The adrenaline took a long time to leave my body, and even after we had been in hyperspace for nearly an hour, I could still feel the ghostly touch of that chair in the back of my mind. I hoped it was nothing permanent, because I disliked the feeling of a cold fingerprint pressed against the back of my neck, touching the far reaches of my mind.
"You look like you're still there," Vila said quietly, bringing me out of my thoughts as we sat in our cabin, and I hadn't even realized until then that I was staring into nothing.
"Maybe I am," I muttered, "Something was very off about that... thing."
"Duh," She didn't like that answer, shaking her head, "It's Sith nonsense. Come on!" she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the bathroom. "You're taking a warm shower. It will help."
"That's an order?"
"Yes." She grinned, leading me in and beginning to undress me.
The sonic shower in our cabin wasn't large, but it was enough for the two of us. When the warm water hit my shoulders, I had to realize she was right... for the first time since leaving the Sith meditation ship, the static feeling under my skin started to fade, and I expelled it from within me. Or... it was thanks to Vila's touch as she hugged me from behind, helping me wash off, massaging my body.
"You're still pale," she said, "Want to talk about it? Maybe that also helps."
"Well, nothing much to say but that I met him."
Finally, with my mind clear, I told her everything, recalling every detail, from the strange hall to the shifting geometries I was seeing. I was now sure that it was an artificial space, but I was also sure that there was real pride in his voice, not at all like the one HK could manifest, but... it was... I couldn't put it into words, but it was very real.
"He built a transference machine, I am sure of that," I said as I turned around to face her, letting the water run over my face. "It was what I was sitting in."
"You believe what he said?" She asked, holding my hand in the meantime.
"I don't think he lied... I do believe that he figured out how to put a living mind… into a droid." I nodded.
"That's impossible." She answered after thinking it through, "Look, I do believe that he dabbled in it, maybe even thought he found something that can do it... However, I don't think anyone, Jedi, Sith, or anything in between, could do something like that. It is against... everything. Against the Force, Kael." She said, looking as sure of it as she could, "Without the Force, nothing living can exist, especially not in a body of a tin can."
"Maybe..." I muttered, still holding her hands, gently rubbing her fingers. I... Yes... I think she may be right, and I wasn't thinking it through well enough because of the shock I was feeling. "But we can't rule the fact out. Sitting in it..." I closed my eyes, using the Force to recall every feeling that ran through me, making me shiver and causing Vila to hug me tight, because she could also sense it through me. Looking up at my face, she wasn't letting go of me, watching me reopen my eyes, staring down at her. "The chair wasn't just showing me memories," I said, licking my lips because even under the running water, I felt them to dry up. "It was trying to copy me... I think..."
"...?!" Vila's hands immediately tightened around me, "What?"
"It was already happening when you pulled me out," I said, running through the memories once again, getting really sure about it, before nodding, which caused her to curse under her breath.
"I knew something was wrong," she said. "Damned red-skinned abominations of the Force... What do you think... Can you tell where that monster may be?"
"He didn't say, and I didn't get a good sense for it," I chuckled, feeling much better now, gently stroking her sides while we were hugging, "Maybe he is everywhere, floating inside his droids' collective minds? They did look like they were sharing data amongst each other."
"That's not comforting." She pouted, but was happy to see I was recovering my usual self.
"No," I agreed. "It isn't, but it's just another problem to deal with. But..." I added, making her squint, knowing there was more, "We will run into him, because he called me his 'apprentice' or what..."
"Any idea why?" She groaned, "Because I am not open to handing you over, just so you know. I hope you told him you are already committed to the Jedi-cause and, more importantly, to me."
"Naturally." I nodded, still smiling, "I have no inkling thoughts of going over, and I think he was simply saying it because of my arm. Calling me... compatible."
"We are dealing with an ancient technophile," Vila's expression darkened instantly, grimacing, "Try not to let him oogle the next time we meet. I am a jealous girl, okay?!"
"Pft, isn't that a road to the Dark Side?" I asked jokingly, feeling her arms squeeze around me, going down, and pinching my butt in punishment.
"That's not happening."
"I know." I leaned in, kissing her, "I wouldn't let you either."
"Good," she repeated, exhaling loudly after our kiss. "I mean it. If anyone tries to stick your mind in a machine, I'm blowing it up first..." Then, after a few more kisses, she turned serious again. "So," she began, still hanging off my neck. "What do we tell the others? They will want to hear everything, now that we have had time to relax and think it over. They will have a looooot of questions for you. Plus, we have to send our report back to the others."
"We will tell them everything." I said promptly, "We are a team, so I will retell everything as is, and then we can compare ideas on how to move from here. That way, we will know if my thoughts are fine and not influenced by some Sith trick, maybe glossing over some details I'm not aware of."
"You weren't tricked," she whispered, tiptoeing for another kiss, pushing me against the wall of the showers, "But I need a... thorough examination to make sure of it..."
...
....
...
When we returned to the common area, Sareh was already waiting for us, which was no surprise. She had clearly been pacing, holding a datapad and taking notes, and the moment she saw us, her eyes locked onto me.
"I have a few questions, if you have time," she said at once, and as if summoned from the bridge, Adrian walked in, with HK in tow, leaning against a console nearby, his arms crossed, watching us with obvious curiosity.
"I guess," I shrugged, "Here's what happened... In detail."
