The Old Republic Series

by Sean Williams

  “I am here of my own volition.”

  “What is this about?” Scourge demanded.

  “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  “No.”

  Sechel shrugged. “I was only trying to show some discretion. For your sake.”

  “Get to the point,” Scourge said through gritted teeth.

  “A woman came to me today. Human. She’s looking for you.”

  “A human? Why?”

  “She didn’t say. She didn’t offer her name, and given her reluctance to discuss the matter I didn’t ask.”

  “If she found you, then she already knows where to find me,” Scourge said.

  Sechel shook his head. “We crossed paths quite by accident. She has no idea you and I know each other at all. She simply hired me to find you.”

  “Maybe you’d better come in and tell me the whole story,” Scourge said, relenting and stepping aside.

  “On second thought, I think I’ll stay out here,” the other Sith replied. “I get the feeling you don’t like the answers I’m giving you.”

  “Do you think I need to get you alone to inflict pain?” Scourge asked, casually reaching out with the Force to give Sechel’s windpipe a quick squeeze.

  Sechel gasped and threw his hands up to his throat, his eyes wide with fear. “Nyriss will have your head if you harm me again!” he blustered.

  “That won’t bring you back if you’re dead,” Scourge pointed out. “Now stop playing games and tell me exactly what happened.”

  “This woman was referred to me by a business associate,” Sechel explained. “She offered me a substantial sum to track down the man in her holoimage.”

  “A holoimage?”

  “Apparently she doesn’t even know your name. But she has an excellent image of your face, and she’s willing to pay a substantial sum to meet with you.”

  “And you have no idea why?”

  “I can speculate.”

  “Please do,” Scourge said grimly.

  “Think of how many lives you have ended. How many assassinations you’ve performed. Isn’t it possible that on one of these missions your face was captured by a security cam?”

  Scourge was always careful on his missions, but nobody was perfect. “It’s possible,” he admitted grudgingly.

  “Now imagine someone who knew the victim finds the footage. Maybe a wife, or a daughter. Driven by her lust for revenge, she could search the whole Empire for the one who wronged her.”

  “You think she wants to kill me?”

  “Probably. Most people do. But she insisted on meeting you in person.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Scourge asked abruptly.

  “I have a reputation to protect. She paid me to do a job; I don’t want rumors to spread that I cheated a client. It’s bad for business.”

  “Does Nyriss know about your so-called business?”

  “She allows me to freelance as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work on her behalf. And in this case, it may actually benefit her. And you,” he added. “If this woman intends you harm, she must be dealt with appropriately. That is why I think you should meet with her.”

  “And there’s always a chance she might actually succeed, isn’t there?”

  “Doubtful,” Sechel said. “Just to be on the safe side, though, I wouldn’t suggest you go to meet her alone.”

  “You want to come with me?”

  “Not in the least,” Sechel assured him. “This seems more like a job for Murtog and his crew.”

  Scourge didn’t speak right away. He ran over everything Sechel had told him, trying to determine if he was being set up. The mere fact that Sechel hadn’t simply turned the woman away was enough to make Scourge wary of the meeting.

  If someone really was looking to do him harm, it was doubtful that Sechel would warn him simply because they both served Nyriss. But if he suspected the woman was tied to something in Scourge’s past—some dark secret or inconvenient truth—bringing it to light was an effective way to make Scourge look bad.

  If she turned out to be someone looking for revenge, it would prove that Scourge had been sloppy in the past, planting seeds of doubt about him in Nyriss’s mind. And even if she wasn’t, the situation was still likely to create some kind of mess for Scourge to clean up. That alone might be enough to convince Sechel to help her.

  Simply refusing the meeting wasn’t an option, however. Now that he knew she was out there, Scourge had to take action. Whatever the motive behind her search for him, he had to face her. It was the only way to unravel the mystery.

