The Path of Dreams

~Chapter 13~

Admiral’s Quarters, Intrepid, Dubrillion System

Jag Fel hit the receiver of the holocomm and stood at attention while the image of his immediate superior came to life. Jag saluted Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon and the old Imperial Remnant leader returned the gesture. Jag announced, with only a hint of pride in his voice, “Grand Admiral, I am pleased to announce that Dubrillion System has been secured.”

Dubrillion, which had been one of the first industrialized planets to fall to the Yuuzhan Vong, had been among the first to be resettled after it had been reclaimed by the Reconstruction Authority. Seeing the opportunity, Imperial industry invested billions of credits to revitalize the planet and its asteroid mining and weapon building industries. Although, the planet became heavily imperial in its society and industry, it still was a full member in the GFFA. However, since the Remnant dissolved its affiliation with the GA and became a member of the Confederation, but what the GA desperately wanted to prevent was the planet from joining the Empire. Jag had a special place in his heart for the planet, because a great deal of the planet’s successful economy had stemmed from his ideas.

Jag’s fleet had been called in after the success at Bothawui to ensure the GA force stationed at Dubrillion was defeated. Jag had proven to the GA command that the youngest and newest Imperial admiral was truly a force to be reckoned with.

Pellaeon smiled, “Yes, Admiral, I’ve called to congratulate you on your success. You’ve made the Moffs very pleased.” Then his smile turned into a mischievous grin, “Which has also confirmed my faith in you, Jagged.”

Jag swallowed and responded, “Thank you, Sir. I’m glad that I’ve been able to live up to the expectations set for me.”

Pellaeon continued to grin and Jag got the impression that the Grand Admiral was up to something. “Admiral Fel, I’ve decided to resign my commission and my position as the head of the government. As I told you before sending you on this grand adventure, I’m too damned old for the hunt. War is the game for the young.” Pellaeon turned away from the cam at his comm unit and Jag wondered what the old man was really doing. He got the feeling that the Grand Admiral didn’t just call him to congratulate him. Finally, he sat down and turned toward the cam again. Facing Jag, he grinned again and Jag thought he saw a twinkle in the old man’s brown eyes. “You have more than exceeded my expectations, Jag, and as such I’ve recommended you as my replacement. You are to meet with the Moffs within two days here at Bastion.”

Jag wasn’t sure that he had heard him right and, if he did, he was stunned beyond words, “Sir?”

