Jacen nodded. “And the remnant Force energies I’m feeling originated with them?”
“Yes. Their records-for they invented a form of record keeping, a sort of information-imbued sculpture, some forms of which I’ve learned to translate-“
“One of the tassels?”
“Yes, one your expert probably couldn’t read. These creatures’ records indicate that at one point a ruling class exiled a whole subsociety, sealing them within caves and caverns of this asteroid, cutting them off from the stellar energies that sustained them. They lived there, slowly dying of starvation, sustaining themselves poorly off the mineral content of the stones within the asteroid. And it was there that one of their number learned to detect, and then manipulate, the Force. That one eventually became leader of the other exiles, then led them to break out of the asteroid interior and conquer the others.”
“So why aren’t all mynocks now Force-wielding star travelers ruling the galaxy?” Nelani asked.
Brisha shrugged. “I can only guess. In their writing, there’s a reference for the Home, this asteroid, plus mentions of the Return, suggesting that they could not spawn-or divide, as the mynocks do-anywhere but here. If that’s true, then they couldn’t spread too far through the galaxy, and a fatal contagion or similar disaster here could wipe out the entire species within a matter of years. The point, though, is that for quite a while they were a species led by a caste of Force-users, who eventually became a caste of dark side Force-users. They learned techniques related to their mynock natures, such as the ability to leach energy from living beings, including their own kind, at great distances, and associated skills with communicating instantaneously at those distances, a phenomenon the Jedi sometimes experience. They wielded tremendous amounts of dark side energy, and a lot of that energy was eventually radiated into the cavern system that had been their home during the exile, and which had subsequently become a sacred place to them.
“So they died out,” she continued, “and centuries or millennia later, an operation settled here to mine this asteroid belt. And it wouldn’t have begun mining underneath the directors’ habitat, except someone discovered the caverns and all the metal-bearing ore lodes that had been denuded by the mynocks eating all the silicon-based Stone Out from around them.”
“I can guess some of the rest,” Jacen said.
“Go ahead.”
“Prolonged exposure of the miners to a well of dark side energy led to weird incidents. People seeing things, Force-sensitives manifesting odd abilities. Perhaps channeling your mynocks, behaving like them, and being considered insane.”
“Very good.” Brisha nodded. “The director of that time hushed up the reports, closed down that mine-the rest of the operation in these asteroids was unaffected-and kept things tightly under wraps. He, too, was a Force-sensitive and had been experiencing things, experimenting, acquiring and testing new powers. When this asteroid belt eventually became less profitable as a mining operation, he closed it down, carefully mismanaged things so that the habitat would be left here and forgotten … and then, leaving it behind, he went out into the galaxy, finding the Sith, apprenticing himself, eventually becoming the Sith Master Darth Vectivus.”
“Never heard of him,” Jacen said.
Brisha’s expression showed a little impatience. “That’s because he did no evil. He didn’t attempt to conquer the galaxy, try to wipe out the population of a star system, or start an all-out war with the Jedi. He just existed, learned. Died of old age, surrounded by family and friends.”
Nelani gave her a skeptical look. “A patron of the arts, supporter of charitable causes, and inventor of the cyclonic highball, favorite alcoholic drink of island tourists everywhere.”
“You mock,” Brisha said, “which is fine, but you mock out of ignorance, which is not. You don’t know anything about Darth Vectivus.”
Nelani gave her a frosty smile. “Including whether he ever existed, or whether he was the jolly nice man you describe.”
“And you can only find out the truth by learning.”
“How did he keep from being ruled, and ruined, by greed?” Jacen asked.
“Ah. That’s easy. He developed a strong ethical code before he ever felt any pull from the dark side. He was an adult, a hardheaded businessman with a keenly balanced sense of both profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness.” She glanced at Nelani as she spoke those last few words, then returned her attention to Jacen. “The Sith who were famous for being bad, Jacen, were the way they were because they were badly damaged men or women to start with. Not because they were Sith. Usually, they were weak, or deluded, or greedy to begin with. Like your grandfather. I knew him, you know.”