Open Getting the Shaft

[Isen]

It was a cold day in Jedha. Then again, every day is a cold day in Jedha. For Isen, it simply didn't suit him. His home planet was warmer. There were trees and heat and humidity there. His Kiffar people had evolved to it. The permanent winter on Jedha meant that it was always cold, and being cold made him sleepy...And so did learning about medicinal underwater fauna in the Ando System. The hologram played in front of him, a staticky, blue and white representation of a Jedi Master from hundreds of years ago droning on and on about seaweed remedies and decompression sickness. Isen wasn't exactly soaking in the lesson. Not uncommon for him, he had passed out, unable to keep his attention to subjects that bored him. His head was tilted back, his lower jaw hanging, and the eyelids didn't allow a speck of light in.

Not even the rush of two speeders coming to an abrupt halt at the paned glass wall of the foyer to the library he was "studying" in did anything to wake the young Jedi hopeful. It was two of his friends, Jayt and Bryron, humans whose families worked for one of the mining companies on Jedha. They started screaming at him and banging on the glass to get his attention which startled Isen upright. The sudden commotion caused a chorus of shushs and unfavorable looks from the other patrons, at least two of which, Isen noticed, were Jedi Masters. Isen sighed, knowing this episode would not do himself any favors in getting an accomplished Jedi Knight or Master to take him on as an apprentice anytime soon. He turned off his projector and shrugged to the two friends outside. Their faces didn't lie. They were scared, and they were screaming and waving for Isen to come to them.

Isen rushed outside, and his friends charged to meet him. They both screamed simultaneously, trying to explain themselves. Isen couldn't understand them and tried to calm them down, but the two were out of sorts. Finally, Isen screamed, "STOP YELLING!" Both boys, mid-teens like Isen, piped down and stopped talking, their eyes wide at Isen's sudden assertiveness. Isen nodded and tried to remain cool.

"Bryron, I want you to stay quiet," Isen said and then turned to Jayt. "What's the problem?"

"It's my brother Nayt," Jayt said. "He..he..he...went into one of the abandoned m-m-mines, a-a-and he never came out. We went in a little ways, but it's dark and, a m-m-m-maze. We would have gotten lost too. We yelled and yelled, but didn't hear anything from him. He's hurt or he's in there real deep."

"What are you coming to me for?" Isen asked. "You need to go to your father right now and see if they have access to the old mine maps. You need professionals looking for him."

"My father will kill me, Isen. I can't do that," Jayt said. "B-b-b-besides, you have a better chance of finding him than they do. Those maps are long g-g-gone. Nobody has b-b-b-been in that mine for thousands of years. Dried up."

Isen shook his head. "What makes you think I have a better chance of finding him in that maze of tunnels than professional miners?"

"You're a Jedi, Isen," Bryron said.

Isen snorted. "I'm still just a youngling." He looked toward the projector he just turned off that had played a lesson that he was going to have to answer for...a lesson that he fell asleep watching. "And not a very good one at that."

Jayt grabbed Isen by the arm, pleading. "C'mon, Isen. I don't have another option. Besides, to go back to the mining company is forever away. I need help now."

A sigh escaped Isen's lips. He turned to Bryron, waved his hand and said, "You'll go to the library and try to use their communications to alert the miners to come help." Bryron nodded and repeated that he would use library comms to try and get in touch with the mining camp. "And if that doesn't work," Isen added, "Tell one of the Jedi Masters in there." Bryron repeated Isen in an almost robotic voice as he turned and started to walk toward the entrance of the library. Isen yelled, "And you'll hurry." Bryron started running toward the entrance and yelled over his shoulder that he would hurry.

"Did you just control him with a wave of your hand, man? Cause, that isn't cool."

Isen ran over to Bryron's speeder and waved Jayt to hurry to his. "I would have done it to you, but you don't go for it every time like Bry does."

Jayt stopped at the speeder. "What? Every time? You've done it to me before?"

Isen smirked and kicked the speeder pedal into gear. "Shut your mouth and take me to the mine."

OOC: Open to anyone who might be in Jedha and could have heard about the dilemma. I have no plans for how it will go.

 

[Isen]

Isen and Jayt raced to the entrance of the abandoned mine. They parked their speeders by the abandoned one left by Nayt. The entrance was now just a worn hole in the rock that had a path that inclined slowly downward. The lights that lined both sides of the rock had long since quit working and the blackness turned to void about thirty feet into the mine. Jayt looked at Isen for assurance. Isen nodded and stepped into the mine with Jayt trailing right behind. As the darkness surrounded the boys, Isen drew his lightsaber, a cobalt blue streak of energy emanating from the hilt. With the light, Isen looked down and saw multiple sets of tracks on the dusty floor. "Your brother may not be alone, Jayt."

