Chapter Eighteen and Conclusion

  I know that I shall meet my fate 
somewhere among the clouds above . . . 
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, 
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds.  
A lonely impulse of delight 
drove to this tumult in the clouds; 
I balanced all, brought all to mind.
The years to come seemed waste of
breath.  A waste of breath the years behind 
in balance with this life, this death.
-- Unknown-- An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
  
   
  Serena, Shal'lyindraa, and Gregory Cjurn stepped out of
the_Silver Moon_onto a desolate planet in
the Outer Rim territories.  Still controlled by what was
left of the Empire, Resolan was filled with
humans, mostly men: hoping to one day be recognized by the
New Republic and brought out of the
slavery they existed in.
   Most of the children of Resolan were taken at young
ages, starting at five and ending at thirteen, to be
sold into slavery. The children that were left, mostly the
ugly or sick ones, were left to work with their
parents until their welcomed death took them away.  The
adults on Resolan mined ore and fished for
the already endangered maneralk fish.  This soon to be
extinct species was a divine delicacy for the
Imperials.
  Disguised as slavers, the trio walked casually out of
the small ship and was immediately met by an old,
tall, bony man who wore the clothes of an Imperial
General, even though it was obvious that he was far
from being one.  The uniform fit his body poorly.         
 
  The old man clasped his hands together. "You three must
be the slave drivers?" 
  Serena nodded her head to Gregory. "Fadlor here is the
slave driver, pal. I'm the slavelord." Serena
nodded towards Shal'lyindraa who was dressed in a cheap
brown dress and wore a slave collar. "And
this is my personal slave, her name is of no importance to
you or me."
  Gregory Cjurn wore his usual attire, but strapped onto
his belt was a long black whip with small metal
spikes at the end.  He had his hair dyed black, and his
eyes a reddish brown color. 
   Serena pushed back a small wisp of her now dark brown
hair with red highlights and turned her
attention to the man. "So, I heard you had a dozen or so
kids that were ready for the take?"
  The older man nodded. "Yes, ma'am. By the way, my name
is General Larking."
  Serena waved her hand in the air. "Fine. As you can see
with my slave, I like the older ones."
  "Oh, yes, of course."  Larking eyed Serena one last
time. She seemed to look a little young to be a
slavelord. Though, at this day in age you could never tell
with the galaxy turning upside down like it
was.  The scary thing was, the girl looked familiar.  If
only he could place her face to a name.
  Serena nodded to Cjurn and Shal'lyindraa as she began to
follow Larking. The plan was simple: Cjurn
and Shal'lyindraa would sneak off, looking as if they were
going back to the ship. At the_Silver
Moon_there would be a man dressed as a stormtrooper. He
would lead them to a secret chamber. 
After the meeting with Larking, a stormtrooper would come
to take her out, but the stormtrooper
would actually be Cjurn.
  They would then hold a meeting with the leader of the
small group of New Republicans trying to get
the people on Resolan out.  Karrde had sent Cjurn,
Shal'lyindraa and herself here to see if the New
Republicans needed any help. If they agreed to a good
price, then Karrde would send some of his ships
and men to help overthrow Larking and his men.
  Once inside the extensive building, Serena was
immediately surrounded by stormtroopers and
Imperial officers. Without Shal'lyindraa or Gregory with
her, if she was found out, she could easily be
killed. 'But, I live for this kind of thing,'Serena
thought to herself as she followed Larking and two
stormtroopers across the room.
  Clad in a long black dress, Serena wore her hair pinned
neatly on top of her head.  She wore jewelry
everywhere, trying to have the look of a rich slavelord.
Knowing that she looked almost too young for
the part, she always had the excuse that her father had
sent her.
  Larking and two stormtroopers led Serena into a small,
bleak room. Inside was a large desk which
Larking sat down behind. Serena sat in a chair before the
desk, and looked behind her just in time to
see the two stormtroopers stand on each side of the door,
before it slid shut.
