Private In Amber Trapped

[Miri Nimdok]

Master Morgun Jai was a member of the Jedi Council, albeit much more of a background figure than the big heroes like Valery Noble or Dagon Kaze. While the others charged into battle, he acted as an administrator of NJO affairs. If you wanted permission to do something in an official Jedi capacity, you went to him.

Sitting cross-legged on a mat in one of the Temple's many meditation chambers, he regarded Miri with a stern expression as she entered the dimly-lit room. "Padawan Nimdok," he greeted. "I apologize for the wait. I have been very busy with other matters. What is it that you need?"

Miri was well-groomed and impeccably dressed, as always, but dark circles under her eyes betrayed her exhaustion. "For the past few nights, I have suffered from visions of the future," she said. "These dreams have upset me greatly, so much so that I have been avoiding sleep altogether so that I won't have to endure them..."

Though vague and full of strange imagery that didn't seem connected, all of her visions involved Vaslav Florescu, an old friend of Miri's and a member of the Silver Jedi Order. He appeared to be grievously wounded and in great distress, cut off from his friends and allies.

"Have you contacted the Silvers about this matter?" Morgun asked.

"I have," Miri replied. "They told me he left Kashyyyk over a week ago, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. If my visions are true, then he is in grave danger."

"He is not a member of our Order. Let the Silvers handle this."

She shook her head. "Though I am no longer a member of the Silvers, Vaslav is still my friend. I can't stand by and do nothing while he's in trouble."

Morgun raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "Very well. You have my permission to seek out Knight Florescu. But I don't want you going alone. Knight Jasper Kai'el will accompany you, along with Master Alema Rhysode."

Miri winced slightly at the latter name, but bowed her head respectfully. "As you command, Master Jai."

Hours later, Miri stood outside her ship, the Conestoga, waiting for Jasper and Alema to arrive. She had sent them each a message asking them to meet her here in the hangar before they left. They had a few things to discuss before beginning their search for the missing Jedi.

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Miri Nimdok

The council had seen fit to assign Jasper to an investigation. A silver Jedi named Vaslav Florescu. Strange, but the young knight was nothing but eager to get out in the field and put his best foot forward to affirm the trust the council had placed in him. And, if nothing else, it was time to get away from the front for a while. He would be meeting with Miri Nimdok, a padawan who was older then him by a few years, so she was really more his elder then he was hers. Jasper had met her a few times, but their conversations had never been anything substantial. The other member of the expedition would be Master Alema Rhysode, of whom he knew nothing about. This seemed a more personal excursion for Miri, at least from the information provided by Master Jai. To that end, Jasper wasn't entirely sure what he was getting himself into.

Still, he made his way to the given meeting place, in front of Miri's ship in the hangar. The assumption was that they would be taking her ship, which always bugged Jasper ever so slightly. The Lonestar 1 was not only his home, but his war stallion. It was kitted out to his demanding specifications, and was pretty damn good in a dog fight. Still, he relented, keeping such details to himself. It didn't take long for him to find her ship. Jasper did live in the hangar after all. Miri, as per her message, was waiting for his and Alema's arrival.

"Hey," he greeted with a half wave. "I don't think I'm late, am I?"

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"I don't think I'm late, am I?"

Miri looked up to see Jasper entering the hangar. "I didn't exactly give a set time," she said. "So I suppose not."

Following on Jasper's heels was Master Alema Rhysode, an attractive Twi'lek with lilac skin. "Padawan Nimdok," she said, with a stiff bow of her head. The reception she gave Miri was chilly, to say the least. Clearly there was some bad blood between them.

However, they had been assigned to this mission together, and Miri did not intend to allow the animosity between them to affect their success. "Now that everyone is here... do either of you have any questions before we leave?" she asked.

"Where exactly are we going?" Alema asked.

"To Cophrigin V," Miri replied. "I have reason to suspect Vaslav is there."

Alema raised an eyebrow. "And that reason is that you saw it in a vision, correct?"

"It seems as good a place as any to start." Miri turned to Jasper. "What about you? Do you have any questions?"

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Miri Nimdok

Oh boy, Jasper thought to himself as Master Rhysode greeted Miri. It was cold in tone, and he had gotten pretty good at hearing the tones of voices. It was mainly to make sure he knew if he did anything stupid, but it had a secondary benefit. Needless to say, this was worrying, but he kept his mouth shut.

"What about you? Do you have any questions?"

"None," Jasper answered confidently, but actually backpedaled slightly, "Actually, you don't have any instruments for gathering evidence, do you? Y'know, vials or bags for collecting anything that might be a lead."

