A KNIGHTS TALE
by ardavenport
**** **** Part 1
"Here. Over here."
Zon suddenly grabbed Emoh Nedry's arm, guiding her into a quick arc away from the crowded street, whirling her around before she knew what was happening to sit on a bench next to him.
The bench that had only two holy personages sitting on it before now had four.
"Oooop-oop, blaaah."
Zon waved Twos to silence and the astromech parked itself next to the bench.
The other two were Humanoid males wearing black robes with red accents, each with some apparatus slung over their backs. Emoh did not know anything about the dozens (maybe hundreds) of holy orders that inhabited and visited Jedha City, so she said nothing to them as the big one on the far end of the bench leaned over to peer at them around his smaller, slender friend, who remained facing forward. He had no eyes, just two disturbingly blank, white orbs, but the tilt of his head showed that he knew they were there. He had no facial hair and the black hair on his head was cut close. In contrast, his friend's hair was grown out, long and thick and with a graying growth of facial hair. A bulky sonic device hung from a white harness strap slung over the blind man's shoulder and he held a staff, dark carved wood and silver metal.
"Zon - - - "
"Shhhh!"
She shushed. And pulled the stolen orange robe closer over her head and body, hiding any hint of her spacer's blue coveralls that might be showing. The hood of Zon's orange robe hung down so low over his face, Emoh wondered that he could see anything at all in it.
All around them Jedha City, the Holy City, moved on with its business. Streets and dingy stone alleys bustled, full of foot traffic, locals (mostly humanoids like her and Zon, dark hair, pale to brown skin) bundled up in the chill air, many-colored robes and coverings of the multi-species priests, acolytes and pilgrims. The air was alive with their sounds and smells. An occasional droid or lifter transport passed by with the crowds. Jedha was definitely below average for tech.
Emoh was about to demand from her companion where he thought they were going when she froze. Two white-armored Imperial Stormtroopers had appeared at the end of their alley. She tugged the hood of her robe down and faced forward as the troopers systematically worked their way toward them, banging on doors, accosting a food seller and demanding documents from random pedestrians. They were showing people a holo, but Emoh did not look up long enough to see what it was.
Too soon, it was their turn.
"All right, let's see some scandocs." A single trooper demanded. It was not clear which one of the four people on the bench the soldier was addressing; he had planted himself front and center before them.
Zon lifted his head with his usual bright smile and pale gray-blue eyes wide. He held up a hand as if he could do anything against the blaster rifle that the trooper held casually at the ready.
"Oh, our documents are good." Palm empty, Zon mimed handing over an invisible data chit.
The trooper tilted his head toward Zon and his grip on his blaster seemed to go slack, the muzzle pointing more toward the ground.
"These are fine," Zon said cheerfully.
"These are fine," the trooper repeated a bit blankly. The trooper moved on and only seemed to revive when a tall figure completely covered in a red robe with minimal eye-slit openings brushed too close to his comrade. The trooper who had questioned them, seeing the action, came over and the two harassed the offender, who did promptly produce a scan disk, though it did not prevent the troopers from conducting a search. People coming into that end of the alley conspicuously whirled around, finding some other place to go when they saw the stormtroopers.
Eventually, the troopers tossed their victim aside and continued on their way down the alley. One unfortunate mother with babe in arms who opened her door to them had her room invaded for a few minutes before they moved on, children crying in their wake. With the troopers' backs to them, Zon took a hard look at the holo that they were showing to people.
The face glowing over the holo-projector looked like Zon.
Emoh burned to demand what was going on. Was he the reason that the ship was confiscated? And now troopers were looking for the crew who their Captain had inexplicably given liberty to even though they had not planned to stay after delivering their cargo from Coruscant? Captain Kajer had declared more than once that Jedha was a worthless place to pick up work, but the pay for the job was good enough and there were more profitable nearby worlds to go to afterward to justify the trip. Emoh had not planned on going out either, but Zon had insisted, telling her and several others that he had been to Jedha City before and that the street food was much better than ship fare.
With Zon practically dragging them along, the group was sorely disappointed by the limp, greasy noodles and vegetables at the stall just outside the landing dock. But only a few crass insults toward Zon's lack of culinary taste came out before everyone turned to see a phalanx of Imperial Stormtroopers surround the dock entrance that they had just left. They all scattered quickly with Emoh ending up with Zon and the Engineer's astromech.