The old Imperial laughed, “Don’t look so shocked, Supreme Fleet Commander Fel. The Moffs are anxious to hear what you have in store for the Empire and for the war effort.”

~~~

Fifth Fleet Detention Center, Valin Horn’s Cell, Coruscant

Valin had never been cut off from the Force for long periods of time. The longest had been for four days when he was nineteen; his Master and he had gotten themselves into a situation while chasing a group of renegade Peace Brigadiers. The thugs cornered and captured him using ysalamiri. Fortunately for Valin, Master Cheklev escaped and was able to get Valin out, but those four days of being blind had been horrid.

However, that had been nothing compared to now, Valin had been fitted with the device that took away his connection to the Force nine weeks ago, right after his arrest. Each day that passed he felt more trapped and he constantly wondered how he was going to survive until his execution like this. As the case with most Jedi of his generation, he had always known the Force and felt its comforting touch since he had been a toddler; so to be without it was akin to torture, especially now. He paced the small cell and tried not to dwell on the missing part of him, but to him it was as bad as not having his eyes. He had tried to meditate after the verdict hoping that he could find some semblance of peace; however all that did was frustrate him further.

The device that he despised was nothing more than a collar he wore around his neck. It had been made possible by an integration of Vong biotechnology and conventional mechanics. The small creature-like component of the collar, which repelled the Force, was in fact a Yuuzhan Vong creation, using the DNA of the nearly extinct ysalamiri. The small worm-like animal called a yuumiri was housed in a small chamber within the collar and was provided with a food supply of either an organically or mechanically produced electrical charge. The yuumiri was created by Shapers in the waning days of the Vong war and, although the Vong never got the chance to use their creation, conventional science took the concept and explored it. Hence, working together they developed the collar, which contained the yuumiri chamber and a power supply to provide the electricity the worm adsorbed. The collar, which was much more economical and convenient than traditional hard-to-find ysalamiri, could be used to control a powerful Force-sensitive. Up until now, the government only had used it on a rogue group of Jensaarai who had joined a criminal gang on the Outer Rim. However, he knew the real test for many of the conventional creators was using the collar to hold a Jedi for any length of time. Well, Valin thought bitterly, they have their lab rat. I just hope they take this thing off me when the time comes. I want to at least die in peace.

He accepted his fate. He didn’t like it, but he accepted it the moment he ripped his rank off his flightsuit in the Mon Mothma conference room. He knew he’d be put to death. It broke his heart, but what hurt the most was what he hadn’t realized at the time, he never considered what his actions would do to those he loved. Swallowing hard, he turned from the wall to make the trek across the two meters of cold, grey durocrete to the other wall, an endless cycle until he was moved from the headquarters building to the penal colony on the Coruscant moon of Centax-3 later that night.

The prison where the GA incarcerated most of its military criminals included everything from hardened murderers and rapists, to lesser offenders like those court-martialed for insubordination, to traitors, regardless of association to the military, who awaited execution. The Jedi had requested that Valin be taken at night on an undisclosed date to decrease the amount of news coverage. Valin knew that the request hadn’t come out of consideration for him, but rather to prevent the Jedi Order from being subjected to any more bad press.

It angered him that the Jedi Council refused to even comment on his case. He had caught the attempted interview of Kenth Hamner and his out right refusal to answer any questions. Nevertheless, the clip that angered him to no end was the one in which Corran calmly rejected to comment on the fate of Valin, following his verdict. Valin realized that he should not have expected better. Corran Horn lived for the Jedi, he had forgotten about his family which had been the case ever since he built the Jedi Training Center in Coronet after the Vong war.

Thinking about his family brought back the memory of his sister’s stiff visit earlier that day. Up until today, Valin hadn’t been allowed to have visitors except for his counsel, but even then that had been in a secured conference room. That the powers that be were allowing him to receive visitors in his cell surprised him. Jysella arrived and he was taken aback at her clinging Ben Skywalker’s hand. He knew the two of them had been friends for years but, when Valin saw them together, he knew there was more than friendship between them, which considering their age difference, concerned him for some reason.

Ben barely said two words to him, which didn’t surprise Valin. He was wearing the uniform of a GAG lieutenant after all; to Ben, Valin was nothing but a traitor. Valin was hurt though by his sister’s coolness. He knew she supported the GA and truly felt Corellia and its supporters were wrong, but he had hoped that politics wouldn’t get in the way of their close relationship. They spoke very little and, after a few truly heart wrenching moments, Jysella was ready to leave. Valin remembered thinking as she embraced him, clinging to each other, that that would be the last time that he’d ever see his little sister. He had to fight tears as he kissed her forehead and told her that no matter what he would always love her. Jys nodded, smiled tightly as she fought back the moisture in her eyes, and reciprocated the sentiment. After hugging him again and finally giving into the tears, she moved away from him and took Ben’s waiting hand.

As they were leaving the cell, Valin called after them, “Ben, take care of her, okay?”

Ben had looked back at him and solemnly replied, “I will, Valin.”

