Chapter 2

Recall

Kriva juice was a rare commodity in the galaxy. It was often claimed that its potency rivaled Catorian Dragon blood, which had been known to give certain species epileptic seizures if drank to excess. Of course, no one who had drunk kriva juice ever had any seizures of any kind. They could all attest, however, to its intense inebriating effects. In some creatures—particularly humans—kriva juice entered the blood stream very quickly and was known to act as a powerful hallucinogen after only one drink. Needless to say, kriva juice was highly sought after by the human population.

But what made kriva juice such a prize wasn't its potency or hallucinogenic effects—those could be replicated with the right chemicals. Death Stick dealers were known to promise a trip better than twenty glasses of kriva juice. What made the drink one of the most expensive and coveted items on the market was that it was, in fact, a truth serum of sorts. Thousands of secret organizations on hundreds of worlds did their very best to procure large quantities of the brew for use in covert operations. It was ideal for this purpose given that the drink looked and smelled perfectly innocuous. It also had the additional benefit of tasting better than some of the finest wines in the galaxy.

Kriva juice was extremely challenging to manufacture in even the most advanced laboratories. Should one manage to overcome the considerable hurdles of obtaining the rare and expensive ingredients and happened to be able to precisely duplicate the ideal temperature and pressure conditions necessary, one was still not guaranteed success. This was primarily because artificial kriva juice was notoriously unstable. The slightest perturbation in the manufacturing process was likely to produce a very expensive, very useless bucket of goop. Even what appeared to be a perfect replica often lacked the potency necessary to produce the desired effect. Consequently, when one wanted kriva juice, one went to great pains to obtain kriva berries.

As it would happen, there was only one place in the galaxy to get kriva berries—Migruna III. Kriva berries grew wild on the forest planet on shrubs that required virtually no care whatsoever. This made kriva berries the second largest export on Migruna. The migru never truly grasped why the star travelers were so obsessed with the tiny fruit, of course. This was in large part because to the migru, kriva juice was nothing more than a drink to accompany dinner. The only thing that kriva juice did to the average migru was what it had done to Jedi Master Yoda who was slumping slightly at Gandol's table with a mug of the drink in his hand—

It made them very, very drunk.

"Yoda!" roared Gandol above the loud merrymaking that was going on in his opulent tree-shelter. Gandol was only slightly less intoxicated than Yoda, but had drunk several more mugs of kriva juice than Yoda had. "Learn to hold your drink, you must! Spent too much time among the Jedi, you have!"

Yoda rolled his eyes at Gandol and laughed out loud. "Perhaps," Yoda yelled back with a grin, "But drink too much, you do!" Yoda was laughing at his quip as if he truly believed that he had demonstrated the most phenomenal wit possible. When he looked over at Yaddle's daughter and saw not even the slightest hint of amusement, he quickly reconsidered his response and found it lacking. She must have noticed the sheepish expression on his face because she wrapped her arms around his right elbow and giggled uncontrollably. Yoda smiled at that and was soon laughing again.

There were about twenty migru gathered in the room, with only one rather disheveled looking attendant, clearly Gandol's personal assistant, dashing desperately from one influential migru to the next, trying to ensure that everyone's glass was full. Yoda chuckled slightly to himself as he watched the assistant desperately eye every glass as if expecting the next one to fall. Given how difficult kriva stains were to remove, Yoda imagined that horrible visions of hours of cleaning filled the young migru's head. For a brief moment, Yoda mischievously considered using the Force to suggest to the young man that the entire floor was covered in kriva juice, but then decided against it.

The entire room was alight with laughter and merrymaking. Yoda looked on through somewhat lidded eyes and smiled at the sight. The lights in the room were all artificial and grew increasingly bombastic as one's eye traveled from the entrance to the main seat, where Gandol sat. Yoda suddenly envisioned Gandol standing on top of one of Coruscant's large orbital mirrors, proudly displaying the most grandiose light any migru had ever seen. For reasons that weren't exactly clear to him at the time, Yoda found this to be exceedingly amusing.

Everyone fell deathly silent as Yoda exploded into hysterical fits of laughter.

Somehow, once Yoda realized that everyone was looking at him, he found that even funnier than his mental image of Gandol standing on Coruscanti orbital mirrors, and laughed even harder.

He wasn't sure exactly what happened next. He just remembered the rather uncomfortable sensation of leaning backward but having nothing to support his weight. Somehow, he'd forgotten than migru do not sit on chairs but rather large benches made of tree trunks. His error only became clear to him when he realized that he was looking straight ahead and all that he could see was the ceiling. And for some reason, his head hurt quite a bit.

