Private An Unexpected Reunion

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha adjusted her course, her eyes fixed on the shimmering outline of Ord Mantell on the navicomputer. The Helot III hummed with the familiar vibrations of hyperspace travel, but today her mission was anything but routine. The Black Harvest was targeting the former junk world due to its significant connections with the Dark Empire, and Kaneha was determined to scout their operations. As she leaned back in her pilot’s chair, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that had settled over her since she’d taken on this mission.

Approaching drop point, the ship’s automated voice announced, pulling her from her thoughts.

Kaneha checked the Helot’s systems and prepared for the drop from hyperspace, the adrenaline beginning to course through her veins. Years of fighting tyrannies like the Dark Imperials did not make this mission any easier. It was, perhaps, a foolish idea that she was going on this mission solo. It was her belief that one ship was enough to get recon on the enemy, and that there was not much of risk. Less ships means less Black Harvest agents for the Dark Imperials to detect. Plus, a Firespray like the Helot was plenty fast and deadly enough to outrun or out-gun those flippant Dark Imperial TIEs. The console beeped with a warning just as she was about to exit hyperspace.

“What now?” she muttered, glancing at the navicomputer with suspicious eyes

Warning beeps soon turned into wailing klaxons of danger. The pilot’s viewscreen blared the same message over and over: WARNING! HYPERDRIVE MALFUNCTION. The ship lurched violently, and the stars outside the viewport twisted into unfamiliar patterns. Panic gripped her as she fought to regain control, but the ship had other plans. Kaneha felt a cold sweat break out as the Helot III was pulled into a vortex of swirling darkness.

“Karabast, karabast, KARABAST!” The Mirialan swore outloud, trying to adjust her course.

And then came stillness. Her ship had indeed dropped out of hyperspace, but she did not know where. She tried accessing the navigation, but it only gave an error message. There were not familiar star routes. All of her senses were telling her that this was bad…and that she was not alone. She gazed out of the viewport again. There was something out there in this nascent realm of unknown, and she could only tell it was not friendly. Unknowingly, she had crossed into the bizarre realm that had been written in her Galaxy as ‘Otherspace’….and she was trapped.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

Kaneha Dalsa

Fluidic whorls of multispectral color swarmed around the floating Firespray. The distortion and aberrancy were something that had a slow, patient gnawing sensation at the back of a mind that wasn't already prepared or accustomed to the subtle madness of the realm. A presence immediately grew aware - before others did, knowledgeable of the new interloper within their domain. From the foul abominations of the Charnel Worlds to the Void Horror, hungering for more life, to even the Prophet of the Void, the lord of the Charon enlightened to the monstrosities in question.

Fortunately, a more benevolent being among them was the first to get to them.

A monstrous metallic-scaled cube practically jumped into the immediate area, floating around the Firespray in question. Despite not having eyes, it almost seemed as though the cube was looking at the ship - looking at her. From between the scales of the cube, tendrils emerged, slowly moving towards the fighter-craft in question. What its intended purpose was yet remained unclear - certainly to her.

It had plans to take her elsewhere in the domain it knew about.

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha’s heart raced as she watched the metallic-scaled cube approach her ship, tendrils emerging menacingly. Panic surged through her as she fumbled with the controls, desperate to activate the Helot’s guns. Her fingers danced over the buttons, but nothing happened. The weapons were unresponsive, seemingly compromised as well as her hyperdrive. She carefully glanced over the systems that still seemed to be in operation. Life support was still at functioning levels, as well as synth-grav, and engines. Frustration and fear mingled in her chest, and she glared at the encroaching cube.

”Stay back!” Her normally stoic voice trembling, ”You’re not getting me without a fight!”

Determined not to go down like gutless coward, Kaneha attempted to reroute power to the shields, hoping to buy herself some time. As the tendrils drew nearer, her hostility toward the creature grew. She refused to be a passive victim in this bizarre realm. Her shields up, and weapons non-functioning, she was quickly trying to formulate a plan. She engaged the engines, the Helot attempting to scream off. But there was a lurch. One of the creature’s tendrils had already taken hold. She leaned back in the pilot’s seat. Okay. New plan. She resigned herself to the creature’s machinations until she could get her weapons working once more…

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

The grandiose cube-form's appendages drew the fighter ever-closer, ever nearer until it yet seemed to have been devoured beneath the construct's surface. Within a swirl of ichor, the Firespray yet tumbled, the only sign of life in this pocket-within-a-pocket being shards of metallic scales in three shades - platinum, gold, and electrum. The ship was drawn ever-closer into a singularity, a hole in the belly of this realm, before being taken through - and spat out somewhere new.

