The Rebel Faction

Frakutsk the gungan Jedi, minister of peace for The New Galactic Coalition, had been sent to investigate a very interesting phenomenon...

A previously disregared planet in a nearby solar system had been giving off very strong readings of electrical activity, and, suprisingly enough, strong emmisions of The Force.

Frakutsk was just reaching the planet in his small, personal shuttle-craft. Being a Jedi, the force-power was almost overwhelming. Frakutsk pressed a few buttons on his ship.

"Wellsa... Thisa planet is made of da silicon..." said Fraktusk to himself as his shuttle got even closer to the planet.

The planet was all he could see now, a powerful, metalic presence, it appeared completely barren, most definately devoid of life. But then where was the force power coming from?

Frakutsk knew that Jedi artifacts of old had this kind of presence... could it be that this planet was a giant artifact, a huge conduit of force power? Alas, this is not how it felt. It felt like a presence, like one feels when with a Jedi master. But there was no life on the planet...

Frakutsk broke the weaker then average atmosphere of this planet (silicon isnt a very heavy metal). And, slowly, decended upon the planet.

The power of the force was now more powerful then anything Frakutsk had ever felt in his life. It was not repeling him, nor was it calling him in. It seemed to not know of his presence... but what was 'it' that it had the personic characteristic of 'knowing'? Surely, the planet itself could not have this force power, but if not the planet, what? Something inside the planet?

Frakutsk climbed out of his shuttle craft and stepped upon the planet. Nothing happened. Frakutsk looked around him. The horizen was rather far out, which ment the planet must have had a rather large volume. But the atmoshpere was thin... going much higher the air would not be breathable. Of course, looking around him, frakutsk saw no way to go higher, no geographic features at all. Just a barren, silicon desert.

Frakutsk knelt down and felt the silicon, as he did so, a jolt suddenly seemed to jump out of the planet and into him. He quickly withdrew his hand from the ground. But something seemed to be reading him, sensing him, a thousand things. Slowly, carefully, exploring his mind...

Frakutsk frowned, what was this strange planet? Was there something inside it controlling its actions? Was it really the planet making the actions?

A voice sounded from deep within Frakutsk, and yet, from all around him as well. It said one simple word in galactic basic...

"Self."

"Selfsa??" repeated Frakutsk. Why was this powerful entity, whatever it was, saying self? This strange, force power... but perhaps that was it... Frakutsk was, after all, a Jedi. And, if this planet was indeed a giant force-object, would it not think of Frakutsk as something like itself?

"Selfsa."

Said the planet, if it truely was the planet, again, this time mimicking the gungan pronunciation of the word. And then, another world.

"Share."

Share? Now it was telling Frakutsk to share... share what? Share the force? Share information? On a whim, Frakutsk asked the planet though mental force speech, "Sharesa what?".

Frakutsk felt the being searching again. And then, it spoke its third word.

"Light."

It wanted Frakutsk to share light. How could one share light with something that cannot see? Ah, perhaps it wanted to see. After all, something that has lived its life in blindness...

Frakutsk knelt down again, and pondered touching the surface once more. If touching the surface had allowed the planet to talk to him, and search his mind for these words, perhaps touching the planet longer would allow it fuller access, to sight, perhaps.

Frakutsk placed his hand on the silicon planet, and there was no jolt this time, just a slow influx of power.

Looking at the planet he had just placed his hand on, Frakutsk wondered how this planet had aquired a mind... Silicon is not a element used for one's brain.

Ah... but what WAS silicon used for? A computer is made primarily of silicon, droids' processing units and circuits and such are made of silicon. Droids could often seem to think for them selves, perhaps this planet, billions of times their size, was truely a giant, extremely advanced, computer. But all computers needed something to make them. What had made this?

A gleeful feeling now raidiated from the planet, sheer joy, freedom!

"Light!"

The planet said once more, in a delighted tone. And then,

"Thanks."

The planet was thanking Frakutsk. In order to feel hapiness and gratefulness, like this planet was so clearly feeling, one had to have feelings. That would mean that this planet, this computer, was indeed alive. Very alive.

What does one do with a giant, living, computer, that thinks for itself, that is ALIVE, and, whats more, has huge power in the force, no less?

Those who come are non-selves...

