Zeltros system, planet Zeltros

Waves of happiness beach

9 BBY

The blue-indigo waves were constantly coming forth and receeding, almost covering the constant chatter and comercial noises of the Happiness Beach, with its million zeltrons and a thousand of other visitor races. Almost.

"Jay! Jay! Are you paying attention?" his friend yelled at him from the nearest long-chair.

"Always, what do you want, Han?" he wondered in the same calm voice he had to use, just to survive the experience. He did need better friends.

"So, I was thinking, since we have the summer break, and you and Lando got paid for saving the galaxy..." Han began spouting another scheme to get them in trouble, or get them kidnapped by some dark cult, or sold into slavery to the Zygerrians, again.

And he didn't want to meet Colonel Bond or his merry team of psychopathic rescuers again. All that screaming and body parts flying around was vomit inducing. Or maybe that was the anti-venom?

"No!" Jaybo replied annoyed, and sipped his drink with a serene face. He did make about half a million credits from the Silentium mission, not too shabby for two weeks of terror. Not that anyone shot at them, only tried to invade them with a memetic protocol, and wipe their memories.

"So, this guy I know has a ship. A Correlian YT. I and Lando are planning to buy it, and repair it. But we need 50 thousands credits..." Han continued undeterred.

Where did Han even meet that kind of people? It was almost like he was magnet for trouble. But a spaceship did sound nice.

"Okay, I can donate some cash, if I get a share in the ship. Say 50 percent" Jaybo replied with some interest. As Han was certain to have negative balance in his account, and Lando got paid 50 thousand credits for being himself...

"You're killing me here, my friend! Can't I get at least 20 percent, as a finder's fee?" Han asked in a begging tone.

"I suppose I could let you have a non-tradable share of 5 percent, if this deal goes okay..." Jaybo allowed with after some thinking.

"Non-tradable...you mean I can't sell my share? Never?" Han wondered with his eyes shifting side to side in desperation.

What did Han do now? Was he planning to sell his share of the not yet bought ship? Of course, he did.

"How much do you need Han?"

"Errrr. Three and two, plus that guy, about seven thousand..." his friend admitted in a pleading tone.

"How much!" Jaybo yelled, then looked around sheepishly, as the nearby zeltrons looked disdainfully at him, for displaying some other emotion beside love.

"Eleven thousand and change. I swear they cheated somehow. I had a winning hand!" his friend exclaimed in fake disbelief.

So, another card debt...

"You could ask Ysanne to look into those guys. Make them go away" he answered thoughtfully. Ysanne would call her father, and Triumvir Issard of the Officio Assassinorum would sort it out. Quickly. But, at a price.

"Yeah, no. Don't want to spend another month with her father goons on some desolate planet doing survival training and eating snakes and leeches. Three times was enough, I learned my lesson" Han declared proudly.

"You learn fast. I'm proud of you Han!" Jaybo replied sarcastically.

"I know! All my teachers say the same! Even though I can't pass any class, for some reason..." Han said with confused face, as he still had to pass any of his classes in astrogation and hyperspace mechanics.

Why did he even try taking that course?

"Anyway, once you help me settle these guys, I'm done playing around. I'm really going to finish the pilot course and get my civilian Captain license. And then, we can explore the galaxy!" Han said pumping his fist in self-encouragement.

Why were his friends morons? The civilian license was done through neural training now. Painless and effective, and guaranteed to work on 95 thousand species, including humans. Or you could do it the old way, learning every route and protocol by heart, then taking the exams. And not fail 16 times in a row.

"Hey, my boys! What are we doing today?" another familiar voice asked from behind him, and a friendly hand patted his shoulder.

"Figuring out how to save Han from some card gamblers" Jaybo muttered and pawed around for his drink. It was gone!

Damn Lando!

"Ah yes. Those guys lost everything they owned to me, even Han's debt. 12 thousand and change. They even tried to outcheat me, the morons!" Lando declared proudly, and draped his cape over a nearby hammock. Who wore capes at the beach?

"So I'm free! Yay, you're the best Lando! What are we waiting for, let's get the ship!" Han yelled excited.

"It's sad, you know. All your shares from the finder's fee going towards your debt. And Han, you still owe me two thousand..." Lando mumbled thoughtfully, while sipping from his drink.

The drink that he stole from the Jaybo's cupholder beside his long chair.

"If we add the cut from my share though, you still owe Han one thousand credits" Jaybo added as revenge for the stolen drink.

It was a fresh mango squeeze with ice from the moons of Iego. Made him nostalgic. Plus none of the Iego's moons had any ice. Damn tourist scams!

