Hallucinations -- In Response to the "Official Fic-Writing Challenge" -- FINISHED

?Agent Jinnus, Agent Rohij,? came a familiar tinny voice as the two humans walked down the hall, returning from the ships docking bay.

A protocol droid, LN-490, shuffled down the long hall of the Coruscant skyscraper. Tygon Jinnus and Syrod Rohij were Republic Guardsmen working Elite Crimes, returning from Genran, one of the moons of Naboo. The two had managed to arrest an alleged mobster, a fat green Twi?lek who represented an old Hutt?s gambling rings.

?Welcome back to Coruscant, Guardsmen,? LN-490 greeted them.

?Thank you, Ellen,? Rohij said as the droid took his hat.

The droid turned its head toward the taller, sturdier of the two. ?Agent Jinnus? A GalactiCo package is awaiting you on your desk. Apparently, it beat you home.?

?A package?? Rohij asked.

?Yeah. You remember that little souvenir shop in the capital? I picked up a couple of things.?

LN-490 began running down the directives it was to deliver. ?Now that you?ve returned, remember to check in with your immediate superior. A report detailing your activities will be expected within three days.?

*****

The package slid across the table as Tygon Jinnus passed it to the man on the other side. They were sitting in a booth in a diner in Coco Town.

?What?s inside?? asked the man.

?There?s a book for Richard. One of those long Nubian novels. Tsion?s still a little guy, so there?s a stuffed Ortolan in there for him.? The man looking at the package pulled out a blue plush toy, its extremities filled with Nubian-cotton and its rear end full of little beads. ?There?s some candy, too.?

?What kind?? asked the man.

?Yellow hard candy. It?s fruit-flavored.?

?Okay,? the man said, as he piled everything back in the box. ?You know, I?ve always wondered how you got an arrangement like this.?

?It was kind of like a favor,? Jinnus replied. ?I knew someone in the Jedi Order.?

?Aren?t you lucky?? the man replied. ?Okay. I?ll see that they get these.? He stood up, and held the package under his arm, letting his Jedi robe hang open. ?I?ll see you here next week, then.?

?Thank you,? Jinnus replied.

The Jedi left the diner, leaving the agent alone with his cup of mocha ardees.

 

?Master Yoda! Master Yoda!? A young Chadra-Fan in a Jedi tunic came running across the room. The clan had spent the day working with the diminutive Master, and he had agreed to watch them overnight while their crèche masters attended a meeting with several Republic officials.

The wizened Jedi was half asleep in his overstuffed chair when the Chadra-fan, who was no more than eight standard years old, was suddenly jolted awake by the boy?s grasp on his arm. Suddenly leaning against his Gimer Stick to stabilize himself, he blurted out, ?What? What is it, Loki??

Loki said, ?Come quick, Master Yoda. Something?s wrong with Josh!?

?Wrong, something is? What means this??

?Come on, Master Yoda!? The boy grabbed Yoda?s green dry hand with his own furry one and pulled his across the rows of sleeping children.

Joshua Dijirrus was nearly ten years old, had been advancing rapidly and might soon take on a master as a padawan apprentice. When Loki dragged Yoda to his sleeping bag, though, it was easy to tell that Joshua, sleeping on the cot next to him, wasn?t sleeping well.

?What?s wrong, Master Yoda?? asked Jo?nar Milone, the boy in the sleeping bag on the other side.

?Not sure, am I,? Yoda replied, placing his hand on the boy?s forehead. ?A fever he has.?

?He?s been rolling over all night, like he can?t get comfortable.?

?Tossing and turning??

?Yeah, that?s it. And he?s been sweating, too.?

Josh was whimpering. ?Not helped by bacta, will this be. Too young he is for a healing trance.? Yoda was talking to himself. ?Joshua! Joshua!?

Suddenly, the boy woke up. ?Master Yoda! Master Yoda!? He grabbed at the master?s robes. ?You?re here! Are they coming???

?Who?? the old green face looked down at the frightened young one as it tried to gain its bearings.

?The men with the grey eyes! They were coming for me!?

?Okay, it is, Joshua. Coming for you, no one will be.?

The boy started to calm down as the nightmare passed. He panted as the sweating subsided. He hugged Master Yoda he trembled.

?Find your group?s master, we should.?

 

Jedi Master Rostov was a Kameer, one of the few species in the Jedi Order shorter than Yoda?s. Collectively, they were ?Rodent Jedi,? very descriptive of their stature. They were short, wiry beings, and even though they were bipedal, as most Jedi were, they reminded most people of the weasels found in abundance in the old mountainous regions of Coruscant. They were covered in short, tan, whisker-like fur, with horizontal stripes of darker tan across their backs. Their hands were small, soft paws like those of perootu cats, but with long claws and an oversized opposable thumb. A small, stiff tail poked out like a kickstand behind them, and their hind feet were longer than their hands, and lacked the thumbs. Their weasel-like faces were topped with their strangest feature, a hair-covered pair of antennae, similar to those of Balosars, but striped like their backs and tipped in the darker color like their tails.

