Name: Rafael Cannon

Age: 26

Species: Human

Family: Mother Erline Cannon (58), Father Broderick Cannon (deceased); Ismael (25/m), Rosemary (23/f, deceased), Isaac (21/m), Marcella (20tf), Malcom (20tm, deceased); Several uncles/aunts, many cousins on both sides

Profession: Journalist, Writer of travel journals, adventure novels, and political/crime/corporate exposés

Origin: planet Itepi 4, a swampy, water-world with little dry land and no solid mountains to speak of; distant from Galactic Core, world colonized by Humans to exploit gasses and exotic wildlife - deemed unsuitable for continued habitation due to freakish mutations in diseases that ravaged more than half the population within 20 years of arrival

Current Whereabouts: Traveling the galaxy, looking for good stories to write and bad people to hurt; Also he is now an instructor at Carramba High teaching FarGalaxy History and Journalism

Height/Build: 6' tall and evenly built, and has grown to be reasonably durable and muscular though he's hardly an athlete

Appearance: light skinned with several scars including the one over his eye, and a missing right eye; brightly blond hair that's quite thick and slightly curly, along with a narrow but well trimmed beard. Eyes are darkly blue with a faint teal tint, and often are a little darkened from stress or lack of sleep. He has a strong speaking voice, used to shouting over dangerous people. He enjoys comfortable urban clothing, and does like looking stylish in shades of blue that match his eyes

Born to Erline and Broderick Cannon shortly after their arrival to Itepi 4, the first of 6 children born in short order including twins. On the day of his birth, his cousin Maxwell was among the first to perish due to the disease which was spreading among the Human population of the colony. Also on this day, a mystery man arrived to deliver a letter - which has remained a source of intrigue to Rafe ever since. Rafael was born while the small family and their companions were traveling between atolls, literally on the bunk of a submarine. His mother, a well known chef and hopeful restauranteur, took this all in stride, while his father, one of the colony's head gas miners, looked on.

For a very short time, the Cannon family was happy on this world. However, things were looking grim in general so far as the colony was concerned. Exports were dwindling because of reported deaths, no one wanted to come there to handle goods that might be tainted. When his youngest siblings, the twins Marcella and Malcom were born, it was again in transit between locales - and a disasterous storm hit their craft.

The craft capsized, and while most of the family escaped injury or harm, his father drowned, and Rafael himself found himself adrift on the shallow sea. The storm passed, but Rafe's family could not locate him. Rafe came to shore on a fairly isolated island, small enough that it had little in the way of dangerous animal life, and large enough that the variety of plants and small bugs could sustain a young child.

And sustain him it did. For almost a year, Rafael fended for himself, always a bright boy who took after his mother with his quick mind. He had the sense to build shelter, locate water, and most of all learn to trap food that he couldn't simply harvest. All this time, his family looked for him, but it was a traveling stock ship that eventually spotted his lean-to and took him aboard.

By the time he was seven years old, therefore, he had already become something of a celebrity. His mother was fiercely protective of him, favoring him for quite some time, because of his absence and the fact that her husband had perished. If Rafael's mind sprang from his mother, his looks of blond hair and bright blue-green eyes came from his father.

Once back in the family home, Rafael began his schooling, tutored by men and women who came from several worlds at the behest of Erline. Her food empire had already spread from her homeworld to here and beyond, these people were distant relatives and connections that she would never hesitate to call upon. And frankly, with her talent at cooking almost anything under any sun, they were happy to oblige.

The preferential treatment that Rafael got didn't go unnoticed by his siblings of course. But he himself, while guarded around strangers, lavished his own attention on his younger family. His sisters both adored him, though notably even while a young infant, Malcom didn't ever seem to enjoy being around his eldest brother.

Even though the family's fortunes were continuing with Erline's culinary exploits, the world of Itepi 4 was clearly not suitable for human life. People were growing sicker, whole families and work camps would suddenly expire - most left where they lay by their sick companions. By the time the central Galactic Government intervened, nearly a third of the whole colony's populace was either ill or dead.

Because the investments tying the Cannon family to Itepi 4 still had several years to mature, Erline began to worry for the safety of her family. She sent the twins and Isaac off world to stay with one of their relatives, and she along with Rafael, Ismael and Rose remained on the world for another three years. Three very long, very harrowing years.

Though the children were still young enough to enjoy their lives, they all knew there was something desperately wrong with the world. Their friends were not allowed over - particularly after one group of them all but vanished. Erline was never going to lie to her children, she explained what was happening, and to the eleven year old Rafael it all made sense. If they left now, they would be forfeiting essentially millions of credits to the world's local government. Their sponsorship and Broderick's posthemous tenure there had to go another year before they could all leave and still have a penny to their name.

