Chapter 2: Mourning
He is confused and afraid. Afraid of himself. That's why he runs away from the others, from her.
A moment ago they were just sitting in Hadon's cantina, talking. He was explaining his past to her. But at the thought of painful memories, grief and anger took over control of his body. He had nearly killed some of the customers in the cantina, who were listening to conversation not meant for their ears. Thank the force he didn't have his blaster with him.
"Wait!" a voice shouts. Her voice.
She has followed him out of the cantina. Why is she following him? Didn't she see what happened back there or at least what could have happened? Obviously not. She probably wants an explanation. But how can he tell her? Perhaps he should just ignore her. Sooner or later she will give up the chase. Though, she will probably ask about it the next time she sees him. No! He has to convince her to stay away from him. Everytime he get close to someone, something bad tends to happen and those who he cares about get killed. It happened with Rhylo and his men. It happened with Myrin. And now it's happening again, though this time he himself seems to be the threath.
Zim Marrow stops. He waits untill the woman, Jane Dheramer, stands next to him.
"Why are you following me?" he asks, without even looking at her.
"You're the one who left so suddenly, you tell me." she replies. He doesn't want to answer that question. He isn't even sure he knows the answer, so he remains silent.
"So, why did you leave?" she asks patiently. Zim dares to glance in her direction. Her dark eyes remind him of the woman he once loved. Myrin Xanos. He opens his mouth to answer, but a lump in his throat prevents any sound from escaping. Myrin died about a year ago, but it still hurts every time he thinks about her. He swallows the grief and turns his gaze away.
"You don't want to know."
"I asked, didn't I?"
He sighs.
"In that case, I don't want you to know."
This isn't going to work. She isn't going to leave him alone.
"I just want to help."
"I don't want your help!" Zim suddenly shouts. "You wouldn't understand nobody would!"
"What ab..." Zim cut her of.
"If you really want to help, then stay away! It'll be much better for your health!"
He sees the shock in her face. Those last words seem to have the effect he wants, so he turns and leaves. He knows it's for the best, but he still feels guilty about having to treat her this way. She doesn't deserve it.
Three days later
"Beetwelve, could you hand me the power regulator?"
The droid beeps affirmatively and hands the cube shaped component of a protocol droid.
"That should do it." Zim says to no one in particular as he turns the droid on.
"I am SP 76a, how can I be of service?" The droid asks dutifully.
"Oh dear. My limbs are frozen," it adds, in a tone that many people would use to recite a mathematical equation.
"Yeah, yeah..." Zim Marrow sighs "I haven't gotten that far yet." Then he turns the droid back off.
Normally he would have the droid finished by now. But today he's tired. He hasn't been able to sleep much since the incident in Hadon's cantina. The nightmares keep him awake. He can't remember what the nightmares are about, which makes it all the more frustrating.
The T3-B12 utility droid next to him warbles something. Most people wouldn't understand the language of Beetwelve, but Zim, having spent most of his life fixing droids, has no trouble translating it.
"Are you sure? I
didn't hear anyone come in." He returns as he walks through the
door into the room where he sells droids, devices and machine parts.
There he sees a man, maybe a woman, in black robes examaning the
cooking units.
"Can I help you?" Zim asks.
After a long moment, the dark figure turns around. His face is hidden in the shadow of the hood of the black robes.
"Yes, you certainly
can." the figure returns in a raspy and sinister voice. "But
not now. We will meet again and I'm looking forward to it." The
voice sounds familiar to Zim, but he can't place it.
"Do I
know you?" he asks, but the figure has already turned around and
walks away.
"What was that all about?" he asks himself. Then he walks back to the protocol droid to continue repairs on its limbs.
Two arms and a half leg later, Beetwelve announces the arrival of another customer.
"I'll be there in a
few minutes!" Zim shouts in the hope that the customer hears
him. He quickly finishes the attaching of the lower leg to SP 76a,
lays down his tools and walks back to the shop. There he sees a woman
examing the dozens of droids.
