Indiana Jones and the Sith Stone
Posted by: Darth Danno 03.12.08 12:01am

The engines screaming in protest, Master Tenuto pushed the ship to its limits to avoid the oncoming destruction of the seismic charge. They were able to get away from the blast's epicenter, but the aftershocks rocked their craft down to its supports. It took all of his skill and know-how to keep the Nubian aloft and not crash into the ground. Once the worst had passed, he immediately turned the ship around and headed back to the enclave to search for the Padawans.

With the aid of the Force, he was able to find them quickly. They were all alive, but needed immediate medical attention. The Zabrac had a badly broken leg, the Bothan was unconscious, the human male had a nasty gash running down his face, in addition to having some serious burns, and the female complained of internal injuries. The Jedi Master said he would get them back to Coruscant, but Indy pleaded that they go somewhere else. Tenuto demanded to know why, and Indy simply stated it was a long story, but they'd be heading into more trouble if they returned there. The Jedi could feel he was telling the truth, and was also reminded that he had very little knowledge as to what was really going on here. Perhaps he should heed this strangers warning... for now. So he hoped his students could survive the trip to Polis Massa.

Palpatine could tell something was amiss, the dark side of the Force alerted him to that fact. He wasn't sure exactly what happened, but knew he needed to get a handle on current events. For whatever reason he thought it prudent to not try and contact his bounty hunter, instead decided to see what the Hutt's bounty hunter had to report.

It seemed to take an eternity for the gangster's lackey to contact Aurra Sing and report back, but once he did, the information garnered did nothing to lighten the dark lord's mood; in fact it did quite the opposite. Having used considerable time and resources to bring Dr. Jones here, only to lose him on the second world they visited was one thing, losing him to a ranking member of the Jedi Order was quite another. He was not ready for the Council to learn of the Sith's return just yet, and that included the search for the Sith stone. Jango had recommended this inept bounty hunter; Zam Wesell. It was now his responsibility to clean up this mess she had created. First Sidious would have Jango return to Dantooine and pick up the survivors, if there were any, and bring them to Coruscant for... punishment. Then Jango would head out to recapture Sidious' abducted explorer. The task of taking care of the nosy Jedi Master would fall to Lord Maul...

Immediately after they departed Dantooine, Indy began to tell Master Tenuto all that had led up to their meeting on the planet below. He told him how he had been kidnapped from his home world of Earth, and brought to this far away galaxy by some dark robed figure named Sidious. He talked about his time on Coruscant, studying the history of Revan, Malek, the old Republic, and the sacred stone he was brought here to find. Tenuto listened intently, and his face paled when Indy mentioned the Sith's possible involvement in all this.

"Could it be? The Jedi asked himself. Could the Sith have returned after being extinct for nearly a millennia? And the Sith residing on Coruscant, right under the Council's nose? Surely Master Yoda would be able to sense something, wouldn't he?" This was all very troubling. Should he attempt to contact the Council immediately and report this startling turn of events, or should he wait until he and this Dr. Jones can speak with them face to face? He figured this craft had been equipped with tracking devices, and those would have to be found and removed as soon as possible. If the ship was being tracked, who knew what kind of devices were in place to listen in on any outgoing or incoming transmissions to and from this craft? Better not to tip their hand just let. Perhaps this dark robed mystery figure hadn't found out yet that his ship had been hijacked, or that his crew had been abandoned back on Dantooine. There would definitely be no time to sit and relax once they hit Polis Massa, that was for sure.

Upon arriving at the medical facility, the Padawans received the best of care, and would all survive. Bacta would heal most of the injuries, but the Zabrak's leg was too badly damaged, and would require a cybernetic replacement. The four would need to remain here for some time to allow their injuries to heal properly. So immediately after Master Tenuto received the good word about his students, he, Dr. Jones, and TC-10 left before anyone could track them here, and headed for a nearby-unpopulated moon to plan their next move. Only the strange cylinder Indy had dug up held those answers.

