Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
T W I N S A B E R S
Chapter Five
Composed by, The Nova Scribes
"There, that's got it!" Aln-Mai said, slamming the access hatch. "We're all set now."
"Good," Master Skywalker said, powering up the shuttle. "I'm anxious to get back to Yavin 4."
"Me too," Aln-Mai agreed, sliding into the co-pilot chair and buckling the crash webbing. He glanced over his shoulder at Kir, who was still huddled in the back, crying to herself.
Luke Skywalker followed the trainee's gaze before drawing a deep breath and rising from his seat. "Hold the controls steady." He approached the young Rinaim, drawing so close that she was forced to look up at him. She could not be more than fourteen standard years old, perhaps younger. Fresh tear trails marked her sandy-colored fur.
He knelt in front of her and asked, "You are not safe on Dibon any longer. You know that, and so do I. I can take you somewhere safe, where the Xorinians, should they escape, will never find you. If you like, then you may contact your people and they will come for you. Is that acceptable?"
Kir gazed at him blankly for a moment, as if trying to make sense of his words. Then she formed her answer. "Yess." Her voice took on an accent he assumed belonged to her people, but the Jedi Master still understood.
Luke rose then, and offered her a hand up. "Come and strap in, then. We're leaving immediately." The Rinaim slowly gave him her hand, and he pulled the young being lightly to her feet. She fastened the crash webbing mechanically as Luke took the pilot's seat once more.
Aln-Mai favored him with an unreadable look before relinquishing his hold of the controls. His teacher merely smiled at him before contacting spaceport flight control and requesting clearance beyond the atmosphere. In moments they were on their way, past the clouds and into the cold black of space.
Luke traded a last minute glance with his trainee. Both mentally crossed their fingers as the Jedi Master reached for the hyperdrive control and pulled it. The stars blurred around them and they shot away through the cosmos.
"She still won't eat?" Luke did not need to hear Aln-Mai's response, the boy's look had said it all. They were not far from Yavin, but the journey had not been the pleasantest. Kir could not be drawn into anything more than light conversation, and she kept to herself, still filled with sadness. "She's letting her sorrow consume her."
Aln-Mai blinked. He wouldn't have said as much, but he knew that a Jedi had to let go of dangerous emotions. And he sensed that the Rinaim's grief could rapidly turn to revenge. "Forgive me if I'm wrong to say this, but what if she turns vengeful?"
His teacher sighed and closed his eyes, steepling his fingers as he thought. "Aln-Mai, how did you overcome your mother's death?"
The young Jedi blinked again. He toyed with the leather headband that kept his unruly hair out of his face before answering. His voice was rough, but he did not cry. "I accepted it. There was nothing I could have done. I realized that to dwell on my pain was to weaken and allow the dark side a foothold. I couldn't bear that, to know I was weak."
The Jedi Master nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you."
Aln-Mai grinned rakishly. "Anytime, Master Skywalker." He turned to go, but a word from Luke stopped him.
"Would you go tell Kir what you just said to me?"
The boy's mouth fell open, but he regained his composure immediately. Skywalker could tell he was loath to do it, seeing as how the Rinaim hadn't even acknowledged his presence once. "As you wish," was all Aln-Mai responded. He spun around and squared his shoulders before marching out of the cockpit.
"Kir?"
Maybe it had all been a dream, just like it had been the last time. Kir twitched but did not make any other sign that she was awake.
"Kir of the Ver tribe, I have something to tell you."
At that, Kir rolled over and muttered, "So we're going to dig out the tribal titles, are we?" She sat up slowly, but a feeling of panic came over her as she looked at her surroundings. No, it hadn't been a dream. Her family was still dead, and she was still alone. She recognized the younger human crouching opposite her as Luke Skywalker's companion. Normally she would never have spoken to one who appeared to be a servant, but he had used her tribal name.
She took in the ragged black hair and gray eyes of the human. He was tall and muscular, but not much older than she. It was only then as she observed him that Kir realized she did not know his name. "Yess?" Her Rinaim accent was creeping back into her speech, a sign that she was highly agitated but trying to hide it.
He settled cross-legged on the floor in front of her before continuing. "My name is Aln-Mai Tekmi. I'm a student of Master Skywalker's at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4." He paused, as if waiting for some sort of reaction. Kir tried to muster up a suitable one.
"Jedi? You are trraining to become a Jedi? Then yourr Masterr Sskywalkerr iss the one who defeated the Death Sstar?" Kir's eyes widened considerably at that news. Her senses must have truly taken leave of her if she hadn't been able to add up simple facts such as that. She tried to hide her surprise, but knew that she must have failed miserably.
Aln-Mai bobbed his head in an affirmative gesture. "Yes, he did, but he doesn't talk about that much. He wanted me to tell you something."
Kir tried to puzzle out what the great man would have this boy say to her, but she knew not. She just wanted to be left alone. Yet Aln-Mai spoke before she could express her wish.
"The reason the both of us are here, near Dibon, is because we went to Malastare to...to my mother's funeral."
The Rinaim had not been expecting that. "You have just losst yourr motherr too?" Kir laid her ears back against her skull, startled.
Aln-Mai nodded. "Yes...she was killed accidentally, but my family is so poor that we had no money to get her the treatment that could have saved her." Kir thought she saw unshed tears fill his eyes, but he scrubbed them away with the back of his hand.
