The One, The Force, and Legion
Book Three of the Waycaster Trilogy
By
John Erik Ege
EHP: Experimental Home Publishing Copyright, June 17th, 2019.
All Rights Reserved.
First book ‘Star Wars: A Force to Contend With.’ Second book, ‘Star Wars: A Dark Run.’
This book is not available for sale. It is, however, available for free. Licensing for this is pending and can only be considered fan fiction at this time. The author agrees to share this edition for editing purposes with the understanding that Star Wars is now the property of the Walt Disney Corporation, while Star Wars books fall to the domain of Del Rey. Comments and corrections can be directed to the author for story refinement.
WARNING: This book is intended for a mature audience. Due to violence and sexual themes, some persons, especially those suffering from PTSD or childhood trauma, could possibly experience unpleasant feelings or flashbacks.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. (I would like to say ‘duh,’ but apparently, there were actually people who believed the Castaways of Gilligan’s Island were actually stranded! No joke. There were people writing the US Navy asking them to please stop spending money on warfare and rescue those poor people before they starved. Tim Allen’s movie ‘Galaxy Quest’ made reference to it, but I thought it was a joke till I saw a documentary on Gilligan’s Island. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that there is a stature in Iowa place marking the birth place of Captain Kirk. Oh, how reality and fiction love to mix. (And yes, I watched Gilligan’s Island. And if you have to know: Mary Ann, hands down.)
This book is intended to support the mythos as created by George Lucas. Given the amount of SW fiction that is available, and the amount of divergence from various authors, movies, and re-releases of movies, it is definitely out of the scope of this author to fully address, capture, or give credit to the others who have most certainly influenced his thoughts and appreciation for this saga, of which, Timothy Zahn stands out foremost. I can only hope that my small perspective adds to the lore, as opposed to detracting from what I believe Lucas set out to achieve with the original Star Wars. It has become a huge, unwieldy beast, but, unlike the elephant in the room, it is widely discussed, debated, defended, championed, ridiculed, picked on, referenced, and has place holders on our book shelves, hearts, and psyche. For better or worse, The Force is with us, always.
This book is dedicated to all of those who have suffered through my grammar and teased out something more meaningful than the visible architect. May you continue to find meaning and joy in you all your multiverses.
Author contact info:
John Erik Ege 214-907-4070 Email
solarchariot@hotmail.com (In order to differentiate between junk mail, and letters, please put Star Wars in the
subject line.)
Less than a year after the conflict over Axilla
The First Order owned the sky, as the resistance retreated All too late realizing the duplicity of the local principalities.
The truce with Waycaster was maintained, and only his ships Were permitted past the block aide. It was a tenuous truce, At best, and a negotiation, of sorts, ongoing.
Those who might have been Jedi in another time
Are slowly beginning to surface, to test their wings
And without Masters and training, the first tentative steps
Are precarious at best. A new ability has been witnessed
On the battlefield, And suddenly, many have an inkling
Of even greater things available to them through the Force.
The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant Compared to the powers of the Force.
There remains paths yet unexplored for those who would Travel
The Force is always there, calling. In Darkness we are born, And without the trappings of dogma The Force goes unconstrained.
Chapter 1
The beach was comprised of white sands, as if it were bleached, refined sugar. The seas were emerald green, and gentle. Waves made a regular heartbeat against the sand, turning the tiny crystals through their refracting points that spun a thousand tiny rainbows that popped like bubbles as the water receded back into the ocean. A translucent green, crystal crab pushed legs and headed back to the waters as the aliens intruded on its space. Preston G Waycaster walked with Ten.
“Is this a dream?” Ten asked.
“Can you point to something that is not a dream?” G asked.
“Are we really here?” Ten asked.
G paused to examine their prints. Their prints paralleled the ocean, but you could only follow them back so far, not because they were washed away, but because they started mid beach. A person not knowing they were Jedi might be baffled, but would assume waves and move on. Ten frowned.
“For once in my life, I would like you to answer my questions in a very deliberate and precise manner,” Ten said.
The breeze that eased around them seem sentient. G listened to it with his ears and closed eyes, embracing it’s salty smell. Around them creatures scurried along the beach, swam in the water, visible, but probably not where you thought you saw them, and in the air. Plants flourished further up the shore, climbing hills and spreading out in all directions.
“I like that you keep asking for greater levels of clarity,” G said. “The answers are all around you.”
“I don’t like the answers I keep coming up with,” Ten said.
“Change your filters,” G said, and began walking again.
Ten frowned, and then made to catch up with him. “Why are we here again?” “Why are we anywhere?” G asked.
“Oh, Force me! Stop answering questions with a question,” Ten said.
“Why are we here, Ten?” G asked her.
“To learn something?” Ten asked.
“Is that a question?” G asked. “Why are we here?”
“To learn,” Ten said.
Again, G stopped. He faced her. His change in focus caused her to not only face him, but to step back. When G was focused, he was intense. She wondered if she had done something wrong, because he was so serious.
“No, Ten,” G said, after a long shifting of his own patience. A resolve came over him. “Everything we do and think and experience, that is learning. We are learning all the time.
