Disclaimer: We ( zazabelle and draksisreborn) own nothing but our OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Please review and enjoy this latest installment.
Rating: T
Energy is a fickle thing. The whole universe is made out of it, but no one seems to know what it is. Well, a void of energy is simply nothingness, like death. And a void filled with something, that's life. I wonder why it's so hard for many to believe that the universe that they talk to so often is just a little more sentient than they first knew? Is it so hard to believe the life you exist in is thinking too?
For a moment, I felt that energy envelope me. It sounded like voices and memories.
Then I felt something crush my chest.
CRACK!
My eyes shot open from the pain as I gasped and sputtered for air, the wind knocked out of me. My rib burned and I crumpled in on myself while my body screamed in agony.
"I'm dying."
"You're not dying." an angry accent spoke.
"Dying."
The voice sighed. My vision came dancing into view as my breathing leveled out, and I saw the pale, lined face of the Jedi come into view. "C-Cenden? I think my rib is broken. Am I going to die?"
"First of all, your rib is not broken. It vas dislocated, which it isn't anymore and we all die eventually so suck it up." With that I watched him gather what looked to be medical supplies off of the floor.
With a lot of effort, the man rose off the ground. I looked on as he walked just a ways with a slight limp before settling on a pillow pile not too far away. I looked around at where I was, trying to remember what was going on. I was still in the temple, that was a given. Those were my pillow piles, and the shelves on shelves of holocrons and scrolls still grew around me, so I was in the library. Moving my hands to hover over my face, I noticed the appendages had a lot of cuts. Some were so fine that they managed to slice some of my freckles in half which, were shifting between a pinky red to a light purple.
Then I felt the Force weaving between my fingers. Almost holding my hand. I let out a sigh of relief as I enjoyed the feeling of peace again; my guide was back. I looked up where I pretended their eyes could be and my mind suddenly connected the fuzzy dots.
Then it all came rushing back.
I gasped and sat up before screaming and hunching over in pain.
"You're still injured, remember?" Cenden imparted.
"CENDEN!"
"I'm not that far away, kid."
"I had a vision! WE had a vision! Soron had…! Wait. Where's Soron!?"
He nodded in the direction behind me. I swiveled around, again provoking the sharp stabbing in my chest. Sucking in a breath, I winced at seeing the captain laying in no better condition then I'd last seen him. All crumpled up on the ground with the look of pain on his face. At least this time he was all bandaged up and had a few pillows. Seeing him, the vision flashed through my mind. I pushed away the feeling of pain in my temples and watched it again. It was so clear as day. My mind seemed to store it away as a dream, but I felt the feeling of the experience like it'd really happened.
'My guide… This is the best day of my life. I never want to forget any of this.' I thought before I crawled over to Soron on my hands and knees.
"Where is everyone else?" I asked Cenden over my shoulder.
I heard the squish of pillows as he must've readjusted his position before responding, "We were in there for a few hours. In the trials room below the temple. It didn't feel like that long, but time moves differently in visions I guess. I told Lerti, Chol, and Nek to get some sleep. I think BX might still be wandering around here reorganizing holocrons or something as part of his "sentry" duties."
"What about the captain? Is he ok?"
"He's pretty beat up but he's a tough guy. He should be alright. And if you're asking about healing him, I'm too tired."
"You can do that!?"
He rolled his eyes and slumped further into the pillows, "The Force, whatever it's trying to do or say, it's hurting him. He's not Force-sensitive. It shouldn't be able to do this."
"But Soron wants them to."
Sitting back onto my heels, I stared at the captain for a long while, just letting my eyes and mind zone into focus on nothing, and from there I could see it. My guide swirling about him. An invisible force of a million colors and shapes. It moved about me too, and trailed around the library. I could already feel another path forming in my mind. As always, the same sense of urgency moving from one step to the next. Except I didn't need to go anywhere.
The vision flashed through my mind again. Excitement and fear and hope; everything there was to feel welled up inside me, the last thing I remember being a burning-white star.
That's when Soron screamed.
And I screamed.
The captain sat bolt upright. His eyes fly from place to place, finally falling onto me. "Vis?"
"Ya?"
He suddenly choked on laughter and ran his clawed hands across the top of his head, "Does this kind of thing happen often?"
"No. This is new to me too, but this sort of thing happens a lot in my mind." I looked back at Cenden, who was now working to stand and make his way over. "We need to write this down."
"Agreed." Soron nodded, a smile stretching across his face.
"Ahem."
The three of us looked over to see Nek standing between some of the shelves. "I'm guessing you're going to need this."
His hands turned over to reveal a polished white orb sitting in his palms. He was holding the star.
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What do you do when the universe sends you a message? What steps do you take after that?
The Chol and Lerti had returned from the ship with food, only to find the other five, including BX, standing together, having possibly the strangest conversations imaginable. Vis and Soron at the center of it all, the girl reading through scrolls and pulling up what looked to be notes on the odd terminal at the center of the room, while Soron asked questions, gave answers, or made BX find more items to satisfy either one. So the two gave a mighty shrug and decided to join them.
