Captain's Log, Supplemental (Magda)

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Log, Halm System

[SIZE=11pt]We’ve been redirected to Varada Five. Professor Bortuthis informs me that the Adegan crystal [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]samples[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] and scans from Halm will be evaluated by experts at the [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Sor Yusan[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] College of Economics and Trade. He’s not angry that his work is being appropriated; he’s angry that the first eyes on it will be profit-focused. I’m trying to convince him that he’s probably better off this way. His team has turned out good work based on First Order research grants, and there’s a decent chance they’ll get back most of their samples once bureaucratic due diligence has been done. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Besides, he might be comfortable in Sor Yusan for the few days we’re there. It doesn’t have Varunda Nine’s trees, but the population is only half human, and I know he gets along fairly well with Sullustans and Bith. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]This excursion’s students, both grads and undergrads, are much more interested in Sor Yusan than the Professor is. It’s a sector-level metropolis with a lot to offer. Some of the geology postdocs have been filling their heads with stories of quick cash at the Yun Ma Trading Tower’s mineral exchanges. Between that and Lightwave Plaza, I’ll have to keep an eye on them. If I get a minute, I might drop by the United Speeder Services building: it’s supposed to have a fantastic restaurant and some major shipwrights’ offices. That maintenance and retrofit budget, small as it might be, is burning a hole in my pocket.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=11pt][member="Magdalena Lethe"][/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Sor Yusan
Varada V

I think I’m in love with Sor Yusan. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve lived: it’s all about the future. Its energy might start to wear on me if I stayed here long, but it’s just a fascinating place. The students are a little more wary than I'd anticipated, and so far none of my crew have had to step in to save them from anything more serious than a rigged sabacc deck. For the most part, they've been content to see the sights in and around Lightwave Plaza and the Yun Ma Trading Tower. Professor Bortuthis and some of the postdocs are doing freelance consulting for mineral brokerages.

I didn't expect this kind of happiness and relaxation, I really didn't. My mistake, clearly.

I had a business dinner with a Santhe representative at the United Speeder Services building. I traded on my donor's name a little: another Ashin signed the deal that brought Santhe to this territory in earnest. The representative helped me stretch my maintenance budget a little, and now my engineering team is installing a variety of components. No immense changes, just mild performance improvements across the board. My little Shamballa may not be as durable or well-armed as a Conyers, but it's turning into a competent ship in its own right.

I've taken on a handful of passengers, part of an NHU exchange program with Sor Yusan College of Economics and Trade. They're mostly Bith and Sullustan, and they're studying optimization of shipping routes. I've been instructed to give them full access to my astrometrics equipment. So far they're intensely polite. Acting as back channels, they've also informed me that Professor Bortuthis’ research team should be getting their samples back in a couple of days. I've told students and staff alike to make the most of our time on Varada Five.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Log, Sor Yusan, Varada V

Chief Engineer Kalaaa has installed the Santhe components and is running system strain exercises. Early results suggest that the modifications won't have much of an effect on raw speed, shield strength, firepower, or most of the other key survival indicators. Even so, he's chomping at the bit to test the Shamballa's performance in open space.

Without those benefits, though, the new components are still giving us a significant improvement in system strain resistance and power state stability. Apart from giving us increased resistance to ion weapons and electromagnetic interference, the modifications should help protect sensitive instrumentation and data storage. I made the Santhe purchases on Kalaaa's recommendation, and he chose well.

Our new passengers from the local trade college were wrong. The Halm samples are still waiting for a specialist's stamp. It looks like we'll be here another four days. Also, Professor Bortuthis just informed me that one of our core samples contained an especially high-grade crystal. That's been confiscated for national security reasons, along with the survey data on that specific site. He's not pleased, but this is the cost of doing business, and government grants funded his project in the first place. I thought I would mind having inspectors visit my ship, but it's not like we have anything to hide, and I think I impressed that upon them. They were thorough, businesslike, and disciplined: they impressed me.

Now that we have a new timeline, I've increased shore leave. This port and situation are safe enough that we can get by with a skeleton crew while berthed. NHU Dispatch isn't pleased about the additional docking fees, but Bortuthis' grant will cover it. He doesn't care so long as he gets his samples back.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Log - Port Mynock, Knojur System

A ship like the Wretched Hive can't dock at just any port of call. Even fewer ports let us top up what we need to keep operating. Our supplies are running low. We used a lot of good scrap fixing up ships for [member="Loto Afu"], [member="Rebel Sunka"], [member="Seydon of Arda"], [member="Sarge Potteiger"], [member="Rekha Kaarde"], and others. Port Mynock tends to have the right kind of salvage if you don't ask too close about the provenance.

