Recollections of a Life in Exile/Story (2024)

We called it the Secret Temple...It’s been there for many years, and it’s still there. Only we knew about it, and that’s how we all survived, basically. It wasn’t much more than a basement under an old abandoned house, where we all used to hide the fact of our existence. But to us, during those dark times, it was home. Our home. It was a place for the young people to learn, to watch them grow, and for us to all be safe while the rest of the Galaxy raged with terror. So it’s been over twenty years since this all started.

You see, a Temple isn’t just a great, majestic building – it’s the people that make it – the Masters, the instructors, the younglings, the padawans, all together, and the spirit and traditions that live on because of them.

You want to hear the story of how we survived here, apparently unseen, for so long?

Well, if you really want to hear it…

You’re probably wondering how we survived Order 66 in the first place. That’s really where our story began.

The Sith have always said that compassion is the Jedi’s greatest weakness. But truly it is our greatest strength. And ironically, compassion is what saved our small group from the Sith. You see, my Master wasn’t involved in the Clone Wars. Instead he mainly helped law enforcement, both on Coruscant and out in the Galaxy.

Like any good investigator, he had regular informants. And through wandering through the lower levels of wealthy and beautiful Coruscant he happened upon a community of homeless people. They lived way down below on the planet’s surface, where the light almost never shines. Down below, where there is filth and poverty, there he found a colony – an actual village – of various beings living on the edge of society.

These events took place about a year after I had been knighted, but my Master and I still often worked together, and I still went with him as often as I was able. I had gotten to know some of the people down below near the surface where they all resided, and I couldn’t just forget about them.

And so after discovering their sad existence, he took it upon himself to bring them food and necessities as often as he could. The kitchens in the Temple had more than enough, he knew, and out of pity for their horrible condition in life, he went down to the lower levels to see to their needs for food or medicine or whatever else he could help them with. I didn’t want him to go down there alone, and so I went with him. Being young and naïve at that time, I was shocked to see beings living in such conditions below such a wealthy and sophisticated society. We all knew that poverty existed in the Galaxy, but we didn’t know that it existed just less than perhaps a kilometer from the Temple itself. Soon some other padawans began to join us – friends of mine who heard of what we were doing and who at first came along because they were curious. They were as shocked as I was to see creatures living in such deprivation, but there they were – young and old, some Human, some not Human: some Twi’leks, some Rodians, a Duros, a Shistavanen, a sad looking Givin, a Lasat…all kinds of beings that I can remember living down there…and the lower levels were dangerous. Yes we were Jedi, and yes we always carried our traditional weapons, our lightsabers. But still, the dark regions of Coruscant were dangerous for anyone. I was glad when Sifra decided to come down with us. They say no one in their right mind will mess with a Jedi, and I say no one in their right mind will mess with a Cathar Jedi. Even I wouldn’t mess with Sifra.

We would go to them, carrying food, blankets, medicine, and whatever we could gather and bring with us. We took the time to get to know them, hear their individual stories of how they ended up down below, in the underworld.

When Order 66 came, it was total devastation, as you know. But when it happened, that’s where we all were. We were in the village of the homeless beings. That’s how we survived. We were about to go back when we got the message – Our Order had fallen, and the Republic along with it. Do not return to the Temple. We didn’t want to believe it at first, but then we saw the smoke coming from the direction of the Temple. There was nothing we could do.

We all felt their deaths. It was heart wrenching. But then, what else would it be? Imagine – everything you lived for, worked for, believed in, and people who were like family to you – gone.

But never mind. I’ll continue on with the story and you’ll know how it all turned out.

There now remained the four of us who had gone down to the homeless camp on the horrible night of Order 66 – myself, my Master, Shen Everfrost, Sifra, and another young padawan, Lippisarra Clairvoy – we all called her Lippi. Three Humans and a Cathar. Lippi wanted to run back to see if her own Master had survived, but Master Shen wouldn’t let her go. He held her back and told her that her Master would want her to live, to carry on and honor his memory. It was the right thing to do. There was nothing left for any of us to do that night but to hang on desperately to survival.

And so our friends hid us. We become as one with them. And we were all homeless now, too. We were wanted fugitives now as well.

And it was the first time we ever truly knew hunger and desperation. As the food that we had brought down to them ran out, we soon discovered what they had been living off before we started visiting them – the various types of vermin that roam below the city. Terrible to look at but not bad when cooked over a fire.

We tossed our Jedi robes away and we were given old tattered and filthy clothing to wear. Not very pleasant, but a decent enough disguise. We found ways to hide our lightsabers, for instance the torn lining of an old jacket I was given made a sort of pocket. Sifra hid hers in an old leather satchel that she discovered in a trash bin.

How did our original group of four survivors become six? I’ll get to that soon.

But here we all were, wearing rags and living below the beautiful city. But at least we were living. I don’t know how long we existed like that. One day seemed to just merge into another. It was often impossible to keep clean, to keep warm, or to find enough to eat. If we didn’t catch vermin, we didn’t eat for that night.

One of our friends told of rumors of a way to get off Coruscant. We soon learned that the homeless beings actually networked with each other – messengers travelled between their camps and makeshift villages. There was a group, they said, now dedicated to helping fugitives to get offworld. The rumor was that there was another surviving Jedi within this group. We were grateful to our friends for the help we had been given, but we knew we had to go. We asked the messenger to try and reach out, find out who they were and how to get in touch with these people. They said it might be difficult to find them, but they would keep trying. It gave us a small amount of hope, and hope was precious and rare during those dark times.

But then later on there was another rumor. A strange child was found – a Human boy. Some said he had run away from home, others said his parents disowned him. He was with another group of unfortunates – that is, in another camp of homeless. They said it was a half day’s travel by foot. Something was different about this kid, they said. He claimed to see things. The chief of the camp we were residing in suggested, “Maybe he’s one of yours?” We had to check it out.

I volunteered to go. Sifra volunteered to go with me. I didn’t argue. The lower levels were pretty ugly, and she’s the one you want on your side in a fight.

So we went. I remember it was good to be walking, traveling. Moving along can take one’s mind off what’s happening. But then you see stormtroopers everywhere. Back then they were clones, I recall. It was a long time ago. When they passed by, I was glad we were dressed in rags so we wouldn’t be recognized.

From a distance we could see a holovid screen showing the news. Now the Jedi were supposed to be traitors or some such karking nonsense. We listened as we walked by, pretending not to pay attention, of course. Palpatine was making a speech and going on and on…we wondered if he was behind all of it. But now we know. Of course he was.

We arrived at our destination. They were expecting us. It surprised me how well organized the people were. They were homeless and deprived of the most basic of necessities, and yet they had somehow formed a society beneath the society, unnoticed and unseen. I knew we could learn from this, if we were to survive.

As I said, they were expecting us. They had a young boy who apparently tucked himself away into an empty packing crate as if to hide from every other being that prowled the lower levels. They said he went in there by himself; they didn’t put him there. I went to have a look. His face was slightly dirty and I could see streams from dried tears. He looked like he had been crying and simply ran out of tears. The scared and broken look on his face still haunts me to this day. I needed to know what had happened to him.

It was suggested he might have been “one of ours.” I did not recognize him from the Temple. But there were so many of us before the disaster, so I might not have ever noticed him. I called out to him and asked him to come out. He didn’t move. I knew that if he did come from the Temple he probably would have come out when told to.

But there was something about him. And I wasn’t going to leave him there.

The apparent leader of this group that discovered this child came over and laughed and suggested I just “make him come out of there.” I said he would come out of his own free will when he was ready. I then wondered how the kriff long that would take.

Sifra reached into her satchel and took out a sweetcake she had hidden. It must have been from the food we brought with us when we came down from the Temple, “I kept this,” she said. “Give it to him.”

Of course he took it and ate it. He ate it like he hadn’t eaten in days, and maybe he hadn’t. Eventually I was able to coax him out. This is how we found Niklas Galinor. We just call him Nik now. But he was just a scared, lost kid back then. I took him back to the shantytown where we had been staying. He was so exhausted I ended up carrying him half of the way back. No, he wasn’t from the Temple. By the way he was dressed he wasn’t from the streets either. He looked like he came from an upper class, well to do family. But what was he doing hiding out in the lower levels? When he finally started talking – and that took awhile – he said that he left home to find the Jedi Temple.

“What made you want to do that?” I asked.

“I dunno,” he said.

“Well, there must have been a reason?” I said.

He claimed his family didn’t want him.

“Why wouldn’t they want you?” I was fast discovering that getting a straight answer out of a kid wasn’t easy.

“I guess ‘cause things happen when I’m around.”

“Like what?

“I dunno,” he said again.

“Oh come on,” I said, “You must know something.”

“And sometimes I see strange stuff.”

“Okay, is that why you thought you should find the Jedi Temple?”

“But then when I found it…”

“I know,” I sighed. The kid had been crying, and now I wanted to cry too. But I couldn’t. I had to get him to where he could be safe, with us. “We know all about it.”

He looked back at Sifra who was following along behind, making sure we weren’t being watched, “Who’s that?”

I guessed that if he was from the upper levels, and at his young age, maybe he didn’t see many non-Humans, “That’s my friend Sifra. She’s very nice. She won’t let anything happen to you.” Then I decided to try and find out where he was from, so I asked, “Where did you come from?”

He just pointed to up above, the tall buildings where the wealthy tend to dwell. I figured as much. His parents were probably worried sick, but then he had said they didn’t want him. I doubted that, but then again with all that was going on in the Galaxy…

He looked down and noticed my lightsaber, “Are you gonna take me to the other Knights?”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go back to your parents? It might be dangerous to be a Jedi right now.” I didn’t know how much he could understand.

“No!”

“Alright,” I agreed, but still I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with him. We no longer had any decent food, and the shelter was down a dark alleyway filled with makeshift tents and old packing crates. I realized that one, he may be Force sensitive, and two, he had some kind of trouble at home, and three, he would need protection from whatever caused the disaster that destroyed the Temple. How he was never tested and brought to the Temple in the first place was a mystery to be solved later. It was a long walk back to where we were camped out, and he fell asleep as I carried him.

When we arrived back I set him down in one of the fragile tents that the homeless people had made. They had found an old mattress that someone had thrown out, so he slept there for a while. I wished I hadn’t tossed my robe in a trash bin, so that I could put it over him to keep him warm.

Some members of the community – that’s what I called the people of this homeless camp – had gone hunting in the dark mag-lev tunnels down below. They caught and killed some kind of vermin; I’ll never know the species. They said it was edible. It was. Did it taste good? No. This was how they survived, however. I saved a piece of meat for the boy, and when he finally awakened I made sure he had something to eat. He must have been hungry because he didn’t complain. I then found a container of drinking water that someone kept and borrowed it to wash his face. He still had dirty streaks from the dried tears leftover from wherever he came from.

At that time, I felt that we didn’t have much to offer him. There I saw him, sleeping on a mattress that some well to do being from the city’s upper levels tossed out possibly because it just got a little old, and seeing him eat food that we weren’t certain was good for him. But more than a decade later, when he was near grown into a man, I was shocked to hear him say that it was the first time in his life that he felt safe, and that someone cared about him, and that finally he found a place where he belonged. But never mind. I’ll continue with how things were back then…

After Nik had something to eat, Master Shen came along to find out what he could, and after a short while agreed with me that the child was Force sensitive. As to what to do about him, I did not know. Our Temple was suddenly in ruins, we were all wanted for treason, and we could be the only Jedi left in the Galaxy.

“We need to pass on our knowledge and traditions,” Master Shen declared.

“I know, but we can’t even offer him decent food and shelter,” I said.

“We must not let our Order die in this darkness.”

I agreed, but I knew it would be hard, even if that was what the boy truly wanted.

Master Shen then told me he would take it upon himself to complete Sifra’s and Lippi’s training, and so that meant it was up to me. I wasn’t sure I was ready for this responsibility, but I didn’t decline. I needed something to do besides sit in a filthy tent in a dark alley and hunt vermin for dinner.

But first I needed to find out more about his background. It turned out he was born in the outer rim. So if he was from outside the Republic, that could be why he was never tested. His parents moved to Coruscant for his father’s job. The boy couldn’t fully articulate what his father did for a job, but apparently it was something important. Probably something to do with the Senate – one of many aides or assistants hanging on to and following around important beings hoping to attain some kind of importance themselves. His father was always shouting, and his mother was always crying. He had no friends. They had not bothered to enroll him in any schools since their arrival. When his parents argued sometimes strange things happened. The draperies in their apartment caught on fire once. And another time pottery fell off shelves and smashed. It frightened him, but his father frightened him even more. His father called him a freak. It was a sad story, but then I agreed he was better off with us, even in the miserable state we were all in. And I began to sadly understand why the Order removed children from their homes at such a young age. It was probably better for them that way.

I got Master Shen alone and asked if Nik’s past could lead him down a dark path one day?

