CHAPTER NINE
One by one, the six ships carrying Toah Jarsan and the rest of his party, as well as the mysterious Ochi, dropped out of hyperspace and began their approach of the green and blue planet that lay up ahead. Toah leaned forward in his seat, peering over Ochi’s shoulder to get a better look at the planet.
“Lothal,” he murmured. “Interesting.”
“Have you been here before?” asked Rey.
“No, but I’ve heard of it. It was the site of a major uprising against the Empire, just before the Battle of Yavin.” To Ochi, Toah said, “Can you open up a comm channel to the others?”
Without a word, Ochi did as asked. Toah then got up and slid into the seat next to Ochi, ignoring the other’s glare as he spoke into the comm. “I was not aware that Lothal was one of the Church of the Force’s locations, Father Chek.”
“It hasn’t been for some time,” replied the Abednedo priest. “After the fall of the Empire, the Church started to expand as it came out of hiding and some pilgrims settled here as part of that expansion. However, after the massacre on Sicemon sixteen years ago, many of us went back into hiding to escape the Sith’s wrath and Lothal was among the locations we abandoned.”
“Were you there on Lothal when the massacre on Sicemon happened?” Toah heard Nira Maren ask.
“No, I was on Spintir at the time.”
“Can this wait?” Ochi growled. “I have no interest in hearing your guys’ life stories. Let’s just get that blasted map.”
While Toah shot him a look, Chek Urhed said over the comm, “Agreed. We should focus on the task at hand. We’ll meet up at the spaceport in Capital City.”
As the six ships proceeded towards the planet of Lothal, Toah leaned back in his chair to look at Ochi, who had his attention focused on the viewport.
“Once we find the map,” he said quietly, “you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”
Ochi did not so much as glance at him. “You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t know enough about you to tell whether or not I trust you. If you want me to trust you, then it would be nice to know a little bit more about you.”
“And if I don’t want you to trust me?”
To this, Toah had nothing to say. Nor did Ochi seem to wait for a response as he continued to pilot the Bestoon Legacy towards Lothal in silence.
* * *
Cara Jalvon, governor of Lothal, sipped from a mug of caf as she sat alone at a conference table. The Board of Representatives had just adjourned, leaving her alone in the meeting room. She would have returned to her office by this point, but she wasn’t exactly in a hurry to do so. She just knew that there would be some form of bad news waiting for her there, whether it be another accident occurring on the city’s outskirts or another rejection for her appeal to the Galactic Senate for aid. For now, she would enjoy this brief moment of respite for as long as she could before facing the inevitable.
As she set down the warm mug, a knock sounded at the door. Holding back a sigh, she said, “Come in.”
The door whooshed open and a thin, pale-skinned humanoid walked in, holding a datapad in his hand. His long, noseless face was as blank and stoic as it had always been. In all of the years she had known him, Jalvon had never once seen the Muun smile. Sometimes she wondered if he was even capable of doing so.
Keeping her hands on her mug, Jalvon asked, “What is it, Bix?”
“Someone by the name of ‘Hux’ left a message for you,” said Bix Kreeon, handing her the datapad. “It sounded like they wanted to speak with you as soon as possible.”
Jalvon’s heart skipped a beat at the name and she numbly took the device. Her mouth went dry as her eyes roved over the screen on the datapad, trying to process each word as she read them.
“Dear Governor. I believe it would be most prudent for us to speak in person again. Big changes are on the way and you should be prepared for them for the benefit of your people. We can help you with that. You know our frequency code. Give us a call as soon as is convenient and Lothal will be kept safe from harm. Yours Ever, Hux.”
The letter was written in a way that one could have easily missed the veiled threat that was as plain as day to Jalvon’s trained eyes. She had had enough experience dealing with political adversaries to spot such things. However, unlike with those cases, she was helpless to do anything but comply with the wishes of these people. She knew exactly what they were capable of and was not about to put the lives of millions at jeopardy with bold defiance. She was a governor, not some naïve, hotshot wannabe-hero.
With a sigh, Jalvon handed the datapad back to Bix as she rose from her seat. “I’ll be in my office shortly. Thank you for letting me know.”
The Muun merely gave her a nod as she walked past him and headed out of the room, taking long strides to her office in a vain attempt to maintain some illusion of confidence. It wasn’t until she had walked in and sat down at her desk that she realized that she had forgotten her mug of caf. Then again, she really didn’t have the stomach for it anymore.
