Star Wars - I, Jedi Part 6

I watched the altimeter slowly scroll down and pulled the shuttle's nose up in a slightly better glide path. The jungle's thick foliage looked like mottled carpeting, with the occasional giant tree spiking upward.

Further on the Great Temple, a squared off, pyramidal stone structure, loomed like an alien creature amid the greenery. I'd seen images of that structure for years-first in Imperial newsholos and later in every history of the victorious Rebellion ever made. It had looked impressive in the holograms, but never real and certainly not this majestic.

"Mark." As Ooryl snapped the wing switches in the up posi-tion, I throttled back to ten percent of power and boosted the engine feed to the repulsorlift coils. The shuttle flew on easily and just missed clipping some trees as we came down in the clearing on the east side of the Temple. There, at the base, I saw a long, low opening of sufficient height that I could have tucked the shuttle on inside, but a landing zone had been laid out well clear of that area.

And back away from it had gathered the two dozen New Republic engineers that had been present preparing the Great Temple for its new role as the home of the Jedi academy. Ooryl would take them home, leaving Master Skywalker, two other recruits and me behind. Nine more recruits would be following us, making the first cla.s.s at the academy an even dozen. I set the shuttle down without so much as a b.u.mp and shot Ooryl a wink.

"Haven't lost my touch, but I'm going to miss flying."

"I am Findsman. I will help you find your skill again, Keiran." Ooryl turned his chair and bowed his head toward Luke. "Provided Master Skywalker would not object to Qrygg's doing so."

The Jedi Master gave Ooryl a broad smile. "You are wel-come to hone his old skills as I hone his new ones."

"Ooryl is honored."

"Good, don't want to lose my flight certification." I flipped a switch and lowered the boarding ramp. Warm, moist air imme-diately jetted up into the shuttle. I hit my restraining strap re-lease and stood. "Thanks, Ooryl. I'll see you next time you come through."

"Ooryl will be proud to have a Jedi Knight as a friend."

"And wingman."

"And wingman."

The Gand settled into the pilot's seat as I followed Luke back into the pa.s.senger compartment. Luke Skywalker was slightly taller than I was, but we had similar builds. The other two pa.s.sengers towered over each of us.

Brakiss stood a good fifteen centimeters taller than me, and Kam Solusar another ten centimeters above that. Brakiss had the slender build and sharp features of an aristocrat. If it weren't for the haunted look in his blue eyes, and the way they sunk back a bit in his skull, I would have taken him for some planetary n.o.ble out for a lark in taking on the training.

Karo Solusar was really Brakiss' ant.i.thesis, despite sharing his blond coloration. Kam's hair had been cut short and a bit raggedly. The strong blocky nature of his features was en-hanced by the stubble on his cheeks and chin. His powerfully athletic build marked him as the physically strongest of us, and the seams on his face and leathery quality of flesh on his hands clued me in to both his age and the hardships he'd lived through.

The fact that he already wore a lightsaber also meant there was more to him than was easily apparent. I'd brought my grandfather's lightsaber with me, but I'd packed it in the small satchel loaded in the cargo bay.

I didn't feel inclined to wear it yet, despite Master Skywalker's insistence that I had every right to do so. Until I had more training it was little more than a tool and I felt it deserved to be more.

We grabbed our bags from the pile of supplies the engineers had unloaded, then Luke led us away to the area where the engineers had awaited our arrival. I waved to Ooryl as the boarding ramp retracted and the shuttle took off again. Ooryl piloted the shuttle out in a grand circle around the Great Tem-ple, then shot off around to the moon's day side, vanishing from sight as if swallowed by the forests.

Luke let his black cloak slip back from his shoulders as he opened his arms. "Welcome to Yavin 4. This will be your new home. I wanted the three of you to be the first students here because all three of you have a greater understanding of what we will be doing here. Your foundation means you will progress more quickly, therefore I may ask you to perform extra duties, like helping other students."

