Chapter 6 - Through Victory my chains are broken

Diederick woke to Petra still sleeping soundly. The force was flowing around them quite naturally. His eyes fixed on the force around her for a time. He stood up and left for the bridge.

Upon entering the bridge, he found Tuvok and asked "Morning Tuvok, any chance on some quarters for me and my new companion?" He said this quickly to try and not jinx himself. "Yes Darth, here is your adapted quarters to fit both yourself and your new guest." Tuvok handed over a data pad. "Thanks. I'll go and check them out, I'll go put your security through some more training afterwards" The Sith smiled and turned to leave.

"I would like to oversee your training exercises Darth, if that is permitted?" Tuvok asked.

"I don't have a problem with that, they're your staff anyway." Diederick shrugged and left. Diederick didn't go to the quarters deck, he decided that he would go back to Petra in sickbay.

By the time he got there Petra had woken and Doc was checking her over. "How's she doing Doc?" Diederick asked.

"Recovering well Darth. With her powers being like yours, she'll be able to walk in a few days. I don't see why she can't rest in your quarters going forward." Doc reported. This also came with a startled response from Petra "Why am I having to share a room with him?" she exclaimed.

"We're on a ship with 200 crew members, limited room and we weren't anticipated when they left space dock." Diederick explained patiently "Believe me Petra, I am only interested in training you so you can use your powers without killing everyone here. I've got far too much going on to start a melodrama with you..." he said tirelessly.

Petra looked at him aghast.

"Anyway, since you've come from a pre-warp society; you've got some homework to do." the Sith placed a wheelchair next to her bed. "The sooner you finish that the sooner I can actually start the training proper."

Petra looked at Doc for comfort, but he rolled his eyes and told the computer to turn off his program.

"He's not a living person?!" she shouted

"No. Apparently the only living doctor died when this ship was thrown to this part of space." Diederick replied without care "Still, it did a decent enough job on you. Let's go and check out our new digs" He used the force to lift Petra up and plopped her in the chair and wheeled her out of sickbay.

<Deck 6>

They entered their room and found it to be of a minimalist design with a spacious living area, small bathroom and two bedrooms all connecting off it. "More monochrome, how about some colour like red or something..." Diederick complained and went to go investigate one of the bedrooms. Petra was astounded at the space, back on her world if someone could afford to live in a space this large, they would easily be in the top 1% of her society. Darth was acting like it wasn't a big deal! "Oh good! More grey in the bedrooms!" He shouted out from one of the rooms. Petra shook her head and wheeled into the living room and started to look around.

"Room on the left is mine" He stated as he walked back into the living area. As he approached her he took out a data pad and handed it to her. "This is your homework until you can freely move about, so get acquainted with the room and meet me down the hall at holodeck 1. I'm having to train this ship security forces from scratch and it'll be a preview of what your training is going to be like." Diederick smiled at the latter part of the sentence. There was something about that smile that made Petra a little afraid.

Leaving the room, he made sure to keep checking the force around her periodically. He could feel anger, grief and incredible sadness rolling off her. These feelings will allow her to become stronger in the future, but she needed her body back up and running. Diederick's intervention with the force was speeding up the process as fast as it would allow without side effects, but it was still going to take time.

He wandered around the ship and found himself in main engineering. Looking at the door he paused, raised his hand and stood there for a moment. Then shook his head and walked through the door. Upon entering all eyes trained on him. "Don't mind me. Just sightseeing." Diederick smiled and walked up to the warp core. Compared to the hyper drives he'd seen in the past; this was the most elegant representation for travelling faster than light. Watching the antimatter dance around in the containment field and reinforced glass was beautiful and mesmerising. "What are you doing here Darth?" Torres walked up to him "You're putting everyone on edge staring at the core like that" she complained.

The Sith snapped out of his daydream and raised an eyebrow "I was putting everyone on the bridge on edge so I thought I'd give them a break and come here instead..." he chuckled "I hear congratulations are in order Miss chief engineer, for someone your age to get a commission as important as that is no small feat. Janeway must really believe in your abilities" He changed subject and congratulated. This got a small smile of pride from her "Thank you. I still think it's just lip service just to keep the crew friendly, but it does still mean something to me" she humbly said.

"Don't think so low of yourself. Janeway is no fool or else she wouldn't be a Captain in the first place. There is a lot of trust when assigning a Chief engineer when so far from the nearest friendly shipyard. When she assigned that position to you, someone not even from Starfleet, she put her trust in you with the care and maintenance of her ship. If it was lip service, you'd just be a deputy." Diederick explained glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Torres was stunned, she had assumed he'd just laugh at her and rib her about being soft. "Thank you, Darth, that means a lot" She thanked, not really knowing what to say. "Please don't break my temporary home." He deadpanned. Torres' face twitched and walked away mumbling something under her breath. Diederick chuckled, folded his arms and gazed at the warp core until it was time to go to the holodeck.

