“You can’t stop her.”
I glanced back at Luke, then turned to her. “He says that just because you could not stop her, does not mean we cannot. Sorry, he always makes things sound so dire, but the fact is, he’s right. I’ve been here for months, on many operations where you or another of your brethren were on the Invidious, and you never detected me. Why not? Because he was shielding me. You know you looked, you know you tried, but it wasn’t until this evening, when we wanted to trap you, that I revealed myself enough to let you find me. And you never even detected him.”
I stood and walked over to confer with Luke, letting her mull over what I’d said. I raised a finger to my lips to keep Luke silent, but frowned to get him to give me that expression. When he did look at me angrily, I recoiled. “But you can’t be so cruel. To remove her access to the Force forever isn’t going to do her or us any good. Sure, it might teach her a lesson, but so would having a bantha trample her. I don’t think she should be made an example of. It won’t make the others more tractable.”
Luke really got into his part, jabbing me hard in the chest with two fingers. I did an about face, rubbing my chest, and returned to Red’s side. “I really do think I can get him to unblock your access to the Force, I really do. You just need to tell us where Tavira keeps the Invidious. I mean, we already know you manage to keep it hidden—you’re very good at that stuff, hiding and all.”
“No, I cannot tell you. None of us will betray our people.”
I sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Well, I know you’re thinking about things from your point of view, and maybe even thinking about them from Tavira’s point of view. That Star Destroyer is very powerful, and for you to be working with her, you’ve got to be afraid she’s going to turn it on your people if you betray her. I understand that. It’s crystal clear.”
I let my voice drop a bit in tone and volume as I leaned forward. “Thing of it is this, though: you didn’t get me. You didn’t get him. Tavira, when she doesn’t hear that you succeeded, will see you as having failed. And you know her—failure isn’t an accident, it’s a conspiracy. The way I see it, and I know her almost as well as you do, she’ll see herself as betrayed at this point and act. What you have to ask yourself is this: do you want to be the cause of her killing all your people, or do you want to let the guys who defeated you take their run at Tavira?”
FORTY-SEVEN
Red cracked a little and we were able to use what we learned from her to bust the rest of the Jensaarai—that’s what they called themselves—wide open. What we got from them was incredibly interesting because it came wrapped in a strange philosophical package that equated Obi-Wan Kenobi with Darth Vader in terms of being a Jedi exterminator. The Jensaarai were trained as Jedi were, even to the point of constructing lightsabers and training with them, but it was not nearly the transitional point for them that it was in the Jedi tradition I knew.
For the Jensaarai, their crowning moment, their full growth into becoming one of the Jensaarai Defenders—they had Apprentices, Defenders and Saarai-kaar, of which there appeared to be only one—was the creation of their armor. They started with a basic armor shell and covered it with spun cortosis ore fibers, providing them some modicum of protection against all sorts of weapons. They styled the armor after whichever creature they felt best possessed or expressed their personal desires for service to the Jensaarai community, and if the armor we’d taken from them was any indication, the creatures chosen were all defensively minded—creatures that remained hidden and dormant until pressed, then they proved very deadly.
The history of the Jensaarai’s involvement with Tavira was one of mistakes from the start. Tavira, fleeing a New Republic task force, jumped to the Suarbi system, in the Quence Sector. The seventh planet, a gas giant, had a big ring of asteroids around it and over a dozen moons. One of those moons, designated Suarbi 7/5, became known as Susevfi to the colonists who had decided to tame the world centuries ago. Though similar to Yavin 4 in size and rotational speed, Susevfi ran to more savannah-like grasslands, much like Noquivzor—a planet on which I had been stationed before Rogue Squadron took Coruscant. A couple of human settlements grew up, and the Jensaarai were located outside the large seaport, Yumfla.
Tavira and some of her people had come down to Yumfla, and she immediately went to work on the local Imperial governor—a petty bureaucrat who made the last mistake of his life by rebuffing her advances. Tavira had him shot, then declared the planet liberated from the oppression of the Empire and in opposition to the oppression of the New Republic. The Saarai-kaar of the Jensaarai went to Tavira and heard everything she wanted to hear from the Admiral. Tavira cultivated trust, then betrayed it, and put the Jensaarai in the position of protecting their fellow citizens—who had not even known of their existence—by serving Tavira. Failure to serve her would result in the annihilation of Yumfla.
