Storage Closets and Star Maps

[Fennex Zeerda]

Jedha Temple Archives/Storage Closet
Several Months Ago​

"Get.. on with it... you... blithering... box!"​

Fennex snarled as he wrestled with his cardboard foe. He'd been fighting these dusty monstrosities all day, helping unload the scraps the order had managed to salvage from the wreckage of Ossus. Scraps indeed- most of what Fen had stacked and catalogued today was dusty relics and barely readable datacards from the deepest reaches of the old temple- crusty junk that was built to stand through worse than the entire building collapsing and burning around them. It would be up to the consulars and librarian corp to do the worst of the sorting, but it was up to the knights here on Jedha today to unload it all from the handful of freighters who had managed to escape with their precious cargo of younglings and knowledge.

He could have used the Force to stack the box on top of the others he'd just brought in, but he'd mostly worn himself out doing that exact thing with the first dozen dozen boxes of ancient crap all morning. The fox was determined to master this last crate of nonsense and knick-knacks, even if he died from exhaustion and the suffocating stench of sweat drenched fur, or from being crushed to death by centuries old archaic media storage devices. It might be ignoble death, compared to the brave Jedi who lost their lives to the Exile onslaught on Ossus, but at this point Fennex would take it. Either he would stack this box, or he would die trying.

A grunt. A growl. A pained sqeak of effort and determination.

Fennex stacked the box, a little off kilter, but good enough he thought.

And then it fell on him.

@Insalius @Valen Pelora

 

[Mikko Wexler]

Mikko had been in the archives looking for an old cookbook that he had been meaning to try a recipe from. At the time he hadn't been confident enough in his ability to try it, though now he was definitely sure he could pull it off. He had a date coming up with a new Jedi Knight and he wanted to impress the young man. He thought he had committed the thing to memory, considering his almost encyclopedic knowledge of everything he had cooked before, but this one was just escaping him for some reason. It was a good thing that he was there, otherwise he wouldn't have heard the box fall on poor Fennex. Worried and giving off a small whine, he moved quickly over to where the Amaran Jedi was laying under the box to help it off of him.

"Master Fennex, are you okay? Please, let me help you with these, how many more do you have to do?" Hefting up the box, Mikko would put it where Fennex had been trying to place it before only far more steady this time. He would then kneel down and help the smaller Jedi up, ears still pressed against his head in worry. He didn't care that he was technically the Jedi Master while Fennex was still a Knight, such matters of rank usually meant very little to him. Fennex had been one of his instructors and friends in the order and would always be as such to him. He deserved respect for his wisdom and the fervor that he showed when working for the Jedi in anything he did. If Fennex ever wanted him to do something, he would follow the order without a second's thought. Hopefully he could help him now, in fact.

@Valen Pelora @Loco

 

[Evalyn Dan’ela]

Dust. So much dust. Evalyn wrinkled her nose as she swept through the archives. She’d need to talk to the Librarians, the sand was encroaching into every crevice in the Temple. She frowned. So annoying. Jedha had become the heart of the Order after the Temple on Ossus fell. The Great Library was simply not built to house the slowly re-surging Jedi. Unfortunately, Jedha was not the more hospitable of worlds. It was hot, horribly dry, and sand go everywhere. Evalyn felt like she was consult wagging a battle against sand invading some part of her life. She pushed the thought from her mind. She needed to focus. Prakith had changed things for the Order.

They were forced to face a terrible truth. One she had tried to deny herself. The abominations had not all perished on Tython. The art still appeared lost to the Exile but the creations left behind still stalked the galaxy. Prakith was just the latest example of a forgotten abomination rearing its ugly head. The Order could no longer take that kind of chance. She knew one of the elder Counselors had complied a list of the greater abomination and where they were last seen. Most were assumed dead but they couldn’t make that assumption.

The Order had to assume the forgotten abominations were not gone, just dormant. A truly dangerous proposition. Evalyn was prowling the rows of the archives when she heard a familiar rummaging. She turned the corner to see Fen futzing around with some boxes. It happened in slow motion from there. The box fell and Fen became a pancake. Evalyn burst out laughing. She was doubled over and didn’t notice Mikko approach to help his fury companion. Evalyn sucked in breath and pied a tear from her eye. “Oh by the Force Fen, what the kriff were you doing?” She gave Mikko a little wave. “You’re lucky Mikko was here to save you from that big bad box.” She flashed a smile. @Insalius @Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

Fen's paws and tail flailed wildly out from the edges of the boxes as he was slowly crushed to death under an figurative ton of worthless space junk. These stacks of trinkets and datapunch cards would probably never even be read by the lazy acolytes of todays order. Ugghh, the indignity, Fennex thought as he resigned himself to his ignoble death. Mikko picked the box up off him with ease. Fen sputtered and gasped for breath as he rose from the floor, coughing and hacking as his lungs filled with the thick dust his fluffy body and robes kicked up.

