Frakutsk the gungan Jedi, minister of peace for The New Galactic Coalition, had been sent to investigate a very interesting phenomenon...

A previously disregared planet in a nearby solar system had been giving off very strong readings of electrical activity, and, suprisingly enough, strong emmisions of The Force.

Frakutsk was just reaching the planet in his small, personal shuttle-craft. Being a Jedi, the force-power was almost overwhelming. Frakutsk pressed a few buttons on his ship.

"Wellsa... Thisa planet is made of da silicon..." said Fraktusk to himself as his shuttle got even closer to the planet.

The planet was all he could see now, a powerful, metalic presence, it appeared completely barren, most definately devoid of life. But then where was the force power coming from?

Frakutsk knew that Jedi artifacts of old had this kind of presence... could it be that this planet was a giant artifact, a huge conduit of force power? Alas, this is not how it felt. It felt like a presence, like one feels when with a Jedi master. But there was no life on the planet...

Frakutsk broke the weaker then average atmosphere of this planet (silicon isnt a very heavy metal). And, slowly, decended upon the planet.

The power of the force was now more powerful then anything Frakutsk had ever felt in his life. It was not repeling him, nor was it calling him in. It seemed to not know of his presence... but what was 'it' that it had the personic characteristic of 'knowing'? Surely, the planet itself could not have this force power, but if not the planet, what? Something inside the planet?

Frakutsk climbed out of his shuttle craft and stepped upon the planet. Nothing happened. Frakutsk looked around him. The horizen was rather far out, which ment the planet must have had a rather large volume. But the atmoshpere was thin... going much higher the air would not be breathable. Of course, looking around him, frakutsk saw no way to go higher, no geographic features at all. Just a barren, silicon desert.

Frakutsk knelt down and felt the silicon, as he did so, a jolt suddenly seemed to jump out of the planet and into him. He quickly withdrew his hand from the ground. But something seemed to be reading him, sensing him, a thousand things. Slowly, carefully, exploring his mind...

Frakutsk frowned, what was this strange planet? Was there something inside it controlling its actions? Was it really the planet making the actions?

A voice sounded from deep within Frakutsk, and yet, from all around him as well. It said one simple word in galactic basic...

"Self."

"Selfsa??" repeated Frakutsk. Why was this powerful entity, whatever it was, saying self? This strange, force power... but perhaps that was it... Frakutsk was, after all, a Jedi. And, if this planet was indeed a giant force-object, would it not think of Frakutsk as something like itself?

"Selfsa."

Said the planet, if it truely was the planet, again, this time mimicking the gungan pronunciation of the word. And then, another world.

"Share."

Share? Now it was telling Frakutsk to share... share what? Share the force? Share information? On a whim, Frakutsk asked the planet though mental force speech, "Sharesa what?".

Frakutsk felt the being searching again. And then, it spoke its third word.

"Light."

It wanted Frakutsk to share light. How could one share light with something that cannot see? Ah, perhaps it wanted to see. After all, something that has lived its life in blindness...

Frakutsk knelt down again, and pondered touching the surface once more. If touching the surface had allowed the planet to talk to him, and search his mind for these words, perhaps touching the planet longer would allow it fuller access, to sight, perhaps.

Frakutsk placed his hand on the silicon planet, and there was no jolt this time, just a slow influx of power.

Looking at the planet he had just placed his hand on, Frakutsk wondered how this planet had aquired a mind... Silicon is not a element used for one's brain.

Ah... but what WAS silicon used for? A computer is made primarily of silicon, droids' processing units and circuits and such are made of silicon. Droids could often seem to think for them selves, perhaps this planet, billions of times their size, was truely a giant, extremely advanced, computer. But all computers needed something to make them. What had made this?

A gleeful feeling now raidiated from the planet, sheer joy, freedom!

"Light!"

The planet said once more, in a delighted tone. And then,

"Thanks."

The planet was thanking Frakutsk. In order to feel hapiness and gratefulness, like this planet was so clearly feeling, one had to have feelings. That would mean that this planet, this computer, was indeed alive. Very alive.

What does one do with a giant, living, computer, that thinks for itself, that is ALIVE, and, whats more, has huge power in the force, no less?

Frakutsk took a moment to ponder his situation. He had been sent here to 'take over' the planet, if he could. But what would this planet think of being inhabited? Perhaps it could help as part of the leadership.... of... itself.