Valin was so lost in the memory that he did hear the cell door slide open. Out of reflex he spun and faced those entering in a semi-defensive posture. His mother stopped and stared at him and he took a deep breath. Standing, he said as he gave her a weak smile, “Mom, I’m sorry. I couldn’t sense you and you surprised—” She practically threw herself into his arms and enveloped him in a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her graying black hair and tried not to sob. He knew this was already hard enough on her.

“Valin,” she hoarsely whispered as she pulled away and stroked the hair short at his temple. They had practically shaved him, readying him for prison and for execution. He could tell that she too was trying to hold back the tears. “Oh, baby, I hate that this is happening to you.”

“I know, Mom. I know. “

“Why didn’t you just defect? Why did you go back to the Fleet after disobeying the order to leave the battle area?” she asked the same questions he had been asking himself for two months now.

“I don’t know, Mom. I guess, I just didn’t know what I felt. I didn’t care about Corellia or anything when I was out there. I just wanted to save Syal.” She pulled him in again for another embrace and he kissed her hair. Then he noticed his father by the closed door.

Corran Horn’s face was unreadable; Valin and Jysella had long ago dubbed the lack of expression his “Jedi Master’s face.” However, the Jedi Master couldn’t hide the disappointment in his green eyes as he had his arms loosely crossed over his chest, watching Valin with Mirax. Finally, Corran calmly asked, “You doing okay?”

Valin let his mother go and stared hard at his father, “As well as to be expected. I’m in a two by two cage and am as blind as a moon moth.” He forced a sardonic smile and went on, “And the food is a lousy. I’m eating with my fingers, because they don’t trust me with utensils, gets old after a while. Actually, I’m surprised that you’d risk your upstanding Jedi reputation to visit the condemned traitor.”

Corran dropped his arms and quietly responded, “Valin, you are my son. I supported you as well as I could through this ordeal; however I had to do so privately. I understand why you did what you did, but you have to understand why the Council couldn’t back you. We are still getting flack from our position concerning GAG’s restrictions and the attacks on Eastport and the Senate Building. If we openly stood by you—”

Valin angrily interrupted, “Yeah, well, I don’t give a bantha’s kriff about that, Dad. But understanding someone isn’t the same as actually being there for them.” Valin glared at Corran and he could tell his father was about to loose his temper, even without a connection to the Force. Valin really couldn’t remember when their relationship began to sour, but it happened sometime after Corran’s involvement in the destruction of Ithor during the Yuuzhan Vong war. Up until then Corran had been Valin’s hero, but the boy just could never understand why his father ran from what happened, why the Rebellion hero and great Jedi Knight didn’t stand up to fight the mud that had been thrown at him. And then there was Valin’s doomed relationship with Sannah. Corran never could understand why Valin would have left the Jedi in order to live on Yavin 8 with her when they could never have a future together.

Finally, Corran’s heated words confirmed Valin’s assessment of his father’s mood, “What would you have me do, Valin? I’m a Jedi Master. Right now we are all under careful scrutiny by the media, by the Senate, and by Niathal. I can’t defy the Council.”

“Of course you can’t, Dad,” Valin scoffed, “unless it serves your purposes. But then I wouldn’t want you to look like you had a backbone in front of Jacen Solo. Kriff, I think the only ones on that pathetic excuse of a Council that do are Kyp Durron and Saba Sebatyne.”

Mirax finally stepped between father and son as they openly glared at each other and quietly pleaded, “Valin, Corran. Stop this.”

Corran looked like Valin had punched him, and Valin suddenly wondered what he really felt for the man who gave him life. However nothing else was said, Corran simply turned toward the door and hit the buzzer that would alert the guard droid outside that he was ready to leave.

Mirax looked stricken as she asked in a voice as dry as ashes, “Corran?”

“Let him go, Mom,” Valin’s tone was as cold as a winter day on Hoth. “Dad’s doing what Dad has always done well when things get too hot.” The door opened and Corran began to move through, but Valin’s final hateful words stopped him. “He’s running.”

Corran Horn turned and Valin saw the fury in his father’s green eyes. He looked at Mirax and said regrettably, “I’ll wait outside.” However Valin never noticed that the anger was replaced quickly with heartbreaking sadness and pain in the proud Corellian’s eyes or the stoop of his shoulders as he moved the rest of the way through the door.

“Corran?” Mirax moved toward the door, but stopped when it slid closed again. Then she turned on Valin. She finally let the tears she was holding in out, “Valin, I know you and your father have never gotten along but, damn it to the nine Corellian hells, he loves you.”

Valin turned away from her and looked at the small bench that served as his bed and chair. “Yeah, well, he always had an odd way of showing it.”

She moved to stand behind him and laid her hand on his back. “Val, you really don’t know the risk your father’s taking with this.” He looked over at her, there was something in her tone of voice that made him wonder what was going on, but she didn’t meet his eyes as she covertly scanned the room for the security cam. Valin was instantly on alert.

“Mom? What’s going on,” he whispered.

She met his gaze and she whispered back, “You aren’t going to your new home.”

He stared at her, “What?”

She leaned in and embraced him again, but this time she whispered into his ear, “A friend will be coming later. Play along with her. Make them think that you two are lovers.” Before Valin could question her, she quickly kissed his cheek and headed for the door and pushed the buzzer. She wiped the tears from her face, but as the droid opened the door, Valin was certain he saw a glimmer of hope in Mirax’s brown eyes as the door slid closed again with her on the other side.

Oh, Mom, what have you done?

