The Story

Lim Res sailed through the air and landed on the floor, on his back at the far side of the training room. He lay there on his back for a moment while his body tried to remember how to breathe. After a moment, his chest rose and his body indicated that it indeed did remember the process. To celebrate Lim took a deep shuddering breath.

“Again.” Commanded the voice of his master from somewhere across the room.

Suppressing a groan, Lim rose slowly to his feet. Across the room, standing in the pool of light at the center of the arena, waited Lim’s blue skinned opponent Cyrian Volor. Cyrian is a Twi’lek standing over six feet tall and massing 180 pounds. He wore a set of loose fitting pants made from a simple grey fabric. Years of training had stolen most of the fat from the Twi’lek’s body. Left behind were muscles that bunch and stretch distinctly across his body as he moves from stance to stance. It’s as if his opponent were carved from some exotic blue marble, the artist’s idea of a perfect Twi’lek, with a stick in his hands. The force pike spins in deceptively simple patterns providing protection for the body and allowing Cyrian the opportunity to strike at his leisure. His eyes watched Lim with a lazy confidence from across the room.

Lim only stood five feet and eleven inches tall and his opponent outweighs him by ten pounds. Lim looks like many of the humans across the galaxy. He has sandy blond hair and green eyes. His skin has taken on a golden brown color from the time he has spent outside under Eyre’s yellow orange sun working in his master’s gardens and running through the grueling training courses. Lim does have one trait that distinguishes him from most of the galaxy’s inhabitants and it is this trait that brought him to Eyre. Lim is training to be a Jedi. In the months that he has studied with his master, Lim has come to suspect that his master’s idea of learning that is to throw as many impossible tasks at him as his master can find.

Lim spots his force pike lying on the mat. It is lying on the edge of the mat where it rolled to a stop, directly in front of his master. “Great,” thinks Lim, “I wonder what else I can do to embarrass myself in front of my master.” Lim quickly crosses the mat of the training room to retrieve his force pike.

The room is decorated with dark woods native to Eyre. The room is filled with the pungent tangy scent of the wood and the smell of physical exertion. The former almost manages to disguise the latter. There are a series of mats in the center of the room to break the falls of the students. The room’s only light is found at the center. It is lit by a series of skylights, mirrors and lenses that focus a bright, fat shaft of sunlight on the center of the room. The amount of light sharply decreases at the edge of the mat, casting the outer borders of the room into darkness. The effect of the lighting in the room is that when you are on the mat you pay attention to the other students on the mat and you are not distracted by the other individuals in the room.

Lim can only make out some vague details of his master sitting at the edge of the mat. He can see his long silver hair. He can see the stoop of his shoulders. It is his master’s eyes that catch Lim’s attention. They are cold and hard staring at Lim. “With a twinkle of compassion?” wonders Lim, “Perhaps I am just imagining things.” He breaks his master’s gaze and picks up the force pike from the mat, wincing as bruised muscles across his back and chest protest the movement.

Force pikes are melee weapons that see use throughout the galaxy. They are staffs usually four to seven feet long. One or both ends are capped with a charged tip. The idea is to hit your target with the charged tip of the force pike. The weapon has two settings. One setting puts just enough charge into the tips to disrupt the signals that transmit across living being’s nervous systems. This setting is useful to incapacitate your opponent without causing any permanent damage. The other setting charges the tips with a lethal amount of energy. Attacks on this setting will cause serious injury, possibly even death to your opponent. Force pikes are generally used in situations where firing a blaster is not a good idea. Combat in the fragile hull areas of a starship for example, or pummeling Jedi in training. They also find use as ceremonial guard weapons. The Emperor’s Imperial Guards are equipped with force pikes. Lim checks the force pike and confirms that it is set on the lower power setting.

Lim twirls the weapon in a simple pattern to stretch his injured muscles and turns to face Cyrian. The Twi’lek smiles an arrogant smile. “Come here little student. I will teach you another lesson.” taunts Cyrian. Lim crosses the mat and settles into a simple guard stance.

“Begin.” snaps Lim’s master.

Cyrian immediately launches a blinding flurry of attacks at Lim. Lim backpedals across the mat parrying blow after blow. Some get past Lim’s guard and leave stinging welts across his arms and chest while others do not. Cyrian drops into a spinning crouch lashing out at Lim’s legs with his force pike hoping to sweep Lim’s legs out from underneath. Lim hops into the air letting the weapon pass harmlessly under him. Cyrian spins back into a standing position his force pike lined up for a spinning strike to Lim’s head. Lim raises his force pike to block and realizes too late that he fell into Cyrian’s trap. The head strike was a fake. The Twi’lek reverses his spin and returns with a spinning kick that snaps his foot out into Lim’s chest. Lim flies backwards landing hard on the mat, gasping for air, spots dancing before his eyes. “The bastard kicked me in the exact same spot!” realizes Lim.

