Chapter III
Vuumm...vum! Vuum! Vum! Vum!
Val wasn't at all surprised to hear the distinctive hum of a lightsaber being swung around through the cargo bay doors. Riko was practicing again.
Val took a deep breath, put his helmet on, and decided that it was time he tried it out.
He checked his pistol and set it to the lowest setting, keeping his hand on it. He took up position in the doorway.
He pressed the controls, opening the hatch, and fired.
Riko had been in the middle of a routine, and he quickly had to duck in order to escape Val's sting blast. Thankfully, he successfully dodged Val's attack and bared his fiery orange lightsaber, both of its blades ignited.
Val fired again, and Riko spun his saber and deflected the blast into a nearby wall. However, the impacted blade sputtered for several seconds.
Val holstered his blaster, "What's that?"
"What are you doing?" Riko asked, breathing heavily. The kid was soaked in sweat, he must have been practicing for hours. Whilst wearing his full kit...
"Just testing your reflexes, kid," Val responded.
"Did Bao…"
"No."
For a moment, the two just stood there. Riko caught his breath, Val looked around.
Niner and the blue astromech – Artoo, Val reminded himself – were in one corner. Artoo's holoprojector was active, showing a recording of a Mirialan woman with a lightsaber going through a specific routine.
"Hello!" Niner greeted nervously.
"Does your saber normally do that?" Val asked.
"The power cell's really old," Riko admitted as he deactivated the ember blades, "I have to recharge it every few days at least."
"Why don't you replace it?" Val asked.
"We don't have another elcee model."
Note to self, go shopping on Ambria, Val thought.
"Do you at least have a recharging pack?"
"Yep," Riko gestured to his tool belt.
"And if that doesn't work…"
"More merit to the idea of carrying another lightsaber around," Riko commented, gesturing to the ornate hilt that hung on the left side of his belt.
"Where'd you get that one?"
"It was a gift from my dad. He said it was meant for me."
There was something familiar about that hilt.
"Can I see it?"
"Sure." Riko handed the lightsaber to Val, who examined it closely.
The hilt was an aesthetic masterpiece of craftsmanship; it was sleek, light, featuring ornate markings that ranged in style, with a cubist pattern around the switch and smoother, elemental patterns on the sleeve, culminating in a spherical emitter.
It was beautiful, it almost looked sculpted. It looked like one of Míranda's art projects. The markings were definitely her style, the same as had been carved into her armor…
"Hey kid," Val handed the lightsaber back to Riko, "I've been thinking. You're pretty good with this."
"Yes?" Riko asked as he took it.
"But, what if you lose it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you can't always rely on a lightsaber. You'll need other options."
Riko looked down at the stun blaster on his belt.
"There's also blasters," Val admitted, "But I was thinking about teaching you unarmed combat."
Riko looked up, trying to meet Val's eyes behind the ex-Mando's visor.
"Really?" Riko asked.
"Yeah," Val said, "How to use your body as a weapon. That might come in handy at some point."
Riko nodded.
Once they had finished preparing, a mat covered most of the cargo bay floor. Val had removed his own armor, and wore just his jumpsuit. At Val's insistence, Riko had reluctantly removed his jacket and gear. He disliked the idea of doing this without his full gear, but maybe this would help him focus on his own, help him let the Force flow through him.
Riko looked around at the room. Even though all of the crates had been moved into the corner and the workbench tools were put away, there were still hard metal surfaces, as well as Val's speeder bike and such.
"Are you sure the cargo bay's a good place to do this?"
"Aren't you the one who wanted a sense of realism?"
"I suppose. I'm just worried this isn't safe enough."
"Kid, I knew a Mandalorian who would just wrestle you in full armor, here, now."
"He sounds crazy."
"She was," Val replied, his eyes glancing away as he smiled.
"Okay," Riko closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was going to start learning martial arts, right now.
Riko opened his eyes and faced Val.
"Okay," Val began, "Start by watching my feet. Try to copy my position." He angled his body to the side, his left foot faced Riko, his right was angled away.
