Masro Fhin: Homecoming, Page 2

  “Hold your head high Master Fhin.”

  “Master Poof, my apologies for questioning the Council.”

  Yarael bent and placed a hand on Fhins shoulder, “Masro, you are wiser then you know. Master Koon asked the same question before you arrived.”

  Masro felt a little better knowing that one of the Council members had the same thought as he had.

  Master Poof continued, “Masro, you have studied the Alconian War and the treaty in the archives correct?”

  “Yes Master. After Yoda defeated Ja’kan he ordered the truce and then gave up rule of the Domelans.”

  “That is correct, what is not widely known is that after Yoda relinquished rule to the Domelans they took his action as an insult and banished the Jedi from the 4th Moon.”

  “That is not in the achieves,” Masro said, obviously confused.

  “No it is not. That is why you were chosen for this mission. The council feels that perhaps an Alconian Jedi may be welcomed, or at least will be tolerated.”

  “I understand Master,” Masro replied.

  “I sense there is something else on your mind about this mission Master Fhin.”

  Masro always felt strange when Yareal referred to him as Master Fhin. As a sign of respect it was customary to refer to all Jedi Knights as Master, but coming from his former Master it always felt odd to him. Despite holding the rank of Jedi Knight for several years now Masro still thought of himself as Yareal’s apprentice.

  “It’s nothing to be concerned about Master. I have just been thinking that this will be my first trip to Alconia since I left to come to Coruscant. I am not sure what to expect or who I might see.”

  Yareal understood Masros’ concern. Over the centuries very few Alconians left their home to travel the galaxy and Masro Fhin is the only Alconian Jedi Knight in the history of the Jedi. Yareal knew that it was very possible that the Alconians would look at Masro as an outsider and not one of the own. And then there was the matter of Masros; family.

  Most Padawans are discovered and taken from their families as infants before they ever get to know their family. But since Force sensitivity was rare among Alconians routine checks for midi-chlorians were stopped on Alconia centuries ago. It was only by blind luck that Yareal had to land on Alconia for emergency repairs to his ship that he discovered Masro when he was 3 standard years old.

  Unlike most Jedi Masro had memories of his family. It was a real possibility he could see his family on this trip.

  “Remember not to dwell on these thoughts Masro. Maintain your focus and the Force will be your guide.”

  “Thank you Master,” Masro said as he bowed, “I will not let you down.”

  Master Poof returned the bow, “You never have.”

  Chapter VI

  Masro Fhin made a quick stop at his quarters before heading to the hanger where his Jedi fighter awaited. As he approached his ship in the hanger he was surprised to see a Padawan working on his ship.

  “Is there a problem with my ship Padawan?”

  Masro was surprised to see Anakin Skywalker turn and face the Jedi, “No Master Fhin, I was simply running your ship thru the pre-launch sequence for you when I noticed that the converters were only running at 92% efficiency.”

  “And what are they running at now?”

  “98% Master”, the Padawan sheepishly replied.

  Surprised Masro replied, “And why exactly are you here working on my ship?”

  “Trying to make up for insulting you earlier, mistaking you for a Padawan.”

  Masro laughed and slapped his hand on Anakin’s shoulder, “Do not let it bother you my young friend. One of the great lessons in life is learning to let go of things. We all make mistakes.”

  “Yes Master, thank you.”

  “Those converters, perhaps when I return from this mission you can get them up to 100%?”

  Anakin’s eyes lit up, “Absolutely Master. May the Force be with you”, he said as he gathered up his tools.

  Masro watched the young Padawan leave and thought to himself, “Obi-Wan and the Chosen One. What adventures they will have.”

  Chapter VII

  On the fourth moon of Alconia a short, hooded figure entered the Domelan throne room, “Everything is proceeding as planned Lord Noe’Ray,” the hooded figure spoke to the Domelan sitting atop the throne, “The Jedi ambassador has been dispatched from Coruscant.”

  “And is it as we hoped?” the figure on the throne asked.

  “Yes my lord, the Jedi is Alconian.”

  “Excellent. Make ready the preparations for his arrival.”

  “It will be done my lord,” replied the hooded figure as he bowed, “We will be ready.”

  Chapter VIII

  Masro Fhins’ Jedi fighter dropped out of hyperspace at the edge of the Alconian system. Taking a moment to review his position on the star chart Fhin saw that he would pass by the Fourth Moon on his way to the planet and knew this would be a good time for his astromech droid to gather some recon information.

  “Benine, please conduct a scan of the Fourth Moon of the planet as we pass by.”

  R2-B9 beeped in acknowledgement. After a few moments the droid beeped a question at the Jedi. Looking down at the translation screen Masro answered the droids inquiry.

  “Nothing fancy Benine, standard scans should be fine.”

  The droid beeped some more.

  “No, I don’t think you need to try to plug in to the central computer.”

