Dawn of Forever, Part XXXVI

Main Unity Dawn of Forever

It's been stated that wars are long periods of inactivity punctuated with moments of excitement. The war with the Vong was no different. After so much planning and preparing things were happening rapidly. For Han, Kilana, and Roger, this included their arrival on Danoob. They'd arrived under a cover that even an old smuggler like Han could appreciate, and were given enough cover to pass amongst the locals for a little while. But there wasn't much time these days, so they got to their rendezvous as quickly as possible.

"Solo?" the man in the alley asked.

Han paused and looked him over. Enough meetings like this trained the eyes, although these eyes had seen better days. "You Den Bohls?"

"Yes," Bohls said, coming out into the slightly less dark. "I understand you need my help."

"There's construction going on on the dark side of the planet," Han said. "Exotic parts were being shipped here for a while last year. I want to see what the Imps are up to."

Bohls shook his head a little. "Not wise to mess with the Imps around here," he said. "Corbin's a mean one; he'll torture and kill you if you're caught."

"Then we'd best not get caught," Han said.

Bohls scowled. "I don't see why I should stick my neck out for the Alliance. What they ever do for me?"

"It's what they won't do," Han said. "Namely tipping off Corbin to your questionable associates."

"That was strictly business," Bohls said. "I've got no love for anti-tech nutjobs, but their money spends same as anyone's."

"I don't think that's gonna set Corbin's mind at ease," Han said in his low, syrupy tones. "Now let's just do this thing, all right?"

"Listen, I'll do my part," Bohls said. "But you tell Sebastian when you see him that this is the last-"

"Time?"

"Twelve point two minutes, sir."

Lando looked at the readouts on his datapad. "I think it's holding. Charge it up another ten percent." He watched the readings.

"Fifteen minutes."

"Power down, power down!" Lando said, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. "That looks good, real good. Everybody take twenty and we're back here for the secondary relay."

Garak was standing nearby, watching without comment. He detached himself from the wall as the room cleared out and slithered over. "I take it that was progress?"

"Yes it was, Garak, yes it was." Lando's eyes never left the datapad. "We're almost operational."

"What's 'almost' when translated into real time units?"

"Days. Just a few more tests to run," Lando said, looking things over. "Have to be careful... one small error and bang-"

"This place blows."

"Thanks for that assessment," Han said.

"I'm only stating what I know everyone's thinking," Roger said. "What an abysmal place."

"Perfect for hiding something," Kilana pointed out.

"The station's this way," Bohls said. "From here you can access the orbital systems and get a view, that's the only way you're going to see anything." He paused, then quickly gestured for everyone to get up against the wall. He pulled a vibro-blade from his belt and slipped around the corner. Han swore under his breath and followed him, only to catch the end of it. "We have stun weapons," Han said, "you didn't have to kill him."

"I'm not risking having myself identified," Bohls said, wiping the blood from the blade.

"He wasn't even a guard," Han said a bit louder than he should. "Just some shlub trying to get some fresh air."

"You want to do this without me, fine," Bohls said, "but with me, you do it my way."

Before Han could respond the door opened and a stormtrooper walked through. Everyone pulled their guns, even though a firefight was going to attract still more attention, but then Roger moved... sort of. His chest snapped open and a fist mounted on a long arm sprang out and hit the trooper in the middle of the back, knocking him so hard his helmet flew off. He hit the ground and stayed there. Everyone stared at Roger and the arm protruding from his chest. "It's my extensible limb," he explained. He looked from face to face. "What?"

"That's it?" Kilana asked.

"Yes. What did you think I meant?"

Han looked at Roger, then at the crumpled up stormtrooper, then shook his head. "He's out now," he said. "Probably gonna hurt like hell when he-"

"Comes to," Anakin looked over the numbers again, "quite a chunk of credits," he said, tossing the datapad on the desk. "Maybe setting up the Academy here was a mistake. We don't have the money for this."

"But this place is so beautiful," Laudica said from out on the balcony.

"And they charge you for the beauty," Anakin said. "I never realized how much we needed the Empire to foot the bill for everything... we're going to be living on the beach levitating rocks in the hopes people will throw coins in our hats."

"Anakin, stop with the number crunching and relax. Worse comes to worse, Sebastian will cover it."

"Oh sure, that's something I'm looking forward to doing," Anakin said. "Having to get a hand-out from him."

"This was his idea," Laudica reminded Anakin. "And you're acting rather childish. Maybe you two don't see eye-to-eye, but you're both family. He's not going to make you grovel."

"No, but it would give the impression that the Jedi are indebted to him."

