Romancing the Crystal

[Avdid Asm]

(Romance Not Included)

He glanced again at the clock, but it still refused to advance. For what seemed like an eternity, it had mocked him, lingering at 10 minutes before quitting time. Around him, dozens of other drones sat at their stations, heads down. Occasionally, someone would look up and another mind would be bent towards the clock. But even their collective efforts couldn't make the time go by more quickly. It was inescapable. For 10 more minutes, they would be trapped at the local customer assistance center for Industrial Automaton.

For 6 months Avdid had been wasting away here. Still, as much as the place felt like a prison time, he knew it could be so much worse. He had been a prisoner on a ship that (as he had later found out) was headed towards some facility deep in the Galactic Core. Turns out that trying to hack into the Jedi Archives on Coruscant (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?22614-Those-Dusty-Old-Tomes&highlight=dusty+tomes)was seen by some as the kind of behavior that wasn't to be encouraged. After a short, and rather inauspicious chase, he was caught, bundled up, interrogated by some spook in a funny hat, bundled up again and tossed onto the aforementioned ship. Fortunately for him, the ship had also apparently been transporting a few individuals that were near and dear to the Rebel Alliance. A strike force had waylaid the prison ship and rescued the prisoners - both the important ones and the leftovers like Avdid. They made their way beyond Imperial space to the Circarpous Major System. There, his rescuers bid farewell to Avdid, leaving him with a few credits, the names of some contacts, and some well wishes on starting a new life.

He had briefly considered booking passage back to Coruscant. Sure, his assets had probably been frozen and his home searched, but he still had friends there - friends, money, and, most importantly, his research. For years he had been scouring every database he could find for information about the Force and everyone who had used it throughout history.

He had always known he was special. His mother told him. But unlike the lies that many mothers use to build up their children, his mother told the truth. He WAS special. At first, it was just thought that he was gifted. You know, "gifted", as in "smarter than the average dolt walking around on any average planet." But as he got older, it became apparent that something else was at work. He was able to notice patterns where others couldn't. He he anticipated things before they happened. He could sense what those around him were going to say before they said it. There was one thing none of them said. To say it would make it true. If they kept it quiet, they could pretend it wasn't happening. But eventually the whispers started - there was no way around it.

Jedi...
Force...
Witch...

The words were muttered like a curse. Everyone knew what people like him did - the trouble they caused, the misery that came down on everyone that surrounded them, the evil they were destined to bring about. The Empire didn't look kindly on Force users and he knew that there were those that knew about him that would gladly turn him over to the authorities for the good of the community. If he stayed much longer in his village, one day someone would make him disappear.

So Avdid disappeared himself. He began to scour the galaxy for what he was and what he could do. For several years he bounced from planet to planet. He sought out the aged and the storytellers, he did what he could to gain access to libraries and personal collections, and he moved on when people began to become too suspicious about who he was and what he was up to. After a few years, the galactic current dumped him, like many others, on Coruscant. The mid-levels of the city-planet became his sanctuary. By day he worked various odd jobs to bring in the credits. He was just another cog in the machinery - a perfectly respectable member of society. By night, he was a traffiker of knowledge, tracking down whatever leads he could find, whether they be on the HoloNet or in the depths of the city. He began to amass a trove of various stories, legends, and theories. They were first-hand...second-hand...third-hand...forty second-hand accounts, but he collected all of them. He fell asleep at night thinking about the things the light and dark side users of the Force could do and during the day he dreamed about ruins that he would some day visit and artifacts he would some day possess.

All of that was lost one rainy night when he lost his patience and his good sense gave in to the siren's call of the Jedi Archives. He failed. And for 6 months he had been left here on this planet to mull over his mistakes. Over and over. 10 minutes at a time.

[Avdid Asm]

"Yo, Avdid, we're going to grab a few drinks over at Banthabelly's. You coming?"


The gran looked up to see Mikelle, Nagheena Najar, and Tom, his workplace neighbors. Quitting time!


The first thing Avdid had done upon getting this new job was to forge a close friendship with the workers around him. The post-work festivities had quickly become a tradition with with the group. Sometimes it was Banthabelly's, sometimes it was a dive bar called Lucky Lindy, sometimes it was just dinner at one of the tiny apartments they considered home.


Tonight's goal was a short walk from the call center; Banthabelly's, a local chain restaurant. He doubted any of the patrons even knew what a bantha was besides a horned, hairy creature with hands resting on an enormous gut. Cute mascot with dubious zoological accuracy aside, the place was mainly known for two things - serving cheap drinks and having a tremendous amount of crap decorating the walls. Why was there the front half of a speeder bike sticking out of the walls over the restrooms? Who knows.

