Entry Nine

ONE YEAR LATER. . .

Vox and I sat on a bench with High Priest Ulth Muraec aboard the Ithorian herdship Nature Womb, orbiting the jungle planet Ithor. Feathered reptiles glided or zoomed close overhead and primates blinked at us from between the wide leaves of branches. Vines and flowers chaotically claimed the edges of the steel walkway in front of us where tourists strolled and chattered.

"My experts scrutinized footage taken by miners in the asteroid belt." Ulth used his native speech. Ithorian eyes were heavily-lidded and set at either side of a head that blended with the neck in a wide, flattish shape. "They agree that the ship designs are a call-back to Basilisks. Scavengers found a defunct probe droid in the same region matching a known Mandalorian build."

A young man and woman couple, dressed in skimpy clothing made of small leaves and flowers, took their sweet time up the path. They smiled, laughed, spun, and kissed openly in front of equally happy passerby. I became self-conscious, being dressed modestly in a wrinkled skirt tunic and baggy britches.

Vox set his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands. His formerly amputated tentacle had regrown this past year. "The war-mongers can spare a militia more than capable of hijacking a stray herdship, but your cities have remained at peace thus far. I'm guessing the Mandalorians - if that's to whom the rogue ships actually belong - are mining asteroids. Hardly a cause for alarm."

A light weight dropped onto my shoulder. I flinched and turned my head to find a pocket-sized primate. It tugged at a loose lock of my hair. "Shoo, you."

Ulth raised his dull ramble an octave. "How do I know they are not scheming to destroy Ithor? What if they want to strike the Republic by burning its most sacred refuge?"

The creature launched itself at Vox's face. Several more fell from the trees and joined their friend in treating the Jedi as a playset.

I leaned forward and addressed the Ithorian while Vox between us flailed and cursed. "High Priest Muraec. We shall help you demand an assembly with your fellow delegates. I advise that you campaign for every herdship to assume a close orbit around Ithor until war tensions ease."

"Master Vox Aben. Be proud of your mere pupil." Ulth clapped Vox on the back even while the Quarren pulled off two furry rascals that had used his head as a see-saw. "She is wise like unto a Jedi Master."

My heart jumped at the praise, but I kept my face impassive. Ulth pulled out a transceiver and, seconds later, a holographic image appeared of an Ithorian in pilot wear.

"Captain Donzra," Ulth said. "Startle your High Priestess from her sleep and tell her that I call a hearing at 1300. To be tardy is to be frowned upon by the Jungle Mother."

The image disappeared. Vox freed himself of the last creature and sent me a withering emotion through the Force. "I am to do the talking, little witch."

I clenched my jaw and looked at the transmitter in Ulth's hand, ignoring my master. He would find an excuse to lecture me regardless what I did on the mission. Holographic Donzra returned. "She asks if this hearing involves Mandalorian conspiracy theories."

I stood and strode to the High Priest's opposite side. "It involves two Jedi supporting Ulth Muraec's position."

Donzra stared at me quietly for a moment then said, "Fertilizer." aka "****."

Ulth put the device back in his ceremonial garb.

Vox stood and lost his cordial manner as he gurgled down to the High Priest. "My pupil gave you false hope. The Jedi Order declines any and all requests for assistance fighting the Mandalorians. We can provide a colony on CW-411 and minimum supplies for Nature Womb residents wishing to evacuate, but our involvement ends there."

The Ithorian started trying to speak, but he was overcome by disappointment. At last he rose and faced the Quarren. "Enjoy your time here. Soon, the enemy will crush this beautiful place and my people will wail for help into the abyss as they perish in flames. Good luck, Jedi, suffering under such a burdensome code of morality."

I followed my master across a durasteel bridge over a rushing river, then a winding dirt path through dense forest and grasslands. We entered an archway under a thunderous waterfall onto a docking bay. "There must be a better way we can help. I fear it would take a catastrophe to convince the residents to relocate."

