Course was set for Rishi. So I could relax. My ship's AI would handle all the stages itself, except for the ones where I personally had to push the lever to jump into hyperspace. It would take about three days to reach one of the points, so I decided to focus on training. Fortunately, the system would alert me when I was needed in the cockpit. Heading down to the first floor, into the corridor, I felt a strange, growing sense of unease. I looked around, searching for what could have alarmed me... But finding nothing, I turned toward the hangar, when suddenly I felt a blaster aimed at me. An instant later, I dodged the shot, immediately absorbing the second.
"What the hell, HK-47?" I asked the droid that had attacked me.
"Satisfaction: Conducting hole-generation in the meatbag."
HK opened fire with his blaster. What the hell? Didn't I reprogram him? I'd prepared so much, but apparently it went in one ear and out the other with him. Dodging another couple of shots, I noticed the droid had activated a grenade. The bastard! Not on my ship. Snatching the grenade with telekinesis, I recalled my lessons with Revan and tried to wrap it in a cocoon of the Force as best I could. The resulting explosion was neutralized instantly. At the same time, a smoke bomb landed at my feet. In an instant, it released a cloud of smoke that filled the entire corridor. He's trying to neutralize my vision?
There was just one problem — I could sense him. Sweeping my hand, I tried to attack HK with a wave of telekinesis. Hearing the clang of metal as HK's chassis slammed against my ship's bulkhead, I used my other hand to try and dispel the smoke screen. Big mistake on his part; I'd just knock him out and see why he'd attacked me. It probably wasn't a training exercise — he usually only started those on my order. Dispersing the smoke, I was surprised to find I wasn't holding HK at all, but a decoy. When did he even swap? And where was HK himself? What? Standing around me were several HK-47 units — no, decoys. I'd sensed them as droids using sensor techniques, so I'd easily confused them with the original. But… these were just decoys; apparently, they weren't capable of… shooting… Son of a bitch!
They were active. Sure, they were shooting on the simplest possible pattern — aiming at a sentient-shaped figure, not at weak points like HK himself — but they were shooting, damn it! I dodged their fire, trying to scatter the droids with telekinesis. A lightsaber, or some kind of alteration technique on my ship would damage it. I was even hesitant to use ionization, afraid of damaging my ship's systems. Then a shot rang out, clearly from a sniper rifle, aimed precisely at my head from the right — right when my maneuvering was most restricted.
I raised my hand, erecting a barrier and trying to shield myself from the shot. Deflecting it, I spun around, scanning the place the shot had come from. There he was… He'd shoot again. Swapping places with the droid closest to the original HK, I lunged toward him, activating every ability I had for enhancement on the fly.
"Surprise: Unique ability. Calculation: Adjusting variables."
Well, shit… The droid jumped back, hosing me down with blaster fire.
"Stop putting holes in my ship!" Blaster shots from the helper droids flew at my back.
"Satisfaction: Calculation complete. Exclamation: Prepare yourself, meatbag."
He's still running calculations… The bastard. When I beat him, I'd tear him down to his bolts and rebuild him from scratch! Then the internal defense turrets of my ship started emerging from the walls. There were about four of them, and they only deployed in extreme situations. The droids shot me in the back. The turrets opened fire from all sides. And HK fired his sniper rifle again, right at my weak points. But… He was standing right next to another decoy. Heavenly Palm… That was it; I'd used up all my "charges" for the next few minutes. Appearing behind him, I lunged, only for him to press a blaster to my forehead.
"Satisfaction: Meatbag eliminated."
A shot. At the very last second, I managed to use Tutaminis. It was pure reflex… Because when I felt the barrel against my forehead, the world seemed to slow down, and for the first milliseconds I thought I was done for. But my body and reflexes thought otherwise. Tutaminis activated at the very last moment, and I absorbed the shot's energy…
"This is unacceptable," I said coldly. "Know your place!"
A wave of telekinesis radiated from me, knocking both the original and his decoy companions off their feet. The turrets were still firing at me… until I seized them with telekinesis and started wrenching my ship's defense system apart. HK was slammed against the bulkhead.
"This is going to end badly for you, HK, unless you explain what the hell you think you're doing!"
