Secrecy, patience, and ingenuity

[Jantar Keltainen]

“Defense will not slay my enemy.”
“You lack the physical strength required for the powerful attacking strikes of Djem So or the other aggressive forms. You must rely on quickness, cunning and, most of all, patience to best your enemies.”
― Zannah learns the significance of Form III from Bane

Jantar had to stand on her tiptoes to peer through the thick window in her small room. It was polarised to block heat and light, but the view was still so intense that it made her squint. The light did not come from the sky, which was choked with black, smoky clouds, but radiated from the river of lava that flowed below the facility where Jantar was currently an effective prisoner. Turning her head slightly, she was able to see the lava empty into what looked like a wide, fiery ocean.

The planet’s name was Qat Chrystac, according to the droid that was her only source of companionship. The droid also served as a teacher. Recently, the droid had been showing her holograms of other worlds. Jantar had to memorise their names and correctly indicate their locations or the droid would subject her to a painful shock.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar moved slightly and saw something shift across the window’s surface. She realised it was her own reflection. Turning away from the window, she surveyed her room. It’s only remarkable features were a single door against the wall opposite the window and a cold-water tap that was operated by a palm sensor, positioned over a small drainage hole in one corner. The door was made of thick metal, the same material as the walls, floor, and ceiling. The bottom of the door had a narrow horizontal slot, through which the droid would sometimes shove a small tray of food.

Jantar could not see through the slot, because it remained sealed when not in use, by a sliding sheet of metal. Above the door was a convex blister that housed an audio speaker and also a photoreceptor, which allowed the droid to watch Jantar at all times. There weren’t any controls to open the door from inside Jantar’s room, at least none that Jantar had ever been able to find.

A chime sounded from the speaker, alerting Jantar to begin her exercises. She knew better than to ignore it and immediately began running on the spot.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

At first, Jantar kept her arms by her sides. Then she started pumping her arms up and down to match the steady rhythm of her leg muscles. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend that she was somewhere else, perhaps a larger room – or outdoors, in the sunlight, but she was not allowed to close her eyes while exercising. So she forced her eyelids to stay open and pumped her legs faster.

The chime sounded again. Jantar stopped running, fell back against the floor, and began doing a series of sit-ups and leg lifts. After several minutes, the chime sounded once more and Jantar rolled over to do her push-up exercises, alternating between one-and two-handed push-ups. Several more minutes passed before the chime sounded for a final time, signalling the exercise session’s end. Jantar collapsed against the cold floor.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Someone was coming.

Jantar pushed herself up and stared hard at the door. Although she could not hear approaching footsteps, she knew the door would open in a moment, and a visitor would be standing in the chamber outside. Despite the thickness of the door, her senses were able to tell her this much. Yet when she’d arrived, anything outside of her room was shut off from her. Her powers must be growing, she mused.

Jantar could imagine only two possible visitors. One was the droid that looked after her. The other was her master, who had only visited once, right at the beginning – to explain she could not leave the facility until this aspect of her training was complete.

The door made a hissing sound as it slid up and vanished into a slot in the ceiling. Standing outside the doorway was the droid. Made of shiny black metal, the droid had a bulbous head with five red photoreceptors and a mesh-grille vocabulator for speaking, and a cylindrical torso that held four long, jointed pincers for arms. The torso rested on a swivel-hinged abdomen that had six spiderlike legs.

Jantar wanted to destroy the droid. She’d done it once – and the punishment from her master was swift and severe. Now Jantar had to content herself with devising ways she would kill the droid, if she were only allowed.

Jantar never knew what to expect from the droid. Sometimes it brought food or escorted her to a larger adjoining chamber where it would chase her or let her run in circles. Other times, it would talk to her and teach her things.

Usually, the droid brought pain. And her master had a strong theory on that subject.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Once, the droid had delivered a bright orange lizard that wasted no time in attacking Jantar, sinking its venomous fangs deep into her arm.

Now, standing before Jantar in the doorway, the droid slowly extended one pincer away from its body and swivelled the tip in a broad circular movement. Jantar kept her eyes focused on the rotating pincer as she felt her muscles tense, bracing herself to leap away from it. She didn’t notice the small panel that opened below one of the droid’s eyes. The opened panel exposed a socket that housed a telescopic arm tipped with a hypodermic needle. The arm lashed out, jabbed the needle into Jantar’s right shoulder, and then rapidly retracted into the droid’s head. The droid had taken just a fraction of a second to make the injection – so little time that Jantar barely comprehended that the needle had pierced her skin.

