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Legends of Darkover	By : SWOTBWOT Category: Star Wars (All) > Crossovers Views: 3428 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, or Darkover. I am not making any money off this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Legends of Darkover
- 2-Chapter 2
- 3-Chapter 3
- 4-Chapter 4
- 5-Chapter 5
- 6-Chapter 6
- 7-Chapter 7
- 8-Chapter 8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 14-14
- 15-15
- 16-16
- 17-17
- 18-18
- 19-19
- 20-20
- 21-21
- 22-22
- 23-23
- 24-24
- 25-25
- 26-26
- 27-27
- 28-28
- 29-29 & The End
- 22
- 23
- 24
Chapter 23
-oOo-
Qui-gon had intended to stay silent and unnoticed in the dark, hoping one of the Sith lords would injure or kill the other and improve his odds, but the noise of running feet caught his attention. A fast glance showed Catriona flying over a gap, dashing for them. Her face was breathless and blanched, her eyes fixed on the High Inquisitor.
“Qui-gon Jinn!” blurted Inculcare. Instantly, the two Sith broke off and formed a front.
“No! Get out!” Qui-gon called to the leronis as he dropped into a defensive stance.   She ignored him. Inculcare lunged. Fighting left-handed, the Jedi tried to keep his disability unnoticed, but Tyranus knew him. The Sith Warrior was hanging back slightly, a measuring expression on his face as he let the High Inquisitor carry the bulk of the fight. The sheer pounding force of Inculcare's quick strokes forced Qui-gon to give ground. Dismayed, he heard Catriona closing in and hoped she knew what she was doing. He could use the help, yet something about her felt wrong.
The damp cavern lit up with a tremendous charge of energy, droplets of water sizzling in the air as electricity flowed into the keeper. The air crackled.
“Down!” Catriona shouted to him. Trusting her, Qui-gon dropped.
Her upraised hand glowed, lit up as if on fire. Qui-gon saw black streaks appear along her fingers, and felt the discharge--
Only to see Inculcare grab Tyranus' arm and thrust him in front, a human shield. Tyranus' Force shield took the brunt and blew up, the man flying several feet away as the cavern's air expanded with a violent boom.
Catriona fell, her eyes shutting, her face still. Across the room Tyranus landed in a heap, twitched once, then lay motionless. All of Qui-gon's attention was focused on the keeper. Black streaks marred her skin from a network of burns. Her breathing became stertorous as she struggled for air. With the Force he saw the damage inside her, the burns more serious inside than out. She was dying. She needed Jedi healing immediately if she was to survive.
Then Inculcare was on him again, lightsaber a blur, and he knew he couldn't give it to her, not fighting for his life like this.
He had to kill Inculcare quickly.
He didn't think he could do it.
-oOo-
-You must join me. Come back, my faithful servant,- said a faint mental whisper. The sound came from every corner of the room. A cascade of other mental voices joined it, bleeding from the flashing lights of matrices, a thousand small, confused sounds from every side.
Danilo glanced wildly at the veil, searching for a way out. There were no other passages that he could see and he wasn't even sure this place was in a normal space and time. Such things were possible with great laran. Whoever this person was, he was very powerful.
“You can't be Zandru. Anyway, I'm a cristoforo who doesn't believe in the Darkovan Gods,” said Danilo rapidly, flustered. He was fairly certain he was facing a chieri. Was the creature sane? The chieri were strange enough without adding madness into the mix.
The other's expression did not change. “Believe in me, then. I will tenderly instruct you in my worship, or rather, re-instruct you. You were my servant, before the days of these—Comyn.” The person who called himself Zandru said the word with contempt. “Hastur stole you from me. He conquered you in battle and forced your submission with a foot to your neck, rubbing your face in the dirt. You have been enslaved to his foulness for centuries, bound by forced oaths, his laran a chain around your neck. Now you are free to return to me.” The chieri sounded aggrieved. “You were one of the greatest and most honored of my servants. You molded and shaped countless mortals to laran-use. You made weapons for me with your clever mind. You converted many mortals to my worship. Now it is time for you to return to your rightful place by my side. Join me, my beloved servant.”
Alarmed, Danilo drew back. Mad or not, he knew what the chieri meant. As Danilo's father had once delicately put it, the Syrtis had not always been on the right side. His family were the breeders of Darkover, praised and respected for developing superior gene lines of chervines and hawks, and crops that could withstand Darkover's harsh climate. But in the earliest, darkest days of the planet's history, the Syrtis had once bred people. They'd bred them for laran, twisting genes in the womb with matrix technology, forcing marriages between promising bloodlines. Yet they had also laid the foundation for the families that became the Comyn, and contributed much to the development of the familial donas. Most disgraceful of all, the Syrtis had been the allies of Sicul Alton in his wars. They'd been matrix mechanics in his workshops.
