Private Lost Hyperlanes

[Juno Sabat]

Juno was in many ways a rebellious Padawan. Not content to sit and learn with a particular order she traveled, hoping to find the kernels of truth. She did this to avoid the tribalism inevitable in any particular organization, and it had worked pretty well thus far. The downside was she had little backup when things went wrong, or there something she didn't understand. She tried to counter this with meditation, consulting her Holocron, or knitting, but she couldn't shake the events of Cato Nemoida. So she took up a new hobby.

Jumping through hyperspace in a space suit.

She often didn't know exactly where she was going until she started. Juno tried to listen to the Force, let it tell her where to go. She'd do that, tell her tiny astromech PIKA where to plug and chug complex Hyperspace routes, wait two hours for calculations to be done, and ride the hyperlanes. She justified it as a means of getting her closer to the Force, as the physics of hyperspace defied common intuition. Thus figuring out Hyperspace would require better listening to the Force. Then again, she may have been trying to drown out imposter syndrome with thrill seeking. Or both.

"Pika, I think I know where to go." Juno said to her astromech as she floated through space. She had enough air for one more jump.

"Dwoop Doo Doo dwoop Doo dwoop Doo dwoop." Pika replied in binary.

"Look, I know hyperspace is hard, but I got a feeling. Start chugging a route with these specifications . . ." Juno would continue to list off vectors, linear transformations, and other things for the astromech to crunch.

"Doo dwoop Doo Doo dwoop dwoop?" Pika returned after Juno's order.

"Yes, I'm sure. We'll be fine." Juno replied. The astromech cranked away at N-dimensional equations for some time before telling Juno the jump was ready to go.

"Punch it." Juno replied, and the two were off into hyperspace. Getting in worked, which was a good sign. She cruised for perhaps ten minutes before an alarm went off in her suit. She exited hyperspace and found she'd gotten too close to the mass shadow of a n asteroid. If it weren't for Pika yanking her out of hyperspace she'd probably be dead.

Juno managed to get the Mark 32 Mobility suit to move out of the path of the asteroid, but inadvertently entered the gravitational pull of a nearby planet.

"Pika where are we?" Juno asked as shields activated to keep her safe in descent. The droid returned their location was not on any maps it had downloaded.

"Activate the beckon call!" Juno said, hoping to return her slave-rigged ship. Pika returned that it was trying, but the asteroid field made getting a message out extremely difficult.

Seconds later Juno hit the dirt of a world likely forgotten. Thankfully the planet had a breathable environment. She hit the button to recess her helmet and began looking around for any sign of civilization.

At some point she'd come to the attention of Jorus Q. Merrill .

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Q-27
AN EXTRAORDINARILY VULNERABLE, ESPECIALLY SECRET PRE-TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD

"That's far enough, offworlder."

Thirty-plus years, on and off, Jorus had called this planet home. Alna had brought him here, married him here. A metric fethton of history he'd kept from even his closest friends, and he wsan't known for keeping secrets in general.

All that to say, here he was, of a piece with the islands and their people. His faded old marriage tattoo wove its way up his arm, and he wore clothes made from treefrond fiber. He carried no weapon other than a wooden staff for fending off hungry brulleks. This planet, nameless to its pre-technological human inhabitants, had never seen war or organized violence. The occasional family feud at most.

Between that innocence — enforced innocence for centuries, courtesy of a since-evicted Brodo Asocan social engineering project — and the colossal fortune of aurodium in the planet's crust, Jorus had never known a more vulnerable world.

Aurodium glinted in the sand. The space-suited visitor might recognize it, might not. Jorus' hands knotted on the staff.


Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

The planet Juno arrived at was temperate and peaceful. Too peaceful, if Juno was honest. She couldn't find any sign of civilization, let alone spacefaring civilization. Juno asked Pika to scan for anything powered, but Pika had limited capability in that respect. Pika could do a lot, but was typically less effective than a regular astromech. Part of the compromise of getting an astromech that fit in a cupholder instead of a wastebasket.

Jorus Q. Merrill found Juno before she had wandered long. His clothes spoke to pre-spaceflight, but the word 'offworlder' spoke to some knowledge of space travel. A technological refugee perhaps? That might explain his tone. It held authority in a way that seemed to intimidate. He didn't want her here.

"I've crashed here without a ship." She weighed her words carefully. "I don't mean to intrude on your land. I can leave." Juno felt she had come to this world for a reason, but had no desire to start a fight with the first local she found.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

The voice behind the helmet suggested a young women parsing her words carefully.

