Nik didn't like this building, but he knew he was going to have to find a way to get over it. Kess was quietly happy this morning and Luke was ready to take on the galaxy, but Nik was silent as he walked into the Senate Dome for the first time since he gave up the title of Emperor.

The Jedi Office. Four private desks, a conference room, a tiny back hall and restroom, and a common big enough for three more desks and a secretary. The furniture was used, the walls naked, and the crated supplies disorganized in stacks inside a private offices as though it was a storage closet. Somehow, the lack of creature comforts made Nik more comfortable. The Jedi Order felt like a start-up company.

Raól set him up in the third private office and gave him codes for terminal and comm access. Kess pointed out there was a java machine in back and cold sweetwater in the mini fridge. Luke disappeared for a minute and came back to Nik's desk with a stack of datacards.

Overwhelmed already, Nik set his elbows on the armrests and clasped his fingers together in front of his stomach, causing his big shoulders to slouch. He murmured a half a joke. "Is it my turn to say it yet?" When Luke glanced at him, Nik said it anyway. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"I don't." Luke stressed. He sat down in Nik's guest chair and started going through the data cards. "You got us approved on power facilities. Let's see how far you can get." He handed over cards as he identified them. Water systems. Comm systems. Landing pad... "And here's the plans they approved for power. Get construction started as soon as you can. Run the budget approval through Raól."

Nik took the stuff and nodded, still uncertain.

Luke stood up and eyed him with a grin. "Think of it this way, the sooner we get these up and running, the sooner we can get the building construction started, means the sooner Gina and Ben can be convinced to move out with us."

Nik pressed his mouth in vague appreciation, sighed through his nose, and nodded.

Luke began to leave, but poked his head back in to order. "Meditate."

This time, Nik grinned genuinely. "Yes, master."

In the office common, Luke's feet were fast to the near-empty desk where Kess was browsing a report. "Well?"

"Looks like... I'll need..." She checked off items from the list and calculated the rest in her head, and cringed, "About three hundred credits." Her eyes turned up to him. "Let me go through the list again and shave off the non-essentials."

With a reluctant press of his mouth, he nodded. "How many duds did you calculate for?"

Kess grinned with tight humor. "Four."

"Makes six?" His eye inquired the reason for that particular number.

She counted off on her fingers. "If we all practiced at once: You, me, Nik, Tayla, Leia, and Ben. For the first round, I only want to make enough to get us started so I can work out any kinks I run into." She shook her head to assure, "It won't be the last time I make them."

He smirked, "It better not be," and turned to check in with Raól.

"The Mandalorians cancelled their request. The Ishtarians asked for an appeal. The Lord Chamberlain wants you to host for dinner at your house as soon as you can. And the Barnun Gym has donated a free subscription for anyone in the Jedi Order for the next ten months."

Luke clopped his palms together and smiled big. "Thank you."

"Um," Raól considered if he wanted to mention this or not, "May I add a note to the dud saber project?"

Kess glanced up. Luke shifted his feet. "Any time."

Raól looked across the common to Kess "You can afford it."

She motioned to her work. "This isn't just dud saber stuff, though."

"You can afford it," Raól repeated.

Luke patted his palm at air, "We need to save as much as we can for construction. It's not going to be cheap."

Raól tried to argue, "Yes, but-

Luke hiked a minor whine. "Last week when we were talking about the meditation chamber design you told us to be careful."

The man nodded deeply and met Luke's eyes with equal strength. "And do you know what's happened since then?"

Luke shifted his chin, bracing himself.

"You guys kept an X-Wing from falling on a crowded dance club, handed your lightsaber to an apprentice who used it to capture the terrorist but not kill him, and the whole thing was caught on camera."

Kess shifted in her chair. "And this resulted in...?"

Raól widened his eyes to stress the words and waved his hand in front of Luke's face as if that would help make his point. "You can afford it." He laughed lightly at his fake Force Persuade.

Luke pretended to blink dumbly, turned to Kess with a wrinkled brow, and said. "Y'know what? I think we can afford it."

Kess laughed in love at him. Luke turned back to Raól. "Tell Leia to give us a good date for the dinner, but in return she has to set aside an entire Benduday to come with us to Iktri." His brows wiggled deviously.

"You got it."

Luke started to go back to his office, but paused again. "That reminds me." He stepped to Nik's open office and hovered in the doorway so he could talk to both Nik and Kess at once. "I want you guys to start brainstorming ways we can test new apprentices for Force Sensitivity. Not just ways we can test their abilities, but also a questionnaire or application or something."

Nik scrunched his brow. "How will a questionnaire help?"

