In Disguises No One Knows
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“Family argument: concluded. Murder: solved. Dark taint: turned back to the Light. Escaped droid and um…very attached owner: fixed.”
Eilis looked at Carth as they walked towards the ruins that she had seen Revan and Malak within in her dream and asked, “Did I miss anything?”
“The raiders?”
“You and Canderous did that.”
“Well, that counts, doesn’t it?”
Eilis glared at him and Carth shrugged. Ahead of them, Bastila called out, “Here is the entrance!”
The other two hurried to catch up with her and the smuggler gasped.
“It’s exactly like my dream…”
She started to step forward but Carth’s hand on her arm stopped her. Turning towards him, she saw concern in his brown eyes.
“Be careful,” he said, glancing towards the ruins. “We’ve got no idea what’s in there.”
“Careful is my middle name, flyboy,” said Eilis with a smirk. She then strode forward and gingerly reached out her right hand towards the door. Her gloved droid hand ran over the odd sigils on the door and abruptly she heard something within move.
The door opened as she took a nervous step back and revealed the darkness of the ruins within. Looking back over her shoulder at Carth and Bastila, she drew her lightsabre and ignited it. The blue light from the blade gave her enough light to see by as she slowly made her way into the ruins.
I’m walking in Revan and Malak’s footsteps, she thought as she moved further into the ruins. But what is here - or was here - that they were looking for?
Another door loomed in front of her and she ran her fingers over it again, causing it to slid open. There was a series of metallic clicks from within the next room and she saw a flash of silver metal in the light of her sabre.
“There’s a droid in here,” she said as she stepped in.
The droid made noises she’d never heard a droid - or anything else - make in her life and she shook her head.
“I…I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
Another unfamiliar language came from the droid and she looked at Bastila, who shook her head.
“I don’t recognize it,” said the brunette.
“It seems to understand us though,” commented Carth. “It keeps switching languages.”
“I can reproduce any of the languages spoken by the slaves of the Builders.”
Eilis wrinkled her nose and said, “That’s ancient Selkath. But why would a droid on Dantooine speak Selkath?”
“Communication was vital to ensure that the slaves constructed this temple according to the wishes of the Builders. But you are not of the slave species. You are like the one’s who came before.”
“It must meant Revan and Malak,” said Bastila.
“Gee, y’think?” said Carth sarcastically.
Eilis ignored the both of them and asked the droid, “Are you some type of guardian?”
“I am the Overseer. The Builders programmed me to enforce discipline amongst the slaves while this monument to the power of the Star Forge was constructed. At project completion, the slaves were executed and I was programmed to serve should a Builder return in search of knowledge of the Star Forge.”
“The Star Forge must have been what they were looking for,” mused Eilis. “What is the Star Forge?”
“The Star Forge is the glory of the Builders, the apex of the Infinite Empire. It is a machine of invincible might, a tool of unstoppable conquest.”
“Okay. What does it do?”
The droid repeated itself and Bastila said, “The droid does not seem to be programmed with the knowledge we seek.”
“Maybe that’s how they amassed a fleet so quickly,” said Carth. “I’ve never recognized any of the ships in their armada.”
“You mean this Star Forge might be a factory?”
“Exactly.”
Eilis frowned then asked the droid, “How long have you been here?”
“My chronological circuits have marked over ten revolutions of this system’s outermost planet since the Builders left.”
Bastila gasped, “That’s more than 20,000 years! If this is true, then…”
“This empire is over 5,000 years older than the Republic,” finished Eilis, staring at the droid.
“There must be a mistake in its calculations,” insisted the other Jedi.
“There is no mistake. The Builders constructed my circuitry using the technology of the Star Forge itself. My calculations are infallible.”
“Hmm. What were the Builders like?”
“The Builder’s are the great masters of the galaxy, the conquerors of all worlds, the rulers of the Infinite Empire and the creators of the Star Forge.”
Eilis frowned then turned towards Bastila, asking, “Weren’t the Hutt’s a dominant force before the Republic? I remember one I worked for mentioning that in some long rant once.”
“Yes,” replied the younger woman. “But they did not build an empire. I know of no species that would fit this information, at all.”
“Then these Builders must be extinct,” said Carth.
“Yes,” agreed Bastila. “Yet there are no records of their existence. Or this Star Forge.”
The droid rattled suddenly and spoke, “Now that the slaves are gone, my purpose is to aid those who seek knowledge of the Star Forge if they are worthy. The one’s who came before you; the one’s like you - not Builders, not slaves - sought knowledge of the Star Forge. They proved themselves worthy. They discovered the secrets of the Star Forge locked beyond the door behind me. Other’s came who came failed to unlock the secrets and paid the ultimate price.”
“Others?” whispered Eilis. Then she noticed a figure crumpled to her left and went to it, turning it over. A glint of silver near its waist caught her attention and she gasped.
“Bastila! It’s a Jedi!”
“It must be Nemo,” said the brunette as she walked over, referring to the other Jedi the Master’s had sent here. She leaned down to peer at the man’s shattered face, trying to recognize what remained. “Poor Nemo.”