"Th--ack... Thank you..." cough "Master Wexler." Fennex finally choked out to the wolf man. "So glad you and Councilor Dan'ela were around to save me." he said with a sideway glance at the woman. Hard to believe how far she'd come with a laugh like that he thought to himself, still dust coated and irritated. He shook his fur vigorously as he answered the Councilor and his rescuer both, "I was trying to unload the last of these damnable boxes from Ossus."

Fennex set about picking up the handful of scattered items that had fallen from the crate. Junk, trinkets, and datapunch cards, it looked like. There had been little effort to catalogue things as they were evacuated from their former resting place, so there was no telling what the contents was. Before Fennex had worn out his curiosity digging through boxes before he stacked them away, he'd come across all sorts of interest bits of various ages, to the point where he struggled to understand the archaic galactic basic the records were written in. He tucked a stack of faded data cards and rolls of flimsy under his arm, and went to pluck an old ornamental holo-projector off the floor. It practically exploded in his hands, throwing beams of unfocused light at the gathered trio of Jedi as Fennex fell over backwards again, scattering his gathered cargo of lost knowledge.

The lights slowly coalesced into the shape of an ancient Ithorian who seemed to be wearing archaic ornamental Jedi robes. T

"Gorwhuffen Pindlepandle Huwahhuwahhuwah", the ghostly Jedi garbled unintelligibly.


@Insalius @Valen Pelora

 

[Mikko Wexler]

Mikko smiled at how hardworking the Jedi Knight was, helping to clean up what he could to help out Fennex. He wondered at some of the items, having always been curious about the old things the Jedi found sometimes in their vaults and archives. What secrets lay buried right under their noses? What had been lost from all the fighting over the last century and beyond? It made him excited sometimes to think of what they could find, or rediscover, if just given the chance to do so. Something as innocent as the datacard he was holding could hold the key to returning the Jedi to prosperity, or so the romantic part of his mind went. The practical part realized that it was most likely an old Jedi Master's recording of bodily stretching exercises.

The almost dropped what he was carrying as well when the holoprojector suddenly sprang to life, though luckily he managed to keep a grip on the old, fragile items. He tried to pick up what Fennex dropped as well, though he only had partial attention for that helpful task. Instead, he was mesmerized by what was now playing, even if he couldn't understand a single word of what the Ithorian was saying. He'd never learned that language, personally, though it was on his list for ones to try and master. If he wanted to be a good diplomat then he had to at least understand the languages of others. Communication was always key in negotiations, after all. He wondered what this Jedi was trying to communicate, in fact. It certainly didn't seem like exercises.

@Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

"Pindlepandle wundelwhuff huahua fwapfapwap…" the Ithorian master continued serenely, oblivious to the bewilderment of his new audience.

Fennex rose to his feet once more, dusting himself off with a huff and a sneeze. This just wasn't his day- indignity after indignity. The ghostly Jedi of old captured his attention, lecturing on without a care for Fen and Mikko who were still looking on in surprise. No stretching routine indeed. This recording was quiet different than the majority of recordings one normally stumbled across in the archives- lots of boring holocrons filled with hours of only slightly different meditation techniques or min-numbingly detailed treatises on the minutiae of the merits of one obscure plant based life form for medical uses over another. Fennex didn't speak much Ithorian, and the Force sometimes had a hard time helping him out when it came to deciphering holograms, but it seemed like the old grey skinned alien was talking about some sort of ritual.

"Uhh… I think he's describing some sort of ritual..." Fen said, stating the obvious.

He moved forward cautiously as the illusion prattled on, reaching for the controls on the ancient little holoprojector. The construct wasn't quiet a holocron- it hadn't been crafted with the same level of care and ancient arcana, but it was still a reliable old storage device designed to accommodate the end user. Fennex pawed one of the knobs, and the holograms audio shifted as he paced the library floor in front of the flesh-and-blood Jedi. He was hoping to find something that sounded like galactic basic, or something that sounded sort of like it at least, or even some closed captioning- whatever he could get.

"Come on you hunk of junk..."

