CC: Refuge

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

In the southern hemisphere of the galaxy, Yag'Dhul, like Denon and Eriador, felt the pressure of lawlessness that abounded.  The world was mostly rocky and had drastic climate changes, a result of three moons that orbited closely and severly impacted the oceans and atmosphere.  However, it was also home to vast mining industries and famous orbital stations.

Yag-Prime was a small but effective space station, used for storage of valuable supplies and for helping defend the station.

And as Mara had learned, a portion was also converted to a research laboratory where one professor supposedly could be found.

Tracking down Joel Braithwaite had not been an easy task. from Bilbringi, he had moved to Neimodia, capital of the Trade Federation in its prime.  When Medivh was busy designing Phage, he had still been there, supposedly traveling back and forth between Neimodia, Coruscant, and Corellia.  When Phage subsequently took over the Federation forces, Braithwaite went into hiding, traveling south to get away from the disaster he had helped create.

From there, he had watched as Phage threatened the galaxy, only to be turned back by Valerie Gellar.  But he knew better - he knew that Phage would not be so easily destroyed.  He had learned about Infiltrator-1 by accident, accessing a batch of the GURI project files that should have been denied to him.  He learned about Alexander Winton's role in sabotaging Phage's program, and how Phage's program allowed for the creation of the Infiltrators.  He also knew that if anyone remembered him, and the research he had done, or the knowledge he had, that he would be a primary target.

Shipping off to Yag'Dhul, a world no one involved in the northern-hemisphere politics cared about, to continue doing his research under the guard of those who didn't care what he did ... it worked out perfectly. 

So it was that Mara and her small ship exited hyperspace, docking with the space station and coming aboard, hoping the professor was still present.

She made her way through the narrow cooridors until she reached the research laboratory, pressed the door-lock and stepped inside.

It was his back that she saw first - a lab-coat, and a head with a small bald spot and a tangle of gray/white hair.  The man was leaning over a computer console, and the room was buzzing with machinery.

At the sound of the door, he turned, and his face had an aged look that matched the hair.  But it was his expression that struck Mara.

Fear.  The moment he saw her, he reached over the console and pressed a large red button.  Before Mara could respond, a sheet of clear durasteel came crashing down from the ceiling, between her and him, a second sheet behind her cutting off any escape.

A blaster weapon was now in his hands, pointed in her direction.

"I always knew you would come for me"

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

Mara had certainly not expected this turn of events.  Her hand grazed over the clear barrier in front of her.  She was strong, but not so strong as to be able to break through the heavy material.  The durasteel behind her was no more penetrable.  She turned her gaze back to the man with the gun trained at her.  Apparently, a weapon that could blast through the transparasteel?  Not so uncommon - an ion cannon would be able to run through metal and damage circuitry, even bionetic circuitry like her own.  A paired down version of an ion cannon could be handheld.

But attempts to scan the room, or the weapon failed her - apparently, every sensor was being jammed.

She was trapped. Again.  This time though, it was not by her enemy. It was by someone she was coming to for help.

"I'm not here to hurt you"

"I don't believe you"

"I can tell - but it's the truth. I came here because I need your help"

Braithwaite smirked.

"I know better than that.  You are an infiltrator.  You were designed to get into places, and designed to kill.  I know, because I helped create your kind.  You may not look like the original model, but I would recognized an infiltrator anywhere.  You have her face"

"Her?"

"Valerie Gellar"

True enough.  And that told Mara that this was the man she was seeking. He knew who she was. Or rather, who she had been"

"I'm not an infiltrator anymore. I haven't been for a long time now."
"You cannot change what you are.  You are a programmed machine.  Once an infiltrator, always one."

"Medivh didn't believe that - and neither do you, according to your research.  I was an infiltrator, and I had my programming. But I'm free of that programming now. Just because I was built rather than born doesn't mean I am not alive.  I'm the one who destroyed Phage.  A mere program would not turn on its creator."

"You serve a different master now - you and your sisters"

So he knew there were others

"I'm not like them.  The other infiltrators - I don't consider them as my sisters.  Valerie was my sister.  Kimber was my sister.  Riley Patten is my nephew."

He smiled again.

"Ah, so you are the one that went around working as a Federation ambassador.  Didn't you create quite a stir in the Republic senate making accusations against Rutherford Gellar?"

Mara looked down.

"THAT was not me.  THAT was, unfortunately, one of my look alikes.  THAT is why I am here, why I was looking for you.  I need to be able to stop them. Them, and the one they work for now."

"And who exactly do they work for?"

"They work for a sith, named Adubell.  And Adubell has become, somehow, just like me.  She was supposedly killed, but she's now in a new body, a new machine body like mine, with her memories intact, and her connection with the force equally intact.  She's too strong for me. I barely escaped her, and I need your help to defeat her. And them.  I know who you are, Joel Braithwaite.  You helped Medivh and Alexander Winton achieve immortality, become more than they could have in a mere life.  But that aid, it didn't create greater humans. It created monsters.  Winton was a monster. Phage was a monster.  Adubell is a monster.  You helped create immortality - now I need you to help unmake it.  Even if I need to be destroyed with it.  I beg you, please help me."

Braithwaite was silent for several minutes, staring at Mara.  It was true, she was not what he had expected, but then again, the infiltrators were notoriously brilliant at manipulation. The news that the technology he helped create was expanding to others, people he never heard of, was startling. But still, just because she said something didn't make it true.

"How can I trust you, when I know what you are"
"You shouldn't trust me. I'm a monster too. But I need your help anyways, and I don't know what I can do without you."

Braithwaite lowered the gun.

"I don't think I can help you, Infiltrator"

"Please, call me Mara"

He sighed.

