(fic) KOTOR excerpts

[machievelli]

If you are coming back to read reading this after any length of time, stop, go back, and start over. The piece is in the editing stage of this week, (1st April) not five or six months ago. I have finally deleted all of the older posts, and everything after halfway through post ten is stuff no one beyond a few close friends has seen.

 

I would like at least one comment from someone before I continue.

 

I hope you enjoy it...

[machievelli]

16 views in the last week, and no comments?

 

Whimper...

[Char Ell]

^^^

Well, it took a while to read everything from the beginning again.

Taris was a pearl, with layers of beauty, and inside the filth that began it all.

An apt image to sum up the planet Taris. I really liked this sentence.

 

The Sith merely drew his sidearm, and shot the protester. “That is how we Sith deal with smart mouthed aliens! Now up against the wall before I lose my temper again!”

This works but I thought I should point out the fact that in the game this Sith soldier used a blaster rifle.

 

Besides, there’s at least two of the Interdictor class cruisers in orbit, and a dozen smaller ships.

Were Interdictor class ships in use in 4,000 BBY?

 

Why did you place the rakghoul serum in the Black Vulkar base instead of on the dead Sith trooper's body in the Undercity (where it's located in-game)?

 

“Yes. He put me in a Bacta tank for an hour or so, and I’m fine now.”

Are you sure you want to use the term Bacta tank instead of kolto like the game uses?

 

This is a very good story. I like how you've added some enhancements like the Taris Undercity plant and it's relationship to the Rakghoul disease. The underground tram to the "Promised Land" and additional background detail about what the "Promised Land" is and how it came into existence is also a nice touch. I also like how you've handled relating the dream sequences. All in all quite an enjoyable read.

[Alkonium]

Were Interdictor class ships in use in 4,000 BBY?

Yes, they were. The Leviathan was an Interdictor-class Cruiser. And technically, Kotor is set in 3,956 BBY, not 4,000 BBY.

[Char Ell]

^^^

Hmmm, so the Interdictor ship class has been present in the SW timeline for 4,000+ years? Seems like quite a long time to have a class called by the same name...

 

EDIT: I looked up the starwars.com databank entry for the Leviathan and it does state that the Leviathan was "the vanguard of interdicting technology" but it doesn't say it was an Interdictor-class ship. Meh. I'm probably just splitting hairs on this one...

http://www.starwars.com/databank/starship/leviathan/index.html

 

EDIT 2: I stand corrected. 3956 BBY it is.

[machievelli]

^^^

Well, it took a while to read everything from the beginning again.

An apt image to sum up the planet Taris. I really liked this sentence.

 

This works but I thought I should point out the fact that in the game this Sith soldier used a blaster rifle.

 

Were Interdictor class ships in use in 4,000 BBY?[/quote=cutmeister]

 

The Interdictor is not really a class, it is a type. If you look in a listing of ships, you will find anti-submarine vessels, anti-aircraft vessels (The Atlanta Class Light cruisers from WWII come to mind) and anit-shipping vessels.

 

Why did you place the rakghoul serum in the Black Vulkar base instead of on he dead Sith trooper's body in the Undercity (where it's located in-game)? [/quote=cutmeister]^^^ Literay license. I didn't want to introduce a spoiler.

 

^^^

Are you sure you want to use the term Bacta tank instead of kolto like the game uses?[/quote=cutmeister]

 

I don't see kolto as a type of bacta. What I envisioned was a large spectrum antibiotic and analgesic. Sort of like taking sulfa drugs and penicillin, and mixing in bacitracin ointment. Besides, Bacta does not come from Manaan.

[machievelli]

Danika

 

Break into a base, fight who knows how many guards, find the launch codes, then get into the Lowercity past yet more guards in the midst of a serious battle? Sure no problem.

 

It seemed to be my day for impossible missions.

 

I walked back toward the apartment. I had to leave someone behind, but who? I was dealing with two serious prima donnas here.

 

I decided I would leave Carth. He could inform the others of what we were doing, and at least he and Mission got along. I signaled for him to move closer, and gave him his instructions. He looked pensive. Probably wanted to keep his eye on me even now. “Maybe we should finish our discussion.”

 

He stiffened. “I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”

 

“Well I do.”

 

“Listen sister, just because were working together doesn't mean you get to poke and prod at me every chance you get!”

 

“So we have another problem?”

 

“Blast it, you are the most stubborn and frustrating woman I have ever met!”

 

“I’m frustrating? Look who’s talking!”

 

“What? Me? What did I do?”

 

“What, you stepped out for a drink and sandwiches for the last few days? Where have you been that you don‘t remember all the crap I‘ve had to take from you?”

 

“Okay, I give up. I’ll talk!” He sighed, and inside of him I felt a pustule of hate burst. “I could really use someone to talk to about it.” She watched me silently. “When I think of everyone who betrayed us, the one that stands out above all the others is Saul.”

 

“Saul? You say that name like I should know it.”

 

“You don’t? I thought everyone did. Saul Karath is the Admiral commanding the entire Sith fleet now. He’s the reason Malak has done so well since Revan died.

 

“But he didn’t start there. He was the first officer I reported to back when I joined during the Mandalorian wars. He was only the exec of a Frigate then, an old man who had been passed over because he didn’t have the right connections, but he was going up the promotion ladder fast since the Mandalore wars started. He took a green kid under his wing, and taught me everything I know about how to fight. When he transferred to his own ship, he took me along. Then it was Admiral Karath, and I was still there, now as command pilot for his ship. I looked up to him, and he betrayed me. He’s up there now with that very ship. Leviathan.

 

“I was transferred home for a while there. Revan and Malak had taken the fleet out on a deep space recon, looking for any remaining Mandalorian holdouts. Three years ago they came home.

 

“He approached me right before he went over. I had just been recalled because of the first Sith attacks. He talked about how the Republic was weak, how it was going to fall unless the strong took the lead. He told me that if it came to that fight, I should be on the winning side.” I shrugged. “I didn’t think about it until later, but I heard later that he was sounding out a lot of the officers aboard. He was trying to get me to join him. Me, I was home, I was happy, and I was sick of fighting. We fought, he left. That was the last time I saw him.”

 

“But you didn’t think he would betray the Republic.”

 

“Saul was my mentor. Before the Jedi joined us he was in the front of every battle, and he brought us through even when it looked hopeless. After all the men that had died under his command, all of the battles he had won, I couldn’t see him turning his back on what he had stood for.

 

“He did though. Worse yet he gave them the access codes to the planetary shield grid. I was assigned to the fleet there, and saw the waves of bombers and fighters coming in unnoticed and unopposed when we arrived. I knew then how they had pulled it off. We fought, and lost.” I felt my eyes burn. “I could have saved them if I had killed Saul before he betrayed us, before he betrayed me! But I didn’t.”

 

“So you blame yourself for trusting your friend.”

 

“I blame Saul! I was... I was naive. I ignored the danger such a man could be on the other side. He nearly destroyed us all.

 

“I’ve fought him for years now. If I ever meet him face to face I am going to make him regret what he’s done with his dying breath.”

 

“That isn’t all.”

 

“It is for now.”

 

We reached the apartment. I made sure Carth had his communicator on, and Bastila and I left again. We went to North City. The droid shop was where I had been told it was, and I entered. There was the smell of burning insulation, and A Twi-lek was cursing in her own language behind a counter.

 

I called her, and she came out. “Canderous sent me!”

 

“Ah! For the little droid.” She went into the back, and a little wheeled astromech droid rolled out. “As specified, the droid is disguised as an astromech, but it has several features. Weapons!” A blaster popped out of a panel in it’s front. Two other tubes lifted one to either side of its dome. “A shield disruptor and a stun beam. All I had for installed weaponry unfortunately. It also has a full security and encryption package as requested.”

 

“Good. How much.”

 

“Two thousand.”

 

I winced, but Davik was a big man, and would have paid without complaint. I pulled out the coins, dropping them into her palm. “Hey, big spender! Well, he’s all yours. T3M4, go with her.”

 

The droid whistled, dome turning to lock onto my face. It beeped quizzically at me. Janice handed me a small com screen. “I didn’t install voice circuits, but you can read what he says here. It attaches on the wrist.”

 

I looked at the screen

 

-Can you get me out of this shop before she thinks of more modifications?-

“I laughed. “Let’s go T3.”

 

 

He whistled. -Good finally somewhere else-

 

Bastila and I walked across the concourse past the elevator that led down to Bek territory. It opened, and half a dozen wounded were carried out. We followed as those were taken to a shuttle that then lifted off. The battle was still raging down below.

 

The door to the base was unguarded, and I leaned against the wall beside it. Watching the shuttle take off. Another was coming down to take its place. “T3, Open this door.”

 

He bleeped at me, rolling forward. An arm extended, and he stretched his frame upward until it linked to the lock plate. There was a clicking sound, and the arm retracted, the door opening. I walked past him into the elevator.

 

There was a Twi-lek at the receptionist’s desk, and her eyes widened when she saw us. “You’re not supposed to be here!” She looked at the desk, probably at an alarm button.

 

“Wait, you really don’t want to be here in the next few minutes. Maybe you can take a lunch break?” I flashed a 50-credit coin.

 

She grinned. “As long as you let me out of here before all hell breaks loose!” I flipped her the coin, and she took off running.

 

“T3!” The little droid rolled forward, and inserted the arm into a slot. I watched the screen.

 

-Four concentrations of life forms. War droids patrolling halls. Heavy combat droid in the elevator. Blaster turrets in elevator and armory-

 

“Can you gas them?” I asked.

 

-Negative. However two concentrations of guards are in rooms where I can blow access panels and remove them-

 

“Do it.”

 

-Complying. Done-

 

“Now take the droids down.”

 

-Query, take down? -

 

“Deactivate.”

 

-Understood. War droids in diagnostic cycle. Will remain for ten minutes. Heavy combat droid systems can be reached, but only force field can be deactivated. That has been done. Turrets have been shut down-

 

“Now download a base schematic.”

 

He did so, and I checked the screen. There were four Sith in a room right off the reception area, five in a control room. Red markers noted the presence of light blaster turrets now deactivated.

 

I motioned for Bastila to follow, and ran to the door. It opened, and we were among the enemy. I cut one down, turned to another, and hacked him down as well. Bastila had shoved the officer in uniform into a console, and he whimpered as his back broke. T3 calmly shot the last one.

 

I put the officer out of his misery, and we ran down the hall. It opened into a vaguely triangular room. There were restraint fields to the side, and the occupied one caught my eye. “You?”

 

The Duros looked at me. “You remember me?”

 

“I remember a brave soul that hid bodies so they wouldn’t be discovered.”

 

“Not well enough. I was captured last night.”

 

“Can we free you?”

 

“The panel on the wall control the cage.” I ran over, and released the field. As it came down, he stumbled out, then ran for the entrance.

 

There were five guards in the section to our left, and I led us that way because it’s stupid to leave an enemy at your back and I didn't want to have to fight every Sith on the planet to escape. The hall opened into a control room, and I froze as I saw a mine laid at the threshold. But T3 rolled forward, and deactivated it. I ran forward toward the center where four people worked at the consoles. Bastila followed me as T3 shot the technician.

 

One of the armored guards reached for his weapons, and was down as I continued my rampage. The other went down, then I turned. Bastila had taken the other two. I motioned and we hurried to the room we had just left to go the other direction. At the end of the hall, I opened the door, then ducked instinctively. The heavy attack droid had been waiting, and only my reaction had saved my life. Bastila reached out, and the droid arched as electricity ran wild through it‘s chassis. Then it sagged and collapsed.

 

I motioned and we went on into the elevator. It was a short trip down, and I readied my equipment as it did. Then it opened into a room. A man in Sith armor, bald head gleaming turned, glaring at us, “Who dares...” He stared at Bastila, then at me with increasing interest. “So there were two of your kind, Bastila. Your master, perhaps?” He drew. “It doesn’t matter, you’re both dead.” He stepped forward, then froze staring at me. “You!” Then he screamed, charging. I felt something hit me in the chest, and somehow stayed on my feet. I blocked his cut, then Bastila slammed him against a wall, cutting him in half before he could fall to the ground.

 

“Me?” I asked.

 

“They recognized you from the race obviously.” Bastila suggested.

 

We searched the room, finally finding the pad with the launch codes. With our timer running down, I led a frantic run back out of the base.

 

T3 had not been able to extend the cycle, so we only had a couple of minutes. I ran down the promenade to the elevator.

 

“No civilians-” The guard started and I rammed the authorization papers I had kept into his face. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know they had extended your contracts.” I walked past him, and opened the door. As the elevator dropped I heard a wailing alarm. I keyed my communicator. “Carth!”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

“The fat is in the fire. We have really heavy crap coming down in the next few minutes. Ready to move?”

 

“Yeah. Mission got into the local database, and we have a shuttle prepped and ready to launch.”

 

“I’m enroute to our meeting with Canderous. Lift off and get ready to head toward Davik‘s estate.”

 

“You mean the big area marked fatal to all incursions?” Mission asked from the background.

 

“Well it’s either that or surrender.”

 

“I take your point.” Mission replied.

 

The area at the base of the elevator was packed with wounded not yet transported. I threaded my way through them, and turned, headed for the cantina. Bastila followed, eyes downcast. Still no one noticed her. I nodded to the doorman, and entered the Cantina.

 

 

Bastila

 

When the Sith apprentice had shouted, I was worried. He tried to throw us back with the force, but she resisted it well, and I had been ready for it.

 

I dealt with him swiftly, and while my answer was lame, she seemed to accept it. We hurried through the maze of paths and finally entered the Lowercity cantina. It was not even close to being as clean as the one above, but the fighting seemed to have kept it busy. Danika moved through the crowd, and there was Canderous.

 

He tapped his earpiece, grinning. “Some piece of work you did girl. Sure you weren’t born among the Mando?”

 

“That I am sure of.” She replied. “All right, we have the codes, now what?”

 

“We walk into Davik’s place, take it down, and grab the ship.”

 

“Is that all?” She asked aghast. “Probably the most heavily fortified place on the planet and he’s going to just let us walk in?”

 

“Davik is always looking for quality talent. As you saw down in the Wasteland, there isn’t much to be had on this backwater flyspeck. That was why he hired me. But he hired some bounty hunter-”

 

“Calo Nord.”

 

“That’s him. He thinks that because he kills retail, he’s as good as one of my people. Better than me!” He snarled. “I’d like to see a hundred of his kind take on just one battle phalanx of Mandalorian recruits!” He snarled, then the emotion was gone. “He watched the swoop race, and thought you looked like a good candidate, especially after the altercation with the Vulkars. He said that if I could contact you, he wanted to offer you a job. I’m just following orders. The way he works he‘ll offer for you to be his guest while he does a background check. If you clear, he hires you. If you don‘t.” He flicked his thumb across his neck.

 

“That might actually work. What about my friends?” I motioned upward.

 

“They can fly in after we get there. The shield extends to the elevators and landing bay. Once they come down, I can transmit the code to open them from outside. Your friends can land right on the pad beside the Ebon Hawk.”

 

Danika nodded. “All right, I’m in. When do we go?”

 

“Right now. I have a skimmer waiting.” He looked at me. “But I bring you, he’s going to be thinking credits big time. The reward has been jumped to 10,000 credits. You had better stay here.”

 

“But-”

 

“No. Danika shook her head. She touched the com on her wrist. “Carth?”

 

“We’re airborne. Headed for the estate.”

 

“Change of plans. You have to pick up Bastila. “ I considered. “The apartments at the West end of the promenade here. Home in on her com unit.”

 

“Next time let’s schedule all the stops first.” He laughed “Mission forgot to go to the bathroom before we left.” I heard Mission squeal at the comment in the background.

 

“Good. Listen in on my unit after picking up Bastila. Canderous is going to give us the code for Davik’s defensive shields.”

 

“Better and better. I’ll be there.”

 

They led me to the apartment complex, and Canderous blew out the window with his heavy blaster. A shuttle dropped down, and I could see Carth coolly gauging the distance. The hatch opened, and Zaalbar was standing there, waving. I leaped, and he caught me, dragging me aboard.

 

The last thing I saw was that frail form waving wordlessly once before she disappeared back into the structure.

 

Leviathan

 

Like a great killing fish, Leviathan swam over the planet. One of the largest ships ever built, the Interdictor cruiser was over 600 meters long, and carried a crew of almost 3000.

 

On the bridge, a man watched the planet below. Darth Malak was in a foul mood. If he had still had teeth he would have been gnashing them. A week wasted on this futile exercise!

 

Admiral Saul Karath came up behind him. He had seen Malak lash out at those that disturbed him when he was meditating, but he had after all been sent for.

 

“You summoned me, Lord Malak?”

 

“Report.”

