Chapter 1
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
11 ABY. Yavin IV:
“…Jedi, defend!”
The red-headed, female human quickly presented her thin blue blade as its laser-quality flickered for need of repair of the hilt. Mara Jade had often complained to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker about having several of the academy’s lightsabers fixed, but he would often remind her they were merely for training. Besides, he would tell them, eventually, each and every student of the Praxeum would have to quest for their very own Kyber crystal and construct their own permanent lightsaber anyway…like the Jedi of Days of Old used to do, was how Master Skywalker liked to put it.
The two humans were in the center of the training grounds of the new Jedi academy, located in the Grand Temple’s top level, where the Rebel Alliance had used that very space for ceremonial gatherings in what seemed like such a long time ago for Jedi Master Skywalker, now! The other Jedi-in-training—called Padawan many years ago, during the Old Republic, but less called as such post-Empire—were all standing in a large circle, observing one of the myriad of stations of lightsaber-dueling by the Master and Mara. For she was already a legend within the Galaxy (“Skyriver,” as Jedi Rin Shander incessantly suggested everyone to use for some reason!); one with a very checkered past, once having serve the evil puppet-master Emperor Palpatine, whom pulled the very strings of the infamous Darth Vader himself…they used to call Mara Jade the Hand of the Empire! As if that weren’t enough, she even had a smuggling career. And, now, for some reason, Jedi Master Skywalker took her in with the rest of his somewhat motley crew-of-an-academy and she was like his right Hand!
Many within the Praxeum did not appreciate the legendary Mara Jade as Jedi Master Skywalker did, and, often, they let them both know! Indeed, there were rumors that the two seemed a bit chummy for his Jedi Master to her Jedi-in-training.
It all seemed a bit silly to Jedi Shander. He was just old enough to remember, as a small child growing up in a village on Corellia, the repression of the Empire on many of its galactic subjects. To Jedi Shander, after The Fall, as some in Skyriver galaxy called the Empire’s demise, he felt freedom for the first time in his very young life. And after experiencing the Empire for the first half of his life, everything else seemed mundane to even worry about!
Jedi Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade had completed the dueling station, for the sake of demonstrating to the rest of the students. Both he and Jedi Jade disengaged their lightsabers and stood, almost at attention, as if they were still in the Rebellion’s high-days of fighting the Empire. Master Skywalker looked about the whole group that ringed around the two of them; a nodding of satisfaction from the middle-aged human.
“I sense that this new crop of Jedi is growing much stronger in the Force,” Jedi Master Skywalker exclaimed. Some greeted his words with a smile; others humbly bowed their heads in gratitude. “But don’t let your guards down…I know I’ve said this many times to you all: but just because the Empire has fallen, that does not mean that peace has replaced it!”
There were nods of consent from many within the academy. Then, to signify the end of the training for the day, Jedi Master Skywalker gave a single clap with his hands—muffled, due to his right hand encased in that black glove of his; covering the mechanical appendage that served as a perpetual reminder to Skywalker of his near-death battle with Darth Vader!
The Grand Audience Chamber was, now, filled with young voices in conversation about the day’s events. Some of the students grouping off into small groups and going off for a measure of free-time, but then soon after, it was back within the Chamber for a more low-key session of training for the young Jedi. But not for Rin Shander…
“Jedi Shander,” Master Skywalker called out to him as he was walking off with a couple of his closest friends in the academy, Cray Mingla and Kirana Ti, “do you have a moment?”
He asked this while Jedi Jade stood just off to his side. Jedi Ti, Mingla, and Shander all glanced at one another. This can’t be good!
Jedi Shander gave a reassuring nod to them both, and turned to walk over to Jedi Master Skywalker. He gave a slight bow upon reaching them. “How may I help you, Master Skywalker?”
Jedi Shander noticed how Jedi Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade shared the briefest of a look before Skywalker spoke. “Do you remember about a year ago, or so, that situation you had on Nagi?”
