Chapter 09: Those who are about to die...

"So," Jaxxon said as he sat with his back against the brick wall. He had secretly been speeding up his healing process, but not to such an extent it aroused suspicion with the others. "What's your story, Kieran?" he asked the Mared that had been sort of watching over him ever since he woke up.

"Me story?" Kieran wondered. "Nobody's ever ass'ed me 'bout that, mate. But there's much to tell, and I don' wanna bore you in the final hours of your life."

"Oh, come on," Jaxxon insisted. "You're a Mared that speaks Galactic Basic, how can I not be interested in what you have to say? Because apart from Lara, you're the only one who I can talk to."

Kieran sighed. He rubbed the middle part of his left arm and looked at the Padawan.

"Aight, then, if yer sure 'bout it. The I'll tell you summin' 'bout me."

"Great!" Jaxxon enthusiastically said, and he straightened up.

"First off, I's is not as old as ye might think. I know I looks weary, drained an' empty, but dat's just appearance. I's is only forty years of age, to dem humans that'd be somethin' like in your fifties. When I was born, my family was poverty-stricken. I don' remember much 'bout ma first years of life on Beneris, but we soon made our way off the planet. Me dad wanted to see the galaxy, so we moved to dem Coruscant planet. When I's was sixteen years old, ma mom was raped and killed. Coruscant didn't really help us, and neither did dem Jedi, who never did any effort to find those who assaulted my mother.

Soon after, my dad left me on Coruscant. He still wanned to see dem entire galaxy, but he couldn' do that if he had to provide for summin' else, seen? So, unemployed, the I signed up for dem Army of tha Republic."

"What? You were a soldier?" Jaxxon asked. He was amazed by the Mared's story so far.

"You's right," Kieran replied.

"But you're from Beneris, you're not even part of the Republic. I thought only..."

"No ma man, those were dem troubled times I says. Dem Republic enlisted everybody who they cud get them hands on. And da army is where I learnt both ma trade and ma Galactic Basic. I first woz placed in onna dem battalions full of Rastonians."

"That's one crazy dialect, indeed," Jaxxon said, and tried to repress an upcoming grin.

"I quickly was onna dem best swordfighters of me battalion," Kieran continued. "I's is thinking dat wiv some luck the I might yet survive dis war, star."

Jaxxon wondered. This Mared had more than met the eye. He seemed old and weak, but the pride and power the Padawan felt when he told him his story were remarkable. As his Master sometimes said: "Powerful allies can be found in even the most surprising of places." Jaxxon seemed to have found one.

"So," Jaxxon observed, "you haven't given up hope yet?"

"Is hard to have any hope left inna dem places like dis. But I's is tryin'. Hope neva hu'ts. Overconfidence, yes. Hope? Neva. Pe'haps dem Jedi Council will come'n save us lot. Or pe'haps we Mared manage to successfully revolt. I's doesn't know, my man. But as for the I, me will be free again, or die tryin'." Kieran drew a small picture of a Twi'lek in the sand with his long fingers, and Jaxxon did not only notice the saddened look on his face, but also the Mared's sense of humour being deprived of him when thinking about freedom. Jaxxon admired, respected and pitied his new and curious friend. And he made a promise to himself. He would get them out of here. No matter what. Playing time was over.

"Exciting, isn't it?" Maela smiled at Zorn when they both walked to the briefing room.

"More like... having the collywobbles," Zorn replied. Probably the most important mission in his life was about to begin, and it didn't seem an easy task.

"Oh, loosen your arse a bit, for Revan's sake!" Maela said and she gave him a slight poke on the shoulder. "Why is it that everybody thinks you're going to do great except for yourself? Look at what you did on Tatooine!"

"That was mostly Zaeyn's work," Zorn responded. "Who, by the way, has come to laugh at me yesterday about the difficulty of my trials. He said they were one of the most difficult trials he has ever heard of."

"Don't let him irritate you like that," Maela said while shaking her head. "It's a shame you two don't get along better but he remains your big brother. He can guide you. You told me you learned a lot from him on Tatooine. Just convert his theory into practice. And let him be the big asshole we all know him to be, just don't take over his personality traits, okay?" Maela added, smiling. She instinctively wanted to pat Zorn's head, but she retracted her hand when she saw the dangerously looking headspikes curve their way into an extremely sharp point.

"Ugh, yet again we're talking about him! Why can't we just talk about trivial stuff? Like: 'Hey, Maela, the weather is nice isn't it?' 'Yes, Zorn, it certainly is, although it was a bit chilly when I went for my morning jog.' I'd break the Code if I could have a conversation like that!"

"Ssshh," Maela said, while laying her index finger over her touted lips. She slowly pointed at the door they were heading for. She took Zorn by his robes and pulled him down after which she crouched as well. They saw Master Kraenos talking to Zorn's elder brother.

"Why are we eavesdropping?" Zorn whispered.

"It's fun," was her reply.

"Really Zaeyn, there is no need to make a fuss about it, it's just that..."

"No, Master, there is! Why does he, my little brother of all people, get this impossible assignment? It's almost as if you want him to fail his trials!"

The Zabrak towered with upper body, head and shoulders over his superior, but Master Kraenos kept his cool. As always.

"That's utter nonsense, why on Coruscant would I want my own Padawan to fail his trials?"

"Maela had to solve a murder in a tavern, Lupo had to trace a lost artifact, Pijah had to tail and give away a small-time gangster. But you're sending Zorn to prevent a small civil war? On Malastare, that Dug-infected dump of all places? Of all the Padawans that recently earned the rank of Knight, none had a task as difficult as the one you have laid upon him."

