Aimira No-Kimuari - The Rhen'Var and Ando Prime Adventures

Aimira · Aimira No-Kimuari - The Rhen'Var and Ando Prime Adventures

This is set round about fifthteen years before the great Jedi purge, it helps fill in a few of the blanks in Aimira's bio, and also ties in with another story I’ve been writing that’s takes place over the purge.

Anyway, here is the first part on Ren'Var, there is still much to come, even before we get to Ando. This first bit will be edited as i go back and forth over it re-reading and filling it in a bit more.

The Zoros's shields lit up like a discotheque as it punched its way through the atmosphere of Rhen'Var far above the planets surface. The entire shuttle was buffeted by the increasingly thick atmosphere it now drove through. From the planets surface the ship shone like a bright jewel, with a stream of flame in its wake.
After several minutes of this the Zoros entered the lower atmosphere, the streaking flames were now gone and the hull began to cool once again. Big, heavy, thick cloud filled the cockpit window as far as the pilot could see from left to right and far into the distance.
The ship met the cloud layer all too soon and continued it’s decent, the ship shuddered with turbulence. Visibility instantly vanished as the ship entered plunged into the dark abyss. Every now and then small white streaks shot past the cockpit, eventually becoming more and more frequent. Before too long small amounts began building up in the small crevices of the canopy. All the while the ship was plunging towards the ground, the pilot making the best they could of the garbled sensor readings.

The Zoros shot through the bottom of the cloud like a bullet through water, the pilot could now all too clearly see the snow laden ground getting larger and larger, a vast mountain range stretched out parallel to its flight path on the port side. The pilot's arms moved faster and faster to a blur as they reversed thrust, engaged the ground repulsors, activated the landing thrusters, lowered the landing gear and pulled the nose sharply up. The pilot was forced deeper and deeper into the chair as the ship began slowing at a violent rate. The nose flopped back down to the level as the rear landing gear caught the surface of Rhen'Var sending a great spray of snow up into the air, creating a giant tail on the ships rear. The front gear snapped to the ground as the rear gear got better purchase, never the less the Zoros slid a distance across the surface, spinning ever so slightly as it did so, gradually coming to rest. The snow settled, half burying the ship from view.
Tiny little snowflakes began to fall. The pilot sat up again, pulling themselves from the seat and watched the snow begin to fall outside. The pilot caught site of her face in the Plexiglas as she did so, her face was young, barely in its twenties, her proud and powerful lekku lay in disarray. Her skin had also faded, from its vibrant red; it was now a pale pink of a thing. Her eyes though, her eyes told the story all to well. They told the story of someone who most definitely did not believe that they would be alive at this point of time. Her lekku bands glinted slightly, illuminated by the blue and green console lighting. Her eyes looked past the reflection again and out onto the world beyond. The ship had rotated clockwise as it had landed; the cockpit now looked out over a vast ice plain that went on all the way to the horizon. At some point a mountain range would probably jut out of the landscape once again. The plain itself was actually a vast ocean that had been frozen long ago, beyond a time any living thing or otherwise could remember. The sky had turned a very strange colour; it was almost blue, let utterly black. From the looks of things night was rapidly approaching on this frozen ice ball of a world. She felt it better to delay her expedition until tomorrow when there was at least a little light. It would at least give her a chance to recover from her less than pleasant landing. As the pilot rose from her seat, the light once again caught one of her lekku bands, it was the bottom most one, lightly inscribed on the surface in an ancient Twi’lek dialect was a name - Aimira No-Kimuari. The pilot moved into the main hold of the ship and climbed onto the bed that was just beyond the door. She clutched the blankets tightly around her, gave once last glance around the empty ship and closed her. Her mind drifted over the mountains that stood high above the surface of Rhen'Var behind the Zoros.

The library at the Jedi academy on Dantooine was vast. Aimira first stepped into it only a few days after her arrival at the academy. The library looked so big, so huge, so daunting at first. Over time she grew more and more confident. Before too much time had passed the library had become a second home of sorts. The young Aimira would stay long into the night reading stories long forgotten Jedi and their adventures to exotic worlds. Late one evening she had a short of-chance meeting with a Jedi master by the name of Dorion Gray, who at that time, was well known for traveling far and wide to many exotic outer rim worlds. This meeting sparked a deep interest in the young Aimira (only 7 at the time). The Master also curved her interest from just adventure to seeking out ancient Jedi artifacts. It was from this chance encounter that Aimira was now on Rhen'Var. The more she read the more she became entwined with these lost temples and their secrets.

