Chapter Eighteen

Anaïs had never been happier to stand on solid ground in her life.

Nothing had happened, which, if anything, had made it worse. Nothing but nonstop studying, for a solid week, Master Lucian sticking closer to her than he normally did, and they had studied everything, from local starcharts, to how to slice basic electronic locks open, to how to spot basic traps. Much of it was review, as she had studied how to be a Sentinel at the Temple, but there was enough new information that she still felt like she was drowning in it by the time he had paused, nodding, and told her to get some rest, as the danger had passed.

Now, they were on Noonar, the only populated world in the Noonian system, right on the inner edge of the Outer Rim, further away from Coruscant than she’d ever been before. On the hyper-route called the Celanon Spur, it was a waypoint and a small trading hub, but otherwise not noteworthy, at least on the galactic scale.

With the (still unnamed) ship’s hyperdrive, rated at 1.5, they’d cut the time it would’ve taken to get there through normal means nearly in half, which, from what her Master had said, would make all the difference. Grimacing at the speeder bike in front of her, she wasn’t looking forward to their trip into the city. With the wildlife around the Uphrades base, it would’ve been incredibly dangerous to use a speeder, so she hadn’t been able to practice.

“Can you, um, drive?” she asked, getting on board, feet leaving blessed ground. Their ship was behind them, parked on a rocky outcropping so as not to give away its presence by depressed plants on the grassy plain, once more invisible.

Master Lucian, who’d been waiting for her on his own speeder bike, shook his head, motioning to the grassy plain around them. “No. We have time, and there’s no trees for you to hit. If you need to, I’ll take over, but you have to learn, Padawan.”

“Yes, Master,” she grumbled, hesitantly taking hold of the controls. Slowly, very slowly, she pushed the handles forward, the bike inching along the ground.

She got it up to a jogging pace, the controls very sensitive, and was starting to feel a bit more comfortable. Until, that is, she heard her master announce, “We don’t have that much time. Use the Force, Anaïs.”

With worry squirming in her gut, she closed her eyes, feeling the Force around her. Picking up a bit of speed, she felt more comfortable, turning left and right, swooshing through the tall grass, the repulsorlifts of the bike parting them like water off a boat’s prow.

“Good,” Lucian announced. “Now let’s actually get going.”

She had a half-second of warning, as the Force urged her to hold on tightly, before the handlebars slammed forward seemingly on their own, pulling her down tight against the bike as she clamped with her legs, the entire thing blasting forward at eye-watering speeds.

“MASTER!” she yelled, in shocked anger, only for him, laughing, to pull up next to her, the sound almost lost on the wind.

“Use the Force, and copy me!” he instructed, voice carrying over the wind, pushing himself even faster, and pulling ahead.

Trusting that he’d stop her from hitting anything, she closed her eyes, and felt out with the Force. Her master was there, but his Presence had spread out a little, stretching more forward than anything, almost feeling out the area in front of him. More than that, she could sense the bit of condensed energy that suggested a Force Barrier in front of him, acting as a shield, protecting him from the wind.

Concentrating, she tried to copy him, her Force Sense, which now always was active, if only a little, spread out, letting her almost feel the area in front of her as if she was lightly running her hands along it. She lost herself in the sensation, the parting of the grasses almost like fingers brushing through her hai-

“Anaïs,” her master’s voice snapped, and she almost overturned the bike, jerking on one of the handles, only for the controls to stick, not moving at all, keeping her bike moving straight. “Focus,” he called, coming up next to her. “Just because it isn’t Dark, doesn’t mean it won’t affect you.” With his somewhat obvious reminder delivered, he pulled ahead of her again, disappearing into the tall grasses once more.

She blushed, hands shaking a little as her controls were given back to her, able to be moved once more. She’d gotten so used to pushing out anything with the taint of the Dark Side that she’d forgotten that other things could be just as distracting. She was reminded of the club, which had swirled with both Dark and Light, and which had taken her completely off guard.

She wondered how she’d do now.

Trying again, she sensed the world around her, but kept focus on her goal, namely not hitting anything. She could feel her master in front of her, see him, despite being out of visual range, staring at her, brow furrowed in concern, before nodding and looking forward once again.

It was odd, in this sense the dirt was indistinct, there, but blurry. The grass was clearer, but still not quite in focus. Master Lucian, however, was like a living statue, ever inch of him sharply defined in a way that seemed. . . too real, like a drawing where every minor feature was emphasized. She wondered what she looked like, but let the thought pass, refocusing on her goal before her master could chide her again.

