The Children of the Stars

The Tragedy of Darth Revan

"You broke a tomb?"

Nellith looked from ashen-faced Tash, with half of her braid falling out and standing with her arms crossed over her chest, to surly Jacen and then to Allana, who was as poised as she could be with dirt and ash in her hair and a scorch mark on her cheek.

"We didn't know that our mother put that failsafe into the holocron," Allana reminded Dr. Tharen. "And we do apologize. If we had known, we would have waited to activate the holocron."

Nellith frowned. For a failsafe to prevent the wrong people from finding it, the explosion had gotten awfully close to killing the right people.

She supposed even a mechanical genius like their mother was bound to get some Force-activated pyrotechnics wrong every now and then.

But that didn't stop Nellith from feeling unsettled. She supposed that it was the entire atmosphere of Korriban.

"We have Plagueis's pike, I managed to grab it for you." Nellith offered the pike to Dr. Tharen, who sighed as she practically ripped it out of the seventeen-year-old's hands.

"At least some Sith history was preserved." Dr. Tharen turned and passed it off to another aide. "I think you'll understand when we say that we hope your visit with us ends soon."

"It will," Allana said, before Nellith could speak up. "Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for Endor. We won't trouble you any further."

Well now she was in trouble.

Especially given the semi-satisfied look on Dr. Tharen's face. Like she didn't like how long they were staying, but she was willing to accept it because it was better than expected.

There was no room for what Nellith wanted to do.

"I'll take my crew back to Serenity," Nellith said. "Prep for the launch tomorrow."

Allana nodded, and Nellith gestured for her people to follow.

It was only once they were in the lounge of Serenity that Nellith spoke the truth.

"We've got one more job before we can leave Korriban," Nellith explained. "I had a dream— a vision— last night. It's this place— I've been here before, you see."

"It's one of the Star Maps, isn't it?" Jacen asked. "One of them was on Korriban."

"Yes." Nellith nodded. "And we walked by one of the locations today— Ajunta Pall's tomb."

In the Korriban heat, there was a sudden and swift cold wind that made its way through the closed bay doors to Serenity. A warning from the shadows themselves.

Kyp let out a low whistle. "Pall? You sure know how to pick 'em, Skywalker."

"Ragnos was old, but Pall. . . " Tash looked to Nellith with awe. "He was the first Dark Lord of the Sith."

"I know." Nellith crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm gonna need your help— I don't think Dr. Tharen will let me in the tomb given that we blew up the last one we entered, and got Aya possessed in the first one."

"You'd think they'd figure out it's the occupational hazard of working with so many Sith Lords," Tahiri muttered.

"Yeah, well that would require a Corellian to think about anything other than the glory of our people and—" Jysella stopped when Jacen lightly elbowed her. "Fine. Hey, I can say it— I'm Corellian, after all."

"You were born on Takodana," Kyp reminded her.

"You're an idiot." There was a light teasing, but Nellith still didn't like where this conversation was going.