JEDI HoloNet

Kiara was born in the year 372 ABY to a family of farmers by the name O’ren. Her father was a former soldier for the Republic and had retired to an old jumpstation that orbited Shusugaunt and had been used during the war against the Sith Imperium. The station was one of antequated technology, which was evident by the gravity generated by the station’s spin rather than any sophisticated gravity generator. The station was cylindrical in shape, with the habitable sections wrapped around the interior. Whether you walked to the left or right the farmland sloped in an uphill appearance. In fact, your neighbor’s property might be straight up above you. Somewhere down the cylinder, wrapped around the middle like a belt, was the main megaplex that housed the docking and refueling station that was used to refuel warships during the conflict with the Imperium but had been since repurposed into a de jure capital city for the agricultural platform. Ships still docked there, but mostly to take the crops that were grown on the station down to the oceanic surface of Shusugaunt.

The station was aging, it was hard for the residents to deny that after suffering “seasons” of inhospitable growing weather as a result of malfunctioning life support and environmental systems. Rumors were even spreading that the station’s spin was unsustainable and that soon the whole place would be as null gravity as the void beneath the layer of soil, maintenance accesses, durasteel lattice structural supports, and doonium outter hull of the cylinder. Kiara’s father didn’t put much stock in such things. It was his wife who was the believer. Whether it was in the Force or in impending disasters. That was why she was receiving the Jedi in the parlor of their farmhouse right now and he was halfway down the ring pretending to busy himself with the crops at the edge of the O’ren property. He knew why the Jedi was there. They wanted his daughter for a student.

Kiara was a normal kid for a nine year old. Maybe a bit hot-headed and dramatic, but hardly seemed like recruitment material for the mysterious order of monks he had often received orders from through the chain of command during the war. When he saw the silver station-government landspeeder departing the house and on a downhill approach toward him, he let out a shaken sigh. He knew what was coming, and somewhere subconciously he knew it was for the best. What if the station was falling apart like everyone said? Did he want to doom his daughter to that fate when his wife so sincerely insisted that the Jedi could offer her a brighter future?

Kiara didn’t really know what was truly going on. She was just excited to be riding in a landspeeder and intrigued by the cloaked figure in the front row of seats beside the driver. She had seen the driver before. He was one of dad’s friends, she thought. She ran a hand through her blond hair and looked up to smile at her mother, who returned the look but something seemed off. Was her mom sad about something? Kiara didn’t have much time to consider this as the landspeeder slowed to a stop with a plume of dust kicked up from the dirt road.

The entire party stepped out of the vehicle and aligned themselves before her father, who held up a leather gloved hand before the driver could say anything to him. He just looked for a long time into the eyes of his wife. It was as if they were having an entire conversation non-verbally. His stance eventually sunk a little as his defenses were battered down.

The next few hours were a blur for Kiara. They brought her father back to the farmhouse and she had to wait in her room while she heard her father make the Jedi swear all kinds of oaths to keep her safe. The Jedi seemed nice enough and was very kind to her when he spoke with her. Before she knew it, she was taking her second landspeeder ride of the day. This time, toward the spaceport and she was sitting beside a Jedi Knight. She was excited, worried, and soon would be a bit homesick but she secretly, naively vowed she would return to the station someday.