He nodded toward Kam. "Kam's father, Ranik Solusar, was a great Jedi Master. Kam studied under him, became a Jedi Knight, then was co-opted by the Empire. He became one of the Emperor's dark-side warriors, but has rejected the dark side."

Muscles bunched at the corners of Kam's jaws. "Master Skywalker was able to touch the foundation my father had laid down in me. I now serve him."

Luke pointed a hand toward the other man. "Brakiss here was discovered by the Empire to be Force-sensitive. They trained him to use his abilities, using him largely as a spy. They held the threat of destroying his family over his head to make him comply with their wishes. He is here to learn how to use his abilities for the benefit of other living creatures."

Brakiss gave us a weak smile but offered no comment. Luke shifted his attention to me. "Keiran Halcyon's grandfa-ther was a Jedi who died in the Clone Wars. Keiran's family has a strong Jedi tradition and he is here to reclaim it. As you have seen, he is also a skilled pilot and has had training that I think will be useful as we go along."

Kam offered me his hand, so I shook it, and Brakiss and I exchanged nods.

Master Skywalker started walking toward the Grand Temple. "There are five levels to the structure here-six if you want to count the observation level at the top. The lowest level, the one beneath the ground floor, was something the Rebellion put in for storage and servicing of our fighters.

The main floor houses the flight operations area, as well as some living quarters. The two levels above that were used by the Rebellion as the base command center and the combat operations center. These levels are most of what we will use, but they only have some basic computer, training and library facilities. Their value comes to us from student housing and what will serve us for a meal hall. The highest level here is the Grand Chamber, which I had left alone."

He smiled carefully. "I thought I would allow you to choose your own quarters and get some rest. We can continue orienta-tion tomorrow."

I raised a hand. "I have a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Certainly."

"Are we going to be using Coordinated Galactic Time here or are we going to just work with Yavin's normal day? The moon's rotation is slightly faster than that of Coruscant, so keeping on the galactic scale will put us out of sync with the planet."

The Jedi Master hesitated for a moment, his blue eyes re-flecting the sky's orange highlights. "With your training, time will very much become subjective. I will teach you Jedi refresh-ing techniques, so your need for sleep will change. Worrying about time might create pressure on the students. I don't want that."

I frowned. "But if we don't have a coordinated sense of time here, how will we know when our watches begin or end?"

Luke regarded me quizzically. "Why would we need to stand watch?"

I wanted to answer that if someone like Thrawn wanted to show up with an Imperial fleet to raze the planet, warning would be a good thing. Of course, all the warning in the world about a fleet coming to attack would be useless since we didn't have any ships here to let us evacuate. There was, then, abso-lutely no practical reason to have folks stand watch, so I fell back on the reasons given for such things at the CorSec Acad-emy.

"Standing watch provides us with a sense of responsibility and fosters trust between the students, since we are looking out for each other."

Luke nodded. "This is good, but here I want you to come to trust the Force. You will find, as your understanding and skill grow, that the Force will provide us all the warning we need if there is a threat. We will know it and have ample time to react to it."

Which seems to describe how the Invids avoid all the traps we set for them. A chill breeze seemed to cut at my spine. Is it /~ossible for someone sufficiently versed in the Force to hide his /,'csence jS'om detection ?

"I stand corrected, Master." I bowed my head toward him.

"Then will we just get up at dawn to begin physical training?"

He opened his hands. "You may do whatever you feel neces-sary to make yourself feel at ease and receptive to the Force."

"So there will be no organized physical training?"

Kam laughed gruffly. "You sound disappointed, Keiran."

"Not really, just confused."

Luke smiled. "You will find your training demanding enough, I think, and quite exhausting."

I pointed toward Kam's lightsaber. "We will, at least, have combat training, correct?"

"Yes, you will be trained in the ways of the lightsaber."

"Not the question I asked."

Luke's head came up. "You had better explain, then."

I pressed my fingertips together. "The lightsaber, as all of us know, is a very powerful and lethal weapon. My father once said to me that no one ever regretted hitting a target with a stunbolt as opposed to a lethal shot from a blaster. Basic com-bat training could help us avoid having to use a lightsaber where a less dangerous method might work. Training in that area means we will have more options available to us."

