Pleena could feel her heart pounding in her chest from the excitement she felt. Including hers, there were eleven X-Wing fighters in single file as they twisted, turned, climbed, dived, and rolled past the large asteroids around them. She knew they weren't flying very fast, just as she knew that this wasn't a very crowded asteroid field. But for her first time in a simulator… this was intense!
"Green Three to Green Eleven. Pleena how are you holding up?" Chargon asked as she followed the young Nautolan.
"This is incredible!" Pleena yelled in an excited reply.
There were several snickers and a couple of outright laughs over the communications system as the rest of the wing heard the ecstatic answer.
"Sounds like we've got ourselves a new teammate." Deilaani chuckled.
"I'd say you're right Green Two. What do you say Pleena? Willing to become a permanent member of Green Wing?" Selar asked with a grin, although he was already sure of the answer.
"Are you serious? But… but this is my first time in a simulator… Except for Knights or Masters you people are the best team in the Order, why would you take me?" Pleena asked in disbelief.
"You're right Pleena… we are the best! That's because we only take the best, and you're showing that you can be one of the best." Vara chimed in smugly.
"Cut the chatter Green Eight! She has a long way to go first!" Krenn snapped quickly.
"You cut the chatter Green Nine! Selar asked her to join us for a reason. For this to be her first time in a fighter, she's doing excellent! Pleena, I don't want you to pay any attention to Krenn, he's a Nautolan like you, but he can be really irritating sometimes." Chargon put in.
"Chargon's right Pleena… I did invite you for a reason! We'll teach you what you need to know about flying, and you help us keep an eye on Talon… tell us what we need to know about her, because you know more about her than we do. So… what do you say?" Selar asked with a grin.
"What? Do I look stupid or something, because I'd have to be dumber than a rock to say no! And when it comes to looking out for Talon… you can't make me stop! She's my friend, and I don't care who doesn't like her!" Pleena retorted.
"That is exactly why you're being recruited Pleena! Talon's better than a lot of us when it comes to an X-Wing, but there's still a few things she doesn't know. I want you around to help us with that. You're pretty sharp and catch on to things fast, so you might be able to spot something that could be a problem later and let us know to fix it before anything happens." Selar shot back seriously.
Sounds like this is gonna be fun!" Pleena grinned widely. "When do I start?"
"You already have. That's why we've been calling you Green Eleven." Chargon said with a laugh.
Pleena started spluttering in surprise while almost all of the others were laughing. She knew that Talon wasn't laughing, but then that was because Talon had never been taught about the good things in life. She was determined to change that and now it seemed that she had some help.
At the desk in the room containing the flight simulators Kenth Hamner turned to Leia with raised eyebrows. Leia was smiling lightly and gave a slight nod of her head.
"Talon may not know about what it means to have friends but she certainly seems to make them fairly easily." Leia observed.
"That she does. So tell me, is that Force Bond actually working out, or did Talon reject it completely?" Kenth asked.
"I would have been willing to bet almost anything that Talon would be against it… especially considering what she's been subjected to. It was very surprising that she actually agreed to form the Bond. I was in direct mental communication with her when I made the proposal and explained it to her. That way I would know if she was simply agreeing because I'm her Master and she really didn't want to go through with it. I think that we might have created one that is much stronger than described in the Archives though." Leia replied carefully.
"What makes you think so?"
"Well… for one thing, thought transference is supposed to require a bit of concentration. For Talon and I, we have to concentrate not to send our thoughts to each other." Leia answered with a slight frown.
"That… would be a good indicator. What other differences have you noticed?" Kenth asked curiously.
"That's the only difference that I've noticed about the Bond, but…" Leia began hesitantly.
"But what?"
"I think Talon has latched on to me rather strongly." Leia explained with a frown.
"What do you mean by that?" Kenth asked interestedly.
"She's almost constantly pulling on me somehow. It's strange… almost like she wants me in her mind at all times." Leia tried to explain.
"I could be mistaken, but as I understood things, Talon is terrified of having others impinge her mind." Kenth said suspiciously.
"She is… and that's what makes it so strange." Leia said as she thought about it.
"That's something you'll have to be watchful for then. Find out why she's doing that if it's intentional or bring it to her attention if it isn't." Kenth said seriously.
