Siri sat astride a chair, planting her hands on her knees. "Don't be so poetic. It's just a planet."

"More than a planet," Obi-Wan said, gazing at the chart. "A source of evil that still calls evil to come meet it."

"I don't believe that," Siri said. "It's just a place where some old Sith bones lie."

"The Valley of the Dark Lords," Obi-Wan said. They had heard of the valley from their earliest days as students at the Temple, had used tales of the valley to scare each other as younglings. "The dark side of the Force still lives in that valley. Korriban has never recovered from the Sith occupation. That was thousands of years ago, and yet the planet has never formed a government or attracted settlers. It's not part of the galactic alliance. It has never joined the Senate."

Siri rose to study the holo-chart more closely. "Even freighters won't stop there," she murmured. "And freighters stop everywhere." As she moved to the opposite side of the chart, briefly, the image of Korriban was reflected on her face. She shuddered and moved away.

Siri sat back down opposite Obi-Wan. "The Commerce Guild has opened an office there," she observed.

"They're offering incentives to get corporations to open branches in the Dreshdae spaceport," Obi-Wan said. "I've been studying the files. Of course it is a world with no taxes, and that's a Commerce Guild issue, but it's still strange."

"They are just trying to gain influence on major corporations," Siri said. "Keep them in their backyard so they can control them. It's the same old dance."

"But Korriban?" Obi-Wan mused. "There has to be a reason… the Sith might be behind it, even if the Commerce Guild doesn't know it."