CHAPTER SEVEN
Cato Neimoidia
“Will you be attending the Chief of State’s banquet this weekend, Mistress Koda?”
Su Koda watched as her glass was filled with a violet liquid. “I haven’t really given it much consideration,” she admitted. “I doubt I will, to be honest. The Coruscant crowd has never been my type.”
“Still, it was generous of him to send you an invitation.” After she was finished pouring her mistress’ drink, the young Neimoidian maid drew the bottle of Tarul wine away from the glass. “Is there anything else you will be needing, Mistress Koda?”
“No, that will be all. Thank you, Villia.”
With a graceful bow, the maid departed from the room, leaving Su Koda to herself. The Neimoidian woman raised the glass to her thin lips and sipped from it, savoring the bitter taste of the wine. She allowed her eyes to drift across the room, which she had decorated with all sorts of memorabilia that held sentimental value to her. The golden painting hanging over her fireplace, which had once been in the possession of Senator Lott Dod during the Clone Wars, depicted a beautiful and elaborately dressed Neimoidian whom Su Koda believed to be her ancestor. In any case, she had styled much of her own way of dressing after the woman depicted in the painting. Situated on top of her bookcase was a marble bust carved in the likeness of General Lok Durd, gifted to her by a suitor whom she had come close to marrying before his sudden death. Prominently displayed below it was a rare first edition copy of The Artistry of Trade by Nute Gunray, just before it had been pulled off shelves in the wake of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo. Her father had passed it down to her shortly before his own passing. The memories these things brought were more bittersweet than she would have liked, but she cherished them all the same.
Taking another sip, she cast her gaze to the window, which provided her with a view of the clouds that hung below the bridge city of Koda-se. Suspended between two massive rock arches, the bridge city was considered to be one of the largest on all of Cato Neimoidia, rivaling that of the capital city Zarra. It had belonged to her family for generations and she had practically spent her entire life here, having scarcely returned to her birth-world of Neimoidia since her coming of age. She saw little need to, when everything she could possibly was right here. That was part of the reason why she had no desire to attend Luewet Wuul’s little gathering on Coruscant; anything the Sullustan politician could cook up in a vain attempt to appease his guests would pale in comparison to what was already at her fingers here in Koda-se. It would no doubt be an amusing if pathetic display, of course, and she was half-tempted to send Neimoidia’s senator in her place, if only so she could hear about how terrible it was.
Her continued sips of the Tarul wine were the only sounds that pervaded the room. Her evenings had become quieter than normal in the past year. Normally she would have spent this time chatting with her friend Lysira or with her protégé Draida. But she hadn’t heard from Lysira in quite sometime and Draida… well, Draida had paid the price that all delinquent students suffered, even if it had been a bit bloodier than Su Koda would have liked. In any case, the Neimoidian businesswoman had been left with no one else to talk to. Sure, there was Villia, but as sweet as the young woman was, conversations with her were nowhere near as stimulating as the ones Su Koda had had with Lysira or even Draida. She needed someone who challenged her intellect and understood her, leveling with her as an equal.
Of course, there was one person she knew of that fit that criteria, though it was someone she hadn’t spoken to in quite some time. Part of it was out of fear that Villia would overhear, and Su Koda desperately did not want to have to get rid of the girl. Still, Villia usually only disturbed her every other hour or so, spending much of her time tidying up and maintaining the palace that Su Koda considered her home. The maid had enough work to preoccupy her for at least another hour, which would be more than enough time for Su Koda to confide in her sole remaining friend.
After a couple more sips, Su Koda finally caved in and set the glass aside. Rising from her comfortable sofa, she glided across the room to the bookcase on the other side. She gave the bust of Lok Durd a series of seven taps and a small panel in the wall next to it slid open, revealing a pyramidal-shaped object. As she brought her hands to it and carefully pulled it out of its little alcove, a crimson glow began to radiate from the object. Drawing in a deep breath, she pressed a control switch and the holocron split open. From it sprung forth the ghostly image of a tall, portly man with dark hair. He appraised Su Koda with a jovial look as he spoke to her in a smooth, almost velvety voice.
“Hello, my friend,” the image of Darth Vectivus said. “How may I be of assistance to you?”
If one hadn’t known better, they would have thought they were speaking to an old kindly uncle rather than an ancient Dark Lord of the Sith. Though, in a way, Darth Vectivus might as well have been both, at least in Su Koda’s eyes.
“I know it’s been quite some time since we last spoke, Lord Vectivus,” Su Koda said quietly to the holocron. “Life has been… busy, recently.”
“Please, call me Jon. I’d say we’ve known each other long enough to be on a first name basis.”
