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My Own Game - 6
Nov. 8th, 2024 10:23 pmA long time in a galaxy far, far away, everything was completely different from what was written in the history textbooks at the demand of the rulers and their rivals.
The teenager received abilities one didn't want. A happy life is destroyed, and survival and freedom can become empty words. But if the world wants to turn you into a toy, you can make it play your own game with you.
***
Note: Self-consolation scribbles. I found a great Star Wars game but couldn't even get past the prologue because the controls were so complicated. This fanfic is NOT like that game. And it is AU for SW. I specifically try not to show who the character is, a boy or a girl, what their appearance is, so that readers can choose all this themselves, like in a video game.
— 6 —
Emil, thanks for the preliminary reading.
The investigator arrived at the Academy an hour after my Force let the side down. The investigator interrogated not only me and Sliffe but also everyone who could even slightly see the scene on that bench.
I realised belatedly that there was video surveillance in the park. And the investigator saw what essay I was writing and what clause I was preparing to say.
There is no doubt that the investigator is a former Sith or Jedi, or both. Otherwise, he would not have understood anything about the incident.
"Don't worry, Eirian," said one of the school psychologists who had been monitoring my interrogation. "They'll catch this brat."
As soon as the investigator arrived, the Academy sent all the students to the medical room for a checkup. The teachers allegedly wanted to find out if the Force had harmed anyone. Yeah, right... The investigator is looking for someone with an elevated midi-chlorian count.
I managed to convince Sliffe, who was dragging me to the nurse, that I was fine. Now, I must wait for the secret Forcean to complain to their parents about the medical procedure that was performed without their consent. Strictly speaking, the boarding school has the right to make medical and legal decisions of minor and moderate importance on behalf of the parents, but they can always intervene.
Unless it's a student and not a guard or a gardener.
I wonder, can parents be able to take their child from the boarding school quickly?
Mine Mum and Dad will at least try. I hope someone else will come to pick up their children too, which will cause more noise and distract attention from me.
At home, I tested my blood while I was wearing the talisman I made similar to the tattoo that disappeared. It showed a normal number of midi-chlorians. But now they're going to test me with the latest technology, and I'm not sure this talisman will hide my damn mutation.
I answered the investigator's questions, thinking about what he had found. He is too easy to accept "I didn't notice anything, I didn't understand anything, I was in a swoon" from a direct participant in the events.
And I also urgently need to talk to Major Tucker.
"I need to go to the lavatory."
The psychologist was clearly tired of sitting through interrogations of underage ones, and she immediately attacked the investigator, saying that the interrogation was harmful to a minor with health problems.
The investigator let me go and gave the report to the psychologist to sign. I didn't look at what was written because I hadn't said anything serious anyway, and the psychologist is responsible and careful; there are no others in the expensive school and she won't allow the investigator to write anything unnecessary.
I ran to the restroom. Of course, it's impossible to talk in a stall with no roof and a huge gap at the bottom so that the sensors can only detect one user in the stall (to combat potential violence, yes). But there's a utility room next to the lavatory with a cleaning droid. And Tucker taught me how to use it to make room for secret calls. Jedi wisdom, he said. The Sith had more freedom. It was not much, but it was better than nothing.
I rang Tucker's emergency number. He promised to answer it any time, day or night, no matter what he was doing.
I told him about how the Force had suddenly appeared and disappeared. And I asked:
"The police and the army have many Forceans. No one is hunting them. Why should I hide?"
"Life is shit," Tucker said. "It's not fair. You know that, having had so many illnesses since infancy. And the universe is full of idiots. They believe that people who have been both Sith and Jedi and then escaped are safe for Kadvir. But a Forcean child could potentially become a Jedi or a Sith, and therefore an enemy. The Big Republic has attacked Kadvir four times. And the Empire has done it three times. All seven times Kadvir has given the aggressors a good beating, but no one here has forgotten anything. Kadvir is formally neutral, but the Empire and the Republic are enemies to all of us. Especially now, as the Empire slides back into famine due to government regulation of the economy and the Republic seeks to show its strength against another wave of separatism."
Tucker sighed.
"It's complicated for someone your age, but I'll try to put it simply. Kadvir is afraid that the Empire and the Republic will try to distract their citizens from their problems by attacking us. And our government has reasons for that. The Republic and the Empire are run by idiots who, instead of improving the lives of their citizens, want to ruin the lives of all their neighbours so that their citizens don't envy them."