Shopping list: Fake or tweaked telesponders. Whatever good mechanics are looking for a new berth. Inertial dampeners. Artificial gravity panels. Engines, any size. Repulsorlifts. Sheet transparisteel, canopy thickness. A treat for Alna. A set of hydrospanners. Non-perishable food. Tomo spice. An astromech or something similar. A couple more welding torches. As many size six bolts as possible. Any ship-mountable weapons that don't cost too much. Hyperdrive coolant. Engine grease. Sabacc deck. Boots.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Log, Supplemental
The Wretched Hive
Port Mynock, Knojur System

Hired a new mechanic, pretty much the sort of guy we're after. His name's Jasper Varanin, distant cousin of the other one. My interview process is basically just having a drink and asking them about their last big mod. His was a big one, maybe a tall tale, but whether it was or not, he knew his stuff. Seems he was there during the Atrisian Sector conflict. A cutting-edge Mando stealth courier crashed on Necropolis, and he happened to be fixing refugee ships nearby. The pilot paid him some unholy amount to fix the grav mod and the other gear, but the stygium crystals were all shattered in the crash. So he teased up a lump of hibridium and put together a crude cloak out of that. Very sure of himself, might wind up annoyingly snotty, but for a Wild Space shadowport he's a dang good find. He also knows Darr, worked with him, so that's something.

Picked up about half my shopping list. Can't find the right treat for Alna. I thought I had it when I went into the asteroid bazaar and saw a Langsyne modularity coordinator, but someone had stripped it down to 4.0 specs - user-friendly but toothless. Pity: one of those would be a handy thing to check off the maintenance list on the Daragon.

I think she's hunting for something too. She went to great lengths to keep me out of the bazaar yesterday. She thinks I can't read her, but we've been together a long fething time.

Shenna'vala is having drinks with the current port boss again tonight. Hope she knows what she's doing. Klatoonian gangsters can be a little rough around the edges. I've asked Darr to amble by that particular cantina later on, just in case. I'm not much of a deterrent these days, but Krevaaki claws will shear right through a lum can, and the locals know it.

Know what, I'll probably look in on that myself too. Shenna knows which way is up, but escalation's a thing.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Log, Supplemental
The Wretched Hive
Port Mynock, Knojur System

I've thrown this together to help get Shenna and the new hired used to a ship model we run into a lot. A bit wordy but I think it covers the important points.


Make: Koensayr

Model: BTR-47 Cormorant-class Light Freighter

Colour: Available in gray, white, or matte yellow

Trade-In Value: 95,000-120,000cr

Size Classification: Subcapital

Mission Profile: Unescorted transport or convoy light escort

Combat Role: The Koensayr Cormorant is not a warship. It mounts enough basic weapons and defensive systems to repel flights of starfighters or boarding operations. The Cormorant is somewhat sluggish compared to combat vessels of similar size, such as dedicated gunships.

Tech Level: Mid Rim civilian

Sensor Range: Standard

Hyperdrive Range: 10,000ly, suitable for crossing a sector or two before refueling.

Sublight Fuel Capacity: Interplanetary. The Cormorant can ferry cargoes between planets in the same system with ease.

Cargo Lift Mass: 110 tons, split between four bays

Supply Capacity: Without using its dedicated cargo space, the Cormorant can support a dozen crew and passengers for up to four months. For nutritional reasons, it is recommended to take on fresh foods weekly.

Amenities: Fresher, sonic shower, kitchenette, dejarik table, holo entertainment unit, limited machine shop, heated pilot seats.

System Strain Resistance: Like many Koensayr designs, the Cormorant is a durable and reliable ship. Its resistance to system strain, including ion cannon fire, is considerable. A pair of mechanical dianogas further improve the ship's resilience to system strain by allowing for quick repairs in obscure corners of the spaceframe.

Points of Strain: Aggressive hyperspace incidents, such as emergency jumps or interdiction, can easily knock hyperdrive components out of alignment. Repairs could take minutes, hours, or days. The power cables of the dorsal and ventral turrets run quite close to the hull: a lucky hit in the wrong place can cripple a good portion of the Cormorant's already modest firepower.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Log, Supplemental
The Wretched Hive
Port Mynock, Knojur System

Shenna and Jasper threw this together to help him get used to the ship. It's not far off.


