Chapter 19/Part 2 The Story of the Cave Clan

Park nodded and slipped from the stool to sit on the floor, "You should take some nourishment; I will bring a bowl of broth." Ket announced as she stood up and left the two alone.

"Before my time, before the time of those before me, and even before that, the first of our people arrived. They were exiles, fleeing the persecution of those who possessed the Power. The place they fled was called Belarid; you know of this place." Park began.

Ferri nodded and Park continued, "They arrived on several ships; how many were on those ships has long since been forgotten; they brought their little ones, but only a few possessions. They were running, you see, and had little time to gather things. For many years before the persecutions, those with and without the Power lived in peace and harmony; intermingling and bringing little ones forth. But for reasons that have been lost, those possessing the Power were labeled abominations by those who did not and they became hated and feared. Then the slaughter began and the ground turned black with the blood of the massacred; the killing was indiscriminate, old and young alike. Those who managed to escape the first wave of persecutions banded together and fled in ships. They knew of this place from those among them who had traveled before the time of the persecutions and saw that it would be a good place to raise their little ones far from the slaughter. It was not an easy life here in those early days; but they had escaped the slaughter, and, to them, that was most important. They dismantled their ships, knowing they would never be leaving, and used the salvaged pieces to construct a home which they christened the Lodge. They learned to hunt horned grazers and shaggy shoulders to provide food; they learned which of the native plants were edible and began to cultivate them.

"After a time, another ship arrived bringing with it mostly little ones and a few middlings who brought news of the continuing persecutions; how these young exiles came to be on this ship or who had known to program it to land here was never discovered, although it came to be believed that they were smuggled out by a group of more rational citizens. Fearing that these new exiles may have been followed, the elders of the Lodge ordered the ship to be gutted of anything useful and the rest scattered about to make it appear as if it had crashed. Several cycles passed before another ship appeared in the sky, and the people wondered if their sanctuary had finally been discovered. But the ship harbored only more little ones, not hostiles; as before they welcomed them into the Lodge and salvaged the ship. What they could not use this time, however, they buried. More cycles passed and yet another ship of little ones came; as before they salvaged what they could of the ship and buried the rest in the same place as the one before it. From time to time over many cycles, ships continued to come, all bearing more little ones and always the little ones would be taken in and their ships salvaged then buried over the previous ones and the Mound began to take shape.

"With the passage of cycles, those who had built the Lodge moved on; but many had joined in the cycles before moving on and brought forth little ones who grew to join and bring forth more little ones and so the Lodge people grew in numbers, both from those who brought forth life here and from the little ones who arrived from the sky. Then the ships stopped coming; whether it was because reason had finally returned to the people of Belarid, or those with Power had been completely exterminated, no one could determine. And so after a time, the Lodge people stopped looking to the sky for ships; what had happened on Belarid no longer concerned them, for they were safe and their numbers many, and they continued to bring forth new life.

"But without the ships, the Lodge could no longer be expanded, and as the little ones grew, joined and brought forth their own little ones, it became apparent that the Lodge could not hold them all. Several men were chosen and left the Lodge hoping to find a suitable location for another lodge; they were gone for many days and the remaining Lodgers began to wonder if they had met with misfortune and had moved on. Hope of their return had all but faded when the scouts reappeared with good news concerning a system of caves, located in the hills some distance from them. These caves, the explorers explained would negate the need to build another lodge.

"A great feast was held that night to celebrate their return and success. In the days that followed, decisions on how many should depart to colonize the caves and what they should take for provisions were discussed and debated. In the end, it was decided that those with very new little ones and those very close to their time to move on should remain within the safe confines of the Lodge. Although still allowed the choice to stay if they wished, the new colony would be comprised of the joinings who had yet to bring forth little ones, or whose little ones had grown to middlings; several young unjoined men and woman and some of the older joinings also expressed a desire to be part of this new venture and it was agreed to by the Lodge Elders. By the end of the long days; but before the weather turned cold, preparations were at last complete for the trip to the cave lodging. Considering the length of time which had passed while the explorers were absent, it did not take the emigrants long to reach their destination. It had taken longer, you see, to discover the caves when actually they were not a great distance at all from the Lodge. As the splinter colony adjusted to life in the caves and became more self-sufficient, it no longer seemed appropriate to refer to themselves as the Lodgers; they were, after all, no longer part of Lodge life and lived in caves not lodges. While they still had contact with those in the Lodge and intermingled to form joinings with the Lodge people, their lives were separate and, because of their surroundings, different. They began to call themselves the Cave Clan; and referred to their home as the Caves. Soon afterwards, Lodgers became known as the Lodge Clan.

