Chapter Thirty-Nine

Jedi Master Saesee Tiin felt the ship touching down, and as it did, he opened his eyes and unfolded himself from his seated position.

It was time.

He adjusted his robes, then checked to see that his sabre was hooked in the right place. Not an action he’d done often, but one he felt was necessary now. Master Trebor was waiting for him in the corridor, green-skinned face set in a firm scowl. “So, you felt it too,” he said.

“Yes,” Saesee Tiin said.

“What do we do?” Trebor asked.

“As the force wills us,” Tiin said easily. It was the answer to many of his questions. He felt the darkness. He felt something waiting for him. But he also felt the force stirring around them, a strong wind that nonetheless wasn’t a storm. There was curiosity there, and wondering, and caution, but not that electrical tingle that would announce impending violence.

“May it be with us,” Trebor murmured. The vurk Jedi Master walked next to Master Tiin and they walked through the ship at an unhurried pace that likely belied some of their own nervousness. But as more Jedi knights appeared, ready to accompany them, Tiin was reassured by the pace Trebor set. It was a calming one, reassuring their subordinates that all was well in hand.

“Master Tiin,” one of the knights said with a differential nod. “We are all ready.” The Jedi had her sabre in hand already, and Tinn gestured for her to be calm.

“We will be leaving first,” he said. “Knights, come behind us, padawans behind you.”

“What’s out there?” a young voice asked, and several eyes turned to a small human padawan who shrunk back at being the centre of so much sudden attention.

“I don’t know,” Tiin admitted. “But I don’t sense animosity. We will do as Jedi ought, and investigate.”

“Peacefully,” Master Trebor added. “Let us not be too hasty and spark violence where none need be sparked.”

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“No HK-47, you can’t just open up on the Jedi the moment the ramp is down,” Taylor said.

She stepped out from the spaceport’s terminal and onto the... she supposed it was a tarmac? Yes, that seemed like the appropriate term for the large space in the spaceport where ships actually came for a landing.

There were three of them here. Taylor knew very little about spacecraft, and yet she did recognize these three ships. They were much nicer, better-maintained versions of one of the craft some pirates had attacked her with once.

They were long, with a flattish body and a large cylinder at the front, as well as a rather exposed engine at the rear. These were painted a stark red, with a few white highlights, and the symbol of the Galactic Republic was proudly emblazoned on their flanks.

Taylor adjusted her mask as she walked to the centre-most of the three, then she stopped.

There was still a good fifty yards between her and the ship. There was less than that between her and the exit. “Lay out the droids in a line. If we need to run, we’ll use them as cover,” she said in rough basic. It would have been easier in English, but she needed every bit of practice she could get.

Fortunately, Basic was... basic. It was a mess, with a strange grammar, but it felt a lot like English in that it basically had a lot of rules and none of them mattered as long as you had more or less the right words in more or less the right order.

She supposed that it made sense as a lingua-franca for the galactic community. Something easy to learn and master so that trade could happen.

“You’re going to run?” Asajj asked.

Taylor glanced her way. “You said that Sith like you and Jedi have fought before,” Taylor said.

Asajj nodded.

The young woman looked rather silly. She wore her usual outfit, but has a poncho not too dissimilar to Taylor’s on. The difference was she was wearing it inside-out, yellow on the interior and black on the outside. That, and her HK-47-made mask, not too dissimilar to Taylor’s, but only covering half her face.

It made her look fearsome, and yet... misplaced.

Taylor was no Glenn, she couldn’t just whip up a cool costume on a whim. This would do for now.

“Yeah, a Sith could chew through the average Jedi with ease. I heard that a Sith recently fought one. Killed a master. It was big news in the right circles.”

That... was concerning, and definitely something Taylor would have liked to know before. “Well, there’s probably more than one Jedi here. And they probably have soldiers. Three ships is a lot. How many Jedi can you take all at once. And if you can take that many... can you handle those?” She pointed to the ship’s turbolasers.

