Story Downloaded from Open Scrolls Archive (https://www.openscrolls.net)

Title: Life is a journey, a path on itself... (#3330)
Author: AikariSalmarinian
Chapters: 30

Archive: Star Wars
Category: Alternate Universe
Description: It is a personal account of a young man, living in the Universe about 50 years after the battle of Yavin. Descended from legendary persons he must find his own footsteps in a world where love and hate exist along each other.
Published: 22 Feb 2007
Updated: 05 Jun 2007
Warnings:
Type: General
Characters:


Chapter 1 - The training at the Academy

Life is a journey along paths of intellect, feelings, and eagerness of listening and learning by experiences turning into essential knowledge. My dad learned that life is a road. You wander it and you can’t leave it. The oxygen around is my fuel, just as foods and drinks and warm clothing, primary needs. It is impossible to be without.
Despite my youth I have seen much in life. Too much I think sometimes. I am alone despite secondary family of mother’s side in the Arabanth system. My mam was an exiled woman, it happened short before she married my father. From the systems in the Hapes Consortium it is known that the inhabitants are very handsome and that they never leave the Consortium. It is forbidden. My dad is a different story. They taught me well. My friends Nick Nevonda (human) and Nittaru’adu (chiss), known as Nittu, know that. They are my friends from Imperial Academy.

Life is a gift you can’t throw away as if it is nothing. It is an opportunity to share bounds and learn something of love and relationship. I had a good father until he died. He told me he would always be with me. I haven’t figured out yet what he meant by it. Most of all I think that it is about my memories to keep me from doing bad things and taking wrong paths.
Life can also be a curse, it was the day I was alone in a hostile world, all on myself and nobody at my help. I had much gone through and more would be there in the future. I have neither home planet nor a quiet place to live…

I was born to be named Keiran Skywalker. The great Jedi master was my grandfather, but I never knew him. I got basic training by my father. I always remained quiet about my inheritance. I was from a family of powerful and ruling people, royalty and natural leaders. Weird or not, but I got also impatience and a disinterest in power with me. An impatience that was difficult to handle. My father knew how to deal with it, but now I was on my own. Nittu and Nick knew quite a lot about me. We learned each other to know in the big mess hall of the main building. We all had dinner there. Together with Nick I was new. Nittu was enlisted longer, he had already done the basics and studied how to become and officer. All tables were occupied; I settled down beneath a statue and dined there. I dreamed about a new future. After dinner I discovered I sat at the feet of one of the founders of the Empire. Quarrels and arrests were every day and the guardians like to intimidate new recruits. They were easy to pick out by their badges on which name and rank stood. For the first weeks it was my place there at the feet of the statue, sitting comfortable. Nick had already friends and dined with laughter at one of the tables, until it became clear his friends joked on him in a hurting way. He endured it and let it go.
I got sidelong glances of the students and got hard glares of the instructors. Strong-minded had to be beaten to become good and loyal soldiers. Weak-minded were considered to be worthless, but also had their usefulness. Nick and I found each other with breakfast and dinner and talked about our successes and failures. We became good friends, despite I had different classes from him and Nick was for training often in the fields. I remained inside the buildings.

In my free time I was to be found in the library. I was a know visitor there. Nobody could stop me from coming there. I read much, but a lot I knew already from my father and by experiences. My tests results were good. Fighting class was a tale different from the normal lessons. We had to watch more skilled classes and graduations. We had to know how much we had to learn. We were intimidated, became scared. I felt also not very confident. Failures were not accepted, the physical and mental tests were exhausting. Even tired and hungry we got exercises. Unconscious I drew upon my strength used it when it was necessary. We were tortured and humiliated, that brought more fear and anger above in my classmates. Each time one was a victim. We all hated it. This part we had to love it. It got somehow through backing it up in a corner of my mind. Four months later the candidates got their certificates in the big hall of victory. From my class four remained, including me. The colonel had a haggard look in his eyes when I was called up. I felt it for the first time, because my teachers had known me by my military number. Now that number got a name and a personality. He named my qualifications and skills as he had done with the others. I faced him and saluted required from a cadet to a colonel.

Second year was for me a quiet time with lessons, stuff learning from books and data cards. Fighting classes were not difficult either. I knew my opponents moves and moved automatically to it. Often I was a training object. Nobody got hurt in my presence. My identity was kept a secret by the high staff members. All learned to be loyal soldiers. Confidence grew in the cadets and more and more they became as tough as the older year students. They learned to believe in a mighty future. I found truths what contradicted with my believes. I followed what felt right.

The third and last year was a practical year serving in the army and going on all sort of field trips. Most of the time it was to undertake adventures into the planet’s wilderness, where the Imperial Academy had its home. On one of the missions I was assigned together with my good friend Nick, we had to disable threads and return to the base on our own. As Nick I wore dark camouflage clothing, not full armour. We needed survival packet, blasters and field glasses. We left all sort of sensory gear and radio at the base. From the secret storages we took what we needed. Fooling people was easy. Nick knew a lot about the planet, stuff he wasn’t allowed to know. The discovery of a nice land speeder brought Nick into new ideas, but I urged him to leave it alone. I had a bad feeling about it. When we opened the parts we saw a hotwired engine inside. If Nick had done something like to start the land speeder, we could have been blown up. We could have died. We both got a bit angry about it. We traveled further, meeting more obstacles and groups of students. We remained hidden and helped nobody as was us instructed. A field of mines remained smooth, because we used the roof of a building and the trees to get along. A month later we walked merry through the gates. We had been lost for tracking teams. A surprise waited there, I was the first caught with a stun bold, Nick next. The limpness of my body was quicker over than was wished. They got Nick and dragged him away. I vanished into safety. From the cadets who had returned, I was the only one who escaped. I found them all in a prison camp. I did where I was trained for and that had never happened before in the Academy.
The commotion was clear by the management of the academy. Everybody was interviewed. The commission took me apart, interviewed me also, counseled me again and confronted me with what I had done. I reacted just as they wanted, defensive. They tested me nevertheless, discovering I had the power of my forebears. It explained a lot to them where teacher had bounced in over the years. I didn’t make much use of it and moved around like a normal being. I hated sometimes the advantage of it. People with the Jedi heritage weren’t around much anymore these days. They returned with my grandfather, but not with thousands there were before the Clone Wars. A lot had died in the Vong War. The management couldn’t send me away, but nonetheless they tried, out of fear. The direction couldn’t prevent from the news going out, the responses were different. So my fellow students were surprised decently. The last months I became an instructor to first years. I graduated at the end as naval officer. All students became officers from the education I had done. I wore seldom my uniform, but all new officers were proud of it. To me it was my diploma. Most joined immediately the Imperial military and left the system. I remained at the Academy and accepted a teaching position. I taught physical survival techniques to new first years.


Chapter 2 - My captaincy

Teaching physical surviving techniques was not easy. The first class I had was a challenge and at the same time something I feared. I hid my fear well, back up somewhere in my mind, but it was still recognizable in the fact I had no idea really how the students were going to respond, or if they would listen to me. I was enlisted in the army as Captain Skywalker, but I had already in mind not to stay that for very long. It was a beginner’s rank for the best coming from the Academy and a gift if they stayed. Those who went active got the rank of lieutenant. My answering commander was an admiral in the fleet and head of the Academy. Basically he was my employer, although another division in the Army paid me. The salary going with the job was acceptable and I could easy live from. I needed the job for income. My father had had some funds, but from that a little remained. A couple of years I had roamed alone through the galaxy, fixing and upgrading my Sauer class freighter, all military and highly illegal, and I paid from that same funds my money for college at the Academy. Now they were paying me. Inside the Academy I had the authorizations going with my captaincy and the job as trainer.
I had my own quarters, my name on the door, and an own training area, what was closed off. What was in there was only known by me. I owned there VCK-37 assassin droids who I used for personal training. Only someone like me was able to confront them and survive. I needed that edge, made me feel alive. It was not often I felt truly one with all the live around me. The Force itself was an unconscious form of live, twinkling and bright, it was pure. It was an indestructible power in the Universe. And through my father I had a great potential in it. My mother had been a normal person and in that way I was raised.

My students knew the name of Skywalker through history records. They were surprised I carried the same name as I introduced myself to them. I had four classes twice a week, with twelve students in one. The class carried on one semester and then there was an exam for them. What they had learned so far, was being tested. In the second semester I had the other half of the first years, also divided over multiple classes. The days were long and tough. I taught them something about being confident and sure. A clear head was the basis to survival. Then lectures followed by me on screen about all sort of techniques on survival, learning to rely on what a surrounding had in store. The third lesson I took them outside into the field. I liked being practical, because boredom was a danger for me. Impatience and anger lay close around the corner, and never having really learned to be in complete control over my emotions, the dark side lingered always nearby me. I could be pretty hot minded and then it was not really wise to confront me. I made quickly a habit of it to keep the door to my class room locked with my mind, so none could disturb my lessons. Against the use of the Force normal muscle power was no match.
Bad feeling students, weak- and strong-minded I knew them all at the first introductions. I played in on it so shaping them all into good combat buddies. I detected hidden questions and encouraged the students to ask them. I educated them about in the more philosophical aspects of being a soldier in the army. I learned them that life was a road, full of dangers and pitfalls, but worth fighting them to achieve dreams. I told them not to let them scare off by the hard trainings and the orders, but to search for friendship, learn about trust and strength. One day I took my classes to a fight art museum in a neighbouring system. I flew the charter of the base myself. Forty curious people went with me; my students got curious looks from the civilians, including myself. It was a sparse contact with the normal life as they left it at the start of the college year. Before we went in I instructed my students fiercely. One incident and we would all go back instantly to the base getting punishment for everybody. Civilians had to be left alone. After the in check in the museum I left them go exploring and watched it all myself. Never had I been there, I learned again reading and writing. Most interesting were the techniques for my own kind of people, human Jedi. Imperial heroes were still presented. Holograms were made about them. But that could not really interest me; heroes of the past, my students shared a different opinion. But also they had interest in the young ladies who walked around. If possible they tried to change thoughts among each other. When I caught unwillingly unspoken thoughts I put an end to it. Angry the boys were faced down, the girls didn’t understand. I found myself into a position I had a lot to explain and I didn’t like it. I smiled instead only friendly toward the girls and ordered the boys to come with me. After the museum visit we had a drink in a cafeteria and after that we went back to the spaceport and returned with the charter back to the Academy. At the base I dismissed them and went to my quarters. Later I reported to my commander how the visit had been going.

The examinations for the first semester were tough and quickly I knew what students would finish off the first years and which students would become fallouts. The selection was great, but it was necessary to get good soldiers. Over frightened and fearless soldiers would do no good in a battle? Next all the teaching I had enough free time in what I was to be found in the library of the Academy. I did a lot of research on survival and next to it finding literature for fighting. Somewhere I expended my classes and what I taught to keep it exciting for myself. The teachers for fighting techniques weren’t happy I did that. They discovered it, when they asked the students how they knew some things. Off course the students gave my name. A meeting was held at request and I had to come forth and explain why I educated the students in fighting spirit and styles. None of them knew I was trained to use the Force, only that I had the potential. I didn’t want to explain why I did it, so I kept silent and crossed my arms for my chest. Neither knew I carried a lightsaber with me, not even the admiral who lead the Academy. As long I had it, I kept it hidden. Long ago I had made it myself under the guidance of my father. The blade was an unusual colour, that of the twilight sun, shades of red, blue and yellow were visible in the orange blade. I only knew what the colour exactly meant for me. But never had I explained that to anyone, not even my father. The saber was the only weapon I had always with me, but I was neither Jedi or Sith. I was trained full, but never faced something what the Jedi called the Trials.
One of the teachers, one of Rodian fighting styles, became angry and demanded that I answered. But I didn’t. Then the man turned toward the admiral and requested to him, if he could order me to speak. The only answer I had was that I had no comments to their concerns. They were noted by me and I knew about them. The meeting was dismissed with a warning for me. But I put the warning aside and went on teaching what I felt was necessary for my students. I had no ears for the concerns that I was ‘stealing’ something from them. They were entitled to have an own opinion, but I saw it all differently and my arguments were based on my believes. And the believes were founded in what my father had learned me and what I felt from the Force. To that weren’t arguments possible. I was strong headed on that.

I hated really this kind of meddling. I was not really aware of it, until I stood up and the door toward the hallway glided closed behind me. I liked to destroy something, and even more to kill the man who had brought up all this. I was aware of it by the way that people stepped aside and let me go through and I walked pretty hard through. The green in my eyes was steel and all knew somehow it was wiser to let me pass. There was a light in my eyes what was not supposed to be there. In my own quarters I gave in to my feelings and battle my anger off against the droids in my training room. First my fighting style was pure aggressive and I slay two droids, before I calmed down. My style turned slowly to defense as I exhausted myself greatly. After the fight I used to fall asleep in bed and go through what was called among the Jedi, a healing trance. That was how I fought my anger off and dealt with what was thrown toward me. Sometimes it was hard to keep my feelings in check and not use them. Reaching out with the Force was easy, not reaching out was harder. But concerning the position I was in, very much worth to fight for. I didn’t want that my opponents knew about my training Force abilities. Now I had friends, real friends. If they knew, they could become scared of me. It was common knowledge that normal people feared the Jedi, because of their powers, although they had always been seen as the good guys. In the end they were considered to be as dangerous as a Sith, as had proven history in the past. Untrained Force users were very restricted in the use of their powers and so not considered as a danger and natural superior enemy. I wanted it to keep that way. And it was even better if they had no knowledge at all.


Chapter 3 - The Jedi Temple on Coruscant

Teaching was a part of my life as the first year went by. I was 22 when I graduated from the Academy and stayed on there. My birthday of 23, Selona (third months in the Universe) went over silently. To birthday celebration wasn’t much done among the Imperials, except of a high standing officer. But I was not one, yet. The Imperial Week contained five days; the Imperial Year knew ten months, three festival weeks and the loose days for special occasions. It came from the ancient timelines of the Galactic Republic and for reasons that had never changed. The counting of the years was another matter. For that the Great Resynchronization counted still in, at least inside the Empire, now the Year of 109. But the rest of the Universe recognized the Galactic Year. It was always a switch when I visited a planet outside the Empire.
Among the properties I inherited after my fathers death was more than only the freighter I flew in. Military graded it had good shielding and powerful sublight engines and hyperdrive. But inside the vessel were all things my father had owned, not more. In one of the storage closets was a box with all sorts of datacards, stuff assembled by his own parents concerning the founding of the former Jedi Academy. The New Jedi Order was now renamed to something else, but what I had no idea. The datacards held the history throughout for thousands of years, the founding, and the names of all Jedi even existed, the data upon the known galaxy and all systems in it. But then a few cards contained also stuff upon his own grandfather. In there I found as much secret and fascinating codes and knowledge as in all the data about the galaxy and the republic itself. My freighter was a flying library. Why my father had all taken with him I knew not and I would never know now.
My friends Nittu and Nick I didn’t see much after accepting my position as teacher. The inheritance of my father hadn’t been much, but enough to pay the college fees and live comfortable from. The bank accounts of him had been situated safely upon a secure planet, unknown in the Republic. I knew where it was located, as I had visited when I reached the age of eighteen, but kept that knowledge from anyone. Through another account at Corulag I had paid that way the college fees. Now that account was silent. I had an active one on Bastion itself. The Imperial Academy paid me there my salary on. It wasn’t very much, the same as all trainers had in my position as line captain, a rank above the lieutenants. But except what my rank gave me, I discovered some niceties under the name of Skywalker and beyond it. Relying on the Force I found the slits into the tough security system of the Imperials. Deep in every system was still the access of the highest leveled persons. Most of them were history, like the old Emperor. I found out an old forgotten account number and I had a really hard search to find out to which it belonged. The numbers of the account were weird, as it looked to me first some code. I came across the planet of Vjun and decided to pay that a visit.

Vjun was located in the Outerrim of the galaxy, the Auril Sector. The planet was an acid desert, despite inhabitable, but not many people lived there. The Vong had never been here. Outside a protected city I found also the ruins of an old castle and until inside I had no idea to whom it had belonged once. The castle was ripped of everything. Only in one hall lay the remains of a familiar statue. Useless were also the consoles where once ancient computers had been. Many years had passed by and the fact that ever a dark lord had lived here was still visible. I could even sense it. In the old quarters of my great-grandfather were no indications of old memories, or anything of any worth. I left the planet as I came.

My travel brought me back to Coruscant, where the former Galactic Capital Bank had been lodged long ago. I visited the Temple of the Jedi in secret, sneaking myself in to keep myself from accessing the Force and having switched off the transponder Friend/Foe. I could fly around invisible with my freighter. I landed in the lower sections of the temple, where the levels were not yet abandoned, but deserted anyway. There I docked my freighter and went out for a search. Coruscant was a centuries old planet, completely inhabited. Here in the lower sections were traces visible of the destruction of a century back. I walked between all the rubble, passing destroyed statues and decayed furniture. There in an old security center I found a working terminal, where I allowed myself accessing the Temple network. It was not hard at all with the access card of my father. There were many interesting files what I came across. But there was more. First the Jedi Order was now led by a granddaughter of a niece of my father. She carried the family name of Zanor. I was unfamiliar with it. Not really any family was she of me, a very distant relative in the fourth grade. That held no longer a name. There was also a core of leading members, their names were either unfamiliar to me. Here in the lower levels I felt fine, found more interesting rooms, displayed on the monitors in the security room. The old recordings worked still, everything was digital anyhow, digital data didn’t really decay. The air was old, but not poor of oxygen. I could breath easy here. The lightning worked also, only some lamps had given it up and hadn’t been replaced for new ones. No droids were around here. It was deserted.
In the databanks I downloaded a lot of information from onto a datapad with a large memory. Two hours later I left the security center and went on reconnaissance in the nearby rooms and through the hallways. To leave this level for a higher one was not difficult at all. The turbolift worked, but I left it for it was. I took instead the staircase next to it. And so I came to level D-232. Trails of destructive practice were visible here. I shook my head at the half sliced droids around, done by a lightsaber. The droids were old type assassins, but as deadly as my own VCK-37’s were. I grimaced by this discovery. What I did to train off my anger, had been practiced by others, possible a relative of me, or a former Jedi. There was no letter around what indicated who had battled these droids once. They were only evidences that deadly practices had been held here. I left the rooms. Hidden in my cloak I moved around, looking like any other ordinary Jedi.

It took me the stairs to five levels higher before I came into the inhabited areas. In the sections here was traditional the training chambers and the massive old library. Sneaking in was another matter, and an exciting one. Jedi weren’t easily deceived, the Force told a lot to them. I kept myself hidden and out of sight, knowing they would like it at all that it was possible to sneak into their protected and safe temple, what was very cherished by them. I discovered a terminal in an empty cabinet and entered the temple system once again. Here I found many data, and including all everything upon my family history and the founder of the Empire. My great-grandfather had owned more palaces, including one here on Coruscant. A few accounts were known, but were his real fortunes had been hidden, was still a secret. Sitting comfortable back into a soft chair I thought about it, trying that to connect to the odd account number in code form. But comparing all the data I had with the weird account I found it was really a wedding date, only given in the counting according the Old Republic. The year of 4135 was not longer really recognized as a date. Three years later beyond it started the Imperial Calendar. Behind a computer of the Jedi I broke through a lot of codes and switched the account to my own name. From there it was easy. The account held a hidden, never spent or collected value. It was old inheritance of long ago, wiped from everyone’s memories. But I did more there, creating a new card what allowed me access to many ports and computers. I didn’t want to be bound to civilians ID cards. I grinned, knowing what possibilities my enhanced ID card and the secret account gave me. It gave me an unlimited power and nobody knew. I closed down the terminal and left the cabinet apart from the library. Sneaking my way back was almost impossible, because a Jedi-master was around with little children wandering around in all corners.

There was little left for me to walk on normally. The kids paid except some curiosity no attention to me, but the Jedi-master was something else. I could feel distantly that he tried to out who I was, but I kept from falling back upon my strength. But very wise it wasn’t either, because he came toward me and I had to face him answering his questions. It was a test upon my patience to stay calm. I was not fond of interrogations. But it was that worse as I thought, he nudged his head in greeting and I bowed lightly back. Then I walked on, no questions asked yet. The master had to look after the little children and his attention was somewhere else now. And there were other mature Jedi here in the library, as I saw around me. I left the library through the main entrance and came into a deserted round hall on this level. High pillars rose up far above me, the distance to the ceiling and the next floor was not easy to estimate. A few corridors came toward here, but also a few other rooms where the doors were closed too. One door led toward the laboratory of the temple. And one wall had a lot of lifts buried in it. I took one who would take me down to D-231. It was a short and fast drop. The lift went back right away. I ran through the rubble around back toward my freighter and boarded it. Safely there I powered up the engines, engaged the weapons to active status, the shields and the cloaking system. So I left the old docking bay through a door that opened smoothly.


