Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (62 page)

"And
of course that was necessary. You couldn't have killed him on your
own. "

"No.
" It burned her to admit it, but that was the truth, and this
seemed like a moment when only the truth would suffice. Darth Howl's
game was utterly unlike any Darth Chratis would have played. She was
learning the rules as she went along.

"The
omission of the clone from your report, " he said, "was
premeditated, deliberate, and dangerous. The Dark Council disapproves
of anything that smacks of disloyalty-or of emotional attachment to
anything other than the Council itself. "

"I
felt no kinship with the clone, my lord, " she said.

"None
at all?"

She
struggled to find words for the emotions that still stirred her when
she thought of the pathetic creature in the tank. "Lema Xandret
refused to let her daughter go, so she created a new one, whom she
imprisoned. She refused to be controlled, yet she herself was
possessive and controlling. What imprisonment might she have
fashioned for me had I not been rescued from her by Darth Chratis?
Was that why my memories of her have been so easy to suppress? The
only thing stirred up in the entire affair was a recollection of her
screaming. I think, in short, " she concluded, "that I had
a lucky escape. And the clone, too, in the end. "

"Did
you order the hexes to commit suicide?"

"That
I didn't do, " she said, "but I probably could have ordered
them not to. "

He
nodded. "It was the amnioid, then. "

"This
time, yes. Lema Xandret lost her daughter twice. There was nothing
else to live for. Not even revenge. "

"So
instead of becoming their master, you let them die. " Darth Howl
lowered his rifle and fixed her with an obsidian stare. "Some
might find it puzzling that you did not use the hexes to fulfill your
vendetta against Dao Stryver, and then go on to conquer the galaxy. "

"Yes.
" I could have been Emperor!" The thought did occur to me.
But the Mandalorian had already escaped by then, and I remain loyal
to the Dark Council. "

"Some
might say that your exposure to the Grand Master of the Jedi addled
your thoughts. Some might use this as an argument to never trust you
again. "

"I
don't care what people say. "

"You
only need to worry about what the Dark Council decides to do about
you. "

"I
met with them yesterday. They-you said..."

"Many
things are said, Ax, and many things are done. They are not always
the same. "

She
knew it. "So are you going to have me killed?"

He
laughed at her, and raised the rifle. Another shot; another scream of
pain.

"That
depends entirely on how you spin it, " he said. "Were the
fugitives punished?"

The
fate of her mother and the clone left her in no doubt on that score.
"Undoubtedly. "

"Did
the planet fall into the Republic's hands?"

"No.
"

"So
you survived where your Master did not, and you returned with
valuable intel. You are strong and determined, like your mother. You
deserve nothing but admiration, and a close eye.

"If
anyone does learn the secret about the hexes, the explanation is
simple. Your loyalty to the Emperor is such that you would never
attempt to unseat him. Note that I said 'Emperor, ' not the Dark
Council. It's a Sith's job to try to unseat us. That's why we have to
keep a close eye on you. Fire the gun. "

Ax
closed one eye and stilled her hammering heart. Perhaps she would
survive after all.

The
creature in her sights did not survive, and neither did two more that
came to investigate.

She
wasn't going to tell Darth Howl that the only reason she had not
spared the hexes was because trying to control them would have
undoubtedly backfired. Riddled with the twisted spirit of her mother,
the hexes would have turned on her eventually, and she would have
ended up as trapped as her clone. Far from becoming Emperor, she
would have been a bitter princess in a cage, shouting for help at an
empty galaxy.

Better
that it all disappear into a black hole, literally and
metaphorically, and she get on with her life. Her life. However much
of it she had left.

"Why
did you invite me here?" she asked. "It wasn't to grill me
on my report or to offer me advice. "

"True.
You are young and inexperienced, but you are observant, and you
survived this crisis unscathed. Perhaps you are hiding your true
feelings well, or you are more resilient than you look. Either way,
you can be useful to me. I brought you here to offer you an alliance.
"

Ax
didn't even see what lay down her sights. "What kind of
alliance?"

"One
considerably more to your advantage than the last one. Darth

Chratis
deserved what came to him. His methods were unreliable, his
philosophies dangerous, and his ambition unchecked. It was therefore
inevitable that he would fall. The only question was: how far would
you fall with him?"

She
didn't answer.

Darth
Howl's teeth gleamed faintly in the night. "Darth Chratis failed
you, just as my last apprentice failed me. It's time to look beyond
failure and see the successes awaiting you and I. With my power and
your potential, can you imagine what we might accomplish together? We
might shake the Supreme Chancellor from his seat, and earn rewards
beyond our wildest dreams!"

She
wasn't thinking that far ahead. All she had in mind was how useful it
would be to have a Master actually on the Dark Council, not just
dreaming about it.

"What
happened to your last apprentice?"

"She
liked to keep pets, " he said, taking aim and dispatching
another hapless furball down below. "And now I keep her in the
observation dome directly above our heads. She loves it when I
entertain guests. "

His
smile was cold and vicious, and something about it thrilled Ax to her
core. Darth Howl needed her, and she needed him. There was no shame
in admitting it. There were bigger games to play now.

