Ian pulled the rebreather mask from his face with a wet suction sound, gasping in the stale air in one of the remaining air-bubbles in the ruins of Otah Gunga. He blinked the water from his eyes and looked around.
It smelt of death and decay. Much of it was collapsed or in disrepair, and though he was no master of the Force, Ian could clearly sense the lingering hint of the Dark Side. It rippled in the echoes of screams that had bounced from the walls when Sith had made the once-thriving city a graveyard.
It was also oppressively dark. Without power, the small fraction of the city that remained had only ambient lighting from fluorescent sea-life. It cast the already-eeriy ruins in a greenish hue, but gave just enough light for Ian to find a maintenance station.
Ian shook the water off himself before reaching for a rusted control panel. "Let's see what we've got..." he murmured, before testing the controls. Unresponsive. Ian frowned, and laid his hand on the console. He closed his eyes and reached out through the Force, letting it guide him along every bound wire and rusted bolt.
Finding the source of the blockage, Ian gently lifted the shard of scrap metal out of the way. With a slight sparking and a low hum, faint light returned to the console.
Ian smiled. "Jackpot." With a few quick commands, he managed to restore some low-level lighting. Lamp posts lit up all along the chamber, providing a little more light and reveaing all manner of lean-to housing, a veritable shanty town amongst the rubble. The ashes from fires, ragged clotheslines, and lone spears dotted the remains of grand buildings.
As he watched, Ian also noticed eyes - peaking out from behind the rubble and from within the scattered houses. Feeling uneasy, but still curious, Ian inched towards the settlement.
"H-Hello?" he asked, trying to reassert his confidence. "I'm Ian, I was sent to... well, to find out what was going on down here. Who are you?"
Silence. No one responded, a few even sunk back into hiding. Undiscouraged, Ian came a little closer. "It's all right, you can trust me, I'm a Jedi Knight sent from the-"
He didn't get to say any more than that. The instant the word Jedi left his lips, gangly gungan warriors leapt up, hooting and hollaring. Many plucked spears from the rubble and spat indecipherable curses at Ian, but all of them were running towards him.
Katria was exhausted, but relieved. They stood on the steps of Theed's city hall. Behind her, the younger of the Order staggered in her wake - many of the youngest were being carried by the older Jedi who had come along. She turned to the group, saying "Wait here, I'll just be a moment!"
Feeling a little more energy enter her step, she climbed the stairs to city hall and stopped at the first civil servant she saw.
The man, steel-rimmed glasses and all, glanced up from his work. "May I help you?"
"Yes," said Katria, warmly. "I've got a lot of children without anywhere to stay with me, do you know where a youth hostel or shelter is in Theed? Or some other place that takes in young people?"
Reeking of boredom and apathy, the man shrugged. "Sorry miss, but there's no more hostels operating in Theed. They all went out of commission a couple years ago - too much demand."
Shocked, Katria said "You're joking - really? But I hardly see any homeless people in Theed."
"Technically, the city hasn't got a homelessness problem," the man droned. "As it's the captial, homeless people are sent outside the city limits, usually to a bigger city like Keren."
"But what am I supposed to do with the children?" said an exasperated Katria.
The man just shrugged again, and turned back to his work. "Try the Jedi Temple down the road. I hear they like taking care of people."
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Katria kept telling herself as she stalked out of the building, her fists balled. This isn't working. Okay, try counting to ten.
She returned ashen-faced to the crowd, which had seated itself along the steps. "I'm sorry," Katria said. "But I don't know what to do now. I don't think there's anywhere for us to go."
Feeling a weight of hopelessness, Katria sat down on the steps away from the children. It's like no one's here for us, she mused. As if a light had suddenly turned on, she added But I am...
"Quite the evening we've been having, eh?" said Fwar, looking out over the rooftops.
"Oh yeah," replied Shillia. "You sure know how to show a girl a good time, Fwar. Could you help me with this bandage? The burn keeps displacing it.
"But of course," Fwar replied, before giving the bandage a yank to tighten it.
Shillia winced in pain, managing to hiss out "Gee, thanks."
"No trouble at all," said a smiling Fwar, who turned back to the skyline of Theed. Below them, the beautiful architecture of Theed spread out like a vast canvas, gilded by moonlight and whisps of clouds. "That last thug with the switchblade was truly a sore losers."
"Not quite so bad as his friend with the disruptor, let me tell you," said Shillia, as she picked at the burn. "I hope they can make that illegal weapons charge stick."
"Speaking of illegal," a gravelly voice intoned, "since when did the Jedi get the power to break the law?" The speaker was a terribly rough man, whose face was a patchwork of scars and burns fighting for territory. In his wake, grim thugs with long coats fanned out along the roof, covering all sides.
Fwar's brow furrowed. "Broken the law? I don't know what you mean."
