Part II: The Pirate
Chapter Eleven: Force-Blessed
The temple bristled with a good three thousand people. Tobin watched from a side office through a transparent wall. The people came from all walks of life in the Rings. Though it was officially outside the Empire, the Rings had their own social strata just like any other civilization.
The administrators were considered the top of society. They were comprised of former Corporate Sector barons mostly, though some had risen up through the ranks due to the meritocracy the rings purported to use. Next came the larger shipping magnets, followed by other business owners and then finally the workers and refugees.
He did not spot any barons in the temple, but he could see one or two shipping magnets from the quality of their clothes, and many business owners.
Then he heard Kenth Shandor begin to speak.
"Welcome, brothers and sisters in the Force," he began.
"Welcome," the audience intoned.
Tobin closed his eyes before the power of the unified response. "You feel it, don't you?" Klinti whispered be his side. "I was so scared the first time I came here. But then I felt that, and knew I would be back whenever I could."
Tobin nodded. "I never imagined that non Force-sensitives to make such an impact."
"One voice is weak. A thousand are mighty," she answered.
Out in the temple, Shandor said, "Pray with me now, Brothers and Sisters: There is no emotion."
"There is peace," came the unified response.
"There is no ignorance."
"There is knowledge."
"There is no passion."
"There is serenity."
"There is no death."
"There is the Force."
"The Jedi Code?" Tobin whispered. "How could they even know it?"
"The Empire tried to wipe all traces of the Jedi out," Klinti explained, "but some things survived. Just like you. Hiding in secret until the time was right."
Outside, Shandor had begun his sermon in depth. "What do these words mean, by Brothers and Sisters? There is no emotion. How can this be true? Even in those stories we retain, we know that the Jedi themselves had great emotion. We ourselves feel it every day. In the slights that are made against us. For the threats we face for our Faith. So how can the Jedi of old claim there is no emotion?
"The truth is far more powerful than what the words alone seem to say. The Jedi do not truly believe there is no emotion. Rather, they teach us that true peace can never be achieved without understanding and facing those emotions. How can any of us be at peace when we are raging against the injustices of the galaxy? How can any of us know peace when our love of another drives us to distraction? We cannot. So the Jedi teach us to face those feelings. Face them, and understand them. All beings gave emotions. But if you can understand your emotions and accept they are a part of you, then you can achieve a sense of peace both with yourself and your place in the Force.
"This is true for all the tenants of the prayer, but most especially for the last. There is no death, there is the Force. All of us have lost ones we loved. All of us. The pain of that loss is almost unbearable. Yet, just as we can find peace by understanding and accepting that pain, so too can we find peace knowing that those we love have not truly left us. For all of us came from the Force, and all of us will return to the Force. It is from the Force that all life flows, and knowing that, we know that our loved ones will always be with us. They are with us now."
His words had a visible effect on the audience, and even on Tobin himself. He had never thought of the Force as a religion. For him, it was less a faith to accept as it was a fact to observe. But for these people who did not have the Force, it was an act of faith to even believe it existed.
"The Force has blessed us today," Shandor told them. "Six years ago, our dear sister Soola Dayaala was forced to flee her home after Imperial officials raided and killed many in her sect. She told us all she had befriended the last Jedi, Jalia S'Artin, and her son Tobin. That Jalia had admitted that her son was born not of a man's seed but of the Force itself. That he was in fact the Chosen One prophesized by the Jedi thousands of years before. But we lost word of the two. Until yesterday. My Brothers and Sisters, the Force-blessed child of the last Jedi, Tobin S'Artin, has come to us. He has already shown us the true meaning of the prayer by bringing peace to our sister Soola, easing the loss that has haunted her these many years. And he has come to speak to us this day. Tobin?"
Tobin stepped out of the door with his lightsabers hanging from his belt, and saw Kenth Shandor on the raised podium waiting for him. Klinti followed a step behind, but more slowly. She remained just off the platform.
The effect his appearance had on the audience was electrifying, and their attention energized Tobin as well. There was true power in those eyes, he realized—a power unlike anything either of his masters had taught him.
He stepped onto the podium. "Let the Force guide your words and you'll be fine," Shandor advised with simple optimism. Tobin nodded before turning and found himself facing more people than he had ever faced before. Out of desperation more than anything else, his eyes searched until he found Soola. She was still a beautiful woman, he saw. Perhaps not like his Klinti, but beautiful. She looked up at him with an expression of adoration that was both terrifying, and if were honest with himself, exhilarating.