“Possibly, but not if we watch over him carefully. After all,” he said, “A poor slave boy from Tatooine was taken at around age ten and look what a good success he turned out to be. He always pined away for his mother, however. But otherwise he was a great success.” Master Shen continued on, “Our Order has been devastated. We need young people if we are to have any future. This small child is a gift of the Force.”

And so I took it upon myself to train him. I enjoyed spending time with him, finding out what he could do and teaching him to control his latent ability. In a short time he was able to levitate small things. I was pleased with his progress. He did seem sad and lost at times. He finally said it: He missed his mother.

“Do you want to go home?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you certain you are sure? Because some day, Nik, we might have to leave this planet and go somewhere far away. Somewhere safe. And you won’t get another chance to change your mind.”

“I want to stay with you!”

“Okay.” I was somewhat skeptical. I knew he missed his mother. His father I realized probably frightened him. I hoped that wouldn’t become a problem in his future. But we continued on, and he was a fast learner. He had a lot of ability. I realized that in a way, it was good that he wasn’t tested and brought to the Temple to begin with, because if he had been, he most likely would not have survived the tragedy that took so many innocent lives.

When the boy slept the four of us would sit around in the dark, near the campfire that had been lit in a trashcan, and discuss his future and ours. We all agreed that if we could ever rebuild the Order in some way, we would need to make that attempt far from Coruscant. At that time Master Shen was finally wondering out loud if Chancellor Palpatine – now Emperor Palpatine – was a Sith. There had been rumors going around during the last days of the Temple that the Sith, long thought defeated, were back and about to show themselves. We wondered how many Jedi may have survived, and what their fate would be. It was a dark time for us all. I also realized that it was better for Nik to be with us, even in the miserable state we were in, rather than let him be found by the Sith and possibly turned into one of them. Nik had a lot of sadness in his young life, and that could lead him into darkness. But if he was with us, we could at least watch over him.

Finally Master Shen told us that contact had been made with the underground group that aided fugitives from the Empire. And yes, it was true – one of their members was a surviving Jedi. We hoped he would come with us, but Master Shen said that he was determined to remain on Coruscant to continue to help the downtrodden. But our arrangements were being made. We could get far away to the Outer Rim. We now had hope. We could perhaps start over. We just needed to stay alive long enough to board the ship that would take us out there.

Finally we met with them. I will not give their names. Even though it’s been a long time, the Empire still being a force for evil in the Galaxy, they may still be fugitives themselves. There were three of them – the Jedi, a nervous little Sullustan, and an annoying droid with an attitude.

The Jedi said he was glad to see at least four of us survive. I told him about how we were down on these lower level streets when it all happened. It was our compassion for others that saved us, he said. He looked over toward Nik. I told him he was found on the streets also. He said he found a young runaway himself, but the Inquisitors had gotten ahold of him. He told me to keep a watch on Nik, and not to let him out of our sight while on Coruscant. I promised to heed his warning. Then I thanked him for all he was doing for us. He said he was glad to help, and glad to see some of us make it off this world, before it was too late. He would be back in several nights’ time to collect us all and stash us on a freighter. The captain was saved from pirates by Jedi once, and was willing to take the risk. He left, the droid and Sullustan following along.

I went to tell Nik, “This is our chance. We can get off this world. Start over somewhere.”

He seemed happy, but then suddenly sad again.

“I know. You’ll miss your mother. You can still change your mind, all the way until the night we finally board that ship,” I said.

“No. I think I really want to do this. But I do miss my mom.”

“I know.” I hoped he would be okay once we left, and then I said, “The food will probably be better on the ship anyway.” I also hoped the ship would have decent facilities. The four of us had learned how difficult it was to keep oneself decently clean while living down with the homeless.

One night he woke up and began to actually cry for his mother. But he also said he knew she was out there, somewhere looking for him. This came on quite suddenly and so I knew it might be true – she might actually be out in the dangerous city, wandering alone, looking for Nik. We had to do something.

“Where is she? Do you know where she could be right now?”

He described what he saw in his dream. She was wandering around the ruins of the Temple, searching every corner, looking in desperation for him. That was not good; the area had to be crawling with stormtroopers.

Sifra declared she would go alone, “I will find her.”

I reminded her to be careful. She was the best warrior among us, but still, with everything going on, we all worried for her.

Time passed and we waited. Finally Sifra reappeared with a well dressed and attractive young woman following her. She saw Nik’s mother, wandering around the base of the Temple, being scolded and shoved about by stormtroopers and ordered to move along and threatened with arrest until she collapsed on the street in a state of despair.

Well, here she was. We took her to see Nik. He was thrilled to see her. We knew we couldn’t separate them after that. It just wouldn’t be right. But Nik wanted to be with us and leave with us when we finally got offworld. We got together in a quiet place to have a discussion about it. Master Shen simply said, “Well? We have to make a decision.” Sifra spoke up first and stated the obvious, “She knows about us. They are hunting for us, and she knows about us. If we leave her here, she might talk.” But Lippi said, “He’s not an infant. He won’t forget her so easily. It will just hurt the both of them too much. It wouldn’t be right. Master, can’t we let her come with us?” I agreed with Lippi, “It isn’t traditional, but at this point, and with everything that’s happening, I don’t think it would be right to separate them. And with the Jedi Council most likely all gone, who will tell us no?”

It was decided she could come with us, for as long as she did not interfere with Nik’s training. Master Shen didn’t have the heart to separate them, and neither did I. He recalled how the boy from Tatooine was always sad for his mother, even though he became one of the most powerful Jedi ever known. We talked while Nik spent time with his mother, and we both wondered what had happened to Anakin Skywalker. We wondered if he had been tragically killed also?

Master Shen had to go and speak with Nik’s mother – Venza – and explain what was to happen, that we were planning to leave Coruscant and find a safe home and take Nik with us, and that she could come and stay with us for as long as she didn’t interfere...

“You are going to what?! Who are you people, and what are you doing with my son? I don’t even know who you people are! Aren’t you some kind of cult? And furthermore, isn’t that stuff you’re teaching my son against the law now?”

Then Nik started crying again.

But Master Shen calmed them down. I heard them speaking more quietly, and then, “Do you think you can fix what’s wrong with Nik?”

“Venza,” he said, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with Niklas. He is a very talented young boy with a lot of potential. We would like to help him learn to use his abilities. Force sensitive children need to be carefully taught to use their abilities properly. And we have made arrangements to leave this world and go elsewhere. He wants to come with us. He deserves an opportunity. Don’t take it away from him now.” And then he silently walked away from her.

She sat quietly in the makeshift tent with Nik and looked very much out of place in the homeless camp. Everyone else was in rags and she wore a blue shimmersilk gown and matching hooded cloak and matching boots. She looked like she was dressed to attend a high class function or event. I shouldn’t have felt this way, but it annoyed me that she came down to our camp dressed like royalty, while we could barely find food and a decent place to sleep. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I went over to talk to her.

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, “He said you won’t take him from me.”

I knew she just needed reassurance, “That’s the decision we have made. You know, Nik has been telling me he hasn’t been happy at home. I’ll understand if you’re upset, and I know it looks like we don’t have much to offer, but I really think he would be better off with us.”

Nik was now happily levitating some pieces of stuffing that had come out of the torn mattress.

“It’s his father,” she said, gazing with disgust at the dirty old mattress that Nik now had for a bed, and then with shock when she noticed bits and pieces floating around in the air. “He’s always hated the Jedi. And now he hates Nik because…well, you know.”

“Why does his father hate the Jedi?” I asked. It seemed like everyone hated the Jedi in those days, everyone except the people who were risking their own safety to help hide us.

“He told me a Jedi sent his own father to jail.”

“Well, if someone goes to jail, then maybe he did something wrong.”

She said, “His father was a pirate and a slaver. So I guess that’s why the Jedi put him in prison.”

“Do you approve of piracy and slavery?

“No. And I don’t approve of how Nik’s father has been treating him. When strange things happen at our apartment, Orson just locks him in his room and leaves him there. I don’t want to go back to him, either. I was visiting relatives offworld and came home and Orson – that’s my husband – he said Nik disappeared. He then said if we ever found him we’d have to turn him over to the Empire, and that we couldn’t keep a child like Nik. He said we would have to get rid of him anyway. Having a child like this would be an embarrassment, he said. It could ruin his career. I came home and Nik had just run away. I ran out the door and went looking. I sort of figured where he might be. But troopers are all over the place. Now they say you all tried to murder the Supreme Chancellor, who is now the Emperor. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know anything about this stuff. And I just don’t know what to do now.”

“We don’t know anything about this alleged plot to kill Palpatine, either. If it’s true, which I doubt, we weren’t involved in it. Master Shen says you can come with us. We’re going as far away from Coruscant as we can get. We’re going to try and start over somewhere else. It will be hard, and we don’t have much. All we have is each other. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather return to stay with your relatives?”

“No. That’s the first place Orson would look for me.”

“Wherever we are going, we won’t be wealthy. We’ll look after each other and survive, but it won’t be easy.”

Then she looked up at me and said, “I could sell this.” She unhooked her cloak and there was a necklace that looked like it cost as much as it would cost to feed every single creature living on these streets for the year. “I shouldn’t let anyone see it around this neighborhood. Orson bought it for me. He won’t say how much it cost. He likes me to wear it, so I wear it. I suppose he just likes to show off to his important friends and associates. If you do leave here, and take me with you, I’ll sell it.”

“Then I’ll go with you to make sure you get a fair price for it. A lot of jewelers will probably try and cheat you if you don’t know what it’s worth.”

There were several exclusive jewelers on Coruscant that served extremely wealthy clients in the upper levels of the city. We planned to go within the next few days, before our departure was scheduled. The people we had camped with – the community – gathered some more decent attire for me to wear in the upper levels. I couldn’t go up there with the rags I had on at that time. All we kept were our boots and lightsabers, basically. And the lightsabers, we hid. I still have the boots, believe it or not. After all these years, they were certainly well made. They are scuffed up and old, but still intact.

I cleaned up the best I could, and we went up to the better part of the city to find a jeweler that would give her a fair price for her necklace. She also had a ring that her mother had given her, but she would keep that. It was Orson’s gift she wanted to be rid of.

The jeweler was an annoying old Zabrak with a security droid hovering around. I looked around while Venza and the Zabrak made small talk and noticed a dish of good gemstone crystals on the countertop – probably for sale or decoration or both. And there it was – a good quality kyber – the right kind to fit a lightsaber.

“Well, my lady,” the Zabrak cleared his throat, “Yes, very lovely necklace that you have here. But I’m afraid it isn’t worth very much. However, kind being that I am, I’d be happy to take it off your hands for the amount of – ”

I had to intervene before she got literally robbed by this typical business creature, “You’ll pay her a good fair price for it.”

“I’ll pay you a good fair price for it.”

“And you’ll add the crystal along with the price of the necklace.” I picked it out and put it on the countertop next to her necklace.

“And I’ll add the crystal along with the price of the necklace.”

She looked at me, confused. But then she was handed a velvet bag of credits. I took the crystal. We walked out.

“What…was that?”

“I wasn’t going to let him cheat you.”

“Can Nik do that?”

“Someday, he might.”

“Did you just rob the jewelry store?”

“No, but he was going to rob you.” I held up the crystal in the afternoon sunlight.

“Well, at least you got a souvenir, then.”

“No, it’s for Nik. A good crystal like this is one of the main components of a lightsaber. If he’s going to become a Jedi, he’ll need to build one for himself some day.”

“Build…a lightsaber? Isn’t there a lightsaber factory somewhere in the Galaxy where you people get all your equipment from?”

I sighed, thinking of all the misinformation about the Jedi that was circulating during those dark times, “No. Each one is unique, made by the Jedi who wields it. The crystal is for Nik, when he’s old enough.”

After a living a long time amongst us, she began to appreciate our teachings and traditions, but that was how things were between us back then. She only knew the horrible rumors that had been circulating around the Holonet since our destruction had been ordered.

We returned to the homeless community down below the city. As soon as we got back we were informed that the freighter that we were to board to take us off Coruscant would be leaving that evening. We would miss our friends, but we were glad to be leaving. We had to get off Coruscant. We said our good-byes, and thanked them all for their help. And they thanked us also, for all the kindness we had given them before we came down to reside with them. We had given them back their dignity, they said.

The Jedi came with the Sullustan and his outspoken droid. I always wondered what was wrong with the programming of that droid. All of us including Nik were supplied with a decent change of clothes and false identification documents. We were told that the captain and his small crew were willing to risk having us onboard, as many years ago his ship was saved from pirates by a Jedi Master and his Padawan. I asked if he knew their names. It was Valerian Raynard and El Ayar. I recalled that Master Raynard was a good friend of Master Shen, and we always wondered what had happened to them. Everyone at the Temple heard that they went on an unofficial mission to some distant world in the Outer Rim and were supposedly never heard from again. I hoped they were safe, wherever they were.

Venza overheard our conversation, “Those are the names of the Jedi Knights who put Orson’s father in jail long years ago.”