Su Koda couldn’t help but smile wryly. Of all the Sith Lords from the lineage established by Darth Bane, Vectivus had been perhaps one of the least traditional ones. Born as Jon Exivar on Ayceezee, he had graduated from college with high marks before going on to pursue a career in business. This culminated in the founding of the JonEx Corporation, or simply Jonex for short, and the establishment of a mining facility in the MZX32905 system, which Exivar operated from an asteroid near the planet which would later be named Bimmiel. A simple man with a simple life, Jon Exivar was the last person anyone would have expected to become a Lord of the Sith.
However, as it happened, the asteroid Jonex operated on was greatly imbued with the dark side of the Force and over time Exivar’s employees began to lose their sanity. After ceasing operations in order to keep things secret, Jon Exivar began to explore this darkness he had discovered and before long he was on a search for the long-thought extinct Sith, whom he realized were still alive. His quest inevitably brought him to the attention of a Sith Master in a search of her own to pass on her knowledge to a worthy apprentice. Deeming Exivar to be that apprentice, she welcomed him into the Order of the Sith Lords and bestowed onto him the name Darth Vectivus.
While Vectivus would eventually strike down his master and claim the mantle of Dark Lord for himself, he seemingly did little else to further the Sith’s Grand Plan in taking over the galaxy. If he had, such details he not been recorded in his holocron; save for the Force phantom technique that he had developed, there was little else of note in the holocron beyond basic business advice and the Sith Lord’s own charming personality. Not that it mattered; not only were the fruits of the Banite Sith’s labors well-known by now, but Su Koda had no desire of her own to take over the galaxy some day. Right now, all she needed was a friend to talk to, and Darth Vectivus — or Jon Exivar — was that friend.
She brought the holocron back with her to the sofa and rested it in her lap as she sat down. With a sigh, she reached for her wine and resumed sipping from it.
“Things have been quiet lately,” she began. “Most of the people I would typically confide in are either gone or have moved on with their own lives. It has become difficult finding those who are on the same level as me intellectually and thus worth my time.”
Darth Vectivus nodded. “I understand the feeling. I felt the same way until I found the one who would become my Sith Master. Beyond her, I never truly got along with anybody.”
“After you killed your master, how did you fill in the gap she left?”
“By raising a family,” Vectivus said with a smile. “Instead of waiting for another person of my intellect to come along, I decided to just make one. And thus, my son was born.”
“Your son.” Su Koda raised a hairless eyebrow. This was the first time the holocron had spoken of its creator’s life beyond his life prior to becoming a Sith Lord. “And did your son meet your expectations?”
“Oh, he exceeded them. I couldn’t have been a prouder father.”
A Sith Lord who was a family man. Su Koda didn’t think such a thing was possible. “I’m happy to hear that,” she said. “However, I’m afraid a family is not within the cards. I’ve already exhausted most of my life in building up my enterprises; I have no desire in spending my remaining years in raising children.”
“Understandable. Still, there is another way to make people who understand you.”
Su Koda’s brows knitted in confusion. “And that would be?”
“The technique I taught you.”
She sighed. “I’ve tried making an attempt, but the process was too taxing for me.”
“You need to find a place that is imbued with the dark side. A reservoir, if you will. That will provide you with the strength you need.”
As tempting as the idea was, Su Koda did not have much desire to leave Cato Neimoidia to perform a task. Besides, people would start asking questions and she had already exhausted all of her sensible excuses during her time in Darth Sedriss’ Sith Order. The only other option would be to start silencing people, and she truly did not want anything bad happening to people like Villia. They didn’t deserve it.
“I’ll consider it,” she lied to the holocron. Hearing the approach of footsteps, she quickly thanked the Sith artifact for its advice before switching it off and springing across the room to return it to its alcove. Once the holocron was fully concealed, Su Koda turned around just in time to see Villia appear from around the corner.
“Is everything all right, Mistress Koda?” the young girl asked innocently.
“Everything is fine, Villia,” Su Koda replied. “I was just looking for a book to read. What brings you back here so soon?”
“I thought I heard something fly over the palace. I was going to step outside to see what it was.”
Su Koda frowned, suddenly aware of a strange tingle at the back of her mind. The Force was trying to tell her something; to warn her. But of what?
“I’ll go with you,” she said. “It might just be—”
The shrieking sound of blaster fire was the last thing she heard before everything around her fell apart. The walls of her palace collapsed and the ceiling caved in, quickly descending upon her and crushing her beneath its weight.
As the residents of Koda-se emerged from their abodes to see the destruction for themselves first-hand, the TIE Silencer that had been responsible departed as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind the chaos it had wrought.
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