His pose and weapon made it clear, this man wasn't a prisoner. He was the Sith whom this safe house was constructed for. Even with the floor of his resting place tilted at an odd angle due to the ground moving, his carbonite container wasn't damaged, though it had tipped over at some point in the past.
...
A Sith Warrior from more than a thousand years ago. More than that, if his crown was anything to judge by, a ruler, biding his time for his rivals to pass on so he could rise again and reclaim power. Whoever he was, if he was hiding down here, he must have been in desperate straits at the end.
He was also incredibly dangerous. Not just as a warrior, but he was clearly in the process of developing a deadly bioweapon.
"...Nobody touch him." Tan'ya quickly decided. "Nobody goes near him. Close this room off. For now, gather everything else in the bunker, and begin cataloging what's here. "I need to call my Father."
When she got to the surface, she discovered on her holocom that her father still hadn't even looked at her message. Frustrated, she tried calling her mother.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where he is." Athemeene answered. "He mentioned he was on his way to meet a bounty hunter, but didn't say where or who it was."
A bounty hunter? Probably Jango then. Tan'ya scowled, realizing her father was most likely on Kamino, out in the micro galaxy of the Rishi Maze, beyond the Galactic Rim. He was arranging some kind of business with his Clone Army, one that Tan'ya wasn't supposed to know anything about.
Tan'ya wrinkled her brow, trying to decide what to do.
She asked Sturn for advice. Instead of anything concrete, the green jedi suggested for her to, quote, "Meditate on it, and let the Force guide you. He's frozen, so you have time to think this through."
Well, it was true that she had time to make her decision, she wasn't about to let her decision be made from superstition.
Still, she did sit down to think things through.
Regardless of what kind of ruler he'd been, his experiments with the nanogene spore were clearly illegal, and so the Jedi Order would demand justice. He was potentially a very powerful warrior, so unfreezing him recklessly was out of the question. They didn't have the facilities on Serenno to keep someone like that a prisoner for very long. The chance to interrogate him would be nice, but it was ultimately less important.
As their ruler, her highest priority was keeping her people safe, which meant removing him.
Her first instinct was to call the New Temple, but then she hesitated. The New Temple's status as an official branch of the Temple on Coruscant was on shaky ground right now, thanks to the feud between her father and Grandmaster Yoda. The New Temple itself also really didn't have the facilities to keep a dangerous warrior captive.
Perhaps the wiser thing to do would be to call the Temple on Coruscant? They had the manpower to send someone here right away, and surely would already have the facilities necessary to hold a dangerous force user. Once he was captive, there might even be a chance to interrogate him about other Sith sites on Serenno, and maybe even the location of more Tirra'taka eggs. Plus, showing a little good will might help ease tensions.
Yes. Calling the Grand Temple was the diplomatic, and pragmatic thing to do.
Decided, Tan'ya went to her father's holocom and dialed.
It was a moment before there was an answer, Grandmaster Yoda looking weary at first, but then surprised to see her. "Youngling Tan'ya. Glad to hear from you, I am. Know you're calling, your father does?"
Tan'ya put her hands together and bowed respectfully to him. "Father isn't home right now, and I can't reach his holocom."
"An emergency, is there?"
"There's a developing situation." Tan'ya said. "There's been a large excavation of an ancient fortress here, on Serenno. At the bottom of it, we discovered what I think is a Sith Lord frozen in carbonite."
Yoda's ears shot up. "Are you safe?"
"Yes, he's still frozen. So for now, no one's at risk. The most worrisome thing on site are some ancient nanogene spore victims."
Yoda had been sitting cross legged at the start of the call, but moving faster than Tan'ya had ever imagined someone of his age could, shot to his feet in an instant. "Seal off the ruin. Allow none inside. Keep those who worked there from leaving."
"Oh, of course." Tan'ya supposed that Yoda was worried about maintaining a quarantine. "It doesn't seem like there's been any infection, but we've taken appropriate measures."
"Good. Keep calm, child. Dispatch a team right away, I will. May the Force be with you." Then he hung up.
It didn't take long at all for the Jedi's quick response team to arrive, just under two days all the way from Coruscant. They must have left mere moment's after speaking with Tan'ya, and had quite the hyperdrive to make such good time. The first thing they did after arriving in system was send Tan'ya a request for the location of the dig site, which she sent them before heading there herself to greet them. Well, it was good that they were taking the situation seriously.
It was clear to Tan'ya just how serious they were when the ramp lowered, and a grim-faced Master Windu strode out with four other Jedi behind him.
"Youngling Tan'ya, is your father still not here?" Mace Windu asked.
"Yes. I haven't been able to contact him." Tan'ya explained. "Really though, there's no need to rush. The situation is quite under control."
"Has anyone approached the Sith?" Windu focussed on the matter at hand, and Tan'ya felt a hint of frustration.
"No, he's been sealed in the room he was found in." Tan'ya unfurled a map of the facility, and showed it to him. "See? He's at the bottom of the turbolift in the main building, hidden in some kind of emergency safe house. I assure you, it's perfectly safe-"
"Can someone guide us there right away?"
"Yes, I can lead you there." Tan'ya replied, turning on her heel. Evidently, the man wouldn't be able to calm down until he saw for himself that everything was fine.
Once they were inside the main building, Tan'ya showed him to the crooked shaft, and the man didn't hesitate before stepping over the edge. He and his Jedi companions danced down the shaft, lightly bouncing from wall to wall and disappearing into the darkness. Tan'ya huffed with annoyance, before doing her best to replicate the feet. She wasn't able to do it nearly so effortlessly, but she was able to carefully slow her fall near the bottom, jerking to an awkward halt a foot above the ground, before allowing herself to drop onto the top of the turbolift itself.
Below her she just caught the tail of a Jedi robe disappearing into the bunker, before she stepped into the pod and through to the bunker. In the room itself, Tan'ya found Mace and his Jedi watching the frozen Sith wearily, as he approached the block of carbonite.
A tinge of irritation crept into Tan'ya's voice as she said, "See? He's intact, no need to-"
Mace Windu ignited his lightsaber, and in one smooth motion drove it into the carbonite, boring a hole straight through the heart of the Frozen Sith. Having slain the Sith Warrior, he then turned and commanded, "Secure this site. Confiscate any Sith materials, and interrogate the witnesses."
Tan'ya's first thought was of the yet to be cataloged datacrons, and if it was too late to hide them. Then she thought of the offsite storage facility, where the remaining frozen Tirra'taka had been moved to. Finally, she realized there was a Sith's lightsaber in her father's vault.
...
Apparently, chapters write themselves faster when Power Stones are involved. Who knew? Feel free to test the theory go ahead, toss a few my way.
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