Name: The Wretched Hive

Make: Starcrest

Model: Star Voyager-class Freighter

Colour: Gray

Trade-In Value: 1,500,000cr, comparable to a used military corvette

Size Classification: Medium freighter/corvette

Mission Profile: Mobile repair/modification facility; salvage; asteroid mining

Combat Role: The Hive’s tough defenses and good engines pair with its defensively-minded weapons loadout to make a ship whose primary combat role is running away.

Tech Level: Outer Rim, heavily modified

Sensor Range: Long

Hyperdrive Range: 50,000ly (roughly one trip from Wild Space to the Deep Core), or longer if hangar space is sacrificed for additional fuel

Sublight Fuel Capacity: Interplanetary. The Wretched Hive is capable of moving cargo between far-flung planets inside a given solar system.

Cargo Lift Mass: 950 tons, due to heavily reinforced hangar bay decks, powerful engines, and modded repulsorlifts

Supply Capacity: The Wretched Hive’s supply stocks can keep a crew of dozens alive and happy for up to four months, though additional fresh food is recommended.

Amenities: ‘Freshers, sonic showers, decontamination suites, hologame tables, holo-entertainment library, mess hall, full kitchen, long-range comms, asteroid mining/processing gear, small-scale manufacturing and machine shop, comprehensive modification bays.

System Strain Resistance: The Wretched Hive’s major modifications (engines, hangars, mining gear, machine shop, reduced/swapped weapons emplacements, improved shield generators, etc.) have made it a maze of circuits and wires. The Hive has no cap drains or agrinium cages or anything along those lines. A number of mechanical dianogas allow crewers to repair or replace components in hard-to-reach places. Overall, the ship is no better off than any other corvette against ion weapons and other sources of system strain.

Points of Strain: Radical maneuvers can stress the inertial compensators to breaking point, when handling the bulk of berthed starships. Push it too far, and the ships and tech in the Hive’s work bays might start sliding or tipping, and that would be intensely bad.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Log
S.S. Shamballa
Sor Yusan, Varada V

The First Order has cleared us to depart, and most of Professor Bortuthis' samples have been returned intact. The Santhe components are all installed and stress-tested. We'll be leaving this morning after eight days on Varada Five. I dipped into certain private reserve funds and made sure the crew and passengers had a memorable last night in Sor Yusan. I had dinner with a good friend at a restaurant in Lightwave Plaza, like being surrounded by the lights and clean lines of energetic high-tech. I think I'll miss this city.

Our next port of call is yet to be determined. We've been in contact with NHU Dispatch about our new guests from the Sor Yusan College of Economics and Trade, and there's a possibility here that we'll be running a new formal exchange program surrounding their trade route studies. It seems this whole arrangement is part of a longer-term unspoken strategy, the kind that runs through all sorts of academia.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Founder's Log
Beacon of Broadcast
Ablajeck Sector

Project outpost is slow going. In our attempt to impress our goals upon the south western quadrants of the galaxy we've met more resistance than ever. Something about the hospitality of Ceto and the Galactic Alliance seems to have raised expectations unrealistically. I am...humbled by the negativity encountered.

Confused as well.

Father always spoke so highly of the peoples of this area. Perhaps the remnants of the Confederacy really and truly are vanished. Remember how the Lords agreed to disagree, he said to me once, at least they agreed on something.

But if I am anything of his daughter I suppose determination is something to speak of. I persist, stubbornly, and I intend to keep pressing. Someone is going to speak to me and agree on something. I've broken out old Merrill star charts and have set course for the old Fringe capital, Annaj. I hear the people there are still pretty friendly even despite their new political overlords.

Captain Ra has begged me to steer clear of the Order. She has a point; the Beacon is an awfully big and slow target.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Log
S.S. Shamballa
En route to Annaj

It wasn't too many years ago that Annaj was the undisputed capital of the Unknown Regions. The Iron Crown shipyards there were built by Silk Holdings, and Silk runs space trains and bacta shipments through Annaj all the time. Dosuun has definitely eclipsed it for wealth and prestige, a metropolis where Annaj was only ever a few big cities carved out of swamp, but Annaj is still a serious starport both groundside and upwell. We'll be making a high-orbital rendezvous with another NHU ship, S.S. Bantu. Professor Bortuthis and his research team will be getting off and heading back to Varunda.

Instead, we'll be playing host to an astrophysics working group that's looking to collaborate with our guests from the Sor Yusan College of Economics and Trade. They're going to be taking a look at the success or failure of trade route optimization measures around Annaj.