"But why not teach the Kadvir Forseans to use the Force in a way that would be useful to Kadvir?" I didn't understand.
"There's no use for the Force, buddy. None at all."
"But why?" I insisted. "Show business, for example... Only one child in a hundred can study music. And one in ten thousand of those who do become musicians. But even in municipal schools there is a music course with a dozen different specialisations, and musical-instrument factories are flourishing. The same goes for painting and dance."
"Music has been a huge industry since prehistoric times, kid." Tucker laughed sadly. "So have dancing, painting and cooking. No matter how much AI can do these things, talented people are still needed. If the Force could make money, schools would teach it like maths. And engineers would find a way to use the Force for everyone. Adapters, transitions... You use an AI music arranger tuned to your emotions. And video games still require live artists; restaurants boast special dishes from a live chef. And the Force... It's zero."
"Well…" Tucker seemed embarrassed. But he said decisively, "Oh, well, you're already taking sex education classes. Near the Foreign Legion base, there's a throng of prostitutes of all sexes and races hanging around 24 hours a day. They're waiting for the next legionnaire to get a day off and go squander his weekly pay. When I juggled beer cans without touching them or made funny figures out of straws in the air, prostitutes would have sex with me for free. I saved faster for my first house, which I rented out. In a real war, without stupid blasters and worthless plasma, it is not the Force that helps, but a bulletproof vest and the ability to shoot better than the enemy."
"But the world is changing," I persisted. "Many things that were not needed before have become useful now. Especially in the entertainment industry. Economists say that video games, toys, and pet care products make more money than mining. If you can be an arranger and even a composer via an adapter, why can't you grow midi-chlorians on farms like potatoes and sheep?"
I phrased my question crookedly, but Tucker said:
"Try it, buddy. Why not? Maybe you really will make the Force a sought-after commodity. A lot of children and parents will thank you when the Force is taught to everyone in regular schools, like operating a computer."
"Children and parents..." I repeated, trying to catch the escaping thought. And I said, "In the army and other security agencies of Cadvir, married employees or single parents are considered more reliable. Major Tucker, have you noticed that only those who were happy with their parents as children became renegade Jedi? Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, Xanatos…"
"Luke Skywalker was loyal to the Jedi, he revived the Order, even though he grew up in a happy family."
"No, " I said. "When a child calls his guardians 'uncle' and 'aunt' and not 'Mum' and 'Dad,' he is unhappy. Leia is also an adopted child, but she had a Mum and Dad. The family of Breha Antilles-Organa, her adoptive mother, was kind enough to Leia to feel at home there and to consider the planet Alderaan as a piece of her. And this despite the fact that the family is royal, that is, with dashes of madness and quirks. But the Skywalkers tolerated Luke as something alien that would eventually pay for itself by making a true farm heir for them. For farmers, the son they pass on their land to is the meaning of their lives. Farmers always love their children very much. You fought in the Frontier Belt; you saw how farmers treasured their children. The Skywalkers did not treat Luke that way. And unlike the Organa family, they didn't adopt a second child. Winter was also happy in the Organa family and got on well with her half-sister. And Leia was a very strong Forcean, but she didn't become a Jedi or a Sith. At the same time, Leia and Winter were loyal to the Republic. Or to their ideas of what it should be. And both sisters had their own families: marriage partners, children, and all that. The sisters loved their nephews and nieces and were taking them in and looking after them as if they were their own children when one of them had to go away on business."
"You may be right, Mx. Gwalchtan," Tucker said. "When I remember all the transitions from one side to another, I see most family persons who lost their family to the Dark Guard or the Light Order. Even Kylo Ren, the brainless loser, was loved by his family. Winter always took care of him, and Leia tried as best she could to provide a comfortable environment for her underdeveloped but generously Force-gifted son. It was not her fault that there was no choice but the equally underdeveloped Luke, who also never had a real family. It's unlikely that Leia seriously thought that 'Two morons are strong,' but she sincerely believed that two pathetic people could support each other and be happy away from ridicule. Moreover, Luke had many other students who were equally deprived of intelligence, and Kylo had the opportunity to make friends."
"You think all those stories about Palpatine, Luke, Rey, Darth Maul and the rest were real? They don't stand up to criticism! Just think of that ridiculous attack on the Imperial space base, or Death Star, or whatever it was, with bombers made out of containers for collecting space junk in planetary orbits."