“Really?” I was surprised to hear that, but Master Shen always said that there are no coincidences, “Well, perhaps you’ll hear another side to the story, then.”

And we were off that night. The food on the ship was simple but decent. And finally a decent working refresher. That night we were finally fed and decently clean. Even Venza stopped complaining.

The ship’s captain came to our quarters that evening. I was sharing a small room with Master Shen. Sifra and Lippi shared a room, and Venza and Nik had their own room onboard the ship. It would be a long journey and soon we would finally get a comfortable night’s rest. And so the captain came to speak with us that night.

He apologized that he didn’t have any better food to offer us, “Wish I had some good nerf steaks for you all,” he said.

“No, please,” Master Shen said, “Don’t apologize. We are just grateful for the transportation.”

“I’m still grateful to the Jedi for their help years ago,” he said, “Otherwise I would have lost everything, maybe even my life. I have to tell you, though, some of my crew are new, and they have no memory of the event. My first mate, the Shistavanen, you can trust him. But some of the younger crew here might be tempted by the bounty the Empire has put on the Jedi. They don’t know anything other than that we have some passengers travelling with us.”

“Will be careful, then,” I said.

He told us about the world we were heading to. It was once a mining colony, but the minerals were now nearly all depleted. The new industry starting up was recycling old machinery. Basically, scrapping. There was a lot of this industry coming up now that the Clone Wars were over. So that meant there would probably be jobs. Not good jobs, but for survival we would need jobs. There were small communities on the planet, towns, small cities, some farms, but not much of an organized world government. The world was basically governed by the businesses that ran the scrapyards. And the crime rate was going up since the mines went empty. Spicerunners used the Outer Rim world to hide out and as a base of operations, “But there isn’t much of Imperial presence, so maybe you’ll all be safe there,” he said. “They say the crime there is getting almost as bad as Nar Shadaa. But that might not be a problem for you.” He said that, knowing the reputation the Jedi have.

I agreed, “As long as there isn’t much of an Imperial presence, I’m sure it will be fine.”

“I noticed the child. The world you’re headed to won’t be a good place to bring up a young boy,” the captain said.

“We will watch over him,” Master Shen said. And of course we would. We would care for him like one of our own.

“Well, good, then,” the captain said, “If there’s anything else you need, let me know.” We thanked him again and he turned to go back to the ship’s cockpit. But before he left he said, “I never trusted Palpatine, anyway.”

It was nice to finally, after so long a time, not be treated like society’s outcasts. We both prepared to sleep, but just then there was a slight rap on the door.

I opened it, “Niklas, why aren’t you in bed? It’s very late.”

“I was wondering when you’re going to start teaching me Jedi stuff.”

Master Shen smiled and barely stifled a laugh. He already knew what I was about to learn, that being responsible for the upbringing and education of young Padawan would be a big responsibility. I looked down and saw him gazing up at me with his big dark eyes. I guessed he probably couldn’t sleep because he was excited to be on a starship and heading off to some mysterious place in the Galaxy. But I wasn’t going to let him down the way his father had let him down.

So I got down and sat cross legged on the floor, “Well then, sit right here and your first lesson will be a simple one because it’s getting late.” He sat and I began by telling him about the Jedi Code. After I was sure he could remember the Jedi Code - and I wondered if he might forget it by the morning - I began to tell him various miscellaneous doctrine that he must know in order to one day become a Jedi…That Jedi must at all times be polite and courteous to all living beings in the Galaxy, and to always respect others. That we are to protect and defend the helpless. A Jedi must be honest and moral at all times, and patient and kind and forgiving. A Jedi must only use the Force for good, and to serve others rather than rule over them. We must never seek revenge, or attack an unarmed opponent…We must offer mercy to everyone, even enemies…A Jedi must put the wellbeing of others ahead of his or her own…A lightsaber is used to protect the innocent and never used for any other reason...I went on and on for quite some time until Nik began to yawn. “Well, your first lesson went well, Niklas. Why don’t you run off to bed and get some sleep now?”

“Okay,” and he was gone.

Master Shen himself was drifting off to sleep, “Next you can tell him the entire history of our Order, going back thousands of years, of course.”

“That would put him to sleep even faster,” I said. But then I realized, if our Order was to survive another thousand years, we needed someone like Nik to pass on our knowledge.

The ship landed the next day at one of the planets it was scheduled to stop for delivery of some of its freight. This was not to be our final destination, so we remained onboard. Niklas was excited by everything. Although he was born somewhere in the Outer Rim, he probably had no memory of being on a starship so this was all new to him. He was in the cockpit trying to make conversation with the first mate Rolf, the Shistavanen. He hadn’t seen many non-Humans and was probably curious, which was natural for a young child. And he wanted to know what happened to Rolf that he had a broken claw.

“Nik, that’s not nice to ask personal questions. Now leave that alien alone,” his mother said. She seemed frightened that the big creature would probably eat the boy so she rushed to retrieve him.

“No, is okay,” Rolf said in accented Basic, “This, you see?” He held up his furred hand, and it was missing one sharp claw, “Lost in fight with terrible bad pirates long time ago. The feared pirate Brak Galinor and his gang attack this ship way back years ago. Terrible big fight!” He laughed, and it sounded like a growl. Then he looked up and noticed me, “Lucky then, we saved by Jedi Knights!” He was suddenly quiet and said no more, not wanting the other crew to suspect anything.

But the others were busy working and ignored him. They were probably bored with the story. I imagined he probably told it over and over again to anyone who would listen.

“Okay, Nik, come on,” his mother said, “They’re all busy.” She herded him back to the cabin they shared.

Then I heard Nik whisper, “Mom, how come that pirate he talked about has the same last name as us?”

She hushed him, “I’ll tell you all about it when you’re a little older, okay?”

There are no coincidences, I told myself again. I remembered that Venza told me that her husband’s father was sent away to prison by Jedi because he was a pirate and a slaver. The Force works in mysterious ways sometimes. But we were going to see more of that after we finally came to our destination.

The ship travelled to many different worlds delivering freight, picking up supplies, dropping off, and so on. Our destination would be the last Outer Rim world before the ship made its return to Coruscant. After several standard days in space there was a small incident with Nik’s mother while we were eating lunch with the crew. Some of them tried to make small talk to find out who we were and why we were in a hurry to get away from Coruscant, but Rolf interrupted them with one of his stories of adventure until they got bored and wandered off to their stations. He looked at the four of us and winked.

“Thanks,” Lippi whispered.

“Anything for you,” Rolf laughed. He then finished his lunch and shuffled off back to work himself.

With the crew gone back to their work and only the four of us remaining at the table, Venza came around the corner and accosted us. She tried not to yell, because she knew we didn’t want everyone on board the ship to know who we were, but I could tell she was a little worked up, “Okay, what did you sorcerers do to my Nik?”

“Excuse me?” Lippi glared at her.

Sifra tried to hold back a snarl.

Master Shen quietly asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Wrong? All of a sudden, Nik is polite, helpful, well behaved, obedient, and doesn’t talk back to me anymore. Now I’ve got the best behaved kid in the Galaxy. What did you do to him?”

Sarcasm isn’t a good quality for a Jedi, but I said, “Sorry if that’s a problem, Venza.”

Then suddenly she laughed out loud, “Did you hear what that…the first mate…I don’t know what he is…said? It was Nik’s grandfather who…I wish I could apologize to that poor strange creature for his injured paw!”

Master Shen invited her to sit with us. I explained about the brief lecture I gave to Nik, which apparently he actually paid attention to. Finally she was getting used to us and becoming less adversarial. Previously all she knew of the Jedi was what Orson had told her, and none of it was good. But she was finally coming around, which was a relief. Later on Master Shen told the girls to make an effort at befriending her, so that she would not feel so alone amongst us. I realized it must be difficult for her to leave everything she knew behind and a take a chance to travel with people she didn’t completely trust.

That night when most of the crew was asleep I sat with Nik and his mother in a quiet area near the cargo hold and told Nik stories of ancient times and the history of the Jedi and the good deeds they did throughout the history of the Republic…finally sleep overtook him and he was carried off to bed.

I was on my way to my cabin to get some rest myself when Venza came up to me in the passageway. “I want to thank you for being so kind to Nik.”

“He has a lot of ability. With encouragement and training he could one day become very highly skilled.”

“But…isn’t this all against the law now?”

“I don’t think this Empire will last forever. A very long time perhaps. But the more draconian Palpatine gets, the more people will want him gone.” I spoke quietly. I didn’t want any of the crew to overhear. “Someday, the Jedi Order may have a chance to return, and maybe Nik will be there when it happens.”

Finally the day came when we arrived at our destination. The captain let us hide our lightsabers in crates of machine parts that were to arrive on this planet. When we finally disembarked, we went through customs with our new identification, and then went to open the crates to retrieve our lightsabers. We thanked the captain and his first mate. Without them, we’d still be hiding on Coruscant’s lower levels. We knew we probably would never see them again.

Now we needed a place to stay until we found jobs – menial jobs most likely, the kind of work that would not bring attention upon ourselves, or any kind of work that would pay for the basic necessities of survival. We found a cheap hotel near the spaceport. Venza’s money paid for the lodging. We planned to stay but immediately look for work the very next day, and after finding work, to then find a more permanent residence.

Those early days on this world went by like a blur. We were exhausted from our travels and yet had to each find ourselves a situation, except for Venza. It was decided we would find a place to stay together and she would look after Nik during the day. And when my work shift was over, I would spend time teaching Nik. I was determined to train him no matter what my work schedule would be. I was soon to find that it wouldn’t be that easy.

Sifra and Lippi were the first to find work serving drinks in a cantina. The Twi’lek woman who owned the place said her help kept leaving because the customers were too rowdy. She liked that she now had a Cathar working for her to help toss the drunks back out onto the streets. She first hired Sifra and Sifra asked if Lippi could work there also.

Now Shen and I needed to find work – and it was also decided we should drop any titles. We didn’t want to be overheard in public – it could sound suspicious. Even though there was no Imperial presence, it was known around the Galaxy that there was a bounty on Jedi. It appeared there was a lot of poverty on the world we landed on, and desperate people will do desperate things.

I found work. I had to get up before dawn to get on the transport to reach the scrapyards. It is dull, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous work. I had to draw upon all the discipline taught at the Temple to get through a work shift. The pay was low. I suppose hiring living beings was cheaper for the corporation than buying droids. The workers were, and still are, treated like they are valued less than droids. But it’s a job, and it pays, but just barely. I would come back to the hotel exhausted but determined to continue to work with Nik no matter how tired I was. This was what we were working for, I told myself, to secure a future for a younger generation of Jedi.

We started small, levitating small things around the hotel room, using the Force to push objects away or pull objects towards himself. He seemed to really enjoy the learning process. When I was at work Shen taught him our philosophy and beliefs, which he seemed to enjoy learning also.

What I realize now, but did not realize then, was that what Nik actually probably enjoyed the most was having the adults in his life pay attention to him and treat him as if he mattered. I don’t think he got this at his original home. Venza told us that he was ignored by his father, which I already knew. His parents fought so often and his mother cried so often that Nik was just lost in his family’s bad situation. The four of us grew up in the Temple, and we always had stability. We didn’t know what it was ever like to be afraid or neglected or shouted at. All around the Galaxy there were complaints that the Jedi take children from their homes, but perhaps that isn’t a bad thing when you find out how troubled some families are. This is probably why Nik did so well with us – finally in his young life someone was paying attention to him. His mother seemed happier too, probably because she was away from Orson.

But enough of that…

What we really needed was a large open space so that I could begin to teach him basic lightsaber skills. This was impossible in our current living situation. I also was reluctant to allow him to handle a real lightsaber until he was much older. Once we found a better home, I was going to start teaching him with a broomstick.

I also knew that once he became more mature, he would need to build his own lightsaber. I had the crystal, but needed the rest of the materials to build it. The scrapyards had plenty of discarded junk that was considered useless and would be melted down. When I was sure no one was watching I began to collect things – a pipe that could be a hilt, circuitry, bits and pieces. Collecting everything that was needed actually took years.

One day we finally we found ourselves a real home.

Lippi and Sifra got into the habit of exploring the neighborhoods after they got off work, and one night they found an abandoned house. They broke in through a backdoor to have a look around. It needed a thorough cleaning and a lot of the furniture had been removed, probably stolen, they guessed. But they came back and told us the good news. Shen and I then went to have a look. It was laid out just like most homes on this planet – large common area, small kitchen, and individual rooms going off from the common area. Simple, but perfect for our group. The notice on the front door listed it as cheap – probably because the economy was in such a downward spiral on this world since the mines went empty. Venza had enough money for a down payment, and our jobs would pay the rest. Shen went to the scrapyard and talked his way into a job as a night watchman. Much easier than what I was doing. Wish I had thought of that one myself. Best of all, the place had a large empty basement with no windows – perfect for lightsaber practice. It was rustic, but in our spare time – and we didn’t have much spare time – we all worked together to fix it up.

