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Authors: Drew Karpyshyn
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into hyperspace.
Zannah eased her seat back and closed her eyes. There was no point in dwelling on all the possibilities of what Bane might or might not be thinking, or what his secret motivations for sending her on the mission might be. The web of his machinations could be too impossibly tangled to unweave.
But she knew one thing for sure: something was about to change. For twenty years she had served as his loyal apprentice, learning the ways of the Sith. Now her time as a pupil was about to end. Whatever the mission might bring, she had decided this would be the last time she answered to Darth Bane.
5
C oruscant was unlike anything Serra had ever seen. As a child she had known nothing but the simple isolation of her father’s camp. When he had sent her away, she’d visited dozens of other worlds before settling on Doan, but all of them had been less populated planets on the Outer Rim. Her entire life had been spent on the fringes of civilization. Here, on the planetwide metropolis that was the Republic capital, she had been hurled into the madness of the Galactic Core.
Caleb had made sure his daughter’s education was well rounded; she had read descriptions of Coruscant, she had memorized all the relevant facts and figures. But knowing a world had a population approaching one trillion individuals and seeing it in person were entirely different.
Serra simply stared out the window of the airspeeder, speechless as it darted and dived, fighting its way through the heavy traffic of the skylane. Below, an endless ocean of durasteel and permacrete stretched off to the horizon in all directions, shining with the permanent glow of a million lights. The effect was overwhelming: the crowds, the vehicles, the dull cacophony of sounds that could be heard over the hum of the engines—the sheer magnitude of it was almost more than her mind could grasp. It made her feel small. Insignificant.
“There it is,” Lucia said, nodding out the window.
In the distance Serra could just make out a massive structure that towered high above the rest of the cityscape: the Jedi Temple. The swift-moving speeder was bringing them rapidly closer, and it wasn’t long before she could make out the unique details of the Temple’s construction.
The foundation was a pyramid of successively smaller blocks, creating a stepped or ziggurat effect. On the top of the uppermost level was a tall central spire, surrounded on each corner by smaller, secondary spires. Scattered among the spires were open plazas, wide promenades, vast natural gardens, and a number of smaller buildings that served as dorms or administrative centers.
As the speeder dropped out of the main line of traffic toward their destination, the structure’s true scope became apparent. Everything on Coruscant was grand and magnificent, but the Temple dominated the skyline. Serra recalled that it had been built on top of a mountain. Not on a mountain, like the small settlements the nobles had constructed on the plateaus of Doan, but actually over the mountain—the stepped pyramid covered the entire surface, swallowing the mountain so completely that it was no longer visible.
Their vehicle banked in a wide circle around the Tranquillity Spire, the tall central tower, before touching down on a landing pad in the shadow of the smaller tower on the northwest corner.
“Let’s get this over with,” Lucia muttered, standing quickly and offering her hand to help Serra up from her seat.
The princess realized Lucia was as uncomfortable as she was, though she suspected her bodyguard’s unease had less to do with the overwhelming sights and sounds of Coruscant and more to do with her days as a soldier fighting against the Army of Light. Even after twentyyears, Lucia still harbored a resentment toward both the Jedi and the Republic.
That, and the fact that she still probably felt guilty for hiring the assassin who had killed the Jedi emissary. Serra, on the other hand, felt nothing but
Zannah eased her seat back and closed her eyes. There was no point in dwelling on all the possibilities of what Bane might or might not be thinking, or what his secret motivations for sending her on the mission might be. The web of his machinations could be too impossibly tangled to unweave.
But she knew one thing for sure: something was about to change. For twenty years she had served as his loyal apprentice, learning the ways of the Sith. Now her time as a pupil was about to end. Whatever the mission might bring, she had decided this would be the last time she answered to Darth Bane.
5
C oruscant was unlike anything Serra had ever seen. As a child she had known nothing but the simple isolation of her father’s camp. When he had sent her away, she’d visited dozens of other worlds before settling on Doan, but all of them had been less populated planets on the Outer Rim. Her entire life had been spent on the fringes of civilization. Here, on the planetwide metropolis that was the Republic capital, she had been hurled into the madness of the Galactic Core.
Caleb had made sure his daughter’s education was well rounded; she had read descriptions of Coruscant, she had memorized all the relevant facts and figures. But knowing a world had a population approaching one trillion individuals and seeing it in person were entirely different.
Serra simply stared out the window of the airspeeder, speechless as it darted and dived, fighting its way through the heavy traffic of the skylane. Below, an endless ocean of durasteel and permacrete stretched off to the horizon in all directions, shining with the permanent glow of a million lights. The effect was overwhelming: the crowds, the vehicles, the dull cacophony of sounds that could be heard over the hum of the engines—the sheer magnitude of it was almost more than her mind could grasp. It made her feel small. Insignificant.
“There it is,” Lucia said, nodding out the window.
In the distance Serra could just make out a massive structure that towered high above the rest of the cityscape: the Jedi Temple. The swift-moving speeder was bringing them rapidly closer, and it wasn’t long before she could make out the unique details of the Temple’s construction.
The foundation was a pyramid of successively smaller blocks, creating a stepped or ziggurat effect. On the top of the uppermost level was a tall central spire, surrounded on each corner by smaller, secondary spires. Scattered among the spires were open plazas, wide promenades, vast natural gardens, and a number of smaller buildings that served as dorms or administrative centers.
As the speeder dropped out of the main line of traffic toward their destination, the structure’s true scope became apparent. Everything on Coruscant was grand and magnificent, but the Temple dominated the skyline. Serra recalled that it had been built on top of a mountain. Not on a mountain, like the small settlements the nobles had constructed on the plateaus of Doan, but actually over the mountain—the stepped pyramid covered the entire surface, swallowing the mountain so completely that it was no longer visible.
Their vehicle banked in a wide circle around the Tranquillity Spire, the tall central tower, before touching down on a landing pad in the shadow of the smaller tower on the northwest corner.
“Let’s get this over with,” Lucia muttered, standing quickly and offering her hand to help Serra up from her seat.
The princess realized Lucia was as uncomfortable as she was, though she suspected her bodyguard’s unease had less to do with the overwhelming sights and sounds of Coruscant and more to do with her days as a soldier fighting against the Army of Light. Even after twentyyears, Lucia still harbored a resentment toward both the Jedi and the Republic.
That, and the fact that she still probably felt guilty for hiring the assassin who had killed the Jedi emissary. Serra, on the other hand, felt nothing but
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