NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33: The Gates of Infinity
Summary: Poor Celeste doesn't quite know what to do with Mei...
Chapter 33: The Gates of Infinity
Celeste Morne was unaccustomed to people. That was, she had begun to realize in the last several months, simply a slightly depressing fact of her life. As a Shadow she had certainly interacted with plenty of people. But she'd near-universally considered those people as either targets or means to find/reach a target. Other Jedi, even other Shadows who had belonged to the main Jedi Order rather than the Jedi Covenant whose fate she still knew nothing of, might have interacted with at least other Jedi regularly. But Celeste had rarely interacted with others outside the Covenant, and those few rarely for long. That had been the whole point in their secret group, after all. Few had even known Morne existed, freeing her from the scrutiny of the main Jedi Order.
Given those truths, she'd found herself woefully unprepared to attempt to wrangle someone like Mei.
Even after a few months of experience with the young force of nature, of watching Izuku manage to direct and redirect the girl's genius with seeming ease, Celeste simply hadn't been prepared. To her utter exasperation, Mei had managed to take apart several secondary systems of Shades of the Past when Celeste wasn't looking. Worse, given that every single one of those same systems worked better after she put them back together, she'd found it extremely difficult to explain to Mei why she shouldn't keep doing it. In the end, she'd had to engage in a tactical retreat and use a trick she'd observed with amusement when Izuku did it…
She'd mentioned a series of systems she thought could be better and let the young woman victimize them.
It had meant doing without a few non-critical systems at a time…and the food prep unit was now a total loss since it had exploded. But, on the whole, it had kept Mei from tearing apart anything important. Much as she was reluctant to admit it, it had even resulted in a 3 percent increase in power to their maneuvering thrusters. Which, given that Mei hadn't actually worked on the maneuvering thrusters at any point, gave Celeste a migraine just thinking about. Somehow, working on the water reclamation system had resulted in excess power that now went to the thrusters, which had apparently been powered to less than full capacity previously.
Celeste wasn't used to people. Mei was an exasperating person. And she was so done with this mission before it had even really gotten started. Thankfully, they'd also just dropped out of hyperspace in the system that was practically singing to her senses that she needed to be there. She tried not to flinch as Mei, thankfully not taking something apart at the moment, hummed and tapped a control from where she was seated at the co-pilot's station.
"Warning beacon! Lots of languages! Hmmm, it's a Jedi thing though!"
Quirking her eyebrow at that, Celeste shifted a copy of the other woman's readout to her own screens. A careful read of the repeating message caused her to frown.
"An interdiction warning? Over 300 years old, too. Though it looks like it was renewed a couple of decades ago."
Mei had started tapping more keys, focused on the scanning systems thankfully. Celeste knew she was a mechanical and computer genius, but the girl certainly wasn't rated to fly.
"Weapons platforms in orbit of the fourth planet. Pointed both out and in. They're old as shit, but still active. The Jedi gave this interdiction some teeth."
That was…not a good sign. While she didn't know that much about the policies of the Jedi Order that currently existed, the only worlds she knew had been interdicted by the Order of her own time were Sith Throne Worlds. Korriban and a few others in its sector. For this world, Dathomir as the warning beacon labeled it, to been officially interdicted, and to have remained so for centuries? It probably meant there either had been or still was some major Dark Side presence on the planet. Setting them on a low-powered approach that would get them to the planet eventually, but not for half a day unless they sped up considerably, Celeste leaned back, intending to meditate. Right before she started, she jerked as she remembered Mei's presence. Right, better to give the girl something to focus on first.
"See if you can find us a way through the interdiction satellites without getting shot down, please. I will attempt to ascertain through the Force where, exactly, we need to go. A planet is still a large place to search."
Mei, thankfully, hummed happily as she acknowledged the task. Still a little leery of leaving her unmonitored, Celeste nevertheless closed her eyes and focused on reaching out through the Force, attempting to discover something useful about why they were here. It was always a bit tricky to keep track of time when one fully immersed oneself in the Force, something which had only become worse since she awoke to a galaxy where the Force was turbulent and dark. A veil of shadow lay across it, an oily taint that was fouler, in a way, even then her faint memories of Exar Kun's campaign.
