Chapter Nineteen
After bidding goodbye to Michelle in the main foyer of the Temple after their meeting with Master Skywalker, Deanna took a room in the Temple and started to explore the structure that would be her occasional home in the years to come. She had no illusions that she would complete her training in any kind of record time but somehow, she was content with this. Master Skywalker's knowledge of the temporal difference between her home galaxy and this one was encouraging as were his words of comfort that the temporal difference would eventually disappear as the two galaxies came into synchronicity.
Armis had told her that Master Cilghal would be returning to the Temple within a fortnight anyway and would be approached by Master Skywalker to become Deanna's Jedi Master at that time. Until then, Armis had volunteered to be her interim teacher and Master Skywalker had accepted the offer gratefully as that his plate was already full as the Head of the Jedi Order and as the Jedi Master of his own son, Ben Skywalker. After Armis showed her to her room, he then showed her the nearest meditation alcove as well as the dining facility. After repeated promptings from Deanna, Armis said he would return in three days after he got caught up on local events with his own wife and family. Deanna wasn't overly worried as soon as she saw her room had a terminal of its own that could access the local network as well as continue her instruction in Galactic Basic which she had started on the Redemption when she wasn't working with Armis on something Force related. Her first order of business had been to start a Personal Log.
"Personal Log, local month and day unknown at this time; time of day, approximately 1300 hours Coruscant local time. Well, I'm here now; in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. I'm looking forward to beginning my training with Master Cilghal, if she accepts me, or with any other teacher that is assigned to me. When I first saw Coruscant from orbit, I was so glad I had reinforced my mental shields; otherwise, I think the empathic 'noise' of such a huge, continuous city would have been positively overwhelming. Beverly gave me the comm-channel address that she and the Admiral would be at but I don't want to distract her right now. If my task to begin learning the Jedi way seems big, I can't even speculate on how big her task will be to begin the scientific and medical information exchange between the New Republic, Imperial Remnant and Federation. Until Master Cilghal arrives, Armis Rau has volunteered to be my interim teacher. I think though, starting tomorrow morning, I'll start in the general Padawan classes. I've already explored some of the Temple but it will take me time to learn the entire layout because this building is bigger than it looks from the outside. I think Armis would use some Force-related maxim about judging from size alone or some such. My meeting with Master Skywalker was intriguing to say the least. Especially that knowing look he gave me when he said that sooner or later 'I would be afraid'. I'm not going to speculate on what he meant by that except to say that the brief flash of absolute certainty I picked up from him before his mental shields snapped shut was . . . was . . . I'm not really sure what it was so I think I'll just have to take it on faith that he knows what he's talking about. For now, I'm going to keep this personal log. Of all people, I know exactly why I'm doing it. It's going to be a vital coping mechanism for my first year or so of training. I've left my husband, friends and everything that was familiar to me to better learn of my full potential. I think this will be an important step for me to take in order to evolve as a person, and as a counselor. At any rate, I'm going to end this log entry and take a nap before I start to ramble."
An hour later, after a much needed nap, Deanna was awake and working on her next lesson in Basic when there was a knock on her door. Automatically, she did an empathic scan of the mind on the other side of the door but only found the typical Jedi blank spot. She opened it to see a young man with brown hair and an equally brown full-face beard. His eyes were coffee-brown and he wore an off-white tunic with matching pants and black boots that went to just below his knees. Of the few items on his utility belt, the only thing Deanna recognized was his lightsaber. She said, "How can I help you Master?" He smiled brightly and said, "Deanna Troi? The name's Jacen Solo. I may be a Jedi Master by rank but you can just call me Jacen if you like since I'm not your primary teacher. My Uncle, Luke Skywalker, asked me to come by and get you and introduce you to some of the general Jedi instructors that you'll be working with while Armis is away and until you're officially assigned a Master."