"Very well, Mara - I don't think I can help you.  My research didn't involve ways of undoing. It was really all theoretical until I came upon Gellar, and Winton, and Medivh.  I never even expected it to work, but it did. It saved Medivh's life, a long time ago.  And then there was Winton expanding the program, Phage ... wars ... you are right, it created monsters, but I don't know how to put them away"

"Then maybe you and I can figure it out together"

Another long pause, Mara practically holding her breath.

"Maybe"

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

Trust was not easy to come by.  Despite Braithwaite's finally acquiescing to assist Mara, he still remained caged about his work.  Mara was not allowed near any of the instruments, and he apparently had placed a fail-safe, lest she overtake him.  She didn't put it past him to let the entire facility blow up if necessary.

The work itself seemed no more fruitful, even after nearly a month of intense work.  Braithwaite pulled open his old research files, and analyzed Mara's circuitry and blood circulation.  She became the lab rat, and every now and then, she heard him muttering "fascinating" under his breath as he squinted down through some microscope or device. Whenever she inquired though, he shook his head.

It was after several long, unfruitful weeks that Mara began to mimic the human pattern of pacing impatiently, moving back and forth while Braithwaite pored over one of her DNA sequences.

"Developing bad habits"

Mara stopped and looked at him.  he nodded his head toward her feet.

"A machine was not meant to become inpatient.  It can do things instantaneously, but can wait centuries.  That is part of why Phage was so dangerous."
"A machine meant to be alive can take on the facets of life.  It's the flip side of the coin. Technology can make mortals immortal, and emotions can make technology more human.  That's how Phage was destroyed. His pride destroyed him"

"I thought you killed him"
"Yes, but I wouldn't have succeeded if he was just a calculating monster.  He was arrogant, and goaded. Alexander too - he was most dangerous, most successful when he was calculating. Even as a human, that's how he was dangerous. It was when he grew over confident that we found a weakness"

"Perhaps, then, we should wait until this Adubell grows over confident then?"

"No - Too many lives at stake. Besides, that's how I escaped her once. Barely.   But she won't fall for that again.  And even then, I didn't destroy her, just escaped"

"Escaped - you were captured?"

"By my so-called sisters.  They ... over powered me.  Fired something at my back, probably an ion blaster. Then I woke up, caged."

Braithwaite turned to face her, eyes wider now.

"An ion blaster ... yes .. I suppose an ion blaster would work.  It could knock out a machine, and it could knock out a human's neural system. Each temporarily, but ... I think that might be our in"

"Our in?"

He turned and began dialing at the controls of the instrument wildly.

"What are you doing"

"Like I said - I think I know the path to proceed"

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

Whatever Braithwaite's idea had been - he still had not been fully forthcoming to Mara - it was not a ready right away type of project.  Every day he was holed in his laboratory, giving Mara specific tasks, or scanning aspects of her, all the while programming and testing.  Mara wished the process could go faster, hinting that perhaps if she was clued in, she would be able to expedite the process - she had the memory capacity and agility to perform more tasks at once.  Braithwaite consistently refused.

At the end of one particularly long session, Mara moved to the chamber designated for her recharging, and set herself down to a sleep cycle.

Flash

Pitch blackness.  A dark so pure, it was serene.  Mara could see herself walking, calmly, slowly. She saw herself stop walking, and the view changed, that she could see what the Mara in the dream saw.
And what she saw was another version of herself, this time, running.  Not away from anything, but toward it, toward others dressed in brown and beige - jedi.  She followed herself, drawing closer, watching as her other-self drew a lightsaber from her side and ignited it. The blade the other self held was blood-red, the mark of a sith.

Mara watched as the other her began to slash her weapon through the crowd of jedi.  Some of them responded, igniting their own sabers and attempting defense, but none of their weapons harmed the attacker.  Mara now not only saw - she could feel, feel the heat as the jedi swung their blades. So close. She felt burns as they contacted, but then the jedi weapons fell, useless to the ground, and she watched herself slaughter the jedi. She saw their faces, watching as the other self murdered the jedi, one by one.

Immediately, she thought of her sisters - the other look alikes. But they, though capable of such murder, didn't fight with lightsabers.
She saw members of the jedi council, and last of all, she saw the face of Ven Agnant.

Then she looked up at herself, looking smug, drenched in blood, and saw the face change. No longer was it her, but it was Nevylinn, the jedi she had met while saving the children.

"Nevylinn ... why did you do this?"

"They were weak"

Nevylinn smiled, and her face began to change. Transform to an ashen-gray color, and then Mara recognized that it was not Nevylinn she was staring at.

It was Adubell.

"I can't be killed.  My death was just a lie meant to fool the weak. Like the jedi. You may have escaped. But now, now I am destroying my enemies. I am destroying the jedi. And soon - soon I will come for you."

"I will destroy you and everything you stand for, everything you want to protect.  And there is nothing you can do to stop me. Only one like me can destroy me. I am immortal, and you are weak.  And when it is done, the galaxy will belong to the sith"

Adubell's image disappeared and Mara could see far off in the distance a glow - or to be precise, not one glow but three - it appeared to be a lightsaber, but had three blades - one, the largest, a deep crimson. The second, slim but long, was pink. Finally a shorter, third blade was black.

Behind the blades, a sphere, massive but too far off to see the details, though it looked a mix of earth and metal. Adubell's heinous, odious voice echoing in the darkness.


"Soon will come the Daughter of Darkness"

Mara awoke from her sleep cycle and immediately stood, rising and hurrying to where Braithwaite was still conducting his research.

"Something has happened"

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

It had been so long since Mara had had 'dreams' or whatever it was she saw when she was in that state of recharging, that responding to them was even more difficult than in the past.  In the past, it had also been her own memories she had seen, with the exception of once, when she was watching Karen's vision.  This was more like that one time.  She was a spectator - except she also  had seen herself taking part in all of the carnage, then it was Nevylinn, then it was Adubell.

