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Naboo


RaveN

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Wayson listened. He heard with his head, and partially with his heart. He think he felt some of that connection, that grandness of the Force. A small part of him was having a hard time believing, other parts of him felt awed. A small, dark part of him flitted with envy too at how passionately she spoke about the connection with the great cosmic superpower. Not a being, and he definitely gave Aelyn a sharp look at the not a religion comment, but her tone hushed up any further questions, impressing the gravity of their assault.

 

He tried to keep himself occupied, maintaining their comm channels. There was an ominous silence through it all. They guessed at some of the mad doctor's capabilities, but didn't know if tapping comms or other radio channels was something it did. He nodded to the Jedi's plan. "Don't worry," he said, trying to sound casual. "As soon as you're gone, I'll be taking this thing far, far away from here," he continued, giving a smile that never once reached his worried eyes.

 

As the Leviathan geared for battle, pushed on by its creator, it could sense at some level, the light approaching it. Dim at first, it caused its anger to swell. It reacted out of instinct, hating that light, wanting to destroy it. Wanting to destroy everything. It would eat, it would consume. Its brood would spread and it would prosper, eating all that had form, swimming among the endless waves. Instinctively, it felt the fear on that connection.

 

Maloba, trying to rile the creature up for his attack, saw the spike in the creature's brain to show the increased aggression. He didn't know what caused it, but cackled with glee, clapping his hands. The Naboo ships weren't within scanner range yet, so he didn't know what had it all excited, but pleased him to see the anger drawn out.

 

The Leviathan started to move, uncoiling, drawing in the direction of Aelyn. It didn't know where she was exactly, or what she was, but it felt that connection, and trailed on it like a slender string. It would destroy. It would destroy this threat to its young. It somehow knew that deep down.

 

It kept repeating that thought when it felt something blindside it. That light blinded it. It felt confused. It felt a connection. It knew it was wrong as some level, but its anger halted, wracked with indecision. What was this? It could feel it young within, growing in their pods, but it felt the call from outside. How? Why?

 

Maloba lurched forward as the Leviathan's momentum halted. Clutching his console, he stared, looking at the vitals from the various sensors around the creature. It was birthing yet, but its heart-rate and brain-waves showed something along the lines of confusion. His long ears drew back and an angry hiss escaped his lips as sensors picked up the first of the ships. His hands moved quickly, and while the Jedi was teasing out a connection to the Leviathan, he activated the EMP blast, angrily pounding on the button.

 

The interior went dark and the blue, plasmic lights flared to a blinding brightness for a second. The creature froze completely, then the pulse of electromagnetic energy radiated out in an invisible sphere of subtle destruction. Maloba's screens went dark, but he knew that his darling creature would be able to devour or annihilate the oncoming ships with its breath.

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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Aelyn could sense the intent even before the EMP blast was charged, attuned as she was to the Force and the creature. "Here it comes," she said aloud to Wayson. "Power off!" The lights cut and the ship began to drift for a full second before the blast appeared within the dark waters below, lighting up the seas like a lightning bolt arcing behind the clouds. It suddenly eclipsed the ship and passed through with a jolt, but just as instantly was past them. Wayson hit the power again and they were back online, skipping through the full startup sequence as the systems were still warm.

 

As soon as she could Aelyn gripped the controls and dove towards the enormous beast, trying to divide her attention between piloting and projecting calm towards it. She felt its curiosity and confusion towards her, but it was giving way to its aggression. "I need you to take over," she told Wayson urgently. "Get me in its path, then make a run for it."

 

She got up and walked over to the boarding ramp. It would project a force field that would keep water out, as she had seen when they'd docked with the mining colony. Her heart was pounding, making it harder for her to calm the beast. The ramp parted to reveal dark waters, an unknown terror of the deep the size of a space cruiser moving beyond. She fumbled to get her breathing device in. There was no way she was actually going to do this. How could this possibly end up going well? She needed every bit of power the Force could offer her or there were a thousand ways she could die in the next moments. The dark side assailed her every sense as it gathered around the monster which grew to fill her view of the oceans beyond. It was there if she needed it.

 

Aelyn gritted her teeth and gripped her lightsaber. It felt just right in her hand... a counterweight to the chaos and fear. It had an offer of its own -- the ability to do what was needed even when she wasn't comfortable with it, when her usual approach of words and acts of good faith weren't the right tools for the situation. She felt the Force flow through her like the lightsaber's hilt in her palm had closed a circuit.

 

She opened her eyes wide and forgot everything else, then dove through the force field into the frigid waters, planting the strongest suggestion she could manage in the Leviathan's mind. Open up, I'm coming in!

 

Her lightsaber lit blue and the water hissed and bubbled around it as the creature's vast maw yawned wide. Her objective was the plasma tube and the Force pulled her toward it, but if she had to she would cut her way through. There was no going back now. She was all in on this being a Jedi stuff.

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As the EMP wave passed over the Naboo armada, the creature knew what it needed to do. It had been trained and conditioned for this moment- to breath its destruction, to hunt, and to destroy. It knew its prey would be helpless, sitting there, easy to devour. It felt something towards this other voice, the voice that had that brightness that made it hurt, that was its antithesis. It was still confused, but its anger was starting to boil over.

 

Wayson, for his part, was still shocked at how close he felt everything had been cut between the blast and the EMP, but the ship's working conditions gave way to a feeling of instant relief. "Punching it," he said, working through the start up conditions, coming back on in record time. Flooring it wasn't a term used often in a submersible vehicle, but it sped out ahead of the rest of the armada, making a beeline towards the creature.

 

For the first time, a glimpse of the thing could be seen. The thing was massive, bigger than a sando aqua monster by far. It was long and serpentine, at least a good 600 meters, if not a full kilometer long. Its scales had a metallic sheen, and it seemed to have armor growing out of its body. Despite being a serpent-like beast, it had long claws at the front and back, that looked, and were, sharp enough to cut through durasteel and permacrete like butter.

 

As for the creature, it felt and saw the vehicle run towards it. Nothing that small ever attacked it before. A sando or two had tried, but they were much bigger. It reacted with its own surprise as it charged its face, its maw opening wide. Its malevolence could be felt in waves now, washing over Aelyn. It felt her, it knew her, and some part of her, operating on a level the creature was not conscious of, knew she was a threat now. Dr. Maloba, waiting impatiently in his control center, steadied himself, knowing his creation was in for a fight.

 

As Aelyn dove into the creature's mouth, Wayson punched in, trying to get as close as he could dare, watching Aelyn dive. He turned sharply, trying to get away as the thing struck out, one claw moving with an unearthly speed. A crunching sound could be heard in the water behind Aelyn, the sound gutwrenching and its vibrations felt, carried almost immediately by a shockwave that would propel Aelyn forward along with bits of metal and debris.

 

Within the things mouth, there was a gaping maw, cilia lined and leading into a fiery blue abyss, those same cilia-like tentacles extending out, familiar to the Jedi from the one that was severed at the colony before. That blue abyss glowed with plasma and looked like an underwater furnace. The heat of heated and boiling water rushing up could be felt. In that hole lay death. If Aelyn's senses were on key, she'd sense, hidden behind mounds of flesh, an opening, sealed with an organic metal that was harder and more durable than durasteel, covered with a fleshy membrane. And if she couldn't sense that, she'd sense she had less than a good 30 seconds to act within the thing's mouth as the blue glow intensified, a realization coming that like at the colony, it followed up its EMP with a deadly breath attack, one that decimated the colony... one it breathed as a lethal ray out of its mouth...

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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Staring down the vast serpent with lightsaber thrumming and the Force gathered about her like armor, for the first time Aelyn felt like she was ready to complete the task at hand, her concentration apparent by her knit brows even as the saltwater stung her eyes. But then she heard and felt the unthinkable happen as the leviathan struck the starfighter she'd just left with impossible force, the displacement of the water buffeting her even as she realized what had happened.

 

Oh... oh no...

 

Icy pain and fear shattered her focused calm, her heart seeming to throw itself against her ribcage as a fresh shock of adrenaline pumped through her system. Wayson... her friend and ally since she'd arrived on Naboo, the one who had put so much faith in her and shared her wonder at what the Force was doing through her... She could not tell before the leviathan's jaws closed around her if there was any chance he had survived and would see his family again, but deep within she felt, no she knew, that she had failed him.

 

No one else had been supposed to die. Least of all someone whose safety had been entrusted directly to her.