Learning is an inescapable fact of life. The only difference between beings is rate of learning.” “That makes sense,” Ten said. “So, why are we here?”
“To graduate,” G said.
Ten was on the verge of epiphany, and being hopeful that he was going to call her a Jedi derailed her insight. And then her fears caught up with her.
“I am not ready,” Ten said.
“Walk,” G said.
They both resumed walking. Ten maintained the new boundary from G, as if she was weary of him. She couldn’t sort it. Was he about to tell her they were finished? Would she ever see him again? Tears rolled down her face as she realized her time with G was going to end. Not realized. Assumed. Tear drops sparked rainbows in the sand.
“I am not ready yet,” Ten said. When G didn’t respond, she stopped their progress and embraced him. “Please! I love you. I love our talks. I need you.”
G hugged her; fatherly to an adult child. “You have gone as far as I can teach you.” “No! I haven’t!” Ten argued. “If I lived a thousand lives, I could never learn all that you know.”
G considered. “That’s true,” G said. She pulled back for clarity. “It’s true, you will never be me, no matter how close you walk to all the paths of all of my life times. Just as I can’t be you. But our paths came parallel for a moment. I have learned as much from you as you have learned from me. Now, our past must diverge.”
“Not yet!” Ten said. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Growing up is not wrong, it is how it works,” G said. “You have been an adult much longer than you have been a child.”
“I don’t want to be a grown up! I don’t want to be a Jedi if it means you’re not my master,” Ten said.
G squeezed her hand. “Good for you. I am not asking you to be a grownup. I want you to be a child. I want you to go, play, learn, and graduate.”
“But I don’t know how,” Ten said.
G turned in the direction they had been walking. He looked at her and indicated with a look and nod that he wanted her to emulate. She got it. She faced forwards.
“Repeat what I say, do what I do,” G said.
Ten nodded.
“I am not the loneliness I feel,” G said. He took a step forwards with the right foot, and brought the other foot up to him. He waited for Ten to mirror. “The world is lonely and I am a reflection of the world. I heal this through companioning me and others.”
G waited till Ten mirrored him. He took another step forwards, leading with the opposite foot. “I am not the anger I feel. The world is angry and I am a reflection of the world. I heal this through validating myself and others.” G did not look at Ten, he focused on the path, and waited for her to emulate before taking the next step. “I am not the darkness I feel. The world is dark and I am a reflection of the world. I heal this by bringing light to myself and others.” Next step.
“I am not the sadness I feel. The world is sad and I am a reflection of the world. I heal this by bringing joy to myself and others.” To emphasize a point, he took a step backwards. “I am not the happiness I feel. For the world is happy and I am a reflection of the world. I sustained this through peaceful interactions with myself and others.”
Still facing forwards, G looked to Ten. “Start your walk.”
Ten considered for a moment, and then said, “I am not the way people see me.” She took a step forwards and brought her foot together. “The world is a funhouse mirror and I am a reflection of distorted truth. I heal this by bringing acceptance to myself and others.” She waited. G repeated her phrase and took a step forwards.
“Ten, you know how to walk,” G said. “All paths are valid. Just because you’re not on a well-worn path doesn’t mean where you are is wrong.”
“I get that,” Ten said. “I just think I need you…” She blinked, turning as if a breeze was drawing her attention, but the breeze was from behind her, and the scent it carried of honey suckle and strawberries hadn’t changed. “We’re not alone.”
“We are never alone,” G said.
Ten stepped closer to G. “Reveal yourselves.”
Beings of light appeared, as if stepping forwards through a veil. There were six of them all together. They were dressed as Jedi.
“Who are you?” Ten demanded.
“Seriously?” the older one said. “You intend to raise her to full Jedi status, and she doesn’t even know who we are?”
“You!” Ten said, pointing at him. “You’re Mace Windu. Preston?! That Master Windu.” G only smiled.
Windu crossed his arms. “Not the point. You intend to raise someone without consulting the Counsel.”
“You must have at least three Jedi Masters present to raise someone,” one of the females said. Her hair was flaming red, her face was peppered with freckles, her eyes were blue, and wardrobe was green.
“Well, you know, maybe if more of you had survived, we could actually hold a ceremony,” G said. “But since one of my candidates is on the wrong side of a planetary shield, and Luke has a ‘do not disturb’ sign hanging on his aura, I figure I would dispense with ritual and start my own path.”
“Your way leads to the dark side,” the youngest male said.
“Who are you?” Ten asked.
“Anakin Walker,” he said, introducing himself.
Ten bit her lip. G introduced her to the others. “And this is Tahiri Veila, Nomi Sunrider, Ahsoka Tano, and Qui-Gon Jinn.”
Ten hands were trembling. She wanted to draw her weapon and strike Anakin down. It was a want that was seen in her hand going to the hilt of her lightsaber. “Why are you here?!”
“I asked him to be here,” Qui-Gon said.
“And who are you again?” Ten said.
“Yeah, she is clearly ready to be a Jedi,” Nomi said.
