A Family Affair - CPT Katherine Cantor Flyer
Commander Kate Flyer stepped into
Room #436 and squinted. The room was
dark save for a single, fearfully bright light source that hung from the
ceiling, momentarily blinding her.
Behind the desk that served as the room's only furniture, a balding man
sat with a data pad.
"Sit down," the man
gestured to a chair opposite him, his face partially obscured by the light that
cast a halo effect behind him.
Kate frowned and took a seat. Only a few days ago, she had returned from
the very heart of rebel space following a dangerous expedition to capture one
of their black projects. The mission had
resulted in the destruction of a rebel shipyard, but the leaders of the
Emperor's Hammer did not seem keen to pin a medal on her just yet.
Rather, it seemed that they wanted
to interrogate her.
------------------------------------------
To:
Katherine Cantor Flyer, Commander Cyclone Squadron
Location:
ISD Challenge, Auroran Homeguard
Classified:
Utmost secrecy
The
Ubiqtorate requests your presence at 1700 hours tomorrow aboard the DGN Lichtor
V (location classified) for a full debriefing concerning the events at Greeop
VI. There will be a shuttle awaiting you
at 0830 hours for transport.
-------------------------------------------
The day after receiving that notice,
Kate was on her way to the Lichtor V and doing her best to remain calm. She had never received a full debriefing from
Imperial Intelligence, and even the simple notice from the Ubiqtorate seemed
laden with menace. Now she sat before a
balding man wearing a black variation of the traditional olive-drab Imperial
uniform, his forehead glistening just a bit from the lights. A green R4 unit, only now noticeable against
the glare of the lights, stood in the background and appeared to be recording
the conversation.
He didn’t bother to look up from his
data pad as he introduced himself, “My name is Arised Corwin, and I will be
conducting your debriefing today. Please
state your name, rank, serial number and current position for the record.”
“Um, my name is Kate Flyer, serial
number 11831-3022, Commander. I
currently command Cyclone Squadron aboard the ISD Challenge.”
“Do you swear that all information
you are about to contribute to this inquiry is, to the best of your knowledge,
truthful?” Corwin glanced up at Kate for
the first time since she had arrived.
“I do.”
“Then please recount events as it
pertains to your recent mission, starting with when you received your
assignment.”
“Well.. I uh..
I received a message from Imperial Intelligence asking me to come to the
ship that we’re on now. When I arrived,
I met with Colonels Malik and Taldrya of Praetorian Squadron and I was asked if
I would accept assignment to a joint strike into rebel space. I accepted, and I was temporarily assigned to
the captured Frigate Echo Hawk.”
Kate couldn’t help but smile a bit as
she recalled her meeting on the Lichtor V.
Ric had been a good friend since they fought together against the
Akumvah on Pyrath. He had introduced her
to Abel Malik, and the pair had hit it off immediately. Kate’s arrival on the Lichtor V for the
journey into rebel space was marked by a night of crude jokes, heavy drinking
and gambling.
It had been almost as fun as a
typical night on the Challenge.
“I understand that you encountered a
member of your extended family over the course of the campaign.”
Ah, and now they reached the crux of
the matter.
“Yes sir, I did.”
“Tell me about that, please.”
“Okay..”
* * *
Sector 72
by 39 by 32
Earlier
Kate and Ric were celebrating the
capture of the rebel listening outpost XQ31 in the makeshift Echo Hawk cantina when she told him
about her vision. Though still drunk,
the half-human listened politely as the details of Kate’s search for her family
spilled forth.
“I hardly know anything about
them. My dad was just a cousin of Varian
Cantor. Even he barely had a connection to
the royal house on Corellia,” Kate explained.
“But I came here, and I can just feel their legacy everywhere I go, you
know? Then I had this vision..”
“Hmm?” Ric poured himself another drink and offered
some to Kate, but she refused.
“I was standing in the royal house,
or at least I think I was in the royal house.