Thankfully, Master Fay had taught her a few tricks to help her navigate through these new shadows. Celeste had rapidly come to respect the Jedi Master to an extent previously held only for the founder of her own sect, Krynda Draay. Fay's methods proved themselves effective again as she started to pry her way through the currents of the dark, making slow progress. Yet, despite having a better starting point on doing so than most, in the form of stark memory of the Force as it once was, it was still difficult. So much so that, by the time she opened her eyes again and pointed…she was startled to discover they were already in high orbit above the planet.
Not questioning it for the moment, she quickly marked out the zone of the planet she was being pulled toward, before looking around for Mei. She found the girl sprawled over the rear jump seats of the cockpit, happily tinkering with something Celeste could only hope wasn't important. Clearing her throat, she sighed when that didn't work and instead flicked the girl's ear with the Force. Mei yelped and quickly looked up toward her with a wounded expression.
"Mei, how long has it been. And how did we get into orbit without being shot down?"
Mei shrugged, before looking over at the wall chronometer.
"Sixteen hours? We've been in orbit for three. The security on those satellites is horribly out of date. It didn't take long for me and the pair of slicer astromechs we brought to cut us false identification. The satellites think we're authorized to be here, so they won't bother us."
Well, that much made sense, at least. If the last update to the interdiction satellites had been decades ago, then whatever security systems they ran on likely had known flaws by now. That did beg the question of just what Mei had been doing with the rest of the time, but the Force was now conveying a sense of urgency that gave Celeste a perfectly reasonable excuse not to ask. Which, frankly, was the best news she'd had in days.
Instead, she focused on what she was getting from the scanners as she took the controls and accelerated toward the area the Force was now very insistently urging her towards. Disconcertingly, the Force felt almost angry. That wasn't quite right. It wasn't truly an emotion. But it certainly felt like something was going on that it did not approve of. The feeling was more than enough to speed Celeste's hands as she took them into a steep descent, following the pull of the Force.
"Something is wrong. Very wrong. The Force is practically screaming, and…"
Celeste cursed as they dropped low enough for the sensors to get them a visual of the ground and she spotted the problem. A half dozen women, riding rancors of all things, were harassing and herding a group of blue, bipedal lizards. What could have been a simple herding operation took on a far darker tone both visually and in the Force as the many-times-magnified images showed a red lightwhip striking out at one of the lizards, the local Force was roiling with Darkside energy as other rancor-riders were harrying the lizards with the Force. Sith, or at least a Darkside Force Cult of some kind! And, now that she was close enough, she could feel in the force that those Lizards were either sentient or semi-sentient. She didn't know why they were so important, but she knew what the Force was demanding of her.
"I have to stop those women! They are Darkside users. Mei! I'll have to leave the ship to you, there's no time to land properly! You'll have to…"
Mei interrupted her by reaching for the weapon controls…to an entirely new control that hadn't been there when Celeste sunk into the Force. Even as she instinctively reversed thrust, countering their descent into the hover she'd intended to use to leave the ship from, Celeste gaped as a stream of heavy repeating laser fire tracked over the rancor riders. Two of the six went down with their mounts, and it was only when Mei spoke that Celeste snapped out of it.
"Well? Go! Keep the lizard things stay safe from the Villains! Are you are a Hero or not?!"
Still confused but jolted into action by Mei's words, Celeste locked in their hover and leapt to her feet. The ship rocked as Force Telekinesis struck it from multiple directions, the Darksiders on the ground trying to fight back. But they were disoriented and disorganized, unable to shift the ship enough as its autopilot fought back with the engines and repulsors.
Then Celeste was airborne, dropping from the ship's already-opened ramp, another thing Mei must have done from her place in the cockpit. Her lightsaber ignited in midair and she caught an angry cry of 'Jedi' from the now-dismounted woman with a lightwhip. Only three of the original six riders were still up, none of them mounted, and Celeste could now see that somehow Mei had installed a belly-gun. A Heavy Repeating blaster that looked a bit cobbled together but was nevertheless spitting out a stream of ground-effect fire that was trying to draw beads on the Darksiders. It wasn't working any longer, but it was keeping them separated, and that spelled doom for the three women faced with a wrathful Jedi Master.
Celeste didn't let her surprise keep her from flowing through new attacks, even as the primitive sword her first victim managed to block with actually worked to block her lightsaber. She was far, far superior to the woman in swordsmanship and took her head off on the third blow, absentmindedly deflecting a telekinetically thrown boulder from another of the Darksiders as she did. She's spent far too much time sparring with Izuku recently to be even mildly inconvenienced by the stream of follow up rocks that woman launched, though the lightwhip of her third opponent was slightly more of a nuisance.
