FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Elynn found it difficult to meditate at first. She worried about failing to figure out what she needed to do and being trapped in the chamber forever. Having the more experienced Force-users meditating by her, gave her solace. If she couldn't figure it out, one of them would—hopefully Syrran. Not knowing what kind of meditation to do in this situation, she decided to practice the one Syrran had taught her. After centering herself, Elynn shifted her attention to the light side door, looking to merge her mind with it and get it open. Her thoughts flowed through her mind without her focusing on them. Elynn projected her intention to the center of the stone door, visualizing every grain, pore, crack—even each molecule—around her.

At some point, she lost her sense of time and self. When she came to, the door remained closed. A confused Elynn thought that perhaps her brush with the dark side had tainted her connection to the light side.

How's that fair? she thought. I spent my whole life following the light side, and the one time I stumble, that's it? What kind of krayt spit is this?

The injustice, the failure, the stakes at hand, and the claustrophobic circumstances, spurred her anger. Elynn caught herself and began breathing exercises to calm down.

This door is not going to open this way. The one to her left did. At least Syrran had succeeded in his efforts.

Elynn looked over her shoulder. The Bendu door had been opened and Syrran was missing; Theleema as well. Concerned, Elynn got up, but her attention shifted to the hallway she saw extending beyond the threshold. She approached the corridor, trying to see if she could spot anything on the other side. The noise of computers and communication devices drew her closer. Random as they sounded, the particular combination connected with vivid memory for Elynn.

As she ventured further away from the Mortis Chamber, Elynn entered a room in the Jedi Temple's communication center. She saw her thirteen-year-old self, working late and testing cyber-security of field communications, when she detected a message of curious origin. The Chancellor's office contacted the clone commander in Utapau. Eels played the message in the holoprojector.

"Commander Cody, the time has come," a cloaked figure said in a gruff voice. "Execute Order 66."

Elynn realized she was reliving the night the Great Jedi Purge began. She had been working late, testing military networks for vulnerabilities. Master Ban-yaro, the temple's Chief Communications expert, had told her twice to head to the dormitories. He had no problem allowing a gifted youngling to help in the war effort, but not at the expense of her own edification. Elynn had completed her Initiate Trials and had been chosen by Master Kit Fisto to be her Padawan. She made the offer before leaving to a mission in Florrum with Mater Kenobi. Elynn's training under her would begin when she returned. But Kit Fisto never did; he was killed fighting the Emperor when Mace Windu and a couple of other Jedi Masters tried to arrest him, leaving Elynn without a Master until further notice.

When the message repeated at Mygeeto, the younger Elynn looked for the Chief of Communications. The older Elynn followed her.

"Master Ban-yaro?" the girl said.

The human with red hair and violet eyes looked up from his terminal in the next room. "Yes, Threel?"

"I'm monitoring a strange field message from the Chancellor's office."

Ban-yaro leaned back. "Strange how? Something irregular?"

"Not technically. But why is the Chancellor contacting field commanders, issuing an order that doesn't figure in any of the communication protocols?"

"Huh, it's probably a classified message beyond your current security clearance."

"And yours," young Elynn noted.