 

“The men in the Undercity are being routed. We have already lost a hundred or more to those damnable Swoop riders. Who thought a gang of incompetent criminals could be this good at fighting?” He hesitated. “There is also a report that someone attacked our base in the Uppercity. Calan is among the dead.”

 

Malak didn‘t even flinch. One of those vying to be his apprentice had just died, and he didn’t seem to care. “I grow weary of this. Bastila is either dead, or down among the riders. I cannot risk letting her escape. I want the fleet to close in and destroy the planet.”

 

“Sir? But there are billions of innocent civilians down there! Not to mention our own men!” He knew as well as Malak that any attempt to withdraw the troops would be seen as clearing the planet for demolition.

 

Malak turned. His bald head glinted, but the gorget that covered his face below the eyes gleamed even more. “Your predecessor once questioned my orders, Admiral. I trust you are not making the same fatal mistake?”

 

Saul had seen that, the man gasping as his heart had torn from his chest into Malak’s hand. All without a word. “No my lord. However only we are in position to begin such a bombardment. It will take some time, several hours to move the others into an interlocking position.”

 

“Then I suggest you get to it.” Malak turned, dismissing his servant.

 

Estate

 

The run to the estate didn’t take that long. Canderous wasn’t the kind for unnecessary talk. He just sat there as the automated system took us to our destination. T3 had come with us, and he bleeped to himself. I looked at the screen.

 

-How do I get out of this crazy outfit? - I laughed, rubbing my hand across the dome. He burbled, and I looked at the screen again. -OH baby! Right on the sensor! -

 

“Behave.” I said.

 

The screen bleeped, and an automated voice said, “Inbound skimmer, state your authorization or be fired on.”

 

“Now.” He whispered leaning forward. “Authorization 9941210.”

 

I had keyed my com, and it tingled as Carth sent back a silent acknowledgement. The skimmer lifted, and entered a tower near the Western extreme of the city. It dropped to the deck, and powered down. We stepped out, passed through a door, and into a hall. Davik stood there. He was a chubby man in his fifties, hair slicked down. He wore what looked like a suit of heavy armor. “Well, if it isn’t the best swoop rider in twenty years!’ He said. He came forward, shaking my hand firmly. “I’ve seen what you can do and I am impressed.”

 

A man entered from behind Davik and I looked at him. Calo Nord. “Well, you usually work solo Canderous. Getting soft in your old age? Or did her face turn your head?”

 

“Watch your mouth, Calo.” Canderous gritted out. “You may be the newest hound in the pack but you’re not the top dog while I’m still here.”

 

“Guys, let it go. I can’t stand to see my two best men fighting.” He gave me a wry look as if to say ‘boys!’ “So you decided to accept my offer?”

 

“Let’s just say your offer intrigued me.” I replied.

 

“Fair enough. The Exchange is always looking for new talent. You could go far in the organization if you live up to expectations.” He looked at Canderous. “With Canderous’ recommendation and verification that you don’t really work for some law enforcement organization, you could easily become a valued member of the Exchange. There are those that would kill their mothers for such an offer.”

 

“The offer was interesting enough that I am here, Davik.”

 

“Well come along and I’ll show you around.” He motioned for me to walk beside him, leaving Canderous and Calo to follow. He did have a big operation. A warehouse full of goods from all over the galaxy, a room filled with guards and a dozen boxes of glitterstim spice from Kessel. And slaves. I wanted to vomit at that. The slaves looked pathetically willing to please, their slave collars explaining why they were so obedient. Finally we walked through the hanger. I had never seen a JT 4100 up close, and I wasn’t impressed at first glance. I know Carth had enthused about its capabilities, and was impressed by the guns in the turrets, one above and below, and larger bore cannon attached firing forward on her hull port and starboard. “There she is. The newly upgraded Ebon Hawk. Remind me to tell you how I got her later. It’s quite a story.” He led us through a large room that Davik called his ‘throne room‘, then into the guest wing.

 

“These are your accommodations while you are my guest. The house slaves are quartered right down there. If there’s anything you desire, food, drink,” He leered, ‘A massage, your wish is their command.”

 

“Am I a prisoner?”

 

“Perish the thought! Thanks to the law enforcement agencies we have been forced to use deeper background checks than we are used to. That forces us to make the applicants wait. At least I’m not a Hutt! They’d throw you in a dungeon and let you out afterward without even an apology!

 

“Once the background check is done, we’ll talk again. Then I will make you an offer. I would suggest you consider it very carefully when I do.” I could see the cold anger in his eyes. He wouldn’t like having someone turn down his offer! “Until then, I bid you farewell.” He motioned, and left, followed by Calo. The door hissed closed.

 

Canderous growled, then went to the table. He ripped it free of the floor, and slammed it into the wall.

 

“I’ve seen him treat his Kath-hounds better.” He snarled. “Well we’re inside. Ready?”

 

I nodded. I started to reach for my com, but he stopped me. “Davik has every circuit monitored. Any calls from here gets us killed right now.” I nodded again, and opened the door.

 

The hall was empty. “Which way?”

 

“Through the throne room, then left, down the hall to the main security computer, then we blow the door to the hanger, grab the ship and get out of here.”

 

“Where’s the nearest computer?”

 

He looked at me. “Turn right at the throne room. There’s a common terminal there.”

 

“Then we go there first. Hey, T3!” The little droid whistled. “Ready to do some more slicing?”

 

I looked at the screen. -Always ready-

 

We moved through the throne room. There were three guards in the room, and we took them down fast. T3 raced to the terminal, and a blaster bolt just missed singing him. I ran up, through the door that had opened on the right, and took down the guards there.

 

“T3, gas or zap any rooms you can! Then get the hanger door open!” I shouted.

 

The droid worked, then paused, giving a whistle and a few bleeps. -Rooms gassed, most of the life forms are dead. However the codes for the hanger door and access codes for the ship are not in this system-

 

“Who has them?”

 

-Davik Kang, Calo Nord, and a man named Hudrow-

 

“All right, we can’t get to Davik or Calo without entering the hanger, so there is no way to get to them. Where is Hudrow?”

 

-In the ‘guest room’ -

 

“Davik’s torture chamber.” Canderous explained. “What did he do to deserve that?”

 

“Where?”

 

Canderous led me into the throne room, turning right again. We were headed for the spice refinery. The door opened, and I was charging even before I saw the bounty hunter that was patrolling the hall. I killed him. Canderous watched with respect. “You sure you’re not aren’t Mando? Ever been a war bride?”

 

“No. You can explain it later. Where.” He pointed again to the right, and I ran that way. The door opened, and I stared in horror. A man was in a holding cell, and two torture droids were working on him. I charged, Canderous standing behind me to blast one of the droids as I cut the other into scrap. I disengaged the force field, and the man collapsed, gasping in pain.

 

“Thank you.” He gasped.

 

“I couldn’t let you be tortured.” I replied.

 

“Well I pay my debts. I don’t have money, but I do have something of value. I was the pilot of the Ebon Hawk. I have the codes for access to the Ebon Hawk. Hanger, security, all of it. You can take the ship, sell it, ransom it back to Davik.” He laughed. “Or go into business for yourself.”

 

I held up my pad. “What are they?”

 

He spoke, giving the code numbers. When he nodded that he was done, I hefted him to his feet. “You don’t want to be here!”

 

“I know that! Davik was going to kill me when I finished screaming. I’m out of here.”

 

Canderous was merely watching. “All right, we have what we came for. Let’s go!”

 

We had a number of rooms to go through, and we showed no mercy. The Exchange was brutal enough that these men would die rather than surrender or let us pass. I had to assure we had no one able to fight behind us.

 

We reached the security computer, and I entered the code. The monitor flashed HANGER BAY DOOR OPEN.

 

I ran to the door just as the building swayed. “An earthquake?”

 

“Nah. I think those lunatic Sith are blasting the city apart.”

 

The door opened, but we had just run out of luck. Davik and Nord entered from the other section of the estate. “Damn Sith are going to ruin everything! There’s a lot of money to be had here! We’d better get to our ships, Calo-” Davik saw us.

 

“Well, thieves in my hanger! I thought better of you Canderous.”

 

“If you did it wouldn’t have come to this, Davik”

 

“So you expect to just waltz in, steal my ship, and leave me here to die? Sorry, but that isn’t the way it’s going to be.”

 

“Leave him to me, Davik. I’ve been looking forward to it.” Calo said.

 

I threw a frag grenade at Calo, charging him. Better to die fighting him than the bombardment. I expected Canderous to support me, but he yelled, “T3!” And opened fire on Davik instead. The man went down in a welter of blood, and Calo backed away, grabbing something from his vest. I felt horror when I saw the thermal detonator in his fist. “I’m not going to hell alone!” He screamed. I skidded, falling.

 

The scream brought the house down literally. Actually it was a turbolaser bolt that blew through the supports, dropping a section ten meters on a side right on top of where Calo was standing less than half a meter from my legs.

 

Canderous ran up, “we gotta get out of here!”

I thumbed my com. “Carth!”

 

“Inbound! One hell of a storm out here!”

 

I ran to the side of the Ebon Hawk and stared at the distant towers.

 

The sky was raining fire. The city was being leveled by something they couldn’t defend against. I saw a structure hit far below. It shuddered, then like a forest giant it fell, taking smaller buildings with it. “Hurry!”

 

“Clear the path!” Suddenly I saw a shuttle coming toward us. Carth wasn’t slowing down. I yelped, dodging aside, and suddenly it was there, slamming into the pad as Carth hit the retros at the last second. The skids screamed, then ripped loose and the shuttle slammed to the deck on it‘s belly. It rammed into the wall, and I thought they were all dead. But the ramp opened, and Zaalbar was there. He carried a screaming Mission with him and up the ramp, followed by Bastila and Carth.

 

“Well, you coming?” Canderous shouted.

 

I thought of Zelka Forn, who wouldn’t leave his patients this side of their deaths. Gadon and his merry band of lunatics far below in their desperate fight. All the people I had talked to who were or might soon be dead. I wished them all well and flung myself up the ramp.

[Char Ell]

RE: the interdictor stuff - I agree that an interdictor in the SW universe is a type of ship that carries gravity well generators it can employ to pull ships out of hyperspace. It's just when I see people capitalize the first i in interdictor then I assume they are referring to a specific class of ship. For instance, the USS Enterprise and the USS Ronald Reagan are both aircraft carriers (same type) but are different aircraft carrier classes, respectively Enterprise-class and Nimitz-class. In the SW movies you have Venator-class and Imperial Star Destroyers. Both are attack cruisers but are based on different designs. Of course the same rules may not apply in the SW universe but like I said, this is only so much hair-splitting on my part. I just didn't see the Leviathan being of the same design as the movie-era Interdictor-class ships although it is a hyperspace interdictor.

 

“Okay, I give up. I’ll talk!” I sighed, and inside of me I felt a pustule of hate burst. “I could really use someone to talk to about it.” She watched me silently. “When I think of everyone who betrayed us, the one that stands out above all the others is Saul.”

The first passage is from Danika's POV, right? It seems like you switch to relating it from Carth's POV but don't indicate you've made that change anywhere. I had to read the first section's dialogue between Carth and Danika a couple of times before I figured it out.

 

Looking forward to more of the story!

[machievelli]

Have you noticed that I have dinged people when they use improper military terminology? The reason you mentioned is precisely why. As I have mentioned in the critic column I read everything and the military has always been a specific interest.

 

As for the place you mentioned, congratulations! I didn't even notice that little error until you mentioned it. Have a Whatever prize. I have corrected it.

[machievelli]

Leviathan

 

Saul Karath walked up to report to Lord Malak. The ships of the fleet had closed their encirclement, and now hell reigned on that planet. They had started at the edges of the city and worked inward like a harvesting machine, slicing the buildings into ruin, then smashing even that rubble. The last report from the troops that had been sent into the Undercity was a call that they might have trapped the Swoop gang in the sewers when a bolt had obliterated the entire unit. Someone down there has been able to get parts of the planetary defense grid up even through the lockdowns the invaders had installed. That merely drew fire to the protected areas. Others had overwhelmed the guards on the docking bays, and dozens of ships were airborne, heading out.

 

Not that they had a chance really. If they hadn’t already been confiscated, and their pilots given the access codes, they were dead meat. A yacht that cost more than Karath had ever made in his lifetime drew fire from two ships, and pin wheeled back into the atmosphere, burning as friction finished the kill.

 

“Report Admiral.”

 

“Taris is defenseless against our assault. They are offering no resistance. The city is in ruins.”

 

“Maintain the bombardment. I want this pathetic planet wiped from the Galaxy.”

 

“Yes, my lord.” He turned and hurried back to his command console. Three of the ships frantically climbing away from the carnage were marked with the green of friendly ships. Two were shuttles returning from the fighting bearing wounded. But the third...

 

He highlighted it, and brought up the scan information. Mass 200 tons, speed- He blinked. All of the faster ships had been commandeered as couriers. This was faster than anything he had seen in the reports. It should already be in service. But where had it been hiding? He brought up its flight path. Ah yes, the Crime Boss, Davik. He must have had this hidden near his estates.

 

Then his blood ran cold. If Kang’s people had been the ones that had broken into the base, they might have stolen the launch codes. If they had, this was Kang and some of his people trying to escape. He switched to his com system, and painted the second squadron. The fighters had been having a field day, protected by their IFF they had already destroyed a dozen ships. The Second squadron had just started to engage some of the ships that were fleeing, and weren’t too deeply enmeshed.

 

“This is command.” He ordered. “Ship with proper access codes. Believed to have been captured. Destroy it.” He marked the ship with a circle of red.

 

Half of the squadron lifted away from their attack runs, moving first to rejoin, then they turned, and boosted their speed. They would catch the ship in seconds.

 

 

Ebon Hawk

 

Danika

 

Space was as much a hell of fire as the planet. We could see other ships around us being blasted into shards, see the fire of the ships from orbit tearing into them, or into the planet. A pair of fighters had shot past us to savage what looked like a cargo ship. Communications was a mad house. Signals overlapping because everyone was using the same channels. Calls by ships begging the chance to surrender, angry replies from fighter pilots coming in for the kill, and over it all, pleas from people on the ground begging for their lives. I squeezed my eyes closed as tears flowed.

 

Carth was silent, his hands on the controls. We weaved through the mass until we were free. Only the massive ships of the line were in front of us now. He rammed the throttle to the stops, and Ebon Hawk lived up to her reputation. She leaped into a flat out run that shocked me.

 

A destroyer fired at us, but it missed. Her actual target, a ground shuttle someone had somehow gotten into space ripped into pieces.

 

“I didn’t ask before, but where are we headed?” Carth asked. He lowered the nose, and Ebon Hawk ran between the destroyer and a frigate. We were clear of the planet and close orbit, but that merely meant that anyone shooting outward instead of inward had only the one target.

 

“Set course for Dantooine! There’s a Jedi enclave there, and we can seek refuge.” Bastila ordered.

 

“Take the controls!” He shouted.

 

“Got it!”

 

Carth spun, his hands running over the hyper drive controls. An alarm sounded, and he looked up. “Fighters coming through the grid, on our butts.”

 

Bastila looked back at me. “Take the upper gun turret! Keep them off us until we can leap into hyper drive!” She spun as I ran aft. “Canderous! Take the lower turret!”

 

I reached the ladder, and climbed. The turret was in zero G, which made climbing into the chair easier. I buckled in, flicking the line of switches that brought the targeting system on line. Everything was automatic, I had done this on ships throughout my career. There was a mass of red dots approaching fast from astern. I unlocked the traverse, and pulled the handles, spinning the turret to aim behind us. “Ready!” I shouted.

 

“Ready.” Canderous drawled. I checked the scan data. They were right there! I saw them even as I began firing. A fighter exploded, and the ship shuddered as they made their pass, bolts rocking us. I spun the turret to follow, a second fighter rolling frantically as a near miss clipped a control surface. It dived to get away from me, and Canderous blasted it to scrap. The forward firing guns joined mine as I continued the spin, and fired at the four remaining fighters as they swooped outward like scraps of metal from an explosion. As units they made larger targets. But as individuals, they had more options.

 

I spotted one swooping toward our stern, and spun the turret. I estimated its speed, deflected my aim, and fired. The fighter exploded. I spun back, lifted the guns and caught another as it began its run. I saw another dot vanish, Canderous was covering his area. The last was wary. We were a little too deadly for him to attack, but he had his orders. He charged in from starboard, staying exactly on our centerline. Both of us fired at him, but he came in until he was too close for the guns to bear. A good pilot could maintain that, only turning to fire and turn back out immediately. It was tricky, but I had heard of some that good. But there was a counter.

 

“Bastila, hard to starboard 90 degrees on my mark... Mark!”

 

She did as I instructed. The fighter turned into us, bolts shattering some of the hull metal, and was gone. Unfortunately for him he turned to his starboard side, toward our bow even as Bastila made the turn. The forward firing guns ravened as he flew into their zone, and the fighter blew into scrap.

