Ben limped to where his weapon lay. He picked it up and, impassive, turned to face the Hidden One. Ithia moved up to kneel beside Chara, who was moving at last, attempting to rise; she helped him sit up but did not allow him to stand.
The Hidden One stared at Ben. His expression was unhappy, but Luke suspected he actually felt some measure of grim satisfaction. “You win.” The Hidden One's tone was flat, almost emotionless. “Your father may continue his tedious complaints so long as he has breath within his body. But he's still wrong about what we're doing here. About the life within us.”
“No, Master.” That was Chara, his voice pained. “He may be right.”
The Hidden One turned to glare at him. “Not you, too.”
Chara struggled to rise. Abandoning her futile attempt to keep him still, Ithia helped him to his feet. “Master,” he said, “I am this boy's superior in fighting skill. I am strong in the Force. But he won. He won through the will to win. Through conviction, through strength of purpose. I lost because I lack these things.”
“Perhaps you do.” The Hidden One sounded scornful. “But it is because you have listened to him.” He gestured at Luke. “He has confused you, diverted you from your purpose. Once he is gone, you will return to the correct path.”
Luke stepped forward to stand beside his son. “Gone? So we can leave?”
The Hidden One shook his head. “No one leaves. I have made that clear already. No, you are not going to leave. But very soon, things will return to normal.” He took a deep breath, assuming a regretful expression as he looked among his people. “I'm sorry. But the Skywalkers are clearly too dangerous to live among us, and they know too much to be free.”
Luke returned Ben's lightsaber to the boy. “So you're going to kill us.”
Burra, the ancient Kel Dor, shook his head vehemently. “That is not our way, Master.”
“I will not do it,” Ithia said. Others echoed her sentiment.
The Hidden One glared down at Luke. “Do you see what you've done? Until your arrival, they were satisfied. Obedience to our goal, our destiny, was our first concern. Now you've made them, made them—”
“Alive?” Luke kept his tone quizzical.
The Hidden One glared at him for a moment, then turned his attention to the Kel Dors. “Of course we will not murder them. That is not our way.” As a sigh of relief circulated among his followers, he added, “I have informed those above that the Skywalkers died in a collapse of the cave they were excavating. Above, they now know not to send down any more oxygen-nitrogen canisters. We will not kill the Skywalkers … but in the matter of a day or two, once their remaining canisters have been depleted, the atmosphere of Dorin will.”
ANOTHER MURMUR ROSE. BURRA CALLED OUT, “MASTER, NO”.
But the Hidden One brushed his hands together as if ridding himself of imaginary dirt. “It is done. No rebellion on this matter will be tolerated. Or effective. I had the comm encryption codes advanced. Should one of you be foolish enough to try to send unauthorized messages to those above, your words will not be understood.” He looked at Luke and Ben. “Now, finally, like us, you must resign yourself to death.”
Ithia stepped forward. Her voice was soft, a plea. “Master, please. Reverse your decision. And I wish you would consider something that has been troubling me for years now, something that I have tried to bring up with you many times, something you have never been willing to hear.”
“Which is what?”
“Our purpose here.” She paused for a moment as if trying to gather the right words. “Our lives here only have meaning if the worst occurs—if the Baran Do are wiped out above and must be restored. If that never happens, our lives here are wasted.”
“Which is why we choose to be dead before we descend to this place.” The Hidden One sounded annoyed. There was no sign on his face that Ithia's words had meant anything to him.
“Master …” A look of great sadness crossed Ithia's face. “You're wrong. You're wrong in what you're doing to the Skywalkers. And I think it's time for you to understand, and admit, that this experiment is a failure.”
“This is no experiment.” The Hidden One was suddenly on his feet, his voice raised in a shrill shout, his anger so potent that all present except Luke and Ben took a step backward. “It is our way, and it will continue to be our way, and it is time for you to be silent and obey.”
“Like the dead.” Sorrowfully, Ithia shook her head. “No, Master.”
