Chapter 9
“In today’s lesson, we are going to bring the dead back to life.”
Silence followed the statement. Kaila, Jessie, and G were sitting on a circle that was marked on the floor with gold particles that would be swept up on conclusion of the
‘experiment.’ Cheeka stood behind G, in physical contact with him. The candles spaced in and outside the circle gave the lines painted on the floor an eerie glow. Different colored candles, different colored flames, each holding their own circle, connected by lines. The entire spectrum of visible light was scattered through the room. From the ceiling looking down, the totality of the lines resembled a photo of particle collision.
“Are you insane?” Jessie asked.
“Is that even possible?” Kaila asked.
“I’ve done it, with modest success,” Cheeka said. She didn’t translate ‘modest.’ “I have assisted in creating new creatures and bringing back previously incarnated creatures. They have never been… quite right.”
Jessie looked back to G. “Are you insane?!” “We can bring back anyone?” Kaila asked.
“You are insane,” Jessie told Kaila. To G, she said: “This is wrong. We’re messing with the order of things.”
“You base that theory on?” G asked.
“People die, that’s it,” Jessie said. “No second chances.”
“That is the predominant view of things,” G agreed. Jessie stood up to leave.
“Sit back down,” G said. “We’re going to do this.” Jessie sat back down, frustrated.
“Stop doing that!” Jessie snapped, adjusting her skirt down.
“You’re afraid,” Kaila said.
“I am disgusted,” Jessie said.
“Wait,” Kaila said. “You believe this is possible?”
“You doubt?” Jesse asked.
“Yes,” Kaila said.
“He can make a Force ghost of himself, why couldn’t he make a Force ghost of someone else?” Jessie asked.
“A doppleganger, tulpa, or tulkus, not a Force ghost,” G said. “There is no such thing as Force ghosts. There are only ghosts.”
“Really?” Kaila said. “So there is no secret formula to being a Force ghost?”
“You have to renounce dark side,” Jessie said.
“Do you have to renounce yours?” Kaila said.
“You don’t have to renounce anything. What you are here is what you are there. What you feel here is amplified there,” G said. “There is no death. If you do not learn to handle your fear here, it will overwhelm you there and spin you into a dark abyss of your own creation. It is why we descend into the physical in the first place, to short circuit the swiftness in which our thoughts and desired manifest themselves. We are children of gods; the physical plane is our nursery.”
“Explain the absence of dead Sith going around inspiring people,” Jessie said.
“I just did. The Sith are so obsessed with their own agenda that they tend not to seek the company of others. The more disdain, fear, and contempt you have for others, the more distance you have between you and potential contact of other. Those on the dark side of the continuum tend to get stuck on material objects, or at particular places, gravitating towards the thing they obsessed over the most,” G said. “That, is, their best case scenario. Like attracts like. They find themselves surrounded by people of their nature and spiral into their own hells. Eventually, if they’re lucky, they will discover the way out of hell is cultivating opposite desire. Or, they can just be reborn. There is respite in being reborn.” “You have a theory for everything,” Jessie said.
“Yes,” G said.
“I don’t believe in past lives,” Kaila said.
“There is no past lives,” G said.
“You just said…” Jessie said.
“There is no past, there is no future,” G said. “There is no space-time. All our perceived past, present, and future lives occur simultaneously in an ever present now. You must learn to see things from above…”
“And you want us to regurgitate this tripe as gospel…” Kaila said.
“No,” G said. “I want you to develop your own theory of everything.” “Really?” Jessie asked.
“The physical body is not designed to see truth,” G said. “It is designed to exploit shortcuts to sustainability. I see a particular truth and it works for me. Everything I give you is my truth, but your partial truth. Space-time is a limited consensus reality. Truth in this domain is metaphor or conjecture. If you accept anything I say as literal, then expect your training time to double. I would like to be heard. I want my conjecture to be considered. I invite conversation. I expect you to explore all of reality, test what I say, make your own conclusions, find flaws in my theories, and help me refine it.”
