James sat in the sleeping quarters of the Venator class starship “the Salvation”, they were nothing special, just a grey room with 6’ long by 4’ high by 4’ deep cubicles, each one with a blue matt for a little coverage so the clones and Jedi didn’t have to sleep on cold metal, some drawers so they could store some equipment, like a small pistol, or clothes.
There were many other quarters on the ship, each one almost identical to this one, about 20-50 cubicles with 10-25 bathrooms, needless to say, it took up a lot of room.
Despite all of this, he found himself unable not to think about the event's that had transpired on the planet.
It's natural for any Jedi who uses 'mass mind trick/mind wipe' to pass out after they use the power, it exerts even the most powerful Jedi more than any other power, and it is even more normal for the Jedi to worry they messed up, and either erased the subject entire memory, erased everything EXEPT them selfs from their memory, didn’t erase themselves entirely, or else, didn't erase everyone's mind.
But that wasn't what was bothering him, what was, was the fact that the six 'ponies' as they called themselves, he met, seemed to have a connection to the force, a very powerful connection, maybe even more than Skywalker!
"Bah, who am I kidding, Skywalker's the chosen one, the most powerful in the force, the one to bring balance to the force, right?" James ask's to no one in particular.
"Who're you talking to?" a voice says from behind James.
"Oh JEEZ, Dangit Jaden!" James says, half surprised, half traumatized.
"you still haven't answered my question, Who were you talking to?" Jaden ask's again in a sarcastic yet serious tone.
"I wasn't talking to anyone, just the walls." James replies in a mono tone sarcastic voice, as though he's hiding something.
"Right, and why, might I ask, were you talking about Anakin?" Jaden ask's, curious as to what his old master was trying to hide.
"well, it's nothing really." James replies, trying to burry the topic.
"no, you seemed stumped, and that's never a good thing, Remember what happened last time?" Jaden interjects, yet keeping a joking tone in his voice.
"Yah yah, three Acclamators and two Venators destroyed, no need to rub it in." James says back sarcastically as Jaden walks over to James.
"well, not what I was getting at, but Master, if something is troubling you, maybe I can help, you just have to let me!" Jaden says to his Master, clearly begging to know what he's hiding.
James stoops in defeat, and decides it's best to tell the person he's closest to, His apprentice.
"when I arrived, it was like any other planet, different kinds of creatures being the intelligent life of the planet, however, while I was there, I sensed the force, not like you and I sense it now, living and giving us strength, but, powerful, as though there was a great master of the force, or a force sensitive with a high midi-chlorian count." James face shows that he is beginning to stoop into thought after the last few words, causing Jaden to ask further questions.
"But what, there are force sensitives on almost all planets, it’s the nature of the force, so you’re not telling me everything, are you?" Jaden Inquires.
"No, I’m not. Never in all my days as a Jedi did I sense a connection to the force greater than this, nor even close to matching this, and the connection, it wasn't one powerful force sensitive, it was six!" James continues. "Six very powerful force sensitives."
Jaden takes James pause as a chance to ask more questions.
"so, six force sensitives, that's good, right?"
"you'd think so, but, they each had a connection to the force so powerful, saying it was more than Yoda's connection would be an Understatement!"
"wait, your saying these six had a connection almost as powerful as Anakin Skywalker?" Jaden asks, now just as stumped as his master was before they started this conversation.
"Not almost as powerful, More powerful"
"Holy Sith-Spit! are you serious?"
"Yes I am, I didn't say anything about it, heck, I didn't even really THINK about it until now!" James replies.
"woah, total universe splitter there!"
"But that's not it, it's almost as if their connection was shared, it was separate, but shared at the same time!" James adds.
"That's messed up." Jaden says as he heads out the door, but pauses before leaving.
"by the way, we'll be arriving at Couracaunt in a few minutes."
"I guess that means I should get cleaned up, huh." James gripes.
"Quit griping" Jaden says.
"I like griping" James responds
“Whatever, just get cleaned up, your hair’s a mess.” Jaden says chuckling at his master.
“You know what?” James says holding his fist up, then drops it. “forget it, I should get
clened up anyways.”
“No kidding.” Jaden responds, with a bit of a laugh in his tone.
“Get out of my room” James says jokingly.
“This isn’t your room, it’s the crews quarters!” Jaden replies, apparently still in a joking mood.
