The Journeys of Jon Snow
Book 1: Chapter 6
First Steps Into A Larger World: The Clan
After leaving the hangar bay, Valin and Jysella quickly led Jon back to the section of the Academy that held the students' dorms.
"Let's see, Rontos, Wampas, Ah! Here we are, Banthas!" Jysella exclaimed as they approached a door with a great wooly creature painted on, curled horns fixed atop its head.
Before they could enter, the door slid open with a hiss and for a moment Jon wondered if it was called Bantha Dorm because of its resident.
He towered over the three of them, and Jon was pretty sure even the GreatJon would be dwarfed by him. Black fur covered every inch of him, except for the eyes. Bandoleers crossed his chest from both shoulders to hips, where a lightsaber rested on each side.
He bellowed a friendly greeting, before pulling Valin and Jysella into a crushing hug. A device on the bandoleers, near his chest lit up and began speaking.
"Tarraral welcomes you friends. He hopes your recent trip was well," the voice said and Jon realized it must be a translator like HK-47, if a little more polite.
"It's good to see you too Tarraral," Valin said in a strained voice as he and his sister were finally let out of the giant's grasp. "We brought you a new student, this is Jon. Jon, this is Trarraral, he'll be one of your dorm guides."
The black-furred Jedi got down on one knee to look him in the eye, and placed a great, hairy hand on Jon's shoulder. Then he launched into a long series of chortles, growls, and roars, gesturing emphatically at Jon, himself and in every direction. As he finished, the droid translated.
"Tarraral eagerly welcomes you to the dorm, Jon Snow, and hopes you are excited to be here. He looks forward to helping you achieve the growth he thinks you are capable of." Once he finished Tarraral glared down at the translator, before angrily grumbling.
"I am being accurate, Master Tarraral. While you may believe the boy will grow, you have no way of knowing it for a fact," the droid shot back.
"It's no use, 77, Tarraral knows these students will grow because he won't accept any other option," Interrupted a new speaker. Another alien, she had green skin, the shade of summer leaves, with two huge blue eyes the size of the saucers Sansa had for tea. Two antennae stuck out of her forehead, forming a triangle with the long snout where a human nose would be.
As Jon and Tarraral rose, she approached them and offered a hand, which Jon shook.
"Greetings Jon Snow. I am Gria Rodar, your other dorm guide. We are excited to have you here," She welcomed warmly.
"Thank you Gria, I'm glad to be here, and I'm honored to learn under you and Tarraral," Jon replied, bowing his head to both of them. Then, Jon turned back to Valin and Jysella.
They smiled sadly at him, and Jon swallowed, his throat a little tight. Why did this have to be so difficult, he thought.
Jysella closed the distance and gave him a hug, whispering in his ear, "We'll talk to you tomorrow, get in touch with us on your commlink if you need anything."
He smiled and gave her a nod, not trusting himself to speak, as Valin clapped him on the shoulder. "You'll love it here, trust me. Take this chance and make some friends, have a good time, work hard. I can't wait to hear how things go when I see you tomorrow."
'There is no emotion, there is peace.' Jon repeated over and over in his mind, before telling himself to snap out of it. He was not a child, and he would be seeing the Horns again tomorrow.
"I'll be fine," he told them, smiling despite it feeling like a lie. "I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow."
They smiled back and said their goodbyes, before turning and heading back down the hall. Jon didn't look after them for more than a few seconds, hoisting his bags up over his shoulders and heading back to his dorm guides.
Gria smiled sympathetically at him and asked for him to follow her as she would be showing him around their dorm.
/
They entered a large common room, though it was deserted at this time. Bookcases with volumes that would make Maester Luwin dizzy with jealousy lined the walls, except for a huge window on one side that looked over the Ossus landscape. A section of the room was devoted to desks and reading tables, some with computer terminals built in.
Another section by the window held comfy chairs and a few tables for games, Gria informed him.
In the center of the room was a sunken pit lined with a circular bench. In the middle was a holoprojector like the one that sat in the Ebon Hawk's lounge. Currently it showed a map of the galaxy, the star systems twinkling like little fireflies.
Finally, they approached the opposite end of the room from where they entered, four doors neatly lined up along it. Gria stopped in front of the wall, and began pointing out each of them.
"Here are the sleeping quarters, you'll be on the far left with the other boys, the girls are on the far right, and Tarraral and I are the two in the middle. Feel free to come to us if there are any problems," She explained before continuing. "There are some rules to be aware of. First, respect the other students, don't go through their stuff without their permission or enter another room without the occupants' permission. Just be nice to one another in general. Second, we as a dorm are expected to keep our home clean. Everyone participates in chores, and everyone cleans up after themselves. Finally, curfew is at 2100 hours to be back in the dorm, and by 2300 hours the lights should be off and you should be in bed. Failure to respect these rules, or others we'll go over later will result in additional chores, detention, or more serious consequences if warranted, understood?"
