Jedi Academy: Prologue to Planet Arkania

Master and student sat across from each other in the midst of perpetual cold; snow and ice swirling in frenzy all around - and yet apart from them both. They were the calm; they were the eye of the storm. They were the space between the molecules that made up the fabric of all life; they were united in purpose and they were with the Force.

Between master and student was a plant of enormous size and flamboyant color. The Amorphoscii Pednamnium's grouping of large, yellow-green, compound leaves folded together centrally like a tall spire reaching for the sunlight, while its outermost layer of broad leaves, rich green in color with purple inflorescence, lay about the spire like an ornate ruffled collar. Being of desert variety, the plant's very presence here amid the Arkanian wind-blown glaciers would be a marvel to many, but to Master Onmp and his apprentice, it was an exercise.

The shadows lengthen rapidly on the mountain. Time ceased to be for the elderly Ithorian Jedi Master, the ebb and the flow of the Force permeated the immediate area, enlivened by the two beings basking in its tides, serenely encouraging predictive reactions, affecting passive control with the purpose of inspiring life and renewal. Master Onmp had no thought, no emotion, was neither here nor there, but rather was light with peacefulness. He had neither to look nor to hear, but simply to be - but there! A disturbance, a something in the midst of nothing and everything, an undeniable discordant frequency. The flurries of snow and ice closed in about the master and student, ever so slightly, threatening to break through and invade. The cold was seeping in now - a vision! Far overhead, a smoldering elliptical streak in the sky, flaming star falling, lost now in the glare of the afternoon sun, red and black fear, then - as quickly as it had begun, the vision was gone. Passed out of existence leaving no trace of its coming or going.

Master Onmp opened his eyes to a slit, chancing a look at his very young apprentice. The boy, a human, still had his eyes closed and didn't seem to have experienced anything remotely cautionary at all. Master Onmp was pleased; he wasn't concerned too much with any of the visions he experienced throughout his long life. Whatever the Force willed would be; simple as that. He would do his best to train the young manling before him to fully embrace this enlightened view of the Force, as he would continue to passively receive direction from it. Master Onmp's thoughts drift to something less familiar, that of the boy's well-being. "Perhaps I am becoming attached to the manling, something I shall have to ponder. Is there danger here, on Arkania? Danger as yet undiscovered? This, too, I shall have to meditate on with the other Masters. I wonder if Bevik senses it too..."

"Master?" said the boy, with eyes still closed.

"Yes, Bevik?" [Translated from Ithorian]

"Is the Desert Corpse Plant edible? I'm really hungry."

"Bevik, I have a mission for you; a simple mission, but of some importance. You are to leave for Novania Spaceport immediately and make contact with a pilot by the name of Baruus Orfester, captain of the Atria Contract; a YT-1760 small transport - very fast. I will make the arrangements for you. Your destination: the Boundless, a ship comporting Jedi, here, to Arkania. You are to deliver a message, a warning, to the masters en route."

The wind whistled and blustered in the silence that ensued. Master Onmp waited for the boy to say something, to acknowledge what he had been told, or to protest, or to ask what message was so important that it be delivered to recipients that were on their way here. But the boy merely opened his eyes to look at Master Onmp, his brows raised just a little.

"No, Bevik," Master Onmp with the Ithorian approximation of a tolerant sigh, "the Desert Corpse Plant is not edible for either of us."

Bevik was glad to be out of the cold. Novania Spaceport was moderately busy as far as spaceports go, and like most incorporated cities and townships on Arkania, was designed using interconnected utilitarian enclosures that broke up wide tracts of tundra. Not heavily populated, the spaceport felt more like an overlarge warehouse complex, with very little to offer loiterers. The steady din of hoversleds, droids, and beings moving from here to there contained little conversation and was often overwhelmed by the loudspeaker making announcements of arrivals and departures in a handful of various languages.

No one seemed to notice Bevik as he navigated the hallways and skybridges to his destination, but Bevik noticed whomever was in his vicinity. He felt them in the Force, as one might gaze across a plain of wildflowers, all wonderfully unique in sameness. Not an unfriendly presence to be felt, just - busy, focused on tasks. Alone amid the crowd, Bevik felt a sense of comfort that fed his already heightened, enthusiastic energy; this was his first real mission after all, and Bev felt quite proud that Master Onmp thought well enough of him to carry such an important message.

Then there was the message itself, the message that he was duty-bound to bring directly to the masters aboard the Boundless, with all haste. In his typical way, Master Onmp calmly dictated a very startling message to Bevik. If Bevik didn’t know Master Onmp better he would have mistaken the elder Ithorian’s calm for nonchalance.

"Even Master Onmp wouldn’t be indifferent about this, Bev thought to himself. "Although I do feel bad for not telling him that I felt it too. Although, he didn’t actually ask, did he?"

Bevik had indeed perceived that which caused his master such concern, though without the accompanying force vision. Master and padawan had trekked across the treeless tundra surrounding the Jedi Academy, past many small lakes encircled by wide vistas of multicolored shrub and grass that eventually gave way to permafrost and vegetation that crunched under foot. Their destination had been a small, flat cliff situated on the near side of one of the smaller mountains, crowned and bearded in glacier snow but with exposed rocky outcroppings due to the equatorial sunlight received in prodigious amounts each day. There on high, awash in the glow of the light side of the force, Bevik had noticed an anomaly, like an "eye floater" that evaded direct line of sight when looked for. He had the distinct feeling that "it" (whatever "it" was) did not desire to be discovered. Bevik perceived a poignant cold associated with the anomaly, like a loose tooth or hangnail that compels attention in spite of the pain.

The memory of it wouldn’t leave Bevik’s mind. "So what I felt was the dark side," he thought with curiosity. "The local archives mentioned that there was darksiders here, not that long ago too. But… I was told the planet had been purged of any darkness supposedly." Bevik’s carousel of thoughts continued as he neared the place in which he was to meet with the captain of the transport that would take him, and his dire message, to meet with the Boundless.

"Well, if it is the dark side, then Master Onmp is smart to not try and look for it on his own."