We found empty crates to use as chairs until we could afford decent furniture. Fortunately there was a second hand store near the cantina, which was overstocked due to out of work miners leaving the planet altogether and leaving a lot of their belongings behind. Either that or they sold their possessions to pay to get on a ship. We got cheap clothing there, dishes and a few appliances. And Venza found some old school books so that Nik would have an education besides what she called “Jedi stuff.”

There used to be a school in the town, but after the miners left, it closed. It was sad that Nik had no friends his own age, but when I wasn’t available, he had Shen and the girls. I was glad we brought his mother along. It wasn’t a traditional part of training a Jedi to have parents involved, but we weren’t bringing him up in a traditional Jedi way. We were doing our best for him with the limited resources that we had.

We didn’t have much in those days, but the place was ours. Finally, after so long, we had a place to call home. And we were like family. It also isn’t traditional for Jedi to have families. But it couldn’t be helped – we became a family.

After we got home from work, Nik loved to sit on a box in the basement and watch the girls practice with their lightsabers. They showed him the basic forms, and sparred carefully with one another to keep fit and ensure they didn’t get out of practice. Shen and I watched, and sometimes Venza came down to watch. I was glad to see them at practice and having something to enjoy on this desolate world. But there were moments of sadness when it reminded us of all that had been lost to us.

The basement became our secret Temple. We cleaned it and after a while found an old carpet to put on the floor. Cheap tapestries were hung on the walls and we added lighting fixtures. A few chairs were brought down also. One unusual thing was that there was a door that opened to a long dark tunnel, and the tunnel led out into the forest that was beyond the city. We didn’t know why the house had this feature, but it would be good if we suddenly needed to escape one day.

While at work, Lippi found out from the owner of the cantina that the house once was a hideout for a gang of spicerunners. Well, that would explain the tunnel. They probably used it as an escape route themselves. Leela, the Twi’lek who owned the cantina asked Sifra and Lippi if they had ever found anything unusual in the house. They said, No, never. There were plenty of strange rumors about the place. Now we knew why. But we also now knew why the place was in such poor condition when we found it – the beings who were there previously must have lived like Gamorreans.

I was finally on my way to bed one night after a hard day’s work and a few hours in the basement – now we officially called it the “Secret Temple” – teaching Nik some of the basic lightsaber forms – when I looked up at the ceiling of my room and noticed cracks in the ceiling. On closer look, the cracks appeared to be an almost perfect square, as if the cracks were put there on purpose by someone and then hastily painted over to hide them.

I reached up and pushed against the cracked section of the ceiling and it fell open, revealing a hidden space. And there in the hidden space was a synth leather pouch – I opened it and it was filled with credits. Behind the pouch was a blaster. So the rumors were true – there was something strange about this house. I also realized the blaster could be used to teach Nik to repel blaster bolts with a lightsaber. It would be useful.

Everyone else in the household was asleep except for Shen. I found him outside in the small backyard, standing near the small flower garden Venza had planted, gazing sadly up at the dark night sky.

“They are out there,” he said quietly, not looking at me, but he knew I was there. “Lost Jedi, out there among the stars, struggling to survive, hiding, some are safe. Some are on the run. Some are fighting for their lives right now.” He sighed, “But they are out there, beings like us. Our light has not been completely extinguished. They are out there, I can feel them. Hundreds, maybe. Some living as hermits on worlds of heat and barren desert. Some hiding in exile on worlds of swamp and jungle. Out of thousands, that is all that is left. But they are out there.”

I showed him what I found, “This was hidden up in the ceiling. And there’s a blaster.”

“I’m sure we’ll need it,” he continued to look up at the stars. I knew he was sad. For his entire life he had honorably served the Order and the Republic, and both had fallen.

I knew how he felt. I had been knighted almost right before the disaster and had my career ahead of me. Everything we lived for, and believed in, gone. But now we were in exile here. But then I realized we were lucky to have survived. As long as a few of us survived, the Order had a chance to come back.

“They are out there,” he repeated, “May we one day find them, the survivors, the refugees, the exiles…” his voice trailed off into sadness. Then he looked directly at me, “I would never get between the two of you. I would never prevent your happiness.”

I didn’t understand, “What are you talking about, Master?”

“If there will be a new Jedi Order some day, by the will of the Force, old rules will need to change.”

I still didn’t understand. But I didn’t bother to question. I was used to him speaking such, and in time things would be revealed.

“What else did you say you found?” he asked.

“I also found a blaster.”

“We may need that, also. Let’s go in.”

I planned to tell the others about it and then find out more about the place we were living in. I hid the credits and the blaster, but first I counted the credits. There was almost enough to buy a ship – not a good ship, of course. But that was a lot of credits. I wondered who left it there and why. I finally went to bed. I had to get up for work in the morning.

I told the others later and asked Lippi and Sifra to find out more from the cantina owner while they were at work. The place belonged to spicerunners. I guess we were lucky that’s all that was found – credits and a weapon.

I kept what I found stashed, but we bought a cheap old landspeeder so we could go to work, shop, and run errands, without having to wait for the public transport. We bought a cheap vehicle so as to not arouse suspicion in the neighbors, who knew we arrived with almost nothing. We bought some second hand furniture, also. We lived simple lives, but at least we had moderate comfort now, and a stash of credits in case it was needed.

Nik was improving his skills and one day it finally dawned on me that he was no longer the little child I had to coax out of a box and carry off to safety. With work, training him after work, and fixing up our house, time seemed to go by in a blur.

Shen talked one of the scrapyard owners into promoting me to foreman. It was a welcome relief to no longer have to continue on with hard labor day after day. There was a slight increase in pay, but not much. I had time off once in a while, and was able to bring Nik away from the town and into the woods for training.

But it was also around this time his mother and I, well, we were slowly becoming more than just friends. The both of us just weren’t ready to admit it to ourselves yet. Nik knew it, Shen knew it, the girls knew it, but Venza and I, we didn’t know it.

One day, out in the woods, Nik was exhausted from a work out and I decided it was time to bring him home, and he said, “Are you going to marry my mom?”

“What? She’s already married, Niklas. What gave you that idea?”

“I dunno. I just… well, you and Shen say we can sometimes see the future.” It was a question more than a statement.

“What do you see?”

“You and my mother. You know, just being happy, and stuff. Forget it. Maybe I said something stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. But she’s already married, Niklas. You know that. Never mind. Maybe you’re just tired. Come on. It’s time to go home.”

Soon it would be time for Niklas to have his own lightsaber. He was older now and more mature. I lectured him that it was a deadly weapon and not to be played with. Finally he was allowed to borrow Lippi’s during practice. His mother felt he was too young, but he was never alone while using it. If he had been brought up in the Temple, he’d have a practice saber, but none were available.

Sifra and Lippi soon completed their training under Master Shen. He brought them into our basement temple and told them he was proud of how they had grown and how they didn’t fall apart under the strain of losing everything, how they lived homeless for almost a year and still extended kindness to everyone and never complained. They worked each day and gave most of their money toward household expenses, and helped run the house when not training, “These hard days have been your Trials, and you both have done well. We are all proud of you.”

I was there with Nik, and Venza was there as well. I explained the ceremony, but she didn’t quite understand until she witnessed it.

Sifra was older, and so he knighted her first. It was beautiful and sad at the same time. The dark forces in the Galaxy think we are extinct, and here two Padawans achieve their knighthood…”By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force…Rise Jedi Knight.”

Later on I saw the two sitting alone on the doorstep facing the small backyard. They both seemed sad, and I asked them why.

Lippi looked up at me and said, “All our lives we’ve trained to become Jedi Knights, and there’s no Republic left to defend. The Empire hates us, and bounty hunters want to collect the price on our heads.”

Sifra agreed, “We’re working in a cantina. But we’re Jedi. We should be Jedi.”

Lippi sighed, “The Temple is gone, all our friends are dead. If things were different, right now the Council would be sending us on assignments.”

I stood there and wished I could help. “The Force will send your destiny to you.” It was something Shen would say. I don’t know why I said that. It just came out. But it was true. Because that’s exactly what happened.

This was right before the incident that would change all our lives.

The next evening I returned home from work and Nik was waiting for me, like he often did. But he knew to expect something this time. I didn’t tell him, but through the Force, he knew something was up. Venza knew because I told her already.

They were both in our small kitchen. I sat down and gestured for him to sit also, “Niklas,” I said, “I know that you have just turned thirteen. Traditionally this was considered a special birthday for a Padawan because on attaining the age of thirteen, a Padawan is usually given a gift from his Master.”

His eyes lit up. He had been pestering me for his own lightsaber. He had shown enough maturity and had shown that he would be careful and respect that it was a deadly weapon, not something to be played with.

“It is also traditional for a Jedi to build his own lightsaber.” I got up and opened a cabinet high above and reached up to the very top shelf and took out a small synth leather sack, and poured the parts out onto the table. “If things were different,” I continued, “you’d be taken to Ilum to find your own crystal. But with the way things are, that’s the first place they would look for us.” I held up the crystal, “You mother and I found this a long time ago and I kept it for you all these years.” I didn’t tell him the entire story about how Venza thought I was robbing the jewelry store, but instead I showed him each component and told how I had scavenged each from the scrapyards over a period of years. “It might take a long time to create this, but remember, becoming a Jedi is a journey and not a destination. Niklas, I know you can do this.”

He thanked me and went down into the Temple to work at it. I planned to come down later to check on his progress, but for now I left him to be alone with his project.

I sat at the table, reflecting on all the years watching him grow. He was no longer a little boy, but now becoming a fine young man.

Venza sat next to me, “He looks up to you so much. You’ve been such a good role model for him. You’re so much better to him than his own father. When we first met, I wasn’t sure about all this, but…” she hesitated, “And you’ve been so good to the both of us, working so hard so we can have a decent home.” She leaned closer, her eyes melting into mine, her lips nearly touching mine, and then she drew quickly back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and got up and began to prepare supper.

For a brief moment I sat there, not knowing what to do, “I’m sorry, too.”

But then I got up to help her and set the table, putting out plates and dishes. I had to say something. “You know, Venza,” I hesitated, but finally got it out, “if the Jedi Order is ever rebuilt, it probably won’t be the same as before. Things change. The rules won’t be the same.” I wasn’t sure if she understood what I was trying to say.

She looked away from me, trying to concentrate on what she was doing. “I’ve been hurt, you know.” She finally said it, after all the time I knew her. “I wasn’t sure I even loved Orson. I was very young when I met him. I was just some girl from the Outer Rim, and he was going places. I guess I was impressed, more than I was in love. I’m not even sure now that he loved me. He didn’t love our son; at least I don’t think he did. Our son was an embarrassment to him.”

“We’ve all been hurt in life,” I said. “The four of us, we lost everything we lived for and believed in. We’re survivors. We have to go on and keep trying to make it work, with what little we have.”

“It must have been terrible for you, for all of you. I just can’t imagine what you all went through.”

We continued to work together, preparing food in silence. We knew where this was going, but neither of us was ready to get there yet.

When supper was ready I called Nik upstairs to come and eat. Then we all realized that Shen, Sifra, and Lippi were late returning home. Shen had the night off from work, so he had gone in the landspeeder to pick them up from the cantina. But they never came back. It was late and getting dark.

Nik came upstairs, “Something is wrong, isn’t it?”

“I’m going into town to go look for them.” Shen had the speeder, but it was only a short walk, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No, Nik. Stay here, okay?” I went to my room to get my lightsaber. The hole in the ceiling was a good place to stash it along with the blaster and the credits.

But coming back out again, then I felt it. They were returning, but they were not alone. I opened the front door, and there they were, the three of them with a badly injured Human. Shen dragged him in and gently unloaded him on the shabby couch in our living room. A blaster had blown a hole into his chest. Soon, it would be fatal if he didn’t get it treated fast. The problem was, the closest med center was not equipped to handle serious injuries. Almost everything in the city was run by the company that owned the scrapyards, and the med center only treated minor cuts and bruises from work related injuries. This man was going to die unless he got help.

“What the kriff…?”

“Nik,” I said, “We did not bring you up to use that kind of language.”

It was up to us to save him. The only problem was, we could be discovered and we would need to leave and start all over again after all the hard work we did to make a decent life here, “We’re going to have to do this right here and right now,” I said.

Venza and Nik didn’t know what I was talking about.

“I’ll take care of him,” Shen said. And so he did.

Force healing is a skill that most people in the Galaxy probably have never heard of. We are believed to be warriors and magicians, and not much more. It took Shen a long time to cause that wound to sufficiently close up and heal and the process drained a lot from him. He needed to sit and rest after that.

Venza’s face went white, “I didn’t know you could…”

Nik simply stared in wonderment, “Kriff…”

“Nik, don’t talk like that until you’re working and paying bills like the rest of us. Where did you learn that word, anyway?” Then I looked at our guest and said, “Now it might be a problem. Now someone knows.”

