Brothers and Sisters Part II

Zan

Zan had the tablet sitting next to her while she started poking through Jake’s new room. She could smell him on the sheets, but she could also smell something older. She started to strip the sheets off the bed and gathered a pile of other bedding and dirty laundry to have cleaned. The bed was much larger than the one she had at home, but smaller than the one she shared with Dosh. Dosh was a bright spot in her universe and she loved the way the Trandoshan made her feel.


Hmm, Jake wanted me to look at everything. She thought quietly to herself as she started looking for hidden compartments and was pleasantly surprised to discover the bed itself had a pair of pull out compartments under it. The drawers slid free and she slowly started to unpack the components. It looked like some kind of armor. She laid out the forearm guards and looked at the buttons that were running down the length of both. They were computer links and processors. She tried to press one of the buttons but nothing happened. The rest of the armor looked like it was form fitting, and tailored to a very specific person.


“I wonder if Jake’s dad wore this…” she ran her fingers across the chest plate and felt the tiny scratches. It was well worn, with nicks and gouges covering the surface. She turned it over and saw the gaping hole in the back of the armor. “What in the name of creation…” she ran her fingers across the wound in the armor and felt a great twinge of sadness. She pushed deeper into the drawer and pulled out a belt full of pouches and a long cylindrical handle.


“This has to be a lightsaber.” she worked the control stud and it crackled, but it didn’t flare to life. The room started to spin and she felt her pound. “What the hell is happening?”



Zan was standing on the bridge of a ruined starship, but she wasn’t herself. She could feel the exhaustion flowing through her body and the ache of a dozen wounds criss crossing her body. The force was flowing through her, and she urged her broken body back into the fight. “Got to save them.” Her voice was so different.


She heard the snap-hiss of lightsabers igniting and drew the blade at her hip. It had been the lightsaber she had found in the ship! It’s bright blue blade flared to life and she drew strength from it being so close.


“We can’t let you take them.” One of the others said. The pain in her voice was world breaking. She was also injured, but still in the fight. The other one nodded as they came closer.


“Please, i can’t let you stop me. This is wrong and we all know it.”


“The Council demands we bring you in. You and your brother have a thousand things to answer for.”


“This mission is more important than that. When it’s over, i will submit myself to the council.” She said.


“You will submit yourself now. This is not up for debate.”


“Please, don’t make me do this.” She pleaded with them.


“It’s your choice.” The woman answered her.


“And that will be something that i live with for the rest of my life.” She answered the other Jedi. She felt the saber raise in a salute and then things started to blur. Sabers whirled and crashed and she could feel the force flowing through her. She leapt around the bridge of the ship and dueled the two of them. She felt an eternity of pain and sadness flowing through her body and everything broke deep in her heart. She knew she had one choice left.


Using the force, she launched her saber at one of the Jedi like a missile. While the jedi turned to avoid the saber, she reached out with the force to the other Jedi and let every drop of hate and malice flow through her body. The lightning crackled and took hold of that Jedi and she couldn’t feel anything. She was laughing as the lightning snuffed out the spark of life in the other warrior. The other Jedi saw what was happening and reached out to try and save her friend. Zan felt the tip of the blade stab through her back, but she couldn’t let go of the lightning.


“Stop, Kal, you’re killing her.” She heard the voice in her ear.


“I already killed her.” Her voice answered and then she felt the force twist and suddenly the other Jedi stopped moving. The saber she’d flung earlier had returned to her hand and she’d stabbed her through the chest. In a heap, the three of them crumpled together. Zan felt the intense pain flowing through her body and her eyes started to go blurry. A tiny pink humanoid stepped into view, she must have been hiding during the battle.


“Please, Master Kal, stand up.”


“I’m sorry little one, I fear the fight is over for me.”


“But you have to, you have to save us all.”


“I know, and I am trying.” She felt her body trying to give up. It didn’t want to go anywhere.


“Kal!” She heard the voice scream in the distance. Luna was here. That meant at least part of the mission had succeeded. She felt her body going to sleep.


“Please, Master Kal, you have to stay awake.” She felt tiny fists pounding on her chest.