Riko angled his body to the side, and mirrored Val's stance. Literally, since Riko favored his left hand, his right foot faced Val.
"Okay, now hold your arms up like this." Val held his fists close to his face. Riko mirrored his position again, breathing deeply.
"Now, this is a basic brawler pose, but we probably won't encounter a lot of brawlers where we're going. So I think I'll start with blocking an arm strike."
"Okay."
Val moved towards Riko, and Riko prepared himself, focusing all of his attention on Val and the surrounding room, his active mind directed towards one specific purpose: victory in this sparring session.
Just think of his arm as a lightsaber blade. You catch it with your own…
Val swung his arm. Riko tried to raise his arm, but Val batted it aside. Riko quickly moved back, evading Val's second blow.
Val attempted to strike again, only this time, Riko was ready. He instinctively evaded Val's forearm and grabbed it with both hands. Val tried to twist his arm, free himself, but Riko just adjusted his grip.
He didn't account for Val's other arm, which struck him just enough to dislodge his grip. Val quickly grabbed Riko's arm, to prevent him from hitting the wall.
Both of them were panting. Val grinned.
"Not bad," Val complimented him, "You could have kicked me or grabbed me from behind, though."
"I just thought of our arms as lightsaber blades," Riko explained, "'Work with someone's momentum, instead of blocking it.'"
"That's interesting. Want to go again?" Val asked.
"Sure," Riko responded.
For the next hour, they continued to practice. They ran through basic moves and techniques, leaning away from brawling and towards sequences that better suited Riko, ones that involved evasion and agility. They sparred, Val overpowering him more times than not, though as the lesson progressed, Riko did begin to successfully apply some of said sequences. As Val continued to run through stances, Riko made use of mental techniques Jade had taught him to help him memorize more complicated moves and sequences, a technique he had used in his studies of lightsaber combat, now applied to basic martial arts.
Move to the side, Riko told himself repeatedly, Leg up, turn away from the enemy…
"You up for another?" Val asked, breathing heavily. Riko himself felt warm, his clothes damp with sweat.
"No thanks. I'm worn out," Riko replied. Even though a part of him did want to continue, he was exhausted, he needed to rest.
"Alright," Val sighed, "Get your rest, kid."
"Can we…do this again tomorrow?" Riko asked.
"Sure thing," Val replied, "I'll see you before breakfast, Oh-Five-Fifty."
"Sounds great," Riko responded.
"Deet ve bree deet?"
"Sure thing, Artoo." Riko sat down next to Artoo. Niner joined him.
"So, do you always do this after your training?" Val asked, "Watch holos?"
"Yeah. I've been going through Artoo's records, trying to find out more about my dad."
"That Kali'sto guy? Old tree man?"
"Yep."
"Alright. Have fun, kid."
As Val gathered his armor and left, Riko turned to Artoo.
"Can you play the picture again?" Niner asked.
Artoo pulled up a familiar recording that Riko had discovered in Tau Skywalker's quarters aboard Asharr's destroyer: Kali'sto and two friends, standing on a planet that looked rocky, with traces of shrubbery.
Ever since he had learned that his father had been a Jedi, Riko had wanted to know the whole story. From the moment he was allowed into the archives on Atarashi'ie, he had sought to collect as much information as possible.
It had not been an easy task. Though Luke Skywalker and his generation had been able to recover quite a substantial amount of information from their predecessors, many of the archived records predating the fall of the original Jedi Order had been destroyed, lost in the reigns of Palpatine and Darth Krayt. But Riko – after extensive searches – had found details of Kali'sto's life hidden in the archives.
Kali'sto, as the records had revealed, had been found by Yoda in the trading town of Wyaagwaa on Kashyyyk forty-three years before the rise of the Empire. Still a sapling who had just completed a slow germination process that had lasted decades, he had been taken to the Old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The identity of Kali'sto's master was lost to history, although Riko believed it was Yoda, since Kali'sto had seemed intimately familiar with Yoda's tale – which had been one of Riko's favorites. From what Riko could tell, Kali'sto had trained as a Jedi Consular, someone who focused on diplomacy, mediation, history, and studies of the Force. Upon learning this, Riko had wondered if that was where Kali'sto's love of history and storytelling had come from.