The Jedi Master intently studied the metal tube for quite some time, examining the markings and trying to translate them. Indy wished he could be of more assistance, but knew so little about the ancient language inscribed there, felt he'd be more of a hindrance than help. He laid down on one of the couches, put his hat over his eyes, and tried to get some sleep.

He must have succeeded because he awoke with a start to a loud yelp.

"I've got it!!!!" The Jedi shouted for joy as he ran to Indy and showed him the now open canister. "Some of the markings had been worn down with time, which made them harder to read, but after deciphering two of them, the rest fell naturally into place. I must say, Malek had no imagination whatsoever. It turns out that each of the markings represents a letter from the ancient Sith language, or alphabet as it were. I just had to remember my linguistics, and figure out what letter goes with what marking. It turned out the five-letter word I needed to translate was, in fact, "MALEK". Once I lined up the proper symbols to spell that out, the canister opened easily."

He crossed to a nearby table with Indy following closely behind, and with great care, dumped the cylinder's contents out. All that emerged was a small, round piece of metal, and another long, pointy object Indy couldn't identify. Master Tenuto held up the piece of metal to the light, turning it over in his hands, and examining it from every angle.

"It appears to be a blade emitter for a lightsaber," He deduced.

"So we've found our first piece." Indy commented.

"I believe you are correct," the Jedi replied. "It only adds credence to what you have told me about your quest. This is all very disturbing, very disturbing indeed. Imagine, the possible return of the Sith."

Indy glanced down at the other object that fell from the tube. "What is this? It looks like some sort of... quill?"

Master Tenuto picked held up the object. "Very good eye, Professor. It is, in fact, a quill."

"So what planet has creatures with quills?"

"A lot of them do, but considering the worlds we need to explore, it's not something from a Selkath, so I believe Manaan is out. No indigenous life forms on Tatooine have anything like this. I'm not familiar with anything on Korriban that has quills of this size, and the same goes for the Rakatan world, that leaves Kashyyk."

"I knew Wookies had fur, I didn't know about quills."

"They don't. But I spent some time with Master Yoda on Kashyyk, and watched a young Wookie participate in hrrtayyk, which is their rite of passage. At a certain age, they must leave the safety of their village, and venture into the lower levels of the forests to hunt animals called quillarats, that have quills such as these. The creatures are about half a meter tall, and have needles like this covering their bodies. They are able to hurl these spikes at their enemies with deadly accuracy. If the young Wookie is able to return with some sort of trophy that can be worn or displayed, like a quillarat corpse, they then pass into adulthood."

"So it's off to Kashyyk then." Indy stated.

"I concur, if for no other reason than I'm not sure where else to go. The problem being, Wookies don't like visitors. The last thing we need is a tribe of enraged Wookies after us. But perhaps there is one there who may be able to help us."

Indy changed the subject. "What about contacting the council?"

"We're going to need more proof if the Council is to act on this possible Sith resurgence, the more pieces we find of Malek's... lightsaber, the better of we'll be, plus it'll keep the remaining pieces from falling into the wrong hands. If this... Sidious were able to obtain the dark side crystal, and construct this blade once again, who knows what he'll be capable of, what powers he'll be able to command."

"Should we at least radio them?" Indy queried.

"I thought of that, but I'm betting all incoming and outgoing transmissions from this craft are being monitored somehow. Which reminds me, when we land, we're going to have to have this ship checked for tracking devices, we don't need to be followed everywhere we go. We need to be able to search for the remaining pieces in peace."

"I hope whomever is following us didn't track us to Polis Massa. Your students are in no condition to defend themselves."

"Again, I concur. Even at full strength, the Padawans would be no match for a Sith. Another reason I don't want to contact Coruscant and reveal their location, or let our attackers know they're still alive."

"Any idea who attacked them?"

"No clue. But I'm sure as we continue on our journey; our mystery assailant will show himself or herself once again. Lets be off, and set our course for Kashyyk. Are you ready Indy?"

"Ready when you are, Master Tenuto."

"Please, call me Honj. That's my first name."

"Honj? That's an odd name."

"No more odd than Indiana."

"Good point, lets go."

Darth Danno