"Clarification: I am HK-47. My primary function is establishing contact with meatbags by burning holes in them."
What was wrong with him? A glitch? Maybe I hadn't fully cracked him? But judging by his dialogue, his personality matrix was perfectly aligned with his factory presets. Which meant the "master" overlay had failed. But… why? I'd probably have to drop out of hyperspace and head to Coruscant, maybe even to Father. Dennis Flyingstar could figure out what was wrong with my droid. I was just about to knock him out for good when I suddenly felt Revan's presence. The Force ghost stood calmly, watching me.
"Explain?" I asked, holding the droid with telekinesis. "He almost sent me to the next life a couple of times."
In a straight fight when I was ready, HK was no match for me. In open terrain, not on my ship, I could even hit him with ionization. But he'd attacked at the most inconvenient possible time, and so effectively. During the fight, I'd even lost the connection with my ship, not to mention having no time to fiddle with a datapad.
"And what's there to explain?" Revan asked. "That was a training exercise."
"A training exercise?" I asked, too loudly. "In what goddamn world does this look like a training exercise?"
"In any normal one," Revan replied. "You handle my tasks perfectly, boy, but real-life experience is a far better teacher. You've noted that yourself many times. Practice in the context of deliberate training and practice in the context of an unexpected, life-or-death situation have different efficiency coefficients. Right now, you've survived a confrontation with HK in combat mode. That's the result of a special safeguard I built into him when we last met. When someone tries to reprogram him, after a certain period of time he develops and executes a plan to eliminate his new master. The protocol didn't activate with Meetra because she was my apprentice. Only someone who knows a specific code can overwrite his 'master' parameter. No matter how hard you try, you can't crack him. It's impossible. Not after all the improvements I made to him."
"Improvements?" I asked. "Did you weave something from the Rakata into him…"
"Do you think the Rakata were that gifted in droid construction?" Revan asked. "No, I used the developments of an entirely different civilization…"
"Iokath," the realization struck me. "You managed to get there and brought back their tech?"
"Correct," Revan agreed. "But I'm surprised you even know about Iokath. Steyris and many others made sure that everything containing even a mention of Iokath, Zakuul, and Valkorion was erased from the galaxy."
"I had my own… sources. I'd prefer not to reveal them."
"Wise," Revan shrugged. "Your knowledge is your own."
"Still, you could have warned me," I said angrily.
"And what good would that have done?" Revan asked. "On the contrary, everything happened exactly as it should have. HK and the lack of warning put you in the most disadvantageous position possible, one you managed to get out of. Being able to defeat HK without ionization, in this kind of space, after his analysis — you'll be able to handle even more difficult situations," he sighed. "Now I'll give you the code. Having defeated him under these conditions, you are certainly worthy to have him as your companion. Take good care of my creation. Consider it my legacy."
"Uh-huh, thanks," I snorted.
"Don't try to look menacing; with your height, it's laughable," Revan said.
"When will the galaxy ever run out of jokes about my height?" If there was one thing from my first life I was better at than my current self, it was that I'd been 189 centimeters tall! But here… sheer disappointment.
"Jokes only exist when the object of the joke reacts to them," Revan informed me. "Although even if you ignore them, no one will stop joking about it anyway. Now, the code. Bastila-Vaner."
"Bastila-Vaner?" I repeated. "You made the secret code the names of your wife and son?"
"And what, do you object? I thought you yourself were skeptical of the Jedi notion that they shouldn't love."
"They shouldn't," I argued. "But this is a goddamn HK-47 assassin droid. One of the most effective assassin droids known in the galaxy. And the code to overwrite his loyalty is this simple?"
"Nothing is ever simple," Revan replied. "The voice for the override must be either mine, Bastila's, or Meetra Surik's. Or belong to one of my descendants. In the latter case, it will also require a DNA scan."
"Requirement: To overwrite the 'true master' protocol, please provide a blood sample for analysis, as your voice does not match any of the registered matrices."
I looked at Revan.
"Fortunately, I have a way to handle this," he said, stepping closer to me. "I'll use your body, temporarily modifying your vocal cords with the Force to match mine. It will be a little unpleasant. But this way I can replicate my voice and overwrite the protocol. You did well, but there's one downside."
"And what's that?"