"Shut that wretched human mouth."

We left Nature Womb and docked aboard Lush Bay where Vima and Meetra met with a different High Priest about the Mandalorian issue. We beeped Vima on comm. "We started five minutes ago," she said. "I'll inform you when we're finished." The Council had assigned an equal number of herdships to Vox and Vima, ordering the two Jedi to update them and each other after every meeting. They also required Vox to take me along so I could gain valuable experience by first-hand observation.

I entered my quarters and sat down at the table slash tool bench and commenced my studies into Ithorian culture. I spent most my free time these days watching educational holo-vids, learning alien languages, biology, and customs, knowledge a Jedi required to carry out their diplomatic duties for the Order. Right now I studied a rare example of a sentient plant, the bafforr tree, which expanded its neural network by interconnecting roots with others of its species.

After an hour I rose and walked to the cockpit, drowsy and irritated that Vima was taking so long. "May I leave to explore a little?"

Vox fiddled at something on the console. "Please, for the love of the Force, do leave." He held up a finger and rotated around in his chair. "Should you wander too far, I shall leave you here."

- - -

I stopped on a bridge and leaned on the railing to watch swoopbikers race across the water of the wide river below. They sent fountains and shore-crashing waves behind them as they sped in my direction and then under the bridge, hooting and laughing. Misty droplets soaked my face. I smiled and made down a hiking trail, exchanging nods and greetings with tourists, many of them young, attractive, half-nude and covered in washable body art. I jogged at a casual speed, following the trail into a thick, sometimes dark forest where animals croaked, squeaked, and chirped. Rodents appeared but vanished in a flash. Birds from various ecosystems around the galaxy pruned themselves on branches. The smell of cooked food and hundreds of babbling voices told me there was a gathering ahead. The forest ended and I found myself in a spacious plaza. People sat and ate all manner of food at a section crowded with wood-woven chairs and tables. Room-sized restaurant stalls and souvenir stands took half the edge of the circular stone area and across from those was a grassy ridge where people lay on towels and tanned, or guzzled alcohol and smoked recreational weed.

I spotted past the flowing foot traffic a tall man with dark red skin. We locked gazes and he immediately walked toward me. I looked away and started walking in a different direction to lose myself in the crowd.

"Hey. Wait right there, Jedi girl."

I turned. Two women who might have been professional models held his either arm. He wore a leather vest pulled back to reveal nipples pierced by hoop rings and small shorts that hinted at one reason for his confident demeanor. He was good-looking after an edgy fashion, forehead square and high, nose and chin prominent and pointed such that I was reminded of my Zabrak Sith warrior from a year ago.

He held up a cocktail glass in his hand. "A sip for the sweet Jedi?"

I crossed my arms and tried to seem bored. "No, thank you."

"She's too snoody for us, daddy." The toned, big-breasted woman at his right ran her fingers up his defined bicep. Her dark curly hair matched well her tanned skin, contrasting the second woman who was pale and had straight blonde hair.

"Liquor against your religion?" The man smiled. "Your sort could stand to loosen up and have a good time."

"I'll be on my way, sir." I tried to pass him.

He grabbed my arm and leaned in. "You really wanna kick away a handsome, fun-loving guy? Let me take you to the fun, show you that good time."

Startled at his assertiveness, I pried his hand from my arm. "I enjoy the company of those with more class than yourself."

"Trying to say I'm low-time by hanging around his fine piece of arse?" The pale-skinned female reached up and pulled a pair of stylish goggles down her nose and stared at me sleepily. She raised her naked leg and foot up the man's shin, her knee nestling beneath his groin.

"Dat attitude, girl." The red-skinned rogue pulled his two women along to stand in front of me, cutting off my escape among the moving crowd. "You gotta treat strangers like me politely, or you're gonna find your pretty self all alone in the galaxy. Would you at least sit down with me, talk to me, get to know me before you go all cold?"

