#ado tham

Rey talks like a Jedi. I wonder if she knows that. Her words, her feelings, is that of a Jedi.

"I am not a Jedi," I start. "I have learned the ways of the Jedi and they have helped me understand and connect with the Force, but I disagree with many, if not all of their teachings."

Rey finds this curious and I can see her making a note to come back to this. "I am not a Jedi either," she says. "I think it's possible we may have seen the last of the Jedi."

She says it, but she doesn't believe it. Neither do I. Neither does Humaira. We might not say it out loud, but we are each hopeful people. We all believe there will always be a light in the dark.

"I'm not a Jedi but I mediate like one," I say. "There are practices and rituals that come from the Jedi that help me connect with the living Force. But I do not see the galaxy the way the Jedi do. So when you say there is a rising darkness, I don't feel that."

Rey's brow furrows in frustration and disappointment.

"But," I say, "there is something swirling out there. I feel it, too. But what it feels like to me is not darkness, but chaos."

Rey leans back, thoughtful. "I wonder if there is a difference," she wonders.

"When you say darkness, I hear evil -- something with malicious intent." I hold out one hand and then the other. "When I say chaos, I mean anarchy. Lack of order. Loss of control."

Rey's eyes drift towards the stars and then close. She raises her hand, as if she were interacting with a datapad. Her fingers start to flick and I realize it's not a datapad that it looks like she's scanning, but a book. Under her eyelids, her eyes dart back and forth. She's reading something.

"There is a difference," she finally says, "between who the Jedi were, what the Jedi became, and what the Jedi set out to do." Her fingers stop flicking and then she bats something away. Somewhere, I imagine a book was thrown across a room. She flipping through pages again, stopping to read, "the Jedi were guardians of peace, seekers of knowledge and desired harmony in all things. They stood against chaos and ignorance . . ."

"And passion and emotion," I add under my breath.

Rey continues to read. "Wherein the Sith and the Dark Jedi fought for strength, power and control."

Rey's eyes open. They dilate as she comes back to the present and turns to me.

"I think we've felt the same thing," she says. "We're just coming at it from two different places."

"What do you think it means?"

"It's the First Order," she says. "They are trying to take control of the galaxy, but only peace can calm chaos. Forced order only spreads it. It may look like harmony, everything may appear uniform, but underneath it is fear, isolation, and chaos -- which can only lead to more suffering and more death."

I'm startled by Rey's tone and her words. She speaks as one who has experienced this before, not someone who is fresh to the fight. It makes me feel small, like I've not been using my connection to the Force -- and those who came before me -- to its fullest potential.

"This darkness is spreading and no one is standing up against it." Rey knows she's supposed to be the hopeful one, but she can't help but feel that, "there is no light. No spark in the dark."

I can feel Humaira looking at me. She doesn't have to say a word, I know exactly what she's thinking. She's thinking it so loudly I don't know how the entire valley doesn't hear her.

This is meant to be. This is fate. The Force called you here just like it called you to your lightsaber. Don't be foolish. Don't turn your back on her.

If I look at Humaira I know I'll agree with her. But I also find myself unable to loo at Rey. My eyes fall down to the fire. The flames dance, eager to spread the fire. They crack and pop the wood, sending embers into the night, hoping they ignite something, anything, beyond the fire pit.

"Well if he's not going to ask it, I will." Humaira leans into the light. "What can we do?"

"However this war ends," Rey says slowly, "we can never stop resisting. We can never stop fighting. Fight for those who can't and resist for those who won't." Then, looking at me with a knowing look in her eye, she says, "bring balance to the galaxy, just like the Jedi before you tried to do."

Before I can reiterate that I am not a Jedi, nor do I have any intention of every becoming a Jedi, Rey smiles a big, toothy, grin. "Sorry this couldn't have been more fun."

"Fun?" I ask.

"I've fought stormtroopers, gangsters, smugglers, monsters and droids." Rey says shaking her head. "I've never dueled a pirate."

She hasn't punctuated her sentence and we're on our feet. With an excited snap-hiss my lightsaber bathes the clearing in pulsing gold light. Rey doesn't have a lightsaber. She's holding a staff. A plain, wooden quarterstaff that she has crafted from a fallen branch or small tree. She's holding it tightly in her hands and is, somehow, pushing against the blade of my lightsaber with it.

"How . . ."

"Haven't you heard?" Rey's eyebrows twitch with bravado. "The Force makes the impossible possible."

She swings the butt of the staff up and I twist to block it. No sooner have we made contact, she's swinging the other side of the staff again. I just barely manage to block it and I feel the Force pushing against my chest. I stumble back into the jungle as she leaps through the fire at me.

I block another attack and then go on the offensive. Rey's not holding back. She's has a staff, not a saber -- she doesn't have to hold back. She fights ferociously, but with no discernible style. She has had no formal training. Necessity and Survival were her teachers and through them, she has honed her fighting skills well. She parries my blows with ease. We're moving quickly now, slashing our way through the jungle, away from the fire and further beneath the canopy.

I'm swinging my lightsaber in quick, tight arcs. Trees, bushes, and vines are falling all around me. The only thing stopping it is Rey's staff.

The Force is flowing around us. It guides our attacks and our blocks. It tells us where to step and when to move. The only thing lighting our way as we spin through the vegetation is the light of my saber, but not once do either of us trip or stumble.

The duel comes to an end near a waterfall. My foot hits a wet rock and I slip. Rey hooks the back of my foot with her staff and pulls it out from under me. As I tumble backwards she reaches out through the Force and snatches my lightsaber away from me.

