Reanimation

[Rossos Atrapes]

Deep Core, Byss, 2 AE




(One Month Before Darkest Days: Sacrifice)




The current officer in charge of the Byss Station strode forward and bowed. “Lord Inquisitor,” he said. “Welcome to Byss Station. It is nearly completely repaired, as I am sure you saw from orbit.”




Inquisitor Atrapes strode down the shuttle's ramp, followed by two other Inquisitors, Rekoj and Vel Aath, who would both stay behind and oversee the finishing of Byss Station's repairs. All three wore the standard apparel of the Inquisitoriate, but for a moment, Rossos entertained the wild fantasy of donning a dark cloak. Amusement wafted from him in the Force, but he knew the impulse for the flight of fancy that it was.




Atrapes didn't reply as he surveyed the Stormtroopers of the Inquisitoriate that stood in neat orderly ranks; Stormtroopers that didn't answer to the military, but to the Inquisitoriate, for the secrecy of the Inquisitoriate's operations required no less than almost complete self-dependence. He realised that Palpatine was easily forgiven his lust for 'power', if one could say the feeling of being in control of this Station was such a thing. That these people would do almost anything he ordered was quite the heady tonic indeed, but the Inquisitor restrained his desire, and chained it tightly within himself. Power was only an illusion, after all. Finally, he spoke.




“Very good, Major,” he replied. “I see that you were a wise choice overseeing this facility's reconstruction.”




Major Firmus Hodrren internally swelled with pride. Atrapes had chosen this man to head the Byss Station two years ago, after he and his subordinates had battled and finally destroyed his mentor, Inquisitor Xyrias Drakkar and his underlings; in so doing, much of the Station itself was destroyed, including the secret chambers which held the clones of Emperor Palpatine. During the battle, the Prophets of the Dark Side, Palpatine's secret order of seers (using the dark side of the Force) had been decimated when they had gotten in the way of the fight. With Palpatine so recently deceased, the two had agreed that the project would be erased, and none would know either of its existence, or the ill executed battle which destroyed it in Byss Station.




“Thank you, Lord Inquisitor.”




“And the cloning chambers?”




“They are nearly finished as well. It was difficult finding technicians skilled enough to work on them.” Major Hodrren did not have to make a statement about the technicians' abilities to keep a secret. Unless they were a very skilled Force user in life, dead men told no secrets. “We still have no clue how to operate them though. It is as if the chambers weren't designed for mass producing clones, and the controls are elaborate and very odd.”




Atrapes was quick to respond. “It is not your place to know how to operate the chambers, Major. Leave that to the Inquisitoriate. Show me them.”




Major Hodrren blushed in embarrassment at the reprimand. “This way, sir.”

[Rekoj]

Inquisitor Rekoj, Byss.

Idle hands are the devils play thing, Rekoj thought sourly. His boots drumming a lazy beat down the shuttles lowered plank. Rossos Atrapes, a name growing in prestige around the halls of the Inquisitoriate indicating his hands had been anything but idle. The report of him becoming entangled with a force user in the traffic lanes of Coruscant had caught Rekoj's curiosity before the word from high up came in.

Watch him.

A simple command but no easy task to watch the wat...chers? What? Rekoj grimaced at the silliness of his own cliche redundancy. But those were his orders, to watch Inquisitor Rossos Atrapes and his hushed pet project rumored to be nearing completion on Byss. Emperor Palpatine had many secret facilities and this was rumored to be one of his most prized. What made it so different from other cache deposits of Palpatines secret inventories? It contained cloning cylinders. These cylinders differed from the more common ones seen in the era of the seperatist and republic war. They were specialized with their theorized purpose becoming the topic of much varied debate between Imperial researchers. The highlight of which was rumored they could be used to resurrect the deceased Emperor pulling his 'spirit' from the ether, as it were, into a genetic replica. Absurd.

He bit down on the butt of one of his stims and pulled it from the small silver case. Giving it a dry suck to pull it a little deeper between his lips. The Inquisitor was in short tow behind Atrapes who was already busy patronizing one of his lessers, a Major Firmus Hodrren. The same man shot Rekoj a disapproving look when he thumbed open his lighter to ignite his stim. He ignored it and lit the stim anyway responding to Hodrren with a large puff of smoke that ironically took the shape of a mushroom cloud sprouting from his lips.

Time for the tour.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The station was orderly, as was common among installations of the Empire. While not bustling with activity, there were still a fair number of personnel working in Byss Station; the most important aspect might have been the cloning chambers, but the planet's isolation lent it to be a prime spot for other experiments and secret projects.

Vel Aath remained behind Atrapes and abreast of Rekoj as the Major showed them the different parts of the station that he could while leading them further in towards the cloning chambers. She was, as usual, silent; though she seemed to be a bit curious, looking around the small group as it made its way towards the turbolift which would take them to the cloning chambers' level.

“You can see the orbiting docks and defence stations are finished,” Hodrren was saying. “The engineers would have made something larger, but the restricted nature of the hyperlanes leading to Byss would not be conducive to large fleets of any kind coming or going.”

They passed the viewport with little else but a slight glance. They were not here for the grand tour of the installation (that would be for Inquisitors Vel Aath and Rekoj after Atrapes had returned to Imperial Centre), but to see the cloning chambers.

Hodrren noticed this, but continued speaking anyway. This was his part to play in any case, and if he did not, Atrapes might use his silence as tantamount to a confession that nothing was done at all and kill him if he so desired. Thankfully, Atrapes remained silent and neither approving nor disappointed or angry.

“The level containing the cloning chambers is only accessible by a security code,” the Major narrated as they stepped into the turbolift. The man pressed a light grey button, which caused a panel covering the keypad to retract. He pressed a seemingly random series of buttons, continuing to speak as he did so. “The code is actually a number of codes, three or four, each of which is changed daily. Each code successfully entered allows the next to be entered. If entered out of sequence or if one is entered incorrectly, an alarm will sound in the security control room, and Stormtroopers will immediately be sent to ascertain the situation. There are no second chances; the lift will lock down and only the security station chief can unlock it and allow for the chambers' level to be accessed again using a completely different code accessible only to him.”

He smiled in satisfaction as the lighting in the lift switched to red. “The lighting in any lift where the code is entered correctly will switch to red; the security station is alerted and the lift is monitored. At this moment, only I or you Inquisitor Atrapes have the clearance to enter the level at our discretion. Others will have to ask permission beforehand and be cleared to enter the level.”

“You seem to have everything in hand, Major,” Atrapes said as the turbolift halted. The doors slid open. “Let us hope they prove able to keep this level secure.”

The Major nodded. “I have no doubt that they will be more than enough,” he replied.

“That,” Vel Aath interjected, “remains to be seen.”

The Major blinked as they left the turbolift and made their way down a well lit corridor to a set of blast doors.

“She is Inquisitor Vel Aath,” Atrapes said, pre-empting the Major's question. “My other associate is Inquisitor Rekoj. They will oversee the final stages of this station's repairs and construction while I am gone. They will both have the same privileges as you and I, Major.”

“Of course,” Hodrren replied. “I will have access codes circumventing the system developed immediately for the both of them.”

Hodrren took a small card from his pocket, and slid it into a panel on the wall as they stopped before the blast doors. Sliding the card quickly in and out of the socket, he just as quickly entered a series of numbers into the keypad beside the slot. The doors slowly began to open.

“I will have to ask Inquisitor Rekoj to stop smoking before we enter the cloning chambers themselves. There are many delicate machines that will not take well to smoke,” the Major said. Despite the tone and inflection being nothing short of professional, the Major undeniably took pleasure in laying down this stricture to stop the man from continuing his disgusting habit.

[Rekoj]

It was an obscenely polite smile Rekoj gave in response to Hodrren's request. His head tilting back, allowing the smoke to spill upwards from between his clenched pearly whites. With the last gray whipping tail of smoke losing its grasp the Inquisitor's tongue. He gave his upper lip a wet lick savoring the chemical taste. Then promptly dropped his stim to the ground mashing it out with the toe of his boot.

"Sincere apologies." Rekoj said with a slight bow of his head.

The door to the next chamber continued to rise and rather then wait for it to reach its pinnacle the Major tucked his head into his shoulders and bent under it. Knowing the door would be fully raised by the time Atrapes and the other Inquisitors moved to enter.

