Chapter 1

The first 5 years that I'd grown up with Mira and Shen had been some of the most uneasy times. Mira often was out collecting bounties and I was always stuck with Shen, who too wanted to work in his mother's field.

"My first bounty's going to be the best." He exclaimed. He'd planned to capture a Jedi.

I'd at first laughed when I heard his plan. Shen, capture a Jedi!? That was just about as unlikely as my mother walking through the door right now.

Shen spat at me and left the room to walk around the docks. His mother didn't like him going out on his own. In actual fact, it's that she didn't trust him. Once, when we were both 12, Shen had walked into the Jekk'Jekk Tarr. His mother had to get an enviro-suit just to get him out. He was woozy for days on end and didn't really sober up until his 13th birthday. That had started Shen's unhealthy addiction with all things alcohol. I would often find him going through his mother's secret stash under her bed. Once Shen had drunk so much alcohol that his mother had to take him to a medical centre. She left me alone in the drafty, smelly room for 3 whole days.

Shen would often pick on me, for the fact that I was a girl. He was a real jerk for the first 3 years that I lived with Mira and him.

"Why don't you run and cry to your father," would be his most common insult when I was sad, "oh, wait! He's dead." He'd go on to say that I was abandoned by my mother. However, if Mira ever heard him say that she would walk right up to him and lecture him on how my mother had saved the galaxy. "Imagine this," Shen would retort, "If you had collected the bounty on her head, we'd be living like millionaires." Mira would then get angry and send Shen to bed.

Once we were both 14, Shen and I started to get along once more. Mira also let us roam Nar Shadda more freely, including letting us out of the docks. I remember the first time I'd left the docks quite vividly. Shen was with me. He had his blaster on him. Mira had told us that the only time we were allowed to leave the docks was when one of us had a blaster. As I set foot outside the docks, my mind became so overwhelmed with voices that I collapsed. The next thing I knew, I was back in the room, a little moist cloth over my head.

As we grew older, Shen and I became better friends. When we turned 15, we started to go on long walks around the docks together. Eventually we became best friends, and did almost everything together.

Just before Mira was kidnapped, Shen and I had left the docks again for the first time in a year. This time, I used an old mind trick, taught to me by my father. Once I set foot out of the docks, I was fine. Shen and I did the shopping normally he and Mira would do and made our way back to the room. That's when I'd asked Mira why she called me Cakey. That's when the Exchange took her.

I stood there, staring at the door. The blasters had stopped. I watched as the door was cut by something extremely hot. The being on the other side pushed through the hole it had created and walked into the room. Shen and I both screamed.

"Calm down children." It was a Jedi. He was a Twi'lek who'd trained on Dantooine. He said he recognised me from numerous visits but these visits eluded my memory. "I was told by your father to help you continue on with your Jedi training once he had died."

I looked at him, confused. The last time I'd even thought about using the force was when I was 10. That was 5 years ago now. "Right." I said and nodded slowly. I didn't believe his story.

"Oh, but it's true." He looked to Shen, then back to me. "Follow me."

We followed him to a small cargo ship. From there he took us to Dantooine.

The journey to Dantooine was long. While we travelled we learned a lot about this mysterious Jedi. His name was Travis. He told us that his real parents had been killed when he was a baby and he was taken in by the Jedi council. Once he had reached the age, he was chosen by Jedi Master Qualm as his apprentice. He had chosen to become a Jedi Sentinel, saying that he had admired the work of one particular Jedi, Bastilla Shan.

"I've always wanted to learn Battle Meditation." He said.

Shen and I asked him about the Exchange and going back to save Mira several times. He explained to us that the Exchange was a group that worked with all the illegal work throughout the rim. He said they dealt with everything from spice smuggling to bounties. He also told us that before we were able to get Mira, we needed some sort of training.

"You don't want to walk in there and get shot to pieces in 3 seconds."

Shen and I agreed with him.

As we approached Dantooine I became more and more anxious. It had been 5 years since I last set foot on my home planet. 5 years since I'd seen the yellow grass and felt the warm breeze. I didn't really want to return to Dantooine, fearing that my father's ghost would haunt my every step. But here I was again.

I was back home.