Chapter 5
Leia stood there quietly slowly realizing what she had just done. As the Force for the first time in her life revealed itself. She looked at Alerka who was quiet and modest, studying her carefully. The 14 year old looked at the woman and tried it again, this time pushing the Force which sent Alerka stumbling backwards as the rocks rolled forward. Silence emerged between the two of them as Leia slowly got the hold of the entire situation. She had just used the Force. Pushed Alerka forward without even touching her physically. After a while Alerka finally spoke, "We are luminous beings, Leia. Not this crude matter. Strip away your attachment to the material plan and realize we are something greater. All of us are connected, all of us are touched by the Force. When we die all of us will become a part of the Cosmic Force. Everyone, anything that has ever been born, lived or died has been touched by the will of the Force. Even you. Even those who are deafen to its call are touched by it. I've seen you tap into the Force many times you just never realized you were doing it."
"I-I-I don't understand." Leia said. "How did you-?"
Alerka chuckled as Leia cut herself off trying to figure out what to say. "To be young and naive. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. And you have simply yet to acquire that knowledge. Patients is a virtue that you must learn, all knowledge will be gained as it is earned. The Force Leia has been studied in various shapes and forms for over 25,000 years. Some estimates range the Force could've been studied for as long as 35,000 years old. No one knows and will never know, but a clue the only lead we had to unraveling that mystery has truly been lost to time. With Order 66 Darth Vader marched upon the Jedi Temple and slaughtered all the remaining Jedi within it. Destroying the Jedi archives which had been gathered for thousands of years. So much lost knowledge that will never be discovered or read. Nonetheless over this long period of time many cultures, religions and views on the Force have risen over time and space across the Galaxy."
"The Jedi were the most famous, but there were others. Such as the Order of the Sith Lords. Dai Bendu, Church of the Force, Dagoyan Order and various cultures and religious institutions as well. You can never and will never truly understand the Force the more of it you study the more varied it becomes. But it absolutely exists even the Emperor himself is a student of the Force quite like you. He's what we call a Sith Lord an ancient enemy of the Jedi Knights and practitioners of the Dark Side of the Force. The Jedi and Sith divided the Force into two camps: Light side of the Force and Dark. The Dark side of the Force is a corruption of the Force itself, a plague in which no Sith Lord wishes to be cleared off. There are only 2 Sith Lords in the Galaxy Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. They practice what's called the Rule of 2. 1 Master and 1 apprentice no more no less. The Master has all the power and the apprentice craves it. I don't want to overcomplicate this since you're just starting out, but I want you to understand what I'm trying to teach you."
"Ok and what are you telling me about this? Wouldn't it make more sense to just not tell me?" Leia asked. "I've been fine for so long-"
"Because you have been using the Force for quite a while. Tapping into it when you need it without realizing it. And everytime you tap into it the Force grows stronger within you. Making it more and more obvious you are Force sensitive. Putting you in more danger over time. And both the Emperor and Vader are Sith Lords who are powerful force sensitives. They have the ability to read your thoughts, feel your emotions and feel the power of other force sensitives. Putting you in very much danger and the people you love and carefor. It would be irresponsible both morally and righteous to allow you to go without some level of training."
"I see, but if-" Alerka cut her off.
"There are techniques that can be learned by both Force Sensitives and Non Force sensitives. That can be used to mask one's presence in the Force. Rendering you invisible to those like the Emperor and I believe that if my calculations are correct this Galaxy is heading to war. I do not know who will be fighting, but I do know this. You will be spending a lot of time around the Emperor and Lord Vader in the coming future. I want to give you some protection. I cannot guarantee they will not discover it. But I can delay it and give you tools to defend yourself in the case of that discovery. On top of that I would feel wrong if I let a Force sensitive go untrained without any form of protection into the Emperor's grip. It doesn't sit right with me." Alerka said firmly, "But I'm not going to throw everything at you all at once. There's simply too much for you to learn and throwing it at you all at once would be bad. This training I'm going to give you will only take a couple months to achieve. By the end of the year you'll be fully prepared, then after that it's simply training your mind to be prepared."
"I see so what else can I do with the Force? Could I evaporate moons? Or blast the Emperor? Could I res-" Leia rambled off over a thousand different views of what this power could give to her and Alerka rolled her eyes. Youthful ignorance. Alerka thought as she went the 14 year old blared out a bunch of incoherent nonsense.