Aimira opened her eyes sluggishly, as what little light made it through the cloud cover to the surface and made its way through the cockpit window. She closed her eyes again and flung herself out of the bed, causing it to squeak as she did so. Aimira made her way into the cockpit and lent against the pilots chair and looked out over the empty expanse that lay before her. The cloud cover seemed to have dissipated a little from last night and didn't look so foreboding. A few flakes of snow were still falling, but otherwise it was a beautiful day. Aimira flicked pair of switches on the main control board furthest from the front. The lights all over the ship began to dim and fade as it sent itself into a hibernation mode. Aimira hoped that the little power surging through the ship would be enough to stop it from freezing over.
She moved into the main hold of the ship and fetched a little to eat, before placing a thick jacket on over her robes and under her cloak, replaced her obsidian black boots with a pair of snow hikers, complete with ice spikes. She finally slung a large rucksack over her shoulders that had everything she would need for this expedition. She stepped across the hold, picked up a pair of extra thick gloves that lay next to the boarding ramp control. Aimira breathed slowly in and out one last time, before hitting the small button, dropping the ramp into the fresh snow below. She peered out over the world of white, it was such a strange and yet beautiful place. She stepped down the ramp, each footfalls sound carrying for miles, echoing around the mountain range.

Aimira cautiously placed one foot lightly into the snow and toyed with it for a few moments; she had seen snow on Dantooine, but never before anything remotely close to this. She placed her foot more firmly into the snow; it gave a fulfilling crunch as she did so. Next came the other foot, and it was placed besides her first. Aimira then jumped a small distance, listening to the snow compact under her feet. She turned and managed to get her comm link out from under all her layers and hit a small button at the top left. The boarding ramp to the Zoros raised itself up, closing its innards from the outside world. She then spun around to face the mountain range and began walking towards it. Fine flakes of snow continued to settle, settling on whatever they landed on.

Aimira stood at the bottom of a snow bound rock face. She looked up to its top and back down again, slowly filling with dread, looking at the climb that stood in front of her. She reached to her ruck sack and removed to small ice picks and began her ascent.
After half an hour of climbing she was close to the top, it looked like about five minutes from where she was perched. The wind had picked up significantly during her climb, it whistled between her legs. Aimira was so very, very cold. She could not remember a time she had felt colder. It felt almost as if her insides were freezing over. The snow had also picked up several notches; it now fell in giant wads, gliding out of the sky. Aimira looked up at this point to see if she could find the next part of her way up the face. A large clump of snow came softly falling and landed on her nose. She instantly looked down and tried to shake it off, with little success. Ten minutes later she at so very long last had made it up and over the edge of the face. She sat and looked back out over the plain; she could just about make out the Zoros. It was now all but obscured by snowfall. Aimira could only help she would be able to find it again. She pulled out a small data pad from her coat, it didn't want to activate at first, the screen simply lighted and then faded away again. She tried again and shook it a little. This time the screen lighted up and stayed that way. After several moments of pressing through menus she had a map displayed that she had god from the library on Dantooine, it showed where the ruins of the academy, and thanks to a real time uplink with the Zoros' sensors, had a small green dot indicating her present position. It looked like she had over shot the landing zone by half a mile or there abouts, probably due to the ships slide. It looked like she would have to pick her way north for half a mile before she would be in the right gorge, from which it was a simple two standard day walk to the academy. That was of course provided that the map was accurate; otherwise it could be a long cold walk to the middle of no where. With this thought she stuffed the data pad back into her coat pocket. Aimira stood up and followed the giant crack in the mountain she had been sitting in for ten minutes or so, grateful for the shelter from the wind it brought. At the end of the ten minutes she emerged on a slightly larger crack, it was just about wide enough to comfortably fit three people abreast. Aimira looked up. Far far away she could just about make out a small slit, where light poured through, accompanied by a little snow. She was evidently standing in the gorge, or at least a gorge, and there weren’t that many in this area, or at least that is what the ships sensors had said from orbit. Aimira stood for a small time surveying the steep stone walls, the flat floor and the stillness of the air, little moved. The walls and floor almost looked to Aimira that perhaps they had been deliberately crafted many years ago. They were just so terribly smooth, compared to the small crack she had just emerged from.