  Larking held his hands together again and licked his
dry, cracked lips. "Where is your slave driver and
your personal slave, Miss?"
  Serena smiled sweetly. "Shawnek. I had them sent back to
my ship."
  Larking's eyes immediately grew wide. "Shawnek? Related
to Jaren Shawnek?"
  "Why yes, he's my father." Jaren Shawnek was a rich
imperial slavelord who made his money by
raising and selling slaves.  Everyone knew him, and the
New Republic was searching for him.  They just
couldn't find out where he lived. Not even Karrde new for
certain where his base was exactly located.
    Larking narrowed his eyes. "I never knew Shawnek had a
daughter,"  Larking said, testing the girl to
see if she was possibly who she said she was, even though
it was obvious she was not Jaren's daughter. 
Jaren's daughter was dead.
  "Well, now you do. I told you I was a slavelord. Like my
father. Where are the slaves?"
  "One more question, Miss Shawnek."
 Serena nodded her head. 
  "I have proof that you are not who you say you are."
  Serena felt her stomach twist into a knot. How could
this be?  Talon had said that Shawnek had a
daughter. Serena had been made to look exactly like her.
  "You see, Miss Shawnek was killed a month ago. One of
her slaves turned on her. It was a shame to
see her the way she was killed, cuts all over her. So,
then, my dear, who are you?"
  Serena kept her features cool, there was only one way to
get out of this. The Force was her ally.
Serena look at Larking straight in the eye. "I am
Shawnek's daughter. I am not dead, because I am
sitting in front of you. Now, you will order a
stormtrooper to take me to where you keep your slaves."
  Larking's eyes turned into grey pools of mist as he
nodded his head. "Of course, you are Shawnek's
daughter. I will have a stormtrooper take you to where we
keep our slaves."
  Serena stood up, glancing at her waist to make sure her
blaster was still in its holster. "Thank you,
General Larking. You have been a great help. If I decide
to buy any, I shall contact you."
  "Yes, yes, of course, Shawnek's daughter,"  He said as
if he were in a trance.
  Serena turned around as the door slid open and a
stormtrooper stood before it.  He nodded to her
and led her out of the room. Knowing immediately that it
was Cjurn, Serena followed him through the
hallway. They passed other stormtroopers and officers, but
none of them paid any attention to the two
of them.    
  "Well?" Cjurn glanced down at Serena, his voice echoing
strangely as he talked through the helmet.
  "Shawnek's real daughter is dead. Larking almost had me,
but I confused him a little, we don't have
that much time CJ."
  Cjurn almost stopped in his tracks, but Serena urged him
on. "We need to hurry."
  The twenty-one-year-old nodded to Serena. "You're right,
this shouldn't take too long."
  Serena and Gregory stepped onto a turbolift and went
down four stories. They stepped off into a
darkened hallway and began to walk to the end of it where
there was a door. Gregory took off his
helmet and wiped the sweat off his brow with the
unshielded palm of his left hand.             
  "This place must have been deserted by the Imperials,
huh?" Serena asked, looking at the dust-
covered floor, and broken down droids stacked in a neat
pile to her right.
  "Yeah. I don't know why.  I guess they just had better
upper levels. The floor above this is deserted,
but it's only been deserted for a few months. This place
hasn't been touched for years."
   "I can tell."  Serena sneezed.
   Gregory looked down at her and chuckled. "Dust getting
to you?"
  Serena sneezed again. "I'd have to say yes."
  "Doesn't matter, we're there."
  Serena looked away from Gregory; before her was a small
door. Gregory opened it and they stepped
into a large white room with a makeshift desk in the
center and four chairs before it.
  Behind the desk sat a man in his late thirties. To his
right was a young man and to his left a woman. 
Sitting in a chair in front of the desk was Shal'lyindraa.
Cjurn sat down beside Shal'lyindraa, laying the
stormtrooper's helmet on the floor by the chair.  Serena
sat down beside Cjurn.
  The man behind the desk stood up. "I am Commander Brarad
of the New Republic. These are my
assistants," he pointed to the woman, "Sadder, " he nodded
to the young man beside him, "and Hijiker."
  Brarad sat down and Gregory nodded to Shal'lyindraa,
