Vestara spun on her Master, drawing her parang with one hand and swinging her other arm up so fast that Lady Rhea was still speaking when Vestara"s open palm reddened her cheek.
"No!" Vestara spat. Vestara spat. "Think "Think. How many shuttles have we lost?"
Lady Rhea"s green eyes flamed with rage. "That"s something no apprentice lives to do twice."
Lady Rhea"s hand dropped toward her lightsaber, but Vestara was prepared and had her parang pressed to Lady Rhea"s wrist the instant her fingers touched her lightsaber.
"Give me two minutes before you do that," she said. "Please, Master. Just answer three questions, then you can kill me however you like. How many shuttles have we lost?"
"Very well." Lady Rhea opened her fingers, but left her hand hanging next to her lightsaber. "All of them."
"And how many crewmembers are still aboard the Crusader?" Crusader?"
Lady Rhea"s eyes grew cold-and when they were cold, they were calculating. "None."
"Last question." Vestara pulled her parang away from Lady Rhea"s wrist. "If you were in your right mind, would you ever ever make such foolish mistakes?" make such foolish mistakes?"
The flames returned to Lady Rhea"s eyes, but along with her fury, Vestara also saw a flicker of recognition. Slowly, Vestara stepped back and sheathed her parang, then knelt before her Master and dropped her head.
When her head was still on her shoulders several seconds later, Vestara was not terribly surprised. Her Master was many things, but wasteful was not one of them. Still, Vestara remained kneeling, playing the penitent apprentice until Lady Rhea herself decided the charade had run its course.
"You may as well stand, Vestara," she said. "We both know I"m not going to kill a talented apprentice over a few inviolable rules."
Vestara rose. "Thank you, milady."
"But if you ever ever do that again, it will be the last time," Lady Rhea warned. "I will do that again, it will be the last time," Lady Rhea warned. "I will not not be told that I make mistakes. Is that clear?" be told that I make mistakes. Is that clear?"
"I apologize," Vestara said, biting her cheek to keep from smiling in relief. "It will never never happen again." happen again."
"Good." Lady Rhea turned back toward Ship, which continued to sit waiting. "Am I correct in a.s.suming that you had nothing to do with Ship"s change of heart?"
"Absolutely," Vestara said. "Ship has toyed with me, but he remains completely under Abeloth"s control."
"Which means we remain trapped on this death planet." Lady Rhea grew thoughtful. "Unless ..." "Unless ..." She paused, then turned to Vestara. "You already have this figured out, don"t you?" She paused, then turned to Vestara. "You already have this figured out, don"t you?"
Vestara grinned, not even caring that the scar at the corner of her mouth would make her smile appear lopsided.
"I believe so," she said. "If Ship can take all of us in one trip, the Skywalkers must be very near. And they had to come in something something. Once Ship takes us to them-"
"Absolutely." Lady Rhea paused as Abeloth and Xal emerged from behind Ship, then turned away and spoke in a Force whisper so low that Vestara was not sure she heard it even inside her own mind. "We kill the Skywalkers and ..."
"... we steal their their vessel," Vestara finished with a wry smile. "How hard can it be?" vessel," Vestara finished with a wry smile. "How hard can it be?"
THAT AWFUL SMELL, BEN REALIZED, WAS PROBABLY HIM. IT REMINDED him of sour nerf milk, with a hint of ash and mildew. His tongue lay in his mouth like a raw sausage-swollen, numb, and cold-and he felt generally sore and weak, with a muddled, throbbing head that made him feel like he had died and just didn"t realize it yet. him of sour nerf milk, with a hint of ash and mildew. His tongue lay in his mouth like a raw sausage-swollen, numb, and cold-and he felt generally sore and weak, with a muddled, throbbing head that made him feel like he had died and just didn"t realize it yet.
Which, Ben suddenly remembered, was a distinct possibility.
He opened his eyes and found himself staring up into the familiar red strobing of alarm lights in Sinkhole Station"s smoky control room. He glanced over and saw that his IV drip bags had drained themselves flat, which meant he had been Mind Walking for at least a day-and probably much longer, a.s.suming his symptoms were due to dehydration.
"Mra ...dhe muck!" he croaked. He swallowed, then tried again. "Now I see why these head cases would rather die than return to their bodies." he croaked. He swallowed, then tried again. "Now I see why these head cases would rather die than return to their bodies."
When no reply came, Ben looked over and found his father still lying motionless on his gurney, his gaze vacant and fixed on the ceiling.
"Dad?"
Nothing moved but his father"s mouth, which opened barely far enough to emit a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "uh ...yeah."
"You okay?"
The eyes closed in what was probably as close to a nod as Luke could manage. "I will be," he rasped. "Just need to ...get blood to my muscles again."
"Yeah, well good luck with that."
Ben used the Force to undo the straps across his own chest, then tried to sit up ...and dropped back to his gurney in a heap.