“How can we bring people back?” Kaila asked.
“First, let’s dismiss the common view of things,” G said. “You are, technically, not a body first, but a soul incarnate. The soul took possession of a body, developed it, tuned it, creating a specific filter to channel, or nurture, desired soul traits. The personality is a filter for seeing your reality. Your personality is an artificial construct, the equivalent of Droid programming so that the body can operate on autopilot even when the soul is not attending. Our bodies are vehicles designed to navigate certain frequencies in the Force. We are avatars, Droids, for a multi-dimensional creature. These bodies can’t see all the frequencies at once because they are designed for specific domain work. Seeing the Force is an adaptation, the equivalent of some creature having access to infrared or ultraviolet. Not seeing or having access to the Force is not a punishment, because the entire spectrum is the Force, by definition. The personality that develops as a result of exploring this frequency domain continues to exist after the body’s death. It is an aspect of the greater soul. So, in that sense, you as the personality matrix are a new being, one that didn’t exist prior to the soul’s artistic endeavor. This is really a paradox. You always existed, before creation, and continue to exist after. Any soul can access you from any point in space-time because space-time doesn’t exist. In your meditation, ascend to the Great Library and read any person who ever lived as if they were merely a book on a shelf. Just as you can discover past selves, you can discover future selves. We are going to invite a soul, or at least, the personality aspect of a soul that is no longer incarnate to come to us. We will give it a body that is so in tuned with its frequency that it will permanently re-occupy it. Or, if you prefer, we will create a physical construct and download the personality into the construct. This can be done with tech, such as the cloning tech incorporating Force Crystals in conjunction with Force Sensitive handlers; because people think we are bodies first, not souls first, there is no exploration of this as a pathway to extending the life of a personality. The Emperor dabbled, but failed to achieve his goal because he was only interested in maintaining his own perceived continuity. Energy and matter are one thing. The Force is one thing. Making a body for a disincarnate soul is easy. Getting one to return to a body, that is difficult. Some want to return. This particular soul wants to return. He will cooperate.”
“You are insane,” Jessie said. “I will not participate…”
“I only need your meditative presence,” G said. “You will participate. Cheeka, if you will, summon Tryst.”
Cheeka frowned, but nodded. She closed her eyes and sought out her last memory of him and used that to channel him. There was some bias in this, as her own memory was tainted by her fear of him. She found an unpleasant metallic taste in her mouth that she hated. This amplified the characteristics that she loathed. G took over and comforted her.
“See him for who he is, not what you expect,” G whispered.
Cheeka tried to see without feeling. She saw first his form. She could see the physicality of him, the face, as if looking through frosted glass. The smell of him came upon her, solidifying his form. The odors were almost overwhelming, the bad metallic taste on her tongue amplified. On a deeper level the brain identified hormones and genetic signatures. She became convinced he was present and indeed, a mist was forming within the circle. In her experience, once the mist was there then a threshold had been met. Something would come. Something not good. A smell of ozone was now noticeable. The smell of a storm. The chamber they were in was so large that it contained its own weather system. Even with the immediacy of the light around them, it was pure darkness in all directions because the walls and ceiling were that far away. Lightening occurred. The sound that followed rumbled the floor beneath them.
Tryst arrived in a condensing of vapor and a spark of light, standing, wide stance, arching his back and turning his mouth upwards, arms coming up, gasping for air. Light twirled around him like rainbow snakes. A toroid, a magnetic sphere sprung up around him, visible with sparks, then faded to invisibility, clearly connected and generated by a heart. The gold glitter lines on the floor sparked illumination and faded, a billion trillion stars on a dark floor. Tryst recovered, twirled to orientate, panicky, and came up upon a barrier. He backed away his eyes locking on G’s face. He calmed sufficiently from panic to find anger and pointed at G.
“You!” he said. He seemed angry, but was soon laughing, and then he was perplexed sufficiently to go silent. “I am whole! I have been doing this for years without achieving this level of perfection? How?”