The foursome were quickly seated at a table, having beaten the evening rush. Before long, they each had a large, neon blue drink sitting in front of them. "I don't know how much longer I can put up with Corporate, man." As always, it was Mikelle that started the evening's gripe-session. "Can you believe that I got yelled at again this morning for not filling out those P-328-B forms again?"


"Yeah, I don't know why you don't just fill those out. It doesn't take that much time to do and it's a nice little break," replied Nagheena, always the voice of reason.


"They screw with my productivity numbers. They've been all over me to get my numbers up since last quarter and I can't afford to spend time filling out some form that no one will ever read." Mikelle pounded the table for emphasis. "Whatever, our customers are useless anyway. How can you not know how to charge an R2 unit? They've only been around for almost 40 years now. Idiots. I swear, this job is going to give me an ulcer."


It continued like that for several hours. Complaints were made and platitudes were offered. Good-natured jokes were made and insults were traded. Rounds were ordered and drinks drained. With the four well on the way towards inebriation, the conversation turned to Tom's upcoming vacation to nearby Mimban. The old Selkath had been an employee at the call center longer than anyone. He was the poster boy for keeping one's head down and not rocking the boat. Likable, if a little slow on the uptake sometimes, he had assumed the role of Avdid's paternal figure here on Circarpous IV. "I'm telling you," the old man pontificated, idly stroking his lobes, "you three oughta join me. Get away from this place and recharge for a bit."

[Avdid Asm]

"Come with you?" asked Nagheena.
"To Mimban?!" added Mikelle.

Their incredulity was perfectly reasonable. While Cicarpous IV was a well-developed, modern planet - one of the financial powers of the galaxy, in fact - Mimban, the next planet out in the solar system, was not. The Empire had conducted mining operations on the planet until they were recently displaced by the Alliance. The Alliance, however, had left the planet alone for the most part. All that remained for civilization were a few scattered settlements that had sprung up around the Imperial installations. It was barely populated. It was a wild, steamy, cloudy turd of a planet. It was not a vacation destination.

"Yes, Mimban," Tom grumped, assuming the tone a voice he used when he thought people were being foolish. "It's not what you think, they have resorts now. All inclusive. It's the next big thing. They have brochures and everything. Beaches, spas, first rate restaurants...it's great!"

The table sat in silence, the other three trying to formulate their words through the haze of the alcohol. Nagheena was the first to speak. "Tom, just because they have brochures doesn't mean anything. They could lie. People lie all the time."

"They have videos! I've seen them!"

"Oooh, videos. Well, I'm convinced."

"Shut it, Mikelle. Where was the last place you took a vacation? South Whiterock Beach, like all the other tourists? I've seen the world. I've seen worlds. And I can tell you, this place is perfect." Tom's voice rose, audible above the din of the now-crowded room. The three continued to argue the merits of Mimban over the course of several more minutes.

Silent until then, Avdid chimed in, cutting Tom off and looking intently at Nagheena,
"He has a point, you know. It could be fun to take a trip to the frontier and see things most people never will."

The Nagheena considered it. "You have a point. It could be fun to take a trip to the frontier. And I suppose most people can't say they've ever been to Mimban.

"And you have plenty of vacation time saved up," Avdid offered.

"And I do have plenty of vacation time saved up. I should use it. I mean, I'll have to get some other things in order, but I think I could do this. I'm going to do this. Count me in."

"Wait, what? You're actually going along with this crazy idea? Just like that, you're going?" Mikelle remained unconvinced. "Well, whatever. You might the time to waste, but I don't."

Avdid turned his attention towards Mikelle. She and Nagheena couldn't have been more different. While the neimodian craved danger and the unknown, the human woman was very conservative and cautious. She was also far more strong-willed. Avdid found her mind to be about as pliable as block of granite. While even the rigid mind could be navigated with enough care, he didn't have to worry about it this time. He knew Nagheena could guilt her into joining in less than 5 minutes.

In the end, it took less than 4. Guilt is a powerful force. Finally, it was three against one. All eyes turned to the plump little gran in the bright yellow shirt.

"Avdid? What about you?"

Avdid, of course, was in. The trip had been his idea from the beginning. He just wanted some company.

[Avdid Asm]

Another energy discharge exploded near the shuttle as it descended through the upper atmosphere. The majority of the passengers, stone-faced miners and other seasonal workers, all of whom had likely made the trip to Mimban multiple times. They sat four across in cramped seats, almost identically dressed in dull colors.


