Chapter 7

AN: Hey there guys, it's me again with a new update. This chapter finishes off the Selucimi arc and starts a new one. Hope you guys enjoy the read and leave a review.

Messorem-Dust: I'm glad you like it mate. I'm sorry about the spelling mistakes, I usually do my writing during midnight or one of the morning when I have time but not the greatest amount of energy. Acina will teach Shmi what she can or what she thinks of enough. And yes, the old sith were stronger than the current ones. Your hunch is on to something. From now on I will try to make the chapters longer and the updates should be more frequent for the next month or so. Thanks for the review.

Shmi walked along the dirt track through the dense foliage of the Selucimi wilds, waning to reach her ship as fast as possible and get off this planet before any more trouble finds her.

"You did well there my apprentice," Acina said pleased. "Although I think you should not have let the last one escape, he might cause us issues later down the line."

"I spared him so he would tell the rest of his ilk that they have no place here on this world anymore. With a bit of luck, they will be smart about it if not, the settlers now have enough weapons to fight off any future raids."

"As you wish, I was just offering my insight on the matter. There is another thing I wanted to mention, we are being..." Acina started but Shmi finished the sentence for her.

"Followed, I'm aware. They have been following us since we left the village," Shmi said.

"She," corrected Acina. "She has been following us. You can sense that it is a female certainly?"

"I know, and she is either really brave or really stupid to follow us for this long, we are in the wild territory, who knows what is out here. I highly doubt that she is able to defend herself against a nexu or something similar. We should tell her to go back."

"Bravery and stupidity can often be mistaken for determination. Let's see just how determent she is," Acina said with a hint of amusement.

"You would have her come in danger?" Shmi asked, her voice laced with shock.

"She knows what she is in for out here and yet she has keeps following us. I wish to see if this individual has been taught enough to reach our destination with us. If she falls into any danger you can just swoop in and rescue her as you did before," Acina said. Shmi focused on the presence that was following them, at first she thought that Acina wanted to let them be followed on purpose so they could find out who it is and what they want but as she focused the clarity came to her. The presence was familiar, she had sensed it in the village when she was parting with the Twiliak family and she was sensing it now. There was one interesting thing about this person's presence in the force, it was not overly great but it was not feeble either. The person was young but not old enough for the force sensitivity to become dormant. "Someone utterly untrained but with some potential."

"You want her to come with us?" Shmi asked. She was not pleased with the idea one bit.

"We will see, she could prove an asset in the future," Acina said.

"People aren't assets to be used," Shmi said with annoyance. "People are people, they deserve to live their own lives without others interfering with them."

"As much as I agree with you on the last part I suggest you think about this first, at least until we reach the ship."

"We are not taking her with us," Shmi argued.

"I never said that we will be taking her anywhere. I'm just curious about the force sensitives of this era as we have not yet encountered any. Even an untrained one could give me a decent gimps into the state of the force."

"Cant you feel it right now?"

"I can, and I can sense that the dark side of the force is strong, most likely due to the conflicts raging across the galaxy, it was similar back in my time although something feels different. That is why I wish to try it this way, to get a better viewpoint from an individual who is not aligned to either side of the force, who is completely neutral."

"Fair point," Shmi said after a moment of contemplation, deciding to humor her teacher's curiosity. "But we are not taking her with us, its better for her to stay in the village with the people who know her, it is safer that way. Considering how often trouble seems to find us in the short time we've been together, I rather not have a child get caught in the crossfire."

"Well, we haven't been in that many dangerous situations, so far it's been four. One of them I took care of, the second was a good learning opportunity and these last two were a good test for you," Acina said.

"You forgot the nexu," Shmi pointed out.

"Like an overgrown house cat was a problem for you," Acina retorted.

"That house can as you call it can tear a man in half with its tail," Shmi argued as she kept walking towards the ship. The ghost and the host continued to bicker during their entire way through the wild forests of the planet. Once they finally reached the ship they were met by an enthusiastic astromech droid and its combat training counterpart. "We got what we need to prepare for take-off boys."

The astromech asked why were they leaving and where they are going next in binary.

"Ran into some trouble while grocery shopping, so it's best we don't stay here for too long. Don't know, I will think of something when I get into the cockpit," Shmi replied. The two droids didn't say anything else and proceeded to follow their owner further into the ship. Shmi dumped the rations on the table in the main area of the ship before going towards the cockpit. Once there she started the flight checks. "So where to now?"

"There are many options for one to choose from, galaxy is infinite after all. What would you like?"

"Well we've been hiding on Selucimi for a while and I would like to spend some time somewhere where I wouldn't need to think about something possibly coming to eat me or the bugs."

