Jedi Search

by Kevin J. Anderson

  of being alone.

  "Show me your new Jedi exercises, Master. Teach me other things." Skywalker

  seemed to flinch at being called "Master," and Gantoris wondered what he had

  done wrong--was not Luke Skywalker a Jedi Master? How else should he be

  called?

  Skywalker brushed aside the comment. He pointed to the thicket of girders

  and rusted metal bars in which flocks of the leathery black creatures made

  their homes, chittering and moving about in the afternoon. Far below, the

  clouds thickened into what could become another storm.

  "Those flying creatures," Skywalker said. "We will use them."

  Streen stiffened. His face grew dark and ruddy. "Hey, don't disturb my

  rawwks." Then he lowered his eyes, turning away as if embarrassed by his

  outburst. "They've been my only company all these years."

  "We won't harm them," Skywalker said. "Just watch." He lowered his voice to

  speak as an instructor to Gantoris. "This city is a complex mechanism. Every

  girder, every metal plate, every life-form from those rawwks to the airborne

  algae sacks and everything around us, each has its own position in the

  Force. Size matters not. Tiny insects or entire floating cities, each is an

  integral part of the universe. You must feel it, sense it."

  He nodded to the derelict structures around them. "I want you to look at

  this city, imagine how the pieces fit together, find the girders with your

  mind, tell me what you can sense and how one thing touches another. When you

  think you have found the intersection where a rawwk and girder touch, I want

  you to reach out and push with your mind. Make a little vibration."

  Skywalker curled his forefinger around his thumb and stretched forward as he

  nodded toward a lone rawwk sitting on the end of a weather vane. He flicked

  out his finger, as if to shoo away a gnat, and Gantoris heard a distant

  pinnngg. Startled into the air, the rawwk flapped its wings and cried out in

  alarm.

  Gantoris chuckled and, eager to try, flicked his own finger in imitation of

  what the Jedi had just done. He imagined seeing a whole flock of the rawwks

  take flight--but nothing happened.

  "It is not that easy," Skywalker said. "You aren't concentrating. Think,

  feel yourself doing it, envision your success--then reach out with your

  mind."

  More serious this time, Gantoris pursed his lips and squinted, looking for

  his target. He saw a delicate many-branched antenna on which five rawwks

  sat. He pictured the antenna, knowing his target, and stared. He took a deep

  breath and pushed. He still didn't quite know what he was doing, but he felt

  something happening in his mind, something working, some outside ... force

  linking him and the antenna.

  He watched as the antenna slowly swayed. The rawwks stirred but remained on

  their perches. Anyone else watching might have assumed the wind had shifted

  at that moment, but Gantoris knew he had done it.

  "Good attempt. You have the right idea, but now close your eyes," Skywalker

  said. "You're letting your sight blind you. You know where the antenna is,

  you know where the rawwks are. You can sense their place in the Force. You

  don't need to see with your eyes. Tighten your focus. Feel it, know what you

  want to do."

  Skeptical, Gantoris closed his eyes; but as he concentrated, he could indeed

  see vague outlines of what he had just looked at, tiny afterimages imprinted

  on the Force with tendrils reaching out and connecting them to everything

  else.

  He reached out with his fingers to make the flicking gesture again but

  hesitated. He realized he did not need that either. Flicking the fingers was

  simply an example for Skywalker to make his point. Whatever actions he made,

  waving his hands or muttering spells were just so much mumbo jumbo.

  Understanding the Force was what allowed him to do what he needed.

  Pleased with this sudden insight, Gantoris kept his eyes closed and folded

  his arms. He flicked out an imaginary finger, feeling the metal, picturing

  his fingernail striking the hard surface. In his head he heard the hollow

  bong as it struck, then opened his eyes to watch the five rawwks burst into

  flight, cawing at each other as if casting blame.

  "Good!" Skywalker said. "I'm impressed. I thought this was going to be much

  more difficult." Still grinning, he looked at Streen, who had been watching

  them in silence. "Would you like to try it? You have the potential. I could

  show you how."

  Streen balked. "No, I ... I don't think I could do that."

  "It isn't as difficult as it looks," Gantoris said. "You'll feel a different

  strength come into you."

  "I don't want to," Streen said again, defensively. Then he lowered his eyes

  and patted his pockets, as if looking for something he didn't expect to

  find. Gantoris thought he was just making distracted movements.

  The old man swallowed, then looked back at Skywalker. "If you teach me how

  to use this...sense I have--can you also teach me how to switch it off? I

  want to learn how not to feel the people around me, not to be bombarded by

  their moods and prying thoughts and sour ideas. I'm tired of having only

  rawwks for company. I'd very much like to be part of the human race again."