"Patients!" She shouted at her. "The hardest part of any journey is throwing the first stone. I will give it to you with time. But not all at once you must work for this knowledge and actively seek it out. While not revealing your intentions to the Emperor or Lord Vader. To learn the Force takes years of dedication, practice and consistency. Only those who are willing to prevail will gain the fruits of their labor. For now we're going to remain focused on the basics. We must master them to move forward because if you don't…trouble will arise. All we're doing today is getting you used to the Force, some basic information and this." With that the woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a light green crystal and handed it to Leia. Who took the object to carefully study it. It was beautiful and looked completely organic.
"This is going to help me learn to use the Force?" Leia asked.
"Correct," Alerka said. "This is what we call a Memory Crysteral. I made this myself by hand and with time I will teach you. Once I can trust you with this sort of information you will be taught it. The secrets to make these crystals are heavily guarded and mostly forgotten. But I know this information so it's very valuable for those who know what it means. And I am willing to share it to you with time, but for now I want you to meditate as I have taught you. But instead of clearing your mind you're going to solely focus on this crystal. Endowing it with the Force and you're very soul. This needs to take place over the span of 3 weeks which is the length of this project we're going to start doing. It can take months to complete this project and I'm willing to wait, but you need to grow your ability to channel the Force."
"Huh," Leia said.
"There's one other thing that I want you to bring up with you," Alerka said. "You see I am one of the few individuals in the Galaxy with any understanding of the Force, Jedi and actual history. But I'm old working for a crazed lunatic who could at any moment eliminate me and send me into the Cosmic force. Who would you turn to to study?" Alerka asked Leia who looked at the woman realizing what she meant.
"Uhmm my dad?" She said uncertainty at the answer she wanted.
"Perhaps," Alerka said. "But you see with the destruction of the Jedi Order and Lord Vader's ruthless destruction of many Jedi artifacts. There's not many places to learn about the Force, which is why we have to create that material. You have to create that material. I will give you all the information I posses Leia. Which is vast, but it's limited. One day I will die and this information will die with me unless we preserve it. You are going to start journaling your study of the Force, history of the Jedi and more. Both for your own study and for the study of others. One day Leia you will die and join the Cosmic force as all living beings due. And one day you may have to train a padawan of your own or if you find another Force Sensitive who needs guidance. Or the day you die you will leave a legacy around for someone young to pick up where you left off with guidance. All who study the Force must teach it, even the Emperor teaches people like Vader. And if you want my knowledge, that is what you will do. I have a secret set of data tapes with all of my knowledge of Jedi history, lore and practices, but if you want it. Then you'll have to start journaling your studies as a Jedi. I want to study them alongside you."
Leia puffed up her cheeks, but sighed. "But if I do this you keep giving me information on the Jedi Right?" Alerka nodded her head, "Well what do I do first."
"That's your choice. You can either meditate or you can practice pushing or pulling things with the Force. If you want an extra challenge try levitating the rocks and throwing them with the Force." Leia placed the meditation crystal in one of her pockets that her training uniform had and spent quite some hours attempting to pick up the rocks and throw them until she felt comfortable before finally turning over to meditation. Where she spent over an hour meditating on the memory crystal focusing on it with the Force. Or that's what Leia believed it took her a while to get the thing to float into the air, but it eventually worked as Leia could feel the power of the Force flowing through it. It was about an hour and a half, but Alerka caught her attention by pulling out a data tape record and placing it in front of her. "Now then this is a data tape that I was talking about for your first recording you're going to record your name, reason for studying the first and what you learned about the Force. Doesn't have to be perfect or good, you just have to do it."
"Okay," Leai said as she let the crystal land on the ground and with that she got to work to make her very first and one of the worst holorecording ever made.
Leia felt energized in a way she hadn't felt before. This Force thing was still a complete enigma to her, but she was eager to learn more. To think something so big could lie right underneath her nose. Leia had switched out of her training uniform into her military uniform and left the data tape with her only 1 terrible recording on it. Alerka had been assuring her they were going to move the data to a more secure method in the future, but that wasn't comforting. With that it was time for them to leave the house and finally explore the entire university she would be spending several years here. It was a beautiful morning and Kanos was standing out in his guard uniform and Leia could only roll her eyes at him.
He was so honor bound to his post it was admirable. The world felt a lot more connected than it did and Leia was eager to learn more. Tomorrow would be another dose of knowledge and so one and so forth. Alerka moved quickly to another part of the campus in the morning and Leia followed her still slower than Alerka's bristol pace. "So when do I get a tour? Or time to explore this place." Alerka didn't' answer her and Leia just groaned so that was a no she wasn't getting a tour of this place. Which meant Leia was going to have to figure out everything on her own. The three of them moved quickly to where the space port was which had a squadron of Stormtroopers standing guard as Alerka moved over to another woman.
