Force Collector

Force Collector is a canon young-adult novel written by Kevin Shinick. It is part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker publishing program, and it was first published on October 4, 2019 by Egmont UK Ltd. An American edition was published by Disney–Lucasfilm Press on November 19, 2019.
The novel is set a few years before the events of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, and it introduces the character Karr Nuq Sin as he discovers his connection to the Force.
==Publisher's summary==
Karr is a teenage boy like many others in the galaxy. He goes to school, helps his parents with the family business, likes speeders and droids. But Karr also has a secret: when he touches certain objects, he gets searing headaches and blacks out. And along with the pain sometimes come visions of people he doesn't know and places he's never been.
Karr's parents worry that he's sick; his grandmother is convinced the visions come from the Force. But it's been years since anyone has heard from the last of the Jedi—Luke Skywalker. Are there any Jedi left to guide Karr in the use of his abilities? Is anyone even willing to talk about the Jedi and what happened to them, as their memory continues to fade and the First Order rises? Stuck on his isolated home planet, Karr becomes a collector of historical artifacts, hoping to one day find an object that will give him a vision about the secrets of the Jedi.
When his grandmother dies and his parents announce they're sending him away to a school on the other side of the planet, Karr reaches his breaking point. He needs to know what his destiny holds, and whether the Jedi are involved. Accompanied by Maize, the blunt, unpredictable new girl at school with ties to the First Order, and RZ-7, Karr's solicitous droid companion, he sets off into the larger galaxy to find the truth. His adventures will take him from Utapau to Jakku to Takodana and beyond as he learns more about the Jedi than he could have expected…and about his own place in the Force.
==Plot summary==
===The misfit===
Karr Nuq Sin is a 17-year old Force-sensitive teenager on the planet Merokia who is unaware of his Force powers. Since the age of 13, he has experienced searing headaches and blackouts when touching certain objects. While his parents and doctors can't explain what is causing these disturbances, his grandmother J'Hara believes he is Force-sensitive. J'Hara is one of the few people within Karr's family and social circles who are acquainted with the Jedi; with many believing them to be legends. Due to his grandmother's influence, Karr is curious about the Jedi.
While donning a newly acquired vintage Death Star–era stormtrooper helmet from his friend Janu Blenn, Karr experiences a blackout. When he awakes, a teacher named Namala Moffat reminds him about the school's policy prohibiting military paraphernalia. Moffat attempts to confiscate the helmet but Karr tries to use a mind trick to convince her to let keep him it but it does not effect her.
Shortly later, Karr is accosted by the school bully Royke, a bulk Besalisk. Royke takes an interest in Karr's gloves, accusing him of stealing it from his grandmother. Despite Moffat's attempts to calm the situation, Royke goads Karr, who in a fit of rage tries to Force chokes him. Royke grabs at his throat and falls to the ground, but a horrified Karr realizes Royke was only feigning the Force choke effect. Moffat, embarrassed that she fell for Royke’s trick, sends the two boys to the headmaster's office.
===A new friend===
While waiting in detention, the Ankura Gungan science teacher Kragnotto hauls in another delinquent: the Mirialan girl Maize Raynshi, a recent immigrant from CeSai whose father works for the First Order's war machine. Despite an initially hostile encounter, the two strike a conversation about the Jedi. Maize believes that the Jedi were a hoax created by the Republic while Karr believes that the Jedi are real. Seeking to prove his Force powers, Karr touches a glove owned by Maize's father. This exertion causes Karr a severe headache and he blackouts.
Karr's blackout startles Maize, the other students and staff. The concerned Ovissian headmaster asks Karr if he can contact his parents. Karr convinces the headmaster to let his protocol droid RZ-7 ("Arzee") pick him up in the family speeder. Karr also convinces the headmaster to let his new friend Maize come along. After the droid arrives in the beat-up speeder, Karr introduces Maize to RZ-7, whom he built from the parts of various droids. During the journey home, Maize learns about the death of Karr's grandmother.
===J'Hara's lesson===
In a flashback scene, Karr confides his doubts about being Force-sensitive with his grandmother J'Hara. Despite his frequent lessons, Karr is frustrated that he can't seem to exhibit the Force powers of the Jedi of legend. J'Hara explains that these Force powers are the products of playing with the Force, adding that a Jedi does not seek to fight but to keep the peace.
