THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS #3 - TYRANTS_TEST

by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell

  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