8

The Sleepless Night

It was getting late when the Academy ship landed in the hangar bay. Master Moltes dismissed Zeph and headed to his quarters. Most of the students were in their own quarters. Some students were sitting in dimly lit areas chatting quietly. It was very quiet. Zeph usually never stayed out this late. The Academy seemed quite different at night.

Zeph got to his quarters a few minutes later. He was exhausted. He put his lightsaber on the stand next to his bed. He took off his heavy travel cloak. He did not feel up to showering. He crashed into his bed in his day clothing. He jumped straight up. The small of his back ached in pain. He rubbed it as he looked at his bed.

A small device lay where his back went. He picked it up and pressed a button on it. A hologram was played onto his bed. A small version of Vendalla stood there with Wotapuk behind her.

"Zeph, if you get this tonight, meet us in the mess hall at one. We'll be waiting." Zeph did not really want to meet them. He was too tired. He had not slept the night before and had been on a tiring mission today. He looked at his clock. 12:54. He could get there in time. He didn't want to blow off his friends.

Five minutes later, he arrived at the mess hall. There was only one light on and it was only giving off a dim light. He saw the silhouette of Wotapuk sitting on a table under the light. Zeph went to sit down. Vendalla was sitting next to Wotapuk on the bench. She was talking to Wotapuk in a whisper when Zeph sat down.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We heard you were on a mission too. Wotapuk and I were sent on missions too. Wotapuk had to leave at two in the morning!"

Wotapuk started grunting in his language. He told of how he and Master Dulmahe were sent to Coruscant on a reconnaissance mission. They had to track down a malfunctioning protocol droid that held information that needed to stay out of the wrong hands. It had taken them two tiring hours to find it. Then they had to return it to the owner.

Vendalla's mission was quite different. "Master Xata and I went to Tatooine to find one of the most infamous criminals in the galaxy. Blaw Clyco! It was great. He was hiding there from inner rim government. He has the death sentence on four systems! We found him in a parts shop in Mos Eisley. HE had hired a couple of bodyguards in case somebody found him. Master Xata is amazing! She took out four of them in two swipes! I only had one, but he was huge! Then we captured Clyco and left him with the Mos Eisley officials."

Zeph thought she was done with her story. But she was only taking a breath to continue. "Then, when we got to our ship, there were a bunch of sand people trying to break into it. We took them out easily. We had a great time. I really like Master Xata. She's so good with a lightsaber. How was your mission Zeph?"

"Well, I went with Master Moltes. We went to Corellia to stop a gang of lowlifes." Zeph told them his story, trying to make it as sound as exciting as Vendalla's had been.

"Wow." Said Vendalla after he finished. "We were all sent on missions that were usually meant for older students. I talked to some students who were in the hangar before we left. They were all going on similar missions. I wonder what's going on?"

Wotapuk grunted. "Yeah, I'm getting tired too." Vendalla responded. "Let's call it a night."

"Okay, see you guys tomorrow." They all went different directions towards their quarters. There would only be another hour or so until Zeph got up. He needed sleep. He fell into his bed face first. He didn't have time to enjoy lying down. He was already asleep.

The room was dark and silent. The moon barely gave light into the room. It was pitch black. . There wasn't a single sound in the air. Not even breathing. A motion in the corner of the room. No sound. An indistinguishable outline glided towards the bed.

A small needle-like shape came out of the object. It came ever closer to the pillow...

The green blur that sliced through the outline was too quick; the outline was still hovering, inactive, for a second. It fell to the ground with a thud. The lightsaber deactivated and the lights came on. Luke had actually been awake for half an hour. He had sensed the droid enter the Academy and awoke. He had not moved an inch since he heard it. He had quieted his breathing to make it look as if he were asleep.

The droid was very small. About the size of Luke's hand. The needle was still intact. Luke reached down and picked it up. He did not recognize the fluid it contained. He would need to run a scan on it. He figured it was a deadly poison meant to kill him. But maybe it was something more. Whatever it was, it would help Luke figure out the mission and maybe the owner of the droid.

