Sianid Ascendant: Chapter 1

This is a repost of "Sianid Ascendant", the (not so) short story about the characters from the Zechman legacy from the website forums of the original The Whiskey Brotherhood and later Black Obtuse guilds.

Before you begin reading this story, you should first read My SWTOR Characters to learn about the cast of characters in it and the relationships between them.

Also, this story assumes some basic familiarity with the SW:TOR Class Storylines (especially the Sith Inquisitor) and contains some implicit spoilers. You have been warned.

"Master, I think I may have found what you are looking for."

"Come in, Ashara. I am looking for many things...so you'll have to be just a bit more precise than the word 'what' if you expect me to overlook this...in-terr-upt-ion." Lady Sianid emphasized her annoyance on each syllable.

"I'm sorry, Master. But it concerns how to reach...your daughter."

The annoyance drained away immediately. "Go on."

"I found information from the Sphere on the Dread Masters and their intervention on Denova and Asation. The Trandoshan Warlord...Kephess..some of the transcripts indicate them addressing him very formally."

"Feel free to move ahead to the part where you're making sense."

"Master, in the original Dosh, they addressed him as 'Kephii Demorte Fess'."

"Again, I had been led to believe this was about Dianiss."

"Yes, Master. You see, I'd heard of Master Dianiss before you . . . before Taris . . . and I'd heard that she was often in the company of a Trandoshan named Qyzen Fess. He was present at her Knighting ceremony. He protects her...they protect each other."

"And these are connected . . . ?"

"It turns out that Kephess is from the same bloodline as Qyzen Fess. From the holos I could find, they even look alike. So whatever the Dread Masters did to Kephess, might also work on Qyzen...if their genetics are a close enough match. And, of course, assuming we can reconstruct what they did."

"Ah . . . I see." A plan began forming in the Sith Lord's mind.

"So if you can bring him here, surely she'll come looking for him. You can finally be reunited with her."

"Yes, child, that could work. You've done well, but we must also prepare for her arrival."

"I don't understand, Master."

"You needn't understand, dear. Just go and find me the following things." Sianid began typing furiously on the computer console. "But first, there are a few things I need to know about this Qyzen Fess...."

--

Qyzen awoke, or perhaps didn't, but what he saw and heard seemed to be somewhere between the two. The shape looked familiar. He squinted his good eye hoping to get a better look.

"Qyzen Fess, do you know who I am?"

The voice and face were definitely familiar...very much like his friend Dianiss, but not her. "Are you . . . ?" he began, but dared not finish, he was so awestruck.

"Yes, I am. I take the form of my Herald so that you may recognize me. It pleases me that you have shown the wisdom to do so."

"Thank you, Scorekeeper."

"Qyzen Fess, an enemy of my Herald--her first enemy--plans to take her life, and has the means to succeed. You must not allow this. If the Herald is taken by the first enemy, all points are lost."

"I defend your Herald with my life."

"Your life is in danger from this enemy as well. This enemy strikes from far away, using dark magic. You will not see the strike come, you cannot block the blow. Only her trust in you can save her."

"I am unworthy, but I have been honorable and true to her."

"Good. Warn her that the enemy comes. Tell her that she will need this item from the temple of her clan." She held up a holocron so that he could see the symbols on its surface. "You must act quickly, before the first enemy strikes. Tell the Herald that it will save her life...and yours."

"I do as you command, Scorekeeper."

"Only her trust in you can save her."

--

Dianiss looked at the drawing on the datapad, confused. "Qyzen, unless I'm mistaken, this is a Sith holocron. These symbols here...", she pointed, "I think they are the name of Tulak Hord. And what would it be doing in the Jedi Temple?"

"Scorekeeper says your life is in danger. Scorekeeper says all points are lost if your life is taken. Scorekeeper says that this object will protect the Herald from the first enemy."

She was now a little more puzzled. "Qyzen, I don't understand. Who is this 'first enemy'?"

"Scorekeeper did not say."

"Well then, my friend, I think we need to go to Tython. Hopefully it holds some answers."

--

When the shuttle door opened, Dianiss and Qyzen were pleasantly surpised to see a familiar face smiling back at them.

"Qyzen! So good to see you again, my old friend! Dianiss! You as well. Welcome."

"Scorekeeper smiles upon us, Yuon Par." he replied.

"Master Par, it is an honor. You're looking very well." she replied.

"And I have you to thank for that, my dear. When I heard you were coming, I just HAD to come and meet you. What brings you here?"

"A mystery. Well, at least two of them. And I'm hoping that Master Quist can help us with one of them."

"Well, to the library with us, then."

A short time later, the three of them arrived in the archives. Master Restelly Quist was there instructing some Padawans on how to find the information they were seeking.

Yuon approached them. "Master Quist, one of my former pupils has returned, and seems to think that she requires the services of the Caretaker of First Knowledge."

Master Quist smiled at the sight of them. "Well then, what power do you seek? Knowledge is Power, you know."

