Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It sounded like an airplane flying low overhead, but it was far too close. Looking up, Rachel saw as odd military style vessel crashing towards her. Even though she could tell it wasn’t going to hit her, she looked for cover next to one of the larger rocks near her. The shock from the crash echoed through the small valley, shaking the ground, and she heard several trees breaking and falling nearby. A squirrel jumped over where Rachel was ducking behind the outcropped rock, which, in hindsight, probably hadn’t been the best place to hide.

She looked around for where the strange ship crashed, seeing the herd of caribou she had been watching run off and away through the valley below her, and she saw smoke rising up on top of the bluff. With a look back at the retreating caribou, she shouldered her rifle and walked up the steep hill, careful of her footing, and when she reached the crash, it didn’t look like any aircraft she had ever seen before. With the nearby military base, it definitely seemed like something the military would use, and she wondered for a moment if they were experimenting with something new, but it was larger than a one person aircraft, and the outside was made of a metal that didn’t seem like any she was familiar with, but then, the military was always coming out with new technology.

As she came up to the craft, she swung her gun from her shoulder and carried it in a low ready position in front of her. The pilot could easily be from a different country, considering how close to the border her grandfather’s land was. The top of the vessel seemed largely intact, albeit very smashed in, and there was a large blast mark on the side near the front which left the inner workings of the ship exposed. She assumed that the cracked glass at the front of the ship was where the pilot would be sitting if he or she was still alive, but when the side of the ship suddenly flipped open, it made her take a quick step backwards as she clutched her rifle, resisting the urge to raise it in case they were friendly.

She froze, and her breath caught in her throat. The pilot was pointing a gun at her, but not any type of gun she had ever seen before. And as for the pilot himself—

He looked like a man, but his skin was blue, and his eyes were red and appeared to glow in the shadow of the trees. His hair was short, and it was a black-blue color.

Rachel swallowed and took a shaky, calming breath, questioning whether to raise her gun and shoot until she looked closer at him and saw that he was grabbing at his side, and his cheek had blood dripping down it. Without taking her eyes off him, she slowly and carefully set the rifle down, and as she stood back up just as slowly, she kept her hands out in front of her, palms outwards. Would this man—alien—understand her?

“I don’t mean you any harm,” she tried.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“I can see that you’re hurt,” she said. “Can I help you?”

His forehead creased ever so slightly before smoothing out again.

She took a cautious step forward, knowing that he could pull the trigger of his own weapon at any time, but she kept her gaze focused on his glowing eyes, not the weapon.

“Can I help you?” she asked again. “Please?”

“Why?” his voice was deep and sounded strained, but he spoke English, which was both astounding and a little frightening.

“You’re hurt,” Rachel said as if he hadn’t noticed the pain he was clearly in. “Why shouldn’t I want to help you?”

“Interesting.” He seemed to be thinking about something amusing because one corner of his lip curled up a bit before he lowered his weapon. “One Earthling wants to shoot me down, another wants to heal my pain.” His eyes narrowed again, studying her. “You are a strange species.”

“Evidently you’ve been watching us?” Rachel knew it should have been a statement, but it came out as a question. She still couldn’t make sense of it. This alien had been spying on Earth? Evidently long enough to learn English, and who knew what else.

“Yes,” he said, “We have been studying Earth and its surrounding planets for quite some time now. You are an…intriguing people.”

“That’s one word for it,” Rachel muttered. She knew Earth’s history and how muddied and tragic it was. If an alien was looking in from the outside, they would probably see only civil wars and trivial politics. Hardly worth sticking around for studying.

The alien started to climb out of his ship, clearly still in pain.

“Hey, take it easy,” Rachel protested taking another step towards him.

“I am all right,” he said, eyeing her with caution.

When he got his feet on the ground, he started assessing his ship. Rachel watched him, still not sure what she should do about him.

“I do not think I will be able to fly it again,” he began. “Not without a lot of repair work.” He turned to look Rachel in the eye. “Your pilots are very skilled in combat.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rachel said. “I don’t know who shot at you or where you even came from.”

He thought for a moment. “It’s probably better for now that you know as little as possible.”

“How am I supposed to help you if I don’t know you?”

He seemed to consider that. “Very well,” he said. “My name is Mitth’ra’nikuru. Is that sufficient for now?”

Rachel played the name over in her head. “Could you say it one more time?”

“It may be hard for you to pronounce,” he said. “It often is for those not of my species, but you may try: Mitth’ra’nikuru.”

“Mitth’ra’nikuru,” Rachel played the name over her tongue.

A small smile appeared on Mitth’ra’nikuru’s face. “Mitth’ra’nikuru.”

Rachel heard the slight difference and adjusted her mouth and tongue to make the sounds she wanted them to. “Mitth’ra’nikuru.”

“That’s much better than most species we’ve ever come across. Perhaps with practice, you may even be able to speak our language. You clearly have a linguistic talent.”

Rachel felt her cheeks warm. “That’s what my high school German teacher used to tell me. I just wish I’d actually pursued it.”

“Did you lack the opportunity?”

She turned away. His eyes were too sincere, and her past was not something she wanted to talk about.

“I see,” he said, but Rachel wasn’t sure that he did. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need to share her past with him. He wasn’t sharing anything other than his name with her.

“My name is Rachel Bakandi,” she said. “But you can call me Rachel.”

“Ray-schel,” he tried out the name. “Ba-kandi. That is almost as long as my own name.”

“That’s why you can just call me Rachel,” she said. “It’ll be easier.”

“In that case, it may also be easier if you call me by my core name: Thran.”

“Thran,” she repeated. “It is good to meet you, Thran.”

“Likewise, Ray’schel,” he inclined his head to her. “Would there be a place nearby where I could acquire tools to repair my ship?”

She thought about it. Her grandpa’s garage had some tools, but it would probably be better to go to a hardware store. However, that would be a much further drive, she didn’t have any money with her, and it would probably be odd for him to be seen in a store. This was supposed to be a nice short scout through the woods with the possibility of getting some food for her family.

“We can check my grandpa’s garage,” she said slowly, still thinking it over and looking back over her shoulder at the valley where the caribou had gone and then back at the damaged ship. “But I don’t think it’ll have the tools you really need.”

“It is a start,” he said.

“Ok. My truck is parked across the field at the bottom of the next hill. Are you ok to walk that far?”

He straightened up with some effort. “I will be all right.”

Rachel didn’t quite believe him but didn’t feel like telling him to sit and wait here, especially when she didn’t know what kind of tools he might need.

“All right,” she sighed, picking up her rifle from where she had left it. “Come on. And watch your step. It gets steep real fast in some areas. And we’ve just had rain a few days ago, so it’s a little slippery.”

While he eyed the gun, he didn’t protest. He had holstered his own weapon, and she noticed now a small brown bag that hung around his chest and hung at his side. She couldn’t guess its contents, but it likely was some manner of survival or travel gear the same as she carried.

They walked along the hill for a while in silence. Rachel made sure to descend as gradually as she could for Thran’s sake, and when they came out of the woods and began cresting the next hill, she looked down into the valley and saw where the herd had stopped at the edge of the woods across the plain.

“Your world really is quite beautiful,” Thran said from behind her, taking her out of hunting mode.

She turned, not even realizing that he had stopped to gaze around.

This was one of her preferred places to walk when she came here. The road came up to the field below them, but once she reached the top of the hill, she could see the whole valley with the river running through near the edge of the forest that went on for miles and miles in one direction, and in the other was the plain that her grandpa called prime grazing land which was where the caribou had stopped. Towering over it all was a mountain that reached high into the sky, and behind it stood shorter but no less magnificent mountains all covered in snow.

She took it all in anew with this alien who had clearly never seen something like this before.

“You’re fortunate to see it in the summer,” she said. “But you should see it in the fall. Some of the trees in the forest turn beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows. Most of them are pine though and don’t change color.”

“That sounds breathtaking,” Thran’s voice took on an awed tone. “How long do they stay those colors?”

“Only a week or two,” Rachel shrugged. “Then the leaves fall off, leaving the trees bare and looking dead. Then winter comes.”

“Fascinating.”

“I love spring the most,” Rachel mused.

“The leaves grow back?” Thran’s eyes were filled with curiosity and wonder almost like that of a child learning something for the first time.

“The leaves, flowers, grass. Everything comes back to life after the snow and ice leave. Especially here where winter drags on for most of the year, spring is a very welcome thing. It’s by far my favorite season.”

“I could see why that would be appealing,” Thran said. “It sounds beautiful.”

He turned and began walking again towards her. “You mentioned that this was a property. Does your family own it?”

“It’s been my family’s for generations. My grandpa is currently its keeper.”

“And he is to whose house we are going to retrieve tools?”

“Yes.”

“But he does not live on this land?”

“No, we use this land primarily for hunting, fishing, gathering, or just walking around. We live near town.”

“I see,” he said. “’We’ being your family?”

“I have two sisters, one brother-in-law, and two nieces. We live with my grandpa.”

“I see,” Thran half turned to look at her. “Are you the oldest?”

“I am right in the middle,” Rachel said, just as she said to many other people who asked. “What about you?” Rachel turned the question around. “Do you have any siblings?”

Thran remained quiet for a moment, and Rachel thought she saw his forehead wrinkle in thought, and his eyes almost looked sad.

“I have a younger brother,” he said at last, but Rachel could feel a sadness there and that there was more.

“Have?” Rachel asked carefully. “Or had?”

He stopped and glared at her, the sadness still lingering, but also a hardness that must have taken years to build.

“I have a younger brother,” he repeated, his voice cold.

And Rachel understood. There had been another sibling.

“I’m sorry,” she said, holding his gaze. “I didn’t mean to pry. I know that loss is hard.”

His eyes narrowed as he continued to stare at her, and Rachel wasn’t sure if he was about to yell at her or shoot her where she stood.

But his gaze lowered, and his shoulders seemed to drop slightly. “I had an older sister.” His words were quiet and gentle.

Rachel watched him. “May I ask—”

“No.” His voice was still quiet but firm, leaving no room for debate.

“Come on,” she said gently. “We’ve still got a ways to go.”

They had just made it to the base of the hill when Rachel heard a helicopter flying nearby. Not unusual, considering the military base was an hour’s drive away and the town’s airfield was another two hour’s drive away.

She could see her red truck parked on the side of the dirt road when the sound started to get closer and louder.

“Keep your head down and see if you can run,” she said, repositioning the rifle on her shoulder and picking up her pace as much as she could in the long grass of the field.

She could tell that Thran wasn’t keeping up with her, but she continued at the pace she was going. When she reached the truck, she tried to make it seem like she had simply been the one who had reached it first and not like she was trying to outrun a helicopter.

She risked a glance to the sky as she unloaded the gun and shoved the bullets and clip into her pockets and saw that there were, in fact, three helicopters flying straight towards Thran’s crashed ship.

“Get in,” Rachel said when Thran finally reached the truck.

“This is a vehicle?” he began to ask.

“Just get in,” Rachel barked back, tossing the rifle into the backseat of the truck.

A little unsure, he opened the truck door and got in the passenger side.

Rachel started the truck and began to do a U-turn to head back to her grandpa’s house, but a sudden thought hit her. Would that be smart? Had these people seen her? Or Thran? Would they follow her?

There weren’t a lot of options though. Out here, there weren’t a lot of roads to choose from. But which direction she chose would give her an idea as to whether or not they were following her or just looking around.

Only one way to find out.

“We’re going to take the scenic route,” Rachel told Thran. “Put your seatbelt on, or my truck will start to yell at you.”

“Excuse me?” Thran looked at her confused.

“The strap by your shoulder,” Rachel pointed. “Strap in, or my truck will start beeping annoyingly.”

He worked on the seatbelt and glanced at the helicopters flying over the trees. “You believe they have hostile intentions?”

“Do they look like the people who shot you down?” she shot back.

“I was shot down from a much higher orbit,” he said casually. “It could be that these people are friendly like you instead of hostile like those who shot me down.”

Rachel thought about it, but she had a bad feeling about it all. “I don’t trust it.”

She started driving down the bumpy dirt road, but when she looked in the rearview mirror after several turns, she saw that one of the helicopters was following her.

“Crap.”

“You do not think it possible that they may want to help?”

“You want to get out and ask?”

“I suppose not.”

“Although they probably have my plate number and are tracking me personally down right now.”

“They are permitted to do that?”

“I wouldn’t put it passed them.”

“You would not what?”

Rachel looked over at him, realizing that he didn’t understand the idiom. “I don’t think it outside the realm of possibilities that they would look into my personal life just because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I see.”

“Trouble is,” Rachel said, glancing back at the helicopter again, “I can’t just keep driving forever.”

“And I would rather you did not.”

She looked over at Thran to see him clutching at the sides of the truck as if holding on for dear life, and she couldn’t hold back the smile that came across her face. “I’m not that bad of a driver!” she protested. “You should drive with one of my sisters. They’ll scare you real good.”

“I will take your word for it,” Thran’s voice came out strained.

“I just can’t think of where we could possibly go where—Crap!”

She saw them too late, and while she tried to steer around the road spikes, there was a loud thud as the truck bucked underneath them.

Thran grunted as the seatbelt pressed him down against the lurch.

Rachel attempted to keep the truck under control as it swerved on the dirt road, but she could feel that the two drivers’ side tires were flat, causing the truck to veer to the left, but she strove to keep the truck going.

There was another set of road spikes ahead of them, and she tried to avoid them, but with two flat tires and the road’s slippery state, the truck swerved severely to the right, spinning out before it hit the edge of the road.

“Hold on,” Rachel yelled.

The truck tipped over the embankment on the side of the road and flipped over itself and began sliding down the hill before it ran into a tree on the driver’s side.

Rachel had tried to remain aware of the crash, and she blinked away the blood that was trickling down her cheek and into her left eye.

She looked over to Thran. He still looked conscious, but she could see he was in pain.

Rachel reached for her seatbelt restraint so that she could stop being upside down, but the moment the seatbelt unlatched, she felt where all the glass had embedded into her skin under her coat as she fell in a heap onto the roof of the truck.

She took a careful deep breath to try and calm her mind and assess the damage. She looked over at Thran who was looking at her.

“The red button releases the seatbelt, if you want to get down,” she told him. “Unless you’re comfortable up there.”

A wincing smile touched his lips as he reached down to release the seatbelt. He let out a muffled grunt as he fell.

As Rachel started to crawl out the windshield, she heard footsteps. Running footsteps. And a lot of them.

“Here they come,” she said. “Time to see how friendly they are.”

Her answer came quickly.

“Hello?” a man shouted.

“Perhaps they are friendly,” Thran suggested, but his face said otherwise.

“Anyone down there?” the man shouted again.

“Should we answer?” Rachel asked Thran quietly.

“I do not see what other harm it could do,” he whispered back.

“Hello?” the man shouted again.

“Who is it?” Rachel shouted back.

“Special Enforcement,” he answered. “Are you both all right?”

“So he knows there are two of us,” Thran whispered.

She nodded before yelling back her answer to the speaker. “That depends how you look at it.”

Rachel thought she could hear some talking.

“They’re moving out on either side of us,” Thran whispered. “Probably eight of them not including the speaker.”

Rachel could hear rustling in the grass and what she thought were footsteps, but to guess that accurately? She looked at Thran questioningly.

“My eyes can see somewhat into the infrared spectrum.” As if that was explanation enough. “I gather that my hearing may also be more acute than yours.”

“No chance you can hear what they’re saying, is there?” she asked.

“Something about masks and gas them out, but I could have misheard,” he answered thoughtfully.

Gas?

Gas.

“Oh, no,” Rachel said. But there would be no escaping. They were being boxed in. She suddenly felt like a caged animal. An easy kill.

“What is wrong?” Thran’s eyes were fixed on her face.

“Gas can be used for a lot of things,” Rachel started to explain, trying to find any way out of the situation. “To kill, to suffocate, to poison, to—”

And with that, a cylinder found its way into the vehicle directly behind their feet and another fell in the grass just in front of the truck.

It was too late.

The fumes began to surround them instantly, and, while Rachel tried to keep herself from breathing for as long as she could, she knew it was futile. It overwhelmed her.

The haze made her drowsy—made the world spin around her—and all she wanted to do was close her eyes.

She felt a hand touch her arm. “I am sorry that you were brought into this, Ray’schel,” Thran said somberly. His face was hard, but she could see a small amount of sorrow in his eyes.

Rachel wasn’t sure if she responded or not, but his eyes were the last thing she saw as the gas surrounded her and darkness enveloped her.

Chapter Text

Rachel woke to darkness. And to pain. Her head throbbed, her throat felt like sandpaper, and her whole body ached as she tried to move, and she could feel where blood had dried because of the needle-like pain as her skin stretched when she moved.

She took inventory of her surroundings, realizing what was missing as she ran her hand along her body. Her knife wasn’t on her belt, her coat and sweatshirt were gone, and the ammo she had put in her pockets was gone. She sat up, noticing she was on a thin, very hard mattress that laid on a metal slab that bolted to the wall. The cell she was in had no windows, and a thick glass door that was just large enough for a person to fit through. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all concrete.

Very slowly, she raised herself off the mattress and stood up, every ache reminding her what had happened.

She cautiously tapped the walls with her fist a few times to see if she could gauge their thickness, and they gave every indication that they were heavily reinforced.

Walking to the glass door, she peered out both ways to see if there were any guards watching her. She saw none, but there was a camera on the wall looking straight at the door of her cell. She looked around and saw two more very small cameras in the cell, too high to reach.

She sat back down on the bed and began to puzzle over why they hadn’t killed her and what they could be doing to Thran when there was someone suddenly standing at her door. The fact that she hadn’t heard him coming implied that the door was soundproof.

He reached for something on the wall to the right side of the door and the door slid inward and then into the wall.

Instinctively, she stood and took a step away from the approaching man.

“I hope you’ll forgive my men their overexuberance,” he said slowly, as though choosing his words carefully. “It takes surprisingly more of the gas to nullify the alien than it does a human, and you happened to be unfortunate collateral damage.”

Rachel remained silent, but his tone and word choice impacted her nonetheless. Was that all she was to them? And if that was the case, why not just leave her in that field? Why drag her to this prison? She could have woken up in the crash and believed it all to be a dream or awful nightmare. But now, she knew there was something going on, and she wanted to find out what, but she didn’t have words to ask. Yet.

“I see you’re the silent type,” he continued. “Unfortunately for you, so was your alien friend.”

Did they really suspect that the two of them had become friends in the space of half an hour? She couldn’t possibly have gleaned any information about him in that short amount of time. However, perhaps that was why Thran had suggested he not tell her anything. He had purposely withheld information. Was this why? Did he somehow know that this kind of interrogation was coming? How?

But then she realized his word choice. So was your alien friend. What had they done? And given the evil twisting smile that came to his mouth, she didn’t want to know what he had in mind to do to her.

“I guess we’ll have to resort to more…persuasive methods,” he said with an odd sense of satisfaction. “Guards, bind her wrists and bring her. We’ll see how long she is willing to remain silent.”

The two men that had remained outside the cell came in with binders, and they led her out into the hallway. She glanced backwards enough to see a short row of cells, and in front of her, the length of the hall held more cells, each with a glass doorway. Yet, as they passed each one, Rachel noticed that they were empty. There was no one else being held then. But they had to be holding Thran somewhere, didn’t they? Had he been in one of the cells behind where she hadn’t been able to see? Or was he really…

The door in front of them opened with the touch of a keycard, she noticed. They passed through another small room which had a large window looking into the next room. She guessed it was some kind of observation room. Monitors lined two of the walls, and there were two men working at them. They didn’t even look up when the four of them walked past.

The next room was clearly meant as a torture chamber bearing a small resemblance to something out of the medieval era. There was a metal table with straps at each corner in the middle of the room, a rack that held what looked to be every kind of whip a person could think of and a table laid out with multiple kinds of knives of all sizes and shapes. There was also a strange looking box in the corner hooked up with all kinds of wires.

A shove from behind made Rachel realize she had stopped moving. They led her to the table and began to bind her to it.

“What are you hoping to learn from me?” she asked. “I don't know anything.”

“Oh,” the man who seemed to be in charge said, “you’ll have to know something. Even if it's a very minor detail we haven't learned before. And besides,” he smiled wickedly, “you won't be the only one talking.”

Rachel had barely enough time to wonder at his words when the door opened again, and Thran was brought into the room.

She tried to hide her relief as she studied his face, and his eyes locked with hers in a sad yet firm gaze, and she knew that she couldn’t and wouldn’t tell these people even the smallest detail.

“I am sorry,” he started to say as they forced him down into a chair and bound him to it.

“Quiet, alien,” one of the guards struck him.

“Leave him alone,” Rachel said.

“Ah,” the man said, a note of satisfaction in his voice. “So there is a small relationship here. Good. Good.” He walked over to the corner and looked over the strange box. “That should make things go much faster.”

He wheeled over the large box, and he began to hook the wires into a series of metal rods that extended from it.

“I do warn you,” he said quietly. “This is going to hurt.”

Another evil smile came over his face as he brought the whole thing in front of Rachel and slowly tilted her table forward.

Hurt was an understatement. The jolting pain seared through Rachel’s body causing her to convulse uncontrollably, but she refused to let herself scream. She held the pain firmly inside her chest.

Then the pain ceased, and Rachel fell limp, only the restraints holding her up.

“Interesting,” the man said. “Let us jump to level five. You clearly have a higher pain tolerance than I originally thought for a female your size.”

Without warning, the burning pain coursed through her body once more, and she couldn’t hold back the agony this time. Through clenched teeth, she let out a small cry of pain, still trying to hold the pain at bay inside of her. Her body tensed and convulsed wildly as volt after volt shocked through her body.

As the pain once more ceased, Rachel felt her body tremble from the residual voltage.

“Fascinating,” the man said. “What do you say, alien, do you think she could handle a level eight?”

Without waiting for a response, the higher level surged into her, and she couldn’t hold back the pain. As much as she tensed her body and pulled against the restraints, the convulsions wrecked through her, but her lungs wouldn’t let her cries escape, and it felt as though she were suffocating.

She didn’t know how long it lasted, but when it finally ended, and her body again fell limp, she was shaking uncontrollably and gasping for breath.

“Good,” the man began. “Now that we have an understanding. Let us begin.” His face came close to hers, and she could feel his breath on her cheek. “Where is he from?”

“I don’t know,” Rachel answered with a shaky voice.

The pain began before she even finished her answer, and she didn’t bother to hold back her scream before it was cut off, the air trapped in her lungs.

It didn’t last nearly as long this time, clearly just enough to get his point across.

“I’ll ask again,” he said, more towards the room than to Rachel, clearly inviting Thran to answer to spare her from the pain.

She could barely see him from the corner of her eye as she hung from the restraints, not able to pull herself up, but she could see that he was trying very hard not to look at her. His jaw was clenched tightly, and his eyes held a pained resolve.

“Look at her!” One of the guards grabbed Thran by his hair and forced his face up.

As the volts of pain began, she saw only a glimpse of his face as he closed his eyes to her pain before she shut her own against the searing electricity coursing through her, trying as hard as she could to not let the pain show.

She pulled against her restraints, feeling them dig into her wrists, but that pain was nothing compared to the electricity the metal rods burned through her body.

“Very well,” the man said, turning the machine off. His voice held a new resolve. “Perhaps a more…visual form of persuasion is in order.”

He snapped his fingers, motioning two guards over. The metal slab was moved back into an upright position, and they unstrapped Rachel only to re-strap her so her back faced outwards. She turned her head and saw the man walk over to the rack that held the various types of whips, and she tensed. She hoped that Thran would still be able to hold back against the sight of whatever damage whichever whip did to her.

The man came back with a very nasty looking whip in hand. Its straps were short, but intertwined along each strap were barbs so that each one looked like a branch off a thorn bush.

“I’ll ask again,” the man said, his words now clearly directed towards Thran. “Where are you from?”

He remained silent.

The man stepped over to Rachel, picked up a knife from the table nearby and cut open the back of her shirt.

“I’ll give you one more chance.”

Thran remained silent.

The paralyzing sting that accompanied the crack of the whip made Rachel’s whole body go rigid. The following whip had the same effect; yet, surprisingly, each one after that merely caused numbness. While Rachel still felt the whip hitting her back and felt the warmth of her blood trickling down, the pain stopped. She didn’t feel it anymore. The tension that had been locked in her body began to relax.

And the man noticed.

“Fascinating,” he said as he stopped whipping. “An interesting response to pain I haven’t encountered before. Perhaps I’ll have to keep this one around for further study. But for current purposes…” he trailed off as he snapped his fingers at the guards again.

The guards came over and again flipped Rachel over in the restraints. She slipped against the metal as blood now coated her back.

She looked up at Thran again, and this time she caught his eye. Though her body still trembled from the shock, she tried to give him a small smile of reassurance. But that only made his forehead crease in greater concern and a tightening around his eyes as his gaze fell again to the floor.

“Hmm,” the man thought aloud. “You two are a stubborn pair.” He turned to Thran. “And your particular breed of alien, I must say, are certainly resilient. However, you are the first to make the foolish mistake of mixing yourself up with a human. And in the end, that will cost you and your alien race.”

Thran’s face hardened as his eyes narrowed, but he kept his gaze on the floor, clearly not wanting to give this man any satisfaction that he was affecting him.

“Perhaps it’s time for a more…personal form of persuasion,” the man said, a dark tone in his voice. “What do you say, alien? Shall my men have their way with your human friend?”

Thran’s glowing eyes flashed with anger, but he clearly was forcing himself not to speak. Rachel felt her body tense and tried to make herself small, but she was exposed to all of them. Her arms and legs were strapped down, the back of her shirt had been cut open. She tried to press herself back against the metal slab, but her back stung where the whip had torn it open.

The man bent down in front of Thran. “Nothing to say?” he taunted in a quiet voice. “A pity. She seems like such a lovely girl.” He stood up shaking his head. “Such a waste.”

Thran shut his eyes hard as the guards stepped towards Rachel, their snide and smug faces making their intentions clear.

Rachel tried to fight, tried to get away from their hands, but she was bound and couldn’t escape. The pain from the tears in her back only made it that much worse.

She tried to not make a sound for Thran’s sake, but she was so revulsed by what the men were doing to her, she couldn’t help crying as their hands wandered over her body and began undressing her.

It was as one of the guards began going into her that she heard Thran shout.

“Enough!”

But he didn’t leave it at that. The other two men had evidently let their guards down just enough to the point where Thran balanced himself forward, and swung the chair around, sweeping the legs out from under them.

Still enraged, Thran pulled against the zip tie bonds and broke his wrists free, using that momentum to launch himself at the guard closest to Rachel. Even with the chair still bound to his ankles, Thran was able to keep his balance as his hands found the man’s throat.

There was a sickening crack as Thran twisted the man’s head sideways.

“Watch out!” Rachel tried to warn as the second guard came behind him wielding a long-bladed knife, but Thran wasn’t quite fast enough to duck out of the way, and the chair caused him to lose his balance. While the man’s slash went wide, it still managed to catch the better part of Thran’s left shoulder as he fell. The man bore down on him, bringing the knife down in a stabbing motion. Thran anticipated the move and raised an arm to block, and he twisted his hand up, over, and under the man’s upper arm before pushing it upward causing the shoulder to dislocate and the knife fell from his hand.

Thran scooped up the knife as he forced the man towards the ground, and Rachel had to look away as he sliced through the man’s throat.

He cut the zip ties at his ankles just as the door opened and the two men who had been in the observation room ran towards Thran. He threw the knife at one who fell instantly, and he made quick work of the other in hand-to-hand combat.

Then he turned to face the man who was causing all the pain, his arms raised, poised for further combat, anger burning from his glowing eyes.

Rachel still hung mostly limp in her restraints, trying to hold herself up, a knife blade held against her throat.

“I’d say we’re at a stalemate,” the man said darkly. “That was a marvelous display of strength, but as you see, I still have the upper hand.”

Thran’s red eyes narrowed, and his jaw tensed. He took a careful step forward.

“Ah, ah, ah,” the man scolded, pressing the sharp blade into the side of Rachel’s neck causing an ever so slight amount of blood to drip down her neck. “Careful. You wouldn’t want to cause her death now, would you?”

Thran lowered his hands, his eyes flicked briefly to Rachel’s, and she could see that he was waiting for something. An opening perhaps. But he was too far away, wasn’t he?

“It would be a shame,” he continued, “to waste such a beautiful girl when she has so much potential.”

And there it was. For the briefest moment, the man had turned his face toward Rachel and taken his eyes off his opponent. Thran crossed the distance in two fast steps and jabbed at the man’s throat causing him to loosen his grip on the knife, which Thran took from his hand and thrust into his chest, twisting it sharply.

Thran stood over him, his anger slowly leaving as the tension left his body.

Rachel allowed her body to relax when she saw the man crumple to the ground. She let her eyes close as the fatigue washed over her all at once.

“Ray’schel?” Thran’s voice was soft and gentle. A sharp contrast to what she just witnessed. She jerked when she felt his warm hand touch her chin.

“I am sorry,” he said softly, pulling his hand away. “I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

Rachel blinked against the exhaustion settling over her body as she tried to look up into his face. There was almost no emotion evident other than the tightness around his eyes.

Rachel tried to answer, but the words came out in a moan.

“I am going to untie you,” he said. “I realize you do not have much strength, so I will try to support you.”

Rachel heard his words, but she couldn’t quite make sense of them. He unstrapped her ankles, and she felt her legs fall forward to rest on the floor, and after he unstrapped her wrists, her whole body collapsed as her legs gave out.

Thran caught her so that she wouldn’t hit the floor. As his arm slid across her back, the fresh waves of pain jolted Rachel’s mind to fuller awareness.

She tried to sit up and suddenly felt embarrassed. After what the men had done, they had left her clothing mostly off, and Thran hadn’t fixed it, either from not knowing how or from his own embarrassment. From the way he looked away and allowed himself to move away from her, she guessed it was the latter.

After she fixed herself, she still knew her shirt was a problem, but Thran took off his black outer jacket and gave it to her.

Thankfully, it was a bit large on her because the fabric stung as she pulled it over the open wounds. She could feel the blood start to soak into the fabric, and she felt bad that Thran had given it to her.

“Do you think you can walk?” Thran's voice was quiet but firm.

Rachel leaned on his outstretched arm for support and tested her legs. While they still shook, she forced herself to walk.

“I think my strength will come back after we get moving,” she said even as she stumbled a bit.

His glowing eyes never left her face as he studied how truthful she was being before nodding. He walked over to the table of knives and picked up two of the larger ones and one small one. Handing the second of the larger two to her, they started for the door. Just as they made their way into the observation room, three more guards came in. Thran stepped in front of Rachel, putting an arm up defensively in front of her. He threw the smaller knife towards one guard, but the split second he had taken to come to Rachel’s defense cost him, and the guard dodged out of the way.

Thran rushed the second guard while the third pulled up what looked like a gun at Rachel. She tried to duck out of the way, but her left leg gave out, and she had to catch herself with her hand. She heard something hit the wall behind her and looked around to see a dart bounce off the wall.

A type of stun weapon? They didn’t want them dead then. At least, not yet.

Rachel tried to stand, but when she finally brought herself up, she saw that Thran had already killed all three guards.

“Come,” he said, leaning down to grab a gun from one of the fallen guards. “There will likely be more before long.”

He handed one gun to Rachel and picked up his knife again before trying to open the door. It was locked.

“He had a key card,” Rachel told him. “He used a card to open the door.”

Thran looked over the bodies of the guards until he found one. He pressed it quickly to the pad next to the door, and it opened.

As they made their way down the hall passed all the cells again, Rachel noticed that Thran seemed to favor his right leg. When they reached the door at the far end, Thran used the card again, and cracked the door open slightly to check for more guards.

He opened it more to check further into the room, but he apparently saw no one, because he opened the door the rest of the way and beckoned Rachel to follow.

The room they were now in appeared to be used partly for storage and partly for analysis. There were stacks of bins along one wall, and monitors and rows of tables in the middle of the room. Thran moved quickly to a table near the middle and grabbed a few things. Rachel tried to keep up and see what he was picking up, but when he came back to her, she saw that it was his belt and weapon and the bag that he had been carrying when she first met him.

“We will be better off now,” he assured her, holding the odd gun in his hand. He looked closely at her face. “Are you still all right?”

His eyes still held a fierce anger and determination, but she could see his concern.

“I’m ok,” she half-lied. She could feel her legs getting more strength back, but she still felt very weak.

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Then let us go.”

He walked swiftly towards the next door, and Rachel followed, looking at the tables, hopeful for a sight of her coat or knife, willing her legs to keep up with him.

There. On one of the last tables laid the coat her grandmother had made for her from the hide of her first caribou and her great-grandfather’s knife. While she had never been accused of being overly sentimental, there were particular things which held deep meaning for her. The knife was something she had always carried with her, and she loved the way the handle curved and fit perfectly in her hand. She walked as quickly as she could to pick them up, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Thran had opened the door and fired his weapon twice before his gun arm fell to his side.

“What’s wrong,” Rachel asked as she caught up to him, slipping her belt on and attaching the knife to it as she carried the coat in her arm.

He suddenly opened the door, whipped his gun up through opening, and fired three more times before ducking through it, leaving Rachel there.

She tried to follow, but the door closed before she could reach it. It wouldn’t open, and Thran still had the keycard. He must have known that she wouldn’t have been able to follow him through.

For several minutes, Rachel could hear nothing. She glanced around the room again, taking in the monitors and analysis equipment, wondering what kind of work they did here. She walked over to the bins along the far wall and opened one. Inside was clothing, but as she looked at it, she noticed that it looked like Thran’s clothing. She opened the next bin and found odd looking tools and a gun that looked like Thran’s.

Before she could open the next one, Thran reappeared at the door, glancing around before his gaze fell on her.

“Do these look familiar to you at all?” Rachel asked, pointing to the bin she had opened.

Glancing back behind him, he made his way over to the first bin and opened it. He seemed frozen for a few moments before he reached inside and held up one of the pieces that looked like a jacket. He rubbed the cloth gently between his fingers, his thumb resting on the strange insignia on the shoulder, staring at it with an odd expression.

Abruptly, he pushed it back into the bin, shut the lid, and turned to Rachel. “We need to leave,” he told her. “Now.”

His eyes were firm, and his face was set in a hard expression that left no room for question.

He led the way to the door again, and, as they walked through it, Rachel was not at all prepared for what she saw.

They had walked into what looked like a small aircraft bay, only there were no airplanes. There were perhaps five military style helicopters surrounding two mostly intact ships that looked like Thran’s crashed ship. One was larger and looked like it fit at least two people in the front cockpit area, if not three. The other looked like a single person ship. Thran’s own shuttle was sitting near the wall, but she could see that it was not going to fly.

Thran immediately walked towards the bigger of the two ships, and Rachel noticed the limp in his right leg seemed worse, and he was holding his left side.

He paused underneath the ship he had reached and looked back at Rachel.

“Are you not coming?” He looked at her with confusion.

Rachel hadn’t realized she had stopped walking. Even as she started to walk towards him, she began to notice the bodies Thran had left strewn across the bay, and she found it hard not to stare at them as she passed them.

“Are you all right?” Thran asked as she got closer.

His eyes had an eerie way of boring right through her. Despite his stoicism, Rachel could see the pain he was struggling to hide.

“I could ask you the same question,” she countered.

“I am injured,” he admitted, “but not terribly so.” He gestured to the ship next to them. “This ship is similar to the one I arrived in.” He eyed her closely. “I plan to leave in it. My question to you is do you wish to come with me or remain here?”

At first it seemed like an easy question to answer, but then she thought about what he was really asking. He wasn’t from this planet. He intended to take that ship to wherever it was he called home.

And he was asking if she wanted to go along?

“I can hardly stay here,” Rachel thought out loud, looking around the bay.

“That is true,” Thran said, also looking around. “I had no intention of leaving you in this barbaric prison.”

“Let’s get out of here for starters,” Rachel said.

Thran’s gaze rested on her a moment longer before he turned to the ship behind him. He managed to get the boarding ramp at the back of the ship lowered so that they could enter, but Thran didn’t go inside right away.

“There is something I need to check first,” he said before disappearing around the side of the ship.

Knowing nothing about ships, Rachel couldn’t imagine what he would be checking. Fuel? Engine? How did this thing fly? She didn’t think she would ever know the answer to that.

A loud clang echoed through the bay, and Rachel started to come back down the ramp when she saw Thran throw something away from the ship.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Something that would have kept us here,” he said, as if it should have been common knowledge. He was pressing his hand over his side again, and she could tell the strain of whatever he had done didn’t help whatever injury he had sustained.

“The main question,” Thran continued as he limped up the ramp beside her, “will be whether they decided to drain the fuel or leave it in the tanks. I am hoping they were typical analysts who preferred to study their prey in its natural state of being.”

He walked down the short aisle, passed two open doors that seemed to lead into some kind of engine rooms, passed a small living room type area on the right, and into the cockpit and pressed several buttons before the ship came to life under Rachel’s feet, making her brace herself against the semi-circle couch that came up to the aisle. The rumbling of the engine sent a wave of exhilaration shooting through her boots, up her legs, and into every fiber of her body.

The small living room consisted of the couch that curved, facing into the room with a circular table in front of it, two bunked beds pressed into the corner with a ladder on one side, and there were several cabinets on the walls with one large storage locker on the other side of the couch that touched the opposite wall. How the doors didn’t hit the end of the beds, she didn’t know, but the ship’s designers had made efficient use of the small space. The other side of the aisle was blocked by a wall and a door, and when she tentatively touched the button next to the door, it opened, making her jump, but inside was what could pass as a small bathroom.

“It appears I was correct about these analysts,” Thran said from the cockpit, jarring her out of her thoughts. “We have enough fuel to get where we need to go.”

We. Rachel still wasn’t sure if she should be going with this alien or not. She had her family. They were expecting her back with a scouting report on the land.

But how was she going to explain all of this to them? How long had she been gone? A day? A few days? If they’d found her truck already, what did they think would have happened to her? Would these people come back looking for her if she tried to go back to her normal life? And if they did, what would they do to her or her family?

Could she go back to a normal life? She looked at Thran who was working at the ship’s controls, getting it ready to take off. Could she go back to a normal life knowing that there were aliens out there who were watching them? Could she go back, knowing that there might be other planets out there that could be filled with life?

“The ship is prepared,” Thran said into her thoughts. He looked back at her through the cockpit door with a small smile. “You might want to sit down and strap in.”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Rachel argued, setting her coat down on the couch and joining him but not sitting down in the co-pilot’s seat yet.

“I know,” Thran said. “But I plan to destroy this place, and then take us into a very high orbit, or even possibly orbit a further planet because I believe that they will have this hangar arrayed with sensors so that when a ship leaves, they know. So they will come after us.” He looked intensely at her. “I plan to fly very hard and very fast away from here after I destroy everything. Are you ready?”

His logic made sense. But to leave Earth? Could she do that?

“What if I choose to stay?” she asked.

“Then we will come back,” Thran said, his eyes softening slightly. “Hopefully with a cloaking shield that does not fail me this time.”