"If we word the questions right, we'll weed out the tourists who just want to play with lightsabers or get a free meal ticket."

"Ah."

Luke started to walk away but popped back into Nik's office with a pointed finger. "You let me know if you get stuck." Luke did not want this project to hiccup any further.

"Give me a chance, here. I just sat down."

Luke nodded and stepped out, pointing at Kess as he marched eagerly back to his own office. "And you can set up tech shop right on that desk if you want." He turned his back and called a smile. "I want to be smelling solder by the end of the day!"

Kess wondered if maybe they should get the man a fake General Quarters alarm so he'd have something to annoy them with on days like this. "Hey, farm boy!" Kess returned powerfully.

Luke twitched and shot back a look.

She winked a suggestive grin, "Decaf."

The man shook his head, chuckling quietly, and rummaged across his desktop for notes. He came out again in moments, and hooked his head around Nik's door on his way out. "Is it inappropriate to flip off your own wife?"

Nik shrugged. "I do it all the time."

Kess peeked from her datapad to see if Luke would really do it, and he swiveled his heals to the main door with a glittering eye as if he was about to, but the door opened before he could raise his hand.

The Mirialan man from the gym walked in.

Luke tucked his stuff into one arm so he could step up and give a quick bow. "Andee. Welcome. Glad you could come by. How much time do you have?"

"I have to be at work in a few hours."

Luke nodded and motioned back to Kess. "I'll be back in a half; I have a meeting. Are you comfortable to hang out with Jedi Lendra for a while?"

"With honor."

As Luke stepped out the main door, stretched his neck until he got Kess's attention, and held up two fingers. "Make two more." His eyes gestured to the Mirialan's back. Already, her count wasn't enough practice duds.

Luke left, Raól got to work, and Andee Myr strolled hesitantly across the common where Kess motioned him to pull up a chair. They introduced each other as he sat down and Kess shared the details of her little project with him as they got to know each other a little.

Andee Myr wasn't sure if he was Force Sensitive, but he did have Jedi Heritage in the family. Of course, connection with his Great Aunt was lost when she was adopted by the Order as a child, but they knew enough to follow her career a little. According to family lore, one of her Padawans became one of the Masters the last Jedi Council.

"Oh?" Kess asked as she browsed the uplink for decent parts stores. "Do you know a name?"

"My Great Aunt was Jedi Master Cyslin Myr. And her Padawan became Jedi Master Mace Windu."

Kess's smile flicked over. "Isn't that the one who tried to stop Palpatine?"

"Um, yes. That one."

"Nice resume."

Andee Myr had no training in fine electronics, and he wasn't overly interested in the dud lightsaber project, but he was attentive and mildly curious about all this. By the time Luke returned from his meeting, Kess was ready to go shopping and collecting her things, Nik leaned a shoulder on his office door to await Luke's attention, Raól swiveled his chair to hand a datapad of notes on the next meeting, and Andee Myr popped from his chair as if to report in.

Luke stopped his feet as he noticed the four of them in a different light. His eyes bounced from one to the next, causing his grin to spread deeper as he went.

A team. A whole Jedi team.

Kess pulled on her jacket, glowing at him for glowing like that. She knew exactly what he was giddy about today. "Comm me if you need me to pick up anything else."

Luke he nodded as she left and turned his eyes to Nik.

"Do you have time to look at the water proposal?"

Luke's brows wrinkled, "It's already done?"

"It's a water system." Nik spread a palm. "I'm from Tatooine too, remember?"

Luke shrugged acceptance of that, took the datapad from Raól, and invited Andee to come and join them. As Andee watched from a respectful distance, Luke and Nik hunched over the brochure of the hybrid design and its capabilities. Most of the work would be done by a vaporator and a rain collector, with a thin vein ready to suck in creek water in the drier periods only as a back-up system. And to keep from digging into the precious earth more than necessary, Nik suggested they fit it with a small water tower instead of the usual underground tank.

Luke patted a strong palm on Nik's shoulder. "Great. Take it over. Hit the At-Bintarians first because I went to the Tyronans first last time."

Nik blanched. "Me?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Nik wanted to point out that he was just an apprentice, just a barrel-rolling thug from a silica processing plant, but before he spoke he remembered he was also the Emperor for a minute and half, and now he had a lightsaber on his belt. (A fake one perhaps, but few people would know that.)

Luke motioned Andee Myr out of Nik's office and left with one last suggestion, a calmer, friendlier one this time. "Meditate first. Then go." He smiled, "You've got this."

