The submersible was only big enough to fit six people, but you really would only be comfortable with four. Despite only being three, the dark ocean depths that surrounded them made Venar feel claustrophobic.

As he steered the submersible down, he watched as the lights from the city above faded and gave way to nothing but darkness. There was nothing but water on every side. Even the ocean floor was not visible yet. He wondered how deep this ocean actually got.

"Why would a star map be all the way down here?" He asked.

"I haven't a clue..." Bastila mused. "It's possible that maybe there used to be some sort of ancient underwater structure... Or maybe it sunk to the bottom somehow."

"If these star maps are as old as you say," Juhani said, "it's possible that maybe it wasn't always underwater."

Venar hadn't considered this. Could the planet really have changed that much over time? Then again, he couldn't even fathom twenty thousand years.

"Regardless," Bastila said, "I sense these waters hold a great many dangers for us."

"A great many dangers..." Venar mocked, "Jeez you even talk like a Jedi..."

"Well I AM a Jedi," Bastila countered.

"Yeah but do you really have to talk like a Jedi?"

"Why must you be so imposs-"

"Look!" Juhani interrupted. "Down there." She pointed out the window of the submersible.

Down below, was a massive rift in the ocean floor. In ran for miles in either direction and seemed to be at least a mile wide. Inside they could see nothing but darkness. There was various types of aquatic life swimming around as they got closer.

"Can you feel it?" Bastila said in wonder. "Can you feel all the life around us in the Force? Each and every one of them unique."

Venar had to admit he felt it. It was truly special. Everything was moving and coexisting in harmony, in balance.

"This is as the Force is meant to be," she said.

"I've never felt anything like this," Juhani said, gazing out the window in amazement.

There were tons of fish and crazy looking aquatic creatures everywhere. A large whale with five fins on either side swam gracefully by, uninterested in the submersible.

"Look, down there," Venar said pointed towards the edge of the large chasm. A large underwater facility sat right on the edge of the large drop. A long glass tunnel ran from the facility across the mile wide gap to a large fenced off area on the other side. It looked like a construction site of some kind with machinery and pipes running all along the ocean floor.

Venar steered them towards the first section of the facility. As they got closer, they realized it was a research facility of some type. The lights of the facility broke through the darkness of the ocean floor. There were a strip of red flashing marker lights that indicated a path to the docking bay. He steered the submersible towards the docking lane. The lights cast and illuminated red glow on either side of them as they cruised just above the ocean floor.

"Woah did you see that?" Bastila said suddenly.

"See what?" He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

"There!" This time he saw it. He could just make out a blurred shape move by one of the lights. Whatever it was it was large. Everyone got quiet and focused. He brought the submersible to an idle and sat for a moment.

He reached out into the Force, sensing his surroundings. He felt the water churning around them, almost as if in a pattern. The harmony and coexistence they felt only moments before was gone. He felt chaos, hunger, and dangerous instinct.

Wham! A set of jaws attempted to latch onto the main viewport of the vehicle right in front of Venar. It bounced off the durable thick glass without causing so much as a scratch.

"Firaxan sharks," Bastila said. "They shouldn't cause us much trouble."

"Um... I'm sorry did you not see what just happened?!" Venar asked in disbelief.

"He can't break through. That glass is blast proof." Bastila began checking the monitors and instruments, unfazed.

"And what if there's... More than one...?" She looked up to see a wall of sharks swimming around them in a deliberate circle. They looked through the overhead viewport and there was a blanket of sharks swimming around them in a vortex.

"This isn't right..." Bastila said the confidence sapped from her voice.

"Something is very wrong," Juhani chimed in.

"Venar, get us out of here! Now!" Bastila barked.

He punched the throttle and slammed through the wall of sharks. The submersible shuddered as it muscled it's way through the ever moving crowd of killer fish. The sharks immediately entered into a vicious frenzy, throwing themselves against the vehicle and biting down on to anything they could attach their jaws to.

They were getting tossed all over and red lights began to flash and alarms sounded as they were flipped upside down. They were getting bombarded from all sides.

