“I have argued with myself a thousand times as to whether I should save this knowledge or share it with you. In the end, I have decided to trust you with it. It’s your own destiny, after all. It belongs to you as much as the gloves I gave you, the brown eyes you inherited from your father, or the Force that connects you to your great-grandfather. If you do go searching, learn what you can from his possessions, glean what you can from his life, but then burn whatever you find. Leave behind nothing. Not even his ashes—throw them into the water.
“I love you, my boy. Your parents love you, too. I look forward to the day when I will see you again and we can discuss all that you’ve learned. Be safe. And may the Force be with you.”
The message finished playing and went dark, and when Karr finished crying, Maize asked him what he wanted to do.
He composed himself and simply said, “I want to finish my training.”
Maize was still technically grounded, so she headed home before anyone could accuse her of sneaking out—even though she’d done exactly that. Either the alarm on her bedroom door wasn’t very good, or she was as sneaky about climbing out of windows as she was about climbing into them. That left Karr alone with his grandmother’s hologram, which he played over and over at least a hundred times, trying to milk new information from every line.
Every word. Every smile.
Nothing new jumped out at him, and everything was both thrilling and terrifying. If he were to go looking for his great-grandfather’s dwelling, he’d be taking his life into his own hands. And what would he find? A lightsaber? Bones to be burned? The remains of a small house that years before had fallen into disrepair and toppled into a marsh?
But what he was really hoping to find was answers.
Naq Med’s story was a cautionary tale in itself. He had tried to change his fate but in the end was tied to it. Could Karr change what he believed was his path to the dark side?
This was his grandmother’s last act of love, the promise of a quest to find the answers that could help him.
If Karr could actually get off Merokia one more time and find the little lost planet with the little lost house. If only he had a ship that could take him.
Maize had ideas.
Maize probably always had ideas, but she definitely had ideas about Naq Med and how to find where he lived. At night, via the holocomm she’d found outside his window and returned to him, she spun wild tales of breaking loose and stealing ships—her father’s or someone else’s. She talked about cashing out the fund her parents had set up for school and buying a ship. Even a junk of a ship like that space freighter on Jakku would still have a little bit of life in it.
“Maybe we could actually buy it,” she proposed. “I bet Plutt would sell it to us.”
“I think Plutt hates us,” Karr said. “I think he’d probably shoot us on sight.”
“You’re so dramatic,” she said with an eye roll he could see loud and clear, despite the projector’s poor resolution.
“I’m dramatic? You’re the one who wants to…somehow…go back to Jakku and test the patience of…of…a warlord, or a scavenger king, or whatever that guy is.”
“He’d never shoot me. I have money.”
“He’d definitely shoot me, because I don’t. And you don’t even know how to fly that kind of ship, do you?”
She shrugged. “Eh. The principle is pretty much the same, as long as you’re talking about civilian ships. Fighting ships are different, and big transport cruisers are different, but all the ships that are kind of in the middle? They’re all the same type.”
He didn’t believe her, not for a moment. She’d been able to fly the First Order yacht because her dad had taught her, but there was no way that every other ship of the same size and caliber was exactly the same from a controls standpoint.
But he was learning not to argue with her.
He sighed instead. “There must be some good way to get a ship again. We did it once, right? It’s definitely possible.”
Maize got very quiet. “I have an idea.”
“Oh, no.”
“No, seriously. Let me…let me plan some strategy, call a meeting, see what I can do. Give me a day or two, though. I’m going to try something I’ve never done before.”
“You’re scaring me, Maize.”
She replied with a mock-evil laugh that sounded something like “Mwoohahahahaha.” Then the holocomm went dead, and Karr was alone again in his bedroom with his thoughts, his hopes, and his grandmother’s message.
As it turned out, Maize was as good as her word. The next day, she sat her parents down for a meeting—a meeting that surprised Karr from several directions when he arrived at her house and saw her parents together.
“Your dad’s back?” he whispered from the side of his mouth.
Louder, like she didn’t care if he’d heard her, she said, “Yeah, he came back for the ship.”
Her father cleared his throat.
“And me! Probably. Since I managed to get us in such spectacular trouble, I mean.”
The meeting was stiff and awkward, but rich people were weird; that’s what Karr told himself. He smiled anyway and tried to use his very best manners—and then his very best holding still and staying quiet while Maize did the heavy lifting.
Vroc Raynshi was tall and slim and cleanly shaven. His hair was black and his face was narrow and sharp; it was the face of a man who was either quite brilliant or a little cruel, and possibly both. Anaya was a small, pretty Mirialan woman with green skin, a rounded shape and the bleary eyes of a woman who didn’t like to be out of bed so early in the morning—even though it was nearly lunchtime.
Everyone waited awkwardly in the living room while Maize began her sales pitch.
She stood up straight and took a deep breath.
“First, I want to thank you both for being kind enough to hear me out. Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep this short.”
Her mother looked at her father and asked, “What’s this about, again?”
