Captain Lensu was standing on her bridge. Her arms were folded on her chest and she was scowling out the ancient viewport of the ancient bridge.
It was old and dirty, a thin film of black soot covered most of the walls and the bulkheads. The light was dim from years of use, the power distribution systems were all out of whack.
So she scowled out the viewport.
She was here on an 'important' mission from a private manufacturing company. They were sending ships into uncharted space with reckless abandon. Hunting for materials that were vital to making hyper drive engines, if they got a brand new source they could likely corner the market.
She was sent out to scout out worlds with this old freighter, and then take samples for confirmation by the lab techs back in the Republic.
This was the eighth system they had visited and had determined it was unlikely that any of its six planets had what they were looking for. Scowl scowl.
But the fifth planet from the sun had attracted their notice, and more scientific members of her crew had 'elected' to go visit the planet. And since they were well ahead of schedule, the Captain had aquesed to their demands.
"Ms. Ryn, anything?" She said turning to the officer manning the sensor section.
"Nothing, there is just some form of energy around the entire planet. It is unidentifiable, but it appears to be preventing all light from escaping, and is even blocking some of our scans." Ms. Ryn said trying to sound excited.
"Interesting, so nothing to report?" Lensu asked.
"Nothing." Ms. Ryn said scowling.
"Alright, nothing to see here, and we are beginning to cut our schedule short now." She turned to her Ryn pilot….Ryn and Ryn…this made her grin. "Set a course for the next planet….full hyper-"
"Captain!" Ms. Ryn barked out.
"What is it?" Captain Lensu said trying to control her voice and keep from biting the head off her most capable crewmember.
"I am picking up life forms." She said breathlessly, too shocked to believe the information racing across her screen.
"It's a jungle planet." Lensu snapped at her, jutting out her head and glaring aggressively.
"No." Ms. Ryn said moaning and placing her head in her hand, smacking herself. "They are complex life forms, in fact based on these readings," she blinked at it, then re read the information and the analysis. The pale glow of the screen highlighting her features as she scrunched over the screen muffling , "human" as she breathed.
"Humans, here?" The Ryn said musically turning around to peer at the sensor station.
"Yes, and based on these readings they seem to be around a crash site." Ms. Ryn said.
Captain Lensu was curious about this. "Prep the shuttle, you two will join me down there. Lets see what this is about."
The two of them nodded and headed down to the shuttle bay.
They shot over the jungle, and Captain Lensu gazed out of the shuttle window as they moved over the dark canopy. She could make out the darker areas that were trees and bushes and the mass of the jungle, nothing defined, just a full darkness with darker areas indicating the foliage. There were spots in it where the jungle cleared.
She arched her eyebrow in surprise wondering how such a planet could have evolved in the first place.
But she felt cold, and wished that she had brought more appropriate attire than the sleeveless vest she was wearing now. She suddenly suspected it was not a coldness in the air, but a coldness of the planet. It felt dark and foreboding, she wrapped herself in her arms and rubbed them as she tried to get rid of the goose bumps and warm herself up. Dark and dangerous, murderous, thoughts entered her mind. She began to froth at the mouth and reach for the multi tool at her feet, wanting to bash the head in of the innocent Ryn.
Captain Lensu shook her head, and cleared it. She gazed around the shuttle that was dark and only the lights from the consoles greeted her. She gazed at Ms. Ryn, who was wincing and holding her head as if in pain. The Ryn pilot seemed to be undisturbed.
The Captain reached out and shook the shoulder of her sensor officer.
Ms. Ryn started, then nodded "I am alright!" She had to yell over the noise of the turbo engines.
"Yeah," Captain Lensu nodded decisively, "Lets get this over with."
"You will get no argument out of me!" Ms. Ryn said back with a weak smile.
"Sirs, I have a fire just ahead of us." The Ryn suddenly spoke, his high-pitched musical voice making it over the whine of the shuttle's systems.
Lensu and Ms. Ryn got up, and went over to the shuttles forward bubble viewport. They indeed saw a fire, burning out like a flaming beacon of goodness and light shining throughout the darkness.
"Land us in that blank space over there." Lensu said pointing. She then went out to the rear of the ship and got out three blasters, after what just happened to her, she was not taking any chances.
They landed with a bump and went out through the woods, the feeling of darkness was growing on their minds again as they cut through the thick foliage with vibro machetes. It did not seem to part easily despite the multiple slashes.
They finally got to the center of the light, blinding them in the darkness.
They had their weapons out at their sides.
