Indiana Jones and the Sith Stone
Posted by: Darth Danno 01.30.08 12:01am

This was Indy’s first time flying through space out of stasis, and he handled it quite well, considering he blacked out briefly, and threw up at least twice. This had topped anything had ever experienced. The stars and planets flew by the viewports at an amazing rate. He couldn’t believe this was actually possible, let alone he was really up here, zooming across the galaxy. All he could think of was, what’s next?

Zam piloted the craft, and C-3PX kept her company, mainly because he tired of TC-10’s incessant yammering as to why there were two protocol-type droids on this mission, and no R2 or R3 units. It was either shoot out the droids central processing unit, or go see if the bounty hunter needed any help in the cockpit. As Indy attempted to get his space legs, TC-10 approached him with hesitancy.

“Pardon me, Master Jones. May I tell you something in confidence?”

“You can call me Indy.”

“I see, Master Indy.”

“No, just Indy.”

“Very well, Sir Indy.”

“Never mind. What did you want to tell me?”

TC-10 glanced around to see if anyone was listening, as if the ship was filled to capacity with people. “Well, Sir Indy, at the time my Master showed you the Sith holocron, I...well, I did a horrible, horrible thing and I hope you won’t deactivate me.”

Indy looked at her with semi-annoyance. “What exactly is it you did?”

“You see, after I led you into the room, and my master dismissed me, I went to the door but...didn’t leave.”

“You...didn’t leave?”

“Oh please sir! Don’t tell my Master. There’s no telling what he may do to me. I only did it because I considered that any additional information I may garner would only work toward the benefit of the mission for all concerned. I do have an excel...”

Indy stood up somewhat shakily. “It’s all right, I won’t tell anyone. Least of all your master.”

TC-10 was overjoyed. “Oh thank you, Sir Indy. I guarantee that the information I garnered from viewing the holocron will be most useful. Or at least I hope it will be.”

Now the professor was mildly interested. He just hoped he could garner the info out of this unit while he was still young. “What did you find out?”

“Oh, yes. I recall the Sith Lord Darth Revan saying something to the effect that we must travel to the worlds of the star maps, and make peace with each of them.”

Indy sat down once again, as this tale may end up taking a while after all. “So?”

“Well, the first line of the Sith code completely contradicts that.”

“The Sith...code?” Indy questioned.

“Yes, Sir Indy. It was taught to all the Sith acolytes at the academy on Korriban. Of course, I’m sure they taught it at all the academies, I believe they...”

“Can we just get on with it?” Indy complained as kindly as he could.

“Yes sir. Any way, the code goes something like this: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength, through strength I gain power, through power I gain victory, through victory my chains are broken.”

Indy ran the creed over and over in his head to make sure it stuck. Peace is a lie, there is only passion? Why were we going to make peace with each of these worlds then, and how were they supposed to make peace with a whole planet?

“What do you think it...” TC-10 queried.

“Shhhhhhhh. Let me think. If it wasn’t referring to peace in the literal form, what could he be implying? Is this another puzzle where I have to tack more onto the word “peace”, and come up with a whole new word? Malek wouldn’t use the same kind of puzzle device twice in a row...would he?”

“Who really knows what goes through the mind of a Sith Lord, Sir Indy. They are obsessed with power, the more they have, the more they want. And this stone is a source of unspeakable power, I wonder how much research he put into its creation?”

Indy nodded, “yeah.” Then put his head back against the wall of the craft and closed his eyes, trying to make some sense of this. His thoughts went to his good friend Marcus Brody. He always appreciated a good puzzle, in fact, they both did. Hence the reason they both got into archaeology, to solve the puzzles of the past. The greatest piece of antiquity he had ever gone after while on Earth was the Ark of the Covenant. An item Marcus once referred to as...a source of unspeakable power and it had to be researched!!! He quickly jumped to his feet. He embraced the droid with great enthusiasm. “I think you’ve got something there!!”

“I did, Sir Indy? What exactly did I say? I don’t recall saying anything of stunning import. I...”