"Yes Gria," Jon said forcefully, fully intending to respect her, Tarraral, and the Academy.
The thought of bringing shame on the Horns and his family scared him more than the thought of extra chores or going without dessert.
Gria nodded and smiled at him again, "Welcome to your new home Jon. I know it must be a lot for you right now, leaving your family and everything. But, I'm hopeful that you will find this a place where you feel like you belong. Like I said, let us know if you need anything,"
He couldn't bring himself to say anything, so he just jerkily nodded his head.
Gria did not force the issue and just smiled, before directing him up to the boys' room. They would be headed to dinner shortly and all the other residents had gone to get ready after a hard day of training, she explained.
When it was time for dinner, they would get an alert on their commlinks telling them to meet up with the rest of the dorm to head to the Refectory.
"Thanks Gria!" Jon chirped, having used the explanation to compose himself. He gathered his bags and rushed up through the door and up a small curved corridor into the sleeping quarters.
"Has anyone seen my blue shirt?!" a voice yelled as Jon entered. It came from a boy with the darkest skin Jon had ever seen. He was currently rummaging through a chest at the foot of his bed, sending clothing and other items everywhere as he looked for the shirt.
"Janriss," Another boy replied, sounding tired. This one was sitting in his bed, neatly dressed and reading a book. An alien, he had a bulbous head, light pink skin, lidless black eyes, and no nose. From the sound of it, Jon suspected this was not the first time he was dealing with a roommate losing something.
"Yeah Keddrin?"
"Your bed."
Sure enough, draped across the bed was the elusive blue shirt.
Embarrassed, Janriss grabbed the offending piece of clothing and scurried into it. Doing so brought Jon into his field of vision.
"Hi there, I suppose you're the new guy we were getting?" He asked cautiously, clearly unhappy that Jon had wandered in to see his shirt fiasco.
"Yes, I'm Jon, nice to meet you guys," he greeted with a short wave, his bags shaking as he did so.
Janriss looked him over, seemingly unimpressed. "Good to meet you too Jon. The name's Janriss ke Tanadi. That's Keddrin Phon," he pointed to the reader.
"A pleasure to meet you Jon," Keddrin said with a wave, still not looking up from his book.
"The only other roommate is Sora Terillin, but he's currently in the showers. He's bunked next to me if you want to take the one next to Keddrin," Janriss offered, giving Jon a small smile, which he returned.
Heading over to his new bed, Jon laid his duffels down and began moving stuff into the footlocker and wardrobe.
As he was hanging up some clothes, he noticed Keddrin staring at him, "What?" Jon asked a little irritation seeping through. First the guy ignored him during introductions and now he was somehow the most fascinating thing in the room? For some reason, Janriss shot him a glare like he was the one at fault.
"I apologize Jon, I was just taking a look at you. My species is near-sighted so before you were just a blurry blob," Keddrin explained.
'Oh,' Jon thought. Well now he felt like an ass.
"No need to apologize Keddrin, I'm sorry for not knowing and snapping at you." So much for making a good impression.
"No harm done. I assume there aren't many Bith where you are from?"
Jon filed the species name away so he could look it up later, "Today is the first time I've met anybody outside of my own species," he answered. Well the first time he met someone outside his species who is alive, he thought, remembering Master Yoda.
"Haven't you ever been to a spaceport? There's always a bunch of folks from all over the galaxy there," Janriss asked, sounding incredulous.
Jon sank into himself, embarrassed as he answered, "We don't have a spaceport. My mother's family had an outpost they left a ship at that I found, but I'm pretty sure nobody else on our world had any way of connecting to the rest of the galaxy."
Janriss just looked shocked, while Keddrin stared at Jon, not betraying any thoughts. Desperate to move on, he quickly turned back to unpacking, pulling out the tourney sword Mikken had made him.
"OOH!"
Jon whirled around, making sure to hold the sword so he didn't smack it into something, only to find that Janriss had bounded over to him, looking at the sword.
"A fellow swordsman! Mind if I take a look Jon," he asked excitedly.
Welcoming anything that distracted from the previous conversation, Jon handed over the blunt metal blade. "It's only a training sword, so it's blunted," he explained, waiting for them to laugh at him for not having live steel.
"It's beautiful, and so well-balanced for a training blade," Janriss said in awe. "Do you mind if I…" he gestured toward the center of the room, away from the their beds.
"Be my guest," Jon said. It would be nice to see what the other student could do. "Should we do it closer though so Keddrin can see?"
"I'm more than happy to miss another blade demonstration from Janriss," the Bith said, waving them off. "Just make sure not to break something. Again."
