STAR WARS
THE CRIMSON BLIGHT
Episode 9: Memories from the past
It was a warm sunny day, outside on the orange grassy fields. Tikala alongside her long time friend Mile'giko walked among the ruins of the jedi conclave. They had been tasked with studying it, as it holds much history of the past wars. You could almost feel the echoes of war still present, but it was also a very tranquil place to visit.
Tikala especially felt at home in this calm environment, she also really liked discovering such places for herself, seeing historic places felt so much better than just reading about them. Mile'giko on the other hand seemed bored by contrast.
"You are now allowed to run free of your own choosing." A Kel'dorian master announced to the group of preteens he was currently the field guide for.
"Thank you Master Buz." The thirty Jedi Initiates more or less said in unison, before they all casually went their separate ways.
"I want to check the roof, I've haven't seen that part yet." Tikala said enthusiastically.
"Sure." Mile'giko just replied with small smile. "That would be a great place to have some lunch."
Having heard the little zabrak, Master Buz commented. "Just remember to be careful younglings. Even after all these years, there could still be pitfalls, so be aware at all times."
"Of course Master." Tikala promised, right before she elegantly jumped up on top of the roof, followed by Mile'giko, both making a soft soundless landing.
As they stood on top of the jedi ruins, Tikala began to scout the roof, while Mile'giko looked around for a good place to sit down on this warm day, preferably a place with shade.
Tikala searched around for sometime, when she found an old chest beneath, hidden well down in the rubble. To her slight dismay, it was wrecked open and the remainder was barely holding together. She imagined a salvager had carelessly blown up the lock, to get to whatever equipment it had originally contained. Soon after, she noticed Mile'giko looking down at her. "There you are miss Xastra," she said in a playful voice. "Did you find something interesting?"
"I thought I did, but it was broken and empty." Tikala pointed to the wretched chest.
Mile'giko shrugged slightly. "Can we take a break and have lunch together? I found this nice place in the shades."
Then it all suddenly fated to black.
Briza awoke from the strangest dream of her life, it took her a while before realizing she was still onboard the Silent fang, lying in her own bed.
"Sister! Did you just share memories of your past, with me?!" Briza demanded to know.
Tikala who sat cross legged on the floor still in deep meditating, opened her eyes and gave a perplexed look in return. "I... I don't believe so."
"You don't believe so? I just witnessed you as a little child, playing with your friend on an old ruin!" Briza angrily stated as a matter of fact.
Tikala thought for a moment. "You may have seen our field trip to Dantooine's old jedi conclaves?"
"So it is your memory?" Briza uttered less than happy.
Tikala rubbed her horn protruding head. "Without being certain of anything, I guess this is the drawback of our Force-link."
"Great! I'm going to have jedi nightmares for a foreseeable future." Briza irritatedly concluded.
Tikala sighed, but otherwise remained silent, she could sense it was raining outside.
"I saw a tall kel'dorian jedi, is he the one you are trying to save? Your master that is?" Briza asked, now that the dream was becoming slightly clearer in her mind.
Tikala made a small nod. "Yes, his rescue is our main objective."
"In case we rescue him ahead of time. Will you promise me not to turn tail and leave me in the thick of things?" Briza asked, as she could easily picture herself completely alone against the wrath of Psiron.
"I cannot make such a promise. But you have my word as a jedi, that I will do what I can to see Terrow and you through your struggles." Tikala swore, mostly because an evil such as Psiron should be stopped before it can harm billions of people.
While not entirely satisfied by that answer, Briza guessed it would be enough for now. "Well, I certainly hope it will not end in such a scenario."
"Agreed. Somebody has to stop Psiron." Tikala nodded, as she slowly returned to her meditation.
Briza glanced at her chrono, just to see how long she had slept, she realized it hadn't been for very long, so she quietly went back to sleep.
Mathorn awoke from his sleep in the medbay, feeling well rested. He had recovered remarkably quickly from his explosive encounter with a detonating minefield. He got out of the bed and put on the clothes that had conveniently been placed at his side, for him to wear when he awoke. Afterwards he looked around the ship and found his siblings looking at the new information they have received from imperial intelligence. "Hi family, you're awake too? I just had this weird dream, I was being instructed by master Buzz, he was showing me how to elevate massive metal containers with ease."
This came as a surprising realization to Tikala. "Wait?! Are you both seeing my past memories in your dreams? I can assure you all, I'm not doing it on purpose." She said in an apologizing tone.
"Now we can be absolutely certain of one of the drawbacks in using force-link." Briza muttered with distaste in her mouth. "I hope this is the only curse we'll find."
"I dreamed your memoirs? That explains why Master Buzz appeared in my dream, and why he was much taller than I remember him." Mathorn replied with a slight chuckle, for him this was actually a bit of fun.
"The force works in mysterious ways." Tikala mumbled mostly to herself, as she began to think of the ramifications concerning what they could see in her past.
"So what else is going on? By the way, did we catch the baddy?" Mathorn asked, as he wanted to be updated.
"Well since you have been a bit out of the loop, this' what you have been missing out on," Terrow told him and began to explain the details. After telling him the tail of how their sisters only just succeed in destroying Psiron's mind controlled minion. Thereafter, they had received a message from Darth Deedrah to stay on the planet for a while longer, also they had been ordered to fly the Bounty hunter ship to Drumond Kaas for further study. Therefore, Terrow had instructed three Twi'leks with the mission of delivering the ship.