Deanna nodded her head at Jacen's question and said, "Please call me Deanna. Thank you very much for the offer Jacen. I'd like that; especially as that I'm only just beginning to get an idea of the layout of this place." Jacen smiled again and said, "No problem Deanna; happy to do it. If you like, we can go right now and I'll give you the full tour while I'm at it. Would that be okay with you?" Deanna smiled and said, "Lead the way Jacen."
Jacen took Deanna to the children's classrooms first. As a gesture of respect to Luke's primary instructor, the departed Jedi Master Yoda, the children were collectively referred to as 'Younglings' and Deanna saw that Jedi Younglings were started on Lightsaber basics very early. From there they went to the teenager's classes where she saw them working on telekinetic exercises that made Deanna mentally shake her head in mild disbelief. Compared to her first attempts at telekinesis, these teenagers were light-years ahead of her. After that, Jacen took her to the adult classes, where she would be starting the next day. These people were descendants of other Jedi who had escaped Palpatine's Order 66 and like her, were facing some of the same challenges of having their entire paradigm turned upside down and 'unlearning' much of what they had learned as hard fact and inescapable science from the time they were Younglings themselves. When Deanna met Kam Solusar, she involuntarily shivered after leaving his classroom. Jacen said, "Don't feel badly Deanna. Kam considers himself a haunted man for some of the decisions he made and acted on in his past and at first, he can seem intimidating but once you get to know him and his wife Tionne, you'll see that he comes on so strong because he's so determined to help the new generations of Jedi to not make the same mistakes he did. In fact, it's mostly his wife's influence that he's mellowed as much as he has. When my sister Jaina and I first met him, we were only fourteen. To us he seemed a stone-cold giant at first but as time went by, we both learned a lot from him and saw him for the caring person he really is."
Deanna nodded her head in understanding and saw the glint of a ring on his left hand and said, "So, you're married Jacen?" He unconsciously ran his thumb over his wedding band and said, "Yea. Her name is Tenel Ka. We met at the Academy on Yavin 4 originally. By birth, she's the heir-apparent to the Hapes Star Cluster. When she agreed to marry me, she was next in line to rule but then she abdicated her claim to the throne with the birth of her younger sister. Since then, we've been on assignment here and there. In fact, we just got back from a recruiting trip to the Hapes Cluster; seems that a few others who survived Order 66 found sanctuary there and there descendants are starting to surface now." Deanna said, "Having only just met you Jacen I can tell already that you love your wife very much. I too have a husband but I had to leave him behind in my home galaxy so that I could train. What of your sister Jaina and your brother Anakin, both of whom I've only heard of but haven't met yet."
Jacen felt in the Force, Deanna's sincere intent and also knew that anything he told her would be held in strictest confidence and said, "My sister is kind of in between relationships I guess you could say. On the one hand is our mutual friend Zekk whom we grew up with here on Coruscant. He was raised in the lower levels and we would all go to places that small children, especially small children of the New Republic Head of State had no business being. The adventures we had as kids make for some hair-raising tales but I won't bore you with them . . . yet. On the other hand is a really neat fellow from the Imperial Remnant, name of Jagged Fel. He's a pilot and an officer in the Chiss Ascendancy out on the outer most of the outer rim. They don't see very much of each other, their respective duties keep them pretty busy. I have no idea if she'll settle down with one of them or someone else entirely. Our younger brother Anakin is engaged to a girl he met when he went to the Academy. Her name is Tahiri Veila. Tenel Ka and I have been away for awhile now so I haven't had a chance to catch up with those two. All I know for certain right now is that Anakin is the primary teacher of Kenod Jayks, Ryu's son."
Jacen showed Deanna around a little more and the two made small talk. After dinner in the main dining room, Jacen bid Deanna goodbye, and she found her way to the meditation alcove nearest her room to see it was empty. She settled herself on the raised seat, folded her legs into a lotus position and began her nightly exercises in opening herself to the Force just as Armis had taught her and reflected on making a new friend. She mused to herself that if she could make other friends as quickly as she did with Jacen, then maybe her time away from her Imzadi wouldn't be nearly as onerous as she thought.