Zeph's hour of sleep turned into about twenty minutes when he rolled over in his sleep and hit the holo projector his friends had left him about their meeting. It activated and woke him up. After that he couldn't go back to sleep. So instead he left his quarters and went down to the mess hall early. The droids that usually prepared the food must not start until the students woke up. Since there was no food, Zeph went to one of the training grounds. Maybe this would wake him up.

He went to a datapad on the wall and pressed a button. A rusty silver protocol droid entered the room through a door on the far side.

"Hello Mr. Mardone. You're up early. What program would you like me to run?"

"The remote program please. Level eight."

"Yes, sir."

The droid went back through the door and the lights went out. It was absolute dark. There was no adjusting to this. Only the Force would help. Zeph heard a quick scrape of metal as a door opened in the ceiling high above. The remotes had entered the room.

Zeph knew there were eight of them. He had to destroy them all in order to pass. It wasn't imperative that he passed. Just a personal test.

He activated his lightsaber. He let the Force flow through him. He knew exactly where each remote was. The first one, to his right, fired a bolt. Zeph deflected it easily. He jumped forward and swung in mid air. The remote fell to the ground in a heap.

Two shots came from behind him. He deflected one back at the remote, destroying it. He dodged the other blast and jumped to the side.

Fire stated coming from each remote. Zeph jumped and twisted in the air. He landed bringing his lightsaber down on a remote. He immediately jumped to the left and destroyed another.

The fire increased in speed. He rolled towards the next remote and slashed upwards. Three left. The remaining three started moving faster. Zeph Twisted to his right dodging more fire. He jumped towards the wall opposite the remaining remotes and kicked off of it. He aimed and hit the next remote with his foot sending it crashing into the air. He landed hard on his heel and lost his balance. Before he could regain it, he fell. Using his momentum, he kicked the ground and began to spin on his back. He spun his lightsaber in his hands and deflected fire. He deflected each bolt. One blast hit another remote. One left. He stopped spinning and jumped to his feet. In the same motion he lashed out with his lightsaber and destroyed the remaining remote.

He breathed heavily as the lights came back on. The rest of the students would be up soon. The silver droid came back and Zeph deactivated his lightsaber.

"You did quite well. But you always do well with remotes. Would you like to try again, sir?"

Zeph shook his head. "No thank you." The droid left the room. He was alone.

The hairs on the back of Zeph's neck stood on end. He powered his lightsaber up again. Maybe he wasn't alone. He sensed someone watching him. He looked around but saw no one. The sense seemed familiar though. But he couldn't remember ever feeling this presence. Whoever it was, they could shield themselves really well.

Zeph heard people outside. Maybe it was just students waking up. Zeph powered down his lightsaber and left the room.

He headed back towards the mess hall. The students were awaking now. Some of them were going in the same direction as he was.

The loud sound of Wotapuk's voice called at him over the crowd. "Hey Wotapuk. What's going on?"

Wotapuk explained that he had an early class and he was late.

"Okay, see you later." Wotapuk ran off through the crowd of students. Zeph sat down in the mess hall next to Vendalla.

"Hey Zeph. Get a good sleep?"

"Uh, yeah. Great. You?"

"Good. But it seemed too early to get up this morning. What do you have today?"

"Just saber training. I'll probably rest after that. I have a feeling it will be hard. And I have saber training again tomorrow." Zeph made an excuse for resting, trying to hide how he had not slept well for the past few days. He didn't know why he didn't tell anyone about his sleep deprivation.

"I've got the day off. Tomorrow I have saber training."

They ate their breakfast without saying anything else. Zeph said goodbye and headed for his class. The instructor was Master Xata. It seemed she taught a lot of classes. So Zeph was used to her "I don't wasn't to be here" attitude. But she had been really happy the other day with Vendalla and Kye. So she probably liked being here. She just didn't show it.

