nonelikemesince

The Yuuzhan Vong would hate this place, Anakin was pretty sure: Centerpoint was one of the most massive pieces of technology that existed in the galaxy, one that was capable of capturing entire planets -- according to prominent historical theories, this was how the Corellian system came to exist in the first place -- or making stars go supernova. There were over two thousand decks to the station, which made for a really kriffing long turbovator ride for Anakin and Jacen, along with Ebrihim and his Q9 astromech. The cartography team that had undertaken the monumental task of trying to map out all of Centerpoint didn't expect to be done within one lifetime, either, if that said anything about its sheer size.

A giant reactor known as the Glowpoint, the size of a star, powered the entire structure and was housed in a large hollow sphere at the station's exact midpoint; it had served as a sun to the thousands of colonists who'd made settlements on the sphere's interior walls for generations -- until eight years ago when the Triad fired the station, Glowpoint had flared up, and Hollowtown, as it was known, was completely incinerated. This place had been the source of so much destruction -- and here was Anakin, going to see if it could be re-enabled, because he had to believe it could somehow be used for good. He wasn't sure how; he just knew it could be.

The thought preoccupied him for most of the trip through the station toward Hollowtown, so he kept quiet and just followed along behind their guide, who led them to a heavily shielded chamber packed with electronic instruments: clearly a control room. The cramped quarters made it even harder to ignore the way every being in the room immediately trained laser-like focus on them the moment they stepped inside; Anakin was getting used to that, but it still grated just a bit.

Not that he cared much about the scrutiny when he realized who exactly had shoved his way to the front of the crowd and was staring at them now.

"You're Jacen, and you're Anakin. You don't remember me, do you?" Hearing that from someone who looked almost exactly like Dad would have just been weird if not for the fact that this was the same Thrackan Sal-Solo, Dad's cousin, who'd cast his lot in with the Sacorrian Triad, tried to kill Dad, and oh, yeah, kidnapped Anakin and his siblings among other things. Of course Anakin remembered him, but neither he nor Jacen was going to give Thrackan the satisfaction of an answer. "I'm hurt. I bet your droid remembers."

Too bad Ebrihim's Q9 was willing to answer. "You were responsible for confining Master Ebrihim and Masters Anakin and Jacen within a force field on Drall, whereas I was responsible for releasing them."

Great, so now they kind of had to answer. Q9 was not Anakin's favorite droid at the moment.

"You're Thrackan Sal-Solo," he said finally, his voice tight.

Jacen chimed in, pointedly: "You not only took us hostage, you forced our father to fight a Selonian, just for your amusement."

Anakin wasn't particularly willing to entertain Thrackan's claims of having seen the error of his ways after eight years in prison, but he couldn't just dismiss them out of hand. Maybe that was true, and maybe he really had been released to work on the station as a way to redeem himself.

"Of course, you two wouldn't know how the past can plague a person. You're Jedi. You're not subject to the banal emotions that trouble ordinary folks," Thrackan said dryly, and that really wasn't making Anakin feel more kindly disposed toward him. Really? He had no idea, did he? "Anger, hatred, guilt, the desire for retribution . . . such things mean nothing to you. Why, even the Yuuzhan Vong have simply failed to see the error of their ways and can probably be brought over to the side of the Force. Am I right? Otherwise you'd be shoulder to shoulder with us in the trenches, ready to fight: ready to spill whatever amount of Corellian blood runs in your veins."

Anakin gritted his teeth, shoved aside his impatient anger, and replied in a taut voice, "We're here to help."

"Are you now?" Thrackan could stop being condescending and treating them like they were still little kids any time now. He really could. But no. "It's a marvelous irony that it took a galactic war to reunite the old gang and bring you boys back to the station you originally helped to shut down. I have you to thank personally for banishing our illusions of a free and independent Corellia. But, tell me, do you still think we were wrong to make a grab for freedom?"

Anakin didn't get a chance to open his mouth before Jacen cut in. "Your methods were wrong." Not making him any less annoyed, no.

"Methods," Thrackan replied, dismissive. "You realize, of course, that the New Republic has essentially abandoned Corellia since the crisis? And knowing Ebrihim I'm sure you've been apprised of Coruscant's plan to use Corellia as a battleground."

"We've heard the rumors." It was a careful, reserved kind of reply, definitely more Jacen's style than Anakin's.