"Damn it. Here you go Han. I pay always pay my debts!" Lando declared magnanimously and flung a credit chip at the eternal poor friend.

Not that Han will have any credits left by the next week, even if one could live well for a month with that much cash.

And with that, the three friends left the beach, and headed towards the scrapyard to buy a Millennium Falcon.

------------------

Looking after them with a sigh, Ysanne Isard lowered the datapad and whispered in her comlink.

"Negative on further training. They got lucky and cleared the sabacc debt. But they still need a hyperdrive motivator for the ship.

Do we have one at hand, with our own code on it?"

"Affirmative, agent Isard. Operation 94112 is a go. First, the Frangawl Cult on Bardotta, and then a visit to Lothal. The Emperor has something big planned there. And may the Force have mercy on their souls. Again" her controller whispered back, with a barely restrained snicker.

That strange accent though. Colonel Arnold then.

More guts and limbs will be spread about, as the three stooges will need to be rescued again, and give the Officio a reason to intervene and massacre a poor dark cult.

Her friend Kira even liked this Han Solo guy, for some reason. Maybe next mission, she could play matchmaker, and let Kira be saved heroically?

What was the next mission, the Sultan of Boz Pity?

Ah, this job was truly rewarding, just like the Emperor said. Never a dull moment.

Shadowland dimension, Jedha system

9 BBY, next month

"Why am I not cold?" Fay muttered to herself, already bored with endless corridors, all empty except the voices.

Some voices she even recognized, Masters of the Jedi Orders, long dead. Whispers of platitudes and quotes of the Jedi Code.

"We could make you cold, but you don't have a body. You're nobody" a shape made of shadow replied, floating above her and fluttering in the wind. Except there was no wind.

"Are you real?" Fay wondered out loud, almost convinced she had lost her sanity along with her body.

"Is this air you're breathing, right now?" the shape replied, coalescing into a woman's shape, but too tall and wearing a creepy white mask.

Fay thought for a minute, then walked away, ignoring the crazy apparition. She wasn't breathing after all, just sustaining herself with the Force. It was kinda weird that even dead souls needed to use Force Sustenance to stay conscious, if not alive.

"She's not the one we were waiting for. Although...she also is. She has the rank, I believe" the shadow woman spoke to herself, then laughed happily.

"But to retain her identity, and come here? I know we didn't train her. A mystery in the heart of the Force. How quaint" the woman continued, but in another voice, this time sad.

Fay stopped to think it over. The strange woman talked about training. Like, this was something anyone with the right training could do.

"Did Pef come here before? He sort of trained me, via a holocron" the lost Jedi replied, pressing a hand on a nearby wall, to make sure she wasn't dreaming. It felt warm and solid, almost like a stone sitting in the sun.

"Aha! Mystery solved. Welcome, Jedi Fay. Perhaps you should have finished learning all the lessons on that holocron?" yet another voice asked, the fifth one. Angry voice?

"Who are you? And what do you mean? Why would more lessons matter? I am here, in the afterlife. My journey is over" Fay concluded, with her own sadness.

"We are the ones in the Center. Do you think you learned enough about the Force? You, are not in the afterlife. And your journey...might not end, yet" the woman replied, changing her voices and personalities with each answer.

"I am the most learned Jedi still alive, then. Grandmaster of the Jedi Order. And I realize, I know little about the Force. Even the crazy droid knows more than me, and..." Fay stumbled through her words, the realization painful nonetheless.

"Pef is a cheater and doesn't count. Always avoiding retaliation, by shifting blame on someone else. I didn't mess with causality, some god did it for me. I didn't eradicate an entire species, the Tsil did it for me. I didn't kill the Chosen One, I acted to save the younglings, and my droids did it anyway. One day he will make a false step, and suffer retribution. The Wills are five, and the last one never fails" the shadow woman explained with another creepy laugh.

Uh. The Force is really vengeful then, just like Pef claimed. She didn't agree with all his actions, but they worked. For the most part.

"So, what happens now?" Fay asked curious.

"The girl needs to master her fears. Pef did well to bring her here. While you...what do you need to master, Jedi Fay?" the specter replied in a compassionate voice, then dissipated into small tendrils, melting into the ceiling.

So, Pef had an apprentice, brought here, whatever here was, to temper her fears.

She did hear rumors of an old Jedi Temple, on Lothal, where Masters would bring Padawns to confront their fears.

But, that Temple was gone, destroyed millennia ago. And entering it certainly didn't require dying, or transubstantiation like Pef called this process.

Fay decided to call this place shadowland, after that shadow woman. Or women. Maybe it was a hivemind of five dead women?

What did she need to master? Why was she here?

