CHAPTER ONE 

 

The saber sliced through the ozone filled air as Mathis trained his way through the night.  Three hours, he had been practicing with the droid, deflecting its small pinpricks of light, with the green glowing blade of his light saber.  His father, loving, yet strict, insisted upon this lengthy training.  Ever since he picked up a light saber, or as long as he could remember, for that fact, it was like this. 

    The force was strong in his bloodline.  Mathis’s father, Bane Nobez, was a powerful Jedi master, but he had lost his eyesight from a close encounter with an enemy light saber.  He was unable to join the council, due to his past history of personal conflict with its staff.  He often got into lengthy arguments with Melian Yimari, the councils headmaster.  Bane was looked at as an outcast, a black sheep, for doing things his own way and not following the code.

Mathis was used to these long sessions, but tonight was different.  Though Mathis had just talked to her a few hours ago, he felt, worried.  His thoughts dwelled around her, especially because he had never spent more than a day away from her.  Elizabeth was his love.  In secret, they were engaged.  No one would accept them as a union.  Two Jedi, dating, or worse: wedlock?  It was frowned upon, even banned in some areas.  Nevertheless, they were inseparable.

Finally, the frustration got to him.  As he spun around, his saber split the little droid in two.  ‘Clank, clank!’  The pieces landed on the hard concrete, spewing a shower of sparks.  Mathis closed his eyes, turning his saber off.  He knew his father was observing.  He could feel it, his father’s disapproval.  Bane might have been blind, but he could feel his son’s frustration.  Mathis clipped the saber to his belt, and walked out of the courtyard.  The fresh night’s air blew his hair back.  "Where is she?" he wondered.  Elizabeth’s ship had to be somewhere near Corrusant.  Why had she not contacted him?  The worry plagued his mind.  Mathis headed to the kitchen for a bowl of soup.

He set his light saber down, on the kitchen counter.  Letting out a deep breath, he turned to open the fridge.  Nothing.  Not a damn thing to eat in this place.  His father wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and his mother had passed away a few years back, so Mathis had to fend for himself.  He and Liz were pretty well off, but not rich. 

“Why did you stop your studies?”  The nagging tone of his father broke the silence.  “You know you should practice at least another hour.” 

“Dad, it’s just not the night.”  Mathis looked away.  He knew his father wanted to lecture him, but he also knew he wouldn’t.  Not tonight, not under these circumstances.  He shut the refrigerator and grabbed his light saber. 

His father stopped him.  “Mathis, I know you love her.  But you can’t let that cloud your mind.  That is why your relationship is rejected by society.  Being a Jedi is a great responsibility.  We have to be sound of mind at all times, or we become dangerous to those we fight for.”  Mathis nodded, heading out into the courtyard.

 

 

Alarms blared from all around.  “We’ve lost the main deflector shield!”  The captain ran for the lower deck to begin the repairs.  Elizabeth struggled with the damaged communications devices, but could not send any distress signal.  They had become sitting ducks.  They had been attacked by one of Daeken’s Fleets.  Liz was the daughter of Jeric Dantar, one of the New Republic’s Ambassadors. 

“Dad! You must abandon ship!”  Liz tried to drag her father to the pod, but he would not have it. 

“Leave me!  I cannot let this ship fall victim to Daeken!”

Liz stepped back as an R2 unit headed for the bridge.  Sparks flew from the control panel as another disruptor blast came from the ship.  “Lock down engine two! Get that damned fire out so we can go!”  Jeric shouted commands to the crew.  The ship jolted as the enemy vessel attached a holding device to it.

Jeric slipped a data disk into her pocket, and as quickly as she knew what he was doing, he pushed Elizabeth into the escape pod.  Before she could regain her balance, she was breached from the ship.  She looked out the window on the hatch, just in time to see her father’s ship being boarded by the Troopers.  “Nooooo!!!!”  She screamed in horror.  Liz beat her fists against the hatch, tears streaming down her cheeks.  

 

 

Mathis dropped his light saber, as he felt a great pain in his heart.  He knew then, that Elizabeth was in trouble.  “I must go to her” Mathis looked over to his father.  Bane nodded, knowing he could not stop his headstrong son.  Unfortunately, being stubborn also ran in the bloodline. 

