Chapter Five

A few months pass as Ulli starts to get used to living with Mallie and Kento, given her high profile arrival in their home. Initially, she wanted to disobey her queen and return to the hive, but that lasted all of two days before the local clan leader knocked on the Marek's door to inquire how she was and the discrete scout that Aayla set to look after the Jedi alerted the hive, causing her to appear upstairs.

In the evenings, when she wasn't partying with the clan, the three of them discussed everything from how the broken ones are doing, to what it's like as part of the hive, to Ulli learning to access the force the Jedi way. The worst evenings were the ones where Kento was out, and Mallie sat down with her to talk about her time as a slave.

Ulli places the last careful mark on a large, threaded, disk of wroshyr wood and nods; then there are the evenings like this one, where she can play with Norse magic, and make the symbols flow like a dance in motion. Force or magic, she doesn't care, to her these symbols represent her freedom.

With a smile, she uses a fingernail to make a small cut on her palm, before placing the wound on the centre of the disk. After a second she takes her palm away and watches as the last of her blood is absorbed by the composition.

As the blood stops being absorbed, Ulli cleans away the tiny spot that's left before it can start eating into the wood and ruin her work. Flowing out of her chair, she dances happily across the room to the sink and the modified tap she carved with the help of Rhrillullosh, one of the younger females that has been helping her adjust to living in a wookie tribe while the males, and Kento, are away doing whatever they do during the day.

After she's carefully screwed the composition into the back of the tap, Ulli pushes down on the lever and cheers as she gets sprayed with water that is forced out around the disk of wood. The majority of the water comes out of the spout as it's supposed to.

Taking her finger away, Ulli frowns as the water doesn't stop. Experimentally, she lifts the lever, and smiles as the water stops immediately.

"M46. Can you hold… Oh, you're with Mallie and Kento."

With a snap of her fingers, the mess is cleaned up, and a second snap sees her dry too.

With dancing steps, Ulli makes her way out of the house to the central platform outside the Chief's house, that also serves as the clinic, school, and whatever else it's needed for.

As she gets closer, her sharp hearing picks out Mallie scream, "Kento if you ever dream of bringing that thing near me again, I'm going to rip it off and feed it to you slice by slice!"

This is followed by a chuckle from the older wookies that are sitting around the unlit fire.

Ulli allows her dancing steps to slow into a walk as she pulls her ever present elven notice-me-not slightly tighter around her. Not enough that nobody pays her any attention, just enough that she won't distract from their vigil. Keeping it around her is something she's turned into a habit since Mallie ran downstairs because her presence in the force disappeared a few weeks after she'd moved in.

After she's found Rhrillullosh, Ulli smoothly sits down next to the wookie before placing her tap in Rhrillullosh's lap, "I finished it."

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Rhrillullosh jerks in surprise as Ulli draws attention to herself, once she's got herself back under control she picks up the toy tap, and starts looking at it thoughtfully as Ulli waits patiently. Rough workmanship, but serviceable. Lifting the spout up to her eye, she looks inside and shakes her head at the rough surfaces. "You need to pay more attention to the hidden parts."

Beside her Ulli nods, "I know, but I just wanted to prove I could make it work."

Rhillullosh nods thoughtfully as she lifts the lever up and down a couple of times, it's a bit stiff but… Rhillullosh's train of thought is cut off as water starts gushing out of the toy and quickly soaking through her fur.

Beside her, Ulli starts to laugh drawing attention to them both as Rhillullosh quickly moves the lever again and the water cuts off. Experimentally, she pushes the lever down again briefly and more water comes pouring out.

As she starts to look at the device more critically, Chraoarfa leans over next to her, "What's that?"

As Rhillullosh starts to unscrew the plug at the back she shakes her head, "I don't know, it produces water."

After removing the plug, Rhillullosh turns it over in her hands briefly, a little confused about why the decoration was hidden inside the device. Shaking her head, she looks at the lever before nodding in impressed delight as it becomes apparent it's a solid piece that must have been carved in place, as there's no way it could have been inserted later. Rather oddly, the inside of the lever is decorated too.

Shaking her head, Rhillullosh starts to put the device back together, with the decoration on the outside, only for Ulli to lean over frantically, "No! No! The composition needs to go inside."

Rhillullosh allows Ulli to take the device from her, "Why?"

Ulli takes the disk in her hand and turns it design side up, "See the design is like a spiral apart from this bit here?"

Rhillullosh nods, as she had noticed that.