She knew there was some connection something about Nevylinn and Adubell that she didn't know.  Mara remembered seeing Adubell's face before it had been marred and melted.  It looked much like Nevylinn's, save for its gray color.  Could they be related? sisters or cousins?

And what did it mean that both were in her vision?
And was the vision real?  Of the past? of the future?
Unable to be killed was something Mara did understand. Like Alexander Winton, Adubell had died and been reborn, though there was something even more sinister about the way that she not only could be resurrected - jedi lightsabers couldn't hurt her. What did that mean?

and what was the warning - 'only one like me can destroy me' - did that mean Mara could destroy her, because they were alike? Or, If Nevylinn was her sister, they were alike?
and what was the three-bladed lightsaber, with the sphere?
and who or what was the daughter of darkness?

So many questions and no answers.  Mara had always been one to find out answers, but here she was at a loss.  After the dream, she had done what she could to find out about missing or killed jedi, but no reports came in.  A few suspicious explosions, but nothing about if they were even related.  She was grasping at straws.

And she couldn't reach out to anyone. Everyone thought she was dead. Even reaching out to Della had risks, now that she was in the thick of her own mission.

But she knew that she had to learn what was going on. 

She walked up to Braithwaite, who was, as usual, peering into a mechanical device, studying something without telling her what.

"I need to contact Corellia"

He glanced up, away from his research, a stern look in his face.

"Contacting outsiders from here has risks that I'm not willing to take"

"The one I'm contacting is on OUR side, and I know how to make a secure connection"

"I said no"

"This isn't up to you"

"No, Mara, it IS up to me.  I don't care about this dream you had - no, I cannot explain it but I know it doesn't matter"

"You aren't some atheistic scientist who doesn't believe in the Force.  You know what it is, and how it works.  Your science counts on it.  The dream DOES matter, and I need to find out why. I'm going to my ship to send out the comm"

Mara was turning when Braithwaite spoke again.

"If you attempt to leave here, I'll destroy you.  I'll shut you down and convert you to scrap metal."

Mara turned to face him again.

"No you won't.  You've spent the last months with me, and while you might have killed me before, I don't believe you'll do it now.  You aren't a murderer"

Mara made her way toward the entrance to the lab, when she heard the siren, watching the blast door begin to come down.  Not again.

But she was ready for it this time. Instead of getting trapped, she sped up, diving under the security measures and slipping out just as it landed, just barely missing from crushing her foot.

Here she was again, alone.  Braithwaite had a right to be cautious, but the paranoia was too much. It hindered him.  She would hopefully be able to reason with him when she returned.  Maybe he would vaporize her, or smash her into scrap metal.  Maybe he would just lock her away, an easy fix that had few moral qualms.  But Braithwaite was a good man, a scientist, not a politician or warrior, not ambitious like Medivh or Alexander.

She would be able to make amends.

****************

A half hour later, Mara had established the secure comm link, and Della Avers appeared on the other side.

"Della, it's me."

"Mara?  Mara, it's been months - where have you"

"There's no time. I need to know something.  The jedi - are they alright?"

Della paused for a moment, then shook her head.

"The jedi are being assassinated.  Most of the jedi council and many of the knights and trainees. THey've been killed. All very secretly.  Always it's been covered up.  Most people don't care about the jedi, so haven't noticed the absences.  But"

"Where is Nevylinn?"

Della looked nervous

"I'm not sure if this is a secure connection ..."

Mara of course knew that was only half of it.  Della also wasn't certain if she was talking to the real Mara.  She hadn't said anything one of the other infilitrators would already know.

"Della.  I need you to send a message to Nevylinn.  If you can. If it's safe.  Tell her that I had a dream about Adubell."

"Adubell?"

"A sith - one we faced on Korriban.  One who is alive.  Tell her I had a dream about Adubell, and about the Daughter of Darkness"

"I don't know what that means"

"She will.  If you can get that message to her, and it means to her what I think it does, tell her I will contact you again in a week's time."

"Mara, wait"

"I have to go Della.  Take care of Riley"

The comm was disconnected.  Secure connections, no matter how strong, don't last forever, and the shorter the conversation, the less likely it would have been overheard.

Mara glanced down, next to the comm, where a photo of Riley lay.  She let out a sigh, letting her hand graze against the image, stopping for just a moment before she began making her way back to deal with the scientist's wrath.

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

He had not shut her down or converted her to scrap metal.  For that, at least, she was grateful.
What he had done is locked her in a very strong cell that she had not figured out a way to get out of.  Walls and doors were durasteel reinforced, blast strength quality. Even the strongest droid would need a long, time to break through without much more significant firepower.

She wallowed in in the cell, counting the days.  4. 5. 6.  It was a week now, and she had promised to contact Della again.  If she didn't they would worry, not to mention she would never get the connection she needed.

Getting close to the appointed time, Mara finally heard the various mechanisms of the door and with a hiss, it opened, Professor Braithwaite standing there, a grim look on his face.

"Go send that communication."

"You are letting me this time?"

"We need more information.  More about how to defeat this threat."

Braithwaite walked away, Mara standing and moving to the door of the cell.

"No apology?"

"No.  Go, now, before I change my mind.  And try to find something useful"

****************

Again, a short distance from the station, she established the link.  This time, it was Nevylinn who appeared on the other side.


"Nevylinn - you received my message."

The jedi nodded

"Nevylinn - I had a dream.  A dream where I witnessed the slaughter of many, many jedi.  younglings.  Masters.  The killer's face first was my own.  Then it became yours. And then it became Adubell's"

"I had a similar dream, though you were not in it.  I was the killer, and then Adubell"

"I thought you might. Hoped.  Nevylinn, Adubell is alive.  I have seen her in person, and barely escaped.  She is changed though.  Her skin is no longer white, but gray. Gray like stone."