  Skywalker clapped him on the shoulder. In his dark jumpsuit he looked like a

  benevolent god. "That much I can show you."

  Luke watched as Streen cut loose the fiber-chains holding his floating

  hodgepodge ship to the Tibannopolis docking area. Standing on the docking

  platform, he gave his ship an unnecessary shove out into the breezes. The

  empty barge of platforms and balloons, propellers and gas storage tanks,

  drifted out to be caught up by swirling air currents.

  Streen had emptied the pockets in his jumpsuit and now looked at Luke. "I

  know I'm not coming back. That old life is over."

  The three of them climbed aboard Luke's passenger shuttle and made ready to

  depart Bespin. Luke felt a glowing satisfaction, not just to be leaving the

  gas planet that held so many dark memories, but to have both passenger seats

  filled, to have two new candidates for his Jedi academy.

  He raised the shuttle off the landing platform, then began a steep climb

  toward orbit. Below them, in the opposite direction, Streen's abandoned

  platform continued drifting on its own, widening the gap between it and the

  derelict city.

  Streen looked out the passenger window, staring with a bleak sadness that

  struck Luke's heart with pity. Below, the ghost town of Tibannopolis was

  truly empty again.

  Then Luke watched something amazing happen. The city came alive with

  movement, swarming as tiny black figures took to the air. Thousands and

  thousands of rawwks that had made their home with Streen suddenly took

  flight, departing the abandoned metropolis in a huge flock that kept coming

  and coming and coming, spreading out among the clouds in a farewell salute

  to Streen.

  Looking out the window and watching this, Streen smiled.

  Skynxnex inserted a new charge pack into his double-blaster, smiled at the

  weapon, then thrust it into the holster. "Thank you, Moruth," he said. "You
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  won't regret this."

  Doole tapped his spongy fingers on the former warden's desk. One of the

  loose iridescent insects fluttered around the room, battering itself again

  and again on the wide landscape window.

  "Just try not to make a mess of it," Doole said. "I want Solo gone and all

  traces removed. Nothing left. It's only a matter of time before the New

  Republic comes nosing around. We've got to be absolutely clean. Is the

  energy shield functional yet?"

  "We're testing it this morning, and our engineers are confident it'll work.

  Solo and the Wookiee will be dead by then," Skynxnex said. "My personal

  guarantee."

  Doole's lips curled like a rubbery gasket stretched out of shape. "Don't

  enjoy yourself too much."

  Skynxnex smiled back at him and turned to leave. His black eyes glittered.

  "Only as much as necessary," he said.

  The mine car roared through the tunnels in total blackness. Han had no

  choice but to trust the computer guidance system.

  Chewbacca had found the accelerator button and punched it repeatedly, trying

  to get farther away from the multi-legged horror deep in the mines.

  Han gripped the sides of the car with hands gone white from cold and terror.

  Each time they shot past a gaping side tunnel, his imagination heard noises

  of skittering legs and scythe-like claws reaching out to pluck them from the

  passing car.

  "Our course is taking us back to the muster room," Kyp said. "This could be

  our chance to escape."

  "Where else should we go?" Han asked. He felt his heart pounding. Chewbacca

  groaned a question, and Han translated it. "Do you know any other way out of

  these tunnels?"

  "I don't," Kyp said, "but maybe I could find one."

  Han fought to contain a sudden fit of shudders. "I don't know about you, but

  I'm in no mood to go wandering through dark tunnels feeling for a way

  out--not with that thing chasing after us." The thought of a freezing death

  in the energy-draining fangs of the monster made the option of imprisonment

  in the spice mines seem not so terrible after all.

  Before they could form some sort of alternative plan, the floating mine cars

  coasted to a halt in the long holding chamber. The metal door at the far end

  slammed shut behind them. With his infrared goggles, Han could see the

  activation controls on the wall next to an inner door. His knees were weak;

  his hands trembled as he punched access for the muster room.

  Light flooded around them, and the three survivors staggered inside, holding

  each other. Chewbacca used his hairy arms to keep both Han and Kyp on their

  feet.

  Dazzled, Han cupped his hands over his eyes and let the infrared goggles

  dangle on his neck. "Boss Roke is dead," he croaked to no one in particular.

  "There's a monster in the tunnels. It attacked the guard. We barely got

  away."

  "Han--'' Kyp said.

  Chewbacca sniffed, then roared in anger.

  Han fought to focus his vision. He heard people rustling in the muster room.

  He saw only shadows in the glare. Finally, he could make out a tall, gangly

  form with dark hair and sunken eyes on a skull-like face.

  "Glad you're back, Solo," Skynxnex said from the other side of the room. He

  drew the double-blaster at his hip.

