Where No Man Has Gone Before

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

A truly ludicrous amount of money had passed between Rave and the Lord Protector at one point or another. Money, and more valuable commodities. Right about now, Rave intended to redeem three recent, outstanding coupons.

Offices had coordinated with offices, schedules had been coordinated, and today was the day she would spend with Ayden fething Cater.

Cash would flow like blood.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"]. Alchemist. Collector. Dangerous. The woman had a trail across the stars almost as intricate and unfathomable as her brother. Her fingerprints were on a great many events in recent times and Ayden had not missed them. It was enough that when she had won the bid for his time and scheduled a meeting, he cleared everything that day. Everything.

This was a meeting that would have his complete attention. Whenever Rave seemed to try something new, interesting things happened. Over months, she had collected technology, information, and favors from him. To what ultimate goal this all went to Ayden did not know, but he did know that it would be glorious.

When she finally arrived, Ayden did what he usually did when a meeting occurred in his office. He took out a bottle of whiskey, two glasses, and set them on the desk. "I could spout off a number of things, trivial words and meaningless gestures, Miss Merrill but I think we're both beyond such. You have your plan, I have mine. So to start; what do you need from me?"

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

Without asking, she poured for both of them.

"I need you to build me a station in Otherspace. Another one." Yes, that'd been where she put that trade station. "I need you to help me locate a series of holocrons and Force artifacts taken from a certain beskar-clad corvette -- I believe you know the one, though I don't believe you knew it was mine. I need you to consider Iron Crown components, proprietary Fringe technology, for CEC -- because I'm buying Iron Crown and reforming it into the gateway to the Unknown Regions.

"Tall orders. Your turn."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

Ayden smiled and picked up his glass. Tall orders indeed. "Well another station won't be a problem. As far as Iron Crown components, I'm certainly open to make arrangements with you." He threw back his shot before continuing. "You're right that I was not aware of the owner of the ship, merely that it was a vault ship for someone within the Order of the Selab." He imagined she probably knew of his affiliation with them as well; if not before then certainly now. "Vultures were already there by the time I arrived. I only had time to grab a few of the more dangerous artifacts."

He tapped on his console and pulled a small datastick from his desk and handed it to Rave after a moment. "Sensor data from my ship on every ship present before I was forced to leave. I'm sure you'll find it useful."

After a moment, he spoke again. "Cira has been taken by the One Sith and twisted. Vongformed. That was why I needed to get the shaping protocols and the master shaper hand. I intend on getting her back." Why he told her that, he wasn't entirely sure.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

She knocked back half the tumbler.

"This feels like sabacc. Not the gambling, but the I'll see your audacity and raise part of it. Unique feeling. I'll see you one kidnapped Lady Protector, one secret Selabite affiliation, and one set of sensor data, and raise you one blood trail. I was at Eriadu, in disguise. I can track your Lady Protector -- anywhere.

"While that sinks in, there's something I've been meaning to tell you, both in the interests of full disclosure and because I wouldn't want you to hear it from anyone else after our operations begin.

"I was at Rhommamool, in my capacity as Velok's laboratory assistant. I helped prepare the supernova crystals.

"I was a Knight at the time; I was told it would be a test on an uninhabited system, and I let myself believe that, both because one does not say no to Velok, and because I wanted to keep learning." She said it all without inflection, not emotionless but afraid to betray emotion, betray weakness. Shame, perhaps. "He was in the company of Val'Ryss Zankarr, now Darth Hauntruss of the One Sith, and a man who was introduced to me as Sang DuAvicus. Both were Dark Side Masters; both participated in the test on the Rhommamool system primary. The test involved a set of supernova crystals, the Grand Spellbook of the Sith Empire, a Sith meditation sphere, and a Derriphan-class battleship inside a bulk freighter -- none of which I ever saw again.

"I wish to make an anonymous donation to the relief efforts on Rhommamool and Osarian." She set down the glass and placed a credit tab on the desk -- a tab of unholy denomination.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

Ayden sat there for a moment, first processing the fact that he had a way of tracking Cira down now. And then he had to sit in silence while he attempted to process the bombshell that one of the people responsible for the destruction of the Osarian system, of two planets with populations measured in the millions. And now she had claimed ignorance, that she had not been informed of what part her role would play in the coming tragedy.

After a while Ayden spoke, softly. "Legally, I can't make heads or tails of it. You may have killed an unknown number of unidentified victims of indeterminate jurisdictions. I wouldn't know whom to turn you over to. And morally? Ethically? I don't know. You prepared a couple of crystals under false pretenses and millions were killed. Some would say for science, for learning. Others would say it was done for power and malice." Despite his words, there was no anger or heat in his voice. "How can that ever be fixed? What price paid could ever be enough?"