They'd been worshipers of Zandru.
Only their defeat and submission to the Hasturs had changed their character. Their loss, Danilo's father had once said, was their salvation, the first dawning of the family's honor.
The chieri's hand touched Danilo's cheek. -Join me, and those bracelets will fall from your wrists, your wound will be healed. The Lord of Ardais will never have power over you again. I will rescue your cousin. I can give you so many things you want. You can destroy your enemies, the off-worlders. You hate them, don't you? You hate them so very much. Save Darkover from them. You want to do the great thing, the honorable and noble thing. Save your people. These Sith have a weapon aimed to destroy Darkover's cities. Shall you allow them to have their way? Join me, chiyu, and defeat them.-
Danilo drew back, fearful.
-I read your doubt. Do you not understand? My loyalty is to Darkover, not to these off-worlders. They threaten my people, too.-
An image of the chieri entered Danilo's mind.
For a moment Danilo hesitated. Could this person, mad though he was, be serious?
-You know the odds are poor. The Comyn have little power against the Sith. Our only hope is to join our strengths to defeat them.-
The chieri's fingers crept under the neckline of Danilo's shirt and lifted out the small pouch containing his matrix. Danilo drew in his breath sharply.
-The Ardais dona joined to my powers will tip the balance in our favor,- the mental voice whispered. -What more do you wish? I will give it to you. I will give you anything, everything. This is so very important, don't you understand? We must triumph, or all is lost. I will even give you Hastur, enemy though he is to me.-
The chieri's face was so close Danilo could feel its slow breathing. Zandru--or whoever he was--made remarkably good sense. Almost. As old Dom Felix had once told Danilo, beware of the man who promises you everything. This chieri would have made a very good peddler of chervines, Danilo reflected.
Zandru was also known in Darkovan mythology as the Master of Lies.
“No,” said Danilo, barely able to speak. He startled when long, thin fingers squeezed the small pouch containing his matrix. Gouging painpricks ran across his back and chest, his laran and nerve-endings protesting the contact.
The unwelcome hand squeezed again, forcing the matrix up so that its blue glow peeked out the top of the bag through its silken wrapper. The chieri's mouth formed a faint smile. He made another motion with his hand, tightening further, jamming the stone up hard against the leather laces of the bag. The laces began to tear across.
“If you do not join me voluntarily, then the joining must be by force,” said the chieri calmly. Slowly, gently, the palm of his other hand came down to cover Danilo's mouth, two fingers pinching Danilo's nostrils shut. The hand with the matrix gave a turn, twisting the leather band around his neck taut.
For one incredulous second Danilo did not react, unable to believe this creature would so casually suffocate him, then he jerked his face aside, gasping for air. The cinch around his neck grew tighter. The chieri was regarding him without emotion, still holding the matrix, half-out of its bag. Its blue glow beat wildly in time to Danilo's heart. One of the chieri's fingers lifted and slid across the stone, and Danilo was horrified to feel no pain. No pain meant perfect resonance, two minds linked together as one. He felt his face filling with blood, his heart hammering, his vision developing sparkles.
He kicked out hard, and felt a violent, confused motion. Then he hit the ground, landing on his face as he was flung aside, his knees and wounded shoulder taking the impact. For a long moment all he could do was gasp from the pain.
-That was your last moment of rebellion, Syrtis. You entered the influence of my trap matrix when you entered my Temple. From now on, your stone is mine. It resonates to me and will join the collection on my walls. Your weak will is my property. The only thing left is to lower your body into my pit, to strip it of its unnecessary flesh. I would have left you longer with a mortal life, made you my viceroy on Darkover, if you had not resisted me in your foolishness. You have ruined yourself.-
-I do not, and have never lied, Syrtis. I merely speak truths listeners do not want to hear, and they label them lies. You longed for all I described. Now you leave me to rescue Darkover, forcing you to help perform what ought to have been your willing duty. FOOL. Do you understand, now?-
The words ran through Danilo's mind with the scourge of a whip. He writhed under the crash of guilt, a guilt that flooded every cell of his body, leaving him confused, mortified, afraid, believing and not believing. His sureness was gone, his reality bewildered. Some little part of his mind told him he was being deceived, his own feelings used against him, and then it was gone, tossed on wild waves of out-of-control emotion. He began to sob, convinced he'd destroyed Darkover.
