A Padawan's Tale

[Foral McDerson Windu DOOM!]

From the Adventures of Foral Windu: A Padawan's Tale

Prologue: Where it All Started

Journal Entry 1…playback commencing…

[Teenage human male voice] If you’re listening to this recording, there are several reasons how you got a hold of it.
One, you found it. Either in deep space, or on some planet somewhere, or something.
Two, it was in my grave. Now that could be an animal’s stomach, or a pit in the earth. Or even next to a jar of ashes.
Three, it was in the Jedi Archives. If that’s the case, then this has some great lesson from my life, so listen up, or you’ll miss something important.
Four, it was in the Sith archives, and I was incredibly evil. Now, right now, I desperately hope that this is not the case.
Five, it was in the Coruscant Library. That would mean that I was a very important non-Jedi figure.
Six, this is a family heirloom. That of course means that I was nobody in the great scheme of things. But that’s OK, because it’s nice to know about your ancestors, whether Father, Mother, Grandfather, etc.
Whatever the case, I’m dead. I died, and now I’m dead. No way about it, so stop crying. I’m not crying. Do you see me crying? You know what? Never mind. Just quit your crying, pull up a chair, and get comfortable, because I’m about to tell you my life story, so it might take a while.
First off, you should know a little about me. I was a normal kid growing up on the planet Earth. I was in high school, though I was a little eccentric for my classmates. Well, all except for this one kid, whose name was Henry Austin Nolos. He was OK, but I got on his nerves a lot, and my uber-geek mode annoyed him immensely, but we were close.
Not as close as me and my sister though. My parents were Mr. and Mrs. McDerson. They had two kids, me, and Cassandra. She was amazing. Smart, athletic, beautiful. All the guys at school wanted to go out with her. Or most of them anyway. Few actually did anything about it though.
She was a year older than me, but we were as close as twins. We looked like we could be twins too. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t last. When she was fifteen, she mysteriously disappeared. I haven’t seen her since.
Two years later, to the day, something happened that would change my life, forever. I was sitting in my room, doing nothing, but pretending to study for tomorrows Physics test. And I am a physics genius, if I do say so myself. But that’s why I hated it. It was too easy. I like a challenge, and High school physics wasn’t it. Football was a bit of a challenge, so I enjoyed that some. Until I was benched that is. I just didn’t have what it took to be a great running back. So I turned to the skate park after school.
Anyways, I should have been studying. But I wasn’t. And now I’m glad that I wasn’t, because I spotted something crash into the woods behind my house. It was bright, and glowing, and moving at an incredible speed. It was shaped more like a fighter jet, than a meteor, but there were no air bases anywhere around, and nobody ever flew small aircraft over our neighborhood.
I suddenly went into science geek mode, trying to estimate the speed of the aircraft, the force that was driving it, and adding the acceleration of gravity. Basically, I came to the conclusion that the Force that it would inflict upon the ground would be magnificent! And of course that the equal and opposite force that would occur to the object would damage it almost beyond repair. And possibly mash anything or anyone that might be in it. And that was if it was made of the strongest earth materiel. I figured that if was extra-terrestrial, then it might survive the crash. So I decided to check it out. That was when my life changed forever. (See? I told you that it might take a while! It took me five minutes just to give the back story!)

[Foral McDerson Windu DOOM!]

Chapter 1: Crash and Burn

Andrew McDerson stared out the window in disbelief. He thought he’d seen a meteor land in the woods behind his house. He glanced at the alarm clock on the night-stand that stood next to his bed. The clock read nine-thirty. Half an hour, he thought, just enough time.

He grabbed a flashlight off his bureau, a pocket knife off his night-stand, and his book bag off the floor. He dumped the book bag out, and slung it on his back. He put the pocket knife in his pocket, threw some hiking boots on, and flicked on the flashlight. As he headed for the door, he yelled into the air, “Hey mom, I’m going out to hike in the woods for a while!”

“Alright!” came the reply, “just be back in by ten!”