 

“Ready for hyper jump!’ Carth shouted, and I felt the surge as the hyper drive cut in. The stars became for an instant lines etched in the sky, then there was the swirling glow of hyperspace.

 

 

Ebon Hawk:

 

Enroute to Dantooine

 

We were all stunned by what we had seen. Even Carth who had seen it before. Planets have been bombed into rubble before, but that had been when active resistance was being suppressed. Taris wasn’t resisting the attack. The com waves had been frantic with calls pleading for them to stop but the Sith had kept firing.

 

All because of us.

 

Mission was hit hard. In the day and a half it took for us to reach Dantooine, she didn’t speak to anyone. Zaalbar had taken her in his bosom, and had sat through that entire time merely holding her, being there in her grief. The picture of that poor child hunched against the furry chest, eyes wide with pain and shock will haunt me for the rest of my life.

 

There was nothing the rest of us could do. She didn’t want to hear how they had gone to the Force. That they would be avenged, or maybe they had lived. She wanted the world back the way it had been the day she had met us. Like any child who has just lost everything she cared about, she wanted it back.

 

We couldn’t give her that.

 

Carth was flying us, with Bastila assisting. I couldn’t pilot so I haunted the ship as we tunneled through space. Canderous had moved into one of the cargo holds, and was tinkering with his weapon. Only one thing was on my mind.

 

Malak. What kind of madman were we dealing with? The problem was that in war you always demonize the enemy. He’s always a brutal monster that kills without compunction while your men were superior because their hearts were pure. As a soldier I knew better. The enemy you faced was you in a different uniform mostly. Sure there were monsters over there, but if you watched those around you there were monsters on your side as well. Those that would take it too far, kill without reason, enjoy the deaths of the enemy.

 

War is mankind at his best and worst. Best because She finds something beyond herself to care about, defends those that depend on her even unto death. Worst because sometimes the beast in all of us gets free, and won’t go back into its cage afterward.

 

I checked the computer files aboard but there was nothing about the war at all except for planets to be avoided. Davik Kang obviously had been indifferent to the slaughter. After seeing some of the files of ‘items’ sent to slavers, or opponents within the Exchange removed I understood. If he wasn’t dealing the pain or feeling it personally, it didn’t exist.

 

Bastila probably knew, but she was uncommunicative. She would watch me with hooded eyes when she left the flight deck. Almost as if she were afraid of me.

 

Finally I took a cup of tea to Carth. He nodded his thanks, leaned back, and sipped it. “Take a load off.” He waved at the copilot’s chair. I sat, made sure the controls were not active, and sipped my own tea.

 

“What do you know about Malak?”

 

He looked at me. “Malak and Revan were Jedi, you know that, right?” I nodded. “Well we were deep into the Mandalorian wars. The Jedi had been asked for help but they had refused.” He shrugged as if that was no surprise. “But some of them didn’t like the Council’s ruling. A few led by Revan joined us. Malak was Revan’s right hand man. They spread out among the fleet, and almost immediately things changed. Before that it was like the Mandalorians were everywhere, hitting us from all sides. But those few people made us see the pattern.

 

“They made mistakes at first. Revan took a fleet to catch a Mandalorian one at a place called Hotma. But when she did, the enemy fleet had jumped from Hotma to Kando, where Revan was based. So she arrived, found the base empty, and smashed it, then returned to find her own base destroyed.”

 

I understood the concept. In military parlance it was called being overtaken by events. The enemy was supposed to be here, so you went there. But you didn’t know they were moving, so you missed each other.

 

“She got better fast though.” He sighed. “When she hit her stride, the Mandalorians didn’t have a chance. She always had Malak close at hand. Maybe she saw Malak for what he was.”

 

“Which was?”

 

“A hardheaded pragmatist. Watching them work alone was interesting. Revan was like a sniper. Picking her targets and taking them down fast with minimal damage. But when the going got tough, she let Malak have his head. If Revan was a sniper, Malak was more like a Gamorrean, smashing everything in his path to his goal. He lost a lot of his own people, but he decimated the enemy as he did it. He never settled in battle for anything but absolute victory. If a garrison resisted, he bombed them into submission. If he wanted it, nothing could keep him from it.” His face hardened as he remembered that Malak was now the enemy. “When Revan was still there, even when she had turned to the Sith, she had remained the same. She didn’t smash entire planets unless there was no alternative. She kept Malak on his leash, only letting him out when all else failed. Since Revan’s death Malak has changed. He became even more brutal. It was like someone had stripped the governor on an engine. The Sith have been following his lead, and picked up the pace ever since.”

 

The Sith had been a problem for several Millennia. Originally I knew, they had been a race, a violently xenophobic race. They had hit us hard back then, killing anyone that stood in their paths. It was one series of wars the Jedi had gotten into willingly, because the Sith had been strong in the Force. Finally they had been beaten back, the race almost destroyed. But the problems had not stopped there. The nihilistic worldview the Sith had enjoyed must have been catching. A number of Jedi had split off from the others, and left abruptly, seeking the remains of the Sith. They had settled on a planet named Korriban, which had been smashed, occupied by the Sith, smashed again, then left fallow for almost two centuries. The Jedi had proclaimed themselves the New Sith. The actual Sith that had still lived there hadn’t been amused and considering the carnage these Dark Jedi and the Sith were inflicting on themselves, the planet had been pretty much been left alone by everyone else.

 

But that had not ended the problem either. The Sith race was long gone, but others had gone there, and now the Sith, albeit only those that believed the old ideals had struck again a millennia ago. They were beaten, regrouped, and struck again in a pattern that has lasted now for over a thousand years. Yet another Jedi expatriate had led the last Sith war before this one. Exar Kun had left, become the dark Jedi master, and become Darth Kun, the first time the title had ever been used. He had ravaged the galaxy, and been put down as those before him had. His base had been smashed into ruins, and the Republic had again turned its eyes back to the business of living.

 

This was the result.

 

“I saw Revan in my vision. She was wearing some kind of mask. Why?”

 

“Rumors abound.” Carth commented. “Some said that she had been disfigured when she was young. Others that she was an attractive woman and had problems dealing with people as a Jedi because of that.” He grinned. “Sort of like you and me when we first got together.”

 

“Maybe I’ll get a mask then.”

 

“Oh, don’t do that.” He teased. “Then I’ll have to ask what make up you put on that day.”

 

I shook my head. “I am going aft before your fantasies get the better of you.”

 

 

Dantooine

 

We came out near Dantooine, about two planetary diameters away, as close as you can get safely. No one really knows where or when the hyperspace drive was developed. About 22,000 years ago, it just appeared, discovered in ancient ruins on dozens of worlds. Everyone would like to claim the credit, but even a hyperspace physicist can’t explain exactly how it works. It’s like electricity. For the layman, you flip a switch and it’s there. But it worked, and with the proper astronavigation calculations, you can go anywhere. But here you immediately ran into problems. You had to first find out where to go before you could go anywhere. Each planet that had discovered the drives in ruins tried. A lot of them gave up after a time. Others kept at it with bloody-minded persistence until they discovered the corridors that exist today. It’s like the old man everyone had heard of that when asked for directions, replies, ‘You can’t get there from here‘.

 

Hyperspace also has quirks. There are half a dozen paths that are easier to travel for some reason. They bridge the galaxy.

 

Hyperspace travel is like nothing else. There are 100 billion stars in the galaxy, but only about three quarters of a million are accessible to date. Unless you want to slow-boat it at less than light speed, or use a light cannon system, which required that you build one on the other end before you return, you don’t go anywhere unless there’s a hyperspace corridor. They spent almost 4,000 years doing it that way before hyper drive. That is why Humans are so wide spread.

 

Scouting new routes is the most dangerous job in the galaxy. A mathematician would do the math, sometimes taking decades, then submit it to the local planetary government, or back when the Republic government was in charge, the Republic Survey Department, and eventually a ship would be sent to try the new equations. Out of every ten ships that try, only one succeeds. Of the others some make it back, others disappear. Corridors don’t care about something as thin as a star’s core, but the people in the ship get fried anyway. Getting too close to a planet on arrival is only one of the problems you face. Most of those deaths come when the gravitation of the planet, star etc, drags you out of hyperspace, usually too close to get away.

 

Around two centuries ago, the Republic had quietly gotten out of the Survey business. It just wasn’t cost effective. There were already a few hundred thousand planets, some of them virgin terrain, and the population hadn’t grown enough yet to make it vital, so the Republic instead handed it over to Corporations. They could deduct the expenses from their taxes, and didn’t care about the piddling losses of a hundred men or so a decade.

 

But when they found a new world, the return could be fantastic. In the last century a planet named Kessel had been discovered. The company that had done so almost sold it to the Republic for a weapons test facility, but some enterprising young vice president sent a survey team down onto the planet itself. He found the energy spiders, and took samples of their web for analysis. Those webs, made of Glitterstim, had catapulted him to a presidency and the company into a major contender.

 

“Dantooine.” Bastila sighed. “It seems like a lifetime since I last set foot on her surface though in truth it has only been a few months. We should be safe here from Malak. For now at least.”

 

“Safe! You saw what his fleet did to Taris! There wasn’t a building over five meters tall when they finished! They turned the planet into one massive pile of rubble, and Dantooine, with no defense at all, will be safe?”

 

“Even the Sith would think twice about attacking Dantooine, Carth. There are many Jedi here, including several of the most powerful Jedi masters of the Order. There is great strength in this place.”

 

For some reason, the view of the planet was like a cooling shower to me. “Bastila is right that we need to stop somewhere. This feels, peaceful somehow.”

 

Carth snorted. Any amity he had felt for me had evaporated again.

 

“If nothing else we can resupply and recuperate here. The Academy is a place of mental and spiritual peace. Something we can all use after what we have been through.” Bastila pressed.

 

Carth shook his head, closing his eyes tightly. “Maybe you’re right. It isn’t easy to watch the annihilation of an entire population. Mission is still taking it pretty hard.”

 

“She will find a way to work through her grief.” Bastila replied tartly. “She is stronger than she appears. We just need to give her time.”

 

We called approach control, and were directed to a landing pad inside the Jedi Academy itself. I was astonished how mundane the evolution was. A brisk young man on the ground had directed us, no fighters came to check us out, no guns I could see tracked us. It was like there wasn’t a war going on.

 

The Jedi Academy had been built by the standards of the planet, meaning it was burrowed into an existing hillside and set up within it. In this case the center had been hollowed out, and a glorious tree grew in the courtyard that had been created. The landing pad had also been dug out, the berm stabilized so that if something happened and the ship blew up, the energy would be directed mostly upwards. Other trees had been grown here, making it look as if we had landed in a small park.

 

Bastila had spent the descent in the communications room with the circuits locked so we couldn’t listen in. I didn’t care. The mission was over. I was ready for some R&R and then back to the front.

 

The ship settled down, and I could hear metal ticking as it cooled. Bastila came forward. “I must go and speak with the Jedi Council. I need their advice on... recent developments.” I could tell she wanted to look at me, but she stared at Carth. “After I have met with them, I will contact you. The local authorities have instructed that no one is to leave the ship until I return. However the quartermaster of the Republic supply center is awaiting you list of our needs.”

 

“Friendly place.” Carth snorted. He got on the com, and began listing what we needed. I went aft. Mission was sitting alone for once. I could hear noises from the engine room. Knowing the Wookiee, he was happily at work tuning the engines. He had been complaining about tuner flutter for the last day.

 

I walked over, got a cup of tea, and brought one to her. She stared at it, then up at me. “Sorry I’ve been out of it the last couple of days.” She stared at the cup. “I was just thinking about Taris. I can’t believe it’s gone!” She looked at me, begging for understanding. “I mean, I grew up there! I remember the old man who ran the sausage booth, the woman that sold clothes that were only ten years out of date. Now, it’s-it’s just gone!” The last was said as if she had seen someone disappear from a street, and never returned.

 

I motioned toward a chair, and she nodded. I sat, sipping my own tea. “I’m sorry, Mission. I don’t know what to say.”

 

She shrugged. “I don’t think there really is anything you can say. I just have to find some way to deal with it, I guess. It’ll take some time.”

 

I watched her, and she looked at me, and got defensive. “Look, it’s not like I’m saying I can’t go on or anything like that. It’s just, a shock, you know? I mean I’d heard horror stories about how evil the Sith are but the reality of it kind of slaps you in the face.

 

“But that’s why we need to stop Malak, right? The more time I spend dwelling on Taris, the closer it comes for someone else. If I can stop just one person from feeling what I am feeling, I’ll die happy. So stop worrying about me. I’ll be okay. And I don’t care what I have to do, if I can help bring down Malak, just let me know.”

 

I knew she wanted to end it there, but we hadn’t had time to really talk, and the girl made me feel better. Talking so blithely about death had bothered me. “We haven’t really talked before, Mission. Tell me about yourself.”

 

“Me?” She chuckled, and I smiled. She was healing after all. “You want to know about me? Nobody’s ever really been interested in me!” She seemed delighted.

 

“Carth talked to you-”

 

No. The geezer talked at me, not to me. Even when all I was to you was some kid, you talked to me. What do you want to know?”

 

“How did you and Zaalbar get together?”

 

“Big Z is my family, you know? My parents, well I think they’re dead. I haven’t seen them since I was really little. It was just me on my own until the day I saw Big Z in the Lowercity. I could tell right away he was in trouble.

 

“This was before the gang wars got out of hand but even then the Vulkars were slime. A few of them were hassling Big Z, trying to goad him into a fight. But he’s really a big teddy bear, he didn’t want to fight.”

 

“What kind of fool tries to provoke a Wookiee?”

 

“Hey, no one ever said the Vulkars were smart. But there were three of them. I think they might have figured they could take him if they had to. Anyway, I don’t like the Vulkars even on their best day. I’d sounded them out about joining the gang, this was before Brejik was in charge, you see, and they told me that when I filled out,” She motioned to her chest. “They’d think about it. That really ticked me off.

 

“When I saw them picking on this poor defenseless Wookiee, new and all alone on a strange planet, I just lost it! I screamed, ‘Hey! Leave him alone you core slimes!’ and charged them. One of them saw me coming, and he belted me one good. He hit me so hard I just about lost consciousness.”

 

“Striking a child?”

 

“Who you calling a child? I’m fourteen!”

 

I lifted my mug pretending to sip to hide my smile. This meant she had charged three adults when she was only eleven or so. She had courage at least.

 

“Those Vulkar didn’t scare me. They’re cowards, always have been. They see their own blood, and they run bleating home to mama. I was going to deal with them, but I never got the chance. I guess Big Z didn’t like seeing me smacked because he grabbed the guy who hit me, and held him a meter off the floor by the neck.”

 

What did the others do?”

 

“Like I said, cowards. They ran screaming. Can’t blame them, really. The first time you see an irate Wookiee up close, it makes an impression you don’t forget. I saw it and it isn’t a pretty sight. I’m just glad he wasn’t mad at me right then. I thought Zaalbar was going to rip that punk’s arms off, and beat him to death with the wet ends. The Vulkar was so scared he wet himself and fainted. Or maybe Big Z’s breath knocked him out.

 

“I keep telling him to brush those choppers of his, but do you think he listens? Just stand downwind when he talks, and you miss most of it.

 

“Anyway, I knew those Vulkars would gather up a really serious group to take him down, so I dragged him away.

 

“We’ve been together ever since. We’re one hell of a team. We look out for each other, You know?”

 

I pictured an eleven-year-old Twi-lek a little over a meter tall towing a two and a half meter Wookiee as if she were a tugboat. I nodded. “How did Zaalbar end up on Taris?”

 

“All he ever said was there was trouble on his home world of Kashyyyk, and he had to leave. If you haven’t noticed, he’s not a motor mouth. He’s the strong and silent type. Don't matter though. We don’t pay attention to the past, it detracts from the now.”

 

“How did you survive before you met Zaalbar?”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean? You think I’m the damsel in distress like a historical drama? I got street smarts, I learned to take care of myself. In fact more times than not it’s me getting him out of trouble. You know, Big Z is really gullible. If I wasn’t there, he’d have bought the Senate tower or something.”

 

I laughed. “Now he has a purpose, as do you. To beat this.”

 

“Yep. It’s like I used to tell my brother ‘fast talk and slick banter don’t get the job done’.”

 

“Brother?” I looked at her. Suddenly she was wishing she was the silent type. “Mission, you have a brother?”

 

“Hey! My brother is something I don’t talk about okay? He’s a touchy subject. If it’s all the same to you, let’s just leave him out of every thing we ever talk about!” She stood, taking the empty cup with her. A moment later she came back in, and slid it in the sanitizer. Then she walked back out.

[machievelli]

I love it. almost 50 hits in 36 hours, and NO comments.

