Star Wars: The Soul of a Sith

Chapter 19

 The crystal deposits in the rocks glowed brilliantly around Ren as he stepped into the cave mouth. He did not rush over the stony surface beneath his feat, but walked at a slow, thoughtful pace. There was, he sensed, nothing whatsoever to be gained by hurrying. His confrontation with Sakar seemed to be burned into the Force to the point that there was nothing he could do to alter or hurry it. All that was about to come to him, it seemed, had been mapped out by a mind far more ancient and powerful mind than his own. Distantly he wondered if he had any free will at all in his present circumstances. Physically, he could frustrate all of Kalethian's plans for him with one quick movement of his lightsaber, but then he could not take his own life when there was still a chance that Neeka could be saved. All he could do was to move steadily toward his fate, whatever it was.

Satral sat not far away from the cave mouth, his hands folded in his lap, his neck craned so that his closed eyes pointed up toward the ceiling. The old Krell was utterly withdrawn from his physical surroundings and, Ren sensed, was contented to remain so. Ren could sense massive psychic currents flowing into Satral from every direction. He gazed at the gray skinned alien intently, seeing not a person, but a concentration of Force energy taken form – a concentration from a much greater being. He understood what the krell were now. The gray skins were more or less figures in Kalethian's dream that had become more and more complicated as the centuries passed.

Whatever the case, this gathering of knowledge and power would take time. There was no point in disturbing the old man. Kalethian, or whatever remained of him, could not be hurried."

He felt a little tickle suddenly of an extremely intelligent mind focused on him, and he said: "Hello, Dalvin."

"What the hell is he doing?" Dalvin's voice hissed back.

"Gathering the whole of the dessert into a single grain of sand."

"What?"

"Everything that is going to go into me must first be pulled into him. It takes time."

"Interesting."

"If you're wondering, no one has begun to torture Neeka as yet. She's not even conscious at the moment according to every sith communication I have cracked."

"I suspected as much," Dalvin said. "Sakar's light saber cut directly into her spinal column. She has to regenerate neural connections to more than half her body. In a state like that, her brain will automatically go into a coma. It's one of the few flaws in her otherwise perfect biological design."

"I'll let you know if I feel anything different from her. I promise."

"I wanted to let you know I've come up with nine-hundred-and-seven different extraction plans thus far. I managed to plant a number of viruses in the enemy's vessel, many of which they will not be able to get rid of or even detect in the next twenty-four hours. I assume that is the time-frame we are working with?"

"Your guess is probably much better than mine at this point," said Ren.

"Perhaps, but I've found that your senses have a way of seeing things that all my technology and calculating power cannot."

"You want to know if I can at all predict what's about to happen to me," said Ren.

"Can you?"

"No, not even a little." Ren took a breath. "Just have the explosives ready."

"How will I know when to use them? If Kalethian has enough power to do everything we believe he's done, would it be too much of a stretch to suppose he can pass himself off as you once he's leaped inside your body? I doubt the collective memory of your entire life would be much of a challenge for a mind as ancient and tenacious as his to assimilate."