It did not matter why the Empire was confiscating their ship. Nearly everyone, including Emoh, had some shady business in their background; they all made themselves scarce with an efficiency earned from experience.
Finally, the troopers rounded the corner to the next street and did not return. Next to her, the two holy men looked at them; the blind one facing them, his wide unseeing eyes staring right toward Zon.
'Jedha,' the large broad-shouldered one silently mouthed from the far end of the bench.
'Jedha?' Was Zon from Jedha? Maybe he'd been wanted on Jedha and someone spotted him? But that did not seem to make sense to her. They hadn't been planetside long enough before the troopers descended on them. Even the Empire was not that efficient.
"Zon! What did you do!" She hissed, whirling back to him. He was already up off the bench, clutching his robe over his own coveralls.
"That's a little complicated. Maybe something we can talk about when we're not so out in the open." He pulled her up by the arm and then turned toward the two holy men who had leapt to their feet. "You two should stay h - - -"
The blind one threw himself forward, seizing Zon's upraised hand and practically hanging off of his arm, though it looked like he and Zon were about the same size and build. "No, please, don't send us away!"
"We are Guardians of the Whills. We can help you," the big one half whispered urgently, leaning close.
"Uuuuuuuuuhhh." Zon leaned back a little, pulled the smaller Guardian up and disengaged his arm from him. "I don't think that's likely, buuuuuut . . . ." he leaned toward them, " . . . you wouldn't happen to know where Zakrat Court is, would you? It's been a long time since I've been here."
"Yes," the big one affirmed. "We can take you there."
"Zon - - -?" Emoh was losing patience.
"Aaah!" He stopped her. "I'll tell you everything when we get out of the open. I promise." He took her hand, his eyes wide, entreating her to go along with him, his pale thin hands enfolding her brown one.
Emoh grit her teeth. Zon was weirdly compulsive about keeping his word, an odd trait for someone who worked on a free-trader ship that was not very picky about the legality of the jobs it took. Which was why he did not give out promises very often. She nodded.
"Fewer Stormtroopers on the way, works best for me," Zon instructed. The two Guardians nodded and they formed a group. The blind one led, his sound box in one hand, staff in the other, with Emoh and Twos following and the big one with Zon behind them.
The blind Guardian, whose name was Chirrut Imwe, moved slowly, but most people coming the other way turned aside from his blank eyes and their group cut through the crowd like a wedge slicing through fluid. The other Guardian, who gruffly told them his name was Baze Malbus, warily kept scanning the streets and crowds for trouble. The apparatus that Emoh had noticed slung over their backs turned out to be some kind of bow-blasters and Malbus now carried his before him, casually ready for an attack. They ducked into other passageways whenever they spotted any white armor in the distance.
"How long have you been with your friend?"
"Huh?" Emoh scanned the area before she realized that Chirrut was talking over his shoulder, speaking to her. She walked a little closer to him.
"Uh, just a few years. He's the Engineer's mate on our ship."
"Aaaah, then you do not know his true nature." the blind Guardian stated.
"Ssssh!" Zon hissed from behind them.
Imwe bowed his head in apology.
"What nature?" Emoh kept her voice low as a line of yellow-robed pilgrims passed them single file and they came out from under the shadow on an arch. Chirrut paused before turning left. "He's just the Engineer's mate on our ship. He's not even very good at it."
"Hey. I heard that," Zon objected.
"You told me yourself you didn't know what you were doing when we picked you up on Ambloisi Prime." She turned back to their blind guide. "Wabbi had to show him how to do everything and Captain Kajer only kept him on because he wasn't too stupid to learn, shows up for his shifts on time and doesn't blow his brains out on spice every time we go planetside."
The smaller Guardian nodded. "Then he is a worthy and honorable shipmate."
Emoh sneered, but she could not deny it that Zon was generally cheerful, didn't get into anyone's business and was reasonably hygenic, unlike their engineer, Wabbi.
They finally reached a small courtyard with a square of captive trees in the middle. There was a columned face of a temple with plastoid sheets covering what might have been windows in its wall. A few people huddled in corners, some of them very small and young and warily watched them pass. Jedha City seemed to have a large number of beggars and displaced persons in its streets and alleyways.
