Interlude I: Meanwhile, on the other side of town

I don't know what he did, but it was definitely his fault. No, don't get me wrong; Nik's a great friend, and very sensible and intelligent, but when he has considered all angles, his plans usually end up encompassing everyone and everything within a ten kilometre radius of the target area. Some might say he is foolhardy, reckless, takes too much chances and so on, but then they would really be describing Anakin Skywalker, not Nik …well… Sunrider.

As a matter of fact, most of the things he does, he thinks out meticulously, but the strategy is so convoluted oftentimes that few people can discern the end goal. I for one, cannot fathom why he tried to off Jorus C'Baoth and what it would gain him. No, I can see why he might have done it – C'Baoth is not the most pleasant of characters – but what really puzzles me is why show his hand? I'm pretty sure that if he intended to remove Jorus, he would have succeeded.

Still, if his goal was to sure up security, he accomplished that rather spectacularly; the Temple Gate is shut every night, perimeter patrols have been increased noticeably, Temple Guards traverse the corridors from evening to morning and the network is undergoing security upgrades. All in all, things look like there's gonna be some Sith invasion, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

The irksome thing with this whole situation is not as such that I haven't been able to access the Inter-Temple Net for a few days now, and not that I will have less chance to sneak around at night, but that he didn't tell me what he was up to and that I can't call him because some hair-brained person on the Council sent him on a Sithing mission! Maybe it's another one of his 'if I tell you, I'd have to bill you' plans, I ended up forking out good cash on occasion for being too curious, but I'd really like to know what's the deal here.

Master Windu has been tearing up the place today, I don't know what happened now, but he really has his nickers in a twist. He nearly bowled me over outside the refectory, yapping into his comm and paying very little attention to his surroundings, so much for being a Jedi Master.

Master Yaddle is a unique person, in that despite her firm approach to Jedi Training and ideals ya-da-ya-da-ya she is friendly – friendlier than most Masters I've seen. Our training has been going really slowly, about as fast as she could walk around the Temple perimeter – literally. All this mental and ideological aspects of being a Jedi are starting to get to me. I would not have minded a few lightsaber sessions, but no, I sit and do obscure things day in and day out. It's all about control she keeps on saying, but I see little good in it, like my namesakes, telekinesis is beyond me.

I've known Nik for two years now, and I have discovered that he has a certain knack for learning and gaining new info, insight, whatever. He might recall the teeny-tiniest of details, historical facts, inconsistencies in a plot or even offhandedly recount some ISBN or another, he might tell you the hierarchical order of some organisation or hold his own in any debate, but he is hopeless at abstract mechanics.

It has grown more apparent over time that he could write intricate combat simulations for the Star Wars universe, calculate shield strength or whatnot, but ask him how a hyperdrive works, and he's totally stumped. Mechanics has always been my forte, in fact I do believe I possess a primitive form of Mechu-deru from what I've gathered from Master Yaddle's backwards dribble.

I guess I digress; my point was that whereas he is picking new stuff up on a daily basis I'm stuck fiddling with the thermostat controls. It gets boring, and I really want some excitement – just a little – and the Jedi aren't really big on that.

Speaking of other Jedi, they aren't really as dumb and dull as we have been lead to believe. For instance, one night when I was acting as a courier for Yaddle, I passed a conference room where five knights were playing either Sabacc or Pazaak – ask Nik which – and doing it rather openly. Youngling clans often engage in rambunctious activities and Padawans – well, they're teens with lightsabers, need I say more?

The Jedi Grapevine is, in my opinion, the best out there. Make that, there are several 'channels' each circulating around respective groups and having different info. For instance, the laxer Padawans can share new glitches in the HoloNet proxy, the uptight ones can tell you everything about the latest news in politics, and elsewhere you can hear about Master Windu's mishap with furniture polish.

My general inactivity has served to ingratiate me with the stringent little Padawans, like Ferus I mean. Oh yes, Ferus. I've met the guy, and I don't think he likes me, but that's okay as I don't like him. It all started when Yaddle took me to the so-called 'high class' refectory where everything was disgustingly spotless. On prompting, I made my way over to and sat with my age mates.

First they ignored me, then upon me greeting them I got a frosty "hello to you to" and everyone went back to eating. When the scrutiny of Masters lifted from our table however, conversations began. Even the High Class Padawans gossip, and in my opinion, they are much worse than even the lowest of the low.

Had I been a real newbie I would not have heard a thing. But as I could not lift rocks, Yaddle was teaching me various sensory enhancement techniques, and I heard the whispered conversation on the other end of the table well enough. "You serious?" said one kid, "He's like sixteen and way too old to be a Jedi!"

"Of course I'm serious!" the other whispered back, "The Council had been getting soft; first Skywalker at nine, and now them two. Next thing we know the Code is changed and we are the Light Lords of the Jedi or something…"

Now I found that offensive, but still; Light Lords of the Jedi has a ring to it, I'll have to tell Nik about it. Maybe he can work with that.

And so it went on day to day, some people thought we had it easy with our Masters, and the blabber about how we were being taught by Councillors and ya-da-ya-da-ya didn't deserve ya-da-ya-da-ya, others said we would need Councillors for Masters at our age, and we could have done better with Yoda and Windu, and well others – the normal ones – I heard say that it was about time the Council did something greater than changing the colour of their chair cushions.

I guess by inability to get into scrapes will serve me well; I can move freely within the uptight circles while Nik handles the dirty end. That suits me just fine … just fine.

§

It's a new day again, and I was just struck by a realization; Yaddle is going to die soon. I think it's on Mellon … Maw … Mower, oh yes, Mawan! I haven't read any of the Jedi [***] books, and I'm glad. I've heard tell they are about as painful to read as the Holiday Special is to watch. I'll have to ask Nik about that, and about our plan of dealing with her – Yaddle's – death.

It's not like another master is going to pick me up if she dies, miracles don't usually happen twice. And speaking of dead Masters, I've heard two ways that Nik's could die; on Boss Pity in a duel with Grievous, or on Flower in a duel with Cabbage Oppression. Having conflicting continuity sources sucks, but hey, that's what Nik is good at.

Speak of the Sith, I see some rusty freighter coming in; don't ask which, that's not my specialty – I just now it needs to be refitted, I think it's Nik and Gallia, and I think I have something to discuss with them, or at least, him….

This is the shortest chapter of this story - and I feel dissappointed about that - but my excuse is that in theory this is not a 'proper' chapter and thus I have some leeway. I believe I have finally understood what 'writer's block' is, but next chapter is going to be nice and long, never fear.

This was just to show what was going on back at the Temple, and not much is really happening. This being my first crack at a long story, I'm trying to balance the ratio of plot points to time period. I have just discovered that writing in first person might not have been such a good idea after all.

You may have noticed that in this chapter several planets were missspelled; Boss Pity = Boz Pity, Flower = Florrum and so on. Well, that's to show Aeren's lack of knowledge in this area.

Next chapter we will be back with Nik and Adi and see where he ends up making a mess next.

Thanks for reading, and May the Fiction Be With You!Clean word count: 1,380 | Updated 04/21/13