The Force's Balance
Harry Potter x Star Wars Crossover
Created: 10.12.19
Chapter 3: Kashyyyk
Over the next two months, my life and the situation I found myself in had changed significantly. The biggest of the changes came from the increased patrols and activity of the bigfoot creatures that populated the planet I found myself on, both by land and by air. Almost daily now small "hunting" parties were crossing my barrier wards and slowly exploring more of the dark forest and had almost managed to reach my hidden tent's location. Also, there were daily runs of bigfoot creatures on those flying motorcycle type things in groups of four to twelve that canvased the tree tops searching for something, my guess was me.
I didn't think they discovered my initial theft of all the broken parts and pieces of the robots from my first trip to their hangar, but they probably did notice as three larger scrapped spaceships disappeared from their recycling plant over the following first week. I knew this because on a return trip during the next week, the security around the plant and hangar were both easily doubled. It still didn't prevent me from pilfering more parts as my growing education in robots and spaceships was progressing nicely if I do say so myself, and I needed more of just about everything.
That education was slow going, but very steady as I went through repairing robot and ship components without really knowing what I was doing at first. I was however having a lot of fun, and had successfully repaired three of the trash can robots though I still had no idea on how to communicate with them and their little beeps and whirls. They reminded me a little of a cross between a puppy and a house-elf, and seemed completely at ease when left on a spaceship to tinker with things I never understood. They did not however like being inside my tent, and almost completely and immediately shut down or started wobbling incoherently until their circuits fried and where then shut down until I could throw another reparo spell at them.
The spaceships I managed to acquire (cough ...steal ...cough) matched two of the models I saw in the bigfoot hangar that first day, one being the horseshoe shaped one, and the other the single pilot looking jet. The other parts I pilfered were used to fill any of the holes, and for components on the two ships, though I hadn't actually managed yet to test either of them they were at least looking brand new. The little trash can robots at least seemed to really like tinkering with them, so I usually just left them on the larger horseshoe shaped one to do whatever they wanted, while I mostly tried exploring the smaller fighter jet as everything in it seemed much simpler and easier for a beginner like me to try and understand.
I had also continued my magical education, evolving my recent studies of warding into a continued study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy after finding several books from the Black Family collection on body and magic enhancement rituals that looked interesting. I was obviously not planning on going crazy and following the dark route of Voldemort, but several of the more basic ones were relatively simple in terms of cost, usually just some blood, magic, and time or a few potion or wand core ingredients and a bit of pain for the recipient. Even some of the more powerful wards, like the Fidelius were basically warding rituals and they all seemed very fascinating and attainable.
Just then, for the second time that day, a group of over a dozen bigfoot on those flying motorcycle type things flew directly overhead my little clearing without noticing a thing. Maybe the heavy tree canopies covered a bit of my little clearing, but I think the wards had more to do with their complete disregard for this area as they were usually more thorough in their exploration of the rest of the dark forest but always skipped over my area quickly and without notice. I guess either the notice-me-not wards, the muggle repellent, the insect repellent, the hostile intent, or the aversion wards were still working perfectly as I gave a little chuckle before returning to my work exploring the engine of this amazing jet fighter type spaceship, and trying to figure out how it works while taking breaks from my ritual studies.
"I guess they are turning up the search a bit," I mumbled to myself, noticing in the last few days the increase in numbers of searchers in both the air and ground parties and wondered when I would have to finally try and make contact with the bigfoot creatures.
Over the next few days, I had almost stopped working on the spaceships, knowing I would need help to ever really understand how they worked, even if my reparo spells were capable of making every component brand new again. Instead, I had almost exclusively been preparing for several body enhancement rituals I was getting ready to try, and was pretty excited with the possibilities. The first was a Peak Performance Ritual, and was supposed to return a person's body to their physical peak and would hopefully eliminate all the damage done from my years with the Dursleys.
I had three other body enhancement rituals to do after this first one, one strengthening all my bones and cartilage, another one strengthening my muscles and tendons bringing me to levels that far exceeded the average athlete, and the last to increase my healing factor. Knowing that I had a long life ahead of me, and with no true understanding of what that life would entail, I wanted to have every advantage available to me as long as it was relatively safe and didn't have costs I was unwilling to pay. In these cases, the cost was just some of my blood, physical pain for myself, some ingredients that I already had stores of in stasis inside my trunks, and my time to draw the runes involved in the ritual.
