Jedi Sense
by David Pontier
Summary: A young boy is haunted by disturbing visions that his parents can't explain. They are desperate to find out what is wrong with their child and are happy when an unknown organization takes interest in their son.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
The Story:
The buildings were even taller than he had imagined.
The huge skyscrapers literally scraped the picturesque, blue sky, leaving Billy no chance to see the top of them out of the small aircar window. He tried to bring his head down to the floor of the cramped interior of the small vehicle to see if he could get a better angle to see the buildings. He bent slowly at the waist, trying to trick his shoulder harness. The strap allowed his slow movements for a while, but soon reached the length of its travel, and held fast against the young boy.
Billy looked carefully at his parents in the front of the aircar. They were not paying any attention to him in the back seat. He quickly pressed the seatbelt release button and the strap retracted into the frame of the aircar with a quick swish. In the front of the car a small red light began blinking, but Billy didn't see it as he slid off his seat and peered upward out of his window.
The tops of the buildings were still just out of sight, but before Billy could crouch down even further, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. He could feel his mother's anger before he even looked up into her face. Her arm was hanging over the back of her front seat, tightly secured on Billy's shoulder. From his vantagepoint, it looked like the arm was coming out of his mother's neck, just beneath her face, which was not smiling.
"Billy," she said in a voice that had scolded once too often, "what did we tell you about wearing your seatbelt?"
"That it has to stay on all the time," the child responded.
"And is it on now?"
"No, . . . but I couldn't see the tops of th-"
"No 'buts,' William!" His father said a little too loudly. He didn't turn his head away from the road ahead, but Billy could see his father's angry eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Yes, daddy." Billy slowly climbed back up into his seat and out of his mother's reach. She kept her eyes on her son as he slowly reached for the strap over his left shoulder. Billy paused in his motions as the buckle was halfway to the fastener at his right hip. He looked at his mother, still staring at him. "I'm putting it on, okay!" he said, suddenly defiant. He tried to accentuate his actions, tugging fiercely on the strap, but it had locked into place when he had paused. Billy had to slacken the belt a bit before it unlocked and he was able to secure his small frame against the back seat. His mother frowned slightly at his disrespect, but returned her eyes forward.
Billy tried to stay in a bad mood, but the images outside his window tugged at his undying curiosity. The aircar had passed through the central part of the city, and the buildings were no longer quite as tall. Instead, they were much dirtier and run-down. Billy saw men covered in filth and rags with rusty metal carts on wheels. He had seen pictures of vehicles with wheels in some of his datapads back home, but he didn't think anyone still used them.
Looking closer, Billy saw that the men weren't using the carts for transportation, but to store all their stuff. He tried to see what kind of stuff they had in the carts, but the aircar was speeding by the homeless too quickly. Billy placed his hands on the window and brought his nose right up against the glassine. He half closed his eyes in concentration, trying to slow down the images speeding past him.
When he opened his eyes fully again, Billy could make out the images much clearer. The men outside seemed to move in slow motion and their emotions and feelings were very clear to the small boy. He felt that they were very sad and lonely. The things in their carts meant a great deal to them, but Billy could see now that they were little more than junk. The carts were full of dirty blankets and rotten food. A few had small pieces of broken datapads or com units, but nothing of real value.
The aircar passed a very dark alleyway, and Billy slowed the images further, looking deep into its recesses. FEAR! PAIN! DEATH! Billy yanked his face away from the window, the images outside resuming their rapid pace past the aircar. His breath was absent for a brief second as images of a vibroblade biting into flesh passed though his mind.
Billy pressed himself deep into the back of his seat, shaking his head and blinking his eyes, trying to remove the horrible visions from his mind. His breath returned to him in a sharp gasp. He breathed in and out rapidly with his body rigid in fear.
His mother turned around at the sound, her face very different from before. She could see the moisture left by her son's breathing and hands on his window and knew he had seen something disturbing. "What is it?" she asked, almost as scared as her son. "What did you see?"
"N-n-nothing," he said between breaths.
"Billy, you have to tell us what's wrong if you want us to help you."
"I'm . . . I'm . . .o-okay, now," he said, his breath slowly returning to normal. "I'll b-be okay."
"Please, just tell me what's wrong."
Billy looked into his mom's pleading eyes and could see his father's in the mirror again. "I'm okay, really. I just . . .I just . . . I'm okay, now."
His mother looked at him for a few more seconds, wishing she could do more for her son. She watched as he picked up a datapad and started to look at the picture book. She sighed and turned around to look forward again.
"Are you sure we are doing the right thing?" She asked her husband after raising a sound shield between the front and back seat so Billy couldn't hear them.
"Just relax, Sarah," her husband said. "It sounds like these people will be able to help him."
"How can I relax! My son wakes up every other night screaming about gibberish, and then won't tell me what's wrong. Now he is starting to have nightmares during the day and you want m-"
"He's our son."
Sarah recognized the correction, and the meaning behind it. "I'm sorry, Jeran. I just don't think I can take any more of it. He's four years old, but there are times he seems older than I am. He seems so bright at times, but there are other times when he acts lik-"
"I know, dear," Jeran replied, taking a hand off the controls to place it on his wife's knee. "I have a very good feeling that these people will be able to help. They seem to care a great deal for William, and it sounds like they have dealt with other kids just like him."
"How will they be able to help him?" Sarah didn't hold half the confidence that her husband did. "He won't talk to us; why would he talk to complete strangers?"
"Dear, they are professionals. They sound genuinely concerned, too. Why else would they invite us for a free counseling session?"
Sarah did not have a response. If this organization could help her son, she would gladly pay any fee for their services. Money was not a problem that often hindered Sarah and Jeran. On the other hand, confidence was something that they had in short order. At least Sarah had very little.
