Mooka couldn't believe what she saw when the yacht landed on Dantooine. She was used to the choking yellow atmosphere of her heavily Industrialised world. This blue sky was a complete shock, as was the fresh air. The green plains and yellow crop fields seems to stretch forever in every direction away from where the ship had landed.
Jade had put the ship down in the middle of nowhere; the nearest farm was a long walk away. However, Mooka noticed that Jade had that far off look on his face a lot at the moment, as he prepared the speeder bike that they'd found in the back of the ship. The prisoners were still locked in a room at the back but apart from Jade throwing them some K rations every day, they hadn't had a peep out of them.
She walked back to the yacht's cargo hold to find him. He'd just finished packing the speeder bike and Mooka realised, with a little relief, that there was enough room on the bike for two.
"So, where do we go next?" She asked.
"No idea." replied Jade.
"You got a clue where we are?"
"Nope."
"Any idea what we're going to do?"
"Oh?" Jade seemed distracted, "I sure something will turn up."
"Are you leaving me behind?" Mooka asked.
Jade turned round to stare at her.
"What? And leave you with that lot?" he replied indicating at the locked door, "Fat chance."
He seemed to pause for a second and then regarded her more thoughtfully.
"Unless, you want to stay behind?"
"No." Mooka almost shouted.
With that, Jade walked over to the door to the room where the hijackers were held. He knocked quietly on the door.
"Anyone Awake?" he called.
"Sod off Imperial Scum." shouted a voice, "You'll never get anything from us."
"Oh! Right." Jade looked back at Mooka and winked, "I take it that you don't want to be released then?"
"We have nothing to say… Er what?" the shouter sounded slightly confused.
"Well, there are four assumptions that you've made which are completely wrong. One, We're not Imperial. Two, we don't want anything from you." He paused, "Why the hell I would want to.
"Three, we rescued you from an Imperial Firing squad after that rather inept and incomplete attempt at a Hijack and four; I'm not scum."
"Yes you are!" Mooka called back mockingly.
Jade just grinned back.
"Ok, "he continued talking very fast, "The last one I take back, apparently I am scum but I want to know that when we unlock this door you lot aren't going to get any stupid ideas."
There was silence.
"Ok, we'll just leave the door locked then and you'll either starve or the Imps will pick you up later." He was beginning to sound exasperated, "Either way, I don't care."
There was subdued muttering from behind the door, then a single female voice replied. "Ok, we agree to no stupid ideas."
Jade was taking no chances; he retreated to the yacht exit and waved at the door. The door obligingly unlocked and ten dishevelled figures jumped out as if to ambush whoever had opened the door. They looked around confused.
"And I thought you said no stupid ideas." said Jade, pointing a blaster at them all.
A woman came to the front of the group. She looked about Jade's age, long black hair with silver strands streaking through it. Grey eyes surveyed both Jade and Mooka and then she made a hand gesture. The rest of them relaxed back from their aggressive posture.
"Ok, so that was a stupid idea."
Jade grunted in agreement.
"Now what?" asked the woman.
"Up to you." said Jade." Have a nice walk to the nearest settlement, take the ship somewhere and sell it. Or ram it into an Imperial Garrison. I don't care."
"You won't hear the last from us." She threatened.
"Hang on. You do know that the navy could have just blown that ship up just to get you and at least a thousand people would have died needlessly." Jade looked irritated to Mooka, bordering on angry. "Or that if they had decided to board, you'd all be facing an interrogation droid right now and trust me when I say, any secrets you might have would be ripped from you in the most painful way possible."
The woman's face fell as realisation of these facts sank in.
"And on top of that, you're getting a fully working hyperspace capable yacht out of this and then you have the gall to threaten me?" Jade was shouting angrily now, which unnerved Mooka. "No wonder your attempt at hijacking was that feeble, if this is your level of intelligence."
"But…"
"Don't Follow." ordered Jade, "You've had one warning and that's all you get from me."
With that, and still covering their opponents with a blaster, got onto the speeder bike. Mooka climbed on and with Jade giving them a look of disgust, they sped off. Mooka hung on for dear life as Jade accelerated the bike away. After ten minutes or so, she felt Jade take a deep breath and slow the bike down to a stop. Jade turned to face her.
"Sorry." He said.
"What for?" She replied.
"For scaring you."
"It was a little scary." She confirmed.