"Fuck!" I shouted in absolute agony after completing the first of the four rituals, not thinking about what it would actually take to improve my pathetically weak, short, and underfed body to its physical peak. And I thought Skelegro sucked ...it had nothing on the pain of all the bones and organs in your entire body slowly growing to their optimal state after years of abuse and neglect left you so fucking defiscient that you would even attempt this ritual in the first place. I hurt and ache so much all over, that I had trouble finishing the drawing of runes on my now much taller and fuller looking body as I stepped into the second ritual circle I had prepared wondering if this one would hurt as much as the last.
"Uggh," I groaned out in total agony while lying on the forest floor inside the final ritual circle as my magic seemingly burned throughout my body, and only the practical numbness of my body, from the previous three rituals prevented me from screaming out in bloody pain.
Shit, I hurt everywhere! I am just going to lay here for a bit, since I'm too fucking sore to move anyway ...I just wished my large jacuzzi style bathtub inside the tent wasn't so damn far away.
My rituals also let off a lot of magic and light, and I could see several of the bigfoots on the flying bikes circling around nearby having obviously noticed something in the area and trying to pinpoint its location behind my wards. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it lying here naked on the ground. I guess I better try to drag my ass to my bathtub for a long hot soak, and hope the wards would continue to protect me for a little longer until my newly enhanced healing factor kicked in.
When I woke up from my nap after the glorious soak in the hot bath of my tent, there was even more traffic nearby and around my little clearing, as now over two dozen of the bigfoot on the flying motorcycles were circling nearby. I could also feel several different teams of bigfoot on the forest floor practically starting to surround my interior ward line, as they kept getting turned away from the aversion wards, but they were slowly realizing how close they were to finding me. Since, I still had plans in place to complete two magic enhancement rituals, I decided to try and throw them all off my scent until I could finish and be better prepared to meet the locals.
With that in mind, I felt out for my barrier wards until I found one of the brownie beasts and got lucky as two of them were relatively far off to the North, nearby one another. I then apparated to them and started throwing out some very flashy, loud, and bright magic that I hoped would attract all the bigfoot groups' attention to the area. Within minutes, I noticed the arrival of several of the aerial team members and could feel the movement of the ground teams approaching as well. Since my magic show was just that, a show, I hit the two brownie beasts with confundus and aggression spells and apparated back to my tent to let the pair of them fight it out and draw all the heat away from me for another little bit.
It worked really well, as almost all the bigfoot teams had gone after the big disturbance, and left my little area for the time being. Knowing I wouldn't have a ton of time until they all started to return, I quickly brought out my supplies, and started drawing the ritual circles for the final two rituals I had planned for. The first ritual was a boost to your magical sensitivity, primarily referred to as mage sense and sight and only required some of your blood mixed with dragon blood and a bunch of runes drawn over various parts of your body. This would hopefully provide me with the fabled mage sight I was convinced both Dumbledore and Voldemort had, and also increase my ability to sense magic and other magicals around me.
The second was a general magical enhancement ritual powered by a few potions and wand core ingredients from various magical animals in order to boost your magical core and the flow of your magic in general, depending on what elements you used. With basilisk venom, phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, and reem blood at the four cardinal points I was pretty confident that I would get quite the magical boost. Though with the addition of acromantula venom, phoenix tears, demiguise hair, and unicorn hair in between those four cardinal points, this boost may be a little more powerful than I was expecting which is why I was doing it last.
After the first ritual which went relatively easily, I could instantly feel a better connection with my magic and wards, and could tell that my little distraction had ended and the teams of bigfoot were on their way back towards my location. Since I didn't know how big this second magical ritual would be, I made sure that everything I owned was safely shrunk and put inside trunks inside my tent which I collapsed and had stored inside my mokeskin pouch along with both my wands. I then hid that pouch inside the base of one of the larger trees nearby and carved a slight magical rune with the ritual knife I had on said tree to ensure I could find it afterwards.
I was a little nervous about the magical buildup and backlash of this second ritual, as warnings in the book I read about this explained a couple scenarios where it overloaded ritual rooms, which I didn't have and was going to be doing out in the open. So with as many precautions in place as I could make, I stepped naked inside the circle with the very potent magical elements spread out in the designated spots around me, and used the ritual knife to carve the focusing rune on my stomach above where my magical core resided. I then knelt down and cut deep slices in both of my palms until the blood was freely flowing and placed said hands on the two runes on each side of me that instantly lit up the ritual circle as it started expanding outward into the surrounding magical elements.