The Hidden One stood on his platform, breathing hard, and then stepped down to the stone floor. “I see. I cannot let these humans remain among us even for the time it would take them to suffocate. Their influence is too strong.” He raised his hands. Little crackles of electricity flickered between them. “I will show you life. I will show you the Force.”
“Ben,” Luke whispered. “Stand back.”
It happened all at once: the Hidden One gesturing toward Luke, Ben leaping away, lightning flashing from the Hidden One's hands. It was not the purplish lightning of Emperor Palpatine, which had so nearly cost Luke his life nearly forty years before; it was all brilliant whiteness.
Luke had his lightsaber activated and up in time. The lightning crackled against his glowing blade. The strength behind the attack, of the Hidden One's energy and anger, took Luke off his feet and threw him backward. He slammed into a pillar, feeling jolts of pain in his spine and the back of his head.
But the lightning did not reach him. His blade kept it at bay. And, bracing himself with the Force, Luke took a step forward.
The Hidden One tossed his head. It was not just a gesture of anger; Luke felt the motion as a ripple in the Force. The air in the chamber responded, a wind springing up and roaring around the walls of the chamber, gaining speed and strength. It tattered the robes of the Kel Dors near the walls as it went. It veered from the wall over the throne and howled down at Luke, engulfing him, trying to drive him backward.
Luke gritted his teeth and rooted himself. Then, against the might of both wind and lightning, he took another step forward.
The Hidden One's eyes widened. His head rolled around on his shoulders, and the roar of air across Luke intensified. It tore at his robes, causing them to stand out from his body, shudder, and snap in the wind.
Luke took another step forward. It was slow going, for the Hidden One's power was great, but Luke now felt sure in his footing and in his own strength.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kel Dors retreating, some of them streaming out through the blast door, Ben waving them onward.
The Hidden One's face, flushed fully red, was contorted in a mask of anger. He flicked his fingers and the lightning ceased. He moved his now freed hands in circular gestures. Luke felt the wind increase in ferocity. Most of it still whirled around the chamber before battering at him, but some, a diverted flow, spun in a tight circle directly in front of the Hidden One. As Luke watched, that errant stream of air swallowed up dust from the floor and walls, defining its outlines as a miniature funnel cloud, a few centimeters wide at its base and broadening to two meters at the ceiling. It writhed like a mortally wounded serpent.
With a gesture, the Hidden One sent the whirlwind straight at Luke.
Luke lunged at it, visualizing it, wrenching at it with the Force. His exertion was like a physical blow as he stepped into it. He felt the wind intensify for a bare moment, and then his telekinetic attack flung the whirlwind free. It rocketed off to the side and hammered into a pillar to Luke's left.
Luke took another step forward. He was more than halfway to the Hidden One now. He deactivated his lightsaber. He could turn it on again swiftly enough if the Hidden One brought forth his lightning a second time.
The whirlwind moved from pillar to pillar as if leaping. When it was directly behind Luke, it lingered there. Luke kept his senses, both the physical ones and that of the Force, alert to its movements. It hammered at the pillar itself, and Luke could hear and feel the permacrete mounting at the summit begin to cra
ck.
The mounting at the base broke, too, and the pillar toppled toward Luke. He heard Ben's warning cry. He raised his left hand backward, using the same exertion he'd made a moment earlier against the whirlwind itself, and the pillar stopped, frozen in midfall. He gestured again and it reversed direction, toppling onto the empty floor.
And Luke took another step forward.
The Hidden One's howl of outrage was like that of his own wind. The stone throne behind him rocked and rattled on its platform.
Luke made a sweeping gesture, bringing his rear hand forward, and with it came the toppled pillar, flying forward like a spear. As the throne launched itself toward him, the pillar met it in midair, shattering the stone seat into a dozen pieces, some smooth-cut and some broken.
Luke let the pillar fall to the floor. With a wave of his hand, he sent it rolling toward the Hidden One, who leapt sideways over it as it neared him.
