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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2147502" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 188: Parallel HistoriesAfter only a few minutes, Tobias escaped both Akan and Shadow, bounding off into the palace and back to play with the rest of his new friends. Akan couldn’t help but feel at least slightly hurt by this, but it really wasn’t important. The little guy was happy and at least he wasn’t hanging around so much to be impossibly annoying.    And besides, Shadow was already running across the grass covered courtyard in the other direction, yelling back, “Come on, Akan! I’ll show you my world!”    She then jumped, morphed into a bird, and started to fly off. Akan chased after her, yelling up at the small bird, “Wait! Hey! Why can’t...we...just...walk,” he sighed and rolled his eyes, “Not that you can hear me, of course.”    With a sigh, he gave in. A few moments later, a similar looking bird caught up with her. Noticing he’d caught up, Shadow smiled mentally. It was odd normally, but with the link being all strange, it was even worse than usual. So was her ‘voice’, which was obvious projected through the Force instead of their link. [You sound like every other Alraxian! ‘I don’t wanna morph!’ ‘Its too much work!’ Blah blah blah blah!]    [Oh, shut up.] was the only reply he could think of, but he quickly added to it. [So where are we going, anyway?]    [There’s some ancient temples off on an island to the north.] Shadow answered, swerving back and forth through the air and obviously having far too much fun flying around as a bird.     Akan found himself looking down, noticing that the land under them had already faded into a beautiful, blue-green seas. Water that was oddly reminiscent of Akan’s lightsaber. And somehow, that tangential thought brought a question to his mind. [How ancient is ancient to an Alraxian, anyway?]    The Force rippled with a positive feeling from Shadow, one that he interpreted as a smile while she tried to figure it out in ‘galactic’ standard time. [Ooohh...about twenty thousand years ancient.]    [Wow...ancient.] Akan responded lamely, then both of them went quiet.    Keeping up talking like that took far too much effort. While through the link it only required thinking in just the right way to ‘talk’, using the Force meant one had to project your thoughts right at the other person and focus on it so that it was understood. All in all, when mixed with the fact that they were flying hundreds of meters above the ground where predators could be seen, it was just easier to wait until they arrived to do any talking. But the issue of predators brought up something that Shadow would need to talk with him about.    Essentially, everything on the planet had a habit of feeding on Alraxians. The only actual advantage that Alraxians had was their ability to heal wounds through morphing. Beyond that, everything was bigger, faster, stronger, and definitely meaner. While certain ones could be tamed, it wasn’t something that was worth even thinking about when out away from the protected cities. Everyone of the Alraxian’s cities had a powerful energy field around it, meant to keep predators out.    It was lowered and raised constantly as Alraxians and such moved through, but only in certain spots. Like little doorways in a giant, invisible dome. Small enough that larger predators, such as the Dragons, couldn’t get through. Wandering outside the shield was usually considered stupid, and very few did so without a ship. But Shadow being Shadow, she’d always snuck out even if she got scolded by her mother every single time. This time though, she wouldn’t be...hopefully.    After only a few minutes, Shadow started dropping closer to the water, and Akan soon saw why. There was an island. It was small from the altitude they were at, but he realized that the tree covered island was actually close to the size of the gigantic palace they’d left. Jutting out from the green trees, in multiple places, was an obvious structure. Though whatever it was made of, Akan couldn’t figure. At points, he could see a greyish stone, but it would drop below the tree line and there would be a definite shine of metal. Metal! What in the name of the Force was metal doing like that? Most Alraxians could barely stand to touch it, let alone live in a place or build some place made of it.    Shadow led the way down, through the thick trees and to the soft ground below. In a few more moments, they were themselves again, and Akan couldn’t help but be happy to be standing on solid ground again. They were surrounded by trees. Akan could feel the whole place bursting with life, but whatever there was seemed to be keeping its distance. Shadow stretched, grinned, and then led the way forward without a word.    