The Mandalorian

From Shifti
Jump to: navigation, search
Author: Oberon
Icon
Copyediting is welcome
Icon
Xanadu story universe
This story uses "Commonwealth" spelling, so extra "u's" may show up in some words and not be an error

I looked around the room at the convention center. My blasted helmet was riding on my shoulders and fogging up again. Why in name that was all that was holy had I decided on coming to this convention when I could afford to come as so many other things. My costume was hot, sweaty and uncomfortable but that was the penalty that I paid for being such a big fan of the Star Wars Series. After I moment I removed the helmet to get a breath of fresh air and hiked up my heavy belt; on one side of my belt was a holstered replica of a Star Wars heavy blaster pistol from the time period roughly forty years after the Battle of Yavin. On the opposite side of my belt I wore a pair of silver hilted lightsabers, normally this wouldn’t look that unusual, but the fact that I was wearing what appeared to be black, red, and gold mandalorian armour and a black cloak did make it unusual. My armour wasn’t even standard mando armour either. I had incorporated many elements of ancient Mando’ad Neo Crusader Armour into the design of my armour. However, my armour still gave me excellent mobility and the almost standard number of attached weapons for an average Mando’ad. The reason for my unusual dress was because I had created my own character in the Star Wars universe.

He was a young Jedi Knight from the approximate time of the Legacy of the Force series. My character’s grandfather had been a clone from the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars, and his grandmother had been a Jedi Knight from the same time period. During the reign of the Empire his family had kept a low profile on Concord Dawn because the Empire would definitely want to get their hands on any force sensitive person and twist them to their ideals. Once my character was born though he manifested some very obvious signs that he was much more then either his mother or his father when it came to his abilities to sense the force. Hence when he turned ten he was sent to Coruscant for training at the Jedi Temple. Twelve years later he came home to his home system, a full Jedi Knight, and donned the armour that was his by right. He was something unique in the history of his people, a Mandalorian Jedi.

I finally replaced my helmet, but I knew that in a few minutes I would go back to my large suite and get out of my armour. I was getting really tired of smelling the garlic on my breath from the baked lasagna that I had eaten for lunch. I was standing in the middle of a large open courtyard in the middle of the large convention center. In the center of the courtyard were three replica starfighters from the Star Wars series that some rich fan had brought with him to the convention. Whoever had brought the fighters must not only be a superfan, but also have some serious money to burn. The three fighters were surrounded by fans that were separated from the vehicles themselves by a thin plastic ribbon. The three fighters were from two distinct periods in the timeline, though the first one was the one that I preferred by far. It was a T-65 X-wing fighter from the original series of movies. This one had been painted in the same pattern as the ship that had been used by Luke Skywalker in the first movie when he was attacking the first Death Star. The second fighter wasn’t quite to my taste but it still belonged in the Star Wars Universe. It was an Eta-2 Actis Interceptor painted yellow, the same colours that Anakin Skywalker had used on his starfighter at the beginning of the last of the new Star Wars movies, The Revenge of the Sith. The last fighter was from rouughly the same period as the X-wing, and it was probably just as formidable. It was the most powerful member of the TIE Series of Starfighters, the TIE/D Defender.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity I finally got to the front of the line to have my picture taken with the X-wing and I was glad though I wished that the fighter was painted in the colours that my character would’ve painted his fighter. Just as I touched the wooden skin of the fighter the world changed and I blacked out from the over-stimulation of my senses.

I wasn’t sure how much later it was when I stood up and leaned against the port S-foil of the X-wing beside me. It was painted red, black and gold with three different insignia on the s-foils and fuselage. The first two belonged to the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance, while the third was from my own culture. It was the symbol of the Mandalorians – namely the stylized skull of a mythosaur.

