Yunling

The planet itself is located at the junction of the Outer Rim and the Wild Territories. On the one hand, it's cool. There is a huge chance that no one will pay attention to this planet. I mean, the Palpatines and the Yuuzhan Vong. So if I want to live a calm, measured life, it's better to keep my head down from here. On the other hand, the planet does not actually fall under the jurisdiction of the Republic, and it is far from it, and if pirates or slavers descend here, its inhabitants will have a hard time. However, from the remarks of my parents, I realized that EVERYONE has a weapon here. And who will have a worse time: innocent victims or malicious aggressors, that's another question.

In general, at first glance, the planet is quite mediocre. But there is something here that sets her apart from the others. I found out about it a couple of months before my fourth birthday. At that time, I was sitting with my uncle, the one who lives in the city, and was waiting for my father to return, who was meeting with one of the local owners of his own ship. By the way, there are only eight such people on the planet. And yes, they are members of the Council. Well, I'm sitting and waiting, and then a joyful and practically glowing father bursts into the courtyard of the house. And the first person he saw was me, perched on a bench by the door of the house.

"Rain, baby!" He flew up to me. "Your dad is very, well, just very happy!"

After that, I was picked up and slightly thrown up. And again. And more. Dad was interrupted by his brother, whom, for once, I was glad to see. He's actually not a bad guy, but he has kids. Fucking backbiters. And if they were older, I wouldn't have any complaints about them either. And since my uncle and his children were still inseparable for me, I was usually not happy to see the man either.

"If you drop your son in joy, what will you tell your wife later?" he greeted his father in this way.

"Ha! Why would I drop baby Rain? No way." But he let me down to earth anyway.

"Come on, share the good news. What's the matter with you?"

"Gaari returned home today."

"Oh, so he's back," Uncle said with a grin. Even I knew who my father was going to meet.

"He managed to get her, Ram" said the father, turning on the second brightness level.

"Her?"

"The pearl of the krayt dragon!"

"That's it," Ram nodded."An idiot's dream has come true. I won't even ask about the price."

"Two hundred and thirteen thousand!" My father exclaimed joyfully. "Green!"

And he picked me up in his arms and threw me up again.

"Ugh, at you. If a miracle happened and you sold your collection...."

"Yeas I"...

"A miracle! I repeat — mi-ra-cle. If you did that, you'd be rich by a few million."

"Besides, we're not in trouble as it is," my father waved him off.

"That's right," Uncle nodded. "What if you went into economics and left the hardware to me..."

"Oh, don't start."

"The Dakari family could become the richest on the planet," Ram concluded. As usual, they don't take me for a full-fledged person. And I'm not offended. Four years in total. Will be soon.

"Am I coping? I'm coping. Are our families thriving? They are thriving. So let's not talk about it."

"You know, unlike you, I'm JUST a technician." Uncle began to speak in such a tone, as if he had already made this speech hundreds of times. "and our youngest generally only thinks about his little animals. But if..."

"You're going to get something in your eye right now," my father said, smiling. Holding me in his arms at the same time.

"Uh..." my uncle interrupted. "Your wife will kill you. Consider this."

"What?" Dad was surprised, and then he looked at me. — ar-ar-ar. No, you don't have to worry. I have a strong son. You, Rain, the main thing is to turn around and hit this uncle with your head in the eye. Okay?"

So what could I say to that?

"Yeah"

After all, the Dakari brothers are very friendly. And this is without any irony.

About an hour later, after saying goodbye to Ram and his family, my father and I went home. All the way I was thinking about how to approach my father with my questions, because my curiosity was at its limit. I wasn't going to ask him anything on the way, but maybe he'd take his mind off the road and mention his name, but no one bothered me figuring out how I'd start a conversation. If my body were older, I'd ask you straight out, but I'm only four, almost... Anyway, I decided to play it safe. Even though I knew it was all bullshit. Don't think I'm being paranoid. I just got here with my adult consciousness and just couldn't take everything for granted. And that's why I was afraid to blurt out something wrong.... Eh, it's hard to explain. Oh well.