Luke was already in motion as the Hidden One jumped. The Kel Dor's concentration was broken, his control over the wind diminished, and Luke was able to race forward three steps in the time it took the Hidden One to clear the rolling pillar. As the Baran Do Master came down again, Luke kicked out, a spinning kick that caught the Kel Dor in the gut, throwing him backward. The Hidden One smashed up against the platform's front, crushing in its wooden front panel.
Remarkably, he stood up from the impact, raised his hands for another attack … and collapsed, falling onto his face.
The wind died. The rolling pillar fetched up against one that was still upright and stopped. All sounds died except that of the Hidden One's strained, frantic breathing.
There were still a few other Kel Dors in the chamber, mostly Masters, and they began to move forward.
Ithia ran up to kneel beside the Hidden One. Chara, moving more slowly, joined her. After looking at the Hidden One for a few moments, they cautiously rolled him over onto his back. Ithia sat beside the platform and pulled him up so that he could be partially upright, propped against her.
She looked up at those in the chamber. “He is exhausted,” she said. “He will recover.”
The Hidden One said something, his voice so low as to constitute a whisper, and then exerted himself to be heard. “I will do as you say.”
Ithia looked relieved. “You will free the Skywalkers?”
“I will allow the servants to learn. I will appoint a board of advisers to make recommendations about our purpose … and morale.” The Hidden One gulped for air for a moment. “I will tell those above that the earlier message was a mistake. They can resume sending air canisters for the humans. And in a year or two, we can review their situation with new eyes …”
“A year or two?” That was Ben, his voice an expression of pure outrage. “Don't you get that you lost? You're not going to be making any more decisions like that.”
“He's right, Master.” Ithia's voice was softer than Ben's, but just as unrelenting. “It's time for them to go.”
The Hidden One shook his head, weary. “I still decide. And no one leaves.”
“You're just too crazy to learn.” Ben's hand shot up, pointing toward the ceiling above the platform.
Luke, breathing hard as he recovered from his exertions, distinctly heard a metallic clunk as something in the ceiling was driven home.
There was a distant boom and the tiniest shiver of chamber walls and pillars.
The Hidden One sat upright, away from Ithia. His eyes widened as he turned toward Ben. “What have you done?”
“The same thing you did to us.” Ben's tone and expression held contempt. He limped forward until he was only a couple of meters from the Hidden One. “I've taken your choice away. I've activated your bombs and collapsed the entry tunnel. It's gone. You want it open again, prepare to spend a few hundred years with your pickaxes and shovels.”
“You have only doomed yourself.” The Hidden One looked more stricken than angry. “Now your air cannot come, while we can survive.”
“Stop lying. I'm sick of your lying. Your whole petty kingdom down here is based on lies, and that's part of the wrong you're doing to all of the people who serve you. It's pathetic.”
The Hidden One's jaw moved, but he said nothing.
“What lies?” That was Chara, seating himself on the edge of the platform, pressing a palm against his ribs.
Ben sighed. “Well, let's start with your so-called self-sufficiency. Yes, you have hydroponics. Provides nice fresh vegetables. Good for you. But if they met all your food needs, you wouldn't have storerooms full of food from above. King Paranoia there—”
“Show respect, Ben.” Luke's voice was soft, but he let an edge of warning creep into it.
“Yes, sir.” Ben took a couple of deep, calming breaths. “Koro Ziil there wouldn't tolerate the risk of those food shipments being detected or traced down here if the food wasn't absolutely necessary. Therefore it is. Therefore, in blowing up the tunnel, I've doomed us all. We suffocate, you starve.
“Except for the other lies. Here's the next one. Look!” He gestured at the exit. Most of the Kel Dors followed his gaze, then looked back at him, confused.
“Blast doors,” Ben said, as if explaining to a none-too-bright classroom of younglings. “The lie that these big doors were made here. Your foundries do fine for recycling metal containers and making metal parts. But they're not big enough to build blast doors. The big pieces had to come from an industrial-sized metal plant. And they're too big to fit down your little tunnel. So where did they come from?
“There's lie number three, the really big one. That lie says the tunnel you've been using for shipments, two hundred kilometers of pure tedium, is in any way necessary. It's not.