Laudica's eyes swiveled this way and that. "Well, that would be because we would." She gave a lopsided grin. "You don't like that thought, huh?"

"Sebastian has made some bad decisions," Anakin said tersely. "I don't want him interfering in the Academy."

"Anakin, come here."

"Listen, I've-"

"Come here," Laudica said, with no room for disagreement. Anakin got to his feet and came over. She put her arm around him and looked out of the ocean. "This isn't a failure," she said. "You and Jaina founded this Academy and have seen it through the worst catastrophes, but we're still here. You've got nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Then why does it feel that way?"

"Because you are a very prideful man," Laudica said with a smirk. "There's something you need to know."

"What?" A look of panic passed over his face. "Is it about the environmental impact, because I-"

"Anakin," Laudica said, "stop thinking about the Academy for three seconds, okay? There's something-"

"I have to tell you," Han said, "this is one bad idea, and I've seen plenty."

"I told you," Bohls said, flipping switches on the control panel, "they'll shoot down any ship that tries to go over there. This is the only way you're going to get a chance to see what's there and live."

"I'm not too sure we're going to live anyway," Han said. "Someone's going to notice that guy hasn't reported back yet, and this place is gonna get swarmed."

"Stop distracting me and I'll get it done faster," Bohls said through his teeth. The monitor finally flickered and resolved into a cloudy darkness. "Let me try to clean it up," he said as he worked the controls.

"I still don't see anything," Kilana said.

"I do," Roger said. "It's a ship."

"You're not seeing a ship," Han said. "It's just resolving."

"I have top-level visual filters," Roger said. "It's not a battlestation."

"Just..." Han stopped as the picture cleared up. "Kriff..."

"That's not the Death Star," Kilana said. "What is that?"

"I know what that is," Han said grimly. "Terraine mentioned it. It's-"

"An Eclipse?" Sebastian rubbed his brow. "Are we sure?"

"An Eclipse Mark II, prefect," Terraine said. "And yes, we're sure. It's very hard to mistake a ship like that for something else."

Sebastian gently tossed the datapad onto his desk. "Well that is exactly what we don't need," he said with exhaustion in his voice. "Who has it?"

"Corbin," Terraine said.

"Aw terrific," Sebastian said. "Corbin's arrogant; he'll use the damn thing."

"That's our assessment as well, prefect," Terraine said.

"Admiral," Sebastian said, turning to Cirule. "There's no chance you would ever convince him to coming over to our side, right?"

"He's at the bottom of the list, prefect," Cirule said.

"Then I don't see an alternative to declaring war on Corbin," Sebastian said. "Before he gets it in his head to use that thing."

"That will severely hinder our ability to draw other factions into the Alliance," Cirule warned.

"I understand that," Sebastian said. "But for now, we know where that ship is. In a week, who knows. It's bad enough that someone's running around with a Death Star somewhere, but letting an ambitious weasel like Corbin have his own personal superlaser is too much. We're going to have to move, and quickly, unless someone has a better idea."

"Prefect," Terraine said, "the ISB can get men onto that ship and sabotage it. We can very likely destroy it, with enough resources."

"Begging your pardon, Mr. Terraine, but that's one big ship," Sebastian said.

"I realize that," Terraine said. "But we have the advantage for the moment. The ship is understaffed in dry dock, and we have the schematics and intimate understanding of the security technology and the protocol. To put it bluntly, we know its weaknesses, and the weaknesses in the humanoid element. We can very likely blow that ship away without sending in a single warship."

Sebastian drummed his fingers on the desk. "How certain are you of this?" he asked.

"Very certain, prefect."

Sebastian looked around the table. "Any objections?" None of the other military leaders spoke up. "Then give it your best, Mr. Terraine. And may the Force be with you, because I have a feeling you're going to need it if you expect to actually-"

"Pull it off," the Oracle ordered. The tattered sheet was removed, revealing the black coffin. It was almost surreal as the Sith pulled it out of the cave floor and carried it back into the lab. As before, the coffin was propped up and opened, revealing the decayed corpse of Triss. Most of the Sith turned away; it wasn't a very pretty sight and the smell was even worse. Again, the Oracle used her machine to reverse the effects of decay so that the body was pristine. Then she channeled unholy Forces in the room as the aether howled in protest until the corpse spasmed and snapped her eyes open before screaming.