Lippi and Sifra helped the man lay back on the couch. Then I saw it. On his vest was the insignia of the city law enforcement. The company that ran the city had been cutting costs and law enforcement was probably overwhelmed and understaffed. So here we were with an injured cop in our living room. Just terrific, I thought, with a bounty on the head of every last Jedi in the Galaxy. The Empire wasn’t on this world – yet – but with the way things were going, soon they would be. I was wondering if we should either pack up our meager belongings, or wake Shen to have him try and obliterate his memory of us.

He moaned and turned to look at me, then he gazed down at the lightsaber hanging from my belt, “You’re back.”

None of us knew what he was talking about. But then he started to mumble, “…was hoping you’d come back someday…heard you were all dead…we need you…this city is turning into a forsaken cesspool…spicerunners are back…worse than before…” he looked up, and then, “What? This is their hideout.”

My lightsaber was in my hand and ignited before the door crashed open. Sifra and Lippi went for theirs and were with me. Venza got in front of Nik when she saw the blaster pointed at us.

Shen remained where he was. I realized he had exhausted himself.

“Don’t shoot!” the cop on the couch tried to stand up but couldn’t.

There in the doorway was another cop, pointing a blaster at all of us. None of us moved. Nik said kriff again.

The cop put his blaster back in its holster, “I’m here looking for my son. I was told he was shot dead.” He was relieved to see his son was in fact not dead, but alive and flat on our couch in our living room filled with second hand furniture.

I realized the cops carried locating devices on their belts and so he would have been found here anyway. We couldn’t have hidden him, even if we wanted to. We deactivated our lightsabers since he put his blaster away. We worried about what would happen next. They were law enforcement. We were wanted fugitives. Even though the Empire had no presence on this world, it was known that there was a bounty on all of our heads. It was up to him – the cop who busted open our front door – it was up to him what was going to happen next…

We all ended up talking late into the night. Years ago, before the Clone Wars, Jedi had come to help rid the planet of the spicerunners and slythmongers. Even though this world wasn’t part of the Republic, they helped anyway. They had come to make repairs to their ship and ended up getting involved, even though this planet was not within jurisdiction. It was when the mines were still operational; there were more people on the planet working and living and just trying to raise families. Then the spicerunners came, using the planet as a base of operations.

They were a scourge upon the world, selling their death sticks and other poison to young people and getting people hopelessly addicted. Shoot outs began to happen on a nightly basis. Bodies were found in alleyways the next morning. Other crime began to arise – people stole just to pay for the spice they were hooked on. But the Jedi came and cleaned the city out, getting rid of them and their filth. The company that for all intents and purposes owned this world kept it hidden, letting it be believed that the reason people were leaving the planet was due to the mines being empty. The mines weren’t empty at all; the miners simply just up and left due to the spice in their community. When the Jedi came they got rid of the crime; but then the wars started and the Jedi had to leave, and the miners never came back. The only real source of employment now was the scrapyards. The pay was low and the work was dangerous – I knew that. There were small stores and cantinas and such, but those depended on the scrapyard workers for business. Basically the spice drove half the population away. The spicerunners had left, but with the Jedi reported to be all dead, they were now brave enough to return. The world was going straight to hell, he said. They were back and bringing with them their death sticks and their glitterstim and ryll and it all oozed its poison into the community. But to save credits the company laid off the rest of the law enforcement. There were only two left to serve the community – himself and his son. They couldn’t cope with what was happening. They thought of leaving themselves, but people were dying, so they felt they had to stay no matter how terrible the situation was.

“We’re so glad you’ve finally returned. How long have you been here?”

“We’re just here to get away from the Empire, like so many other intelligent beings I see working down at the yards, doing menial work just to survive,” I said. “We didn’t know of your troubles until tonight. And it’s true, most of us are dead.” I explained we were basically in hiding now. Then finally I introduced myself, and then went around the room, “Master Shen Everfrost, who instructed me, and who is the one who saved your son, Sifra, the Cathar, Lippisarra Clairvoy, and my apprentice,” I realized some people this far away from the Core might not be familiar with the term Padawan, “Niklas Galinor, and Venza, Nik’s mother.”

“Josiah Craxton, Constable for this poor excuse of a city, and my son and deputy, Errol. Look, you people saved my son. If there’s anything I can ever do, for any of you…”

“We just don’t want anyone to know we’re here.” It was Shen, finally appearing to get some of his alertness back. “That is all. We only need secrecy. Our lives depend on it.”

“I understand,” finally he closed the door that he had kicked open, “I hear a lot of terrible things are going on in the more civilized parts of the Galaxy.”

“Why don’t you sit down?” I said, “There’s room on that couch, next to Errol.”

“Well, not for long. I have to get us both back home.” He sat, “We’re really very grateful. He’s the only family I have left.” He explained how his wife got hooked on death sticks, and of course there is a reason why they are called death sticks. “Another reason why I hate those people.”

“Come on, Dad,” Errol moaned, “Don’t get all soft. I’m not dead.”

“You were almost dead,” I said. And it was the truth.

“Well, he’s the only help I have, anyway. The other people on my staff are either dead, laid off by the company, or they got on ships heading off this planet so they wouldn’t be dead. Since the spicerunners have returned, it’s just getting out of control.”

“We should help them,” it was Lippi.

Sifra agreed. They always agreed with each other; they were like sisters. They were different species, but they were like sisters.

“Yeah!” said Nik. At least the kid didn’t say kriff.

“Anything that is to be done must be done discreetly,” Shen declared, “Else we risk discovery here.”

And I agreed with that.

Venza agreed to let Nik go along with us, as long as we watched out for him. But it was decided. We were going to help. The city needed cleaning up.

We talked until late in the night, but we all needed to get up in the morning for our so called real jobs. Josiah and Errol needed our help, but neither he nor the company could afford to pay us. That was fine. Jedi are not interested in profit, and we only wanted secrecy and survival.

In the morning I ate a quick breakfast and was getting ready to head off to work. It was so early that everyone else was still in bed and the sky hadn’t even brightened. But Nik was awake and floating around the kitchen all excited. Finally he would get to do something. He wanted to hurry up and finish his lightsaber.

“Nik,” I said, finishing my caf, “You know, we have to be very secretive. That means we keep our lightsabers hidden, remember?”

“Well, how are we going to catch all the spicerunners, then?”

I took a final sip of my caf, “Good question. Being a Jedi is about more than just lightsaber combat. You’re also going to have to learn to disarm an enemy without even using your own weapon. And soon you’ll begin learning that as well. I have to go to work, but later we’ll talk about it. When your mother wakes up, ask her to tell you the story about finding your crystal.”

Later on that day Nik and Shen had gone out with Josiah to patrol the worst parts of the neighborhood. Venza was home alone so I offered to take her out for dinner. Her face brightened and she said yes. So I got quickly cleaned up and we got into the old landspeeder and went into town to one of the few decent places.

We sat in a quiet area and started with a few drinks. She kept talking about all the questions Nik had that morning about “how the crystal was found long ago” and he was really amused by the story about what happened in the jewelry store. Venza was happy because she watched Nik turning out to be different from his father. He had a purpose beyond simple greed and ambition. He had gone from being a frightened child to a confident and respectful young man, and she was glad that she chose to come with us rather than go back to her husband. That afternoon she finally decided to also tell Nik about his grandfather, the feared pirate Brak Galinor, and why his father hated the Jedi so much. Nik said he was glad he wouldn’t grow up to be like that.

I sat and listened, but then while she was happily telling the story I realized that since arriving on this planet, I had never once gone out to dinner or even sat in a cantina and had myself a drink. Where had the years gone? I had been working and working, just working, and training Nik and guiding him into growing up to be a Jedi of sound moral character, and that I had never even sat down to enjoy a drink or a meal outside of our home. I had friends at work, of course, but never told them much about myself. They probably realized that I was there to escape the Empire, like so many beings at the scrapyards, intelligent beings with skills beyond the simple routine work, just there to survive…They knew enough not to bother to ask. But I also realized we were all very lucky. The Force had been with us all those years, as we would say. We survived, we had a home, and there was still no Imperial presence on this world at that time.

I also wondered how things were going in the rest of the Galaxy. From what I heard, things were not good. Things were terrible. At the scrapyards we had a new employee, Kia Lannery. She was very young to be on her own – just a year older than Nik. She needed the job, so I gave her the job. She did well enough, but occasionally, I heard her say things about the Empire. Unpleasant things. One day I finally got to talk to her. She lived at the spaceport, she said, in her parents’ old freighter. They had been merchants. Her parents were dead. They were killed by stormtroopers. Then I wondered if they were actually smugglers. I thought of Kia while Venza spoke of how proud she was of Nik, and I realized Nik was lucky we were there for him. He didn’t have his real father, but that was probably for the best. Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments, but sometimes it can’t be helped. I had to finally admit it to myself. Nik was like a son to me. And I was proud of him, too.

When we got home that night the house was quiet, but we didn’t rush into things. It was unspoken, but we both decided to take things slowly. Eventually, though, as time went on, and the years went by, Venza became my wife – my wife in love but not in law, since in truth she was still married to Orson. She didn’t want to file any proceedings in any court on any planet. It could become public record, and we could be found. We didn’t know where Orson was and we didn’t care. We assumed he had a new wife and an important job, and we both just decided to forget about him.

Later that evening the rest of our family returned home in Josiah’s speeder. Shen was proud of the way they all handled things, and the girls told the story. Nik thought it was funny, to hear the retelling of what he had seen.

“You don’t want to point that blaster at me,” Lippi said. “You want to hand your weapon to me. And now you’ll let me put these cuffs on you…”

Nik couldn’t stop laughing. But I didn’t think it was funny. In fact, I was slightly concerned. Things just couldn’t be that easy. Turns out, I was right.

We didn’t know it at the time, but there was a Hutt involved. Things always get messy when there is a Hutt involved. Kriff. But it would be a while before we would find out.

After a while, Nik finally finished his lightsaber. It took him a long time to finish it, but it was a fine piece of work. We all assembled in the basement Temple, and watched as he finally ignited the azure blade. Venza proudly looked on as we all ignited our lightsabers and saluted him; the glowing blades of various color illuminating the darkness.

We worked at our regular jobs during the day, and by night quietly and discreetly kept the community crime free. We did it in a way as to not have to use our weapons, because that would bring attention upon ourselves. We went out in pairs and walked dark alleyways, we wandered the dimly lit streets, stopping theft and violence before it happened. Nik usually went with me, Sifra and Lippi went together. Sometimes Shen would go out if he wasn’t working his nightshift. On nights that Shen took Nik out into the streets, I spent time with Venza. We were happy to be using our Jedi skills in some way, even in small ways. Darkness had come upon the rest of Galaxy, but here on this world, the few people that remained here could feel safe. And the Empire still didn’t know about us.

And gradually, with the crime becoming less and less, more people came to live and work on this world. There was even talk of reopening the mines.

Finally Nik was old enough to work and earn his own money, so I got him a job at the scrapyard. At the end of his first day, we were driving home in the old speeder and he said, “You did this for a year and a half before you got promoted? How could you stand it?”

“Nik,” I said, “I did it so you and your mother and the rest of us could have a roof over our heads and food on our table. That’s how I could stand it.”

He didn’t complain any further on our ride home, but I knew he liked being a Jedi better than being a scrapper. But then, who wouldn’t? At least he finally had a friend his own age – Kia. They worked together and got along well. He told me what she said about the Empire, how horrible it was, they killed innocent people for no reason, including her parents, and on and on…

“They killed thousands of Jedi, too, Nik,” I said.

“She said she’d teach me to fly,” he said, “She has her own ship.”

“I know. She lives in her parents’ freighter. Nik,” I said, pulling the landspeeder up to our house, “Don’t tell her anything about us.”

“I won’t. You know I won’t.”

He then told me that on Kia’s ship she could listen in on Imperial communication channels and so she knew a lot about what was going on out in the Galaxy, and that it went from bad to worse. There was a Rebellion starting, she said, and it was getting more organized, and more beings were joining up.

“Nik,” I said, “Do you ever ask why her parents would ever want to listen in on Imperial communications?”

“No.”

“Did you ever wonder about it?”

“Not really. No.”

At that time I wondered if her parents were actually smugglers or worse. I would find out that they weren’t smugglers, but never mind…

Later that night Lippi and Sifra came back from helping Josiah and Errol keep the streets safe, and they had bad news.

Josiah had brought them home in his speeder and I heard them out in the kitchen talking to Shen as I was drifting off to sleep. All it took was for me to hear the word Hutt. While based on Coruscant, during better days, Shen and I did enough criminal investigations to know that behind a lot of trouble, very often a Hutt was involved. I sat up and Venza mumbled about what all the commotion was?

“Go back to sleep. I’ll go find out.”

