This is a story, based on a character sketch for a Star Wars tabletop RPG. The scenario is" what if Luke and Leia did not become the main protagonists and your Characters were the main ones?" The time frame is starting 4 BBY. FANFICTION on a character sketch, gotta love it! Enjoy or do not Enjoy, but do not Try to enjoy.
Yanibar
Original Colony
4 BBY
Two people, an old man and his son sat on little pillows before a low table eating dinner.
"Papa, who are the Jedi and why do they need us? Why are they and us lost from each other?" Jahn asked using maybe the fifth and sixth sentences his vocal chords uttered in his life.
"Jahn, there is a long story on why we are here, some of it lost to memory, some of it recent enough." And his father sighed "Their ways are unknown to us now, excepting the little your mother gave us before she left us. Why do you ask?"
"Father, they are in trouble and lost, ravaged, they need us Zeison Sha and the living Force, else the 'verse will continue to tip down a dark path. The way it is headed, it will become harsher than our amazing home, a wasted group of lands."
"Why do you believe that?" Petre asked.
"A noise, clear and loud, screaming, has entered the Force, with a satisfied chuckle when they are silenced."
"I will speak to the elders, we may have to leave." Petre responded with alarm.
"I know we do, but I know not the way." he paused with glazed eyes before continuing "We need to prepare me, ourselves and the clan first, then tell them."
"Before you start the journey and preparations, what does the Force teach us?"
"Ever the Zeison Sha mentor Papa?" Jahn groaned "When the destination is known but the path is unclear," and Jahn drew in the Force like a maelstrom to look into its thread like ethereal visions and hear "It always helps to look at the beginning, allow the Force to show you ways to connect the path." He opened his eyes as he finished to his father's smile. Petre then reached out his hand showing a holocron.
"A simple push of a button starts the process."
Petre Allyan, looked down on his wife. Pregnant for the last ten months she had just given birth to their son. She looked at him and his brown hair and kissed the father then the baby lightly.
"I name you Jahn after my father, Petre after your father, may the Force be with you always." And she kissed him again. "Petre, my holodisks, play them to him, he will be raised in your tradition, but teach him to honor both. There is wisdom in survival, wisdom in your ways, wisdom in the lessons and failures of my youth. I see his fate in guiding." Then she looked at the recording device "I love you both as I never have allowed before. The lessons you have taught me will live on in the Force. Teach our son well, Love. The Force will be with us always." And Hae Lii Allyan closed her eyes exhaling as if entering a trance.
The holodisk ended and the males shown in the recording 12 years older looked at each other.
"Thank you father, this is … helpful…. Inspiring actually. I will meditate on her words and the vision they portend when I return, the shippers need water, and I am the waterboy." With that and a smile the lad left their abode the Force swirling around him as he drank its presence and wisdom, a datapad rushed to his hand as he swiftly paged to weather forecasts, leaving his elderly father holding the tear moistened holocron alone.
It was an average winter day on Yanibar, as he drove outside the cavern on his skip loader. On Yanibar's southern most continent, winter meant cold windy driven snow. Using the Force to protect himself he checked for everything to be secure, including the long vibro blade for him to cut ice blocks. Letting go and allowing the Force to guide him swiftly to the spot he needed, The Force guided him to fly the skip loader to a stable glacier edge. He swiftly cut one hundred sixty blocks and loaded them on the platform tipping and sliding them in a neat brick like pattern. He then secured the load with the cargo safety webs and headed to the trade convoy freight consolidation point that would take most of the ice to the spaceport. He was taking sixty home for his village.
Jahn started driving the skip loader hard in this weather because, well, the consolidation point was, according to the weather map for today, not under the blizzard, yet. It was just off the edge of the storm at this time and he had to deliver before the storm reached it, closing the place. Driving full speed he suddenly felt the Force guide him higher than what his mental map said he needed to be and had him stop in the lee of the rim of a drift and call…..
"Everyone ok down there?"
"Yes! And so is the produce and our stock!" A young lady, Jannma Bernal stepped out of the storm, her gently swarthy features covered by layers of cold weather gear. "This damn storm is making me late to the consolidation point, would you be so kind as to take us too?" sweeping her hand over the snowy beast and cart.
