INT. GEONOSIS – MEDCENTRE/CORRIDOR OUTSIDE SHMI’S ROOM – EVENING

Doctors, nurses, and patients are hurriedly leaving the medcentre for the escape tunnel.

Summoned to the medcentre, Chlorian finds a doctor sitting with Darth; the boy is catatonic.

Rising from his chair, the doctor takes Chlorian out of earshot of Darth and tells the governor that Shmi died of a stroke. Chlorian goes into shocked silence for a moment, unable to believe what he is hearing. Chlorian then tells the doctor to take Darth and join the others gathering at the tunnel entrance, that he will personally take care of Shmi’s body.

INT. CONDAWN CAPITOL HOUSE/MEAT LOCKER – EVENING

Chlorian enters an empty meat locker, the still form of Shmi’s body held in his arms. Opening a secret compartment beneath the floor, he gives his final farewells to the dead woman, kisses her forehead, then seals her within the makeshift tomb.

INT. WAREHOUSE – EVENING

The DENIZENS of the Capitol Centre – all 400+ of them – have come to the warehouse, gathered around a large turbolift platform which will take them below-ground.

Entering, Chlorian goes to the head of the crowd. Addressing them, he tells them to make sure no one is missing and to leave behind any non-essential belongings.

The first group of escapees climb aboard the turbolift platform and are lowered down into the escape tunnel.

EXT. XUTHLTAN – DRIED-UP RIVERBED – EVENING

Night has fallen. Cody remains tied up, seated upon the ground, his back against a large boulder. For the others, all but Vaness and Kathe have fallen asleep, dead-tired from all the activity of the last couple days.

Vaness sits there in the space between Cody and Naad, legs crossed, hands in her lap, eyes on the Journeyman Protector and cryptographer both. Vaness is only Human, however, and she, too, is exhausted; it is only a matter of time before her resolve fails her and she joins her companions in slumber.

Her eyelids heavy, Vaness slowly blinks, then closes them for good. Kathe waits; once she is certain the commander is asleep, she slowly rises to her feet. Straightening her neck, she tilts her head back and opens her mouth; gagging silently, she slowly regurgitates a solid metal cylinder – Anakin’s lightsaber. Taking the Jedi apprentice’s weapon into her hand, she approaches the restrained Journeyman Protector. Cody, eyes hard on her, doesn’t say a word.

KATHE NAAD: Aren’t you going to call out to the others?

CMDR. CODY: (looks over Naad’s shoulder) No need.

Following his gaze, Naad turns around. Standing behind her, wide awake and none too happy, is Anakin. Bringing the hilt up, the woman swings it to bash the Jedi’s head in, but he catches her wrist and pulls the saber out of her grasp. Lunging forward, she sinks her teeth into his wrist.

ANAKIN: ARGH!

Acting on reflex, Anakin loses his hold on her wrist. Turning on her heel, Naad dashes off into the night. Scowling, he takes off after her.

CUT TO

Naad running madly through the darkness, desperate to escape the Jedi Knight. Initially running high on a rush of adrenaline, she soon begins to exhaust her stamina. Her speed drops and she comes to an abrupt halt. Breathing heavily, she rests her hands upon her knees for support.

Catching up to Naad, Anakin comes to a stop. There’s no sign of weariness in his stance whatsoever.

ANAKIN: No more games, Kathe. It’s over.

Still out of breath, Kathe doesn’t answer. Taking her silence for surrender, the apprentice takes hold of her arm. Before he can leave with Naad in tow, he halts, eyes widening in sudden alarm.

In the featureless darkness before them, like burning embers suspended in the ether, are six pairs of glowing yellow eyes.

Releasing his hold on Naad, Anakin engages his lightsaber. Blazing bright, the cyan light reveals SIX RAKGHOULS standing there before the two Humans. Hulking yellow humanoids, the rakghouls have two vertically arranged slits for nostrils high up on their faces; black spines growing out of their backs and heads; twelve sharp claws each growing out of their hands and feet; and large, wide maws filled with sharp, jagged teeth.