The room was brightly lit, with each cylinder having its own 'showcase' of spotlights. Rekoj eagerly slid past Hodrren, who moved to object, but thought better of it at the last second.

"Interesting." The Inquisitor had taken a series of quick hops to lay a hand directly on the closest cylinder. His finger tips traced the devices crisp edges, feeling his way across the curve of each tube, like a love of affair of a teenager with his first hover car. Rekoj had seen this technology before. After Palpatine's death the Inquisitor had begun an investigation into many of the deceased Emperor's holdings. One of the most rewarding finds was EmPal SuRecon Center on Coruscant. They had discover a large chamber beneath the medical centers which was filled with an assortment of alien technologies and artifacts the likes of which the Empire proper had never seen. Much of what he discovered that day reminded him of what he saw in these chambers. There were minor details, like the patch work assortment of common Imperial technology inserted awkwardly into sections of the cylinder where the Engineers couldn't repair the native part. But for the most part the cloning devices all seemed intact.

Rekoj hopped down from the platform and moved to the next, one as if per chance, every cloning tube might hold some secret that the others did not.

"Your men, for the most part, have done a fantastic job in the restoration of these devices. They should be commended. Have they been able to activate them?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

Rekoj was at the third tube by the time Atrapes, Vel Aath, and Hodrren stepped clear of the blast doors, which remained open even as they stepped clear of the sensors for the door.

Major Hodrren nodded, clearly pleased with Rekoj's praise. “We have done only three activation tests, but are unable to fully operate them due to the odd technology and classification issues for some of the techs and engineers. We're missing something important for the complete operation of the chambers.”

Inquisitor Atrapes strode past the stiff officer and up to the tube. He placed a gloved hand on the glass, imagining the possibilities that could be explored with this technology. He had the feeling he knew what the scientists were missing that was needed for the complete operation of the chambers.

“That shall be your and Inquisitor Vel Aath's assignment for the moment, Rekoj,” Atrapes said after a moment. His own excitement was much more subdued, but due to his restrained nature, the quick step and glinting eyes were more than enough to let anyone know that he was pleased. “You shall work on activating a single tube and getting a test subject to stay alive within it for an extended period. I believe there are some Rebel prisoners that will serve as fitting test subjects–”

“Major Hodrren, please respond to Security.”

The digital voice rang out smoothly over their heads as they spoke, interrupting them, but Atrapes was in far too good a mood to be annoyed.

Hodrren made his way to a comm station situated in the wall next to the blast doors.

“This is Hodrren.”

“Sir, the other shuttle has landed with its cargo. Shall we prepare to bring them down?”

Hodrren glanced at Atrapes, who nodded. “Very well, begin the transferral of the test subjects,” the Major ordered.

“At once, sir.”

“The test subjects will be taken to the cells on this level sir?” Hodrren asked. Atrapes was once again regarding the cloning tubes with an almost reverent look on his face, but he still nodded.

“Inquisitor,” Vel Aath began, but fell quiet when Atrapes raised a hand and flicked his wrist, as if shooing a troublesome pest or child away.

“For the moment, this is the most important project here at Byss Station; so while you will oversee the finishing touches on this station, you will also get these tubes operational,” he said, striding along the rows of cloning tubes purposefully, overtaking Rekoj in a matter of moments. “It should not be beyond the abilities of two Inquisitors to carry out this task.”

“Of course,” Vel Aath answered, but was careful not to be too boastful and end up blurting out a timetable that would end up with her death when she failed.

[Rekoj]

Before Rossos had finished speaking Rekoj had already managed to wedge himself behind one of the cloning cylinders. His torso lost between the interweaving metallic pipes and greasy plastoid tubing of which muffled Rossos's voice to a mere murmur. Again more of what he saw reminded him of SuRecon Center, or more accurately, what was missing. In particular the parts the local technicians had mashed in place stood out like ice on Mustufar. Even though some of the adaptations they had designed were clever in their application.

"Interesting." Rekoj kicked with his legs pushing himself deeper between circuitry and machine. There was a sharp sizzling pop accompanied by a muted flash of light which caused Rekoj to frantically back out of the hole he had dug between cabling. The Inquisitor gave his index finger a sore suck while, behind him through the tightly packed wiring, golden sparks dripped intermittently.

"Hodger." Rekoj shouted between sucking on and inspecting the scorched flesh of his finger.

Major Hodrren took a moment to realize the other Inquisitor was speaking to him and not cussing in some language unknown to him. "It's Hodrren, Major Hod-."

"Yes Hodger," He cut in, "I'll need a layout of this facility. Everything you have. From the earliest records available before your lads began work on restoring these devices and any changes they have made since."

"That should be easy there is a-"

"And hurry with elevating my security status will you? There is work to be done Hodger." Again Rekoj had cut the Major off mid sentence but this time the Inquisitor was busy walking away from the sparking mess he started. "Inquisitor Vel Aath, would you walk with me?"

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

She stood relatively near to Inquisitor Atrapes while Rekoj made himself look a fool with the machinery. Hodrren was looking rather miffed, having been subjected to a special Force ability that cemented the weak-willed man's loyalties with Inquisitor Atrapes. She was still somewhat in awe of the subtlety in the Inquisitor's abilities; usually such powers either wore off, or made the recipient a mindless drone.

At Rekoj's request, Inquisitor Vel Aath cast a sidelong look to Atrapes, who was staring at the nearest tube to himself with a thoughtful look on his face. He had definite plans for these tubes, it seemed. He was still aware enough to nod without looking away though.

Veskasa turned and strode quickly to Rekoj as he continued his 'inspection' of the chambers.

"What are you waiting for, Major?" she heard Atrapes say as she walked off, "You are not indispensible."

"Sir!" There was a slight tap as the Major's heels clicked together while he bowed and went off to get their security clearances and a map of the facility.

Vel Aath wasn't without curiosity though. This place resonated with the Force, especially the Dark Side, and she was very interested in harnessing the potential Byss held, for herself, for Inquistor Atrapes, and the Inquisitoriate.

"Is there something in particular you wanted, Inquisitor Rekoj?" she asked smoothly as she stepped into stride with him. She bit off the rest of her question, judging it unnecessary.

[Rekoj]

"Things, pieces, items and trinkets." Rekoj likely fit the case of a maddening man as his lips fluttered while his eyes tracked a series of pipes near the ceiling. Vel Aath quirked an eyebrow at the odd response. An awkward moment of silence past until Rekoj realized he hadn't quite answered the question.

"Ah. Do you know much about EmpPal SuRecon Center on Coruscant?" Her lips moved to respond but Rekoj gave her little chance before he decided to explain it anyway, "Shortly after Palpatines demise the Inquisitoriate received strange reports regarding the grand hospital tower. In our investigations we discovered a cache of artifacts and technology. One of the largest found in our agencies history. I was tasked by the Grand Inquisitor at the time in researching every bit of it."

Rekoj stopped suddenly causing the heels of his shoes to squeak over the polished floor. He then knelt down to what looked like a slightly raised square tile that fit snuggly against the wall. Val Aath concluded by the wide grin on his face that this was something he had been searching for.

"Much of it..." Rekoj began to feel his way around the edges of the square. "I recognize in this place. Though the exact technology I haven't seen before, you could say I've seen the same style and formula." He looked up at Val Aath and with a click, the raised square slid sharply back into the wall, revealing a embedded ladder leading down a dark crawl space.

"Where am I going with this and what do is it have to do with you?" Even though she hadn't asked the question the arched eyebrow had written the curious look over her face plainly.

"I need you to contact the Citadel. Use this transmission verification number and advise them of directory issue 79A. It's almost automated they'll send a ship with supplies picked from the SuRecon inventory reserves. From what I've seen I believe that should be sufficient in restoring these tubes or at least getting us pointed in a good direction for testing."

Rekoj twisted around, first on his knees, then took a step back and down into the darkened shaft.

"In SuRecon, below the medical facilities, Palpatine had constructed a dark force reservoir Im going to see if this installation has the same. Contact my comm if you need me." Rekoj shouted the last bit from the depths of the shaft before disappearing entirely.

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

Veskasa Vel Aath did not trust Rekoj at all. Even so, she only half listened to him as he relayed to her what he wanted her to do exactly.

"Sir, I am very close to catching him. I only need -"

"I have heard this for two years, Inquisitor Vel Aath. And while I grant you that he is cunning and sly, he is also ostensibly without allies or without resources, of which you have a glut. Do not tell me what you need. Do not shirk from failure, Veskasa. Learn from it. I will find him, but wherever he is, he can wait for the moment. He feels he is safe for now, and is not moving.