"This is Ta'ao. I'm Cjurn," he squeezed
Serena's hand. "And this is Serena."
  Brarad nodded to each of them. "It was very risky.  You
coming here like this. May I ask why you
did, exactly?"
  Gregory nodded. "We have been sent by Talon Karrde. 
Karrde heard that you were having some
trouble getting these people out of here.  Well, for the
right price, Karrde would happily send in some
of his ships and men to help you out."
  The woman standing beside Brarad sneered at Gregory. "We
don't need any smuggler's help."
  Brarad held up his hand to Sadder. "Hold it, Sadder, we
might just need his help, if we can afford it."
  Serena thought a moment. "It would only be a couple
thousand credits."
  Brarad smirked. "What exactly is a couple thousand?"
  "Maybe forty-eight-thousand to the least, fifty-thousand
to the most."
  "We don't have that kind of money!" Sadder said angrily.
  "Karrde might not have it cost that much." Shal'lyindraa
commented. "If you have anything he might
find of worth, you could give it to him."
  Brarad stood up. "We have nothing of any worth, and we
certainly don't have fifty-thous--"
  Serena jumped up in her seat as the doors behind them
burst open and a handful of laser beams and
stun rays shot out at them. Serena slammed herself to the
floor and crawled over behind Brarad's desk. 
She crawled over Brarad's body and checked to see if he
had any pulse. When she pulled her hand
away it was covered in his blood.
  Cjurn jumped out of his seat and grabbed Shal'lyindraa
and fell to the floor with her underneath him. 
The stormtrooper armor that he was wearing crushed
Shal'lyindraa down so she could not move.  "Get
behind the desk!" he yelled at her.
  All of a sudden blue light surrounded Shal'lyindraa and
Cjurn. Shal'lyindraa closed her eyes, and after
waiting a moment, when nothing happened she opened them
again. Cjurn still lay on top of her, this time 
he was not moving.  His eyes were closed. Shal'lyindraa
pushed herself out from under him and
scrambled on her stomach towards the desk, pulling Gregory
behind her as best she could.
  Serena pushed her fallen hair out of her eyes, soaking
it in the blood that covered her hand.  She
looked to her side and saw Sadder fall to the ground,
blood oozing out of her chest. 
  "Don't you have a gun?" 
  Serena turned around to see the young man, Hijiker
crawling up beside her. "Yeah, I do," Serena said
staring at the young man, dazed.
  "Then get it out and start shooting!" Hijiker pulled his
blaster out of the holster strapped to his thigh
and began shooting over the desk.
  Serena brought her bloodied hand to the holster strapped
around her waist and found it empty.
Frantically she turned around, soaking her black skirt in
the pool of blood that was forming around her. 
Looking over at Brarad's body, she saw a blaster hooked to
his thigh. She pulled it out of the holster
and set it to kill.
  Serena turned back around, just in time to be pushed
down on the red stained floor by Hijiker. Red
laser beams flew over her head and hit the wall behind
them. Hijiker let go of Serena and got back on
his knees. He began shooting over the desk again. 
  Serena stayed where she was for a moment, trying to wipe
the sticky liquid off of her cheek. Deciding
to ignore it, Serena got on her knees beside Hijiker and
joined in, using the Force to concentrate on
where the red laser beams hit.     
  Shal'lyindraa pulled Cjurn's limp body behind the desk.
She looked over the white armor and saw no
blood.  'A stun ray, that's what that blue light was that
hit him. They were trying to stun us, but
when that didn't work they decided to kill us,'
Shal'lyindraa thought to herself.
  Shal'lyindraa crawled up to Serena, noting the blood on
the right side of her friends face, skirt, and
hands. "Serena! Are you hit?"
  Serena shook her head and kept firing into the smoke
that was beginning to fill the room. Shal'lyindraa
pulled the blaster she kept tucked in her boot out. She
made sure it was set for kill and she began
shooting into the smoke just as Serena and Hijiker were
doing.
  Finally the blaster fire seized and Hijiker, Serena, and
Shal'lyindraa were surrounded in deathly
silence. Serena looked over at Shal'lyindraa's white face
and then she saw Cjurn's body lying beside
her Handerin friend.
  "Gregory!" Serena quickly stood up and ran to the
handsome man's body. "Shal, is he dead?"