Arriving home, my father put the speederbike in the garage and, picking me up, was about to go inside, but halfway there he froze for a couple of seconds. He looked back at the speeder bike, at the door leading into the house, and shook his head:

"And why not? I'll have to show you that sometime. Okay, baby, let's go tell Mom that we're fine, and I'll show you something interesting."

We found Sana Dakari, my mother, in the kitchen, where she was pouring juice into glasses.

"Hi, darling," her father kissed her in the ear. "Look, baby, what a wonderful mom we have. The men have just returned home, and this wonderful drink is already waiting for them."

Then he sat me down on a chair and pushed one of the glasses towards me.

"Tell me, man, how was your meeting?" The woman said with a smile. "Wonderful! New supplies for droids, new seeds, and even a bag of Jedi wheat."

"Wow. Did you make it? I didn't believe it."

"That's something else," he said conspiratorially. "After all these years, I finally became the owner of the krayt pearl!" He exclaimed at the end.

And the mother smiled. Sincerely. I could feel her joy and just a little bit of pride. But not the joy that you feel when you receive something you have long desired, as, for example, your father has now, but the joy that you feel for a loved one, rejoicing with him. Feeling the pleasure that HE rejoices. How lucky they were to have met each other.

"You finally got her," she said, smiling. "What color is it?"

"Green. Come on, I'll show you!"

"Finish the juice first, hurry up."

"That's what I already am."

After these words, my father drank the contents of the glass in one fell swoop, and my mother shook her head and nodded at me. At that moment, knowing my father, and fearing that I would be left here, I tried to finish my portion. But because of my age, I couldn't physically drink everything in one gulp, as a father. Besides, my glass was twice as big as my father's and mother's.

"Take your time, honey, we're not going anywhere without you," The woman said, smiling.

My father took the bag out of the trunk of the speeder bike like some kind of treasure. And in the same way, but already from the bag, he took out a small metal container. And with what a face he opened this very container...

The pearl itself did not impress me. A translucent green ball the size of a tangerine, the center of which was pale green, almost white in color, and veins of the same color stretched to the edges from the center. I knew intellectually that this was a rare and expensive piece, but I had seen similar jewelry in my world.

"That's something else," Dad said. "That's when I sharpen it, like the Jedi do, that's when it will be truly beautiful."

Two hundred and thirteen thousand. My dad's speeder bike costs one and a half grand. New. And he wants to "sharpen" this thing? Isn't he afraid to break it?

"Won't you break it?" Mom voiced my thoughts.

"Me? No way. I'm not going to do it manually." he explained to his mother. Who raised an eyebrow skeptically. "It will even cost more after that."

"How do you know how the Jedi sharpen them?" the mother did not give up.

"I saw it," his father muttered. "Back when I was a youngling."

What!? Yongling? They're like the kids they teach at the Jedi Academy. Was my father a Yongling? In the tin. So maybe he's a Jedi? Damn, how should I ask. I'm not supposed to know anything about it.

"Yongling?" I finally blurted it out.

"These are gifted children, son, who are trained at the main Jedi temple on Coruscant."

"Is Dad a Jedi?" I asked a new question. Which made my father sigh sadly.

"No, baby. I never got to learn to be a Jedi. He was too weak, so he left."

Awesome. Is it possible to leave from there?

"Dad is strong," I said as confidently as I could.

"Ha ha ha. Of course, son. Your dad is the strongest dad in the galaxy." He patted me on the head. And his sadness was fading before his eyes. "Let's go," he said, putting the pearl in the container, "I'll show you my collection. It looks like," he grinned, "you're not very impressed with this one."

"Okay," Mom said with a smile, "you go, and I'll go cook dinner. Come back in an hour."

"Whatever you say, dear," he kissed his wife.

There was a workshop in my father's backyard. A barn is not a barn, a hangar is not a hangar. In short, something big and tinny. But we didn't go to the workshop, but behind it. About ten meters from the building, there was a boulder lying on the ground, which dad approached.

"Look carefully, son. You see this notch, you click here and... oop." A disguised console opens. "You enter the code... Even though you won't remember it the first time... Oh well, look carefully anyway." He slowly dialed ten digits and looked at me: "Don't worry, you'll learn it later." Oh, you shouldn't have done that, Father. I have a really good memory. After he pressed "enter", something clicked a meter away from us, and my father went to this place and lifted the hatch merging with the ground. "Well, come here." Grabbing me by the armpits and putting me on his neck, Dad started to go downstairs. "Hold on tight, son," he said, "if you fall, Mom will burn me out."