 

Aelyn slammed into the muscled wall of the roof of the great creature's mouth, an cavernous chamber lit dimly by a glowing plasma tube, and she felt her shoulder give out even as her lightsaber hilt left her palm to get whisked off toward the abyss. She knew she would soon follow; a greater Jedi might have somehow stood in her place and conquered the beast in the ways that were told in stories by common folk around the galaxy, but her feeble attempt at heroics was revealed to be utter folly, and now she would die an ignominious death, the only victim of the leviathan to willingly leap down its throat to her demise. It was almost hilarious how pathetic it was, how unprepared she had been.

 

Still, as she was swept off into the eternal darkness, her right shoulder and head throbbing with pain, she had a nagging thought. Maybe she was already dead. She could accept that. She supposed it happened. She'd never failed this badly before, but she doubted she was the first Jedi apprentice to meet their untimely demise in the course of her duty. And as long as she was dead anyway, wasn't she obligated to do anything and everything she could to at least help everyone else? The Force hadn't actually led her here to die, had it? Maybe there was some purpose she could yet serve.

 

Even out of her grasp, Aelyn could feel her lightsaber's crystal in the Force. She'd felt it from orbit on Dantooine where it had been waiting for her in some far-off cave, and it hadn't left her presence since. How many eons had it lain dormant waiting for her to come along? Surely it, like her, had not come all this way to be lost without ever serving the galaxy? Now she tugged at the beacon and kicked with all her strength towards... something she could somehow sense ahead. Soft flesh covering... salvation?

 

The fingers of her left hand closed around a hot metal cylinder and found the activation switch. The shining blue lightsaber leaped again to life, matching the intensity of the plasma conduits with a righteous blaze. I apologize in advance, she thought to the serpent as she struck the organic tissue which gave way readily under the azure blade. Underneath was... a door! The Force empowering her again, she pulled herself to the hatch and opened it, spilling into an airlock-like enclosure with another door beyond, hot water spilling in behind her. She didn't hesitate. She hit the button to cycle the doors and, on her hands and knees, tried to grab her commlink with her right hand, but her shoulder hurt really bad and she couldn't grasp it, so she dropped her lightsaber for a moment to use her good hand.

 

"Everyone fall back! Scatter! Watch out for the breath!" she shouted without preamble. The Naboo fleet had only seconds to avoid a terrible fate.

 

She winced and saw a droplet of blood fall from the side of her head into the metal deck plate beneath her as the last of the water drained out of the room and the far door unsealed. She was still most likely dead, but a lot of other people would be too if she didn't somehow get on her feet and finish this.

 

Aelyn had to try twice to pick up her lightsaber again and her head was buzzing more loudly than its blade was it when lit. Every moment was her last, so she would try to make the best of them.

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Dr. Maloba's systems came back on slowly, and at once he began to realize things were going wrong.

 

He didn't know how at first, thinking an error with the scanners, but he saw the Naboo ships assembled to challenge him moving at speeds that shouldn't have been possible. He didn't understand. The EMP should have floored them all and made them easy prey for his most wondrous creation.

 

Second, his creature reared back violently in pain just as internal alarms went off. The Gungan's eyes went wide, trying to find some sort of monitor or feed that would allow him to see what happened. Sensors were still booting back up after the EMP, and while they switched off before it struck, they Leviathan's systems were far, far more complex than a starship's and took longer to boot up. His fingers cycled through the various commands, trying to find the source of this intrusion. Another alarm went off at the same time, a breach leading into the Leviathan's networks near the command center, just as it was about to use its breath weapon.

 

Mind racing, Maloba started to realize the impossible was happening. Somehow, something got inside his Leviathan as it was about to strike and got past the bioframe into the techframe network he used to pull in cargo and even enter and exit his creation.

 

"No! No! Ussa stupid id'ots! Ussa all supposed to die! Die! DIE! DIE! DIE!" he screamed, pounding on the controls frantically, trying to tap into military comm channels.

 

"-rvived... etrieve...."

"-atter! Watch out for the breath!"

"Clear out! Now!"

 

He watched as the fleet scattered like a school of fish with an opee sea killer bearing down on them just as the blast started to shoot forth. The leviathan reared its head, sending the city destroying beam moving in a wide swath. The fleet was mostly spared, but a few ships were not so luck, either caught in the blast and destroyed, or damaged and sent careening into the dark cold waters..

 

Aelyn, though shielded by the door, would still feel her hair raise and a heavy, radiating heat turn from the door which turned a bright red, then white, starting to buckle. The creature's tough membrane was meant to shield it, but there was difference between an intense and passing plasma charge and then there was a dedicated lightsaber attack. The membrane, wounded, didn't return in time to shield the door, and the metal gave off an intense heat. The beam passed, and somehow, the door hung on, wounded, but intact, though the heat radiating in that tight space would easily give off first degree and even second degree burns to those too close to it, sending off blasts of hot scalding steam, an effect mitigated by the insulation in Aelyn's wetsuit.

 

Maloba's creation was designed to be impregnable, and so interior defenses were lacking with in the techframe. His monitors came on, catching a figure on all fours just within. The camera used to verify certain goods were retrieved, Maloba's eyes narrowed, a hissing snarl escaping his lips as he saw the blue blade shining.

 

"Jedi. Issa Jedi." He reached over to a small compartment under his console, retrieving two things. He took a blaster, holstering it. He knew all too well what a Jedi could do to one wielding such a weapon, but he wasn't foolish enough to go unarmed. The second, was a dagger, a gift from his benefactor. made out of Sith steel, the blade's pommel ended in the image of a snarling sea-beast with two cold blue sapphires for eyes, mimicking the eyes of Maloba's one-time Sith patron. His benefactor stated such tools could ward off lightsabers and hurt fools like Jedi when it was gifted, but didn't elaborate on how.

 

Prepared, he had his creature lunge forward, trying to move past the opening the fleet created in their scattered attempt to evade its blast-ray. He knew his attack on Otoh Gunga would fail at this point, and with a Jedi on board, his situation perilous. He'd bring his creature back to the surface one last time and send its spawn out among the stars. His bid for revenge on Naboo may be destined for failure at this rate, but he'd still have his revenge on the Galaxy. He had to fight through the thing's bloodlust, and at the same time, his creature was roaring, an echoing, shaking cry that wracked the interior. His creature was in pain. Those chattel, this fodder for his genius were striking out against him!

 

The fleet, turned over to command of a middle-aged Gungan captain, quickly tried to rally everyone. They knew Aelyn was inside, and focused first and foremost on evading the thing's mouth, claws, and then tail as it darted past them, sending one more ship spiraling into the rocky walls of the Naboo Abyss. While they trusted Aelyn to stop that thing, the started firing on its tail and rear, doing their best to wound and slow the creature, careful not to fire near its head, which despite likely being too shielded, risked hurting the Jedi that gave then this chance for victory.

 

Even as he kept one large eye on the Jedi, trying to gauge how much time he had before she reached his command center and the various security doors with her lightsaber, Maloba kept at the helm. He'd show them! He'd show them all if it was the last thing he did!

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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Aelyn scampered to her feet when the door started to glow white hot, scrambling through the far door and shutting it behind her. Ahead were long, thin corridors of uncertainty bathed in eerie blue light. The leviathan had some kind of inertial compensators going, but still she could feel the deck shifting as it moved, a reminder that she was on a tight clock. Outside, it seemed that the Naboo fleet had decided to take their chances against the creature despite her wish for them to remain at a distance. Even though they knew she was alive at the moment, perhaps they didn't believe her when she said that stopping its master would cause it to cease to be a threat.

 

Honestly she wasn't sure about that herself, nor that she would be able to overcome what still lay in wait for her. She took a deep breath. She'd actually dislocated a shoulder once playing grav-ball as a teenager, and she was pretty sure that's what had happened again when she'd struck the roof of the leviathan's mouth. She gritted her teeth and took several short breaths, squeezing her eyes shut and calling on the Force to pop the joint back into place. Still she cried out in pain and blinked back a tear before testing her arm and realizing it worked again. Trying to calm herself, she looked both ways up the corridor, moving her lightsaber into her dominant hand again. "Okay," she voiced a bit shakily, her head still throbbing. "Which way do I go?"

 

She remembered on Borleias how the Force had guided her and all she'd had to do was start walking. It was at times infuriatingly unspecific. She could tell that there was another presence aboard -- that of Dr. Maloba, no doubt, if the people in the command center were right -- but she couldn't tell where he was relative to her except that he was close. The leviathan lurched again under her feet and she heard a deep thud from far outside and she realized she didn't have any time. The dark side was everywhere here and it felt even worse than she did.