Somehow, they toughed it out. Even when the tutors left (almost half a year before the Cannons finally did) they remained, Erline carefully aiding those who were left unharmed by the ravages of the mutant 'crud' that had killed another third of the world's colony. At last, when Rafael turned twelve, the family packed up what they could salvage and left for good.

They arrived to Jerabou 7's spaceport and were greeted with a heroic family reunion. For another few months, at least, the Cannon family was at peace.

A peace which was not to last. While Erline had been raised on Jerabou 5, things on the moon slightly farther beyond (Jerabou being a gas giant and the source of the only inhabitable planetoids in that system) had gone downhill socially. Though she was able to reestablish a chain of high quality restaurants very quickly, it also became clear that the only people able to easily afford the cuisine were gang lords and organized crime families.

This was not a pleasant thing to learn, when she was told she must begin paying 'safety' money to one of the gangs. Refusing, Erline brought this to the attention of the local government - which smiled, nodded, and shuffled her information safely into the circular file.

Sheltered as they had been before, the Cannon children continued to be schooled by tutors and learned far more quickly than most kids their ages. Rafael still soaked up knowledge as well as physical skills - his exploits as a child living for a year in isolation however stunted his social skills permanently. He would snap at those who he percieved as intruding on his family, at the same time as being exceedingly polite and proper to those who showed respect.

Respect however was one thing that the local gang lords had never learned for Erline's behavior. So shortly after the twins had turned eight, a massive gang war erupted around the high-society banquet halls and private garden estates where the Cannon family resided. Dozens of hired thugs as well as local gang members swarmed the estate grounds, beating Erline and her children - and kidnapping young Malcom. They left the family alive, but made it eminently clear that Malcom would never be returned - if Erline would not pay money, then she would pay with the blood of her family.

They never killed Malcom - instead, they kept him on as a highly trained infiltrator. The rest of the Cannons knew he was alive, but they never made a move to retrieve him. Such a beating that the children got - Rose had to have her hand grafted back on, while Isaac would forever walk with a limp, and Rafael ... he lost his right eye to the viscious pummeling he recieved.

This began a bad period in Rafe's life, one which later he would grow to truly regret. When the medical facilities could not replace his eye, the bone shattered under his scalp and the socket irreparable, he had to turn to pain killers to dull the terrible sensation he had. Soon enough, though the physical pain had subsided, he was relying upon stronger and stronger doses of the drugs to dull his anger and anguish. He was only fifteen years of age, but his family was rich, he could afford to send away for exotic drugs and get things delivered from other worlds.

For almost a year, Rafael slogged through his daily schooling - growing more distant from his family and deeper into a morose, dangerous state. Though he never tried to kill himself, it was painfully obvious by looking at him that he would easily have fallen in with a terrible crowd - if Erline had allowed him to leave the estate grounds.

Erline was rather insistant, though neither domineering nor passive-aggressive about it, she had many years of being the only parent in a family of seven - she did not take any guff, and what she said was law in her home. Even Rafael did not disobey when she told him to remain near. But when one particular shipment of drugs arrived - it was followed by a government agent tracking down illegal traffic in off-world medicines... It was an inevitability, really, that Rafael was caught. Perhaps in a way he wished it, he needed help desperately.

So Nain Trilby, the agent assigned to this crime, intervened on his behalf and had Rafael's sentence brought to a rehab clinic instead of a jail. Taking a personal interest, partially because of his secret adoration of Erline, Nain was there for Rafe in the darkest hours of his addiction's defeat. When Rafael needed someone most: Nain was there, a willing friend and someone who Rafael commends with saving his life.

Rafael was not unscathed by his year of drug abuse and depression. Even now, he tends to be a slow starter when it comes to getting mundane things done - housework and planning travel or minor events the most. However that stops dead when his family is concerned, or when there is something he perceives as amiss. When Nain was with him, they spoke endlessly of law, travel, the places either had seen and things they'd done.

Nain confessed to his young friend that he would woo Erline only if Rafael and his siblings approved - which they did. He offered a little more in the way of personal security, being sent from the Galactic government and not the ineffectual local one, he was more feared by the gangs and crime lords.

Perhaps it was because of that, eventually, the Cannons lost two of their own. But that was much later.

