Chapter Two
Airell Cece paced the corridor outside the council chamber, unsure as to why she was feeling so far from the Force. Yes, the Jedi were supposed to be well disciplined…well disciplined and un-showing of any emotion. There is no emotion; there is peace. The first part of the Jedi Code she lived by. Then why was she so darn worried?!
Inside the Council Chamber itself was a discussion that required more than half the Council to be present. It involved the future of 13-year-old Adra Amidala, or Adra Tallon as she was currently known. And Airell was to be the Jedi Master of the Force-chosen Padawan if she was to be permitted. No one could forget that the last time they had granted late training to a padawan with high potential the results had been disastrous.
Airell finally stopped pacing only to stand in quiet meditation near the wall. Some time later a face swam before her. It was that of Master Yoda. Snapping quickly out of mediation, she blinked a few times, careful to not appear surprised.
"Awake, are you Master Cece?" Master Yoda's grinning face was about a foot from her own.
Nodding quickly, she pulled her robes straight. "Yes, Master Yoda. I was just meditating. Forgive me."
"No reason is there for forgiveness. Come." The three-foot tall Jedi Master turned his levitating pod back toward the open door.
Airell quickly followed the Master into the chamber, halting in the center of the room. Bowing her head in courtesy to all eight Jedi Masters present, she looked up once more to see that Master Yoda had taken his traditional place in the council chair in front of her.
"Jedi Knight Airell Cece; come to it's verdict, the Council has. Decided have the Masters that train the Padawan you will. Take two days for Padawan Amidala to get here it will." Master Yoda eased back into his chair, allowing another council member to take over talking for him.
"You have those two days to prepare yourself for the instruction of this Padawan. Remember the Code and that once you accept the Padawan as your own, you cannot go back on your vow to take care of the Padawan. You must remember you will defend this Padawan especially, even if it means your death." The council member stopped talking to allow his words to think in.
"Yes, Masters," Airell said only this in reply, knowing that she would be told to be quiet if she continued. The council dismissed her and Airell quickly returned to her own dimly lit chambers.
Attending to an itch near her eye, one finger rubbed absently over the three small indents under her right eye. Blue, she knew they were, but had never seen them; even in glass. They were just invisible to her. Shaking her thoughts away, she took a practice droid off a shelf and activated it, then her lightsaber. The thing started firing random shots toward her, some coming out red, others blue, and still more in green. Her blue-white lightsaber, having been activated right after the droid, met each bolt with a sizzling hiss.
Some time later, she deactivated the droid through the Force and then closed down her lightsaber. Looking around her chambers, she was dimly aware that accommodations would have to be made for the girl. A sudden ripple in the Force set all her senses alert and she hurried out into the hallway of the Temple. Master Yoda was hurrying to her on his pod, a distressed look creasing his face.
"Come quickly, you must. Know where the padawan is, the Imperials do. Intercept them, we must." Leading the way to the docking bay, he looked about as Gold squadron and Red squadron geared up and got into X-Wings. An Admiral she didn't know was striding through the X-Wings, pausing to talk to a few of the fighter pilots. Grabbing her own jumpsuit and helmet, she pulled the suit on over her robes. Climbing the short ladder into her X-Wing, she jumped inside, checking that all systems were working and then putting her helmet on. Hearing the R3 unit begin it's beeping to her, she smiles dimly.
"I know Pod. We're heading towards the Tatooine System, then onto Earth." She quickly answered the droid's query on where they were headed. Looking towards the open city on Coruscant, she nodded to the nearest person from the maintenance crew. Turning on her comunit, she heard the frequency being checked by both droids and then by just the others turning their own units on and making sure the rest of their squadron's where up. Knowing she might as well announce she was going to be flying with Red squadron today, she hushes Pod and taps her own unit.
"Red Leader, this is Airell Cece. I'm flying with you guys today; apparently we're going in to collect my Padawan, so I might as well come."
"Airell, this is Red Leader. It all sounds good to me. Do you know any more about this operation than we do?"
Airell sighed audibly and then returned to her comlink. "No, sorry Gavin. I don't know too much other than the destination is Earth on those TIEs; I just hope we can intercept before they get there…or things are going to get ugly- especially since that planet doesn't even have interstellar contact."
At her last remark she heard Gavin swear at the other end of the com. "Great, that just what we need: making contact with a planet that thinks flying in something like an X-Wing is totally fantasy."
Airell cringed, but then continued. "Gavin, you probably don't want to hear this part either: they've made holodramas out of our universe. They think we are total fiction… but they know what a TIE fighter is, and an X-Wing. They know who Anakin Skywalker was and Padmé Amidala was. What's more…they seem to have created the future for us. They have movies on after Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader."
There was no immediate reply; only silence. Then Gavin seemed to regain a bit of sense. "That... that's amazing. Well then, let's hope we don't have to intercept on Earth even more...or we may be thought of as actors."
Not sure being thought an actor was top on her priority list, Airell quickly shunned it and returned to listening to Pod's random and incessant beeps and chain of thoughts.
"I know Pod. I really do, but considering this is my padawan I don't really have much choice in the matter." She knew the droid wouldn't understand, but that didn't seem to matter. Powering up her engines, she watches twelve X-wings go out into space. They were going to need a whole lot of hyperdrive rings for all the X-wings, but it was inevitable; most particularly when a Super Star Destroyer might just become involved.
Keeping her eyes on the other X-Wings, she powered up her craft and eased the lever forward, moving it toward the planet's atmosphere. Going to the next hyperdrive ring in line, she carefully moved her X-Wing into it.
"Red Leader, this is Red Four; where are we headed again?" The voices came over the com, sounding both amusedly aggravating and like they were poking fun at the same time.
"Four, shut the Sith up. You know very well where we're headed." Gavin's voice answered Four's with the opposite of 'amused'.
She almost felt bad for him, having to deal with all the 'hot-shot' flyboys. But if it made him happy, then by all means. Checking her nav unit, she looks up to see Gold squadron ahead. The tactical board labeled all 25 dots with a squad and a number; except her own. She just appeared as 'Jedi One', which was not a squad at all. But it worked. Looking up in time to see Gold jump into hyperspace, she smiled dimly. The tactical screen bleeped slightly, alerting Airell to more ships joining the party. A quick deduction of them being Corellian Corvetts and the abrupt hostility forming in her at the sight of a potential enemy died.
"Red Leader, this is General Garm bel Iblis. We've be told we've got a rendezvous with the Imps in a Wild Space sector past Tatooine?" The General's voice was crisp and strong, even over the comm.
"General, this is Red Leader. That sounds about right, though our Jedi pilot seems to know more than she's telling us; or so I see it that way."
"Gavin, quit it. Or I'll find a nice pod to throw you in front of." Airell's sarcasm got the better of her before she could check it. Making a mental note to herself to work on it before it came time to introduce Adra Amidala to her technical family, she sighed softly.
"Sorry Airell." Gavin's voice came across sheepishly in the comm., causing Airell to shake her head. He was a good kid, that one; he really was.
"Alright then, flyboys, let's go before we get into an argument with ourselves." Her voice calm over the calm, she heard a few muttering complaints about the generalization of 'flyboys'. "Let me simplify this for you. Save it for the Imps. Got it now?"
Her conscience telling her once again to review the Code and her use of sarcasm, she looked to her nav computer, making sure she's got the coordinates right. With a last look at the real space area around Coruscant, she pushed the hyperdrive lever forward, the stars becoming white star lines.