It felt like it anyway. And
Varian was right there. He told me that
our family was lost, and that it was up to me to reclaim it. Yeah, I know it sounds silly coming from
me. But hearing it from him.. I knew what I had to do.”
“Is that why you transferred
from Obelisk to Krath almost as soon as we got back from Pyrath?” Ric asked
“Yeah. That’s the reason exactly. I can’t really go that far into it but.. But when I finished meditating, I knew that I
had to make the transfer.”
“Well, there are worse things than
being a Krath I suppose,” Ric smirked.
Kate nodded absently, then glanced
up at Ric, her expression oddly distant, “You know, I’m going to have to face
him. For the family.”
“Who are we talking about now?”
“Him. Keirdagh Cantor.”
“Yacko?”
“The same.”
“Well, no offense to you Kate, but
you’ll have a job lasting five seconds against him,” Ric took a sip from his
drink. “He was a Sith High Warrior when
he was with us, and he is a member of the Dark Council in the rogues. Frankly, he is one of the most powerful Dark
Jedi alive today. I would even give him
a chance against the Grand Master.”
“Well, I have a lot to learn before
I face him.”
“You do at that.”
“But with you to teach me..”
“Oh I see how it is,” Ric
laughed. “Well Kate, if you listen to
the masters, and you keep practicing, you may one day last a full minute
against Keirdagh.”
* * *
“And then you found him.” Corwin had been silent through Kate’s account
of her discussion with Ric, quietly jotting notes on his data pad. Now he looked up, a pair of brilliant green
eyes politely regarding the commander.
“That’s right. It turned out that the Rogue Dark Brotherhood
was assisting the rebels with their black project. They were building a modified Super Star
Destroyer that could lead a joint attack into Emperor’s Hammer space. The rogues contributed a new shield
technology based on the Force that makes the ship almost invincible.”
“Do you know how Keirdagh was
involved with this project?”
“I can only speculate, sir.”
“Then please indulge me.”
“I suspect that he was a liaising
with the rebels for the Rogues. He
probably took charge of the search for us when he found out about our
presence,” Kate leaned forward. “He
hounded us from XQ38 all the way to the shipyards in that Interdictor of
his.”
“How do you think he found about your
mission?”
“We botched a raid on one of their
perimeter listening posts, and they were able to get a distress signal
off. The Orthanc was one of the two ships that responded.”
“I see,” the interrogator looked
bored as he gazed his data pad. “Very well,
moving on, tell me about your experience with Valera Shen.”
* * *
The Dark
Jedi Knight Valera Shen. She had been a longtime
spy for the Emperor’s Hammer among the rogues, a valuable defector in the eyes
of Chi Long when he conspired with the Grand Master to create the Rogue Dark
Brotherhood. When it had become known
that the rogues were working with the rebels on their black project, they had
extracted her from their company to find out just what that project was.
But it was some time before Kate and
Valera would come to face-to-face aboard the dreadnaught Rebellious II, deep within rebel space. Kate had recalled the dark eyes, the black
cloak and frightening aura when that woman had come aboard. She had pulled a hood up to cover her face,
but all the same, Kate was sure that she spotted a long, jagged scar down the
side of her face.
“Kate Flyer,” she whispered. “You are the apprentice of Kerridwen Jorddyn,
a powerful Dark Jedi in my clan.”
It was not a question.
“I am,” Kate replied, wondering how
the woman had found out about her recent apprenticeship if she had spent most
of her time with the rogues.
Valera must have seen the question
in Kate’s eyes because she answered before it could be asked, “When a powerful
Dark Jedi takes on a new apprentice, there are ripples in the Force. She will make certain that you are
well-trained on the true path.”
“Well, I haven’t really shown that
I’m worth training in the Dark Brotherhood yet.”
“Lies,” Valera rasped quietly. “I know what you did to the Akumvah. We all felt your power there. It has preoccupied Keirdagh for days.”