"Don't mix flies with cutlets, Mx. Gwalchtan. Rebels and terrorists have made effective weapons out of worse things. And they've attacked successfully. A container for collecting junk as a bomber is a great idea, if you look at it from an engineer's point of view. But controlling the bomb release with a remote control like a home TV, rather than from the onboard computer, is nonsense. Only a degenerate would think of such a thing. But for the technical thinking of the Empire and the Republic, this is not surprising. Why do you think little Kadvir has defeated such large and heavily armed states so many times?"
"And the meat attacks?" I asked.
"For systems like the Empire and the Republic, human life has no meaning. That's why the rebels fight with flesh, not droids. The first thing the instructors at the Kadvir Army College say when they analyse this operation is that the fighters and bombers had to be unmanned, and the people controlling them remotely had to be hidden behind a wall of droids. And if for some reason the use of fly droids with AI, remote control and all that is impossible, then a small sabotage group is used, which enters the object, destroys it and returns home. The cost of a thousand large AI droids and the training of a small sabotage group is the same in money and in the number of soldiers saved from your army. It is not for nothing that the Empire, the Republic, and the Rebels break all records for the number of deserters. A self-respecting soldier will not stoop to serve in such an army. And when a soldier does not respect himself, the army always loses the war."
"The Empire is a little smarter," I noted.
"And that's why it attacked Kadvir three times, not four. As for the people you mentioned... Even if they are fictional, their story is completely reliable from a psychological point of view. An army commander doesn't study it as deeply as a psychologist, but it's impossible to command people in battle without understanding their souls. So you can certainly learn from the example of the Jedi-Sith-Rebel crowd how not to act."
"Why did you leave the Sith, Major Tucker? You were in the Guard from birth."
"I fell in love with a guy from my fencing group. And he returned my feelings. In the Empire, same-sex relations are punishable by death. So Eloy and I fled to the Big Republic, which, unlike the rest of the galaxy, isn't afraid of the Force and also doesn't execute gays. Alas, we had no other path in the Republic except to become Jedi. But the Light Order immediately told us about the taboo of any personal feelings, sent us to different planets to finish our studies, and forbade calls and letters. But we heard about neutral states with same-sex marriages. Aloy fled to the Trade Federation even before I fled to Kadvir. It wasn't that it was a neutral state, but he settled in well. He has a husband, two children cloned from their combined biomaterial, and a good career in the security of commercial shipments." He paused for a moment and added, before I could ask if he was still on the line, "Eloy suggested the escape. And he remembered his family. He missed them. They wrote to each other when they could. It was rare, but it was a living family connection. After Eloy fled to the Trade Federation, part of his family moved in with him. The second half of his family were Imperial fanatics and disowned him and the first half, but Eloy still had a home."
Tucker laughed bitterly.
"If you, my friend, make the Force a useful commodity, that will be great. If not, don't worry. The world is full of worthless things. The main thing is to take care of your life. Save your skin always and everywhere. There is nothing wrong with that, especially when you have a family."
"And I have quite a few jobs," I added. "Major Tucker, you may not believe this, but the owners of corporations always feel responsible for the people who work for them. None of us are benefactors, but in business the dependence is mutual. Without the people, we will go broke; without us, they will not get food and a roof over their heads."
"Why, Mx. Gwalchtan, I believe it. All the more reason to be careful."
I said goodbye and returned the droids to the utility room. Luckily, the noise raised by the investigation distracted everyone, and no one noticed that the droids were cleaning the john for too long.
I walked along the corridors and halls of the Academy to listen to the gossip. The directorate was full of parents who wanted to pick up their children. In some places along the corridors, children argued with their parents, not wanting to leave. And there was good news: almost all parents forbade their children to be tested for midi-chlorians, insisting that their children were normal, and therefore the Academy was insulting them with the suspicion of mutation. Well, it's all clear: almost all parents decided that excess midi-chlorians could have accumulated as their precious kid grew up and therefore hid their offspring from meeting the Jedi and Sith as best they could even before these very midi-chlorians were found.
"Tina Alverist," I heard a stern and categorical female voice, "you will go home right now! You will finish middle school in the municipal system, and instead of high school, you will go to a two-year sergeant course. By the time you reach adulthood, you will have a trade and a full school education. And after a year's service, you will begin training at the Army College by order of the command, or resign, because you will understand how much real military service differs from the movies."
I realised that this was Tina's mother. They were quite similar; only the mother was red-haired, and Tina was blonde.
And Tina's mother was a Forsean. I felt it. And I realised that she saw the Force in me.
