Echoes of the Sith Triumvirate

[Cathul Thuku]

"Where am I? Why do I feel so... empty?" Cathul told her space ambulance pilot, in a low voice, with her bandages over her tattered medical scrubs.

"Empty? What is it that you were tortured with?" the space EMT pilot asked her, while preparing the blood transfusions. "Oh and you are at one of Coruscant's spaceports"

"What is known is that I passed out from the pain" she told, with some screams of pain in her voice, as well as bandages around her body.

"I find that hard to believe: you used to be a healthcare professional, spamming Force-healing while you cured patients from the Atrisia Campaign"

"There is one place I would like to go before I die, a pilgrimage that I feel a good Jedi that actually uses the Force for knowledge should do at some point: the Valley of the Jedi on Ruusan. Oh and this is my credit chip for payment" she answered, with several screams of pain mixed in.

"Hang on tight: Ruusan, here we come!"

Her pain was so intense she couldn't use the Force; that was the dead giveaway to her that the torture inflicted on Mandalore was pretty bad, and she was still in pain and reeling in from all the stuff that happened beforehand. How could the pilot recognize her as being the head doctor on Inysh? Did her rank plaque somehow remain on her? Normally she would just pilot her own ship, whether her Neimoidian Yacht or the capital ship that serves as her flagship, and use Instinctive Astrogation Control to chart her way through, like no other Jedi would, knowing that IAC is a function not so much of power but of intellect: to her most people were using IAC mostly as they would Force-comprehension. In fact, most people would be well-advised to use Force-comprehension over IAC if they only want the intellectual boost or, alternatively, Instinctive Astrogation over IAC if they only want the ability to chart hyperspace routes. But at least she was grateful for the Mandalorians acknowledging that the crime wasn't severe enough for a death sentence, and hence grateful for staying alive, albeit without legs.

[member="Tanomas Graf"]

 

[Tanomas Graf]

"Jerec..."

"The Valley of the Jedi"

"Ruusan..."

Tanomas Graf awoke with a start covered in a cold sweat, he heard voices in his dreams, not the voices you would hear natural in a dream, but it sounded like someone was whispering into his ear. The old man quickly turned on the lamp next to his bed and looked around, but nobody was there. Graf stared down at his right hand, the gold ring he usually wore was cracked, a small white light shining through. He took the ring off and felt something cool, like he was being slowly immersed in water, spread from inside him.

The Force was beginning to flow within him once more.

Standing up, he straightened his disheveled uniform and quickly made his way to the bridge, where crewmen were currently working the night shift. All of them perked up at his sudden appearance "Set course for Ruusan, we need to get there immediately." Graf ordered. The crewmen were too tired to argue, diverting their hyperspace course from Bilbringi to Ruusan. They would perhaps arive there within the hour if they were lucky.

The Force was calling, would he answer it?

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

If what she knew about space ambulances is correct, she would be plunged into the bacta tank for a few hours or so, with her tattered medical scrubs still on, but her rank plate still safely stowed alongside her other belongings in a locker. Frankly she had little on her: most of the stuff have been left over on Abregado-Rae when she was captured. She was a little concerned that the medical staff on that planet will attempt to steal her beskar'gam but non-Twi'leks will realize that the helmet is inappropriate for them, especially given the size of her lekku. Given the extent of the injuries inflicted by the Mando torturers, she would not expect complete healing while in flight. If her intelligence about the models of medical transports in use by the NJO is correct, she would expect to arrive to Ruusan in about six hours or so. They were similar to the MedEvacs that were a common sight around Azure back in the day where she governed it, especially for those cases where Mando NFU medical methods were of little use.

"No beskar'gam, no weapons heavier than a lightsaber" the doctor told Cathul while she is being prepared to be inserted into the bacta tank. "Perhaps Force-healing will get you back to health a little faster, though. You may also want to consider renting a hoverchair until prosthetics can be fitted on you"

"You probably know it by now, but there's aruetii and aruetii. Plus, as a Force-healer, I know that even with someone using Force-healing on me, I'd better take proper precautions: it is neither instant nor painless" she said while being delicately plunged into the ambulance's bacta tank, leg-less.

[member="Tanomas Graf"]

 

[Tanomas Graf]

The space around Ruusan was distorted as the Avenger reverted from hyperspace over the planet. Graf himself was feeling rather nauseous being so close to the planet for some reason, but nevertheless something was urging him to investigate the 'Valley of the Jedi' that had been mentioned in his dreams. The old man ordered his first officer to keep the ship orbiting the planet, and alert him if any other vessels enter the system.