Frakutsk frowned. Things got more complicated when one encountered a living planet. Frakutsk did the logical thing, he decided to ask the planet.

Planetsa, Mesa works for others. Part of a huge group of peoplesa like me.

The planet took a moment, searching through Frakutsk, which made the gungan uneasy, but after all, what did he have to hide?

And?

Said the planet, simply.

Would yousa mind if more of da others like me came to thisa planet?

Frakutsk asked, hoping that the planet did not have strange tempermental issues... but then again, a computer the size of a planet would pretty much have to be a reasonable... person.

More Selfs come here?

The planet paused, Frakutsk could sence the thousands of checkings and crosscheckings that the planet was doing. It must have been predicting thousands of alternate futures...

Approved.

Frakutsk smiled. And had another idea...

Mesa have more for you...

Frakutsk went over to his ship, which contained a fairly advanced computer with a complete star-map and a complete history of the coalition, along with some other random information... laguage... etc...

Frakutsk took out an output cable and simply stuck it into the ground.

The planet began recieving this information at a speed incomprehendable to mortal minds... thousands of stars, details of history, flashing through in an instant.

Interesting... The New Galactic Coalition?

Oh... Frakutsk had his orders in there too...

'take over?' I take offence!

Pleasa, understand that the people whosa give mesa those orders did not expect you to be a living being...

Said frakutsk, noticing the dramatic improvement in the planets language skills.

Yes, i see now. Other planets, not like me? non-selfs?

Yousa are de only planet that mesa know that is intelligentsa.

The planet processed...

The probablility of a given planet turning out like me is approximatly 1.267349264926459 times ten to the negative two-googleplex-four-trillion-nine-billion-nine-hundred-sevently-three percent.

Frakutsk could only be amazed at the planets calculations... and and the amount of zeros that happened to be in between the 2 and the 4 in the negative power that ten was raised to.

I am.. lucky?

Frakutsk smiled...

Yesa, yousa are.

Those who come are non-selves...

Frakutsk winced, he thought this might be coming.

Yesa, they do not know the force. But theysa will not harm you.

The computer was silent for another moment.

They will not hear -- or they will not listen -- how will they know to do no harm

mesa will tell dem

The computer was silent for even a longer moment, Frakutsk wondered what it had wrong in its infinately complex mind.

you communicate with non-selves?

Uh... yesa

This does not comply. Explain.

Mesa speaks to them, using sound waves produced by mesa throat... i tellsa them what to do, yousa tell me what to tell dem...

Throat?

Uh... yesa, part of mesa body... physical existance.

Like a non-self...

Yesa, non-jedi have bodies too.

I have none?

Thatsa is true, but yousa have mind...

Correcting.

And the earth began to shake... and not too far away from Frakutsk, a figure began to emerge.

At first, the figure looked like nothing, an inanimate blob, but slowly... it took shape.

Silicon melted off its edges, and left was a human form.

She was beutiful, a shimmering women. Who would have known that silicon could be so... attractive?

Frakutsk smirked, the maiden was not human as frakutsk had first thought, but rather a rather impressive imatation of a Gungan, from the floppy ears to the webbed toes. Generally, one does not think of a gungan as being female... as a matter of fact, have you EVER seen a female gungan? Didn't think so... Neither have I... so we can just skip over the lengthy defining of this new character, and move right along to the next little part... ok?

Hehe, like its up to you...

I'm going to go on.

Whether you like it or not.

So there.

Yes, anyways:


Frakutsk bowed as the gungan maid approached him, as was traditional between Jedi. As Frakutsk's face lowered, he noticed that the nameless female gungan's feet were attached to the planet. Immediatly, Frakutsk saw the reason for this, why limit one's self to the brain-space of a gungan-head when one could use an entire planet for one's mind?

The shape of the maid changed again, but then reverted to its original. The familiar voice of the planet sounded again, this time, though, with a distinctively feminine touch.

I lack the proper materiels to make myself such as you... My form is of one element, your form consists of many.

That made sence... The world was, after all, made 100% out of silicon. As an after thought, Frakutsk noticed that the planet had dropped its gungan-speech that it had used, just for one word, earlier.

"Mesa will see that yousa gets what yousa needs." Frakutsk said, aloud, to the nameless (he really had to fix that nameless thing...) maid. He would have to see that the colonists brought some raw carbon and... stuff. Bleh, Carbon is smelly.