Sensing her grandson's frustration, J'Hara asks Karr to use the Force to destroy a cup. After a failed attempt, Karr gives into his anger and taps the Force, almost crushing his grandmother's chest through the Force. Karr is apologetic but his grandmother tells him that she wanted to prove that he was Force-sensitive. She encourages Karr to continue his training in the Force and passes away. Karr resolves to become a Jedi, to honor his grandmother's beliefs.
===Karr's home===
Karr returns to his family home where he briefly introduces Maize to his older brother Trag. Karr ushers Maize into his bedroom, which contains various objects that he has collected. Karr tells Maize that some of the objects including a silver handle causes him to experience flashes, leading him to believe that they experienced something "big."
Maize also shares about her background growing up on the planet CeSai, which prospered under the Galactic Empire. After the New Republic expelled the Empire, the planet fell apart. She believes that the Jedi are a myth. Karr counters by talking about the role that the Jedi played during the Clone Wars and the Great Jedi Purge in response to an alleged Jedi uprising. When Maize expresses her disbelief that an entire society could disappear, Karr recounts the story of a tribe of Tusken Raiders that disappeared, using a Neuro-Saav TD-series electrobinoculars. According to the legend, the tribe left nothing except the drawing of a mysterious figure etched in stone.
To demonstrate his Force powers to Maize, he touches her father's drafting tool. Using the Force, Karr senses that the tool came from somewhere covered in ice and snow, and that her father is a human man with bright blue eyes, black hair and a gray suit. Maize is impressed and now believes that Karr is telling the truth about his Force powers.
===Running away===
The following day, Karr is summoned by the Ovissian headmaster to a meeting with his parents Tomar and Looway Nuq Sin. Since Karr's headaches have worsened following the death of his grandmother, the headmaster and his parents have decided to send Karr to work with his uncle at a trade school in Taeltor Province following the end of his school term. They explain that the doctors think that he is not coping well with the excitement in his hometown. They believe that moving will help reduce stress and lessen his sensitivity.
Unwilling to leave his hometown and believing that he is not unwell, Karr exits the meeting. Karr heads into a science lab where he finds a distraught Maize smashing beakers and test tubes. Maize is upset that the First Order has reassigned her father offworld to work at school. Karr confides that he does not want to go to the school. The two decide to escape the planet and go offworld in Maize's father's personal ship. Karr decides to enlist his droid Arzee as their pilot and the two flee school in the midst of a security alarm.
While traveling to Maize's home, Karr learns that Maize's father is a diplomat who specializes in technology systems, aiding First Order spies, and counter-intelligence. Accompanied by Karr's droid RZ-7, they borrow Maize's father's First Order yacht Avadora. Taking the yacht into space, Karr decides to go on a search for Jedi artifacts. Maize suggests that they travel to the nearby world of Utapau and sets a course for the sinkhole world.
===Visiting Utapau===
Entering Utapau's atmosphere, they fly to Pau City, the site of one of the final battles of the Clone Wars and General Grievous' death. After parking their ship, Karr, Maize and Arzee visit a junk shop run by a big, beefy human named Sconto, who is the son of Clone trooper. Sconto believes that the Jedi were traitors who attempted to seize power. While browsing Sconto's shop, the two friends pretend that they are on a history assignment exploring the effects of the fall of the Republic on Outer Rim worlds like Utapau.
Sconto shows Karr an artifact which turns out to be Tion Medon's staff. While touching the staff, Karr experiences a Force vision and witnesses Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi's first meeting with Tion Medon where the two discuss the Separatist presence on Utapau. This vision causes Karr to faint and black out, with RZ-7 telling Sconto that Karr has thin blood. Before leaving, Karr tells Sconto that the staff belongs to Tion Medon and would fetch a valuable price.
After leaving the junk shop, Karr is able to convince Maize that the Jedi were real historical figures. While at a cantina, Karr discusses his vision with Maize, telling her that he is aware of at least two Jedi named Kenobi and General Skywalker. A passing Utai tells Karr that a Jedi named Luke Skywalker purportedly used the Force to pull down Imperial ships during the Battle of Jakku, turning the tide of the battle in favor of the New Republic.
