Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy A Fan Novelization

Chapter Two - The Training Grounds

Jaden stood in line for the caf dispenser down in the dining hall. Back on Coruscant she'd practically lived off the stuff, an addiction she knew she'd have to get a hold of, if only it weren't so good and gave her energy to get through the day. She glanced around the dining hall. Besides her and the other new students who'd arrived on the shuttle with her, there were somewhere between thirty and forty students who seemed to have been at the Academy for a while.

It was her turn. Finally. Gingerly positioning her plain mug underneath the tap, she pushed the button. That strong, rich aroma filled her nostrils, waking her up just a little. She closed her eyes briefly.

"Ahh, that's the stuff," she said to no one.

"Careful, you're about to overflow!" Rosh's voice drifted from somewhere behind her.

"Ooo, thanks!" She let her finger off the button, there was just enough room for some sweetener and a bit of cream. Sadly, the caf dispenser station only had packets of the stuff, but, there! she spotted a small metal decanter labeled: Cream, standing next to the machine. She maneuvered out of the line and headed right to it. Rosh practically slid in from the side.

"So you're a caf lover?" He asked, generously adding several packets of the sweetener to his mug.

"Yep!"Jaden said as she took careful sips from her cup. She made a face.

"Bad?" Rosh asked.

She took another sip. "Good, not great." Another. "Subpar at best," she said in surrender. "I've definitely had better." If she hadn't missed her favorite cafe yet, she sure did now.

"Well, it's a good thing I like drinking caf with eighty percent cream and sweetener, and twenty percent, or less, of the actual caf," Rosh laughed as he poured the cream halfway up the mug, then quickly cut the dispenser line to deposit caf barely to the three quarter line, garnering some complaint from the waiting students. Jaden watched in pained silence at Rosh's obliviousness to those around him until he finally rejoined her.

"So you only like caf flavored sweet cream?" She asked wryly. Rosh shrugged with a goofy grin playing in the corner of his mouth. There were those dimples again.

"Pretty much. Did you already get some food?"

"Yeah, Arta-Mess, she's in the room next to mine, has white hair? She invited me down with her and we have a table with a few other people. I think most of them are from our shuttle."

"Oh," he said, sounding a little disappointed. "Mind if I join you guys?"

Jaden thought of him sitting all by himself back on the shuttle. "No, you can come. After today, I feel like we're all a team, because of what happened."

They steered their way through the small crowd, with Rosh breaking off to grab his tray from an otherwise empty table, and came to rejoin Jaden at the table their peers had chosen. Thankfully, no one objected or seemed bothered by Rosh's joining them, welcoming him warmly. A conversation that seemed to be going on before they got there continued:

"-...I mean, I've been so used to using a blaster that I hope they'll let me use both." Grinning, the younger human man Jaden recognized twirled a blaster and expertly holstered it. He was close to her age, had sparkling green eyes, short cropped reddish blonde hair, and wore a goatee that gave him a charming but roguish air. She whispered to Rosh that his name was Jacyyn Averon.

"I'm sure they'll let you use your blaster Jacyyn, but I'd be prepared not to, just in case," said the older human man, about mid thirties. He was dressed in plain, practical clothing all in grays, he kept his graying brown hair short and his eyes were a bright silvery gray, with a spark of youth still in them.