The magical buildup was instant and powerful, and I quickly had to close my eyes and grit my teeth in pain as it continued to build into a crescendo of epic proportions. The pain was immense, and only growing as my screams joined the mix of magical buildup until at its peak I could feel my body and magic trying to keep up with the influx of the ritual magic as spots started forming behind my closed eyelids and I knew I wasn't going to remain conscious for much longer. The magic was physically burning me from the inside out and the pain was so overwhelming I think my body shut itself down before I could even get a handle on what was happening and within moments I knew no more other than to hear and physically feel the ground around me explode with power as I lost consciousness.
-break-
I groaned in pain before I even realized that I was slowly trying to wake up, and could feel an ache so powerful throughout my body, I wondered if I had gone swimming in acid. Everything burned inside of me, and the ache to my body was so intense I simply laid on the cold metal ground in absolute agony for several long minutes as my mind and body tried to return to the world of the living. It took awhile for me to even remember about the magical enhancement ritual I was performing, and hoping that it was successful as I didn't think I ever wanted to try something like that again.
Wait ...go back ...am I on a "metal" floor?
Even with the revelation that I am not where I am supposed to be, I still took a minute to even feel around me to confirm that I was indeed lying on a cold metal floor still completely naked. It took even longer to open my eyes and blink out the bright lights and spots until I could start to see my surroundings. And then another minute of looking around me without comprehension before things started to line up and my brain seemed to reboot from the weirdness and disorientation I was experiencing.
"What the fuck?" I exclaimed in disbelief and still very much trying to regain my coherence and understand where the hell I was and what was going on.
I was in a small metal cell, basically a cage no bigger than three square meters. There were several other empty cages on both sides of me, and I realized I was in some kind of modern looking prison. How the fuck did I end up in here, and where the hell is here anyway? The lighting in the prison was unusual, as it provided enough to see, but was seemingly coming from the entire ceiling which glowed in a soft greyish white color that was somewhat distracting to me without seeing the actual source of the light.
"Rrwwoooaawrrr," came a garbled sounding mix between a growl and a roar from the far side of the room, and had me instantly turning my head to see one of the bigfoot creatures holding his crossbow like weapon pointed directly at me while another was scrambling to get out of the room, probably to report my waking up to their superiors.
"Well Fuck," I mumbled to myself, "I guess that explains where I am."
"Rrwwoooaawrr," came the same garbled yell from the armed bigfoot, as he was seemingly very threatened by my mere presence, and ready to act on it if the aiming of his crossbow at me was any indication.
It was at this point that I realized I wasn't completely naked, as they had apparently put some kind of handcuff-like devices on my wrists that glowed to my eyes and that I could actually feel with my magic, had a magic all their own. Though it felt very different from anything I had ever experienced to this point, they weren't true magic suppressing cuffs as I had a pair of them in my trunks and had messed around with them enough to know what they felt like. They were however, somewhat similar and I wondered if these "suppressing cuffs" were supposed to prevent me from using or accessing my magic and decided I would need to play along for a moment to determine what I wanted to do.
I didn't have to wait long, as moments later I could hear the arrival of several dozen more of the bigfoot beings, and hoped I would at least be given a chance to communicate with them before being attacked. That all 15 new arrivals also carried their crossbows and most kept them trained exclusively on me, it didn't bode well for my chances at a peaceful resolution. So, I internally checked my magic and discovered it was still weak and obviously recovering, but available in a pinch if I needed to make a quick escape or show off the uselessness of their "suppression cuffs".
"Wrooowwr wro wroor?" came an indecipherable question, though I could tell it was a question based on the inflection of the voice, I had absolutely no hope in understanding anything else.
"Um ...I don't suppose you have an English translator?" I responded questioningly, not ready to flee as this was a great chance to learn a little more about the race that populated this planet, and not wanting to come across as too threatening.
That got them all looking at me with little growls and tilted heads as if trying to understand what I said, but it didn't seem that any of them were English translators, not that I thought any of them would be. They had a little conversation among themselves filled with the same garbled growling and roaring language, before one of the bigfoot left quickly, seeming to get something or ask their superiors what to do with me ...I couldn't tell. It was another minute later with the bigfoot all still holding their weapons on me, when I heard an oddly even clunking sound approaching along with the returning bigfoot character.