The four sitting in the back of the craft, on the other hand, were suffering the full effect of the turbulence. Mikelle and Nagheena had traded appearances: the human had turned a sickly shade of green, while the neimodian was especially pale and was gripping the armrests so hard she was in danger of ripping them off. Avdid simply appeared dead. His last few days worth of meals were now deposited in a bag laying at his feet. Oddly enough, Tom seemed to be handling the trip with ease. At least, that was the assumption one could make from his ear-splitting snoring. Avdid tentatively sat up to peek out of the small viewport, but all he saw was clouds -- thick, dense, endless clouds. He allowed the soothing appearance of the clouds, as well as the selkath's sonorous accompaniment to ease his mind and meditate.


In this meditative state, Avdid found his senses heightened to extraordinary levels. It was something he found himself doing often when in crowds of people. Avdid had made it a habit of keeping his ears open over the past few years. It had been about 4 months ago, for example, that he'd overheard the miners' conversation in a crummy dive bar. The miners had been laughing about the savage natives and the crazy beliefs they had. Anyone else would have dismissed it as the ramblings of a couple drunkards, but to Avdid, it was another piece of the puzzle, confirmation that there was likely a kernal of truth at the core of the legends he had dug up about an artifact somewhere on the surface of Mimban.


From there, it had been a small matter to arrange for some travelling companions. Molding Tom's mind was like molding clay. A small bit of effort on Avdid's part and his older coworker was convinced that Mimban was the perfect vacation destination.


The "vacation destination" slowly emerged as the shuttle finally dropped below the everpresent cloud layer.

[Avdid Asm]

"...all meals will be served in the common room. Meals will be served at 2 hours past sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. Please leave any items you wish to have laundered outside your door in the provided receptacles." The hunched old woman continued her practiced speech as she led the quartet through the narrow hallway. "There will be no mixed gendered rooms. Men, you will be in room 235, east wing; ladies, you will be in room 318, west wing."


"Curfew," she finished, capturing each of them in her steely gaze, "is at 2 hours past sundown. No exceptions."


The settlement, they soon discovered upon landing, consisted of a handful of squat, concrete and stone buildings huddled around the old Imperial spaceport and spreading out along the shore of the river. The hotel promised by the brochure turned out to not yet be under construction and the only place to find a bed was here, in the boarding house of one Olla Havasham. Generally frequented by the sullen men and women who made their livings in the dolovite mines, the boarding house was adequate shelter, if lacking even the barest of luxuries. One of the rooms had been visible through an open door on their prefunctory tour. A pair of simple beds, bunked. One chest with four drawers. One desk. One chair.


"Are there any questions?"


They had none. Well, in truth, they had dozens of questions, but none came to mind. "Very well, I'll leave you to enjoy your day then." Taking their silence at face value, Ms. Havasham turned to leave. Avdid stepped in front of her, capturing her eyes. He focused his mind on the woman. "You don't need to worry about us," he thought, "We are the perfect tenants. The rules don't need to apply to us."


She stepped past the small gran and began to toddle off down the hall, pausing after a few feet to turn back to them. "You know, it's really those good for nothing miners that need the discipline. You all seem like very nice folks. I'm sure you will be fine coming and going as you please." The proprietress spun on her heel and continued on her business, leaving the four travelers staring at each other in the lobby of the building.


It was Nagheena who finally broke the stalemate. "Well, there are some lovely flowers outside, did you see those giant pink ones? I bet there are even more to see in the jungle." The words weren't really said with any conviction.


"Yeah, great, let's go look at the jungle. And then later we can look at the jungle. But we'll need to save time to see the jungle. Of course, if we're lucky, we might find a swamp," Mikelle replied, her voice rising. "Because that's all there is on this entire FREAKING PLANET."


True, there was no hotel. Also numbering zero in the settlement: recreational facilities, restaurants serving local cuisine, spas, and anywhere to shop. A boarding house, a bath house, a handful of permanent residences, and several ore and crystal processing centers. And, inexplicably, a Banthabelly's, which lay on the outskirts of the town like a tumor.


"Forget the jungle, did you see that river?" Tom offered, clearly the most excited. They had seen the river, of course. It was hard to miss, being the only other thing to see besides the jungle and the clouds. It was wide, muddy, and if the shuttle pilot was to be believed, home to some fearsome creatures that could eat you at least a half dozen different ways. "Ugh, you kids these days, need your fun handed to you on a silver platter. *I'm* going swimming." Tom hefted his baggage over his shoulder and headed to his room. When he came running back a few minutes later in his gaudy orange swimwear, the other three were still discussing their options.

[Avdid Asm]

The remaining trio exited the boarding house after dumping their luggage in the respective rooms. Much to their surprise, the small settlement extended further in the other direction. These buildings were of a much more simple, primitive construction, most being little more than mud and thatch huts, but it was an order of magnitude more lively than the area adjacent to the spaceport. This was the home of the simple people, the support staff who made the settlement run. With work in the mines stopped for the next few days due to some sort of festival, this part of town was bustling. Craftsmen hawked their wares, mobile food stands offered a variety of exotic fare, entertainers' music blared. Nagheena and Mikelle flitted from booth to booth, chatting with each other excitedly.