Shooting a sheepish grin, Janriss began a small set of katas. It was an interesting fighting style, Jon noted, and not necessarily meant for the longsword. Done with one hand, it seemed to feature a lot of thrusts and parries. He could also tell the other student was going nowhere near his full speed, information that promised an interesting challenge if they ever met in the training grounds.
When he was done, Janriss returned the blade to Jon with a small bow of his head, which he returned.
"Thanks for letting me use it Jon. It's a beauty."
"I'll make sure to pass on the compliment the next time I see the smith who made it," Jon replied.
They were interrupted from talking further as the door at the far end of the bay slammed open, a boy Jon assumed was Sora swaggering out with a towel over his shoulders. He did not stop when he saw Jon but started speaking as he dressed, "You the new kid?" he asked.
"No, he's looking for Master Skywalker and thought he might be in here, yes he's the new student Terillin," Janriss said sarcastically.
Jon just coughed and introduced himself, "It's nice to meet you Sora, I'm Jon Snow."
"I see my reputation precedes me," Sora said with a cocky smirk, making one last pass through his sandy blonde hair with the towel before buttoning up a shirt and tucking it into his pants. "It's good to meet you too Jon."
"You took a while in there, feeling OK?" Keddrin asked the blonde boy.
"Tsch," he scoffed, throwing on a jacket, "That witch, Laraya, did a number on my back with those takedowns when we were going over hand-to-hand combat."
"I thought she might. You caught her on a bad day. I beat her with swords a couple days ago, and you know how she gets when she thinks she needs to up her game," Janriss said.
"Well I'll pay her back in the simulators next week."
"If you get the chance to. If we're on opposite teams you might want to worry more about me," Janriss said.
Sora looked ready to fire back, but before he could, their commlinks chimed, signaling it was time for them to head to supper. "This conversation is not over," he settled for, pointing a finger at Janriss, who just smirked.
The four of them made their way back down to the Common Room to meet up with the girls and dorm guides. Tarraral and Gria were waiting for them, while the girls exited their side at the same time.
"Alright, before we head off to dinner, I want to introduce you girls to our newest student, Jon Snow," Gria said, gesturing at Jon.
One girl, with bluish-green skin and two tails running down from her head to the small of her back smiled and waved at him, which he returned cautiously
"It's nice to meet you Jon! My name is Ryala'ecura."
Another, with cream-colored fur, a long protruding face and ears like a wildcat stared at him calculatingly with emerald eyes, before introducing herself as Sidra Kara'tey.
The third, who based on Sora's glare he assumed to be Laraya just looked bored with the whole thing, offering a token greeting.
The final girl stood by Tarraral and made a comical sight. She came up only to his furry knee, and only two small hands with black hair were visible from under a brown cloak. Her face was covered in shadow, only two glowing orange eyes peering out from the depths. Looking up at Jon, she uttered a quick burst of high pitch words in a language he did not understand.
Sora seemed to understand it well enough as he snorted, "That's Tila. She was hoping you'd be shorter."
A small smile formed on Jon's lips as he looked at Tila, "Sorry about that."
She just waved one arm down in dismissal, before turning back to Tarraral, who roared in what Jon felt was joy that everyone was making nice.
/
The group left for the mess hall then, making their way through the labyrinth of corridors in the Ossus Academy. Other clans of students joined them along the way and occasionally they passed knights and other Jedi.
The first indication they were nearing their destination was the smell. The scents of a hundred different foods wafted through the air and hit his nose, making his mouth start to water. From the look of things he was not the only one.
They then entered the Refectory, a large hall with long trestle tables going from one end of the room to about halfway down. After that, numerous circular tables fit for smaller groups dotted the space. Along the walls of the room were numerous food stations staffed by multi-armed droids. More droids were rushing to and from doors behind the stations which Jon assumed led to the kitchens.
Tarraral gave them permission to fall out and pick up their meals, pointing out the table they would meet up at afterward.
Nobody had to be told twice as they rushed off to different stations.
Unfamiliar with almost everything, Jon decided to try and take a look around for something resembling food from home. He certainly was not daring enough to try the black fungus he saw one Jedi take to their table.
"Hey Jon."
The Winterfell native turned around when he heard his name called to find one of his new clanmates behind him, Ryala'ecura. Her head-tails twitched as she waved at him again.
"I was wondering if you wanted to get some food with me. I know it was really overwhelming the first time I had to find a meal in this place," she offered.
"Sure. Thank you."
No sooner had he accepted, than the blue-skinned girl grabbed him by the arm and began dragging him toward a specific spot. "You're going to love this! They're serving Gruuvan Shaal kebabs over here!"
None of those words made much sense to Jon, but he decided to go along with it and hope for the best.