Each of them - the girl, the Jedi, and the captain - had seen something in the temple amidst the visions of torture from the past, there seemed to be some message for the future. They weren't quite sure what they were looking for, as usual, but the girl seemed determined beyond determination to connect the dots. And when one has done nothing but study this sort of topic everyday for five years with the knowledge that every bit of it may become useful at any moment, it's safe to assume that every thought and piece of reasoning pouring out of Vis' head needed the same amount of time for any logical context. All the while Vis held the white crystalline orb tight against her body, almost like she was guarding it. Or trying to absorb it.
First things first, the recount to the crew of the events that had occured before the visions. That was easy. Daring fights with creatures beneath the ground of unknown origin. That only led the problem of being separated, which was slightly more confusing and warranted a lot of apologizing from Soron, but it was still understandable. Then it came to the visions. And that needed nearly an hour of Vis' explanation on what visions were and why they were important in themselves, Cenden jumping in every once and a while to correct an important detail or reword something to be more understandable. But then it became nit picking.
At the 'data table' as Vis called it, she recorded the accounts in its database of everything each person could recall about what they saw, only after a lot of convincing to share important details about the more… traumatizing visions, enough data was collected for the real work to begin.
"Ok. Ok. Lets go over it again." Vis moved about the table, running the smooth sphere through her hands as she talked.
"We've gone over it a million times, kid. Nothing really seems to be of any significance to us." Chol said gruffly.
"I know, I know. But we're so close. It all connects because it has to. Too much has happened now." She held up the sphere in front of her eyes, "Ok! So! We all saw people we've lost. That's a given, represents past causes of future events or something according to one of those scrolls," she gestured to the growing pile of "past vision" category scrolls, "Then we saw planets… I mean there was a lot of other stuff, but planets was the main concern right? We can all agree on that?" Only Soron nodded, "So what are planets? They're big spheres of stuff orbiting a gravitational pull… Wait!" She looked at the sphere in her hands, "That could be something!"
She threw the sphere into the center of the data table and gasped as she started jumping up and down. "Yes, YES, YES! That's the parallel we've been looking for! Cenden press the button!" Vis excitedly pointed to the record button on his side of the table.
The table lit up to indicate it's recording, Vis cleared her throat. "In the vision, we saw a ton of planets, the amount of which Soron can't remember yet. Planets orbit gravitational pulls such as stars and sometimes collapsed stars. If this thing is supposed to parallel the vision we had, then that means that this, is a blank holocron!"
"Wait vhat?" Cenden interrupted as he peered at the floating moon-colored orb at the center of the table.
"Ya look! On the table, it has the same sort of weird internal set up as a holocron, but there's nothing in it!"
This time Lerti stepped in, "Ok, I'm barely hanging onto what's going on here, but didn't you say in your vision this orb was a star?"
She thought for a moment, "Ya, I guess you're right, but! Galaxies give way to new galaxies when they explode, or collapse, or whatever. The vision could've counted as an explosion right? So then the stardust gave way to a planet?"
"This all seems to be very subjective." BX joined in as well, the droid rolling up one of the scattered scrolls across the floor.
"That is the nice thing about visions. They have hundreds of different meanings. Everytime you look at one you can find something new." Vis smiled, obviously proud of remembering some quote.
"Then how do we know what we're discovering is the right thing?" Nek inquired.
"I guess if we're seeing it now, it's the right thing for now." Soron answered, "And right now, the vision is implying that the planets are holocrons."
"YES! I swear that was on the tip of my brain!" Vis jumped back in.
"So planets orbit a star, but you saw them all connected to a tree. So holocrons connected to a tree?" Lerti observed peering closer at the sphere.
Vis looked off into space, falling strangely quiet before whispering, "Hold on a moment. It's there."
Her eyes went all bugged eyed as she stepped forward and looked further off into space. Cenden could sense her connecting and stringing something together, like she was having a conversation with the Force before she closed her eyes and started mumbling to herself.
"Trees. Trees have roots, these roots connected to a river, rivers connect to the oceans, oceans are on planets which house life. Trees are connected to life, life connected to planets, planets are holocrons, connected to life, connected to the Force circling the pull of the Force like a star. Holocrons are circling knowledge of the Force." She opened her eyes. "Got it."
She walked over to the data table and took the orb, the crew stood watching. She took a breath.
"I know I don't know anything about any of you, but I know a bit about the Force, and they really wanted us all to be here. They wanted you to find me, they wanted me to find you. I think they've been looking for someone for a long time to listen. Someone who's not on a side. Someone to just do what they need them to do. The Force has a message for the galaxy, a warning… I think it needs us to collect the holocrons that will have that message. And I think we're supposed to record the ones they inspired others to record in here." She held out the orb, "I think we're supposed to piece together a message."
Everyone was silent for a moment as they thought on the strange words spoken. Words that seemed to hold such a clear purpose, and yet…
"How many?" Cenden broke the silence.
Vis looked up from the orb, "I don't know. I don't even think it's so much individual holocrons as much as it is pieces of information stored in each holocron. Like, each one has a lot of random info depending on which one you have and who recorded in it."