He did it all the time down in the underbelly of Coruscant. Hair, spice trails, skin flakes, pieces of clothing... There was a lot that could be gathered from smaller details of the like that had helped him in making a pretty good grid of a lot of the illegal happenings of the planet.

"Other then that I'm good," he shrugged.

That, of course, was only half true. He was ready to go, but less so for the animosity Alema was projecting. Jasper hoped that this wasn't going to end up getting personal, or at least more personal than it already was.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"Actually, you don't have any instruments for gathering evidence, do you? Y'know, vials or bags for collecting anything that might be a lead."

"I have some tools for that, yes. But I suggest you bring your own as well." Turning away, she paused to add, "Both of you may travel in your own personal vessels, or accompany me aboard mine."

Alema took that as her cue to leave, heading for her own starfighter. Whatever Jasper decided to do, Miri boarded her ship, loaded up the coordinates, and set off.

***​

Cophrigin V was a verdant jungle world. Only a few years ago, it had been invaded by the Bryn'adul. Since it was one of their later conquests, the planet received less damage than others, but signs of the occupation remained visible like scars upon its surface.

Miri used her ship's systems to scan the planet from orbit, looking for signs of Vaslav. Sure enough, she found something. "I've located Vaslav's starship," she informed Alema and Jasper via comms. "It looks like he landed safely, so it wasn't a crash. I'm going in."

Miri brought the Conestoga in for landing in a clear green field. As she descended the boarding ramp, she spotted Alema's starfighter already parked nearby. Alema herself was stalking toward her from across the grass, her expression hard.

"All right," she said, jabbing a finger toward Miri. "I want to know what this is really all about."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

Jasper had already gathered his own materials, so that wasn't necessary, but it was good to hear that Miri was prepared for the investigation. From there, they were off to Cophrigin V, a world that he was admittedly unfamiliar with, aside from hearing about it's suffering at the hand of the Bryn'adul. He forsook his own ship, believing it better to cut down on the number of vehicles moving between locations as to not set off the alarms of a potential target.

He didn't step out to a very pleasant sight, as Alema seemed to take an accusatory tone, lambasting the older padawan for... some reason.

"All right," she said, jabbing a finger toward Miri. "I want to know what this is really all about."

"Alright, relax," Jasper was quick to butt in, stepping between the two. "The council didn't send us out here to bicker. What does that even mean?"

'What this was really about?' What was she expecting? A secret Sith plot? Jasper wasn't expecting things to go sour so quickly. He didn't often expect hostile behavior from masters directed at other Jedi. It seemed so opposed to what he expected a master to be. There was clearly something more here that he didn't understand.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

Miri stared at Alema, her brow furrowed and her lips compressed into a thin line. Jasper jumped in to break things up, but that didn't mean she shouldn't respond to the question. "We're here to help a fellow Jedi," she replied.

"Oh, so we're here to help your friend now, not to find him?" Alema looked unconvinced. "I'm an empath, Padawan Nimdok. I can tell when you're hiding something."

Miri stood very still, saying nothing. Her silence spoke louder than words ever could. She was annoyed that Alema was confronting her now, like this, but she was also admittedly a bit afraid of what she might do. Jasper would hear her accusations, and Miri didn't want to deal with both of her teammates turning against her. Not on this mission, not when Vaslav's life and so much more could be at stake.

"So it is true." Alema stabbed a finger toward Miri. "You can't keep secrets from us. We're not just pawns for you to move around a board."

"I never said you were." But Miri had been planning to use them. Jasper and Alema were powerful Jedi who could help her accomplish her goals without having to risk the lives of the people she cared about. Kyell Laysel or Starlin Rand would've jumped at the chance to help her, but she loved them too much to put them in this much danger. At the same time, she couldn't simply tell Master Jai the truth—because she knew he would never let her, an underperforming Padawan with a too-personal connection to Vaslav, deal with the situation.

"Now that we're here, I suppose it doesn't matter." Shuffling her feet, Miri heaved a sigh. "The Sith Lord Darth Transitus has been imprisoned here on Cophrigin V for the past thirteen years. I think Vaslav may have come to set him free."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

It took Jasper a moment to take everything in. Lying to the council, leading other Jedi towards a threat she was clearly aware of... it was a little bit more than just out of line.

"I feel like you should've lead with that," Jasper remarked with a frown. "It sure seems a lot better then willingly leading a team to their potential deaths."

And what if one of his friends had been in his place? It was reckless. Asinine. Still, he understood where it came from. She clearly cared about this Silver Jedi. Jasper just couldn't rationalize a willingness to drag others down with her. Regardless, they had a mission to finish, even if the objective was misleading. The council could deal with her when they returned.