By the stars!, Shander panicked within! It must have been that obvious, for Master Skywalker and Mara Jade both laughed.
“Not to worry, Jedi,” Skywalker assured, “you’ve already paid for that Nagai star pod last year when you re-directed your stipend for your sabbatical toward the Nagi governance! This is about those Infinity Gates you used to go from Nagi to the Bespin system!”
Jedi Shander stiffened; his eyes going back and forth between Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade. “Are the Nagai still using them? I would have thought the New Republic was able to convince the Nagai governance to shut down those Gates since their system can be overridden and open a portal to all sorts of spacers that the Nagai wouldn’t be comfortable with…trust me, I know from first hand!”
It was with that statement from Jedi Shander that Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade glanced at each other, but with a more relieved countenance.
“And it’s because of your two trips out to the Nagi system and discovering the Infinity Gates in the first place, why the Republic needs your experience with a mission…”
Mara Jade came into the conversation. By that time, the Grand Audience Chamber was emptied of the other Jedi, except for the three of them. “Given that the Nagai are, of course, a sovereign system, the New Republic can’t really do anything about their use of the Infinity Gates…yeah, most other space-powers throughout the Galaxy know the Gates’ dual-purpose as a portal and a weapon. But like the Republic, they can’t prevent the Nagai from using the Gates either. At least, not without a full-fledged war with them. And given that the New Republic has just won a costly war with the Empire a few years ago, after all those years, we’re not exactly in the best shape to start a new galactic war! Another added push is there have been a few systems that are actually trying to acquire their own Gates!”
Jedi Shander’s head snapped over from Mara Jade to Master Skywalker.
“Well, that implies there are more Infinity Gates,” Shander said to both of them. “I thought I read in my research that the Kwa society had destroyed all of them a hundred thousand, standard years ago?”
“What you researched is correct,” Master Skywalker confirmed with a nod.
By that time, Jedi Shander was beginning to get confused. He made a disagreeable face before saying more. “Then, I don’t understand, Jedi Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade…How could someone—a society; a system…how could someone reconstruct such a complex, ancient machinery from a hundred thousand years ago?”
“Unless someone left the manual behind,” Mara Jade said with a bit of jest. “Look, we’re just saying someone had found a way to reconstruct the Infinity Gates. And the reason why it’s been almost a year between your discovering the Gates at Nagi and Bespin up until now is because the Republic had been sending out spies to discover who it was…”
Now Jedi Shander’s eyes shifted to Master Skywalker. Skywalker did that thing where he wanted his student to figure out a mission or a problem on their own, so they could sharpen their practice with the Force…his voice went low—almost hypnotic, as he slowly stepped toward Shander.
“Search with your connection to the Force, Jedi Rin Shander of Corellia…who else could be left with such Force-abilities after the fall of the Empire and the scattering, once again, of the Sith…who could have such imbuement of the Force that they are able to reach deep into history and conjure up such Force-technology, used in deep-history to nearly wipeout various civilizations and the enslavement of those societies…?”
“By the stars…” Rin was finally starting to see the direct threat of a space-power having the ability at all to even fashion such an ancient contraption, much less the space politics that went with it! He began to pace away from the two other Jedi. With the Force-connection between Jedi, and any other Force-sensitive beings for that matter, Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade could sense in Jedi Shander a powerful accessing of information in the young Jedi. It was like standing in the gushing flow of a river, as the water pushed against one’s body, and nearly sweeping them off their feet and taking one down that meandering river within the Force! It was, perhaps, Jedi Shander’s strongest feature as a Jedi.
Jedi Shander was so deep in that Force-River until Mara Jade started to become concerned that, perhaps, he was suffering some neurological side effects from that River! She started to say something to Skywalker until the young Jedi spoke.
