The Weaving Force: Chapter 141

Chapter 141:

Taylor:

It was one thing to say lets go over to explore the mysterious planet/space station with a Stranger effect.

It was quite another to actually do it.

Especially when one remembered… we were on a Venator.

A venator who’s doors didn’t work, and who’s electronics weren’t really working either. 

A Venator that somehow still found itself floating hundreds of feet in the air with its smaller ships similarly disabled. 

So there we stood, staring down the lip of the airlock door we’d forced open  to stare down at the verdant green landscape below. 

“Sooooo.” Anakin drawled, and by his voice I didn’t even need to look to see the stupid smile he was sporting. “Betcha wish I was piloting a ship now, huh?” 

“No.” I answered as flatly as I could.

He eyed me. “Even when the alternative is jumping!”

I shrugged, enjoying his affronted look. Thank goodness my mask hid my own smirk. “Didn’t you learn that technique where you ‘float’ with the Force?”

His eyes narrowed, picking up something in my tone or my thoughts. “Why?”

“Yeah.” I nodded for dramatic effect. “I remember. You learned it because you were jealous of Vicky being able to fly and not you.”

“I had an intellectual interest!” He corrected with a haughty sniff that reminded me of Dooku’s holocron far too much to be a coincidence.

I gestured to the space ahead of us. “So float us on down Me. Intellectual.” I answered. 

Anakin grumbled, but never the less, let me place one arm around his shoulder, one of his arms around my waist before we, or I at least, very nervously, stepped off the edge of the Venator. 

In spite of myself, my heart did give a little flip of terror as we began to fall, our descent accelerating before Anakin’s power flowed under us like an undulating platform of air pressure. 

“Oh good. It works.” He smiled at me. “I never actually practiced!”

I smacked him on the shoulder. “I hate you.”

His cheeky smirk only got wider. 

From there, we descended in relatively peaceful silence.

I imagine the both of us were… taking it all in, so to speak. 

This place teemed with the Force. I’d always heard the Masters at the Jedi temple say “The Force flows through all things” But here it didn’t feel like it was just a metaphor, or a turn of phrase. It felt very very real.

I felt like a colander, with its energy slipping through every pore of my body.

I could only imagine what Anakin was feeling here. 

Still descending down to the world below, I spied something through the thick canopy.

Tapping Anakin on the shoulder. I  pointed with my free hand. “I see something. A structure past the trees.”

Anakin squinted off into the distance, frowning. “How didn’t we see that from the ship?”

A good question. The structure looked like some kind of temple, at least to my eye. And it wasn’t small. The Force corruscated around and through it like a living conduit of pure energy.

Was it another Stranger effect? Or had we really not been close enough to make it out.

“Whatever the case-” I said. “I have a feeling if we find answers it’ll be there.”

He nodded and I noticed that we started floating a bit more ‘forward’ in our momentum. Still falling mind you, but now almost gliding towards the structure to cut down on walking distance.

It took us a few minutes to fully reach the ground, and even though Anakin searched, we didn’t find an opening through the canopy. So, like smashing through a window we crashed through the leaves and thin upper brambles. Anakin sputtered and coughed as a branch smacked him in the face and some greenery went down his throat. 

I, on the other hand, had a mask. 

So other than pulling some twigs out of my hair, I didn’t have much issue. 

Anakin hacked and spat, using his fingers to peel some wood skin off his tongue with a look of disgust. 

“Lets keep going.” I said. “Judging by how far it looked, we’re looking at at least a two hour walk.”

“Might wanna double that estimate.” He sighed. “Jungles and thickets make for a bit harder terrain than paved roads. So we’re hiking today and we’re gonna like it.”

His piece said, he started walking and I followed behind him. 

We walked and walked and walked. 

Throughout my time throughout this galaxy, I’d seen many forests and jungles. From Kashyyyk where we first arrived, to my time learning under the Jedi and Master Plo, to our tours of duty in the Clone army.