Departing Utapau aboard the Avadora, Karr and Maize settle into their sleeping nooks while RZ-7 helms the ship. While traveling through hyperspace, Maize asks Karr about his grandmothe J'Hara. Karr explains that this grandmother taught him to have a better understanding of the Force despite her lack of Force-sensitivity. When Karr asks Maize about her parents, Maize confides that her dad is busy all the time and that she has trouble relating to her mother, who comes from a traditional Mirialan family. In her flashback, Karr meditates on J'Hara teaching him how to meditate.
===Visiting Niima Outpost===
Exiting hyperspace, the Avadora approaches Jakku. Maize receives a message from her mother in the ship's communication log but deletes it. Following the Utai's directions, the pair land in Niima Outpost, where the locals make a living salvaging scrap from the Starship Graveyard, which is full of ships that crashed during the Battle of Jakku. Karr, Maize and RZ-7 join a queue outside a blockhouse manned by the Crolute junk boss Unkar Plutt.
Karr asks Plutt for information about Jedi relics and artifacts on Jakku. While Plutt has no such objects, he hands the level belong to the throttle controls of a Galactic Republic ship that crashed somewhere after the Clone Wars. However, Karr is unable to sense a Jedi connection to it and doubts that the ship was connected to the Republic. With Karr unwilling to purchase the object, Plutt shoos them away and returns to serving the scavengers.
At RZ-7's suggestion, they explore Plutt's tarps where they encounter a wrecked quadjumper, mothballed Taylander shuttle, and an old Corellian freighter which turns out to be the Millennium Falcon. While exploring the Falcon, Karr senses something special about the ship through the Force despite its old, ramshackle state. Inside the ship's interior, Karr experiences another Force vision of Master Obi-Wan Kenobi giving Luke Skywalker his first lightsaber lesson. Following the vision, Karr relates what he saw to Maize and RZ-7. Based on Skywalker's experiences as a novice, he believes that there is hope for him to become a Jedi like Skywalker.
After exiting the Falcon, Maize is accosted by a pair of First Order stormtroopers, who have been sent by her father to bring her back home. Karr fights with the stormtroopers but Maize manages to calm the situation down. She tells Karr to continue with his quest and hands him a small holocommunicator so that they can keep in touch. Before leaving with Maize, one of the stormtroopers wishes Karr the best of luck with his quest.
Karr and RZ-7 continue their quest for artifacts. With RZ-7 unable to obtain information from questioning the local droids, Karr qustions the locals manning the stalls. After an unsuccessful attempt with an old lady, Karr meets a Pyke who tells him to travel to the desert moon orbiting Oba Diah, where he will find the crashed ship of Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. The Pyke tells Karr that his family played a role in the conspiracy that claimed Master Sifo-Dyas' life.
Following the meeting, Karr convinces RZ-7 to set a course for Oba Diah, suggesting that they could use the spice route to travel to the Jedi ship and find out more about the Jedi. Despite his concerns about safety, RZ-7 complies with Karr's wishes. While traveling to Oba Diah's moon, Karr experiences a flashback. A 14-year old Karr was upset that his Zabrak friend had broken a wing of his toy B-class X-wing. J'Hara uses this as an opportunity to teach Karr about the dangers of attachment. While families and friends are important, J'Hara warns about becoming too attached to them when they are still alive.
===Flashes of history===
Traveling to Oba Diah's desert moon, Karr and RZ-7 land the Avadora in a canyon on the barren landscape. Nearby, they locate the crash site of Master Sifo-Dyas' shuttle. While much of the wreckage has been cleared, Karr finds a holoprojector beneath the sands which contains a transmission by the late Jedi Master prior to the shuttle's crush-landing. With his traveling companion Silman having ejected into an Emergency survival capsule, Sifo-Dyas sends a message telling the Jedi that he had commissioned the creation of a clone army from the Kaminoans in response to a disturbing vision of the future. Before the transmission terminates, he tells his Jedi brethren to "come find me."
Karr tells RZ-7 that this is the first time he has seen an actual Jedi outside of a vision. The two are unaware of Master Sifo-Dyas and wonder whether he knew Skywalker or Kenobi. Continuing their investigation, the two travel to a cantina on Oba Diah. A bartender hears that they are looking for Jedi and recommends that they speak to a Morseerian smuggler named Nabrun Leids, who confirms that he saw a Jedi. He relates Kenobi's confrontation with the Aqualish smuggler Ponda Baba at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina. Leids mentioned that Kenobi went off with a kid to talk to a Wookiee. Karr's questions unnerve the bartender who orders him to leave. Karr's exertions cause him to black out. Before fainting, Karr hears Leids mentioning that he last saw Kenobi on a planet with two suns.