The worried mother had been through a lot with her son, and was beginning to give up hope that they would ever find out what was wrong with him. The people who had visited them a week ago and had then invited them to this special session had told the parents that there was nothing wrong with their son. On the contrary, they said that he was special and had a gift he did not yet know how to use.
Jeran was using this piece of information to bolster his confidence, and as the aircar passed though a gated entrance to the organization headquarters, Sarah thought she should try to mimic her husband's outlook. Regardless of the outcome of this visit, it would be easier on all involved if Sarah could remain positive.
Sarah glanced back at her son in the back seat and saw that he was no longer looking at his datapad but again staring out the window. She did likewise and was impressed by what she saw. The building complex was massive. The bleached permacrete structure looked like a pile of Billy's blocks, rising high into the sky. The shape was similar to a pyramid but was far from symmetrical. It looked more like a collection of short steps leading up and down with no real pattern easily discernible. Large and small windows speckled the pure white exterior with good regularity and antennas rose from several of the higher levels.
Jeran pulled the aircar up in front of the main entrance of the building. The road made a 90-degree turn, hugging the "L" shaped front of the building. Several collections of wide steps lead up from the road, separated by level permacrete sections, bordered on either side by colorful shrubs and dwarf trees.
There were a few other couples taking their children up the steps, each with a blue-uniformed organization representative. A similar representative waited by the curb, halfway through the arc in the road and directly in front of the steps. Jeran pulled the aircar up to the waiting man and shut down the vehicle.
"We're here, Billy," Sarah said after lowering the sound shield.
Like the sights he had seen earlier had scared him, these new surroundings had a calming affect on the young boy. Jeran released the lock on the rear door, and Billy wasted no time freeing himself from the accursed seatbelt and then the aircar.
The representative squatted down to eye-level with the awed visitor. "Hello, there," he said in a bright voice. "How are you today?"
Billy was too busy looking around at the beautifully colored bushes and flowers to respond.
"What's your name?" the representative asked, not giving up.
Sarah came around from the passenger's side of the aircar. "His name is William Kerrly."
"Ah," the representative said, standing up from his crouch, "the Kerrlys. You must be Sarah and Jeran." He extended his hand to Sarah and to Jeran as he emerged from the aircar. The representative released hands with the father, snapped his fingers, twisted his right hand sharply, and produced a data chip with a slight of hand trick.
Jeran recognized it as a parking valet chip, and took the item, smiling at the simple magic trick. He turned to put the chip in his car, and the representative looked down at Billy. The boy was looking intently at the representative's right hand. "Do you like magic?" he asked Billy, squatting down again.
Billy nodded, still not talking. The representative reached his hand toward Billy's left ear and produced a small piece of candy. "How about candy?"
Billy eagerly reached for the candy, but quickly remembered what his mom had told him a thousand times. He looked up at her, but she smiled and nodded her head. "He's not a stranger, dear."
Billy took the candy and had it unwrapped and in his mouth before the representative was standing upright again. The aircar was driving away toward an unseen parking garage under the control of the valet chip, and Sarah and Jeran looked expectedly at their escort.
"My name is Garyn, and I'm very happy that you decided to come."
"We're happy you invited us," Jeran responded.
"If you'll follow me, I'll take you inside and show you our facility."
Jeran fell in step beside Garyn. Sarah started forward also, but realized they were forgetting the real reason they were here. She looked back and saw her son was playing with his ears, looking for more candy. "Billy, come on."
Billy looked up at his mother's voice. He saw that his dad and the candy-producing stranger were climbing the steps toward the huge building. He raced forward, catching his mother's extended hand has he passed her. She helped him up the stairs as they walked behind. Billy's free hand was still scratching behind his ear. "How did he do that mama?"
"It was magic," Sarah responded, a smile on her face.
"But you said there is no such thing as magic."
"I guess I was wrong."
Billy didn't know what to make of this last comment, but decided to stop playing with his ear. Instead he concentrated on the candy in his mouth and the small birds that flew around in the short trees.
Ahead, Garyn was telling Jeran about the organization. "We've been here for only a short while, but have had great success."
"Do you deal with a lot of children?" Jeran asked.
"Quite a few," Garyn responded, "but very few stay long. We are here to help the ones that need it most. Some parents are very anxious to enroll their children in our program, but rarely do the child's needs correlate with the parent's enthusiasm."
"You mean people are eager to send their children here?"
Garyn laughed. "You and your wife's trepidation only shows that your son is truly special and in need of the services we provide. I am familiar with your file and your son should be perfect for our program."
"Our file?" Jeran sounded a little worried.
Garyn laughed again. "Everyone we visited has a file, and every family that brings their child here for enrollment, whether they are accepted or not, has a file. Don't feel alarmed."
Jeran was quiet as the foursome reached the top of the stairs and entered through the automatic doors. The lobby of the buildings was very impressive. Several other couples milled around the lobby, some sitting on benches and others pacing nervously.
"Are you always this busy?" Jeran asked.
Garyn shook his head. "Only on testing days."
"What test?" Sarah spoke up from behind, catching the last phrase.
Garyn didn't respond, but led the Kerrlys through a side door. Inside they saw several dozen children sitting at individual tables all around the room. Most of the children were much older than Billy. Sarah thought some of the candidates were in their late teens.
"Are you sure Billy will be okay here?" she asked, the confidence she was trying to cling to quickly disappearing. "He's only four."
Garyn's smile was very disarming. "Sarah, we knew your son was coming, and we are prepared for him."
Sarah was about to protest but Jeran laid a hand on her arm. "It will be okay, dear."