At the sign of confirmation, Ulli continues, "Well, the spiral is like a dance, moving from motion to motion to create something greater than the individual poses. This first part is like the dancer gracefully dancing onto the stage and then coming to stop while she waits for the music. This spur is the musicians waiting for the signal from the master. On the inside of the lever is the signal. As soon as the master gives the signal by pushing down the lever, the musicians start to play, and the dance progresses around the spiral to the centre, where it turns into water."

Rhillullosh shakes her head, "I do not understand."

Ulli stands up and takes first one pose, then another, and another, "Each of these figures is like one of those dance poses, and the lines running above and below them are how the dancer moves around the dance floor."

Ulli demonstrates by making her way into the clear centre surrounding the unlit fire, and beginning her dance, starting at the edge and making her way around until she comes to a stop by the fire, only to be drenched as a geyser of water shoots up from the prepared fire.

Sodden, Ulli makes her way back to sit next to Rhillullosh to the laughter of the rest of the tribe, "That was not supposed to happen."

Rhillullosh tries to understand what Ulli is trying to explain while some of the tribe replace the now sodden wood. The rest of the tribe are now paying close attention to the conversation the two of them are having.

Eventually Ulli throws her hands in the air, "This would be so much easier if you were part of the hive! Then I could understand you properly, and I could just show you what the rune master learnt."

Ulli green skin darkens as she covers her mouth with her hands. As she does, the cry of a baby replaces the ongoing cries from Mallie. At that point the celebration begins, and weighty thoughts are set aside.

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Over the last few months Ekria and Drake have started to establish themselves as small time traders using some of the credits that Aayla acquired when she cleared out the various camps across Felucia as Queen. Between the two, and occasionally three, of them they've managed to establish roles.

Drake acts as the honest trader with Maris occasionally standing in for a bodyguard. Ekria, on the other hand, acts as the mechanic and person that has a special crate that she occasionally has 'harder to find' items in.

Currently, they were making their way out of the core along the Perlimian Trade Route, however, they'd already run into a logistical issue, in that their navigation computer has over 2,000 known world in it. That's after she compiled the data from a scavenged separatist nav computer, the nav computer from an abandoned LAAT/I, and the navigation data that Shaak brought from temple as she escaped. There's no way that any two hives could maintain a presence on even a majority of those planets.

Ekria sighs as she looks at the map yet again, and back down at the numbers she's running.

"Drake!"

An exhausted Drake comes out of the cockpit, "You called?"

"I'm running the numbers, and you need to average another 200 credits profit at each stop on our way to Centares in the Outer Rim if we want to avoid suspicion. Any less than that, and we won't be able to afford fuel and ration bars without dipping into funds we're not supposed to have."

Drake slumps into a chair and pulls the datapad to him. "Let me see. Wait your numbers are wrong. There's only the two of us, and if I change that I only need to earn another 10 credits on average."

Ekria pulls the datapad back and changes the numbers again, "I know that Bantha brains. But you're forgetting Maris."

Drake shakes his head, "But Maris doesn't live on the ship, so she's not using power or water, or even eating the rations."

"Neither are we, eating the rations that is. Or have you forgotten the fresh meat and vegetables that we get every few days courtesy of the hive. This isn't about what we're actually doing, it's about what anyone that backtracks out trail will see us doing. I know I'm selling stuff on the side, but we need to be able to pass at least a cursory inspection otherwise we're going to be suspected of being smugglers by every imperial inspector that even glances at our data trail."

Drake sighs, "Buying and selling stuff is hard."

Ekria nods and switches over to the map, "I know it is, but we're young enough that we only need to scrape by. Once we reach Centares, we're moving onto the Triellus Trade Route, that will take us most of the way around the rim to Darkknell in the galactic south. From there I want to head rimward on the Hyperion Way, and then do the same for the Rimma Trade Route. It's this part of the journey where we really need to be keeping an ear out for talk of the planets off the main hyperspace lanes."

Drake slumps, "This is going to take forever."

Ekria shakes her head, "There's only 38 planets, at a week per planet that's less than a year. Assuming we don't run into trouble with the Hutts, who control the entire route. I think the masters are happy for us to be doing this route as it should be quiet enough that we can come to terms with the last few years, but risky enough to keep us sharp."

Drake mumbles, "At least you're still getting instruction."

"Drake, you could be too you know."

Drake buries his head in his arms, "I know, it just feels so uncomfortable whenever I think about it.