Avdid trailed slightly behind. If there was any truth to the stories about the artifact, this is where he'd find it, so he opened up his senses to everything. He listened. He watched. He smelled. He absent mindedly distracted a fruiterer and snatched a ripe purple fruit from her stand. The young gran scanned the crowd from his low vantage point, trying to figure our each person's story in a few short moments. Some were easier than others. There was the young man with the defeated look on his face who had clearly come here hoping for a new start and was now stuck manning a table selling cheap-looking clothing. There was the old couple who had likely found each other later in life, perhaps on this planet, perhaps elsewhere. There was a grizzled man with numerous scars and a nasty cough: a long time miner, no doubt. There was an old woman who -- Avdid paused and quickly averted his gaze. He couldn't read her at all. Something about her was unsettling. He had sudden visions of being trapped again, restrained and questioned.

As quickly as it had been averted, he surreptitiously shifted his gaze back to the woman, only to find she was now looking right back at him.

[Avdid Asm]

"Avdid, did you hear me?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Avdid turned to see his two companions, looking down on him with excited expressions.

"Nagheena and I are going to do some shopping. She found a shop with the most adorable dresses. Catch you later." He spared a peek back to the old woman, but she was gone. Before he could formulate a reply, Nagheena and Mikelle were gone as well, melted into the crowd. He was alone.

Just like that, Avdid suddenly felt incredibly exposed. The crowd pressed down on him. He was surrounded on all sides. A large human bumped into him, sending him sprawling. He scrambled backwards until his progess was halted by something very solid. A wall, maybe. A sea of legs filled his vision. He fought back a sudden wave of panic that threatened to overwhelm him. Suddenly he was back in that prison cell. He knew what had to be done. Just just like had had to do all those times when the loneliness descended upon him, when all there was were four blank walls and silence.

The noise of the crowd faded away: the smells, the sight, even the feel of the muddy ground on which he sat. It all dissolved into nothingness as he retreated within himself. He focused on the air rushing in and out of his lungs and deepened it. He felt the contractions of the muscle fibers just under his skin and he relaxed them. He felt the ever present surging of blood through his veins and he slowed it. All of the conflicting emotions and anxieties tearing through his mind were confronted one by one; they were confronted and silenced until all that was left was fear. The fear was quieted and pushed aside, enough that he was able to get a hold of himself again and get to his feet.

Avdid chided himself for his foolish display. "Get a hold of yourself, idiot. What's wrong with you? Calm down and think." Maybe he'd go find Tom and see how he was getting along. They still had a few days for him to track down what he had come for. He turned to navigate his way back to the river when he felt a presence.

The old woman was right in front of him.

[Avdid Asm]

"I thought so. I thought you were one of them. You know, the authorities are always looking for information about your kind."

"She *knows*. I'm going back to the Inquisitorious. It's all over." His eyes darted around, charting avenues of escape. He would likely have to leave his friends behind. Hide in the jungle. Move to a new planet when he had the chanc-

"Yeeeeoooow!"

Faster than he would have thought possible, the old woman's hand shot out and caught Avdid's ear in an iron grip.

"Thief! Rotten little THIEF."

She dragged him across the crowded thoroughfare and dumped him unceremoniously on the ground before the fruit stand. The crowd paid them no mind.

"THIS ONE just nabbed a jaquira fruit from your stand when you weren't looking, Ba-Tori."

Ba-Tori, a large Cerean, silently regarded the portly gran, now squating in the mud. His brows were knitted together with fury, the hue of his pale pink skin quickly darkening. Before he could speak, however, Avdid was probing his mind. Ba-Tori seemed to be a simple man with a simple way of looking at the world and it was a simple task to insert a thought into his simple mind.

"It was only one fruit. Just a sample," Avdid offered.

The cerean stared back with dull eyes, face relaxing.

"Let the lad go. It was only one piece of fruit. No need to call the constable over a free sample."

The old woman simply looked at Avdid again with that strange, unreadable expression again. It wasn't anger, it wasn't disbelief. It was....curiosity? Whatever it was, it took only a few moments for him to break underneath her intense stare. With a small squeek, he picked himself off the ground and attempted to disappear into the crowd, the old woman watching him the entire way.

[Avdid Asm]

Avdid was lying in bed in their room when Tom eventually came back, dripping muddy water everywhere and stinking of the river.

"That was fantastic! You all really should join me later for a nighttime swim. It'll be so invigorating! This place is great. Where are the girls?"

"Shopping," Avdid replied, unusually perfunctory. He was staring intently at a water stain on the ceiling, but his thoughts were planted firmly in the past.