When we got down, we found ourselves in a two-by-two-meter room, directly opposite a metal door and another console. However, this time she was more sophisticated. After lowering my mortal carcass to the ground and taking my hand, my father went to the door.

"And now, baby, we'll add your details to the list of those who can enter here. Come on, put your finger here." Putting my finger where it was pointed, I felt this place heating up, and then it also stung sharply. "You see, it doesn't hurt at all. Now, look here," He said, picking me up and holding me up to the glowing blue lens. A flash, and I'm back on earth. "Well done, son, you're a real man. Dakari!" The father said with pride. Apparently, he thought I was going to throw a tantrum here — first my finger stings, then it blinds... "And now another code... which you don't need... right. Now remember. We'll learn it later, though." And ten more digits. "That's it, you can come in."

The space that opened up to me outside the door wasn't that big. It's about ten by five meters. And the wall opposite the door was a huge glazed shelf, which was decorated with a lot of colorful stones. At first glance, some were defined as crystals, and some could not be called anything other than cobblestones. There was even something that looked vaguely like ginseng root.

"That's my pride!" Dad stuck out his chest. "I've been collecting these crystals ever since I ran away from the academy. Four hundred and eighteen crystals for the lightsaber. Most of them are common, often found cheap, but there are also quite rare specimens here." Looks like Dad needs new ears. "Look at this," He said, going up to the glass and pointing at one of the stones with his finger, "Sawdust." It is mined in the asteroid field of the Fith system. Increases the cutting properties of the sword. It was relatively easy to get it. And here," he pointed to another stone, "is the Nextor. Originally from the planet M"khaeli. I won't say exactly what it does, but I've been wandering around the planet for three months trying to buy it from someone. As a result, I won it in sabacc. Although I'll tell you a secret, I don't know how to play cards at all. It was probably the most successful game of my life. Or here," another stone "This handsome blue one is called upari. Found in the orbit of forest worlds, it gives a lot of advantages to a lightsaber. However, small ones. I got this one from Kashyyyk. I just bought them from a local merchant, they use them as jewelry. I gave away twenty thousand for a little bastard. Yeah.... Almost every crystal in this collection has its own story. Both general and my personal. For example, because of this red crystal, which is very rare, your dad, baby, had to lead three Jedi by the nose for two months. Because quicksoni is a very powerful crystal that increases the power of the dark side. I am generally silent about its uniqueness. I got it for free, but on the black market such a stone will cost five thousand five hundred. Although, as for me, the price is still too high. This one," he pointed to a milky-white stone, "is secreted by a huge earthworm living on one of the planets of an Unexplored Territory. If you only knew what it cost me to get it.... I almost started looking for the planet itself. The Sigil," He pointed to a pale pink pebble. "An extremely powerful crystal that increases the power of the sword. And I'd rather keep quiet about the price. I still don't feel right."

By the way, I remember something about sigil. I think I met someone in the game. Well, yes, exactly. He was there, and he was really increasing the damage. But listen to my father, and all these precautions with the bunker become clear. If he's not lying, and I doubt it, there are a few more crystals here than his brother said. While I was looking at the stones, thinking about the great things at the same time, dad opened the shelf and put a pearl in one of the few empty places.

"This pearl, baby," he said, admiring it, "can only be extracted from the stomach of a krayt dragon. A rare, huge and very dangerous animal that lives in the Tatooine desert. The black pearl is considered the most valuable, but it will be a miracle to get it. Especially without leaving our planet. By the way," he continued, "there is also a cave of crystals on our small island. I just don't know what they give to the gifted. Here they are, by the way," he waved his hand somewhere to the right. "From the very edge, if you're interested."

Awesome! The cave of crystals? Here?! Well, wow. After my father's words, I suddenly really wanted to look at this place. Very well. Nothing like that, just curiosity. This is the fucking crystal cave of the Star Wars universe! Ah-аh-аh, and fuck that fucking age. We'll have to wait.