 

Sigh. Well you did read it so...

[machievelli]

Jedi Council

 

Carth

 

We expected a couple of hours, but it wasn’t until noon the next day that Bastila finally signaled for us to let her back aboard.

 

“I have spoken briefly with the Council. Danika, they have requested an audience with you. We should go at once.”

 

“An audience, and not even a command performance? And making it for someone that isn’t even a Jedi? That’s pretty unusual for Jedi under even the best of circumstances.” I was gathering up my weapons. “Any idea what this is about Bastila?”

 

“I am sorry, Carth, but I can’t tell you, and you are not invited. I ask you to please just trust in the force and the Council.”

 

I glared at her, then threw the holstered weapons back down. “The same force and Jedi council that gave us Revan and Malak? What type of spice have you been sniffing?”

 

She looked at me until I looked away. “I don’t like being left out of the loop, but I’m not looking to get you in trouble with the council, Bastila. We’ll do things your way, this time.”

 

“Come, I will escort you to the council chamber.”

 

Danika shrugged helplessly. She had changed into some clothes we had brought aboard, but she still carried the Echani Brand and a holstered blaster. I watched them off the ship, then went to find something to beat on, or fix.

 

Danika

 

Stepping off onto the surface of Dantooine for the first time was like slipping into bed as a child. Everything felt comfortable and soft. I almost hugged myself. The docking area was cleared except for two Blba trees. These had been dethorned by the council, because the natural life cycle of the tree included the local carnivorous snails, and they were a pest in dwellings.

 

Bastila and I walked together, pacing in rhythm. The dreams about her had stopped, but I still felt uncomfortable. It was like someone had taken my life and turned it into an entertainment drama without my consent. She was more silent than usual. I wanted to ask her why, but I felt she would refuse to answer.

 

The entryway had a massive blast door and the hall beyond jogged sharply right then left at the other end. Simple safety precautions. If a ship exploded, it might blow the door to hell, but even if the door stood open as it did now the hall would act as a blast channel to slow it before it reached the living areas.

 

Everywhere there was a bustle of movement. Children streamed in laughing crowds from room to room, shepherded by older men and women in Jedi garb, the ubiquitous robes they always wore. I later discovered that while it looked crowded, it wasn’t. There were fifty of the order here, About fifteen Masters, the same number of young students, and the remainder were Padawans.

 

There was room for three times that number.

 

Padawan is an indistinct title. A trained Jedi, but one who wasn’t yet considered a master. Most of them were still in training, just learning the basics of their craft. I would only learn the nuances of the title much later.

 

We came into the courtyard, and the massive Blba tree there rose ten meters over our heads.

 

“You there, Padawan!” A sharp voice called. I looked to the speaker She was a woman younger than Bastila. She stormed over to me glaring. “Why are you not robed? Do you mock the honored traditions of our order?” Bastila shook her head wryly and walked on, leaving me to the girl.

 

“I don’t know what you mean.” I replied. “I am not a Padawan. I am a guest, Danika Wordweaver. I am here with Bastila.”

 

“Bastila! I have heard of her. They say she has already mastered the art of battle meditation. Remarkable in one so young. Though I have also heard that she has a foolish pride in that accomplishment.” Since she was about three years younger than Bastila, I took that more as envy than anything else.

 

“But as for you. You claim you are not a Jedi? I find this hard to believe. The Force is strong within you, I can feel its presence. If this is some kind of jest take heed! The masters will not allow the order to be ridiculed.”

 

“I didn’t even know what the word Padawan meant before I came here.” I replied. “I have no reason to jest with you, or lie to you.” I let a touch of irritation creep into my voice.

 

She sensed it, and regarded me with hooded eyes. “Please forgive the abruptness of my greeting.” I could tell from her tone that the apology was pro forma. “It was harsh and perhaps unfair. My master often warns me I must learn to control my emotions. I see I have much left to learn. I wish you a pleasant stay among us, Guest Danika. May the Force be with you.”

 

I nodded, and walked on. I wouldn’t let some child irritate me. Bastila rejoined me. “I could have used a little help there.”

 

“Why? You handled it well. And Belaya does need to learn to control her temper.”

“You know her?”

 

“Know of her. She just became a Padawan last year. They want to have her more seasoned before releasing her on the galaxy.”

 

“Maybe they should marinate her instead.” Bastila choked back a giggle. Suddenly in my mind the dreams came back in full force. What was happening?

 

There were four Masters awaiting us. Two were human, one Twi-lek, the last a race I had never seen before. He was short, not even a meter tall, green skinned, with wide mouth, expressive eyes, and ears that flicked about as he talked. Vandar Tokare’s race has been among the Republic for as long as the Jedi order has existed, but no one knows what their race is called, or where they are from. All of his answers were the same as every one of the race since they had joined us. He said they called themselves the people, which means exactly nothing. If you look up the root languages of the Republic, you will see ‘the people’ is what all of them call themselves, with minor variations. He said they came from the planet Dirt, which also means little. Every version of language and race throughout the Galaxy calls their home planet ‘the dirt from which we came’. But he spoke Basic, slightly changed by the way his mind worked, and never spoke his native tongue.

 

The Twi-lek motioned for us to join them. The council room was large enough to hold everyone of the order on Dantooine at present. They were standing, not seated as if in judgment. But somehow I knew they were judging me.

 

“Ah, so you are the one that rescued Bastila. It is appropriate that you are here for this discussion.” His voice was deep and mellifluous. His basic clean and precise. “After all, we had been discussing your rather... special case. I am Zhar Lestin of the Jedi Council. With me are Master Vrook Lamar, Master Vandar Tokare, and of course the chronicler of our Academy, Master Dorak. Padawan Bastila I am sure you already know.” I nodded to each in turn. Vandar watched me as if I was an amusing pet, but it didn’t bother me as much as you might think. Vrook glared at me as if I had come in half dressed. Dorak merely looked at me coolly. I later found that he had a perfect photographic memory, and would record exactly what happened afterward. They all stood there, as if waiting for me to speak.

 

“What does the Council wish of me?” I asked.

 

Zhar motioned to Bastila. “Bastila tells us you are strong in the Force. Under the present circumstances, we have been considering you for Jedi training.”

 

My mind reeled. “Strong in the Force?”

 

“Master Zhar speaks out of turn perhaps.” Master Vrook bit off. “We need indisputable proof of your strong affinity to the force before we would even consider you for training.” I looked to Vrook. If anything his animosity was growing. For a moment, I thought maybe he actually hated me but I set that thought aside. I had known drill instructors in boot camp that were the same, always angry, never satisfied. When everything went to hell, it was them you thanked because they were the ones that never allowed any slack.

 

“Proof!” Bastila was outraged. “Surely the entire Council can feel the strength of the Force in this woman! And I have already related the events that took place on Taris.”

 

Vrook shook his head. “Perhaps it was simple luck.”

 

Master Vandar looked up at the man. “Master Vrook, we both know that there is no luck. There is only the Force. We all feel the power that flows from this woman, even though it is wild and untamed. Now that this power has manifested itself, can we safely ignore it?”

 

Vrook was adamant. “The Jedi training is long and hard, even when working with the open mind of a child. Teaching a child is hard, how much harder will it be with an adult mind already set in its ways?”

 

“Masters, I consider this a great honor.” I said. They all looked at me as if they expected the next word to be ‘but’. “I do not know if I am ready for this, but if you believe I can learn, I will try my best.”

 

“There is no try. You do or do not.” Vandar piped.

 

“Master Vrook, traditionally the Jedi do not accept adults for training, this much is true.” Dorak interjected in his dry pedantic way. “There however have been exceptions in the history of our order. In each it has come down to one such as her.” He motioned toward me. “A special case.”

 

“I agree with master Dorak.” Vandar said. “The times are hard, and we must be ready to face that. Many of our own students across the galaxy have left to learn the ways of the Sith instead. The order needs numbers, and if the recruits must be older than is customary, we must consider the need. To stand against Malak we must have strength. Since Revan died-”

 

“Are you certain Revan is truly dead?” Vrook roared. He glared at Bastila, who looked away. “What if we were to undertake training this one, and the Dark Lord should return?”

 

Vandar looked up at the man calmly. “Such is not for the ears of anyone save the Council, Master Vrook. Bastila, take your companion back to the ship. Tomorrow morning we will speak with her again.”

 

Bastila bowed wordlessly. I echoed the bow and followed.

 

“I thought Revan was dead.”

 

She merely shook her head.

 

 

Acceptance

 

The room was stone, the separate blocks locked together in a manner that suggested not only cutting, but the Force as well somehow. Doors opened, and air screamed into it as the pressure equalized. Two figures entered, and I wafted toward them. One was huge, head shaved, and male. The other was smaller, slimmer, wrapped in a flowing robe, with a mask. I felt a chill. Revan! That meant the other, young, handsome, unblemished, was Malak.

 

“Can you feel it, Revan?” Malak raised his arms as if embracing the entire room. “I can feel the Dark side here, stronger than you have ever imagined!”

 

“We do not have time for this.” Revan replied. Her voice sounded familiar somehow. “If the text we read is correct, there is a key to the survival of the Republic in this place. That is why we are here.”

 

“Yes. Forgive me, my old friend.”

 

Revan waved forward. “Come. It is beyond that door.” I turned unbidden, and there was a door that looked like a solid block. “Yes, it is here.” She whispered. Her hands came down, and I felt the force run through them, slamming into the door. It began to open-

 

I snapped upright in my bed. I knew the room they had been on was just a few kilometers away from where I was. How I don’t know. They had sought something of great strength. To protect the Republic, Revan had said. But Malak had felt only the Dark side there. They had instead found something that had brought about the war we were fighting. Something so steeped in the darkness that no sane person would consider using it. But Revan had not cared.

 

I couldn’t get to sleep after that. When I finally arose, Bastila was already gone. Carth and Canderous were off getting the supplies we had requested, Mission and Zaalbar were back in the engine with T3 kibitzing. I drank my morning tea, and tried to wake up. The meeting was- I looked at the chrono. Supposed to be in a few minutes.

 

I stepped out into the crisp morning air. A lifter had just landed, and droids were moving crates from it. Carth saw me, and shook his head. “This morning is getting stranger by the minute. The quartermaster didn’t even quibble about what we needed. That‘s a switch. Then Bastila left looking like she’d seen a ghost. She did say you should go to the Council chamber without her when you got up. I think it’s important.” He snorted. “So you shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

 

“Did she say anything else?”

 

“No she didn’t. She didn’t look well as I recall. For that matter, neither do you. Are you alright?”

 

“I had a rough night.” I told him. I walked away.

 

The Council was already there, as was Bastila. They stopped talking as I walked in, and Zhar motioned for me to join them.

 

Vandar looked up at me. “Bastila has told us of a most unusual development. She claims you and she shared a dream. A vision of Malak and Revan in one of the ancient ruins right here on Dantooine.” He tapped his cane on the ground for emphasis. I was stunned. I had thought I was alone in that dream!

 

Dorak coughed delicately. “These ruins have long been known. After all, the Academy has been here since Master Vodo-Siosk Baas established it a century ago. It has been believed all this time that they were merely ancient burial mounds. But it seems that they are more than that if Revan and Malak found something of such power there.”

 

“Yes.” Suddenly the dream returned in full force. “They were looking for something. Something they had read about in the ancient records here.”

 

“Bastila has described this shared dream to us in great detail. We feel that this is more than a mere dream. It is a vision. The Force is acting through you, and at the same time, is working through Bastila as well.” Vandar continued.

 

I looked at Bastila. She looked haggard. I must have looked as bad. “I see no answer than to trust in your wisdom, Master.”

 

“You and Bastila share a powerful connection to the Force. Through the Force, you also share a powerful connection to each other.” Zhar took up the narrative. “This is not unheard of. Connections such as this can form between master and apprentice. Between friends who learn together, between lovers even.” I blushed at that. I hadn’t told them about the earliest dreams. “But it is rare for them to form so quickly.”

 

“From what we see whatever dangers lie ahead, we can no longer ignore the destiny that brought you and Bastila, to us at this time together.” Vandar said softly. He looked up at Vrook who was ignoring him. That man’s eyes were locked on me.

 

“Then you are saying that we are joined together somehow. That a bond I do not understand has been formed.” I said, still reeling. Suddenly I heard the words again, but now it was Bastila’s voice. Bond with me.

 

“You and she are linked as is your fates by this bond as you call it. But this is something we can use. This link may be what is needed to defeat Malak and the Sith.” Vandar explained.

 

“But don’t let thoughts of power and glory fill your head.” Vrook snapped. “Such thoughts are sure paths to the Dark side. The way of the light is long and hard. It is like climbing a mountain. Sure you can stay at the bottom, but that is the Dark side in all its strength. Sure you can climb up a way, then give up, but that can lead to the Dark as well, for the Dark never gives up on dragging you down. Or you can fall as many have. To reach the light you must climb and never allow yourself to make a mistake that sends you crashing down again. Are you ready for such an undertaking?”

 

“I can only do my best not to fail.“ I looked at Master Vandar. After his first comment, I had found another way to say it.

 

He looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye. “You must understand that there is little choice in this decision. For you, or for us. Across the Galaxy our numbers dwindle at an alarming rate. We have had to send many Jedi on quests to find that which we can use to stop Malak and the Sith. Most have not returned.

 

“The Sith as well know what we must do. They hunt our brothers like animals, striking from ambush, or by assassination wherever they are found. We feel that it is only a matter of time until they discover this hidden refuge, and destroy it as well.” I suddenly pictured the hell rain I had witnessed, seeing the Academy falling in ruins, the Jedi in windrows, unable to strike back from the ground. I was terrified by it.

 

“Others of our order have fallen from the light, or turned from it willingly.” Vrook’s face was a mask, and again I felt his hate directed at me. “They have given their allegiance to Malak and the Sith.”

 

“Jedi leave the order to join them?”

 

Vrook snorted. “Where do you think the Dark Jedi within their ranks come from? The lure of the dark side, of learning rapidly what we know must be taught more slowly calls to these weak ones. Malak’s power grows as more planets fall to his armies, make agreements to surrender, or swear themselves ally. And those of our order who cannot stand the chance of losing run to him instead of fighting.”

 

“Yes.” Zhar cast a warning glance at Vrook. “If Malak is not stopped, the Republic will fall. The Sith will never stop trying to hunt us down, for in all the Galaxy, only the light can confront the darkness. If the Jedi are no more, the Galaxy will fall into the dark times before the Republic existed again. A time of Darkness and tyranny that has not been seen for a thousand generations.”

 

They all looked thoughtful at that. Vandar broke the silence. “The Council has decreed that if you are willing to undertake it, you have a mission that can be handled only by you and Bastila. You must investigate the ruins you dreamt of once the Council deems you ready.”

 

“Yes.” Dorak said. “Perhaps you will find something there, some clue, that can explain how Revan and Malak were corrupted. Perhaps a way to stop Malak at last. As you go, I shall be going through the ancient archives of the order. You say they found the clues that led them there in our own records. If it is there, I shall find it!”

 

“I’m ready to go now.“ I considered what weapons I would need. Bastila could cover my back with her lightsaber and Force abilities. I was considering taking T3 with us when Vandar interrupted my thoughts. “Your bravery does you credit, but an untrained person in the force, entering such a place would be a danger we will not countenance. First you must be trained in the ways of the Jedi. You must learn to resist the darkness within you, which resides within all of us. Otherwise you are doomed to fail before you have even begun.”

 

I wanted to scream that there wasn’t time. That Malak would be knocking on the door with a 100-megawatt turbo laser before I learned enough to help! But part of me knew that like any weapon, I had to take this Force in me and learn to control it before I destroyed myself with it. “While I worry about how long this will take, I accept your judgment, Master Vandar.”

 

He looked at me with that knowing look. I knew that somehow he had been watching my mind wrestling with the two constraints of time and necessary training. He seemed pleased with my decision. He motioned toward Zhar.

 

“We must begin your training at once. You have a destiny that awaits you that we must prepare you to face. The fate of the entire galaxy may rest on your shoulders.”

 

“I just hope she is ready for it.” Vrook growled.

 

 

Leviathan

 

Admiral Karath approached Darth Malak. The dark lord merely watched the stars beyond the clearsteel screen.

 

“The Star Forge is running at 200% My lord. It has exceeded every expectation.”

 

“Except mine.“ Malak said. “Have we discovered how Bastila escaped Taris yet?”

 

“Carth Onasi and a Republic soldier we have not yet identified aided her. Onasi is a decorated war hero, and a legendary warrior. During the Mandalorian wars he was honored many times for his bravery.”

 

“Malak looked back at the Admiral. “From your words, I believe you know this man personally.”

 

“I do my lord. I was his mentor in many things. When I still served the Republic he was the command pilot of my ship.” He waved around him.