“Osik!” I swore in Mando’a as I stood up, the thoughts and feelings of all of those around me came into my head through the Force forcing their way into my head like speeders in the skyways of Coruscant at rush hour. The mental chaos caused by all of the voices in the Force made me bring my hands up to the sides of my head as if to block out the sounds. The sound of my heavy Mando shuk’ome hitting the side of my buy’ce brought me to my senses a little. I breathed in deeply and calmed my mind like Master Skywalker had always told me to at the main Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Now that I was calmed down I looked at the other two fighters in the courtyard. Beside the Eta-2 was a slumped figure in black robes who was apparently unconscious. As I looked over at the TIE its P-sz9.7 Twin Ion Engines screamed into life as the pilot, who had already climbed into the fighter brought the engines on line. I couldn’t see his face because he, or she, was wearing a Standard TIE series enviro suit and helmet. The loud scream of the TIE’s engines rose in pitch and volume to the point where I could almost feel the sound through my heavy armour in my chest cavity. Finally the pilot brought the repulsors on line and the fighter shot up out of the courtyard and into the blue sky, which was rapidly filling with helicopters and flighted lifeforms.

After a few moments I turned to my fighter to begin preflight checks to ensure that everything was operating properly. Finally I finished my pre-flight checks, checked my own armour, before telling R9-Q7 to keep the converters warm in case we needed to get out of here in a hurry. There were some things in my room that I really needed to grab, like my jet/repulsor pack, and my short bladed shoto lightsaber. I swiftly grabbed my Proton Carbine out of the storage compartment under the cockpit, checked to ensure that it was set on stun, and headed off into the chaotic hallway with my force senses keyed to their maximum sensitivity. As I made my way down the scene of chaos I was bumped and jostled by panicked sentient life forms, some of which I couldn’t even begin to attempt to catalogue. The Force hummed with darkside emotions, mainly fear and panic, but there were pockets of hate and despair. In one part of hallway a tight cluster of soldiers in archaic Clone Trooper Phase I Armour were milling around pointing their DC-15s at just about anything that moved. While I was quite frankly amazed at the sight of clones I was also comforted by the sight of these troops. Not because of what they had been responsible for at the end of the Clone Wars, but because I was a descendant of a clone. As I got closer to the clones one of them looked down at my belt and noticed my two lightsabers before he snapped to attention

"General! What is going on?" In my own mind I didn't really know what was going but I also knew from my history that it wasn't a good thing to tell the clones that sort of thing.

"Sergeant hold position here and try and keep things here under control. Under no circumstances do I want you to slot any of them. Is that clear?"

"Yes General. Very Clear."

"Ori'jate" I automatically replied in Mando'a. It was then that I recalled that most of these clones understood at least a little Mando’a.

Once I was satisfied that they were doing what I had told them to I continued on my way down the hall battering my way through the crush of panicked lifeforms. At one point the crush became so dangerous I had to point my proton carbine at several of them so that they would clear a small path for me through the horde. I was making some progress towards the elevators in the central part of the convention center until I met a strange civilian in a black suit with a mirrored ocular enhancing device on his face. He looked up at me and then pulled some weird device out of his pocket and caused it to flash with a bright strobe of light that momentarily overcame the optic filters on my helmet's visor. When the glare faded I looked the man in the face and said,

"What in the haran was that for you di’kut?"

"It was to help you remember who you really are." I looked at the man and said

"I know exactly who I am, I am Pieter Skirata Jedi Knight and Mando'ad."

"That's the problem before you came here you were just one of the countless hundreds that came to this event to enjoy the festivities and now you are someone else entirely."

"I don't care what you think you or'dinii mir'osik. I am who I am and no little flashy device of yours is going to change it." The civilian shook his head and then I felt a shift in the Force from behind me. I reached out and grabbed the hands of the second black clad civilian before I said “Trying to sneak up on Jedi isn’t something that many attempt and very, very few succeed at.” The second civilian shook his head and said

“I tried Kay, but he was too quick for me.” I laughed at the two of them before I said

“You really think that there is more to me than a Mando’ad Jedi Knight? Can you prove it?”

“We can prove it – if you will let us.” The first man, who the second had identified as Kay said.

“What do I need to do? And if you intend deceit...” I trailed off in threatening silence.

“We’re here to straighten out this mess.”

“You mean this mess all around here. I just saw a squad clone troopers...”

“Not just the troopers. Look around, you’ll see all sorts of strange creatures and monsters.”