 

Aelyn took off at a run. It didn't take long before she reached a thick and securely locked door that felt like it was in the right direction. She bit her lip -- it would take a long time to get through a sequence of these things with her lightsaber, even if the metal wasn't actually strong enough to resist the blade. There was a keypad there, and on impulse she touched it, embracing it with her consciousness. There was something there... an impression left in the Force upon the machine, a glimpse of Maloba's mental state the last time he had punched in the key combination. Something like... seven two...

 

The Jedi apprentice suddenly typed in a five-digit sequence, the door opened and she sprinted through, the Force carrying her swiftly ahead. There were more doors to come. There were also security cameras.

 

"Doctor Maloba!" she called out as she ran, hoping he was listening. "Please, stop this. It's not too late for you. No one else needs to die -- not you, not your creation, and not those soldiers outside fighting for their homes."

 

She reached the next door. The same code worked and she charged through, pushing off the pain that reverberated through her whole body with every footfall. "Please. Let me help you find a better solution."

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Maloba's ears rose, fanning out in anger as his eyes flitted between several consoles, the scope for the pursuing Naboo fleet, and then the Jedi. That stupid, meddling, Jedi! His anger rose up and another animal snarl escaped the mad doctor's lips. He had far, far less time than he'd hoped. He should have known! Should have known that the Jedi would be able to use its trickery to guess at the codes.

 

"Messa gunna stop yuzz," he snarled, fingering the blaster. He heard the Jedi's words and to a more rationale opponent, that might have given him pause, or made him think further about the consequences of what was happening. Then again, Maloba believed he was fighting for his home. A Naboo free of the idiots that exiled him, and one rid off all the offworlders that looked down on him and his species. No, he was not swayed. He would die fighting for Naboo... That he told himself, never mind he truly fought for his pride and out of a narcissistic superiority complex.

 

He waited until the Jedi was near the command center, one last door between the Jedi's fearsome blade and Maloba's soft flesh. He leveled his blaster and fired. He didn't take his own life. He'd go down fighting. He didn't try to shoot the door or the Jedi beyond, not that the blast would have penetrated. He aimed straight for the control panel off to the side, the same one the Jedi would be keying in on the other side, now rendered useless with its mechanisms fried.

 

Satisfied he brought himself more time, he started to enter in commands to prime the missiles for launch, watching his gauges show how little time left he had until he could surface and make a viable launch. The commands locked in, a course set, he fired his blaster once more, destroying the console. Drawing in a deep, slow breath, his blaster in one hand, the tainted dagger in the other, he turned to face the door. He knew he was no match for a Jedi normally, no matter what gifts his patron gave, but if she was wounded, he could fight her, and possibly escape to fight another day.

 

"Come'on Jed'ai fool. Yussa gonna meet yourz end at 'da hands of the great Dr. Maloba!" he yelled. Not a combatant, he hoped she'd underestimate him. Those fools always did. Always! Giggling and bereft of sanity, he waited for her to break through.

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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As she reached for the last control pad she heard a thud on the far side and it went dark, and Aelyn knew her attempt at diplomacy wasn't being well received. Her heart was still pounding and did a little extra when she realized the Gungan was most likely going to fire upon her when she cleared the door. She supposed the leviathan itself had also tried to kill her, and with a twinge of grief she remembered that it had probably gotten Wayson, but entering personal combat was something different. She'd never looked someone in the eye before that had decided she needed to die... nor made herself enough of a nuisance that someone would feel the need to do so.

 

But there was no stopping now. She thrust her azure blade through the door, which did very little to resist the weapon's heat and power. Her shoulder throbbed fiercely as she dragged the lightsaber across the metal slab and then down along the side connected to the wall, finally taking a step back and with a Force shove blasting the molten-edged rectangle into the room beyond.

 

She inhaled, feeling the Force move, then ducked inside. There was indeed a Gungan there. He... was just a scientist. Not particularly fit, nor particularly well-armed, nor armored, and certainly not a lightsaber-wielding Sith Lord fueling the leviathan with dark side energy drawn through himself. No, whatever he was doing to the creature he'd raised, there was more to it than she could see before her. Beside him was what was left of a control console. Maybe he didn't think he could win and he wanted the leviathan to continue its rampage without her interference?

 

There wasn't any time to think about it. He opened fire. Aelyn caught the blaster bolts neatly upon her blade, the Force guiding her movements. She reflected the bolts back near him but didn't strike him with any.

 

"Doctor," she said, slowly approaching as she continued warding off his fire. There was a crazed look in his eyes and his mind was clouded and she wondered if she was even getting through to him. "Please stop this. I don't want to hurt you or this creature. Just put down the gun and I promise you will walk away in one piece."

 

Truthfully she was worried about what would come next. If he wouldn't relent she would be forced to do something. The last thing she wanted was for him to die, no matter how crazy he was or how many deaths he'd caused. But any injury that might remove him as a threat and let her tame the leviathan had a real chance of leading to his death if she wasn't careful.

 

Still Maloba fired again and again, and she continued to deflect the bolts. He was buying time and she was running out of it. Finally she tilted her head sharply and ripped the blaster out of his hands with the Force and called it to her outstretched hand. It was literally the first time she'd handled a gun, but she knew it probably had a stun setting, found it, and opened fire, putting three stun rings into her target.

 

Wincing as he dropped to the deck, Aelyn ran over to the control console to see if anything survived and if she could get control of the leviathan.

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Maloba was not one to listen to reason and as the Jedi broke through the final security door, he fell into an adrenalin rush, actually looking forward to getting his hands dirty for once. He kept his blaster at a lethal setting, intending to fry this impertinent fool who dared challenge him.

 

He grew more and more frustrated, his shots more wild as the Jedi kept reflecting them. She was toying with him! Mocking him! If she was serious, she'd have killed him instead of playing around and deflecting his shots, causing them to strike around him at the mix of metallic and organic substances that lined his control room, causing his creation to writhe in pain when it was hit. That all just enraged him further, not able to comprehend that she might genuinely want him alive.

 

"DIE!" he yelled, breaking into a desperate lunge with that Sith Steel dagger as he saw his blaster was taken. His "charge", if it could be called that, ended with him sprawled out flat on the floor, the dagger clenched in one hand, stunned and unconscious. With no combat training, no skills other than his work with the sciences, he was the easy opponent.

 

As Aelyn looked around for consoles that may have offered a means to stop the Leviathan, a few damaged ones showing some potential promise, several things happened at once. Camera screens were up and they showed the young ones, ready to be born... and launched... and while no direct console could stop that now, it was left half as a taunt, and half so the doctor could watch his revenge take shape after he killed the Jedi.

 

The Naboo fleet increased the intensity of their attack, deterring the creature and causing it to pause and try to attack them. It couldn't launch its EMP attack, not without the doctor and another recharge, but its sheer mass and intensity made it a frightful opponent. As they fought, unable to break the thing's hide open enough to do any significant damage, they called out to Aelyn, still refraining from attacking near the creature's head.

 

"Aelyn! Come in, Aelyn!" cracked the voice on the comm.

 

The second thing was the doctor was sat up. Not that he sat up, as he was stunned and unconscious, but he was pulled up, like someone manipulating a puppet. The Force energies in the room reacted, and the token protection Maloba's patron gave years ago woke up, drawing in, summoning... something. There was nothing left really draw in, the force it called in with its Master's dark arts destroyed at a conscious level, but it was enough.

 

The Gungan silently rose to his feet, still moving as if being pulled by puppet strings, a dark sided shroud falling over the room.

 

A vicious laughter, mindless and animal sounding escaped the Gungan's lips, with a voice and inflections that weren't his own, as he struck, trying his hardest to attack the Jedi with the dagger, the sapphire eyes in the hilt glowing a bright blue that matched what was in the Gungan's eyes now. It could summon only malice and hunger, but nothing else.

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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Aelyn's eyes darted between the screens and the ruined control panels, at once trying to figure out what was happening and what she might possibly do to stop it. The camera feed clearly showed small serpentine forms and... a missile rack? Pointed at the sky beneath a segmented roof, it struck her what might be happening and she put the blaster pistol down and grabbed her commlink just as a voice called to her across her open line. "I'm here!" she responded. "Listen -- if the monster breaches the surface I think she's going to fire missiles containing her young. I don't know where they'll go but we can't let them--"

 

She broke off as the dark side swelled within the room, a startlingly tangible sensation like a smothering blanket constricting her heart. The Jedi apprentice whirled around to see somehow Dr. Maloba was back on his feet. His movements were unnatural, like a dark and alien force was possessing his body, any flicker of intelligence he might have once held drowned out by burning rage and malevolence.

