Star Wars: Knight Errant (35 page)

Kerra’s jaw set. “No guards?”

“Well, you won’t be left alone,” the glistening Sith Lord said. “But all members of the Arkadianate have some kind of combat training. And all of them will act to protect it, if you try to disturb it.”

Before Kerra could respond, Arkadia clapped. A Twi’lek aide in mauve stepped forward. “Take Brigadier Rusher to requisitioning. I’m sure his crew and passengers have some immediate needs.”

As Rusher nodded genteelly and saluted, Kerra glared at him.
Still looking for a job
.

“And call for Seese,” Arkadia yelled, heading off in a different direction. “There’s much that we want from the Jedi—but there is much she should learn first!”

Seeing Rusher depart with the Twi’lek, Kerra looked back across the atrium to Arkadia. An aide had taken her headdress, revealing hair as light as Kerra’s was dark. Another aide stood nearby, waiting on her every word.

Kerra’s head swam. This was like no welcome a Jedi had ever received from a Sith Lord. And none of the dozens of people around seemed to take the least note of it.

No one but the Bothan, who leaned against the trundle car, eyes shifting back and forth between the two of them.

Arkadia had wanted Kerra to walk in the shoes of her citizens. Touring Calimondretta, Kerra figured she could have fit her entire body comfortably inside a single one of her guide’s boots.

And yet the Herglic moved through the thoroughfares of the ice-hewn city with amazing speed, forcing Kerra to march double-time just to keep up with her. One of the larger members of a once-aquatic species, Seese was a lumbering gray behemoth measuring two-plus meters in all directions. Clad in her bright yellow vestments, the guide could have been seen from orbit, Kerra thought.

Still, the Sith city seemed to have done more to accommodate larger species than many Republic trading centers had. All the doorways were wide enough for the Herglic, and even the escalators had long, graduated steps. “There will be Celegians joining the Arkadianate,” Seese said, riding down to a lower level. “It’ll be nice to have someone the same size around!”

Kerra nodded. She noticed the steam rising from the blowhole atop the frost-covered Herglic’s head. “Aren’t you cold here?” she asked.

Seese let out a thunderous laugh. “A body that stays in motion doesn’t notice,” she said, launching into a discussion of her life as they emerged from yet another factory. Seese had been in the Arkadianate just six years, but had
found time to familiarize herself with all operations on Syned, as well as several other of her leader’s worlds. “And I still had time to have four children—can you believe it?”

Indeed, Seese seemed to know everything about every place they entered. The alga-processing plants, without which there would be no life on Syned. The reclamation facilities, finding metals vital to Arkadia’s cause one milligram at a time from the waters deep underground. Even the education centers, where the youth of Syned were turned into productive and committed citizens. Seese had found her first assignment as a teacher there, just after Arkadia had conquered her homeworld.

But if her guide harbored any ill will about that, Kerra had seen no indication of it. In fact, she’d been able to get little specific about Arkadia out of the Herglic, save some platitudes about the Sith Lord’s keen mind. Early in the tour, Kerra, remembering Calician’s statement, had asked if Arkadia was a widow. Seese thought for a moment, but didn’t remember her master ever taking a mate. That line of conversation had resulted in yet more gushing about Arkadia.

“Of course,” Seese boomed, “it would be a clever mind indeed that could hold our lady’s attention!”

Now, entering their sixth factory off Progress Plaza, Kerra found herself wearying of the victory tour. That’s what it was, she realized; a show, proving Arkadia’s path to power superior to that of any other Sith. She’d initially imagined the names of the great underground halls to be ironic, but apparently, the people bought into them. There were no Correctors, no scarlet-clad straw bosses. Instead, about one worker in twenty wore a blue sash and a blaster; members of the Citizen Guard, responsible for peace and order. “We have more volunteers than we need, actually,” Seese said. “Many take the added duty
to help their own advancement. But there’s rarely much to do.”

