Chapter 2

We parted ways with Chuutaal and his Padawan almost immediately upon arriving at the temple. I was handed from person to person until I was finally taken to my new place of residence by an elderly, stately woman. And that place turned out to be just a bed and a locker in a large room where twenty other children lived, besides me. At least that's how many beds were in the dormitory. Although I only counted fifteen children, including myself. I was the sixteenth. I can only hope that this is all temporary. I'll grow up, and they'll give me a separate room. If not... I don't even know. With a temple this size, how could they be THAT cramped? Oh, come on, that's ridiculous.

Opening the locker, I inspected its contents. I sighed. Two sets of clothes, a pair of boots, some sandals, and emptiness. Taking out my container of crystals, I tossed my empty backpack onto the top shelf. I had nothing else to do, so I might as well meditate. As best I could, that is. I had already learned to feel the Force on the ship, but meditation itself was difficult for me. I don't know how it was in my own world, but Jedi meditation involved... um... calming the Force. How to explain it?

Let's start with the fact that I felt the Force in the form of a mist. Transparent. It was like a layer of white smoke that was present everywhere. This mist not only enveloped everything, but it could also be felt inside of everything. And this mist was constantly in motion. Not that the Force was moving like a hurricane back and forth, but it was specifically the mist that was moving. And the stronger your emotions, the faster this mist moved. Of course, I mean the part of the Force that is inside a Jedi and the part that he controls.

Meditation helped a Jedi slow down the movement of the Force inside himself, which also affected the "mist" he controlled. I strongly suspect that the speed of the Force's movement doesn't affect the control itself, but rather what you can do with it. In other words, if we use a game analogy for my world, the Force push is a neutral force, and the speed of the mist's movement is not important for creating it. But for Healing, it is important that the Force be as calm as possible.

But that's just the musings of an amateur. By the way, "my" Force, the one inside me, is slightly but noticeably different in color from the surrounding Force. A bit brighter. Perhaps it's a novice's delusion, but if not, then Light and Dark are not just allegories. And that means... a lot of things, but personally for me, it means that not only the speed of the Force's movement is important for techniques, but also its color. And, by the way, yes, thinking about all of this is becoming scary.

My feeble attempt to slow the flow of the Force within me was interrupted quite rudely. Someone patted me on the shoulder.

Well, my meditation was interrupted and it seems like I won't be allowed to continue, so I decided to open my eyes.

Holy fucking shit. What I saw made me almost shit myself. Judging by the elongated triangular head and sand-colored skin, I had seen this individual when I entered the room. But now I was observing him up close. A lipless, fanged mouth was located where normal people like me have a nose. And where the cheeks should be, below the mouth, two stalked eyes were moving. The horror show was completed by small... tentacles, probably... growing from under the chin.

"Hello, - said the three-fingered hand as it waved at me. - My name is Jiro Jiss. I'm from the planet Ongri, - he spoke with a thin voice. - And what's your name?

"Rein Dakari. From the planet Pzob.

"What are you doing here? - I didn't answer right away. Or rather, I didn't answer the way I wanted to at first.

"Meditating.

"Wow! You know how to meditate? I've been here for two weeks already and no one has taught me that.

"It took us three weeks to get here. So I asked to be taught something. It was boring otherwise.

"Oh, I see. But they don't teach us anything here, - he said sadly. - They just make us run, jump, do push-ups...

"Push-ups? - I interrupted him.

"Yes. They say we're weak, - Jiro nodded. - And they also keep telling stories about the Republic.

"Republic?

"Yes, - another nod. - And what's that? - he pointed at the container with crystals.

A gift from my father before I left, - I opened the lid.

"Wow! What is it?

Funny guy. Despite his appearance.

"Crystals, - I didn't mention what they were for. Let him think they were just pretty trinkets. And in connection with this, I immediately added. - Pretty, right?

"Yes, - the child confirmed, fascinated.

"And what are they for? - asked a boy with greenish skin who approached us. If it weren't for that, I would have thought he was human.

"What? - I asked again, trying to deflect his question.

"Well... - he hesitated, - what are they for?

In other words, the question was perfectly conscious. Alright.

"What do you mean?

"Um... well... nevermind.

"It's a gift from my dad.

"Oh, I see. - And I smirked to myself.

That's how, word by word, I got to know all the inhabitants of the room. No one was shy to come up and look at the pretty stones.

Of the sixteen children who lived in the room, ten, including me, were of human race. The rest were a motley crew. The first boy who approached me was a Hungrier, or something like that. The one with green skin was a Zabrak, there were two Twi'leks and something else... well, something. A face completely covered in white hair, green hands with claws and a snake-like body instead of legs. As I later found out, the green-skinned one was a Mirialan, the cross-eyed Jiro was a Hungrier, and the Naga parody was a Tiss'shar. Although I didn't know anything about these races at the time.

