| << In Court | Index | Relic >> |
| In Transit |
In Transit
This story has to start with the summary of events preceding it (Another Sky #1, #3, #4). After the fall of the Emperor, Luke Skywalker acquired from an Imperial research institute twenty-four stasis boxes containing clones of himself. The clones, grown to the equivalent of seven year old boys, but were totally blank in the mind at the time. Luke freed them. They were raised by Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids, on a friendly planet called Irfogan. Luke considered it extremely important that all of them must eventually develop into individual characters. Ten years have passed...
The three young men emerging from the Hari and Fur Salon of Histapho Station
looked perfectly identical; but for their haircuts. One had his honey-blond hair trimmed to military
shortness, while the other wore it shulder length, and the third had a waist-long, unruly mane with freshly
trimmed bangs. All three of them wore plain, black traveling cloaks , and carried well-stuffed , green
backpacks. They stood in front of the chipped mirror that served as a sign for the Salon, surveying their
reflections.
" Ta would be pleased." The short haired one remarked with a satisfied grin. " This
was a long step in the right direction."
" Yes, but how can you live with such nothing hair,Kin?" The other asked, shaking
his mane.
" Someone has to, Kash." Kin answered solemnly. " It was very individual of you to
insist on keeping yours long. Ta would like that."
" Ta doesn't like it when we do everything just to please him,Kin." Said the third one.
" But it feels good to please him. We are not like the other people, we are Jedi, and it
is good to feel his satisfaction, Sol.".
" Sure. Don't forget, other people can't read each other's minds the way we do; and they like
to have their names repeated. We don't have to advertise that we are clones. Most beings have very
unpleasant memories of cloned troopers and such. This is not Irfogan." Kin answered, lowereing his voice. " Ta said
we should try to avoid provoking discrimination.".
" I don't know." Sol said, looking around. " I'm kinda excited about facing
challenges. And so are you, I can feel it."
Kash adjusted the strap of his backpack, and the two others automatically repeated
his act.
" Ta said we'll have enough challenges without provocation. You know, this is the
seventh hour we have spent off Irfogan? We're gonna sleep in an inn, and eat at a tavern, and take
a longship in the morning."
" And then we're gonna live in the Capitol City of Mord, the heart of
the galaxy; and we're gonna have our own apartment, set our own schedule, and have no one to tell us
what to do!" Sol exclaimed.
" Yeah." Kin said, grimacing. " Lousy, isn't it?"
They fell silent. It had been hard to leave home. Especially, after practicaly being
kicked out, to study on different planets, in groups of three and fours. Luke Skywalker had decided that there
would be no individual development for his twenty-four 'sons' if they spent every waking hour-and
the sleeping ones too- in the Jedi enclave of Irfogan.
" Here, everybody accepts you; and as you're clearly reading our thoughts and
feelings, you'll have no motivation to be anyting but a group of two dozen." He had told them. " Go, have
different experiences, learn new things."."
They obeyed him, as they would have were he to order them to their deaths. Luke
Skywalker was the kind of father even a hundred sons could easily worship. Obeying him was not difficult; but
finding themselves alone among entirely new circumstances was proving harder than they'd expected. They
looked at each other with identical frowns.
Kin broke the silence.
" Ta would come and get us if we absolutely couldn't survive in the galaxy."
After a mere seven hours on their own, yelling for help was out of the question. Besides,
the prospect of eating at a tavern intrigued them. How would it go, without Threepio and his dozen servo-droids
setting the perfect table?
Kin looked at the signs of four different taverns.
" Which one?" Sol asked.
" That one." Kin said without hesitation. He was developing a certain flair for
making quick decisiong - on the premise that 'someone's gotta do it'- and the two others remarked that
it was 'very individual of him; a praise that made him grin.
" Run!" Leia instructed her children. The tavern he picked was well-lit, but not exactly clean,
and rather crowded. A large sign hung at the entrance: NO DROIDS OR CLONES
" Look!" Kash pointed at the sign.
He spoke loud enough to make a few of the customers look up. A green server droid rolled
up to them, making apologetic noises.
" Sorry, beings, but you're not allowed in here. House policy." It creaked.
" And a good one, too." One of the customers, a large humanoid remarked as loud as he could.
" We don't need trooper-rejects here." A scaly being added with a hiss.
" Go back to your vats, cloneboys!" Another yelled, rising in his seat.
The three Skywalkers exchanged a quick glance, lightning dancing in their
blue eyes. "
" Surely Ta can't say we provoked them." Kin whispered.
" Naah." Kash said in a fair imitation of their Uncle Han.
They bypassed the sputtering droid, put down their backpacks quietly on an unoccupied
table, and sat down; picking up a typed menu.
" I think I'm going to have the fried Sarlacc." Sol announced.
" That's meat, you dummy." Kash warned him.
Kin felt a heavy, clawed hand descending on his shoulder.
"I said, go back to your vats, cloneboys." The speaker flashed two-inch fangs at Kin. The boy
shook off the hand, jumped to his feet and charged. Four more beings approached the table. Sol and
Kash got up without undue haste.
Five minutes later, most of the tavern's customers were neatly piled up
by the wall, and those who weren't remained in their seats, eyes fixed on the menus.
.Sol straightened his tunic and Kash combed his hair back with his fingers.
" I didn't know people with scales were so hard." Kin said, rubbing a bruised fist as they sat back down. " So, Sol, if you're not having the fried Sarlacc, what about Corell veggie stew?"
This time the droid served them without any further mention of the house policy.
" Kin, do you think we will run into this kind of discrimination often? " Kash inquired, digging
into his stew with a healthy appetite.
" Ta said it's quite possible." Kin answered, swallowing a hefty spoonful
" Ta is always right." Sol nodded. " The most important thing is we should not
provoke it."
" We didn't!" The other two protested in unison.
" No, I mean next time. You know, maybe at the inn; who knows, they might
not want to rent rooms to clones." Sols aid with a hopeful little smile.
" Maybe." Kin sighed and shook his head, taking a look around. " But these were
basically nice, quiet folks. Unarmed, too. Nobody even tried to use a knife or a blaster..."
" This is juat a small space station,Kin." Kash said encouragingly. " It might be
different in a big city. Uncle Han said Mord Main Port had some pretty rough places near the repair
shops. We might even need to use our lightsabers..."
" Strictly for defense." Kin added solemnly.
" Of course!" Sol exclaimed.
They ate like hungry Krayt dragons, cleaning their bowls to the last
drop. Things were looking up. Who knows, this study-year, far from home, might turn out to
be really educational after all.
| << In Court | Index | Relic >> |