Rachel felt the knot in her stomach tighten. Even if her decision didn’t have to be final in this instant, there was still a chance this whole thing could blow up in their faces. Literally. She sat down and buckled the harness and told Thran she was ready.

With a few more tweaks at the dashboard, Rachel felt the ship lurch forward, sending shooting pain down her back as she slammed back into the chair. The ship turned quickly around before they were even out of the hangar and continued to fly backwards as she felt a tremble from the ship. She watched as two projectiles that she could only describe as blue energy balls travelled from under their ship, one aiming towards the resting helicopters and the other towards the door they had exited.

She gripped the arms of her chair and felt her heart jump in her chest as he quickly turned the ship as the resounding explosion echoed up to them. Soon, she saw the whole facility blowing up beneath them as Thran pushed the ship hard and fast toward the sky.

They were flying. She was flying in a spaceship!

Trying to ignore the popping in her ears and the pain from her back, Rachel looked out the window at the Earth that was quickly receding beneath them. It was like watching her whole life fade behind her.

A sharp whistle rang through the ship.

“They found us,” Thran said, his face now fierce and hard. “Hold on.”

Rachel wasn’t sure how much harder she could hang on to the chair, but she gripped it hard as Thran sent the ship into a roll to the right, still climbing through the atmosphere.

“Hopefully we will lose them as we climb higher,” Rachel offered.

“They shot me down from higher than this,” Thran said. “I need you to activate the cloaking system when I tell you to. Can you do that?”

Rachel looked at him. “Can I do what?”

“It will be that yellow switch on the console in front of you,” Thran explained. “You will flip it down, and then there is a larger button a little way over to the right from it. I know you cannot read the script, but—”

“This one?” Rachel asked, guessing as to which one he meant, but it felt like it would be the right one.

Thran looked at where she was pointing and then looked up at her. “Yes,” he said, giving her a brief odd look before returning his attention to piloting. “You will flip the yellow switch down and press that button. But wait until I say so.”

“All right,” Rachel said. She wasn’t sure what he exactly had planned, but when she saw that he was driving them towards a larger cluster of clouds, she guessed his plan.

“Ready?” Thran asked.

Rachel poised her hand over the yellow switch as they drew closer to the clouds.

“Now,” he said as they entered the cluster.

Rachel flipped the switch and pressed the button. While she didn’t feel anything, she saw a light display yellow next to her on the wall.

“Perfect,” Thran said as they came through the other side of the clouds. “Now they cannot see us.”

“Not at all?” Rachel asked. She knew that cloaking devices were something from science fiction, but for aliens to have them and be using them to that degree was uncanny.

“Not at all,” Thran said.

They continued their climb out of the atmosphere without any other incident, and soon they broke into the blackness of space.

Rachel had seen pictures and images of space, but to have it right there on the other side of a window from her was something out of a dream.

“Incredible,” she breathed.

“I am going to take us to the sixth planet in your system,” Thran said. “I believe you call it Saturn?”

Rachel looked over at him. “Yes. Why there?”

“It has many asteroids in which we can hide while we guarantee that we were not followed.”

Rachel nodded.

“And in the meantime,” he continued, looking at her. “You have a decision to make.”

She looked up above the Earth and was startled for a moment when she saw Earth’s moon. It was so much bigger than she imagined. But then, she was never really quite sure what to imagine out here. She watched as Earth and its moon grew smaller and began to think about the decision that lay before her.

All at once, Rachel felt woken from a dream as a sudden new sensation flooded her mind. She felt as though she had never breathed or seen before and was suddenly opening her eyes and taking her first gasping breath.

“What is wrong?” Thran asked, looking over at her.

She looked back at him and realized that she must have actually gasped when this wave of new feelings swept over her.

“I—” Rachel started, “I don’t know.” Truly not knowing or understanding what she was feeling. She could feel the heat from the sun, the cold from the moon. She could feel confusion and anger and so much more coming from the planet behind them.

Rachel opened her eyes, not even realizing she had closed them. Earth. She felt those emotions from Earth?

She looked over at Thran who was eyeing her with concern. But she wasn’t just seeing it. She could feel that concern. And she felt…pain. Sympathy. Worry.

What was happening?

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Rachel said. “I can feel things I shouldn’t. Sense things that I shouldn’t be able to.”

“Hmm,” was all he said for a moment, his forehead creased in thought. “We had speculations.”

“What?”

“I really do think that you should come with me now. We have been watching Earth for a very long time, and we have wondered whether something was missing from your planet that exists in most of the galaxy surrounding you.”

“And what’s that?” Rachel asked a little more sharply than she intended.

“The Force.”

Chapter Text

“The Force?” Rachel couldn’t understand. Not with all these new sensations and feelings washing over her and threatening to overwhelm her. She put a hand to her head, but that did nothing to stop what was happening. She tried to lean forward and place both hands on her head, but the harness held her back.

She released it and got up and left the cockpit.

“Ray’schel,” Thran called back to her.

But she didn’t want to hear anything. She was already hearing too much without anyone talking. She walked back towards the middle of the ship and over to the bunk beds, sitting on the bottom one and put her head between her hands with her elbows on her knees, wincing as she felt the skin on her back stretch painfully as the lacerations that were attempting to close were pulled open again.

What was happening to her? The Force? What was that? These people speculated that Earth didn’t have it, but clearly, she could feel it. Could others feel it then? What if she wasn’t the only one?

The ship lurched, causing Rachel to fall sideways onto the bed. She just started to sit back up when the ship seemed to hit the brakes, and she caught herself before she fell the other way.

The turmoil had quieted, and the rushing of emotions she had felt a few moments ago no longer whirled around in her mind.

No, she could still feel someone’s emotions…anxious, concerned, relieved, residual anger, and in pain. She felt them get stronger until she saw that they were coming from Thran as he limped into where she was sitting.

He leaned against the wall for support. “Does the distance help?” he asked, studying her face.

“What?”

“We are in orbit around the planet you call Saturn,” he explained. “I wondered if being further away from Earth helped at all. Since you no longer seem to be fighting with yourself, I am guessing that is the case.”

She thought about it. It made sense. All the emotions she’d felt had to have been coming from the planet. With all the turmoil and chaos going on, she must have felt it all and all at once.

“I think you’re right.” She looked up at him. “But I can still feel yours.”

His body stiffened, and Rachel felt his defenses go up and a small amount of fear mixed into his emotions.

“I don’t know how to stop it,” Rachel said, looking down at the floor.

The fear disappeared, and in its place…was that sympathy?

She had never liked to be pitied.

He crossed over to her, favoring his leg more considerably than before.

“How about we take care of your wounds first,” he said gently. “Then we can try to sort out what to do next.”

He reached into a cabinet on the wall next to the beds and searched for a while before closing it. He limped across the small room to the storage locker and seemed to have found what he was looking for.

“Here,” he said, holding what looked like a small metal paint spray can in one hand and a vial of red liquid in the other. He inserted the red vial into the bottom of the metal canister and limped toward Rachel. “This will help the lacerations on your back,” he said.

She looked skeptically at the spray canister then back up at Thran, but she could sense only sympathy and concern which was mirrored in his glowing eyes.

She turned around and began to lift the back of her shirt but winced and clenched her teeth. The fabric and blood had dried together and were now being torn apart from each other. The feeling was like taking off a layer of skin.

Gritting her teeth, she lifted the shirt over her head in one quick motion, gripping it tightly to her chest as the pain caught up to her brain.

Thran’s concern washed over her even stronger as he saw the wounds freshly ripped open, but he quickly sprayed whatever was in the canister over her back. At first, the sensation stung, and she gripped the shirt tighter in front of her. But then, it felt cool, then numb, and she felt her body slowly relax as the pain left.

Rachel tried to look over her shoulder but couldn’t see what effect the spray had had.

“That will begin the healing process,” Thran said. “But you will need further treatment to heal the wounds completely.”

He turned and walked back to the storage locker and pulled out a black long-sleeved shirt similar to what he was wearing and handed it to her.

“Here. I think you might like a fresh tunic.”

Still holding the bloody shirt and what still remained of her torn shirt over her chest with one hand, she took the clean one with the other. He turned around quickly, and Rachel could feel his embarrassment.

She likewise turned around and took off what remained of the old shirts and quickly put on the clean shirt.

Turning back around she said, “Now it’s your turn.”

He turned. “Excuse me?”

“I know you’re hurt. I can feel your pain. Is there a way what worked on my back can help you?”

“They can,” he said. “But not significantly. I will be all right.”

“Bull.”

“What?”

“I’m calling you out on it.”

“You will have to forgive my lack of understanding of Earth’s idiomatic phrases.”

“I know you’re in pain, and no amount of you saying so is going to convince me otherwise.”

He stared at her.

“You saved my life,” she said flatly. “The least I can do is help you with your injuries.”

“Your refusal to speak is all the repayment I would ask for. And, this will only help on the surface.”

He lifted his shirt to show where the injury was.

She breathed. “They stabbed you?”

“I guess four against one is my limit in hand-to-hand combat with lethal weapons.”

Was he seriously trying to joke about this? She looked up at his face and saw a slightly pained smile on his face.

“How deep is it?” she asked.

“Deep enough,” he said, lifting the canister to the wound and applying the red spray. “This will really only help on the surface, but it will do for now.”

“What about your shoulder and your leg?” Rachel asked.

“Likely, one of the lower leg bones is fractured,” he said casually. “There is little I can do about it here. As for my shoulder, the bacta will help it heal, I suppose.”

“You’re telling me there’s nothing here that can be used to make a splint?”

He looked at her.

“A spare metal rod and my old shirt would work to make a splint just fine, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose I did not think about it,” he said. “Did you have medical training on Earth?”

“No,” she said. “It’s basic survival first-aid. They don’t teach that to you?”

“I guess not,” he said. “Interesting.”

Rachel made him sit down and put some of the spray on his shoulder while she looked around the room, through multiple drawers and cabinets before she finally found a usable rod that could work as a splint.

She wound up tearing part of the blanket to use for wrapping because her t-shirt was still bloody and wasn’t quite long enough. She had to find the balance between making sure the splint was tight enough without cutting off all circulation to Thran’s leg. It was extra hard because she could feel the pain every time she adjusted the wrapping no matter how hard he tried to hide it. And she could feel his eyes on her, studying her. Not in a creepy way, it was just odd.

When she finished, she offered her hands to help him stand. He took the offer and gingerly tried to put weight on the splinted leg. She felt the pain at the same instant that he did because even as his hands gripped hers in response, hers gripped his. He looked first at their hands, then up at her, but Rachel couldn’t hold his gaze. She let go of his hands, and he held onto the edge of the top bunk behind him.

“You felt that?” he asked, his eyes narrowed in concern.

“I’m sorry,” was all she could think to say as she moved away from him.

“It is not your fault,” he assured her. “I think—”

He stopped as if he was not sure if he should continue.

“What,” she asked.

He sighed. “It will have to come down to your decision.”

“What does my decision have to do with it?”

“You can stay on Earth, and these feelings and everything will go away. You will not be able to feel the Force again.”

“I wouldn’t see you again,” she muttered.

“Correct,” he said. “And that would be critical. No one can ever know that we have met or that any of this happened, and your knowledge of my people’s existence must forever remain a secret.” He paused. “Or you come with me to my galaxy, and there are people there who can teach you more about the Force. How to wield it, control it, use it.”

“And leave my family, home, and everything I’ve ever known behind.”

He hesitated, and she could feel a sadness in him, but his face only showed a firm resolution. “Yes. The choice is yours though. And once it is made, there is no going back.”

Rachel looked up into his glowing eyes, looked down to the floor, looked around the ship. The easy answer wasn’t there.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She leaned her head against the bunk next to her and for a moment tried not to let herself think about it.

In her mind’s eye, she tried to look ahead to where she saw herself, and for the first time, she had a clear image.

She opened her eyes and met Thran’s studying gaze.

“I’m going with you.”

Chapter Text

A small smile broke across Thran’s face. “I was hoping you would.”

The happiness that flooded into Rachel was surprising given how little emotion he had shown.

“I will prepare us for hyperspace.” He started limping towards the cockpit. “I do warn you; it takes approximately three days to travel to the base we have at the edge of your galaxy. From there, we must wait for a ship that will take us to Ascendency space and then to Csilla.”

He suddenly seemed to have a wealth of information he was willing to share with her.

“Slow down,” Rachel said following him into the cockpit. “The Ascendency? Cheela? Is that where these people are who can help me?”

“No,” he answered, punching buttons on the console as he sat down. “It is not. The Chiss Ascendency is the home of my people.”

Rachel nodded slowly as she sat in the copilot’s seat. The Chiss. Ok.

“For many millennia, the Chiss have been casual observers of the peoples surrounding our space. Csilla is our home planet.”

“Chscheela?”

“Csilla.”

“Csilla.”

“Very good,” he said smiling. “Perhaps I can teach you some Cheunh during our journey. However, the Jedi do not venture into our part of space, and for the most part, the Chiss have usually stayed within the borders of the Ascendency. In recent years, we have begun to expand more and have reached out into the Republic worlds. At least, some of us are.”

“The Jedi? Republic? Why only some of you?”

“I apologize if I am going too fast. But not everyone in my government is keen on mingling with outsiders.”

“Then why go out of your way to study them?”

He looked sideways at her. “Because in order to defeat an enemy, one must know them. Or so the old saying goes. We prepare to meet our enemies by studying them in secret, but we never take the offensive unless we are attacked.”

“You think that Earth would attack you?”

“I have my own answer to that question.” He looked at her. “But it is your home. What are your thoughts on your people?”

She knew exactly how Earth would respond if alien ships appeared in the sky. “They would be hostile. I think you saw that well enough.”

“Hence the studying.”

His hand paused for a moment over a pair of levers on the board. “Are you ready?”

She looked at him puzzled, then realized that he was about to take them very far away from the life she’d always known. From her family, her past, her planet, her life.

Her hand instinctively went to the hilt of the knife on her belt as her heart ached. She took a slow breath and nodded. “I’m ready.”

He pushed the levers forward, and the stars that had been staring at her through the window turned into starlines resembling thousands of shooting stars, and then into a mottled blur of what had to be hyperspace. It was mesmerizing. And she suddenly caught the feeling of amusement.

She looked over to see Thran smiling at her.

“What?”

“It is like watching a child experience something for the first time,” he said.

Rachel thought back to all the times she’d watched her nieces experience things for the first time, and she knew exactly what he meant, but at the same time, she knew it was something she would never see again.

“Come,” he said, wincing as he got up from the pilot’s seat and shuffled back towards the other room. “It is going to be a long trip.”

She followed him and watched as he gingerly sat down on the couch.

“How about we pass the time exchanging information?” he suggested.

Confused, Rachel sat down on the lower bunk bed across the small room from him.

“What kind of information?” she asked. “I thought your people have been studying Earth for years. What more information could I provide?”

“We see the overall picture,” he explained thoughtfully. “These people are attacking these people. These people are upset by this. There is this event going on here. But what goes on in an individual person’s life is somewhat of a mystery.”

“So, you want to study my life?” she asked, the question coming out a little harsher than she meant.

“Only if you want to,” he said cautiously. “I do not wish to pry into your life. I am merely curious what life on Earth is really like.”

She could understand that. She had no idea where she was going or what she would be walking into either. He, at least, had a framework of understanding regarding Earth. Rachel had nothing when it came to learning about the galaxy to which she was traveling.

“I think I’m starting at a bit of a disadvantage,” Rachel said.

He tilted his head. “Explain.”

“You already know things about Earth. You can even speak my language. I know absolutely nothing about where we’re going. I highly doubt they speak English where we’re going.”

“All very good points,” Thran conceded. “Very well. Let us first begin with Basic.”

“Basic what?”

He smirked. “Basic is the primary language spoken where we are going. It is remarkably similar to your language, so I believe you will pick it up rather quickly. And as you told me before, you have a gift for languages. Let us test that.”

Rachel took a deep breath. She hadn’t practiced her language skills in quite some time. She hoped that she could pick this up.

“And perhaps,” Thran said, amusement rising in him again, “I can teach you some Cheunh as well.”

Rachel felt her head spinning by the time Thran said they could stop for a while. While Basic was very close to English, there were certain elements of it that were different, and she kept misspeaking and stumbling over certain phrases.

“You really are quite gifted,” Thran complimented her. “When did you start learning your second language?”

“Technically I grew up knowing two languages,” Rachel said. “But my formal education of another language didn’t start until high school which was later than almost everyone else.”

“Others began earlier?”

“Almost everyone began in middle school.”

“What years are these?”

“Middle school is seventh and eighth grade, so about twelve through fourteen-year-olds. And high school follows the next four years.”

“So, most of your peers began learning a second language at the age of twelve, and you began learning your third when you were fourteen? Do I have that right?”

Rachel did the math in her head to make sure he had the correct year. “Yes.”

“Yet you still exhibited better skills than your peers who were ahead of you?”

Rachel smiled at the memory. “I even skipped a few levels.”

“Was that the only language you learned?”

“Formally, yes. My German teacher helped me study another language on my own, but I didn’t make it very far.”

“Why is that?”

“The opportunity was taken away.” She didn’t feel like telling him the whole story about how she couldn’t get into college because of what happened to her father.

But he also seemed to understand that there was more. “I will not pry if you do not wish to disclose, but I think you will do very well with Basic,” Thran said. “And perhaps with Cheunh if you should wish.”

“I’ll try it,” Rachel said. “But perhaps later. Would it be all right if I sleep for a bit?”

A smile touched the corner of Thran’s mouth. “Of course. I will be in the cockpit. I will try not to disturb you.”

Rachel nodded and laid down on the bed. It didn’t take long for her to drift off, her mind swimming with new words, images of a new life, and memories of the life she left behind.

Thran watched Rachel roll over and face the wall. He tried to comprehend what she must be thinking. He understood what she was leaving behind even though he didn’t know the specifics.

He pushed himself off the couch and tensed as he tested his weight against the splint again. He knew that he would need his leg repaired once they reached the Second Galaxy outpost, but he was surprised at how well the splint Rachel had made was helping to alleviate some of the pain.

He made his way to the cockpit and did a quick check that the systems were running normally. He then sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and reached under the console and found the hidden lever.

From the middle of the console where what looked like normal lines carved into the unit popped out the hidden compartment. Thran had hoped that the Earthlings hadn’t found it, and he had been correct. Inside were the questises of the two Chiss explorers who had arrived on Earth aboard this vessel.

For a moment, Thran stared at them. Two explorers, like himself, had gone too far in their exploration and were now gone.

He reached inside and picked up the top questis and turned it on. There were files on Earth on the first page. Probably the last entries they had added before they’d been forced to hide them.

His own questis had been in his bag, which, thankfully, he had found on that analysis table. He was glad they hadn’t been able to activate it, otherwise who knew what the Earthlings could have discovered about his people.

A faint groan came from the room behind him, and he turned. He couldn’t see Rachel from the angle he was sitting in, but he knew the sound had to have come from her. He listened for a moment, but she didn’t seem to get up or make any other noise, so he returned his attention to the questis in his hand, looking through the files for any other information that these explorers had discovered.

Another noise that sounded more like a mumbled word came from behind him. He listened again, and heard Rachel make a sound like she was in pain. Worried that her wounds had somehow reopened, he quickly stood and walked back to check on her.

He saw that she was still asleep, but her face showed pain, her jaw clenching and unclenching. While Thran had never seen someone have a nightmare, he could tell that that was what was going on.

He tried to kneel, but the pain as his bad leg twisted under him was too much and he decided to bend over instead, gently touching her shoulder. “Ray’schel?” He shook her shoulder tentatively.

“Ray’schel?” he said louder, shaking her a little harder.

She woke with a start, and her body tensed into a defensive position, her hand reaching for the knife at her belt. Thran had to jerk back, which made him bump his head on the top bunk.

“Ah,” he winced. “Ray’schel, it is all right.” He tried to soothe her. “You are safe.”

She stared at him for a moment as though trying to recognize him. “Thran?”

“Yes,” he said gently. “You are safe. It is all right.”

She looked around her and sat up, leaning her head into her hands.

Thran sat down on the bed next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to think of something comforting to say. “It cannot hurt you.”

He felt her shoulder at first tense and then slowly relax under his hand.

“I know,” she said, her words muffled by her hands and dark hair.

She sat up, pushing her hair back, and Thran noticed her eyes looked misty, and she wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“Is there anything I can do?” Thran asked softly.

Her eyes glanced briefly at the coat she had left on the couch before they locked in on the floor, her arms crossed tightly in front of her as she cradled herself. She shook her head.

Thran pressed his lips together, thinking. If he couldn’t help her, then perhaps he could distract her.

“Wait here,” he said, as if she could or would go anywhere else.

He limped to the cockpit and grabbed the questis he’d found, and as he returned, he grabbed her coat and handed it to her. She draped it over her shoulders because she must have been too warm to put it fully on, but he could see that it helped. Then she noticed what else he had brought.

“What is that?” she asked.

“This is called a questis,” he explained, sitting back down next to her. “It holds information and can send information and can do many other things. I think you may find it helpful as we travel. You can search for any information you wish regarding the galaxy and planets we are travelling to or even find information about the Jedi if you wish.”

She looked at the questis in his hand, but he still saw no emotion on her face.

“Would you like to see it?” He held it out to her.

She sat up a bit straighter, and he handed the questis to her, showing her how to access the files and search for different files then remembered that she probably couldn’t read any of it.

He looked through the various features and found where he could change the base language and found that he could change it to English.

“That’s probably better,” he said.

He watched her search for files on the Jedi. As she began to read, he noticed that her face and body relaxed.

“If you would like to read for a while,” Thran said, “I think that I will try to sleep, if that is all right.”

He began to climb the ladder to the upper bunk when Rachel stopped him.

“You should not be climbing with the state your leg is in,” she scolded him.

“I did not want to intrude on your space,” he explained.

“I don’t care,” Rachel said. “If I get tired again, I’ll climb up there. You’re not in any condition to do so.”

He inclined his head. “Very well.”

He lied down on the lower bunk, trying to find the best position to lie where neither his leg nor his side hurt him.

Rachel seemed to notice his discomfort, she climbed up the ladder part way and leaned over to grab something and came back down holding the pillow.

“Try putting this under your leg,” she suggested. “It may help.”

“And what will you use if you choose to sleep?” he asked.

“I don’t need a pillow,” she assured him. “Besides, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping for a while.”

He tried to read her face, but she wasn’t looking at him. She placed the pillow under his leg and walked over to the couch with the questis.

Thran had to admit that the pillow helped his leg quite a bit. Rachel was quite knowledgeable about medical practices.

He relaxed his body, closed his eyes, and tried to drift off. His mind refused to quiet itself for a while. His thoughts drifting from home, to Earth, to the analysis facility, to the woman sitting across the room from him. The past few days had certainly given him much to think about, and he was certain the Syndicure was going to have a lot of questions about it.

He tried to roll over and away from the thoughts, but the pain that shot through his leg told him to lie exactly where he was, so he listened. Soon he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Rachel watched Thran out of the corner of her eye but mainly tried to focus on the questis in her hand. She wasn't entirely sure where she should begin, but since she would be going to the Jedi, that was probably the best place to start. She looked over at Thran again whose chest was now rising and falling rhythmically, and she no longer sensed active emotions from him, so she presumed he was asleep.

She pulled her legs up onto the couch, pulled her coat more securely around herself, and got more comfortable. Even though her back was still sore, it was significantly better than before. She wasn’t sure what medicine it was Thran had used, but it worked amazingly well.

The first generic file she pulled up on the Jedi didn’t reveal much. The Jedi were a group of people who could use the Force and sought to protect peace and fought for justice in the galaxy.

She scrolled to further entries—wanting to find out all she could.

The Jedi Temple was on Coruscant. Coruscant? There had to be an entry about what that was.

A planet. A planet completely covered in city. Her stomach twisted. Her entire life had been in a very small town and venturing into the wilderness of Alaska. The biggest city she had visited was when her dad had to be airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage. A planet with nothing but city was not going to be easy for her.

So the Jedi Temple was on this city-planet. What else?

The Jedi lived by a Code. There weren’t any details about the Code, only that it was strict and that those who didn’t obey it were sent away from the Order.

She looked for more history about the Order and found that there were also limited records about their history. The Jedi generally allied with the Republic, and there was a separate faction of Jedi called the Sith who shared similar traits with the Jedi but were for some reason considered outcasts and fought against the Jedi for centuries before being annihilated.

That was something of interest, but there was no further information about it.

She looked again at Thran. He was still sleeping peacefully.

She looked down at the questis and thought about what else she could look up. She was heading into so much that was unknown to her. New planets, new aliens, new cultures, a whole new life.

New aliens, she decided. She was likely to encounter a lot of new beings when she got to these new planets, and she wanted to be prepared.

She pulled up a file with all the different species the Chiss had encountered. The vast array of different shapes, sizes, varieties, and colors of the beings startled her, and some of them were straight up terrifying. She wasn’t sure she would ever remember all of them. She tried to see if there was a way she could view the most widely known or something to that nature, but there wasn’t, and she wasn’t sure if she should start alphabetically or just dive in with the most recent entry. Most recent, she decided. Perhaps that would let her see the more well-known beings.

She tried to learn as many as she could, but their names and appearances began to jumble together in her mind, so she decided to switch things up and found that she could teach herself some more Basic. While she knew she should probably practice it with Thran, she also wanted to see if she could get ahead.

She was a good deal into her reading and was even beginning to doze off when Thran stirred, and she heard him groan before he quickly moved back to where he had laid before moving. She watched him for a while, wondering if he was awake or if he had simply moved in his sleep. She saw his chest moving in uneven motions, and she noticed that she could feel his discomfort as a stiffness in her own body.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

He turned and she felt him try to cover his pain, but even as the pain shot through him, she felt it and saw it in his face as he clenched his jaw.

She got up and went over to him, kneeling next to the bed. “You don’t need to move if it hurts.”

“It would probably hurt worse if I had attempted to mend it on my own,” he said, sitting up and trying to sound more upbeat than he clearly felt.

She looked down at his leg and could feel the pain it was causing.

“If I had ice,” she started, “I would have you ice it.” She looked around the small cabin. “But I don’t think that’s an option.”

Thran gave a small laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“My home planet is covered in snow and ice,” he said. “Will that help?”

She stared at him still not sure how that was supposed to be funny. “Not right now it won’t. Your leg is swelling, which is causing you more pain. Ice would help that swelling go down and ease the pain.”

Thran simply stared at her. “How did you learn all of this?”

“It’s common knowledge where I’m from,” Rachel said. “It isn’t on Csilla?”

“If someone is injured, they go and receive treatment. There is no need for one to treat themselves.”

“It’s very different where I’m from. Medical treatment isn’t available or it’s very expensive, so you need to know the basics of how to treat things.”

“Fascinating,” Thran said.

He attempted to stand, and Rachel helped him when he ignored her protests.

“I do not wish to lie here the whole trip,” he said. “Besides, we should continue your language lessons, if you are up to it.”

Rachel stared into his glowing eyes, trying to get a sense into how he was really feeling. While his face was unreadable, Rachel felt herself relax and take a slow breath. Behind his calm and placid eyes was pain. He was hiding it very well, but it was there.

“I am not entirely certain what you are doing at the moment,” his words broke into her thoughts, “but it is slightly disconcerting.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking away in embarrassment. “I won’t do it again.”

She’d intruded on his thoughts and feelings. If someone did that to her, she knew she would be upset.

As she walked back to the table, he followed behind her and sat down across from her. He tilted his head to try and look at her face. “It is all right. I understand that you do not fully grasp what you are capable of. I hope that once we arrive at the Jedi Temple, they will be able to train you properly. And I believe you will be a great Jedi.”

She didn’t need to look into his thoughts to tell that he truly meant what he said. She met his gaze, and his sincerity was genuine.

“I appreciate that,” she said softly. “Not many people have ever really believed in me before.”

“Then they have been foolish,” he said. “While I have not known you long, you have proven to be strong, resilient, and very intelligent. Not to mention quite brave and kind. Not many would have stood up against such brutality for a person they have only just met.” His eyes narrowed questioningly. “Why did you protect me? You had no reason to trust me.”

Rachel looked at the table between them, looking for some kind of solid answer. “You’re right,” she said, thinking back. “I didn’t have a reason. Something in me just told me that you were trustworthy.” She looked up at him again. “I can’t explain it.”

His eyes searched hers, and she wasn’t sure if he believed her. But his eyes softened, and his shoulders relaxed. “I suppose I could say the same,” he said. “I protected you without a second thought.”

“For that, I owe you my life,” she said. “I know I would still be strapped to that table if it weren’t for you. Possibly even dead.”

He looked away from her, and she felt a rising anger in him.

“Those men deserved death for what they did.” His voice was like ice.

She could feel that there was more but didn’t know what to say, and when he looked back at her, his eyes showed that same icy anger. “They murdered and tortured without hesitation. My people were simple explorers. Peaceful observers. And they were met with violence of the cruelest nature. For what purpose? What information was gleaned?”

She had no answer, so she remained silent. She could only look back into his glowing eyes as they held anger and a hint of pain and guilt.

But his eyes softened again as he continued to look at her. “And they intended to do you the same harm. One of their own people. That kind of action is unforgivable.” He paused briefly. “And you do not owe me anything. You kept silent about even the little information I gave about myself and my people. I would owe you for such silence.”

“So I guess that makes us even,” Rachel offered.

A small smile touched the corner of his lips. “I suppose it does.”

They were silent for a moment before Thran broke it. “Shall we continue with your language lessons?”

“I think that would be helpful.”

After several hours, Rachel’s brain was swimming with this new language of Basic, but she felt that she was getting a good grasp of it.

“Would it be all right if from now on, we spoke primarily in Basic so that I get more practice?” she asked. She knew she wouldn’t be using Earth’s language anymore when they reached the new galaxy, so she might as well start converting over.

“I think that would be wise,” Thran said. “If you feel you are ready.”

“I am not sure I’m ready. But I do not think anyone where we are going will be speaking English, so I might as well stop using it…” she drifted off. One more thing she was leaving behind.

Thran seemed to see this. “I realize it may be difficult,” he started, “but I will help in any way I can.”

Rachel tried to smile. “I appreciate that. But I do not think you will be with me everywhere I go in the future. Especially if I’m going to be a Jedi.”

His gaze fell to the table between them. “I suppose not.” He was silent for a moment but clearly thinking.

“Until then,” he said, “I will stay with you and help you in any way I can.” He looked up at her. “I promise.”

She began to protest. So many people in her life had made similar offers and promises and made bold claims, but every single time, they had failed to actually follow through. But there was a sincerity in Thran’s eyes and voice that led her to believe that promises meant more to him than they did on Earth. So all she could do was nod in acceptance.

He smiled slightly.

“Would you like to learn some Cheunh?” he asked her.

“That is your people’s language, right?”

“It is.”

“As long as I do not confuse the two in my head, then I do not see why not.”

He gave a short laugh, “There will be little confusion,” he assured her. “Cheunh is quite a difficult language for most beings to learn. But I am curious how you will fare, being that no one from Earth has ever tried to learn it.”

“Well, I am willing to learn.”

“Then let us begin.”

Rachel’s skills with languages were very proficient. She learned Basic with an ease that even some of his own people seemed to lack.

Now, as she was trying to get her mouth and tongue around the more difficult Cheunh words, he found that she was just as adept in his language. It took her multiple tries to learn the basic sounds that each letter made, but once she got them, she got them. Once they began to get into some simple words and phrases, he could see her starting to get a firm grasp of how the language was meant to sound. It was slightly accented, but given her Earthling descent, that would be unavoidable. But overall, she was doing quite well.

“Very good,” he complimented her in Cheunh. “You’re doing quite well.”

“I thank you,” she responded.

“A bit formal,” he said. “But acceptable.”

He showed her how to leave off the pronoun, and she seemed to understand, but he knew that it would take practice and time.

“Do you wish to pause?” he asked her.

“Perhaps for now,” she said slowly. “We have been at it for…”

Thran looked at the chrono and reminded her what the word for three was.

“Three times,” she finished.

“Hours,” he corrected.

“Hours,” she repeated.

He smiled. She wasn’t hesitant to use the words she knew to say what she meant to say even if she knew they were wrong. Much like a toddler learning to talk for the first time.

“Then we shall pause with that language,” he said, switching to Basic. He was curious to see how she would do with the other language she had been learning.

At first, it seemed to take her a moment to wrap her mind around it but soon got it.

“Thank you,” she said slowly in Basic. “This is still going to take some getting used to…”

“I know,” he said. And he did know. Leaving behind a language that she knew and had spent her whole life speaking would be extremely difficult. But he believed that she could do it.

“You are doing very well though,” he said, trying to reassure her.

She looked up at him briefly from across the small table. “I appreciate that.”

“We can move on to other things, if you would like,” he suggested. He figured that there was much information she would need or want to learn about the new life and galaxy she was about to enter.

“I think that would be good.”

Rachel told him that she had spent some time reading about the different alien species in the galaxy, so he decided to quiz her on the more common species. He would show her a picture of one and Rachel would try to guess which species it was. She got a few mixed up, but she tried to find some way to associate the name of the species with a characteristic the species had. For Twilek and Togruta, she told him the Togruta had towers on their heads. He laughed, but he could see how it helped her. There were others, but she seemed to start to get a grasp of them.

“Each species does have their own language,” Thran said, as he put the questis down. “But the vast majority will also speak Basic. So the need to learn other languages will not be a necessity right away.”

She nodded, but he could see a sense of tiredness at the idea of learning more languages.

“Do you wish to be done for now?” he asked.

“I think for now,” she said, her voice sounded tired. “My brain is spinning.”

“Very well,” Thran said, sitting back on the couch. His leg twinged in pain with the movement, but he tried to hide the pain. He could tell Rachel saw it though. Or perhaps felt it. Her face showed a hint of pain. He didn’t understand entirely how the Force worked, so he didn’t know what she sensed about it, especially without any training.

He noticed something else about her though. She was not just tired from studying. She was exhausted from not sleeping. He wasn’t sure how long he had slept, but it was much longer than she had.

“Do you wish to try and sleep more?” he offered.

She looked over at him, trying to cover up her fatigue, but he saw it in her eyes.

“I am all right,” she said.

“Ra’chel,” he said. “I can see you are tired.”

She looked down at the table between them. “I do not want to see them again,” she whispered.

“The nightmares?” he asked.

She nodded, still not looking up. “It was like I was right back in that room.” Her voice was so quiet.

Thran felt his chest tighten as his own gaze fell, drifting off and back towards that horrible scene that haunted his own memory.

He had tried not to watch as those horrid men tortured her for information she didn’t have, but her pain and her screams still echoed in his mind. He wished he had acted before he had. What they did to her—what they had nearly done to her—was unspeakable.

As Thran brought his mind back to the present, his whole body was rigid with tension. He looked up at Rachel, whose own gaze now lingered on him, her dark brown eyes swimming with emotion.

He tried to relax his face, but for some reason, he still found that he couldn’t come to terms with what had happened. He knew he could have and should have done more to help her. And now she was living with the consequences of his inaction. How was he supposed to live with that? He studied Rachel’s searching eyes. How was she going to live with it?

She was the one who had endured it. She was the one they had tortured. And for what?

Him.

He couldn’t hold her gaze. Everything she had suffered was because of his mistakes. She was going to have to live with nightmares and memories from that day because of him.

“What’s wrong?” Rachel’s soft voice broke his spiraling thoughts, making him look up at her. Her eyes searched his in a way that made him realize that she must have been sensing everything he was feeling.

“I am sorry,” he said, looking away from her again. There was something about the way her eyes examined him that made him feel more vulnerable than he had ever felt in his life, like his heart was naked in front of her. “Thinking about what happened brings up many emotions.”

She was silent, and he knew that she must be thinking about it as well, but when he glanced up, her eyes were still on him in that same searching gaze.

“Did you know the others?” Rachel asked with a hesitant voice. “The clothing and gear in those bins…and this and the other ship. You were not the first one to land on Earth.”

“If you can call mine a landing,” he tried to joke, but her face gave every indication that she wanted a real answer.

“I told you my people have been studying your galaxy for a long time. We call it the Second Galaxy, and, despite our efforts, only your planet seems to hold real and active life in your galaxy so far as we have found. We have, therefore, devoted more explorers to studying Earth and its people to gauge their threat level and abilities. Only in your world’s recent decades have any strides been made toward space weaponry, which has caused us more concern, but your lack of any true space travelling vessels limits your reach. We have, therefore, been strictly monitoring your progress and the social and political climate of your world.”

“But some of your people landed on Earth.”

“The first one to actually land and walk among your people did come back. He was able to gather data and report his findings. However, the second to do so was not as fortunate. She was discovered and your people proved to be violent. Though she was unharmed, we were restricted to observing from afar. However, it was that encounter that we believe sparked your people’s drive for space worthy weapons.”

“Do you know when that was?” Rachel asked, her eyes drifting off as though looking back at memories.

“There had been a three-way civil war ensuing on the larger of the two Northern continents, but the appearance of ‘an alien’ apparently had them settle some of their differences long enough to start making other weapons.”

“Not exactly,” Rachel said.

“Oh?”

“Those weapons were already being made when the Cold War started. It was part of the reason the war started. It was the munitions race, and some called it the space race of the nineteen hundreds. I do not recall ever learning about aliens visiting, but that sounds like something the governments would hide.”

“You speak of this as though it is long in Earth’s history.”

“Not terribly long. It was that war that made my great-great-great grandfather decide to move to Alaska. He met his wife there, and my family has lived there ever since.”

“I see.”

“That does not explain the two ships and the bins of equipment we saw.”

“There were other explorers to your galaxy. Some of their ships were lost. Others did return with debris from lost ships. Your people’s own space explorations may have found those who had become lost. Or, there were some who, like me, had been shot down above your planet and…interrogated.”

He glared at the table. “Signing up for this program has never come with a guarantee of returning home, but for our explorers to be treated so cruelly for merely being present is appalling.”

“I never heard of aliens coming to Earth. There were always rumors and…” she seemed to be looking for a word.

“Perhaps you have the English word for it?” he offered.

“Conspiracy theories,” she said before switching back to Basic. “Now I lost my thought.”

“Rumors and conspiracies,” he reminded her.

“Right. No one ever really believed that aliens were real. It was the stuff of fiction.”

“So you believe that those who knew about my people were a select group?”

“I do not know for sure. Clearly the military is involved somehow because those were military helicopters that chased us down. How much the government was involved, I do not know, but they have control over the military.”

He nodded. It sounded similar to how the Syndicure tried to control the Defense Fleet, but Earth’s governments were not quite so unified. Exactly how many and which of those governments were involved was a guess.

“The average person has no knowledge, you believe?” he asked again.

“If I did, I think I would have been a little more prepared when your ship crashed in our woods.”

He studied her face, gauging her honesty. “And yet you had no fear of me. Even when I threatened your life.”

“You were hurt.” Her eyes showed the same concern and kindness he had seen when he first saw her.

“A wounded animal is usually the most dangerous,” he said.

“It depends on the severity of their injuries, in my experience.” And from the change in her expression, he believed that she had had such experiences.