The mental words of the chieri had been flat, without any attempt to menace. But now a hint of feeling appeared in the alien mind. -When Hastur realizes I have robbed him of you for all eternity, he will howl like an animal. What a perfect revenge.-
In the midst of his mental chaos, Danilo felt his dona waken, rising to the chieri's command. He could do nothing. The other's arms wrapped around him and lifted him up, and Danilo felt their minds heading towards the ceiling. The room disappeared.
-Let us visit these enemies of ours, these off-worlders—this Enterprise.-
-oOo-
The Enterprise had dropped out of hyperspace cloak, cautiously closing in on the Nihilus. The Super Star Destroyer was orbiting the empty space where Darkover should have been. Only the planet's gravity gave any hint of its existence. Some of the enemy fleet's fighters had already arrived, and Chekov was trying to maneuver the Enterprise so that her dual exhaust streams would be hidden among the many others.
“What do you have in mind, Jim?” Spock asked.
“The other ships don't have shielding systems,” Kirk replied. “We're boarding one and taking it over, hopefully without alerting the mother ship. Then we're inventing an emergency repair only correctable by a return to the Nihilus. Mr. Spock, would you do the honor of choosing our victim?”
“Right away, Captain.”
“Do you intend to storm the Nihilus, or infiltrate the craft by stealth?” asked Lord Ardais. The lightsaber was humming in his hand, and he was inspecting the weapon closely, like a swordsman looking for flaws.
“Stealth,” said Kirk. “The enemy's battle-armor makes a good disguise.”
“Then you had better--” Lord Ardais broke off. A crease formed between his eyebrows, and his cold eyes prowled the bridge.
“What is it?” asked the Captain.
“A very strong laran user is here, invisible.”
“Sith?” Kirk rose to his feet and removed a phaser from the emergency weapons locker. He quickly handed one to Spock as he did so.
“No, this person feels strange to me.”
“Captain!” cried Sulu.
Something was forming in the air. Bridge crew seized more phasers, and Kirk and Spock leveled their weapons.
Two ghostly figures formed, one grasping the other. The Captain recognized Danilo, but the other was unknown. Cautiously, he lowered his phaser. Had the three Darkovans arranged for some way to communicate with the Enterprise?
“Where are you?” Dyan snapped at his foster-son.   “Who is this?”
Danilo's mouth opened, but he did not reply.
“Captain,” Spock murmured, “the visitor fits the description of a chieri.”
Something did not seem right to the Captain. Danilo's eyes were frantic.
“I am Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. The person you are holding is the foster-son of Dom Ardais, here. What is the reason for your visit?”
“Danilo,” said Dyan impatiently, “what are you up to? Why is this chieri here? You haven't gotten yourself into trouble again, have you? Be swift, we are on an important mission.”
The boy stared without a sound, as if trying to communicate his urgency by his eyes.
“Can you read his mind?” said Kirk aside to Lord Ardais. Danilo's arms were drawn together behind his back. Not a good sign.
Dyan inspected the shadowy forms. “Maybe.” His eyes focused sharply on Danilo. “No,” he said after a moment, surprise in his voice. He pinned the chieri with a hard look. “Where do you come from?”
-I do not have to answer your questions, stupid mortal. Your ship, your presence, offends me.-
Kirk tilted his head slightly. The Sith had been searching for ancient matrix weapons in the Temple of Zandru. Had they found something else? What the hell was going on down there? “Why are you here? What are you doing with Danilo?” Kirk said, careful to keep his tone neutral.
-He is my disciple, and we are here to destroy you.-
“Crew,” said Kirk in a warning tone. His phaser was aimed again, carefully pointing over Danilo's head. Chekov and Sulu had eased around behind the two figures.
“You're holding him prisoner,” said Dyan abruptly, his voice going cold as a polar wind. “Idiotic chieri. We do not have time for your madness or schemes. Release him immediately, or I'll reduce your mind to ashes!”
The violent lash of Dyan's voice nearly made the Captain jump.
-You doubt me?- A faint, malicious feeling came from the figure, not exactly pleasure, but something close to it. -Know then, what it is to have another to command your will.-
Dyan stepped directly in front of the chieri, lightsaber out. “You have the Alton gift?” said Lord Ardais, his voice mocking. “Well, so do I.” His smile turned vicious and ugly.
-And it will avail you not, foolish telepath, one even your towers scorned. My silly, grasping descendant. Do you not understand? Your gift originated with me, and my abilities far surpass yours. You are facing the Lord of the Nine Hells.-
Dom Ardais laughed. “Oh? To borrow a Terranan expression, bullshit. If by some feeble joke of the universe you are what you claim to be, then it gives me great pleasure,” he paused, and his voice turned into a sudden snarl, “to KILL A GOD.”
