9.108 - Information Overload (Council Members)

[Serena Laran]

Serena Laran stood outside the room that was serving as the Jedi Council meeting place. Inside the Whaladon space was at a premium, and the room set aside for the Council reflected that. No grand space with high ceilings and expansive windows and custom made chairs as in the Jedi Temple. No, the Council of the Jedi Enclave made do with a conference room on board their Action IV transport.

She was early for her appointment, standing to the side as others passed her in the cramped hallway going about the daily business that was being a Jedi in the Wheel convoy. With the recent news about a Sith in the Alliance, and then the attack on the Whaladon itself by a Dark side adept, things were more hectic than usual.

And yet a calmness permeated the ship. Everyone knew their purpose and was set toward it. As she was set toward hers. The Council needed to know what she knew about lightsaber crystals, and where they could be found.

[Daria Nytherciria]

Daria stood over the conference table, both hands laid flat against its surface. There was something reassuring in the familiarity of the wood-grain beneath her fingertips, a connection to wood and water and grass and air – real air. She drew in deep breath and pictured the plains of Vortex, wind whispering through tall grass. When she inhaled, she could almost smell the damp earth. The Force moved through her, cleansing and calming.

Though she had become accustomed to space flight, over time, Daria could not deny how much she longed to set foot on solid ground again. It was a wish that felt further and further away with each passing day. Now more than ever before, her time was consumed with being one of the few remaining members of a Council that had been small to begin with.

As she turned away from the conference table to face the room's only door, Daria felt Navaria shifting her attention from the panoramic view of the stars to the threshold through which the Council's next guest would soon emerge.

“Please, come in, Serena.”

[Serena Laran]

She raised her head, and entered slowly, standing at the end of the conference table and looking at the two Jedi in the room. Naravia and Daria - she knew them both well from their time on Vortex and then Cloud City. Since then, however, circumstances had kept the three women apart. Serena clenched her jaw involuntarily as she remembered her captivity with the Empire, and had to take a moment to breathe and relax.

"Thank you for taking the time to see me," she began, and then looked for the third member of the Enclave's council. "Are we waiting for Master Kizael?"

"No - unfortunately Drin has been called away from the Wheel by the Force. Indefinitely."

"I am sorry to hear that. His wisdom will be missed." Serena clasped her hands in front of her, and then took the seat offered by Navaria as the other two women also sat. "I wanted to share a resource with the Jedi. I have not kept this to myself on purpose, but I feel that it is now past time to share that I know where we can find crystals suitable for use in lightsabers (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?p=364046#post364046)."

[Zem Vymes]

Seated opposite the female councilors, Zem had an easy posture as he leaned back, hands draped over each armrest.

"Saber crystals, you say?"

He looked to Navaria and Daria both. It was painfully clear they were in short supply, what with most of their padawan base resorting to using glorified wooden dowels for sparring.

"The only location I know of for natural crystals is Illum."

His expression grew a bit more grim.

"And the Empire is under no illusions about its importance."

[Serena Laran]

Serena nodded. "Yes, this is so. Illum has not been an option for many years. Skywalker and Palpatine locked it up and it is a trap we dare not spring, so few in numbers as we are.

"However, on RX-271, the planet in the Outer Rim where I lived during my exile, there is a cave with crystals that may be used to create lightsabers. I traveled there with Morgan Evanar and Sol Iman, so Morgan could finish the construction of his lightsaber." She held her hands out, palms up. "The cavern is not large but there are more than enough crystals there for our current needs. And the cave system is larger than I could explore, there may very well be more pockets of suitable crystals hidden within."

[Daria Nytherciria]

Daria considered this new information with a faint frown.

“This planet... what sort of population does it support? Are there neighbouring worlds within the system?”

[Navaria Tarkin]

Navaria remained silent next to Daria, listening intently to the information that Serena has brought to them. It seemed almost too fortuitous that there was another option then Ilum. But if it were true, there were still too many factors to consider that Daria had voiced that needed to be answered.

[Serena Laran]

"It is a pre-industrial world that supports close to three million sentients," Serena said. "I never actually did a count, and they keep no records themselves. It is in the Sumitra sector, Waullo system... the Empire has maintained a small comm relay post there to boost communications in the sector for the Tierfon Sector Fleet. Since my incarceration the base has been expanded and the local population practically enslaved..."

She took a deep breath. She was wandering off her point. "There are no neighboring worlds that support life. A few gas giants, and other planets, but that is it."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem frowned at this turn of events.

"Then it is likely the Empire is fully aware of the strategic importance of this place."

He steepled his fingers together, looking at the red-headed Jedi.

"We need more information to make a move on this. The situation you describe doesn't afford much more opportunity for us than Ilum does. What else can you tell us?"

[Serena Laran]

"The Empire has never explored the planet on foot, although what geological scans they have done from orbit, I do not know." Serena took a deep breath. "I feel that the increased activity on the planet is simply in response to finding out the people harbored me for so many years. A punishment for them... and for me."