~~~

Outside the Fifth Fleet Detention Center, Coruscant

Zekk moved into position and waited for the signal from Allia. He still wasn’t sure this was going to work, but after they had gotten some unexpected outside help, their plan fell into place. Zekk was wearing the shielded grey and green armored uniform of a detention guard, and he really hoped the forged indentichip he had was worth the price Jaina had paid for it. Jaina looked over at him from her hiding place, and he felt her gentle loving touch. He sent back his love to her when the comlink within his helmet clicked one time.

Allia was in position. It was time for them to move.

~~~

Fifth Fleet Detention Center, Valin Horn’s Cell, Coruscant

Valin stood up as the door slid open. Expecting the guards who would take him away to meet his destiny, he was shocked to see her standing there. She was dressed in a short black skirt, matching jacket and knee length back boots. Suddenly, his mother’s words came back to him.

The guard droid said something that Valin didn’t catch and the visitor replied, “I know it’s late. I’m sorry, I won’t be long, but I just got on planet tonight and I have to see him.” She turned and gave Valin a big smile as she sauntered up to him. Valin swallowed hard when he realized what she was intending to do. She put her arms around his neck and winked at him as she said in a voice that was an entire octave lower than her normal tones, “Hello, Lover.” She then captured his lips in a dramatic kiss that would have made most holostars envious in its technique. There wasn’t any passion behind it, but Valin was surprised nonetheless.

She slid her lips to his ear and whispered, “Play along. My cover is Judy.”

Valin genuinely smiled at her when their eyes met, “Judy, what are you doing here?” No one would have recognized Allia Judday. Her hair was dyed dark brown and even styled differently than Allia normally wore it. But her grey eyes were sharp as they pretended to look around the cell, but Valin had the impression she was looking for security cams and the like. As far as Valin could tell, there was only one cam in the cell which was in the right far corner.

She met his eyes again and laid on the drama, “Oh, sweetheart, I can’t believe that they convicted you of treason. I came as soon as I heard. But, Val, I heard the rumors. I need to know if they’re true.”

Valin swallowed and tried not to grin. He still was having problems believing this was his wingman, and an even harder time figuring out what was going on. “I’m glad that you could come. But which rumor, there are so many of them?” He couldn’t help the ice in his tone, “Let me see, there’s the one that I planed the attacks on the Senate? That I’m a spy for Corellia? Oh, wait! It’s the rumor that I’m really a Sith. That’s my favorite one.”

She turned her gaze to him again, and the surprise in her grey eyes at his bitterness wasn’t lost. However, she played her part flawlessly. “No, the one about you and that Antilles girl. You wouldn’t be cheatin’ on me, would you, Val?”

Valin forced a chuckle as he sat down on the bed and patted the space beside him. If this gets me out of this, hell, I play along. Allia sat beside him, and he put his hand on her bare knee while the other he snaked around her slender waist, albeit awkwardly. “Oh, that. I can’t believe the spin the media can put on things. We’re friends, that’s all. She and her sister Myri are practically cousins to me. Judy, you know that you’re the only girl for me.”

She put her hand inside her jacket as if to lay it over her heart and she smiled beautifully. Valin noticed that she had a tiny device palmed when she removed the hand. She placed the same hand over his heart and slid it up his chest to rest momentarily on the yuumiri chamber of the collar. Suddenly, Valin was flooded with the Force. Astonished, he stared at Allia, and she raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I thought.” Before he could speak or react, she kissed him. This time the kiss wasn’t fake, he actually kissed her back, long and hard, not with a lover’s passion or with desire, but out of hopeful gratitude. He actually felt like he had a chance.

She broke the kiss and stared at him, and then, smiling sadly, she stood. He followed as they held hands; she turned so her back was to the cam. She pulled him to her again in a tight embrace, whispered in his ear, “Open up your meld with the others and they’ll let you know what to do.”

Valin smiled against her neck as he whispered back, “Thank you, Allia.”

She moved enough to meet his gaze again. In hers he saw her hopefulness. “Take care of yourself, Val.” She then winked at him and moved toward the door, leaving Valin wondering if his dreams were coming true.