ANAKIN: Kathe – behind me!

Kathe isn’t fast enough. Lunging forward, one of the rakghouls takes hold of her. Drawing the woman in close, it pulls out her arm and bites down, shearing through the cloth, skin, muscle, and tendon above her elbow.

KATHE NAAD: YYYEEEAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

Grinding its teeth back and forth, the rakghoul saws through her arm. As the bone gives way, Kathe collapses, SCREAMING as blood jets from the ragged stump.

CUT TO

The others at the camp. Already wide awake, they hear Kathe’s shrieks in the distance. Taking up their weapons, Obi-Wan and Bail break off into a run. Vaness, freeing Cmdr. Cody of his bonds, takes up her own spear and runs off to join them.

CUT TO

Anakin as he attacks the rakghoul who took Naad’s arm. Striking with his lightsaber, he bisects the monster through the shoulder, killing it with the gnawed arm still in its jaws.

Two other rakghouls quickly make their move. One slams its balled fists down on the Jedi’s back, knocking him flat to the ground, while the other goes for Kathe, grabbing her legs.

Arriving on the scene, Bail and Obi leap to the Jedi and cryptographer’s defense. Hefting up his spear, Bail hurtles it at Kathe’s rakghoul, taking it right through the skull, while the knight leaps up and over Anakin’s rakghoul, carving a fatal gash through its spine as he completes his arc.

Roaring, one of the remaining three rakghouls makes a dash for Bail. Pulling out his blaster, Bail opens fire. Unfortunately the blaster pack – already low on power – releases a few dim shots which only lightly sear the beast’s yellow flesh. Unscathed, it tackles Bail to the ground. Holding the captain fast to the ground, it opens its jaws wide to rip his throat out.

CMDR. VANESS: EEEEYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Screaming like a banshee, Vaness charges the rakghoul holding her commanding officer down, spear held out before her. Colliding with the abomination, she runs the spear right through its sternum, knocking it off and away from Bail.

Gritting her teeth, Vaness pins the rakghoul to the ground, applying as much pressure to the end of the spear as she can. HISSING, the rakghoul throws out its arms and runs its claws down her back, cutting her flesh open. Bearing with the pain, she pulls out a makeshift knife; stabbing down, she pierces the monster’s throat, putting a final end to its misbegotten existence.

As Obi-Wan and Anakin quickly finish off the last of the rakghouls, Cmdr. Cody finally arrives. Moving up to Kathe, he takes her into his arms and immediately applies pressure to her injury.

CMDR. CODY: She’s bleeding out fast. (to the Jedi) You’re going to have to cauterize it.

Swallowing, Obi-Wan steps forward to do the job. Bringing out his azure blade, he cuts through the ragged end of the stump.

KATHE NAAD: AAAAHHHH!!!

With the deed done, the Jedi Knight takes a step back. Breathing rapidly, Naad finally passes out, the shock too much to bear.

Approaching Vaness, Bail lightly lays his fingers down on her wounded back.

BAIL: These look bad.

CMDR. VANESS: (winces) Just flesh wounds. I’ll survive.

INT. GEONOSIS – ESCAPE TUNNEL – DAY

After hours trekking through the dank, dark tunnel, the escapees had decided to establish a camp and take a rest.

Chlorian tries to strike up a conversation with Darth, but the boy hasn’t said a single word since Shmi died. After some more prodding from Chlorian, Darth finally mutters that it’s his fault his mother is dead and that he wants to lay down and die himself. Fed up with Darth’s attitude, Chlorian tells him that if he does lay down and die, he’ll be dishonouring her memory and rendering her death meaningless; if he doesn’t want Shmi’s death to have been in vain, he’ll get his act together and fight to stay alive.