Certainly, the system seemed less oppressive—no one, anywhere, seemed to be working under any threat of pain. But something still seemed wrong. In the hydroponic gardens, where they raised silkenfronds for thread; and here, in the textile mill, whose produce helped warm the citizens. Everyone seemed just a bit
too
devoted, somehow.

“Wait,” Kerra said, spotting a green-skinned male across the factory floor. “That guy!”

Seese looked across the mill, whirring with activity. “The Falleen? That’s the manager’s station. He’s the manager here.”

“But I’ve seen him,” Kerra said. “Back when I arrived. He was Arkadia’s beralyx handler!”

The Herglic stared blankly at the mop-topped figure. “That may well be.” Barging forward, Seese got the manager’s attention. “You, citizen. Do you come fresh to this?”

“Promoted this very work cycle,” the Falleen said, exhibiting a rumpled smile. He turned back to his control board, flashing frantically.

Kerra watched the new manager struggle. She’d thought his expression was halfway between pride and terror.

Walking away, she quizzed her host. “He was working the stables. Now he’s
here
?”

Arkadia was, as ever, the answer. “She always likes us to come at a project
fresh
,” Seese said, rocking on mighty stumped feet. “With new eyes.”

The rest of the hour passed in much the same way. Why did the mill turn out clothing in so many bright colors? To help Arkadia’s citizens become noticeable, memorable individuals. Why had no one, to Seese’s memory, ever left
the Arkadianate? No Sith Lord offered anything comparable to the life found here, under the frigid wasteland. Why had Arkadia been so slow to bring the rest of the galaxy under her protection? She knew that speedy conquest came at a price to the existing civilization. A meal had to be digested, before eating again.

“But make no mistake,” Seese said, seeing commotion up ahead. “Arkadia will rule the galaxy, and we along with her.”

Kerra looked far down the hollowed-out hallway to see Arkadia, dressed more lightly in a silvery tunic and cape, leading Beadle and Tan through the Promisorium. Tan seemed excited to be touring Arkadia’s academy; Beadle seemed to be rubbing his forehead.

“My time with you is done, I see,” Seese said. Giant lips pursed, the Herglic female looked down at Kerra. “If I may take the liberty, Kerra Holt, you do not seem like a bad person. I do not understand why they say the Jedi hate the Sith.”

Kerra looked up, tongue-tied. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Well, maybe there are different kinds of Jedi—just as there are different kinds of Sith.” Turning on a massive heel, Seese began to depart.

But Kerra placed a hand on the creature’s mighty arm. “Wait, Seese. I do have one more question.”

“Certainly.”

“How was it you knew Celegians would be coming here?” Calimondretta seemed to have an open society, but Kerra had seen no hint of any kind of mass media.

“Why, I was at the battle,” Seese said. “I was a tactical officer aboard
New Crucible
just yesterday.”

“And now you’re a
tour guide
?”

“New eyes,” Seese said, smiling broadly.

But looking into the glowing yellow slits, Kerra thought
Seese’s eyes seemed very old. The Herglic trod away, perhaps a bit slower than before.

“Kerra! Kerra! Kerra!”

The Jedi found she had something attached to her leg. “Hello, Tan. How was your … your tour?”

Tan bounced up and down, describing the sights that she’d seen in the Promisorium with Arkadia, from the classrooms to the dining halls. Kerra’s attention, however, was on Beadle, and his bleeding forehead. “What happened to you?”

“He tripped on his boot and fell down one of the escalators,” Arkadia deadpanned.

Kerra looked to a moving staircase behind her. “Every step’s two meters long! How could you fall down one?”

Arkadia smiled primly. “I wasn’t there, but I am told that it was something to see.”

Beadle smiled weakly at Kerra.
If he’s an ad for Rusher’s services
, Kerra thought,
they might as well fly back to the Daimanate now!

Tan chattered on about the wonders of Calimondretta’s educational system, becoming almost a tiny version of the Herglic tour guide. As she spoke, doors opened to the left and right, discharging younglings of all species from their lessons. Kerra wondered if their release had been timed to accompany Tan’s message, to reinforce the healthy state of the local youth.