After keying in the frequency code, Jalvon interlaced her fingers together and took a deep breath as she leaned forward in her seat.
“This is Governor Cara Jalvon of Lothal. I wish to speak to General Hux….”
* * *
After landing in the spaceport of Lothal’s capital city, the Jedi and Resistance agents (plus Ochi) had met up outside a cantina not far from the docking bays. Accompanying them as well was Poe Dameron’s astromech droid BB-8, whom Poe said could help them get into any facilities that “needed getting into,” as he had put it. Rey had noticed Ochi shift uncomfortably at this addition but otherwise did not vocally object to the ball-shaped droid’s presence.
“All right then,” he said, crossing his arms as he looked at Chek Urhed. “Where is this map?”
Chek Urhed raised a finger. “It is not here in the city. It is in a place beyond the outskirts. We’ll have to take a landspeeder to get there.”
Ochi bristled. “Why didn’t you just have us land outside the city then?”
“It would have been too dangerous. In fact, we would have most surely died.”
“I take it we’ll understand what you mean by that when we get there?” asked Poe.
Chek nodded. “Quickly now,” he said, already starting to walk. “Let us not waste any more time.”
After finding and purchasing two landspeeders, the group began making their way outside of the city and out into the frontier land that laid beyond. Rey sat in a speeder with Poe, Finn, Snap, and Jessika (with BB-8 occupying the driver’s socket) while Toah, Nira, Chek, and Ochi took the other. She had wanted to accompany Toah in their speeder, but her teacher had insisted that she ride with Poe and the others. Something told her that his reasoning had something to do with Ochi, but whatever it was, he had not voiced it.
As the speeders made their trek across Lothal’s plains, Rey spared a glance at Finn, who was sitting next to her. The ex-stormtrooper was shifting uncomfortably, glancing intermittently over his shoulder.
“Is something wrong?” she asked him.
“I’m fine,” he muttered, unconvincingly. “Just… have a weird feeling about this place.”
Rey frowned as she took a moment to focus her senses. There was indeed something off about this place; a feeling which only deepened the further they went. Whatever place they were headed, it was strong in the Force… though she wondered how Finn was able to notice it while Poe and the others with her didn’t. She decided to save such questions for later as the speeders finally reached their destination.
Mounds of grass surrounded a patch of dry land, forming a circle around a wide, expansive area. After parking their landspeeders beside one of the large mounds, the team disembarked from their vehicles and stepped out into the circle, with Chek Urhed leading the way. Rey quickly moved up to walk alongside Toah, looking around the area warily.
“The Force,” she whispered. “It feels like it’s… everywhere here.”
Toah slowly nodded, looking as awed as she was feeling, but otherwise said nothing. As they reached the center of the field, Chek brought them to a halt and motioned for them to be quiet.
“He does not take kindly to visitors,” the Abednedo priest murmured.
“Who’s ‘he?’” Ochi asked impatiently, his hand resting on a holstered blaster.
“The keeper of the map. Protector of this place. A Jedi Temple once stood here, long ago, before it was destroyed by the Empire.”
“That would explain why it is so strong with the Force,” said Nira Maren.
“Indeed. Which is why the pilgrims chose this location as their place of worship.”
“Can we stop with the history lessons already?” Ochi snapped. “Where is this blasted keeper?”
Chek inclined his head to the west. “That should be him on his way right now.”
Everyone turned in the direction the Abednedo had indicated. Approaching them was a tall figure in pristine white armor, a cape the color of snow billowing behind them. In their hand was a lightsaber that had already been ignited, its blue blade shimmering in the sunlight.
Rey wasn’t sure what to make of the stranger until she noticed how everyone else was reacting. Toah and Nira already had their lightsabers drawn, shock plastered on their faces, while Ochi was staggering back, heavy breathing coming from the vocalizer of his mask.
“Oh, karabast…” he was muttering. “Oh, frakking, frakking karabast….”
“Truer words have never been spoken,” said Poe, raising his blaster along with Snap and Jessika. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Rey frowned in confusion and she looked to Finn, who was slowly drawing his own blaster. “Am I missing something? Who is this person?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know who that is,” Snap said incredulously. “Even someone as young as you should know what Darth frakking Vader looks like!”
“Of course I know what Darth Vader looks like,” Rey snapped at him. “But he wore black armor. And he’s dead. This person can’t be him.”
“Either way, they have very poor taste in fashion.” Poe glanced at Chek. “Mind explaining yourself already?”
