2.27.4787 Republic Reckoning

Quindo quietly walked up behind Igashu, who was working on creating some sort of culinary disaster in the galley of To'iir's new ship, Misplaced Hope. "I need you to get Elbram, Bro'jen, and Dabai to the airlock in five minutes."

"Why? I was just making lunch for the crew and I don't want to burn anything..."

"I need to use the airlock to properly place a few things." Quindo said evenly, but pointedly.

"Oh. Yeah. Let me just turn off the heating element here. I'll meet you there. Five minutes." Igashu walked off, past Nakael who calmly walked into the galley.

"Quindo," Nakael said with a slight bow as he moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a container of milk. Opening it, he gave it a careful sniff before replacing it in the refrigerator and moving to get a glass of water instead.

Quindo looked at Nakael, trying desperately to keep an even face. "I think Igashu was about to make lunch for everyone. If you wait around here, then I'm sure you'll be welcome to join in." He was sure that Nakael could see right through him, though it wasn't really lying. Just... changing the subject. But there hadn't been a subject to change. Well, sort of...

"Oh, thank you for telling me. I guess I will wait around. He forget a cookbook or something?"

"Or...something. Yes. Told me to make sure things didn't burn. But now that you're here, I can go off. Back in a moment." Quindo quickly left.

Nakael calmly drank his water, refilled his glass, turned the heater on, then off, and sat down at the small table. He pulled out a book and began to read about "How to make interspecies relationships work: A practical guide."

• * *

Quindo sensed everyone at the airlock before he rounded the final corner. Everyone was armed and had layered their mental shields to resist any attempt to sabotage the operation by Nakael. Quindo hadn't dropped his own shields since coming aboard yesterday. Tired from lack of sleep, he pulled the Sith Swords, talisman, and book from the large security briefcase that To'iir had supplied the night before. He examined them carefully with his hands and eyes and with a feather light probe of Force to verify that they were, in fact, the same objects he had locked away and carried with him since then.

Every moment, Quindo had been expecting the hammerblow of Nakael's psyche to try to break his shields as he and Tvlashka had done a few days before when they had taken control of his body. He was almost certain that he could resist such an attempt if he were prepared and shield. Almost certain that, even if he failed, he would be able to free himself quickly. Almost certain. Almost, but a nagging dread twisted his stomach into a tight knot.

He shuddered to remember the feeling of his consciousness being brushed aside and the horror of watching helplessly as his lightsaber cut down Hutt soldiers as they ran toward him, screaming. It was like watching wheat fed into a threshing machine, bleeding, screaming wheat, and his arms wielding the deadly blade.

Quindo had already spoken briefly to Elbram knew that he was not directly responsible for the death of those men, but he still bore some burden of guilt for not being able to protect them. He had not yet started the process of atoning and coming to terms with that, but he knew that he would. Eventually. Especially with others to help him.

What he had not told Elbram was that after he had struggled free of Nakael's control, after he had cut himself free of the tent he had been tossed through and bundled in by the Sith's TK, after he had run back and found Nakael standing over the butchered remains of Tvlashka after that, he had not felt the same guilt. The Sith had been killed by Nakael as surely as the soldiers had been. Quindo had been as powerless to stop it, but he did not feel the same grief that had accompanied the death of every other being that had fallen in his presence. He knew from his teachings that every death diminished the Light side, even the death of his enemies, but he could not grieve for one who had slain so many and reveled so joyously in it. He would not grieve for one who had tried time and again to kill or turn he and his friends and he felt shamed for it.

Taking a deep breath to clear his head, Quindo realized that he had been staring at the Sith artifacts on the floor in front of the airlock. He quickly stood, scooping them together and moving toward the airlock.

He was surprised that he didn't even feel a mental touch as he approached the airlock with what should be Nakael's most prized possessions. Dabai was out front, with a submachine gun acquired from the Hutt soldiers. Behind him were three Jedi with lightsabers ready. Quindo passed through them all into the airlock. Then he opened it.

In hyperspace, the hyper field prevents loss of atmosphere from the vessel just as it prevents the vessel from actually directly interacting with the swirling energies in the dimension. But if anything moves through the field, it is instantly destroyed, turned into random energy.

Quindo held all the objects at once, and with a gentle shove, sent them tumbling out. They drifted slightly aft, moving out of view, but Quindo saw the swords hit the edge of the hyper field and vanish in coruscating light. And it was over. A pair of Sith Swords, destroyed. A Sith tome, gone. A Sith amulet, vaporized. All without raising the attention of their owner.

He walked out of the airlock, and the others looked at him.

"That's it?" asked Elbram.

"Yup. They're gone."

"You're sure?" said Dabai.

"I saw them hit the barrier, and they vaporized."

Igashu looked over Quindo suspiciously, then moved into the airlock and searched it. Eventually, he shrugged and emerged again. "They're gone. I can't find 'em and Quindo couldn't hide a needle in a haystack."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Igashu." mused Quindo with unexpected levity. "You're learning bad habits from me. I'm the one who's not supposed to trust anyone, remember?"

Igashu checked his scowl and grinned suddenly, his face brightening with characteristic warmth, "You've got me there Q, but give me a break, we've all been through a lot."

"Well, that was a waste," Bro'jen grumbled. "I'm going back to check on Master T'nol."

"I'll have lunch ready in a few. Want me to bring you a plate?"

"Yeah."

Bro'jen went across the ship to the medical berth. Everyone else went aft to the galley. Nakael sat there, reading. He looked up as everyone came in.

"Find what you were looking for, Igashu?"

"Uh...yeah. Well, not really. Looks like I left it behind. But no big deal. Anyone else hungry?"

"Quite," said Nakael as everyone filed in. "Oh, by the way," he said offhandedly, "When are we going back?"

"Going...back?" asked Elbram.

"Yes. My Master will be there in three weeks and I want to be there when he arrives."

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