Part II

Andean, a dirt road

The hot summer air blasted her face as Marin steered her swoop bike around a small hill that was coming up. Kinnar, who was right behind her accelerated some more and went straight over the hill. His speed made him jump so far over the hill that the tail of his swoop hit the ground when he landed and he had trouble keeping his swoop under control.

"Stop showing off, laser-brain! You're going to get yourself killed!" Marin yelled over the roar of their engines.

"Hahaha!" laughed Kinnar. "What are you talking about? I had everything under control!" And sped forward, ready to overtake Marin. He yelled: "Let's race to Fender's crossing! Last one there is a dead mynock!" and he shot by her.

Marin enjoyed swoop riding. Back on Coruscant she hadn't been allowed to ride in public at her age. Over here it was different. It was the only way to get around. There was no public transportation and the farmlands were too far apart to walk so you had to learn how to ride when you were young. She also liked riding with Kinnar. Kinnar had become one of her best friends. He was about her age, a bit naive about some things but he could be incredibly funny when they were hanging out. She'd met him at the school where they both went. She couldn't believe they'd already been on Andean for two years. The school was nothing compared to the temple academy where she grew up. But it was enough for the small farming community on Andean. There were children from all ages in the community who all went to the school in Andeii about four days a week. The little ones were brought in by their parents but as soon as you were able to ride, you got your own swoop bike. It was a twenty minute ride from the Haal homestead to the town. That is, at normal speed. Marin usually made it in fifteen.

Marin accelerated, speeding after Kinnar. She knew his swoop was faster. But his reckless driving style usually gave her enough opportunity to catch up. "You can just as well give up now, you know I will beat you!" Marin yelled to the dust cloud in front of her. She just needed him to make a small mistake. Then she could pull up next to him and maybe take the lead.

"You wish!" she heard Kinnar laugh. Ash hill was coming up. He might try something stupid like jumping it. It might be her last opportunity to take the lead before Fender's crossing. Marin loved riding her swoop bike. To her it was freedom, freedom to go where she wanted and how fast she wanted to go. Ironically, in a time that she had to hide who she was and where she was from she experienced a kind of freedom she had never known before.

Fender's crossing was a crossroads where the road split up into the access roads to two homesteads. The Haal homestead, where Marin and Jes stayed, and the Tolls homestead, Kinnar's home.

Art and Esper Haal had welcomed them in their home about two standard years ago when they escaped the Jedi purge during the fall of the republic. They remembered Jes from the one summer he spent there helping with the harvest with Harrod, his onetime navy buddy and Art's nephew. Jes had had told them the whole truth. Who they were and what had happened. He reasoned that if they were going to trust them with their lives, they better know everything. Trust is important and always goes both ways. Jes had told her.

The story had angered Art and Esper greatly. Their family had run from under corellian authority long ago to start a farm here. The whole empire story reminded them just why most of the colonists had fled Corellia in the first place. They were more than welcome to stay for as long as they wanted. Art told them their story was safe with them. To avoid complications and to prevent raising suspicions they made up a cover story of them being distant relatives who came to stay with them for a while to see if Jes could take over the farm in the future. Art and Esper didn't have any children of their own.

Ash hill was coming up fast now. Marin saw Kinnar head straight for it. She knew he couldn't resist. She knew the airtime and the landing would slow him down but he was just having too much fun not to do it. Marin subtly banked to the right to avoid the big jump and to maintain as much of her speed as possible. "Yeeeeeehoooooo" Marin heard Kinnar scream when he jumped over the hill. Marin's correction sent her past the hill practically at full speed. She overtook Kinnar as he landed from his jump and needed to correct heavily to stay upright. With a final boost onto the final straight she reached Fender's crossing a millisecond before Kinnar. They both circled the crossing a few times to lose some speed and stopped next to each other. "That was awesome!" Kinnar exhaled.

"I told you to stop showing off! It cost you the race!" Marin explained.

"I know. It was just too good an opportunity not to jump it. I mean, I was flying! Good riding though, for a girl."

"You're impossible Kinnar." Marin said with fake frustration and a smile on her face.

"I mean it though, you really ride well! Why don't you join in the Silver Line run next month?"

"Nah," Marin answered. "I'm not as good as you say you are. Besides, I don't have time to train this year." Marin lied. "Maybe next year though."

"Well ok, but I'd sure like to kick your ass on the track!"

"You couldn't even beat me on this road, let alone the track!" Marin said.

"Guess we'll never know now!

Well, I gotta go. Promised dad I'd help him with the droids. See you Marin!"

"Sure Kinnar, I'll be at the Silver Line run!"

"See you there then!" And He sped off in the direction of Tolls homestead.

Marin put her helmet back on and started down the road to home. Her new home.