"Is that good," Jayt asked?

Isen looked back over his shoulder and was careful with his response. "I suppose that depends on who he's with." Jayt understood what that meant.

The boys continued to follow the tracks, taking a right at a T junction and then a left at another fork. They were going deeper and deeper into mine and deeper and deeper into territory that would get them lost and abandoned in the mine themselves if they lost the trail. "What was your brother doing in here anyway?" Isen asked.

"We were riding around, just foolin', you know? We came across this old mine and Bryron and I dared him to go inside until he couldn't see anymore. We didn't think he would do it."

Isen shook his head and continued following the trail. With every turn and junction, Isen and Jayt made their way deeper and deeper into the mine. The trails broke off with corridors in different sections and there were elevators of varying sizes along the way to veins of whatever mineral this mine provided. Isen kept a close watch on the dusty floor below his feet, careful not to disturb the tracks as he walked. Hopefully, these tracks would lead them to Nayt. They came to a three-pronged fork in the corridor and tracks went down two of the openings. Isen bent down and studied them carefully, hoping his scouting lessons would not fail him. The ones going to the left got his attention.

"Look here, Jayt. These aren't full footprints. These are just the toes of the boots. Two sets like this. One set has the full print for about five or six steps and then just the toes."

"What does that mean?"

"They were running." Isen wiped his face. "It looks like this set tried to walk off a little in a nonchalant manner and then make a run for it. I have a feeling that was Nayt. These other tracks took off a dead sprint."

Jayt's heart dropped. "What are you saying, Isen?"

"I think somebody took your brother deeper into the mine. "

"Kidnapped?"

Isen held the blue streak close to the steps, following them closely until they came to an abrupt stop. A huge area swept by some sort of struggle came to the end of the trail before the full footsteps started walking back to the fork. It was evident that Nayt had made a break for it in the dark, but was caught not far down the corridor. He struggled, but was walked back. Isen chose to look at that as a good sign. Nayt was a fighter, and the kidnappers apparently wanted him alive. That gave Isen hope. At the site of the struggle, someone had lost a wrist link. The electronics had been shattered against the rock wall in the struggle, and the wearer apparently flung it on the ground in frustration. Isen bent down and wrapped his fingers around the wrist comm, attempting to access his ability of psychometry to see what that wrist comm had seen. Unfortunately, his rare ability to use pscyhometry was like many skills Isen had not found an interest in practicing. The visions were not clear movies and accessible memories, but came to him more as a series of still pictures rushing in his mind like book pages being flipped too quickly to read. He shook himself free from the visions and looked at Jayt.

"Well?" asked Jayt?

"I think they're slavers. I just got pictures of child after child in being held by the hand that this wrist link was connected to. Nayt was one of the faces I saw. The Hutts and others will pay a handsome amount of credits for a young, feisty boy like Nayt."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to follow this trail, and I'm going to get Nayt back." Isen said this with resolve, and it was times like these that Isen did not look or act like a teenager in Jayt's mind.

The two boys followed the footprints in the dust illuminated by the pale blue light of Isen's lightsaber. After a series of twists and turns, the footprints came to a stop at a huge elevator shaft. Isen leaned over and looked down the shaft, a precipice of at least 100 meters. The faintest of lights could be seen filtering into the bottom. Down at the bottom of this shaft, someone had made themselves at home. That much was evident. And, whoever it was had Jayt's brother.

"How am I going to get down there, Isen?"

"You aren't. I have to do this part alone," Isen said. "If we bring the elevator up for you to ride down, they'll be alerted. If you try to climb down that far, you'll likely fall to an ugly end. Do you have a light?"

Jayt fumbled and found his datapad. He flipped it on. It barely emitted any light, but it was enough to see the cliff and a few inches surrounding him. "This is all I got."

Isen nodded. "Good. Stay here until I get back with your brother."

"And if you don't come back?"

"I'm coming back, and I'm coming back with your brother."

"And if you don't?"

Isen paused and put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We can't lose hope, my friend."

Isen took a deep breath jumped onto the cable and began his descent to his friend and the slavers below.

OOC: If anyone wants to help and follow us in, that's cool. If anyone wants to RP the bad guys, that's cool.

 

[Isen Ramm]

Isen made his way down the cable, the light from the cavern below him became brighter and brighter. Eventually, sounds started to make their way up the elevator shaft. There was talking and laughing. Eventually, the shuffling of feet and the sounds of electronics could be heard. As Isen made his way down the cable, he tried to distinguish how many different voices might be waiting for him at the bottom of the shaft. When Isen reached the bottom of the cable, he was met with an unfortunate dilemma. The elevator was a large cage, and in order to to get into the cavern to save Nayt, Isen had no easy solutions to do so quietly. He would have to make quite the racket to save his friend, and in doing so, he would alert whoever was in the cavern. He had only distinguished three voices on the way in, but that was already putting him at a disadvantage, and there was no way of knowing if there were more voices that had not made themselves known.