"Littering," the rough man said. This elicted a dark chuckle from his men, before he continued. "The splat you'll make on the ground is going to cost the city a pretty penny to clean up."
"Now listen here," said Fwar. "We have no quarrel with you, good man. What is your business?"
"Listen," said the rough man. "You Jedi have been out of town for a while, so maybe you've fallen behind, but after your little fight with the Sith there was plenty of room for a wise man to fill the gaps. Everything outside the shiny happy city-center ain't yours to own or to police, and we're here to make sure the Jedi get that message." The men around the roof levelled pistols from within their coats towards the Jedi.
"But surely we can-"
"Will you shut up?" snapped Shillia, as she engaged her lightsaber. "Now grab something and hit 'em with it!"
"Why are we going to Keren again?" mumbled Proq, as he tried not to fall asleep in the back of the speeder.
"There are mor criminals in Keren," replied Jubaz. "More to hunt."
"Oh, good," said Proq. "Why do we want to pick a fight with more criminals again?"
"For great justice," said Jubaz.
Proq sighed, and pulled his robe down over his eyes. "Wake me up when we get there."
The speeder zipped along under the moonlight, along the tree-lined roads of Naboo that stood untouched by war and strife for years. Here, the burn of the Sith, the Empire, or other oppressive forces had not reached, and people lived as they always had.
In fact, some were doing so right now. Jubaz glanced to one side, seeing a farm. It appeared as though it had stood since the planet's colonization, and his curiosity was piqued. He watched the little windows, the wilted scarecrows, and the fields of crops as an outsider mystified by the process that grew food from earth.
They were soon passing through an entire small farming village, with more fields than houses and more wells than power lines. Jubaz marvelled at the simplicity of it all, considering wether he should wake up Proq so that he could see as well. He decided against it - it didn't seem like Proq's kind of thing.
He didn't get much further in this dream state, though. With a thunderous roar that woke everyone in town, a huge beast reared it's head over a copse of trees. Startled, Jubaz swerved to avoid its' feet and crashed through a picket fence before hitting the trees beyond.
Farmers started pouring out of their homes, shrieking in panic as the beast stumbled around and snapped at crops, plants and other flora. Spooked by the chaos, its' ponderous bulk began gearing up for a stampede.
"Are we there yet?" mumbled Proq, as his dizzy self crawled out of the crashed speeder.
"On your feet!" shouted Jubaz. "There is work to be done!"
"I must say, I don't like the time you keep, Master Jedi." said Queen Carlotta. She hadn't even had time to put on the finery usually associated with the office of Queen of Naboo, sufficing for a royal bath gown. The throne room was cold and empty, except for the queen's handmaidens, the queen, and Dolash. "Your predecessors were more courteous."
Strange that there would be so many, considering she's the one with the elected office. "Queen Carlotta, I come to you on a matter of upmost importance, as well as to make your aquaintance. I have been elevated to a high position in the Jedi Order, and seek to revive its' dying spirit as well as repair relations with our hosts and neighbours, the people of Naboo."
"You may be a few years too late for that," Carlotta replied briskly before sitting down in her throne. "The effects of the Sith attack are still resented by a great deal of the population. That isn't what interest me, though - what I'm curious about is why now you're interested in returning, and what you plan on doing."
"A simple answer, your majesty." Dolash seated himself opposite the queen and entwined his fingers. "My predecessors were more courteous, perhaps, but they got precious little done. Now that the position is mine, I feel the Order needs to take drastic action to reverse our downward spiral. In short, I have turned my entire Order loose, directing them only to do good deeds, and then left them."
There was a brief period of silence as the queen waited for the Jedi to respond. "And then...?"
"And then I cam here to tell you about it," replied Dolash.
"...And that's it? You sent several hundred Force users out onto my world without any plan or direction?"
"Ah, not entirely," said Dolash. "I did direct them to do good deeds."
Carlotta seemed at the same time shocked and disbelieving. "And what do you hope to accomplish?"
"Why, good deeds, of course." Dolash sprouted a maddening smile, clearly enjoying the moment of enigmatic simplicity.
Carlotta rose from her throne slowly, and began to speak with a tone of worry. "I sincerely hope you'll start making more sense soon, Dolash. What is it that you want and why have you come to me? And why do this?"
"Your majesty," said Dolash, who began to gesture with his hands, "I want what you want - restoration, order, peace, and security - and I want the Jedi to do it. Not only that, but I want you to be able to have faith in us to do that as well. I want you to be able to step out tomorrow and declare to your people that the Jedi have returned and will hear their cries once more, and I want to be there when you say it."
The queen was quiet for a moment. She glanced to her handmaidens for a reaction, to see if she was the only one who felt the unusual nature of the circumstances. "And how do you expect your Jedi to create such faith?"