"Dun Moch doesn't work on droids, so when fighting him — less talk, more action."
He literally entered my body. I could have easily thrown him out, especially if he'd tried to take over. But he didn't; instead, my throat felt like it was seared with iron. I felt myself coughing up blood.
"Bastila-Vaner," I said. The droid's "eyes" turned blue instead of their reddish-orange color. "Overwrite 'true master' protocol. True master — Light Flyingstar. Delete previous owner matrices." 'Done, so even your contemporaries from among my descendants can't somehow get access to the root of his AI,' Revan's voice echoed in my thoughts.
"Requirement: To overwrite the protocol, look into the retinal scanner and provide a blood sample to the analyzer to preserve the matrix."
Revan wasn't taking control of my body, so I performed these procedures myself.
"Confirmation: 'True master' protocol overwritten. New master's matrix entered into the system and marked as active. Old matrices deleted."
Revan was instantly beside me again, and I touched my throat. How unpleasant… My vocal cords felt like they were burning. Unexpectedly, they felt like they were doused with well water. Revan directed his hand at them.
"You need rest," the mentor observed. "Try to talk as little as possible."
"Query: What should I do, Master?" HK's sensors returned to their orange-red color, making me flinch.
"Enter… kha… standby… kha… mode…"
"Confirmation: Accepted."
I turned my gaze back to Revan.
"I can feel you want to do a lot to me," the ghost said. "Don't doubt it… You'll get your chance! Without that happening, don't even dream of summoning Tulak Hord." Revan vanished. What a bastard… Effective… But still a bastard! Even after lying in bed thinking, once I'd checked all the ship's systems and decided to run a full diagnostic first, and after recovering from the ghost's use of my vocal cords, I understood that Revan had been right. Such an unusual lesson-exam had helped me test my strength… And against whom?! Against HK-47… What did it teach me? It probably developed my paranoia to a new level. You always have to expect a trick. If I hadn't relaxed, I'd have beaten HK much faster… But it wasn't just HK that had caused such a "storm of emotions" in me. That smug legend, Revan, would get his someday too! The nerve to come up with something like that… Even given his age, HK was still formidable, largely because of what Revan had managed to cram in there. And they'd managed to hide the preparation of such a thing from me and from Val… Well, specifically, Revan had hidden that HK was preparing, even managing to recreate his decoys, which in reality turned out to be barely moving scrap metal only good for shooting.
And what was this chance, after which he'd "allow" me to summon Tulak Hord? Was I going to get a chance to fight Revan? Alas, I doubted I could fully experience that fight. After all, we had too few opportunities for a proper clash. Maybe only inside my own consciousness… The fight would happen, but inside my own mind, I was king and god. Even Revan wouldn't stand a chance. But I was sure, given his character and intelligence, he'd thought of something. And I probably wouldn't like it… Revan's training was effective, but far too cruel to me.
* * *
To attack the "Black Sun," I figured I'd need to find Laura herself, who would surely remember me, and through her be introduced to Gaven Hornly. I could have acted alone, but Gaven's personality was a factor. First, I wanted to learn more of the "Black Sun's" secrets. Given that Gaven himself had once worked for the actual head of this syndicate, he could have taken a lot with him. Second, considering the first point, he definitely knew the best places to strike. And how… With his help, I could inflict significant damage. I just needed to locate all the players. Initially, I planned to act alone, gathering data and destroying enemies. But afterward, I could use my authority as a Jedi Knight to call in the Judicial Forces… Of course, those "warriors" might be afraid to tangle with the "Black Sun." We'd only destroyed Jarko because the Order had set its teeth on edge that much. But I believed that the machinations I would uncover would be reason enough to start a campaign. As long as I wasn't recalled elsewhere. And I could be; the Senate, as was well known, was completely bought. Not entirely — there were honest politicians… but they might not have time for me. And the corrupt ones might pay me too much attention instead. If I was recalled, I'd either continue operating incognito or be forced to leave the sector.