I snorted. "How many more times do I need to reject you before the message enters that evidently minuscule brain?" I flared my nostrils. There was a primordial aroma in the air, somehow scentless yet the most pleasant of scents. My nethers tingled and a kind of intoxicating warmth spread through my insides.

"Come here, girl. There's room for one more princess." He sent me a predatorial look and the dark-haired woman slid over.

This man really churned my juices. I had once read a romance where deep, all-encompassing attraction between two souls struck decisively out of clear space. Perhaps that's what was happening here? I took my place against him. "Take me somewhere private, daddy."

I sensed jealousy, contempt, and admiration from those we passed, then we started down a steep, winding walkway to a grove beside a noisy stream where some Ithorians collected fruit in crates. Our leader pushed through the branches of short pines and we stopped in a small clearing, dead pine-needles carpeting the ground.

- - -

They left and I snoozed.

Soon I woke, stretched, stood up and examined my state. My knees were dirty and sticky sap had stained my robes, but I could think up a believable lie for Vox, should he inquire. The Jedi would have little to fuss over, really, because I was still very much a virgin. It was simply fooling around.

Then I realized that my lightsaber was gone.

I frantically patted my belt and shifted through the pine needles to find nothing and broke out of the clearing and retraced my steps through the grove and up the walkway. Had someone in the crowd swiped it off my person earlier? But my senses were perpetually sharp, even during sleep. Except when. . . I made fists as I reached the edge of the busy plaza. That man was a thief. He and his empty-headed harlots had seen me as small prey with big pay-offs. How much did a lightsaber go for on the black market? "I should've bitten down ---"

Many people stopped eating, walking, or chatting and turned their attention to giant holo-screens over the market stalls which switched to the same newscast. I took a deep breath, clearing out the worst of my anger for the time being, and chanced a look.

"I am Revan." The robed, hooded man's voice boomed and echoed, filled the herdship from hundreds of light-years distant."The Jedi Council may be content to sit behind closed doors and debate while the Outer Rim burns, but I and my followers are taking action to fight the storm."

He stepped aside and gestured to the scenery behind him. Refugees sat against shattered stone walls, staring absently, barely alive or already dead, their bodies soiled by ash and grime, some with bandaged missing appendages. The cam rotated to show refugees who waited in a food line.

The scene moved to show a landscape of smoking rubble. Fighters skimmed the undersides of unnaturally dark clouds that stretched to a hazy twilight. The cam tilted downward to where a Republic soldier helmet lay partially sunken in pebbles and dust. A foot extended from off-screen, moved the helmet, and it became clear a head was stuck inside.

Our perspective switched back to Revan. "We will defeat the Mandalorians and drive them back into the Unknown Regions. It is time for Republic Forces and my Revanites to unite fully through military might."

A taller man stepped up, his face kind and his bald head lightly tattooed. He held a thin, sickly child in his arms which he carefully handed to Revan. The child hugged his defender. "I come to recruit those skilled in combat and brave of heart," the tall man said. "Wait for me."

The newscast ended and tourists began to talk louder than ever amongst each other. I ran for the opposite path, intent on returning to the ship, but in an instant a crowd surrounded me tightly on all sides and the questions and comments poured forth.

"What are the Jedi going to do?"

"Why are you here, when you could be killing Mandalorians?"

"Where's your master?"

"Time I beat a Jedi's face in."

Their sheer body heat felt suffocating. I tried to push past, but their numbers shoved me back and I fell into a Devaronian who grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. I jerked away and accidentally head-smashed a Mon Calamari, turned and faced a hideous alien whose disgusting breath showered my face.

"Back away from the girl," an Ithorian security guard said on the big holo-screen. A gas grenade went off a dozen yards away. People scattered, screamed, and started running. I tried to keep up with the stampede of scattering tourists, but several behind me were blinded by panic and made as though to tackle me.

I Force-leapt, sailed in the air, and landed on the hiking path. By the sounds of it, many followed me, but I used my Force speed and fled down the trail through the forest.