Frakutsk winced, he thought this might be coming.

Yesa, they do not know the force. But theysa will not harm you.

The computer was silent for another moment.

They will not hear -- or they will not listen -- how will they know to do no harm

mesa will tell dem

The computer was silent for even a longer moment, Frakutsk wondered what it had wrong in its infinately complex mind.

you communicate with non-selves?

Uh... yesa

This does not comply. Explain.

Mesa speaks to them, using sound waves produced by mesa throat... i tellsa them what to do, yousa tell me what to tell dem...

Throat?

Uh... yesa, part of mesa body... physical existance.

Like a non-self...

Yesa, non-jedi have bodies too.

I have none?

Thatsa is true, but yousa have mind...

Correcting.

And the earth began to shake... and not too far away from Frakutsk, a figure began to emerge.

At first, the figure looked like nothing, an inanimate blob, but slowly... it took shape.

Silicon melted off its edges, and left was a human form.

She was beutiful, a shimmering women. Who would have known that silicon could be so... attractive?

The transport ship touched down on the planet, and, wuite promptly, out came a short, fat man in a coalition uniform.

The human man sniffed through his immence mustache and said, loudly.

"Sir! Greetings from the coalition, sir! Permission to proceed with causualaties, sir!"

CASUALATIES?!

Frakutsk looked at him in horror... how on earth could one suffer casualaties on a peaceful transport vessel traveling an uneventful planet-hop?

"What?!?!"

Said Frakutsk, loudly back.

But, the short fat man did not answer.

Sure, the casualty report was supposed to come prior to anything, officially, but who obeyed THAT rule?

Yeah, rhetorical question, I guess.

And he wasn't technically supposed to proceed without permission...

"Uh.... Proceedsa..."

The man huffed again through his comical mustache and proceeded.

"Total casualaties, sir! One, sir! Cause of death, sir! Reactor accident, sir! Name: Huron Clumsyone, sir! Permission to procceed with burial-"

But the man was cut short by a silent scream from the planet/gungan girl/thingymabobber.

Then, a stunned silence.

No

A single word from the planet sounded, and the gungan maid's metal lips moved accordingly, though the sound, which wasn't really a sound at all, obviously did not come before.

Bring him here.

Commanded the planet.

"Sir! Permission to ask a question, sir!"

"Permissionsa... granted."

Responded Frakutsk, who had never really been treated like a coalition official before.

"Who is that, sir?"'

Not really knowing, Frakutsk simply motioned dumbly to the planet that they were standing on.

"Sir, may I obey her orders, sir?"

Frakutsk nodded...

The man did not respond.

Frakutsk rolled his eyes.

"Permissionsa granted."

The man promptly reentered his ship, and brought out a dead man. The man had no apparent injury, but was dead all the same. Apparently, he had suffered from electric shock, or some other form of less visable, but just as fatal, demise.

There is no death...

Said the powerful, mental voice of the planet.

Frakutsk knew how to respond, "There isa only da force."

The dead man promptly stood up.

The short, fat man showed no responce. Frakutsk, however, looked in confusion at the gungan woman.

"Did yousa..." Frakutsk trailed off, not knowing how to put his question.

The planet said simply.

No.

The planet waited for a moment, and then decided further information was neccessary.

I am now he.

"But how..."

Frakutsk did not finish his question, but the planet apparently knew what he was asking.

I control his actions.

And then, for the first time since dying, the man spoke.

"This unit's brain has been damaged beyond repair by an unkown source. However, I have replaced it with a reciever, that I may now send commands to, and which will convert these commands to the type of command this unit used, prior to this unit's physical end, to command this unit's actions."

That talk was slightly confusing, expecially when coming from the body of a dead man, but after a moment Frakutsk understood it. He looked over to the silicon gungan maid, who was still still.

The silicon gungan maid actually smiled, Frakutsk smiled back. However, after smiling, she melted away, into the planet. This disturbed Frakutsk... but, of course, he realized that the planet had obviously found this form not neccecary when allowed one that was made of flesh and blood. Frakutsk still liked the gungan better then this human... oh well.