After blacking out, Karr meets with a Chadra-Fan named Qweek who recommends that he visit the Wild Space world of Batuu, which is home to an antiquities dealer named Dok-Ondar. When RZ-7 raises concerns about the safety of their quest, Karr says that he believes that the Force is trying to guide him by giving him hints, leads, names and places. After resolving to travel to Batuu, Karr updates Maize about his travels. He learns that Maize has been suspended from school and grounded by her parents as punishment for her unplanned trip. Before terminating the transmission, he tells Maize he may have found hints about a living Jedi.
===Relics on Batuu===
Continuing their quest, Karr and RZ-7 travel to the planet Batuu. In orbit, Karr attempts a Jedi mind trick on Arzee but finds that the droid's programming to serve him is stronger. The two land the Avadora in Black Spire Outpost, which is the location of Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities. Prior to disembarking, RZ-7 counsels Karr to pretend that he is a wealthy and privileged individual.
Visiting Dok-Ondar's shop, Karr tells the Ithorian merchant that he is looking for artefacts. Dok Ondar shows him a Jedi Temple Guard's helmet. Through the Force, Karr experience its late Jedi wearer's death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker at the beginning of the Great Jedi Purge on Coruscant. Based on the helmet, Dok-Ondar and his female translator determines that Karr is interested in Jedi artifacts.
Dok-Ondar presents Karr with his collection of Jedi lightsabers. Sensing that Karr lacks the credits to purchase the lightsabers and regarding the youth as an unknown quantity, the merchant and his translator refuse to sell Karr all but a broken Double-bladed spinning lightsaber belonging to an Inquisitor, Imperial agents sent to hunt down Jedi survivors of the Purge. After touching the lightsaber, Karr experiences two visions of someone cutting down Jedi. In the first vision, he sees a face that resembles his own.
While troubled by the artifact, Karr attempts to buy the lightsaber from Dok-Ondar. Speaking through his translator, Dok-Ondar agrees to give the weapon to Karr if he delivers a package to his friend Maz Kanata on the planet Takodana. He warns Karr not to take any detours or side trips but to travel to Takodana directly. After leaving the shop, Karr confides in RZ-7 that he experienced what he thought was a Force vision of himself killing Jedi.
===Meeting Maz Kanata===
While traveling to Takodana, RZ-7 tries to reassure Karr that he is not the "Jedi-killer" that he experienced in his reason vision since he has no training as Jedi. Karr is still unsettled since he saw himself wielding a green lightsaber. Realizing that his master is unsettled, RZ-7 suggests that Karr needs to eat after delivering his package to Maz Kanata. Recalling an earlier reference to a planet with two suns, Karr realizes that the planet is Tatooine.
Karr tells RZ-7 to set a course for Tatooine but the droid reminds him to honor his promise to Dok-Ondar. Karr relents and proposes traveling to Tatooine after delivering their parcel to Maz Kanata. After resting for several hours, Karr awakes to RZ-7 who informs him that he has set a short jump to Takodana. After parking the Avadora at the edge of Nymeve Lake, Karr and RZ-7 visit Takodana Castle. There, a droid named ME-8D9 greets and introduces them to Maz Kanata.
While Maz cannot read his thoughts, she discerns that Karr is a lost child who can sense the Force and has a connection to the Jedi. Inside her office, Karr discusses his Force visions stemming from certain artifacts with Maz. Listening to Karr, she surmises that the boy is finding balance with the Force without meaning to. She counsels the youth to listen to the Force, which she describes as both a subject and a teacher.
Maz shows Karr a medal which she believes was granted by Princess Leia Organa to Luke Skywalker following the Battle of Yavin. After touching the medal, Karr experiences a Force vision of the award ceremony featuring Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. Based on Karr's description, she determines that Solo swindled her by giving his own medal instead of Skywalker.