His trust in his fellow student was rewarded as Gruuvan Shaal kebabs turned out to mean roasted meat and vegetables on a skewer. The smell was not one Jon was familiar with, but it was welcome nonetheless.
As they waited in line, Ryala'ecura explained how the refectory worked, "You can grab anything you want that's being served, and however much you need. I wouldn't overdo it though, cause Tarraral and Gria will see if you're wasting food and then there'll be trouble."
Jon certainly had no plans to be gluttonous. It was one of the first traits to children of the North were taught to avoid, along with wastefulness. Such weaknesses could destroy a people when winter came.
When it was their turn, they picked up their skewers and his new friend made sure they both loaded up on additional greens, as well as an interesting bread she said was made with mushrooms.
"Tarraral is obsessed with making sure we eat a balanced diet," she explained.
The two made their way back over to the table, where the rest of their group had congregated. They sat down with the rest of the Banthas, minus Laraya, who had elected to sit by herself on the other side of their guides.
Almost as soon as he sat down, Sora turned his attention to Jon.
"Snow, did I hear right that you have your own freighter?!" He nearly shouted, wincing when Gria shot him a look indicating he should keep it down.
"Yeah, the Ebon Hawk," Jon replied. "Where'd you hear that?"
Sora gestured at Tila. "She was helping the dockmaster who mentioned the ship came in, he couldn't believe a 10-year-old was listed as the owner."
"My mother left it to me before she died. It's apparently been in the family for a while."
"I'd say it must have, the Dynamic-Class is ancient!"
Jon scowled, it might not have been his for long, but the Ebon Hawk was still his ship now. "It holds up well."
The other boy put his hands up defensively, "I'm sure, I'm sure. Core Galaxy Systems made those babies to be easily modified. It wouldn't surprise me if you said everything but the hull has been changed out a bunch of times."
He gave Jon a look like he was hoping to hear details on the Ebon Hawk's loadout. If so, he would be disappointed.
"I couldn't tell you, sorry. I haven't had much of a chance to look closely into it since it became mine."
Ryala'ecura jumped in at that point.
"I'm sorry to hear that Jon, did your mother die recently?" She asked sympathetically. Jon appreciated it, it he really did, but he was also starting to get tired of the interrogation.
"No, she died during the Yuuzhan Vong War. She was a Jedi and she sent me to live with my father when I was born. I only just discovered her."
"You're only just discovering a lot of things. Didn't the planet you grew up on not even have a spaceport?" Janriss asked.
"You really are from the middle of nowhere," Sidra said, astonished. Tila proceeded to make a comment, which got Sora snorting.
By that point, Jon had had enough. Without waiting for the translation, and ignoring Ryala'ecura's protest, he got up and stormed to the other side of the group.
The girl, Laraya, glanced at him as he made his way over, but said nothing, just going back to her own meal.
That was fine by him, Jon thought as he stabbed at the rest of his food.
Why had he been so stupid as to think things could continue to get better and better. Things would always eventually re-balance, and Jon would find himself the object of scorn and ridicule.
He missed Valin and Jysella.
Gria reached over to him and asked if he was doing OK. Her and Tarraral had missed the conversation.
"I'm fine," Jon told her. He had no intention of crying to the two of them. "Do we have anything after dinner? I was planning on finishing unpacking and then getting to bed."
She shot him a concerned look like she did not buy that, but let the matter drop.
"That's fine Jon, there are no other lessons or chores for tonight, though I hope you will join us in some down time," Gria said.
'Absolutely not,' Jon thought to himself, but hopefully he hid it from the older Jedi.
"Maybe," he said instead.
Gria appeared unconvinced, but again she let the matter lie.
Stonily, Jon finished the rest of his meal, ignoring the chatter and laughter from where the other students sat.
/
After returning to the dorm, Jon rushed straight up to his bunk before anyone else could speak with him. The rest of the items he had brought with him were quickly stored away and then he just laid on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
He tried meditation, to stretch out and reach into the Force, but anytime he did, the waters were rough and choppy around him. No matter how much he focused on Valin's teachings, he could not calm the waters, or himself.
With a sigh, he gave up and continued looking up at the ceiling, trying to count the dimples in the stone.
When the others came in for bed, he ignored them and continued staring at the ceiling until sleep overtook him.
/
The next morning passed much the same way. The students did some cleaning of their space before heading to breakfast.
Again, Jon decided to sit with Laraya, who seemed OK with the arrangement given that he did not try and speak with her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ryala'ecura glancing at him, concerned. He tried to tamp down on the guilty feeling in his stomach for ignoring her.
She had not been one of the others who had laughed at him. Truth be told, none of them had necessarily laughed AT Jon, had they. Still, he was in no mood to talk to them about it, he decided firmly, telling that voice in his head to stuff it.