"It"s always like this," a familiar voice said behind Ben. "Give yourselves a minute."
Recalling his reluctant Mind Walker guide, Ben craned his neck around and looked toward the far side of the chamber. Rhondi Tremaine was still sitting where he had left her before going beyond shadows, slumped against an equipment cabinet with her legs splayed out beside her. The stun cuffs he had slapped on her before leaving were still on her wrists, securing her to the floor beam he had exposed. With sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, and a brow furrowed in pain, she looked just as bad as Ben felt. The sight of how little care he had taken for her comfort made Ben wince at his behavior. He had deliberately not offered to set an IV drip for her, believing that if she were in danger of dying, she would be more eager to make their trip a quick one, so she could be certain of returning to free her brother.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. "Better than you look, I hope."
"That"s nice." Her gaze shifted to Luke. "If you want grandchildren someday, you need to have a conversation with your son about how to talk to the ladies." nice." Her gaze shifted to Luke. "If you want grandchildren someday, you need to have a conversation with your son about how to talk to the ladies."
"Ben, be nice to the lady," Luke ordered. "And get her out of those stun cuffs."
"Sure." Ben tried again to sit up, and this time he succeeded. "As soon as I take care of you." you."
He freed himself from the IV catheters and the gurney straps, then did the same for his father and retrieved three packs of hydrade from his supply bag. When his father proved too weak to push the suck-nozzle through the punch hole, Ben did it for him.
"Dad, that trip ...it was pretty dark," Ben said, holding the tube into his father"s mouth. "Worse than a triple hit of yarrock, even."
Ben could tell by the way his father"s eyes widened that he had used a really bad a.n.a.logy.
"Uh, not that I"d know," know," he said. "Just a.s.suming, really." he said. "Just a.s.suming, really."
Luke stopped sipping long enough to say, "You"d better better be." be."
"No worries," Ben said. "I get plenty of weirdness just being your son."
When Ben fell silent for a moment, his father reached up and took the sip-pack. "Keep talking."
Ben looked away, unsure how to broach the subject of what they had experienced together at the Lake of Apparitions. Actually, he was not even sure they had seen the same things.
Finally, he just asked it. "All the stuff that happened while we were Mind Walking ...was that real?" real?"
"Talking to Anakin and your mother, you mean?"
Ben nodded and began to feel a little more certain of the experience. "And to Jacen."
"Was that real?" Luke repeated. He let out a choked half laugh. "Maybe you"d rather ask me something else, like what"s the ultimate origin of the Force." Luke repeated. He let out a choked half laugh. "Maybe you"d rather ask me something else, like what"s the ultimate origin of the Force."
"We"ll save the easy stuff for later," Ben replied. "Seriously, this whole experience is making me barvy. I need to figure it out now."
His father closed his eyes and let out a long breath, then said, "You"re the detective, Ben. You can figure this out for yourself-in fact, I think you have to."
Ben sighed. Sometimes he really hated having a Jedi Master for a father. Everything was a lesson.
"Okay," he said. "Let"s start with the fact that we both saw the same people at the Lake of Apparitions."
"We all all saw the same people," Rhondi added. She jerked her stun cuffs against the beam to which Ben had secured them. "How about a little consideration here?" saw the same people," Rhondi added. She jerked her stun cuffs against the beam to which Ben had secured them. "How about a little consideration here?"
Seeing that his father was strong enough to hold his own sip-pack, Ben grabbed another and started toward Rhondi. "If we all saw the same thing, that means we really experienced something something. We just can"t be sure what what, since we were ..."
"Outside our bodies," Luke clarified. our bodies," Luke clarified.
"Because our bodies don"t exist beyond shadows," Rhondi said. "Only our true presences."
"Yeah, you keep saying that," Ben said. He squatted next to Rhondi. "But your word isn"t evidence. I still don"t know whether I had the experience of really really talking to Mom, or if I just saw what someone in that ... talking to Mom, or if I just saw what someone in that ... place place wanted me to see." wanted me to see."
"Then you must agree that the place is real," Rhondi observed, "if you believe someone in it can make you see anything." anything."
Ben nodded, the blood in his veins suddenly running slow and cold. "It"s real. I felt something there that I recognized from before ..." He turned to his father. "From when I was at Shelter. It"s what drove me away from the Force."
"You"re sure?" Luke asked.
Again, Ben nodded. "It"s as real as we are," he said. "And I"m pretty sure it"s behind the paranoid delusions that Jedi Knights my age keep having."
"It"s a good theory," Luke said. "But how is it spreading, for example?"
"The same way that"s that"s happening." Ben waved through the viewport at all the bodies floating in the meditation vault beyond the control room. "The same way I felt it at Shelter. Through the Force." happening." Ben waved through the viewport at all the bodies floating in the meditation vault beyond the control room. "The same way I felt it at Shelter. Through the Force."
"Your Jedi Knights aren"t sick," Rhondi said. "They are only being called home."