Chapter 4 - Visit at the former Galactic Capital Bank (GCB)

With my freighter I dove below the traffic lanes to avoid collisions. They didn’t see me, neither picked security cams and droids my presence up, because the IFF transponder was off and all frequencies scrambled. Despite the peace between the Republic and the Empire, I doubted still that an Imperial really was welcome under the old colours. And that was how I looked in my own uniform. Civilian clothing I had not worn in a couple of years now, not since entering the Academy, where uniforms were acquired for students and personnel. The Capital had changed since the great destruction in the Vong war, the buildings were as high as they once were. And not all was transparisteel and duracrete alone. More and more natural elements returned and gave the unique planet another look from the sky. To say it felt friendlier. I knew only as this was, being born after the Vong war. But still being lived who remembered Old Coruscant as it had been once. For millions of beings Coruscant was home, the only home they knew and had. Most never left the planet in their entire live just lived here. A part even never left the district where they lived. From my cockpit I searched in the computer where the former bank had been and so I flew half around the planet to the more civilian parts of the city, out of the districts where the ambassadors and politicians lived and the richest of peoples around in the galaxy. The GCB had been a bank for the normal man. Why my great-grandfather had stored away all his capital was a riddle to me, it was not comparable with the man he had been. Or my great-grandmother? Had it been an initiative from her?

The bank was closed and secured. Security cams hang around and kept an eye upon the traffic that flew by, or passed. Strange moves would be reported and security could come. That was the impression the outside gave me. But somewhere I felt that inside were only droids around to keep the bank running and no living employees. I gave my new security code and without problems I could enter. Inside the building in the docking area I settled my freighter down and closed down the engines. The status of my freighter went over from active to dormant. It never slept really. Two other civilians were present at the moment, from the air speeders parked in another part of the docking bay. The landing ramp closed after me and was locked. I was welcomed by a service droid and brought over to a security area where my ID was checked. But all was fine, as I knew. From there I was permitted to go on. In a safe chamber I changed the name on the account to my own and asked for a pay card. In the meanwhile I checked the stored values. And the vault contained many things and values from ancient times.
To me as I looked around in the soft illuminated vault room that the presents had been put down and never been looked after. It was all endurable materials, there were no organic materials the presents. I was curious. Most of the items I had some idea where they originated from, but even more things was unknown where they came from, what culture or planet. My great-grandfather had been to many places. If he had been really here I had no idea. One part of me could believe it, but most of me found it unlikely. It was the Force that tickled me that the collector of all these values had been here sometimes. Residues of emotions lingered on, and I sensed them. Sadness and fear ruled the most around.
In a terminal was a long list of the items assembled here and where they had come from. It had been cataloged. Perhaps there was an idea of this all to return to the former owners, see if it had been taken by force from them or that they had offered it freely. For me all this richness meant nothing, but to some peoples it could. I kept the though in mind and left the vault, deciding that I would take later action toward the content of the vault what to do with it. At least one of my dreams I could now make reality, my own command vessel. And I knew what kind I wanted. I was a free man and could do what I wanted. Teaching students would now become something of pleasure and was not longer a necessary way of living. I had to say if felt fine, lesser worries and struggles. But all of it was secret and would remain so. I left the bank also the way I came, after I had checked out with security.

For a few days I remained on Coruscant, exploring around what the Galactic city really was. I took a sightseeing tour toward the senate and was invited to dine with a few senators who loaned themselves for those excursions. The civilian participants were thrilled to meet the senators, although they were from lesser planets and not very known. The area was grand and open and the dining facility we went was a very expensive one. But the participants had paid for it and got back a wonderful day. I surmised that they would take a long time about it. I was among them, but kept to myself. No Jedi were around here, so I didn’t hide myself in the Force. I read the excitement around me, what made me regular grin without reason. The tour was enlightening for me; I knew I would return here in other circumstances and surely not as merely a visitor. I wore a cape over my clothes, my lightsaber safely tucked away in the side of my trousers. My blaster was holstered beneath my cape, out of sight. Everyone was checked at the beginning of the tour, but with some mind influence I was not. Except my surroundings my fellow tour visitors were also a point of interest, so toward the end I had a couple of conversations, with a Twi’lek, a Duro family and an old married couple of my own kind. They were all just salesman, or barber, accountant, housewife or –man. I was just a teacher in a school. That was always accepted and in reality I was. Some could tell richly about their background, but I kept quiet. The food in the dining facility was good, what was in the Senate building itself. The walls were transparisteel, so a wide view was there over the nearby buildings and a large pleasant garden. We were with twenty persons total and had a free table, large enough. I like that. I sat with my back to the window, having a good view over the restaurant. Every table was shielded off by a natural wall of plants, but it was possible to look over them. The menu was four rounds, including dessert. Four consumptions I had, mostly new liquor what taste I liked. After the second glass the bottle remained with me. With the Force I neutralized the effects of the alcohol in the drink.

As it was near dinner time on this part of Coruscant slowly more and more dignitaries came toward the diner and had a meal there. So also the Chancellor of the Republic and his entourage of followers and senators. My fellow tour members had surely interest, but I ignored it, knowing the danger what came with them, two representatives of the Jedi Order and because I hadn’t hidden myself in the Force they knew immediately I was here, another Force presence. I felt them reaching out to me, but I blocked them out, not wanting to find anything out about me. I dined quietly on and talked with my neighbours about how the senate worked. We neither had really a true idea, so surmising about it was fun and with the five of us at the corner of the table we laughed a lot. Somehow I got befriended with them, but exchange of ID’s and contact numbers was not possible. I admitted to them I felt not so easy exchanging that to anyone. I left in the middle why. I just wanted the pleasant memory of this tour, no other obligations. I knew the Jedi were irritated by my response to their probing, but they had no chance of departing the company they were with. So I was left alone, by circumstances. I kept the block in place in case they tried to reach out to me once more. Being 23 was not all that easy in these times, and surely not being an Imperial Officer. I put the Jedi and the Chancellor out of my head and finished with taste the third round of my menu.

After desert we left with the tour leader the dining facility for the end. One of the Jedi had managed to break off from the Chancellor’s group with an excuse for the refreshments. When I left the men’s room outside in the hallway I met the female Jedi unwillingly. Headstrong as I could be sometimes I just went to her, trying to attract as less attention from the group as possible, just as she did. But to no avail all looked at me in curiosity, including the group leader. I said nothing to the Jedi and gave her no bow. It was a challenge and I knew why I did it. The Jedi was my age and I felt she had a strong spirit. I was not that well with ladies, but I knew what to do to distract them and so I did. She faced me clearly irritated, the taunting twinkling in my eyes swept her thoughts away to more raw forms of communications. When she got her voice back she sounded very formal. Macey Jucan Djoron was her name. She wanted to know my identity, but except Keiran I didn’t tell her more. I excused myself and went off with the tour, leaving her in doubts behind. The face of that Jedi I would never forget, for me it was a kind of light that you met really seldom in your life. I wondered slightly if she would remember me, but most likely she would have forgotten me soon she was back with her important company. Two days after the tour I left Coruscant and flew back toward the Empire.


Chapter 5 - Naboo, little paradise

I had been away for six days; there had been a week off from colleges. My students spent their hours in other ways than I, but that was not my concern. All the way home I thought about the pretty face back in the corridor to the dining facility in the senate building. If I would remember her name I didn’t know, many things would acquire my attention when I was back, and rank or not, my inheritance gave me access to areas where normal people seldom were allowed so easily. I docked my freighter, took my baggage with me and thought lightly my visit over at Coruscant. In the evening I met my college teachers in the Officers Lounge and dined with them. A few were surprised that I was back and asked me how my week had been. ‘Quiet’ I answered what else could I answer them and switched to their news of last week. Three had been with family, wife and kids, and had much to tell from the home front. The Officers Lounge was a good area to be and relax. My first year as teacher it was now. I was briefed about the latest laws, excepted in the Senate on Bastion. But they held no interest for me, nothing changed for the military. But next week would come a delegation from the Republic, but they didn’t know more about it.
In my own quarters I accessed the terminal and found my way to sensitive information and looked into it. But the visit was just a regular one and the main purpose of the Republic visit was to keep the bond healthy between the Republic and the Empire and the problem of the space pirates attacking Republic systems. The names of the delegate members were not known from me. I left it for what it was, not interesting. If I would be important, they would call on me anyway, but a line captain would not be invited, except something not ordinary appeared. The second semester of teaching went by, the students eager to learn from me. My days went by like they were all the same. It was okay with me, although I was aware about an unrest in myself that was directed to the dull life of teaching. I missed action and excitement.

For any normal person emotions were not a real problem, but for me it needed more attention. My emotions were linked to the power inside me. It deserved attention, because if not done, it could held certain consequences what could bring great shifts for oneself as well the world around. My father Ben Skywalker had taught me to use the Force, control its power and learned a great deal about philosophy and morals. His teaching hours had always been fun; I had been an eager learner. Ben had taught me to follow my heart, as he had done in his life. Never had I had questions about his learning methods, and I saw no reason to do so. I could summon the Force, understood the subtleties of its whispers and I knew how to defend myself with a lightsaber. I possessed a fine attunement to the Force and all its pure power, it was natural for me. So I went in search to bring more excitement to the life of a simple teacher.

On the Holonet I went in search to find a spot what I call home in time, a real home. Not some quarters here at the Academy, or the old freighter of my father. I wanted a real home into a surrounding that I could love and always feel at home. But it was not easy to find. One house-agency, homeworld Duro, had a few spots in the surroundings of the Duro system, but none of the houses I liked. I wanted something with lakes and forests and so I searched on. The Holonet contained much information, and not always it was clear what link would follow too. The Imperial house-agencies gave only habitable spots available in here inside the Empire, everything was offered; from utterly cheap to horrible expensive. I didn’t care about the money, but what I came across I liked not. So I went off to the Republic house-agencies, and they had a lot more to offer. The central page was a good one. I gave up my desires and from it rolled out a couple inhabitable planets. In my free time I visited those planets and the houses they were for sale. But a fully land planet with forests all over and the sky almost always covered in clouds I didn’t like.
One night after a full day of classes and training in the afternoon at the exercitation terrain, I glided tired into my bed, but couldn’t fall asleep. After half an hour I gave up to find sleep and crawled instead behind my terminal and went looking for a nice free standing house. It was astonishing later how little there was on the market. I didn’t find what I liked, but one planet is what I found, that looked to me like a paradise, Naboo. I changed schedule for the next morning, called up flight scheme to assign a quick shuttle to my name, but decided to take my own freighter. Half an hour later I was in the docking bay and went off. It would be a long ride to Naboo. The next three days I traveled in hyperspace, delivered over to my impatience and my excitement and I didn’t know really to do with the emotion running through me. Playing with the Force was not a solution, but it kept me occupied in the boring hours. The Chommell Sector was good approachable, the navigation computer knew the way, but the last part of the journey I flew myself, not on autopilot. From space Naboo was a blue green planet with white clouds in the higher parts of the atmosphere. At the moment of my approach there was no interstellar traffic. Somewhere I liked it, a remote world, out of the picture of everything. I liked to be in the centre and found the capital of the planet, Theed. Everything could be found here and so I decided it would be good to look for a house around here. I docked my freighter at the spaceport and hired a speeder to go looking. There wasn’t an office for a house-agency so it was a search for me. Just out the center I found a nice suburb. The Naboo were much on themselves as the houses illustrated.

The quiet was enormous and had sure a good influence on me. My impatience soothed under it and a smile appeared on my face. At the lakeside I found an empty villa with a great garden around it and a box to dock vehicles. Partly it lay under the surface, but that was not a problem. Next doors I had neighbours and across the street too. It seemed nobody paid any notice, but in the Force I detected some curiosity from the nearby houses. I was indeed watched. The villa looked pretty from the outside in soft sand-coloured stone and middle large windows. The garden lay neat around, if still someone looked after it everyday. Yet there was a sign on the house it had no owners at the moment. The trees stood free and tall with a massive crown that created a shady sphere around. Flowers sprouted around in the grass. I parked the speeder in front and entered the garden. Forgotten I was everything, except this lovely spot, but when I came behind the villa I was sold. Across the lake lay high mountains. The sun reflected on the deep water in the lake. I turned my attention to the house. Entering was another problem, but with my ID and code the door glided open and I could go inside. The lower floor had a living room and dining room in the back, a kitchen and a child’s room in front. Upstairs were five other rooms, what could be sleeping rooms or studies? Bathing facility was there too. From the house was an access entrance toward the garage. In a natural way a complete artificial building was hidden. The front door to it was large enough to let my freighter come and go. On the terminal in the house I filed in my name and that shortly the sum for the villa would be paid and it was quite large. For me it didn’t matter. I stayed and brought my freighter over from the spaceport. The house was empty, so I spent the first night onboard my freighter, only there was a comfortable bed. I was very lucky with my new property. What the neighbourhood thought of it, I didn’t care. I had no doubt they would come by some time. When the money was paid to the house-agency and being cashed at the local bank I did a few things as changing the access code to the front- and back door and to the garage box. Also I placed some sensitive military equipment in the house to keep intruders out. Not there would be here on Naboo, but I didn’t trust to leave a door open. More enhancements would be added later. Two days later I left the system and flew back to the Imperial Remnant on the other side of the galaxy.


Chapter 6 - Passing a test

As I learned it was not easy to travel half across the galaxy with one duty on one side and a pleasure on the other side. The admiral who was my commander called me into his office and demanded an explanation for my not filed leave. He had no idea of my strength and I kept myself in hand not provoke him. He was right that I handled against regulations and it was not wise to do so. I accepted the reprimand. My students, on the other side, had missed nothing of the lessons. I had rescheduled them. The roster was a bit better than before, even to other teachers. It was less tight. I didn’t tell the admiral how it was done; I kept my face straight when he asked me how the roster change was possible. I had no access to the roster files in the computer systems. I shrugged about it and apologized I didn’t know. He allowed me to go back to my lessons.
It was in my own quarters than I let my anger about it go. I knew I had been more thoughtful this would not have happened. It was my own doing. I fought off my anger against my assassin droids and later on reviewed my mistake. I felt lively afterwards, the Force still flowing through me. I was used to tap deep into it from time to time, search up my limits, but at one point it felt to me I grew stronger in the Force still. It was easy to reach out and let something to move over to my hand, instead of standing up and go getting it physically. I didn’t allow myself this satisfaction of easiness, only when I trained. I still felt there was more joy to walk around as everyone than a Jedi. Life without the Force was hard, but a worthy one.

I went over to dress myself in black, but still the uniform of captain. The others wore all grey, as well the students. It distinct me a bit from them, but on the other hand, I was not completely one of them anyway. All knew who my ancestors were and that made a curiosity inside the Empire. If I liked I could take a position with High Command, but I didn’t. I wanted surely to be there someday; only by a normal road by courage and honour, not by lies and deceit. My adept in the Force didn’t give me right to take what I liked. But I could not deny I wanted that power sometimes.
Very soon there were the examinations for the second semester. I prepared them and allowed my students a few prepare tests to make. They were tough and not all passed when I looked into them. The tests didn’t counter for the finals. All were afraid and nervous. I had a rough time to give them so strength and hope. Some arguments were quite strong and I didn’t blame them they were afraid to fail and that they had to leave the academy, in search for another profession outside the military. The Force told me nothing of their future; it didn’t tell the answers to the test. It had never done to me either. Although I had used my power to know what the good answers were, when I was a student myself. But I had never passed with my entire questions okay. The examinations for the students were tough and I was present as supervisor. The hours were dull and out of boredom I played with my pencil in front of me, letting it float in the air. The heads were bowed over the terminals and keyboards to answer the exams. Sometimes someone looked up and looked surprised to me. As long the pencil moved in the air, nothing was amiss. But one time it stopped and all learned that one student didn’t keep his eyes to his own terminal. So he got a silent warning of me, as questioning look. It was enough to keep everyone from cheating. It was forbidden.

The holidays lay behind the examinations, but first was there the outcome who had passed the first year and who had not. And more than fifty percent had to leave. In my class were also a lot of failures, but in percents to the other teachers lesser. As first year as teacher it was an astonishing sign compared to the seasoned teachers around. It brought envy up in some of my colleagues. And it was voiced in public. I was not happy with it, but the wonder and envy was something difficult to rule in people. I was 23, the youngest among them and promising. Some colleagues knew they would never come higher than they had reached, but for me being a teacher physical surviving techniques was not the end station of my life. It was just a beginning to make my way into life fair and square. The wonder would turn to acceptation, but not the envy. That could turn into hate, if not handled properly. And it was up to me not to let that happen. I didn’t want to have enemies, because just for whom I was. I was present at the celebrations, congratulating the students who had passed the first year. Two more years would come and they had to pass those too, before they would found themselves to be true Imperial soldiers. Later as only one I was also with them who hadn’t passed the first year. Why I wanted to be there, I didn’t really know, but their sad faces stirred something in me to comfort them. And so I did. I gave with them a few good qualities what could serve them onto a better road than inside the military. A few were very good orators and could become good politicians in the future. Another had a good feeling for the law and could turn to a good judge. Leaving a dream behind because in capabilities didn’t mean they were totally written off. Some needed this encouragement, others were happy with a handshake. I felt what they needed and gave it to them.

The holiday meant also for me free time, two months what I liked I could do. But it was not so that I could go where I liked. This was the military after all and my presence had to stay on availability. Yet I asked for vacation and was granted my two months. There were no wars, nor any sign that one would come. And the pirates were being kept at bay, by the usual patrols in Imperial territory. I flew back to Naboo to decorate my house in Theed. Change of surroundings was what I surely needed and the thought of total relax, away from the military, gave me a lot of joy in advance. And I enjoyed it really. My house was empty of furniture. The first thing I did the next morning after my arrival was visiting the furniture shop in town and go in search for chairs, tables, and cupboards in the living room and the appropriate furniture for my bedroom. I took the great room in the back of the house with a view over the back garden toward the lake and the mountains beyond. Personnel of the shop brought the furniture to my house and allowed them to give it a place inside. A couple of days the house looked very different from first and I was content with the result.
The second I did, was buy myself a better wardrobe than I had until now. It was kind of poor what I had. Although I was a man, there was much choice on fabrics around here in Theed, but for women there was more choice in design. Shopping was also an adventure for me. I had nobody with me, but as I observed around it was a bit unusual to come alone to a shop. Naboo brought always a companion or a family member with them. I got help from a male employee in the dress shop for men. First I was pretty irritated, but when I looked at my first new image in a mirror I was astonished at my reflection in there. Only the clothes what suited me, I bought. About the money I spent I made no fuss. But for the shop owner I was a good customer this day. The garb of Naboo was beautiful. The shops stood free in the landscape of town, not protected by an overhanging roof against the weather. I wandered around them, viewing shop windows with real clothed dolls and not holo images, as was usual on Bastion. In a shoe shop I came across along two pairs of boots, brown and black. I didn’t want other kinds. And I liked simple style, what could be worn in almost any occasion.
When I passed a mechanics shop I decided to enter and take a look around. New models droids were put nicely around, but I had no interest in them. I walked to the back where the second handed stuff was located. I saw a model of the NHA-7 astromech series, what I fell in love with at that moment. The lights were out and the astromech didn’t look functional anymore, but I didn’t mind. With all the electronically equipment it was heavy to carry. But the Force was a solution for everything and I carried the astromech to the counter if it weighed nothing. The owner raised his eyebrows in amazing. I paid only forty credits, a bargain to the new series around and behind me. Some were even active and tweeted at me. The owner told me that my purchase was worthless. I didn’t listen to the man; I knew he wanted to sell me a new model from what he profited. So I left the shop with an astromech under my arm. It was odd to see in the street. I felt extremely happy for reasons unknown. I went home with my purchases. I felt my speeder in the garden, brought my clothes inside and vanished for the rest of the day in my garage to refit my astromech. The dome was brown-white, unattractive outside. I shrugged, giving my droid new wheels and other stuff. Also it needed a new battery. I checked all the electronics inside, as well the memory banks. The last owner had been a tin can seller on the markets across the whole galaxy. A short survey learned that the man’s children had dumped the old droid after his death. I left the memory intact. I discovered an own personality in the droid that resembled closely to a curious, but careful child. I learned the astromech language in four days to understand and found myself more talking than ever before. The droids carried the name of Nerny.