 

"What the kriff?" Aelyn exclaimed, snapping her lightsaber back on as she backed away from his animalistic lunge. Was this really happening? Her mind demanded an explanation but her body told her to run or fight, and she knew it was her responsibility to do the latter.

 

He was immediately between her and the blaster, but she highly doubted more stun bolts would actually drop him at this point. No. She hated the thought of it, but this time she couldn't avoid hurting him. She continued to give ground to the deranged Gungan, who was laughing and babbling unintelligibly while making repeated thrusts with his knife. Lacking any reach, however, he posed little threat to her while she still had space.

 

Aelyn's hands trembled nonetheless, her ongoing physical pain combining with the stress of the situation and her horror at what had become of Maloba making it so that she could barely process everything. Finally she took another deep breath, pulled the Force through herself and her lightsaber, and counterattacked. The Gungan twisted away from her initial strike but she spun, ducking under his wild swing and dragging her blade across the base of his ribcage, cutting flesh in a wound that she hoped was not fatal before drawing back again.

 

To her shock he did not so much as pause in his assault and his knife blade nicked her shoulder as she tried to maneuver back, adding another explosion of pain to the roiling cloud of it that bathed her every move. She was quick to riposte, however, and with an upwards stroke she cut the dagger from his hand and, bringing the blade over her head and down around the far side of his body, sliced halfway through his right leg at the knee, wincing as much in sympathetic pain as her own as he dropped to the deck again, the joint crumpling in on itself.

 

She then lowered the blade horizontally over him. She really didn't want to kill him, as bad as his injuries already were. If he would just stay down, this would finally be over. But if he got up again, she was out of options. She tried to focus the Force on him. She had no idea if it even worked this way, but maybe she could try to drive away the dark side and try to fix him?

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In the heat of combat, a dark chill settled in. Hungry, cold and grasping. It seemed to run through the fledgling Jedi's stomach and then shoulder as the cold seeped in. As Aelyn hoped she could exorcise the darkness, she didn't realize she'd have a chance, but not in the way in which she thought.

 

With the lightsaber strike, the Gungan's knee gave out and he fell. The dark force animating the unconscious Gungan as a Reborn imprinted with the Force could only do so much with the meat and muscle that held together Maloba's flesh. By then, the dark energies craving substance and form, having bitten into the Jedi's flesh, started to move, leaving a weak vessel behind. There was a flash of light and while Aelyn was physically still in the proverbial belly of the Leviathan, breathing and living, her mind and spirit were taken elsewhere.

 

Images flashed and swirled as the cold feeling increased, coalescing into a number of lights. There was no falling sensation, instead Aelyn stood on a circular board, vast and hovering in the void, comprised of twelve squares in an inner and then outer right, leaving Aelyn in the middle. Tall, flickering pieces hung over her, like statues of colossi. Others were fallen over on their sides. Maloba's piece was one of the fallen, and the Leviathan he'd breathed to life was tottering. On the opposite side of the board was a piece for Aira, looking solid and distinct, along with several members of the Jedi Order. Behind the fallen Maloba were other shadowy figures that she might recognize from the Sith Order, looking down and as solid as Aira behind her. She still had her lightsaber and it seemed to be more than a mere blade, but an actual weapon of Light in the metaphysical sense.

 

For a brief moment, Aelyn would see everything from this vantage point... One worlds from the Core to the fleeting darkness of hyperspace lanes in space. All the players arranged on the board. The moment passed, too quickly for it to be grasped.

 

So... The Jedi whelp emerges a Jedi Knight from her trials, saving Naboo and perhaps a wider Galaxy from a terrible fate...

 

The voice echoed around her, coming from a tattered, wraith-like figure, black and off to the side. Its tone was harsh, but not menacing, as if it was a curious observer, wearied and yet surprised to see another here.

 

But will the whelp enjoy her Knighthood, or will she falter on her re-entry, burning up like chaff in the turbulent atmosphere of the Force?

 

Before Aelyn was something Dark, also coalescing into something... humanoid. It had all the forms of one, despite having no distinct features like a face or digits on its limbs. It still emanated a wrongness... Hatred, Hunger, Destruction.

 

The hated that possessed the doctor's already black heart is seeking to take you, little Jedi Knight, and through you wield greater power. This trial is yours... I wish you the grace to fight it off as I can only observe... The mercy you showed in sparing the Doctor and your determination not to kill has prevented it from getting a foothold within you. Drive it back to the Chaos from wince it came! Then stop the Leviathan's spawn from launching its young and spare the Galaxy this madness!

 

Images flashed of a missile room full of the young. Once... if she escaped it would be a race to get there through the creature's internal structures, but the missile tubes offered something else to Aelyn and her captive... a way out. No time had passed on the physical plane even as time moved swiftly... even mercilessly... on the Dejarik Board. Aelyn still stood within the control room, locked in that second, able to act once her mind and spirit were reunited with it and this confrontation concluded.

 

The Dark Side force incarnate, an imprint of madness, hatred, and anger faced her from its own square, then lunged. It moved not to merely take her space, but to take her, trying to lunge and press into her, trying to consume her from within. It was a shallow, hollow thing, but it burned with a fierce, absolute zero cold, and offered amid the pain a release, and a power... the power to change the Galaxy... to consume one's foes... to change things... if only it was let in... if only Aelyn wouldn't fight it.

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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The power of Change... The offer echoed in Aelyn's mind. She didn't know where she was, but she was frightened. The dark force that had taken over Maloba was an evil unlike she had ever seen outside of nightmares and visions. Inscrutable and of an origin she could not even guess, she knew it would take her if she did not fight it. And what it promised was something she believed in deeply.

 

Ever since she had been a child, Aelyn had watched her parents with admiration. Her father was the famed Ambassador Rasil Talis, a man of influence and wisdom. His words had changed the allegiance of entire worlds, winning them over to the cause of the Rebellion or New Republic or Galactic Alliance. He had served Admiral Starlisk as a political voice and mediator, and had played a large role in the peace accords that had ended the war. If there was anything he had taught her, it was that the galaxy could be influenced for better or worse by the actions of a few individuals, and he felt he had the responsibility to do what he could to return the galaxy to peace without ever using a weapon.

 

As Aelyn had become an adult, she had stayed out of his shadow, finding that she believed that change was best enacted humbly on a small level. She helped those she saw in need through service and compassion, the only reward she needed the simple experiences of being with people, learning who they were, working alongside them in community. She had thought that it was better to live humbly and be a good person than to actually try to exert her influence on the greater galaxy. But was that a fundamental philosophical belief or simply one made by someone who lacked the dedication to work as hard as her father and so had made herself content with what small things she could do with an afternoon here and there?

 

Because since she had become a Jedi, things had become radically different. Aira had opened her mind to a new landscape full of new possibilities. Since then she had met with Head of State Raven Zinthos, reported to the Galactic Senate, and advised Supreme Commander Tenebris Elann on whether he should accept a military alliance. She had faced peril on Borleias, Dantooine, and now here on Naboo to do the right thing even at great personal cost. This whole situation with Doctor Maloba and the Leviathan... it had stretched her farther than she'd ever thought possible, and now she knew she was fighting for the fate of countless people on multiple worlds. Throughout, she had battled feelings of inadequacy, fearing her lack of experience would cause her to fail when the stakes were so much higher than volunteering at a soup kitchen for a day.

 

That the dark side would offer some assurance of success, that it came to her as an agent of change, pushing her along the path towards making a lasting impact on the galaxy for the better as her father had, showed that it knew well her journey to get here. Now it demanded to know how much would she give for that influence. How far would she go? Deep inside her, she knew there was a desire to be recognized and accomplish great things, to be well-liked by everyone she came into contact with, to appear to all the galaxy as a true heroine of the likes that it rarely saw.

 

But that was not the innermost desire of her soul. Aelyn was discovering that the path towards being a Jedi sometimes meant doing big things, but she did them as an act of sacrifice and service, not out of ambition. It was why she had been content to live humbly before walking this path and it was why she had allowed Aira to convince her to give it a try at all after she almost walked away. She felt strongly called to give, not to take. Mere minutes ago, though it was starting to feel like it had been ages, she had boarded the leviathan and accepted that her venture would most likely result in her death. She was still terrified of that, but she had decided to act and put her life on the line anyway in a leap of faith and conviction, and the Force had seen her to this point -- and she was still going.

 

How could she possibly accept a real possibility of death for her own sake? She was too afraid of dying to risk life and limb for mere glory.

