Interlude: Year six (Patreon)

Interlude: Year Six

Taylor:

I do love Kashyyyk.

I’ve said it before, I know, but I’ll say it again.

The Wookiees were always kind, always helpful, and willing to open their doors.

When I recognized that what I had come here to do was going to become a regular thing and that the Jedi temple couldn’t really accommodate it with everyone’s safety in mind, the first people I’d thought to ask had been the Wookiees.

They’d been happy to help.

It was so rare to find people like this, and I couldn’t help but love them for it.

The insect life on Kashyyyk was just a bonus, no matter what Vicky said.

My hand patted Atlas II’s side fondly, the vibration of his rapid wingbeats thrumming underneath me. He’d grown since I last saw him. Large enough now to lift a fully grown Wookiee. I’d heard Attichitcuk rode him into battle against a slaver raid just a few months ago while we were offworld; plenty of Wookiees commented how he was strong enough to tear gunships apart.

I must’ve looked laughably small on his back, but the bug’s mind hummed with a peaceful sort of calm as I controlled him, recognizing the sensation from when he’d been little more than a hatchling.

A hatchling that’d been the size of a decent sized pony, but that was Kashyyyk.

Up ahead I could see the elevated dais, built on a platform resting on the twisted and bent branches of the tallest wroshyr trees. We were miles away from the village. Vicky would have come with me, she usually did, but she’d been tired. Master Billaba had asked her to help design a combat lesson plan for the Knights training in the Shadowlands to fight Sith. Vicky could be devilishly clever while knowing just how far was ‘too far’, a skill I didn’t share when it came to combat training. I always felt it was better to hit them as hard as you could in training, because they could get up if they fucked up in training. Less so on the field.

But I’d been overruled by damn near everyone on the Council. I wasn’t surprised. Nor bitter.

Even so, Vicky had been up almost all night with Master Billaba, brainstorming, so I wanted to let her sleep.

And it was good to ride on Atlas II again. Big as he was.

We descended, the large can-cell’s spindly, hooked legs touching down on the platform like a helicopter, its wings folding back before I made them rise straight up so I could dismount.

I offered the bug a scratch along the center of his forehead, between the eyes, its primitive mind almost purring in pleasure at the sensation before I turned him around and sent him off to graze and eat some of the fruits hanging off the tree branches directly below us.

I took a deep breath, marching into the center.

The Wookiees had decorated the structure, paints of bright yellows, bone whites, muddied reds and vibrant greens swirled and whorled at my feet in splashes of color that offset the dull bark of the wroshyr tree wood. Part shamanism, part wood treatment, so the structure wouldn’t rot. It was strangely fitting. Yoda, Yaddle, Billaba and Windu frequented this place for their own private meditations sometimes.

There was a small little ‘tent’ at the edge of the platform, something that held supplies, a first aid kit, and an emergency communicator just in case, but beyond snacking on the occasional candy bar I don’t think it’d ever really been used by anyone.

I took another deep breath, reaching the center of the platform where all the paints met in a great, spiraling tapestry.

I placed the mat I’d brought with me first: one experience with raw knees and shins had been more than enough for me to learn my lesson.

Kneeling down, I settled in, taking one last deep breath before the plunge.

I opened my mind.

The mat disappeared, the wooden platform followed after it. The trees, the wildlife, the gentle hiss of leaves in the breeze, the creaking of swaying branches, the trilling hoots of distant apes, the wingbeats of birds and scuttling lizards.

One by one, like stars winking out in the night sky, they vanished.

I felt her, then. Moving, coalescing, a titanic swell, like an ocean in a storm surge descending, only so much more.

Vicky didn’t need to do this. She could commune with the Fragile One almost whenever she wished. It was smaller, simpler. Like one of our kids even as it was more alien. It was happy to help, to be of help, and it tried with far greater ease to connect with Vicky’s wants and needs.

It wasn’t the same for the Queen Administrator, even as I knew that she was trying.

It hurt. Even now it hurt to focus on her, to try and even remotely grasp the enormity of her.

The storm moved around me; stars collapsing, suns blotting out, endless voids of dark, collapsing matter as she continued to try.

Slowly, bit by bit, piece by piece, like water droplets gathering at the basin through thin channels.

I felt her become.

I’d asked her once, only once, why. Why did she want this? What did she hope to get out of it?

Her answer had been ‘simple’, the concept thrown at me as the Passengers spoke to each other, databombs that someone like me could only scramble to pick up the smallest edges of.

“Understanding.”

I had pressed further. “Why?”

She’d tried, then. Tried to put it into words. Forced herself to do things this way.

‘Experience… Symbiosis -Greater than- Parasitic. Possibilities. Expanded. Infinite. You. Infinite.”

And that was a whole different kind of scary.

To have expectations, idealized expectations, from something that viewed you as being able to give it ‘infinite’ possibilities.

It was terrifying.

But I tried. I made myself try, the same way she was making herself try.

Because if I could infuse one single atom of understanding, one molecule of what it meant to be human… then maybe when I was gone, Khepri wouldn’t ever happen again. That she’d know how to use that power, those infinite possibilities to make it easier on the next person she chose. And maybe that person could help her further.

Bit by bit. Piece by piece.

She wanted to understand, to grow. Like she had before. I wanted her to understand so that when she grew, not if, she’d still stand by the conclusion she’d already reached. That symbiosis, mutual cooperation, was better than consuming us, leeching off us. It didn’t have to be the way the Warrior set things up to be.

So I waited now, focusing, even as my brain throbbed with pain, sensing the whole of her collapse, fold in on itself, until, instead of worlds, I sensed nothing but a single mote of dust.

I opened my eyes.

She stood there. Stardust and starlight shining incandescently in front of me, the form struggling to maintain itself, flickering at the edges, tiny shards of glass breaking apart, hovering around the main body before slipping back into place with bursts of rainbow light.

I breathed, taking in the sight.

“Hello.”

The voice was loud, like someone screaming through a thousand megaphones at once. It wailed and screeched, a high note sending a needle of pain through the back of my teeth as I winced.

The form distorted a bit more, distressed.

But still, it was a word, something said with a voice.

“You’ve been practicing,” I noted.

The distortions eased, warmth suffusing me. She wasn’t speaking but through the Force, our connection, I could sense her appreciation that I’d noticed.

“Understanding. Greater,” She preened, proud. “More data required. Greater understanding needed. Further results achievable.”

I… well, understood what she was getting at. She needed more time, more practice.

I nodded, offering a smile as best I could. “You’ll get there,” I commented.

She shimmered, breaking and reforming. Joy.

Then, unexpectedly, she held out her hand, a shimmering light on her palm.

“Understanding,” she said, holding it out further. “Understanding!” she insisted, eager and excited.

I hesitated for a moment, old fears that I hadn’t quite cured myself of coming back before I steeled myself.

I reached out, my fingers brushing against the glimmering, shining surface of a star.

(X)(X)(X)

And we've made it friends :DWe reached the end of the Timeskip pieces.Next chap we make it to the "Clone Wars" film time and butterflies have been-a-flappin believe me.Now; I could explain what exactly is going on with Tay and QA here, but I'm wondering if you guys can take aim with them theories and figure it out. I'll acknowledge anyone who gets close/nails the answer So theory-craft away minio- I mean- Loyal readers :3

PS. Discord link for those of you who'd like to join us :D

https://discord.gg/GAeCdnyF