Speaking of which, those other colonists would be arriving pretty soon... woulden't they?

Oh... Darn...

So much for a peaceful talk with a super-conciousness in the form of a pretty gungan.

Frakutsk looked into his ship, and noted a green dot moving toward him. Frakutsk communicated with the first settlers by means of his ship's communications.

"Greetingsa, no problemsa with yousa coming now... though yousa should have asked..."

Yeah, what kind of planetary take-over system had a pre-set, timed delay for the colonists to arrive, anyway? Frakutsk would have to change that...

"Tellsa the next crew to bring these materiels:"

And Frakutsk recited a list of elements needed for life carbon-based life. Because, clearly, all gungans know that...

The transport ship touched down on the planet, and, wuite promptly, out came a short, fat man in a coalition uniform.

The human man sniffed through his immence mustache and said, loudly.

"Sir! Greetings from the coalition, sir! Permission to proceed with causualaties, sir!"

CASUALATIES?!

Frakutsk looked at him in horror... how on earth could one suffer casualaties on a peaceful transport vessel traveling an uneventful planet-hop?

"What?!?!"

Said Frakutsk, loudly back.

But, the short fat man did not answer.

Sure, the casualty report was supposed to come prior to anything, officially, but who obeyed THAT rule?

Yeah, rhetorical question, I guess.

And he wasn't technically supposed to proceed without permission...

"Uh.... Proceedsa..."

The man huffed again through his comical mustache and proceeded.

"Total casualaties, sir! One, sir! Cause of death, sir! Reactor accident, sir! Name: Huron Clumsyone, sir! Permission to procceed with burial-"

But the man was cut short by a silent scream from the planet/gungan girl/thingymabobber.

Then, a stunned silence.

No

A single word from the planet sounded, and the gungan maid's metal lips moved accordingly, though the sound, which wasn't really a sound at all, obviously did not come before.

Bring him here.

Commanded the planet.

"Sir! Permission to ask a question, sir!"

"Permissionsa... granted."

Responded Frakutsk, who had never really been treated like a coalition official before.

"Who is that, sir?"'

Not really knowing, Frakutsk simply motioned dumbly to the planet that they were standing on.

"Sir, may I obey her orders, sir?"

Frakutsk nodded...

The man did not respond.

Frakutsk rolled his eyes.

"Permissionsa granted."

The man promptly reentered his ship, and brought out a dead man. The man had no apparent injury, but was dead all the same. Apparently, he had suffered from electric shock, or some other form of less visable, but just as fatal, demise.

There is no death...

Said the powerful, mental voice of the planet.

Frakutsk knew how to respond, "There isa only da force."

The dead man promptly stood up.

The short, fat man showed no responce. Frakutsk, however, looked in confusion at the gungan woman.

"Did yousa..." Frakutsk trailed off, not knowing how to put his question.

The planet said simply.

No.

The planet waited for a moment, and then decided further information was neccessary.

I am now he.

"But how..."

Frakutsk did not finish his question, but the planet apparently knew what he was asking.

I control his actions.

And then, for the first time since dying, the man spoke.

"This unit's brain has been damaged beyond repair by an unkown source. However, I have replaced it with a reciever, that I may now send commands to, and which will convert these commands to the type of command this unit used, prior to this unit's physical end, to command this unit's actions."

That talk was slightly confusing, expecially when coming from the body of a dead man, but after a moment Frakutsk understood it. He looked over to the silicon gungan maid, who was still still.

The silicon gungan maid actually smiled, Frakutsk smiled back. However, after smiling, she melted away, into the planet. This disturbed Frakutsk... but, of course, he realized that the planet had obviously found this form not neccecary when allowed one that was made of flesh and blood. Frakutsk still liked the gungan better then this human... oh well.

Frakutsk then thought about what a deep understanding of neurophysics it must have taken for the planet to be able to do this thing of taking control of the dead man's body... Smart little girl, eh? Then Frakutsk realized that he would have to stop thinking of the planet as female, expecially since she... er... it... had taken the form of some big, strong, human male.

Apparently, the fat man decided it was time for the rest of the colonists to exit the ship.

As they did so... something very stange happened.

The entire planet erupted into a huge city made entirely of silicon... and the dead man smiled.

A good number of the colonists fainted. The rest were just entirely bedazzled...

