Hoth: Blood and Ice

The Prince Consort returned sooner than he anticipated. He had the information Saresh had given him and his own datapad to make notes of his own.

The guards show him into an fairly empty throne room, with a few servants milling about in the shadows but otherwise he seemed alone.

After glancing around, he approached the holocommunicator. Once more, he tried to connect with Alderaan.

The connection is made and then he is transferred to a groggy Jameela, "Galen! I had the team direct you to me at any time, it's actually in the middle of the night here. Sorry if I look a mess."

"You are always beautiful to me." he smiled. "I'm sorry our conversation was so brief earlier, it didn't seem like an appropriate time to catch up on everything."

"Think nothing of it, the children were over the moons when I told them I talked to you. Are you okay, everyone assumed you were dead, killed by the Empire or the pirates. Then we lost contact with the core worlds and everything has been on high alert. War is coming, I can feel it. Not like a Force thing, just the feeling in the air," she responded.

"You've lost contact with the Core Worlds?" he frowned. "It is war Jameela, not from the Sith. The Zakuul Empire is one we've never known about and they're very powerful. I'm going to transmit data Senaror Saresh wanted sent to the Republic. How are things on Alderaan?"

"Calm, but mother has an emergency council meeting in the morning, we all have to be there, so it must be something very important," she said with worry.

"The Republic fleets have been building up in system, I thought it was for an exercise... but now."

"They will come for Alderaan." he said. "They intend to make every system part of their Empire. Your mother will need the information I'm sending, as will the fleet."

She looks down and looked like she was doing something off screen and then said, "I transferred the data to mother and Gaul, oh and Unther. Thank you, and how about you, are you coming home soon? What happened? How is Kat? Did the Thul's make it out alive?"

"We were ambushed when we arrived in system." he explained. "Our transport and one belonging to the Sith Empire arrived at the sane time. We immediately focused on each other and the pirates used that moment of confusion to tear both ships apart. Survivors from both the Eepublic and the Sith managed to make it to the surface and find shelter in an abandoned base.We realized early on that we would have to work together to survive, and have managed to do so."

"Garth and Miyi are fine, as is Zeno. They helped repel an attack against the base earlier today. I haven't spoken with Kat, but I understand that she came through it as well. Hopefully, our new arrangement with the pirates means we'll be able to leave soon. But, there are Zakuul forces here, as well. We may still have to get past them to come home."

"What is Zakuul?" she asked. "Or is that a who?"

"It's the name of the threat we face." he answered. "Zakuul is the Throne World of the Eternal Empire, which exists beyond known space. They are very advanced and very dangerous."

"That does not allay any fears, Galen, please tell me you have some secret plan to defeat this new threat," she said seriously.

"No. I don't." he shook his head. "But, I believe we'll find a way. I've seen so many threats to peace fall. Even here, I watched as the spirit of their Emperor was destroyed."

"I am going to need more clarifi-" the feed ends, any attempts to reconnect fail. The distant end is not responding.

He stared at the screen for a very long time, frozen with fear. His body was immobile but his mind was racing. Something was very wrong. Was Alderaan under attack? That seemed very likely. Jameela and the kids would be kept safe. He had to believe that. But, once again he was facing the unknown.

But, there was more. He wondered about their conversation. About the questions she asked. Everything seemed right. He told himself he was being paranoid. But, he wondered.