It was an uncommon weapon, which Celeste had no real experience against, and the woman clearly knew how to use it. Yet, for all that, she was utterly outmatched by Celeste's use of the Force. The moment the telekinetic rock-thrower was forced to flee her cover as Mei appeared on the ramp of the ship and fired a rocket launcher at her, Celeste used the moment to take a dirty trick out of Izuku's playbook. She grabbed her opponent's clothes…and viciously tugged upward with the Force.
The woman squeaked as all that leather she was wearing suddenly meant an atomic wedgie, which distracted her long enough for Celeste to disarm her and plunge her lightsaber right into the woman's no-doubt vile and black heart. Her last opponent tried to run, but Celeste was a Jedi Shadow. Hunting Darksiders was her purpose and she wouldn't let the woman escape. Even one of the Rancors, still alive despite being peppered by blaster bolts, didn't deter her as it proved surprisingly loyal to its rider. Rancor and Darksider both went down in quick succession, and the battlefield slowly stilled.
An explosion from the ship broke the sudden silence and caused her to look up. She groaned as she saw what had happened, reaching up to massage her forehead as she saw the smoking ruin of the belly-gun which had apparently decided that quiet moment was the right time to explode. Sighing, but not having the heart to complain given it had helped, she turned to a sheepish looking Mei…then stopped as she realized that one of the Blue Lizards was cautiously approaching. The others had all scattered. But this one, for some reason, had stayed. Though it was obviously leery of her weapon. Feeling it out with the Force, she quickly turned off her lightsaber and put it away, making a gesture of peace toward the being.
The lizard calmed completely, approaching within touching distance of Celeste, who was bemused to feel the Force encouraging her to link with it? Reaching out to it with the Force, she couldn't quite seem to do what the Force wanted her to at first. She frowned and tentatively reached out to touch the creature's forehead. Abruptly, the connection snapped into place and she saw.
Through the Kwi, as she now knew it to be, Celeste saw the condensed history of a people known as the Kwa. She saw as they spread to the stars, settled other worlds, and then warred with another race. A race of Darkside slavers that wiped out their empire, but whom were unable to gain access to the Kwa's Star Temples, and the Gates of Infinity through which the Kwa had built their Empire. The dying Kwa had shut down the Temples, trapping them heavily and placing giant predatory worms to guard them, even as something caused then to devolve into the Kwi. Celeste witnessed as new Darksiders, Nightsisters the Kwi whispered, unburied a temple but died to the traps. How they forced slaves to dig deep, trying to bypass the temple to the gate itself. How they captured the Kwi and cut off their paws to bypass lock after lock, seeking to…
Celeste reeled away from the Kwi as she realized what these Nightsisters were up to. The Infinity Gates had been a weapon as well as a means of travel. And one of them resided on the surface of Coruscant. The Darkside Cultists, for that's all she could consider the fools, were attempting to use the main gate buried here on Dathomir, the Kwa homeworld, to send a wave of Infinity Energy through that gate that would Destroy the Capital Planet of the Republic. This was what the Force was drawing her here for. Planetary level destruction created wounds in the Force. It was something the Jedi, at least of her time, had known from brutal experience with the Sith. And Coruscant was the single most heavily populated planet in the galaxy. If the Nightsisters succeeded…
Celeste braced herself, regathering her mind from the tumult of information. She reached back for the Kwi, connecting with it gently.
"Thank you, my friend. I will ensure they do not succeed."
The lizard seemed to weigh her promise for a long moment, the nodded its head…and sent her the path that would let her through the temple. Thanking the semi-sentient being again, she watched as it left, then stirred herself to action. Mei had, at some point, managed to land the ship and was fussing over the destroyed belly-gun. Not trying to fix it, Celeste thought. Just trying to dismantle it so the ship's panels could close properly again.
Sighing, she collected the Lightwhip that the Nightsister in charge of this group had used, and began planning what to do about the others. There were, apparently, entire clans of them. Though, there were, according to the Kwi, far more numerous clans of Lightside wielding 'witches' as well. No wonder the Jedi order had interdicted the planet. So many Force Users in one place, and split into primitive clans using both sides of the Force in wars with each other. She wasn't sure why the Order hadn't tried to help the locals wipe out the Nightsisters, then educated the others. But she wasn't likely to find out either, unless the locals knew.