EXT. XUTHLTAN – DRIED-UP WATERFALL – DAY

Having managed to lower the incapacitated Naad down the dry waterfall, the remaining members of the team set out for the Sith ziggurat. Anakin and Cody carry the traitor on the stretcher while Obi and Bail walk on ahead with Vaness behind them.

BAIL: (to Obi-Wan) She’s going to die.

OBI-WAN: Without proper medical attention, yes, eventually.

BAIL: (scoffs) Eventually. I don’t see a medcentre anywhere around, do you?

OBI-WAN: Our distress signal will be picked up in time.

BAIL: Naad’s running short on that particular commodity.

OBI-WAN: (stops and turns to face Bail) What do you suggest we do, Bail?

BAIL: She’s a traitor. She doesn’t deserve our food or our water and we shouldn’t be burdened carrying her sorry carcass around. You know what I suggest.

OBI-WAN: I will not be party to cold-blooded murder.

BAIL: You think she’d be half as generous if your situations were reversed?

OBI-WAN: I’m better than that.

BAIL: Yes, and frankly sometimes it makes me sick.

EXT. DESERT – DAY

A number of hours later, the group decides to take a break. Naad, still weak, has regained consciousness.

KATHE NAAD: (weary) Hot. Need some water.

Cody exchanges glances with Bail.

BAIL: Give her some.

Uncapping a canteen, the Concordian lifts Naad’s head up and helps her take a drink.

CMDR. CODY: She’s burning with fever.

BAIL: It’s the least of what she deserves.

EXT. DESERT – GROVE OF DEAD TREES – SUNSET

Having continued on, the group now finds itself camped out in a grove of ancient trees. Long dead, the gnarled plants have been bleached a pale bone-white.

As Vaness sets down her supplies, she swoons, suddenly disoriented.

BAIL: (concerned) Are you okay, Raia?

CMDR. VANESS: (puts her hand to her forehead) Just need to rest, that’s all.

As for Naad, she’s in even worse shape than she was earlier. Hair and face entirely drenched with sweat, her skin has taken on a sickly yellow hue.

KATHE NAAD: Obi-Wan ….

Hearing her weak call, the Jedi Knight crouches down beside her.

OBI-WAN: Yes?

KATHE NAAD: You need to know … bring the others … they need to know, too ….

Obi-Wan signals the others to join him by the dying woman’s side.

KATHE NAAD: Several decades ago … before the Clone Wars … the Republic Senate funded the Outbound Flight Project. Have you … heard of it?

BAIL: It was an expeditionary project spearheaded by Jorus C’baoth. The mission was to send 50,000 colonists beyond the borders of the Galactic Republic into the Unknown Regions then past the galactic rim out towards the Rishi Maze, but communication abruptly stopped months into the mission and Outbound Flight was presumed lost.

KATHE NAAD: (nods) But several new hyperroutes into the Unknown Regions were charted before their disappearance … sent back to Republic Intelligence. They never had a chance to make use of them … before the Clone Wars broke out. (coughs) While the war with the Separatists was still being fought … the athas managed to procure some of these routes. My masters were already preparing for this war … so they decided to make use of them. (coughs) “Repurposing” several Starfleet vessels … you’ll find them listed as decommissioned or MIA in your files … the athas established colonies in dozens of uncharted systems, far beyond Republic space. (coughs) This way … if they ever found the war going south for them … they’d have an entire enclave of troops held back in reserve.

CMDR. VANESS: The route to these dark worlds can only be accessed from the Townowi system.

KATHE NAAD: Townowi leads to Geonosis … Geonosis to the Dark Worlds, as you’ve so aptly christened them. (coughs) Once Geonosis has been taken … contact with the Dark Worlds will be re-established. Their forces will rendezvous with ours … and Geonosis will serve as the beachhead for a renewed assault against the Empire. The war will be prolonged for several more years, (coughs) long enough perhaps for the Supremacy to secure victory. (coughs)

ANAKIN: With the interdiction field up, there’s no way to stop them. We can’t possibly track down and dispatch every inter-field generator in the web.