"I am alive today because of Soola Dayaala," he began. "When I was ten, my mother and I were found out and the Empire came for us. We escaped, but had no means of leaving the planet. It was Soola and the Nalderaan sect that got us off the planet. I cannot thank you enough, Soola, for what you did, nor can I tell you how deeply I grieve with you for your loss."
Soola was crying now.
"The Nalderaan sect also gave me another gift. A Jedi holocron. I have leaned much from it over the years, and am ever thankful to have it."
He stepped away from the podium and examined them all. "Until my fourteenth birthday, I was trained as a Jedi. We lived among the pirates, seeking shelter like so many of you. But everyone here knows that pirates often kill to live. Some of you are pirates yourselves—I can see it. For those of us who are attuned to the Force, we can feel death. My mother and I, and my dearest friend Klinti there whom you know, could feel every victim the Zabrak killed. And when he wiped out a colony ship and fifty thousand died, it proved too much. My mother gave into her emotion, and we lost our peace. We had to flee."
Tobin took a deep breath, wondering if they were ready for his story. "We sought shelter on the only world the Empire dared not approach. We went to the home of the Sith. We went to Korriban."
The name caused a gasp among the crowd. "There, I met Darth Talus, who like my mother, was the last of his kind. The last Dark Lord of the Sith."
He saw them leaning forward now, raptly listening.
"What I tell you now may not agree with the teachings you have learned. For you have learned that there was ever the dichotomy of the Force. There was only the Light side. There was only the Dark side. And forever the two would be in conflict. To be one precluded being the other. And yet, it is because of that conflict that the Empire hunts us down and murders us as infants. It is fear of yet another war that will span the galaxy. And I can understand that fear. It was to face this fear that the Force guided us to Korriban, and it was for that reason that the last Sith did not try to fight us. Rather, he joined us. And he trained me in his ways while my mother continued to train me in hers. However, in time, the Zabrak betrayed us to the Empire.
"Just three weeks ago, my mother and Darth Talus perished. We killed between the three of us close to five hundred attackers both of Zabrak's men and Imperial troopers, but as we all well know, not even Sith and Jedi are impervious from harm. But let me tell you, Brothers and Sisters, the last Sith did not fall cursing his enemy. He fell while defending my mother, while I fought elsewhere. He gave his life so that she could have enough time to say goodbye to me. He gave his life because of his love for her."
He had them now, Tobin realized with a sense of shock. These people were his now. He sat down on the edge of the podium, but used the Force to ensure they could all hear. "For you see, unlike the Jedi, the Sith reveled and drew power from their emotions. Mostly throughout history it was rage and hatred. But just like Jedi, the Sith could also love. It was often a selfish love, but it was love nonetheless. It was his love for my mother that spurred his action, and it was mother's love for me that spurred hers. And between them they have produced one who is neither Jedi nor Sith, but rather both. I have become an Avatar of the Force. I am both its will and its determination. Its will is for the Force to be ascendant. And its determination is for the slaughter of its children to cease."
"Save them!" someone cried from the audience.
"I will," Tobin said. "And so will you. Kenth Shandor told me that your goal is to raise enough voices to call for change. If you accept it, I would rather give you another task. One that is just as dangerous, but more immediately so. My ultimate task is to change the system. It is the goal the Force has given me. But in the short term, the goal I would offer you is not to change the system, but to cheat it. Save the children by any means necessary. Monitor the postings. I understand each world is required to list midichlorian counts publicly. If you see a child in danger, kidnap them. Remove them from danger. Hide them. Fake tests. Do everything you can in or out of the law to save those children. In time, I will train them. A new generation of Force-blessed will arise. A generation that is neither Sith nor Jedi, but rather the unification of the two. You call yourselves Unitarians? I tell you that is exactly what you are. It is what I am. It is what the Force itself wills. The Unified Force stands before you, and calls you to raise your voices and your hearts. The slaughter of the innocents must end. And though the Force is with me, it is with you as well, because I cannot do it alone. Will you accept this task? Will you heed the call of the Force?"
Their answering cry was like the roar of a starship engine lifting off from the planet surface. The wall of sound washed over Tobin, strengthening him in a way he could never have imagined. He stood and simply closed his eyes, absorbing the sound of their cries.