Frakutsk was slightly suprised too, but he realized soon enough that the planet was just kindly providing the colonists with an entire city... and a very special city it was, there were huge buildings suspended way up high... everything. Something was strangely familier...

Frakutsk could not grasp what it was, but there was something... something about this place...

"Sir!"

Frakutsk was snapped back to reality by the ugly voice of the short, fat, coalition official.

"Sir! Request planet title to procceed with official planet-claiming, sir!"

"Ohsa.... uh...."

Frakutsk looked over to the former Huron Clumsyone.

"What do yousa call yousa self, den?"

The man stood still for a second, as if proccessing the question, and then responded.

"I"

Frakutsk snickered.

"Mesa mean what do yousa want da other peoplesa to call you?"

"You"

Frakutsk snickered again.

"Mesa mean, what shouldsa other peoplesa call yousa when talking about yousa in da third person?"

"It"

Frakutsk sighed defeatedly, and said the first thing that came to his mind to the fat man, because obviously he could not get an answer out of the planet.

"Emanon"

The man promptly made the claiming speech.

"I, general Gurgon Wopscutt Sseleman, claim this land in the name of the New Galactic Coalition..."

He kept talking, but Frakutsk's mind wandered off again... what was it about this place?

"Otah Gunga!"

Frakutsk exclaimed aloud... That was what it was! The city was Otah Gunga! The poor place, all that was left of it was rubble. Sure, this was Otah Gunga above ground and made completely out of silicon, but wow, what a sight...

The planet must have taken the city from Frakutsk's memory and mimicked it, to form a city for the colonists. It did a good job too... down to the finest little detail... Frakutsk had no idea that he had this good a memory of Otah Gunga, after all, he had left it when he was quite young.

As it happened, the fat man had just finished his speech when Frakutsk exclaimed the name of the city of his youth, so Frakutsk's 'comment' wasnt TOO out of place.

One of the colonists raised an eyebrow, "So it is! It is Otah Gunga! Wow, I never thought i would see the place again..."

The colonist's had taken extensive training... about what to do when confronted with an undeveloped world, and how to settle it. As it stood, none of them had any clue of what to do when confronted with an empty city for settling.

Some of the colonists with more common sence started looking around for homes. One of them stumbled upon an entire subdivision... however, the entire city was modeled after an underwater city, so the coulden't figure out how to get into the homes, which were quite high above the ground, ontop of huge poles.

Emanon spoke, "The poles are actually lifts, just put your hand on it, and a door will open up, allowing for you to access the lift that is inside the pole that is supporting the building. I regret I could not protray this 'Otah Gunga' more accuratly, however, the enviornment for this city is significantly different then the one that this 'Otah Gunga' was situated in. You may configure who may access the lifts to private places, such as your homes, from inside the building."

One of the colonists placed his hand on a pole and, sure enough, a previously concealed door swung open. He stepped inside and was toted upward into his home. Where did the energy to do this come from? He wondered... but no one else had asked that question, so he figured that it must be just some part of the planet that he should have known about.

At that same time, that same thought was passing through the heads of several of the colonists, one of whom was Nohj Eod, an azgaurdian.

Nohj looked around the house that he had just entered. It was good, he liked it... then his wife came it.

"Ah!" Exclaimed Enaj. "The entire place is made of metal!"

"Uh... yeah." Agreed Nohj.

"So untasteful, so horrendously ugly!" Continued Enaj, practically bursting.

"Uh... sure."

"Something MUST be done about this! Who is in charge?"

"Uh... That gungan."

"Ah! I should have known! A Gungan. Tsk!"

"Uh.... yeah."

Enaj Eod stomped out of the building... off to complain about her home.

Nohj, however, began looking around his new home, despite his less than inteligent method of speech, Nohj was an extremely adept engineer. Needless to say, he was interested in the giant computer that he was standing on.

He found a patch of light in a bedroom of the house...

There was a selection of languages on the 'screen'... Nohj poked at the one that said, 'common'. And, to his suprise, the screen changed.

"Welcome." read the screen, "If this is your first time using a lightpad, please press the screen now. If not, please wait for the main display."

Nohj looked over at where the light was being reflected off of. Sure enough, as he pressed the screen, the patch of silicon shifted positions. An amazing bit of engineering it truely was. The light, which came from a window to Nohj's right, reflected off this patch of highly-polished silicon onto the wall where to Nohj's left, where it was reflected again by another patch onto the wall in front of Nohj, where it formed the display that Nohj was interacting with now.