“I will!” he said as he closed the back door behind him.

Andrew sprinted across his back yard to the tree line. When he reached the woods, he slowed to a jog, flicking of the flashlight. A cold wind blew through the trees, but Andrew shrugged it off. This was too exciting to turn back now. He ducked under a branch at the last minute. He knew this area like the back of his hand, and was very familiar with every tree and branch; he almost didn’t need the flashlight.

He began to realize that the air was getting warmer. He was getting close. He entered a clearing, and there it was. It was about forty-seven-and-a-half feet long, and had a wingspan of about seventy-five feet. It almost looked like a P-61 without a tail. That’s no P-61, Andrew thought to himself, it doesn’t look like it’s tail broke off. There’s really no other aircraft it could be, unless…no, there’s no such thing, he told himself.

Then a thought came to him. It appeared as though the cockpits were still in-tact, and by the way it was positioned suggested that the pilot had tried to pull up at the last minute, and it was fairly level, though tilted to one side, with half of the left wing broken off, and the remaining half embedded in the ground, almost making a ramp. It was possible that someone had survived.

He scrambled up the wing, and headed for the rear cockpit. There wasn’t anyone inside, so he went to the next one. I wonder what a modified World War II fighter was doing flying over a small town? He wondered. When he neared the middle cockpit, he noticed movement coming from inside. He scurried over as fast as he could manage on the uneven surface.

A young woman was kicking at the glass, trying to break free from the plane. Andrew signaled to her to move away. She shook her head. Exasperated, Andrew tapped the glass with his flashlight. She rolled her eyes and pulled a small, metallic, cylindrical device. She placed one end on the glass, and Andrew backed away. She wouldn’t be able to survive an explosive going off in there, what does she think she’s doing?

Instead of smashing the glass like he expected, a ray of blue light flashed through the glass, melting it away. She began to move the light in a circular motion, cutting open a hole in the glass. When she’d cut a reasonably sized hole in the glass, she gave it a hard shove, knocking it onto the ground, but instead of shattering like he’d expected, it hit like a sheet of metal.

The young woman gathered herself as best she could, and jumped out. Her face and hands were an olive green color, and she had a dark blue diamond pattern tattooed across her face from one cheek, across the bridge of her nose, to the other cheek, and her lips were the same color. Her eyes were a bright blue, and she observed her surroundings with an air of calm indifference. She was wearing a black cloth flight-suit, and a large black hooded cloak that would completely cover her entire body if she let it hang over her shoulders. As it was, it was behind her shoulders, with the hood down, the edges dangling just above the heels of her dark leather boots. She clipped the light emitter to her belt, and headed over to the front cockpit. She cut open a hole in the glass, and leaned out of the way, as it launched itself into the ground next to the first. She reached a hand down into the cockpit as if to pull something out. Andrew moved closer so he was looking over her shoulder. There was another woman sitting inside, middle-aged, and dressed similarly to the younger woman, but she had tattoos on her chin, from her lower lip down, instead of across her face. Her skin was the same color as the younger one, and her cloak was more ornamented, and she wore bracers on her arms. She was pinned under a piece of the dash board, and there was a cut on her head. It wasn’t bleeding much, but it didn’t look to pretty. However, there was a cut on her shoulder that was bleeding profusely. Andrew was about to help remove the panel, when the younger lifted her hand out to the machinery. He cocked his head in confusion. He was sure he saw her smirk slightly. Suddenly, it began to wobble slightly, then it steadied, and began to lift out of the ship. She moved her hand in unison with the machinery, until it was close to the ground, and lowered her hand. The lump of metal and wires dropped to the ground with a crash. She then reached her hand in and helped the other woman out.

“Are you alright, master?” the younger asked in concern, looking at the cut on the older one’s forehead.

“I’m fine,” the older one replied shakily, her eyes appeared unfocused, and glazed over.

A look of dismay crossed the younger’s face. “No, you’re not. You might have a concussion, and you’ve lost a lot of blood from that cut on your shoulder. Let me look at it.”