I went out into the kitchen to see the three of them. They were all talking at the same time. The spicerunners that plagued the community were mostly gone from this planet, and people were happy. But somewhere out there, a Hutt crimelord wasn’t happy. Josiah reported that some beings that citizens have never seen before – said to be a Weequay and a Rodian and a Human – were wandering around the town, asking questions. They said they were representatives of the well known and successful business creature, Droggo the Hutt. This did not sound good. Whenever a Hutt describes himself as a business creature, we can guess what kinds of nefarious business he is into.

“Kriff,” I said.

Then I heard Nik yell out at me from his darkened room, “I thought Jedi weren’t supposed to use swear words?”

“Nik, go to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow so you can pretend to work while socializing with Kia.”

“Who’s Kia?” Shen asked.

“Nik’s girlfriend.”

“Nik has a girlfriend?” Lippi said.

Sifra laughed outloud.

“Never mind. How bad is this situation?”

“Josiah told us that people have been telling Errol that some beings that no one around here has seen before are going around the cantinas and the shops and the marketplaces, and just around public places, asking questions,” Lippi said, sounding worried. “Such as, ‘Wasn’t there a spice problem on this planet? Is it not so bad anymore? Why isn’t there a problem anymore? There are only two cops. Where did all the spice go?’ Then they say, ‘No, we don’t want to buy any. We’re just curious,’ they say. They are asked, where are you from? They say they work for this Droggo the Hutt. ‘Droggo runs successful businesses, and wants to know if this world is a safe place to locate some of his businesses,’ they say. Sounds strange to me.”

“Sounds like they’re trying to find out why things are so suddenly clean,” Sifra growled.

“This could be serious,” Shen said quietly, “We should be alert. Sifra, Lippi, listen in on conversations in that cantina. Ask the owner if she’s heard anything. I’ll talk to Josiah in the morning.”

“Well, we’ll figure this out,” I said, “I’m going back to bed. I have to get up for work.” I tried not to worry, but it couldn’t be helped. Shen was right. This could be serious.

I turned to go back to bed and saw Venza standing there in her nightgown looking confused and startled, “What? Nik has a girlfriend?”

Nik yelled out from his room, “She’s just a friend!” Then he slammed his bedroom door on all of us.

I went back to bed and Venza followed.

“He has a girlfriend?” she said.

“He likes the new girl at the scrapyards. That’s all.”

In the morning on our drive to work, I asked Nik, “Hey, you’re not still upset about last night, are you?”

“There is no emotion, there is peace,” he said, repeating the first part of the Jedi Code that I taught him long ago, but almost sounding sarcastic, “And she’s just a friend, okay?”

“Okay.” It almost seemed like yesterday that he was a little kid. Where did the years go?

“What was all that last night about a Hutt?” he asked.

“We don’t know if it will be a problem yet. Whatever happens, we’ll all face it together.”

But we were soon to find out – it was going to be a problem.

It was an uneventful day at work, the usual dull routine, for which I was almost thankful as it took my mind away from the possibility that we might need to deal with a Hutt.

When Lippi and Sifra came home late a few nights later they reported the incident that happened right before they left work that evening. The cantina was closing and Sifra had to chase a few remaining drunk patrons out the door the way she usually did. Lippi was cleaning up and Leela – the Twi’lek who owned the place – was in her office counting up that night’s profit, the way she usually did. The place was then quiet after the last patron was out the door and the two looked forward to going home. Then, suddenly they heard Leela yell at someone to take his hands off of her. They rushed to the office in the back of the cantina to find out what was going on.

They came upon a tall Weequay trying to drag Leela off with him. She was screaming in both Basic and Twi’leki. It all happened rather quickly, they said. Sifra came up behind the Weequay and took the blaster from his holster and put it in the Weequay’s face. Lippi helped Leela up off the floor and pulled her away from the Weequay.

“Get out of here,” Leela said, “And tell them I’m never going back. This is my place. Now get out!”

The Weequay snarled that he would be back and then he left. Then the three of them – Lippi, Sifra, and Leela – sat in Leela’s office and talked. Leela revealed that she had been once a slave to a Hutt but that she escaped and went as far away as she could. She ended up here – where else would beings looking to disappear from the rest of the Galaxy go? She worked at the cantina for many years until the owner died. He had no family so she took over the place. She was always afraid that they would find her and try to bring her back, “I’d rather die than go back to them!”

They walked with her to the small room she rented before returning home.

We realized that trouble had arrived. The Hutt had sent his representatives and they were making themselves known. I got on my comlink to contact Josiah to let him know, but there was no answer. There was nothing else we could do but wait. We prepared dinner and I planned to take Nik down to our basement Temple for practice later. Sifra and Lippi were going to join us. This made things seem normal, but it didn’t last.

Our door chime was out of order and so someone was pounding on the front door to be let in. I stopped eating to get up and go answer it, “Who could this be?”

It was Errol. I invited him in, “Want some dinner?”

“Thanks, but I don’t have time. I’m wondering if you’ve heard from my father?”

“No. I tried to contact him but got no answer.” Then I told him about the recent trouble with the Weequay.

He was worried, “I haven’t heard from him all day. Look, I’m sorry, I see you’re all sitting down to dinner here, and I’m just worried.”

“Well, we know there’s been trouble –”

Just then Errol’s comlink chimed and he answered it. It was a rough voice on the other end, “If you want to see your father alive again, you will meet us at the spaceport alone and without any weapons.”

He hastily agreed.

“Don’t go,” I said, “It sounds like a trap.”

“I have to go. I can’t let anything happen to him.”

“Okay, you’ll go, but you won’t go alone.”

Nik wanted to come. Venza didn’t like that, but I told him to stay back and keep out of the way. Shen would remain at the house to protect Venza, just in case they – whoever they were – came to the house. I didn’t think the Hutt’s creatures knew about us, but I knew enough about Hutts to be worried. I gave Venza my blaster before we left. We also had with us the blaster that Sifra took from the Weequay, and Errol had his blaster. We hid all of our weapons, including lightsabers, under our jackets as we were supposed to come without weapons. The four of us got into Errol’s speeder and we headed to the spaceport, discussing a plan of action along the way.

I expected Nik to be excited, like most Padawans heading out on their first serious mission. But Nik seemed nervous. That was actually a good thing. He wasn’t going to be overconfident, because that could lead to a fatal mistake.

We arrived at our destination. There, at the spaceport, far in the distance away from other lesser ships, was a large craft. We parked the speeder and slowly made our approach. On getting closer we saw the Weequay standing at the bottom of the ramp in conversation with one of the meanest looking Humans I have ever seen.

I came and the others followed behind.

“We are here for Josiah Craxton,” I said.

The Human looked confused, but the Weequay just gazed at me and smirked, “You were supposed to come alone.”

I made a slight gesture, “These are the other hostages the Hutt has demanded.”

The Weequay turned to the Human, “These are the other hostages the Hutt has demanded.”

The Human looked even more confused now, and his eyes grew wide, “Should we search them for weapons, boss?”

I continued, “You don’t need to search for any weapons.”

The Weequay simply agreed, “We don’t need to search for any weapons.”

Then the Human said, “Come in. Come to meet mighty Droggo the great Hutt.” The man looked over the girls and smiled horrifyingly at them both, “These ones will bring a good price at the market.”

They said nothing, but I knew they were seething, especially Sifra.

Soon the five of us were brought before Droggo. He was a typically large obese Hutt, lazing on pillows of golden shimmersilk. Next to him was a large plate of delicacies, which he reached for and picked from, shoving food into his wide mouth. Also next to him, all in a pile, was a heap of all sorts of various weaponry. Blasters, vibroblades, thermal detonators…And next to the assorted weaponry was an even larger pile of credits, jewels, and other valuables, probably stolen.

Maybe he was doing inventory that day.

The Hutt looked at us and growled in Basic, “You were to come alone.”

I was surprised because most Hutts only speak their own language.

“We have come for Josiah Craxton,” I said.

“Bring them out!” the Hutt growled.

“Them?” Errol whispered.

The Weequay came out with Josiah and Leela. Josiah was bound in chains, but the Weequay dragged Leela along by painfully pulling one of her lekku. Both looked like they had been roughed up.

“Leela!” It was Errol. I expected him to be focused on his father first, but then I saw how they looked at each other.

“You shouldn’t have come,” she said to Errol. Then she looked at us, “Save yourselves! Get out before it’s too late!"

I looked around the room. There were only two guards, the Weequay and the Human, both heavily armed. They didn’t see the weapons we had hidden away… “Now!”

Nik leaped straight up and then twisted around above the Hutt, landing next to him and ignited his lightsaber, “Don’t try anything, Hutt.”

“What?” Droggo roared. “Oh no! Kriffing Jedi!”

Lippi and Sifra blocked the blaster fire with their lightsabers, “So we’ll fetch a good price, will we?” Sifra snarled as the Human tried to shoot her but failed.

Leela rushed to our side, pulling Josiah along with her. I advanced while Lippi covered me, cutting down the Weequay and slashing the Human.

The Hutt’s guards were down. Josiah and Leela were free.

“Kill him,” Josiah said, “Kill that Hutt!”

But Nik stood there, not sure what to do.

“No, Nik,” I said, “We cannot kill an unarmed being.”

Droggo burst out laughing, “Stupid Jedi! Look at this! You can’t do anything about me, can you? You have to let me live, don’t you? I’ll just find more creatures to do my bidding and toss these useless ones out into space when the ship is off this planet. And I’ll be back for more business. But before I come back, I’ll make sure I collect the bounty on Jedi!” He kept laughing so loud it felt as if the walls of the ship shook.

That was when Leela rushed to grab a thermal detonator out of the pile of weapons and she tossed it… right down into the Hutt’s throat.

“What?” The Hutt choked and then his eyes grew wide with sudden terror. “Oh, kriff.”

“Run!” I yelled.

Everyone darted to get away, but it was too late...

Droggo exploded.

We were all now covered with pieces of Hutt. The walls were also splattered with Hutt. Everything in that part of the ship was covered in Hutt.

“Leela,” Errol ran to embrace her, “You’re safe!” Both of them were filthy, so it didn’t matter.

“Hey, son,” Josiah laughed, “What about me?”

“Oh, yeah, glad you’re okay, dad.”

Then Leela suddenly pushed Errol back and looked at us and said, “There are slaves being held down below. We have to help them!”

“Okay,” I said, “Come on, we’ll free them all. They can use this ship to all go back to their homes. And they can use the Hutt’s treasure to start their lives over.”

Then Leela’s eyes went wide and she said, “Wait a minute…my two waitresses are Jedi?”

“We’re Jedi in hiding,” Lippi said.

“Hiding from the Empire,” Sifra added.

“And no one can ever know about us!” Nik said, trying to wipe himself off.

“Lots of beings are hiding these days,” Leela said, “I was hiding for a long time myself. Come. I’ll show you where Droggo keeps his prisoners. The Rodian guards them. There are in a holding cell, and he was going to transport them to be sold somewhere.”

“Aren’t you Jedi going to take some of this for yourselves?” Josiah asked. “You’ve earned it.”

“We don’t take things for ourselves. These should all go to help Droggo’s captives.” But then I looked down into the collection of jewels. I saw something bright and untarnished, not stained by the Hutt’s mess. I reached for it. It was a necklace. Not as nice as the one Venza had to sell, but perfect to bring home to her. I knew she was home worrying. “Nik,” I said, “Give this to your mother. Tell her it’s a gift from Droggo the Hutt.” But then something else caught my attention. There in the heap of the Hutt’s valuables were two perfect crystals – “And these can be used to build lightsabers, so we can use these, but that will be all. The rest will be divided up amongst Droggo’s captives.” I put the crystals in my pocket and I would put them away in case there would be any more future Jedi who would need them.

It must have been the will of the Force that I found the crystals, because I didn’t realize then that they would in fact be needed one day, sooner than later.

We all went together to rescue the Hutt’s prisoners. On the way I took out my comlink and spoke with Venza. “We’re fine. You will be so proud of Nik…And Venza…can either you or Shen come to the spaceport with some clean clothes for all of us? I’ll explain later.”

We went down to the cargo hold and there saw the saddest collection of sentient beings, all huddled together in a cage. A small group of Humans, some Twi’leks, a Duros, a beautiful Zeltron woman, a pair of Wookiees and their child, a Shistavanen, an Ugnaught, a Lasat. It was easy to distract the Rodian who guarded them. I just convinced him that Droggo wanted him to run out to buy supplies. Of course he didn’t realize the Hutt was dead.

We freed the captives but did not identify ourselves as Jedi, still sadly aware of the bounty on our heads. We just told them we were there to help. Sifra and Lippi would pilot the ship and bring them all home, wherever their homes were. It would be awhile before they returned home themselves, but we knew they were out there in the Galaxy, doing what was right.

Josiah and Errol took the credit for taking out the spicerunners and their Hutt overlord. We didn’t want to be known to be involved. Venza and Shen drove the old landspeeder up to the spaceport and met us with the clean clothes. We saw them coming in the distance as we descended the ship’s ramp.