Garyn squatted in front of Billy again. The young boy was suddenly wary, wanting to figure out how this stranger could produce candy at will. "Do you like playing computer games?"
Billy still wasn't warmed to this new man. "You like games," Jeran said. "Remember your games back home? This nice man is going to show you some new games."
Billy looked up at his father and then back at Garyn. He nodded. "If you come with me, I'll show you my games."
"We'll be with you dear," Sarah said.
At this Garyn looked up. "Actually," he said, "it's important that the children take the tests by themselves."
"But he's only fo-"
Jeran stopped his wife again. "We'll wait in the lobby," he said to Garyn. He turned to look at his son. "Now you be good for Garyn. Mom and Dad will be waiting for you when you are done." Jeran tussled his son's red hair.
Billy turned from his father to look at Garyn. "Can I have more candy?"
Garyn smiled. "Maybe afterwards."
Billy nodded, and extended his hand - a sign he was ready to be led by this new friend of his father. Garyn led Billy through the large room until they came to a small table with a much shorter chair than most of the other students had. A datapad lay on the table, and Billy sat down and turned it on before Garyn could ask him to.
"In order to play," Garyn started, "you need to pre-"
"I know how to work it," Billy said quickly, not looking up. "I have one at home. I can play by myself. Good-bye."
Garyn stood up quite startled by the suddenly talkative young boy. "Of course you can," he responded quietly.
Billy didn't pay the man any attention as he went to work.
"Press the yellow button when you see the picture of the bird," the datapad spoke.
Billy watched as images he could barely make out flashed across the screen. He thought he saw a bird and pressed the button. The images stopped flicking by and he saw that he had stopped it at a picture of a tree.
"This is a tree, not a bird," the datapad said cheerfully.
"I know what it is," Billy spoke angrily at the device.
"Please try again. Press the yellow button when you see the picture of the bird."
The pictures began flicking by again. Billy could not follow them at all. He thought he saw the bird again, but he didn't press the button. He watched the images for a while and saw the bird flip by again. Like before in the aircar, Billy half closed his eyes and concentrated. He opened his eyes and the pictures flipped by much slower.
A building. A dog. A ball. A man. A bird. Billy pressed the yellow button and the bird remained on the screen.
"Very good," the datapad responded.
Garyn was shocked. He had never seen any of the potential students catch on to the timing of the test that quickly. He watched as Billy proceeded to stop the images successfully on the pictures of a plane and then a ball on his first tries. The representative realized that Billy wasn't timing the datapad at all. He was actually seeing the images that quickly.
"Of course you can," Garyn said under his breath as he walked away. As he strolled through the tables where other children took their tests, he heard some of the younger ones crying, while the older ones cursed their inability to cope with the difficult tests. There weren't very many capable students in the room today.
Garyn made his way up to the observation booth where most of his fellow representatives were watching their candidates with mixed emotions. There were several computer stations below the observation window and Garyn approached one.
"How's your boy doing?" one of his associates asked him.
"Pretty good, Kevain," Garyn responded, "and yours."
"Terrible," he responded.
Garyn looked at the screen in front of Kevain. He saw the student stumbling through the pattern recognition portion of one of the advanced tests. "Switch it to my kid," Garyn asked.
"What station?"
"Eighteen."
Kevain punched in Billy's station and the two watched as the boy's datapad display came up on their screen. He was currently going through the math portion of the test. "How old is he?" Kevain asked, looking at the difficulty of some of the math problems.
"Four."
"Four? These questions are way above that level. Are you sure you gave him the right pad?"
The two of them watched as Billy skipped a multiplication problem. "Ah, there, see. He can't possibly understand the concept of multiplication. He's doing okay on the addition and subtraction but he-" Kevain shutup as he watched the screen. After answering three addition problems correctly, Billy went back to the multiplication problem and answered it correctly.
Garyn smiled. "He was figuring out the harder problem in his head while he did the easier ones."
"I can't even do that," Kevain responded.
"Pull up his history," Garyn requested.
Kevain complied and a list of Billy's questions thus far cam up on the screen. "Look," Garyn pointed out, "here he was asked what 4 times 3 was. He answered 7, obviously adding the numbers. The test told him 12 was the right answer. A few questions later, it asked him what 7 times 3 was. He answered 10. The test told him the correct answer was 21.
"A few questions later he was presented with 2 times 4. He skipped that one and kept going, realizing that adding the numbers would not get him the right answer. Two questions later he answered 4 plus 4 correctly. He then went back to the multiplication problem he skipped and answered it correctly. He figured out what multiplication was all by himself."
Kevain shook his head in disbelief and returned the screen to the present problems. Billy was now answering 15 times 17 correctly. "Impossible."
Garyn shook his head. "Remember what we're looking for."
"I'm just remembering what we've found so far. No one has shown even a fourth of this kid's ability yet."
Twenty minutes later the test was over and Garyn congratulated Billy. "You did very well, William. What did you think of it?"
"It was a very strange game," he said, looking up into Garyn's face. "Will I be able to play it again?"
"What if I tell you, you can keep it."
"Really," Billy turned his attention back to the datapad. He grabbed at it eagerly as if Garyn might change his mind if Billy didn't react in time.
"Really," Garyn said. "And like I promised . . ." He reached his hand to Billy's ear. Billy followed the motions very carefully as the candy magically emerged from his ear again. He smiled at the candy, but instead of eating it, he put it in his pocket for later.
Billy got up from his chair with his new datapad under his arm. "Can I see my mommy and daddy now?"
"Not yet," Garyn responded, patting the youth on his head. "I'd like to take you somewhere where they have better, bigger games."