He was about to try and right himself when a stunningly attractive young migru woman entered his field of view and looked directly at him. Down at him, to be more precise. He could see that her lips were moving but he found it impossible to make out the words, which suddenly became a new source of amusement for the Jedi Master. He saw her extend her slender hands down to him and he reflexively grabbed them.

"Drunk, you are!" she smiled at him. "Away with you! Take you outside for fresh air, I will."

Yoda didn't mind at all that she seemed to be talking to him as if he were a child—something he rather disliked coming from just about anyone else. In fact, her voice was so soothing that he really didn't care what she said as long as she kept talking. By the time they had reached the entrance door, the room was alight with shouting and carousing again. They were about to step out when Gandol forestalled them.

"Rizza!" he yelled to the migru girl. She stopped and turned toward Gandol and smiled. Yoda looked at her quizzically and tried his best to stifle yet another burst of laughter.

"Yes, father?" she replied innocently.

Yoda's eyes widened and the effects of his multiple dates with kriva juice seemed to instantly disappear.

"Father…?" Yoda stammered, looking from Rizza to Gandol and then at the floor as his addled mind tried to wrap itself around the idea. If she heard him, she didn't show it in the slightest.

"On the Jedi Master, take it easy," Gandol laughed. "Met your like, I'm sure, he has not. Free spirits, the Jedi do not know." The girl nodded and laughed aloud as she spied the still befuddled Yoda, mouthing the word "Father" repeatedly without any sound escaping his lips.

"On my best behavior, I will be, Father," Rizza replied with what Yoda was almost certain was a mischievous wink. "The behavior of our esteem guest, guarantee I can not." Gandol erupted into laughter at this, and then turned to one of his friends and began a new conversation.Chapter 2 continued


"Rizza…" Yoda whispered as the young migru woman used the Force to guide them to the ground gently. The Jedi Master gave her a wistful sidelong glance during the short journey as he rolled her name around in his mind for what felt like an eternity. He wasn't sure if the kriva juice was affecting him or not, but he found that he could scarcely think of anything else.

"My name it is," she replied with an expansive smile, "and more to me than a name, there is, Master Yoda." When Yoda didn't respond, she hooked her left arm around his elbow and began to lead him down a small dirt path, through a thicket of bending trees and shrubs, towards a tiny pond that was only thirty meters away. "Quiet, the night is," she said in a respectful, hushed tone, "feel the Force flowing, I can. Suspect, I do, that feel it too you could, if not so distracted you were."

Yoda looked up at her with an expression on his face that made it clear that he found her remark rather insulting. While he had to admit that the woman was certainly attractive, there was no creature in the universe that could distract him from his powerful connection with the Force. He opened his mouth to say just that when she lifted her gentle hand and touched his face.

"By the drink, I meant," she said soothingly, though not very convincingly.

Yoda relaxed and smiled weakly. She did have a point. Yoda didn't like the idea of being anything but in control in any situation. Resolving to rectify this immediately, the Jedi Master stopped in the middle of the path. Rizza stared at him in confusion but he simply closed his eyes and called on the Force. A wave of energy, unseen to the naked eye, washed over him immediately. A moment later, Yoda opened his eyes, completely rid of the intoxicating effects of the kriva juice and he turned one corner of his mouth upwards in a crooked smile.

Cold.

I think I prefer you sober, anyway…

Yoda's eyes went wide.

His gaze darting into the trees around him, he suddenly realized how dark the area was and how utterly exposed to attack he and Rizza were. Reflexively, his lightsaber went to his hand and ignited with a small touch of the Force.

"Master Yoda," Rizza looked anxious. "What is it? Help, should I get?"

"Return to your father," Yoda snapped without looking at her. "Discuss your training later, we will."

"But…"

"No! No buts!" Yoda's stare went to her eyes and he stared at her for a long moment. By the Force! She is beautiful! Yoda pushed the thought to the corner of his mind that he reserved for all things that became obstacles. "Go! Quickly!"

Rizza seemed almost hurt by the sudden turn of events but only nodded in response and began to trot back up the path. As soon as she was out of sight, Yoda called on the Force and opened his eyes to the world around him. His surroundings crystallized in his mind and he could sense everything around him. He felt her leap into the tree and knew that she was desperately trying to explain to her father what had happened. Yoda pushed his concern for her away and extended his senses further.

He could feel it all. The trees; the pond; and the creatures that lived within the pond; But he sensed nothing out of the ordinary. He deactivated his lightsaber, sensing no immediate physical danger, and closed his eyes.

Giving more of himself over to the Force, Yoda extended his senses to encompass the entire village and then across the continent. Still, there was no sign of whom or what had spoken to him. Yoda began to grow concerned because he wasn't sure he could extend his senses beyond the planet boundaries.

