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Chapter 45: Flickering Visions

  Kandria could do nothing but stare in awe and horror as the Force screamed just beyond the door she was slouched against. It felt like that cold metal door which trapped her here was the only thing between her and a veritable tsunami of the Force. In fact, the whole room, which was somehow impossibly devoid of Force, now provided Kandria an eery sort of comfort as she would much rather be in here than out there.

  From what she could feel the Force was being pulled rather violently into the blue tear just beyond the command room, all the while rolling around and slicking over the exterior of the room as though it were steadfast rock in the middle of a roaring river. She didn’t have to experience it to know that if she wasn’t safely sheltered behind the walls, she would likely be dead or on the brink of death.

  If directed the Force could easily crush someone’s body, even if took a bit of effort on the instigators part. When undirected the Force was usually quite harmless; there was either never enough of it in a singular point to do any harm or it would simply remain still and not do anything. What was happening outside was possibly the greatest concentration and sheer movement of the Force that would ever occur in the galaxy. She would most likely die instantly if she went out there, the sheer power crushing her body like a fruit.

  As such, there was little Kandria could do other than continue to cradle Vancil and watch the strange crack as it seemed to be drinking up the force around it. To her it kind of seemed like the vacuum that would happen when you opened an airlock door.

  She didn’t know how long she was waiting, and while it felt like hours it was most likely only a minute or two. Eventually however, the Force, for the second time, stilled; not with as much tension as there was when the blue tear had appeared, but still a noticeable amount.

  “STABILITY LEVELS ACCEPTABLE. REALITY BREAKER PROTOCOL COMPLETE.”

  The robotic voice rang out once again, making Kandria both confused and relieved. She didn’t understand most of what it was saying but she could at least put together that whatever was happening was over, for now at least.

  The door behind her slid open and she dropped back with a yelp, the force also beginning to once again flood the room, filling her at the same time and causing her vision to fill with white.

  “Force save me, force save me, oh by all the gods who exist it hurts-“

  “Padawan, we need to move. Padaw-“

  Kandria gasped as her sight returned to the here and now, her wide eyes taking in the harsh metal roof of the elevator.

  “What the-“ Kandria began before a familiar robotic voice sounded again.

  “I recommend that you get Vancil to the medical bay. His vitals are stable but it is better to be safe than sorry.”

  Kandria blinked and suddenly remembered the unconscious Vancil who now laid on top of her prone form. Shaking her head she gently heaved Vancil off of her and into the elevator fully. Licking her lips Kandria looked at the options on the elevator. Electrical Room, Hangar, and Hydroponics…

  “Hey uh… AI,” Kandria looked over the options again before glancing around the elevator, her gaze finally settling on a previously unseen camera in the top corner of the elevator, “I don’t see any medical bay here.”

  “The medical bay is integrated into Hydroponics. Once you get to that floor I will guide you further.” Was the robotic response.

  Kandria licked her lips as she nodded and pressed the button for Hydroponics. As the elevator began to shift through the miasma that was the Force she dropped to a crouch in front of Vancil’s slouched form, again checking his pulse and checking his head for injuries.

  She looked around in confusion, the scenery suddenly changing to that of a battlefield on a planet she didn’t recognise. Droids of a make she did not recognise marched across a muddy plain past the bodies of hundreds of the clone soldiers she had seen in the employ of the Republic.

  Two stood out, a human male in Jedi robes collapsed and pinned beneath the plastoid covered body of a fallen clone. A strange humanoid creature that looked like some sort of insect stood over the Jedi, his navy-blue uniform as unfamiliar as everything else.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The creature kept his pistol pointed at the head of the Jedi for a moment longer… before lowering it.

  Kandria’s eyes flung open as the elevator came to a stop. She was at first quite confused why her view was filled with black and grey, however when whatever she was leaning against rose up and down, she suddenly put two and two together.

  Slowly picking herself up off of Vancil she looked down at him, her vision glazed over from the many things flooding through her brain. Why was she blacking out? What were these visions she was seeing periodically? Why did it feel surprisingly comfortable when she was leaning against Vancil?

