Chapter 40 - Worse than Sand
The door of the shuttle opened up. Anakin bit his teeth as he stepped closer to the opening. A wind bearing more cold air blew inside, hitting him with the reality of just how cold this planet was. Anakin had read about it. First with Master Yaddle in one of their reading lessons. Then again on the ride here from a datapad that Master Windu provided. Each time he was in slight disbelief. The coldest he had felt before was on spaceships, where the recycled air was kept at a low sixty degrees to prevent mold growth. At the temple, its air conditioning kept a steady seventy degrees, which was considered comfortable unless you were from a planet which almost never saw a day below eighty degrees. But this, now. This was colder than cold.
The air outside was cold enough to freeze the fluids in your body, given enough time. Master Windu had taken the time to go over safety procedures, including a winter suit, which Anakin was wearing now. The Master also suggested they each take some time to adapt their bodies to the cold. They still had several hours before the sun would be high enough to open the door to the Ilum Temple, he'd heard Mace say.
Anakin looked over to see Kate, already knee deep in the snow. She picked up a handful and threw it at Freya. The white ball seemed to disintegrate when it hit her. He looked back at Kent, who was the only boy in their clan besides himself who came along to see the planet.
Ramu insisted he didn't need time to adapt to the cold, because his blood was resistant to freezing. His Nautolan ancestors swam in some of the deepest oceans on their home planet.
Alex, though he was a human, was born on Arkania, where genetic engineering was the norm. Those highlights of green in his almost white hair were natural, and so was his ability to tolerate extreme weather.
Kent seemed eager to run in the snow, but was staying back to wait for Anakin. After a nod they both ran down the ramp and into the white landscape.
Anakin bent down and put a gloved hand through the snow. At first he was disappointed as it fell through his fingers like sand. Next, he pulled off his glove to feel what it was like going through his fingers. "EEEEEEEK!" He shouted, expecting the scratchy texture he was used to. "There is something worse than sand." He put his glove back on and made a point not to do that again.
In a few minutes, their ship let out a pulse. This was their first signal to return. Mace had warned them all that they didn't want him to have to give a second signal. Anakin didn't know if the Jedi had any threats planned, but he didn't want to stay out in the cold long enough to figure it out.
"Awe," Freya whined. She was midway through sculpting a model Yoda out of the snow.
"Here, We'll just lean this up against him like this." Leeta placed a stick they'd found buried in the snow against the Yoda-ish mound and flashed her hands out. "Ta-dah!"
"I don't know. I was hoping to have more time to sculpt his face," Freya said.
"Come on. It's time to go inside." Anakin sought in vain to remind his companions.
"He's right. You remember what Master Windu said," Kent reminded them.
"Oh alright. Go on ahead. We'll follow after you in a few," said Kate. Anakin knew that was the best offer he was going to get, so he and Kent turned and ran for the ship.
The boys stripped their winter suits off. Mace, meanwhile, let off a second and third pulse of the ship's whistles before the girls finally returned.
Inside, Mace met them with a mug filled with something hot, like his master's tea, but thicker and sweeter. "Mmmm! What is it?" Anakin asked from his half empty cup.
"It's chocolate. You've never had it before?" Mace asked.
"No. It's very good," Anakin responded. "Much better than the tea my Master and Grandmaster drink."
Mace laughed. "Yes, I've drank tea with them many times. If it means anything, Master Jinn brews a lot nicer of a blend than his master before him. Master Dooku drank the bitterest teas, and he didn't add any sweetener either." He made a disgusted face, which Anakin then mirrored.
"Well I prefer the chocolate." He noisily sipped his last drop, and Mace reached out for the mug.
"When we get down to the Temple, you are going to have to clear your mind and listen for the Force to guide you…" Mace began another lecture, one Anakin just knew would lead to another group meditation session.
"Hurry along now." Mace led the younglings to the Temple.
Alex looked up at it and his mouth opened in shock. "It's so big!"
Mace inwardly chuckled to himself. 'You haven't even gotten inside yet, little one.'
Anakin pulled on the edge of his robe and pointed up at the door. "Master, uh, I think It's frozen over."
Mace turned to project his voice. "This is the Ilum Temple. As with many things in a Jedi's path, the only way to open the door is to work together. Stretch your hands out and reach for the Force.
Windu was about to help, when he heard a sound of rumbling. It was the Ice moving and soon it was blown away. He sometimes forgot how strong Anakin's grip on the Force could be. Mace barely had the chance to activate the Holocron, which held the projection of Master Yoda for his part in the lesson, before the Younglings clambered inside.