In connection with that goal, I believe we'll be spending some time on the Sanctuary Pipeline. Someone stole one of the major S-thread boosters a few years back, and the route's been unstable ever since. The practical side of their research has some bearing on whether the existing boosters can be repositioned to create more uniform conditions on the Pipeline. New S-thread boosters don't come cheap, after all.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Private Log

We're back at Varunda Nine for extended refit and repair. The Shamballa is in a sorry condition after our Wild Space run-in with the Galactic Alliance cruiser Ascended Vengeance or whatever it was called. I admit to feeling an inordinate amount of personal pride, though in the end I owe my victory to the enemy commander's rashness, temper, and inexperience. I've never seen Dun Moch work so conclusively.

And conclusive is the word. Professor Bortuthis keeps telling the story to the university, and he's remarkably precise about it. For a civilian who just had his first taste of combat, I'd have thought he would expand the story every time, but he has his balance. His reputation for unflinching accuracy hasn't always won him friends in academia, but the long and short of it is that my job isn't at risk. There was a mandated inquest into the three grad students who died during the fight, but new regulations include a First Order representative in those meetings.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

The representative turned out to be Commodore Drakul Velmuth, CO of FIV Levinson, the sector coordinator station in orbit. I believe he was impatient with the others for focusing on the three I lost rather than the two hundred I saved from detention and then death - and their research, of course. He may also have been swayed by the fact that I took down a Cater-era cruiser with a toothless light frigate and a civilian crew. I know the type, young and hungry. I flashed him my ring and mentioned my wife offhand, and once was enough.

Anyways, for better or worse, I'm on the First Order's sensor screens now. I can live with that, or I'd never have gone head to head with the Victorious Justice or whatever it was called. I'd just have kept running through that asteroid belt and bailed.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

I've been put back on shuttle service, which is fine. I get to see S. often, focus on my courses, and pick up my hobbies again. I found an old Mando sniper rifle missing a couple of easily machined parts, and I got back into metalwork in the process. I've lost some of my skills - daily practice is essential, and I do have certain issues rebuilding muscle memory - but I'm confident I can get them back.

The university is contracting with local shipwrights to retrofit and upgrade the Naboo-built Laureate science frigates they own. In turn, it seems the locals have subcontracted some of the design work to a sketchy but effective group of outlaw techs. Their ship, the Wretched Hive, has been in port for a few days now. They have a Merrill in command, a young one, and nobody I recognize. He looks a bit like Rave did when she was younger. A cousin, maybe. He didn't appear to recognize me as anything more than another Varanin clone.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Personal Log
Port Mynock, Knojur System

I find myself thinking about my pride a lot lately.

I've never had much use for pride, but more than I should have. I've bragged some. My whole thing with Corvus Raaf was about my pride - I can admit that now. It was about the part of me that believed I was more deserving of her job, and better at it. I saw her as a kid, and when I crossed that line I turned into another Selena Halcyon or Carn Dista - another condescending piece of id masquerading as logic. I've got my share of shames, and how I handled Raaf is up there. I screwed her over pretty bad.

Then again, maybe I'm just feeling bad about other things and letting it color the past. I took the holocrons because she turned my access keys into a surveillance network for spying on the Jedi in the Alliance and the Silver Order. Something needed to be done; Eyal M'ti was right there with me.

It's been years since I pulled that stunt. Should probably stop thinking about it at some point. Could be the only reason I'm dwelling on it is the other Raaf issue.

There were three sisters. One was the Grandmaster. One was a Sith Lord who turned Jedi, skipped rehab, and got an academy from her sister to supervise. She then went into business and made billions off the old One Sith war machine. Now she's a senior archivist in the New Jedi Order. That's anomalous.

The third sister, Melori, is wanted in connection with some old murders in ORC space, plus we believe she was Black Rose.

Was Corvus rotten? An infiltrator, or compromised? Or does some grudging leftover part of me just want that to be true?

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Personal Log
Port Mynock, Knojur System

Alna says I spend too much time worrying about my conscience. She told me once that conscience is a tool, like pain, a warning sign. Use it to correct your course, but don't let it take over your life if you can help it. I suppose by that logic flagellation is like self-medication by substance abuse. I know a thing or two about both.

Then again, I don't see the harm in dwelling on an insoluble ethical problem, or trying to resolve cognitive dissonance. That's as natural as flinching away from pain or pushing against it to fix the problem.