For years now he had been working on collecting knowledge of the Force and what had it gotten him? Sure, he had gathered a variety of accounts and explanations of things a Force user could do. Piles and piles of legends and stories, but that was it - theory, no practice. He was still essentially useless when it came to actually using the power that he could feel just below the surface. Essentially, but not completely.

It was extraordinary luck that led him to the possession of the Jedi holocron. Well luck, cleverness, and a lot of hard work. But he was always clever and a hard worker. It was luck that led him to the holocron and luck that he'd likely have to rely on for his next big score. Would it be as valuable as the holocron? That was hard to imagine.

The holocron was created by someone by the name of Sabla-Mandibu, an individual his research revealed to have been a Jedi Master 1000 years ago. It took months to unlock the device, but when he did, her calm, soothing words shared with him the theory and implementation of the Mind Trick, which she referred to as "affecting the mind". And affect the mind he did. Avdid found in the subsequent days that he was especially talented at it. He found himself tricking everyone. It generally had a purpose - to gain access to somewhere he wasn't allowed, for instance, but sometimes, he realized, he was doing it just for the rush that came with having that power over another living person. Was that wrong? It felt wrong, at times. Not so wrong that he was going to stop, of course.

That was it though; he was a one trick pony. Caught in a blind alley by a bunch of thugs? Mind trick. Outside a well-guarded compound? Mind trick. Can't pay your bill? Mind trick. He knew there was more to learn from the holocron. He could feel it, sense it just out of reach. Maybe he needed to find a secret password. A key. Something that would allow him to unlock the rest of the secrets. He would find that key. He would find that key and make his way back to Coruscant, where the holocron and the rest of his research was still hidden. He would unlock it and hone his abilities.

He would get back to Coruscant, but only after he had acquired what he came to Mimban for.

[Avdid Asm]

The next morning, 3 hours after sunrise, 2 km outside of town.

"Nagheena! Slowwwww downnnnn!," howled Tom, arms wrapped in a vice-like grip around her waist. Instead of slowing down, however, the Neimodian stepped on the accelerator and the swoop bike leaped forward.

"Hold on tight," Mikelle called over her shoulder as she accelerated her own bike to keep up. Avdid was huddled behind her, eyes screwed closed. The man they'd rented the bikes from hadn't had any goggles that would fit him. Well, "rented". It was more an exchange. The four tech support specialists had spent the morning diagnosing and fixing various problems with the old surveyor's droids and computer systems. It was almost heartbreaking to work on vacation, but it seemed easier to swallow when there was something concrete to work for -- in this case, use of a pair of ugly, oft-repaired, industrial swoop bikes.

It had been Avdid's suggestion that they spend the day exploring one of the ancient temples that dotted the swamplands; really get to appreciate the local culture. It would make up for the fact that their previous evening had been spent sitting in the local Banthabelly's, which turned out to be alarmingly familiar in a way that only a chain restaurant can be. Why they had eaten there when the small town offered several small local eateries was a mystery. Complacency, probably. Why try Mimbanite cuisine when you could get something you knew you liked? The cocktails might be watered down and too sweet and the food might have been mediocre at best, but it was known. In contrast, as the last of the Double Banthabelly Burgers was consumed, under the backdrop of the ubiquitous crazy crap on the wall, the group decided to strike out the next day for the unknown.

The closest of the temples was located in close proximity to the town, the path between the two well-worn by years of activity. The temple had been occupied by Imperial forces until their recent withdrawal from the planet. Not exactly the greatest adventure. Now abandoned and stripped clean, it was astoundingly boring and didn't hold more than 10 minutes of entertainment. What little there might have been to see had been scoured and sterilized by the Empire. Stainless steel walls were obtrusively erected in front of walls with inscriptions hundreds or thousands of years old. Holes were knocked out to make way for power conduits. Statues had been demolished and replaced with utilitarian furniture. Anything of value had been stripped from the place when the treaty had been signed and the Circarpous Major system ended up on the wrong side of the border. Now it stood as a memorial to cold, unfeeling might of the Empire.

It was when they were wandering through an empty chamber for the third time that Avdid revealed to the others that he had, in his possession, a map that revealed the location of another temple, deep in the jungle, untouched by the Empire. Careful use of the mind trick, as well as some expertly wielded pleading had convinced the others to continue into the unknown. Warnings from the townsfolk (both emigrated species and the semi-civilized green-skinned Mimbanites) about the native tribes still echoing in the backs of their minds, the group was now well away from the "civilized" areas and speeding deep into the swamp, dominated by fetid pools and massive trees that emerged from the thick fog at alarming speed....all of which Nagheena and Mikelle were proving to be quite skilled at dodging.

"Have, have you done this before?" Avdid yelled, his face pressed into Mikelle's back.

