p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongA week later, Ranna's point of view./strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Let me start by saying that Master Tharen is one of the most stubborn jedi knights I have ever met. That's not to say he's a bad teacher though. Heck, I couldn't imagine having any other instructor./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The week following our recovery from the events on Telos had been filled with intense physical and mental training, hours of studying in the archive hall doubled with a few hours of sparing in the dueling room against him and other padawans./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen and I were walking through the jedi temple, he was instructing me about how the Old Republic survived its war with the sith empire. "A sith pure blood named Scourge killed the Meetra in front of the emperor and imprisoned Revan." He said, finishing his story./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We stopped and looked out the corridor's window across Coruscant. I was astonished by the story he had just finished. "What happened to the Emperor? Did anyone ever defeat him and free Revan?" I had to know the rest./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""History is a little sketchy on what happened next, but from what I know, the Emperor was killed years later by an unknown Jedi." Explained my master. "Revan on the other hand, he was defeated at the hands of jedi and sith a few decades later after he instigated a war with the empire once he was freed by a squad of republic forces but not everyone is sure he really died then or simply faked his death."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What do you mean or! I thought the archives had everything?" I complained a little too loud, a jedi master that was passing my gave me a concerned glare but continued on./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Never assume all is known." Answered Tharen. "Remember when I had you read about Bastilla?" I nodded. "Well what the archives fail to mention is that Revan and her were married and had children."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""But the Jedi order has very defined and strict restrictions on romance!" I answered./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""The exact reason its not in the archives, do you know the controversy that would take place if that information was well known?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He turned to see his friend, Saras, walking towards us with her master, Slather. Slather was a male Irodian with light brown skin and sharp horn on the top of his scalp./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Morning Saras, Master slather." Tharen and I both said in unison./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Evening young jedi." Announced the elderly Jedi master. "The council has a mission for the four of us." He took a small holographic device, pressed a button on it, and a series of blueprints appeared above the device. "This is the layout of an ancient jedi temple on Tython. The council wants us to retrieve an ancient holocron from a vault underneath the temple." He explained pointing to a small chamber underneath the structure./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""This sounds like a two person job, why send four jedi?" Asked Tharen./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I was just about to get to that. See these catacombs?" He pointed to a series of tunnels that weaved under the temple, only one of them led to the holocron vault. "The council deemed it necessary to send two teams to search for the holocron, one to look beneath the temple, the other to ward off the indigenous people, the flesh raiders." He closed the device and stashed it back under his robes. "Come with us to the hanger, a ship is waiting for us." He motioned for us to follow him./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The council provided us with an old, yellow cargo freighter, they had probably thought that the old ship would attract less attention. The ship had been named CS Krate. I had to laugh at the complete unoriginality of the ships name. We followed Master Slather up the vessel's rusted boarding ramp. The inside halls were lined with unpainted, rusted durasteel platting./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen and Saras immediately headed for the cockpit and Master Slather turned toward what had been a cargo bay to meditate, leaving me alone./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I sighed and slowly walked over to one of the chairs that surrounded the "crew lounge". Four other metal chairs had been bolted in around a center holographic display./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The ship shuddered as the engines primed and we lifted into the air. I made my self busy by making myself familiar with the controls attached to my chair. I quickly discovered that they controlled the holographic display./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The hologram went from an image of the ship to a representation of the jedi temple, to an image of Tython. A summary of each image accompanied each hologram. I was astonished to learn that Tython was where the Jedi order was first founded./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"After reading everything I could on the planet I decided it would be a good idea to announce my newest discovery to my master. I walked on the tip of my toes - which is not easy in boots - in an attempt to sneak up behind Tharen./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"When I turned the corner into the cockpit I was shocked by what I saw. Tharen and Saras were sitting next to each other holding hands and Saras was kissing my master. This broke everything that I had learned as a youngling from Master Yoda. Jedi weren't allowed to love. I felt a bit of disgust at their disregard for jedi teachings, this was supposed to be my teacher, and here he was breaking the jedi code. But there was also a pang of understanding, the rule against jedi live had always seemed a little... well, stupid. Jedi were supposed to be compassionate, understanding, and love is a compassion./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I pulled myself back around the corner so they wouldn't notice me. 