Salek - Errant Ventures

[Salek Fallanai]

“So where are we going, Master?” Salek asked. He hoped it sounded deferential rather than strained, but the sensation of being out in space was not kind to his nerves. Every time before this, had had simply been blind. But now he could feel around their small ship, and it was all…empty. The Force sat completely still around them, not a single ripple to be felt. It was like being in the very center of a deep ocean, endless water above and below and on all sides, no light anywhere. His fingers drummed on the chair arm.

“An old haunt of mine,” Lentus said. “Gambling. Drinks. Jobs. Information. The perfect place to find out what’s going on where the holovids aren’t pointing.”

“Ah. What planet is it? Are we close?”

The comm crackled to life.

“Shuttle seven-two-alpha-niner-five, this is Errant Venture parking services. Please line up in queue and await the go-ahead to land in Hangar Two.”

“Understood, Errant,” Lentus replied on the comm. Salek felt the soft, steady pull of dampened G-forces as they changed direction.

“Errant Venture?” Salek asked with an eyebrow raised. “What’s that?”

“Can you sense it yet?” Lentus asked.

“I’m not sure, it’s not in my normal sensory bubble. Nothing is except us.”

“Don’t try to sense everything around you. Reach out along the Force. See if you can find a current, some kind of disturbance. It’s in front of us, a little to our left.”

Salek obediently let his awareness of the Force drop away, leaving him in the comforting darkness he was accustomed to. That darkness had been something he craved when the senses first started coming, a feeling of normality. But more and more, it had felt…wrong. Sinister somehow. He was beginning to understand the fear of not being able to see what’s coming.

No time for that, though. The young Jedi stretched his mind out through the Force, searching along its serene stillness for any sort of change. He looked out further and further, but there was nothing. He drew his mind back.

And the force of the sensation nearly knocked him over. He gasped and clutched his head as the world around him swayed. But there was no world around him, and he didn’t know if he was swaying or the ship was. Panic crept in, but he shoved it down. Control. The vertigo passed, and he blinked his way back to reality.

“I said, are you okay?” Lentus asked.

“Fine,” Salek replied in a slightly slurred tone. “Umm…I think I just came back too quickly. How to describe it…in a normal place, I can see to a certain distance, but after that it gets hard to make out details. There’s too much information, so everything blurs together if I stretch too far. But out here, it’s so clear. Outside of the shuttle, I feel like I could just keep going. I didn’t realize how far my mind had strayed from me, and when I pulled it back, there was some sort of snap-back. Like pulling a rubber band tight away from your leg and then letting go, but in my brain.”

“Ouch,” Lentus said without a great deal of sympathy in his voice. “Try again, but do it carefully. I don’t want you lobotomizing yourself when we’re just getting started.”

“Yes sir, Master sir, no lobotomies.”

He tried again. This time, he had a little more confidence in the first part, and he quested out far past the first place he had stopped. Slowly he swept his awareness around, feeling through the inky nothing around him. It felt so strange, not like sweeping his hand through water or air but somehow both at the same time, and yet different. He slowed down and paid more attention, and after a couple of minutes, he began to feel a slight…bend to the Force. Like it sloped downward towards something, but there was no down out here.

He followed that curvature to its source, and the surprise of what he found made him almost snap his awareness back again. Right. No lobotomies. Control. He held his mind steady and began feeling around the shape of what he sensed. It was a huge structure, full of life forms that pulled on the Force and made it glow on his sight. It was roughly the shape of – he searched through the memories Lentus had gifted to him to match the shape to the name – an enormous wedge. There were other structures rising up from both of its broad sides, tall towers and interconnected tube paths. At its heart was an enormous energy signature, not large but far denser than anything he had ever experienced, even a lightsaber’s beam. It was magnificent.

Lentus looked over at Salek’s expression and nodded.

“Good,” the Master said. “If we’re to get anything worthwhile done, we’ll need you to see better. We’re here to practice.”

The shuttle swept closer to the huge, recommissioned Star Destroyer, and a new world awaited Salek inside.

