Keshani & Collan: A little problem

[Collan]

Collan watched Bel Iblis flip the hammer on the hyperdrive and saw the starfield streak as the ship jumped into hyperspace. The blue pseudoclouds switled around the ship gave Collan an odd sense of comfort. They were safe for the moment. He got up and went back to talk to Keshani.

[Keshani]

She saw him coming. She still wasn't sure what to think. It had all seemed so real....

She watched as he came toward her. Subconsciously her body tensed up, almost as if preparing for a fight. But she knew she could never win...

So she just watched and waited...

[Collan]

Collan sat down across from her.

"On the station, did you notice that Nightshade and Nim were not with us when we were captured?"

[Keshani]

"Um..I noticed they weren't with Trax and me....I was a little busy otherwise trying to figure out what the frell you were doing. "

[Collan]

"That was the idea," Collan said, "I wanted everyone to focus on me, especially the Imperials. If I hadn't scared them with who my father is and offered up a plausible enough story, then they would have had the sense to look for them."

Collan sighed, "I had to learn how to do that. Talk fast and divert attention. That was how I eventually escaped. I had to learn how to embed just enough into a lie that beings would believe me."

[Keshani]

Her eyes narrowed. "Why should I believe you? "

[Collan]

"Honestly, I don't know," Collan said, "I'm not an Imperial agent nor do I work in any way for my father. Unfortunately, that is the part that was true. My father serves the Emperor as the Chief Inquistor-I didn't know that till now. I knew what he was though-twisted and corrupt. Jealous. He killed my uncle and probably my mother as well."

"Everything else was a lie. I needed you all to believe it if only for a moment. To do that I had to believe it too. And there was a price I paid to that."

He pulled his sleeves up showing the track marks from the IVs amd the burns from the probes.

"And the Emperor saw through me tight away. I did my best to hold his attention but he grew weary fast and took me away to be tortured."

[Keshani]

There was anger and hurt in her eyes as he spoke, and more than a little blame. It was clear that she had felt utterly betrayed by him back in the throne room.

But as he spoke and showed her the half healed wounds and burn marks he could almost visibly see the anger fading away. She knew about torture. And suddenly she found herself believing his words.

She let out a breath and looked down at the deck where she sat. She felt at a loss for words. Part of her wanted to thank him, part of her wanted to apologize for what he had apparently willingly sacrificed for the rest of them, but the outright terror from everything that happened was still inside of her and she couldn't quite get past it just yet.


She decided to change the topic.

"I, um, grew up thinking that Jedi were just stories.", she said softly, her face flushing a bit red at apparently just how wrong that belief had been....

[Collan]

Collan sensed the topic change.

"They were very real. Guardians of peace and justice during the Republic. Ch'lana was one. A Jedi Knight. My uncle was too," he added, "He was taking me to the Jefi Temple when my father found us. A head injury combined with seeing my uncle murdered made me lose my memory till a couple months ago. Another Jedi, a Seer named Demaia, helped me remember. She's dead too...probably. The headquarters of the Karvan Resistance was bombed by Empire, as we were leaving."

"This was the second inquisitor I've seen. There's bound to be more, plus my father."

Collan rapped his knuckles on the table, "But enough about me. You have chip you need out. I'm a combat medic. Let's head to medbay and see what we can do about that?"

[Keshani]

She got up to follow him but paused for a moment.

"How do they...ya know...do what they do?"

[Collan]

Collan thought about how to explain it and hit upon his earliest experiences.

"Have you ever had a sudden insight or just felt this overwhelming power. Maybe like you hand and mind are being guided somehow?"

[Keshani]

She just blinked at him. "I...don't think so..."

[Collan]

Collan said, "Hmm. How to explain this."

Finally, he said, "Trust me on this. Close your eyes and put your hands together. Start slow."

He waited a moment as Keshani did so, "Do you feel the warmth spreading through your hands. It's like what the Jedi use. Except it's called the Force. Life creates it. It binds us together. It's a part of all of us. Some of us are more sensitive are more sensitive to it than others. I'm like that. Niil is too."

"I'm still learning how to use it...and the weapon of a Jedi, the lightsaber."

Collan closed his eyes and focused on a cup, reaching out his hand. It rattles a bit and then lifted up.

"With training, a Jedi learns to focus and use the Force directly. But it requires a certain sacrifice. Anger. Despair. Fear. Letting yourself being driven by those leads to the Dark Side. That is what the Inquisitors have done."

"I have to be careful what I'm thinking and feeling."

[Keshani]

She thought about that for a minute as she watched the cup rattle. It was so easy to just think it a hoax....trickery meant to fool the foolish...

"Sounds like a pretty big sacrifice......"

She looked down at her hands. "I guess it's good I'm not sensitive to it...I would probably turn out like them".

[Collan]

"I don't know about that," Collan said, "The Force can speak to you; help you. I often felt it when I was a slave. It spoke to me and guided me. Even as the Dark Side tempted me."