Orbiting Taris

The Outer Rim

The Force was moving. Always. Deep in meditation, a Jedi could perceive its currents, a never-ending series of patterns and eddies that wrote and re-wrote the inter-galactic symphony of the universe. With the proper training, and a natural talent, a person could sense events happening across the galaxy, a thousand light-years of space glimpsed in a second. At this level, the Force transcended normal senses. After all, Master Tiyla had said, while the Force itself was beyond limit the mortal brain could only process so much. And so the brain tried to make sense of the infinity of the universe by rationalising it into things it understood. Like colour.

The Force was awash with colour. Every thought and every feeling of a thousand minds, a colour. Every event, every moment of potential, a subtly distinct hue in a masterpiece of light. With every colour came information, understanding that could never be put into words and yet who's meaning was known and experienced in an instant of blinding clarity. Clarity that transcended the normal boundaries of time and space, and the dull, tiring limits of crude matter.

Deep within the flowing river of the Force danced the Jedi. It rode high over the skies of Taris, crept into the dark tunnels of the ruined Undercity, shared the minds of the birds, the beasts, and even the rakghouls, as they devoured their way through a living death of hunger. It was the air, the earth, the chemical sludge that coated the earth, the emptiness of space that embraced the whole planet. It went beyond Taris: the Jedi surfed and flowed through the ripples of hyperspace all over the Outer Rim and across the galaxy; it swam through time, past and present, and a hundred possible futures. And the Jedi saw every single iota of it. It experienced every last laugh, tear, smile and growl, it felt every moment of love, fear, hatred and mercy. It watched a thousand seas of despair give birth to a million flowers of hope. The Jedi saw, and the Jedi humbled itself before the majesty of the Force.

A disturbance on the outside sent tremors running through the Force, tremors that shook the Jedi from its perch deep within the symphony. Abruptly, the Jedi's mind became two once again, and the abstract colours of the Cosmic Force faded away into the hard lines and lights that illustrated the Living Force that made up the world around them.

Still reeling from the sudden separation of minds, Rheni, Padawan of the Jedi Order, struggled to rein his senses back into the here and now. With some difficulty, he managed to re-focus his mind and perceived once more the cabin he sat in, its contours in the Force reassuringly similar to when he had dropped into meditation. The atmosphere within, however, was now coloured with the faintest whiff of danger, a trail of fear and anticipation that snaked out under the door and through the corridors of the ship, until it vanished from his Sight.

Opposite him, still seemingly lost in meditation, sat his other half. Rheni reached out again and, gently, tenderly, touched her mind with the Force. Something stirred in response. "Livia? Can you hear me?"

She smiled. "I hear you, brother of mine. You sensed it too?"

"How could I not? It is no small thing to disturb such deep meditation, to separate such a bond between two minds."

"No small thing, indeed," agreed Livia. "It would appear that our quarry has found us. We just took a hit to the rear-left thruster. Our shield holds, though; engine damage seems to be minimal."

"Right." Rheni sighed in frustration. "So much for convincing them to come quietly. Any handle on the minds of our targets?"

Livia shook her head. "Too much turmoil in the Force, right now; it will take a while for the waters to calm. All I've got is a general sense of fear, surrounded by much anger." She rose to her feet. "Quintus will be waiting for us on the bridge. We should go."

A flex of Rheni's will, and the door opened with a pneumatic hiss. Brother and sister made their way through the corridors of the ship, past crew rushing to battle stations, past Republic marines gearing up for the inevitable assault, past droids performing emergency maintenance on the Thranta-class warship's systems. Alarms wailed as the whole ship was put on red alert.

When the journey began, the Jedi's quarters had been assigned as close to the bridge as possible. After a couple of hundred metres down the main corridor of Level -3, a quick turbolift ride was all it took to arrive at the heart of the ship's command.

The Hyrim was hardly the biggest ship in the Republic fleet, but it had served capably as the unofficial flagship of Jedi Master Quintus Septimus Alde for the last five years, ever since the Alde Frater had been shot down during the last year of the war that would see the Sith come to dominate half the galaxy. Officially, however, it was under the command of Captain Tepik Ebon, and it was the Twi'lek who sat in the commander's chair, whilst Master Alde stood respectfully at his shoulder, his daughter Aelia at his side.

Quintus sensed the arrival of his two Padawans before they even set foot out of the turbolift, and gestured for them to join him and his companions, his intent clear through the Force. The two Miraluka began to weave through the bridge crew who manned their stations with grim professionalism, so that the Force around them was thick with determination, discipline, and a hint of subdued fear. At the head of the bridge waited Quintus, an island of calm and serenity in a sea of emotion that pressed all around at the young Jedi's senses. Emotion, yet peace, Livia reflected as she drew level with her master. The truth of the Jedi Code, albeit in its more archaic version, could be observed even in the most far removed of situations.

Peace existed too in the mind of Captain Ebon, though it was of an entirely different variety, peace built on confidence and certainty. An absence of emotion, rather than an emotion in itself. A difference, she mused, that even some Jedi found hard to appreciate. Captain Ebon was an experienced veteran of the Great Galactic War and he knew that a cargo ship, however illegally modified with weapons and shielding, posed no real threat to a fully armed and operational military corvette.

Someone might need to tell that to their quarry, however, which was now keeping up a sustained if ineffective bombardment against the Hyrim's bridge. The two Padawans felt the ripples in the Force as glowing charges of superheated plasma dissipated harmlessly against the ship's shields.

Captain Ebon acknowledged the Padawans' presences with a courteous nod, then turned to one of his officers. "Lieutenant Ho'bhan, have the ion cannons return fire. Target the engines." He leaned back in his chair. "A pity to end this fireworks display, but we have a job to do."

The Kel-dor officer keyed the relevant commands into the console before him, relaying the Captain's orders to the ion batteries on the second floor. There was a slight delay as the gunners took aim, and then the darkness of space was illuminated briefly by two pulsing charges of ionised plasma. They cut through the freighter's shields like a lightsaber through durasteel, and the cargo ship was briefly lit up like a Coruscanti lights show before the engines failed and it floated dead in space.

A few officers clapped with fierce satisfaction at the ease and precision of their ship's response. Ebon indulged them for a moment, before waving for them to be quiet. He opened a line of communications from his chair. "Captain Ebon to tractor beam control. Target the freighter and bring it in." He ended the channel and opened another. "Attention, marines. Head for Docking Bay Prime and prepare for boarding. Ebon out."

Master Quintus nodded in satisfaction. "Well done, Tepik. We'll take it from here."

"Good luck, Quintus," the Twi'lek smiled. "We'll be standing by to assist as necessary."

Quintus turned and clapped his two apprentices on the shoulder. "Come, Padawans. We have a slave ship to liberate."