By the time our boat arrived at its destination, I was ready to cry over the tragedy of the Seekers missing Jabitha.
According to my wrist chronometer, it had taken less than ninety minutes for her to a) Grasp the concept of becoming a channel for the Force, b) Find the most rudimentary success in touching the Force, and finally, c) Getting a pebble to wobble a couple of centimeters across the boat-deck.
Less than an hour and a half to grasp Fundamentals of Telekinesis. It was like watching a newborn demonstrate a grasp of calculus with an innocently sunny smile for their stunned parent.
I was beyond gobsmacked, I was beginning to wonder if Jabitha wasn't another inadvertent result of Plagueis's meddling. No one picked up the basics of TK in a single sitting. Not Yoda, not even a Chosen One of legend and prophecy.
If ever in my entire life I needed a reason to criticize the Jedi Order for only training infants and toddlers, then Jabitha was that reason. I was eye to eye with someone possessing the kind of gift that made a Jedi Master, yet that was never going to be.
"Hmm, I wonder if Vinrae is in the market for a new acolyte? It's going to be impossible to find Jabitha a teacher all the way out here, otherwise. Damnit, this is so damned unfair to her!" I hated there was nothing productive I could come up with in the face of her mind-boggling success.
Despising the idea of not getting this girl into training with someone tomorrow, both because of her obvious gift, and due to my being rightly concerned someone might corrupt her.
"That was absolutely incredible, Wind! You have a great talent for this application of the Force. I wish I could keep working with you, but since I can't, I want you to keep working on what I've shown you.
You'll be surprised just how much you can accomplish with meditation and determination.
Try considering how touching the Force and meditating might apply to what you do with the birds. I think you'll be surprised where that can take you" I told the excited teen. It wasn't anything like what she deserved, but it was all I had to offer her.
I tried to console myself that many Force-sensitives didn't get this much training, but that felt just like the excuse it was. I knew I was failing someone with an incredible gift, and knew there wasn't a damned thing I could do about that.
I sensed what she was about to do as she resolved to do it, but I didn't do anything to stop her as the pretty young girl impulsively threw her arms around me and squeezed. She released me with an attractive blue-green blush lighting her cheeks, but I only smiled and said my goodbyes as the boat hit the dock.
Dark Woman had glided back over, so the party was being broken up in any event. Jabitha energetically bounced off down the dock with a wave and a smile.
Promising to remember what I'd shown her and practice every day before she finally rejoined the rest of her small group and departed. Leaving me with my Master to face the music.
"Do you know why I encouraged that bit of the unorthodox?" The question was offered without preamble. In a tone which gave me no clue as to what the right answer might be, or what point the Jedi Master could be trying to make.
Fortunately, I had more brains than a child, plus I'd already had time to consider the issue while Jabitha worked on finding the Force.
"You wanted to drive home the point the Jedi Code isn't perfect. In a way that would resonate with me emotionally, and so underscore your point for good and always.
I strongly suspect you knew that Jabitha possessed an incredible gift, so you seized the opportunity to illustrate the fact I would not have been considered an acceptable initiate even at five and a half.
You disagree with the Order's decision to reject nearly all potential candidates over four years old, and you wanted me to see why you disagree.
Is that all of it, Master, or have I missed something?" I stated with some confidence. Finishing with a question I didn't expect much of an answer to.
Dark Woman was quick to surprise me on that front, however. "There's also the ugly reality that every Force-sensitive the Order turns away is one more potential Dark Side Adept, at best. I'm a traditionalist in most respects, Anakin, but in this the High Council is gripped by folly.
I want you to always remember the frustration you felt when you recognized the tragedy of there never being a Knight or Master Jabitha Hal.
The day will come when you'll be the one in a position to see to it that other young Force-sensitives with gifts that could do an enormous amount of good are trained, or not.
It's my responsibility as your Master to show you the truth. Not what others would have you believe is the truth. The Jedi trained older initiates for millennia.
The Order only changed it's ways after Ruusan because of it's out of control need for centralized authority. Changes supposedly made to decrease the number of Jedi who fall to the Dark Side.
Unfortunate then, that the statistics have never supported the notion that many of these changes accomplish a thing in that respect."
I didn't know what to say to all that. Fortunately, Dark Woman didn't seem to be looking for a response from me. I was still giving what she said a great deal of thought as I followed her off the boat, however.
Shortly thereafter, we met up with Vidge. He was an extremely tall, red skinned, black haired Langhesi man with solid black eyes and muscles a youthful Schwarzenegger would have envied. The craggy featured alien told us he was the chief of the Shapers.
After seeing to it the much larger container with our newly expanded seeds was loaded onto the back of one of the enormous seven-legged red, green, and black insects being used as beasts of burden, he saw us up onto another of the beasts ourselves.
Only then did we set off to the place where our ship's frame was being prepared.
It was a long ride to the valley that Vidge described as our destination, so I spent most of the time utilizing my recently expanded empathy to try and connect with the huge insects we rode upon.
Considering the number of lethal predatory life-forms in this galaxy, I considered brushing up on my instant monster-taming technique a priority. It wasn't really difficult to connect with the Carapods.
There just wasn't anything meaningful to them. It was like reaching out to sense nearby plant life while meditating. The beasts were so simple, they were basically moving foliage.
I soon realized they weren't going to be useful in teaching me how to instantly tame deadly predators as Other-Anakin had in a Geonosian arena.
Frustrated, I gave up and went back to meditating on the possible meaning of the fractal web patterns I kept seeing.
Feeling like their meaning was something I long since should have grasped, and equally certain that meaning would eventually prove to be of immense importance to me.
The valley in question was strange as production facilities went. It was thick with tree-like organisms that seemed heavily involved in the construction process.
Vidge moved us straight from the Carapods to the interior of a ship-frame easily twice the length of Dark Woman's courier-ship, and perhaps half again as wide.
You could see the elongated teardrop shape we'd settled on similar to Delta-7 Aethersprite starfighter in the general outline, but we'd foregone a bubble cockpit for an inbuilt forward of the cabin design.
Overall, our as yet unnamed vessel was going to be of similar dimensions, simply up-sized with the need for two spartan sleeping areas and a small occupancy compartment just forward of the gantry ramp.
The now snow-white seed disks were being affixed to the frame in quick, highly professional movements by the strange cybernetic trees with octopus-like limbs.
Our muscular crew-chief was directing the entire process like a maestro conducting an orchestra. All we were supposed to do is sit there and watch the ship take shape around us.
"I can see why they vet prospective clients so carefully. They need to be sure their customers will remain discreet concerning the visible details of their operation.
Many conventional shipyards would likely take exception to competition which can not only surpass them in a qualitative sense, but also crush their timetables. Luxury ship-building can be just as cutthroat as any of the larger scale operations, Anakin" Dark Woman murmured beside me.
I nodded an acknowledgement of her words, but I was completely enthralled by the process of our vision being realized at such breathtaking speed.
It was all over but some minor additions to bring the new ship up to Republic code within four hours. One of Vidge's crew, a heavyset blue-skinned Ferroan man named Fitch lowered the landing ramp to allow us to walk out.
He mentioned he and a few of the others would finish up over the next hour or so, then Vidge and the remainder of the crew would connect the two banks of three lava cannons each by their nerve fibers.
Arming the vessel as few ships they'd sold to off-world clients had been armed. At which point there would be nothing left but the naming of the craft, and the beginning of our tutorial in the piloting of a Sekotan bio-ship.
It had already been a rather interesting few days, but now we were getting to the most important part of things.
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
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