as Tomcat. Records confirm he was recruited on Somov Rit by Torr Snapit, and he came with his cousins to join the Army of Light'
'And one of these cousins is the girl he claims took his hand?'
'A girl ten years ago,' Johun noted. 'She'd be a woman now. The cousin's name was Rain. She was lost in an attack by the Sith shortly after they landed on Ruusan. She was missing and presumed dead, but she must have been found by the this Lord Bane and taken as his apprentice.'
'I've heard that name before' Farfalla admitted, leaning back in his chair. 'It was mentioned in some of the statements given by Sith minions we took as prisoners. If I remember correctly, he was one of the last of the Sith to join the Brotherhood.'
Johun nodded. 'Darovit said the same thing. He said Bane was always reluctant to follow Kaan. If he refused to join the rest of the Brotherhood in the cave, that would explain how he survived the thought bomb!'
'It's possible,' Farfalla admitted. 'But how did Darovit recognize Bane?'
'He defected to the Sith near the end of the war.' Farfalla threw his hands up again. 'A defector, Johun? A traitor to the Jedi? The Council will never believe this!'
'That is what makes his story even more believable,' Johun countered. 'If he was lying he could easily have found some reason to explain how he recognized Lord Bane. But he has freely admitted his crime to me because he has decided the time has come to speak the truth.'
'And why is that?' Farfalla wanted to know. 'Your report said he has lived as a healer on Ruusan for the past decade. Why did he suddenly decide to come forward now?'
'When I spoke with him on Ruusan I convinced him of the dangers the Sith represent. He wants to stop Bane before another war begins.'
Farfalla raised an eyebrow. 'You convinced him? After a decade of silence, one meeting with you and he is ready to come forward? How, exactly, did you achieve that?'
'I didn't use the Force to do it' Johun protested. 'Not exactly. I didn't use the Force to compel him. I just made him more willing to listen to me.'
'You are making this very difficult for me,' Valenthyne said, reaching up with one hand to rub at his temple.
'I only ask that you speak with him yourself, Master,' Johun implored. 'Hear what he has to say. Listen to him, and then decide if you will bring him before the Council.'
'Very well, Johun,' Farfalla said, nodding. 'I will meet with him. Where is he now?'
'He wanted to learn more about the healing arts of our Order,' Johun explained. 'Master Barra gave him access to the Archives.'
Valenthyne slapped his hands on his thighs and rose to his feet. 'Then I suggest we go find him before I come to my senses.'
The general collection of the Jedi Archives was arranged in four long halls built off a massive central rotunda. Each hall contained a wide primary aisle, with hundreds of smaller secondary aisles leading off either side. Lining the walls of the secondary aisles were the stacks: trillions of datatapes and datacards arranged under millions of categories, topics, and subtopics. Access to the disks of a particular hall could be gained via any of the terminals built along the center of its main aisle. Each terminal was equipped with a master index to help those seeking knowledge on a particular subject to find the proper hall, but to make things easier each hall also represented a specific, though very broad, branch of knowledge.
The first hall, the one all visitors passed through when they entered the Archives from the Jedi Temple, contained works of philosophy and historical records. Included in its stacks were the personal journals of Jedi, political leaders, and individuals of historical significance. Basic treatises examining the Force were also filed in this section, though Padawans were restricted from accessing many of these works lest they misinterpret the knowledge and become corrupted.
The second hall contained works dedicated to the mathematical and engineering sciences, including theories of space-time and hy-perdrive construction, floor plans of official government buildings, and detailed design blueprints of every vehicle, weapon, or gadget ever made. The third focused on the geography and culture of the millions of known planets in the galaxy. Maps, both planetary and interstellar, as well as detailed descriptions of every recorded civilization, past and present dominated the stacks of the third hall.
However, it was the fourth hall where Zannah-still in the guise of Nalia-was headed. The fourth hall contained zoological data and research on virtually all known life-forms of the galaxy. This was her third day in the archives, and she had yet to find what she was looking for. The preloaded works on the datacard given to her by the chief librarian had helped to narrow her search, but locating a specific piece of information in an infinite ocean of knowledge was no simple task.
Had she gone back to Master Barra, or approached any of the analysis droids roaming the Archives, and asked for information on orbalisks rather than the more general topic of parasitic organisms, she might have made quicker progress. But, this would have conflicted with her cover story and raised unwanted questions. So Zannah had been forced to seek out the information using only the skills she had developed while studying various works during her apprenticeship under Darth Bane.
Her efforts had quickly brought to light several thousand articles and experiments that made at least some reference to orbalisks, but she had yet to find any mention of how to remove them without killing the host. She knew she was running out of time, but as she made her way down the first hall toward the rotunda, she was determined to find what she had come for.
There were always a number of other scholars in the Archives, but the primary aisles of each hall were wide, and the stacks were so numerous and deep that Zannah never felt crowded. This allowed her to work without fear of anyone accidentally discovering what she was investigating. However, she still felt a flash of apprehension whenever another of the Archive patrons passed her by, always worried that her projected aura of light-side power would falter.
She nodded at one of the analysis droids as she entered the central rotunda and turned to her right, heading for the fourth hall. She passed by the bronzium busts honoring powerful and memorable members from the Order's history. She paused as she often did in front of the busts of the Lost: the only twelve individuals who had willingly set aside the vows they had sworn upon becoming Jedi Knights and chosen to leave the Order.
The Lost served as a reminder to the Jedi that, despite their wisdom and talents in the Force, they were not infallible. The Jedi viewed each of the Lost as a failure of their Order, not as a failure of the individual. A plaque on each bust recounted the individual's history of service, praising what he or she had achieved and contributed before departing from the Jedi ranks. Curiously, though, none of the plaques offered a reason for leaving.
Zannah shook her head and continued. As a Sith, she couldn't imagine any reason to honor someone who abandoned her cause… though with only one Master and one apprentice, the Sith had been transformed into something very different from the Jedi Order and its vast numbers.
She made her way down the fourth hall, heading for the privacy of the last viewing terminal in the central aisle. She inserted the personal datacard Master Barra had given her to gain access to the Archive catalogs, and then resumed her search where she had left off the day before.
Gathering a list of index numbers, she typed in a passcode to lock her terminal from other users, then wandered off into the stacks to retrieve the half a dozen datacards she wanted to study in further detail. By necessity the datacards in the Archives were nearly twice the size of her personal datacard; each one contained the full text of hundreds-if not thousands-of different titles.
For five long hours she continued her research without a break. Time and time again she brought datacards back to the terminal and scoured their contents, only to find that they offered nothing new. Frustrated, she would eject the cards and compile a new list of possible sources, then return to the stacks to switch the old datacards for those promising better results.
It was the rumbling in her stomach that told her it was time to take a break. If she became distracted-too tired or too hungry-her spell might falter, exposing Zannah's true nature to those around her. It had happened once before, on the first day when she pushed herself too hard and worked long into the night. It had lasted only an instant, a momentary lapse, but that could have been enough to doom her. Fortunately, at that late hour the