Billy retracted from the touch at first, reaching his hand up to try and straighten his red hair. Only his dad touched him on his head. He was about to say as much, but the idea of bigger and better games intrigued him. "When can I play them?"
"Soon," Garyn responded. "Soon."
Garyn led Billy to a small playroom where a few other children who were at least four years older than he was played with very nice toys. Garyn paused as he dropped Billy off in the playroom. He looked at the other children, wondering if any of them had any special talent at all. They were all chosen to go to the next testing facility based on their scores here. It didn't take a very good score to get chosen. Garyn shrugged his shoulders and left.
He made the short walk back to the lobby and found Billy's parents. Jeran was seated while Sarah was pacing nervously. At the sight of Garyn, Sarah yanked herself out of her repetitive steps. "Where's Billy? How did he do? Can we see him?"
Garyn flashed his famous smile. "Slow down, please. Every question has an answer. If you'll just come with me we'll try and pair them up for you." He led the parents through a different side door in the lobby and down a long hallway to a private office.
After entering, Garyn motioned to a pair of chairs opposite a desk. The Kerrlys sat down and Garyn placed himself behind the desk. "Your son is very gifted."
"Can we see hi-"
"Please," Garyn said, a bit of an edge creeping into his normally calm voice. Sarah picked up on the edge and quieted herself. "You will see your son in good time, but not right now. We would like to take him to another testing facility. We haven't seen someone with his kind of potential in a long time, if ever. If we let you see him now, he might loose interest in our tests and won't perform up to his potential.
"You can follow him if you so desire, but I promise you, he will come to no harm. Our advanced testing facility is located on Coruscant."
"Coruscant!" Sarah burst out. "That's two days away. I will not let you take my son away from me for two whole days! I demand to see him now! You can't hold him host-"
"Please, dear," Jeran said, calming his wife with a familiar gesture. He turned to Garyn. "Is there any way we can see our son before the next testing phase?"
Garyn shook his head. "Our regulations are very strict on the matter. I assure you they are only there to help the children. I will tell you that while the standard hyperspace route to Coruscant is two days, it will only take us four hours. We have the ability to circumvent the normal hyperspace routes."
"See, dear," Jeran said, "four hours isn't so long." He turned back to Garyn. "How long will the tests take?"
"Two, three hours maximum," Garyn replied. "You will see your son before the end of the day."
The parents nodded mutely. They would do what was right for their son. This organization seemed like the only people who understood he was special.
"Before we continue, though," Garyn spoke up, taking a datapad and a scribe out of a desk drawer, "I need to fill out a questionnaire. Are you his natural parents?"
"What?!" Sarah shouted. "Of course we-"
"No," Jeran replied calmly.
"Do you know who his parents are?"
Jeran shook his head. "We adopted him from an agency that said he was orphaned shortly after birth."
"Does the agency know who his parents are?"
Jeran shook his head. "He was abandoned."
Garyn was not allowed to leave any of the questions blank. He put a question mark behind that question and hoped he wouldn't get in trouble. "How old is he?"
"Four years," Jeran responded.
"Exactly?"
Jeran looked at his wife and they shook their heads. Garyn sighed. "When do you celebrate his birthday?"
"Three months ago."
Garyn wrote four years and three months and hoped no one would check the child with a complete physical. "Has he ever had any visions or vivid dreams?"
"When hasn't he," Sarah responded.
Garyn wrote as the parents talked, happy that the rest of the questionnaire went smoothly without any unknowns. Afterwards, Garyn directed the parents to where they could meet the space transport that would follow their son to Coruscant.
Garyn watched the Kerrlys leave the building and take the escort droid to the parking garage where their aircar was located. Garyn walked back into the huge complex and made his way to the playroom where he had left Billy. The young boy had found several very expensive mini-droids to play with and was startled when Garyn stood over him.
"It's time to go William."
"Where are we going?" he left the toys on the floor and picked up his new datapad.
"We are going to go on a long trip together. Your parents are going to meet us there. Do you like big cities?"
Billy nodded his head eagerly.
"We are going to go to the biggest city in the whole galaxy. What do you think about that?"
Billy had no idea what to think. "Is that where the bigger games are?"
Garyn nodded and extended his hand. Billy didn't hesitate at all, and grasped the offered appendage. With his young companion in toe, Garyn went to the docking area, where a large atmospheric transport was waiting.
Billy tried to pull his larger companion into the the flow of people entering the transport, but Garyn held him up as he checked in with one of the processing executives. There were a dozen other children making the trip, all of whom were at least five years older, and only two of whom had companions like Garyn.
Several of the much older students looked at Billy's eagerness and scoffed the child. Garyn caught the glances they gave his young friend and realized how mistaken the students were. They thought themselves so special because they understood what was going on around them and knew they were selected as gifted. They looked at Billy and thought his presence some kind of sympathy gesture. They knew what kind of tests they had taken and couldn't believe that a four-year-old could ever understand the questions they had answered.
The customary smile spread over Garyn's face as he thought about how wrong they were. Billy easily had more potential than the rest of the candidates combined.
The pair waited patiently for their turn, much to Billy's dislike, and took a window seat on the large transport. Billy's face never left the glassine port until they were well above the clouds. His parents rarely took him outside, and he had never been this high off the ground. After looking at the tops of the clouds for several minutes, he realized the scenery wasn't going to change for a while.
"Do you understand what's going on?" Garyn asked.
"We are very high in the air," Billy responded, not really understanding the question.
"No," Garyn chuckled, "I mean with you. Do you understand why I am taking you to play these games? To take these new tests?"
"I like playing games," Billy said. "At home I have this game where I have to-"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure you have very nice games at home, but have you ever played any games like this one before?" Garyn pointed to the datapad under Billy's arm.
