Chapter 1
I grew up on Naboo. I used to stand on the shore of Kaadara and stare out to sea, waiting for something to come to me. One day, a group of grown men, some drunk, ran down to the beach, taunting the other beach goers and myself. I said nothing, but their presence irked me. They charged into the water, jumping and yelling in the waves. I hoped a big wave would come and knock them down. As I imagined what that would look like, a big wave, just as I pictured it, came and knocked those fools around. One of them was carried directly to my feet. He looked up at me, scared and embarrassed, and ran back into the water. I again imagined a wave come and knock that fellow back down and it did. It was as if I beckoned those waves to come. Looking back now, that was my first foray into wielding the force.
I became well-educated and well-adjusted on Naboo, studying the logistics of star port management. After years of working in the Theed Spaceport, it felt time to start my life anew, away from my parents. I yearned for the perils of intergalactic travel. Seeing ships the stardust cascade off of ships as they land filled my mind with wonder. Spacers young and old would fly threw, hot from adventure and with starlight in their eyes. People from all over the galaxy docked at Theed. Cargo of all sorts came from their ships. A spectacle of rarity landed before me every day. It was great to be of service to them, to the galaxy, but they had all the fun. They were the galaxy, I was just sitting there, watching it all happen. I knew how to fly. I knew how to run a spaceport. And I had a wanderlust, an excess energy to burn. So, one day, when a stripped down freighter was posted for sale on the local bazaar, I purchased it. I had acquired my very own star ship, a YT-1300. It flew like a dream. I furnished a living quarters, installed a few cargo racks, and mounted a legal laser turret.
I made money flying people and goods around the galaxy. It was all freelance work. One day, I took a hefty contract to fly some engineers out to an orbital space station in Yavin space. When I picked up those engineers, I felt trouble. For one, one of the engineers carried a pistol. I tried not to mind them, and I tried not to show off my ship's capabilities so my strange guests wouldn't get any funny ideas. When we docked at the station, they said I had come to their office for my payment. It was uncomfortable even leaving the docking bay. They tied me up with some nonsense for only about 15 minutes until I got my money. They tried to get me to shop and eat at their empty little market, but I went straight back to my ship. I undocked and started for the hyperspace lane when my ship's primary systems fell. They had salvaged all of the high end parts while I was gone. It was all a scam. But there was no time to fester in anger. Returning to the station would mean surrendering my ship. I set for a descending free fall to Yavin-4. Luckily, they had left emergency landing modules intact. I landed with only moderate damage to the hull of the ship. But, I had a hunch they wanted me to land safely so they could come back and steal the ship whole. I packed a backpack full of food and supplies, and with my handy blaster, made way for what I thought was an outpost, or at least an outcropping of some manmade structure on the coast, not far from where I landed. I packed at least enough food and water to reach my waypoint, and if need be, forage my way back to the ship.
Luckily, there was indeed a small mining outpost and private starport where I was headed. A middle aged man, named Hammil, unburdened by the rigors of core-world society, and seemingly still youthful and innocent due to the lack of heartache and women, ran a mining operation there. He also ran a cantina and rooms for rent. He welcomed me warm heartedly. He sympathized with my plight. He also offered me some paid work to set up seven new harvesters he recently purchased. He would give me 1000 credits for every one I successfully installed. I did so a lot quicker than he expected, but he was an honorable man and paid it all up. Plus, he knew I would end up spending most of it with him.
I was sitting outside the cantina one day. I had just finished browsing his galactic bazaar terminal which he used as a vendor to make purchases and sales. Although I enjoyed my time with Hammil, I needed to procure ship parts to return home, but it was tough going. There was nothing useful or interesting I could actually afford, but it was a fun way to pass the time on this fairly secluded planet.
Hammil was sitting outside his office. I grabbed a chair and sat down near him. After a while of silence, I reached into my pocket and grabbed a card that those engineer scammers had left with me. They had said, "Call us if you ever need any upgrades on that ship of yours." I recalled all this and my blood boiled. I couldn't believe I got screwed so badly. I just stared at the card and the damned thing shot into flames and vanished. Hammill looked at me like I was crazy. It had been a week now, and not until now did he look at me like a stranger. The occurrence was strange to me as well, but the seething anger coursing through my veins set me off into a stomping jaunt around the surrounding forest's tree line.
That night, I awoke in my hut to some unusual sound. I sat up on my cot and listened to what figured to be some rustling outside. I thought there could be an intruder, maybe one of those engineers or spiced out brigand. Up until that point, I had not seen any large creatures on the planet. I grabbed my blaster and stepped outside. The shadow of a figure, definitely humanoid, streamed into the shadows. This late at night, I did not dare chase it, but I stood for moment until it ran out of earshot. I went back to my cot and laid there until I naturally fell asleep.
The next morning, before I said anything about it, Hammill offered me another job. It was less of a job and more of a mission. "Look, you scare me, kid. Most people that come through here are weak, tired, dumb or lost. Whatever you got going on in that brain of yours seems to want to do something big, so you might be interested in this." He wanted me to check out some ruins that were rumored to begin about two kilometers north of the outpost. He had mentioned it before in passing. Apparently, he gets lots of visitors searching for treasure or adventure heading to those ruins. I asked him for as much information as he could give me. He started by telling me about how him and his brother when they were children - raised on this outpost which his father had started - saw a mysterious man in a hooded robe land here, ask about the area, and venture into the shadows never to return. He attached this old story to the myth of the ruins. He and his brother had always searched for it, but never found it. In fact, his brother took a search party and made it all the way to the Western shore of Yavin-4, an incredible distance, without finding it; and that's why his brother runs a similar outpost on the other side of the planet. They always joke that they'll meet in the middle of the planet's core. Anyway, he told me about how he had seen lots of treasure hunters come and go, fruitless, and how some people who he thought were not fit for such adventures never to return. But he said there was something mysterious about me, enough so that he had faith I would find the place. He lent me his speeder and a vibroblade. And off I went up the sandy beach.