Jag got his left crushgaunt on machinery in the hauler"s underbelly. He exerted himself, and the strength-augmenting servos in the gauntlet squeezed the repulsor nozzles out of recognizable shape. Next he grabbed a maneuvering thruster vent, destroying it similarly, and then there was the auxiliary energy cell- That actually exploded as he squeezed it, a minor detonation that pelted him with little shards of metal. He felt stings in his neck and upper arms. Then smoke billowed from the area he"d damaged.
The cargo hauler slowed, dropping behind Tahiri"s speeder. Jag saw the Kuh woman staring at her control console and pounding on the yoke; then she looked up and caught sight of him.
Had he been another man, he would have offered her some flippant gesture, but he was Jagged Fel, known among pilots and Jedi everywhere as the most humorless- Come to think of it, he wasn"t Jag Fel right now. He was a mystery man, and needed for his role in this affair never to be a.s.sociated with Jag Fel. So he blew a kiss to Zilaash Kuh before resuming his seat and slamming the hatch shut. Kuh"s vehicle dropped farther behind until it was lost in the distance.
Mirax had to shout for Jaina to hear her. "Two pursuers down."
"The next to last one is ours," Jaina shouted back. "Tahiri and Jag are in it." She got back to work, bringing out the sedative pack that all the Darkmeld conspirators on this mission were carrying. She injected Seff with its contents. This was slow work; Mirax"s aerobatics with the speeder made even the simplest medical procedure next to impossible.
Finally it was done. Making sure her garment hood was up, concealing her features, she turned away from Seff and back toward the pursuers.
Even for an experienced Jedi Knight, it took concentration to lift a speeder telekinetically, especially when its rapid movements made it a difficult target. But she found it, grasped it, and shoved it sideways-gently but irresistibly. Its right side ground into the tunnel wall, abrading the metal there, filling the vehicle"s main compartment with sparks and smoke. Suddenly the pilot was decelerating, descending, in a frantic effort to retain control of his vehicle.
She did the same with the next vehicle, and then, as Tahiri closed, with the last vehicle in the caravan.
Suddenly there was no enemy pursuit. Tahiri switched her lights and siren off.
Jaina, more familiar with Coruscant than most of the others, navigated, guiding Mirax to a shadowy nook off a major thoroughfare. The two speeders settled there in the darkness.
Jag took a moment to yank the security speeder"s recording device and crush it beyond any possible retrieval of data. Then the five conspirators gathered. Winter, though groggy, her reflexes shot, was at least awake again.
"All right." Jaina looked at each of the others-confused but resolute Mirax, sweaty but confident Jag, relieved Tahiri, pale but smiling Winter. "We"re almost done. Mirax, you"ll come with me. We need to steal another speeder, then pick up the rest. Then you"ll drop me on a specific rooftop not far from where all that mess took place. Jag, do you need to get back to the Imperial Remnant emba.s.sy?"
"Galactic Empire. And yes."
"All right. Drop Jag off near there. Then, Tahiri, I need you to guide Mirax to the Masters" speeder hangar access at the Temple. Tekli will get you in."
While Jaina and Mirax were gone, Winter removed forensic evidence from the security speeder and Mirax"s stolen red vehicle. Jag pulled off all his armor, dressing once more in the now ridiculously large black tunic. After Jaina and Mirax returned with the new acquisition, a st.u.r.dy yellow hard-top speeder with enough room for two adults, eight younglings, and a Wookiee, Jag stored his armor in its cargo compartment, along with the Quarren"s net and incriminating items of clothing. Stripped of armor, he once again became a well-muscled man of normal size.
Jaina gave him one last, worried look. "Not too many non-Mandos have beskar beskar breastplates and crushgaunts. The fact that you do isn"t well known, but-" breastplates and crushgaunts. The fact that you do isn"t well known, but-"
He put a finger on her lips to shush her. "There"s nothing to worry about. I have an alibi. Like all sensible Heads of State, I have a double, hard at work pretending to be me back in my quarters."