Eilis unclipped the man’s lightsabre from his belt and thumbed the switch. Something clicked hollowly inside and she shook her head.
“Whatever happened, it broke his lightsaber,” she said before tucking the sabre into her robes. She then looked at the droid and asked, “Did you kill him?”
“I am not programmed for combat. The temple’s own protections will destroy the unworthy if they fail in their quest for knowledge. Now it is your time. Enter the doors to the east and the west. Within them those who understand the will of the Builders can unlock their secrets and open the doors. Those who fail will be destroyed by the power of the temple itself.”
“What a cheerful droid,” muttered Carth, eying the two doors suspiciously.
“Mmm,” said Eilis, walking towards the east door. She then looked at the other two and said, “Guess we’d better go in if we’re going to find out what Revan and Malak wanted here.”
The door slid open at the touch of her fingertips and she peered inside, holding her lightsabre out in front of her. As Carth came through the door it slammed shut and lights came on within the chamber.
Eilis barely avoided a stream of laser fire coming from across the room and pulled Carth with her as she dived out of the way. Bastila went the other way, deflecting bolts back at the droid that was firing at them.
“Oof!”
“Sorry,” muttered the smuggler, grinning sheepishly down at Carth. Then she realized she was lying on top of him and blushed, hurriedly getting up.
“Hey, no rush, beautiful,” he said as he rolled to his feet, drawing his blaster’s and firing at the droid. “I don’t mind being a cushion.”
Eilis blushed again then reached into her robe, digging a plasma grenade out of one of her pockets. Carth frowned at her and asked, “What are you going to do with that?”
“Distract it,” she replied, arming the grenade. As she hurled it towards the droid, she leapt up and charged at it, ignoring her companion’s surprised cries.
The droid’s weapon turned towards her but then the plasma grenade went off, blocking its vision momentarily. And when it could see again, all that was visible was a blue energy blade coming straight for what could be called its head.
Eilis shouted wordlessly as the droid’s head rolled away then cut her sabre back to slice through two of its legs. It collapsed and she drove the blade down into its control cluster, effectively demolishing it.
“That was a brash move!” exclaimed Bastila.
“Maybe,” said Eilis, grinning. “But it worked.”
Bastila frowned at that, which caused Carth to chuckle softly despite the fact that he wanted to shake the smuggler and demand she never do something like that again.
Eilis then noticed an ancient console near the back of the room and started towards it. It powered on the moment her fingers touched it and she frowned at the words that popped onto the screen. Tapping on the console’s keys only got it to hum at her and she finally just kicked it.
As she hopped on one foot, she saw the earlier words come across the screen in ancient Selkath.
IDENTIFY THE THREE PRIMARY DEATH-GIVING SEED WORLD TYPES
She thought for a moment then typed the three in Selkath. There was a pause then another message filled the screen.
BREAKING DEATH SEAL
The console shut down after that and all three of them heard a door within the ruins open.
“What did you do?” asked Bastila as they headed towards the door, which was open again.
“I answered its question,” replied Eilis as she went around the Overseer to the other door. As she stepped in, she added, “Simple as that.”
There was a click suddenly from her right and she yelled, “Get down!”
Fire blossomed from a flamethrower just two feet away and she threw her right arm in front of her face as she fell backwards. The lights came on a second later and she heard Carth curse at the sight of another droid.
Tugging off the still burning outer robe and her glove, Eilis rolled to her feet and grabbed her lightsabre, igniting it. She shook her droid arm to make sure it still worked then glanced down to see what the damage was. Small chunks of her armor had been slagged off, which left holes down to the original arm.
Snarling, she flicked her wrist sharply, causing part of her forearm to snap away from the rest of her arm, revealing a flamethrower.
“Move!” she bellowed at Bastila, who was slashing at the droid with her lightsaber. The brunette looked up and dived out of the way seconds before Eilis let loose with her flamethrower.
“Let’s see how you like it!” she shouted, watching as the fire engulfed the droid. Then she flicked her wrist, causing her arm to snap back together, and rushed forward.
Bastila came in from the other side and their lightsabres lashed out at it in a light show of blue and yellow, punctuated by the occasional red blaster bolt from Carth.
The droid finally fell under the onslaught and Eilis gave it a swift kick, cursing vehemently in Selkath at it. Then she stalked over to the console and ended up kicking this one as well to get it to work. She spent a minute answering its question then the sound of another door opening within the ruins came to their ears. And this one sounded like it was the one behind the Overseer droid.
When they entered the main room they found the door open and walked through, heading down to the next door. Eilis paused as she reached out to touch the door and shuddered, turning her face away from it.
Carth frowned and took a step towards her, saying, “Eilis?”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. She turned back to the door and looked at it for a long moment before saying in a hushed voice, “It just…it just feels like if we go beyond this door, nothing will ever be the same.”
“Then again,” she said as she ran her now uncovered droid fingers over the door to open it, “when does anything stay the same?”
Carth and Bastila couldn’t help but notice she spoke in a slightly bitter tone.
