Kessel

(I've gotta honestly say that this chapter is some of my best work thus far. Enjoy.)

-4pm, July 4th, 2054-

-Kessel Run, Akadese Maelstrom-

I could only imagine how loud it would be if there was an atmosphere around me rather than the vacuum of space. Despite being separated by a thick pane of blaster-proof glass, I still felt as if I was exposed in the void.

We were currently in what I could only describe as the eye of a hurricane. Swirling clouds roiled in a fit of rage, serenading me with an endless sense of awe. No picture or video could replicate the feeling one would get by standing within this unceasing storm.

This slow march we were on through the eye of this seething storm of gas and dust was our path forward. It was the only path forward. This tunnel is how our cruisers would reach Kessel, the destination we desperately sought.

Through the placing of beacons by a small squadron of large shuttles, torches would light our way. With each torch left to float in the tunnel that pierced through the Akadese Maelstrom, we were charting the Kessel Run. No one had ever crossed this patch of space before.

I was standing on a slightly raised platform in the center of the bridge. It gave me a clear view of the surrounding space as well as all of the technicians working on their terminals.

After taking it all in for a few seconds, I sat down in the center of the platform before closing my eyes. I sucked a deep breath in, held for a few seconds, and then slowly pushed it out. My mind quickly cleared as I bathed in the force, allowing it to come before all else and take over my mind.

Through my meditation, I felt the force slowly churning around the cruiser. This vortex kept going and going, round and round without rest.

I stretched out my senses, growing the scope of my supernatural vision until I hit a wall. It was nearly solid. However, I could tell that if I focused my senses to a point, I'd be able to break through.

Before I could do so, I hesitated. Through the force, I was able to feel the anxiety of all those on board this cruiser and even those on board the ones behind us. My heart rate rose as the restlessness vibrated through the force and influenced my mental state.

Deep breath in… hold… release… My emotions and mind were clear once more as I washed myself of these unsettling and intrusive thoughts. The future was uncertain. Why concern yourself with it when you can focus on succeeding in the present. Only by maintaining clarity in the moment can one maintain the possibility of a bright future.

Shaking those ideas off the tree that was my mind, I focused my senses. The length of my reach felt limitless now as I shoved forth, pressing into the wall. Was this wall the side of the maelstrom tunnel?

Then, I broke through the wall. I nearly turned back once I had done so as the other side was nowhere near a nice place. The force was flowing in violent and erratic streams, but every stream gradually twisted in the same direction. I felt the slight pull in the same direction, so I followed it.

As I followed the streams, I felt the most mind-blowing life forms imaginable. These creatures were gargantuan beasts, shifting slowly and seemingly without purpose within the maelstrom. What did they eat? Did they feed on each other?

Turbulence formed in the streams as the force flowed past these beasts. Some of it seeped through their skin, settling within and nourishing them while the rest blew past towards whatever lay ahead.

As I pushed past one last beast, there were no more of them. However, the flow of these force streams was stronger than ever and growing incessantly more violent.

It was then that I found what they were rushing towards. Or rather, what they weren't rushing towards. At the center of this toiling whirlpool of the force, there was a complete blank spot. There was nothing. No force, no life, nothing.

As I was observing it silently, I suddenly lost control. I felt a hard tug on my consciousness and couldn't pull my senses away from it. The force was overtaking my will and ripping me from my own body.

This wasn't a calling as many Jedi have described in the past. It was as if I was being grabbed by the head and thrown across the room but there was no wall to stop me.

This was an unstoppable force. This pull, it wanted to consume anything and everything. Within moments, I fell into this endless well.

In that instant, my eyes shot open, and I started heaving breaths without thinking about anything else. My robes were sticking to my sweat covered body as my heart rate soared past allegro and straight into presto.

A comfortable, feminine voice from my right pulled me from my stupor. "You good?"

I looked over and saw Violet looking back at me with concerned eyes. Her gaze was intense but comforting, filling me with a slight warmth.

I sighed, trying to push away the despair I had just experienced as my consciousness was being ripped from my body. I just nodded my head. "Yeah, bad vision."

Violet just shrugged. "Ah, you Jedi confuse me." She then looked away but then I saw her face light up as a faint glimmer fell off of her eyes. She pointed towards the front of the cruiser. "Look."

(Go YouTube and search up "Clair de Lune – Epic Version". Play that and read this nice and slow.)

I stood up and walked over to her, my jaw nearly blowing a hole in the floor as I saw the literally breathtaking view before us. The entire bridge was silent as everyone took a moment to appreciate the beauty that is space.

It was already known that Kessel lay in the center of the Akadese Maelstrom. However, no justice would be done if one did not see it for themselves.

On the far side of this… clearing in the maelstrom, there was a massive splotch of light that was bleeding through the wall of rock and dust. There was a star hidden there, presumably orbiting the gravity well that sat further in.

The light that bled through from Kessel's star poured daylight upon the surface of the planet. Most of the planet that we were able to see was shrouded in darkness. Upon the gray backdrop of the maelstrom, the orange-brown, green, and blue world vastly contrasted and provided an unbelievable sight.

It was also entirely different from what I remember seeing in the movies. Wasn't this world barren and desolate? Is that what the Pyke Syndicate would have done to it had they reached the planet first? Was that lifeless world the result of Kessoline?

The sediment of Kessel was an orange-brown while the green of forests and jungles and the blue of oceans covered large swaths of the surface. This was an unadulterated and perfect world if not for the hurricane of dust surrounding it.

I couldn't help but turn to Violet. "This is magnificent. I can't even think of another word that would fit it."

I admired the glow in her eyes as the filtered light of the star twinkled upon her. A tiny reflection of the orange world upon which we gazed sat in the corner of her eye.

She nodded slowly, still in clear awe. "We need to protect it."

Her naïve hope sparked something in me. This wish, I wanted to fulfill it. Not only for her, but for the galaxy as well. This is a sight that should never be torn asunder.

I nodded, smiling. "And we shall. We shall not taint this world as the Pyke Syndicate would. It shall remain a paradise while we harvest unimaginable profits from below Kessel's pristine surface."