Afterwards, a lone shuttlecraft descended from the main hangar bay towards the planet, landing around a kilometer away from where the entrance to the Valley was supposedly located. Graf would have to walk the rest of the way, so he grabbed a small metallic object he brought with him and began his trek. Little did he know that somebody else was on their way as well.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

As is common with virtually all patients that are plunged inside a bacta tank, she was wearing special clothing. But clearly the pilot of that medical transport served in Therapy Command if the pilot mentioned no beskar'gam. In Alliance service, her ownership of a suit of beskar armor was known mostly to those who served in Therapy Command; not even those peeps on Athos IV, Kriselist or Jabor know about it. For the next six hours she was in the bacta tank, where her back scars would be visible but illegible, even to those who can read Mando'a script, once the six hours have elapsed. For sure, her lack of legs confines her to a hoverchair for the time being, but because of it, she has to be helped out of the bacta tank and into the hoverchair. She still feels some pain but nothing Force-healing cannot do since they don't seem to be headaches. Oh and the ambulance has landed very close to the shuttle transporting one [member="Tanomas Graf"], very close to the entrance of the Valley of the Jedi, who will be surprised to see another fellow member of the Admiralty on a hoverchair.

"Can you hear me, admiral?"

"Yes?"

"Admiral, we have a hoverchair for you. Take your time to familiarize with the controls of the hoverchair if you want to make the best out of it"

 

[Tanomas Graf]

It had been at least half an hour and the old man had finally navigated the treacherous terrain into what they had dubbed the 'Valley of the Jedi'. There were dozens of Jedi-esque statues littering the valley in front of him in a random assortment, as well as a massive beam of light radiating from the center of the valley up into the sky above him, inside of the beam he could just manage to make out a large crystal hovering from within.

Graf began to approach but every single step he took closer to the Force Nexus more and more voices began to appear in his head, becoming louder. He was about ten meters to the nexus when he suddenly was forced to his knees, visions beginning to flash through his mind. Within these visions he saw two men, a human and a miraluka, both dueling furiously near the center of the Valley. A sharp pain shook him as his scream pierced the air around him for kilometers.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Firmly in place on her hoverchair due to her loss of both legs, Cathul was a little uneasy having to ride one of those items. Hoverchairs were about as fast as people running without the need for Force-speed, ca. roughly 10-15 kph or so. And so she used her hoverchair to navigate the treacherous terrain of the Valley in search for another Force-presence she detected in the premises that wasn't the nexus itself, wearing her medical scrubs, as befit a Jedi member of MedCorps. Won't be long until I find out exactly who, or what, is that Force-presence I'm feeling around here: I might be closing in on the nexus but there is another distinct presence, she thought. But the Twi'lek admiral also is getting some visions of the detonation of the thought bomb that occurred nearly 1,850 years ago. Several Sith Lords of all levels, alongside Jedi of an equally varied range of levels, are caught in the blast of the thought bomb, wiping out several hundred lives, chancing on an aged person, which may or may not be [member="Tanomas Graf"]. Pilgrim, you're not alone in these premises. Find a weakness in me that is different from me being confined to a hoverchair, and I shall help you with your Force-training, she thought, hoping that [member="Tanomas Graf"] would receive the Force-message.

 

[Tanomas Graf]

Unfortunately, Tanomas did not receive the force message, as it could not get through all of the interference from the Force nexus that was currently overloading the poor old man's senses. He was suddenly stood up by some unknown force, and saw one of the men in his vision, the miraluka, not even three meters away with an ignited lightsaber in his hand. Graf knew he had to defend himself, and he prepared himself for just that.

With a flick of his wrist, his newly constructed lightsaber flew from within his sleeve into his hand where he ignited it, raising it in an untrained manner. Tanomas was afraid this time, he did not know how to actually use a lightsaber, but something was directing him as he began to furiously trade a flurry of strikes with the man, somehow simultaneously maintaining a defense while forcing his enemy to take steps back.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"So you're using the Force-ghosts haunting this place to get some lightsaber practice in?" Cathul told [member="Tanomas Graf"], now that her hoverchair was right behind him. "I'm afraid I can't help you with this because I'm bound to a hoverchair"

She positioned her hoverchair so as to be face-to-face with another Alliance admiral. Better have some face-to-face contact with the person that is a military equal to me, she thought. Although her status was not fully confirmed, what was known for certain was that she was a member of the Admiralty, if only somewhat junior due to her rather limited time-in-grade, despite having defeated one of the three enemy naval squadrons on Hakassi while only having a prototype of a carrier for a command. That, even though navies these days can count extra if there are achievements at that level. But, for the time being, Cathul knew that Tanomas wouldn't receive her Force-message, and yet was still having those visions of the detonation of the thought bomb. All these Force-users wiped out when the thought bomb detonated during the Seventh Battle and it was a battle that changed the face of the galaxy forever.

"The Valley of the Jedi is wonderful to unlock a latent Force-sensitivity or latent Force-skills but no more than that. Better to train those things somewhere that doesn't induce sensory overloads"