The Jensaarai had picked up on Mirax’s intentions when she’d come hunting the Invids. They nabbed her at Nal Hutta and brought her to Susevfi. Tavira had wanted to slay her, but the Saarai-kaar had insisted on keeping her alive and imprisoned in the old planetary governor’s palace.
Learning what we had, Luke and I knew we had to hurry to Susevfi, and we had to make a difficult decision because we could not bring the Jensaarai with us. A change of heart in just one of them could spoil any surprise we could generate, crushing our chances for getting into the stronghold where Tavira was holding Mirax.
We decided we’d leave them on Courkrus in the company of an ysalamiri. We knew we had to trust someone to hang on to them, so we went to Jacob Nive and revealed to him my identity as Keiran Halcyon, Jedi Knight, and that of Luke Skywalker. We explained to him that we were going to finish the Invids and stop Tavira and offered him a choice. We could destroy the last of the Survivors or give them the same chance at a new start that the New Republic had offered other victims of Imperial aggression and coercion.
Nive accepted the chance to start over. With the New Republic gaining strength, and the last vestiges of the Empire in retreat, the Survivors were losing their anti-Imperial focus and just becoming thieves. Without the protection of the Invidious, the New Republic could have and would have smashed them a dozen times over. He willingly exchanged entertaining five guests and an ysalamiri for a new life.
He looked at me hard. “One thing, Jenos, how do I know you’ll succeed?”
“Why did you fight the Empire all those years?”
“To avenge what happened to my friends.”
I nodded. “Right. Leonia Tavira has my wife. I’m fighting so I won’t need to avenge anyone.”
Nive’s eyes tightened. “The two of you alone?”
I winked at Luke. “We’ve got some allies, and one is really big. We’ll do fine.”
Before we left Courkrus, we shot two messages out. One went to General Cracken telling him we had located the Invidious’ home and were going to take the ship out. Data letting him know where we were going was left with Nive, but we didn’t transmit it directly to Cracken because we didn’t want a New Republic task force showing up and alerting Tavira to what was going on before we had a chance to get in and rescue Mirax. If the New Republic made a move, the Jensaarai at Susevfi could still pick up on it and alert Tavira, dooming our rescue attempt.
I also sent a message to Booster, telling him that I’d located Mirax and was going after her. I didn’t give him even as much detail as we gave Cracken, but I did note I expected to have her safe and sound within a couple of days. The message said I’d bring her to the Errant Venture for rest and recovery first thing.
We’d wanted to leave Elegos behind, but he insisted on traveling with us. He and Ooryl had begun to get along famously—a trend I found profoundly disturbing—meaning that the two of them bonded while comparing experiences of sharing quarters with me. Elegos pointed out that the small ship which Luke and Ooryl had brought to Courkrus was notoriously difficult to handle with one pilot, and since he could fly, he should
back Ooryl up, just for appearance’s sake if nothing else.
Luke or I could have easily filled the second-seat role, but we were going into Susevfi within the protective bubble of the ysalamiri’s Force repulsion. It would effectively hide all traces of us from any of the Jensaarai Defenders stationed in the planetary ring, as well as those on the ground. The Ring Defenders regularly used their Force powers to get a sense of incoming ships and to subtly direct them away from noticing the faint sensor phantoms of a Star Destroyer hidden in the rings. Even without the Jensaarai hiding the ship, the Invidious would have been tough to pick out of the rings. With the Jensaarai in place such spotting was all but impossible.
Luke stretched out on a padded bench in the small ship’s lounge and draped an arm across his eyes. “If we had more Jedi, we could have accompanied survey ships and probably have picked up on the Jensaarai efforts to hide the Invidious.”
