Past Redemption: Jaina's Quest
Chapter 10Although the shuttle had some basic amenities, among which was a small shower stall, it left a lot to be desired concerning comfort. Upon being shown to his quarters, the first thing Mathu did was take a long, hot shower.
Afterward, he dressed and waited for his guide to arrive and escort him to see Luke Skywalker.
While waiting, he reflected that, while the shuttle flight had been long, it had also been productive…at least, from a meditative point of view. He still had a lot of decisions to make, but he had been able to reach at least one major one.
At least he now knew what to do about the son of Anakin Skywalker.
After a few minutes, Jaina knocked at his door.
"I told Master Skywalker that I would be your guide." She told him.
"Of course." He smiled. "We shouldn't keep him waiting."
As they walked down the same corridor that Jaina had walked down what seemed like a lifetime ago, she had a momentary feeling of déjà-vu.
"If Lando greets us," she thought, smiling, "I do believe I will scream."
While her thoughts drifted back to that day about three months ago, she also realized something else.
In her entire time with him, she had never heard Master Lison refer to Master Skywalker as "Master Skywalker".
Maybe it was protocol. She tried to remember how he had referred to Yoda and Obi-Wan.
Had he used the term "Master" when talking about them? She couldn't remember.
Although he had promoted her to Knight, she realized that there was still a lot she had to learn about being a Jedi.
She just wished she knew what his intentions were.
Master Lison stopped about ten meters from Master Skywalker's door and turned to her.
"I can feel your nervousness." He told her. "You weren't this nervous during our flight here or when you introduced me…what gives?"
"I…" she began, but didn't quite know how to put her thoughts into words, "I'm just curious about this meeting. I remember your feeling about my training when we first met…and you haven't told me anything about what your plans are."
He stared at her for a few seconds before he answered.
"But I have." He finally said. "We talked about it on the shuttle. What did I tell you?"
"That you weren't going to make any drastic changes." She remembered.
"So, I ask you again…what gives?" His voice was colder this time.
"In all the time I've known you," Jaina admitted, "you have never referred to Luke Skywalker as "Master"…" She didn't know how to finish the sentence.
He stared at her for so long that she regretted bringing the subject up. Although she would have doubted it possible, she was more uncomfortable now than she had been at his response to her "paranoid" joke on her first day of lightsaber training.
"Because he isn't one." He finally said.
All she could do was stare at him, wide-eyed.
"You are a very observant Jedi." He continued. "And that will serve you, and the Jedi Order, well…once you learn to control your impulsiveness. While I do not wish to stifle your skills, never question a Master…at least, until you are one."
"Yes, Master." Was all she could reply.
"You will understand why I say this," he softened, "when you have a Padawan of your own."
"Yes, Master." She repeated.
He stared at her for a few seconds, then turned to continue down the hallway. When she made no move to continue, he turned to her and smiled.
"I'm following you." He reminded her.
She blushed and led him the rest of the way to the meeting room, but she would have given almost anything to know what he was thinking as they approached the door.
As they entered the room, Luke and Mara stood to greet them.
After the door closed, Mathu looked around the room, grateful that it was just the four of them.
"Luke Skywalker." Mathu began without preamble. "I will admit that I was surprised, and even a bit disturbed, when Jaina showed up at my…doorstep…and told me your story. The reason I was disturbed was the fact that you were training other Jedi. My primary reason for agreeing to train Jaina was to test her training from you…and, while there were many things that I didn't like, I was greatly impressed with her skills. But there remains one problem…you have to be a Master in order to lead the Jedi. While I do not second guess the decision by my peers to train you, the fact remains that you have never been given the rank of Master by the Jedi Council."
He paused, more for dramatic effect than anything else.
"I wish to correct that." He continued. "Luke and Mara Skywalker, as sole surviving member of the Jedi Council, I confer upon the two of you the rank of "Master"…and appoint the both of you to the Council."
He paused again, but when they didn't respond, he decided to break the tension.
"I'm tired of being on the Council by myself." He smiled.
Luke was looking forward to a long discussion with Mathu. He still had some apprehensions, but had decided to give their new guest a chance to show him that he really was who he said he was.
When Mathu and Jaina arrived, he and Mara rose to greet them.
He wasn't quite sure how to respond to what his guest had just told him.
To her credit, Mara was quicker to recover from her surprise.
"We are honored, Master Lison." She said with a formal bow. "Thank you."
"Yes." Luke added his own bow. "Thank you."
Mathu looked over at Jaina, who breathed a sigh of relief.
