Learning to Fly

Sura and Jad returned to the transport Jad had spoken of earlier, which he revealed had been provided (fully paid) by General Yoda. While they walked, they spoke of their worlds. Sura had stopped being quite so callus towards Jad, at least for the time being, in hopes of building a level of understanding between them before they ended up trapped in a flying can together for up to three weeks in hyperspace.

Sura spoke mostly of a fellow Padawan named Obi Wan Kenobi whom she had a secret crush upon, although she tried to hide that emotional response from the older Duros. Jad, however, spoke of little except past adventures with the diminutive Yoda. In his many years in the galaxy, the short green Jedi master had become famous for his exploits, and Sura found herself rather envious of the tall blue-green man that he had been with Yoda for a few of the more recent ones.

***

On the ship, Sura made straight for a stateroom, but was stopped by Jad. There was a strange message signal blinking on a nearby engine display. Jad hadn't seen the message when he got off the ship only a short time before, and he feared that someone might have done something while he was away from the bird.

They read carefully through lines of gibberish machine code until the useful basic translation came through on the old-fashioned flat screen. It was a note of some sort, creatively placed into the navicomp, that told them about a distant planet on the edge of the Unknown Regions known as Adumar.

A planet of Humans and partial humans (beings of Duros and Twi'lek origin. Although Humans could successfully produce offspring with Duros, no one had ever known if a human-Twi'lek relationship could, so it is unclear if they were solely made up of those two genetic materials).

It was because of this that Jad had been chosen as her partner, Sura decided. The Duros would not stand out as much as a Verpine or Sulustan pilot like the Jedi usually hired for dangerous space flights, because of their innate skills with navigation... a skill Duros were rumored to have as well. So, she reasoned, she would not have to put up with his impetuousness much longer.

In the meantime, Yoda's message indicated that the masters had felt a level of violence growing on this distant planet after light, but covert trade had opened between one of its lesser governments, Cartaan, and the ever-growing Trade Federation. So, then, it was time for the pilot to do his job, and fly them to Adumar.

***

Jad had grown sick of Sura by the end of the first day of space travel, and decided to teach the youth a lesson in humility before they arrived on the isolated planet ahead of them. It was time for her to learn to fly.

Grinning evilly, Jad led Sura to a pair of training machines in the ship's hold designed to replicate the controls of the new Jedi Starfighter and the still-drawing-board-bound ARC-170 Fighter. Sura was given the Jedi fighter, while Jad took the controls of the virtual ARC.

In moments, they were immersed in the realistic space battle. Jad was truly enjoying himself, flying circles around Sura's technologically superior craft through sheer piloting skills. She was forced to watch dejectedly while the nimble interceptor danced around her dart-shaped ship and she hit her triggers uselessly.

Then she hit.

It was a total accident, unlikely even with her Jedi precognition. But one of Sura's wild shots from her wing cannons punched through the nose of Jad's virtual fighter, and on their holo displays, each watched, from their perspectives, as his entire store of proton torpedoes went up in a burst of fire and frozen air which quickly dispersed in the cold vacuum.

With a cry of disgust, Jad yanked the door to his training module open and stormed off into their ship. Sura, herself, stayed in her training cage a short while longer, enjoying some un-Jedi-like satisfaction at having bested her boorish pilot.