‹ Prequel: Reaching Through Darkness
A Last Good Bye
Dilela
Ch 7
Karen
I was not originally for the Force crime program. When Master Skywalker explained the situation and idea, I shrank away from the idea of us dealing with criminals. We, the good guys, already had enough to deal with. The dark side was always there, always testing us. Criminals, I argued fiercely, are not easily dealt with and would be most prone to the darkside. They were already breaking the rules of society and did not have a good sense of right and wrong. If we trained them, we ran a high risk of them turning to the dark side. This was not a risk we needed to concern ourselves with. There were too many other good souls who were Force-sensitive and wanted to become Jedi. Master Skywalker smiled patiently at me in front of all the other present and countered my points. His argument went along these lines:
The Jedi were created to protect the peace and fight for justice. As Jedi, we were to gain the trust of the public, but this had proven hard at first when the Jedi were starting to form. The public feared us because we did not have the same rules and ideas about our conduct as we had today. Some Jedi went dark, turning to a life of crime, terror, and control. Some youths who were Force-sensitive were not taught to hide their powers and either were feared or hated. As the Jedi organized themselves, they realized it was their job to look out for these troubled youths and to take them under their wing. Over time, meaning over hundreds of years, the Jedi grew into what they were most famous for. The public did not only trust them, but looked up to them as heros, champions of good and evil. A time when sith ran amuck was no longer and wars were few and far between. But all good times can not last forever and the sith came again, bringing the clone wars and then the empire. The Jedi had become elite, egotistical, and relaxed in their ways. They only took the best and at a very young age, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. They could afford such practices in a time when the galaxy did not need an army of Jedi. Their selective practices and their arrogant thinking led to their downfall.
Now a new order was starting. Rules had to be discovered, tested, and thought about. The old order could no longer be followed blindly. We could not follow a path that brought down such a group. So Master Skywalker and others were forced to look at what the old order did right and wrong and decide what to copy and what to change. He looked at the very few older records that had managed to survive and saw that there was once a time the Jedi took teenagers and those who were in trouble with the law.
Master Skywalker argued that these youths were our responsibility. It was our mandate that we must take them in and show them a better path. These young criminals were our sisters and brothers in the Force and to ignore them would be a greater crime than what they did. If we let them run wild, without knowledge of what they are doing is wrong, then we would be supporting the dark side and would fail the order and all the Jedi stood for. It was true we could not and would not be expected to turn all of the teens to a better life, but we must try. We owe them and the galaxy that much.
Master Skywalker’s argument was so passionate and well thought out, that I found myself agreeing with him. I had not thought about the old order and how they dealt with this problem. Yet, the more I thought about what I knew, the more I realized they really had brought their own end. We may not be any better than them, but perhaps we could avoid some of their mistakes.
It took weeks for us to develop a plan that would promise success with these youths. We had to gather a team of Jedi who would volunteer in this program. We had to study criminal behavior and teens to learn how to predict their minds and actions. We had to tailor our teachings so they could grasp and understand them with their limited education. Finally, we had to make the temple a place where they would be happy and at peace. When we were done, we went to the senate with our preparations and asked them to approve our program. Since most of our funding came from the government and this program would require more supplies, we had to inform them of our plan. It took several days of talking and negotiating with them, but in the end we got the approval we sought. We very much owed our success to Nea, who worked and bullied the senate behind closed doors and covered cameras.
Dilela was our twentieth student in the program. We had a rule that we only took two students at the most at once. We had this rule because one student was quite a task to take on and two pushed us to our limit. At the end of three months, if they had shown improvement, we started looking through our list for more students to interview. We went through a long and tedious process to find the best students we thought would make it through. We would narrow our list to two or three and then visit the planet where they were in jail. We tested them for their Force-sensitivity and how strong they were. We showed them what the Force was and what they could become if they worked with us. If they were eager, we went into more detail. If they resisted us, we explained to them what would happen if they continued down their present paths.. We told them that should they accept our deal, their record would be wiped clean after they got through three months. That would get a grudging ok from them. Finally we picked one or two of our choices, promising the third that they would be out of jail soon.