Where she had been taken was at least more stable than the rest of the realm. The whorls of torpid energy were different, yet the same pattern as before, so she was still in the realm of Otherspace, but a planet yet floated below, an alien world whose very existence radiated a sense of irregularity and wrongness. Visible from the surface were a set of three cubes, each one of the colors of the shards she had seen within the amalgamate, with structures having been built up around them. The light from these structures, if nothing else, suggested there was life or a civilization down there.

Certainly the best place to start if there was any hope of identifying where she was and what she was doing here.

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha was perplexed by the entity’s unexpected helpfulness. She unsure of what the ichor-shimmering the strange cubic being did, but brought her to a planet. A planet that, although alien and strange, appeared to offer some sort of intelligent life. Artificial structures. She gently ignited her Firespray’s engines, orienting toward the planet’s surface. Her mind raced with possibilities as she carefully descended, her instincts on high alert.

Upon landing, she quickly performed a thorough check on her equipment. Despite the cube having an apparently friendliness, the realm was still foreign…and thus rife with danger. Her blaster pistol, thankfully, was in working order, and she felt a small measure of relief. Her other equipment seemed functional, as her experience so far was her tech experiencing failure in this bizarre realm.

Exiting the Helot III with caution, Kaneha kept her blaster drawn, every sense attuned to the unfamiliar surroundings. The oppressive presence of Otherspace weighed heavily on her, but she moved forward, determined to uncover the mysteries of this alien world and find a way back to familiar stars…

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

Kaneha would not have to wait long. Soon enough, older Imperial military equipment, hovertanks and speeders foremost among them, manned by soldiers wearing the unmistakable garb of the Dark Empire. Though their armor was standard, the vehicles were not - they were older, bearing Sith markings, for the most part. The vehicles moved in and surrounded her and her ship, prepared for a conflict that could yet potentially break out.

"How did you get here?" Their commander asked, his shoulder pauldron identifying him as the leader of this group of Imperials. His voice was yet garbled and obscured, with a mechanical edge to it, though it didn't bear a hostile edge. Not for the time being at least.

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha soon had her blaster pistol trained, but anyone could tell it was put of fear. Of all the places in any universe, she had the rotten luck of ending up on an imperial planet. She considered her options, especially with how many there were and so few of her.

”Dank farrik.” She cursed, her voice frustrated, ”Any other day, I would lay a bolt in you, buckethead. But today…”

She slowly lowered her pistol and holstered it. She knew when the odds were against her. Her posture was one of reluctant compliance. Her modifed Ubese helm scanned the retinue that seemed to greet her. Dark Imperial, with tech that appeared to be old Sith Imperial. She prayed they were not fellow marooned like she was.

”My ship’s hyperdrive malfunctioned. It spat me out in this….place. Whatever this place is.” She explained carefully, ”My nav shows no familar hyperlanes and the stars are all…wrong. Then some tendrilled…cube thing hauled my ship here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a little, albeit it had a tone of near breakdown. She had to have sounded like a crazy person. Knowing these stormies, she was liable to either get shot or locked up.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"You're in otherspace." The Imperial leader said. "We'll take you to our leader. She'll know what to do with you. As for your ship, we'll bring a tug to move it to one of our landing pads before it sinks into the muck." The commander said, before motioning her to come with them. They would travel closer to the giant cube while riding in a speeder, the construct scaled with platinum plates and with a tremendous hole in its side that bored all the way through from one end to the other.

"This domain belongs to Onrai. Do you know anything about her?" He asked as they traveled to the cityscape.

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha froze a little. She had heard the name before. A powerful dark sider, from what the rumors were told. Masquerading as an age old deity. She looked to the stormtrooper commander.

”Yes.” She droned, trying not to show fear, ”I know of her.”

She looked around the bizarre cityscape as they travelled closer to it. It was definitely different from any structure back in her realm. It a way, it was almost like a dream. Or a nightmare, in Kaneha's particular case.

”Otherspace, huh? Hard to believe” She spoke skeptically, ”I had heard the old story about Master Skywalker and the thing he called Waru. Didn't realize there was truth to it.”

She moved her hands to a locket around her neck. A momento from her mother. She fiddled with it, careful not to open it. It was a thing of comfort in stressful situations like this. Her helmet kept its gaze forward as they crept further into eldritch city...

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"It's a very real place." The sergeant said. "Gods and monsters about here. We're fortunate enough to have Onrai." He said as they drew closer. Soon enough, they were within a cityscape proper, the gargantuan form of the platinum cube-hhusk looking over the horizon imminently next to them. Kaneha was taken into a structure that seemed to be somewhat of an administrative place, where she would yet be left to her own devices for a moment or two in a meeting room whose chairs were at least somewhat covered in dust. The clip-clop sound of shoes on the metal floor indicated someone was coming nearby - more precise shoes, not the clunky thud of boots bashing tbe bulkhead. Into the room stepped Vanessa Vantai, youthful and still wearing the same simple black robes she almost always wore.