Soron sighed as he stepped forward, "I think, I may have just remembered the number of holocrons I saw. But you're not going to like it." He announced solemnly looking at Cenden.
"66. I saw 66 holocrons."
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It had been about an hour since Soron and Cenden had disappeared back to the ship to continue their shouting match, although what they were saying had almost immediately been lost by the even BX. What the crew had been able to understand was something about the holocrons, a "captain's decision," and a rather vulgar retort from Cenden. Unfortunately, Vis was unable to cover her ears in time.
Chol had also gone back to the ship, but was likely staying as far away from the shouters as possible, leaving Nek, Lerti, BX, and Vis to their own devices in the library.
Nek sat fiddling with the orb at data table, examining the file structure of the empty holocron while Lerti lay on the floor with her feet propped up on one of the more empty shelves. Meanwhile, Vis lay on one of the smoother spots of the floor doodling with great focus on an old vacant scroll piece.
Nek poked the floating orb before kneeling down to examine the underside of the table, "So what is this thing exactly? Cenden said that only the Jedi can open holocrons using the Force?" Nek asked the small artist hard at work on the floor.
Vis' head shot up from the paper followed quickly by her body and within a moment kneeled near Nek at the table, "I've been looking a lot into this thing actually. The Force does open the holocron, but this table seems to have been modified to as to emit some sort of sound,"
"Frequency." Lerti corrected.
"Ya! A frequency that keeps the holocron in place while also extracting data from the holocron's mainframe. Holocrons can hold hundreds of years worth of data and even present messages from the Force if combined. The crystals have a similar frequency to the Force. That's how the Force designed them I guess." Vis finished, looking at Nek's near equally excited face.
"Sounds like an organizational mess. But a beautiful one nonetheless." The man marveled as he stood and ran his hand over the screen.
"It is! You always find just the right information you were looking for in these as long as you're looking for it." Vis stated with a nod.
Lerti turned her head the most she could manage while upside down, "Do you always speak like you're trying to talk in riddles?"
"Sure! I've lived for five years in a giant library with almost all the information you could ever think to look for, so I know a ton of riddles. Wanna hear one?"
"I'll pass." The Mandalorian dismissed.
"I would love to have one of these in on the ship. It actually looks like a targeting computer on a Republic ship. I would have to open it up to see how it worked, but I don't want to risk damaging it. Do you know if the blueprints for this thing are here?" Nek inquired as he peered around the library.
Vis shrugged, "I'm not sure. I didn't want to mess with the thing that gave me the info I needed to do research, so I've never really looked as far as how it might work. I'm no engineer, but it's too bad whoever collected all these holocrons into this old temple didn't leave behind a record of themselves…"
"You mean… All of this stuff wasn't apart of the temple?" Nek asked.
"That's what I thought at first too, but it doesn't make sense that all of this was apart of the original temple. I mean, look at the walls and ceilings. This place is ancient. But the shelves and bed stuff that I use, not to mention the data table, they couldn't have been here more than a year or two after I got here." Vis explained as she stood and ran her hand along one of the nearest shelves.
BX's head suddenly popped around the corner of one of the shelves, "She's right. My scans indicate that this wood is foreign to this moon and would've decayed long ago."
Vis smiled and tapped her fingers along the data table. "I wish whoever collected all the holocrons here had left a name…!" Her face suddenly fell.
The girl's slanted eyes grew wide in her head as she looked up and slowly turned, as if she were looking at the library for the first time. The others watched as her freckles shifted from their electric green, to bright purple.
"Whoever collected the holocrons! SOMEONE COLLECTED THESE HOLOCRONS! Guys!" she started jumping up and down. "This mission was already started for us! We're picking up where someone left off!"
Lerti had by now flipped over from the floor and had quickly unfolded to a stand, "Wait. Wait. Kid, what are you talking about? I was barely clear on what we were doing here to begin with, so you're going to have to elaborate."
Vis took a breath, wincing slightly in pain.
"In the most calm manner possible." Lerti cut in before Vis could even get a sound out. By now BX had walked over to join the party out of interest, still holding a holocron in his mechanical hand.
Vis let the breath out and nodded. Pressing her hand into her side regretting the jumping.
"So… If the Force wants us to go around and collect holocrons with some kind of message, then why can't we assume that all the holocrons we need are right here? Someone put all of these holoboxes and triangles and little holobits here for some reason! Maybe they just couldn't complete what they started?"
"But then why send us here if someone was already on the mission and you're here?" Nek challenged.
"Hmmm…" Vis' hand went to her chin, eyes shifting down the hallway, towards the foyer, and the ship. "...I don't know yet, but I think it has something to do with 66, the number of holocrons Soron saw. Any guesses?"
The four went quiet for a moment.
"Order 99." BX suddenly chimed in.
"What?" Vis' freckles went deep red.
"Separatist Droid Order 99. I have it on my memory records because of the intertwined events concerning the simultaneous demise of the Jedi. When I was found and rebooted I was given information to the end of the war, the day my system was shut down by the command lined up with the date of the Jedi rebellion." the droid recalled.