When it arrived, I had to really keep myself from gaping at the somewhat human shaped robot that was walking alongside the bigfoot as it approached the group that was now spreading out a bit around my cage. The rusted goldish colored robot had the same basic shape of a human, just made completely of metal, with a few metal wires and internal components visible around the bendy parts like knees, elbows, waist, and neck. It looked like something straight out of a science fiction story, and I could only stare wide eyed as it approached and started speaking, unfortunately in a language I did not understand at all.
"Plreturd fhuw bhrnides $^*#, kfroy retyunh sderilkj," it spoke as if expecting me to understand.
"Um ...I am not sure what language that is, but do you speak English by any chance?" I replied, trying to communicate with the most advanced robot I had ever imagined seeing in my life and somewhat in shock still that it existed in the first place.
"Pgyhijku nkdwer mbnezx tyfhre gbidvec?" it seemingly asked in shock itself apparently, as the tone was almost disbelieving.
"Um ...I only speak English and Parseltongue ...do you know parseltongue?" I asked deciding to give it a try.
"Yes, Wyrm speech ...how do you speak Wyrm speech?" it replied in a shocked tone, but I could actually understand it, and couldn't believe that this robot could speak Wyrm. "There has never been a recorded human to speak Wyrm before."
"It's a magical language from where I come from," I replied slowly, unused to having conversations in parseltongue.
"Truly fascinating," it replied, before turning to the now roaring bigfoot next to it and continuing in the language it first seemed to use. "Pgrseftr hgnikjer xesajk nhidfo jnwesapo lkojik ghnitrw mnasdxe fdbavcip pxehzk."
"Rwoooawwrr wro rowrorr," came the reply from the leader of the bigfoot.
"I am to ask how you came to be here, and if you are a ...dark sider," came the metallic sounding voice in parseltongue, who paused on the last part, and I wondered if it was simply because parseltongue didn't have an exact equivalent for the word he wanted to use.
"I came here through a magical portal, and I am not evil or dark," I responded calmly, hoping they believed me and knowing a lot of my future interactions would depend on it.
"Are you a ...light sider?" it continued, again with the pause as it seemingly couldn't find the correct word in Wyrm.
"Where I come from, magic is about intent ...it is not inherently light or dark ...though I do consider myself good, as I have fought an evil dark magician most of my life until defeating him recently and coming here to start a new life," I replied honestly, seeing as I was finally able to communicate with something on this planet, and hoped it could continue in some way.
What followed was a very long conversation with the robot and the bigfoot that I had no chance at following even a little, but based on the eventual lowering of the weapons being pointed at me, I was hopeful that the rusted golden robot had successfully lobbied my case. Their talk continued though for some time, and eventually more than half the bigfoot beings left the prison room. After that, the rusted golden robot turned back to me to continue our discussion, probably under orders to determine more information on my intentions, as they still hadn't released me from the cell.
"They want to know what planet you come from? If it is part of the ^ $%*$(*$#! ...group of planets in the government? What are your intentions towards the %$&*#( ...them? How long have you been in the dark forest?" he asked, again pausing a few times when certain words didn't translate, and he needed to find an alternative.
"My planet was called $^&*! ...terra or dirt, and was the only viable planet in our solar system and had not advanced in space travel past our own moon. I have nothing against them, the portal I used to escape my planet dropped me in the dark forest, where I have been for three to four months ...um 90-100 days. Do you use the same $^*& !#$ ...measure of days and time?" I replied and asked at the end realizing that my measure of months and days might not make any sense.
"I can not answer in this language, Wyrm speech has no words for measurement of time. Do you speak another language?" the robot replied.
"I speak one of the native languages of my planet, but you didn't recognize it earlier," I answered and then continued in English, "We call it English and is one of the most popular languages of my planet."
"You did not recognize the basic and most popular language of our world we call !^$#(&^$#* Basic," continued the robot. "Though I am programmed to translate, I can also teach our basic language to you if I am permitted."
"I would like that very much, being unable to communicate with everyone is a real problem," I replied happily, hoping to be able to learn the basic language before what he asked earlier made me ask another question. "How many planets and languages are in your government system?"
"Over thousands of planets, and easily a million different languages," spoke the robot matter of factly, which had me shocked to my core.
"And travel between these planets is possible?" I asked wide eyed.
"Yes, space travel has been possible for over twenty thousand #%&^%&^$ ...basic years," answered the rusted robot with a seeming sense of self importance that had me smiling, hoping there was even more to this trip through the veil than a single planet of bigfoot creatures.