Dilela was one of those who was not excited about coming, but decided the training could not be worse than jail. I was not able to interview her as my son was sick with a cold and I caught it too. Yet, when I heard of her and her history, I knew there was a chance with her. She pierced my heart in a way I could not explain and I felt the compelling need to teach her, no matter how stubborn she tried to be.
Indeed, she was stubborn and sulky. She hardly ate her dinner. I tried to lighten her up and get her talking, but she clammed up and spent the rest of the meal silently glaring at me. I then took her to her room and made sure she was comfortable. I also made sure the door was locked from the outside, should she try to escape. A few of the students had tried that in their first week here. They were not willing to give us a chance at first. It took a lot of time and attention to convince them otherwise.
When I felt she would be ok for the night, I went back to my apartment. Mirmo was sitting in the living room, reading a data pad. By the silence of the rooms, I knew my son was asleep and tip-toed to his room. I opened the door as quietly as I could and looked in. He was curled up into a ball with the blankets half on him. I sneaked in and pulled the blanket more on him. He sighed and turned over. I fought the urge to kiss him and went back into the living room.
I asked about my son’s day and his lesson. I received a good report and made a note to give my son a toy the next day that he had been bothering me about for months. I asked about what story was told. Mirmo was always coming up with new stories and my son loved them. Tonight, Mirmo went to a true story, one I could not help but laugh at. It was about the epic squirt gun fight done through astral projection with none other than Master Yoda. It was an ongoing fight that was left and picked up on random times. I never could win and at best, tie. Mirmo found the story extremely amusing, as did Master Skywalker. I asked if Mirmo said who was the “ little Jedi” or where this fight took place, but he shook his head no. I was thankful for that. I did not want my son getting involved with the astral plane at this age. Mirmo never had an opinion on that topic, but I knew Master Skywalker felt I was wrong in my decision.
I bid my master good night and a thanks for watching my son. I was asked about my new charge, but I said it was too early to give a report. All I saw was classic teenagerism and no personality yet. Once he was gone, I readied the house for the next day and went to bed.
Karen
I was not originally for the Force crime program. When Master Skywalker explained the situation and idea, I shrank away from the idea of us dealing with criminals. We, the good guys, already had enough to deal with. The dark side was always there, always testing us. Criminals, I argued fiercely, are not easily dealt with and would be most prone to the darkside. They were already breaking the rules of society and did not have a good sense of right and wrong. If we trained them, we ran a high risk of them turning to the dark side. This was not a risk we needed to concern ourselves with. There were too many other good souls who were Force-sensitive and wanted to become Jedi. Master Skywalker smiled patiently at me in front of all the other present and countered my points. His argument went along these lines:
The Jedi were created to protect the peace and fight for justice. As Jedi, we were to gain the trust of the public, but this had proven hard at first when the Jedi were starting to form. The public feared us because we did not have the same rules and ideas about our conduct as we had today. Some Jedi went dark, turning to a life of crime, terror, and control. Some youths who were Force-sensitive were not taught to hide their powers and either were feared or hated. As the Jedi organized themselves, they realized it was their job to look out for these troubled youths and to take them under their wing. Over time, meaning over hundreds of years, the Jedi grew into what they were most famous for. The public did not only trust them, but looked up to them as heros, champions of good and evil. A time when sith ran amuck was no longer and wars were few and far between. But all good times can not last forever and the sith came again, bringing the clone wars and then the empire. The Jedi had become elite, egotistical, and relaxed in their ways. They only took the best and at a very young age, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. They could afford such practices in a time when the galaxy did not need an army of Jedi. Their selective practices and their arrogant thinking led to their downfall.
Now a new order was starting. Rules had to be discovered, tested, and thought about. The old order could no longer be followed blindly. We could not follow a path that brought down such a group. So Master Skywalker and others were forced to look at what the old order did right and wrong and decide what to copy and what to change. He looked at the very few older records that had managed to survive and saw that there was once a time the Jedi took teenagers and those who were in trouble with the law.