Nevylinn's facial expression looked severe, so different from the more pleasant jedi face she had met so many months ago.  There was also a look of fear or panic in her eyes.

"Nevylinn, Adubell ... she looks like you.  But for the skin change, I would have thought you two were -"

"Twins.  Yes, Mara.  We are twins.  Born of the same blood, the same time.  But we have taken different paths. Very different.  I saw her body, dead, on Chandaar.  If you saw her alive, it could only mean she had created a clone of herself"

Mara nodded.

"Not just a clone. She is like what Alexander Winton was."

"An enhanced clone, like yourself, if I remember correctly"

"It's more than that.  She's a droid.  SHe's transformed herself from flesh and blood to machine.  A super-droid, stronger than Phage, with the power of the Force on her side.  And a skin that was laced with something that repels a lightsaber"

"There are only a handful of substances that can block lightsabers. Phrik alloy, mandalorian iron.  But only one causes such short-circuit. Cortosis.  It has an energy resistance property that creates a feedback in the lightsaber loop.  But to refine it like that, into the skin ... it's never been done like that before.  But what do you mean, she's a droid with the Force?"

"That is what Alexander Winton had worked to create.  A droid in which to carry on your conscience, with a connection to the Force.  I was the prototype for that"

"I thought you were just a clone - you are a droid?"

Mara nodded her head solemnly.  Nevylinn was the first person she had told that whole truth to in ten years.  Not even Riley knew she was a droid.

"Mara - Adubell has been killing the jedi.  We need to find a way to stop her"

"I'm working on it.  Me and ... a colleague. We are trying to find a way to prevent Adubell from reincarnating again.  But we will need to be able to kill her.  and with this armor-skin she had, it will make it very difficult."

"Only one like her - that's what she said in the vision.  That means you are the one to stop her"
"She said it to me too.  I thought she meant like her, her blood. Her sister."

"Well right now, it appears neither of us are ready to face her."
"Not yet"
"And jedi are dying"

"Your job right now is to stop dying - keep the jedi and yourself safe. I'm working on a way to defeat Adubell, use what she is against her."

"And if you fail"

"I'll worry about that when it happens.  I need to keep my location secure, but I will try contacting you again soon."

"Mara ... what about the rest of it"

"The daughter of darkness. the three-bladed lightsaber. The sphere.  I don't know.  But it is an ill sign of things to come.  We need to stop her before she does any more damage."

"I just hope we can"

TBC

[Medivh]

(See: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cortosis)
Yag'Dhul

cortosis.

The word had been just about all Mara could focus on since her conversation with Nevylinn.  And for Mara, a droid with a massive brain capacity, that meant alot.
Adubell had laced her skin with a metal that could short-circuit a lightsaber.  A metal that was rare to find and hard to refine. She was coated in it.  That is how she managed to defeat so many jedi. Mara knew she had not been defeated, not yet, not once. If she had, the jedi would have reported it to their colleagues.  But the attacks - they were still shrouded in secrecy.  Adubell had made herself impregnable.

Mara's research on cortosis had also found that the substance was equally resistant to blaster fire.  That, and the fact that it was effectively an armor engrained in her skin, and Adubell could not be defeated by any handheld weapon.

Plus, of course, if she died, she could be reborn.  Prospects looked dim.

Mara spent hour after hour and day after day searching for something.  She tried accessing old imperial or republic files to see what they had, but most of those had been destroyed when Coruscant was obliterated.  She had found nothing, nothing, and more nothing. A handful of articles on how the Imperial palace had been lined with cortosis armour.  Great, so all she had to do to destroy it was destroy a planet along with it.

Finally, she found a glimmer.  In an old article on the varieties of lightsabers, she found a single sentence.

'saber crystals from the world of Mestare, combined with unique circuitry in the saber hilt, do not suffer the short-circuit effects when in contact with cortosis"

Well good. that was something.  But Mestare was not a world Mara was familiar with, and finding rare crystals from an unknown world to fight a rare metallic substance ... it was a quest that would take time, at the very least.

Meanwhile, she was also looking for weaknesses in cortosis.  as an unrefined rock, it had energized properties that could shock those who touched it. It was naturally very brittle, until turned into metal.  But cortosis was really all about it's conductive properties.  And to study that, she needed to see it up close.

Mara moved away from the console she was standing at and made her way down the hall to where Professor Braithwaite was conducting his own research.

"We need a sample of cortosis alloy.  See what we can do to use it against Adubell."

"You are asking to leave. Every time you go and return carries risk."

"We don't have enough here. We might be able to temporarily disable Adubell, if an ion blast works on her, but first of all, we don't know if it will - the cortosis armor may cancel any negative effects. And second, it won't kill her, because she can just be recreated.  If we want to defeat her, we need a sure fire way of disabling and destroying one body - and then making sure she cannot regenerate in a new one."

Braithwaite, quite unexpectedly nodded.

"I think the use of this cortosis armor may be the key to that as well.  It's properties against energy ... if they could be utilized properly, may effect her systems as well."

"So I can go?"

"Go.  Go, and come back soon."

She nodded, turning to leave.

"Where will you look first?"

"Before Coruscant was destroyed, the imperial palace was lined with cortosis ore.  There must have been huge amounts of it.  Even taking into account the amount that was pulverized in the explosion, or mined previously ... the asteroid field is bound to have some. And some is all we need."

Mara walked out of the room, making her way to the docking bay.

How many times would her journey's take her back to the Coruscant Asteroid Field.  The place she was born, created.

All roads lead home.

TBC

[Medivh]

Coruscant Asteroid Field

If there were any place in the galaxy that Mara was familiar with - more so than the Wheel, or Corellia - it was Coruscant.  Once, the richest most influential world in the galaxy was here, with a city that literally covered the planet.  It was obliterated, like so many other things, by those with dark powers, a burst of evil blotting out billions of lives in an instant, and leaving ruin.