Aimira pressed on down the gorge for several more hours before finally stopping. The days did not seem to last long on this planet, or perhaps that was just a trick of the cloud Aimira thought to herself.
She at last sat down for a rest against the left side of the gorge. The light was failing fast. Aimira opened up her pack and pulled out a small block of some sort and placed it on the floor a little way from her. She drew her sabre, igniting it as she did so. The electric blue blade hummed to life, the sound carrying an immeasurable distance down the chasm. With a gentle tap t the block it burst into flames, casting a warm glowing light on the surrounding floor and walls. The flames danced on the block slowly warming up the immediate environment. Aimira’s sabre died down again. She sat there arms around her legs, with her sabre in her right hand, savouring the warmth from the fire. After a few minutes she finally moved a little, fetching some food from her sack, placing it close to the fire. She continued to sit there, letting the warmth flow over her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a pair of large jade eyes staring at her. She looked a little more carefully and saw a fully grown snow Maarla. The large round eyes of the Maarla were focused intensely at Aimira. She in turn lifted her head and stared meaningfully back straight into the Maarla's eyes. The two kept this intense situation going for several minutes. Finally the Maarla bopped its head slightly. Aimira returned the gesture. She reached slowly over to the fire and picked up a piece of food that had just about cooked through and held it out to the Maarla. The Maarla moved cautiously over, with a cat like elegance, before gently tugging the food out of Aimira's hand. The beast purred slightly as it chewed the food over. Aimira was glad to have a friend of some kind in this harsh place. She picked up the second piece she had laid out next to the fire and began nibbling the edges as she unrolled a mat from under her pack along the floor, before unrolling a kind of blanket from off the top of her pack. Aimira slipped in to her make shift bed, watching the fire intently. The Maarla moved closer and laid itself down beside her, it set its head down on the ground, looking further down the gorge. The two slowly drifted off to a light sleep, allies by circumstance on the frozen rock that was Rhen'Var.

Aimira

After a few hours rest, day light snuck its way through the crack at the top of the great chasm far above. It edged its way deeper and deeper until its hard rays fell on Aimira and the sleeping Maarla. Aimira begrudgingly opened her eyes. The days and nights of this planet were ludicrously short. Aimira sat up and wobbled a bit. The fire block had all but disintegrated. She peered through the early morning gloom towards her destination. All she could see was the continuation of the same straight smooth walled and floored path. Aimira reached over to the small pack she had brought with her. Its fabric was rather stiff, having slightly frozen in the night. She looked inside and removed a few more provisions. Aimira looked too the sleeping Maarla and back inside her pack. She had barely assembled enough for herself to survive this trip on, let alone providing for a full sized Maarla. Aimira decided not to think about it for know. For the mean time she should press on as hard as she could. If worst came to worst she would have to regrettably cut her time at the ruins short.
After five minutes Aimira had gathered her gear and was ready to head out once more. She looked at the sleeping cat. It almost looked cute, except for the giant fangs that hung out of its mouth, like two giant ivory daggers. She reached over and nudged the Maarla a little. It snarled a little and shot to its feet, looking around itself in an ever so slight daze. Its eyes focused on Aimira and it remembered where it was once more. It sat and began grooming its fluffy white and grey coat, preparing for the journey ahead.
The walk became a blurred monotonous movement, foot after foot, always in a straight line, the walls and floor hardly changing from one hour to the next. Night came again all too soon. Aimira was determined not to let this slow her progress again, she could hardly afford to waste time simply because of the light, or at least the lack there of. She drew her sabre and ignited its blade, its deep blue light bounced off the floor and walls far ahead and behind, showing the two the path that lay ahead. Aimira had been keeping an eye on the time, and over the three days she had already been there deduced that a day lasted about 16 standard hours, or at least with the cloud cover being what it was, the daytime filled only 8 standard hours. Daylight once again crept into the causeway. Aimira decided to take a small rest. She had been walking for almost 14 hours straight now, and was feeling a little bit more than just a little bit tired. The Maarla was trailing some way behind; it was still insight and looked like it hadn't walked for so long in its entire life. When it caught up with Aimira it keeled over onto its side. Aimira's hands were now bitterly frozen through, her Lekku felt like giant icicles, despite being tightly packed inside her cloak, robes and coat. Her hands shook, although she could no longer feel them. She fumbled around inside her kit bag again, eventually, and with a lot of effort, removed a fire block. It fell out of her hands to the floor. Aimira tried to pick it up again, but her fingers were stiff. She resigned to just pushing it a little further away. Since Aimira had stopped moving she had become so terribly much colder. She could not have imagined in her wildest dreams that a cold existed so complete as this. Her hand was moving all over the place, she could hardly control it as she drew her sabre again, fumbling at the igniter for a few moments that lasted an eternity. The blade hummed to life. Aimira held it between her wrists; the sabre fell out and clanged on the ground, still at the horizontal. It rolled slightly, catching the fire block that burst into warm beautiful glowing flames. Aimira focused as best she could, tripping the emergency shut off of her sabre, which continued to roll around, finally coming to rest against her leg. The warmth made its way across to Aimira, who quickly lost consciousness. As she did so the Maarla opened an eye, and looked at her. It pulled itself to its feet again, letting out a deep sigh as it did so. It quickly looked further up the path. At the very edge of the horizon it could just about make out the ruins the Twi’lek had been trying to reach. The Maarla moved over to Aimira.
A few minutes later the place the Maarla and Aimira had been resting was deserted. Large Paw prints led to where a large body shaped scuff mark resided. A few steps further and the paw prints had disappeared, replaced by the indentation of a pair of boot prints.