Again, the smile spread across the grey features of Dolash's face. "Why your majesty, I've already told you - by doing good deeds."
It smelt of death and decay. Much of it was collapsed or in disrepair, and though he was no master of the Force, Ian could clearly sense the lingering hint of the Dark Side. It rippled in the echoes of screams that had bounced from the walls when Sith had made the once-thriving city a graveyard.
It was also oppressively dark. Without power, the small fraction of the city that remained had only ambient lighting from fluorescent sea-life. It cast the already-eeriy ruins in a greenish hue, but gave just enough light for Ian to find a maintenance station.
Ian shook the water off himself before reaching for a rusted control panel. "Let's see what we've got..." he murmured, before testing the controls. Unresponsive. Ian frowned, and laid his hand on the console. He closed his eyes and reached out through the Force, letting it guide him along every bound wire and rusted bolt.
Finding the source of the blockage, Ian gently lifted the shard of scrap metal out of the way. With a slight sparking and a low hum, faint light returned to the console.
Ian smiled. "Jackpot." With a few quick commands, he managed to restore some low-level lighting. Lamp posts lit up all along the chamber, providing a little more light and reveaing all manner of lean-to housing, a veritable shanty town amongst the rubble. The ashes from fires, ragged clotheslines, and lone spears dotted the remains of grand buildings.
As he watched, Ian also noticed eyes - peaking out from behind the rubble and from within the scattered houses. Feeling uneasy, but still curious, Ian inched towards the settlement.
"H-Hello?" he asked, trying to reassert his confidence. "I'm Ian, I was sent to... well, to find out what was going on down here. Who are you?"
Silence. No one responded, a few even sunk back into hiding. Undiscouraged, Ian came a little closer. "It's all right, you can trust me, I'm a Jedi Knight sent from the-"
He didn't get to say any more than that. The instant the word Jedi left his lips, gangly gungan warriors leapt up, hooting and hollaring. Many plucked spears from the rubble and spat indecipherable curses at Ian, but all of them were running towards him.
***
Katria was exhausted, but relieved. They stood on the steps of Theed's city hall. Behind her, the younger of the Order staggered in her wake - many of the youngest were being carried by the older Jedi who had come along. She turned to the group, saying "Wait here, I'll just be a moment!"
Feeling a little more energy enter her step, she climbed the stairs to city hall and stopped at the first civil servant she saw.
The man, steel-rimmed glasses and all, glanced up from his work. "May I help you?"
"Yes," said Katria, warmly. "I've got a lot of children without anywhere to stay with me, do you know where a youth hostel or shelter is in Theed? Or some other place that takes in young people?"
Reeking of boredom and apathy, the man shrugged. "Sorry miss, but there's no more hostels operating in Theed. They all went out of commission a couple years ago - too much demand."
Shocked, Katria said "You're joking - really? But I hardly see any homeless people in Theed."
"Technically, the city hasn't got a homelessness problem," the man droned. "As it's the captial, homeless people are sent outside the city limits, usually to a bigger city like Keren."
"But what am I supposed to do with the children?" said an exasperated Katria.
The man just shrugged again, and turned back to his work. "Try the Jedi Temple down the road. I hear they like taking care of people."
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Katria kept telling herself as she stalked out of the building, her fists balled. This isn't working. Okay, try counting to ten.
She returned ashen-faced to the crowd, which had seated itself along the steps. "I'm sorry," Katria said. "But I don't know what to do now. I don't think there's anywhere for us to go."
Feeling a weight of hopelessness, Katria sat down on the steps away from the children. It's like no one's here for us, she mused. As if a light had suddenly turned on, she added But I am...
***
"Quite the evening we've been having, eh?" said Fwar, looking out over the rooftops.
"Oh yeah," replied Shillia. "You sure know how to show a girl a good time, Fwar. Could you help me with this bandage? The burn keeps displacing it.
"But of course," Fwar replied, before giving the bandage a yank to tighten it.
Shillia winced in pain, managing to hiss out "Gee, thanks."
"No trouble at all," said a smiling Fwar, who turned back to the skyline of Theed. Below them, the beautiful architecture of Theed spread out like a vast canvas, gilded by moonlight and whisps of clouds. "That last thug with the switchblade was truly a sore losers."
"Not quite so bad as his friend with the disruptor, let me tell you," said Shillia, as she picked at the burn. "I hope they can make that illegal weapons charge stick."
"Speaking of illegal," a gravelly voice intoned, "since when did the Jedi get the power to break the law?" The speaker was a terribly rough man, whose face was a patchwork of scars and burns fighting for territory. In his wake, grim thugs with long coats fanned out along the roof, covering all sides.
Fwar's brow furrowed. "Broken the law? I don't know what you mean."
"Littering," the rough man said. This elicted a dark chuckle from his men, before he continued. "The splat you'll make on the ground is going to cost the city a pretty penny to clean up."
