Power and Betrayal: Chapter 31

Tython
Jedi Temple Grounds

After returning from Belsavis, Zedemm fell back into his daily routine, except for two changes.  While it wasn't unusual for him to carry a datapad around (he was unofficially an instructor, after all), the pocket in which he carried it WAS unusual for the way that it positioned the datapad inside his robes so that it would make direct contact with his bare skin.  This was necessary so that the device could signal him in a way that no one nearby him would detect: by heating up the surface that pressed directly against his side.  In this way, the signal was kept 100% silent and free of any other tells like vibration or visible illumination that someone nearby might notice.

Another thing he did was to adjust his comings and goings in such a way as to put him in proximity with Galadina throughout the day, but without actually approaching her or ever really being in the same "place" with her at the same time.  Just being "close enough" was all he needed.

It was, in a way, ironic that he had to deliberately find ways to be near her when, under normal circumstances, it would have been perfectly normal and natural for the two of them to spend time together.  But these were not normal circumstances, and their current state of estrangement from each other made the whole thing awkward and difficult.

Of course, he could have approached her easily enough to try to reconcile with her, but he didn't really WANT to do that at this point--nor was he even sure whether or not he wanted to do it AT ALL.

Luckily, he didn't need to because it wasn't really even Galadina herself that he wanted to get close to; it was her lightsaber.

Zedemm was a master craftsman when it came to lightsabers.  Though he was not especially strong in the Force, he'd always been able to overcome that weakness by using the intellect and mental focus that he'd inherited from his father.  When, as a young apprentice, it came time to learn lightsaber construction, it was one of the few things that he immediately was able to do better than his peers and became a lifelong interest.  On Tython, he ended up teaching this subject to new Padawans, but almost never went so far as to construct one FOR someone else.

The notable exceptions were his younger half-sister Dianiss (whom he always felt he had an obligation to look out for) and his former student Galadina (who had famously taken one of his during an intense training session).  In Galadina's case, he'd even redesigned and rebuilt a unique lightweight hilt with two emitters but a single crystal and power source, carefully balanced so that it would still have the same "feel" of a typical single-bladed saber but could function equally well as a double-bladed saber.

A typical shadow's weapon was built as two complete lightsabers, attached end-to-end at the pommel, with little more integration than a single switch to activate and deactivate both halves at the same time, making the combined hilt twice as long and twice as heavy.  Galadina's Truthseeker, by contrast, retained the smaller size and heft of a single saber, allowing it to be wielded with much more speed and precision, not to mention being a more appropriate design for someone with a short stature and small hands.

He had already rebuilt and repaired Truthseeker before the last day of Dianiss' trial, but after the sudden reversal and conviction that Galadina had caused, he'd gone back to the workbench to add one additional new feature before giving it back to her: an audio recorder.

Having secretly planted a bug in her saber, he needed to periodically collect the recorded data from it; and in order to do that, he had to get his datapad within wireless range of her saber.  If the datapad got hot, it meant it was downloading new data and he should stay near her until it cooled down again, signalling that it was finished.  If it stayed cool, there was nothing to download.

The most reliable tactic he'd discovered was to find an excuse to get near the infirmary, since Galadina was spending any free time from her new duties as a member of the High Council visiting with Major Kendsel.  But, truth be told, she was generally very busy now so it was trickier than it might have been before her promotion.

That was the first of the two changes.

The second change in his normal routine was that he was periodically scanning the Temple grounds for the encrypted signature of a very specific holo-communicator signal: the secured transmissions from one of his father's "Angel Protocol" devices.  Ordinarily, there would be precisely TWO such devices on Tython and no more.

The first one belonged to Zedemm himself, and was very rarely activated (and, more importantly, Zedemm could always account for where and when it was used, since only his DNA and voice print could activate it).

The second one was in the possession of Grand Master Satele Shan, and also very rarely activated.  It had originally belonged to Dianiss, but Zedemm had been instructed to turn it over to the highest-ranking Jedi he could find since that one was keyed to work for either Dianiss OR a short list of known Jedi leaders from whom the Empire had been able to collect DNA samples.  Satele Shan was one of them, owing to her having shed some blood in combat years ago on Alderaan at the time of the Empire's initial invasion of the Republic.