He flashed her a look that was partly annoyed and a tad impatient. “I’m sure she’ll tell us, if you’ll listen. It’s about her and her friend. The one she ran off with.” They both looked Karr up and down, as if he was a strange new specimen their daughter had brought home as a pet.
“Right, right.”
Maize absorbed the passing interruption with practiced ease and powered on through her little speech. “Yes, I’m going to tell you. For the last year or two in particular, I’ve been getting a lot of sit-down talks about taking responsibility for my actions and behaving in a more adult fashion. That’s what I want to talk to you about. It’s very hard to prove that I’ve learned anything, or to demonstrate any changes in my behavior, when I’m stuck inside. I can’t prove I’ve grown if I can’t leave the house.”
Her dad frowned. “Is that what this is? Are you lobbying to have your curfew lifted? I’m not sure we needed all this formality for that conversation.”
She pointed at him. “Yes, that’s what this is about. Kind of. Let me explain how and why, though. Let me tell you what we need to do. As you may recall,” she said with emphasis, in an effort to bring things back on track, “when I borrowed the Avadora and left the planet with Karr over there…”
He gave a small, uncomfortable wave.
“I was angry and selfish, and I shouldn’t have dragged him along with me.” She shot him a look that told him not to argue—that she was choosing her framing of the situation carefully. “I got myself in trouble, and I got him in trouble, too. But! We also had a grand adventure where no one got hurt, and everyone came home okay. So it could’ve been worse, right?” Maize’s father nodded so slightly that the motion could hardly be called a nod at all.
“I think we can agree that it worked out for the best. We’re all alive and safe on Merokia, and now I owe a great debt to my parents and my school, and to my friend Karr.” She gestured at him like she expected him to take a bow, but he didn’t. He only sat there look
ing nervous.
“And to Arzee…Where’s Arzee?” she paused to ask. “You didn’t bring him?”
Karr said, “My dad needed him for something, sorry.”
She shrugged. “Okay, with the help of Arzee, he managed to pilot the ship without me, and without breaking anything—mostly because I’m such a good teacher.”
Her father cracked the faintest of smiles. “Are we here to listen to you pat yourself on the back, my dear?”
“No! Of course not. I’m setting the stage, that’s all. Father, you like to sit me down and talk to me about growing up and conducting myself like a good citizen and a reliable adult. That’s what I want, too! And I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it, and I have an idea—but I’ll need help from Karr, and we’ll both need everyone’s permission.”
Her mother squeaked, “Permission for what?”
Maize’s eyes were warm and wide, but Karr knew one of her con jobs when he saw it. He tried really hard not to grin.
“Permission to become a better person. A less selfish person. A person who takes responsibility for her actions and her promises. Karr has recently learned the whereabouts of his great-grandfather’s home, and I want to help him find it. I feel terrible about all the trouble I got him into, and I want to make it up to him. I want to take the Avadora again, for one more trip.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. Karr choked down a laugh. So that’s where Maize had gotten it from. “This is ridiculous,” Anaya said.
“We finally got a real lead on Karr’s lineage, but it’s at the other end of the galaxy, of course. Here’s what I’m proposing: You let us take the ship one last time. You can put a tracker on it, or a monitor to check my flying and make sure I’m not doing any crazy trick maneuvers. We’ll bring Arzee, and he can record our every interaction for you to review upon our return. I’ll call home three times a day, every day, so you know we’re all right and staying out of trouble.”
“This is the most unlikely thing I’ve ever heard,” Maize’s father said with a slow shake of his head.
Maize was on top of it. “Yes. I realize this is nuts. It’s a ridiculous thing to ask, and a ridiculous thing to try. But I owe him, don’t you see? I need to make it up to him.” Her eyes were so big and so damp, and Karr thought it must be nice to be able to cry on cue—instead of by accident at inconvenient times.
By any metric, she was putting on a great show. Even so, Anaya couldn’t help asking, “Have you lost your mind?”
But Maize stood firm. “No,” she said with surprising weight. “But I have found something. I’ve found an answer.”
Karr looked at her curiously, unsure where this was going.
Maize took a deep breath. “You both know how unhappy I am every time we move.”
Vroc sighed. “Not this again.”
“Yes, this again,” she shot back.
“You’ve always told me that when the time was right I could pick wherever I wanted for us to live. And so I gave that some serious thought. I wrote a list. At the top of one column I wrote ‘Things I Want,’ and on the other column I wrote ‘Things I Need.’ Then I started with the wants—warm climate, access to technology, an arts district, major spaceport, an active social scene, a respectable library,” she said, turning to include Karr on that one before continuing. “Fine restaurants, maybe a zoo…” By the time she was finished, it had been so long that her mother felt the need to reapply some mascara.
“That’s it?” her father said sarcastically.
“Then,” she said, ignoring his interruption, “I started the needs.”
There was a pause, and everyone wondered if she had forgotten the needs because there were so many. But instead she said, “And that’s when I realized there was only one thing on the list…a connection.”
This was enough to make both parents straighten in their chairs.