Afterwards, Briza still felt very tired, so she went to bed again, while Tikala was looking over the recent events. Terrow was sitting in his small office, with his feet up on the table in a very relaxing manner. He felt he had deserved it, now that he had completed his tasks… walking into the office the sight gave his brother an idea.
"You know what bro? Let's go out and get a drink, like real men." Mathorn suggested with his arms out wide for emphasis. "And before you ask! I promise not to murder anyone this time."
"That's reassuring to know." Terrow said in agreement with a small smile. "Well since we don't know when we will get the chance to see the city life on this planet, let's do it Brother."
Mathorn then walked into the meeting room where Tikala was still looking over a graphic map of the known galaxy. "Sis, Terrow and I are going on a little city trip. Keep us updated if something serious comes up."
"I will. Have a nice trip you two." Tikala said vividly, as she concentrated outwards, trying to see the map with the force.
They touched down a bit outside the main part of the city with their last fully functional speeder, they could see more and more light lit up, as the sun was about to set.
Parking the speeder alongside a dozen similar ones, Mathorn suddenly came to think about something. "Um... Bro? The speeder we are using is stolen, should we get rid of it?" He whispered, so as not to draw attention.
"I changed it's transponder code, they will think it was legally acquired." Terrow reassured him in a low voice.
"That is so wrong and so awesome." Mathorn complemented with a big smile.
The two half brothers wandered through the transparent walkways, overlooking the massive and beautiful red and pink flower filled trees beneath them. They were wearing normal street clothes to blend in, but Terrow noticed that there were no other zabraks in sight nor any he had seen so far on this planet. He knew that anonymity could be a challenge, if they made any move to attract attention.
After wandering the elevated streets for some time, they reached the nightclub district, where the streets were filled with neon lights of any color imaginable.
"Let's go in there!" Mathorn enthusiastically suggested, as he had just spotted a bar with green neon lights spelling out; 'The Happy Hutt' showing a huge yellow logo of a smiling hutt, holding a large blue drink.
Terrow checked his datapad to see if the reputation of this place was decent. "It seems to be popular with both locals and outsiders."
That was all Mathorn needed to hear as he entered the bar, his little brother following with no complaints.
Entering the bar they were met with booming folk-like trance music, a few dozen people dancing in one corner and another few dozen drinking at tables in the other, and what still amused them somehow, was that all the interior was made by star sparkling wood.
Though Terrow couldn't see any other zabraks, he spotted so many other species that he believed no one would feel left out.
"Newcomers! What can I offer you?" A large chubby human male asked, with an inviting smile and a waving arm.
"So what are you serving the usual patriots?" Terrow asked in return, as he and his brother took a seat at the bar.
The chubby man grabbed two glasses from the shelf, poured some kind of yellow liquor from a wooden tank and handed them to the zabraks at the desk. "This is our national drink, we call it WAZAPA! Try it. I guarantee it will suit such gentlemen as yourself. " He proudly proclaimed and looked on as both zabraks took a sip.
Terrow was enjoying this newfound delightful drink, it was both warm and sweet, with a good strong punch to the taste itself. Mathorn, who was not used to liquor, found it plenty strong and coughed a bit, before he smiled in satisfaction. "It tastes really good."
"It's made out of sap from our Wapa trees. One of the huge exports here on our planet." The bartender informed, regardless of the wishes to know or otherwise. "So. What brings you to our humble planet?"
"Since the war started anew and our company is now trying to find a safer way to route our materials, we have simply been tourists encouraged to do some sightseeing in the meantime." Terrow lied, with the overly convincing professionalism he had been taught at imperial intelligence.
"And I really like big trees." Mathorn added with a less convincing attempt.
"Then you couldn't have chosen a better planet, no war and the TALLEST trees in the galaxy." The bartender proudly stated the last part.
That statement was answered with an agitated growl from one of the nearby Wookies, who was also drinking wazapa.
"Yess..." The bartender sighed and replied. "The Wroshyr trees that grow on kashyyyk are the tallest in the galaxy... Happy now?"
The wookie nodded, followed by a low growl of acceptance.
"You know the wookie language?!" Mathorn asked in mild surprise, he never understood how anyone could understand those growls.
"Son, when you have been a bartender for thirty cycles, you pickup a thing or two." The bartender replied slightly dismissively.
Two bothan with reddish blond fur, sat down next to Mathorn and ordered themselves a toxic looking orange drink. "Hello strangers, we don't see many zabraks around here?"
"We are simply tree zap loving tourists." Mathorn stated and raised his glass for emphasis.
"And we are simple freighter pilots, who love to play sabacc." Said the second bothan with enthusiasm. "You do know how to play, right?"
Mathorn was about to respond, but Terrow was quicker. "How about we find out, I assume you have a deck with you?"
Both bothans smiled widely, with the first bothan saying, "I like this zabrak."
It didn't take many moments before they found a table and began playing, and not long after, a young bith joined them.
In the beginning of the game everyone was mostly on equal ground, as they sized up each other. The bothan pilots had clearly played a lot of sabacc and knew how to bluff and go in. But they also seemed a bit too confident, something Terrow believed he could exploit in the late game.
While Mathorn was a decent sabacc player, he found himself having to use the force to keep him alert enough to stay in the game, which his brother noticed all too quickly.
Terrow used the first three rounds to learn his opponents behavior and likely late game strategies. He reconsidered that the bith, whom he assumed was a mathematician, could be a challenge. He seemed quite good at calculating cards, but at the same time terrible at hiding that fact.
With that knowledge in hand, Terrow slowly began to formulate a plan to lure his opponents into a false sense of security, before surprisingly having winning streaks after winning streaks.