 

“Interesting. How were you able to gain this information?” He asked softly. Unsaid was the addition when my own sources could not.

 

“I have an eyewitness to their escape aboard. As you know, a dozen of the faster vessels were able to get away. One of those that did not was brought aboard. The pilot had a great deal to say about Bastila and her companions. He is Calo Nord, the bounty hunter. He was present when Bastila acquired the ship they escaped in.”

 

“Bring him to me.”

 

Nord looked as if he had not even been injured. He strode down the deck, and stood, arms crossed facing the Dark Lord. “Dark Lord Malak.”

 

“A Jedi and a war hero. It seems you’re lucky to be alive, Nord.”

 

“Nothing I couldn’t handle. I had more problems keeping your bombardment from killing me than they represented. But I‘m hard to kill.”

 

“Nord has offered to help us capture the young Jedi, for a heavy bounty of course.”

 

“But there is another reason.” Malak said.

 

“Yeah. Canderous Ordo betrayed me, and only missed killing me because of some debris that hid me when I was knocked out. I want some payback, and he’s probably still with them.”

 

“I will even pay you for this Mandalorian’s head, Nord. I want the Jedi alive if at all possible. Her companions mean nothing to me. Dispose of them.”

 

Karath held the datapad that had just been delivered. “My Lord Malak, Forgive me. There is something else. The tapes of the attack on our base were finally cleaned up, and there is something there I believe you will be interested in.”

 

“I trust you are not wasting my time, Admiral.”

 

Karath handed him a datapad, and Malak keyed it. There was no outward sign, but Karath could feel the temperature of the room drop as he did.

 

“Who knows of this?”

 

“Myself, My lord, you, Calo Nord, and Commander Beck of the scan department.”

 

Malak strode over to a com console. “I want visual communication with commander Beck.” He ordered. The screen lit with the face of a homely young man. “Scan department, Beck.”

 

Malak lifted his hand, and Beck clutched his head, moaning. He screamed, then his head exploded. Malak cut the communication channel, turning to face Calo Nord. “The orders are changed. You will capture Bastila if at all possible. Carth Onasi you can deal with as you choose, but this other one, this Danika Wordweaver, you will guarantee she dies. She must die.” He waved toward the now blank screen. “That is how I deal with incompetence. Fail me and die, Nord.”

 

“I’ve never failed before, Lord Malak.”

[Char Ell]

As for the place you mentioned, congratulations! I didn't even notice that little error until you mentioned it. Have a Whatever prize. I have corrected it.

Woo-hoo! That's twice now! Does this mean I can put another line in my sig?

Two-time winner of the local curmudgeon's highly coveted "Whatever" Prize

 

I like how you made use of the Ebon Hawk's forward firing laser cannon in the escape from Taris. I found it disappointing that the Ebon Hawk had blaster emplacements on port and starboard sides but you never get to use them in the game.

Bastila looked back at me. “Take the upper gun turret! Keep them off us until we can leap into hyper drive!” She spun as I ran aft. “Canderous! Take the lower turret!”

More literary license here? If so I think it's highly logical as the game's portrayal of only one gun turret on the dorsal side of the Ebon Hawk seems poor to me. Why would a ship be designed such that it could only defend one side of the ship? Such a design would restrict defensive capability and make it more vulnerable in combat. I definitely give the to this little embellishment.

We came into the courtyard, and the massive Blba tree there rose ten meters over our heads.

 

“You there, Padawan!” A sharp voice called. I looked to the speaker She was a woman younger than Bastila. She stormed over to me glaring. “Why are you not robed? Do you mock the honored traditions of our order?” Bastila shook her head wryly and walked on, leaving me to the girl.

This passage doesn't seem right to me. To me it makes more sense to find a way to separate Bastila from Danika before they reach the courtyard. Why would Bastila simply shake her head and walk away from another Jedi who had erroneously concluded Danika was also a Jedi. I think if the encounter had happened like this Bastila would have set her straight about Danika's current Jedi status and advised the woman that she and Danika could not be deterred because they needed to meet with the Jedi Council. And then in the passage after that the woman talks like she doesn't know Bastila when Bastila had been standing right there moments before. I know you're following the general game dialogue in this but to me this situation only works if Bastila goes ahead of Danika or in some other way gets separated from Danika when Danika runs into Belaya for the first time.

 

I love it. almost 50 hits in 36 hours, and NO comments.

I thought about replying before you had posted the Jedi Council chapter but I didn't want to monopolize the story's feedback. I thought it better to give others a chance to read and respond. Perhaps you should consider only posting one or two chapters a week. This would give people some time to read and digest. I've also thought that since your chapters are longer than normal some forum members might not be inclined to read so much material in one sitting. I know it took me about an hour and a half to read from the beginning again last Saturday. My thought is that perhaps not everyone is willing to invest that much time all at once.

[Jae Onasi]

I suspect some of the lack of comments may also because they know you're the Critic, and perhaps feel like they don't have the credentials to critique your material or are even intimidated (when I was a teen (awhile ago....), I was very uncomfortable critiquing something by someone older than 20 ). I just need more time to read through it more before making comments. I'm having too much fun reading your other one yet.

[machievelli]

Woo-hoo! That's twice now! Does this mean I can put another line in my sig?

Two-time winner of the local curmudgeon's highly coveted "Whatever" Prize

 

 

This passage doesn't seem right to me. To me it makes more sense to find a way to separate Bastila from Danika before they reach the courtyard. Why would Bastila simply shake her head and walk away from another Jedi who had erroneously concluded Danika was also a Jedi. I think if the encounter had happened like this Bastila would have set her straight about Danika's current Jedi status and advised the woman that she and Danika could not be deterred because they needed to meet with the Jedi Council. And then in the passage after that the woman talks like she doesn't know Bastila when Bastila had been standing right there moments before. I know you're following the general game dialogue in this but to me this situation only works if Bastila goes ahead of Danika or in some other way gets separated from Danika when Danika runs into Belaya for the first time.

 

I thought about replying before you had posted the Jedi Council chapter but I didn't want to monopolize the story's feedback. I thought it better to give others a chance to read and respond. Perhaps you should consider only posting one or two chapters a week. This would give people some time to read and digest. I've also thought that since your chapters are longer than normal some forum members might not be inclined to read so much material in one sitting. I know it took me about an hour and a half to read from the beginning again last Saturday. My thought is that perhaps not everyone is willing to invest that much time all at once.

 

I understand that. That is why I looked at hits as well.

As for the scene with Belaya, I looked at it this way: First, Belaya is a sanctimonious twit. She's the type that would eventually go to the dark side because of her 'holier than thou' attitude. While she speaks as if she does not know Bastila, I assumed it was more of the 'she can do something I can't and it irks me'. The reason I had Bastila go on and let Danika handle it on her own was simple...

 

Do you think Danika actually needed any help to set her straight?

[machievelli]

I suspect some of the lack of comments may also because they know you're the Critic, and perhaps feel like they don't have the credentials to critique your material or are even intimidated (when I was a teen (awhile ago....), I was very uncomfortable critiquing something by someone older than 20 ). I just need more time to read through it more before making comments. I'm having too much fun reading your other one yet.

 

 

Jae, every writer I have studied or met is a lot like an actor. They thrive on their work, and feel better when they get the applause. At one point at theRenaissance Pleasure Faire, I worked as the Spanish Ambassador. Think of the Emperor from SW. My director, who was also Queen Elizabeth had a talk with me, because the Ambassador gets booed and vilified a lot. She reminded me that since I was the bad guy, I should consider the boos as if it were a standing ovation.

 

As for being the critic, I think anyone can come up with a valid comment about another's work. I constantly berate professional writers in my own head when their work doesn't come up to my standards. George Lucas drew mental flak from me because the medium he used required rapid action and transit. Something the writers who have published in his universe continue to this day. The idea that you can go from Coruscant to another planet in another system halfway across the galaxy in minutes is unrealistic. That is why there is a time lag and discussions on the ship in my work.

If you will notice, the amount of writers on this site has doubled since I began my column because they know someone will comment on their work.

 

So people, if you have a comment, good, bad or indifferent, send it on!

[machievelli]

Dantooine:

 

Training

 

I can’t really explain the Force, or how the training allows you to tap into it to someone that doesn‘t have at least some ability. I have had so many roll their eyes at this, and while I have always tried to explain, most don’t want to hear anything that isn’t a how-to manual.

 

I found the easiest way to explain it, is like this;

 

Go out and look at a rainbow, or a sunrise or a sunset. Record every feeling. The wind on your face, the smell of flowers in the distance, the rustle of leaves, the aftertaste of a good brandy you had before you stepped outside.

 

Now, picture a baby that has so many birth defects that it will never see, smell, hear, taste or feel anything. It floats totally cut off from the outside world. Now assume for an instant that you and this baby share a telepathic bond, but it is only on the verbal level. You cannot thrust pictures into that mind.

 

Now explain everything your senses recorded when you were outside looking at that vision. You can, but most languages use words that link to the physical feelings you have. You can describe the sun as molten, but if they don’t understand what heat is, what good will the word do?

 

Within two weeks of beginning, I could hear the delicate scent of the flowers. I could smell the color purple. I could touch the rustling of the solar wind as it caressed Dantooine. I could see the taste of that brandy. I could taste the pulse in Bastila’s throat.

 

Not really of course. But there is honestly no other way to describe it if you can‘t touch the force itself.

 

Those of us that can use the Force have a tiny organism named Midi-chlorians to thank for it. Midi-chlorians are a benign viral symbiont, one that inhabits every creature in the galaxy but harms none of them. They live within us and are a focus for the Force. If you have the training you can feel them drawing it from around you, and you can in turn direct it.

 

I found that if I approached learning about the force as I had long ago with the blade, it became easier somehow. Try to do what Master Zhar or Master Vandar suggested. Try until I could do it. Then in my own time, try harder, move harder things, concentrate more deeply. Soon I could take a ball bearing in a bowl, and cause it to roll around the bowl until it flew over the lip into my hand. I started lifting small things, the same ball bearing, then a book, then a chair, finally as I floated with chairs rotating in a circle as I were the sun with it’s planets. I commented to Bastila one morning that I felt I could lift the Ebon Hawk, then hastened to tell her it was only a joke because of her disapproval.

 

I dived into the archives as if I were swimming in that knowledge, and felt it pour into my mind and settle there, causing thoughts I had never imagined to grow. It made me hunger for more. I read the treatises of Master Vodo-Siosk and every master that followed him.

 

I found that my companions had their own colors and perception of those colors about them. Canderous was a flaming red of suppressed violent emotions. Carth was a roil of anger and mistrust, with glimmers of humor and happiness. Except for the loss of her world, Mission was a furnace of repressed excitement, and Zaalbar balanced her with a patience at odds with his appearance.

 

Bastila worried me, because she had shoots of darkness I could almost touch. They linked as Belaya said to her quick temper and pride. I didn’t say anything because I felt that everyone here who was a Jedi would see them as well as I.

 

Master Vrook was always there in the background, watching my meditation, seeing me lifting objects, now some as heavy as a ton or more, standing and watching me read in the Archives. His aura was almost a blinding blue, but there were shoots of darkness there as well. They linked to anger and for some reason, regret.

 

After a few weeks, Master Zhar handed me over to Master Vandar. Vandar was the master of the lightsaber. He was working on what appeared to be such a device as I walked in. “Sit; I will be ready in a moment.” He said.

 

I watched him work. His tridactyl hand worked smoothly with the hilt, adjusting some mechanism within it, then he gave a chuff of satisfaction.

 

“We were concerned about teaching you the lightsaber, young apprentice.”

 

“I don’t understand, Master. I have used a sword before.”

 

“Yes you have, and that is why we are concerned. You know what a light saber is, yes?”

 

“It is a collimated beam of laser energy focused through a crystal that heightens the strength, and limits its focus.” I replied.

 

He snorted. “Read Master Koori’s treatise have you?” He asked.

 

I shrugged. About sixteen millennia earlier, crystals had been found that directed energy into a forced beam, but at the same time did not let it extend too far from that focus. No one knew why the crystals worked in such a manner, and those who worked in fields affected by this discovery were still arguing to this day.

 

Those first lightsabers had large batteries or were only good for half an hour or so before shutting down. A few centuries later they used belt-packs of chained batteries, then finally used the newest batteries which made them small enough to carry, but not as ruinous in power usage.

 

Master Koori’s book was the definitive work, and only 400 years old. Practically last month for the Jedi.

 

“The Jedi made the lightsaber because they needed a weapon of last resort.” Vandar said. I understood. As much as they tried to maintain the balance, working for peace, Jedi did gather enemies. Those that wished more than an agreement had given them, governments that felt their rights were more important, and of course the Sith. We could have walked around in four meter tall powered armor with all of the weapons it could bear, but it’s kind of hard to convince people you’re only there to help with all of that firepower on your back. But the Jedi had to be able to protect themselves. They had begun with the sword back when the Republic was formed, and when vibroblades were invented used them instead. Then the lightsaber was designed around these rare and valuable crystals.

 

“What does pure energy weigh?” Vandar asked.

 

“Nothing, Master.” I replied. The question made no sense.

 

“Exactly. But a true blade, even a vibroblade with just that strip of metal in the center does. That is one reason why a child is easiest to teach. You can hand a child a lightsaber, and he has nothing to compare it to. You however are used to that weight, to having to resist swinging too hard, or too lightly. To stopping the blade in an instant because your muscles are used to it. If I handed you a lightsaber, you would hurt yourself long before you dealt with an enemy.” He flicked a switch, and a lightsaber blade shot out.

 

“This is the best I could do on short notice, young one. More powerful than the training sabers we give the children, yet not much more dangerous. The ‘blade’ is made by a crystal with a low powered power cell. Enough to form the blade and little else. It can singe flesh, but will not cut it. I have designed it with only this setting to protect you. Catch.” He flicked it off, then tossed it in my direction. Using the Force I caught it, and brought it into my open hand. He picked up a solid mask of metal, and tossed it to me and I caught it bringing it to my other hand.

 

“As an adult you will understand that pain is a great teacher. That is why you are not merely using a training lightsaber. Stand there in the engarde position. Put on the helmet and await further instruction.” I did as I was told. The instant the helmet was on, I could see nothing. Pads covered my eyes so that I could not even try to squint around them. But I could hear, and still feel the Force. There was the greenish white of Master Vandar before me. He stood with both hands on his cane. “Switch on your weapon.” The blade surprised me, I didn’t know until then that energy itself was something the Force could sense. Then I chided myself. I had seen students here walk through a hall with blaster turrets blazing, deflecting the bolts with the very weapons they carried. Of course you could feel energy!

 

“Now you know from your past how to use a sword. Use this as one.” I slowly began the first Kata I had learned so many years ago from Kalendra. The blade felt odd, and I couldn't explain why.

 

“There are more complex forms. Use them.”

 

I began into the saber dance, as a single bladed version among the Echani is called. Part of that requires you to shift your grip, holding the pommel as if it were a knife with the blade down along your arm instead of being thrust forward. Then you would progress into what is called the wheel, a defensive spiral of the blade spinning before you to block any attack. Your wrist holds the blade firm.

 

At least in theory. I started to shift my grip and go into the wheel, when I felt a sharp burning sensation in my forearm, then in my knee. I lost control of the weapon, and felt it also score across my chest. I dropped it, gasping.

 

For a long moment, there was silence. “I had hoped from what you did at the start that it would all flow so simply. I am sorry for that. But now you see why we worried. You must practice this every chance you get. Alone, with others watching to tell you how you have done, with that blade only. Do not go back to your other weapons, in this they will only hurt your progress You must do it with your eyes closed, and if you cannot keep them closed, with the helmet you now wear. Until you have learned this, there can be no going forward.”

 

“But Malak-”

 

“As needy as we are, Malak must wait on this.” He replied. “Go back to your ship.”

 

As much as they bothered me when I had learned the Force, I found that being around the crew of my ship was more restful than not. I wanted to read but I was worried that I could not handle a simple single blade. What good would I be if I could not bear the weapon of my order?

 

I went to the Port cargo hold. Canderous had taken over the other, incessantly tinkering with the swoop bike he had somehow gotten aboard. Most everyone else stayed away from him. I looked around the area, and judged I had enough room to dance if the sword would let me.

 

I burned myself almost every minute that first day. I used up all of the burn salve we had aboard, and Carth ordered more, which was delivered as everything else we had ordered, without complaint. I went to bed hurt angry and frustrated rather than continue because I knew that while those emotions might speed my actions, they would also draw me away from the light. If I had to be mad to use the blade correctly, what good would I be?

 

After a while I was burning myself less. Then one day I was thinking about something I had read in the Archive. A book that had not been written on Dantooine, but on Korriban, captured during the Sith war of so long ago. It was a copy of an even older book according to the forward, a book almost as ancient as the Republic itself, which had also been a mere copy of one even older. The wording had been archaic, and hard to read, but something about the wording of the most recent translation only a century old made a deep impression.

