.:What To Do When You Can't Feel The Force:.
"Mykr!" Kail exclaimed, pacing up and down the Cargo Hold. "Why did she have to pick Mykr, of all the planets in the-!" He shivered as they entered Mykr's atmosphere, and in doing so, entered the Ysalamiri Force-Dead bubble.
"Great, no more Force! If Alison manages to find what she wants on this planet, without the Force, I'll-!"
Padme rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "You know, I seem to remember you complaining like this when we arrived at Manaan as well." She said, standing up so she could push Kail down into a sitting position on one of the steel containers.
"Yeah," He said. "But this time I have a reason to complain! I can't feel the Force anymore! Which means I can't feel you through our-!"
He was interrupted again, this time as Padme wrapped her arms around his and gave him a long, passionate kiss, partly because she loved kissing him and partly to quiet him down.
She felt the tension in him vanish as the seconds turned into minutes and they still didn't part.
The sixteen-year-old Zabrak girl and the fifteen-year-old Echani boy staggered out of the Cargo Hold toward the Engine Room, never parting, even when Padme flicked a switch to close and lock the door behind them.
They didn't want any interruptions.
Rick looked up and down the corridors of the Ebon Hawk, but there was no sign of Kail, Padme, Torne or the two assassin droids.
Frowning, he continued down the corridor and turned off to pass the medbay, and came into the center room. He walked over to the room Juhani the Cathar had often inhabited to meditate.
The door was closed, which didn't stop Rick from investigating the strange noises. Inside, he found the black nocturnal-assassin droid and the rust-coloured assassin droid with a number of their outer layers slid open and many circuits were somehow connecting.
Somewhat disturbed by the lack of awareness and the actions the droids were committing, Rick was none-the-less satisfied that he'd found two of the five missing crew-members.
Alison was in the cockpit, and she'd told him she was alone there. Kinraar was working on her mechanic skills and looking after Alison's 'pet' in the Starboard Dormitories, and Rain and Kevin were in the Port Dormitories. That left the Engine Room, the Cargo Hold, and the Medbay.
He crept up to the closed door of the Engine Room, and heard a number of sounds coming from inside. Sounds that told him he'd die if he opened the door, so he turned and scoured the rest of the ship, finding absolutely no sign of Torne.
Guessing that the other Jedi had found one of the many hidden compartments of the Ebon Hawk, Rick retreated to the Cockpit, where Alison, who had taken piloting the day before, had just completed the landing sequence, and was standing to come and find him.
"So, why did you choose Mykr, of all places?" Rick asked as Alison embraced him.
"I don't know exactly. I guess I just felt drawn here, despite there's no Force to draw me here." Alison answered, kissing him lightly. A second later, the sound of a small explosion came from the Starboard Dormitories. Half-worried half-irritated, the two Jedi sprinted out of the cockpit in the direction of the Starboard Dormitories.
They were met along the way by Padme and Kail, Padme holding a blanket up to her chest, apparently not wearing anything; Kail was wearing a pair of shorts and was struggling to pull on his tunic as they too ran in the direction of the Starboard Dormitories.
The noise obviously had not reached Rain and Kevin, and Rick doubted Torne would've come running for anything short of a dozen Sith Interdictor Ships, so that left it up to them to deal with whatever was happening.
But when they got there, they found Kinraar, her face fur slightly singed, and six delicately and near-perfectly constructed lightsabers in front of her.
"Please forgive the explosion. The last lightsaber didn't turn out too well and well…" She gestured toward a few scraps of metal and half a dozen shards of crystal not even the size of Rick's smallest finger-nail.
"What happened to my caat?" Alison demanded. Kinraar turned and lifted the stunned and slightly singed caat up off the ground before handing it to Alison. Rick had to stifle a laugh after taking one look at the caat's face.
Thankfully, Alison was too worried about her (evil) pet to notice, and could no longer feel his humor through the Force, which meant she wouldn't begin shouting, or kicking, or any of the other things she may do if she knew he'd laughed at her stunned caat.
"Well, if that's all, we'll…er…" Kail stammered over the last sentence. Rolling her eyes, Padme took his hand and led him back to the engine room.
"We're going to scout the area in about an hour, we landed outside the city." Rick called after them. Kail waved a hand back at him to show he'd heard, and disappeared around a corner with Padme.