[Daria Nytherciria]

“Am I to understand correctly, that you discovered only a single cave on this planet containing suitable crystals?” Daria asked, looking from Zem to Serena.

“If this is so, it is possible that the Empire has no knowledge of the caves' existence, though such ignorance cannot last.”

[Zem Vymes]

Zem was still troubled by unknowns. He stretched out with the force, looking for a stray thread to pull with which to unravel some truth from the confusion. Despite his initial misgivings, there was something of promise in this mission.

"If we're discrete and quick about it, we could take advantage of this resource before the Empire can respond to our action, but the margin for error is nonexistant."

He looked to Serena.

"You're the expert on this place. I'd like to hear your plan."

[Abarai Loki]

Loki was running. In his hand there was a datapad, it was cradled against his chest. He shouted at a crowd of padawans as he beared down upon them, they parted, hugging walls as he raced past. It was an uncharacteristic departure from his own personal standards of decorum, but it was not a time for dignity, it was a time for utmost haste. Thankfully, the Whaladon was a small ship and it took less than a minute to get from the bridge to the conference room. The doors parted without warning and Loki marched inside, greeting the Jedi with a deep bow.

"Council, please forgive the intrusion. I come with grave news."

[Navaria Tarkin]

The discussion of what to do with this new information was interrupted in quite the uncharacteristic manner by the Jedi who had entered.

"What has happened, Loki?" asked Navaria, her features lined pensively at the abrupt arrival of young man. Whatever it was, she could sense the controlled urgency underlying his respect towards the Council.

[Serena Laran]

Serena caught Loki's eyes for a moment as he set the datapad on the conference table, and she felt a sudden wave of nausea. "Something terrible," she murmured, her hands clutching at each other in her lap.

[Abarai Loki]

"We have just recieved a transmission from Generis."

When he rose, there was an uncommon ghostly pallor to his face, and his words were laboured with a kind of breathlessness that was not associated with fatigue. The room fell still in a stranglehold of silence. He stepped forward, unclasping the datapad from his chest. It was set down on the conference table, where it began to interface with a computer panel, and not a moment later, the azure phantom of Reverend Solomon appeared in the middle of the room:

"My friends, hours ago I transmitted the time and coordinates where I confronted the Sith known as Darth Acera. If you are receiving this message, it means that I have failed in my mission, and that I am dead, or I soon will be. It also means that the Jedi we have known as Loklorien s'Ilancy is gone. I will not say, even now, that she is beyond redemption. But for the present, she is beyond our reach.

"I do not believe my death is a vain one. Yet I must apologize for leaving the Order in such a time of desperate need. To my fellow Jedi, I implore you to remember the mistakes of my generation, and to tolerate neither corruption, nor decadence, nor blindness to the suffering of innocents. For it is in the shadows of our pride that the Darkness hides and grows in power.

"To my friends, old and new, know that I have found peace. And I will see you again in a place where the Darkness has no foothold.

"May the face of God shine upon you, and may the Force be with you."

[Serena Laran]

Loklorien s'Ilancy - a Sith. The first Jedi she had met since emerging from hiding was not a Jedi at all. How very completely the wool had been pulled over her eyes. Again. The sting of being fooled by Palpatine was not something she had forgotten, though it had hit the Council and masters harder. And now she was the Council, part of the leadership that had yet again let a wolf among the lambs.

Serena heard the second sentence in Sol's familiar tones, different yet the same as his voice had been thirty years ago, and it took a moment for the words to register. I am dead, or I soon will be.

She sat rigidly still, her expression of serene calm frozen on her face.

[Daria Nytherciria]

There is a perception of silence as a still thing, to be associated with peace and calm - but in the quiet that followed Solomon's last message to the Jedi Council, Daria felt anything but still and calm. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, drawing in a deep breath through flared nostrils as she called upon the Force to be her centre - to anchor her into a Galaxy that she could attain some measure of understanding of and control over instead of one in which every truth was filled with lies. Yet when she sought direction from the Force, she saw only murky darkness and swirling uncertainty.

Daria's lips pursed into a thin line as she exhaled and opened her eyes.

“We cannot be certain...” she began, her words slow and hestitant as her gaze drifted over Serena, whose aura had become hard and unreadable. “That Solomon is lost to us.”

[Zem Vymes]

His feelings, clouded as they were by Loklorien's fall to Acera, still managed to find truth in Daria's observation. He nodded, but obviously the news had left him cagey.

"Then, to Generis."

He looked to his council colleagues.

"We have to."

[Serena Laran]

"I will go," she said, speaking up quickly. Serena inhaled slowly. "I have no immediate responsibilities that would prevent it," she added after a moment.

[Navaria Tarkin]

"But you should not go alone," said Tarkin. "The truth that I sense in Solomon's message, this could still end up being a trap."