“You did not hesitate,” Thran said softly. “You were armed and still trusted.”

“There was something about you that told me you wouldn’t hurt me,” she said. “I cannot describe what it was. But somehow, I knew you wouldn’t pull the trigger.”

Thran felt his jaw tense. She was right. He’d had orders, and he’d disobeyed them. If he had followed protocol, he should have pulled the trigger the instant he saw her.

But where would that have left him? Rachel had tried to help him. Would her people have killed him on sight if she hadn’t been there? He didn’t know.

 There had been something about her that told him not to pull the trigger though, and he listened.

“I suppose,” he said, “what matters is that we are both alive, did not kill each other, have not been killed, and are on our way now to my galaxy.”

“And you saved me,” she said quietly.

He looked up at her, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Did she feel guilty about it?

No. As he studied her eyes, he could see that she was reliving what had happened because her body was tense.

“You also protected me and my people,” he reminded her.

She seemed to snap out of her memories as she looked at him.

“We are even, remember?” He tried to offer her a smile, but it didn’t seem to help.

She pulled her coat more tightly around herself and lifted the questis again. “I think I should try and learn some more.” Her voice was quiet.

“I think you should try to sleep,” he offered, but she shook her head.

“You go ahead if you want. I’m fine.”

But Thran knew she wasn’t, but he could also see that arguing wouldn’t help the issue, so he stood up and went over to the bunk and lied down carefully to try and sleep.

“Wake me if you change your mind,” he said.

Chapter Text

Rachel watched out the viewport as the mottled sky of hyperspace faded into starlines and then into stars. Except for the large rock that bore down in front of them, the sky was clear.

“Welcome to the Second Galaxy Outpost,” Thran said from the pilot’s chair. “It is from here that our explorers are able to make the intergalactic jumps through hyperspace.”

Rachel looked at the large asteroid floating in front of them. “That is a space station?”

“Do not let your eyes deceive you.”

He took the ship closer, and soon a warning alarm sounded from the dashboard. Rachel looked at Thran questioningly, but he kept the ship on its course. It wasn't until they were nearly right on top of the asteroid that Rachel was able to make out what looked like a small runway. Nothing you could land an airplane on, but probably a ship like this.

There was a sudden hissing sound from a speaker somewhere on the console, and though Rachel only had a couple lessons in Cheunh, she thought she heard the words ‘identify' and ‘ship'.

Thran glanced at Rachel before answering in his language, stating his name, and she thought he said something about lost or gone before he mentioned discovering something. He definitely said the words ‘explain more' and Rachel presumed he meant they'd talk more in person.

An affirmation was given, and she watched as part of the asteroid opened right in front of them. Thran quickly moved the ship inside, and the asteroid swallowed the ship.

Once the door was closed, lights slowly came on, and Thran finished landing the ship and shutting the engines down before unstrapping himself from his chair.

“You did not mention you had company,” Rachel said.

Thran gave her an amused smirk. “I see your lessons are already paying off. No, I did not mention you yet, and I believe it would be wise if you remained on the ship until I have told them about you.”

She must have appeared confused because he continued. “My people are not very welcoming of outsiders. They may not be happy that I have brought you from the Second Galaxy. Allow me the time to explain to them your affinity for the Force and your actions on Earth. I am hopeful they will see things in a favorable light.”

“And if they don’t?”

“I still intend to keep my promise. I will take you to the Jedi. However, you would likely have to remain aboard this ship for the duration of our time here.”

She didn't like that idea, but given the secretive nature of his people, Rachel could understand.

“All right,” she said, too tired to argue.

He nodded and walked stiffly from the cockpit.

“Just make sure you get your leg looked at,” she called after him without turning around.

“I shall,” she heard him say as the door opened to the hanger.

Rachel watched out the viewport as two Chiss in black uniforms entered the hanger from a door to the right. They each had different insignias on their shoulders the same way Thran had had a maroon-colored sun on one of his. They seemed tense, and Rachel tentatively reached out to sense them, not sure yet if she was doing it right.

Apprehension flooded her mind, making her tense. She wanted to find answers.

No. They wanted to find answers.

Thran walked towards them and inclined his head. They returned the gesture, and they began to talk. Rachel felt their apprehension turn to curiosity, then one of them gestured toward the door, and she thought she saw Thran’s head turn slightly in the direction of the ship before he followed them to the exit.

Left alone in the ship, Rachel walked back to the living area and picked up the questis to try to better her Cheunh a little more. If she was going to be here, she might as well try to understand them.

Thran walked carefully down the ship’s ramp. He knew he would have to get his leg looked at even without Rachel's reminder. A door opened to the right and two Chiss walked out, their faces tight with apprehension.

“I greet you,” Thran said as he inclined his head.

“We greet you, Mitth’ra’nikuru,” the one on the right said as he inclined his head in return. “I am Irizi’vo’nimiru, and you know Coduyo’su’kema. When we read the markings and clearance code of your ship, we admit that we were surprised.”

“Yes,” Thran said. “My own ship was destroyed. I intend to give a full report for the Expansionary Exploration Force in due time.”

Zivoni gestured to the door. “By all means,” he said. “I would love to hear the preview.”

Thran’s first thought was of Rachel still sitting back on the ship. He hated to just leave her there where anyone could simply walk onto the ship and discover her, but there was very little he could do about that right now.

He hoped the two hadn’t noticed his attention wandering as he nodded to them and followed them out of the hanger.

They walked through a series of hallways until they reached the briefing room. They sat down and Thran began to explain to them what occurred on his exploration of Earth, beginning with his cloaking shield malfunction.

“Typical of Earthlings,” Yosukem said. “They speak with their weapons.”

“Where did you find this ship if yours was damaged?” Zivoni asked.

“I attempted to crash my ship in an uninhabited part of Earth, and I thought I had succeeded,” Thran went on to explain. “However, after I made landfall, I soon discovered that the land belonged to someone and that that someone was walking nearby.”

“I assume you followed protocol?” Zivoni asked.

“I began to,” Thran said, his eyes turning down to the table as his memory took him back. When he saw a person approaching his downed ship, he had indeed been ready to kill whoever it was in order to protect the secrets of the Chiss. “However, the Earthling I met was unlike any I have ever heard of before.”

The stunned and tense silence spoke louder than any words could have.

“In her eyes, there was no fear or resentment,” Thran continued. “She put down the weapon she had been carrying, and her first words were to ask if I required assistance with my wounds—I had been minorly injured in the crash.”

“An Earthling offering help?” Yosukem asked in disbelief.

“I didn’t believe her at first either, but she also offered help in repairing my ship—offering to take me to where tools could be acquired. There was no hostility in her eyes or face.”

“You broke protocol?” Zivoni asked.

“I did,” Thran admitted. “I required assistance, and she offered it. I gave her no information aside from my name because she asked. Other than that, she understood that I did not wish to share anything.”

“Fascinating,” Yosukem said.

“You gave her your name?” Zivoni asked accusingly.

“How else should she have called me while I was with her?” Thran countered. “I believe that giving my name was harmless.”

“This doesn’t explain how you came by the ship,” Yosukem said.

Thran continued. “We began going to her vehicle when other Earthlings came in flying transports that they call helicopters. These were hostile. Ra’chel, however, didn’t hesitate to—"

“Ra’chel?” Zivoni asked.

“Yes,” Thran answered. “That is her name. We got into her vehicle, and she attempted to get away from the helicopters, but failed. I believed that she would then give up and allow the other Earthlings control, but she still attempted to protect me. What was more, the other Earthlings were hostile towards her.”

“That is,” Yosukem began, “most unusual. This Ra’chel seems like a very different breed of Earthling. Definitely worth studying if we could.”

“If they captured you,” Zivoni said. “You clearly escaped.”

“Indeed,” Thran said.

He explained how they tortured him for information. The methods they barbarically used. Then he told them about how they used Rachel as a means of leverage against him.

“They believed that the Earthling female would be leverage?” Yosukem almost scoffed.

“She protected me on numerous occasions at that point,” Thran pointed out. “And what was more, they attempted to pry information from her which she did not possess. The only thing she knew was my name, and even that she did not speak. And they tortured her right in front of me. They used worse means of torture against their own kind than they did against an alien from another galaxy. It was despicable—even for what we know of them.”

“I killed them,” he continued, anger seeping into his voice at the memories. “I killed every Earthling in that facility. They held records of explorers who must have crashed in the past—clothing, equipment, weapons, and more. I destroyed it all.”

“Including this Ra’chel, I hope?” Zivoni asked, one of his eyebrows raised.

Thran looked up at him. “No. I couldn’t kill her. She assisted me in escaping, and she was the one who discovered the equipment from past explorers, asking if I recognized it. I took her with me from that facility in the ship we brought here. While I did destroy the place, we barely escaped when more Earthling ships came in pursuit to shoot us down, but the cloaking shield worked, and we were able to escape.”

“I’m hearing a lot of ‘we’,” Yosukem said tightly.

“I couldn’t just leave her behind in that facility,” Thran said with an edge in his voice. “We exited Earth’s atmosphere, and I offered to take her back to her home. However, as we left Earth’s gravitational field, I believe that she felt the Force—the way the Jedi do.”

“The Jedi?” Zivoni asked. “The Force? You believe that an Earthling can access these things?”

“I’m not certain,” Thran said, “But when we left Earth, she became extremely aware of things around her, and she could feel things she didn’t know how to explain. So I gave her a choice. To go back to her home and all that was familiar, or to come with me and I could take her to the Jedi.”

“She is on the ship?” Zivoni asked, anger now clear in his voice.

“She is,” Thran confirmed, keeping his face neutral.

“The Syndicure is not going to like that,” Yosukem said. “They dislike our project enough already and look for every chance they can to shut it down.”

“Bringing an Earthling back from the Second Galaxy was most unwise,” Zivoni concluded.

“I gave the choice to her,” Thran said. “She could choose to go back to her home and her family, but she chose to come to a completely new galaxy where she knows nothing. She chose to come here, and I intend to keep my word and take her to the Jedi.”

“Based on our own discoveries about the Jedi,” Yosukem said, “I am not certain they will take her. They only take in young children. The person you describe sounds much older.”

“I am not certain what the Jedi will say,” Thran replied. “But I still intend to take her there.”

“And she will stay on the ship until you reach Coruscant?” Zivoni asked.

“I told her that she would most likely have to remain aboard the ship. While not ideal, I do not think she will mind. She does need some medical care, but there is nothing life threatening.”

They both looked at him and then at each other, clearly unable to decide what to do with the situation. Thran knew that what he had done was completely unorthodox, bordering on the illegal. The Syndicure would likely hold an official hearing about it. But he felt it was the right decision.

“I will also need to go to the medical bay,” Thran spoke into their continued silence. “Ra’chel helped to bind my leg, but it requires further treatment.”

“The Earthling has medical training?” Yosukem asked.

“No,” Thran said. “Apparently many Earthlings learn basic medical skills because they cannot receive treatment from real doctors. She is quite knowledgeable.”

“Hm,” Zivoni thought out loud. “Perhaps questioning her would be beneficial to better understanding Earth and its inhabitants.”

Thran felt his back tense. “She has been through enough in the past days. I do not think an interrogation would be beneficial for anyone.”

Zivoni’s eyes narrowed. “The Syndicure will do no less.”

“I have no intention of taking her to the Syndicure,” Thran said.

“I think that may be inevitable,” Zivoni countered.

Thran looked at him, his jaw set to counter, but he knew that he was right. They both were. Rachel’s presence here could have dire consequences for the Ascendency, and he was violating laws that had been set into place to keep order. The Aristocra would have questions, and a lot of them.

But he could not shake the feeling that this was the right thing to do. Rachel had saved his life, and she showed signs of force-sensitivity—something that the Expansionary Exploration Force had only speculated that Earthlings were capable of.

And he’d promised.

He would not go back on his word. He told Rachel that he would take her to the Jedi, so that was what he would do. Perhaps they would be able to help her learn how to control and use her abilities. He knew he would never be able to understand them.

“The Star Jumper will be here within a standard rotation,” Yosukem said. “It is bringing our usual equipment and supply replenishment, but it can also transport you back to the Ascendency when it returns.”

Thran nodded. “That is acceptable.”

“You had best prepare something for the Aristocra,” Zivoni said. “And prepare the Earthling as best you can.”

“In the meantime,” Yosukem interjected, “head to the MedCenter and get your leg fixed.”

Thran recognized the dismissal and stood, leaning on his uninjured leg as he did so.

He began to limp to the door when Zivoni spoke up again.

“And make sure that the Earthling remains aboard the shuttle. She has likely seen more of the Ascendency than the Aristocra would like. For your own sake, I would continue to keep that to a minimum.”

Thran nodded again and walked out, turning down the hall to the MedCenter.

Rachel had access to the questis and could look up any information about the Ascendency she wanted. Not to mention that he had begun to teach her Cheunh. He was sure that the Aristocra would pull him out of the program for his actions.

Rachel’s eyes began to feel heavy as she stared at the questis, unable to focus anymore on the words and phrases in front of her, let alone make her brain make sense of them. Thran had been right when he told her how hard Cheunh would be. What she really needed was to practice speaking it out loud with him listening to make sure she was pronouncing the words correctly.

She stood up and began to walk around the ship to wake herself up. She did not want to fall asleep. Twice during the journey here, she had fallen asleep, and the nightmares she had had scared her. She didn’t want to sleep if that was what she would see. But she also knew that she couldn’t stay awake forever.

As she paced, the door of the shuttle opened, and she expected to see Thran coming back, but two other Chiss—one male, one female—entered wearing the same black uniforms as the others she had seen wearing. The man had the same insignia as Thran while the woman had two triangles with the points facing each other, but on their other shoulders, they had the same insignia which was different from Thran’s. Was his an explorer’s while these were medical personnel? But then why did Thran and this man have the same, Maroon-colored sun?

Rachel felt a mixture of fear, anger, and curiosity as they studied her, but she couldn’t separate if they were her own feelings or theirs.

“Greetings,” the man said is very accented English. “Mitth’ra’nikuru informed us you were injured.”

“Yes,” Rachel answered. “My back was torn open. Thran used some kind of spray to help it, but he said it would need better looking at.”

The woman nodded and set down a box on the table.

“Is he getting his injuries looked at?” she asked.

“You are concerned about him?” the male Chiss asked.

“Of course I am,” she said. “He got those injuries because of me. He was trying to protect me. I tried to bind his leg, but he needs better care than what I could do.”

“Interesting,” the male said in Cheunh, followed by a small conversation she could barely follow between the two. So much for all her studying.

“Let us get you fixed up,” the female said, not mentioning anything the two of them had discussed or even answering her question about Thran.

She felt like a specimen being studied as the Chiss worked on healing her back. They spoke between themselves as the female applied patches that stung. Neither of them seemed to notice the pain it caused her, so she did her best to make herself numb to it just as she had when the whip had repeatedly lashed it open.

When they finished, they told her that they would be back the following day to reevaluate the injuries and reapply the patches as needed.

They didn’t discuss anything else or mention how Thran was. She was left alone again in the small shuttle with nothing to do except read from the questis or try to sleep. Given that the nightmares scared her, she opted to try and study more.

Thran’s leg was put in a binder, not too dissimilar to what Rachel had attempted to make, and a bacta patch was placed over the stab wound on his side. He was ordered to remain in the MedCenter for the time being while he recovered.

A nurse walked in carrying a med case, and Thran asked if she had tended to Rachel.

“The Earthling?” she asked. “I fixed her up as best I could. I haven’t seen wounds like that since I was stationed on a dragon of war. How did she receive such injuries?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Thran asked.

“I didn’t ask her,” she said flatly.

Frustration built in his chest. “While she and I were imprisoned,” he explained, trying to keep his voice calm, “her people tortured her for information about me. They also used that torture as a means of leverage against me, hoping I would speak.”

“Typical Earthlings,” she scoffed. “Yet an odd approach, I must admit. As though you should care what happened to her.”

“As it turns out, I did.”

The nurse raised an eyebrow.

“I couldn’t bear to watch what they were doing to her. She had shown kindness, and that was how she was being repaid.”

“We have orders to not interfere with such matters,” she said, her tone sharp.

“I understand. But there is reading an order and there is living through it. I couldn’t stand by and let them harm her.”

“Our mandate clearly says—”

“I know what it says,” Thran yelled. “I made the choice to save her and kill everyone else for what they had done. Ra’chel had nothing to do with any of it. She is innocent.”

“Until she isn’t,” the nurse said coldly, walking past his bed to put the medical kit in a locker in the far wall.

“What do you mean?”

“How much does she know about us now?” she asked. “How much will she keep to herself? It’s dangerous. And the Syndicure will not be happy.”

“I know that. She has already kept even what little information she possessed to herself. I believe that she can be trusted. She has earned my respect.”

“You will have to hope that she earns the respect of the Aristocras.”

Chapter Text

As Thran walked stiffly into the room, he thought, at first, that Rachel must be sleeping due to the lights being dimmed, until he looked further into the room and saw a holo-display of the galaxy floating in the middle of the darkened room.

“Ra'chel?” he asked, taking a small step into the room.

He heard a small rustling noise before her shadow stood up from behind the couch.

He felt an amused smirk tug at his mouth.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I hope it’s all right,” her voice came back timidly. “I wanted to get a better idea of the planets in the galaxy, so I pulled up this map so I could study it better.”

Thran walked around the couch to look closer at the display.

“And have you learned more?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “There are so many planets. How do you keep track of them all?”

“Years of study,” Thran responded. “I applaud your efforts to learn it in a few days, but it will take a great deal of time to become acquainted with all the systems and planets, species and cultures that exist in this galaxy.”

Rachel sat down heavily on the couch, slumping tiredly. She had clearly been at this for some time.

“May I ask which ones you have managed to memorize?” he asked, hoping that the sense of some accomplishment would help.

“I think Coruscant is somewhere in this area,” she pointed in the correct spot, even if it wasn’t the correct planet. “We started over here in what the galaxy calls the Unknown Regions,” she continued pointing in the correct region where the Ascendency was. “I think the regions after that are Wild Space, Outer Rim, Mid Rim, and Core Worlds?” she asked making consecutive rings as she mentioned each region.

“Unfortunately,” Thran said, “Each region is not quite as clear cut as that. Also, there is what is called the Expansionary Region in this area,” he said pointing. “And the Inner Rim here.”

He heard Rachel sigh, and he couldn’t help laughing a little. “I did tell you that there would be a lot to learn. You will not be able to learn all of it in the thirty days we are traveling on this vessel.”

“What else do I have to do?” she asked. “I'm not allowed outside this room except when I'm summoned somewhere, and only with an escort. I have to do something with all my time. I might as well spend it learning everything I can. Including,” she paused as if switching thoughts, “practicing new language,” she said, managing to say the Cheunh words with only some difficulty.

“That was good,” he told her, keeping with the language. “How is your comprehension?”

Her forehead tensed, and he could tell that she was trying to keep up with him.

“I…understand,” she said after seeming to fumble for a different word, perhaps the word ‘comprehend’ was still a bit too complex for her to say.

He sat down on the chair across from her, and she pushed a switch to turn on the lights. It was then that Thran saw the small dark circles under her eyes, and his forehead creased with concern.

“Have you been sleeping at all?” he asked, switching back to Basic.

Her gaze drifted back to the holomap.

“The nightmares?”

She nodded, still not looking at him.

“Still the same?” he asked, leaning forward in the chair, being careful to lean on his uninjured knee. He had had a bad dream here and there since leaving earth, but nothing that kept him from sleeping. Nothing to the extent that Rachel had experienced.

She hesitated but then looked straight at him, directly into his eyes, and he got the feeling that she was sensing his emotions or intentions. It was an odd sensation, and he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with it.

Her eyes softened, as though letting down some form of barrier.

“Every time I close my eyes, I find myself back in that room,” she said, her eyes losing focus. “I see those men…the knives, the whip. I see…”

Her voice cut off, and Thran could see the tension around her eyes as she remembered everything that had happened.

“I also see strange beings in my dreams. I hear people say that I'm not worth training. I see all kinds of strange places with creatures chasing me while I can't escape.”

Thran nodded.  These were probably a result of all the studying she was doing while having no context. Her brain was likely so overloaded with information that it jumbled it all together when she did sleep, causing confusion and nightmares.

“Unfortunately,” he began tentatively, “I believe your mind will continue to play these tricks on you until it receives a sufficient amount of rest.”

She looked away, and he saw her walls go back up.

“I understand that you are scared,” he tried again. “You are coming to an entirely new galaxy.”

“I should not be afraid to sleep,” she said tensely.

“I know,” he said, knowing how ridiculous it sounded. He watched her face as she stared at the holomap which could still barely be seen while the lights were on. Her eyes were tired yet still tried to hold back the fear she clearly felt.

“Do you wish you hadn’t come?” he asked quietly. He didn’t see any signs of regret, but he wanted to know for sure.

While she didn’t look at him, her eyes unfocused from the holomap, and he studied her as she truly thought about it. Her body began to slowly relax even though her forehead remained tense. Her eyes refocused on the map before they turned and looked directly into his own with a new determination.

“No,” she said firmly. “I believe this is where I am meant to be.”

Thran felt the small smile pull the corner of his lip even as he could still see the tension lines around her eyes. She needed to sleep, or she would collapse from exhaustion.

“How about a trade,” he said as a thought occurred to him.

“A trade?”

“You get some real sleep. I know that nightmares may still come, but you need to rest. You sleep, and when you wake up, I will take you to the forward viewing room.”

“What is that?” she asked.

“Trust me,” he said. “I think you will like it.”

She raised an eyebrow, but she sighed and didn’t argue.

“All right.”

She stood and picked up the questis from the floor where it was projecting the holomap and placed it on the table next to the couch. Thran stood as well and watched to make sure she actually went to the sleeping room.

“Good night, Ra’chel,” he said as she walked into it.

He turned and walked to the door to let her rest.

The nightmares came again, but they weren’t as severe as before. What was more, she saw things she never had before. Planets, stars, clusters, and all of them came in odd orders and mixed together with her other dreams.

When she woke, she tried to sort it out, but she couldn’t. She had never seen those things before. She looked over at the clock—chrono. She had to start calling it a chrono. That was its name in this galaxy. She had indeed slept. Seven hours. She hoped Thran wasn’t worried about how long she was sleeping.

Actually, she thought, he more likely forgot that he had told her to sleep, which is why she hadn’t been interrupted.

She got up from the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable, and she made her way to the refresher, then to the living area. It had surprised her to see how well decorated the suite was when they first brought her to it. Being that it was only a transport vessel, she didn’t think it would have the need to be as well furnished as it was. Was it lavish, no, but its clean whites and sleek blacks and grays made it more than adequate for someone who would only be aboard for a month. Besides which, she was an outsider. The fact that they had given her a suite like this had shocked her.  

She sat down on the couch and reached to pick up the questis when she saw a note was left on it:

When I came to check on you, you were still asleep. I am glad of this. When you do wake, use the comm to contact me. The silver button followed by the blue.

So, he had checked on her.

She looked back at the table and saw an odd-looking, circular device. The comm? It had the colored buttons he had mentioned, so she pressed the indicated buttons.

After a few seconds, she heard Thran’s voice.

“You slept well,” his tone was amused.

“I did,” she said. “Despite some odd dreams mixed with the nightmares.”

“Hm,” he said. “We can discuss them if you wish. I shall be there shortly, and we can go to the forward viewing room as I said. We shall have to hurry though.”

The comm made a clicking sound before Rachel could ask why the rush was needed, and it wasn’t long before he was at the door and leading her quickly down a series of halls, still favoring his one leg, until they reached a door where Thran had her stop.

“Close your eyes,” he said with a playful smirk on his face.

“What?”

“Close your eyes.”

“Is it that big of a deal?”

“I think you will find it to be.”

She closed her eyes to indulge him, and felt his amusement rise. His hands gripped both of hers as he led her past the door and into the room, and she had the sense that it wasn’t large, so she wondered why it would mean so much. But he kept leading her further and further into the room.

When he finally stopped and told her to open her eyes, she sensed his anticipation.

Her breath caught as she opened her eyes. She stood in front of a large viewport, and outside were the most colorful nebulas she had ever seen. Pictures she had seen from telescopes and satellites did not do justice to what was right in front of her. She tried to take it all in at once. All the hues of greens and purples and oranges and reds, and in between it all, bright stars poked through in a sparkling display of light.

She sat down in front of the viewport, not able to tear her eyes away from the beauty.

“So?” Thran’s voice came from beside her as he carefully sat down as well. “What do you think?”

“You were right,” she said when she could find her voice.

“I was not sure you would be awake in time to see it. On trips back and forth, we usually stop here for a time before continuing.”

“I can see why.”

She felt his eyes on her, and she turned to look at him, seeing an amused yet genuine smile on his face.

“What is so funny?” she asked him.

“Not funny, really,” he said. “But watching you see this for the first time is much like watching a child experience something for the first time.”

“Well, I am glad I can be your entertainment,” she said.

“That is not how I meant it—”

But she couldn’t hold back her laughter at the concern on his face. Or perhaps it was the childlike wonder of this experience. She saw him relax again.

“That is not funny,” he said, his face trying to return to its usual neutral, but she couldn’t stop laughing, and he gave up and smiled.

Turning to look out the viewport again, Rachel took in the nebula.

Then it was gone, and all she saw were starlines followed by the swirling view of hyperspace.

“We have entered hyperspace again,” Thran said. “I am glad you got to see it though.”

Rachel stared another moment out the viewport before standing up and going to the couches which she just noticed were in the room, which wasn’t all that dissimilar to the living space of her own suite.

On the table in front of the couch, she noticed two plates filled with cubes of some sort of meat-looking thing.

“What are those?” she asked as she sat down on a couch.

“They are meat striped fruit squares,” he explained, sitting down on the couch across the table from her.

She looked back at them. On earth, those two things did not mesh into one food, much less look appetizing. These, on the other hand, didn’t look half bad.

She looked back at Thran questioningly.

“Help yourself,” he said.

Tentatively, she picked one of the squares up and tasted it. It didn’t taste the way she expected meat and fruit to taste when mixed together, but it tasted pretty good.

“Thoughts?” Thran asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Are you are enjoying studying me?” Rachel asked.

“That was not my intention,” he began.

“Isn’t it?”

Every time she spoke with him or the other Chiss, she couldn’t help the feeling that they were watching her every move and taking note of every response to each question. After all, they had never had someone like her to ask all these questions before. They had only ever studied Earth from afar, so from what she could gather, she was the first Earthling they had met.

Thran was the only one who called her by name while he was with her. The others never truly addressed her, but she wondered if he used the same term to describe her while he was with the other explorers.

“Ever since coming on this ship, I just feel like I am under a…” what was the Basic word for it? It wouldn’t come to her, so she used the English word, “Microscope.”

Thran nodded and told her the Basic word.

“I cannot say that I blame you,” he said. “I understand that you have been asked many questions about your life on Earth and about Earth in general. Most of us on this vessel are explorers and are naturally curious, which is why we are a part of this program. Many of them disagree with my bringing you back from Earth, yet they all agree that they should learn as much as possible while you are with us.”

“Do you think they will send me back?” Rachel caught the subtle phrasing of his words, but based on his reaction, perhaps she had misunderstood.

“You will not be allowed to remain with the Chiss,” he began, “that much is certain. However, you will be going to Coruscant to become a Jedi. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

She couldn’t argue with the certainty in his tone, and when she tried to use the Force to sense his mind, she could also feel his determination and see that he was telling the truth.

But then she couldn’t turn it off again.

She began to see things she couldn’t explain just like she had in her dreams. Stars, clusters of planets, a black hole. All whizzing by so fast, she tried to close her eyes against it, but it didn’t help. Placing her hands on each side of her head, she thought she could silence it by sheer force, but it didn’t work.

“Ra’chel, what is wrong?” Thran asked. He was suddenly by her side.

“Stop!” Rachel said loudly, hoping that just telling the Force or whatever was making these things happen would listen.

“Ra’chel, look at me,” Thran said.

But all at once, the planets and stars stopped. All she sensed was confusion and concern, and she didn’t know where it was coming from.

“Ra’chel?”

She opened her eyes and looked at Thran. He was kneeling on the ground in front of her, but there was an odd look in his eyes. Not only was he worried, but there was something else.

“What happened?” he asked her.

“I just…” she wasn’t sure how to explain it. “I tried to use these new senses. The Force. I don’t understand what happened. I started seeing planets and stars. They were going by so fast.”

His brow furrowed, and he turned to look out the viewport.

Rachel wondered if maybe her dreams had come back to her, but when she turned to look out the viewport as well, they were no longer in hyperspace. They had stopped. But there were no planets or stars nearby, so why had they stopped so soon?

“I need to speak with the captain,” he said, standing up.

Confused, Rachel stood as well.

“Did I do something wrong?”

He looked at her but didn’t say anything.

Not reassured, she followed him back to her suite in silence, trying to make sense of what she had seen. He left promptly after telling her that he would be back once he knew more.

Chapter Text

“What do you mean, they are connected?” Captain Plikh’ad’risiumh asked, his voice booming through the small ready room.

“I believe,” Thran said, “that when Ra’chel reaches out to the Force, she and Sky-walker Al’aniet can sense each other and perhaps even see into each other’s minds. That was why we suddenly stopped earlier.”

“You think that this Earthling was able to reach into the Sky-walker’s mind and just told her to stop?”

“I can only tell you what I saw and heard, Captain,” Thran wondered how he would be able to convince him of what happened when a thought came to him. “Perhaps Skywalker Al’aniet has also touched Ra’chel’s mind and seen into her thoughts. Perhaps when she next comes out of third sight, we can ask her.”

“You think that an eleven-year-old will be able to understand such things?”

“Why not?” Thran knew he was grasping at straws, but he had to make a case for it. “I don’t see the harm in asking her. If she has seen things that only exist on Earth or are memories that Ra’chel possesses, then there is proof of a connection. If she does not, then this is merely a coincidence.”

To his surprise, Captain Khadri seemed to think it over.

Thran also knew he had a reputation for being persistent, and he wondered if that might also be playing into the captain’s thoughts.

“Very well,” he finally said, gesturing haphazardly with a hand. “When Sky-walker Al’aniet comes out of third sight and goes for her rest period, you may ask her.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“But,” Captain Khadri’s tone became sharp and cold, “I don’t think I need to remind you that despite any connection there may or may not be, you may, by no means, tell that Earthling about the Sky-walker. Are we clear?”

“Absolutely, Captain.”

As Thran walked back to his quarters, he wondered how he would be able to explain to Rachel that she was connecting with the Chiss girl who was navigating the ship via Third Sight.

Simple. He couldn’t.

The Sky-walkers were the closest secret the Chiss kept. He couldn’t tell Rachel no matter how much he trusted her.

He knew she would want an answer and explanation. But he had never promised her one. He just wasn’t sure yet how he would explain it all when she asked.

Al’aniet was hesitant at first, but she began to open up to Thran that she had started having odd dreams that she couldn’t explain. Places and things she had never seen before, and some of them were frightening. She had apparently tried to tell her caregiver, but she had brushed it off as normal children’s nightmares.

But Thran understood and knew differently, and yet, he couldn’t tell Al’aniet or Rachel about the other. Rachel could not know about the Sky-walkers, and Al’aniet would be too curious and would likely seek Rachel out on her own or try to reach out to her in her own way.

He hated it, but he had to lie.

“Why are you asking me this now?” Al’aniet asked. “I asked my caregiver about this days ago.”

“We’ve been busy,” Thran told her. “I made the time today to come and talk with you about it since your caregiver raised the concern.”

“But you’re one of the explorers,” Al’aniet said, pointing to the patch on his shoulder. “Why are you asking me?”

“Who was it you were expecting?” Thran sidestepped the question.

“I…” she fumbled for words, “I guess I’m not sure.”

“I’m going to speak with the captain,” Thran said, standing up, addressing both Al’aniet and her caregiver. “If these nightmares become more troublesome or begin to interfere with your duties—”

“I think they already have,” Al’aniet said.

Thran wondered if the girl would put the two together.

“Explain,” Thran said.

“When I was navigating the ship before, I could hear…almost like a voice or…as though someone else was there with me. But she was scared.”

“She?” Thran asked.

“It sounded like a she when she told me to stop.”

“She told you to stop the ship?” the Caregiver asked.

“She was scared,” Al’aniet said defensively. “After we stopped, she wasn’t there anymore, so I was able to keep going.”

The Caregiver stared at Thran who felt his forehead tense the more Al’aniet spoke.

There was undoubtingly a connection between her and Rachel. Rachel was scared about it, but Al’aniet seemed to think of her almost as a friend.

“Have you had experiences like this before?” Thran asked.

“Not that I can remember,” Al’aniet answered. “Maybe just when I’m with the other Sky-walkers, but that’s normal, I think. Isn’t it?”

“With the Sky-walkers, yes, it is—” the Caregiver began.

“Wait,” Al’aniet cut her off. “Is that who she is? Another Sky-walker? Is there another one on board that you aren’t telling me about?”

The anger and accusation in the young girl’s voice was both understandable and alarming, but Thran was worried about how close to the mark she had hit.

“No,” he said, trying to soothe her. “There are no other Sky-walkers on board. As I said, I will be speaking with the captain, and when I have more information for you, I will return.”

Al’aniet slumped back onto the couch with her arms across her chest.

“Ok,” she grumbled.

He couldn’t blame her. He was essentially dismissing her and pushing her concerns aside.

At least with a child, her emotions were visible, and she wasn’t afraid to let the world know her displeasure. He wasn’t sure how Rachel would react or how he was even supposed to tell her.

First thing was first though, he thought as he left the Sky-walker suite. He would report his findings to the captain.

Every time Rachel tried to refocus her mind on studying something, her mind wandered back to what had happened, and she couldn’t help feeling that she was somehow responsible. Even after hours of trying to convince herself that it was an engine or mechanical problems, she couldn’t help feeling like it was her fault. After all, how could a ship like this fall into disrepair to where it would randomly fall out of hyperspace?

Something had happened, and she couldn’t place it. When she had reached out with the Force, she could see planets, stars, and so many other things passing by as though she were flying by them. It was too much though. It was a terrifying thought—being out in space and flying, especially at that speed. She had told the Force to stop, and it had. Only, the ship had stopped at the same time.

Had she broken something on the ship? Had she somehow been able to see where the ship was going in hyperspace and told it to stop?

That was an absurd thought. How could she see where the ship was going?

She tried again to focus on the questis in her hand.

One of the more common species in this galaxy was a species called Twileks, and she read about their home planet and how it had been devastated in wars both galactically and civilly. She tried to memorize where the planet was, but even after closing out of the map and going back to it, she had already forgotten.

She tried to read about their more famous leaders and political and radical figures, but her mind came back to the present.

If the ship’s malfunction had been her fault, what would they do to her? How would they keep it from happening again? Was she supposed to not access the Force for the duration of the next twenty-two days they had remaining? She wasn’t sure that was feasible.

Bringing her focus back to the questis, she looked up another species. Wookies. They lived on a planet called Kashyyyk…she would have to figure out how to pronounce that one later. Wookies looked like a large cross between a bear and a gorilla that could walk on two legs, so differentiating them from other species should be relatively easy.

They made their villages up in the trees high above the ground; however, it seemed that, just like the Twileks, their world had seen its share of violence over the years.

Would they take her back to Earth? Thran had promised that he’d take her to Coruscant, but if she was causing problems, what was to stop them from taking her back for being more trouble than she was worth?

“Stop it,” she told herself, hoping that saying it out loud would add some weight to it. But no matter how she tried to look at what had happened, it always seemed to be her fault.

She set the questis down and laid back on the couch. The ceiling didn’t hold any answers for her either, but she was tired. Her mind had been racing, and she had been waiting for Thran to come back for a long while now. Perhaps he wasn’t coming back. Maybe it had been her fault, and this was how they would deal with her. She would spend the rest of the journey in isolation.

But she wasn’t alone. Her new abilities allowed her to feel the emotions and sense the minds of those around her. How far did that extend?

Tentatively, she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, still not entirely sure she was doing it right. But soon, she could sense them. There were Chiss at work in the rooms around her. She could sense their order, calmness, and a certain calculated organization from their minds. If anything was out of the ordinary, no one was worried about it.

It’s you again.

Snapping her eyes open and sitting up quickly, Rachel searched the room for who had spoken, but there was no one. She was still alone in the room.

The voice…it sounded like a child’s voice, but she wasn’t sure if it had spoken Basic or English or Cheunh.

Clenching her jaw, she closed her eyes and tried to hear it again, but she only felt and heard silence. Her shoulders dropped in frustration. She couldn’t control how or when the Force worked for her, and it was beginning to irritate her.

Leaning back, she allowed herself to relax and close her eyes. Slowly, she let herself reach out again, hoping it would work.

I’m sorry if I frightened you.

It worked!

Not entirely sure how to communicate back to the voice, she tried to just think what she wanted to say, but nothing seemed to be said.

“Who are you?” she whispered, still reaching out to whoever it was.

I…don’t think I’m allowed to say. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.

“How do you know me?”

I’m not sure I do, but you seem familiar.

Rachel tried to hang on to the connection, but it didn’t last, and she couldn’t hold it. She opened her eyes and took in the room around her and then realized that Thran was standing at the door.

She stood up.

“With whom were you speaking?” he asked, his eyes sweeping the room.

She couldn’t tell him, could she? Afterall, she certainly didn’t know for sure who it had been.

“No one,” she lied, looking down at the floor. “It was a nightmare.”

When she looked up due to his silence, her stomach twisted with guilt. She could see from the way he studied her that he didn’t believe her, but he didn’t say anything.

“What did the captain say,” she asked, changing the subject.

He studied her a moment longer before answering. “He said that there had been something that appeared off with the hyperdrive, and we needed to make a momentary stop. Apparently, when you saw whatever you saw, it was merely a coincidence.”

It was her turn to study him, but his face was unreadable. She could reach behind his placidity and look into his thoughts but felt that would be an intrusion into his privacy. He could be lying but so was she. It was an impasse, and she was sure he knew it too.

What if it happened again?

Simple. She would have to endure it. She couldn’t allow it to affect her and thus affect their journey. She would have to continue to lie for the next twenty-two days.

Over those next twenty-two days, however, Rachel learned a great deal. Not just from her personal studying or from asking Thran and the other explorers questions, but she had been able to communicate with the girl she now knew was called Al’aniet, and they had become friends.

They knew they couldn’t tell anyone else about their communications because they both sensed that they would be in trouble if others knew.

Al’aniet told her that the reason Rachel saw all the stars and systems and nebulas flashing by was because they were. Al’aniet was flying the ship by using her own version of the Force. Rachel watched, in her own way, as Al’aniet guided the ship through hyperspace at speeds she said no mechanical hyperdrive could compare to.

Rachel wondered if she would be able to learn how to do what Al’aniet did with such ease.

It isn’t as easy as it looks, the young girl said. It took years of practice and discipline and honing in of the skill. Not all Sky-walkers are able to make it through the program.

“But you can do it, and you are only eleven,” Rachel countered.

Our ability fades as we get older, Al’aniet said, her voice sounding a bit sad. I know that soon I won’t be able to guide ships anymore, and I don’t know what will happen to me then.

