That had been an hour or more ago. Now, still in the back seat of the vehicle, Dav looked further into the distance. The sky was clear, as it always was, except for the airborne traffic lines and a bunch of plumes of smoke floating up to the stratosphere from one of the industrial districts. The white smoke against the orange sky looked nice enough. But Dav had an overwhelming desire to look out his window and see a sky that was....blue. Or pink. Or green. Or any of the colors from the holovids that he’d been seeing lately.
It was the end of the school day, and he could see his home’s spire approaching. He passed the Imperial Palace on his right, the pyramidal structure poking up in between the skinny towers around it. Up until a few few years ago, everyone had called it the Jedi Temple. He’d always been glad that he’d never had any Jedi come to his door when he was little. Stories had circulated about what an honor it was to be selected for service as a Jedi as a youngling, but when he was little he’d had more than one nightmare about hearing a knock at the door and seeing strange aliens with glowing swords in the doorway, ready to take him away from his mother and father because his blood was different.
Dav sighed and looked again out the window. He’d taken this route over the city thousands of times now, and though he was tired of seeing it he wasn’t tired of his parents the way so many of his classmates seemed to be. One girl, Katti-Ma, couldn’t stop complaining about how strict and controlling her father was, though Dav didn’t see the problem with a father restricting the amount of tech a girl could use. Another, SuChi, would complain about the meals her father made the family every Firstday, but never seemed to think about what a treat it was to have a father who’d cook.
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No, Dav hadn’t gotten tired of his parents. Nor did he tire of seeing the flunkies try to curry favor with his father. Though it could be embarrassing at times to be a councilman’s son, it was definitely nice when he received a new tunic in the daily deliveries to his home. Or shoes. Or the latest holovid to watch on his datapad. The list went on. But father was a careful man, and monitored Dav’s intake of media with all the care and concern his mother had monitored his diet as a child.
The driver parked the transport at the dock outside Dav’s floor. Dav gave the perfunctory thank you, and opened the door after the driver had disengaged the safety lock. The door opened with a metallic hiss and Dav stepped out with his holopad.
Sensors scanned him as he walked along the dock to the door of the family’s luxury apartment. He hadn’t realized until later in his childhood how much better off he was than his classmates. Everyone he’d ever known on Coruscant lived in the high rise buildings. But most of the people Dav knew lived in buildings that were smaller or on lower floors. Not so his family, who’d always had a much larger dwelling in mid-upper floors of one of the larger buildings in the sector.
As he reached the door, he heard something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“You have five visitors, young Eccles,” said the sweet voice of the AI as he reached for the door. It had been talking to him for as long as he could remember, using various tones for wakings, scheduling and other purposes.
But if an artificial intelligence could have an edge to its voice, this one did. There was a subtle difference in the tone of the voice, something that told Dav things were different this time.
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TO BE CONTINUED...