Master and Apprentice: Chapter VI

Chapter VI:

The Last Word

The Commander walked down the corridor at an even pace, a Jedi by his side.

“I hope this isn’t too inconvenient for you,” said the Jedi.

“Not at all, but I won’t be able to spend much time. I have a briefing with the intelligence committee this morning.”

“Oh, we will try to wrap it up quickly. We’ve been using all our interrogation methods for days and he said nothing — I mean absolutely nothing. And then today, he asks to speak to ‘someone in charge’ and he wanted breakfast!” The Jedi shrugged at the madness of the world.

They stopped at the door of Interrogation Room-5 and returned the salutes of the guards.

“One last thing, it’s in the report, but we think he may be going blind. The Medi-Droid says there is quite a bit of degeneration in the eyes.”

The Commander nodded and signaled for the door to be opened.

Inside the room, the Sith sat in a restraining chair.

“Are you in charge here?” he asked.

“As much as anyone,” answered the Commander.

The Sith nodded.

“Worked your way up the ladder?”

“I suppose. I’ve always thought that after a few years they just get accustomed to you and start promoting you.”

The Jedi grimaced, but as the Commander had not seemed to take offense at the Sith’s questions, he said nothing.

The Commander began to lower himself into his seat behind the desk. As he did so, his medals collided with a faint tink.

The Sith smiled. “Do you actually have medals?” The red-rimmed eyes struggled to get a better look at the Commander.

“Yes. The first,” he pointed to his medal for Bravery Under Fire, “was for Stupidity. The second,” he touched the Medal for Leadership and Sacrifice, “was for Bureacracy.”

“And the third?”

The Commander looked at the medal he had received for rescuing two wounded Jedi Knights.

“That one? Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Both men laughed. The Jedi fidgeted.

The Sith sighed. “Ask your questions.”

The Jedi took up his datapad. “What is your name?”

“A name is an illusion.”

“Not ‘what is a name’. What is your name?”

“I suppose it would be my illusion. Many religions and magical systems believe that to know a thing’s name is to have power over it. We are looking at two different understandings of name. In common usage, name is an arbitrary classification applied to something by an observer to facilitate discussion of a thing. The bith-hound hurt his paw. Which bith-hound? Rex.”

The Jedi cleared his throat and was about to interrupt but the Commander gestured with his hand for silence.

“What is the other meaning of ‘name’?” asked the Commander.

“It is what is sometimes referred to as a ‘true name’. It is not a name thought up by an external observer, but rather is the name that is the equivalent of the essence of the thing. A true name captures the nature of a thing. For instance, I am bound to a chair. We call it chair because it has certain qualities we associate with our concept of chairy-ness. That is the first type of name. The true name of the chair would simultaneously tell us what about the chair made it a chair, and also how it was unique amongst chairs.”

The Jedi could no longer restrain himself.

“What then, is your ‘true name’?”

“I am a Sith. What else do you need to know?”

The Commander pointed to his wrist-chronometer. Getting the hint, the Jedi moved along.

“Are you the Sith who five years ago slew Masters Tulon and Plough, and Master Plough’s Padawan, in an ambush on the ridge road?”

“Five years? Has it been that long?”

“Yes. It was you then, I take it?”

The Sith nodded. “I killed them… with assistance.”

“The survivors reported a second Sith with you. Who was he and do you have any idea of his present location?”

“He was my apprentice. He died not long after that from a wound he suffered during the battle. It became infected.”

The Jedi added the information to the data pad.

“Five years? Really?”

The Commander nodded.

“It has been a long war.”

“All my adult life and more, I have fought the Jedi. As a Sith, my goal is to the walk the path to self-empowerment. I wish to perfect my understanding of the Force, but I cannot be free while the Jedi still live. I am in opposition to them — through no conscious choice. Perhaps that is a part of my nature too.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid them?”

“Yes, but it is impossible. I do not believe in Destiny per se, but it seems to me that the Universe has certain paths which we are intended to walk. When you act outside your nature it is like swimming upstream in a powerful river. The Jedi killed my own master, you know.”

“I did not.”

