"Fine."

Grand. He follows the current, hoping this one leads to a more willing student.

That is not a planet.

That... is a spaceship.

It looks to be a fairly thoroughly lost spaceship, and not in great repair either.

Spaceships are not supposed to be this lost. But it's radiating heat, and he can sense life on it.

He hails it. "This is Jedi Master Eserik, flying the scout vessel Peace In Motion. Do you require assistance?"

A slightly distorted voice answers his hail after slightly too long a delay.

"This is, uh, Captain Teela of the Silverwing. What's your business in the area?"

"I am operating in my capacity as a Jedi Seeker; I detected a unique energy signature in the area which is relevant to my work, and am seeking its source. Yourself?"

A burst of static— "Talon, no, that is not for eating—" silence.

"Are spaceship captains generally like that?"

"They are not. Captain Teela, come in? Previous transmission is alarming."

Static, silence, more static, louder static—

—the voice, undistorted, unmistakably young: "Thank you, Talon."

Indistinct grumbly noises.

'Captain Teela' turns back to her now-rescued comm unit, notices that it's active and the voice scrambler is off, and gently facepalms.

"Sorry about that," she sighs. "My little brother is still learning what is and isn't food." A short hesitation, and then, "...speaking of which, we're having some... supply problems. I don't suppose you could spare us anything to eat?"

"I have provisions to spare. May I board your vessel? I would like to speak to you face-to-face, and establish a mutual understanding of the situation."

"Yes, all right," she says suspicously.

Eserik sets the comm unit back in its cradle and sets the controls to ship-to-ship docking protocol.

"It's possible, of course, that she's from a neotenous species like the last," he mutters. "But she sounded awfully human."

"Am I coming?" Joy asks.

"...yes, probably for the best," Eserik says. "Try to be... cheerful."

"No."

Eserik sighs and, gathering up some rations, prepares to board the Silverwing.

He is met at the door by an Exuberant Pounce—

—arrested at the last second by Force telekinesis.

"Talon," says an extremely six-year-old-human-looking Captain Teela, in deeply exasperated tones. "Don't scare people."

"I'm HUNGRY," Talon complains. "He's got FOOD."

"I do have food," Eserik says blankly, handing a box to Talon. "Sorry, you're - rather younger than I usually expect of a runaway. Or a Force-user."

She finishes gently lowering Talon to the floor and turns to Eserik in time to say, "I get that a lot."

Scarf snorf scromble glom nom nom.

"- to be clear I'm impressed. Positively. Successfully stealing a ship at your age is nothing short of incredible, even for one with the advantages of Force sensitivity. And I imagine you needed very badly to escape."

He floats a small brick of nutrient-dense cake over to Teela using the Force, since it doesn't look like Talon is going to let anyone near his box.

"I don't especially want to talk about it." She nibbles delicately at her cake.

"Entirely understandable. We can move straight to business, if you prefer."

"Yes. What did you mean, about being a Jedi Seeker?"

"Are you familiar with the Jedi Order in any capacity?"

"...I've read about them, but I don't know if anything I read was true."

"Sensible of you. I myself have read things about the Jedi Order that... well. The Jedi, actually, are an order of Force-users - people with the same abilities as you - who seek to understand and control those abilities. And to understand and control themselves. I work for them in the position of Seeker. This means I travel the galaxy finding Force-sensitive children, explaining to them and their guardians what the Force can do, and if they consent, bringing the children back to the Jedi Order on Tython, where they can be taught to use their abilities."

"What if they don't consent?"

"We have a policy of not kidnapping children. Even under circumstances that might justify it."

"Could've fooled me," Joy mutters.

"You gave explicit verbal consent. Generally, kidnapping is when you don't do that."

"Emotionally blackmailed me," Joy says under his breath, but he settles down.

Scromf nomf snarf "what's emotional blackmail?"

"Ordinarily it's unfairly using emotions that someone is having to make them feel like they will be betraying you personally if they do something you don't want them to do. Joy is using the phrase to mean calmly explaining the consequences of all the alternatives to my proposed course of action, thereby making him feel like he has no other choice than to do what I want because, realistically, he doesn't."

Talon waggles his ear-wings thoughtfully. "So what're all the consequences then?"

"If you remain in the wider galaxy, you will be in danger from a wide variety of sources. Slavers seek out Force-sensitive children to sell to the Sith. You will also be in danger from your own emotions and impulses; the Force is a dangerous thing, if you do not know your own mind. The best possible outcome of your refusing to come to Tython is that you become... a wanderer. Someone who knows a little bit about how to use the Force, enough to be dangerous to those around them, but not enough to truly understand it, to use it to its true potential. Most outcomes are much worse."