Karr then presents Dok-Ondar's package to Maz, who reveals that the Ithorian merchant sent the package to her so that she could give it to Karr if she deemed appropriate. The item in the package turns out to be a metal arm belonging to C-3PO. After touching the arm, Karr experiences flashbacks of key events and adventures in the protocol droid's life including the Battle of Yavin, the escape from the space slug, Ewoks on Endor, Jedi Knights, the Clone Wars, Order 66, and Anakin Skywalker as a podracer and Padawan to Kenobi. He also sees the late Senator Padmé Amidala and her two children Luke and Leia. Following the vision, she tells Karr to take C-3PO's arm since that will help him with his journey.
Following the vision, Karr resolves to find his place in the middle of the Force. As a result of his vision, he learns that there are two Skywalkers—Anakin and his son Luke—and that Luke has a sister, Princess Leia. However, Karr is disappointed that he didn't see himself in the visions. Maz explains that this is because those visions are not his story but theirs. After leaving Maz, Karr chats with RZ-7, who counsels that he is learning about the Jedi journey while embarking on his own.
===Continuing the journey===
Returning to the Avadora, Karr expresses his doubts about whether he is destined to become a Jedi and fears that he could become an anti-Jedi. Karr fears he is going down the same path as Anakin, citing his impatience with Nabrun Leids and impulsiveness with Dok-Ondar. RZ-7 tries to reassure Karr that his fears are unfounded. After some discussion, the two decide to set a course for Tatooine in order to continue Karr's spiritual journey.
During the journey, Karr chats with Maize, updating her about his adventures. He wonders whether he should travel to Tatooine or return home. Maize reassures Karr that her father is not worried about the ship. Since they are running low on fuel, Maize suggests that they stop at Kijimi to refuel.
===First Order entanglements===
Traveling to Kijimi, Karr and RZ-7 park the Avadora at Kijimi City's spaceport, which lies at the summit of Mount Izukika. After walking around the two return to their borrowed ship only to be detained by 18 First Order stormtroopers. A First Order officer orders them aboard the Avadora and interrogates Karr about the Jedi Luke Skywalker, whom the military junta are looking for.
Karr recounts all that he knows about the Jedi based on the visions from C-3PO's arms. However, the First Order officer dismisses this as an ancient history and demands to know whether he was on a mission to find Skywalker. Karr tells the officer about Master Sifo-Dyas' message but he insists that it is ancient history. Still not satisfied, the officer threatens to shoot RZ-7 if he does not cooperate. Karr tells the officer not to hurt the droid because he is a medical droid but the officer recognizes that RZ-7 is a protocol droid and shoots one of his arms off.
The First Order officer then presents a holorecording of his friend Maize saying that Karr is interested in a missing Jedi Master and was visiting Oba-Diah. When the officer asks if Karr wants to stick with his answer, Karr tells him that the missing Jedi was Sifo-Dyas and that he knows nothing about Skywalker. Determining that Karr has no information about the Jedi Master, the First Order officer leaves the Avadora with his men.
Following their departure, Karr is upset and believes that Maize betrayed him to the First Order. He also attends to the damaged RZ-7, whose pieces are scattered on the ships floor. While gathering the pieces of his droid friend, Karr experiences a Force vision of his parents discussing a family secret which they decide to keep from Karr. Overcome by emotion, Karr decides to return his homeworld of Merkoria in order to seek answers from his parents.
===Homecoming and family secrets===
After returning to Merkoria, Karr parks the Avadora at Maize's family's landing pad. Carrying the damaged RZ-7's parts in a bag, he returns to his family home, brushes past his older brother, and confronts his mother Looway Niq Sin about the family secret. With Grandma gone, Karr believes that he needs to learn how to master his Force abilities. Realizing that the time has come, Looway convinces her son to wait till his father has returned so that they can reveal this secret as a family.
Retreating to his bedroom, Karr begins repairing RZ-7. He is interrupted by Maize, who has sneaked in through the window. Believing that Maize had betrayed him, Karr had refused to answer her messages. He tells Maize that he thinks she was using his Force powers to help the First Order find Skywalker. Maize explains that she did not contact the First Order but contacted her dad, who works for the First Order. She tells Karr that she told her father about him in order to convince him that Karr posed no threat to the First Order. While Karr accepts that Maize did not have any ulterior motives towards him, he tells her to leave because he needs space for himself.