“The only thing that I haven’t seen is a strill.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that all these creatures are in this odd hall? And what is a Jedi Knight, like yourself doing here?”

“I was...” I didn’t know what I was doing here. The last thing that I remembered was receiving my armour from my father back on Concord Dawn. “I don’t really know why I am here, if this is an assignment from Master Skywalker why don’t I remember it?”

“Now you’re beginning to understand. With this device we can open your mind to the truth of the matter.” I stretched out with my feelings but I could sense no deception on their part so I took the device in question from them and let advanced sensor matrix in my helmet scan it before I pulled it off and looked at it with my bare eyes and my Force sense. Finally satisfied that this wasn’t a trick I handed the strange device back to Kay, and he activated it while I still had my helmet under my arm.

As soon as the light faded the older man asked me who I was. I looked down at the helmet that I was holding in the crook of my arm before I replied,

"I’m still not really sure. I feel now that I have two names, one of them is Jason Hamilton IV, and the other is Pieter Skirata." My mind was confused and the sense that I was getting in the Force wasn't helping me at all.

"That's better, at least now you know who you really are, sort of."

“What the hell happened here?”

“You’re asking the wrong person kid. As far as we can tell each person here has become in essence their costume.” I replaced my buy’ce back on before looked around and then gave a little nudge to the Force, now that I was sure of who and what I was, to try and get a hint of what was going on. There was still too much disturbance, fear, and puzzlement for me to make heads or tails of it. I opened my eyes before I slowly told him,

“I can’t make heads or tails of this situation but I left a detail of fifteen clones back their in the hall to keep and eye on things to make sure that they don’t let things get too out of hand. Personally I’m going up to my room to pick up a few things.” The Man in Black nodded and then let me go on my way while he and his partner headed down the hallway that I had just come down.

When I reached my room I pulled my key card out of one of my belt pouches, thank goodness it was still there, and unlocked the door. The suite that I had rented out was known as the Ambassador Suite and it was second to only the Presidential Suite in size and luxury. I was on vacation from my job as a special weapons technician at a laboratory for my family’s company. Though I think that would change because of what I had become. I really didn’t want to be responsible for distributing the kind of weapons that I had access to. After a few moments I located the jet/repulsor pack and attached it to my backplate with a reassuring clunk of the mag latches. I grabbed a few other things and put them into a carryall before I attached my shoto to my belt just behind my DL-50 Heavy Blaster Pistol and went out to the balcony. I was lucky because my balcony overlooked the central courtyard. So now instead of going through the hallways to get back down to my idling fighter I simply swung myself over the railing and down to the courtyards, using both the Force and the lift-pack attached to my armour to achieve a soft landing beside the X-wing. I opened the storage compartment under the cockpit and swiftly jammed the lift-pack, my carryall, and my Proton Rifle into the compartment before I closed it up.

“Took you long enough.” Came the comment in basic from the droid socket behind the cockpit. That was probably the most annoying thing about this particular R9 droid. He had independently decided that he wasn’t satisfied with his communication abilities so he had fitted himself with more advanced vocabulator, one that was capable of producing Basic, Mando’a, Shyriiwook, and Huttese.

“Oh switch off Gett’ad.” I replied in a good natured banter. When I had received my Knighthood I had received Gett’ad and this X-wing as part of the arrangement for me to join the Hardpoint Squadron. The Galactic Alliance’s Jedi Fighter Squadron.

Now I was one of only a handful of Jedi Knights on Earth. This was definitely going to make my life a lot more interesting than it had been before. The fact that my heritage was definitely different from the rest of the Jedi Knights on Earth would only serve to further separate me from the rest of the human race.