Talon is now deep in thought.

"We have only your word for whether that's true," Teela points out.

"True enough. Joy is from an uncontacted world, so he can't really back me up either; his fathers trusted me largely because I was able to demonstrate Force powers and discern that he had them as well, and I can't exactly rely on that here. Any holonet resources I give you could be fabricated; anything I tell you could be a carefully crafted lie. But."

He closes his eyes and retrieves a metal cylinder from his belt and lays it on the table. "Do you know the reason a Jedi carries a lightsaber? Was that in your reading of dubious canonicity?"

"It was not."

"It isn't, primarily, for self-defense. If someone attacked me with a blaster and I did not have my saber on me, I could easily toss him into a bulkhead, or simply close the distance with a Force leap and beat him unconscious. I've done it before."

"It certainly isn't to intimidate people. You may have noticed this, but if a Force-user wants someone to feel intimidated, generally, they do."

"The lightsaber is a tool, like any other."

"Currently, as far as tools go, you have your wits, and you have the raw Force. And, I suppose, you have Talon. Of these, your wits are by far the most powerful. The Force can be blocked, and you will not always know the right technique to apply. Talon, though I'm sure he's an effective combatant, is not invincible. Your wits can tell you how to use the other tools you have, which is vital - but if you have no tool appropriate to the situation... then you will fail."

"The lightsaber is a tool. And the reason we carry it is that the more tools you have, the less likely you are to need any particular one."

"The Jedi can give you many tools. With those tools, it is my fondest hope that you will never again be trapped without any means of escape."

"I'm not a tool," says Talon. "I'm a person."

"Sorry. I didn't mean it that way, but I do see how I misspoke. You are a person, but - you are also someone she can call upon for aid. Perhaps I should have said that you are a resource."

Distrustful grumbly noises.

"You should put that away before Talon tries to eat it," Teela suggests.

"I'm not gonna eat the lightsaber."

"I'm less confident in that since you tried to eat our comm unit!"

Grumbly noises of reluctant acknowledgment.

"If you're still hungry I do have more rations. But, yes -" He calls his saber back to his hand and sets it back on his belt. "I suppose this means you're not convinced, Captain Teela?"

"...a lightsaber is a tool but it's not like any other. It's a symbol of power and it's mostly useful for fighting and killing."

Ear-perk. "I want one."

"I don't."

"...of the people I have killed, very few have been with this saber. The Force is both more powerful and more efficient, for anyone who does not themself have a lightsaber. I use it to deflect blaster fire and to duel. But I think I follow your point."

"...going with you is probably a better idea than starving in space but that doesn't make it good, just better than the alternative."

"You said all that stuff about how going with you is the best thing because all the other things suck, but you said it like you didn't really mind that all the other things suck," Talon opines.

"I have been accused, on occasion, of a lack of empathy," Eserik says blandly. "Which is an ironic failing, for a Jedi."

"...for the record," Joy says quietly, "I'm pretty sure he isn't lying. About stuff. I can kind of tell. True things feel different."

"...there's a whole lot of room in between lying and being right. But thank you."

Talon makes thoughtful yet disgruntled grumbly noises.

"If you have any personal possessions on this ship that you need to collect, you should do so. My vessel isn't equipped for a salvage tow. But you can take as long as you need."

"...is there a reason we can't just... follow you? In our ship? The engines work fine, it's food that's the problem."

"...oh. I hadn't actually realized she was functional. If you prefer to keep the ship, that's entirely valid."

"We're keeping the ship."

"Excellent. Do you need any assistance in setting your navcomp to follow my heading?"

"...it would be nice to have someone to check my work, I suppose."

Her work proves to be functional if not pretty. She's clearly not trained in any of this and has had to reconstruct a lot of things from a combination of first principles, help menus, and the user's manual, which she has of course read start to finish in one sitting.

"...impressive. I don't think I could have done that when I was a teenager."

"It's the document that tells you how to use the device! Who wouldn't read it?"

"Me!"

"You can't read. Yet."

"I bet, when I can read, I still won't read user manuals."

"I would have read the manual - what of it I could," Eserik clarifies. "But I doubt I'd have been able to actually make use of it. I was terrible at mechanics."

"Oh. I haven't met anything I'm bad at yet."

"Eating."

"We will have to agree to disagree on that one."

"I'm terrible at eating," Joy confesses. "I always make myself sick. I'm hoping my lover can help with it."

"Your lover?"

"Oh. Um, my species - isn't very good at a lot of things? But we evolved with another one that can sort of. Burrow into us and make us better at stuff. Like, they'll take over our bodies for a little bit while we're distracted or tired, and - clean things instead of letting them pile up dirty, or stop us scratching at a wound, or make us eat better. We call them lovers, because the way they curl around your spine it's like a hug, a little."