"This planet's off-limits," Jorus said, eyeing the spacetrooper suit. It appeared to have a weapon aperture of some kind in the left forearm, and a few other bits and pieces indicated danger too. Corellian-made, high-tech, not something he'd seen before. And if those leg armatures really were miniaturized sublight engines...

His instincts offered nothing of value. This could go any which way.

"And I do mean completely off-limits. It's best if you leave, yes. I can get you a ride to Weik or Port Mynock on something with a hyperdrive. I'll need to wipe your jump coordinates, though."

Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

Weik? Juno thought Weik was a myth. Where in the Galaxy did she end up? Juno pondered this a second and remembered something Jaxton had told her.

Luck isn't a real thing. The Force just moves in ways we don't understand, many times quicker or slower than we expect it to.

Juno was convinced her coming to this place wasn't an accident. She couldn't just leave, at least not yet. She hit a button on her suit and air escaped from her helmet. Juno took it off and set it on the sand, revealing her lekku and less developed age.

"We can wipe the jump coordinates now if you like." She said, then hit another button on her suit. Pika popped out his slot and began trying to get traction on the sand.

"Pika here crunches the hyperspace routes. He's great, but he can only keep two, maybe three jumps in his memory. Head on over Pika." Juno said. The droid hesitated a moment, but headed over to Jorus Q. Merrill dutifully.

"I need to be honest with you though. Pika crunched the coordinates, but I told him where to look." Juno probably sounded crazy, but he would be able to tell she believed it. "I felt where to go. I'm not sure if I could do it again, but I might." She continued. She hoped her tone would convey honesty rather than a threat.

"I think I was supposed to come here. But listening to you, it sounds like no one should be here. I believe you, but I also believe in my gut. Why do you think our guts are different?"

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Between the Twi'lek instinctive astrogator and the tiny R2 struggling along the beach, Jorus had a lot to chew on. He sat on a driftwood log and picked up the droid, keeping the staff close at hand.

"My gut's telling me nothing," he said at last, hefting the droid like a grenade. "It only really talks to me when I'm asking where to go. You deleting that nav data, son?"

The PIKA bleeped in the affirmative. After a moment, Jorus shrugged and put the droid on the log beside him.

"So you're a Forcer — an astrogator. You a Warden, a Jedi? Light Hand? Jensaarai? Too young to be a leftover Kathol Judge, but one of their students or kids? What's your training, spacer?"

If Juno Sabat tried to get a feel for whether he was Force-sensitive, she'd pick up a cosmic sorta, but not like that. But sorta.

 

[Juno Sabat]

Juno stifled a giggle as the man called Pika 'son', but the stranger might catch a grin on her face. As he sat on the log Juno felt a slight bit of relief. Things still felt tense, but not nearly as hostile as a moment ago.

"I guess the closest thing you'd call me is a Jedi mutt." Juno replied, and took a seat on another piece of driftwood. Her finger would begin to tap on the wood.

"I was a slave until about three years ago. I was rescued by an old guy who called himself a Jedi, but wouldn't tie himself to any organization." Juno continued. "He's been gone for about a year now. Had some business he needed to conclude. He left me his Holocron so he's still with me in a way " Juno finished. Jorus Q. Merrill would be able to tell she was still weighing and dealing with the loss. The entire time she'd be tapping on the piece of wood. To many it would seem like a simple nervous tick, but it was really an old code from the Levantine Sanctum. The same code in fact, that Seydon of Arda had used to communicate with Jorus not too long ago. The name of her master would slowly be spelled out.

J-a-x-t . . .

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"Now that," said Jorus, glancing meaningfully at her tapping finger, "is an extraordinary claim. I see exactly two possibilities. Number one, you really are Jaxton Ravos ' student and the Force brought you here to meet Jorus Merrill. Number two—" And he was watching her closely as he spoke, to see what reaction his name got. "—you know damn well who I am, you're here for me, and you're playing games with my old friend's name."

He held the staff across his body without getting up.

"Like I said, my gut's not leading me one way or other other. So tell me. Jaxton and I and an ally of ours led an insurgency against a totalitarian Jedi regime once upon a time. What was the planet, and who was the ally?"

 

[Juno Sabat]

The mention of Jaxton's name still hurt. She fought tears and held them back successfully, only to lose a moment later at Jorus Q. Merrill 's accusation. She buried her head in her arms and held it there. She'd found Jorus. The Force had put them together. His words hurt, but she understood why he said them. Why he had to be sure.

