords following the Baneite Rule of Two…which is master and apprentice is irrelevant both must be destroyed,”
“Our first move must be….”
“No,” replied a strong clear voice,
It was only as all the eyes and visual receptors suddenly flicked to him that Soryu realised he had said it,
He briefly closed his eyes…there is no emotion there is peace…there is no ignorance there is knowledge…two maxims that they had failed to put in place throughout this whole situation and he must remind them of now,
“No to what Master Soryu?”
“No they are not Sith…we have no evidence of that, their motives are unknown but their actions show no indications of an attempt to dominate others…they have only acted defensively,”
“Defensively!” he stabbed his finger toward the replaying fragment of Valens stabbing two Sentinels in the back
“You call that Defensive!”
His heart was pounding, but he had to go on, assumptions and jumping to false conclusions has lead them to this disaster, reacting to events emotionally could not continue or more Jedi would be lost.
“Think, this Jarys only appeared when Master Neirai confronted him on Cygrat, only fought when she attempted to arrest him, exactly the same thing happened on Santooine and now Ginii port – we sent an armed force to bring him in and he resisted…he is a member of the Sons of Kessel!”
The blank looks on the faces of all the Masters except Yoren meant he needed to explain to them – EXPLAIN to the Jedi order what it meant to try and arrest a member of the Sons. They had fallen so far he sighed.
“There is no situation, absolutely no situation in which one of the Sons would ever, ever allow himself to be taken away in chains or locked up….” He knew he was doubling his words but the point had to get through. He gazed at Kimar
“Why Valens helped him…I don’t know…but it doesn’t look like it was planned”
Ha paused for a moment to redirect his thoughts
“We have failed…we have misread the situation, we heard the words Sith Lightning from Milaea and panicked, failing the Order, failing ourselves”
Kimar’s gaze like iron flowed into his words,
“WE have failed! You and Yoda failed by bringing in the Sith spy Valens, training him! Your willingness to accept unorthodoxy has led to the deaths of over twenty Jedi and seventeen Mak’Tor including your friend Odjina at the hands of this Monstrosity”
His stomach sank, Odjina…no…it wasn’t possible…why would Valens…
Means, Motive, Opportunity he quickly thought…means…until seeing the footage from the East Hangar he would not have believed Valens had the means to defeat Odjina…that was one…Motive, Opportunity…why would he go to Vyth…no one knew about it…he’d suggested it to Odjina because it was off the beaten track…let alone motive…
It fell into place…only one man had the Motive and Opportunity – the same man who controlled the Means directly…he struggled to rein in his anger…but he had to
There is no emotion there is peace
There is no emotion there is peace
THERE IS NO EMTOTION THERE IS PEACE
“YOU - You sent him there didn’t you, you told him where they were!” he shouted back rising to his feet, the dam that held back years of frustration finally bursting
“YOU sent him to kill the Mak’Tor…not enough to Exile them…you sent…Monster…you’re the Monster” his hands were shaking with barely suppressed rage
While the other masters started to lean backwards, Kimar pressed forwards
“I do what is best for the Order in all things! I saw the danger of the Mak’tor, their weaselling into control over various planets, establishing so called ‘healing centres’, they are creating a militarized Theocratic terrorist network!”
All attention turned to the Grand Master as he flooded the force with confidence and determination,
“I saw the danger this Jarys posed and followed the protocol deploying you and Gurrlum to seize him – a protocol both you and Yoda helped design after the disaster of the archives project saw twenty Jedi killed by the Quarren and his psychotic witch Sevra!”
He surveyed the room with a dominant gaze and powerful presence that supressed any argument before it formed a sentence in the speakers mouth
“I saw Valens betray us and I moved to arrest him immediately, everything I have done has been in line with protocol, if I have failed in anything it has been in severely underestimating our enemy and severely over estimating our own ability!”
Soryu couldn’t take any more
“Don’t you see that is the problem! We instantly turned to force to solve our problem”
Whilst Kimar spoke in terms of ‘I’ Soryu would only speak in terms of ‘we’ no matter their divisions the Order was one, they were ALL responsible for each other’s decisions.
He felt the anger welling but poured it into serenity, into wisdom, into compassion,
“Instead of taking time to think, to learn, to speak and understand, following the true path of communication, dialogue and compassion we panicked and attacked! If that is protocol then our protocol is wrong, and continuing to follow it will not make things any better!”
His breath was ragged from the emotion, he could feel his own conflict in the force about him…he needed to steady himself…but he could not allow this to continue any longer.