Isen grabbed the metal cage of the elevator and allowed visions to flow into his mind. He saw the vision of several men, though most of them were miners who had used the elevator hundreds of years previous. He also saw a flash of his friend, hands bound by a cloth and his mouth gagged. He saw no other children in this vision as he did when he held the wrist comm. Only Nayt. Isen took a few moments to steady his resolve. He inhaled and exhaled deep breaths numerous times. There was no other way. Isen ignited both lightsabers and cut a circle around his person through the metal cage below him. He fell through the hole into the elevator and looked into the cavern.

Isen saw fear in the eyes of the three men in the cavern. They had not processed Isen's age, and with any luck, perhaps they wouldn't. Isen was nearly as tall as an average adult and already filling out in his upper body. His dreadlocks and determined eyes did not make himself seem to be a boy at all. And the duel lightsabers, blue streaks of energy that cut through steel were held with confidence in his hands. The men clearly had a healthy respect for Jedi. The three of them froze looking at each other and back to Isen. Isen said nothing but stepped out of the elevator and into the large, well-lit cavern. Centuries before it had been turned into an interior living quarters for miners. Interior lights, beds, appliances...it had all the luxuries of home with the exception of access to sunshine. The young Jedi scanned the area looking for his friend's brother. He found him in the corner, tied to a chair.

"Release him," Isen said. "I'm taking him home."

One of the men started toward Nayt to do as Isen instructed, but a burly man, the man in Isen's vision that owned the wrist comm, ordered him to stop. "Wait." He looked at Isen. "You're just going to take him and leave? You're not going to take us in?"

"My mission is to get him home safely," Isen said. "That's all I care about."

"That don't sound like the Jedi way." His eyes narrowed. "You a real Jedi?"

Isen's eyes narrowed as he extended a hand. One of the men was sitting in a chair, and he tipped over backwards as a result of the force push.

The man who had originally stepped to release Nayt took a few steps back in fear, but the burly leader just smirked. He pulled his jacket to the side to show a blaster on his hip. "You seem young. Very green."

Isen didn't budge. He shook his head toward him as a warning. "I'm young, but my Master is not. We split up in the caves. If he finds us before you send me and the boy on our way, you'll have two Jedi on your hands, and my Master has a particular distaste for slavers. I highly suspect you will not make it to trial.

"But you, the youngster, is just going to let us go?" the leader asked.

"You're slavers. I can't just let you go," Isen said. "But my first priority is getting Nayt home safe. I'll tell the authorities and the Jedi Masters. I don't think it will be a long enough headstart to beat the odds. Nevertheless, a headstart you will have if you let us go before my Master finds us."

The leader snarled at the mention of slavers. It almost assuredly meant that the Jedi would come after them. Maybe even this Master the boy was talking about. One boy taken for trespassing could be forgotten. But slavers, that was a different story, and this was one of his crew's most reliable safehouses. "Cut the boy loose." The lackey did as he was told. As Nayt ran to Isen, he ungagged himself. "Isen, I didn't know you finally got a master! That's great! Who?"

The leader understood perfectly- Isen had lied about having a Master and no help was coming. He drew the blaster quickly, and started firing at the two boys. Isen jumped in front of Nayt and stared deflecting blaster fire with his lightsabers. Smelling blood, the other two slavers drew their blasters and started firing as well. Isen had no offensive advantage, and kicked Nayt into the elevator with Isen following. Nayt pushed the up button and the elevator started to take the two boys to surface, leaving the slavers in the cavern below.

"Wow, that was awesome, Isen! Thanks!" Nayt said as they were lifting. "So, who is your new master?

Isen sideglanced at him, the blue light of his sabers giving the only light in the dark shaft. "I don't have one. I was lying so they woud let us go."

"Oh," Nayt said. "I guess I messed that up, huh? That's why they were shooting at us."

"Yes, but we're almost to safety now."

Except they were not. The elevator suddenly came to a halt. Then it started going down again. The slavers had used the controls at the bottom to get the elevator to come back to their floor. On the way down, they heard the slavers taunting them from below. Isen went over his options. He looked for solutions, physically looked. He looked downward. He looked to the sides of the cage. He looked up...He looked up and saw the hole that he had cut in the roof of the elevator shaft.