"These are very different games from the ones I have at home," Billy responded.
"I'm sure they are," Garyn agreed. He tried to think of a different way to approach the subject. "Did anyone ever tell you that you are special?"
Billy smiled. "My daddy tells me I am special all the time. So does my mommy."
"You love your daddy, don't you?"
Billy nodded.
"Does he tell you that you have special talents - special abilities?"
Billy looked confused.
"Do you see things? Do you have special dreams?"
Billy turned away from the discussion abruptly and looked out the window.
"What do you see in your dreams?"
Billy kept looking out the window.
"Are they good dreams or bad dreams?"
"I had a dream this morning in the aircar," Billy said quietly, still looking out the window. "There was a bad man hurting another man. It scared me very bad."
"I'm sure it did," Garyn responded. "Do you have those dreams a lot?"
Billy shook his head. "I sometimes have them at night. Daddy says I can't watch the holovid at night anymore. He says my bad dreams come from the bad shows on at night."
"Do you believe him?"
Billy looked away from the window finally. The idea of forming his opinion on something that his father had told him about had never crossed his mind. If Dad said something, then it was true.
"Do you think your bad dream this morning came from watching the bad shows on the holovid?"
Billy slowly shook his head. He stared at the seat in front of him for a while and then looked out the window again. The rest of the trip was silent. As the transport fell below the cloud layer, Billy could see the Capitol City of his home planet. This was definitely the most impressive thing he had ever seen. This had to be the city Garyn had talked about. He couldn't imagine any city in the galaxy bigger than this one.
As they neared a large building on the edge of the city, Billy could see a few other transports similar to the one he was in coming toward the building at the same time. He watched as they docked and then felt his own transport land.
"We're here," Garyn said.
"Is this were the other games are?" Billy asked.
"No, we are going to a much bigger city than this one for those games."
"A bigger city," Billy could hardly get the words out of his mouth. He remained quiet as they debarked.
Local advertisements and public announcements covered the passageways of the huge spaceport. Billy was awed by the whole spectacle. Everything was so new to him that he had a hard time coping. He gripped Garyn's hand tightly, and Garyn responded with firm hand.
Billy could see lots of other children coming from the other transports that had landed. They were all headed to the same boarding gate. Billy couldn't help but noticing that he was by far the youngest one in the group. Garyn stayed with him while the rest of the children were gathered into the gate area.
Billy was very quiet, trying to sort out what he should be feeling. There was a very persistent buzz in the air that he was just becoming aware of. It seemed small at first but grew as more and more children gathered in front of the big boarding platform. It seemed like the buzz was coming from the other children. It was louder for some of them, and quieter for others. A few of the children didn't produce any sensation at all, and Billy wondered what they were doing here.
After almost a half-hour of waiting, a very large man spoke up and gave general boarding instructions. Billy saw that Garyn was paying attention to the man, and decided he didn't have to. After the big man was done speaking, everyone began to board a much bigger transport than the one they had flown in to get to the spaceport.
"I won't make this trip with you," Garyn said suddenly once they were aboard the bigger transport.
"You won't," Billy sounded very nervous. This was not what he expected at all. Instead of playing more games like Garyn had promised, they were just getting on and off transports. With all the other children around, Billy didn't feel so special anymore, and now the only person he knew was going to leave.
"Don't worry, you'll be all right. Just do what all the other children do."
"But what about the games?"
"Just play with your datapad," Garyn said. "The trip will be long, but you will get to see your parents at the end. Just be a good boy, and remember, you are special." Garyn tussled Billy's red hair again, and left the boy alone.
Billy didn't even bother trying to straighten his hair this time. Instead he looked forlornly around the room. Garyn had led him to a large room inside the transport. It looked like they had tried to separate the kids by age because Billy could no longer see any of the really big kids that had come with him on the first transport. Still, the youngest person in the room other than him looked to be seven years old. There were about two dozen people in the room, and most of the kids had gone straight to the toy shelves that covered the walls.
Billy could feel the floor shake and knew that this really big transport was getting ready to leave. Billy was beginning to get homesick. He hadn't seen his parents in over two hours now, and he had never spent this much time away from them.
Instead of going for the toys, Billy made his way to a small play table with miniature chairs. He sat down and put his datapad on the table. He turned it on and soon lost himself in some of the more advanced tests.
"Hi ya, nice hair."
Billy looked up from his datapad and saw a young girl standing across from him. She looked to be the same age as him, and he wondered how he had missed her before. She was a little shorter than he was, but had the same red hair and green eyes he did. Her hair was curly though, and she had dense freckles on her cheeks and nose to match.
Billy's hand went to his head and found his hair was still messed up. He tried to straighten it in vain.
"Hi ya, watcha doing?"
Billy remembered what Garyn and his parents had called the games. "I'm taking some tests, cause I'm special."
"Really," the girl said, "me too. Can I take 'em with you."
Billy liked the girl. "Sure. Sit down."
She did. "My name's Kamarala, but my friends call me Kay. I'm four."
Billy couldn't believe how many things he had in common with this girl. They were both four; they both had red hair; they were both special; and they both had nicknames. "My name's William, but my mom calls me Billy."
"Billy?" Kay asked. "Why not Willy? There's no 'B' in William."
Billy was very confused. "I don't know. It's just something my mom calls me. You can call me Willy if you want to."
"Okay, Willy," Kay giggled. "Watcha doing?"
"I'm practicing for the special tests I'm going to take when we get to the really big city."
"You mean Coruscant?" Kay asked.
Billy had never heard that word before. He shrugged.
"They told me I was going to Coruscant because that's where all the special kids go."
"Are your parents going to meet you there?" Billy asked.