“Dad, for so long I’ve tried to hold on to you. To keep you from always leaving, because…I worry you’ll forget me. And I’ll be alone.”
Vroc bowed his head. Karr could see that Maize’s words were reaching her father.
“And, Mom, you’re here, too, but it’s like you’re not here. I know you miss Dad and you busy yourself with things to distract from your own loneliness, but that doesn’t leave any time for me. And so then I get mad and treat you poorly, as well. And no home should be like that. In fact, it got me asking myself what exactly makes a home. And though it took me a while, I think I finally realized that a home isn’t just a place. It’s a feeling. It’s a connection. When I was traveling with Karr, we stopped in hot places and dry places and scary places, but never once did I feel alone. Because I had a connection. I had a friend. And I know that if we spent more time together as a family I wouldn’t feel so alone whenever you had to leave. Or if we had to move again, or anything.”
The room was silent, and Karr realized that Maize had been true to her word. She had done something she had never done before. Her big plan to win her parents over? Simply to tell the truth.
Maize’s father was the first to speak. “Honey, I had no idea you felt this way.”
“How could you?” she said. “You’re always gone.”
Vroc looked sad. “I know, honey. But I can’t just stop working.”
“I know,” she said. “But maybe instead of having the First Order shuttle you back and forth all the time, maybe…maybe you’ll let me fly you there.”
Karr piped up: “She really is an excellent pilot.”
Vroc smiled. “I have no doubt. And I love that idea. In fact, maybe we can find a position for you on my team. An internship or something so we can spend even more time together.”
“Really?” Maize beamed.
“Why not?” he said. “The First Order can do many things, but they can’t stop time. And pretty soon you might be leaving us!”
“Not if we have a real connection,” she said, placing her hand on her chest.
Anaya whimpered.
“Mom, I know what you’re thinking. That Dad and I are going to have a bond that you and I won’t have, but that’s not true.”
“You say that, but it’s unavoidable. You’re too much alike,” she lamented.
“Well, that’s why I got to thinking. This trip with Karr is very important. It’s about family, it’s about fate, and it’s about legacy. So when I come home…I’d like your help in getting a tattoo.”
Anaya’s eyes couldn’t hold any more tears and she burst into a full cry. “Really?”
“Yes. Even though I tease him a lot about what he doesn’t know, Karr has taught me a lot. About the importance of the past, and keeping a connection to the people we hold dear. I’d like to know more about our heritage. About our family. And I’d love for us to do it together.”
When everyone was done crying and everyone had been hugged, including Karr, Vroc and Anaya gave the two their blessing.
“You’ll have three days—no more than that,” her father said, trying hard to project the stoic demeanor he was known for. “You’ll take the trackers, make your calls, and meet every other condition you’ve laid out. I will watch how you pilot the ship from here on Merokia and judge your skills. I can’t have just anybody acting as my chauffeur.”
Not to be outdone, her mother said, “Start thinking of what kind of tattoo you’d like to get.”
Karr couldn’t resist joining in. “For the record, Karr starts with a K.” They all laughed before Maize playfully punched him in the arm.
When Karr got home to relay the latest exciting development, his parents were appalled.
“Why are you leaving again?” his mother demanded.
“I need closure,” he said. “Now that I know there was a Jedi in our family, it…it changes how I see my visions.” He certainly wasn’t as good at lying as Maize was, but he barreled forward regardless. “Maize’s family already said she can go with me, and they’re letting us take their ship again so that they can keep an eye on us with trackers.”
; “And where are you going exactly?” Tomar asked.
He hesitated. He hadn’t told them about the hologram message. J’Hara had left it for him, not them. He made something up on the fly. “I’ve been practicing with the Force, and I think I can use it to find my future.”
“Does the Force work like that?” his mother asked.
“This is how I’ll find out,” he said. “I know what I’m doing. And I’ll call you, too. I’ll let you know where we are, and what we’re doing. I’ll answer every time you try to reach me. You have to let me go do this. It’ll be so much safer this time!”
Looway still wasn’t convinced. “You want us to reward you for running away from home by letting you run away again? Are you insane?”
“I don’t want to run away again, I want to go with your permission.” Karr wasn’t accustomed to sharing personal things with his parents, but in this case he thought it might help. “On my last trip, I was lucky enough to learn about the Jedi. About a family named Skywalker and how their lives touched countless others through the Force. It was a good story, and it was a helpful story. But it wasn’t my story. I’d like to see if this trip can shed more light on my story.”
He could tell from their expressions that this line of reasoning did well, so he tried to land the ship once and for all. “Closure,” he repeated.
The discussion went back and forth a few more times. But in the end, a deal was struck: Karr could go with Maize on one last trip if he’d swear on his grandmother’s grave that he’d go to the trade school next month, as planned.
It was a devil’s bargain, but from where he was sitting, he had no other choice.
He made his decision. He made his promise. And he made his plans to find a little planet called Pam’ba, which was covered in grass and water.
Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Page 19