"It started about a week ago. There were a number of times that I swore I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned to look there was nothing there. And I was also having dreams about some shadowy figure sabotaging small systems on the ship. The damage was building up to something worse. I was also having dreams about senator Organa at the same time. Those were weird; in one instance he was an energy cell, in another he was being tortured on an inquisitor's table, and in another he was being killed by a shadowy figure. That set of dreams - the ones involving the senator - those left me with an increasingly strong feeling that there's somewhere I'm supposed to be. Those two sets of dreams - the saboteur and the senator - it was like they were competing with each other. Right before I went to bed tonight I made up my mind to tell you all about these things the next morning. I was actually able to sleep properly after I decided on that. At least until all of this happened." Niil gestured to the control panel and the rebreather mask on the floor.
"I woke uo to hear the ship's alarm. I left my room, and saw the corridor leading off to engineering on fire. I came running over here to get to the bridge, but the door was sealed, and the bridge was blown away. Collan was dead, floating in space. And fear was blasting through me; I couldn't control it. I grabbed a rebreather and started to override the airlock; I wanted to vent the atmosphere in this section to snuff out the fire."
Niil shuddered. "That's when I saw him coming for me through the flames with a red lightsaber. He said he was Master Dhoresh, but he was twisted and scarred, with bloodshot eyes. He told me that he'd been captured after I escaped, and was tortured for months. He said that the only thing that kept him going was that the hope that he'd find me again. he wanted me to come with him so I could complete my training with him. I refused, saying that he'd gone to the Dark Side." Niil let out a nervous laugh. "He tried to convince me that he'd been wrong in what he taught me; he told me peace was a lie, and strife was the natural order of things. All in a very calm, reasonable-sounding voice. Again, he asked me to join him. I tried arguing back, saying that peace was like perfection - you can't fully achieve it, but that it wasn't the reason why you pursued it. I told him that he was the very person that taught me this, and that he should renounce the Emperor and the Dark Side and come with me instead."
Niil shook his head. "He shifted tactics a bit. He said that all he asked is the chance to show me the other side of the 'issue'. He told me that he'd teach me what he knew, and that he wouldn't ask me to give myself to the Dark Side. If I still didn't like what I saw, then he'd accept that and listen to my advice." Niil's eyes narrowed. "I could already see the deception in his words, and knew he wasn't being sincere or truthful. It was the same tactic that the Bloodhounds used against me. Again, I refused him, saying history was full of horror stories about the Dark Jedi and the Sith. I told him that I wanted no part of the lessons he wanted to teach me."
Niil drew in a shaky breath. "The fear I was feeling . . . I've never had it that bad, ever. This is where Dhoresh . . . or whoever or whatever the hell it was . . . got ugly. He sneered at me, told me my mother was still alive, and was being tortured by the Empire. If I went with him, he said the two of us could free her. If I still refused to join him, he threatened to go and 'pay her a visit'." His hand briefly knotted into a fist. "I swore at him, called him a liar, told him that I'd rather die than learn anything that he was offering to teach me. I drew my blaster, intending to blow out the viewport and space the both of us. I don't know how it happened, but I suddenly felt the Force flow though me, and the fear went out of me like someone flipped a switch." Niil hesitated, then nodded. "I guess because I committed myself to die rather than take in the Dark Side. Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was standing here by the door panel, and one key-punch away from venting the entire ship. That's when I contacted you."
OOC: Ummm, aren't there five people on the ship? I thought Jeremy came with us.