If so, Arkadia’s point was made. Kerra scanned the small faces milling past, all on their way between classes. These weren’t the grease-covered child laborers of Darkknell; whatever they might build in the future, right now, they were building themselves. Her attention shifted to a Gotal couple, standing off to the side with a tiny child. Touching head-cones, the mane-faced parents saw their son to his classroom door.

As the Gotal adults picked their way back through the
crowded hall, Kerra closed her eyes. Something about the scene both warmed and chilled her. Similar moments were happening all around. All akin, in a way, to Gub’s parting with Tan, days earlier: parents sending their children off to find better places in life. Was that universal? She’d seen identical sights in the Republic, every time a Padawan entered the Jedi Order.

She’d never had an experience like that. The Sith had robbed her of her family. And yet, these partings seemed temporary. Arkadia hadn’t ripped these families apart.

What had Seese said?
Maybe there are different kinds of Sith
.

Walking in the stream of students just her height, Tan grew ever more effusive. And the thing she seemed most excited about was the range of subjects the students here learned, from calculus to genetics to stellar cartography.

“Your ward told me of the life she was bound for,” Arkadia said, nodding to the awed younglings she passed. “Tan and your other passengers were going to be chained to one subject for the rest of their lives! Preposterous. This was Daiman’s idea?” She searched for Kerra’s gaze. “Come, you can at least answer me that.”

“It was a corporation,” Kerra said, looking away. “Industrial Heuristics.”

Arkadia nodded. “One of Lord Bactra’s holdings. The
former
lord,” she corrected herself. She’d been apprised of events on Gazzari. “My last information is he was hiding in a Quermian retirement colony, somewhere. Well, he should be safely out of the fray there.”

Kerra wondered how Arkadia had heard, all the way out here.
That Narsk, maybe
. That made sense.

Strolling back toward Patriot Hall, the main atrium, Arkadia described for Kerra how Tan and the others would be educated in her realm. Students would work to become as versatile as they possibly could—so that, as adults, they could contribute in as many ways as her
state might need. Other Sith Lords treated sentient beings as just another raw material: basic elements, unworkable and immutable. Miners taken captive in the territory of one became miners in the next. But what if the victor needed physicists? An empire’s strategic needs changed with the mix of neighbors on its borders. How would it do for a state that suddenly needed nothing but fighter pilots to have only a token few?

Before Kerra could respond, Arkadia spied someone up ahead and stepped up her pace. Rusher and the Twi’lek stood in a loading zone near a massive magnetic gateway to the frigid outside world. Beside them, several workers loaded a mountain of containers and cylinders onto a trio of trundle cars. Arkadia swept toward them. “Did my assistant find your supplies, Brigadier?”

“Everything I could have asked for,” Rusher said, studying a datapad. “Should replenish all the stocks the refugees drew down. I’m surprised at the variety of food you have here.”

“We don’t live by algae alone—not with so many different palates. What we don’t grow here, we ship in.” She looked at Beadle. “It will probably take your crew longer to unload it than we took to grow it.”

“We’re pretty good with loading,” Rusher said, passing his recruit the datapad. “One of our specialties, in fact.”

Arkadia smiled politely. Looking down, she reached for Tan’s hands. “Go, girl, and tell your friends aboard
Diligence
of the kind of life that awaits them here.”

Kerra winced as Tan hugged the Sith Lord good-bye. Arkadia accepted the gesture, appearing to regard the expression as novel.

“I’ll be across later,” Kerra told the Sullustan, walking her to the ramp. “I don’t think Arkadia is done with me.”

“She’ll let us stay here, won’t she?” Tan asked, black eyes hopeful in the doorway. “Please try to convince her, Kerra.”

Kerra’s heart caught in her throat. Looking back, she saw Arkadia standing confidently as she chatted with Rusher and the Ithorian aide. “Whatever she wants to do, Tan. I’m pretty sure she’s already decided,” Kerra said. “Stay safe.” Stepping back, she saw Beadle approaching the transport. “Make sure she gets safely back to
Diligence
.”