"So, we are looking for civilization then," Acina said.

"Yeah but somewhere safe, no large gangster holdouts, worlds crawling with monsters or anything in the would like to kill me category."

"Well, then I think I have just the place for you, Columex."

"Columex?" Shmi asked and typed the name into the nav computer.

"Yes, Columex is a trading planet not too far from where we are now. A perfect quiet place to blend in. Its dominated by humans known as Columexi. Columex was the capital of the Commonality, a confederacy of five sectors. The last the I check ed it was ruled by the Greyshade family although that was a long time ago," explained the sith ghost.

"Let me check," Shmi said and used the ship's logs to verify the information Acina had just given her and after a moment of reading, she concluded that it was all true. "All seems like you said it is. The Greyshades are still in charge and they have one of their own as a senator in the Republic."

"Millennia have passed and things have barely changed, I don't know if I should be pleased or annoyed just how stagnant the galaxy had become," Acina said, her mood evident by the tone of her voice.

"You are positive no one is going to try and kill us there?" Shmi asked, she just wanted a nice quiet stay on a planet without someone pointing a blaster at her.

"I don't get why are you complaining, it was you who chose to fight those pirates and the thugs who tried to steal our ship. It was not like I'm the one who I causing you to go into trouble, trouble seems to find you easily enough. I'm sure that no problems or complications should arise during our stay on Columex."

"I'm taking your word on this but if we run into some assassins or gangsters it's your fault," Shmi said.

"How would it be my fault exactly?" Acina asked intrigued and a bit annoyed. Shmi was about to reply but then left a familiar presence entering the ship's cargo hold. "It seems our guest is here."

"About time," Acina said. "Now let's welcome them properly."

Shmi got up from the pilot's chair and started walking through the ship and back to the cargo hold, ignoring the questions from the astromech. Once there she gave the room a good look around before a small smile graced her lips. She could sense the teen hiding behind the crates.

"I know you are there, you can come out. I won't hurt you, I promise," Shmi said in a gentle tone. For a moment nothing happened until someone slowly made their way out from behind the crates, it was the zabrak girl from the village. She had tanned skin, dark brown, almost black hair, was of average high for someone that age and had a crown of short horns on top of her head. These horns usually start growing around the time puberty starts so that explains the size, for they have not fully grown yet. The most striking feature the girl possessed was the pair of bright blue eyes she had, that spoke of great sadness. She was dressed in average-looking green and brown clothing someone from a village would wear. "You know it's not nice to stow away on random people's ships, not to mention how dangerous it can be."

"I-I," the teen girl stammered before looking at the floor embraced and slightly afraid.

"Now, now, there is no need to be frightened by me," Shmi said making her voice as gentle as possible. "But I would like to know the reason why you decided to follow me all the way from the village and sneak aboard my ship."

The girl's head shot up. "You knew I was following you?" she asked in disbelief.

"You weren't as stealthy as you thought you were," Shmi replied, a knowing smile gracing her lips.

"B-But how?"

"I have my ways," Shmi said cryptically."Let us not get off topic, I want to know why you decided to go through the trouble and possibly get yourself into danger by following me. No lies, I will know if you lie," Shmi added a bit more sternly.

The girl looked at Shmi with uncertainty before steeling her resolve and sighing. "I can after you because I want you to teach me how to be like you."

"Be like me?" Shmi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, like you. You beaten all of those pirates with ease, you freed me and the rest who were taken and had given back everything that was stolen from them. I wish to know how to fight like you."

"Kid, trust me when I say, you don't want to be like me," Shmi said.

"But I do," the girl whined,

"Fighting is one thing, what I did is called killing and I will not have anything to do with teaching a child how to kill. I did what I did out of necessity. Besides I'm leaving this planet in a few minutes, I have no intention of staying."

"Then take me with you," the girl said in a pleading tone.

"Listen, you have a good thing going on there with the rest of the villagers, you will be safe with them. The pirates won't be bothering you anymore and if they do, I gave your village the means to stand up for itself. You are a kid, you aren't supposed to get caught in situations that might cause you any type of harm, and trust me, my luck so far has not exactly been the best when it comes to that department."

"Safe? Safe?" the girl all but shouted. "I watched as my parents were killed in front of me, I was dragged to that disgusting horrible place and was kept there for weeks. I was forced to serve them and I even heard them talking about what they were intending to do to me when the ship comes to pick up the loot. They intended on selling me a pleasure slave to who knows who. If you had not come and freed me from that awful place, I don't even want to start imagining what would be my fate. I could not do anything when they killed my parents but watch, I could not do anything when they took me away, and I could not do anything when I was treated as their slave. All I left was fear, anger, grief and hopelessness, I felt weak. I don't want to be weak again, I want to be able to stand up for myself, to be able to fight off whoever wants to do me harm in the future," the girl paused for a moment looking Shmi directly in the eyes. "I want to be strong like you."

