Chapter 3

Afternoon at the Jedi Temple

Pricilli walked into a side room at the Jedi Library, then pushed a button and locked the door. She and the other Jedi would not be disturbed. Three Jedi knights were sitting at a circular table that surrounded a holoprojector that showed a picture of the galaxy. Melanie Boot, a human from Corellia, sat in between the two others. Lee Street was a human born and raised on Coruscant. To her other side was the Mon Calamari Gial Oki. He was back at Coruscant after spending many months commanding a republic cruiser in the fleet. Pricilli sat on the other side of Gial from Melanie.

“Good afternoon Pricilli” stated Lee. He looked at the galaxy then pushed a button. The projection magnified to the Arma Procul system and the surrounding solar systems. Data popped up on the projection of Republic fleet activity, and then Sith fleet activity. The projection then focused on the planet Templi of the Arma Procul system. “Our recent new colony seems to be getting a little attention.”

“Although a large invasion is quite unlikely, there are reports of Sith fleet movement nearby that indicates they might be ready to send a small force to Templi” noted Gial. “Also, an information chip that was found on the body of Darth Exatio on Kashyyykyon showed he planned to go there.”

“It is an agrarian colony with a new and small Jedi temple nearby” replied Pricilli. “Why would they be interested in that? It doesn’t make sense since it is not near a route they would use to attack republic space.”

“We don’t know, however we may have to send aid to help defend it” stated Melanie. “Six Jedi are there with some younglings. The main colony has a little more than two thousand people. Houses, storage facilities for the food, and some small support businesses are the structures there. The farms are doing quite well growing their first crops.”

“We still have communication with the temple there, and they haven’t reported any problems from the Sith in that system. Actually, no serious problems have been reported. At this time we won’t send any extra help, however we should be ready in case the need arises. Pricilli, would you be able to go if need to?”

“I can if need be. It wouldn’t take long to get my ship ready. Adequate supplies would be on the shuttle. Furia would be with me. We could keep in constant communication. If evacuation is needed, we could send the alert. We would also notify if troops are needed.”

Gial looked at the projection of Templi. “If they do attack, it would likely be a troop transport with escorting corvette for support. If the Empire would send more ships, it would potentially cause a shortage of forces in another area. There just isn’t anything in particular here that a Sith would want. There are no reports of shortage of food. No particular resource in short supply. There is no history of the Sith being here before.”

Lee looked at the group. “The team there haven’t reported anything special. They are doing what they wanted, to interact with people so the population has a better understanding of the Jedi, and help a new colony thrive. All six seem to be enjoying themselves and teaching the younglings to eventually be padawans.”

“Wasn’t that a little risky taking younglings in close proximity to the conflict?” asked Pricilli.

“The group told the Council it would be safe and showed no Sith activity at the time near Templi. We still don’t know if the Sith will attack the Arma Procul system. So far there hasn’t been any problems. They report the situation as mostly calm. They aren’t near any Sith bases or military campaigns.” Melanie answered.

“Let me start researching to see if I can find anything special about Templi” Pricilli responded as she began searching to see if there was any relevant data stored in the computer or a holocrom about the Arma Procul system.

Lee looked at the Togrutan. “Oh before I forget, that is an impressive flying spin Furia has developed.”

“What flying spin?” Pricilli said with a raised voice.

* * *

Furia walked to the martial practice area after her Metallurgy class. She was done studying about the conduction of silver, auordium, aluminum, silicon, phrik. Mandalorian steel-tough stuff but not the best for a wire. She practiced her steps alone before deciding to unwind in the main practice area. Underneath her dark brown jedi robe was a red jumpsuit. An eye catcher, people have responded to her numerous times when she wore it before, however it was quite comfortable when she needed to workout. Strapped to the side of her hip was her lightsaber, ever near her, however pretty much an absolute not to activate in the practice area. She left the smaller room for the hallway. She traversed a small distance until she came to the entrance of the main room. The double door opened for her and she walked into the main practice area.

She saw numerous students around the Kel Dor Master Plootu of the Jedi Council. He held the position of martial arts trainer, a position he enjoyed with honor. Furia walked to the side, hung up her robe, then grabbed an artificial double bladed lightsaber, or art double as she and others nicknamed it. It had the same weight and does color of a blade, except it simply was not a lightsaber and couldn’t turn on or off the blades. Foolish for people to think practice should be with a lightsaber she thought once again. The lightsaber could cut through the floor on an accidental swing, and plasma from the blade really, really hurts when it hits flesh.

She grabbed it firmly and turned it in her hands, hearing the color blades cutting through the air. Feeling the weight of the blade in her hands, she then gracefully moved around in a random path, turning, thrusting, then holding the weapon as if blocking. The speed in which she moved the blades in the air increased, causing the weapon to soon be a blur. The younger padawans became distracted, admiring her form with the double bladed weapon. The older boys were looking wide eyed at how Furia looked in the outfit. The older girls all sighed watching Furia once again catching people’s attentions.