“What usually happens?”

Usually, Sky-walkers are adopted into one of the families and we simply live out our lives, but I still don’t know what I’d do.

Her voice held both dread and fear, and Rachel tried to reach out to the young girl and offer reassurance through the Force, but she wasn’t sure it worked.

“Is there something you want to do? Something you do in your free time that you really enjoy?”

Rachel could feel Al’aniet’s mind working, and she still couldn’t believe how similar her mind was to that of the adult Chiss’s mind, so calculating, logical, organized, and stoic. Yet underneath that carefully crafted wall, Rachel could push through and sense the emotions that lay underneath.

For Al’aniet, those were fear, curiosity, and weariness. The girl wanted to know what the future held, but she was also tired, and just like Rachel, she needed to sleep.

“Tell you what,” Rachel said, “sleep on it, and tomorrow, you can tell me what ideas you’ve come up with. Deal?”

Very well, she said, and Rachel felt her drift off.

Rachel rolled over on her bed thinking about her own future.

Thran held on to the belief that she was going to be a Jedi, yet the more she read about them, the further that looked from the truth.

The Jedi took in small children and infants who then grew up in their training. She was coming to them as an adult. Would they really accept her? And if they didn’t, what then? Thran already told her that she wouldn’t be able to remain among the Chiss. Where else would she go?

Back to Earth?

Could she go back knowing that all of this existed? Knowing that the Chiss were watching them? Could she go back to being unable to access the Force?

No. She had made her choice. This was where she belonged. This was her future. Wherever it led her, this was where she was meant to be.

She rolled back to her other side and allowed herself to fall asleep.

Chapter Text

Their ship arrived at a science station that Thran told her was called Cam’co Station, and he also told her that he would be reporting to his superiors who had already received word of his actions. He was escorted by two other explorers away from the ship while Rachel was escorted from the ship to another shuttle where she was told to wait. She was given explicit orders that she was not allowed to go anywhere without an escort while within the Ascendency per the Syndicure’s ruling.

Feeling like she a prisoner without bars, she tried to read about Csilla on the questis while she waited and found that it had a rather tragic story. Their sun was cooling down and causing the planet to become covered in snow and ice. A few of the ruling families kept their homesteads on the planet while others moved to neighboring planets.

Despite the long hours she’d spent trying to read about it, the whole system still took a bit to wrap her head around.

There were nine ruling families led by Patriarchs, but the number of ruling families could change based on the prestige or influence the family held. Their government was called the Syndicure and was governed by the Aristocra, but the Patriarchs still held the final word on some matters but not all.

It felt more complicated than the politics she had grown up trying to understand.

One thing she knew she could remember was that the Mitth family, which Thran was a part of, was one of the ruling families, and their homestead was still on Csilla.

When Thran finally boarded the shuttle, his face held tension though he tried to hide it.

“Is everything ok?” she asked him.

“It will be up to the Syndicure’s ruling,” he said neutrally. “Are you prepared to visit my homeworld?”

“I’ve read a little about it,” she said, holding up the questis. “Apparently I’ll need a warmer coat.”

Confusion crossed his face. “Is your coat not sufficient?”

“This coat was made for the summers in Alaska, not wintertime.” She thought it was obvious. “It’s cold on your world, isn’t it?”

“Ah,” he said, as though understanding what she was referring to. “The surface is quite cold, but where we are going, it will not be.”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“You will see,” he told her.

When the shuttle touched down on Csilla, Thran led Rachel out into a spaceport that bustled with foot traffic. There were Chiss everywhere she looked, and many of them turned to look at her, and despite what Thran had told her, it was rather cold.

“Aliens are not common here, are they,” she asked Thran, wrapping her arms around herself.

“They are not,” he answered, guiding her through the crowd toward what looked like a tramway.

She stepped inside, and there were remarkably few Chiss inside, but it was thankfully much warmer.

“Where are we going?” Rachel asked Thran as they sat down opposite each other.

“First, we are going to the Mitth homestead,” he said. “Then, I need to report to the Syndicure hearing hall.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Somewhat,” he admitted. “Bringing you back from Earth is not exactly standard procedure, and they want an explanation.”

“Haven’t you already given one?”

“I have. I have spoken with my superiors, and they have sent it to the Aristocras. Now, I need to make my case. Or, rather, plead your case.”

“Would they send me back?”

“I have already told you,” he said, looking at her firmly, “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

“What will they do to you though?”

He sighed and looked out the window. “Any number of things could happen. All I can do is make them see the logic of the situation.”

As the tram carried them on the long journey, it made several stops, but as it went through a tunnel, Rachel noticed that she and Thran were the only ones left on board.

She turned to look out the window as the tunnel opened up, and her eyes widened as she took in the strange sight.

Everything she had read about Csilla had said it was cold and frozen, but when the tramcar came out of the tunnel, it entered a cavern so large, that Rachel couldn’t believe she wasn’t seeing the sky.

“How—”

“When the planet began to freeze, some of the families chose to remain on their ancestral land, but instead of remaining on the surface, they dug out these caverns.”

“But the sky,” she began to say in amazement, “it looks so real. There’s clouds and the sun. Is it the real sun?”

“As much as I wish it were, it is all artificial,” he said.

She looked out the window at the land they were passing. On one side was a large lake that was fed by a stream that ran through trees and gardens. Surrounding the lake and gardens were houses and buildings of various sizes.

Looking out the other side of the tramcar, she saw a smaller lake also surrounded by houses, but this one had a forest behind it that spread for a long way. Longer than she thought would be possible in an underground cavern.

Her eyes followed the forest back to where she saw mountains rise into the blue sky. Were they cut into the cavern wall? She couldn’t tell. But her eyes fell on the centerpiece of the cavern: a mansion.

It reminded her of old homes from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, and she couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was at least eight stories tall with side wings stretching out forward towards them. Whether they also stretched to the back, she couldn’t see from where the tram was.

Thran watched her take it in, she realized as she turned back to face him.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “This is your home?”

He seemed to hesitate slightly. “It is.”

As the tram stopped in front of the mansion and they began to walk towards the house, Rachel looked down to see a beautiful mosaic carved into the ground. It appeared to be planets or stars, and she looked at Thran questioningly.

“It is a map of the Ascendency,” he told her.

When they entered the house, they were greeted by an older looking Chiss wearing a long black tunic trimmed in maroon.

“Welcome,” he said in Cheunh, inclining his head to them. “I am Patriarch Mitth’yod’arik, I greet you, Earthling.”

She inclined her head, but her tongue felt suddenly tied up, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to pronounce anything properly, so she looked at Thran.

“Her name is Ra’chel,” he translated for her. “Thank you for welcoming her. Unfortunately, the Syndicure has asked me to report to them immediately, so I have to leave her here with you.”

“That’s fine,” the Patriarch said. “I had a room prepared for her. She can make herself at home there.”

“Thank you.”

Thran followed the Patriarch up the stairs, leading Rachel. Once she was in the room, Thran turned and thanked the Patriarch who walked down the hall.

“I will return soon,” Thran told her. “The hearing should not take long. I do not think you will be unwelcome to walk around the house, but it would probably be best to do so with an escort.”

“The Patriarch seems very nice,” she said.

He didn’t respond, but there was an odd tension that flashed through his eyes.

“I will make sure they bring you something to eat. I will return soon.”

It was late when Thran returned to the mansion, and he seemed more frustrated and tense than when he’d left. He didn’t talk much, and given the late hour, he said goodnight and walked down and across the hall to another room.

Despite the comfort of the room and bed the Mitth family had given her, Rachel couldn’t get herself to sleep that night.

Getting up, she felt the cool air drift through the open window, the silky dark blue curtains wafted gently, and she pulled her coat around herself. Back home, in the summer and fall months, there were times when she could open the windows and let the air into her room. There were nights when the moon would be bright enough, and she would walk around outside, albeit armed, but it was usually without incident.

Here, while she wasn’t entirely sure if it was ok, she knew that walking outside would help clear her mind. She knew there wouldn’t be bears and wolves prowling outside the door looking for their dinner. And the moon was bright.

Moons. Even though the extensive cavern made the light artificial, they had taken great care to preserve the fact that the planet had three moons orbiting it at night.

Pulling the coat closer around her, Rachel opened the door leading out into the hall. She hoped the noise didn’t wake or alarm anyone. All she wanted to do was walk in the gardens she had seen earlier.

Whatever noise the door had made when she opened it, she made up for with the silence her bare footsteps made against the wood floor. She walked down the hall and turned the corner to find the stairs. Once she made it to the ground floor, she walked down the hallway to where she thought the door to the gardens would be, and she was right.

The door opened to reveal the many different flowers and shrubs that this new planet had to offer. Some reminded her of Earth’s plants while others were completely new and strange. The fragrances danced through the air, and she felt her mind and body relax as she closed her eyes.

This felt like home.

She opened her eyes and walked further into the garden, following the stone paths that weaved this way and that, studying the different flowers as she walked as best she could in the light of the moons. There was also a tree that stood in the garden towards the center. Its branches hung low and reached far over the garden, and it seemed to be some kind of flowering tree, but the flowers were not like that of any tree on earth. They looked almost like feathers, and they almost glowed in the moonlight, and the darkly grooved bark of the tree felt old somehow. Perhaps it was another sense the Force gave her, but the tree felt ancient.

There was a bench underneath the branches of the tree surrounded by small white flowers whose petals curved into a spiral shape, and Rachel decided to sit down. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and took in the smells and feeling of it all. There was life here. Life that had been nurtured and loved.

She wanted to sit there forever and become one with that feeling. It was peaceful and fortifying at the same time. Yet she knew she couldn’t. She needed to sleep.

She took one last deep breath and reached out to the life surrounding her, feeling it fill her, and she felt something odd—something that didn’t belong. As she followed it with her mind, the more familiar it felt, and her eyes drifted up to one of the open windows facing the gardens.

She felt Thran’s concern turn to slight embarrassment, and she saw the shadow of his figure move away from the window. She didn’t know how long he’d been there, but she had been caught out of her room and wandering around the homestead without an escort. She wasn’t sure if Thran would tell the Patriarch, but he would definitely say something to her.

For now, she knew she needed to go back to her room and get some sleep.

Thran woke with a start. All he recalled were the sounds of Rachel’s screams, but they had pulled him from his sleep. He sat on the edge of his bed and rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair. It had been a dream. Just a dream. Rachel was safe, and those who had hurt her were dead.

Outside, the birds had woken up and were singing even though the light of dawn had barely begun to shine. He may as well get up at this point.

He crossed over to the window and looked down into the gardens. He remembered back when he would wake up and see his mother walking through the flowers each morning. Last night, he had thought he was dreaming and seen her again, but it was Rachel he had seen walking through the garden. He had watched her, seeing the same peace in her face that his mother had had when she walked there. It was a peace he had never seen on Rachel’s face before.

And she had caught him watching her. He wasn’t sure if she would confront him about it or not. Afterall, she had been told to not wander the homestead without an escort, and she had done just that.

It would be their secret, he decided. He didn’t want to see her lose that peace, and he didn’t want to explain himself.

Later, at the morning meal, Rachel came down with one of the homestead’s caretakers.

“Now, isn’t that a strange sight,” his father said. Thran hadn’t told him yet that Rachel could understand some Cheunh, but she didn’t seem to have heard him.

It was a strange sight though Thran had to admit. Rachel had been offered some of his mother’s old clothes, and while they were just a little bit too long for her, she looked like she was meant to wear them. Her olive skin and black hair complimented the Mitth’s burgundy color beautifully. Not to mention her dark brown eyes that almost seemed accented by the thin gold lining of the collar, and Thran had to force his mouth closed.

“Could you translate for me, Thran,” his father asked.

“Has your Basic fallen that far out of practice?”

“Believe it or not, there is little need for it inside the Ascendency,” he said using his Patriarch’s tone.

“Very well,” Thran said. “What do you wish to tell her?”

“I would like her to know that despite the Aristocra’s coldness, she should feel welcome here. I don’t want her to feel like a prisoner in my home but as an honored guest. I do not see a reason why she should need a constant escort everywhere she goes.”

Thran knew his father had always had opposing views with the Syndicure regarding outsiders, but to blatantly go against their orders wasn’t something he’d ever seen him do before.

“Something wrong with that?” he asked Thran.

“No,” he said and turned to Rachel to translate.

Her eyes widened in her own surprise as she looked between the two of them.

“No escort?” she asked. “He's sure?”

“Tell her, I'm sure,” his father answered. He clearly still understood Basic enough.

The smile on Rachel's face was hesitant, but the joy in her eyes was clear.

He could tell she would be making more trips to the gardens because her gaze kept drifting towards the windows. And indeed, after the meal was over, which passed in relative silence due to the language barriers, Rachel went to the door that led to them.

“It is striking how much like your mother she is,” his father broke their silence.

Thran looked at him. “You rarely speak about her.”

“I know,” he said, pushing his plate away from himself. “For that, I am sorry. Between your sister being taken and losing your mother, I closed my heart and buried it in the work for the Family.”

“Why bring this up now?”

“Hearing your report and hearing that you were almost lost to me as well…it's made me want to keep you close.”

“Given that I'm in the Exploration Force, that won't be possible.”

“Unless you're pulled from it.”

Thran felt his heart sink. “Father—”

“I know you enjoy exploring the unknown. You always have. But I don't want to lose anyone else from my family.”

“And Thoorlyk?” Thran asked. “Will you call him from the Expansionary Defense Fleet? Is his life not also in constant danger?”

His father's eyes fell to the table.

“You cannot control loss, Father. I know mother’s death was painful, but I remember her encouragement to explore and the love and joy she found in life. She would not want Thoorlyk or me to hide away in the homestead when what we love is seeing what lies outside the borders of the Ascendency.”

His father sighed and looked up at him with a resigned yet stern look.

“As always, your logic wins out. I always said you would be better suited for politics than for exploration, but that was and is your decision.

“I do stand by my statement, however,” he continued, standing up and glancing toward the door to the garden. “Seeing her wear that dress…I thought it was your mother coming down the stairs. Your mother always loved spending as much time as she could in the gardens.”

“I know.”

His gaze lingered a moment on the door through which Rachel had exited before he took on his Patriarch’s tone again.

“Now. There is much to do. I presume you are expected at Naporar soon?”

“As soon as the Syndicure is through with official reports and is certain they don’t need to question me further,” Thran answered. “And from there, I intend to keep my promise and take Ra’chel to Coruscant and the Jedi.”

His father nodded but didn't say anything.

Thran couldn't gauge his approval or disapproval, but it didn't matter. He had promised.

Chapter Text

The gardens were even more beautiful in the sunlight, and Rachel found herself staring at the flowers, trying to memorize each one even though she'd likely never see any of them again.

Coruscant was a city planet. No grass or trees. Nothing that would give her this kind of peace. And that thought turned the tranquility into sadness.

Of course, it was that moment that Thran decided to check up on her. The way he could study her face and guess what she was thinking was almost as eerie as her new ability to feel exactly what everyone around her felt.

“Not exactly how I thought I would find you,” he said. “Is something wrong?”

He'd caught her out here last night. Had he seen her face well enough to know how much it affected her?

She looked up at his glowing eyes. Or perhaps Chiss vision was just that good.

“What did you expect?” She decided to put the ball in his court. If they even used that phrase here.

“I…” he seemed to fumble for words as his eyes shifted away from hers. “I am sorry. I am sure we could avoid what happened last night or choose to acknowledge it. Yes, I saw you, but no, I was not watching you for very long. Only long enough to observe how at peace you were. I had believed that was why you came out here again this morning. Was I incorrect?”

“Not exactly,” Rachel said. “I did feel at peace last night. It’s something I have only felt while hiking our land back home.” Her eyes drifted off to the memory. “Something I will never do again. And that is what I realized this morning. When I get to Coruscant, there won’t be any gardens or trees or grass. Only concrete. How will I ever feel this again?”

He was quiet, and Rachel watched his mind work.

“I cannot say I have the answer,” he said. “But while you are here, I hope you will enjoy this peace. I am glad you have found it.”

His smile was genuine, and Rachel felt her body relax.

“Do you have a favorite?” he asked, gesturing to the garden.

Rachel looked around, unsure of where to even begin. There were dark purple flowers with white edges, wispy blue ones whose many tiny petals curled up towards the sky, beautiful white ones whose petals curled so that they looked almost like ballet dancers instead of flowers, and there were dark blue ones that she had noticed the previous night had glowed in sparkling purples and whites when the moonlight touched them, but before long, she had her answer.

“The tree,” she said, turning to glance briefly at its small purple flowers.

For the briefest moment, his eyes held the hint of what Rachel believed to be a mixture of longing and grief. But it was quickly replaced as his gaze drifted towards the tree as though he were recalling fond memories from years ago.

“What is it?” she asked hesitantly.

He didn't look at her, but he had returned to his normal stoicism.

“It was my mother's favorite too,” he said, his voice holding back the emotions he had shown.

She understood.

She, too, had lost her mother, but she had almost no memories of her, and her father never spoke about her. After her death, he'd all but estranged them from her side of the family, those he called the “natives".

“I’m sorry,” was all she could think of saying even though the words felt empty. “How long ago—”

“It is not something I wish to discuss,” he cut her off, his red eyes flashing back to her.

His words cut her, and she turned away from him. Her father said those exact words every time she had tried to ask about her mom. She had had so many questions, but every time, he dismissed her and put walls up.

Thran was doing the same, so she knew better than to force the issue.

She started to walk down one of the stone paths without saying anything, bringing her arms up around herself, feeling the softness of the fabric.

“Where are you going?” his voice was as stoic as ever.

“I don’t know,” Rachel said without turning around. She really didn’t. She had only been in the gardens since coming to the Mitth homestead. Where else was there to go? Where else was she allowed to go?

Beyond the walled edge of the garden, she could see the mountain range. How large this cavern was, she couldn’t guess, but the fact that a whole mountain range fit inside was astounding. She almost forgot they were underground.

She decided she wanted to climb those mountains. They were nothing like the mountains of Alaska. They were much smaller, but she wanted to climb them.

Thran had fallen into step just behind and to the right of her.

“May I join you?” he asked.

“If I don’t know where I’m going, how would you be able to join me?”

“That sounds like the beginning of any exploration mission,” he said. “The unknown is the greatest place to go because you never know what you will find.”

“Except that this is your home,” Rachel said. “I don’t think you are exploring the unknown here.”

“No,” he said flatly. “But you are.”

She whirled on him causing him to halt and take a half step backwards.

“And you don’t want me wandering around unsupervised?” She felt her annoyance rising. “The Patriarch didn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

Though his eyes gave nothing away, his face tensed briefly before he answered her.

“What my father says and does is outside of my control,” he said with an edge to his voice. “My only wish was to accompany you because while I may know my home, you do not, and you undoubtedly will have questions. But if you do not want my company, I shall leave you.”

He inclined his head briefly and turned to walk back to the house, leaving her standing there with her mouth half open trying to think of a response.

His father? The Patriarch was his father? Why hadn’t he told her that before? And why was he so defensive one moment and then wanting to help her the next? He made no sense.

But he had left her and not told her that she couldn’t go and explore the mountains. So, that was what she decided to do.

The gate that led from the gardens to the greater fields beyond was the only place in the wall where she could see out. The bars were made of a black iron, and at first, Rachel expected the gate to be locked, but to her relief, it wasn’t and opened with relative ease.

Looking back over her shoulder again to make sure no one was pursuing her to tell her off, she stepped through the gate and began walking towards the mountains.

Thran hadn’t been inside long when one of the Syndic aids found him and gave him the news from the Syndicure that he was to report to Naporar at his earliest convenience to receive his new orders.

While Rachel wasn’t mentioned, he knew that Naporar would be the only place where he could get a shuttle that could transport them all the way to Coruscant without the aid of a Sky-walker. It would be a longer journey since they would have to go jump by jump, but he knew that Rachel was not supposed to know how the Chiss navigated.

He looked out one of the windows that had a view into the gardens, but he couldn’t see Rachel.

Frowning, he decided to check if she’d gone back to her room.

On his way to the living area of the house, he passed the office where his father worked, and when he looked in, there were no fewer than six syndics surrounding his father, all talking over him and each other.

What they discussed, he didn’t stick around to hear. He wanted to find Rachel so that they could leave. However, when he reached her room, she wasn’t there. The windows remained open, and the bed hadn’t been made, and Rachel was nowhere to be found. He looked out the windows, which had a beautiful view of the mountain range beyond the homestead. He had thought this room would be to Rachel’s liking because of where she had lived on Earth.

“Of course,” Thran muttered to himself, as his eyes studied the mountains.

Rachel had felt at peace in the gardens. How much more would she feel in the mountains surrounded by the trees and the stream if she could find it.

And as he left the house, he knew he had a challenge ahead of him. The mountain range was large, and Rachel was one individual. Where would she have gone? Which paths would she have followed? If she found the stream, would she follow it all the way to where it began at the waterfall at the cavern’s edge? Would she cross it and continue on?

He knew very little about her, but what he did know allowed him clues and insights into where she may have gone.

For example, she sought peace knowing it would be the last she experienced it, so she would want to reach it as soon as possible. She would follow the first path possible into the forest and then up into the mountains. Her past knowledge and expertise in climbing mountains would lead her to climb fast, perhaps going as high as possible as quickly as possible. She would then likely admire the view from the height of the first mountain and allow herself to feel that peace.

Thran looked up to the artificial sky. It was nearly noon, and it was likely she would have already reached that point. Given her stamina, she would press on and explore as much as she could. She was like himself in that regard. She was curious and wanted to see and learn as much as she could, and he admired that about her.

But he was far behind her and would have to take advantage of the fact that she would likely stop to take in the feelings and emotions she felt. He could catch up with her if he pushed himself.

Each time Rachel stopped to look around, the more at home she felt. Despite the trees and plants being unfamiliar, it was still a forest, and it still had birds that chirped and sang all around her. The sun shone overhead, even if it was artificial. She could hear a stream ahead, and she longed to find it, but the sounds echoed around so much that it proved difficult to find.

She continued to climb as far as she could up the mountain until she reached the very peak where the air should have been thinner, but because they were underground already, the gravity must have made it so that the effect didn’t play that role. It was just as easy to breathe there as it was at the base. Here, at the top, she could see it all. The homestead in the middle of the cavern with its gardens and tramway leading away from the great house. To the right lay fields that appeared to be farmers’ fields with what looked like various grains, but she was unfamiliar with farming, so she wasn’t quite sure. Her life was surrounded by foraging, hunting, fishing, and only growing what they could in their small gardens. She had never seen fields up close, only in pictures. Leading from the mountain towards the fields was the stream, and around it were all kinds of trees and scattered houses or buildings.

On the left was the smaller of the two lakes, but it wasn’t surrounded by farmland or quite as many houses, and the forest that led up to the mountains nestled right up to it.

The view from up here was breathtaking, and she stood and admired it for a long time before deciding to continue on.

As she walked, she began to smell the water, and she knew she was coming close to finding the stream. She had been taught to use all her senses while walking in the woods from a young age, and that included looking for fresh water, and water had a distinct smell even in this galaxy. She started to quicken her pace as the excitement took over, and she soon heard the rushing sounds in front of her. A waterfall?

It was!

As she crested over the next hill, she saw a large clearing and from a rocky wall, which must have been the edge of the cavern, flowed the rapids of the stream. It flowed for a short way before it dropped into a beautiful waterfall.

 How she didn’t see that from the top of the mountain she had just been on, she didn’t know. Perhaps it was an optical illusion of some sort.

She had found the stream though, and the sight was breathtaking. In the clearing was a vast array of wildflowers and stony outcroppings, and she found a place to sit down and admire the area and take it all in.

The air was so fresh, filled with the smell of the water and flowers. The sun lit the spot so beautifully that it felt more like a dream than reality.

She closed her eyes and leaned back with her arms supporting her, a smile coming naturally to her face. This was a place she could spend the rest of her life and never tire of it.

Tentatively, she drew in a breath and reached out to the Force as best she could, and what she felt took her breath away.

There was so much life here. The trees, the grass, the flowers, the birds—it all flooded her mind and filled her heart. At first it was overwhelming, but the longer she allowed herself to feel it and listened to the flowing of the water, the more peace it brought her. Feeling life thrive was extraordinary.

She reached out further and felt more. The life of the forest extended far beyond the clearing, and she could see it in her mind’s eye.

And there was a heartbeat. A mind with a single focus that often drifted.

Thran.

He was coming towards her despite being some distance away.

Her eyes opened, and she looked in the direction from which she had come. He had followed her. She didn’t know why, but now she didn’t know whether she ought to retrace her steps in order to meet him or to wait for him here. And if she took those options, he would know she had felt his presence. Yet if she kept going, it would only delay the inevitable.

They hadn’t parted on the best of terms before she had come out here, and she wasn’t looking forward to their next conversation. Yet, she knew it would come. He was the one who would take her to Coruscant and to the Jedi.

Coruscant…

She looked around the clearing again. There would be nothing like this on a planet covered in city. How would she ever find peace in such a place?

But she also knew she couldn’t stay here. The Syndicure had made that perfectly clear. No matter how welcoming the Mitth Patriarch had been, she couldn’t stay.

The Mitth Patriarch. Thran’s father. Why he hadn’t mentioned that, she didn’t know. Why he hadn’t thought it relevant, she didn’t know. But as he finally came into view, she knew she had to ask him.

As Thran crested the last hill before the clearing, he hoped that Rachel had paused long enough here that he could catch up to her wherever she had gone to next. He remembered this clearing with bittersweetness. When he was very young, his mother had brought him, his sister, and his brother here just before they had taken his sister away. Thoorlyk had been just a baby then. It was the last memory he had of his sister. They had played for hours here with his mother’s constant warnings not to go into the water.

After they had taken his sister, Thran remembered looking for his mother and finding her out here. He hadn’t understood what had happened at the time; all he remembered was his mother’s sadness.

His eyes took in the clearing. It hadn’t changed. The flowers and grass bloomed and grew, and the sun shining down only added to the beauty. The rapids of the stream filled his ears, and he watched the water flow before it cascaded over the edge.

But there, sitting on a rock near the water—he knew that dress.

He shook his head. Rachel was wearing it, not his mother.

She wasn’t facing him, but he had the sense that she knew he was there. He had expected her to be long gone from this spot, but something had to have made her wait here. Perhaps she had been able to tell he was following her.

As he walked up next to where she sat, she didn’t turn to look at him, but her eyes remained fixed on the stream. He wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, so he decided to give her the news.

“I received orders to go to Naporar,” he said, studying her face. But she gave nothing away. “You will come with me, of course,” he continued. “From there we can get a shuttle and go on to Coruscant.”

There was still no reaction, but there was something in her eyes that told him she wanted to speak.

“Ra’chel?” He moved a little closer, settling one knee on the rock where she sat, but still gave her plenty of space.

“Why didn’t you tell me the Patriarch was your father?” she asked without looking at him.

The question took him aback. He didn’t think the information had come as that much of a surprise.

“I had not believed it was relevant,” he told her. “My relation does not change who I am or who he is.”

“No,” she said, her eyes turning towards him finally with an accusing look. “But what else have you withheld then? What other information is not relevant?”

He realized then that it wasn’t the information that had been the issue. It was about trust. If he was keeping secrets, how could she trust him?

“I am sorry, Ra’chel,” he said. “I did not mean to keep it from you. Among the Chiss, such blood status makes one nearly untouchable by other families and family politics. It can lead to resentment by some. I forget that this does not play into your life.”

“You would be surprised,” she said, her gaze returning to the stream.

“Oh?”

“When my mother died, my father kept us away from her family because he didn’t like their way of living. But he couldn’t leave Alaska, so we still learned what he called the ‘native’ ways. He tried to keep us away from it, thinking it would be bad for us, but it was what kept us alive.”

“I thought you said you lived with your grandfather.” He tried to recall what she had told him.

“I do—did,” she corrected herself. “My father had a really bad accident while cutting down trees, and he had to be taken to the city. He didn’t survive the trip. After that, we lived with my grandparents.”

“I am sorry you endured those losses,” Thran said, and he meant it. He knew how loss felt.

She nodded and turned to look at him with knowing eyes that seemed to look right through him.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” she said, “but I am sorry that you had similar losses.”

She wanted to trust him.

He sat down next to her on the rock facing the stream.

“My mother died when I was quite young,” he began. “And I know you guessed at it when we first met, but I had an older sister. My last memory of all of us together is in this very clearing.”

Thran realized that it was the first time he had spoken about this. He wasn’t sure he had even told Thoorlyk about it. They had been his treasured memories that he wanted to cling to and never forget.

Rachel’s hand tentatively reached down and touched his, and he looked up into her eyes. Mirrored there, he could see his own grief that he kept buried. Could she feel his emotions? Or were they her own?

Either way, he couldn’t hold her gaze. But the warmth of her hand resting on his gave him the permission to open up. Her eyes had held no fear or harshness. They only reflected what he felt.

“My father rarely speaks about her anymore,” he continued, his eyes looking at but not focusing on the rushing waters in front of them. “I don’t know if my brother even remembers her. But what I remember most was her encouragement to explore, her love for the forests and gardens, and her—” Thran cut himself off.

“What?” Rachel asked gently.

He couldn’t tell her that he remembered her sadness. What kind of memory was that? And yet, when he replayed it in his head—finding her out here after his sister had been taken away, refusing to be consoled for days, only spending time in the gardens where Thran would watch her from his bedroom window.

His heart ached in his chest, and he felt Rachel’s hand tighten slightly over his.

She was feeling what he felt. Whether she meant to or not, he didn’t know, but he had allowed his emotions to surface enough to where she could feel them. His heart had become an open book to her with all of his emotions showing themselves plainly, and he knew he ought to bury them again. It wasn’t right to allow one’s emotions to take charge, but he now realized just how vulnerable she made him feel.

“I believe that it was her encouragement from my earliest years that led me to join the Exploration Force, and my brother joined the Expansionary Defense Fleet. Both of us have the same drive she did to explore. But now, with recent events, my father fears this. He has threatened to pull me from the Second Galaxy Exploration Program and perhaps even the Exploration Force.”

“What?” Rachel’s exclamation surprised him.

“He fears losing his family,” Thran explained the logic.

“But you love the program, don’t you?”

“I enjoy it, yes.”

“Then why would you give it up?”

“If my father wishes it, he has the power to do so.”

“He cannot control what happens,” Rahel said, her eyes flashing as she gestured to the waterfall. “You could just as easily fall off that cliff and down the waterfall. Just because he is the Patriarch does not mean he can control your decisions.”

Thran couldn’t help the smirk that came to his lips. Those had been his own words to his father, more or less. The fact that she cared about what he did, though, was strange.

“You are about to be off on your own path,” he reminded her. “What happens to me will not affect you.

He saw the fire go out of her eyes, and she pulled her hand back into her own lap. Had she expected them to remain in contact after she joined the Jedi? He didn’t believe the Jedi would be in favor of that. He knew the Syndicure would not like it. It would be for the better.

Yet, as he studied her face, he realized something. Who else did she have? When she got to Coruscant, she would be starting over completely with people who didn’t know anything about her history or background.

And she had affected him. She had saved him as much as he had saved her. She had protected his people from her own, and his people owed her for that. He would not be able to drop her off at the Jedi Temple and walk away from her. She would always live in his memory, and he would always wonder about her.

She stood up, her arms wrapped around her as though they shielded her in some way. He stood up after her and followed just behind her.

“What were your expectations?” he asked, knowing the question may not have been the best way to put it.

She paused, looking at one of the bushes that had small blue flowers that were just beginning to bloom.

“I guess I am not sure what I expected,” she said, reaching out her hand briefly to touch the leaves on the bush before returning to her defensive posture.

“I guess,” she began, still not looking at him, “I had hoped…” She stopped, shaking her head at her own thought while her shoulders dropped in a defeated manner.

Thran stepped to her side, hoping she would open up.

“What is it?” he asked gently.

“It’s silly,” she said, still refusing to look at him. “And I know that your Syndicure would not like it anyways, so there would not be any point to it.”

“Tell me.”

“I had thought,” she began hesitantly, “that maybe we could be friends.”

She was right, and she was wrong. Thran felt his body slowly relax as a small smile came to his face.

No, the Syndicure would not like it, and he wasn’t sure about the Jedi. But it was not a silly thought. In fact, while he hadn’t admitted it to himself, he knew that he had wanted it too.

“I would like that very much,” he said.

He watched the realization cross her face until her eyes turned up to meet his, and the sunlight caught them in a way he had never seen them before. While he had known they were a dark brown, in the rays of the sun, he noticed their color more fully as the color of chocolate, which he had only seen on some occasions into Republic space, yet they also held small flecks of mahogany which the gold lining of the dress she wore made shine even more brightly.

Beyond that, his admittance to his wish to be friends had rekindled the small flame he had noticed earlier, and in the sunlight, that flame only made her eyes burn brighter.

“You shall always have my friendship,” he said, unable to look away.

Something changed then, and slowly, the smile that had been shining in her eyes faded, and her gaze dropped.

Had he said something wrong? Had he promised too much?

“Ra’chel?”

But her walls had inexplicably gone back up.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You said we are expected at…Naperar?”

“Naporar,” Thran corrected gently. He didn’t understand why she had suddenly gone back on the defensive, and he didn’t want to take her away from what he knew would be her last moments with nature and peace so soon. But he was expected. To be late was unacceptable. “Yes. But do not feel in any rush to return to the house,” he said. “Come back when you are ready and then we can depart.”

She nodded and when she turned back to take in the clearing again, he didn’t see the same peace on her face, only sadness. Nearly identical to the sadness his mother’s face held whenever she came here after his sister had been taken. And as he looked back one more time before cresting the hill, seeing her with her long black hair wearing his mother’s dress, those memories were all he could think about for the duration of his walk back to the house.

Chapter Text

When Rachel returned to the house, Thran noticed that her demeanor hadn’t changed. She hadn’t made peace with leaving yet even though she told him she was ready. She thanked his father before they departed for the tram, and even as they pulled away from the house, she continued to stare out the window and watch as the homestead shrunk from view. As the tram entered the tunnel, he thought she would turn away, but her eyes had become unfocused as she watched the cavern wall pass by.

“I am glad you liked it here,” he said, trying to pull her back to the present.

But she didn’t respond or even seem to hear him. He understood that this was one more familiarity she was leaving behind, so he gave her space.

He had his own future to worry about. Between the Syndicure and his father, he wasn’t sure how certain it was. His father could easily pull him from the Exploration Force and their program of visiting and studying the Second Galaxy, but would he? He hoped he had convinced him otherwise, but his new orders were coming from Naporar. Only on three occasions had he been called there: when he first joined, when he received training for piloting a new kind of shuttle, and now. Even missions into the Republic were sent from Cam’co Station.

The windows went dark as the tram exited the tunnel, and the interior lights came on. This tram was taking them directly through Csaplar instead of around it so that they would reach the spaceport sooner, and he was under strict orders to not show or discuss the city with Rachel.

He looked over at her. She was no longer looking at the window and had shifted to staring at the empty seat across from her. She had deliberately chosen to sit across the aisle, and he still wasn’t sure why. She had been the one to voice her wish to be friends, and when he had told her that she should always have that friendship, she closed herself off, but he couldn’t understand why.

They made several stops before reaching the spaceport, and each person passing them looked at Rachel with either confusion or disgust. One asked what she was doing there, and Thran told him that he was taking her to Naporar and then to Coruscant.

“You should be keeping a closer eye on it,” he spat as he walked back several rows to take his seat.

It. He looked over at Rachel, but her face was neutral. He hated the way his people treated outsiders, but he wouldn’t dare voice such an opinion.

When they reached the spaceport, it was bustling with its usual commotion, and almost every head turned to look at the ‘alien’ walking among them. As Thran guided Rachel to the shuttle they would be taking to Naporar, her eyes were also looking around at all those around her.

“Is it really so rare for an outsider to come to your world?” she asked, finally speaking.

“It is,” he answered. “There was a time, long ago, when we were not so cut off from the rest of the galaxy, but my people have become paranoid to a fault.”

He knew he shouldn’t speak his opinion so openly, but it was the truth. He wanted it to change, but he knew it wouldn’t unless someone with an open mind took charge.

He led her onto the shuttle, and he was shown where she would stay for the short trip. The small room at least had a viewport where she could watch everything outside the ship, but she only went to the bed and sat down. He was told to wait in another area of the ship, and during their journey, his mind was torn between wondering what his new orders would entail and Rachel. Soon they would each be on new and different paths, and if the Syndicure had its way, they would never speak again, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to part so easily from her. She didn’t have anyone else in this galaxy. It would be cruel to take away one more familiarity.

The constant shuffling never seemed to end. One shuttle to another, another tramway, and into another waiting room. When they finally boarded the shuttle that would take them to Coruscant, Thran told her that it would be a long trip.

“We will be in hyperspace for almost two hours,” he said coming back from the cockpit. “After that, I will need to make an adjustment to our course.”

He hesitantly came and sat on the couch with her, but he kept his distance. He had received his new orders, and while she could sense that they bothered him, he didn’t share them with her.

She leaned back into the couch. He had given her a new questis for her own use to continue her studying, but she wasn’t able to truly relax. She could tell that Thran wanted to say something, but he seemed to change his mind because he pulled out his own questis and began reading.

This questis seemed to have a bit more information about the Jedi and their history, so she started reading more about it, but she felt a sudden and oddly familiar emotion, but when she looked up and around, it vanished. All she could see was Thran sitting quietly next to her reading.

He looked up at her. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head, pushing the emotion away. “I just felt something…odd. I know I’ve felt it before, but I’ve never been able to touch the Force before, so I don’t understand it.”

He studied her face. “Perhaps,” he started slowly, “you may not have always been able to touch the Force on Earth, but maybe it has always been a part of you?”

He was guessing, and she could only speculate herself. It would be something to ask the Jedi Masters.

“Maybe,” she said as she settled back into the couch. Thran watched her for another moment, but she sensed his concern slowly dissipate as he turned back to his own reading.

She found a section in the files that talked about Jedi meditation. Earth had many meditation techniques, and she had learned a couple of them. She wasn’t sure if they were anything alike, but perhaps they could help her sort through the emotions and turmoil she was feeling.

Deciding to give it a try, she pulled her legs up onto the couch into a cross-legged position, set the questis on the table next to the couch, closed her eyes, and placed her hands in her lap. Taking a deep breath, she tried to clear her mind the way she had learned, but tension grew across her forehead, and she had to take another breath to try and relax. She focused on her heartbeat, and listened to it pound against her chest, feeling each breath move into, through, and out of her. Then she felt the couch under her, hearing the noises of the ship as it seemed to vibrate around her.

The tension crept back into her jaw and shoulders, so she tried to ignore the sounds and sensations, but she tilted her head as a new sensation crept over her. She could hear and feel another heartbeat, and she felt someone watching her. In her mind’s eyes, she could see Thran’s gaze on her as he studied her. She tried to ignore it, but it was a new and strange feeling to be able to see through the Force, so she explored it and reached out further.