He followed through the trees and the thick vegetation all around them, and it took only a few minutes before his feet were no longer walking on the soft dirt, but instead made an echoing sound that only metal could make. He had been looking down at the dulled silver at his feet and had completely missed the fact that this was the first step into an open ‘cave’ of metal. Akan blinked, then realized that it was just a building and they’d stepped in through a large whole in the wall where trees were growing all around.    “Looks like home...” Akan commented, getting used to the feel of the metal under his feet again as Shadow nodded and led the way across the small room to a set of stairs. She went up. He followed...slightly curious as to why she’d gone so silent all of a sudden. The steps were steep, and went up for a good distance into another half opened room. This one, though, was above the tree line.    Stepping up into the room, Akan could immediately see all the way across the island, the bright green of the tree tops a very welcome sight. It really felt so alive. He then had a look around the room. It looked like a very, very old style of design that you could find in the lower levels of Coruscant. His eyes trailed over the metal walls to where Shadow had walked to. She was grinning and leaning on a computer. It had to be a computer. Sure, it was old...very, very old, but it was an actual computer! There was even a slot or two for datacards! And a holoprojector!    “Thought you’d like it,” Shadow commented with a grin at seeing his surprise, “Not many people know its here...and yes, it still works.”    To prove it, Shadow hit a switch on one of the outstretched consoles. The main screen on the wall flickered, as did the holoprojector, and then both switched on, showing a symbol that Akan knew only from the history holos. And not just any history holos. It had been on the datapads and such that he’d found in the lower levels of Coruscant years and years ago. It was the symbol of the Jedi of the Old Republic. The Jedi. The real Jedi...before the Purge. The Jedi that even Akan dreamed of as heroes and saviors. The people he wished he could be...and knew he wasn’t, no matter how hard he tried.    “Wait a second...” something else hit him. Something else that had been bugging him since arriving at this place. Quickly, he walked over and pointed to it, “That’s...that’s the symbol of the ancient Jedi Order!”    It was a question without being a question. But to his surprise, Shadow didn’t nod like he’d expected. Instead, she gave him a confused look and shook her head, “Noooo....that’s the Empress’ insignia.”    So he’d been right. He had seen it before! It was all over the palace, in fact. Above nearly every entrance, was that design...one he’d seen before years ago on an ancient datapad. And here it was, the symbol of the Empress of the Alraxian Empire out in the Unknown Regions.     Akan said slowly, “It may be...but its also the symbol of the ancient Jedi Order,” he went silent a moment and bit his lip, holding back the question she probably didn’t even have an answer to. But no, it needed to be asked. It was begging to be asked.    “That ancient weapon you’ve got is a lightsaber. It’s the weapon of the Empress, you said,” Akan said, carefully putting down all the pieces, “But again, its also the weapon of the Jedi Knights. The symbol of the old Jedi Order is all over the place here...but it’s the symbol of the Empress. Obviously, there’s a connection...but, how?”    Shadow just shrugged, “I dunno. There are some old stories about Jedi, but they’re just stories. Legend says that the Jedi helped to end the Darkwing Wars thousands of years ago. Its not like our people haven’t ventured to the rest of the galaxy here and there, either, so they could have popped up in one way or another.”    “But look at this place!” Akan said, his voice echoing through the room, “Its like Coruscant...but here on Alraxia! There were Jedi here!”    “You know, Akan, there’s an easier way to do this than speculating,” Shadow said, idly tapping a finger on the wall, having given up on being subtle about it anymore. When he gave her a ‘huh?’ look, she nodded towards the computer, “You could ask it.”    It was so obvious that he’d missed it. In a matter of moments, the computer was speaking in a form of Basic that was definitely ancient. He could understand it, but it was accented and some of the words were pronounced oddly. And the first thing it told them was that it was the history of Jedi Outpost Eight Seven. And as it told of what the place was, how it had been set up, and continued on, Akan stared at that small Jedi symbol in the holoprojector and just listened...amazed at every word, and not even completely sure of what it all meant.</blockquote>

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