"Welcome to 'the Art of
reparations', what can I..." He stops in mid-sentence as the
woman turns around. It's Jane Dheramer, the woman from the cantina.
"What are you doing here?" he asks with bitterness in his voice.
"Is that anyway to
treat a potential customer?" Jane counters defiantly. "I'm
here to have my comm unit fixed."
"Right, and the Sith
came to Brentaal to visit the Tower of Wealth." The Tower of
Wealth used to be the biggest building on the planet and attracted
hundreds of millions of tourists each year. Untill the Sith flattened
it along with thousands of other buildings near it, about a year ago.
The Republic fleet was able to repell the attack of the Sith, but not
without cost.
Jane doesn't reply,
instead she just hands over the comm unit and explains what was wrong
with it. Zim writes everything down on a datapad, eventhough he'd
probably remember it fine without one. But it's a good excuse to not
have to look at her.
"It's a common problem with this type, I
should have it fixed by tomorrow." Zim concludes. Fixing it
would be easy. In fact, even a novice mechanic would be able to
handle this.
He turns his gaze back to her.
"Why did you come here?"
"You made it clear that you didn't want my help and that's fine with me. However, you still owe me at least the rest of your story. I didn't buy you that whisky only to hear the half of it."
Zim sighs. This woman is getting on his nerves.
"I'll tell it, if you
will leave me alone afterwards."
"Deal. There is just
one other thing..."
From the mountain south of the Lendell you can see the whole city. But then again, Lendell isn't a very large city. Still, with about one hundred-thousand citizens it's the largest city on Aredia. Most of the buildings in the city are about two stories high and therefore not much more then a dot from this mountaintop. In the east of Lendell however, you can see eight huge transparent food processors, which produce enough food to feed the whole city. Other needs are imported. As a result, vast forests and grasslands occupy most of the Aredia continent.
The other seven continents of Brentaal are largely covered with starports, industrial facilities, trade markets and other buildings, which are so large they almost rival those on Coruscant. This is not surprising since Brentaal is located in the intersection of the Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way, two of the most used hyperspace routes in the galaxy.
The Aredians respect nature, unlike most of the habitants of the other continents. Laws restrict the cutting of trees, hunting animals and other actions that damage nature. Though here they are not as strict as for example on Ithor, where no one is allowed to even set foot on the planet with only a few exceptions. No, here on Aredia, people are encouraged to go into the forests to experience the continent's beauty. The general philosophy is that everyone is part of nature and therefore has the responsibility to keep it balanced. This responsibility is taken very seriously: Ecologists observe the forests, grasslands and it's habitants. Any mutations they come across are carefully analyzed to see whether the change will do damage or not. If the mutation turns out to be damaging, measures are taken immediately. The hunts are a good example of such measures. When a certain animal type is reproducing too fast, hunts are organized to slow it down.
Not far from the top of mount Lendell, Zim and Jane are watching one of these hunting parties return from the forests with its catch.
"Nice view!" Zim says.
"I used to come here a lot when I was still a child. " Jane explains as she looks down at the city. "I still come here sometimes. I can sit here for hours just enjoying the view and listening to the animals from the forest and forget about everything else."
Jane had insisted to come here. At first Zim tried to talk her out of it and just tell the story at the repair shop. It wasn't long before he realized his efforts to change her mind were useless. Though, right now he's glad about that.
"I never realized Aredia is so beautiful. Almost as beautiful as Dantooine."
Jane turns around to look at him.
"You've been on Dantooine?" she asks.
"Well, I'll have to continue the story to explain that."
"Go ahead then."
--------
As I was saying, I blacked out at the crash. This was hardly surprising, I mean, anyone will have a hard time staying conscious when he slams into a planet with a few thousand miles an hour.