The pair was soon ushered away by several
intelligence officers, along with Abel and Ric, to a back office. Kate’s heart beat heavily in her ears as she
walked, not certain what to make of what Valera had told her. What power was there to detect, anyway? Kate wondered if they hadn’t detected her
brief surge of power on Pyrath, in the midst of her battle with the
Akumvah. Unfortunately, she had been
rather powerless since that surge.
What if she was never able to
harness the Force again? She imagined
that she would eventually be kicked out of the Dark Brotherhood, and that would
be that. She had been lucky to join in
the first place.
I suppose
there are worse things than not having the opportunity to be corrupted by the
Dark Side.
The officers guided the small group
to a rear office that looked as it had belonged to one of the Rebellious II’s old squadron
commanders. A plaque depicting an X-wing
in the midst of a supernova hung on the wall, and a host of old fighter
memorabilia resided on the desk. Kate
glanced over the Clone Wars-era helmet; a replica lightsaber; a picture of
several people who were smiling and waving, most likely the pilot’s family; and
a stuffed Ewok toy as she sat down.
“Jedi Shen,” the intelligence
officer, a portly man with deep dimples named Jerod Corgan had dropped a pair
of reading glasses on his nose and was glancing over a data pad. “You have done well to elude the rogues and
return to our company. You are to be
commended.”
“No commendation is necessary,” Shen
rasped. Kate shuddered a little at the
woman’s dark aura. Ric smiled a
bit.
“Very well,” Jerod arched an
eyebrow, but made no further comment on the subject. “Do you know why we extracted you?”
“You wish to have information.”
“Correct,” Jerod said. “We need all information that you have on the
Long-Ackbar Project.”
Shen closed her eyes, though it was
hardly evident beneath her cloak. She
kept them shut as she spoke, “It was initiated by Master Telaris Cantor in
conjunction with the Rebel Squadrons as a part of their alliance of
convenience. It is their means to bring
a final end to the Emperor’s Hammer.”
Ric leaned over to whisper something
to Abel as she continued, though Kate only heard a snatch of it.
A final
end?
“While still a part of the Emperor’s
Hammer, many of the most brilliant minds in the Dark Brotherhood set to
developing a shield for the A-9 Interceptor that would be virtually impregnable
to enemy fire,” Shen clasped her hands firmly together. “When the Grand Master lead his revolt
against the Grand Admiral, the project notes were lost to the rogue
faction. They continued to develop it in
secret long after their departure.”
“And what became of this project?” Jerod asked.
“Several months ago, the rogues
reached a breakthrough. Using a
technology similar to Force vents, they were able to create a shield so
powerful that conventional blaster fire cannot penetrate it. They, however, were not able to adapt it for
the A-9 or any other starfighter.”
“And why is that?”
“It required far too much power,”
Shen said. “Only something far bigger
than a starfighter, or even a Star Destroyer, would be able to utilize the
shield.”
“What could be bigger than a Star
Destroyer?” Kate spoke up.
“What else? A Super Star Destroyer,” Ric said
smartly. Then his expression went slack
as his crimson eyes widened, as if he had just realized what he had said. “Are you saying that the rogues have managed
to build a Super Star Destroyer right under our nose?”
“That is precisely what they have
done,” Shen’s eyes snapped open.
“Working in utmost secrecy with the Rebel Squadrons, they have
constructed a Super Star Destroyer. The
construction has been so secretive that, highly placed as I was, even I did not
know of it until recently.”
“How close are they to finishing
it?” Jerod asked.
“It has been completed. The rogues began construction almost
immediately after they departed the Emperor’s Hammer. They call it the Chi Long...”
* * *
“..
We went to red alert probably 20 minutes later,” Kate was hunched
forward in her chair, her eyes rebelling against the harsh light above
her. “Abel and Jerod had determined that
the only way to put a stop to the rogue Super Star Destroyer was to try and
capture it.”
“What did you do after your
discussion with Jedi Shen?”
“I went to talk with Ric.”
“What did you discuss?”
“What else? We talked about what we were going to do
about the Super Star Destroyer. We
talked about Shen and Keirdagh,” Kate shrugged.