Dao
Stryver could wait. When she needed to feel anger in its purest form,
he would be there, ready to inspire her. It didn't matter where he
was or what he was doing. The longer her vow remained unfulfilled,
the greater her anger would become. The end justifies the means, as
he himself had said.

"I
would be honored, my lord. "

"Good.
And I will accept you as my student. You will put the messy business
of your mother behind us and we'll both look forward to slaughtering
the Jedi scum in their beds. And, most important... "

He
winked like the chopping of a guillotine.

"Most
important of all, my young apprentice, we will both watch our backs.
"

EPILOGUE
: TATTOINE

There
was no shortage of cantinas on Tatooine, nor of cantina brawls.
Akshae Shanka had come in second in yet another combat tournament,
and emotions were running high. There had been riots around the
arena, and several full-blown shoot-outs had rivaled those of the
contest itself.

Dao
Stryver wasn't there to fight, however.

From
the shadowy depths of the Wing and Wanderer, the Mandalorian watched
the arrival of the human who called himself "Jet Nebula"
with a keen eye.

The
smuggler had a sandy air, as most people did on the desiccated
planet. His gray hair was as wild and his uniform as spaceworn as
ever. The droid trailing him had earned a couple of extra dents in
his travels since Sebaddon. But they looked much as Stryver had
expected. They were watchful in a way that older warriors learned to
be.

"Jet
Nebula" looked around the bar, saw the impassive Gektl sitting
alone, and performed a subtle double take.

Then
he held up two fingers to the bartender, who chattered confirmation,
and he and the droid pressed through the dusty crowd.

"Fancy
meeting you here. "

"You
recognize me?"

"Dao
Stryver, in the flesh. You looked better with your helmet on. "

Stryver
showed teeth in a way that might have been mistaken for a smile. "In
my culture, this expression is considered a challenge. "

"Come
on. I know you can take a joke. " He pulled up a chair.
"Besides, you're obviously waiting for me. I reckon I'm safe at
least until you tell me what you want. "

"I've
come for the droid. "

Nebula
raised an eyebrow. "He's not for sale. "

"I'm
not offering you money. "

Two
tiny glasses clunked down between them. Stryver made no move to pay,
and neither did he. He obviously had a tab.

"Good
fortune in battle, " Nebula toasted. "May all your eggspawn
hatch as soldiers. "

"You
know about that, too?"

"I've
got a good sense of smell. And I transported some life- paintings
from Hoszh Iszhir once. You've a nice planet, there, if you breathe
poisonous gas. "

Stryver
raised the other glass and tipped the fiery liquid down her throat.

"I
was wrong to take you for granted, " she said.

"It's
not your fault. I go out of my way to give a certain impression. "

"I
am not apologizing. I am offering you a compliment. Few deceive me. "

"We
both have our masks. Do you keep your tail trimmed to fit into that
armor or have you had it permanently removed?"

She
shook her head, unwilling to be deflected. "I've been looking
for you ever since the Sebaddon affair. "

"I'm
gratified it's taken you so long to find me. "

"The
word on the grapevine is that you have been shopping technical data
to the black market. What kind of data?"

He
shrugged. "Everything I had on the hexes, which wasn't much.
Chemical analyses, video footage, a sample of their subspace code. I
sold it as a job lot to a character called Shavak. Don't worry:
there's nowhere near enough for him or anyone else to rebuild them. "

She
let him believe that this was her concern-if he did in fact believe
it. He was a man of many masks. In Tassaa Bareesh's palace he had
been careful not to play things too smart lest he be considered a
threat, while at the same time he was reinforcing his value as the
man who found the Cinzia, and who might find other bounties like it,
in order to avoid being conveniently disappeared. While the Hutts had
been watching the envoys, the smuggler in their midst had kept his
eyes and ears carefully open.

In
the same way, he had pulled the strings of the Republic's puppet
envoy, making certain the Xandret affair ended to his advantage. He
might be doing much the same thing right now.

"You
know, I'd make an excellent Mandalorian, " Nebula said, "were
I that way inclined. "

Stryver
stiffened in her seat, resisting the urge to reach across the table
and tear his puny head right off.

"Explain,
" she growled.

"We
both have a sense of irony. " He signaled at the bartender for
another round of drinks. "And our goals are the same. I mean,
seriously. You engineered the whole Sebaddon thing from the start,
right? You gave Xandret coordinates for a meeting that would take her
through privateer-infested space. You knew where the ship would end
up once it was caught, and what the Hutts would probably do with it.
Then you hopped around the Empire and the Republic, escalating the
situation. You wanted people to think that you were chasing the
Cinzia to stop it from falling into anyone else's hands, but in fact
you were doing the exact opposite. That's why you didn't kill any of
the players you came across. You wanted a fight over the hexes just
as much as you wanted to erase your own involvement in it. "

The
drinks came. Stryver let hers sit untouched on the table as Nebula
went on.

"You
were testing the Empire's and the Republic's responses to the hexes.
You wanted to see who has the edge, these days. Has the Republic
recovered from the near-beating you gave them a decade ago? Has the
Empire grown strong enough to be considered a serious contender in
your next campaign? I'd say the results were tied, which suits me.
What do you think? Who's Mandalore going to fight next, when he gets
tired of working for everyone else? That's the question I bet every
Jedi and Sith would like answered right now. "