"Are there planets with beings like me?" I asked very curious.
"Yes, many planets have %( #* ...beings similar to you," responded the robot.
At that point, it became my goal to learn the language as quickly as possible so that I could start travelling and exploring all of these other planets, and cooperated with the bigfoot in any way I could as long as they provided language lessons with the robot. After promising to be on my best behavior, I was led from my prison cell into another larger cell disguised as a room and given a plain white tunic to wear and left with the rusted golden robot to start language lessons, and told food would be delivered to me. I was to remain here until a more detailed conversation could be had with the bigfoot creatures themselves, and as long as the language lessons were included I was fine roughing it for a bit.
For the rest of the day, I spent trying to learn the common basic language of the government with minimal success, and it was very slow going between Parseltongue or Wyrm speeches lack of certain vocabulary. I did get around to asking if there were any biological beings around that knew the basic language, as I had a magical method of copying memories and learning information at a much quicker rate if I could have access to their minds. That led to a discussion on my magical abilities, which the robot was very interested about and kept trying to compare it to another set of magical users in the known world that were very well respected and probably helped my case a little with the bigfoot beings.
The next day, the rusted golden robot who I now knew wasn't called a robot, but some other name not available in Parcel or Wyrm, came to my "room" with a handcuffed man being led by two bigfoot guards. The rather ugly looking man with the square jaw and large muscles, was explained as a captured slave trader who they were preparing to turn over to the government, and was here for me to use my method of learning the language. I was actually rather surprised that they would let me use the method I mentioned, but after the robot explained that the slave trader was caught trying to kidnap dozens of bigfoot children I realized they probably didn't much care about this man's suffering.
"Legilimens," I spoke as I caught the man's angry dark brown eyes, knowing it would be a whole lot easier if I had my wand, but knowing I could still overpower any natural shields or defences his mind had.
Knowing that they wouldn't care too much if the slaver had to deal with some pain, I was less gentle than I could have been when searching out information on the basic language and anything else I could think of. I was still more gentle than Voldemort ever was, and I also used this opportunity to learn as much information about everything the man knew, not knowing when I would get the next chance to learn more about the galaxy at large. It was rather shocking as I worked through the man's memories, learning far more than just the Galactic Basic language, also learning of the dozens of planets he had visited and countless slaves he had stolen and sold and all the other slavers he dealt with knowing that information could prove very valuable to the authorities.
Within half an hour, I had copied as many of his memories as I could without turning the piece of shit into a vegetable, though I was tempted after seeing everything this Salek Farndi had done in his pathetic life. He was a criminal of the worst sort in my mind, stealing and enslaving other beings, raping women, and profitting off of others, he was lucky I wanted him to remain sentient and cognisant of what was going to happen to him when the Wookies (the Bigfoot beings weren't apparently called bigfoot) turned him over to the Galactic Republic (the main governing body of the Gallaxy). He really was a treasure trove of knowledge though, especially on some of the darker elements within the galaxy, but a resource is a resource and I was glad to learn as much as I did.
"You should tell the Wookies, that this isn't the first time he's stolen from them," I spoke to my robot companion, I now knew was called a droid. "Six Galactic Months ago, he successfully stole and then sold an entire group of young Wookies to an arms dealer on Terec II in the Outer Rim."
Apparently, my learning of the language and other knowledge of even greater importance to the two present Wookies, was quickly accepted as they both squeezed a little bit harder on Salek's arms as the man himself paled at my words. The Wookies could apparently understand Galactic Basic very well, just couldn't speak it themselves, and were quick to give me a respectful nod of their heads before they dragged their prisoner back out of my room with great haste. The droid looked at me for several seconds, trying to understand my rapid growth of both the language and knowledge before exclaiming in shock.
"You learned Galactic Basic within a few minutes using your force method ...there is no record of the Jedi or Sith having such an ability," he stated trying to process this new information that went against anything on record, causing me to laugh a little.
"Then I bet there are a lot of things I can do, that you will have no record of," I replied happily, glad to finally be able to communicate with the beings of this planet normally, even if it would take a rather long time incorporating these memories into my mind's Occlumency and thinking in Galactic Basic instead of English.
"Jedi records go back over twenty thousand Galactic Standard years, even if your planet wasn't part of the Republic, there should still be a record of your magic in their archives somewhere," it responded rather flatly.