"Byss is nearly reconstructed. As the only Inquisitor other than myself aware of this investigation, I need you there to keep a competent watch on the station while I take care of a plan with the Rebels and the Jedi. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Don't go too far. I shall join you soon enough," was all Inquisitor Vel Aath said in reply to Rekoj's verbosity. The promise of getting these chambers active again presented much promise. Even some of the wilder ideas... Force Sensitive Inquisitoriate Stormtroopers, de facto immortality... they were acheivable, if only they could start testing.

She made her way back through the cloning chambers and to the turbolift. Neither Atrapes nor Hodrren were there, though. There was a transmission to be sent.

[Rekoj]

Dust. Dead air, Rekoj held the cuff of his sleeve up against his nose. The thick smell of it was almost choking. He had finally found it. The center of the base, metaphorically speaking, this room would be the key to reactivating the cloning cylinders. The room was laden with shadows, its walls a dark blue durasteel, curved to shape the room into a full sphere. The roof was shaped into a perfect dome and he was actually standing on a 'X' shaped catwalk as the floor was shaped to complete the sphere. Rekoj raised his comm device, which was doubling as a flash light, to get a better view of what the catwalks other ends held. A control panel to his left, to his right an elaborate case filled with various tapestries and scrolls. The cat walk broke into a small circular portion where the paths criss-crossed and in the center of the small circle was what he had been searching for since he began tracking pipes from the Cloning cylinders, the stations 'true' generator.

The station of course held its more traditional power sources but this one, Rekoj approached a dull pulsating green light licked at his shadow creased features. This was the source of power for its darker devices. It was more of a harnessing chamber with a small green crystal suspended inside. EmPal SuRecon center had the same, they could never identify the crystal at its center, anytime the chassis was opened the radiation incinerated anyone in the room.

Careful hands chased the warm metal casing until its lines lead him to a dust layered keyboard. Worse then a librarians tome, the Inquisitor mumbled drawing a line with his finger across the seal of Palpatine. The generator seemed to be intact but not activated. His fingers drummed over the keyboard more akin to a musician playing an instrument then a technician using a tool. The computer beeped. It was missing something. Rekoj bent his back and looked up following a series of cables and wires tracing them to one of the opposite catwalk ends.

Whats this then? A series of storage containers? He hadn't seen this end of the catwalk as it was blocked visually by the generator in the center. The heels of his once polished, no muck flecked shoes, echoed loudly against the metallic grating of the girders. He approached the set of heavy storage doors. The panel for which was glowing a deep red 'Locked' status.

Rekoj gave his knuckles a mischievous crack. "Interesting..."

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

"Inquisitor Vel Aath, the inventory you described has been found and is being loaded onto a secure Inquisitoriate ship. It should reach your location within a standard day if the navicomputer is correct... but it can't be--"

"I did not ask you whether it was correct or not," Vel Aath replied, cutting off yet another verbose fool. "These hyperlanes are not well travelled, and so of course you would not be skilled enough to program the navicomputer's route. The Inquisitoriate ships have the routes preprogrammed. If the navicomputer reports one day's worth of travel to get here, that is what it will be, unless some incompetent fool gets in the way. Understood?"

"...Yes. One day is estimated until arrival."

"Good. You had better hope it gets here on time."

With that last rejoinder, Veskasa cut off the connection, and turned to leave the comm station. She had a bad feeling about leaving Rekoj alone in such an area; his goals might be different from Inquisitor Atrapes', and thus her own, and if he managed to find some way to cut them off from it...

She reached the cloning chambers in two minutes and fifty-three seconds, spurred by the nameless urging of her instincts. Without a second glance, she clambered her way down to the shaft to the darkened and dusty rooms beneath.

Skipping the last few rungs on the ladder, she landed with a small ringing thud, and immediately lit a torch she had hanging on her belt. Her eyes took only a moment to get used to the bright light, and she followed the catwalk she found herself on, following it through a dark and musty corridor until she found a sealed door. A slight touch of the Force was all that was needed to clear the obstacle, and she continued into a pitch dark room save for a glow in the distance. She made her way to the glow, and a few seconds later the torch illuminated a large generator in the middle of what seemed to be a large 'x' shape made from the joining of catwalks that spanned a spherical room. There was still no sign of Rekoj.

Dismissing the uneasy feeling she had about the whereabouts of Rekoj in favour of her curiosity about the generator, Vel Aath studied the generator closely, seeing the crystal in the centre. With a cautious hand, she wiped some of the dust from the chassis; it seemed less dusty than the rest of the room, as if someone had already wiped it. The torch revealed some interesting symbols, which Vel Aath knew to be ancient Sith symbols, from either Sith magery, or alchemy, or some other Dark Art. It seemed also as if the generator was humming...

"Ah, I see you found it as well," Rekoj's voice sounded from behind her. She nearly jumped in fright, but managed to hide her reaction to the point of simply being startled. "Interesting, no? There is a similar device in EmPal SuRecon, but this one has some rather significant changes." His eyes ran over the now visible Sith symbols decorating the chassis of the crystal.

"Where were you?" Vel Aath questioned, eager to keep the conversation going and put the fright of the other Inquisitor's sudden appearance behind her.

"Oh, you know," Rekoj said with his infuriating smirk. "Following some leads."

Veskasa sneered slightly and turned to regard the crystal that was encased in the chassis. "These symbols are Sith magery or alchemy; ancient ones at that. Possibly from the era of the Sith Empire it seems... they have some odd characteristics that resemble certain flourishes used during that time."

[Rekoj]

"Indeed?" Rekoj leaned forward to peer at the crystal. It's pulsing green light reflecting a sickly shimmer in his own. Like some sly lover he was feigning interest while his hands moved with motivation elsewhere. One palm slid an aging data pad up his sleeve while the other tapped the nearby keyboard. A quick glance over Veskasa's shoulder saw the green light flash red, locking the storage container he had found earlier.

"Is archaeology a personal interest Inquisitor? Or did I miss that bit of training in your personnel file?" An imposing implication said with purpose. Rekoj had noticed several of the keys on the keyboard he had used were cleaned of dust from him entering the locking code. Veskasa gave him a look of honest curiosity and Rekoj used the moment of eye contact to neatly brush the keyboard clean, covering his tracks.

"It was an interesting read of course."

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

Vel Aath turned back to the more interesting - and honestly less off-putting - energy crystal.

"You of all people should understand that one learns all they can about what they find. Archaeology, like all other things, are a means to an end; that particular tool was not available to me at the time the personnel file was last updated."

She gently touched the runes, tracing them, mentally trying to remember what they meant and how they were used in this instance.

"If Emperor Palpatine was the one who ordered this made, he must have had considerable knowledge of the past Sith accomplishments. Whoever he ordered to make this, if not he himself, is either dead, or does not understand what they have made. I myself believe they are dead."

She stood, and brushed the dust of the legs of her uniform.

"Did you find anything of interest?" she asked, her eyes drifting to the keyboard that Rekoj had so recently tampered with. Disregarding it for the moment, she slowly circled the crystal, examining it and its chassis closely.

[Rekoj]

"Of interest?" Rekoj quirked an eyebrow doing his best to act the insulted scientist. "You mean this room, this crystal, this device, isn't of interest enough?"

The Inquisitor bent low reaching a hand under the generator to the twine of rippling cabling beneath their feet. He was adjusting something, as always, just out of Veskasa's view.

"Your a hard woman to impress Inquisitor." His breath caught in his throat for a moment as he struggled with some unseen object. An eventual releasing clink accompanied by a energetic hum filled the air. The generator pulsed once, then twice, eventually leading to several blast doors lowering in place over the glass that allowed one to look into the generator. Rekoj noticed Veskasa's apprehension at losing sight of the crystal behind several metallic shutters.

"Fret not." He tapped the keyboard and a smaller window opened up from one of the four blast shields that had been lowered. A green beam of light shot from the opening nearly bright enough to fully light the spherical room by itself. "You can still see it if you wish. The safety precautions merely activated automatically when the generator is brought online."

"You mentioned before several theories on this devices construction. I think your right. Palpatine likely drew up the plans for its construction and had the building done by several teams so neither builder could discover what it was they were constructing exactly. Then, when each team finished their part, he likely had them killed." Rekoj gave his chin a light stroke as he reflected on Palpatines efficiency. "It's the same reason EmPal tower remained such a secret to so many for so long."

