003 - Arrival on Silas

It was a Corellian made freighter which I couldn't remember seeing before, carrying a dozen passengers onboard as well as an ample amount of cargo. I had no intention of staying on Silas once I arrived there. The reason was, that my family, the Miran were on of a few ruling families on Silas. When my mum had gotten pregnant due to no fault of her own, she was practically abandoned. That was how she had ended up on Aknin. I had no reason to stay there longer than necessary.

I got into one of the bunks and laid down to sleep, while clutching my bag close to my chest. I had grabbed some clothes, my holo-pad, and my mom's credit chip. All the other stuff I sold. Mum and I had nothing sentimental really. In total I had thirty-three thousand, four hundred credits. This trip alone cost a thousand though. As I tried to sleep, I thought about what to do next.

I instinctively ran my hand through my hair but only felt a light fuzz where it had recently started to regrow. I sighed, as I started missing my hair. I guess I really have lost everything. At least it is regrowing. I drifted off to sleep and woke up about an hour before we arrived on Silas.

I decided to sit cross legged on my bunk and started to try meditating. Relaxing my body, breathing, mental projection, the lot. As I did so, I felt not only the lake and the trees around it, but at the same time, I could feel slight tugs in the back of my mind. It took me a while, but I eventually figured out that these were the echoes of every other person on the ship.

I can't remember which Jedi said it, but it was during the high republic, "It's as if each living being is a silent whispering voice." As I focused on one of these voices, I could almost feel what they were saying even if it was complete gibberish. I guess I can kind of do this subconsciously already.

I guess this must be why most jedi have the ability to sense the basic emotions of someone, after all they are attuned to the force and can hear these whispers. Maybe? As I continued to meditate it was as if I found a pattern to the voices, it was soothing.

I broke from meditation when I felt a light jolt as we left hyperspace. Yes, this ship was definitely a piece of junk. I thought about what kind of Jedi I wanted to be. Under no circumstances was I joining the order. They were far too rigid and blind to the force. But I definitely wanted to be a Jedi. I wasn't the scholarly type who wished to draw closer to the force, neither was I a warrior who sought to fight for it "will".

In fact, from my belief about the force from the hundreds of perspectives I have heard about, is that all living beings are in fact expressions of the force. I don't believe that one should just follow the will of the force. I also think that the dark side is inherently evil.

It is a corrupting force which offers immense power, and I'm not stupid enough to go meddling in it when even the strongest jedi ever have fallen in their hubris. But I do believe that it is impossible to not have a small amount of the Darkside in you. Everyone experiences the feelings of hate, greed jealousy, etc. If one accepts that these things exist, then one will find true peace.

At least that's my view of how the force works. It might be different, but I'll just have to figure that out on my own. Both the Jedi and Sith were two extreme views of the force.

As we entered the atmosphere I glance out of the viewport and saw the awe-inspiring scene before me. An endless sea of green grasslands covered the planet as far as the eye could see. Silas was almost entirely flat grasslands thanks to its constant steady climate and flat topography. Half the planet was covered in oceans which held a green tint to them. Massive beasts once roamed this land but now they were replaced by machines tilling and ploughing for crops.

The Silas System had a few moons rich in resources as well, which were brought to the massive cities on world to be processed here. As we approached the city, the air began to thicken slightly, The result of years of exploitation and disregard for safety quotas. While Silas didn't appear during the clone wars I wouldn't be surprised if this world was sought after for its large amount of agricultural land and industrial output.

Once the ship landed, I headed into the bustling city. It was hard to focus. It was as if thousands of people were whispering into my ears, how on earth did the jedi not go insane on coruscant with trillions of beings there? Or was this simply the way I perceived the force.

I booked a room in a hotel of somekind and began to meditate inside. While I could still here the voices, they were far more muffled now. If I choose to ignore them that is. This had never happened to me before, have I somehow already become closer to the force, enough to improve my innately strong empathic abilities? Before, I could only have a vague idea of how they were feeling if I was standing next to them.

There was no use worrying over stuff like this, when I lacked any ability to actually learn what was happening. Right now, I instead need to focus on getting stronger. I broke out of my meditative state and stood up. I took off the cloak I was wearing and took a stance in the centre of the room.

It was one of the opening stances to Tai-Chi. Tai-Chi was a moving form of meditation and I had gotten into it, along with other stuff, like meditation, martial arts, and philosophy in university. On earth I stood at around 6"4 and with my broad shoulder, which made me look like a giant to anyone shorter than me.

Going into Uni I was also heavily overweight. Once I had started exercising more and I had worked through most of my mental shit. This had a positive effect both socially and physically. For the first time in my life I actually had close friends and I had put on quite a bit of muscle, even taking part in a few mixed martial arts tournaments.

I am now however, Alva. My body is dramatically different from Riley's. Even for my age I am significantly smaller, than others around eight. Even if I re-train myself in martial arts I will still be at a significant disadvantage in a fight.