In the fortnight between her arrival at the Temple and Cilghal returning from her assignment, Deanna made strides both short and long in opening herself to the Force; among her deepening awareness was the ability to identify the specific Force-echo a person emanated. No longer were her fellow Padawans and other Jedi a blank spot in her minds' eye as they had been when she first met Armis, Ryu or Jacen. With Armis as her interim teacher and in learning of her new home away from home, Deanna had surprisingly little time to add to her personal log each day, and those entries she made were usually succinct and to the point. The day she was to meet with Cilghal saw Deanna once again in the elevator going to the top of the center spire of the Temple and the Council Chambers therein. As she exited the elevator, she had already felt the familiar presence of Michelle Karú waiting for her and was not surprised to see her standing there. What did surprise Deanna though was the sense of contentment coming from her fellow Starfleet member.
When Michelle turned to face Deanna from the painting on the wall that had her attention, a bright smile lit her face. "Deanna! Good to see you. How have you been?" Deanna's smile was enthusiastic as she accepted the hand that Michelle had extended, "I'm great Michelle! Thank you for asking. Do you know what's going on? I hadn't expected another summons to the Council chamber so soon. It's only been about two weeks or so." Michelle said, "Master Jaina told me that this is the official Padawan acceptance ceremony that everyone goes through with their first teacher and in time, if and when they become teachers themselves, with their Padawans. She told me it's little more than a simple mental bond between teacher and student so that one can get a general sense of the others' wellbeing."
Before Deanna could say anything, the Council doors opened. The two women entered the Council room itself without hesitation. As they entered, they could see several of the council seats were now occupied both physically and for those Council members who were off-world at the time, by holographic representations of their owners. They saw Master Luke sitting in his seat in the circle. Next to him were his wife Mara and several others, among them, both Jacen and Jaina Solo. Some Council members were human, some not; as the doors closed silently behind Michelle and Deanna, Luke spoke, "I bid you welcome. The Council is gathered here today both actual and virtual to meet our two newest Padawan Learners, and to formalize their status as such. Who speaks for these two?"
Jaina stood from her seat, walked over to Michelle and put a hand on her right shoulder. "I speak for this one. I will take Michelle Karú as my Padawan Learner. In her, I freely give of my knowledge in the Force and the Jedi Way, until such time as she is ready for the Trials." Even though Michelle knew that the speech was purely ceremonial, she was still surprised when she felt a gentle tendril of Force energy from Jaina's mind touch her mind and gently link them together. Luke looked around to his fellow Council members and said, "Is there anyone who would dispute this?" When no one spoke, he said, "Then it is as it should be. Your Padawan Learner, Michelle Karú will be."
Returning to her Council seat with Michelle standing close by, Luke turned his blue gaze to Deanna. From the corner of her eye, Deanna saw a female Mon Calamari rise from her seat. Deanna only knew it to be Cilghal because she had accessed the current roster of the Jedi Council from the terminal in her room. Cilghal came up to Deanna and said in her gravelly, yet still feminine voice, "Much empathic ability do I sense in you. I think we shall get along quite well." Placing a flipper-like hand on Deanna's right shoulder like Jaina had done with Michelle, she said, "I speak for this one. I will take Deanna Troi as my Padawan Learner. In her, I freely give of my knowledge in the Force and the Jedi Way, until such time as she is ready for the Trials." Deanna felt the tendril of Force energy from Cilghal and allowed the link just as Michelle had with Jaina. Again, Luke looked around to his fellow Council members and said, "Is there anyone who would dispute this?" When no one spoke, he said, "Then it is as it should be. Your Padawan Learner, Deanna Troi will be."
When it was done and Cilghal returned to her seat with Deanna close by, Luke said, "These proceedings are closed. May the Force be with us all."