She felt him smile as he turned back to his reading. Taking a slow breath, she reached out to his mind. There was warmth, a sense of trust, loyalty, and dependability. He was uncertain and yet determined. And there it was again. That oddly familiar feeling. A peaceful contentment flooded from him and into her just like when they were in the clearing, and she knew where she had felt it before.

She opened her eyes and stood up so suddenly that Thran’s alarm rushed through the Force instantly.

“What is wrong?” he asked, sitting up.

“I know what it was now,” she said stepping quickly away from the couch. “But it doesn’t make sense. How would I have felt it before?”

The concern and confusion were evident on his face and coursed through Rachel’s mind as he stood up. She couldn’t control it and couldn’t turn it off. Feeling everything was too much.

“What is it?” he asked quietly.

Between his emotions and her own swirling around in her mind, she felt it all like a hurricane through her body, and she couldn’t focus. She tried to take a breath and push it all away, but his question demanded an answer which brought it all back to the surface.

“You,” she blurted out.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and a pain, while only briefly crossing his face, remained in his heart.

“Me?” he asked, his face remaining neutral, but the confusion came through his voice.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s not as simple as that. I’m just…confused. I can’t focus. There’s too much.”

He studied her face. “Perhaps some space may help. I will go to the cockpit.”

He turned and left the living area, and she also walked as far back from the cockpit as she could, winding up in the engine room.

She paced for a long time, taking slow, deep breaths. She didn’t understand her reaction. She knew she needed to sort out why she was feeling it now and how she had felt it before, but she couldn’t. Earth didn’t have the Force.

Hopefully the Jedi would have answers for her and help show her how to turn it off and control it. She didn’t want to feel everything—every emotion and inclination laid open and bare to her—it was too much.

For now, she needed to find a way to calm down and explain this to Thran. She couldn’t let this end like all the others. She didn’t have anyone else.

When she finally thought she had a sense of control, she walked back through the ship to the cockpit where Thran sat in the pilot’s seat. He was calm and contemplative as he stared out the viewport as the swirling of hyperspace passed them, but there was also confusion and concern.

Rachel sat down quietly in the co-pilot’s chair and looked out the viewport as well. It was calming to watch even though the way the sky swirled around them reminded her of the way her thoughts and emotions were cascading inside her.

And there came that feeling again.

Thran’s face held no true emotion, but she had felt it from him.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she whispered before she could stop herself.

He turned his head to look questioningly at her. “Do what?”

She couldn’t lie to him. “I can’t control when I feel people’s emotions, and I can’t turn it off when I do.”

He nodded but didn’t respond.

“While we were reading before, and when I tried to meditate, I felt something that I know I’ve felt before, but it doesn’t make sense because Earth doesn’t have the Force. How could I feel other people’s emotions on Earth when the Force doesn’t exist there?”

“I do not have an answer for you,” he said. “Perhaps a part of you was always sensitive to other’s emotions even without the Force, but now, that sense is much greater with the Force.”

“Maybe.” But she knew it was a longshot, and she hoped the Jedi had answers.

“Perhaps the Jedi will be able to answer it for you,” he echoed her thoughts.

They were silent a moment before he broke it. “I have to ask,” he began hesitantly, “why did you have this reaction now? Which emotion did you feel?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s a contentment or inner peace. Maybe even just happiness would describe it.”

“This emotion scares you?”

She couldn’t look at him. She knew it was silly, but it was her way of protecting herself. “When I had friendships and relationships on Earth, when I was with those people, I would feel this emotion, but when I was by myself, I would no longer feel it. It made me confused about the relationships, and every time they ended. It hurt.”

“Did you end those relationships or did the others?” he asked, resting his arm on the chair’s armrest.

“At first, it was the others, but when I recognized what I felt, I began to end any relationship the moment I felt it.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So you ended those relationships due to your conflicting emotions?”

When he put it like that, it sounded harsh, but it was the truth. “I suppose so,” she said.

“So what part do I play?” he asked.

She looked at him, uncertain what to say.

“When I asked what was wrong earlier, you told me that I was the problem.”

She felt the earlier pain as it crept back into him even though he hid it from his eyes.

She couldn’t look at him. “I felt the same emotion from you earlier.”

“That emotion being content or at peace?”

“Yes.”

“I was,” he said. “And I still am. Flying, exploring, and learning are all things I enjoy doing.” He hesitated for a second. “And I have the company of someone I now consider a friend.”

Her defenses built up instinctively, and he must have seen.

“You associate these feelings with people who have hurt you.” It was a statement, but it came out like a question.

Her shoulders dropped as she nodded slowly. “Yes.” He had put words to what she had hidden for years. She knew that if Thran felt this emotion around her, it would only be a matter of time before he would be gone from her life, and even though their friendship was just starting, she knew that she didn’t want it to end. But soon, it probably wouldn’t matter. He would be leaving her on Coruscant with the Jedi.

Thran turned in his chair and leaned towards her. She looked up and met his gaze.

“Ra’chel,” he said, “I want to make one thing clear to you. I have chosen to be your friend, and I have promised that you shall always have my friendship. I do not wish to be associated with those who have hurt or deserted you because I deem friendship to be more valuable than that. You have my word that I will never leave.”

Rachel’s instinct was to put up her walls and deny his claim. She’d had so many people make similar promises, but even as she started to open her mouth and tell him as much, she could see the sincerity and earnestness in his glowing red eyes. He meant it and wanted her to know it.

She wasn’t sure how to respond or what to say to such a promise.

“I’m sorry,” she began, but Thran cut her off.

“Do not be. I realize this may take time to accept, but I will prove it to you.”

She tried to give him a small smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a real friend.”

He smiled—the first real emotion he allowed himself to show this whole time.

The alarm indicating they would be dropping out of hyperspace went off, and Rachel watched him bring the ship out, recalculate their next jump, and take them back into hyperspace.

“We have another four hours before our next course change,” he said, working a few controls yet before turning back to her. “In the meantime, perhaps we can return to our respective studies?”

She nodded. It was going to be a long trip to Coruscant, but during that time, she knew she could learn more about what kind of galaxy she was entering as well as try to wrap her mind around the idea of having a real friend. She knew they would have any number and kind of conversation about the past and future, but the future no longer looked quite as daunting knowing she had a friend going with her.

Chapter Text

Coruscant traffic control finally gave them permission to land near the Jedi Temple, and from there, receive transportation to the Temple itself.

More shuffling.

When they reached the Temple, they were escorted by a guard wearing yellow robes and a gold and white helmet. He took them through the vast halls to a turbolift.

Rachel tried to take it all in as much as she could. The temple was huge. But then, everything on Coruscant seemed huge to her. But inside the temple, the halls were lined with columns wider than her arms could span and as high as the tallest tree she’d ever cut down. They walked by a large open area where there were other Jedi walking around or talking with each other, but they seemed like insects next to the massive statuary.

And it all felt ancient. The stones and masonry looked older than any she had ever seen.

The turbolift climbed up a tall tower towards what the temple guard had said was the Council Chamber where Rachel knew her future was going to be decided. She began to shift her weight back and forth nervously.

Thran stood silently beside her in his usual stillness with his hands held loosely behind his back. She felt almost no emotion from him.

He glanced at her. “I do not believe you have anything to be nervous about,” he said, clearly trying to calm her down.

She looked at him disbelievingly, and the knots in her stomach refused to loosen. How could he be so calm? She had left her whole life and past behind her, and she was about to have her whole future decided for her. She was supposed to not be nervous?

Before she could say anything, the doors opened, and the guard stepped out and led them toward the set of doors across the small room, which was clearly meant as some kind of waiting area. Rachel and Thran followed him, but her mind filled with anxious thoughts.

She turned toward a window as the guard told them to wait while he told the Council they were there, and she looked around at the cityscape that was Coruscant.

What she had read had not been exaggerated—the whole planet was one big city. For as far as she could see, there were buildings almost right on top of each other as if vying to occupy the same space. Flying vehicles swarmed the sky in a controlled chaos that made her dizzy, but looking down at the far away ground did the same, so she turned around to face the doors through which the guard had gone.

Before long, he reappeared and ushered them through those doors, and as she walked into a circular room, she saw seated in chairs all around her beings of many different species of all kinds and shapes and colors that Rachel’s mind forgot the questions as it began to try and remember the names of each species.

The first she saw straight ahead of her was a woman with very tall, hornlike appendages and long tail looking appendages both striped in alternating yellow-gold and white which framed her dark red-orange face and falling down her chest. Her forehead was white, and it crested down just above her eyes, and her cheekbones and chin also were accented in white markings. She remembered the mnemonic she had come up with and knew that she was a Togruta.

Next to her on her left was a Wookie with dark brown fur except around his eyes where it seemed to be graying. After the Wookie was one that looked human. He had very dark skin with orange and yellow tattoos surrounding his eyes and trailing down his cheeks, and his thick, dark brown hair was held back with a tan cloth, and something about him seemed not quite human.

On his left, sat a being with pale orange skin and horns coming out of the sides of his face which arched down towards and past his chin. Rachel didn’t remember seeing that species in her reading but knew she would be looking it up.

Continuing left sat another older looking human with fair skin and a longer but well-kept beard and hair that fell to match its length. His hair had been black, but now it was mostly silver, only showing some traces of its former color. His dark blue eyes studied her intently.

The last one to the left was a being that seemed human, but he had multiple horns coming from the top of his head and tattoos across his face. His eyes were a golden color, and she knew the species started with a Z.

She didn’t have time to take in the rest of the group before she stood in the middle of the room, which also left her breathless. The floor was a beautiful mosaic pattern that looked like a white flower in the middle surrounded by circles of copper, dark red, and yellow, and that was followed by more mosaics of palm-like bushes and more copper flooring, and as she looked up, the whole room was surrounded by windows that looked out to the cityscape surrounding them.

“Greetings,” the being with the horns coming from the sides of his faces said, jarring Rachel’s focus back to where she was.

“I am Master Zhulung, Grandmaster of the Jedi Council,” he continued, inclining his head. “What are your names?”

“My name is Mitth’ra’nikuru of the Chiss Ascendency,” Thran said, bowing slightly to Master Zhulung. “I greet you, Master Zhulung.”

Rachel had no idea how formal she had to be in this situation, but she tried to mirror Thran’s actions. “My name is Rachel Bakandi,” she said. “I greet you.”

“Hmm,” Master Zhulung said looking her up and down.

Rachel had the sudden feeling that he was not just looking at her but into and through her. And not just him. They all were. She shifted under the weight of their stares feeling the nervousness return. Their feelings washed over her in waves—interest, concern, apprehension, curiosity, and…fear? That couldn’t be right.

Thran was looking at her. “I brought Ra’chel here in hopes that she may receive training from you,” Thran said, turning back to Master Zhulung as he spoke. “In our explorations, we discovered her and her gift for the Force.”

“Interesting,” one of the beings behind Rachel said, this one wore a metallic mask over his mouth and had what looked like patches over his eyes. He had his hood up, so she couldn’t see the rest of his features. “Your explorers could find her when our own searchers never sensed her existence.”

Thran hesitated. “Her world, we suspect, does not allow the Force to exist.” He looked again at Rachel. “She did not seem to feel it until we left her planet’s atmosphere.”

“Is this so?” the Togruta asked as she turned her eyes to Rachel.

Working moisture into her mouth, Rachel tried to speak. “Yes.”

No one said anything, so she decided to continue. “When we left…my planet,” she began, glancing at Thran. He hadn’t mentioned that she came from Earth or the Second Galaxy, so she opted to also keep it secret. Thinking back to the experience, she continued, “it was as though I could see for the first time. I could feel…everything. Things I had never felt before. It was overwhelming at first. I could feel everything that people on the planet were feeling. It was too much. Thran moved us into orbit of a neighboring planet, and the distance helped.”

“You could feel what exactly?” The dark-skinned man with the tattoos asked.

Rachel tried to think what to call it. “Feelings…emotions…intentions. I’m not exactly sure.”

“I can sense you are quite gifted with the Force,” Master Zhulung spoke up, and Rachel turned back to him. “And the ability to sense the minds of many beings on an entire planet is no small feat.”

“Indeed,” agreed the being with horns on top of his head.

“And I can sense in you great strength,” Master Zhulung continued. “However.” His tone changed, and Rachel felt her stomach tighten even more. “There is also a great amount of fear in you. Your age will play a large factor in our decision as well.”

“My age?” Rachel asked.

“We generally start our Jedi as young toddlers or small children,” the being with horns on his head answered. “You are the age of a Jedi Knight who would generally have taken on a Padawan. I can see this being a hinderance in your training.”

“Another thing I see is your attachment to your past,” Master Zhulung continued. “Your thoughts drift to your home world and the life you left there.”

Rachel couldn’t counter his statement. It was true. She often thought about Earth. Her grandfather, her sisters, her nieces. What were they doing now? Did they think she was dead?

“I beg your pardon,” Thran spoke up. “I know this is not my area of expertise; however, is that not natural?”

Rachel looked at him and then at Master Zhulung who studied Thran.

“You come from a different world, young Chiss,” Master Zhulung said. “Your kind fosters attachment to family and believes very heavily that a strong level of devotion to one’s family is the key to survival. This is not so here. The Order survives by relying on the Force and our fellow Jedi. We do not look to the past. We focus on the present and toward the betterment of the future.”

“I fail to see the difference,” Thran countered, keeping his voice neutral even though Rachel felt a small wave of frustration rise in him.

“Of course not,” Master Zhulung said. “Outsiders rarely do.”

“You take in those who are not family and treat them as family. Raise them as your own, teach them as your own, and you all become as close as family, do you not?” Thran asked.

“A very simpleminded way of looking at it,” the older human said.

“Yet accurate,” Thran said. “The Chiss are not so very different. While family in terms of blood is very important, we do take in those who are not blood and treat them as our own, raise them, teach them, and they become one with the family. This can happen at any age, and it is for the betterment and future of the Family.”

“What is your point?” The dark-skinned man asked.

“I do not see why Ra’chel should be denied training merely because she is older than the normal age at which you take in your family members. I would also counter with this argument: if you do not teach her how to wield and control the Force as you do, who will?”

There was a silence in the room for several moments, and Rachel thought she felt fear pass through a few of them.

“We will discuss this amongst ourselves,” Master Zhulung said. “We will call you back once we have reached a decision.”

Thran inclined his head. “Thank you, Master Zhulung.”

Rachel mimicked the gesture and followed Thran towards the door.

Once they were out of the room and the doors shut behind them, Rachel still couldn’t relax. Her thoughts raced to the point where the room in front of her seemed to spin.

“It will be all right, Ra’chel,” Thran said in a soft voice.

“How can you be so certain?” she asked harsher than she meant to. “They hold everything in their hands. My whole future depends on their decision. What happens if they don’t let me train? Where do I go?”

Thran looked at her as if the thought had never occurred to him.

“If they don’t let me in, I’m screwed,” Rachel said.

“Excuse me?” Thran said, looking at her confused.

“If they don’t let me in, I’m…” she tried to find a way to translate the idiom for him. “Things don’t look good for me if they don’t let me in.”

“I see,” Thran said. “For whatever it is worth, I believe they have little choice but to train you.”

“Why?”

“Who else will train you?"

She tried to think of anything else she had read that might help her. “I don’t know.”

“Precisely. And I do not think they would want anyone else to train you either. Therefore, they will have little choice but to accept you.”

Rachel smirked. His deductive reasoning made her feel a little better about it.

She glanced out the window at the city below them and saw off to the right a small outcropping where two Jedi stood and appeared to be talking. One was considerably older than the other, and after some time, they walked off the deck and back into the tower.

“Perhaps you will have the opportunity to have such interactions soon,” Thran had apparently noticed the Jedi below them as well.

Rachel glanced at him then back at the door where the council was deciding.

“I hope you’re right.”

They waited in silence, watching the city below and around them until the door behind them opened and the dark-skinned man stood there.

“We are ready for you, Rachel,” he said, holding up a hand as Thran began to walk with her. “Just Rachel. We have a question or two more.”

Rachel nodded and glanced at Thran who watched her as she walked into the Council room with the man.

“My name is Master Zev, by the way,” the man whispered as they walked into the room.

“Thank you,” Rachel said.

She walked to the middle of the room again as Master Zev went to his seat.

The eyes of every being in the room bore into Rachel’s soul. She could feel their prodding—their searching. What was more, she could feel what they were feeling even if they kept their emotions very strictly in check, they were still there.

They were uncertain and uneasy.

“Welcome again,” Master Zhulung said.

“Thank you,” Rachel said, wondering if she should bow or what was proper etiquette here.

“What is it you are afraid of?” the Togruta asked. Her eyes were narrowed, and Rachel could feel her looking into her heart and seeing everything laid bare.

Rachel looked at her for a moment then searched around with unfocused eyes. She couldn’t think of anything that she was outright scared of, but that had been on Earth. While there had been wolves and bears and any number of dangers, she had never been afraid of them. But Earth was one planet, and she had lived in one place on that planet. Since leaving Earth, she had already been to a Chiss outpost, a science station, Csilla, Naporar, crossed the better part of this galaxy and was now on Coruscant, the central hub of the galaxy. She didn’t know yet what there was to be afraid of.

“I don’t fear.” She knew she was getting the Basic wrong. “Back home, I didn’t fear anything. But this place is new. I don’t know what there is here.”

“Uncertainty can be one fear that leads to many others,” the being with horns on his head said.

“Forgive me,” Rachel said, “but right now, my whole future is uncertain. I think that a small amount of fear is natural, isn’t it?”

She could sense their collective emotions swirl. Amusement, concern, interest, worry, and she tensed as the sensations flooded into her.

“Perhaps,” the Togruta said. “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know,” Rachel admitted. “I can feel…everything.”

Their unease increased, it wasn’t a lot, but their collective thoughts and emotions all connected to hers in a way she couldn’t grasp.

The Wookie growled something that Rachel didn’t understand. His words—if they were words—sounded like bear and lion growls.

She looked around hoping someone would translate, but no one did.

“We reached the decision that you will be tested,” Master Zhulung said. “There are some tests that we run Younglings through before they further their training. We will begin them later today.”

Tests. So, the decision wasn’t final. They wanted to see if she was worth bringing into the fold.

She nodded because she couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You seem uneasy,” Master Zev said.

She looked at him then around at the other Masters seated around her, their eyes still bearing into her.

“This whole place is strange to me,” she admitted. “I don’t know where to go or what to do.”

“There will be a Jedi Knight who shows you where to go,” Master Zhulung reassured her. “She will take you to a room where you will stay for now.”

For now. Not her room or her quarters. A temporary living place until they decided what to do with her. Even on the trip from her galaxy to this one on the Star Jumper she had had her own room designated for her. On Csilla, in the Mitth homestead, even though they knew she would be leaving, Patriarch Thyodar gave her a room and told her it was hers, setting things aside for it to be hers. But not here. A room to stay in for now.

Rachel nodded, feeling slightly sick to her stomach as she started to walk out. She heard the Wookie growl something, but since she couldn’t understand it, she kept walking.

Thran turned from the window as soon as he heard the door open. Rachel appeared tired and worried.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. She didn’t look at him, and her forehead remained tense with worry.

“What did they say?” he tried a different approach.

“They didn’t really ask me very much,” she said, even her voice held tension. “They asked me what I was afraid of, and I told them I wasn’t afraid of anything, but that was because I don’t know what there is in this galaxy. On Earth, I wasn’t afraid. Here, my whole future is uncertain.”

“And that scares you?” He kept his voice soft.

She finally looked up at him, and her eyes held fear like that of a child.

Thran instinctively put his hand on her shoulder, but he felt her tense slightly as she looked away from him again.

He removed his hand. “Did they say what will happen now?” Thran asked, continuing to look at her face. It still held so much tension and worry.

“They said that they will have me go through some testing similar to what they have Younglings go through.”

Thran nodded. “Did they say when?”

“Later today.”

She seemed exhausted, as though she was fighting something, but he couldn’t fathom what she was feeling.

Leaving behind everything she knew was likely one of the hardest decisions she ever made in her life. She left her home and family and entire life to come here all because he had asked her—because he had told her that she could be a Jedi.

Her entire future was in the hands of the Jedi Masters sitting behind those doors, and it weighed on her in an almost physical way. If the Jedi decided not to accept her, what then?

Rachel clearly was thinking the same thing. “What if they don’t let me join?” she asked in such a quiet voice that Thran almost didn’t hear her.

He turned his head so that he could look more directly at her face, and she looked up at him and held his gaze. She wanted an answer, he knew. Her eyes pleaded through fear, searching for something solid to hold on to.

His chest tightened and he felt his forehead crease in thought. He felt to blame for what she was going through. He didn’t know if she blamed him, but the guilt was settling into his heart.

“I have no doubt,” he began slowly, trying to think what words would give her comfort, “that you will pass any test they give you.” He looked directly into her pleading and searching eyes. “You have come a very long way in hopes of pursuing this path. You are very determined and strong. I have seen that in you even in the short while I have known you. I brought you here, and I refuse to believe that you are not destined to become a Jedi.”

She still searched his face, her shoulders dropping slightly. “Just because an outsider believes I should be a Jedi might not make a difference to them.”

Thran’s jaw tensed. He wished he didn’t know that was true. The Ascendency wasn’t much different though. He knew how they would feel about his being friends with Rachel and affiliating with the Jedi. They would tell him to distance himself from both—they had already tried to warn him. But looking at Rachel’s face, and seeing her need for stability and reassurance, he knew that wasn’t something he could do. She needed a friend. He knew she trusted him, so he promised himself that he would never break that trust.

Thran began to speak again, but the turbolift doors opened and a female human Jedi walked out.

“Hello,” she said. “I believe you are Rachel?”

“I am,” Rachel answered.

“My name is Ketrin. I’ll be showing you to the room you’ll be staying in.”

As Rachel began to follow Ketrin into the turbolift, Thran couldn’t help but catch the subtle phrasing. Rachel wasn’t receiving permanent housing. They really weren’t sure about her yet. He knew this was what troubled Rachel then, and he understood.

She had nothing. She had brought almost nothing from Earth. She had the coat she had told him her grandmother had made her and an odd kind of knife that her family had passed down, but she had no home here—only being granted temporary housing. At any moment, that could be taken out from under her.

He studied her face as the turbolift descended, and he could see that she was trying to be strong, but the tension around her eyes gave away the pain she was holding back. Others may not catch it, but he could see it.

“I understand your fear,” Ketrin said into the silence of the turbolift.

Thran looked at the Jedi, not sure that she could understand what Rachel was feeling, but he also knew that there were ways that the Jedi could feel things that he could not.

“I believe they will have you going through what’s called the Youngling trials,” she continued. “When I was young, I remember being scared. I thought that if I didn’t make it through, they would kick me out of the Temple. I didn’t know what would happen to me if that would happen. Looking back, I can see how easy those trials were. Perhaps not for a Youngling, but if I had to do them now, they would be simple. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“I appreciate that,” Rachel said softly. “But I don’t have any more training than a child. Probably less. You grew up here. You knew what the Force was from the time you were born. I only found out about it and started feeling it two months ago.”

“Really?” Ketrin asked, the confusion evident on her face.

“Yeah,” Rachel said. “I have no idea what any of this is or how to control it. It’s overwhelming and terrifying.”

The other Jedi was silent a moment, and Thran could see her forehead wrinkled in thought, possibly thinking how best to reassure Rachel.

As the turbolift doors opened to a long, tall hallway, Ketrin spoke again.

“Perhaps I do not have the right words to encourage you, but I have no doubt that you will pass them.”

They walked along the hallway, passing several Jedi, many of whom turned to look in Thran’s direction. Based on their facial expressions, he reasoned that they had never encountered a member of the Chiss species before, but he paid them no mind.

They turned down another corridor which had several hallways leading off it as Thran looked ahead of them, but they turned down the first one and came to a room that was bare except for a bed and a desk with a chair next to it. As Ketrin entered it, the lights came on.

“I know it isn’t much,” she said, “but once you get yourself settled, it’ll be a small home until everything gets sorted out and you get assigned your own room.”

Thran looked from the Jedi to Rachel. He could see in Rachel’s facial expression that she was both confused and angered by the remark.

“What do you mean, get settled?” Rachel asked, her voice a little shaky, but under control.

“Personal items aren’t forbidden,” Ketrin continued, her own confusion showing. “Any changes of clothing can be hung in the closet there as well.”

Thran watched Rachel’s eyes play through different emotions and wondered which one would win out: anger, frustration, sorrow, guilt, grief, dejection.

To his surprise, it was apathy. Rachel simply turned, walked into the room, and sat down on the bed.

“Didn’t you bring anything?” Ketrin asked.

“We left her homeworld in a bit of a hurry,” Thran told her. “She has only what she had on her person and no personal belongings. I would not press the matter further.”

Ketrin’s eyes widened slightly as her forehead creased, but she nodded. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just thought—”

“It’s fine,” Rachel cut her off sharply.

Ketrin looked from Rachel to Thran clearly not knowing what more to do.

“I’ll come find you when the Council has decided when your test will be,” she said and walked out of the room, pausing at the door. “I can show you around the Temple sometime, if you want.”

“Thank you,” Rachel said.

Ketrin offered her a smile and inclined her head to Thran before leaving.

Thran watched her leave before turning back to Rachel who was looking around the room.

“Even your people who didn’t want me among them offered me better and more permanent housing than this feels.”

Looking around, Thran couldn’t deny the accuracy of her statement. Despite the Aristocra’s resentment for outsiders, they never failed to show hospitality to guests. It was something that Thran still found rather confusing about the whole political front.

His eyes found hers, and he noted the sadness in them.

“Something else is troubling you.”

“I take it you’ll be leaving now that I’m here.”

While her tone was neutral, there was still a hint of iciness that stung him.

He hadn’t thought about leaving or when he would, and he knew that he was expected back because his instructions had been laid out very clearly and plainly for him: take Rachel to the Jedi and return as soon as possible, but he saw room in there for that to be bent. If the Jedi decided that Rachel was not to be taken in, then he would take her wherever else she may wish to go. Even if that were to return to Earth.

“I will remain here until a decision has been reached,” he told her, sitting down in the chair. “I made you this promise, and I choose to stick by you until it is seen through to whatever end that may be.”

She stared at him disbelievingly. “You mean that?”

“Of course,” he said. “I promised. And I could hardly leave you off at the docking bay and fly off, could I?”

She looked away, shaking her head slightly. “I’ve known so few people who have actually stood by the promises they made.” She looked back at him with sincerity in her eyes. “Thank you.”

He gave her a smile, then had a sudden thought.

He reached into one of the pockets on his jacket and pulled out the long range comm that the explorers were given. Each had a unique frequency and could span the distance of a galaxy.

“What is that?” Rachel asked.

“A communication device that the explorers use,” Thran explained, holding it out for her, “Take it. When I go back to the Ascendency, you will have an easy means of reaching me.”

Rachel’s eyes showed first surprise, then understanding and gratitude.

“Thank you,” she said. “How does it work?”

He leaned closer, holding the teardrop-shaped device for her closer inspection and indicated how each of the buttons surrounding the center holoprojector could be used to transmit or answer a message or to simply let someone else know that you wanted to speak with them. Messages or calls could be verbal or holographic.

“How do I know how to call you?” she asked, clearly enthralled by the device.

“I will call you since this is my comm, and I will need to get a new one. Once you receive a transmission, you can save that code.” He showed her how and showed her where the code would show up at the top of the device.

She held the comm in her hand and slowly looked up at him, her forehead creased.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

“I know this is why you brought me to this galaxy. You were bringing me to the Jedi so that I could learn from them. But now that I’m here, and that you’ll be leaving soon…” she took a breath.

“It is difficult to let go of the familiar,” Thran offered.

She nodded.

“That is why I offer this to you,” he said gesturing to the comm. “So you may communicate with me if you should wish to.”

Rachel nodded.

“I intend to keep my word. Even if I am the extent of the galaxy away, I intend to remain your friend.”

Rachel stared at him as though she did not have words to say, which was probably all right since, at that moment, the door opened as Ketrin and the Togruta Jedi Master appeared.

Chapter Text

Rachel turned from Thran to the opening door and saw Ketrin and the Togruta Master.

“Hello again, Rachel,” the Togruta said. “My name is Master Mitra Sahga. We are ready for your test now if you’ll follow me.”

Rachel stood and shoved the comm Thran had given her into the pocket of her coat and started to follow. Thran had also stood and made to follow her.

“Just Rachel,” Master Sahga said, raising a hand. “Ketrin will stay with you, Mitth’ra’nikuru.”

“With due respect, Master Sahga,” Thran said, “I would prefer to remain with Ra’chel and watch this test. If that is all right.”

“Unfortunately,” she said, “the Council prefers it otherwise. Ketrin will remain with you.”

Rachel couldn't shake the sudden uneasy feeling that washed over her—only, she didn't know if it was her own feeling or Thran's. His face gave nothing away as he nodded his agreement to the situation, but his eyes found hers in a steady stare.

“Why can’t he come too?” Rachel asked Master Sahga.

“This is how the Council wishes it,” Master Sahga said with a tone of finality. “Now please, follow me.”

Rachel turned and looked at Thran with a pit in her stomach.

“I’ll see you soon,” she told him as she turned to follow the Togruta out of the room.

“I hope so,” Thran said with a glance at Ketrin.

Soon, she was again walking down the large hallway, following Master Sahga to a turbolift.

“Where are we going?” Rachel asked as they stepped inside.

“To one of our training rooms,” she answered. “It isn't far.”

The turbolift barely got going before it stopped again and opened to a hall with a much shorter ceiling. Master Sahga led her to the left and before she knew it, she was standing in a large training room.

“Welcome,” Master Zhulung greeted her. “We have prepared our test for you. Are you ready?”

Rachel looked at him and then at the other Masters beside him.

“Perhaps,” one of them—the older human man—said, “we should introduce ourselves first. I am Master Kyan Ywin.”

The Wookie standing next to him growled something, and Master Zev stood next to him and translated.

“His name is Master Lowporin, and I am Master Pan Zev.”

“Thank you,” Rachel said.

“Very good,” Master Zhulung said, walking towards her with a piece of cloth in his hand. “Let us begin. Put this around your eyes in such a way that you cannot see anything around you, and we shall go from there.”

Rachel nodded even though it was confusing, and even as she began to tie the blindfold over her eyes, she could see the lights around her being darkened. Not only were they putting a cover over her eyes, but they were also turning out the lights.

With very little instruction and only darkness to see, she tried using her hearing and other senses like she used to on Earth when she couldn’t see.

“Do not rely on what you see and hear,” she heard Master Zhulung’s voice. “Your eyes and ears can deceive you. Reach out. Feel.”

Feel? There was nothing in her hands to feel, the air didn’t move around her, and it was neither warm nor cold in the room.

Then she understood, and she tried to reach out the way she had before with the Force, and she felt the presence of the other people in the room. Master Zhulung, Master Sahga, Master Ywin, Master Lowporin, and Master Zev each felt unique and distinct from the others and yet each had something similar about them. They were watching her, and she could feel their eyes on her—their thoughts, their emotions, their tendencies.

There was more, and she took a slow, careful, deep breath.

She could feel other people. Behind the wall to her left was another training room just like this one, and there were a group of younger beings moving as one to the instructions of another being. Their young minds concentrated yet wandering. Their breathing, their hearts beating, and though she couldn’t hear words, she sensed the instruction, the acceptance, obedience, and their child-like trust and willingness to learn.

She took another slow breath and shifted her focus to the other wall, but there was no one on the other side of that one, and yet, she could still feel the presence of many others surrounding her, and just as it began to become too much, somewhere nearby—she couldn’t pinpoint where—she felt a very familiar presence.

Thran? she thought. The minds and emotions that had threatened to overwhelm her just moments before suddenly quieted as she tried to locate where he was, but she saw only the cityscape of Coruscant and felt a pained sorrow.

And then everything came rushing back, and it became too much. There were so many different minds with all kinds of intentions and emotions mixing together.

It was just like Earth.

“Focus,” she heard Master Ywin tell her. “Your mind wanders.”

“I can’t control it,” she said, trying to bring her mind back to the room she was standing in.

“Center your mind inward,” she heard Master Zev’s voice. “Sense your own thoughts and focus on your breathing.”

She tried it. While her own thoughts were scrambled and she felt her emotions matching the chaos she had felt, she tried to focus on taking slow, deep breaths and listening to her heart as it pounded in her chest.

Slowly, she felt the commotion dissipate into calmness.

“Very good,” she heard Master Sahga say.

“Tell us what you see,” Master Zhulung’s voice was distinct.

“I can sense others,” Rachel tried to explain. “In the room next to us there’s a class being led, isn’t there? Children?”

She heard silence for a few moments, and she wondered if she wasn’t supposed to know that.

“I’m sorr—”

“Master Xal is leading a class of Younglings,” she heard Master Sahga’s calm voice interrupt her. “But they are not in the room next to us.”

Rachel looked toward where she felt their presence. “Where are they?”

“This room is near the middle of the Temple,” Master Zhulung said. “The room in which Master Xal trains his Younglings is at the far end of the Temple where they can see out the large windows.”

Rachel couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. “You’re telling me that I sensed their presence from half the temple away?”

“Evidently so,” Master Zev said flatly.

“You began to lose control, regained it momentarily, and lost it again,” Master Zhulung said. “Can you explain what you felt?”

Rachel hesitated. “I could feel so many minds,” she said, thinking back. “But then I could sense Thran, and I felt calmer before everything became too much again.”

Another silence.

“He is currently in the hangar, is he not?” Master Ywin asked.

“That’s where he’s supposed to be,” Master Zhulung replied.

“You can not only sense things that are half-way across the Temple,” Master Zev started, “but also beings that are not in the Temple at all.”

“Thran isn’t here?” Rachel asked, a combination of uncertainty and loss wafting through her chest. He had left without saying goodbye…

“He was sent to the hangar to be on his way back to his home world,” Master Zhulung explained.

“Is there a problem with that?” Master Ywin asked.

Rachel’s chest felt both hollow and heavy at the same time. They’d sent him away?

She thought back to the cityscape she had seen when she felt his presence and she felt herself try to catch her breath. It wasn’t just the cityscape. It was the Jedi Temple. She had seen what he was looking at.

She ignored Master Ywin’s question. “How was I able to see what he saw?” she blurted out.

“What do you mean?” Master Zev asked.

“When I felt Thran’s presence, I reached out towards it and saw what I thought was the Coruscant cityscape. But now that I look back at it, it was his view of the Jedi Temple as he is leaving.”

She felt a collective stirring of astonishment and concern.

“You may take off the blindfold,” Master Zhulung said.

She did so, and she blinked against the lights as they came on as well.

The five Masters all stood in front of her staring with mixed expressions. Master Sahga’s was the most comforting of the five since her face was simply neutral. She didn’t know how to read a Wookie’s face, and the other three all had furrowed brows and creased foreheads. Master Ywin’s arms were crossed in front of his chest. Master Zhulung had one arm across his chest while his other hand stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“What now?” Rachel asked.

Master Zhulung seemed to come out of his contemplation as he stepped forward and clasped his hands behind his back.

“Now we need to make a decision,” he said.

“Based on what?” Rachel asked. “I haven’t done anything.”

“On the contrary,” Master Sahga said. “You have done quite a bit in these last few minutes.”

Master Lowporin growled something, but Rachel couldn’t understand him, so she looked back to Master Sahga.

“He said his decision has already been made,” Master Sahga translated, looking between Masters Lowporin and Zhulung.

“But come now,” Master Ywin said. “We will not be making a decision here and now. Let us go.”

“Go where?” Rachel asked.

“I will show you where you can get something to eat,” Master Sahga said, stepping to her side as the other Masters turned to leave. “I’m sure you must be hungry.”

Rachel looked away from her as her emotions and thoughts clashed. They had sent Thran away, which meant she was stuck here, yet the Council didn’t seem keen on making her feel welcome or even seem like they wanted her here at all.

As she and Master Sahga walked down the hallway, Rachel tried again to reach out and feel for Thran’s presence, but the concentration it took caused her to veer sideways almost into a wall.

“I don’t think you will sense his presence any longer,” Master Sahga said. Her voice held a hint of actual sympathy in it. “If you saw what you said, he would have been on a shuttle on the way back to his ship. He may already be on his ship by now.”

“I just wish,” Rachel started to say, but thought she shouldn’t say it to a Master.

“You wish you had said goodbye?” Master Sahga offered.

Rachel looked up at her. “Is it wrong to want to say goodbye to a friend?” Rachel asked.

Master Sahga seemed to think carefully before speaking. “It was voted on and decided that it would be best if you two have no parting words. The others believe you have too much of an attachment to him.”

“He’s my friend,” Rachel said defensively. “Are Jedi not allowed to have friends?”

Master Sahga stopped walking and turned to face Rachel. “It is very important that you understand this, Rachel,” she said, “forming friendships, especially close ones, is a very fine line for a Jedi. Attachments are forbidden. They can lead a Jedi to be filled with emotions that lead down the path of the dark side.”

Rachel stared at her. “I have felt loss. I’ve lost family. I’ve had friends abandon me. I left my home and my whole life behind. I don’t think that my emotions are an issue.”

“No?” Master Sahga asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rachel had to take a breath. She had gotten worked up just speaking about those things. And the mention of the people who had died brought back feelings of sadness and grief long buried. The sting of betrayal still felt fresh when she thought of the friends who abandoned her without a second thought.

And she’d just left it all behind. Earth was still spinning on its axis and orbiting around its star in a galaxy beyond the Unknown Regions. It wouldn’t be the same if she ever went back. And that was a big if.

“I don’t think that emotions are bad,” Rachel said. “I think it’s what people do with them that makes them bad.”

She continued walking down the hall barely aware that that Master Sahga didn’t start walking with her right away.

When they arrived in the dining hall, Master Sahga insisted that she eat something, but she didn’t feel hungry, and, here, there were more kinds of new food. She had liked the food the Chiss had offered, so she decided to test a couple different things and found them edible.

She tried to ask Master Sahga about the test—how she had thought she had done, especially considering how she had lost control—but Master Sahga said that it was up to the Council.

When they arrived back in her temporary quarters, Rachel went and sat on the bed.

Master Sahga stood for a moment in the doorway, and she thought she detected sympathy or pity coming from her.

“I’m fine,” Rachel said, trying to push back against the feelings.

Master Sahga startled a little. “I’m sure you are,” she said. She reached into her pocket and handed Rachel a small cylindrical device. “Here. The Council will call you on this when they are ready for you.”

Rachel took the communicator and set it on the desk.

“I will let you rest,” Master Sahga said as she turned to leave.

The door shut behind her, and Rachel felt herself physically, mentally, and emotionally collapse onto the bed. Despite what Master Sahga said, she closed her eyes and tried again to reach out and feel for Thran’s presence, but she felt and saw nothing. He was gone.

She rolled to her side and felt her knife press into her hip, so she rolled to the other side but felt something in her coat pocket and remembered the comm Thran had given her.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the comm. He probably wouldn’t contact her until he reached the Ascendency. And even then, would he really? So many people had made the same promises he had about remaining friends despite distance or circumstance, and they had never followed through. And they were on the same planet. Thran had promised that no matter where in the galaxy he went, he would remain her friend. It seemed unlikely.