"Sha'll we return to the main chamber and see if we can't get this machine to sing for us?"

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

Inquisitor Vel Aath found the spear of light which stabbed upwards (where she suspected the cloning chambers were) simply breathtaking.

"I... yes. I do wish to see," she murmured, her normally impassive face alight with wonder. But the unguarded moment was not long lived. Soon she was using the new light source to look about their surroundings; in short order she had turned around and saw the blast doors at the end of the catwalk. Without knowing it, she had come to the opposite side of the generator that faced the entrance to this chamber.

"Are those what you were investigating, Inquisitor Rekoj?" She asked rhetorically, as she did not wait for a reply, but turned away from them and began to make her way back to the entrance.

"Come along then," she said as she brushed past Rekoj. "While this may have restored a greater portion of power to the chambers, we still have to manipulate them to see if we can clone something, much less begin our more interesting experiments."

[Rekoj]

"Indeed." The trip back up through the vents felt shorter. The pair shared a relative silence between grunts and invitations to take the first step. It wasn't until they emerged from the grime filled maze that conversation resumed.

"Did you send the communication requesting the parts?" Rekoj brushed his uniform to little effect. The Inquisitor took a look of sudden helplessness with his fingers spread wide like a child struggling with a sticky treat. Veskasa gave a solid nod while wiping her hand off to the side in an attempt to fling some of the collected grime off.

"Good, good. Did they give an 'e.t.a'?" Rekoj was on the move again, this time it looked as if he was heading to the command center of the station.

[Rossos Atrapes]

“One standard day,” Vel Aath answered simply. They followed the pipes which had led them to the tile that uncovered the shaft and found themselves within moments back in the cloning chamber, which seemed brighter, and lights were now blinking and flashing on nearly all the tubes. Off to the side, a panel had rotated off the wall at an angle, and was now a console.

And there, as if waiting for them, were Inquisitor Atrapes and Major Hodrren, both of them studying the console intently, but the staccato taps of Rekoj and Vel Aath's boots on the floor warned both of their coming. Atrapes stood and faced them, with Hodrren following his movements a second later.

“Major Hodrren has your security overrides. There are a few more things that must be shown you before I must leave, so follow quickly.” Atrapes did not seem interested in the grime and dirt which had caked itself onto his protégé and her companion, and turned to make for the cloning chambers entrance.

This time, Hodrren turned to the right immediately outside the blast doors to the cloning chambers, and searched for a moment before murmuring an 'Ah!' and pressing his palm onto a smaller square panel. The panel seemingly disappeared, and a keypad was now visible. The Major entered a short series of numbers, and the wall seemed to break apart before them, different sections folding into others, until an arch was made in the wall; an entrance to another corridor, with a high security door at the end. The Major turned to look at Atrapes, who nodded, and keyed the numbers again, causing the door to begin reassembling itself. Some components spun open like gears, others slid stiffly out of another, until all that was left was a perfectly hidden wall.

“What you just witnessed is another experiment that has been worked on in this station, for use by the Inquisition until we deem it dulled down enough that releasing it to the other Bureaus and Offices will not reveal any of our secrets. Anyone with sufficient presence in the Force can open it by simply using the Force to do so.”

Atrapes stood and lackadaisically raised his palm and twitched his fingers. A voice, female and quite alluring, echoed out from around them. “Name?”

“Inquisitor Rossos Atrapes, Office of the Inquisitoriate, security number one,” Atrapes answered.

“Accepted. Welcome, Inquisitor Atrapes.” The door then broke apart once more, small hisses and hums the only sound that accompanied the sight, until it was once again the archway that allowed them entrance to the hidden corridor.

“This leads to our detention area. There are five detention blocs, with fifty cells in each. The cells are fairly large, and can accommodate up to four prisoners in each without difficulty; six if it absolutely necessary. Your test subjects have been chosen carefully, and each has some amount of Force sensitivity. They were chosen from among the Rebel prisoners we have on several different worlds. Inquisitor Vel Aath has security number two, and Inquisitor Rekoj has number three. Do not forget them,” Atrapes said. “Any questions?”

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

It seemed that there were none. Atrapes didn't wait long, and with a wave of his hand, the wall closed once more, sealing the detention block from sight. Veskasa allowed herself a moment to wonder; if she didn't already know that the door was there, she never would have seen it.

“I must go now. I leave the Station in your hands, Inquisitors. Success could very well lead to an overwhelming advantage against our enemies. Do not let the Empire, and the Inquisitoriate, down.”

Atrapes turned, and swept down the corridor to the turbolift and the shuttle that awaited to bring him back to Imperial Centre.

Major Hodrren turned to the remaining Inquisitors, and offered them their security passes.

“You are now able to access any area of Byss Station. I will be available via comm at any time. Now I will leave you to your work,” he said, and made his way to the turbolift.

“I believe that we should get started on the cloning tubes, Inquisitor Rekoj. I wish to begin testing as soon as possible,” Vel Aath shortly, making her way back into the cloning chambers and to the panel that Atrapes and Hodrren had been studying when they had returned from the cavern beneath the cloning chamber.

[Rekoj]

"Fancy door." Rekoj quipped as the turbolift doors closed behind Atrapes. The Inquisitor turned on his heels a keen eye on Vel Aath's back end as she made her way to the newly uncovered control panel.

“I believe that we should get started on the cloning tubes, Inquisitor Rekoj. I wish to begin testing as soon as possible,”

"Ahhh to test, by means of trial to discover, identify, or qualify." Rekoj gave his security card a flick before sticking the corner in his mouth to chew on. He sidled up next to Vel Aath who was already attempting to input a few commands into the console in hopes for a reaction or explanation of its use. It only took her a moment to figure it out on her own.

"Looks like you've got it working. This seems to be the primary control for the tubes. I believe..." He reached across drumming several fingers over the glyph covered keyboard. The control panel gave a deep electronic hum that seemed to travel out through the wall igniting each cloning tube with a series of statistics that sprang to life on display monitors near the corresponding cylinders. "That should activate the dark force reservoir feeding the cylinders. Now hopefully, all we have to do is decipher the data being displayed next to each cylinder to discover what their maintenance needs are."

Rekoj sounded confident but if Vel Aath had bothered to look at him she could see the doubt poorly hidden in his eyes. He was familiar with Palpatines technology to an extent but these tubes were like nothing he had encountered before.

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

"That should activate the dark force reservoir feeding the cylinders. Now hopefully, all we have to do is decipher the data being displayed next to each cylinder to discover what their maintenance needs are."

Vel Aath sniffed in derision. “Hope is what one holds to when there is nothing that can be done,” she replied, still focussing on the control panel. The information being displayed was of no use to her; merely showing her data on cylinders that were truly working. “There is always something that can be done. And powering up the cylinders are only the first part of what we need done.”

With a deft flick of her wrist, she skimmed along the panel, opening up other menus and commands, until she felt that she was familiar with the system the cylinders were operating on. She turned and stalked past Rekoj to the closest cylinder, studying the output panel on its side.

She understood much of the data presented, but couldn't understand what some of the readings were on the bottom. A straight line, as if something had died. A soft noise of frustration escaped her.

“What is this?”<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --></style> She took a closer look at that section of the panel. Beside it were three letters: F.P.D.; Forn, Peth, and Dorn. After that was the line denoting nothing detected.

“Rekoj,” she called. “Does this make any sense to you?”

[Rekoj]

"No." It was a quick answer, honest, and direct. A quick assumption of symbols common in most technologies through the universe was that a static reading was usually a flat line. In this case, however, he couldn't be sure if a flat line was a good or bad thing. This place was becoming abundantly apt at dropping mysteries onto the Inquisitors lap. His briefing on the installations history hadn't hinted to nearly half of the recent discoveries that he had uncovered under the layers of foreboding dust. This was no more a research facility then it was a tome of intentions, all of which, never seemed to come to pass.

Intentions that held a body locked away with an artifact that shockingly resembled an holocron and then there was this data pad. Rekoj let his hand briefly glide across his sealed pocket, feeling the rigid form of the pad for assurance. What was on the pad? He didn't know, but he was sure it couldn't provide him with more questions then it did answers.