"How about this," I added as the droid was focusing on me, "I am going to jump back and grab my tent and supplies ...you wait here and I'll be back in under a minute."
I didn't give the droid a chance to reply before apparating straight out of the room and landing in the former clearing I had first settled in upon arrival, to find it looked much different than I remembered. There was now a cratered hole in the ground in the spot I performed my last magical enhancement ritual, and everything around it had been blasted back a bit. Even the incredibly large Wroshyr Trees were angled away from the central blast creating an even larger clearing that was actually uncovered by the canopy of the now angled away surrounding trees. Luckily the tree I marked was easy to spot, and not in too bad of shape, and I was able to quickly find and grab my mokeskin pouch containing all of my life's possessions before apparating back into the room I had just left to see a frantic and wobbling droid.
"I'm back," I announced as the droid quickly settled down and started talking relatively quickly.
"How did you leave and disappear from all my sensors?" came the frantic question.
"I apparated or teleported to the clearing I was living in the dark forest to get my bag," I answered, holding up said bag before reaching my arm inside and pulling out my two wands, putting the Elder Wand holster on my arm and brandishing my Holly Wand to transfigure the white tunic I had been wearing into a basic pair of jeans and t-shirt while the droid was frantically talking about the impossibilities that were piling up around my every action.
I just laughed and told him that I was special, and had plenty of tricks up my sleeves before we were interrupted by a knock on my cell door and it opening to another different pair of Wookies that asked if we could follow them to speak with their Clan Leader. After they both took extra seconds to glance at my new outfit confusedly, they turned and asked us to follow them. With my mokeskin pouch back around my neck, I followed the large Wookies as the droid clunked along next to me, still exclaiming the impossibilities of everything I had done in the last few minutes.
I was led to a large conference style room with over a dozen Wookies sitting around a large table, growling and roaring in various levels of volume and intensity, while a stoic Wookie who seemed in charge sat at one end listening to the various arguments. It seemed like there were many different camps and ideas being bandied about, not that I could understand the slightest bit about their language, I was able to read the mode in the room and it didn't bode well for the still alive Salek Farndi. He was still being held tightly by the same two Wookie guards in one corner of the room, though upon our entry, several of the arguing Wookies turned towards us as the yelling slowly tapered off.
My inclusion in the group of new arrivals though, caused a bit of a stir itself, as several voices were added to the quieting room, most seemingly demanding my head as well based on the anger I could detect among them, and some just seemingly wondering what I was doing there. I however, mostly focused on the large stoic Wookie I first tagged as the leader of this group and kept his eye confidently. In moments, his roar dwarfed all others in the room, and caused immediate silence from the many clamoring voices as he turned to me to speak.
"How did you learn of the theft of our children by this ...slaver?" came the translated sounds of the droid next to me, having recognized his pause as most likely the removal of some foul language which I had noticed he tended to do over the last two days of being around him.
"I read it from his mind," I answered calmly, "when I was copying his memories and understanding of the Galactic Basic language as I assume ...you allowed me to do."
"Are you a Jedi or Sith?" came the translated question from the droid after another roaring exchange.
"No ...my people were called wizards ...users of magic. I came from a planet that has not yet explored space travel, and have only learned of the Jedi and Sith from this man's memories," I answered motioning towards Salek.
"How sure are you of the accuracy of this information?" came the next translated question.
"100% sir, I took the memory straight from his own mind, he had no mental shields or any way to lie to me inside his own mind," I answered back, knowing several people unused to the mental arts had a hard time understanding what it entailed. "I know where he captured the young Wookies from, the ship he travelled in, the route and spaceport he docked in, and the arms dealer ...one Milthanex, a Balosar from Lothal. If he knew it, I now know it."
This set off several more roars and growls from the many voices in the room, had Salek pale further in the tightening grip of his guards, and the Wookie Leader look at me with a very careful gaze, probably sensing how dangerous I truly was. He continued to look at me while his fellows continued arguing around us, and the droid next to me warbled from foot to foot uneasily. Another set of growls from the obvious Leader, had the room again quieting to hear, and me to smile thinking about what I might be able to get out of this if I played it right.
"Are you willing to provide all of this information we need to rescue our stolen younglings?" came the translated question before it continued further, "and what do you want in return for this information?"