Shmi could feel anger, sadness, loss, fear and grief emanating from the girl but there was also another emotion coming from her, hope. These emotions were strong, they radiated far stronger than they would with a normal person.

"She is force sensitive after all," Acina said. Shmi listened to what the child had to say and one word keep resonating in her mind, slave. Those bastards wanted to sell the poor girl into slavery after everything they had done to her and to be a bed slave no less. The thought of doing that to a child made Shmi feel disgusted. She felt pity for the teen girl, she truly did but taking her along would not be the best option for either of them. The girl deserves a stable place to grow up, a nice home with people who will care for her, not a ship with a person who barely remembers their name and who is a danger magnet. No to mention the whole having an ancient sith as a roommate inside of her mind. The last thing she needs on top of everything she has to deal with already is to take care of a child.

Shmi sighed and put on hand over her eyes. "Listen, kid, I'm telling you this for your own good, leave, you do not what to do anything with me."

The rejection caused the teen to get even angrier. "But I do. You helped people and I'm asking you to help me again," Shmi just kept her hand over her eyes, eyelids shut in annoyance. Why couldn't this kid see that she was better off staying where she is. The girl walked over to Shmi and grabbed her by the arm, lowering it. Shmi opened her eyes, her brown eyes meeting the purple eyes of the zabrak.

"Zabrak were often seen by most other species as being single-minded, an observation that was not terribly incorrect. This single-minded determination came from the fact that they were a race with a strong sense of self-assuredness, confident that they were able to accomplish any task that they set out to do. Zabraks are proud, strong, and confident beings. They believed that nothing was truly impossible, and strove to prove skeptics wrong at every turn," Acina said, lecturing her students.

"Not the best time for a lesson on cultures of the galaxy," Shmi replied with annoyance.

"On the contrary, it's a perfect time. It is in this girl's nature to try and defy the odds, her mind is set on what she wants, why not help her in her endeavor."

"She is a child," protested Shmi.

"She will not be a child for long, she will be a grown adult in a few years and the choice you make here will impact her future life. Either you allow her to come with you and train her to be the best version of herself she can be or you can leave her on this planet, in that little village to live the rest of her life. There is no saying how she will turn out that way, she might turn out fine or she might become a resentful wreck."

"Putting it that way ain't exactly fair your know," Shmi said, her anger rising. The shaking of her hand brought her out of her conversation with the sith ghost.

"Please, please, please, I will do anything, I can cook, clean, I will do everything you say, just please, I'm begging you, take me with you, teach me," the girl begged, her eyes starting to tear up. Looking at those blue eyes an image flashed inside of Shmi's mind, an image of a little blond boy with blue eyes begging her for something. She didn't know why, but the boy felt familiar and she felt great sadness. She stood there frozen for a long moment until the shaking brought her back into reality. She shook her head to clear it up and looked at the zabrak teen with a serious look which caused the girl to back off slightly. For a moment silence filled the cargo room the two of them were in.

"You wish to learn how to fight then?" Shmi asked crossing her arms.

"I do," The girl said with a nod.

"To be honest, I'm still learning myself but I can try to teach you what I can," Shmi said and the girl's eyes went wide.

"Really?" she asked, her voice hiding a hint of hope.

"Yes, but you will have to listen to what I say and stay out of trouble, got it?"

"Yes," the girl said nodding.

"Good, but before I allow you to tag along, I want to know your name."

"Oh, sorry, my name is Triz, Triz Karoa," the girl, Triz introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you Triz," Shmi said, her voice now kinder and softer than it was a few moments before. "My name is Shmi, I'm the captain of this ship and there are two droids on board who are part of the crew. I was just about to set off for Columex when I noticed you sneaking aboard the ship."

"How did you do that anyway?" Triz asked, she really wanted to know how she was spotted.

"I will tell you all in due time but now we must be ready to leave this planet. Do you have any belongings with you?"

The girl quickly scrambled and pulled out a bag from behind one of the crates. "Just some clothes and food."

"That will do, for now, let's get off the rock before someone decides it's a good idea to try and shoot us down," Shmi said and proceeded to walk towards the bridge of the ship with her new companion right behind her. Shmi sat in the captain's chair while Triz sat next to her. Shmi carefully maneuvered the ship out of the planet's orbit and after tipping in the coordinates for Columex activated the hyperdrive, the blue light of hyperspace making the teen's eyes go wide with excitement.

"Gets me every time too," Shmi said, giving the girl a soft smile.