This seemed like many others and yet… different. The flora, like the world itself was suffused with the Force. To the point that I was certain the insects I sensed in my range were probably more force sensitive than most Padawan with this sort of environment to be the one they evolved in. 

The trees, or that is, the variety of them, caught me off guard as well. It was as though everywhere I looked I saw an entirely different species. No rhime or reason just thrown like an abstract painting of colors with trees and bushes.  

I used the insects to help us navigate. A path laid out for us by the living map within my range. Anakin was more than happy to follow my lead, and he seemed hesitant to just cut through the underbrush with his saber. I didn’t blame him honestly. I barely even wanted to move the strange alien bugs, a reticence that tickled the back of my mind that I chose to listen to. A

After all, walking through a place with this much power in the force, premonitions shouldn’t be ignored. 

“Did you hear that?” 

Anakin’s question suddenly caught me off guard, and I turned my head to look at him. “What?”

He was looking around, brows knit together in confused consternation. “I could’ve sworn I heard someone just now.”

I shook my head. “There is literally no one around us for several city blocks ad I haven’t heard the trees talking yet.”

“You sure?’ He asked, his teasing smirk coming back. “They might have a lot to say.”

“I’m sure.” I answered with a bit of humor inflecting my voice. I could recognize the attempt at easing his tension at least a little bit and there was no reason to make things harder. “Come on.” I pressed. ‘Let’s keep going.”

After another short while Anakin made another observation. 

“The mountains.” He said, I cast my eyes back to see him looking up towards the mountains that literally floated above our heads.

“What about them?” I asked. Floating mountains were a rarity in the galaxy, physics, don’t ya know. But rarity didn’t mean ‘unknown’. The moon of Endor had one. They usually floated due to a very peculiar mix of varying factors that allowed it. Lighter than air gas deposits, particularly low gravity or gravitic anomalies. Things like that. 

Anakin kept his eyes fixed on the bodies of stone and greenery floating above us, eyes narrowed in either thought or examination. 

“It’s the Force.” He answered. “The Force is what’s holding them up.”

I blinked behind my lenses, staring at him in confusion before looking myself.

The Force existed throughout the galaxy, wherever life could be found.

But it didn’t… act on its own. It didn’t just hold up mountains ‘just because’ it was like saying water would just decide to let a cinderblock float on it one fine day. 

“Where the hell are we?” I found myself mumbling.  

Anakin shook his head. “Somewhere… I don’t think people have been to in a very, very long time.”

We kept walking.

As the ground passed beneath our feet and the temple crept closer seemingly inch by inch, the high afternoon sun began to dip and fall.

That’s when we noticed something else.

“The trees.” I said. “They’re… dying?”

Next to me, Anakin shook his head. “No its…” He reached up, grasping at a dry leaf that crinkled and crackled as he grasped it. “Like… we’re changing seasons.”

“We’re witnessing seasonal changes in hours?” I asked.

How does something like that even work? I wasn’t a climatologist but it didn’t make any sense even from my own limited knowledge. It was based on the angle or rotation of the planet. Unless… we actually were on a station, not a planet. And if we were on a station then where was the ceiling? The machinery? Why would someone go through so much trouble to engineer this? And how could this… station have so much presence of the Force within it when compared to literally everywhere else in the galaxy? Even Force rich worlds?

So many questions. 

“Let's hurry it up.” Anakin said gravely… I’d rather not find out if they have a particularly harsh winter cycle out in the open when night co-” He stopped, head snapping to his left. 

“What’s wrong?”

“You swear you’re not hearing anything?” He asked, turning back to me.

Now I was starting to get worried. 

A station with a stranger effect, odd  day and night seasonal cycles, teeming with the Force, and screwing with our ship, our crew and everything else.

If they started messing with Anakin’s head, or mine….

I really didn’t like this place.

And by the look in his eyes, Anakin wasn’t liking this place any more than me. 

“Lets get moving.” I urged. 

