A Fulcrum and a Lever: A Prelude

[Talus]

As the shuttle began it's final descent on to Ossus, Tal Usak felt alone. Which to the casual observer would have been odd, his brothers Mal and Sal flanked him and chattered endlessly about the adventures that awaited their much younger brother.

"Tal, a real live Jedi," Mal gushed. "Finally, those cocky offworlders will have to stop reminding us of Maul's betrayal."

Sal nodded eagerly in agreement.

"I know," He replied. "I can't wait to see the look on Cpt. Rhoda's face when we tell him where we've gone, that'll shut him up."

"I'm not a Jedi yet," The young man protested. "They don't even know I exist, and what if they say I'm too old. The Jedi of the Old Republic were taken as infants and I'm almost 16!"

But his brothers just ignored him, continuing their incessant speculation about what sort of Jedi the young Zabrak would be.

"I bet you'll be a natural with a lightsaber, Mal, you remember what a natural he was when he was little when we'd have stick duels."

"Oh I know, but if I had to put creds on it, I'd say he's going to be a strategist. Mother always said that he always thought three moves ahead in Pazaak."

Mother....

Tal still couldn't believe she and his father were really gone. Even though it had been close to three standard years, the mere mention of his parents still opened the old wounds. Tears well in the young Iridonian's eyes, as he strained to keep from crying in front of Sal and Mal. If the brothers noticed, they didn't indicate, and kept up their banter. The twins were like that though, always chattering. Always joking. Something that young Tal would someday come to realize was a defense mechanism of their own, to keep from being overwhelmed by the burden of losing their parents at age 16 and being left alone to raise their 12 year old brother.

"Announcing Final Descent to Ossuss Planetary Spaceport. For Our Passengers Departing, Please Be Sure To Account For All Of Your Belongings As This Vessel Will Not Be Back In This Sector For Another 6 Months."

The intercomm's announcement finally ended the twins' conversation. They turned to their brother.

"Well this is it Tal, you'll do great!" Mal said with a firm hand on the boys shoulder.

"We're proud of you kiddo." Sal added, handing the young man his bags. "We'll send word when Cpt. Rhoda gives us our next deployment papers, so you'll know how to find us."

All three brothers stood, as the Transport landed.

"Good luck. And may the Force be with you."

Tal nodded and made his way off the transport and on to the platform. When it suddenly dawned on him, he had no where to go. He looked around the platform for someone to ask directions. Seeing a figure at the end of the platform, he felt compelled to go ask them.

[Rev Solomon]

It was a tall man who wore a long, nerfskin coat and a broad-brimmed had that shielded his face from the heat of the day. Both suns were high in the sky as Ossus sped on toward summer, and if not for the cool breeze that kited down from the mountain ridges to the West, it would have been uncomfortable. But Reverend Solomon was used to weathering long afternoons on the parish circuit across the plains of Dantooine with the sunlight beating down across his broad shoulders, and the dry warmth of Ossus reminded him of those rustic, simpler days.

The Jedi preacher watched like a hawkbat as the dockworkers piled cargo pallets from the transport's hold onto a hoversled. Ossus was still a small colony, largely isolated, and the post arrived infrequently, usually on private commercial transports like this one. Among the crates of food, parts, and construction materials would be care packages for younglings sent by their proud families, luxury items for the work crews purchased out of their hard-earned credits, even a few hand-written letters from those with old-fashioned sensibilities. But there was something else that Solomon was waiting for, and he wanted to be sure it didn't go missing.

He was so engrossed that he didn't notice the Iridonian teenager approaching behind him.

[Talus]

"Excuse me sir," The young Zabrak said politely. "I'm looking for the Jedi Grounds here and I'm afraid I have no idea where to go."

[Rev Solomon]

When Solomon turned, the young man could see that his right coat sleeve was empty - the preacher was missing his right arm just above the elbow. Beneath his coat he wore plain black tunic with a white clerical collar.

"The Jedi Grounds?" He gestured down the dusty road with his remaining hand. "Just down the road about two kilometers. If you want to save yourself a walk, you can probably hitch a ride with one of the cargo sleds."

Solomon glanced back at the growing pile of offloaded cargo before turning his attention back to the boy. He seemed to be alone, and judging from the luggage in his hands, he was planning on staying a while. "If you don't mind my asking, are you an initiate?"

