Chapter 47: Not From A Jedi
The flight to Saarkane was mostly silent for the first day of travel. Nobody really wanted to talk about what happened, and Nerim spent several more hours than strictly necessary alone in his hammock staring at the ceiling. He could feel the Force around him, cloudy and confused like the water of a lake disturbed by a dust storm overhead. Strands of meaning occasionally faded into view, but were too tangled to follow, and disappeared into the murk.
He was distracted from his meandering thoughts as the door slid open, and the dark room was lit by the hall lights outside. Tetha stood in the entrance, leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed and eyes full of concern. "Hey."
"Hello there," he blinked at the sudden light.
"You planning on coming out any time soon?"
He thought about it for a moment. "You're saying I
should come hang out."
"If you don't want to miss out on sabacc...Yeah, you should," she said, smiling apologetically.
"...I don't know how to play sabacc."
"You can learn?" She offered, gesturing for him to follow.
He groaned and rolled out of the hammock, walking barefoot, bed-haired, and with bags under his eyes out of the small dark room and into the transport's main hold. At a round, silver table sat Arwain, who looked to be in a similar state, and the Rodian, who was happily humming a tune as he shuffled a deck of cards with exceptional—almost suspicious—speed and precision.
Nerim moved to take a seat, and the Rodian nodded at him. "Hey! Nerim, right? I just remembered, I never introduced myself! I'm Smeebi!"
"Good to meet you," Nerim said absently, sitting across from him so that Arwain was to his left and Tetha was to his right.
Arwain gave him a small, weary smile. "It's a good time to learn sabacc, I think."
"How so?" Nerim asked, leaning back in his seat.
"Gambling is always at its best when you're already at rock bottom."
Smeebi grinned at that, and placed the deck down so that Tetha could cut it. "The goal of the game is to get as close as you can to an absolute value of 23, either positive or negative. Although positive is better in a tie. If you go over absolute 23, you bomb out. That's common to almost all forms of sabacc, but there's a million house rules. For this hand, we'll be playing Coruscant Quick Table, so you can get your bearings."
They continued to explain the rules to him as Smeebi dealt the cards, three to each player. The cards were electronic, and each had a small pressure sensor on the front one could press like a button. He had been dealt The Idiot, The Master of Sabers, and Balance, for a value of 0, 14, and -11 respectively, adding up to a supremely unimpressive value of 3. He could stand by his hand, or he had the option to either discard one of them, draw an extra card, or press on the card to randomize the value of the card.
He thought for a moment. "If a card was too valuable, I would usually discard it. If my hand was too poor, I'd usually draw. But I guess mathematically, sometimes randomizing is a better option?
Arwain nodded. "That's true, but the special benefit of randomizing is that it breaks the card limit rules."
"What do you mean?"
"Every deck has four suits, each with one copy of every positive card. It also has two copies of every face card, the ones that give negative values. By pressing the randomization button, you can create an extra copy of a random card. It's more useful in some rule sets than others. Although, most rule sets will randomize some of your cards at set intervals, whether you want it to or not."
"Hm..." He thought about his options, quickly doing arithmetic in his head. "...I've just realized this game must be very different when you can use the Force."
Tetha smirked. "Oh, very different."
"...You're all cheating, aren't you?"
No one answered verbally. Nerim sighed and grabbed another card, Endurance, which brought his total to -5. Everyone played their hands, and predictably, he ended up last in the pack, with Smeebi taking the win. But at least he now knew how to play.
Smeebi, still grinning, recollected the cards and his antennae twitched. "Now, how about we start betting?"
"Are you kidding?" Arwain said, obviously disgusted by the suggestion. "
Before we've started drinking?"
Smeebi placed a hand to his chest in shock. "This is a
Jedi vessel. Do you think I keep alcohol stocked?"
Arwain crossed her arms. "Well you had to have been kicked out of the Initiates for some reason."
"Hah! A Master's instinct, if ever I've seen it," he laughed and stood up, moving into the kitchenette. "Alright, alright, what do you want?"
"I was known to be quite a lumguzzler in my youth," Arwain said, which immediately caused Nerim to freeze and then shudder in emotional pain, and Tetha did a wide-eyed double-take, both of which Arwain enjoyed very much.
"You got it, pitcher of lum coming right up," Smeebi laughed.
Tetha leaned back in her chair, balancing on the back legs. "This is a longshot, but you wouldn't happen to have any Ithorian ciders would you?"
"The Force smiles on you, friend!" He said cheerfully. "Grabbed two cases while helping a herdship a few months back! You want Maelpha or Gooungauu for—wait, how old are you?"
"It doesn't really matter, I'm part Zelosian. Ethanol doesn't affect me," she explained.