  Sechel knew all this, of course. That was why he’d suggested sending Murtog along. On the surface it appeared the best way to deal with a possible enemy, but Scourge knew what he really wanted was to have somebody else there who would report back on the meeting if the truth turned out to be embarrassing.

  On the other hand, if he decided to meet her alone he was putting himself at greater risk. It might also look like he had something to hide, and he had no doubt Sechel would twist that fact to suit his own needs somewhere down the road.

  “Congratulations,” he said to the smaller Sith. “You’ve backed me into a corner. Set up the meeting, and tell Murtog and his men to be there.”

  “Of course, Lord Scourge,” Sechel said with a mocking bow. “I’m always happy to be of service.”

  MEETRA WAS WARY of a trap even before she felt the warning premonitions through the Force.

  Sechel had given her a time and location for the meeting; he’d even told her the name of the man from the holovid—Lord Scourge. But she still didn’t trust him.

  Arriving at the location only confirmed her suspicions. Sechel’s instructions had led her to an isolated cave on the outskirts of the city—the perfect place for an ambush. A single speeder was parked in a clearing about fifty meters away from the entrance, evidence that somebody else was already there. It was possible the Sith had come alone, but Meetra estimated the vehicle could hold as many as six adult humanoids. There was also the possibility that other speeders had been hidden nearby, meaning she had no idea how many might be waiting for her inside the cave.

  T3-M4 obviously shared her concerns. The droid twittered nervously as she brought the speeder in for a landing on a patch of bare dirt near the other speeder.

  “I know, I know,” she muttered. “But this is the only lead we’ve got.”

  She climbed out of the speeder and extended a small cargo ramp so T3 could exit as well. The mouth of the cave loomed before them, black and forbidding.

  Earlier, she had discussed several dozen strategies with T3, laying out contingency plans for the most common conceivable scenarios. Fortunately their planning had included a potential ambush by enemies hiding under the cover of darkness.

  “Operation supernova is a go,” she whispered.

  T3 beeped uncertainly.

  “We’ll give them every chance to surrender,” she assured him. “But be ready for this to get ugly. Hopefully it won’t come to that,” she added. “Maybe Lord Scourge is curious enough about why I’m here to hear me out before he tries anything.”

  T3 didn’t reply; she took it as a bad sign that he was suddenly speechless.

  Walking slowly, she entered the cave. It was too dark to see more than a meter in front of her, but she could sense several other beings inside, watching her approach. She assumed they were using night-vision goggles; it was the only way for anyone’s sight to pierce the darkness of the cave.

  She tried to act timid and unsure, a clueless victim walking heedlessly into the waiting trap. The more vulnerable she appeared, the closer they’d let her advance before taking any action.

  “Stay close, Tee-Three,” she whispered, keeping her voice low so only he could hear her.

  “Is anybody here?” she called out, making her voice tremble slightly.

  She took another seemingly cautious step forward.

  “Hello? Is anyone here?”

  “Don’t move!�
�� a voice shouted from the darkness. “We have you surrounded.”

  “Lord Scourge,” she called out. “Is that you? I only want to talk.”

  “Lie flat on the ground and put your hands behind your head,” the voice ordered. “If not, we open fire.”

  “Now, Tee-Three!”

  The little droid turned his headlamp to full power. In the tight confines it had the intensity of a small sun, easily illuminating the entire cave. The sudden flash of brightness also overloaded the night-vision goggles of her adversaries, temporarily blinding them.

  It took Meetra less than a second to see and process the odds she was up against. Four soldiers—two male and two female, each wearing heavy armor and carrying a blaster carbine—had taken up positions around the cave, forming a loose semicircle around their intended victim. A tall Sith stood in an alcove near the back corner of the cave.

  The four soldiers opened fire. Even blinded by the flash of T3’s lamp, they were disciplined enough to react by unleashing a volley of blaster bolts at the last known location of their target. Unfortunately for them, Meetra’s reactions were quicker than theirs.