 

[Salek Fallanai]

The Errant Venture had a long and storied history, if not a particularly glorious one. Originally the Virulence, it was one of tne of the few Star Destroyers to escape the rebel victory over Endor. It had subsequently spent some years in the service of Imperial warlords trying to claim the throne. At some point it fell into the hands of a private citizen, who used it as a mobile shadowport for the underground, becoming obscenely wealthy in the process.

When its owner died, it spent some time in legal limbo, since technically it didn’t belong to any legal system. Eventually, since it spent most of its time docked at one planet or another, some enterprising bureaucrat classified it as a spaceport to avoid all the paperwork that having a functioning battleship created. From there it was bought by a series of companies down through the years, slowly falling into greater disrepair as they struggled to find legitimate uses for it. Later in life a space tourism company purchased it and renovated it completely, cleaning out decades of grime and neglect to give it a shining interior. The battleship hull was ripped up in places to make room for tall hotel towers that gave a view of the stars. But its life as a cruise ship was short lived, as galactic unrest made it too expensive to run at low capacity. Later an entrepreneur bought it and converted it into a theme park, including water slides that used artificial gravity to draw riders all the way around the ship in swirling loops.

Even that grew old over the decades, though, and less savory sorts began trickling back in as they rediscovered its value in their particular industries. Now it was a maze of different sides of the tracks, family-friendly-fun up top while mercenaries, smugglers, and worse populated the lower decks. The middle was a buffer zone of more adult-style attractions: live shows, casinos, even a small zoo specializing in animals that are extinct on their home planets. The sort of places that regular folks attend as guests and don’t notice the criminals running the show.

Salek didn’t know any of this as he stepped off the shuttle. He just knew that the hangar was bustling with comers and goers, and a Twi-lek woman swayed up to him, put a flower wreath around his neck, and kissed him on the cheek. Salek guessed that she was very pretty to sight, but what he saw was a woman who was a little tired, counting down the minutes until she was off duty so she could put on some comfy clothes and relax. He thanked her with a warm smile.

Lentus had already strode off, ignoring the women, and Salek hurried to catch up to him.

 

[Salek Fallanai]

Salek followed his master through the bustling streets of the ship's interior. Many of the walls had been ripped down inside to create broad alleyways with tall ceilings, and shops lined them. He felt like he was back on the Ithorian herdships with his mother, listening to the trades and chatter of thousands of people as he followed along. For a moment he pondered how annoyed Lentus would be if Salek reached out and held his hand.

At some point they took a turbolift down a couple of floors, and the halls here were narrower and twistier if no less crowded. There was more feeling here. Salek could still feel the general impressions over his head, the beige half-thought of middle class consumers shopping around. This place was...not darker, but more intense. Feelings of nervousness, exhilaration, disappointment, lust, despair, joy. There wasn't a being around him who felt the bland nothingness of normal life.

They made their way down a couple of streets, and then Lentus strolled through a doorway that slid open for him. Inside, he felt his feet on soft carpeting. The place smelled like death sticks, alcohol, and caf overlaid by a strong scent of air freshener. It was warmer in here than outside, and quiet electronic music provided ambient noise that rambled onward without end.

Salek pretended to look around the room and said, "So, first stop is the dentist?"

"Smartass," Lentus replied.

"Welcome to the Blue Haven Casino," said a lady in front of them in a chirpy customer-service voice. "Is this your first visit here?"

Lentus shook his head.

"Welcome back then! How many chips would you like to start with this evening?" she continued, completely unperturbed by the man's reticence. Salek quietly took mental notes.

"Just a hundred. Gonna teach the kid here not to gamble."

"Very well sir, here are your chips. Have a great day!"

Hard-to-see objects clinked on the counter between the two people, and Lentus turned and dropped a handful of small discs into Salek's hand.

"Wait, what?" the young Jedi asked. "You're taking me gambling?!"

"I told you that you need to see better," Lentus said, leading Salek out of the foyer and into the main room. "At the end of the night, I'm taking my hundred back. You can keep anything you have above that. If you have less, you'll owe me. So it's in your interest to look closely enough not to get cheated." He leaned close and spoke in a bare whisper. "Remember, they don't react kindly to Force users here. There will be severe consequences if you get caught cheating."

With that he slapped Salek on the arm and strolled off, heading towards one of the guarded back rooms.