Prologue
The ebony bio-sleeper ship slipped smoothly through the black void of
space, almost invisible against the midnight curtain that matched her hull.
She was programmed to bring her occupant on a return trip that had lasted
nearly a millennium through hyperspace. The final destination was the
homeworld of the former Republic, Coruscant. Even though the ship was
programmed with mission perameters, she had the capacity to extrapolate and
react to most unknown situations. The nature of a bio-ship was one of a
symbiotic relationship. She was in many respects a life form with a
semi-consciousness of her own. The protection of her occupant took
precedence over the destination as well as her own safety.
Ironically, she was moving toward a greater unknown than either she or
her occupant could have suspected as she moved toward the final leg of her
return journey. The stars, pulsars, quasars, and other phenomenon were her
companions on her space voyages. She had left the approaching galaxy nearly
a millennium ago as she carried her mortally wounded occupant back to his
home galaxy. It was a galaxy where, with even hyperspace travel she took one
thousand years to breach the distance. For a human, such a time span awake
would be tedious and eventually drive one to the brink of insanity from
sensory deprivation. The bio-ship instead enjoyed her voyages, her nature in
a way made her one with the depths of space. An amazing similarity to the
relationship shared by the people who had designed her.
Safely wrapped inside her arms a man dreamed of times long past. His
dark hair was long, hanging to each side of his head in braids. His face
sported a mandarin style mustache and beard. The smile on his lips indicated
a state of bliss as he dreamed in what seemed to be an eternity of night.
His dreams were of before his departure one thousand years ago. As he stood
upon his homeworld, he had wondered what had happened to the adopted galaxy
he had left behind upon his death. Surely after all this time the Jedi
Council had prospered with time, as must have the Republic. When he had died
two thousand years hence, the Republic was strong and vital. The Jedi were a
beacon to the entire galaxy to rally around against any form of darkness.
Since the rape of his own home world, he had always welcomed the
opportunity to walk on worlds that reminded him of his own. The smell of wet
green grass in the morning dew made him cry for his youth. His youthful
days, ah yes, how blissful it was now that his mind stretched back through
the years. Even though he was born blind at birth, his father and
grandfather taught him to overcome this and accept it as a gift. He could
remember running with the Do-Dan's across endless prairies as the wind blew
threw his long hair.
The Do-Dan was the main source of meat for his tribal based people
called Yominians. The beast is similar in size to a Bantha, the female being
some three times larger than the male was adorned with beautiful yet deadly
tusks. While, the males had short tusks with a crown of horns. Tribal
custom demanded that for each Do-Dan taken for use amongst the tribe that a
sacrifice must be offered back to the planet. This was usually a smaller
domesticated beast called a Zepon.
The sun was shining down in a warm basking way as the smell of the
green under his feet rose up to meet his nostrils. His ears were filled with
the sound of thunder as the hooves of the mighty beasts pounded upon the
ground in unison. He was reliving his manhood test, he ran closer still to
the Do-Dans. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he jumped into the air
running and landed astride a Do-Dan. Then he felt the presence of Tutavena,
a mighty warrior in his tribe race along side on a Zepon. The Yominians are
a peaceful people, their warrior castes were few in number and spent most of
their time hunting food from weakened beasts, culling the herds. Whenever
Tutavena ridings near the herd, it is time for the tribe to gather fresh meat.
As Tutavena thrust his lance into an old and slowed Do-Dan, his dream
suddenly shifted to another time, a dark time. His dream suddenly turned to
a nightmare as he recalled when another race came to his world; they came in
silver ships from the sky. They had technology that could reduce his planet
to a burnt out cinder. However, they had rape in mind for his world and all
that dwelt there.
It was called "The Night of Burning Skies," because they came in the
dark of night to destroy this small paradise. The Yominians would call them
"Yellow Blades." They too were humanoid, but they came in search of fortune
and the extraction of life energies. Harbingers of death, the Yellow Blades
stood for all the Yominians were not. At first, the Yominians tried to share
their homeworld with the strangers from the sky, even after they began to
excavate huge quantities of mineral ores from the planet. They welcomed the
strangers and called them brothers.
The Yellow Blades in turn destroyed their world; they hunted all species of
the Yominian homeworld to extinction for merely the pleasure of killing.
Eventually they enslaved the Yominian people and under the energy-lash's
they forced the Yominian people to help them rape their planet. All manner
of physical labor was required of the gentlepeople, even invented to merely
torture of many.
Eventually the Yellow Blades built huge machines all over the planet,
factories of death. The skies grew dark, as did all life, the very life
essence of the planet was being sucked from the planet core. After the
Yellow Blades had taken all the planet could bare and more, they left in the
night as swiftly as they had come. Yominia was barren as the winds and
storms raged across the planet. The people prayed through Ako-vaw for a sign
that life would go on. They found their sign at the place called
Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan or as inhabitants of Coruscant might call it, "The Dwelling
Place of the Force."