  By the time the bolts hit home, Meetra was already on the move. She snapped off a quick back handspring to dodge the blasterfire, then reversed her direction with a flying leap toward the nearest assailant.

  Her lightsaber was already in her hand when she landed, and she plunged her blade through the vulnerable joint between the chest plate and right shoulder guard of the soldier’s combat suit. Unlike his cortosis-laced armor, the man’s flesh and bone provided almost no resistance to the lightsaber as it drove straight through his heart.

  As he fell to the ground, Meetra thrust her free hand out toward the next closest soldier, palm open. The woman flew backward, lifted off her feet and hurtled across the cave by the Force until she slammed into the rock face of the far wall. She slid to the ground, dead.

  The other two soldiers had ripped off their night-vision goggles and opened fire again. Meetra deflected the bolts with her lightsaber.

  With their attention focused on the Jedi wreaking havoc in their ranks, the soldiers forgot about T3-M4. The droid took full advantage of the situation, rolling forward until he was close enough to unleash a jet of flame from the short nozzle jutting out from the center of his torso.

  The flames engulfed the nearest soldier; as his dying shrieks momentarily distracted his companion, Meetra charged forward with a burst of speed to deliver a vicious two-handed slash of her blade that cleaved through the plates of the woman’s armor and bit deep into her chest.

  At last, Meetra turned to face the Sith. Now that she had a chance to focus her attention more closely, she recognized him from T3’s holovid. Apparently Lord Scourge had decided to show up after all.

  Curiously, he hadn’t done anything to help the soldiers during the short and violent encounter. He hadn’t tried to flee, either. In fact, he hadn’t seemed to have moved at all, other than to draw and ignite the crimson blade of his lightsaber.

  He held his weapon in front of him in a standard defensive posture, staring at Meetra with a look of utter disbelief on his face.

  Wary of a trap, Meetra took a single step toward him.

  “You’re a Jedi,” he said, his words causing her to freeze in her tracks. “What he said was true. He saw you. He knew.”

  Meetra wasn’t about to attack someone who didn’t seem to want to do her any harm; that went against everything she believed in. But she wasn’t going to let her guard down, either.

  “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

  “You’re here because of Revan,” he said, his voice filled with wonder. “You’ve come to rescue him.”

  “I’m impressed you figured it out so quickly,” she admitted.

  “I didn’t figure it out,” he said. “Revan told me.”

  THE INSTANT THE BLUE-BLADED lightsaber had materialized in the human female’s hand, Scourge realized she was a Jedi. And he could only think of one reason a Jedi would come to Dromund Kaas in search of him—she was here to rescue Revan.

  He was impressed with how easily she had dismantled Murtog and his handpicked team. He could feel her channeling the Force, yet it was somehow different from what he had felt when he battled other Sith.

  She wasn’t afraid to kill, but he sensed she took no real pleasure in it. Instead of feeding off her anger and hate, it was as if she kept her emotions at arm’s length so the Force could flow through her unhindered.

  Part of him wanted to leap into the fray: battling this Jedi would be a true test of his skills. He didn’t know which of them would prove the stronger, but he was intrigued by the challenge. Yet another part of him knew she represented something far more significant than a worthy foe.

  “What do you mean Revan told you?” she demanded.

  “When I last spoke with him he said something I didn’t believe. I thought he was lying to manipulate me. I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me.”

  Actually, Scourge still wasn’t sure he understood. Not fully. The female Jedi’s presence was proof that Revan was telling the truth about his Force vision. He had hinted to Scourge that his freedom was close at hand; he must have had a premonition of her arrival.

  The revelation was what had stayed Scourge’s blade. He wasn’t willing to do battle with her until he had carefully considered all the implications and alternatives.

  “If you spoke to Revan, then you know where he is,” the woman said.

  She was still poised in a combat-ready stance, as was Scourge—neither willing to make the first move, but each ready to respond to an attack by the other.

  “Revan is a prisoner,” Scourge told her.