Chapter 7 - A meeting

To have a twittering droid around me was a joy I had never imagined. Nerny was a lively personality and seemed to be fond of me. I lived quite up in his presence. Despite I refitted the droid with extra programming, so he could me of help in many situations. I had no idea what I would face along the road of life, and a mechanical companion was not wrong to have. Nerny updated himself with all sort of information he liked or needed. Most my questions were answered along he knew. In the street they knew I had come to live among them, but who I was they didn’t know yet. I was observed from the nearby houses; especially the mothers knew my moves. I made no attempt to get in contact with them. I had no idea how they would response to contact from my side. After two weeks of quiet I felt a presence in the Force suddenly, I knew what it meant; a Jedi had arrived from hyperspace in system and was now on the way toward the spaceport of Theed. It was probably a meeting with the Queen of Naboo, who I had never met. Most of the time it was a meeting of some significance. From my study at the first floor I tapped into the camera systems of the city and did some research around the palace. It was a little strange to peek around in a place like that, but I had done before. Where first the risk was to be blocked out, it wouldn’t happen. My ID code was accepted as it was, because the old code for my great-grandfather’s dark identity was never erased from all core systems. Even with new created systems it was build in. If someone discovered it, they would find the old dark lord alive again. But my ID was protected against tracking.

It took an hour before the Jedi representative was presented before the Queen. It was a formal business and the young Queen spoke with wisdom and diplomacy. The Jedi was a familiar face, but directly one I really knew. A search in my memories called up about an article I had read years back in a newspaper on my datapad. The media weren’t around here, but I doubted that by the end of the day not was known a Jedi visited Naboo. The Jedi had been sent for a clarification in an old case. The case said me nothing, but Naboo’s presence seemed to be necessary in the Senate on Coruscant. And for that the Queen herself had to come, as head of a governmental body, not merely a senator as representative of the planet. I closed the connection soon the meeting was over, more interesting wasn’t there. Yet a long time I thought about the visit. The Jedi wouldn’t send one of them to ask the Queen to come to Coruscant, if the matter of decision in the Senate wasn’t important. Perhaps it would be interesting to take a look on Coruscant, see what this decision was about.

The departure of the Queen and the Jedi was the same day, and I followed a couple of hours later with my own freighter and Nerny aboard. I knew the coordinates to Coruscant. I hid myself in the Force, so the Jedi couldn’t detect me. The ship of the Naboo Queen was easily to follow with its active IFF transponder. I had the equipment aboard to know. Tracking was not that hard in Coruscant’s traffic, and the Senate buildings were in the ruling area. I had only one problem and that was I had no legitimate place to stay in the Ambassadors section. I knew where the Queen stayed, but not where I could have the stay of a few days. But there was still a section to where the code on my ID card automatically responded to. And I took that place, not knowing where elsewhere to camp. The building was deserted, but kept secured over the time it was uninhabited. Inside the Force I could feel the residue of the last occupant, it was strong with anger mostly, someone who hadn’t stayed here with pleasure at all. I grimaced about it, but it felt not wrong. Rather it responded to my own pain, what I had deeply buried away inside myself. The light in my eyes changed variably to a more dense state and more alert. That night I slept troubled, plagued by my memories about my mother. But in the morning when the sunlight fell in my bedroom I remembered myself nothing of it. I felt tired and I had a headache. Nerny who had been present all night, beeped me a good morning. I greeted him back, and went out of bed to get myself a good bath and after that a good breakfast. The rest of the morning I remained on edge. I did meditation exercises to relax myself. I went off to see how large the building really was. A level lower was a medical facility and a training area. The living quarters were on the top floor, the reception quarters were four levels lower, but there was not much around. The personal docking bay was far more interesting with all sorts of vehicles that were stored there. Most was military and once highly advanced, but after many years out of date. It was all designed for a man with the Force at his side. I took an old model air speeder, DC0052, but there were more choices around. It had a good aerial view from the cockpit and had excellent maneuver capabilities in the air. I used to make a reconnaissance round in the Ambassadors and Senate section. The security droids registered me, but did nothing, as the transportation number was familiar to them. There where I came, I was let through. I knew it called up a lot of questions and disturbances, I ignored it.

Entering the tightly secured Senate building wasn’t difficult either. I accessed myself to the Senate itself and kept quiet waiting in a pod of the Senate Chamber, or at least at its docking place. The berth wasn’t assigned to any system, so empty thus and a good place for me to watch the senate meeting. With the senators and other leaders from planets around the Senate was a real life and buzzing place inside the Force. Although I kept myself from using it, practically it spoke back to me and that was difficult to ignore. The auditory system in the chamber was good and who ever spoke was understandable. All background noises were filtered out. I watched and listened to the President, a man whose face I could not see. I was alone, dressed in dark tunics and cape to hide my features from curious persons. I rather kept invisible. The question was really if the Galactic Alliance had to stay as it was, or become a republic again? It was an interesting fact what happened here. The feelings were spread largely and for the first time I saw things were not as well as it looked on the outside. The Jedi were around and there was peace, but there was much turmoil in the chamber. It overwhelmed me quite and I was distracted for a few moments.
When my head cleared the decision had been taken and the chancellor was speaking to them with soothing words. A frown appeared on my face, because what I felt in the Force was so opposite he spoke. Did the man truly believe what he said? Or did he have some kind of scheme? For a reason unknown to me I was reluctant to acknowledge what he said. Most of the Senators were unsure about the strength of the Republic, the fractions were scattered and none really agreed on the course of the Republic. A governing body had to know what it wanted, keeping debating was not okay. That was how the Old Republic ended, when the Emperor spoke the words of reorganizing the Galactic Empire. And to that body I answered, although the Empire was not anymore what it once was. The Alliance kept being what it was for now.

I had just watched it, the Senate meeting. I kept myself out of the spotlights, while cameras flew over for the latest news on the Holonet. The media were present everywhere. But the people of the Republic had the right to know what was decided here. It was a democracy, other than the Empire. I was not really used to live under democratic laws. And then these laws didn’t apply to me, as I figured, being Imperial. A slight smile crept over my face, but was instantly gone also. The chancellor and his aides vanished into their own private chambers and the doors closed behind them. All the senators left their pods and dispatched to other duties. My neighbours left the identical way. A long time I sat there, thinking about what I knew of the history of the galaxy and what all had happened in the last hundred years and more. My family had been greatly involved in the past. I knew that voices were around that I would become some prominent person in the future, good or evil. Now I lived in pretty anonymity under my own name, but I knew it would not remain always so. It was a reason why my parents never had a real home to live. The media were always hunting my father, but I now knew why. Back in my childhood years I hadn’t known. Not that they had kept their marriage a secret, nor that they had even concealed my existence. I was never really bothered by them, because one encounter with me had resulted into a deadly campaign. In the media I carried the name being ruthless. I had more dead on my name than publicly was known. I felt no remorse when I killed somebody, nor when I wielded my lightsaber. I kept only watching myself that I wouldn’t come to enjoy killing, which would be a step further on the dark path that laid already out for me.

I went off toward the dining facility I had been with the sightseeing tour last time I visited Coruscant. But now I was with a different reason. The waiters served a large company of persons and no tables were left free for a single person. I was not pleased with that and faced the head of the kitchen that I wanted something and I didn’t want to go to another dining place. With some persuasion from the Force I got my dinner and consumed it at the bar. I ignored the few Jedi who were watching me. It was not all that easy to keep an uninterested posture. It felt to me today that the Force wouldn’t let me go when I tried to severe myself from it. There was an under layer of danger and it came from the Jedi, who like to investigate who I really was. I finished my dinner and returned to the docking bay and left the Senate building for my temporary quarters here on Coruscant. On my way back I was followed by a strange speeder, but that veered off when I neared my home and got inside. In the evening I did some training in the training facility at the second level. There was much interesting stuff around and I tried everything out, learning more about the balance between my calm and my anger. The toys had once belonged to a dark lord and were meant for dark side training. I used them in both ways, for the light and dark. Emotions were just a part of me; I couldn’t deny what was supposed to be bad. I was a human being, an own entity. For the outside world I was a danger I noticed when I prepared to go to bed and watched the Holonews. The media had found out I was here and thus thicken the news quite with all possible guesses they could come up with. The article warned also for me, since it was not really known on whose side I was. And that I had found my refuge here was considered as a bad sign. None could stay long here, before becoming corrupted or getting crazy, because of the dark side around here. But it bothered me not much. Living according the dark side was a decision, just like living along the light side was. I made no commitments to some kind of way of live. I wanted to live on my own and have my own life.


Chapter 8 - A fate

The night was just as turbulent as the last one. After the first hours I woke up from a nightmare, but this time a dark shadow lingered in my mind and I had the feeling it was a warning from the Force. Feeling sick I stood up and went to the kitchen to get something to drink. I took some cooler, made from wine and fruit juice and was mixed. I drank it up slowly while I walked to the balcony of my bedroom and stepped outside. The view was wide and lively with the endless stream of public traffic going on at every level possible. I had the Senate building insight, as well the Temple of the Jedi. I knew the Sith lived somewhere around too, but where they housed was not known. In these times new Sith Lords existed, although they were a few, they still created trouble in the galaxy. Both were orders, committed to certain ideals. I had no interest in that. I knew they would get interest in me, if they knew I wielded my power well as every other Jedi or Sith, that I had no trouble to control the Force. For some time I watched the nightly sky with all the lights. It was not less busy than during daylight. Shops never closed in this planet city. But the night hours would be quieter than the day hours for the shop owners.

I sniffled from the filtered air around me. It was cool, but not cold. I wonder what the temperature would be in the lower sections of Coruscant, hotter or just colder, or perhaps a mix of both? Over the balcony the depth was endless. It would be not so wise to have a child around here and climbing over the edge. I could imagine what would happen then… and the result would be horrible. As I thought it over, a thought came up in me how I could suddenly think about a kid? A laugh bubbled up from inside of me and laughing I disappeared inside. I felt more relaxed than earlier and perhaps I would now sleep better. With the juice in my stomach, I crawled back into bed and tried to fall asleep again. The next morning I awoke tired, but less edgy than the day before. Also the density of the dark side seemed to have solved a bit. That morning I got a visit from member of the Jedi. I allowed him to dock and came down to greet him. I could see that it surprised the man a bit. I took him with me upstairs with a lift. On the face of the Jedi lay a concentrated expression and I felt him probing me, but I didn’t allow him into my mind. He knew at that moment I was trained to use the Force. In a fight I would be the stronger opponent. He looked around, clearly wondering what his place really was. I offered him something to drink and he accepted it. Neither of us inquired the meaning of the visit, but spoke of other things. Coruscant was a large object and there was always a subject that fell in the range of talkative material. Nerny came beeping from my bedroom toward the living room, wondering who my visitor was. I answered upon his beeps.
Nerny was cautious when he looked up toward my visitor. It was a master among the Jedi and his name was Anda Sulundar. The name was not familiar to me. Anda invited me to come over to the Jedi Temple sometime, if I liked to do. I accepted the invitation, but knew already it would be no more than a visit. Just to see what the other parts of the building were. I let Anda go and said him goodbye in the docking area. Whatever he would report of me, it would not be my lack of manners and courtesy. The rest of the day I had for myself. I spent it through by what this refuse all had inside. In the former study room was a computer with access to everywhere. The chair was of an odd design and had survival gear integrated. It held a reference to the medical chamber. The computer had a connection to the city computer and other secret parts. I came across a very secret hide out post inside the Republic military, espionage it was. When the dark screen flipped on in their tactics room all looked in astonishment to me, not knowing what to say at first. Then they tried to switch off the screen and break the contact, but that could only through me. Where I was, they didn’t know. They couldn’t discover that, because it was all coded and protected. I severed the connection and tried other channels, what led me to most dark and abandoned places. But a few were also in use, underground cells of Imperials they contained. I didn’t speak to them either and disconnected. It would call up questions, but I would deal with those later.

I had access to everything in the position of supreme commander of all Imperial Forces, but also the Republic Forces. My great-grandfathers power had stretched to everywhere apparently. It was disenchanting. Combined to the man he had been in the latter years of his life and this all, I realized what his forgotten heritage was. It felt intoxicating, knowing what I could all do and that went far beyond my wildest dreams. The immediate contact could strike fear into the hearts of those on the other side of the connection line, just as they knew probably where it came from. But a dark path I didn’t want, although it had been one, long ago. I had no idea what would flow from sitting behind this console in the old study room. I pushed those worries back into my mind. I couldn’t deal with all uncertainties and possibilities, what could happen. I would deal when one appeared. One thing I knew, was I would not give up, the access I had everywhere. It was something I would need in the future as last living Skywalker. Trust in the Force was one thing, but not everywhere I could depend on the Force alone. I lived in a high technological developed society and in that one where tools needed to survive.

I learned to deal with the dark side around me. The dreams at night kept me plaguing, but I didn’t yield to them. I meditated a lot, because that was the only way not to be seduced by the atmosphere around me. Nerny was a delight to have around, he didn’t feel the atmosphere. The dark side didn’t have any effect on him. For me it was a test and I knew I was strong enough to pass it. A few days after meeting with the Jedi Anda Sulundar I took a shuttle and flew officially to the Temple. The news had passed along I discovered soon I docked and was welcomed by two members of the Jedi Council. I felt them reaching out to me, but I didn’t let them into my mind. I was questioned instantly about my intentions to stay on Coruscant and to what force I belonged. They tracked me and knew I was not a Republic citizen, I acknowledged that, saying I was Imperial. I felt their suspicion, because Imperial was still considered not friendly. But they knew also I was no dark lord. The questioning took some time, but I did nothing to ease their suspicions. I had nothing to prove to them.
When it was time for a meal I was taken with them to the dining hall. I could choose what I wanted, for all Jedi was there free choice. That system worked that way, because many other species were there among the Jedi. So was still not the Empire build together, with many different species. Coruscant was for me an exotic planet. I chose food that was something I always ate the Imperial Academy. It was something I knew and trusted, and I didn’t risk that I had taken something poisonous. I had the feeling that nobody would warn me for it, knowing already who I was and where my alliance laid. I could feel the distrust and irritation around me. What I knew about being a Jedi, I found it odd that Jedi let themselves being swept in those kinds of thoughts. It was a thread of the dark side and dangerous. My father had learned me not to judge people, because of their allegiance or what they served, but postponed judgment to a point when you knew the other person. Then you could say if the person was true of heart or not.


Chapter 9 - Secrets of the past

In the whole universe none lived still from the days the Jedi Temple was build. Thousand of years back the order had existed and still it did, with all their hopes, their determinations and the believe in the Code, they valued so highly. Life went on inside the Temple in harmony with the Force. Little children were trained in the basics, the older ones became Padawans. But in difference with the old order before the Great War the children knew their parents. The Temple was a symbol of the peace inside the borders of the Republic. The two council members didn’t let me wander alone around.

In the end I managed to escape from their attention and when one of them was asked away I took the liberty to visit the green gardens, what felt good to be. The sphere inside was serene and all plant and animal life flourished unhindered inside. The sunrays shone down through the transparisteel roof. The waterfall was a pleasant to spot for me to linger and I settled down on a rock. Still dining time there were no Jedi around now, so I stretched my legs and relaxed. Never in his life had my father told me about this place. He had grown up here, being trained, but something had happened that he said farewell to the order and never returned. I was trained in the ways of the Force at the age of twelve with a soft hand. He had learned to wield the power I had inside of me, going along with the emotions I had. The streaming waters of the waterfall seemed to tell me a long forgotten story as memories about my training flooded back into my mind. The last years I had buried them in the back of my mind. Since he died, now six years ago, I have lived more or less in battle with my emotions, living by them. I couldn’t say if it was good or not. But as I called back the facial expressions on the two Jedi masters I knew they didn’t like something about me. But what was it?

I watched the waters flowing by. In the pool swam all sorts of fishes. They were beautiful to see with their bodies richly of colours. Their tales swept through the water and agile they glided forth, complete adapted and feeling fine to their surroundings. In this panorama I felt at ease too. But the question that had formed inside my mind wouldn’t go away. I stretched out a hand and concentrated my mind on the water, trying to get a feeling on the liquid. Instead of controlling the water I let my mind going with the flood and for a couple of moments I felt if I was a part of the water. It was a strange feeling, what made me surprisingly laugh. The last time I had watched water, was on Naboo, but then I hadn’t stretched out with the Force to know how it felt. I dove into the memories of my youth to find if I had done it more. What I did here, felt familiar. What came back were real childhood memories of strange and faraway places, where the names I didn’t remember from. My mother was around, always present with her attention, laughter and love. She had loved me with all her heart. I had known it always, but never had asked myself why I was so sure of that. Neither that I did know her thoughts and felt hurt when she was angry with me. I had responded to her in the natural ways of a child. The day she died, had marked the end to my careless days of my youth. I had been twelve then.
I watched the sunshine gliding over the streaming water. The sound of it was pleasant to hear and seemed to soften the pain one felt. Coming to meditate here was not an unusual thing, but dinner time seemed to have some demands, so that this place was deserted. I leaned back to the rock behind me and drew up my left leg and laid a hand on the knee. But I took it off to watch a strange flower next to me. It was purple, beautiful, yet vulnerable. Like women in some ways were. My mother had been shot in the street on the way back to our ship. I could still see myself standing, and then kneeling over my mother to see what happened. Then my father had appeared, wielding a lightsaber and attacking the men who had murdered my mother. He had left none alive. After the death of my mother he had told me about the inheritance and trained me, until I could wield the power inside of me and knew how to act with it.

I didn’t not make use much of the Force, due to the places where I lived around and the fact that living without it was a greater challenge on me than with it all the times. The whispers of the Force I could never ignore, because always they told me something I needed to know. Love and anger were a part of me, and I accepted for who and what I was. I knew I had a destiny, everyone had, but I did control my own destiny, not the society. I lived with the spectrum of my emotions as all living being, sentient and non-sentient. Near seventeen my father had sent me away with the freighter, he wanted to go after something and he wanted not me to have on that voyage. I remembered to have a bad feeling about that mission and feared I might loss the last guiding light I had in this universe. He was my father and so my example. But as I knew now at the side of the pool, there had been buried more below the surface than I had sensed back then. I never saw him back. A year I flew from one side of the galaxy to the other, until one day I met Nittu somewhere in the Unknown Regions, and accepted his invitation to go with him to the Empire. For six years the Empire was my home now to return too, a good home. I was not hurt that many others felt differently about that.
I looked up when a Jedi entered the green gardens to find solitude or perhaps a closer connection with the Force around her. She may felt me, but kept to herself and settled down somewhere out of sight on a spot where she liked to be sitting. Her presence fell for me away amidst among all other living plants and creatures, not more dominant as all that other. I called back up the distrust of the two Jedi masters, what had been directed toward me. The lady Jedi who had now come in, seemed not to have any problem with my presence here. Was it that the two masters sensed more than the girl did? Or was she simply not so strong? Was there something about me what they didn’t like, like my allegiance to the Empire? Or was it my own person and thus fed by envy? When I was them again, and sure I would run into them, I would know the answer. I smiled, put the thoughts out of my mind and just enjoyed for a time to be in this refreshing garden. It was a delighted place to linger around.


Chapter 10 - Confrontation and discovery

But peace couldn’t linger on forever as lunch time ended and the Jedi in the Temple found other places for duties and delights. A full day lay ahead still, as I had arrived in the morning and now it was the beginning of the midday. A master and an apprentice arrived and although there was talked softly, I listened to a full explanation what a certain tree was around here, and that tree happened to be the one that was right behind of me. First I didn’t like it to listen too, but the master knew a lot about the tree and gradually I grew interested to how he thought about the living form. He was right in many aspects, but couldn’t only agree with the fact that the tree was not aware of its surroundings. There was a latent consciousness, a natural state. Something like brains a plant didn’t have, but it happened to run through the tree itself. Master Nida Sal explained it carefully; until his student knew it and was asked to do some own exploration. Nida saw me sitting there and knew I had been listening. Approving he nodded to me and then informed who I was. I told him my name, watching his reaction. My family name was a known one. He had known my father briefly as it appeared. Nida didn’t know much to tell about the youth of Ben.