"Hmm. Sounds reasonable to me!" Smeebi said enthusiastically. Whether or not he knew that Zelosians could still get intoxicated off of the particular
sugar compounds in Ithorian ciders, Nerim couldn't tell. "And you, Nerim?"
"S-spelska Nagram?" He asked, looking at Arwain for any hint of disapproval. She only smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Never heard of it!" Smeebi replied, just as cheerful as ever.
Arwain laughed. "Just get the boy something gross and painful, he seems to like it that way."
Nerim pouted, and Smeebi leaned deeper into the cupboard. "Hmm! You know...It sounds like I finally have an excuse to make another J.O.B.! I'll have to substitute for the symbanban..."
"Oh my stars," Arwain cringed and laughed simultaneously. "You
know?"
"What?" Nerim asked, confused.
Smeebi walked over and handed Arwain and Tetha their drinks, before returning to the kitchenette and pulling out a number of things. "No better way to celebrate her life!"
"It was Fae's favorite drink," Arwain giggled, looking up wistfully at nothing in particular. "It's from the Jenet homeworld."
Tetha raised an eyebrow. "The
Grand Master Fae Coven drank?"
Arwain nodded. "Once a century or so, she told me. Which was a blatant lie, because
I remember at least three incidents personally."
"Master, you were turning her into an alcoholic," Nerim said flatly. "You
did absolutely torment her."
It didn't take long for Smeebi to finish his preparations, although the process was somewhat loud as he reduce some sort of vegetable into a paste and add it to the drink. "I'm sad nobody asked for a Juri Juice!" He spoke over the din. "I always keep some Rodian Blood flavor stocked!"
That got a chuckle out of the former Jedi, although Tetha was perhaps the most pleased by it, and cackled at the thought. Grabbing a bottle of something for himself, he meandered on back and sat the drink in front of Nerim, and then reached over to an odd box on a counter and pressed a few buttons on it. Music began playing, and it was warm and distant, with reverberating string instruments and a relaxed yet intricate drum beat. The noise made him think of what a beach on the ocean must be like, though he had never been to one before.
He looked down to his drink, a glass tumbler filled with a mint green liquid, and it seemed to almost stick to the glass as it rippled from the motion. "It's not
exactly right," Smeebi explained, "But I don't keep a fresh stock of fruit from Garban, sadly. It'll have the same viscosity, but usually it's a sort of off-white color. It'll taste a little sweeter than she liked, also."
He picked it up and took an experimental sip, and found it to be
very viscous compared to the drinks he was used to. The flavor was complex, briny, a little sour with acidity, and savory in a way he hadn't quite experienced before. There was a lot more
tang than he was ready for, and a hint of sweetness also. The drink was served warm, but not hot, more like just a little above body temperature.
He swallowed it and immediately felt the presence of
quite a lot of alcohol in it, even moreso than Spelska Nagram, although it was quite muted in flavor in comparison to the other ingredients used in the drink. It wasn't exactly the best thing he ever drank, but he enjoyed it, and he enjoyed the sense of closeness with Fae's memory. He smiled. "I like it."
"Hah!" Arwain grinned proudly. "You take after her in more ways than one. I could never stand it, myself. She gave me a sip once and I couldn't even swallow it," she laughed softly.
"Why is it called a J.O.B.?" He asked, taking another sip.
"It stands for Jenet Orgy Backwash."
Nerim nearly spit the drink out. He placed his hand over his mouth and turned a deeper shade of green, and the other three burst into uproarious laughter. Eventually he managed to swallow it, and then cough out a "What in the
Corellian hell?" with a noticeable voice crack.
"I've been—" Arwain's sentence was interrupted with her own laughter, "—Waiting forty years to pull that one on my own Apprentice!"
"It's funny
every time!" Smeebi agreed, knocking back his own drink.
"
Fae pulled that on you?!" Nerim asked, horrified.
"Ruthlessly," Arwain confirmed, out of breath from laughing too hard. "I didn't have your self control, I spit it out all over myself. Ugh, and it's impossible to get the stains out. It's almost disappointing, but it's good to know you're a swallower at heart."
That caused another round of laughter at his expense. His blush strengthened, turning his face an even deeper green. "Master, we've been exiled for less than twenty-four hours, why are you already like this?"
"This was a secret technique passed down by the Grand Master herself!" She defended herself.
He grimaced. "She came up with a drink just for this...?"
"Oh, no," Smeebi clarified, "The drink is a real Jenet delicacy, and it's really called that. She's just the one who turned it into a prank."
"It
is? Why would they
call it that?"
"Better question," Arwain suddenly glared at him, "How do you even
know that word?"
"I, uhhh, I—um," Nerim stuttered and nervously looked away. Arwain laughed.
"Jenets are sort of...infamous around the Galaxy," Tetha stated, also slightly flushed. "I'm not sure if the Jedi as a whole are really
aware of this, but it's always been something of a joke that the Jedi were lead by the, ah, most
active species in the Galaxy."
