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[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Part I
Chapter 1: Jungle Sunrise

Twenty two years after the destruction of the first Death Star at Yavin. Eighteen years since the defeat of Emperor Palpatine at the forest moon of Endor. The Imperial Capital of Coruscant had fallen fifteen years earlier for the first time, and retaken again by the New Republic three years later. And then, not long after, Luke Skywalker returned to the fourth moon of Yavin. It was then that he set up the first foundations of his Jedi Academy to rebuild the Jedi Order after years and years of darkness. Since then, two generations of students had already passed through the new Academy, and old students had returned to assist Master Skywalker as teachers.

And this third generation of the new Jedi Knights looked to be the greatest yet. Though most of the attention seemed to be on the bigger names within the class, such as the Solo twins and, at least according to rumor, a member of the Hapan royal family, there were other promising students in the class. And it was also the largest group ever to attend the Academy, so much so that Master Skywalker divided up the students into groups of four. There was a method to the division, though that was only known to Master Skywalker himself. He did, at least, seem to know what he was doing.

Sitting on top of one of the smaller temples in the main complex of the Academy was a young human. He sat on the edge of the ancient flagstone step pyramid, looking out across the jungle beyond. The distant sun was rising and the orange gas giant, Yavin, was already taking up a huge amount of the sky above. And, as usual, it was hot. The human, no older than nineteen standard years, ran an already sweaty hand through matted, slightly scruffy dark brown hair. It hadn’t always been that way.

In fact, it used to be clean cut and perfect, as with the rest of him. But now...well, the jungles of Yavin were much different than lavish apartments on Thyferra. His parents would likely have been amazed to see him wearing a dirtied, grey and brown tunic instead of all those perfectly neat and clean clothes they always had back home. But that was Thyferra, and his parents were nobles in charge of one of the largest Houses on the planet. As with all of the noble houses on Thyferra, they dealt in bacta, and were rich because of it. The amazing healing qualities of the bacta was prized everywhere in the galaxy, and rarely found anywhere but on Thyferra. To say the planet had a monopoly on the substance was a grave understatement.

But Yavin IV did not lend itself to lavish apartments and expensive clothing. That was something that he had learned very early on after arriving at the Academy, right along with getting up early and going through the more strenuous training activities before the heat of the day really kicked in. He let out a deep breath and leaned back some. It had been a long morning. He hadn’t come to train as a Jedi expecting so much physical exertion. But then again, he hadn’t actually known what to expect beyond the stories his parents had told him as a child about his grandfather who had been a great Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars.

“Up here again, Cowan?” a familiar voice sounded from behind him. Cowan smiled and turned to look to the human...or rather, near human who had found a way up onto the roof of the temple. And he could very well have been seen as human unless one looked up at his face. And Cowan found that it was very hard not to look straight there, despite having known the other man for a few years now.

“Every morning, Gant,” Cowan said, turning around completely to look at his fellow student. He was tall, and wore a simple tan colour tunic over his equally tanned skin. Long, white hair hung over much of his face, but the majority of it, from the bridge of his nose and up to his hairline, was covered by a thick grey cloth. With most, that would have meant his eyes were covered, but Gant Sekel was a Miraluka, a species of near humans born without any eyes at all. All of their vision was through the Force itself, and they simply wore the cloth(or something similar) over their eyes because they found it was easier for other species to deal with them.

Gant smiled and nodded, calmly stepping over next to where Cowan sat and looking out across the jungle. That still looked so odd. Cowan knew that the Miraluka could see...but it wasn’t the same! Did he really see all the colours and nuances or was it simply like a sensor sweep of the area? It wasn’t something he could ask, as obviously, Gant would not be able to compare the two...or would he? It was something Cowan was still battling inside over what to do about.

“I still wonder how you get up here,” Cowan commented off hand as he got to his feet.

Gant simply smiled, a somewhat unnerving gesture without seeing any eyes added to it, “The same way you do. I climb,” he paused, then the smile became a somewhat cruel grin, “Except I do not take two hours to reach this point.”

“Oh, shut up,” Cowan rolled his eyes, a mixed message that he hoped the Miraluka caught. Standing up and stretching, Cowan attempted to ignore just how weak he looked when compared to the nearly two meter tall Miraluka. Not that Cowan was at all short at 1.8m tall, but somehow another centimeter seemed to make so much of a difference.

“Master Skywalker wants to see us,” Gant said, nodding towards the ground far below them.

That was interesting. Very, very interesting, “Master Skywalker? He hasn’t wanted to speak with us since he got back from Coruscant last month.”

Gant nodded again, but this time as acknowledgment of the truth, “I know. We...we think it might be something important.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Cowan asked with at least a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he started the long climb back down to the ground. The two of them got down two large steps on the large pyramid structure before he realized that Gant had hesitated while saying ‘we’. Which meant... “You meant all of us, don’t you? Not just the two of us?”

There was a hesitation again before Gant said, “Yes, all of us. I would have thought that you would be past your prejudices by now, Cowan.”

“I’ve got no problem with Esah,” Cowan answered a little too quickly, “I just can’t believe that an Imperial is here for any legitimate reason.”

“You’ve been saying that ever since we were all put together,” Gant grumbled as they continued the climb down. The Miraluka was keeping an obvious slow pace, though whether it was to speak with Cowan or simply not to get too far ahead, Cowan wasn’t sure. But now that they were about halfway down to the ground, Gant stopped and grabbed Cowan’s arm so that he wouldn’t go on. Gant then looked him straight in the eye, something that should not have been possible, and said firmly, “Cowan, I don’t care what you think the Imperials did to you or your family. I’ve heard it before, and yes, it was bad, but look at Esah. Her entire species was enslaved, Cowan. All of the Mon Calamari were treated as nothing but tools for the Empire. And my people, Cowan! We were hunted down and nearly completely wiped out. Tell me. If we can trust Cira, why can’t you?”

Cowan did not answer. He couldn’t. Gant was right, of course. There was no arguing with that. While Cowan’s family had been cheated and stolen from...the Mon Calamari had been enslaved and the Miraluka murdered. But still...Cowan didn’t trust the other human that was part of their training group.

“Lets just go,” he finally said under his breath before turning and continuing the climb down to the jungle floor.