"Alison, Rick, before you leave, I actually made these two of these lightsabers for the two of you, as a gift to two friends." Kinraar said. Kinraar lifted two lightsabers and tossed them to their new owners. "Just in case you find need of them; I'm afraid they're both short lightsabers, as are the two I've made for Kail and Padme, but I was running short of materials."
"Thanks, Kinraar. They're brilliantly made." Rick said. And he meant it; Kinraar had a gift with mechanical construction, especially when it came to lightsabers, and it was always an honour to do battle with one of her handmade lightsabers.
He was pretty sure even Revan and his mother carried one or two, though their lightsabers almost never faltered, so Kinraar's gifts were rarely used.
Kinraar stood, attaching two of the lightsabers to her fiber belt, and taking the other two down the corridor, hoping Kail and Padme had not yet resumed their mating-ritual.
Kail was relieved to have a lightsaber at his belt again, even though it was a short one, and he could barely use it without the Force guiding him. All the same, he was thankful for Kinraar's gift, though at the time of receiving it, he'd been a little preoccupied.
Now, with Rick and Alison and Rain out scouting the area, and Padme and Kinraar and Kevin all doing their own thing; Kevin was examining and taking apart mechanical devices, Kinraar was engrossed in building something top secret, she wouldn't reveal to anyone, and Padme was practicing her melee skills with a vibroblade; Kail had time to examine it.
The crystal is the heart of the blade - The heart is the crystal of the Jedi - The Jedi is the crystal of the Force - The Force is the blade of the heart - All are intertwined: The crystal, The blade, The Jedi. We are one.
His mother had spoken those words once, when his father had just taught her to wield the Force. She'd constructed her lightsaber out of pure electrum, and those words had come to her through the Force. Now they came to him, despite the lack of Force. He would construct a new lightsaber soon, and his would be greater then his mothers'; and greater then his fathers'.
He rolled the short lightsaber over in his hand; the handgrip was made of Mandalorian Iron, something he'd not believed existed til Zaalbar had discovered some in one of the Mandalorian Caches.
The activation switch was a small gold button, and when he pressed it a beam of pure turquoise energy burst from the end. The blade was a little over twenty inches long, about half of a normal lightsaber blade, and gave off a light hum.
Pressing the button again, the blade vanished back into the hilt, and he stood; without taking it apart, he wouldn't be able to see what else was used in its construction, so he settled with clipping it onto his belt, and then went in search of Padme. It had been just over two hours since Rick and Alison and Rain had left; they'd said they'd only be half an hour.
"Alison, it's raining." Rick looked at his girlfriend and shook his wet hair out of his eyes, "can we go back now?"
"No," Alison giggled as she twirled in the pouring rain and looked at him, "the rain's beautiful, Rick, why do you want to go back anyways?"
"Because I'm wet and cold and its pouring rain."
Rain laughed at Rick, "We've been through worse Rick, don't tell me you're getting cold feet about a little bit of water." She pulled him in closer while Alison was paying attention to something her caat had found.
"Alison's finally at peace with herself, don't ruin it, or try to force her to do anything she doesn't want to." Rain hissed, and gripped his arm painfully in a tight grip, "she's healing, so let her be…"
Alison looked back to see Rick and Rain talking intensely and shrugged as she went off ahead and came to a clearing, full of rocks and trees.
"So how come you're hiding out here?" She asked to the silence and was met by Shayera's purr as Torne detached himself from the boulder he had been leaning against and looked at Alison.
"I don't know, Ali, I was never hiding."
Alison shook her head, "you've been avoiding us, avoiding me… everyone. I miss our late night talks, Torne, don't you?" Her blue-green eyes stared into his intently as he looked back down at her.
Younger than Alison, he was still growing and now he was several feet taller than her, his shoulders had finally filled out, though he was still the lanky kid she had always known.
"I've changed Alison, so have you;" Torne replied gravely as she sat down on a rock and looked out over the lake that rippled with the rain's falling patterns.
"I know…" Alison said quietly. "And I'm fighting it, fighting her… but once we leave this planet, I'll never remember that I knew this so clearly until Alyssa Krast is gone."
Torne smiled lightly at her, and his smile actually reached his eyes this time, "you were pretty impressive in the cargo hold, Ali…" He looked out at the lake as well, his face as readable as stone now. "You fought with the strength of more than one."