The Jedi Master narrowed his eyes. "These would be defen-sive techniques?"

"They are combat techniques, which can be employed offen-sively or defensively, just like a lightsaber." I shrugged. "It's just an idea."

Kam nodded. "Such training would lay the foundation for any lightsaber training we do later."

"Okay, Kam and Keiran, you will come up with a plan for that type of training. We will discuss it further when you have something." Luke regarded me with the hint of a smile on his lips. "Anything else?"

"No, Master."

"If you think of something, let me know." He waved us on toward the Temple. "Now find yourself quarters."

The trio of us left him behind and did not speak as we ap-proached the Great Temple. Having lived on Coruscant, I had seen much more ma.s.sive buildings, but little there had the an-tiquity and sense of stability that I found in the Temple. It did not strike me as odd that a building which had been old millen-nia before the Empire came into existence had sheltered a movement that overthrew that Empire. I could easily imagine the dignity of this building being offended by the city world that had been Imperial Center and doing what it could to contribute to the Empire's destruction.

Why the Empire had not flattened the place after the Rebel-lion abandoned it was a puzzle I figured could never be solved.

Generators and lights left behind by the engineers bright-ened the large hangar area. Aside from stockpiled supplies, the room stood empty, but echoes of the urgency the Rebels had felt the day they flew off to destroy the Death Star still reached me. The fear, the panic, and the giddy confidence in their cause still permeated the walls. For the first time in all the time I'd been a.s.sociated with Rogue Squadron, I could feel what Wedge and Biggs and Luke had felt when they faced the Death Star. Their emotions set off resonances inside me, bringing up mem-ories of the last mission to Blackmoon and the final a.s.sault against Isard's forces at Thyferra.

For the first time I actually felt the connection the new Rogues had to the heroes who had gone before.

I'm not certain at which point I veered off from Karo and Brakiss, but it was before they headed to the upper levels. I found myself alone on the ground level and in a small chamber built into the structure of the Temple itself. The engineers had set it up with a pair of cots and some lockers for gear, with blankets and sheets piled at the foot of the bed.

I tossed my satchel on the bed and smiled. I couldn't place why the room felt familiar or right, but it did.

"I thought I might find you here."

I turned and saw Luke standing in the doorway. "Am I not supposed to be here?"

Luke held his hands up. "This room is perfect for you, be-lieve me. It's certainly better for you than any of those in the upper levels." He gestured easily and one of the lockers slid silently fifty centimeters to the left. "Look down there, at the block three up from the floor.

I walked over and crouched down. Mildew and some lichen had grown over that block, creeping up from the ground, but I easily managed to brush it away. Sunk into the stone were letters and I smiled as I read aloud. "The Empire or Us-there is no compromise. Biggs Darklighter, Wedge Antilles, Jek Porkins."

A boyish grin tugged at the corner of Luke's mouth. "Back then the three of them bunked in here-I came late and had the room up above. We met here and swapped stories before we headed out-we were too excited to sleep. We all thought we would survive, despite the odds. I think their inscription was at hedge against death for them. If they didn't survive, if the whole Rebellion died, at least there would be a record of their names."

"But your success has guaranteed everyone knows those names, and yours as well. What you did here changed the course of life for billions."

Luke lowered his hands and his cloak enfolded him in shadow. "What we will do here, now, will change the lives of billions."

I straightened up and turned back toward him. "I want to apologize for my questions. You're a Jedi Master and I'm here to learn. I did not mean to show you any disrespect."

"No offense taken. Your questions were valid, but you based them on a life lived without the touch of the Force." His grin broadened somewhat.

"My Master, Yoda, thought me impa-tient and impossible to train. You fare much better in that re-gard. You do tend, by nature, to think too much and to be suspicious. This could be a problem. Suspicion raises walls, al-lows fear to grow. That can interfere with your ability to use the Force."