“We have failed the Order…each and every one of us has failed…and the Order has suffered in turn,”
Kimar sneered, “Save your sermons and self-flagellation for your acolytes Soryu,”
“Enough!” called Yoren rising up, “this bickering is pointless,”
“We need to focus on what is frelled up, not who frelled up!” He gave the whole assembly a condemning glance,
“We focus on the Now…how we got here…” he eyes darted to Kimar then Soryu,
“We can consider later…right now the Rancor is on the loose and we need to reign it in before anyone else dies”
Soryu felt himself sink as rage turned to shame that he had acted so rashly just now…it was an outpouring of anger at so many things he had seen going wrong over so many years…
Yoren brought up a map of the area around the Temple,
“We’re co-ordinating with the CSF trying to trace where they went, orders are not to engage…teams of three Jedi scouting the under levels again orders not to engage…”
As Yoren explained the search efforts progress, Soryu settled himself back down, this was getting too much for him to take…he suddenly thought about Sofa and Milaea…they hadn’t been on the list of the dead thank the Maker…truly he would’ve sensed if anything happened to either of them…but Sofa…he knew about her and Valens, he had always known…what would she think…what would she do…
“Does anybody have any leads on where they might be, potential resources or fall back positions or their motives I haven’t already covered” Yorens’s voice pulled him from his reverie
Soryu felt the eyes of the room burn upon him…
He felt the strain of being pulled in two directions…he had one clue that could shift the investigation…yet he could not put Sofa in danger…nor could he betray the Order by remaining silent
“I may have a lead…it is tenuous but I will speak with the contact immediately,” he said quietly
“And who is this lead Soryu,” Kimar growled
He had to play this carefully…the tightrope between betraying the girls he loved like daughters and the Order was starting to wobble beneath his feet
“Master Neirai had…discussions…with Knight Valens at length following his return from Vyth – concerning her apprentice who was just knighted- she might know something…” hopefully that would work
“Have her brought before the council,” Kimar said bureaucratically
“No!” Soryu’s quickly interjected before steadying his tone,
“She’ll be more open if I, as her Master go to her informally…as a first step”
He could not risk her being interrogated by the Council about her relationship with Valens…if she were taken into custody Valens might be provoked into trying to rescue her…the cycling images from the hangar showed exactly what that would result in.
“Very well…” Kimar allowed
The force settled and calmed as they agreed on how to continue the search, but spiked once more as Kimar explained his plans with regard to releasing information
“So far we have explained to the Media and the Senate the events in the hangar were part of a live fire exercise…our slicers have back cast formal advice to the CSF dated a fortnight ago to make it appear they were informed but overlooked it,”
“Surely they won’t believe that given their losses,” Yoren replied incredulous
“It is the least worse option…we cannot have the city in a panic and we must not be seen to be weak or divided in the eyes of the Senate or the galaxy…” the Grand master continued
“To that end, all footage from the massacres is to be deleted save for copies that I myself will keep,”
The force echoed with concern
“Is it wise to censor this information?” Torfun queried “surely as the champions of Truth and Jus….”
“Would you rather more fear and panic spread through the ranks?” Kimar interjected with another question,
“Just look at it…” he stared at the holo on repeat of Valens using six Jedi like punching bags after he had used a null field to snatch the force from them, beside that another cut of Jarys and Valens brutalizing any Jedi they could catch as the lucky ones ran from them.
Soryu couldn’t decide if the fact the holo-cams had been unable to capture the reported force void, force illusions and force ‘Roar’ as they called it made the viewing more or less terrifying.
“If the Order at large sees this…it will create a cancer of fear…it will only be a matter of time before it is leaked to the press and as overwhelmed as we are now…how much worse will it be if this is playing to raucous laughter in every dive from here to Soccorro…” Kimar concluded
There was a logic to the Grand Masters words…the Jedi were only seven thousand against hundreds of trillions…their mystique – or spectral fear factor one might unkindly call it – was a part of their arsenal that kept the thugs and gangs wary of going too far and risking Jedi intervention…
The holo-footage could not record the force illusions, void, the manipulation of the emotions of the Jedi …all a non-force user would see is one man slaughtering fourteen Jedi, three huge explosions, then joined by another to kill ten more as over twenty others fled in absolute terror – and all this in the Temple itself.
Instead of backing down at the site of a robe and glimpse of a sabre, a thousand more gangers, smugglers and pirates would be emboldened to try their luck against the all too mortal Jedi.
He didn’t like it…but his fury was spent…it was a bitter medicine to inoculate against a greater disease spreading…but he felt no less sickened for gulping down.