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Maris meditates in the mostly empty cargo bay of Ekria and Drakes ship as the other two padawans fly the ship out of the Eadu system, where they'd managed to sell three sealed crates of imperial rations to the Nerf herders in exchange for a dozen unprocessed Nerf carcasses. Which were promptly appropriated by the Masters for butchering and making parchment.

With a sigh, she puts her resentment to one side in order to focus on the changes she's noticed happening. The most important one, for her, is a change in her desire for a fight. As she mediates she thinks back on when she first noticed this change.

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Shaak Ti steps back and switches off her lightsaber, "Well done Maris, you are doing well. I can see that you are more centred."

Maris nods at the complement, "Thank you master. It has become easier since I accepted the face hugger."

Shaak smiles, "I sense you have a question."

Maris looks at Shaak accusingly, "Have you been looking at my memories?"

Shaak shakes her head, "Neither I or Master Secura have done so, as you are not yet ready for that. This was purely my experience as a Jedi Master, and my ability to understand the force."

Maris settles back as she reigns in her suspicion with difficulty, "Why do you have Ekria and Drake travelling around the edge of the galaxy instead of somewhere they could make a difference?"

"What sort of difference?"

"Ekria's a slicer, she could hack into imperial communications and steal their data, or insert fake data to…to…" Maris trails off.

Gently, Shaak prompts, "To what?"

Maris sinks to the floor, "I don't know. I sort of thought that would become apparent after we'd done it."

Shaak gracefully kneels down in front of Maris and holds out a hand as a book appears in it, "Maris, this is my copy of The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force. It was given to me by my master when I took on my first padawan, and in turn he was given it by his master when he took on his first padawan. If you ever take on a padawan of your own, I will give this to you. Now, I want you to look at the code, especially the note I made when I was younger."

Reverently, Maris takes the book and just holds it for a few seconds, this being only the second book she's ever seen or held, no matter that it has the same title as the one her old master allowed her to read from.

Carefully, she opens the cover and moves through the first few pages to find the Jedi Code. Between those pages is a sheet of something like paper.

I found this in the meditations of Odan-Urr while researching ways I could teach my new padawan, Kakh Colnandt.

There is no emotion; there is peace.

There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.

There is no passion; there is serenity.

There is no death; there is only the Force.

A Jedi does not act for personal power or wealth but seeks knowledge and enlightenment.

A Jedi never acts from hatred, anger, fear, or aggression but acts when calm and at peace with the Force.

Jedi are the guardians of peace in the galaxy.

Jedi use the powers to defend and to protect, never to attack others.

Jedi respect life, in any form.

Jedi serve others rather than ruling over them, for the good of the galaxy.

Jedi seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.

Shaak Ti

Maris looks up once she's finished reading, "Master, why?" Shaak looks at Maris, waiting for her to finish her question. After a moment, Maris restates herself, "Why now? Why isn't this in the book?"

Shaak nods, "Because you need it now, and you weren't ready for it earlier. As for your second question, it is in the book, I put it there myself. Why Master Coven didn't include it is an answer that is lost to history. I want you to meditate on the second and forth of the additional lines, and the answer that you stumbled over just now. Once you have done that, we will discuss your thoughts about it later."

Maris looks up at Shaak as she hands the book back, "Thank you master."

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Maris nods to herself, as she finishes looking back. Since then she's looked back at many of the ancestral memories through the lens of the extended Jedi Code. One thing that stood out is that all of the xenomorphs in the hive existed for the hive and, until the queen gained sentience with age, they only ever acted for the betterment of the hive. Then there's Arry, who grew up as a queen. Even with her upbringing, she acted according to the code.

A commotion in the cockpit has Maris putting those thoughts to one side as she rises from her meditation. Yet another thing to speak to her master about later.

Making her way to the cockpit, Maris asks, "What's happening?"

Drake indicates out of the window to a group of three ships hanging in space, "These koochoos are demanding that we hand over all our credits, otherwise they'll board us and take us as slaves, as well as our credits."

Maris shrugs, "They're close enough that I can see inside their cockpits, so why don't we just elf-pop over to one each and call in some warriors to k…" Maris trails off as vision assaults her, of being stuck to a wall, her yellow eyes yellow with the dark side, as a face hugger jumps at her, "…capture them."

Ekria glances up from her datapad, "Great idea, except there's three of them, and only two of us can do that. They've also got a comm channel open between the three of them, so if we make a move against one, the other two will open fire."

Drake adds, "And if we do that, we still lose if even one of them runs. Which, given they're sitting between us and the standard Hyperspace exit, is extremely likely."

Ekria nods, "I know, I've got the computer plotting a three jump path to empty space. If we can survive for another 200 seconds, we're free and clear."