A slight smile came from Jahn and he piloted the skip so she could rapidly load her supplies. He smiled at her with a wave indicating consent as he got busy releasing his straps. He then helped swiftly rearrange the load for animal. Having two young motivated Sha moving things made it much faster.
She smiled as they got on the skip loader's passenger-drive bench seat, "Look at how you have grown Jahn! I remember you from our classes. I am glad to hear no one picked on you after that day I stepped up for you."
He smiled in thanks for her remembering him.
"And you're still not very talkative." She added with a giggle.
"Just around people, Papa says I need to learn to become less of a mute and more normal, blend in. We just had a discussion on that point."
"I think that is a great start!" she slapped him on the back "I wondered whose voice that was up on the drift."
"Talking now is not going to get us to the consolidation station sooner so …" as he started working even harder still not looking up "… can we take this up later?"
After all was loaded, Jahn jumped aboard, checked her security belts and pushed his throttles to the firewall, using the Force he tracked the speed route it recommended again as Janma held the cargo in place with the Force. When they emerged from the storm a mere 4 kilometers from the station they drove straight onto the transport freighter's loading ramp.
"Move that we need to go!" shouted the loadmaster while he and the quartermaster came down.
"Let them unload! We need those supplies! Go show the boy where the blocks go and then strap down her beast and cart contents." Then he pointed "There is the barter load you came for over there. You get to load it after we leave." He started unloading the cart Jannma brought.
"Sorry we are late Sir, how is the DBA holding up?" Jannma asked conspiratorially.
"This will help lassie, this will help. We need many things especially the fresh water and manpower. Your brother said to tell you "Live in the Moment"" the quartermaster continued after ruffling her hair and eliciting a smile from her.
"I plan on joining him soon, later this year or the year after as I am passing the tests."
"Learn from Jahn, my ice delivery has been spot on for the past four years, and his strength is growing."
"You will be needing to go short ration and make it stretch and bring down more grey and waste water for us to recycle and filter, that glacier and the well are not gonna hold anyone if we do not conserve now." Jahn shouted out of the blue while working his ice.
"THAT is what your voice sounds like! Welcome to the brotherhood of speakers Jahn!" the quartermaster smiled briefly before looking knowingly and sadly at Jannma who nodded assent, yes this is a recent thing. As a member of the clan, he was well versed on Jahn's idiosyncrasies, Jahn's lack of contact with the people he would run through a wall for. Long hours had been spent with Petre, the boy's father and the clan's senior Zeison Sha mentor, arguing the boy needed socialization and inclusion with the clan.
Petre's response was, "When the Jahn decides he is ready, he will make the effort and it will be so. Until then, pressing him will be counterproductive. His natural way will have to suffice to keep his emotions pure." Raisson disagreed heartily, just like he had when Petre returned home with a bride in tow. A Jedi trained scientist he met on Smuggler's Run no less, but that worked out for the clan as the Doctor retrained and updated clan medicine. All was well until she gave birth six years after her arrival, leaving the now eccentrically calm Petre on his own.
Quickly loading the freighter and backing the skip loader off the ramp Jahn parked right next to the meds and waste tubs / compost for the return trip.
"Jahn, do we have to work in silence?" Jannma threw up her hands.
"Jannma, it is never silent, the Force speaks all the time, whispers of today, tomorrow and yesterday." The young man shouted over the winds with a dream and glint in his eye while never ceasing motion "Besides, plenty of time to talk after we get in the caves clear of the blizzard. The Force is telling me to not temp it or fate." Pointing to her cart "Lash the wheel tighter please, I do not want that cart in our laps."
"Your right! I just hate ..." and Jannma's words got cut off by the sudden look from Jahn.
"Hate has no belonging to space in our thoughts! Please remember that!" Jahn said with sudden complete conviction and earnestly.
"Its just a word…"
"Defining a concept, an emotion, a feeling that leads down a path we never wish to tread. It is near as bad as the term "MASTER", which is a Zeison Sha tenant, we are mgabata, initiates and warriors. The concept that a frail being can master the Force, or the Force would let it….. that and Command… which in my father's teaching, command of self is possible, one does not COMMAND the Force." Jahn spoke "Remember this well, unless it is YOUR WISH to be hunted by our brethren AFTER TURNING TO DARKNESS? Our brethren, our survival in the balance that is our mandate, why we have the gifts we do."