"Life in both colonies was good for several years; the people worked hard, but they were happy and the colonies prospered. Then, after so many cycles of constant use, the fuel cells salvaged from their ships to provide power began to fail. The ones from the original ships were the first to go; and two of these older cells provided power to the Caves. When the first of these failed, leaving the Caves with only one, the Elders of the Cave Clan traveled to the Lodge believing that the Lodge Clan would replace their failed fuel cell; but the Lodge Clan Elders refused, claiming several of theirs had already failed, and if they replaced the one that had failed in the Caves, they would be left with no replacement should another fail at the Lodge."

"Was it true?" Ferri asked.

Park shook his head, "That I do not know; but the Elders of the Cave Clan believed the Lodge Elders were being less than truthful. They returned to the Caves empty-handed and angry; it was the first sign of dissension between the Clans."

"And so they learned to use the Force to provide their power." Ferri surmised.

"The Force? Ah yes, the Power; in truth, that happened by chance. You see, they were left with only one fuel cell now; and they had no way of knowing how long it would be before that one failed as well, they needed to either find another source to power the Caves, or a way to renew the failed cell. One colonist, his name was Lathen, I believe, suggested trying to transfer the Power into the cell, but after several unsuccessful attempts, the Elders began to think it impossible. Unwilling to give up, Lathen continued to experiment with his idea; to check the cell after each Power transfer attempt, he would check the cell with a heating unit and a flask of water. After several failures, even he began to doubt it would work, until the day the water in the flask began to steam and then boil. Excited by this discovery, he sought and was granted permission to expand his work to discover just how much power the apparently newly charged fuel cell could generate; but when he routed the cell to the lighting unit, it failed to work at all. Puzzled, he made several adjustments and asked his middling to help him find where he had erred. There was a miscommunication between the two. The middling thought Lathen gave him the signal to power the lighting unit up again; however, Lathen was still working on the connections between the cell and the lighting unit. There was a surge of power, and the lights began to blaze brightly; when the middling turned to acknowledge Lathen's success, Lathen was still holding the connections. Thinking back to his first success with the heating unit, Lathen realized he had actually been holding the connection between it and the cell together when it finally worked. It was not long before Lathen was able to fine tune his control of the Power and then to teach the rest of the Clan how to do it as well."

"Wait; you're telling me that harnessing actually started here?" Ferri interrupted.

"It started here, yes; but soon, word spread to the Lodge that the Cave Clan had discovered an alternative to the fuel cells and they sent several Lodgers to learn the ability to channel the Power. Although the Elders were still angry with the Lodge, they allowed the visiting Lodgers to join those who were learning from Lathen. But the strained relations between the two Clans did not improve with this sharing of knowledge; in fact, as time went on, the two colonies saw less and less of each other. The Lodgers began, for some unknown reason, to deify the Mound and declared it off limits to anyone except them. Joinings between the two lodged dwindled and then ceased altogether. If anyone was concerned at this sudden schism, it was soon overshadowed by an alarming trend in the Caves concerning the newly brought forth little ones; more and more of them moved on soon after they were brought forth or were brought forth still; most alarming, though, were those brought forth with oddities."

"What kind of oddities?" Ferri asked.

"Most often is was their unusually large size; however, at times it was also coupled with other deformities. In any case, it was thought to be some kind of plague attacking the little ones; and so the Elders sent a runner to the Lodge to see if their little ones were also being affected. The runner returned with disappointing news; the Lodge Elders would not see him, and refused to even discuss the possibility of plague within the Lodge. When the runner tried to speak with some of the Lodgers, a security detailed escorted him out of the Lodge and would not allow him back in."

"Alright, you've talked about your Clan here; and you've talked about the Lodge, but you haven't said anything about the growlers. In all the time your people have been here, didn't they ever encounter them? I mean, did they just suddenly appear? Or did another ship bring them here?" Ferri questioned.