"Bastila! Some help!" She reached out her hand towards the front of the vehicle and unleashed a blast of Force energy extending from the nose of the vehicle out in a powerful burst. The sharks were tossed out of the way of the energy blast.

Venar punched the throttle and weaved the vehicle in and out of the path of the vicious predators. He drew himself heavily into the Force, sensing the coming obstacles before they were there, carving a path. He closed his eyes and used the Force to guide him. He could see in his mind's eye the red marker lights and used them as a guide.

The sharks took up pursuit from all sides. There must have been hundreds. Bastila continued unleashing shockwaves from the front of the vehicle while Juhani covered the back.

"Almost there!" Venar shouted.

"There's too many of them!" Bastila shouted just as they were hit from the side by a firaxan. She fell backwards and had to steady herself.

"Just keep it up! We're right there!" She looked up to see the docking bay doors opening and pulling them up into the facility. Suddenly they were floating in a pool in a large open room and they heard the docking bay doors shut beneath them.

"What the hell was that?" He asked catching his breath.

"Something has driven them mad," Bastila said opening the hatch of the submersible and stepping out and onto the platform next to them.

While the others got out of the submersible, Bastila looked around at the room. It was a large rectangular room full of sections of pools like the one they had docked in. The room was a wreck. There was carbon scoring on the walls and debris cast all over the floor.

They all wandered around in different directions surveying the room. It looked like some kind of battle took place, they found the bodies of several Republic workers and soldiers lying about.

"This man," Juhani said leaning over the corpse of an armored weequay, "is not of the Republic or the Selkath."

"One of the mercenaries the Republic hired to investigate, then," Bastila said.

"I got another over here," Venar said rolling over the body of a human male with facial tattoos. "They were likely ambushed as soon as they left their subs."

"Be on guard," Bastila said, "Whoever did this may still be here."

Venar peered into one of the docking pools and saw a body floating in the water wearing a Republic uniform. Blood stained the water red.

Whack! Suddenly a pair of jaws closed shut around the torso of the man and pulled him under the murky red water.

"Don't go near the edge of the pools," Venar warned, "Some of the firaxans got in when we docked."

He turned his attention to the submersible that floated in the water of the docking pool. As he walked around the side of the vehicle his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it.

"Hey uh... guys... Come look at this..." He said.

Bastila and Juhani walked over to him and followed his gaze. The submersible was missing half of it's hull! The metal was twisted and bent and broken through. The driver still sat in his seat slumped over and missing an arm. The interior of the sub was stained with blood and the blast-protected glass was cracked and broken in places.

"What could have done this?" Venar asked.

"The Selkath legend," Juhani remarked.

"Ah yes... The Proctorator..." Venar said absently.

"I don't think that's what it was called..." Bastila said looking at him quizzically.

"The Prodoctorate..."

"No, just stop."

Just then, a scraping sound echoed off the wall near the reinforced double doors that served as the entrance to the facility. They exchanged glances with each other and slowly moved towards the door. There was a scraping and low banging coming from the other side of the door.

Venar inspected the access panel on the wall to the right of the door. It was set to lock the doors from their side, meaning everyone had been locked inside the facility. He nodded towards Bastila and Juhani and they took up position on the opposite side of the double doors.

He held up three fingers and began counting down. One. They drew themselves into the Force, preparing for battle. Two. They ignited their lightsabers. They could sense a single life-form on the other side of the door.

Three.

Venar tapped the access panel and the doors hissed open. A twilek man dressed in the armor of a mercenary was crawling on the ground. He had been banging his blaster on the door.

Venar leaned down next to man. The twilek was beaten and bloodied and had a nasty cut over one of his eyes that was recently and still bleeding.

"Hey what happened here?" Venar asked the man.

"Jedi?" The man's voice was weak and fragile. "They've gone... mad..."

"Who? Who did this?"

"They're coming... they're monsters..."

"Who? Who is coming?"

