scattered on the far side of a pool.
From a distance, sometimes you can see only the effect, not the
cause."
She smiled. "But you must be very still to see even that, for you are
also of the Current, surrounded by the ripples of your being."
"So what you sense is the crew of this ship?"
"Whether they are crew, or cargo, or captives, I can't say. I only
know that there are many thousands there, orbiting J't'p'tan, and some
smaller number on the surface below."
"Colonists," said Luke. "They must be here to settle the planet." At
her questioning look, he added, "I heard some rumors in Taldaak that
the Yevetha were expanding their territory by taking over the habitable
worlds."
"And you trust these rumors because--" He laughed grimly. "Because
they came from the Fleet. I obtained a tactical briefing on the
war."
"So you already knew that a ship was here," she said. "And said
nothing to me of it."
"I knew that a ship was here at one time," Luke said. "I didn't say
anything to you because I couldn't. I take seriously the oath that
allows me access to secure data. I wouldn't tell your secrets to them,
either," he added.
"Then you weren't testing me just now? To learn if I've spied on
you?"
"No," Luke said. "I just needed to know how you knew. What about the
Circle?"
She shook her head. "The essence of concealment is merging with what
surrounds you. Not even the best among us could answer your question
at this distance, and I am far from the best. I hear only silence--I
do not know what the silence means."
Pushing Mud Sloth to its navigational limits, Luke began to contrive a
spiraling approach that would keep the mass of the planet between the
skiff and the Yevethan vessel.
"Best for everyone if they never see us at all," he said as he charted
the course.
"Done," Akanah said, looking on from behind Luke's flight couch.
Luke looked up at her quizzically. "It can't be that easy."
"Why not?"
"Eh--don't you have to know who it is you're trying to hide from?"
"Why?" she asked.
"So you have a focus. So you know whose thoughts you're trying to
deflect. It's done with precision, not brute force."
"That's coercive," she said. "And invasive. You reach into another
mind and bind its thoughts, or place your own there."
"Well--yes," Luke said. "But the use of that power is constrained.
The purpose must be important enough to justify the deed and the
consequences."
"It seems the Jedi are always finding reasons to justify their
violence," she said. "I wish you would try as hard to find ways to
avoid it."
"Violence? What violence?" Luke protested.
"More often than not, all that's required is to induce a moment's
inattention, or reinforce a suspicion. No harm is involved. A sworn
Jedi would never--oh, make someone walk off a cliff thinking there was
a bridge there."
Akanah shook her head in earnest disagreement.
"You, who've immune to your own tricks--who are you to judge the harm
done? You do this in secret, to lead a suggestible mind, or compel an
opposed one. Do you think that those you've coerced see the morality
of it the same as you do? Besides," she sniffed, "it's inefficient."
"What?"
"Inefficient," she repeated. "It requires your constant attention and
involvement."
"If you know an alternative, I'm your eager student."
"What about the way you concealed your hermitage?"
Luke frowned. "That's different. I created it from elemental
substances to have that quality--to blend in with the coastline as
though it were part of it."
"It was a powerful bit of work," she said. "When I saw it, I knew you
had the gift of the Fallanassi. But you didn't go far enough and apply
the principle to its ultimate conclusion."
"Which is--" "To make it not merely resemble its surroundings, but
merge with them," Akanah said. Closing her eyes, she drew a deep
breath. She let the breath out slowly as she lowered her chin to her
chest--and then she was not there.
"I'll be a--" Luke reached for her where she had been standing, but his
hand grabbed only air. "Cute trick," he said, taking a step toward the
refresher, away from the forward deck. "Handy for breaking into
libraries, escaping arranged marriages--where are you?"
"Here," she said from behind him. He turned to find her sitting
sideways in the right-hand seat, wearing a small proud smile. "Did I
touch your mind?"
"No," he admitted. "Not that I could notice."
Akanah nodded. "A long time ago, one of the Circle discovered that
when she achieved a particularly profound Meditation of Immersion, she
would disappear from the view of others. Much later, we learned how to
take an object in with us and leave it there."
"Where do you go when you disappear?"
"Where do you go when you dream? It's impossible to say. What does an
answer from that context mean in this one?"
"Well--is it difficult?"