"Okay. Mallem with Dietra. Haltek with Alecsander. Beindroff with Mieksel. Zeph with Storlon." She continued pairing students, but Zeph didn't hear her. Storlon?! He was paired with Storlon Na. Zeph couldn't have been happier. The best way to get back at Kye for beating him the other day would be to first beat his friend. Zeph also knew that Storlon was not a very good Duelist. He knew he shouldn't judge him by his lightsaber skills, but he was a jerk and he deserved it. Zeph moved cheerily to an open area for dueling. Storlon stood at the edge of the area, looking at Master Xata.

"Everybody bow. And activate your lighsabers. Try working on your feint offensive abilities. Okay. Begin."

Storlon held his lightsaber in a ready position. Zeph did the same. He heard everyone else beginning to fight. But he and Storlon just stared at each other. Zeph noticed that Storlon seemed jumpy. Almost like he had to urinate. Maybe he was scared. Good. That's how it should be.

Zeph suddenly jumped towards Storlon with his lightsaber held high. Storlon parried but stumbled backwards; Zeph hit him hard. Storlon quickly regained his balance and attacked. He struck clumsily, nervously, as if asking permission to hit Zeph. Zeph denied that permission. He parried each weak attack easily and struck hard.

Suddenly, Zeph felt a change in Storlon. He attacked more confidently. He dodged Zeph's hard attacks instead of parrying them and stumbling. Zeph found himself struggling to keep up with Storlon. How could he be so good all of a sudden?!

Zeph rolled to his side, evading an attack, and lashed out at Storlon. He parried and jumped at Zeph. Zeph struck at the mid-air Storlon. Storlon parried but had no ground to balance on. He rocketed back and landed in-between Beindroff Skalts and Mieksel Slayber. They both were shocked but continued battling around him. Storlon jumped up and evaded a lightsaber and jumped back towards Zeph. Zeph kicked of the wall and attacked. Storlon evaded with a spin and swung. Zeph rolled under his lightsaber and singed Storlon's leg.

"Ah!" yelled a surprised Storlon. He fell to the ground and grabbed his leg. Zeph walked past without glancing at him. Storlon slowly stood. Although Zeph had injured him, the battle was not technically over until a neck had been struck. Zeph turned and realized he had not one yet. Zeph suddenly felt a bit of respect for Storlon's unwillingness to give up. Zeph reactivated his lightsaber.

Storlon stabilized himself and activated his as well. The two took a moment to catch their breaths and attacked. Storlon attacked even more persistent than before. He was not going to give up. He and Zeph began parrying and attacking almost rhythmically. They did not stumble but kept up a steady amount of attacks and parries going. They fought for ten more minutes like this. Zeph jumped over Storlon's head and swung. Storlon parried and attacked hard. Zeph lost his grip and his lightsaber flew from his hand. It landed a few feet away as Zeph landed on his back. Storlon was tired. He attacked lazily. Relieved that the battle was over. But Zeph seized this chance. While Storlon wasn't attacking with full concentration. He kicked upwards and connected with Storlon's wrist. His lightsaber flew in the air above them. They both watched as the lightsaber fell. Zeph jumped up and in mid-air grabbed Storlon's lightsaber. The hilt was strange to Zeph but it didn't matter. He swung with great precision at Storlon, who was still stunned, and hit him in the neck.

He fell backwards, grimacing. Although the lightsabers were on low power, they still stung. Zeph looked around. He had not realized that the rest of the class had finished their battles and were all watching him. Storlon clutched his neck. He tried to stand but fell back onto the ground. Zeph didn't know why, but he reached out and grabbed Storlon's hand as he tried to stand again. Storlon was just as confused. They were enemies. They didn't help each other. But maybe Storlon wasn't that bad. Zeph handed him his lightsaber and turned to pick his up. Beating Storlon didn't seem as fulfilling as he had imagined. Still, he had won. And he learned something about Storlon as well.