But that ruin had not been an end - it had been a beginning.  What was left behind - an asteroid field charged with ion storms - had become a perfect hideaway.  First for pirates, then for other denizens - Alexia Winton had resided here, and it had been the base of operations for Phage after he was presumed destroyed a first time.  It was where Mara had been born or created.

Now, even Phage's platform was gone.  It had been destroyed by Mara and Karen before they faced off against Alexander Winton on Centerpoint Station.  Mara could see fragments of the station, floating off in the distance, made smaller each time an asteroid struck it and it broke up further.

In the decade since the battle of Centerpoint, Mara had visited the place once, about five years ago, spending a day scanning the region to be sure no new activity was occurring here.  To make sure Phage, or Alexander, or whoever had not suddenly reappeared and started all over again.  Some nightmares never die.

Today, Coruscant's asteroid field was just as vacant and dangerous as ever, Mara's ship hovering on the outskirts as she scanned the debris.  With all the metals that had been blown away with Coruscant's destruction, the field was rich in metals, precious and otherwise. Only the ion storms, and the region's sordid history kept miners away. Mara hoped that among those metals was one such substance.  Cortosis, which had apparently been used in copious amounts in Palpatine's imperial palace.  Enough that it would survive the demolition.

Mara let the scanners run, watching the lightning bounce between the rocks with a passive caution.  It could be hours before she found anything.

It always felt weird waiting, doing nothing, knowing so much needed to be done.  Mara turned her thoughts to those she cared for - Riley, above all. She would do anything to protect him, Garron Prescott, whom she had shared a brief, stunted moment with before they had been separated.  Whatever it was she felt for him had to be put aside.  There were others as well, people she supported, even if she didn't have a more meaningful connection to them.  The Gellars, the jedi (what remained of them), the Corellian ambassadors.  Each played a role in helping her and Riley, shared common goals.  But Mara had no family. Riley, yes, sort of.  But the rest?  The closest thing Mara had to family were her enemies - HRDs on the side of evil.  And yet, Mara would do everything to stop them.  Because it was who she was. Not who she was programmed to be, but who she had become.

Mara hoped her long journey to humanhood was not in vain. That she would be able to survive to see the better galaxy she hoped for, see Riley grow up, see the end of those that threatened him.

If only it were possible.

TBC

[Medivh]

Coruscant Asteroid Field

The scans were not as successful as she had hoped.  Trace amounts of cortosis were picked up - but closer review found those were residual signatures.  That someone had already taken much of the cortosis metals that were in the system.  Her scans led her to rock after rock after rock, and in each place, she found only the small amounts of cortosis left over by apparent mining work.

Now Mara knew where Adubell had obtained her supply.

She was losing hope when she finally came across one rock with enough of the substance that she could effectively collect a sample.  Moving her vessel closer, she released the collection arm, pulling in the small rock.  A more detailed analysis showed there was enough cortosis metal in the rock to create a sheet 1 mm thick over a half square meter - nothing vast by any accounts, but enough.

She hoped enough.

Mara searched for only a few hours more before finally flying away from the field, glancing over at the distant yet bright orb that was the Hesperidium moon, before taking her ship into hyperspace.

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

There was a sense of foreboding when Mara left Coruscant again. A sense that despite its vacancy, it would still hold a key role in events to come.  She spent the hyperspace trip trying to regenerate, refocus her energies on the impossible tasks before her.  That was when she was rocked, again, by a dream.

flash
almost immediately she recognized that where she was, as if a continuation of the last dream she had, Adubell's voice hovering in the background

"Soon will come the Daughter of Darkness"

And there with the voice, the three-bladed lightsaber, and behind it, a massive sphere of earth and metal.


the sabers disappeared, floating into the abyss of darkness at the periphery of the dream, leaving only the distant sphere.  But now it was growing closer, faint details could be seen.  packed dirt - an orange shade,with metal streaks, like giant tubes.

Tubes that, but for the packed earth in between them, would have looked very much like the Wheel.

Was she looking at Korriban?  That was where Mara had seen the Wheel last, hovering in orbit, with some unknown construction being done to it.  But no, Korriban had canyons and mountains - this sphere had the color of Korriban, but was almost perfectly spherical, as if it had been manufactured.

The sphere rumbled, shaking, and then she could hear voices, whispers that she couldn't understand, coming from the sphere.

No longer did it feel like she was floating closer - it was as if she was falling, faster and faster, the surface of the sphere coming at her fast.

And just as she was about to strike the ground ...

Mara awoke to find the indicator light blinking. A few seconds later, her ship exited hyperspace back at Yag'Dhul.  She had to get the cortosis to the professor, so he could start working with it.

And he had to reach out to Nevylinn again, find out if this new dream meant something too.

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

The steps to make sure the comm connection was secure were long and tedious. Layers upon layers of security, with a variety of diversion relays.  Tracking a signal between Yag'Dhul and Corellia would take a genius years to decipher without some external inputs.

At least, that is what Mara hoped.  Each time she activated a transmission, she changed the algorithm, hoping that would keep anyone off her trail.  But the other side, the enemy, they weren't just geniuses.  They were machines. Just like her.  They could pick out algorithms too, and much faster than a mere genius.

Each contact was a risk, but she needed the connection, needed to keep Nevylinn and Della informed.  There was no question, a threat was there - out in the periphery.  They had not gone away just because the children were rescued, the jedi were assassinated, the war between empire and republic possibly over. Adubell, her look-alikes.  THey had an agenda, and the worst part was Mara didn't know what it was.

The dream, hopefully was a clue.  If Mara knew what Adubell was trying to do, maybe she could stop her before too many people had to suffer.

The green light, and then Della's face comes on screen.