"Okay okay! I forgot…"
"Memory means less, belief means more and" he looked at the sky "I do believe I want to get in out of the wind, it is picking up so hurry!" and they did.
"What I wanted to say was I never get time to speak or spend with you. I wish I saw you more."
"I am always where you can find me if you merely call or come. The well is still there." Jahn looked right at her like he saw into her soul, a thing he rarely did as most people flinched or showed severe discomfort at the concept, she, stood with grace returning the same gaze. He started fastening the loading tie downs for departure ensuring his speed did not sacrifice security, he FELT it would be a bumpy ride.
They secured the load and had skip loader ready when Jahn reached out his hands taking the controls "Show us the path home please" he whispered to the Force as she looked in surprise at him.
Jannma kept looking, almost wistfully at this handsome younger man beside her as she began her concentrations to protect them from wind and load shifts…. She felt in his concentration the wide maelstrom of tendrils of the Force that he drew through him and the thought, the will he imbued in it "I will bring Her-us-the gear-the Loader home safely."
About fifteen minutes into the trip, she sensed they were not going straight home….
"Jahn? Are we lost, it feels like home is that way!" she pointed into the gale.
He calmly turned his head as he replied so she could see the words as the wind whipped them away. "So is the heart of the storm, we need to hop its wake or so the Force is telling me."
So they circled the storm and then came, more or less in the weaker quadrant of it to the rocky outcrop over the cave they normally used as an entrance. Jahn pointed the bow skyward and dropped altitude as he landed skidding on the rear of the skip, past the entrance plowing a furrow before skiing up a drift and pulling a U turn on top, speeding up down the furrow he cut toward the cave mouth..
Jannma's face showed her exhilaration with the move until it dropped significantly when she saw the cave mouth still covered, and Jahn was accelerating towards the snow wall.
"FAITH" Jahn roared to her as they burst through the drift and into the tunnel decelerating rapidly.
"Wow! That was so KEWL! Why did we come in so fast?" Jannma said as they both turned in the seats as Jahn further cut power to a walking pace to look behind and a rumbling got louder.
The mouth of the cave they were looking at suddenly closed behind them with tons of snow.
"I thought both of us seeing tomorrow was better than neither." He said with a soft smile pointing at the avalanche before driving them further in slowly. "You wished to talk, ask away, we have plenty of time now."
"I have only a few questions, are you happy?" she began.
"Living with my Father? the Elder of Tranquility? Yes! He trained the frustration out of me, taught me to communicate and my silence has helped me grow no end! I see….. the love of the Force, for that is its biological impetus. LOVE, no loss because loss implies the circle of life ends…. It does not. " Jahn turned practically glowing.
Jannma stirred in her seat at his presence and words. "Biological impetus indeed! Does he even notice his effect on me?" she thought.
"Uh yeah, your father is something. I have heard it told…"
"That I know nothing of most of the clan or members? Or where your brother ended up as a Zeison Sha?" he beat her to that item "That I concentrate alone with my water? So I have been told numerous times, "The Oblivious Student of Now" Sir Vasco calls me inaccurately." Then he got animated "Water teaches so many lessons! You should come and listen and feel the Force as it flows with the water…."
"Yeah that…. So you know nothing about what is going on?" Jannma waved her arms about.
"Other than what the Force reveals, nope!" Jahn smiled. "It is not a concern to me as of yet, I do not dwell on seeking knowledge that I am not heading to, it comes, or it passes me by. Sometimes to seek, you have to let something catch up to you. Here, I help those in need here, when I can."
"Yeah, you have a talent for that, Dessa is still singing your praises as is Norma and the others who you protected when the farm roof caved in a few years ago." and Jahn parked the loader next to a pair of caster wheel carts.