"Let's get this over with. Where are we going?"

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"So the truth comes out," Alema sneered. "Do you realize that this will almost certainly cost you your knighthood? Withholding information, deliberately leading your superiors into a bad situation involving a rogue Jedi Knight and a Sith Lord? You'll be shipped off to the AgriCorps, Nimdok. Mark my words. And it's not like your father is here to pull strings for you anymore."

Miri stared at her, but said nothing. She wouldn't give the Jedi Master the satisfaction of a response. But then Jasper spoke.

"I feel like you should've lead with that. It sure seems a lot better then willingly leading a team to their potential deaths."

"You say that like you were expecting this to be a cake walk," she replied, her tone icy. "You were never told what to expect, so you should have come prepared for anything, Sir Kai'el. And don't make any assumptions about my motives. This is a complicated situation. I had my reasons for obfuscating the truth."

She certainly had more to say on the subject. But she knew that the more she talked, the more likely she was to start an argument. There was no time for a heated discussion.

At least, not as long as they were just standing around and talking. "The facility is accessed via a cave over there," she said, pointing toward a mountain a short distance away. "It's underground. I have the codes that will unlock the doors, but if I'm right, and Vaslav has already broken in, the security measures will be in full effect. It may be possible to override them." Jasper probably had those skills, but if not, Miri could at least make an attempt at slicing.

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

"Do you realize that this will almost certainly cost you your knighthood? Withholding information, deliberately leading your superiors into a bad situation involving a rogue Jedi Knight and a Sith Lord? You'll be shipped off to the AgriCorps, Nimdok. Mark my words. And it's not like your father is here to pull strings for you anymore."

"Gods," Jasper groaned. "Could you spare me the petty squabbling? I didn't come here to get wrapped up in your schoolyard drama."

Jasper wasn't holding any of his punches. He was here to stop a Sith Lord. That much was clear. If Alema was supposed to be a Jedi Master, she surely didn't show it. When Miri countered his statement with a cold, and frankly flimsy response, he didn't even acknowledge it. It wasn't that he wasn't prepared for anything. He was. It was that she knew. There was a level of moral ignorance there that he couldn't simply accept.

"Just get me to the nearest maintenance panel," he told her.

He'd spare her no more words. This was strictly business now, and Jasper had no desire to make any small talk with either Jedi present. It was just his luck, after all. He always got dragged in to the worst situations with strangers.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"This concerns you as much as it does me, Knight Kai'el," Alema said, evidently not understanding why he wasn't on her side. She seemed more taken aback by his insulting tone than angry at his words, or else she would've unleashed her wrath upon him as well. Lucky Jasper.

Miri didn't need the Force to sense that she was being judged by Alema, but now she wasn't so sure it was just the Jedi Master looking down on her. At least Jasper simply ignored her, though his silence was in some ways a colder rebuke than anything Alema had said so far (or would continue to say...).

As they began the hike to the mountain cave, Alema kept talking, though this time she was asking questions. "How is it that you know about this place? Have you been here before?"

"Once," Miri answered. "Knowledge of its location and what it contains was passed on to me for safekeeping."

"By who? And for what reason?"

"That's classified." Picking her way through the undergrowth, Miri found the cave opening. "There should be a sealed door down there. Can you see it?"

Shining a light down into the darkness, the trio would be able to see that the door had indeed been broken into. The two sliding panels of metal had bent and twisted inward, as if hit by a great force. The control panel on the wall beside it sparked, the electronics no longer functioning.

"Vaslav has been here very recently," Miri murmured, pressing her lips together grimly. "I can feel him still."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

Jasper ignored Alema, similar to Miri, but there was actual distaste on his face this time. He held nothing against Miri. She wasn't annoying, if a bit cold. Alema was downright antagonistic. He didn't much care for validating that. The young knight silently listened, trying to gather what info he could on the facility, though it seemed that he wouldn't get many answers even if he asked. Almost immediately, Jasper's face settled on the damaged terminal.

"Wow," he reacted with a slight grimace. "You're friend really wanted to get in."

With little hesitation, he ripped a panel off the terminal and began to work, splicing in a line of power that was undamaged to bring it back online. The panel sparked, but it was revived, at least for a time. From there, he pulled out a scomp tool, using it and the limited functionality of the damaged terminal to at least take the security measures off-line.

"Security measures are down," Jasper informed them. "I can't guarantee that a failsafe won't bring them back online, but we won't get shot at immediately, for whatever that's worth."

