Before Luke, on a flat screen portraying the skies above Kieran's Landing, Dax's testing was beginning. As a pilot, the Jedi was amazed by the skill of Dax and the aerial Zoid expert, Jaime Homero, and the manufacture of the Zoid units themselves. It was a fast, spinning battle as the krayt-esque Redler and thin-winged green Raynos broke the sound barrier every few seconds, rippling in the heat from the desert plains. No weapons were fired. Doc Tauros and the two pilots had agreed to a practice system where a computer lock counted as a hit, and five hits as a win.
Jaime had three hits, and Dax two.
The rest of the Blitz team; Doc, his daughter Leena, Bit, and Brad, sat below the level where Luke stood beside the screen, in the team common room. Luke could have joined them, but didn't want to; the showing of Dax's skills was a chance to think on the events of his brief stay on planet Zi.
Dax had no desire to join the praxeum; he had no knowledge of it and was much enamored with the occupation of Zoid pilot. Luke had to admit he wanted to try out one of the Zoid units, though they were simply ground-based; they were like Imperial walkers taken to the extreme and used in a sport as popular as podracing on Tatooine.
On the screen the Redler dove upon the Raynos for a moment, and a red circle around the Raynos indicated another score. Jaime's voice came through speakers above the screen;
"I'm coming down. You're in, Dax. Doc, you agree?"
"Yes!"
"He's not bad." Brad said. Luke nodded, half watching those around him. When Dax and Jaime returned, he would speak to the group of the Jedi. There had not been much time in the short ride by groundcar to the Blitz team headquarters. But an audience had been promised him by Doc Tauros, and his plan was to tell Doc and Dax of the reality of the Jedi and the greater galaxy.
But them only, and if Dax said no, Luke would leave this planet to itself. He was no first-contact specialist or appointed Republic man to give news of an unknown galaxy-wide civilization to these people who had had it once and did not now.
But the pilots that were the object of his plan did not return. Jaime was working on his Zoid, and Dax staying with him. Luke accompanied Bit to the hanger of the strange repulsor-dwelling called the HoverCargo, where the team's five Zoids rested. Jaime was atop his Raynos scrubbing its metal skin with soap and water while Dax watched him from the bowed head of the Redler, a four-legged, thin-winged metal dragon. Beside them were a heavily armed saurian and a blue, thin unit modeled after something four-footed, then Bit's Liger Zero, the white feline. Bit greeted it when he entered the hanger, then called up to Jaime. And through their banter about the battle past, Luke watched the Liger and realized that it may be watching him back.
In the Force it was a strong-willed presence, alive neither in the way an AI or droid was nor in the way a person was but somewhere in between, alertness in a clear mind. As Luke touched its thoughts he knew the Zoid knew he was doing it, and that was very, very strange...
"Mister Skywalker." Tauros's voice brought Luke out of his contemplation of this creature, this Zoid that was more than machine. "You wanted to talk to us?"
"Yes," Luke said, but Bit and Jaime were still here. So he would keep it quiet and quick for now, and later if Dax asked for more information he would answer. Dax, Bit, and Tauros stood around Luke at the Liger's feet and Jaime watched from the head of his Zoid as Luke spoke like he would to young students at the academy;
"I am a Jedi Knight. A long time ago their order was begun to protect the people, but that was destroyed. Now I am trying to rebuild that order, by finding people that have the gift, that can sense the Force. The Force is the energy, the source of a Jedi's power, the fuel of life."
"Sounds like some kind of weird religion." Bit said.
Luke shook his head, found the Force and caught a cloth from beside Jaime as it flew into his hand. "It is more than that," he said, "Much more." He handed the cloth to Dax, and the boy's eyes were wide in awe.
