Umbrous - Shadow of the Force
Part 1 - Awakening of Shadow
NOTE: I will try to upload a new chapter every week, but I'm still unsure as to chapter length. I'm trying to stick to around 1000 words per chapter... don't know for sure though
Chapter 2
The class had begun whispering amongst themselves again, as they always did when the topic of the Jedi came up, dividing themselves into small groups, each of the same species. Many such rumours were whispered around, and the droid's acute auditory sensors picked up talk of Dathomirian Sith Lords who were now criminal lords, and secret temples filled with evil Jedi artifacts located around the galaxy.
Most of the class were humans whose parents were high-up Imperial officials stationed on far-away Ukio for various reasons. Most of these were security personnel, who led the forces which had defended Imperial Centre of Military Research on nearby Scarif. Nowadays they silenced local rebellions and tried to cover up information from leaking about the stupendous battle which had destroyed the Imperial Centre along with most of Scarif, and that had since been frozen in everyone's memories. Others still were scholars and researchers who had needed easy access to the extensive Imperial databases as well as the ability to travel the galaxy unimpeded by Scarif's massive planetary shield, and who now only did the latter, while some tried to salvage what little information had been kept in underground bunkers in the devastation that was the surface of Scarif.
Looking around, the droid noticed the humans whose parents were higher up in the ranks looking over and making derisory comments about the few non-humans in the class, all of them the Ukians native to the planet. It was somewhat puzzling that in a planet which had only a handful of humans on it, and the capital city of Ukon being little more than a market with a town hall and university attached, only ten or so students out of the forty in the class were Ukians. But then again, the university fees were likely much too high for most Ukians to afford. While the humans did tend to make derogatory comments towards them, fights were rare, in part due to the university's strict rules, but mostly because even the smaller-built Ukians in the class were already stronger than most adult humans, which discouraged most violence.
Kaan looked around him, and saw he'd been inevitably drawn into the group of students whose parents were scholars. He could hear them muttering about the Jedi and the Sith, about how the Separatists had so nearly destroyed the Republic, about one boy's grandfather's encounter with a Jedi near Hypori, another girl's uncle seeing General Grievous during the invasion of Coruscant.
And then the conversation turned, as it always tended to, towards how unattractive their Ukian classmates were, how they should stick to their own kind and leave humans alone in the university. Comments were made about the special seats commissioned for the much wider Ukians, and which had incidentally all been placed at the back of the class. Immediately there were those who fired back, noting how the only reason humans were in the majority in this class was because the Ukians had almost intentionally been kept too poor to afford higher education, and how those who insulted Ukians did so only in the university because they were too scared to say it in the Market, where Ukians were in the vast majority.
Kaan agreed somewhat with this argument but understood the need to keep the Ukians poor and largely uneducated, in order to ensure Imperial control of the region. Speciesism didn't really need to factor into it and wouldn't have if not for some bigoted fools in the Core worlds who held resentment towards nonhumans for the Clone Wars of two decades ago and were the reason why all Imperials on Ukio were humans. As far as Kaan was concerned, they could have been Wookies or even Hutts, as long as they represented Imperial control.
He could, of course, have mentioned it, and even pulled rank considering who his mother was, but instead kept quiet and listened. He found it was better to listen to people in these cases, and see what various opinions existed, in case they were useful in the future. One girl in particular caught his attention, tucked away in the corner.
He vaguely remembered her name as Savarii Orballa, originally from Ghorman in the Mid Rim, and she was shyly casting nervous glances at an Ukian friend of his, Bongo Tra Palto. She didn't really join in the conversation much but did shoot murderous glares at her chauvinist classmates. He'd heard people mention that she liked Ukians, and that she had even slept with one, which was usually followed by a snort of disgust.
Kaan himself didn't care what she did and with whom; she was entitled to her own opinions, though he did have to wonder what was to be seen in a 2-metre tall orange, scaly hulk with hands the vague size and shape of dinner plates and stubby fingers which had difficulty gripping anything which wasn't a farming tool. Here on Ukio, there were few beasts of labour, as even in the fields the Ukians pulled their own ploughs and pushed their own carts to get into town.
Walking out of the university with Bongo, Kaan thought about how this part of the galaxy had had so much potential before the attack on the Imperial Library on Scarif, and the Battle of Yavin.
Nowadays, more and more professors had been leaving, replaced by droids who, while well-intentioned, were programmed to not question anything, to not be able to hazard answers to lateral questions, and even programmed to raise the alarm should a student begin to ask too many questions about the reasoning behind certain Imperial dogma. Kaan found it ludicrous, as he could easily come up with perfectly logical explanations for why the Empire was quite fine the way it was, and everyone would be better off if they just accepted and understood Imperial dogma, and to understand it they needed to be able to question it.
Not that he minded professor SH3-R4, or Shera as they were more colloquially known. They were actually quite nice, and even a little more willing to answer questions than most professors, being as they were an older and more knowledgeable droid, built 4 years before the infamous Invasion of Naboo which had set so many parts of recent Galactic history into motion.
He and Bongo were on the front steps of the university, discussing the importance of the will of the Force in Galactic events, and whether now that the Jedi were gone, the Force was an important matter to consider.
"Without the Jedi to control it, the Force is nothing. I can accept that it holds the universe together through its mystic something-or-others, but that's all it's going to do, now that the Jedi aren't there to manipulate it for their own ends," argued Bongo in his deep, gruff voice.
Whenever he concentrated, the top of his hairless head turned red, a phenomenon Kaan, being much shorter than him, had only ever had occasion to see fully once when they were playing in the trees, and Kaan had been light and nimble enough to climb above Bongo, who struggled even on the lower branches. Now though, Kaan could just about see a red outline, which from this angle looked like a sort of glowing crown, from the extra blood flowing to his head.
"Yes, but the Jedi weren't the only ones who could manipulate the Force. We still have Darth Vader and what remains of the Inquisitors."
This last part was said in a lower tone only Kaan and Bongo could hear. Vader and his Inquisitors may have been the most advanced security system the Empire had, but they were still feared, and amongst many, hated for their unscrupulous use of the dark side of the Force and their lightsabers to kill remaining Jedi and anyone accused of helping them. Even mentioning them aloud was asking for trouble and looking at the crowd amassing by the town hall, Kaan could see he didn't want that, not right now.
The action is slow to build up, but next week there will definitely be more action with that protest. I just want to take time and explain the Imperial situation, as well as Kaan's personality. I will also be making a bunch of references to the Clone Wars, to show how distorted Imperial propaganda is, through the eyes of Kaan, being as he is a political history student.