She would have to try and do her best on her own.

Chapter Text

The jarring electric jolt startled her awake, but the laughing still echoed in her ears as she looked around the darkened room trying to calm herself down and remember that it had been a nightmare and that she was in the Jedi Temple now.

When she tried to lie down again, a strange chirping sound came from under her pillow, and she pulled out the comm Thran had given her and tried to remember which button to press.

When she finally found the right one, an image of Thran appeared.

“Thran?” she answered, but when he didn’t respond to her question, she realized that it was a recorded message. Even though it was a holoimage, she could see that his face was tight, and his eyes were troubled.

“Ra’chel,” he started. “First, I want to assure you that I did not leave willingly. I had no intention of leaving you there without saying goodbye. I wanted to know the outcome of your test. I still believe that you will be a Jedi.”

His thoughts seemed to be coming out jumbled because he paused for a moment and seemed to take a breath before continuing.

“When I return to the Ascendency, I will reach out to you again. But I needed you to know this. You are my friend, Ra’chel, and you will always have my friendship. I am sorry I could not say a proper farewell, but I believe that we will see each other again. May the explorer’s spirit guide you.”

The comm fell silent and Thran’s face disappeared. It had taken days to travel from the Ascendency to Coruscant. It would be days before she heard from him again. In that time, she would either be accepted into or kicked out of the Jedi Order.

She stood up from the bed and placed the Chiss comm next to the Jedi comm, noting the differences in designs. While they were roughly the same size, the Chiss comm was a teardrop shape, and its buttons were in an orderly fashion around what Thran had called the holoprojector in the center. The Jedi comm, on the other hand, was a cylinder about the length of her palm, and she hadn’t been instructed in its use, so she didn’t have a clue yet how it worked.

She took off her coat and found a hanger in the small closet for it. It looked out of place to her eye. The smooth, bare, gray walls were cold and held no emotion or sense of sentiment. Her coat was one of the only things she had brought from Earth. Her grandmother had sewn it together for her using the hide from the first caribou she had hunted on her own. She had made similar coats for her sisters after their first solo hunts, but what she loved most about it was the time and love her grandmother had put into making it. She remembered sitting with her and learning from her how to tan the hide properly, sew it in the right places, and do it all in a way that respected the life the caribou had given for her to feed her family and clothe her back.

Master Sahga had told her that the Jedi didn’t form attachments. Did that include things like this? Her coat and her great-grandfather’s knife were all she had left from Earth and her family, and as she unclipped the knife from her belt and looked it over, she knew these weren’t things she could get rid of.

There was a knock on her door, and she set the knife on the desk next to the comms. She had thought that the Council would summon her via the comm that Master Sahga had left for her, but when she answered the door, Ketrin was there.

“Hi,” she greeted Rachel. “I hope it’s all right. I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat or walk around the Temple?”

She wasn’t all that hungry since she’d already eaten, but perhaps walking around the temple would be better than sitting in a small gray room with nothing to do but stare at the empty walls.

“I could go for a walk,” she said, remembering to grab the communicator from the desk and shoving it into the pocket of her pants before leaving the room. “This place is huge, and I know I’ll get lost.”

“Have they made a decision yet?” Ketrin asked after they’d walked a little way down the hall.

“No. I went through a strange test, but I don’t know what it accomplished.”

“What did they have you do?”

“They had me cover my eyes and just see what I could sense.”

“Huh,” she said. “That’s interesting. My trials were nothing like that.”

“I lost control,” Rachel admitted. “I could sense Younglings being trained, Thran leaving, and then I felt overwhelmed by everything else I could feel.”

“Like what?”

“It was like what I felt when Thran and I left my homeworld. Just…everything.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt that much from the planet or people around the Temple.”

“You can probably control it better.”

“Maybe.”

They walked for a little while in silence, turning the corner and walking back along the hall Rachel remembered led to the turbolift she’d first come down on before Ketrin spoke again.

“I know I probably shouldn’t ask, but what was your homeworld like?”

“Why wouldn’t you be allowed to ask?” Rachel asked, confused.

“We aren’t supposed to dwell on the past,” Ketrin said as if it were obvious. “I don’t know where I was born or who my parents were. Only that my home planet was Corellia.”

Rachel nodded, but she couldn’t remember where in the galaxy Corellia was.

“You know your parents and homeworld,” she continued. “I’m just curious what it was like.”

Thran had withheld Earth’s name and the Chiss exploration program from the Jedi Council, and she had done the same so far, but would describing Earth or where she was from give anything away? How much could she share? And if the Jedi Masters didn’t want them to dwell on the past, something they had already chastised her for, would they be upset by her telling Ketrin about it?

“The place I specifically came from was beautiful,” she said. “There were mountains and forests. A large river that came from one of the mountains and is said goes right to the ocean. My family lived there for generations, taking care of the land and nurturing it. But the planet itself is a different story. It isn’t too different from Coruscant, in many regards. Lots of cities and anger.”

“You think Coruscant is angry?” Ketrin asked.

Rachel looked at her, realizing her gaze had unfocused from the hall they were walking down.

“When the Masters were testing me, I could feel a lot of emotions from the people around the Temple. Anger and confusion were some of the more prevalent ones. But there were others. I couldn’t control it. Master Zev helped me.”

“Master Zev is a really good teacher,” Ketrin said. “He’s very patient and understanding.”

“He seems to be.”

“You said you come from a forest area?” Ketrin asked.

“Yes.”

“I think there’s a place here you’ll like.”

Rachel wasn’t sure she understood, but she followed her to the turbolift, and they took it down several levels, and Rachel got the feeling that there was more life down here than there had been above.

“Are there more Jedi down here?” she asked, wondering if the life she felt was from more lifeforms.

“No,” Ketrin answered. “Just wait and see.”

So she did, and once the turbolift doors opened, she couldn’t believe what her eyes saw. Spread out before her, she saw a vast area of grass and flowers of varying shades and colors. The air that filled her lungs tried to convince her that she was no longer in the Jedi Temple surrounded by a giant city. As she stepped from the lift and walked further into the room, she saw a large lake that spanned the greater expanse of the room, and surrounding it were all kinds of trees and bushes and shrubs.

“How is this here?” she asked Ketrin, her eyes still taking in the various kinds of plants.

“It’s been here for centuries,” she said. “Thousands of Jedi have come here to meditate and relax or swim or walk. I thought you would like it.”

“I do.”

When she had left the Mitth homestead, she thought she would never find another place like it, but here, she knew she could find a certain amount of serenity.

“How is it growing?” Rachel asked, reaching out to touch one of the bushes. Its leaves were alive. “Aren’t we underground?”

“A lot of this is artificially grown,” Ketrin said. “The light is a recreation of another planet’s sun. But the grass and plants are all real. The water is run through pipes and waterways that run under the Temple.”

“That’s incredible,” Rachel said. She knew things like this existed on Earth, but she had never seen one in person.

“If you want to walk around here for a while, we can.”

“I’d like—”

The comm twittered in her pocket, and it took her a while of looking it over for Ketrin to realize she didn’t know how to work it.

“The sliding button there,” she said, pointing.

“Hello?” she answered it.

“Rachel Bakandi,” Master Sahga’s voice came over the comm, “please report to the Council Chamber.”

“Right away,” she responded before it clicked off.

“Does it turn off on its own,” she asked Ketrin, holding the device in her hand, “or is there something I’m supposed to press?”

“As long as whoever called you cut off the transmission, it should be off,” Ketrin said, giving her an odd look. “But you can always hit the turn off switch if you aren’t sure.”

“Which one is that?”

“Have you never worked one of these before?”

“We don’t have these where I’m from.”

She showed Rachel how it worked while they walked back to the turbolift and rode it up to the Council Chamber.

“I feel like there is so much I don’t know about the galaxy,” Rachel said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get by.”

“With help,” Ketrin said, looking at her questioningly again. “If you need any, you can always ask.”

Rachel nodded. “I appreciate that.”

“Your world must have been very secluded,” she said. “You said you didn’t know about the Force or even feel it until two months ago, and you don’t have comms there?”

“Yes,” Rachel answered, hoping she wouldn’t probe too far.

“But you also said that your world is similar to Coruscant,” she continued. “So you must be technologically advanced to a certain degree.”

“Most of it is.”

“But not where you’re from?”

“No,” she said. “Where I’m from, technology isn’t very advanced, and we prefer it that way.”

“Why?”

“Life is simpler that way.”

“I would think it’s harder that way.”

“Why?” Rachel asked.

“You don’t have an easy means of communicating or droids.”

“But we have the satisfaction that everything we grow and build and do is with our own hands and from our own strength.” She paused. “What are droids?”

Ketrin stared at her as though she was speaking another language.

“You don’t know what a droid is?” she asked.

“Should I?”

 The doors to the turbolift opened to the waiting area outside the Council Chamber, and Master Ywin was waiting there, his dark blue eyes watching her and looking through her in an eerie way.

“We can talk again afterwards,” Ketrin whispered.

“We’ve reached our decision,” Master Ywin said, ushering her into the Council Chamber. Rachel walked to the middle of the room while he took up his seat next to Master Zhulung. She tried to get a feel for how they had judged her, but their emotions were in better check than they had been earlier, so she braced herself, taking a deep breath and gripping her hands together behind her back, waiting for their verdict.

“Rachel Bakandi,” Master Zhulung said, his voice booming, “welcome to the Jedi Order.”

Chapter Text

And that was it.

Rachel walked from the Council Chamber, hardly aware of her surroundings. She was going to be a Jedi!

“Well?”

Ketrin had waited for her.

“I’m going to be trained,” Rachel told her, unable to hold back the smile.

“That’s excellent!”

“I’m going to be in Master Xal’s clan,” Rachel said, still not sure what that meant. “And I start tomorrow morning.”

“Did they give you directions to your new room?”

“Not yet. They said they would soon though.”

“Usually, the Younglings all share a dorm together as a clan,” Ketrin explained. “That might be a bit awkward for someone your age. Perhaps they will give you your own room.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I think that is still excellent news.”

They walked back to the room Rachel had been temporarily assigned, and Ketrin asked more questions about Earth, and Rachel did her best to answer her questions while still remaining vague enough so as to not give anything away about it or the Chiss exploration program. She tried to ask more questions, but she still had no clue what to even ask. She tried to figure out what droids were, but they still sounded confusing and excessive. Mechanical beings—if they could be called beings—that did whatever they were programmed to do from simple lifting to infant care. It sounded impersonal to have a droid raise a baby, but from what Ketrin described, most beings used them. She couldn’t imagine not forming that bond with a baby.

“Jedi don’t have children,” Ketrin said, giving her another odd look.

“They don’t?”

“No. The Code forbids attachments and marriage and everything that goes with it.”

“Why?”

Ketrin stared at her. “You really don’t know anything about the Code, do you?”

She looked down at the floor, feeling her jaw tighten.

“It’s ok,” Ketrin said, her tone softening. “I’m sure Master Xal will teach you everything you need to know in order to catch up. He’s a really good teacher. He was my clan leader when I was a Youngling.”

“Thanks.”

They reached her room, and Ketrin told her that she would be willing to answer any more questions or show her around more if she needed it.

It wasn’t long before one of the white and gold robed and masked temple guards came to her door. She grabbed her things, and he escorted her to a different and yet similar area of the temple. There were still halls of doorways which must have been other dorm rooms, and the guard pointed out her new room. She tried to take note of which one it was, but there wasn’t anything truly significant about it other than the number on the doorframe. 1094. She would simply have to memorize it.

Behind her, she felt that someone was watching her, and as she turned around, she noted two Jedi about her age watching her with curiosity. No doubt news about her would spread, but she wasn’t sure how fast or if it would be good or bad. For now, she would become acquainted with her new room and settle as best she could.

In the closet immediately to her left hung dark brown Jedi robes similar to what she saw everyone else wearing, and she presumed they were meant for her, though they looked a bit large. Perhaps they were meant to be. She would try to find out more tomorrow from Master Xal. For now, she hung up her coat next to them.

The room itself consisted of the closet that set into the wall, her bed tucked in one corner and against the back wall, a desk with a small blue lamp situated under a window in the other corner, and shelves built into the walls where she presumed any personal items could be displayed, but all she had was her knife, two comms, one from the Jedi and one from Thran, the clothes she was wearing, which had been given to her by Patriarch Mitth’yod’arik, the coat her grandmother had made, and the robes in the closet. There was a door to her immediate right, and when it slid upwards and open, she found a small refresher.

For now, she could only wait for tomorrow and see what it would bring.

Gossip and resentment.

This new Jedi had come with great strength and potential yet had to train as a Youngling. Jedi her own age looked down on her, and the Younglings she had to train with begrudged her. She heard whispers of where others thought she was from, but the names of wherever they said didn’t sound familiar.

Her first class was a difficult experience. She joined a clan of ten and eleven-year-olds who had been together and trained together since they were small children. She was an outsider, and while she was older and stronger in the Force, she knew she had more to learn.

They had a much greater knowledge about the ways of the Jedi than she did because they had grown up with it. It was all they knew. She had only just found out about it. If she had been able to sense it before then, she didn’t know.

As Master Xal dismissed them, Rachel felt her head swimming with information and questions, yet she saw the Zabrak Master walk up to her.

“I can sense your confusion,” he said.  “Can I help?”

“I know I have a lot of catching up to do,” she said. “Everything is new to me.”

“Hmm,” he said and gestured to the door. “How disciplined are you at personal study?”

“Very,” Rachel said.

“Come with me. I believe there is somewhere where you can help yourself catch up.”

And where he led her was a place unlike any other Rachel had seen.

“These are the Jedi Archives,” he explained. “Here, we keep records, information, and knowledge. I believe you may find what you need here.”

Rachel stared around the large room not even sure where to begin.

“Our Archivist, Master Elisabri Dharja can assist you if you have any questions,” he told her, pointing out an elderly woman wearing bright green robes.

“Is there anything else you need?” he asked. “I did notice that your robes perhaps have not been tailored to your exact height yet. I can direct you there if you would like.”

“Um, sure,” Rachel said, still taking in the room. She couldn’t believe how much information was stored here.

A vague sense of amusement came from Master Xal as he led her from the Archives.

Master Xal left her with the tailor, Ulalya, who she noticed was not a Jedi. She explained to Rachel that the Temple employed many civilians who weren’t Force sensitive, and they were paid well and lived comfortably near the Temple.

“How does that feel?” Ulalya asked after adjusting the bottom hem of the robe one more time.

Rachel attempted to walk backwards and forwards, and after finding that she no longer tripped over herself she deemed that it was perfect.

Ulalya was good at what she did, and she was fast with the machine that sewed the hems.

“When did you learn to sew?” Rachel asked her as she watched her work. She had learned basic mending back home, and she had watched her grandmother sew, but she had never seen something work to this extent.

“My father taught me when I was little, and I mentored under him for years before I was allowed to do it on my own.”

“Did he work here as well?”

“He did,” she looked at Rachel with an odd look. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious,” Rachel said. “Do others not ask?”

“No, they don’t.” She looked at her and smiled. “But it’s nice.”

Rachel smiled and thanked her when she was done, feeling comfortable with the robes as though they were meant for her.

Master Xal had told her that there was a midday meditation she was supposed to attend, and she hoped that she wasn’t late for it. She also had to remember where it was.

She turned down one hallway, but it didn’t seem right, so she back tracked and realized that she needed to go up the turbolift, but to which floor?

There was a Rodian Jedi near the turbolift, and she decided to ask her, but she answered in a language that Rachel couldn’t understand. Rachel thanked her anyways and got on the turbolift, not sure where she was going at all.

She reached a floor and exited, finding two Jedi who were talking together, she asked them where Master Xal’s class was meeting.

“Master Xal’s Youngling class?” the one asked. “Do you need to speak with Master Xal?”

“No,” Rachel answered hesitantly. “I’m supposed to be in the class.”

The Jedi looked her up and down before answering.

“One more floor up, take a right all the way down the hall to the meditation garden.”

“Thank you,” Rachel said, turning on her heel back to the turbolift. But she could sense their laughter behind her.

She made it to Master Xal’s class, but only as they were walking out.

He gave her a questioning look.

“I got lost,” she explained.

He nodded slowly.

“Take some time here and meditate on your own,” he said. “Do you know how?”

“Sort of,” she said. “But I don’t know if it’s the same as the Jedi teach.”

“Give it a try anyway. When you meditate, focus on your inner peace. If you find your thoughts drifting, bring your focus back to your breathing.”

Rachel nodded and walked out to the meditation garden—if one could call it a garden. There were stones set up in an odd pattern, and mosaics carved into the ground, but there were no plants or trees.

She sat down with her legs crossed and settled her hands in her lap. Closing her eyes, she attempted to do what Master Xal had told her. She directed her thoughts inward, but she wasn’t entirely sure how she was meant to find peace inside herself. For a while, she listened to the air around her as it blew. The sound of the speeders and traffic surrounding the Temple became background noise that she tried to tune out.

She focused on her breathing. Her heart beat in her chest in a slow rhythm. It worked to pump the blood through her body, bringing the air she breathed to every part of her body.

She saw their blood. It covered the floor after Thran had killed them.

Startled, she opened her eyes and looked around. She wasn’t there. She was here at the Jedi Temple, but her heart was beating faster now, and she found it harder to concentrate, so she gave it up and walked back inside.

She decided that eating something was probably a good idea, but she wasn’t ready for the number of stares and emotions that came her way as she entered the dining hall. She grabbed what looked like fruit, but she had no clue what it was called and filled a plate with a meat looking something and something resembling purple mashed potatoes. None of it tasted like anything she had ever tasted before, but none of it tasted bad either.

As she looked up from where she sat alone at one end of the hall, she saw eyes dart away from hers and sensed the whispers. Among the many Jedi who were sitting and eating in the room, she felt isolated and small. Finishing her food as quickly as she could, she left the hall feeling a new sense of loneliness.

The location of the afternoon and evening classes were the same as the morning class, and, thankfully, she knew where that was and made it on time to both.

In the latter of the two, they were discussing, or in the others’ cases, reviewing, the Jedi Code.

“There is no emotion,” Master Xal prompted.

“There is peace,” the Younglings responded as one.

“There is no ignorance,” he prompted again.

“There is knowledge.”

“There is no passion.”

“There is serenity.”

“There is no chaos.”

“There is harmony.”

“There is no death.”

“There is the Force,” the Younglings finished.

“Very good,” Master Xal said before looking at Rachel who hadn’t been able to respond to a single prompt.

“Who can tell me why we seek peace without emotion?” he asked, addressing the group again.

“Emotions can lead down the path to the dark side,” a young Twilek girl spoke up. “We need to cast them aside otherwise they can consume us.”

Rachel felt her brow furrow. Emotions were that harmful?

“Why must we cast aside ignorance in search of knowledge?” Master Xal asked.

“Beings everywhere look to the Jedi for wisdom,” a small human boy said. “We need to be wise and discerning in all circumstances.”

That made sense, but was it really possible to know everything?

“What about passion?” Master Xal asked.

“Passion is one of the core beliefs of the darkside,” a Mon Calamari girl said. “Serenity is how we defeat that.”

“Can anyone expand upon what Senahri has said?”

“Passion is emotions to the extreme,” a young being with tentacles coming from the back of his head said. He was green and had large black eyes, and Rachel couldn’t remember what his species was called. “This goes back to the first tenant of emotions needing to be held back in search of peace.”

“Very good, Rrahn,” Master Xal said. “What about chaos and harmony?”

Rachel thought there would be something about finding balance between the two, but another young human boy spoke up.

“The galaxy is full of chaos, and it is up to the Jedi to bring harmony.”

Master Xal nodded, “And who wishes to finish?”

“When we die,” a young boy of the same species as Master Zhulung said, “we don’t really die. We become one with the Force.”

“Very good, Azo.”

Rachel listened to the other students repeat these things as though they knew them by heart, but she was hearing them for the first time, and she wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with them. But she also wasn’t brought up here. She grew up in an entirely different world and galaxy. Perhaps things were done differently here, and she would learn to follow these tenants as Master Xal taught them.

After class, she made her way to the archives in search of more information about the Code, and Master Dharja was very helpful.

She took the datacard and a datapad back with her to her room and began to study, but she soon found it difficult to concentrate.

Getting up, she walked to the turbolift and made her way down to where Ketrin had shown her where the lake was.

She settled herself on the ground against a rock with the datapad and began to read again. Here, she found it much easier to focus. Just like at home, everything just felt better when she was outside.

Chapter Text

The days turned into weeks, and her schedule was filled with much of the same routine day to day. The only variances came when they practiced lightsaber combat or piloting. On days when they would go to the training room and learn basic lightsaber forms from Master Ywin or another Jedi Knight, Rachel finally learned what droids were when they had her spar with them. Their spherical bodies floated around her, dodging her training saber, charging at her, and spitting charges of energy at her. It had hit her once, and she had no intention of being hit again. She kept her guard up and let the Force guide her saber as she blocked against the droid’s attacks.

When they would go to the hangar and learn basic piloting skills, it surprised her at first that they allowed children to pilot ships, but after watching them and learning next to them, she saw their level of maturity and how seriously they took the training. They knew more about the controls and systems, and while she did her best to keep up, part of her still felt frustrated because she still couldn’t tell the difference between the navigational computer and the engine readout display. Her head hurt after every lesson, but she was determined to master it.

Every few days, Rachel took out more datacards from the archives, trying to learn as much as she could to catch up with the Younglings. But every day, there was something new she didn’t know. A new part of history, a new responsibility, a new species, a new planet or system. There were nights she felt it would overwhelm her, but she was learning to take it one thing at a time.

The hardest part of it all were the days when Master Xal took them to the meditation garden for self-reflection. Every time, Rachel would see things from the past she wanted to forget that would jar her out of the meditation. More often, she found herself reaching out to what lay beyond the garden, and each time, Master Xal would pull her aside afterwards and tell her that the meditation was a time for self-reflection, not for pushing her senses.

The nights were no better. Nightmares still came, and though she tried to meditate and find peace, she simply couldn’t. She learned the hard way that she couldn’t go to the lake level after a certain hour because she was supposed to be sleeping. When she tried to explain why she was there, the guard asked her why she didn’t try meditating.

When Thran finally reached out to her, she was surprised.

“Are you just now getting back to the Ascendency?” she asked.

He hesitated. “I have been back for some time now. I apologize for not reaching out sooner.”

“I thought you wouldn’t,” she admitted.

“I told you I would.” When she hesitated, he continued. “I told you, I do not want to be associated with those who have hurt you in the past. You will always have my friendship, Ra’chel. I apologize that it took longer than I would have liked to obtain a new comm.”

She nodded, forgetting that he couldn’t see her.

“May I ask how your test went?” he asked.

“I passed,” she said. “They’re training me.”

“I suppose I do not need to say I told you so,” he said.

“You don’t need to mention it, no.” But she could hear the smile on his face even if she couldn’t see it.

“How is it going?” he asked.

Should she be honest? How could she lie?

“Ra’chel?”

“Honestly,” she said, “it isn’t what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“I guess I’m not sure. But this wasn’t it. I feel like I’m constantly playing catch up. Not to mention the way everyone looks at me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m older than the Younglings in my class, so they seem to resent me, and the Jedi who are my age look down on me because I’m training as a Youngling.”

“That does not seem very Jedi-like.”

She had to agree.

“Have you brought this up to the Council?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t even know how,” she said. “Do you know, I got lost my first day here? I missed a class because I couldn’t find where I was supposed to go.”

“It is a large building,” she thought she could hear him smirking.

“It isn’t funny.”

“I did not say it was.”

“I can hear you laughing from here.”

“From half a galaxy away? That is most impressive. Perhaps you can teach the other Jedi.”

She smiled, but her heart ached. She didn’t realize how much she missed his teasing. She wasn’t sure she would be able to find a friend like him here.

“What does the Ascendency have you up to?”

He hesitated. “Upon my return to Naporar, I received, again, new orders.” His voice was tight. “They pulled me from the Exploration Force while I was taking you to Coruscant. Though whether it was my father’s doing or the Syndicure’s, I do not know.”

“I’m sorry, Thran.” She knew how much the program meant to him.

“So now, I am at the homestead contemplating what is next.”

“Didn’t your father say you would be good at politics?” she offered.

“I have no interest in the games the Syndics and Aristocra play.”

She had figured as much, but she knew it was one of his strengths. And despite his physical strength, he wasn’t exactly a military man, so joining the Defense Force wouldn’t suit him. It left very little that she knew he would deem honorable as the son of a Patriarch.

“You could come work at the Jedi Temple,” she joked. “They employ civilians for certain things. I don’t know what you would do though.”

He was silent for a moment.

“I was only teasing,” she clarified.

“No, I know,” he said, his voice had become contemplative. “But you have given me an idea that I want to explore a bit more.”

She smiled. “I know how much you love to explore.”

He laughed a little. “A poor choice of words, but also perhaps accurate.”

“Do I get a hint?”

“Politics is a strength of mine, that I do not deny, but I do not wish to be a part of the Syndicure’s seclusive ways of governing.”

“What are you getting at?” But she thought she was following his thoughts.

“What if I reached out to your Republic as an ambassador to the Chiss Ascendency? Perhaps I could be the one to bring the Ascendency out of isolation. We could finally be a part of the larger galaxy around us.”

She could hear the excitement building in his voice, and she didn’t want to snuff it out, but she knew there would be pushback.

“You don’t think the Syndicure would have concerns about that? Or your father?”

“I am certain they will,” he said. “But I can make them see the logic in such an alliance.”

“If you believe you can,” she said, “I know that you will.”

“Do you think it is a good idea?”

He was asking her opinion? She knew nothing about politics and even less about the politics of this galaxy. But if it was something that Thran was passionate about, she would support him however she could.

“I know it won’t be an easy road for you,” she said, “but I think you can do it. Though I don’t think my saying otherwise would have stopped you.”

“On the contrary,” he said. “I value your input a great deal. Even your insight that there will be opposition will lead me to go forward with caution.”

“I’m glad I can be of service,” Rachel said, teasingly.

“That is not—” he paused, catching her tone. “Very funny.”

Rachel glanced over at the chrono and realized it was nearly time for midday class, which, today, was meditation.

“I have to go,” she said reluctantly.

“I understand. Do you recall how to save this transmission code?”

“I think so?”

She tried to press a couple buttons and managed to get it right.

“Now you may call me whenever you wish,” he said, but he seemed to sense her hesitation. “And I do mean whenever. Even though Coruscant and Csilla may be on different rotations, do not hesitate to reach out if you need to. You are my friend, and I am here for you.”

“That will take some getting used to,” she said.

“I understand, but that is why I am telling you.”

“Thank you.”

“We will talk again soon,” he said. “Farewell.”

“Goodbye.”

She heard the click and put the comm in her pocket. She hurried out of her room and up to the meditation garden where they were meeting, and she made it in time.

She found herself more at peace today as she meditated. Even though her mind tried to drift toward her nightmares, it was easier to refocus because she could hear Thran’s voice, and she could see the clearing in her mind. She could see the flowers as they swayed gently in the breeze under the warm glow of the sun. She could almost hear the sound of the water flowing down the stream towards the waterfall. Here, she was at peace. In her mind, she could stay there as long as she wanted, walking through the grass, touching the cold water.

But Master Xal’s voice pulled her back. She wasn’t in that clearing. She was in the Jedi Temple surrounded by the other Younglings.

As they exited the garden, Master Xal caught Rachel’s eye and stopped her.

“Something changed today,” he said. “You were able to find peace inside yourself.”

“I was.”

“May I ask what helped?”

Could she tell him? The Council had sent Thran away because they thought she was too attached to him. Was she even supposed to be talking with him?

“I remembered a place I had been before,” she opted for a partial truth. It wasn’t really a lie if she omitted part of the truth, right? “A place where I felt serenity. I was able to recall being there, and that helped me focus.”

“Hmm.” She wasn’t sure if he bought it or not. “Very well. I will see you this afternoon in the training room.”

“The training room?” she asked.

“Master Ywin returned from his mission early and is going to work with us on some lightsaber mechanics.”

She nodded and continued into the temple.

The lightsaber training was more of the same drills they had learned in the weeks prior. She could understand why learning repetitive drills was good for muscle memory, especially for the children, but her muscles and brain picked it up much faster.

What she really loved about it, though, was that it was excellent exercise.

She wasn’t allowed to spar against the children because she easily overpowered them, so Master Xal, Master Ywin, or whichever Jedi Knight led the class would have her work with the training droids.

She picked up the basics quickly enough, and she found that allowing the Force to flow through her and guide her movements came naturally—much more naturally than meditation. She could react quickly and see things coming before they came, but she found her weakness. She would become so focused on what was in front of her, that she became blind to anything that came from a different angle.

It was something she needed to work on, but she didn’t know how to do that on her own outside of classes. She didn’t know anyone, and none of the Jedi Knights seemed eager to help her.

For now, she chose to continue to work on it in class as best she could.

The following day, in morning class, Master Xal had news for them.

“Tomorrow, we will be taking a transport to the planet of Ilum,” he said, and from the gasps and excitement that grew in the other students, Rachel guessed that this was a long-expected trip.

“We’re finally going to get our lightsabers?!” Morara asked excitedly, her headtails bouncing as much as she was.

“Yes,” Master Xal said. “Calm yourselves, young ones. We are going to discuss the process of building a lightsaber.”

He pulled his lightsaber from his belt and held it out in front of them and they circled around in front of him. Rachel could sense his concentration as the lightsaber levitated from his hand and pieces of it began to come apart and twist away from each other revealing a bright blue crystal inside.

“The day after tomorrow,” Master Xal said, “you will be searching the caves of Ilum in search of your own Kyber crystals. These crystals are the beating heart of a Jedi’s lightsaber. If you listen closely, you can hear the voice of your crystal as it calls to you.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Azo said, leaning closer to the crystal.

“Of course not,” Master Xal chuckled. “This is my crystal. I can hear its voice and its heartbeat, but you won’t. When you walk through the caves of Ilum, however, you will need to be mindful of these things as you search for your crystals.”

“Will all of ours be blue?” Jyrki asked.

“That will depend on you,” Master Xal responded. “When the crystal bonds with its Jedi, it captures the essence of the Jedi’s spirit and takes on a color that matches that spirit.”

“So why are almost everyone’s lightsabers blue?” Morara asked.

“I don’t have all the answers,” Master Xal admitted. “But I speculate that many of the Jedi here share a similar vision and spirit through the Force, and the crystals sense that and take on a blue color that matches that.”

“Red is bad though right?” Rrahn asked, his eyes darting in Rachel’s direction for only a short moment, but she had caught it. “Only the Sith have red lightsabers.”

“A red lightsaber is not a natural color,” Master Xal said, and Rachel felt his apprehension. “When a Sith finds or takes a Kyber crystal, he hurts it in a way that makes the crystal bleed.”

“Crystals have blood?” Feyz asked.

“Not in the same way you and I do, no. But the pain the crystal feels causes it to turn red. A crystal will not naturally turn red.”

The other Younglings seemed filled with questions, but Rachel didn’t even know where to begin or what to ask.

When Master Xal finally told them that it was time to be dismissed, he pulled her aside.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others,” he began, “but you have not been deemed ready to join us on the pilgrimage.”

She turned to look at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “What? Why?”

“The Council believes that you have more to learn before you are ready to receive your lightsaber crystal.”

She let out a heavy sigh and let her shoulders drop. There wouldn’t be anything she could do if the Council said so.

“So what do you want me to do while you are all away?” she asked.

“What you have been doing,” he said. “Go to the archives and learn as much as you can. If you feel up to it, perhaps one of the Jedi Knights can spar with you or continue to work with the training droids. I will also talk with Master Noor about getting you more piloting practice, if you want it.”

She nodded. The piloting was one thing, but she knew that no one would want to spar with her or take the time to show her anything. Even Ketrin seemed to have disappeared.

“I’ll be giving the others time to pack and meditate tonight,” Master Xal said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Use the time however you see fit.”

She nodded again and walked off. She figured she may as well go to the Archives and see what she could take out to learn. She had learned a lot of history, the Code, basic meditation styles, and had even taken out a beginner’s guide to learning Wookie speech.

As she walked through the rows of databanks, she wasn’t sure what she should learn next.

No, she knew.

She walked around trying to find it on her own before she wound up asking Master Dharja where she could find anything on different lightsaber techniques.

Master Dharja led her down one of the rows she thought she had gone down and pulled out a section of a drawer.

“Typically, a Padawan learns these things from their Master when they have been assigned,” she said. “Is yours not teaching you?”

“I haven’t been assigned a Master,” Rachel said. “I just want to learn more so I can get better. I know why I’m struggling, and I’m hoping that learning different techniques will help me.”

The old woman seemed to study her with knowing eyes before reaching inside one of the drawers and handing her a small sphere.

“I think this one will suit you well,” she said, giving her a small wink.

Not sure what she meant, Rachel bowed and thanked her before taking the sphere to her room.

She’d only worked with a few holocrons, and they were always a little difficult to open because they took a lot of focus. Unsure how long she sat there trying to get herself to concentrate on the thing, she finally scooped it up and decided to go to the lake—no, not the lake today.

The Room of a Thousand Fountains, while similar to the lake level in its artificial recreation of a terrestrial world, was different in that its water was always moving. No matter where she stood or sat, she could always hear water trickling in a stream, a fountain bubbling, or the large waterfall in the center of the room. Most often, she was drawn to the waterfall because it reminded her both of home and of the clearing near the Mitth Homestead. She could close her eyes and picture either place in her mind’s eye whenever she needed to. Why she hadn’t thought of accessing those memories during meditation lessons before yesterday, she didn’t know.

She sat quietly for a time, focusing on the small sphere on the ground in front of her, and she felt it rise from the ground and open, and a holographic image of a Jedi projected from the holocron.

“Greetings, young Padawan,” the image said. “In this holocron, you will learn the basic mechanics and movements of form three, otherwise called Soresu.”

Rachel watched the image move from one form to the next, memorizing each step. The holocron looped, and she stood up and mimicked the movements, finding they were easy to follow and felt natural. All she needed was a training saber, and she could practice these steps and try to get better at them.

The image spoke as it led her through the movements.

“Form three is primarily used as a defensive form,” it stated. “Keeping the lightsaber close to your body keeps you from expending too much of your own energy while your opponent depletes theirs. Focus on keeping your arm movements small and tight yet allow your body to relax in the Force. Let it guide your movements and trust it. The Force is your greatest ally in any confrontation.”

She practiced the motions over and over, allowing them to become muscle memory even without a blade in her hand. Closing her eyes, she felt the Force flowing from the life surrounding her, penetrating through her, and guiding her movements. It was exhilarating.

When she finally stopped, she found that she was sweating but not entirely out of breath. She let the holocron close and put it back in her pocket. She would have to practice with a training saber, but that would mean practicing in one of the training rooms where other Jedi could see her, and she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to have this kind of holocron or be learning something this advanced.

It was a question for tomorrow. For now, she decided to get something to eat and get some sleep.

But sleep eluded her as it so often did. She tried the different meditations that the holocrons and datacards had had to offer, but nothing seemed to rid her mind of the nightmares.

When Master Xal and the rest of her clan had left, she had been told it would be a couple days before they returned, so she had to find ways to keep herself occupied during that time. She knew there was a lot she could still learn from the Archives, and she knew she could practice with the holocron. But that first day, all she could do was wonder why they didn’t believe she was ready.

Sure, she had a lot to learn, but hadn’t she proven herself? How much more did she need to learn before they deemed her ready?

She sat in her room trying to meditate with her window open, but it wasn’t going as well as she had hoped. She looked over at her bedside table where her two commlinks lay.

Thran had told her that she could call him any time. Had he really meant it? Others had said the same thing and had dismissed and ignored her when she tried. What if he was sleeping?

She looked back out the window at the city surrounding the Temple. The speeders and transports flew by at speeds that she didn’t think were safe, and yet nothing crashed or seemed to lose control. Everything had its rhythm and order.

Where did she fit in that order? There were times when all she felt was chaos.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

She had memorized the Code and tried to live by it, but it was proving difficult. Chaos existed. Like it or not, the Jedi couldn’t possibly hope to rid the entire galaxy of it, could they?

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, she stood up. Meditation was not her strong suit. More often than not, she found herself asking more questions or getting lost in her own mind.

She looked again at the comm. He usually helped calm her mind even if he didn’t have all the answers. But would he answer?

Only one way to find out.

She keyed the transmission code like Thran had shown her, sat down at the desk, and waited.

Apparently, she had also hit the key for the holoprojector because soon, Thran’s face appeared above the comm where it sat on her desk.

“Good afternoon, Ra’chel,” he said.

“It’s only mid-morning here,” she said.

His brow furrowed slightly. “Is something troubling you?”

Was she really that readable?

“You know, sometimes I wonder how you do that.”

“I am sorry,” he said. “Reading people’s expressions and gauging their emotions has always come naturally to me. It is helpful to know how to change one’s responses when you know how the other is feeling.”

“That sounds a lot like manipulation.”

“Merely in the political world,” he seemed to correct himself. “I do not and have never done this with you. I have only ever sought insight into how you are truly feeling. You are not always the most forthcoming.”

“I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“But something is troubling you.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”

She took a breath and looked away from his image for a moment thinking about where to even begin.

“Master Xal is on his way with the rest of the Younglings to Ilum to get their lightsaber crystals,” she started, “but the Council didn’t believe I was ready.”

“What parameters do they base this on?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve been learning and trying hard to catch up outside of classes by studying things from the archives, but I still feel like I’m getting nowhere.”

“Have they not seen your struggle?”

“Probably. I know Master Xal does. Meditation is what I struggle with the most. I can’t find peace within myself.”

He was quiet for a moment, and Rachel could see in his eyes that he wanted to ask something but was working towards it.

“Do the nightmares still bother you?”

“Yes,” she said. “There have been a couple times, though, where I have been able to meditate ok.”

“Do you know what causes the difference?”

“Partially. Sometimes, when I’m in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, I can picture myself back in the clearing by your homestead.”

“This room sounds fascinating. Are there really a thousand fountains?”

“I honestly don’t know. But no matter where you stand, you can hear water, and there’s plants and flowers all over. And a waterfall. It’s very peaceful.”

“I am glad there is such a place there for you,” he said. “I take it, you go there often?”

“I’ve even tried going there when I can’t sleep, but apparently that isn’t allowed.”

“I am sorry to hear that.” His eyes took on their studying look as he watched her. “You have mentioned that meditation is an area in which you struggle. Is there something in which you excel?”

He would twist this around, but she knew the answer.

“Lightsaber combat,” she said. “But I haven’t dueled against an actual person. All I’ve done is practice against training droids.”

“Hmm,” he said. “Wouldn’t dueling a living being be easier?”

She felt her forehead crease. “What do you mean?”

“A droid is a machine,” he reasoned. “It has no thoughts or emotions off of which to gauge or base your responses. A living being has intentions, intuitions, and responses of their own. Can you not sense those in a duel?”

She mentally shook her head at his logic. He had a point though, and it made complete sense.

“I guess I won’t know until someone is willing to spar with me,” she said.