"Mara ..."
"How's Riley?"
"Riley's fine.  Is everything ok - what happened?"
"Things are - proceeding.  Slowly.  I might have some answers, but I also have some new questions. Is Nevylinn there?"
"She is meeting with-"
"Wait, don't tell me"
"Is this a secure line?"
"As secure as I can make it."
Della frowned
"Let me just say - there was an attempt on the life of someone at the Bolerathon Tower. We were ruminating on the significance of that"
"The tower was owned by the Winton-Masterton families."
"Yes. and Dahlia Winton has ownership."
"It's not the location that matters.  It's the blood. Or what's in the blood"
"What do you mean?"
"I can't go in to detail right now.  But you already know there was an enzyme in the blood of certain individuals. Valerie Gellar, for example.  That enzyme allowed for certain interactions between mechanical and biological elements.  That enzyme - apparently it is extremely rare.  So rare in fact, that it has only ever been discovered in four families"
"You mean ..."
"Yes. That enzyme has only ever been found in Winton, Masterton, Gellar, and Patten.  We still don't know the common link between them.  But if you want to talk about being bound by blood or prophesy, It looks like the blood side is the winner.  Alexander Winton didn't even believe in the prophesy - he just used it to meet his own ends."

Della seems stunned for a minute, and Mara realized her time was getting short.

"Della - I need to talk to Mara.  When I know more, I can let you know more, but I can only stay on for a few more minutes"

Della nodded and walked away, Nevylinn returning.

"Hello Mara"

"Nevylinn - I had another dream"

Nevylinn shakes her head, "I did not - although I've been more preoccupied of late. What was your vision?"

"Do you remember that image - the three sabers, and the sphere behind it?"
"Yes"
"The sphere - I got a better look at it.  It was made of metal and earth.  Actual dirt. It reminded me of Korriban.  And then I heard voices. Whispers really. I didn't understand them, but they were dark. Really, really dark.  They reminded me of - well, they also reminded me of Korriban.  When I was a prisoner there.  I heard whispers coming from shadows, talking to Adubell.  But now they seemed to be coming from the sphere.  Almost like something was set loose and placed inside it."

Nevylinn shook her head, glancing away for a moment.

"I don't know what it means - but a few days ago ... there was something. Briefly, but a sense of foreboding.  Just like you said. As if something dark was set loose on the galaxy"

" I think it's part of Adubell's plan.  That sphere.  It means she's making progress"

"Then we need to do everything we can to stop her. Soon as possible.  I'll think about the vision. I'll discuss it with a few others I trust and see if we can make sense of it.  How is your work coming?"

"Slowly - but we are making progress as well."

"So it's a race"

Mara nods

"a race"

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

Professor Braithwaite had been playing with the bits of cortosis that Mara had provided him, constantly commenting, lamenting that he wished for more.  He had to be careful, as some of the experiments he conducted consumed the material - meaning less and less to work with. It had been another month of testing before he finally had a result.

Mara had been allowed to observe, but at a distance. At first she didn't understand why she was being kept out of the room, why she had to watch on a video system and a computer monitor.

Braithwaite took a small bit of cortosis, placing it next to his "test subject", a computer console.

"This console is carrying your DNA, Mara.  It has a copy of your program in its system"

That had also left her uneasy - the last thing she needed was an extra copy of herself around. There were already too many to begin with.

"You can see the contents of the console on your second screen"

Braithwaite turned toward the camera, holding up a small, cylindrical device with two sensors on top and a computer-chip at the bottom.

"This is a pulse-activator unit. The sensor has been tuned to trigger when it comes into contact with the energy properties of cortosis.  I have attempted to make the signal as weak as possible"

He then turned back to the console and pressed the activator against the cortosis.  The moment the metal touched the sensor, there was a small flash of light, pushing out from the activator before dissipating about ten yards away in each direction. 

On the screen next to the monitor, Mara at first saw nothing, then saw that the program was beginning to change, key components disappearing and being replaced by new command codes - until the program was no longer sustained, and the computer shut down.

"You created a virus"

Braithwaite nodded

"A virus that could stop Adubell - that uses her own cortosis armor against her.  But there's a catch - the signal here didn't go through the cortosis, it was only activated by the cortosis, and then the pulse went through the open spaces.  Adubell is covered in cortosis. To have the signal reach her computer systems, we need to breach her cortosis skin."

"Which means, this needs to be part of the Mestare lightsaber"
"exactly"

*********

Mara for her part was constantly doing research of her own, searching for the world of Mestare and the crystals there.  The plan was slowly developing, a plan that might - emphasis on MIGHT - work to defeat Adubell.

Mara had never built a lightsaber - even when training with Karen, even when she fought with a blade, it had been one already in existence, and even then it was rare.  It was said that both jedi and sith spent weeks or months developing sabers, preparing crystals, constructing the mechanisms, in conjunction with imparting thee Force on the weapon, thus every saber was unique to its creator.

Mara's blue print had started off as a basic lightsaber.

Then, she began to deconstruct and reconstruct the design, based on her knowledge schematics of the mestarian crystal that she was looking for, and the nature of cortosis.  The blade energy channels were redesigned to be resistant to short-outs caused by cortosis power surge, and the power cell was installed with a more durable power cell, the field conductor and inert power insulator were adjusted as well so as to maintain the containment of the power source.  The primary crystal, of course, would be mestarian, while the focusing crystal was made of another rock native to mestare, so as to maintain the seamlined energy.  The casing was to be made of Phrik, a lightsaber-resistant metal that did not have the shorting effect of cortosis - and was also substantially more available, having been used by Phage and his generals in their armor and weaponry.  The biggest changes were near the top of the handle.  By the magnetic stabilizing ring, an additional ring of conductive material was added, including a series of software chips.  By the blade emitter shroud was a pulse-activator.  The idea was fairly simple.  The lightsaber would be using a blade that could cut through Cortosis.  At the base of the blade, by the top of the hilt, the pulse activator would wait.  When it came into contact with cortosis, the electric properties of the cortosis would trigger a pulse of energy to be shot out in all directions, transmitting the contents of those software chips.  Anything the pulse reached would be impacted, and with the blade activated, there was a path through which the pulse could reach the software underneath Adubell's cortosis skin.