Jantar blinked as she reached up and rubbed his shoulder. She realised that the droid had done something to her and had rotated its pincer only to distract her. Was that the lesson, or did the injection mean something? Or maybe it was both?

And then she felt a strange, warm sensation spreading throughout her body. She swore at the droid, and then her eyelids drooped and her legs gave way. The droid’s arms extended, catching her before she could hit the floor.

The spider-legged droid carried her out of the little room without any difficulty.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

When Jantar awoke, she was lying on a metal bench in a large high-ceilinged chamber that she had never visited before. Three tall, narrow windows were set into one wall, illuminating the floor in front of Jantar but leaving most of the chamber in darkness. Through the windows, she saw molten rock cascading past a black jagged cliff. She surmised she was still on the same planet – although she could not tell if she was still in the same building.

Jantar did not remember falling asleep or leaving her room. She suspected she was about to be punished. Sometimes she was disciplined without any explanation at all.

Jantar slowly pushed herself up from the bench. She felt cool air against her back and suspected there was a vent or a doorway behind her. Looking around the chamber, she noticed five red lights glowing in the darkness of one nearby corner.

Jantar rubbed her right shoulder. Now she remembered that the droid had struck her in the shoulder earlier, and suspected that the injection had knocked her out.

The droid lurched out of the corner. Jantar hit the floor with her bare feet, and began running as fast as she could – keeping her distance from the droid. Staying out of the light that stretched from the windows across the floor, she darted toward an inner wall, heading for the source of the draught she’d felt against her back. Her vision adjusted to the darkness and she found a quadrangular doorway. She did not hesitate to run through it, even though she had no idea of what awaited her in the next chamber.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Darkness. A chamber without windows. Then she glimpsed a dim sliver of light ahead. Ignoring the droid’s clattering footsteps behind her, she ran toward the light, which emanated from somewhere beyond a curved wall. She knew she couldn’t outrun the droid, but she didn’t dare stop.

Jantar ran around the curved wall and entered a long, narrow corridor. Illuminated by small rectangular lamps embedded in the walls, the corridor was so long that she couldn’t see the other end. Jantar kept running. She heard the droid’s footsteps pause at the corridor’s entrance. She hoped the droid was too wide to follow her into the corridor.

Risking a backward glance, she saw the droid had already tilted its body sideways so four of its legs tapped against the wall while the remaining two continued to scramble up the floor, propelling its metal body after Jantar. Jantar gasped as she turned her gaze forward, never breaking her stride.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

She heard the droid’s footsteps grow louder and knew it was gaining on her. He sensed the droid was about to snare her with a pincer. Desperate and determined to evade the droid, Jantar jumped to the side, planting one foot against the wall to her right, then sprang to the opposite wall, keeping her feet moving so that she travelled two steps across the vertical surface in a diagonal descent to the floor. Jantar heard the pincer slam into the floor behind her, and she jumped up to make two more quick strides along the right wall before she flung herself back to the floor, still running forward. As she ran, she heard a loud and satisfying crash from behind, and he knew that the droid had tripped over its own legs in its failed effort to keep up with her.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Suspecting that the droid would not only recover but also be very angry with her, Jantar ran faster. Her heart was pounding as she saw that the corridor terminated at another quadrangular doorway. She exited the corridor fast and arrived in a chamber.

It was decorated lavishly, if not to Jantar’s tastes. She was more into minimal – not the eclectic mix of styles that faced her. Frills, soft edges and a large amount of animal related objects surrounded her. At the chamber’s centre was a fish-tank. A huge one. And dozens of small, multicoloured creatures swam within it.

It took a few seconds for her to register that she’d stopped running.

“Welcome, Jantar,” said a familiar voice. “I have been expecting you.”

Jantar refused to turn. Refused to dignify her master with a response.

“I had expected that the droid would lead you here,” her master continued. “The way you ran along the walls to evade the droid was most impressive. Ingenious even.”

A screech of metal sounded from the doorway that Jantar had just entered, and the droid pushed its body out of the narrow corridor to emerge inside the chamber. After the droid righted itself so that all its legs touched the floor, it moved up beside Jantar. The young Sith shifted her gaze to the droid and noticed two of its legs were now bent at odd angles. The droid swivelled its mechanical eyes to stare at Jantar and said in a droning tone, “You should not have run away.”

“Leave us,” her master snapped at the droid.