“I think you ought to put it to the test,” Thran said, a small smirk touching his lips.

“If I can find someone,” she said. There still wasn’t anyone willing to duel with her.

“Are there not Jedi there who match your age who can spar with you?”

“None that are willing.”

“Hmm, that is troubling.”

Rachel found that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore though.

“Have you made any progress on your idea to unite the Ascendancy and Republic?”

“In the three days since we’ve spoken?”

“Knowing you?”

He smiled. “I have drafted a proposal for the Syndicure to discuss, but I will need to go over it a few more times before I believe it ready to present to them.”

“Have you spoken with your father about it?”

He hesitated. “I have not.”

“Why not?”

“I am still uncertain if it was his word that pulled me out of the Exploration Force, and I am not certain how he will react when I bring this to him.”

“You’ll be getting into politics. Isn’t that something he wants you to do?”

“It is, but I do not think he will appreciate how far this will take me.”

“You’d be coming to Coruscant often.” Why that hadn’t sunk in before, she didn’t know.

“Indeed,” he said. “And I am not certain he will like that.”

“All you can do is tell him and see where it goes from there,” she said. “After all, from what I could tell, you and your father both have a tendency to push boundaries.”

“I do not have the faintest idea what you are insinuating,” he said, but the smirk on his face said otherwise, and she couldn’t help smiling.

“I will tell you what,” he said. “I will speak with my father, and you will find someone with whom to practice your lightsaber skills. Is that a fair trade?”

“I suppose so.”

“Very good,” he said. “I shall check in within a few days.”

“All right.”

They signed off, and Rachel watched his image fade as the comm’s holoprojector shut off. For a few moments, she just sat at the desk resting her chin on her crossed arms and gazed out the window. She had to figure out how she was going to get someone to spar with her in order to test Thran’s theory. It seemed silly, but, logically, it made sense. Perhaps it was why they had the Younglings practice against the droids so often and only against each other every once in a while.

For now, she decided to continue practicing the new form she had learned from the holocron against the droids. If she could get better against them, maybe someone would take notice and ask to duel with her.

Chapter Text

After almost an hour of working with the training saber, Rachel felt comfortable enough with the new form that she was able to turn off the holocron and put it back into her robe pocket that hung on a hook near the saber rack. After looking up at the observation balcony again to make sure that no one was taking notice of her, she turned on a training droid and practiced the form with the droid. Thran was right about not being able to sense intentions or emotions from the machine. All she could do was trust the Force to guide her movements like she had been trained to do.

With this new form, it seemed easier. She kept her arms close to her body and moved just enough to keep the droid in front of her and block its attacks. It was also easier to watch for more attacks coming from other angles or see an opening to attack. She was just walking over to activate a second droid to further challenge that theory when she heard the door open.

Great…she wasn't alone anymore.

She turned off both training droids and started to put both them and the training saber back.

“You don’t have to leave,” a pleasant male voice said from behind her. He stood half a head taller than her, and he seemed strong even if he wasn’t all that large. His dark brown hair was short, so either he was newly made a Knight or preferred it short. He didn’t seem to be much older than her.

“I was just finishing,” Rachel stammered.

“I was watching you from the balcony for a while,” he said, coming to grab his own training saber from the wall. “Were you about to activate another droid?”

He had been watching her? For how long? Did he see her working with the holocron?

“It’s all right,” he said, giving her a lopsided smile. “You’re Rachel, right? The one that was brought here a few months ago?”

“Yes,” she muttered. She knew she had developed a reputation.

“I’m Matyus,” he said, extending a hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She felt her brow crease as she stared at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Have you been living under a rock?” she asked. “No one here thinks it’s nice to meet me.”

“I’ll admit that my Master and I have been away for a long time on a mission in the Outer Rim, but when we returned, and after I finished my trials, I didn’t think that your coming here was a bad thing. Have people really been mean?”

Rachel just turned away and hung up her training saber. Either he was really that clueless or he was being facetious and seeing how far he could go with the lie.

“Look,” he said, “I don’t care what other people have said or are saying. I would rather make my own opinion. How about a duel?”

She stared at him.

“What has your Master taught you about dueling so far?” Matyus asked as he walked past her to pick up the saber she just hung up.

“I don’t have a Master yet,” Rachel said quietly. She felt ashamed to admit it, but even right now, her clan was off retrieving their lightsaber crystals while she was here having been deemed unworthy. She’d been studying for months, learning only the basic lightsaber forms and meditation techniques. She could recite the Jedi Code in her sleep, and she knew a Jedi’s responsibilities to the galaxy.

She was ready to learn more. She was ready to move forward, but she could only learn so much from the Archives.

“They still have you training as a Youngling?” Matyus asked, his forehead creased in what looked like genuine confusion.

“I know I’m ready for more,” Rachel told him. “I don’t know why I’m being held back.”

He held out one of the training sabers.

Rachel took it, reaching out to the Force to sense his mind. Either he was truly being sincere, or he was a really good liar. “I just told you that I haven’t been taught more than the basic forms.”

“How much have you practiced with that holocron?” he asked, giving her a knowing look.

She stared at him. He had seen her. It would be pointless to lie.

“This is the first time, and I don’t think I’m supposed to be learning from the holocrons.”

“Yet you are,” he said. He didn’t seem to be accusing her or judging her. He began to twirl his training saber around. “Why not test what you’ve learned.”

Rachel glanced over at the door and above at the observation balcony. While there were some people passing by, no one seemed to be watching, thankfully, but she also hadn’t noticed him watching her. What did she have to lose though? They wouldn’t let her duel with the Younglings, so where else was she supposed to get the practice? Plus, it was a chance to test Thran’s theory.

“What are you worried about?” Matyus asked.

“What happens if they see I'm more advanced than I should be?” Rachel asked. “Won’t I get in trouble?”

“What's wrong with getting in trouble every now and again?” Matyus' smirk told her that he must have been one that toed the line as a Padawan, but he didn't start on thin ice like she was. She knew the Masters were watching her closely. If she wasn't careful, she could easily find herself on a shuttle off Coruscant to who knew where.

“C’mon,” Matyus prodded. “Just a quick spar.”

“All right,” she conceded. She had to admit that she wanted the practice. There was only so much she could learn from training droids and basic classes. And Thran had challenged her to find someone to duel with.

She lifted her saber up, keeping her hands at waist height and getting into a ready stance.

Matyus studied her stance. “Is that how they’re teaching you now?”

“I may have changed it a little,” Rachel said.

Matyus smirked and brought his own saber up in a two-hand grip behind his right ear in an almost defensive looking stance, but Rachel recognized it from one of the Knights she had watched duel. It was form five—a more aggressive form. He wasn’t going to take it easy on her at all.

Taking a deep breath in, she felt the Force surround her and let it fill her. Her muscles relaxed slightly even as she tightened her grip on the training saber. She reached out to sense Matyus’ intentions. It was so different from the droids. She could feel him probing her weaknesses. He was waiting for her to strike, but she could also sense his impulsiveness. If she waited, he would strike out of impatience.

He did.

His blade swung downward toward her head, and Rachel parried, bringing her saber up to block it. Sensing his movement to strike her side, she twisted her wrists to block his attack to her right leg. He spun around, and Rachel already had her blade up to block his strike towards her left shoulder.

As the blades remained locked, Matyus smirked at her. “Not bad.”

She didn’t respond; her mind was focused. She pushed down against his blade and swung hers around towards his left shoulder, followed by a quick swing towards his other shoulder, both of which he blocked in turn, but they made him back up a step.

“You are learning from more than just the holocron, aren’t you?” Matyus asked.

“I watch some of the Padawans and Knights spar,” Rachel said. “Learning through observation was always a skill of mine.”

“I can tell.”

He had brought his blade up the same way he had begun their previous set of exchanges, so Rachel reached out again to sense his mind.

It was the same. The same impulsiveness. The same intention.

Rachel raised her own blade as she had before, keeping her hands at waist level and waited.

As Matyus made his swing downward at her head, she dodged out of the way, spinning around to be behind him, and swinging her blade to strike at the opening left at his back.

Matyus let out a grunt as the small charge from the training saber made contact.

He spun around, and Rachel could sense both embarrassment and anger as he again lifted his saber to the same ready position.

Rachel raised her saber into her ready stance but again dodged under his blade as he attempted the same maneuver, grazing her saber across his stomach as she went. Coming up behind him with her saber raised.

Matyus whirled around, holding his stomach where she had grazed him.

“I think she has you figured out,” a deep voice from above them called down.

Rachel looked up to the observation balcony to see Master Ywin watching them, his arms tucked into the sleeves of his robe.

His face gave no indication that he was upset, but Rachel couldn’t help the heavy guilt that rose from her stomach into her chest and settled there.

“Matyus, switch forms,” Master Ywin instructed. “I know you know more than Djem So.”

Matyus nodded, but as Rachel looked at him and reached out to the Force, she could still sense his emotions swirling. He wasn’t thinking clearly which could be dangerous and yet useful.

She watched as he twirled his training saber around and got into a stance with it slightly behind him at a downward angle while his other arm was raised in front of him, but he kept moving and twirling the saber in an agitated manner.

Rachel began to get into her usual stance, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t match what she was facing.

“Go with your instincts,” she heard Master Ywin say.

She shifted her stance, taking half a step back and bringing her saber from its upright position in front of her to raising it behind her head, pointing both the blade and her free hand at Matyus just as the holocron had shown her. Again, she reached out to the Force, searching for a calmness as her body relaxed yet remained ready. She pictured all her emotions flowing down a river. They didn’t help her here. They were not useful in a duel.

Matyus was anxious to start. She could see it in his stance, in his movements, and through the Force. He was allowing his emotions to affect him. He was ready to pounce like a tightly wound spring being held back, and for a brief moment, Rachel wasn’t sure if she was ready to face such an attack.

“Begin.”

The word was barely out of Master Ywin’s mouth when Matyus leaped high into the air over Rachel’s head, flipping around and landing behind her, swinging his blade around in a flurry of blows that Rachel struggled to keep up with. The strikes came without slowing, and try as Rachel might, she could not find an opening to strike back, so she kept her focus on defense, swinging her blade around close to her body, blocking each blow as it came close to hitting her.

Again, Matyus flipped over her head, landing behind her, swinging wildly, but Rachel’s short defensive movements were able to keep him at bay even as sweat began to run down her forehead. He spun and switched hands, used both hands, seeming to use all his strength to try and disarm her, but she kept her movements close to her body just as she had learned from the holocron. If she could just keep him from striking a blow, maybe she could tire him out.

Then she saw it. An opening. His strikes were getting wider and wider, leaving him more exposed. But Rachel had never tried this before.

As his blade swung out, Rachel struck, using all her strength to bring her saber straight down on his before spinning around to strike at his exposed side.

Or at least, that was the idea.

Matyus was still stronger than her and while the strike she tried to make to his saber did knock him off balance as she had hoped, he met her as she spun around and even pushed her back a step with the Force as he hid so.

They stood facing each other for a moment breathing hard before Matyus began to pace. He had clearly not meant for the duel to last this long. Rachel watched him pace, keeping him in front of her, reaching out to the Force for strength when an idea came to her.

Just as she sensed that he was about to leap over her again, she used the Force to push out against one of his feet, causing him to trip over himself and land hard on the ground.

Rachel stood over him and put her blade over his neck. Matyus looked up at her for a moment before smirking and spinning around where he lay, kicking Rachel’s feet out from under her and springing back to his feet with his blade in his hand. He touched it to Rachel’s neck.

“That’s how you end a fight,” he said, still breathing hard.

The volt that sprang from the training blade jerked through her making her wince.

“I would call that a draw,” Master Ywin’s voice came from the balcony.

Rachel looked up and saw that other Knights and Padawans were now watching as well.

“A draw, Master?” Matyus asked, a hint of indignation in his voice.

“A Jedi does not seek to end life, Matyus,” Master Ywin said. “We seek a peaceful end to every encounter. Rachel was right to look for a surrender before outright ending the spar. Therefore, I call this a draw.”

Matyus’s face dropped. “Yes, Master.”

“Rachel,” Master Ywin said as Rachel stood up.

“Yes, Master?” she answered. Here it came. The disapproval. She was a Youngling, and Younglings were not supposed to know how to spar the way she did. He would reprimand her in front of all these Knights and Padawans for her actions.

The tension settled in her stomach making her feel sick.

But the smallest smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. “Well done,” he said.

He turned and walked away. Rachel stared at the place where he had been standing. No scolding? No warning? Had he actually praised her?

“Told you,” Matyus said, nudging her and smirking.

Rachel looked at him.

“I told you you wouldn’t get in trouble for this,” he said. “And Master Ywin actually seemed impressed with you.”

Still too stunned to speak, Rachel walked over and put her training saber back on the wall.

“I don't understand,” she said.

“Maybe he'll talk to the Council about this and about you, and—"

“And then I'll be in huge trouble,” she said. She couldn't explain why Master Ywin hadn't exploded at her. Perhaps he was going to go to the Council and get her thrown out instead of denouncing her in front of all the others.

“No,” Matyus said a little quieter. “What if they discuss your getting a Master and becoming a Padawan?”

“I’m not supposed to be this advanced. I'm not supposed to be sparring at all. They're already overly cautious with me; this will just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Matyus looked at her for a moment before asking slowly, “What’s a…camel?”

“What? Oh…sorry. It’s an animal from…my home planet. It’s just a figure of speech.”

“I’ve been to a lot of worlds, and I’ve never heard of a—what was it? Camel?”

“Nevermind. Forget about it.” She found herself wishing she’d never mentioned the stupid animal. She knew she wasn’t supposed to talk about Earth. The Jedi didn’t talk about their home planets, if any of them even knew where they were from, and she had promised herself that she wouldn't bring it up due to the Chiss’ secrecy.

“Where is your home planet?” Matyus' tone gave every indication he wanted to know more, but Rachel knew she couldn’t.

“I don't think I'm supposed to talk about it,” she said, hoping he would drop it.

He didn't.

“The Council doesn't care if we talk about our home worlds. They just don't want us to get too attached to them.”

“It’s not the Council I’m concerned about with this.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I'm sorry, that's all I’m going to say.”

“All right,” he finally said, walking over and hanging up his training saber.

“If you ever want to spar again, let me know. You're a good opponent.”

“You're presuming I don't get kicked out.”

“I don't think you will,” he said, his voice taking a more sincere tone. “You’re strong in the Force and clearly gifted at dueling. You're smart enough to study on your own and not learn solely from the Masters.” He looked directly into her eyes. “They would be stupid to kick you out.”

Rachel looked down. His honesty, while comforting, made her mildly uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to compliments from the other Jedi. She hadn’t felt any kind of welcome feelings from anyone since joining the Order. The only one who had believed in her was Thran.

“C’mon,” Matyus said. “You should join me and my friends for lunch. I think they’d like you.”

She doubted it, but she grabbed her robe and walked with him anyways.

Matyus led her to the dining hall where two other Jedi she recognized were already sitting, but she didn't know their names. Matyus introduced them as Ixenri and N’ami.

Ixenri was a human, and his skin was paler than hers, and his eyes were dark and narrow, curving up slightly at the edges. His hair was also black and slightly longer than Matyus’ hair. His face was narrow and sharply featured.

N’ami was a Twi’lek with green skin, and Rachel remembered watching her spar with other Knights. She was graceful, but her emotions had a short fuse. Her green eyes met Rachel’s briefly before they looked her up and down. At first, Rachel felt their snideness, but then a third Jedi ran into the hall behind them—a Zabrak male.

She recognized him too but only knew him as Izocha. The horns on his head seemed to make an almost perfect circle around his skull, and his eyes flashed a brilliant yellow.

“Matyus, that was some crazy dueling,” Izocha exclaimed. “Who was that?”

“Meet Rachel,” Matyus said, gesturing to her.

The other two looked between them in confusion.

“You guys missed it,” Izocha continued. “Even Master Ywin was impressed. I don't think I've ever heard him compliment someone like that before.”

“That was a compliment?” Rachel asked.

“He didn't give you anything to work on or chastise your form or anything,” he said. “That's praise all by itself.”

“You two dueled?” Ixenri asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Matyus said, laughing a little. “She pretty much kicked my butt.”

“Her?” N’ami asked in a scoffing tone.

Rachel knew what they were really asking. How could the outsider Youngling beat the Jedi Knight when she was still new to the Force? She could see it in their faces and feel it through the Force. She wasn’t really welcome here even if she could be considered their equal.

Their gazes were harsh, and she couldn’t meet them.

“Yeah,” Matyus said, and Rachel felt his hand land on her shoulder as if to prevent her from leaving, which she had just thought about doing. “I thought she could join us.”

N’ami raised her eyebrows. “You thought the Youngling should join us?”

“She doesn’t have class to attend?” Ixenri asked.

Shrugging off Matyus’s hand, Rachel left the group behind and stalked out of the hall. She couldn’t listen to it anymore. Even after proving herself, she still wasn’t good enough.

She heard an argument start behind her, but she didn’t bother to turn around or listen. There was only one place she wanted to go.

Not even aware of how she got there, she walked through the door and into the Room of a Thousand Fountains, and the sound of moving water filled her ears. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she allowed the air to fill her lungs and relax her mind.

She walked over to the middle of the room and sat down at the base of the waterfall with her back against a large rock. Closing her eyes again, she tried to meditate and let the emotions flow out of her. Being in this room had allowed her to develop her own form of meditation, and it had begun to help. She pictured a river in her mind, all the emotions around and inside her rushed around like the waters of the waterfall behind her, and she forced herself to breathe and turn that chaos into a harmonious river. There was balance. The emotions existed, but she could control them. She could let them flow away from her down the river. They were not helpful or useful.

It was still new, but she was getting better at it. It took a long time for her to get the emotions to cooperate and flow into a river, but eventually after enough breathing and concentrating, she could get there.

She soon noticed that someone else was there and was coming towards her. Opening her eyes, she saw Matyus, and her chest tightened. Given what she had just left behind in the dining hall, she couldn’t imagine what he had to say.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked him.

“I’ve seen you come here a couple times since I’ve been back,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Oddly enough, it was one of my favorite places to come when I was younger.”

“Not anymore?”

“I haven’t had the time since becoming a Padawan,” he said, his eyes drifting off to the waterfall. “My Master and I went all over the galaxy. But I’m a Knight now. Maybe I’ll have time to again.”

He looked at her again. “I’m sorry about my friends. They shouldn’t treat you that way. Your rank shouldn’t make any difference.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Does everyone feel this way?” He sat down facing her.

“Nearly everyone,” she said. “The Younglings don’t understand why I’m in their classes and are spiteful, and the Padawans and Knights are resentful because despite my being equal to them, I’m still a Youngling.”

“You showed that pretty clearly,” he said with a small chuckle. “Any idea why they haven’t let you advance?”

“My clan is currently on Ilum getting their lightsaber crystals,” Rachel felt all her frustration coming out. “Master Xal said the Council didn’t think I was ready to get mine. But he didn’t give me a reason. He only told me to continue doing what I’ve been doing.”

“That being?”

“Studying on my own and meditating.”

“Keep doing that, and I don’t think you’ll need a Master,” he said with a small chuckle. “From what I saw, you’re doing pretty good on your own.”

“Tell that to the Council.”

“Maybe Master Ywin will. He seemed really impressed with you. And Izo was right, he doesn’t give that kind of praise to just anyone.”

“I still don’t understand why he didn’t reprimand me,” she said.

“Hey,” he said, as if something had suddenly occurred to him. “What if Ywin took you as his Padawan?”

“Do the Council members even take Padawans?”

“Rarely, but it’s not unheard of,” he said. “Usually only the really promising ones.”

“Then why would he take me?”

“You really don’t think much of yourself, do you?”

Rachel turned her face away from him.

“It’s ok,” he said, his tone a bit softer. “It’s understandable given how everyone seems to be treating you. Tell you what, anytime you see me and Izo in the dining hall, you come sit with us. And anytime you want to spar, you let me know. Maybe I can get Izo to duel with you. You’d give him a run for his credits, that’s for sure.”

He offered her a smile, and she could sense his genuineness. He actually wanted to help her. Her shoulders relaxed as a small smile came to her face.

He stood. “I give it a week, and I think you’ll be a Padawan. You wait and see.”

A few days later, her fellow Younglings returned from Ilum with varying stages of completed lightsabers. All of them were excited and jabbered about the experience. A few more days, and they were all practicing with their new weapons—learning how to use them and how to be safe with them and what carrying a lightsaber meant as a Jedi.

As the weeks went by, Rachel couldn’t help giving Matyus the ‘I told you so’ look whenever she saw him because no Master approached her, and the Council never summoned her. Whatever Master Ywin had seen in her that day, he must not have deemed it worthy of her becoming a Padawan.

What it did do was give her a new drive. She wanted to learn more advanced things. She could study meditation techniques, lightsaber mechanics and forms, and the histories all she wanted and never get anywhere. She wanted to learn more—needed to learn more. She wanted a challenge just like Matyus had given her when they sparred.

Every time she went to the Archives now, she looked for ways to push her knowledge boundaries.

Chapter Text

In the following weeks, excitement began to build as the Temple buzzed with talk about the upcoming Apprentice Tournament. The more Rachel learned about it, the more she wondered if she would be allowed to participate. Each year, the Younglings could enter the Tournament in hopes of catching the eye of a Master. Usually it was the older Younglings, such as Rachel’s clanmates, but some of the younger ones who showed promise also chose to enter. Knights and Masters returned to the Temple to watch the Tournament and choose a Padawan from those who participated, and Rachel’s clanmates frequently discussed the prospect of a Master choosing them after or during the tournament and how they would see and travel the galaxy.

It wasn’t long before Master Xal pulled Rachel aside and told her what she already knew was coming. She wasn’t going to be allowed to participate in the tournament because dueling against the other Younglings would be an unfair advantage in her favor.

But Rachel saw the dilemma this presented. Masters and Knights watched the tournament in order to select a Padawan. If she wasn’t allowed to participate, how would she be given that chance?

The other Younglings brought up similar questions as the tournament approached.

“What happens if no one chooses me?” Senahri asked, her large Mon Cal eyes making her sadness more evident.

“For some of you,” Master Xal answered, “you will be allowed to try again next year and learn from the tournament. For others, it will still be the end of our journey together.”

“What do you mean?” Morara asked.

“Not every Jedi who enters the Temple is destined to be a Knight,” Master Xal said. “We have spoken of this. The Service Corps is an equally honorable path for any Jedi to follow. Some go on to be healers and some go out to more distant worlds where they lend a hand in growing food. Still others choose a scholarly path.”

“But isn’t the goal to be a Knight?” Rrahn asked.

“The goal,” Master Xal corrected, “is to be the best Jedi you can be in whichever role the Force places you.”

His words silenced the children, but Rachel could still feel their collective thoughts stirring. They were anxious even if the excitement had not diminished.

“Can you elaborate more on these other paths?” Rachel asked. She knew that if she wasn’t going to be allowed to participate, no Master would seek her out. And if no Master sought her out, she would be bound to one of these paths.

Master Xal smiled at her, and he began to go in depth about each of the ways a Jedi could go on to serve the Order even without becoming a Knight.

The Service Corps was divided into four paths: agriculture, medical, educational, and exploration, and they were always looking for those with a strong connection to the Living Force.

The Agricultural Corps assigned Jedi to different and distant worlds helping local farmers with their planting seasons and growing new plants or curing sick plants or sick land.

The Medical Corps usually saw its candidates early in life and could pick out their aptitude for healing, but it still would be possible for any of them to follow that path if the Reassignment Council saw it would be a good fit.

The Educational Corps worked with Master Dharja in the Archives and studied until they reached a level of scholarship akin to hers.

The Exploration Corps navigated and mapped out the stars, and those who were not as adept at flying usually did more on the research and archeological side.

While each of these paths sounded intriguing, Rachel couldn’t quite see herself taking them, but she also knew she wouldn’t have a choice. If no one took her to be their Padawan, she would be assigned to one of these other roles, and she would serve as the Force saw fit.

Walking among the Archives after class, she looked for something new and challenging, and she stumbled across a cube-shaped holocron.

“Healing,” she whispered the inscription.

She wasn’t sure if it would be something that the Masters would want her to learn, but they had given the Younglings the rest of the day to meditate and prepare for the upcoming tournament, and since she wouldn’t be allowed to participate, she may as well study. And if becoming a healer was a potential for her future, why not get a head start?

She picked up the holocron and went to sign it out, receiving a knowing look from Master Dharja as she exited the Archives with the holocron tucked in her pocket.

She took the holocron to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, sat down near the waterfall, and closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath and reaching to the Force, feeling it flow around her as she had been taught, and she focused her mind around the holocron.

It rose into the air in front of her and the corners rotated and separated from the main portion as she had seen other holocrons do. She opened her mind to hear what the Jedi Master would teach her.

At first, Thran didn’t think the temple guard was going to allow him into the Temple, but after going back and forth with the masked guard a few times, a dark-skinned Jedi, who Thran thought he recognized as being one of the Council members came out and asked what was wrong.

“I was hoping to see Ra’chel,” Thran explained. “Ra’chel Ba’kandi.”

The Jedi nodded slowly as though struggling to decide something.

“Follow me,” he finally said.

“Master Zev,” the guard said sharply, trying to whisper, but clearly not aware of how acute Chiss hearing was. “The Council strictly said—”

“I will deal with the Council,” the Jedi said calmly. “Thank you for your diligence. Mitth’ra’nikuru, if you’ll follow me.”

He was mildly surprised that the Jedi remembered his name after a year had passed.

“Knowing her,” the Jedi said, “she is most likely in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.”

“I have heard her mention that place before,” Thran said as they walked. “She told me it is her favorite place to meditate.”

“It shows,” the other responded. “The temple guards have usually caught her down here after everyone is supposed to be in their quarters.”

They walked in silence for a good portion of the walk to the room before Thran broke it.

“You are one of the Council members, are you not?”

“Yes,” he answered. “I’m Master Pan Zev. We’ve been watching Rachel’s progress very closely. Her training hasn’t exactly been what you would call ordinary.”

“She is not an ordinary individual,” Thran countered. From what Rachel had told him during their holocalls over the past year, the Masters were still hesitant about her despite the potential she held. Clearly, she was right about their keeping an eye on her. He had hoped that a visit would brighten her spirits.

“There she is,” Master Zev said as they entered the fountain room. “I will leave you with her.”

“The guard did not seem eager to even allow me inside,” Thran said as the other began to turn. “And yet you freely leave me alone with her. Why?”

“Let’s just say that I don’t always agree with everything the Council decides on,” he said with a small smile. “Enjoy your visit.”

Thran thanked him and walked over to where Rachel was sitting on the ground facing mostly away from him, and he took in the room as he went and could see why she loved it. She had told him that it reminded her of the clearing near the homestead on Csilla, and he could see why. The waterfall near where she sat was surrounded by plants of various colors and sizes, and no matter where he seemed to walk, he could hear water flowing, just like she had said.

In front of Rachel was a hologram, and she was listening to it. Thran stood at a distance and allowed her to finish, but he couldn’t help overhearing it.

“Another form of healing can be more dangerous depending on the degree of injury your patient has sustained,” the hologram said. “Reach inside yourself. Feel your energy as it is tied to the Force. Allow the Force to fill you. Reach into your injured patient and sense their injuries and allow your energy to flow into them. See and feel the Force bind their wounds, regenerate their health, and heal their body.”

“Be mindful,” it continued. “As the severity of the injury increases, so does the toll this technique takes on you. More than one healer should attend to a more severely injured patient. This ought not be your first defense against an injury, which is why it is not the first we have shown you.”

Thran shifted where he stood as he listened to the hologram. He wasn’t sure why she was trying to learn something that sounded so dangerous, but his movement caught Rachel’s attention because he saw her turn slightly.

The hologram disappeared, and the cube from which it had come returned to its normal state and floated down into her outstretched hand. She held it there for a moment before standing up.

When she turned around and faced him, she was smiling, but he also noted a hint of distance in her eyes.

“Thran,” she greeted him.

“Ra’chel,” he returned her smile.

“What brings you to Coruscant?”

“Am I not allowed to visit a friend?” Thran asked, adding a tone of innocence to his voice.

Rachel merely raised an eyebrow in response.

“Very well,” Thran said. “I came with a draft of my proposal for your Chancellor to be an Ambassador between the Chiss Ascendency and the Republic. While I was here, I believed it would be nice to see you.”

“The Syndicure is allowing it?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. While they are not quite ready to open our borders and open full communication with the Republic, I have gotten them to see the benefit of having someone act as a liaison to the Republic should any…hostilities arise.”

Rachel nodded, which indicated that she understood at least in part. Many of the intricacies of the Syndicure and ways of the Aristocra baffled many within the Ascendency itself, let alone to outsiders. Rachel seemed to grasp some of it, but Thran guessed that it would take a long time for her to understand it fully.

“Well,” Rachel said, clearly changing the subject. “While you are here, perhaps I—”

Her attention suddenly caught onto something else as her eyes unfocused before she turned to look behind her right shoulder. Thran looked in that direction and saw two male human Jedi about Rachel’s age staring in their direction as they walked into the room.

“What is wrong?” Thran asked.

Rachel’s head turned back to the space between them, but her eyes remained unfocused.

“Ra’chel?”

“Sometimes it’s still hard to control this…” she said softly as though not even speaking to him.

Thran took a step closer to her. “Control what?”

She finally looked at him, her eyes focusing now. “I can feel other people’s emotions so strongly. I still can’t help it or control when I do.”

She pointed in the direction of the two Jedi who had now walked out of sight. “Those two were filled with apprehension and…not really fear. Not anger. Perhaps resentment…”

“Perhaps a distraction,” Thran suggested. He wasn’t quite sure what else would help her in that moment, but he knew that dwelling on it would not do her any good.

Her eyes drifted off again, but she nodded.

He gestured toward a door, and Rachel led the way out.

They walked out into the hallway where they were met with more stares, and he could see Rachel’s tension.

“The Jedi Masters still have not shown you how to control these feelings you get from others?”

Rachel shrugged a little. “In part, I suppose they have been. But I have mainly been trying to teach myself.”

“What have they been teaching you?”

“Basic things. The Jedi Code, a Jedi’s purpose and responsibilities to the galaxy, how to meditate, basic lightsaber combat forms, piloting. Things they teach the Younglings before they are taken as Padawans.”

“Piloting?” he raised an eyebrow, remembering back to the last time she was behind the helm of a vehicle. “They trust you flying a ship?”

Her jaw tightened and her eyes flashed at him with mild annoyance.

He smirked. “What?”

She shook her head. “Driving a truck and flying a ship are completely different.”

“Even so, they do not see that you can learn more or faster than a child?”

“Evidently they don’t trust me to do so.”

Thran could understand wanting a new initiate to learn the basics before pushing them into a more advanced level of training, but Rachel had been here a year and hadn’t been taught anything beyond the basics.

“Is that why you have that cube?”

Rachel pressed her hand against her pocket. “I’ve…started to teach myself a few more advanced things. Once I have a Master, I can ask them if I’m doing them correctly, but I can’t just sit around doing nothing. I want to learn.”

Thran saw the drive in her eyes. He had seen it before when he taught her Basic and Cheunh and when she had taught herself many other things on their voyage from her galaxy. She loved to learn. Being held back had to be agonizing.

“What have you learned?”

She glanced at a group of Jedi passing by before responding. “This holocron taught me healing techniques,” she said. “The one I had before showed me some other meditation techniques. Others have taught me different lightsaber forms.”

“These sound fascinating,” Thran said. “Do the Masters know you are learning these?”

Rachel looked down at the floor as though studying the carpet as they walked. “I’m not sure to what extent they know. Master Xal wanted me to catch up and told me to learn what I could. I know Master Dharja knows what I’m taking and returning to the Archives. She doesn’t seem to mind, but I don’t know if she tells the Masters or not.”

“You think they will be upset?”

“I don’t know.”

He could see she didn’t want to talk about it further, so he opted to change the subject.

“Have you gotten to see much of Coruscant?” he asked her.

“Only from the windows,” she answered.

“You have not ventured out?”

“For one,” she said in an almost exasperated tone, waving a hand toward a window, “I’m not allowed to, apparently. And second, I don’t even know what’s out there, so I know I’d get lost.”

“You are not allowed outside the Temple?”

“Apparently not.”

“Is that merely by yourself or unaccompanied?”

She seemed to think about that for a moment. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Well, how about I accompany you, and we can explore for a while and perhaps get something to eat if you would like.”

At first, she smiled, but it quickly faded as her forehead tensed with worry. “I don’t know if it’s ok or not.”

“I guess we will find out,” he said. “I will take the blame if it is not allowed. It is my idea.”

He gave her a reassuring smile and saw her relax.

“All right,” she said.

They walked to the entrance of the Temple without anyone stopping them. Even the guards on duty at the doors didn’t stop them as they exited.

“I suppose we have our answer,” Thran said as they descended the Temple’s stairs into the city below.

“Perhaps,” Rachel said. “I take it you know a place to eat?”

“I am sure we can find one,” Thran said.

“You don’t know?”

“As you can imagine, I do not venture into the Core Worlds very often. So my familiarity with Coruscant’s dining venues is rather limited.”

“So we’re going to pick one and hope for the best?”

“There is the explorer’s spirit,” Thran said with a sly smile.

Rachel shook her head, but she smiled.

As they walked, Thran noticed she became more relaxed the further away from the Temple they got, yet her head constantly turned in different directions as she saw new beings or encountered something she hadn’t seen before, which, given that she hadn’t explored since coming to this galaxy, was a great many things.

“Perhaps we should find an establishment that has a window seat so you can observe more of Coruscant’s life,” Thran suggested.

Rachel glanced at him, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Sorry,” she started to say.

“There is nothing to feel ashamed about,” Thran told her. “There is a lot you can learn by observing the beings here on Coruscant. This is the capital of the Republic, and thus many beings from all over the galaxy come here. You will likely encounter as many beings on this one planet as you will in all your travels once you begin to travel on your own.”

“You mean, ‘if’,” Rachel said.

“I mean when. I know that you will be a Jedi Knight, Ra’chel. And I know that once you are, you will travel to a great many worlds and help a great many people as the Jedi are famed to do.”

Rachel’s expression told him that she did not believe him. She was no longer looking around at the world around her or taking in the innumerable new things surrounding her. Her thoughts were directed inward where he could not read them.

“It feels like they don’t trust me,” she finally voiced her thoughts.

He could see the logic on both sides. On the one hand, Rachel saw their limits, their barriers, and a lack of forward progress. On the other hand, Rachel was from another galaxy, still somewhat new here, still learning, and was pushing what limits she had.

“I believe trust will be needed on both sides,” he said.

“You think I don’t trust them?” Rachel looked at him as they walked.

“You took a holocron from the Archives and study on your own without their guidance.”

She looked down again, clearly thinking.

“I also know,” Thran continued, “that they ought to be taking your age and special circumstance into account. I would have thought they would be testing you more regularly to see how your skills are faring. So that is why I say that there is trust needed on both sides.”

“I don’t believe they think I am ready to be a Padawan.”

“What makes you believe that?”

“They would have had me tested for it already, or a Master would have wanted me as an apprentice. But no one will accept me.”

“You think too little of yourself.”

She looked down as her jaw tensed, and he knew how true it was. She didn’t believe in herself. The Jedi Council’s initial reluctance to take her in didn’t help, but now they were having her go through the day-to-day learnings of a Youngling. She was the age of a Jedi Knight and was quicker to learn things than a child. Surely the Council or Masters could see that. Yet they held her back.

“They haven’t even let me get my lightsaber crystal yet,” she said. “The other Younglings in my clan all have, but the Council said that I’m not ready.”

“What parameters do they use to determine that?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But I would like to know because if an eleven-year-old can be trusted with a lightsaber, why shouldn’t I?”

Again, her logic was sound, and Thran couldn’t determine why the Council held her back.

“I cannot say I have an answer for you,” he said. “But along that line of thought, I do have something for you.”

She looked at him with confusion in her eyes.

He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the small piece of nyix his brother had found and brought back to the homestead for him. It had been too small for the war council to notice its absence, so Thoorlyk had decided to give the shard to him. And Thran decided that Rachel should have it.

“Here,” he said, holding it out to her.

She picked it up carefully and studied it.

“What is it?”

“It is called nyix,” he explained. “A rather scarce mineral found in the Unknown Regions; we use it as armor for our war vessels due to its great strength and durability, yet it is not so heavy as to slow down the ship.”

“And you’re able to just give this away?” She looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

“This shard, my brother found, and it was too small to be noticed or missed, and he knows how much I love such things, so he brought it back to the homestead for me.”

“And he’s ok with your giving it to me?”

“I do not think he will mind if I give it to a friend.” He offered her a small smile.

She stared down at the shard in her hand, and her brow creased.

“What does this have to do with my getting a lightsaber?” she asked, looking back up at him.

“I thought that it could be forged to coat the hilt of your lightsaber, making it stronger, nigh unbreakable.”

Her eyes drifted off slightly as a small smile came to her face, her hand closing around the nyix.

“Thank you, Thran.”

“You are most welcome.”

Thran looked up and noticed a Café that looked promising and directed Rachel toward it hoping that there was a window seat open. The number of patrons inside showed promise that it was a good place to come, but he felt Rachel tense next to him as they entered, and he then realized that it was perhaps too crowded.

“Are you all right?” he asked her quietly, yet still loud enough to be heard over the din of the restaurant.

“I think I will be,” she said. Even her voice was tense.

“If this is too much, we can find a quieter establishment.”

The last thing Thran wanted was for her to not enjoy this because her senses were overloaded.

She was clearly thinking about it when a server droid rolled up to them.

“Can I get you anything?” it asked in a loud metallic voice that somehow managed to sound exhausted.

“A moment, please,” Thran told it.

“Take your time,” it said and rolled away to a table where a couple of Rodians were sitting.

Rachel had relaxed a little bit next to him, yet her eyes were unfocused.

“Ra’chel?”

“I think I will be ok,” she said, her eyes still not focused on anything in particular, and her breathing had slowed. Was she meditating?

“Only if you are certain.”

She looked at him, her eyes finally focusing. “I am.”

Thran nodded and gestured to an open table. It wasn’t next to the window, but it was near enough that they could see to the road outside.

There was a great deal of foot traffic, and Rachel watched each being as they passed by.

The server droid rolled up again. “Can I get you anything?”

Thran had been so focused on Rachel that he hadn't even looked at the menu. He almost asked what it recommended before remembering that droids don't eat, so its opinion wouldn't be very helpful, and Rachel likely didn't know enough about this galaxy’s food options yet to know what she would like.

“I think we will need a few moments more, if that is all right,” he told the droid.

“Take your time,” the droid repeated and rolled away. Clearly it didn't have an opinion on wait times either. Probably one of the positive sides of having mechanical servers.

“Perhaps we should look at the menu,” Thran said, pushing the table’s datapad towards Rachel.

She looked it over twice before looking up at him with a look of confusion.

“I have no idea what any of this is,” she admitted.

He chuckled. “Shall I order you something?”

A crooked smile touched her lips. “Please?”

“Very well.”