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The darkness of recent events cast a pall across their celebration.
Even the standard lighting of Sofa’s room seemed dim as he sat across from her and Milaea. He had come to congratulate her of being knighted…but somehow that all seemed so…beside the point now.
Still…he reached across, opening his palm,
“I wanted you to have this,” he offered Milaea the small wooden circle with a sword coming from a star in the centre,
She took it with little enthusiasm, he had heard she helped out in the infirmary after the -could it be called a battle – at any rate amongst the fearful chatter in the halls about the ‘battle’ were small lights of stories about the young female who had healed nearly two dozen wounded Jedi just by standing near them.
“Apparently it’s made from the bark of a special tree from the lost world of Ahch-To…” he began but there was just no helping it
“Maybe we should talk about it…get it out in the open,” he said finally
“We have every right to feel saddened…betrayed by…” he didn’t know whether to say Kimar or Valens,
“Betrayed by those we trusted...but this is the time we need to trust in the Order the most…”
“I trusted in the Order on Vyth,” Milaea said quietly idly looking over the wooden medallion, “Trusted the Grand Masters instructions…the councils judgement on the Mak’tor…” she looked up, “After where that lead me how I can ever trust them…”
Sofa gently stroked her back, he couldn’t really respond to that…he could only see the escalation of the fracture the expulsion of the Mak’Tor all those years ago had caused…and it broke him to see Milaea had been used to carry that out.
“The Order is made up of imperfect people…but we can’t make it better by giving up trying to change it…” he finally replied
She nodded, but she still looked uncomfortable, this conversation was not going anywhere endearing.
“I need to go…” Milaea said standing up, Sofa looked at her concerned,
“You alright,”
“Yeah just…girl stuff…” she replied her hand on her stomach.
“Thank you Soryu,” she said as she went past, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, leaving him and Sofa in strained silence.
“Sofa…do you have any idea where Valens might have gone…” he broke the hush
“You think I’ll know because I’m frelling him? You think the answer to catching him is between my legs?” she snapped,
“Sofa…”
“No, I don’t care, I’m sick of this…I’m sick of what this is doing to us all, Milaea’s having to kill Mak’Tor, Kimar is trying to kill Valens, and you’re getting into fights with the Sons of Kessel…And I…” she paused for a moment collecting her thoughts,
“I’m sick of pretending, Yes I’m in a relationship with Valens, you’ve know it for ages, I shouldn’t have to hide it, I should be able to wear what I like, go where I like, have sex when I like.”
“Sofa, you shouldn’t say these….”
“Who cares?” she leapt up and headed to her wardrobe, “What are they going to do try and kill me like with Valens? Oh sorry I meant arrest”
“Sofa, Valens is sick, even Milaea said so…”
She turned and gave him a dark look, “And why do you think that is? They pushed him and pushed him and pushed him, do you even know half the things Kimar asked him to do…do you know how many people Kimar sent him to kill for his chums in the Senate…it’s amazing it took him this long to snap.”
She scrounged into her wardrobe and pulled out a set of black negligée that was well beyond what was considered contraband.
“See this…this is what I want to be able to wear, something that makes me feel good and sexy instead of these drab robes - I want to enjoy the freedoms we’re meant to be fighting to protect!”
She paused her rage subsiding into a calming mantra she muttered under her breath as her eyes stared at the black lace.
“I was never cut out for this…you always knew it…that’s why you never stopped me sneaking out when I was a teenager, ignored my nail polish and make up, never turned Valens and I in before…”
She looked him deep in the eyes, the look of a daughter pleading with her father to finally accept she’s a grown woman.
“And that’s why you won’t stop me leaving now…” she stepped up toward him and placed her hand on his cheek,
“You know I love you…but I want my own life…my own family…not some rank in an Order I just don’t believe in anymore,”
He nodded slowly, he understood but this was not the time
“Sofa it’s too dangerous, I don’t want you to get hurt…Valens isn’t who we thought he is…”
She shook her head,
“I know who he is…I don’t understand what’s happening with him but I know he won’t hurt me…and honestly…this is the best chance to end this before anyone else dies…we’ll go away together, just vanish....”
He knew she was right…Trying to arrest Valens was a fool’s errand and could only lead to more deaths…he just hoped Sofa could convince him….
He nodded as she tossed the negligee back into her cupboard and stepped over to hug him…if she succeeded he might never see her again…
This was a time for raw honesty, even with himself, something he had kept secret for too long
“Maker Bless and keep you,” he prayed as he held her tightly.
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