"Get on top of the elevator." Isen helped him up through the hole and then Forced jump himself through so that they were both on the roof of the elevator.

"This will buy us more time at the bottom, huh?"

Isen smiled an shook his head. "We're not going down any further. We're going up. Hold on."

Isen hugged Nayt tight against his body and took hold of one of the two elevator chains tightly with one arm. With the other he extended his lightsaber and cut the other chain. The elevator accelerated quickly toward the bottom, and the two boys started to fly toward the surface. As they moved faster and faster upward, Isen yelled for Jayt to make sure his light was on. He could see the faint blue light of Jayt's datapad when he turnd it on. With Nayt tightly in his grasp, Isen lept from the elevator chain to the landing area near Jayt. The echoing crash of the elevator below them rang through the caverns. The cussing of the slavers soon followed. Hopefully, that was their only exit from the living quarters and they would trapped for either the local authorities or the Jedi to take care of.

The brothers exchanged hugs and followed Isen out of the caverns by the same method of finding the elevator- the cobalt glow of the lightsaber and the following of footprings until they saw daylight once more. As they made their way to the mine entrance, the shadow of three men began to fill the space. Isen pushed the brothers behind and assumed a battle stance. One of the voices of the shadows yelled, "Nayt! Jayt!"

The two brothers sprinted toward the voice of their father. With him was a man with a map of the caverns and Bryron who had made the contact for help. The man hugged his sons and looked at Isen in thanks. "Thank you, young Jedi. My family is forever indebted to you." Isen told the man about the slavers and that his debt could be repaid in full if they were taken care of. It was assured that the authorities would be paying the old living quarters a visit shortly.

Isen recounted the events in his mind as he made his way home. For the first time in the seven years he had spent with the Jedi on Jedha, he not only felt like he belonged with the Jedi, but that he had potential to do a lot of good in the vastness of the galaxy. His hope now would be that a Jedi Knight or Master would take him as an apprentice and see that hope and potential realized.

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara was sitting in a speeder with the engine running, the heater warming up the cab while she fiddled with the photoreceptor of the probe droid she had recently acquired. She had a comm scanner going on the dash, though she was barely listening to the police channel since there hadn't been much activity today. She had just popped the lens out when she heard the dispatcher call in the sighting of suspicious characters in an abandoned mine nearby. The beings had taken a young local hostage, but a Jedi apprentice had rescued the boy. This news was exactly the sort of thing Venara had been waiting for. She had learned recently that Jedha once had a mining operation for rare Kyber crystals. One of the main mines had been buried by a mining accident during the time of the Galactic Empire, and she had an interest in finding it. The Ubese woman grabbed her datapad and accessed the holonet.

Venara climbed out of her speeder and approached the Jedi sanctuary on Jedha. She pushed down the skirt she wore under her trenchcoat and began to ascend the path to the entrance. A few minutes later she stood in the the foyer of a huge sandstone structure. A caretaker droid floated towards Venara. "Good morning, madame. May I ask what business brings you to the Jedi sanctuary?"
"I work for the local news agency. I wanted to speak with the Jedi involved in the kidnapping the other day." Venara produced a press badge, which the droid grabbed and examined. After a moment of consideration, the droid asked, "Have you made an appointment?"
"Well...no, but I am certain the Jedi would want to elaborate on the event. Inspire the people with a personal account of heroism."
"I will summon a master to speak with you."
Venara had gotten through the easy part. The stupid droid would do what it was programmed to do. The living person would be harder to convince, but as long as she seemed genuine in her intentions, she should be able to get inside. She had to wait very briefly before an Echani woman entered the immense entrance hall. "May I help you?"
"Yes, I work for the Dija News Agency. I wanted to speak with the Jedi involved with the hostage incident the other day."
"The individual you speak of is an apprentice, and a youngling besides. I do not think it is a good idea to have him speaking to the press."
"I only want to hear his account of things. I understand if he is not very well spoken, but his story could inspire people in Dija. Heaven knows you can use some positive press after the recent unpleasantness."
The Jedi woman considered her statement for a moment. "Perhaps you are right. What is your name?"
"Risha Tabo. From Dija News."
"Yes, that's right. I will ask the young man about your request. We will be in touch."
"Thank you very much!" Venara recited her comm code to the custodial droid, then left the entrance hall for her speeder. Now she just had to wait to hear back from the Jedi.

 

[Isen Ramm]

The poor journalist would have to wait. Isen sat on a bench behind closed doors as a huddle of Masters and Knights discussed whether or not the young Jedi should be given the opportunity to talk to a member of the press. Yes, his actions were commendable, but the Masters were still rather upset that he took action himself when a more prudent response would have been to alert one of the Masters in the library. He could have gone immediately to the local authorities. Instead, Isen rushed off into a dangerous, abandoned mine and endangered the life of another teenager by taking him inside as well. The execution of Isen's actions got high marks. His judgment, however, earned plenty of chastisement.