"Ah mistress Alerka," the woman said gleefully.
"Lady Serna, this is Princess Leia Organa, she's ready for your instruction. Princes this is Lady Serna, one of my academy instructors. Specializing in piloting and mechanics. She'll be your first class in the morning and will be giving you a one on one class instruction on piloting. By the end of this year you are expected to be able to pilot a spaceship and receive your piloting license. I'll come fetch you after you're done with the class." With that the woman walked off leaving Leia to look at her confused. Well that was clearly a no. Leia wasn't going to be given a tour. Lady Serna was a twi'lek woman on the older side wearing a basic tunic with white boots and a blaster on her side.
"And there she goes again," Lady Serna said, rolling her eyes at the woman. "Always doing something. She has a hard time relaxing and it's been this way for over a decade now. Names Jennifer Serna I'm your instructor. So you're the special kid she has such an interest in? So what's so special about you?"
"I'm a princess," Leia said.
"Hmm," Serna said, pushing the thought away. "Well the ships fixed, let's go inside and see how this baby runs."
Leia had no complaints she didn't get to actually fly the thing, but got a basic rundown of the entire ship. Every preflight part of dealing with a ship even got to do some minor maintenance. With the help from Lady Serna, Kanos mostly stayed out of the way and let Leia do the thing she was instructed to do. Alerka made her appearance about an hour into the fun Leia was having. As she was helping to replace the ship's broken life support system which was surprisingly simple. Alerka appeared as they finished soldering the piece into place. "Come along Princess, it's time for your next class." Alerka's voice broke Leia's concentration. She looked over at Lady Serna who waved her away and Leia only got up from the ground and followed her instructor to her next class. It was a 5 minute walk from her previous class which Leia wasn't going to complain about. "I still never got a tour."
"Another time," Alerka said. WIth that she stopped and walked into a small building with a glass roof. It was a museum with a sign that had no words on it. With that the three of them walked inside to a vast empty room. With shelves, holographic painting systems the entire place was empty. All of the equipment was there, but nothing was on display. There were about 5 people in the main room with a bunch of droids as a few crates were visible, slowly being unloaded. All of them turned to see the three of them, "Princess, as part of your stay at this university you're required to do a community project. To help expand the community for future students who will one day attend this university. This was a previous graduating class's community project and now you'll help fill it. This is Lady Masor she's been recently hired on as the museum curator who will be in charge. You'll be helping her fill, expand, research and preserve various artifacts about two particular time periods. The first one being the Clone Wars era and the 2nd one will be our current Era."
Lady Masor was a panthorian female wearing a light blue tunic with a warm smile. The woman was clearly happy to be in this room. "Ah, so you must be Princess Organa. I've heard quite a lot about you. I assure you this is going to be fun. She'll have fun, Mistress."
"Well I have other things to do, but this is Princess Organa's bodyguard. He'll mostly just stay in the back. Well then I have an important meeting to get to." With that Alerka wandered off.
"Always in a rush," Lady Masor said, chuckling. "Well come on, the rest of the students are helping to unpack these Imperial delicacies that were generously donated to us by the Imperial Governor and we have to put them on display." Leia nodded her head a bit confused. Why was there so much emphasis on the Clone Wars?
Alerka walked into the room to see the man sitting there all ready. It wasn't common for her to be late. Major Ratsin was in charge of the Imperial Ambassador program which was to train and manage them across the galaxy. A short stuck man with a gray beard, wearing a standard military uniform and a blaster on his side. Alerka had summoned him to get information. "Ah Lady Alerka, it has been some time. It's a shame we can't spend more time together. I've always enjoyed your company." Major Ratsin was a man she was not very fond of. A fool, an honorable fool, but he was still a fool. Selfish and greedy to the core, but he had information that she needed.
"Indeed Major," Alerka said. "I'm not one to be late, but we had a delay at the Space Port. Nonetheless I'm here to gather information. You see recently I acquired a new pupil Leia Organa who I'm supposed to train for what? Not certain, but I will do my best. And since she's a Princess I presume that the Emperor wants her to have some political education. As you know, politics is a weakness of mine. So I've come to ask you for information about your job as an ambassador and your education. Skills anything that might help Leia if she wore to go down this path."
"Well I can certainly help…" Major Ratsin said happily. And with that they started a conversation for several hours.