"I'm not sure what it could be alluding towards." Why is there a body locked away in your masters basement Vel Aath? He was far more interested in that then uncovering the full meaning of some acronym.

"I haven't seen that inscription before? At least we know whoever designed this device held in mind the penchant for common galactic. That's a mercy."

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

“Yes,” she said, frowning at the mysterious letters. “A mercy indeed.”

She and Rekoj turned at the same time, to see Hodrren entering the chambers.

“Major,” she said, levelling a stern expression on him. He faltered in his step, but continued on after only brief hesitation.

“The prisoners have been placed in the cell bay, milord Inquisitors,” the Major reported. “Perhaps you would like to look them over, and choose which one would be first tested.”

Feeling frustration with the mysterious letters which she was sure held the answer to the full capabilities of the cloning cylinders, Vel Aath nodded.

“I will. Rekoj, continue working on the cylinders. Perhaps a moment to calm my mind will lead us to more answers.”

[Rekoj]

Rekoj inclined his head in an uncharacteristic show of respect as Vel Aath took her leave. With the pair disappearing from view Rekoj kept the facade of keeping busy for a few minutes longer until he was sure they had truly left the area. Then reaching up to the inner chest pocket of his uniform he slid the recovered data pad from its resting spot. He took a gliding step back, turning on his heel to find a suitable place in the chamber where he could keep his back to the wall while keeping an eye for anyone who might stumble onto him and his little secret pad.

"Lets see what exactly is going on here shall we?" A soft pink finger gave the data pad a tap. Nothing. Rekoj gave another frustrating tap, again nothing. He brought his finger away the tip now covered in dust. "Well frell."

At least with the maintenance crews moving through trying to restore the chamber they had left some tools near one of the cylinders. Rekoj scooped, a spanner into his palm, using the flat edge to pry open the data pads casing. The chamber echoed with a crack as the casing came loose, crumbling dust down around the Inquisitors feet. The circuitry looked fine, there were no scorch marks that might have indicated a short circuit. Pinned between finger and thumb the inquisitor gently pried free the memory then with a twist of his wrist held the cell against the light for inspection. It too looked fine.

"Fine be that way." The Inquisitor grumbled pulling out his own data pad and slipped the data cell into the corresponding port. Then, with a tap of a still dusty fore finger the pad sprung to life.

New Data detected --
Accessing...

Menuk's Datapad

--07 We have begun testing of the cloning cylinders with various test subjects. So far, there have been no successes, but that was anticipated. A malfunction in Tube 5 led to the need to completely repair it. Thankfully, it seems that the manner of the Emperor's death has stalled his return; perhaps he needs to be called? Only the Prophets know of this, but they will say nothing.

--08 No successes still, and no reasons for the complete failures. Inquisitor Drakkar was struck with an idea though, and we will see if it is what we need to complete the testing. He asserts that the spirit of the person must be called back to the body, and then the spirit must possess it. The Prophets know of this process, but are still unwilling to divulge the answers we seek. Inquisitor Drakkar claims that Inquisitor Atrapes is in possession of a holocron which holds the answer.

--09 Inquisitor has instituted a new test subject, and cloning of her body has begun. It should take two days to completely age the bodies to a level of development that is presently viable for our use.

--11 Using the Jewel, we attempted to transfer the woman's spirit. Unsuccessful. Nearly all our clones are gone. We will be raising a new batch tonight in preparation.

--12 After many hours of testing and five testing subjects succumbing, we have finally had success, though it was with a child's body. We have isolated several different elements necessary for the Spirit to take hold of the body: as with the Emperor, the blood must be that which belonged to the person who is to be transferred. It is unknown what quality the blood holds, as testing has proven to be difficult, given the genetic differences between people in the first place, and no control can be applied to note the differences between those with Force presence and those without. The clone body itself must remain inanimate until the joining is complete; though most clone bodies fail, some have proven to remain alive and one even achieved consciousness before we were forced to kill it, though no Force presence was detected by the machine, indicating that it is a mixture of the blood and the spirit which provide the abilities to use the Force. The Holocron, which is still held by Inquisitor Atrapes at this time, is not completely necessary to the completion of the process, though Inquisitor Drakkar believes it holds the key to transferral into an adult body.

The spirit used in testing was not agreeable, and this hampered our testing greatly. Though she has touched and seems to continue to touch the Dark Side, her unwillingness led to the failure of four testing subjects. The loss of the fifth was assumed to be due to complications with an adult body. Further testing will be needed, and the Holocron should be the key in our understanding of this process.

--15 There was a partial success of and adult transferral. The test subject was alive, breathing, and conscious. Both present Inquisitors and the machine detected the Force presence of the subject. However, the body began to convulse and to reject the spirit, before failing. We were hard pressed to reclaim her with the Jewel, but it was done and testing can continue, as we have no way of understanding how to trap a spirit in the Jewel in the first place, though reclaiming them seems to be much easier. It has been postulated that the spirit's Dark Side resonance is in her refusal to release her grief as to some past action or event, and not through anger or some other uninhibiting emotion. This may represent the problem in transferral to an adult body, as the power of her grief may be unintentionally sabotaging the test. The child body's mind seems to be better able to deal with the grief, though as of yet we do not completely understand how.

--17 Tomorrow Atrapes will arrive. We have hidden the body to make the capture easier; apparently Inquisitor Drakkar knows of some connection between the woman and Inquisitor Atrapes, and fears his reaction should he see it. This presents a problem. With Inquisitors Vel Aath and Iscandar present, we should have no trouble overpowering him and taking the Holocron, or forcing the location of it out of him.


End -- Close File?

-- Save.

Deactivating the pad Rekoj slid it back into his uniforms concealed breast pocket. "Blue skies...smiling at me" The Inquisitor smiled giving his heel a musical tap into the deck plating.

"Nothing but blue skies." With a twist Rekoj slid away from the cylinder he had taken refuge near and began to saunter back toward the control panel. "Do I see."

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

Her fingers twitched.

“Name?”

“Inquisitor Veskasa Vel Aath, Office of the Inquisitoriate, security number two,” she replied.

“Accepted. Welcome Inquisitor Vel Aath.”

Behind the hidden door the corridor to the detention area was actually quite short. Brightly lit by white lights, which reflected off the glossy black surfaces of the corridor itself, Inquisitor Vel Aath stopped at another set of doors. These were large blast doors, with no control pad to open or close them. This didn't halt Vel Aath for very long; with another brush of the Force, the blast doors opened quickly, and the beautiful Inquisitor strode into the detention bay.

The bay was a glossy black, like all other surfaces in the under levels of Byss Station, with the individual cells only accessible by a single transparisteel door. Each cell had been designed with the clear doors, but the positioning of each particular door to the others was cleverly thought out: no other cell was visible from the cell door. There would be no attempts at communication among the prisoners here. Each cell could hold a maximum of six prisoners.

“Why the isolation between the cells, but make the cells hold more than one prisoner?” She asked the Major. The Major smiled slightly, remembering that he had asked the same question of Inquisitor Atrapes, who had supplied the major schematics for the detention bay himself.

“Inquisitor Atrapes instituted this himself. This station is not for the holding of criminals for their crimes, Inquisitor, but for subjects of the Inquisitoriate in their projects and testing, and sometimes for conversion. Each cell is clear of any sort of furnishings, and the walls are equipped with six bunks and facility for bodily functions of that same number. Each bunk can be if necessary cut off from the others by way of a force field. All of which are active now in the occupied cells.”

Vel Aath stalked toward one of the cells, and once more gestured with her hand. This time, she was not heeded.

“I apologize for not telling you sooner, Inquisitor,” Hodrren murmured, “but due to the nature of our prisoners, we installed safeguards against just those sorts of techniques.”

Veskasa nodded curtly, wondering at the choice in prisoners. Surely they weren't all Force sensitive? “Open the door then, Major.”

The transparisteel door slid up with a nearly silent hiss of air, and the Inquisitor marched into the cell, noting that the prisoners were all force sensitive, and some fairly glowed with power. None were trained it seemed, however.

“Ah,” said one, an average sized man sitting lackadaisically on his bunk. “Finally come to see us to our dooms, eh? 'Bout time I say.”

“His name is Rosh Apinea. He was captured in a raid on a Rebel cell on the planet of Fondor,” Hodrren said quickly, correctly interpreting the slight cocking of the woman's head to mean that she wanted to know the name without asking.