Master Jal’adu Finigin found me and was displeased about my disappeared from his side. But I was a guest, not an apprentice and stubborn I folded my arms across my chest, not accepting the warning of the council member. He had no right to lecture me like an insolent child. In the back of my head I wondered if Master Jal’adu was a true Jedi and not some follower of the notorious Sith Order. That order was destroyed together with my great-grandfather. Yet voices were around that it would come back. I found the Jedi Master arrogant in his manners, very sure of himself. I didn’t voice that back. Not that I was afraid for more lectures, but it was not my place to do. I knew my place as guest. If something happened it wouldn’t be me that would start a fight, but neither would I draw away from a challenge. I didn’t listen to the request or order to come with him; I liked it in the garden and wanted to stay a while longer. That I didn’t obey was something like a violation here around in the Temple. It was interesting knowledge. I turned away from him, chose my own path by jumping over the pool to a path on the other side. There were a couple of other spots I liked to see yet.

But so far I didn’t make it, as security was called and I seemed to be labeled as an official intruder. That made me a little angry and even I didn’t want to leave, I felt neither much to end up inside a special jail for Jedi. I made a run for the exit of the garden and took a short run for the staircase. The Force was a part of me, so going to the docking bay was not a hard run for me. Security was also Jedi, but when I severed myself from the Force to hide my presence in the building, they lost track on me. I stuck my lightsaber into the access panel toward the docking bay and made it toward my air speeder. I left as I had arrived, but now not longer welcome in the midst of the Jedi. Whatever the reason was they felt they could not trust me, it was not a fair way how they had treated me. Back at my place of living I was greeted by Nerny and took the rest of the day to find out why the Jedi Council thought me better to see me as a kind of enemy. It was difficult to face that. Being excluded was one thing, but so openly was confronting in a way, that was hurtful. It pinned down something I hadn’t been aware off until now. The cold I left inside of me seemed to fade away all other feelings I had. I was not able to name it really, but it was something familiar I had felt years back, clicking back the cold pitched feeling of anguish the moment I knew my mother died. With the memory came also my other feelings back. In the screen of the monitor stared a strange reflection of myself back to me? It took a few moments before I was aware of it. Nerny was a good friend, who brought me back to reality. I knew what the cold was. With breathing techniques I calmed down and pushed the evil thoughts back a dark corner of my mind. The night went over and the next morning I secured the place with new codes and left with Nerny the system of Coruscant.

What was my summer holiday from the Imperial Academy had become a travel of new events. I flew back to Imperial space. There I began to work out another dream of me, having my own destroyer, what would bear the name of Persutor in the future. New class of design it would have to be building in a nearby and good equipped shipyard. I had all the funding I needed and to my estimation I thought that the Imperial Fleet could use some new vessels to protest the territory. I ignored the fact I was just a captain in the navy and went off to ask a ship builder if he could design a new serie of stardestroyers. The man was delighted about the order and began to work on it. My direct officers I told nothing about the order or the project. The ship builder knew nothing of me, except I was a privateer and a money lender. With a smirk on my face I had left and returned to the academy to prepare myself for a new year of teaching.


Chapter 11 - The bridge of a year

The last two weeks I spent on working on my educational lessons. I was not quite satisfied that a lot of students had left the academy. More or less I felt if I had failed somehow. I was not longer afraid to stand for a class of know-how-betters. The survival techniques were okay, but the spirit in the teaching could be stronger. I read through my own philosophical notes upon being a good and dedicated soldier. I searched inside myself what I thought about friendship, learning about trust and strength. Except a few friends I didn’t have many. In the light of what I taught to my students it was questionable. I was a person who wandered mainly alone. I wondered about it how I could be a better illustration to them. My personal life was a big flaw, with most people I lived mainly on uneasy ground. The recent visit to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was an example of it.
With my code clearance I could enter all sorts of information and look into it. The code went in combination with my enhanced ID card. I still held my old card too, belonging to my captaincy. The latter was the known official one. I had learned quickly to make use of my clearance without making myself suspicious. I found more interesting subjects that philosophy. High Command had communications with Bastion and the active departments of the Imperial Fleet. An official from Bastion would come to the academy and some high and secret stuff would be discussed then. I wanted to find out what it was about, because the file was very thin on information.

By the roster department I got five classes newcomers assigned to me. In their eyes I read eagerness, overconfidence and interest. In two weeks I had all their confidence destroyed. Relaxed and innocent boys and girls laughed and grinned to me. I listened to their introductions that they were and I told who I was and why I had enrolled the academy a couple of years ago, just as them. The first lesson was always one in merry spheres and I kept it that way, not wanting to scare them off. But for next assessment I asked them all to appear just before dinner time to come to the exercise room of a stardestroyers bridge. But the 71 students met a specter from the past, wearing a suit and a helmet was something new for me, but my students hadn’t expected it and I felt their fear rolling to me, soon they saw my form against the windows. I was alone there. For an hour old Lord Vader was back. My voice sounded weird as I addressed to them, saying I was displeased by their progress. I gave orders and watched them go. The reputation of my great-grandfather was notorious. For a time I let the Vader’s ghost wander around. In the third assignment I acted normally as at the first session and informed to their last week. Some said nothing, others told about the last adventures, but none referred to the exercise bridge. I made a start with the lessons.
Learning physical survival techniques was not easy and from making use of your natural surroundings, it contained also certain amount of fighting. They received all theory from me in class and practice in the field. I enjoyed it, moving around. Somewhere in the lessons mister Skywalker turned into Lord Skywalker, perhaps because of my inheritance. I didn’t correct it; the students had to decide for themselves how they called me. My new title ran quickly through the academy, as higher years students came along me to ask advice on certain matters. Most of the time they liked some guidance about the disagreements they had among themselves and with teachers. I did what I could. Among the students I grew somehow to a beloved teacher, where you could drop by and learn something from. My new title angered a lot of my colleagues and they demanded clarification on the subject. I allowed my commander, the admiral, speak about it and explain what my position exactly was. But popularity was something very hard to battle, as in my case was. I shrugged about it, when they asked for an explanation.

As my name also the ghost of Lord Vader got his own freedom and wandered from high to low through all ranks inside the academy. Not bound by mortality anymore, he became even scarier than Vader had been in real life. For me it was fun, but I hid it behind a thick wall of innocence and ignorance. It brought excitement and that is what I merely lived from. I could not prevent from escaping that the name went off planet and traveled further into the galaxy. I paid no attention to it how far it went. Not that it worried the senators on Bastion, neither that even Coruscant got wind of it. It was the second half of the college year that I first noticed something about it. Issues had come from Bastion to search out what Lord Vader’s ghost was? They wanted from High Command proof and answers. With my clearance I got secretly by night into the main computer and found out that it had been an order from vice admiral to sweep the base for an imitation Vader, or at least his armour. If it could, the person too. He didn’t want to have a dark lord wandering around and putting it all to his own hands. I knew I had to be careful, if I wanted to stay in this uninteresting position as a naval captain.
So the academy was alerted by a warning signal that there was a drill coming and all personnel, including students had to assemble at the exercitation terrain. The alarm was sounded at daybreak. Sleeping half on the Force since I had been looking for data until late in the night, I was not awake immediately. I secured my terminal with an own encrypted code none could crack. I put on my uniform and hid the rest of Vader’s armour inside Nerny. The astromech had all sort of hidden compartments and sometimes I stored something in it. Nerny went with me to the exercitation terrain, where I arrived as one of the last. The admiral raised an eyebrow when he was Nerny wheeling right behind me, but said nothing. Stormtrooper arrived to sweep through the academy and every corner of the terrain. But after two hours on the assembly terrain the major of the stormtroopers came to the admiral and reported them his troopers nothing had found. I stood not so far away from then and trusted on my power I overheard them easily. None was allowed to leave now the search was over. The admiral was not pleased and felt someone was playing a hoax. I couldn’t blame him feeling that way, but the action had been an innocent one and I felt better to let old Vader being a ghost who liked to come and go. The admiral wanted answers and to my dismay he went on searching for it, now among all those here on the terrain. Plain was asked who had actual seen the dark lord. None answered. On pure guess he then went off to me and folded his arms, looking accusingly toward me. I kept being in position and only looked at him, not wavering under his stern gaze. The admiral was not Force-sensitive, so I tapped the Force partly to be calm and at peace. When he had no choice to let us go, he went angry toward his office. I felt waves of unsureness, relief and fun when it was over. The ghost was not here right now and presented no danger at all.

Four days later two Jedi from Coruscant arrived to investigate the Vader ghost affair. After checking I knew that High Command had asked for support. And the Temple had answered. A master and an apprentice had been sent and I was forced to hide my abilities. I didn’t like it, but it was necessary to maintain the harmless image of myself among the Imperials. The Jedi knew a great deal more of me, due to my visit to the capital. The Jedi they sent was Master Anda Sulundar and he knew that I was trained to use the Force. Having no choice I went down to meet with him and lay down my trust in the Force that the Master wouldn’t betray me to my superiors. Depending on it he could be a friend, but also an enemy. He was all politeness when I saw him, but the Force whispered to me I could not depend on him in this situation and I stood alone.


Chapter 12 - The Force

Jedi seemed to like to do mind reading, but again I didn’t allow him to read my mind. I had my reasons and from his eyes I knew he was aware of that fact. The conclusion followed I was a suspect, because I didn’t cooperate. Doing his duty he dismissed me and soon I had left the room, he informed the admiral of his suspicion of me. The admiral was a little surprised, but informed what was possible to do against it. The answer that Anda gave back hang in the middle, he was not yet sure of what could be done. The Jedi could not interfere in Imperial problem; only assist merely to find the answers. The action was in the hands of the admiral himself. I did nothing and went on with my lessons as teacher.
A week later I was called up for a special body of inquisitors, where the Jedi master a part of it was. But before he had sent out his apprentice to find background material upon the incident on the exercise bridge. But a little was found, since all footage was destroyed and no backup recording had remained. Who had deleted it, had very high level clearance and had done it in secret. My ID card had only clearance going with my captaincy, no more. That card was taken from me and researched. I was interviewed, but except basic answers I gave nothing free of what I knew. Anda did his best to read me, but I kept my mind locked and dwelled on the Force to remain calm. The second half of the interview I felt at peace and was focused on more interesting things than my suspected involvement with the ghostly Vader. The suspicion faded away, when they concluded they had found no contradicting answers of me. I thanked them and returned back to my quarters.

But the watch of Master Anda Sulundar didn’t go away. I was forced to swallow my feelings of annoyance and anger toward the interrogation. I put away into a corner of my mind, where I had stuffed away all bad feelings. With Nerny I decided to take a wandering in the woods around the academy. It was my only hope to relax a little. The woods gave me a part of my rest back; I dwelt around without really a direction. I listened to the sounds of the woods and followed them. It must have been hours, before the sun went down and I was in the twilight of the day. Nerny beeped he had discovered something and went I stepped into a clearing inside the wood I found myself before an old abandoned and ancient building. It was not high, but that could be misleading if the rest laid undergrounds. There was one entrance and it was closed. I neared the entrance, but Nerny beeped a warning and I felt also a warning from the Force. So I turned back and withdrew to the forest. I changed myself into the suit Nerny had still with him. It was a survival suit and with it I could enter into all sorts of places. Nerny didn’t like it much what I did, but I wanted to find out what was inside the building. I needed to have something else on my mind. Entering the building was not a problem; I stuck my lightsaber in the door and cut a hole large enough to walk through. But inside it was dark, utterly dark and Nerny moved his light around to see what the large open space before out feet was. But except an empty floor there was nothing. Inside was the air old and almost without any oxygen. But now it didn’t matter on me. In the light of my lightsaber and with Nerny’s light I saw enough. I tapped here deep in the Force to know what was hidden here. Small whispers came back to me, that once children had played here, much innocence from around four year olds. My eyes studied the walls careful. There was no pain or hate around here, just innocence. Attuned fully to the Force I was not surprised when suddenly the spirit of an old Force adept appeared in front of me. I frowned because never I had seen one. Nerny tweeted he registered something and turned his light toward the presence. But it was not a Jedi, but something else. The ghostly presence spoke, but I heard nothing, neither in my head. I ignored the presence further and motioned to Nerny to follow me. Outside the building in the clearing the sky above had done dark. And with it a new world awoke, one I knew nothing off. The ghost in the building was not the only one, outside appeared ghosts now too. Inside the Force I could feel the lowering of the temperature and something was building. On feeling I withdrew to protection of the trees and waited there. Before I watched an ancient battle between Jedi and Sith followers. As it suddenly appeared, it also vanished into nothing. In the early light of the next morning I returned back to the academy. Inside it had been the Force at work. What the battle referred too I had no idea, but that secret could be unlocked by looking into the history records of the Empire.

When I got inside the gates I was confronted by open mouths of the guards. Not because of the clothes I wore, the armour was back inside Nerny, but because I returned from the wilds. I didn’t wonder about my return, but it seemed to be odd, just as a couple of years ago during my training when I returned alone through the gates. I grinned only and withdrew myself in my quarters, the door locked and an order not to be disturbed. But I was not for ten minutes inside or there was a knock at the door. I didn’t listen, and finished off my bath in the refresher. Dressed in clean clothes I appeared in the doorway, my hair still wet and hanging in shaggy curls around my head. The major behind my door was a moment quiet before he found his voice again. I was needed in the data room. With a sigh and having a bad feeling I followed him. Inside the data room a few computer slicers of security were busy to find out a trail, but had ended stuck upon a wall of clearance codes they couldn’t break. One of them had found a fingerprint that belonged to me. But with my captaincy clearance that was not possible. I said them I didn’t know what it was. With the Force I did some memory alteration on them. And I let them search into other less dangerous files. Then I said I would go back to my quarters. In my quarters behind my own terminal I search for the print and faded it away from the records. A second time would not happen to me.

Later on I saw Master Anda Sulundar back in the officer’s mess. I went there to get myself a decent lunch; I was hungry and needed nourishment. With a full plate and enough to drink I wandered back toward my chambers and locked myself in again. The rest of the day I was in meditation. A few days later the Jedi Master and his apprentice left the system and returned to the Republic. With no evidence the suspicion was lifted from me and I got my clearance card back for captaincy. It was a little of use, since I had now depended on the other one I had unbeknownst to them.


Chapter 13 - My Imperial Stardestroyer Persuitor

My twenty-fourth birthday passed by and I just waited on a signal. Shortly after the silent happening I received a message that the building of my destroyer had finished. I mingled in the rosters, gained some freedom and flew toward the shipyards on the north side of Imperial space. Nearly a year had passed by. I docked my freighter and went on with a shuttle toward the stardestroyer what laid still in the docks but was ready to take for a first voyage. The overview from incredible from the above viewpoint. While the builder stood next to me, I admired the white destroyer. The length was over 3985 meters, nearly twice the length of the traditional Imperial class 2 stardestroyers. Despite it length, it was maneuverable and that was what I wanted in the vessel. It had standard military graded shield, good sublight engines and hyperdrive, a cloaking device and could serve well as interdictor cruiser. The bridge was a good lookout over the ship itself. What missed, was a complete crew. I had to find them first. I nodded satisfied to the shipbuilder. He had delivered a fine product.
I received an account number to pay for the destroyer. What I had to pay were a couple of million credits, but upon my funding it was nothing. Alone in a chamber at the bank office dependence on the shipyard I took care the man received his money on his account. How I did it, was my own secret. His account at the bank would send him a message when the amount on it had increased. Immediately I switched the owning rights to myself and changed the entry codes of the internet communications- and network system on my stardestroyer. A boy’s dream had been fulfilled for me and I wouldn’t let it be stolen from under me. I was the sole owner from an immense vessel and I was happy and proud. Legally build, yet in secret, I was a real captain and commander.

I took my freighter and flew to the docking bays to board it. The first sight of the bay was confronting empty, starcraft were there, but there was no live at all; no droids and no living creatures. The white wall blinked to me in the soft lights of the bay. Although standard light, it was not painful in the eyes. My old freighter was an anomaly to the Tie-fighters and bombers along the walls. On my datapad I had a layout of the ship and with it I found my way to the right turbolift to bring me up to the command bridge. In the same tower a few floors lower would also be my quarters. First I visited my quarters to see what they had made of them. It was a suit, with dining room, dressing room and bedroom. But there was also a good refresh facility and a training room. On the doors to my quarters was my name found.
From there I took a personal lift, it was there, toward the bridge. I hadn’t thought of that, but as I remembered from my lessons at the academy all commanders’ quarters on the stardestroyers had an immediate and private access to the bridge these days. It was a quick shortcut from the public lifts. The bridge had a magnificent view from the windows over the full front and sides of the ship. All stations were silent, the monitors off. But one thing was missing, the two pits were all crew sat was gone. Instead it was now a lower section that you could enter by stairs and was more pleasant to see. Also safety was considered, so one could not misstep and fall two meters down on a lot of consoles and important stations. An own chair I didn’t really have, but the commanders seat was a central position here on the bridge with a console next to it what gave access to all parts of the ship. The system’s network was protected and only accessible through me, as I found out when I tried my enhanced ID card and personal code going with it. My captaincy card didn’t work on it. In the IFF section of the programming I named the stardestroyer Persuitor.

The stardestroyer couldn’t stay here in the shipyard. It was usual it was taken with the owner soon after the buy. It could not stay in dock, because other order waited and the sooner the ready ship had departed, a new ship could be built in that place. The commander could do a lot from his position, except firing the weaponry onboard. I was a Skywalker, so with the Force many possibilities laid at hand. I allowed the sublight engines to power up and steered the stardestroyer out of its dock. Slowly it flew away from the sides, searching up interstellar space. The yard came positioned right of me from the windows, growing smaller with each second. Over the comm I was contacted where the Pursuitor was going; the shipyard owner was surprised how I would take the stardestroyer with me, alone without crew. My family was known for incredible journeys they had ever taken and the maneuver I was performing now was no exception to that list. I just added one to them. I laughed and said goodbye. I brought the destroyer to a travel sector and took it with me toward the system of Raxior, where the Imperial Academy nowadays was.

The 4000 meter long vessel caused real panic in the system of Raxior, soon it reverted from hyperspace. Two in-system victory stardestroyers were sent, but lesser in appearance they could not much begin against the Persuitor. Communications followed first. The IFF transponder worked well, so they knew what this vessel was. I closed down all systems to stationary and left the bridge. In the bay came a shuttle onboard with the captain of the stardestroyer I had spoken to first. I welcomed him onboard. The seven men looked around amazed. The same I felt still. For now it was the largest vessel the Empire owned now. Five hours after my arrival in-system High Command knew off the Persuitor. The grand-admiral came looking for this was great and disturbing news, but also it powered up old dreams. The Empire was now a confederation of eleven systems in the northern spheres of the galaxy, not the body of thousands of systems when the Emperor reformed the Old Republic. The New republic was formed from an alliance to an official body out of nothing. The Empire how little it was now, had history, the Republic not. I knew that it would grow in the nearby future. The grand-admiral didn’t really know what to do with my action, but as I asked to hand the vessel over, I shook stubborn my head and refused. The Persuitor was my possession. It was unheard that a simple captain in the navy could own a real stardestroyer. Brand new the Persuitor was a beauty.


Chapter 14 - Great news

The Imperial Navy had a lovely problem. But I was proud at my new destroyer and knew I loved it, as I was attached to my companion Nerny. The droid always hang around me, never letting me out of his side. Only when I wished it and asked he would stay behind. The grand-admiral was over swept with applications from personnel all over the army to serve onboard the new destroyer. I didn’t have to advertise for personnel, they came on own initiative. The Persuitor was against all regulations, yet it solved greatly the problem of strength in the Imperial Army. For a long time, since the losses of all greater command vessels, the Empire had yearned for a new command vessel. High Command could do a little to than to accept this new addition. Also the admiral was forced by my action to promote me officially to the position of Commander. So I ended up into active service of the Empire, not longer being a simple teacher of survival techniques. But still I gave the lessons, refusing to abandon what I had begun at the beginning of the year.

