#tagiss

Every chance I get, every moment to myself, I'm in my cabin, sitting on the floor in front of the chest I found in the derelict Jedi ship. It's a mystery, a puzzle, that I am determined to solve.

The white robes inside the chest are clearly meant for someone taller and thinner than me. There is no way, in no direction, that they'll fit me. Tagiss wants me to sell them.

"They'd fetch more than a fistful of credits on the collector's market," he says greedily.

But I refuse. There's something special, something mystical, something holy that surrounds them. I can't part with them. I fold them delicately and place them at the bottom of my footlocker, threatening the Gand with every awful thing I can think of, should he even touch them.

The lightsaber won't start. Prying open the hilt, I find an empty chamber inside it. The chamber looks like it should hold something, but all that's in it now are what looks like shards of a blue crystal and a fine blue dust.

The biggest mystery of all, though, is the cube. I have no idea what it is, but it keeps calling me back to it. This is what pulled me to the derelict ship -- but what is it? My finger trace the intricate designs. There are no hinges, no latches, nothing that would suggest it opens. There are no ports or sockets or anything that would let something plug into it.

Maybe it plugs into something, I think. The old myths always seemed to have temples with strange keys or blocks that, when put in a special order or slotted a certain way, would open a secret door. Maybe this is one of those? Maybe it's the key to a hidden Jedi temple?

Something keeps tugging at me, though. I'm holding the cube and I feel something in my chest being tugged. So I tug back. It's not audible to anyone else, I'm not even sure if I heard it so much as I felt it, but there's a vibration from inside the cube.

I close my eyes and I imagine this cube is trying to talk to me, trying to convince me something, and I need to know if it's lying to me or trying to hide something.

First, all I can see is the back of my eyelids. But then slowly, coming into focus, is something strange and ancient that almost looks like a harp. I reach out to touch it. I pluck the strings and listen to the thrumming of each string. I strum them in no particular order but then something stops me. Like a mentor's hand guiding me, I am shown which strings to play and in what order.

The cube comes to life. A blue light pulses from within. I very nearly drop it as the eight corners turn, revealing themselves to be triangular pyramids. Stretching up and out of the cube comes the hologram of a tall and elegant being.

"Hello," she says, "I am Jedi Peacekeeper Oh Lin. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Her voice is slow, smooth and soothing. She has long, elegant limbs that are such a pale shade of blue that they are very nearly white. She has wide, dark eyes with white pupils. I recognize her species immediately from my history lessons. She's from Kamino and she's wearing the white robes I found inside the chest.

I stammer for words. "Wh-what is this?"

"This is my holocron." She says, sweeping a graceful arm towards the cube in my hands. "Within it you'll find everything I have learned of the galaxy and of the Force. All you need do is ask."

I’m fourteen years old and I’m convincing the smuggler Siom Lech to let me join his crew.

“I feel things,” I say.

“That doesn’t make you special,” hisses the Utapaun, his right cybernetic eye whirring as it focuses in on me.

“No, I feel things,” I say.  “I can tell when someone is lying. I know what people are going to do before they do them. I can find and see things that no one else can.”

“Hmm,” the smuggler rubs his long, gaunt chin with a long, skeletal finger.  His voice creaks and groans like an old tree caught in the wind.  “Have you always been able to do this?”

“For as long as I can remember,” I say.  “And I just found out that not everybody else can.”

“There are stories,” he says, “from long ago of people who could do what you claim to be able to do.  Tell me,” he lowers his voice to a hoarse whisper, “what do you know of the Force?”

I shrug.  “Just the bedtime stories.”

“Hmm,” Siom Lech is not what one usually imagines when they hear the word smuggler.  He’s thoughtful, methodical, and precise.  He cannot and will not be rushed to any decision.  But once his mind is made up, it is set -- and in his crew, his word is law.

“We have a potential new client in Mos Espa on Tatooine,” Siom says. “New clients make me nervous. I need to know if they can be trusted. I will take you to meet them. You will decide if we take the job or not. How the job goes will dictate whether or not you can remain a part of my crew.”

I want to jump up and hug him, but even the thought of smiling seems to make him uncomfortable. I smile, I nod, and tell him he won’t be disappointed.

I’ve been dying to get off Pasquaal VI.  Mom moved here and set up shop after the Galactic Civil War when she found out she was pregnant with me. She likes it here. I do not.

I am a restless being. I cannot sit still or be in any one place for very long.  I was born nine months after the destruction of the Second Death Star and I’ve long credited that to my restless nature. When I look up at the stars, I just see endless opportunity. Had I been born under empire, I have to imagine the the galaxy would have felt darker, more dangerous and less welcoming.

Mom is sad and worried to see me go, but she’s not going to say no.  She’s still a rebel at heart.  She and Dad met during the evacuation of Hoth.  They were medics and served on a series of ships, finally finding themselves on the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Home One during the Battle of Endor.

They went in together and bought The Crater, a pub on the outskirts of the Pasquaal VI spaceport.  They ran it together until Dad disappeared one night.  We still don’t know what happened to him.

Mom has a few requirements that I have to agree to before she will let me go:  I have to contact her regularly.  I have to stay out of trouble.  I have to take Fordsy with me.

F4-DC, or Fordsy, is our family’s A9G droid. We bought him to help serve drinks and run the bar. He has developed quite a personality. I beg Mom to keep Fordsy, pointing out she’ll need the help with me gone, but her mind is made up.

I don’t have much, but what I have, I pack.  

“Welcome aboard The Night Wind,” Lech tries to smile.   Lech’s ship is an XS stock light freighter painted a matte black with glossy blue highlights.  I hear myself gasp.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathe.

Lech doesn’t smile, but I can tell he is pleased -- pleased and proud.  I board the ship and he shows me to my quarters.  It’s a small, cramped room with a bunk bed that I’ll be sharing with a Gand called Tagiss.

I feel the rumble of the engines.  The old ship creaks and groans as it lifts off. I’m pushed against the back of my seat as the thrusters kick in. We break atmosphere and my porthole is filled with stars.