I: Discovered

I sit alone in a crowd in my home. There are many children in this home. Girls, boys, human, and not, of many ages. We all have one mother, but she isn't actually our mother, just like none of us are actually siblings.

I'm sitting in the center of the big room, which I call that because it's bigger than the other rooms, some of which we sleep in and others food comes from. Mother calls it the "common area" but in my mind it isn't so. I am alone in the center of the big room, although there are several other children running around, playing. Most of them are bigger than me, but the biggest ones play outside most of the time, or run around not playing.

They are different from me. Or perhaps I am different from them. That is what makes me separate, why I am alone. I don't know how I know this, but I do. There is nothing I see, hear, feel, smell, or taste that tells me, but I can sense it all the same. It is something that I have no words to describe, regardless of the fact that I have no words to begin with.

I turn to see the door to the outside open. I had not heard it open, I simply knew that it was so. Mother walks in, along with an unfamiliar man. This man is different, by which I mean that he is like me. Not physically, his skin is different from mine and he wears a strange mask, among other things. But I can sense that he can sense like I can. If that makes any sense.

This man looks around the room. Some of the bigger children regard him with a passing sense of familiarity for a moment before resuming their activities.

The man turns to Mother. "I see that you've got a few new charges, Madam."

Mother smiles sweetly at the man, but not in the same way that she does to us children. "Yes, Master Plo, I do. I must say that I wasn't expecting you. I hadn't heard that you were on Alderaan."

"I was passing through this sector and had some time to spare, so I thought I'd stop by," Plo says as he starts to slowly walk around the big room. He looks at a few of the children, silently appraising them before moving on. When he reaches me he stops.

"This one, what is his name?" Plo says to Mother.

"Him? Oh, his name is Janus Alter," Mother tells Plo. "20 standard months old, his father died in a transport accident prior to his birth and his mother passed away shortly after delivering him. They spent a few months looking for his closest living relation but they never found any, so they sent him to me."

"Is he always this distant?" Plo asks. "From the other children, that is."

"Yes, he is, now that you mention it," Mother confirms. "What, do think that you might able to take him?"

"Possibly," Plo states as he sits cross legged in front of me. I can feel him touch me, though his hands sit still in his lap. I can feel him in my mind. It isn't intrusive, nor are any thoughts or feelings communicated. It is a mere presence, a gentle one in fact, and I react. It is the mental equivalent of poking a baby in the stomach and it giggling and squirming in response.

Several more times he touches me without touching, each time in a slightly differing manner, though if you asked me how they differed I could not tell you. After this is done he stands and turns to Mother.

"He is force-sensitive and we can train him," Plo tells her. "I will take him, if you will allow it."

"Of course," Mother replies. "You're welcome to any you think are capable, at any time. With the Jedi I know they will be well taken care of and will do some good for the galaxy. Besides, the money you give me for them is nothing to sneeze at," she adds half jokingly.

Plo bows respectfully to Mother. "Thank you. I will have the money transferred to you as soon as possible. You should receive it before I arrive at Coruscant."

"Thank you very much, Master Plo," Mother says with a smile.

Within the next ten minutes I am wrapped in a simple cloth and handed to Plo. Mother ruffles my hair and gives wishes of good luck. She has the rest of the children gathered to say goodbye, though most of them don't care one way or another that I'm leaving or where I'm leaving to. A few of the bigger children whisper about how they wish they could be Jedi, but I don't know what that means.

The door closes behind us and a new life opens in front of me, though I don't know it yet. Plo carries me firmly, with great care. But there isn't the same affection that I get from Mother on the occasions that she picks me up. He also doesn't talk to me. Perhaps he doesn't feel the need. I can understand why. Chances are I wouldn't really comprehend what he was saying anyway.

We make our way to a large metal house. It flies away, with us inside of it. Plo puts me down once we're away, someplace safe and secure. Plo comes every once in a while to check on me. He looks after me and gives me attention, but there is a distance there. Not to say that he doesn't care, but that he is somewhat…detached. Kind of like me.

At some point during one of my naps we leave the floating metal home. I wake in a darkened room on comfortable pillows, on a pedestal low to the ground. I hear a door open and Plo walks in with a green man not much bigger than me.

"This, the child is?" the little green man asks. He has a weird way of talking

"Yes," Plo answers, "his name in Janus Alter, from Alderaan. 20 months old, no living relations."

"See, I do," the green man replies. He closes his eyes and tests me in much the same way that Plo did earlier. His presence is notably stronger, out of proportion completely with his size, but it is no less gentle and nonintrusive.

"Hm, strong with the Force, this one is. Great potential he has," the little green man says once he is finished.

"I thought the same, Master Yoda," Plo says as he and the little green man leave the room. The door closes behind them and I am left in darkness, not knowing the significance of all the events that had transpired.