The Sith Empress
by AJ Marks
Part 31
Jessica made her way out of the room into the larger room and looked around for some people who worked there. She was relieved when Gaia had awaken and appeared to be recovering. Now she was looking for some food and drink when she spotted a few people.
“Um, can I get something to eat for two?” she asked her voice startling them.
“Yes,” one said and walked out of the room to carry out the request. The other, who Jessica recalled was the doctor from earlier stood and made his way over.
“I take it she’s awake?” he asked her.
“Yeah, she’s hungry as well” she replied back to him.
“I see,” he said moving into the room to check on his patient. “And how are we feeling?” he asked her moving to check on her vitals before nodding to himself and checking on her bandage.
“I feel a bit better,” Gaia said, looking over at Jessica.
“I think you’ll make a full recovery,” he said to her. “Surprising considering not many survive such a shot with no armor.”
“Guess I was lucky,” Gaia replied.
Jessica slammed that thought shut, or what she might have done had Gaia been dead. Her anger and rage probably would have washed over her leaving no one safe. The only way they could have stopped her would have been killing her.
The orderly returned with some food, two different types, one for her and another for Gaia.
“Ah, here you go,” the doctor said as Jessica sat down next to the bed and ate as well.
“I’ll let Master Skywalker know that you’re awake,” the doctor said leaving the room.
“And they’ll want to speak with me,” Jessica replied.
“Remember what I said,” Gaia said. “They are nice people.”
“I’ll keep an open mind,” Jessica replied.
She moved out of the room before asking the doctor where the leaders where. After gaining that information she made her way down wondering how much they knew. They probably figured she was the Sith Lord Darth Rizon. There was also that one man, Trona, who Jessica wanted to talk to some more. He seemed to have a knowledge about them no one else had. Not knowing made Jessica twitch, she wanted to know.
She knocked on the door to Luke Skywalker’s officer. The door opened allowing her in, she noticed he wasn’t along but another man, with brown hair and a beard was in the room as well.
“You probably wanted to talk to me,” Jessica said to them.
“Yes,” Luke said turning around and siting down motioning for her to sit as well. Jessica walked over and sat as did the other man. “This is Kyle Katarn.”
“The one who defeated Desann,” Jessica said. Her statement seemed to startle them all.
“He’s where all this started,” Jessica said. “I was at the Valley of the Jedi, one of the group who Desann sent though. But when I went though, I had a vision from a Sith Lord. He saw something in me. So during the attack where Desann was killed I left the fight on my own mission.”
“And you’ve been working in the shadows all this time?” Luke asked.
“You could say that,” Jessica replied back to them. “After heading to his tomb I went and visited a lot of other Sith tombs slowly gathering the information I needed to start building an empire, for that I needed warships.”
“The Sith battleships?” Luke asked.
“Yes,” Jessica replied not surprised they knew that much.
“Where did you find them?” Kyle asked.
“They are remnants of the original fleet from Darth Raven and the Forge,” Jessica replied. “You had to visit a half a dozen Sith tombs to gain the location. Even then I still needed people to man the ships.”
“Yes, how did you manage that, and money?” Kyle asked.
“I was able to gather the resources of a businessman thanks to a connection I gained early on, and most of the crew was made up of the scum and vermin of many worlds at first. As I grew I gained some officers from both the Republic and Empire who were disgruntled at how things were going,” Jessica replied honestly. She had no reason not to tell them, her empire had fallen.
“Most impressive,” Luke finally stated.
“So what happened? It seemed like you were rising up and going places,” Kyle asked.
“A subordinate of mine, Tyi,” Jessica answered. “He had been one of the first to follow me, knew a lot of contacts but seemed like a weak minded idiot, which he was. He used his position as second in command to move pieces against me. He ordered a ship to open fire on my flagship destroying it, and most of the people who were loyal to me.”
She watched as Luke and Kyle seemed to take all that into consideration before Luke spoke up again.
“So, why didn’t you regain your power?” Luke asked.
Jessica considered that for several seconds. It was a question she wrestled with as well in the beginning as she went about her revenge.
“Well, its complex and personal,” she finally replied not really wanting to say it had everything to do with a certain blonde-haired Jedi. “Let’s just say I had a revelation about my path.”
“What about that fleet of ships, the remnants of Darth Raven’s fleet?” Luke asked. “We need to make sure those don’t into another Sith Lord’s hands, or some pirate group. There were how many ships?”
“A couple of hundred,” Jessica replied.
“That many?” Kyle said, almost in a panic about the number.
“Do you know where they are?” Luke asked.
“Yes,” she replied. The old part of her, the part of her which was Darth Rizon protested giving this information to the Jedi, but she knew in her heart it was the right thing, not that it mattered really. “But, the ships are not a threat anymore.”
That gave them all pause as they looked at her for some sort of clarification of her statement.