The lightsaber whipped out and cut directly into that plain of otherness, its Force properties somehow usable even there. The blow struck the chieri in the head. It screamed shrilly, clutching its head as Dyan hammered it with a second and third blow. The chieri fell to its knees, moaning. “Run!” Lord Ardais shouted to his foster-son.
Spock and the Captain sprang forward, hoping the boy was released from whatever peculiar space he was in, and could be pulled through.
Danilo vanished, followed by the chieri.
“Wherever you are,” Dyan added in a low tone.
“Damn,” said Kirk. “Definitely not good. The Sith may have him, and if they do, they've probably got Catriona and Regis, as well. They also seem to have something else. What the hell was that?”
-oOo-
Danilo was falling in a blur, dizzy with the vastness of his plunge, moving from the utter black of the void to a high atmosphere of thin air and particle storms, and then he was seeing the tops of clouds. He was flying towards green ground from a height that looked like death, but instead he landed on the floor of a chamber. Bodily pain woke him and rolled him to his feet with remembered urgency.   Nearby a voice was moaning. His chieri captor was kneeling nearby, wounded.
The light from the matrices in the walls was very feeble, as if the chieri had lost all control over them. Danilo raced for the veil. Was it down? It was! The scintillation had faded. He ran through, head bowed low in case he was wrong.
Up ahead he saw two clashing lightsabers in the distance, and the winking lights of the droideka. He slid to a stop. He had no idea what he was running into. He looked back. Through the veil he saw the chieri rock to its heels. Its arms were wrapped around itself as if to soothe the agony, and it stood and straightened, its eyes shutting in concentration. Suddenly it no longer looked like some wounded beast, but the cold, silvery god it claimed to be. The eyes opened again, and they became two silver disks lit with their own light. Nothing human was in them, or even chieri. They fixed on Danilo.
-Syrtis, you cannot escape me!- The mental voice blared with inhuman, crushing rage. The chieri vanished, and a frothing dark cloud took its place. The cloud made odd noises as it flowed, humming discordantly, jarring Danilo's senses. It wasn't smoke, but laran, pure angry laran.
The sparking crackle of lightsaber noises behind Danilo ceased. He heard Inculcare say in a tone that sounded too calm for the situation, “The Dark Side appears again. Rather odd, as I didn't summon it, and Tyranus is unconscious.”
A quick glance showed Danilo that the combatants were Qui-gon and Inculcare. Catriona was lying near Qui-gon. The pale, gleaming sweat on the Jedi Master's face was visible even in the cold cavern, and Danilo could read his strain and dismay as he studied the cloud.
“I don't suppose you'd care to explain this in the two seconds we have left?” Inculcare called across to Danilo. His polite smile in the face of everything was utterly incongruous.
“Run!” Qui-gon shouted.
The cloud was boiling out of the chamber, heading right for Danilo. He took off again, yelling as loudly as he could, “It's Zandru!”
“I see,” said Inculcare, eyeing the cloud with caution.
Danilo gathered himself to leap the gap. He'd jumped it before. With Qui-gon's help, maybe—Catriona--
The scene was one Danilo had witnessed before, in a vision cruelly given to him by Lake Hali.
He was running inside an underground cavern towards a deep chasm. On the other side stood a metallic spider-thing and a man with a Terranan blaster.
Inculcare raised his weapon, aiming.
The man fired. A spray of charred blood flew from Danilo's leg, and he knew he was badly wounded.
Danilo shrieked as the bolt hit him and he almost fell. Qui-gon was calling his name urgently. The Sith had tried to drop him, to distract the thing behind and slow it down.
Feebly, he tried to leap the chasm, knowing he had to face the man and the spider because as bad as they were, the terror of the thing chasing him was worse.
Danilo hobbled with all his might, willing his vision to be false, knowing he must cross the gap. He shoved off as hard as he could, and felt his wounded leg collapse under him.
He fell short, falling into the chasm, into nothingness.
A hand grabbed his arm, catching him in midair. The hand shook, and for a second Danilo swung, looking up to see the Jedi gritting his teeth with effort, awkwardly warding off with his lightsaber a flurry of vicious, opportunistic blows from Inculcare--
And Qui-gon cried out as the half-knit bones in his arm broke again. His grip failed, Danilo's arm sliding out of his grip.
“No!” the Jedi Master shouted.
-oOo-
- 22
- 23
- 24
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Legends of Darkover