 

"There is nothing here for you," she said as the dark force moving toward her. Her voice was so strong it surprised even her. "Begone." Her blade of pure light spun in her hands, a graceful movement more usually associated with a Jedi Battlemaster, and it bisected the invading phantom.

 

Aelyn looked out at the Sith gathered on one side of the board, then turned to face the Jedi she saw apart from them. Aira was waiting for her, and she wanted badly to run back to her. But her eyes fell upon the pieces representing Maloba and the Leviathan, and she knew her service wasn't done for today.

 

Suddenly she was back in her own body again, complete with her throbbing shoulder and aching head. She closed down her lightsaber and used the Force to lift Maloba's body before her. Her purpose clear, she could feel the location of the missiles shining like a beacon and she took off towards it as fast as she could manage. She was so close.

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On the Dejarik Board, a sword strike meant nothing and everything. A willful strike could bounce off a foe, ineffective, or pass through a form like it was a cloud, doing naught. The intent, the will behind it was the most important. In that case, the strike was more than a mere swing of a lightsaber blade. It was an affirmation and denial, so when the phantom of malice and rage parted under the blow, it vanished, first in half, then vanishing into a fine mist, sinking back into the Darkness and Chaos of the Force. It couldn't be destroyed, but there was a Light to Balance it, to meet it, and counter it.

 

At once, Aelyn was back in the control room. The Sith Steel dagger looked... blasted, like the jewels inside exploded, scarring the face, having fallen from the mad doctor's grip. Unconscious, Maloba gave a moan of pain, his wounded leg twitching painfully. All the same, he didn't wake, or struggle.

 

The Leviathan's durasteel frames that Maloba created were as cramped as ever, shaking as the beast fought and convulsed, doing battle with the Naboo fleet. Just in the nick of time, Aelyn would reach a round chamber via ladder, surrounded by missiles. Egg-like sacs covered everything, some encased in missiles. Wires showed where plasma, and another black ichor, one that gave off a dangerous, but faint Dark Side aura, fed into the egg sacs. A wall panel showed the count-down to launch, with 3 minutes left, and also the scope of the mad doctor's plan, showing their prospective destinations. The missiles sat there, waiting, with one empty one left open, just big enough for Aelyn and her captive to squeeze into, though it'd be very uncomfortable- a hint that perhaps the doctor had been intent on using it to make his own escape.

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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It took concentration of which she was in short supply to hover Maloba's body the whole distance, but she was in even shorter supply of the bodily stamina that would be necessary to carry him physically, if she could have managed that at all. By the time she reached the launch chamber, the knife wound felt like it was on fire and she was counting scrapes and bruises she hadn't realized she had; her adrenaline rush was fading under the slow and painful task, even though she knew she was still in danger. She was calling on the Force to bolster her and thought it was the only thing keeping her from collapsing entirely.

 

What she found was horrifying in its own way. Many more egg sacs than she'd seen from the camera feed in the control center, a liquid being fed to them that she could feel carried a sinister taint. Aelyn had been really hoping that the Leviathan would calm down with the dark presence banished and Maloba no longer ramping up its aggression with chemical injections, and she'd furthermore hoped that even if it could not be saved, its young could at least find a place in the Naboo ecosystem. But corrupted from birth according to the mad scientist's plan, she was starting to worry that it might just not be possible. Predators of this size would continue to be a danger to everyone.

 

Setting Maloba down, Aelyn only had a couple minutes to act. She didn't know the first thing about missiles beyond what she could observe, but one of them seemed set up for Maloba's escape plan and she still needed that one to take them both to safety, so she couldn't take the whole system offline. Lightsaber snapping back to life, she approached the first egg-laden one. Guessing at least the bottom third of it was an engine, she simply cut clear through it with a broad stroke, then proceeded to dash around the room and do the same to the others except for the empty one.

 

She still had about 45 seconds left at the end. Switching her lightsaber for her commlink, she spoke urgently into it while gently picking up Maloba with the Force. "Fleet, this is Aelyn. I'm in the missile chamber. I have disabled all of them except for one which will contain both me and the doctor."

 

Wedging the still-unconscious and bleeding Gungan into the pod, Aelyn grimaced. It was going to be tight. "Repeat. Doctor Maloba and I will be aboard the missile. Please retrieve me."

 

Fifteen seconds. She squeezed into the missile and a second later the chamber slammed closed. Pressed up against Maloba's body she could barely breathe. The chamber smelled terrible and she knew at least some of it was her. She was a mess of salt water and sweat and fear and Maloba frankly didn't smell like a paragon of hygiene himself.

 

For six long seconds all she could hear was her rapid breathing and Maloba's faint breaths in the darkness, then with a mighty whooshing sound the engine flared to life and then began to speed up the launch tube.

 

Everything about this is nuts.

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It had been a crazy hour. Once the Leviathan's trajectory and target had become clear, we had scrambled to defensive positions. But the planet's forces were ready now, and using careful timing and Aelyn's strategic thinking, the populated areas were protected.

 

I could feel the darkness waxing and waning, and knew Aelyn was finally facing it directly. I whispered a prayer to the Force to aid her, then immediately felt a little foolish. That wasn't how the Force worked. But I didn't take it back.

 

Finally, I felt the darkness receding, and a few minutes later, Aelyn's voice came over the comm. "--I have disabled all of them--" Cheers erupted in the control room, and I smiled.

 

As a retrieval craft was sent out to pick them up, I made sure that I was in it. Before we left, however, I turned back to the commanders. "Better gather up some scientists to study that creature," I said, musing. "It won't be dangerous anymore, but it might wreak your ecosystem."

 

"Wouldn't it be better just to kill it?" one of the Gungans said.

 

"It only acted that way because the darkness had corrupted it," I frowned.

 

"Maybe there is another solution," another commander said. "We'll look into it, Master Jedi."

 

Then we were skimming quickly under the waves. We grabbed the missile pod and surfaced. Popping our canopy, I reached down and punched in the sequence to open the missile, revealing a cramped, smelly human and a Gungan. While the Nubians grabbed Maloba, cuffed him, and started to treat his wound, I reached down and helped Aelyn into the larger craft, then immediately pulled her into a hug. "You did a great job," I said as I squeezed her. "I'm so proud of you."

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Captain of the Galactic Alliance & Jedi Knight

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Aelyn couldn't bring herself to smile at Aira even when the Jedi Knight embraced her, and the hug made her shoulder flare up in pain again. "Ow..." she said, gently pulling away from her. She looked over to where some Naboo officers were putting stun binders on the still-unconscious Maloba. "I don't think he's much threat to you in his current condition," she protested.

 

She winced and turned back to look at the water. "Master. The leviathan... what's going to happen to her?" The last adrenaline fading away, Aelyn collapsed to the deck plate, propping herself up against the speeder wall. "We lost so many people. Good people like Wayson who was just trying to do the best thing for his family."

 

Suddenly it almost didn't feel right. She had been prepared to die within that creature, and there was still a battle going on. She wanted to do more, and the fact that she was alive meant she hadn't given everything yet like some of them were. When she had escaped the leviathan with Maloba, had she been running away when she might still have been useful inside it? But her body was frail and injured and she was out of strength. She was growing increasingly light-headed and she knew she was still bleeding from somewhere. "Master, I..." she attempted, but her voice echoed in her ears and her vision darkened.

 

Maybe she was going to die after all, and the threat to Naboo still wasn't quite over, even if justice would be served to Maloba.

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As my hug aggravated Aelyn's injuries, I let go of her immediately. "Oh, sorry," I apologized. But a moment later, I realized that she was far from feeling the satisfaction of a job well done. And as she spoke, I mentally berated myself. I had seen this before in my time with the fleet. New soldiers would constantly face a sense of letdown, that the cost was too much, that even if they had won it might not have been worth it, and even survivor's guilt.

 

A moment before she swooned, I caught her and lowered her down onto a seat. "Hey, take it easy," I said. "Just relax." Two of the medics took over, carefully doing some first aid on her that would last until we returned to Theed.

 

As the driver gunned the engine and we began the journey back, skimming across the top of the waves, a salty breeze blowing in our faces and the bright Nubian sunshine beating down, I wondered what I was going to say to my padawan. Words rarely came easily to me; I always had to be in just the right place and the right time. And how would I prepare her for the guilt? For the knowledge that people you killed, no matter how just their deaths were, never really left you?

 

I sighed, then released my feelings into the Force. It was impossible to talk to Aelyn over the noise of the speeder, so I simply sat down next to her and tried to soak in the peace of the sun and the waves.

