The Mark of Death
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
The Mark of Death
It is a time of many wars, and death covers every corner of the
galaxy. The Empire grows stronger every day as his minions of clones
destroy important Republic strongholds.
The Jedi fight valiantly to restore order, but it seems that all is
lost for the Republic. Then an alarming rumor with the promise of
death begins to circulate, of a powerful machine that extracts the
midichlorians from humans, killing them by taking away their life
source.
Built by the Emperor Palpatine's most brilliant scientist, the young
Jedi Mikal' de Sol, the machine will store the midichlorians until
they can be claimed by the emperor. Once the emperor has claimed the
life force of the Jedi and other unwanted people, he will truly be
unbeatable.....
Rayna Danine resignedly crossed her legs and stared up at the rusty
sky of Tantooine. She could hear her parents practicing dueling with
lightsabers in the house. She always came outside when they were doing
Jedi stuff. Her parents were both mildly gifted Jedi; Bernice with a
gift in illusion and Pleu in minor visions and machinery. About the
only thing Rayna could do with the force was tie her shoelaces and
talk to womprats-which were very dull and stupid creatures. Her
father was nice enough about Rayna's lack of gifting, but her mother
was another story. Short of temper and sometimes even violent, Bernice
Danine had no qualms informing her daughter that she was not what they
had wanted.
The thum of lightsabers drifted out from her house.. Rayna figured it
was about the most depressing sound in the world. A bright streak of
light flashed across the ruddy sky, and the nine year old followed it
wistfully. She had always wanted to be a pilot, flying to strange
places and daring to do the impossible; but with her luck she would
probably never get off Tantooine.
Rayna started as footsteps came near. Stormtroopers-a part of her
frozen mind registered. One picked her up as the rest proceeded to
open the door to her house. She felt leaden and tired, she could not
scream. She looked behind her at the last stormtrooper who was lugging
a small machine. He was not wearing a helmet, so Rayna could see his
young, tired face. His eyes were dead and hollow, but he could not
have been much more than thirteen. Rayna stared at him with wide gray
eyes. The boy looked at her once and then quickly looked away.
Bernice screamed as a file of Stormtroopers barged through a now
disintegrated door, holding her blond daughter in captivity.
The lead one took of his helmet and smiled. "Don't worry, Mr. and
Mrs. Danine. We are from the Republic. We had to disguise ourselves to
get through the Empire's blockade. We are doing midichlorian tests to
find Jedi to serve the republic. If you would both sit down,
please."
Rayna dully watched her parents sit down cautiously and deactivate
their lightsabers. Couldn't they tell something was wrong? These men
weren't from the Republic, they were obviously lying. Rayna wondered
if maybe she had found her gift, but strangely, she did not care. She
watched as the young boy hooked up the machine to her parents,
concentrating as he pricked them with the tiny needles. For a moment
her head cleared.
"Mom, dad, no! Don't-" Her voice was cut off as she felt a
choking pressure on her neck. Her parents tried to reach their
lightsabers but found themselves forced back into their chairs and
immobilized.
The young Jedi boy operating the machine poised his hand unwillingly
over the trigger button, gritting his teeth.
The lead stormtrooper sneered at him. "Do it, Darth Sol. We have
ten more households to do before nightfall."
The boy pressed the button. Rayna could see two glowing streams
flowing into the machines from her parents, draining them of life. She
finally found her voice to cry out, at the moment the machine stopped
and her parents slumped lifeless form the chairs.
While two stormtroopers disintegrated the bodies, the man holding
Rayna thrust her screaming into the chair her mother had been in.
"Darth Sol, could you please hold her down before she
accidentally kills someone?"
Mikal stared at the blond little girl fighting for her life. "Do
we have to kill her too?"
The lead stormtrooper slapped his thigh. "Do I have to rearrange
your brain cells? Of course."
Mikal used the force to quiet the struggling girl. He picked up the
needle and sterilized it; not that it mattered whether he sterilized
it or not, but it gave him time to think. This little girl would be
the four hundred and seventy first Jedi that he would murder, not
counting the one hundred and fifteen normal people that the emperor
had ordered terminated. Mikal clenched his fist. He had been raised a
dark Jedi and taught that everything was survival of the fittest. He
had invented this death machine when he was eleven. When the emperor
heard of it he immediately put it to use; killing the Jedi and
claiming their midichlorians. When the machine was finally full, Mikal
was to transfer the midichlorians to the emperor, making him hundreds
of times stronger than he already was. Mikal would then live the life
of a king, if he could carry through with over a thousand planned
murders.
The murdering hadn't even bothered him until about a month ago, when
the seperated midichlorians in the machine had started talking to him.
They were so confused. They had come from light Jedi and were now
going to be used for a dark purpose. They did not understand what good
or evil even meant. They had always coexisted with everything, and
were simply wondering what the truth was. As their dreamlike projected
images swam in Mikal's mind, he began to wonder himself.