[Talus]

"That's what I'm going to find out," The boy said with a half-laugh. "One way or another, I guess I'm going to be on Ossus for a while, so I might as well start introducing myself to people. My name is Tal Usak of Iridonia, but everyone just calls me Talus."


He started to offer the man his right hand before realizing his faux pas and instead offering his left.

[Rev Solomon]

The Jedi preacher warmly accepted the boy's handshake, revealing another old injury in the process - the index and small fingers of his left hand were also gone, the flesh scarred over in their place.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Talus. I'm Solomon, a Jedi Knight. If you don't mind waiting a few moments, I can go with you, help you get situated. The Jedi may have returned, but the Order part is still a work in progress."

He watched as a labor droid tottered out with a bundle of several packages bound together with packing tape, but whatever he was waiting for didn't appear to be among them. "So what brings you to the Jedi?"

[Talus]

"Well, if you don't mind I would take you up on that offer," Talus responded with a smile. "And as for what brings me to the Jedi, besides that transport, a hunch of my brothers. Though I think it's more likely wishful thinking. They say my reflexes are too quick to be natural, that I have some form of empathy or precognition that lets me react the split second before something happens. Personally, I'd say I've just been lucky. But they're my guardians and besides, it can't be easy raising a teenager on them, they've had to give up so much for me, the least I could do is let them have their little fantasy that their brother would be some great Jedi. Besides, even if I'm not a Jedi, I've got a strong back and I'm a hardworker, I'm sure a burgeoning settlement like this could use all the help it could get."

[Rev Solomon]

There was no denying the young man was eager, but to journey all the way to Ossus on the strength of a hunch seemed like a gamble, even to a man of faith. Solomon couldn't help but wonder if there was more to Talus's story than he let on.

"Well, whether you join the Order or not, there's plenty of work to go around," the preacher said. "Once we've found you a place to stay, I'll see if I can arrange for you to be tested in the next council session."

But Solomon wasn't fully satisfied with Talus's answer. Not that he'd answered falsely, or poorly, just incompletely.

"Suppose we discover that you are Force-adept," he said. "There's no law that says you must join the Jedi. You could do whatever you want with your life, even enjoy a little advantage over your brothers. The life of a Jedi can be a difficult one, full of danger and self-denial." He smiled ruefully. "I know the truth of that better than most."

[Talus]

"My parents fought and died for the Republic," Talus began his response. "Not the Rebellion, but the Republic. The hopes and ideals that it stood for. They raised my brothers and I up to believe in those values too. The Jedi were once the protectors of those things, and though they faltered, I believe that if in some way I can carry on that torch my parents deaths. My brothers' sacrifices, will not be in vain. Please don't take my cynicism that I might have some mystical powers belie the truth that regardless of what the tests say, my life will be dedicated to rebuild what once was. Stronger and nobler than before."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon nodded. "You have noble aspirations, Talus," he said. "I wish you good fortune in achieving them. Ah, excuse me!"

The labor droid had returned with another bundle, and Solomon stepped forward to speak with one of the dock workers. After a brief exchange, the preacher produced an identichit, and the worker scanned it with his datapad and ran it against the transport manifest. Once everything was in the clear, Solomon signed his name on the screen and was handed a small, paper-wrapped box no larger than his palm.

"Thank you very much, God bless," the preacher said, and he slipped the box into a coat pocket and turned back down the platform toward Talus. "Well, shall we be off?"

He led the young Zabrak down to the dusty thoroughfare that ran from the Alliance base to the Sanctuary One colony, straight past an idling power truck that was still being loaded up with cargo. Plainly he didn't mind the walk, and his long strides set a brisk, easy pace down the side of the road.

"So tell me about yourself," he said. "Where do you come from?"

[Talus]

I apologize. I forgot to mention, I rarely post on weekends, Church and family keep me pretty busy

"Yes, let's be on our way," the Zabrak responded. "I came from Iridonia, primarily Ryydak, a small settlement just outside Wortan. I grew up there like most Iridonians dealing with the subjugation of the planet. I would race swoops in Maul's Maw, climbed the Cresthorns. It was a pretty decent place to grow up for a Zabrak — you know with the exception of the ration lines and random Imperial searches."