"But that would have to mean that someone on both sides of the war somehow gave an order to both the clones and the droids in order to make sure each was carried out without fighting between the two." Lerti analyzed.
"But who could be on both sides of the war and high up enough to give a command like that?" Nek finished, the three of them turning to Vis.
"I know. Hold on. I'm thinking… My guide, I think our brains could use a little help?" That's when her eyes fell on the holocron in BX's hand. "There are no coincidences. Beware misinterpretation." Vis muttered before grabbing the holocron out of BX's claw and running over to the data table.
Swiping the data orb off of the table and stuffing into her enormous trench coat pocket, the girl proceeded to almost throw the data cube into the data table where it rose and unfolded in midair. Vis began shuffling through the files in the cube. Her eyes flying across the screen for a moment before her gaze fell back to the entirety of the files on the screen.
"This is a history cube. I mean, it has a ton of other stuff, but the majority seemed to be shared data history of the Jedi. I've looked through this one before but mainly just for prophecy alignment stuff, it's normally a bit too boring for a read through, but look." She pointed at a date in the files the last one added in the section, "This date recorded doesn't match up with the event recorded… Someone added this later."
"Why would someone add it later? What was so important about that date?" Nek asked.
"Because the day recorded here, the Jedi were a little too busy being put through genocide to be worried about recording it." BX pointed out.
Vis tapped on the file. Instantly one caught everyone's eye. Next to the file describing the event sat another reading: "Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic: Order Initiation, Orders 1 Through 150".
The four glanced at each other before Vis clicked on the file.
Despite what the name suggested, there was not a complete initiation. In fact, there were more blank spaces in this file than there were filled ones. Whoever had been filling out this list hadn't completed their search for answers. But there was something promising here.
Vis scrolled down the list, stopping barely halfway through. They stared at the emboldened text, each of them reading it's lines over and over again.
ORDER 66: "In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established."
"What's a 'Supreme Commander'?" Vis asked, "Sorry, government studies is not at all my favorite."
Lerti looked deeply troubled. Running her hands through her red hair, she sighed, "I was little back then, when the Republic was still around, and it's not like my particular tribe on Mandalore cared much about politics either, but I remember this. At the end of the war, when the Jedi supposedly betrayed the Republic, the Chancellor Palpatine or whatever, was given emergency total dictation over the senate. The problem was, he's still there. Palpatine became the emperor of the Galactic Empire."
Vis' freckles went dark green, "Which means he gave the order to kill the Jedi."
"What about BX? Who gave his order to shut down?" Nek questioned.
"I think we're still talking about the same person here." Lerti threw in.
"He gave both orders, because he was on both sides. Palpatine started and ended the war… but why?" Vis inquired, but she looked as if she asked someone far off.
"So he could have utter and complete control of the galaxy. Duh." Nek replied.
"There are other ways to have that kind of power… What did he really need to gain so badly? So you take over the galaxy, then what? What's the point of that?" Vis exasperated.
Lerti chuckled, "Now you just sound like Soron. But she's right. Why go through all of this trouble? Why do all of this? Think of all that was at stake for this guy! Who could want to destroy the Jedi so badly just so you could do whatever you wanted?"
Vis looked slowly over to Lerti, her freckles now shifting suddenly from blue to red, "The Sith. The Sith would."
Vis turned and went to grab another holocron from the shelves, this one a deep red triangle.
"I don't like these ones. They're angry and full of fear. But if you know the truth and that darkness has no power, then you should be fine." With that she threw the triangle onto the data table and it began to unfold.
Something strange happened to the data originally presented. The color on the screen turned purple, as well as all the text. The words seemed to spread and mix with new ones before their eyes.
"My guide. We're looking for who executed Order 66." Her fingers brushed along the strangely mixed new list of Republic Orders, when the screen shifted.
Now, next to Order 66, the title "Darth Sidious" appeared along with the date 82 BBY.
Lerti flipped on a device in her wrist comm connecting her to the Holonet. She sighed again with what sounded like near disappointment and certain fear.
"Sheev Palpatine. 82 BBY. Naboo."
They were quiet for a moment before Vis spoke, "Do you guys realize what this means? The Jedi were under the control of the Sith. They weren't listening to the Force any longer, they were listening to the Republic, which was under the control of the Sith Lord! This explains a lot actually… Why the Force didn't save the Jedi from destruction, why the Sith still have an order, why someone would collect all these holocrons here. The Force gave warnings, but there was no one there to listen… I'm not sure anyone's ever put this all together before."
"If someone did, the Empire would've been quick to silence them." BX observed.
They looked around the library of someone's unfinished work.
Lerti gave a nervous laugh, "I wouldn't tell Cenden about this if I were you."
"I think we have to." Nek stated.
Vis looked back towards the halls of holocrons, "What do you guys think they're arguing about?"
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"For the last time Cenden, its nonnegotiable." Soron shouted at Cenden for the fourth time.
"The hell it isn't!" Cenden shouted back. "This idea about the holocrons is crazy enough, but I've come to expect that from you. But HER?!"
