|
|
|
Welcome
to
Nathaniel Reed's
|
 |
:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
FAQs
|
| |
| October 2020 |
| |
The Mandalorian S2 begins !
31st October 2020 |
The second series of The Mandalorian began at the end of October, showing on the TV streaming service Disney+. The first episode seemed like a recap of sorts, but introduced the Tatooine sheriff, Cobb Vanth, already canonically-introduced in Disney-Era novels, and wearing Boba Fett's unique armour..... with Temeura Morrison [who played Jango Fett and Clone Troopers in the Prequel Trilogy] appearing at the end of the episode presumably as the older - Sarlacc-free - Boba Fett. The two trailers had hinted at many tantilising things, including our heroes standing on the deck of a maritime vessel, and visiting a snow-ice world, which many fans are wondering might be Illum !
I have not as yet subscribed to Disney+.... but there is a lot of personal and family pressure to do so !!!
|
| |
| |
| |
|
The illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom continues, and, following Artoo-Detoo unexpectedly revealing two mini lightsabres that Luke had installed and used to devastating effect, Threepio is aghast at the little droid's actions. However, he quickly agrees that the nearby conveyor barge would be a good means of escape....
|
 |
| |
| You can see the VE artwork in the 'Kessel' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
| |
| |
|
My prose writing for virtual edition Episode X 'The Riddle of the Pirates' has continued, and I have been able to present Luke's difficult task in breaking the news of tragedy to the parents of some of his students, as well as describe further the coding hacker's work for Han, and a cryptic scene involving Leia at the North Pole of Alderaan......
|
| |
“Thank you my friends,” said Luke to the shimmering circle of Jedi Masters at the Temple on Coruscant. “And, Leia, update us as soon as you are sure of your findings.” His sister nodded. “May the Force be with you all.”
“And with you,” came the replies, and the holograms faded from view.
Luke leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his chin with his right hand, deep in thought. His left arm was held across his chest in an osteo- bacta sling, He was alone in a small meeting forum, a holo-emitter at the centre of the table. The decor was typical of the North Sereillian fashion, a soft blend of panelling and tapestry in warm colours and intricate patterns.
A soft swish behind him marked the door opening, followed by the low hum of an anti-grav medi-chair : his wife, her right leg in a similar cast to Luke’s arm. The chair floated around and came to a gentle stop adjacent to Luke’s left.
“My love, “ Alana began. “How did it go with the Council ?”
Luke smiled. “They will make the necessary arrangements.” He sounded hollow. “And Leia has offered to investigate the wrecks at the Accident Investigation Bureau. We need to re-check them now that we’ve encountered this pirate gang.”
Alana nodded, and looked into her husband’s eyes. “And you ? How are you feeling ?”
Luke briefly met her eyes, then glanced away towards the window and the view of the sunset beyond. He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.
“They were our wards, Alana, my wards.... I failed them, and they paid the dearest price.”
Alana opened her mouth to counter with words of comfort, but Luke shook his head, and went on. “They should not have died ! They did not deserve to die ! They were too young... too...”
His voice broke and he stifled a sob. He dropped his gaze to the floor, still unable to look at his wife.
“Luke...” she answered softly. “They were Jedi. They may not have been Knights, but they were Jedi. They volunteered willingly, no one forced them to start down this path. It’s not like the Old Order, what we’ve heard, the early separations, forsaking all for duty. All the students know they can come or go, they can visit their families, the older ones know they face the expeditions as part of their training...”
He turned to face her.
“Alana, my love, this new generation.... it’s different, they are all younger than us, we are responsible for them, I am responsible for them ! The Jedi we lost during the Bogan War, they were all adults who accepted the dangers fully. But this time, it’s different....”
“Yes, it is different, Luke,” countered Alana supportively. “It’s different precisely because they are the next generation of Jedi. Those who safeguard the Galaxy. Yes, it seems like an adventure to them, but it comes with the greatest of responsibility, and they know that. All of them.”
Luke shook his head gently. “I don’t know. Master Yoda once said to me, the path of a Jedi requires the utmost commitment... Alana, children surely don’t know what that means.... what an undertaking... And their teacher, isn’t it unfair to put such a sole responsibility on them, too ?”
“Yes. It is. But the role of a teacher is not to hold the child’s hand, it is to guide the child’s hand to the door, and encourage them to open it...”
Luke regarded his wife and smiled softly. “You’re right.... But few teachers are faced with such tragedy. How are they to cope then ? How do those students who survived, when their friends didn’t, face the awful truth of seeing a new day ?”