I'll have to build a sabre fighting style from scratch. I'd owned several toy sabres and knew the basics of each form for larping as well as a tiny bit of fencing. But for me to create my own style, I'll have to have a lightsabre. I can't use a stick or something because lightsabres have no weight other then the hilt and I need to practice with the length, so I don't cut an ear off or something.

It also needs two crystals so I can use one as a focusing lens to dim the power and again, not cut myself. I know how to build one, it just needs an emitter, power assembly and energy chamber. Which to be honest is knowledge only a jedi should know but…

The Diatium Power Cell will be a bit on the high end at about 500 credits for a new one, I don't want to risk getting an old one which someone has overclocked and risk my saber just turning off in a fight. The other parts are all pretty standard on other stuff, most of which I could get by taking apart a blaster. Speaking of which I need one of those anyway.

Anyway, the hardest part is the crystal. A lightsabre on the black market will cost around 20,000 Credits and I'd need two. That's not an option and I would prefer to bond with my crystals in the first place. Ilum and Ossus are off the table since nobody but the jedi know where they are. Dantooine no longer has crystal because, the colonists there had killed off all of the Kinrath years ago. I remember on some desert worlds they're usually being dunefire crystals but I'm not going trekking through the desert for the off chance they actually exist, besides the silver blade that they produce wouldn't suit me anyway. That only leaves one place where I know there are Kyber crystals.

Jedha.

I ended up heading to different spaceports and searching for what felt like forever, looking for a ship that was at least heading in the direction of Jedha. In a line of ships parked in the eastern part of the city I found a ship which was currently unloading and asked the Wookie carrying some crates off the ship, "Hi, do you happening to be heading to Ord Mantel anytime soon?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh! Grrf…" Responded the Wookie. (Currently were heading to Numidian Prime, but…) He then placed down the crate and began to rub his chin thoughtfully before saying. "Hrraaerrrrrr!" (I think, after that were heading to Adrathorpe after coming back here in a weeks' time.)

I perked up at that. Adrathorpe was on the Burke's trail. I had been heading to Ord Mantel because it was the beginning of the trail and Jedha was situated quite close to the Ord Mantel section of it. I then enquired. "Could I get dropped off at Jedha, by any chance?"

He seemed to ponder for a few moments before nodding and saying. "Rrrrrrrrr-Grgrgr. Shiiinn." (Sure, were porting their anyway. It'll be 200 credits plus 40 for rations since the trip is about five days.) I paid him the necessary credits before bidding him farewell.

I then headed back to my hotel after grabbing some street food. I chuckled to myself knowing that the ship was most likely smuggling something illicit. I headed back to my hotel room to get some sleep, since I had been searching all day long.

I woke up the next morning and slid out of the bed. I first began by warming up my body and doing some Tai-Chi and centring myself in the force. There were hundreds of different forms, but I was keeping to a basic set of 24 to start with until my muscles built up. Once I had chased off the demons of the night, I began to do some light exercises. They were the usual pull-ups, push-ups, squats, crunches etc. Though I could only do a few of each before I was done. I then moved onto doing a bunch of stretches, since I needed to focus on my flexibility.

After a good deal of sweat had built up, I slid off the clothes I had slept in and then stepped into the sonic shower. The feeling I found extremely weird. I felt the thin film on my skin slowly peel off as it got to each nook and cranny on my body. Once it was done I masticated a few times since my mouth was now dry. It seemed to clean my teeth as well.

I stepped out and applied a moisturizer I found in one of the markets, I rubbed it all over my face and the back of my neck since the sonic shower had dried out my face. I then ran my hands through the fuzz on the top of my head by habit as I usually did.

I shook my head as I walked out of the refresher and got dressed. Once I had grabbed my bag, I headed for a parts shop I had noticed in my search for a ship. It took me about half an hour to find it again on the other side of the city. It was run down and the only reason I found it was because I saw some poor sod pushing a broken droid into the place.

I pushed open the door and was greeted with a smell that made me both nostalgic as well as melancholic. Eight years of my life had been spent with the smell of plasma scorched air, lubricant, and metal. The sight was similar too. I suppressed the tears which were eager to escape and walked straight to the counter were there was a young Snivvian Girl who only stood at two feet tall.

They really were small. They looked kind of like a fluffy mix between a dog, a cow, and a weasel. They were kind of cute, though I have no idea why. When the adult came towards where the counter where he said, "Hey, how can I help?"

I cursed to myself saying, 'even he's taller than me.' I then responded with, "Do you have any Diatuim Power Cells?" as I placed 500 credits on the table.

He just raised an eyebrow before saying, "550." I just sighed and took out another 50 before he went into the back after grabbing the credits. After a few seconds he came out and handed me a small grey cylinder.

"Thanks." I said before looking at it and saying. "Cool, it even has the original power coupling." He just nodded as I waved goodbye and walked out. It was in good condition as well.

(A/N: This is the last chapter this week. I'll see you all on Monday. If I manage to write four by then I'll publish a bonus one though I doubt it.)