"What exactly is your problem with Vis?" Soron asked. "The Force is literally speaking to her and telling us what the next step is. In what galaxy wouldn't we take her with us?!"
"Her connection is unnatural!" Cenden spat. "No one in the history of the Jedi has had that kind of connection. How do we know that she isn't delusional?"
"How do you know that about her abilities!? Dogmas like that are the reason you're here and not in your precious temple with the rest of your order!" Soron shouted back.
Cenden's expression darkened. "Be very careful about what you say next, Soron." He glowered. "You have no idea what happened that day."
"And you have no idea what I've seen or done either." Soron sighed. "This shouting isn't getting us anywhere. I am your captain and I say that I'm offering Vis a place in our crew."
Cenden opened his mouth the argue but Soron quickly silenced him "Or would you prefer that I leave a little girl on an abandoned planet at the mercy of whatever scaver or pirate finds her?"
Cenden paused, eye twitching, before he sighed. "Fine, she can come if she wants. You win."
"Don't be like that." The captain sighed. "I'm just trying to take care of another lost soul. That's why I expect you to be less of an ass to her. And to train her." Soron said.
"I am not going to be that girl's master!" Cenden exclaimed.
"Then you don't have to be!" Soron shot back. "Just train her to use that lightsaber well and channel the Force so that she isn't a helpless pup out there!"
"Fine. But might I point out that she's been here quite a while doing just great on her own." Cenden grumbled.
Soron sighed. The two had been arguing between the kitchen counter for what was nearly half of the hour, but the way the loud conversation had been going around in circles, it had felt like an eternity. The captain could understand where Cenden was coming from, there was a lot at stake here. The number of the holocrons had indeed matched up with the numbered Republic Order executed by the now emperor and had wiped out the Jedi. Well, almost all of them. Soron had seen the events transpire in the same ways Cenden had, except Soron hadn't been the target.
Cenden had managed to work quietly for the empire as a nurse for long enough to have gained information regarding the specific order given, and Soron had simply heard the command.
But what irked Cenden so much about Vis was a complete mystery to the Shistavanen.
"I've heard this story before, Soron." Cenden suddenly cut through the silence. Soron crossed his arm with a look of tactful interest. "I've seen this story a million times, it's in every story and legend there is to be written. An orphaned child chosen by a greater power finds a master, with the crew in tow, they go off and fight a greater evil. There'll be losses, an honorable sacrifice. Maybe one, maybe two, maybe everyone… But then for just one moment there's hope in the galaxy. Good triumphs… and then it's gone. Like it never existed or that good is immortalized, and falsified, and made into another great evil. And this goes on. Forever. In an eternal struggle between the light and the dark. There is no end."
Soron's shoulders raised, his arms coming undone, "Vis didn't say anything about fighting!"
"She didn't have to! It's written all over her face! She doesn't even know what she wants to fight yet. But she wants to fight for the Force! She wants to do as it tell her… And I won't be apart of this temporary victory anymore. My life is not worth the sacrifice for a moment of happiness only to again be 'balanced' with evils! Nothing changes."
The two thought for a moment in silence. It was Soron's turn to speak.
"Cenden? I've seen this story before too. A withered old master tired of living, decides to give up on everything and be anywhere accept where he's supposed to be. Then he finds a spark. And that spark changes him. To do what needs to be done, for someone or for themselves. That's you Cenden."
"You don't know who I am!"
"And you don't know who she is! You don't know who Vis is. You have no right to judge what story we're in. No one knows what story we're in. But we're in it. So why don't you let the story play out before you decide how it ends?"
Cenden was silent for a moment for closing his eyes with a reluctant smile. "You really are Jedi material, captain."
Soron laughed, happy the fight seemed to be a its end, "Who says I couldn't be one, right? Who's to say what story this is?"
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I think I'd heard the question asked before, "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what's three things you take with you?", but I'm not sure I'd ever heard the reverse of that.
I'd known the offer was coming, it just made sense after all to go with them. There was a new path, a new future, leading off somewhere my guide needed us to go. I'd been asking them about it, but I'd only felt a smile of hope and great excitement, so I figured I should be too... Right?
But preparing yourself to go on an adventure, ones that I'd read about in stories for years and dreamed of being in for so long made travelling light a challenge.
Nek had determined we'd need the data table if the main focus was suppose to be holocron examination, which my guide and I agreed to. The feeling around the table felt urgent in a calm way, so it was a good idea to come with. As for the holocrons in the library? We were at a loss. Well, not so much at a loss, but at a confusion.
We needed holocrons, scrolls, holobits, cubes, triangles, and anything that had a legitimate inspired message from the Force within it. That meant prophecies, visions, illustrations, laws, legends, creations myths, even some pictures and recordings. We figured in the end, including what we needed to find, that all of it would add up to some number relating to 66, but there was so much data to be collected. We just weren't sure how to bring it all or which ones held what we needed.
"Well whoever was here before me was pretty thorough with this, where do you think she is now?" I wondered as I walked past Chol to drop several more scrolls into my growing pile.
