Chapter 15
A few days later, Yoda came to me and said: "Completed your trial you have. A Jedi Knight you are. Taught you, all that I can. The rest, find for yourself you must. May the Force be with you."
I didn't see Master Yoda again for the rest of the day. Warbler had stayed with me during my training. Among the survival equipment had been a device that was a combination of portable fusion battery, lantern and heating device. Using this, he had been able to stay fully charged. As well as the usual first aid kit, there was also a fully stocked personal hygiene kit. With this, I had been able to stay reasonably clean while also being able to wash my clothes in a moving stream nearby. I had allowed my hair to grow out while training and also grown in a mustache and full beard combination but I had kept it trimmed with the tools in the hygiene kit. Also, through the Force, I could now understand Warbler's droid language as clearly as I could understand Basic.
I had to admire his infinite patience as I used him as a training aid from time to time. That day I said: "Warbler, activate the beacon call, its time for us to go." His answer was both relieved and sarcastic: "At last! At last I'm saved! Back to the world of oil baths and regular maintenance! Hooray! Hooray!" I smiled at him and said: "Smart aleck!"
My ship was on the ground in two hours and had stored well inside the airless moon-cave. I tore down my campsite and started to repack the crates that the equipment had come in. Taking a moment to read the elapsed time on the chronometer, I was dumbstruck to find that my training had taken five years!
Five years that I had only barely noticed passing by. I had lost weight and gained muscle during the training, and I had repaired my clothes a number of times but it just didn't seem as though five years had passed.
After recovering from the initial shock, I continued what I was doing until I felt a presence in the Force much stronger than my own that wasn't Master Yoda. I turned to see my Grandfather appear again. He smiled and said: "Your training here has been but a step on your path. Now you will go forth. I am proud of you my grandson."
He disappeared then and I resumed my packing and completed it later that day. That night, I slept poorly as images of my remaining family back on Earth came to me. I woke up in a cold sweat. The images were already fading from my mind but I knew I had to return home one last time to make sure everything was alright.
Originally, when Warbler and I had scouted the moon-cave five years ago, we found a hidden cache of fuel storage in the back. Warbler speculated it was probably a smuggler's emergency reserve. The fuel cells were fairly old but still serviceable. Though the ship wouldn't operate at peak efficiency, it would be enough to see me back to Earth and beyond.
Warbler and I took off bidding a fond farewell to Master Yoda as we backtracked our course and returned to Earth. After the jump to hyperspace, to aid in conserving my fuel, I cut all my ship's systems to minimal and went into a Jedi trance that at first may have looked like death but was really just a super-slowed metabolism. The most unique thing about this trance is that I have a perfect recollection of the time spent in transit. Thanks to this time sense, I woke up just as I emerged from hyperspace brought my systems to cruising power and entered Earth orbit.
My electronic countermeasures were active to prevent detection from the surface as I tasked Warbler with finding a communication satellite to tap into so I could contact my brother and sister. It was the work of only a few minutes before Warbler had locked onto a communication satellite that allowed me to piggy-back a signal to the ground and place a call to my sister first.
She answered the phone and couldn't believe it was me at first. I assured her it was. She said that our older brother was visiting and let me talk to him briefly. I told them to meet me in the clearing where I had left from. They agreed to leave right away. Backtracking my course further, I was able to find the clearing a few minutes after ending the call with my sister and made for a landing. It seemed I had come full circle.
Chapter 16
I waited thirty minutes after talking with my sister and then landed and proceeded to get the camouflage net out and activated. Two hours after that, my brother and sister entered the clearing and greeted me with hugs. The car ride home was spent relating my story to my older siblings.
At first neither one could believe what I had been through. A quick example of the Force quieted their disbelief. The Force was telling me something would happen soon, but all I could do was to keep my eyes and ears open and my Force senses on guard.
After getting back into town, we stopped at my favorite barber which left me with the short haircut I preferred and a mustache and goatee combination. From there the three of us went back to my sister's home where I took a long, hot shower, my first in five years. After that, my sister took me downtown to access the savings that I had left behind. Compound interest had been kind to me. With a large digit figure in the bank, my next stop was a local clothes maker. After taking detailed measurements of my much improved physique, the tailor took two weeks to make two sets of two piece black pants and shirts with a pair of shin-high black boots.
The clothes were made of the same cloth that military BDU's were made of only tailored differently to fit me exactly unlike the military one-size-fits-all-but-doesn't method. The pants had the combination of snug and loose that I needed, while the shirts were designed with a tunic-like appearance.
After receiving my clothes, I went to a local jeweler and made an offer on the red diamond. I was aware of the normal white diamonds to be found on Earth and the occasional blue but even the jeweler had not encountered red diamond before. I allowed the jeweler to take a sliver of the diamond and subject it to whatever tests they wanted to make sure it was real.
After the diamond had been certified genuine, I found myself to be a rather wealthy young man. I didn't need the money anymore but I found myself having it just the same. Using this new resource, I had my brother rent a truck for few days so I could go get Warbler from the ship. After picking him up and keeping him and the truck nearby, I tied the comlink into his systems, thus turning it into a wireless transmitter.