[Rev Solomon]

"You'll find many here with similar stories," Solomon said gravely. "The Empire has left its mark on all of us. But it sounds like you found your way, you and your brothers."

He walked on in thoughtful silence with his hand pressed against the small of his back. He used to clasp both hands there as he walked, and old habits died hard. "Swoop racing, hm? That's a dangerous pastime. Takes exceptional reflexes."

His hand made a subtle twisting motion in the air, and a small stone jumped off the path and flew on a course that would take it mere centimeters past the boy's forehead.

[Talus]

The boy's hand moved before his eyes did. An instant later his hand had intercepted the stone a full decimeter from his face. Immediately, his eyes locked in on what his hand had done.

"I was lucky," he replied, letting the stone fall from his hand. "Lucky and foolish, my brothers could not have afforded to take care of me if I'd crippled myself."

[Rev Solomon]

"Lucky? Maybe. Foolish? Almost certainly."

Solomon smiled as if stones flew on their own volition every day on Ossus.

"But I'd be lying if I said I never took any stupid risks in my own youth. Wisdom comes in recognizing which risks are worth taking. Speaking of lucky..."

He reached up to hold his hat secure a moment before the wind picked up and threatened to take it away.

"How lucky are we talking about? Coincidences? A flash of intuition? Or was there ever something that happened that you could never quite explain?"

[Talus]

"Lucky like that," Talus responded to the stone that had been shot at him. "Though, my brothers filled my head with stories about the Jedi and their "tests" so I was likely subconsciously expecting you to do something like that and when you spend as much time on a swoop as I have, you learn to react before you even register what's screaming at your face."

The young Zabrak rolls his neck.

"Those are the things my brothers notice though. Warning them not to open a door cause I have a bad feeling about it, and the door turns out to be mined. Moving my hand to catch a glass a split second before its dropped. Normal? Probably not, but lets be honest, there's not a ton of Jedi out there, what's the off chance I'm one of them?"

[Rev Solomon]

"Oh, it's hard to say," Solomon replied. "In the old days, Zabraks had a relatively high incidence of Force sensitivity, but even then it was on the order of one out of a few hundred thousand. But there's one thing in your favor. If you consider it favorable, that is."

He met Talus's questioning look with a knowing smile. "You're here. And the Force has a way of gathering its own to where they need to be."

The road crested a hilltop and then spilled lazily down the other side and into the Sanctuary One colony (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-XSqps7s0CQnJqY004OEo5cWc/edit). From this vantage it looked not at all unlike the dusty frontier towns Solomon used to visit on his preaching circuit in the Dantooine ranch lands, a mess of modular and prefabricated structures clustered around a few more permanent buildings. To the West were the machine shops and garages for the farming and construction equipment that was slowly carving a corner of self-sufficiency out of the Ossian wilderness; in the center was what passed in Sanctuary for a market, including the mess tent, the Crystal Lounge cantina, a consignment shop, and the quartermaster's canteen; to the East were the open lawns of the Jedi training grounds sprawling around the L-shaped Padawan dormitories and the gleaming Council rotunda, and, further east, the crop fields and hydroponic gardens, which had already begun returning a harvest to a grateful and hungry population.

"If you do become a Jedi, any idea what you'll do?" Solomon asked. "Not every Jedi is a warrior. There are diplomats, scientists, healers, engineers, pilots, even farmers and keepers of animals. With so few of us around, every job has an opening."

[Talus]

"Work," Talus replied. "If there are as few of you as you say, then I guess I'll do what I'm needed to do, where I'm needed. A diplomat has to be a warrior, a farmer needs to be a healer, a pilot an engineer."


He took in the whole of Sanctuary One and then chuckled.

"It looks as if specialization might not be an option."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon smiled in return. "I won't deny it, a certain versatility of mind and spirit will serve you well here. Ossus is a new frontier, in more ways than one. But I have a feeling it's not the only frontier you'll be exploring."

The preacher stepped to the side of the road and stopped, beckoning the young man with him. He stood taking the full measure of the Zabrak teenager, with eyes that saw more than flesh and bone.

"Do me a favor, Talus. I want you to close your eyes for a moment. I want you to set aside your questions of where you're going, what you're doing, any fears or doubts, any thoughts of the future whatsoever. I want you to feel the sun and the breeze, and the life all around you. I want you to live fully in this moment."