She shrugged. "Once mastered, it's no more difficult or mysterious
than concealing a cup of water by
pouring it in the sea." Then she smiled. "But achieving mastery is
much like trying to remove that cup of water afterward."
"And you've merged this ship?"
"Yes. Some time ago, while I was in meditation."
"Will the engines still work?"
"Did the floors of your hermitage hold you, and the roof keep out the
rain?"
Luke wrinkled up his face. "So we're completely undetectable now?"
"No," she said. "Nothing is absolute. But we're safe from eyes, and
from the machines that are like eyes.
Take us directly to J't'p'tan, Luke--as quickly as you can. Trust me
in this, at least. I've depended on this art for my survival,
virtually from the time I was taken from Ialtra. I promise you that we
won't be discovered-not by the beings in that starship."
The stone ruins of the temple of J't'p'tan sprawled over more than two
thousand hectares. Even scorched and smashed, what remained made the
extent of the builders' ambition clear. The ruins filled the floor of
a pocket valley with an intricate pattern and climbed the inner walls
of the enclosing hills.
But it was also clear long before MudSloth landed in the middle of an
open diamond that the ambitions of the H'kig had collided with the
ambitions of the Yevetha, and the latter had triumphed.
Long walls of finely chiseled cutstone had been toppled and
shattered.
The slope of the hills had been undercut in several places, collapsing
parts of the great structure onto itself. The quarries were half
filled with water, the quarry sledges burned to charcoal, the quarry
road blasted out of existence. And nowhere was there a hint of life.
Luke climbed down from the skiff slowly, word-lessly.
The destruction assaulted his senses--there was a sick smell on the
slight breeze, and before he had gone a dozen mete
rs from the ship his
eyes began to pick out the blackened lumps of corpses among the
scattered stones.
"It's like Ialtra all over again, only worse," he whispered to
himself.
Then he turned back toward the skiff, looking for Akanah. He found her
kneeling on the paving stones near the ship's front skid, bent forward
with her head on her forearms.
"Akanah--" When she made no response, gave no sign she even heard, he
became concerned and moved toward her. But she rose to her feet before
he reached her and moved away from him at an angle, climbing over a
jumble of stones that had once been a wall and then breaking into a
run.
Puzzled, Luke stopped and called after her.
"Akanah--what is it? Where are you going?" Reaching out with his
sense skill, Luke swept his surroundings for threats, but found none.
"Akanah!"
When she did not even look back, he started after her. But in the next
moment, she vanished--as thoroughly and effortlessly as she had aboard
the ship.
There was not even a tremble in the Force to mark her disappearance or
betray her presence afterward.
Luke's first thought was of betrayal. She got me here like she was
supposed to, and now she's getting herself out of the way. Crouching
behind a jumble of broken cutstone, Luke swept the area again,
concentrating on the ridgeline of the enclosing hills.
The ship's vulnerable--if I were them, I'd take it out first.
But there was no blaster fire from the hills, no sudden appearance by
troops concealed in the rubble, no patrol flyer swooping up through the
entrance to the valley. He found his failure to detect any other life
presence-Imperial, Yevethan, H'kig, Fallanassi--puzzling.
"Akanah!" he called loudly.
There was no answer. Luke stood up slowly, letting his lightsaber fall
from his hand to dangle at his hip. Still scanning warily, he walked
to where Akanah had knelt, but there were no clues there.
Maybe she never was real, he thought. Maybe someone's been playing
with my mind.
Whether he was alone or not, Luke did not intend to become stranded on
J't'p'tan, with only a Yevethan colony eight thousand klicks away to
look to for help.
There was no place to hide or shelter Mud Sloth, but he knew that the
skiffs navigation shields would provide some protection against hand
blasters and other small weapons. Luke revisited the cockpit just long
enough to activate them, then sealed the hatch and set off in the
direction Akanah had been heading when she vanished.
When he reached the spot where he had last seen her--or as closely as
he could fix it--he sat down on the edge of a giant building stone that
was scorched black and cracked in half.
"No Yevetha. No Fallanassi. No Akanah," he said aloud. "No Imperial
troopers. No Nashira. So why am I here? There's something missing
from this picture.
What's this all been about? There's something here still not seen."
Prodded by his own words, Luke turned his head slowly to one side, then
the other. "Maybe a lot of somethings not seen," he said, more
loudly.