“That is an annoying trait, isn’t it,” Kaila commiserated with the summoned.
“You are too much of a control freak to bring anything back into a pure state,” G said. “That, and your own personal level of unconscious repression of perceived undesirable traits results in those traits being amplified in your creations. I embrace who you are.”
“She is mine and you can’t have her back,” Tryst said. He ran straight into a shield. He ran into it the way someone might walk into a transparent door. He pushed against the shield not understanding. It was a soul shield, made by the Force. Again, the quality of the shield was beyond his level to recreate. If he could hold this, he could summon demons, jinn, and maybe
even the old Emperor himself! “You can’t keep me here forever.” G stood. His apprentices came to his side.
“I will kill you as the soon I am released,” Tryst said.
“I like him” Kaila said. “I was expecting a zombie. But this is way better than a zombie.”
Jessie glared at her. “He is evil,” she snapped. She hit G’s arm. “You brought something evil back.”
“Be at peace. I have brought balance,” G said. And then to Tryst, as an afterthought. “Oh, that’s also important to this equation.”
“This body is mine! I possess it now and you won’t get it back,” Tryst said. “It is yours to keep for as long as you can maintain it,” G said.
“I am normal again. I won’t dissipate. I have my past memories and my memories of the in-between! I will live indefinitely,” Tryst said.
“Okay,” G said. “So, I have a question…”
“Oh, me, too!” Kaila interrupted. “How come you brought him back with clothes?” “You’re worried about clothes?” Jessie asked.
“I am just curious. Are there clothes in the afterlife? Is this what you were wearing there, or what you were wearing when you died, or did we create that for you out of a sense of modesty?” Kaila asked. She turned to G. “We don’t care about modesty, do we?”
“We have more practical matters to discuss than clothing…” Jessie insisted.
“Oh! There is nothing more practical than clothing,” Kaila said. “It needs to be functional. It’s nice if it’s functional and cute. I like cute. G clearly likes cute…” “G doesn’t care about clothes!” Jessie said. “Look how he’s dressed.” “True that,” Kaila said.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” G asked.
“So, did you make his clothes?” Kaila asked. “You wear what you want to wear,” G said. “Tryst…”
“No! No negotiations. I will not give her back to you. And, Cheeka, you belong to me. Come here, now,” Tryst demanded.
Cheeka blinked. She seemed perplexed. She looked to G. “I don’t understand. I don’t feel compelled.”
“You are free to choose,” G said. “You have always been free to choose. This is my gift to you. Realization.”
Tryst laughed. “She’d mate with anyone to keep the peace. The moment I am free and she realizes I am the dominant one here, she will bow to me again. I will not be as kind to you as
I was in the past.”
Cheeka followed it, saw the truth in it, but wasn’t afraid. “You understand, you will never leave here.”
“What? We’re going to kill him?” Kaila asked.
“You can’t do that!” Jessie said.
“What’s with you and all these ‘can’ts?!’” Kaila said. “Can’t make him, can’t kill him. I can kill him. Hell, there are lots of ways to kill a man. I can do it in a way where we can kill him more than once if you let me demonstrate. And if we need to practice, there are quite a few people I would like to bring back just so I can kill them again.”
“We just created him. We can’t arbitrarily kill him. We’re the good guys! We are now obligated to protect and preserve him,” Jessie said.
“Even if he’s evil?” G asked.
“We brought him back, we are obligated to try and convert him back to the light,” Jessie said.
“Cheeka?” G asked.
“I can’t do it, G. I can’t do it without emotions. I can’t do it without touching anger,” Cheeka said.
“Oh, touch it, sweetie,” Kaila said. “Allow your anger to motivate you, your righteous anger, to exact your revenge.”
Cheeka nodded. “G, I give his fate to you. I am too bias. He is not a threat and so anything I do to him from here forwards is about me, not justice.”
“Good for you,” G said.