News went out I needed officers for the bridge and the diverse departments. All would be off the same rank, as they were leading their departments with a few head-officers and me above them. I didn’t want a high and difficult hierarchy onboard. I looked for capable persons, so gender was not an issue. I accepted them both. The Empire was still these days mostly human, only sometimes you could find a few Chiss around. But they didn’t apply for service onboard the Persuitor. I did the interviews alone, with the help from the Force to know if they spoke honestly. I had quickly about thirty men and women from who I thought they were capable for the jobs. Sometimes I assigned them to another department, based on interest, despite their education. In some areas were feelings and compassion more important than in others. With my officers I searched for under officers and lower crew. Besides the interviews there was also a lot of administration to care for and that part I didn’t like. I had taken a command upon my shoulders, so I had to perform all tasks going with it. My little bit cultivated manners as teacher were under influence of the command gone quickly and replaced instead for a sturdier presence. Then besides in secret I let go out a new order for smaller stardestroyers. The shipyard accepted without questions. It was work, good for the economy and a stronger army was a lesser favoured target to attack. Although the quite beaten history of the past, the Imperial soldiers were still the best in the galaxy. Trained they could be employed in almost every territory; enemies were interested to lure Imperials to their side and take up arms against us. All teachers at the Imperial Academy were bound to silence how they taught the students. I was too. This to prevent the enemies to find out how exactly our forces were being educated at the Academy.

Most of the crew of the Persuitor were seasoned warriors, men and women with a good state of career, but never got higher than the position they held for years. Serving onboard the Persuitor was a chance to become special. I didn’t doubt some would try. And then the Persuitor looked nicely on their resumes. Commander Skywalker was a name with fame. Everyone knew it, although not my own person behind it. Nerny had his own opinion during all the interviews and the intonation of his whistles told me enough he agreed or not. My own students and those I had last year were thrilled about the destroyer and asked me if they could get a place there. I smiled only, but make no promises. It was good to be admired, but I didn’t want adoration. That was something for women. The Persuitor got its own dock in orbit of Raxior.

From the Holonet I downloaded the news that also the Republic had gotten wind of my acquisition. Questions arose there, like was the Empire going to rebuild the Fleet it had? Or what is the meaning of this war vessel of four kilometers? Did the Empire have plans for expansion? And to where? Who had ordered the built of this destroyer? The last thing they hadn’t found out yet, but I was sure between now and soon in the future they would come to know the Persuitor was mine. It unnerved the Republic considerable. A delegation could be sent perhaps, to find out about the intentions. But that was not my problem. I wanted my ship and I had it now. The consequences of that ownership I didn’t care about. The galaxy had to learn to live with it. In this pose I was visited a couple of days later by a face I remembered well from my one time visit to the Galactic Senate on Coruscant. I felt Macey Jucan Djoron from the moment she came with her shuttle from hyperspace. It took some distance to come down and land onboard the Persuitor and in that time I had contact with her, but didn’t enlighten who I really was. She would discover soon she saw me in person. To the bay I left an order to welcome her unhindered and so I took my lift down to the docking bay to welcome her and see why she had come. It was over a year than I had seen her for the last and only time. This was our second meeting. And whatever she came for, I was out to turn it all upside down on her.
I was calm in my appearance, but yet I felt also excited I was seeing her back again. I knew she felt it too, but I was not able to conceal my feelings to her. I registered her bemusement, but soon she faced me she was calm as any other Jedi. Her eyes lightened up when she got me into her sight and I felt that something clicked together in her mind about my identity. She said nothing about it, but in her eyes I read she remembered Coruscant well. The greeting was formal. I invited her to come with me to the bridge, so I had more privacy. Macey’s eyes studied her surroundings secure and what she saw she would remember later on. In the turbolift she was silent as we traveled together up. The bridge had its own impression on her. Macey walked slowly around, entering the crews pit and looking at the consoles. I took up position at one of the windows and looked from there to her. The stars were an endless universe.

Slowly Macey made her way across the bridge toward me and joined me finally at the windows. She breathed in and out, and said nothing to break the silence between us. I was aware of it, but found it quite pleasant. Rather I didn’t really want to break that silence for other matters. I strived after what my heart wanted. I knew what my path was, but that didn’t keep me from going after my desires. I wanted to enjoy, as long as it could, before my anger grew too strong and my fall would be a fact. I knew about the dangerous path, who what too many family members had fallen victim too. I saw myself not as an exception to who it wouldn’t happen, not since I became aware of the sort training my father had given me. My emotions were a flaw. Time would tell whether they would harm me or not. The joy of seeing Macey vanished a bit when this crossed my mind and something of pain moved through me, adding another accent to what kind of responsibility laid on my shoulders. Until now I had merely ignored that responsibility and took my own decisions. I had an employment in the Imperial Army, but I didn’t serve.
Serving was something for mindless beings, which adored and held everything in high esteem. Those beings, who didn’t question authority and gave lethal power to anyone, willing; those kinds of people were a nuisance. It was those who had christened me to Lord Skywalker, a reference to my past. Deep in my heart I would rather have stayed a simple and unimportant teacher. But that was impossible. I folded my arms and stared out of the window to the planet below me.


Chapter 15 - Troubles

In my own quarters down on Raxior I searched the Holonet upon background information upon my mother; Allandra had been her call name by life, Allandra Chu’dan. I accessed accounts by overriding security codes. The files of my mother seemed deeply hidden in the security network of the Hapes. Allandra had been around twenty when she gave up her life as Hapan noblewoman to travel with my father. Before that my father Ben had left the Jedi Order of his father. To search in the past of Allandra was exciting and I went on. I discovered finally her file, but it carried a scalene, banished for life and death. Leaving the Hapes Consortium was forbidden. The computer searched in intelligence files and showed up on the monitor a long list of operations with destinations. Some names called up forgotten memories, Allandra had been hunted her whole married life by assassins. That was why my parents lived only onboard a ship. In the files were also the names of the assassins and the person who had ordered those assassinations. It was a woman’s name.
I let the computer make a search to the person behind that name. I discovered then I had secondary family in the Arabanth system inside the borders of the Hapes Consortium. My mother had two older sisters, who had become powerful women in the last twenty years and two brothers. Allandra had been the youngest child. I took it they knew about me, but what they knew I had no idea about. The contactor woman was my own grandmother; she was still alive and not yet very old at the age of seventy. I had a lot of nephews and nieces. On paper I drew a family tree who all were and how they were connected. My grandmother was the matriarch in the family. Sinkor and Kalan were my mother’s brothers and had done their best to father daughters to the family. A’kan and Deneyo were her sisters. Both women had daughters too. The sons were off no worth in the family. I knew one and other about the culture from the Hapes. There was one proverb among the Hapans: "Never let a man become so deluded as to believe that he is the intellectual equal of a woman! It only leads him to evil." Reading that angered me really, because it reduced me to some second level citizen inside the Hapan Consortium. Here among the Imperials it was opposite and it was reason I felt rather at my place among them.

Except my warrior grandmother in the Hapes I had no other grandparents anymore. My father had been born when his mother had passed into her forties, making her an old woman of sixty when Ben became twenty years of age. He had been in his twenties when I came into this universe. My mother was deseased, buried on a backwater planet somewhere outside the Hapes Consortium, where most space travelling people could bury their relatives in this part of the galaxy. I was present when my father and I buried there, under an unknown name. I knew to find her grave, but if it was still there after twelf years I had no idea. I hadn’t been there since the funeral. My night went over for me without much sleep. A long time I stared at the screen on my terminal going through the pictures of my secundary family, faces I knew now, but not the persons behind it. A’kan had been one of the contractors , who had hired assassins for my mother. My youth had been a crusade in finding the murderers to my mother. Ben had been ruthless. Only then I hadn’t known who they all were, neither had my father. I remembered him looking into systems for finding clues, but was always locked out, because he had no clearance. Something that I had now and made use of it. Maybe I should go to the Hapes and see someone of this family, see what they would think of me…

The next morning I had to teach two classes, but I was tired and the practic I had had in mind for them, was replaced for something calmer. It was not bad, because it was raining outside and none liked to get wet. With them I discussed today personal material, that of their families. What to do in dire circumstances and you heard that your family was kidnapped and threatened to be killed? What would their actions be? I wanted to know how they handled such a situation, because orders were orders and had to be followed. For myself it was also interesting, because I viewed also my own emotions in such a situation and knew immidiately that I would put my family first. It was something that my father also had done. He had my example on that subject. Yet I didn’t tell that to my students. I had to educate the rules of the army, not my personal ideas. After my lessons I was updated with the last news inside the academy and learned that Macey had talked with the admiral and head of this institution.
I saw her back in de evening; she hadn’t much to say to me. What she needed to know, she had learned and with it she could return to the Republic. I was a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t share with me what she had learned exactly. So I went out to find my own information and that was not so hard. There was a report from the admiral to High Command about the meeting with the Jedi. The suspicions of the Republic ran quite high and Macey seemed have asked what the Empire was planning and if it would not danger the pact that existed between the two nations. I knew I could get questions and that doubts could begin to rise about my integrity. I know it was inevitable, one moment people with the Force were trusted, the other moment crumbled. My path was a dark road and I had no idea how I would ever escape from it.

I placed both my elbows on the table and let my head rest on my hands. The prospect of the future wasn’t a sunny one and it clouded my mind considerably. I didn’t want to face that my integrity was questioned. Doubt was on my mind, not sure what would come from all of this. The Force would tell me when there was danger, but there was no danger now, only the quiet of the night. Macey was vast asleep. So I was all alone. I used the time to find more information and accessed secretly the highly sensitive files of the Republic Senate. Some chairmen had sent mails to each other about the Empire and their suspicions. From one of them came also the wish of an investigation. My involvement in the Empire was a high issue among them. I noted it in the back of my mind, so I would remember when more meetings were planned and I would find out about them. It was an interesting development.


Chapter 16 - A showdown

I wielded my lightsaber against the shooting assassin droids in classic fighting stance. My footwork was precise, my moves swift, my mind focused only on survival. The Force were only now at the moment. Its energy flowed through my whole being and took all exhausting with it. The bolds kept coming, but I sent them back to the course. Two droids were taken out, the other two fell out on a certain moment, and soon they ran out of ammunition. They retreated and I held my lightsaber ready in front of me, most of the time my end stance before shutting it down. I turned it off. The practice kept me sharp, the physical strength of my body good. It was necessary to have a good condition. Not always could I rely on the Force. When I turned around I saw that Macey had come to me, she had opened the door I had locked behind me. I said nothing and waited what she wanted. Another training followed on low powered lightsabers. Just like all sabers mine had that function too. And it was welcome. Macey had done the same with hers. We fought against each other, experiencing little troubles to defect the strike of another. Macey had had real lightsaber training and switched continue between different fighting styles. I had never that sort of training, so I fell back completely to what the Force told me and then moved my saber for interception. Macy appeared also to know how each strike was named and how to perform. I defended myself mostly now, tried sometimes an attack. But so were my practical sessions with assassin droids. They shot bolts at me, who I intercepted and deflected. Remaining in defense kept me in the centre of my concentration, so no opening was there that my opponent could make use off. Neither did I feel anger or some other raw emotion, so it remained defensive on my side. Macey stopped eventually, and gave me a traditional salute of respect with her lightsaber. I didn’t answer it.

After the session we shared a light meal in the Officers mess and Macey talked a long time about all the existing fighting styles among the Jedi. It was interesting, because my own father had told me nothing about it. I had my own attuning to the Force, what appeared to her very uncommon. When she asked about my lessons I shook my head, not wanting to tell about it. Neither did I want to think about it, because it brought so many memories back to where I didn’t want to think about it now. I didn’t want the sphere being spoiled. Macey didn’t inquire more about it. I thanked her for it. My past was my alone. We took a lot of cups of tea and due to that we had to visit the refresher a couple of times. Fluid was good for the body and cleaned the blood considerably from all toxic inside. I enjoyed the hours together very. Macey was a Jedi like all others, but interesting to study because I knew a little of that order. I learned something also about a Sith order, but she mentioned a little about it. I found orders not very healthy, because it pinpointed life into a forced course, what felt to me wrong.
After the meal we visited the Persuitor another time. I let all education about fighting styles go and moved my thoughts to more important matters. I briefed a couple of my officers onboard and heard how well they were getting along with finding the appropriated personnel. I received the news that High Command had been visiting too, but that visit had been secret and nothing was on record. It was my XO (Executive Officer) who told me finally, when I asked if he had more news. Macey pointed later out that were on a level afraid of me, and that it was related to my past and my powers. I knew that, it was a matter that couldn’t be helped. A little fear was useful to my opinion and I left it with that.

I introduced Macey to my classes and the reactions she got back, varied between amusing to amazement. They were thrilled and appeared to be eager listeners to hear from a real Jedi. Macey held rhetoric about the meaning of life, some points referred to her. What she hadn’t shared with me, she did with my classes. I sat in the window and watched her. Although grown men and women students held an innocence that was a lovely thing to witness. From it grew a seasoned warrior in time. There were more questions than when I taught. But when time was up, the lesson was put to an end. In the hallway I met a colleague next doors and was alerted he had some trouble makers in his lesson. And his class was now off to me. I nodded and went back to my own class room. I sensed something was indeed amiss among them, Macey felt it too and secretive she shared her concern with me. So I stepped in front of the class, instead of her. I knew them well. Presents and absents went normally as I called up all names from my memory, I needed no status to know who was there and who not. One student was missing and I wanted to know what the matter with him was. I wasn’t answered, so I raised my eyebrows and let the Force wander over all my students to see if one knew. The spectrum of emotions was wide and were feared appeared I knew there was a course of information. With a threat I got precisely what I needed to know. Then I grounded the group and stationed a couple of stormtroopers inside, and set out to find the lost student. And for that I had to go into the wilds of Raxior.

It cost me the rest of the day and half the night to find a weakening life spot in the Force. Not equipped with Force potential the boy was locked up into old prison and beaten. Also his clothes were taken and wounds were all over his body. I had to cut myself through the duracrete wall, but with a lightsaber it was easy. I ripped my cloak from around me, wrapped the injured boy fully in it and carried him back to the academy. There I delivered him to the medical center and instructed the physicians to make a full health report on the boy. I wanted to know everything. When I came back two hours later I got the report and visited their patient, but he slept under influence of medicines. I studied the report and was at the end really angry and shocked. The damage brought on the young man was severe, a part of future dreams destroyed.
So in the early morning hours I came back to a weary and scared grounded class and the moment I came in they all knew I was aware what had happened. I called up six names that were being arrested and taken to detention. It was a real shock to the first years, but I had no mercy with those who disobeyed the rules and that pained someone for fun. The academy was the military already and the arrested students would be convicted by Imperial military law. Afterwards I had a long conversation about the incident with the admiral, head of the academy. A board meeting would be organized so a new incident could be prevented. A beating was not wished on the academy and forbidden. The group was placed under quarantined restrictions. The idea had not been developed by the six arrested students alone, there had been more involved who had wanted to punish the weakling in their midst.
Macey took care and watched over the injured boy in the medical center. She had experience with young children and she used that experience to win the trust of the boy. She learned a great deal from him. What was exchanged between her and him was remained in confidence and not shared with others. But yet it was still monitored by a surveillance system and by that I watched the conversation. It was a sad and humiliating story. Macey or I could take the memories away, but his body would always remember the incident. So it was healthier to allow time to do the healing.


Chapter 17 - Something uncertain as love

It took more than a week before the physicians of the medical center decided that the boy was healthy enough to leave bed. He had been in a bactatank too and was much better afterwards. Yet he was not fully healed again and the mind needed a lot time more. The six arrested students were convicted in that time, their time at the academy had ended and they were sent off to a penal colony, where they could sit out the next five years. The rest of that class could continue their education, but most got a yellow alert that they remained suspects. I was thanked for my assistance and returned to my classes. The accident was kept silent and none was allowed to speak about it.
The last few days that Macey was inside the borders of the Empire I spent at her side. With a Lambda shuttle I flew to Bastion and showed her the real side of Imperial civilization and that wasn’t very different from inside the Republic. It was a human colony, little other species were around. People lived here freely who felt home here. People who didn’t feel comfortable in a multiracial civilization. It had nothing to do with ideas. People from Duro had their own cities in the form of flying hardships in the air. So the Twi’leks had their tribal cities on Ryloth. Here inside the Empire was the same life style developed over the last century. Immigration was a little more common than emigration, but it took place sometimes. The local authorities had to give permission for immigration, but it was not so hard to get clearance. With Macey I went shopping and we came along a lot of stores, mostly full of clothes with cool designs on the dummies in the windows. I knew to tempt Macey to try some designs and see how it fitted her all. From a dull looking Jedi in her robes she changed to a beautiful woman and I said that to her. The amazing on her face was amusing for me and I tempted her to try more. So a couple of fine hours went by. Also I tried some new fashion and it changed me to important civilian. Or a person in that area. I grinned to Macey who apparently hadn’t seen a man dress like me before. It felt good this shopping tour and I bought pretty much. Also Macey’s purchases I took for my account. She protested, but I didn’t want to hear more about it. Afterwards we went to an expensive diner and ordered there a four gang menu. We talked a long time about the planet Sullust in the southern areas of the galaxy, a planet I had never been before in my life. Our purchases were also a subject.

In the diner we were left alone. And that was fine with me. We were served by a waiter, not a droid. It came here with the service and it was excellent. We both took a fine wine from old Coruscant, a strong one. I had no concerns about the alcohol in it, but Macey became a bit affected by it. I taught her a technique so the effects vanished. We laughed. The menu was from local bottom, but exotic still because it had come with humanity who had long ago immigrated to Bastion. Original the planet’s name had been Sartinaynian. Never the planet had had original species; it was just one of the colonies that the human species had established in the galaxy. With the dessert ice was served and it felt kind of cold on my stomach. In the end it was very good. What I had to pay was very high, but worth the evening. Anyway it would be my great-grandfather who paid now, not me. We spent the night in a hired apartment.
Nights over Bastion with the sun standing low were beautiful as anywhere in the galaxy, the colours turned to usual red and purple. A half hour I spent on the balcony watched the dusk. Macey was not quite so interested and had settled behind the present terminal to check upon updates and other news. There was a message from the Jedi Council how her trip was going; if she had any news? I didn’t check, my comlink was on and if the admiral had news he could always reach me that way. My thoughts whirled mostly around Macey and I wondered what she could really mean to me in the future. Bound to the Jedi she had obligations; and a devotion I didn’t understand. It was not a job like normal people had, men and women like me. In comparison to Macey I made lesser use of the Force to ease life. I felt it when she used it, tiny little waves on a calm sea. Most children with Force potential became aware of it, soon they learned about its existence and the use of it. For me it had always been there, feeding me semi conscious with information, as it did still when I didn’t made use of it. The Force was breath and food for me. Otherwise I couldn’t describe it.

But now another sort of feeling rose up and I didn’t know if it was really I or it was the Force. Perhaps a connection between both. I had noticed the secretive looks of Macey toward me and felt at the same time a whirl of emotions. But when she looked away, those feelings vanished again, if they were restrained somehow. But for what? There were no rules in this universe about love, or hate? It was a natural thing to human beings. So why fight against it? What was wrong about affection? My parents had loved each other and with that love I had grown up, understanding that affection and love were important to everyone. Only though, that the human species existed still and hadn’t died out eons ago. I tried to picture Macey as mother, but somehow the image was blurred. For myself I had no trouble to picture a child of me in my arms. Something that was truly mine. A boy or a girl didn’t matter to me; either of them would be welcome. But before it would be a reality, a long way had to be walked yet. And who the mother would be, was still a mystery to me.


Chapter 18 - Innocence as prize

The morning Macey said goodbye and I was felt standing on the landing platform watching the ship make it for the sky and vanishing between the thin layers of clouds, I had an uneasy feeling. Where it came from, I had no idea. But when I felt it, I had to be watchful, because something might happen in the near future. Maybe it was from Macey’s destiny, but how would I know for certain. With the Force nothing was really certain. It had been my mother who once said to me not to chase dreams, just let them come to you. In her advisable words I had always found much wisdom and comfort and still I did. Mother’s words would always remain for me important. I remembered her love and care, her anger and worries. But never there had been evil around her. As I thought about her and then compared Macey into her place, I wondered if she would be the same, loving and caring? I knew I wanted a family of myself, something I could watch and take care for, but also something to protect and to be proud off. Were these the wishes of a man? According the laws of the Hapes men were barely allowed to have wishes, the existed only to help the women to offspring. The more beauty he had, the more chances he got with women. It was the dark side to a women dominated civilization. But either it was a bit the other way around inside the Empire. My choice for the Empire had not come lightly.