“You know what I meant, let me get cleaned up, and tell the captain that I’ll be there shortly!” James says in a now serious tone.
“No need for hostilities, we’re all Republic forces here right?” Jaden says as he finally leaves the room, leaving James to his thoughts once more.
‘Had all that really happened’ James thinks to himself. ‘were there really six powerful force sensitives? or am I just going crazy?’
“Well, all things aside, I should get cleaned up” James says as he heads for the Bathroom to get cleaned up.
--
as James washes his short hair under the warm water of the shower, he finds himself lost in thought once more.
‘What kind of impact did I make in that world? Had I even made an impact? Am I forgotten like I should be, or do I linger in their thoughts?’ James continues to think, when all of a sudden, the intercom comes online and James listens to what the captain has to say.
“All hands, we will be arriving in five minutes, please strap in and prepare for arrival!” The captain says over the intercom.
“Guess that’s my cue to get dressed huh.” James says as he shuts off the water and dry’s himself off with a nearby towel, and begins to put his Jedi Robes back on.
--
James was heading for his debriefing, but stopped for a moment, and thought ‘should I tell them?’, he quickly removed the thought from his mind for the moment, and headed into the room for his debriefing with the Jedi Council.
The “room” was actually just the Council Chambers where the meetings were held, the chambers had a reddish-brown dot in the middle which had some artistic designs that can’t be fully explained, and a yellow circle surrounded the dot and had other designs that seemed to “Point” to the middle, and a final circle, the same color as the dot in the middle, with no designs on it, and the council members chairs along the outside circle, each one a bluish-grey with red cushions.
“Master’s, it’s a pleasure to see you again” James says as he respectfully bows to his superiors.
“Likewise, now to business, we have much to discus” Mace Windu Says to James.
“yes, indeed we do.” James folds his arms behind his back.
“First off, how did your Starfighter wind up planet side?” Windu Asks.
“Well, it was caught by debris from the explosion of a droid frigate.” James replies to Master Windu’s Question.
“Alright, next question, were all the droid forces eliminated?” Windu inquires.
“Yes”
Windu glances over left and right to the other council members, as if to ask them if they sensed anything off about the simplicity of James’ response, getting no response from the other council members, Windu asks the final question.
“Finally, did you find anything you think the council should know about?”
Now James was worried, should he tell him about the six he met? No, better if they remained in the dark about it.
“No, nothing above the usual telekinetic abilities of some species, and flight of others” James says, hoping to burry the topic.
“Very well, you are dismissed.” Master Windu says, letting James leave.
“Farewell Master’s, and may the Force be with you.” James remarks as he bows again, then leaves the room, happy the interview is over.
--
James walks to his chambers, to meditate, and to regain his strength, but is stopped short by his former apprentice, Jaden.
“Hey, master, how’d it go?”
“Oh, hey, it went good, I guess.”James responds, then quickly turns the questions on Jaden “why are you asking? You’re not really one to pry, so whats up?”
“Well, it’s just that, you were gone for a week and a half, yet, you seemed as though you hadn’t even spent an entire day away from here” Jaden rubs the back of his neck with a half quizzical, half confused look on his face.
“A week and a half? no, I’m sure I was only there for a few hours.” James raises his left eyebrow in confusion. “Then again, that was an uncharted planet, maybe it’s timeframe is different than ours.”
“Maybe, anyway, just thought I’d see how things went, you should rest up, I heard that General Kota is going to need some assistance, but he only wants a Jedi, you know his standpoint on clones” Jaden points out.
“Well yeah, I actually agree with him, sort-of.”
“Sort of? How can you ’Sort-of’ agree with him?”
“Well, I don’t trust the clones, but I’m not going to let that stop them from trusting and helping me.”
“True enough, anyway, I got a call, Kento need’s help on the Nar Shaddaa system, I’m heading there in a few minutes with a squad of troopers to assist him.” Jaden says with a mono-tone voice, as if he’s reading information off a piece of paper.
“I see, well good luck, and may the force be with you.” James says to his former aprentice, with a sincere tone in his voice.
“May the force be with you too, master” Jaden responds shortly before turning and walking away, leaving James alone to his thoughts.
‘what’s going on, the six force-sensitives, Kota needing help, and Kento needing help, this is very unusual’ James thinks to himself, then, quickly dismissing his thoughts for the moment, then, he opens the door to his right and enters into his chambers.
they’re not mucfh, just a small twin-size bed with a red blanket and pillow to the left of the room, a small chrome dresser and drawers to the right, with a door at the far end which leads to the washroom.