“Here's why. Lie number four. The lie that if the bad thing happens and the Baran Do are wiped out up top, you'll wait for the dust to settle, then begin teaching new sages by telepathy. No, you won't. The technique doesn't exist. If it did, the Hidden One would have issued his orders to the surface by telepathy, not by comlink. Those blast doors came down by bigger tunnels, the first tunnels dug down to this place, and if the bad thing happened, you were going to get back to the surface by those tunnels and spread out to begin your teaching.
“Those are the lies most of you have lived with down here for I don't know how many years. Probably only the Hidden One and the first generation of Baran Do dead sages know where the big tunnel is. But it's here, and now you need it.” Ben glared, defiant, at the Hidden One.
The Hidden One tried again to stand. Ithia attempted to hold him in place but then relented, and the aged Kel Dor got to his feet. He faced Ben, unbowed, unrelenting. “Then you have killed us all, not just yourself. I will not give up the secrets of this place. Nor will anyone else.”
Undismayed, Ben stared at him. “So your pride is more important than your mission. The fact that you rule here and would be just another retired Master up there means nearly fifty of your followers have to die.”
The Hidden One glowered but did not answer.
Burra did. His expression sorrowful, he stepped forward. “The tunnel out is just above the garment storeroom.”
The Hidden One turned on him, his eyes eloquent with the betrayal he felt. “Burra, not you.”
“The ceiling there is synthstone, artfully detailed to match the natural stone around it. A few blows with chisels will reveal a sliding hatch. Above it is a turbolift chamber. Its generator will need maintenance before it can be activated.”
The Hidden One just stared at him. Then, with slow, halting steps, he turned toward the exit from the chamber.
The boy, Wyss, came forward to tuck himself under the Hidden One's arm and support him on his walk.
It was as Burra said. A few minutes with mining tools broke away the veneer of synthstone, revealing a door mounted in the ceiling and a control panel beside it. The control panel, a single mechanical switch, had no lights or readouts to indicate whether it was functional, but Burra had no doubts. “It triggers a capacitance char
ge, which opens the door.”
And so it did. Once the switch was flipped, the doors slid open and air, kept contained and musty for some sixty years, flowed down into the caverns of the seed of the Baran Do.
As they waited for Burra and others to get the generator in the chamber above operational, Luke took Ben aside. “You acted, well, unilaterally.”
“He wasn't going to change, Dad. The only other thing we could have done would be to make the others turn on him and force the information from him. Would that have been better?”
“No. It would have been shattering for them. But the Hidden One, after a night's sleep, might have reconsidered. You took that choice away from him.”
“Yes, I did. It solved the problem. It didn't kill anybody. It spilled out some nasty truths that they all needed to hear. Dad, sometimes you shouldn't wait that extra day. Sometimes you have to cut the other guy's arm off.”
“Yes, if the Force guides you to do so. Did the Force guide you to do that?”
“I'm … not sure.” Finally Ben did look a little contrite. “Was it the wrong thing to do?”
“I'm not sure.”
“Oh, good. A really useful answer for once.”
Luke grinned.
“Dad, you had added it all up, too, hadn't you? The tunnel size, the blast doors, the telepathy …”
“Yes.”
“So what I did really didn't shock you. You knew I wasn't sealing us in forever.”
“Yes. And even if it was the wrong thing, it clearly wasn't very wrong. Add it to everything you did right while we were here, and you're still very much ahead of the game.” Luke reached over and affectionately mussed Ben's hair.
“Dad, the hair.”
THE TURBOLIFT CARRIED THE SKYWALKERS AND THE FIRST FEW EXPLORATORY Baran Do one kilometer straight up. It ended in a large chamber packed with cloth-shrouded speeders, most of them seven decades or more old, and a ramp to a surface-level door. The capacitance charge on that door worked as well, and soon they were at the top of the ramp, staring up into the starry sky of Dorin, the black eyes of the neighboring black holes on either side.
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast Page 30