The only limits on the Force, my friend, are the ones you place on it…

Fear gripped Yoda as he realized that whoever it was that spoke to him, had the ability to invade his thoughts. From a distance. Yoda extended the tendrils of the Force into space and immediately found it.

His blood ran cold.

He hadn't found a person, as he had expected. It was not a ship carrying some fantastic creature.

He found a void.

There, in geosynchronous orbit, high above Migruna III, a black hole in the Force floated. The Jedi Master marveled at how its existence had managed to escape his notice, now that he knew where it was. Yoda tried to breach the boundaries of the void but was driven back by the unimaginable cold that seemed to radiate from it. Within moments, Yoda felt as if long, dark cold fingers were extending from the void and reaching down from space to grip him.

Undeterred, Yoda pulled the Force into him with all his might. But the harder Yoda concentrated, the more powerful the death-cold tentacles' grip seemed to grow. Within moments, Yoda's legs began to cave under him. Dizziness began to overcome him.

"NO!" Yoda shouted both aloud and in the Force. With a burst of power that only he was capable of, the tendrils of darkness broke apart and Yoda stood tall. He breathed heavily but maintained his sense of the void.

You're even stronger than I sensed…

"Who…are…you?" Yoda panted. He called on the Force to calm him.

Excellent…

"What…do you want?"

Why spoil the surprise…?

Abruptly, the void disappeared. Yoda searched in a moment of disorientation at the sudden disconnection and realized that only a ship remained in orbit at the center of where the cold blackness had been. Yoda began to extend his senses into the cockpit of the ship when it rapidly turned and leaped into hyperspace.

Yoda hung his head momentarily and caught his breath. Using a Jedi calming technique, he pulled the Force into himself and drove the fear that threatened to overcome him away. Finally, feeling the familiar sense of peace that was the light he had known his entire life, Yoda opened his eyes and tread up the path.

He was less than five meters from the ladder that led to Gandol's abode when he felt a familiar hum against his leg. A frown carved itself into the Jedi Master's face as he reached into his robes to retrieve the small device. Not needing to see it for confirmation, he pulled it out and looked at it anyway.

In his palm, the small circular device vibrated again and its red light blinked ominously in perfect synchrony. It would continue to do so, of course, until he acknowledged the signal. Yoda looked up at the tree platform longingly and saw several migru standing on the porch looking in his general direction with concern etched on their faces. Yoda waved at them casually with his free hand and smiled widely to assuage their concerns.

Gandol waved back and laughed boisterously as if he and Yoda had been playing a joke on everyone gathered. Soon everyone was laughing too as they all began filing back into the dwelling to renew the merrymaking. Everyone, that is, except Rizza and Gandol, who both looked back at Yoda with concern.

But Yoda was no longer looking at them. He considered ignoring the Jedi beacon but knew he couldn't do so for long. They would grow concerned if he took too long to acknowledge and even more concerned if he took too long to return to the temple. He held the beacon up to his right eye and swiped his fingernail across the back softly. Immediately, a blue scanning beam emitted from the device and swept over his eye socket several times. After the third iteration, the red light turned green and the periodic vibrations ceased. Yoda nodded with the knowledge that a return signal had been sent to Coruscant. It would take him about a day by hyperspace to get back and he had a little over three before they would grow concerned and send someone out to find him. He knew better than to take more than two if he wanted to avoid a long argument in the Council Chambers.

In very short order, he was standing on the landing between Gandol and Rizza. Rizza was looking at him worriedly but Gandol had a patient calm on his face. Yoda nodded briefly at both of them and then shrugged.

Rizza broke the silence. "The disturbance…felt it I did," she announced. "Concerned, I was. What was it?"

"Of no concern to you, it is," Yoda replied. "Much to discuss, we have before leave I must."

Disappointment showed on Rizza's face. She seemed barely able to hold back the choke in her voice.

"Leave?" she whispered. "Only arrived recently, you did."

"For over a month, been here I have," Yoda answered shaking his head. "Unfortunate, it is, that so long to meet you, it took."

Tears seemed to be swelling in Rizza's eyes but none fell. Gandol spoke up. "Why must you leave?"

"Recalled by the Jedi, I have been."


Peace.

Migru younglings played in the wide, open field with reckless abandon. Surrounding the outskirts of the meadow, bending trees swayed in the gentle breeze under the calidity of the setting twin suns of Migruna III. As one of the smaller younglings tripped and rolled helplessly down a moderate slope of green, the older migru chuckled in amusement. When the child finally came to a stop, she joined in the laughter.

Sitting in his favorite chair, several meters away and above, Gandol watched the scene with genuine pleasure. He listened to the sound of his breathing join the wind as he sipped on the cool glass of kriva juice he held in his strong hands.

