TEMPLE EXPEDITION
(Post Soundtrack: "Blue Planet" by Hans Zimmer)
Out here on the windy flats, it was easy to feel alone. Even with the pair of tauntauns and Jorah flanking him, Jerek found his gaze drawn by the vast sheets of ice and snow beyond. On other worlds, even in the cities, creatures scurried underfoot while insects crept along nearly unseen. Plants invaded even the most stalwart of sterile environments, creeping up through tiny cracks or slowly drilling their own. Anytime the Jedi Knight opened his senses, cornucopia of life abounded near him.
Here, he sensed only the four of them.
Four living things upon a sea of sameness, a quartet of tiny dots upon the bleak landscape. Compared to the planet itself, the caves and the boundaries of their new base were but a mere speck as well. On a world that was nothing more than a footnote outside of the handful of governments or Force Orders that knew what value it held. Virtually insignificant.
"
The bottom has a spike on it, we'll use that to drive it into the ice." Jerek gestured to the long pole in the hands of the Dathomiri boy, pointing down toward the end not populated with antennae or controls. "
You can extend it with a button on the console, just point it away from you first."
Even virtually insignificant outposts had their invaders. Ilum did have a few natural creatures, one or two of them hostile, but the greatest threat to the Jedi's new venture would be the weather. A strong blizzard could bury the entrances to the caves, and a shift in the ice beneath them could change the landscape irrevocably. For as much as Jerek desired the same harmony with nature that the witch boy preached, he understood how much nature itself could be an adversary.
"
Alright, find a stable spot to plant it. Try to avoid those peaks," Jerek pointed toward the nearby seracs, he'd noticed them cropping up near crevasses on their journey out here and his senses told him the two were connected. "
Sometimes the caverns underneath open up a new crack or air shaft, we don't want our sensor falling through."
He laughed, "
Actually, the sensors can usually detect that before it happens, but better safe than sorry."
Jerek found himself unusually descriptive with his instructions, pointing out next how to stabilize the sensor's anchor in the snow and then on to the initial setup walkthrough. If Jorah struggled with a step, the man gladly pointed to the display or gestured with his hands, leaving the boy to do the action himself. The young teen was so convinced his limited perspective and thoughts were the right answers, giving him the opportunity to try out a different approach was something Jerek hoped ease Jorah's stubbornness.
With the last steps provided, the man found his attention drawn away by something nearby. He glanced around them, finding only the tauntauns standing in a close huddle for warmth, otherwise greeted by the sameness from before. Jerek's hand poised over the controls of his suit, ready to turn on the sensors that would show the surroundings on the helmet HUD. He hesitated, drawing in a breath.
Then Jerek looked up.
"
Jorah, look," he tapped the boy, not looking to see if the witch boy had already spotted the creature. Her white wings were almost invisible against the landscape, but when she banked or flapped to gain height, the
snowfeather bird could be easily seen against the horizon. Jerek closed his open mouth, a smile pulling back against his lips. "
See? I don't reject the natural world, Jorah. The sensor didn't tell me she was there, my senses did."
The man turned down toward the youth, placing his hand on Jorah's shoulder. "
But when I leave this spot, the sensor will stand waiting and listening. It'll tell us if it detects something, and someday it may not be a bird. It might be the Maw, sending their soldiers to do harm to us and to this world."
Iris Arani
| Shimrra Rin 
