Penance - Chapter &

Chapter 7 – Enigma

“How may I serve you my lord.”  Penance asks kneeling before Darth Vader.

“Rise my apprentice.”  He commands as his respirator rasps in the dimly lit room.

Standing she takes her place at his side.  They then leave the room and walk down the corridor of his flagship. 

“You are sure about the events at the medical center on Polis Massa?”  He asks as they walk.

“Yes my lord.  Although there isn’t any security footage the security logs correspond with the flight logs and personal accounts.  Unfortunately, there was no flight path filed at that time. So now there is no telling where this individual was headed.”  She answers him as they enter the star coordinate room of the ship. 

Securing the door behind him Vader brings up a map of the outer rim territories in the galaxy.  Punching in coordinates he tells Penance, “You will go to Tattooine to the city of Mos Espa.  There you will look for a Toydarian junk dealer named Watto.  He should be able to point you in the direction of our friend.”  Vader says coldly erasing the coordinates from the main computer after downloading them down to a data pack.  Holding them out to Penance he continues, “You must be careful of Tattooine.  Things are not what they seem there.  If you find the person that was on Polis Massa you are not to face him.  You are to contact me at once.  Understood?”  He tells her as he holds the pack out for her to take.

She can’t be sure, but she thinks that she can sense anxiety coming from the dark lord.  Quickly Vader shores up his mental blocks and the feeling quickly fades from him.  She reaches for the data pack, but Vader doesn’t let go.  She looks at him intently and he says, “Do not fail me. Find our friend and contact me at once.  Do not face him.”

“As you wish my lord.”  She says as he finally releases the data pack.  Rolling it over in her hands she continues, “If I may ask who is it that you think I am tracking?”

“Are you questioning my orders?”  He asks, with a dangerous edge creeping into his voice.

“No, my lord, merely inquiring, so I may know how many precautions to take.  That’s all.”  She says staring intently into his visor eyes.

“If you find this person, do not approach him.  Do not face him and do not let him sense your presence.  You must conceal yourself from him.”

“Understood.  I will leave at once.”  She says making a short bow before she leaves the room.  Vader turns and brings up a hologram of the planet and it intently studying it.  She is nearly at the door when he says to her without turning to face her, “The junk dealer may have a protocol droid with him as well.  Please secure it for me.” 

“As you wish, my master.”  She replied as she left the room.

Vader contemplates the planet for a long time.  He hated Tattooine.  The constant dry cracking heat and the horrible sand.  At the same time though, there is a longing in the back of his mind for that planet.  Perhaps it is merely the last vestiges of Anakin Skywalker burning away.  As he turns the viewer off he tries to reassure himself that this is simply what it was.

Chapter 8 – Night Sweats

That night is a repeat of many others.  Nervous and fitted slumber followed by a quick scramble to the fresher to vomit up any remaining food.  Penance has decided not to take the sedatives that she had taken from Bast.  They leave her foggy and she feels that her grasp on the force is flimsy and tenuous the morning after. 

The dreams are mostly still the same;  Kendra’s life on Alderann or the battle on the ship.  A new one however has cropped up that has taken their place in her slumbering mind, a dream that is growing in frequency. Repeatedly she sees a boy standing with his back to her.  He is standing in the shade of an archway looking out over the horizon of a sand swept planet.  He’s dressed simply in the style of his people and he seems to be holding something.  She approaches him and reaches out to touch him.  As she does he turns and looks at her with this malevolent smile scrawled across his face.  Penance can feel her nausea rising by then because the boys eyes are bright orange, bathed in the power of the dark side.  The eyes she recognizes immediately for they are Quinn’s.  What he holds is a light saber that he ignites and proceeds to attack. 

What follows is yet another quick scramble to the fresher.  She barely makes it as her stomach churns and she dry heaves.  As the nausea passes, waves of sorrow wrack her and she begins to cry. Shaking she draws her legs underneath her in an attempt to regain her composure by meditating.  Each attempt to reach out with the force is met by feelings of pain.  She can’t forget those eyes.  Quinn’s eyes staring back at her from their child’s face. 
As she grips the sides of the basin in the fresher she tells herself to stop crying, but she can’t.  In her pain and frustration she begins to bang her head against the sink over and over while screaming, “STOP IT!!!  STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!!  STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!!”  The physical pain finally breaks through the emotional pain and Penance collapses on the floor between the fresher and the bedroom.

The next day she makes sure to do her meditations and travel preparations early.  She wants to make sure that she is gone before lord Vader rises and has time to send for her.  Looking in the mirror she sees that the damage she did to herself is pretty severe.  Her lips are both split and several of her teeth are loose.  There is a nice sized gash above her left eye where she hit the corner of the sink a couple of times.  The eye itself is intact, but the orange of her iris is now marked by the blood of ruptured blood vessels. 

She makes her way to the flight bay without incident.  She has made sure to keep her head deep in to her hood so as to avoid any questions from passersby.  She makes her preparations to depart quickly.  From where they are to Tattooine is a long journey even by hyper drive.  Penance plans to use the time to meditate and regain her center.  As she loads her ship she wonders if Vader goes through these fits of self doubt. He has the benefit of hiding behind his respirator mask, but she wonders if he is constantly battling inner demons like she is.  His mind is an enigma to her as well.  That too has a smooth cool veneer to it, but there are times when she can feel creases in the uniformity of his thoughts.  Could they be cracks in his finely polished consciousness or merely blemishes?  She has heard rumors that the man never sleeps.  He can be found wandering the halls of his great ship at all hours of the night. He spends most of his time milling about in the engineering sections where the crew gives him a wide birth.  Perhaps he doesn’t sleep.  Many Jedi use meditation in place of sleep when there is a severe shortage of time, but sleep can never be fully replaced.  Maybe that’s what the sedatives are for.  Meditation for as long as his body will put up with it then sedatives for dreamless sleep. 

She soon finishes off her preflight and is on her way to minimal distance for hyper drive engagement. Once there she inputs her coordinates and the computer makes its calculations.  Within minutes she has entered hyperspace.  She then begins her meditations.  Once she has arrived at the coordinates she leaves her meditations as she leaves hyperspace.  She feels slightly refreshed and renewed in her quest, but still uneasy.  No matter how hard she concentrates she can’t banish the image of Quinn’s eyes from her memory.