It was difficult to identify what emotions were playing out over his face while he thought. After a while, he slowly pushed the credit chip back to her. "Keep it. You'll need the funds for your coming projects. There is no relief fund, Rave. This wasn't like Druckenwell, when a blunder only killed a fraction of the system's population. There's nothing left of the Osarian system but dust and phantoms. No homes to rebuild, no families to reunite. They're dead." There was no judgement here, only fact. "You will never be absolved of this act, however accidental your part in it was. That is your burden, your punishment. You can make some amends by devoting your life to prevent such catastrophes from happening in the future."

Ayden stopped himself before he fell truly into a tirade and considered. "The One Sith must be broken. They will burn the galaxy if left unchecked. Their Vong servants have made themselves resistant to normal Bafforr Pollen. I need an alternative. I need someone with intimate knowledge of the Sith philosophy to help me find a way to break them."

 

[Velok the Younger]

"There's...frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if you already knew my early history. I'm a clone. At age five, I was possessed by my clone donor, a middle-aged Nightsister Elder. Even after the exorcism, I remembered everything she'd done with my body, and everything she'd done in the half century prior. I knew everything about Nightsisters and life long before I hit puberty. I'm not one for excuses, but I think that'll give you some context when I tell you that this may be the first time I've ever tried to make amends for anything. So yes, I'm bad at it. I just can't very well give the survivors terentateks and haute couture, and I can't do nothing.

"It's the memory of that moment that holds me back, you know," she added absently, eyeing the film of whiskey in the bottom of the glass. The credit chit vanished. "I've suffered attacks from...more than a few rivals and enemies, and I haven't substantively, conclusively retaliated on their centers of production and power. Because every time I go to drop ten thousand terentateks, or the Denon virus, or the Dark Harvest strain, or contagious Sith Poison, or Blackwing, or the Vongspawn virus, or the Death Seed plague, or a vial of Mnggal-Mnggal, I think of Rhommamool. Think what you will, but it's entirely possible that the dead of Rhommamool have saved trillions.

"I have the means to destroy worlds. Sectors. Please, please tell me you need something more precise.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

"I'm not in the position to pass judgement, Rave. I'm no stranger to taking lives, millions of lives. I make those decisions every day, and I've been making choices like it for hundreds of years." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before pouring himself another shot. "I need Cira back, Rave. I need to undo whatever the Sith have done to her. Before all I had to go on was the word of a Sith who got caught over Naboo. And nothing, not the Sith, not the Republic, not any force in the galaxy is going to stop me from getting her back."

He stood up and turned to look out one window and up at the Corellian sky. "You help me get her back, Rave, and I'll practically give you CEC for whatever project you need done."

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

"I've heard the general idea of what's been done to her, and you've alluded to it, but commitment aside, I need as much detail as you have. You know I'm a healer, I've reversed alchemization, Sith poisoning..."

Her face rippled, distorted, then peeled away, revealing a scarified version of the same. Scarified, but apparently biot-free. Not many people knew about this, not many at all.

"...even Vongshaping. So -- holocam footage, testimonials, samples if you have them. What do you have for me to work with?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Ayden's office was more often than not a place of solitude; even when he had company over. But, when Sarge was involved in any way tangential or greater, he would be where he felt he needed to be. That meant he was there. What had likely been a statue - if one could even say it had been there before - shifted ever so slightly, bright blue optics blazing into existence. "Our forces are being assembled, our orders given. You take us to her... and we'll give you her to work with, under our gaze."

The mechanical figure seemed to draw in a breath. "But if you must know, she clearly doesn't know who she is. Spine Ray. Beyond that, perhaps a split personality. Otherwise, we've got very little, as she seems content to let others handle things."

"The question is... will you be coming with us of your own accord, or will I have to force you."

Ayden may be willing to negotiate, he was not.

[member="Ayden Cater"] [member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Ayden Cater"]

Her eyes flicked to the mountainous cyborg before settling, once again, on Ayden. "Spinal ray treatment is reversible -- not easy, but doable. I've performed it in both directions. Split personality is a pop medicine myth, but if spinal ray treatment is performed inexpertly, it can induce visions or dreams of an other self, as the mind tries to reconcile itself to a new identity. I have the means to induce amnesia in the field, in whatever degree is necessary, but for someone as powerful as the Lady Protector, that may not be the best outcome. As the situation unfolds, I'll have to see whether a Master confused about her identity and location is an improvement.

"Depending on the location, another option is to spin a control web over and around her -- it's a Dathomiri technique. There's also a possibility that she'll be able to use what's called Vongsense -- the ability to feel, influence or control Vong creatures. She wouldn't be able to use Vongsense at the same time as the Force. If she tries, she'll be fully vulnerable to a range of Force-based techniques; lightning tuned to the right amperage should put her out of commission. I can also counter her Vongsense to some extent, and I have other containment and neutralization options at my disposal.