But what if I married? I had a job at the Imperial Academy, but never had I really sworn an oath of trust to the government what would bound me to obligations I didn’t want. In true sense I belonged among the illegal citizens, but I had official clearance and cards. I existed in a grey zone, where only Force-sensitive persons could live. Normal people never got that far. Their lives were always fairer and stricter than mine. They hadn’t the power that could free them from the clear zone, to more shadows. My mother had been a child of the clear zone too. Would it be better if my own wife would be there from too? Just an Imperial girl? Or a woman from another nation?

Life went normally on here; I returned to my lessons and prepared my students for the first exams. They were coming quickly again. In my weeks off I flew to Naboo and lived in my house there. Pretty local autumn was coming there and feasts were prepared all around the city of Theed. My homecoming was noticed, but I held myself locked inside doors and didn’t come really out. I went out after a day to get more furniture for the house. A huge furniture store on the southern outskirts of the city was interesting to pay a visit, so I took a speeder to get me there. Parking was possible in a large underground garage. The Naboo didn’t like an open terrain with vehicles. Rather they had a park instead. Nerny was with me and together we went inside the store by a lift that brought us to the right level. Customers in the store looked a bit odd when Nerny wheeled beeping from the lift and I walked right behind him. I had told him what I had in mind, so Nerny took the lead on me and went immediately to the right to find a sofa. Next the article was a console where you could wave your ID card over and say how many pieces you wanted. The central system registered it and would take care that you got your articles delivered at home. But Nerny went beyond my desires and whistled disapprobation for what I had chosen. It dismayed me quite he didn’t agree. But his willful whistles took me to some other articles. Furniture that was more comfortable and looked lesser dull. I bought what he suggested. But for my study room I chose myself really what I wanted and with that he could agree, although he was not quite happy. The droid was a wonderful companion.

Nerny had clearly pleasure in the visit to the store. Except astronavigation, he liked also to break and fix things, so he collected a lot of stuff I had no idea what I would need it for. Nerny pointed out it was not for me, but for him. He had something in mind and needed it. Together I gave out more than I had planned, but I wouldn’t be the largest customer ever. With Nerny I returned home and waited there before a transport would arrive with my new stuff. I needed some lamps, because there were a couple of light points where they could be added. Adding I fixed that partly with the Force, handling the tools in midair. It was a good exercise on concentration. Also in the garden I took care of the plants, so all wild grow was trimmed back to more moderate sizes. Nerny hid himself in the garage with his stuff and was for hours busy building something. He came back with a small cleaning droid who could brush the floors. It had a simple droid brain and was programmed to the sizes of the house. Speaking to it was no use, because it had no receivers, no speaking unit, nor any chips where language on was stored. I was astonished what he had put together. The astromech appeared to be dull of cleaning himself, in fact he hated it and so had now a help.

The droid had innocence over him, which had moved me from the first moment he had entered truly my life. In some ways Nerny was still shy, but he had also a hand of putting his opinion loud up front. He was not afraid of me, instead of people. More of that he was fond of floating through the air, so sometimes I used the Force on him and let him make a tour. Excited whistles would than come from the body of my companion. Nerny had a dislike for little children and when I asked him about it, he had a long tale to tell about the kids of his former owner, those who had sold him later on. Perhaps it was not possible to developed feelings for it, but I did, because I was fond of Nerny. But I was a little angry about the sadism that the former kids had played on the astromech. For universal laws droids were possessions, not living beings. And so there were not really laws to protect them. I understood that, but for the higher advanced droids with an own personality and the power to think merely was it another case. Taking revenge for a droid was universal out of the question. And that was something I just liked to do now. But I didn’t. I was Nerny’s rightful owner now, what his past was it had to remain that way, the future was another matter. But Nerny was old already and it was a week after he had created the cleaner droid that his memory chips burned suddenly and the heart of him really died out. Death came quickly upon him, although the droid wasn’t really aware of it. Closed down he wouldn’t also know what happened around him. Yet it pained me quite to see him die like that. And the next day I stripped him of everything that could be used again. For the rest was the garbage and recycling facility the end station. Sad I brought Nerny to there and said mentally goodbye to him.


Chapter 19 - Changes as the weather storms on Kamino

My age changed to twenty-four and my birthday went over as always, not celebrated. How different that was on the planet of Naboo. Age was there important, because it told about wisdom and experience. Inside the Empire a birthday was usual a family happening, but no more. In public it was never celebrated, nor mentioned. I followed just the customs. The study year went over and at the summer holidays I flew straight for Naboo and the quiet there. Macey was history again, hadn’t heard from her in half a year and despite she was good-looking I changed my attention to other female presences. Except looking around I made no approaches. I would rather have them come to me, instead myself to them. On a level it was flattering if the girl came to me. During the summer with the Empire, it was winter time on Naboo. Not many feasts were there, but enough to join and enjoy myself, and this time I actually did.

Also I fitted myself with a new companion, another astromech droid. This was an R15 class droid, a new design. I bought it in another shop from than where I had found Nerny. I missed him still. The R15 had an own speaker modulator and was so more equipped with a better understanding of languages. This way he could be used for translator. It was a clean droid, no memory yet in it than from the only moment it had been tested in the fabric of Industrial Automaton on Nubia, a planet in the Nubus system, located in the Corellian Sector. Even now they made droids for the galaxy and anyone who ordered and paid, got his product is good state anywhere in the galaxy. The IA was famous for its manufacturing of droids. The R15 had a blue green dome, something the Naboo would be fond off. I bought the droid and took it home with me. I upgraded the civilian model heavily with stuff that was really forbidden. But I didn’t care; I needed a military graded astromech for my travels. A part of Nerny’s old data chips I copied to this model and from the Holonet I let him download more important knowledge he might needed. With my clearance I override the security codes and removed them. From there I adjusted sections in R15 and placed my own clearance code over it. If IA got him back in their hands, they couldn’t access the core of the droid anymore. What kind of name R15 would get I had no idea yet.

From the Republic came banishment over me that the system had to rule me out everywhere I came. But using the old high level clearance of my great grandfather I was allowed everywhere I went. Those clearance codes were still embedded in every core system manufactured. Lord Vader’s footsteps wandered around again for nearly two years now, but until now none noticed really. The banishment was announced on the Holonews, throughout the Republic, together with my vague picture and my name. The Naboo didn’t pay much attention to it, and even then no police officer dropped by my house to ask what I was doing here. That was fine with me.

The galaxy remained a place of disturbances. Sometimes they were as great waves and I sensed it in the Force then, other times they were as ripples on a quiet sea and those I registered barely. I had to rely mostly on the Holonews to know what happened in the galaxy. But my secret high clearance level gave me also access to the databases of news agencies. Sometimes I sneaked secretly around there, learning the news earlier than it was broadcasted on the Holonet. So I could act upon the news, before it even got out. Those way further amendments weren’t made to my banishment from the Republic. Even on senatorial level I kept an eye what was decided. And I had to admit most of the time it was interesting what kind of decisions were taken on senate level for the galaxy. Somewhere between all those senate meetings I found Macey’s name often enough as attendant to them. She functioned there as some kind of liaison, but what kind I couldn’t find out. One thing was clear; she was fully active for the Jedi Order. And I had the distinctive feeling she was busy with something, that would involve me in the end.


Chapter 20 - Involvements

The Force was a dominion, an own world where even many secrets lingered as in the normal visible one. Jedi as well Sith were around and both had their orders these days. The Jedi and Sith of old had been replaced for new ones who searched for new knowledge of the Force. Each order had its own philosophy over the Force, but in basics it would remain always the same. The Jedi went for peace and serenity, the Sith went for war and hate. Two opposites; but involving one matter, the Force. I served no distinctive order. I would never do. I was better off without.
I was a straight Skywalker, bearing the name of powerful ancestors. It was a legacy I liked to deny, but I could not change in the end my inheritance. The Skywalker line was my blood and although I didn’t like it and I tried to keep as much as possible my life to myself, a part was public. And the banishment throughout the Republic brought some consternation forth. There existed parties still who had favoured my grandfather and thus so also his son and now me. They rose into protest and demanded to be heard. They found no justice in banishment, while I wasn’t even a citizen to the Republic. The opponents were heard too. The Holonews broadcasted celebrating parties held for my person. What mostly astonished everyone? I didn’t contact anyone, nothing was heard from me. The people liked to know how I thought about it all, but there was no reaction from me.

Newsagents were sent across the galaxy to find me for an interview. And sure they had a hard time to find me. Temporary I left Naboo for what it was and took up my command duty onboard my destroyer Persuitor. My job kept me from becoming preoccupied with all the newsagents trying to locate me. And in active duty it was even more difficult to get to speak to me. Too soon I was off toward a conflicting system, where a local political conflict was turning out to become a planetary problem. Valc IV in the Valc system was the course. It all lay inside Imperial Territory. These days it reached again beyond Vortex and Ord Mantell to Agamar and Bimmel on the route to the North. The rest of the galaxy was the Republic, or other powers like the Corporate Sector, Hapes Consortium, Calaron Sector and more independent ones. My coming threw some fear around and the heated parties subdued a bit. But all knew that I didn’t use my powers for bad and I was just present in the meeting, so both sides talked in equal measures and a middle solution was found. There was for me nothing personal around, so there weren’t threats to my person self. I listened, didn’t mingle in the case itself. At the end was asked if the solution felt good to me. If I was some kind of Jedi and would know it was fair? I had to grin, and nodded that I had nothing to add about it.

Valc IV was a couple of hours relaxing from being boring hours on a bridge and reading status reports from over my stardestroyer and if other ships accompanied the Persuitor, reports from those too. I swallowed a long face at the thought of leaving the planet. After the meeting I decided to pay the center of shops a visit, see something of the city itself and its people who lived there. The first thing I observed was that pretty many people, men and women, were quite young, bordering my own age. Despite the quite greenish surface of the planet, the temperatures were high and if you could classify it, it belonged to subtropical class. I wore a cooler version of my uniform, coming a little bit to the dress of the planet. It was the only garb quite bearable. The peoples here were mid brown skinned by nature, I was white. I wore no cloak or any other jacket, so my lightsaber was visible in my belt. I visited some stores upon clothing and searched on the horses if there was something of my liking and fitting. I was quite tall and also middle broad in chest. It was not easy around here, because most men were smaller than me. So I left one shop after the other and bought completely nothing. A bookshop was also interesting on the route, was not very great and was specialist in local writings. That it dared to sell local stuff indicated that the interest of the customers was region, not galactic. While I was used to other places, they lived in a smaller world. The shop had cards you could insert into a datapad and then read what was on it. On a datacard could be restored all sorts of information, it didn’t matter what. But along the information there was an amount of storage and for protection against illegal production; the cards were often fitted with a protection code and label. Unobtrusive some media hunter followed me on my route and shot pictures where I set my footsteps. It would be in the next news bulletin on Holonet.

I had no doubt that Macey followed my footsteps via the newsflashes. News screens were everywhere in the nowadays world and if you wanted to know, almost every bar or cafeteria provided a corner where you could watch the latest intergalactic news from Holonet. And with her also the Jedi would take interest in my whereabouts. But also the Sith would have their taste of knowledge. Deep down I hated it to be public property and in that line being a part of many things what was assigned to me by public opinion. I did my best to stay away from it as far as I could. But it would avail I didn’t know.


Chapter 21 - Harassment

One of the few things that could really nag me was keeping bothering me about my own person. In my family past there were as many Jedi Knights, as had been Sith Lords. Why would I follow a path loose from those orders, and choose my own life? From my journey at Valc IV I went back to teaching classes at the Imperial Academy and have contact hour for students who ran into troubles. I kept on helping them, because those hours were actually the finest around, where no commanders or officers came down with other news. But ahead was a problem and I felt the ripples in the Force from it.

It was the start of a new week and in the night I hadn’t slept very well. After the first cycle of sleep I had a strange dream about a blue coloured world from space. A temple was there inhabited by all sort of dancing girls, and they kept dancing on and on, day and night. The dream had dissolved right before I woke up. The dancing girls kept somewhere in the back of my mind and I wondered if it had been a normal dream of a Force vision. The rest of the night I was up walking first around and after it taking some nourishment. Behind my station I checked upon news and reports. With my high clearance I accessed each file. There was a classified mission for two ships of the Second Fleet would be sent on toward the Corporate Sector. A colonel was about to sent out on that mission. I read the orders of making a connection with the Sector for negotiations and perhaps some alliance.
I got the impression that the Empire wanted to strengthen the position here in the northern regions of the galaxy permanently. And with the support of the Corporate Sector the Empire would be much stronger than now. I knew for some time already that they were on an expending vector, but not that it would be set in work so soon. I closed down the file and kept the information in the back of my mind.

Soon the destroyers were away and a couple of days passed by I learned from reading intelligence reports from the Republic that they had gotten wind of the mission and a quick secret meeting was out. Some heads would be present as well a few Jedi masters. I knew the time and the location. And as Commander I was not supposed to know, neither of the secret mission to the Corporate Sector. With me was my R15 droid I had bought and until now it had been off standing merely in storage. But in the dark of the night I worked to complete the memory chips of the droid with all sort of information I felt it needed. Then he needed also some kind of personality, and that hadn’t been developed yet. At each question he reaction clean and formal without any kind of emotion. Diving into the hardware core of the R15 model learned that a section of chips was missing and that so the droid was not able to develop a personality of its own. So I headed with droid over to the maintenance section of the Academy and fitted the droid out with chips. Soon I had brought the chips in, loaded with information, it responded to the extending of his programming and was first only embarrassed and confused. The first question was if it was not violating a set of laws that was also somewhere in his hardware hidden. I found a lock and destroyed it immediately. My clearance code was accepted without delay.
In the early morning hours the other station filled with personnel. And when they noticed me, they looked confused. A R15 half open and attached to the computers was not something they saw every day, neither the screens were I had all my information on. They knew the programs and the schemes, but not what it all meant in this case. I ignored them and worked on. I closed the inner work of my astromech and saw how he watched the screen and absorbed in the meanwhile all the data. In the late morning hours I read through all R15 stuff and let him run through many different tests. I wanted him to crack all sorts of clearance codes and files. But first I tried him upon overriding and deactivating security systems. The art was not to set off an alarm. If necessary it had to get into a palace of a vault.

I knew suspicion was there already toward me among the teachers. But also the technici around this maintenance section kept also an eye on me and right when I left, I felt one leaving after me, walking down the hallway and going to a room where his commander was located. I kept my focus in that room to read the amount of anxiety coming from the man. And it radiated pretty high in the Force. In my own quarters I tested my astromech droid on to see what more he could do. The droid listened quickly to the name Five, but it was not something I really liked. I would change it somewhere in the future to a name more appropriate. The alarm went around and the report upon my presence in the maintenance room came at the desk of the vice-admiral who led the whole academy. From him I received an invitation to his office and tell what I was doing really with an R15 astromech. I could stay away and see what would happen, I could go and explain what I liked. I chose for the latter because it was raise less questions and they were not fond of insubordination. The droid stayed in my quarters and I closed the door to it with the secret clearance code I had. No other card could open the door that way. And I knew it would be tried anyway.

The office of the vice admiral was familiar to me. Almost everyone knew it, because every teacher heard her about his functioning. The meeting was formal. The vice admiral was still unhappy that he had been forced to elevate me to the position of Commander to the fact I was the personal owner of the lead stardestroyer in the Navy. He began with that evil and expressed how it was possible that I could be so rich, that I could pay for a stardestroyer. Where came the funding from? I shrugged, unwilling to answer that. Working fully in the maintenance room was only possible to those who had clearance and on my card to commander it was not assigned. To that I gave an unknowing shrug. But in the Force I felt he didn’t believe me. I reached out to lessen his suspicion a little and it worked. Soft I triggered a thought of a secret meeting. Then I withdrew myself from his mind. I hadn’t taken a chair and also I didn’t stand facing him front. Acting on my feelings I stood for the window and crossed armed I stared to the trainees on the exercitation field down. The office lay on the second floor and had an excellent view over the whole academy. I admired it pretty well.
That I stood for the window irritated the vice admiral clearly and thus he voiced it at one moment. The next emotion was regret that he had said it; I registered his fear toward me. I closed my eyes against it and shut the world out for a moment. It was something I didn’t want and had never wanted. I wanted to be respected, not be feared. I knew it was something not from today, but generated already years back from the moment that was discovered that I had full control over my powers. I did nothing, allowed the moment to go by and gave the vice admiral the time to find his courage again. I knew he was embarrassed and when I looked aside to me I gave him a faint smile. At that moment I knew I had somehow won a friend. I would regard him as he would do to me. Yet still I refused to answer him about the questions. It all belonged to my family history and I wanted to keep that quiet. I answered him only, that it would be wise not to ask about it more and profit from what I would bring in. With that answer I left him alone.


Chapter 22 - More surmises

In secret I raised a fund for lesser fortunate people. There were more than enough credits on than the government of Bastion really had themselves. The fund ran at the Galactic Capital Bank, just as I had there a few bank accounts. From that fund some students received money so that they could study. I had only called it Galactic Support Fund, the benefactor was unknown. Through my access I kept watch over those who received funding and if they used the money for what it was meant for. I wanted to see them listed as students at the academy. It was other teachers who recommended the fund to students who were too poor to pay the study to become a naval officer.

Two years passed by where the fund gave chanceless students opportunities that would otherwise had been impossible from them. Most were happy and grateful for the fund and did their best in college and practice. From outside the Empire I received eventually also requests for money so other chanceless people could follow an education. The Support Fund was only meant for the Imperial Academy, so I denied those requests. But it brought me to another idea of raising another fund, Basic Support. I mailed anonymous back that they could try to get it by that fund. In that time I traveled a few times to Coruscant and raised two offices in what had been in earlier times a resident of the deceased Lord Vader. The address was unoccupied and sealed. So that building received a new purpose after a thorough clean up and new furnishing. Also I attracted people for the jobs and instructed them to run it properly. I would keep eye on the accounts and see if the transfers were fair. The employers were all selected on absolute loyalty toward me. So would the wealth of my great-grandfather partly be spent to good causes?
On that route I discovered two other dormant funds rose once long ago by its illustrious owner. Those who had ever received money from it were long deceased and since then the accounts coming with the funds had grown considerably. I transferred both funds to my own name. One was named Lord Vader Fund, the other Emperor’s Fund. The money going with the last I transferred to that one named after my great-grandfather and then I allowed the Emperor’s Fund vanish into oblivion. So in the end I had three funds on my name. The first two were meant for education, the last one I hadn’t found yet a purpose for. I kept that one in my own hands. Perhaps I would give it in the future to my own son, if I ever got one.

The Basis Support Fund became known among students and with the amount of people who depended on it, also the office on Coruscant grew. Why it was domestic in an old building that once belonged to Lord Vader and somehow still did. As they tried to find out who the owner was of the fund they found still his name. On his name they found also that one of the Galactic Support Fund. But Lord Vader was dead and thus someone else run the company on his name. The Holonews brought it out. And headlines were there, how Vader’s ghost could accomplish all of this? I knew he couldn’t, but the world outside me was not so certain about it.

Inside the academy this news was acknowledged with objections. The vice admiral said nothing more about the news, but he had so his ideas. I was left alone and not being bothered with all the strangeness around my person. The funds were greatly approved, because it was really something good. Lord Vader kept them puzzling. After the initiation of my R15 astromech droid I used my full clearance much lesser to draw most suspicion away. None was aware of it yet, but one day it would be discovered. High level clearance was not something you received easily. In class I didn’t need it, but outside with orders I got and news I received I did need it. The clearance code going with my rank as commander was unused. Behind it existed no record at all. But that was not traceable, because I had that file locked under my other clearance code, and that singled everyone out who tried to access it, including the vice admiral, and the chancellor in Bastion. Intelligence was not able to give detail. In a staff meeting soon time following, this is issue was brought up by the major of intelligence, who had the case under his care. I was not attended, because I was at that moment for a visit onboard my stardestroyer and was reading the latest report from an agent located in the Lahara Sector, there were the system of Agamar was located. A rebellion was going on there, and an outcome could mean if democracy would stay there or a dictatorship would arise, and with that a new war. I wouldn’t allow the borders of the Empire being threatened. Research told me that the rebellion was being lead by a strong Force user who held other ideas than the democracy what reined the planet now. Something said to me that this rebellion leader would win and thus a war would come in the nearby future. I kept the computer locked on updates.
The members of the staff meeting had a hard time to explore why intelligence had no access to my commander files. It was already clear that it protected by codes than ran higher than the vice admiral. The grand admiral of the navy was invited but also he could not get access toward my files. The only thing remaining was to call me and ask how it could. And so they did. Only I was still onboard the Persuitor and had other concerns at my attention.