For now, she just had to figure out what to do with this mess.
... ...
Celeste sat across from the Matriarch of the Singing Mountain Clan with a feeling of considerable disgruntlement. Knowing she might need aid to truly be rid of the threat the Nightsisters posed, the Force had directed her to this clan…who had reacted poorly to her lightsaber. They had at least allowed her to speak to the Matriarch when she explained about fighting the Nightsisters, and it was from the Matriarch that she had learned precisely why the Jedi had interdicted the planet. Apparently, the local leadership did know.
Apparently, roughly 300 years previously, the Jedi had lost a training ship here to a crash…and been repulsed violently by the native Force users when they tried to retrieve it. If the Matriarch was to be believed, there were over 5,000 Force using women, only women, on the planet. And that was exclusive of the Nightsisters. With those sorts of numbers, it was completely understandable why the Jedi had pulled back, only Grandmaster Yoda returning to the planet to negotiate with the locals. A peaceful end to the affair had resulted, which is the only reason Celeste hadn't been attacked outright. But the training vessel, the Chu'unthor, had not been retrieved.
Celeste could make a reasonable guess at the rest of the story. With the local society being matriarchal to the point that males were outright slaves, and the numbers involved, there had been no chance to try 'educating' the locals into joining the Jedi Order. And no need for it, either, when the vast majority of the local clans were purely lightside users.
Even in her time, there had been occasional groups of Force Users not aligned with either the Jedi or Sith. Though she admittedly had never heard of any that were as numerous as those here on Dathomir. With the locals not having a high base tech level, she could see the reasoning of the Order. Interdict the planet so no one else gives the Darksiders here a lift off world, then just leave things be. Either permanently, or at least for a century or three until things cooled off and they could try to establish some sort of relationship. The checks on the satellites likely coincided with quiet evaluations by the Jedi of whether or not it was time to try making contact again.
From what she'd seen so far, she didn't really blame the Order that they'd apparently decided against it thus far.
Then again, the Order most likely hadn't known about the Infinity Gates.
The locals, other than the Nightsisters, apparently didn't either, and Celeste was reluctant to tell the warrior-society that one was present here on the planet. She felt the current Jedi Order, for all the faults she had found in it from speaking with Aayla, Fay, and Tholme, had probably made the right choice here. Providing the clans a way off their world was not likely a great decision. Even if she felt the lightsider clans were unlikely to try weaponizing the gate like their dark mirrors were attempting to.
Unfortunately, that left her with a series of unpalatable choices. Take the Nightsisters on alone at poor odds. Sneak past the Nightsisters and hope she and Mei could find a way to permanently disable the central Infinity Gate when even its creators hadn't known how to do so. Or accept this woman's terms in order to get her clan's help in dealing with the Nightsisters. Sighing, she addressed the Matriarch again.
"There is no other trade you would accept? We could easily provide you with droids that would help raise your overall education level, for example."
The Matriarch, a human woman who appeared to be in her forties, smirked and shook her head.
"You should be grateful that I am willing to deal with you at all, outsider. The previous Matriarch, who I replaced only two years ago, would have turned you away outright. As would the Matriarchs of any of the other clans. It is only due to the fact that I am quite progressive, by my own people's standards at least, that I make this offer."
The trouble, of course, was that said offer was problematic.
Sort of.
Potentially.
Certainly for Celeste herself, at least.
Matriarch Augwynne Djo wanted her to take her middle daughter, Allaya Djo, with her off of Dathomir. Where she would spend at least five years with Celeste, learning about the galaxy at large and what Dathomir's place in it was. The young woman in question was nineteen, already a 'promising warrior,' and admittedly seemed quite well-centered in the light side of the Force from what Celeste had seen and sensed when they'd spoken briefly earlier. The young woman was bright, curious, and likable enough…
But Celeste wasn't a teacher.
Also, she was very annoyed that the Force was telling her otherwise and that she really should take the girl along. Seriously, Force, she had only just started getting used to properly interacting with people! Enough so to realize how bad she actually was at it. And now it wanted her to gain a long-term tag-along? One from a society that was likely going to cause her immense headaches if she agreed to this? Why?!
"You do realize that your daughter would be spending most of her time on worlds that don't hold your views regarding men. Most of which actively outlaw slavery as well…and I myself actively work with an organization that helps free slaves the galaxy over."
