Brilliant, on a curve of Skywalker

Fresh from the Jade Shadow's sanisteam and dressed in clean robes, Ben joined Ender and his father in the main cabin for their nightly meal of reheated prepackaged meals.

"You know that thing where the sages decide that it's time to die and they just will themselves to do it?" he began between bites of nerf loaf and tuber mash. "One of the Baran Do masters--the senior combat instructor, Charsae Saal--has decided to do it tomorrow. He was working with Ender and me today and invited us all to attend the ceremony."

"Did you talk to him about his choice?" Luke asked.

Ben nodded. "We didn't just blurt out Why have you decided to die? or anything, but Ender asked some questions about the ceremony and I told him that from a human perspective, it was sad when a good person died because they took their knowledge with them. He said he was leaving his knowledge behind."

"Huh," Luke replied.

"What did you learn today?"

"I learned to make a ball float at a constant altitude but not make it be still."

Ben decided that the combat training sounded way more interesting. "You also had a busy day," he said a little dryly instead. "Talking to other Baran Do sages, I was getting a strange sense about Charsae Saal's decision. The students were sad. So were the Baran Do Masters, but it was different."

"Of course it was," Luke said. "Masters tend to have a greater depth of philosophy and understanding about such things--"

"Dad, they were even sadder."

That brought Luke up short. "What's that again?"

"I got the impression that the Masters had even deeper regret."

"Interesting," Luke said finally. "Now I'm certain we need to attend."

( Alien funerals for the win? )

[OOC: Taken and adapted from Aaron Allston's Outcast, preplayed with endsthegame, NFI, NFB, void in Delaware.]