If the software worked correctly, it would trigger a virus that would effectively destroy Adubell. And better yet, that virus would transmit to any reincarnations of her, destroying them as well.
Unfortunately, the saber had a few setbacks.  The pulse would only be able to be triggered once - the energy required would burn out the lightsaber immediately afterward. Secondly, Mara still didn't have the crystal that would allow her to get close enough to trigger the whole plan.  Nor did she have the skill with a saber that was necessary.

It was after a long day of work that she finally found the world that was spoken of. Mestare, in the outer rim, a forgotten planet, with forgotten wonders.

Braithwaite bid her leave and return, as before, quickly, but this time, he handed her a large case of parts.

"The trip is long - use it building your weapon.  Make it your own, and it will serve you to the bitter end"

TBC

[Medivh]

Mestare

Mara's journey had been a lonely one. Traveling through hyperspace to a remote region of the galaxy, to a barely known planet, whose data was buried in the deepest part of the largest archives.

Mestare had no space ports. No metropolis.  No wagon-wheels for that matter.  It was a world seemingly untouched by either the progress or strife of the galaxy.  Mara's landing was in a grassy field, where the grass grew taller than her ship.  By day the air was breathable, but sultry hot, with temperatures hovering around 120*F.  A normal human would not be able to last long in such weather.  The flaura on the planet was well adapted to a very hot, very wet climate, the air full of humidity from the constant evaporation.  By night, the temperature dropped considerably, down to about 40*F.  Much of the moisture that evaporated by day came back down by night, replenishing the forests, streams, bogs.  The vegetation closed itself off with protective layers by night, and The few species of creatures she saw had adapted as well, most coming out to the cool, wet nights, and hiding by day.

Her ship had landed several kilometers from where she had a reading of the crystal she was seeking out, the trek brutal in midday sun.  The high grass finally gave way to rocky terrain, when she first came on a sign that she was not the first sentient to appear on the planet.

Long overgrown, but on closer inspection, there was some form of a path, and on the side, a single rock



She glanced down, brushing her hand on the image, feeling the faintest tremor in the force as she did.  This was the right place.
She closed her eyes, activating her own internal sensor array, and then reopened her eyes to look ahead.  Scans showed the very faintest of markings, leading forward.  Mara readjusted her pack and began moving forward, picking up her pace moving through the rocks and smaller vegetation.  Her path was leading her upward, though on either side of her, the ground was sloping steeper, until she was unable to see the sky on either side.  Nearly halfway up the mountain, she finally found what she was looking for - the opening to a cave, where she found another scrawled image on a rock, below which was an illegible date.

Mara moved past the mouth of the cave and walked into the darkness.

Almost immediately, the air was cooler, and the cave took her on a now descending path deeper into the heart of the mountain.  Mara's eyes refocused to see in the darkness, and a blip on her internal scanner picked up far in the distance, the substance she was looking for. Mestarian crystal.

From the mouth of the cave, it took Mara another hour of walking, cautiously through the pitch blackness, before reaching the first source of the minerals.  This vision did not allow her to see the sparkling coming from the crystals embedded in the walls - but they did allow her to see signs of activity that had lingered here.  A handful of tools lay on the cave floor, and among them, a datapad, which Mara picked up.  Brushing off layers of soot, she activated the datapad, and read the entry.

"Our survey of this world has led us to the discovery of a new crystal that can be used in lightsabers.  We have studied its properties, and it appears that it does not have the same negative reaction to cortosis that most lightsaber blades do.  Pursuant to our mission, we are mining a sample of these crystals to be taken back to the jedi temple for study."

and the next entry

"Mining the Mestarian crystal  has proven difficult - like cortosis, the crystal is itself resistant to energy weapons, so the mining must be done manually.  We have managed to successfully mine three crystals thus far, but in our attempts to shape them, two of them crumbled.  The third was finally shaped to fit into a lightsaber."

and the next entry

"The Mestarian lightsaber has been completed. The blade is unlike those I have seen before.  It is a bright silver in color, and looking into its depths, it is almost as though the pattern of color changes as you look at it.  The blade also curves slightly, more like a katana or cutlass than a standard blade.  Despite its effects on cortosis, the jedi council is concerned that such a blade will not be worth the efforts, mining, refining, and training on a new battle form."

and the next entry.

"The jedi council has cancelled the expedition to Mestare.  We are to take the handful of crystals we have, but not spend any additional time on this world.  The war has taken up the council's attention, and they need all the jedi they can spare.  We have arranged for our departure in three days time, though we have marked off the caves should we ever come back.  I am also leaving the tools for extraction."

It was unclear from Mara which war had stopped the jedi from staying on Mestare, be it the Clone Wars of half a century ago, or the Sith Wars of a millenia ago.  Either way, The jedi had apparently never returned, nor had anyone else.

Mara knew nothing about the prototypes that had been created - Nevylinn knew little, and the jedi and their knowledge had been scattered and destroyed time and again. Most likely any existing blades were destroyed.  She had never heard of a silver bladed saber before.

Placing down the pad, Mara lifted up one of the tools, a pick-axe, and moved to the wall, placing down her pack, lifting her arm, and beginning to chip away at the rock ...

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

It had been weeks since she had departed from Yag'Dhul on her expedition to Mestare.  Long hyperspace travel there, wondering what she would find, weeks of mining the crystals with primitive, non-energy weapons, sifting through crystals too small or brittle to use before successfully extracting what she sought -about a half dozen crystals of adequate size and shape, most would require minimal shaping, reducing the likelihood of them getting destroyed in the refining process.