"Never!" she shouted joyously. She let out a loud whoop as they banked sharply around an enormous fallen log.

Avdid did his best to keep the Banthabelly burgers down.

[Avdid Asm]

The swoop bike broke into the clearing faster than he could imagine.

The sudden change was disorienting. Where once there was tree after tree, now there was a terribly open space in the middle of the jungle. A clearing with a mound rising in the middle. A mound covered in vegetation. A mound that was rapidly approaching. Rapidly approaching.

"Brakes!" Avdid screamed into the ear of his driver. "BRAKES!"

Whether it was because she didn't hear him or because her reflexes weren't fast enough, Mikelle did not brake. With visions of them impacting the mound with a huge explosion flashing through his mind, Avdid bailed. With all the grace of a sack of flour, he slumped off to the side, dragging the woman with him. The pair landed in a muck-ridden pool with a less than ceremonious dive - driver with her head sticking out, passenger below her, fully submerged. The swoop bike drifted to the right of the mound and disappeared into the jungle.

Nagheena and Tom broke into the clearing, circling around the mound and gliding to a stop next to the pool. A chorus of grunts and curses later, their coworkers were extricated from the filth, gasping and sputtering. Avdid lost the battle with his digestive system and the muck, the Banthaburgers, and the rest of the contents of his stomachs came back up. Staggering, he crashed into the mound. To the surprise of everyone, the mound clanged.

"The hell?" Mikelle put into words what they were all thinking.

Closer inspection revealed that the mound was, in fact, a large vehicle with a high chassis supported by three axles. The once-inflated tires now lay in tatters around the rusted rims. Whether the vehicle was left in its current state due to the ravages of time or due to some accident was a mystery, though the deep gouges in the side suggested the latter. The crawler was split into three articulated segments and, tucked in the rearmost segment, the four discovered a storage crate. Months of exposure to the severe environment of Minban had corroded the latch. A simple kick caused the cover to fly off.

So engrossed in their investigations were the office workers that they never noticed the red-furred tribesmen emerging from the jungle.

[Avdid Asm]

"What are they?"
"What do you mean, 'What are they?' They're blasters, obviously."
"I know THAT. I mean, I wonder what kind they are."
"E-11 BlasTech Standard Imperial Sidearm. Semiautomatic, fully automatic and pulse-fire settings. Maximum range of 300 meters. Nasty kick."
"..."
"What? A girl can't have hobbies? I go target shooting every once in a while."
"Whoa, do you think they work? Should we tell someone back in town they're out here?"

"Um...guys?"

While his friends were chattering about the crate full of blasters, Avdid felt the approach of the newcomers. A tingle on his neck. A slight pressure in the back of his mind. It was hard to say what exactly it was, but the feeling brought his attention around just in time to see them step out from the trees. Or maybe they grew up out of the ground. Whatever it was, one moment they were just there.

They were tall people, slender builds. Something gave them a red hue, though whether it was fur, paint, or their skin color, Avdid couldn't tell. They had small eyes, but large eyelids, giving them an unsettling resemblance to owls. They were clothed in simple loincloths and wore jewelry and other adornments fashioned from animal bones and polished stones. More alarmingly, each tribe member was armed with a deadly weapon made from some sort of silvery grey rock and all of the weapons were out and ready to use. They didn't say a word, but, then again, they didn't have to. Pointing a deadly weapon at someone was pretty much the universal language for "I don't like you."

"Guys, turn around. Slowly." Avdid didn't look back, but the trio of gasps let him know his friends had listened.

The red tribesmen advanced, slowly and confidently. As they got closer, they spread out. The leader (judging from the ornate skull helmet he wore) took point with his fellows fanning out to either side to surround the vehicle. Avdid searched for some avenue of escape, but only one speeder was still in view and he suspected they wouldn't last long if they tried to flee on foot.

He heard a metallic clatter behind him and glanced to his left to see Nagheena shoulder one of the blasters. Tom picked up the other one and raised it awkwardly. The red-furred strangers (it was more obvious now as they closed in) halted. Avdid did the only thing he could think of and focused on the nearest enemy - a shorter fellow wielding a wicked-looking spear - and tried to follow the teachings of Sabla-Mandibu and affect the mind.

"What are you waiting for?!" Mikelle howled, "Shoot already!"
"Give me a second," Nagheena yelled back, fear making her voice quiver, "I've only ever shot at targets before! This is different!"
"Mine doesn't work!" Tom joined in, hollering as loudly as the other two, "it just goes click!"

Tom and Nagheena shifted their sights back and forth, trying to keep track of everyone.