He was the exact opposite of her, like day and night. Her family had been rich, his impoverished. He had had a home of his own, Kir had moved from space station to space station. He had the hope of being a Jedi, while she had nothing now.
"What doess thiss have to do with me?" she growled, gripping her tail in her hands. "Ssay what you will."
"When she died, I realized that I couldn't have done anything to save her. I also knew that I had to accept her death and not surrender to hatred and revenge. I say all this to tell you that it is possible to overcome sadness like yours. I never had siblings, in fact I never had much of anything, but I suppose that makes everything that much more valuable. Don't give up Kir, don't give in to the darkness. You still do have things worth living for."
The Rinaim regarded him calmly for the whole of two seconds while she absorbed his words. Then her fur began to bristle frighteningly and her tail began to lash back and forth. She unsheathed her claws and bared her teeth fiercely, gratified to see that the young Jedi fell back in surprise.
"I can ssee how it iss for you, Jedi." She deliberately did not use his proper name. "You have a home, a future, because you are what you are. I don't have any of that anymore. I am no more than a piece of dusst adrift in the galaxy." Her claws shrieked against the metal deckplates. Her emerald eyes were wild as she backed away from Aln-Mai.
"And you're wrong, Jedi. I could have ssaved them. I knew it would happen, I knew it. But I could not sstop it...I could not ssee that it was real until too late. What iss there left for me here on this plane of exisstence? Nothing." She retreated into a corner, where Kir rapidly began searching through her woven bag that she always kept at her side.
Aln-Mai could not see what she was doing until it was nearly too late. His Jedi senses screamed at him even as he saw the glint of a small dagger in the Rinaim's hand, intended for her heart. "No!" he cried, focusing quickly on the Force and pulling the weapon forcibly from Kir.
His yell brought Master Skywalker in from the cockpit. "Aln-Mai? Kir? What's going on?"
Kir's anguished yowl forestalled any further conversation. "Why will you not let me go? I no longerr wish to live. Give me my knife," she implored.
Luke shot Aln-Mai a look, and the trainee held up the ornamental dagger in response. "Kir, why would you want to kill yourself? You still have so much potential, but you do not realize it," the Jedi Master said gently, taking the weapon from Aln-Mai.
A muffled whimper was the only sound that emanated from the corner where the young Rinaim was crouched.
Skywalker forged ahead. "You have the ability within you to be a Jedi as well, Kir. I sensed it when I first met you, in the way you pushed at me unconsciously. You can train at the Jedi Academy with Aln-Mai and many other young people, many who come from backgrounds such as yours."
Kir held herself absolutely still. Did this human speak the truth? Could she be something after all? Unconsciously her fur smoothed and she drew in her claws. "Do you sspeak truly?" she asked cautiously, slinking out of the shadowed corner on all fours, like she was a kitling again.
Master Skywalker nodded, his expression serious. "But you must understand Kir, you cannot enter my Academy harboring all this grief. It is dangerous to you and to the other students. You must let go of it, accept their deaths and find ways to work towards new peace that will keep that same sort of incident from occurring again." His clear blue eyes leveled with hers, and Kir found herself nodding before she knew it.
Kir of the Ver tribe rose to her hind feet, in the proud posture she was used to assuming when dealing with other emissaries and nobility. Her ears pricked forward, and her stance was relaxed and ready. In that moment she was transformed from the miserable ball of fur she had been, to what she would later become: a strong, Jedi trainee.
As the shuttle settled softly onto the surface of Yavin 4, Kir and Aln-Mai undid their crash webbing, gathering their few personal belongings. The Rinaim had made her apology to the human, and they had gotten off to a tentative start. Luke Skywalker eyed them both thoughtfully as all three departed the transport.
Aln-Mai breathed the welcome humid air gratefully. It felt so alive after the confines of the shuttle. His impish grin was back in place and he bade Master Skywalker and Kir goodbye before striding away into the dense jungle. He only paused once to call over his shoulder, "Remember, dinner at sunset!"
Kir flicked her tail at him in what both humans recognized as a sign of amused dismissal. The Rinaim glanced around her in wonder at all the life and vibrancy of Yavin. It was such a change from the drab and austere atmosphere of a space station. She paused to lift a large blue-backed beetle from where it was skittering across a broad leaf. The insect meandered across the felinoid's furless palm before unfurling its iridescent wings and taking flight. Kir inhaled deeply before looking at Luke.
"I think this shall be a good place," was all she said.
An amused glint entered the Jedi's eyes, and the beginnings of a smile touched his mouth, but Luke maintained his calm demeanor. "I think you are right. Come, there is much to be accomplished before the evening meal."
Kir, for the first time, looked uncertain. "I do not know what you want me to do. I only begin to understand the concept of this Force. How shall I be tested on what I barely know?"
As he had done so often before, Master Skywalker rested a comforting hand on her shoulder, guiding her firmly. "It is not for you to worry about. What you do not know you shall be taught, and what you do know shall be honed into skills that you can use for whatever you choose to do later. But don't concentrate on the later, think about the now."
Kir eyed him thoughtfully, before giving him her version of a smile and wrapping the end of her tail around his wrist, a sign that she was excited. "Now I know this shall be a good place."