Chapter 4
"That's it! I am officially BORED!" Zeek groaned as he tossed aside the vid game he was playing.
Two hours had passed since the four first entered the lounge. Jyo and Denz had immediately started up a virtual chess match, while Cordell and Zeek headed into the zero gravity room for a game of grav ball. However, the chess match was abandoned after an hour, as Cordell and Zeek also lost interest in competing against each other after only half an hour; after which they played all the vid games available. Upon leaving their chess match, Jyo and Denz had settled down on one of the couches and begun a Jedi meditation exercise, which they had been in for the past hour. Zeek glanced over at Cordell, who was trying to solve a very difficult brain twister. He looked back at his brother and Jyo and said to himself, I'd go into a trance too, but I'm just too restless. Zeek sighed, used the Force to lift a chair into the air, and started spinning it.
"Ugh! I give up. This problem is just too tough," Cordell growled disgustedly. He turned off the holocube and rotated to face Zeek, who was still spinning the chair. "You bored too?"
"Uh, didn't you hear what I just said?"
"Sorry. Guess I wasn't paying attention," Cordell admitted. He glanced over at the two older Jedi students still sitting on the couch in a trance. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Cordell asked Zeek as he looked from Denz and Jyo to the floating chair and back.
Zeek caught on, "I get ya." He gently put the chair down, lifted two thick instruction manuals up off a shelf, and slowly moved them toward the two sitting on the couch.
"Easy," Cordell whispered.
Zeek only nodded as he moved the books to hover over Denz and Jyo's head. When they were in position, a smile slowly crept onto Zeek's face, and he let them drop. The books dropped an inch and stopped dead still hovering over the two's heads.
"Why did you stop them?" Cordell asked.
"I didn't," Zeek replied. He tried pushing them down more, but they wouldn't budge.
"That's weird," Cordell said with a confused look on his face. "You'd almost think that they were…" he stopped mid sentence as Denz and Jyo slowly opened their eyes to look at Cordell and Zeek's expressions of surprise. Jyo and Denz smiled and replaced the manuals on the shelf.
"But…you were…we thought…um…hi?" Cordell stuttered.
"He means, 'weren't you in a trance?'" Zeek asked.
"Yes, a senses enhancing exercise," Denz stated.
"We knew what you were planning almost before you did," Jyo said with a chuckle.
"Besides, didn't Tahiri say not to make any more trouble on this trip?" Denz reminded them.
"You should be glad we stopped your prank. It might have caused you to lose your lightsaber privileges."
Zeek and Cordell both looked a little disgruntled. "I hate it when you talk to us like we're a couple of little kids," Cordell stormed.
"If the boot fits," Denz shrugged.
"Humph! We don't have to take this. C'mon, Zeek!"
Zeek had been quiet up to this time, but when he spoke, he surprised everyone. "No, Cordell. I think they're right. That joke was pretty childish."
"I can't believe this! Zeek, don't forget that although it was my idea, you still went along with it."
Zeek nodded, "I know that, and I realize I was wrong."
"So you're just gonna let them lecture you like you're a five year old?"
"You're really making an awfully big deal out of this, Cordell," Jyo said with a frown.
"Zip it!"
Jyo flinched and looked down at his lap.
"Hey!" Denz said as he stood. "That's no way to talk to your brother!"
"That's exactly it. He's my brother, but just once I wish that when the four of us are together everyone would treat me as a friend. Not the friend of two and the brother of one." Cordell stormed out of the lounge and the door swished closed behind him.
The three were silent for a long moment. Denz cleared his throat and spoke first. "So…um…what now?"
"Should we try to find Cordell and work this out?" Zeek asked.
"No," Jyo said. "I think I know why he did what he did and said what he said. He's done it before at the Installation. These little outbursts are really just his way of blowing off some really pent up energy."
"Energy, huh?" Denz scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Trust me. By the time we get to the Core Worlds he'll act as if that conversation we just had never happened."
Before Jyo could continue, a large group of Jedi Students entered the lounge talking loudly and joking. The place was soon buzzing with activity.
"We'll never be able to have a decent conversation in here," Jyo said as the three huddled together. "Let's find a quieter place to talk."
Soon the trio had squeezed their way through the crowd of students and out into the hallway. "Okay, now where would a nice peaceful place on this ship be?" Zeek wondered.
"How about the hold?" Denz suggested. "There might be some cool stuff in there too."
"The hold it is," Jyo agreed.
The three walked the length of the ship to the hold. They passed many other Jedi students and some Jedi teachers, but saw no sign of Cordell on the way. Several minutes later they were in the hold looking for a good place to sit. There was plenty of room, and soon they had each picked a crate to make their chair. Denz had just "happened" to pick a box that contained some parts to comlinks, blasters, and droids. He was soon on the floor of the hold instead with a pile of pieces in front of him and his multitool in one hand.
Jyo sighed and Zeek asked him, "So what were you saying about Cordell's energy?"
