Chapter 3
Caren found Orril in a hall near his fighter. He looked disheveled and tired, and he was wincing when he stepped with his left foot, but it gave Caren an excuse to talk to him, at least. She had her pride.
"Orril, what happened to your foot?" she called out, making him turn towards her with surprise. His eyes had bags, she noticed, but his blue eyes were clear and alert. He didn't answer, but pointed into an adjoining room. She saw a badly crippled X-wing, and wondered at the sight.
"Is that Jardin's?" She said with surprise.
"Yes," Orril replied. Caren's mouth opened in shock. No normal human could've survived it. One of it's S-foils was nearly ripped off, and it's cockpit looked like it had a thousand small holes in it.
"But no one could have survived that!" she cried. Orril gave her a look, then apparently decided she wasn't going to be difficult.
"He used a Force bubble to keep the pressure in. He also used the Force to bleed off excess energy, which saved both his life and the X-wing. It would've exploded when the S-foil was hit."
"Course, the bay was hit, so he'd been better off going EV in the long run," Caren said, then stopped. "Or perhaps not. He's making a good recovery. With all the crossfire going on out there, chances are high that he would've been killed. I've seen hundreds of pilots who weren't so lucky."
"Yes, but I was worried anyway. He's been my closest friend since before we left the academy. We studied together."
"On Yavin 4?"
"Yes. How did you kn-"
"This place gets millions of people. I hear things, from military types, smugglers and the like."
Orril nodded. Caren took off his shoe and looked at his foot, knowing fingers examining for bruises and breaks. Although his toes looked fine, he had a blister, a minor break, and some bruising. "Drop something?" she asked.
Orril jumped as if he'd been jarred out of thought.
"What? Oh, yeah." He gazed at her with tired blue eyes, and she found herself falling into their depths… No, she thought. I can't let myself fall into a daze. I'm just tired.
Orril seemed to be going through the same effect. Caren decided to get to the point before he was too tired to talk.
"I remembered what you said this morning. I came to find you."
Orril drew back, his eyes narrowed and unfocused. He looked at her, both surprise and knowing etched into every feature of her face. Caren found herself finding that unlike her first impression of him, he was very good looking. He sighed with content, and looked away.
"I'm glad."
"Jardin told me what a dark Jedi is like. I… I don't want to be like that. What if instead of healing people, I turned to the dark side and killed them?" Caren asked rhetorically, with tears in her eyes. She sat down on the hard cold floor, and gazed fixedly ahead. Orril sat as well and moved closer and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You won't," he said with kind eyes. Caren felt that the bridge that had sprung up between them when they had first met had finally been crossed.
"I need training, I guess. Jardin said I was strong in the Force, whatever that means. I've heard tales from people who served the Empire in it's glory days. They would always say that besides being known as evil and ruthless, it was common knowledge to them that he was strong in the Force. I've heard stories how he would strangle on impulse, and nearly killed his own son. I don't want to be like that. Ever."
Orril nodded in approval, and seemed to consider things. "I know a few people. Would you say yes to most who asked?" he said seriously, searching her eyes for something.
Caren nodded, and instantly said, "Yes." She knew what was coming. Somehow.
"Then I take you as my apprentice."
Caren gave him a wry look, but nodded. It was, after all, why she had said yes. She had sensed what he was about to say. And Caren, to her great surprise, found herself enjoying it.
ëëë
Five hours later, Caren was back in her rooms, examining the crystal again. Orril had told her that she was old enough for a lightsaber, and what she needed to make one. She had gone around scavenging for spare bits of metal, until she had enough to assemble one. She sucked on a burnt finger, from welding the frame, and finished the frame. She inserted the power source, and connected it to the spot where the crystal would fit. She looked back at her crystal, and weighed it in her hand. She didn't know if it would work, but she wanted to try. She felt a connection to it. It and the frame, made from broken medical equipment, would remind her of her childhood here and all of the people who had taken a child whose mother had died, and raised her as one of them.
She inserted her crystal and finished welding the top onto the bottom of the frame, and added a few finishing touches. She chopped off the point of six needles, and welded them evenly arranged around the frame. She held it in her hand for a minute and looked at it. Beaming, she thumbed the power switch. With a snap-hiss a gleaming white blade ignited, and remained humming, an elegant blade extending from a gleaming chrome and bronze handle, blazing in Caren's hand. She examined it again. She had built it so it would be skinny and a little bit shorter than Orril's, perfect for her palms, and fitting for her height. She reveled in the way she could feel her blade. It was like she could see it in her mind. Orril had said that without training, but the concept, she would be able to see something she had done during extreme concentration. He was right. She deactivated her lightsaber by thumbing the switch again, since she didn't want to worry about her blade going off in the middle of combat, a feature she had made sure to add, when the ship began to shake and the lights blinked on and off. She grabbed onto her bed, and held on for dear life as the ship rocked on it's axis, and objects fell around her. She could hear screams out in the corridors, and she knew that she'd have a lot of work to do with her patients.
Finally, the shaking stopped, and she picked herself up off the floor. Her shelves had come off the wall, and their objects were scattered on the floor. She mentally checked herself for injuries, and finding none, turned to the black and orange patch she saw in the corner of her eye.
Looking closely, she saw that they had entered realspace, and that the orange was a massive gas giant. Orbiting the planet were several large moons, and a few of them were green and blue, telling Caren that they held life. She had never seen this planet before, which both surprised and didn't surprise her. Although she had seen a lot of planets, and most of the major inhabited ones, she could never see them all.
Her comlink buzzed and she answered it, knowing she was probably hearing a mass message. "We will be landing on one of the moons shortly. We took some damage coming out of hyperspace, so be prepared for a rough landing."
