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The Chronicles of the New Jedi Knights: Trouble Brewing

Confrontation

          Treen Tsi had, in the last standard Couruscant hour, managed to turn his laughable one credit into ten thousand at the Long Odd's wheel. He usually didn't play that type of game, but it was the fastest way to get enough credits to play in a game of sabacc that would matter. He found a suitable game in the back of the casino. There was a young bothan playing, as well as a verpine, another human, and a quarren. "May I join the game?"

          All the players looked up at him. The bothan was young and noticeably nervous. Judging by the size of his pile of credits and the credits in front of the other players he most likely had no real skill at the game. Probably the son of some politician. Treen had never been able to distinguish the features of verpines and associate them with emotions, but he sensed confidence. The human frowned at his cards, but Treen sensed a cautious confidence from him. The quarren wasn't confident, she was just arrogant. "There is a five thousand credit opening bid," the bothan said.  "If you can cover that, you can stay in the game as long as you have credits."

          Treen pulled an unused chair from a nearby table and sat across from the human, with the verpine on his left and the quarren on his right. "What game are we playing?" asked Treen. There were many different versions of sabacc, nearly all of them played at one place or another on Couruscant.

          "We're playing Ancient Sabacc." Said the quarren in basic.

          Ancient Sabacc was one of the first rules for sabacc, thus it's name. It used most of the same cards and same basic rules. You won the hand by gaining positive or negative twenty-three. Whoever came closest was the winner. There were four suits: flasks, coins, staves, and sabers. Flasks and coins were positive value, and staves and sabers were negative value. These rules didn't require a randomizer. Treen was familiar with Ancient Sabacc.

          The dealing machine dealt each player five cards. Treen gazed at his cards. The ten of flasks, the six and the eight of coins, the commander of staves, which was worth negative ten, and the four of staves was in his hand. That equaled out to positive ten, a pitiful hand. It was time for opening bets, and since he was the newcomer, he was the first bet. Treen put in the mandatory five thousand credits. To his right, the quarren put in one thousand, as did the human and the bothan. The verpine had to put in two thousand so that the total equaled double the original bet. Now it was time to announce if you were going to exchange cards or just fold. The bothan folded, the human asked to exchange one card. The quarren exchanged three cards, and the verpine exchanged none. Treen was about to exchange his commander and four of staves, but on an impulse exchange the positive cards instead. He was rewarded with the Idiot card, which was worth zero, the six of sabers, and the two of staves. Treen held back a smile and let his face darken slightly and began to think unhappy thoughts. While negative twenty-two was almost unbeatable, he didn't want to chance someone had an empathic friend that was sensing emotions and relaying the information to his friend. Now that everyone had exchanged cards, it was time to put down additional bets. At any point during this phase of the game anyone could fold and take his additional bets back, but not his opening bets. Treen sensed little to nothing from the human. That one was either completely stupid or had a very disciplined mind. The verpine was still confident and the quarren was still arrogant. The bothan announced that he would fold. The verpine placed two thousand credits in front of him, separated from his pile, but also separated from the pile at the center of the table. Everyone was forced to see the two thousand or fold. The human didn't raise and neither did the quarren. Treen placed an additional two thousand in front of him. No one raised, and everyone saw the bet. "I call," announced Treen, and he was echoed by the other players.

          The verpine played  a hand that consisted of the commander of coins, the nine of coins, the nine of flasks, the three of sabers, and the five of staves. The human played a hand that was the eight of coins, the two of coins, the three of coins, the eight of flasks, and the one of flasks, positive twenty-two. The quarren never showed his hand, he just tossed the card to the dealing machine when he saw the human's hand. Treen played his negative twenty-two. There was a tie. According to the rules of Ancient Sabacc, when there was a tie, it was settled by another hand, with no more wagers and no exchanges. Treen returned his cards to the dealing machine as did the  verpine and the human. The machine dealt each of them five cards. Treen looked at his and was pleased to see the commander of flasks, the commander of coins, the two of flasks, the two of coins, and the one of sabers, pure sabacc. He layed down his hand, and the human did as well revealing the three of all four suits and the Idiot card, a zero. Treen smiled and pulled the credits toward him. He now had twenty-six thousand credits. All he needed with six thousand extra, but he still needed some credits to cover any unforeseen expenses, so he played for the rest of the night. When he was finished he had nine hundred thousand credits. "Well, it has been fun, but I think I have to leave you now."