He gestured towards the sunset as if emphasising his point.
Alana rested her hands on her lap, and shared her husband’s pain. She shook her head. “We find our own way, each and every one of us, to deal with death and mortality... The Force is Life, and Life is the Force, and as Jedi we recognise its embrace.”
“Remember, I do, with a heavy heart,” a distinctively gravelly and familiar voice came from the corner of the room. “When, on the Temple, your father led the attack.”
Both Luke and Alana glanced in the direction of the voice, and the blue-green translucent ghost of Yoda appeared.
“A heavy burden is Guilt , a heavy burden.” Yoda shook his head sadly. “For eight hundred years would I say, ‘mourn not, rejoice in the transcendence of the Force’. Meant it, I did, yes, meant it. And children, to me, they all were. But when purged the Jedi were, into exile went I and my guilt. Lost faith in the Force I feared. A beacon of light, there was, to cling to,” Yoda lifted his gimer cane towards Luke, “a hope in the Force had I.”
The diminutive Master Jedi shuffled on his feet and settled his shoulders.
“Yes, a new day, did I see, in exile, and another, and another after that, each one in memoriam to each friend I had lost. Those new days, a new resolve they gave, less my guilt became.”
“I’m sorry, Master,” Luke began, “I hadn’t realised....”
But Yoda shook his head and waved his tiny hand. “No, no, done it is, and learn from it I did. As must you. For a teacher learns just as much as he teaches. And taught me you have, Master Luke,” he added with a chuckle. “Your Temple, grows it does, with warmth and family support. To your wife, you must listen. Open the door, but just for the child, it is not.”
Luke nodded. “I am due to speak with the parents soon...”
“Trust in the Force, strengthen you and guide you it will....”
Yoda smiled benignly, and faded away.
Alana turned from the apparition and regarded her husband. “The Force will be with you, my love....”
Luke nodded. He drew a deep breath and gloried in the eddies of the Force invigorating him.
“Would you like me to stay ?”
“Yes, thank you, that would be good.”
A comm pinged, and a droid’s voice sounded over the intercom.
“Master Skywalker, we have the parents of Padawan Kerule on the line. Are you ready to speak to them ?”
Luke cleared his throat. “Yes, I am, put them through, please.”
The holo-base at the centre of the table hummed into life and two squat snivvians, one grey haired and the other with a tuft of black hair, appeared.
“Thankyou for your time. I am Luke Skywalker, Grand Master Jedi, and this is Master Alana Skywalker,” he gestured to his left. “I am so sorry to bring you this news, but I am sad to say that Kerule died today on Serreillia. He and other students were with us defending this city from pillaging bandits.”
The grey-haired female snivvian moaned, and her partner took her into his arms.
“Kerule died as a Jedi, serving the Order and the Galaxy, defending its morals of justice and fairness. I promise you, his death was not in vain.....”
Luke’s eyes watered, and as he blinked in response, a tear broke free from his right eyelid, and trickled down his cheek.
In Harker’s private quarters on the High Stakes there came a jubilant cry of success and relief. Han glanced up from a fashion holo he had been idly watching in the living quarters, and wandered over to Harker’s office to enquire.
“Now, my friend,” the young woman purred. “Let’s see what you got...”
She took two cables from a side desk, plugged one end each into her suite of computers, and connected the other ends into Artoo. The droid chirped happily, seemingly proud to be of service.
“I’m giving you a trace map to build. The vector lines will show the path the encrypted packets have taken, and will hopefully resolve at their destination...”
Artoo turned his domed head and his holo-emitter whirred into life with a pale blue light. An initial pinpoint of light became the source of a purple line that zig-zagged its way upwards into the air between them. The various lines appeared to snap back and forth in all directions, steadily rising to a point about two and half metres high and displaced off to the left of where Han stood, whose arms were crossed and a wryly sceptical look sat on his face.
“Uh huh,” he remarked. “So the fancy lines show us what exactly ?”
Harker looked up at him and grinned.
“I’m guessing your astro-mech has a few navi-charts stored in there somewhere ?” Having surreptitiously scored a full specification inventory from the droid without it realising, Harker knew full well its capabilities.
“Yup... Artoo, can you match any of this with an astro-map ?”
The little droid was in his element, and chirruped away happily to itself.
“Yes or No will do, Artoo,” Han replied drily. “I hope to hell I don’t need Threepio here to translate anything important....”
Artoo blew a mechanical raspberry at the general’s insolence, but began to overlay star system co-ordinates. The numbers, in green, appeared in scrolling type.
Han leaned in to peer closer and squinted his eyes in concentration.