I didn't know what to do. And I was very scared.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/57638197
The teenager received abilities one didn't want. A happy life is destroyed, and survival and freedom can become empty words. But if the world wants to turn you into a toy, you can make it play your own game with you.
***
Note: Self-consolation scribbles. I found a great Star Wars game but couldn't even get past the prologue because the controls were so complicated. This fanfic is NOT like that game. And it is AU for SW. I specifically try not to show who the character is, a boy or a girl, what their appearance is, so that readers can choose all this themselves, like in a video game.
— 6 —
Emil, thanks for the preliminary reading.
The investigator arrived at the Academy an hour after my Force let the side down. The investigator interrogated not only me and Sliffe but also everyone who could even slightly see the scene on that bench.
I realised belatedly that there was video surveillance in the park. And the investigator saw what essay I was writing and what clause I was preparing to say.
There is no doubt that the investigator is a former Sith or Jedi, or both. Otherwise, he would not have understood anything about the incident.
"Don't worry, Eirian," said one of the school psychologists who had been monitoring my interrogation. "They'll catch this brat."
As soon as the investigator arrived, the Academy sent all the students to the medical room for a checkup. The teachers allegedly wanted to find out if the Force had harmed anyone. Yeah, right... The investigator is looking for someone with an elevated midi-chlorian count.
I managed to convince Sliffe, who was dragging me to the nurse, that I was fine. Now, I must wait for the secret Forcean to complain to their parents about the medical procedure that was performed without their consent. Strictly speaking, the boarding school has the right to make medical and legal decisions of minor and moderate importance on behalf of the parents, but they can always intervene.
Unless it's a student and not a guard or a gardener.
I wonder, can parents be able to take their child from the boarding school quickly?
Mine Mum and Dad will at least try. I hope someone else will come to pick up their children too, which will cause more noise and distract attention from me.
At home, I tested my blood while I was wearing the talisman I made similar to the tattoo that disappeared. It showed a normal number of midi-chlorians. But now they're going to test me with the latest technology, and I'm not sure this talisman will hide my damn mutation.
I answered the investigator's questions, thinking about what he had found. He is too easy to accept "I didn't notice anything, I didn't understand anything, I was in a swoon" from a direct participant in the events.
And I also urgently need to talk to Major Tucker.
"I need to go to the lavatory."
The psychologist was clearly tired of sitting through interrogations of underage ones, and she immediately attacked the investigator, saying that the interrogation was harmful to a minor with health problems.
The investigator let me go and gave the report to the psychologist to sign. I didn't look at what was written because I hadn't said anything serious anyway, and the psychologist is responsible and careful; there are no others in the expensive school and she won't allow the investigator to write anything unnecessary.
I ran to the restroom. Of course, it's impossible to talk in a stall with no roof and a huge gap at the bottom so that the sensors can only detect one user in the stall (to combat potential violence, yes). But there's a utility room next to the lavatory with a cleaning droid. And Tucker taught me how to use it to make room for secret calls. Jedi wisdom, he said. The Sith had more freedom. It was not much, but it was better than nothing.
I rang Tucker's emergency number. He promised to answer it any time, day or night, no matter what he was doing.
I told him about how the Force had suddenly appeared and disappeared. And I asked:
"The police and the army have many Forceans. No one is hunting them. Why should I hide?"
"Life is shit," Tucker said. "It's not fair. You know that, having had so many illnesses since infancy. And the universe is full of idiots. They believe that people who have been both Sith and Jedi and then escaped are safe for Kadvir. But a Forcean child could potentially become a Jedi or a Sith, and therefore an enemy. The Big Republic has attacked Kadvir four times. And the Empire has done it three times. All seven times Kadvir has given the aggressors a good beating, but no one here has forgotten anything. Kadvir is formally neutral, but the Empire and the Republic are enemies to all of us. Especially now, as the Empire slides back into famine due to government regulation of the economy and the Republic seeks to show its strength against another wave of separatism."
Tucker sighed.
"It's complicated for someone your age, but I'll try to put it simply. Kadvir is afraid that the Empire and the Republic will try to distract their citizens from their problems by attacking us. And our government has reasons for that. The Republic and the Empire are run by idiots who, instead of improving the lives of their citizens, want to ruin the lives of all their neighbours so that their citizens don't envy them."
"But why not teach the Kadvir Forseans to use the Force in a way that would be useful to Kadvir?" I didn't understand.
