Finding a niche — the call of the Force

[Sorel Crieff]

In the morning Sorel awoke from a deep, dreamless sleep.

She looked around the glade, momentarily confused, before she remembered where she was. When she sat up Kaytoo turned his radar eye in his master's direction, beeping a cheery good morning.

Sorel ate a ration bar, drank some cool, clean water from the fountain, and stood in the dew-speckled grass, staring up at the pillar again.

Sorel smiled and reached through the Force, not trying to push the energy field across an empty space - she was swimming through it, meandering across the currents of energy in the glade. She traced the rock of the pillar by the way the Force surrounded it - the rock wasn't alive, but it was an emptiness defined by the life covering it. She could feel the ridges and crannies, the cracks that offered refuge to microscopic living things. He felt the pillar's shape as her awareness climbed it and found the lever.

Sorel bent her wrist and the lever moved as easily as if she'd held it in her hand.

The compartment inside the pillar contained a few training remotes and a small notebook. She ignored the remotes and instead she skimmed through the book and took a sharp intake of breath.

There was no name on the diary — for that was what she surmised it to be — but there were enough clues to tell her it was once the property of Luke Skywalker.

She’d been blessed with visions for years but of late they’d taken her places that meant she trod in the footsteps of famous Force users. There was the trip to Kashyyyk where she discovered Master Luminari’s holocron. Then the recent dominion where she found she had mirrored the actions of an ancient Sith Lord — albeit with a different outcome.

And now the Force had brought her here — of all places. And like the former Grand Master she’d crashed a Y-wing on the planet and been helped by a father and daughter. She’d also been led to this temple by a strange alien.

As she read, she discovered this is where Luke Skywalker learned to use the saber. If it was an omen, she was not entirely sure what it meant, but she trusted the Force to tell her in due course.

But as she read, she realised that the girl was in danger and she had to save her. It seemed odd that the Force would bring her here to save someone that wouldn’t be in peril if she’d never arrived, but the diary entries were clear — the alien could not be trusted.

She considered pocketing the diary but put it back and closed up the box it was contained in. It would be for a future generation of Jedi to find — just as she had.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

All Sorel wanted to do was sleep, but she knew she couldn’t afford the luxury — a life depended on her. One that was only in danger because of her.

If the diary was accurate — and it had been so far — the young girl was settling down for the night and unless Sorel got their first, she would most likely not see the morning.

The young girl had set up camp close enough to the alien to keep an eye on him — but hadn’t factored in the fact that if she could see him…he could see her.

“Kaytoo, wait here, I’ll be back soon.”

And then she was gone, retracing her steps through the ancient temple and out through the cave. Within minutes she was down on the bed of the old reservoir and she closed her eyes, searching with the Force for anyone nearby. She was a Padawan and so her range was limited but she sensed something and moved towards it.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel closed in on the young girl. She was moving slowly forwards and the Jedi surmised she was stalking the alien. Yet Sorel couldn’t sense her former guide in that general area and so stopped.

She closed her eyes and using Force Sight, extended her range as far as she could. It required more concentration than she was used to and slowly the area around her built into a mental map, three hundred and sixty degrees of coverage. And finally she saw him — he was away to there right, nowhere close to where the young girl was headed. He clearly knew she was coming and he was lying in wait. Sorel knew she had to move fast.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel made a bee-line for the alien. She was sure he was focused on the girl and so would be oblivious to her approach. She moved as quietly as she could, but didn’t risk being too slow.

As she closed on him, she heard the crack of the undergrowth beneath her boots and was aware the alien was now moving towards her. As she rounded a tree she saw a weapon swing at her, knocking her to the ground.

"This is an electrostaff," the alien said as Sorel struggled to her feet, spitting out blood. "A useful tool - and one designed to kill Jedi."

The alien leapt forward, the electrostaff whining with what sounded like a terrible glee. Sorel raised her lightsaber and knocked the weapon aside, but the alien followed her, sweeping at her stomach with the staff. She side-stepped him and aimed a slash at the alien's back - but he had anticipated the attack and batted her blade away, leaping over a tree stump and turning to regard his opponent.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"It's a pity," he said. "In a couple of years you might have passed for a Jedi. But now you're just a girl with a blade you're not worthy of. Pretending to be something you're not."