“Ric and I have gotten to be friends since I’ve joined the Dark
Brotherhood. I guess we have a lot to
discuss.”
“And then what happened?”
* * *
After their interrogation, Shen
secreted herself away in one of the Dreadnaught’s cabins on the lower
decks. She was periodically contacted by
one officer or another in a bid to get more information from her, but they
found the door locked and her comm. link off.
The inquiries always ended there – Nobody wanted to chance angering a
Dark Jedi.
Nobody save for Kate.
The door slid open after only a few
taps, revealing darkness beyond. Kate
took first one hesitant step forward, then another. She was struck by a wave of smoke and heat,
then couldn’t stifle a gasp as Valera came into view. The scar she had seen earlier ran across the
entire right side of her face and down into her cloak, it looked more a
festering wound than a scar, and one of her hands appeared gnarled and
useless.
“You wish to see me?” Valera whispered
hoarsely.
“I..
I did,” Kate said hesitantly as she stared at the ragged scar. “I had a question.”
“You may speak.”
“Could you tell me what you know
about Keirdagh Cantor?”
“Keirdagh Cantor..” Valera’s voice softened somewhat. “He is a great Jedi.”
Kate felt a brief rush of anger. She knew very little about Keirdagh, what
little she did know coming from a fairly reticent Fink Cantor, but what she had
heard hadn’t impressed her very much.
Add in the fact that he was an enemy of the Empire and the family, and
she couldn’t fathom the respect that he was given.
“He’s also a traitor,” she
hissed. “He ripped apart the Cantor
family.”
“Hmmn, on the contrary,” Valera’s
said quietly as she pulled her hood back about her head. “All Dark Jedi have a bond that goes beyond
warring clans, the Empire and the New Republic.
Our bond of enmity is what fuels our passions, our power, and our
destinies. We may walk separate paths,
but we are one in the Force.”
She snuffed one of her candles as
she continued to speak, “Keirdagh Cantor departed out of loyalty to his niece
Risua and nephew Telaris. When the split
occurred, he was nearly alone. His
brothers had vanished to the Unknown Regions, and many of his other relations
had perished or moved on. Keirdagh cares
about two things – Loyalty to his family, and to himself. He followed what remained of his family into the
rogues.”
So that was it. There were no more Cantors in the Emperor’s
Hammer save Fink and herself. She wasn’t
sure she really counted though, being only a first cousin once-removed. And yet, she had felt a bond with this family
that had only grown stronger since he had enlisted in the Emperor’s
Hammer.
And there was her vision..
“I have to fight him,” Kate said
heavily.
“Do you really?” Shen seemed to smile beneath the cloak.
“Why are you smiling?”
“There is nothing purer than a
duel. Those who have harnessed their
passions will inevitably gain mastery over the weak. Duels are useful for weeding them apart,”
Valera said.
Kate stood flatfooted, not certain
what to make of the new perspective Shen had given her on Keirdagh. She watched as Shen paged through a tattered
text with a violet aura, seemingly oblivious now to Kate’s presence. She wondered for a moment what had prompted
her to come and ask Shen about Keirdagh.
It had seemed logical that, as a highly placed spy in the rogues, she
would have had a great deal of contact with the mysterious Cantor elder.
“Will you feel that way when it’s
time for you to duel with him?”
The words jumped out of Kate’s
mouth, unbidden, and hung in the space between them. She watched Shen looked up slowly, a fixed
smile on her face, “I will be honored to cross lightsabers with Keirdagh
Cantor.”
Shen said nothing else after that,
leaving Kate to digest their conversation on her own. She would not have long to dwell on it
though, for she would soon be back in space.
They had arrived at Greeop VI.
* * *
Valera Shen would indeed cross
sabers with Keirdagh Cantor in the battle over Greeop VI. He was waiting for her as she boarded the Chi Long, his lightsaber already
drawn. He beckoned the rest of the
boarding party forward, a fearsome smile settling onto his rough features, then
he cut them down one by one in a blur of scarlet. Arms, legs and torsos soon decorated the Chi Long’s corridor as he went about his
grisly work.