“Nik,” I said, “I’m proud of you.”

“I don’t think I did that much.”

“But what you did, you did well. I’m proud of you, Nik.” I could tell he was pleased to hear words he would probably have never heard from his own father. “Come on, we still have to get up early for work in the morning. And don’t say kriff.”

He never used that word again, most likely because the Hutt used it to describe Jedi.

The incident with the Hutt was a good experience for Nik. He was able to use his skills and saw how we help those who cannot help themselves. He continued at his training and practice, but as time went on he spent more time with Kia. I said nothing about it. He was a young man after all. Mostly he came home at night and trained with me after we ate supper, but sometimes he spent time after work with Kia on her ship. She was more than just a friend now. Eventually I realized that since his father was not there for him, I would have to be the one to have a talk with him about responsibility.

As time went on Nik began to talk more and more about the Empire and the evil it spread throughout the Galaxy. I already knew that, but he got a lot of that from Kia. She hated the Empire worse than anyone I knew. The Empire destroyed our Order, and more than anyone, we had reason to hate. But we try to avoid going down that path.

We continued to keep the spicerunners out of the community, and the streets were mostly safe. It was reported that more ore was found under the surface, and the mines reopened. People came from all around looking for work, and the population increased. With more beings coming from everywhere, there was more crime along with it. The five of us all kept busy, and we kept our secrecy. We suspected many of the beings coming to this world for work were also looking to avoid the Empire, since we are so far out away from the Core – just another nothing sort of a world that no one cares about.

Venza began to work part time at the cantina since Nik was now grown. She met all sorts of beings from everywhere, and made new friends. Previously she had been afraid of aliens, but now found them interesting.

Nik was coming of age and we tried our best to approximate what would be considered the Trials that a Padawan must pass before attaining Knighthood. I knew that he deserved to succeed, as he tried very hard at everything and never complained when I made him work hard at practice. He had sufficient skill and courage, along with all the knowledge that Shen and I could give to him.

There was one final thing that he had to complete. That is what we call the Trial of the Spirit, to see what darkness remains within oneself. Our Temple had no meditation chamber and so he went out through the tunnel and wandered off into the forest behind the town to spend time alone for as long as it would take. A day and a night went by and Venza and I grew worried. Not being a Jedi, and not being raised in the Temple like the rest of us, she didn’t quite understand what it was all about. I explained that Nik was to be given a vision of some kind. Shen told us not to be concerned, that he would find what he thought he was missing in life, and finally be able to let it all go. I didn’t understand that either until Nik came back, but Shen was right, as he always was.

He came back finally one day before the dawn. He came as I was getting ready to leave for work, and he looked tired, weakened, and sad.

“Well?” I simply said.

He explained that he found a quiet place and sat on a rock to meditate and open his mind up to the Force and wait for as long as it took. Day turned into dusk and dusk turned into night. Darkness enveloped him and overwhelmed him, but he knew it was just a vision and he tried not to be afraid. Everything went black before his eyes, then there was a blur of grey and an image formed in front of him.

He saw an important looking man in a gray uniform sitting at his desk. In fact, he felt as if he had been lifted off the world he was on and taken all the way across the Galaxy. He looked out the windows of the man’s office and guessed he was suddenly on Coruscant. The man looked up at him, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Nik said he felt that he should know the man, but he struggled to recognize him. Then he realized who he was, “He didn’t look like the last time I saw him. He was so much older, and had a bald spot on his head, and…But I knew it was him!” Nik asked the man, “Don’t you know who I am?”

Nik also realized he was wearing different clothes than what he wore when he went out into the woods. He recalled that in his vision he was wearing fine brown boots and a long brown hooded robe.

“Typical Jedi attire, Nik.” I said. “But we discarded ours long ago when we went into exile.” I sighed, “Go on.” The story of his vision was getting interesting.

“Well, when I asked if he knew who I was, he got all irritated and said, ‘A kriffing Jedi! What are you doing in my office? I thought Palpatine got rid of all you people? What do you want? Are you here to warn me of the error of my immoral ways? Get out! I’ll call stormtroopers up here. They’ll take care of you!’ And I said, ‘But I’m your son Niklas. I’ve become a Jedi.’ Then he just looked at me and seemed confused. ‘My wife and son disappeared years ago. And so did all the Jedi. Good riddance to them. I don’t know you. Now get out.’ I was really sad, but then I just said, ‘I’ll go now.’ But somehow I couldn’t manage to go back, however it was I was transported there. I looked at him, and told him that I missed him all these years, but that I felt sorry for how empty his life had become. I don’t know why I said that, or how it was that I knew his life was empty. He was obviously powerful and important, whatever his position was. Then I told him how the Jedi had found me and my mother, and took good care of us, and we had no regrets, and that our lives were good, even though sometimes things were hard.”

He had tears in his eyes, “Then… then it was like I woke up. I got up and headed for home, because this is where I really belong. You’re all my family. You always have been. You’ve been a better father to me, all these years. I’m glad I didn’t have to grow up to be like him.”

I embraced him and held him tightly, “Nik,” I said. “We’re all proud of you. Not just because you’ve become a Jedi, but because of the good young man you’ve grown up to be. I know your life hasn’t been easy, but nothing that’s truly worth it ever is.”

But there was more, he said. “On the long way back, I got this overwhelming feeling that things were going to happen. Terrible things. Not here, not on this world. But out there in the Galaxy. All kinds of destruction and wars and…” his voice shook. “I don’t know what it is, or when, but things are going to happen out there.”

I didn’t know what it was either. I wanted to listen to him and talk more about it, but I had to be at work. Jedi Knights or not, we all still needed our jobs to put food on the table. I looked back at him before I went out the door, “I hope one day, we can all wear our long brown robes again and not worry about the bounty on our heads.”

It gave me an idea.

After work that evening I stopped at the second hand store. There I found a decent pair of brown synth leather boots that I knew would fit Nik. I next looked around to see if they sold fabric. But then I saw it on the racks of used clothing. A decent brown hooded cloak. It was in good condition. Not exactly a Jedi robe, but close enough. I bought them and stashed them in the storage compartment of the landspeeder.

That night while Nik was asleep I spoke with Venza and the rest of our eclectic family. We needed to plan for when everyone was home at the same time.

And finally that time came. It was after work and we were sitting around eating dinner one night. Everyone knew about it but we didn’t tell Nik. But he could feel it. He suddenly looked up and looked around the table at all of us and said, “What?”

Venza told him to finish his vegetables. And I said nothing. But kriff, he knew something was up. We finished eating, and then Shen said, “Well, Nik. It’s finally time.”

“Time for what?” he mumbled, not comprehending.

Sifra stifled a laugh. I have to admit, it was sort of funny that he knew something was up but didn’t immediately figure it out.

“Nik,” I said, “Come on. We’re all going downstairs together.”

His mother smiled with pride as she followed the others quietly downstairs. Nik was always intuitive about things, but it was strange that somehow he still didn’t pick up on this. I put my hand on his shoulder and led him down into our small Temple. On the way down he looked at me and whispered, “What?”

“Oh come on, Nik. You should know.”

He shrugged and followed me down, but then I saw a slight smile light up his face.

Once downstairs we stood in a circle and I told him to kneel. I ignited my lightsaber and hovered it above his shoulder. “Nik,” I said, “We are all extremely proud of you, and we’re all very grateful to have you as a member of our family. You have become like a son and a brother to us. Many years ago we were all devastated by an unimaginable horror, but then we found you. And when we found you, we found a light that can be carried into the future when we are all gone from this life. And may you one day live to see a time when darkness no longer enshrouds the Galaxy, and the Jedi Order can finally return to its rightful and proper place among the stars…Niklas Galinor, by the right of the Council…by the will of the Force…rise Jedi Knight.”

We all raised our lightsabers in salute to him while Venza looked on. He was happy. The event acknowledged the many years of hard work and all he had accomplished, that he had good Jedi skills and more importantly, the sound moral character that every Jedi needs.

Later that night Lippi asked Shen, “How come we didn’t get a speech like that, Master?”

He laughed and said, “Am I going to have to redo yours?”

I gave Nik the boots and brown cape. He loved the boots. The cape mostly stayed in his bedroom closet. I wasn’t that surprised.

After that night we went back to our normal and boring lives.

Sifra was still tossing the drunks out of the cantina and into the gutter. Shen continued on as night watchman. I continued on as foreman. Lippi and Venza worked at the cantina with Sifra, but they didn’t toss drunks out – that was Sifra’s job. Nik worked at the scrapyard and his friendship with Kia grew deeper. That worried me somewhat, but at the time, I didn’t know why…I was soon to find out, though… When we weren’t working, we were downstairs in the basement Temple practicing and keeping up our skills. And when we weren’t doing that we were helping Josiah keep the city crime free. And when I had any free time, I would take Venza out to the few nice places in town so she wouldn’t feel ignored or neglected, the way she felt when she was with Orson.

There was the time Shen talked a suicidal man down from the bridge he was going to jump from. Errol found him clutching the railing and weeping. He was said to have appeared on this planet some time ago, a drifter, and no one knew his name. When asked he said he had no name. He survived by doing odd jobs. He had no friends and mostly avoided people. Shen went up to him and found him mumbling that he had “done horrible things during the wars.” He continued sob uncontrollably, “All these years, I’ve held it deep inside. I can’t bear it any longer, what I did was so terrible.” “My friend, what did you do?” “I killed an innocent man. I killed my general. I’m a murderer. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t stop myself.” And then Shen knew instantly. It happened during the Clone Wars. “Come down from there. You are forgiven. Come down and go live out the rest of your life.”

Shen told us about it when he returned home that night. We all felt sad for the old soldier, even though he had killed one of our own. It was a tragedy upon another tragedy. He had to live all those years with the memory of the horror that he had done in the service of the Empire. He said that he couldn’t stop himself, and I always wondered about that.

And then there was the time Josiah came to our door one night with a case of Corellian whiskey. He said that some Twi’lek named Bib Something came looking for him, saying that he represented the magnificent Hutt Jabba, and it was a reward for killing off his rival in business. He said, “Leela knew who that Twi’lek was, the one whose name I can’t remember. She says he is considered scum back home on Ryloth.” Well, he worked for a Hutt, so maybe he was in fact scum. Josiah then said, “This really should be yours.” We accepted it, of course.

There was occasional talk overheard that the Empire might one day occupy this world. We hoped not. But we knew they might one day come.

But life on this planet continued as usual.

After a while I started to notice that Nik seemed to have that same far away look in his eyes that Shen would have when he looked up at the night sky. That longing for things far away, and off of this world. It made me sad to see him that way, but it couldn’t be helped.

On our ride home from work one day, I pulled the landspeeder over to the side of the road and said, “Nik. I’ve known you long enough to know that something isn’t right.”

“Sorry,” was all he said.

“Nik. Come on.” Then it came to me, “Is it Kia?”

“I…” he hesitated, then finally he said it, “I…want to join the Rebellion.”

Somehow it didn’t surprise me, “Oh. So it is Kia.”

“Well, it’s not just her. It’s just that, well, all my life you’ve taught me everything, and we’re just sitting on this planet doing what? Working in a scrapyard? People out there are suffering. What are we doing about it? We chase off spicerunners, sure. So the streets are safe in this dump of a city. But what about the rest of the Galaxy? I’m sorry, but what are we doing here? Kia wants to get some people she knows together and… I was hoping you and Shen and the others will come with us?”

Then I said, “Nik, you didn’t tell her about us, did you?”

“No. And I didn’t tell her about me, either. I won’t tell her anything about you or the others, but if I join her, she’ll probably figure it out eventually.”

“Okay,” I said, “Nik, you know Shen is getting too old to fight. And if Lippi or Sifra want to go with you, that’s up to them. And Nik, I would actually like to go with you to see what’s happening out there, but…well, you see, your mother and I aren’t getting any younger and we were thinking it would be nice to have one of our own.”

“What?”

“Nik, soon you might be having a little sister or brother.”

“What?”

“That’s right, Nik. I can’t just walk out on your mother now. This is probably why the Jedi were discouraged from having families in days past…” We sat and talked awhile. He was disappointed that I couldn’t go with him and Kia, but I knew that he really wanted to go with Kia so they could explore the Galaxy alone together. “Our home will always be your home. You promise me you will come back one day, safe. And while you’re out there, do this for us – look for other Jedi who may have survived. Don’t be obvious or you may be discovered. Look discreetly, listen to conversations, and keep your eyes and ears open. And if you find any, if they need a safe place, bring them to us.”

That night the house was in an uproar. I knew there might be turbulence, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad.

Venza was weeping and inconsolable, but that was to be expected. I was inconsolable myself, but I tried not to show it.

Sifra was furious. She glared at him and snarled, “After all we’ve done for you?”

“Sifra,” I said, “He’ll be back some day. He’s going to look for other survivors.”

