Star Wars: Offspring

Chapter 2

This was a fine mess, Jace Diran thought to himself, why are you on the hunting grounds of Wasska? Since General Solo, not the legendary Han Solo, but his power hungry son, had let loose turbo laser fire on Kashyyyk, setting it’s forests aflame, Jace had been volunteering his assistance to the wookies. The second Galactic Civil War laid a large continental chunk of Kashyyyk’s forests to waste and killed thousands of innocent Wookies and robbed millions of other indigenous life forms of their homes. As a former Jedi knight, he was still known among the Wookie people as a reliable protector and friend, so when he asked, he was allowed to help.

Four years ago in 36 ABY, Jace stood in line at the Jedi Conclave on Ossus. Grand Master Skywalker had called the Jedi together and laid down an ultimatum: to commit totally as a Jedi with all your time and energy or respectfully step down. It was a decision he and Ellevia had discussed many times in private, but the sudden announcement by the Grand Master cemented the notion for both of them. Their three children need a more solid family experience to keep them on the straight and narrow. The fall of Jacen Solo, or Darth Caedus made them both think, What do our kids need most … more adventure, or more us?

Then, Samyan, his middle son, and the only non-force sensitive in the family, unexpectedly ran away, the two started questioning their parenting priorities. His oldest son, Kibol, was star struck and in love with being a Jedi. He was given the decision to make on his own. He had chosen to stay in the Order. The youngest, Lucas, was with his mother trying to track down Samyan. Ellevia could have gone on the search by herself, her position as an alternate Galactic Senate representative afforded her some interplanetary contacts, but she wanted to keep an eye on her youngest boy. Lucas was restless and kicking against the restraints of the Order already, sometimes refusing to train with his lightsaber. What youngling didn’t want to use a light saber? His teen years would be a challenge.

As if things weren’t complicated enough, three years ago, Ellevia gave birth to their fourth child. Leelah was his only girl, sweet, and little. There was no Force manifestations from his daughter per se, but her force presence was a bright beacon glowing with trust and innocence. She had light brown curly hair growing out in every direction, only tamable with elastic bands and ties. She had a small, stiff wiry body, strong, he felt, for a human her age, but doesn’t every father find special things in his children to hold with pride? To Jace, Leelah was toddler perfection, a joy to be around. As the youngest of three bigger brothers, she was fearless and Ellevia insisted that she has her father’s temper … whatever that means.

Leelah demonstrated what her dad could only call “the eyes of understanding”. She seemed to comprehend what people were talking about even though her speech was cute, clipped and toddlerish at best. Perhaps she was an Empath, comprehending emotion and would one day be able to soothe and heal minds. At times, she would just stare at you with those big brown eyes and tilt her head, almost like she were taking notes on her mental note pad. Maybe she would have a holographic and audiographic memory like Winter Celchu, recalling every three dimensional detail of every place she’s been and remembering every word spoken in front of her. 

Jace was considered a Visionary, aside from telekinesis and enhanced physical capabilities common to most Jedi, he would be overcome by the force at times, it would give him visions of future events, warnings even. Some seemed figurative and were open to interpretation. Others actually came true, and had to be taken literal. Telling the difference was the trick.

When he’d put together his first lightsaber, it activated as a golden yellow spear of light, marking him and his destiny in the force. He could hold his own in combat, but sometimes when one of his visions would come on him, he was rendered useless, incapacitated. In his mind, being transported to a far away planet, or to a time in the future, he could not sense or fight in the present. He had nearly been killed several times. It was to the point that he had Brine Deegs, his long time Duros friend pilot the Perseverance for him whenever they traveled. And now they were on Kashyyyk.

Jace had volunteered to care for Leelah during his wife’s searches, thinking that he’d only be called on for communications, or to help fight the fire somehow, or merely for lightweight security details. But no. Trandoshans had to go off and exploit the forest fire tragedy by kidnapping groups of Wookies. This time, the slavers had made away with four adolescent Wookies at one time.

The Wookie liaison assigned to him was an old friend, a female Wookie named Huhunna. Jace was with her when she’d received the news that her own son, Mawrowyr, had been kidnapped. He’d been trying his hand at hunting in the forest with some friends from his tribe in the lower levels of the forest. Huhunna became unhinged. Jace tried to calm her down with the Force, but a Wookie’s rage was almost supernatural, especially if it came from a mother that was kept from her young. All he could do was offer to help track down the culprits and rescue her son.

Planetary security, though primitive, was able to track the escape vector of the slaver ship as it exited the atmosphere. It lead to the infamous moon Wasska, known for slaver hunts and murder. We know our time was short, so not thinking it all the way through Jace, Brine, his pilot friend, and Huhunna took off for Wasska in the Perseverance with Leelah in tow. By the Force they were lucky enough to witness the atmospheric entry of the slaver ship and arrive unannounced in the same grid as the outlaws.

Trandoshans ... he thought, this’ll be fun. Jace had gone head to head with a Trandoshan named Gizzk. Gizzk was caught scouting for an outlaw slaver organization on the planed Shedu Maad in the Hapes Cluster. He was the only Trandoshan in the whole system and he was able to overpower thirteen security operators before nearly killing Jace himself. Jace had used the force to launch his lightsaber hilt across the room, striking him in the eye, temporarily incapacitating him.

“Don’t worry, that’ll grow back…” was the heroic one liner he’d shot out as he bound him to a fixture and left with a freight speeder full of innocents. Jace Diran, in the present, laughed to himself. He then sobered his thinking though, realizing that the coming confrontation would not be as easy.

So far, the hardest part had been convincing Huhunna to stay in the ship with Leelah while Jace and Brine went to scout the situation. The two had picked their way through the bushy forest and noticed some wrecked ground speeders, skeletons of various species littering the forest floor, and several winding roads cutting through the forests. “Sir, my scanner’s readin’ several life forms coming up a path from the East, two clicks up.” Brine whispered from three meters ahead.

“Transpose it on the map.” Diran ran up next to him. The display superimposed the moving blips on top of an overhead satellite view of the twisting veins of roads and paths running through the forest. “They’re close.” Sadly, numbers were indistinguishable, the blips looked like a gooey microorganism oozing along the path. “We need a solution quick.”