"The
what?!" Nerim was mortified. He had never met another Jenet, as Force Sensitivity among their kind seemed vanishingly rare. He never even really
heard about them, as they were an Outer Rim species not very important in Republic affairs. In his mind they were just the 'Fae Coven species'.
"Oh, yes.
Very active.
Among other things," Arwain agreed.
"Nooo," Nerim slowly shook his head in denial. "Not
Fae Coven. That's not true. That's impossible."
"It's not like she was having trysts, she kept it under control," Arwain took another swig of her drink. "But even in the gossip around the Order, it's always been joked that the only reason Fae bothered to become the Grand Master was just to teach in the youngling class, because of her Jenet instincts to raise unreasonable amounts of children."
"I thought we were supposed to be
honoring her memory," Nerim ran a hand through his messy hair.
Smeebi raised his bottle. "What better way than to celebrate how she really was?"
"Hear hear!" Arwain cheered, raising her own. "Now, finish your drinks and let's play sabacc!"
The three of them took a swig, and Nerim looked down at his glass. He sighed, shrugged, and took another drink. This time, they were betting credits. It wasn't a lot, really, but Nerim had trouble estimating how much credits were worth in the first place, having made so few transactions himself. Sabacc had two pots; a hand pot, and a sabacc pot. The hand pot was bet on every round, and went to whoever had the best hand that round. The sabacc pot was also added to every round, but it could only be claimed with a pinnacle score of +23, -23, or an Idiot's Array, which consisted of an Idiot, a 2, and a 3 of the same suit.
On the second hand, Nerim was dealt The Idiot again, along with a 5 of Flasks and a Commander of Staves, for a total score of 18. He decided it was best to keep them. While Arwain was making her choice, he looked to Smeebi. "So how
did you end up in the Service Corps?"
"Absolutely zero talent!" He admitted happily and shamelessly. "Couldn't barely turn on a lightsaber, let alone swing it. I've still never managed to use an Alter power. Not that I really train to, anyways."
Nerim chuckled. "I can relate."
"Oh please, you're the Apprentice Tournament Champion!"
He blinked. "You know about that?"
"Yeah! I watched it!" He said, shrugging. "They record the Initiate Trials for posterity and so Knights outside of the Temple can scout the footage for potential Padawans. Service Corps can get access to the footage pretty easily. Most of us watch the tournament for fun!"
Tetha leaned forward. "Ooh, can I get a copy of that?"
Smeebi gave her a thumbs up. "You got it!"
Nerim balked, and distantly realized the J.O.B. was already hitting him. "Y-you mean the entire Service Corps w-watched me...?"
"Yep! Some people even run betting pools, although you gotta be hush-hush with that one. Supervisors don't much like that."
He felt like his soul was escaping from his body. Including the Service Corps, tens of thousands of Jedi watched that clown show. He wasn't sure he would ever stop blushing after tonight. Although some of that was probably the alcohol.
Tetha raised an eyebrow. "Who did you bet on?"
Arwain finally decided to randomize a card, and then Smeebi instantly drew a fourth. "Oh, I don't bet on it, it always felt a little mean-spirited to me. I want to want all of them to win. But I was cheering for Tzai most. Alas!"
They laid down their cards. Arwain had a -20, and won the hand pot.
"Aw man," Nerim rubbed his forehead. "That sucks. Tzai would've been a good winner."
"What were the odds like?" Tetha asked curiously as she began shuffling the deck for the next hand.
"Biggest odds were on Chey-Linn," Smeebi took another sip as he recalled. "Nerim was...I think...Second least likely."
Nerim blinked in surprise. "Who was less likely than
me?"
"You remember Komoglo? He was last."
"Oh," Nerim blinked. The fat Ithorian kid. "Yeah, that makes sense," he said, taking another sip and draining his glass. Then he shook his head. "Wait! Hmnabi dropped out because he got sick during the Code examination! He was still ahead of me?!"
"He was
second," Smeebi said, shrugging. "I think everyone just really liked the idea he would show up at the last minute and have a big comeback."
The cards were dealt again as Smeebi grabbed another round of drinks and dropped them in front of everyone, and Nerim looked at his hand. The Idiot, Endurance, and yet again, The Idiot. 0, -8, 0. He reached out to the Force.
'Are you trying to tell me something, here?'
He took an experimental sip of his new drink. This one was a spicy Corellian whiskey, tasting like someone had mixed wood with chili powder. He quite enjoyed it, which seemed to impress the more experienced drinkers at the table. For a moment he zoned out, and their conversation passed him by, as he stared down at his cards.
The secret thought that he had unconsciously been avoiding ever since he stepped into the High Council Chambers occurred to him.
