Legend of the Harp Episode I: Birth of a Jedi

Legend of the Harp Episode I: Birth of a Jedi By Hemaccabe

Legend of the Harp

Episode I: Birth of a Jedi

By Hemaccabe

Chapter 2: Pirate, Smuggler

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

*** Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Jedi Temple, Coruscant ***

My brief memoir complete, I packed my things. I might someday return to the Temple, but it would not be reasonable to expect the Temple to hold my quarters indefinitely. When I came back, if I came back, I could request new quarters.

I had intended to get a good night's sleep then head out in the morning, but strangely enough, sleep was elusive.

I decided that even though it was the middle of the night, I could be off immediately.

I went to my former work cubicle and packed my six droids for shipment. There could be trouble about that. The memories of these droids held state secrets. I would be gone by morning before the discussion could be had.

I went to the Temple's port facility. I requisitioned a ship and got the Consular class ship Tontine. She had just finished a refit. Her red paint was very fresh. Part of the refit had also clearly been to replace the ancient blasters and shields and upgrade them to models that were only hopelessly antiquated. I also requisitioned a pilot droid, an astromech navigator, a repair/engineer droid and a cook/housekeeping droid. I also helped myself to a large pouch of Credits, just in case.

I was gone before dawn.

I left a brief note for Master Palatex, essentially saying I would be going to Jedha to meditate and seek wisdom.

I left a note for Master Arunx, "Apologies for keeping my droids. I will try to keep up with some of my duties while I'm away. Thank-you for the opportunity and your wisdom."

Hopefully that would smooth over the droids.

I had the ship fly out to a quiet spot in the mid-rim. Using an old smugglers trick, I shut down the hyper drive in interstellar space, then moved a light year off the hyperspace lane and shut down my engines. I was deep in the middle of nowhere empty space.

I had chosen this spot for a particular reason, it was right along the subspace HoloNet transmission lines of several key players. I extended the communications boom and began to record. Then I went to my quarters and got some sleep.

The Consular ship design is about transporting a VIP in modest comfort. There is a master stateroom for the passenger, a set of smaller staterooms for senior crew and secondary guests and a set of bunks for junior crew or guests. I had intended to take one of the bunks but realized I had too much accumulated personal gear to fit in the storage shelf under a bunk, so I took the junior stateroom next to the master stateroom. The housekeeping droid had done a good job cleaning and prepping the quarters, so I had a surprisingly pleasant night's sleep.

I awoke when I was done sleeping and felt amazingly refreshed. I did an hour of exercise and then my morning ablutions. I left my quarters and walked into the hallway/mess area that passed along the length of the ship from cockpit to engineering spaces. I sat down at the long and otherwise unoccupied table to a hot fresh meal that had been prepared by the housekeeping droid. I had a couple weeks of decent rations and a year's worth of survival rations on board. I figured I could pop into several ports in the area and do a quick restock should I run low.

I checked with my engineer droid. It was finishing repainting the exterior of the vessel in a neutral blue and white which implied this was a commercial passenger and cargo vessel.