The next thing I remember after the crash I woke up in a small chamber. My head felt like someone was pounding it against a duracreet wall at my every heartbeat. I was trying to get up, but a hand on my shoulder pushed me back down onto the bed. The hand hadn't been necessary; my body screamed in pain whenever I tried to move.
"You should just lie down for now." a voice said.
It took a while for me to realize that the hand and the voice probably belonged to someone in the room. I hadn't looked around yet so I decided to do that now. I was surprised that moving my head around didn't hurt, well at least not nearly as much as anything else I did. It wasn't long before I finished examining the room. Besides the bed all I could see in the room was a durasteel case in the form of a box. And then on my left I saw a woman. She had amazing dark eyes, which accentuated the smile formed by her lips. Long dark hair hung down from her head in a vertical wave-pattern until it disappeared behind her shoulders. Her shoulders were covered by brown robes, which also covered the rest of her body. I couldn't think of anything to say to her, so instead I returned a smile for as far as I could manage.
She then removed her right hand from my shoulder.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. I realized I wasn't completely sure myself so I tested some of my bodyparts with my hands. After wincing a few times from the pain I confirmed what I had already suspected.
"I feel like I've been swallowed and spit out by a rancor."
She laughed at that. Then her expression turned back to concern.
"At least your still alive, I didn't think anyone could survive a crash like that."
As she said it I started to remember what had happened: the death of Marl, the chase on Coruscant and Agamar, then the death of Rhylo, Maverik and Deko. And the last moments with Art until the crash.
"Art! Where is he?!" I demanded
She shook her head sadly.
"You are the only one who survived."
I looked away from her to the ceiling to absorb the significance of this news. The daunting realization came over me that everyone I had ever cared about was dead, wiped away from existence in a single fight and I didn't even know why. I continued to stare at the ceiling as my mind swirled in mixed emotion. I was angry at those responsible for their deaths as well as the mysterious rescue fighters for being too late. I also was uncertain of what to do now without them, but most of all I was devastated by the loss of my friends. After what felt like an hour, but probably was only a few minutes, I turned my gaze back to the woman only to find her gone. I needed some time alone anyway. She had left a platter with food on the case next to the bed. At that moment I realized I felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks, and come to think of it maybe I hadn't. I have no idea how long I was unconscious.
Most of the food was fresh fruit, most likely from the planet I was currently on, whatever planet that was. I didn't recognize anything of the fruit, but it could have been bantha fodder for all I cared and I still would have eaten it.
The next morning I woke up to hear a familiar sound. A moment later a droid entered the room, a T3 utility droid. It was one of the new B models, they were the first to go on 4 wheels instead of the regular 3 wheels. It didn't make sense for this droid to be here. Sure a utility droid be used for a wide variety of things ranging from janitor work to repairs. A T3 droid however is pretty expensive and therefore mostly used for complex repairs or even slicing, but there were no complex machines in the room. In fact the only things that could have been broken were the lights or the heating, as there was no other machinery there, and I hadn't noticed anything wrong with those.
My suspicions were soon confirmed as the droid the rode on, bumped into the wall and still tried move further forward. I threw the blankets of me, sat up and walked towards the droid to turn it off. As I neared the droid I noticed that I didn't feel any of the pain I had felt the other day. My headache was gone, my limbs didn't object to every move I made, I was healed. Well almost. I felt a jolt of pain in my back as I bucked to reach the back panel of, according to the number on the panel, T3 B12. I sat down trying to move into a position that didn't make my back feel like it was splitting in two. Then I turned off the droid and took a better look at it. Before I could see what the problem was with Beetwelve, I heard footsteps behind me.
I stood up and turned around to find the woman from the previous day standing in the doorway. She almost managed to hide her surprise in time and then quickly turned around. I was confused by the way she reacted. Was she surprised that I was up and walking already? But then, why turn around?
"You might want to put on some clothes." she said with a hint of amusement.
I looked down and saw that I was completely naked and I hadn't even realized it.