She moved his finger aside. "My mother didn"t use a double."
"Well, she was clearly crazy."
That drew a short laugh from Winter. The others looked at her.
Winter indicated herself, Jaina, and Jag. "That sounds like a toast for all our families. Here"s to crazy women, and the pilots who pursue them."
Jag raised an imaginary gla.s.s in her direction.
CAVERNS OF THE HIDDEN ONE, DORIN.
BEN WASN"T GLa.s.sY-EYED, BUT HE WANTED TO BE. H HOURS OF USING pickaxes to hack away at living rock had tired and infuriated him. In theory, he and Luke were doing this to carve out their permanent quarters in the residential gallery, a process that would take years; in truth, Ben knew they wouldn"t be here anywhere near that long, which meant that every blow with the pickax was a wasted one. pickaxes to hack away at living rock had tired and infuriated him. In theory, he and Luke were doing this to carve out their permanent quarters in the residential gallery, a process that would take years; in truth, Ben knew they wouldn"t be here anywhere near that long, which meant that every blow with the pickax was a wasted one.
But now, work done for the day, after a sanisteam, dressed in fresh clothes-even if they were the horribly dull robes worn by everyone in these caverns-Ben felt a little better as he and his father walked to their audience with the Hidden One.
Ben glanced at his father. "So, what"s your strategy?"
Luke frowned, puzzled. "Strategy?"
"To convince him to let us out of this hole."
"Ben, what"s our objective here?"
"To get out!"
"The objective that brought us to Dorin in the first place."
"Oh. To find out about Jacen."
"If we were to march in there and demand our release, and he agreed and somehow magically transported us to the surface, we would have failed in achieving that objective."
"Well, yeah. Ultimately it"s the more important one."
"Ultimately, yes. But since we"re under no time pressure, let"s handle things in a logical order."
Ben let out a sigh.
They left the main corridor and entered the communal dining hall, which was all but empty at this midpoint hour between afternoon and evening servings. It was not that large a chamber; there were fewer than fifty Kel Dors in these caverns, and the hall could accommodate all of them. Tables and benches meticulously cut out of stone and sanded into straight, clean lines were arrayed in neat ranks for the diners, flanked by matched stone benches.
The Hidden One sat alone at the nearest table. He nodded at the Skywalkers as they entered.
The informality bothered Ben. The Hidden One was effectively a king, though his kingdom was tiny, and yet he was not accompanied by advisers for an important meeting with a fellow Master.
Luke seated himself opposite the Hidden One. "Thank you for seeing us."
Ben slid into place beside his father.
The Hidden One offered a toothless smile. "It is no inconvenience. The opportunity to talk with those fresh from the surface world is one of our few pleasures. As I understand it, you wanted to know about Jacen Solo."
"Yes."
"He came here-that is, to the temple in Dor"shan-about nine years ago, very full of life, very sure of himself. He wanted knowledge of the Force, especially as it was understood by those outside his Order."
"Did you see any sign in him ..." Luke paused to consider his phrasing. "Of what he was to become?"
"I think there were scars on his spirit, but they seemed to be well healed. From my many conversations with him, I concluded that his childhood had been an unsettled one, and that he had severed himself from much of it, as though it were dead flesh that needed to be cut away lest it endanger his life." He looked at Ben. "You are his cousin, no? Is it the same with you?"
Ben shook his head. "You"re not going to have a normal childhood in this family, and I guess I have some things in common with Jacen. Separated from our parents for long stretches. I was tortured, too, but not as long as Jacen was." He saw his father suppress a wince. "I don"t know if, when I get to be Jacen"s age, I"ll want to cast my childhood off, but I don"t think so. If only because, if he did, he"s a bad example to follow."
"Interesting."
Luke continued, "And you taught him the lightning-rod techniques."