  Masro could not be sure, but this time the Jedi was sure that the droids beeps carried an annoyed tone. Masro laughed as he read the translation screen and realized he was right about Benines’ tone.

  “Yes Benine, the Force does favor the prepared, but remember what happened on Alderan when you plugged into that computer port in the Ambassadors office?”

  The droid whistled a sad tone.

  “That’s right it took the tech’s two days to unscramble your systems. Standard scans only. No computer link ups.”

  Benine beeped his acknowledgement.

  “We are within scanning range. Go ahead Benine.”

  This time the droid obeyed without any argument and started the scan.

  As Benine started displaying the information on the translation screen Masro started quickly scanning the data; Atmosphere, climate, population of the various cities, nothing out of the ordinary Masro noted.

  Masro glanced up from the screen and looked out at the moon. As he visually scanned the moon he felt something strange in the Force.

  “Anger. Hate.” Masro said out loud describing the powerful emotions that were washing over him through the Force.

  Then just as quickly as the feeling of hate and anger came over him they were gone. Stunned Masro just stared at the planet ignoring the beeps and whistles coming from a very excited astromech droid until the moon was out of his sight.

  Benine angrily beeped at the Jedi again. Masro looked down at the screen.

  “What do you mean they are jamming us? That is quite odd to block a standard scan. You didn’t get fancy did you?”

  Benine whistled back.

  “Yes I believe you Benine, I was just making sure.”

  The droid beeped a question.

  “Yes Benine, I’m fine. No, I was not ignoring you. I was,” the Jedi paused for a long moment before continuing, “distracted.”

  Benine beeped his understanding.

  “I have a bad feeling about this one Benine.”

  Chapter IX

  The comlink crackled to life, “Approaching craft identify your self and your destination.”

  Here we go Masro thought to himself, “This is Jedi Knight Masro Fhin. I am here to see the Council of Elders.”

  “Stand by.”

  Benine beeped urgently at the Jedi.

  “Paranoid? Why do you say that Benine?”

  The droid whistled back.

  “Well I am not surprised they are tracking us.”r />
  The droid whistled again.

  “Are you sure it’s an Ion Cannon locked on us?”

  Before the droid could answer the comlink clicked again, “Jedi craft prepare to be locked onto with our tractor beam and brought to our hanger.”

  Before he could reply the Jedi felt the tractor beam grab his ship as it quickly plunged him down towards the surface.

  Benine whistled loudly and this time Masro did not need to look at the screen to know what the droid was saying.

  “Yes Benine you’re right. Paranoid would be a good word.”

  ***

  The tractor beam not so gently set the Jedi fighter down inside the hanger.

  Masro looked out and saw that his welcoming committee consisted of three Alconians dressed in light colored robes and at least a dozen Alconians dressed in black one piece tight fitting tunic that covered their torso but left their arms and legs uncovered.

  The tight fitting uniforms truly showed the reptilian nature of the Alconian. While shorter in stature then humans the Alconian form could be quite intimidating. The snout full of teeth alone could be intimidating to a human, but when the sharp horn like thorns on each elbow and knee were visible along with the claws on their hands and feet Masro felt that few humans would want to tangle with an Alconian.

  Since each of the dark attired Alconians was armed with some kind of weapon Masro felt it was safe to assume that they were Alconian Warriors.

  But why are they so afraid of me?

  Masro prepared to exit his ship, “Stay aboard for now Benine.”

  The droid beeped back.

  Masro took one last glance at the translation screen before exiting, “Yes Benine, I’ll be careful.”

  Masro jumped down from the fighter and expected the cache of weapons aimed at him to be lowered once they saw that he was Alconian, but he was shocked to see that the warriors actually bettered their aim at him and followed him as he approached the robed Alconians.

  Masro bowed and introduced himself, “Jedi Knight Masro Fhin.”

  The first robed figure nodded his head slightly, “I am Dolse Sinn, Fifth on the Council of Elders.”

  Masro felt a great deal of fear all around him.

  Dolse turned to one of the robed Alconians and motioned him forward, “Morsa.”

  Morsa took two steps forward and stopped in front of Masro, “If you are Masro Fhin you will have a large scar from a takka bite on your tail. Please show it to me.”

  How does he know I have a scar there Masro thought to himself and looked at Dolse?

  Dolse nodded his head, “Please Master Fhin, indulge us.”

  Masro took off his robe and let it drop to the floor at his feet. Several of the warriors gasped and pointed at the lightsaber clipped to the Jedi’s’ belt. Masro also noted that the fear he felt from the Alconians subsided, if only slightly.

  “Thank you,” Dolse stated.

  Masro turned his tail towards Morsa showing him the scar he had described.

  “Tell me, how did you get that scar,” Morsa asked.