The projection of Yoda was made many years ago when a team of Jedi noticed a statistical correlation between the rates of success in the Gathering, and the Grandmaster's presence at a particular gathering. Mace was a Padawan at the time, and he remembered they used a chart and made a presentation in front of the council and everything. No one could decide if the grandmaster was actually better at explaining the fundamentals or if it was simply the psychological effect of having him be there. In the end, the holocron was created, using a piece of Yoda's soul. It would've been very difficult to arrange to have him actually come to every gathering. Still, Mace was surprised when Yoda didn't want to come to this gathering. Surprised but relieved, because it meant he could do it himself.
"The Force made physical, a Jedi is. Comes great responsibility with that, yes?" Yoda began his lecture. "Protect others, how does a Jedi, hmm?" The Younglings all opened their eyes wide as Yoda pulled a shiny metal lightsaber from his cloak.
Mace was one of the few Jedi around who could spot the differences this lightsaber had to the one the Grandmaster currently uses. It was seen as a risky move to leave behind a holographic trace of the Grandmaster's real saber, should it ever fall into wrong hands. Mace was there when they made the recording, and he was the padawan who spit polished the three dummy sabers Yoda had to choose from.
"Build your own lightsaber, you shall. But first, harvest your crystal, each of you must." Mace looked down to see a big smile on Anakin's face, and looks of wow on the others.
Yoda deactivated his saber. "The heart of the lightsaber, the crystal is."
Mace remembered there was a big debate in the council over that line. Some councilors, to this day, think that the line is too deep. That it suggested forming an attachment to one's crystal. In the end, the Grandmaster pointed to the charts on their wall. "With me, success is correlated. Not with other council members. Therefore success, my way must bring." And no one else could convince him to change it, even to this day.
"Focuses the Force from the Jedi, it does," The holo-projection of Yoda moved and made a face as if it was using the Force. In reality, the automatic process was triggered at that moment to open a window in the temple and slide the crystal up there into position in front of the light.
Making it look like the Force was Mace's idea. As a teenager he thought it would look cool. He still does.
As the crystal spun, a light show beamed across the ceiling of the temple. Then a smaller crystal moved into position and its beam was projected towards the giant wall of ice that blocked the caves. "If Jedi you are to become, enter the crystal caves you must. Trust yourself, trust each other, and succeed, you will."
Mace stood up and gave his portion of the speech. A warning. "Once you have found your crystal, you will want to hurry out. The door will not remain open for long. When the sun goes down, the door will freeze over again, and if you are trapped inside…"
"Can't we use the Force to get out?" Anakin asked.
Mace held his breath to prevent himself from laughing. There was always one youngling to question their stretching of the truth, and he figured it fitting that Anakin be that one.
Yoda had an answer logged in the Holocron for just such a situation. "Your combined efforts, broke through the first wall, it did. Alone, for a single knight, harder this will be, yes. Hurry, you should."
With a clamoring of whispers, the group walked into the caves.
"Pace you may, but faster, it will not make them." Yoda said with a chuckle.
Mace glared down at his former master. The look earned him a chuckle. Mace rolled his eyes. He hated to wait. He hated standing by with nothing to do but pace back and forth in worry.
Mace looked back up at the door. It was slowly freezing over again, inch by inch as time passed. "Oh come on. There's usually at least one out by now." Mace moaned. Secretly he hoped Anakin would be the first youngling out, but at this point he'd be glad to have anyone to stand by his side. Though he spoke in seriousness before, when telling the younglings to hurry, no Jedi was prepared to leave a youngling behind. If it wasn't for his Master's projection beside him, he'd already be hacking at the emergency door with his lightsaber.
"Patience, Padawan. Grown in one hour, the Wroshyr Tree is not." Yoda lectured.
Mace rolled his eyes.
Hello Readers,
Gee, has it really been 40 chapters already! I guess I should put a warning up that I don't really do short stories. My own mother has called me wordy, and I enjoy smaller chapters (2-4k words) and going into depth on cute little moments that other authors have ignored. I have no idea how long this story will be. I'm actually writing it week by week for you all.
I know this chapter is kind of short. I wrote about half of the journey through the caves, then realized it was going to be super long, and I decided to cut it in half.
I hope I did well explaining Yoda's presence. I don't know if it has ever been explained in canon before. I don't really like Yoda's lines in this, but decided to use what was in canon anyways. It's from the episode "The Gathering," transcripts I found online. I hope Mace's memories made it more interesting for you.
Next chapter you will read what happens to them inside the caves. Then the following week, they'll start building their sabers, with Huyang's help.