I guess this is my life, now.
The time to decide what to do with his cards came to him, and he decided to randomize his Endurance, since drawing another good negative card was far less likely than drawing a good positive. It switched into a 1 of Coins, and he breathed out and simply accepted the hand was lost, going back to enjoying his tasty drink.
Arwain looked across the table to Tetha, thinking for a moment. "Tetha, how did you do it? Abandoning Utapau, Dorin, Ithor?"
Tetha's eyes were cast down towards the center of the table, but she smiled slightly. She glanced to Nerim, and said "It was easier, knowing he was out there somewhere."
Nerim blinked. "Huh? I mean, I always have your back, but—"
"It's not about that," Tetha shook her head, smiling. "I don't mean that I was okay risking it all because I can fall back on you. I mean that I was okay with risking it all because...things can't be that bad out in the Galaxy, if you're out there."
He lowered his cards and frowned bashfully. "I'm...just a guy," he said, despite knowing exactly what she meant, and feeling that way about her also.
"Nerim, when you entered my life, there was this sort of...transparency to everything," she said softly. "It was just like...For the first time in my life, I met someone who knew exactly what they were doing."
"
Me? I looked like that?" He asked, bewildered. "Do I
look like I know what I'm doing?"
She met his eyes and tilted her head a little to the side, also obviously intoxicated. "Even now, you're still so unlike any Force User I've ever come across. Everyone is always just meat, or a shroud, or an incandescent wire. The Brotherhood were piles of maggots underground, the Jedi Knights were clouds of fireflies above. The Ithorians were palm trees at noon after a rain shower, the Baran Do were the scraps of fire around an event horizon. Darth Machina was this endless black whirlpool, Fae was the sun. But you, Nerim...it's like you're made of glass. Everything about you is so transparent and clear it almost seems invisible. You're so hard to see, but it's so easy to see light through you."
He wasn't quite sure what to say to that. The table was silent for a few seconds, and Arwain shifted forward and placed her chin in her hand. "Okay, Tetha. You have my blessing."
"W-what?" Nerim stuttered. Blessing for
what? Tetha just giggled.
They played their cards. Arwain won again with a -22, and Smeebi eyed her suspiciously, while she whistled in a faux-innocent manner and raked in her credits. "I don't know how you're cheating," Smeebi said, "But when I figure it out, you're in big trouble, because I'm gonna steal that method."
It was Nerim's turn to shuffle and deal. At this point, he was sure he wouldn't win unless he cheated, since everyone else was. But how could he cheat? He didn't know how to hack the cards even if he had them hooked up to a slicing deck, let alone with his bare hands. He couldn't read their minds or pierce the bubbles around their cards. He closed his eyes, took a breath and, through the drunken haze, suddenly found a bead of focus. Perfect.
He shuffled the cards carefully, his dexterous hands and maybe a slight application of the Force ensuring each card ended up how he wanted. It was not hard to tell; though he was pretty sure they couldn't read his mind, he still wasn't practiced enough shuffling to make it entirely seamless. When he opened his eyes, they were all staring at him suspiciously.
He placed the deck next to Tetha, and as she raised her hand, he said "If you tap the deck, I'll split the sabacc pot with you."
Tetha grinned, her nose wrinkling in that cute manner he loved, and tapped the deck, letting him pick it back up without cutting it. Arwain straightened up in shock. "That is shameless—"
"It's so
over!" Smeebi cried in anguish, dropping his face on table. "This game is ruined, now there's a teamup, the death of all sabacc tables..."
"Apprentice!" Arwain said, giving him her best puppy dog eyes. "You're siding with
her over
me?"
"Yeah," Nerim said, unimpressed. He dealt the cards, giving them nothing of value and himself an Idiot's Array. Tetha folded her hand in a rather self-satisfied manner, and Smeebi folded with a depressed sigh.
Arwain stared at him for a moment, and then down at his cards. Her expression became much more serious, and her glare intensified. Then, suddenly, his card glitched in his hand, and The Idiot turned into a Queen Of Air And Darkness, at a value of -2. He blinked in surprise, looking down at his cards and trying desperately to figure out what just happened.
Before he could, Arwain smugly tapped the randomization button on her own card and smirked at him. "You still have much to learn, Apprentice."
He looked back down at his cards. He had no ideas. There was pretty much no way to fix this. But...
Ah, to hell with it. Before he could think about it, he pressed the randomizer button. It turned back into The Idiot.
Nerim, with a perfectly straight face, laid out his cards on the table. Arwain stared down at them, and her eye twitched. "How did you do that?" She demanded. "Was that a Force power?"
"It's...
all the Force, Master."
"...That was just luck," her jaw dropped. "You just risked it all on the randomizer."
He shrugged and grinned. "Gambling is best done at rock bottom, no?"