For the moment, Rafael was now ready to be back to his old self - as much as a one-eyed and somewhat unsteady seventeen year old could be. He studied more about law - but decided what he really wanted to do was write. His mother already had three of his siblings learning her own trade, and while he was quite good at cooking as well, he more enjoyed roughing it and eating (she would always gasp and hold her hand to her throat) raw foods including whatever bug happened by.

Ideally suited to him then, was the job of a traveling journalist. He cut his teeth on local politics, and quickly established himself as one who would still listen to both sides of a story before writing a scathing report on one or the other. He adamantly refused to work with anyone who was involved with the mob that still held his brother, knowing that the moment he let his guard down he'd either lose it and attempt to do something stupid, or cross a line and be killed.

With the wisdom of real life, and the friendship of his new step-father, Rafael looked back and realized how lucky he was to even be alive. From the moment he was born, things happened around him.

In one particularly melancholy afternoon he dug out that weird letter that someone had slipped into his mother's luggage the day he was born. It was in a language he couldn't read, though it looked to be related to Galactic Standard. Perhaps an old form, perhaps a local version from another world. The letter was old, half rotted but still fully legilble.

While he was never one to obsess over this letter, he did make it a point to find out if any linguists could decode it, when he traveled. Keeping it with him all the while, it was rote to him that he packed it when he visited a new place. Some day he'd find out what it said, who sent it, why it went to him - addressed in a different hand on the envelope.

And how, he would sometimes wake up late in the night, was it addressed to him - when he'd literally just been born that day? A conundrum for another day.

When Rafael's first book of adventures and travel was published, it achieved modest but surprising success. Bolstered by this, he continued to write - both true life efforts in journalistic style, and fanciful embellishments of his childhood adventure which he was the star. Though he relied upon the Cannon family fortunes for large expenditures such as travel and expenses while off world, Rafael had his own source of money coming in by the time he was twenty: his books were selling regularly on three dozen worlds. If anything, Erline's success in the kitchen was echoed on the street beat he traveled for his research.

He was never allowed to travel locally without a pistol or blaster at his side, frankly no one on the planet wandered around without a weapon of some kind from lightsaber to hand dart. He would never quite be as good a shot as his brother Isaac, though his brother chose a longer-ranged weapon to practice 'sport' shooting - their mother knew perfectly well they were ready for any mob invasion that might happen.

Feeling safe in knowing that his family, almost entirely grown to adulthood, was in reasonably good hands, Rafe began traveling more extensively and taking on jobs of investigative reporting that others would not. From a desert world to a jungle, from deep urban sprawls to desolate outposts, Rafael enjoyed his job of tracking down information, asking the right question at the right time, and exposing corruption to the right people.

Unfortunately, the 'right' people always seem to be in opposition to the very 'wrong' ones. Thus on a world not unlike his birth-planet, one with hardly a solid stone to put down on, and huge floating cities which dove deep below the clear, fresh-water oceans, he was cornered by a corporate spy. Equally matched for speed and size, though with his single eye hindering Rafe's targeting, Rafael and the spy had a dramatic shoot-out, which led to him having to escape with barely his life - and a great story. Nearly every place he visited would be watched carefully by officials - when Nain had a clue where his stepson would be headed, he assigned extra Galactic forces to see what he was investigating.

With a sense of achievement even though he came out of the world with a bit more caution, Rafael wrote a scathing exposé that put dozens of men in prison. Unafraid to commit to testifying in court was one feature that Rafe was most proud of, as well as one that his occasional employers and the local news agencies made the most of. While many others in his position would 'write and run', rarely returning to find out the status of their investigation, Rafael would follow up, not more than six months would go by and he would make sure things still ran smoothly.

Fully in the swing of his early-twenties, enjoying his status and his profession, Rafael came home for his twenty-fourth birthday to find that the family was under attack yet again, from the same crime lords as before.

Only this time, Malcom was one of the attackers. Gleefully the teenager was busy putting down explosive charges along the walls of the Cannon estate, when the rest of the family came outside to celebrate. Fourteen gunners, holding their fire until Malcom was in the clear, stood waiting in some of the hidden areas just outside the grounds.

Yet only one of those bombs went off - and only one shot was fired. The shot was from Nain's hip pistol, at the leader of the group who stood atop one of the wall embankments. And the bomb...

Rosemary spotted her younger brother first, and, determined to set things straight ran toward him. Though she was as quick witted as the rest, she knew this would be suicide, but truth be told she had the same guts as her eldest brother, and ran to disconnect the bomb's cords to the rest while Malcom looked on in horror.