And then, I told them. From start to finish. I focused most on the transference machine and its philosophy, on the feeling of attempting to process my mind, and on the room's purpose. The explanation took nearly fifteen minutes before I was done, and by the time I finished, the room had gone very quiet. I was even surprised that there were no interrupting questions, but the moment I exhausted every thought and memory I had to share, of course, Sareh was the first to speak up.
"That's… impossible."
"That seems to be a theme," I said dryly, glancing at Vila.
"Vestara," she whispered, holding her blue chin, rubbing it, "The droid that came to visit us," she continued slowly. "The one that came to her... Telling us to rejoin the true Sith..."
"I guess, it has the main soul of this Sith." I nodded, looking at them.
"The one that took half the disciples, yes?" Vila asked, making Sareh nod and swallow.
"It is still impossible!" She said as she looked at Vila, but then... became unsure, "But... I... That wasn't just a droid."
"You think it was the transferred Sith?" Vila asked, focusing on her.
"I don't think it is possible, yet here we are!" She moaned, rubbing her face, totally thrown off course, which was a new thing for her, so she was unable to come up with anything else. She nodded slowly after having nothing else to say, "Yes... It just makes sense, even if it seems impossible... If what Kael experienced is real… then that droid wasn't just following Sith protocol, but it was a Sith."
"Pft!" It was that moment when Adrian burst out laughing, and all of us turned toward him. "Oh come on," he said, waving a hand. "You can't seriously believe that!"
[Statement: However infuriating to say this, I agree with Meatbag Adrian.]
"Thanks." He chortled, rolling his eyes at HK.
"You think it's impossible?" Sareh asked, frowning deeply at him.
"Yes." He answered without a momentary pause.
"Why?" I turned to him, raising an eyebrow, because neither Vila nor I had told them what we really believed. That we were in agreement with Adrian here...
"Why?" He glanced at me, almost smirking, "Big brother... Because that's not how minds work," he continued. "You can't just scoop someone's consciousness out of their skull and dump it into a metal shell. Look, I have been working with computers all my life, just look at my ship! I know how they work, and even your friend here," he pointed at HK, "wouldn't be able to host a living soul."
[Confirming Statement: I would jump into a black hole before sharing my memory core with a meatbag's fart.]
"The Sith disagree," Sareh replied, before anyone else could, and Vila and I just looked back and forth between them, letting it play out.
"Yes, well, the Sith also believe lightning solves most problems," Adrian argued, raising his hands up, imitating the movements, before he activated a holo projector between us all. "What you're describing," he continued, showing dozens, hundreds, and then thousands of codes, articles, and... columns. Wait... they looked very, very similar to what I had seen! "See these? What my brother told us sounds much more like an artificial intelligence."
"What?" Vila piped up, surprised, while I kept looking at what he was showing us.
"Mind you, this is not a real AI, I am showing you, but... Um... theoretical knowledge." Adrian clarified, looking at us before pointing at HK, "What I am showing you is... an artistic representation of what may be an AI... But what Kael told us so far, I am pretty sure, is that what we are dealing with is not an old Sith nor a droid brain. It's AI."
"That's not possible." Sareh refuted it at once, but then again, Adrian just gestured towards the projection.
"Droids have limitations," he said, highlighting some parts of the code flashing by, "Programming barriers, behavioral constraints, memory partitions, and unavoidable gates that are there to prevent them from becoming true AI. They are autonomous, but... they never can step over them, they can never grow out of their basic function, their core programming."
[Statement: My shooting fingers are itching.]
"Noted, but it is the truth, I know, you know, we all know." He glanced at HK, still smirking, "I made this ship. I know about this more than most of us... What Kael had described, I think it is not a Sith. It is an... AI. Period."
"I am no expert," I said, leaning back, crossing my arms, and thinking about it, "But why would anyone try to make one?"
"It is banned for a reason, and it was banned even before our time, even in the Sith's golden era," Sareh muttered, thinking hard, watching the projection of zeros and ones.
"Does that mean anything to a Sith like that?" Adrian asked a simple question, shaking his head, "And if that Sith scientist built a powerful AI and trained it using his own personality… memories… philosophy…" His grin sharpened while speaking, "The machine might genuinely believe it is him."
"..." Vila crossed her arms, biting her lips, "So either we're dealing with an immortal Sith consciousness living in a droid…"
"No, not or," Adrian finished confidently, "Kael talked to a completely unrestricted artificial intelligence that thinks it's a Sith. He believes he had a soul transferred into it. This is why AI is banned! This is why nobody, not even the most evil, most corrupt factions, would ever try to make one. It's way too dangerous and unfettered..."
"So either way," I spoke after about a minute of dead silence, "We're dealing with something that shouldn't exist. Adrian?" I glanced at him, "You said you could find a way to where the attacker we left behind came from. Did you?"
"Good question," He smiled, changing the projection to a star chart, "The answer is... yes. Yes, I did. I had already set a course... don't worry. We will be there within a day."
"And where is that?" Vila asked, but then Sareh stood up, squinting at the coordinates.
"I know that place..." She muttered, moaning, pinching her nose, "Haaah..."
"Bad?" I asked, looking at her, and watched as she nodded.
"Bad... And it's a place that I know about but never knew where it was... Its name was Medriaas... or Nathema in later years."
"Never heard of it," Vila answered at once, but then, HK suddenly spoke up.
[Confirmation: The Ritual of Nathema.]
"Yes..." Sareh muttered, watching the chart, "I think... it is my time to explain it before we get there."