Silence came. "A successful test," the Oracle said. She took Triss' pulse, felt her forehead, then went off to her workbench without a second thought. Triss pulled out her saber and charged at the Oracle, but with a casual gesture she was tossed aside. "Don't waste my time, child," she said, still not looking up from her task. "I have work to do." Triss leapt up to try again, but the lightsaber flew from her grip into the Oracle's hand. "Don't do that again," she warned darkly.

The Sith took a step back as the Oracle left the workbench and went to where Jorri's body lay. She put her index fingers together and tapped her lips as she stared at the body. "The child shouldn't have anything to do with it," she mused aloud. "Still... anyone here pregnant?" she asked as she turned back to the Sith. There was a fervent shaking of heads, even by the males. "No one? What about you Molly? It's no secret about you and Ben."

"We are always careful, my master," Molly said, though there was a tremor of fear in her voice.

"Hm, pity." The Oracle considered the corpse again. "I don't suppose any of you know anyone who's-"

"Pregnant?" Anakin Solo said, a bit flabbergasted. "How?" Laudica gave him a look. "I mean, how could this have happened? Wait, I mean-"

"You're surprised," Laudica said. "And you're a Jedi so you're not used to dealing with being surprised, but please, love of my life, stop talking like an idiot." Anakin turned, slightly dazed, and looked out at the waves beating upon the Hawaiian shore. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Anakin said distantly, then snapped back and hugged his wife tightly. "Yeah, I am, sorry about that. It just really hit me hard... I'm going to be a father! I mean, that's just..." He shook his head. "I can't really wrap my mind around that."

"Well you better start, mister," Laudica said, offering a kiss. "Because no matter what the Jedi Academy may need, the baby's going to need you more."

Yes, it would, Anakin realized. And one thing it would need would be protection from those threatening to destroy the Jedi specifically and the galaxy as a whole. Suddenly, the work of getting the Academy set up seemed insignificant, that the only thing that mattered was stopping the evil while there was still some time. "I'll talk to Sebastian," Anakin said. "I'll swallow my pride and ask him, so that we can get down to business."

"Good," Laudica said. "But how about we stop thinking about the blasted Academy and start thinking about us?"

Anakin kissed her. "I'm sorry, you're right. It's just hard not to think about it with all that's happening."

"Well, if you could find time to squeeze us in, I'd certainly be obliged."

"It's just that there's so much going on in the universe right now," Anakin said. "I mean, I love you, and I'll love our baby, but... I hate to admit it, but I'm worried that-"

"This isn't a good time," Sebastian said. "I've got a meeting with delegates from the Breen and Tholians in three hours and I haven't had a chance to look over the briefing yet."

"I understand, Mr. Skywalker," Janet said, "but the Queen said it was urgent."

"And she doesn't use that term lightly," Sebastian admitted, following Janet out the door and hobbling up the corridor to the nearest operations center. "Tell me what I'm looking at," he said as he glanced up at the images and holograms being projected.

"Telemetry from one of the probe droids," the Borg Queen informed him.

"Did you find the Oracle?" Sebastian asked.

"No." The Borg had obviously missed the underlying tone of Sebastian's question, and the bland response was infuriating, but killing the messenger wouldn't serve any purpose. "Though this appears to be a significant discovery."

Sebastian looked at the readings and suddenly it hit him. "You found the Vong planet."

"It appears that way. We've encountered Vong occupied worlds, but this one is different. All our data indicates that this is where the war coordinator is controlling their forces."

"How certain are we of this?" Sebastian asked, afraid to hope that it could be true.

"Eighty-seven percent," the Queen said.

"I like those odds," Sebastian said. "It's just like the coralskippers. We take out the war coordinator and all those ships are reduced to the primitive brains the Vong gave them. We can end this war in a single stroke... we wouldn't even have to worry about the remnant, except for that Eclipse, of course." He turned to Janet. "This could finally be the end."

"Unfortunately, there is one obstacle to victory," the Queen said. "The Vong have created a very sophisticated planetary shield. They destroyed our probe droid before scanning was complete, but preliminary data indicates that it's at least up to galactic standards in terms of defensive power. No bombardment will be able to penetrate if it's activated."

"Then we've got to get around it," Sebastian said. "Sooner or later we're going to have to, so it might as well be now. What about a cloaked fleet?"

"The probe droid was cloaked, yet they still found it," the Queen pointed out. "The Vong seem to have developed technology that can penetrate it."

Sebastian clicked his teeth a few times as he looked at the data. Eventually he pulled out a commlink. "Mr. Terraine."

"Yes, prefect?"

"Put the Eclipse project on hold for the moment, there may be a change to the mission."

"What kind of change?"

Sebastian looked at the shield emitters and ground his teeth. "We may have to steal it."

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