Triggering the first bomb, but having removed the line that would have caused a dozen more to go off, Rosemary and Malcom both perished that afternoon. It was possible that Malcom had planned the attack himself, knowing that the family would be together this day of all days. When all was said and done, though, both children were mourned equally - Malcom's death was seen as merely the delayed event from so long ago when everyone expected him to be ransomed, and was not. His twin Marcella would not hear any talk of Malcom from that day on - as if he'd been killed a decade before.

But now, Rafael knew he did have to face the crime lords nearby, he knew that his goals had to change at least temporarily. Who were these people? Why were they attacking his family, when they had the blood they wanted. He went searching for people who would talk to him, him of all people, about this event. There would be hundreds of people to talk to, coerse, threaten into speaking. He could bribe them as well - but he refused to offer a chit to anyone he knew belonged to the Merauby clan. For months, he scoured the city top to bottom.

Eventually he found what he was looking for: a young man about Rafe's same age that had been a member of the gang before slipping out from their hold during a raid a year before.

From Kaynar Rysel (a Squib refugee with furry grey-violet skin, big soulful eyes, and a look that said anything but 'gang member') came a tale of Malcom's rise in the ranks of the Merauby Clan. He had been kidnapped when he was eight years old, and trained relentlessly in physical skills - fighting, theft, the lot. He was not afforded the same education as his siblings were at home, instead fed a kind of local rhetoric that often lapsed into fanatic raving. Malcom bought it all - hook line and sinker. He dedicated himself - in the same way that Rafael had done for his journalism and his siblings did for their own careers in food or teaching. Impressed by the boy, Malcom had learned not only to be silent, but be deadly as well. So when Uve Merauby was found dead everyone knew it had been Malcom's doing... and no one lifted a hand to stop him. Uve had been Ori Merauby's favored nephew - the clan leader's nephew chosen to run the organization.

However, as such things often go, Malcom proved himself to be better at everything than Uve had been. Ori never officially adopted the boy, but when he was hardly twelve and had killed a teen a few years his elder, there might as well have been a physical bond between the two. So Malcom was now being groomed to replace Ori, providing a lot of jealousy and anger, resentment and fear among the clan along the way.

Malcom, had he lived, would surely have been one of the most formidable gang lords the planet had seen. Fortunately, they were spared his wrath, through the selfless action of his sister.

Kaynar would travel with Rafael back to the Cannon home, where he was given if not 'family member' status, Rafe assured he would at least be treated far better than the slave he'd been when he was brought to the planet. Rafael provided for his 'snitches' very well indeed by now. It took more than a year to fully expose the whole Merauby scheme, along with several competing families who would have taken over if not for some well-placed hints that things would not go very well for those that tried to mess with the Cannons.

With the clan Merauby in shambles and the local government finally turning around thanks to Nain's consistant interference (getting new people in office, out with the old corrupt ones), Rafael knew it was acceptable for him to start traveling again. This time, at long last, there was a sense of peace around the area that the Cannon estate rested, that could not be denied. Though they had lost two they'd gained a loyal family friend in Kaynar (who enjoyed cleaning up and scavenging, as Squibs do). More free to leave for extended periods without worry, Rafe decided to buy his own small ship, one with hyperspace engines and a good life support system so he could fly himself where he needed to be. (And it only took two months to get him licenced, as well, that famous Cannon learning curve...)

Setting off now more to enjoy himself, to view sights and take in culture - he was going to write a new book and took extensive notes - Rafael plotted a half-random path through systems both near and far. Limited only by the ship's fuel status, he spent another half year darting around typical tourist destinations as well as out of the way but beautiful locales only suitable for the very rich or the very adaptable.

Along the way, he met up with someone that seemed to know about him, it was a shame that outside influences had been all but missing from his prior life: this girl was energetic, as dark skinned as he was pale, with exotic enhancements that connected her to technology. With gusto she'd introduced herself as Jaylind Kirran - a videographer and occasional diplomat. She had seen coverage of his own work with the crime department on his world, and been inspired for her own diplomatic efforts recently.

As a team then, they tackled investigations and reported on goings on in a few Outer Rim territories, until they encountered a report about corruption on a space station. This could be interesting, right? However in doing so they met up with the son of one of the bigwigs on the station. Peytrey certainly seemed to mean well, better than his father - Cannon knew that he'd been very tangentally involved with things, imports and exports on his family's home world. Best to steer clear of that aspect, he had to warn Jaylind not to try interfering. It was actually good that they'd met up with Peytrey, because on their way off the station, Cannon's precious little ship was damaged heavily by the debris field that seemed to surround the place.