Master Plootu noticed he could no longer keep the attention of the students with Furia practicing. She had every right to be there. She communicated to him earlier she finished the studying she did on metals, allowing him to defend her in case her Togrutan master asked why she was at the practice area instead of studying. She was one of his best students. She had a long history of being a distractor, however the students needed to learn how not to be distracted, especially because of clothes that are worn. At times she would help him with the younger padawans. She seemed to enjoy working with them, and had appeared to have the wisdom to learn from the questions and movements of the young padawans.

“Furia, will you please come here?” said the Kel Dor Jedi to the ginger haired Jedi padawan.

Furia stopped her movements and brought the weapon to her side, holding it ever ready in case there would be a surprise attack. She definitely learned her martial skills over the years. “Yes Master Plootu, I would be happy to.” Furia bowed to Master Plootu then she walked to be near the middle of the large room in her red jumpsuit.

“We are now going to learn how to react to a surprise move. When in combat, not only do you need to be aware of the weapon of your opponent, you also need to know the position of your opponent’s body. Instead of cutting your ankle with a lightsaber, your attacker instead could kick your feet in front of you. A stab to the head could be replaced by a kick to the head. Furia is going to go after me with a surprise move, and I am going to respond to that surprise. After that, we will talk about the move and response.”

“I am?” Furia responded with eyebrows raised.

Master Plootu gave a short laugh. “Don’t worry. You can’t hurt me. I will even put on protection so you won’t be so worried.”

“Ahhh, Master. You sure?”

“Don’t worry.” He will be ready for the kick to the head if she tries it instead of using the double blade, which she probably would. She became quite proficient with that move. He put on a padded helmet and suit to protect him, which he knew he didn’t need to. He just hoped he didn’t hurt Furia.

The Master and the Furia stood 8 meters away from each other. “Do not hold back Furia. Reyno, you say when to begin.” Reyno was Master Plootu’s apprentice, a human from Naboo.

Reyno took a few breaths. He is going to enjoy his Master overtaking this princess of a padawan. Reyno was physically attracted to Furia, but thought she got too much attention and was overrated. “Go!”

Planting his feet, Master Plootu had his artificial single blade, art singe as they’re nicknamed, held in front of him. She may do a regular stabbing with her weapon so he could easily deflect it. However, he was ready for her recently learned flying kick to his head.

Furia went and stepped forward with her left foot, then her right foot. When she stepped again with her left foot, she jumped into the air towards the Jedi Master. She has learned to swing with her left leg and her right leg towards different parts of her opponent’s body, yet this is not what she did this time. She brought her right knee quickly into the side of the Master’s head, causing a loud sound with the contact, even with his padded helmet. He instantly fell to the floor. Furia landed near him, a bit of a worried look on her face. She knelt a little so her knees weren’t straight, a habit she picked up to protect against surprise attacks against her legs. “He did say do not hold back” she thought to herself. She saw the Master hold himself up with his arms into a sitting position. She held her right hand down to help him up.

“Get away from him!” yelled Reyno as he came close to his Master and kicked at her leg, hitting Furia’s left thigh.

“Reyno, stop” said Master Plootu calmly. “She did what I asked, and I was not prepared. You did no wrong Furia. That is a nasty move, padawan.” He slowly helped himself up so he could stand.

Furia stared for a second at Reyno, then stood up, rubbing her thigh a little at where she was kicked.

‘”I, ah, glad you are not hurt bad Master Plootu.” She really didn’t want to hurt him. He did want a surprise though.

“Class, let us go back to practicing your warm up moves. We will talk tomorrow about what happened here and how we can learn from it.” Master Plootu shook his head a little as he walked to a bench at the side of the room so he could sit and watch his class practice.

Furia walked back to where she was practicing her moves before. She brought the art double up to chest high, then began to swing it around first with a pace people could follow, then at a random pace that couldn’t be followed. She breathed with regular movements of her chest to calm herself, not the deep breaths that people have suggested over the years that would cause her to feel light headed. The weapon felt comfortable in her grip, almost as good as a lightsaber. On purpose she kept the speed that she moved the blades slow. She didn’t want to get herself revved up after what she did to Master Plootu. Calmly she worked with random steps while keeping the blades constantly moving, changing the speed, time after time, that the blades sung through the air. She changed her moves at times to practice as if someone was trying to stab her directly forward. She didn’t have to look to notice the hatred that was on Reyno’s face; she felt it with the energy of the Force emanating from him. He was known as the best of the padawans with martial arts, but she thought of him now as a fool of a bantha’s backside. No matter. It didn’t affect her training or her life. It felt good though to get the practice this afternoon. After practicing her moves for a good amount of time, she put the weapon back on a rack where she got it, grabbed her robe, then headed for the showers. “Jedi don’t sweat” she has heard before. She wished.