"An interloper? How curious." She said. "You're lucky my men found you, or else you'd be swallowed by the surface of the world. I am Vanessa Vantai. Longtime Sith Lord, present governor of Ord Mantell, and... interloper, shall we say, in this profane domain. Who are you, if I might ask?"

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha was surprised at how clinical the building seemed to be on the inside. It felt less like the haunting atmosphere she had felt since arriving in Otherspace. With enough squinting and decoration, she could have confused this place with some corporate office on Coruscant or Daiyu. She soon heard the presence of another. She was baffled by the looks of this being who came in the form of a seemingly human woman.

"Without going into too much of it..." She hesitated to answer, "I am Kaneha. Are you....the one that claims to be called Onrai?"

The Mirialan scanned the room through the visor of her helm. Her stance was one of tenseness, kind of like a cornered vulptex in a Craitian cave. She slowly moved her hands to her helmet.

"This might be stupid, as I don't know if the atmosphere supports my type of breathing..." She sighed, "But, I suppose I should least show my face to my hostess..."

She removed her helmet, the pressurized seal breaking with a hiss. What was revealed was a young woman, with green skin and tribalized black tattoos. Her hair was also dark, medium length, but had the added feature of having wide streaks of reddish-magenta flowing through it. Her eyes met Vanessa's, awaiting for the strange woman's next move.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"I've used many names over the years." She said. "I wouldn't worry about atmosphere. Otherspace is what we make it - most humanoid beings can survive the atmosphere without any difficulty. It's the mind that's usually strained." Vanessa's eyes trailed away, looking in the direction the giant dead-yet-living cube despite there being a wall in the way. "How did you even get here? Hyperspace malfunction?" She pondered as a droid came in, offering the woman a glass of water and bringing Vanessa one as well as she observed the doffed helmet, exposing the alien features Kaneha yet possessed.

"Mirialan. I have fond memories of another of your species who went with me on a journey to the Charnel Worlds. I would hope she came out of that with greater understanding."

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

"Yes, it was a hyperdrive failure that brought me here. One moment I was in normal space, and the next, I was... here." She took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves, "And as I told your Chief Buckethead, one of those cube-squid things dragged me to your world here."

Despite her calm exterior, the apprehension in her eyes betrayed her true feelings. Trusting anyone associated with the Sith, even if they claimed otherwise, was not in her nature. Yet, this was the only help that she could find, and thus it was a bit of an "enemy mine" situation. Not that the Mirialan could help it.

"I need to get back to normal space," Kaneha continued, her tone firm. "I have no intention of staying here longer than necessary."

She sat down cautiously, accepting the water offered by the droid with a slight nod. The liquid was cool and refreshing, but it did little to ease her underlying tension. Her mother's teachings were clear: never trust the Sith, and always be ready to fight them. This situation was an exception, a matter of convenience rather than trust.

"My mother always taught me to be wary of the Sith," she said, her voice tinged with a hint of defiance. "So, this is... different. But for now, I'll play along until an accord is met. Don't mistake my cooperation for trust."

She glanced at Vanessa, her expression hardening. While her host has been so far genuine, her years of battling disciples of the Dark Side and their usually stormtrooper cronies had steeled her heart against interactions. For all she knew, this "Onrai" was coiled up and ready to strike like a vexis at womprat.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"Yes yes, the constructs forged in the image of the Old Ones, the great spawn of Ooradryl, child of the Soulworm herself. You know, that cube you saw outside is all that's left of him - him and his 2 remaining offspring. Such secrets have been gleaned from them, knowledge and features impossible to otherwise wrap one's mind around - with some exceptions." She said, finishing her water with a swift gulp.

To Kaneha's suggestion, Onrai smiled - her ship's hyperdrive would be finished, certainly, but there were other things to ponder over. "And who was your mother?" She asked. "A Jedi? An anonymous Force user? One of the soldiers who fought for the Republic, or the Alliance, or the Ashlans? They all possess a tiny fragment of the bigger picture. Even the Sith, open as they are to a more full understanding of the Force, don't know everything, nor could they." No, gnosis was something she herself was more apropos towards.

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha was a little taken aback with the tone Vanessa gave when asking about her mother. The Mirialan's eyes lowered some. Ever since her mother disappeared, the loss had been sore subject.

”No.” She spoke with some venom in her mouth, ”My mother once served the Sith, and saw their cruelty firsthand until she finally had enough.”

She fiddled with the pendant around her neck. Kaneha contemplated her move, but the emotions got the better of her. She had a high ranking member of the Dark Empire, and a supposed Sith Lord. One of them would see her mother's face, and know whose memory Kaneha fought for! She placed it on the table, and clicked on its imagecaster.

”Her name was Allarna Dalsa!" She proclaimed, ”And she decided to take a stand against tyrants like you."