Isen was impulsive, and he knew that it was the opinion of more than one of the masters that an interview and his name in the news as a hero would only encourage his impetuous nature. Still, others felt that the youngster deserved his moment. With no Master of his own to make the decision and guide him through situations like these, it was a group decision among those present.

What the Masters didn't know was that Isen would have much preferred for the Jedi to issue a statement on his behalf if any press was necessary at all. Isen was impulsive and impatient, sure, but he was not a narcissist. He didn't crave attention. In fact, quite the opposite, though he dare not tell them of this fear. Shy as he was, however, he was hoping the group would tell him that he would not be meeting with the journalist outside. Ultimately, his wishes were not granted. One of the masters, an older Bothan that arrived just yesterday, gave Isen the instructions. His eyes narrowed as he approached the youngling. "You say as little as possible," he said. "The less you say, the less damage that can be done. Show your humility, and do not exaggerate your...exploits."

"Yes, Master. Of course."

The furry head of the Bothan turned toward the large wooden doors that led to the entrance hall where the reporter waited. He stared as if through the door for several seconds before turning back to Isen. "Do not trust the press. They are likely not interested in the truth, but sensationalism. We do not know this reporter. We do not know what agenda she may have. It may not be kind to the Jedi."

"I understand."

The Bothan nodded to Isen before turning away. Isen stood and took a deep breath. He wiped his hands downward across his leather tunic and pants to make sure the grain was uniform and flowing in the same direction. He opened the doors and bowed his head politely to the reporter. "Risha Tabo? I'm Isen Ramm, the Jedi youngling you were asking for."

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara was surprised that the Jedi had gotten back to her so quickly. She made her way back to the entrance hall of the Jedi sanctuary. The shadows had started to grow long, and a light breeze began to blow dust all over. She was grateful for her breathing mask. She arrived only a moment before a young man entered from an interior door. He introduced himself, Isen Ramm. A name was a good start on her info gathering operation. "Yes. How are you?" She feigned a smile. She doubted he would be able to read her facial expressions with her mask on. Most aliens had trouble with it and that bothered them.

This young Jedi was more like an Ubese then most other aliens Venara came across. He was too tall, too wide around, but the rest of his body was similar. Malnutrition had a tendency of stunting one's growth, as did toxins and radiation, which were prevalent on Uba IV, so the Ubese tended to be a stunted people. The way he twisted his hair was interesting, Venara had never seen anything like it before. Most males of her species had no hair on their head, though her cousin once told her that an Arkanian geneticist told him that this was due to genetic damage, rather than a natural occurrence.

The Jedi were mysterious, with supernatural abilities, or so it was said. Most of what the Ubese had to say about them made them sound like power mad villains, but such were the tales of bitter old men. Supposedly it was the Jedi and their precious Galactic Republic that was responsible for the lovely scenery that now gilded the surface of her homeworld, but it could just as easily have been a civil war or some other cataclysm that destroyed everything. Venara knew enough to be wary of them, since many of the people she had met gave the Jedi a modicum of respect, fear or reverence.

Now for the big ask, she told herself as she fought her nervousness enough to ask. "Is there somewhere private we can go for this interview? I am going to use an auto-scribe to record our conversation, and it would be best if we were not interrupted until we finished," she told the young Jedi. Venara was very pleased with the sound of her simulated voice. She had managed to install a more attractive-sounding feminine protocol droid voice into her vocabulator, which would recreate the words she spoke, rather than amplify her own shrill voice. She hoped it would improve her ability to communicate with others.

 

[Isen Ramm]

Isen watched the journalist carefully, stoically, as was his way around strangers. He did not offer a smile, but his body language was relaxed and straightforward. Isen's impulsiveness was typically born of impatience when action was called for. His typical, day to day demeanor was quite calm, bordering on disinterest if you ask some of the Masters that know him. His countenance and body language in the face of this journalist was still and calm. It was alert and respectful. Inside, his stomach was churning, but his stoic exterior was his defense mechanism.

He considered the journalist as she spoke. One of the few knowledge-based subjects that he cared for was cultures across the galaxy. Galactic peoples and their cultures were a great interest to Isen. He started to put all the clues together to see determine who she was and where she was from. There were several humanoids species that this Risha Tabo could be. He would bet on Ubese if he was forced to wager on it, but they were not alone in the galaxy needing a breathing apparatus in this atmosphere.

