Tzin backed out of the engineering crawlspace, frustration evident. "I don't know how much longer these scrubbers will last. They're not designed for continual use in this radiation environment."

"I thought we were out of the high radiation?" asked Evika.

"Not enough." Tzin threw down the tool belt and walked over to his suit in the corner. "If they conk out again, send up another flare. I'll be outside with Quindo and Vraile."

"Any luck with getting the hyperdrive out?"

"We haven't even cut down to it yet." Tzin climbed into his suit pants and locked them to the boots.

"It's been four days," Evika said softly.

"Well, it's frelling buried under eight meters of rock!" snapped Tzin.

"I thought you said it would only take a day or two," said Aenea from the corner, her nest of emergency blankets hidden behind the starbord emergency locker.

"It's slower than I thought. The ground is treacherous. Now, to make sure it doesn't take another four days." Tzin snapped his helmet shut, quickly checked the seals, and stepped into the airlock.

Igashu appeared at the doorway to the cockpit. "Guys, he's doing as much as he can. Don't blame him."

"We're not," said Evika. "I'm just tired of sitting around here waiting to see if the radiation or the air will get us first." She looked up at Igashu. "Is it our turn yet?"

"No, but we should probably go out and spell them. I've managed to get some sleep." Evika raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on. Your rule. One pilot in the seat at all times. The copilot's seat is the only place

comfy enough to get some sleep."

"Then we better get out there." She looked at Aenea. "No more Bellisarius?"

Aenea rolled her eyes. "No, not that I know of, for the millionth time. Why do you ask me this every time you go outside?"

"Because I don't want to add embodiments of the Force to my list of problems, girl."

"She's already answered everything as best she can, Evika," said Igashu. "She doesn't know anything more."

"You keep saying..." Evika trailed off.

"She keeps saying. I trust her. We trust her."

A long silence passed as they suited up. Evika only broke the silence again once they were depressurizing the airlock. "But you said you beat that thing months ago."

"We did. And we will. It's under the control of the good guys now. Aenea said Bellisarius is just a tool, created by some future Sith, but controllable by either side. It is a manifestation of what the Force can be, but it also shows that evil can turn against itself."

"I can't see why any light side Force users would turn that on anyone. It's the same claim as the Order is making now to justify these parasites."

Igashu shrugged inside his suit, then realized that wasn't very helpful. "Maybe it has something to do with the Resurrection Parasites. He that giveth can also taketh away and all that. We don't know. She doesn't know. She's just a scared kid."

"And I'm a scared Jedi. I still don't buy that it's only because we don't have RP's that he didn't go after us. I mean, what if he really did

appear back on Corellia? Myrin is dead then. The Council is dead. The Sith have won."

"You almost say that like it's a bad thing." Igashu noticed his faux pas after only a moment. "The Council having these thigns removed forcefully, that is." The indicator went to red and he went to open the external door. "Myrin is fine. We'll get it out of her."

"I'd like to believe that."

"Anyway, you ready for some tasty rads?"

Evika sighed. "As always."

They crossed the 400 meters of mostly stable rock towards the excavation tunnel. The gas giant Aenea referred to as Haldora hung above them, its red-orange swirls a majestic sight. Two sulfurous volcano plumes rose on the horizon. The majestic scenery disguized a more sinister truth: without constant and fatiguing Force use, any surface excursion in these suits would be deadly. As it was, it was merely dangerous as their electrical systems failed with alarming regularity. So far Tzin and the others had mostly managed to keep them working, but they were down to five suits, of which they needed every last one to keep working.

Loose rubble filled the crevasse and the last fifty meters were dangerous, broken terrain. They picked their way slowly over and mostly down until they were well into the shadow. When the Rhelta had impacted with the moon, it set off a cascading series of explosions from the onboard and cache weapons stores that collapsed the chasm before the Fool's Errand could make open space. The thirteen of them had been living on a combat dropship that was not meant for long-duration flight without maintenance. Six security personnel from the Rhelta survived, along with Vraile and Aenea. Everyone else had either died in the crash, or more likely was killed by Bellisarius as he rampaged through the ship.

Aenea claimed that Bellisarius had appeared from wherever the hell he came from to ensure her safety, but the destruction seemed to extend beyond what was needed for that. She suggested that Bellisarius was taking back the Parasites he hadn't given out, using them as an identifier of who to kill. When asked by Christina why she "would resort to bringing that monster back," Aenea snapped that she didn't control, communicate with, or otherwise influence Bellisarius. She thought that he wouldn't be appearing until some other event in the future, whether or not it actually happened. If she had known, she would have warned Niniane (pronounced like Vivian), but whether or not she would listen was something else. She wanted Exordium to work, and thought Aenea was crucial to it. Aenea did not dissuade her of the idea.

Exordium was Niniane's project. It was listening to the future to see if there was anything to be learned. She was hoping it would give her a tool to bring about the end of the Sith, or so she claimed. But the chairs and the room were specially designed for that purpose. But Aenea really didn't help the experiment any. She said that if it was going to work, it would work on its own.

But for now, the problem was that the only ship with a hyperdrive was still under a meter of loose rock. Igashu and Evika went on shift, directed by Tzin, to move the boulders, cut them into properly sized pieces, and hope there wouldn't be any more moonquakes to dislodge the walls.

• Return to September 27 2005