Ben glanced back to her and realized that he had not yet released her stun cuffs, but he decided it might be better to wait until they had finished the conversation. He prepared a sip-pack for her, then held the tube to her lips and returned his attention to his father.
"You might call that that evidence, too," Ben said. "Qwallo Mode didn"t show up here by accident." evidence, too," Ben said. "Qwallo Mode didn"t show up here by accident."
Luke sat up and reached for a second sip-pack. "I"m not arguing against you there, Ben," he said. "I"m just trying to think things through. For instance, why aren"t Kam and Tionne having trouble? Or any of the adult adult Jedi Knights who spent time guarding Shelter?" Jedi Knights who spent time guarding Shelter?"
Ben could only shake his head. "I don"t know," he said. "If I"m not affected-or infected-it has to be because I withdrew from the Force. Maybe trained adult Jedi have too many defenses. Or maybe there"s something smart behind this. If the Masters Solusar had had felt that place reaching out-" felt that place reaching out-"
"Right," Luke said. "The young ones would have been moved. But why now? It"s been nearly a decade and a half since there were any students at Shelter."
That answer, Ben did not have to think about at all. It was all around him, in the strobing alarm light and the smoking circuits-in the answer, Ben did not have to think about at all. It was all around him, in the strobing alarm light and the smoking circuits-in the timing timing of when things started to go wrong in the control room. of when things started to go wrong in the control room.
"Centerpoint Station was destroyed-that"s what changed." He looked back to Rhondi. "That"s when these alarms started going off, and it"s when Rhondi and her brother started to feel compelled to return-along with a lot of Daala"s other spies." what changed." He looked back to Rhondi. "That"s when these alarms started going off, and it"s when Rhondi and her brother started to feel compelled to return-along with a lot of Daala"s other spies."
"Daala"s spies"?" spies"?" Luke turned to Rhondi. Luke turned to Rhondi.
"Long story," she said. "Ben"s right. When you destroyed Centerpoint Station, everything changed."
"It"s like we opened a hatch or something," Ben said. "And suddenly, whatever we felt in Shelter started leaking out-maybe reaching reaching out-beyond the Maw." out-beyond the Maw."
Ben knew by the sudden paling of his father"s face that he had made a convincing argument.
"Wonderful," Luke said. "Any idea what what, exactly, is getting out?"
Ben could only shake his head. "And I"m still trying to figure out the Lake of Apparitions," he said. "I"m convinced that it"s real. But ..."
He let the sentence trail off, unable to ask the question.
"But you don"t know whether that was really your mother you saw," Luke finished. "It"s a hard question to answer-maybe one that we can"t can"t answer." answer."
Ben turned to Rhondi and raised a questioning brow.
She jerked her stun cuffs against the beam and raised her own brow. He thumbed the release pad, and the cuffs came undone.
Rhondi"s jaw fell. "They weren"t even locked?" locked?"
"In case I didn"t make it back," Ben said. "I"m not that cruel. Now, what can you tell me about my mother?"
Rhondi rubbed her chafed wrists. "We all return to the Force when we depart our bodies," she said. "Afterward, those who are strong in the Force sometimes show themselves in the Lake of Apparitions. Whether it"s where they abide or is only a portal through which they can look, I don"t know ... but I believe those we see are real."
"What about Mind Walkers whose bodies die while they"re beyond shadows?" Ben asked. "Do they go to the Lake of Apparitions, too?"
"Not at first," Rhondi said. "At first, they stay beyond shadows with us. But after a time, they seem to lose their way, and then sometimes we see them in the Lake of Apparitions."
"How long do they stay there?" Luke asked. "Could you see your grandparents, for instance, or even your ancestors?"
Rhondi shook her head. "Eventually, they no longer show themselves." She took a long sip of her hydrade, then shook her head. "I"m sorry, but I don"t know why."
Ben scowled at her claim, but before he could think of a way to test it, the m.u.f.fled karrummph karrummph of a detonating magmine reverberated through the control room floor. Rhondi"s eyes went wide with horror, and she turned toward Ben. of a detonating magmine reverberated through the control room floor. Rhondi"s eyes went wide with horror, and she turned toward Ben.
"You promised!" promised!"
"Promised what?" Luke asked.
"That I"d let her brother go if she helped us," Ben explained. He turned to Rhondi. "He"s probably okay. That door charge was placed to direct the blast-"
"Probably?" Rhondi staggered to her feet and started up toward the exit at the back of the trilevel room. "You murglak!" Rhondi staggered to her feet and started up toward the exit at the back of the trilevel room. "You murglak!"
"Rhondi, hold on!" Ben stepped to where he could see the mine he had placed on the hatch. "It"s welded, remember? And don"t forget the door charge!"
"Welded?" Luke echoed, intercepting Ben. Luke echoed, intercepting Ben. "Door charge? "Door charge? Ben, what the blazes have you been doing while I was gone?" Ben, what the blazes have you been doing while I was gone?"