Jedi Search

by Kevin J. Anderson

  where the deep primal memories hid, leaving little room for conscious

  thought. Luke touched inward to the isolated nub in his subconscious. He

  pushed--and suddenly found himself hurled backward, tossed aside like a

  piece of fluff in a Bespin wind storm. He landed flat on his back on the

  other side of the room, gasping.

  Han and Kyp ran toward him as he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows.

  Luke shook the daze from his head.

  "I'm sorry!" Kyp said. "I don't know what I did! I didn't try to. Honest!"

  "What happened?" Han said. "What does that mean for Kyp?"

  Luke blinked, then smiled at the others. "Don't worry about me. I triggered

  that myself." He shook his head. "Kyp, you have amazing power!"

  Luke stood up and gripped the young man's hand. "You're definitely welcome

  to train at my academy. I just hope I know how to handle it when you come

  into full control of your abilities!"

  * EPILOGUE *

  Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, stood atop the Great Temple on the fourth moon

  of Yavin.

  Below his feet lay the empty throne room and grand audience chamber with

  skylights open to the sun. Garbed in a new Jedi cloak, wearing his

  lightsaber at his side, Luke felt warmth bathing him. Spicy, lingering

  scents rose as steam from the lush rain forest below.

  The ancient ruins left behind by the vanished Massassi race sprawled out in

  great geometrical edifices, now overgrown by voracious jungles. Luke stood

  on top of the ziggurat that had once been a towering lookout station when

  the Rebel base had been housed on Yavin 4.

  In the sky a swollen sphere of pale orange filled most of his view, the

  looming planet Yavin. The bloated gas giant had been a shield for the Rebel

  base as the first Death Star orbited into position to fire with its

  planet-destroying superlaser. The Yavin base had been abandoned by the

  Rebels years before. But many of the broken stone structures were still

  serviceable.

  With the unleashed might of the Maw fleet, and the expected depredations of

  Admiral Daala, the New Republic desperately needed a strong force beyond

  pure military might, a group of guardians to maintain order in the galaxy.

  Luke intended to bring together everyone he could, immediately--not just

  Gantoris and Streen, but also Kyp Durron, Mara Jade, several of the witches

  of Dathomir, Kam Solusar, and others he had encountered since the Battle of

  Endor. And the search for new people with Jedi potential would have to be

  intensified. He needed candidates, as many as possible.

  The top levels of some of the flat-roofed Massassi structures had been clear

  enough for Luke to land his ship. On the broad courtyard once used as a

  launching pad by the Alliance, Luke's old X-wing fighter lay cooling in the

  rising mists from the Yavin jungles.

  When Mon Mothma and Leia had offered Luke the abandoned Rebel base, he had

  jumped at the chance.

  To begin his actual training, Luke tried to recreate all the exercises Yoda

  had taught him on Dagobah, as well as the practice sessions Obi-Wan Kenobi

  had begun. Luke also had the ancient Jedi Holocron, the visual historical

  database Leia had taken from the resurrected Emperor's stronghold. He had

  studied the information from the hidden repository of Jedi knowledge on

  Dathomir. He had many tools, and his students carried inside themselves

  doorways to great power.

  But again Luke worried. If one of his trainees--or more than one!--fell to

  the dark side, would he himself have the power to bring him back? And who

  was this "dark man" who haunted Gantoris's dreams with prophesies of

  destruction?

  As Luke looked across the sweeping vista of dense wilderness, he saw wide

  burned scars where fires had ravaged the rain forests. But the ecology of

  the moon struck back with a vengeance, healing itself. Dense clusters of

  sharp-smelling blueleaf shrubs, Massassi trees, and climbing ferns clogged

  the ground in an impenetrable mesh that stretched as far as he could see,

  broken only by scattered temple ruins poking through the greensward.

  The alien constructions left behind by the Massassi seemed filled with

  secrets and knowledge of their own. Luke blinked his eyes and felt the power

  of the place around him, the wonder, the mystery of it all. He could not

  wait to begin bringing his students here.

  It was the perfect place to train a new order of Jedi Knights.