What Kaneha could never expect were the unexpected consequences that would potentially unfold. The imagecaster showed two figures in its holographic, still image. One was unmistakably a younger Kaneha, only a girl of perhaps 8 or 9, grinning happily and widely. Behind the young Kaneha in the image was perhaps a haunting image for Vanessa. A face from her past. A green-skinned woman with hair like red rose petals, much older than when Onrai has seen her last.

She had used the name Allarna Dalsa, and that is what her daughter knew her as. But the truth spoke in whispers.....Alraune....

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"Take a stand against tyrants like me?"

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, before giving a soft laugh. So it was true - the spawn of her malevolent experiments with Silfe Sosuri had survived. Her most precious daughter, one of the only surviving Vinithi to exist on the face of the planet. One of the last remaining links to the past mortal life she had. Yet since the Vanessa-form was present and what spoke to Kaneha, she had to bear a degree of honesty.

"I think you're a bit mistaken. Your mother was created by the Sith. Born to a nobless. I would know. I created her. Whatever nom de guerre she may yet have taken up in the wake of my disappearance into the void of otherspace, she has been and always will be Alraune Vantai." Vanessa looked wistfully at the hologram for a moment, pondering the question she had thought about for what to her seemed like an eternity.

"Is she still alive?"

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

What happened next was like a bolt of lightning. The mocking tone from Vanessa. The allegations that she made. It caused such a rage to bubble up from the Mirialan's being. She stood up, unholstered her blaster, and pointed it at her so-called hostess' head.

”LIAR!” She snarled, a beastly side of her awoken, ”Sith always lie. That's the first lesson she taught me!”

For the briefest of moments, one could observe Kaneha and sense a short starburst within the Force. She had the Talent. Even in her enraged state, her eyes briefly took on the fiery red-orange of dark corruption before fading to their normal color. She was untrained, which made her outburst potentially dangerous.

”I would like to think she's dead. It makes it easier.” She spoke, her body shaking with anger and grief, ”But the truth? She left on a mission to the border of the Unknown Regions. She never came back.”

Once again, the eyes were the window to the soul. In this moment of vulnerability, one could see her past. Allarna, or Alraune as was proper, had left when Kaneha was young. Her eyes were the eyes of a child who had to grow up quickly in a cruel galaxy. She kept her blaster up still before lowering it down.


”Why should I believe a word you say?” She asked, almost warningly, ”As you can see, my mother is a sore subject.”

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"I gain nothing by lying to you."

Vanessa slowly stood up, hands pursed on the table as she walked closer to Kaneha until the blaster was actually pressed against the flesh of her forehead. "Do it. If you truly believe I am lying, pull the trigger and find out the truth. There are no guards here, no security to rush in, and no medical facilities to save my life. The Sith lie, but I am not a Sith." She stood there, eyes staring back at the emerald-skinned woman with a passionate intensity.

"I'm... sorry to hear that. I loved Alraune dearly. She wanted to go on her own path in life. I obliged her, whatever it was. I do hope she could yet be alive, so we could reunite one day as mother and daughter." She said, a soft sigh on her lips. As Vanessa looked back through the eyes of Kaneha, waiting and watching as the blaster was lowered, she smiled. "There we go. If you want proof on my part... perhaps I should show you some of the holograms from my own past." She went to the console in question and moved to pull up a encrypted file.

A file that, soon enough, showcased an image - an image of Vanessa herself, a woman Kaneha would not recognize, and a newborn baby one Kaneha would immediately observe to be Alraune.

"Is this proof enough?" She asked.

Kaneha Dalsa

 

[Kaneha Dalsa]

Kaneha stood there a moment, looking at the holographic image of a younger Vanessa and a green child in her arms. She did admit the babe did look a little like her mother. But, she shook her head and kept her eyes locked on the woman claiming to be her mother's creator.

”No.” came her simple response, clearly still skeptical, ”Show me something from when she was full grown.”

An infant could potentially not resemble its adult form. That was the basics of any biology. She had seen others' baby holos before. Some of the infants did not resemble their adult selves in the slightest.

”Something from when she was around my age.” She spoke plainly, ”No matter what, her matured form should be identical, right?”

It was clear that she still did not trust Vanessa...Onrai...whoever the true self was. All of this could still be some sort of elaborate trickery. No, she would not fall so easily into what could be a honeyed trap.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

“Very well.” Vanessa pursed her lips and pulled up further records from her old laboratory on Malachor V. The holoimages showed the two women interacting as the Sith Lord had transferred her daughter’s essence from the plant-based flesh she had possessed previously into a more fleshy, more humanoid body. At the time, Alraune had wanted to be more humanoid, and so it was that she was given her wish. The footage even showcased the newly fleshy Alraune Force Choke her mother over the revelations of who her mother was before she stormed off.

“Is that enough for you?” She said, looking somberly over the footage in question.

Kaneha Dalsa