When the canopy of the starfighter finished closing I powered up the repulsors and brought my X-wing to a position that allowed me to rocket into the atmosphere with the S-foils in cruising position. The only problem with that was the fact that the sky was even more crowded then when the TIE had left the courtyard. There was even a pair of large red and black dragons twisting and dodging in the sky over the convention center. Once I was clear of all of those low altitude hazards the new engines of the XJ-6 allowed me to breach the atmosphere in less than ten minutes. As soon as the fighter reached orbit I found that this place in space was in some ways even more hazardous then the atmosphere down below. There were hundreds of objects that my targeting computer was tracking as unknowns. The largest of which was a god damned Constitution Class Starship from the original Star Trek series. At the sight of that ship I reached over and switched the S-foils from cruising configuration to attack configuration. The switch also activated my targeting HUD and my deflector shield monitor. Since low orbit was crowded with debris and other objects I brought my X-wing up to a higher altitude where there wasn’t much risk of me running into anything. Finally when my fighter was clear of all risks I shut down the four Incon 4J.4 Fusial Thrust Engines and let my fighter drift in orbit.

I needed the calm and peace of orbit so that I could meditate on what had just happened to me. Before my life had been so orderly and comfortable, but now with one event my future was cast in doubt. As a Jedi I couldn’t see myself supplying weapons to anyone. Dealing weapons was antithetical to a Jedi’s sworn mission of protecting people and preventing conflicts, but at the same time the part of me that was Mando had no such compunctions. I had to consider what path I was to follow, that of the Jedi or that of the Mando, or maybe even a combination of both. I also wondered about my family and if they would accept me as I now was. After all having a son who was a successful research director was one thing and a Jedi Knight was something else completely different. For one thing I would have to give up a fair amount of my things, since, according to the old Jedi Code a Jedi was supposed to be without possessions other then his lightsabers. Mind you I had no intentions of giving up my Mando Beskar’gam because it helped define who I was now. At some point later on I heard a voice come across the comm.

“What’s up?” I brought myself out of my meditative trance looked at my combat information display to see that there was a fighter coming in on my six. I instantly reacted by activating the four engines of my fighter and kicking it up on its port S-foil to get the other fighter out of my rear quarter. Once I was confident that I was at least a little safe from laser fire from the other fighter I tried to get him into my targeting cross hairs, only to find that the other pilot was very, very good. He also seemed to have some ability with the Force as well. Finally I managed to get along beside him. It was the Eta-2 from the convention.

“Why were you trying to sneak up on me Simon?” Even though I had never felt his mind before in a telepathic sense I was still able to recognize his pressence in the Force.

“I wasn’t trying to sneak up on anyone Jason, I was trying to get your attention, and I was trying to get away from all of the dangers down there.”

“What dangers? And how did you recognize me?”

“Well for one there is so much chaos down there I don’t know what is going on. As for the second question I recognized your armour just before you took off while I was still trying to gather myself back together.”

“The reason I came up here was so that I could try and clear my mind and figure out what I should do next.”

“I was thinking along the same lines Jason.”

“At least you’re a normal human Simon. I’m diferent in that I’m a Mando’ad Jedi Knight."

“Mando’ad?”

“Have you forgotten what I came dressed as Simon? I am a Mandalorian.”

“Ah I see what you mean Jason, and no I haven't really forgotten its just that I am a little confused right now.”

“There aren’t very many Jedi out there, but at least they are normal Jedi and not Mando’ad like myself.”

“You’re telling me. At least you are unique and you don't have trouble dealing with the Dark Side of the Force. I think that there are at least five to ten versions of myself down there, not including all of the ones in cybernetic suits.”

“That is what youu get for dressing up as Anakin Skywalker. And yes I do have my own issues with the Dark Side, though they aren't as serious as your own issues. By the way did you see any other Mando’ade down there?”

“Oh there are a few, but the ones that I’ve seen are all mainly recreations of two characters, either Jango Fett or Boba Fett.”

“So in other words both Mandalores are down there.”

“Mandalores?”

“Mand'alor is sort of the Mando’ad Chief of State, and incidentally Boba Fett is my Mand’alor, though any of the versions of him down there are liable to be a lot younger than the Fett that I know.”

“What do you mean?”

“My character was born in the year 19 ABY, while Boba Fett was born in the year 32 BBY and your character was born just over ten years before he was.”

“I can see what you mean. People down there are from all sorts of time periods and places. So what have you got planned now?”

“Well for one thing I’m going to the hanger that my father maintains. There I can store this thing, after all do you think that the government will allow me to keep it if they knew its capabilities?”