The older one sighed. “If you insist,” she replied.

“I do,” the younger replied. She then placed her hand on the forehead of the older, where the cut was, and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, she removed her hand. Andrew’s jaw dropped in shock. The cut was gone, and the older woman’s eyes didn’t appear as dark. They were a brighter shade of blue than the younger.

The younger of the two women appeared to be slightly exhausted. “We’ll have to bandage that cut on your arm,” she said wearily. She dug through her cockpit, and pulled out a small metal box, which she opened, and removed a coil of white bandage. She cut a strip of it, rubbed one side in some kind of reddish goop, and tied it around the shoulder wound. “There, that should stop the bleeding, and hopefully that will heal soon.” The younger of the two dropped to the ground to the right of the craft, and sat on a charred stump, curling her legs under her, placing her ankles on her thighs, and sighed. “Now we need to find out how to get off this rock,” she muttered.

The older dropped to the ground next to her, and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “There is one option,” she replied, and leaned down close to the younger.

Andrew scrambled down the wing, and stood, watching them as they discussed something amongst themselves. What are they talking about, Andrew wondered to himself. The younger one was probably around her late teens, early twenties, and at least 5’ 5”, probably 5’ 6”, and, Andrew thought, rather attractive. The older one was about the same height, maybe a little taller.

The two seemed to resolve on something, though the younger wasn’t too keen on the idea, whatever it was, and older of the two approached him. “We thank you for coming to our aid…”

“Or at least trying to,” the younger interrupted.

“…however, we would greatly appreciate some more assistance,” the older woman finished, with a glance at the younger woman conveying her frustration at being interrupted. “We need parts for an ARC-170 star fighter.”

Andrew considered her words. “An Aggressive ReConnaissance 170 Star fighter, eh?” he thought aloud, stifling a laugh. Now this is funny. They really expected him to believe that they were from Star Wars? I wasn’t born yesterday, he thought to himself. He couldn’t resist “I’m not sure how much I can help you, but I’ll see what I can do, but we don’t get many republic visitors here,” he replied, as serious as he could muster without laughing.

They obviously weren’t buying. “I’m sorry, what’s so funny?” the older of the two asked, incredibly confused.

“You don’t believe us,” the younger stated plainly.

Andrew tried to hold back a laugh, but it came out as a snort. “Are you kidding? ARC 170? I’m not stupid, I know they don’t exist. What, were you going to tell me that you’re Jedi next? Come on! I wasn’t born yesterday!

The older of the two nodded. “So you don’t believe in Jedi?” she asked calmly, clearly not concerned, or offended. Andrew shook his head.

The older Jedi sighed. She nodded to the younger, who stood up, and walked over to the tail-end of the plane, and stood, squaring herself with Andrew. She reached out her hand, closed her eyes, and stood there for a minute.

Andrew smirked, and began tossing the flashlight up in the air so that it flipped a couple of times, and landed in his hand. He did this three times, but the fourth time, the flashlight froze in place, as if it had hit an invisible barrier. Andrew tried to grab it out of the air, but it dodged his hand. He tried again, but it dodged again. A small smile crept across the younger woman’s face, and the flashlight promptly tapped him on the head.

“Ouch!” he exclaimed, rubbing his head. The older woman frowned slightly at the flashlight, but remained planted where she was, hands up the opposite sleeves. Then the younger woman flicked her wrist so that her palm was facing upwards, and the flashlight instantly flew to her outstretched hand, and landed softly in her palm. She wrapped her fingers around it, looked it over for a second or two, and tossed it to a stunned Andrew.

She looked him over as she approached where he was standing. He was wearing some kind of blue, woven fabric, and he was wearing a black shirt with a red ‘S’ inside a strange diamond shape. His hair was a dark brown, and he had dark brown eyes that seemed to take in every movement of every object in his range of vision. He had a scar on his left arm that went from the inside of his elbow to the palm side of his wrist.

