.7 Alec Uban was back in the quarters Lord Darchind had given him before the curfew in place was initiated. He locked the door behind him and meditated for what seemed like a lifetime, drawing the Force into him to replenish his energy and give him insight, if it would allow him that much. When he came out of the Force trance his eyes darted quickly to the holotransmitter, which was on a dark gray square pedestal in the middle of the room. Uban got up to his feet and felt a jolt of premonition(like most visions, they came to him after meditation rather then during) and almost had to sit back down. He stayed on his feet though, knees bent with his hands placed gently but firmly on his temples. He tried to sustain the images inside his head. One red lightsaber stands out as a band of crimson in a black room, standing against thirty five blue, green or yellow lightsabers. There aren’t figures or Jedi or Sith holding the weapons, and the blue, green and yellow begin to fill a circle around the one crimson colored blade. Finally the circle is complete, and the red is seemingly outnumbered. Suddenly all of them extinguish their blades. Even the red blade. Alec tried to regain the image, but it disintegrates in his mind as he hears the knocking at his door. "Master Uban?" A familiar wookie voice woofs at him through the door. "Are you alright?" "Come in," Uban croaked. He cleared his throat and said it again, the familiar faces already filing into the room on their own. "Come in." He put a hand up to his throat and massaged it easily. He looked first at his friend and fellow Jedi Master, Orsin Beserek. The Wookie is like all of them, tall and shaggy with his warm looking coat of black fur. There are more then a few streaks of gray running through his mane, but Alec Uban knows that Beserek shows no immediate signs of slowing down. Wookies age differently, Alec had been told, and he’d even asked Beserek about it. The wily Jedi Master had simply inclined his head with subtlety not known to Wookies and smiled a toothy smile. Alec then looked at Anduil, who had obviously passed his trials. He was wearing a lightsaber, crafted in a unique way that Alec hadn’t ever thought of in his time—two blades, one on each side of the cylinder. Anduil would have to be careful using the hilt as a middle ground: it would be open to attack. Finally Alec looked at his Padawan. Ikeeriot was dressed in his usual brown tunic and cloak but there was something foreboding about him. He was a little angry that he wasn’t a Knight yet, but Alec knew this wasn’t all of what was behind Ikeeriot’s emotions. His competition with his friend Anduil Siron sometimes ran too thick in both their bloods. "Anduil, I’m glad to see you’ve finally become a Knight." Alec said, walking over to young man and placing a hand on his shoulder, then shaking his hand. "I foresee that no one in this room will be below the rank of Knight before too long." Alec said, turning to his padawan. "Thanks." Ikeeriot said. "I’d rather not have the charity, if possible." Alec shook his head adamantly. "No. This is no charity. Until I saw Anduil with his own lightsaber, I thought I had more to teach you, Ikeeriot. The truth is, your patience and perseverance has paid off. Pending you pass the trials once we get back to Coruscant, you will be a Knight." Before Ikeeriot could reply though, Orsin Beserek cut in. "However, I think your Master has a story for us. Don’t you Alec?" The Wookie smiled his toothy grin at the Human. Alec felt a slight shiver go down his spine. Sometimes that Wookie smile was unnerving. Alec nodded though and told them the story, from his first meeting with Lord Darchind of the Xolatians and then his journey into the jungle and the fight with the fallen Jedi named Vance in the freedom fighter’s encampments. "You’re sure that Vance thinks Darchind is a Sith?" Beserek growled uneasily. Alec nodded. "I could think of nothing else. I saw him bowing at Darchind’s feet when I first came into the throne room." "Maybe the Sith is hidden in the freedom fighters." Anduil suggested. "Perhaps he is trying to direct our attention at Darchind so that we kill him and alleviate the problem for those revolutionaries." "I thought of that too." Ikeeriot put in. "Since the Sith were wiped out it would make more sense for them to hide their numbers instead of openly proclaiming their allegiance and bringing the attention of the whole Order on them." "That does make sense too." Orsin reasoned. "When the Sith are involved, the danger is increased a hundred-fold and the treachery a thousand. We must be watchful." Alec nodded. The fact that he hadn’t thought of what either Anduil or Ikeeriot had just said made him sure that the Dark Side was strong on Xolatis. It clouded things . .made the ocean of the Force that the Jedi swam in day to day murky and brackish. "I was just about to use the holotransmitter—." "Who will you call?" Orsin asked, hurriedly, watching Alec’s Padawan’s and Anduil’s reactions. Alec stopped as if to mask his thought but shook his head instead. "I’m going to call the Paladins. Possibly JWJ and their men for their help if they can administer it too." "I think this is a bad idea." Anduil said instantly. "Why?" Ikeeriot asked pointedly. "If we need the help, we should use it if it’s there." "That’s not it." Anduil said quietly. "There’s something else here. I can’t put my finger on it. Not yet." Orsin nodded. "I follow my former padawan’s train of thought. I don’t think calling more Jedi into the situation would be wise. Much less the Paladins or JWJ. I don’ think the Order would approve." Alec scoffed with a lopsided grin on his face. "The Order is busy on the war front repelling the Mandalorians. We would be just another thorn in their side to ask for able-bodied Jedi from the order to help us. Besides, JWJ and the Paladins are respected faculties of the Order, they simply exist away from it for their respective purposes." Orsin opened his mouth to argue the point, but luckily none of them saw his mouth open behind the fur on his face. Master Uban’s resolve was stubborn when his intentions were set. If Orsin tried to argue now it would probably make things difficult in the future for them to agree. He would concede on this point. "Fine. I’ll ask you to not