“I see what you mean. Do you think that you would mind storing this little thing? Since I don’t own any place to hide it from those same government forces.”

“Sure thing, just stay on my ten-o-clock and I’ll guide you down there.” As soon as I had finished saying that I brought up my forward deflectors to occlude the atmospheric friction of re-entry. However before I could begin re-entry I saw a bone white dagger shaped ship rising up form the surface of the planet. Right now it wasn’t more than a hundred meters long but I knew that soon enough it would be much, much larger. The IFF tagged it as the Executor Class Super Star Destroyer Intimidator. As I watched the seemingly growing Super Star Destroyer five other large warships were boosted up into orbit by some unknown force. Two of them were Star Destoryers. The first was Venator Class Star Destroyer that my IFF tagged as the Defender. The second was an Imperator II Class Star Destoryer that was tagged as the Havoc. The other three ships were easy for me to recognize even though my computer couldn’t tag them. The first one was a Commonwealth Glorious Heritage Class Heavy Cruiser from the TV show Andromeda. The second ship was a Battlestar from the new version of the Battlestar Galactica TV show, and the last ship was a Sovereign Class Starship from the most recent Star Trek Movies. I weaved my way through the growing fleet of heavy warships to make my way back down through the atmosphere.

Twenty five minutes later after crossing the entire continent at over Mach 4, I landed the fighter on the hardstand by the front doors to the hanger. My family’s private airfield was located just outside of Richmond B.C. Just as was popping the canopy my cell, which was in one of my belt pouches rang out its Imperial March. I pulled it out, snapped it open, and answered.

“Hello?”

“Who is this?”

“Mom, it's me.”

“This doesn’t sound like anyone that I know. I’m calling the Miami Police, because you’ve obviously stolen my son’s phone.”

“Mom. It is me. Jason Louis Christopher Hamilton IV. Something weird happened at the convention that I was attending.”

“How can I be sure that you are my son?”

“Mom, the cat is called Horatio and the dog is Bonaparte. You wanted another daughter but you didn’t have any more children. You feel that father should retire now instead of staying on as the CEO of his company. Have I said enough to prove to you that I am me? I could go on if you want.”

“Fine, it is you, I will admit that much, but where is your little brother?”I winced as I finally remebered Richard Hamilton, my younger brother. As Pieter Skirata I only had four brothers and two sisters, all of whom were older than I was.

“Mom, I’m not sure, but as soon as I get back to Xanadu I’ll make sure that I find him.”

“WHAT YOU LEFT HIM THERE UNATTENDED?!” I closed my eyes and then tried to project my calm down the phone connection.

“Mom, I’m quite sure that he can take care of himself now, after all he is seventeen years old. Besides as near as I can tell everyone at the convention was turned into their costumes. I highly doubt that anyone would willingly mess with a Nietzshean Highguard Captain like him.”

“Huh?”

“Mom, he was dressed that way at the convention, just like I was dressed as a Mandalorian Jedi.”

“Then how can I be sure that you are my son?”

“I can tell you that I am both Jason Hamilton IV as well as Pieter Skirata and I would suspect that he is the same. In that he probably possesses two sets of memories of who he is, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t aware of who he really is.” There was sigh over the phone before her worried voice asked me

“Well then where are you?”

“I’m at our private field outside of Richmond I should be home in roughly two hours, depending on the traffic.”

“I will wait until you get here, but if you aren’t who you say you are I’ll make sure that he VPD get here faster than you can think.” The was a click at the other end I I smiled before I snapped my phone closed. I just hoped that mom would understand the reality of me when she finally saw what I had become. I used the fighter’s repulsors to gently coax it into the hanger where I slipped it into an open space on the left side. The right side was taken up by my father’s Gulfstream G-IV. Once I had the ship placed where I wanted it I shut down the engines and shut down the main reactor. Now that the fighter was fully shut down. I removed my harness and climbed out of the cockpit. The sound of a second set of engines shutting down told me that Simon had put his fighter right up against my own. I jumped down from the port s-foils and began to hunt through the storage compartment for my things. I had just turned and used the Force to close the canopy when a voice asked me

“You really think that you’re going to leave us here?” I turned around to find both R2-D2 and Gett’ad standing beside each other looking at me and Simon. Simon looked at me and said,

“Might as well let them come, otherwise we’ll never hear the end of this.” I muttered a few choice oaths in Huttese under my breath before I went over to the front of the hanger with Simon and the droids in tow. In the small garage beside the hanger there was, as I had expected, a car sitting inside. This car was a 2006 Maybach Series 62 Limo. I shook my head at the sheer extravagance of the car and then used the Force, along with Simon to get the droids into the back seat before I drove the car home.