When he was finished, only Shen
remained.
They clashed once.. twice..
Then it was over. Kate felt it
all as she battled amid the rogue shipyard, her teeth clenched as she realized
what had happened.
“I’m sorry,
but the Chi Long belongs to us.”
The Rebellious II rose from the Chi
Long and began to break up as its reactor overloaded, product of a few a
well placed thermal detonators from rogue agents who had dropped aboard during
the boarding action on the Chi Long. Kate heard herself crying out over the
comm.
Then it was over.
Kate felt the hatred beginning to
build within her as she kicked her TIE Praetorian into full throttle and cut
after a nearby A-wing. She fired twice,
her lasers cutting away the A-wing’s thin shields and searing the cockpit. It spun away amid a tangle of sparks and wire
as Kate roared away, murder in her heart.
There was no redeeming Keirdagh
Cantor. Kate knew now what she had felt
during her peculiar conversation with Valera Shen. After so many years in the service of the
rogues, Valera Shen had fallen in love with Keirdagh. And now Shen was dead at his hand. Kate wondered if Shen had said anything
before she had died.
No.. She died like a warrior. She would never show any weakness.
But even as she swelled in
admiration for Shen, she felt her hatred for Keirdagh return. He almost certainly knew what Kate did, how
could he not? He was Dark Jedi
Master. But he had still cut her down in
cold blood.
Was this the way of the Dark
Side? Or only the way of Keirdagh
Cantor?
He deserves
to die.. He deserves to die..
The Interdictor Orthanc had dropped out of space, and a TIE Defender had emerged
from the belly of the Chi Long. Kate had no doubt that Keirdagh was in that
fighter – She put as much energy from her shields into her engines as she could
as she sped toward her target. The rest
of the battle fell away as she approached Keirdagh’s TIE Defender, all of her
attention focused squarely on the murderer.
But then it was too late – He had
escaped into the Orthanc.
Kate’s TIE Praetorian spun away, a
hundred emerald lights streaming toward her from the Interdictor as she bounced
away into space.
* * *
“According to the official account,”
Corwin glanced over his reading glasses.
“Keirdagh Cantor was able to escape with the Chi Long and the Orthanc. Is that true?”
“Yes sir, it’s true.”
“Do you have any particular insight
where you he may have gone?”
“No,” Kate said truthfully. “I’ve never met the man. All I have on him is hearsay.”
“Hmm..” Corwin took a few more notes, then
deactivated his data pad. Pulling a
small remote from his pocket, he deactivated the R4 unit in the corner and
removed his reading glasses. “Is there
anything you would like to add to this inquiry, Commander Flyer?”
“No sir.”
“Thank you, you may go.”
Kate rose to walk out of the room,
bumping past another man as she opened the door to leave. Ric and Abel were waiting outside for
her. They had obviously been in the
midst of a conversation before she arrived.
“Are you finished?” Ric asked.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
“What did they asked you?” Abel frowned.
“They just wanted an account of what
happened over the course of the mission,” Kate shrugged. “I guess it was a pretty typical
debriefing.”
“If I know the Ubiqtorate, there is
more to there inquiry then just collecting information on the mission,” Abel
said thoughtfully. “They are most likely
trying to figure out how to find and stop the Chi Long before it can be turned on the Emperor’s Hammer.”
“Well, they’d better hurry. I can’t believe that they would wait all that
long with a weapon like that,” Kate mused.
“We have a month or two at the most before they try to shove that thing
straight down our throats.”
The trio seemed to be given pause as
they considered the possibility of an invincible Super Star Destroyer. Finally, Kate shrugged, “Anyway, I don’t
think I want to think about this right now.
Can I buy you two drinks?”
They headed off to the Lichtor V
cantina to have a round of drinks, Kate trying hard to forget about Keirdagh
and all of them trying to forget about the Chi
Long.
It the next few months, forgetting
about either would prove to be all but impossible..
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