"She?" Was the only thing the man muttered in concentration, glancing over a scroll.
I smiled, "I always pretended to be a fierce warrior woman guarding these holocrons, and it seems like those things seem to have some truth with imagination!"
The pilot looked up from his scroll and smiled with a nod. He turned the scroll about for me to see, "What about this one?"
I squinted at the letters, the Force gathering about the text. Glazing over the words I focused less on what the words said, and more on how they made me feel… They felt like dust and paper with sparks of someone's own imagination in there. But a lot less truth.
"Nope! Not that one. It feels dusty." I explained; Chol gave another simple nod.
I liked the older pilot, he was a good listener, a good observer. It was a quality I knew had to have positive results.
Taking a breath, my mind attempted to race around again. 'This is it my guide. What you've been preparing me for. Please help to get what you need me to get from here… I'm going to miss this place. I know I'm not supposed to look back, but this place is important. It's hidden. I'm hidden. What if one day I come back and it's changed? What if… I come back changed?'
I reached out to the ground, letting the kyber crystal react to their touch. The veins branching out like paths in the universe.
'No.' I thought as a note to self, 'As long as I have you and I listen to you, I'll be the person I'm supposed to be. The person I need to be. And that means being myself, no matter the stakes.' I looked over at Chol and Cenden collecting a few more holocrons for examination, 'And I'll help them get to know you too.'
With a determined smile on my face, I rose from the ground and skipped off to the next shelf, the light trailing my path. I was still going to miss this place.
'Which one next my guide!?'
My hand moved to a strangely purple one near the top shelf. 'Got it!'
So it went for the next few days. The crew would go and make their way up to the roof of the temple and sleep in the ship while I would lay awake in the temple below, waiting for the sun to raise over the forest's treeline.
'How do I make my last days count here? I don't even know these people and I'm just getting in a ship and flying away with them? ...Is this technically a job? I can't leave this place. I'm sure I'll be back. But what if you want me somewhere else instead of in the heart of the temple? What is the plan? What do we need to do next?' These were the thoughts I found myself thinking in variations over those same two days. But no answers seemed to come.
Then there was the problem of how to collect the data we needed for the orb-y, holocron thingy...
"Hey Vis?"
The sound of a garbled voice barely reached my ears as I opened my eyes and raised my head from one of the large pools in the temple foyer I had decided the float in. I had taken off my trench coat but my dark shirt and gray baggy pants were immersed in the water with me.
It was Nek, "Ya?"
"I was going to maybe show you something for the holocron orb data… But what are you doing?"
I shrugged a bit as I repositioned myself in the water and climbed up onto the edge of the pool's crumpled rock ledges before turning over my hand to reveal my old broken lightsaber I hadn't seen since the trials room.
"A couple months ago I saw something shining at the bottom of the pool but this is the first time I've been able to reach it."
Nek gave a look to the pool then to me with a suspicious look.
I laughed a bit before following the engineer, barefooted and sopping wet back to the temple library. I would dry out soon, I just wouldn't go near the scrolls or books for a while.
I smiled as we entered and I saw Soron deeply invested in one of the more preserved books in the temple. He noticed me watching and waved.
"So, I know we need to take the data table with us. But with the amount of holocrons here plus the sheer amount of scrolls and books here I'm not sure it would be wise to bring ALL of them." Nek began.
"Sure sure makes sense." I responded
"Plus with all Jedi religious studies being illegal in the Empire it probably won't be smart to have a ton of these just laying around our ship, especially not with our line of work."
Something in my brain clicked, "Wait. Is the Empire still a thing? I was pretty little when I came here and I know we were just talking about the emperor guy a moment ago, but he's still in charge? Isn't he evil? What do you guys do for your line of work?"
I could tell I spoke too fast again, and Nek looked at a loss at how to answer. From two aisles down the hall of shelves I heard Lerti's voice echo through, "Yes. The Empire is still a 'thing', it's called the Galactic Empire for a reason. And trust us when we say that we are not the least bit surprised when we found out the leader of it all is possibly an evil superpowered psychopath."
"And as for work. We do what we do whenever we need to do it." Nek added with a smirk. "This whole 'discover the secrets of the universe' thing was more of an aspiration/hobby in between jobs. It's not like we could afford to go to schools in the Core Worlds or something."
"Oh ya! I know my mom… She used to want me to be able to go to the same schools she went to in the Core when she was younger. But she said they wouldn't let me go because I was too 'not human' so she just taught me stuff herself!"
Nek and I made it over to the data table, my bare feet slapping against the floor.
"Jeez kid, I'm sorry." Nek added.
"Doesn't matter to me! I know more than any of those schools anyway. I live in a library." I said as I tapped my head while staring at the screen.
Cenden had placed the orb back on the data table for Nek to look through, as well as two other Jedi holocrons for reference, "Well I was thinking about how you put the two different holocrons together and the data sort of melded together to make new data. And also I noticed this recurring message running through all holocrons that appeared to have data current with the Clone Wars era." Nek tapped on a message labelled "To the Survivors."