He nodded and maintained good eye contact. She asked about a private location for an interview. "Yes, of course." Isen said. "Follow me, please." He immediately started walking to lead without looking back to see if she was following. He secretly hoped that she would take this for shyness or seriousness and not smugness or aloofness, but he wasn't counting on it. The Jedi reputation across the galaxy ranged from very good to very bad. Almost everyone thought the Jedi were smug and elitist- even if their oveall opinion of the Jedi was positive.

Isen would lead her down a corridor directly out of the entrance hall and then take a left. They entered a huge room, hot and humid room, the exact opposite of the frigid climate of the planet. Towering glass walls boxed the room, and it was crowned with a vaulted pyramid-shaped glass ceiling. The room was full of plants and trees from all over the galaxy as well as the loud, echoing sounds of exotic birds and flying creatures of all types. Several Jedi avoided the area for this very reason- it was obnoxiously loud. The room clearly served as a large aviary and botanical garden for Jedi research. Along the walls of the glass enclosure were several smaller rooms with datapads, hologram projectors, and fixed wall computers. Each room also had a small table with three or four chairs. The walls that separated the room to and the garden and aviary were glass and provided a beautiful view of the array of colors that painted the exotic plants and birds. Isen stepped in and offered her seat. He yelled to her from inside the room as she stood outside, "Don't mind the noise. As soon as the door closes behind us, a thermal grenade go off in there and we wouldn't hear it."

 

[Venara Tabbith]

It was hard to get a reading of the young Jedi, even if that wasn't really one of Venara's strong suits. Typically she could read a room enough to know when violence was going to breakout, but one on one interaction was harder. Isen turned and left the entrance hall suddenly, forcing Venara to rush after him to keep up. It appeared that she wasn't the only one with social awkwardness. They didn't have to walk very far to reach a fantastic sight. The room was heated and humid, and there were flying creatures perched throughout the room making noise.

"What is this place?" She heard herself ask. She did not know if Isen had heard her, but she was surprised by her own exclamation. There were green plants everywhere, and the flying creatures took off periodically to glide to another spot. It never would have occurred to her that such a place existed on this miserably cold planet. As they walked through the artificial forest, Venara realized that she was sweating from the sudden change in climate and decided that she was overdressed. She noticed what looked like laboratories or classrooms on the wings of the room. Isen entered one and called out to her. The walls were made of glass, so people would be able to see what was going on inside, but he assured her that the sound wouldn't bleed into either room. Clever boy, he knew better than to trust a stranger. All she planned to do was talk to him anyway, so it didn't matter where they did it.

Venara followed Isen into the classroom and strode to the far side of the table. She placed her bag down on the table and pulled off her overcoat, revealing her outfit beneath. Venara was not used to wearing anything remotely feminine, being more of a pragmatist in that regard especially given her profession, but she had dressed for the character. Risha Tabo was a quick witted reporter trying to get the hot scoop on the latest bit of Jedi heroism. As such, she wore a blue knee length skirt with stockings and black boots, a black blouse tucked into the skirt and a blue crop top jacket. Around her neck she wore a pendant made of a bluish silver colored metal, and attached to her ears were small circular shapes made of transparent duraplast which contained a pale blue luminescent fluid. Venara had enjoyed the earrings because of the fact that if she stared at them long enough, she could notice the fluid inside swirling slowly.

The door to the classroom closed, and the Ubese woman immediately felt relief. The quiet might have been unsettling to some, but Venara lived on a starship, so the little artificial sounds were the sort of thing that comforted her. The sound of the environmental system cycling air, the little whirring mechanisms inside the computers, the soft hum of the hologram projectors. She sat herself down and began to pull out her props. The autoscribe was a program on her datapad that would transcribe the conversation through any intelligible speech it picked up from its microphone. Venara unfolded the stand for her datapad and set it off to the side with the screen facing her. Next she pulled out a bottle of water and set it on the table. Finally she reached into the pocket of her skirt and placed a datachit on the table. Now that she was ready to go, she cast her attention towards Isen to see if he had gotten settled.

 

[Isen Ramm]

Isen stood by the door as the journalist passed by him to enter one of the datalabs that lined the wall of the garden and aviary. His eyes squinted involuntarily as he watched her shed her coat to see her attire underneath. Only fifteen years old and without a Master to take him to see other worlds and peoples, Isen was surprisingly sheltered and spent most of his days inside the Jedi complex. Nearly all of his interactions with others were with other Jedi. Generally, Jedi were not a very fashionable group. Browns, creams, with the occasional black or maroon apparel provided a rather bland fashion sense inside the complex. Outside of the Jedi haven, Jedha was typically so cold, that the general rule of thumb was to dress for functionality and warmth, not for aesthetics. But this journalist named Risha Tabo broke the mold with a blue jacket and skirt. The boots apparently were more for looks and not function. Earrings to match her outfit. He liked it, he thought. He didn't know why, but it was a welcomed change for his eyes.

