"When I look upon the night sky I see not cosmic beauty, but a great nothing." Je'daii hermit Ni'lander, 10,645 TYA

11,340 TYA

He had not been to Furies Gate in seventy years. So much had changed in that time and nothing at all. When Mal-Oba Talyak looked through the cockpit window of the Hand of Light he saw only black space and far distant lights beyond the Tythan system. Seventy years ago he'd donned a vacuum suit and drifted free into the void at the system's edge to ponder that great nothing and the miniscule specks of light which dotted it.

The void remained and so did the specks. And with the light, he was told, there would be life. And in that life, would the Force be strong and vital?

He hadn't known then. He didn't know now. But he would find out one way or another once he crossed the line that had sealed the Jedi away from the galaxy for ten thousand years.

Jedi were not supposed to feel fear, and he prayed he hid his own from the young knights who settled into their chairs beside him.

Erakas was to his right. The human was young and not adept at hiding his emotions. Before he touched the controls he wiped damp, nervous palms against the flanks of his tunic. He kept nibbling his lower lip and in the Force he radiated fear and anticipation. He wanted to be ready for what lay beyond; he needed to believe he was ready.

To the left: Essan. The Sith woman was more outwardly calm, and when Talyak peered within her he found a resolve so hard it became almost brittle. Small bruises and cuts, all fresh from her voyage to Tython, pocked her face as visible reminders of the turmoil within. She had, to her credit, told him about her return to the Old City and the Forcesaber she had retrieved from its depths. Talyak was not comfortable around such devices, fueled as they were by the Force's most dangerous shades. He also knew that Essan carried a deep interior burden over the line, and it would just as easily harm as help her.

These were the Jedi he was meant to ward, though he barely knew them. That was how the other Master had decided it should be when sending out expeditions into the greater galaxy. In discovering the universe they would discover each other.

But what, he still wondered, would they discover of the Force?

Like young Essan and younger Erakas, the old Jedi Master could only wait and find out.

They prepared the Hand of Light for pre-flight with few words. The starship had been newly-built at the shipyards of Shikaakwa. It combined elements of Rakatan, Kwa, and native Tythan technology to make something wholly unique and, he hoped, a match for anything they'd encounter in the worlds beyond.

Soon the engines were warmed, the hyperdrive ready. All systems were checked, all cargo stowed, all crew alert. After decades of waiting and preparation, they were going to leave the Tythan system forever and begin the history of the Jedi anew.

Anyone not nervous about such a task, Talyak thought, would be a deficient Jedi indeed.

Erakas's console lit up, and he said, "It's flight control."

"Calling to send us off," Essan said.

Talyak gave the human a nod, and Erakas opened the connection. "This is the Hand of Light," he said with admirable firmness. "All systems are go and all crew standing by. We are ready to depart."

"You have our permission to leave," said the voice on the other end. It took Erakas by surprise, and the human's mouth curved to a grin.

"Thank you, Master Sohr," he said. "I'm glad you could see us off."

"I have seen you as far I could," the Kwa told him. "Now I leave everything in your hands. I have no doubt my faith is well-placed."

Erakas swallowed. Talyak could sense all the emotion of a short, vital life welling inside him. And from Essan he felt a touch of something surprising: envy. Erakas said simply, "I'll see you again, Master. On the worlds beyond."

"I hope that is true. May the Force be with you all."

"And with you," Talyak said. "Goodbye, Master Sohr."

"Goodbye Master," Erakas added.

And Essan whispered, very softly, "Goodbye, Tython."

Erakas closed the connection. He pressed himself into his chair, took a deep breath, swallowed his emotions, then calmly worked his station. Essan worked hers. The docking clamp which held the Hand in place over Furies Gate retracted and the connecting tube was pulled away. There was a jerk and the scrape of metal, and then they were floating free.

Ahead of them: distant lights and the great nothing.

Talyak took the controls. He set their course to follow the one left by the ancient generation ship, the first one recorded to have left the Tythan system many millennia ago. Would they find it somewhere among all those stars? Perhaps, but Talyak knew that was not the real goal of their mission. Their true aim was to discover: the galaxy, each other, themselves, the Force.

He spoke no words as he crossed the line, but in his heart Talyak repeating Master Sohr's farewell words, not as a bland salutation but as his most fervent, aching prayer.

May the Force be with us.

Then he pushed the Hand of Light forward, over the line, into hyperspace and the waiting beyond.