"Sel... Selkath..." The twilek slumped to the ground, dead.

Venar checked his pulse, confirming what they already knew. He stood up and turned to the others.

"If this Selkath have betrayed the Republic then this whole place is a trap." Venar said.

"I don't think that's what's going on here," Bastila mused. "It seems more likely the Selkath have been driven mad by whatever drove those sharks into a frenzy outside."

"We should move on," Juhani suggested.

Inside the facility was more of the same destruction and carnage they found in the docking bay. The docking bay lead directly into a small reception area. There were several more bodies laying on the floor, one of them a Selkath with several blaster holes along it's torso.

The room itself was in shambles. Most of the light fixtures were broken or flickering, some handing from the ceilings by their wires. Papers were strewn over the reception desk and the floor. There was carbon scoring along the walls indicating a firefight.

Bastila inspected the body of the fallen native. It's large mouth was open with it's tongue hanging out. There seemed to be nothing abnormal about the creature, nothing to separate it from the ones they had seen on the surface.

They moved past the reception area down what appeared to be a main hallway. It was dark and had seen plenty of destruction as well, several bodies sprawled down it's length. To make matters worse, there were several doorways along the corridor leading to offices and labs of all sorts. Venar knew they would make perfect ambush points.

Be on guard," he said.

They moved down the hall slowly, lightsabers at the ready. They could hear the faint bellowing of some sort of creature, most likely a Selkath.

Bastila closed her eyes and focused on sensing their surroundings. The Force could show her things her eyes could not. She could sense about four Selkath hiding behind the first doorway on their left. Another five waited behind the first door on their right which was positioned a little further down the hallway.

"How many?" Venar whispered.

"Nine total," she responded. "Four on our left and five on our right."

"They're outnumbered."

"Your math needs some work," she paused. "But I agree."

"Just remember not to get scratched by their retractable claws," Juhani said. "Poisonous."

They made their way closer to the doorways which were already open. The lights were off inside allowing the Selkath to hide in the darkness. As soon as they were about five feet from the door they charged.

Their lightsabers whirled through the air slicing through the first two Selkath. They screamed in horror as they dropped to the ground. Venar lifted one of the assailants behind the first two into the air and flung him back through the doorway out of sight with a loud crash.

Juhani had already dispatched the last of the ones that had come from the left. Blaster bolts fired in their direction from the doorway further down on the right. Two of the Selkath we're firing blasters while the other three charged forward brandishing their claws.

Venar and Bastila ran forward to meet them. The three Selkath were running at them with two of them of them heading up the front and the third one running just behind them. They had a crazed quality about them, shrieking and hollering.

Bastila flipped through the air over the front-left Selkath. She drove the rear-end of her saberstaff through his back as she came down with the other end slicing through the Selkath behind him.

Venar had meanwhile forward flipped a lick to his opponent's face sending him staggering back and falling to the ground. He reached out his hand and flung a hanging light fixture down onto the alien's head, knocking him unconscious.

The two furthest Selkath resumed firing their blasters at the Jedi. The three of them spun their blades flawlessly blocking and ricocheting the shots back at the Selkath. One of them was struck in the chest by a returning shot and fell backwards to the ground.

The other one continued firing aimlessly without any hint of fear. Venar reached out with the Force and ripped the blaster from the alien's grasp. The Selkath bellowed a ferocious battle cry and ran forward determined as ever. Venar reached out through the Force, lifting the Selkath into the air and slamming him against the ceiling and then dropping him to the floor, knocking him out cold.

The three Jedi deactivated their lightsabers and looked around at the dead or incapacitated aliens lying on the ground. One of them twitched slightly before going still.

"The twilek mercenary was right," Bastila said. "The Selkath have gone mad. They've gone feral almost as if their minds are not their own."

"Could it be from some experiment they were performing down here?" Venar asked.

"Perhaps and investigation of the security systems could give us a better idea," Juhani suggested.

"Then let's move out and get a better idea of what happened here," Venar said.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Big Z!" Mission said, giving the big hairy Wookiee a shake. "Wake up! I'm bored! I wanna go exploring!"