"There's no use for the Force, buddy. None at all."
"But why?" I insisted. "Show business, for example... Only one child in a hundred can study music. And one in ten thousand of those who do become musicians. But even in municipal schools there is a music course with a dozen different specialisations, and musical-instrument factories are flourishing. The same goes for painting and dance."
"Music has been a huge industry since prehistoric times, kid." Tucker laughed sadly. "So have dancing, painting and cooking. No matter how much AI can do these things, talented people are still needed. If the Force could make money, schools would teach it like maths. And engineers would find a way to use the Force for everyone. Adapters, transitions... You use an AI music arranger tuned to your emotions. And video games still require live artists; restaurants boast special dishes from a live chef. And the Force... It's zero."
"Well…" Tucker seemed embarrassed. But he said decisively, "Oh, well, you're already taking sex education classes. Near the Foreign Legion base, there's a throng of prostitutes of all sexes and races hanging around 24 hours a day. They're waiting for the next legionnaire to get a day off and go squander his weekly pay. When I juggled beer cans without touching them or made funny figures out of straws in the air, prostitutes would have sex with me for free. I saved faster for my first house, which I rented out. In a real war, without stupid blasters and worthless plasma, it is not the Force that helps, but a bulletproof vest and the ability to shoot better than the enemy."
"But the world is changing," I persisted. "Many things that were not needed before have become useful now. Especially in the entertainment industry. Economists say that video games, toys, and pet care products make more money than mining. If you can be an arranger and even a composer via an adapter, why can't you grow midi-chlorians on farms like potatoes and sheep?"
I phrased my question crookedly, but Tucker said:
"Try it, buddy. Why not? Maybe you really will make the Force a sought-after commodity. A lot of children and parents will thank you when the Force is taught to everyone in regular schools, like operating a computer."
"Children and parents..." I repeated, trying to catch the escaping thought. And I said, "In the army and other security agencies of Cadvir, married employees or single parents are considered more reliable. Major Tucker, have you noticed that only those who were happy with their parents as children became renegade Jedi? Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, Xanatos…"
"Luke Skywalker was loyal to the Jedi, he revived the Order, even though he grew up in a happy family."
"No, " I said. "When a child calls his guardians 'uncle' and 'aunt' and not 'Mum' and 'Dad,' he is unhappy. Leia is also an adopted child, but she had a Mum and Dad. The family of Breha Antilles-Organa, her adoptive mother, was kind enough to Leia to feel at home there and to consider the planet Alderaan as a piece of her. And this despite the fact that the family is royal, that is, with dashes of madness and quirks. But the Skywalkers tolerated Luke as something alien that would eventually pay for itself by making a true farm heir for them. For farmers, the son they pass on their land to is the meaning of their lives. Farmers always love their children very much. You fought in the Frontier Belt; you saw how farmers treasured their children. The Skywalkers did not treat Luke that way. And unlike the Organa family, they didn't adopt a second child. Winter was also happy in the Organa family and got on well with her half-sister. And Leia was a very strong Forcean, but she didn't become a Jedi or a Sith. At the same time, Leia and Winter were loyal to the Republic. Or to their ideas of what it should be. And both sisters had their own families: marriage partners, children, and all that. The sisters loved their nephews and nieces and were taking them in and looking after them as if they were their own children when one of them had to go away on business."
"You may be right, Mx. Gwalchtan," Tucker said. "When I remember all the transitions from one side to another, I see most family persons who lost their family to the Dark Guard or the Light Order. Even Kylo Ren, the brainless loser, was loved by his family. Winter always took care of him, and Leia tried as best she could to provide a comfortable environment for her underdeveloped but generously Force-gifted son. It was not her fault that there was no choice but the equally underdeveloped Luke, who also never had a real family. It's unlikely that Leia seriously thought that 'Two morons are strong,' but she sincerely believed that two pathetic people could support each other and be happy away from ridicule. Moreover, Luke had many other students who were equally deprived of intelligence, and Kylo had the opportunity to make friends."
"You think all those stories about Palpatine, Luke, Rey, Darth Maul and the rest were real? They don't stand up to criticism! Just think of that ridiculous attack on the Imperial space base, or Death Star, or whatever it was, with bombers made out of containers for collecting space junk in planetary orbits."