"The Force is with me," Sorel said, calmly. "That's more than you'll ever have."

She unclipped her second saber — hoping it would surprise the alien. She carved two figures of eight in the air in front of her. The alien stepped back, then tried to dodge around Sorel’s defenses. Quicker than thought, her lightsabers were there to meet the electrostaff, pushing it back.

The alien grunted and spun away from her blade, tumbling forward and then leaping at Sorel’s unprotected back, electrostaff wailing. But the blow never landed - and then the golden blade was slashing at the alien’s head. He caught the blade on his staff and scrambled aside, the bristles on his arms rising and falling as if they were breathing hard.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Again the alien attacked, electrostaff thrust in front of him like a spear. Sorel managed to knock the tip aside, but his charge was too powerful to deflect. So Sorel used her pace and flexibility to duck and the alien stumbled past. As he did so, Sorel’s lightsaber flashed behind her and nicked the back of the alien's leg.

The former guide made a noise Sorel presumed meant he felt pain, and one chitinous hand went to the cut. His cilia flailed back and forth, and the hairs on his arms spasmed.

“The time for games is over girl,” the alien said, touching a button on the control box that sat on his chest. Motors squealed and a hidden shield emerged from inside his helmet, covering his chitinous face. He opened a pouch on his tool belt and extracted a small black sphere which he threw at Sorel.

Sorel watched it calmly, her lightsaber already moving to intercept it. Interrupting the grenade's trajectory would be easy enough.

But what she didn’t realise was that wasn't the alien’s plan.

The grenade detonated at the apex of its flight, a meter before Sorel’s blade would have sliced it in two.

A blinding flash of light and a thunderclap of noise filled the woods. The concussion knocked Sorel backward and into the trunk of a tree. She staggered to her feet, lightsaber still in her hand, but blood running from her mouth.

She blinked furiously, then stared straight ahead.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

The alien put a finger to his chest, and his face shield contracted back into his helmet. He took two steps to the right, spinning his staff. Sorel kept staring in the same direction, trying to regain balance and composure.

"Hey!" the alien called. “Welcome to the real world. This is no nursery for training Padawans you know. Here we fight to the death.”

Sorel didn't react to the words. She held her lightsaber in front of her, blinking furiously, wiping her bloody mouth on her sleeve with an uncertain, jittery movement. She staggered to the left, then to the right, then fell to her knees, struggling to lift her head.

She was blinded.

“And we don’t believe in fair fights, either. There is no honour here in the wilderness and certainly none in death.”

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel scrambled to her feet. She resisted swinging her lightsaber wildly, knowing it would merely encourage her opponent to dispatch her quickly. She needed time to think — it was the one weapon she had at her disposal.

Except it wasn’t. It was a common mantra for Jedi Masters to encourage Padawans to use their minds, their every day surroundings and not to reply on the Force. Here, conversely, the reverse was true. The Force was to be trusted entirely.

"Such feeble senses — so easily disabled," the alien said.

Static coughed out of the alien's vocoder. He walked slowly around the stricken Jedi, raising his deadly electrostaff as if he meant to ram it into her back. He held it a few centimetres from her, then drew it away, enjoying the opportunity to toy with her.

The alien once again brought the staff to within a few centimetres of the back of Sorel’s head. But he still relished the prospect of victory more than the actual win.

The guide walked around to face Sorel. She was on her knees, blinking furiously, her balance and vision affected. The alien took a half step back, the movement relaxed and casual.

"You'll never see it coming," he purred, raising the electrostaff like a club.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel did not need eyes to see. She was stunned and her senses slightly confused, but she focused on the Force like she'd never done before and so when the alien's weapon arced swiftly towards her exposed neck, she moved without conscious thought to block it with her saber.

Had she been able to see - and if he were not wearing a mask - she would have seen the look of surprise on his face. But she sensed it anyway.

"Never underestimate a Jedi. And certainly never, ever take the Force too lightly."

With a flick of her wrist, the aliens weapon went sailing from his hands and he stood before Sorel, entirely at her mercy.