FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER THIRTY

The Force adepts spent their time meditating, sparring, playing sabacc, and watching holovids. Syrran added blaster training to Elynn's instruction; teaching her gun safety, aiming, trigger discipline, muzzle awareness, combat breathing, dry drills, and showing her a few tactical basics. Uncomfortable with the idea at first, Elynn understood it was needed as they headed toward a combat zone. Her Force training progressed well, the familiarity with the guard shotos turned her into a better fighter, and her Master had a knack for explaining things in a manner she found easy to understand and apply. His easygoing style allowed Elynn to ask any question, explore, experiment, feel comfortable with failure—which led to teachable moments—and to think for herself. Syrran wanted his Padawan to find her own way, rather than follow tradition or someone else's—including his own.

"Dank farrik, Syrran. You found my sweet-sand cookies," cursed Theleema from the galley.

"He's in the cockpit, keeping navigation watch," Elynn sat at the table, fixing her datapad. "You know he has psychometry, right?"

"And clairvoyance should have warned I was creating a monster." Theleema came out with a cup of tea. "By the way, where's Gorin?"

"Checking the inertia compensator rings."

Theleema groaned. "I told him to leave my ship alone. I can't wait to get a bigger ship." She sat by her. "Nice sparring this morning. Those guard shotos come at you in all kinds of awkward angles and their defense is hard to defeat."

"Thanks," said Elynn.

"What are you doing?"

"Making more modifications to my datapad to slice better. Unfortunately, I lost my old one back in Coruscant when I got arrested. I'm going to need to get a better one when we get to the capital."

"I thought you were training."

"I needed a break. I'm having a hard time with my new exercise."

"Which is?"

"Sense a person in the ship and place a word in their minds."

"Who was it?"

"Go... the word was 'maclunkey.'"

Theleema laughed. "Ever mind-tricked anyone?"

"Sort of. I can do it by talking. Sy explained that by using words and relatable feelings, I was able to access the minds of others. But he wants me to do the same thing without the need of a crutch."

Theleema went to get three unripen jogan fruits from the galley and placed it across the table from Elynn. "Sad fruit, angry fruit, happy fruit."

"Is that tea spiced?"

"It's a game I used to play with my sisters when we were young. You dry, rot, and ripen each fruit. Each one you fail to do, you eat. Winner takes the sweet fruit."
"Not a lot of holovids back in the village?"

"No. But I didn't eat a lot of unripened fruit either."

"Is this some Sith thing?" Elynn gave her a wary look.

Theleema rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's the key to ruling the galaxy. Now focus; make the fruit sad."

Elynn focused on the jogan. She recalled the night she escaped the Jedi Temple, and then tried to project her sadness onto the fruit. "I can't. How can I make fruit sad?"

"You can't. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted into different forms. The Force is energy. Recognize the quality of it inside you; in this case, sadness. And then feel the Force inside the fruit and make it match."