Talon climbed out of the simulator that she'd been using only to see that Pleena was nearly quivering in excitement. She could sense a strange emotion almost pouring from Pleena. It was a warm and vibrant feeling that seemed to radiate some kind of warm glow from the mind of the girl. Although the emotion was the same as what she'd often sensed from Darth Magus when he was hitting someone with Force lightning, this was somehow different. Talon didn't know how to explain it, but what she sensed was something that felt somewhat familiar, but whatever this emotion was, it was strong enough to drown out all the other thoughts and emotions that she'd been sensing.
"Can you believe this?" Pleena exclaimed excitedly as she went running over to her friend. "We're gonna be in Green Wing together!"
"You've got the spot Pleena… and now you need to earn it! But don't worry… I'll help with that, and so will the others." Chargon chuckled.
"I'll probably need it!" Pleena told the red headed human girl.
"Well if you do, or if you just think you do, talk to one us when we've both got some free time. We'll help out. That's part of why we're the best. We help each other in… and out of the simulators! Being part of this team means that you're family now Pleena. For some of us, this is the only family we've got. That's why we stick together and make it work. Some of us are orphans; our families were killed in the civil war a couple of years ago. Others… well, what you were before you joined the team doesn't matter to us. Whether she was an initiate or a Sith Lord, Talon's one of us now! She's our sister… just like you." Chargon said with a smile as she placed her left arm over Pleena's shoulders and her right over Talon's.
"All right Team… since this is a free day, let's head over to training room five and see if it's empty. If it is we can work on our telekinetics. Fair warning Pleena… we're the best because we work to stay that way!" Selar said with a grin.
Leia followed the group as they made their way to one of the training rooms. Upon finding that it was unoccupied they quickly gather inside and formed a large circle. Selar selected one of the fifty kilogram balls that was then passed around the perimeter of the circle. Each one of them had a lot of trouble with it as they passed it around. The ball hit the floor more than a few times, but quick words of encouragement were spoken by more than one of the group. Then the ball got around to Talon. Talon had no trouble lifting the ball to a height of two meters and holding it in front of the next member.
Talon froze when she realized that everyone was staring at her like she had done something wrong. She swallowed hard as she looked around. The surprise on everyone's faces became one of awe as they stared at her.
"Talon… how can you hold that much weight like that?" Pleena asked in shock.
"After being used to my training weapons… this is easy." Talon answered.
Crystal's violet eyes narrowed as she looked hard at the human girl who was about the same height as the Nautolan girl they'd just recruited. Talon had answered with no strain in her voice and the ball wasn't wavering at all.
"You don't happen to have those training weapons here, do you?" The grey skinned Twi'lek girl asked suspiciously.
"Yes." Talon answered simply.
"Would you go get them please? I'd like to see those." Crystal asked quickly.
Talon nodded her head and lowered the ball to the floor, before heading quickly to her room to retrieve her staves.
"What's going on Crystal? What does her training weapons have to do with anything?" Chargon asked.
The thirteen year old Twi'lek girl looked over at the red headed human who was two years older than she was and smirked as she answered. "There was no strain in her voice when she answered that question from Pleena. That ball never twitched either! As skilled as you think she might be, I'm telling you that she's a lot more skilled than we think! I'm betting that those training weapons of hers might have something to do with it."
Leia tilted her head slightly to her right as she narrowed her eyes and merely watched the group as they waited for Talon to return. It seemed that being a silent observer was about to pay off.
Pleena's black orbed eyes shot wide when she saw the two staves that Talon carried into the room. "Those look just like the ones that were in that nightmare I had!" She exclaimed.
"If you're talking about that thrice blasted nightmare where a pair of rods like that were being used to fight a Tarentatek, then everyone had the same nightmare!" Selar groused.
"Nuh-unh! Talon didn't! She even told me that she didn't have the nightmare." Pleena protested.
"Pleena, I'm telling you that everyone had that same nightmare!" Selar intoned seriously.
"Actually Pleena, Selar's right… but then so are you." Leia said as she stepped forward.
"How can they both be right? Either Talon had the nightmare or she didn't." Crystal insisted.
"Talon had the same dream that you, me, and everyone else experienced. Even my husband Han had that dream and his Force sensitivity is so miniscule that he can't access it at all. So yes, she also had that dream… but for her it was more of a memory. That was just part of what she had to go through to escape the Sith Academy on Korriban. So yes, those are the same rods from the dream." Leia said as she answered the grey skinned Twi'lek girl.
"You mean for her it wasn't just a dream, she really fought a Tarentatek?" Pleena demanded in awe.
"Yes Pleena, she did. Before you ask, she didn't have a choice because there was a whole army of them and they started eating everyone they could catch." Leia answered.