'Should I tell Master Slather?' I thought to myself. It was my obligation to report this to the order, but something held me back. My morals wouldn't allow me to take the steps toward the cargo bay, my apprenticeship with Tharen was built on trust and I felt that if I reported him, I'd be betraying his trust./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I decided I would not report him, but I would have to speak to him about it the first chance I got. I silently returned to my seat./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"A moment after I sat down, Master Slather entered. He strolled over to the chair across from me and sat down. "How are you feeling?" He said calmly as he motioned to my bandaged arm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The wound had healed almost completely now, but I had been recommended to keep it on for another few days to avoid infection. "Better." I answered abruptly, trying to keep calm after what I had seen just a few minutes before./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He waited for me to continue with an explanation, but gave up when I shrugged. "Good, I'd better go check on Tharen and Saras then, see how long it's going to be." He sighed, standing up from his chair./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No, no!" I said as I bolted from my seat. "I'll go." I continued, not giving him a chance to refuse./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I marched down the hallway, creating as much noise as I could, hoping to alert my master to my approach. I entered the cockpit and the two had separated and were staring into hyper space silently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Hey Master?" I said./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He turned in his chair to face me, his tunic hung a little looser than usual. I shot him a glare that said I wanted to talk privately./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "What is it Etch?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master Slather wants to know how long the journey is going to be."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Saras stood up nervously. "I'll go tell him, how about you take my seat, Ranna." She volunteered before standing up and walking out of the compact cabin./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen waited until her footsteps disappeared. "What did you see?" Asked my master guiltily./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I went straight to the point. "Do you know what would happen if it had been Master Slather and not me that walked in here earlier?!" I ranted. "What happens to me if they kick you out of the order! The council might believe you'd corrupted me too, all three of us could be exiled!"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I'm sorry Ranna, I really am." He apologized. "But Saras is important to me. I have tried not to give in to my emotions, but after Telos I told her how I felt." He turned to me. "I know that its hard for you to understand now, but when you get older you'll discover how difficult it is to keep love bottled up."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master, I won't pretend to completely understand what you're saying, but I'll keep myself out of your business. As long as you restrain yourself." He nodded and returned to piloting the ship silently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We dropped out of hyperspace a few hours later. Tython had three distinct continents, each surrounded with a gigantic ocean. The only thing that prevented the planet from being a perfect vacation spot was the dark storm that span the distance of an entire continent. Naturally our destination was at the center of the storm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen eased the starship into the ominous clouds. Things were going rather smoothly for such a bad storm, that is until we entered the second sub-layer. Dark purple arks of lightning burst between the layers. I had just buckled into my seat when Master Slather and Saras burst into the cockpit./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What the blasted heck is going on up here?!" Asked Master Slather as he tightly grasped one of the turbulence bars that hung from the ceiling. "Feels like you're flying us through a black hole." He complained as the ship shuddered violently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I felt something inside the storm, something dark, if I had to describe it with one word it would be malevolent, a close second would be powerful. "I don't know, but it's unnatural." Answered Tharen grinding his teeth as he fought for control of the danced across the forward canopy. "Ranna, shut down the aft thruster, its taking us off course." Ordered Tharen, pointing to a switch just out of his reach./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I flipped the switch and the ship was rocked by an extremely powerful explosion. "Blast it!" Cursed Tharen. "There went the lateral stabilizers, this is going to be a rough landing." He warned noticing the blinking light to his left. "Better go strap yourselves in." Saras and Slather disappeared down the hall as the ship started to dip into a steep, uncontrollable decent./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen wrestled with the controls as we dove further to our almost certain death. As we broke through the clouds a jagged, rocky mountain broke into view right in our flight - or crash - path. Just as we were about to collide, I felt the emergency stabilizers kick on. Enabling Tharen to pull the nose up just enough to not collide head on with the mountain, instead we skidded across the side of the mountain, plowing through trees, shrubs and mounds of dirt./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Just before the view screen broke I used the force to throw up a barrier of energy to protect myself from the glass shards. Not all of them were stopped and I could feel the shards dig into me. We struck some sort of large object near the end of our decent, causing the ship to come to an abrupt stop and making me pitch forward into the consol hard enough for me to loose consciousness./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Owwww..." I groaned as I rubbed my head. I looked around with blurry eyes at the smashed cockpit. Tharen lay across the ships controls next to me. "Master?" I said as I reached across the space between us to feel his pulse. Still alive. "Master are you okay?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He groaned painfully but nodded./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I unbuckled myself from my seat and checked myself for injuries. My tunic was speckled with drops of blood but after my self inspection, I discovered that none of them were serious enough to warrant immediate attention. I stood up from my chair and approached my master. I had to help him out of his chair because one of the support beams had locked him in place./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He stood up battered, bruised, and his cloak was torn to shreds, but overall he was no worse for ware. "Etch, how you feeling?