Indy reached up and put one hand over the droids communication module, the other he brought to his own mouth and put a finger to his lips, making sure TC knew she was to keep quiet so he could think. The unit nodded its understanding.

Indy sat down again, pushed his hat to the back of his head, and placed his right palm against his forehead. Both the Ark and this...rock were items of great power and held great historical significance. Both were hidden very well so as to not fall into the wrong hands. Somehow, somehow what he did to find the Ark would help him to locate this stone. This was the elusive thought that he had been trying to think of for so long. Sure the locales had changed, but buried treasure was buried treasure no matter where you were. He just had to find the parallels.

Now on Earth the government approached him to find the Ark, here Sidious kidnapped him to find the stone. After being hired to find the Ark, he flew off to Nepal to find Abner Ravenwood, and old mentor of Indy’s who also happened to have a very beautiful daughter, Marian, and the two fell in love. Abner did a lot of study on the Ark, and even though he didn’t find it, he, or rather Marian, was still in possession of the headpiece to the staff of Ra, and when that was taken to a map room in Tanis, Egypt at a certain time of day, it gave the exact location to the Ark’s resting place. Now how could he tie all this in to his search for this stone? I’m sure Malek didn’t consult anyone on Earth when he planned to hide this crystal. There had to be something on each of these worlds they were to visit, some sort of clue, or an answer to part of the riddle, or another piece of the puz...

“THAT’S IT!!!” Indy shot up out of his seat again. TC-10 looked at him quizzically, but this time said nothing. Indy nodded slowly as a wave of realization washed over him. They had all heard what the holocron said, and that was part of the problem. Everyone took what he said as making peace with each world, when he was really saying that each planet held a piece of the puzzle. Now, did this mean that the crystal was actually in pieces, and each of the star map worlds held one? No, that didn’t seem right. The Ark was whole, not something that had to be reconstructed. He just had to find things, like the headpiece and the map room, which led him to the correct spot to dig. Something kept bringing him back to what Marcus, and now TC had said. The Ark was a source of unspeakable power...unspeakable power...power. This box was able to decimate the entire Nazi army on that small island, yet left himself and Marian unscathed. It was hard to believe that all that fury could be contain...

Indy let a wide smile cross his features as another piece snugly fell into place. The designs for the Ark came from God himself, it was specially made for one purpose. Just like this was no ordinary crystal; it was pure dark energy, brought forth into physical form. No ordinary run of the mill lightsaber would be able to harness it, at least not for very long. Malek had to have created a custom housing for this stone, everything from the hilt to the lens and everything in between. He was willing to bet that each of these worlds held a piece of the custom saber, along with some sort of direction as to where to go next. Did Sidious know about this? Or was he so focused on finding the crystal, that he failed to realize a special stone, needs a special home. Maybe, maybe Indy could use this tidbit of information to his advantage. Use it as leverage to make sure Sidious kept his word and returned Indy to Earth. His captor had special powers though, no doubt about that, and Indy was certain he had only glimpsed a fraction of what this dark-robed enigma was capable of. But on the bright side, this journey was just beginning, and hopefully, as time went on, other things would present themselves to aid him, to give him leverage in the final confrontation that was to come at the end of all this. First though, he had to find all the pieces, and do it in such a way that neither the bounty hunter nor C-3PX caught wind of it. In fact, it would probably be best to keep TC-10 out of this also, it was quite apparent that that droid loved the sound of its own voice. It was all Indy needed to tell it something in confidence, then have the unit blab to whoever was in earshot at precisely the wrong time.

For the first time since he arrived here, he felt the slightest glimmer of hope.

“Just keep it together, stay calm and focused, and always be looking for an out.” He thought to himself. In other words, make it up as he went along. It was nice to see that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

Then Zam’s voice blared over the intercom. “You two better strap yourselves in back there, we’re just about to make the jump to hyperspace.”

Indy turned to TC-10 as he sat down once again. “What exactly is, hyperspace?”

Before the droid could reply, the ship lurched forward with a tremendous burst of speed, and Indy blacked out once again.

Darth Danno