We didn’t quite run the rest of the way but we did start taking slightly rougher paths. My insects clearing the underbrush for us like a million road pavers as they chewed through bushes and carried aside dead foliage.

I’m not sure how long we walked. It felt like it was shorter than I feared, but longer than I hoped.

The temple if that’s what it was, looked like a Ziggurat, sharp angles, silver metals. Like all things on this world so far, it was suffused completely with the Force. 

But unlike the rest of this place.

There was someone here.

An old man. His skin was gray, almost stone like, he was tall, wiry thin. His fingers were like spindly sticks. He had a long beard, flowing robes and a very tall hat. 

He looked at us with a small smile and spoke softly but it still carried through the distance between us. 

“May you… be welcome here.”

“Its you.” Anakin suddenly said beside me.

“Him?” I asked, not afraid, not worried. Not yet at least. 

The youngest Council member pointed as he looked at me “He was the voice I was hearing!”

That brought my attention back to the old man. 

“Who are you?” I asked. “Did you bring us here.”

“I am, The Father. “ He said.”We guard the power.”

Then a new voice, feminine, cut into the conversation to our right.  “We are the beginning.”

The woman that stood there ws not like the old man, where the old man was dull gray, she glowed with an otherworldly light, from her robes to her flesh and she radiated power. A great deal of it. Not unlike Master Fay. 

“And the end.”

A third voice joined in, this time younger, harsher. It setmy teeth on edge and the instant I laid eyes on him I was reminded of Jorus. Of his corpse puppets. Of the man himself by the end. 

“We did not bring you.” The old man answered my second question. “But, as our other guests; may you be welcome here.”

Other guests?” Anakin questioned.

And I felt it. A coalescence of power, The Force gathering around us and the sensation within me was… familiar.

Like Kashyyyk.

Butr it wasn’t the same. Different. Greater but the strain was absent. The sheer volume of power here allowing for something altogether unreal to be happening where everywhere else would be impossible.

And then. Like a single droplet of water falling into the most still pond.

She was there. Here.

They were here.

The Queen’s form shimmered a body of starlight and black space, flick-flickering in reality with eyes of crystal and hair of energy strangds. So very close to human and yet not. She stood beside the Father. 

Others were here too Not just her. 

A shimmering ball of yellow light- somehow I knew, that was her, Fragile one.

 A grey construct who just looking at gave me a headache, Preservation. Dennis. They stood at the side of the woman.

Another, Green, Arsenal. Hannah’s.

And one last one. This one too was gray but not in the way Dennis’ power wa gray. This thing was… dead. A husk. It was dead, yet not dead in the way I knew. 

Those two, stood beside the man that reminded me of Jorrus. 

But invariably- my eyes returned… To her.

The administrator.

I felt her eyes on me.

“Invitation. Sent by administrator.”

“I believe we all have much to discuss.” The Father declared. “Much that must be revealed to both of you.”

“And how do you know us exactly?” Anakin demanded, crossing his arms, still eying the sith man with open suspicion. 

“Her/” The man answered with a smile, one directed at me specifically. . “We know from our guests…” 

“They had much to say about your exploits.” The woman continued softly.

Did they? She didn’t ask. Instead looking to Queen.

“Why?”

I didn’t need to elaborate.

I could almost feel her thoughts, her words before she voiced them as she willed me to understand.

“Final failsafe protocols. Overcome.”

I felt my eyes widen. 

Now? After so long/ Now is when she overcame those shackles she hated so much?

“So you brought me here for-”

“Comunion. Revelation. Explanation.” She said,

“She wishes to explain how you all came to be here.” The Father said. “How you act on that information, depends upon you. Much as how the Chosen One, must act on what I reveal to him here.

Beside me. I felt Anakin stiffen. “The Chosen one is a myth.”

But the Father’s smile… only widened. 

“Is it?” He said. “I would very much like to find out for myself.” 

(X)(X)(X)

Not much to say on this one. Little bridging chapter before a lot of the big info reveals and future foreshadowings happen. See you all next week :)