Jyo glanced at Denz and knew right away that the only reason he suggested the hold was because of all the mechanical equipment it contained. He turned his attention back to Zeek and responded, "Well, I've noticed that if Cordell is kept inactive for too long it produces a powerful buildup of not only physical but also Force energy."
"Should he be considered dangerous when this buildup becomes too great?" Zeek asked worriedly.
"I had thought of that, so I voiced my fears to Tahiri. She told me that she too had sensed this power buildup before, and made sure that Cordell almost always had something to do."
"That must have been difficult to do on the Installation since most maintenance was mechanical, and you know electronics is not his strong point."
Jyo looked over at Denz, whom he thought hadn't even been paying attention, but apparently he was, although he never even looked up from what he was doing. "Yes, that was a problem. One of the first assignments he was given was mechanical, and they soon found that this type of work only frustrated him and increased his power buildup."
"Finished!" Denz said with a smile. He held up four small devices that looked like wristwatches. "One for each of us."
"What are they?" Zeek asked as he took one from Denz and started to inspect it.
"Wait! Do we want to know?" Jyo asked.
Denz gave him a mock look of hurt, but told them anyway, "They're special comlinks."
"We've already got comlinks," Zeek said still looking the device over.
"What makes them 'special'?" Jyo asked as he gave Denz a sideways look.
"The four of them have their own wavelength so there will be no interference."
"That can't be it knowing you," Jyo said.
"Why, I don't know what you're talking about," Denz said defensively.
"Uh huh. Now what's really so special about them?"
"Well…they each contain a small but powerful explosive."
"I knew it!"
"Cool!" Zeek exclaimed.
Jyo ignored him, "No thanks. I would really rather not carry around an explosive device."
"Oh, it's perfectly safe…now."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It won't detonate unless a small pin is removed from the timer mechanism. Right now you could throw it, drop it, or dunk it in water and it wouldn't blow up."
"And how does one remove this pin?" Jyo wanted to know.
"A voice command."
"Wow, can it be anything you want it to be?" Zeek asked excitedly.
"Sure. Just press and hold the little red button on the side while you say the activation word or phrase."
"Now Zeek, I still don't think this is a good idea…"
Zeek pressed the button and said, "This is so." After he had finished the device beeped to indicate that the password was accepted.
"Now I'll do mine," Denz said and pressed the red button, "Blaster bolts." It beeped as well. "Oh, by the way, I call them combombs."
"That's it! There's no way I'm going to wear this! What purpose could they possibly serve?"
"Well, I guess you'll just know when the time comes."
"Right."
"C'mon, Jyo. Don't be such an Ewok."
"What if someone else says our pass codes for the combombs?"
"Don't worry. They will only respond to your voice print in addition to the red button being depressed."
"All right, I give up," Jyo said exasperated as he took one of the remaining combombs from Denz. He pushed the red button and entered his password, "Man with the plan".
"What are you looking at?" He asked when he saw Denz and Zeek staring at him.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Denz said with a smirk.
"Yeah, absolutely nothing," Zeek coughed.
The three of them continued to sit there in the hold and talk and joke until suddenly, they realized they had gotten hungry. They left the hold and headed for the cafeteria. On the way, they came across a large group of students rushing toward the front of the ship. Denz stopped one of them and asked what was going on.
"Didn't you hear the announcement?" the student said in a rush. "We'll be arriving at the Core Worlds in about an hour." Before any of them could reply, the boy rushed off to catch up with the rest of the students.
"Looks like we found a way to kill time after all," Jyo said.
"Come on! Let's go get a seat at a viewport for when we come out of hyperspace," Zeek said excitedly.
They still saw no sign of Cordell, "Okay, I guess we'll just meet up with Cordell after we land," Denz said as they started walking in the direction the other students had gone, totally forgetting their appetite. Zeek, of course, raced ahead. Denz and Jyo took up a more dignified pace. As they moved farther toward the front of the ship, Denz noticed the expression on Jyo's face. "You seem worried. What's up?" he asked.
Jyo turned his head to look at Denz. His brow was creased with concern as he told Denz what was on his mind; "I was still pondering Cordell's power buildups, when it suddenly occurred to me that…you know how he lashed out at us in the lounge?"
"Yeah."
"Anger."
"Anger?"
"When his power builds up and he has no way to expel some of it, he uses anger as an out or release. What worries me is that someday his angry outbursts won't be the only thing he does to release his pent up energy."
Denz gave Jyo a confused look.
"What I'm trying to say is that I'm afraid that his inability to keep his power under control will cause Cordell to seek new ways to alleviate it. Ways much worse than an angry outburst. I'm afraid that in a desperate attempt to relieve his pent up power, he will almost unknowingly turn to the Dark side!"
Denz stopped walking altogether, and stood there in the hallway with the most shocked expression his human facial muscles could possibly create.
"It's Jedi lesson 101," Jyo said. "Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."