"Zaeyn," Master Kraenos said, raising his voice, "it is not your place to question me. I'm sending Zorn to Malastare because I think he can fix this. And Maela is with him."

"Oh, yeah, Maela," Zaeyn said, adding a disdainful snort to his sentence. "Good fighter, but easy to break. Too easy. Plus, I don't think she can look after him properly. She doesn't take this seriously enough."

"It was Zorn's own choice. And next to that, Zorn is perfectly capable of defending himself."

"Yes, when zigzagging through a fleet of Sith fighters at 1.8 times lightspeed in my freighter. But on the ground, he's much more vulnerable. I don't like this one bit, Master."

"The decision has already been made, Zaeyn," Maser Kraenos said, as conclusion. "It's final. He and Maela are going to Malastare."

Zaeyn took a deep breath. Not out of tiredness, but out of irritation. He narrowed his eyes, and held a huge finger in Master Kraenos' direction.

"If something happens to him," he spoke slowly, after which he squeezed his own lips. And he abruptly turned around.

Master Kraenos sighed and shook his head.

"You can come out now," he said with a clear voice as soon as Zaeyn was out of hearing range. "You don't have to sneak up on me."

Embarrassed, both Zorn and Maela rose to their feet, and walked towards Master Kraenos like two children who got caught trying to steal a candy.

"We didn't mean to..." Zorn began, but he was cut off.

"Of course you did. The two of you, Maela especially, always were too curious for your own good. But I guess it doesn't hurt to know that your brother cares about you..."

Master Kraenos' mind wandered, and Maela and Zorn looked at each other, too afraid and abashed to speak, but uneasy with the silence.

"Let's get inside," the Jedi Master said, and the doors opened. The three Jedi sat themselves down on some sort of hardened pouf.

"So, both of you," Master Kraenos began, "I can feel a bit of nervousness in your young minds. I guess that's normal but I'm not sure whether you should be."

"I'm not so sure, Master," Zorn replied. "Zaeyn told me it was a difficult task."

"That's why I picked you for the job. And together with your friend Maela, you will have no problem solving this issue whatsoever."

Zorn was still unsure but then again, who was he to doubt his Master? He nodded.

"So," Master Kraenos said, "tell me... What do you know about Malastare?"

"They're members of the Republic. It's inhabited by Gran and Dugs," Zorn remembered. "But that's about it."

"That's the essence of what you need to know about the planet," Master Kraenos stated while nodding slightly. "Currently, the two main species live in relative peace, even with their past... rumblings. But they're too afraid to risk their position in the Senate to start another civil war, like 5000 years ago."

"Then what do we have to do?" Zorn asked. "It sounded like a grave situation when you first told me."

"Yes, and it is," the Watchman affirmed. "In the northern provinces of the planet lie many methane lakes, which the Gran exploit. It's a major trade advantage they have over the Dug, who are the providers of entertainment throughout the planet."

"Seems pretty balanced to me," Maela observed.

"Too balanced," Master Kraenos added.

"I don't understand," the Jedi Knight replied.

"Well, normally on a planet there are interracial tensions, but on Malastare it's the other way round. They're so extremely well-balanced that some Gran actually start to seek trouble with those of their own species. Up until now only humans tended to do that. This disrupting of the Gran-unity worries me, therefore I need this solved as quickly as possible."

"That's where we come in, I guess?" Zorn remarked, as he leaned slightly backwards.

"Got that right," Master Kraenos said. "This dispute is big. Real big. Two brothers, Alaya Rayaan and Aldera Rayaan, are fighting over the land their deceased father has left to them. The reason they're making such a fuss about it, is because their father was the owner of some of the biggest methane lakes on Malastare. Which means he was rich. Extremely rich."

Zorn sighed. Money. He couldn't fathom the fact someone could actually betray his own brother for it.

"So your trials, my young Padawan, are to solve their dispute in a peaceful manner. Got that?"

"Absolutely, Master."

Outside of Master Kraenos' quarters, Zaeyn grinned.

That seems to be healing extremely well," Lara remarked as she gazed at Jaxxon's abdominal injury. Of course it did. Jaxxon had been speeding up the healing process ever since gaining consciousness. The pus was gone, the inner organs were almost completely healed and the skin was slowly growing back. There was only one problem: the itch.

"Don't fucking scratch it," Lara said when she slapped Jaxxon's hand away. The Padawan appreciated, perhaps even envied, these people for their uncivilized and unlimited way of speaking. He didn't hear a lot of cursing in the Jedi Temple, except for the odd insult his Master threw out.

"So, me man, tomorrow's da big day," Kieran said, a little bit too cheerful.

"What day?" Jaxxon asked.

"Our first fight," Lara said in the exact opposite way of Kieran. "It'll be live or die. And I don't hold much..."

"Ah well, even if us dies, we'll have had some of dem loads a fun," Kieran interrupted.

Next chapter: Darth Genocid and Jaxxon Dorma meet again; Master Daego's search for his Padawan starts off somewhat different than he had planned.

Editor's Notes: Short chapter, I know. It's sort of an interlude, really. Next chapter will be longer, action-packed and, I hope, funny (for those 'not-easily-offended').

Special thanks to: Arrianos, almostinsane, Elwin Ransom and last but not least: Promised Flower. I 'love' and appreciate my reviewers. I shall strive to continue to entertain you.

For the 'Beneris Conflict' Die-Hards: /bombaytv/index.php?modulesee&languk&code186087cbf50c612b5d20b3270fe984dc

And you shall see why this story is so great!