From there, I went to a public cyber-café and had Warbler link into the internet. With him navigating the system, I had him erase every possible reference to my previous name and life. For all intents and purposes, the person I used to be ceased to exist. Everything was deleted. My social security number, my credit cards, my tax returns, even my birth records. Everything that could even hint at my existence was irretrievably deleted.
After that was done, I divided the remaining money between my brother and sister. Neither one would accept it at first but I told them that I wouldn't be coming back when I left this time. I said: "You'll always be my siblings, but now I have a larger purpose ahead of me. I'm not sure what just yet, but it's out there waiting for me." I had motioned to the night sky as I spoke. Even though the Force told me their midichlorian counts were too low for true sensitivity, I knew too, that they could feel the truth in my words.
On my last night home, my brother, sister and I were walking through a nearby park. It was getting late but not past midnight yet. Neither I nor my two siblings was looking for trouble that night, but trouble came looking anyway. We were crossing the park near my sister's home when a group of thugs came up to us and demanded our money.
There were eight of them. Their leader was about my age and spoke for the group. Focusing the Force on them I said: "You don't want to trouble us. In fact, you all want to go home and rethink the choices you've made." Five of them took on a slightly dreamy expression and walked away saying: "We don't want to trouble them. In fact, we're going to go home and rethink the choices we've made.
The last three wavered a moment before their leader shook his head and said: "What am I doing? What the hell am I doing?" Motioning to his two remaining cohorts, he waved them forward and said: "Get him guys!" The Force warned me in plenty of time what was about to happen. One thug stepped in to punch high as I parried the blow, spun him around and locked him into a sleeper hold. Three seconds later, that one was unconscious as I shoved him to my brother to catch and set down. The second attacker stopped in his tracks after seeing his buddy on the ground unconscious. He stepped away as the leader said again: "You candy-ass! I'll take this one then."
The leader of the pack dropped into a fighting stance and drew a bowie knife from a hidden sheath on his back. He slashed and feinted causing me to step away. I said: "I don't want to hurt you but if this continues . . ." The leader said: "Well then, let's just make sure of that." He drew a second bowie knife and began a weaving wall of blades in front of me. Realizing I had little choice left, I drew my lightsaber from a hidden pocket inside my shirt and activated it. Its ruby red blade illuminated the vicinity as the leader stopped and said: "Is that fancy flashlight suppose to scare me?"
He stepped in to stab me in the gut as I side-stepped and cut down in a swift and sure motion. The sensation of feeling my blade cut through skin, muscle and bone is one I shall never forget nor am I eager to repeat it. His severed hand and upper forearm fell to the ground with a sickening plop. His scream of pain rang through the night like a gunshot. As he fell to his knees, I felt a visceral thrill of power in my gut. The thrill repulsed me at the same time as spoke to me.
I brought my attention back to the present as I deactivated my saber. The leader's cohort fell to the ground as he started to scuttle backwards on his hands and feet saying: "No trouble man, no trouble!" I turned away to see the faces of my brother and sister changing from shock, to fear and back again. I said: "It's time to go."
As we started to walk away, I heard the slapping of feet on the pavement. The Force showed me the leader was running at me with the knife in his other hand about to stab me in the back. Using a gentle Force shove to move my brother and sister out of danger, I reignited my saber and held it out in a straight line from me. The leader leapt onto my blade and died instantly. His death rattle chilled me to the bone.
My siblings were silent the rest of the way back to my sister's house. The next morning, there was a piece on the news about a death in a local park but not enough eye witnesses were available to assemble a coherent story. I knew it was time to leave then. My brother and I, my sister and my sister's family, piled into two cars, with Warbler tied down under a tarp in my brother-in-law's truck and drove back out to the forest and the clearing where my ship sat.
We arrived to the area and I lowered Warbler to the ground with the Force. Everyone came with me to the ship as I used the Force again to raise Warbler up to his interface socket. The sound of the system's powering up was soon heard as I got my flight suit on and prepared to leave.
I said to my brother and sister: "I'm sorry you had to see what I'm now capable of in a fight. I may have changed my name and appearance, but I'll always be your little brother. Don't ever forget that." My sister stepped forward first and said: "That's okay. Even I know you had little choice left by that point. Take care." My brother said: "I wish I could go with you. You know how I love to explore." I said: "Yes, I do. Maybe someday, I'll be able to send you a message from out back of beyond."
I said goodbye to my nieces and my nephew then. They were all a little upset but held up well. After a last round of hugs, I climbed aboard and closed the hatch before they could see the tears in my eyes as I saw theirs. Warbler said over the translator screen: "Something wrong with your optical sensors sir? They seem to have sprung a leak." I chuckled and said: "No Warbler. Nothing is wrong. Let's fly."
I took off with my ECM at full power and left my homeworld behind for the last time. Using the Force as a compass once again, I oriented my course and jumped to hyperspace, the void between here, there and everywhere.