draw too many out of the two associations, Alec. I submit to your strategy for now, but in the meantime, what should we do about Darchind?" Alec took a deep breath inward and closed his eyes in careful thought. "When the others arrive, we should gather there and ask for Lord Darchind to come with us and negotiate with the freedom fighters." "Master that’s insane—." Ikeeriot started to say. "Careful, my Padawan." Alec regarded him. Ikeeriot gathered himself and continued. "You can’t expect Darchind to come with us! He’s already had attempts on his life in the capitol—no one in their right mind would expect him to come with us into their territory!" He exclaimed. Alec nodded slowly. "Perhaps then, my padawan, we should bring the freedom fighters to Darchind?" Ikeeriot’s face went pale and he said nothing. "We should probably let the conversations go for tonight. We’ll discuss it once we’ve sent for the Paladins and JWJ, but for now, we should rest I think." Master Beserek stepped in. Ikeeriot gave out a respectfully low sigh and cast his eyes downward. "I’m going to bed then. Good night Masters; Anduil." He bowed to them each in turn and walked into the refresher station. "I think I’ll wait for my turn in the refresher." Anduil said, getting up quickly. Orsin nodded and turned his attention to his fellow Jedi Alec Uban. He was ambling in front of the holotransmitter and tapping away at transmission buttons. "Do you think Lord Darchind is piggybacking transmissions and tracing them?" Orsin asked, clambering to Uban’s side. Alec turned to regard Orsin for a moment but then shook his head. "I wouldn’t expect that from him. He’s a politician but I’ve not met many that are that tech-savvy." "Then again, Alec, you haven’t known very many politicians in your day either." Orsin Beserek said. They both laughed and began transmitting to the Paladins. When they were done, they contacted JWJ’s broadband relays, which would send their messages to the reclusive faculty of warrior Jedi all the way on the other side of the galaxy, just on the fringe of the unknown regions. "We should receive a message very soon from the Paladins, and one from JWJ at least by tomorrow afternoon." Alec reassured Orsin. "That’s good." Orsin said. "Are you sure about the boy? Perhaps he should be elevated to Knighthood. It wouldn’t be the first time a padawan was elevated outside of the Order’s jurisdiction." Alec frowned thoughtfully and took a few moments to think. "I realize I am not the easiest Master to be an Apprentice to, Orsin. My train of thought and theories on the Force are very . .off the beaten path, but I think if anyone will know when Ikeeriot should be elevated to Knighthood, it will be him." Realization dawned on Orsin and he nodded with a firm smile. "How long has he not had confidence in his skills?" Alec shrugged. "It goes back a long way. Most of the time I’m left wondering if he idols under my shadow or just hates me." Orsin’s smile faded a bit. "Alec, the boy doesn’t hate you. It has to be just the opposite. I think he was more worried about your condition then becoming a Knight when we arrived. We all sensed the disturbance." "Even so," Alec said, shaking his head. "He is a formidable opponent in a lightsaber match and his understanding of the Force is beyond what I understood at that age . .he just—." "Doesn’t know where to go next." Orsin said. Alec nodded. "Perhaps he would be a Watchmen." Orsin said. Alec nodded once again. "It would fit his ways, but I think he has to grow out of it. If he stays in one place, he may limit his knowledge and understanding—and he has far too much potential to do that." "Agreed." Orsin said. "You really think he is stronger then you were at your age?" Alec nodded and smiled. "I know it. In the field situations we’ve been in, if combat was an issue, he wouldn’t hesitate more then a few seconds. It’s just that few seconds in him . ." Orsin grinned his Wookie grin. "Maybe I should tell you about how your student was put into the meditation room for showing too much initiative in the dueling tournament." "I wasn’t aware a Jedi could be put into the meditation room?" Alec asked, grinning back. They shared the chuckle and Orsin told him the story. In the morning, they all woke to the messages on the holotransmitter from both the Paladins and the JWJ. The four Sith had gathered in Lord Darchind’s dark throne room. "What of those who joined the Jedi Master last night?" Valecka inquired. Lord Darchind shook his head slowly. "They are of no consequence. However, they have sent for others to join them, and that could put a small wedge in our plan," he turned to the other two Sith, adorned in the exact same black cloaks, save for the red edges of Darchind’s. "what do you think?" The first one to speak, the taller and usually more quiet, Tallamaur said: "They seem to foolish if their number is four. Let them bring more and I surmise they might be even more insolent." They all agreed to the latter part of his comment, but the remark itself was little more then a ploy not to look stupid in front of Lord Darchind, their eminence. Lord Darchind turned to the other one, the oldest out of them all, save for Darchind. Lord Derneel was his name. That and his gray beard made him none the wiser then any of them. Still, in numbers Sith were dedicated to their goals: to destroy Jedi. "I believe we should spring our trap on them if they come with their reinforcements, milord." Lord Darchind nodded, little more then to say he was indulged for the moment. "I will consider each of your thoughts. As in the ‘democracy’ we which to put into place to force out the corruption and anarchy of Xolatis’ beings . ." He began to laugh defiantly. The three others laughed along with him. "Once my troops and the ships arrive, we will be in perfect striking position to start our offensive against the Republic. Tallamaur, do you have the long-range jammer ready?" Darchind asked after his bout of laughter ended. Tallamaur only nodded. "Go then, all of you. We will begin our plans as soon as the Jedi bumble into our hands. A new golden age of our Sith Brotherhood shall replace the Republic’s fools." The three other Sith dispersed, leaving Lord Darchind occupying his throne and thinking. Alone, the Sith Lord waited and planned.