Tryst laughed. “See, she still belongs to me. You can’t kill me. I was destined to return! I have a mission.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one to be brought back from the other side with delusions of grandeur,” G said. G seemed thoughtful about that. He realized his ‘angels’ were studying him. “Probably explains the necessity for amnesia at birth. Grandeur in babies can be irritating.”
“You’re really going to kill him? After all of this?” Jessie demanded.
“We are not going to kill him,” G assured her.
Tryst laughed. “You can’t win. Cheeka is mine. Daphne is mine. And my master remains my secret lover. You will not reach her. I will never give her up.”
“Perhaps not today,” G agreed. “But you will succumb. You will cooperate with my agenda.”
“I will never give her up. Never in a thousand years,” Tryst said.
“Okay,” G said.
A little flick of the hand, a push with the Force, and a trap door sprung open. Tryst fell onto a transparent incline. Lights came up revealing the mouth of a Sarlacc at the focus. No matter how hard he tried to crab crawl backwards, or direct climb, movement just made him slip further down towards level. His hand became sweaty and would not hold the glass. Streaks marked the glass. A lone tentacle claimed a leg and pulled slowly. He screamed as if it were pure torture, but was not harmed by the grasp. It was an intimate grasp; the gentle pulling of a lover to bring a person in. It was the deliberate slowness that increased his panic- this was not just a mechanical response to stimulus, this was an intelligence playing with its food. It paused, holding him in place, then pulling lightly again. In this way, it reinforced the fact that it was sentient. It was definitely toying with him, perhaps even collaborating with G. In his racing thoughts, one particular, paranoid statement was the plant and G had a bet he would break right here, on the dying slope.
Jessie reached to help but was blocked by the same barrier that had prevented Tryst from escaping.
“You said we aren’t going to kill him!” Jessie said. “And, ‘we’ are not going to,” G said.
“Technically, he’ll out live us in there,” Kaila said.
“You’re bluffing!” Tryst screamed. “You won’t do this. You can’t do this to me! You’re the good guys! I won’t give her up.”
“Tryst,” G said. Sorbus held him in place. “Eyes please. Oh, thank you. I am not the good guy. I am also not the bad guy. And this is going to happen.” “No, please,” Tryst said.
“Have any of you considered what we’re doing for lunch today?” G asked.
“Seriously?!” Jessie demanded. “G, this is wrong.”
“How do you figure? He was stuck in limbo already. We’re just changing where he was stuck,” G said. “We may actually be helping him pay out his karma and be unstuck faster.” “He won’t be lonely here, that’s for sure,” Priya said.
Both Kaila and Jessie were startled by her sudden appearance. Neither G nor Cheeka reacted to her arrival. They were already aware. “I love my life,” Kaila said. “May I be excused?” Jessie asked.
“Not yet,” G said. “You’re an adult. You’re a Jedi in the making. I am glad you disagree with what’s happening here. I also want you to get use to these sorts of decisions.” “I am not a judge and executioner,” Jessie said.
“Yes, you are!” G said. “You can’t pick a side of a war and then claim you are free of judgment. The enemy doesn’t come in uniforms. Well, they do, but that’s not them. They have faces. They have lives. They have families. They have fears and hopes and dreams and this is what we do to people when we fail to recognize their sovereignty and negotiate. This is not just a metaphor. You must learn to see beyond the uniforms people wear. You must learn to see beyond the masks people wear, the sides they take. Look at him. He is afraid. That, too, is a mask. He wants to manipulate us. That’s okay. It’s what people do. We all do it. It is part of what it means to be social. If they’re not manipulating, then they’re out of the game. If they’re out of the game, they are a guru with a lesson for you. Learn from both.”
Trysts was now on his back, going in feet first. Sorbus was bringing in other tentacles to play. A tongue was probing him, dousing him saliva to ease the passage. Vines pulled him upright and towards center. The lips constricted against him, intimately. He was crying. It was as if he was standing, each wrist tied to hold him up right. The vine around his waist came free and he was dropped in to his chest. He screamed.