  Shal'lyindraa shook her head. "No, he was hit by a stun
ray." 'He probably saved my life.'
A cold chill went down Shal'lyindraa's spine. 'No one has
ever done that for me, they've only tried
to end it.'
  Hijiker stood up. "We've got to get out of here, come
on, I'll show you the way out. I have to get the
rest of my team."
  Serena stood up, her once pale face turning a slight
pink from the heat in the room. "Do you want our
help?"
 Hijiker shook his head. "No, you have to get out of here."
  Serena nodded. "All right."
  "Rena, help me with CJ"
  Shal'lyindraa stood up with Gregory's arm around her
neck; his head fell down to his chest. Serena
grabbed Cjurn's other arm and put it around her neck. "I
wish he'd just wake up." Serena took a deep
breath and switched her blaster over to her left hand,
using her right hand to help hold Cjurn up.  "Let's
go."
  Hijiker took them to the turbolift. "Go up to the level
above us. Turn to your left and the first door you
reach go into the room and you'll see a set of stairs. Go
up the stairs and you'll reach a door that goes
outside. Go out the door and your ship should be right in
front of you. There was a reason we had you
land where you did."
  Serena nodded at Hijiker's instructions. "Thanks."
  Hijiker ran down the opposite way and entered into
another passageway, disappearing from Serena
and Shal'lyindraa's view. Serena and Shal'lyindraa stepped
onto the turbolift and waited impatiently
until they were on the right level.  
  "My back is killing me, why does he have to be so heavy?
I feel as if I'm carrying a Hutt."
Shal'lyindraa blew her blonde bangs out of her eyes as
they stepped off the turbolift.
  Serena smirked. "I don't think Talon is gonna be too
happy with us, Shal. It's my fault this happened."
  Shal'lyindraa stopped walking. "No it's not. We did
everything right. You posed as Shawnek's
daughter, didn't you?"
  Serena and Shal'lyindraa started walking again. "Sure I
did, it's just, Shawnek's daughter died a month
ago. Larking knew I wasn't his real daughter."  Serena
turned to her left and in front of her was a door.
She opened the door and before them was a small flight of
stairs, just as Hijiker had said.  "Ready?"
  "As ready as I'll ever be." Shal'lyindraa walked forward
with Serena and started up the steps. "I think
I'm gonna be sick."
  "If we don't make it out of here we're gonna be dead."
  "Ever heard of being optimistic, Rena?"
  "Of course not, Shal.  Optimists never win."
  At the top of the stairs Serena opened the door with her
blaster in her mouth. The door slid open and
Serena braced herself for anything.  When nothing
happened, she grabbed the blaster out of her mouth
and stepped outside with Shal'lyindraa. With no one in
sight, they quickly walked towards the _Silver
Moon_, which thankfully was only a few yards away.
  Inside the_Silver Moon_, after laying Cjurn on a bunk in
the back, Serena ran to the cockpit and
jumped into the pilot's seat. She started up the repulsor
lifts and lifted off of Resolan.  In a few minutes
Shal'lyindraa ran into the cockpit and jumped into the
copilots seat.
  "Know what's funny?"
  "I don't think I could find anything funny right now,
but go ahead." 
  "We didn't use the Force.  We could have used it to lift
Gregory up."
  Serena squeezed her hands into a fist.  "This hasn't
been my day, okay?"  
  Serena flew out of Resalon's atmosphere. The _Silver
Moon_shot forward into space and Serena
watched as the timer ticked down to hyperspace. 
  Serena watched as Shal'lyindraa turned on the shields
and slipped a comm link over her head. "Shal,
what are you doing?"
  Shal'lyindraa stood up. "I'm going to the gun turret."
  "Why?"
  "Just because there happens to be TIE fighters after
us!" Shal'lyindraa yelled and pointed out the
cockpit window.  She ran out of the room and into the gun
turret. Shal'lyindraa sat down in the gunning
seat and watched as the TIEs flew by the window.  Finally,
when the third one flew by she got a lock
on it and shot it. 
  The TIE fighter blew up. "Dead on!" Shal'lyindraa yelled
happily.
  Serena evened out the shields and turned the ship to
port, barely missing a volley of laser beams. She
flew the ship down, then straight up, twisting it around,
trying to make it harder for the ship to be hit.
  "They still hit us."  Serena spoke through the comm link
that was installed in a head piece she wore.