I nodded. "Then, at the risk of making you worried about me even more, I need to ask you another question."

"Please."

"You mentioned that both Kam and Brakiss have experi-ences connected with the dark side. You didn't bring the three of us in together with the intent of having me watch over them, did you?"

Luke adamantly shook his head. "Not at all." His eyes hooded themselves in shadow, yet pinpoints of light seemed to sparkle at their centers.

"During the time of the Emperor's return, I, too, went over to the dark side. I did so for a variety of reasons, some of which seemed to make sense at the time, and many of which still cause me difficulty. What I experienced then has given me an understanding of the dark side which is vital to fight it. More importantly, the love of my sister and my friends drew me back. It redeemed me. Even the most foul victim of the dark side can be redeemed. By turning their backs on evil, Brakiss and Kam have already begun their journey into the light. I want to help them complete that journey.

"Don't be so suspicious. Don't think, feel. Your task is not to watch over them, but to learn from them." Luke's voice began to harden and his words thundered through me. "You will find, at some point, that the dark side will speak to you. It is seduc-tive, offering you everything with little effort on your part. Learn from the lessons the others have endured, so their strength can become yottr strength when you face this test." I nodded slowly. "I understand."

The Jedi Master's face brightened. "Good. Sleep well, Keiran Halcyon.

What you will face in the future might not seem as difficult as destroying a Death Star, but I a.s.sure you that it is easily just as important."

Wthin a week the rest of the Jedi candidates had reached the academy, filling the Great Temple with the life and color and laughter I guessed it had not known since the celebration following the Death Star's destruc-tion. Still, that celebration had to be tinged with sadness at the loss of so many comrades, whereas we were looking forward to the future and that made us much happier.

Master Skywalker allowed each of us to approach our train-ing on an individual basis. While there were group exercises and organized teaching sessions, we all had a fair amount of lat.i.tude in what we did. I missed the sense of camaraderie I'd established with other trainees at the CorSec Academy; but we all knew here that we were pioneers and vital to the future of the New Republic. That put a significant amount of pressure on us to succeed, and a harder, tougher training program could easily have ended up pitting us against each other.

And some of that happened naturally anyway. Because I took to heart Luke's suggestion that he wanted each of us to be comfortable with ourselves and our efforts, I would get up at dawn and go for runs along trails within the rainforests. Being up that early I got a chance to see what I dubbed Prisma storms. When the moon traveled behind the gas giant and spent time in its shadow, the nights would get very cold. Water crystals would form in the upper atmosphere and as the moon came out from behind the gas giant, the sunlight would be shattered by millions of prisms. The light danced and sparked through the atmosphere, crackling along like varicolored light-ning. The first time I saw it I thought a fleet had showed up in orbit and had started fighting with another fleet.

I quickly saw it was nothing to worry about and learned to look forward to seeing it.

I shared the news of it with the others, of course, and some of them dragged themselves out of warm bunks to watch the storm's brilliant display. They stood there looking skyward while I stretched out and prepared for my run. As I started off and turned to toss a quick wave to them, I noticed that one of them was more intent on watching me than the storm. Gantoris.

I think I knew that personality conflicts would be inevitable, but with our unity of purpose I was hoping they would be triv-ial. A tall, broad-faced man who wore his long black hair woven into a braid, Gantoris had been something of a head man in his community. His abilities in the Force helped his people survive and he had all the earmarks of being a leader.

He carried him-self as one and had a healthy ego. He was not used to being second to anyone in anything, and I think he decided I did all the extra training I did to curry favor with Master Skywalker.

In truth, I was doing the extra physical training because I was just stubborn. I had decided before I arrived here that I needed to get into shape to be able to do well, and if I didn't continue, I'd have to acknowledge that I'd been in error. Gantoris was not the only person present with a healthy ego, and mine wasn't inclined to take any shots by having me admit I was wrong.