The Abednedo shook his head. “I’m sure he can do a better job than I ever could.”
Everyone remained tense as the man in white armor finished his approach. Coming to stand between two grassland mounds, he observed the group of nine (plus one droid) through blue-tinted lenses, heavy mechanical breathing coming through the vent of his mouthpiece. When he spoke, his low baritone voice reverberated in all of their ears.
“Why have you come here?”
Chek Urhed stepped forward and bowed his head. “Master Skywalker. These travelers seek the map to—”
“Wait,” Toah said. “Did you just call him ‘Master Skywalker?’”
The white-armored man inclined his head towards the Jedi. “Toah Jarsan. It has been a long time.”
Toah’s eyebrow knitted in confusion. “How do you know who I am? Who even are you?”
“These days, I go by the name Kane Skywalker. I would like to think that you have not forgotten me.”
Toah’s eyes went wide and he shut his lightsaber off. “Kane? By the stars… I thought you had died.”
“We all did,” said Nira Maren, switching off her own saber. “A few years after the Glorian War, he and Wallen Nix, the detective, headed off in search of lost Jedi outposts. Only a few weeks later, Wallen returned alone and informed us that Skywalker had gone off on his own to answer something… ‘calling’ to him. We were able to verify that Wallen was telling us the truth but unable to reach out to Skywalker himself. Years went by and, by the time the Sith returned, we all thought the worst had befallen him.”
Poe lowered his blaster, still eying the white replica of Vader warily. “So you’ve been here this whole time?”
“More or less,” replied Kane Skywalker. “I sensed a vergence in the Force and I began following it. During my journey, I crossed paths with Lor San Tekka and his followers and with their help I was able to find Lothal. It wasn’t long after that Father Chek here entrusted me with his map. I have been guarding both it and this site ever since.”
“Well, that answers that,” said Snap Wexley. “But it doesn’t answer why you call yourself ‘Skywalker.’ Or why you’re dressed the way you are.”
“He calls himself ‘Skywalker’ because he is one,” Toah said. “He’s a clone of Anakin Skywalker, created by Darth Vorath and served as his Shadow Hand under the name Darth Nemesis.”
“So he’s a Sith then,” Poe said.
“Former Sith,” Toah corrected him. “He turned to the light a long time ago.”
“Yet he dresses like… this.”
Toah opened his mouth only to stop and look at Kane, an eyebrow raised. “That is a good point. Why are you in that suit?”
Before Kane had a chance to answer him, if he was even going to, Jessika Pava suddenly spoke up. “Hey. Where’s that other guy?”
She was answered by the sound of an engine humming to life. Everyone turned to see one of the two landspeeders they had brought peeling away, Ochi sitting in the driver’s seat. As Poe and Snap cried in alarm, Kane Skywalker raised an arm and the speeder froze in place. Ochi released a series of curses as he desperately tried to regain control of the vehicle as Kane slowly dragged it back towards him. Realizing his efforts would be futile, Ochi jumped out of the speeder and broke into a brisk run, running faster than Rey had ever seen from a sentient being with only two legs.
Poe and Snap started firing their blasters only for Kane to stop them.
“There is no need,” the white-armored Jedi said coolly. “He will be dealt with shortly.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Poe asked.
But Kane did not answer him. Instead, he finally shut off his lightsaber as he turned to face Rey, Toah, and the others.
“Now then… I believe I have a map to give you.”
* * *
Ochi of Bestoon had only made it halfway to the city when his legs finally gave out and he collapsed onto his knees. Panting heavily, he raised a hand to the side of his helmet to switch on his comlink.
“Finalizer, come in. This is Ochi. I’m on Lothal. I’ve found the map and then some. Sending you coordinates now so you can—”
“No need, Ochi,” came the cool voice of General Hux. “We have already arrived.”
Ochi blinked behind his mask. “Arrived? What are you….”
He trailed off as his eyes drifted up towards the sky and saw the triangular-shaped vessel emerging from the clouds. A black shuttle with large wings, flanked by a flock of TIE fighters, flew out from the Star Destroyer’s hangar bay and down towards the city.
“No,” Ochi murmured. “You can’t be serious. What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Abiding the will of the Supreme Leader, Ochi of Bestoon. Whatever else?”
Ochi could only gape in awe as the forces of the First Order descended upon the capital city of Lothal. Had he not been distracted, he would have perhaps seen whatever it was that chose at that moment to begin firing its laser cannons at him.
By that point, he was already back on his feet and running like hell towards the city.
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