“It’s all right, little one, i’m right here.” She heard that strange voice.


The bridge of the ship faded away and she felt cold and alone. The footsteps echoed closer to her and she felt something warm embrace her. She looked up into its eyes and saw the storm clouds and felt the rain on her skin.


“This is a painful memory for the both of us, little one.” The voice rumbled like thunder in her ear.


“What do you mean?” she felt the cold rain hitting her in the face.


“This was the day you and I met.”


“I don’t remember that.”


“It’s a painful thing for me too, Zan.”


“What are you?”


“I am many things now, but the most appropriate name i have now is Rain Maker.”


“I don’t understand.”


"If you have found that lightsaber, then you are aboard Night Song, which means you are probably in my old room, yes?”


“Yes…” she felt the dread flow through her body. How could he know that…


“Then if you open my safe, you will find some texts that will help you, and Dosh and Gael figure out a few things. Karen and Jake have already started down the path.”


“What path?”


“The most dangerous path in our galaxy right now.” She felt the presence lean closer to her and the warmth from it filled her body. “It’s okay to be afraid. Deciding to do what’s right when you’re afraid is the hard choice, my dear Zeltron.” She felt the presence push her away and she could only see open space and felt like she was falling a million miles an hour.


Dosh and Jake


“Thanks, Jake.” Dosh said softly.


“Anytime, brother.” he smiled at the Trandoshan. “Where do we get started?” He scratched the back of his neck and looked around the room. There was a lot of stuff.


“Swoops.” The Trandoshan pointed at the six high performance swoops that were sitting in the cargo bay. Jake nodded and followed his brother’s lead. The Trandoshan grabbed a tablet and started taking notes and checking out specs. Jake really wished he’d paid more attention in repulsor mechanics classes…


“So what does this button do?” he asked his brother.


“That’s the primary starter.” Dosh answered him. Jake nodded and pushed the button. The engine didn’t start. Dosh frowned.


“Is it supposed to do that?”


“No, i suspect the battery is dead.”


“What would cause that?” Jake asked his brother.


“Sitting in a docking bay without being used for several years is a start, Jake.” The Trandoshan grabbed a toolkit and Jake tried to help him change out the battery for a new one, and put the battery on a charger to see if they could get power back to it.


“So it needs a battery?”


“Mhmm.” The Trandoshan shook his head and went to work turning the wrenches and replacing broken and defective parts. Jake tried to help out as best he could, but spent most of the time handing Dosh tools and making notes for him. It took them a couple of hours and Jake almost set himself on fire once when he misidentified a power converter, but they would get a better look at what was going on with the swoops once the batteries finished charging. Dosh had never seen a shop so well equipped with spare parts and tools


“So is this good?” Jake asked him. Dosh nodded his head and chuckled.


“This is a well equipped shop, Jake. we’ve got the machinery to fabricate just about any part we’d need for the ship, and we are stocked up on parts for the ship, the swoops, and the tank. The only things i think we’re missing are a couple of shop droids to help out with the heavy lifting.”


“So that’s good?”


“You are such an airhead.”


“What do you mean by that?”


“I mean that you have absolutely no idea what to do in a shop like this, and if i were to turn you loose in here you’d probably drop something very heavy on yourself.”


“That’s not true.” Jake answered his brother.


Dosh picked up a tool off the bench. “What’s this called, and what does it do?”


“That’s a Spanner.”


“What’s a spanner do?”


“Spans things?”


Dosh shook his head at his brother. “You think being pretty and quick witted is going to get you through life?”


“What do you mean pretty?”


“You know what i mean, Jake. How are you going to make a living in this galaxy?”


“I hadn’t really thought about it…”


“You need some skills to go with that pretty face, brother.”


“You keep saying pretty.”


“It’s the impression i get from Zan.”


“Zan thinks i’m pretty?”


“Zan thinks everyone is pretty. Something about Zeltron empathy. Quit changing the subject.”


“Why do we have to think about the future?”


