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7 May 336 ABY

Dear Maya,

I don't how to put this lightly so I'm simply going to say it to you. I feel that you must know events that occurred on 14 November 329 at my residence. Please reserve your judgments until the end, this is a confession of a dying old man to his most trusted and respected intellectual partner and friend.

That night, a distraught woman from my homeworld entered my facilities. Her face was white as a statue. Behind her polite and formal demeanor, I sensed a great urgency. This woman was the ancestor of my late mistress, bearing the name of the family that I had served in my youth. She must have been about twelve when I had left Hapes to pursue my medical career elsewhere.(As you know, it is uncommon for men on my planet to become anything more than private doctors.) During that time, it's also important to note that a young servant boy of sixteen was being dismissed from the household. I had often seen them playing together and thought nothing of it. His influence on her was what brought her to me thirty years later.

She said he had visited her spontaneously one night at her estates. She did not recognize his face, it was the color of ash and sunken. His eyes seemed familiar to her. They were eyes of a boy that glared at her through the crack of a door as he received the lash. She was confused and suspicious of his reason for coming to her and reentering Hapes illegally, but part of her, a part that she had forgotten about, was happy to see him. She said that, in retrospect, she had probably fallen in love with him. On the day of his exile, I remember as I prepared my own things to depart, she was inconsolable.

He revealed to her why he had sought her out. He had never forgotten her, he'd clung to the memory of the sweet girl who sneaked him candies and told him frivolous stories, when the rest of the household treated him cruelly. He had never accepted his place as a servant and a male and his imprisonment within his own mind made him aggressive. This in, in turn, caused him to be beaten continually for his bad behavior and targeted as an item for abuse. The woman spoke to me in a stiff whisper as she told me about another time she saw the boy inadvertently, this time at the mercy of an older aunt, who, her young mind reckoned, was merely being kind to him. She suspects that corrupt female members of her family used the handsome, rebellious young servant to fulfill their sexual desires. While her family expressly forbid it, it was not uncommon for young male servants to be used legally for pleasure by their powerful mistresses and the members of their courts. She found out that her inhibitions of a terrible darkness growing inside him were correct. He wanted to help her, he said. He'd discovered that because she had failed to produce an heir, her title was being passed to her cousin. He promised her that if she coupled with him, he could prevent that from happening by giving her a female. There was no one more worthy than her, in his eyes, of power and renown.

She laughed, not meaning to offend him. Having a child at her age was ridiculous, even more ridiculous was the prospect of it being female. As far as her family was concerned, her womb was cursed. She valued her sons, despite what people said and treated them as equivalent to any daughters she may have had. If she were interested in altering fate how would this man from her past manage to do that? At that moment, he revealed himself to under a different name - Cal Rascus, the Sith Knight who was known for the his gruesome experiments in the human mind and anatomy he committed in 301. Their child, he said, would be a beautiful consummation of their love and his achievements in the Dark Side. He was sure his power would determine the gender of the child, and gift their daughter with dark side abilities that he could only dream of.

Afraid and disgusted, she refused. She told him to leave before she alerted her guards and he was killed for daring to venture back to Hapes. At her refusal, he became furious. He said that she was not the benevolent woman he thought she was, that she was an elitist c**t, like the rest of her viperous family. He was so convinced that the real reason that she wouldn't love him was because he'd always be a servant and low to her; he'd show her what it was like to be low and before she could call for help, he took her against her will. Her personal maid found her the next morning, bruised severely and in a pool of her own blood. She remembered only scattered bits of the night and became very withdrawn, even threatening death to the servant and friend that had been with her through her whole life, entirely uncharacteristic of her. She prayed to the Great Mother that her body could not accommodate another child. She admitted trying to rid her body of the child herself. She was sure he had used his power to protect it from dying.

When her daughter was born, she knew everything he had said would come true. Whatever dark power the child had been given had to be nipped in the bud before it appeared. She told everyone around her that the father had been the court consort and began to research how she could rid her child of it's innate force sensitivity.

She did not tell me how she came across our project. I assume it was from some remote record of her mother's, perhaps a slight rumor or clue. Considering how well we concealed our business, I am surprised that she was able to learn everything. She took a dangerous risk coming to me and must of known that I would not confirm any information regarding the project. I would have not responded to any questions and she was right in not asking them, stating instead that she knew what it was, that I possessed it, and that she needed it. I will never know if this was a bluff or not.

Her urgency and honesty moved me to action. For her mother, who I owed personal debuts of my own that need not be disclosed, I agreed to implant the single prototype in her two month old child's fragile and developing brain. No neural processes were disturbed - I ran extensive tests after the surgery. I also destroyed all materials - this message and the device itself are all that remains of our project.

If you believe my morality has erred in someway, or that I was foolish, I beg your forgiveness. While it is true that devils of my own were vanquished through this act, I feel that I would have done it anyway, even if she was not the daughter of a woman I owed so much. If this puts you at any risk, I am sorry. It's my strong belief that this was why we conceived our project in the first place, to cause good. Isn't that what every doctor wishes his work will do for people? I wanted you to know, my great friend, that our work, which both our lives were dedicated to and sacrificed for, was finally put to good use. I remain your devoted friend in science.

Sincerely,
Arson