~~~

Moffs’ Council Room, Imperial Center, Bastion

Making his way to the Moffs’ Council Room in the large governmental building that served the Imperial Remnant, Jag had never been this nervous in his life. He passed by large gleaming windows that showed the heavily industrialized world that had been claimed as the Imperial capitol.

He was dressed in the impeccable white dress uniform of the Grand Admiral. His rank insignia of blue and red felt heavy where it was pinned to rest above his pounding heart. He knew it wasn’t the bars’ actual weight that he felt, but rather the responsibility that came with it. He couldn’t believe Pellaeon trusted him enough to give him this opportunity, it still felt very much like a dream.

The Council Room where the eight Moffs held their periodic meetings was spacious, and the dark exotic wood on the walls was tempered by the light coming in from the large windows, which made up the rounded outside wall. The Moffs were the governing body of what was left of the Empire. They each governed one of the eight sectors that the Empire had been reduced to following the Galactic Civil War. They were allowed to pretty much govern as they saw fit. The Head of State could step in if he saw that a Moff was being blatantly cruel or unfair, but for the most part they were left alone. Some of them were harsher and governed their peoples with strict authority, while others were more lenient, and even two of them allowed for very democratic forms of government to flourish on their worlds. However, all of them answered to the Supreme Fleet Commander who acted not only as the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Military but also was Head of State of the Empire’s government.

Jag looked around at the eight humans who stood and saluted him. He took a deep breath hoping to quail some of his nerves as he returned the gesture. Retired Admiral Pellaeon stepped before him and smiled as he shook his successor’s hand. “Welcome, Grand Admiral Fel.”

Jag smiled back and replied, “I’m honored to be here, Sir,” Jag had never wanted to be in power of anything and he truly hated politics, but he knew that his ideas for the Empire were important ones.

Pellaeon moved away and stood along the side of the room with the other bystanders that included upper ranking military, droids, and staffers. Looking around, Jag took in the faces of the Moffs and the others in the room. He found his place at the head of the table, and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a datachip. After he began to place it into the slot on the datapad before him, he realized no one had moved except for Pellaeon since they saluted him. He smiled awkwardly and, in the clipped accent he had picked up while living among the Chiss, he said as he looked around again, “Please. At ease and be seated.”

Once everyone was seated, the new Head of State for the Imperial Remnant began his first meeting in which he explained to those gathered what he hoped to accomplish, not only in the war with the GA, but also for the Empire at large.