Chapter 8
The ship came out of light speed again on the approach to a beautiful blue and gold planet. In the distance, Leo could see another ship, this one large, smooth and silver. The front of it was dislike in shape, but behind that it had long prongs that supported an arc between them, pointing backwards this time, along the parallel with the disk.
Something beeped loudly on the board and Ranzel moved over to tap it very gently with his fingertips.
"Nine three two epsilon zero six. This is the Renzucon," Ranzel intoned, without emotion.
"Welcome back, D'Kar," chimed a woman's voice, firmly. "We wondered where you wandered off to."
Ranzel was smiling shyly beside him, and he replied to that with. "I was visiting an ageing friend. I have a woman here in desperate need of medical help. Can you send a medic shuttle to the landing point?"
"Very well, I'll get straight on it. I won't hold up the bandwidth – but I'll expect you to make time to see me after you land."
"Okay, Bre-jo, I'll do that."
Ranzel licked his lips and closed the communication, letting the ship come in steadily. It swept down through the atmosphere of the blue and gold planet, in a great fireball, and fell into a beautiful, gold coloured cloud layer.
Leo realised that the planet had a yellowish coloured sky, and that the seas themselves were a beautiful gold colour. Most of the ground seemed to be covered with a blue grass, though some of the mountains were dark brown with gold coloured covering of an icy substance.
"There are some robes in that storage cabinet just there. Pull them on over what you've already got."
Nodding, Leo opened said cabinet and pulled out a set of dark brown robes. He winced painfully. "Do you really expect me to wear this?"
"Always," Ranzel insisted, without looking up.
The planet was well colonised – built out of silver, grey and black buildings that came quite high. Avoiding the smaller traffic, the space ship flew across the very tops of the buildings to the spaceport beyond, coming down into one of the open hangers.
Leo could hear the loud hissing of the repulsorlifts as they gently brought the ship down against the surface beneath. It rocked momentarily and then fell still, before Ranzel began to switch off the computer systems.
Once everything was settled, Leo and Ranzel made their way down to transport the comatose woman from the Renzucon, bringing her out onto the breezy landing pad. Already the medic shuttle was there, and to Leo's surprise, a group of mismatched robots took her away.
He went to protest, but Ranzel silenced him with another look.
"Don't go getting me into trouble. I'll explain everything, I swear…just…don't talk to anyone," he said, lowly.
They left the platform, dropping down into the main city, and Leo suddenly realised just how busy this city was, and just how much he would have stuck out in his own clothes. Leo moved a little closer to Ranzel. He didn't want to get lost on this strange world.
"Don't worry, Leonard. Everyone here is far too intelligent to try and challenge a Jedi."
"But they would…if they could?" Leo asked, weakly, eyeing an alien with tentacles set into his cheeks, and sharp teeth.
Ranzel smiled. "If they could, perhaps, but you have nothing to fear; nothing at all. That is your second lesson."
Leo tried to remember what his first lesson was, but this made him almost lose Ranzel, and he trotted forwards to meet him, glancing around again.
"We'll be coming out into the commercial district in a moment. You must be careful not to become distracted, and lose me."
The younger nodded glumly and kept close to Ranzel, but as soon as they did come into the commercial zone, he couldn't help but avert his gaze from the Jedi. There were beautiful flowers that changed colours as he watched, dresses with extra arm holes, a dealer in blasters, a shopkeeper who seemed to be selling slugs on sticks to thankful passers by…
Leo stumbled to a stop, realising he had actually lost Ranzel – just as the Jedi had warned him not to…and then an arm fell on his shoulder.
He reacted before he even turned, instinctively backing a step away and raising his hands into fists before him. But even before he got round, he knew the defence wasn't necessary. Ranzel was looking back at him with cold determination, and one of the Jedi's eyebrows slowly rose higher than the other.
"Didn't I warn you to pay attention to me, Leonard?"
Leo took in a breath and relaxed his stance. A few people had looked towards him as he had reacted, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. Leo straightened up and lifted his eyes once more to Ranzel's. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"If you want to succeed you must listen to everything I teach you," Ranzel warned, firmly, but without any sign of irritation. "You must understand that whatever I have learnt I teach you only for your own good, not to torment you, but to help you survive."
Leo nodded and looked at his feet, seething a little. What did he expect? Leo had had a bad day, to say the least. He had almost killed his mother, got dumped by his not-even girlfriend, got yelled at by his best friend, followed by a psycho, found out that aliens existed, discovered that he was an important asset in some massive war, and blown up an attacking craft, just in time to avoid being turned into so much space dust…
And now he was being lectured on not paying attention.
"It won't happen again," Leo repeated, flicking his gaze upwards again. "What do you want me to say?"
Ranzel studied him for a moment. "What I want, is you to release your anger, but I can see that will take some time." He paused, and then shook his head. "Fear and anger both lead to the Dark Side. And I will not be wrong about you. I cannot be."
Ranzel turned away and moved into the crowd – and it was all Leo could do to follow him, and not get lost again.
Ranzel's apartment in this strange city was bare, and grey in colour. It was quite high up, and overlooked a good layer of busy metropolitan life. Outside, in the evening light, flying vehicles swept past the window as Leo watched.
Leo had managed to change finally into a set of clothes that matched the horrid robe that Ranzel was forcing on him, but at least he felt clean. Said Jedi was watching him tiredly now. It had been a long day, but it wasn't over yet. There was still much for Ranzel to do before he could have a little rest.
"I must go and visit Bre-jo, or I will find myself in some trouble," Ranzel said, interrupting the silence.
"Not yet," Leo replied, turning towards the older man slowly. "First of all you're going to fill me in on a few things; like why you think I might be able to help you at all."
Ranzel opened his mouth then sighed. "I suppose I do owe you an explanation," He stepped past Leo and sank down quietly on a chair, facing the large window.
"The truth is…" he leant his head back onto the headrest behind him, biting down his words and starting again after a moment. "The truth is that I'll only be able to train you if no one finds out."
Another sigh from Ranzel, and Leo took a moment to examine the Jedi's reflection in the window.
"Why so secretive?" he asked, after a moment's consideration.
"Because…if the Council learns I have taken on an outsider as a Padawan…" Ranzel shook his head. "You are too old, and too angry. But you're powerful enough to be what we need. The Council would forbid me to train you, in case you turned to the Dark Side but I…I believe in your ability, Leo."
Leo suddenly felt the weight of what Ranzel had just said crushing in around him.
"So I have to succeed, or…?"
"Or I shall have you taken from me, and I will be punished by the Council," Ranzel said, not looking up. He chose not to explain exactly how the Council might choose to punish him. "No, that is my problem and not yours…but you must understand. If they learn who you are before the right time there will be dire consequences. That is why you mustn't reveal yourself."
Ranzel studied the brown carpet as though it were the most interesting thing he'd ever laid eyes on. Leo spent a few moments considering what he had been told. He needed to comply, because his existence was as much at stake as the Jedi's. "Okay, I promise I'll keep my mouth shut."
"Will you get some sleep now?" Ranzel asked, after a few moments of wordless relief.
Leo shook his head and moved away from the window, turning his back on the reflection to look at the Jedi himself. "I don't think I can. This has been such a long, strange day."
The brown haired Jedi seemed to have recovered himself, correcting his position to sit serenely on the ugly, brown piece of furniture he had chosen to sit on. Leo went on, unperturbed by this serenity. "If I try to sleep, I'll remember that I'm on an alien planet… It's just so unbelievable. All of this, and we never knew it existed. It's…oh…" shaking his head, he wondered how he might possibly start to explain how overwhelmed he felt.