“Again.” bellows Lim’s master from the darkness.

Rolling to his feet Lim unsteadily rises up and waits for the room to right itself. “At least I kept my weapon this time.” Breathing heavily through his mouth, Lim watches his arrogant opponent smirk at him from across the room. “He’s planning to hit me in the same spot again.” Thinks Lim. The arrogant strategy has merit. He was already bruised from the two previous attacks and the combination had left Lim disoriented. One more hit like that and the fight would be over. An idea forms inside Lim’s head.

Lim stumbles back to his starting position and adopts another simple guard position. “I’m only going to get one shot at this trick, I’ve got to make it count.” Lim half closed his eyes and let his head tilt to his right side, as if he were more seriously injured than he really was. Lim could feel Cyrian’s arrogance roll off him in waves. The Twi’lek considered the battle to already be won.

“Begin.” Commanded Lim’s master.

Cyrian attacked Lim with a flurry of blows, intending to overwhelm Lim. Lim blocked franticly, watching for an opening. There! Cyrian left himself open for a counter attack. Taking that counterattack leaves Lim exposed for a final kick to his injured chest. Lim watches as his attack was blocked and Cyrian spins his body to the right for a roundhouse kick. Lim crouches under the kick and spins to his left snapping the tip of his force pike out, smashing it into the base of Cyrian’s head. There is a crack as the energy is discharged, the tang of ozone in the air and Cyrian was down on the mat.

Lim switched off his force pike and kneeled down next to the Twi’lek. A large lump was forming on his head and he was unconscious but that was the extent of his injuries. “I don’t envy the headache that you will wake up with.” Said Lim.

Lim found his Master waiting for him at the end of the trail. There was a short trail that started near the school then went wandered up and down several hills before finishing by a small lake. Lim would run the trail most evenings, the change in terrain and scenery giving him time to work out the aches of his body and his mind time to reflect on the day’s lessons. Most of the other students avoided the trail. Some preferred the intensity of the training obstacle course and they worked to best each other’s time through the course. Other students preferred the longer courses, some spending several days traveling a given path. Lim figured that the trail was avoided because this was the trail that all new students took.

The master had each new student run the trail over and over. No student could run any other course or train at any other activity, until they could run this trail within a given time. Allowing for variations between species, most students would average 2 – 3 months on this trail before they built up the strength, stamina and dexterity to beat their target time. Once a student had beaten this first trail, they were allowed other choices on how their training would progress. Most students would never return to this trail after they beat it. They would consider the challenges learned and move on to other things.

Lim ran the trail because it was so infrequently used. He ran the trail because it provided solitude from the rest of the school. Lim was uncomfortable around many of the other Jedi trainees. Everyone was aware of the normal order of training. Each ritual passed, each ordeal overcome was a badge. A rite of passage that helped the students gauge their own training, and the progress of their piers. Lim’s training broke all of the rules, skirted all of the traditions. In short, it did not fit the paradigm of training that the rest of the school followed. Tired of being asked questions that Lim didn’t know the answers to, or being singled out for whatever reason, Lim found that seeking solitude was simpler, or perhaps just easier. So Lim was quite surprised to find the Master waiting for him at the end of the trail.

Lim stumbles to a stop in front of his master and bows awkwardly. The Master gracefully returns the bow. Lim shifts uneasily from foot to foot as he tries to think of what to say to his master. The master smiles at Lim and sits down on a log inviting Lim to sit beside him.

The master is an old human male. The years of his life have changed his straight hair to silver and the master wears it in a single woven braid down his back. His skin is a deep bronze color and tough as leather from his years of work outside under Eyre’s yellow orange sun. The master’s grip is strong and his eyesight keen enough to catch the mistakes of his students. The years have left their mark, he caries a simple cane to help him walk the gardens and trails of the school. Today, as with most days, he wears the simple grey tunic and pants that all of the students at the school wear. The tunic is cinched at the waist by a frayed and faded belt of black cloth. It is the symbol of his rank and standing at the school. He watches Lim with warm grey-blue eyes and waits for Lim to regain his breath and composure.

“Master!” Lim manages to blurt.

The Master smiles warmly to Lim. “Someday, you will learn to speak to all kinds of beings regardless of your relative rank and the situation. But I fear that today is not that day.”

Lim’s ears flush bright red and he looks at the ground. “I am surprised to find you out here at the end of the trail, that’s all.”

“Mmmm.”

“If I can ask, why are you here?”

“I think you already know the answer to that Lim.”

“It’s time for me to leave on another task.” Says Lim.

The Master nods and rises up from the log. “Every task that I have sent you on has been unique. Considering that background, this task will be different, and more challenging than anything you’ve faced so far.” The master gestures for Lim to follow and starts down the trail towards the lake. Lim looks around and then rises to follow the master down the trail. At the base of the trail is a flat expanse of rock overhanging the surface of the lake 15 meters below. The rock itself is only 10 meters across. It makes a perfect diving platform. Many times as Lim came to the end of the trail he would race across the rock and dive into the cool waters of the lake below. Today a strange starfighter is parked on the rock.