 

As soon as we arrived back in the city, the medics carried Aelyn to the med bay for treatment. There was a little bit of discussion regarding the Gungan scientist, but I insisted he also be treated for his wounds, and they respected my authority. I was just getting ready to head to the med bay myself when one of the human guard commanders approached me. "Master Jedi, we've gathered together a team of marine biologists and other scientists to be put in charge of studying the creature. They will make a preliminary recommendation to the queen in a week."

 

"Thank you," I replied sincerely. "Jedi Talis will be available to give testimony as well, and the Jedi Order will provide resources in case you wish to try to move it offworld." I made sure the man would pass on Aelyn's comm information, and then he left.

 

The hospital wasn't far, and I made it there before Aelyn's treatment was complete. Grabbing a grain bar from a vending machine, I sat munching on it as I waited in the reception area. Finally, the doctors informed me that she was out of treatment and in a recovery room. Thanking them, I headed up directly. Aelyn was in a room lined with multiple beds. Privacy curtains could be closed around each bed, but most of them were open for now. The other patients were a mix of Gungans and humans, survivors from the leviathan's attacks. The overall atmosphere in the room was of quiet hope and relief that the nightmare was over.

 

I took a seat next to Aelyn's bed. Her eyes fluttered open, and I gave her a small but warm smile. "How are you feeling?"

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Captain of the Galactic Alliance & Jedi Knight

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As she came to on the hospital bed, nightmares of black ichor and faces fading into dark water skittered away from her consciousness. The bed was comfortable. Soft sheets against her skin and the thin hospital gown. The room around her was lit by daylight and warm lamps, stonework in soothing tones of tans and browns that were ubiquitous in Nabooian architecture. It was meant to put her at ease, but she looked up at the ceiling numbly, lips slightly parted and just breathing. Her body didn't hurt anymore and on some level she knew she would continue in some form.

 

Aira was there, her presence by now familiar. The scent of her hair product or some perfume, maybe. Aelyn turned her head to look at the other woman as she was asked a question. How are you feeling?

 

"I feel..." Aelyn started. Suddenly her eyes became glassy and rimmed with red. She sniffed and then blinked as a tear fell. "I'm sorry," she croaked. "I don't know how I feel yet."

 

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She felt so little that she wasn't even sure why she was crying. "Maybe you should talk for now," she managed. "What's going to happen?"

 

Struggling, Aelyn tried to regain her composure. She'd been through a lot. The kind of situation most people didn't see in their whole lives. Jedi always knew how to handle this sort of thing. Maybe she could pretend to be okay for long enough to get somewhere and try to make sense of it all. She tried to work up the strength.

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I nodded. "Don't apologize. You've just been through something the likes of you've never been through before. It's alright to not be okay yet." My voice echoed the depths of compassion I was feeling for her. "I've been in your place before. Don't worry. You'll be okay."

 

I sat back as Aelyn asked for information. "Well, clean up will continue, recovery from the attacks. A team of scientists has been assigned to go and study the leviathan. Some here just want to destroy it and be done with it, but others see the value in learning as much as they can about it. When you feel up to it, I'm sure a recommendation from you in either direction will carry a lot of weight." I wondered if she thought the creature should be destroyed. The young woman had a vast deal of compassion, but this was the first time she had been in a place where she had suffered as a result.

 

Just then, a curtain was drawn back from the bed next to Aelyn's, revealing a man that she would recognize. Wayson was clearly injured, but recovering well, no longer hooked up to any machines, his wounds wrapped in clean white bandages. "I thought I heard your voice," he said, his tone relieved. "Looks like you made it through alright."

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"Wayson!?" Aelyn said, sitting upright. A wave of relief washed through her at seeing him well, breaking her numbness, but it was followed by a twinge of shame because she knew that there had been other people who hadn't been as fortunate. She knew that there was nothing wrong with celebrating that someone had lived, though. "I'm so glad you're alive... I thought when the leviathan hit the starfighter..."

 

She chewed her lip absently for a moment. "We have to decide what happens to her," she told him and glanced between him and Aira. She seemed willing enough to put aside her misery for a moment when faced with the problem. "When I was aboard, I encountered her babies in egg sacs. There was... something black being fed into them. I'm worried about them hatching already corrupted by the dark side into a world of torment, and each one growing to be as big and dangerous as their mother. If that happens, Naboo will still be in big trouble and they could continue to kill people even without Maloba and all this would be for nothing."

 

Aelyn looked thoroughly displeased. "Introducing predators the size of space cruisers to any ecosystem is bad news. Master, can you feel in the Force how the planet has been unbalanced?" She didn't admit that she hadn't touched the Force herself since leaving the interior of the monster. Right now she associated it too closely with the fear and loss that she'd experienced. She paused for a moment. "Maybe Maloba can be convinced to help the government find a way to put it down humanely. As much as I don't want there to be any more death, the leviathan can never be as important as people are."

 

She loved peace and hated war, and until she'd come here she'd always been a pacifist, but ultimately an animal was an animal. If the cost of keeping it alive was too high and there was no other solution, they only had one choice, as much as it pained her to admit.

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"Yes," I replied, "I am also concerned about the ecosystem here. We'll wait and see what the scientists recommend. Maybe there is a simple solution that technology can fix. Alternately or additionally, we can try to contact a Jedi Naturalist. It's possible that the Force could 'heal' the young. That might not fix the damage done to the ecosystem, though."

 

"Aelyn's right though," Wayson chimed in. "Keeping that monster alive isn't worth it if it messes other things up."

 

"I agree," I clarified, "but it's not my first choice."

 

Silence fell between the three of us. I could tell Aelyn was really disturbed by what had happened, and while I wanted to give her time to recover, I also knew that sometimes talking things out, while painful, was more helpful in the long run. Besides, I needed to understand what she faced. "Aelyn," I said gently. "We need to talk about what happened. I know you don't want to, but talking will help. Maybe start with what actually occurred, why you made the decisions you made, and we can go from there. What did the Force teach you about being a Jedi Knight through this experience?"

 

I paused. "I can give you until tomorrow if you want, but not much longer than that. It's best to deal with it while it's fresh."

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Aelyn looked down at the sheets, but nodded after a moment. "I barely had time to think through it all..." she started somberly.

 

She chewed her lip again. "Basically I got here and had just started asking questions when it attacked a Gungan mining colony. We -- we got there in time to save a few people and witnessed the creature's attack, but a lot of the miners had already lost their lives. The leviathan had lost a tentacle in the fighting and I used psychometry like you taught me and witnessed Doctor Maloba," she summarized. Her voice was quiet. "We came back here to talked it over until we felt like we had a pretty good idea what was going on, then I called you and went out after it. Wayson and I went ahead... I thought I could protect the fleet by facing it alone. I got hurt getting aboard through a hatch in its mouth, but managed to find Maloba. He... he tried to kill me. I think he was possessed by some dark side spirit."

 

Her eyes grew distant. She felt the ghost of the pain that had been in her shoulder as she recounted the events. "He cut my arm with a weird dagger and it was like I was taken somewhere else for a moment, some kind of dream. Like a big Dejarik Board with pieces that represented people. You were there too. The dark side was strong there, and the spirit that was in Maloba tried to take me. I... fought it and it left, then I made my escape." She looked back at Aira as she finished.

 

"I'm so tired. I never imagined it would be like this." It had easily been the hardest thing she had ever done, and it was all starting to blur together. The Dejarik Board... just what had it been? Some kind of location within the Force, a meta-galaxy presented as a game board? "I've never been so scared, so certain that I was going to die before seeing it through. But I... I guess I sort of accepted that and decided to do the best I could first."

 

Her lip quivered and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Facing her own mortality had been in the moment the only thing she could have done. Now she thought about the uncertainty of death, how her parents might have reacted if Aira had had to tell them she'd died, how scared she had been and how unbelievable it was that she was still here. It all seemed too much, and yet there were so many other people who hadn't made it out, whose families would be dealing now with a very real grief that had just only been spared her parents. "I wish I could have done more."

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It wasn't a detailed report, but I was able to fill in the details with what the Naboo commanders had told me. Of course, they knew nothing about what Aelyn had faced inside the beast. As she spoke, I suddenly remembered my first combat experience. I had been so sickened by the death I felt through the Force that I could barely function, and it had only been the attitudes of those around me that had helped me. With a start, I realized that I was probably that person now. This being a master thing still felt so new sometimes.