It was Shandor at his side who said, over the cries, "I know it is not the Code, but they could use a sign. Show them the Force, my friend."
Yes, Tobin realized. A little theater could go a long way.
He stepped off the podium onto the air, and stayed there. The roar turned to gasps and cries not of fear, but of hope. Tobin could feel it within all of them and knew that Shandor was absolutely right. These people needed more than words—they needed a sign of hope. And as he stood levitating before them, they finally had it. An affirmation of faith, just like Klinti said.
He had the seeds laid. Not it was time to gather the soil to make the seeds grow.
/\/\/\/\
"It is a path that will take years," Tobin said to the small group of sect leaders. "And I cannot accomplish it alone."
"Nor would you have to," Shandor assured him. "What is your next step?"
Tobin looked at Klinti. Her head was bowed, but he could sense she was 'looking' at him through the Force. "For now, we need to get a ship of our own. We need credits—more than we can hope to get just by working. We're going to need ships. And a world to operate out of. And people who believe and can do what we need. But the first step is a ship."
"We have credits," Shandor said, "but not that many."
"Nor would I ask it of you," Tobin said. Heeding Klinti's Force nudge, he smiled. "I was serious when I spoke in the temple. I want you to use the resources of all the sects to save those children. That's where your credits should be going."
Across from Shandor sat Shindo Bard. When Tobin mentioned pirates, Shindo was among those he included. Though the man was certainly not a murderer, Tobin sensed from him that he was not a law-abiding imperial citizen. "So where would you begin to get a ship?"
"By starting where everyone else does," Tobin said. "I need a berth on a pirate ship myself. Preferably one that does not actively murder its victims."
Next to Shindo, Soola grinned happily. "That sounds like your captain, Shindo!"
Tobin quirked a brow, but it was Klinti who spoke. "You're on the Fool's Prize," she said.
"The Force tell you that?" Bard asked with a touch of awe.
"No, I helped Aleusa keep track of her competition," Klinti grinned. "It took me a moment, but I remembered where I've heard the name Bard before. You're whole family is on the ship, isn't it?"
Bard nodded. "It's not much, but Captain Hal-Aslo is a good man. He makes a point of not hitting heavily populated ships and after three years of flying with him I don't think we've killed but five people. Those were because they tried to kill us first. I know we're the bad guys technically, and I know he tore himself up about them every time, but for our line of work that's unusual."
"He has a good reputation," Klinti confirmed. "Is he one of us?"
"No," Shindo said. "I've tried, but I'm afraid to push him too hard. He has no love of the Empire, though, and he's tolerant. He knows I'm Unitarian and has never spoken against me."
"Are there any berths on his ship?" Tobin said.
Shindo smiled. "As it happens, yes. One of our gunners ran off with our slicer. They took their earnings and actually went legit on one of the Mid-Rim worlds. Taxes and everything."
Tobin looked over at Klinti. "Can you slice a computer?"
"Better than a droid," she said without a trace of boasting. "Why do you think I was Aleusa's assistant even as a girl fresh into my teens?"
Shindo and the others watched the two of them. "Should I tell him you're together?"
"We are together," Tobin said clearly.
"It makes sense," Shandor said with a impish grin. "Why wouldn't two of the last Force-blessed kids in the galaxy find each other? I can see you make each other happy. I'm glad you have that companionship."
Tobin took Klinti's hand. "I am too."
/\/\/\/\
Captain Jine Hal-Aslo looked young and hungry. He walked into the bar with an angry swagger and a gleam in his eye. Shindo pointed him out immediately to Tobin and Klinti, and the three watched as he made his way up to the bar and ordered a drink. A step behind him came a Selonian wearing a low-slung space vest that dangled two long, dangerous-looking blasters down around the creature's ribs.
The two eventually made their way to the table. "You Shane Solafel?" he asked as he looked at Tobin. It was the name he and the others agreed to go by.
"I am," Tobin said. "You're Jine Hal-Aslo? I understand you're recruiting."
Jine sat down. The Selonian remained standing by his shoulder, hands near her blasters. "Maybe. Lot's of people are looking. What makes you any better?"
"I am better," Tobin said simply. He nodded back at Klinti and more quietly added, "And I bring a slicer."