“Could be, but I only noticed them when they were at close range and trying to probe me. When I contacted Tycho at the battle of Xa Fel, they picked me up and I never even detected their presence.” I stood and walked over to the food prep station. I pulled a prepackaged zureber syrup container from the chiller unit. “Want something to drink?”
Luke peeked out at me and nodded. “Sure, toss it.”
I lofted it toward him and it landed with a plop on his belly. He whuffed loudly.
I smiled. “You’re supposed to catch it.”
He sat up, nipped the corner of the package off and spat it out. “I was trying to, but inside the field the ysalamiri puts out, my effort failed.”
I tore open the corner of my syrup container and sipped. “Tough being normal again, isn’t it?”
Luke sighed heavily. “First eighteen years of my life I didn’t have a clue about the Force. I was just a farm boy who liked to fly. I wanted to join the Imperial service and become a pilot. Jedi Knights were ancient history, and old Uncle Owen didn’t encourage me to study that history.”
“I know, it was kind of the same in my house.” I dropped onto the bench at Luke’s feet. “Just didn’t talk about the Jedi that much. I knew my grandfather had known one, worked with one once, but it was kind of like mentioning an ex-wife at a family gathering.”
“Of your new wife’s family, right?”
I laughed. “Yeah, there you go. You know, when I saw my grandfather several months ago and could see the pride he’d taken in helping hide Nejaa Halcyon’s wife and child, I learned how difficult it had to have been for him to keep all this stuff hidden for so long. I think I disappointed him when I rejected my Jedi heritage to pursue the Invids on my own. I’ll have to let him know I’ve reconsidered.”
“I’m glad you did.” Luke sat up and patted me on the shoulder. “Hard to tell what felt worse: having a student turn to the dark side or having someone just walk away because of my teaching.”
I shrugged. “You know us Corellian Jedi—notoriously contrary and bent on going our own way.” My conversation with Elegos flashed through my mind. “I owe you an apology, by the way. I never put aside my expectations for the academy, so I never really gave you a chance to train me.”
“Accepted but unnecessary.” Luke gave me a nod. “I didn’t make it easy for you. I’ve got to remember that parallel tracks are not better or worse, just different. We’re still heading in the same direction.”
“True, but that still doesn’t mean I’m entirely comfortable with things like Kyp’s track. Tavira has it all worked out that Kyp killed the Carida system on orders from the New Republic, and there are going to be a whole bunch of folks who believe her.”
“I know, and I understand how you feel.” Luke drank for a moment, then licked away a blue liquid bead forming at the corner of his mouth. “It could be suggested, though, that the deal we offered Jacob Nive and his Survivors is really a lot like the chance Kyp has been given. In dedicating his life to being a Jedi you know Kyp is really under something of a life sentence.”
“I know, and it’ll be hard labor, too. Killing him wouldn’t make the galaxy any better, so this is likely the best solution.” I drank, leaned my head back and closed my eyes for a moment. “Doesn’t mean I like it and doesn’t mean my inability to come up with a better solution isn’t frustrating.”
“All we can do is our best.” Luke laughed wearily. “So, tell me, did you ever figure you’d be hurtling through hyperspace planning to assault an Imperial Governor’s palace, which is now the stronghold for a renegade Imperial admiral and her crew?”
I opened one eye and screwed it around to look at him. “Tatooine must have been really, really bad if that was the kind of fantasy life you created for yourself.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Right, I was there once. On any other world the Jawas would be the size of Hutts, but on Tatooine, they shrink.”
“Good thing, too, or imagine what they’d cart off.” Luke smiled. “Actually, I have good memories of Tatooine, more than bad.”
“But you wanted off that rock.”
“In the worst way.” His smile died. “And I got it.”
I reached over and grabbed him by the back of the neck. “Yeah, but it brought out the best in you, and that means the rest of the galaxy gets a shot at realizing its best. Losing your uncle and aunt had to hurt, but I bet they are happy with the return the investment of their lives got through you.”
“Think so?”
“Yeah, no doubt.” I smiled at him. Here, within the ysalamiri bubble, Luke seemed to lose some of the brooding oppression that settled on him when he remained aware of the universe around him. The optimism and uncertainty he had known as a boy shone through. “You had no brothers and sisters, right—I mean, you grew up alone?”