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Better than I look." I answered as I motioned to my bloody tunic. "You think Saras and Master Slather survived?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I hope so." He answered before taking a painful step forward./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We both walked with a slight limp as we traveled through the corridor. As we exited the hallway I noticed how torn apart the ship had been. The ceiling's plating had collapsed where the holographic display and chairs had been. I prayed that Saras and Slather hadn't been seated when we crashed./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Rain poured in where the ceiling had collapsed, making the ships metal deck slippery. "Saras!" Called Tharen. "Master Slather!" We immediately set to work searching for our missing friends. I used the force to lift the collapsed plating off the chairs, nothing - good, they hadn't been crushed. "Saras, where are you!" Shouted my master as he ignited his green lightsaber to provide light to the poorly lighted vessel./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"That's when I remembered what I had read about the indigenous people, the flesh raiders. Large, red, shark like people with vicious fangs and strong enough to through a speeder over thirty yards. "Master!" I cautioned. "We need to find them and get out of here fast, the flesh raiders will be on their way!" The Flesh raiders may have been frightened of Jedi, but that wouldn't be enough to keep them away from a bit of salvage and a fresh kill./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He nodded and sped his search, digging under fallen walls and under destroyed bits of ceiling, but to no avail. I was just about to tell him to give up when a sharp nock sounded from the plating beneath me. "Etch freeze," he ordered sharply. All I heard was the sound of rain beating on the ships exterior, then suddenly a second sharp nock from beneath the deck./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen bolted to it's source on the metal floor. A small latch had been camouflaged into the rusted deck. Tharen twisted the latch and pulled. A small trapdoor lifted off the deck to reveal the ship's smuggler hold. Saras was the first to pull herself out of the hidden compartment and was quickly followed by Master Slather./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"A look of relief grew across Tharen's face, I could tell he was fighting the urge to hug her. "You both okay?" He asked. "How did you find that?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I've been aware of it since I came aboard, the storage compartment is always the safest part of any smuggling vessel." He was right, the crew always came second to those morally bankrupt enough to resort to smuggling illicit goods. "The one problem was the lack of a door release on the other side." He observed./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master, we better get out of here before the flesh raiders arrive." I recommended, nervous about the likely hood of a flesh raider attack. Both Slather and Tharen nodded and the four of us hurried out of the crashed vessel./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Let me start by saying that Master Tharen is one of the most stubborn jedi knights I have ever met. That's not to say he's a bad teacher though. Heck, I couldn't imagine having any other instructor./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The week following our recovery from the events on Telos had been filled with intense physical and mental training, hours of studying in the archive hall doubled with a few hours of sparing in the dueling room against him and other padawans./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen and I were walking through the jedi temple, he was instructing me about how the Old Republic survived its war with the sith empire. "A sith pure blood named Scourge killed the Meetra in front of the emperor and imprisoned Revan." He said, finishing his story./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We stopped and looked out the corridor's window across Coruscant. I was astonished by the story he had just finished. "What happened to the Emperor? Did anyone ever defeat him and free Revan?" I had to know the rest./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""History is a little sketchy on what happened next, but from what I know, the Emperor was killed years later by an unknown Jedi." Explained my master. "Revan on the other hand, he was defeated at the hands of jedi and sith a few decades later after he instigated a war with the empire once he was freed by a squad of republic forces but not everyone is sure he really died then or simply faked his death."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What do you mean or! I thought the archives had everything?" I complained a little too loud, a jedi master that was passing my gave me a concerned glare but continued on./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Never assume all is known." Answered Tharen. "Remember when I had you read about Bastilla?" I nodded. "Well what the archives fail to mention is that Revan and her were married and had children."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""But the Jedi order has very defined and strict restrictions on romance!" I answered./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""The exact reason its not in the archives, do you know the controversy that would take place if that information was well known?