“Perhaps, Apinea,” Vel Aath hummed, fixing him with a Force strengthened stare. “But perhaps you needn't die. You're here to serve a purpose, and the Empire will undoubtedly have further need of you if you manage to survive. I am interested in you, Rosh Apinea. You have potential that the Empire and I could use.”

Apinea's eyes slid almost against his will over her body. His will was not weak; he'd been trained to overcome interrogation and attempts to make him defect. But the Rebellion was only starting to become familiar with techniques on how to deflect the interrogations of the Inquisitors, and even then only the strong-willed could hope to do so. As could be well guessed, the majority by far were not strong-willed.

“We will not use him. Immediately anyway,” Vel Aath noted. Hodrren nodded and made the note in his datapad.

“Her. We will use her first,” the Inquisitor pointed at a silent woman in the far left corner. “We are not ready yet, but prepare her for testing. Claim tissue samples and all that we will need for the cloning process. Understood?”

“Yes, Inquisitor.” The Major bowed, and left the room to complete her orders. Vel Aath turned to Apinea, who hadn't torn his eyes from her. She let a small wisp of a smile coat her lips, and then she turned away, heading back to the cloning chambers to see if they could not figure out how to...

Her eyes widened. 'All the prisoners are Force sensitive. That means they all have...'

She nearly ran back into the chambers. “Rekoj!” she called.

Force Presences. They all had Force Presences. It didn't answer the question on how to activate the tubes fully, but it did answer the burning question that she had been wanting to ask all along:

'Why were these cloning tubes so special?'

[Rekoj]

Rekoj had unintentionally lost himself into the puzzle that was Byss station. His vision tunneled on the control panel, with its myriad of blinking neon diagrams and stone glyphs that seemed to take a little bit of him every time his fingers danced across their cold surface. That is why his face suddenly flushed with embarrassment when he found himself jumping at Vel Aath's sudden entrance.


"Rekoj!"

He sighed, playing off the embarrassment as irritation, and let his shoulder slump back down into a relaxed position.

"Oh, darling, you've returned. How I've missed you so."

The control panel beeped almost angrily as if to let him know the joke was not funny. In actuality he had been trying to reset the primary buffer core used in what he thought would be the sampling for inputting a subjects D.N.A. and he had failed the input, again, for the eighth time in a row. The Inquisitor turned to face Vel Aath, who had her hands settled in unamused fashion on her hips.

Rekoj cleared his throat and turned back to the panel. "Something on your mind?"

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

“Forn, Peth, and Dorn,” she said triumphantly, ignoring his usual irritating manner of joking. “The machines are able to detect Force Presences of the subjects, though I don't know how.”

It should have been impossible, to be sure. The Force was a spiritual power, and technology lacked the feelings and mental senses to detect one's ability to touch the Force. At least, that's what she had thought before this revelation.

“All the subjects in the detention area are Force sensitive,” she said as she moved toward the control panel, almost shouldering Rekoj out of the way. The man merely seemed like he wasn't going to move, and even as if he were going to smoothly 'lead' her into position in front of the panel, but refrained at the last moment. She was aware of the movements anyway and was irritated even more, which was likely why Rekoj had done it.

“For some reason, these machines were made with some way detecting the Force potential of a being. Why, I do not know, though I expect Inquisitor Atrapes does.”

The last was said irritably, frustrated that her mentor had given her this objective with so little information on the goals and scheme of it.

“We'll be able to test as soon as we are brought out our first testing material and subject, which shouldn't be long now.”

[Rekoj]

The Inquisitor gave his lip a rub to hide the smile he felt creeping in and quickly replaced it with a look of thoughtful surprise. So she had figured it out on her own, cunning woman. She didn't even need the cheat sheet Rekoj had found earlier that spelled out the tubes exact use in plain galactic common.

"Well if popular theory plays true this installation was originally designed by Palpatine. It certainly has touches of his style throughout. Especially in the force reservoir beneath us. Logically, that means we can conclude Palpatine had designs on creating some sort of force sensitive clones? Perhaps the beginning of an advanced new clone army. Or even.."

Rekoj raised his eyebrows and gave an absent minded nod of amusement at the boldness Palpatine had. Not even death would escape the man's prowess at manipulation.

"...An entire installation specially designed to create clones in his image. Any reason your boss would want to keep some of these keen facts a secret from us?"

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

“There are any number of reasons why he would not have told us,” Veskasa replied, studiously ignoring the implications Rekoj was not so subtly hinting at. “The most likely being that he doesn't trust us with the specific facts on this just yet.”

She smirked, twisting one of Rekoj's favoured expressions into something that fit her quite nicely. “I do not have any illusions in that regard, Rekoj. And I doubt that the chance of us finding out the capabilities of this particular facility never crossed his mind.”

With that said, she returned to trying to separate one tube from the grid format that the chambers had been programmed in with obvious determination. It was proving somewhat difficult; about as difficult as silencing the little questions in her mind.

“In any matter, Force sensitive clone projects have been undertaken before by the Inquisitoriate. All have failed. The only question I have is what did Palpatine know or have that allowed him to make this breakthrough?”

She stopped, finally having set one tube on a grid of its own. With a few more commands, the cloning tube in particular began to come to life, the panels on its side flickering into action as they recorded and recorded again the states within the sealed environment within.

“Besides sheer ability in the Dark Side, of course,” she said wryly while checking the tube. It was still not fully powered up. She huffed in frustration and set about this next puzzle in her mind.

[Rekoj]

Absurd. The only reason Atrapes hadn't divulged the mysterious facts about this installation was because he was hiding something. Something Rekoj had already discovered. It was in that small moment Rekoj considered Vel Aath with a look of soft suspicion. Was she a willing or an unwilling participant in this dusty 'who done it' theatric. From the corner of his eye he watched her benignly as she diligently went about reading the status feeds from one tube in particular. Those rosie cheeks lit by snow white skin and those eager brown eyes trying so hard to determine the puzzling taste of her task.

No, even under the masking dress of an Inquisitor her avidity for truly solving this enigma was clear. She would need to be watched closely when the time came. It would be a pity to lose such a keen mind to something so trivial as loyalty to Atrapes.

Rekoj touched the cusp of his upper lip with the tip of his tongue as he turned back to the control panel at his finger tips. There was no downplaying the frustration he had felt earlier when trying to unravel this machine. It was a mixture of science and a religion. If he recalled his history correctly the two philosophies were never found holding hands. Not to mention the Sith religion became extinct at Endor with the death of Palpatine. Finding the proper path on how to make the devices function, let alone, manipulate it to produce a result could have taken the pair months. But with the data he had found it was a simple matter of slowly leaking the information into plain sight and...

The tube Vel Aath was studying heaved with a pulse of energy that quickly subsided as the tube began to open. Rekoj slid his hands away from the control panel and folded them across his chest in a look of smug satisfaction.

"I believe we're ready for the first test."

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

“The heart is beating. Beginning to monitor vitals.”

The clone was beginning to shiver, though it wasn’t due to any feeling of cold. Inquisitor Vel Aath clinically watched as the shivering transformed into full blown spasms. The suggestion to use a child’s body was Rekoj’s idea, one which aroused curiosity in Vel Aath. A child was not as useful for determining the usefulness of this technology as an adult. Somehow, the efficiency of time gained from ageing only to childhood didn’t seem like the real reason he’d suggested it.

But there was time for her to ponder that question later. She turned to watch Inquisitor Atrapes for his reaction. As of yet, there was nothing to read on his face; he was completely silent and unreadable, even in the force.

“We eventually found out the machines detect the force presence within a subject indirectly, Inquisitor,” she said, as the child’s spasms lessened in intensity but picked up in frequency. “There is a layer of crystal within the tube, which reacts to the force-potential of the subject and vibrates. The machine reads the vibrations and estimates the Force presence of the subject.”

Inquisitor Atrapes regarded Vel Aath a moment, and turned back to the tube holding the child.

“Ingenious,” he said after a moment.

“Yes,” she replied, turning back to the console. The readouts changed and she began to call out the data she was receiving. “The tremors are calming. Subject is still unconscious, but alive. Force Presence detected on a scale of 4.324.”

Atrapes nodded, his eyes still fixed on the clone. There was a gleam in his eyes when looking at it.

“Well done,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back. “Rekoj, speak with me a moment. Vel Aath, continue monitoring the clone.”

[Tear]

Savor the blindness child. For that unnatural womb is all that bars you from a world of monsters.