"erhm... yes, uh... you don't happen to have any... I mean... do you know where I can find my clothes?"
My face must have been turning as red as an Agamarian Mountain Apple.
"Your clothes were destroyed in the crash, you will find some robes in the case behind the bed. You can wear that until you get yourself something else."
I quickly dressed and then told the woman she could come in.
"I came here to see how you were doing today." she explained.
"Much better. It only hurts when I make certain movements."
"Yes, you are healing fast, but how are you feeling?"
It took me a moment to figure out that she meant how I felt about the death of my friends.
"Let's just not talk about that." I returned.
She nodded.
"I believe we haven't introduced each other yet. I'm Myrin Xanos." She said and made a respectful bow.
"Zim Marrow." I said and returned the bow. Bad move! As I did so, pain shot into my back again. I quickly straightened and moved my right hand to my back in a reflex. Myrin put her right hand on my back as well and gripped my left arm with the other to steady and guide me to the bed, so I could sit on it.
"Maybe you should lie down for a while."
"No, I'm all right." I let out a moan from the pain, contradicting my own words. "Some actions are just off limits. I guess bowing is one of those actions." I sighed in relieve as the pain went away. It was kind of awkward for me to be held by a woman. I hadn't had much contact with women in the past. Except Kha'ri, but I knew her well, she was a friend. Myrin was a total stranger to me, hence I had just found out what her name was. As if sensing my awkwardness about it, she let go of me.
It was silent for a few moments. I took another look around the room. There wasn't much to see except for the droid still standing frozen against the wall.
"You should get Beetwelve here fixed."
"Naturally, but the mechanic of the academy went to Coruscant a few weeks ago, we haven't been able to find someone to replace him."
I suddenly realized that with Rhylo and the others gone I didn't have a job anymore. I couldn't just do nothing all day.
"I'll fix him."
"You're a mechanic?"
I nodded.
"Well, before you go fixing things you should let your back heal." I wanted to object to this, but she was right. It would be pretty tough to fix a droid without ducking. Though I wasn't planning on spending days just laying on the bed again.
"What kind of academy is this anyway, what do you study here?"
"This is a Jedi Academy, we study the ways of the Force." She said it as if it was just like any other academy. I looked at her with a mixture of aw and disbelief. I had heard lots of things about Jedi. There are only a few thousand Jedi in this galaxy. They are classified as 'Guardians of the Republic' with no specific details on what they do. I was told they gained supernatural powers by worshipping the force. Some say they don't really have those powers, but that they are just a bunch of religious geeks. Others say they use their mindtrick powers to control the Republic government. Some claim the Jedi are the light side of the force and that their soul purpose is to battle evil. I didn't know what to think of the Jedi, I decided to keep an open mind. Besides I was on a Jedi academy, so I'd probably find out soon enough.
"So, I take it you are a Jedi?"
"Yes, a Jedi knight."
"What's does that mean?"
"A Jedi starts as an apprentice, this is the stage where the Jedi is trained. When his or her training is complete the Jedi becomes a Jedi knight. The wisest of the Jedi knights become masters, they train the new Jedi." she explained. "Anyway, I can show you around as I take Beetwelve here back to the repair facility. If you feel you're up to it."
"Sure. Though, if you want to take Beetwelve with you, I'll have to override the Auto-brakes. This could take a while."
"That's not necessary. The facility is not far from here, so I'll just lift the droid." she said casually.
I looked at her confused. Even a Wookie would have trouble lifting this kind of droid, so I wondered how she was going to do that. Before I could ask her she turned her gaze to the droid and made a gesture with her hands. I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw the droid rising in the air! Yes, I had heard the stories about Jedi having supernatural powers and I had decided to keep an open mind. However, never had it crossed my mind that they could actually have those special powers. I always thought that maybe people were exaggerating or that the Jedi just used tricks like other so-called magicians. But I saw it with my own eyes.
"H..how do you do that?" I stammered.