He could tell that the jesting had helped her to relax more, and he looked over the menu himself now. He wasn't overly familiar with any of the dishes, but a few of the entrées had items with which he had some familiarity. But what Rachel was familiar with was a completely different story.

When they had been en route to and from Csilla, she hadn't voiced any objection to the food offered to her, but he also knew she wasn't the type of person who would object to something if she thought it would even minorly inconvenience someone else. He wasn't sure how she had taken to the food offered at the Jedi Temple or what was even offered there.

He looked up at her. She was again watching the beings outside as they passed by. There was something in her eyes as he watched her. They would focus on a being or on something that he couldn’t see, and then they would unfocus. It was intriguing, and Thran was about to ask her what she was focusing on when the server droid came back.

“Can I get you anything?” its metallic voice asked.

“Two orders of protato namba patties, please,” Thran said, glancing back at the menu for reference. “Water will suffice for drinks.”

“Right away,” the droid said, rolling away.

Turning back to Rachel, Thran saw that she didn't seem to have noticed that their orders had been taken. He wasn't sure if he ought to break her concentration, but he also wasn't certain what it was she was concentrating on.

With a small jerk, her eyes unfocused as she turned back towards the table between them. It was a few seconds before she lifted her eyes up to meet his.

“Is everything all right?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “There are so many different kinds of beings out here. So many different minds and emotions. Every single one is different.”

“It is not overwhelming you, is it?”

She shook her head. “I think I can control it. At first it was a lot. There are so many more beings out here than there are in the temple. But I think I've got control now.”

Thran remembered back to when they had first left Earth and Rachel had touched the Force for the first time. She had felt something similar to what she must have been feeling now. All the emotions and minds and intentions of the people on Earth all at once had greatly overwhelmed her back then. Now, however, she had experience, at least on a small scale inside the Jedi Temple. She was now getting a bigger test of that control. Comparing her reaction a year ago to what he saw now, he saw almost two completely different people. Rachel was learning a lot despite what she may believe.

But how much was she being taught? If what she had told him was true, everything that she had accomplished was all from her own study and self-training, which Thran would believe her capable of after watching her teach herself so much during the journey from her galaxy to Coruscant. Her intelligence and willpower were strong, even to the point of choosing not to sleep.

“You are certainly learning a great deal,” he said. “I am very impressed.”

She looked down at the table.

“I hope I’m learning it correctly,” she said quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“When I am in classes with Master Xal and other Younglings, we are taught a little bit about using meditation to filter out noise when the world around us feels chaotic. But it doesn’t stop the emotions and thoughts of others from coming. Like right now, everything came on very fast and all at once. I cannot stop everything and meditate the way I was shown. I have to find something faster so that I’m not overwhelmed.”

He nodded, but he wasn’t entirely certain he understood it all. He also knew, though, that he didn’t feel the world around him the way she did. Sensing the emotions, thoughts, and intentions of every being around her had to be overwhelming. Especially given the number of beings there were in this café and walking by it.

“I came up with my own technique while I was meditating in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. I try to look at all the sensations and feelings and thoughts as a river. If something is not useful, I have to let it flow away.”

“Interesting,” he said. “And this is not something that the Masters have taught you?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “We are taught to let go of emotions. A Jedi is not supposed to feel emotion, only peace. But that does not stop the emotions from coming in. I’m trying to find a way to ask Master Xal about it.”

“You are not allowed to feel any emotion?” Thran asked. He had heard that the Jedi Code was strict, but to not allow beings to feel natural emotions seemed a bit harsh.

“We are taught ‘there is no emotion, there is peace, which many, I believe, translate to we should not feel anything, and emotions are bad.”

“You believe differently?”

“Emotions come no matter how disciplined you may be,” she said, her voice taking on a more impassioned tone. “I think it matters more what we do with those emotions. If we act on them or with them, that leads to impulsiveness and irrationality, which can, in turn, lead to worse decisions down the line.”

Thran watched her face as he followed her line of thinking. She had given this a great deal of thought, and her eyes held a fire in them that dared anyone to challenge her.

“But,” she continued, raising a finger as if to drive the point home, “if we feel strong emotions and allow them to flow out of us without acting on them, there we will find and act in peace.”

“That makes a great deal of sense,” he said. “Have you brought this up to your Master?”

Her jaw tightened for a moment, and Thran realized his error.

“I mean, the Master who primarily leads your instructions with the other Younglings. Master Xal, I believe you said?”

“I’m not sure if he would listen,” Rachel said, her voice neutral. “I don’t know to whom I should bring this.”

He nodded. He wasn’t entirely certain himself how something like this would be brought up. The Chiss, too, had a philosophy on emotions. They didn’t believe them to be as bad as the Jedi seemed to think; however, they needed to be kept in check. One should not lose control of one’s emotions, especially in public. Emotions were just not deemed useful and were thus not encouraged. Something with which he often struggled. He knew how to keep a calm exterior, but underneath, his emotions often vied over one another to the point where he was not always sure he would be able to control them.

He knew Rachel had seen that part of him once, and he did not want her to see it again. When his anger had overtaken him on Earth, he had killed every Earthling in his path, and he had seen the fear in her eyes. He could not lose control like that again.

Yet she had seen past his walls and exterior emotions. Even if she hadn’t meant to, she could see right through to his heart. She had told him that she would not do so again, but he wondered if she still did.

The serving droid came back, balancing a tray over its head.

“Two orders of protato namba patties and two waters,” it said. “Can I get you anything else?”

“I think we will be all right,” Thran said.

“Enjoy,” it said before zooming off to greet a group of Ithorians that just entered the café.

“This looks…interesting,” Rachel said, looking at the plate in front of her.

Thran couldn’t help the smirk that came to his face.

“I think you will find it edible,” he teased.

She shot him a look but didn’t say anything as she picked up her fork to test it.

“You said you brought a proposal for the Chancellor?” She asked after tasting a few bites of the food.

“I did,” he said. “As I mentioned, and as you predicted, the Syndicure was not overly fond of the idea of reaching out. But I raised the point that a potential alliance would guarantee the safety of the Ascendency should any hostility break out within the Republic. The more allies we have, the greater our chance of survival.”

“They didn’t fight back regarding their long survival due to their isolation?”

“Of course they did,” he said, impressed at her insight. “However, due to our explorations, we have discovered how close the Republic has come to discovering us on its own, and I believe that reaching out in friendly terms will lessen the chances of any aggression from the Republic towards the Ascendency.”

“And finding allies along the way?” She raised an eyebrow.

“That would merely be an added bonus, as I see it.”

“You think the Syndicure would agree?”

“Not likely, but I believe allies are better than adversaries.”

“True.” Her face was contemplative, and he was surprised at how invested she seemed to be in this. “Would you be the one to reach out to potential allies?”

“I have come to believe that it will be better to allow others to reach out to us,” he said. “One who is constantly looking for help appears weak. And that is one thing the Ascendency is not.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “But how will others know that the Ascendency is willing to accept alliances?”

“At first, I do not suppose they will. But over time, I believe they will ask, and then word will spread.”

She nodded slowly.

“You have doubts?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “I just wonder how open the Syndicure will be if allies ask for help or want to do trade. Alliances are usually two-way streets.”

Despite her unfamiliarity with Chiss politics, she had a good grasp on the gist of how the Syndicure thought and acted, and she likely knew more than she realized.

“That will be a bridge to cross when it is reached,” he said. “I do not expect systems to reach out for quite some time though.”

“Do you have any kind of plan in place for when they do reach out?”

“Some. I know the Syndicure will want to be involved in a case-by-case basis. They will not want everything completely laid out for each outsider immediately upon meeting them.”

She looked down at the table, but not before Thran saw her walls go up.

“What is it?”

“I’m an outsider,” she said softly. “Should you be discussing this with me?”

He paused. She was right. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be discussing the inner workings of Ascendency politics with her, but he found that he didn’t really care.

“You are my friend, Ra’chel,” he said flatly. “Each time we discuss these things, you offer an insight that, perhaps I may have known, but chose to ignore, or you present an angle I missed entirely. Your help and support have been invaluable, and regardless of what any Aristocra says, I shall enjoy future discussions of this sort.”

 She smirked. “Careful, they might not let you go through with this if you talk like that.”

“Let them try and stop me.”

They ate for a few minutes in silence, and he could see in Rachel’s eyes that she was thinking.

“When are you expected?” she asked.

“Tomorrow. I have been given a place to stay, and after the proposal is accepted, I shall return to the Ascendency.”

She nodded. “Any idea how long it may take?”

“I have limited knowledge of the Senate’s inner workings, but I am hoping it will not take more than a couple days.”

She nodded and looked down at her food again, but he thought he saw a hint of sadness pass through her eyes before her walls went back up, but it was enough for him to know how she felt. While she talked about another Jedi named Matyus who was helping her, she hadn’t formed any other friendships or bonds with anyone. But then, given how the Jedi seemed to view emotions, he wondered if friendship was something they encouraged.

“If the Chancellor accepts my proposal,” he said, “I will likely be on Coruscant more often.”

While her eyes softened, her walls remained up and she didn’t look at him. She was uncertain, but something else was bothering her that he couldn’t read.

“What is it, Ra’chel?”

“I’ve just,” she said slowly, “missed you.”

She still wasn’t looking at him, so he knew she wasn’t telling him the whole truth, but knowing her, she wouldn’t tell him the whole truth until she was ready.

“When the Chancellor accepts my proposal, and I am on Coruscant, I shall make an effort to see you as often as the Jedi will allow it.”

She looked up. “I’d like that.”

While she had given the faintest of smiles, Thran watched her eyes and saw that she was lying, not about seeing him, but about something. Something was happening that she feared, but he knew she wouldn’t talk about it unless she wanted to.

They finished their meal, and Thran walked her back to the Temple. She seemed to avoid any further conversation regarding her training which concerned him, but he continued to try and probe with little success.

The closer they came to the Temple, the more sorrow he noted in her eyes, and when he left her off at the entrance, he found himself wishing he could have done more to make her smile.

Chapter Text

The following day was the first day of the Apprentice Tournament, and while Rachel knew she couldn’t participate, she was still required to attend.

Matyus found her and sat next to her as they watched Morara and Senahri face each other.

“I tried to ask Master Xal and Master Ywin if Izo or I could spar with you so that maybe a Master or Knight could see your skills, but they said no.”

“It’s ok,” she said. She had resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t going to get a Master and would be assigned to the Service Corps. The only question was which path they would put her on.

She hadn’t told Thran the day before because she was too ashamed. He had believed in her and believed from the moment she had touched the Force that she would be a Jedi Kinght, and he had encouraged and pushed her the whole way. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she would likely wind up on a backwater planet growing vegetables.

“It’s not ok,” Matyus said, trying to keep his voice to a whisper, but it was rising with indignation. “You don’t deserve to be cast aside. You deserve a chance to be seen.”

“They all know me,” she countered sharply. “They know my reputation. It’s circulated the Temple over and over again for the past year. If someone wanted to take me as an Apprentice, they would have, but no one’s going to. No one wants someone like me as their Padawan.”

She turned back to the duel and saw that Senahri had won, which didn’t surprise her. She was agile and strong, a good combination while fighting. Yet she also knew how intelligent Morara was. Looking up to the observation balcony where other Jedi were watching the duel, she wondered how much that would be taken into account.

“Believe what you want,” Matyus said, standing up. “I still think you’re meant to be a Knight.”

He walked away to sit with Izo on the far side of the room, and Rachel found she couldn’t concentrate on the duels taking place. Matyus had stirred up all kinds of emotions she had forced herself to bury. She knew it was unfair, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t up to her.

She closed her eyes, pictured the river in her mind, took a deep breath, and let the emotions flow away. They were not helpful or useful.

She felt someone sit next to her, and for a moment she thought Matyus had come back to make a further point, but she turned and saw Master Ywin’s studious face watching the Younglings sparring in front of them.

“Tell me what you observe,” he said quietly, not looking at her.

He was asking her opinion on the duel?

She turned and watched the two Younglings who had now taken the floor. She knew Rrahn from her clan, but she didn’t know his opponent except that she was two years younger. While it was unusual for a ten-year-old to be participating, it wasn’t unheard of if they showed real promise, and given the number of Knights that were paying closer attention to the match, she wondered about the younger girl. They had been instructed to fight with blindfolds on in order to test their awareness of each other and the Force. While both were hesitant, both wanted to please those around them. At first, neither one seemed willing to trust the Force outright.

“They’re relying on their own instincts instead of trusting the Force to guide them,” Rachel answered, keeping her own voice low.

“Good,” Master Ywin said. “Very perceptive. Would you reprimand them or let it play out?”

As she continued to watch them, a memory came to her, and she recalled back to when the oldest of her nieces was about three years old and had climbed a bit higher into a pine tree than she ought to have. Rachel’s first instinct had been to go over and grab her and place her feet back on solid ground. But when she saw the joy in her niece’s face when she was able to safely navigate her way down the tree’s branches and find safety all on her own, she knew she had made the right decision in letting her find her own way while standing by and being there to catch her if she needed it.

“Let them be for now,” Rachel said. “If they fall, we’re here to catch them.”

“A wise answer,” Master Ywin looked at her briefly. “And yet, not always so simple or easy.”

There was something in his eyes that bothered her, but she turned back to the two duelists, noting that Rrahn’s frustration was rising as his strikes continued to hit only air. If he didn’t control his feelings, he would continue to act out of that frustration and his impulsiveness would lead to his defeat. While innocent enough in a duel with training sabers, it could spell his death out in the larger galaxy.

She looked at Master Ywin wondering if he felt it as well. The tension around his narrowed eyes told her he did. But it wasn’t until Rrahn made a series of slashes and strikes in outright anger that Master Ywin spoke up.

“Calm yourself, young one,” he said. “You are creating a second adversary for yourself.”

She watched as Rrahn stopped and tried to take a few breaths, but he was still frustrated even if his anger was in better check.

The other Youngling seemed to heed Master Ywin’s words because she paused, and Rachel felt her draw on the Force and lean into it.

The match didn’t last long after that. Rrahn’s composure again failed, and the other simply dodged and blocked until he tired enough for her to strike back.

When Rrahn took off his blindfold and turned to bow to Master Ywin, his eyes landed on Rachel, and she could sense his anger bubble up again.

After the day’s duels were completed and the onlookers had begun to disperse, Master Ywin turned to Rachel.

“I believe there was someone who wanted to spar with you?”

She started. “But I thought you didn’t want me to.”

“As part of the tournament, Knights are not allowed to participate,” he explained. “I therefore told Matyus that he and Izocha could not aid you in this way. But, now that the tournament is over for the day, I do not see why you cannot spar here.” He looked up at the observation balcony. “And if you hope to catch anyone’s eye, I would begin soon.”

He turned and went back to his seat.

Rachel caught Matyus’s eye as he was about to leave, and he stopped. After explaining what Master Ywin said, he agreed to a quick duel.

“But I’m not going easy on you,” he added.

“I would hope not,” she said, hanging up her robe and grabbing a training saber from the wall.

“Want to make it more challenging?” Matyus asked.

“How?”

He tossed her a blindfold.

She had practiced enough times with the training droids while blindfolded. And she had already proven to herself that reading another person’s intentions was easier than going up against a droid.

She quickly tied the cloth around her eyes and got into her usual ready stance, holding her saber in a two-handed grip in front of her at waist height. Taking a breath, she reached out to find Matyus’s mind. He was calm today, but always underneath was his impulsive nature. It was probably why he gravitated towards form five. He was an aggressive fighter.

The Force surrounded her, and she felt herself relax into it, allowing it to control and guide her. She could see his movements without seeing him.

Her blade caught his above her head as he jumped forward to attack, and his quick flurry of blows back and forth to each side were predictable and easily blocked even if the strength behind them made her back up. She felt him jump over her, and she spun around to face him. Was he really about to try this again?

He was. She dodged under his blade as he swung it down, and as she spun behind him, she grazed his back with her saber and heard his grunt.

His frustration rose like burning embers in the Force, and Rachel fell into the defensive position of form three.

But something else had changed. She felt the air around her move.

Taking another breath, she reached out to find what it was, but there was no life sign to find.

No life sign. Master Ywin had activated a training droid.

“Ah,” she heard Matyus’s reaction as the droid must have landed a shot on him.

“Focus, Matyus,” she heard Master Ywin’s voice.

Apprehension rose into Rachel’s chest. She had never dueled with someone while also facing a training droid, but she had to push it aside. Her emotions would not help her right now. They would only get in her way.

She repositioned herself into form three’s defensive pose, still facing Matyus, but she reached out to the Force looking for attacks that might come from other angles. Something she had often struggled with in classes. But if she relaxed, if she could allow the Force to guide her, she would be ok.

Like a warning alarm, she felt something coming at her from the left and turned her blade to block it, and Matyus took advantage of the distraction to mount his own attack.

She rolled under his blade, coming up behind him in her ready stance, which was good because she felt his saber bearing down on her again and again from the left and right. She stuck with small defensive movements as form three had taught her. She knew she could wear him down and wait to strike.

“Ah!” Matyus gasped again as the training droid targeted him again, and Rachel took advantage of his momentarily stunned state to knock the saber from his hand with a power strike and held her blade close to his neck.

“I yield,” she heard him pant.

She took her blindfold off and looked at his reddened face.

“Good duel,” he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead off with his blindfold.

“Indeed,” Master Ywin said, standing up from his seat. “Matyus, you would do well to keep your frustrations in better check. They blind you to what is not right in front of you.”

“Yes, Master,” Matyus said, bowing.

“Rachel,” Master Ywin turned to her. “Do not allow changing conditions to affect you even for a moment. Acknowledge them, embrace them, and move forward.”

“Yes, Master,” she bowed. Was her hesitation that noticeable?

He turned and left, and Rachel was still puzzling over his words when Matyus shook her out of it.

“Hey, did you notice how many Jedi stuck around to watch?”

With a sudden tightness in her chest, Rachel looked up at the observation balcony and saw the number of Jedi standing there. Some were still watching them while others were talking between themselves and still others were now turning to leave. Masters Zev, Sahga, and Xal all stood together and were now talking.

“I think they like you.”

“Or they’re wondering how a Youngling could be as advanced as I am.”

“Oh, knock it off,” he said as he hung up his saber and grabbed his robe. “You’re good. Admit it. Just because some Jedi can’t get over themselves about it doesn’t mean you should feel less about yourself.”

She hung up her own saber and put her robe back on.

“C’mon,” Matyus said. “Let’s go get something to eat. I’m sure Izo will have something to say about it.”

While there were no clear winners or losers in the Apprentice Tournament, it was clear who the best duelists were.

Once it was over and classes resumed as usual, Rachel realized that her clan was down to her, Rrahn, and Azo.

“Where is everyone?” Azo asked Master Xal. But Rachel knew the answer even before Master Xal answered.

“The Apprentice Tournament is a good means for Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters to find and select Padawans. Your clanmates have been given that honor and are now in the process of becoming better acquainted with their Masters.”

“So, what about us?” Rrahn asked, clearly disappointed.

“That will depend on you,” Master Xal said. You are both still young and can compete in the tournament again next year. In that time, you can learn and grow in the Force, and in time, perhaps a Master will seek you out.”

“What about Rachel?” Azo asked. “She wasn’t allowed to compete. How is she going to get a Master?”

Master Xal clearly had no answer, so Rachel gave her own. “If it’s the Force’s will that I go into the Service Corps, who am I to argue with it?”

Azo’s face turned contemplative. He had clearly never thought of doing anything other than being a Knight. But he was still a child, and such decisions were difficult when you had your heart set on one thing your whole life.

“So, it’ll just be the three of us now?” Rrahn asked.

“From now on,” Master Xal said, “we will be combining with another clan. They are younger than you, but I do not see that as a hinderance. I believe there is a great deal you can learn from each other. We will meet with them this afternoon.”

They didn’t discuss very much other than what they could work on and what they had learned from the tournament, and they both had very insightful answers. Rachel, of course, had no comments of her own since she had not been allowed to participate, but after they had been dismissed, Master Xal pulled her aside and waited until the other two were out of earshot.

“Later today,” he began, “the Council of Reassignment is meeting regarding the assignment of a number of Younglings who are now too old to remain Younglings. We decided that your future would also be determined when we meet. I thought you would like to know.”

“Thank you,” she answered, her mind suddenly whirling.

Master Xal inclined his head and in silence they walked down the hall and parted ways at the turbolift. Rachel was on her way to return the holocron she had checked out on healing and was going to search for something new, but if her whole future was about to be decided, should she?

If someone had chosen to take her as a Padawan, wouldn’t she be meeting with them right now like her clanmates? So she would either be going on to learn to be a healer or be sent off to some new planet and be a farmer. Unless Master Dharja wanted her to stay in the Archives and learn from her.

At least she knew how to grow plants and vegetables. It was a part of her family’s survival on Earth. If you didn’t grow your food or grow enough food, you starved.

Had she really travelled across the stars and between galaxies just to be a farmer?

While the Reassignment Chamber was similar to the Council Chamber, it was slightly different, and there were some Jedi Masters that Rachel didn’t recognize. But Masters Zhulung, Ywin, Zev, Sahga, Dharja, and Brozada were all familiar faces. She looked between a couple of them, but her gaze landed on Master Zev who looked almost apprehensive as he leaned forward in his chair, resting his chin on his folded hands.

“Welcome, Rachel Bakandi,” Master Zhulung greeted her. “The Council of Reassignment has come to a decision regarding your future among the Jedi.”

His pause didn’t make Rachel feel any more comfortable about where she believed she was going to wind up.

“After much discussion and much debate.” He glanced between Masters Zev and Ywin. “It has been decided that Master Ywin will take you as his Apprentice.”

It took a good moment for his words to sink in, and then Rachel looked at Master Ywin who was studying her with those dark blue eyes. They reminded her of a deep ocean whose depths hadn’t been studied.

“Thank you,” she finally managed to say as she bowed to her new Master. “I won’t let you down.”

“Oh, you most certainly will,” Master Ywin said matter-of-factly. “But it will be such moments where you will learn the most.”

She blinked in amazement at his blunt words. She supposed it was obvious that she would fail along the way, such was life, but to point it out in front of so many other people…

“Yes, Master,” was all she could think to say.

As she walked out of the chamber, the surrealness of it all washed over her. She hadn’t been cast aside. She had been chosen by one of the Masters—by the Battlemaster of the Council—to be his Apprentice. She was going to be a Jedi Knight after all.

Chapter Text

“I sense you have many questions,” Master Ywin said as they walked into the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He had asked Rachel where they should talk, and this was the first place she had thought of.

“I do,” she answered, but she couldn’t figure out which one to ask first. Her questions and thoughts vied over each other in her mind, each playing off the other begging to be answered. She took a breath, drawing a calmness from the life surrounding her.

“Did you know you were going to choose me when you had Matyus and me duel?” she finally asked.

“I had been considering it for some time,” he answered, motioning to a bench for them to sit. “The first time I saw the two of you duel, I realized that you were far stronger than the Council previously believed.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, sitting next to him.

“We were watching your progress very carefully,” he said. “Master Xal informed us that you would be learning from the Archives in an attempt to catch up with the others, but I guess he never said what you could or could not learn, did he?”

“He didn’t.”

“What else have you taught yourself besides Soresu? Be honest.”

His eyes bore into her in a way that made it impossible to contemplate lying.

“I taught myself a lot,” she began. “There were some other forms of mediation that I learned. I tried to teach myself the Wookie language, but I didn’t get very far. Some of the history of the Jedi, and I learned about healing.”

“Healing?” He cut her off. “That is fairly advanced.”

“I haven’t tried it,” she admitted. “I just learned from a holocron. I thought I might be assigned to the Service Corps so I might as well get a head start on some things. I don’t know if I would be good at it or not.”

“Typically, if one has a gift for healing, it is seen early on, and they would be taken in by the Medical Corps or another Master who is a gifted healer. This is not the case with you. You have only been here a year, and know very little, and you are still learning your strengths.”

“From what I have seen,” he continued, “you are a gifted duelist. You see your opponent’s weakness and you exploit it with little hesitation. You have an uncommonly strong aptitude for reading into the hearts and minds of those around you. And based on your frequent visits here and to the lake level, you feel the Force most closely when you are surrounded by life.”

That just about summed her up.

“You also have a tendency to push your boundaries,” he said with a slight edge to his voice, but he raised an eyebrow slightly. Was he upset about it, or did he admire the trait?

“I do not mind your learning more advanced techniques or abilities, but I would prefer, from now on, that you run them by me. As well as any trips outside the Temple.”

He knew.

But if the Council knew, why hadn’t they reprimanded her? Younglings were not supposed to leave the Temple like she had. And they must have known that she was still in contact with Thran. Master Ywin didn’t seem overly upset about it but was making a point to make sure she knew that he knew about it.

“Yes, Master,” she said.

“You have other questions?”

“Why wasn’t I allowed to get my lightsaber crystal with my clan?”

“The Council was split on that,” he said. “Some felt you were not ready and needed to learn more, while others believed that if the other Younglings could handle the responsibility, you should be able to as well. We therefore decided to make it into a small test.”

“A test?”

“We wanted to gauge your temperament,” he said. “A test which you passed brilliantly.”

They had wanted to see if being left behind would lead to an outburst? Was that it?

There is no emotion, there is peace.

They were always testing her.

“So, then, when will I be allowed to get my lightsaber crystal?” She wondered out loud.

“I will start making arrangements for us to depart for Ilum as soon as we can,” he said, a smirk coming to his face. “You can’t be a proper Padawan without a lightsaber, now, can you?”

She smiled. “I suppose not.”

He smiled briefly before standing up, but he paused before turning.

“There is one more thing, Padawan.” His eyes, again, drilled into her as she stood up as well. “The Chiss who brought you here was sent away due to the attachment you had to him. You would be wise to refrain from any further contact with him.”

He held her gaze a moment longer but didn’t wait for her to respond before turning and leaving.

There it was—the reprimand she had been expecting. She had been right. They didn’t want her to be talking with him. Were they really so against friendships that they went so far as to forbid them? But then, why not discourage the friendships that she saw the other Younglings, Padawans, and Knights form with each other? Was it just outsiders that were the problem? If that was the case, then Thran had been right about the Jedi and Chiss being more similar than they each believed.

The trip from the Temple to Ilum was oddly tense. Rachel had asked Master Ywin if she could make her lightsaber out of anything she wanted, and while his answer had been yes, when she showed him the nyix Thran had given her, he was not happy. He believed it proved that her attachment to Thran was too strong, and that she ought to find another material for her lightsaber hilt, but Rachel told him all the qualities the metal held and why it was the better option, and he relented. He wasn’t happy about it though.

Her choice of reading material didn’t help matters either. She had chosen to study some more history and had found that a number of the histories mentioned a Jedi named Revan while others talked about a Darth Revan, so she found a datacard that held a more complete history of the man himself to read, but her Master wasn’t thrilled by the choice, and it was no wonder.

Besides the Jedi Revan and Darth Revan being one and the same, she learned that he had been a Jedi first and fallen to the dark side. A Jedi named Bastilla had saved him, and the Council of his time had elected to wipe his memories and retrain him as a Jedi.

That wasn’t the end of it though. Bastilla had formed a bond with Revan when she healed him, and through that bond, they fell in love with each other. It was that bond that saved Bastilla when she was captured and lured to the dark side. They married and had children. Despite their being influential Jedi and leaders in the Republic, they had been banished from the Jedi Order for their beliefs and actions. The datacard didn’t mention anything after their banishment other than that they had children.

“Padawan,” Master Ywin called her out of her reading. “We are nearly there.”

“Yes, Master.”

She set down the datapad and got up from the couch she had been reclining on and joined him in the cockpit.

“What do you know about Ilum?”

“I read that it’s covered in ice and crystal,” Rachel started. “Jedi have been coming here for centuries to retrieve their crystals.”

“Very good,” he said as the ship came out of hyperspace. “I know Master Xal taught you a bit about how to retrieve your crystal and how to find it, what do you remember?”

“It will call to me,” Rachel said, thinking back to the lesson. “Each crystal has its own voice and even has a heartbeat that its chosen Jedi can hear.”

“When you enter the caves, it will be important to quiet your mind and to listen. You will hear your crystal calling you. As you get closer, you may hear its heart beating, but one thing you must be aware of is this: the caves will challenge you. They know your weaknesses and will not hesitate to exploit them and use them against you. The Force sees every fear, every shortcoming, and the caves see through the Force.”

“The caves are alive?”

“In a way, yes. The Force is very strong on Ilum, and you will feel it surrounding you with every breath you take and with every move you make. The kyber crystals that power a Jedi’s lightsaber are alive, and it is those same crystals that build the caves and the planet itself. Be mindful of this as you walk through the caverns in search of your crystal.”

Rachel thought over his words as he brought the ship in for its final descent and landed.

“Come,” Master Ywin said, standing up and leaving the cockpit. “Time will be short.”

They trekked across a frozen wasteland that reminded her of an Alaskan winter until they reached the base of a large cliff.

“Is there a door somewhere?” Rachel asked.

“Focus on the cliff ahead of us and reach out to the Force,” he answered.

It wasn’t much instruction, but she followed it, feeling the Force wrap around her like a blanket the instant she reached out to touch it. The planet seemed to hum with life under her feet, and as she focused on the cliff in front of them, she felt it move. The face of the cliff shifted and seemed to almost fall, but instead of a rockslide, they fell smoothly and in a controlled way. Then, she saw the door.

“Inside,” she heard her Master’s voice next to her over the wind.

They walked through a series of halls until they came to a vast, tall ceilinged room, and above them hung a crystal that she guessed to be five times her own size, and she couldn’t see or guess what held it there. Master Ywin used the Force to open a window, and it let the sunlight from outside shine in and onto the crystal which focused that light onto an ice-covered doorway. As she watched, Rachel saw the sunlight warm the ice and it melted it into a large, flowing waterfall that parted down the middle to make a sort of doorway into the tunnel beyond it.

Master Ywin gestured for her to walk through it.

“Remember,” he told her, “trust the Force. Let it guide you.”

She walked hesitantly through the waterfall doorway and into the icy halls. The cold didn’t bother her so much as the strange feeling of being surrounded by so much life yet seeing only ice. She knew the damage an ice storm could cause, and she’d seen how much harm ice could bring. Life was not something ice wrought. Yet, all around her, the ice felt alive—the planet was alive. It was the weirdest feeling.

For a moment, she stopped walking and closed her eyes to let the sensation fill her. It was exhilarating yet terrifying to feel so much, but she focused on her breathing just as she had learned.

And she heard a faint whisper.

Opening her eyes, she looked to her left where the tunnel forked off. The whisper had come from that direction, so she followed the tunnel as it wound and twisted until it came to a wide, tall cavern. Despite being fully enclosed, the light from the crystals bounced off the icy walls and illuminated the space.

Walking to the center of the cavern, she closed her eyes again and reached out, trying to listen for the whisper she had heard earlier, trying to see if her crystal was in this cavern or if it was down one of the many tunnels that jutted off in other directions.

It almost sounded like her name when it whispered, and she looked up and saw one of the openings to a tunnel about halfway up the wall. It was through there. The only issue was, the small ledge to enter that tunnel was very high, and she had never attempted a jump that high before. Even with help from the Force, she wasn’t sure if she could make it.

She looked around the cavern for something she could lift or push that would make the climb less intimidating, but there wasn’t anything.

Stepping up to the wall underneath the ledge, she guessed the height to be about three times her own height. There was nothing to grab onto that would help her climb the wall. Would the Force help her jump that high?

There was another tunnel nearby. Would that one lead to the same place as the one she was currently looking at?

Probably not.

She looked back up at the ledge high above her.

You think too little of yourself.

She could hear Thran’s words echo in her mind as though he was standing right next to her. Her hand unconsciously found the shard of nyix in her pocket—his gift to help strengthen her lightsaber. If he was standing here, he would tell her she could do it. He believed in her. He had believed from the very first moment she had touched the Force that she would be a Jedi, and he had been right. She was here, after all, getting her crystal and would be building her own lightsaber. A Master had chosen to train her—the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order. She was going to be a Jedi Knight.

She could do this.

Reaching out to the Force, she felt the life of the cavern and planet surrounding her and filling her. Allowing it to strengthen her muscles, she got a running start and jumped to the ledge, landing with plenty of space to spare.

She looked behind her, wondering why she doubted herself. She was capable and had the ability to do these things. Thran, Matyus, and Izo saw it. Master Ywin must have seen it. She needed to embrace it.

The tunnel in front of her was dark, which seemed odd. Everything else in the caves and tunnels had been lit up by the crystals and glowed with their own light. However, up ahead, she couldn’t see. Had her crystal really called her from inside of here?

She reached out to listen. It had. Somewhere in the darkness or passed it was her crystal. As she walked into the darkness, she felt fear rise into her chest. With each step, the blackness engulfed her, and the air grew colder, and she began to wonder if anything lived in the caves. Master Ywin hadn’t said anything about finding creatures or hostile beings though, so she had to be alone, right? That thought didn’t stop the fear from creeping in, though. The way her footsteps echoed off the walls made her question if she really was alone.

The sudden feeling of openness surrounded her, and she realized that she must have entered another cavern. Perhaps not as large as the previous one, but still larger than the tunnel she had been walking along, but she still couldn’t see. Not with her eyes, at any rate. She closed them and reached out. To her right, she thought she heard a whisper and the faintest hint of a heartbeat.

She looked toward it—not that there was much to see—and had the vague sense that another tunnel led out of the cavern. She tried using the sensory enhancement techniques, but she wasn’t sure she did them correctly because she couldn’t see any better, but the echoing of her footsteps seemed louder, especially in the vastness of the larger cavern. She found herself frequently looking over her shoulder even though there was nothing to see as she walked down the new tunnel, which seemed to go on for a long time, and she wasn’t sure how long she had walked along it when she thought she saw a light ahead of her.

Her pace quickened, and she felt her heartrate pick up. She could finally get out of the dark!

But the cavern the tunnel emptied into wasn’t as light as she had hoped. The light seemed to only shine from the tops of the tall stalagmites that filled the area. Shadows hugged the walls, and no matter how many times she stared at them, they always seemed to move.

Yet in here, she felt something familiar, and it called to her. She could hear its beating heart as though it were her own, and it came from the top of one of the larger stalagmites.

Of course it did.

She had proven to herself that she could jump high with the Force’s help, but the top of the stalagmite was much higher than the ledge had been, and walking around it, she couldn’t see an easy way to climb it.

No easy way, she reminded herself. She needed to trust the Force to help her even if it wasn’t going to be easy.

There, about a quarter of the way up, were what could pass as handholds. If she could jump up to there and catch them, she could then…what? Where could she go after that?

She walked around it again looking for another way, but she couldn’t see one. Outright jumping to the top of it was out of the question.

There had to be another way.

She turned and looked at the next closest stalagmites. She could, theoretically, jump from one of them to the one she needed to reach, but how could she climb those? They were just as smooth as the first.

She looked around at the rest in the cavern. There was one that looked climbable, but it was a distance away from any of the others around it. But then, they all seemed to be a great distance from each other. Jumping from one to the next would be tiresome. Did she have that kind of strength?

There was only one way to find out.

Climbing up the first one was simple enough—there were plenty of hand and footholds—and when she reached the top, she looked to the next one, noticing the distance and the height, and she felt her stomach tighten. She suddenly wasn’t so sure this was the best idea, but there wasn’t a good alternative, so she had to try.

Taking a slow, deep breath, she allowed the Force to envelop her. It pulsated from the cavern and sang from the planet. Her crystal’s heartbeat pounded in her ears as loudly as her own and yet felt calmer. She reached for that calmness and felt herself relax into the Force’s embrace.

The edge of the stalagmite in front of her suddenly didn’t seem quite so far away. She ran four quick steps and pushed off as hard as she could, feeling the Force strengthen and push her, and she landed lightly on her feet. She quickly took three more running steps and launched herself toward the next stalagmite, then the next, and the next until she found herself on top of the one from which her crystal had called to her.

The white crystal was wedged into the rock, and as she reached down to free it, she felt the air grow suddenly colder, and standing in front of her was a large, hooded figure.

Fear froze her blood as it ignited a red lightsaber, which only accented the black robes it was wearing. It swung the lightsaber down at her, and she attempted to raise her arms to guard herself, but she opened her eyes to find herself staring at the ceiling of the cavern with the echoes of a child’s scream in her mind.

She sat up and looked around, shivering as sweat froze her skin, she realized she was clutching something tightly in her hand. Loosening her grip, she saw a green crystal.

As she looked around the cavern for a sign of the figure she had seen, there was nothing. Even the shadows along the walls gave no indication that it was still there if it had ever actually been there, but if it had appeared out of nowhere, it could just as easily have disappeared into nowhere.

“Stop it,” she told herself. There was no one there. Her mind was playing tricks on her. Yet, she spent the entire walk back to Master Ywin with a tight stomach and her heart in her throat, constantly looking over her shoulder and rechecking each shadow.

She dreaded reentering the dark tunnels again, but it was the way she had come. It had to be the way back. Each minute dragged agonizingly by as she expected to see a red blade slashing through the air at her.

But it never did.

When she finally made it back to the large cavern and jumped down, she found herself wanting to run as fast as she could away from the darkness, and she reached Master Ywin out of breath and sweating despite the coldness of the air.

“You still had plenty of time before the door closed,” he said, watching her catch her breath. “You didn’t need to run.”

Should she tell him what she had seen? Did he know there was someone else inside?

For now, she didn’t respond.

“What color has it taken?”

She held out the green crystal for his inspection.

“Interesting,” he said. “I wondered.”

“Come,” he turned to exit the large room. “It’s time to build your lightsaber.”

Rachel found constructing her lightsaber to be more difficult than she first thought. All the wiring and electronic components had to be just right or the whole thing wouldn’t work, and when she finally got around to making the hilt, she realized that there wasn’t enough nyix to make the whole thing. It would have to serve as an outer casing.

She found another strong alloy and forged it into a hilt that fit her hand with the slightest curve just like her great-grandfather’s knife, and she fit the components and wirings into it. Then, she brought out the nyix and realized that she didn’t know what temperature it needed in order to melt it just enough to be malleable. So she kept it in the forge, holding it in a force grip while she adjusted the temperature little by little until she finally felt it give.

Bringing the hilt up next to the forge, holding both it and the nyix in a Force-grip, she quickly took the pliable nyix and wrapped it around the other alloy so that it completely encased it, and she felt its strength, and as she felt it cooling, she had an idea to make it even more unique.

Closing her eyes, she pictured the mountains that surrounded the Mitth homestead and the mountain that towered over her grandfather's land. Then she pictured the clearing and the stream, and just as the metal was becoming too cool to manipulate, she saw the paths that wound through the garden next to the Mitth homestead with the old tree, and when she opened her eyes and held out her hand to the lightsaber, she saw the scenes depicted in the nyix casing as it wrapped around hilt.

The last step was to place her lightsaber crystal inside, and as she gripped the lightsaber and pressed the dark blue lazulite gem to activate it for the first time, she saw Master Ywin smile as the brilliant green blade snapped to life.

“Well done, Padawan.”

*** END BOOK 1: EARTHLING ***