"You won't resist. Take the power that she will not..."
Tossing and turning in her bunk, Alisaah could feel a cold rush of air as her sheet slid away from her leg which was now hanging off the side of her bed. The air often felt cool in space but tonight the Togruta felt an instant chill. Opening her eyes slightly, she looked across the room to see Meela, still asleep in the bunk opposite. The Twi'lek had been reunited with her long lost surrogate child only a day or so earlier when fortune led the two to find each other again on an unexpected trip to Zeltros. Teela, the T7 astromech stood idly in the corner. Though the droid did not sleep, it had clearly powered down as no lights or beeping came from it.
Quickly withdrawing her dangling leg to the comfort of her warm blanket, Ali wondered what time it was. Out in space she had learned, it looked the same outside the window no matter what time of day it was. Judging from how tired she felt however, she could not have been asleep very long. Something had woken her up though. At first, in her drowsy state, the slave thought perhaps that Aska had come into the room to wake her up. She heard a voice that sounded very similar to hers, but evidently, her mistress was nowhere to be seen.
Sitting up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her for warmth, Ali gazed around the room again. Aska definitely was not there. The voice had sounded like a whisper, which would mean whoever it was would have had to be right there. The Togruta reasoned that she must have just imagined it. Aside from Meela's light breathing, the only sound came from the ambient noise of the ship's engines as they continued to travel towards Coruscant.
Now more awake, Ali noticed that her mouth felt a little dry and decided to find some water before she went back to sleep. Taking a step onto the floor and standing up, she wrapped the blanket around her shoulders like a cloak before lightly stepping out of the room, her bare feet making little patters on the ground. When she reached the common area, she noticed Aska immediately. Her mistress was asleep, sitting up in one of the chairs with a bottle of alcohol in her hand. It definitely had to have been a dream then. Even with alcohol in her system, Ali doubted that Aska could sneak into her room, attempt to wake her up, come back to the common room and fall asleep again so quickly.
Ali went to get water from the kitchen area. Taking a few sips, she began to feel refreshed by the cool liquid. Once she was satisfied, the Togruta returned to the common area. Looking at her mistress and wondering how she was able to sleep like that when it was so cold, she decided to fetch a blanket for her and set about gently placing it over her so as not to wake her. Fortunately she managed to achieve this and subtly remove the bottle of alcohol from her grip without creating a disturbance. Leaning over to place the bottle gently on the table, Ali noticed something.
Remembering back to their recent expedition on Nal Hutta, the slave recognised the holocron she had helped Aska to reclaim after they had been captured by Zugg's henchmen. It was an eerie but intricately designed artifact. Evidently Aska must have been examining it after the others had all retired for the night. Alisaah knew nothing of this item, besides that it was important to her mistress. She did not know that this was in fact a Sith holocron. Initially, Ali had no intention of interacting with the pyramid shaped object, until once again she heard the voice.
"You have great potential, girl... It would be a shame to let it go to waste. Take the power that she will not..."
Alisaah's head snapped back to Aska, who was still laying asleep in the chair. What was that? It sounded like Aska, but how could it have been? She was passed out only a foot or two away.