Andean, Haal homestead

Jes was working on some of the harvester droids. The harvest was in and it was time to check up on the machinery. Which replacement parts were needed and what needed to be repaired before next season. He didn't mind the work. He loved tinkering with machines. Working on the ships at the temple had always taken his mind of everything else and it still had the same, calming effect here.

"Looks like another burnt out density sensor module." He said to himself and pulled his head out of a maintenance port on a massive CD-2 harvester droid.

He didn't know why, but this time he couldn't stop his mind from going back over the past two years. He couldn't believe it has already been this long since their escape. It had been a time of hard work, but luckily, without major crises. The hard work mostly kept him from thinking about the past, or the future. They were safe for now. That was all that seemed to matter. His skill as a mechanic had proven really valuable in the remote farming community on Andean and he quickly offered to help out with droid and machine maintenance for several farms. This also meant that he regularly had to travel to Mirakeii station to trade for the necessary replacement parts. He had used this as an opportunity to meet up with his old friend Caen two times during the past year. It was good to have someone to talk to. Someone who he had met in a previous life and who shared his turbulent past in the Correllian defence fleet. While the meet-ups where mostly casual, Caen, who was still working for Corelian intelligence, had kept him informed on the general situation in the core. The grand militarization that apparently went along with the transformation of the Republic into the First Galactic empire troubled Jes greatly. But once he was back on Andean it was easy to forget all about those things and get back to the free but busy life as a farmer. He worried about how Marin took it all. She seemed to do fine on the outside. She took pleasure in helping out on the farm and she found a place in the central school where she had made friends with the local youth and she seemed to enjoy swoop riding greatly. But more than once he thought he perceived a more serious undertone in her voice and a distant look on her face. He'd have to talk to her sometime soon to get a better idea about how she's doing and what they were going to do in the future. This wouldn't last forever.

Jes stepped outside and wiped his oily hands on his overall. He looked at the sun and smiled. He loved the weather here. Back on Coruscant the climate had been mostly regulated by the planetary climate control systems. Even the sunlight was controlled by giant orbital mirror arrays. It made for a moderate, pleasant climate. Jes however, preferred it raw and a little unpredictable like here on Andean. The lack of an axial tilt in combination with an elliptical orbit around it's sun provided the central forested belt on Andean with only two seasons. Summer and Rain. While the general climate was quite pleasant, there were days of blazing sun in the summer and there were heavy rains in the wet season. Lots of rain and sun made Andean perfect for farming.

On days like this, he could imagine this being the rest of his life. But a part of him was always watchful. Always aware that they were hiding. Hunted by the new totalitarian regime that had toppled the republic. A regime which nowadays called itself the Empire.

He shook his head free of bad thoughts and just when he wanted to get back inside he heard Art calling.

"Jes, how about we call it a day?" Art must be back from the trade committee meeting already. How long had he been working on that droid?

"We're ahead of schedule with all the maintenance and it's a nice day. Come have a drink with me on the porch!" Art yelled from a distance.

Well, why not. Jes thought to himself, watchfulness could take the afternoon off. And he started off towards the house. "Be right there Art!" He yelled back.

"How are the harvester droids doing?" Art asked after taking a sip form his bottle of Corelian ale.

"Not too bad. The usual wear and tear mostly. A few density sensor modules are malfunctioning on the CD-2's. I'll get new ones next time I'm on Mirakeii." Jes answered.

"How did the trade meeting go? Anything special come up?" Jes asked back.

There were about seventy farms in the colony on Andean. The farmers had joined hands in order to sell their product and get the best prices. They created the trade committee which had a revolving membership of eight farms. Every four years new members would be chosen who would then collectively be responsible for finding the buyers and getting the best prices. Art had been a committee member for the past three years now. He didn't like all the meetings and the lobbying. But he appreciated having a say in what happened to his harvest.

"Well, " Art started, "now that you mention it, there was one thing that I thought was a bit odd. "

"Odd?" Jes asked?

"Yeah, have you ever heard of a company called Insel Bio trading? They're supposed to be based all the way on Coruscant. " Art asked.

"Can't say I have." Jes answered, not having heard the name before.

"Okay," Art continued, "listen to this. Two of the committee members have been approached by people from Insel on Mirakeii station. Now this was unusual by itself. Normally it works the other way around and it's us that have to find the buyers. But that's not the strangest part. They told them that they were interested in buying up a large part of the production of the entire settlement. Possibly, if the quality and supply stayed constant, they could even offer a lasting contract. They didn't make an official offer yet but they gave some indications towards twenty to twenty-five percent less then we sold for last year. The people who were approached, Banes and Tannan, put this on the table this afternoon and they were very enthusiastic. I asked them why we should even consider taking an amount that was that low. I mean, now that the war is over, we expected to get more stability and prices to rise, not to drop, right?" Art was getting more and more agitated while he told the tale. He continued with a raised voice:

"And we never even heard of this Insel company. Then they came up with some crappy story about stability and a contract, and how this would be good for the development of our settlement. I mean, we never had much trouble finding buyers, even in the bad times. I'm positive we can get a way better price than this. And we would need to drop most of our loyal clients who most probably won't come back if this Insel deal blows over."