It was technically true. For the moment, at least. And it was her last real shot at shooting this idea down. Sadly, the Matriarch just smirked and nodded.
"I'm aware of that, yes. But the Singing Mountain Clan didn't elect a progressive Matriarch on accident. While not equals to us, obviously, our men are treated much better than most of the clans. And my Allaya is one of the most even keeled in that regard. It will undoubtedly be strange to her. But to see how such a thing works, if it truly can work, is one of the reasons I wish to send someone to see these things. Allaya is my choice for that."
Celeste bit back the urge to point out that what she did wasn't exactly safe either, and that the woman would be throwing her daughter to the wolves in some ways. She'd already gotten enough of a feel for these women to know it would be taken as an insult. No one lived on a world like this, which was apparently where Rancors were originally from for Sith's sake, without understanding and accepting danger. Sighing, she made her decision.
"Fine. I do not understand why the Force seems to think this is a good idea. But it does, and you clearly won't be dissuaded. In exchange for the Singing Mountain Clan helping me deal with the specific Nightsister clan invading the Star Temple, as well as guarding the Temple from others of their kind afterward, I will take your daughter with me for a period of five years."
The Matriarch smiled with a mix of sharp triumph and genuine happiness.
"Excellent. Let's get down to planning out this assault, then. The leader of the clan you're dealing with is named Zalem. And I'll freely admit she'd a nasty piece of work…"
... ...
Celeste had to admit that the Singing Mountain Clan had been as good as their world, and extremely capable besides. There had been nearly two hundred Nightsisters in the clan they'd faced, with the Singing Mountain Clan choosing to only field the same. Despite that, the battle had gone well. The Shades of the Past had given them an advantage by wiping out the commanders of the Nightsisters with an opening missile strike, which had been coupled with the element of surprise as the Signing Mountain Warrors had snuck up without the use of their Rancor mounts.
With Celeste added to the mix as well, the combination had caused the entire battle to be very lopsided in the Singing Mountain Clan's favor. The Clan had lost a few, of course, and more had needed treatment by the medical droid aboard Shades of the Past. But, overall, it had been an overwhelming victory. None of the Nightsisters had escaped, so far as anyone could tell, and the Singing Mountain's warriors seemed to consider that more than enough reason to celebrate despite their losses.
Celeste had slipped away during those celebrations, heading to the Star Temple. Though she'd annoyingly found herself with a pair of tagalongs. Three, if you included the astromech droid that had come with Mei. Mei had bluntly pointed out that Celeste wasn't the engineering expert between them. While Allaya had apparently been told by her mother to keep an eye on Celeste to make sure she didn't fly off without following through on her deal. As they bypassed the first layer of traps in the Temple, Celeste turned with a stern look to their witch tagalong.
"I will let you follow, so long as you speak nothing of what you see beyond this point. The Force brought me here because those Nightsisters were intent on waking an ancient weapon in this Temple. One that can destroy planets. I am here to make sure it never wakes again, but it is best that no one knows it is here at all. Do you understand?"
Allaya gaped at her, struggling under the immense pressure in the Force that Celeste had brought to bear even as she explained. To the woman's credit, she managed to muster her strength to push back against the weight of that presence after a few moments. Even more to her credit, she visibly considered Celeste's words before she spoke.
"I do. My mother had wondered why a Jedi was concerned over Nightsisters. I will tell her only that there was a threat of the Darkside here to the greater galaxy and you were sent to prevent them acquiring it. I will tell no others anything at all."
Celeste considered the woman for long moments, then nodded. In truth, leaving the Matriarch's curiosity unsatisfied on that point was likely more dangerous than not. So long as the details didn't spread, and the woman thought the Infinity Gate only a dangerous weapon, it should be fine. Hopefully, Mei wouldn't blurt out its actual nature. Celeste was…holding out on hoping for that. She'd tried to explain that to Mei. But Mei was…Mei. Celeste was beginning to suspect no one but Izuku could actually predict her, and even he could only do so partially. Even the Force has limits. A wry and mildly heretical thought that probably wouldn't have settled into Celeste's mind so easily before having to deal with her companion's Meiness for the last week.
The path to bypass the traps wasn't an easy one, and more than once Celeste was forced to sink deeply into the Force to make sense of the subtly etched words and signs that marked the way. Even if they had technically allowed for it, the Kwa had clearly not truly intended for the Temples to be navigated ever again when they'd set the traps in place. Even with the ancestral memories passed to her by the friendly Kwi, it took nearly four hours for the trio to descend into a control room that overlooked the Infinity Gate itself.
