"Don't get too excited, Vestara. There are never enough uvaks to meet the demand."
"I know. But I will come home with one."
―Gavar and Vestara Khai, prior to the uvak competition
Imprint is a seven-page short story written by Christie Golden set a few years before, and tying into, the Fate of the Jedi series. The story, for which the cover was drawn by Ian Keltie, was included in the 2009 Star Wars Hyperspace membership kit. Imprint details how Sith Tyro Vestara Khai obtains Tikk, the uvak she uses for transportation in the second novel of the Fate of the Jedi series, Omen.
Publisher's summary
OMEN author Christie Golden wrote a short story that takes place before the events of the Fate of the Jedi series and features a lost tribe of Sith. This 7-page short story is an exclusive for Hyperspace members!
Plot summary
In 37.5 ABY, ten-year-old Sith Tyro Vestara Khai and her father, Sith Saber Gavar Khai, attend Presentation, a festival in Tahv, the capital city of the planet Kesh. One of the events is a competition among the children of the Lost Tribe of Sith, which was stranded on the planet five thousand years earlier, to own a baby uvak—a winged reptilian creature that, once grown, could be used for transportation. Vestara, who is at Presentation specifically for this, takes a seat in the pen where the competition will be held and waits. When the event starts about fifteen minutes later, an incubation droid rolls into the ring, deposits twelve uvak eggs in the center, and then exits the competition area.[1]
The children, including Vestara, immediately begin attempting to force their will on the about-to-hatch uvaks through the dark side of the Force, the goal being to cause the uvak to "imprint" upon the competitor, thus claiming the uvak for their own. Vestara selects one of the eggs and focuses on it as the uvak inside emerges, quickly naming it Tikk due to the clicking sound it makes with its beak. However, another youth, the Keshiri Ahri Raas, picks the same uvak, and Vestara mentally battles with him over it. Raas begins to inflict pain on Tikk through the Force, and Vestara, angry at this, looks at Raas, imploring him to stop hurting the baby uvak. Startled, the Keshiri boy loses control of Tikk, who imprints upon Vestara. She gathers Tikk into her arms, and the hungry uvak nibbles her ear. Gavar, looking on from the spectator area, applauds his daughter's success.
Chronology
Era: New Jedi Order era
Timeline: 37.5 ABY
Series: Fate of the Jedi tie-in