Lippi was sad, but she held herself together and said, “Well, Nik, I’d like to go, but I think Josiah needs us. Just come back safe.”

Shen sighed and said, “I knew this day would come.” He put his hand on Nik's shoulder and said, “Nik, do some good. Be safe. And come back to us when you find what it is you’re looking for out there.”

Venza wept all night long. I held her in my arms and pulled her close, “I’m sorry.”

She said, “It’s not your fault. It’s that girl. I just hope he won’t get killed out there.”

“He’ll be careful. I taught him to be careful.”

We drove him to the spaceport the next day. He had gathered most of the things he was bringing in one large synth leather duffel bag. And there was Kia, standing at the ramp of her ship.

“Well, Nik,” I said, “I hope we’ll see you again soon. Be safe out there.” I embraced him quickly. I didn’t want to let him go, but I had to. This is why Jedi weren’t supposed to have attachments – because attachments hurt too kriffing much.

Venza erupted into tears again. She pulled him close, one final hug before he was gone, and she whispered, “May the Force be with you.”

We watched the freighter take off… Where did the years go? It seemed like yesterday I was carrying him and he was so little and innocent. Our Temple down below our home seemed empty now, even though we still went down to practice. The house seemed strangely quiet, desolate almost.

But soon there was a new life given to us. Born of love, our precious little Ashla. She is beautiful, like her mother. A new Jedi to train, and a new child to love and hold.

Years went by before we heard from Nik again. Venza would always ask me, when we were alone, “Is he still alive?” She knew I could feel him out there, somewhere. “Yes,” I would sigh. But one night, I answered, “He’s alive, but he’s not happy. I don’t know why. Something is wrong.” She grew worried, but I reassured her, he is alive.

Finally, he returned. And what a story he had to tell. We received the message that he was on his way home, and we met him at the spaceport. He came down the ramp alone. His mother rushed like mad to embrace him, and then so did I, “Welcome back, Nik,” I said, “Where’s Kia?”

“She’s on the ship, with what’s left of our crew, taking care of something important.”

I could tell he was being evasive, but I didn’t press him. He would tell us when the time came.

We all went to Leela’s cantina together. Venza brought Ashla so Nik could meet his little sister. Leela heard the news and brought us something special that she prepared herself, and we all sat together at a private table.

“I really missed you all,” he said.

“We missed you,” Shen said. “Welcome home, Nik.”

“So, tell us about everything,” I said. “First, let’s get this out of the way. Did you find out if any other Jedi have survived?”

“Well,” he began, “We have been listening in on Imperial communications, and we overhear a lot of activity. There was a Jedi seen on Bracca, and they tried to capture him, but he escaped.”

Collectively, we all felt relief that he escaped.

“Then there was talk about a group of Rebels on Lothal, and supposedly among the group were some Jedi. We went to Lothal looking for them, but didn’t find them. Maybe they left, or maybe we just didn’t find them.”

“Well,” Lippi sipped her drink and sighed, “Maybe we’ll find them some day.”

“And then there was this strange incident,” he said, “It happened a while ago, but... Kia and I were on Tatooine, and we stopped to sit and have a few drinks in a cantina. The place was a real dump. In fact, the whole planet is a dump. Anyway, we sat down, and this Rodian came in and went after this Human who was sitting alone. They had some kind of argument, and then the Human shot the Rodian and got up and walked away like it was nothing. Even after all we have been through, we were shocked. I said out loud, ‘What kind of planet is this?’ The bartender heard me and came over and said, ‘You think that was bad, just before that happened some crazy old man cut a guy up with one of them laser swords.’ Kia and I looked at one another and said nothing, but we knew. I wish we had seen that. But anyway, I’m back.”

He sounded sad and he looked tired. I wondered why, but I knew it would come out.

“I wish the bartender could have given you the crazy old man’s name,” Shen said.

“Well,” Venza finally said, “So Nik, fill us all in on your adventures out there in the big Galaxy.”

“Tell us!” Sifra demanded, banging her empty mug of ale on the table.

Nik put down his drink, “Where do I begin?”

“Start at the beginning, Nik,” Shen said.

He inhaled and let it out slowly, as if reluctant to talk about it, “Okay…When I got on board the ship with Kia, I was excited to be going on an adventure. She started by taking me to the cargo hold and showing me this vast collection of weaponry that she was stashing. I figured, okay, so we’re going to be Rebels, we’ll need weapons. She started telling me about these friends that she has, contacts of her parents, who were Rebels also. I just let her talk and listened and learned. Later on, she found my lightsaber sort of by accident. I stashed it in a storage bin, but she was looking for something and found it. ‘Is this what I think it is?’ ‘Yes, it is,’ I said. ‘Where did you get it?’ ‘I made it.’ She didn’t believe me. She said, ‘Only a Jedi would have one of these.’ So I just held out my hand and it flew out of her hand and into mine. I said, ‘Sorry, but don’t play with it, it’s dangerous.’”

“So what happened then?” Lippi put her drink down and started on the plate of food that was in the middle of the table.

“So, then she got all worked up saying, ‘I found a live Jedi!’ She thought we were all dead. ‘Most of us are,’ I said. She had all kinds of questions about where I learned to be a Jedi, if she worked with me all that time at the scrapyard. I just told her I have to protect people I care about, and could give her no details. She asked about my family, and all I could say was that you’re not my real father, so now she just thinks you were all sort of hiding me.”

“That’s good,” I said, “Go on.”

“We got in touch with her Rebel friends. A Human – Brock, a Shistavanen – Rollo, and a Ryn – Tinker. I didn’t advertise to them that I’m a Jedi, but after convincing so many stormtroopers to release prisoners it made them wonder. I kept my lightsaber hidden under my leather jacket, so mostly it’s unseen. But I use it occasionally. They figured it out. At first we all got along well. We would listen in on Imperial communications and release prisoners or go in to rescue political targets before they were captured. We helped set free a lot of beings. But Brock wasn’t satisfied with helping innocent beings. He wanted to blow things up. So we were blowing up warehouses of their weapons and supplies. We had a lot of success, most of the time. I made sure we could get in and out of places unnoticed, with no violence. This went on for some time. Now that I think back, the only one who wasn’t happy with what we were doing was Brock. He didn’t like the way I was running things. He wanted more destruction. I planned things to avoid having people get killed – on both sides. He didn’t like that. There was tension, but I tried to ignore it. But the time came when the situation between us got out of hand. We were raiding some of their rations to distribute to some needy beings – there are so many, the least we can do is help them with food. We had crates loaded up, but we were discovered by one lone stormtrooper. I didn’t get a chance to work on his mind – Brock had a blaster rifle pointed right at him. The stormtrooper put down his own blaster and put his hands up. I said, ‘Brock, no, don’t.’ He said, ‘We have to kill him, he’s seen us.’ I said, ‘We’ll just lock him in a storage room.’ Brock insisted on killing him. I had my lightsaber out, ‘You’re not killing him,’ I said. Kia and Rollo found a place to put him and lock him in. Back on the ship, Brock was furious and wouldn’t let it go. He was all over me. I told him flat out that it’s not the Jedi way to kill any helpless being. He said the only good thing the Emperor did was to get rid of the Jedi. I was shocked. Everyone else heard it, but no one else said a word. I had to remember everything you taught me about self discipline to contain myself. I stayed calm and said, ‘Brock, you know what? We’re almost to Tatooine. We’re going to land this ship, and I’m getting off. I’ll find a way back home. You can do what you want. I’m gone.’ Then I went to the cabin I share with Kia and got my stuff together.”

Lippi said, “Well, you came back on Kia’s ship?”

“Well, we landed on Tatooine. She followed me off, calling after me. I told her, ‘I’m gone. I’m not going to let us commit murder.’ She caught up with me and said we should go get a drink somewhere and sit and think about what to do. That’s how we ended up in that dump of a cantina where we saw the Rodian get shot.” He paused, finished his drink, and ordered another. With the story he was telling, he needed it. “I sat with Kia and told her I’ve had it. ‘Brock can run things, if no one else is going to say anything. If that’s the way they all want it, I’m gone.’ She said, ‘But it’s my ship.’ I said, ‘Sure it is, that’s why you can leave without me.’ She said, ‘But we need you.’ The conversation was going nowhere. I was disgusted with Brock, and I was disgusted with the rest of the crew for not saying anything about his behavior.”

“Nik,” I inhaled and let it out slowly, “You did the right thing. Once we start being murderers, we stop being Jedi.”

“Then what happened?” Venza asked, “You just up and left?”

“I almost did. Then I saw Rollo and Tinker come in after us. They asked me to come back. But I couldn’t go back, not after what Brock said. I didn’t want to see his face again. I told them all to just go on without me. Kia said it’s her ship, and she said she would toss Brock off the ship for me. I said, ‘No. Just consider me gone.’ I felt like a failure, maybe I shouldn’t have felt that way, after all we accomplished together. Rollo said again to ‘come back, we need you.’ Then I said something stupid. I said, ‘No one said anything to Brock, so I guess that means you all feel the same way.’”

I felt the pain in his heart and saw it in his face.

“I know now that it was a stupid thing to say to my friends. The only one I really had a problem with was Brock. They sat beside us. I apologized to the both of them. I was so upset that day. We all had a drink together and then Rollo and Tinker offered to go back and talk to Brock and either make him apologize or leave the ship. I sat a while with Kia. That’s when we saw the Rodian get shot down.”

“And then?” Sifra demanded.

“We returned and Rollo and Tinker said he wasn’t onboard. Brock must have left on his own. We decided to leave Tatooine in a hurry. He might be that low as to turn us all in for the reward.”

“But that can’t be the end of the story, is it?” I asked.

“No. But with all we had been through, that was the hardest thing, being betrayed by someone I thought was my friend. Later we found out that he got himself killed, and then we found out that the stormtrooper we spared joined the Rebels.”

“Such is the will of the Force,” Shen remarked as he ordered another drink.

“I blamed myself for a long time for Brock’s death. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did.” He sighed, but then continued, “Well, that incident happened a long time ago. Almost soon after I left in fact. But since Alderaan, the Rebellion is getting more organized. There are a lot more beings joining up. We’ve been really busy. Now we do things my way – we try not to kill anyone. And another thing. I don’t know if you’ve all heard, the superweapon that the Imperials had – they called it the Death Star. The rumor is that the man who blew it up is a Jedi.”

We were all silent a moment.

“Well,” I said after a long pause, “That is good news. There are more of us out there. And that their terrible weapon is destroyed also is good news.”

Finally Nik said, “And there’s something else…There’s someone important I want you all to meet. He’s on the ship with Kia and the crew that we have left.”

He wouldn’t tell us who it was; it was to be a surprise. We finished our food and drinks and went to the spaceport. Kia came down the ramp followed by Tinker and Rollo. She held a baby in her arms and handed him over to Nik.

“Everyone, this is Merrill Bricklin Galinor.”

“What?” I said to Nik. “You named him Merrill Bricklin?” He named the kid after me. I was shocked, but honored of course.

“I couldn’t name him Orson or Brak, now could I?”

We invited Nik and Kia and their crew to stay with us for a few days in our home. I took some time off work to get to know them all and enjoy spending time with the baby. It was almost like getting to hold little Nik all over again.

Finally it was time for them to go back to their ship, back out into the Galaxy to fight for the cause of freedom. Venza insisted they leave little Merrill with us. “It’s too dangerous out there,” she said.

Kia was sad to leave him behind, but she knew it was for the best to keep him safe, “But who will teach him to be a Jedi?” she asked.

“I will,” I said. It’s been twenty years since the attack on our Order, and I was sick of hiding. “I will teach him.” And finally she knew the truth about Nik’s family.

So we are both parents and grandparents.

There is an Imperial presence on this world now – and we do our best to distract them and slow them down. Josiah and Errol back us up and keep us informed. Imperial prisoners mysteriously escape into the night. Their supplies disappear. Their communications get blocked and they are kept confused. The tunnel coming out from our basement Temple and leading into the forest comes in handy, too. I’ve taught Venza to use a blaster. Ordinary people have joined us as well, citizens and working people who are fed up. The Imperials suspect a Rebel cell, but they don’t know Jedi are involved, and we intend to keep it that way. Master Shen has distorted more than a few stormtroopers’ memories… No deaths so far. We got plenty of experience when we cleaned out the spicerunners, and we’ll eventually clean the Imps out too.

It may take longer, but one day, this world will be free of them.

So you see, we’ve been quite busy here on this world. We haven’t been sitting in our backyard for twenty years, watching the grass grow.

And at night before we put the children to bed, I look into the bright eyes of our beautiful Ashla and into the face of little Merrill, and look forward to the time when they can be the Jedi they were meant to be and not be hunted. I look forward to the day when the Empire finally dies and they can grow up to do the good they were meant to do. And I also know that somewhere, out there, there are others of our kind. Survivors, or those just starting to learn, but they are out there.

We will find them one day and we will join with them. May the Force be with them all.

Recollections of a Life in Exile/Story (2024)

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