The Selonian's bared teeth snapped shut as it looked over Tobin's shoulder. It turned to the Correllan and snapped something in its own language. "Might be useful," the man conceded. "Jine Hal-Aslo, captain of the Fool's Prize."
"Shane Solafel. This is Klinti, late of Zabrak's crew. You know Mr. Bard."
Hal-Aslo eyed the Miraluka carefully. "The Zabrak, huh? I think I heard of you. He wasn't too happy you left." He looked at Tobin. "Heard tell the guy with her took out fifty raiders single-handed without a weapon. Zabrak was pretty much trying to take the place apart until they kicked him out yesterday."
"There were only twenty," Tobin said.
The Selonian growled something. "Pretty impressive, kid," the captain said. He looked at Klinti. "Heard you were pretty high up with the Zabrak, and he has the biggest ship out there. What made you leave?"
"They're together," Shindo explained.
"Love birds, huh?" Hal-Aslo muttered. "So, pretty girls aside, I hear a lot of talk, but I ain't actually seen anything myself. You're awfully young to do what I heard tell you did."
Tobin sank into the Force just enough to augment his speed, and in a second stood before the Correllan and Selonian holding both the Selonian's blasters. The creature growled dangerously, but Tobin handed the weapons back handles first.
"Shreei doesn't care for people handling his weapons," Jine said. "Might be considered dangerous."
Tobin nodded. "The Selonians are a strong and honorable people and capable warriors. I honor Shreei even when I say I am better."
Shreei leaned down until its whiskers brushed Tobin's face. "You smell strange, human," she said in a haltering, harsh accent. "You are not normal."
"Who is nowadays?" Tobin asked. "Do I have the job or not?"
"I vouch for him, Captain," Shindo said. "Both of them."
"Fine. You have it for now," Jine said. "Until you screw up, or until Shreei here gets tired of you. We're at bay 753AB, berth number 827. Be there at 1600 hours or you stay here."
"We'll be there," Tobin promised.
/\/\/\/\
Four hours later Tobin and Klinti wandered down the promenade with their things in bags slung over their shoulders. Their clothes were new, as were the spacer bags. They reached the appointed place and saw their new ship for the first time.
"I'm not so excited any more," Klinti muttered.
The ship was a very old freighter, a Correllan AYT-3400 model. It was as large as two drop shuttles and so could carry a modest payload, but it also looked like it was about to fall apart.
A pair of men were working by the entrance, manually lifting crates into the loading ramp. One turned and saw the newcomers. "Hey, Cap, newbies are here!"
Jine Hal-Aslo sauntered down the ramp with the Selonian waddling a step behind. "Punctual," the captain said. "Come on, I'll show you where you're bunking and introduce you to the crew. I'm assuming you don't mind sharing a bunk?"
Tobin felt his cheeks flare, and felt a flash of humorous embarrassment from Klinti. "No, we don't mind," he said, a little too quickly.
Jine chuckled. "Love birds," he said.
They went through the commons area and into the bunks. The hall held eleven rooms, five on each side, and one at the end. Tobin and Klinti both climbed down into the room. It was a little smaller than the room Tobin first shared with his mother on Zabrak's star destroyer.
"Perfect," he said. He stowed his bag and adjusted his belt. The belt now held a blaster, with what appeared to be pair canisters in the back where he stowed his light sabers out of sight.
"Come on, then," Hal-Aslo said.
Back in the common room, they saw the rest of the crew assembled. There were ten of them excluding the captain, mostly human. Aside from the Selonian, and a blue-haired, red-skinned Veltron male, the only other non-humans were a pair of Devaronians, at least that's what Tobin presumed. The male was typically red-skinned with massive protruding horns and sharp fangs that gave him a devilish appearance. However, the female by his side appeared radically different, with thick white fur puffing out from behind her spacer's vest and pants. Her ears swept far back from her face, and her horns were so small as to be mostly hidden behind her hair. Her face was narrower than the male's, more elfish in appearance. She also stood several inches taller even than the horns of the male.
"The Devaronians are the other lovebirds on board," Jine said. "That's Vilmarn Frark and his mate Silmari. She's the boss of the two."
"The Females always are," Silmari said with a confident purr. Beside her, Vilmarn nodded agreeably.
