Chương 40: Temple-4
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***
It was not without its mishaps.
Firstly, I found Tosi's panties, in a slightly torn state, which led to my thoughtful hum and a whole hysterics from Lady Togruta - she almost strangled me on the spot, but I immediately retreated to the shower and closed myself in there, leaving her alone to grieve. The meaning of the drama eluded me, but I remained calm as a boa constrictor, and after standing under the shower until Tosi was ready, I turned off the water and tidied up my long straw-coloured hair. To my delight, Toshi had already calmed down, stopped raging, and dressed without that piece of wardrobe she'd thrown away with the rest of the rubbish.
Fortunately, I didn't have to get dressed for long - I quickly put on my suit, which, as it turned out, matched Tosi's, and proposed:
- Shall we? The ceremony starts in forty minutes...
- What?" Toshi immediately jumped up. - Forty minutes???
I, remaining as calm as a boa constrictor, remarked:
- Ten o'clock in the morning, if you haven't forgotten. It's twenty past ten.
Tosi immediately tried to run away, but put her hands on her privates, saying:
- What a disgrace, eh? A ceremony, and not only is she aching from a whole night with her former student, but she's not wearing any underwear... - Toshi moaned.
- It's okay, as long as the master ceremony doesn't involve striptease or defilement, you'll be fine," I shrugged. Indeed, some of the lady's problems and worries were incomprehensible to me. What should she do, confess in front of the whole Order that she slept with me? And what does it matter?
- Oh, you... - Tosi swung at me, but only ruffled my hair, which I brushed so diligently.
- Come on, let's go. I hope Lex will let me at least get a glimpse of your triumph....
- He will, though I'm not sure," Toshi said with a snort. - Hurry!
I had to go as fast as the speeder would allow, and fifteen minutes later we were in the temple hangar, pulling up beside my ship.
- Twenty-five minutes," I squinted. Toshi got out of the transport without a word and walked with a wide stride towards the first training hall, where the ceremonies were held. The first room was for ceremonies, and sometimes they held training sessions, but only for meditation.
I tried to keep up and entered after Toshi. The Jedi were already gathered in the hall. Some were in the classic Jedi monk robes, some wore armour of a greenish hue. The variety of races was amazing too, from small, to giants, to snake-like, to human. Everyone's eyes were fixed on us. I stepped aside, standing next to the other Jedi, not wanting to make a show of it. They looked at me thoughtfully, wondering if they'd seen my face before, but then averted their gazes because it was unseemly, and they hadn't seen me here before. Except Lex and Nova, standing in a separate group. Judging by the complex emotions, the important look, and the rather high level of disturbance in the force this group was creating, they were masters. The ceremony was still a few minutes away, and the Jedi began to take their seats. I, however, stuck to the group of knights and stayed there, keeping an eye on the others and not holding my gaze on anyone in particular. Gradually all present, about fifty Jedi began to line up in a semicircle, which then formed a figure like a horseshoe - the talks subsided and I realised that the ceremony had begun. The Masters stood at attention and examined Toshi. Toshi felt quite free under the gaze of so many intelligent people, and she wasn't worried about the crowd.
Lex began his speech, the first three minutes of which were taken up by a ceremonial and pompous phrase addressed to Toshi, in which he spoke of the importance of such a rank, responsibility, the mission of the Jedi Order as a whole, and the importance of Toshi personally to the Order. Having finished the introduction, Lex began the second part of the Marleson ballet - in front of everyone declaring the achievements of the teacher, after which I was embarrassed:
- This knight has successfully completed his padawan training, has reached the heights of knowledge of the force and himself, has not strayed from the path of the light side, and has demonstrated the skills and abilities required for the rank of Jedi Master. Do we recognise him as worthy of his high rank? - The question was rhetorical, as all the masters answered in chorus:
- Yes.
Lex said a vaguely familiar phrase:
- Shall we raise our blades in his defence?
The answer to that question was also protocol - everyone reached for their swords, and in a couple of seconds everyone was holding a green sword in front of them in two hands, pointing strictly upwards. Only a couple of Jedi had blue swords, I didn't notice any other colours. I too repeated the gesture and switched on my sword, facing the blade strictly upwards, but there was an embarrassment. The blade was one of the ones I'd dug up in an old Sith cruiser, which was a distinctive scarlet colour. The people standing next to me flinched, and Lex and a couple of other craftsmen coughed. Toshi's back was to me, but curiosity flared in her emotions. Lex immediately continued the ceremony with closing words:
- Shall we raise a blade against Master Toshi Dan?
All the blades lowered down, at a forty-five degree angle to the floor. I lowered my sword as well. It seemed like everyone was only looking at my blade, but I was pretending that this was the plan. Relatively synchronously, everyone switched off their swords, so the attention turned back to Toshi.