"Finding a cup of water in an ocean, was it? I can do that. All it
takes is time, and knowing that it can be done."
When there was still no response, Luke stood. "If I have to pick
between your being an illusion and your being real, Akanah, I think I
have reason enough to know that you're real." He turned slowly in a
circle, waiting. "So I know that you're still here--and I'd bet that
you can hear me."
When waiting was not rewarded, Luke climbed atop the broken stone,
making an easy target of himself.
"At first I thought you were hiding from whoever did this," he
called.
"But they're long gone and far away, aren't they? And you didn't run
away in fear, did you--no, you wouldn't need to. You told me over and
over that you can protect yourself."
Jumping down, he began walking slowly in the direction Akanah had been
going when she vanished.
"Which leaves only one conclusion, Akanah--that you were running toward
something. That you found what you were looking for." He felt his
throat tighten as envy washed over him, and his next words came out
with a hoarse rasp. "That the Circle is here."
Ten meters away to Luke's right, three women suddenly appeared, as
though they had stepped through an invisible curtain. One wore a
sashed white gown with diagonal sky blue bands. Her silver hair
tumbled down her shoulders to her waist. A second, copper-skinned and
short-haired, wore very little at all--a dusty yellow wrap that started
low on her hips and fell only to her knees. Akanah was standing
between them, clinging to their hands with fierce possessiveness, her
face streaked with tears and lit by a profound joy.
"This is Wialu, who marked the way for me," she said brightly, her
voice thick with emotion. "And this is Nori--Norika, my friend of long
ago." She looked from one to the other, first left, then right, with
an almost disbelieving expression in her eyes. Then she smiled a giddy
smile and looked toward Luke. "Yes, Luke--I am real, and they are
real. And I am finally home!"
Wialu released Akanah's hand and came forward to where a stunned Luke
stood.
"You helped our child Akanah return to us," she said. "We are grateful
to you for that. Akanah tells us the burden was taken freely, but the
risk and sacrifice were substantial. Is there a debt owed?"
"What?" Luke searched Akanah's face. "Not a debt, no."
Wialu nodded. "You are the man of honor that she said you were," she
said. "Your friendship to the Fallanassi will be remembered."
"Thank you," Luke said uncertainly.
"Your ship must be removed from here as soon as possible," she said.
"It has already been a disruption, and its presence threatens what we
do here."
"Of course," Luke said. "Just show me where you'd like me to move it
to--" "It must leave the planet," said Wialu. "Its presence in the
temple is intolerable, but even elsewhere it would be a danger."
"It's Akanah's ship."
"She has given it to you, in gratitude," said Wialu.
"But it is also simple pragmatism that she do so."
Luke squinted. "Are you telling me I have to leave?"
"I am grateful for your understanding."
Luke looked again to Akanah, expecting her to speak out. "I can't do
that," he said. 'Akanah isn't the only one who came here hoping for a
reunion--I'm searching for someone, too. Her name is Nashira."
Walu's expression did not change, but she inclined her head back almost
imperceptibly, as though listening to something Luke could not hear.
"I am sorry," she said. "I do not say I know the name--I do not say
that I do not know the name. I cannot help you."
"I can't accept that," Luke said. "If she's here, you have to at least
tell her that I'm here. If she isn't--" He shook his head as though
throwing off a thought. "I'm her son."
Wialu turned her head as though
listening to someone behind her. "I'm
sorry," she said at last. "My answer must be the same."
Luke stepped past her in the direction of Akanah, then stopped and
turned back. "It's not a debt," he said, "but it was a promise.
Akanah said that she would help me find Nashira. She thought we would
find her here with you."
"Is this true?" Wialu asked, looking past him to Akanah.
"It is," she said. "His loss has been longer and more profound than
mine. He has been separated from the Current and ignorant of the
Creed. I had hoped to bring him to them."
"Reckless," said Wialu, shaking her head. "We will speak of this
later." She turned to Luke. "I am oath-bound.
None of us can betray another to outsiders, by denial or by
affirmation. Akanah cannot make such a promise, and such a promise
cannot bind me."
"I'm not asking you to betray your oath. All you need to do is tell
THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS #3 - TYRANTS_TEST Page 28