Stretching her own Presence in the Force out, to match the distance her master was sensing in front of himself, she moved on to the other part of what he was doing. Thankfully, the forming of the barrier, sloped and close, was easier, and she let out a small sigh as she was no longer feeling like she was getting weakly punched in her face with air. She couldn’t move her barriers, not yet, but she’d figured out how to anchor them to large enough objects.

It made sense, as everything in the universe was moving, so there was no reason for them to remain around a spinning, orbiting planet, or even a starship, and not something else that was smaller. She couldn’t anchor them to herself, but she could to the speeder bike, the translucent screen, tinted gold, having formed and now blocking the wind.

Balancing maintaining the Force Barrier, her stretched Force Presence, and flying the speederbike was difficult, but thankfully when she dropped either of the Force techniques, she was in no danger of hitting anything, and when she’d started to drift to the side she could practically feel her master’s disapproval, though it held a faint undercurrent of concern, and soon she was doing all three. Only once did she need to dodge, some large cat thing suddenly in her path, but it only took a slight motion to skim right past it, blasting past the striped, beige, six legged creature who stared at her, shocked, as she passed by it mere inches away. She almost lost the techniques as she giggled at its expression, but held on, still following the Master Jedi.

They travelled for a little, with occasional starships flying by in the distance, heard, but rarely seen, until her Master slowed down slightly, pulling up next to her. “Good,” he nodded. “Now see if you can follow me.”

Nodding confidently, though knowing it wouldn’t be easy, as it never was, she prepared herself. Waiting a moment for him to pull forward again, keeping track of him through the Force, Anaïs starting to pursue him, as he moved back and forth, always in the direction of their destination, but with increasingly complex twists and turns, always keeping a couple dozen meters in front of her no matter how much she pushed herself to catch up.

Only once did he need to help, when she took a turn a little too sharply, the repulsorlifts breaking contact with the ground and sending the bike falling, only for it to suddenly, as the Force around her shifted, right itself even as she desperately threw up a Barrier below her to absorb the force of her fall. The barrier had broken as the sense of danger had shut off in an instant, the speederbike once more securely under her.

“Good recovery, but know the limits of your tools,” he told her, coming up out of the grass beside her.

“But this is the first time I’ve ro-driven this, she tried to argue, quickly correcting herself, having ridden the bike once before.

Lucian, however, shook his head. “And you will rarely have the luxury of practicing what you’ll be using in the moment, or else you will seriously limit yourself. No, you need to listen in the Force. As a user of the Light, it will look out for you, and warn you right before you do something that will harm you. Or did you not feel it?

Anaïs paused, trying to think of what she felt right before she’d almost fallen. “There was. . . maybe something? But I thought it was another rock!”

“And that is why you are a Padawan, and not a Knight,” her master noted, though he smiled as he did so, and his tone held no condemnation. “The warnings are subtle for subtle harms. You would’ve survived that, with some scrapes, maybe a broken bone, but you can heal those. No, those blaring, Force clearly speaking to you, moments are when death is imminent, Anaïs.”

She blinked. “Is. . . is that why we went to Uphrades? So I could get used to it where things weren’t subtle?” She supposed it had worked, even if it went in the face of the slow, gentle progression of the Temple. Then again, much of what her master did went in the face of the Temple, so that made sense.

“I can do something for more than one reason,” Lucian smiled, which wasn’t a no. “And please do not refer to that place by name, lest someone overhear, but yes, that was one of them. Though, remember, I was on hand to make sure nothing happened, but the Force didn’t know that.”

“. . . what?” she asked, thoroughly confused, only for her master to disappear seemingly from the Force entirely, even though he was seated on his bike, right next to her. “You mean, when you’re like that, the Force. . . it doesn’t, um, account for you?”

“More like you don’t account for me, as I have disappeared from your knowledge of the Force, though,” he shrugged, “maybe you’re correct. Deep investigations into the nature of the Force have long been Taboo in the Temple, long before even my time, branded the practice of a Sith, and thus forbidden. One would think they would claim the drinking of water to be forbidden, if enough Sith did so,” he sighed, rolling his eyes. “I understand their underlying reasons, but they truncated their explanations, and thus accidentally led others astray who did not understand implicitly as they did. The numbers of those who actually understand, rather than those who were blindly obedient, shifted with time. Once all those that understood had passed, and no one knew the true reasons, only the shortened explanations, giving even further abridged explanations to their own Padawans, the cycle of ignorance began anew.”

Anaïs couldn’t help herself. “And you believe that the Jedi should talk more, and give longer explanations?” She’d sat through more lectures in a week with Master Lucian then she normally did in a month or two back at the Temple, even during her early Initiate days, when attending classes took up almost all of her time.

Rather than take offense, the Jedi laughed, “I see you’ve been paying attention, Padawan. Now, let us continue, and do, if you are trying something tricky, pay attention to those ‘rocks’ in your path, to make sure they’re actually stones, and not signs.