That brought about many further growls and roars from his Wookie companions, as it seemed many did not agree with giving me anything, or maybe they felt entitled to that information and didn't want it used as a bargaining chip. I completely ignored the peripheral noise and only focused on the Wookie Leader as I thought about what exactly I wanted. It didn't take me too long, as I had been on this planet for several months, and knew I wanted to explore more of the galaxy, especially now having the memories of Salek's travels. I at least now knew I was in the year 3593 ATC, or After the Treaty of Coruscant (60 BBY*), but no idea how that translated to my own world or anything else for that matter
"Allow me to be part of the rescue party, allow me a portion of the confiscated arms from raiding Milthanex, and allow me to learn about how to fly a spaceship and navigate space travel ...and I will do all in my power to help free your captured younglings and exact vengeance upon Milthanex in however you want," I responded confidently, and hoping it would work, as it would be a great chance to prove to them my value and become a friend of the Wookies versus an enemy, and get me started on my goal of exploring the known galaxy.
It took fifteen minutes of arguing amongst themselves before they agreed to let me be a part of the rescue operation, and another fifteen minutes for them to plan out said operation and begin the loading of the transport spaceship. I was provided with the droid I had been working with, TC-7H to be my personal translator, and assigned to the Wookie Kenroo as my direct supervisor and head trainer in the art of flying a spaceship. In return, when we arrived at the hangar for our departure, I instructed them that I had a gift for them and enlarged the shrunken horseshoe shaped ship in an empty stall and told them I had repaired their junk metal but was unsure if it was fully operational, but was theirs to do with as they pleased.
I think seeing me remove the small model sized ship from my mokeskin pouch, and then enlarge it to it's rightful size made all the present Wookies re-evaluate my capabilities and inclusion in the mission. My new droid friend was again speechless and uncomprehending of how I subverted the known physics of the universe, and seemed resigned to an unknown future with me. I just laughed at the shocked looks of everyone around me as I gave nods to the remaining mechanics as I boarded the spaceship with everyone's eyes following me.
I would learn that we were on a GX1 Short Hauler, and had a pair of Theta Class T-2c shuttles providing our cover as we lifted off from the hangar and went through a series of checks before quickly accelerating into the atmosphere. I noticed several of the trash can droids, now known to me as astromech droids among the dozen Wookies, all in the rather large cockpit area of the Short Hauler, and learned they were the navigators. With my knowledge of our destination and route taken originally by Salek, we were quickly going into hyperdrive and leaving behind Kashyyyk ...and I couldn't be more excited.
Kenroo provided and TC-7H translated a running commentary on everything that was happening during our final checks and lift off into space, including the navigation teams working on and confirming our safest route to Terec II. Once everything was imported into the ship's mainframe computers and navigation system, it was simply a waiting game, as they estimated it to be around a thirty hour trip to the relatively nearby, in their minds, Outer Rim planet. After another hour of just looking at white lines of passing stars and solar systems, I had learned as much as I could for the moment on space travel, and realized I would probably need a crew of my own at first if I didn't want to simply wander around aimlessly in the galaxy and probably end up paste in the side of a star.
Kenroo was pretty friendly overall, even if he didn't trust me completely, at least he wasn't one of the hostile looking ones that glared at me from time to time which I ignored completely. Eventually I left the bridge and went exploring the rest of the ship, which didn't turn out to be much more than a main hallway with four large empty cargo rooms, two per side until the hallway ended at a small medical bay. Knowing that I could easily expand or hide any of these rooms with magic, I decided to hold off until we landed in case my magic messed with any of the electrical components while in mid-flight and killed us all.
Instead, I pulled out my large library trunk and went in to read for a bit, having TC-7H stand guard outside the trunk as he used the time to plug himself in to recharge. I read for a bit, before meditating on my new memories for even longer, and then took a long nap in my comfortable chintz chair before leaving the trunk and finding my battle armor and trying to prepare for the eventual confrontation with Milthanex. Having a nice meal, I left the trunk and returned everything to my mokeskin pouch before heading back to the bridge for the hopefully final few hours of the flight until we arrived, both nervous and excited at what was to come.
*Year 3593 ATC, or After the Treaty of Coruscant (60 BBY*) Before the Battle of Yavin the measurement of years was based on the Treaty of Coruscant in 3653 BBY, so had to work backwards to get to 3593 ATC. Will probably use BBY designation from this point forward, but wanted to point out that before the Battle of Yavin took place, they had no idea their calendar was going to completely change and use that marker (like the Chritian B.C. and A.D even though Jesus was more likely born in 4 B.C. since King Herod's rule ended around then, but don't get me started on that).