While Lord Zarvell was on-planet, his own holo-communicator was also present, which was to be expected.  That meant there were three, at least temporarily.

But then Zedemm had detected the signal from a FOURTH one.

At first he'd thought that Zarvell might have issued one to Galadina, having already gone as far as assigning her a code name ("Aegis") and issuing her legitimate credentials that allow her to emigrate to Dromund Kaas.  That didn't check out, however, since the signal never really matched up with Galadina's whereabouts.  Plus, as a member of the High Council, Galadina would have access to the second device and Zarvell most certainly had a sample of her DNA as a part of her registration as his slave for those aforementioned credentials.

On the other hand, he'd heard the occasional mention of sightings of an elusive Jedi who was a female Chiss, a highly improbable situation for both political and biological reasons.  This lead him to believe that Violet'ence, his father's most trusted cipher agent, might have been the source of the fourth signal--which he'd need to confirm.

Assuming it really was her, then if he could catch her unawares, he could grill her for what she knows since he'd have the leverage of being able to turn her in and destroy her ability to infiltrate Tython again in the future.  This would not be easy, of course.  He knew that his prey was VERY good at the espionage game, and that he'd have to successfully out-spy the professional spy to pull it off.

But he was not without a few advantages that he could exploit.  First and most simply, he belonged on Tython and she didn't.  He knew the grounds much better than she did and could move around freely without having to take measures to hide or avoid interacting with people.  He was also an instructor, so he had students that he could use as a pre-built network of amateur informants.  Finally, he expected that she was unaware that he had the ability to track her through her holo-communicator; or, failing that, that if she were aware, that she'd reasonably conclude that he'd have no reason to.

The chase was on.

Location UNKNOWN
The Present

"The test is simple." he said.  "Answer the question, then change your answer."

"Okay, fine, I'm ready."

"Select a number at random from 1 to 100.  What have you selected?"

"43." she responded, then reached back to touch her former self and alter her choice.  "Okay, now."

"You answered 37.  Do it again."

"Okay."

"You answered 13.  Do it again."

"Okay."

"You answered 29.  Do it again."

"Okay."

"You answered 61.  Do it again."

"Wait . . .okay."

"71.  Again."

She hesitated, then responded, "Okay."

"73.  From where comes this fondness for prime numbers?  Again."

A longer hesitation.  "Oh ... okay."

"79.  Again."

She groaned in pain.  The headache was getting much stronger now.  "Okay."

"91.  That one is not a prime, by the way.  Again."

"This is getting REALLY hard."

"Of course it is.  Again."

". . . Okay."

"11.  Again."

"I . . . I can't hold it.  It's too . . . I'm sorry."

"You answered 43.  This was your original answer, wasn't it?"

"Yes.  I mean . . . I think so.  My brain is in such a jumble now."

"It should be.  You've just juggled . . . nine? . . . new realities in a bit over a minute."

"It kept getting harder as I went."

"Because each time you did it, you were reaching back from a slightly more distant future, and each time you succeeded, your mind had to reassimilate the conflicting memories."

"So how did I do?"

"My own all-time record was seventeen alterations in two minutes.  You did only nine of them, but at nearly the same pace.  You are improving.  More importantly: since you still insist on allowing the Unifying Force to convince you that it is your master and not the other way around, . . . DO IT AGAIN, NOW." he said with sudden urgency.

Dianiss had to struggle to reach back even further than she'd done up until now.  It was the same moment in time that she was trying to reach as before, but that moment was almost six minutes ago now.  Still, with the jumble of all the previous attempts cleared from her mind, she could more easily focus on finding . . . or was it remembering? . . . her former self of six minutes ago and imposing a new result.  "Okay."

"You answered . . . Pi ?!?"  The surprise and confusion was evident in his voice.

Through all the headache and feeling like her entire body was about to melt, she managed an impish smile.  "Well, it's not another prime number, right?"

Continue to Coda: Outline and Spoilers . . . .