FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER FIFTY

"I have to ask you, did you have anything to do with my escape from the Inquisitors?"

Virra half-smiled. "For someone with no eyes, you're quite perceptive. You were one of the few Jedi I managed to help during my time with them. It's what made everything else I was forced to do worthwhile. How curious you ended up being Master Ti's Padawan."

"Seems the Force is not without a sense of irony." Jarriss placed the holocron on her desk. "I'm happy that I get to continue to learn from my master. Something that sadly most of us can no longer do. Thank you."

Later, the crew watched HoloNet News at the table. As expected, nothing was mentioned regarding the assassination attempt at the ceremony, the fight with the Inquisitors, or Senator Chuchi's escape in the News. The speeches made by Tarkin and the Emperor were used to great propaganda effect in the media. But the event itself became another of the many celebrations held in honor of the Grand Moff.

"No good holovid of us crashing the party?" said Syrran, entering the mess hall having rested enough from his time in the bacta tank.

"Not even a mention of Leema's dress in the fashion segment," Addia said.

"Well, that's criminal."

"It's good to see you up and about, brother," Gorin said.

"It's good to be seen."

"Master Windu would have been proud to see how much your lightsaber skills have grown," Virra said. "I think you might have gotten a 'Well done' from him."

"I doubt it. He was never that effusive."

"But you would have impressed him nonetheless," Ilum said.

"Is the Jedi Low Council back in session?" Addia switched off the news.

Syrran enjoyed the pun. "We have to talk about the future. But first, I owe all of you an explanation about my past."

The team gathered around the round table.

"My real name is Harthsy'cerra'nadaru. 'Syrran' is what we Chiss call our Core name."

"Harsy'cera'naradu—? Yeah, no, Syrran works just fine," Elynn said.

"Yeah, I'm not calling you that," Theleema said.

"So, you're a Cheese?" Gorin said.

"A Chiss, not a cheese," Syrran said.

"I've never heard of that species before," Addia said.

"Neither have I and I have a Ph.D. in xenobiology," Ilum said.

"I come from a planet in the Unknown Regions called Csilla," Syrran said. "My people, didn't have hyperspace navigational technology. In order to travel through the difficult space of the Unknown Regions, they had to make several jumps that made the trips last several weeks. That is until one day our scientists discovered a strange psychic ability in a few of our young girls—as young as seven—which they called 'Third Sight;' what we call precognition. Even rarer, a few among them also developed telepathy or 'Second Sight.' We had no idea about the Force.

"With Third Sight, our scientists believed our peopled could navigate through hyperspace in a single jump that could last days instead of weeks. The navy began an experimental program to find and recruit those girls and train them as navigators. They became known in our language as Cheunh, ozyly-esehembo, or 'sky-walkers.'"

"How ironic," Virra said.

"But what does this have to do with you?" Theleema said.

"I was the first boy who displayed any of those abilities," Syrran said. "And I did so at the tender age of three years old."