"I use the force." she returned as if it was something one would do everyday. I could see in the expression on her face that it was the best explanation I'd get, so I decided to let the subject rest. Though, in my whole life I had never believed in the supernatural. It was going to take more than one trick to make me believe in this force.
As she showed me around, she told me about the history of this academy. It turns out that I was on Dantooine. The Jedi academy of Dantooine had been established by a Jedi master named Vodo Siosk Baas. Many of the Jedi he trained later became Jedi masters. He had also trained the infamous Exar Kun, who turned to the darkside and claimed the title of Sith Lord. When master Siosk Baas found out, he tried to turn his apprentice back to light. Exar Kun killed him and so the Exar Kun war began. It took the combined strength of thousands of Jedi to destroy him.
On our short trip to the repair facility I saw many Jedi meditating. One of the Jedi, he couldn't be more than 12 years old, was surrounded with rocks just floating in the air. In one of the rooms, Myrin told me it was a training room, I saw another young Jedi facing an alien of a species I had never seen before. The alien was a short gray, greenish creature with a relatively large head and pointy ears that stuck out to the sides.
"That's master Vandar" Myrin said as she saw me looking at at the strange creature.
The two Jedi in the training room bowed to eachother and then I saw two strokes of light growing from their hands at the sound of a snap-his. Lightsabres! The two of them circled around each other for a few seconds. The only sound I could hear was the humming of the two lightsabres. Then the boy with a green lightsabre in his hands shot forward and swung his weapon down on master Vandar. I thought the Jedi master was going to be cut in two, but just milliseconds before the green glow reached his skin, his blue lightsabre blocked it with a loud clatter. The boy slashed down, left and right in an attempt to get through the defenses of his opponent. Each slash was met with a parry from the Jedi master. Next, the boy jumped up over the other Jedi with a summersault to attack him in the back. The Jedi master had however already turned around and easily blocked his attack. The boy continued to attack with increasingly impressive moves, each one blocked by master Vandar, who's movements were far less impressive but more efficient. The Jedi master only moved from his position when it was absolutely necessary and he only parried to defend himself, never once attacking the boy. I was amazed by the speed with which the two Jedi fought. Sometimes I could only see a blue-green blur from the two lightsabres, intertwined with white from the robes of the boy and dark blue from the robes of master Vandar.
I could no longer deny the evidence I saw before me, indicating that Jedi did have powers.
"Are you coming, or are you going to watch that all day?" I heard Myrin ask.
"Right, sorry." I said as I turned around and started after her. I couldn't help look back a few times to catch some more glimpses of the fight. When I almost walked into wall because of this, I stopped looking back and concentrated on the path ahead. Occasionally I saw a Jedi passing by. All Jedi wore these distinctive Jedi robes, some had a different color, but the otherwise they were the same. It occurred to me that I was wearing the same thing, which made me feel somewhat uncomfortable since I wasn't a Jedi.
The whole trip to the facility took almost 20 minutes, mostly because of our little pause training room. In the facility I saw a red-skinned male Twi'lek working on a datapad. He laid down his tools and looked in our direction.
"Myrin! It's good to see you again." He said in basic. He walked to Myrin and they embraced each other.
"Good to see you too Zhar." she said after they let go of one another.
"I want you to meet Zim Marrow." she said, gesturing at me. "Zim, this is Zhar Lestin."
"Nice to meet you." I said as I shook his hand. I was grateful I didn't have to bow again, my back wouldn't have survived that.
"You must be the one who survived the crash." Zhar said. "The force is with you."
"I don't think so" I countered as I thought of Art, Rhylo and the others who hadn't survived. Maybe it would have been better if I had just died there with them.
It was silent for a while.
"I thought you said the mechanic left?" I asked to break the silence, as I looked at Myrin.
It was Zhar who answered.
"The mechanic has left, but there are still many things in need of fixing." he explained. "I try to repair them, but I have little experience."