“You will be careful, right?”  Bane reasoned with his son.  “And remember, my son, frustration will be your undoing.”  Mathis reached down, retrieving his light saber. 

He opened the door to his room.  The smell of burnt incense rushed into the hallway.  His room was a mess, robot parts everywhere, and outfits on the floor.  He grabbed his cloak from a hook on the wall, and put it on.  The picture on the wall caught his eye: Elizabeth sitting on a rock, smiling at the camera.  Mathis closed the door to his room, and, with a sigh, headed out into the night. 

 

Mathis stepped into the hanger, taking in the layout.  Two pilots stood by their fighter ship, discussing the recent modifications they had made.  Mathis walked up to them, pulling his hood down.  “Good evening, gentlemen.  I’m looking for information on an ambassador’s ship.”  He looked from one to the other, smiling. 

“Sure.  Over there.”  The taller of the two pointed to the travel log console on the wall.  Mathis headed over to it and began typing away. 

‘Access denied’ was all he could get.  He had no password and no administrator disk.  This was going to be a tough one.  Mathis looked around, making sure all eyes were off him.  He leaped up, grabbing the air duct.  His foot smashed the mesh in as he swung into the metal tubing.  A tight fit, but he would be able to wiggle his way into the main offices.

Voices came from beneath, and Mathis peeked through a grate.  “I don’t care how many there are; we need them all serviced!”  The angry mechanic yelled into the communicator on his wristband.  He slammed the door closed and stormed down the hallway.  Mathis continued down the shaft.  He removed the panel that led down into the control center.  He dropped down silently behind the two men at the computer and hid behind a filing cabinet. 

Mathis grinned as the gears in his head continued to turn.  He waved his hand and slowly opened up the broom closet on the far end of the room.  Mathis held his hand out toward one of the men, concentrating. “Did you hear that?” one asked.  Mathis used the force to pull the key card from the officer’s belt.  The officer turned to see Mathis and reached for his weapon.  Mathis thrust his hand forward, pushing them into the broom closet.  He quickly hit the button on the control panel, jamming the door, holding them prisoner in the cleaning room.

With a swipe of the card, Mathis was into the registry and database for the entire spaceport.  Mathis told the computer to locate the ship of the ambassador.  “Lost contact,” he read from the screen.  The ship was reported last traced entering Corinthian regulated space.  “Good place to start,” Mathis said aloud.  “Stop where you are!”  A guard had snuck up on Mathis.  ‘Damn, caught with my guard down and I haven’t even hit the hard stuff yet,’ Mathis thought to himself.

Mathis ran for the balcony, and a laser blast caught his shoulder.  He leaped shoulder first through the glass, catching the edge of the floor.  Mathis swung onto the level below and headed out into the hallway.  “Where is he?”  Mathis could hear the guard drawing near.  Back into the air ducts he went.  After a few minutes of crawling, Mathis found his way back to the hangar.

He headed back to the two pilots standing in front of their ship.  He waved his hand, with a little influence of the force, and said, “You should let me test drive your ship.” 

“Yeah you should test drive the ship,” said the one. 

“Yeah, take it out for a spin,” said the other. 

Mathis hopped into the ship, sliding the hatch closed.  He slammed the controls forward as soon as the engine started, and he flew out of that spaceport like a bat out of hell.  Mathis switched on the COM link: “This is Nobez to Ambassador Dantar.  Do you read?”  No reply.  Mathis switched off the COM link and set the hyper drive controls.  ‘Soon I will find you,’ Mathis thought to himself.

 

 

The tiny pod shook violently as it entered the Corinthian atmosphere.  Elizabeth got control over her emotions, strapping herself into the chair.  Out the window she could see the temple of Targon, an abandoned Sith temple.  “Great,” she thought.  The last thing she needed was to deal with the Sith.  The ship was nearing the ground now, and the parachute opened from the top.  The ship spun around, almost giving her whiplash. Then the impact came; the door jolted, giving off sparks.  Liz unbuckled herself and grabbed the handle on the hatch.  She turned it, only to find the damn thing was jammed.  “Perfect!” Elizabeth yelled aloud.