  Shaking her head she quickly refocused on the task at hand; getting Vancil to the medical bay. Leaning down she grabbed Vancil’s arm and draped it around her shoulder, most of the exhaustion and pain from before having mostly disappeared.

  Taking a moment to steady herself she spoke into the air as she walked out into the room beyond, eyes glancing briefly over the various plants and devices around the room, “Alright, where to now?”

  “Continue straight until you reach the second door on the right.” Came the monotone robotic voice of the AI.

  Kandria nodded in affirmation as she walked through the bay, her significantly slow pace giving her enough time to look over the equipment around her more closely. There seemed to be an extraordinary variety of plants of varying levels of health, some she recognised, most she didn’t.

  Some of the plants had clearly been dead for a long time, their containers dark and lacking any power leaving most of the ones which had clearly broken down over time little more than boxes of dirt. Her eyes glanced over a plant at the far edge of the room as she neared the next hallway, a look of confusion crossing her face. Was that plant made of crystals?

  She shelved that away for later as she looked at the rooms in the dead-end corridor. Two doors were on the right and one on the left. The first door on the right had the words ‘STORAGE’ flashing on the display above it, its door strangely almost completely rusted over, a far cry from the rest of the station. The door on the left had the words ‘QUARTERS’ above it and looked fairly unassuming, likely just being exactly what it said it was.

  Finally, she spotted the words ‘MEDICAL BAY’ above the second door on the right. Reaching it she slammed her fist against the console, the slight violence and desperation shocking her. Regardless of how forceful she was the door opened nonetheless, Kandria marching through it with a burst of adrenaline at the final stretch. The room itself was once again fairly as expected for a medical bay, although with slightly more Sith aesthetics than she was comfortable with.

  Making her way over to one of the beds she gently laid Vancil down, hooking him up to various monitoring devices as she turned on said monitors. She was very practiced with providing first aid and medical assistance where needed, with a good few of her missions with Coval being to provide security and assistance to first aid camps just behind the frontlines.

  Her shoulders slumped in relief as the monitors began their job, showing everything from his heartbeat to his oxygen levels. Weaker than normal but the computer predicted nothing life threatening.

  Kandria turned to the empty room to thank the AI…

  ...and found herself in a place she had never been before. Again. This time she appeared to be in some sort of starship, most likely a large star fighter from the looks of its spacious interior. A woman with pale white skin, no hair, and deep purple clothing with bandages galore covering her, was slumped against the harsh yellow of a console.

  The woman groaned and held her head as she slowly raised herself back into her seat, muttering some curses Kandria couldn’t quite make out. The woman appeared to take stock for a moment before looking over the console, pressing some buttons as she brought up both a galactic map and the communications relay.

  She scanned the two for a while, her eyes narrowing as she noticed something, something which Kandria couldn’t even begin to consider.

  This vision seemed to be lasting longer than the others, allowing Kandria to take another look around the cabin, her gaze landing on a small grate at the back of the cabin leading into a larger room. She couldn’t move from her position at the woman’s side, but she could still make out enough thanks to the faded red lighting; droids similar to the ones she had seen on the muddy plane but slightly bulkier and with a slightly different design, each made of a sleek silver like metal.

  Kandria gasped as she shot to her feet her head whipping around frantically as she reasserted where she was. Yes, that’s right, she was in the medical bay. She had come here to deliver Vancil to safety, and had clearly succeeded if the sleeping Sith on the bed before her was any indication. Seeing his unconscious form the tension in her faded away.

  Unfortunately, as is the golden rule of the universe, things couldn’t be so simple.

  “I feel like I must inform you of an anomaly happening outside. I do not have a protocol for this so I would appreciate some insight.”

  Kandria turned around in confusion as a console on the wall activated, giving a view of the blue tear outside the station. Kandria was confused at what she was supposed to be looking at before she spotted it. Kandria blinked and moved closer for a better look to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

  There, just beyond the blue tear, standing on nothing, was a blue haired woman, a metal spear in one hand as she appeared to be leisurely looking around as though she wasn’t in the vacuum of space.

  She took a step forward.

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