At first, Nohj did not understand why the lgith was reflected twice... but then he snickered at his sillyness. Of course, he was standing in front of the display, and would block the light if it was reflected directly from behind him onto the wall. This planet was a genius, thought Nohj. But where did the power to do all the moving of patches, and, for that matter, the instant creation of cities, come from?

Nohj looked back at the display, it was showing directions for the use of the 'lightpad'. The directions were quite straight forward. Chose an option on the main screen, and do the obvious, basically. The light pad was now going through all the different operations of all the different options, but nohj stopped paying attention after 'Time' and 'Date'.

Nohj looked behind him again to watch the shifting of tiny plates, as they became reflective and unreflective, as they turned and adjusted themselves. Frakutsk looked out his window, and something pressed against his head.

Nohj jerked his funny azgaurdian head out of the window, and looked up at where the bump had come from. Was it just him, or did the window move?

Oh, of course! The window had to move, because it needed to always let in sunlight for the display... which ment the display had to move too. Nohj didn't need check, he was sure that it was moving, slowly. When it got dark, though, Nohj wondered what would happen to the display then? Would it just not be available for use in the night time?

Nohj walked back over to the lightpad. It was larger now, and had a huge amount of 'buttons' to press. Each led to a different function, such as 'Time' 'Date' 'Calculations' 'Pad Placement' 'House Customazations' 'Food Menu (coming soon)' 'S-mail' 'Current News' 'Knowledge Base', and much, much more. One button even said 'Games!'.

Remembering his wife's complaints about the house, Nohj poked the 'House Customazation' button. He was greeted with a picture of a house, the same one he was in now, and three buttons saying 'Previous', 'Next', and 'Select'. Nohj pressed the picture and it zoomed in closer. The graphics were impressive despite being black and white, or, more accuratly, light and no light. Nohj poked around until the picture zoomed into the house, he saw the living room that he had entered through.

Nohj pushed 'next'. The living room changed. It now had several statues of various types, most of them just looked cool, though several could be recognised as places suitable for sitting. Like a couch, except made of silicon.

Nohj was happy with this selection, so he pushed 'select'. A message appeared politly requesting for him too exit the house so that the changes could take place safely.

He did so.

Nohj went down the lift, and then back up. When he came up he was greeted with an entirely new living room. Pleased, he exited the house in search of some food... house-changing was hungry work.

Apparently, several other colonists were also thinking about food, because there were a good number of them exiting their homes and walking back toward the ship. To all the colonists' suprise, there was no ship where they had left it. There was, however, Huron Cumbsyone, standing happily serving out the food that the ship had brought along with it.

Also serving food was Frakutsk, or rather, he would be serving food if he was not being pestered by Enaj Eod...

"I don't care if 'yousa' cannot do anything about it, sir! I will not live in that abombination that you call a home! By the frelling Zark! At least the porta-home i brought along had colour, sir!"

Fortunatly for Frakutsk , Nohj tapped his wife on the shoulder.

"Uh... honey?"

"What, Nohj?!"

"I... uh... think i fixed it..."

"What? How could you possibly fix anything?!"

"Well... uh... I... changed the house..."

Enaj looked skeptical, but she knew that her husband really was a skilled engineer. If it could be fixed, he would have fixed it.

Emanon walked over. "You have accessed the custamazation options? This is good. I am glad that my lightpads can be of service."

Enaj looked strangly at Emanon, but he had nothing more to say, he walked over to the table and continued serving food. Super-conviousnesses aren't necissarily the most skilled at knowing what is socially correct.

The Eods walked home.

Several hours later, all the colonists had filtered out of the area. Frakutsk was alone with Emanon, and had a few things to talk about.

"Wellsa, more peoplesa will be coming soon. Itsa is amazing that yousa have made thisa city! Can yousa make more?"

Emanon nodded.

Frakutsk was curious about the city, still, and he knew that he could not bother Emanon by asking, since answering the question must take... what... one billionth of the planet's brain-power?

"Why did yousa make disa city like Otah Gunga?"

"You remembered it fondly, I figured that others must also."

Oh yeah, Frakutsk did share his entire mind with planet... but he had to! Or else the planet would not understand anything of emotions... or anything! It probably woulden't care at all about people if it didn't know that they were conciousnesses simaler to It.

"Wowsa..."