I'd watched that one over and over again as often as I could. It had given me hope that there were still people out there willing to exist with the Force. Then again, it's not like I have much of a concept of outside this moon.
The familiar holographic face of Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi appeared on the data table and began, "This is a message to all remaining Jedi…"
Suddenly, from somewhere in the temple I could hear Cenden's angry accent yelling, "Shut that off!"
Nek rolled his eyes and ended the recording.
"Anyway. So the holocrons can communicate with each other beyond being physically connected. I think that's why there's so much data and stuff on them. As one Jedi, or Sith or person puts something into one, the holocrons share the information with the next, but sometimes it gets changed along the way."
"Like the Force is adding their own thoughts to the messages! I knew it! Yes!"
"It's getting hard to wrap my head around, but it seems like the Force or something, is somehow creating patterns from the data given it to then looping it back around and giving answers. Like it's using the kyber crystal as a ground for the energy powering it to act as a mind of its own."
"That's the coolest thing I've ever heard."
"Ditto for me kid, and I'm the one who thought of it. Anyway, I think the little metal pieces on the sides of this thing are acting somewhat like antennas. The Force activates and powers the thing and the kyber crystal picks up the frequency while the metal bits translates the frequency… I think that means we don't need to bring along any holocrons except for this one… No, but then how are we suppose to find the combined information if we can't connect them together…?" Nek voice trailed off.
The Force then spoke up, I felt them poke at my mind, the trail over and poke at his.
"Hey Nek? My guide is trying to give you a thought but you keep avoiding it. Listen for a second."
He looked up at me with a face of surprise. I watched the invisible movement of the Force swirl about his mind, it was so beautifully intricate. And the engineer really did have a knack for thinking outside the box, pun intended.
"How do I listen?" He almost whispered. I noticed his body had gone a bit ridgid, like a delicate winged bug had landed on him and he didn't want it to fly away.
"It normally helps for me to channel my thoughts into the big old clump of thought in my head! Like, um…" My mind sprouted an idea, "Play pretend with me! Let's pretend we're holocrons!"
I ran towards the young man and grabbed his hands, pulling him towards the data table.
"So pretend I'm a regular holocron," I looked at my freckles and tried to make them shift to blue, "And you're the orb! And the data table can just be the data table. So you're sitting there, relaxing, being an orb and you have no info in you, but you're powered up! And the Force is talking through you… but there's no questions to answer." I had Nek sit all balled up on the ground, "So then I come over." I opened my arms and spun around the Devaronian who at this point was laughing with delight. "What happens next!?"
Nek took a breath and actually thought for a moment in between laughter.
"So then I try and pick up on the signal...b-but I have no antenna!" Nek's laughter quickly changed to realization.
"Right! So you're powered up and the possibility of data is inside you, but there's no data and your brain is hearing the Force, but it has to pick up on the message somehow so…"
I felt Nek's mind make the connections, "So it can't pick up anything because it hasn't been given the ability to hear the message yet! But once the antenna are installed we could pick up on the data of any holocron in the galaxy!"
"But we'd still need a way to decipher which holocron the data is coming from in order to find it and combine it with another and record the data or see how the data makes new info from the force."
"And this data table could do the trick. But we need a two way data table."
"Or just two data tables."
"We need to find the blueprints for this table and install one on the ship… But how do we know the holocrons we need aren't already here again?"
"Hundreds of thousands of messages travelling between each one all a bit changed by the will of the Force along the way? The messages we need might be here, but in order to collect the data we need from the Force, whatever it's messages are, we need the original translations from the original authors in order to know what they need us to do and combine them with the right holocrons."
Nek gave me a bewildered look.
"I've been studying this stuff and nothing but this stuff for a long-ish time. I've had a feeling there was a more organized message in this mess somewhere."
"No, no. I get it sort of. It's just a lot to suddenly need to believe in." He said looking about the library, "My parents always told me stories of the Jedi and the Force, and I wanted nothing more than to be apart of it. I think that's deep down what everyone on this crew wants. A chance to be apart of something more."
"Well… That's what I want too. And the fact that you're recognizing what they're telling you means you want this too, and the Force wants you. It's a lot less mysterious than you think if you have the right context."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Are you sure that there isn't an easier way?" Chol asked, rubbing his temples from the glut of information Vis and Nek had dumped on the crew.
"Not without completely disassembling and moving the data table. I may be a damn good engineer, but there's still a high chance that I'd muck something up and ruin the whole mission." Nek replied, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Fair enough." Chol replied evenly.
"In that case," BX raised his metal hand, "we would have to set up a forward operating base here, and return here until we build one of our own."
Vis nodded. "This place is pretty important knowledge-wise if we're going to figure anything else out."
"But what about that orb we found?" Soron asked. "How do we transfer the information we gathered into it? It doesn't exactly look like the other finished holocrons."
"Well, I think we have to make the outside bits of it in order for the Force to 'transmit' the stuff from one holocron to another. At least I think. Though me and Nek still aren't sure how to make them or what they're made of." Vis admitted sheepishly. Cenden gave a small eye roll in response, a move that did not go unnoticed by Soron.