"Nibelungen was the world." Juno replied, bringing up her head but keeping her gaze away from Jorus. She'd heard the story more than once. The tyranny created by pride and dogma without wisdom or compassion, masquerading under the name 'Jedi'.

"Seydon Gunn was your friend. Seroth beforehand. I tried to find him at Arda, but he wasn't there. Jaxton . . . he wanted me to find you. The Levantine founders." She took a breath and moved her eyes to meet his.

"I never thought I would, but here you are "

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Intellectually, he'd expected her to be the genuine article. But deep down he hadn't expected her to pass the test — hadn't wanted her to.

When he asked himself why, he decided it had to do with his shifting, faithless conception of the will of the Force, this semi-sentient agglomeration of past life. There was no such thing as destiny.

And yet here she was.

"Welcome to Q-37, friend," he said quietly. "The locals don't have a name for this planet. Nothing needs a name until there's more than one of them, and to many of these people, this is all the world there is. My big freighter is underwater just outside the cove. Airlock code is the first five prime numbers." He got up and set the staff aside. "You'll get there far before I do, if I've judged your suit right. Just don't touch the controls or anything, and I'll be right down."

 

[Juno Sabat]

The man's tone shifted. He gave Juno the planet name, the location of his ship, the airlock code, and called her a friend. She wiped a tear with armor plated gloves, then came to a stand.

"That k you." Juno replied, then circled the man with a hug. She stayed there for a moment before letting him go.

"I'm Juno." She introduced herself before taking her helmet and Pika, plugging them both into her suit before heading off She figured he wanted down time alone.

---

Juno arrived at the freighter without issue, taking careful attention not to be detected by any of the locals. Who knew what an untouched world would think of a Twi'lek or her spacesuit after all. Once in the ship she'd find a comfy place to get out of her armor, stripping down to a much more comfortable jumpsuit. If uninterrupted afterwards she'd try to find a caf machine and start up a pot. She was beat, and needed some energy.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Truth be told, he'd lied to Juno. The locals might have minimal experience with (or interest in) technology, but they weren't stupid. Thirty years the Merrills had been coming and going, and making the only reasonable choice about the sharing of galactic standard medicine in various scenarios.

Also the S.S. Gossamer was a mile long. The bulk freighter barely fit in the ocean. At low tide the island kids could use the top deck as a wading pool.

Jorus paddled out, moored his boat to a protruding antenna, and descended through a dorsal hatch. Tonight the cavernous ship offered slim company, a few droids going about their business. On better days you'd find the occasional elder using the medbay or some young voyager deciding whether to leave the planet.

All of the above would be clear to a decently observant observer. Still dripping seawater, Jorus found Juno in the main galley by the caf machine.

"Welcome to the Gossamer."

Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

"Thank you again Mr. Merrill." Juno responded, as she conducted the intergalactic ritual of caf making.

"When you said big freighter I had figured maybe a Tempus Ardent. This is something else." Juno responded, genuinely interested in the ship. She hadn't run across the thing or looked at the schematics, but from what she had seen it was at minimum heavy cruiser size.

"You prefer black, cream, sugar?" Juno asked, beginning to pour and doctor the drinks as needed.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"Tempus Ardet...you know that's the only ship class I ever designed from the ground up? Big dreams of giving folks an affordable bulk freighter as a home, start a business, democratize the spacelanes, so I — I mean, I had a bunch of shipwrights doing the nitty-gritty, but..." He waved absently and nodded. "Green milk, no sugar, thanks."

He flopped on one of the freighter's padded benches.

"The Gossamer's an old Kathol Republic Lotekk Deep Space Transport, patched and modded to hell and back. I've flown her all the way to the far end of Companion Besh. Jaxton ever take you outta the galaxy?"

Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

Juno put a little sugar in her caf and found green milk to put into Jorus's.

"He didn't, though I kind of suspect that's where he went." She was much more calm now than she was on topside, but her tone was a bit somber.

"He told me he drank from the forbidden well a long time ago. That it had finally caught up with him, and he needed to get away." Juno said, then sipped her caf. Jorus might infer it was the pool of the knowledge. The same pool Akala later drank in its entirety, causing the netherworld crisis.

