Niil propped his chin in his hands, and let his attention travel back to the prison ship and Karvis. "I'm at a loss to explain why Karvis is so important. I know that she showed an interest in me, you and Trax while she was at the northern compound. No one else but the three of us . . . and a doctor, I recall her mentioning . . . knew where she was, and she wanted to keep it that way." Niil's eyebrows furrowed. "She said that if the resistance leaders knew where she was, it could 'complicate matters'."
Niil shook his head. "Part of me wonders if she was speaking about us. I mean, she told us that she had waited for us for two months prior to our raid on that prison ship. And she wasn't captured . . . she surrendered to the Empire. She said that it was the only path she saw that would get her to Karvis, where something important would start soon. But she didn't know what that 'something' was." He went silent for awhile. "I had a private talk with her right after that first meeting we had with her, and I had a fair amount of questions about the Jedi philosophy that she answered. That's when I also found out that Palpatine was a Sith lord."
"But I suppose I'm digressing. I do remember asking about Ch'lana, and she told me that he was a troubled man that could use a friend even though he wouldn't admit it." Niil smiled faintly. "I think she knew that I wanted to make amends for reaming him out on board that prison ship, and subtly steered me in that direction. She also told me roughly where he could be found, and to look for Jeremy Wilton."
"But back on Karvis when Ch'lana was about to board that ship without us - after he attacked you - I could hear her voice in my mind. She urged me to board that ship with him . . . no, that I had to be on board that ship when he departed, like nothing else in the universe mattered at that moment. She actually sounded anxious about that."
Niil looked up at Collan. "I know this might sound delusional and more than a tad arrogant, but were we the 'something important' that would start soon on Karvis? Ch'lana stowed away on our shuttle so he could get on board that prison ship, but what guided him there? Or who? And without his presence, I think that mission would've failed. He let us get on board in such a way that we bypassed a lot of traps and achieved surprise. Without that surprise, the Imperials would have probably detonated that bomb. And if he wasn't there, that dark Jedi and his cronies would have come straight for us. After we returned to Karvis, Ch'lana left. If it wasn't for Demaia's information, we probably would've never known where to start looking for him. And if it wasn't for him and his training, how would we have known about the Horuz system? Or gotten there, for that matter? I've never received a vision from the Force before my training, let alone two of them."
He shook his head. "Maybe I'm grasping at straws in putting that all together, but I've learned that there's no such thing as coincidences. All of this happened for a reason. Were we the important thing to start soon on Karvis, or merely part of an opening 'act' for something still about to happen there? I'm sorry, Collan, but I don't have a clue. I suppose we'll have to trust in the Force and let things play out as they will. It didn't steer us wrong about the Horuz system."