“That’s Coruscant, and that’d be Chandrilla, but the others....” He shook his head in ignorance.
As Han complained, Artoo helpfully added white star dots along-side common system names now accompanying the stellar IDs.
A tree of galactic locations sprouted upwards. Many were named as identifiable planetary star systems, some remained numbers, presumably interstellar waypoints and no doubt deep space relay drones.
Their eyes followed the names as they appeared, tracking the vertical progress. To Han’s initial overview, there seemed to be no obvious pattern to the identified locations : the stolen data was being passed through a multitude of points with no discernible political loyalty or economic stance.
Han’s eyes hungrily flicked to the final vector and its end point. He didn’t have long to wait. Artoo provided an interstellar coordinate, but not only was there no accompanying name, the numbers were in red.
Han sighed in frustration.
“Red doesn’t look good. Usually means something bad. Artoo, can you zoom in on that end point ? Can you give us anything else on it ? Or near it ?”
Artoo trilled obediently, and 99% of the tree faded from view, replaced by the final vector.
Several white pinpoints of stars appeared near the end of the vector, and a short yellow and black chequered bar. But still no further information.
“How... uhh... comprehensive is the droid’s memory cache ?” asked Harker. “If I can hook him into the secure vaults of the Coruscant Cartographers.... “
She swivelled on her chair back to her consoles, and began typing furiously. Several authorisation logos flashed past on her screen.
“Back doors are my speciality,” she grinned.
“Yeah, I know what you mean, I thought I used to have that angle covered too....” Han remarked wistfully, and looked past her shoulder to her screen.
Finally, a red emblem switched to green, and a load of binary data scrolled up the screen. Harker turned around to look expectantly at the holo projection.
At the far end of the vector a name appeared, in red script, clearly warning of danger : a prohibited region of space.
Han stepped closer. “Gensys – Sucal,” he read. Three brown dots appeared about a central white dot.
“Gensys ?” asked the woman.
“I think it means a birthing star. Am I right, Artoo ? Are those proto-planets ?”
Artoo chirped affirmatively.
“And that’s why the charts have it prohibited,” added Han. “Too dangerous for vessels to navigate....”
Leia swayed gently with the motion of the air-speeder, the ubiquitous Coruscanti transporter. The residential sprawl of sector T-23 zone seven-A flickered below her. As the landscape blurred past below, her eyelids drooped with the weight of fatigue. After the seer-journey to Voc Kadow and engaging the bandits who had threatened her children and their ‘uncle Chewie’, she was mentally and physically drained. She had returned to her private quarters hoping for a respite, but the Council Masters had been urgently convened at the request of her brother and Grand Master, Luke Skywalker. When he had asked for a volunteer to review the wrecks of some of the early piracy, the Force had nudged her to offer her services. Only some Master Jedi were able to practice the art of Force-psychometry, a difficult skill of divination through touch, but more accurate than simply visionary insight, and Luke knew that his sister had become particularly adept at it.
Only the Masters of the High Council were privy to Leia’s unique ability to seer-journey. When Leia had spoken of her encounter with the bandits, the nonagenarian Master Depa Billaba, one of the Jedi Elders who had re-surfaced following Emperor Palpatine’s demise, had noted Leia’s more direct and aggressive engagement and had advised rest and meditation. But she had acquiesced to Master Skywalker’s insistence that his sister would divine the truth quickly and effectively.
The almost imperceptible rocking of the air-speeder, the breeze against her face, and her exhaustion all combined to close her eyes. She did not doze, as such, but fell into an involuntary meditative state.
Her last mental image was of the multi-hued multi-textured tapestry that was the urban sprawl of Coruscant blurring past her. Then, it dissolved to the rushing of whites and greens and blues, and a bird’s eye view of a not unfamiliar landscape. Wispy clouds parted to reveal forest canopy and open grass plains, cut through with sparkling streams and meandering rivers ; road and air traffic connected villages and farms to towns and cities. Leia could tell that the terrain was steadily rising, outcrops of mountain rock punched through the pastures. And then, in the distance, against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, a pristine marble-white city of slender elongated towers could be seen. Leia could not help but gasp in recognition, for this was Aldera, her city of childhood. But, as if held fast in the grip of a mighty eagle or helplessly caught at the crest of a wave, Leia’s journey did not pause, but instead she was carried over the Royal Palace and beyond the city perimeter and on towards the distant mountains. Now the blacks and whites of mountain and tundra gave way to the brilliant unspoilt white of arctic. Onward, she sped, flitting over the heads of wolves and bears and basking seals, and yet more frozen expanse. And then, bewildered and unable to conceive of what might be next, she felt her body be gently settled upon the ice, the snow crunching under her boots. She was aware of the wind and the cold, but felt neither. She looked around. The horizon, mostly flat, but broken to one side with a low jagged line, was an empty white expanse ; the oceanic blue sky graded to pinks and mauves close to its shoreline on one side, marking the nocturnal side of the planet.