Aimira

Aimira eventually came too. Her eyes gently opened, letting light in again. At first her surroundings looked pitch black, then slowly she could faintly see the fuzzy warm dance, of a flickering golden flame on a stone grey ceiling some way above her head. She lay there looking up, her eyes slowly fading in and out of focus, until finally she could clearly see the flicker in the glow of each lashing of flame. Her heed rolled over to the side, she could see the source of the light, a small fire burned heartily. Aimira could feel her feet again, faintly, the air felt warm, much warmer than before. She tried lifting her head, but it felt so heavy, she couldn't hold it up longer than a couple of moments, letting it fall back to the pillow. Her eyes fell back out and into focus again. Aimira felt numb all over, but underlying that such great pain, it pulsed through her body like a base line, very feint, but still it was there. She winced slightly and turned back to face the fire once again, steadily scoping out the room around her.
Next to the fire she could make out her pack, on top of which her coat had been delicately placed. Beyond the fire, Aimira could just about make out a bed frame beside the wall. The bed was empty, but appeared to have a few thick blankets thrown across it. The head end was right in the corner of the room, the wall that stood behind the headboard stretched across the room, Aimira tried to follow it with her head, but lost sight of it as it went behind her. The other side of the room was barely visible, only a small amount of light ventured into it, Aimira's bed blocking it on the most part. She could almost see the silhouette of another bed, possibly by the left side wall. The stone grey of everything and the lack of light made it hard to see anything in the room properly. Aimira raised her head, sapping her of every ounce of strength, but it was enough, she had caught a glimpse of what lay at the foot of her bed. She had seen a doorway that opened out onto a great chamber; white light poured into the room from some unknown source, and bathed a grand staircase in an icy cold light. Everything was still, save one lone Maarla that came towards her upon seeing her awake. Its leathery paws made no sound on the stone floor, it drew closer to Aimira, it silently entered the room and stood between the fire and Aimira's bed. She could see its ghostly breath in the air. She looked into its deep green eyes, quickly becoming memorized.

She slowly came round again; her eyes came into focus much faster than before. Aimira rolled her head around, quickly surveying her surroundings, they were the same as before, the fire had died down a bit from last time, it might have even been a different fire. A startling discovery raced across Aimira, she had just rolled her head around and felt nothing, the low dim pain she had felt all the way through before was now gone. She could feel the tips of her finger and the ends of her toes again. Aimira cautiously sat up, nothing. She slid round to the side of the bed and still nothing. Her Lekku flapped a little as she stretched. The room outside was now quite dark, only illuminated by the few stray beams of light that escaped the small room she had been resting in. Her senses were alive again, she noticed how stale the air was, the static that floated around and clung to whatever it touched. The place was, with lack of better words simply magical. Aimira was snapped back to reality, she caught the slightest movement of something out of the corner of her eye. She faced up in front of her again, her eyes scrutinising every inch where she had seen the movement. She could see nothing, her head returned to its gaze out to the next room. Again! Aimira saw a more defined movement, this time it could not be abated. She shakily stood up and moved closer to the fire, she peered through the gloom to the bed beside hers. This time, she could make out the figure of a man sitting on the bed leaning against the wall. She could not understand how she did not see him before.
The figure sat still for several moments, at last realising that she had seen him and at long last spoke, "It’s good to see you on your feet again"