The next morning it turned out that the role of alarm clocks for kids like us was played by mentors. "Rise and shine, younglings," clapped the human Jedi. "Rise and shine. Great things await you." This forty-year-old Jedi, with white hair, as I later found out, was named Rudi Spak, and he was the curator of the group of younglings I was in. "Come on, you're future Jedi. Can't you handle something as trivial as drowsiness?" The first thing I did when I woke up was fight off irritation. After all, this awakening was better than "company, rise". And if you think about it, I ended up in the army again. And there is no headquarters here where you can sit out the entire term of service. And this term, damn it, "slightly" increased.

As Jiro had said, we were in for a workout, so we hurried to get dressed and lined up in the corridor to run. The corridor was actually quite large, big enough for two groups of running children to fit. And we proved it by overtaking one such group, though they had just lined up and hadn't even had a chance to get up to speed. They were spinebacks(kids), by the way, about the same age as us.

The workout itself took place in a gym that I could describe as fairly ordinary, but the Jedi's love for everything stone... It created the impression that they had taken a reception hall from some palace and filled it with futuristic exercise equipment, with areas for sparring between the columns. But I saw lightsabers for the first time. And even though they were training lightsabers and in someone else's hands, they still looked cool.

After the workout, we all went to the communal shower - a large room with many closed cubicles. Then it was time for breakfast, which made me feel sad. The porridge they fed us... let's just say, it reminded me once again of the Russian army. Seriously, I felt like a conscript who had been eating his grandma's pies just yesterday and was now facing the harsh reality. And if anyone tells me that nothing can scare our army anymore, I'll give them a look.

After breakfast, we were taken to a classroom where, believe it or not, there wasn't a single chair. Just... um... very thick mats. I'm ecstatic about these Jedi. What's next, are they going to send us to work?

We entered the classroom with two other groups of children - girls and boys. And after sitting down, we waited for the instructor for ten minutes because the Jedi who brought us here hurried to leave. Well, never mind, at least the mess that I managed to cram into myself for breakfast had settled by then. During that time, two more groups of kids joined us. In the end, I counted seventy-eight younglings of both sexes and different races in one darn place.

The instructor who came to teach us turned out to be a very old man. His name was Eilan Radau - a tall, stately, and un-bent grandfather. Standing in front of us and surveying the room, he said, "Today, younglings, we will talk to you about the First Chancellor, who took office in the year 25018 before the Great Resynchronization." What? What resynchronization? "For those of you who come from distant planets where the count is still based on the Ruusan Reformation, I will explain - four years ago, the Republican Bureau of Measures and Standards introduced a new measure of time, so now the Republic is in its fourth year of the Great Resynchronization."

Cool. So, I flew from my planet in the year 969 and landed on Coruscant in the fourth year. I just experienced time travel, huh.

While I was pondering the size of the DDG, the old man started his story. And you know what? Propaganda! But talented propaganda. It was told with such enthusiasm and was interesting enough to capture the attention of four or five-year-old children. But personally, I don't believe that newly elected senators would just willingly submit themselves to anyone. And if you listen to this Raadau guy, the first Chancellor was a fearless and blameless knight. But as I said, he told the story so engagingly, it's just a shame that it was all about events that are too far away. But this lecture did give me something useful - dates. I remember for sure that the Republic, the Old one, lasted for about twenty-five thousand years, but I just can't recall the exact date. It's quite possible, no, it's likely that there's something else after the number twenty-five, besides just zeros. In any case, I live in the last millennium of the Old Republic, which is at least some clarification. There's a chance that I arrived in a peaceful time.

After the history lesson, we were sent to the gymnasium, where we spent another two hours doing physical exercises. After that, there was a lesson... umm... on the basic galactic language. The one that's universal. Of course, we weren't taught to speak it, only to read and write. After all, we're still children, in case anyone forgot. After that, we were sent to lunch, which was slightly better than breakfast, but not by much. At least there were solid foods. After lunch... yes, you guessed it - back to the gymnasium. Then we had a lesson on theology, where they very conditionally explained to us what the light side of the Force is and how bad the dark side is. And at first, I even tried to understand, but alas - four years old is not the age when they'll tell you anything serious. It was a banal, albeit interestingly presented, brainwash. It didn't even make me sleepy.

And finally, dinner arrived. At least, that's what I thought at first. But unfortunately, after dinner, we were once again greeted by that horrible, cursed gym. Even the super active creatures that children are were dragging their feet after it. And no wonder, it was not the easiest day. I barely made it to the shower, almost fell asleep there, and then somehow managed to make it to my bed, where I passed out, cursing all the Jedi in the Galaxy. And to think, at the beginning of the day, I even wanted to meditate. Ha, how naive. But it's okay. I don't know about other species, but humans are creatures that can get used to anything, as long as the training isn't designed to kill us.

"Get up, younglings, get up. It would be a crime to lie in bed on this beautiful morning."

I wonder when I'll start hating our curator? And how the hell did he determine that it's a beautiful morning? I haven't seen a single window all day long. To me, day and night are all the same. And if there are no weekends here, I'll go insane.