“I won’t tell you! Never! She will bring me back and I will kill you,” Tryst said. “She promised me. She promised…”
Then he was gone. Swallowed whole. Jessie seemed beaten, paled and nauseous. Kaila was amused, but she noticed G was expressionless. “You really have no feelings about this?” Kaila asked.
“I have compassion for suffering,” G said. “He was suffering. Jessie is suffering. You are suffering. Sorbus was suffering. Her hunger will be eased. Tryst’s physical pains are no more. He will find his body is comforted as the body dies, and in time, his mind will find solace in Sorbus’ presence. He has more potential of finding peace here than where he was, but even that is his choice. Even the worst of us know we are lost and we want intervention and guidance. This is an intervention. Ultimately no harm can be done to something that is eternal. Suffering is an illusion. It’s a choice.”
A sudden wind, a down burst of air, extinguished the candles. A ball of liquid fell from the ceiling. It wasn’t water. It was viscous and slimy, but sufficiently runny that what didn’t fall directly into the Sarlacc pit flowed there, bringing gold particles. The four of them were soaked in the stuff.
“Eww!” Kaila complained.
“Ectoplasm?” Jessie asked.
“Afterbirth,” Cheeka said. “I have never seen so much, though, or this thick.” G used a finger to wipe some of it off Cheeka and tasted it. Jessie vomited.
“You may go now,” G said.
“I hate you,” Jessie said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. She walked away.
“I love you,” Kaila said, wiping his face and trying some afterbirth, too. She bowed and followed her ‘sister.’ “That’s not bad.”
“Are they going to switch the way I and Daphne did?” Priya asked.
“I don’t know. I may end up with two Siths before their training is complete,” G said.
“How did it go with you?”
“Mission accomplished,” Priya said.
“How is he?” G asked. “Angry,” Priya said.
“That’s to be expected,” G said. “They hate admitting it, but even Jedi feel anger.” “You make a lot of people angry,” Cheeka observed. G sighed. “It’s not me,” he said.
♫♪►
“What the hell?” Master Windu said.
Master Yeno met Windu with a hug. “You look older than I remember, my friend.”
“I look older? Have you seen your face in a mirror?” Windu asked.
Yeno introduced Windu to Senator Dayo. She was part of the incarnation circle. He then introduced him to Priya, the third. She greeted Windu with a bow, and asked for forgiveness… and was gone, just so much smoke.
“How did she…”
“I don’t know,” Yeno said. “It’s clearly a learnable skill. Luke’s learned it.” “Who taught Luke?” Windu asked.
“Maybe he’s been spying on Preston, I don’t know. I know it’s an ability. I know there is no reason I can’t do it, and yet, I have not been successful at it,” Yeno said.
“How did…”
“We bring you back?” Yeno said. “We have taken Force Cloning to a new level. This body is yours, for as long you wish to maintain it.”
“You could have brought me back at 18?” Windu asked.
“You see this aspect of yourself as the pinnacle of your wisdom, and so this is how you manifested,” Dayo said.
“So, I participated in the ritual?” Windu asked. “Willingly?” “You could not be here otherwise,” Yeno said.
“You don’t remember?” Dayo asked.
“Not unexpected. Most people don’t remember why they incarnate. This is fairness,” Yeno said. “Why me? Why not Yoda or someone even wiser?” Windu said.
“Yoda can materialize himself when and where he wants. He did not require this level of intervention,” Yeno said. “You have an opportunity here, my friend. Do you want back in the game?”
“You need my help?” Windu asked.
“We do,” Dayo said.
The candles in Yeno’s home went out in the hollow of the rock he called home. All the furniture had been removed in order to make room for the ritual and was spared the direct dousing. The room was small and the release of fluid so great that the three of them were knocked off their feet and brought to the ceiling before eased back down as the soupy afterbirth rushed out windows and doors. Even sitting on the floor, it was up to their chest. Windu wiped it out of his eyes. “What the hell?!” “Birth is always messy,” Dayo said.
“Welcome back to life, my friend,” Yeno said.