The Way of a Siluan
Chapter 3: The Crash
While Ava Yen piloted his little passenger starship to the edge of Coruscant airspace, Eo sat in the small hold behind the cockpit, looking down at her toes. The shame of rejection lay heavily on her, but she wasn't surprised. For quite some time Eo had sensed that she wasn't really keeping pace with the other Jedi younglings. Simple things, like the telekinesis of a piece of cloth, were challenging for her. She could easily sense the Force in the little bugs that buzzed around the Temple in the summer, or in the weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk outside, but sensing the Force in the minds of people was all but impossible for her, making it unlikely that she would ever master the art of Jedi mind control.
She sighed, looking down at the scuff marks on her brown shoes. She had tried, she had really tried. She had lived in the Temple her whole remembered life, and loved the way of the Jedi with its meditation and study, the rigours of physical training, and the call to compassion for all life. She'd worked hard at her training in hopes that one of the Jedi knights would indeed take her under their wing and help her find her own path as a Jedi. Now that hope was totally dashed.
Could she perhaps find a mentor among the Jedi of the AgriCorps? Eo doubted it, and now that doubt gnawed at her and made a pit in her stomach. Her general impressions of the AgriCorps Jedi were not good. Once she'd overhead two of them talking in the Temple. They had quietly mocked an elderly Jedi who was meditating nearby, and laughed about their own disregard for the practice. Having heard other rumours that AgriCorps members tended to be rather careless about following the Jedi Code (and about tending to the younger Jedi in their care), she had worked all the harder not to be made one of them.
Yet Ava Yen didn't fit her negative impressions. He seemed quiet and serious. He'd had the courage, and the kindness, to stand up to Master Contar. He must have reverence for the Force, Eo thought, or he wouldn't have come to the Temple solely as a pilgrimage. If being in the AgriCorps meant learning from someone like Ava Yen, perhaps it could be OK she decided.
Eo felt a sudden jolt as the starship made the leap to hyperspace. They were on their way to the AgriCorps station on Deema. Ava Yen belonged to the station on Deema, but Master Contar had made it clear that Eo would not be staying there long. Sent off to some remote outpost, how would she ever find her way as a Jedi with teachers who weren't concerned with finding it themselves? Her worry settled into the pit of her stomach, and she sat hunched over it.
"We will be at Deema in half an hour."
Eo almost jumped. She'd thought she was alone in the hold, but there was Ava Yen, standing in the doorway between the hold and the cockpit. She scraped the tears from her eyes, but couldn't think of anything to say.
"You are sad because you wanted to be a Jedi knight?" Ava Yen asked gently.
Eo bit her lip. Perhaps Ava Yen would understand her feelings, but how could she explain without insulting his co-workers? So she shrugged. "But I'm not strong enough," she said sadly, and looked at her toes again.
"Maybe you will like agriculture," Ava Yen said hopefully. "The Force is strong in things that grow."
"Yes, I'll try," Eo said, trying to sound positive, but Ava Yen wasn't convinced.
"I was surprised at how Master Contar spoke to you," he said. "Most Jedi I know have more respect for the AgriCorps. Perhaps her manner added injury to her words, but you must fly over these things. I know some who have lost their way as Jedi, because of their resentment at not being chosen."
Eo looked up, very interested in what he had said, and Ava Yen was on the point of saying more, when an alarm went off in the cockpit. Ava Yen hurried to check, with Eo close behind him. As they entered the cockpit, the nav-droid pulled the little starship abruptly out of hyperspace, and they found themselves looking on a star-system of a hundred tiny planets, many blue-green, most red- or grey-brown. Between them hung a bright haze where interplanetary debris caught the light of the system's white star.
"I regret to say I have no idea where we are," Ava Yen said, and as he spoke a small asteroid struck the starship. The glancing blow sent the little starcraft spinning about its axis like a demented merry-go-round, flinging Eo against the wall of the cockpit. Ava Yen was able to hang on, but his composure was broken.
"Get back in the hold and strap yourself in," he barked. "I must regain control of the ship."
Eo scrambled to obey, clinging to the walls as she made her way along. Ava Yen tried everything his limited pilot training had taught him, to no avail. His eyes grew wide with fear as the little ship careened toward a small planet, narrowly missing pock-marked asteroids of varying sizes strewn thick around it.
The planet's surface was quiet and green, but the crash of the little passenger ship shattered the peace as it skidded to a violent halt in the woods. Then all was silent again.
Eo was able, with difficulty, to release her safety straps and get up. She put a hand to a gash on her head and stumbled toward the cockpit. Ava Yen lay face-down on the control panel.
"Ava Yen! Ava Yen!" she called in his ear. No response. She put a hand on his shoulder and but quickly withdrew. Gathering herself, she lifted his hand and found no life in it.