The trip back to Yag'Dhul was quiet, lonely, Mara spending most of the time working to construct a lightsaber out of the parts she had.  Circuitry was, understandably, something that came naturally to Mara, but her reading of saber lore told her these weapons were more than just gadgets.  The jedi would infuse the force into them as they created them. It made the crystals more powerful, allowed for the channeling of the Force.  In a way, a lightsaber was much like Mara herself: a mix of circuitry with that spark of a connection to the Force, making it something else entirely.

Mara sat cross-legged in front of the components, connecting wires to power sources, then pulling out the crystal.  She leaned over it, studying it, visually, scanning it's properties, watching the information run down the monitor in her thoughts.  The Force was not so analytical. It was more the 1s and 0s, and to succeed, she had to be more as well.  She closed her eyes, reaching out to the Force.

Flash

Almost instantly, she felt the rush, a new visualization of her ship, traveling through hyperspace, seeing the components in front of her, seeing the crystal.  It was there, in front of her, in her hand, but it was dull.  She felt instinctively what had to be done.   Her hand waved over the crystal and it lifted into the air.  Eyes stll closed, she could see it there, pulsing, pulsing to an unseen rhythm.

bum

bum

bum

bum

She pressed her thoughts toward the crystal, channeling the Force through her body, through her finger tips, watching tendrils of electricity escape from fingers into the crystal

bum

bum

bum

bum

The crystal was changing now. With each pulse, it seemed to grow slightly brighter

bum

bum

bum

bum

brighter and brighter, until it was glowing

bum

bum

bum

bum

still brighter, until it's light encompassed the entire chamber of the ship.  Mara could feel the pulse of the crystal, like ocean waves, the Force going to and fro, remaking it, connecting it to her.  She was the crystal, and the crystal was part of her

bum

bum

bum

her view changed, around her, a silvery stained glass prism. Beyond, she could see the walls of the ship. She was standing inside the crystal itself.  She had invested her very essence into the crystal. The saber she was making was her, all the while, the walls pulsed to the beat

bum bum bum

But the walls began to cloud, darken, and she found herself whisked away, flying through space and time.

She was on Yag'Dhul station, but it was not as it had been.  The laboratory was in shambles, the lights flickered, sparks were flying.  She saw a figure stalking through the semi-darkness, familiar. Too familiar.  Her view changed, and she could see her own face on the being making its way to the computer console.  At her feet, another figure was slumped on the ground.  It... no, he. .. was dying, but his hand lifted to a small remote, pressing a button, and the entire room went white.

Flash

She could hear laughter, the cackling, evil laugh of Adubell, and her ominous words.

"Soon will come the Daughter of Darkness ... "

bum

bum

bum

bum

flash

Mara's eyes opened, the crystal falling back into her palm.  It was not glowing like in the image, but it's color had brightened significantly.  She carefully placed the stone back in a padded case, then hurried to the cockpit. She had to get back, as soon as possible.

TBC

[Medivh]

Yag'Dhul

Mara's ship slips out of hyperspace, moving silently toward the research facility floating in space.  There are no outward signs of a problem, but she knew something was wrong.

The ship landed, the ramp beginning to lower with a hiss.  Mara's blaster was pulled out, she didn't wait for the plan to reach the floor, jumping out of the widening opening and running toward the door.

It was here she saw the first signs of trouble.  The hatch was not only open - it had been pulled over, torn metal lying on the ground beside her.  She didn't stop, activating her internal sensory system to see what was ahead, slipping into the narrow passage, and making her way toward the laboratory.

The heavy blast door was half open, and she could still hear the sign of the hydraulics trying to push them closed.  The door was propped open by a large chunk of what looked like it used to be a storage container.

Mara ducked and made her way inside.  Then she stopped.  Around her, the lab was in shambles.  computers looked torn up, wires hung loose, spraying sparks, shattered glass lay strewn everywhere.  Cautiously, Mara stepped forward, feet crinkling against broken pieces under her boots, blaster at the ready.  She rounded the first corner of the lab and found her first surprise.

There, lying on the ground ... was her.  An exact copy of her lay there, eyes open but vacant.  Mara lept back as one arm raised but then fell flat again. again, the arm raised, a few inches at most, then fell flat on the ground.  Mara quickly scanned for signs of any others, then bent down to the one there.

"What is your designation"

her look alike said nothing, didn't move or blink. The arm kept its automatic up and down motion, though slightly slower than before.

"What is your designation"

still nothing.  Mara looked over her, seeing no injuries, no blast holes.

"The weapon works"

Mara turned her head toward the sound of the voice, pained, weak.  Rising, still holding her blaster, she moved further down, finding another body slumped on the floor. Professor Braithwaite was in worse shape than the Infilitrator.  A blaster wound in his abdomen was covered in blood.  Mara quickly bent down, putting her hand over the wound.

"What happened?"
"They found me. They shot me.  But I was able to activate the weapon.  She didn't realize what happened at first. She was still going through the lab.  But then she started to slow.  Started to have difficulty moving.  Losing who and what she was.  Her command sequences are gone.  She's just an empty shell now.  Serves her right, going through my lab"

He burst out in an eruption of coughing, Mara tearing at her shirt to form a bandage.

"Mara ... it's too late"

"No, I'm going to save you"

"Mara - there's no time.  Corellia ... they know about Corellia.  You have to save them.  You have to save them."

Fear filled Mara. If they knew about Corellia, they would hunt down the rest of them. the rest of the jedi. All housed at the Patten ranch.

With Riley.

He was coughing again, blood spewing from his lips, his body tensing in pain

"Go, Mara. Go!"

And Mara ran.