She reddened a little, hanging her head with a, “Yes, Master,” as he laughed again, taking off at a slower pace, and she started to follow once more. They quickly sped up, and once again she was immersed in the chase, getting much closer this time, only to have him suddenly pull away from her at the last moment, blasting forwards, then coming to a stop.

Slowing herself, Anaïs pulled up next to him, wondering what she’d done wrong, only to realize they were on a hill, from which she could see houses and farms in the distance. Had his senses extended out that far? she wondered, as he’d started to slow down before they’d crested the ridge. “Good job,” Master Lucian told her, and she couldn’t deny the spark of pride in her chest at the praise, “But now we’re going to move at a more. . . sane, pace, at least to non-sensitives. Keep your senses up, but be aware that reacting too quickly, or cutting things too closely, may draw attention from the Force-blind.”

She nodded, and once more followed him down towards what started as farms, but shifted to villages, then towns, and then the edges of the city in slowly increasing density and complexity. Pulling up beside her master, the traffic getting heavier, she had to ask, “No checkpoints?”

Master Lucian shook his head. “This is the Outer Rim, Anaïs, and a colony instead of a carefully controlled enclave. No, there is security at key places, like the spaceports, but much of the city is open.”

However, as if in direct contradiction of his statement, they turned a corner, only to see a blockade, men in uniforms, and with blaster rifles, waving some speeders through, but checking others. “Or not,” he mused. “This is new.” The unsaid ‘I don’t like it’ came through loud and clear.

“Master?” Anaïs asked, knowing they had none of the identification that the others were showing when stopped, only for him to point to a satchel on her bike. Opening it, there was a small wallet, which, when she opened that, displayed her picture, along with her planet of origin, Thorgeld I, and her city of residence, Fabrin.

“And call me Lucian, Anaïs,” her master told her. “Slavery is frowned upon in this sector, and I’m too young looking to be your superior in a trade.”

She nodded, and, letting her anxiety pass her by, remained calm as the two of them joined the queue, which was moving along fairly quickly. However, she still felt a bit of un-Jedi like worry when, after she presented her identification to the guard, he called another over. “Hey, this look a bit off to you?” the armed man asked. “I think we’ll need to. . . interrogate this one.”

The other guard frowned, and started to shake his head, before his eyes opened wide and an unpleasant smile spread across his face, while he looked her up and down. “Yeah, Rix, a thorough investigation.”

Anaïs was dismayed at how quickly she’d been found out, only to realize the Dark feelings coming off the pair, her hand unconsciously drifting towards her saber, hidden in its pouch. “Is there a problem with my friend’s identification?” Master Lucian asked politely, only for one guard to motion at him with his blaster rifle.

“Move along, kid,” one told him. “This is official business.”

“Ah, my apologies,” the Jedi Master smiled, putting his hands up as one of the other guards, out of earshot on the busy street, glanced at them. “I’m sure you’d both agree though, that You’re both free to go.”

“You’re both free to go,” both guards in front of her echoed, in chorus, handing Anaïs her identification back and waving them away.

Part of her wanted to say of course they were, but she shrugged off her master’s Mind Trick, following him out, where they proceeded calmly, turning down an alley. “Mas-Lucian?” she asked, “I thought you said that my identification would help me blend in.”

“Oh, it will,” he noted dryly, frowning as he looked deeper in the city. “But you could’ve been granted papers from the Senate itself and there’s a good chance it wouldn’t matter. Actually,” he corrected, “That would be worse, as no one would believe them. No, for the rank and file to be like this. . . tell me, Padawan, what do you feel from this city?”

She looked at him, confused, as he’d just said that she shouldn’t call him Master, so him calling her Padawan would be even worse if they were trying to blend in. However, she did as she asked, feeling out. In the wild, it’d been free, and peaceful, and Light, but here the jumble of feelings pressing in on her was difficult to sort through, though the emotions from deeper in seemed to wash outwards, oozing over the city.

There was a mix of everything, joy, anger, sadness, excitement, lust, curiosity, but under all of it was a current of Fear that tainted all other emotions. Fear for oneself, fear for others, fear of others, all so strongly present that the differing kinds, like different flavors of fruit that had all gone to rot, could be picked out cleanly, the sensations seeming to crawl up her skin now that she reached towards them.

Uphrades had been worse, but the Dark Side there had been. . . purer, cleaner, more calm and less personal than what was coming from the city. It had been stronger, but it had been easier to both sense and deal with, instead of the almost sticky sensation she now felt, tinged with a thousand different personalities, like a sugary drink that had been spilled, then not cleaned, left to congeal and unexpectedly sticking to one’s skin.