Hal-Aslo nodded to Shindo. "'Course, you know Shindo Bard, a cousin of mine back home. Those are his kids, Haslo and Corra." He nodded to a younger pair. Shindo's son was perhaps a year or two older than Tobin, though his hair was already receding in a race to be as bald as his father. His sister looked close to Klinti's age. Tobin hid his surprise that an entire family would serve on a pirate ship.
"The Veltron is Shon Blue," Jine said. Blue, who was actually quite red, nodded with a happy smile.
Jine then indicated two other Correlians. "This is Hanson Klard, and that's Dek Hastlin. Depending on the time of month or even week, one or the other is courting Corra."
"Not when I'm around," Shindo said ominously.
Everyone laughed, and Tobin began to relax. There was an intimate feeling of camaraderie on board. These people felt like more than a crew. They felt like family.
"Finally, there's Mama Hackstrong, also known as Cindee," he said, nodding to a stout and muscular woman in her forties. "Cindee is my aunt's second cousin."
"Nice to have another girl aboard," Cindee said to Klinti in a gush. "I love those shades of yours."
"Thank you," Klinti said softly.
"So, tell us about yourselves," Shindo said. He spoke with a booming basso voice.
"My name is Shane Solafel. I was a guard on The Zabrak's ship," Tobin lied. "My father taught me Teras Kasi and Echani-style fighting when I was a kid, before he died. I fight very well."
"I'm Klinti. I was third on Zabrak's ship when I met Shane. I…we knew Zabrak wouldn't let me go, so we escaped."
"We heard Zabrak wasn't too happy see you go," Cindee said.
"Heard Shane took out eighty of his men single-handed," Haslo, Shindo's son, said excitedly.
"It was only twenty," Tobin said.
"That's enough for us," Shindo assured him.
"So what's behind those glasses?" Silmari the Devaronian asked. "You don't smell human."
Klinti looked at Tobin quickly, then bowed her head. Tobin looked at Jine, and did not see any danger there. "Klinti is the last of her kind," he said softly. "She is Miraluka. She has no eyes. She sees with the Force."
"An Abnormal?" Cindee said in a neutral tone.
"I am perfectly normal, for a Miraluka," Klinti said with a hint of steel in her voice. "One person is a freak. Fifty million is a race. Until the Empire wiped us out."
"And what about you, Shane?" Jine said. "Shreei said you didn't quite smell right either, and we all know what Shindo does on his shore leave. Are you an Abnormal too?"
"I am," Shane said, letting the Force guide his answer.
The whole crew tensed. "I don't like this," Dek Hastlin said at last. "Not good to have freaks aboard, Jine. It calls too much attention to us."
"Shindo's vouched for them," Jine said. "And 'sides, we already knew about Klinti. Zabrak used to brag about having a blind slicer. He was proud of having an Abnormal working for him. Heck, remember a few years ago when we first got the Fool's Prize? Zabrak even claimed to have a Jedi."
Tobin became very still. Shreei noticed immediately and hissed something. Jine turned to his companion, then to Tobin. "That was you?" he asked.
"My mother."
"Was she really a Jedi?" Corra asked.
"She was."
"Are you?"
"No," Tobin said with absolute truth. "I am not Jedi."
"Too bad," Corra said to the shock of her some-time suitors. "Dek, Hanson, who do you think I'm named for?" she said. "It's been four hundred years and yet everyone on Corella knows the name Corran Horn, the Jedi who fought a Vong war master in single-combat to try and save Ithor."
"He destroyed it," Dek said.
"He tried to save it. The politicians blamed him, but everyone knows he won the battle fair and square but the Vong destroyed it anyway."
Dek started to speak, but Jine stilled him with his hand. "I don't care what you are, Shane. All I know is you took out twenty single handed. You can't be all that evil if you've got a pretty girl like that hanging on your arm."
"She can't see how ugly he is," Vilmarn the male Devaronian said. "You humans, it's amazing you have mates at all."
Surprisingly, Klinti laughed. The tension that ran through the crew seemed to dissipate. Tobin stepped forward. "I will take orders, and I will do what I can for this ship. I probably won't be here forever, but while I'm here I'll do my best to be a good member of this crew. And I won't let my being Abnormal endanger any of you. If it comes to that, Klinti and I will leave before any of you get targeted."
"There, feel better, Dek?" Jine said.
Dek glared at Klinti and Tobin, but finally nodded. "Sure, Cap. It's okay."