Why was she here ??
Aware of a disturbance in the air to her right, she turned slightly and perceived the open space begin to flicker and scintillate like sunlight on a summer stream. The mirage loosely formed itself into a humanoid shape, and a female-pitched voice welcomed her.
“Hello Leia.”
Leia did not feel alarm or confusion, and sensed no threat from this figure ; her demeanour was more of curiosity.
“Hello,” she smiled wryly.
“You are wondering why you are here. And who I am.”
The words were not questions.
“Your brother has entrusted you to divine the veracity of past events.”
Leia nodded.
“He was impressed how clearly you saw the attack on your husband on Tatooine.”
Leia’s eyes narrowed at this stranger’s apparent insight : shortly before she successfully entered the Netherworld and ultimately reunited her parents and defeated the Sith phantoms, she was able to discern her husband’s plight simply from touching the scorch marks on the hull of the Falcon. She had shared this knowledge only with her brother.
“How... ?” she began.
“You are a powerful Jedi, Leia Skywalker. To see past events and possible futures is a Jedi skill. And you alone among the mortals have journeyed to the Nether and returned. You pushed through and you made it so. That is a privilege granted to very few. Hubris rides alongside privilege. You have honed your journeying and used it for the greater good.
“That, at least, is what you tell yourself.”
Leia’s skin now chilled, but from the polar air she wasn’t entirely sure.
“Time is relative.”
It was as if the ethereal voice had suddenly changed tack, and was broaching a new subject, perhaps having considered the former now a closed matter.
“It is what you make of it. It is your perception, and yours alone. “
The sparkling spectre raised the outline of a limb, as if gesturing with their arm, and pointed towards the blue-red spectrum tinting the horizon.
“Over there is midnight. Opposite is midday. This planet, Alderaan, rotates about its star. Take a step this way,” the limb gestured again, “and you exist in someone’s tomorrow. Stand there, and you participate in another’s yesterday.”
Leia pondered the words. She was aware that her relatively new-found ability that she and the other Jedi Masters were calling seer-journeying occurred only in the present, and required her physical body to remain in a safe and secure place. The Force might have granted visions of the past and the futures to countless generations of Jedi – and Sith – but they were just that, visions.
Before she could begin to quiz the figure further, she was aware that the luminescence was fading.
Involuntarily, she reached out quickly with her hand, as if to grab and hold on to this fount of wisdom.
“Wait ! Who are-- ?”
There was no answer, but for a brief moment - a flicker of an eyelid - Leia swore she was looking at the old crone with whom she had meditated in the aquifer cave under Tatooine’s baked desert. Then, she had journeyed to the Netherworld, and to Hell, and had reunited ghosts and battled phantoms. This figure was clearly significant to her in some way.
As the old lady disappeared, so too did the polar white-out dissolve from view, replaced by wisps of low cloud and the grey blur of urban sprawl.
“Coming up on the Bureau....” growled the hirsute tarnabian pilot in a gruff voice.
The comment broke Leia’s reverie and prevented her from reviewing what had just happened. Instead, she focused on the matter at hand. From the rear bench seat of the air-speeder, Leia regarded the view ahead : having sped across one of the industrial plateaus, a blocky profile punctuated by cranes and anti-grav load-lifters became apparent. A high wall surrounding the perimeter provided privacy and security for the Interstellar Maritime Accident Investigation Bureau.
As the speeder drew closer, the broken shapes of wrecked hulks could be seen poking over the wall. The pilot tapped an entry authorisation request on a keypad in front of him, and, in response, up ahead they could see two small sections of upper wall slide apart, revealing a hangar bay. Their craft glided inside and settled beside red and blue liveried fleet of personnel shuttles. A protocol droid in matching colours stepped up to the speeder.
“Welcome, Master Jedi Solo,” the droid announced primly. “Please follow me and I will take you to the officer in charge of pirated vessels , sub-section seven-nine-nine-seven-slash-three-slash-four-two.”
Leia nodded, drew her cream over-robe about her, and duly followed the droid across the hangar and towards an elevator.
|
| |
| Nathaniel Reed, 31st October 2020 |
| |
 |
| |
|
|
