Dining Disaster


Trouble Jalid thought as he bit into a muja fruit. Across the dining hall of the Jedi temple he saw Wock, a male Twi'lek, and Sorimonne, a female Bothan. This meant a standoff. The two had always been competitors, and rivals of a sort. They now stood about ten meters apart, staring at each other trying to concentrate. Jalid knew what they were trying to do too. They were both trying to make the other one lose their balance.
*This isn't a good idea* Jalid projected into their minds. Neither one of them responded, but they were probably concentrating too hard. This wasn't the first time the two humanoids would do something like this. They would have competitions like this regularly, saying that their skirmishes are totally for training.
"Expect a little unrest, guys," Jalid said to the two people sitting on either side of him. Galen, a male human on Jalid's left, nodded slowly. Darramoon, a male Wookie on his right, let out a soft growl.
Just as he did, Wock lost the battle and fell backwards. Before Sorimonne could start gloating, Wock flew into a tall cabinet, knocking over the contents. A large container from the cabinet fell on the middle of a table surrounded by toddlers. Food splatted everywhere and frenzied children ran from the table. Before they could react, a tall thin metal cylinder fell off the top of cabinet and knocked open a gas duct. After that, the whole cabinet fell towards the door, smashing the access panel and blocking the entrance. All of the students watched in horror as the gas from the leaking duct drifted towards the food-heating unit and caught fire. Flaming bits of food then flew out into the room like small fireballs.
*Let's go* Jalid told his comrades. The three of them got up and went to work. Darramoon ran towards the blocked door and began to unclog the opening. Galen ran to a small closet and retrieved an emergency tool kit with a fire extinguisher. He then began knocking the fireballs out of midair, in an effort to protect the crowd of young Jedi students.
And Jalid knew what he needed to do. Drawing the force around himself, he ran strait at the wall. When he got to it, without slowing down he held his breath and ran up it. He took 2, 4, 6, 8 steps up the wall and back flipped. Before he started falling grabbed onto a glow rod on the ceiling, and hung from it with his left hand.
Weaving in between small fireballs, he went hand over hand across the ceiling, hanging onto anything he could grab. Finally, he got to the open gas duct. Hanging onto a power cord on the ceiling with his left hand, he stuck his right hand out toward the tool kit Galen had gotten out. A hydrospanner flew from the kit into Jalid's hand. He quickly used the tool to reseal the open duct.
Dropping the hydrospanner, Jalid reached up to hold onto the cord with both hands. When he did, he cut his right hand on a piece of shrapnel. He brought his hand down and surveyed his position. Suddenly an idea hit him, and a smile crept onto his face.
Still holding his breath, he carefully picked up the sharp piece of metal. He then used it to cut the cord he was holding onto. After a few seconds, he cut through it. Jalid held onto the line with both hands as he swung down into the room, and strait toward the food-heating unit. As he swung past it, he kicked the power supply off, stopping the rain of fireballs.
About ready to pass out, Jalid let go of the cord, and scampered to the corner of the room. When he didn't smell gas, he breathed in a gulp of much needed air. He then forced himself onto his feet, and ran towards the door.
When he got there, he saw all he Jedi students crowded at the closed door. Darramoon had succeeded in removing the cabinet, and was now trying to open the door. Jalid picked the hydrospanner up off the floor and gave it to darramoon, who used it to remove the bolt from the door.
He and his two friends quickly ushered everyone out of the room. The three of them were the last ones out of the dining hall, and when they were out, Jalid doubled over from exhaustion.
By that time the Jedi council was there, and was comforting the Jedi students. When Jalid opened his eyes, he saw Yoda, Mace Windu, and Adi Galla standing over him. He forced himself to kneel, even though his body wanted to lay down and die. He then felt Adi Galla's comforting hand on his shoulder, and Mace Windu gave him a rare smile. "Well done, young Jalid," Yoda said staring into his eyes. "Well done."

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Jalid awoke suddenly and his head came up. Realizing that he wasn't fully awake, he laid his head back down and closed his eyes. He slowly sat up and oriented himself.
He was in his room at the Jedi Temple, and Galen was sitting on the end of his bed. "So how are you feeling?" his friend asked.
"Drowsy," Jalid replied, bringing his hand up to rub his forehead. "And something else," he realized. He closed his eyes and used the force to search his body for disease.
Before he could find it, Galen spoke up. "You inhaled some of that gas in the dining hall," he explained. "you didn't get much of the poison in your body, so you should feel better by to tomorrow."
"how long did I sleep?" Jalid asked.
"About twelve hours after you took the antidote," Galen responded.
"Antidote?" Jalid questioned.
"It was for the poison in the gas, that's why you're so tired." His friend explained. "And in those twelve hours you've practically become a legend around the Temple." Galen said chuckling.
"What do you mean?" Jalid asked. "It was Darramoon who got us out of there."
" Yeah, but Miro Darron said that if you hadn't have closed the gas duct when you did, we all would've died from poisoning. And my fire extinguisher ran out right after that. If you hadn't have shut off the heating unit when you did, we all would've been toasted." His friend explained.
Galen then told him, "Darramoon let us escape, but you saved us." As Jalid closed his eyes again, Galen repeated what he had just said to himself. You saved us

THE END