KATHE KATHE: Within the centre of the interdiction zone rests a battlemoon …. It’s been repurposed to serve as a … hyperspatial redistribution board …. All the inter-field generators have been slaved to it, allowing the entire field to be maintained from a sole location …. Seize the battlemoon and you can collapse the field.

Kathe then gives them a series of hyperspace coordinates which lead to the battlemoon’s location and the access codes they’ll need to attain passage through those points in the interdiction zone.

BAIL: I don’t believe any of this. You wouldn’t betray the Clonemasters; you’re hardwired against it.

KATHE NAAD: (laughs weakly) Look at me, Captain. (holds up her yellow hand) Look at my (coughs) skin. My “hardwiring” isn’t what it (coughs) used to be.

CMDR. CODY: You’re still vathead slime.

KATHE NAAD: Vathead slime … with all the memories of the original Kathe. (coughs) The athas had to create me like that, you know; the deception couldn’t have been pulled off otherwise. (coughs) She had a good life … before she was harvested …. Loving parents … two great brothers and an awesome cousin …. She knew how to make everyone her friend … how to laugh at herself …. (coughs) You would have liked Kathe and she would have liked you … just as I did.

The clone doubles over, grimacing as she clutches her gut with her single hand. Alarmed, the others back away.

KATHE NAAD: Please understand … I didn’t want to do what I did …. I didn’t want to kill Andue or Zosime or strand us here …. I had no choice; I had to obey my masters.

Black blood begins to seep from Kathe’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

KATHE NAAD: (cont’d) Now I only wish they were here … so I could rip their soulless hearts from their chests and eat them.

With those final angry words, Kathe undergoes her final transformation. Gray eyes turn a feral yellow; muscles quadruple in size; thick black claws erupt from hand and feet; hair falls out to be replaced with black spines; and the head distorts – the mouth widening to accommodate sharp, new teeth – leaving her transmogrified into a bestial rakghoul.

Unholstering his blaster, Cody shoots the rakghoul right between the eyes, putting an end to her tortured existence.

Vaness looks upon the slain inhuman creature that once was the clone of Kathe Naad, horrified beyond words.

EXT. DESERT – GROVE OF DEAD TREES – EVENING

Using the dead wood surrounding them, the last five remaining members of the team have built a large pyre for the creature that was Kathe Naad. The fire kindled, orange flames climb up the dry wood to lick the mangled, mutated cadaver.

As Vaness stands before the pyre, transfixed as the fire and smoke rise to claim the body lain upon it, Bail, Obi, Nik, and Cody stand off in the distance.

OBI-WAN: The creatures which attacked us … I finally recognize what they were. Rakghouls.

ANAKIN: Rakghouls … I read something about them in the records.

OBI-WAN: They were the products of Sith alchemy. Utterly mindless, their only motivation was their great, ever-present hunger. The Sith Lords made limited use of them during the Great Hyperspace War, before their use became a liability. (beat) The six we encountered must have been secreted away inside the temple, in stasis these past five-thousand years until we desecrated the tomb.

CMDR. CODY: These rakghouls – they could do … this?

OBI-WAN: Therein lies the efficacy of the rakghoul. Anyone who survived their attacks with just a bite or scratch became a rakghoul themselves.

BAIL: That isn’t going to happen to Raia.

OBI-WAN: Bail, I’m sorry ….

BAIL: (shakes his head) No. If she was infected, she would have turned already. Naad –

OBI-WAN: (interrupts) Naad transformed faster because her exposure to the rakghoul plague was greater. (beat) It will take Raia longer to succumb to the plague, but she will succumb. It’s only a matter of when.

BAIL: (shakes his head) No … no ….

OBI-WAN: All we can do is inform her, allow her to prepare herself for –

BAIL: (angry) No!

Storming away, he leaves the three men. Joining Vaness in front of the pyre, he rests a hand on her shoulder, desperately hoping for the gesture to bring some measure of comfort to them both.