2025-09-03
It is a period of galactic peace. A thousand years ago, the Jedi destroyed the Sith in the GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR. In galactic news, the jewel thief Ogyris has been killed after a long career.
But his greatest prize, the NESHAK DIAMOND, was never found. It is said that he secreted the diamond in the distant VOROST CLUSTER, a subsector of space on the frontier of the Republic.
Jedi Knight DESSA KEFER and her apprentice travel to the library world of OSSUS to assemble a crew for their first solo mission: to bring peace and justice to the worlds of Vorost…
The Sephi Jedi Dessa and human apprentice Gai Leedle step from their ship, the Starbird, onto the silvery grass of Ossus. Gai is overcome with excitement for their Jedi mission. Dessa sends him to find their assigned pilot, Sahl Pelagon, and a mechanic. Dessa goes to visit her master, a Duros named named Falla Hix.
Gai follows his feelings to a bar in the spaceport, where a Toydarian restaurateur is firing the droid T3-N1 from his job as a dishwasher for bringing a concealed blaster to work. Beaten out of the kitchen with a ladle, T3-N1 (“Teni”) bumps into Sahl, whom he recognizes from previous service with the Republic navy.
Gai approaches the pilot and the droid and recruits them both. Sahl leaves a message to his parents expressing his apologies for shipping out before visiting them, and asking them not to tell his sister Helena that he was onplanet.
At that moment, Helena approaches Dessa with a list of potential candidates for other positions on the Starbird. Taking the datapad, Dessa accepts two of the candidates and swaps the security officer for an old friend.
Dessa and Helena walk to the library together. They talk about the nature of teaching and leadership, and Helena asks Dessa to take care of Sahl, as he has no talent for the Force.
Dessa meets with the thousand-year-old head librarian, the eel-man and veteran of the Great Hyperspace War Odan-Urr. He gives her training materials for Gai’s saberpike and educational programs for the voyage. He then enters a trance in which he tells Dessa, “The one you seek is by the Fountain of Peace… and after a thousand years of light, the Sith will rise again.” The latter has been a common prophecy in the time since the Sith were destroyed.
Gai, Sahl, and Teni enter a darkened hall of statues, the impassive faces of the martyrs of the Great Hyperspace War. They hear hushed voices speaking in an alcove behind the statue of Master Creniir. Teni eavesdrops on the wireless conversation and hears a young man telling his mother the Jedi need him.
Gai strides forward to greet the people. They are Rassen Breit, Helena’s chosen navigator and copilot, and Bara Hones, their diplomatic attaché.
Gai leads the whole party to the Fountain of Peace, where Dessa is speaking to a middle-aged man with a robot hand. This is Nant Teerson, a veteran of the Great Droid Uprising and father figure to Dessa when she was a child novice.
Dessa leads the crew to the Starbird. The ship is long, chrome, and built like a flying boat. From top to bottom, it has a passenger deck with staterooms, an engineering deck, a crew deck, and a hold. From its rounded wings extend two masts which can open like fans to reveal solar sails. The ship has ball turrets at its nose, tail, and forward dorsal.
The ship is also equipped with a chef droid, GU-2, who depends from the ceiling on an industrial arm and is classically trained in six million cuisines.
Everyone breaks up to explore the ship, Teni picking every lock he can find. Bara can’t find a task and ends up stressed and underfoot. Dessa tells her to prepare one of the staterooms for a briefing to the crew.
At the briefing, Dessa describes the crew’s mission: they are headed to the Vorost Cluster, which has never yet had a Jedi presence, to keep the peace as rumors of the Neshak Diamond draw in unscrupulous treasure hunters. As a Sentinel, she believes each member of the crew brings unique and irreplaceable skills, and she tells them to use their initiative. They will travel to Mettawi Station, a boom town at the confluence of the main hyperspace routes through the cluster. They will try to make contact with both the station governor and community leaders, and make themselves visible at the docks so word of the Jedi spreads throughout the sector.
Arriving at Mettawi Station, they find a massive toroid, its interior lined with industrial berths and its outside armored against the debris field. The station began as a salvage operation, mining the flotsam of an ancient space battle. Passenger traffic enters a slot in the front of the torus, and the Starbird finds a dock. Gaping at bustle beneath the dim sodium lights of the docks, they find the largest spacer bar on the block and enter the inviting yellow rectangle of its doorway…