"I was honored to be of aid and thankful the Force answered my call, calm and determination. You helped as well that day if memory serves." He looked to her with thankful eyes "I merely heard a threat and came, much as I hear a faint one now…"
"Is he still making you sleep in the well?" Jannma asked suddenly with her hands on her hips. "Because I can provide a cot in my room if you need a warm friendly place to sleep!" with that she blushed a bit when she realized just what she said.
"My Father does not MAKE me do anything, I choose to do it for my peace. Choice is important, free choice even more so" and he paused without shame "My silent introspection unnerves some of the clan. My words, sometimes even more." Then he looked at her with a cocked head focusing at her manubrium "You really mean it, share your room, don't you?"
"Yes I mean it! I always have! There are people who care for you, those you could help, and help you, get stronger and advance….." But Jannma sensed she lost the carrot right there.
"Avarice is a problem, the root problem, in all populations. The battle for the scraps separating the weak from the strong." Then his voice grew quieter "I wish the meek could just inherit….." he shook his head "In some ways the effects of warring are a population control, life without entropy collapses on its weight, but the sheer misery…." And he made a gagging sound clearly disgusted.
"Well I think I am going to make my talents known and follow my brother's footsteps, we could use your help."
"I have watched the other waterboys, they will be ready in a year or two, until then, I have plenty of clan duties." Then he turned his head "Did you notice our clan's birth rate and Force sensitivity rate is significantly higher this decade? What does that mean or portend?" which Jannma ignored continuing on trying to find a persuasive track.
"Some of the eldest could fill that void like they did before you, they …"
"Are guiding us well and teaching us well…. the mgabata and clan thrive because of it. Yes our pumps are repaired and ready to run, tested, but not installed. We water folk are more efficient, we as a clan are more resilient and sufficient with the elder's guidance. Water is important and strenuous. It teaches self sufficiency in so many ways.."
"You could learn to fly more than your skip loader, maybe more combat techniques, you could become a great warrior."
"Wars do not make one great, and seeking greatness rather than harmony with the Force is a fool's errand." He turned to Jannma "Do not get me wrong, I love to help but never for my feelings. It is not a part of my self worth. I sometimes feel I have not had baser feelings since I learned to communicate, with one exception." And she felt his caring and blossoming feelings for her and blushed. "I help because I can, and should and that helping helps the helped."
After that was said they both put a strange look on their faces "You got that right, it just sounded weird." And they both smiled to each other "I love the Force, and I TRUST IT IMPLICITLY, and I feel no loss, no gain, no importance, because the FORCE is there,.. always …. for me….. for us. Safe, Warm, Sheltering and yes dangerous and feral as well." And he sighed before parking the skip loader next to his cart.
"If it is my destiny, and the Force leads me to the same AREA you have chosen, I will be there. If need is great and I have not a greater need in the Force to attend to, my aid of you will be unconditional. It will probably NOT" he emphasized looking sadly at her "BE THE SAME PATH!" then he whispered "at first, until you join my path."
With that the young man winked at her turning to his cart of bins taking them down to the cesspools with the same silent bearing she knew so well.
"What does he mean?" she thought "Aw well, my brother and I will go save the 'verse one problem at a time! We'll show those arrogant fools they were wrong! (the Jedi assumed) the Zeison Sha are right!" she beamed at the self declaration and took her cart with med kits away, not seeing that her exclamation slumped the boy's shoulders more as tears hit the deck while he said a soft prayer for the girl of his dreams. Then he took a deep calming breath
"What will be will be, do not command the Force, work with it for it will care for you." He armored himself for the way to come….
I have asked permission to use the "landscape" and some Characters from Mechalich, I have received approval. I hope I can make it at least as good as a Thieves world Borrow. I used few Canon personalities so far, basically just two Maz Kanata and Zuvio. Check out the Tales from the Kalat Arm and The People's Armor here, they are quite awesome. And lastly, since I did think Jedi were a bit stuck up, I believe the term is hidebound, rigid, unable to understand their own prophesy (This is what I am driving the story at, those that bring balance to the Force). I chose this Kalat Arm and Zeison Sha backstory for the character. It appealed to me. I hope to make it a long long way brining balance and up to date all the way to Rey-Finn and Kylo Ren. (except in my vision, those will be from different origins, hey, if Disney can scrap canon…which oddly is the metaphor of Jakku.)