Prologue

Pushing pieces of her medium-length blonde hair behind her ear, Jedi Padawan Siri Tachi focused her clear blue eyes into a magnifying scope, and set them on the substance she was examining; she could smell the different metals and substances sitting in flasks around the small room, her ears filled with the familiar sound of a space radiator.

Siri sat in the only scientific laboratory in the Jedi Temple, which was located just off the Archive Library, which was meagerly used for its lack of necessity to Jedi studies. It was not centrally heated or lighted and was short on basic scientific supplies, but Siri Tachi found herself in it time and again for one reason; she could be alone and connected to the Living Force in the way she most enjoyed it.

Siri poked a thin durasteel stick into the greenish-yellow substance she saw under her magnifier; it had a powder like consistency and glimmered like shimmersilk in the faint laboratory glow lights. Siri received the peculiar substance while investigating the desert planet of Douron, one of the moons of the Thym-Lad-Borat system, in the Outer Rim; she had received it as a parting gift, a token of some sort, from one of the citizens.

"Unique and rare is this gift," he had said, "There is none alike in the entire galaxy that is as precious as this substance, so is there none alike and unique as you, Master Jedi."

Siri re-focused the lens on her magnifier to zoom in closer to the mysterious substance, but it was still not familiar to her in the least. Leaning back in her chair she crossed her legs and pondered.

"Dee-Five-O," Siri said, referring to the primal database droid bustling about the lab, "Take a scan on the origin of this substance."

Using the wheel on its crimson quadrangle base, D-50 rolled over to her, and replied in his tinny voice, "Yes Master Siri."

D-5O extended his thin arm and scooped some of the substance into a flask, pouring it onto the small plate exposed from his front panel. The lights on his torso panel flickered as he scanned the greenish powder, numbers and Aurebesh letters scrolling along in the same rhythm.

"My documents say this is a specimen of powder that is, in some part, a synthetic mineral that has been gently processed and refined to its maximum level of purity, using the process of –"

"Five-O," Siri interrupted, "I'm sure I don't need all the details."

"Oh yes, perfectly right Master. Anyhow, it is made up of precisely fifteen per cent sandstone substances, eighty per cent Radian-"

"Radian?" Siri interrupted sitting upward.

D-5O quivered his head, a droid equivalent of a nod, "Yes Master Siri, but I advise you that this Radian, as you may previously have knowledge of, is an illegal substance on numerous major star systems such as Naboo, Alderaan, Dantooine, and, of course, Coruscant, and is not recommended to be tampered with by human hands-"

Siri grabbed a pinchful of the greenish-yellow substance in her slender fingers, squinted her eyes at the specimen . . . and laughed. She stood to her feet and began to search the old cabinets that held manuscripts written so long ago the flimsiplast was yellow and the ink faded. Siri's quick fingers flipped through the files, her heart racing with excitement.

Siri knew that Radian, named for its radiant luster and shine, was a particularly rare and exceptionally illegal spice. It had been outlawed years before her time because of its lethally damaging effects of organ failure, brain failure, and eventually death, if swallowed.

But long before even then, it was used by the early Jedi Knights as a healing tool for its uncanny ability to tap into the Living Force. If inhaled, not swallowed, Radian had the ability to heal, regenerate, and diminish pain in a suffering life form at the simple activation of the Force, and was a rare and valuable tool to the then developing Jedi Order. However, in Siri's time, Radian was barely known to Jedi; the Order had stopped using it because it was illicit, and Radian was only mentioned in out of date data files and manuscripts. It was an atypical occurrence for Siri to even see this Radian, let alone have the chance to use it . . .

"Um, Master Siri . . ." D-5O mumbled, rolling to the young Jedi's side and noticing her . . . frantic searching, "May I be of assistance?"

"What would happen," Siri started, still searching, "If I used the Force on this specimen Five-O?"

The droid appeared to tremble, his ivory photoreceptors wide . . . or seeming to be.

"Master, I again caution you that influencing this specimen with your Jedi abilities may result in a chemical imbalance and a possible combustion-"

"Combustion?" Siri questioned, surprised at the droids remark.

"Not only of this material, but since you have inhaled this substance . . . of you . . . also."

Siri stared incredulously at the trembling droid, suspecting that whoever put this information in D-5O must have been trying to scare Jedi away from using Radian, "And what if I do not combust?"

D-5O paused, searching his databank, "Ah, since I am only a primal database droid, it seems that my files do not support a . . . suitable answer to you query. . . Master Siri."

Siri smiled, "I thought so."

Studying the substance for only a second more, Siri stood and called on the Force to influence the Radian. The Radian powder sparked into a glow as it rose into the air; it radiated and brightened, shining a green light around the dim room. It rotated in an invisible bubble of Force between Siri's hands, and D-5O mumbled condolences and regrets to himself silently.

Siri focused on the substance with more scrutiny, and she began to slowly feel the healing Radian multiply within her, grow and seem to spread, to thicken and increase . . .

She sensed her cells doing something inexplicable and odd, and she centered her mind on them, and focused . . .

A sudden sensation came upon Siri, a sense she had never felt before, and she dropped the Radian, startled.

Siri's calm feelings seemed to slide away, and she found it difficult to stand; she clutched the desk in front of her for balance, and tried to calm herself. Her mind raced, and a lump set on her throat. Her body began to tremble, in shock and fear and dread.

"What is it, Master Siri?" D-5O crooned, taking notice of his Master's silence.

"Dee-Five-O . . ." Siri said, in a cold, shaky voice; it took all her will to speak. "Get rid of this substance; don't put any of my findings into record."

D-5O seemed to be confused as he rolled to Siri's side and said, "Is there something wrong . . . Master Siri?"

Siri shook her head, "Please do it."

The droid complied, and began to tidy the scattered Radian, still clearly flustered. "Master, if you could, may you examine another substance I have found, for it would be most helpful. . . "

Siri forced a nod to the droid as she walked unsteadily out of the room. And, despite D-5O's request, Siri Tachi never returned to the laboratory again.