Dianiss produced the datapad and called up Qyzen's drawing. He pointed to it and said "Scorekeeper sends us to find this. The Herald's life is in danger. Need this to protect her from first enemy."

Quist's smile faded into a look of deadly seriousness at the sight of it. "Come. We must speak in private. Have you shown this to anyone else?"

"No."

"Good. Come with me." She led them to a side room and closed the door before powering up the terminal inside. "My my my, I do hope I'm wrong about this."

Some more typing and searching. Quist let out a half-sigh and said, "I think this is probably what you're looking for."

Qyzen studied the image being projected by the terminal for a moment and said, "Yes. Scorekeeper sends us to find object. Object will protect Herald from the first enemy."

Quist looked up and said, "Then we need to speak to the Council."

--

"This...? ...appeared to you in a vision?" Master Satele Shan asked.

"Yes. Scorekeeper showed. Must have to protect Herald."

"This is troublesome." Master Shan said.

"I agree." said Master Annanya.

"As do I." said Master Kiwiiks.

"It's been in The Hole for hundreds of years." Master Quist added. "There is no way he could have seen it or known about it."

"But what IS it?" Dianiss asked, as Master Oteg's image flickered to life in an empty seat.

"My apologies for my tardiness. At war we are, and with our schedules, the enemy does not cooperate."

"Thank you for joining us, Master Oteg. We appreciate your perspective on this matter." Satele responded.

"Master Dianiss, That's the problem." Master Quist continued. "We don't know."

She went on. "We know that it was one of several items that came from Korriban some time after the destruction of Malachor V. According to our records, it was 'salvaged' from the Jedi Temple on Dantooine, but re-acquired by a Master Zez-Kai Ell and returned here a few years later by a Jedi named Mira. It was never studied--just put in The Hole for safe keeping."

"Well, clearly they were more concerned with these relics being loose in the galaxy again than they were with learning what they were." said Master Annanya.

"Correct, you are. Different priorities, the Jedi had, at that time." Oteg answered.

Satele spoke up. "Then I would suggest that the time to learn what it is has come." The others nodded in agreement. "The REAL question here is whether is it to be released into Master Dianiss' custody while we do so...on the word of her companion."

Yuon spoke up immediately. "I've known Qyzen Fess for over 15 years. He has never been anything but honorable and true. If he says that the Scorekeeper gave him this information, I believe him."

Kiwiiks was not so certain. "So now the Jedi Order is going to acknowledge, OFFICIALLY, belief in the Trandoshan Scorekeeper? This is a dangerous precedent to set. No one is questioning Qyzen's word. But we MUST consider this question: what DID he see?"

"But the Force can manifest in many different ways." Annanya replied. "Some of us have had visions like it. And we can't just ignore his knowledge of a specific item that none of us were even aware of before today."

"Much, we do not understand, of this. However, proven to contain truth, the Trandoshan's vision has. Logical to conclude then, that more truth it contains." Oteg said.

"I tend to agree." Satele said. "It is clear that something happened here that bears further investigation, Scorekeeper or not. And without a compelling reason to argue otherwise, the best way to find out what is to play along."

She looked around the room at her fellow Council members, and none appeared to disagree.

"And in this particular matter, I think there is someone we can call on for help in unraveling this."

--

The ship's intercom crackled to life. "Lord Zarvell, we have received a message."

"So play it, Talos." he responded.

"My Lord, it seems I can't. It appears to be encrypted with a code I've never seen before. Something called 'Code Angel'. Does that mean anything to you."

The sudden, loud WHOOSH startled Talos as his Master entered the bridge in a burst of Force-enhanced speed. In an instant, Zarvell was standing next to him, with his hand spread out over the bio-sensor. "She will never be a weapon." he spoke aloud. The console playback controls changed from red to green, and Zarvell hit--a little too hard--the playback button.

The blurred image of a dark-haired woman appeared.

"Archangel, we have reason to believe that the Angel's life is currently threatened by an unknown enemy. We believe that a key to understanding the threat is this item."

She held up something that looked like a holocron. "Hmmm." Talos said, his curiosity piqued.

"I have included it's specifications in this message. Our . . . informant . . . tells us that it is the key to protecting her. We need your help in identifying this object: what it is, how it works. Knowing that, we can begin to understand and neutralize the threat. I know that you have channels set up for contacting us. Please hurry. Gideon out."


"Talos my friend, I have a very important job for you...."

--

The shuttle door opened to reveal a young Twi'lek woman with a hopeful look on her face. Hope turned to excitement when she spotted what she was looking for. "Annie!" she yelled out, and did a running jump off the platform before it even finished lowering.

Dianiss reached out with her hands as if to catch her friend, even though she was over 40 feet away. With practiced concentration, she also reached out with the Force in three simultaneous directions. First, a gentle tug on that moment in time to hold it back from passing away just yet, just enough to let her gather her thoughts. Next, a less gentle bending of the planet's own gravity AROUND Kari's body to loosen and release it's grip on her. Finally, opening her mind to the presence of the billions of molecules of air all around them both that we normally ignore.

