Power and Betrayal: Chapter 4

Dianiss slowly awoke with a minor throbbing pain in her back and a major headache. The room she was in was small and brightly lit, and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. She was sitting in a chair, with her hands and feet bound to it with thick metal fasteners. There was a table next to her, and on it was some technical equipment with wires that lead back toward her. Her lightsaber was also there on the table. A man was standing in front of her, looking right at her.

Okay, I'm being interrogated. she thought.

She could feel that the machines were also pumping drugs into her bloodstream. As a Jedi healer, she had a well-honed ability to use the Force to sense foreign substances inside the body. But even without that, the blurred vision and feeling of lightheadedness told the story just as well: they were giving her a light stimulant to counteract the sedation she'd been under, and probably introducing some sort of 'truth serum' or two on top of that. The dosages were on the heavy side.

But she could ALSO feel the chemicals slowly being burned away by the dark presence within her, accelerating her natural healing abilities and protecting her like a second immune system. This was one of the VERY few things her 'special power' could do without her explicit command, since it was just reinforcing her own body's natural processes.

As she started to use the Force to reach outward rather than inward, she could feel the presence of another man behind her whom she couldn't see. Kinnan was not in the room, but she could at least sense his presence somewhere nearby--probably in another room just like this one.

As her vision started to finally clear, she recognized the man in front of her--barely--as one of the agents who attacked her. He reached down and touched her chin, lifting her head up to face him. "Welcome back..." he said before pausing to look at a datapad. "...Miss Czerchin, which I don't believe for a moment is your real name. Why don't we start with you telling me who you really are, Jedi."

"I'm an actress." she said. She dared not try to use the Force to convince him now, because it would be useless in trying to fool the machine. Instead, she had to choose her words carefully so that everything she said was still literally true, if deceptive. The only advantages she had now were that she had more of her wits about her that they would think she does, and that they evidently hadn't figured out her true identity. She'd have to press those advantages as much as possible now.

There was also her lightsaber, which was both good and bad. It was good because it was there if she needed it. It was bad because it suggested that she really was a Jedi and not just some innocent dancer who got mixed up in something that was way over her head.

"Is that so?" he said, after he paused to look over something on a datapad. "You know, most people are shocked unconscious immediately by a stunner blade. But not you. Why was that, exactly?"

"I . . . I'm no stranger to shock collars."

"Really, now?" he said, unconvinced. "Then I don't suppose you'd like to explain THIS." He picked up her lightsaber and held it out in front of her.

Dianiss was prepared for this. She reached out in the Force and gently touched a switch that was INSIDE the saber, completely inaccessible unless you disassembled it.

"I perform at a club. I use that as part of my act, like a prop."

"Really? I'm supposed to believe that?"

"It's true! You can turn it on and see for yourself!"

"Well, maybe I will..."

She could tell by the way he handled it that he was minimally familiar with lightsabers, and not an expert. He did, however, hold it the right direction and find the activation switch quickly. In an instant, her saber ignited with the signature 'hum' and added a pink-colored tint to the already-bright lighting in the room.

"Looks pretty real to me." he said with a frown on his face.

"Hold your hand near the blade. There's hardly any heat coming off of it. You could touch the blade with your bare hand and it won't burn you. Just . . . don't hold it there too long."

Another advantage she had was having a brother who was a master lightsaber craftsman. Some time ago he had helped her to design and construct a built-in 'safety mode' that limited the saber's power output to the bare minimum required to maintain a coherent blade, and tie it to a hidden switch inside the hilt. This made it relatively safe to handle--like the ones used by Jedi younglings for training, but less practical since trying to actually cut a solid object with it would consistently cause it to overload and shut off.

He hesitantly put his hand near the blade and noticed that it felt warm, but not HOT. He gently touched it to an armor plating on his other wrist and saw that it didn't burn or damage it.

Hesitantly, he touched touched a bare finger to the blade and pulled it away immediately. Then again. Then again for a little longer. As he finally grasped the blade fully in his hand, she used the Force to rejuvenate the skin and heal the minor burn that he otherwise would have caused. She could tell that he was almost convinced.

"Now stab me with it." she said.

"What?"

"Stab me with it. Or stab the table . . . or the wall . . . or yourself. I don't care. I already told you what it is."

He stared at her a moment, trying to see if she was bluffing (or perhaps trying to secure a different form of "escape" from their custody), and then looked over her shoulder at the man behind her. She couldn't see him, but she could feel that the one monitoring the equipment had indicated that she was serious.

