he was.

“So what are we (YAWN!!) doing here?”

Koon, who was wide awake, said “We are going to leave this planet.” Koon stopped walking for a moment and stood still. “Vader is getting closer. He now knows where I am. We must move faster. Balto, go wake up the pilot.”

“You must be crazy. If I tried to wake her up right now she would probably put a blaster bolt between my eyes.”

Plo Koon turned and stared at him.

“Either you go in there and have her kill you for trying to wake her up, or I will kill you if you don't. So get your furry little tush up there.”

“Sheesh, what a crab.”

Balto walked up to the ship and started banging on it.

“Hey! Are you there!? We're ready to leave now!”

Balto waited for a few seconds and walked back over to Koon.

“Well no answer. Bummer. Looks like we'll have to walk back to our warm comfy beds and go back to sleep.”

Plo Koon glared at him.

“You are starting to sound like C-3PO.”

Balto blanched at the horrid insult.

Plo Koon reached out his hand toward the ship and used the force to unlock the doors.

“Now get in there and wake her up.”

Balto walked to the ship and as he went inside mumbled “I really hate the force right now.”

He finally found Jenna. Who was laying, very unceremoniously, on a couch with her mouth open and tongue out, with a steady stream of spit running down her face.

“Hey! Wake up! We're ready to leave right about now!”

Jenna popped open one eye and said something that Balto was glad was in another language.

“You're ready to leave? Well sorry but I'm NOT!”

With that she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

“Okay fine. You go ahead and fall asleep and we'll just wait for Vader to show up.”

Jenna rolled back over and this time opened both eyes.

“What did you say?”

“Oh I must have forgot to tell you. It's just that the Dark Lord of the Sith is here and coming this way!”

She looked at him for a second and then said “Ha! If you expect me to believe that Darth Vader himself is on this worthless hunk of rock, you're dumber than I thought.”

Balto's ears picked up something. He groaned.

“You want proof? Here's your proof!”

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the boarding ramp.

“There see?”

No less that 10 meters away was a squad of stormtroopers led by a 2 meter tall, black garbed, armor suited, lightsaber wielding monstrosity. Affectionately known as Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

The stormtroopers started raising there blasters when Vader said “Arrest those dogs. But leave the Kel Dor to me.”

“Come on Jenna! We have to do something!”

Both Balto and Jenna jumped back into the ship as a stream of blaster bolts flew at them. Jenna reached up and started closing the boarding ramp.

“Hey what are you doing!? Plo is still out there!”

“We have to leave! We can't do anything for him!”

Balto looked back in time to see Plo Koon attacking Vader. Then the ramp closed.

Plo Koon abandoned himself to the force as he charged at Darth Vader. He knew that he would not survive this encounter. But yet, he wasn't afraid. He thought to himself,

'There is no emotion; there is peace..

There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.

There is no passion; there is serenity.

There is no death; there is the Force.'

His last thought was he hoped the Jedi would rise again. Then there was a loud roaring noise, a flash of light, and then.... nothing.

The 'Anchorage', Jenna's freighter, was traveling thru hyperspace away from Ord Mantell.

Balto walked in the cockpit and sat down next to Jenna with a sigh.

“Whew. That was a close one.”

“No kidding. How is he?”

“He's okay. The blast had knocked him unconscious and bruised him up but, he's alive.”

Jenna turned in her seat and looked at Balto. “What's so special about this guy if you are willing to risk your life, AND Darth Vader is after him?”

Balto was silent for a second.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Sure.”

“No, I mean can you REALLY keep a secret? One that now involves my life, Your life, and his life?”

“Yes I can.”

“His name is Plo Koon. During the Old Republic, he was a Jedi Master who was on the Jedi Council. During the final year of the clone wars his own troops attacked him and was believed to have been killed. Now, Darth Vader is after him so he can finish the job.”

Jenna stared at him for a moment. “Hate to bust your bubble but I don't believe in the Jedi or this 'force' that they were supposed to use.”

“Do you think lightsabers are real?”

“Not really. Do you have any idea it would be to make one of those even if they were real? You get the tiniest thing wrong, and it blows up in your face.”

