Chapter Eight
The time at last has come to set her wheels in motion
She is rejected for her sin
Driven by unbridled emotion
Kale Besand sighed as she shifted the blaster rifle across her stomach, cramped in a nook where a tree limb sprouted up against the trunk. She glanced into the thick chemical haze that swirled around the colony, her well trained eyes darting about as she searched for movement. The fourteen year old looked out of place there, the heavy blaster rifle seeming so familiar in her hands, her black eyes juxtaposed against blonde hair betraying her aged soul.
Something stirred and her eyes shot to the spot, she could feel it, like an echo reverberating off her skin. She leaned forward, her back shifting from the trunk to the tree limb and fired a volley of blaster shots into the mist. There was a howling as one of the mutated creatures screamed out, but she had already switched position again at the sound of a snapping twig. "Nice shot," Vash Cee, one of the older boys from the colony said as he stepped forward.
She didn't reply except for a short "Hmph," and slowly eased herself out of the tree, her well defined muscles flexing for a moment as she hang from the branch before she let herself drop to the ground. "Here," she said, chucking the rifle at him without so much of a glance.
He watched her as she passed his eyes drifting down her slender body, noticing her newly acquired voluptuous figure. "You know the Jedi are coming today," He said, hoping to start a conversation with the girl before she left.
"Really?" She said, her eyes narrowing as she walked off into the mist towards the colony. Of course she knew, she'd been planning for it for months, years even. She ran through the forest, hearing the sound of rain bouncing of the strange vegetation. The acid rain bounced off her skin, hissing as it fell on her skin. Though it stung, she didn't pay it any attention at all, refusing to let the pain hinder her at all, in a place like this, you learned to deal with life's hardships.
She pushed open the door to her miserable home. Her mother was in the kitchen, cleaning Force knew what while her father sat silently at the kitchen table, fixing some stupid gadget of his. Without a word she moved towards the rest room, her parents looking up in alarm. She stepped into the shower and turned it on, letting the somewhat dirty water wash away the acid, though it stung the now raw skin.
She reminded herself as she felt the grime of the day be replaced by the grime of the tap water that this was all going to be over soon. She seemed to release some of the tension now, imagining how wonderful it would be to train on Courasant or even Dantooine. She had learned everything she knew from an old ex-Jedi who'd fallen in love with one of the colonists and had left the order to be with her. She had died from exposure to the toxins in the air. What an idiot. She had since then thought of nothing else than to join the order and learn the ways of the Jedi, to escape this place and not be forced to inhale its foul air any longer.
This place made her sick. How her parents could sit idly by, content, she had no idea. The world had been the home of a very important chemical plant, one of the largest in the galaxy. An accident had destroyed the plant, and left the planet's atmosphere devastated. The flora and fauna had mutated due to exposure to so many foreign chemicals which had formed a thick mist that covered the entire planet and resulted in acid rain. Some company had offered substantial pay to colonists who agreed to help steadily clean up areas of the planet to prepare for a second plant.
It was a miserable existence that she had been born into. Except for the occasional excitement of an attack from one of the mutated beasts the lurked in the mist there was little else to look forward to. She had devoted herself to the watch at an early age, standing for a few hours at the border of the colony and shooting anything that got too close.
She hated it, but never complained. Despite the way her lungs ached with every breath for clean air or her skin burned when acid rain fell from the murky sky she never complained about the hardships of colony life, just the incredible pointlessness. She hated her parents who sat there, completely devoid of ambition, happy to simply be together in this miserable place.
She let herself forget her frustration for a moment, glancing over at the flashing clock before stepping out of the shower and throwing on some clothes. The lack of pattering on the roof revealed that the rain had stopped. She had spent more time than she thought brooding in the shower, if she didn't get going she would miss the Jedi examination.
"I'm going out," She said, as her parents watched her leave. They both gave each other a worried gaze as she slammed the door shut. She hadn't told them she was going to try and join the order. How could they understand her desire to escape this place, to escape them and pursue something of worth? It was none of their business.
As she proceeded to the clearing that served as the colonies temporary landing pad small children came out of their homes with their parents in tow. One boy's mother and father rested their hands on his shoulders as he walked, speaking words of pride and encouragement. "Give me a break," she said to herself, pushing through the steadily growing crowd towards the line of young children.
She could see the two Jedi at last, and her heart began to pump with anticipation as she approached. They were using some kind of machine to take blood samples, most likely measuring for a midi-chlorian count. It seemed that most of the children hadn't fared very well so far, but she was confident that she would do differently.
At last she was next, and her she shuddered in excitement, her gaze turned skyward with relief that she might finally escape this pointless, disgusting place. She barely felt the prick of the needle as it took a blood sample. "Hmmm. Interesting," one of the Jedi said, and for the first time she felt absolutely elated.
"Let me speak to you for a moment my friend," one of the Jedi said to his companion, and they walked off together to talk to each other. Their voices dropped to murmurs, but she could still make out their words, filtering out the chatter and whispers of the crowd.
"Her midi-chlorian count is impressiveā¦"
"But?"
"Do you sense her aura, it is obviously tainted by the darkside."
"Perhaps the hardship of surviving in this place⦠It wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened."
"This is true. Surely we can't risk her coming into knowledge of The Force."
"Perhaps there is a chance to save her from the darkside."
"I don't think we should take the chance. In any case, she's already much too old, the chance that a conclave would still take her in as an initiate is extremely small at best."
She felt a shadow fall on her heart, and a boiling simmering heat enveloped her as they approached her. She gazed into each of their eyes, so apathetic and uncaring, so ignorant to the hardships of living on this colony, completely ignorant to the shining future they were denying her.
"We're sorry, but you don't qualify for initiation into The Order."
She turned around without a word, her rage enveloping her as she ran into the woods. She wished that she had had her rifle with her so she could shot those Jedi so the only thing that was left was the carbon burns of their shadows pressed against their stupid starship. She began to run towards the outskirts, she was so angry, so furious that she couldn't stand to go back to her pathetic parents. She wanted to take up one of the guard posts. She wanted to kill something.
Something was moving in the mist now, and she stopped in her tracks, feeling the reverberations of a presence there, something larger than its physical being lurking in the darkness. The man moved forward, though he was still hard to see at this distance. "So, you would follow the path of a Jedi?"
She narrowed her eyes at the man, the mist clearing somewhat so that she could see he was wearing robes not unlike those of a Jedi. The cape though was a strange addition to the uniform. She didn't answer him but shifted her stance so she was ready to fight him. Aggression leaked from his very being.
"Allow me to suggest a more appropriate path for you, one where your innate talents will be appreciated and applauded." He reached out his hand in a regal matter; like she was royalty and he were helping her into her carriage. She dropped her guard and took his hand, smirking as her dark eyes shinned.