While working on Arzee, his mother informs him that his father Tomar has returned. In the dining room, his father reveals that Karr's maternal great grandfather Naq Med was a Jedi who had left the Jedi before the Clone Wars. When Karr began manifesting Force powers through headaches, his parents were unsure whether they were the result of brain tumors or actual Force powers. At their request, Maize's grandmother J'Hara had withheld this information from him. As a compromise, they allowed her to nurture what she believed were his Force abilities.
Karr and his parents are joined by Maize, who Tomar explains briefed them about his travels and adventures. After listening to Maize explain how Karr has used his visions to follow clues and find people to verify his findings, Looway came to believe that Karr was Force-sensitive. While skeptical, Tomar also accepted this explanation. From his father, Karr learns that his great grandfather was named Naq Med. Looway explains that it was never their intention to hurt Karr by withholding this information. Looway admits she was concerned that her son stole a starship. Maize backs up Karr by saying that she stole the ship and taught him how to fly.
===Reconciliation and J'Hara's message===
While walking around the family homestead with Karr, Maize apologizes for not revealing that she had told her parents about him. Maize recognizes that her father working for the First Order complicates matters. Karr also confides with Maize about his terrifying vision triggered by the Inquisitor's lightsaber of him apparently striking down Jedi. While Karr is fearful of his Force powers, Maize reassures him that his Force powers are not what attracts her to him but rather his character.
Believing that he needs a mentor to prevent him from slipping to the dark side, Karr decides to seek his great grandfather Naq Med. Since his grandmother J'Hara did not reveal her father's location, Maize convinces Karr to look through his grandmother's personal effects and sewing equipment for clues. The two find a datapad containing an image of J'Hara in her wedding dress.
Karr also discovers a holocube containing a holographic recording by his late grandmother. In the recording, J'Hara tells her grandson about her agreement with his parents not to tell him anything about his great-grandfather Naq Med. She explains that her father was discovered to be Force-sensitive and became a Jedi Padawan. Despite his ambitions of becoming a Jedi Knight, Med grew to question the idea of blind allegiance and left the Jedi Order. He subsequently fathered his daughter J'Hara. Foreseeing that Karr might need a teacher, she mentions that Med lives in marshy equatorial grasslands of a largely uninhabited planet called Pam'ba. Following the recording, Karr resolves to finish his training.
===Borrowing a ship===
After ruling out obtaining a ship from Unkar Plutt, Maize decides to arrange a meeting between Karr and her parents to discuss borrowing the Avadora. The following day, Maize introduces Karr to her father Vroc Raynshi and her Mirialan mother Anaya Raynshi, telling them about his quest to find his grandfather. Seeking to become a "better person" who is less selfish and more responsible, Maize asks her parents for permission to lend the Avadora and proposes placing trackers or recording their flight movements for safety purposes. While initially skeptical, her parents agree to relent after Maize convinces them that Karr is a genuine and trustworthy friend.
To curry favor with her mother Anaya, Maize offers to get a tattoo after returning from their trip. Vroc agrees to let the teenagers borrow the yacht on the condition that their trip takes no more than three days. He also tells her to take the trackers and make regular calls. As a precaution, Vroc says that he will monitor her piloting skills from Merokia.
Having obtained the Raynshis' blessing, Karr seeks permission from his parents to travel offworld to find closure with his journey to learn about his Force-sensitivity. Despite their apprehensions, Karr's parents give him permission to travel offworld with Maize on the condition that he go to the trade school next month as planned.
Prior to departing for Pam'ba, Karr and Maize chat with Vroc. Karr vouches for his friend's piloting skills. After Maize embraces he father, he bids them farewell. To honor both J'Hara's request that they conceal the location of Naq Med's homeworld and Vroc's request that they travel with surveillance bugs, Maize plants the three surveillance bugs on a ship belonging to a friend of her mother who is visiting her daughter in the Chommell sector. Karr and Maize are also accompanied by his trusty droid RZ-7.
===Reunion on Pam'ba===
Karr, Maize and RZ-7 travel to the marshy world of Pam'ba. They circle the abandoned planet for signs of settlements, hoping to find Naq Med. Through the Force, Karr locates his great-grandfather's humble adobe, a small house built on stilts. The trio locate Med's house in an abandoned mining camp within a swamp.
While climbing the ladder leading up to his great-grandfather's house, Karr is confronted by the lightsaber-wielding Naq Med, who asks what he is doing here. Following a brief conversation, Karr identifies himself as Naq's great-grandson. Karr also introduces his Maize and RZ-7 to his great-grandfather. After briefing Naq about the status of his relatives including the death of his daughter J'Hara, Karr tells his great grandfather about his Force-sensitivity.