“Seriously, you guys are hanging out with Darth Vader and you expect me to be okay with your counsel?” Ten said.
“I am not Vader,” Anakin said. “I was. I will be. It’s complicated.”
“You…” Ten stammered.
“Yes, Ten. I can never atone for all the evil and destruction I caused. And at the same time, I took on a role no one else wanted, which was necessary for our overall growth. This life, the physical life you find yourself in, this is Kindergarten. Not all the kids play nice in the sandbox, and we don’t graduate until we do.”
“Who are you?” Ten asked. “No, you, plural. Who are you and what’s your purpose.” “We are ascended Masters,” Tahiri Veila said. She was a 20 something year old female, wearing a dress with a several shades of blue woven together in an interesting pattern. Her hair was golden sunlight, with a hint of curls, and it moved to a breeze inconsistent with the air on the present beach.
“What does that even mean?” Ten demanded.
“It means we died,” Ahsoka said. She was the most childlike of the group, and Ten felt a drawing towards her.
“Preston, she is too angry to be a Jedi,” Windu said.
“She is too angry not to be,” G said. “We need to change that philosophy. If someone is that angry, they need to be educated and trained so that they can be held responsible for their actions.”
“Back to Rule of Three,” Nomi said.
“I was raised without three,” G pointed out.
“We raised you!” Windu said.
“For a specific purpose,” Tahiri said.
“Which you are failing,” Anakin said.
The group fell silent as they tuned into the fact that Ten was no longer paying attention. “She can’t even focus on a meeting that is about her and you want to raise her?” Anakin pointed out. “What do you see??” Ahsoka said.
“I am not sure,” Ten said. She was looking at the forest that ran parallel to the sea. “I am trying to understand it.”
“What do you think you see?” Nomi asked.
“It’s like there is cloud shadow over that area of the woods, but there are no clouds today, and when I look at the individual trees, I don’t see anything different than any other tree in the whole of the forest, but that space, that particular grouping of trees, well, it’s off somehow,” Ten said.
“In there, you must go,” came a new voice. Ten turned to the voice. “Who are you?” “My name, unimportant it is,” he said.
“Master Yoda, with all due respect,” Windu said. “We got this.”
“With respect you lead, but different seem your intent,” Yoda said. Ten looked to G.
“No one can make you go,” G said.
“You want to be a Jedi, don’t you?” Anakin asked.
Ten looked at the darkness holding the woods. “Not particularly, no,” Ten said. Ahsoka
laughed, drawing her attention. She turned to Yoda. “But I am a Jedi.” Yoda laughed. “Then in you must go.”
“Without your lightsaber,” G said.
Ten looked at G to see if her were jesting, but saw he was more neutral than he had ever been. She wanted to sort it, but she realized she was removing her lightsaber, the one he had given her with a pink blade. She handed it to him.
♫♪►
“I have never seen someone surrender the lightsaber without protest,” Nomi said.
“You coached her,” Anakin accused.
“It’s called training. I simply changed the paradigm,” G said. He took up the lightsaber that was once his, the first one, and publically examined it. He revealed the pink blade, and the small report it made. It drew a sneer from one and laughter. Only Yoda offered compassion, knowing how this came about in solitude. Context it made the thing more meaningful. “This weapon is your life; that’s shit dogma. A Jedi who is accompanied by the Force needs no weapon.”
“You are changing everything,” Anakin said.
“No, everything is changing, I am just navigating a path, participating in evolution,” G said. He powered down the weapon and made it go away. Magic, up the sleeve trickery, kind of gone. He brought it back in the other hand, tossed in up in the air, twirling it, caught in his right hand, and made it disappear again. “Sentient beings change, adapt, and evolve. The old paradigm was war, we beat each other into submission, or we eliminated enemies. That way is not sustainable. It resulted in a new paradigm of stealth. This cultivates a paradigm of fear, and you know that chain by heart. The Jedi that survived the order will tell you hiding was practical, but practicing in the dark is the same path to becoming Sith. I will not hide. I will not run. I prefer not to kill. The next paradigm will be integration and cohesion. We rise together, we fall together.”
“Your new path hasn’t brought you any closer to finding the Sith we entrusted you to find,” Windu said.
“Actually, I have found her. I have determined she is not a threat,” G said.
“She?” several of them asked, drawing into themselves as they tracked this.
No matter how hard they tried to explore, they could not see what G saw. They came back to themselves, to this moment, like particles in a magnetic wave returning to source. “Who is it?” Windu asked.
“I don’t know her name, I just know how to find her, or, better, how to have her find me,” G said.
“What species?” Nomi asked.
“Human,” G said.
“That’s impossible. She would have to be well over a thousand years old,” Tahiri said.
“Physically, I get the sense she is in her thirties,” G offered. “Preposterous,” Anakin said. “You’re lying.” “We’re capable of that,” G said.
“Where are you getting your information?” Nomi asked. Yoda started laughing. “Now I see,” Yoda said.
“What do you see that we don’t?” Qui-Gon asked.
It was as if saying ‘I know who she is’ initiated a town hall meeting. Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Saesee Tiin, and Shaak Ti- ever