The Master called her master, gave his advice to go and sin no more, and declared the ceremony over. Toshi finally turned to me, but when she saw my smiling face with its "don't worry, be happy" expression of optimism, she glanced suspiciously at Lex.
As soon as the ceremony was over, everyone was dismissed, but before my neighbours could speak to me, the Togruta grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the hall. As soon as we disappeared around the nearest corner, I had a question:
- What was that all about? А?
- I don't know what you mean... - I decided to play dumb, and anyway, is something wrong?
- Wrong? - Tosi became enraged with righteous anger. - There's nothing wrong with you! Admit it, what happened?
- Well... - I tried to evade, - you know... I gave my sword to Lex as a model.
- A model of what?
- Never mind. It's between me and the Master. I took the first one I could find from the armoury. from my yacht.
- И... - Tosi demanded. - What was that circus? You almost ruined the ceremony!
Instead of answering, I pulled my sword from my belt and switched it on. Looking at the red blade, Toshi seemed to curse in Togrutian and continued in the same language:
- 'What, for heaven's sake, don't tell me you switched it on in the presence of the masters...'
- I did," I apologised. - What's the matter?
The Togruta waved her hand at me, scratching the tip of her lekku in thought. I continued:
- And anyway, we've had a walk and that's enough. I need to tidy up and preferably rest somewhere quiet.... - I said monotonously, sending waves of calm towards Toshi. Master Dan calmed down and finally fell behind me:
- Okay, I'll find you. I'm going to assume that the Master will call for you later today, so don't go far.... - Toshi sighed and turned around and walked away. I didn't catch up with her - it's better for a girl, or rather a woman, to just sort herself out. And preferably away from me.
Shrugging my shoulders, I returned to the yacht and decided to start my search with the archive. I changed into normal clothes and went to the archive, where I found all the references to the stories of hyperdrive damage and started to study the precedents.
The time to the evening flew by - I only had time to have lunch and return to the archive without distracting myself from reading.
And in the evening, closer to eight o'clock, I received a call on my comlink from the Master - to report to his office....
- As far as I know, you've already started your search..." Lex started the conversation, not bothering to greet me or ask me to sit down or anything like that.
- Yes, Master," I entered the office and stood in front of the big boss's desk. He was sitting in his usual spot, glancing at me with a sidelong glance.
- So, I'm waiting for an explanation," he said demandingly, looking me in the eye.
An explanation? Just an explanation? All right, I'll tell it like it is:
- After I surrendered my sword to you, I took the first sword I could find from my ship's armoury. It was an old Sith blade I found in the cruiser... I told you about the cruiser, didn't I?
- You did," he nodded, pretending to be satisfied with that answer. - But still, you've managed to draw a lot of unnecessary attention to yourself.
The Master was right. And if I tried to say something teenage philosophical about how a red sword didn't mean anything, he'd be very disappointed in me. It would be like showing up at Stalin's wartime reception in the uniform of a German general and starting to argue that it's not the uniform that makes the man, but the man's uniform and all that sort of thing. In the best case they will send you on holiday to psychiatrists to be checked, and in the worst case they will take away your epaulettes and nagant.
Lex wasn't used to long speculation - he was a man of war time, even if it was the cold war, but still....
- Then I can only help you. For now, I've assigned you to the research and reconnaissance unit. The Intelligence Unit's job is to search and gather information, so you're going to find the information you need. And don't forget to submit all information found outside the temple to the archives. Unless, of course, it's too dangerous.
Lex sighed heavily:
- Have you used the holocron?
- Not yet, Master," I shook my head.
- You'll have to do it tomorrow. If there's anything there, he's the only one who remembers it. I've already looked in the archives for references to non-standard hyperjumps. Most of the time, the ship was way off course. There were also time violations, but the ship came out of the jump in the near future, but not a single case of travelling back in time. Since information about such movements can have an extremely... negative effect and be extremely dangerous, the research is classified. Everything related to your case, too," After listening to the Master, I immediately told him that the contract for the swords would be fulfilled as soon as possible. He smiled gratefully and finished his speech. - In that case, I won't detain you. You must still have a lot of things to do.....
- Yes, Master," I nodded. We said goodbye and I left the office. It didn't get easier by the hour, but the duty of putting the swords away was unpleasant. It was already hanging over my head and I decided to really get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.
Back on the ship, I sat down in the cargo hold with the metal dolts and started doing what I was supposed to do - hulls for future swords. They turned out to be quite stylish, low-profile hilts, hollow inside. The next item was the electronic stuffing. Calling Erdv, I unfolded the websites of electronics sellers on his projector and started selecting what I needed to fulfil my order. There were no particularly strong differences from the electrical components of my time - in just an hour I had compiled a solid collection and ordered it to the temple hangar. The courier droid arrived half an hour later, with everything ordered. After paying him, I started working on the blades....