  "Optimism, Serena, optimism." Shal'lyindraa answered back.
  Glancing down at the timer Serena saw that it was only
five seconds till hyperspace. She gradually
came out of her roll, and flew out and away as fast as she
could from the TIE fighters.
  Serena put her hand on the hyperdrive lever and pushed
it slowly forward and watched as the stars
blurred together and burst into a tunnel of blue light. 
"Ha! We did it!" Serena's blithe voice fell into a
whine as she finished her sentence, "Talon's gonna kill
me." 
  Shal'lyindraa ran into the cockpit beside Serena. "Stop
lightspeed, we need to contact Karrde."
  Serena pulled the lever back towards herself. The tunnel
burst and the light scattered and turned into a
million pinpoints of light.  Serena closed her eyes. "You
get hold of him okay?"
  Shal'lyindraa shrugged. "Okay, no problem."
  Serena stood up and walked out of the cockpit. She
slowly made it to the back where there was a
small bunk with Gregory lying on it.  Serena walked up to
the small bed and sat down beside it. 
  "Poor, Gregory." She ran her fingers through his hair.
"I should have stayed at the Academy and I
should have finished my training.  If I had, I could have
controlled Larking better. You wouldn't be like
this. But, I know how you feel." Serena laughed to
herself. "I _really_ know how you feel. Sucks,
doesn't it?"
  "Um, Serena? Talon wants to talk to you. He's not mad.
He just wants to tell you some stuff.  Don't
worry about it, we came through." Shal'lyindraa spoke
meekly from the doorway.
  Serena stood up. "Sure, why not? I should look at this
from an optimistic point of view."
  Shal'lyindraa smiled.  "You got it."
  "But I'm not."  Serena spoke with a monotonous tone.
  Serena walked to the cockpit and stopped as she saw
Karrde's face on the screen. She took a deep
breath and stepped in front of the screen. Immediately,
Karrde's eyes widened.
  "Serena, what happened to you?"
  Serena looked down at her bloodied hands and skirt. "We
were attacked. Brarad and one of his
assistants was killed. It's my fault. I'm so sorry."
  "But, you're okay, and Gregory is okay?"
  Serena nodded. "Yes, but I failed, completely."
  "It's okay, Serena. The missions you take will not
always be successful."
  "It's just, this was my first mission." Serena shook her
head. "I tried my best."
  Talon smiled at Serena. "I know you did. Now, I have
some good news for you."
  Serena stared at Talon. "What are you going to do?"
  Karrde raised his left eyebrow slightly. "I'll send some
of my people there and have the New Republic
pay me back later."
  Serena nodded her head. "Oh."
  "Now, about the good news. I have a new identity for you."
  Serena's eyes brightened. "You do?"
  "Yes, as soon as you return I'll set you to memorizing
your past."
  "Oh, that'll be great." Serena smiled.
  Karrde's face darkened only slightly. "Though, when you
return, I won't be here. I'm leaving for
Smugglers' Run."
  Serena's smile faded into a frown. "Why?"
  Karrde hesitated for a moment as if he did not want to
tell her. His pale blue eyes flicked off the
screen and back to her face. "Well, a lot of my shipments
have been attacked by Pirates, or Imperials
even. I don't know why, I haven't had this kind of trouble
since the Empire ruled the galaxy. I'm going
to Smugglers' Run to see if anyone else is having this
kind of trouble. I doubt I'll come up with anything,
but it's worth a shot. 
  "I'll put Mara in charge until I return, so when you get
back to base just go to her to get your identity.
She'll also give you something else to do, okay?"
  Serena nodded, remembering the stone-like, but beautiful
face of Mara Jade. "Sure, no problem."
  "Good, until next time, then." Karrde's face disappeared
off the screen.  
  Serena turned back to the pilot's seat and sat in it.
She pushed the hyperdrive lever forward and
watched as the stars blurred together to form into a blue
tunnel of light. Maybe today wasn't the best
day of her life, but it certainly wasn't the worst.  Cjurn
would be okay in a few hours.  She and
Shal'lyindraa had at least escaped from Resolan.  Serena
did not know what lay ahead of her, but
whatever it was, it would certainly be part of her new
life. A wonderful, adventure filled life, with friends
like Shal'lyindraa,  egotistical Gregory, her love, Kyp,
and even an old rogue like Han Solo.
                    