Kay giggled again. "I don't have any parents."
Now Billy was really confused. He thought all kids had parents. "Who takes care of you then?"
"Silly Willy," Kay kept giggling, "I'm an orphan."
"What's an orphan?"
"That's what you are when you don't have any parents - like me. I live in an orphanage with a lot of other kids. We have nannies that take care of us. Sometimes grownups will come and take one of us home to live with them. They never choose me."
"How come?"
Now it was Kay's turn to look confused. "The nannies say it's because I'm special."
Billy had always thought that being special was a good thing. If being special meant that grownups didn't want you, then maybe it wasn't such a good thing. Billy needed to understand this "special" thing better. "What makes you special?"
"I can do magic tricks," Kay said.
"Really?" Billy asked. This was definitely a good day to meet people who could do magic tricks.
"I'll show ya." Kay hopped off her chair and got a small construction brick from one of the other kids when they weren't looking. She came back to the table and placed the brick in front of Billy. "Watch." Kay sat down across from Billy and half closed her eyes like Billy always did. She reached her hand toward the brick and it quivered a bit. Billy watched wide-eyed as the brick slid across the table into Kay's open hand.
"Wow," Billy said when Kay opened her eyes and tossed the brick into the air and caught it again.
"What makes you special?" she asked, thinking she had him topped.
"I can do magic too," he responded.
"Show me."
Billy reached his hand into his pocket. Kay looked for what he had retrieved, but his hand appeared empty. He reached his hand toward her ear and pulled a piece of candy from it. Kay looked at the piece of red candy for a while and then burst into giggles again. "Silly Willy, that's not magic."
"Then what is it?" Billy asked.
"I don't know," Kay laughed, "but it's not magic."
Billy relaxed his arm as he tried to think of a comeback, and Kay snatched the candy from his hand. Before he could protest, she had the candy in her mouth. Billy frowned has she threw the empty wrapper at him. Soon he saw the humor in it and they were both laughing.
"What's it like to have parents?" Kay asked.
"I don't know," Billy answered. "I've always had them as long as I can remember. They take care of me. They buy me food and clothes."
"Do they make you go to bed when you don't want to?" Kay asked. Billy nodded. "Do they let you have seconds of desert?" Billy shook his head. "They sound a lot like nannies."
"I like them," Billy said, thinking Kay's comment was meant to be derogatory.
"Wouldn't it be nice not to have to listen to grownups, though. I mean we are both special; we can take care of ourselves, right?"
Billy remembered what he had seen in the dark alley this morning. The image of the vibroblade cutting into the poor man's flesh was still too vivid in his mind. The feelings of fear and pain sent a shiver down his back. "Grownups are good. They protect us from the bad men."
"Silly Willy, you watch too many holovid movies."
"That's what my dad says too."
"Well he's right. There are no bad men. Those movies are just pretend."
"Pretend?"
"Yea, you know, make-believe, not real. Movies on the holovid aren't real."
"Why would anyone want to make-believe about bad men?"
"Silly Willy, don't you know anything? They only have the bad men so the good guys can beat them up. None of it is real."
"Do you ever pretend?" Billy asked.
"Of course, I do."
"What do you pretend?"
"Sometimes I pretend that I have parents. I pretend that two grownups come and pick me to live with them."
"But I though you said that you didn't like gr-"
"I know what I said," Kay sounded suddenly defensive, "that's why it's just pretend. It's not real."
The two of them fell silent for a while.
"Let's pretend now," Kay said finally.
"What do you want to pretend?"
"Let's pretend that we are brother and sister and that we are running away from home because we don't like our parents."
"But I do like my parents."
"Silly Willy, that's why it's pretend. If you pretended that you liked your parents, then it wouldn't really be pretend. Pretend is not real."
"Okay," Billy said slowly, thinking that he was catching on. "But we are already far from home. How can we pretend that if it is real?"
Kay had to concede this point. Her face brightened has she came up with a solution. "We can pretend that this is our home," she said and slapped the top of the table."
"This table?"
"Yea, this table isn't really our home, so it will make a good pretend home."
"So we are going to pretend to run away from a pretend home because we are really already far from our real home?" This game was making the tests Billy took earlier in the day look very easy.
"Exactly," Kay said happily. She stood up and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
Kay looked back at her pretend brother. "We are running away, aren't we?"
Billy got up from the table, still very confused. He looked at his datapad, wondering if he should leave it alone.
"Take it with us," Kay said. "It can be our speederbike."
Billy picked up his "speederbike" deciding to just do what ever his new sister said. This game was too confusing to do anything else.
Kay was crouching low, hiding behind the toy shelves as she led Billy through the room filled with other children. "These other children can't see us," Kay said.
Yes, they can, Billy thought, but didn't voice his opinion.
"There are our parents," Kay pointed as she ducked behind a large chest. Billy looked and saw two grownups dressed like Garyn had been dressed. "They can't see us either. Let's go."
Billy was hunched over as he followed Kay through the collection of children playing on the floor. As Billy made his way across the room, he actually found himself ducking and stopping when one of the two grownups looked their way. Kay was about to continue toward the door to the room, but Billy grabbed her. "They'll see you," he said in a hoarse whisper
"Who will?" she replied.
"The people on the other side of the door," Billy responded.
Kay looked at the closed door in front of her. "How do you know there is anyone on the other side of the door?"
"I just do," Billy said, not really knowing himself. He waited a moment. "Okay, they're gone now. We can go."
The two crept up to the door and it slid open for them. Kay peered into the hallway and saw two men walking away. They must have been just outside the door when Billy had stopped her. She looked back at him. "You can do magic, Silly Willy."
The pair moved stealthily into the hallway and picked a direction to go. Three hours later, the game had evolved and they were on the other side of the ship, trying to stop the bad guys from blowing up Coruscant.
"Willy," Kay whispered harshly as the ship they were in dropped out of hyperspace.
"I feel it too," Billy said. "What does it mean?"
"I think we are almost to Coruscant."
"Will we be able to stop the bad guys in time?" Billy had fallen so completely into the game of pretend, that he had become better at it than Kay.
"We have to try," she responded, enjoying the fact that her new friend had become so good at the game so quickly.
"Hey, you kids, what are you doing here?"
Kay and Billy spun around and saw one of the organization representatives coming toward them down the hallway. "A bad guy," Billy said and they both bolted.
"Hey, kids, stop!"
Billy and Kay did not heed the command and spun around a corner, quickly hidding in a service closet. They tried to quiet their breathing, but as the representative walked past the closet, he stopped and opened the door.
"What are you kids doing in there? We're almost to Coruscant. You two need to get back with the rest of your group."
Kay looked at Billy with a profound look of dread. "We're caught."
"What now?" he asked.
"Now we are prisoners."
The two kids walked out of the closet and submitted themselves to their captor. The representative led the pair down the hallway and to a turbo lift. As the lift whisked them back to their starting point, they continued to talk amongst themselves.
"We've got to escape," Kay said.
"Not now," Billy replied. "The guard has a gun."
Kay looked up and back at the man that had caught them. He had no weapon. "I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't paying attention."
"We have to wait until he's distracted, and then we can make our move."
Kay looked at Billy. He really had watched too many late night holovid movies.
The captives never got their chance. The representative led his prisoners back to their "home," and the ship landed soon after. Kay and Billy fell in line with the other "prisoners" and left the transport.
"Keep your eyes open for a way to escape," Kay said under her breath.
"Where are they taking us?" Billy asked.
"We are going to be executed," Kay answered.
"What's that?"
"They are going to kill us."
"Oh."
The group of children left the transport and found themselves on a large hover platform suspended in the middle of the galaxy's capitol. "Coruscant," Kay gasped. She had heard about the Planet City and had seen a few pictures, but nothing could prepare her for what she saw.
Billy too was amazed. He fell out of his pretend role for a moment as he looked at the huge buildings that stretched in every direction - including up and down. There were hundreds - no thousands - of small transports flying in every direction at once. They traversed imaginary roads that were stacked on top of each other connecting the multitude of buildings that were packed in around the hover pad.
There was another transport that looked similar to the ones flying around waiting for them at the opposite end of the hover pad. The children were led into this second transport and the door closed behind them. Once inside, the two runaways resumed their game.
"Don't you see why we need to stop them now?" Kay asked.
Billy nodded. "Coruscant is an amazing place. We can't let them blow it up."
"We need to escape before they bring us to the execution chamber."
The idea of execution was still very new to Billy and he didn't know if he liked it. "Tell me about the execution chamber."
"It is a solid, big room where they bring you to execute you. Once you are inside, there is no way to get out."
"But how do they kill you?"
"They just do," Kay had no idea.
Billy began looking around the inside of the transport, pretending to look for a way out, but really looking for a window so he could see more of the city they were trying to save.
The transport didn't take long to get to its destination. Billy couldn't wait to see a different section of the city, but they didn't exit onto another hover pad. Instead they were led through a docking tube into a large building. They walked through tight hallways and singular doorways.
After a few minutes of travel, the young pair was lost. The children around them didn't pay the pair any attention as they talked quietly.
"We're running out of time," Kay said. "The execution chamber is just ahead."
Billy still was not comfortable with pretending that they were going to die. He looked around the narrow hallway and saw a closed door up ahead that they weren't going through. "I see a way out," he said.
"Where?"
Billy pointed to the door that the rest of the children were being led past. As they approached it, the two made a dash for the door. All the other doors the pair had used had opened automatically for them. This one didn't, and they nearly ran into it.
"Hey you two, get back in line!"
Working purely on instinct, Billy went to the keypad next to the door and punched a five-number code. The door slid open and alarms went off. The pretend game turned very real as grownups ran at them from every direction. The kids were too scared to move and were soon back in line and walking quietly down the hallway as if nothing had happened.
"That was close," Kay said. "We almost made it."
Billy didn't say anything. He had felt something very strange when he had punched the code in the door. It was a different feeling than when he slowed things down. Not only that, but he hadn't needed to concentrate.
The group of children finally made it to a large pair of doors and the grownups that had been leading them stopped and motioned for the children to go through the doors on their own. Billy and Kay looked at each other and swallowed. "Here we go."
The room the children entered was just as Kay had described it. It was a large metal box with only one doorway, which closed after all the kids had entered. The clang of the doors reverberated loudly in the metal room.
This was too much for some of the kids and they began crying for their mommies and daddies. Billy felt like he should cry too, but he didn't want to in front of Kay. Kay was too busy looking around the room. She noticed one section of the wall opposite the door but much higher up that looked a little different. She was about to point it out to Billy when a loud hissing noise filled the room.
All the crying stopped as the kids tried to discern the source of this new noise. Billy and Kay looked at each other with one thought on their minds, "Execution Chamber."
The children around them began to cough violently and several of them were already passing out. The crying began again; this time all but two of the children took part. Kay and Billy desperately wanted to cry, but their Force sensitive psyches wouldn't allow it.
"This isn't pretend, is it?" Billy asked as he felt the deadly gas begin to tickle the back of his throat.
Kay shook her as she began to cough. "We need to hold our breath."
Billy nodded. He covered his mouth with his shirt and took a deep breath. He instantly wanted to cough it back out, but fought against the urge. Kay did like wise and had the same problem choking down the poisonous air.