          The human stood up. "As do I, fare well."

          Treen didn't care about the other human, but after he left the casino he heard the man's voice. "You're a Jedi, aren't you?" he asked. Treen turned on him. "Quiet!" he hissed. "Jedi aren't exactly popular these days!" he whispered angrily as he led him to an alley that was more out of sight.

          "Besides, what gives you that idea?" he asked in a slightly more normal tone. "I am a Jedi, or at least I will be. In a few days I'm taking the shuttle to Yavin IV. During the game I tried to sense something from you but I had a lot of trouble." Treen mentally kicked himself for not guessing the other was a Jedi.

          "What's your name?" asked Treen.

          "My name is Kevin Palor, yours?"

          "I am called Treen Tsi," he replied. "but you were wrong about me being a Jedi. I'm a Sith," he said as a smirk crossed his face. "so you see, I'm going to have to kill you." Treen didn't waste any time in kicking the would-be Jedi in the solar plexus, Kevin stumbled back trying to breath as he clawed at a pocket to pull something out. Treen drew his vibroblade and powered it on. "Did I hear right?" a female voice asked and a twenty-something human looking woman stepped into the alley. She slightly shorter that Treen, but not by that much. Her hair was amethyst with a little silver and black, and her eyes screamed that she wasn't human. "or did you just say that you're a Sith?"

          "Why does it matter? Are you another one of those would-be Jedis?"

          "No," she answered and took a necklace from around her neck. "I am a Jedi master." The necklace had had a small scythe, merely decoration, far to small to be a weapon. But now it grew, and with the lack of a lightsaber, it was something to be reckoned with. The human had recovered from the first blow dealt to him and pulled out a lightsaber. He thumbed on one gold blade, and then another. He was wielding a Sith lightsaber. "That is a Sith weapon!" the woman said. "I know," replied the human. "but it's also a superior weapon, which is why I trained with it. Your name is?"

          "I am the Jedi master Kaeldra," she replied. "are you ready?"

          Treen didn't give them the chance to finish their discussion. He held his hand in front of him, pointing his palm to the human and let loose a blast of destructive force energy. He charged the Jedi master. The human crouched and ten centimeters in front of him the attack collapsed on an invisible barrier. Meanwhile the young Sith and the Jedi clashed. Her scythe was a superior weapon, it had a longer reach and a longer blade, his vibroblade was little more than a long knife. Fortunately though, it seem her greatest strength lied in the force. For while she was a formidable opponent in close combat, he was stronger and tougher. She was faster, but he used his movements more economically, she had obviously been fighting for a long time, and she was good, but Treen had been trained by noghri. Few could match him in normal close combat. He sliced the Jedi's arm and took the chance to run. But after three steps he found himself unable to move. And he was lifted into the air, with the Jedi master looking at him. "You were a good opponent, but I'm afraid you weren't good enough. 'a Jedi's strength flows from the force'," she quoted from some fool or another. But it seemed appropriate to match her with another quote so he said

          "Never discount a Sith too soon." While she believed that he relied almost solely on his physical strength, which many Sith had, she did not expect much resistance worth worrying about out of him while she held him a meter off the ground unable to move. A loose chunk of duracrete dislodged itself from a wall and collided with her head. She stumbled, but she had already lost concentration. Treen dropped to the ground and sprinted away, but this time he dropped a concussion grenade behind him. The explosion was quite satisfying. Treen still sprinted though, and used the force to aid his speed. He didn't stop running until he got to his rented room and shut the door behind him. 

          It was two days until what he wanted arrived. Another three days to find what he needed and to restore his merchandise to it's original condition. Treen walked over to the bag in which he kept his few belongings. There was some clothes, some datacards, a datapad, and his lightsaber. He'd have to keep that with him from now on.

Well, what did you think? I know I focused mostly on just one place, and I only introduced two more characters. But trust me, I am planning to put the others in soon. Remember to give me feedback, and send me your characters. Oh, yeah. One more thing, I'm saying that they found a cure for the disease that Mara Jade was going through soon before this fic starts. Ja ne!