                         

                    
		 Epilogue 

  Kayro Inin stood in his darkened room, staring at the
red crystal floating before his stone cold face. 
Black lighting bolts hit its inside as if they were trying
to escape it.  He slowly began to feel the power of
the dark side enter him. Kayro closed his eyes and smiled.
With the power of the Dark Side Crystal, he
could take over the galaxy. With the power of the Dark
Side Crystal no one could stop him, unless it
was taken from him, but who would dare do such a thing? 
Stenner might, but Stenner would not live
for long, for there was no one who could stop him.  With
his newfound powers he could rid himself of
his daughter, and the entire New Republic.  First, though,
he would rid himself of Karrde by destroying
his shipments one by one, until Talon Karrde would be
afraid to send cargo to any place in the galaxy. 
  Now he, Kayro, a Dark Jedi, could completely wipe out
the New Republic and erase its memory
from the minds of every living being in the galaxy.  
  Kayro let his gaze rest on the crystal, absorbing its
power.  This crystal did not just absorb evil and
thrive off of it, it was evil.  It was the very _essence_
of the dark side.  'Red abyss of darkness; black
lightning . . ."
     
              Ozymandias
  
    I met a traveler from an antique land
    Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert.  Near them, on the sand
    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive (stamped on these lifeless things),
    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
    And on the pedestal these words appear:
    "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
    Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
    Nothing besides remains.  Round the decay
    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.
  
    Percy Bysshe Shelley  (1792-1822)
  
              XXII
  
  I had no time to hate, because 
  The grave would hinder me,
  And life was not so ample I
  Could finish enmity.
  
  Nor had I time to love; but since
  Some industry must be,
  The little toil of love, I thought,
  Was large enough for me.
   -- Emily Dickinson
  
            --Finis--
   
Book II: Dark Side Crystal
  
  (A/n*: upon looking back thru this fic, I'm afraid I
didn't _quite_ portray Kyp correctly, and I'm
  sorry.  I should have made him darker -- but A New
Beginning is, overall, a rather light story.  DS
  Crystal isn't -- and then Triumvirate is far from light,
with all the dying that happens -- I just wish I
  had the time to go back and make him sadder, but I must
continue to move forward.)
 Jessica Barber 1999-2000
 misato101@aol.com