The comm crackles to life, "You have two minutes ladies. Oh, and if your lovely bodyguard decides to put up a fight, we'll find out if you can breathe vacuum, and then take your stock and credits anyway."

Maris slams her fist against the bulkhead, "Of course they're kriffing doing the same thing we are, looking into our cockpit. I'm going to get some reinforcements, then I'll invisibly pop over to each ship. Unless you think we can just do a one second jump."

Ekria shakes her head, "Not with our hyperdrive we can't. It takes 30 seconds to achieve full speed, until that happens it could damage the drive if we return to real space."

Maris stalks into the rear of the ship, before disappearing with a flash of fire. 60 seconds later, she reappears with a dozen scouts after some fast talking to the two masters.

Stalking back to the cockpit, she taps Ekria on the shoulder, "Move over, the masters agreed with the gist of my plan, but said I can't do it because 'I'm too angry'."

Ekria looks up at Maris in alarm, and slips out of her chair. As Maris sits down with a scowl, and crosses her arms, the comm beeps again, and Drake answers it once more, "This is a reminder you've got less than a minute to make up your mind. Let your bodyguard know that if you don't pay us, none of us will touch her. As I know someone who would love to break her in."

As the comm cuts off once more, the sound of the pirates laughter seeming to echo around the cockpit, Maris closes her eyes and tries to bring her emotions under control, as she hates feeling helpless. The presence of Master Secura seems to surround her as she waits, and it seems to suggest trusting in the force.

"How do you do it?"

Drake looks over at Maris, "Huh?"

"How are you so calm?"

Drily Drake replies, "Experience and practice. The three of us, we had to rely on each other once we escaped Felucia. The sith, they can't detect you if you're not using the force. I don't mean actively, I mean at all."

He's interrupted as the comm beeps. Reaching over, he flicks the comm on and smiles as he hears Ekria's tired voice, "The ships are ours, and the crew and prisoners have been taken to Felucia. Follow the planned route, and I'll catch up after I've slaved the three ships together."

Drake nods, "It's good to hear your voice. How are you doing?"

Ekria sighs, "I feel like bantha poodo, I had to kill someone because he was threatening the prisoners. I didn't have a weapon, so I used my fingers to rip his throat out. I'm just tired of all the killing."

"I understand."

"I know you do." With that, the comm cuts off.

Maris shakes her head, "I don't get it, they threatened us and they'd obviously done it before. Why was Ekria…"

Drake shakes his head, "You're asking the wrong person. I wasn't even supposed to be on Felucia, but Knight Skywalker sent me there when I tried to go on his mission to get revenge for my own master's death. Ekria was masterless like me when she arrived, but Master Secura took her as her unofficial padawan before I arrived, something that appears to have been more than just symbolic. Like my master before me, I was headed for the guardian path. Ekria, I think she'd have been happier as a Consular, or maybe a Sentinel if there were any to teach her."

Maris nods as she considers the hive, and how different members have different roles, all of which are important.

As Drake engages the hyperdrive, his voice startles Maris, "Back to your first question. How am I so calm. My master told me that the path of a Guardian is one of restraint. It is in our nature to want to test ourselves and our skills, and what better way to do that than through combat. However, we need to restrain ourselves both before and during combat. Before we fight, we should ask if we're fighting for the right reasons. During a fight, fear, anger, hatred, exhilaration, and even happiness can kill you. Excuse me, but I'm going to mediate, I'll take over again in a few hours."

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Aayla sits next to Shaak as they both sip some tea recently bought from Alderaan.

"Master Ti, I feel it is time for me to split my hive again."

Shaak shakes her head, "I'm not ready for that responsibility, and I don't want it either. Beside which, it's against the code."

"If not you, then who?"

"Ulli?"

Aayla shakes her head, "You know why not. Besides, you have a duty to Maris."

With a sigh, Shaak says, "I'm worried that I'll lose myself in the memories."

Aayla reaches out for Shaak's arm, "You won't, neither of the others did. It also doesn't change who you are fundamentally. Arry proved that."

Shaak looks down at her tea, "I'll meditate on it."

Aayla nods, "Don't take too long, Maris needed my presence today in order to avoid falling to fear. That's something you need to be doing, as you're her master." Putting her tea down, she adds, "I'm going to see my own padawan, and help her through what she had to do today."

As Aayla disappears in a pillar of fire, Shaak looks down at her tea as she considers the path that has brought the young knight that only ever wanted to be a teacher and researcher, to the person she is today.