"First, I taught him techniques of weather antic.i.p.ation and the ability to sense energy piling up in the natural world. You can feel heat in the water in the seas, heat that will become cyclonic storms, for instance. But he heard rumor of the lightning-rod techniques and asked about them."
"Did he teach you anything?"
"I trained against him in combat."
Luke"s eyebrows rose. "You"re one of the Baran Do with combat training?"
"I am. In life, I was the teacher of Charsae Saal, who is now Chara. The Baran Do who study combat train mostly in unarmed and staff combat, and I was interested in learning to defend against the lightsaber."
"What was your conclusion there?"
"The lightsaber is a weapon of the Force and, if you are not similarly armed, must be countered with the Force."
Luke nodded in agreement. "Did you have any sense of a problem Jacen might have been dealing with, an overriding fear or concern?"
"No. I think he was a man at peace. I would not say he was happy- happy- but he was at peace." but he was at peace."
Luke sat back to think.
Ben asked, "When he left Dorin, did he say or give any indication as to where he was going next?"
"No, I believe not." The Hidden One"s eyes looked back through the years. "He had been talking about returning to Coruscant. I think his search for knowledge was finished for the time being. But there was something ... One day he asked me what I knew about places where the energies of the Force concentrate and linger, though there is no indication as to why they do so."
Luke sat forward again. "I trained in one such place. A nexus of Force energy on a small swamp world."
"Late in his stay, he evidenced a sudden interest in such things. I believe he had found something in his studies of written materials, though not ours-perhaps something he had brought along from one of his other stops."
"But he mentioned no names or places."
"No."
Luke glanced at his son. "That"s about it for me. Does anything else occur to you?"
"Well, on another subject."
"Go ahead."
Ben looked the Hidden One square in the eye. "Are you going to kill the Jedi who come looking for me and my dad?"
The Hidden One"s eyes widened. "Kill "Kill them? That is not what we do." them? That is not what we do."
"But they will come. And when they don"t get answers that help them, they"ll send someone like Master Horn, who"s trained in investigation. He"ll figure things out. So my question is, how many are you going to kill in order to keep your little secret?"
"This is not a little secret." The Hidden One seemed almost embarra.s.sed by his outburst; he looked back and forth to see if anyone had witnessed it, then returned his attention to Ben. He leaned forward. "This is the seed of the Baran Do, the seed that must take root if the Order itself dies. You have never lived in a time when the threat of extinction of an entire way of life was very real-"
Ben laughed outright. "I was born halfway through the Yuuzhan Vong War. Remember that? Maybe, as far out as you are, you didn"t hear much about it. Some of my earliest memories are of hiding, surrounded by darkness, knowing that if we were found we"d be wiped out. Here I am again, same situation." He gestured at the gray-black stone walls of the chamber. "People are still afraid of it, afraid of annihilation by some unknown enemy. War trauma. Civilians and soldiers both get it. I think it"s what you"ve got."
"You little larva." The Hidden One was almost spitting in his anger. "Are you too stupid to realize that you Jedi are facing a new purge?"
Ben gave him a scornful look.
"There"s the arrogance of youth." The Hidden One turned to Luke. "Surely you know better. You"re about to experience another purge. If you"re unprepared for it, the Jedi may wink out once again, this time forever."
Luke shook his head. "I don"t think so. I"ve dealt with Chief of State Daala directly. She has no agenda of destruction."
