Trials: Book One/Chapter One

Thrin Enitp’s hands shook as the shuttle hit turbulence. They were going to land, like it or not.

Well, crash-land, anyways.

The Falleen struggled with the control yoke, while next to him, in the co-pilot’s seat, a young male Bothan clutched the arm-rests with both hands, eyes wide and staring straight ahead.

Poor Bask. Probably thinks he’s going to die. Not on my watch, thought Thrin as he engaged retroboosters. The engines flared to life, cutting their speed drastically. Unfortunately, they cut it too much. As the shuttle flipped end-over-end, plummeting to the surface below, a scream escaped the Bothan’s mouth.

“We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die!”

On the other side of the cockpit, a young Togruta male was flipping through a magazine, glancing at the panicked look on the Bothan’s face. Chuckling to himself, he went back to his magazine.

“Kohl, I could use some help right about now!” yelled Thrin, barely audible with the atmosphere screaming past, the velocity threatening to tear the ship apart. The Togruta sighed to himself, set his magazine down (and it promptly flew into the back of the shuttle, drawing another exasperated sigh). Putting his hand out and closing his eyes, the Force flowed through Kohl as the shuttle stopped almost instantly. Kohl Ty was the most powerful user of telekinesis among the three of them, and he used it very casually, even in life-and-death situations like this.

“Happy?” he asked, his eyes coming open.

Thrin blew his black hair out of his face. Trying to appear as calm as possible, he managed a weak smile. “Yes, thank you.”

The young Bothan stared at him. “How could you read at a time like that?”

Kohl shrugged. “Maybe if you hadn’t been panicking, you could have picked up a few things.”

“Maybe if you’ll both be quiet, I can land the shuttle”, said Thrin, flipping the switch to the repulsorlifts.

“No need to, Thrin. I already did”, said Kohl as he went back to look for his magazine. He found it in the cramped lavatory. Making a face, he hit the button to expel the wastewater and his magazine went down with it.

“That was the smoothest landing I’ve ever had. How’d you do that?” Thrin asked. Bask snorted to himself.

“You call THAT smooth? That was a nightmare!”

“The final approach was rough, but the landing… I didn’t even know we had landed.”

“Practice”, said Kohl nonchalantly. “Will she fly?”

Thrin tapped a few buttons, eliciting an angry growl from the engines, followed by a mild electric shock to his finger, and finishing with the explosion of a small keyboard.

“I’ll take that as a no”, said Kohl. Bask Tey’lya put his head in his hands.

“Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no”, he mumbled to himself. “What are we going to do?”

“We could always try going outside. Can you get a reading on the atmosphere, Thrin?”

Glancing at the ruined holoscreen and the few remaining buttons on the control board, Thrin wagered a guess. “I’m going to have to say… this thing is only good for”, he paused to read the buttons, and then continued, tapping each button as he said it. “Firing an ion cannon”, a small spurt of energy spoofed out from above the cockpit, then disappeared. “Jettisoning an escape pod”, a ruined hunk of metal rolled down the grassy hill in front of the craft and disappeared over the edge of a cliff. “And playing music”, a warped version of the Max Rebo Band played over the speakers, and then quickly shut off. “So, I guess not.”

“Sensing stuff is your forte, Bask. What’s out there?” asked Kohl. Glancing at Bask, he knew he was in no condition to answer.

“Well, that leaves it up to your or me, Thrin. You want to go outside first or should I?” Kohl took two drinking siphons out of an overhead bin, tore the end off one, and held them in his hand in a way that made them look the same length. Thrin reached for one of the siphons, drawing out the larger one. Kohl shrugged, then walked to the back of the shuttle. Donning his robe, he said “I’ll be back in a little bit, I suppose.”

Entering the airlock, he had to cycle it manually. Exiting the ship, he took a slow, cautious breath, and then began breathing a little easier. “At least we don’t have to worry about breathing. But this heat… ugh. It’s so muggy.” He removed his outer robe. Looking around, he saw that they were on a promontory of a cliff. He looked over the edge and saw a blue river snaking its way through a lush jungle. More cliffs in the far distance revealed that he was looking at a valley. The jungles continued along the ridge, and a waterfall fell about a mile to the left. He looked back at the jungles on the cliff they were on. From their black depths emanated the sound of millions of insects, and the smell of decaying plant matter. Walking back to the ship, he re-entered and opened the airlock. “How is it? You’re alive so that’s a good sign”, said a much more confident-looking Bask.

“Yeah, it’s neat. It’s a jungle out there. Come on”, Kohl replied.

As they walked out, the oppressive heat hit them immediately.

“Oh, jeeze. I can’t do this with all this fur”, said Bask.

“I can cut it off for you if you want”, said Thrin, brandishing his lightsaber with a grin.

“That won’t be necessary, thank you. I have a better idea”, Bask said. He slipped his tunic and pants off, leaving him in a white loincloth. His short body fur didn’t mask his powerful physique, though, and Thrin and Kohl couldn’t help but wonder how such a muscular person could be so timid.

“Not a bad idea, considering I can’t control my body temperature”, said Thrin, taking off his black, skintight shirt. His scaled, reptilian form was back to its calm, green texture after getting over the shock of the crash.

“Eh, what the heck?” said Kohl. He took of his heavy shirt. The white markings on his muscular, red body were meant for camouflage, but in this world of greens and browns he stood out like a sore thumb.

“What now?” asked Thrin. “Should we see if there’s anyone else on this rock?”

“I think we should. They might have a transport”, replied Bask.

“Or they might be vicious natives looking for a nice, juicy rack of Bothan ribs. You never know”, said Kohl. He gave his jagged-toothed smile at the expression of disgust and fear that came over Bask’s face.

“I guess we just have to survive in the jungle. We don’t have any communications gear, and my mental powers don’t stretch that far”, said Thrin. “Uh, Bask, you know Animal Friendship, right?”

Bask looked sharply at him. “Yes, why?”

“Because there’s a very large snake right behind you.”

“Uh-huh, right. You know, I may have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.”

“No, seriously Bask. There’s a huge snake behind you”, said Kohl, his gaze fixed behind Bask. Bask rolled his eyes and turned around. The look of skepticism on his face immediately disappeared as his eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. A purple snake of about twenty feet long was rearing over him. Blue venom dripped from its triple fangs. Bask reached for his lightsaber, but was too late as the serpent lunged. Thrin stepped between them, his purple lightsaber ignited. As the creature’s head struck the blade, it bounced harmlessly off the scales and flew out of the Falleen’s hands. It clattered to the ground a few feet away as Thrin’s hands shot up to intercept the snapping jaws. His strong arms barely managed to stop the beast. He went down, the snake on top of him, repeatedly snapping its jaws inches from his face. Kohl picked up the snake with the Force and threw it into a nearby tree. Bask stretched his hand out, and hypnotized the creature. It reared up, and then slithered off into the jungle.

“That was close. Way too close”, said Thrin. He was visibly shaken, his skin turned a delicate shade of lavender.

“Still think forest survival would be easier than trying to meet the natives?” asked Bask. “That was only the welcoming committee. Imagine what else is in store.”

Kohl was about to answer when a shadow caught his eye. He turned and looked, but it was gone. He turned back to Bask. “Well, seeing as how we don’t know where any people are, or even if there are people, we need to do the jungle life for now.”

Bask crossed his arms. “Fine. But if we do meet up with any sentients, we try to make contact. Agreed?”

“Agreed”, said Thrin and Kohl in unison.

As the three of them ignited their lightsabers and began blazing their way through the jungle, they were unaware of the many pairs of eyes that followed their movements.