This Peytrey fellow, however, had more money than good sense, and offered to replace the ship, knowing that he'd been the one who brought them there. He then joined their little crew, and their new ship was faster, safer, and according to Jaylind, smelled better... It wasn't his fault it hadn't had a good scrubbing in a while! (okay it was, but...)

Together they headed back out, until they discovered a distress signal coming from a world that had seemingly lost contact with the rest of the galaxy. On investigation, they found a strangely apocalyptic world, filled with savage tribes as well as high-tech nobility and cities. The starport they found was surrounded by desolation, but a girl waited there - and more. Lunen... and her twin, who was only barely visible to those with the ability to see her, Nula. She explained her own situation, and they agreed that she'd do much better with them, exploring and learning how to use her Force abilities.

Now four strong (... five! okay, five! and a spare astromech or two) delved into the deeper wilds, trading stories and learning new skills.

***

So it was that they eventually drifted out past most conventional space lanes, into territory which was old, very old, and far past the normal Galactic center. Rafe had regularly been sending subspace communication notes back home, downloading his writings so that even if... even if he were lost, his words would continue, and he encouraged the others to do the same. He was assured by the slowly returned comm beams, his mother and Isaac were putting his memoirs together and keeping private letters away from them - no sense in mixing up personal things with business.

The world where they were now gliding over was ancient. Overgrown with jungle, standing tall with huge tree forests and mountains shrouded in mists.

Mountains?.... No, they were not mountains, now that he flew closer to one. It was too regular in shape to be a mountain, this was a constructed building! So huge, so old, covered in vines and -- and with a single plume of smoke indicating someone was cooking in it?

For the first time in months, Rafael's heart beat faster with excitement. After a while, after traveling to dozens of worlds and seeing massive volcanoes, waterfalls, canyons and cities... Something new was better than he could hope for. He had actually been interested in exploring Lunen and Nula's world, but they wisely informed him that such a thing would be very dangerous indeed.

But this place looked dangerous too, in different ways. And it was again Lunen and Nula who gave a little warning. The Force was extremely strong here, but it was murky - not the Dark side specifically, just... they weren't sure what was going on.

They found a spot that was obviously used for landing, as there was a ship that still sat nearby. It was neither old nor particularly new, but it showed signs of being hardly used recently. Not gutted, but not flight ready, that was what Peytrey said of it. There were no guns trained on them, no security force running over, no droids visible to either warn them away or escort them somewhere.

Until they realized that other eyes actually were on them. From above, from treetops and mostly-hidden ancient blocky architecture, sets of eyes watched and waited. Nula manifested herself more strongly than ever here, something they had noticed on worlds where strong Force-sensitive folk were from, or where ancient Jedi (or Sith) temples sat in ruins. She had them all assemble near the ship, on a clear strip of walkway that led into a hewn-stone structure.

A woman arrived, brown hair, bright blue eyes, Jedi robes, though no obvious weapon alive in her hands. Lunen noticed she did have a lightsaber dangling from her belt, but then Lunen noticed a lot more than most. This woman nodded, smiled a little, and waved her hand toward the darker tunnel she'd come through, and introduced herself as Karen Kenobi - a name that some recognized, from an era barely passed.

Rafe as well as Jaylind took notes, recording things around this massive mountain retreat, the temple that Karen asserted had predated the 'Sith Interlopers' - original Sith, at least one of whom would be introduced at some indistinct later date. But on their notes, Karen also sternly advised both reporters to "keep this place out of it". 'This place' being named Izorrat. Out of 'it', meaning, 'the navicomputer'. And weirdly, she also mentioned another world, Ketvaozh by name, which neither had heard of. Apparently another well-kept out of the way secret world.

But those secrets were nothing compared to what Karen had in mind next...

-- ABY 18, a large domed ship, one which Rafe only recognized thanks to Peytrey's gasp and exclamation was a Kaminoan research vessel, arrives to the Izorrat temple thanks to ... a purrgil? A herd of them, who had drifted deeply below the waves of Kamino and snatched up this precious dome. In it a pair of Kaminoans (along with about 4 others of their breed) would become quite important. It was also clear there were others on that ship, in stasis!

-- Karen takes the group to her 'other school'. In another dimension, a planet that looked far more improbable than anything they'd seen, Twoarth

-- And at some point in all of this, it is one of Keenan Lane's disparate versions that delivers the 'mysterious letter', and only at that point does Rafe understand the script, which tells Rafe 'to be available for a specific, large, room-mate to befriend'. What the heck did that mean? Well he'd find out when he discovered Enreve's shapeshifting ability ...

The Room-Mate in question: