My name is Chi Quan, I am and have always been, Jedi. I was brought to the Jedi Temple as an infant, no more than six months of age. There my innate attunement with the Force was tested repeatedly through the standard methods of the time to confirm if I was worthy of training as a Jedi. When I reached the proper age my foster placed me in a clan.
The Katarn Clan became my family, this clan was known for producing many students over the centuries, specifically Jedi Shadows, of which I am one.
It was during the early training with my clan that I was made aware of what little is known of my real family history. My father, I was told, was a smuggler of some repute and not overly particular with whom he did business with. During a trade with some Argazdan Myrialites he accepted a young Lorridian slave girl as partial payment for the goods delivered. Lorridians were famous for having developed communication dependent entirely on body language, along with the ability to interpret the body language of others, to determine their emotional state and intentions with uncanny accuracy.
Unable to keep any secrets from the young woman, the smuggler married her hoping fidelity would prevail if she should ever be questioned about his methods and clientele. She gave birth to me about a year later, joyous yet concerned about the atmosphere in which I was to be raised.
As luck, or the Force, would have it, my father's transport was detained for inspection at Alderaan. A Jedi Knight was part of the inspection crew, apparently looking for Sith artifacts which had been making their way into the black market.
Once aboard the craft however, he made his way back to where I was berthed, stood there for a few minutes observing me and the mobile over my bed which was taking turns spinning furiously clockwise then counter. He then made my father an offer he couldn't refuse, allow the Jedi to take me back to the temple for further observation, or have his ship stripped down to the bone in search of contraband, with no mercy from any violations.
My mother, overhearing this, needed no such inducement and offered me freely to the Jedi's guardianship. Since that time the Jedi Order has been my home, the Jedi Code my guiding principles. But, as my teacher had suspected, the information about my mother led me to learn more about her people, and their unusual communication skills.
It became my specialization, and as I advanced up the Jedi ranks, eventually becoming a Shadow Consular, it became a double edged sword. Whether in battle or negotiations, deceiving me was near impossible, enhanced by my knowledge of the force, every move of my opponent was foretold by his facial expression and body position.
Unfortunately this ability was well known to members of the council, and I became well aware that a few held secrets that they did not want revealed and felt me a threat to that secrecy.
That is why I felt a strange sense of betrayal when I was sent on a long mission to the outer rim, ostensibly to observe any suspicious or unusual movements of the Sith. Hostilities still raged close to home and I felt my combat skills were more urgently needed than my ability to gather intel.
I was investigating Sith activity in the region of Hoth when word reached me. The Sith had played their hand in Coruscant and the Jedi were being held to blame.
The message came to me from an old friend from my days at the temple, now a master herself who had trained many Jedi and brought them to knighthood. Included in the message was a request, that I travel to Tython to meet with a former padawan of hers and offer my services for a new mission assignment. I was not to mention this to anyone, nor was I given the Jedi's name, but instead a patch was included to wear as a form of identification for when I arrived at the new temple in Tython. There I would be contacted with further details.
As I finished the missive from my old friend I ordered that course be set for Tython, the ancestral home of the Jedi. My ship the Mainstay is a Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette, with a crew of five. We would make good time but from the outer rim it would still take several days to get to the core system and Tython.
We had several probes out in the system, but rather than wait for their return I decided to leave them to continue their searches. Any data that they collected would be out of date by the time I received it, but that did not matter. The thought of the wild goose chase to find their source should they be discovered by the Sith humored me slightly and made the loss worthwhile.
It's best to find humor where you can in times like these, for it does not last long. My thoughts turned back to Coruscant and the Temple which had been the only home I had known. Gone now, along with many of it's defenders, scores of Jedi from Master to youngling had perished there. Members of my family, my home, gone. Revenge is not the Jedi way, but remembrance and honoring the dead is, and I will not forget.
Now, bearing scorn from the Republic for being unable to stop the Sith, the council has moved the Temple back to it's ancient quarters on Tython. I have been there before, several years ago shortly after it's re-discovery, on an archaeological dig for Jedi artifacts, it was interesting but to me an unwelcoming place. Perhaps the old spirits did not think kindly of me. At any rate, I will make my contact and discover what this "mission" is about, but the Mainstay will be my home from now on, no need to set new roots at this stage of my life.
This mission, I know my old friends mind, and it is a wise and cunning one. I feel the council would not approve, if they were aware of it.