Master Skywalker argued that these youths were our responsibility. It was our mandate that we must take them in and show them a better path. These young criminals were our sisters and brothers in the Force and to ignore them would be a greater crime than what they did. If we let them run wild, without knowledge of what they are doing is wrong, then we would be supporting the dark side and would fail the order and all the Jedi stood for. It was true we could not and would not be expected to turn all of the teens to a better life, but we must try. We owe them and the galaxy that much.
Master Skywalker’s argument was so passionate and well thought out, that I found myself agreeing with him. I had not thought about the old order and how they dealt with this problem. Yet, the more I thought about what I knew, the more I realized they really had brought their own end. We may not be any better than them, but perhaps we could avoid some of their mistakes.
It took weeks for us to develop a plan that would promise success with these youths. We had to gather a team of Jedi who would volunteer in this program. We had to study criminal behavior and teens to learn how to predict their minds and actions. We had to tailor our teachings so they could grasp and understand them with their limited education. Finally, we had to make the temple a place where they would be happy and at peace. When we were done, we went to the senate with our preparations and asked them to approve our program. Since most of our funding came from the government and this program would require more supplies, we had to inform them of our plan. It took several days of talking and negotiating with them, but in the end we got the approval we sought. We very much owed our success to Nea, who worked and bullied the senate behind closed doors and covered cameras.
Dilela was our twentieth student in the program. We had a rule that we only took two students at the most at once. We had this rule because one student was quite a task to take on and two pushed us to our limit. At the end of three months, if they had shown improvement, we started looking through our list for more students to interview. We went through a long and tedious process to find the best students we thought would make it through. We would narrow our list to two or three and then visit the planet where they were in jail. We tested them for their Force-sensitivity and how strong they were. We showed them what the Force was and what they could become if they worked with us. If they were eager, we went into more detail. If they resisted us, we explained to them what would happen if they continued down their present paths.. We told them that should they accept our deal, their record would be wiped clean after they got through three months. That would get a grudging ok from them. Finally we picked one or two of our choices, promising the third that they would be out of jail soon.
Dilela was one of those who was not excited about coming, but decided the training could not be worse than jail. I was not able to interview her as my son was sick with a cold and I caught it too. Yet, when I heard of her and her history, I knew there was a chance with her. She pierced my heart in a way I could not explain and I felt the compelling need to teach her, no matter how stubborn she tried to be.
Indeed, she was stubborn and sulky. She hardly ate her dinner. I tried to lighten her up and get her talking, but she clammed up and spent the rest of the meal silently glaring at me. I then took her to her room and made sure she was comfortable. I also made sure the door was locked from the outside, should she try to escape. A few of the students had tried that in their first week here. They were not willing to give us a chance at first. It took a lot of time and attention to convince them otherwise.
When I felt she would be ok for the night, I went back to my apartment. Mirmo was sitting in the living room, reading a data pad. By the silence of the rooms, I knew my son was asleep and tip-toed to his room. I opened the door as quietly as I could and looked in. He was curled up into a ball with the blankets half on him. I sneaked in and pulled the blanket more on him. He sighed and turned over. I fought the urge to kiss him and went back into the living room.
I asked about my son’s day and his lesson. I received a good report and made a note to give my son a toy the next day that he had been bothering me about for months. I asked about what story was told. Mirmo was always coming up with new stories and my son loved them. Tonight, Mirmo went to a true story, one I could not help but laugh at. It was about the epic squirt gun fight done through astral projection with none other than Master Yoda. It was an ongoing fight that was left and picked up on random times. I never could win and at best, tie. Mirmo found the story extremely amusing, as did Master Skywalker. I asked if Mirmo said who was the “ little Jedi” or where this fight took place, but he shook his head no. I was thankful for that. I did not want my son getting involved with the astral plane at this age. Mirmo never had an opinion on that topic, but I knew Master Skywalker felt I was wrong in my decision.
I bid my master good night and a thanks for watching my son. I was asked about my new charge, but I said it was too early to give a report. All I saw was classic teenagerism and no personality yet. Once he was gone, I readied the house for the next day and went to bed.