 

[Mikko Wexler]

While Fennex was busy trying to find the correct language selection on the device, Mikko had grabbed a datapad to record what he could as it happened. He wasn't familiar with the language either, but he knew enough to know what should be words in the dialect. He tried to record down whatever he could, to look up later in case it was something they couldn't access again. He figured that it was meant to be replayed as necessary, but it was old, and sometimes these things would fail after being used after so long a time. He was silent as he let Fennex to his work, being quite involved in his own, but he still made sure to keep the smaller Jedi in the corner of his eye. He didn't want anything bad to happen to his mutually furry friend, after all. Things were just getting interesting, he'd feel horrible if they accidentally turned tragic at the same time. The prospect of a ritual intrigued him, though. What kind of ancient power or rite was the Ithorian trying to convey? He would really have to get these words translated as soon as he could.

@Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

"Fwapfapwap wundelwhuff Pindlepandle huahua..."

The Ithorian continued, nodding sagely while Fennex fiddled unsuccessfully with the machine. Busted piece of junk, he thought. This was why they used Holocrons now. So much more intuitive. So much more elegant. Fen found a knob that adjusted the volume, making the Ithorian Masters voice warble up and down, booming in the cramped archive corridor before he turned it back down to reasonable levels, his ears ringing. The hologram produced an object in his left hand- a small transparent containment box, with what looked to be a kyber crystal suspended inside. While the image was entirely in shades of staticy bluish grey, the crystal clearly had a dark sheen to it, and the Ithorians baritone voice appeared to turn even more serious- it was a "bled" crystal. Fennex knew only vaguely of the process the Exiles went through to create their distinctive crimson blades, pouring all their malice and dark energy into their lightsaber crystals, beating it into submission and binding it to their will. A horrifying disfigurement of a beautiful little creature. Then in his other hand the Ithorian produced a second crystal, this time sans containment box. The Jedi master held it up to the holo-recorder, affording Fennex and Mikko a close up view of the brilliant white crystal, which seemed to have its own silvery glowing aura. It was incredible. The Ithorian continued pindlepandlewufflwoofing, and both crystals disappeared once again into the folds of his robes.

"Hrmmmm..." Fenn hummed, whiskers twitching. He was intrigued.

The hologram resumed its pacing, prattling on unintelligibly. Fen hoped Mikko was having some luck recording this unintelligible gibberish, since Fen couldn't seem to find the right buttons and knobs to work on this blasted ancient contraption. He watched as the Ithorian began gesticulating broadly, miming several meditative techniques, that Fen recognized. Was this a meditation guide? The next broad wave of his arm, however, shrank the Master's image and superimposed an impressive looking star map over him. He began wandering through the galaxy, pointing out star systems as he went, with each indicated system populating a little scrolling banner around it, identifying it- luckily for Fennex, the letting was in Aurabesh instead of Ithorian. Some of them he recognized; Illum, Tython, Devaron... Lothal? Interesting. He'd not known the Jedi had any interest or particular knowledge of Lothal before recent years. Others he'd heard of but never been to; Iktotch, Aleen... Ellora? Fennex had never even heard of that one. The Ithorian clearly had though, and the image began to zoom in, with the ancient master nodding and gesticulating what appeared to be enthusiastically... and then it froze.

Sparks flew from the machine directly at Fennex's face, singing his fur, and the Hologram stuck replaying the last second of wufflehuff on an endless loop. The image of Ellora was frozen in front of the two flesh-and-blood Jedi, half zoomed in on, cutting in and out erratically in tune with the Ithorians repeating garbled gibberish. Fen stumbled back for a third time in minutes. This was not his day... or, maybe it was? This recording was certainly interesting. Maybe he could find more in these endless stacks of crates. Fen looked up at Mikko.

"So, uhh... did you get any of that?"


@Insalius (oops, sorry for the wait.)

 

[Mikko Wexler]

Mikko was surprised when the map appeared, though he actually jumped when the holoprojector sparked and threatened to catch fire to the rest of the archives. Luckily Fennex was on point to make sure there weren't any combustion problems, though now it also meant that they wouldn't be able to replay the message for someone else. Thankfully, the Shistavanen had the foresight to record down what he could in writing. The only problem was, though, was that as a novice to the Ithorian language he wasn't sure what he had written down was actually correct. It was a pretty unique language and he was now kicking himself that he hadn't learned what he could of it before this moment. Well, hindsight was usually 20/20..

"Uh, I have some good news, and some...possibly bad news? The good news is I tried to write down what I could, as best I could. The bad news is I have no idea if what I've written down actually makes any sense. Here, let me go find a translator or a protocol droid." Before Fennex could respond he was out the door, excited to find out what he could. As it turned out, he'd managed to write down successfully about less than half of the words, but what was legible painted an interesting picture. A planet in the Unknown Regions named Ellora, potentially the site of an old Jedi Temple. If they could be sure of the location, this could be the adventure of a lifetime. As he returned to Fennex with the information his tail kept wagging happily. This may be what they had been waiting for.

@Loco

/Endthread