He sighed, returning the scomp tool to his pocket. A sudden wave of exhaustion came over him. Not physically, but certainly mentally. Had he been rude? Is that why Miri had been so cold with him? Maybe it was better for him to change his attitude. The last thing they needed was an argument to break out.

That being said, he was fully ready to tell Alema to feth off, which was rare as far as emotions went with him.

"Can you tell me about Darth Transitus?" Jasper asked, his tone noticeably more polite now. "I'm not familiar with the name."

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"Wow," he reacted with a slight grimace. "Your friend really wanted to get in."

While Jasper went about disabling the security systems, Miri turned toward the entrance, peering into the darkness beyond. She saw something metallic gleaming on the ground, and thought it might have been the remains of a security droid. In her mind's eye she could picture the scene: Vaslav tearing the door from its hinges with the Force, then mangling the droid that came to fight him off with his lightsaber, dark eyes flashing with determination.

What will I find in here? she wondered. Why are you doing this, Vaslav? Why set the man who caused you and I so much pain free? Unless you plan to kill him...

"Can you tell me about Darth Transitus?" Jasper asked, his tone noticeably more polite now. "I'm not familiar with the name."

"Yes, I was just about to ask about the Sith," Alema added. "Surely you know more about it than you let on."

Stepping beyond the threshold, Miri had a look around before answering. "His real name was Messala, or at least that was the name he went by outside of Sith circles. He was a fearsome warrior in his youth, then became an alchemist after he retired from battle. A very bad alchemist..."

She trailed off, becoming lost in thought for a few moments. Sometimes she still felt the oppression of the exowomb around her, the tubes and wires connected to her body, the thick clear fluid slowly rising, immersing her in cold slime. Bacta tanks were too similar. It was why she couldn't stand to be in one for long, no matter how severe her injuries were. She hated being reminded of what he did to her.

"He created his own 'Children' by using alchemy to alter orphans and castoffs... or the abducted children of his rivals," she resumed. "After he was done with them, they might have incredible powers, or they might be deformed and disabled. But all of them were unnatural beings, forever marked by the experience."

She came to a crossroads and paused, unsure of which way to go. "My father and mother took him down and imprisoned him here. They were afraid that if he was killed, his spirit would find a way to live again. So they placed him in a special form of stasis instead, as if he were trapped in amber."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

"He created his own 'Children' by using alchemy to alter orphans and castoffs... or the abducted children of his rivals,"

Jasper shuddered at the mention of this. He knew what that was like... to be created rather than born. Jasper was created as a tool; A weapon to be utilized in war against the Sith, no matter their iteration. The knight may have made peace with his creator, but that didn't mean he had to forgive. He clutched at his tattooed arm as he thought for a moment.

"I... understand," Jasper answered, his confidence now wavering. "People shouldn't be born like that..."

He paused for a moment before regaining his composure.

"I won't pry," he told her. "And I suggest our resident empath do the same."

He spared Alema a glare before continuing. This wasn't the place to drag up Miri's trauma. What mattered now was ensuring that this Messala guy was no longer a threat. The last thing that Jasper wanted was for some crazed alchemist to get loose and ruin lives... create life in an unnatural way.

"Do you know if we can contain him again?" the knight asked. "If not, we may need to kill him."

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"I won't pry."

Miri glanced sharply toward Jasper. She hadn't verbally given anything away, had she? But she supposed it wasn't that hard to figure it out that she harbored a personal connection not only to Vaslav, but to Messala as well. They had a history together.

"Vaslav is one of his Children," she confirmed. "There were signs of brainwashing when he was young, but we thought he had been... deprogrammed. Perhaps that is not the case."

"Deprogramming rarely works," Alema said. "Force Sensitive children taken from the Sith and placed with the Jedi usually grow up to be troublemakers, despite our best intentions. We all must pay lip service to the possibility of redemption, but the truly repentant are the exception, not the rule."

Miri said nothing. Part of her knew that Alema, for all her abrasiveness, was correct. Most Sith were unrepentant and did not change for the better, especially if they were raised to believe in the dogma of domination. But she still had a hard time wrapping her head around Vaslav being a failed case. She had trained alongside him, grown up with him, witnessed his knighthood. They had even dated for a few years. Had he always been a Sith deep down, retaining his loyalty to his creator in secret, biding his time for the day when he could betray the Jedi?

"Do you know if we can contain him again?" the knight asked. "If not, we may need to kill him."

"I am certain that he can be contained again, though it may prove difficult." Miri sighed. "As I said, he was imprisoned because it was feared that he would find a way to come back from the dead if he was killed. I'm sure you can see the problems that would cause."