“Yes. I was still an apprentice. He was doing something foolish. I can’t even remember what now. Probably stealing candy from a baby — something truly sinister. Then, out walk two Jedi and before you can say, ‘There is no peace’ his head was off.”

“But you escaped.”

“Yes. I escaped. I considered trying to find my way back to a temple… but I was already a loner. I continued my education on my own. I grew greater in power than my teacher ever was, but that is the way it should be. It was difficult not having the defining moment of killing my master myself, though. For me, apprenticeship just flowed into a new kind of apprenticeship. There was never a clear moment when I could say, I am no longer a student. I suppose that is why I have approached my journeys as a student, even when I was a master.”

“Would you have killed him?”

“Oh, yes. I think it is a good ‘coming of age’ moment. I’m a bit of a traditionalist in that respect. I would want my own student to kill me.”

The Jedi grew more and more agitated as the Sith and the Commander strayed farther from his question list. He coughed to get their attention.

The Commander ignored him.

“Why were you captured?”

“It was time.”

“Time?!” scoffed the Jedi. “Your luck ran out! You aren’t quite as clever nor half as powerful as you think, my friend!”

“If you say so,” said the Sith with a smile.

The Jedi gritted his teeth.

“What do you mean by ‘time’?” asked the Commander.

“Given half the chance I would launch into a discourse on the meaning of ‘time’ that would have your tame Jedi pulling out his hair. However, as I am sure you are a busy man, I will get to the point — I am dying.”

The Commander thought about this for a second and then said, “Please, go on.”

“My body is failing me. I have put too great a strain on it through my studies. It can no longer keep up. I am preparing to move into the incorporeal stage of the quest for enlightenment. But before I do that I wanted to give you a message.”

“What message, Sith?” growled the Jedi.

“I wanted you to know that I have been watching you. I have observed you from a distance though you have not known it. Even in the darkness when you thought you were alone, I was there.”

“Is that supposed to intimidate us?!”

“My legacy is assured. I have seen it in the Force. What I have set into motion will continue and it cannot be stopped. Though I will be dead when it happens, I am proud to know that I had a hand in the destruction of these Jedi. I am pleased.”

The Jedi’s datapad clattered on the table. Suddenly a blue lightsaber snapped into life by his side. The room seemed very small now.

“You are at my mercy, Sith. Do not presume to threaten me with your fantastic tales of destruction!”

The Sith laughed and the Jedi struck him across the face.

“Silence!”

The Commander stood.

“Jedi.” His voice was cool and low. “Remember yourself. He is using the Dark Side to fill you with hate.”

The Jedi stared at the Commander for a moment, and then his face lost its anger and shame replaced it.

“What have I done?”

“You have been tricked. It is not your fault. It has shown us the true threat of this Sith. He is too dangerous to be allowed to live.”

“But, Sir, he… we haven’t learned anything from him.”

“Oh, my friend, I have learned a great deal. I have seen enough. He cannot be allowed to use his powers on another — perhaps one not as strong as yourself. He must die. I take full responsibility for this.”

The Commander slid his blaster pistol from his holster and walked toward the bound prisoner.

The Sith’s head hung limply, still weak from the force of the Jedi’s blow.

“You will help me answer something I have always wondered about.” Blood dripped from the Sith’s lip onto the floor as he spoke.

“What is that?” asked the Commander as he stepped behind the restraining chair.

“I have always wondered if the Force is the true dreamer…”

The Commander raised the barrel of his pistol to the base of the Sith’s skull.

“And we are merely… the dream.”

The Commander pulled the trigger and the Sith’s body jolted in the chair and then sagged lifelessly into itself. The Jedi turned away.

A few minutes later, the Commander stood waiting in the hall for a turbolift. The Jedi ran to catch up with him.

“Commander, I… I am sorry.”

The Commander looked the Jedi in the eyes.

“There is nothing to be sorry for. It had to be done. I’m just glad I was the one to do it.”

The turbolift arrived and the Commander stepped in.

“I will go and meditate on this. I feel so much conflict in myself.”

“Conflict is our nature, my friend. I must go. Contact me if you have anything you wish to talk about.”

The Jedi nodded.

“May the Force be with you, Commander Simplicio.”

“May it be with us both,” said the Sith.

The End.