The fighter was an old design, dating back to the end of the clone wars. Its surface was scarred and pitted from years of use. The paint was worn off and incomplete in some areas, giving the ship a mottled silver, white and blue appearance. Rings of black carbon scoring at the front of the ships gunports indicate that at one time, the guns worked. The starfighter looked like it belonged in a museum or a scrap yard. Still, the cockpit transparisteel looked new. Perhaps it had been recently replaced. No fluids leaked from the bottom of the craft in spite of its decrepit appearance. The master ran a loving hand across the starboard wing surface.

“Its name is ‘Bad Juju’ and she’s seen me through many rough times over the years.” He turned to look at Lim. “I want you to go to Ort Mandel. Someone will meet you there and your task will begin.”

Lim stared at his Master horrified. “You wish me to leave the school? Why?”

The Master smiled at Lim, his voice softened. “You don’t understand Lim. I want you to leave, but not for the reasons so plainly visible on your face, and in the force. You must learn to let your emotions wash through you, but not drive your actions out of ignorance. Understand them and the cause of the emotion, and then you can act. There is no emotion, there is the force Lim.”

“Our time is growing short Lim, but there are answers I have to your questions that you must have. So I will make some time for them.”

“Why am I not training with the other students? Why do I leave the school and travel all over Eyre on these missions solving problems and finding things that I need at the same time? Why do you keep me separate from the rest of the school? Why do you want me to leave?”

“Simple questions Lim, but the answers are not as easy to give. The life of a Jedi is not an easy thing to prepare for. It’s something that you will work the rest of your life to define. When I came to Eyre many years ago to escape the Jedi purges from so long ago I was instructed to prepare for the next generation of Jedi, in the hopes that there would be another generation. Training to be a Jedi is a lifetime’s work, as I mentioned before. There is no way to train any Jedi in the traditional manner, raising children from birth to become Jedi. So I built this school instead. The people of Eyre think that it trains beings to fight in an obscure and old fashioned manner, something that was more effective before the advent of blasters. The true purpose of the school is to train the students to become beings that can learn to become Jedi on their own.”

The Master turned to face Lim, his blue grey eyes locking onto Lim’s. “There are things from the force that I can teach, how to lift a rock, hold your breath, see the future, change a beings thoughts, survive extremes of temperature, find someone across the continent or galaxy. There are an infinite number of ways for the Jedi to use the force. All of these pale in comparison to a Jedi’s mind, and his heart. Without these, there are no Jedi. The school is designed for a single purpose, to craft the heart and minds of beings so they can become Jedi. When you came to the school and I met you, I realized there was little that I could teach you about the Jedi heart and mind. You possess both far grander than my best and most talented students.”

The Master watched the sunset start to light the clouds above Eyre a fiery red orange. The lake below caught the color and reflected it onto the rocks. The platform was bathed in a warm orange red glow. “That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything for you to learn here Lim. Quite the opposite. But the most important work of the school was done before you walked in.”

“Time is growing short for me, for the school, for all of us actually. This sunset is one of the last that I will see here Lim. I’ve seen a darkness approaching me in the force. I’ve seen it coming for a long time. But my work here was not done. It’s still not. So I stay with the hope of completing it, before it becomes too late. That’s why I’ve trained you differently Lim. Rather than push you through the same mechanics of the school I decided to train you in a way that would have you trust your heart and mind.”

“Now your time here on Eyre has come to an end. I want you to take my old ship and travel to Ort Mandel to continue your training. If I am right, both you and I realize that a Jedi’s training is never complete. It never can be. Use your skills to get to Ort Mandel. I know that you are not a pilot, this ship is easy to use. It’s easily able to get you to Ort Mandel.”

The Master walks over to Lim and places an aged but strong hand on his shoulder. “I’ve run out of time. There is much to do and little time. I’ve had your things packed onboard along with a few items that I think you will find useful. May the force be with you Lim.”

With that the Master starts back up the trail. Lim turns to watch him go, the light fading quickly from twilight and into night. The master turns around to face Lim. “Lim,” he says with a smile, “You might want to take a quick dip in the lake. It is a long flight to Ort Mandel, and you are quite fragrant from the days work.” The Master turns and walks on down the path, quickly moving out of sight.

Lim watches the trail where his Master walked out of sight. The light fades to a dark blue and then darkness descends upon the trail. Lim looks up at the starts glittering in the night sky and watches for a while. The narrow crescent of Eyre’s moon rises over the horizon washing the landscape in a faint pale blue light. Lim turns towards the lake, starts running and leaps off the rock falling towards the lake below.