Ask Silence on Svivren

Mallory's travels took her far and wide across the galaxy. It was not often however that they took her as far away from the hustle and bustle of the galaxy as Svivren however. At the terminus of the Five Veils Trade route on the ass end of the Galactic south, it was about as far in that direction as she had managed to wander in her years.

The reasoning for her trip there was obscure, but she supposed she could call it a hunch. And from her perspective as a researcher and active user of arcane knowledge of the force, any hunch she felt she had was best to be followed up on with due haste.

Svivren itself was a mountainous world, with harsh seasons. The authoritarian planetary authority had strict laws against the ownership of weapons or the perpetration of violence, enforced by immediate public execution. It made Mallory a bit antsy and she didn't want to spend much more time there than necessary, but she figured she didn't have much to worry about. She had never been much inclined to violence, and owned no weapons of note.

It was a swelteringly hot day, deep in the middle of Svivreni summer and Mallory could feel the sweat trickling beneath her clothes even in the mildly climate controlled library of the Svivreni Xenominerology Institute. She has obtained entrance to the institute under the false pretense of being a researcher from the Archeology Research Cooperative. The ARC of course was a non-existent entity, but that wasn't for the authorities at the Institute to know.

She was seated at a computer terminal, the display showing miniscule lines of ponderous text. Paper printouts and books were stacked around her as she thumbed through a printout of the thing that had brought her to Svivren in the first place. A mineralogical study of kyber crystals conducted by a current student at the Institute, one Fwen Tabri.

It was truly groundbreaking stuff from Mallory's perspective, a deep study on the different mineralogical properties of the crystals. It had of course been dismissed out of hand by Tabri’s peers. Mallory suspected the reason being for that dismissal was due to the peers lacking a certain perspective on the living crystals. That perspective being a burgeoning latent force sensitivity that she believed Ms. Tabri might be tapping into.

Mallory would have loved to meet the student and discussed her research. Unfortunately, shortly after publishing the study, Fwen Tabri had gone suddenly missing. The university authorities assumed she had merely dropped out in shame from the lack of acceptance of her thesis, it happened all the time. Mallory was suspicious of that conclusion however, and was beginning to draw her own narrative.

Mallory was leaned back, chair balancing precariously on two legs, with her boots kicked up on the computer terminal desk. A folded open copy of the Thesis manuscript was propped open on her knee and held in one hand while the other twiddled a pen back and forth near her lip. She had already skimmed the thesis, but was in the middle of taking a closer look at the details and didn't notice as someone approached her.

A voice rang from on high and Mallory jerked abruptly. She swayed for a moment as the chair threatened to topple over, but managed to recover her balance to instead slam the front feet of the chair loudly into the floor. Her pen went skittering across the floor somewhere, and the bound thesis tumbled flappily onto the desk as she caught herself against the rim of it with both hands.

”Wha-” She started to speak when she looked up and saw not much else besides the grasping tentacles of an elder being above her. Had she delved too deep into the mysteries of the arcane? Had her research awoken something that had now come to drag her screaming into the depths of some hell?

Her brain finally began working after the sudden jump scare as she took in the rest of the alien. Normal looking body shape, clothes, shoes. The words he had spoken to her started processing in her stuttering brain and she finally breathed.

”You startled me.” She said, sitting up and pressing a hand against her chest where she could still feel her heart trying to beat its way out of her ribs. ”One… one moment.” She said as she took a deep breath and willed her mind and body to center. Calm. Peace. Etcetera. She cleared her throat.

”Yes, and yes.” She said after her insides had calmed themselves and she eyed the newcomer suspiciously, wondering if he was part of some local regulatory authority who had caught her entering under a false organizations banner. ”Who's asking?

The wide eyed moment of fight or flight panic had passed and Mallory finally got a chance to take a good look at the alien who had approached her. Definitely not a local authority.

”Yes I am quite well, just wasn't quite expecting to be approached.” She reassured the stranger. Wait had she heard that right?

”I'm sorry, did you say you were a Jedi?” She asked with a cocked eyebrow. ”Mallory San Marca.” She supplied as she extended her right hand for a loose handshake.

”Arcanology Research Cooperative.” She said, before wincing internally for a moment. Archeology, that had been it. A slip of the tongue but perhaps more accurate. The Jedi’s next words nearly slipped her by in her internal dialogue but she managed to claw them back as they threatened to go out the other ear.

”Oh yes of course.” She said, casting her gaze about the cluttered desk as she searched for the document. Finding it, she grabbed the thick folio of bound pages and smoothed it out.

”I’m not surprised, prestigious isn't exactly the word I would use to describe us. Obscure. Undistinguished. Good words for us Master Jedi.” She said with a slight smile as she stood and handed Fwen Tabri's research over.

”You are of course welcome to join me, though I'm not certain how long I will be staying. We were really hoping to get in touch with the author of the paper but..” She trailed off, as the Jedi was no doubt aware of the students' disappearance.

Mallory eyed the Jedi of unknown species as he slid the another chair nearby to place the strange looking tank he carried on his back next to him. The tank appeared to have some manner of floating being inside of it. Curious.

”Truth be told, I find the disappearance almost unsettling.” Mallory said as she returned to the data screen at her desk to start queing up another copy of the research paper. ”From what little I've looked into the matter, Ms. Tabri was described to me as dedicated and thick skinned. She doesn't sound like the type to pack it in and give up purely due to a little criticism.”

Mallory frowned as she spoke, tapping on the on screen options. There was no way to access the file she had just been viewing a few moments ago.

”That's strange.” She muttered as she tried finding another route to the file. Unsuccessfuly. ”The file for the paper is missing. Completely. Almost like it was never there.” She turned to look at the Jedi with her eyes wide. She stared at him for a moment before looking at the paper in his hand. And then he disappeared from her vision as the building plunged into darkness.

Mallory heard Alhazred yelp and cry out as she twisted her hands and formed a sign for light. There was a brief flash of light as a small orb formed a few inches above her hands. She caught glimpse of a pair of figures wrestling with Alhazred. Dark, silent armor. Their heads appeared as those of animals.

The darkness fell again as rough, gauntleted hands seized the finger of both her hands. Mallory cried out in pain as she caught the glimpse of a metal snarling bear in her face before a prick of pain touched her neck. She struggled for a moment, kneeing the man before the strength fled her body.

”Alhaz…” She started faintly before the darkness took her and she fell limp.


Mallory woke up slowly. She was drifting, her consciousness chemically subdued. Her mouth felt full and dry and tasted like it was stuffed with dirty socks. She worked her jaw. Cold. Her face was against a cool, solid surface. Stone? She moved her hands, brushed her palms on the surface below her. Stone. She opened her eyes to darkness. Her eyes adjusted slowly, in and out of focus. There was a faint light trickling into the room from somewhere above. Faint motes of dust drifted.

”Alhazred?” Mallory called out into the darkness as she weakly pushed herself up to a seated position. She palmed her eyes and pushed on them for a moment, bidding the aching pain behind her eyes to ease before lifting her hands up to get to work. She made several signs with her fingers, building energy as she finished the sequence. A light sprung into existence, a small ball shining a faint illumination across the room.

A stone ruin, steel doors. Mallory could make out the outlines of circles and glyphs surrounding herself and the other captive. More glyphs and circles painted the walls and doors of the enclosure.

”I think we're in a bad spot.” Mallory said out loud. To herself? To Alhazred? It didn't really matter.