He heard his friends shouting and saw their actions, but was all just background noise as he probed the mind of the tribesman. There was anger - Avdid and his friends were trespassing on their territory and had to be eliminated. There was anticipation - a kill would mean status, acclaim. There were the memories - a cloud of past encounters and training ready to be put to use. Avdid felt the emotions wash over him as he stared into the tiny eyes of the other man and tried to think of some way to stop the attack. Then he sensed it. It was hidden, shoved to the back, something the man didn't want to even acknowledge to himself. A dark smudge. It was hard to pin down. Every time Avdid thought he found it, another emotion, another thought would rise to block it out. Like trying to follow the path of a fly, he would catch it, only to lose it again as it flew around erratically. There it was again! No, that was another smudge. It was like a swarm of ghost images. Suddenly, Avdid realized what he was sensing. It was something he was all too familiar with. It was the thing that, though he tried to deny it, motivated many of his actions.

It was fear.

As Avdid focused on it, he could sense it coalescing. And just like that, he knew what he had to do. Unlike his other attempts at the mind trick, this wasn't trying to implant a new thought. This was something that was already there, something that he could manipulate. Using his own fear as fuel, he stoked the fire at the core of his enemy's fear. Like blowing on a campfire, his efforts caused the dark embers to glow. Stronger and stronger they became until the fear exploded past whatever mental barriers had been put in place to keep it at bay. The physical effects were immediately apparent. Sweat began to gather on the tribesman's forehead. His movements faltered and he began to shiver. His eyes darted back and forth, as if trying to see something that wasn't there. Finally, he dropped his spear into the undergrowth and fled, bounding quickly into the cover of the trees.

His compatriots watched, confused by the unexpected action. Avdid was on them in an instant. With each attacker, he found and exposed their fear. With some, it was well protected, buried deep as it had been with the first man. With others, it was on the surface, already waiting to burst forth. One by one they broke. It became easier with each person. The energy that he was using to feed the flames of their fear seemed to flow right back to him.

Though it felt like it took an eternity, in a matter of moments the entire band of tribesmen was fleeing. Avdid felt the feedback loop break. Like a caffeine crash, exhaustion smacked him in the face. He was drained. He went to one knee.

Concerned, Mikelle rushed over to his aid. "Hey Avdid, you ok? Don't worry man, Tom did it! One shot was all it took to scare those savages away! There's no way they're going to be messing with us again." Sure enough, a nearby tree was still smoking from where a single bolt of energy had left a crater in the bark.

Avdid rested in the moss-covered seat of the broken down crawler as his friends retrieved the wayward speeder. He had learned an important lesson today. Fear, once unleashed, was a powerful weapon. Left alone, he was suddenly all too aware of his own fears, which terrified him even more.

[Avdid Asm]

After returning from the forest with the second speeder, Avdid's three friends unanimously agreed that it was time to head back. Armed conflict was a little more than they had bargained for with this field trip. They loaded the blasters into cargo compartment of Nagheena's speeder. Tom grabbed a discarded axe as a souvenir of his grand victory. Avdid briefly considered "convincing" them to continue on, but the encounter had left him shaken.

The journey back to town was uneventful with far less whooping and risk taking. In the interest of not becoming hopelessly lost in the jungle, they retraced their steps, passing by the first temple on the way back. By the time the settlement came into view through the everpresent fog, the sun was setting. They were exhausted and famished. Another trip to Banthabelly's was called for. Over the loaded double banthaburgers, Tom, Mikelle, and Nagheena excitedly discussed the days events. By the fourth round of sugary cocktails, Tom was loudly declaring to everyone within earshot how he had faced down a tribal warrior standing 3m tall. Nagheena was telling no one in particular stories about her marksmanship. Mikelle was doing her best to convince everyone at the table how she could have ended things even sooner if only there had been enough blasters for all of them.

Avdid was silent, lost in his own thoughts. The failure to find the temple was weighing on him. According to the map, they should have passed it at some point before reaching that broken down swamp crawler. Unless the temple was invisible or had moved, they must have simply lost their way. And if it was anything like the other structure they'd visited, a hulking, spreading pyramid formed from a shiny black stone, overlooking it was unlikely. Not wishing to join in the conversation, Avdid, drew the map out of the pouch slung over his shoulder. It was old, very old - nothing but a scrap of cured hide with a number of landmarks crudely represented. Distances and directions were indicated with strange symbols, symbols it had taken him months to translate. Dammit, they should have found it! Starting from the first temple they absolutely went in the correct direction. According to the map, at the speed they were travelling on the speeders, they should have come across the other temple after about 5 hours. But it was all wrong. They hadn't crossed one river, let alone two, he never saw any saw-tooth ridge, they never passed through any valley, and they certainly never found any damn temple.