Three and a half hours later just as I was pulling everything out of the car my mom came into the garage and saw me. From my altered perspective she seemed smaller than she had been before. She looked at me in my fearsome Mando beskar’gam and opened her mouth. I could tell that she was about to yell so I took of my buy’ce and projected calm through the Force before I said

“Mom, relax it’s me.”

“You can’t be my son, you're too young to be him.” That much was true. Before the strange event five hours ago I had been just about to turn thirty yeas old, and yet now I was barely twenty one.

“Mom, the character that I was representing is younger than I am, hence I lost nine years of age in order to fit my characterization.”

“How am I going to get used to this?”

“Well under the circumstances you should be glad that I’m still human. There are a lot of people who went to that convention who aren’t even human any more.”

“So what are you then? Though I suspect it’s something from Star Wars.”

“I’m a Mandalorian and a Jedi Knight.”

“A What?.”

“A Mandalorian Mom, a highly skilled member of a famous warrior society from the Mandalorian Sector of the Star Wars universe. We’re usually Mercenaries and Bounty Hunters so our reputation isn’t the greatest, but we are honourable men and women.”

“I still find this hard to believe.” I held out my buy’ce before I said

“Mom, put this on and you’ll see the truth of the matter.” She did as I told her for a few moments before she took it off and asked me,

“What are all those lights in you helmet? And why is is so stuffy?”

“Mom, when I have the full kit on the enviro system keeps everything nice and cool for me, and those lights are the HUD or Heads Up Display. They allow me to see in low light, fog, smoke, and other less then perfect visual conditions.”

“What about all of those other lights?”

“They tell me of the state of the weapons that are attached to my armour and they also give me full 360 degree vision.” After a moment while she digested what I had told her she handed my buy’ce back and said,

“This is going to take some getting used to.”

“You’re telling me, mom. At least you don’t have to live in my place.” She nodded and looked at the two of us for a second before she said,

“I guess that you need to place your things in your room. At that point Gett’ad pointedly asked,

“Is there anything that we can do?” Mom looked around before she noticed the two droids who were standing beside the car.

“What on earth are those things?”

“Those things, mom, are our astromech droids. They help us with flight controls in our fighters.”

“Fighters, what fighters?”

“Well I have a T-65XJ-6 X-wing and Simon over there as an Eta-2 Actis Jedi Interceptor. I hope that you don’t mind but for now we’re storing them in dad’s hanger.”

“Well I guess that you have to have somewhere to store them.” I nodded before I replied,

“This is better than letting the government store them since they would never give them back.” Mom nodded before I told her that we were going down to the exercise room for a little sparing practice. I felt that I needed to get some practise with my lightsabers or I would lose that skill which had been so hard won. I could tell from her expression that she was worried. “Don’t worry we’ll turn our weapons down so that they don’t cause any damage to the furniture in there.” With that both Simon and headed to the exercise room where I pulled out my two lightsabers and fiddled with the controls before I activated them. The two silver-white blades emerged from the hilts of the weapons and buzzed into existence with the characteristic hum that was known throughout the galaxy. Simon did the same thing with his weapon and soon we were sparing with ferocious energy. Anyone who didn’t know that we were actually sparring would think that we were actually trying to harm each other. At one point in the match I brought my two weapons together and connected their hilts to form a single double bladed weapon. When we finally stopped I bowed to Simon and said

“You are quite the duelist, a lot better than you used to be.”

“Well I wasn’t a Jedi before.”

“True, but I don’t think that even Master Katarn would be your equal.”

“Master who?”

