BRAND NEW GALAXY
by ardavenport
Bing-BONG!
Da-di-da-di-DAH-DAH.
Tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-ah PING!
"Hel-LO!!! This is Holo-Net Com Channel Zee-Tu-Tu-Tem-Oh-Vod-Five!!!"
"And this is COR CORRIGAN! From the Core World of Coruscant. The heart of a BRAND NEW GALAXY"
Dah-dee-dah-dee-DAH-DEE-DAH-DEE-DAH!! DAH!! Toooooiiinnngggg!!!
"And we are continuing with our End Of The Emprie EXTRAVAGANZA!!
"Last time we spoke with Mon Mothma the acting Chancellor of what is now known as the NEW REPUBLIC, though there are still some arguments about that. I'm talking to YOU, Danthormis Assembly!
"This time we're speaking with one of the heroes of the former Rebel Alliance, LUKE SKYWALKER!"
"Uh. . . . . hello."
"LUKE SKYWALKER! Aside from being a former commander of Rebel Alliance, and a veteran of several significant Rebel victories, he also THE hero who defeated the Emperor himself during the Battle of Endor."
"Uh. . . . . I didn't defeat the Emperor. It was Darth Vader. Uh, Anakin Skywalker. My father."
"The SECRET IDENTITY to Emperor Palpatine's iron fist himself, the FALLEN JEDI KNIGHT, Anakin Skywalker. It was a tragic tale indeed. Finally, full of regret for his years of cruelty, killings and massacres. Years of tormenting and humiliating others he finally came to regret his evil deeds.
"Tell me Luke. How did you reach past the black breath mask of this monster to the being beneath?"
"I. . . . accepted him. As my father. When we met, the first time, he reached out to me. And I knew that he wanted me as his son. And that I could reach him. The next time we met."
"Really? And how did he reach out to you?"
"Uh. We were fighting. And he wanted me to join him to defeat the emperor."
"Fighting? Were you injured?"
"Yyyyyyeeeeessssss. He cut my hand off. This is a cybernetic."
"Well. It's a good thing he didn't reach out any further, or we might not have you here to talk with us! So, Vader was plotting then to destroy the Emperor. Was he thinking of coming over to the Alliance then?"
"No. He didn't really consider that. He wanted to rule the galaxy. And me with him. But, in the end, over Endor, he let go of that. He realized that was the only way to defeat the Emperor. He died saving me. He sacrificed himself. Like a Jedi."
"I see. . . . . . . . very noble.
"I understand that you are actually the illegitimate child of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who became the Man in the Black Suit, Darth Vader? Since Jedi Knights of the Old Republic were not allowed to have families?"
"Yes."
"Assuming that Vader didn't do it all himself, who was your mother?"
"Her name was Padme. I've found out that she was the Senator from Naboo. But I haven't had time to find out much more about her yet."
"Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! Here that Naboo? We're calling YOOOOOUUUUUUU!
"So, you might have family there?"
"I. . . . . don't really know. I've never been to Naboo."
"WONDERFUL world. AND an early supporter of the New Republic. Naboo, expect a hero visiting there sometime soon! You grew up on Tatooine then with your father's family. On a farm?:"
"Yes, it was a moisture farm."
"Humble beginnings, indeed! And now a Jedi Knight.
"Now let me introduce our next guest, Finisel Utang, the author of the soon to be released fast-holo-facz, 'KNIGHT FALL: the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic'."
"Thank-you Cor. Thank-you very much for having me as your guest."
"Now, I've only been able to fast-skim this holo but I have to say that it is full of tragedy."
"It's a very grim and sorry tale in the history of the Republic."
"What inspired you to write and record this, Finisel? Did you know any Jedi? Have any in your family?"
"Oh, no, no, no. Jedi abilities are incredibly rare, Cor. Out of a galaxy of billions and billions of trillions of beings there were at most only several thousand Jedi at any one time, even at their height.
"But when I was growing up, I remember Jedi were heroes. They made holos about them. There were rhymes and songs about them. They were amazing defenders of the peace. And even though they stayed aloof from the popular media, they always got good facz. Escpecially during the Clone Wars. They were always saving planets and leading battles, but they never gave an interview."