Once the morning meal had been finished and they had returned to the Common Room, Tarraral and Gria directed them to the seating circle to go over the day's assignment.
"Today, you are going to be working as a team on a practice infiltration and recovery mission," Gria explained. "Your task is to get into Master Jade-Skywalker's office and retrieve this item."
She hit a button on the holoprojector and a two images showed up. The first was of whom Jon assumed to be the Master in question. She was a beautiful woman, with crimson-gold hair, aristocratic features, and intense green eyes. Even through a holo-image it was like she was staring into their souls.
Next to her image was one of a simple wooden box with the crest of the Jedi Order on it's top. At least the target wouldn't be that hard to transport, Jon mused.
The image switched off and Tarraral explained they would have until sundown to bring the package back to the common room.
"One more thing," Gria added, a sly smile on her face. "If you are caught on this mission by Master Jade-Skywalker, or anyone else, you fail. Good luck!"
And with that, the two guides hightailed it out of the room, leaving Bantha Clan to begin.
"Alright guys, here's what we need to do first," Janriss said, taking charge.
Jon sat up straighter, paying attention. As much as he was upset with the group, this was a mission, he needed to play his part.
"Hold on you fool, we can't just jump into this, there could be people listening in on us!" Sidra hissed.
It was a fair point, Jon thought, after all this was a Jedi Master they were going up against.
"You can all do whatever you want. I will retrieve this box on my own," Laraya stated calmly, getting up to leave. Sidra shot her a deadly glare.
"You can't just go off on your own! We need to do this together.," she yelled.
"Who put you in charge?!" Sora asked angrily.
Suddenly, the entire thing was descending into chaos. Sora, Sidra, and Janriss were arguing with one another, Laraya had gotten up and was heading back to the girls' quarters, Tila was firing off statements every so often, and Ryala'ecura was pleading with everyone to calm down. Keddrin for his part just sat in his spot, looking resigned to the chaos.
As he looked around, Jon knew someone had to stop this, had to make compromises between the others, and most importantly had to get them working in the same direction. And if not himself, then the Son of Winter did not know who else.
Slowly, he got up, breathed in, and prepared to cut through the storm.
"ENOUGH," he howled and then put on his best approximation of his father's 'Lord's Face' as he and his siblings had called it.
It was the face Eddard Stark would put on when he needed to be the Lord of Winterfell, when he was executing the King's Justice, resolving a dispute, or getting his bannermen to do what they were supposed to.
Everybody stared at him, gob smacked and slack-jawed. He knew he needed to act fast before they recovered and drew him into an argument.
Still, he was could not do this exactly like his Father. He was a bastard, not a lord, and this was the Jedi Academy, not Winterfell. There were no lords and ladies in this room, only students on equal footing.
"Sidra is right that we need to work together, we are going up against a Jedi Master," Jon started, holding up a hand when Sora looked ready to protest. "But we are equals. We all bring unique skills and knowledge to the table and as a group we will use that to win!"
As he said that, he stared intently at Janriss and Sidra, both of whom eventually nodded, despite looking like they had swallowed a lemon. That front secured, he turned to Laraya, who still stood apart from the group.
"This is a Jedi Master whose office we are breaking into," Jon repeated. "I've only had one spar against a fully-fledged Jedi and that was a Knight. Do you want to know what happened? I got my ass handed to me. How much harder do you think getting the better of a Master would be?"
He waited for the girl to protest that Jon must just be a poor warrior, that she was better, but she seemed to have more sense than that. She walked back to the group and sat down in her spot with a huff, arms crossed.
Slowly, everyone returned to their seats and calmed down. Jon waited for them to continue, only to find everyone was looking at him.
Swallowing, he spoke to Sidra, "What were you saying about eavesdropping?"
She shot him a small smile, appreciating that he was seeking her guidance on this. "I'm concerned there are ways that Master Jade-Skywalker, or others could be listening in on us here. They'd know what we would do even before we'd do it."
"That is a good catch," Sora complimented with a grumble. At least he was now trying to make peace with the girl, Jon thought.
"So we need to find a place to plan that security wouldn't have a way of eavesdropping in on," Janriss declared. "Anybody got an idea?"
Thankfully, Jon just so happened to have a spot in mind.
"The Ebon Hawk," he declared. "HK and M8 would have let me know if someone had accessed the ship."
"That could work," Sidra said, scratching her chin. "Anyone have objections to that?"
When no one objected, they made their way to the hangar.
/
It took the group a while to get settled into the freighter's lounge. HK-47 had not necessarily been pleased with a large group of "little meatbags," in the ship, but agreed to power down and leave them to it at Jon's promise to lock the door to his recharging station.
M8 on the other hand, was happy to help, volunteering his services if they needed the assistance of an astromech droid. Janriss for his part was ecstatic at this.