"We have a lot to discuss." Mathu told them. "Let me begin by saying that it is not my intent to come in and take over…going by what I have witnessed, you have been doing a respectable job here."
"Again, thank you." Luke responded and gestured at the chairs that Jaina had been sitting in when she had found out about her mission to find the person with the orange lightsaber. "Please, have a seat. Would you care for something to drink?"
"Tea would be fine, thank you." Mathu said as he sat down.
Luke looked at Jaina, who nodded and headed over to the mini kitchen Luke had installed.
"Let me be frank." Luke began after they had all been seated. "When Jaina sent the message about you, I was nervous…to say the least. Before Jaina was born, I had an experience with another "Jedi Master", Joruus C'boath."
When he noticed Mathu's skeptical look at the mention of C'boath's name, he paused.
"Did you know him?" He asked Mathu.
"I knew Master JorUS C'boath." Mathu hesitantly replied.
"Then you see the reason for my nervousness." Luke smiled. "The man I found, and subsequently received training from, was a clone who had turned to the Dark Side."
Mathu nodded understanding.
"Tell me…what became of this clone?" He asked.
Luke looked over at Mara and smiled.
"He was taken care of." He said. "Permanently."
Mathu simply nodded again.
"I have little use for clones." Mathu commented almost absentmindedly.
"Because of that experience," Luke continued his story, "I had you thoroughly checked out…at least, as thorough as possible." He smiled.
"And what did you find?" Mathu asked.
"A gentleman on Coruscant who was a fan," Luke replied, "and even had a picture that he managed to keep through the Palpatine years, when having any Jedi memorabilia was punishable by death…the picture looks exactly like you. I found that odd, given the number of years that have passed."
Mathu just looked at him, so he continued.
"You explained that was due to your species," Luke smiled, "which, again, I had checked out. Everything…checks out."
"So…where do we go from here?" Mathu smiled.
"To begin with," Luke replied, glancing over at Mara as he spoke, "we would like to formally welcome you, as a Jedi Master, to our Academy."
Mathu simply nodded, accepting their welcome.
"Which raises many more questions." Mara added. "We realize that the training we conduct must be vastly different than what you are used to."
She turned to Jaina, then back to Mathu.
"How are we going to make it work?" She finished.
"Jaina and I had this discussion during the flight here." He laughed. "I assured her that I have no intention of making any drastic changes that aren't necessary. I realize that times are very different now than before Palpatine…and, as I mentioned earlier, if Jaina is any indication, you are doing a good job here."
They all turned to Jaina, who simply gave an embarrassed smile in return.
"I have promoted her to "Knight"." Mathu added. "But have not released her from training. Over the past few months, I have given her detailed accounts of how training was conducted in the Jedi Temple, which she has written down in her journal. With her consent, I will give you time to read these, then provide any further details you may desire…we will go from there."
"Sounds like a plan." Luke nodded, then laughed. "The students are wanting to meet you, too…and they have a lot of questions."
"Such as, do they have to get a haircut like Jaina had in the video?" Mara laughed.
"You can assure them that the haircut was Jaina's idea." Mathu laughed.
After the meeting, Jaina joined with her parents (Chewbacca almost crushed her when he hugged her) while Luke and Mara gave Mathu a tour of the Academy.
"Jaina explained how training is conducted here." Mathu said. "What is the average age of your students?"
"Most of the students here are younger than Jaina." Mara was telling him. "Though we do have a few adults who are advanced enough to help in training."
"I will want to meet them." Mathu replied, then explained. "I have higher expectations for someone training Jedi than I do for a student."
"Of course." Luke told him.
"Jaina told me that you don't know who your mother was." Mathu commented as they walked down the hall to the dining center.
"That's right." Luke replied. "How well did you know my father?"
"Anakin and I weren't close…but we were friends." Mathu answered. "I still have trouble believing that he had children. I have no idea who your mother might have been, but I highly doubt that she was another Jedi. Did he even know about you?"
"Ben told me that Leia and I were hid from him when we were born." Luke said. "For all that means."
"Ben?" Mathu asked.
"Ben Kenobi." Luke said, then, seeing Mathu still confused, clarified. "Obi-Wan…I knew him as Ben Kenobi."
Mathu nodded.
"How long did you know him?" Mathu asked.
"All my life." Luke told him. "He lived in a hut not too far from the farm where I grew up, but he didn't start training me until just before he died."
"How did he die?" Mathu asked.
"Vader." Luke answered. "Long story about the Death Star…Ben sacrificed himself so Han, Leia, and I could escape."