 

Then they came, the invaders, ripping out places of worship on Dantooine among others, placing within them great symbols of their power. Long was the tyranny as they used the Force and matter as one to strike terror into the hearts of all that faced them

 

I walked into the cargo bay, and ran over what the words had said translated from so long ago. I picked up that damn sword, and began to move in the first Kata.

 

The seat of their power was the Star Forge, an engine of great might and darkness. That gave them their every want and need, and protected them from attack. Strong were they in the Force but then they met an enemy who was as great. Planets were devastated, and billions were fed into those flames. Then it was that a great plague struck them, many died, and others lived yet found they could no longer touch the Force. The Star Forge fell silent, for without the Force, a being could not make the controls work, for the Force imbued the very walls. And without it all was solid immovable matter.

 

“Then did the oppressed come, taking the ships that their masters could no longer work, raining fire on them wherever they dwelt, even to the foot of the Star Forge itself, for the weapons that could turn a planet to dust were silent, they would not obey the pleas of those they had once protected.

 

Yet one who still used the Force threw up a wall of such power that no weapon could penetrate it. The ships that had come fell into the star or crashed on the planet and those far enough away fled-

 

“Danika.”

 

“Hm?” I opened my eyes, looking at Bastila. As I did, I saw a flash of light pass less than three centimeters from my face. I did not stop, but instead looked forward. The blade was moving, and I was dancing with it as I had learned. But this blade was that weakened lightsaber beam. I watched my hands going through the intricate movements, and could see I was into Kata 11, about half way through the twenty Kata set used for practice. I stopped. “How did I do that?”

 

“How did you do it without a qualm, without a cut for almost an hour?” Bastila asked.

 

“I don’t know. I had read something that I think might be the clue to what Revan was looking for, and was concentrating on what the words might mean when I started.”

 

“Think of something else.” She commanded. “Start again.”

 

I did as she had bid, my eyes firmly closed. I started to run through our equipment inventory. Surprisingly large for a ship of our mass. After two hours without a burn she stopped me again. She held her lightsaber. “Try this, but be careful.”

 

I took it, and the twin blades sprang from it. Again I closed my eyes. This was easier. I had been training with twin blades since I was a young woman, and I knew the nuances of them as well as I knew anything in my life. I began to dance in earnest; the slow glide forward, the mincing side-step that forces the enemy to move. The whip of the blades past my face as I went into the Water wheel, the variant of the wheel practiced with paired blades-

 

“Danika.”

 

-I suddenly knew I had done this before. Not with a paired blade such as this, but with a single blade, the joy of that impression leaped in my heart, and I began to whirl the weapon faster-

 

“Danika...”

 

-I had done this somewhere, perhaps in a past life some people speak of. I had been the best and even masters had watched in amazement as I had cut flies from the air, and strips of paper from a sheet held by a volunteer-

 

“Danika!” I stopped the blades beside my hip, one forward one back in the low guard position. I opened my eyes. There had been a metal crate before me, one of the empties we hadn’t returned to the quartermaster yet. I had cut it in half, not in one blow but in neat strips that lay on the deck, glowing from the heat of the weapon, starting with a wedge of metal, then progressively larger shapes. I stepped back from it, my thumb found the stud, and the blades fell silent and vanished. I handed it back to Bastila, and she looked at my handiwork.

 

“I think you are ready.”

[Char Ell]

I started lifting small things, the same ball bearing, then a book, then a chair, finally as I floated with chairs rotating in a circle as I were the sun with it’s planets.

I think this sentence needs to be reviewed for grammar. I like how you continue to incorporate actual game imagery into your story, e.g. the game cutscene for Revan's re-training as a Jedi.

 

I also like the fact that you took the time to address the differences between wielding a metal-bladed weapon and a lightsaber and Danika's painful process of learning how to fight with a lightsaber again.

 

Was this chapter posted previously? I know I've read it before and it must have been here because I haven't read any of your material posted elsewhere.

[machievelli]

Yes, this was posted as the first of Dantooine Part one.

 

I have been constantly appalled by other writers who simply think a Jedi is going to snatch up any old sword and use it. There is a lot of training involved (Mainly time) and learning how to use say a rapier is different from a Roman Spatha. You have to get used to the weight, and as I commented, a lightsaber beam has no weight. That is why Bastila spent all that time merely defending herself on Taris in my book, because she's used to a lightsaber and suddenly she had a blade staff instead. It was also part of the reason I see for the Jedi to train children rather than adults.

Good spotting. No, you don't get a Whatever for it. As for grammar my checker passed it.

[machievelli]

Tests:

 

Danika

 

I couldn’t wait. I went to Master Dorak, and showed him the book I had been reading. He pounced on it, and was lost in it before I could do more than explain what I had read. I left him happily engrossed in a time beyond that of the Republic. Both Master Vandar and Master Zhar were away, and I wanted to tell them both what had happened, but of course could not. I was walking back through the corridor when Master Vrook came around the corner. It wasn’t until then that I realized that except for watching me from a distance, he had not gotten close to me since the Council meeting of almost two months ago. In fact, while there were fifteen Masters present, only the Council members would even speak to me. I didn’t know why, but it was a fact I had to accept.

 

“How is your training going?” He growled.

 

“I believe I am ready to work with an actual lightsaber finally.” I admitted.

 

“Finally.” He motioned, and walked into the training room. He keyed a sensor, and a remote ball glided from its niche. “Helmet.” He snapped. I picked it up, and slid it on. “Saber.” He flipped the handle to me and I caught it without using the force. “Engarde.”

 

I flicked it on, and waited in middle guard position. The remote was invisible, only the humming of it’s anti-grav unit giving me an approximate position. I moved the blade, and felt a bolt deflect into the wall. Then another.

 

They became faster and faster, a rain that would hurt if one of them struck me. The sound of the unit became diffuse, and the rain fell harder and faster. I was untouched, but I didn’t know how long that would be true.

 

Then they came in a flurry, I could have sworn the remote was flying around me but I could no longer hear it.

 

“Enough!” Master Zhar shouted. The rain stopped. “Take off your helmet, Apprentice. “ I slid it off, and looked at the four remotes that still circled me. I looked to Master Vrook. He stood beside Zhar, glaring at me with such hate that I was stunned.

 

“Better than I had ever imagined.” Vrook said softly, then he handed the remote controller to Zhar and padded out. Zhar looked after him for a long moment, then back at me.

 

“Your final tests begin tomorrow. I would suggest you get a good night’s sleep.” Zhar sent the remotes back to their niches, and left. I looked at the lightsaber in my hand, then set it on the desk at the end of the room.

 

The next morning, I arose early. Bastila who had been working with me when I practiced my training was absent, and part of me missed her. She had become almost like my shadow for the last two months or so. I picked up a mug, accidentally dropped it, and caught it with the Force a few centimeters from the floor.

 

“Beats having to clean it up doesn’t it?” I looked at Mission where she stood. She had begun to smile again but it was a sad smile. The kind a child gets after they find that the monster they thought was under the bed was real, regardless of what their parents said.

 

“Yes it does. Tea?”

 

“Sure.” I handed her the filled mug, got another and poured mine. “So what is it like to use the force?”

 

“Like finding out you have only taken shallow breaths all your life.” I grinned. “Or finding out that boys are really attracted to those new growths that bothered you a year before.” She laughed out loud, once again the child without a care. I could see her growing up, having children being happy-

 

Her face contorted screaming. I could see her hands raised in supplication rather than defense. As if that would stop me. I blocked a blaster bolt and knew it was Carth, could hear him pleading with me to stop or he would kill me. Canderous would do nothing, I knew. He was mine, had been mine since the day he had joined us. Bastila would bend to my will, fall on her knees and proclaim me master. Malak would die, not quickly, but by cut after narrow cut as I sliced away every bit of the betrayer’s flesh. I could feel the blade slicing through Mission, watched her fall. Heard Zaalbar’s scream of rage and pain and betrayal. “Wait your turn.” I snarled, turning to face him. The bowcaster was up, but his heart warred with his oath and I reached out, feeling his skull collapse in my Force imbued hand-

 

-“Danika!” I started back, looking at the mug at my feet, shattered. I set down the pot, and sat, shivering with a cold that had nothing to do with temperature. She fussed about me, and I finally had to beg her to sit. “Please Mission, I’m all right.”

 

“Well you looked like someone had hit you with a stun baton.”

 

“It wasn’t a stun baton, it was the Force.” I replied. Feet ran up the gangway, and stopped at the passageway to the central room. Bastila came in, eyes wary. Her lightsaber was in her hand, and I knew she was ready to trigger it in an instant.

 

“Well at least I finally know you how to roust you out of bed in the morning.” I joked. It had been a running gag among us. Bastila was usually the last awake, and was not by any stretch a morning person. I was almost as bad, but at least they didn’t have to threaten me with ice water.

 

She calmed, but was not amused. Neither was I. “I felt-”

 

“I know. I saw a vision. A horrible vision.” I pointedly did not look at Mission. “I think I have to speak with Master Vandar and Master Zhar right now.”

 

“They are expecting you.” Bastila hung her lightsaber from her belt.

 

We walked to the Council room in silence. I was still horrified by what the vision had shown me. Mission dying not by chance but by my hand just a few weeks away. How I knew the timing of that event was unimportant. Mission had become like a younger sister to me. I wanted to hold her in my arms wipe her tears away. If I could I would have gone to the wreckage of Taris, and put it back like it had been even if it took several lifetimes. If I had to use my bare hands and blood as mortar I would have done it gladly. Zaalbar was sworn to me, and my oath to him would have been doubly violated if that occurred.

 

I didn’t want the Force if I would have to do something like that with it!

 

Master Vrook was not there, which made me happy in a vague way. I came up to the other masters, and instead of standing, I fell to my knees and told them everything I had seen during that horrible vision. I told them in a leaden voice, and found myself crying as I did. Part of me would be ripped away in an instant if they judged it necessary. I would go on living, but never feeling the force ever again, never knowing what I might have been, or done with it. Like having eyes, but knowing that you were to be blinded.

 

I didn’t care.

 

I finally ran down. Kneeling in silence. “I can’t go on with this if that will happen.” I whispered, “I can’t put their lives in danger not from Malak but from me!” I looked up, barely seeing them through my tears. “Take this from me, I know you can. Make my mind a blank and fill it as you will. I don’t want-” I looked away. “-I don’t want to become that person.”

 

“What makes you think you will?” Asked a gentle voice. I looked back. Somewhere during the recital, Master Vrook had come in. His face was impassive, but in his eyes I could see pain. He walked over, kneeling beside me. “People go through their lives with choices all around them We who use the Force are most sorely tried because our choices can harm those we love more than ourselves. We always walk that knife blade. Vandar, Zhar,” He laughed softly, “Even I. Will you listen to me for once?”

 

“Always, Master.” He looked sad at that.

 

“The Force can give you visions of the future. But some are not true though they can be if we do not take care. They are the potential in all of us, the evil we could do if we do not restrain ourselves. I believe that is what you saw. There will be a time of great test for you before you confront Malak, a time when your entire existence and all of ours will rise or fall on what you do. You must be strong for all of us. For this Twi-lek girl, for the Wookiee, even for the Mercenary who you now have following you like a tame Kath hound. You will send them to hell, or save their lives with your actions.”

 

I nodded jerkily. Then I hugged him, burying my head against his chest as I cried. I felt his discomfort, and one of his hands patted me jerkily. “Now no more of this. Master Zhar awaits your final tests.”

 

I never felt less ready than that moment. I walked into the training room and fell to my knees again.

 

“Stand, Apprentice.” Zhar said softly. I stood, and he watched me for several moments before he spoke. “Do you honestly feel so lacking in worth?”

 

“I must, Master. I had a vision of killing a girl I love as a sister, a Wookiee that has sworn a life debt to me, damning me twice over. Not only seeing them killed but being the instrument on their deaths! What manner of animal am I?” I looked at him.

 

“Apprentice, do you deny what Master Vrook has said to you?” He asked.

 

“No Master. But what he said suggests that I have the potential to be that monster.”

 

“As do we all, girl.” Zhar replied. “Do you think we who are Masters merely have found a way to immediately decide what is right or wrong and miraculously follow it?” He shook his head with a sad smile. “Exar Kun was close to being a master, but he struck down Master Vodo-Siosk Baas on the very floor of the Republic Senate to show his disdain. Ajunta Poll had been a master when he led the exiles and created what are now the Sith two millennia ago. A Master has even more to fear than a mere Apprentice, child. We have greater powers, and our fall is farther. Do you believe that you cannot stand against this darkness within yourself?”

 

“Master, is it not written ‘The darkness within ourselves is always the true enemy’?”

 

“Yes. Now, do you believe that?”

 

“Yes Master.” I closed my eyes, then opened them. “In war, fighting the enemy, I considered what I did and might do. All my life when I saw the strong use their strength to bully others, when I discovered that all the Wookiee I had seen before Zaalbar were slaves. To me owning another being, knowing that it despairs, and not caring, that is darkness beyond the fury that had risen in me at the thought. But when I killed the Gamorreans that had put a collar on Zaalbar, I had not felt anger, or hate. Or rage. What I felt was pity. They had made themselves less than sentient by their actions, and while I had to kill them, part of me wanted to put a collar on them for a week. Make them live like one of those they had so tormented, with no hope of rescue, then let them go so they would always remember what they had done.”

 

He looked at me. “You have done in the past weeks what some have failed to do in a decade, young Apprentice. Your potential is unlimited. We cannot even imagine what heights you will scale if you stay in the light.

 

“But we have no more time. We must begin your final tests. You may fail them. This does not mean you cannot go on within the order. But we must reconsider sending you upon this quest. While we have taken time, more than we wished, we have taken all we can. Are you ready?”

 

I straightened my shoulders. “If I must be ready, I will be ready.”

 

He nodded. “You have read the Jedi Code.”

 

Of course I had. It was five books with a total of almost 6,000 pages among them. I nodded.

 

“Most students never realize that the Code you have read can be expressed very simply. That is the first step to being a Padawan. Answer these correctly;

 

“There is no emotion.”

 

I paused. Unbidden, words came to me. “There is peace.”

 

“There is no ignorance.”

 

“There is knowledge.”

 

“There is no passion.”

 

“There is serenity.”

 

“There is no chaos.”

 

“There is harmony.”

 

“There is no death.”

 

“There is the Force.” I felt a welling of emotion in me. Suddenly I saw all those petty rules I had read, all of those judgments by Masters long dust and the words were right somehow. I also knew that I could take the youngest apprentice and teach him these simple words, these simple answers, and it would mean nothing unless he felt them within himself. It isn’t the words that bind the Jedi to our cause; it is the ideals, and living our lives by them.

 

Zhar smiled. “Jedi have never been the Masters of the Republic, we are its guardians. We guide those we council toward the light not by force, but by example. How can you be an honest judge if you allow passion, emotion, chaos, and ignorance to stop you?

 

“How can we move among those who do not know the Force except as we do? One small fish in the vast school. Above all, we should have no pride in our robes, or unique weapon, or power. If we ever thought ourselves better than those were care for, we would be no better that the Sith.” He looked at me with relief in his eyes. “Well done. Go now to Master Dorak. Tell him I have sent you.”

 

I walked back through the complex. Dorak was busy in the library as always. “This might be the clue we sought!” He said, holding up the book I had found. “But how did Revan know to read it?”

 

I stood there a moment, then I walked to the stacks. Dorak watched me, following with a puzzled look on his face. I reached up, pulling down a slim book. I opened it, flipping through the pages with all the haste the ancient book could stand. Then I stopped. “ ‘It is believed on many worlds that the Force came to our Galaxy from outside, brought by a people steeped in the Dark side. From them, it is also believed, came the secret of the Hyper drive. Those and the many ruins mentioned on such planets as Dantooine and Korriban by Webelori’s translation of the ancient texts of Korriban are their doing’.” I handed it to him. He took it, and looked at the spine. “ ‘Before the Republic Stood: What is known of the Galaxy’. By Ajunta Poll.” He read.

 

I stared at the book. I had never been in this library before we came to Dantooine, never seen that book. But I had known it was here, and found it.

 

“Well done, Apprentice. What may I do for you?”

 

“Master Zhar sent me.”

 

“Ah yes, the crystal.” He led me to his desk, opening a case. “We have several of each color. You do know about the crystals.”

 

“Yes.” The crystals were called Adegan or Ilum crystals. First discovered in the Adega system. They were formed by the Force itself it was believed, made as other crystals have been formed through centuries of pressure and heat within planets. Yet these were unique. First, they are colored, each it’s own unique color of the spectrum. The Red crystals were the most common. The Dark Jedi used them because they were easy to obtain. Then there were the Blue, green and yellow which were also common, though rare in comparison to red. Then the unique colors, violet teal rose or amethyst.