I've always believed in live and let live. Rave and Sio flirted with the Dark Side back in the day, when we were young and closer than we are. Then they became Masters of the Dark Side, angry and greedy and hedonistic and generally wrecked. It wouldn't respect their agency for me to say I could have stopped it, but I didn't even try. Then I became a Jedi, and I pushed back against that culture's insistence that one step along the dark path would dominate your destiny forever. I never believed that. I found it uncompassionate and manipulative. I know for darn sure I did a couple serious things when I was angry, gotta be fifteen, twenty years back, before I was a Jedi. Better believe I took a step or two down that path. And ever since then, sure, I've struggled not to snap back at bad people, but never once used the Force in anger or for selfishness. I'd remember a thing like that. I can think of some other folks who did the same, more or less.

Then again, my one anecdotal life isn't evidence of a bigger pattern. Most folks who go Dark stay that way, to one extent or another. The holocrons are pretty clear on that, and feth, I've seen it myself any number of times. And that's why I worry that my guilt over Rave and Sio and Raxis has teeth. That's why I worry that my live-and-let-live philosophy is going to lead me to make more mistakes like that.

Bryce Bantam. Dax Fyre. That Nate kid. The Coalition is full of Masters who don't ascribe to any code but their own, and they dabble, more than dabble sometimes. I'm feeling like I've got a responsibility there, at least to sit down and talk.

But that's nothing next to the Mara problem. My daughter, my brilliant introverted little crystallographer, is writing hate literature. I've read it and it's fething heartbreaking. I'd expected to find pain and bitterness, and that's there, but what's worse is what's underneath. Behind the pain and the anger is just a kid crying because she doesn't understand. She feels betrayed by the universe.

I read her careful comparison of fascist thought and the Resol'nare, and between the lines there's always this one refrain.

'Why does it hurt, Daddy? Why did they want to hurt me? I don't understand.'

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Captain's Personal Log
The Wretched Hive
Ord Mantell

This trip shouldn't have been so easy. All I needed to justify it was the chance of reclaiming Darr's old local customers. Once we got here, I made some noises about family business and slipped off. Shenna has the ship, Darr and his old crew are out shaking hands, and I went to get security footage. That was pretty simple to track down too.

It's not as bad as I'd feared, but it's a gut punch anyways, no matter how many times I watch it.

Mara comes out​ of Karkin' Ribs. She's carrying what must be twenty pounds of styroplast boxes, probably all the tomo-spiced Karkan ribenes we both love.

Two Mando men walk by, see her, do a double take, nudge each other. They put on their helmets. I can't get a good look at their faces - can't see identity or expression.

One turns around and bumps into her from behind. A week's worth of food busts out of its containers and rolls around in the dirt.

Mara spins, hands up and empty, backs off a little. Her face is terrified. That turns into anger pretty quick. She starts yelling. One gets up in her face. She pushes him; he pushes back, puts her on the ground. She's up in a heartbeat, saber out, unlit. So far she's doing everything right except the yelling. That was a bad move and now she knows she's committed.

The other Mando takes a stun shot at her. She activates her saber and catches it. Things escalate: within five seconds it's a brawl, then she takes off a hand and the flamers and killshots come out. Bystanders are scattering but I see stray fire take down one or two. Mara sees it too. She's decent with a saber, better than me though that doesn't take much. She flicks that silver blade through the gaps in their armor and they're done.

She isn't.

She goes outside the holocam's field of view and comes back with a coil of electrical cable. Both the Mandos are rolling around in the dirt by this point. She stands there watching them as she improvises a noose at each end of the cable. Then she hangs them over a building's corner, like a pair of shoes over a power line, and watches until they stop kicking. She wipes her eyes and leaves.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain’s Log
S.S. Shambhala
Departing Varunda System

The Exec Leadership Team has retasked the Shambhala toward an ongoing mission funded by a grant from the Foundation Trust. The Trust is a known quantity in First Order space; until relatively recently, they owned Iron Crown Enterprises, and oversaw its exponential expansion. The Trust is fairly quiet about its membership, but known names include Rel Connory, Darell Irani, Linna Beorht, and now, apparently, a certain Ashin Varanin - as a silent funding partner. My clone donor was believed dead at the Battle of Luju, the better part of a decade ago. Apparently she’s been retired.