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He turned to see his friend, Saras, walking towards us with her master, Slather. Slather was a male Irodian with light brown skin and sharp horn on the top of his scalp./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Morning Saras, Master slather." Tharen and I both said in unison./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Evening young jedi." Announced the elderly Jedi master. "The council has a mission for the four of us." He took a small holographic device, pressed a button on it, and a series of blueprints appeared above the device. "This is the layout of an ancient jedi temple on Tython. The council wants us to retrieve an ancient holocron from a vault underneath the temple." He explained pointing to a small chamber underneath the structure./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""This sounds like a two person job, why send four jedi?" Asked Tharen./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I was just about to get to that. See these catacombs?" He pointed to a series of tunnels that weaved under the temple, only one of them led to the holocron vault. "The council deemed it necessary to send two teams to search for the holocron, one to look beneath the temple, the other to ward off the indigenous people, the flesh raiders." He closed the device and stashed it back under his robes. "Come with us to the hanger, a ship is waiting for us." He motioned for us to follow him./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The council provided us with an old, yellow cargo freighter, they had probably thought that the old ship would attract less attention. The ship had been named CS Krate. I had to laugh at the complete unoriginality of the ships name. We followed Master Slather up the vessel's rusted boarding ramp. The inside halls were lined with unpainted, rusted durasteel platting./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen and Saras immediately headed for the cockpit and Master Slather turned toward what had been a cargo bay to meditate, leaving me alone./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I sighed and slowly walked over to one of the chairs that surrounded the "crew lounge". Four other metal chairs had been bolted in around a center holographic display./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The ship shuddered as the engines primed and we lifted into the air. I made my self busy by making myself familiar with the controls attached to my chair. I quickly discovered that they controlled the holographic display./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The hologram went from an image of the ship to a representation of the jedi temple, to an image of Tython. A summary of each image accompanied each hologram. I was astonished to learn that Tython was where the Jedi order was first founded./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"After reading everything I could on the planet I decided it would be a good idea to announce my newest discovery to my master. I walked on the tip of my toes - which is not easy in boots - in an attempt to sneak up behind Tharen./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"When I turned the corner into the cockpit I was shocked by what I saw. Tharen and Saras were sitting next to each other holding hands and Saras was kissing my master. This broke everything that I had learned as a youngling from Master Yoda. Jedi weren't allowed to love. I felt a bit of disgust at their disregard for jedi teachings, this was supposed to be my teacher, and here he was breaking the jedi code. But there was also a pang of understanding, the rule against jedi live had always seemed a little... well, stupid. Jedi were supposed to be compassionate, understanding, and love is a compassion./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I pulled myself back around the corner so they wouldn't notice me. 'Should I tell Master Slather?' I thought to myself. It was my obligation to report this to the order, but something held me back. My morals wouldn't allow me to take the steps toward the cargo bay, my apprenticeship with Tharen was built on trust and I felt that if I reported him, I'd be betraying his trust./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I decided I would not report him, but I would have to speak to him about it the first chance I got. I silently returned to my seat./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"A moment after I sat down, Master Slather entered. He strolled over to the chair across from me and sat down. "How are you feeling?" He said calmly as he motioned to my bandaged arm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The wound had healed almost completely now, but I had been recommended to keep it on for another few days to avoid infection. "Better." I answered abruptly, trying to keep calm after what I had seen just a few minutes before./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He waited for me to continue with an explanation, but gave up when I shrugged. "Good, I'd better go check on Tharen and Saras then, see how long it's going to be." He sighed, standing up from his chair./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No, no!" I said as I bolted from my seat. "I'll go." I continued, not giving him a chance to refuse./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I marched down the hallway, creating as much noise as I could, hoping to alert my master to my approach. I entered the cockpit and the two had separated and were staring into hyper space silently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Hey Master?" I said./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He turned in his chair to face me, his tunic hung a little looser than usual. I shot him a glare that said I wanted to talk privately./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "What is it Etch?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master Slather wants to know how long the journey is going to be."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Saras stood up nervously. "I'll go tell him, how about you take my seat, Ranna." She volunteered before standing up and walking out of the compact cabin./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen waited until her footsteps disappeared. "What did you see?" Asked my master guiltily./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I went straight to the point. "Do you know what would happen if it had been Master Slather and not me that walked in here earlier?!" I ranted. "What happens to me if they kick you out of the order! The council might believe you'd corrupted me too, all three of us could be exiled!"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I'm sorry Ranna, I really am." He apologized. "But Saras is important to me. I have tried not to give in to my emotions, but after Telos I told her how I felt." He turned to me. "I know that its hard for you to understand now, but when you get older you'll discover how difficult it is to keep love bottled up."