"Didn't Emperor Palpatine use that against them, Finisel?"
"'Fraid so, Cor. That mysterious, selfless hero image only looks good if the politicos are on your side. As soon as Palpatine turned the Senate and installed himself as Emperor, the Jedi were Enemies of the State. If you were smart, you didn't even utter the word 'Jedi' just in case an Imperial snooper was listening. Palpatine not only set 30,000 clones on their Temple, and tens of thousands more to wipe them out in the rest of the galaxy, after he got done trashing them as traitors on the Holo-nets, he expunged everything about them, everywhere, anywhere, anyhow. Everything, Cor. The Good, the Bad and the Gone. Like a lot of people on Palpatine's Bad Citizen List they were just disappeared.
"Ooooooh, I remember those days Finisel, I almost ended up on that List a few times myself.
"So, what's will we be seeing in your new holo? Is everything Palpatine spread around about the Jedi just air ballast?"
"Actually not. While the Jedi did not actually eat children, they did take babies as their initiates. Anybody in the Old Republic over a certain age would have been tested for marker particles for Jedi potential, but the chances of having a high enough score were so infinitesimal that most people hardly noted it. But when it happened, there was a lot of social pressure put on families to give up their younglings 'for the greater good.'"
"Mmmmmmmmm. Luke any plans for the Jedi starting up their old testing regime?"
"Hunh? No! No, I don't know anything about it."
"In all fairness to Luke, Cor, sending your child to the Jedi was voluntary. There were no penalties and apparently the younglings could grow up fine without the training and never know the life they could have had."
"So, Luke did you start out on your Jedi ways that young?"
"No. No, I was almost twenty before Ben Kenobi told me anything about my father. And the Jedi."
"According to what I could uncover about ancient Jedi history, they could be trained at any age. It was just in the later times in the Old Republic when they started selecting them so young. It drastically decreased the number of Jedi who became a problem, which is probably why they did it. But it didn't completely eliminate the potential, as Darth Vader showed."
"Very true, Finisel.
"Now we've got a clip here from your holo. Apparently, the Jedi DID try to assassinate Emperor Palpatine right after the Empire was formed. This is from security recordings from the Senate Chamber, I understand?"
"Yes, Cor. This holo is the source of a lot of the rumors that started up about Emperor Palpatine having strange powers almost as soon as his reign began. It was saved and concealed by Senate workers still loyal to the Old Republic before Palpatine had established complete control."
"Well let's see it."
"As you can see, on the rising speaker's platform, Palpatine himself, and the Jedi Order's Grand Master Yoda, engaged in a lightsaber death match."
"Ooooooooh, he can really hop, can't he?"
"Yes, Cor. Over eight-hundred years old, Master Yoda was the best fighter the Jedi had. But unfortunately, that still wasn't enough."
Ungh, aaaaauugh, aaaaaaaahhhhhh
Bzzzzzzt - click-click-click - fwap - FZZTTTTTTT
Crash - crash - wham - CRASH
Thump - thud - FFFZZTT - FZZT-FZZT - Crunch
"Oh, they're really breaking up the place!"
CRASH - CRASH - BAM - CRASH
ZZZzzzzzz - tktktktktktktktk - thffffffff - aaaaaaaaahhhh - Whak!
!!!!
"Oooooooooh, EXCITING stuff there, Finisel!"
"Could - could I get a copy of that?"
"Absolutely, Luke! Finisel Utang's new fast-holo-facz will be available tomorrow! 'KNIGHT FALL: the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic'. The good. . . . . the bad. . . . and the GONE."
"And my first guest, LUKE SKYWALKER, will be here on Coruscant working on his Jedi moves. And if any of you brave people out there were hiding anything Jedi from the Evil Eye of the Emperor, give him a COM at Galactic Com-channel El-El-AyTu-Five-Five-Seven.
"That's all the time we have, my fellow sentients. For now, this is COR CORRIGAN! From the CORE World of CORUSCANT. The heart of a BRAND NEW GALAXY!"
Da-di-da-di-DAH-DAH.
Tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-ah PING!
Bing-BONG!
*** END ***
This story was first posted as part of a larger, year-long diary challenge on tf.n: 16-Feb-2008
Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.