Aimira

Aimira stood taken aback for a few moments, composing herself once more. The silhouette just sat there, patiently watching. Aimira picked up on this, wondering what it was doing, was it summing her up?
"Doubtless you have many questions, but they can wait until the morning. Day break is just a few hours away." The stranger’s dry voice let out again, while gesturing back to Aimira's bed, only a few steps behind her. Her mind spun several times, centring itself back on the bed. Aimira began to wonder if her mind had centred itself there, or whether or not it had been 'helped' to it. In either case, during the time she had spent thinking this; Aimira had unconsciously returned to her bed and was now lying on her right side, huddled under the covers starring into the deep warm glow of the fire, watching the flames rise up and down in a gentle crackling dance. They weaved in and out of each other, rising and falling in brilliantly vivid colours of red, orange and gold. Every now and then a small wisp would escape the dance, tumbling upwards as it did so, boiling away into nothingness inside the dark void of the room.
Aimira's eyes opened as the first few shafts of sunlight penetrated he main hall. The stranger stood shrouded by his cloak in the doorway. Aimira lifted her head slightly off her pillow, her head still sideways, giving a slanted view of the room. Aimira sat up, letting the blankets slide from her robes like silk over slightly armed ice.
Aimira stood a little way behind the figure. She knew he knew she was there. All she could do was stand and wait. The figure at last turned to face her, revealing the face of the much aged Dorion Gray. Aimira now hardly recognised him from their meeting so long ago. She looked him over in almost surprise, although she didn't know why, he must have at least been 60 by now, possibly older. His once youthful looks and blond hair had had faded slightly; almost to the degree she didn't recognise him. The blue robe of Aquilaris gave him away though.
"Master Gray?" she asked timidly, not expecting much. 17 years or so had passed, and she was but an eager girl.
"Yes" he said, watching the light fall on the grand staircase.
"You were the Maarla all along weren’t you?" she questioned,
"Yes" he said in a faint voice, still gazing at the staircase, "I thought you might need some help on your quest" he paused and turned slightly, "It was rather foolish of you to come here alone... But then again you never have been the most rational of people, too impulsive" he murmured the final part of the sentence,
"But... how?" Aimira began to speak, but didn't know which question to ask first - how did he remember who she was, how did he find her? She decide don the latter, "How did you find me?" Aimira concluded her question.
"I have my ways" He replied. Aimira caught a wry smile from the master. She had always hated it when Jedi tried to be so mysterious. To her it had just been plain annoying. Not vaunted wisdom they often protested, just an illusion of such.
Master Gray moved on into the great hall while she pondered this, letting the light flow smoothly over him. He moved up to the first tier of the staircase, and turned back to the hall and stared on into empty space. Aimira could do little but follow. The room felt so cold with the stone grey of everything, and the harsh white light that entered the room. Aimira quickly drew up to the master. She turned and tried to see what it was that had captivated him so. She could see high up the far wall a small opening, the same opening that the light entered through. She saw the shafts of light twirl slightly. She suddenly became aware of a fine mist that fell. Where it intersected the light each grain glistened like a tiny jewel. As more and more of the mist fell throughout the room, the various spark lings became more colourful, quickly ranging the entire spectrum. It was as she noticed these colours becoming stronger and stronger that she although very faintly at first, could hear the sound of children’s voices, like a very very distant echo. The kind of thing you can't completely convince yourself that you heard. Again she heard the sounds again, growling louder and stronger. This time too it wasn't just children’s voices, but men’s voices, and women’s voices from across the generations. The mist began to glow a very powerful light. So bright she had to close her eyes. When she opened them again the room was completely different. It was decorated in brilliant white and silver. Everywhere was full of light and life. She looked to master Gray and mouthed "how" as he turned to face her, his features were soo much younger. He looked as if not a single day had passed since their first meeting. His voice too was very different; it was the strong and inspiring voice she had heard from before.
"Maybe I'm not the one doing it..." his voice too trailed off in awe and wonder, "The force is a powerful thing indeed, beyond our simple understanding of 'power'. It truly is a beautiful, dreadful and mysterious thing. This I suspect is a force-echo, a ripple in the force if you will, created by a strong presence in the force, a presence that has still not faded from this place."
As Master Gray was speaking, Aimira could not help but notice figures of people moving around, talking to each other. They first seemed but shadows, but where now almost like ghosts - they were there, but yet they were not. They existed like a faded physical being, flickering as if some endless source of water was pouring over them. She could see their faces, they were so real, she could almost touch them.
As quickly as echo had manifested itself, it disappeared in a blink of an eye. The two were plunged back into the cold lifeless place that was now the Rhen'Var enclave. The moment hung on her mind, on the very fibre of her being. It was one of those very rare and precious moments in her life that would stay with her forever. It was a pure golden moment of both the mind and the heart. She looked to Master Gray once more, who held his face in his hands, slowly removing them. The face below was the same aged and haggard one he had entered the room with. Yet he did not seem alarmed, displeased or upset by it.
"What happened to you master Gray?" she asked, her voice falling softly on the surroundings.
"I think that when we were inside the echo, it took us to the moment we picture ourselves at, for you it is more or less as you stand here now, but for me it is some gap" His voice trailed off thoughtfully, before progressing further up the flight of stairs, moving ever further away from the little light that illuminated the great hall from the small window, far away on the opposite wall.