She thrust her arm forward; a powerful force push, and the door flew about 30 yards away from the landing site.  “Can this day get any worse?” Liz wondered.  She tightened her cloak, putting her hood on as she stepped onto the grass.  It was early morning, just before sunrise, on this planet.  She headed for the temple, the only sign of shelter for many miles.  Liz shook off her unsettling feeling as she started scaling the steps to the temple.  It was going to be a long day.

 

 

        “What in the hell!”  Mathis yelled.  FA riders, small battle ships from Daeken’s fleet, appeared as he exited hyperspace.  Mathis knew this meant trouble.  Just as soon as he saw them, they saw him.  Their cannons let loose a shower of laser blasts, hitting Mathis’s ship.  He rolled right, avoiding a second barrage.  Mathis flew under one of them, tricking the others to attack it. 

The FA rider exploded, nearly taking Mathis with it.  He knew he could not fight them, nor could he out run them.  So he would outsmart them.  Mathis headed for a nearby asteroid field.  His ship glided through the asteroids perfectly, like he had been flying this course from birth.  Mathis powered down and shut all of his lights off.

He sat there, hoping they would think him dead.  Nope.  They continued to circle the field, knowing he would exit sooner or later.  The huge rocks collided with each other, and one crossed him in a near miss.  He could see the beautiful Corinthian planet from here.  One big continent, and a whole bunch of water, that’s all it was.  Mathis could feel her, knowing she was near: On Corinth.

Mathis knew what he had to do.  He exited the field, blasting one of the remaining two with his photon cannon.  The other one turned around firing his cannon at Mathis.  Mathis flipped his deflector shields off, letting the cannon strike his engine.  He knew that if he fought anymore, they would just destroy him.  His ship powered down, and the control panel sparked.  The FA rider attached itself to Mathis’s ship and disabled it.

Mathis pulled his light saber, readying himself.  As the hatch opened, he leaped out, extending the blade of his saber.  Mathis caught one of the troopers with a kick to the head, and, as he spun around, his saber sliced through the torsos of both men.  Mathis thrust his saber into the body of the recovering Trooper.  As the last body fell, he put away his saber, heading for the bridge of the ship.

 

 

“Where is she?”  Daeken lifted up Ambassador Dantar by his neck, choking him.  “There is an unaccounted padawan running loose and I want to know where she has gone!”  Daeken’s bloodshot eyes stared deep into the Ambassador.  He stood about 7 feet tall and his face was covered with scars.  

Jeric spit in Daeken’s face.  “I would not tell you if I knew!” Daeken shoved Jeric back into the chair.

 “Brianna, locate the padawan, and eliminate her.”  Brianna nodded to Daeken as she headed out.  Daeken flipped the COM switch on.  Admiral Haigon, I need you to locate any ships within 20 parsecs of the interception point.”  The COM was silent.  “Admiral?  Admiral, report!”  Daeken looked over at the board, and saw that the ship was out of contact.  Daeken punched the board, and sparks flew from its shattered faceplate.

        Daeken stormed down the hallway, headed for his main chamber.  As the doors parted, he walked down the bridge.  There was a seemingly endless drop on both sides.  Two pillars rose from the great depths to the ceiling, with a strange red glow around them.  The room was a gigantic dome at the top, and a perfect circle around, measured to the centimeter.  The room spanned exactly 600 feet in diameter.  At the very top and center of the dome, was a door, leading to a room of unknown contents to all but Daeken himself.  In the center of the room, to which the bridge led, was a 50-foot wide platform.  Daeken used this for duels and training.

As he scaled the steps to his throne, he waved one of his Sith guards over.  “Contact Darth Targon.”  Daeken looked to the floor.  “We will need further assistance.”

“Yes, my lord,”  The apprentice hissed. 

She scurried away, and Daeken inserted his light saber to a holding cell on his throne.  The floor panel opened up and a mini computer rose from the floor.  Daeken activated the computer and filled in his personal log for the day.  The bridge retracted as the apprenticed walked down it.  Daeken was now alone in his chamber.

        He called in a robot.  The droid extended a light saber.  This was one of Daeken’s training druids, programmed with the most advanced fighting styles.  But the droid was still no challenge.  Daeken drew his light saber from the throne; and, with a few quick swings, the droid was in pieces.  “This isn’t even fun anymore.”

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