I splash down into the cold water and she laughs. "That was a fantastic pirate duel," she says. "Thank you."

The last Jedi considers my lightsaber for a moment, spins it over the back of her hand, and catches it. "It's heavier than I was expecting," she frowns at it. "Heavier than the ones I've handled, anyway."

"Everyone says that," I say, pulling the water out of my beard. "Where's your lightsaber? Haven't I heard stories of you cutting your way through hordes of stormtroopers?"

"Heh." Rey turns my lightsaber off. "I'm kind of between lightsabers at the moment." She offers me a hand and pulls me back onto the land. Handing me my lightsaber back, she apologizes. "I didn't mean to sound so . . . apocalyptic back there. I'm actually quite hopeful for the future."

"I wish I could see your light at the end of this tunnel," I say.

"It's not my light," she shakes her head. "It's Amelia's."

"Who?"

Rey rolls her eyes. She's gotten ahead of herself again. "Have you ever been to Batuu?"

"Of course," I clip my lightsaber away.

"I was there not that long ago . . ." She pulls a datapad out of her satchel. She taps at it a couple times and then hands it to me. "Here. A slicer grabbed these for me off the security cameras. See that little girl?"

There are three images, three screengrabs, on the datapad. I see Rey down on one knee. She's looking at something I can't see. But she's smiling. She looks genuinely delighted. I see a little girl with short hair. She's standing proudly behind a purple BB unit. She's posing, smiling directly into the security camera as if to say look what I did and get used to seeing this face. The last is of Chewie, clearly unhappy to be on camera.

"That little girl with the yellow hair," Rey says, "had just built herself a droid. Kind of reminded me of me when I was her age. It was incredible, though. She had managed to find all the parts and put together this little BB unit. I stopped and I asked her what her droid's name. She doesn't have a name yet, the little girl said. Well we need to fix that, I said. What's a good droid name, she asked. I've not ever really had to name anything before so I, uh . . ." Rey shakes her head.

"I asked her her name," she says. "Amelia she says. And what's your favorite name, Amelia?" Rey laughs. "Do you know what she said to me? It's a secret."

I laugh.

"Well that's going to make this a little bit harder, I say. Two, she finally says. So I say, then I think we should call this little droid AB-2. Amelia's BB Unit Number Two -- Abbey for short." Rey looks down a little sheepishly. "It wasn't the most clever of names, but the little girl liked it."

Rey takes the datapad from me and looks down at the flickering images. "She's already in a better place than we were when we were her age. She knows she can't go it alone. She's not afraid to ask for help -- and that gives me hope."

Humaira calls me over the commlink and tells me she's back at the camp. Rey and I head back. The stress and worry that had filled the base when we arrived is gone. In its place is laughter and loud music. They're dancing and reminiscing and swapping stories and jokes -- reminding themselves all the things they're fighting for.

Rey and I and find Humaira sitting in front of an energetic young human with olive skin, dark floppy hair, and a well-groomed goatee. He's on one knee in front of her, working on her cybernetic leg. From a distance, he could be proposing to her. Humaira calls us over and the young man jumps to his feet.

"Oh man, hey." He offers me his hand. "Hi. I'm Ado Tham and I was just working on her leg. I'm not like proposing or propositioning or anything, just trying to lend a hand and do my part -- you know?" He talks quickly and his hands are as fast as his words.

I recognize his accent. "Are you from Cantonica too?"

"I am!" Ado says with delight.

"Did you know she's the princess of Cantonica?" I love putting Humaira on the spot.

Ado spins on his heels. "Oh my holy stars that's where I know you from! You're the lost -- the runaway -- princess! I thought you looked familiar!"

Humaira glares at me.

Ado falls back down onto one knee. "Then I really do have to fix this leg of yours. It's my honor." His head pivots back and forth from the work he's doing, to me, to Humaira and back again. "I saw her scratching her leg and then I noticed she was moving kind of stiffly and when I saw she had a cybernetic leg I was pretty sure I knew what the problem was because my sister, she had one of these too and if it's grafted right, it can give you all sorts of trouble."

I'm laughing. Rey's laughing. Humaira is trying to be gracious. She wants to laugh but she doesn't want to hurt young Ado's feelings.

Rey turns to me and in a lowered voice asks, "you don't speak Shyriiwook, do you?"

"No," I say.

"I didn't think so." Rey smiles. "I was having a bit of fun with you before, with Chewie, but there is a word for what the two of you have, there's just not a word for it in Basic."

I nod. I assumed as much.

"A direct, literal translation would be love-friendship-loyalty but as a single word." Rey rolls the words around in her head a bit more before saying, "if you wanted, you could call her your claa and she could call you her daagh, but . . ."

"Yeah," I shake my head.

Rey laughs.

"There! Try it now!" Ado Tham leaps to his feet and takes a step back.

Humaira stands, flexes her leg, and spins on it. "I think there's only one way to give it a proper test. Beacon," she extends her hand to me, "come dance with me."

As we spin our way onto the dance floor, we can hear Ado still talking. "We can get you synthetic skin for that if you like or some kind of ornamental casing. I know this Quarren who . . ." His small, excitable voice fades into the background as the music takes over.

We dance. We sing. We eat, we drink, we do our best to make each other laugh. Tomorrow the fight will resume. But tonight, we can be free.

When Rey's not looking, I slip Oh Lin's holocron into her satchel. The Jedi Peacekeeper has taught me all she can and I think Rey would really appreciate being able to meet her.