"It does sound a bit strange that they would be so impressed by such an offer." Jes commented. "Especially Tannan. "

"Exactly! Well, at least some of the others agreed with me. And, the offer apparently included a no-strings-attached sponsorship of the coming Silver Line festival. In return they would get an info stand there in order for people to get to know Insel a bit better. The whole thing still seemed a bit fishy to me but the majority of the committee didn't see any problem with this. Insel promised to get an offer on the table shortly after the festival. The committee agreed to reevaluate the whole deal then. After we've had the chance to get to know each other."

"Sounds reasonable. Can't hurt to hear them out I guess. I could also look into them a bit next time I go to Mirakeii if you'd like?" Jes proposed.

"Hmmm, yeah. Might be a good idea. I'd like to know who we're talking too. Anyway, I'd like to end this day on a more positive note. You up for another ale?" Art asked.

"Heheh" Jes laughed, "sure, why not. It is a very nice day indeed."

A few minutes later Esper came outside.

"There you are Jes. Marin is on the balcony and she seems a bit down. I tried talking to her but she keeps saying she's fine. Maybe you could try to see what's wrong?"

"Sure Esper, I didn't even hear her come in. I'll go check up on her. Keep that ale cold for me will you Art?"

Esper and Marin had become great friends almost from the start. To Esper Marin was kind of a daughter she never had. Marin was mostly just glad she had someone to talk to that was a woman. If she didn't want to talk to Esper now, it must be something about the past. Though Marin and Jes had told everything about what had happened to Art and Esper, Marin still didn't like to talk about who she used to be to anyone but Jes.

The Haal farm had a large balcony terrace on the back of the house where you could sit and see the farm lands all around you. Although it was a real nice place to sit with a gorgeous view they rarely used it. Art and Esper preferred the porch. Marin sometimes went up there when she wanted to think or when she wanted to be alone.

When Jes stepped onto the balcony he saw Marin sitting there with her eyes closed. He thought she was meditating and just when he was about to turn around and head back she said:

"Hi Jes. Don't go. "

"I hate it when you do that." he said with a smile.

"I know, that's why I keep doing it. " she replied with a wink.

"Esper said you looked a bit sad. Something wrong?" Jes asked with a softer voice.

"I don't know Jes." Marin hesitated.

"I mean, I was having a great time riding my swoop with Kinnar today and was feeling great until he asked me if I would enter in the silver line run next month. I told him I couldn't because I'd be too busy to train and I might join next year. "

"But that's not the reason, is it?" Jes asked.

"No, it isn't. " Marin looked down for a moment.

"I love to race! But it wouldn't be fair. My reaction times would be unnaturally low because of my Jedi reflexes. I mean, I wouldn't mind when the others knew and didn't object. But they can't know and this would be like cheating. And it might even tip people off that I'm a Jedi. " Marin sighed.

"I mean, it's not just the race. I'm tired of hiding." she said in an angry tone. "I know it's too dangerous. That I can't be who I was anymore. But I'm feeling more and more confused and angry about it. "

Jes looked a bit sad when he answered:

"Marin, I can't imagine how it must feel. You're at an age where you should be exploring who you are, not hiding it. I wish the situation was different but I cannot make it so.

My old mentor used to say you have to play the cards you are dealt. Even though you know the other players have better hands, you have to play the cards you are dealt. The sooner you accept your hand, the sooner you can focus on living again. " Jes sighed.

"Look, I've seen you worry about this for a while now. And I know I cannot train you as a Jedi. But I could do something else. It might help you deal with this a bit better. Are you willing to hear me out? "

"Sure, tell me." Marin said with a sigh.

"We're going to take a trip. And I'm going to train you in the martial arts of the Echani. You ever hear of them?"

"We learnt about them in galactic history; ancient warrior people right? Their fighting styles are still taught all over the galaxy. You're going to teach me how to fight?" Marin asked.

"A crude and short description, but yes. Echani culture held the belief that to know one fully, you must fight them. Echani fighting was not only self-defense, but a form of self-expression, a means of communication similar to art. Combat was part of pretty much everything they did. And you're right, their fighting techniques are still being taught to special forces all over the galaxy. They teach you the stances and the moves. I'll also teach you the philosophy and the way they thought. I'll teach you to fight and to dance, through combat.