Park sighed and then continued, leaving Ferri's question unanswered, "When the Elders learned how secretive the Lodge Clan had become, they began to wonder what the Lodgers were hiding. They decided to send a spy in and devised a plan to make it appear as if he or she was unhappy at the Caves and wished to live at the Lodge. A woman whose little one had moved on quickly after coming forth volunteered, and the Elders agreed; it appeared to be the perfect ruse and it worked. It did not take long for the woman to discover what the Lodge was up to. They had constructed an entire room devoted to the harnessing the Power to generate energy for the Lodge using the method they had learned from Lathen. Several stations, built to focus the Power had been erected, and all lodgers, excluding little ones, were required to spend a certain amount of time at those stations. A schedule had been devised to be certain that all the stations were occupied at all times.

"It was only with great difficulty and at great risk to herself that the woman was able to finally escape from the Lodge and return to her own Clan once she had gained the information the Elders needed; the Lodge Elders, you see, had made it illegal to leave the Lodge to join the Cave Clan. Even being seen talking with a Caver was considered an act of treason. When the Elders heard what was happening at the Lodge, they sent word that they would like to meet with the Lodge Elders to discuss the situation. The answer they received from the Lodge was clear: the Lodge Clan was under no obligation to enter into any discussion concerning the governing of their Lodge; and if the Elders continued to press the issue, the Lodge Elders would consider it an act of war. Reluctantly, the Cave Elders realized their was nothing more they could do, and cut themselves off completely from the Lodge."

"When was that?" Ferri asked.

"Several cycles before my coming." Park answered.

"And you've never reconciled with the Lodge?" Ferri wondered.

Park smiled, "In truth, the joining which brought me forth were Lodgers." He admitted.

"Well, I can see why they left." Ferri stated, "Were you born at the Lodge then?"

"Born? Ah, came forth; yes." Park answered.

"And your mother...uh, the one who brought you forth, and her mate, they escaped the Lodge to come here then." Ferri guessed.

"Her mate did, and he brought me with him; the one you would call my mother stayed with the Lodge." Park corrected.

"Why?"

Park looked down at the floor, "Li is the one who brought me forth." He revealed.

"Li?!" Ferri exclaimed, "The same Li that took Zak, that Li?"

"Yes; from what I later learned, she became obsessed with bringing more power to the Lodge at any cost. It caused a great rift in her joining and I was too small at the time to understand what was happening; but I could sense something was terribly wrong. Then, one night, he came and took me and we came here."

Park stood up and turned away from the young Jedi; and Ferri sensed that whatever else he had to say was very difficult for him. Ferri, to his credit, was patient and waited silently for Park to continue. A moment later, Park cleared his throat and returned to his place on the floor.

"Earlier, you inquired about the growlers and where they came from..." Park took a deep breath and exhaled, "Apologies; this is difficult...because the growlers...well, the little ones who were brought forth with oddities, they became the growlers."

"Force." Ferri gasped.

"And there is more." Park confessed and then covered his mouth for a moment, "Li...Li was part of a Lodge committee that..." He closed his eyes and swallowed, "Apologies; I will begin again. When so few normal little ones came forth, the Cave Clan decided as a collective to bring no more forth; while the Lodge Clan continued to join and bring forth little ones knowing...knowing very few would be right...because they discovered..." Again Park paused, this time covered his eyes with one hand, "The odd little ones were tested...and discovered to possess the Power to a greater degree than normal little ones."

"Power to harness." Ferri whispered, barely able to believe what he was hearing.

"Yes; and Li has brought forth several of these since my coming." Park added.

"Barbaric."

"Yes."

"And my friend is being held by this woman...I can't stay here, Park." Ferri decided, struggling to swing his legs over the edge of the mat.

"Do not be foolish; you must accept that your friend's fate has already been sealed and there is nothing you can do. You stand little chance of bringing your friend out of the Lodge even if he has not yet been harnessed. And by this time, he most likely already has been; in which case it would be completely impossible." Park argued, pushing Ferri back and holding him down.

"You said yourself there was a chance they would just let him join them; and then it would just be a matter of getting him out." Ferri countered.

"How far do you think you would get, young crippled Jedi? And what of the little ones with you; would you abandon them?" Park questioned, "It is doubtful Li would find him anything but uncooperative; even if he revealed everything she wished to know, she would claim he was holding back. If his Power is as great as yours, and he is as well trained as you are, she would find any excuse to harness him. His only hope at this point is if your people come for you."

With a great exhalation, Ferri stopped struggling, "He's my friend."

"I know this; and I am very sorry." Park told him.