The Shambhala’s new mission is staggering in scope. It’s more of a strategic initiative, really: any one of the subordinate missions would be the centerpiece of a quarterly plan. The Trust has provided a wealth of raw and processed data on a variety of subjects galactic and extragalactic. The Shambhala will carry shifting academic teams to all sorts of destinations. Part of me finds it exciting; part of me finds it grimly necessary.

The Trust’s avowed goal has always been to shore up the galaxy against a potential recurrence of the Dark Age. They keep secretive gene banks, archives, and so forth - and it’s a worthy project. Lately, they’ve broadened their focus.

The galaxy has nearly been destroyed a handful of times since I’ve been alive. The First and Second Akala Crises; Omni’s emergence; these events shook civilization to its core. Everyone in the galaxy pretends they never happened - because how else can they deal with the evidence of an overwhelming, malevolent, contemptuous universe? How else can they deal with the fact that they, their loved ones, their world, and their species might not wake up tomorrow, for no cause that frenetic invention can diagnose, let alone solve?

The Trust aims to stare into the void. They’ve asked me to do it for them.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Captain's Log
S.S. Shambhala
Adtera System

The Foundation Trust has provided a set of confidential mission logs produced by a Theed Hangar functionary a couple of years ago. Lady Amari Shambleau is the name of record, commanding the Indispensable-class civilian flagship Fortune's Light. Her superior, Director General Ajira Cardei of Theed's Strategic Security Division, tasked Shambleau with visiting a series of uninhabited worlds. Theed Hangar, now Royal Naboo Shipwrights, had identified entire star systems as new arrivals. Somehow, they appeared in our galaxy at the end of the First Akala Crisis. A process comparable to radiological dating has confirmed that these planets developed against a vastly different radiation backdrop.

We're beginning where Lady Shambleau began, at the planet Egktraesta in the Adtera system. The names, as with all names in this process, are linguistic approximations based on archaeology and speculation. Egktraesta was inhabited by a sapient technological* species until roughly fifteen millennia ago. The Naboo expedition identified and examined points of interest, and a number of archaeological digs are ongoing. The same pattern is repeated at some of these early destinations. We'll be liaising with some of the archaeological teams and taking on new projects here. Meanwhile, I've been tasked with escorting an anonymous specialist to a notable, private location in Egktraesta's small habitable region.

*The locals used biotechnology, like the Yuuzhan Vong, and abhorred actual technology. No indication yet why they went to war.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Journal of Ashin Varanin
Egktraesta, Adtera System

It's nice to see Shambleau again; she's done well for herself at RNS. Her power in the Force has stagnated, or at least plateaued, so I've taken the opportunity to brush her up on the basics. This is a good place for it. Egktraesta is a wasteland, except for this patch of forest that's been protected for fifteen thousand years by a Force nexus. The vergence is strong and specialized and deeply alien.

Frankly, the Shambhala's trip to this planet is window dressing, the necessary smoke-and-mirrors of me passing tasks to my public self. The entire purpose of this jaunt is for Shambleau and I to come to this exact spot. It's a lovely patch of jungle. Visitors have cleared plants and layers of dirt away from the ancient cobblestone paths, both for excavation and for travel. You can easily imagine this place as an alien garden, a site of ceremony. All the remaining memory of this planet's inhabitants could be said to reside here.

As a Ke'dem Knight, Shambleau knows how to flow-walk. She'll be coming along with me as we examine two points in the past: the planet's destruction, and its translation into our galaxy. The former will be exponentially more difficult than the latter. Flow-walking normally can't look back that far. I've been using that technique for decades, though, and this place is a powerful vergence with an intricate and profound history. We should be fine.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Journal of Ashin Varanin
Egktraesta, Adtera System

It's time to be Captain Karrde again. Shambleau and I got what we came for. We saw the locals and the ceremonies they performed here, going back a very long time. We saw those ceremonies end, and the locals with them, when the planet was destroyed. We saw what destroyed it.

This planet had terrible luck. A cataclysmic volcanic eruption chilled the atmosphere and blocked out the sun. Lesser species couldn't handle the ash. Then came the Yuuzhan Vong, unmistakably. I've been Vongshaped; I would know those people anywhere. They descended on Egktraesta and annihilated the locals, razed the cities to the ground. Once they left, and once the volcanic winter receded, this patch of forest comprised the only substantive patch of life on the planet. The shrine here, called Reamurdta, sustained this patch of forest through its resonance in the Force. Life, apparently, found a way.

We've exchanged some members of the expeditionary crews with the academic teams working locally. Captain Karrde and the Shambhala will be moving along.