Image Credit Pexels.com – Simon Berger
For Tyger’s Electric Dream Writing Contest 2.0. Happy New Year’s and thanks for the opportunity to write this story as it’s something I’ve been thinking about mashing up for fun. Best wishes in 2022!
It’s a Cold Place Again: The Lucas Hollywood Effect
Hennadyi walked away from the grungy restaurant still thinking about the pigmy goat. No doubt it had been killed now for a paying customer’s feast. What it had been, with its shiny coat of hair and strong will to live; had now been consumed by someone living from one day to another like himself.
He smoked as he moved across the sidewalks of Moscow with heavy lumbering feet that smashed patches of ice. When he finished the cigarette, the cool air began to develop a taste of its own. Unfiltered it raced down his throat right to his lungs and his body thanked him; while his mind ached with the thought of health from the natural environment. Wanting instead, to again pollute his mouth with the tar of nicotine.
“You see the battle between the Force and the Dark Side are already being waged inside you,” strong soundwaves sailed into his ear drum.
Hennadyi turned to greet a clean young man with perfect blonde hair tied in a wave over one shoulder. His clothes were not from Earth, they were from his favorite movie franchise, “Star Wars”.
Laughing Hennadyi began scratching his chin as he gave the stranger a solid look over. Sure enough, glued to this man’s hip the silver hilt of a lightsaber. Its powerful laser turned off, of course.
“Are you a Jedi Master?” Hennadyi asked. He then took another cigarette out because what the hell maybe Lyuba had put someone up to this to impress him.
“Yes Hennadyi, I’m a Jedi Master visiting you here on planet Earth. I’m on an important mission and you’re the one who can help me. Only we must make haste because Darth Lore followed me through hyperspace.” The words stopped.
This Jedi Master had convinced Hennadyi that he at least could be a ventriloquist. He never moved his lips to utter a sound. Only the waves of thought pushed up against Hennadyi. It didn’t push him back though, the waves soothed him.
“Nice trick there,” Hennadyi said as he went to light his cigarette only to find it glowing red. He inhaled, then exhaled the smoke into the clouds perched in the gray gloom of a snowy night. His big factory hands now scratching his chin as he thought about his options.
“The box.” The telepathy sent message an epiphany.
“Yes, the box. How do you know about the box? That’s right you’re a Jedi Master.” Hennadyi answered himself. “We can get the box at my place. Only can you do me a favor? There’s a man at the restaurant I just left. Can you search his mind to find out where Lyuba can be found?”
The Jedi Master turned to make a formal gesture beckoning Hennadyi to lead the way.
The two walked back to the restaurant as the snow fell softly around them. It deafened the noises on the city street that remained mostly void of traffic. Suddenly the wind picked up sending an icy chill through the layers of clothes Hennadyi wore. He shivered as he pulled on his coat. The Jedi Master continued unperturbed.
Hennadyi went inside the dark restaurant first holding the door open for the Jedi Master. They stood looking around the smoke-filled room. A few customers drowning themselves in sorrow, one of them must have eaten the pigmy goat he saw earlier, he only knew it couldn’t have been Nazar who slept in the same position as when he’d left him there maybe 20 minutes ago. The money on the table had been removed though.
Hennadyi pointed at Nazar with his chin standing under the low ceiling that nearly touched the top of his head. The Jedi Master moved in on Nazar with fast sliding steps that took Hennadyi by surprise. The Jedi Master then put the palm of his hand on Nazar’s forehead, then closed his eyes.
Not sure how long this might take Hennadyi lit another cigarette. He watched the mind reading of the drug addict take place with no commotion. No one else in the restaurant even noticed.
The Jedi Master stood and turned to Hennadyi. In telepathy he said, “he hasn’t seen Lyuba in more than a year. Since you beat him, leaving that scar on his lip. He had a collection of edible underwear. Only she didn’t want to take part. That’s the extent of their romance.”
The words stopped inside Hennadyi’s mind. He never knew Nazar could be such a deprived jerk when they’d met all those years ago. Yet for Lyuba his feelings had increased. She had told him the truth, when she’d said that Nazar meant nothing to her. Only where had she gone?
“The box.” The two words echoed over the thoughts Hennadyi dwelled on.
“Right, let’s go.”
888
The small metal box with engravings sat on a coffee table in the living room of the modest Moscow apartment. The origins of the metal were unknown as it couldn’t be discovered without a sample taken. Each pawnshop he’d taken the box to had a different guess. Same story with the engravings, an ancient text that needed the attention of a professor at the university to decipher.
As for the personal story connecting it to Hennadyi; it had been his Father’s and his Grandfather’s before. Back down the family line to the days before Communism when they were of the aristocracy living in the countryside. Somewhere beyond the memory of the family history this metal box had been bequeathed to them. It had never been opened so the contents were unknown.
Hennadyi wanted to sell it to marry Lyuba. It would be the final family relic to be sold off. Only he hadn’t found a buyer willing to give him the value of the metal box. Looking at the Jedi Master he knew the metal box now belonged to him.
The Jedi Master reached out his arm with his hand turned down. Hennadyi reached out his hand with the palm up, where a small pile of pristine ancient Roman gold coins got deposited.
“Your family’s promised reward,” the telepathy began again, “you’re a fan of the “Star Wars” movies not on accident. The stories you’ve been told are spread throughout the galaxy on light waves. What you’ve been led to believe is that Jedi’s like myself are from a galaxy long ago and far away. It’s propaganda to pacify unincorporated systems. The truth being that this place resides in the Unknown Regions.”
Hennadyi had seen the maps on the internet before. The story went that even in the “Star Wars” galaxy the most advanced civilizations were limited to coordinating their hyperdrives to navigate space in regions that had been charted.
The two stood in the living room in front of the television. On the walls were “Star Wars” posters, on the shelfs little collectibles that drove Lyuba insane. He thought of them as investments. Even in Russia, a man like Hennadyi could become a member of “Star Wars” fandom.
Hennadyi lit another cigarette, as the Jedi Master made the same fast sliding movements around the box gesturing while the words imprinted images in his mind.
“The metal is beskar the same as the Mandalorians use. The engraving is the ancient language of the Rakata. Inside.” The Jedi Master’s hand slide across the side illuminating lights, “is as star map of everything within a thousand-lightyears from here.”
A silver dish floated from the black felt fabric lining the box. Then a hologram appeared, of an area in space with clouds of dust and stars. The Jedi Master pinched his index finger and thumb before expanding the map as he separated his digits. Hennadyi had done the same thing before on his cellphone to get a closeup of a map.
“Here,” once again words in Hennadyi’s mind. “This is Earth and your Sun. It’s moving in this direction on the galactic plane. And this is Wolf 359 as it moves in the same direction almost parallel to your star system. This pathway here would make a great hyperspace jump.”
“You’re collecting these star maps like pieces of a puzzle so that the Galactic Republic can create a hyperdrive superhighway through this area.” Hennadyi spoke the words as if from a dream.
“Yes, with expansion into the Unknown Regions this planet will be offered membership into the Grand Republic. Only I must leave now Hennadyi. Darth Lore has followed me to Earth. Of course, he would like to guide humans onto the path of the Dark Side.”
The end.
Thanks, Cyrus
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