"The only devices he can fix are the ones that aren't broken." Myrin commented dryly
"I can help out for a while." I said, eager to actually do something.
"Not in your current state." Myrin countered.
"Perhaps you can tell me how to repair this datapad." Zhar said.
"Sure, but it makes more sense to start working on Beetwelve." I returned. The droid stood in a corner flanked by 2 protocol droids and a cleaner droid. I didn't remember Myrin putting the droid there. "A T3 droid can be very useful for the repairs on the rest of the devices."
In the next four days I spend much of my time helping out Zhar with repairs on Beetwelve. It turns out Zhar was one of the 'rescuers', who had failed to save Art and the others. I didn't know whether to punch him for that or to thank him for saving my life. I decided to do neither and just pretend as if nothing was wrong.
Zhar also told me that Myrin was the one who got me out of wreckage. I wanted to thank her for that, but I hadn't seen her yet. The previous days she had come by the facility occasionally to see how I was doing, but not today
Zhar finished the last repairs on the droid and activated it. A few moments later the droid warbled enthusiastically. Zhar looked at Beetwelve as if it had just spoken in Schriiwook. He obviously didn't understand its language.
"He is thanking you." I explained to Zhar.
"He should be thanking you, Zim. I would not have been able to fix him without your help." he said. "Is there anything I can do for you in return?"
"I don't want anything in return. If it wasn't for the Jedi, I would be dead right now. I owe the Jedi my life. Helping you to fix this droid is nothing compared to that."
He shook his head.
"You are not endebted to us. We Jedi are obligated to preserve all life as part of our commitment to the force. "
My thoughts wandered back to the great time I had with Art, Rhylo and the others. 'The Jedi didn't do a very good job of preserving their lives' I thought.
"I am sorry we could not save your friends, Zim. Death is sometimes unavoidable. Such is the way of the force." He said as if he had read my mind.
"I don't believe in this Force junk! If it helps you convince that you were not to blame for their deaths that's fine! But I'm no Jedi, the force has nothing to do with me and I don't want to have anything to do with the force!" I returned and walked away.
I was barely out of the facility before I regretted my words. It wasn't Zhar's fault that he was too late to save my friends. I decided I needed some time alone before I'd take out my anger on anyone else, so I walked outside the Jedi enclave for the first time. I was stunned by the view, it was simply amazing. The landscape was covered with grass, flowers and plants, except for a few bare rocks. A few trees provided shadows for the animals and insects. The many small hills made it look as if the whole landscape was a green ocean with big waves, frozen in time. I'd never seen so much of nature's beauty on any of the other planets I had been. But then, most planets I visited with Rhylo and his crew were densily populated and barely had any nature at all.
When I looked up to the sky I saw one of the most magnificent creatures I'd ever seen. It's wings were huge and triangular in shape. On top the wing were gray, from below they were white, which often made it hard to see the creature against the white clouds wandering in the blue sky. Despite his size he flew gracefully through the air with ease, as if there was hardly any gravitational force on this planet.
I looked back down and froze. Right in front of me I saw the wreckage of the ship I had served on for more than seven years. It didn't even remotely look like it with half of the ship laying shattered around the wreckage, but I instinctively knew this was The Chance. Or at least what remained of it. I had heard I could find it a few miles to the north of the academy, but I never even wanted to think about checking it out. I turned around and wanted to run away. No such luck. About a hundred feet before me I saw a vicious creature growling threateningly at me. In a flash I vaguely remembered a warning from Myrin. She had told me to should stay close to the enclave to avoid contact with Kath-hounds. They didn't like it when someone entered their territory. I immediately regretted that I hadn't followed up on her advice.
As the creature slowly moved towards me I backed away, matching my speed to the creature's. But soon my back bumped against the wreckage. I had run out of space. The creature however continued towards me. His pace quickened the closer he came. My hart was pounding against my chest. I sat down. I had to calm myself down and think. What would Art have done in a situation like this? Then I noticed a familiar object through the pile of rubble in front of me. It was one of the blasters I had custom made. I grabbed it and pointed it towards the Kath-hound. Several components fell to the ground, including the barrel. Some of the components just hung loose, only attached to the blaster by a few wires. The weapon was useless.