Jade up to this point had always seemed like cool uncle or Big brother up to this point. But when he started to get angry, Mooka could feel some kind of power build up in him, power that scared her.
Jade fixed her with a meaningful stare. "I promise to not scare you again ok?"
Mooka nodded, He was back to normal. He grinned at her and they set off at a more sedate pace.
Jade regarded Mooka with sympathy. Poor kid, probably the first time she saw his temper. That was one of the reasons he left the Jedi, that and Alison. He sighed and forced any thought of her and everything that came with it from his mind. He always wondered if he would ever be strong enough to open the box in his mind where he'd put everything to do with her in.
There it was again, the subtle suggestion or nudge from the force. This way it prodded, subtlety saying that this was the way to go. He sighed to himself and tried to resist but he knew that it would follow the same pattern. Resistance for a while and then he would eventually cave and follow it anyway.
They rode for a about an hour, with Jade checking over his shoulder to make sure that those idiots weren't following them and then pulled over. Mooka looked tired, she definitely needed a break. So Jade broke out the rations and the two of them sat on the plains, under the sunny blue sky , having an impromptu picnic.
"I did find something in that crystal, you know." Said Mooka suddenly.
Jade realised that she's probably been bursting to tell him since the Galaxy Star. He just smiled at her enthusiasm.
"There was a code switch in the data crystal." She explained, "There was a simple code of T3M4 which gave me full access."
"How did you guess that?" Jade was impressed.
"I didn't guess, I had the computer run through all the possibilities and it only took a few minutes."
"You're lucky it didn't have a self-destruct command." said Jade, "Most crystals will wipe all data if you don't input the correct code after a number of attempts."
"I know. Most modern data crystals do." confirmed Mooka, "but this data crystal is 4000 years old."
"Wha?" Jade was speechless.
"On top of that." continued Mooka, "There's a DNA trigger as well. Only someone with the right DNA can open it. You were trying to access that crystal before me weren't you?"
"Yes." Said Jade, puzzled.
"Well, the only person who can access that data is someone with DNA which matches or is a relative match to the crystals. I'm betting your probably the only one who can read that data now you know the access code."
"Mooka, You'll have to forgive me but how does a street urchin know so much about data crystal security?" Jade was genuinely curious.
"Oh, C'mon. It wasn't just cash I was lifting, or stims I was running." Said Mooka, "There was a couple of cool guys who taught me that stuff."
"What happened to them?"
"The streets killed them." Said Mooka after an awkward pause, "the streets would kill you eventually, you just had to make it last as long as you could."
"I can understand that." said Jade.
They ate in silence for a while. The Jade pulled the crystal out and put it in a reader.
"IF that DNA filter is on the crystal, I bet it's on my sabre staff as well. I am the only person able to use it. Do you want to see what's on this crystal?"
Mooka nodded. There was a small whirring sound and a pocket size image of a woman appeared. She was in her late fifties dressed in Jedi Master Robes. She had an beautiful face which had aged gracefully but you could see the strain of life she must have lead. The hologram was only in black and white, so Jade had no idea what her eyes or hair really looked like.
However, Jade recognised her features; she looked very similar to the very few images he remembered of his mother before he'd arrived at the Jedi Temple.
"Greetings." Her voice was cool and very pronounced. "If you're seeing this then you're a member of my family. My name is Bastilla Shan, a jedi master and archivist in the great library on Courscant."
Mooka watched in awe as Bastilla Shan continued.
"I am the mother of the present chancellor and the wife of Revan. A Jedi Master who's sacrifice has made it possible to have peace reign in the Galaxy for more than 30 years."
Jade let out a low whistle. He remembered the stories of Darth Revan or Lightbringer as he was nicknamed. He was one of the few Jedi to not only return from the dark side but to vanquish it. Records from that time were sketchy at best because three hundred years after Revan, a war had devastated much of the then Jedi Temple and vast amounts of knowledge and history had been lost.
"I'm recording this at the rebuilt enclave on Dantooine before I move to Tython to continue my studies. I want people to remember the man who was Revan, not the legend."
The entry ended. Jade could see there were plenty more entries to review.
"Hey, We're already on Dantooine." said Mooka excitedly, "How about we go looking for this Jedi enclave?"
Jade pondered this. Was this what the force was prodding him to do?
"Well," he tried to sound nonchalant, "It's not as if we have anything better to do."
Mooka grinned at him and they started to pack.