"Oh." He contetmplates this. "Sounds awful."

"Well. It's nice for me."

"What's nice for one person can be awful for another one, I think."

"I guess. I just like the idea of - having someone there, who wants what's best and can make it happen even when I'm not strong enough to."

"Sure. But if I had someone like that who was inside of my body and could make me do things I'd be afraid of them and it'd be awful. So I guess it's good that you have one and I don't."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess so."

"Joy, would you like to stay with Teela and Talon while I set our course?"

"Oh, you won't get lonely without me?"

"Don't be precious. Teela, Talon, it's your ship; would you be alright with Joy staying aboard?"

"Sure, okay."

Teela nods.

Eserik returns to the Peace in Motion, and the airlock snaps shut.

The ship starts moving after a few minutes.

"Whee," Joy says gravely.

"Welcome to the Silverwing. Do you like reading? I'm going to read to Talon and you can read with us or read something else if you want."

"Oh, I haven't read anything from the rest of the galaxy yet. What are you reading?"

"I found a series on folk tales from uncontacted planets and we're in the middle of the third one."

She finds them all a comfortable place to sit where everyone can see her datapad and starts reading aloud. This story seems to be about giant snakes, and how they're dangerous but extremely lazy, so the hero keeps convincing them to leave him alone by promising to find them something to eat so they won't have to stir themselves to gobble him up. She's very good at doing the voices; her giant snake voice is slow and yawny, and her hero voice is chipper and well-enunciated.

He listens happily.

"I wonder if the snakes are real?" he asks after. "Probably they don't behave like that even if they are."

"Probably you're right," she agrees. "I'm not sure how real they are. There might be snakes that are big but not that big, or there might be snakes that aren't really very big at all. Probably there are at least snakes of some kind. It would be weird to invent snakes without ever seeing one."

"...I mean," says Talon, "not that weird, right? A snake is just a head with a spine. I bet lots of people could look at all the creatures going around with heads and spines and wonder what happens if you delete the rest."

"Fair point! But I don't know if you'd properly get a snake that way, they're so bendy. Spines aren't usually that bendy."

"...true. And the snakes in the story were the bendy kind."

Joy swishes his tail thoughtfully. "...maybe you could get it from thinking of a tail with a head, instead of a spine."

"Oh! That makes sense!"

Tailswish (pleased).

"...how did you two meet?" Joy asks after a bit. 

"I was an egg and something bad was happening and then she rescued me. I don't remember very well because I was an egg."

"...huh. I don't remember anything from when I was an egg."

"Being an egg for me was sort of like dreaming but not very much. I don't remember it that well but I remember a little. I like being hatched better."

Joy flicks his tail in acknowledgement.

"Can you read another story?" he asks Teela. "- do you have one with Jedi?"

"I have one with Jedi but it's sort of weird."

She reads out the story of a little boy growing up on a barren planet, surrounded by friendly droids and his cheerful old mentor, cautioned never to enter the basement of their shared home. The boy dreams of being a Jedi but has very little understanding of what that entails, besides that the Force is involved somehow and they're brave and heroic and much more exciting than the work of terraforming this hunk of rock. His mentor tells him that he can't possibly become a Jedi without a Kyber crystal, because a Jedi needs a lightsaber and a lightsaber needs a Kyber crystal; so he scours the whole planet, but can't find one anywhere. Finally, driven by his search, he enters the forbidden basement... and finds a little spaceship there! He plays with the spaceship, pressing random buttons on the controls and pretending to be a Jedi like the one he wants to grow up to be.

Unfortunately, his random button-pressing successfully sent out a comm signal with his pretend Jedi messages, and now there's a Sith on their doorstep looking for naive little Jedi to kill. The mentor reveals himself to be a Jedi and hides the little boy in an even more secret room than the basement; when the boy emerges, he finds broken droids, a broken lightsaber, and his mentor dead. He grieves, buries his mentor, repairs the droids, and completes the work of terraforming the planet all by himself in his mentor's memory. When the Sith returns, the little boy finds the spark of the Force within himself, repairs the broken lightsaber, kills the Sith in battle, repairs the spaceship, and leaves the planet to seek his fortune.

The story is ambiguous on several points, such as how long this all takes, whether the boy is himself a droid or not, exactly how dead the mentor ended up and in particular whether he left behind a Force ghost who continued to help and teach the boy or whether the boy was just imagining all that, and whether or not there are even any other living planets left in the universe for him to find at the end.

Talon has heard this one before but still has a lot of feelings about it. He is MAD at the Sith and SAD about the dead mentor and HAPPY about the boy carrying on his mentor's legacy.