The droid tottered away from Jantar, moving toward a wide doorway on the other side of the room. Jantar considered leaving with the droid.

“You may face me,” her master said, soothingly.

She slowly turned and faced the woman that had subjected her to all of this.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

As usual, her master was wearing her dark robe.

“Are you still talking to me?”

Jantar nodded.

“Yes?”

“Yes, Master” Jantar replied.

Her master smiled. “You are different from most beings in this galaxy because you have powers. You know things in advance. You have fast reflexes. Others only dream of anticipating moments as you do, or being able to move so fast. In this way, you and I are alike, Jantar, except that my powers are much greater. My powers are greater because I have augmented the gifts the Force has bestowed with more mundane abilities.”

Jantar just listened, not trusting her tongue.

“I know you imagine a different life for yourself, Jantar. An easier life than you have here.”

Jantar remained silent.

“I know everything about you, Jantar. Everything. While you might think that your life here is harsh and unpleasant, and that I am sometimes cruel, there is a reason for you to endure such pain. The reason is that you must become strong in every way. You must learn to overcome pain. Someday, you might become stronger than I.”

“The droid can teach you so much, but today, you will receive personal instruction…from me.”

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar was surprised to hear about a training room and was instantly curious to see it. At that moment, the six-legged droid, its two damaged legs replaced by a shiny new pair, sauntered back into the chamber.

Her master glanced at the droid, then looked back at Jantar and said, “Legs are not easily replaced. You do realise you must be punished?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Always remember…a punishment is a lesson, young Jantar. Learn it well. Now, come along.”

Loysia waved her fingers and a door slid open in one of the walls. Jantar hurried into the passage, following her master, followed by the droid.

The training room exceeded all of Jantar’s expectation. So did her punishment.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

“Begin!” the droid said.

Jantar ran fast across the training room floor, heading straight for the wall. Several months after her arrival in the training room, she was familiar with the routine. She launched off the floor with her left foot, hit the wall with her right, and ran several steps up the wall before she kicked away, flipping her body backward through the air. She landed on her feet, then sprinted back toward the wall and repeated the exercise again. And again.

And again.

And again.

The six-legged droid watched each move, making sure Jantar performed the exercise exactly as Loysia had instructed. Loysia had told Jantar that the exercise was designed to build strength, agility, and muscle memory. Loysia had also stressed that if Jantar’s timing was off and she flipped away from the wall incorrectly, she could wind up with a broken neck. Unbeknown to both master and apprentice, Jantar’s disposition to broken bones was far greater than average.

Jantar continued the exercise until the droid told her to stop. As she landed on her feet, she felt her heart hammering within her chest. She wanted desperately to rest on the floor, but resting was not allowed until the droid said so.

“Your timing has improved,” the droid said. Rapidly extending one of its pincer arms, it swiped Jantar with an electrode, giving the girl a shock.

Although she knew that the droid was simply carrying out Master Loysia’s orders, teaching Jantar to be prepared to deal with pain at any moment, she still resented getting shocks when she had not done anything wrong. The droid stared back at Jantar through emotionless photoreceptors. Jantar could anticipate many things, but she never knew when droid was about to shock her. The droid was too fast and too random.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar had learned much during her time with the droid in the training room. The room had special exercise equipment and weapons, as well as computer consoles that had been programmed to educate and challenge Jantar’s mind and mechanical abilities. She could identify hundreds of star systems, assemble complicated three-dimensional puzzles, and pinpoint the vulnerabilities of most sentient species as well as the non-sentient ones up the food chain. And in addition to running up walls, she could walk on her hands, swiftly climb a rope, trot across a taut wire, and leap headfirst through an energy ring and come up standing.

“Go to console three,” the droid commanded.

Jantar went to the third computer console and seated herself before the computer’s holoprojector. As she inserted both hands into the console’s grip sockets, she wondered what the test would be about this time.

The holoprojector displayed a sequence of three different star systems and rotated each display so Jantar could see the holographic stars and their respective orbiting planets from various angles. Then the computer cut off the projector, leaving Jantar staring at empty air. The computer said, “Identify the second, first, and third systems, in that order.”

“Kinrah, Sunshi and Annaj,” Jantar answered quickly.

"The Kubilaï system contains the planet Ristal. With a Class 2 hyperdrive, how many days to the Aldorus and Hoth systems.”

“Five and…four.” Jantar said, her slight delay earning her a sharp sting in the palm of her left hand. Jantar was still wincing in pain when the computer’s audio speaker erupted with a recorded beast’s roar.

