The halls of the Jedi Temple were never quiet with Elor and Tomet around. After eight centuries of meditation and introspection, a sentient learned to appreciate the serenity of the Temple; but those two young Jedi had yet to learn the patience to find companionship in silence. Which perhaps is as it should be, Yoda mused as the pair cascaded into the Library on the heels of some fascinating new conversation. Still, it seemed like there had been no silence to be found in the Temple ever since Tomet arrived seventeen years ago.

Both were clad in the tan clothing of the Padawan. Elor was a short but tautly muscled young man with a dancer's grace of motion; Tomet, a slim Zabrak woman, silver-skinned with a delicate tracery of black tattoos covering her face. As the two friends spoke, she attacked every gesture and emphasis with characteristic intensity. Their voices faded into the silence of the Library as they approached Yoda.

A quiet smile emerged on Yoda's face as Elor and Tomet fell still and stood before him, waiting quietly for him to explain his summons. Though they had the restless energy and willfulness of typical youths, they nonetheless both showed fine potential as Jedi. They would rise to match the task he had for them, he was sure.

"Wonder why you are here, you do?" the sage asked after a long silence.

"We do, Master Yoda," Elor answered. "We were sparring when Pel said you wished to see us."

"Lucky for him, too," Tomet said. "He was losing."

"Ignore the latecomer, Master. Her pride, alas, continues to be her downfall."

Yoda, smiling, stopped them with an upraised hand. "Peace, my friends. Important news I have, and important questions."

Once again they fell silent, and Yoda beckoned them to walk with him through the Library.

"Sparring, you were." They nodded. "Much time you spend in this competition."

"It's a friendly competition, Master," Tomet said.

"Criticize it, I do not. Indeed, great potential as duelists you have, inform me your masters do. Perhaps the most of any now in training. Asked yourselves, have you, if this dedication to combat has distracted you from learning the inward councils of the Jedi?"

A glance was exchanged between them. "I don't think so, Master." Elor replied calmly.

"We know that the Jedi are warriors only by last resort. We spar because it is something we do well, not because we desire battle. Is it not a good thing to take joy in practicing one's talents?"

"It is not. At the heart of the Jedi Order, such a joy is. And none are there who doubt your dedication to the pursuit of the Jedi Code. Why I have called you here today, this is. A task I have for both of you, and no small one." Yoda stopped before a bank of computers above which hung a hologram of what appeared to be a star sector. He turned and looked at Elor and Tomet as they absorbed this.

"We are glad you think us ready for an assignment, Master," Tomet said finally.

"And glad am I that ready you are, children. A hard time this is for the Jedi Order. Stretched our resources are by the war with the Separatists, as know well you do." Their Masters, like many at the time, had been gone from the Temple on assignment for some time. "Even so, give this task to ones so young as yourselves I would not, if think I did not that you were prepared for it."

"If you will forgive my impatience, Master, what is it that have for us?" Tomet said.

"A mission to gather information for the Order." Yoda gestured at the holomap before them. "A little known sector of space this is, on the Outer Rim. The Imokor Sector." As Elor approached the map, the Master noticed a strange expression briefly cross his face. "What is it, my Padawan?"

"Nothing, Master. I...I simply had an odd feeling for a moment, when I first saw the map. It's gone now."

"Wise it is not to lightly treat such feelings, Elor. No great thing is the task I have chosen for you; but it may be that more for you Imokor holds than you expect."

"Yes, Master." Elor's face furrowed in thought.

Turning back, Yoda touched a certain portion of the map. It expanded, zooming in to a particular system. A yellow star hung in the center, surrounded by several planets and a pair of asteroid belts. Two of the planets were highlighted, marking them as habited worlds. The one closer to the sun was labeled Imokor I. "Here, your destination shall be. Distant and often ignored, Imokor is. Troubled, it has been in recent times. Although still a part of the Republic, oppose the Republic's rule many of its citizens do. With crime and piracy, rife is the sector. And the Imokor system most of all."

Yoda drew a circle around an area of the hologram. It grew once more, focusing on Imokor I. The planet hung brown and blue between the system's two asteroid belts. Shipping lanes and hyperspace routes were traced on the map. Large blotches of red covered sections of the asteroid belts, encroaching upon the planet in between.

"In recent years, grown has the rate of attacks on ships near Imokor. A few weeks ago, boarded and destroyed was a Republic peacekeeping vessel. Change something has within the organization of pirates in the system, it would seem. If too powerful they grow, possible it is that the system will be lost to us. Too little force, the Republic has at this time to spend it on lesser threats. And with the loss of Imokor, likely it is that the rest of the sector might fall. Connected, all such things are. Break this chain, we must."

"What must we do, Master?" Tomet asked.

"To attempt the destruction of this threat, I do not ask you. A task for older and more experienced Jedi, that is. But gather information we must, before others are sent. A Jedi must know how to sense the patterns around himself, and seek out their source. This you will have to do in Imokor, and bring back what knowledge you have found." Yoda reached down and removed a data chip from the console. He handed it to Elor. "Contained within this, much of the information we possess about Imokor is, as well as instructions for you. Wait for you at your quarters, Master Kenne does. The details of your missions, he will give you. Now go." A sudden feeling of loss struck Yoda as he turned his back on the youths. The Force tells me that I do not fully understand what I do today.

As is ever the case with the great Master Yoda, a voice taunted in his past.

As Elor and Tomet walked away, Yoda's voice called them back one last time, quavering inexplicably. "My children..."

"Yes, Master?"

"Trust you, I can?"

Tomet stepped forward. "Of course you can, Master Yoda."

"Good. No occasion for rash action is this." A glint of his old humor reappeared. "Perhaps a lesson this will teach you on how to keep your weapons hidden."

.

.

.

Tomet swept down the hall at breakneck speed, heading for the Padawan quarters. Elor hugged her heels like a leaf carried along by a wind. She turned impatiently to face him. "Why so slow?"

"Why the rush?" he bantered back, but his face betrayed distraction.

"Isn't this what we've been waiting for? A chance to get out and start putting our talents to use?"

Elor shrugged. "I don't know." He fell in beside her as she began to walk again. "I can't say why...but I've got a bad feeling about this."