It's a good thing that power skills are not subject to degradation, otherwise it would take me a long time to recover - after a year of travelling!
But seriously, the work didn't take much time - just an hour to form a dozen standard mechanisms with the promised functions, then insert them into the system and voila... the sword blank is ready. All that's left is to set the crystal, which I did. For lack of final crystals, I had to insert mine into all the blades one by one and check their quality in the process. The dynamics of the swords were standard, no different from any other. The weight of the hilt was about two hundred to three hundred grams, together with the mechanism - four hundred and ten. Having put all the blanks on the shelf, and looking sadly at Erdv, who was watching me, I examined the work of my hands.
- Yes, my friend, it's not a masterpiece, but I can do what I can... especially since it's paid for.
Erdva did not answer me anything, and I decided not to let sad thoughts fill my head, and went straight to bed. I thought better with a fresh head! I preferred to sleep in the yacht, which was equipped with every comfort. Not that I was demanding, but I wanted to be comfortable, especially after a year spent in the forests, I began to pay some attention to it. And my appearance, of course.
Woke up in the morning, in a great mood, wanting something so... special. Erdwa loomed in the lorry cab. I didn't bother the restless droid, forgetting about his presence. Somehow I got bored with the fact that there was always a positive but adventurous barrel on wheels around.
The restless itch of a researcher did not let me sit still and read the archival notes. It felt like I was reading something completely unnecessary and superfluous for me - there were no hints about hyperdrive technology - it was all just notes about how, when, where the jump was made. I didn't want to sit still, so I ran down the ramp and, ignoring the technicians, decided to pay a visit to the great Jedi holocron. But first, breakfast.
The holocron was an amazing and extremely curious source of information. It was a pity that I couldn't download everything from it to a datapad or another holocron, but I wanted to! After having breakfast together with other Jedi, I went along the corridors and labyrinths to the repository of Jedi wisdom. Corridors, halls, turbolift and... here I am in the archive. It was here, in a separate room, that the holocron was located. The most valuable source of information in the galaxy.
The head of the archives, an elderly lady in a Jedi robe, looked up at me with interest.
- Excuse me, I need to visit the holocron," I said, smiling. The lady nodded understandingly:
- Do you have the master's permission?
- Yes, of course, - I gave her my service number and waited while she checked me in the databases. After a minute she, already surprised, got up from her seat and ordered me to follow her.
Leaving the reception, we went deep into the archives. Between the shelves of long term storage datacards, straight to a wide gate in the corner of the room. The lady went through the gate that opened - behind it was a corridor that led to a small hall. The interior reminded me of a spaceship - a multi-level structure. In the middle of the hall was a wide staircase that led down, and there, in a recess, was the holocron itself. It could not fit on one floor, so the temple had a special hall for it, occupying two floors. The only way to access the holocron was through the archives.
The librarian enlightened me:
- No littering in the hall, no getting close to the holocron, and if he refuses to answer your questions, it's useless to ask him. I'll be in my room.
The lady nodded to me and turned and walked away. She left, and I shrugged my shoulders and went downstairs. Downstairs... downstairs stood he, the great holocron. In fact, I don't understand why it's so big. After all, the holocron is an almost infinite container of information, and an increase in size is kind of inappropriate here. It was also inappropriate to increase the number of faces - a normal Jedi holocron was the size and shape of a Rubik's cube.
Shrugging, I walked down to it. The polyhedron, four metres high, stood on a small dais. Its faces reflected the light of the lighting panels and seemed very sharp. There were symbols on the surface, similar to the Runes of the ancient Northmen, and different at the same time.
As soon as I got within three metres of the holocron's surface, I felt a whiff of power. I covered my eyes to see what was happening and recoiled. A small tentacle of power was coming out of each facet. But they were all different in shape and structure. Some reached for me, and I instinctively closed myself off against them. The tentacles slid across my aura and immediately a... ghost appeared in front of me. An almost canonical transparent ghost, with blurred facial features and looking at me with curiosity.
- Er... hello," I started the conversation, doubting that he could hear me. There was no response from the ghost. I asked. - What are those tentacles?
- They're scanning modules. Their job is to determine who's coming to see me and whether he's ready to hear an answer.
I removed my defences and apologised to the ghost: "I'm sorry, I didn't know. You can look now.
The tentacles extended towards me once more, and once they penetrated my aura, they disappeared. The ghost was silent.
- So, can I ask?
- You can," the ghost replied phlegmatically.
- I came here from another time. The future, to be exact. Because my ship's hyperdrive was damaged the moment I made the jump. How do I get back to my own time?
- Jump back," the ghost didn't hesitate for a second.