"I think the first thing we need to do is get access to the Academy's layout so we can find where the office is," he declared. "We could also use a map of the ventilation ducts to see if that's a good access option."
"Where would the best spot for M8 to plug in be?" Jon asked.
Tila suddenly started speaking excitedly. Everyone looked to Sora for a translation.
"She says there's a plugin in a disused storage room off the docking control station," he explained. "No one ever goes in there so it might be a good place to set up shop."
Keddrin volunteered to go with Tila and M8 and serve as the go-between for them and the infiltration team.
"So it's settled then. The rest of us will go and break into the office once these three get us the intel!" Janriss exclaimed.
"Umm, guys?"
Everyone turned to Ryala'ecura who looked nervous at the attention. "What about Master Jade-Skywalker. If she's in her office, or if she comes back while we're searching, that would be a failure, right?"
It would, Jon thought with a scowl. They would need someone to distract the Master, or at the very least, keep tabs on her until the infiltrators grabbed the box.
"We're in luck on that part," Sidra stated. "There's a meeting of the Master's Council at 1500 hours today. She'll have to be in that meeting."
"How the blazes do you know about that?" Sora asked incredulously.
"I'm a Bothan. We know all." She replied with a toothy smile.
"So someone needs to keep tabs on that meeting so we know when she leaves it," Janriss said forcefully.
"I can take that," Jon offered. "Master Durron was my mother's teacher. If anyone wonders why I'm there I could say I was looking for him."
"I'll go with you then," Ryala'ecura said. "That way if one of us needs to distract someone, the other can contact the others."
"That leaves myself, Tanadi, Terillin, and Laraya to get into the office and secure the box," Sidra observed. "Sora, Laraya, if the vents are a viable option, do you want try that way while Janriss and I try to pick the lock on the door?"
"Agreed," Laraya said, arms crossed.
"Sounds good," Sora agreed.
Jon just hoped the two would get out of the vents without killing one another.
"It looks like we have a plan then," He said standing up. "May the Force be with us."
/
Half an hour before the masters were set to meet, Jon and Ryala'ecura positioned themselves outside the meeting room, watching as their target entered.
A quick check with Sidra confirmed the Infiltration Team was in place near Master Jade-Skywalker's office, while Keddrin confirmed their team was still undiscovered and ready to supply support if needed.
In the end, they had further concealed themselves by stacking crates in front of the socket M8 was plugged into, leaving a small gap so the Bith student could keep an eye on the door.
Tila for her part had had M8 help her hack a datapad into the system so she could monitor security cameras around the Academy. Much of it lacked camera access, including the section the meeting was in, but it would allow the Jawa to keep an eye on their trip back to the dorm from above.
So far everything was going wonderfully, Jon thought to himself.
Unfortunately, it did not last long.
"Hello Jon, what brings you up here?" Jon and his partner whipped around to find Master Durron staring down at them.
This was bad. If he talked with Master Durron now, they lost there alibi for why the two of them were hanging around the meeting room.
Thinking quickly, Jon decided to come up with a work-around.
"We didn't have any more lessons for the day, so Ryala'ecura and I decided to see if the Masters had anything they wanted us to do," he said, hoping he sounded convincing.
"Yeah, we know with everything going on you have a lot on your minds so we wanted to see if there was anything we could do for you Master," the Twi'lek added, smiling.
There was no way he was going to buy this, Jon thought.
"Well that is very nice of you two," Durron said. "I'll tell you what. Let me check with the others and if it's OK with them I would appreciate you two attending the meeting as aides. It's not a great job, you'd be getting us tea and grabbing reports, but it would be really appreciated, and I think it would be a great learning experience for you."
With that, he strode into the room to speak with the other Masters. Quickly, Jon activated his commlink to update the other teams.
"Change of plans guys, Durron found us and is checking if we can serve as aides at the meeting," He whispered furiously.
"Calm down Jon, this can still work. Make sure to silence your comms before going in, but let us know as soon as she leaves the room!" Sidra counseled from the other end of the line.
"Will do, Surveillance Team out," Ryala'ecura replied, before both of them shut down their commlinks. And just in the knick of time as Master Durron poked his head out the door and told them to come in.
The two rushed inside the room occupied by some of the greatest masters of the Jedi Order.
Resisting the urge to gawk, they rushed over to a beverage station and began pouring cups of tea. Still, the group did not wait for their drinks to begin discussions.
"How are we looking in terms of numbers for the Conclave?" Master Jade-Skywalker asked the room.
"Most Jedi have returned to Ossus, though we've received 23 responses from those who cannot abandon their current assignments without life-threatening consequences," another Master replied. A human man, his brown hair and beard were flecked with gray. He uttered a quiet thanks as Jon handed him a cup of tea.