He took a step back, deciding that he didn't want to bring the saber closer to her, and instead pushed the blade into the edge of the table. As the tip of the saber made contact, there was some minor scorching of the finish, and the hum increased in pitch momentarily. Then it abruptly shut off.

As he pulled it away and held it upright, the hum returned to normal and a few seconds later the blade reignited.

"Besides," she added, "when have you ever seen or heard of a real Jedi ANYWHERE who had a pink light-sword?"

Tangress was on the hunt, and her prey was Dianiss. She felt a small twinge of guilt for alerting the Imperials that a Jedi was involved in trying to intercept their Gree machine, but only because of the way it put her dear Kinnan in danger. That uppity Dianiss, on the other hand, could get gunned down in a dark alley and eaten by Ugnaughts for all she cared.

But she'd save him. That was the plan.

It hadn't been so long ago that Tangress had been Kinnan's sole partner in these adventures. But ever since Taris, all he could talk about was this Dianiss and how remarkable she was. Bah. It all just made Tangress want to bury Dianiss in the sand somewhere.

But at least Dianiss served a purpose right now. Her presence in the Force was unmistakable to anyone who knew her, and powerful enough to be felt from half a planet away if you concentrated. Following that trail had lead her here to the Imperial spaceport, and now that she was close enough, she could feel that Kinnan was here as well.

Tangress was a fierce combatant, but right now she was relying on her other specialty: stealth. She slowly and quietly approached, sometimes even on all fours, and using the Force to quietly confuse anyone who got in her way so that she could slip by undetected.

The Gree machine was important to Kinnan, she knew that.

It would be HER that helped him retrieve it.

Not Dianiss.

I'm coming, Kinnan. she thought to herself. I'll save you.

Agent Saffire had left the interrogations to Prowler and his team, and was standing by in case they needed assistance. In the mean time, she was back-tracking the source of the anonymous tip they'd received about Jedi involvement. If the tip proved to be deliberately false after all, standard procedure was to investigate the source to determine if it originated from someone who may have wanted to cause trouble for the Empire--in which case, some sort of retaliation would be awaiting them in the near future.

But more importantly, if the tip was genuine but the two they'd captured weren't really Jedi, then that meant that the real Jedi were still out there and that the team's mission could still be at risk.  THIS was what she really needed to determine, and quickly.

As expected, her commlink chirped to announce an incoming message from Prowler. She tapped the control to answer it and simply said, "This is Saffire. Report."

"We're completing our preliminary interrogations now, and frankly, I'm still not sure. The male could be a Jedi--the blood screen seems to confirm it--but if so, he's not a very strong one. On the other hand, he's behaving more like an SIS agent than a Jedi. He clearly knows how to manipulate the stress analysis. His identity checks out, but I'm still skeptical."

"...and the female?"

"He insists that she's just a dancer he'd met earlier today, but I'm not sure I know what to make of this one. Her blood screen gives us a weird result that I'm not sure how to interpret. But . . . her identity checks out completely. We've been able to confirm that she has lived here for more than a year and does work as an exotic dancer in a local club . . . get this . . . pretending to be a Jedi."

"So . . . your conclusion?"

"It looks to me like we've got SIS trying to spook us into thinking the Jedi are coming. What we have instead is an agent who recruited a girl who knows how to play the part. They may have even been injected with markers to fool the blood screen with false-positives. Either way, protocol is to bring them both back to Dromund Kaas for full interrogation. We'll take all the additional precautions for Jedi prisoners, just to be certain."

"Very good. Send your data to me for review. If they are NOT Jedi, the agent will come to Dromund Kaas for imprisonment, and the girl will probably be sold off as a slave."

"Acknowledged. Sending the files now. Prowler out."

A moment later, a notification popped up on her computer console that the data had been received.

"So, . . . let's see what we've got here." she said playfully to herself as she pulled up the photographs and got a good look at the both of them for the first time.

"THE BLOODY HELL?!?" she shouted in exasperation, and initiated an inter-stellar call back to Dromund Kaas.

It was a surprise to Dianiss AND her interrogators when the door unexpectedly burst open. In strode a woman wearing a mask, but Dianiss could see from the intruder's eyes that she was a Chiss. "Out. Both of you." she said with an air of command in her voice.

Without a word, both men left the room and closed the door behind them.