 

“When you build your first lightsaber, you chose the color of the part of the order you feel you should represent. It is, in this instance, the choice you have made of your calling as a Jedi. The Guardian is blue so-”

 

“Wait.” I stopped him. “Please, there are others, yes?”

 

“Of course there are.” He fell into the pedantic mode he did so well.

“Blue is the Guardian. The warriors of the order. When people speak of us as the Jedi Knights, it is the Guardians they usually think of. When fight we must the Guardian is in the vanguard. Next of course are the Sentinels. They watch for the evil, and bring it to light. They search for evil, ferreting it out where ever it might be. Their color is yellow.

 

“The fewest of our order are the Consular. They are the negotiators, the judges of the order. When strife is to be averted, it is the Consular who is assigned. They must always remember that balance is the key to peace. When a Jedi chooses to be a Consul, she is given a green crystal.”

 

“I know I can be a Guardian, but I do not feel that it is my path, Master.” I apologized. “I have spent too much of my life dealing death and avoiding it. I feel that there is more to my life than that, and would chose another path.”

 

“Well, back when there were thousands of us, they had a test they administered. Will you accept my judgment in this?”

 

“In all things, Master.”

 

“Very well. “Two men are locked in what appears to be a death struggle. One is struck down, and begs for his life from the ground. What do you do?”

 

“Why are they fighting? Is the man on the ground innocent? Easier to confront them to find out why they are in such turmoil, then deal with the problem, whether it be them or whatever has put them in this position. If the man who is attacking is wrong, stop him. If the man on the ground the aggressor at least attempt to convince his attacker to show mercy. Beyond that I have no reason to intervene.”

 

“Ah.” He nodded. “You are in combat with a dark Jedi. He retreats for a moment. Maybe he is tired, maybe he feels that he is losing, maybe he has been injured. What do you do?”

 

“Master a Dark Jedi was once one of us. Something caused him to embrace the dark. I would try to find this out. No one is completely in the Dark or the Light. Perhaps my words can return him.”

 

“Yes. You must enter a fortress to gain information. Before you is the gate, and armed guards. What do you do?”

 

“Are the guards my enemy? Is it possible they can be swayed by reason? I would approach them, and ask admittance. If they refuse, then I can consider a more violent option.”

 

“I am beginning to see a pattern. You have been sent to assist the enclave in a disputed word. It is rumored that Dark Jedi and Sith have infiltrated, and are causing planet-wide unrest. What do you do first?”

 

“Are there really Dark Jedi?” I asked. “Is it perhaps discontent that has been there for a long time, or because of recent actions by the government? Dishonest governments have tried to use claims of evil machinations to sway the Jedi Council and Senate before. There would be records, and those would be my first goal. If there was no time of unrest before, if the government was been benign, or at least not tending to outright oppression, then I will agree that it might be agents of the enemy. At that time I would to see how they might have arrived, and what they plan.”

 

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he laid out a strip of black silk. A dozen green crystals lay upon it. “Chose what you would have Consular-Candidate.” There was one stone the green of Kalendra’s eyes, the green of the sea in a storm. I lifted it gently. “Very well. Go to Master Vandar.”

 

I walked back to the room where Master Vandar taught. There were ten children between five and eleven there. Heads covered by helmets playing a game of sorts. A remote floated in the center, and it fired a bolt of energy at one of the children. That child deflected it across the circle, where another child deflected it at an angle at another student who then deflected it at another.

 

“Continue.” Vandar turned to me. I held out my hand with the crystal, and he sighed. He brought me to a workbench. “Construct your lightsaber. Let me see it when you are done.” He turned back as another bolt entered the pattern.

 

I opened the drawers in order. Beam emitters, apertures, matrices, both slide and knob controls for adjusting length and intensity. Dial or color strip diagnostic readouts, Activation systems from simple studs to flat plates to switches. Then the delicate lattice works of the crystal focus. Last were power cells and casings to hold it all.

 

I chose a black handle 30 centimeters long. With the tools I began forming the workings of the weapon I would bear. The emitter was housed with four prongs to act as a hand guard, the aperture set in place. Then the emitter matrix was assembled, and installed. I chose slide controls, so I would not have to look when adjusting them, color strip readouts, with a simple activating stud.

 

I worked hardest on the lattice. There were three sockets, and I carefully set the green crystal I had been given in the center, using a loupe to assure that it was placed correctly. The facets had to align just so for the beam to impinge on it, and be focused into the emitter array. I felt that it was right, and delicately tightened the clamps. If they were too loose, the stone would move, ruining the focus at an inopportune moment. But if they were too tight, they would actually warp the surface of the crystal minutely. I set them where I felt they should be, then slid the assembly into the handle, mounting them in place. Finally I ran the power leads down to the power pack, and sealed the access plate.

 

A lightsaber is unique to the user in that no one ever gives instruction beyond the simplest terms on how to construct one. It is one of those devices that owes more to artistry and the force than to technology in its design. No two lightsabers are the same, even when made by the same person. There are entire cases of ancient deactivated lightsabers in the archives, and by choosing a Jedi’s name, you can track their lives by the changes they made in later weapons. The ’blade’ can be adjusted from half a meter in length to a meter and a half. Some can be tuned so lightly that they can burn the hair from a man’s hand without burning or cutting the flesh beneath it, or set so powerful that they will carve the armor of a vehicle like butter.

 

I paused, then lifted it. The weight wasn’t right, pulling to the pommel a little, and I reopened the case, adding an extension in the emitter matrix of a denser material. When I reassembled it, it felt right in my hand.

 

The students now had five bolts bouncing, and they were shrieking like any child at play would. Then together they arched all of the bolts toward me as if on command.

 

My hand came up, and the sea-foam green of my blade lanced out in a whirling circle. I directed the bolts to the sides away from them, into pads of ablative material that smoked as they struck. Vandar had spun as his students had done this, now looked disapproving at the world in general.

 

“Let me see your handiwork, apprentice.” I walked over, handing it to Master Vandar.

 

“I apologize, Master. I acted precipitously.”

 

He grunted. “Children will be children, even here. Whether they are eight or twenty-eight. I should have warned you.”

 

“What, and ruined their fun?”

 

He chuckled. “There is that.” He flicked the blade into life, running through all the adjustments as if he’d done it a thousand times. He had of course, but never with my saber specifically. “I have never seen a crystal set so smoothly by a novice.” He shut it off, and handed it back to me. “Take this to master Zhar.”

 

I bowed and walked out. One of the boys sent a bolt at my back as their game started again, and I bounced it back at him. He deflected it at the last second, the grin widening on his face before he turned back to his classmates.

 

Master Zhar had moved into the courtyard, meditating quietly. I approached, fell into a meditation seat, and floated in the air as I waited. A time passed, how much I do not know. If you have meditated, you understand what I mean. The Master opened his eyes, and wordlessly held out his hand. I set the lightsaber in his grip, and he looked the casing over with a narrow eye. He flicked the beam into existence, looking at me with an unreadable expression, then moved it smoothly through the Kata I had done before him.

 

“Well done.” He stood, and I joined him. “There is one final test, and it is one we face all our lives. This will be the first time for you, but I feel you are ready.” I nodded. “There is darkness in the galaxy, and it is our duty to face it. Such a darkness has overtaken a grove to the south and east of here, a darkness that grows with every minute. It infects the Kath hounds native to Dantooine, driving them into madness. They attack people with a savagery at odds with their nature. This must be dealt with. You must find the source of this evil.”

 

“What must I do when I find it?”

 

“That is your test, apprentice. The choice of how it will be handled is up to you. But remember this. No one that has gone into the dark if ever lost to us. It can be saved if you will put the effort in doing so. This takes time, but never is time so precious that you must ignore the option. You may take two of your companions, no more. Because this is your test, Bastila cannot be among them.” He handed the lightsaber back to me, and I put it on my belt.

[Jae Onasi]

Jae, every writer I have studied or met is a lot like an actor. They thrive on their work, and feel better when they get the applause.

 

As for being the critic, I think anyone can come up with a valid comment about another's work.

 

So people, if you have a comment, good, bad or indifferent, send it on!

 

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that people _shouldn't_ comment on your (or anyone else's) work. I was merely offering a possible explanation of _why_ they're not commenting on your fic. It's certainly not the quality of the writing (which is good) that's keeping people from posting.

[Char Ell]

I think Master Vandar fell out of his Yoda-speak in that chapter.

 

Great attention to detail in Tests. An interesting choice to have Danika choose the path of a Consular. And she constructs a single-bladed lightsaber instead of a double-bladed one. Interesting. And I like how you portrayed the children playing four-square with blaster bolts. That was a nice addition to the story.

 

RE: this sentence

I started lifting small things, the same ball bearing, then a book, then a chair, finally as I floated with chairs rotating in a circle as I were the sun with it’s planets.

Grammar was the wrong word to use. I still think this sentence is awkward and should be reworked. Maybe "...then finally as I floated with chairs rotating in a circle around me, like a system's planets orbiting their sun." Or something like that. Of course this is your call as the author and only my 2 cents.

[machievelli]

you'll notice that Vandar doesn't 'yoda speak'.

[machievelli]

Dantooine Quest:

 

Canderous

 

The heavy blaster rifle lay on the workbench as I worked with it. Patience is the first thing a young warrior learns, and I am by no means young. I am Canderous Ordo of clan Ordo. My deeds are enshrined in the halls of my people, and for forty of the Republic’s standard years I had fought across the Galactic Rim.

 

Since Mandalore Our Progenitor conquered a small flyspeck of a planet, we have been warriors, and our people breed them like others breed their farm animals. For my people it is the honor and glory of battle that draws us, shapes us, and defines us. For each of us it is through combat that we prove our worth gain renown earn our fortunes and determine who is worthy of passing on his genes to the next generation.

 

Not long after we left Taris, the woman that I now allied myself with had sat with me, and discussed what my people know and feel and believe. When I spoke to her of what I have just recorded she asked “Is that why the Mandalorians attacked us?”

 

I corrected her, which I have not bothered to do very often since the war’s end. “We call ourselves merely the Mando, as our leader has always been the Mandalore of Mandalore. Only those who have not spent the time to learn of us call us Mandalorian.

 

“No. Twenty years ago, we were approached by the Sith, still licking their wounds after the war of Exar Kun. They brought not trinkets and technologies, but an idea that struck our people. Why not prove ourselves in a war that would be recorded as long as the Galaxy existed? Fight an enemy that would set forever the name of the Mando in history. They wanted us to strike at the Republic.

 

“For my people it was a siren call of battle. The Republic was weakened by the war of Exar Kun. The Sith were worse off. To defeat the Sith would have been child’s play, but the Republic...”

 

“But you lost!”

 

“Win, lose, it doesn’t matter. As long as the fight is glorious and worthy of those that died. The honor for a losing battle is no less than that which leads to victory, only the one who lost is not there a lot of the time to garner it. His or her children are still there to see it and that renown is theirs as well through their blood. The glory of defeating your Republic, of facing impossible odds, and knowing that we can win, but will probably not, that is what drives us.”

 

“And what of those defeated?”

 

“You know gamblers. What do they lose? Money. Coins or jewels that were never going to remain theirs forever. We gamble only one way, and that is with our very lives. If there is nothing of true worth at stake, you possessions, your world, your life, battle is pointless. To fight a battle with no possessions to take, no worlds to conquer, no lives to end is waste.

 

“When we fight nothing is held back. Everything we are and have is thrown into it. It is the true test that defines your very life. The struggle against death and oblivion.”

 

“So your people seek death.”

 

I shook my head, smiling. It was almost as if she were one of the children in the training camps.

 

“Death is nature’s way. All things die in their time. A true warrior is the one that Death chases, pursues with single-minded intensity, yet fails to catch. Such has always been our way.”

 

I stopped speaking for a time. “But our people had begun to change in small ways that boded the end of our race. There was a generation of warriors who fought nowhere but in the training pits rising now to command. Leaders of Squads, Phalanxes, even armies that gave of their mouths to the glory of war, yet had never felt it’s kiss, had never given their heart or their blood to it. When the story circle was opened, all they could do was listen. The clans were being led by those that would not last an instant against those of my generation who had seen it, and if we had ever fought amongst ourselves would have fallen even though they outnumbered us in their thousands. The entire race was dying from the inside like a diseased tree, and the rot was spreading rapidly.

 

“The Mandalore of Mandalore was of my generation, his own son was one of this other kind. He feared for our entire race if his son did not learn the truth of our existence. He committed us to the course of fighting the Republic in hopes that the new war would blood those and bring them into the fold, as they should have been. We might fall, but it would be as we should, from battle, not from the weakness of our own people. He spent a dozen of your years attacking just the fringes, the unaligned worlds and polities. Then, finally, when he felt there was no more he could do to train them, we struck.

 

“But he failed. When the fire of battle touched us, it wasn’t the diseased tissue that burned, but the good. The weak stayed home, or found their niche in garrison troops and administration. What we would have left to serfs, they grasped and called important. Not all of course, for even a diseased tree will stand many seasons before its fall. But enough that when the war had ended, the dross was greater in weight than the precious metal we had squandered. The Clans were scattered over the rim on a few meager worlds.

 

“That may be the end of my people. Many still stalk about wearing our armor, speaking our language, defaming our heritage, whose only claim to it is their blood. One such was Bendak Starkiller back on Taris, who cannot even claim that blood.

 

“Even at the height of our power, the Clans were not a serious threat to any capable of standing against us. Those that fought us tried to use the weak among us as the reasons we fought. The greed the brutality the spite and the bloodlust. But they know that is a lie. The Mando are still the premier warriors of the Galaxy. They look at us and see that, and fear us still.

 

“We wanted the challenge of battle, as we always have. The honor and glory, win or lose. We lost.”

 

She sat there looking at me, and I knew that she felt pity for my people. A brave race brought low not by the war, but by our own society. “And how did Canderous Ordo of Clan Ordo end up on Taris?”

 

“Home is not what it was for us that really believed in our old ways. It was better to spread into the Galaxy, earn again our honors, and hope that some few would learn it at home again. Ships came from many peoples, and our warriors, and those who only claimed such left in their multitudes. I had finished a contract when I arrived on Taris. Not a lucrative one and truth be told little honor accrued from it. Davik needed men and spoke of great honor and glory, but what honor was there? Crushing the idiots that fought him, pitting a few months swagger against forty years of struggle was something a stripling could have beaten. Confronting the Swoop gangs had its moments, but even they were weak and would have been defeated in the end.

 

“When I look back upon my life. At the thousands who fell facing me. The deaths I have encompassed with my own hands, with the hands of those that followed me, I weep. Not for my past, for what has been written will never be undone. No, I weep for my people in the future.”

 

When we arrived at Dantooine, she had to spend time with the Jedi, and because of that, I was left pretty much to myself. The Wookiee spoke a language I had never learned, the Twi-lek girl looked at me as if I had three heads, and I was of no interest to Bastila.

 

This left only Carth, and when she was there, Danika to speak to.

 

Among my people there is a saying, “Society is only warfare on another plane‘. One evening, I opened battle on that level with Carth. The one thing I missed from home was the Warrior’s story circle. The telling and retelling of our deeds. It is not proper to merely speak of them unless asked, and it is good manners to let others go first. We had settled down to a meal. Danika was engrossed in a Holocron, those odd devices only the Jedi or others who can touch the force can use.

 

“Carth. You fought my people during the Mando wars, didn’t you?” He nodded. “We might have faced each other in combat. Tell me of the battles you fought, and whom you fought alongside.”

 

He shook his head. “I try not to think of the battles I have seen too much. The horrors of war are not something to relive over a meal. I save them for my nightmares.”

 

The comment bothered me. “Horrors? My people glory in the press of battle. We gain honor among our people by the retelling of our exploits. The young learn what it is to be a warrior. I am disappointed that you never learned that lesson.”

 

“Most of our peoples never learned to view war as yours did.” Danika commented softly.

 

“I am not a warrior.” Carth bit out. “I was a soldier. There is a difference. Warriors attack and conquer. They prey on those too weak to fight back. Soldiers defend and protect the innocent. Usually from warriors.”

 

“Nice speech. I bet you tell yourself that every night to stave off your nightmares. But my people have done what you are not. We accept what nature and chance has made us. I don’t have to justify what I have done in my life with pallid words. My victories in my record is all I need to show my worth.”

 

“Victories!” Carth almost spat. “And how do the defeats measure in this paean of martial glory? You lost. You not only lost. You lost to us!”

 

“Of course we did!” I looked at him surprised. “When the war began you outnumbered us five to one in ships, and ten to one in personnel. You had more supplies than you knew what to do with, which helped because we captured enough of them to keep our own troops going. You had the Jedi, the one thing we did not have, and yet you still almost lost to us before they joined the fight. It has been four years, and still the Republic trembles at the name Mando!”