"Aaaaaah, this is it!" Zon took the lead. They ducked into a narrow space, littered with scaps and smelly refuse, between two buildings and then around a corner.
It was a dead end, high blank stone walls rising up at least three stories, a rectangle of blue sky too far out of reach above them.
"This is not a good place," Malbus said, looking over his shoulder as if for an ambush and moved closer to his friend.
"Well, the neighborhood is showing some age since the last time I was here, but I think we can still get a good room." Then Zon stood before one blank wall, closed his eyes and raised his hands, palms out toward the weathered stone.
Emoh opened her mouth - - -
- - - and stopped when the meaty hand of the big Guardian landed on her arm. His expression was not exactly threatening, but his size was enough to be and his eyes serious. Zon decided to wait with them to see what would happen. Twos swiveled its green and silver dome, scanning back and forth between Zon and the trash-strewn alleyway behind them.
Zon drew his hand across the air in front of him, as if drawing a curtain aside.
Gritty stone groaned, blocks in the wall grinding and drawing back. A neat rectangle, a door, appeared as that section of wall withdrew and slid aside.
Zon gave a huge sigh and extended a welcoming arm toward this surprise refuge. "See, I've still got it."
Too shocked to say anything, Emoh went with the Guardians, the droid and her shipmate. The door slid shut behind them and they were momentarily plunged into complete darkness until Twos lit up, bluish-white light beams coming from the front and back sides of its dome. Twos whistled that there were no nearby lifeforms. Emoh pushed the orange hood back off her head and ruffled her thick wiry hair; she had never cared for any kind of head covering or helmet.
"Shhh!" Zon hushed the droid. "Not so loud. We still can't be sure who might be listening." The door closed behind them, the stones sliding back into a wall again.
With a hand gesture, Zon waved them down a corridor to a spiral stone staircase. After slinging his weapon onto his back Malbus led Imwe though the blind man did not have any trouble tapping out the winding stairs that Zon lead them down. It got darker and darker as they went and when they got to the bottom Twos brought the light back when it descended, its white and green cylindrical body held aloft over the stairs on its leg-strut jets. The astromech neatly settled on the stone floor with a muted beep. The door to the stairs slid closed with a whine and a grinding of stone, it disturbingly vanished as the panel became flush to the wall.
Zon led them on down another narrow corridor, his hand dragging on the featureless wall, the other one on Twos dome. The light from the droid cast crazy black shadows whenever it swiveled its dome, but even with a still focused beam forward, it looked like they were walking into endless darkness.
"I did not know this was here. Where are we?" Malbus asked, looking up at the low ceiling, less than a hand width above his head.
"We're heading toward the Temple of the Kyber. I think. My Master and I got the V.I.P. tour when I was here last. Only the abbots and senior Guardians know about this way in."
"They were all killed. When the Empire took our Temple." Imwe told him.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't know they put a garrison here at all. Believe me, I know how you feel."
Malbus advanced toward him, brushing past Emoh. "Have you come to help us? Reclaim our temple?"
Zon stopped. They all stopped, Imwe's staff clicking on the back of Zon's boots before he pulled it back.
Zon turned, his expression sad, his pale blue-gray eyes bright. "No."
"No?!" Malbus did not like the answer. "Why? Why won't you help us?" Malbus demanded, now looming over the smaller man. "You're a Jedi."
"A Jedi?" Emoh repeated, but the others weren't listening. Twos rapid beeped and swiveled its head.
Zon backed up a pace and raised his hands. "Yeah, guilty. Jedi. That's me. But you're not the only one who's lost a temple here." He spread his arms out and then let them flop to his sides as if in defeat. "That's where I went wrong. I never should have gone to look." Zon went on, talking to himself more than anyone else there. "But we never go all the way in to Coruscant. I don't even know what the job was; it's not like anyone tells Wabbi or me down below what we're doing as long as the engines and hyperdrive keep running. I hope Kajer got paid plenty for that job because she may not get her ship back from the Empire - - - "
"Zon!" Emoh had heard enough rambling. "You promised to tell me what the seven hells is going on when we got under cover. Well, now we're out of sight. So give." Twos bleeped an agreement.
Zon looked like he had forgotten that she and any of the others were there before letting out a long sigh.