“ ’Cept for friends, yeah.”
“Me, too.” I smiled. “And, no, I never imagined I’d be heading out to an Imperial Governor’s palace to face down a renegade Imperial admiral.”
“Oh.”
“For me it was racing off to Nal Hutta to face down a Hutt crimelord in his own den.”
“Talk about stacking the odds against you.”
I laughed. “I’m Corellian, remember?”
“Right, forget I said anything about odds.” Luke finished his drink and crushed the container. “I guess all of us get dealt cards we don’t want in life.”
“True enough. The trick is in how you play them. Some people have the greatest cards in the world and still lose.” I nodded at him. “For a farm boy growing up on dust and dreams, you’ve not done half bad.”
“From a Corellian, that’s quite a concession.”
The bridge-comm squawked. “Ooryl says we have five minutes to reversion, then about an hour to transit to Susevfi. Better get ready lest our reception be hotter than intended.”
I slapped the transmit button. “We copy, Elegos. We’ll be set.”
Luke got up, crossed to the shelf where he’d plugged his lightsaber into a recharger, freed the weapon and clipped it to his belt. He likewise unplugged mine and looked it over. “Nice work. Dual-phase?”
I frowned. “Tried to repeat Gantoris’ feat of engineering. Right now only one phase works. Gotta find a real diamond.”
“Dual-phase blades seem to be something of a fad among Jedi at certain points.” He tossed me the lightsaber. “Still, I like the blade and it seems well made.”
“Little bit ugly, but I used what I had available.” I caught it and screwed the pommel cap on. Standing, I stretched, then clipped the weapon to my belt. “One question before we get going, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure.”
“Okay, us Jedi, we’re only supposed to be using our powers to defend, but we’re going to be assaulting a base.”
Luke nodded. “Right. We’re acting to defend Mirax’s life, and the lives of Tavira’s future victims.”
“I’m with you so far, but I’m wondering if we don’t have a little more immediate moral obligation, say, concerning those folks who will see us as
aggressors.” I frowned. “I’m guarding something and I see a guy coming at me with a lightsaber, I’m going to shoot. You know, it’s that ‘certain point of view thing.’ ”
The Jedi Master frowned. “I see your problem. When I had to deal with Jabba the Hutt, I warned him to let us go or he’d be destroyed. He didn’t listen and that was, more or less, the end of that.”
“So, warn those who might not realize what they’re doing?”
Luke nodded. “If we can find any down there. An Impstar Deuce ships, what, ten thousand stormtroopers? I don’t imagine the Invidious is fully crewed anymore, but she’s got plenty of folks at her disposal. Want to guess how many are down guarding the palace?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I tightened my robe’s belt. “The Emperor didn’t mint enough of those guys to keep me from rescuing Mirax. They can run or they can die, their choice.”
“Corellians.” Luke shook his head. “No wonder the other Jedi didn’t want you leaving your system.”
I winked at him. “The rest of you were just afraid we wouldn’t leave anything for you to do after we were done.”
“I hope you’re right, my friend.” Luke hooked his thumbs in his belt. “Mission like this, we’ll both have more than enough to do.”
Luke and I had tried, albeit briefly and in vain, to get Ooryl and Elegos to remain behind on the ship and monitor starship traffic in and out of the system. A comlink call could warn us about Tavira’s Invidious moving out, or anything else that could cause us to shift our plans. Ooryl and Elegos had anticipated us and programmed the ship’s computer to pull down all system traffic data, then relay it through a scrambled comlink channel to the datapad Elegos had jury-rigged to receive the signal.
Elegos noted that between his sense of smell, and Ooryl’s ability to see beyond what we humans rather arrogantly called the visible light spectrum, we could move through the night more effectively and without having to rely upon our Force-enhanced senses, delaying our detection by the Jensaarai. I had to agree with that point, and having seen Ooryl in a lightfight before, having him with us didn’t hurt at all. He carried a blaster carbine and a string of powerpacks slung across his chest.