<holodeck one>

As the Sith arrived at the holodeck he saw Petra looking around the hallway. Noticing Diederick she wheeled herself over to him "You failed to mention where the room was that we'd be meeting up Darth" She hissed, clearly embarrassed by wheeling around this massive starship with people in uniform giving her pitying looks.

"Oh? Apologies, must have slipped my mind" He replied nonchalantly and entered the room.

When they entered, he found Tuvok and the rest of the red uniformed crew waiting for him. "Welcome to day two of your training. Firstly, let me start by introducing my new apprentice in training, Petra. She will be joining you in training once she's out of this chair. Secondly, I see that some of you are taking comfort in the fact that Lieutenant Tuvok is going to be overseeing today's training. Tuvok is here as an observer ONLY, your training will be at the same standard as last time. This is just the foundation so I'm not too sure why you're so scared of it" Diederick reported in a strict military manner. He took great enjoyment in seeing the hope dimming in their eyes. He then turned and walked to the holodeck console that was on the wall and like last time he held up his hand to it and closed his eyes. The security forces tensed up in fear for what was coming. However, Tuvok was confused "Darth Diederick, to start the holodeck program you only need to raise the computer and give it a command." He stated. Diederick ignored him and after a few seconds they were at Korriban Academy again.

Turning back to the officers Diederick commanded "50 laps around the academy, GO!" he imbued the voice with the force to put the fear of death into them and they quickly scurried away.

"Mr Tuvok, I'm well aware on how the holodeck deck is normally used but I doubt you have a record of where I did my training." Diederick smiled and explained.

"You trained here? And what's this apprentice in training thing you're talking about?" Petra couldn't help but fire questions at the Sith.

"Although I'm training you to use your powers to not kill yourself, you're not officially my apprentice. If you do well in training, I may take you on as official apprentice and teach you further to utilise your powers." Diederick explained and raised his hand and used the force to coat his hand in lightning. The Vulcan visibly flinched and took a step back, but Petra took one forward "Beautiful" she whispered

"With training, it can be" Diederick spoke softly and smiled whilst looking at the plasma dancing around his arm.

After an hour the security forces trudged back to the Sith and formed a neat line in front.

The Sith smiled sadistically and gave them more orders. By the end of the day they were helping one and other to carry each other out. Diederick turned to a tired looking Tuvok "And that's the day done Mr Tuvok." he smiled and said.

"Darth, if you keep this up, we won't have any security forces left... What was the mortality rate at your academy?" Tuvok asked

"I didn't realise you had a dramatic side to you?" Diederick chuckled "No one would die from this. You'll start seeing results in a few weeks' time when your forces can stare death in the face and be able to poke it in the eye" he arrogantly stated.

"Then let's hope that in the meantime nothing happens." Tuvok stated coarsely.

"Don't jinx it then!" Diederick feign an outcry, chuckled and then turned to leave with a very quiet Petra in tow.

When they reached their quarters, Petra turned to Diederick "I'm not looking forward to that training" she said tirelessly. This made the Sith heartily laugh "I'm positive you'll be fine, you just need to build up stamina both physically and with the force, that is the point of it." Diederick smiled "How's your homework coming along?" Petra grimaced "It's hard not to feel small in a galaxy so big"

"We are a special few that can change the fate of a galaxy, maybe not alone but we can spearhead a wave of change that will allow our names to be remembered long after we have passed." Diederick explained with a smile that made her blood run cold.

"Starfleet seems a little stagnant, peace for a time is good to expand but too much peace leads to arrogance, corruption and divided goals. They're using ships that were new over one hundred years ago. I don't really understand why" Petra brought the Sith back on topic.

"I noticed that too; are they so technically advance that they don't see the need to upgrade ship designs anymore?" Diederick asked rhetorically and then looked at Petra "How're the voices now?" he asked.

"They're still there, whispering, telling me to kill" She spoke honestly, she trusted him without hesitation. When he told her that she wasn't alone. It was as if she had been drowning in the middle of an ocean and she had now finally been thrown a life ring. She was going to cling to this chance as her life depended on it. Diederick saved her from deaths clutches at the last possible moment. He had given her this second life, one amongst the stars and told her that she was important and special and was, somewhat, willing to train her to use this mysterious and mystical powers that only they seemingly had access to.

"The force is like that; it echoes and mimics your memories. The trick is to unleash that hatred on your enemies, not to lose yourself in it or else the force will consume you entirely." Diederick said sagely like he was remembering old memories. Petra looked at him and noticed his eyes steadily turning a deeper shade of red. The voices in her head were starting to shout and scream at her to run away. After a few moments they went back to a normal colour and her voices went back to a whisper.

"Keep up with your reading, I'm looking forward to when you can start your training" he said with an evil grin and went into his room, leaving Petra there in a cold sweat.