Kameers had excelled in the Jedi order, their lightweight, thin, agile bodies especially adept to lightsaber fighting, and, with their diminutive stance, they fit perfectly as crèche masters, not being much taller than any of the children.

Even though Master Rostov was standing, Jedi Knight Spender was taller than his counterpart while sitting down. The two were quite a pair; Spender was a pale, dark-haired human who contrasted the Kameer in every way, though Master Yoda had summoned both of them because of their position as crèche master. Specifically, they were summoned because both worked with a clan of boys that contained one member of a certain family.

As Master Yoda hobbled in to the room, both the other Jedi looked up at the respected Council member.

?Called you together, I have, because of two boys in your respective clans. Master Rostov, in your group, Joshua Dijirrus have you, and Richard Dijirrus, his brother, in yours, Jedi Spender??

Both the other Jedi quickly nodded their heads.

Master Rostov spoke, his voice think with an accent suggesting a language rich in guttural sounds, liquid letter-combinations, and consonants that didn?t even exist in the Basic Aurebesh. ?The sweating has ceased, my Master, but the boy is still having nightmares. Men whose eyes swirl with shades of grey. It?s dreadful.?

Jedi Spender looked in horror as he heard Rostov?s account. ?Joshua has been having nightmares??

Master Yoda sat in the chair opposite them, against the wall of the Temple balcony room. ?Yes, Master Rostov, seem, it would, that having them also has been young Richard.?

Richard Di?jirrus was Josh?s older brother, taken for training at the same time. Though Joshua?s name had been altered, the only difference for Richard was an adjustment of the surname to an honorific; they boy was old enough to remember details of his family.

Jedi Spender leaned forward. ?This cannot be good. Richard has been having nightmares, too. Last night, when I woke him up, he was incoherent. It was as if he had been drugged.?

?Keep this in mind, we must. Consult a healer, will I,? Yoda announced. ?Should this get worse, consult each other, you should.?

?Yes, Master Yoda,? both replied.

?And fix this soon, we must. Soon will both become padawan learners. Keep you informed, I will.?

 

Twelve-year-old Richard Dijirrus wasn?t exactly sure what he was looking for? mostly, it was a place to sit and read quietly. His crèche master hadn?t given any instructions for training, so he had a free afternoon. He had also been given a new book, one of those long Nubian novels, so he was hoping to get chance to just sit and see how far he could get. There was no way he could possibly finish it in less than a week; it was far too long; but he still wanted to try.

At the top floor of the Temple?s central spire, he paused. He had first thought of going to one of the hanging-garden balconies kept outside the Jedi Council Chamber. But as he passed the door, he noticed that the Council Chamber was unoccupied.

Of course, this was nothing odd. Master Yoda would be making rounds with the other masters, teaching classes, smoothing over some disaster or another. Master Windu would be meeting with Chancellor Valorum. The rest of the Council would be doing? he didn?t exactly know. He had seen Mistress Gallia in the Archives once, speaking with Jocasta Nu. Perhaps she would be there. In any case, with the sun streaming in just right, the Council Chamber seemed so inviting, and the door wasn?t locked.

There were no rules against being in there if the Council was not in session; many of the masters used it for private meetings. Richard walked over to what he knew had to be either Master Yoda or Mistress Yaddle?s chair. It was the perfect height for a twelve-year-old.

Richard settled back into the plush chair and started reading.

It was a fairly good book, mostly concerned with the well-to-do families of Naboo and Evramora during the Vhinech Wars. But for some reason, he couldn?t really get into it.

Maybe it was the lighting in the room; the shadows kept playing tricks on his eyes. He tried to ignore it.

?Whoohoo!?

That was no shadow. He looked up from his book, and dropped it to the floor, scrambling higher on the chair when he saw the enormous bird standing in the middle of the chamber floor.

The thing was nearly as tall as he was. He wondered how long its wingspan would be. Probably a good four meters. It was a stocky, thick-necked bird of prey that stood nearly upright. From the feathery ?horns? on top of its head, the boy recognized that the creature was an Onarps, one of the birds native to the mountains of many Core Worlds.

But it had a feature that most Onarpses didn?t. Its eyes. The irises were overrun with a fluid, swirling grey.

It looked back at him, and hooted again, this time louder, forcing Richard to clap his hands over his ears.

Suddenly, Richard noticed something. Beyond the window were hundreds more Onarpses, attacking air traffic, diving at pedestrians on street levels far below, flying in like a dark wave of smoke.

The sky was black, the raven color of the birds. The hooting was deafening. At any given split second, dozens of seperate birds would hoot, and each one would get a response from somewhere in the cloud. The cloud's dome shape seemed to peak over the Jedi Temple, and it extended beyond the horizon. Every Onarps on the planet's being there would not have been a stretch. The hundreds of hoots a second were hard to bear. The rolling clouds were a living, hooting cauldron. The clouds of birds looked like storm clouds, fluctuating up and down.

Birds began to drop away from the flock. Several found places to perch on balconies, roofs, landing platforms, even the spires of the Temple and Senate Hall. Others found no suitable place to perch and flew back up into the still-growing cloud. Many got caught in the streams of air traffic. Swerving to miss them, many speeders and shuttles crashed. Dozens of birds were hit by the traffic and their bodies fell to the balconies below. Droppings rained from the cloud to the bowels of Coruscant.

