Sunrise on the planet Naboo found the Jedi Knight Adrian Trench already hard at work, as he had been for the last few hours. Despite the calm and rainless night before, Adrian had only managed to get what seemed to him only a few minutes’ sleep, although in actual fact he’d sweated away almost two hours of troubled dreams.
He stood back and wiped his hands with a bit of rag, admiring the speeder. It was dull yellow, with streaks of green running down the length and tapering off toward the rear. The whole thing was optionally open-topped, and a pair of moderate engines sat on its back. It had taken Adrian almost a month to bring it up to this condition, from the scrap heap it had been when he’d first found it.
It had taken some doing, but eventually he’d been able to scrounge up some tools and equipment, and from there it had just been a simple, if lengthy, process of putting the thing back together again. But it had all been for a purpose.
Adrian started pacing around the speeder, absent-mindedly admiring his handiwork whilst reflecting on the few seconds of dream he could remember from the night. It wasn’t much, but he’d seen it before, on other nights. It always came in pieces, but over time he’d worked out a pattern, and had fitted the memories in together with each other to form a series of clear images. His recurring dream. Or nightmare.
It was always the same, but he only ever saw it in parts. Last night it had been the ocean scene, and he knew where that one fit into the sequence. After the volcano and before the cave. That was the way it went. Always the same, always in his dreams, always with no meaning!
Adrian didn’t truly know what the dream meant. It was just a series of images, places, all natural formations. There were no words, no people, no buildings. Just the images of different places, always the same, always in his mind at night.
He’d talked to the other Jedi about it, but that hadn’t helped much. It was just a dream, perhaps a vision of something to come, only it had no meaning. Adrian was sure he’d never seen any of the places in his dream before, just as much as he was sure that there was something he was missing. He knew there was something there, under the surface, some hidden familiarity, but the Knight just couldn’t find it.
Adrian stopped pacing, and bent down to examine the contents of the brown duffel bag that lay at his feet. Food, clothes, water, medkit; he checked the items off in his mind, noticing also a datapad and power cells. After he was sure he had everything, he fastened the top of the bag and picked it up off the garage floor, walked over to his speeder, and stored it in the spacious rear compartment. His lightsabres clanged softly against the side of the speeder as he bent over it, and that brought his attention to them.
Quickly he checked them both, making sure that they, too, were in peak condition. On his left hip hung the training sabre that Master Kahn had given him before he’d become a Knight, over half a year ago. By his right was his brother’s old lightsabre, which Adrian hardly ever used, but kept as a token of remembrance.
Remembering the dreams, it had been so different last night. For the past few days, the dreams had become far more frequent, far more urgent than they had ever been. He knew he had to go somewhere, that was one of the hidden messages in the dreams, Adrian thought. He didn’t know where he was supposed to go, but just that he’d know the direction once he started.
Pulling his cloak around him, Adrian jumped into the speeder. He’d been up most of the night getting it ready, and had planned to leave before the streets became too crowded. He’d been working on the speeder in a friend’s workshop, the front of which was fully open to the street outside. Adrian didn’t mind working in such a public place, and he’d met some interesting people while toying with the machine.
As he began powering up the speeder, he thought how easy it was for a person to just walk in off the street and strike up a conversation. This was such a public area of the city that just about anyone could turn up.
He stood back and wiped his hands with a bit of rag, admiring the speeder. It was dull yellow, with streaks of green running down the length and tapering off toward the rear. The whole thing was optionally open-topped, and a pair of moderate engines sat on its back. It had taken Adrian almost a month to bring it up to this condition, from the scrap heap it had been when he’d first found it.
It had taken some doing, but eventually he’d been able to scrounge up some tools and equipment, and from there it had just been a simple, if lengthy, process of putting the thing back together again. But it had all been for a purpose.
Adrian started pacing around the speeder, absent-mindedly admiring his handiwork whilst reflecting on the few seconds of dream he could remember from the night. It wasn’t much, but he’d seen it before, on other nights. It always came in pieces, but over time he’d worked out a pattern, and had fitted the memories in together with each other to form a series of clear images. His recurring dream. Or nightmare.
It was always the same, but he only ever saw it in parts. Last night it had been the ocean scene, and he knew where that one fit into the sequence. After the volcano and before the cave. That was the way it went. Always the same, always in his dreams, always with no meaning!
Adrian didn’t truly know what the dream meant. It was just a series of images, places, all natural formations. There were no words, no people, no buildings. Just the images of different places, always the same, always in his mind at night.
He’d talked to the other Jedi about it, but that hadn’t helped much. It was just a dream, perhaps a vision of something to come, only it had no meaning. Adrian was sure he’d never seen any of the places in his dream before, just as much as he was sure that there was something he was missing. He knew there was something there, under the surface, some hidden familiarity, but the Knight just couldn’t find it.
Adrian stopped pacing, and bent down to examine the contents of the brown duffel bag that lay at his feet. Food, clothes, water, medkit; he checked the items off in his mind, noticing also a datapad and power cells. After he was sure he had everything, he fastened the top of the bag and picked it up off the garage floor, walked over to his speeder, and stored it in the spacious rear compartment. His lightsabres clanged softly against the side of the speeder as he bent over it, and that brought his attention to them.
Quickly he checked them both, making sure that they, too, were in peak condition. On his left hip hung the training sabre that Master Kahn had given him before he’d become a Knight, over half a year ago. By his right was his brother’s old lightsabre, which Adrian hardly ever used, but kept as a token of remembrance.
Remembering the dreams, it had been so different last night. For the past few days, the dreams had become far more frequent, far more urgent than they had ever been. He knew he had to go somewhere, that was one of the hidden messages in the dreams, Adrian thought. He didn’t know where he was supposed to go, but just that he’d know the direction once he started.
Pulling his cloak around him, Adrian jumped into the speeder. He’d been up most of the night getting it ready, and had planned to leave before the streets became too crowded. He’d been working on the speeder in a friend’s workshop, the front of which was fully open to the street outside. Adrian didn’t mind working in such a public place, and he’d met some interesting people while toying with the machine.
As he began powering up the speeder, he thought how easy it was for a person to just walk in off the street and strike up a conversation. This was such a public area of the city that just about anyone could turn up.