He sat down quietly across from her and folded his hands in front of him on the table. It was instinctual at this point, something that happened so naturally, he forgot that he did it at all. He had it made it a personal point of emphasis in his negotiation and diplomacy training to adhere to this one small detail. It was done to promote trust. His hands were empty, they were seen, and they were nonthreatening. If he were to stand, he would cross one hand over the other at his waist displaying the same principle. Apparently, it helped to put the other party at ease during a conversation and build trust. It also hinted at confidence, being unafraid of whoever or whatever was on the other side of the conversation. Because he rarely broke eye contact and his facial expressions typically remained stoic, his posture often made others feel uneasy. It was not great for cultivating friendships, but it had proven very successful at negotiating terms. His eyes only briefly diverted to the datapad and electronics. Her water.

Isen's dark eyes raised to meet hers. He sat erect, like a student on the front row of a class with a strict instructor. He slowed his breathing, and supposed he seemed collected and reassured. Inside, he was a bit of a wreck. Obviously, he wasn't physically afraid of some young journalist looking for a quote for a news story, but Isen struggled meeting new people, and especially so without someone to do the introducing and to begin the small talk. She looked up at him after she had prepared her materials. Isen gave a faint nod to her. "What can I do for you today, Ms. Tabo?"

 

[Venara Tabbith]

The young Jedi was the one to break the ice. He seemed to be taking this thing very seriously. His rigid posture and neutral expression made him difficult to read. Venara began to wonder if he suspected that this whole thing was a ruse in order to extract information from him. She caught herself making a face, which she quickly remedied.

She had never interviewed a cooperative subject before. Normally Venara had to be vicious in order to get scumbags to sell out their bosses, or to spill their secrets. A few broken digits here, a few kilo-volts from a shock maul there. This farce was a novel diversion, one that she enjoyed enough that she could not help but to smile. Venara found dealings with the hardened individuals of the galaxy, which were followed by long periods of isolation, to be very tiring.

"I wanted to ask you a few questions about your recent experience inside of a mining complex near the city of Dija. For the record, your name is Isen Ramm, correct? Is it true that you are a Jedi apprentice?" Venara wanted to get the obvious questions out of the way first. She already knew these answers, but she wanted to seem like she was being thorough. She placed her hands on the table but leaned back in her chair. Venara knew she had to appear to be in control of things, like a professional from this point on. She glanced at her datapad to make sure it was recording the conversation as it was supposed to. She liked to tinker with whatever technological devices she could get her hands on, and sometimes they did not function correctly after she put them back together. She confirmed that it was taking down her words. Venara was pleased that everything was going well.

 

[Isen Ramm]

The young Jedi was watching her closely. When she showed a level of question in her face, he narrowed his eyes in thought. Was she nervous being in a Jedi facility? It did have a tendency to put outsiders out of ease. Or, was he so socially awkward that she couldn't hide her displeasure. He quickly put her odd expression and the thoughts of trying to read them to the back of his mind. No sense in battering it about. He was tense enough as it was.

The first set of questions were questions he should have been prepared to answer, but one question within her opening salvo stung. "Is it true you are a Jedi apprentice?" she asked. He certainly wished that he was. Fifteen years of age and still not with a Master. With no Master, there is no apprentice. The journey to become a Jedi Knight would be on a perilous path indeed if the apprenticeship never came. And, truth be told, Isen was running out of time before he would be likely be seen as dead weight or damaged goods. He steadied himself after a deep breath to respond to the question.

"Yes, my name is Isen Ramm," he said. "Although, I'm not really apprentice. I suppose the best description for your news story would be a Jedi Initiate." He said it with as much confidence as he could muster, cold and still. The question put a dent in the confidence, however, and his eyes, while staying afixed to hers, lost a little intensity and warmed slightly with this emotion. His lips parted as if he might add something to his answer, but he thought better of it. He remembered what he was told just before being instructed to talk to this reporter. "You say as little as possible," the Jedi Master had told him. "The less you say, the less damage that can be done."

Wise words, and Isen decided to heed them. He sat and waited on the next question.

 

[Venara Tabbith]

One of the questions that Venara asked had apparently bothered Isen, because he actually started to show a little bit of emotion. He stuffed the emotion away as soon as it had appeared however. He corrected her, stating that he was a Jedi initiate, not an apprentice. The differentiation was lost on Venara, not being familiar with the Jedi order or its structure.