Rekoj clutched his jaw, burying his chin into the curve of his hand between thumb and finger. A rough line of stubble had grown thick and sharp over his jaw line and cheeks. Hygiene becoming an after thought at the end of each long lived work day when he managed to stumble into his quarters. He had managed a shave three days ago when one morning he startled himself in the bathroom not recognizing the disheveled man in the mirror.

Now the thicker stubble he become accustomed to felt comforting as he mused to himself in the site of their creation. The birth of something not quite human. Not quite man made as you could claim with a droid. It was something else.

In the background Vel Aath rang off her readings. Rekoj didn't need to be force sensitive to feel the brimming anticipation that hung in the air like a bad smell. The Inquisitor tried to play the part of concern even though he was sure the instructions he had fed Val Aath would work. The body twitched and seized to life.

Fascinating.

The familiar voice of Inquisitor Atrapes rang sharply through the room from behind.


“Well done, Rekoj, speak with me a moment. Vel Aath, continue monitoring the clone."
Rekoj gave the console he was manning a tap and hopped down from the raised step quickly coming alongside the Inquisitor. "What do you think of her?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

“She is fascinating,” Atrapes said quietly, his eyes not having left the cloned girl. “So much potential within her; so much we can use to strengthen our hand against our enemies’.”

Atrapes sighed lightly. “It was disappointing to note that there was no chance of sensitivity without the death of the original specimen. However, breeding is certainly an open option to amassing a greater number of sensitive specimens for use by the Empire, in testing and in bolstering our forces.

“In fact, that is what I want you to do, Rekoj,” Atrapes said, his eyes drifting from the clone to Vel Aath, and finally, to the other Inquisitor. “Continue testing to see what may come from breeding cloned specimens whose originals are still living. And begin to raise a new set of clones but do not apply the growth techniques beyond those used by the Kaminoans, even if it means a longer time before we can fully use this facility. We need a better rate of success.”

The data had been clear: the most recent growth techniques for tissue had been worked out for small samples and medicinal testing to test the effects at the different “ages” of the tissue to stand for the different ages of the people who would be taking the medicine or drugs. The Inquisitors had applied the process to the entire body; it had worked, but rates of cancerous growths had multiplied exponentially, sometimes early on in the process of growing the foetuses, completely negating their tests and often killing the subject. Even without genetic problems and cancers, the stresses of such quick growth made the infusion process quite dangerous and many subjects had died. Atrapes was sure that the will of the spirit involved was instrumental in keeping the body alive after a successful infusion.

But it had worked, in the end. They had successfully circumvented death, and were well on the way to polishing up the process.

“Subject is entering cardiac arrest,” Vel Aath called out, her fingers stridently flying across the panel to prolong the specimen’s life. “Failure imminent. Nervous impulses slowing.”

She fell silent in her focus to circumvent the latest obstacle to quick use of this technology. Unfortunately, the long pitch of the heart monitor gave witness to the inevitable result.

“One cannot have too much control over Life, it seems, before It begins reasserting Its independence,” Atrapes murmured, intrigued by the sight and feelings of the girl's death.

[Rekoj]

“One cannot have too much control over Life, it seems, before It begins reasserting Its independence,” Atrapes murmured, intrigued by the sight and feelings of the girl's death.

Says you, Rekoj thought to himself smugly. "I'll begin work immediately."

The Inquisitor had managed only a few steps away from Atrapes when his comm chimed. An internal message from the station alerting him the transport he had requested Vel Aath send for from Coruscant, had finally arrived. All be it much later then he had informed her it would take. The two day passage somehow taking over two weeks for its arrival. Rekoj tapped a personal log into the stations manifest noting the odd tardiness of the transport time.

"Inquisitor Rekoj." His communication blipped to life.

"Go ahead."

"Inquisitor Vel Aath had requested you be contacted when the transport she requested from Imperial Center arrived."

"Thank you Major. I got the message. How many transports did they send?"

"Three cargo vessels sir. The manifest from the Citadel reads spare parts from SuRecon center."

"Excellent. Keep the contents under security until I request otherwise. Those ships hold some of our greatest secrets Major."

"As you will Inquisitor." The communication flicked out conveniently as Rekoj arrived at his personal lab. Much unknown to either Atrapes or Vel Aath he had been replicating the experiments that both he and Vel Aath had been conducting in the public lab. But in private the Inquisitor had been following a slightly different course. Utilizing the holocron he had uncovered in the stations center he was close to discovering its purpose. The transfer of energy. From what source he couldn't be sure but the readings would indicate that such energy could sustain the cloned body it once transferred inside.

"Computer. Authorization 54-32 Beta. Project File: Lullaby. Progress?"

- Process of cloned organics complete. Harness of intangible energies indicated by artifact in process. Time until transfer reaches critical three hours, forty-two minutes, thirty-two seconds. -

"Good, and the multi routed access to the crystal reservoir I uncovered?"

- Access has been hidden and routed through multiple ports. -

"Ah. Good. Now we wait."

[Rossos Atrapes]

He was unaware what exactly had reminded him of the object. He was aware that he was suddenly unable to get the remembrance out of his head. The strength of the conviction that the holocron would lead him to some breakthrough (though exactly how was beyond him) led him to believe that the Force was pushing him to find it once more.

So it was that Inquisitor Atrapes called a Stormtrooper squad to him and imparted their orders, and that retrieval of the artefact was paramount. They were only minutes away from uncovering the secret of staving off the death of the subject without the blasted thing, but still the niggling suspicion that the holocron would lead to a discovery remained.

Vel Aath gave him a curious glance from her station at the entrance of the soldiers, but remained silent and continued working on the last few factors that were giving them issue.

"...Beneath this laboratory, in one of the shielded entrances, should be a cryogenic container and a few old articles left behind by their previous owner. I will check the other location, where it will be more likely to be found. If you find it, contact me immediately, and no one else."

"Yes sir," the sergeant replied, and saluted. The squad turned, and marched off. Atrapes himself left and made his way through the station to the less frequented sections, where the Prophets of Palpatine had once lived and worked themselves. It was in this section, where the living quarters were, that Atrapes opened a compartment with a code and a push of the Force.

He did not expect what he saw.

[Rekoj]

Rekoj squirmed uncomfortably. Trying his best to ignore a ticklish bead of sweat as it rolled down from his hair line. The Inquisitors hands were currently occupied with the side panel to his room. The measured strain of his activity was causing a vein to pop in his forehead until, with a dull crack, the sheet of durasteel paneling came away in his hands. Behind the panel was the glow of a plasma conduit.

"Good." He mumbled to himself, scratching irritatedly at the line of sweat the bead had drawn.

It was complete. The experiments had proved a success. The holocron's additional data provided the crucial answers to variables that had kept derailing the project. Laying in an induced sleep was a young woman. Her heart steady. Her eyes roaming restlessly beneath closed eyelids. A nightmare no doubt, Rekoj thought as he regarded her from across the room. Nightmares were easy to come by in times like these. How sad it would be when she realized that even awake she could not escape them.

The Inquisitor straightened. In his palm a small diamond shape came to life. Sharp clicks prelude to eight sprouting mechanical legs. The droid crawled up his arm and came to a restless stop at his shoulder. Rekoj simply reached out creating a bridge from his arm with his finger tips hovering just apart from the humming plasma conduit. The spider droid wasted no time. Its eight legs clicking a path down the bridge of flesh and onto the conduit. A brief scan and it was gone into the darkness.

Crossing the room Rekoj made a slow three hundred and sixty degree examination. Spotless. All that remained in the room was the small incubation chamber, now a makeshift stasis casket, which held his prize. On a table next to chamber was a small black case. Inside of that was a data pad which detailed the entire process from the cloning techniques to the technology used. Then there was the holocron and the jewel both vital to the process of creating her. Rekoj gave the stasis chamber's control panel a tap causing the bed to hum to life. It then began to slowly fall backward from a vertical position into a more mobile horizontal transport mode.

Grabbing the black case Rekoj, shot out his arm and raised his wrist to eye level checking his chrono. "Five seconds to spare."

4...
3..
2.
1

Several decks below in the stations darkest belly energies began to stir. The emerald crystal housed in a case of ancient symbols and the seals of Palpatine began to tremble. After its discovery by Rekoj it had been successfully reawakened. Activated and shunting it's dark reservoir of power to the cloning cylinders above. Now though, after a specific command was given to it from a maze of rerouted commands originating from Rekoj's personal terminal it began a new purpose, self destruct.