 

"You're still a little in shock," I began, searching for the words to say. "That's normal. And it's normal to feel guilty for making it out alive when others didn't. But rarely is a situation all or nothing. Some people almost always survive. And it's not their fault for doing so." I paused, getting the feeling I was going about this all wrong. "Look, what I'm trying to say is this: Do you feel like you did everything you could when you were in the moment? Do you feel like you gave your everything to save the most people?" I placed a hand on her knee. "You said you've never been so scared, but you acted anyway. You acted despite that fear. You accepted that you might die, but you knew you could still save others, and that was enough for you. Those are the actions of a true Jedi. It's not all brash heroics and razor-sharp diplomacy--you know that by now. It's the every day, every moment striving to do what is right for the most amount of people, regardless of the cost to you. But that also doesn't mean you're reckless. It means knowing that sometimes the right move is retreating, living to fight another day, even if it feels like putting yourself first. Because it's not. Sometimes the role the Force asks of us is to be symbols of hope. And if you die, hope dies with you."

 

I realized I was rambling, and I winced slightly. "I'm just saying--it sounds like you did everything you could, and everything the Force asked of you. That's all we can ever do."

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She didn't look too convinced, but Aelyn at least appreciated that Aira was trying to make her feel better. Living to fight another day sounded practical for someone with the ability to save potentially many other lives in the future, but how could she possibly decide when it wasn't worth trying to save someone? This stuff was really complicated, and there was no clear line between a wise retreat and cowardice... not without clear knowledge of her limits. She wasn't sure she would ever know the answer, and part of her wasn't convinced she ever wanted to try to find it.

 

Aelyn leaned back onto the hospital bed. "I need time to think about all of this," she said at last. "Thank you for being here, Aira. And you, Wayson." She looked up at the man. "You should get back to your family."

 

The Jedi apprentice looked down at her hands resting on the edge of the bed sheet, reminded that the leviathan was still out there, still a danger. Maybe she was being a coward right now, not going back out there again to finish what she started. Being out there had been harrowing, but being sidelined while waiting to hear what happened would be a different kind of torture.

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There was much I could say, and was tempted to say. But the look in Aelyn's eyes reminded me that if I didn't stop treating her like my padawan, she'd never become a knight of her own. "Alright," I said, nodding. "Take a few days. I'm going to coordinate with the Naboo to make sure everything is under control. I'll make sure they keep you updated as well. Then I need to report to the Council; they need to know what happened here."

 

Rising, I turned to go, but then turned back. "Just so you know, you handled that situation like a true Jedi Knight," I said softly. Then I was gone.

 

---

 

The next day was busy. Cleanup was proceeding well, and the scientists had already begun to study the leviathan, promising a recommendation of action to the planetary governments in three days' time. The cities that had been hit would take longer to rebuild, but both the Gungans and the humans were determined, and I knew that by working together, they'd accomplish much quickly. I also made a few calls, securing a small but appreciated contribution of the Jedi's assets to help rebuild.

 

My next call was to the Council, detailing everything Aelyn had done, and what I had taught her. "With your approval," I finished, "I would like to recommend her for knighthood." It was a proud moment for me. I wasn't going to push it on her unless she chose this life, but I wanted to be prepared if she did decide to continue on this path. And despite it being cliche, there really was nothing else I could teach her. She had already surpassed me.

 

My good mood didn't last however. Breaking holonews reports indicated that the Sith had attacked Kashyyyk en masse. My heart grew heavy as I witnessed images of the wroshyrs burning. I knew the Jedi were going to do something if they could, but given how there had been no warning, it was unlikely we could get there in time to help significantly. It wouldn't prevent us trying, though.

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Captain of the Galactic Alliance & Jedi Knight

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Soon Aelyn was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health: it didn't take much bacta to mend what injuries she had sustained. She considered for a short time taking her leave of Naboo and returning to Coruscant and her parents for a period of self-reflection, but she wanted to be close by since the situation with the leviathan wasn't yet resolved, and she had honestly always wanted to spend some time on Naboo to take in its natural beauty. The government set her up with accommodations which were more than sufficient -- they were lovely.

 

At first she thought she would linger in that room and try to get herself right, but as soon as she'd settled in and the initial wonder of a new environment had worn off, she began to find it too stately. Too dignified, perhaps, and thus not at all suitable. Not long after she retreated to the Open Road, her ship which was almost completely unremarkable except for its familiarity. She tried to raise her parents on the holocommunicator, but for whatever reason they were unable to answer. No great surprise, really, given that her father was a prominent GA ambassador who no doubt had his hands full as the threat of war swept across the galaxy and worlds changed allegiance according to their interests.

 

But the result was that she was left alone with her thoughts and her ship. She moved into her cabin and sat down next to her collection of keepsakes. Over the years she had gathered mementos from places she had been and friends she had made. Many of them were simple things. Trinkets, gifts, notes scrawled freehand on flimsi, or holos. Each she had deeply linked with a memory of the person or group of people with which it was associated. Usually, when she sat among these objects and reminisced fondly, it always seemed to calm her down and soothe her nerves. It reminded her what was important, and whatever she was going through, there were always people -- good people -- out there that cared about her and she would always care about.

 

Only this time it didn't quite work. When she picked up an object, she saw something from a past life. The girl who had been there with those people, playing a pickup match with that pazaak deck in the basement beneath the corner store after hours, was gone. Maybe she hadn't made it out of the leviathan, or maybe she had even died before that. She had been replaced by a doppelganger, and the new one was still trying to figure out who she was. She had been born out of conflict and didn't really know how to be normal.

 

Exhausted, Aelyn gave up on trying to solve this new riddle and went to bed. In the morning she set out on foot, dressed in comfortable clothes that in no way expressed any affiliation with the Jedi Order, leaving her lightsaber on the ship. She headed directly away from Theed and out into the fair green country beyond, not set on any deliberate purpose or direction. The natural world was beautiful and she allowed herself to be caught up in its splendor, her attention far away from the troubles lurking in the back on her mind. Out here, she didn't have to be anyone, she could simply exist.

 

Sadly it couldn't last long as her stomach drew her back into Theed and she settled for the comfortable routine of finding a place to eat, selecting something which seemed appetizing, and eating quietly and generally thoughtlessly. The food was good; this simple fact reminded her of herself. She would not say she was motivated by such simple pleasures, but when they could be afforded where was the harm? Did it not equip her to better set out again to accomplish some more difficult task?

 

Aelyn thought on such things as she wandered Theed, for the moment heeding not the siren's song of the solitude of the Open Road. People of all sorts walked these streets, and today was no exception. Some felt safer now that the news was out that Doctor Maloba was in custody. There was a lot of uncertainty still surrounding the leviathan, although it had not attacked a sentient colony in the last day and it was unclear if it would do so without the mad scientist's sense of vengeance to drive it.

 

At one point Aelyn was recognized from the news holos despite her lack of Jedi robes. She was praised for the heroic part she played in the affair, but she still did not feel like the heroine. She accepted the compliments as gracefully and humbly as she could while giving credit to the government forces that had been the backbone of the operation, then moved off again to resume her wandering. It was odd, she thought, that everyone believed so readily that she had succeeded so dramatically, and even Aira had told her that what she had done was befitting of a Jedi Knight. Perhaps the news had painted her in a flattering light, or she had withheld from her story to Aira the moments in which she had failed.

 

When her path took her nearest to the Open Road's hangar she allowed herself to succumb to its call at last. Sweaty and a bit gross from her time out under the sun, Aelyn decided to take a sanisteam which went on for longer than she'd planned. The water reminded her of the ocean under which she had fought for her life, but she held herself within it anyway, prolonging the sensation simply to experience something other than the detached emptiness with which she had comported herself that day.

 

It was then, sitting on the floor of the sanisteam with the water running over her, that she allowed herself to again touch the Force. Far from the expected tumultuous lake of death and uncertainty she had felt in the heat of battle, she found instead a heartbeat. Steady. Unwavering. Single minded purpose, the knowledge of good and evil, harmony and chaos. The splendor of Naboo and the universe in which it played its part. The tide was coming in. The birds were migrating. The next planet over was nearing. The cosmos ran in perfect synchronization, a vast dance more complex than she could ever comprehend, but in the Force she could glimpse it and know that she was a part of it.

 

She rose and stood before the mirror, meeting her own eyes. Her pale skin was flushed from the heat of the water and the refresher was full of steam. Her thin body looked to her a bit gaunt in her weariness, her wet hair plastered against it. A plain shell at odds with the universe that had for a moment dwelt within her mind.

 

A universe that despite all appearances was not ambivalent. The door to the refresher slid open and Aelyn felt the cool air from her cabin rush in. With it came her lightsaber and soon she grasped it. It seemed so alive -- an object with more personality than any trinket she had before acquired. It buzzed with purpose and responsibility that she could not ignore.