She imagined her hands reaching out beyond her actual reach, touching and lifting her friend in the air with them, feeling the sensation of her body's weight slipping away to nothing, like a balloon buoyant in the air. She pictured the room's air forming the slightest breeze towards herself from Kari's direction.

"Kari!" she called out.

Kari'arra couldn't help but giggle out loud at the sensation of jumping into the air and . . . not landing. "I'm flying!" she called out, pitching her voice to sound like a little girl.

With a gentle hand motion, Dianiss imagined the air forming a tight tornado under Kari's body, giving her friend a not-so-gentle spin before slowly releasing her grip on gravity, allowing it the tiniest bit of penetration into the imaginary protective bubble.

Kari's giggling turned to full-on laughter as she barely got out the words "Wheee! I LOVE this part!"

Master Casei was walking down the nearby hallway when she heard the familiar voices. Taking a moment to peek inside, she saw exactly what she expected to see, smiled, shook her head in disbelief, and continued on her way.

As Kari floated to within a few feet of both Dianiss and the floor, Dianiss let go of it all, allowing the world to resume working the way it always does.

Kari landed on her feet, and bent her knees to absorb the sudden return of her full weight, and maintained her balance like she'd done this hundreds of times. "And she sticks the landing." she said, trying to sound like a sports announcer.

Both of them were beaming as they hugged each other.

"I hoped it would be you." Dianiss said.

"I hoped you'd still be here." Kari said. "It's been too long."

"Actually, I've been here the whole time. We've been studying the artifact as best we can all week, but information on Sith relics, especially ones this old, is scarce. We know it dates back to Tulak Hord and it's some sort of defensive device against a Sith ritual.  Anything else is sketchy guesswork."

"Well, I have new information for Master Satele that came from an informant in the Empire. I'm sure the Council will want to see it immediately."

--

In the council chamber, the image of Talos Drellik appeared on the holoscreen.

"Good day to you. I am Talos Drellik, formerly of the Imperial Reclamation Service. I have been instructed to record this briefing for the Jedi Council."

"That's unexpected." Satele said quietly to Master Annanya, who was seated next to her.

"I guess our contact wants to introduce us to this Drellik." Anya replied.  "If he's really from Reclamation, he's probably an expert.  Is this a way of vouching for him?"

"The device in question was created by Tulak Hord, as a countermeasure against a Sith ritual that he himself had created, should a rival ever attempt to use that ritual against him. The ritual in particular was one that would take the life--or the life force, ah, the writings are a bit vague on this point--from the victim across great distances. We're not sure in this case what 'great distances' means, exactly, but other rituals of his creation were capable of affecting enemies at inter-stellar distances, so it's wise to assume that this could also be one of them. Oh, and like his other similar devices, it was also imbued with methods for preventing theft, which is strange because there are stories of a few successful thefts, but the items were always recovered quickly."

"Now then, as to its use: The primary requirement is to have it on your person, or at least in close proximity, say, a few meters away at most. It will only shield one individual, and that individual must activate it by . . . and this is where I fear my expertise comes to an end . . . 'holding the center, and filling the gap around it with power'. The 'center' as it were, is said to be an internal mechanism that one would manipulate so that it does not touch the outer shell in any way. The 'power' I can only deduce is something related to your Force."

"So . . . not a Sith.  Just a regular military officer." Satele again said, mostly to herself.

"The writings indicate that it requires a great deal of power, and as that power protects the outer shell from touching the center mechanism, the device focuses it into a similar shell of power that protects the user from being touched by the distant attack. Rather poetic, actually. It is said to 'leak' a bit--if that's the right word for it--so once it is 'charged' as it were, the user will have to keep the power within replenished."

"Considering the urgency that was imparted to me on this matter, I would suggest that the one under the threat of this attack should attempt to activate the device with all haste."

"Drellik, signing off."


After a short silence, Dianiss was the first to speak up.

"Well then, I guess that means we should try it. Is there any chance this information is false?"

"None. The message is authentic and this source would never allow that." Said Satele. Masters Annanya and Casei both looked toward her and nodded in agreement.

"But why now?" asked Yuon. "What's changed that brings this new threat into existence now all of a sudden?"

"I think I can answer that." All eyes turned toward Kari'arra, who had been keeping a respectful distance at the edge of the room. "At the pickup, I learned a few things while listening in on the Imperial chatter. There's a new Darth. Um, Thanaton?...he's been replaced. They have someone else now on the Council as head of the 'Sphere of Ancient Knowledge'. Like...it's JUST happened. I didn't get a name, but apparently she's known for using poisons and bio-weapons and has a nickname 'Lady Cyanide'. Do you know who that is?"

And all the color drained from three Jedi Masters. "Yes, we do.", Annanya said with a sigh. She turned to Casei. "It's happening again. We may not be able to prevent it this time."

"Prevent what?" Dianiss asked.

"What's important now is that you figure out how to use the device, and quickly."