Frakutsk then thought about what a deep understanding of neurophysics it must have taken for the planet to be able to do this thing of taking control of the dead man's body... Smart little girl, eh? Then Frakutsk realized that he would have to stop thinking of the planet as female, expecially since she... er... it... had taken the form of some big, strong, human male.

Apparently, the fat man decided it was time for the rest of the colonists to exit the ship.

As they did so... something very stange happened.

The entire planet erupted into a huge city made entirely of silicon... and the dead man smiled.

"Otah Gunga!"

Frakutsk exclaimed aloud... That was what it was! The city was Otah Gunga! The poor place, all that was left of it was rubble. Sure, this was Otah Gunga above ground and made completely out of silicon, but wow, what a sight...

The planet must have taken the city from Frakutsk's memory and mimicked it, to form a city for the colonists. It did a good job too... down to the finest little detail... Frakutsk had no idea that he had this good a memory of Otah Gunga, after all, he had left it when he was quite young.

As it happened, the fat man had just finished his speech when Frakutsk exclaimed the name of the city of his youth, so Frakutsk's 'comment' wasnt TOO out of place.

One of the colonists raised an eyebrow, "So it is! It is Otah Gunga! Wow, I never thought i would see the place again..."

The colonist's had taken extensive training... about what to do when confronted with an undeveloped world, and how to settle it. As it stood, none of them had any clue of what to do when confronted with an empty city for settling.

Some of the colonists with more common sence started looking around for homes. One of them stumbled upon an entire subdivision... however, the entire city was modeled after an underwater city, so the coulden't figure out how to get into the homes, which were quite high above the ground, ontop of huge poles.

Emanon spoke, "The poles are actually lifts, just put your hand on it, and a door will open up, allowing for you to access the lift that is inside the pole that is supporting the building. I regret I could not protray this 'Otah Gunga' more accuratly, however, the enviornment for this city is significantly different then the one that this 'Otah Gunga' was situated in. You may configure who may access the lifts to private places, such as your homes, from inside the building."

One of the colonists placed his hand on a pole and, sure enough, a previously concealed door swung open. He stepped inside and was toted upward into his home. Where did the energy to do this come from? He wondered... but no one else had asked that question, so he figured that it must be just some part of the planet that he should have known about.

Nohj went down the lift, and then back up. When he came up he was greeted with an entirely new living room. Pleased, he exited the house in search of some food... house-changing was hungry work.

Apparently, several other colonists were also thinking about food, because there were a good number of them exiting their homes and walking back toward the ship. To all the colonists' suprise, there was no ship where they had left it. There was, however, Huron Cumbsyone, standing happily serving out the food that the ship had brought along with it.

Also serving food was Frakutsk, or rather, he would be serving food if he was not being pestered by Enaj Eod...

"I don't care if 'yousa' cannot do anything about it, sir! I will not live in that abombination that you call a home! By the frelling Zark! At least the porta-home i brought along had colour, sir!"

Fortunatly for Frakutsk , Nohj tapped his wife on the shoulder.

"Uh... honey?"

"What, Nohj?!"

"I... uh... think i fixed it..."

"What? How could you possibly fix anything?!"

"Well... uh... I... changed the house..."

Enaj looked skeptical, but she knew that her husband really was a skilled engineer. If it could be fixed, he would have fixed it.

Emanon walked over. "You have accessed the custamazation options? This is good. I am glad that my lightpads can be of service."

Enaj looked strangly at Emanon, but he had nothing more to say, he walked over to the table and continued serving food. Super-conviousnesses aren't necissarily the most skilled at knowing what is socially correct.

The Eods walked home.

Several hours later, all the colonists had filtered out of the area. Frakutsk was alone with Emanon, and had a few things to talk about.

"Wellsa, more peoplesa will be coming soon. Itsa is amazing that yousa have made thisa city! Can yousa make more?"

Emanon nodded.

Frakutsk was curious about the city, still, and he knew that he could not bother Emanon by asking, since answering the question must take... what... one billionth of the planet's brain-power?

"Why did yousa make disa city like Otah Gunga?"

"You remembered it fondly, I figured that others must also."

Oh yeah, Frakutsk did share his entire mind with planet... but he had to! Or else the planet would not understand anything of emotions... or anything! It probably woulden't care at all about people if it didn't know that they were conciousnesses simaler to It.

"Wowsa..."