Now Mikal felt like what he was, a murderer. He looked into Rayna's
languid gray eyes and felt a stirring. The midichlorians were
communicating with him again, and he agreed with what they wanted.
Maybe he could redeem himself, if only in part.
One of the stormtroopers nudged Mikal. "This is number 586, huh
boy." He laughed in Mikal's face. "It isn't like this is
your first time. Just get it over with."
Mikal looked the man squarely in the eye. Rayna watched in wonder as
the six stormtroopers in the room immediately passed out and crashed
to the floor. For a moment she thought that maybe he wasn't going to
kill her, but that thought died sadly as a needle jabbed into her
immobile arm.
Mikal pressed a button hidden under the Empire's logo, and watched as
a stream of midichlorians connected the machine and the frail little
girl.
Rayna watched the glowing stream, expecting to weaken and die. Yet
every moment she just grew stronger, she could feel strength building
up exponentially inside her. Eventually she found that she could move
again, but something kept her arm attached to the needle.
The whole process took about an hour, and Rayna just sat mesmerized by
the glowing midichlorians flowing into her.
Mikal sat on the floor and made sure the stormtroopers stayed put. He
felt a very strong urge to kill them, but his own guilt over what he
had done held him back. Eventually he took their blasters and threw
the unconscious men outside.
He watched the little girl as she unknowingly absorbed the power of
hundreds of Jedi. He felt lighter as he realized that he wouldn't have
to kill anymore at the Emperor's whim. He was his own person.
Mikal felt a little sad that the midichlorians would no longer be able
to speak to him directly. They were only able to form specific
thoughts in extremely large numbers, like those in the machine. The
midichlorians had finally been able to amass in such a concentration
as to form an intelligent consciousness. In small numbers they were
only able to vaguely direct the force, and could not even understand
it.
Mikal half-smiled. He had given them what they wanted. The
midichlorians had asked to be linked with a consciousness, so they
might finally understand what their purpose was and lend their aid.
Darth Sol watched the peaceful, silent girl. They had their
representative and guide.
Rayna gingerly got up as the stream of midichlorians ended.
Everything in the room seemed wrong, and confusing questions and
images kept pounding on her mind. She walked as if in a trance over
to the boy. He stood up immediately and grabbed her hand. �We have
to get out of here.�
Rayna knocked his hand away. �Don�t touch me.� Rayna stared at him
as emotions reeled across her mind. Anger. Pity. DANGER. Rayna
forgot her hesitation and grabbed the boys hand, yanking him out the
door. She didn�t have time to even complete the thought �we have to
get out of here!� (was not that what the boy just said?) before she
found herself seated at the controls of a spacecraft, the boy in the
copilot�s seat. Data streamed from every corner of her mind as she
piloted a shuttle she had never seen before out of a spaceport where
she had never been before, with the boy who had murdered her parents,
no less.
Mikal was more than a little worried. The transfer had been
completed, and he had mentally destroyed the machine as soon as the
last midichlorian had entered Rayna. Then the girl had brought him
out of his Jedi trance, just as he had sensed an imperial shuttle land
nearby, ready to investigate their unresponding comrades. He had
grabbed her hand and tried to get her to leave with him, but she had
turned on him with fire in her smoky eyes. Not that he could blame
her.
He had heard the sound of footsteps outside just before being yanked
through oblivion and appearing in a shuttle seat. A glance out of the
window was all he needed to know to tell him that they were in Mos
Eisley. Flying a stolen imperial shuttle, who knows how. The
gray-eyed girl was piloting the craft like she had done it all her
life.
Mikal buried his head in his hands. And he was the one that had
killed her mom and dad. Just peachy.
Rayna sensed the boys tension and fear, but she was to busy trying to
calm her own thoughts to deal with him. Data and sensory and thoughts
and questions were jamming up in her mind. She brought the shuttle up
through Tantooine�s atmosphere and headed for the stars.
Rayna put the shuttle on auto pilot. Mikal cloaked it to keep it from
being discovered. The blonde eight year old turned on the older boy.
�What did you do to me?�
Mikal sunk into his seat.
�The midichlorian machine�I�
�Reversed it? Never mind, they just told me.�
The boy sat up, shocked. �How, what, why are you so calm.�
Surprisingly, she laughed. �The midichlorians are telling me
lots of things.� Her young nose wrinkled. �But I cannot control
them. They are all shouting at once. Illiyonni.�
�What?�
�Illiyonni. It is where we are going. No one knows how to get
there. No one can find us.�
�That�s because it doesn�t exist. Illiyonni is the fabled land
of lost time.� Mikal shook his head in wonder. Maybe the
midichlorians had made the little girl go nuts.
�Do not be stupid. Of course it exists.� Mikal watched as she
shut her eyes and sunk into her seat. Was she unconscious or in a
trance?
His stomach clenched. The world was twisting in on itself, he
couldn�t breath, he couldn�t see. Mikal clutched his spinning head
just as the world snapped back into place.
Star Wars: The Rayna Saga