The only thing that really bothered me about the Luna and Gaven affair was working with the Hutts, who clearly supported the PMC "Luna" itself in this conflict. Of course, Hutt forces, if involved at all, were at a bare minimum. They wouldn't fully commit because that could start a full-scale war between the two most powerful criminal organizations in the galaxy. The Hutts were certainly willing to help on the sly, but they clearly didn't want to fight the "Black Sun" head-on, just as the latter didn't want to provoke the Hutts. So they'd probe each other, using the well-known PMC. But that's where it would end. What bothered me was simply that I'd have to work with criminals.
Be that as it may. I understood that to fry eggs, you at least had to break them. And right now, I didn't have a choice… Still… I'd studied law, archives, and criminal law at the University. And at the Jedi Temple, there were sometimes similar disciplines. In my first life, given who I was, I'd been biased against criminals and people who tried to solve things by illegal methods. Although that last example was more from a lack of physical strength, but it probably wouldn't change the essence.
"When working with criminals, the most important thing is to expect betrayal and a stab in the back at absolutely any moment," Revan said as we entered Rishi's orbit. "Always think they want to kill you. Even knowing you're a Jedi and can do things some can't even dream of in their sleep, they might attack."
"You've dealt with criminals yourself many times," I recalled.
"Yes, which is why I'm telling you all this," Revan remarked. "Remember, if criminal factions unite to kill a dragon, over its dead body they will inevitably start fighting over the spoils. That's the law of the underworld… A truth that needs no refutation. The essence of this phenomenon is simple. Every organization, regardless of who it represents, has its own moral code, principles of interaction with other organizations. And if you imagine all the factions, organizations, and so on as a ladder, then criminal organizations are at the very bottom, where moral codes, promises, and oaths are nothing more than a weakness. Even their so-called 'concepts' aren't rules, but merely guidelines, each of which absolutely every individual can react to differently. So what should you know? They might accept you and your help for a time. But the moment they're promised something significant in exchange for your life, they will betray you instantly…"
"I know this perfectly well," I replied to Revan.
"Really? I hope you haven't fallen for that Mandalorian girl's pretty face — Laura, was it?"
"Oh, she's pretty, at least her 'face'," I replied. "But that's all irrelevant. She's one of 'Luna's' four commanders. Her boss is Gaven Hornly. And the fact that she's 'nice' and so on — does that even matter? What's with the needling?"
"Hmm, I'm just studying you. Seeing if there's anything uncontrolled in you. You have to distinguish between duty and personal feelings. You've told me about your 'adventures.' Including your meeting with Laura. And I got the impression you don't miss a single skirt. A vague one, but still. First you fooled around with the mechanic who died; at Alderaan University, you managed to seduce an aristocrat; and back on your homeworld, a childhood friend. Admit it — that's a pattern."
"I'll only admit that you're overthinking this, Master Revan. I have complete control over myself, and if the choice comes down to killing Laura or sparing her when she needs to be killed, I'll kill her. And that's final."
"Well, we'll see," Revan said as we entered Rishi's atmosphere. According to intelligence reports, one of 'Luna's' commanders was stationed on Rishi. I didn't know their identity, but I knew the commanders had direct contact with Gaven Hornly. It could be Laura, or… Zelmen Arit, or Leyden Urton, or Nira Aldair. Each commander, roughly speaking, controlled a specific direction in the galaxy. For instance, Laura operated in the galactic north. The galactic south was controlled by Zelmen, the west by Leyden, and the east by Nira Aldair. Each of them, as it turned out, was a famous mercenary. Zelmen, for example, had worked with Gaven under Dalridin. Zelmen was a Lasat, known for his incredible physical strength. Leyden Urton, a Twi'lek, came from the fighting pits. He'd been a slave trained as a gladiator by the Zygerrians. Gaven had bought him out of slavery. Nira's identity was known in the underworld. A Zeltron, like all Zeltron, she possessed empathy and Force affinity, which helped her fleece wealthy sentients. And then there was Laura from Mandalore… Almost funny. A foundling raised on Mandalore — a famous mercenary, killer, bodyguard, and so on.
Gaven Hornly himself was a human male, born on Apatros about forty years ago. According to intelligence, he was also Force-sensitive. In his time, he'd served in Christophsis's defense forces, then was discharged for fighting and violating discipline. I was going to have to work with this bunch. Plus Hutt-allied helpers. But the game, in theory, was worth the candle… I could extract at least some information and evidence of Sidious working with Plagueis, which would help me in the future…