This place called Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan, became a sacred area because there is
an artesian spring that legend says has always existed. This is where they
built their temple of temples, which stands even today. It is in their
temple at Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan that the lodge of ancestors is found. In the
ancestral lodge is where all the bodies of Yominians are taken so that their
spirits can be released by tribal elders to join their ancestors and loved
ones that have gone past this veil.
As legend would have it, the Yominians believed Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan was the
birthplace of the entire universe. To the Yominian people, the spring water
is a medicine, and is a part of the Yominian creation stories. Amazingly,
this spring of pure water has survived for centuries and is still intact even
after the invasion of the Yellow Blades. Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan has been the sight of
what many people may define as miracles. To the Yominians, it is no legend
that through Ako-vaw the will of Wakan Tanka is served. Many times have the
dead had risen from the waters of Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan.
The area of Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan is bordered by mountain ranges from all sides.
There is a plateau on the western side of the area. On the plateau, there
is a stand of huge coniferous trees of the bald cypress tree family that are
two hundred millennium old or more. While below there is another stand of
four ancient trees that are actually three hundred millennium old at least.
They are the last traces of original forest left in this area of Yominia.
The sacred prayer site, Ta-Ku-Wa-Kan is defined by these four ancient trees
of the bald cypress. These four are the oldest and tallest of all at over
two hundred meters tall. The artesian spring flows into a stream, which runs
through the four trees. Long ago Yominian Elders from various Yominian
communities had blessed the sacredness of this site.
After the Yellow Blades left, it was here that the Yominian elders
gathered. A yearlong meeting of all the surviving tribes was held. At what
they believed to be the calling of Ako-vaw, they began sending their people
forth into not only their own galaxy, but also other galaxies. It was for
this purpose that he had been sent forth in a bio-sleeper ship. After
traveling to the farthest galaxy he was awaken to find a world filled as his
own, with both light and dark. Emissaries to other galaxies were chosen
because of a sign from Aka-vow. The sign from Ako-vaw was that Pan-Fu was
born blind of natural sight. As well as the fact, his father and grandfather
were tribal shaman.
It was in the millenniums before the great Jedi Purge in the know
galaxy of the Republic, that he had served with the Jedi. Being of a
pacifistic nature, he never sought knighthood. However, the beliefs of his
people and the Jedi were so closely attuned that both the council of the time
and he had decided that he would be a valuable asset to the Jedi order. That
is until he received a mortal wound to the head defending the virtues of the
growing Republic.
According to Jedi custom and belief he would have been set upon a
funeral pyre to release his life to rejoin the force. However, the Yominians
have their temple of temples on their homeworld where in they receive the
conscience of the Yominian whose mortal body is beyond this realm of life.
Because of this and in accordance with his pre-declared written wishes, he
was placed in a bio-ship he provided. The bio-sleeper ship technology was
the only secret he had kept from the Republic or the Jedi order. The
bio-ship was his walking staff he carried which was attuned to his life
force. When the staff felt his death, she began the metamorphosis into a
chrysalis and then a bio-ship around the chrysalis for his journey to the
temple on his homeworld. After a thousand-year journey, his body was
received home, and the elders placed his body in a sun lodge.
In the sun lodge, his body would remain for a week to a month while the
elders prepared his spirit for the journey to the inner temple. The oldest
of the elders had a vision of dark times from whence Pan-Fu had come home
from. After much discussion, the council of elders decided his body was to
be tested by Ako-vaw. The testing process would take place as he was placed
in the well of creation. He was healed in the artesian spring waters of
creation and given the choice of joining his ancestors or returning to serve
Ako-vaw. Since it is through Ako-vaw that one may reach Wakan Tanka the
father of all creation, it must be his will he thought.
"Who am I to question the will of the Great Spirit of all life, I am
merely a servant in his stead." He recalled his answer to the elders as
thought of his destiny.
Suddenly his dream shifted again as deep inside his subconscious. He
knew they must have been approaching the galaxy, which held the planet
Coruscant. He sensed someone calling upon the Force. Since the Yominians do
not use the term "The Force," they believe in Ako-vaw. All the Yominians are
all born with a natural affinity to Ako-vaw or "The Force." This was a
culmination of the effects of living millenniums as one with nature and our
world. His people shun unnecessary technology, living as neighbors to even
the beasts of their world.
Sadly in his dream state, he knew that once his ship reached the
Coruscant system, that old friends like his master Shao-Lei Kitaen would not
be there to greet him. His heart had sunk upon that thought, he knew it was
the way of things, the way of Ako-vaw. His most tainted flaw in life was the
depth with which he felt for all creatures in the universe. The low and the
high were all sacred to him for none can be replaced. His grandfather had
told him there are a million ways to take a life, he only knew of one way to
give a life.
His hibernating mind questioned what lay ahead. Who from the Jedi
council would greet him? He yearned to walk upon the green grass of
Coruscant with his bare feet. As he slept for the final leg of his journey,
he wondered with awe and anticipation of what the future held.
End Prologue
Go To:
Part 2
Cantina Archives
Members Only Main Page
What's New Page