Though Naq recognizes that Karr is Force-sensitive, he believes that Naq's path is not with the Jedi. Karr agrees and adds that he needs someone to guide him with his Force powers. After Naq shows a hologram of his younger self as a Padawan, Karr relates his "terrible" vision of himself fighting and killing another Jedi. He also asks if Naq was the mysterious killer in that vision.
Naq explains that the vision belonged to the Grand Inquisitor, who had fought and killed many Jedi before hunting down Naq. The familiar face that he saw was Naq, who had broken the Inquisitor's lightsaber in combat befor fleeing. When Karr touched the lightsaber, he experienced visions from both his great-grandfather and the Grand Inquisitor.
Naq also believes that the Jedi Order turned on the Republic, sparking Order 66 and the Great Jedi Purge. As a result, Naq had left his wife and daughter J'Hara and fled to Pam'ba. Karr explains that the Jedi did not betray the Republic but that the Republic betrayed them as a result of Palpatine's plot. R7-7 backs Karr up. Naq is shocked that he fled into hiding based on the lie that the Jedi had betrayed the Republic. Karr reasons that the dark side won a devastating victory that left no one to remember the "good guys."
Karr comforts his distraught great-grandfather by reassuring him that he did everything to protect his family, who survived the Jedi Purge and the Empire. He tells Naq that J'Hara survived and lived a happy life on Merokia as a seamstress. Karr ends by telling his great-grandfather that a Jedi restored balance to the Force and defeated Palpatine, ending the days of Jedi hunting. This comforts Naq who says that his job is done and that he can truly rest. Naq soon dies at peace with himself, knowing that he protected his family and lived to see his great-grandson.
===Farewell and a new purpose===
Following Naq Med's death, Karr and his friends wrap his great grandfather's body in an old curtain. Karr also inherits Naq Med's lightsaber and Jedi robes. Sensing the light side of the Force, Karr believes he has finally found balance in the Force. Reflecting on Maz Kanata's advice, Karr believes that his job is to preserve the past by collecting the Force. Before leaving, they douse Naq's remains and the house with fuel. With Karr's approval, she uses the Avadora cannons to set the house ablaze, providing a funeral pyre for the late Jedi.
While traveling through hyperspace, Karr discusses his future plans with Naq Med and RZ-7. When RZ-7 asks about his plans, Karr says that he still plans to go to the trade school in order to provide an income to supplement his work as a Force collector. Arzee also agrees to accompany his master to the trade school. Regarding Maize's tattoo, Karr advises her to pick up one translating as "friendship."
Returning to their families, Karr and Maize recount their adventures to their relatives. Karr's parents and brother are impressed by his great-grandfather's lightsaber. After cataloging and storing the artifacts he has collected, Karr begins recording the stories he has collected.
==Development==
Force Collector, which was part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker publishing line, originally featured the protagonist Karr Nuq SinForce Collector visiting the remains of the second Death Star, just as Rey did in Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. According to author Kevin Shinick, he inadvertently wrote this similar journey into the first draft of the novel and was informed that aspect needed to be changed to avoid treading the same ground as The Rise of Skywalker about a year prior to the film's premiere and the book's publication. 
Force Collector protagonist is Karr Nuq Sin, a Force-sensitive teenager with the power of psychometry. The novel was also released around the same time as the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a story that starred another young Force user with psychometry, the Jedi Cal Kestis.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Shinick stated that he was also unaware of Kestis' powers in the other developing project when he wrote the first draft and only learned of it in the same call where he was told of the changes that needed to be made in light of The Rise of Skywalker plot. Unlike the major changes caused by Episode IX, what Shinick had already written was close enough to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order that only minor details of the rules and effects of the power needed tweaks to bring the two stories in line, such as the blinding white light Nuq Sin saw when touching an object to match what happens in the game when the player makes Kestis use his "Sense Echo" power.
==Media==
===Editions===
*; October 4, 2019; Egmont UK Ltd; UK paperback
*; November 19, 2019; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US hardcover
*; November 19, 2019; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US eBook 
===Cover gallery===
==Appearances==
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
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Category:Canon young-adult novels
Category:Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker