The Force Works In Mysterious Ways
The young humans sat back amongst the soft fields of gold. Male and female, back to back within a flattened circle of grass. Errant breezes weaved through the standing fronds and lightly tossed the braided hair of the female, while the male only felt the cool air slide over his bare head, and the warmth of his companions back. Well worked muscles burned pleasantly from their exercise.
"You've done well." Bastila said.
John closed his eyes and a contented smile tugged at his lips. "I had a good teacher."
They were both smiling now, enjoying the sun and easy calm of the planet. John lay down in the soft grass, pretending to get comfortable, while stealing a glimpse of Bastila's face. He had never seen her so relaxed. There was a faint glimmer to her eyes as she gazed far across the field, and her fringe that was normally so uniform had broken free with the breeze.
Not wanting to alert her, John closed his eyes and admired the image of her in his mind. Her pale green eyes were flecked lightly with the gold of the fields and her auburn hair trailed down her back in a bright tapestry of thread and charms. The image took such hold that his breath caught in his chest and he felt himself grow very still.
Had John opened his eyes he would have witnessed a sudden transformation in Bastila. Her eyes snapped down on her companion with an uncomfortable grimace.
'For someone so talented in the ways of the force', Bastila's thought, 'his ability to subdue his emotions is utterly careless.'
Perhaps had she not been reaching with her own thoughts across the bond that joined them, then she may not have caught that startling clear image of... herself. But that did not excuse their inappropriate nature.
A rebuke came to Bastila's mind, but the distant warbling of a speed racer engine arrested her attention. John must have heard it as well because his eyes had snapped open, and in an instant his mind had joined hers in the search of its source.
"Could be the council." He said.
Bastila listened carefully at the edges of her awareness before shaking her head. "Their influence can be felt planet wide. There would be no need to send a message by courier. In any case it's moving beyond our borders. It'll soon be gone."
Despite her assurances John stood up with his eyes locked on the horizon. Bastila felt him pushing his senses to the edges their shared awareness. And then suddenly beyond it. The grass surrounding them no longer obeyed the forces of nature and flattened out away from them in a circle.
"What do you see?" Bastila said.
Raising his arm John snatched out at the air in front of him. The fields suddenly became very still as he turned his hand over.
John's fist shook for a moment before he cracked it open, and from his palm tore the piercing screams of a hundred souls. The trapped, horrified, pleading screams of butchered families, and the deep rumbling laughter of another.
"Slavers." They both said.