"That's your mother talking," Thrackan scoffed. Which was true; Jacen was much closer to her in temperament where Anakin took after Han, but it felt enough like an insult to Leia that through the Force, Anakin sensed Jacen bristling just as much as he was. Thrackan turned his attention to Anakin, now. "What about you? Are you here on a tour, or are you really willing to do what's necessary to safeguard Corellia from attack?"

That felt like a challenge. Anakin had a very hard time backing down from a challenge, and it took him nearly a full standard minute of consideration (and drawing on the Force to calm himself) before he answered. "That depends on what you have planned for Centerpoint."

"What we have planned is an interdiction field," replied Thrackan, with a confused look that didn't convince Anakin. "What else could we hope for?"

"How about the ability to vaporize every unwanted ship, Yuuzhan Vong or otherwise, that shows itself here?" That was Jacen, again, and Anakin was equal parts grateful for the backup and annoyed that his brother seemed to think he needed it. "The Watch keeper was destroyed by one shot from the repulsor on Selonia, and Centerpoint has a thousand times the firepower of all five planetary repulsors combined. It can create a compression wave strong enough to induce a star to explode."

"This is Antone," Thrackan said by way of response, indicating one of the technicians in the room. "He was also here during the crisis. In fact, he had family at Bovo Yagen."

Anakin had saved their lives eight years ago, and that act was now being used as leverage against him. He felt a little sick when he realized that.

"Centerpoint can indeed induce stars to go nova," Antone confirmed. "The Triad caused the explosions of EM-1271 and Thanta Zilbra, but those results cannot be duplicated."

Jacen looked dubious. "You're saying that Centerpoint can't be used as a weapon?"

"Frankly, we're not sure," Antone said with a shrug, and went into a brief explanation of how the station worked, not that Anakin needed the recap. The scorched remains of Hollowtown were enough of a reminder.

Thrackan cleared his throat. "No one wants to risk a repeat of that catastrophe."

That begged the question -- which Jacen asked -- of why they'd needed Anakin's help if all they wanted to do was generate an interdiction field, but the deeper problem was that the system had developed enough quirks to not respond the way they wanted it to.

"Only Anakin can do it. As a result of his activation of the Drall repulsor, the entire system imprinted on him," Antone concluded, looking at him. "On your fingerprints, your DNA, perhaps even your brain waves. I've been proposing this for eight years now, but no one was interested in having you return here until now."

Well, that corroborated what Ebrihim had said. And there was only one way to find out for sure.

With everyone in the room staring at him, Anakin moved toward the control console, and as he got closer he could actually feel the system. Sithspit, it was really responding to him. It felt familiar, the same way the Drall repulsor had when he was eight (the memory was vague but becoming clearer all of a sudden), and when he began to visualize the system's inner workings that felt familiar, too.

Then he touched the console, and a panel reformed itself into a control stick exactly conformed to his hand.

He could see every subroutine and energy fluctuation, every single thing about Centerpoint and how it worked, and instinctively he knew exactly what to do. He was barely aware of the three-dimensional cube display that had flickered to life in front of him, or the way that sections of the grid lit up in sync with the erratic beep of activation tones.

"You've done it, boy!" Thrackan exclaimed, and it was so startlingly loud that Anakin realized how quiet the entire room had gone.

He kept his focus on the system, though, tweaking power regulation levels and overriding functions. It was just like working on his astromech code except from the inside, and he wasn't going to be any less of a perfectionist about this.

Which meant that, by the time Centerpoint came fully online with a massive power surge that he knew about before the entire control room started vibrating, everything was functioning.

"It's armed," Antone announced. "It's capable of firing!"

Absolute chaos broke out in the control room until the New Republic colonel heading up the entire operation arrived.

"An urgent message from Commenor. Yuuzhan Vong advance elements are departing Hutt space. Fleet Intelligence estimates thirty-six standard hours until they're at our doorstep."

This wasn't theoretical, Anakin realized. This was really happening, right now.

[OOC: NFI/NFB, OOC-okay, TBC, yadda yadda still adapted from Agents of Chaos 2: Jedi Eclipse by James Luceno. This boy is ridiculous, I swear to god. I mean, I can't make this stuff up. Ah, Centerpoint Station, cause of trauma for generations of Skywalker-Solos . . .]