Chapter 23 - The age of twenty-seven

The funds were a success. People had a chance to get a good living and the students did their best for it. Regularly I received status reports from the offices on Coruscant how things went on there. I contacted back my agreement and if not, I paid a visit. Basic Support was in the Republic a famous one, and deanery at school recommended it to those who didn’t have rich parents and had no rights at funds inside the Republic Law. Soon the first batch of students rolled from those schools with good grades. Most found inside a considerable time a job and became independent. The others came into a melting pot of unemployed people. The social department of the republic tried to get those people with jobs, but much effect it had not. I took some interest in those who had followed education on my costs, but couldn’t find employment. And I went on searching to flaws in the market where jobs would be found. Coruscant was big and the economy was mostly fine. Even in bad times there was always work to get there, and not even bad, as some cleaner on a public station in the lower levels.

My secret stay on Coruscant was now a longer one. Although the banishment was not lifted from my person, they didn’t find me under the use of my high level clearance. But for safe and unnoticed passage everywhere I deactivated all the alerts around my person. So I could do my research to find companies what could be sold. I found some and paid the old owners out. Then I attracted a few organization managers who knew the market of Coruscant and ordered them to find area where work would be. That way some of those unemployed people got jobs. I didn’t meet them personally, but left the whole plan of getting them working over to other people. Accidentally I met some of them, when I visited the companies I owned. The directors had to answer to me and my visits were not very welcomed ones. Rather they would like it to run themselves and had no duty to send me reports how the policy inside the companies was and how it went with work and the financial side. I wanted profit, not losses. So for unfortunate graduated students there were companies then where they would have a job. From there they mostly found a better job elsewhere. At that time I owned that way three companies, one with an eye upon the Coruscant Exchange, one was a hospital and the third one had stretched his tentacles in software. Personnel there was at the time I took it over, could stay. The organization managers made the necessary changes to make both the hospital and the software company fully healthy again. I lent the companies basic money and from there they were on their own. Except my ownership every company ran independent and none had anything to do with another.

My stay on Coruscant included also pleasure and so I visited a couple of museums who were specialized in the history of the Republic. From the defeat of the Empire above Endor long years had gone by and the museums had all their specials in that area. A good day I needed to walk around and update my knowledge on actions and heroes. My family history was strong presented there. My grandfather had been in many actions and wars. The status of hero had been given to him, when he was even still in considerable young age. He had been past his forties when my father was born in the beginning of the Vong War. That was sixty years ago now. Many Coruscanti visited the ground of history. I walked between them, wearing boring garb, my lightsaber and blaster hidden. I did nothing to conceal myself in the Force. And anyway the Jedi knew already I was back here.

On Senate level was also a little discussion going on. Lord Vader’s ghostly footsteps were material for attention, because it worried a lot of people. The man itself had mostly been an evil in the galaxy and although he was a long time dead, he was not forgotten. There were species alive on planet that still had memories to the man. And a few of those long living races were presented in the galactic senate. I used my grandfather partly to cover my own footsteps. I had the Force on my side, so I was difficult to locate. My real identity none had found out yet. In the evenings I went out to a dining facility near my home to eat. I was a bad cook myself and rather I liked to have something good to eat. And the nearby facility had each evening another meal card to choose from. Money was not a problem, I had enough. Quickly I had my own place near a window and quite alone. A wall of plants separated the table from the other table islands. A server droid brought always what I ordered. Through the window I had a good view upon the traffic of Coruscant, its sun going down and the Jedi Temple visible from everywhere. But if there existed that symbol of hope and peace, there had to be also a stronghold of hate. I thought that briefly over, while eating from my dinner. People cast sometimes gaze at me, but didn’t approach me.
It was a dining facility mostly visited by business people. But also other alloy came there. Coruscanti were mostly people who kept much to themselves. Usual after dinner I went for a walk in the local park that floated on repulsars in the air. Being there was almost the same as in the Room of Thousand Fountains in the Jedi Temple.

It was on an evening that I met Macey again there. More than two and half year I had seen her for the last time, when she visited the Imperial Academy at Raxior. Her presence was a quiet candle in the Force. Her features were still the same, she hadn’t aged at all. But her hair was now in a smaller cut than before and she wore a darker garb Jedi robes. For some time she had been observing me, tracing my comings and goings throughout the city. She had come across the fact that I could go where I wanted and no system reported me any longer. I looked as cocky as I did three years back at the tour through the senate buildings. I gave no answers to her questions. I got an invitation of her to visit the next morning the Jedi Temple. What it was about she wouldn’t tell. I would know soon I arrived there. She left me with one warning, if I wouldn’t come, I would be considered to be an enemy and be hunted in time.


Chapter 24 - The Jedi Temple again

It was four years since I had been there. I took a speeder to go there, not my personal shuttle. It didn’t matter really how I came, I wouldn’t leave the planet. I wasn’t yet done with arrangements around the company that it itself fixed on the Coruscant Exchange. It was risky business there and I wanted it go to well. I didn’t like disasters. The traffic was an ever on going event, it never stopped. For that lived too many beings on this planet what was in fact one entire city. The trip to the Temple was not far.

I had access to the hangar for visitors. Not many speeders were parked there. On the Force I flew inside and settled my speeder down in the assigned birth. When I stepped out some delegates were waiting at me; master Anda Sulundar, master Jal’adu Finigin and Macey Jucan Djoron. I hadn’t had an idea that she was a master by now and a council member too. All three gave me a polite bow and I returned the greeting to them. It was Jal’adu who spoke and had invited me on behalf of the Council through Macey. In my opinion they had used her, knowing that I would listen to her somehow and come. I had come anyway, because I didn’t like it to be seen as enemy and being hunted through out the galaxy. When he was done with his explanation I gave him only a nod. In the Force I felt them trying to probe me, but with a faint smile in my eyes I kept them easily out of my mind. Invading people’s mind I did actually seldom, even with normal people. Whether good or not, it had become a principle over the years for me not to do. The Force told me what the intensions were. Yet I was annoyed they tried anyway and that they had no right to do so.
I could see in the eyes of Jal’adu that he knew I was annoyed and the slight raising of his eyebrows told about his doubts about me. I ignored it; the doubts were his, not mine. Macey said nothing. Also in the Force I couldn’t get reading of her. That my feelings were a flaw was old news. Anda said also nothing, but monitored me approvingly how I handled myself.

They guided me through the central hall to a small chamber where a small circle of six chairs waited. All chose a seat and uninvited I took a seat as well. I didn’t want to remain standing. It was master Anda who spoke them for the first time and told that they had been observing me a long time, since the his last visit at my home, the refuge of former Lord Vader. I listened attuned to the Force seeing what they were up to. He just named the place where I stayed and Jal’adu confirmed it. The place was full with the dark side and they wondered how I was able to live there. It was my own choice and not their concern. Then Andu named the path I was taking. From media agencies he knew I still served with the Empire, now as military commander of a stardestroyer. Rumoured was that I was the owner of the vessel, not the the government of Bastion. I either denied or confirmed it. The Jedi Order knew that my father hadn’t been so rich he could an own personal stardestroyer. Question remained, where the money came from. But I didn’t answer.

Master Anda Sulundar concluded that I was hiding something. I was no Jedi, neither a citizen of the Republic, so there existed no law for me that I had to answer their questions. I grew more and more annoyed with their interests. Official they had no reason to bother me with it. I stood up, walked toward the windows and stared outside. I inquired what they really wanted. What had this visit to mean except telling me that they had observed me the last few years? Macey and Anda were quite taken aback by my direct response; Jal’adu had been expecting it to come. With that the meeting was put to an end, trying me to leave in mists. I knew it had been a test again and I saw in Jal’adu’s eyes I had failed it. No doubt they would later discuss this meeting in the main council. Outside the small chamber both masters said goodbye to me and left me alone with Macey. My first question to her was why the Jedi bothered me really? Why they couldn’t let me live my own life as I wanted? She looked at me and apologized, she knew that the order had no rights to follow civilians. She told me that there were a few reasons why they did it, and it was not because they suspected me of something. Out of nothing had come a fund what helped the chanceless citizens of the Republic up to work. They had noted it, the Senate too. As owner they had found Lord Vader. I demanded her why they wanted to know. There was nothing wrong that the man finally did good things.

I hated it that was assumed that I would be bad. I was not happy that she was thinking that of me. I wanted an own life on my own and didn’t want to be bothered by anyone. Macey read my anger clearly and allowed to just to speak on. Most of my arguments were long buried grievances. It didn’t alarm her that I was angry. She listened only, somewhere stepping closer to me and laid a hand on my right arm. She was calm light, where I could cling too in the midst of all the emotion whirling inside me. I calmed slowly when I had told her what was on my mind, and finally to laugh about what I all had said. She knew I felt no hate toward her order, only annoyed by the attention of them. She asked to let it go for now. There was always another time to fight.


Chapter 25 - Jedi Children

From the central hallway Macey took me an exercise centre where children between ten and twelve years old were training with special droids. She smiled enlightened when she saw them busy under the guidance of another master. It was a female Duro and she had twenty kids under her care this session. I paid her my respects in a greeting and watched together with Macey how the training went on. I had enough experience with my own students at the Academy to know how was taught. But yet her explanation had refreshing elements. And the ask for a sparring match I didn’t let go by. First I was the victim to twenty children for who I had to be a dark lord. That was very thrilling for them, as they had no idea who I was. I called up a stern face, as I mostly had with my own students and positioned myself with my back to a wall. That way I knew none would get behind me. I left my own lightsaber at my belt and looked at my twenty opponents. The first trick was to try to snatch all the training sabers from them and with more than the elf I succeeded. The training sabers sailed through the air to a place out of reach for them. Some were shocked and didn’t found it fair. I answered them I had to be a dark lord and those lords were never fair. Those without sabers had to find other solutions to defeat me. And that meant to work together. Twenty youthful minds were not easy to handle in the end. Two took an innocent approach, forcing my attention toward them. It was the Force who whispered that a couple of others were sending a training droid toward me and spew balls out to me. I used the Force to block the attack and the balls fell on the ground without touching me. With open mouths they watch how I blocked the attack. Against those who came to be with raised sabers I somersaulted over their heads out of reach. In the same movement I summoned a couple of soft balls toward my attackers. Two deflected my balls, three others were hit. Then their master put an end to the exercise.

After the fight with the kids what had been fun I made myself up for the match with Macey. I had no objection against it to use our own lightsabers in training. I left the coat off I was wearing, revealing a dark ensemble of the Imperial uniform beneath. From my belt I took my saber and turned it on holding it in my right hand. The way I did it raised a few eyebrows. It was a move I had copied from my father. The orange red blade in the colours of a dawn symbolized for me the edge I walked in life and reminded me who I was. Macey handled a normal blue blade, common among the Jedi. I waited who would take the first attack. I took my saber in two hands and held it ready. Macey anticipated on the move and so our fight started. Neither of us knew how we fought, and I had no knowledge upon the existing fighting styles. Macey knew and with the Force she tried to get some reading on me. I had submitted myself fully to it, listening to its whispers and acting on it without thoughts. I defended myself to where she tried to hit me.
Sometimes our lightsabers hit the walls and left a scar there. Also a droid who got in the way, fell victim to my sword. Driven into a corner I somersaulted over Macey to the free space behind her. The Force was my course of power and I tapped richly from it. I could, because my adept in it was strong. I kept to defending myself, leaving Macey in the attack position. The fight was just training; it held nothing personal for me. She stopped at some point, putting an end to the fight. I accepted it and withdrew myself then on my own to do some practice on my own with training droids set on the highest level possible. It was the only way to get rid of the anxiety that had gotten grip of me during the fight with Macey. After the sparring match and training I took my leave back to my residence.

I didn’t sleep fully through the night. In the late hours I awoke from a dream about a dark cloud and a shattered world. What it meant I didn’t know, but it bothered me quite. I knew it was a dream from the Force not a normal one. I returned to my own duties and was half the day present at the hospital. Although I was the new owner, the name was unchanged. Around there I was a kind of shadow, caught what lived there among the healers and the patients and learned also something about life in general. It was a place of pain, sorrow, fear, but also hope and happiness. I had to smile when I sensed excitement in a birth room, where a Twi’lek female brought her baby into the world. Moments later it was over and the young couple swelled in joy. Most humanoid races could get here their babies. For insecticide and amphibian life there were other kind of medical facilities, specialized into their physics. Someday I hoped to know the same. But a child of me would be far more important to the universe than the baby inside that birth room. A Skywalker baby spoke towards everyone’s imagination, no matter in what age or time it came into existence, that all thanks to my great-grandfather.

Unbeknownst to me the Jedi Council held a meeting about my visit and a couple of other interests regarding me. But also the other side of the Jedi had interest in me. Sometimes I sensed I was followed, but the feeling was elusive, because it winked in and out of the Force. I knew there were Jedi who had the ability to hide them in the Force. But it was possible that Sith could do the same. Disappeared from the Force I had myself with severing myself from it, leaving all the use behind. I didn’t know how to hide. Not using it was a harder task, but to that I was adept. It felt good that my men onboard the Persuitor and my colleagues and students respected me. Three days after my visit at the Jedi Temple when I left the nearby dining facility I came every day I was approached by an anonymous man in non saying clothes. He was frank and fair and hoped if I could help him. The honesty in his words could have persuaded me, if I had no felt a ripple in the Force. I denied, saying I had other duties to perform and took my speeder back home. Slowly I had begun to see my residence as a kind of home. I was used to it know and the dark side around didn’t bother me as much as it had done in the beginning. I had learned not to give in it, draw upon strength I hadn’t even known I had. Perhaps the dark side vanished slowly through the way I lived there. The man I had turned down returned again the next day, now with an invitation to an address in the lower parts of Coruscant. As I traced it down later on, it was an apartment that would be rented to industrial workers and small time criminals. Persons, who were anonymous and quickly forgotten. I took another measure and sent in a disguised squad of stormtroopers to check the place out. I went with them, but the apartment was deserted and the renter was an ID that didn’t exist. I didn’t see the man back. All I came to know was that there hang an elusiveness that someone had actual been in the apartment to check the surrounding for a meeting. I recognized it as a very faint trace coming from the dark side.

The Jedi invited me over again. Still under the threat of being hunted the approach didn’t feel well to me. In fact I had expected a friendliness of them and a non violent way of treatment. I came, but not with pleasure. Angry I stated my thoughts at them, embarrassing them pretty much, telling them in general that their approach was not the Jedi way, but one of the Sith. They didn’t like my line of thoughts, but in the Force was detectible my words held truth. They were judging me upon presumptions and had actually no idea what I all did in life. By accident I gave also away that I knew a Sith lord was present on Coruscant. That caught them really. And I suspected it was a master. There first question was if I was sure. I confirmed it. The confusion and uncertainty ruled strongly after that among the gathered Jedi masters. No member of the order I could not help them settling down with those feelings. In my case I knew that the Sith would give a new try to reach me and I was not someone who would go on a hunt. When the time was right, they would come forth themselves.


Chapter 26 - A trial

This was what a life in independence meant, born to powerful and ruling people, it was a fight to remain your own person and not to be owned by society. The media were crazy to find all sort of news about my person. The Jedi wanted me in their midst, because of my lack of control over my feelings and the unpredictability coming from it. The Sith were only interest in the power I wielded. I had a life on my own in service of the Empire, but hidden in the shadows I owned all the access coming with the position of the Supreme Commander of all Imperial Forces. I was the unknown owner of two successful fundings and the savior of people who threatened to be taken by poverty. The company who had its terrain in the Coruscant Exchange I derived myself quickly from it, allowing it to die if it had never existed. Instead I bought up a waning school complex with multiple dependences in the lower levels of Coruscant. The education was of bad level and the school buildings were poor and terrible. Dressed in the armour of my great-grandfather I set out to there, striking fear in the hearts of those living there, while the mask protected me against the foul air down there. Life there was one misery.

So Lord Vader visited five dependences of a lost school complex. I noticed that mostly children of other races than humans lived there. I looked around and spoke with the present teachers. Most were as bad as the kids who were educated there. Beating was a daily practice and drugs were also a problem out there, mostly among the older kids near ten years old. Among them were a couple of seasoned dealers. They had contacts with the real crime of Coruscant. Natural gossip traveled around that Vader had been down there and quicker than I reached my residence half Coruscant knew that he had been there. Guessed was also what had been his purpose there. The questioned teachers couldn’t tell much, the Lord had only informed about obedient souls. They thought he was searching for brave souls who could be trained to stormtroopers. For the children it was a great opportunity to leave the life behind they lived there.

The corruption was the greatest problem, so for rearrangements I visited first the head quarters of the complex and assassinated the director instantly for the murders he had undertaken, how he had sold children into slavery and how he had bribed his subordinated in doing the same dealings. I seized control over the head quarters and installed there a few Imperials, men from my command. Everything was covered under clearing the place of traitors and corruption. Wearing a mask and helmet was good against recognition, but I didn’t find it comfortable. I wondered how my great-grandfather had ever learned to live in peace with it. Soon as I was back at my residence I pulled the helmet and mask off, enjoying the fresh free air of the high levels of the city. I didn’t mind to live a double life. It gave a kind of excitement I needed, it gave me a purpose.
Macey found the truth out by accident. I had just returned from a long day down there, when she visited me unexpected. I didn’t give my condition much thought, as I recognized her presence in the Force and allowed her to enter my place of stay. She found me in the old command room surrounded by running monitors. Her astonishment was clear as I turned around absent minded from reading a report, which had come from Imperial Headquarters. Through fatigue and thus lower defenses my double life was exposed. We faced each other, probing in the Force the intentions of each other. But earlier than I wanted to give in was the realization that between us a Force bond existed and to what I was now aware of the first time. In her eyes I saw that Macey was aware of it too. I stood up and crossed the distance between us. I took her in my arms and smiled. In the Force she felt I was not corrupted at all. I didn’t mind that she knew the hidden truth about me.

I was not able to fight the will of the Force, so I submitted myself to it. Somehow we were both spellbound and the thought of leaving hurt us both considerably. So Macey stayed the night over at my residence. Both our inner defenses were broken, in the Force we knew both who we were and there was no turning back for us. It was the night that I conceived a child with Macey. We were both not aware of it, only the love was there between us. In the morning we spoke it over that we would never tell what happened that night to anyone. We covered it under the veil of the search to a crime lord, who accepted chanceless children and made slaves of them. We turned it into a real search, so it was legitimated to the real world. Macey returned back to the Jedi Temple. Two months later I saw her again at a public meeting and I sensed that something had changed within her. At the moment it was possible I took her aside and informed what was wrong. But she smiled only and in the Force I detected why she felt so happy. I could feel clearly the small raw form inside of her, already bristling of life. But weird or not no other seemed to sense it. It was our little secret and I would do everything to keep it safe. In a new meeting at my residence we talked about the discovery and what consequences laid ahead. In this world it was not possible for us to marry, not expose Macey to the fact she was pregnant from me. The Jedi wouldn’t accept it. Macey brought up that after the birth I had to take our child with me and raise it. I didn’t like that at all and said no to it. The baby would need her. I couldn’t feed it properly.
But Macey didn’t change thoughts. I sensed it bore her pain to leave her child alone under the care of me, but she knew it would be safe at my side. A life together for us was not there, because I had too many enemies in the field. She didn’t want a hunted life, as my parents had lived, in a yacht traveling from one place to another in the galaxy. The second half of her pregnancy she came living with me, while we continued our research to the slave children. The last week I took her with me in a shuttle toward the Outerrim Sieges to the planet of Ilum where in ancient times the Jedi found their crystals for their lightsabers. A small hide out facility was there and perfectly safe for Macey to bring the baby into the world. It was not the finest happening in a life, but with my help Macey was able to get through the birth. I gave her much of my strength that she needed.

It was a small loud screaming and bloody creature that I held in my hands. It was a boy. I studied the baby from up to down but he was healthy and in the Force he brimmed of power. As all the Skywalker babies it had inherited my Force potential. In the future trained he would be someone to be reckoned with. I gave the baby to Macey so she could see who her child really was. It took her a couple of days to heal from the birth, but in healing trance it went quickly. She left it to me to give my son a name. I named him in his own right Ruwee, to a forefather of him. Ruwee was a name, common on Naboo. Macey enjoyed so a few fine days with me and Ruwee. The baby was a quiet one, mostly silent when he was in the arms of his mother.