"Where did Leia grow up?" Mathu asked.
"She was adopted by a Senator…Bail Organa." Mara told him.
"I remember Bail." Mathu said. "He was a good friend of the Jedi."
"Leia has always said he was a good, loving father." Luke said.
"I guess there is a lot of history that I have to catch up on." Mathu laughed. "But tell me a little bit more about this Shadow Academy. Jaina mentioned that the three people she fought were probably survivors from it."
"That's right." Mara replied. "It was basically a space station used for training Force sensitive's in the Dark Side."
"Unreal." Mathu said. "Who was the genius who really believed they could control such a group?"
"Their leader was a…sad case." Luke said. "That is another long story, but for now…suffice to say he was brainwashed by Imperial Leaders to serve them."
"And Jaina told me this Shadow Academy had been destroyed?" Mathu enquired.
"Right over our heads." Mara assured him. "They made a failed attempt to destroy our Academy, and destroyed themselves when they realized they couldn't win."
"Do we know how many survived?" Mathu asked.
"Any guess we made would be just that…a guess." Luke said. "Simply because we don't know how many they had to begin with."
"Here we are." Mara said. "The dining facility. You've never had food so good."
"Completely opposite of the food at the Temple." Mathu laughed. "I still have nightmares about it."
"We can promise no nightmares…but I won't mention stomachaches." Luke laughed. "Han and Leia are supposed to meet us here."
They entered to find everyone already there, eager to see the new Master.
Han and Leia (and Chewbacca, Jacen, and Jaina) were already seated at a table large enough for all of them to sit at.
They decided upon two courses of action.
For the next few weeks, Mathu worked with the adults who actively trained other students, both in a group and one-on-one, to ensure they had at least the knowledge to be able to train others properly. Mathu wished one could teach experience, as well.
Jaina worked with everyone else to train them what she had been taught by Master Lison. It was fun to watch everyone's early encounters with the Force Consciousness…and she reflected on the fact that, less than four months ago (although it seemed like a lifetime), she was sitting where they are now. She also reflected that, her being able to train so many people (she had to break them into several groups) was a testimony to Master Shuman's training of her.
The students, they hadn't yet adopted the phrase "Padawan", were excited about the new training…especially the lightsaber training. They had all seen the video of Jaina and wanted to learn how to do the same thing.
"Make sure you evaluate each and every student." Master Lison told her. "Do not give them more training than they are mentally able to handle…especially when it comes to the lightsaber."
"But how will I know?" Jaina asked.
"Let the Force guide you in all things." Master Shuman replied. "If you feel any hesitation, follow your instinct."
Jaina simply nodded.
Luke and Mara joined in the training of the adults, then would have private meetings with Mathu spent discussing such various topics as the Old Order to Luke's father to catching Mathu up on current events.
On top of all that, Master Shuman would get together with Jaina after dinner to continue with her training. These were usually conducted one-on-one (after all, Jaina was technically the only Knight at the Academy), but, occasionally, some of Jaina's older students would be present.
About two months later, Jaina approached Luke.
"Master, I would like to take a few of the students on a field trip." She said.
"A field trip?" Luke smiled. "Where?"
"To Targon IV and V" She answered. "Jacen and some others have expressed interest in seeing where Master Shuman trained me and where…"
"You became famous?" Luke finished.
Jaina just smiled.
"OK." Luke told her. "Who all is going?"
"Jacen, Tenel-Ka, Brian, Kein, Farlo, Stacy, and myself." Jaina replied.
"How long will you be gone?"
"About three weeks." Jaina told him. "Two weeks travel, a few days there."
"What about your students?" Luke asked.
"Strein and Michael have agreed to cover down." She told him. "Everyone is at a point where it is reinforcing what they already know, so I don't foresee any problem."
"OK." Luke repeated. "Does Master Shuman know?"
"He's OK with Strein and Michael filling in." Jaina nodded. "We plan on leaving tomorrow after breakfast."
Luke just nodded and they headed to the dining room for dinner.
As they were eating, one of the adult students walked over to Kein, who was in line to get his food.
"Your blade will prevail."She said, then walked away, leaving Kein to stare after her in confusion.
Three days after they departed, the Captain of a New Republic frigate called the Academy to inform them that they had received a distress signal from a shuttle assigned to Luke. A quick check showed that it was the shuttle Jaina had taken.
The Captain also informed them that the Super Star Destroyer "Palpatine" had been spotted in the area.
To be continued
8