Alison nodded, and cocked her head as Shayera meowed, "they're coming this way, are you going to stay?"
Torne paused, "I… I don't think so. It's one thing talking to you, but to the others? It's impossible."
"No, Torne's its not." Alison sighed, "talk too Rain, talk to the others, join in the crew again. Even if you're not the kid I knew before, you're still Torne, and I remember you."
He looked at her, "you don't mind that I'm not the same that I was before all of this?"
"Why should I?" Alison snorted and turned as Rick and Rain came into the clearing, stopping dead when they saw Torne and Alison and Shayera.
Torne stood up, "Rain do you want to come back with me to the ship? I'll race you there," He grinned sheepishly as Rain smiled and pulled her brother into a hug.
"Come on, kid, you're going to loose though," Rain warned her brother as they ran away laughing, but before they turned the corner Torne smiled at Alison and mouthed thank you as the two siblings ran away.
"How on earth did you get more than one word out of Torne?" Rick asked in a bemused voice as Alison pulled him into a hug, holding him close to her.
"It's not that hard, Rick… he's just lost, confused."
She pulled her hair back and looked at Rick, the rain running down his face as she frowned, "do you sing at all?"
Rick shifted on his feet as he pulled her into the cave behind her and watched as the water from the ledge played reflections across her face; "not like you're thinking of, Alison, probably not."
"Well listen to this then." Alison smiled and started to sing to Rick for some time. When she had finished, he smiled and brushed her hair back from her face as she looked up at him.
It was going to take them a long time to get back to the ship, Rick realized as they kissed, a long, long, long, time.
Padme came back onto the Ebon Hawk after scouting the general area around them. "Well, it's pouring rain outside." She said, discarding her drenched cloak. "That may explain why Rick and Alison and Rain are late getting back." Kail nodded.
"Well, looks like we've got some time to kill. Care to test your vibroblade skills?" Kail asked Padme who followed him into the Cargo Hold, where they both grabbed a pair of swords, Kail holding a vibrosword in one hand and a shortsword in the other.
Padme walked to one end of the Cargo Hold, two longswords in her hands, and spun around to see Kail standing at the other end of the Cargo Hold.
Both had stripped down to the bare minimum, so as to be completely free to move. This left Kail in a pair of shorts that he slept in, and Padme in a two part set of undergarments. Kail would've found their choice of attire amusing if he'd not had every intention of winning the sparring match.
Padme nodded her head, and the two teenagers rushed at each other, swinging their swords fast and strong, and soon all they heard was the constant clang of the swords hitting. Neither seemed able to overpower the other, both seeming to know the others next attack before they made it, and where therefore able to defend against it.
Finally, after another hour of constant slashes, parries, strikes and blocks, the two Jedi parted, returning to either end of the Cargo Hold, not tired in the least, but realizing they were getting no where with their sparring match.
"I hereby declare the battle a draw." Kail said, and Padme laughed as she returned her two swords to the holder. Kail returned with a canteen of water, and they both took a few gulps before redressing and leaving the Cargo Hold. They found Rain and Torne drying themselves off in the garage.
"Where are Rick and Alison?" Kail asked.
"Don't know." Rain said. "They wanted some time together without company."
"Well, that explains why it's taking them so long." Padme said. "By the way, Kinraar's on a construction spree at the moment; so don't go into the Starboard Dormitory, unless you want to learn what it's like to be a Wookie's punching bag."
She reached into the pocket of her robes. "On the subject of the former, she made these short lightsabers for the crew." She handed two short lightsabers to Rain and Torne, and then another one to Rain. "It's Kevin's. He's on his own kind of construction spree with the two droids. Don't ask."
"Don't tell." Rain answered, sliding Kevin's new lightsaber into a pocket of her robes. "Well, it's getting late, and I'd like some sleep before we all head out tomorrow. Goodnight fellow Jedi, I'll be in the Port Dormitory."
With that, Rain turned on her heel and left the Garage. Shrugging, Padme followed her, leaving Kail and Torne in an awkward silence until Torne also left. Frowning, Kail unhooked his short lightsaber.
If he was going to be the best Jedi he could be; it was time to start learning to use a lightsaber without the Force. He held the hilt in one hand, and hit the activation switch; the turquoise beam shot out, and he fell into Form I of the seven lightsaber forms.
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