When putting a life to paper, where does one begin? The start of life would be the logical place, or do you begin writing where the good parts start, where one first found joy in life? I’ve always been one for logic…

I was born on the small and relatively dismal world of Zentralos. It’s a mining colony, one only really known for its occasional discovery of adegan crystal deposits. My mother’s name was Rianna, my father Jonathon. For as long as I can recall my father working in the mines, everyday coming home to a warm meal prepared by my mother. Often I have wondered if it was the years working in those mines that made my father such a hard and cold man. No, that’s not right. He was just a proud and stubborn man, the polar opposite of my mother. Rianna Thewes was the most kind and caring woman in the universe. My very first memories are of watching her sing to me, of the soothing voice of an angel, more than an angel to me (what’s the saying? God is the name in the hearts of children for mother). Even after all these years I can remember the feeling of her silky smooth and gentle fingertips caressing my brow to sooth every single trouble of my world away.

I think.. my mother. I think she knew all along I was a ‘special’ child. Often I would make childish little comments about things before they happened. Perhaps like saying how neat a transport looked moments before it was actually in sight. My father had always brushed it off as the child being a goof. But not my mother, she knew that I knew exactly what I was talking about. She embraced my gifts, while my father denied them. I’ve never really known why he didn’t exactly acknowledge my abilities, he never said and I never asked.

My world was changed dramatically when I was seven. A friend of my father’s, no. Let me rephrase that. An acquaintance of my father finally approached my parents about my subtle yet very strong powers. His name was Rethon Estep, and he was a Jedi Knight. He told my parents of the Force, of the Jedi Code, the Council, everything. And he told them I was to be a Jedi. Rethon requested that my parents let him be train me in the ways of the Jedi. My mother of course loved the idea of her Liamme becoming a part of the most respected and revered group ever known to the universe. My father however was less than enthusiastic about it. He made it look like he thought the idea silly, that Jedi did little good for his world and he would not have his son involved with such people. But it was more than that, wasn’t it father? You put up the stern front, but I think mother and I knew exactly where you’re feelings were coming from. The realization of losing your little boy. Yeah, dad, I now know why you felt like that. Now that I have a child of my own, I know why you felt that way.

But eventually my father agreed to let Rethon train me. I became his padawan learner at the age of seven. Rethon would often make comment about how well I had adapted to this new life. I was not forced to move off planet as most had to in order to train. Rethon lived just outside the city my parents lived in. My mother thrilled in being able to watch me develop gifts at Rethon’s side. My father, though he never said, was proud of his only son being trained as a Jedi.

By the time I was 12 I had already gotten down most of the basic Jedi techniques. I had become quite competent in lightsabre combat already, in fact that is what I excelled at. It was also around this time I first took a real notice of the world around me. After training almost non stop for 5 years, I finally began to see things in a new light. And this is also when I first started to pat real attention toward her. Her name was Jean Iso. She and I had always been close friends growing up, her parents owned the housing complex my parents lived in. She was crimson haired and very strong willed. She wasn’t a really shy girl, she was very willing to voice her opinion about anything to anyone. She wasn’t bitchy though, just not willing to stay quiet about things she had opinions about. At the time I wouldn’t dare admit I had a crush on her, even though I was constantly constantly thinking about her. Even while I would be training with Rethon I would be thinking about the look in her eyes towards me, about the way I felt when my and would brush against her’s. I didn’t know a whole lot at the time, but I knew I wanted to be closer to Jean. But it was more than a boy’s crush on a pretty girl, she and I had always been close friends, we’ve known each other our whole lives. There had always been something between us, an unspoken kinship. She was an only child, as was I. So I think we took comfort in each other’s presence. She was always there in my times of need to comfort me, and during my many trials in life she was the consummate cheerleader. I remember when I was about 5 one of my friends was killed when he fell into a mine. The boy was just seven I think. Even though at the time I had no real concept of death, I was still profoundly hurt by the loss. More tan anyone else, Jean was there to try ad provide what comfort she could towards me. She was 2 years younger than me, so she would have been just 3. From that point on Jean and I were constant friends. We played all the games children play while the adults worked around us. I was Jean’s knight in shining armor, and she the princess in need of rescue from the dragon or ogre or rancor or whatever suited our fancy that day. I was the one who defended her from all the bullies in school, even though I regularly came home with a bloody nose or a black eye as a result. But the pain was well worth it, considering who I was helping.

I can remember maybe one of the proudest moments of my young life … Rethon wished some of the Jedi Council to observe me, observe my progress thus far. Eight of the Council came to Zentralos to see me. Master Yoda was amongst them, as well as Master Plo. I felt an overwhelming pride as they watched me but more so from her watching me. Jean stood in the background, smiling lovingly to me as the circle of Jedi studied me.



When I boarded the ship.. I felt a sudden uneasiness. And I could smell blood. But slowly I creeped deeper into the ship, into the belly of the beast. The interior was darkened, but I could see well enough. Slowly I stalked deeper into the ship, the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach getting stronger. Finally I got to the living quarters, and found myself frozen in place in horror. Maybe twenty bodies lie before e, each and every one of them had been killed execution style. I felt my stomach churning, for I have never seen anything so terrible. Then to my left, a sound. A stirring that brought me out of my trance. Immidiately my orange bladed lightsabre came to life in my hands. Slowly I turned and came face to face with what can only be described as miniature rancors, each about 7 feet tall, all in battle armors. There were 6 of the, no way I could fight them. So I ran, ran as fast as my legs would carry me deeper into the ship. Our own transport and this ship was connected to each other through two umbilical tubes, one attached to the cargo hold and the other connected to the cockpit. I was now cut off from the cargo hold, so to the cockpit I went. So convinced I was that those creatures killed the crew, I decided to rid the galaxy of their evil. With a static crackle my comm. Radio came to life and I ordered the captain of our transport to prepare for departure, and quickly. I entered the cockpit and quickly sealed the blast doors, but I could still hear the monsters beating on the door. And I had convinced myself they wanted my death. Then something happened I still regret to this day. I programmed the autopilot to take this ship into a near planet’s atmosphere, and then crash into the planet itself. Such an act would kill those monsters instantly. Quickly I fled from the doomed ship and back into our own transport vessel. As soon as we were clear, the other ship plummeted to the planet, destroying itself and the creatures I had convinced myself sought my death. But looking back, how do I really know that? I was so proud of accomplishing the task of handling those creatures, but Rethon wasn’t happy at all. He let me handle this on my own, and I had failed. I acted out of fear and anger, fear for my life and anger the creatures had killed the crew. He was disappointed deeply, and I was ashamed. I never quite lived that down in Rethon’s eyes, I think.