“Hold on. I'll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“To go get a lightsaber.”

Balto could almost swear he heard her giggling as he walked away.

He walked into the ships little medical bay and jumped when he saw Koon up and about.

Plo looked at him and said “What happened? I remember fighting Vader, then there was a loud roaring noise and a flash of light. Then that was it.”

“We took off and started running away. I managed to convince Jenna to turn the ship around and come back for you. We pulled up over you guys and Jenna fired a quick burst from the thrusters, which created a little shock wave that bowled everyone down there over. We ran out as quickly as we could and dragged you aboard. Vader recovered from the blast the quickest and jumped at us just as the boarding ramp closed. You can still see the gash his lightsaber left.

“Say, speaking of lightsabers, could you meet me and Jenna in the room with the Dejarrick table in it? Jenna doesn't believe in the Jedi. I was hoping you could give her a little demonstration.”

“I suppose so.”

“Great! I'll see you there.”

As Balto started walking back toward the cockpit, Plo spoke up and said, “I noticed that you are calling our captain by the first name. Is something going on?”

“Oh come on! Give it a rest already! Sheesh!”

As Balto walked into the cockpit Jenna looked up said “Where's your lightsaber?”

“Follow me and I'll show you.”

“All right. This going to be a long trip so we have to have some form of entertainment.”

Balto and Jenna walked into the room together. Plo looked up and Balto quickly said (quietly of course)

“Don't even think about it.”

“I wasn't going to say anything.”

Jenna spoke up and said

“Okay. I'm here. Entertain me.”

“As you wish. You have no doubt, Heard of Jedi? What they were supposed to be able to do?”

“Yeah, but I don't believe any of it.”

“Which, POWER, I guess you could say, would you like to see?”

“How about the being able to move things with there mind?”

“You mean the force” Koon grumbled under his breathe. “Very well.”

There was a stack of crates in the room, each weighing around 100 pounds. All five lifted into the air without anyone touching them.

Jenna couldn't believe her eyes. Then something dawned on her.

“You guys are just using some sort of trick. No one could do that.”

“How about this?”

Koon reached down to his belt and grabbed a metal cylinder with buttons on it. We walked over and put it in front of Jenna's face.

“What do you think this is?”

“It appears to be what you think is a lightsaber.”

“It IS a lightsaber.”

He activated it.

Jenna jumped with surprise and fright. There was a four or five foot shaft of strobing yellow light five inches from her face.

“What do you think now?”

Once again she didn't believe it.

“You... you... probably just put a fancy light bulb in that.”

Balto had never heard Plo laugh before.

“A fancy light bulb? Ha Ha! I have never heard such a lame explanation for something. Can a fancy light bulb do this?”

Still laughing, he walked over to the crates and put the blade on one. It immediately started to melt.

Now, Jenna was starting to feel a little nervous. And, to be perfectly honest, so was Balto. He had never seen something like this before.

Plo turned back to Jenna and said “Shoot at me.”

“Um. Excuse me?”

Plo sighed. “Don't you know anything? Pick up a blaster, and shoot me with it.”

“Uh.... okay.”

She did pull out the blaster. Something Balto hadn't been expecting. She also shot it. THAT surprised him even more.

Now, blasters travel extremely fast. Most species would not know what hit them. This is over a distance of around 30 meters. Jenna was shooting at Plo Koon at a distance of around 15 FEET.

Balto had never seen anyone, of any species, move as fast as Plo Koon did. He was simply a blur. He spun and hit the bolt with the lightsaber re-directing it to hit the stack of crates. No sooner had he done that than deactivate the lightsaber and put it back in his belt.

Balto and Jenna looked at him with their mouths wide open.

“I wish to do one last demonstration of what I can do. This may bestirred you. But if anything else, this will prove that I am not using any illusions.”

Plo stuck out one of his hands. And it started to glow blue. Then, one of the most disturbing things Balto would ever see, happened. Lightning shot off of Plo Koon's hands.

It wasn't real lightning. It was more of a 'force lightning'.

Koon closed his hand the lightning went away.

“What I just did would have

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