 

Maybe she had failed to do everything she could have. Maybe she had played exactly the part the cosmos had ordained for her here on Naboo. She couldn't turn her back on it just because it had been hard.

 

Aelyn put on her Jedi robes and called Aira, asking if they could meet somewhere when the other Jedi had a minute.

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"Sounds like you've been learning a lot." Apollo's face hovered before me as a gentle zephyr blew through the open doors of the balcony in my quarters. "Is it exhausting?"

 

"Some days," he replied. "But in a good way. I've been given a new chance to change who I was and become more."

 

I smiled. "How about friends? Making any good connections?"

 

"A few," he said, returning my smile. "These are good people. We trust each other. But how about you? How's it going with Aelyn?"

 

I filled him in, then fell silent for a moment. "I'm going to miss her," I admitted to him. "I don't know what my role really is in the Order. If I'm no longer her master, what do I become?"

 

"Only you can answer that question, Aira."

 

I nodded. "I know."

 

Just then, my comm signaled that another call was coming in, so I said farewell to Apollo and switched over. Aelyn's red mane and freckles filled the holo, asking me to meet her. "Sure thing," I replied. "How about the Apailana Tea House? It's two streets away from the palace."

 

Aelyn agreed, and I shut off my comm. Rising, I straightened my tabards, and secreted my lightsaber away in an interior pocket. It was a warm enough day that I decided to forego my robes. Heading out, I made my way to the tea house. Scanning the room, I noticed that I had beaten my apprentice there, so I grabbed us a table by the window and ordered a sampler of three local teas as I waited.

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Captain of the Galactic Alliance & Jedi Knight

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Wayson returned to his family in short order, which was contacting his parents, siblings and extended family, being something of a bachelor, unable to believe his luck, or was it fate, the Force, and all that allowing him to survive the attack on his ship. Given everything he witnessed, he wasn't exactly a believer, but he started to have faith in the Force, that maybe, just maybe there was something out there that balanced the cosmic scales, and helped those who wanted to do right by others against the face of such overwhelming evil.

 

He remembered a story from a Gungan rogue by the name of Rem'oh, who in the Clone Wars, saved his domed city from a bomb planted by the Trade Federation. He'd saved the city and asked why he did it, just gave this response. "I just risked my life to save people I hate, for reasons I don't fully understand." Yet he was a hero all the same. Wayson looked up to Aelyn, who risked more, saved more, and understood those personal reasons. Could he... should he do any less?

 

He spent time reviewing data obtained from Maloba's files and was disturbed. Not just at what was taken to produce such a creature, and the destructive aims he'd had in trying to create such a beast, but the veiled references within the data that Maloba had to other experiments conducted by his mysterious "benefactor" in creating the monstrosity. Wayson looked out over the top of his computer, glancing out at the ocean through a near-by window. Blue and vast, one sea threatened by this. He thought long about what Aelyn said, about being a mere liberal arts student who became something more through the grace of the Force. He'd never be a Jedi, but he had training as a peacekeeper and military man. If he could protect Naboo's seas, could he do more to protect the starfilled seas of space above?

 

Inspired, the answer was a firm yes!

 

*****

 

Elsewhere in Theed in a backroom, a trio of Gungans sat across the table from a man in a white hood and robe. The hood concealed his face, preventing it from being seen.

 

"Wessa disappointed, very disappointed, messa," the lead Gungan, sitting in the middle said, trying to sound cross and firm, but sounding intimidated all the same.

 

"I am Marlowe White," the man continued in a soft voice, smooth and low, but also with a hint of durasteel hardness underneath. "But you know that, don't you? And you should be grateful you received what you got."

 

The two Gungans off to the side stiffened. This venture was profitable, but not nearly as profitable as they'd hoped. It involved commodities market manipulations, buying up plasma features in the lead up to the mad Gungan's attacks, then selling them off as the crisis reached its apex. They hadn't fully unloaded their assets when Maloba and his creature were stopped.

 

The lead Gungan tried to stare down White, but the white hooded figure lifted his head, and for a moment a flash of blue could be seen. The Gungan backed down, chewing his lip, admitting defeat. He suspected who Marlowe was an agent of, and did not feel inclined to argue.

 

"I'll expect my commission for this generous tip," Marlowe continued. "Wired to the usual broker account. Good-day, gentlemen," he said, rising up and leaving, openly turning his back on the three Gungan gangsters.

 

As "Marlowe White" departed Theed, he tried to take in what he could about the Jedi he'd heard about, the child that thwarted his plan. It wasn't a complete failure, even if a useful tool like Maloba was lost, as he still profited from it. There would be time to sync back up with his other selves, and there were always, always more plans waiting in the wings. All the same, it was a padawan from what he'd picked up.. or a stripling of a child that was a padawan, now a knight. He found the irony in a child like that being the instrument to thwart his designs, but as much as he hated it, even if he could no longer feel it, he acknowledged the will of the Living Force, bearing no grudge against her for her role in this.

 

"Oh, child," he murmured aloud to himself as he departed Naboo. "Welcome to the Jedi Order in earnest. Welcome to the great game board of Light and Dark. Do not think this marks the end... Your battles are just truly beginning..."

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

 

-William Shakespeare

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In her robes Aelyn drew a little more attention as she approached the tea house. The decision she'd made hadn't immediately chased away all her doubts, fears, and troubles, but by accepting that exposure to uncertainty was a part of the life she'd chosen and realizing that the Force could user her to accomplish great good in the galaxy if only she was willing to open herself to its will was in a way liberating. It would take her more time to discover what exactly her life would look like from here, and she had no idea how long a life of sacrifice would last, but she knew what she had to do and as long as she aligned herself with it at all times, she could just take things as they came.

 

She smiled when she saw Aira waiting for her. "Good choice -- I love tea!" she said as she took a seat across from her Master. Her lightsaber dangled noticeably from her belt.

 

"Um, so, I realized I never answered one of your questions from yesterday," she transitioned after glancing at the menu only briefly. "You asked what I learned about being a Jedi from all of this. Now that I've had a day to think it over, I have an answer.

 

"I learned how to listen to it -- I mean really listen to it -- and obey. I think what you told me all the way back when I was first starting rings true. You said that the Force interacts with each Jedi a little differently and has a purpose for us that might not be the same as someone else's," she continued. "But I was charged with a responsibility for this place and the Force empowered me to do something about Doctor Maloba. I had to be willing to be bigger than myself in order to uphold its purpose. I learned out of necessity to let go."

 

She allowed a half smile. "And that's why I want to keep going. I've realized just how important this purpose is, and nothing else will do."

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Aelyn got right down to it. I sipped my tea as she spoke, then smiled as she came to her decision. "Then you've learned the truth at the heart of being a Jedi: it's bigger than us. A Jedi doesn't fuss over glory or heroics. She doesn't even care if she is called a hero. She stays and keeps her head down and does her work. She sticks with it after losing everything, over and over again, because the welfare of others matters more than her individual loss and pain. She doesn't make sacrifice plays unless they're going to count. She cares deeply about making things the best they can be for those around her. Even if that makes it hard for her. She lets go of her own interest and focuses on how she can best be a servant to the will of the Force. The Force will confer on you great burdens. To act without forethought and deliberation now is impossible, for a single misstep can spell disaster. You will make mistakes, but you will need to do what you can to minimize their impact." I paused. "It's no longer enough to do the greatest good for the greatest number; you have to do the best for everyone."

 

I set down my tea and scooted my chair closer to her, so that I could place my hand on her shoulder. "Jedi have always opposed those who revel in evil and seek power for the sake of power. In the absence of the Jedi, evil thrives. But in the presence of just one Jedi, evil can evaporate. Aelyn, you have faced many trials in our time together. You have shown skill, insight, and courage. You have overcome hardship, and helped others do the same. And you faced the temptation of the dark side."

 

I took a deep breath. "As of this moment, you are a Jedi. You are heir to a tradition that extends back thousands of generations. You are an agent of life, peace, and justice--every day, every second, for as long as you live. And it is my honor to be the first to welcome you fully into the Order as an equal. Congratulations, Knight Talis."

 

My heart swelled with pride at how far she had come. She was ready for this. I had no doubt. But it was also a bittersweet moment. I had enjoyed training her, getting to know her, seeing the Jedi she was becoming. And now, it was likely our paths would separate. I would certainly see her again, but one never knew when that time would come. Despite the mixed feelings, I smiled warmly at her. "You're a much better Jedi than I ever was. Thank you for letting me train you."

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Captain of the Galactic Alliance & Jedi Knight

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