“Jedi Master Kyle Katarn, he’s been my fencing master for the past four years, the only person in the order who is a better swordsman is Grand Master Skywalker.”

“Let me guess, Luke Skywalker.”

“That’s right, he’s the Grand Master of the New Jedi Council. The council is comprised of Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker, Jedi Masters Cilghal, Kyp Durron, Corran Horn, Kyle Katarn, Saba Sebatyne, Mara Jade Skywalker, Tresina Lobi, Kenth Hammer, and Kam and Tionne Solusar.”

“Are you meaning that the Jedi of your time period are permitted to marry?”

“Yup, otherwise the order would die out in relatively short order because there are so few of us. In fact right now when we get organized I believe that having Jedi marry would be the only way to ensure that people like us will continue to survive.”

“Well you shouldn’t be so modest Jason, you are also an excellent duelist. One thing that I noticed was the fact that you were quite familiar and practiced with your double bladed weapon. I haven’t seen very many Jedi who are any good with a weapon like that, if any at all.”

“Ever since I joined the order when I looked into the old records I found that using a double blade suited my temperment. It took me quite a while to get myself prepared to start using it. My fencing Master Kyle Katarn was sceptical when I told him that I was going to take up the Form V style with a variable weapon that could either be two lightsabers or a double bladed weapon.” Simon nodded slowly before he asked me,

“What then are your short term plans?”

“Well we have to get back to Xanadu so that I can pick up my car and check out the other Jedi, and Mando’ad that are still there.”

Three days later, after much pestering from my increasinly irate mother and much difficulty in trying to find a flight into Miami, we both sat in first class seats on a Canadian Airlines 767 to Miami Florida so that we could return to the Xanadu convention. I was slightly uncomfortable because I was wearing civilian clothing instead of my mando beskar’gam, and my lightsabers were in my registered baggage in the aircraft’s cargo hold with the rest of my Mando equipment. The only weapon that I had on me was shoto lightsaber, which was concealed in my left boot. I had managed, through the use of a Jedi Mind Trick to convince the man who had been watching the metal detector and his partner that my lightsaber were merely a harmless toy and nothing to be afraid of. Simon had told me that with Force no Jedi is without options.

“Simon I may be a Jedi but I’m also mando’ad, my people don’t feel comfortable when we are completely unarmed. That is why I had to make them think that my shoto is just a harmless toy and not a short bladed lightsaber.” He had nodded before returning his attention to his champagne, which was complementary for us.

“Is flying first class always like this?”

“Yup, though normally I like to use one of our company jets, but in this case that would be an abuse of my position.” He nodded and sat back to enjoy the flight.

Ten hours later I unfolded myself from my seat and collected my carry on bag from the overhead compartment before I nudged Simon from his sleep to indicate to him that we had arrived at our destination. He looked up at me, shook his head and retrieved his own luggage before the two of us debarked from the plane and went to collect our tagged baggage. In his case that was precisely nothing, but in my case it was my armour and standard weapons load, minus my jet pack, which I had decided to leave at home with the droids. We had already decided that as soon as we could we would sneak back into Xanadu so that we could collect our things and consult with our colleges about what we were going to do next.

However, before we reached the convention center in our rented car we stopped at a local park where I quite thankfully changed out of my civilian clothes and back into my armour, though I left my buy’ce off so as not to get anyone’s suspicions up. Over my armour and weapons I wore a long black greatcoat, I left my helmet and cloak inside my carry on bag while I placed the bag with my civilian clothes into the trunk of the rental car. Getting back into Xanadu was easy when you were a pair of Jedi Knights, all we had to do was the blank the memories of the guards of the several seconds that it took to pass by them. Once inside I removed my jacket, replaced my cloak and helmet before I asked one of the other guards where the Jedi were currently located. He looked at me for a second before I opened my cloak wide enough for him to see my two silver hilted lightsabers at my side and he nodded,

“The Jedi are in a meeting in room 745 on the seventh floor, east block.” First we went to my suite where I placed my bags before heading to the room that the guard had mentioned to get into the meeting. I hoped that everything would eventually work out in the end..

Preceded by:
None
This story is part of a series Succeeded by:
Back to Xanadu