To Celeste's surprise, she could feel that the Gate itself was a Force construct, and the control center could be interacted with via the Force in a similar manner to a holocron. It took her only a few minutes to add Galactic Basic to its database, rendering all of the controls readable to her and Mei. Allaya, thankfully, couldn't read Aurebesh. The locals had descended from a mix of Paecian colonists and survivors of an old penal colony of an earlier era of the Republic. The local dialect was more Paecian than Basic, and didn't use Aurebesh at all. Only the fact both sides were Force Users and fully capable of using Comprehend Language had eased communication…which was another annoying issue Celeste was going to have to deal with. At least the local language had enough similarities to Basic that Allaya would pick it up quickly. And for now, the fact that Comprehend Language didn't work on holographic displays was a boon.
"Mei? Can this place be permanently shut down or destroyed?"
The young woman had immediately begun to investigate once Celeste had translated the displays, and Celeste had given her several minutes before asking the question. One she had to repeat after poking the pinkette in the shoulder the way she'd seen Izuku do. Mei blinked back at her and frowned.
"Why would you want to destroy it? This is amazing! We could…" Mei cut off as Celeste frowned and darted her eyes to Allaya. "…I don't think it can be destroyed. Not without a lot of risk. But I think it could be diverted."
Celeste cocked an eyebrow, demanding an explanation. She'd sensed a bit of a lie to Mei's words. There was a way to destroy the Gate. But there was enough inherent risk that it had only been half a lie. Something that Celeste's training as a Shadow let her pick up on, but that she doubted Allaya could have.
"There are decent number of surviving Star Temples and the system was designed in such a way that a Gate can be, for lack of a better description, removed from the network. Mostly in case maintenance was needed, I suspect, even if the fact it's still working says a lot about how unlikely it was to need it. While this Gate was the central Hub, even it can be removed from the network, with control being transferred to another Temple. If we pick one on a world no one is aware of, we can shift the control of the network there. Lock access behind an encryption key for good measure, and we can be sure it won't be used anytime soon. Bury the Temple on that world later, if it isn't already, if you want to be really sure."
Celeste pursed her lips. Mei was up to something. That much she was certain of. It wasn't even particularly hard to guess at what. Either she wanted to study the Gate to understand how it worked…or she thought they would be a useful way to move around the galaxy unnoticed. Personally, Celeste suspected it was more the curiosity angle that drove Mei's own thoughts. But the idea of a backdoor into any number of star systems had merit, given their current long-term plans. After a moment of consideration, she nodded.
"Bring up a map of the currently active temples that we could transfer control to."
Mei gave her a happy smile and did as requested. A few moments later, Celeste had to suppress a low whistle. While the network Mei displayed was showing over eighty percent of the gates inactive…even the twenty percent that remained accounted for dozens of far-flung systems. Some of them were even in what were now considered the Unknown Regions, meaning that the Kwa Empire had likely controlled a chunk of those in their day. Interesting, but not quite relevant at the moment. Celeste took a meditative breath and fell into a half-trance, asking the Force for guidance on which system to transfer control of the network too…
There.
Felucia, huh. Well, Celeste had never heard of the world, but the Force seemed sure that the Star Temple there was the right place to send control. She relayed as much to Mei, who happily started on the task. Celeste was pretty sure the younger woman was just happy at the thought she might be able to study it more later.
Even as she felt the Force tell her that, with this action, she was finally done with this mess, Celeste's eyes lingered on one more world that the Gate network still connected to. Half numb with disbelief as she recognized the name of the long-lost world.
Tython…
... ... ... ... ...
A/N: So...bet no one was expecting a 5,000+ words chapters from Celeste's perspective, huh? Don't worry, that won't be very common. However, this particular incident was one of the reasons I brought Celeste into the story in the first place. Originally, the person to solve that crisis was Quinlian Vos (Aayla's former master)...who I killed off with my opening alterations to the timeline.
Celeste doesn't exist in this story PURELY to take care of some of the issues he should have. But it IS one of the reasons I brought her in. Her skills are obviously going to be majorly useful elsewhere. But this issue on Dathomir that Quinnlan originally handled was one I explicitly intended her to handle from the start. It also served as a way to give some insight/development to her character. Also, I found the idea of her having to deal with Mei on her own funny ;-)...