In the center of the room now revealed was a black tripod, three sections of it folded upwards. It reminded Eilis of a flower waiting to bloom.
As they walked towards it, there was a click and the three sections folded back. A holographic image came to life from the center of the tripod and Eilis gasped.
“It’s a map,” she breathed, reaching out to touch one of the planets. “That’s Kashyyyk. And Manaan. And this one here is Tatooine. But what is this one?”
“It looks like Korriban,” said Bastila, stepping forward to take a closer look at the map.
Carth frowned at the map and asked, “What does it mean?”
Eilis frowned as she began to enter the map data into her datapad.
“Maybe,” she began, “maybe we have to visit all these world’s. And look! Look at this section here. There’s an entire sector missing.”
“Maybe that’s where this Star Forge is,” said Carth.
“Maybe,” muttered Eilis as she continued to enter in the data. She then frowned and said, “What I don’t understand is why I had a dream…vision…whatever…of Revan and Malak coming here. I mean, I’m just a smuggler!”
Bastila frowned at her for that.
“You’re a Jedi now,” she said.
Eilis shrugged as she punched the last of the data in and slipped her datapad back into her robes. She immediately missed the slot on her old belt. The datapad’s weight made her lean slightly to the right to compensate when it was in her robe pockets.
“We should go and inform the Master’s,” said Bastila. “Finding this Star Forge may be the key to stopping the Sith once and for all.”
“That’s quite a supposition,” said Carth as they turned to leave. “What if you’re wrong?”
“And if I’m right? We cannot ignore this.”
“Yeah, well, I’m with Eilis. I’d like to know why she’s getting visions of Dark Lord’s - former and current.”
“That is none of your concern, Carth,” said Bastila sharply.
“None of my…! Now see here, sister! You’re as close-mouthed as the rest of the Jedi here. I know something’s up and I’m going to find out one way or another! ‘Cause if there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s being left out of the loop.”
“Left out?”
“Yeah, it’s starting to irritate me. For one thing, what are these Master’s of yours thinking?”
“What do you mean, Carth?” asked Eilis, causing him to turn towards her.
“Look, you’re a neophyte Padawan. And what do they do? Send you half-trained into a deadly situation. Doesn’t any of this strike you as strange?”
“It does,” replied Eilis. “But what other choice do we have?”
“We can blast out of here right now and leave the Jedi behind us!”
“And leave the galaxy to fend for itself against the Sith?” She shook her head, strands of dark hair escaping from her tail and falling over her eyes. “I can’t do that, Carth. After…after Taris I can’t - I won’t - allow the Sith to do that to another world if I can help it. And what we’re doing might just keep them from doing that!”
He stared at her for a moment then nodded, running a hand back through his hair.
“Alright, Eilis. But I still say we’re being stringed along.”
“Then we’ll just have to cut the strings when we find them, won’t we?” said Eilis with a smirk, not catching the look of horror on Bastila’s face at the thought. “I don’t like being stringed along anymore than you do, flyboy.”
“We should really return to the Enclave,” said Bastila in a strained voice.
Eilis nodded and led the way from the ruins, unmindful of Bastila’s thought that already she might be falling.
Again.
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As they got ready to leave Dantooine a few days later on the mission to find the other maps to lead to the Star Forge, Mission surprised Eilis as she worked to repair Nemo’s lightsabre.
“El! Look what me and Zaalbar found in the caves!”
Eilis looked up and yelped as a leather bag dropped in front of her, nearly on top of the lightsabre hilt. She turned to frown at Mission, who grinned sheepishly at her. Behind the Twi’lek, Zaalbar shook his furry head and chuckled softly.
From her elbow, AT floated up and extended one of his arms, latching the three small claws on the end on the edge of the bag. He bobbed backwards and the contents of the bag spilled onto the Ebon Hawk’s workbench.
“Brip!” cried AT as several crystals spilled onto the bench.
Eilis gaped at them then picked up one that was obviously a yellow color crystal. She then looked at the blue Twi’lek and Wookiee and asked, “Where did you find these?”
“Deep within a cave,” replied Zaalbar. “Mission remembered you mentioning something about being able to insert other crystals into your sabre to make it stronger. So we collected as many as we could find.”
“Wow,” said Eilis, turning the yellow crystal in her hands. “This is a great find, you two.”
Mission beamed at that and said, “Glad you can use them, El. C’mon, Big Z! Let’s go get something to eat.”
The two disappeared and Eilis reached into the bag, pulling out a handful of crystals. A few she would have to cut rough edges off but beyond that all of them appeared usable.
“Well,” she said to AT, who was scanning a milky white crystal, “looks like I’d better get this other sabre working. Is there another blue crystal in there?”
AT’s photoreceptor flashed and he floated forward, using his arm to shift through the bag as she continued to work on the sabre. His affirmative beep made her grin.
“Great.”
She then felt the Hawk’s engines rumble to life and smiled.
“Looks like we’re off on a real whirlwind adventure this time, AT.”
“Beep bop.”
She chuckled and nodded, bending her head over the sabre again.
“Yeah. And with good friends.”