"...huh. That is a pretty weird story... I like it, I think. Even though it's weird."

"I'm not sure if anything like it ever happened, but I like it too."

The ship begins making noises that indicate it will imminently enter hyperspace!

"- should we strap in?" Joy asks.

"I would say yes if we had anywhere to strap in, but we don't. It's a bit of a bump but it's not so bad if you're sitting on the floor," which they are.

"...right. It's fun that we're in a [whistleclickwhistle], I feel like - oh that didn't translate, did it. Um. Something where, even though it's a gift, you have to think about if you want to take it?"

"Well, I did steal it, on purpose, which if you think about it is rather the opposite of hesitantly accepting a gift, but somehow I still think the spirit of the descriptor applies," she says.

The bump occurs. It's sure bumpy. Hard to fall over when you're already on the floor, though.

"A [clickwhistleclick], maybe? - that's not a real word I just made it up."

Joy rocks back and forth at the motion. "Wheeee."

Giggle.

Whee!

"...I was going to ask you to tell another story but I feel mildly anxious about making you do all the work keeping us entertained and that makes me wonder if you'd like me to do something. A story-song probably, though I don't know how that'll interact with the translator. Do you want to hear me sing?"

"Yeah!"

Nod nod.

Joy starts in on a song! His singing voice is high and piping, but pleasantly so; it's clear, not shrill.

The song is about a young... whatever species he is... who is implanted with a lover and immediately sets out to adventure, leaving his fathers behind, because he's desperate to do something interesting, not just make art and have fun. Unfortunately, he is not very well suited to adventure; fortunately(?), he's self-deluded enough that he manages to convince himself at every turn that whatever disaster has just ensued is what he wanted. He loses his possessions fairly early, but reasons that he wanted to experience the world on his own merits. He makes several friends and drives them away with his terrible luck and inability to own up to mistakes, but convinces himself that they were the cause of whatever disaster latest befell him. Eventually, he falls in battle against a shark he had convinced himself was threatening a nearby village, which is actually a farmer's beloved pet; he goes to his grave convinced that he is a hero dying before his time, and when the spirits of the deeps show him his life and ask his regrets before letting him drift out of reality, he cheerfully claims none. The spirits state that he is the only man who has ever died happy, and that on balance, more people should lie to themselves if they want to enjoy life.

Over the course of the song, Talon goes from giggling to trying to hide his face in his hands, which does not work very well because he has quite a lot of face.

Joy concludes the song and finally looks at Talon.

"Are you alright?"

"I have a lot of feelings about that song!!!" he says, slightly muffled by his claws. "It's funny but it's scary! I don't wanna be wrong about things all the time!"

Teela hugs him.

"Oh! The thing about him is that he's - trying to be wrong. I mean he's not trying trying but - he doesn't want to know the truth, you know? If you want the truth there's ways to make sure you're not fooling yourself. That's one of the things the song's about, see - he has all these signs he's ignoring, like losing all his stuff and his friends telling him to stop and the collar on the shark."

He tries to hide his face in Teela instead, and is once again thwarted by an excess of face.

"Feelings!!!" he declares emphatically.

"Feelings that it's good to have, or bad to have, or you're not sure?"

"...good to have. I think."

"There's a lot of feelings to be had about songs. If they're good to have then should I not worry?"

"...yeah." He sniffles. "Yeah, that."

"...d'you want me to sing something else? Something more poetic, less storytelling."

"Hmmm..."

First he will hug Teela and bonk his great big face against her shoulder repeatedly.

(She pats him.)

"Yeah, okay."

He gets singing again. This piece wanders around a grotto, describing the sights through the eyes of a recently hatched fry. An enormous sea star, a stand of kelp through which he darts as through a forest, several shiny rocks each of which merits a loving aria.

It's so pretty! Talon cheers right up.

Oh good. That's the intended reaction.

With songs and stories the time is filled quite well on the journey to Tython. (It's barely a day-trip; the gravitational eddies are with them, and Eserik hadn't traveled too far out in the first place.) Eventually, they drop out of hyperspace and start the sublight portion of the trip.

Tython is perceptible at this distance, if you've got strong enough Force-senses. It's a clean and pleasant sound, to Joy, like drysong if pearls could sing it.

...huh. It's so... huh.

Talon has the mixed feelings of someone who has never experienced civilization, and Teela, by contrast, has the mixed feelings of someone who has experienced enough civilization to be unsure whether or not she approves.

Joy is perceptive enough to notice mixed feelings and not socially adroit enough to refrain from poking them.

"You seem confused," he says to Talon. "Don't you like it?"

"It's so... much."