“What I mean is the ships have been destroyed,” Jessica said. She had learned that the inactive ships had been equipped with a self-destruct which could be triggered by the Force. She had done that before moving onto Tyi’s ships, giving them a countdown. By now all the ships had been destroyed which she hadn’t started to man, which was less than twenty. Those which survived had probably fled and without a leader were isolated ships.
“How did you managed that?” Luke asked.
“Something Darth Malak put into the ships so they couldn’t be used against him,” Jessica said. “Tyi never understood that part, something I never told him about.
“So, how many are left?” Luke asked.
“Under my command, we had about twenty ships, with just over ten manned and operational,” Jessica replied. “Tyi ordered my flagship destroyed, two more were destroyed in orbit that leaves about seventeen, and the internal battle cost them another four, so probably around fifteen depending on how many were destroyed in orbit in the recent battle.”
“We captured three and destroyed one,” Luke said.
“So, about ten or so,” Kyle said.
“Together they could be formidable,” Luke said.
“But without a leader, or resources to keep them operational they are worthless,” Jessica said.
“We’ll have to send a fleet to the location, salvage the scrap to make sure they don’t’ get parts to repair the ships, keep an eye out for them,” Kyle said which Luke nodded.
“I’ll inform my sister,” he said. “She can send a Republic fleet out to investigate the area and secure it.”
“Anything else we should know?” Luke asked.
Jessica took that to consider everything she had done. She would tell them some things, others, she would keep those a secret when it might prove useful further down the road, like having a senator with dirt on. She never knew if she might need his help in the future.
“That’s all I can tell you,” she said.
“What about this businessman?’ Luke asked.
“He wasn’t part of the Republic,” Jessica replied. The answer seemed to satisfy them for now. “For now, I’m going to return and check on Gaia.”
She turned and left the room heading back to the med-lab to check on the blonde and how she was doing. For now the blonde was where she could start rebuilding her life, away from the Empire and Dark Side. It seemed like a daunting task, and one she hoped would work.
*****
Jessica made her way down the hallway when she spotted Trona walking towards her. It seemed like from his step he was looking to speak with her. He appeared to be a bounty hunter, or at least had some skill in that line of work. His steps and posture indicated it and wondered what he wanted.
“So, who are you really?” Jessica asked him as he came up to her.
“Me, I am like you,” he replied back, not really giving her much of an answer, but he already seemed to know that.
“Not much of a reply,” Jessica replied back almost enjoying the feeling of the back and forth question and answer, like a friendly interrogation.
“We must be careful these days,” Trona replied back to her. “We can never be too careful, otherwise it could be a disaster for us all.”
“There are more of you?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, like me, and you and the small Jedi, Gaia,” Trona replied back to her.
“What do we have to do with you?” Jessica said, her patience wearing a bit thin over all of this as Trona appeared to look around before answering her.
“You two are soul mates,” he told her.
“And?” Jessica asked, unsure what that term meant in how he was using it. Sure, she might consider Gaia her soul mate after a bit, but for now it seemed a bit strange.
“When you are both ready to travel, look this man up,” Trona stated handing Jessica a card. She looked it over seeing an address and a name, Percy.
“All right, hopefully we’ll get better answers from him than you,” Jessica slightly growled watching as he nodded at her.
“For now, I have to go report back on you two,” Trona said.
“And is that good or bad?”
He paused looked her over. “Good, very good,” he said walking away leaving her to muse over his answer.
Turning she made her way back towards the medlab and Gaia, to check on how she was recovering.
*****
Gaia was lying on her back looking at the ceiling and was actually quite bored with everything. However she really only wanted to see one person, but she had taken off to talk with Master Skywalker. She felt no disturbances in the Force and hoped things were going well.
“Well, how is my patient doing this morning?” the doctor asked walking into the room and looking her chart over.
“Bored,” Gaia replied honestly.
“After what happened I’m amazed that you’re even alive,” the doctor replied back to her. Gaia couldn’t remember much aside from waking up next to Jessica.
“I don’t remember much,” Gaia confessed.
“I only wish Trona would tell me more about what happened, it could save lives,” the doctor stated.
Gaia didn’t recall a Trona and wondered what he might have done. For now, she was curious about how Jessica had managed to survive the destruction of the ship. As the questions built up the doctor finished checking on her.
“Well, you can probably go out for short walks, try and gain your strength back up,” the doctor stated.
“Thanks.”
She watched him leave the room. The next person was a more welcome sight as Jessica made her way into the room.
“You didn’t scare anyone?” Gaia asked looking at Jessica.
“I was a perfect Sith Lord,” Jessica said standing up to her full height.
“Well, no guards,” Gaia said.
“Oh, they are keeping an eye on me,” Jessica said.
Gaia studied the face in front of her which didn’t seem annoyed, but mostly amused instead.
“You know, I have questions,” Gaia finally said.
“I figured you would,” Jessica replied.
“I can take small trips,” Gaia stated.
“Then let’s go somewhere a bit more comfortable than a med lab to talk,” Jessica replied
“Sounds wonderful.”
End part 31