Exercise, breakfast, classroom... Screw it all. I'll learn to sleep with my eyes open. Fedka Zhbot, who everyone in our, and not only our, platoon called "Miser," has mastered this useful skill, so why can't I? And it's even better to combine sleep with meditation... damn, it sounds so crazy.

Today, during the first lesson, we continued to talk about the Great First Chancellor, and I, wincing, tried to distract myself from the dull pain in my muscles while filtering out the mentor's words. The problem was that I knew nothing about that time, and it was difficult for me to understand where statistics ended and propaganda began. I doubted that a Jedi could lie, but it was entirely possible for them to sincerely believe in a fake. Twenty-five thousand years, and now it's hard to know what's true and what's false.

As for meditation, I failed. Simply because I couldn't do it with my eyes open. And I was afraid to close them because I was already almost asleep. Today's lecture, despite the mentor's efforts, made everyone sleepy. After all, four-year-olds didn't care about the laws adopted at the dawn of the Republic.

In general, this day was not much different from the previous one. The same lectures, the same food, the same gym, where we were not taught anything but only forced to exercise. They didn't even explain what exercise was for what. And since you don't need to use your brain in the gym, I chose that time to practice meditation. Why not? You only need a few things for it. Calmness, concentration, and the absence of thoughts. Well, the last point is only desirable. Roughly speaking, you need to detach yourself from your surroundings, and physical exercises seem to be created specifically for this purpose. You just run, jump, stretch... No brains needed. Of course, I didn't succeed the first time. And not even the second time. And not even the tenth time. But after a month, I could already feel the Force within me while running. That strange mist. However, after a month, I still had enough strength to sit with crystals before going to bed and see how the mist adhered to them. The crystals turned out to be quite useful for meditation. At least, by concentrating on them, I could enter into a trance more quickly. Once I sat up all night doing this, and if you think that meditation helped me to be alert in the morning, you are mistaken. Fortunately, the curator decided that I just woke up earlier than everyone else. Maybe there would have been nothing, but I didn't want to check what kind of punishment was in store for me. If I knew, I might have considered confessing that I hadn't slept all night. But as it was, I had to improvise. They even praised me for "waking up earlier than everyone else," noting, however, that sleep is also an important part of the daily routine.

During the first month of my stay at the Temple dormitory, our room was completely filled with beds. Three of them were occupied by human children, and one by a Togruta child. I remember this race well. Who doesn't remember Ahsoka Tano? Anyway, this child from the planet Shili, named Palatt Gani, was quite an amusing little one. For starters, he didn't wear shoes. When I asked him why, he replied that Togrutas hear the spirits of the earth better without shoes. After such an answer, I decided not to pry any further, because who knows, maybe those spirits would tell him to slit my throat in my sleep. I'm exaggerating, of course, but it's really scary to talk to someone who's high. However, something, apparently, the spirits did whisper to him, because after my question, I noticed that he was constantly hovering around me, and a few days later, he completely lost his fear, following me everywhere. I don't know, maybe it's because I was the first one to talk to him? He even ran next to me in the gym. And you know what he replied when I asked him directly, "what's up"? Well, appreciate this - intelligent beings should stick together, and I'm always separate.

It turns out that he is trying to connect me and society. In his own way, but still. It's quite a mature response for a four-year-old toddler. And I didn't even realize it at first. Being in the midst of my physical peers, I subconsciously hold them all to my level. Plus, there's the other world - who knows what kind of children there are in other races. Jiro Jiss, the ongry, is incredibly intelligent for his age. But still, I must note that the majority of the kids don't stand out in any particular way.

"Rein, why are we going to the gym?" asked that clingy little guy.

By the way, yes. At the moment, we connected with other groups of small spine-backs and were heading to the gym. We were supposed to be in the classroom for another lecture.

"I don't know," I answered the brown-skinned boy. "Why do you always ask me? Go ask Jiro over there."

"Well... you're older... so I thought..." the boy trailed off.

"Pal," I sighed, "where did you get the idea that I'm older?"

"Well..."

"Jiro was born two months before me, so from now on, ask him questions like that."

"Don't be mad, Rein..." he lowered his head.

See? This is exactly what I was talking about. The little spine-back is playing on pity. And he figured it out, didn't he? I may be a cynic, but my heart isn't made of iron - I may not love children, but... damn. Those damn kids. Once they latch onto you, you can't get rid of them.

"I'm not mad, Pal. But, honestly, I don't know anything. They probably just changed the schedule." I changed my tone, to which the boy immediately smiled. And what, I ask you? As if I told him the secret of the universe.

We entered the sports hall in a group of around a hundred kids, but once inside, we were divided into smaller groups and assigned a mentor. Then we were led to various fighting platforms and seated on the floor. Thank goodness it wasn't made of stone.

"Alright, younglings," began our mentor who was standing in front of us. "Starting today, you will begin your training in unarmed combat. In approximately a year, you will be able to wield a training lightsaber, and my task is to ensure that by that time, you have a general understanding of combat and can control your body to a sufficient degree to use a lightsaber, even if it's just a training one. And I will begin your training with a small lecture."

....