  “Then I order you to set him free!” she demanded.

  “It’s not that simple.”

  Nothing about this situation was simple. As he spoke to the Jedi, Scourge was still trying to understand why Revan had mentioned his vision to him at all.

  At the time he’d thought the prisoner was simply trying to manipulate him, to trick him into helping him escape. Now, however, it seemed as if Revan’s words had been a warning—almost as if he knew Scourge would find himself in this situation.

  It made no sense to give any kind of warning to an enemy. However, if Revan believed that he and Scourge were destined to become allies, then his words did make sense. Was it possible he had seen a vision of Scourge working with him?

  It seemed to be the only answer that fit. He had sometimes sensed that Revan was trying to recruit him to his side; the feeling had been even stronger in their last conversation. He’d dismissed it as desperation to escape, but what if Revan knew the events he had foreseen were drawing near? What if he had witnessed this confrontation in the cave, and he had been trying to make Scourge understand that they had to become allies to stop the Emperor?

  “Tell me where Revan is,” the woman said. “Tell me where he’s being held and I will let you walk away.”

  He realized his adversary was misinterpreting his reluctance to fight as fear. She was as confused about this as he was. Yet the more Scourge thought about it, the clearer it became.

  Nyriss would never move against the Emperor; he knew that now. He had come to accept that neither she nor any of the other Dark Council members who had plotted with her would ever actually dare to strike.

  If anyone was going to stop the Emperor from his mad invasion of the Republic, it would have to be Scourge. But he couldn’t do it alone.

  “Come with me and I will take you and your droid to see Revan,” he said, deactivating his blade. “He will tell you the truth.”

  The Jedi wasn’t so quick to lower her weapon.

  Her astromech droid rolled up to stand beside her, squawking loudly.

  “Tee-Three’s right. I’ve already walked into one trap today,” the Jedi answered. “I think I’ve hit my quota.”

  Scourge understood her reluctance. Under normal circumstances she would be a fool to accompany him. B
ut this situation was as far from normal as he could imagine.

  “Revan told me you were coming,” he tried to explain. “I think the Force gave him a vision of us working together.”

  “Then why did you set an ambush?”

  “I didn’t know who you were,” Scourge pointed out. “You wouldn’t tell Sechel any of the details of who you were or why you were looking for me.”

  “You’re lying,” she said with a disbelieving shake of her head. “You’re afraid to face me. You’ll say anything to avoid a fight.”

  “Do I seem afraid to you?”

  “No,” she admitted. “You seem strangely calm.”

  “That is because I finally understand what Revan meant. He wants us to unite against a common foe.”

  “What common foe?”

  “Our Emperor is planning an invasion of the Republic. Revan wants to stop him. So do I.”

  “Why would you want to stop an invasion of the Republic?”

  “The Emperor is mad. He wants to repeat the mistakes of the Great Hyperspace War; he wants to plunge us into a conflict that will end with our extinction.”

  The Jedi lowered her lightsaber, but didn’t deactivate it. “Then why did you take Revan prisoner on Nathema?”

  “That was before I knew his purpose here.”

  He could tell she was still suspicious, and rightfully so. But he thought of something that might convince her. “You spoke of Nathema. Have you been to that world? Have you walked upon its surface?”

  “I have,” she said quietly, and he could tell from the haunted expression on her face that she spoke the truth.

  “That was the Emperor’s homeworld. To give himself greater power, he unleashed a ritual that devoured everything. When I saw what happened there, I understood the true depths of his insanity. I realized his mind was so twisted and disturbed that he was not fit to rule, and I swore to find a way to stop him.”

  He paused and looked steadily at Meetra. “You walk the path of the light; I have chosen to follow the dark side. But we both know the horrors of Nathema are a blight upon the galaxy. Revan knows this, as well. That is why he wants us to work together.”

  The Jedi considered his words carefully, then deactivated her blade. But Scourge could tell she still wasn’t wholly convinced.