Caren listened and gazed at the surrounding space. There were no major freighters that she could see, and it seemed to have little or no planetary defense.
ëëë
Orril sat with Jardin as the ship descended toward the jungle moon, looking through a transparisteel window. To him, this was the only place he had ever been able to truly call home. It was the only place where he'd been truly accepted. Before, on Coruscant, he had been taunted for his powers, and his insights that the Force gave him. This was home. Jardin looked just as anxious and excited as he did. They hadn't been here since they day they'd been knighted. Coming home was a bittersweet experience.
The ship drew closer to the gas giant, and began to orbit, Orril noticed, in the same course the Death Star had taken 15 years ago. Orril and Jardin had been young during the time of the Empire, but both could still remember the day the night had lit up with cheers and fireworks, and the fighters of the triumphant Rebel Alliance. Although they had been seven at the time, they both had known what it meant. The Stormtroopers were gone. They didn't have to live in fear anymore.
It was this that made Orril proud to serve the New Republic. No, he wasn't proud. He loved it. Much as he hated politics, he admired what it stood for: democracy, freedom, and peace. Without those ideas, Orril was sure that the New Republic would crumble, as the Old Republic had long ago when Palpatine had declared it an Empire, on what was called Empire day. He still got the chills when he thought of Palpatine's apprentice, Vader. He had only seen him once, but it was enough. He had felt Vader's anger and evil, even though he was untrained in the Force. It had been that strong. Orril knew he was lucky to have been passed by that day. The one Vader had been after had met a horrible fate. Even now, Orril was so terrified of what had happened to talk about it.
Shaking his head to rid himself of that though, he looked at Jardin. Jardin's lips were tight, and his face was creased with lines of worry. Overall, he still looked worse for wear. The emotional stress was beginning to take a toll. Orril knew that Jardin sometimes wished that he had stayed on Coruscant. Life would've been easier. Orril himself sometimes wished that he lived back in the days of the Old Republic, and the Jedi Council. Back then, he would've lived in the Jedi Temple from near birth, and he would've grown up under democracy. Although his life would be planned out for him, he knew he would be doing good. Now, it was a lot less clear what it was you were supposed to do. Some Jedi now settled minor disputes, one of Orril's peers had even gone into hiding. The Jedi Council no longer existed. Although being a Jedi was exciting in itself, it was a mundane life in some respects.
"I sense apprehension in you, Orril."
"I sense you're getting into my head," Orril shot back, with a wink in Jardin's general direction.
"I can't help myself from feeling feelings that are just thrown out there. Even you, thick as you are, should remember that," Jardin said with a touch of humor in his voice.
"Has it ever occurred to you that I may be getting prematurely senile?"
Jardin snorted and sent a gentle Force shove in Orril's direction.
"Is that all you've got?"
"Come on, Orril. You've always been the warrior slash mediator. I'm only the philosopher."
"Not to mention the joker."
"So I can't help myself. Besides, someone needs to lighten up your mundane existence. You're too serious."
"That being serious has gotten you out of a lot of sticky situations."
"My joking has saved you from dying of boredom, and you know it."
"Perhaps."
"You know I'm right."
"You make it so hard to like you sometimes."
"Oh, come one. You're the closest thing I have to a brother. You're my best friend."
"And you're the same to me. Growing up, I never had any siblings. Or any friends, for that matter. You were the first one I never had. You're my brother, nothing will change that."
"Ah, so you were joking?" Jardin said with a weird look on his face.
"There's no winning with you, is there?"
"Nope," Jardin said with a triumphant tone.
Orril gave Jardin a playful glare, and his face broke out into a rare smile.
"Well, look at that. The ever serious Orril is smiling."
"Oh, stop it. Did I tell you that I took Caren as my apprentice?"
Jardin's eyes widened a tiny bit, his pupils narrowing. Orril sensed a wave of emotion from him, mingled with both disappointment and shock.
"Well, I guess you beat me to it, then. I was rather hoping to ask her myself."
Orril looked at him with a critical eye. Jardin had been plagued with visions of the future since he was a little boy. Training in the Academy had given him control, so now visions came at will. It was also uncharacteristic for Jardin to want to be a mentor. He'd rather just have fun.
"You saw something, didn't you?"
Jardin's face fell, and he looked away. He was carefully hiding his emotions.
"Jardin, I need to know. What did you see?"
"I saw that without training, she will be killed by the dark Jedi we were chasing. There was an alternate future as well. She will, again without training, inadvertently set a series of events flowing that will kill thousands, maybe millions. I tried to see a future with her trained, but it was blocked from me."
Blocked from Jardin? How can that be? Jardin was powerful. He'd never been unable to see anything before.
"But that doesn't make any sense," Orril said, frown lines creasing his forehead.
Jardin shrugged. "Not much does, these days."
They stared out of the window in silence, while huge trees flash by, and a clearing opened up before them. In that clearing was a landing pad, and several large Massassi stone temples. A solitary figure was walking out of the main temple, but was too far away to identify. Orril gazed at it all, quick eyes picking out the familiar sights of Yavin's fourth moon. He glanced over at Jardin, who had a look of anticipation on his face, avidly gazing out of the window.
Jardin turned to Orril, his eyes bright.
"We're home," he said.
ëëë
The solitary figure approached the massive medical ship. It shuddered as the repulsorlifts were cut and it settled onto its landing gear, which looked like many small spider legs. The main hatch opened and the landing platform extended, settling onto the landing pad with a soft clank.
The figure crossed its hands in front of it, but did not lower the hood that cast a shadow across its face. The figure was tall, but the one feature that stood out with its face covered in the hood were the two piercing blue eyes peering out of the shadow.