The children were collapsing all around them now. The gas attacked their bodies in a horrible fashion, causing some of the kids to vomit, while others released their bowels. In the middle of it, two four-year-olds stood tall, looking at each other and holding hands.
-I can't hold it in any more.- Kay screamed in her mind.
-You have to.- Billy responded.
-I can't!-
-Let me help you.-
Billy raised his hands to Kay's head and half closed his eyes. Suddenly the room around Kay seemed to slow down. The burning in her lungs didn't seem so bad and the throbbing in her head began to dissipate. Children were dying horribly all around her, but she was no longer terrified by it. It felt like she could hold her breath forever.
Even with the Force helping them, the two kids could not hold their breath forever. The last child had fallen dead, and the two pretenders were the last ones standing. Finally their strength gave out, and they gasped for air. Instead of poisonous gas, a foul stench filled their lungs. They both gagged on the odor, but were very relieved to find the deadly gas was gone.
Up above, behind the one-way glassine section of the wall that Kay had seen earlier, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine watched the two children gasping and gagging. Beside him, an Imperial Officer also watched the spectacle. "Who are they?" Palpatine asked.
"The boy is William Jeran Kerrly. He is four years old from the planet of Knilerhn. His adoptive parrents are Jeran and Sarah Kerrly. He-"
"Adoptive parrents?" Palpatine was not happy. "What of his real parents?"
"The form is blank there, sir."
"When you go to kill his parents, kill whoever filled out the questionaire. I did not put it together so people could leave it blank. What of the girl?"
"Kamarala is the only name we have on her. She is an orphan, like the boy. Again, the parents are unknown."
Palpatine sighed in frustration. He beconed the officer to leave and turned to his other side to look at his new apprentice. "What do you think of them?"
Anakin Skywalker concentrated on the pair below. "They are strong in the Force, Master, and they make themselves stronger."
"Can you be more specific?"
Anakin concentrated some more. "The boy has a good heart. He is naive and trusting. He was brought up in a good home by loving parents. He is very compassionate and very willing to risk his own life to help others."
"And the girl?" Palpatine asked, impressed so far.
"She is more of a free spirit. She has had no formal upbringing like the boy. While she is not evil, she is neither good. Her imagination runs wild and tends to get the better of her."
"Which is stronger in the Force?"
Anakin took a deep breath. "The boy - no - they are equal. The boy stands out more because he is more aware. His use of the Force is centered on his mind. He can see things clearly and understand them. The girl's strength is in her actions. Her intuition, coordination, and strength are augmented through the Force more than the boy's. At rest, she does not project as strong a Force presence as the boy." Anakin opened his eyes and turned to his master.
"Can you sense anything else between them?"
Anakin looked confused. He thought his analysis had been very accurate and thorough. If Anakin had learned anything since he had taken his new master, it was that Palpatine was never happy with his answers.
"You missed the most important thing," Palpatine lectured. "They are brother and sister. They are twins, born of the same parents on the same day."
"But how can you tell? Why is that so important?"
"It is always two and then one, with the Force. When great Force users are born, they are born two and then one. Male and female twins, and then a single child. The twins have different strengths while the single child is complete.
"That these two are twins is important because it tells us that the Force has fated them to play a large roll in the galaxy. It also tells us that a single child is still out there, waiting to be found or yet to be born."
"Are we to kill these two?" Anakin asked.
Palpatine looked them, hugging each other and crying. "The boy is of no good to me. His heart is pure, and he is not a fighter. The girl may be of some use."
Below, Kay and Billy were still trying to cope with their surroundings. The stench in the air was not nearly has bad as the visual stench their eyes took in as they surveyed the room. Over fifteen children had died horribly while they had been spared. As they tried to cope with this, the doors opened. Standing in the exit to the room, were two men.
If the children in the transport had made a buzz in the air to Billy's sensitive mind, these two men screamed with energy. The older one came forward and looked directly at Kay. "What is your name?"
"K-K-Kay."
"Your complete name."
"K-Kamarala."
"You will no longer be called Kay. That name is from your past. You will have a new name to go with your new future. I will call you Mara." Palpatine looked into her frightened, emerald eyes. "Mara Jade."
"You will do everything that I tell you Mara Jade. Do you know what will happen to you if you don't?"
Mara shook her head. Palpatine raised his hands and pointed them and Billy. Bursts of electricity leaped into Billy's small frame. The energy ripped the life out of the young boy, tossing him violently into the wall.
"NO!" Mara screamed. She ran over to her brother and held him as she watched the last light pass from his eyes. She felt a void in her soul. It was an emptiness that she had never known before. She had never known she had a hole that needed filling until it was empty. Now she felt very much alone.
A boy that she had only met a few hours ago had been part of her soul her entire life. They had been born together in the Force, and now that one was dead, the other felt incomplete. It takes a skilled physician to separate Siamese twins without a fatality when just their limbs are connected. It takes an even greater physician to separate twins when they are joined by the soul.
What Palpatine lacked in skill, he made up in brute force.
Palpatine filled the void. His presence did much more than Billy's had. It did not complete her; it consumed her. "I will always be with you Mara Jade. No matter where you go, I will always be able to speak with you and control you. You will be my Hand."
Mara passed out.
"Take her," Palpatine said to his budding apprentice.
Anakin walked over to the fallen girl and picked her up. He looked at the carnage around him. "Such a waste," he said. "There was a lot of potential talent here."
"That is why we call it a purge," Palpatine responded. "We replace the old with the new. You too will have to change your name once you achieve Sith status. I suggest you think about that."
The two walked out of the room, and closed the doors behind them. The loud clanging filled the empty room.
THE END