"Well, you know Zon isn't my real name."
"Half the crew on our ship doesn't use their real name. Including me." It had been many cycles since Emoh had sold pleasure back on G'Shes and she was not proud of it. She buried her past with years of staying as far away as possible from her home world.
"Who are you then? Your real name?" Imwe held his staff vertically before him with both hands, his empty eyes half closed.
"My name? The one I used before this life? Jahart Stoe-Ahn." His voice dropped. "Jedi Knight."
Both Guardians lowered their heads as if Zon had uttered a prayer, or a blessing.
"The Jedi? The ones who tried to take over the Republic and got shut down by the Empire?"
"That's the Empire's lie," the big Guardian stated. "The Jedi would never have attacked the Republic. They defended it."
"It's not completely a lie." The others stared at Zon.
"They didn't attack the Republic; they tried to kill the Chancellor. And do you know why?" Zon waved his finger toward all of them like a teacher demanding answers from his students. "There is only ONE reason why the Jedi Council would come after the Chancellor with lightsabers blazing."
He paused dramatically, his eyes wide in the droid-light.
"Because Emperor Palpatine is a Sith Lord! The one the whole Jedi Order was looking for ever since they re-emerged when Qui-Gon Jinn got killed on Naboo! He was Right There - - RIGHT THERE - - running everything, rotting the whole Republic from the inside and they didn't see it until after they were fighting a war that the Sith was behind. On both sides! For years!"
Zon had gone into a rant mode that usually only came out when Wabbi sent him up to the bridge to tell Captain Kajer that they could NOT continue unless she actually spent some real money on hyperdrive maintenance at their next port of call. The hood of his stolen robe fell back from his head, his pale eyes wide, his messy graying blond hair making him look a little wild.
The Guardians looked shocked while Emoh was wondering what a 'Sith' was.
"How? How do you know this?" Malbus demanded.
"I looked. In the Force. After the purge." His shoulders fell. "I shouldn't have. I walked away from my oaths to the Jedi, the Force, but when they were just wiped out like that . . . I had to look."
"How did you survive? The purge? When the others were killed by the clones?" Imwe asked softly.
Zon grinned with no mirth. "I was already dead by then. Had been for years. So they weren't looking for me."
He closed his eyes for a moment, calling up an old memory that he did not want to look at.
"The Clone Wars broke out at the Battle of Genosis. Mace Windu took volunteers at the Temple to go rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan after they got capture investigating the Separatists. I didn't think I had anything better to do, so I went." he shrugged sadly. "Ki Adi Mundi's team was supposed to take out the droid control center, but they failed, so it turned into a massacre.
"Worst plan EVER.
"I don't know what Windu was thinking. Maybe he could take on that many battle droids, but not the rest of us. People were getting cut down and dying everywhere and you could feel every one, extinguished in the Force, and that just made it worse.
"A shot went right by my side and I got spun around and face-planted right in the dirt. Lost my lightsaber. And then . . . it like a revelation, as strong as anything I've ever felt in the Force.
His voice went to a loud whisper. " 'Don't get up. Stay down.' "
He shrugged. "So, I stayed down. Droids closing in. Jedi dying. Blaster burn in my side. And I stayed down. Didn't move. A battle droid kicked me aside and I just rolled over back onto my stomach again. So they wouldn't see I was still breathing while Windu, Kenobi and others who were left got surrounded.
"And I just laid there. And listened.
"While Dooku offered to let Windu and the others surrender. Count Dooku, who the Council had been saying - - for years after he left the Jedi Order - - could not have been up to no good while he was openly agitating for systems to split from the Republic.
"Well, you could just FEEL the darkness pouring out of his words when he shouted down at Windu.
"The Jedi Council didn't see that coming either. And everybody was about to die when Master Yoda showed up with a whole Clone Army out of nowhere and picked up Windu and the others.
"And I just lay there while it all happened because I could still feel it in Force." His voice dropped to the loud whisper again. "Stay down."
"The fighting moved out pretty quick, the droids and the clone transports. And the Geonosis all flew off. I lay there for a long time, listening to it in the distance. Things - - big things - - getting blown up. But everything was quiet there. Where it all started.
"And when I finally lifted my head and looked around . . .
"I wasn't alone."
**** **** End Part 1