As one of many padawans rapidly promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight following the battle of Geonosis, Kali'sto had fought in the Clone Wars. While Imperial propagandists had rewritten virtually the entire war, Riko had managed to scrounge up a mission report with Kali'sto's name on it, showing that he had participated in "the reconquest of Doan," as historians had dubbed it.
Upon further study of that battle, Riko had learned about the elite 525th battalion – known to most as "the Scorchers" – a Republic unit made up of both Clone troopers and volunteers who had acquired their nickname from the flaming wreckage they had left behind on their most famous mission and the orange-red markings they subsequently painted on their armor. Riko presumed that Kali'sto had been the Jedi commander of the Scorchers.
Kali'sto had survived Order 66 and the rise of the Empire somehow, and he left a curious trail of breadcrumbs throughout the last two centuries. He had taken part in no major events: the fall of the Old Empire, Luke Skywalker's rejuvenation of the Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong War, the rise of Darth Caedus, the Lost Tribe Crisis, the One Sith...if Kali'sto had contributed to any of these events, records of his handiwork were lost to history. Yet, there were tales – as far back as Luke Skywalker's time – of a mysterious traveler who had appeared on several backwater worlds, aiding the locals in overcoming problems such as disputes and pirates.
Most notable of these was a report describing a mysterious mediator who helped to end the N'Zoth-Alliance war; a minor conflict of which both Tau Skywalker and Bao were veterans. Luke Skywalker – the legend himself – had made an unsuccessful attempt to search for Kali'sto at some point in the later years of his life. Beyond that, additional traces of Kali'sto were scarce.
That was one thing that Riko was especially curious about. And he wondered how Tau and the woman in the holo were connected to his wandering father.
Bao hadn't been able to tell Riko much about Tau's possible relationship with Kali'sto, other than that – as a young man – he had spent years studying ancient organizations that had studied the Force, such as the Jal Shey, the Je'daii forebears of the modern Jedi Order, and the mythic Order of the Whills. Curiously, Tau had insisted on undertaking this journey alone, unaccompanied by anyone, not even his beloved astromech.
"I'm sorry, my friend," Tau had said in a prior recording, "I must do this on my own." Artoo had reluctantly followed his orders.
And so Tau Skywalker had ventured into the unknown, the only clue this holoimage.
In the image, Riko saw three people, all walking across the rocky planet's surface. Curiously, none of them were looking towards the camera: Riko wondered if he was looking at surveillance footage, recordings taken by some secret pursuer that Tau had somehow tracked down in the years since.
To the left: a man, clearly a younger Tau, his arm around Kali'sto. To the right: a woman, young, not much older than Riko was now. She wore brown robes with patterns sewn in azure threads, very similar to those in Riko's lightsaber, over which she wore some kind of armor covered in the same set of glyphs and patterns. She had short black hair, golden-brown skin, and bright green eyes, almost the exact same shade as Riko's.
Riko looked at her smiling face, and wondered if she might be his mother. While he hadn't historically had much concern about who his biological parents were...Kali'sto was his dad...he wondered if he was wrong to not wonder. To tell the truth...now that he had a possible lead, discovering where Kali'sto had found him, where he had come from...that was something that intrigued him greatly.
Riko had been sure that if there was any Jedi they should look for, it was Kali'sto. He remembered how Kali'sto had stayed behind on Orîlla to help the people who would be oppressed by whatever puppet Asharr installed. Riko knew that Kali'sto was still alive.
Riko also knew that, if Kali'sto was still out there, he wouldn't sit idly by this time.
In addition, Kali'sto was a Jedi of the Old Republic and a former Jedi general, one of greater experience than any other living master. Both Riko and Bao were sure that he would be a leader to the Adherents, a light around which they could rally to fight Tau's corruption and restore peace to the galaxy!
Or all this might just be a lonely son's wishful thinking.