"I do not understand why you would use a different word," Venara admitted, gesturing with a hand. "You are learning the ways of the Jedi religious order, are you not? That would make you an apprentice." This was a trivial thing to be concerned with, especially since Venara was anxious to get to the valuable information, but she felt that her character would be interested in such minutiae. Risha Tabo would want to understand this sort of thing so that she could write the best story possible.

Venara inspected her datapad for a moment. It had been transcribing her conversation so far. It was able to differentiate between voices and automatically sorted what it heard and attributed the words to separate speakers, in this case person A and person B. Venara was impressed with the auto-scribe program so far. She hoped that she would be able to search through the file later and find location names and the like. Isen Ramm had already been highlighted in red on the screen, stated by person B. Excellent.

 

[Isen Ramm]

Was she arguing with him about the terminology of the Jedi order? The Order that he was a member of and she was not? His head tilted slightly, and his eyes narrowed, not in anger but more in confusion as to why she would challenge him on it. He wasn't concerned about the semantics and didn't care to explain. "I'm an initiate, not an apprentice." He watched her continue to check on and tinker around with her equipment. "You can me call an apprentice and not an initiate in your story if you want, but you would be wrong. It's your choice."

He watched her once again check on the datapad and his head alighed vertically as his eyes reverted back to their normal, emotionless gaze. "New equipment?"

 

[Venara Tabbith]

"Huh? Oh yes, sorry." Venara realized she had gotten caught up in her gadgets again. She needed to focus on information extraction. Her attempts to act natural as a different persona were making her seem odd, perhaps because her true nature was being revealed inadvertently. She would need to be more careful if she did not want the mask to slip, so to speak. Venara returned her gaze to Isen, setting her hands back down on the table.

"Ah, whatever you like. I am just trying to understand. The Jedi are mysterious to the public at large. I suppose it does not really matter," Venara explained. So much for being the cool, professional journalist. She was certain that Isen would notice her having lost her composure. She blinked a couple times, sighed, then she pressed on with another question.

"My next question is in regards to how you began your adventure. How did you know about the boy being held hostage in the mines?" One step closer to the location. Any details he shared would also be useful. Venara opened her water bottle and unfolded the built-in straw in her breathing mask. She took a sip.

 

[Isen Ramm]

If Isen noticed her losing her composure or picking up on any inconsistencies in her persona, he certainly didn't show it. That was largely because he did not pick up on any such thing. He was a novice at real-life subterfuge and naive from lack of experience. He came to expect in training exercises, but never had to apply it outside of training. Besides, the Masters had granted her access to him, so surely she was above board. Also, she appeared to be young, perhaps a teenager herself. For all Isen knew, this was her first interview, and she was talking up a big game. Perhaps he shouldn't be so harsh. He got rather short with his last response, and it apparently unnerved her. He could sense the tension and nervousness, and a fair bit of it was his. Maybe this could be a learning experience for both of them.

"I was...studying." He paused because the truth of the matter was the holographic image was teaching, but Isen's lights were out. He had fallen fast asleep. He thought it best to leave that nonessential detail out of the story. "While doing so, two of my friends asked me to help find a child that they believed had gotten lost in an abandoned mine northeast of here. It was the younger brother of one of the friends that came to me for help." He paused and tilted his head slightly in question. "Do you need their names? I'm sure you already have your hands on the official legal report, being a journalist and all."

@Tenagra

 

[Isen Ramm]

Before the journalist could answer, there was a curt knock at the door which opened from the outside. Isen looked up to see Master Tik standing at the door with hands clasped behind his back. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, Ms.....Tabo, but I'm afraid that the Council will be needing Isen Ramm immediately." Before she could protest, the Milarian Jedi Master turned to Isen and said, "Walk me to lobby, please."

Master Tik took a few steps away from the door and stood calmly. Isen sort of shrugged at the journalist, but he felt relieved. He stood and bowed. "I'm sorry Ms. Tabo, but I must do as instructed. Please feel free to look around the greenhouse and aviary. There are members here who can see you out when you are ready."

He left her there, apparently confused, and met Master Tik outside. They started walking in lockstep toward the lobby. "Young Ramm, you will need to pack your essentials. One bag only. You will be meeting me at the boarding bay G3 in fifteen minutes."

"Where are we going, Master Tik?"

"If you spend your fifteen minutes asking me questions, you'll be leaving with your pack, hmm?"

Isen turned up a small, polite grin. "Yes, Master. I will hurry."

"Please, do," Master Tik said. "You will be leaving for a more permanent location. Whatever you leave behind, we will take to your family for you."

"Will it be some time before I see them again, Master Tik?"

"14 minutes, young one."

"Yes, Master." Isen picked up his pace and headed to his room to pack. A new adventure had begun.

/end thread