Moon slowly opened her eyes. The room was dark, damp and silent. The surroundings were made of large, dark gray stones tightly bound by some type of welding.The only light was that from the exterior hallway that made it through the narrow bars of the door’s opening. Moon tried to reach out with the force, but felt nothing.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard in the distance. They got louder and eventually stopped just outside the door. Moon readied herself, and reached into the living force. For a moment, she did feel a disturbance in the force. Something was wrong. Danger. And then, silence.
BEEP
BOP
BEEP
The sound of beeping broke the silence. A familiar tap accompanied them, the definitive codes being entered into the door’s exterior keypad. Within a split of a second, the door slides open to reveal a Large interrogation droid [K2]. The droid was a very dark gray, almost black. His round, lit eyes had an ominous stare that seemed to look right through anyone. Standing at just over 7 ft tall, it barely cleared the room’s door. Moon reached into the force and prepared to crush the droid, when suddenly, she heard a familiar female voice, “come child… don’t be afraid.” It sounded like Okha’s voice, but Moon did not want to get her hopes high. She knew it would not make sense that she would suddenly be there.
The interrogation droid stepped into the room and moved to the immediate right and made no further motions or sound. A second droid stepped into the room and moved to the immediate left, and did the same. Immediately after, a tall, armored individual entered the room. The armor was reminiscent of Okha’s. The flight suit was a dark, rich purple while the metal armor was the deepest of gold. “Don’t be afraid”, she repeated as she slowly removed her helmet.
Moon could not believe her eyes. It was Okha. She was almost going to run to her… and stopped herself. She knew deep down that it was not. First of all, the scars were missing. Okha had distinct scars on her forehead and cheek. Next, her eyes. They had a heartless look to them, they lacked the tender emotions and willingness to connect and that love that transcended the force. As if all of that was not enough, the disturbance she felt in the force earlier was now personified
“Your feelings betray you little one”, she feigned a smile, “you know who I am?” Moon stood in silence, looked at the droids and looked back at the armored woman who resembled Okha. She continued, “I think you know who I am, search your feelings little one”, she crouched to be at eye-level with Moon. “Do I look like that fake? Or should I say, that fake - she looks like me… doesn’t she?” She proceeded to remove her gauntlets and gloves and place them on the floor, “See, no need to be afraid.” She slowly proceeded to reach to Moon’s face and caress it,”See? You feel that?” Moon could not describe what she felt. Looking into each other’s eyes, the sudden connection jolted her. Her heart began beating out of her chest. It was real. It was deep, it was as if she was connecting with Okha. The feeling was identical. “See, we are now one sweetheart.” With that, the armored woman made a fist with her bare left hand and punched it right through the droid standing to the right.
BAAAMMM!!!
Moon gasped. The droid’s eyes turned off as it collapsed like a ragdoll.
With the connection, their emotions and immediate thoughts were shared. However, this woman had an unpredictable nature that needed getting used to. Moon knew she was showing the power of the connection, and that the droid to the left was next in her demonstration.
This time, Moon stood still and showed no surprise as the armored woman took her right hand and punched it right through the other droid’s chest.
BAAAMM!!!
The droid went limp. The entire weight of the droid bared on the woman’s arm. In an instant, she proceeded to remove the hand and allowed the droid to drop. She turned to stand in front of Moon with her bare knuckles turned toward her, as to show her that there was no injury, “See?... See what we can do when we are one?” Moon showed no emotion, but she knew that they were still connected, and that the fear would permeate.
“Oh, I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you my name”, she smiled and proceeded to crouch at Moon’s eye-level once more. “I’m Arla, what’s your name?”
There was a long period of silence.
“Oh, are we still connected?” Arla closed her eyes, and suddenly, the connection was lost. “There, now, let’s try again. I’m Arla, what’s your name?”
Moon’s heart sank. She knew she had to cooperate if she was ever to see Okha again.
“Moon”, she replied softly as tears began to well.
“Moon, what a beautiful name”, she cocked her head and observed a tear run down Moon’s cheek. “There, there now…” She proceeded to gently wipe the tear, “we have so much you need to learn… there are so many people who want to meet you…”, Alra feigned another smile and proceeded to the door. She turned and reached out her left hand,”come on Moon.”
Moon’s hesitation was brief. Approaching Arla, she took her hand and looked up. Arla’s smile looked genuine for once. She had gotten what she wanted.
Walking out of the small room was a relief, but the rest of the place looked no different. It was all built of a dark, gray stone. The hallways were extremely tall and oval in shape. Although the building seemed hundreds of years old, there were lights and control panels in the corridors that seemed up to date with current technology.
The hallways were long and seemed to lead nowhere. Eventually, they arrived at an area where there was some comotion. There was the sound of hissing and visible gas vapors working into the corridor ahead. Arla looked over at Moon, and noticed she was a little startled, “don’t worry little one, that’s a carbonite freezing chamber. Long before there was hyperspace travel, that was one of the ways pilots and their crew made sure they didn’t age so much during the decade-long travels to other planets.”
They continued walking past the chamber and arrived at a large room that would be main entrance of sorts. Arla waved her hand above her head, “the stars called to everyone…” Moon looked up. She gasped in surprise, the entire room was opened to the sky. A night sky that was full of bright radiant stars. Arla continued, “The Kaminoans answered the call - the need to allow everyone to reach those stars. To do so, they would have to cheat time. Cheat death.”