- That's understandable, but how? - I didn't understand him.
- To do that, you'd have to jump in conditions completely opposite to those of the previous jump.
I see. Absolutely accurate and completely useless answer. I've accepted the rules of the game!
- Has anyone researched the possibility of time travel by altering hyperdrive technology?
- We have. Scientists at the Corellian Engineering Corporation.
- And what conclusions did they come to? - I asked hopefully.
- That controlled time travel is impossible. Time coordinates depend on many factors that are impossible to simulate at their technical level, so any jump is arbitrary.
I thought about the holocron's words. His words made sense, but I didn't despair:
- Had someone investigated the possibilities of travelling between time using hyperdrive and Force technology?
- One man," the holocron looked at me once more with a lifeless stare.
- What's his name? Where can I find him? Or information about his research?
- His name is Darth Vectivus. A Sith. A researcher. He conducted research on hyperdrives and time dilation. All his research was conducted on the asteroid where he died over 100 years ago. The asteroid is orbiting the planet Bimmel, the coordinates are in the archive...
I haven't given up hope of getting anything about time travel.
- Are there other ways of travelling through time on purpose? - I asked hopefully.
- No. There's a technology for cryo-freezing in carbon, but after twenty years of being in it, brain activity is impaired, and after a hundred years, the body's power leaves the body, and then it dies. It cannot be called time travel, as the time flow is not broken, but it creates the effect of displacement from the subjective point of view of the person being frozen.
- Thank you," I bowed, "if you need me, I'll come back," I turned around. The ghost disappeared and the tentacles retracted into the edges of the holocron, finally putting it into hibernation.
Flying to a Sith's old home? With no guarantee of finding anything there? I guess I'm just so evil.
Without noticing I was out of the archives, I headed for the Master's office. Lex wasn't there, so I had to call him on the comlink.
- Yes," the commander answered.
- Master, it's Henya. I'm leaving, I found the coordinates of a place that may be useful in my search....
- And our contract?
- All that's left is to insert the crystals. I'm at your office, so if you provide me with the crystals for my swords, I'll be only glad to get this order done soon.
- I'll be right there," he replied and the comlink went silent. Indeed, to insert the crystals, what a small thing!
Half an hour later all the crystals were brought to me. Magister invited me with a gesture and put a small box on the table.
- Here are the crystals for the sword. Get to work. So, Skywalker, what exactly did you find?
- I spoke to Golokron, as you advised," I explained. - There's nothing of value in the archives, the KMC researchers have long since abandoned such experiments, and there's only one researcher left who's decided to....
- Yes? And who is he? - raised an eyebrow as the Master sat back down in his seat.
- A Sith named Darth Vectivus. He's somewhere in the outer ring system, I haven't pinpointed the location yet.
- A Sith and research..." the Magister smiled. - They are two completely incompatible things. The Sith psyche is closed on secret or obvious achievement of results, and egocentrism, and research requires the ability to admit one's mistakes. And not just in words.
- That's what the holocron said," I shrugged. - I'm going to visit that system and see what's going on. I'm sure there must be something left.
- I hope so. Okay, I'll do it now, - the magister opened the terminal and started typing quickly on the holo-keyboard.
- Formalise? - I was surprised by such a statement.
- Exactly. If it concerns the Sith, you will be tasked to investigate everything you find and bring any information to the Order. If you find a holocron or research data, it will be great... - Master finished typing and gave me a file with the task on the datapad. I didn't open it in my office and looked at Lex expectantly. He responded to my gaze the same way. Without stalling, I walked over, grabbed a box of crystals from his desk, and under the Master's surprised gaze, inserted all ten crystals at once. And holding it with telekinesis, switched on the swords. Multicoloured blades grew above the hilt and immediately disappeared.
- It is done, Master.
- The Sith is with you, - he took the card from me and transferred the rest of the sum.
- Master, how is Toshi?
- Master Dan left on a mission today. I think you're getting too close to your former teacher....
- Master," I cut him off, "do you remember what I said when I asked to join the Order? You don't poke around in my personal life, and I do my job honestly, and everyone is happy...
- Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Lex smiled guiltily, twirling one of the swords in his hands. - I probably should have let you say goodbye... I don't think it's going to take you too long to sort through Sith junk, especially since Master Dan is on a perfectly safe diplomatic mission. I look forward to your return...
The audience was over. I bowed and assured him that I would try to return soon, and asked him, with a sly smile, to let me meet Toshi after all. The Magister only closed his eyes and waved at the door in a "I wish my eyes hadn't seen you" kind of way.
The flight was quick - I gathered provisions, refuelled, and immediately jogged towards the control room, summoning Erdv. The Droid got the coordinates from the temple's network, good thing they weren't classified information.
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