“Because now we have to be charge of our own futures. Mom is unfortunately gone, i was an orphan from the beginning like Gael and Zan. Your dad and Karen’s dad MIGHT be out there somewhere. Niner’s well a little off. We have to make the decisions to take care of ourselves.”


“I don’t want to do that.”


“I don’t either, but we’re not going to get a choice in the matter. This is why you sucked at school. You didn’t take it seriously enough. Now we have to get real serious, real fast, Jake.”:


“I know...I know.”: Jake nodded at his brother. This wasn’t the conversation he wanted to have...ever.


“Do you want Gael?” Dosh asked his brother.


“What?”


“I can smell you on each other. Do you want her?”


Jake let out a long sigh. “Yes.”


“Then you better figure out what exactly you need to do to make that a reality and start working on that today.”


“All right.” Jake nodded at his brother. Dosh thumped him firmly in the chest. “Dosh, do that again and we’re going to be rolling around on the floor with one of us really unhappy about it.”


“I outmass you and have a longer reach.”


“I didn’t say you were going to be the unhappy one.”


“Come on, let’s get back to inventorying this stuff and seeing what else we have in this bay.”


“What about the weapons?”


“Those are dessert. Got to put in the work first.”

“You are absolutely no fun.”


“One of us has to be.”


They spent the rest of the afternoon sorting and cataloguing parts before they finally went to go find their sisters. Jake tilted his head as he stepped into his quarters. Zan was lying in a pile of clothes, soaked with water. The air was filled with pain, and confusion. Jake reached out a hand to touch her and her eyes suddenly opened in a scream.



Gael and Karen (and Niner)

Niner was standing in the cockpit of the YT-1300 with Karen and Gael and explaining the controls for the ship’s systems. Karen interrupted him quickly “Niner, we’re going to have a brief family meeting. Will the ship blow up if we’re not actually driving?”


“We’re in Hyperspace on a major trade route. Autopilot still has us clocked at another 72 hour before we make the transition back to real space to head to Coruscant.”



“Wonderful and thank you.” she pushed the heavy droid out of the cockpit and closed the door. “Good, now we can have a conversation without Zan distracting us.”


“Have you lost your mind?”


“After the events of the last two days...maybe.” Karen answered her. She was still trying to process how to function without her mother in her life, and the revelation of her father being alive, and allegedly, a jedi was still not sitting well. She even had a grandmother and other relations that were on some distant planet, and Mom had never even mentioned them…


“Don’t we have to learn to fly the ship?” Gael asked her.


“Yes, and we’re going to do that, but first we should talk about Jake.”


“What about Jake?” Gael said quietly.


“You know just as well as I do that he is not the most attentive person in the universe. He’s probably smarter than i am but he doesn’t focus on anything.”


“I know that.”


“That means he has a tendency to not think about the consequences of his decisions until they are staring him in the face.”


“I know that, too.” Gael knew what Karen was trying to tell her. “You don’t think this relationship is a good idea.”


“No, i really don’t.”


“I promise i won’t hurt him.”


“Gael...I’m not worried about you hurting him.” Karen smiled softly and grabbed her sister by the shoulders. “I’m much more concerned about him doing something or someone stupid and hurting you.”


“What?”


“Mom always said that if Jake could figure out what he wanted, he could be the best at whatever he needed to do to make that want a reality.”


“I remember.”


“She also said he’d likely fall from a great height and kill himself chasing the clouds he was dreaming about.” They both laughed.


“I remember that too. He’s so sweet, and i think i want him.”


“He does require a level of supervision.”


“What are we going to do?”


“About supervision? He’s your problem if you want him.” Karen smiled at her sister.


“I mean about everything.” Gael was on the verge of a breakdown again.


“We get to Coruscant, we figure out the money, and then we go from there.” She said softly.


“It’s just that easy for you?”


“It’s the hardest thing we’re ever going to do.” Karen’s smile turned into a frown.


“Then how do we do this?”


“What else are we going to do? Niner is the closest thing to a responsible adult we have, and i think he’s going a little crazy.”


“Are we going to talk about the tank?” Gael asked her slowly.


“What about it?”


“You and Jake moved the tank.”


“I don’t know about all that.”