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“Tch,” Asajj spat off to the side. She didn’t argue any more though, not even when the droids placed themselves in a line, maybe a yard between them, guns lowered to look non-threatening, but still in hand.

“Suggestion: Master, it is not too late to give up on this farcical idea of negotiating with the Jedi from a position of weakness.”

“That wasn’t actually a suggestion,” Taylor pointed out.

“Suggestion: Negotiate instead from a position of power. Perhaps after razing the Jedi temple?”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Really?” She asked.

“Contrite Statement: I knew you would disagree.”

“Do not open fire unless the Jedi start to fight. And I mean actually attacking with blasters or lightsabers, not just arguing that could be vaguely translated as a ‘fight.’” Taylor said. She waggled a finger at her assassin droid, and it stared back with the expressionless face that countless people and droids had seen last.

Taylor turned back to the ship.

“They’re coming out,” she said.

The bugs she’d placed on Asajj shifted as the young Sith woman changed her stance to something even more cocksure. Taylor decided to simply stand tall and still. There were ways to intimidate with one’s stance alone, but those required things that were outside of her control. So perfect stillness would have to do.

The ramp on the side of the ship lowered, hitting the ground with a dull thump. Her insects, a few of them, at least, moved in, tagging the Jedi as she prepared herself for anything.

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Jedi Master Tiin felt his eyes snapping to the figure in the near-distance. They were on a whole new world. There was much to see, even in this simple spaceport. But his attention was all on the figure.

They were of a moderate height. Feminine, perhaps, though only if it was the right sort of humanoid. One arm was artificial, he deduced, and a lightsaber hung by its hip.

“Thoughts, Master Trebor,” he said.

“Force sensitive,” he replied. “The one next to her is strong as well. Steeped in the dark side of the force, but... not a master.”

“A master and an apprentice,” one of the knights said. There was venom in those words.

“Well then, let’s go meet,” Master Tiin said. “They came all this way for us.” He started down the ramp. He felt something moving to his side, but a quick, distracted glance revealed it to be a simple buzzing insect. A harmless fly of some sort.

Master Tiin stared at it for a moment, then watched it casually dodge an absent swipe from a padawan.

“I’ve noticed as well,” Master Trebor murmured. “The woman with the full-mask’s presence in the force is weak. Weaker than a padawan, even. But it’s dispersed. All around us.”

“Is that how they’ve hidden so long?” Tiin asked.

“We don’t know that they are Sith yet,” Trebor said. “Let’s not assume malevolence where there may be none.”

Master Tiin nodded along. “Knights, stay back a little,” he instructed.

The knights paused at the base of the ramp, and Master Tiin noticed other Jedi disembarking from the other ships and making their way over cautiously. He and Master Trebor stepped forwards, both of their hands slipping into the sleeves of their robes.

They stopped some ten paces from the woman. There was no question of who was in charge among their group. The droids were mass-manufactured models (though, painted in black and yellow. A theme?) The nearest seemed like a protocol droid, though he noted it was armed, and at the far back was an astromech. He wasn’t even sure if the latter was the character’s or if it belonged to the port authority.

“Greetings,” he said. “I am Jedi Master Saesee Tiin. This is my companion, Jedi Master Coleman Trebor.”

The woman nodded. “Hello,” she said in slightly stilted Basic. An accent? He made note of that. “I know that you do not know me. But we are here to help.”

“Help?” Master Trebor asked.

The mask turned his way. “Yes,” she said. “Help. You are here to remove the Rhusu Sune meatbags. I am here for the same. I would like to work together.”

“Who do you represent?” Master Tiin asked. “Taking care of these terrorists is a task best handled by the Republic.”

“I represent the Separatists,” the woman said. “We want... different things than the Republic. But we don’t want them violently.”

Master Tiin glanced at his companion, then back. Politics. Fantastic. “And if it’s not so impertinent to ask, who are you?”

The woman bowed her head faintly, and he sensed that she was pleased with how all of this was going. “I am Darth Khepri,” she said.

Which was about when the first lightsaber ignited.

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