“Where’d you get that?” she asked, pointing out the scar.

He glanced down at it, and then shrugged. “Got too close to my sister in a stick fight doing an over head hack, she went up to block, point of the stick came right up my arm. Needed stitches, but it didn’t hurt that much. I learned a pretty good lesson that day.”

“So, do you believe us now?” the older one asked.

Andrew’s brow furrowed in thought. “I…guess…I don’t really have a choice after that display, do I?”

The older woman shook her head. “Alright, then, I guess I should probably get your names then?” he asked.

The older woman stepped forward. “I am Luminara Unduli, I am a Jedi Master, and a Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.”

The younger stepped forward. “And I am Barriss Offee, Jedi Knight, and General of the Grand Army of the Republic.”

“I’m Andrew McDerson. I’m a sixteen-year-old highschool sophomore. I’m also a physics wiz. I’ll see what I can get you for parts and supplies, and I’ll be here at…” he paused to remember the exact military time for it, “sixteen hundred, local time.”

Luminara nodded her approval, and Andrew looked at his watch. “It’s about…twenty-one fifty right now, which means I need to go. I will see you both at sixteen hundred tomorrow.” He turned and began jogging through the trees.

He slowed down half way through to take in the scenery. He always enjoyed the fall weather. The only sound was the crunching leaves under-foot. A gentle breeze blew, causing a shiver to run up Andrew’s spine. It was getting colder. October had just ended a few days ago. He realized that he was at the beginning of a great journey, whatever was going to happen next. Andrew kicked at a rock, and inhaled the early November air. It was a tad chilly, and every once and a while a cold wind blew, causing the trees to sway, creating a torrent of leaves. The cold winds also forced Andrew to hunch over, and rub arms.

“It’ll be dark soon,” Andrew remarked to no one in particular, as he approached his back yard. There was a bent rusty swing set to one side that had been abandoned for years. There was a string lining the ground, and a small oval-shaped ball sat somewhere near the middle of the makeshift ‘field’. It looked almost abandoned.

Andrew walked in by the back door, and hurried into his room. He turned on a T.V., and scanned every news channel. So far nobody had reported the star fighter’s crash landing. He smiled to himself, and turned off the T.V., and went over to a bookcase standing in one corner. He grabbed a few books, and sat down on the bed, and began reading. Now, to refresh my memory of these two Jedi, he thought to himself.


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Barriss stared after Andrew as he left. “We’re going to trust him? He didn’t even believe us at first.”

Luminara grabbed a supply bag from the ship with her good arm. “We don’t have a choice. He’s not a bad person, and if this planet is like the rest of the universe, there are bad people on this world. We need to trust him. Otherwise, we’re never going to get off this planet.”

Barriss nodded. “It just seems so wrong that we’re relying on someone who didn’t even believe we existed until today, when we’re Jedi. I just don’t like feeling helpless.”

Luminara raised an eyebrow. “We deal with people who don’t believe in the Force all the time, what make him so different?”

Barriss shifted uncomfortably. “There’s just something about him…almost like he’s, I don’t know, different than every other civilian I’ve ever come in contact with. Like he’s out of place. His behavior almost seems odd, even though I’ve seen many other beings act the same way. It’s hard to explain.”

Luminara nodded. “I understand completely. I’ve felt it as well. A slight disturbance in the force around him. He’s not normal, that much is clear. Whether or not that is of any importance to us, not yet clear.”

Barriss nodded, and accepted a food ration from her former Master. She gazed off into the woods where Andrew had left. Why did she feel like there was something important about him, like he had a destiny that was of some importance to her?

“We should get some sleep,” Luminara said, placing a hand on Barriss’ shoulder. Barriss nodded, and got a sleep roll out of the ship, and laid it on the ground.

The two Jedi laid down on their sleep rolls, and closed their eyes. Barriss felt an uneasiness fill her mind. She tried to focus on breathing, synching up with that of Luminara’s. Soon she began to drift off into a deep sleep.