“Identify the species,” the computer droned.

“Bearsloth.” Jantar suddenly felt searing pain in her right hand, and she corrected herself. “Arbooine bearsloth!”

The questions continued for several minutes. Jantar made only three more mistakes. When the computer was done, she removed her aching hands from the console socket and massaged her knuckles.

As she rose from her seat, the six-legged droid said, “Go to the ring.”

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

The droid followed Jantar to the ring, a circular platform that was elevated half a metre above the training room floor.

Jantar hopped onto the platform while the droid ambled over to a nearby rack of weapons and selected a slender staff made of wood. Gripping the staff with a single pincer, the droid climbed onto the platform and faced Jantar. “I will attempt to strike you. You will attempt to dodge the strike. Each successful strike or dodge counts as one point. Knocking an opponent off the platform counts as three points. The exercise ends when one of us has scored five points. Understood?”

“Yes.” The word was barely out of Jantar’s mouth when the staff connected with the side of her left leg. She grunted in pain and anger.

“You forgot to jump,” the droid said in a mocking tone. “My point.”

The droid swung again, this time angling for Jantar’s right leg. Jantar jumped. The droid let the staff’s tip bounce off the platform and brought it up sharply to strike the bottom of Jantar’s right foot.

Jantar tumbled across the platform and came up standing, her eyes burning with fury at the droid.

“That must have hurt,” the droid said. “The next strike will hurt more.” The droid made a quick jab toward Jantar, but the girl threw her body to the side and rolled, careful not to go over the edge of the platform.

“Your point,” the droid said as it tossed the staff into the air. Jantar ignored the airborne staff and kept her eyes on the droid. The droid caught the staff with a different pincer, then leaped forward. Jantar dived under the droid, and as she somersaulted across the platform, she heard the staff whoosh past her head.

“Your point again,” the droid said. “We are tied.” The droid tossed the staff back and forth between three pincers, then seized it with a single pincer and rotated its arm so the staff spun like a propeller. The droid increased the speed of the rotation, transforming the staff into a barely visible blur.

Expecting the droid to advance toward her, Jantar braced herself to jump away. She was not prepared when the droid threw the spinning staff directly at her, and she felt the slap of hard wood against the side of her face. The staff fell away from Jantar and landed between her and the droid.

“I hope you are learning from this,” the droid said. “The score is three to two.” The droid stepped forward and reached for the staff.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar felt a rush of anger. The droid’s pincer was still descending for the staff when the weapon leaped from the platform and flew toward Jantar. Jantar caught the staff with both hands as she glared at the droid.

The droid backed up. Jantar held the staff out in front of her. She didn’t entirely know how the staff had sailed into her grip, and she wasn’t sure what to do next. The droid had not mentioned that the staff could move by itself or said whether Jantar would gain points if she obtained the staff or struck back at the droid.

“You’ve never done that before,” the droid said, sounding surprised.

Jantar didn’t know what the droid was talking about. “The staff jumped. I…I only caught it.”

“I must summon Master Loysia immediately.” The droid’s photoreceptors blinked and turned yellow as it transmitted a silent signal.

Jantar wondered what she had done wrong. Then she wondered whether the droid might be trying to trick her by pretending to contact Loysia, and whether it might be preparing to attack again. The droid’s photoreceptors flickered back to red, but it did not budge from its position on the opposite side of the ring. Jantar continued clutching the wooden staff, her eyes locked on the droid.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Loysia entered the training room. Jantar held tight to the staff but turned to her master. Facing Jantar, Loysia came to a stop at the edge of the elevated platform and said, “Tell me what happened.”

“The droid and I were exercising. Master Loysia.” Jantar held the staff out before her. “This landed in the middle of the ring. Then it jumped up and landed in my hands.”

Loysia nodded as if she understood. “Jantar, what did you feel just before the staff jumped up?”

Jantar glanced at the droid. "The score was three to two, master. The droid was winning.” she looked at Loysia. “I was thinking that the exercise wasn’t fair. The droid can hit me, but I can’t hit back.”

“Few things in life are fair, young one.” Lowering her voice, Loysia continued, “But I did not ask you what you were thinking. I asked…what did you feel?”

Jantar looked at the droid again. “I felt angry, Master.”

Loysia smiled brightly. “Good. Good!” Without taking her eyes off Jantar, she turned her head slightly and said to the droid, “We’re going for a ride.”