Two figures appeared through the glaring light, both of them were skeletal, and looked malnourished. But, the one on the left straightened proudly, a grin plastered on his face which seemed at such odds at the despair that was nipping at the edge of the group's psyche.
"Hi! About time, my name is Galen, Galen Zaun, and this is Death." He greeted waving.
This put the group of three on edge.
"Oh no, not like that, he's harmless…well relatively speaking." Galen retorted Pensively.
"I am Captain Lensu of the Republic Mining Explorer Crichton."
"Oh a mining ship? Well I doubt you can find anything of value here. We request permission to return to the Republic."
"We can arrange that," Lensu started, now really desperate to leave, "but we do have a schedule to keep and will not be back in the Republic for several weeks now."
"Oh I understand." Galen said. "All we want is some good food, and a place to sleep."
"I'll buy that." Death said, rubbing his stomach hungrily.
"Very well then." Lensu grinned, suddenly feeling happy. Their innocence, joy, and goodness was starting to pierce her heart.
They left the planet, all of them glad for the relief.
The Jedi Temple
Five weeks later, and the two men were in the Jedi Temple. Death was peering around curiously, and he received curious looks back. They were now attractions, Galen risen from the dead, and Death a new comer. Some of the looks from the female Jedi in the room lingered on Death for awhile before moving on, a Twi'lek flicked her Lekku at him staring.
The two men were now in good shape. They were now clean, shaven, and well fed. Galen kept his beard but cropped it short again, flecks of gray were now beginning to dot it here and there.
Death shaved his beard completely off.
They made their way to the top of the temple where the Council was waiting for them.
"Master Zaun, good of you to rise from the dead, it is." The Grand Master said.
The rest of the Council moved their heads around slowly to blink at him.
He hmmmed to himself. "Master of the Force I am, master of humor, obviously, I am not."
Galen and Death both cracked a smile, trying to keep it hidden from the serious assemblage of people.
"Yes, it is good of you to come back." The second master said, arching an eyebrow at him. "But, you have a lot of explaining to do. Like why you did not tell us there was another Death out there." He glared pointedly.
"You would have spent weeks debating it, at which point he would have been dead." Galen offered simply.
"You do not know that!" The master spat.
"So you do not trust the wisdom of the council?" Another one of the permanent Councilors said.
"I did not have any other options." Galen replied.
The rest of the Council gasped slightly at that, and an angry murmur went through the assembled crowd, threatening to explode.
The Grand Master waved his hand requesting that they be silent. They fell silent almost immediately.
"Master Zaun, disturbing your decisions are, but too late to do something about it, it is. Take it I do, you have a request to make?"
"Yes, I do." Galen said, for the first time uncomfortably.
"Then make it." The second Master said, sounding annoyed.
"Death, while he is good with the blade, still needs his own official Lightsaber. He also still has a long way to go, I intend, and ask permission to take him as a Padawan."
"So now you ask our permission?" The Second Master said snorting.
"Yes, I am sure you can appreciate this is a unique circumstance."
"Consider this we must, take a break you can." The Grand Master said.
"You can reach me on Corellia," Galen said bowing out.
Death also bowed then left the room.
"How can you tolerate them?" Death asked narrowing his eyes.
"Its not always easy." Galen said with a wry smile. "But, it must be done. They are not all that bad. The second Master is a great Jedi, and a good friend, he just does not like his authority being challenged. The rest of the council is pretty mixed though. Come we have a lot of work to do." Galen said leading him over to the Lightsaber area, or attempting to.
"Master Zaun." A figure said leaning over by a wall.
"Jedi Gundar." Zaun said bowing.
"Actually its Master Gundar now." He said correcting, sounding arrogant.
"My mistake, its been awhile." Galen corrected, with a apologetic bow.
"Indeed it has, and this must be the reason you have been taken away from our presence for so long." Gundar said bringing his eyes around to take in the young Jedi.
"Yes, I am." Death said trying to keep his voice neutral and keep it respectful.
"Well, I hope everything goes well, we will chat again." Master Gundar said, Galen nodded at him.
"What was that about?" Death asked.
"We really do not see eye to eye on most things, come on lets go." Galen said waving Death on.
They reached the Lightsaber bay, and Death constructed one, he chose it to be a green blade just like Galen.
A simple rod that let him provide quick strikes, lightweight, and a longer blade.
"Well, on to Corellia." Galen chanted.
Death nodded and they both left for the hangar, getting on a transport and heading for Galen's home world.