  Everything seemed to move slowly for Han. He had not yet come down from the

  boost of adrenaline caused by utter terror. Han saw the gun, saw Skynxnex,

  saw the man's cadaverous face. Doole had sent his henchman to kill them.

  Han wasted no time, shoving Chewbacca backward. "Back in, Chewie! We've got

  to get out of here!" He yanked Kyp through the open doorway. Chewbacca let

  out a yowl and lunged into the dark chamber where the floating mine cars

  waited.

  "Hey!" Skynxnex began to run in long, leaping strides that carried him

  across the muster room. Han sealed the door in his face, scrambling the lock

  mechanism.

  "It'll take him a second to figure the access code. Get in the car, now!"

  Han leaped onto the swaying pilot seat. "Looks like we're going to try one

  of those alternatives you wanted, Kyp."

  He powered up the rocking vehicle. From the other side of the door came

  pounding and then the sounds of blasters striking the metal. Skynxnex was

  going to disintegrate his way through. They had to get to the relative

  safety of the tunnels right away.

  Han punched up the computer guidance system and let the vehicle go. The

  great metal door on the far side of the long holding tunnel slid open with a

  grinding sound as the mine car accelerated back down the central tunnel from

  which they had just come.

  "I hate to go back there," Han said. Chewbacca roared a comment, and Han

  nodded. "Yeah, I hate even worse to be blasted."

  "Do you know Skynxnex?" Kyp asked, regaining his breath.

  "We're old buddies," Han said. "That's why he wants to kill us."

  The floating car rushed through the half-open metal gate just as the door

  from the muster room melted open, spilling a wedge of light into the tunnel.

  "They're only going to be a minute behind us," Han said. With his infrared

  goggles he could see the pilot controls now--but none of the coordinates

  meant anything to him. The only exit he knew of was back through the muster

  room. "Any ideas, Kyp?"

  "It's an automated course," Kyp said. "If I had time to think and get my

  bearings, I might be able to figure out something."

  "We don't have that luxury right now."

  The great metal door did not close behind them after they passed through.

  Wind whipped past their ears as Han kept his finger on the accelerator

  button. From behind they heard shouts, other people climbing into waiting

  mine cars. Han leaned over the controls, but the repulsorlifts could go only

  so fast.

  Unable to see, and without any knowledge of the labyrinth of underground

  tunnels, Han did not dare fly the car manually. He would have to hope he

  could get far enough ahead so that Skynxnex could not follow ... but then

  what? They would be lost in the cold, dark maze. How many other multi-legged

  monsters waited for them in the shadows?

  The sound of another mine car came roaring up behind them. Han had three

  cars linked together, hauling three riders with only one engine. If Skynxnex

  and the others took one car each, they would travel faster. They would be in

  blaster range within moments.

  "Solo!" Skynxnex bellowed.

  "Hold on!" Kyp said.

  Han instinctively braced himself as the computer guidance system yanked them

  to the left-hand fork in an unseen tunnel, then plunged them steeply

  downward. Before Han could wonder if they had lost their pursuers, he heard

  the echoing whine of repulsorlift vehicles soaring down the tunnel after

  them.

  "I'm open to suggestions," Han said. He looked behind them with his infrared

  goggles and saw the glowing target of Skynxnex and two other piloted

  vehicles. In the cold darkness his own body heat would be just as apparent

  to the pursuers.

  Chewbacca held on to Kyp, pushing him down to safety in the second car. The

  Wookiee reached behin
d him, fumbling with the catch to the empty third car.

  Skynxnex and the two guards closed the gap. With a growl at the pursuers,

  Chewbacca decoupled the magnetic bearing from the third car.

  Suddenly released, the empty car swung out behind them, dropping toward the

  ground. Skynxnex cried out as he swerved up to avoid a collision.

  The other two guards both curved to the left, battering into each other, but

  somehow all three pursuers kept their balance. They roared after Han.

  "Nice try, Chewie," Han said.

  Skynxnex pulled out his modified double-blaster, powered it on, and aimed.

  When he fired, the two barrels sent their beams out at slight intersecting

  angles to each other. A short distance beyond the muzzle, the two beams

  coalesced and phased, forming a staccato series of bursts, each one

  containing a brief impulse of power ten times that of a single blaster beam.

  Though the weapon looked impressive, it was almost impossible to aim, and

  most other users--even hardened criminals--had dropped them in favor of more

  reliable weapons.

  The phased double beam poured out, striking the ceiling of the tunnel ahead

  of Han. The explosion of heat and light blinded him through the infrared

  goggles. Somehow Kyp reacted with molten speed and yanked the floating car

  sideways. Miraculously, they swerved around the debris that fell from above,

  struck only by the patter of small pebbles.