"Who are--" Dianiss started to say, until the woman interrupted her with a hand gesture that said wait a moment.

The Chiss woman went to the table and shut down all the machines connected to Dianiss, then produced a small electronic device from her pocket, and placed it on the table. She then typed in a code on the device's keypad, which caused it to light up and make a soft humming sound.

As she came back around in front of Dianiss, she pulled down the facemask, revealing her face. Though Dianiss didn't recognize her, she was surprised at how young this woman was.

The young woman stared at Dianiss with a stern, almost angry look for a couple of minutes before saying anything.

"I know who you really are. In fact, I know more about you than you'd believe possible. So don't play games . . . Annie. You're in a LOT of trouble right now."

Dianiss wasn't sure what to say, so she just said nothing.

"...but not as much as I am." the Chiss added, to Dianiss' puzzlement.

The woman seemed to pause a moment to let those words hang in the air between them before continuing.

"Your name is Dianiss. You are a Jedi, and a remarkably powerful one at..."

"I'm not." Dianiss interrupted.

The Chiss actually laughed. "Yes, yes you are. I see you don't believe me, so I'll continue. You were born on Dromund Kaas, the daughter of two Sith Lords--both of whom are Darths now, by the way--and sent to the Jedi as a child, along with your older brother, who was also a Sith and today is also a Jedi."

Dianiss was now actually a bit concerned, and didn't want to say anything at all so as not to accidentally confirm what the agent was saying.

"Before I go any further, it is important that I point out that this device..." the Chiss agent added, as she pointed at the thing she brought into the room with her, "...prevents us from being monitored, seen or heard. What is said in this room right now is strictly between you and me."

"Why is that important?" Dianiss asked.

"It's important because the men whom you allowed to capture you and who were interrogating you before I came in do NOT need to know any of this, . . . nor do they need to know that the reason you are so remarkably powerful is that the spirit and power of the ancient Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig is trapped within you . . . the result of Sith sorcery performed at the time of your conception by your mother, the Lady Sianid, at the direction of Kallig himself."

Dianiss' concern had now morphed completely into disbelief. "WHO ARE YOU?" she asked with sincerity.

"You don't know me, but I'm a Cipher Agent, a very good one--and one who has seen you in action. I'm about to offer you a deal. It's a very good deal, and you're going to take it, because NOT taking it will lead to unacceptable consequences for both of us.

"I know that you can free yourself from these bonds and escape easily, probably killing me and my men in the process. But you want to keep this quiet and avoid needless bloodshed, not to mention that you'd still have to FIND the Gree computer itself.

"Or I could expose your secrets, use what I know of your weaknesses against you, and leverage assistance of the Cartel authorities to bring you and your cohort back to Dromund Kaas for likely execution. But that . . . well, let's just say that I have certain standing orders from my employer, and it would cause a GREAT deal of trouble for me to violate them.

"So to avoid all of that for both of us, I've been authorized to offer you a deal. But before I can do that, I need to know one thing: what is your interest in the Gree computer? Specifically, what do you intend to use it for?"

"I . . . don't understand." Dianiss responded. The statement was true on more than one level.

"I'll be more specific. If it will be used for a peaceful purpose which does not harm Imperial citizens, nor escalate the war with the Republic, . . . then I am prepared to allow you to 'borrow' the device for a time, with the understanding that you return it to us afterward. As a Jedi, I know that you can be trusted to honour your end of the bargain. So I'll ask again: what is your interest in the Gree computer?"

Tangress was starting to get impatient. She successfully made her way inside the spaceport itself and avoided detection, but doing so meant that she had to take it slow.

The open areas were no problem at all. She could move around in those at will, slipping around the outer edges of the crowds and choosing her moments to move.

But the security doors and turbolifts required her lie in wait for the right opportunity to pounce, waiting for someone to open the door for her so that she could slip through unnoticed.

She could sense where she needed to go, that part was easy. Dianiss' 'scent' was strong now. But as she got closer, she learned that the place she needed to get into was a diplomatic section, with much stronger security than the normal commercial area.

And that meant fewer opportunities to sneak by, since there was very little normal foot traffic going in and out of that section. Fewer still were the opportunities where it was a single person--or two at most--entering or exiting. Most were larger groups that increase the risk of being detected dramatically.

Hang on just a little longer, Kinnan. I'll rescue you soon.

Continue to Chapter 5 . . . .