Ranzel rose in his chair and walked a few steps towards Leo. "I cannot imagine what you're going through," he said tenderly. "I've known only this since I was born. The old way of the Jedi was to take in children who showed signs of being capable and training them with others. The best were chosen by existing Knights to be trained on as their Padawans – until they were capable enough to take on Padawans of their own. I was lucky enough to be taken on by a Jedi myself."
He placed his hand on Leo's shoulder and looked down into his eyes quietly. "So as I didn't quite make as clear as I intended…I have grown up here, knowing about the extent of the Universe, about the war. I can't imagine just what it would be like to have grown up set apart like you have done, only to be thrown into this…but you must understand; we have very little hope."
"You have enough hope to count even me as an asset…You trust me too much," Leo said, keeping his gaze steadily on Ranzel.
"I have to trust you, if you are to be my Padawan. If we fight together, I need to know you won't accidentally take my head off with your lightsaber."
This made Leo smile, and he went to walk past Ranzel, and then paused. "Is there anything I can read…?"
"Yes, of course." Ranzel left the room, then returned and held out a data pad to Leo. "Just access the data-library; I'm sure you can find something to read on there."
Leo nodded, and Ranzel moved for the door once more, his robes swaying lightly around his feet. This time Leo didn't stop him. "When will you be back?"
"Oh…" Ranzel said, "I shouldn't expect it'll matter. You'll be asleep by the time I get back anyway." He smiled through his wavy hair at Leo, and then swept away, closing the door behind him.
Leo looked back at the data pad, and then sank down to find out just how it worked.
Bre-jo sat across from Ranzel D'Kar, her dark green hair tied neatly behind her head, the thin lines of her eyebrows furrowed together until they almost seemed to join in the middle. She looked dangerous, with her dragon-like, yellow eyes fixed on him like that. It was no surprise really, that meeting Bre-jo had taken a lot of effort on his behalf.
"That part of the galaxy is controlled by our forces," she said, sharply, although there was, what Ranzel considered to be a slight shake to her voice.
"Of course it is," Ranzel replied. "Do you think I would have risked a hyper space jump through Empire space?"
He leant back in his chair and watched the Malacite silently. Her clawed hands were set on the tabletop before her, and clenched into fists, so that the sharp talons were concealed in her palm. She closed her eyes and tried to relax a little, but relaxing was certainly not one of her fortes; not in the slightest. If anything, Ranzel was sure when she opened her eyes that she looked even angrier.
"So the Empire are testing their new weapons, and flaunting their power over our boundaries. I am glad you taught them such a lesson."
"Ah, I'd rather fly than fight, Bre-jo, you know that. It was my passenger who destroyed the fighter."
"Will you never take credit where it is due, Ranzel?" the Malacite asked; her voice cool again.
Ranzel smiled shyly and looked at the desk. "Especially not if it truly belongs to someone else… Shooting down a Sith fighter is not an easy feat. Trying to take out the leader first has ended many battles for us."
"Perhaps it was just a lucky shot."
Bre-jo didn't trust people easily, and didn't give credit to anyone that she hadn't befriended. Ranzel was one of these people, but anyone else was scorned until they had truly earned her respect.
Ranzel had only truly befriended her by saving her life, if truth be told, and since then it had both hindered and helped him to be connected to the Malacite in such a way.
"So these new weapons pierced your shields?" Bre-jo continued after a moment, breaking the quietness of the moment.
"Yes, they did. It was lucky they didn't hit our vital engines straight away. Another might not be so fortunate."
Bre-jo nodded and looked once more at Ranzel. "You did well, as usual, Ranzel. I'll make sure the fleet gets the information."
"I'm glad, Bre-jo. It was an honour to see you again my friend."
Ranzel stood slowly, and Bre-jo followed. "Of course – the life of a Jedi is a busy one." She smiled and then bowed.
The Jedi bowed in reply and then turned, leaving the office tiredly. It was about time he managed to get some rest, too, but there would be no such luck. No sooner had he left Bre-jo, but he received a call from the Jedi Council. There would be no more stalling.