Arla motioned her hand toward a large door at the end of the large room, “like I said earlier, freezing was one way to travel to distant stars and cheat time... cheat death.” Arla continued to the door, punched in a code on the display, “the other way, was cloning…” the doors opened to reveal a massive room. In the distance, the remainder of the room was full of large glass tubular structures. The lighting was poor, but it could be made out that living beings were inside the glass structures.
“This is a cloning chamber,” Arla motioned her right hand across her periphery from left to right in a slow and steady sweep, then held it up and turned to Moon,”this is where those pilots and their crew would find their way to cheat death.” Moon was overwhelmed. Suddenly, one of the beings in the glass structures ahead moved. She felt terrified, and Arla picked up on it. “Nothing to fear here. You know them. You know all of them. As the one continued to move in the structure, it became clear. It was a young human female floating in some type of suspension fluid. Moon looked at the next one, and the next and the next. They were all the same. They all looked identical. “These will be ready today,” Arla nodded and smiled to herself. “In the next room, you can see what they are like once the process is completed.” Arla took Moon’s hand and gently led her to the large set of doors to the far right of the room.
Again, Arla entered a code into the door panel. The door opened to reveal an open courtyard of mammoth proportions. There were stages in the courtyard as far as the eye can see, all populated by several individuals dressed in white armor. There was shouting, bodies in motion and weapon fire in the distance. No faces could be seen, as they were all wearing helmets - white helmets with a black shaped T . It’s like Okha’s visor, Moon thought to herself. The station closest to them had a two fully-armored individuals engaged in physical combat. There was shouting, kicking, punching and violent motions. Arla motioned toward them, “in this station, they are practicing the art of Teräs Käsi , a form of hand-to-hand combat”.
Arla motioned to the white armored individual with blue trim. The armor had a dark Blue line down the center of the helmet and two stripes across the chest plate. The soldier approached. “I want you to meet someone,” Arla smiled and turned to Moon, looking for a reaction. “This is Captain Xera…Captain Xera, this is Moon.” The soldier looked down at Moon and proceeded to place her hands around the lower opening of her helmet and lifted it up slowly, allowing her long, shimmering hair to fall. Moon’s eyes widened. She looks beautiful, just like Okha, but with long, dark hair, Moon thought to herself.
“Does she look familiar?”, Arla asked as she motioned her right hand towards herself and Xera.
“Hello Moon,” Xera extended her right hand toward Moon, “pleased to meet you.”
Moon takes her hand and slowly shakes it. “I’ve heard great things.” Moon looked amazed and inquisitive, “are you all… do you all look the same?” Xera smiled, looked at Arla and then back at Moon, “we are all sisters. We all are born ready to fight together, live together and die together.” Arla motioned to Xera, “Captain, go ahead and look at Moon’s eyes, they have a unique color I have never seen before... aren’t they beautiful?” Xera smiled and crouched to be at eye-level with Moon, “really? Let’s take a look at those big, beautiful…” Suddenly Xera stopped mid-sentence. Her mouth remained open. Moon knew what she was experiencing as she felt a surge of emotion. Xera took a deep breath, “do I know you?” Moon did not know what to say. Arla interrupts the moment, “see what I mean?” Xera snaps out of the trance, continues to look at Moon, “I… I think I do..” and turns to Arla, “Her eyes are… I mean she is, extraordinary.” Still a little dazed, Xera looked back at Moon and brought about a tender smile. Again, Arla interrupts the moment, “well, now Moon, shall we proceed,” as she gestures toward the open arena in the far distance. Moon follows, but turns back to Xera and catches her glance once more.
As they walk together, Arla asks, ”how do you like what you see so far? Interesting isn’t it?” Moon does not know what to say. She looks up at Arla and nods lightly. Arla smiles and continues,”we are all preparing. Preparing to bring closure to a war that never ended.” Arla stopped, crouched at eye-level with Moon, and continued, “you see, technology has limits. The human spirit does not. Once the Techno Union sided with the Separatists during the Clone Wars, they declared war on all of us. Technology has always bastardized war. Doing the fighting for us. And now, there is intel that they are developing hybrid Battle Droids, B3, organic and technologic: fused.” Moon was confused, “like machines… with people… together?” “Yes, an aberration of nature. Tainting what is pure and beautiful about being a warrior.” Arla turned away, “sure, General Grievous, Darth Vader are both examples of great cybernetic warriors. If every combatant on the field have such abilities, it would no longer be a fight… but simply a slaughter.” Arla remained quiet for a minute and turned back at Moon. She crouched at eye-level and gazed into Moon’s eyes to make the force connection, “this, this beautiful and pure feeling. This is something they can never have.” Arla smiled and ran her left hand through Moon’s hair, eventually holding the back of her head, “you see, they will come for us… to take this away from us. Perhaps they will bastardize it too.” Moon felt terror, and knew Arla could feel it too. After a moment, Arla began to shake her head and raised her voice emphatically, “we cannot let them have it!” Arla got up and continued making eye-contact with Moon. Shaken by what was just said, and how it was said, Moon knew that there was much more at stake. She knew she needed to get the information to Okha, but had no idea how.
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