“Home sweet cubicle, I guess it’s better than the crews quarters on a starship but still.” James sighs as he enters his ‘room’ James removes his heavy outer robe and sets it down on the dresser, he sits on the bed and crosses his legs, placing his arms and hands on top of them, closing his eyes, he begins to meditate, focusing on the planet he had just come from, EQT88, if he remembered correctly.
James focused hard, then, an image came into view, it was, the planet it self, no, that won’t do, need to go in farther, the image changed, he saw a White Pony with wings and a horn, seeming to be in a conversation, he focused harder to try to hear, all he got was “Bananas”, giving up, he tries to find the area he’d been, which wasn’t far off, he found one of the ponies he’d met, Twilight was her name, she seemed like she was puzzled, as if she knew something, like a memory that should be there, but isn’t.
James focuses again, trying to hear what she’s saying, then, he gets it.
“Spike! I’m telling you, my head hurts like crazy, it’s like that time shadow blaster tried to wipe my memory, I had a headache for WEEKS!”
“I’m telling you Twilight, you just fell out of bed.”
“But I don’t remember any of what happened yesterday! and it’s driving me CRAZY!!”
James decides that meditation can wait, he needs his rest after all.
--
Three days later
“Masters” James says as he bows, once again in the council chambers.
“Welcome back James, we’ve recived word that Master Rahm Kota is in need of assistance, we’ve decided to send you to aid him and his men.” Master Windu says to James.
“Me? What about Anakin or Obi-Wan, they’re much more qualified than I am.” James replies, confused as to why the council chose him.
“Anakin and Obi-Wan are currently on an assignment, do you accept your mission, or do we need to call in another Jedi?” Windu responds.
“I see, of corse I accept, I’ll leave right away.”
“Good, may the force be with you” Windu says, dismissing James.
“Thank you masters” James bows, and leaves the chambers, heading for a starship, then he remembers, Kota doesn’t like Clones, best to take a small ship, an old smugglers ship which has been repurposed for use as a transport ship, something like, the Ebon Hawk.
*Flashback*
“Master, you can’t be serious, thats from the days of the old republic, the time of Revan and Malak, and the Star-forge!”
“That’s why I like it, I’m going to keep the shell, and completely re-work the insides, she’s run like she was just made yesterday!”
*End Flashback*
“heh, good times.” James mutters to himself.
He heads to the hangar, to his personal bay, and goes into his pride and prize, the Ebon Hawk.
“Dang nabbit, I can never find my way around in this thing, oh, theres the cockpit.” James complains as he wanders around the inside of the ship, coming to a stop at the cockpit.
“Let’s get this old bird off the ground!” James says manning the controls, launching the ship into the air.
as the ship takes off, James begins to wonder, ‘What are Anakin and Obi-Wan up to?’
he decides to give them a call, but he is left unanswered, then, he gets into space.
--
“Hold your fire! You’re not helping here!” Obi-Wan yells to Anakin over the radio headsets.
“I agree, bad idea.” Anakin responds as he pulls his ship to the right of Obi-Wan’s, and scrapes the ‘wing’ of Obi-Wan’s using his ‘wing’ to destroy the Buzz Droids.
“Move to your right” Anakin says to Obi-Wan.
“Hold on Anakin, you’re going to get us BOTH killed!” Obi-Wan says “go on without me, there’s nothing more you can do!”
“I’m not leaving without you master” Anakin says as he scrapes the other ‘wing’ of Obi-Wan’s Starfighter, catching a Buzz Droid onto his, the Droid ‘walks’ over next to Anakin’s astromech, R2-D2, who takes out a tazer-like object, and attacks the Buzz Droid.
“Hit ‘em R2!” Anakin says as the Buzz droid tries to work an attack on R2-D2. “Watch out”
“R2, hit the Buzz Droid, Center eye!” Obi-Wan comments, then, R2 zapps the Buzz Droid where Obi-Wan told him to, destroying the eye, and disabling the droid.
--
“So thats what they’re up to” James says as he passes by the massive space battle that’s taking place.
“Hyperspace co-ordinates locked in, Preparing to jump in three, two, one.” James says as his ship makes it’s jump to hyperspace. “here we go, first mission on Maramere, this should be fun!”