 

“Nice speech. I bet you tell yourself that every night to cover the fact that you lost! How many millions died when your kind committed atrocities?”

 

“The ones that occurred, or the ones your government thought up?”

 

“How about Serafin 7? The murder of ten thousand miners when you invaded?”

 

“It is said among my people ‘to know honor, you must know what dishonor is’. Goortel led the fleet at Serafin . He was not a warrior; he was one of the weak ones that share my blood. He was dealt with afterward. The sentence for his infamy was Kashtrial. Death by his own hand. When he proved too weak to follow through as honor demanded, we dealt with him as we would with any of his ilk.” I glared at him. “We took care of those of our own that acted shamefully. That raped that pillaged that murdered instead of facing the dead in battle. Can you say the same? What of Admiral Quintain at Kostigan’s Drift? If I remember correctly he was made a lord of the Republic for his victory.” I added sarcastically.

 

“I was at Kostigan’s Drift.” He bit out. “Quintain faced a fleet defending a supply depot. He fought through them, and bombed the depot.”

 

“Yes. I was there as well. The ‘fleet’ he faced was fifteen corvettes and five frigates against ten cruisers and twenty frigates. They were not pushed aside, he slipped by them in the dark matter belt at the edge of the system. He could have fought them and crushed them but he didn’t have the guts to match weapons with them. When he was past them he bombed the entire continent where our depot was. Killing what, the fifty Mando that guarded it? And what of the million odd civilians that lived there? If we had done it every officer in the fleet would have been executed afterward. By us!”

 

“There was your damn jamming! He couldn’t target as precisely as we wished!”

 

“Jamming! The only ‘jamming’ you faced was the electromagnetic affects of the dark matter you had hidden in! Our fleet didn’t engage you then because they were waiting for our own instruments to clear! I know because I was on the bridge of one of them when the pursuit began!”

 

“I think that is quite enough discussion.” Bastila commented tartly.

 

As you can see, war without the bloodshed. But it was fun while it lasted.

 

I leaned back, examining what I had been doing. Danika had ordered the parts I needed to tweak the weapon to it’s maximum potential. I hoped that soon I would find something worthy of its thunder.

 

“Canderous.” I looked behind me. Danika stood there. Instead of the Echani armor she had worn, she wore a simple robe as the Jedi did. Part of me was saddened. She had looked like a war bride before, and that vision remained in my mind of her. Now she looked like all of the faceless Jedi I had fought in my time. “I would like you to accompany me.”

 

“Just say the word.”

 

She held up her hand. “Will bringing Carth be a burden?”

 

I shook my head. “A burden for Carth perhaps. But one day he will see his true self.”

 

I gathered my gear, putting on my armor, and followed her to the cockpit. Carth was doing as I had, assuring that his weapons, his controls were in perfect working order. He started to smile, but it was wiped away when I entered after her. “I would like you to accompany me, Carth.” She looked at me. “Us, I should have said.”

 

“Where?”

 

There is a final test I must endure to become a Jedi. I am supposed to have witnesses, and I chose you two because if there is anything out there that is a danger, I can think of no one better able to defend themselves.”

 

He looked at me, then stood, picking up his weapons belt. I had seen him back there tinkering with his weapons as well.

 

She led us through the Academy, past all of those people doing what only the Jedi knew.

 

“I will wait no longer!” A bluff man was forcing his way past a small woman, screaming. I would have simple cold cocked him, but the girl who was obviously a student, didn’t have the training. “I have waited and waited and you Jedi have done nothing! I demand justice! The Sanderal are a blight on this planet and must be expunged!”

 

Danika moved to intercept him, and he slowed. “Get out of my way, woman!”

 

“Sir pushing around students does not make your cause more just.” She said coldly. “And shouting does not mean you are more quickly heard, only more loudly.”

 

“I do not need your platitudes!” He started to reach out. I couldn’t see her face from where I was, but it stopped him cold.

 

“Loudly heard you have been.” Master Vandar walked out of the council room, followed by Master Vrook. They came to stand beside Danika. “Apprentice, this is our business.” Vandar said.

 

She bowed, stepping aside. “Yes master.” Vandar then turned to the angry man.

 

“Mr. Matale, the Council has promised already to investigate your son’s disappearance, but you must be patient. Your accusations have no proof and until we can finish our investigations, all you will do is incite further violence. If your claims are false, the hatred you spread will only linger.”

 

“False! My son is missing, and he was in the Sanderal estates when it happened! That much our own authorities have proven!”

 

“Authorities that work on your lands and answer to you alone. Others do not say as much.” Master Vrook said.

 

“My officers are the best trained on the planet and were instructed to look for clues, not make decisions regarding them.”

 

Vandar shook his head as if he knew where the argument was going. “Your anger with the Sanderal is well documented. As is theirs with you. If there is no evidence, you will follow that anger as a river runs downhill. In our deliberations we have discovered many possible reasons for Shen’s disappearance. We must continue our investigations, and you must learn patience.”

 

He spat. “You Jedi! Good for nothing but talk! I will wait here no longer! I will deal with this problem myself!” He turned and stormed away.

 

Vandar watched him, then turned to Danika. “As much effort as we must put into this war with the Sith and Malak, we Jedi cannot simply abandon our other duties, Apprentice. We have promised to look into this matter, and we are, but time is not on our side.

 

“Part of the problem is that Casus, son and heir of Nurik Sanderal has been missing for two weeks now. The Sanderal had accused the Matale, but again there was no proof. Shen’s disappearance has merely added fuel to the fire. If Shen Matale is dead, we must prove beyond a shadow of doubt when and how he died, and who is responsible. If the Sanderal are guilty, they must be punished. But the hatred between the two families started almost from their arrival on this planet over forty years ago. If the matter stays as it is, or we do not find the culprit, it will flash into a bloody feud that will not end as long as both families live. We must not allow that to happen.

 

“Study and training is necessary to perfect our art, of course. But the Jedi is not a cloistered order with no contact with the Galaxy. Our influence and our teachings must extend beyond these walls.”

 

“Yes.” Vrook said. “It is in the real world that we prove ourselves worthy of the title Jedi. You would do well to remember that, young apprentice.”

 

Danika bowed, and we went on. The door to the outside world was just another door; I could have blasted it with a single burst. Danika walked up to the protocol droid assigned to the entrance. “I am Danika Wordweaver.”

 

“My programming includes your appearance, Apprentice.” He said smoothly. “You are allowed full access to the facilities, and may leave them at your discretion.” The door opened. “May the Force be with you.”

 

We walked out onto a wide esplanade. Some people were there, talking in small groups, walking together. Ever present were other young Jedi, though these were all in their teens and mid twenties.

 

As we walked, I noticed a man standing near a bridge leading out into a wild expanse. He saw us, and I could feel the hate radiating off him at the sight of me. I’m used to that. Being Mando means others hate and fear you on sight.

 

As we reached him, he drew a knife, and screamed, charging at me. Carth drew, and I lowered my weapon to point at the man. But Danika’s lightsaber flicked into life, and she cut, the blade of the knife falling to the ground, leaving only the hilt.

 

“What means this?” She asked coldly. The lightsaber died.

 

“You Jedi! How long must we face attacks by night from his kind?” He jerked his head in my direction. “I come to ask for justice, and what do I see? A Jedi with a Mandalorian butcher in tow! You sit in your enclave and preach love and light while the rest of us suffer!”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Those Mandalorian scum murdered my daughter!”

 

“Yet you stand here, alive.” I said. “What manner of father are you?”

 

“What was I supposed to do?” The man screamed at me. “A dozen Mandalorians and their Duros allies came to our land. Took what we had! When Ilse fought them their leader dragged her away. They used her, then brought her out naked and bloody, and shot her right in front of me!”

 

“What were their names.” I asked. My face must have been cold, but fires burned in me. How dare they defame our people!

 

“I only heard Sherruk. Their leader.” The man glared at me. “Why? Are you going to sing songs of their bravery?”

 

“I don’t know what the Jedi will do, man. But I, Canderous of Clan Ordo will rip out his heart and bring it back to you.”

 

“Find them, kill them!” The man started to shout again, then suddenly collapsed, crying. Danika knelt beside him, her hand on his shoulder.

 

“We will find them.” She promised.

 

We walked out into the plains in silence. “Why, Canderous?” She asked after a time. “Why did you make such an oath?”

 

“To kill someone who cannot fight back is bad enough. How much honor does a warrior win by killing the defenseless? But to dishonor her then kill her, that is worse.”

 

“Why? Seems the Mandalorians did a lot of that during the war.” Carth said.

 

I spun. “If you do not know what you are speaking about, you should be silent! Yes there were those that did such things. We considered them as worse than you ever would. More of those that killed the innocent died by our hands then ever stood in one of your Republic courts!”

 

“What about war brides then? What is that beyond giving a woman into slavery and rape?”

 

“Again your words issue from an empty head! When we fought an enemy, our helmets record all that was seen. If a woman fought us, we judged her from that record, and tried always to take her alive.

 

“Do you think our women are nothing but brood mares? They stand with us in battle, protect our backs, bear our children, and no on who has met one in battle can say they are unable to fight. Those women who survived among the enemy we fought that were judged worthy we named warbrides and a bride price set. Then they were asked-asked if they would accept it. If she accepted marriage, that money went in trust to her and her children. If she refused that price was paid to the woman, and she was declared one of our own. She had her own household, her own lands, her own say in her life. Warriors would come and tell of their deeds hoping to woo her as a wife.

 

“If she refused the price or later refused to marry within three of your years, she was promised transportation to a neutral planet. Yet even then they were honored! If we fought the son of a warbride later, it was a great honor.

 

“But rape? How can a man trust any woman to guard his back that he has used so shamefully? How can he stand in the circle and boast of such an act? Yes our young have raped. We punish them as the children they are. But a Warrior trained and bred does not unless he has no use for living.”

 

The walk continued in silence.

 

Danika

We headed south through the Matale lands. There were Kath hounds, and where possible we avoided them. The smaller female predators stand half a meter at the shoulder. They are the hunters of the packs. The Males are called Horned Kath hounds because when they reach maturity, they grow two massive forward sweeping horns and grow to almost two meters at the shoulder. While they can be used as weapons, the horns are for the mating cycle. A male would attack and hope to drive away another male and capture his females. The unattached males wander alone, and are considered quite dangerous.

 

What disturbed me was not the Kath hounds but the men that streamed into the Matale lands. Most had the look of drifters, looking for work. But others were hard-eyed mercenaries. Some of them spoke of both Ahlan Matale and Rurik Sanderal putting out the call for soldiers to fight. The open fighting that the Council foresaw was only days away.

 

We came over a small rise, and I stopped. A small group stood down there, surrounding a farmer. I could see that three were Duros, and the last- The blue green armor of a Mandalore.

 

I started down the slope. As I approached, the Mando grabbed the farmer by his collar. “Not good enough! Are you trying to slip out of your taxes to us?”

 

“Please, that’s all I have! Take what you want, my wife, my children, but-”

 

The blaster in the Mando’s hand spoke, blasting a hole through him. “Wife and children. Now that’s a thought.”

 

“Go to the dishonored!” A roar in Mando‘a. was followed by a blast from the heavy blaster Canderous carried. The armor stopped the first bolt, but the second punched in, causing a flash explosion. Blood and organs spewed out, stunning the Duros. I was among them before they even reacted.

 

Carth shot one, I killed the other two. Canderous had walked the rest of the way down the hill, and stood over the Mando body. He knelt, ripping off the helmet. The man he looked down on was younger than I was. Canderous took a chain from the corpse’s neck, snapping it to pull it out. There was a small datapad attached to it. “Rander Tubliek of Clan Sokor.” He looked down, then spat in the still face. “Long will clan Sokor work to clean this stain.” He took the datapad, and put it in his pouch.

 

“What is that?” I asked.

 

“A Mando always carries his Soochir. His soul of battle.” He touched the pouch. “Every deed he does is recorded, and if he speaks of battle in the circle, he can prove his acts with it. Also, it is believed that when he dies, the Gods of war judge him by it. The gatekeeper reads his acts, and judges whether he deserves to even speak to the War Gods. If not he is cast off the bridge into the pit of souls, where he must fight his way back into life, and begin again. If he is passed by the gatekeeper, the War Gods also read it. If they are still considered pallid, and worthless, the spirit is thrown into the pit of souls, but nearer the top, where one day it can return to life and try again. If he was a good warrior, but not outstanding, he is thrust back into life at that time.

 

“If he is a great warrior, his spirit is sent to join one of the Gods’ war bands, there to prepare for the day the Universe ends. Every one of them will fight to keep the Universe alive, and every one that dies on that day is another second the universe will exist.” He clenched his fist. “It is also said that if an enemy takes your Soochir and it does not reach your clan, the spirit will wander until that day, and beg their chances of the Gods to no avail. You are no longer Mando, you are dar’manda. No longer of our people. You have lost your identity and your soul. ” He looked at the body. “Wander until I decide to return this.”

 

I set the swoop bikes for auto travel, and their destination was originally the police station in the nearest settlement. I had looked at what the armament they carried, and instead set them to go to the enclave. We loaded the bodies onto the farm lifter, and set it to follow. Then we continued on. To the south was the Sanderal lands, and here as with the other land we had passed, we came upon groups that were bound this time for the Sanderal estate. We cut across the land, past the great house, and continued. In the farthest reaches of the Sanderal lands, I spied several young Kath hounds worrying a body. We chased the cubs away. He had been dead for more than two weeks, nothing remaining to identify the remains. Carth found a backpack, and he held out a datapad. It belonged to one Casus Sanderal. I downloaded the information on the datapad. “From what I heard, Casus disappeared, and Sanderal accused the Matale of his murder.”

 

“No chance of that.” Carth knelt. “A blaster bolt would have scarred the bones. So would a blade if not handled with an expert hand. Even after this time the marks would still be there. What does the datapad say?”

 

“He was exploring a ruin near here. Seems he was quite the amateur archeologist.” I slipped it into my pouch. “We must return to the Sanderal home. Nurik must be told.”

 

“Take it easy, Danika, Carth. But we’re being watched.” Canderous said. He tilted his head as if trying to crack his neck. “Five people coming this way. Two are Mando.”

 

I stayed kneeling, Carth beside me. Canderous moved around them, putting himself at the farthest from the approaching people. He needed the extra standoff distance for his massive weapon.

 

“Stand slowly, woman.” A voice called in a flat filtered tone. A Mando appeared out of a stealth field a few meters away from us. Another appeared to the left and behind him. Three Duros came over the crest, covering us with their hand weapons. I stood slowly as instructed, Carth moving to his feet and moving to the left to give me a clear field.

 

“Well she’s a pretty one, isn’t she Mart?” The first Mando asked. “Think Sherruk will leave any of her for us?”

 

“Not likely, Coord.” The other replied. “We’ll have to hope he gets tired of her eventually.”

 

“Is it not tradition that before battle a Mando must give his full name?” I asked.

 

“Battle!” Coord snorted. “As if three wastlings could be a battle for us! Woman you’re a piece of property now. Your men will die facing us one to one in a dueling circle, or if they are too cowardly, will wear a slave collar. It is said, ‘A herd beast is not a warrior, and not even a child gets honor from slaughtering it‘.”

 

“It is also said that ‘only a fool cooks a meal from something he has not caught’.” Canderous snorted.

 

“Who are you to quote the precepts of Mando to us?” Mart asked.

 

“I am Canderous Ordo of Clan Ordo, worm. I am your death.”

 

I moved, the lightsaber springing to life. Coord went down before me, and Mart was caught in the blast from Canderous’ rifle. Carth had drawn, and a burst of fire swept the Duros away. Canderous again gathered the datapads. I climbed the ridge to discover yet more swoop bikes. Again I set them for the Jedi enclave.

 

“Mart Coomar, of clan Troska.” Canderous said. “And Coord Lambec of Clan Kootir. More dishonored houses.” He spat. “These are the type you would call us all, Carth. I have shown you in words and actions how we deal with them.” Carth was silent.

[machievelli]

I think Master Vandar fell out of his Yoda-speak in that chapter.

 

Great attention to detail in Tests. An interesting choice to have Danika choose the path of a Consular. And she constructs a single-bladed lightsaber instead of a double-bladed one. Interesting. And I like how you portrayed the children playing four-square with blaster bolts. That was a nice addition to the story.

 

Quite honestly, I didn't even consider her building a double blade here. I was following the track of the game, and there she started with a single.

 

As for the kids...

 

If you will notice if you're reading The Beginning as well as this piece, I have my kids BE kids. Oh sure Jedi Training and Mando indoctrination are serious, but the kid that can't think of having fun with that would be very rare.

 

Which give me an idea to break Acceptance out of it's deadlock...