Finally, Luke swirled into his own office to give a few dedicated minutes to this new potential. He wasn't embarrassed by the unkempt desk or empty walls, but he noticed through the Force how Andee glanced at all of that with a little surprise they were so disorganized.

"Too much to do and not enough people to do it," Luke commented as he set down his stuff and turned to face Andee, resting his butt on the front edge of the desk. Luke rubbed his palms. "Would you like to sit down?"

Andee shook his head. "I'm okay." He clasped his hands behind his back.

Luke noted the man's voice was always particularly quiet. His Force Print was unusually calm for a civilian. It was like he'd already been meditating regularly. But he was also a Mirialian, which meant he was deeply spiritual and connected to nature by way of culture.

"Do you have a family?"

"Um, no. My wife was killed in the Battle of Coruscant."

A touch of sadness and sympathy dipped Luke's mood. "My condolences."

"We all lost a lot in that one." Andee said as if to brush off the topic. He wasn't upset about it, but the loss was still fresh enough to need treatment. "It's what makes it important to me to make it the last one."

"Agreed. What brought you to me?"

"I'm sorry?"

Luke shrugged. "Why now? Why at the gym? Why do you think you can do this? Just give me an general idea of how you found yourself in front of me today with this request."

"I see." Andee nodded at the floor to think a moment, then lifted his gray-skinned, finely-tattooed face to the Jedi Master. "I was an associate chef at The Olian, it's a ten star restaurant at the Enshisha Hotel. Good money. Good work. I enjoyed it immensely. Served there for years. But..." He pressed his gray lips mildly. "When the head chef took his leave of his position, my assistant was promoted past me to become my boss."

Luke motioned Andee to sit down in a guest chair and stepped around to sit down as well, deeply interested. "He was human, I assume?"

"She. Yes." Andee sat down. "Dandia, that's my wife, she tried to tell me that I still had a secure career and we made enough money for a comfortable life, so 'don't mess with the airlock if you don't have to'. But it bothered me. Management tried to explain it that it was only because of the table visits. Head chefs are expected to greet special guests in the dining room, but they didn't like the optics of having a Mirialian head chef hobnob with Imperial High Command. It would 'tarnish the luster of The Olian', they said. The racism was not something I could entirely process to a comfort."

Luke nodded respect and let him continue.

"So, I held in there, living with it in silence, but when the Battle began and everything went mad, and we all realized it was the Rebellion coming -finally- to slice the head off the snake, me and several other cooks in the kitchen poured out to the dining room armed with cleavers and cast iron pans..." he sighed in little shame and a little horror, "...and went to war."

Luke pressed his mouth with sympathy and understanding.

Andee completely skipped the part of his story that covered the last five months. "I'm a short-order cook at a diner now, but at least I'm the head chef." He grinned softly. "And living in a studio in the Asansha District."

That district was practically on the other side of the planet, Luke noted. This man didn't live close.

"I considered going home to Mirial to start over, and came to the Senate District to apply for transient passage with the Mirialian Ombudsman Office at our Embassy. But they were closed for building repairs that day."

"How did you end up in the gym?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I simply stepped in for a drink of water."

Luke blinked with disbelief.

Andee grinned about it. "I was strolling around, day off, thinking. Trying to figure out what to do next. After coming all that way to find them unusually closed, I was trying to decide if I should take that as a sign that perhaps I shouldn't go home... and suddenly I was thirsty." He grinned a little more, "And there you were."

"Had you ever thought about becoming a Jedi before?"

"Oh, some. You know. Childhood fantasies. I told you about my Great Aunt already. But it's not like it was an option before. Besides, anyone growing up in the culture of the Empire who had the arrogance to believe they had the right to become a professional Force-user - wasn't headed for the Jedi Order anyway."

"True."

"Master, I don't know if this will work, or if it's right for me, of if I can use the Force to make myself valuable at all. I leave that for you to decide. All I know is that I've lost everything, and in that moment I was trying to decide what to do next, I was uncharacteristically thirsty." His smoky eyes settled on Luke with clear confidence and easy acceptance of whatever came next. His story was over.

Luke took this in for a moment, thinking, and angled his head. "If I can get you some time off from work without risking your position, can you stay with us for a couple of days?"

Andee nodded with a smirk. "I'm not in a rush to get back to a deep-fryer when everyone's is just going to smother my dish with a cheap snot sauce anyway."

Luke laughed freely. Andee finally smiled. And Nik poked his head in. "I'm leaving now."

The Jedi Master grinned at them both and flicked his head. "Andee, go with him. I have a mediation you can't come into, but Nik already has a general idea of what a Jediship looks like. I'm sure he can answer some of your questions."