The miners were leaving the mountain to return home. Nearly a hundred migru plodded from the distant hills, each carrying a small bundle. The community of Prime Village gathered along the sides of the main road to greet their friends and family. The stall and shop owners, as had been their custom for hundreds of years, left their places of business unattended and the children ceased their play.

Prime Village was enjoying the end of another peaceful day.

Fire.

A beam of particle energy ripped the sky apart.

The migru never saw it. The atmosphere burned away. Fires erupted. Hundreds of migru burst into flames and died in an instant. Those were the fortunate ones.

Others, who were inside their huts, began to roast alive, trapped in the inferno. Those who had not yet left the mines were crushed under the mountain's collapse. The vagrant mysteries of the Force allowed many to survive even this. For those poor souls, death would have been welcome release. Their stunned eyes watched as the energy plunged into the heart of their village.

Gandol's tree-home vaporized.

Lungs, too seared with superheated air to ever work again, failed to allow their owners to scream.

Energy, the color of Yoda's blade, burrowed into the planet with deadly precision. Eyes, too filled with horror to cry, were blinded by the light. Hearts, too weak to continue beating, managed to break as the very ground beneath the planet shook itself asunder.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the beam was gone.

All on Migruna III were gone…

Yoda's eyes popped open.

His hands were clammy and sweat poured from his forehead. His heart pounded in his chest like a blaster cannon stuck on automatic fire as fear plunged itself into his chest. Drawing on the power of the light, Yoda closed his eyes and centered himself, utilizing his hundreds of years of Jedi training to bring him calm.

He searched the walls of his ship in the Force and found nothing out of the ordinary. The room was cramped, as it always had been. Yoda pondered why the Order would even consider further reducing the size of the Jedi Interceptor ships to small one-man fighters. His ship had proven useful and one-man fighters were too small to carry their own hyperdrive engines. He couldn't imagine having to rely on a hyperdrive ring to ensure his safe return home.

Yoda frowned.

He was distracting himself from his fear, rather than confronting it. This was not his way. The vision had come to him, unbidden, and with startling clarity. He had been meditating during his return to Coruscant. He was searching the currents of the Force for any signs of the dark void he had detected the day before. He floated in the river that he knew the Force to be, confident that he would be guided to his quarry. Instead, he had found a visceral vision of apocalypse.

Though calmed by the Force, Yoda's hands shook as he rose unsteadily from the mat on the cold durasteel floor of his ship. He walked to the cockpit area, two meters away. When he arrived, his heart no longer pounded and his hands no longer shook. Looking out the main viewscreen, he lost himself in the roiling blue-white cloud of hyperspace. He felt her approach but said nothing.

"Master Yoda, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Please…tell me. Help you, I could." Yoda turned to look at her. For the first time since she had met him, Yoda allowed Rizza to see the true pain etched into his face. "What is it?"

"A…dream." His brow knit in concentration as he considered his words. "A…premonition, it was. Its meaning, unclear it is. In grave danger, our home may be."

"Prime Village?"

Yoda's eyes stung. "Migruna."

A look of bewilderment came over her features. Yoda nodded sadly and explained his vision. Rizza's hand covered her mouth. Her eyes widened. Silence blanketed the tiny chamber as they stared at each other. After an eternity of seconds, she placed a tentative hand on his chest. Reflexively, his hand joined hers. Within a moment, they embraced. She wept into his chest.

"Stop this, I will," Yoda whispered into her ear. "More powerful in the Force than I, none are. Find the cause and stop it, I must."

"Help you, I will." Their faces only centimeters apart and he inhaled her intoxicating scent. "Together, unstoppable we would be."

Yoda smiled wryly. "Perhaps. Visit with the Council, I will. Seek their help, we should. Then return to Migruna and protect her."

"A dream only, it could be…" Her voice was soft and her breath smelled like the danandrum flowers he loved so much.

"Never come true, the dream must. If a dream only, it is, then fortunate I will be. Return home for nothing, I will." His eyes twinkled. "No downside to free kriva juice, there is!"

The kiss was sudden and completely unexpected. One moment he was smiling at her, and the next her lips were locked with his. Her arms snaked around his waist. Yoda closed his eyes and embraced the pleasure of her warm touch, pulling her closer to him. Perhaps it was only seconds, but the Jedi Master felt eons of indulgence in them.

She broke the kiss.

Yoda's heart sank. He felt as if he had been emptied of all joy. He eyed her warily as she scanned the cockpit and pointed to the chronometer.

It indicated the time left to arrive at Coruscant.

"Two hours alone, we have," she whispered. Her mouth closed gently around the very tip of his ear and she smiled as she blew softly against his skin. "Use it wisely, we should."