Zaalbar stirred slightly but didn't wake. He rolled over onto his side facing away from her. She knew he was faking. Big Z could be so lazy sometimes!

"Come on!" She pleaded. "This seems like a cool world and I wanna find some cool spots!"

The sleeping Wookiee didn't move. She shook him again. He grunted lightly.

"What if I said we were gonna stop at a cantina and get some grub huh?"

Zalbaar's eyes opened but he stayed still. She knew he was playing hard to get.

"What if I promised to get you a bantha steak?"

That did it. He sat up and let out an excited roar. He grabbed her into a big hug and playfully rubbed her head. She giggled and punched his arm.

"Always thinking with your stomach!" She wriggled her way free of the soft giant beast and started towards the door. "Hold on I gotta go talk to Carth first."

She ran through the narrow hallways of the Ebon Hawk searching for the grumpy pilot. She found Canderous cleaning his armor in the lounge area. Does that Mandolorian do anything but service his weapons and armor? HK was just standing ominously in the corner, presumably running diagnostics... hopefully.

She made her way up to the cockpit and found him. He was playing a recording of a woman who looked to be in her mid thirties. She was beautiful and radiant.

"Is that your wife?" Mission asked, coming up behind him.

He turned the recording off and sat up straight, not expecting anyone to come in.

"Oh hey Mission," he said trying to deflect the question. "Thought you were out."

"Wellllll... Me and Big Z wanna go out but we kinda... don't have any credits..."

"Ah. I see," Carth said. "What do you plan to do with these credits?"

"Well I promised Big Z I'd buy him a bantha steak and there's this cool aquarium in Ahto City," Mission said. Carth paused as if thinking about it. Then she added, "Its fine if you don't give us the credits we can just steal them off the street. I'm good at it ya know."

"No, no that's ok," Carth said sighing. "Pretty sure Venar and Bastila would have my head if they found out you went pickpocketing on my watch." He handed her a few credit chips and looked her in the eye. "Don't... get into trouble please."

"I won't! I'm a big girl I can take care of myself!" She rolled her eyes and smirked. Carth smiled and sighed.

"Fine. Go have fun."

"Thanks Carth!" She wrapped her arms around him. He was caught off guard a bit not really sure how to respond.

"Ok ok don't get soft on me now kid..."

"Hey!" She punched him in the arm. "I'm not a kid ok?"

He smirked. "Have fun."

"Thanks Carth." She turned to go and started out of the cockpit. She stopped in the doorway. "Hey Carth?"

"Yes Mission?"

"I think your wife would be proud of you. You would make a great dad." Then she walked out.

He sat back in his seat and sighed. He reached for the button to key back on the recording. He hesitated. He thought of Dustil. He never did get a chance to be a father to that boy. Always being up in the cockpit.

He thought about Mission. She never had a father herself. Here he had a chance to fill that role for her and where was he? Sitting in a cockpit feeling sorry for himself. Mission's words rung through his head. I think your wife would be proud of you. He knew what Morgana would have wanted him to do here.

Mission jumped up behind Zaalbar with the credit chips in her hand excitedly. The Wookiee pretended to be startled by her antics even though he had heard her coming.

"Look what I got Big Z!" She held the credits up like she had just won first place in the Tarisian Nobles Beauty Pagent.

"Grwaaaaaannghhhh!!!" The furry alien bellowed and patted her head.

"Let's goooo!!!" She grabbed the Wookiee by the very large hand and lead him out of the ship and down the boarding ramp. They were about to head out of the spaceport when they heard the sound of running footsteps behind them.

"Wait!" Carth said panting.

"Carth?" She asked surprised.

"Hey I was uh... wondering if uh..."

"Do you wanna come with us Carth?" Mission asked.

"Can I?"

"Of course!" She smiled. "Just don't cramp our style ok old man?"

"I'll try not to." He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance.

"Great! C'mon let's go get this walking carpet some grub!"