Ilum was a planet where it was most time of the year winter and so snow lay outside the hide out facility. We rode with a snowspeeder through the landscape, enjoying the mighty sights of pristine forests and frozen lakes. I shot a lot of holos with her and the baby, refusing to think at the day Macey would return alone to Coruscant and the Jedi Order. Little as he was Ruwee responded nonetheless to our joy. In the Force I touched him as often and he responded hungry at my touch. Macey refrained from doing that, scared of forming a too attached bond with her child. I disapproved, but she shook her head. She wanted that I carried the baby with me. It was two weeks after the birth of Ruwee that I shuttled back to known space and put of Macey at the spaceport on Selvaris, a planet so not far from Reecee and Borleias. She was a Jedi Master and knew to deal with the pain she felt by parting from me and leaving Ruwee with me behind. Except a pack of clothes she took nothing with her. She boarded off my shuttle and waited until I had left the planet before her booked passage for Coruscant. The whole trip toward Naboo I refrained from connecting the Force, listening to a wailing son in the back. I knew he missed his mother’s presence. I was father now and had no idea what to do with a distressed two weeks old baby. It was finally that I couldn’t endure the crying and stretched in the Force toward my son, enveloping him with all the love and care I felt for him. Ruwee responded and stopped with crying. The rest of the journey to Naboo he slept in peace.


Chapter 27 - Little Ruwee

My babyson was a fragile hairless creature. Soft covered in warm sheets and blankets he slept, responding to my touch in the Force. He stood in the co-pilot chair now next to me, so I could keep an eye on him while I flew the Lambda class shuttle over to Naboo. Arriving in system went smooth; docking in the spaceport was no problem either. Later some of my men would come and pick the shuttle up. With a speeder I flew home, Ruwee and our belongings with us. I had been away more than a few years, so my neighbours saw me coming and were quite surprised. The baby was not visible and I took the speeder into the garage. A few days later my astromech arrived with my own freighter. So I lived two months there on Naboo in quiet, using my console in my house for communications and guiding Ruwee through his first months.

Ruwee slept very much. In the periods he was awake, he often cried. I knew it was his only way to commune he was hungry, or had belly pain or something else. I fed him with special baby stuff I bought in the supermarket. There was enough choice, but everything Ruwee responded well too. Even with the Force I didn’t know what were exactly good and what not. I found it out by sensing how my baby responded and sometimes I really winched. It was altogether not a fine experience. Perhaps Macey would have known automatically, but I didn’t. In those two months none single time contacted Macey me and asked how I and the baby were doing. I reached out through the Force to her, trying to get some reading on her and I sent a couple of times messages on her comlink frequency. But no response came back. Macey kept indeed to her word not to have contact with me, the issue I had never agreed with. I didn’t understand why she committed herself so tightly to the Jedi Order. Why she denied herself of happiness? Was the joy of having offspring these days forbidden again?

A bond formed between Ruwee and me and all too soon I couldn’t think about a life without him. The innocence of him was something beautiful and I enjoyed my hours with him. Unconscious he missed still his mom’s presence, but with love and care I healed slowly that wound of him. His hairless head grew soon full with white blond baby hair and in the blue baby eyes came recognition when he saw me. My neighbours knew I had returned, but saw me seldom outside. I took Ruwee with me; soon I was called back to the Academy on Raxior. Also I kept there the baby away from everyone. But after a week there raised questions why I sneaked every time back to my quarters and left Five, the astromech droid, there. The Force was enough for me to know when Ruwee woke up and needed something to eat or had to be cleaned. Between everything I provided Ruwee with a real identity and he became an Imperial citizen, as I was. So when he grew up, there would be no problems to join a school. When he was about three or four years old I wanted him to go to school and make friends. I didn’t want him to be raised only by me and have no friends at all. A school would make him strong and social. This way a few years went by where I taught lessons on the Academy and spent my free time at my house in Theed on Naboo. A year old little Ruwee learned to walk and that went very quickly. Soon his legs knew the steps the baby stepped every where he could come. He loved it, as he cried off happiness. My hands were fine, because he could grab them if necessary. I kept him indoors as long I could, until the mere danger of the dark side was over. Ruwee grew hard and too often I had to buy new clothes for him, because the old became too small. With nearly three years I took him with me and it became public that I had a child. At the brink of three years Ruwee was a cute little child to see. Blue eyes still went under a full boss of light brown hair and rose cheeks told he was healthy. Despite a few words he didn’t speak yet. But he understood nonetheless what I said. He was a bright candle in the Force, but by some unknown reason no Jedi or Sith came after me. I guess they didn’t sense him yet. Ruwee was untrained and till later age I kept him from that knowledge. It was better if it remained unconscious.

Ruwee trusted only me, as he knew who I was. I could feel his unwillingness to leave me and go out on his own. Despite I tried to encourage doing so and playing with the other children in the street. There were more little ones around his age and they played already outside. Stubborn as a Wookiee he didn’t want to play and he protested through the Force by telekinesis. I heard his words in my head, but in reality he said nothing. I withdrew myself from the Force, so he couldn’t talk to me that way. First he was confused, then when I said again, he began to responded visibly and shook his head. It took a few weeks, full of patience to change the stubbornness into willingness. Also he began now truly to speak, because I didn’t touch him by the Force so often anymore. I realized I couldn’t protect him from everything. He had to learn to commune and it didn’t work if I kept using the Force on him. I knew he liked it, because it felt protective and familiar. But he had to learn to live without it. In no time he became a child like all and played with the children in the street. Just like all parents I kept an eye on him. Through him I also socialized with the other parents and talked with them about the kids and all the troubles we ran into. I shared most things, but not what I encountered with the power I wielded. Who he was? Just Ruwee. I kept it to them Ruwee was a child I had taken care over. What had become of his mother was unknown and truth I didn’t know what Macey all did on Coruscant. It would be many years later that I would see her again. The media agencies on Naboo had no interest in Ruwee or me, so lucky I was left alone and could live in reasonable anonymity. The galaxy would learn later about it.

I was thirty-two by the time Ruwee had to go to school. I did what I had planned years earlier and chose for an education institution in the neighbourhood of where I lived. Most of Ruwee’s friends in the street would go there too and he knew them. He didn’t protest when I brought him over for a test day, he found it exciting going there, so for me one problem was solved. Young as he was, he had no trouble to be the centre in the group and have all attention attached to him. That social domination came not from me, so it had to be a trait of his mother. It was a moment in where I realized how little I had actually known about Macey. We had lived almost a year together with her pregnancy, but in my company she had been different than perhaps the Jedi she was in regular life. Or had I just not seen it at all?
I kept in contact with my colleagues at the academy. A new deal existed now between the Empire and the Coorperate Sector and first steps had been taken for good economical relations. Bastion wanted a good trade route with the Sector. Off course the Republic knew off this treaty and kept a secret eye upon this deal if it only existed for economical reason and no military ones. In that time also was confirmed that the Sith had indeed their presence on Coruscant, but where they stayed or what their purpose was, they Jedi couldn’t answer. The Republic was stable, but under their influence it could go on a bad road again. It had happened too often over the time. I knew the history of the galaxy. I knew one thing, if either order would learn about my son, he would become a target. Sooner of later I knew it would happen.


Chapter 28 - School ground

Ruwee was a gifted pupil in basic school. Unconscious he had the Force at his side and depended as breath upon it. His teacher, a warm hearted woman, couldn’t say why Ruwee had such a good feeling upon hidden thoughts and feelings. At first sight he and I appeared to be normal people, Naboo like all around here. I was trained and could fill my role real time, but for Ruwee it was different. Too little he knew nothing outside home, me, school ground, the street and neighbourhood, the shopping mall, and my freighter. I wanted him to live as long as possible in that world. There was always the fear that something happened with him and sometimes I had no idea to come around that fear. I worried a lot, while Ruwee lived still in all innocence of the actual world around him. He believed still in goodness of people, something I had lost at the age of twelve, when my own mother was murdered by assassins hired by her own family.

On a night I woke up from a terrible dream, where I had been standing with my lightsaber in hand after a nasty fight and surrounded by dead opponents. I had no idea what or who they were all, because in the dream they had been shadows. The images lingered in my head and disturbed me. I stood up and looked at the clock. It was still three hours too early to be awake, thus middle of the night. With a sigh I checked upon Ruwee, but he slept comfortable and I left him alone. I did meditation exercises while I was in the kitchen to fetch myself something. But it didn’t help very much. I was not able to go back to bed, so I went behind my console and called up reports to read. Distraction was a way to help forget the bad dream. It hoped it was not a Force vision. If it would return then it was a message from the Force. A happening; that could come across my path. But in what form was uncertain. In the morning I was very quiet and responded not much to my merry talking son, who had a new school day ahead. The uneasiness kept with me and grew stronger.

I left the sensation for what it was. If danger appeared, it would come soon enough. Ruwee sensed my uneasiness also and informed what the matter was. But I shook my head and smiled and covered it up under a memory. He accepted that explanation and then ran away over the play ground to join his class mates. Two days later I sensed a great disturbance in the Force, while I was waiting on Ruwee to take him home. I reached out in the Force and felt anguish and death. It was echoes of screams. As I felt it, it stopped also again. A distressed Ruwee came now to me. He had never been that way. Questionable looks were thrown to me, but I ignored them and took Ruwee in my arms and walked him to home. I soothed as much as I could, but I had no answers for him. A few hours the source of the disturbance in the Force was on the Holonews. On the planet Falleen an important toxic fabric had exploded and caused many deaths. The planet lay almost on the same distance from Naboo as Kalinda, Rodia or Tatooine. It had great attention in the news. And immediately a fund was raised for the unfortunate families who had lost all their possessions in the explosion. I made also some money over from one of Lord Vader’s former accounts. It was that much that it went twice over the largest sum given. And so the Lord was news again. Macey would know who did it, but that knowledge remained hidden. The money was welcome with much joy.

The given sum by Lord Vader was the talk of the universe for the rest of the day and on school ground there was much gossip among the parents. Fathers and mothers conversed about the explosion on Falleen. Children stood with them, listening and trying to understand something of all the news, but most failed. Ruwee understood neither and I did not partake in all the talk. All too soon turned my son to five years and his birthday was celebrated grant in school. In his class there were songs and games, and he got gifts and candy. It was a tradition of Naboo, where I had known nothing about. And so I had not much done to surprise him. He was overwhelmed and happy, but in particular I was not happy. Because it could generate greed in the future. So I tempered instantly Ruwee’s happiness to more moderate levels. Greed had a place in the Force and had a negative influence, what could lead to the dark side if not careful. It was an ancient trap, hunger for power and for Force sensitive people it was a danger. I wanted Ruwee to have good morals and have a sharp knowledge about the bad ones. I was glad he didn’t fight with the other boys, but that could always come. Fear and anger were feelings he would meet some day too.

I was a master in use of the Force and had full reach over my potential. But I mastered also the wisdom over when defense and attack could take place. I taught gently that wisdom in easy terms over to Ruwee, filling his head with good ideas and morals. My father had taught me the same. And most important there was only the Force in the end. Ruwee questioned me sometimes for reasons, but most of time he just took what I told him. I was good with logic, so there were not many questions to ask. Winter was another reason to celebrate. And school wanted the parents to be present. For me it came together with the visit of my own stardestroyer. My XO was the captain now of it and just came for a visit. He contacted me first on my comlink, before he came down to the spaceport. He needed a few permissions of me for new personnel. Also he had news of more stardestroyers coming of the shipyards. They needed them badly, but the government had made a mistake with the estimates for the Navy. They couldn’t pay now the builder. If I would be the owner of them? I had a dilemma, because I had to come with them for a few days and I couldn’t leave Ruwee behind. Ruwee could miss a few days, so I took him finally with him.
Ruwee was thrilled of the prospect of a new adventure, seeing space again and travel with a real cruiser this time. The shipyard laid in a system with no inhabited planets in the Braxant Sector. The order upon the stardestroyers, normal class two Imperial designs, was large and contained seven vessels. I visited them all, looked around in general if they were okay. I felt no lies by what the shipbuilder told me. So I took the ships over and had a lot happy people around me. I shook my head, having solved a threatening debacle. Then I traveled to Bastion and had a small talk with the minister of military affairs. I asked him not to make such a wrong estimation again. The ships were meant for the First Fleet who had a couple of oldies, now decommissioned. Ruwee didn’t want to part from me and thus his existence was not longer a secret. At least my superiors knew now why I lived on Naboo. My son was a bright child and the men were delighted Ruwee was that way. Ruwee was fond of all the attention and talked unstoppable.


Chapter 29 - No illusions

Ruwee’s uninformed absence of two weeks was a high priority matter in school and his teacher was angry at me. She was that decent that she didn’t ask Ruwee about it, but me. And that happened when I dropped him off in the morning. I had a little patience with rebukes and the moment I folded my arms, it was a sign that the subject was off for me. Ruwee was back and that was the end of it. I refused to explain why he had been absent. My son would tell in class anyway. When I went back to get him at the end of the day, I found a dismayed Ruwee who told me that nobody had believed him about the shipyards and the stardestroyers. The course was his teacher who didn’t want to believe. It was but anything she had ever heard from a child. Ruwee was not happy and wanted the class to believe him, but I told him that everyone had the right to believe what he or she wanted. I explained it with simple subjects, but telling him about all sort of different views was still beyond his comprehension. His teacher had a couple of questions to me, but I only answered that it was up to Ruwee to tell. If she decided not to believe him, it was her own fair choice. She was entitled to have her own believes.

She was clearly baffled with my answer. I was an Imperial Commander and I didn’t let myself to be ordered around by persons who had no connection to me in whatever way. Ruwee was a fine child, but it was me who appeared to be difficult as I sensed a few days later when I saw her again. But now there was a female colleague of another class with her and she radiated suspicion when she saw me. There was no choice than to tolerate, however the other parents were asked what they knew of me. I felt exactly in the Force what kind of trouble laid ahead, but due to Ruwee I could not run away from it as my father had always done. Then I had built here a life and I faced the problems as I had always done it. I left it alone, because the issue was lesser without my intervening. It was a way of balance.

The outside world had still plans with me. I knew that the Jedi would like to recruit me and have me among them, so they could rely on my power and keep watch over me at the same time. The same desire was shared by the Sith, but under their influence I would loose all I had. I felt a tremor in the Force, indicating someone was me on trail and would arrive soon on Naboo, if he or she hadn’t landed already. I knew the Jedi. The Sith I had never met before and they wouldn’t have the same approach as the Jedi. They were masters of hiding in the Force and appeared very friendly at first sight. And they surfaced in places where they were the most unwanted. The dark side was suddenly present and that was how I knew a Sith was looking for me. I instructed to the parents of a friend of my son to look after Ruwee and then headed off. I didn’t want the Sith to appear at the school ground. With a speeder I traveled to the spaceport. It was just a man, in black travel robes, hair into a long ponytail and facial tatoes. He had checked in and was waiting for me. He had come, because he liked to talk to me. But also he addressed that I hadn’t showed up at the given address and that I had checked it out, where he had not been happy with. Hidden in the words was a threat. I didn’t answer him.
A long time we faced each other, before it was clear I would not yield to him. Then he began to fight with a red coloured lightsaber. He grinned when he saw the colour of my blade and nodded approvingly. His approving words that I had sensed what my future was, angered me literally. And that was his intention also. He wanted me to get in contact with my anger and use it against him. So quickly I changed approach and went over to defense. I put all my fears out of my thoughts and surrendered myself fully to the Force. It whispered to me where my opponent would strike at me and what was a fake move. The constant clashes of the lightsaber echoed through the hangar and called to the wondering of people, not knowing what was going on in the hanger. Unaware the news spread quickly that a lightsaber duel was going on. In my defense I took the lead over in the duel and guided my opponent to where I wanted. I somersaulted much over his head to keep out of ranch of his lightsaber. I didn’t want to be hurt.

The fight was ferocious and it had been long time ago since a duel had been fought. Tales surfaced still around about Ben Kenobi and Darth Maul. The Sith Lord had been defeated and fallen into a deep endless reactor shaft. When this Sith tried to somersault over me I swept my blade around and caught his left hand and leg. The Sith landed hard on the ground, hissing on pain, but was not able to stand up at all. Angry he tried to stand up, but with a leg severed far above the knee his body couldn’t obey anymore to the commands. Even the Force was not help. The fight was over and people appeared cautious through the doors into the hangar. I deactivated my lightsaber and looked down to the wounded Sith. Burning eyes looked at me. I turned my back to him and left the hangar to return home.

Drained of my energy I slipped into healing trance soon I was home. Ruwee was still with my neighbours probably playing there and for now he was save there. I saw him in the evening again, when I came along my neighbours to pick up my son. But instead of only picking him up, I was invited inside and share some delights with them. I felt better, but needed the Force still not to swagger on my legs. The fight was filmed in the hangar and so I saw everything back in the news. I felt still the sensation in my head and for a moment I stretched out fully in the Force to get some feeling upon Macey. I could sense her distantly on Coruscant and so her worries about me. I put reassurance into the Force that I was all right and our son was not hurt. I felt her relief and imagine a smile on her face. Then I withdrew myself. Ruwee looked questioning at me, because he had felt what I had done. I told him by mind that I would explain it later. He nodded and grinned, realizing that I could not tell here. Then he knew also he had a mighty dad, who could do more than any other father. What had been for a fight about live and death, for him it was beautiful stance what he wanted later to do also? He declared to save the whole world from bad people. In the living room all elders laughed at so much childish enthusiasm and determination. From a five year old boy it was to be expected.

As Ruwee had seen on the news he made also a try to use his own telekinesis to get his glass with lemonade to him without reaching for it physical. But lifting the glass from the table was hard effort for him and he failed. The glass hadn’t moved at all. For me it was an easy job and so with my power I guided the glass to him so he reached to it from empty air. The mouth of his friend hang op as well, so I did the same to him. By the time we got home again, Ruwee was tired and I put him straight into bed. He was forgotten about my connection to Macey and in the days after he didn’t ask for it anymore, so I left the subject what it was.


Chapter 30 - Destiny

Years later I functioned inside the Empire as admiral in the Imperial Forces. The Empire itself had extended to the east and now bordered the whole northern hemisphere of the galaxy. Despite the quite hierarchical structure there was democracy and peace. I saw cadets coming to the academy and soldiers leaving it. Inside the Republic not much changed. The Jedi kept being sided with the government, helping all friendly systems. But systems outside the territory of the Republic could always ask for help if needed. Jedi Knights would be dispatched and sent off for investigation. Always there was a dispute or a quarrel somewhere and the Jedi were the keepers of the peace. For that they had taken up the role they had always had.

Ruwee grew up to a fine young man. He looked much like, but a natural patience came from his mother. For the first time in a long line of Skywalkers he was a person who had no trouble with his emotions and finding control over them. From the age of ten I taught him to use the Force and how to wield a lightsaber. But there was more to the power he wielded and I taught him also much to use his power for good and not wrongly. My own path remained hidden in clouds. What Jedi master looked into the future, he was not able to tell what exactly my destiny was. Yet I lived still in peace and had enough friends across the galaxy, who didn’t believe any longer that I would end up into the dark side. But the thread remained thin. I learned of master Macey Jucan Djorons death short after the fifteenth birthday of Ruwee. I felt sorry for my son that his mother was dead. But he didn’t know her and thought that she had died with his birth. I let the past been buried. Perhaps it was not fair to my son to tell him about it. But the boy never asked or acquired for his mother. I doubted if he had ever missed her really. I had a good bond with him. With the age of seventeen he went to the Imperial Academy and became a cadet. From that moment he was on his own and I had to let him go.

My dreams had gone into fulfilling the day my son succeeded from the Academy. I was proud and as admiral I could hang over his insigne of service and his diploma he worked hard for. For two years he served as officer on a stardestroyer and learned everything what a soldier needed to know. But from the age of twenty he began to yearn for something else than only service in the military. He wanted a higher purpose. Ruwee was a man on his own and followed his own path. By that time I was forty seven and I was more or less alone again. I handed my command over to a more suitable person inside the navy and withdrew myself to the beautiful planet of Naboo. With only one thing in mind, I wanted to live out here my life, grow old and die.
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