"She has none, perhaps. What of her subordinates? What of her military planners, all of whom came to power in the wake of a war made so much more horrible by a has none, perhaps. What of her subordinates? What of her military planners, all of whom came to power in the wake of a war made so much more horrible by a Jedi? Jedi? Recent history is not unknown to me; we get the holonews feeds here." The Hidden One began counting off on his fingers. "One, the leader of the Jedi Order, once immensely popular, is discredited. The Jedi Order is weakened. Two, he is sent off into exile, depriving the Order of his strength and wisdom. The Order is weakened again. Three, each Jedi is accompanied by an observer who tells the government where he or she is at every moment. The Jedi are suddenly more vulnerable to a ma.s.s attack, a ma.s.s extermination. How soon before the Jedi are wearing tracking devices? How long before they are implanted with explosives? All in the name of Alliance safety?" Recent history is not unknown to me; we get the holonews feeds here." The Hidden One began counting off on his fingers. "One, the leader of the Jedi Order, once immensely popular, is discredited. The Jedi Order is weakened. Two, he is sent off into exile, depriving the Order of his strength and wisdom. The Order is weakened again. Three, each Jedi is accompanied by an observer who tells the government where he or she is at every moment. The Jedi are suddenly more vulnerable to a ma.s.s attack, a ma.s.s extermination. How soon before the Jedi are wearing tracking devices? How long before they are implanted with explosives? All in the name of Alliance safety?"
Luke gave him a flat, hard stare. "You"re wrong."
"You"re wrong! You have made your own Order vulnerable. The fate of the Jedi now rests with leaders who are weaker and less experienced than you. That decline will continue until the Order is locked in a hopeless struggle with its government and all but helpless. Then it will die again." wrong! You have made your own Order vulnerable. The fate of the Jedi now rests with leaders who are weaker and less experienced than you. That decline will continue until the Order is locked in a hopeless struggle with its government and all but helpless. Then it will die again."
Ben smiled at him, a scornful smile. "And do you oppose the destruction of the Jedi Order?"
"Of course I do!"
"Even though you"re helping it along by keeping us prisoner."
The Hidden One stood, and Ben thought for a moment that the Kel Dor would attack him. Then the Hidden One stepped away and departed, walking so fast that his robes whirled around him.
When he was gone, Luke gave Ben a look of mild reproach. "You really need to work on your adolescent confrontational impulses."
"That wasn"t adolescent, Dad. It was an investigational investigational impulse." impulse."
Luke looked quizzical. "It"s true, you"re not demonstrating the emotions I"d expect of a testy sixteen-year-old."
"Questioning can"t always be polite and courteous, Dad. I learned that from Lon Shevu. At a certain point, you push push and you see how they respond." He gestured in the direction the Hidden One had taken. "And what did he react to? Enemies. The Alliance government possibly destroying the Jedi. The Jedi looking for us and possibly finding him. Everyone"s out to get him, Dad." and you see how they respond." He gestured in the direction the Hidden One had taken. "And what did he react to? Enemies. The Alliance government possibly destroying the Jedi. The Jedi looking for us and possibly finding him. Everyone"s out to get him, Dad."
"In other words, he"s paranoid."
"At least. He might even be crazier than a piranha-beetle with a pin through its head."
"Possibly. The problem ..." Luke thought about it. "The problem is, he may also be right. The Jedi Order is vulnerable, and it may be in genuine danger."
"We need to see if we can reach Jaina or Aunt Leia through the Force."
Luke shook his head. "I tried, last night, several times. There"s some interference here ... either the first Hidden One chose this spot very well, because it naturally concealed his followers from searchers using the Force, or the Baran Do have perfected some technique that accomplishes the same thing. Either way, contact seems unlikely. We"re on our own."
UNDERGROUND ACCESS SHAFT, KESSEL.
"Mission control to Rogue. Report. Over."
Wedge, hovering in his X-wing only a few meters from the new shaft in the chalk-white soil ahead of him, activated his helmet mike. "Rogue here. I"m getting too old for this."
"Copy that, too old." Koyi Komad, Nrin Vakil"s Twi"lek wife, acting as mission control, sounded amused. "Begin your decline."
"You mean descent. descent." Wedge eased his X-wing forward until he was directly over the shaft. Other starfighters ringed the shaft at the same alt.i.tude; their pilots were waiting for similar authorization from Koyi.