Tools of a Jedi
Every chance I get, every moment to myself, I'm in my cabin, sitting on the floor in front of the chest I found in the derelict Jedi ship. It's a mystery, a puzzle, that I am determined to solve.
The white robes inside the chest are clearly meant for someone taller and thinner than me. There is no way, in no direction, that they'll fit me. Tagiss wants me to sell them.
"They'd fetch more than a fistful of credits on the collector's market," he says greedily.
But I refuse. There's something special, something mystical, something holy that surrounds them. I can't part with them. I fold them delicately and place them at the bottom of my footlocker, threatening the Gand with every awful thing I can think of, should he even touch them.
The lightsaber won't start. Prying open the hilt, I find an empty chamber inside it. The chamber looks like it should hold something, but all that's in it now are what looks like shards of a blue crystal and a fine blue dust.
The biggest mystery of all, though, is the cube. I have no idea what it is, but it keeps calling me back to it. This is what pulled me to the derelict ship -- but what is it? My finger trace the intricate designs. There are no hinges, no latches, nothing that would suggest it opens. There are no ports or sockets or anything that would let something plug into it.
Maybe it plugs into something, I think. The old myths always seemed to have temples with strange keys or blocks that, when put in a special order or slotted a certain way, would open a secret door. Maybe this is one of those? Maybe it's the key to a hidden Jedi temple?
Something keeps tugging at me, though. I'm holding the cube and I feel something in my chest being tugged. So I tug back. It's not audible to anyone else, I'm not even sure if I heard it so much as I felt it, but there's a vibration from inside the cube.
I close my eyes and I imagine this cube is trying to talk to me, trying to convince me something, and I need to know if it's lying to me or trying to hide something.
First, all I can see is the back of my eyelids. But then slowly, coming into focus, is something strange and ancient that almost looks like a harp. I reach out to touch it. I pluck the strings and listen to the thrumming of each string. I strum them in no particular order but then something stops me. Like a mentor's hand guiding me, I am shown which strings to play and in what order.
The cube comes to life. A blue light pulses from within. I very nearly drop it as the eight corners turn, revealing themselves to be triangular pyramids. Stretching up and out of the cube comes the hologram of a tall and elegant being.
"Hello," she says, "I am Jedi Peacekeeper Oh Lin. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Her voice is slow, smooth and soothing. She has long, elegant limbs that are such a pale shade of blue that they are very nearly white. She has wide, dark eyes with white pupils. I recognize her species immediately from my history lessons. She's from Kamino and she's wearing the white robes I found inside the chest.
I stammer for words. "Wh-what is this?"
"This is my holocron." She says, sweeping a graceful arm towards the cube in my hands. "Within it you'll find everything I have learned of the galaxy and of the Force. All you need do is ask."
From that moment forward, every change I get, every moment to myself, I'm in my cabin, sitting at the feet of Oh Lin, listening to her answer my every question. Day by day I inch closer to solving the mystery, the puzzle, that is my existence.