Much thanks to F-14 Tomcat Lover for his equally rare reviews.

Kieran's Landing was a city of white, modern buildings, where speeders and wheeled ground cars rushed through the clean, thin streets and brightly colored large droids patterned after animals stood stationary or prowled the traffic lanes with the other vehicles. Their name and purpose was instantly evident; they were called Zoids, and they fought gladiatorial battles projected on screens throughout the city and its establishments. Mild desert heat wafted from outside the city where, in a bleak contrast to the life here, mostly deserted roads of darker ground led out through the tan-brown sand.

There was not one ship at the spaceport. Traffic controllers guided Luke in and took his name and status as a citizen of the Galactic Republic, but seemed hesitant and unfamiliar with procedures for docking. Mostly it was Zoids that used the bowl shaped docking bays as hangers.

The person he was searching for was in a bustling common complex, a mall, where visitors engaged in virtual reality games, talked and watched the Zoid battles. All he saw were humans, speaking of things he did not understand in slightly accented Basic.

From his first experiencing it, Luke had known the carrier of the presence to be strong in the Force, but completely untrained. He had not, though, expected one so young as the boy sitting there in front of a vender's stand chatting with four older people about something technical and hard to follow, an excited and quick-minded youth.

Luke cautiously approached the five, resettling his cloak about his shoulders, unsure of how to begin with these members of a society so based on the intricacies of their Zoid's combat.

"The Stormsorter is the strongest aerial unit." A short, dark, spiky-haired teen was saying, and the conversation took that tack, volleying among talk of Zoids and capabilities as compared to the hale Stormsorter.

"You have a Stormsorter?" Luke asked, looking down at the group, then at the Force-sensitive being before returning his gaze to the dark one he had asked the question to.

"No," The Zoid pilot replied. "I've got a Raynos. Do you have a Stormsorter?"

"No." Luke said. "I'm not a pilot." He pulled a chair over--a quick gesture, they all probably missed it, though to the one who knew, the angle that hid the inches between his hand and the chair would not hide it at all-and sat down. Now looking fully at the one he had came for, he asked, "Have you heard of the Jedi Knights?"

They looked from one to the other, unknowledgeable. The tallest asked, in a dark voice, "Who are you?"

"Luke Skywalker." He leaned over toward the Force-sensitive. "You've never heard of them? No rumors, no fairy tales, no horror stories..."

The oldest one and the girl were tense, the others, including the Force-sensitive, curious. Another man was coming up behind them,

"Jedi Knights? Here, Bit, hold, this." Luke sat up and turned around. It was an older man with frizzy gray hair, holding multiple boxes like the models in front of Bit, apparently one of the younger pilots. The man piled those he held with the others and looked at Luke. "You've done research on Jedi? I was looking at something the other day about a temple dug up on Nyx, up north,"

"I am a Jedi Knight." Luke said.

The man was even more confused then the others. The magenta-haired girl touched his arm,

"Dad, isn't that..."

"What?" Bit asked.

Luke waited for the explanation. A temple dug up on Nyx implied ruins of old Jedi only.

"They were ancient Zoidians, sorcerers with unusual powers over Zoids and people. Or that's what they say, I don't know," He turned to Luke. "You're one?"

This was a far-Rim planet, but apparently it had left galactic society...and had never returned or cared about the goings-on within it. "Yes." Luke said. He lowered his voice. If the answer was no, the results of his question could cause problems larger then those he was ready to deal with. "Have you ever been off planet?"

"Off...no. No." The man looked uneasy for a moment, looking around at the young men and woman that were his charges or companions, then looked back and said, "I'm Doc Tauros. Come out to our HoverCargo, we better talk. Dax, you bring your Redler, let's get outta here."