"Talon…" Pleena asked softly as she turned to her friend. "did you know they were there?"
Talon nodded her head without hesitation. "The Guardians have always been there. Darth Magus seemed hungry to send someone out to face them for breaking the rules. He always thought it was funny." She said in a flat tone.
"Guardians?" Pleena asked in confusion before she realized what Talon was referring to. "You mean you saw one of those monsters eat Darth Magus?"
"Good!" Pleena said when Talon nodded. "I hope he made that Guardian so sick that it pukes him up! That way he'll be a disgusting puddle of puke forever!" She added sternly.
"Wow!" Selar said softly with a shake of his head. "I've heard a lot of things while I was living on the streets, but I think that is a fate that tops everything."
"It beats everything I've heard as well and this isn't the first time she's said that either." Leia snickered.
"Somehow I believe that." Crystal said dubiously. "I'm not sure why though."
Chargon shook her head with a smirk before her attention fell on the two staves that were in Talon's hands. "I've got an idea for practice. Why don't we use Talon's training staves? We pass them around like normal… but instead of keeping it steady; each person has to give it one half turn, so that when the next one takes it, it's straight up and down."
"Good idea Chargon. That works control perfectly." Karlaani said with a smile.
Leia watched in silence as the group used the Force to pass around a training staff of Talon's. She had to admit to a great deal of surprise that even Pleena had been able to do it, even though she had a small bit of trouble with it.
"It's hard, but at least it isn't that twenty kilo ball we have to use in my class." Pleena explained after it had arrived at her for the third time.
"Well until we get older, right now the classes mainly focus on teaching us how to do it! Later they move on to teaching us to move the heavy stuff." Risaa said with a frown.
"Heavy stuff… do you mean things like that staff you're passing around?" Leia asked with a smirk.
"It's just a rod… it can't be as heavy as that stupid twenty kilo ball they make us use in class!" Pleena said disgustedly as she slowly turned the staff upside down.
"Actually Pleena… that one staff weighs a whole lot more than those little balls we have." Leia said seriously.
"If it does; it can't be that much more!" Selar scoffed derisively.
"Each of those two staves of Talon's weighs a full one thousand kilograms. They are composed of compressed Beskar and can only be moved by using the Force. Tarentatek are immune to a lightsaber, but even they were vulnerable to those weapons." Leia answered with a smirk while gesturing at the staff they were using.
"You mean I'm holding up a whole ton?" Pleena asked in disbelief.
"Yes, Pleena, you are. This is proof of what we've been trying to teach everyone. Size really doesn't matter when it comes to the Force. Master Yoda wasn't even as tall as you are but he was able to use the Force to lift Luke's X-Wing from where it had sunk in the swamp. It really doesn't matter how big you are or how big something else is… that size difference doesn't matter to the Force." Leia told them while looking around.
Leia could see that all of them except Talon were seriously thinking about what she'd just said, and she couldn't think of a better way to make that particular point. It was something that she knew was almost always debated among those who were instructing others. An object being too big was always a complaint from the one being taught. A deceptive object that weighed a lot more than it appeared to hadn't been properly considered. Certainly they had used some objects that were heavier than they looked, but they had never used an item with this much of a deceptive appearance. This was something that would have to be mentioned to the Council Members.
Talon watched as Pleena began to physically struggle with the staff that she was manipulating with the Force. She knew from her training that this wasn't really necessary and she thought about how to explain things properly.
"Pleena… you aren't the Force. It's not really a part of your body like an arm or leg, so it doesn't have any limits. You were doing it before you knew how much that staff weighed, so you can still do it now. The Force hasn't changed at all. Remember you aren't the one lifting it, the Force is. All you're doing is telling the Force what you want moved and how you want it moved; the Force is what's doing the work." Talon explained carefully.
"Wait… are you saying that Pleena can move a starship if she has to?" Chargon asked in disbelief.
Talon nodded her head. "Pleena wouldn't be doing anything except concentrating on the Force. The Force would be moving the starship, not Pleena."
Leia lifted her eyebrows at that. She recalled hearing something very similar from both her brother and from Saba Sebantine while she was learning to become a Jedi and use the Force. Although she had never heard it phrased exactly that way before, but she knew that it was accurate. Whatever techniques had been used to teach Talon were clearly very effective, but the exact methods would need to be altered before they could be used by the Order. She knew that Talon's telekinetic skills were advanced beyond anything she'd heard was possible and the only question that needed an answer was could that level of skill be duplicated by others?