"Who iz the latest, Mazzter Katarn?" a lizard Jedi Master asked, she had a large brown tail which Ryala'ecura was careful to step over as she served her drink.
"Rosh Penin reported in from the Karthakk System that they had found the Clone Wars-era Trihexalon stockpile, but the authorities don't know how stable it is. They're evacuating the surrounding area now."
"He's right to stay. Getting rid of that stuff needs to be the priority," Master Durron affirmed. "Unless we should not be involved since the system is not part of the Galactic Alliance?" He shot at Master Horn, who scowled.
"Whatever that pirate Nym's politics, I agree that getting rid of that Trihexalon is a necessity," Horn stated. "What of the Jedi Knights who were helping the Killiks?"
It pained him to think this because of how kind Master Durron was to him, Jon thought as he put away the empty tea tray, but he was starting to see why Jysella was not a fan of his.
"All of them have returned to the Academy except for Jaina Solo and Zekk," Mara answered, looking pained. "They have not messaged us to answer for this either."
A long, uncomfortable silence hung over the chamber for a minute, before Master Katarn decided to break the silence.
"Since Luke's not here, I guess I'll have to interrogate you on this one Mara. What is going on?"
She scowled, and answered tersely, "That is for Luke to tell Kyle. All I will say is that given recent events, he feels the need to speak with the Order."
Clearly, the other masters were unsatisfied with the answer, but no one dared bring up the question again.
The meeting continued for a while longer, the masters discussing various issues for both the Order and the Galaxy at large. At times, the two students were called on to refill someone's tea or retrieve a datapad with information.
Sooner than Jon would have liked, for the time it would have given the Infiltration Team if not the mind-numbing boredom, the meeting came to an end and the masters began filing out of the room.
"Thank you so much Master, this was a great opportunity," Ryala'ecura bowed.
"Of course. Really, I should be thanking the both of you. It's so nice to see two students who were willing to help."
"It was not a problem Master, really. But we've got to get going, I just remembered we were going to research something in the archives before dinner," Jon lied. The two of them then rushed to the door, before Master Durron interrupted them.
"Make sure to let your friends know Mara's on the loose first."
Guiltily, the two of them turned around looked at the Jedi Master.
He just gave a knowing smirk before striding past them and out the door.
A problem for later, Jon thought.
Quickly, they reactivated their commlinks and called the Infiltration Team.
"Guys, the target just left the meeting room two minutes ago, are you done?" Jon asked quickly. This would all be for nought if the package was not secured yet.
"We've got the box," Janriss' voice came through the feed. "But we need a little more time to get out."
"I've just spotted her on the cameras!" Keddrin called out over the comms. "She and Master Sebatyne are walking by the Refectory.
Doing the math in his head, Jon knew that would not give the others enough time to get out.
"Get back to the dorm, I'll distract them," he told Ryala'ecura before rushing out the door.
Running through the halls, Jon slowed down as he saw a droid hauling laundry come down the way. Getting an idea, he grabbed cloths and a robe out of the pile, ignoring the droid's protests.
Continuing to rush off, he put on the robe to cover his clothes and tied one cloth around his head to cover his hair, and the other around his face, leaving only his eyes revealed.
Sensing the masters around the corner, he leapt out a ways behind them, and gave a war cry
"AARGH!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, the sound causing the two to turn around with shocked faces.
Jon Snow then decided to do the dumbest thing of his admittedly short life.
He reached into the Force, and shoved the two masters.
Ultimately, it did little more than stagger them. In fact, it probably just made them annoyed. Jon did not plan on sticking around to find out, turning around and enacting Phase Two of his plan.
Bravely running away.
Through the Force, Jon was satisfied to know the two were following him as he led them away from Jade-Skywalker's office and the others. Now he just needed to not get caught.
His salvation came in the form of turbolifts, with one having just opened up to let someone out. Slipping in the door, Jon pressed the button to close the lift repeatedly as he saw the masters come after him like a pair of angry wolves.
Luck was on Jon's side as the lift shut just in time, and began to rise.
Until it stopped.
Uh-oh.
"I don't know who you are in there, but I hope you have a good funeral planned," Jade-Skywalker's voice came over the speaker. She must have overridden the lift, he thought in a panic.
Looking up, he saw an access hatch and pulled on it, only to find it locked.
The lift began going down.
Taking a deep breath, Jon reached out with the Force and felt the lock. He spread his own presence to it and felt for the mechanism, pushing and twisting until he was rewarded with it coming free.
With a shout of success, Jon yanked the door open and scrambled out the lift. Unfortunately, he realized he was still going down and had nowhere to go now.
"Jon!"
He looked up to find Sora staring at him from an access hatch maybe eight feet above, holding out his hands.
Jon felt the Force flow through him again and jumped, the other student catching him with a grunt.