One suddenly broke through the window, and as it slid unconsciously across the floor, two more stepped precariously through. Soon at least five were inside, calling to each other, staining the floor and the walls, fightin

 

?It?s not a prophecy,? Master Rostov said to himself. ?Too random. There?s no message from the Force. I?d say it was just a rash of bad dreams ? he is a child, after all ? but his brother had them, too.?

The tiny rodent Jedi was searching the medical literature the healers had given him. Some of the larger textbooks forced him to take a step to turn the page. So far, he had found nothing; something told him he never would.

He heard the door slide open, as Master Yoda entered the room. ?Master Rostov,? he greeted.

?Master Yoda,? the other replied.

?Confirmed a few things, have we.?

?Yes??

The older Jedi approached the Kameer, leaning on his Gimer Stick. ?Nothing to do with genetics, this has. Free from any such history is the boys? family.?

?That is a relief,? Rostov replied.

?Also can we confirm that anything to do with the illness, Joshua?s stuffed animal did not. And, judging by the content, having anything to do with the nightmares, Richard?s book did not.?

?You thought they might??

?Not sure, were we. Seemed logical, it did, since new both those things were. Was there anything else with them??

?There was candy.?

?What??

?Hard candy, given by whoever gave them the animal and the book.?

Yoda frowned, leaning against his stick as he thought that over. ?Known this, I should have. Not visions are these, not at all. Response to the candy, this is.?

?What should I do, Master Yoda??

?Destroyed, the rest of the candy must be. If found can be the man who gave it, he must be instructed that this can never happen again.?

?Yes, Master.?

?Talk to Knight Spender, I must.?

With that, Yoda turned and hobbled out of the room. Rostov dashed out to check on his charges, and to go through Josh?s belongings.

 

?Where did you get the things you gave me?? the Jedi asked as he sat once again across from Guardsman Jinnus.

?I picked them up on a mission. It was in a souvenir shop on Genran.?

?Genran? The moon of Naboo??

?Yes, why??

The Jedi sighed deeply. ?You are aware that there are spice mines on two of the moons of Naboo, and that Genran is one of the leading exportation sites??

?Of course I?m aware of that. What difference does it make??

?You?re also aware that at least two spices are mined on Naboo that have been declared contraband by Chancellor Valorum??

?Are you suggesting that I gave you items - for my own children ? that contained illegal drugs??

?Of course not, Agent Jinnus.?

The indignant guardsman became less so, slumping back in his chair and picking up his coffee drink again. ?What is it, then??

?I?m just saying that, in a place like Genran, anything is likely to have come into contact with a contraband spice. You have to remember that, as Jedi, your children will be far more sensitive to the effects of such a thing if they are not expecting them.?

?What happened? Just tell me.?

?Both your boys have had hallucinations. One of them just had nightmares, though he got sick in addition to it. The other had a horrific vision in broad daylight. He described an attack on Coruscant by birds of prey? and a murderous peko peko as it descended.?

At that description, a chill ran up the guardsman?s spine.

?I think it might be best if we stopped having these visits.?

?What?? Tygon almost couldn?t believe what he just heard.

?I?m not suggesting that you did this on purpose, Agent Jinnus. I?m just saying that this was a mistake, and it should never happen again. Not letting you send things to your children may be a mistake, too, but it really doesn?t matter. My hands are tied by the council. Mutual friend or not, it?s time to realize something. You may know what there were, but now you have to accept what they are. They?re Jedi now, Agent Jinnus. Their last name is Dijirrus now. Even Tsion?s first name is different.?

Tygon cradled his ardees cup, not sure whether to cry or feel sick; neither seemed to fit the Guardsman that the Jedi saw, and all that was noticeable was a deep scowl.

It was no secret that Jinnus was rather reserved about expressing things; he had once been called the ?Aw, shucks kid of Corellia.? But to the Jedi, the reserved look on the guardsman?s face was disconcerting.

?All I?m saying, Agent Jinnus, is that if we have to make mistakes, we have to make them at least in a way that won?t hurt the children.?

Still, Tygon said nothing.

?Listen, there?s talk of Masters taking both of your boys for apprentices already. One Knight, a, um, Kevir Malus, has expressed interest in Joshua ? er, sorry. Tsion. I can give him your address, to send you letters of his progress. The same goes for whoever takes Richard.?

Tygon still said nothing, staring at his coffee, trying to take it all in.

?Thanks for your time, I guess,? the Jedi said. He got up to leave, and this time left a credit chit on the table, enough to pay for both beverages and leave a generous tip. He turned to walk out the door.

?Jedi Spender?? Tygon finally said.

?Yes?? asked the Jedi Knight, turning around.

?Take care of them for me.?

?I will, Agent Jinnus.?

The door slid shut behind the Jedi as he began walking back toward the Jedi Temple. The Republic Guardsman remained there for at least half an hour before he got up and forced himself to get home to his lonely apartment and his own copy of the Nubian novel.

 

FORWARD