"Now listen here," said Fwar. "We have no quarrel with you, good man. What is your business?"
"Listen," said the rough man. "You Jedi have been out of town for a while, so maybe you've fallen behind, but after your little fight with the Sith there was plenty of room for a wise man to fill the gaps. Everything outside the shiny happy city-center ain't yours to own or to police, and we're here to make sure the Jedi get that message." The men around the roof levelled pistols from within their coats towards the Jedi.
"But surely we can-"
"Will you shut up?" snapped Shillia, as she engaged her lightsaber. "Now grab something and hit 'em with it!"
***
"Why are we going to Keren again?" mumbled Proq, as he tried not to fall asleep in the back of the speeder.
"There are mor criminals in Keren," replied Jubaz. "More to hunt."
"Oh, good," said Proq. "Why do we want to pick a fight with more criminals again?"
"For great justice," said Jubaz.
Proq sighed, and pulled his robe down over his eyes. "Wake me up when we get there."
The speeder zipped along under the moonlight, along the tree-lined roads of Naboo that stood untouched by war and strife for years. Here, the burn of the Sith, the Empire, or other oppressive forces had not reached, and people lived as they always had.
In fact, some were doing so right now. Jubaz glanced to one side, seeing a farm. It appeared as though it had stood since the planet's colonization, and his curiosity was piqued. He watched the little windows, the wilted scarecrows, and the fields of crops as an outsider mystified by the process that grew food from earth.
They were soon passing through an entire small farming village, with more fields than houses and more wells than power lines. Jubaz marvelled at the simplicity of it all, considering wether he should wake up Proq so that he could see as well. He decided against it - it didn't seem like Proq's kind of thing.
He didn't get much further in this dream state, though. With a thunderous roar that woke everyone in town, a huge beast reared it's head over a copse of trees. Startled, Jubaz swerved to avoid its' feet and crashed through a picket fence before hitting the trees beyond.
Farmers started pouring out of their homes, shrieking in panic as the beast stumbled around and snapped at crops, plants and other flora. Spooked by the chaos, its' ponderous bulk began gearing up for a stampede.
"Are we there yet?" mumbled Proq, as his dizzy self crawled out of the crashed speeder.
"On your feet!" shouted Jubaz. "There is work to be done!"
***
"I must say, I don't like the time you keep, Master Jedi." said Queen Carlotta. She hadn't even had time to put on the finery usually associated with the office of Queen of Naboo, sufficing for a royal bath gown. The throne room was cold and empty, except for the queen's handmaidens, the queen, and Dolash. "Your predecessors were more courteous."
Strange that there would be so many, considering she's the one with the elected office. "Queen Carlotta, I come to you on a matter of upmost importance, as well as to make your aquaintance. I have been elevated to a high position in the Jedi Order, and seek to revive its' dying spirit as well as repair relations with our hosts and neighbours, the people of Naboo."
"You may be a few years too late for that," Carlotta replied briskly before sitting down in her throne. "The effects of the Sith attack are still resented by a great deal of the population. That isn't what interest me, though - what I'm curious about is why now you're interested in returning, and what you plan on doing."
"A simple answer, your majesty." Dolash seated himself opposite the queen and entwined his fingers. "My predecessors were more courteous, perhaps, but they got precious little done. Now that the position is mine, I feel the Order needs to take drastic action to reverse our downward spiral. In short, I have turned my entire Order loose, directing them only to do good deeds, and then left them."
There was a brief period of silence as the queen waited for the Jedi to respond. "And then...?"
"And then I cam here to tell you about it," replied Dolash.
"...And that's it? You sent several hundred Force users out onto my world without any plan or direction?"
"Ah, not entirely," said Dolash. "I did direct them to do good deeds."
Carlotta seemed at the same time shocked and disbelieving. "And what do you hope to accomplish?"
"Why, good deeds, of course." Dolash sprouted a maddening smile, clearly enjoying the moment of enigmatic simplicity.
Carlotta rose from her throne slowly, and began to speak with a tone of worry. "I sincerely hope you'll start making more sense soon, Dolash. What is it that you want and why have you come to me? And why do this?"
"Your majesty," said Dolash, who began to gesture with his hands, "I want what you want - restoration, order, peace, and security - and I want the Jedi to do it. Not only that, but I want you to be able to have faith in us to do that as well. I want you to be able to step out tomorrow and declare to your people that the Jedi have returned and will hear their cries once more, and I want to be there when you say it."
The queen was quiet for a moment. She glanced to her handmaidens for a reaction, to see if she was the only one who felt the unusual nature of the circumstances. "And how do you expect your Jedi to create such faith?"
Again, the smile spread across the grey features of Dolash's face. "Why your majesty, I've already told you - by doing good deeds."