  Surprised by the question Masro paused before speaking, “I was very young. Before I left for Coruscant and the Jedi Temple. I roamed outside of the tunnels and a hunting takka caught me by the tail.”

  “And how did you avoid being eaten?” Morsa asked.

  “I cried out for the takka to put me down,” Masro replied, “and it dropped me.”

  The warriors exchanged confused glances. Takka were the most dangerous of the wild predators on Alconia. The large furry beasts were known for snatching up Alconian children who wandered too far from their mothers watch.

  Morsa turned to Dolse, “It is as he says.”

  Dolce turned to the warriors and waved his hand at them for them to stand down. The warriors complied and lowered their weapons.

  “Thank you Master Fhin”, Dolse said, “We needed to ensure that you were indeed who you said you were.”

  Masro used the Force to levitate his robe off the floor, “And who else would I be?”

  Morsa appeared as if he was going to speak but did not. He then turned to Dolse who raised his hand, “No Morsa, leave it to the Council.”

  Morsa bowed his head and stepped back behind Dolse.

  Masro knew that something was being kept from him, but he did not sense any treachery from the Alconians. He did sense a feeling of great sadness but he could not be sure if this was due to the current situation with the Domelans or something else.

  Before Masro could further contemplate this Dolse motioned to the hallway to his left, “This way please Master Fhin.”

  Masro put his robe back on and started down the hallway.

  ***

  Masro was curious about many aspects of this mission, but foremost he was curious about the strong security measures during his landing. Alconia was not much of a spaceport for visiting ships. The primary industry was farming and the planet was mostly self sufficient and did not do much trading with other worlds. Masro was especially curious about the weapons that had locked onto his ship as it arrived.

  As they made their way down the long corridor Masro decided to see how much information Dolse was willing to provide.

  “I was surprised at the amount of firepower that was tracking my ship as I arrived. I was not aware that Alconia had such defense systems.”

  Dolse gave Masro a slight nod, “You are most right Master Jedi, and such weapons are not the Alconian way.”

  Dolse directed Masro over to one of the corridor windows. Looking outside Masro saw two large metal bunkers, each large enough to house a medium size space freighter. Atop each bunker was a single Ion Cannon designed to be an anti-aircraft weapon. Dolse continued speaking, “Several years ago a Corellian mining company arrived on Alconia and approached the Council of Elders about negotiating a permit to allow them to mine ore from the planet.”

  “I’m surprised the Council would allow that,” the Jedi stated.

  “The Council did not allow it,” Dolse’s tone changed to a somewhat more angry tone, “During the negotiations the Corellians set up this base and began surveying and drilling for the ores they were looking for without permission.”

  Masro senses Dolse’s anger subside into sorrow as he continued.

  “The Corellians began digging and blasting, either not aware of or not caring that our people live in the underground catacombs of the planet. During one of their blasting sessions they collapsed a portion of tunnels killing dozens of our people.”

  Dolse motioned again down the corridor for them to continue walking, “The Corellians simply left after that and abandoned all the equipment you saw. We left it as it was until the attacks from the Domelans started. Our hope was that if we showed the Domelans some strong resistance they would break off their attacks, but being fired upon once they simply changed their approach to avoid the canons.”

  “And that is when the Council reached out to the Chancellors Office?”

  “Yes, and I for one am grateful you are here as a result.”

  Chapter X

  Dolse led Masro into the Council chambers and directed him to the center floor of the small coliseum. On one side of the chamber was a set of four rows of seats, the first row was raised perhaps a meter from the floor. The rows behind were each raised the same height over the row in front of it. On the other side of the chamber he counted ten rows of seats directly opposite the raised seats. These seats were all at floor level, the audience section he guessed.

  Masro waited patiently as the empty seats all around him slowly began to fill as the Council members filed in one by one.

  As a Jedi Knight Masro was quite used to be stared at or watched, but for some reason the looks and stares from the Alconians seemed different. He understood the feelings of fear he was sensing due to the situation, but on more then one occasion the sight of him moved some of the Alconians from fear to sudden terror.

  As the last Council member took his seat
Dolse stood, “Members of the Council, at our request the Supreme Chancellor has dispatched an Ambassador of the Republic to represent Alconia. May I present Jedi Knight Masro Fhin.”

  Masro bowed to the Council.

  “Master Fhin, I am Karo, First of the Council. We are most thankful to have you here.”

  “Thank you, I hope that I am able to bring this matter to a swift and peaceful conclusion.”

  Karo nodded his head in agreement, “I hope as well. For years we have had peaceful relations with the Domelans, until their current ruler Noe’Ray came to power. Shortly after he came to power Noe’Ray decided that the Domelans should be ruling the entire Alconian system, not just one of the moons.

  Since the Alconian War the second Moon has been used as a neutral trading port for the Alconian System of moons and planet. Alconia trades crops and goods with the Domelans as well as the Meadans of the third Moon.