It jumped out at him then. A pair of crossed strokes. It was so obvious. How had he missed it? Idiot. It wasn't a stray mark, it wasn't a drawing, it was another sigil, another digit, another order of magnitude. Avdid's heart sank. It wouldn't be 3 hours hour journey by speeder, it would be a 30 hour journey.

[Avdid Asm]

Avdid slipped away in the middle of the night. Without a good explanation to leave his friends, he told them nothing. He loaded up one of the speeders with a blanket, his clothing (consisting of mainly bright yellow shirts of varying hues), a jug of water, and a half dozen heads of a leafy vegetable raided from Olla Havasham's kitchen. He kept one of the blasters to be safe. The other, he left for his friends so they could go target shooting tomorrow. The second speeder's power pack was removed and strapped to the back of the first. Surrounded by darkness and the persistent mist, he slipped away, the hum of the repulsorlift generators almost drowned out by the chorus of native amphibians.

Theoretically, he could have made the journey in two days, riding for 2/3 of the day and sleeping for the other third. But that was theory. In reality, he could barely reach the pedals and had no goggles. Even puttering along at half speed, he had to stop and rest his aching back after only an hour. By daybreak, he had left the first temple and plunged into the tractless wilderness.

In starts and stops, he continued deeper into the jungle. Every time he hopped back on the bike, he gained confidence and a corresponding increase in speed. By the time he passed the mound that was once a swamp crawler, he was zipping along at almost the same speed as Mikelle had been. The evening of the first day, he crossed the river.

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The first night was spent in the crotch of a tree. It was terrible and he barely slept, but it was better than being a midnight snack for whatever creatures he heard prowling through the underbrush. It took almost two hours of walking around and stretching to work the kinks out of his body enough that he didn't fear that he'd fall off the bike the moment he mounted it.

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The second day, he began climbing in elevation. The trees parted and a sawback ridge loomed in the distance. Avdid had never seen a sweeter sight. He passed the ridge to the right. Late the second night, he came close enough to another band of natives that sleeping seemed like a bad idea. He continued long into the night, relying on the meager light provided by the single lamp at the front of the bike. Only after crossing the second river did he stop to sleep for a few hours.

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On the third day, as he entered the valley, his bike broke down.

By midday, he had confirmed that the power pack was depleted and had switched it out for the spare. A realization hit him then. Half his fuel was gone and he was NOT half way through his journey, not if he wanted to end said journey back where he started. Undeterred, he wrapped the food, and a change of clothes in the blanket, which he folded and turned into a makeshift backpack, the ends tied diagonally across his chest. The water, he left. Being that this was a rain forest, he trusted that he'd find some source of water between here and the temple. The blaster was tucked under the ends of his blanket, an awkward, albeit comforting, lump that restricted his arm movement and poked him in the chest with every step.

He looked down, deeper into the valley. The floor was covered in a thick, white fog. Only the tallest trees poked up above it, forming a fascinating chain of isolated, green islands. Somewhere down there, he was convinced, hid his destination. Somewhere in the mists, hidden though it may be, was a Jedi artifact of tremendous power. With visions of glory flashing through his mind, Avdid piled some vegetation over the speeder bike, made a note of his coordinates on his pad, and set off.

[Avdid Asm]

Obsessed with trying to find the temple, Avdid traveled deep into the twilight hours. Something was drawing him deeper into the valley. A feeling. A presence. His eyes looked for one thing and one thing only: the imposing edifice of shiny black stone. His mind was focused on his goal and nothing else. He had gone full binary. There were two things in the world: "temple" and "not temple." Unfortunately for him, "not temple" included large predators. Fortunately for him, he had been able to fend the beast off for a few precious moments before freeing his blaster and shooting it in the gut. Unfortunately for him, the lacerations in his arm were deep. Very deep. Three of his yellow shirts were dark red before the bleeding finally slowed. He found a small brook, but did not wash his arm for fear that the water would sicken him.

The third night was spent curled up on the ledge of an exposed rock face. He did not sleep; he was too afraid he may never wake up.

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On the fourth day, he slept. He awoke after nightfall in a cold sweat with fire burning him from within. The fourth night was spent tossing and turning and being haunted by terrifying nightmares.

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On the fifth day, he rolled off his ledge and crashed to the forest floor. He crawled for an eternity and drank from the brook and slept on the bank. He did not die.

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On the sixth day, the fever broke. He devoured the remainder of the food wrapped in the blanket and resumed his journey. Though every step was an agony, he continued on with dogged determination. Several hours past midday, he found the temple. Both the gran and the temple were damaged and about to collapse. After hours of fruitless searching, he let out a tremendous cry fueled by every bit of anger, fear, and disappointment that had been growing deep inside him. He didn't even notice the clay pottery shatter or the stone pillars shudder.

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On the sixth night, Avdid wept himself to sleep next to a statue with empty hands in a temple that contained nothing.