“The Nightsisters…” Jedi Shander finally turned to face Master Skywalker and Mara Jade. “The Witches of Dathomir? I thought the last one died a few years ago—“
“Shelish,” Skywalker said with a knowing nod of his head. “She did. She had a son that went on to be one of the galaxy’s notorious assassins—he’s still at it, from what I hear on my travels! But, as we all know, on Dathomir the power resides with the females. As far as I know, Shelish never had a daughter, and, like you said, Jedi Shander, as far as the Republic knew she was the last of the Nightsisters…so we thought!”
Shander was still working out the possible connections. Skywalker continued his prompting. “We need someone to go to Dathomir and see if we can actually get whoever that’s constructing those Infinity Gates on the Republic’s side! Like Mara said, the Republic is not really up to any more drawn-out wars. And, frankly, rather than trying to stop the Dathomiri from building the Gates, why not utilize them ourselves?”
Skywalker said that with a shrug, as if it were some afterthought. But Jedi Shander was well-versed in galactic-politics!
“Master,” he said after blowing out a sarcastic sigh, “I don’t mean to speak out of place, but is that wise of the Republic? How can we expect other space-powers to find us credible when we venture against anyone else’s use of the Infinity Gates, and then we turn around and use them ourselves?”
Jedi Jade gave an admonishing look at Master Skywalker as she responded to Jedi Shander. “Yeah, funny how some in the New Republic’s council seem to have such blinders on when such galactic military power suits them!”
Mara Jade was one of those independent actors in the Galaxy. She was far more able to be objective about such space-politics when it came to the New Republic than Luke Skywalker was. Rin Shander had seen this on several occasions within a great many political debates among the students and Skywalker within the Praxeum.
“Look,” Jedi Master Skywalker went on, slightly annoyed by Mara Jade’s comment, “with the ability to teleport instantaneously anywhere in the Galaxy and invade whatever system they please without a second’s notice is the biggest military threat the Galaxy has seen since Death Star 2! That’s why this mission is so important, and we can’t get caught up on some false equivalencies between the New Republic and the Empire!”
Both Jedi Jade and Jedi Shander took Master Skywalker’s clue and slightly bowed their heads with a, “Yes, Jedi Master.”
“If I may, Master,” Mara Jade continued, “of course the person doing this mission would be given a team to confront this.” She gave a slight nod to Skywalker.
The Jedi Master expounded on Jade’s point. “We have a short list of agents with the appropriate background for this type of mission and they’ve already been recruited for the job. Not a large group, but this mission is more diplomatic than it is military…honestly, Rin, the three others really are more for muscle, in case things get out of hand. We didn’t want to send over exclusively Jedi; the Dathomiri are already isolationists as it is—that’s where your experience with the Nagai comes in best! Now, we just need the right person to lead the crew…”
Master Skywalker’s face was askance; Mara Jade’s remained the steely.
Shander once again faced away from Master Skywalker and Jedi Jade; already thinking on the mission for a few more seconds. He returned his gaze upon them. “You realize that on my shortened sabbatical last year, I learned that the Nagai were the earliest to call the Galaxy, Skyriver.”
The two legends looked at each other.
“Is that why you keep insisting the Praxeum call the Galaxy that,” Mara Jade said; starting to lose patience.
“That’s what I want out of this,” Jedi Shander persisted. His eyes had, then, focused on Master Skywalker, since he was in charge. “I know you can find plenty of other Jedi to do this, but if you want me to lead this, all I ask is that we have the official Jedi archives to reflect the Galaxy’s name as Skyriver…”
Shander’s eyebrows were raised in a determined arch! Skywalker looked at Mara Jade with his own brows raised, and all she did was shrug and gave an inquisitive look at the young Jedi. It was enough for Jedi Master Skywalker. Skywalker used one of his devices to share the coordinates that Jedi Shander needed to meet his crew and the ship that would be assigned to them. And with that, Rin Shander walked victoriously out of the Grand Audience Chamber, leaving the two galactic legends to wonder if they had misread the Force that day.