Opening herself to the Force, she sought guidance in which way to turn, but received none. "I don't know which way to go," she admitted. Turning to Jasper, she added in a low voice, "My connection to the Force is weak. You may be able to track Vaslav more easily than I can."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

"My connection to the Force is weak. You may be able to track Vaslav more easily than I can."

"W-well," Jasper frowned, "I wouldn't say I'm much better... but I'll give it a shot."

Jasper crouched down, closing his eyes and laying a hand on the floor. He opened his mind to the force, letting himself feel the space around him. There wasn't much, but there was something noticeable in the distance. Rage. It was faint, but he could at least feel where it was originating from. Whether it was Vaslav or Messala, he couldn't say. Still, he had a direction. The knight turned to his left, pointing down the closest hall.

"That way," he stated. "There's... something. I'm not sure what... but it's angry, whoever it is."

It was a good start at least.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

Jasper seemed to think they should go left, so they went left. Miri wasn't sure what to make of his assessment that there was something angry in that direction. She unholstered her pistols in preparation to face it.

Eventually the trio found themselves in a large chamber carved from the rock of the cave. It was filled with boxes and crates, none of them labeled, some of them opened. Miri frowned deeply. "I remember this room being empty," she said. "Someone has moved these things in here..."

"What the..." Alema began. "Is that... someone's skin?"

Miri moved over to where the Jedi Master stood. Behind one of the crates, she had found what looked like the skin and hair of a human being. Despite the gruesome nature of the sight, there was little to no blood or gore, nor were there any signs of the skin having been cut. It lay on the ground in the shape of a person, still clothed in a worker's jumpsuit, as if the skeleton, organs, and other tissues it had once contained had simply vanished. Or as if they had been...

"Eaten from the inside out," Miri whispered, her eyes wide. "Boneworms."

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

"Those sound... lovely," Jasper remarked with a grimace. Nothing like being eaten from the inside out.

Jasper was quick to ignite his blue lightsaber, taking a moment to slip on his anti-toxin mask as well. If the skin was left behind, there was a good chance these things entered through orifices. His life was always on the line in the field, but there were some ways he just didn't want to go out.

"How'd these things get in here?" he asked. "I doubt they were invited in."

It seemed unusual that a secure bunker of the like would be compromised by an infestation. It was seeming increasingly more likely that the contained Sith Lord was less contained than they realized.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

<They're one of Transitus' creations,> Miri said, switching to telepathy as she affixed her own mask over her face. It wouldn't completely stop the boneworms, but it would at least provide some protection. <They're attracted to vibrations. Walk carefully and don't talk too loud. In fact, it's best if you don't make any noise at all.>

Alema didn't exactly take the use of telepathy very well, shooting a dirty look in Miri's direction, but even she had to admit it was necessary here.

"How'd these things get in here? I doubt they were invited in."

<They weren't contained here.> She studied the remains. A worker's jumpsuit. Probably someone tasked with moving these crates into this chamber, and very recently at that. Was it Vaslav's doing? For what purpose? Or perhaps it was Messala, already awoken and preparing something nefarious...

Miri heard something slap against the floor behind her. She whirled around, and despite her own warnings to keep silent, let out a startled cry upon seeing the boneworm. It looked like a small black snake, save for the abundance of sharp teeth in its gaping maw. She shot at it repeatedly with her blaster, hurrying back in the direction from whence they had come.

More boneworms, still in their voracious juvenile stage judging by their smaller size, began slithering out into the open, hungry for flesh.

Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Cophrigin V
Tags: Miri Nimdok

Jasper wasn't bothered by the sudden invasion of his mind. He had experienced such things before, and understood that it was necessary. Alema seemed less keen, but kept her mouth shut. It wasn't long before the boneworms had arrived. First it was one. Then it was many, slithering towards them with maw agape, lined with razor-sharp teeth. The were running pretty soon, but Jasper didn't plan on running for long.

He was quick to draw a flask from his pocket. It contained citric extract within. He used to carry it to help ease the hangover of drunk customers in his days as a bartender. Now it served it's purpose as an odd resource that many didn't think to utilize. It was capable of storing a light electric charge, could be given to people lacking certain substances in their body, and, most importantly for the current moment, it was flammable. With some influence from the force, Jasper scattered the contents of the flask over the horde perusing them. Then, with a strike of his lightsaber to one, the fluid began to catch fire and spread in succession, resulting in a screeching mound of burning worms. In theory, it could also serve as a distraction for other boneworms as well.

I don't have any more, Jasper signed to Miri, hoping she understood it. He couldn't use telepathy, after all. We'll want to leave quickly while they're... preoccupied.