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master, I won't pretend to completely understand what you're saying, but I'll keep myself out of your business. As long as you restrain yourself." He nodded and returned to piloting the ship silently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We dropped out of hyperspace a few hours later. Tython had three distinct continents, each surrounded with a gigantic ocean. The only thing that prevented the planet from being a perfect vacation spot was the dark storm that span the distance of an entire continent. Naturally our destination was at the center of the storm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen eased the starship into the ominous clouds. Things were going rather smoothly for such a bad storm, that is until we entered the second sub-layer. Dark purple arks of lightning burst between the layers. I had just buckled into my seat when Master Slather and Saras burst into the cockpit./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What the blasted heck is going on up here?!" Asked Master Slather as he tightly grasped one of the turbulence bars that hung from the ceiling. "Feels like you're flying us through a black hole." He complained as the ship shuddered violently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I felt something inside the storm, something dark, if I had to describe it with one word it would be malevolent, a close second would be powerful. "I don't know, but it's unnatural." Answered Tharen grinding his teeth as he fought for control of the danced across the forward canopy. "Ranna, shut down the aft thruster, its taking us off course." Ordered Tharen, pointing to a switch just out of his reach./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I flipped the switch and the ship was rocked by an extremely powerful explosion. "Blast it!" Cursed Tharen. "There went the lateral stabilizers, this is going to be a rough landing." He warned noticing the blinking light to his left. "Better go strap yourselves in." Saras and Slather disappeared down the hall as the ship started to dip into a steep, uncontrollable decent./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen wrestled with the controls as we dove further to our almost certain death. As we broke through the clouds a jagged, rocky mountain broke into view right in our flight - or crash - path. Just as we were about to collide, I felt the emergency stabilizers kick on. Enabling Tharen to pull the nose up just enough to not collide head on with the mountain, instead we skidded across the side of the mountain, plowing through trees, shrubs and mounds of dirt./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Just before the view screen broke I used the force to throw up a barrier of energy to protect myself from the glass shards. Not all of them were stopped and I could feel the shards dig into me. We struck some sort of large object near the end of our decent, causing the ship to come to an abrupt stop and making me pitch forward into the consol hard enough for me to loose consciousness./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"~~~•••~~~/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Owwww..." I groaned as I rubbed my head. I looked around with blurry eyes at the smashed cockpit. Tharen lay across the ships controls next to me. "Master?" I said as I reached across the space between us to feel his pulse. Still alive. "Master are you okay?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He groaned painfully but nodded./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I unbuckled myself from my seat and checked myself for injuries. My tunic was speckled with drops of blood but after my self inspection, I discovered that none of them were serious enough to warrant immediate attention. I stood up from my chair and approached my master. I had to help him out of his chair because one of the support beams had locked him in place./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He stood up battered, bruised, and his cloak was torn to shreds, but overall he was no worse for ware. "Etch, how you feeling?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Better than I look." I answered as I motioned to my bloody tunic. "You think Saras and Master Slather survived?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I hope so." He answered before taking a painful step forward./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We both walked with a slight limp as we traveled through the corridor. As we exited the hallway I noticed how torn apart the ship had been. The ceiling's plating had collapsed where the holographic display and chairs had been. I prayed that Saras and Slather hadn't been seated when we crashed./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Rain poured in where the ceiling had collapsed, making the ships metal deck slippery. "Saras!" Called Tharen. "Master Slather!" We immediately set to work searching for our missing friends. I used the force to lift the collapsed plating off the chairs, nothing - good, they hadn't been crushed. "Saras, where are you!" Shouted my master as he ignited his green lightsaber to provide light to the poorly lighted vessel./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"That's when I remembered what I had read about the indigenous people, the flesh raiders. Large, red, shark like people with vicious fangs and strong enough to through a speeder over thirty yards. "Master!" I cautioned. "We need to find them and get out of here fast, the flesh raiders will be on their way!" The Flesh raiders may have been frightened of Jedi, but that wouldn't be enough to keep them away from a bit of salvage and a fresh kill./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"He nodded and sped his search, digging under fallen walls and under destroyed bits of ceiling, but to no avail. I was just about to tell him to give up when a sharp nock sounded from the plating beneath me. "Etch freeze," he ordered sharply. All I heard was the sound of rain beating on the ships exterior, then suddenly a second sharp nock from beneath the deck./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Tharen bolted to it's source on the metal floor. A small latch had been camouflaged into the rusted deck. Tharen twisted the latch and pulled. A small trapdoor lifted off the deck to reveal the ship's smuggler hold. Saras was the first to pull herself out of the hidden compartment and was quickly followed by Master Slather./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"A look of relief grew across Tharen's face, I could tell he was fighting the urge to hug her. "You both okay?" He asked. "How did you find that?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I've been aware of it since I came aboard, the storage compartment is always the safest part of any smuggling vessel." He was right, the crew always came second to those morally bankrupt enough to resort to smuggling illicit goods. "The one problem was the lack of a door release on the other side." He observed./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Master, we better get out of here before the flesh raiders arrive." I recommended, nervous about the likely hood of a flesh raider attack. Both Slather and Tharen nodded and the four of us hurried out of the crashed vessel./p