"As for my commitment, the One Sith are a frat house of pointlessly destructive pretenders and followers who murdered the man I loved."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge turned that squat helmet towards [member="Ayden Cater"], a lone finger raising to point at the woman. "She drops with me."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Ayden gave a passive nod of his head. He wasn't about to argue with Sarge at this point. The man was wound up tighter than a Corellian sand panther ready to pounce, and Ayden was not going to be on the receiving end of that episode. Instead he turned back to Rave. "Whatever you think you need to undo this mess, you'll have. Price is not a concern. Nothing is off-limits if it means getting Cira back."

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

"Thank you, Ayden, but I have what I need aboard the Lethewalker. I'll need about six hours to collect a version of my gear that'll fit aboard a Protectorate dropship.

" Fair warning. A blood trail takes multiple jumps, sometimes many jumps, when you're tracking it across interstellar distances. A stealth ship would be preferable. I'll keep my eyes closed."

 

[Ayden Cater]

"We have a couple of ships that could get you around without a problem." Ayden smiled as he looked down at his datapad. Time was not a crucial factor for them. In fact, it would be to their benefit to wait a while longer. They still had friends to collect. This was not going to be an assault that was being made haphazardly. Ayden was planning for the worst. He knew they'd likely only get one shot, so he intended to get it done the first time.

"You'll have however much time you need to gather your supplies. While we want to get Cira back as soon as possible, I won't risk her rescue on a blunder because we rushed to get her as soon as possible. Get what you need and track her down. I don't care if that takes days or weeks. The clearer a picture we have in knowing where she is and what defenses there are, the better our chances of success are."

[member="Rave Merrill"], [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ayden Cater"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

"In that case, there's a contractor I want to bring onboard. He's never worked for me personally, but he comes highly recommended, and I don't think there's a soul alive that has more motivation to oppose the Sith.

"My company's been doing excavation and containment on Dromund Kaas for the Mandalorians. All significant artifacts go to the Mandos -- specifically, to a man named Ember Rekali. Taciturn Witch elder, a mutt of about twenty different Force traditions. I happen to know that he trained with the Keetael and learned some very precise farsight. I also happen to know, because I shipped him the thing when I excavated it, that he's custodian of a Voss artifact called the Mirr. It enhances the accuracy and clarity of farsight. I'm fairly sure that man is a galactic-scale sniper scope when he wants to be. If you have any samples of Cira's body -- hair or blood would do -- I can make a Nightsister tracking talisman that'll give Rekali a lock. He's also Fallanassi-trained, apparently, so I doubt they'd feel him watching.

"He's not one of my people, he's not one of your people, but I'm fairly sure that if you look into him you'll find that bringing him onboard, at least to give us some initial idea of Cira's circumstances and surroundings, may work for us. I'm not saying bring him on the actual op -- he's not predictable and he's not controllable -- but for preliminary intel, he's likely our best bet."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"He's already helped with this mission, in some manner, and was there when she died." He sighed, looking to Ayden, he speaks... but offers no explanation for what he's about to say. "I have one of her shirts. Should be some hair from her on there. The sooner this is done, the sooner I get back what I want."

[member="Ayden Cater"] [member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden simply nodded at Sarge before turning his attention back to Rave. This meeting had turned very interesting, very quickly. "Side deals aside, what else do you need for this gateway venture for the Unknown Regions?"

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Ayden Cater"]

"I'm looking to have the option to disappear or relocate if necessary, and not just in a miserly sense. I'd need stasis pods -- huge stasis pods, and many of them, because when I say disappear, I don't just mean me. The station would need at least two hyperdrives, and years' worth of supplies and entertainment facilities for a low crew -- some degree of automation would be ideal. I'll provide Spaarti cylinders, nothing army-scale, and medical droids to oversee them. For weapons, I need the ability to make absolutely sure that nothing under four hundred metres gets close enough to board; this station will never face anything larger than a heavy frigate. I'll need some kind of highly advanced security system and vault, docking capacity suitable for for multiple bulk freighters, and the most powerful sensors you can dig up. You know where this is going, and at least part of what it's meant for."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

Ayden listened to the requests and ticked them off the list almost as fast as he put them on it. Most of that was reasonable and easily accomplished. Work with Jorus and studying the Spirit of Druckenwell had given him plenty of insight into vault making. Automation was easy, as was stasis tech. The cloning tanks would be a little trickier, but nothing he couldn't overcome. That simply left it a matter of weapons.

"Well if we're taking range out of the equation then you'll have power to spare for short-range weapons. Enough so it might be worth looking into some alternative weapons." He paused long enough to switch train of thought to weapons. "We could see about weaponizing pressor beams... Perhaps we could look into creating localized gravimetric distortions. Tear apart boarding craft before they ever get close. With the Vong to study, that might be possible."