First the casing cracked open with a scream. Flakes of emerald snow forming from thin air began to fall with each brightening green pulse. The sphere shaped walls hissed beneath fingers of spreading flame. Leaving the walls a charred and melted black. Barely withholding the lethality of radiation that poured from the crystals rapidly increasing pulses.

Even with the brunt of the radiation retained within the room the side effects were becoming clear. Across the station electronics fizzled to images of static interference. Readings both mild and exotic spiked. Leaving medical examiners and flight operators alike in spots of blind confusion. But more importantly security emitters and camera's suddenly went offline. That was when the doors to Rekoj's quarters slid open. Whistling a tune the Inquisitor emerged guiding a floating stasis casket with a black case sat on top of it.

[Rossos Atrapes]

It wasn't there.

Almost as soon as he had looked, tremors shook the station, ending quickly. Atrapes could feel the situation slowly spinning out of control, like a planet losing control of its orbit and spiralling into a star.

“Vel Aath, report!” he roared into his communicator.

“There is a meltdown within the reservoir beneath the cloning chamber. The soldiers sent there are dead from radiation poisoning already. I have ordered the cloning chambers evacuated and all information involving the process to be remotely stored.”

“Where is Rekoj?” he asked, his stride lengthening. Vel Aath paused.

“I don't know. He was due here with some results five minutes ago.”

“Seal off the landing bays and send all available soldiers to the hangar. Alert any orbiting ships, see if we have an Interdictor. He must not leave!”

Vel Aath's expression firmed as she nodded, but she voiced her doubt anyway.

“Sir, we have no evidence that it was Rekoj,” she began, but Atrapes' look of barely contained rage silenced her. It wasn't often that he allowed his emotional state to be even seen, much less felt.

“It was him,” Atrapes said. “Salvage as much as possible Vel Aath.”

Alarms sounded over his head as he pounded his way back to the hangar, and black-armoured soldiers filed into place behind and around him, matching his pace as they all headed to the hangar in something close to a sprint.

[Rekoj]

The durasteel plating shuddered. That metallic skin of the aging base crawled encouraged by the growing violence in it's stomach. A violent tempest of neon green working itself into a critical fit. Treading a confident series of steady foot steps was Rekoj, still whistling (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QnlzsPdzI&feature=related), the floating casket in short tow. The one man parade stopped outside of a closed door.

"Krrzztt -eel off the lan-Zzrrkt." The stations internal communications were being interfered with by the torrents of radiation pouring from the stations force reservoir. Even so the voice of Vel Aath brought a smirk to Rekoj's lips. "I Rep-rrzzzt No ships are allow-rzz-eave orbit. Szzrt-eal the hanger."

"This won't take a moment darling." Rekoj turned on his heel and reached over the casket. Popping the black case open and revealing a small orb. He gave the casket a comforting pat. "I'll be right back."

---

Hanger bay control room.

Control officer Leoni was squinting hard, holding his earpiece tight trying to confirm the order. He and Inquisitor Bellidon were trading looks of uncertainty as their still steaming caffs began dancing across their consoles to the tune of dimming lights overhead.

"Did she just say to seal the hanger?" Leoni raised a calm hand blocking his vibrating mug from shattering onto the floor.

"It's what I heard." Inquisitor Bellidon began pecking in the proper codes to close the great durasteel bay doors. "The hells...

A hiss from the control room door caused both Imperials to turn. The door was open but no one was standing there.

"...going on?" Bellidon finished as a small bouncing orb was flung around the corner. The two officers managed to share another brief look of uncertainty before an exploding light filled the room.

---

Rekoj strolled into the room with a hand drumming idly against his still holstered blaster. A quick survey of the smoldering room and the two officers, one slumped over his console the other limp against the back of his chair.

"Excuse me." A gloved hand gave a harsh shove sending Officer Leoni tumbling onto the floor with a groan. Both Inquisitors were alive simply left unconscious from the stun grenade. Rekoj clucked, "Tsk tsk. Almost got them doors shut didn't you?" A simple button press and the hanger doors halted with a deep metallic thrum. A secondary press and the force fields retracted un-zipping back into the walls.

But beneath the high positioning of the control room, Rekoj could see the first responding troops begin flooding into the hanger bay. In another few moments the entire bay would be cut off entirely. Just enough time Rekoj thought, with a glance to the watch that sat on his wrist as he slunk away from the glass view ports of the control room. His fingers reached beneath the mechanical wrist band of his watch activating a small button which in turn sent a signal to the two massive transport ships currently sitting in the belly of the hanger bay.

"For the rebellion."The Inquisitor remarked mildly slapping a small black package onto the wall just inside the doorway to the control room as he exited back into the hall.

Several floors below the two Imperial transports began to hum to life. The few Inquisitors who had already made it into the hanger, along with those posted as guards, raised their weapons cautiously. They had been told to seal the hanger but they weren't expecting the two looming transports would be the threat.

"Are those things crewed?" An Inquisitors voice chirped to life over the internal communications.

"I'm not sure. Control, can we get a confirmation on that?" One of the Inquisitors stepped away from his post glancing up to the control room. "Control? Control do you co-Hurrk!"

The Inquisitors body twirled hips over head as a rapid series of blaster bolts tore through him. Various automated turrets slid from hidden panels along the transport unleashing a chaotic spray of weapons fire across the hanger. The Inquisitors, most standing in the open guarding entrances, scrambled for cover. The transports each held four larger ship to ship turrets mounted on swivels. These too began to slowly roam across the room. Pausing for a moment, at particular spots where the Inquisitors had gathered for cover, then spitting forth a base shaking blast.

"For the Rebellion!" A valiant cry. The left cargo ship had dropped its main cargo ramp. Out of it came a stream of soldiers bearing the colors and insignias of the Rebellion.

The Inquisitors who had been within the hanger had since retreated back into the hallways under the withering fire of the shuttles. Now they were being further pressed by the flood of Rebel soldiers forcing their way inside the compound.

With the hanger clear the right cargo ship began to shudder. It's engines searing to life and lifting its great girth into the air and out of the hanger bay. Coming clear from the hanger the transport floated across the surface of the base. It's weapons taking the first few manned turrets by surprise with a flash of red weapon fire. Just like it's counter part still within the hanger bay the shuttle suddenly opened at it's base spilling forth three small shuttles.

---

They opened, peeling back with a hiss, doors of polished white mimicking the man, his lips peeling back to reveal a toothy smile. Rekoj peered into the turbolift shaft, its great empty length conducting a whining gust up into his face, disheveling his hair.

"This'll do." He announced to the hollow space his voice disappearing in an echo. Turning back into the hallway he gave the floating casket several quick taps into a side console. The hovering emitters brightened ushering the casket forward into the turbolift shaft. The capsule paused, recalibrating its flight path, then with a bolt of movement began to rapidly ascend.

"And now..." Rekoj checked his wrist chrono. "The crescendo."

The stations systems and her controllers were doing their best to recover from catastrophic power failure. Combined with the fact the power failure and now power drain had drenched the station with a debilitating shower of interference it had left the stations crew scrambling to restore operations. Now, nearly eight in a half minutes after the event occurred, Major Firmus Hodrren was now able to clearly contact Rosses Atrapes with a sitrep.

"Lord Inquisitor. We have managed to fully restore communica-KRRzzt-"

Deep below, with it's harnessing chamber having melted away, the force reservoir crystal hovered in the center of the spherical room. Rippling waves of emerald energy lapping outwards in streams against the stations walls. Fingers of deadly energy teasing its surroundings for any crack of weakness that might spell destruction for the entire station. It shivered, vibrated, and shook, increasing in pitch and sound until every person on board the station could hear it. Blaster fire and screams of pain, the drama of battle unfolding across the station being drowned out. Until finally it stopped. The crystal silenced. A small snaking crack forming outward from it's center. Slow at first like a crack in ice. A sliver feeling its crooked path to every weak point until finally finding oblivion in the space outside. The force reservoir shattered into millions of tiny shards.

Across the station lights dimmed to darkness. Display monitors and panels faded to an inactive dull gray. In the absence of a climatic explosion there was a void. Power from every source on the station had been sapped away with the destruction of the crystal. The crystals black legacy was short lived, however, as the stations back up generators flicked on dousing the stations hallways and rooms in red light.