"Pull," Sora gritted out.
Someone must have been with him as they began moving back into the service tunnel. Jon found purchase for his feet on the shaft and did his part to clamber in as well and soon he was in with Sora and Laraya, who was breathing heavily.
"Thanks," Jon told the two, incredibly grateful. But now was not the time to talk. They needed to get out before the masters found them.
The three made their way through the cramped space, Jon shedding his disguise as they did so. They came out in a service closet near the dorm where the rest of their clan and M8 were waiting for them.
"Do you have it?" Jon whispered to Sidra and Janriss. The other human boy just gave him a discreet thumbs-up.
Best not to celebrate before they finished the mission.
The group walked into their Common Room, relieved to be back.
"Oh no."
Waiting for them in the seating circle were Tarraral, Gria…and Master Jade-Skywalker, who had a smirk like the cat who caught the canary.
"Fall in Bantha Clan," she ordered and the troop took their spots, all the joy turned to ash.
"Let's go over where things went wrong," the master began lecturing.
"Keddrin, Tila, security notified me the minute you plugged into our system. After that, we knew where you were and what you were looking for." The two looked dejected and M8 gave a sad sounding wharble.
"Janriss, Sidra, Laraya, Sora, you were able to catch my first layer of alarms, but then you got sloppy and missed the ones I've hidden more deeply." Sidra's hackles raised, while Sora and Janriss looked ready to protest before being cut off with a look from Gria. Laraya just stared stonily into her lap.
"And then there's you two," She said, turning to Jon and Ryala'ecura. "We saw through your act from the get go. Oh, and the disguise did not fool either myself or Master Sebatyne, Jon."
Panic bubbled in his stomach as the master fixed a terrible glare at Jon. Forget about failing the assignment, he was probably going to get shipped back to Winterfell for this.
The Jedi Master must have sensed his fear as her gaze softened and they all felt a wave of reassurance flow from her.
"All of that being said…Congratulations, you passed."
What.
"I hope you all were not seriously thinking we expected you to break into a Jedi Master's quarters successfully at your age," Master Jade-Skywalker said with a smile, that told them it was not intended as a slight toward them. "We'd seriously need to beef up our security if that were the case. Or promote you at once."
Tarraral spoke up now, telling them that this assignment had been given to test their ability to make a plan, execute it, and work together as a team.
"In that, you all passed wonderfully!" Gria exclaimed. "You put aside your own egos and acknowledged where others needed you and where you needed each other."
"I hope you remember that lesson always, because it is one of the most important you'll learn in this place," Master Jade-Skywalker said. "And I hope you enjoy the spoils of your victory."
With that, she opened the box and tipped it over revealing a bunch of sweets the Bantha Clan quickly dove for.
Stepping away from the others as they began to celebrate their victory, Jon rushed to catch up with the Master as she left the dorm.
"Master," he called and she turned around, a questioning look on her face as she looked down at him. "I wanted to apologize for attacking you and Master Sebatyne. I will accept any punishment you think is appropriate."
He bowed his head and waited before he felt her put a hand on his shoulder.
"You are not being punished Jon. No harm was done, which I believe was your intent, and you did what you had to do to help your friends accomplish the mission." She smiled down at him. "That being said, I hope you will have a little more self-preservation in mind the next time you consider challenging two Jedi Masters."
Jon returned the smile and gave a shrug. "I'll do my best."
The red-head just sighed and patted him on the shoulder. "Go and celebrate with your friends."
With a bow and a thanks, Jon ran off to do just that, Janriss throwing an arm around his shoulder while Keddrin explained how they saw him distract the two masters.
"Jon! Jon! Jon!" The group started to cheer.
"No, no, I would have been caught without Sora and Laraya pulling my butt out of the fire," He deflected. "And there would be no victory without all of us. So we all get the cheers Bantha Clan."
"Bantha Clan! Bantha Clan! Bantha Clan!"
That night, they all sat together in the Refectory feasting to their victory. Tila convinced them to try some roasted Hubba Gourd, and laughed as Jon's face puckered at first due to the sour taste. Much more to his liking was the spicy loaf of ground meat Sora pointed out to him. For her part, Sidra brought over a warming, fruity Bothan drink called Kothtri and they took turns toasting one another.
"Having fun?"
Jon whirled around in his seat to find Valin and Jysella staring down at him.
"Mind if we sit with you guys," Jysella asked. The whole table had gone quiet at the Jedi Knights coming over, but Jon gestured for them to sit down.
"So what's this about you all breaking into Master Jade-Skywalker's office?"
And with that, they excitedly told their story again, the details growing more exaggerated than before at times. If this continued, Jon suspected he would end up dueling the entire group of Jedi Masters singlehandedly.
Life was good, he thought.