"I hate to bring reality back into this," Lerti said, "but we'll have to leave here for a while. Besides the fact that we need to gather this information somehow, the ship is low on fuel and we need to get some jobs to replenish our supplies."
Lerti noticed Vis looking solemnly down the hall nearest them, "I hate to even ask this, but I have to go with don't I?" Vis' voice whispered.
Soron shrugged, "I'm going to say that's probably a yes."
"I wasn't talking to you."
"Oh yeah, and we have an addition to the party who'll probably need some sort of armor and a new weapon." Lerti gestured to Vis.
"What do ya mean?" Vis cocked her head. "I have this." She pulled out her damaged lightsaber, but thankfully didn't activate it.
"Where do you keep getting this from!?" Cenden questioned as he grabbed the saber from her hands, "I thought you lost this back in the trials room?"
Vis shrugged, "I found it at the bottom of the pool in the foyer."
Cenden shook his head, "Considering waving one of these within a mile of an Imperial is a death sentence, that probably isn't a good idea." Cenden replied. "Plus it's not in the best working order to say the least."
"Fair enough Jedi man." Vis teased.
"Focus please. We should leave as soon as possible with necessary materials only. We've smuggled some dangerous stuff before but not anything this sensitive. We'll head over to Tiss'sharl. It's the closest planet that's not Outer Rim and should get us the supplies we need." Soron said.
"That time should give myself and Nek enough time to try and reverse engineer some of the data tables components using the scans I made of it." BX added.
"We just need a holocron with some sort of schematics for the data table." Nek built on.
"I'll ask my guide and get it settled!" Vis finished, glancing around the shelves of information.
She wandered off from the others, skipping contently through the shelves of information. Her long trench coat nearly dragged on the ground, and the trinkets she still held in her deep pockets jangled around. She took note of those objects once again as she suddenly made a quick turn for the corner and plopped herself down onto the ground, her hand reaching down and pulling out the six trinkets she'd grabbed out of the burning ship at the Force's command.
She'd spent a long time staring at these objects with solemn nostalgia and polite curiosity. She knew they represented something important to each person they belonged to, but what is a representation without its subject?
Then once again she looked around the library, but with different eyes. She looked instead through the eyes of the hundreds that had written these stories, accounts, prophecies, visions. All the information in the galaxy on anything and everything yet… what was the end goal of all this recorded knowledge? What good does it do anyone when there's so much of it?
'Force… I can feel the answer is right on the tip of my brain. I know what you're leading us up to. The more we collect, the more we have… we just need to organize it don't we? The right combinations, the right messages. Messages from you. Not from evil, not from governments. Just from you. Will it be good news? Will it be… one message or many with one theme? This waiting has gone on long enough. Time to move.'
She shoved the trinkets back into her pocket and went and grabbed a pretty blue Jedi holocron box from one of the shelves.
"This one has the plans?" The Force nodded. "Ok good. I'll leave this for Nek. Cenden will open it for him… I have some packing to do. Just tell me what I need to bring."
Dropping off the holocron at the data table, Vis ran off on a string. In her mind she flew through the sky and tried to imagine herself on a ship made of vapors of water, but somehow the only clouds it became was clouds of smoke. Her freckles kept shifting in and out of yellow to red as she ran up to her room and began collecting her borrowed and scavenged clothes, along with her own journals filled with notes on the holocrons.
She had noticed long ago with the adults in her earlier life, how they seemed to always talk about themselves in the past tense. "I remember when I did this," or "I used to be so,". So as soon as she'd learned to write, and could understand that personality and minds are fleeting, she wrote it down. Such a strange thing to write down who you are, but when you notice that there's a Force that wants you to be whole and a force that wants you to be broken… you learn to write these things down. When you can decipher who you are, working on what you are becomes much much easier.
And now the time had come to prove oneself who they believed to be.
The Force caused the paths to branch out from her mind. Get on the ship or don't. Those were the two paths right now Vis. You can feel it within the others as well, the Jedi being the only exception. The crew was going to leave and come back, while the Jedi's paths were tangled within themselves.
Get on the ship or don't.
Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she turned to the old broken sliding panel she'd yanked open for the past couple months. She could sense her paths leading up into the sky, intertwining with people others had met in this universe, but she'd never known. She could sense the corruption the others carried with them, the feel of it they carried on their backs. The Force, her friend, they didn't want it there. They wanted it gone.
"Will you help me?" They seemed to ask.
"I will. I want to. I'll following the path presented if you protect me." Vis bowed before the open doorway, like a knight pledging their services.
'The Force give me strength.' She prayed as did a prophet of the holocrons with a shiver.
Then she jumped in panic and fell onto her butt as the ship revved to life above the temple. Her heart felt like it skipped seven beats.
"VIS! WE'RE PREPARING THE SHIP FOR TAKE OFF! ARE YOU READY!?" The captain called from several floors down.
Taking a breath she rose from the ground, "This is going to be harder than I thought."
With that, she walked through the open doorway.
A heart of the temple under direction of the mind.