"What was it like? Companion Besh? Have you been to Otherspace? The Vong Galaxies?" Juno asked, curious. Perhaps it was her upbringing as a slave, but she'd always had a desire to see what all was out there.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"Besh? Firefist?" Jorus slurped his caf and rummaged in a drawer. He produced a dog-eared book and tossed it to her — Deep Black Sea: The Companion Besh Survival Guide. "I first went out there maybe twenty, twenty-five years ago. It's a lot like the Unknown Regions: bad routes if any, good shadowport markets if you dig hard enough, and plenty of dark forest strategy if you know what that is. Planets that figured their best bet at survival was eliminating the other guy preemptively. Lots of bones. I've been all the way through Firefist and the Rishi Maze, and did some mapping in Companions Esk and Grek back in the day — and yeah, Otherspace a few times after my little sister got stranded there. Never as far as the Vong galaxy, though. Too much to see that's closer to home. I've barely scratched the surface of Grek, let alone Cresh, Dorn, and Forn. Millions of stars."

He didn't speak to Jaxton's transformation or potential whereabouts. The whole affair had always unsettled him and left him short on both options and answers.

Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

Juno listened to Jorus's words, but her eyes were firmly in the book provided. She first skimmed through the table of contents, then made her way to different sections that met her curiousity. He'd probably notice she spent the most time examining the maps.

"You've seen and done a lot. More than any explorer I can think of." Juno replied. "It'll take me a while to catch up to you." She glanced up and gave the man a smile.

"So, what's here? Q-37. What are you protecting here?" Juno would ask.

"Dwoop doo Doo dwoop." Pika would reply the results of earlier scans.

"The planets crust is what?"

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Jorus' face tensed. "Aurodium. Best estimate? Several quadrillion credits' worth, dozens of times the value of the aurodium that's on the market, enough to fund a galactic war or build a second Coruscant. The islands have about five million people, all pre-tech pacifists by any galactic standard measure. Uniquely vulnerable. Even a whisper of this place gets out and it'll go from excavator droids to mass relocations to planet reaving in a month flat. A world wiped off the map, so to speak, because it's not on any map. I never told Jaxton or Sedaire; about this place; never told Seydon until very recently. Q-27 stays off the charts, not a whisper."

He rummaged in the drawer again and produced a crumpled map that had fallen out of the book. The map was months old, the book a couple decades: he'd been using the map as a bookmark.

"Here, enjoy. I'm not doing the big ExGal charting these days, haven't for years. You want to go for a stroll, you go talk to Cotan Sar'andor — once he gets back from his Companion Cresh expedition anyway. Oh, one other thing about this system. It's got a breach point: a stable vector you can use to fight your way past the hyperspace distortion at the edge of the galaxy. We're right there, the red X right at the edge. You ever need the nav data for that, let me know. It doesn't lead much of anywhere, just out into the intergalactic void, the big straightaway. Floor it for a couple weeks with a decent drive and a big gas tank, and you might wind up at Firefist or the Rishi Maze."

Juno Sabat

 

[Juno Sabat]

Juno pondered the man's words. In a childish way, the knowing if a secret gave her a good feeling, like she was important. It was an accidental jump, but Jorus could have dealt with that in any number of ways.

"I'll keep it quiet." Juno replied on the subject of Q-27. It would be a tough promise to keep, but Juno understood the severity of it.

The map made for a far more pleasant mood. The Twi'lek examined it thoroughly, taking notes of Merrill's words. A couple weeks, a big gas tank, a good drive? She wondered if that was the original purpose of the Gossamer, or one of them rather.

"Thank you." She replied. Juno's mind was ticking on how to put together an appropriate ship, get a crew, and organize a trip. Most of thise things could be translated into a certain amount of Ucks. A realization came that Juno needed to learn a skill if she wanted to do the damage Jorus had across ExGal space.

"Jaxton said I had a gift for 'reading the ripples'. That that's why I can feel a route or a path." She looked up at him a moment. "Do you know a way to train that? Or do you just keep doing it until you hear a little quieter tone?"

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"Reading the ripples — it's a quote. Kenobi by some sources, Skywalker by others, I forget how it all shook out. The bottom line is the closer you get to the Force, the more you face a choice. Big, big choice. Tossing rocks in the lake or reading ripples. Shouting or listening. Power or sensitivity. A really good astrogator picks listening first. It's not like you can shove stars out of the way, clear a path through grab shadows. I've done that and it's the wrong way. It's why I don't use the Force anymore, haven't in a good ten, twelve years. I can still listen but that's about it.

"Or you could hold onto the power to make direct change. That's the Grandmasters, the Yodas and Wraiths and all the rest. But they sacrifice the ability to listen to the quiet parts of the Force.

"Normal Jedi training is useless for this crap, counterproductive sometimes. I'll give you a little boat and you can get out on the water, start navigating and maneuvering by instinct."