"Don't mix flies with cutlets, Mx. Gwalchtan. Rebels and terrorists have made effective weapons out of worse things. And they've attacked successfully. A container for collecting junk as a bomber is a great idea, if you look at it from an engineer's point of view. But controlling the bomb release with a remote control like a home TV, rather than from the onboard computer, is nonsense. Only a degenerate would think of such a thing. But for the technical thinking of the Empire and the Republic, this is not surprising. Why do you think little Kadvir has defeated such large and heavily armed states so many times?"
"And the meat attacks?" I asked.
"For systems like the Empire and the Republic, human life has no meaning. That's why the rebels fight with flesh, not droids. The first thing the instructors at the Kadvir Army College say when they analyse this operation is that the fighters and bombers had to be unmanned, and the people controlling them remotely had to be hidden behind a wall of droids. And if for some reason the use of fly droids with AI, remote control and all that is impossible, then a small sabotage group is used, which enters the object, destroys it and returns home. The cost of a thousand large AI droids and the training of a small sabotage group is the same in money and in the number of soldiers saved from your army. It is not for nothing that the Empire, the Republic, and the Rebels break all records for the number of deserters. A self-respecting soldier will not stoop to serve in such an army. And when a soldier does not respect himself, the army always loses the war."
"The Empire is a little smarter," I noted.
"And that's why it attacked Kadvir three times, not four. As for the people you mentioned... Even if they are fictional, their story is completely reliable from a psychological point of view. An army commander doesn't study it as deeply as a psychologist, but it's impossible to command people in battle without understanding their souls. So you can certainly learn from the example of the Jedi-Sith-Rebel crowd how not to act."
"Why did you leave the Sith, Major Tucker? You were in the Guard from birth."
"I fell in love with a guy from my fencing group. And he returned my feelings. In the Empire, same-sex relations are punishable by death. So Eloy and I fled to the Big Republic, which, unlike the rest of the galaxy, isn't afraid of the Force and also doesn't execute gays. Alas, we had no other path in the Republic except to become Jedi. But the Light Order immediately told us about the taboo of any personal feelings, sent us to different planets to finish our studies, and forbade calls and letters. But we heard about neutral states with same-sex marriages. Aloy fled to the Trade Federation even before I fled to Kadvir. It wasn't that it was a neutral state, but he settled in well. He has a husband, two children cloned from their combined biomaterial, and a good career in the security of commercial shipments." He paused for a moment and added, before I could ask if he was still on the line, "Eloy suggested the escape. And he remembered his family. He missed them. They wrote to each other when they could. It was rare, but it was a living family connection. After Eloy fled to the Trade Federation, part of his family moved in with him. The second half of his family were Imperial fanatics and disowned him and the first half, but Eloy still had a home."
Tucker laughed bitterly.
"If you, my friend, make the Force a useful commodity, that will be great. If not, don't worry. The world is full of worthless things. The main thing is to take care of your life. Save your skin always and everywhere. There is nothing wrong with that, especially when you have a family."
"And I have quite a few jobs," I added. "Major Tucker, you may not believe this, but the owners of corporations always feel responsible for the people who work for them. None of us are benefactors, but in business the dependence is mutual. Without the people, we will go broke; without us, they will not get food and a roof over their heads."
"Why, Mx. Gwalchtan, I believe it. All the more reason to be careful."
I said goodbye and returned the droids to the utility room. Luckily, the noise raised by the investigation distracted everyone, and no one noticed that the droids were cleaning the john for too long.
I walked along the corridors and halls of the Academy to listen to the gossip. The directorate was full of parents who wanted to pick up their children. In some places along the corridors, children argued with their parents, not wanting to leave. And there was good news: almost all parents forbade their children to be tested for midi-chlorians, insisting that their children were normal, and therefore the Academy was insulting them with the suspicion of mutation. Well, it's all clear: almost all parents decided that excess midi-chlorians could have accumulated as their precious kid grew up and therefore hid their offspring from meeting the Jedi and Sith as best they could even before these very midi-chlorians were found.
"Tina Alverist," I heard a stern and categorical female voice, "you will go home right now! You will finish middle school in the municipal system, and instead of high school, you will go to a two-year sergeant course. By the time you reach adulthood, you will have a trade and a full school education. And after a year's service, you will begin training at the Army College by order of the command, or resign, because you will understand how much real military service differs from the movies."
I realised that this was Tina's mother. They were quite similar; only the mother was red-haired, and Tina was blonde.
And Tina's mother was a Forsean. I felt it. And I realised that she saw the Force in me.
I didn't know what to do. And I was very scared.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/57638197