Fay knelt to meditate, the posture a reflex, even though she lacked muscles or lungs now.

Breathe, hold, exhale. Circulate the Force internally, almost like she still had veins to carry blood and oxygen to and from her brain.

She checked her alignment and mental state, did a checklist of emotions and...

Negative emotions, like anger and resentment, directed right back at the Force. It would be easier to direct all this at Pef, and blame him for everything.

But she knew the truth now, since her Grandmaster rank allowed her to read all the surviving holocrons and archives.

All the original Sith sect were in fact exiled Jedi. Hundreds of other dark cults, created by former Jedi.

Countless genocides, entire planets glassed by her Order, often to silence dissenters to the Republic, or eliminate an undesirable Force sect, dark or not. And then, the records sealed and hidden.

Like the Force would be fooled and forget, if a Jedi hid the truth. Of course retribution came.

And when Palpatine started hunting the remaining Jedi, few worlds came to their help. Millions, on a thousand planets, instead of trillions.

The galaxy shrugged as the Jedi Order was persecuted, their lightsabers seen as weapons of terror by the citizens and their Force abilities as Jedi mind tricks. Used to cheat and steal. And after that, Force weapons and Mind alter were declared illegal, to anyone but the Imperial Servants.

And ten years later, pilgrims visited the Dome of Jedha, just to take pictures of real Jedi, like they were museum pieces.

Reporters making documentaries, or vengeful old enemies trying to settle the score, while they still had a target.

One last attachment remained, now too painful and obvious to ignore.

-------------------------

Planet Bar'leth, in the galactic Core

University of Bar'leth

"We're not taking a job for the Sava of the University, Han. Being chained to an altar, waiting to be sacrificed to a dark god is not fun!" Jaybo said calmly, while searching the index for the books that Sabine Wren needed to finish her project, the Arc Pulse Generator .

Ancient civilization did use molecular weapons, although working examples were rare. Or any kind of examples.

But then, he only needed to get lucky once.

"Come on Jay! It was only twice, or at most three times. Plus we have invisible bodyguards. We'll be fine" his former friend, with whom he never wanted to talk again, argued.

Jaybo ignored the walking disaster and focused on his search.

He ignored the classic ancients like the Celestials and the Rakata, whose artifacts were legendary and too valuable.

Digging through the records of more obscure civilizations was enlightening and fun.

"Jay, they're closing the library, man! You've been here for 8 hours..." Han explained in disbelief, and scratched his neck, where the recent hickey had formed.

Take one Han, place him on a new planet, let him stew for a few hours. And the result, another angry woman, and probably more problems.

"Let's get some food, and somewhere to crash overnight. I still have to read more tomorrow. Lando back yet?" He asked, not expecting any answer.

"He said he'd call when he leaves Lothal. Anyway... I need 200 credits. They don't allow male students in the female dormitories here. Damn prudes" Han said furtively, as they left the library.

Jaybo shook his hand for good luck, and placed a 500 credit chip in his palm, before turning away and starting looking for a cafeteria.

An hour later, he was leaning back in his chair, belly full and hunger sated when a certain word spoken nearby triggered his implant's security.

"That's the sad truth. My father is obsessed with this Ordu Aspectu cult, my mother left for the Outer Rim, and all the files I need were deleted by the Empire. I will speak with the Sava again, maybe he'll give me a small grant to research the Baobab Archives on Manda. Or at least credits for a ticket." a cute brunette girl complained to another girl.

Both girls were students of archeology. Their data profiles ran on his implant, no doubt alerting his father of the new security threat.

'She's a genius and a loose canon. But if you like her...' Pef sent after a minute, probably after checking the timeline for deviations.

Hmmm. Pef rarely called anyone a genius. Actually, only two people on the Alashan team were ever called that.

The paranoid Omwati girl and the psychopathic doctor.

Another duty then. And he might find the records he needed on Manda.

"Excuse me, I overheard you talking about Baobab? I'm heading there tomorrow, and I have a ship. A share in a ship." Jaybo said politely, looking at the genius girl's eyes. And only at the eyes.

"What ship and what share?" her female friend asked cautiously.

"The Millennium Falcon, at pier 399. And 50 percent share." he answered with a smile, but maintaining eye contact.

"You're not a student here. You did not find what you were looking for?" the girl asked curious.

"Nope. Wasted my time searching the index. But Baobab should be good. The Galactic Empire didn't reach that far during the Sith regime" Jaybo replied with another smile, then turned away and left.

If Chelli Lona Aphra was interested, the genius girl will be waiting for him at the spaceport, tomorrow at the first light.

It's what he would do, as a fellow genius.