However, she had trained, and pulled back, mentally scraping away the lingering traces of Darkness, opening her eyes to look at her master, who nodded to her unsaid question. “Yes, Padawan, something is wrong here. I think it best if we see my contact straight away. She owes me no favors, but she will be able to help. Come, let’s not waste time.

Following him out of the alley, they moved deeper into the city, and through another checkpoint, this one without issue. They stopped, parking their bikes and paying the attendant, continuing on foot even deeper, finally coming to an antiques store.

Walking up to it, something felt. . . wrong, and she couldn’t say why. The feeling from before, the stone in her path ready to send her flying if she blundered into it, was present in the building they approached. And it wasn’t faint. “Lucian?” she asked as they reached the door, but he shook his head.

“I know, but we need to see regardless,” he informed her, trying the door, only to find it locked. “If we don’t, things will go worse.” With a flick of the Force, it opened, revealing a dark shop. The air tasted stale, and was warm, the air conditioner inactive, a layer of dust over everything. “Oh, this isn’t good,” he added as they stepped inside, closing the door behind them, to which she had to agree.

Striding over to behind the counter, he turned on the computer, pausing for a second before typing in the password, unlocking it. There was a single file open, a notepad program set to display as soon as one logged in, upon which were two words.

Trap Run

“Sithspit,” he swore, looking towards the street, before glancing at her, eyes narrowing. “Padawan, I do believe it’s time for your first solo assignment. I hadn’t planned on it this early, but apparently the Force thinks it’s time. I’m going to be busy, but while eyes are on me, you can be the Sentinel you wish to become. Find Malea Vondarr, the owner of this shop, and get her to safety. Bring her to the ship if you need to, just make sure you aren’t followed. If I try, she will die, and worse will happen to this world, but if you do so, she might yet live. However, remember this: your life is not worth hers. If it comes down to you or her, save yourself. If the only way you can save her is the Dark Side, let her die. Do you understand me?”

“I, what? Anaïs asked, surprised, though she could feel something, ever so slightly, pushing her to say yes. “I, yes. But, how am I going to find her? I don’t even know where to start!”

“COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!” a voice called from outside.

Lucian pulled a pad of paper over to himself, along with an ornate pen. “Last known address, but she might’ve moved,” he told her, writing it down. “Likely passwords.” Several more lines. “Known family as of thirty-two years ago.” Several names and addresses. “That’s all I have time for. Be careful, Padawan. This time I won’t be watching while you fight the ember drakes. Now stand there until I close the door,” he directed, pointing to the side.

She quickly moved over, waiting as her master turned and walked out, tense but calm demeaner flowing into innocent nervousness. Opening the door and slipping out, he shielded her from view, and closed it behind himself.

“I’m sorry, I’m looking for a friend,” she heard him call out. “Um, have any of you seen her? Also, um, is something wrong? It’s, just, wow. That’s a lot of guns.” He sounded. . . wrong. No, not wrong, he sounded natural, but she knew what her master sounded like, and he almost sounded like Jorel when he talked, though with his own voice.

“Under orders of the Baron, you are under arrest for colluding with rebels!” the same voice as before called. “Submit and you will not be harmed!”

“Baron?” the Jedi asked, still playing dumb, but sounding increasingly worried. “I’m sorry, there must be a misunderstanding. I’m from off planet and just arrived, you see. I thought you all had a president. I’ll just go, as I’m very busy, so-”

The sound of a blaster rang out, followed by more blasterfire after a moment, a few bolts hitting the windows, not breaking but only leaving dark spots, showing the frosted panes to be glassteel, before there was only silence, even the normal ambient noise of the city abating.

“Well, that was just rude,” Master Lucian said, once more himself, with calm control, sounding just like he did right before he added some new twist to her training, but with an underlying edge she hadn’t heard from him. There was the Snap-hiss of a lightsaber, and a nearly inaudible murmur of ‘Jedi!’ from several other. “Someone really should teach you all some manners.”

“FIRE!” the other voice called, “KILL THE JE-GHUGH!” and then the sounds of combat, of a small war, came from outside, more stray shots hitting the windows, which still stayed intact. She could feel the swirl of the Force as her Master did something, his Presence expanding to encompass the street, with a pressure that was almost physical, then the city block, a feeling of comfort and confidence wrapping around her, of belief that she could do her task, but also of worry for her safety.

As those outside started to scream, she had to assume they felt something very different.

Explosions started to sound, as the Force twisted in ways she didn’t recognize, shaking the windows, as she could sense the Jedi Master run. The sound of violence followed him, leaving her alone in the abandoned shop, silence descending once more.

You know, studying wasn’t so bad, she decided, as she took a seat at the computer, and tried to figure out her next move.