My heart sank. This was it. There was no way I could get away. The creature was only twenty feet away and running towards me. In a few seconds it would tear me apart, feed on my flesh and chew on my bones. I closed my eyes and protected my face with my hands, as if that would do any good. I prepared myself to die, but I was not afraid. In fact I was kind of relieved. In the past few days I had often wished I had died in the crash and this was like getting a second chance.
I awaited my death, but it didn't come. I opened my eyes to see why I wasn't dead yet and I saw the Kath-hound just a few feet away. The creature looked confused, scared even. After a moment of indecision the creature just ran away. I felt relieved and disappointed at the same time.
"Are you all right?" a familiar voice came.
I turned my gaze in the direction of the voice and saw Myrin running to me.
"This was your doing?" I asked as she sat down next to me.
She just nodded. I turned my gaze back to the blaster in my hand, or what was left of it.
"I know I should be grateful to you for saving my life, but I can't help wishing you hadn't."
"I know what it's like to lose someone you care about." she said and put a hand on my shoulder as a gesture of sympathy.
I brushed it off
"No! You can't possibly know what I'm going through!" I countered. "Losing someone you care about is one thing. Losing everything you care about is something else all together."
"In these past four days I felt like I was in some kind of nightmare. I figured I could wake up at any moment and find everybody still alive. I finally realized that's not going to happen."
Tears ran down my cheeks.
"How could you know what that feels like?" I asked and looked at her. Through the moist in my eyes I could see the sad expression on her face. Maybe I was wrong and she did know.
"You're right. I couldn't know." she said. "Perhaps you should tell me about it, so I can understand."
This request took me by surprise. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her. I always have been distrustful of people, but well, what would you expect of someone who grew up as a slave. I didn't share my private life to anyone I didn't know very well. But there was something about Myrin, I don't know how to explain this. I felt... at peace when she was around. But then I figured I had already lost everything. I couldn't possibly feel any worse than I already did. So I told her about my best friend Art, about Rhylo, who had been like a father to me, and the others. I told her about how I became Rhylo's mechanic and finally about the events that led to the crash.
It took Myrin a moment to absorb the whole story.
"Wow. I'm sorry Zim. I really am. If there is anything I can do..."
"You have already helped me by listening to this. I feel a lot better now."
"I'm glad I could help." Myrin said.
We both stood up and started to head back to Jedi enclave.
"I originally came here to say goodbye. I'm going on a mission for the Jedi council. It maybe months before I get back."
"Then I guess this is the last time we see each other." I said.
"Actually, I don't think this is our last meeting."
"You don't? Why?"
"I don't know. It's just a feeling I have."
"I don't understand."
"Let's just say it's a Jedi thing."
When we finally arrived at the enclave, we said goodbye and parted. She went off to the docking bay and I walked back to the repair facility. I was still wondering what Myrin had meant with her Jedi hunch, for the lack of a better word. How could we possibly meet again unless I stayed here on Dantooine? I hadn't seen any non-Jedi at the academy unless they were visitors, so I figured the Jedi would never let me stay here. Unless...
I entered the facility. Zhar Lestin was repairing the same datapad that he was working on 4 days ago. He laid down his tools and turned around to see me.
"Zhar, I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier. It wasn't your fault." I apologized.
"No, it was not my fault, nor was it yours for that matter. However, you were right about one thing. To have blind fate in the force, or any other belief, is dangerous. It can lead to indifference which in turn might lead to inaction or unconsidered actions." I was surprised that something I had said apparently made sense to a Jedi knight. "So, what can I help you with, Zim?"
"Well, I need your help." I said.
"I'd like to become a Jedi."