I did my best to ignore the hard glance Gantoris had shot me and just tried to enjoy the run. The rainforest and humidity made doing just that very difficult. Despite small herds of run-yips coursing their way along these paths often enough to leave a crowd of hoofprints, the local vegetation seemed determined to reclaim the paths. If it wasn't k.n.o.bby tree roots trying to trip me, the woody, skeletal roots of nebula orchids clawed at my face. The orchids were eye-catching in another sense-I'd never seen flowers that had such swirls of color in them. Part of me wondered what other patterns someone like Ooryl, who could see in the ultraviolet range, would discover in their blos-soms.

The humidity dragged at me the most and my clothes would become soaked with sweat within the first kilometer and a half. My run took me out and around past the Temple of the Blueleaf Cl.u.s.ter. With such a name you would expect it to be surrounded with the blueleaf shrubs that tended to encroach on most other clearings, but this was not true. The name came from the leaf patterns carved onto the surface and around the doors of this smaller temple. I'd not yet been inside, but Master Sk3ax'alker had mentioned it contained a blue crystal that pulsed with power. He said he had no clue as to its origin or purpose, leaving me a mystery to solve in my spare time-if we ever had any.

The main hazard in running through the forest came from some of the creatures living there. Running into a swarm of piranha-beetles would put an end to my career as a Jedi fairly quickly. The blue bugs could strip flesh off bone faster than Jawas took to dismantle an airspeeder.

Fortunately the beetles tended to move through the upper reaches of the forests, and most creatures cleared out of their path with a maximum of hooting, hollering and other useful warning sounds.

Woolamanders with their blue and gold fur moved in packs through the forest and seemed to take great delight showering pa.s.sing targets with leaves, sticks, fruit and anything else that comes easily to paw, like the occasional tree-tick. I learned not to like woolamanders pretty early on, and found myself cheer-ing silently for the prowling stintarils stalking through the trees like an army on a search and destroy mission.

The rodents had enough teeth and powerful enough jaws to take healthy bites out of the bigger woolamanders. While I didn't want a host of stintarils to move into the Great Temple, I was happy to see them flocking in the direction of any woolamander pack that decided to hara.s.s me.

The thing I enjoyed most about the runs was that it gave me something to do that was distinctly mine and for me. That sounds selfish, but Luke had begun to stress that each of us would find that we had talents in certain areas of the Force-talents that no one else might share, in fact. Their discovery would be just a small part of our self-discovery and growth as a Jedi. The runs gave me something to bridge my past life with my new one, and they also provided me a chance to think about what I was learning and where I wanted to direct my efforts in the future.

Running was good for me, no matter what Gantoris or any-one else thought of my efforts.

Kam and I had come up with a plan for teaching some basic combat skills to the other recruits, and Master Skywalker ap-proved our plans with a few slight modifications. We took the others through the standard procedures, walking them through drills at slow speeds, then working along faster and faster until their reflexes sharpened and responses to attacks came auto-matically. Into this whole mix Luke injected the Force, asking us to feel our opponents through the Force and monitor what was happening to them.

In the walk-throughs I had a great deal of trouble doing what he asked. I remember squaring off with Tionne, the slender, silver-haired woman who was more scholar and singer than she ever would be a warrior. Still, her enthusiasm for becoming a Jedi, and her ready laugh, made her a good student and a bet-ter comrade. She came at me, her hands held high as if she meant to batter me down with overhand blows. I sensed her approach and could feel subtle shifts in her balance as she came in, but what I felt had little significance to me, since it was very easy to turn into the direction of her attack and use her mo-mentum to toss her over my hip.

Which was exactly what she and I knew would happen the second the exercise began.

As Kam began to layer in lessons about fighting with a light-saber, sensing my opponent became more important. My ability in that area began to grow, but I didn't trust it enough to aban-don myself to it. Though we sparred with padded wooden prac-tice swords, I treated each cut or slash as if it were from a true lightsaber. Very defensive, I relied upon the basics that Kam taught and found they stood me in good stead close to ninety percent of the time.

In that other ten percent, Gantoris inflicted some nasty bruises on me.