“Karen, i felt the tank shift. That hatch looked like it was about to tear itself off.”


“I don’t know sis...i was so angry, and so torn up when mom died. I felt something inside me. It ached and it wanted to hurt something. Jake had the same thing happen, i felt it inside his heart too.”


“It’s the Force…” Gael said quietly, almost reverently.


“Maybe, i honestly don’t know enough about the Force to even guess what happened.”


“You’re not mad about me and Jake?” Gael changed the topic with surprising speed.


“If he makes you happy and doesn’t break your heart, why would i be mad? Everybody needs somebody.”


“I was worried about telling mom.”


“I don’t know what she would have done. She’s pretty okay with Dosh and Zan, but Jake’s always been kind of a problem child.”


“We should probably let Niner in before he blows a hole in the wall.” Gael said quickly. Karen nodded at her and they let the droid back into the cockpit where it proceeded to give them the longest lecture on the location of every circuit and switch in the cockpit. After what seemed like an eternity, they headed back down to the habitation decks and found Jake, Dosh, and Zan in Jake’s quarters….


All together now


She woke up with a scream sitting in the middle of Jake’s room. She was drenched in...sea water and could taste the salt in the air. Jake and Dosh were staring at her with abject confusion. She tossed the lightsaber across the floor and it skittered to a halt in front of Karen.


“What the hell was that?” Gael asked her slowly.

“The trippiest experience i have ever felt.” Zan said slowly. Her voice still had a touch of gravel to it and she tried to clear it from her throat. She spat out two tiny pearls.


“Zeltrons don’t make pearls, do they?” Jake asked her.


“No, we do not.” She answered with a modicum of annoyance.


“Were you dreaming?”


“I think so. I don’t know what exactly that was, but i do not ever want to experience it again.”


“Come on, let’s get you dried off and changed, sis.” Gael offered an arm to her sister. Zan twisted in her grasp as she felt the sharp burning sensation between her shoulder blades.


“What the hell is that?” Zan said quickly, trying to get a look at whatever was causing the pain.

Karen pulled her shirt up in the back and she couldn’t describe what she was looking at. It was a perfectly circular burn mark between her shoulder blades. “What the hell kind of a weapon makes a wound like that?” She pulled Zan over to the mirror and watched her sister’s face twist in confusion.


“A lightsaber…”


The Rainmaker


The Rainmaker sat in the middle of his meditation cell and stared at the small bowl of water. The sweat beaded off of his bare body and he felt the heat rising from his skin. The servants stared in wonder at the steam clouds that billowed from the chamber until the doors shut with a wave of his hand.


“The force is strong with them…” he said to the bowl of water. He dipped his fingers into the bowl and started to scrub his fingers again. His fingers always felt old and gnarled after he meditated, and the water flowed across them, cleansing and renewing.


“You can wash your fingers to the bone...you’ll never wipe the blood off of them, not completely.” The voice answered him.


“I know...I swam in the deep waters for so long i forgot what clean hands looked like. I made so many mistakes.” He smiled softly at the ghost that filled his thoughts.


“And now you’re going to drag them down into the muck and the blood with you.”


“I will not. They have to make their own way in the galaxy.”


“You walked away from your family once, do you remember how that turned out?” The feminine voice bordered on anguish.


“I killed you. I remember, I was there.”


“And Kir. You killed the both of us.”


“I know…” he wiped the tears from his cheeks.


“For what? A Mission?”


“I did what i felt was right at the time, my dearest sister, and not a second goes by that i don’t regret what happened.” He reached his gnarled hand out and ran his fingers across the ghost’s cheek.


“There’s no forgiveness for that. I am pleased beyond my wildest imaginations that Kir joined the force. I do not know how she would have handled this tortured existence. Watching you turn your back on the Jedi code...debase yourself with this superstition and madness…”


“Enough, sister. Rest, you will have plenty of time to sting me with your venom tomorrow and all the rest of the days of my life.” he waved his hand and the ghost faded from his presence. He could still feel her, in his heart, but he didn’t have to listen to her.

Continued in 
The World City Part 1 Here