Well, since I have a moment, I thought I should make a few notes about the people I’m traveling with.
First of all, there’s Carth Onasi, who has practically been at my side since the beginning. He’s a soldier for the Republic, and was my personal communications officer before the destruction of the Endar Spire. He’s a character. He doesn’t like to talk much, unless it’s about what’s gotta be done to accomplish our mission, and at first I found that a little annoying. Now, I just find it funny. It’s fun to ask him questions about himself, because he gets rather flustered with all of it. Although I can see why he doesn’t like to talk about himself. It’s taken me weeks just to get a little info out of him, but as far as I can tell, his commander and mentor, Saul, was one of the first to betray the Republic and join the Sith. I’m not sure how close Carth and Saul were, but Saul’s betrayel obviously wrecked havoc on Carth. The man doesn’t trust ANYONE now… not even Bastilia or me. It’s frustrating sometimes. It’s hard to work with a guy you know doesn’t trust you, and yet you have to trust him in order to do your job. He says it’s nothing personal, and I think I believe him, but after awhile you’ve just gotta wonder… Still though, at times he can be quite endearing. Once on Taris he even called me “beautiful”. Heh. I chose not to say anything about it. I kind of liked hearing him say it, actually, and I didn’t want him to get all uptight about being “professional”, so I let it go. He keeps saying he doesn’t want to leave our group, even though he supposedly doesn’t trust us, so I think he finally might be coming around and realizing we are not going to screw him over. I hope. Because otherwise he’s really quite a likeable guy. He wasn’t at all happy about being left at the ship the other day, and I don’t blame him. But someone has to stay with the others, and I needed Bastilia and Zaalbar with me.
Bastilia. The second member of our ever-growing group. As a Jedi-Padawan she still seems rather confident of her skills. She has mastered the art of Battle Meditation, which is some sort of trance like state which allows whoever she’s traveling with to remain unseen by the enemy, or to at least slow down the enemy’s reactions to the Republic’s fleet enough that the Republic’s ships can do a lot of damage quickly. That’s why the Sith leader, Darth Malak, is on a neverending quest to find Bastilia and kill her. I suppose he considers her the only real threat to his Empire. According to the Jedi Council, Bastilia and I have a bond. Physical, mental, Force-made… whatever it is I’m not sure I understand it yet. But every time I have one of my … dreams… or visions… or whatever they are, she has them as well. At the same time. And she sees the same things. I guess it is a bit comforting to know that someone else is seeing the same things I am, otherwise I might think I’ve gone crazy. And she is here to help me if I ever have questions about the Force. Ha. I think I have had enough talk of the Force to last me months! I greatly respect the Jedi Order, and I am indeed very proud to be a member among them, but having years of Jedi training pushed on you within a number of weeks is a little overwhelming. At least that is over with for now. I have a feeling there is still a lot for me to learn before I can take the Trials to become a Jedi Knight. I am far behind Bastilia in my knowledge of the Force, and she is yet a Padawan as well! All I know of Bastilia herself is that she has been a Jedi since she was very young, and it pained her a great deal to leave her father behind.
Then there is Mission, a young Twi’lek. But she hates it if you call her a kid. She’s quite smart, and knew the streets of Taris better than anyone. Apparently she came to Taris with her older brother, who later left Mission on Taris and flew off with some “space tramp”. He promised Mission he’d come back, but she hasn’t heard from him in years. Well, if he ever comes back now all he’ll find is a big pile of rubble. When Lord Malak started bombing the city Mission and her friend Zaalbar came with us. It was only right considering how much help they had been in stealing the swoop accelerator from the Vulkars.
After deboarding the Ebon Hawk last time I updated I learned a bit more about our Wookie friend. He was outcast from his village 20 years ago because he attacked his brother. Not without reason, however. Zaalbar caught his brother making deals with slavers, and in his rage Zaalbar used his claws against his brother. I didn’t fully understand this whole thing until Zaalbar explained that Wookies never use their claws in battle, they only use them as tools. So Zaalbar was kicked out when it was his brother’s wrongdoing in the first place. That’s why Zaalbar didn’t want to come back to Kashyyk. But he’s been tolerating it well, as I’ve chosen him to accompany me at all times while here. That seems only natural.
And there’s Juhani. As part of my Jedi training, and as one of my tests to become a Padawan, I had to turn her back to the Light Side, as she had converted to the Dark Side and tried to slay her Master. It was no easy task, but at last I convinced her to go to the Council and ask forgiveness. She feels for some reason that I am the one who brought her back into the Jedi, although really it was her own choice, and the Council who made the ultimate decision. Still, she wanted to come with us when we left Dantooine, and I couldn’t tell her no. She’s very earnest, and the Council says her presence will be a good reminder of how easy it is to fall to the Dark Side. But she makes me a little nervous. She’s already turned once, and nearly killed her Master in the process. What if she does it again? I guess I will just have to have faith and trust her.
Canderous Ord is probably the one that worries me most. And speaking of the devil, here he is! …. All right… he says we’re missing some of our emergency food supplies. I’d better go investigate. I’ll continue this later…
Jaya Evenstrider signing out.
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