The Black Sand

Shortly after the Black Sand enters hyperspace, Freya stalks out of the cockpit and stands before the children in her armor, her arms folded across her chest.

"I know the last two pilots of this ship have failed in the simple job of returning you to the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. Know that I will succeed in this task. During the next few days you will listen to me -- in this respect the good Doctor does not exist.

"I am not one of your coddling Jedi," she growls. "I am Jensaarai, and you are in my charge. You will follow my commands as if your life depended upon it, and I will punish anyone who disobeys or challenges me.

"Do you understand, or must I repeat myself?" She puts her hands on her hips and surveys the room.

A six year old boy hugging a stuffed Wampa quivers his lip before breaking out crying. One of the other children hugs him and tries to comfort him as he cries out, "She's a mean lady, why'd she hurt a wompy?"

Another child about eight steps out from the crowd of children looking up at you. "Whatsa Janser Eye?"

Freya walks up to the child who stepped out of line and kneels in front of him so their eyes are on level. "The Jen-saar-rai are like the Jedi, but unlike you we have learned to draw strength from our passions. And unlike the Sith, we do not allow ourselves to be consumed my them.

"We are scholars," she smiles. "To us, knowledge and understanding are more important than even our skill with the Force."

Freya leans in close and says, "I'm a librarian -- with teeth!" She suddenly snaps at him and giggles.

Freya leans towards the boy with the stuffed toy. "No -- it's not a real Wampa," she laughs softly as she slowly pulls off her gloves. "I am mean, but I would never kill something that wasn't trying to kill me first, let alone waste it on something like armor."

She motions for him to come closer and hands him her helmet. "Our armor is as important to us as your lightsaber is to you. Those of us who choose to make our armor in the shape of an animal do it to honor things about that animal we respect.

"Wampas roam the cold and the dark for miles on their own. They are vicious if provoked and are fiercely protective of their families. Remember that," she says as she points at the plush, "Keep him close to you and love him, and he'll help keep the monsters away."

The kid with wampa sniffles a couple times but stops crying. Content with your answer as he studies and compares your helmet to the face on his plush.

The other children mutter amongst themselves for a moment or two before several pipe up with more questions for you.

"Where's the Jensa Academy?"

"Can Jedi have armor too?"

"What happened to your eye?"

"I want armor like that!"

"What color is your lightsaber?"

Freya puts up her hands. "Okay, okay… the Jedi want you back safe and sound, and I don't want to try to get that much blood out of the floor. Besides, there will enough time for all your questions during the trip back. You don't want to ruin all the surprises so soon.

"There are things that need to be done, and I need everyone's help. First, Chron has been through a lot and he needs time to rest and reflect. I want everyone to give him some peace and quiet, and I want each of you to consider what he did, why he did it, and where he went wrong.

"Second, if anyone wants to eat something besides those mealy bars in the hold -- which must be the flavor of apathy -- I have a list of things that you can look for in the galley. Keep in mind that it has been years since I've had to cook for so many, but dinner will be in three hours.

"Do these things for me and tonight I will tell you stories from wild space and give you my quick primer on ancient Sith insults and curses. Okay?"

Some of the teenagers begin to herd the children getting them separated into groups to practice meditating or sabers and get out of your way. A couple others say they can help with the cooking and gladly take your list. Almost everyone clears out leaving just you and a boy about 15 or 16 there. He looks around kind of sheepishly and says, "I...um, helped Chron fly this before if you'd like help in the cabin."

You can see a slight tinge of darkside in the boy and hear the familiar whir of cybernetic servos as he nervously flexes his right hand.

Freya raises an eyebrow. "Yeah, I could do that," she says as she walks back to the cockpit and shuts the door behind them.

"I didn't think that Chron could have flown a ship like this on his own, especially with little or no training. So, what's your name, boy?"

[Now that I think about it, Freya's on a ship filled with children -- she's keeping Danger Sense and Receptive Telepathy up the whole time. ]

He flips some switches and checks some screens almost unconciously as he talks to you, co-piloting coming very naturally to him.

"Chron is a pretty quick study actually. I've been helping him out a lot in adapting him to technology at the Academy. He's shaky on piloting right now, but getting better. Oh, and I'm Lusombra," he adds while extending a handshake, "Lusombra Xandow...I think you know my mother."

"Yes, I do know your mother, but not as well as I have thought. I didn't know she had any children," she says as she shakes his hand. "How long have you been at the Jedi Academy?"

"She only let me start training there recently. When they started working along with the Jedi. She didn't want me traveling with the Jensaarai anymore until this Sith mess is sorted out. They don't have an academy of their own so much, we just kind of travel in groups. They're big on teaching through experience so most of my training has been in the field. Right now they've been going through some dangerous territory and she worries too much. Can't complain though the Jedi are at least a bit more laid back."

"So, is this," she she strokes his hand, "part of your experience?"

He grins at your question, "They don't really believe in practice sabers. They say something like this gives you a constant reminder, the path of the Force isn't something to take lightly. What about your eye? It's pretty cool!"

"I've never lost a limb, but I have a good collection of scars. I've earned every single one of them, too," she says with a strange mixture of weariness and pride.

"As for the eye, I lost it trying to recover some very dangerous weapons from some very dangerous people.

"I ran off on my own to do it so I was out-numbered and out-skilled, but the others on my team had already decided that they couldn't win because they couldn't kill them."

Freya lets out a sigh. "Sometimes they seem to confuse killing with victory, instead of just foiling the enemy's goals. Anyway, I had to try," she shrugs. "I would rather lose trying than stand idly by."

"You know… There is no Peace, there is only Passion," she says, flashing a toothy grin.

He's about to answer you when an alarm goes off on the ship followed by the high pitched squealing of several children. Looking down at the readouts he tells you, "Seems there's a minor fire in the galley, I can keep an eye on things here if you want to deal with that."

"Thanks!" she says as she grabs an emergency extinguisher from the wall and strides out of the cockpit.