Star Wars - I, Jedi

by Michael A. Stackpole

  As soon as I saw him I knew he was the reason the Invidious could remain hidden. As I watched, his head came up and he stared straight out at me. His head then dipped and the image faded for a moment. Then I saw him striding forward toward Tarira. He gestured and she began shouting orders that started a fiurrv of activity.

  Exar Kun yawned. "He is the true foe you seek. He is respon-sible for her successes. With my power you can defeat him, supplant him, do with her what you wish."

  `TI1 get there without your help at all, Exar Kun."

  The shade's voice sharpened. "Perhaps, but you will not get here without it."

  The image he presented me shifted and my stomach im-ploded. I saw Mirax lying on a bier, very much like Master Skywalker above us. A soft silver light bathed her. Her arms rested at her sides and she looked as if she were just napping. The only anomalous feature in the image was a small grey band resting on her forehead, pulsing with red and green lights. She looked very peaceful, and try as I might, I could sense no dis-tress from her.

  And nothing else.

  "I can give her to you. I can tell you exactly where she is." Exar Kun shaped his face into what he thought was a compas-sionate expression. "5bu know the Force allows me to show you the past, the present, the future. This is where she is, your wife, right now. Hidden away, where you will never find her without my help."

  "And what would you have me do for your help?"

  "Kill Skywalker."

  I smiled. "Mirax's life for his'? No deal."

  "You want more?" The Dark Lord laughed defiantly. "I can give you more, I will give you more. I will give you your wife and Tarira. You can have her ship and destroy her fleet. You can destroy your father-in-law's ship. You can return to Corellia and destroy those who hate you there!"

  I shook my head. "No."

  "No?"

  "No." I sighed. "You don't get it, do you? You've already lost and you're continuing down that losing path. Haven't the last four thousand years taught you anything?"

  "I know more than you could ever hope to learn in four thousand years or forty thousand years."

  "That may be. but I know the one thing you don't." I rose from my bed and pointed a finger at him. "You're never going to win. You destroy those who oppose you, and what does that leave you'?"

  "The faithful."

  "From among whom arises a rival. You halve a schism."

  "And I destroy the heretics."

  "Yes, you do." I nodded carefully. "And again and again that cycle repeats itself and you let it go on because you've forgotten the most fundamental truth of reality: Life creates the Force. When Kyp destroyed Carida, he diminished your power. When you destroyed Gantoris, you diminished your power. You're a predator over-grazing your prey, but you can't stop because the dark side fills you with this aching hunger that will never be satisfied."

  "Ha!" Exar Kun's laughter slashed at me, but sounded just a bit too shrill. "You cannot speak of the dark side until you have experienced it. Join me and learn that you are wrong."

  "I don't think so. A ]~,vo-Onebee droid doesn't need to con-tract a disease to diagnose and treat it." I folded my arms across my chest and laughed at him. "I'm not fodder for your fantasies, go away."

  Exar Kun lifted his head. "I came to you, now, inviting you to join me. I would have given you much. When next you come to me, and you will, I shall not be so generous."

  As he spoke the image of Mirax began to fade, but it did so in a most horrible way. I watched her lying there, aging years for every passing second. Her dark hair became grey and brit-tle, then fell out in clumps. Her flesh became ashen, her eyes sunken. Her body puddled out through the seams of her cloth-ing, then they split, letting me see bare bones. A gust of wind came up, scattering them, spinning her skull around like a child's toy. Finally it came to rest, gap-toothed, staring at me with empty sockets.

  I blinked the image away and found myself alone again. I sat back down on my bed and discovered I was trembling. It surprised me, so I made myself laugh. I had to push at first, but it came more easily. The warm sound filled my small room and I swore I could hear the echoes of laughter that Biggs, Wedge and Porkins had shared in here. They had laughed because they knew they had the secret of destroying the Death Star.

  I laughed along with them. Exar Kun had come to me to entice me to join him. What he didn't know, what fueled my laughter even more, was that in doing so, he gave me the secret of destroying him.

  I hoped for a moment alone with Leia Organa Solo to tell her what I'd discovered about Exar Kun, but between her caring for her children and the unexpected arrival of a B-wing fighter, I had no chance to speak with her. I wanted to talk to her alone because I was operating on the assumption that the dark man might have gotten to other of the students. She'd not been on Yavin long enough to fall under his sway, and I had no doubt that she'd be able to resist him. Letting everyone know that I had a way to hurt Kun was a good way to let him know that, too, and that would rob us of our weapon.

  The pilot of the B-wing turned out to be a Mon Calamari named Terpfen, who blubbered out a confession about having been an agent under Imperial control who had betrayed to the Imps the location of the world Anoth, where Winter and the youngest Organa Solo child, Anakin, had been sent for safe keeping. He urged Leia to head immediately for Anoth, but she said she didn't know its coordinates. Only Winter, Master Skywalker and Admiral Ackbar did. She determined to head immediately for Mon Calamari to find Ackbar, and then off to rescue her youngest child.

  While the other students took charge of the twins and helped Terpfen recover from his journey, I caught up with her in the Great Temple. "Councilor Organa Solo, I need to speak with you."

  "Make it brief. I'm heading out as soon as I can get my stuff together."

  I hit the button for the turbolift. "You can't go with Terpfen.

  He's a known traitor."

  She preceded me into the lift. "I can handle myself on that count."

  "Despite the assurances that Ambassador Cilghal gave you that we can protect your twins, you can't leave them here."

  Her brown eyes sparked dangerously. "So, what, I load them into a fighter with a known traitor and take them off to a world where Imperial assassins are going to be trying to kill them?"

  "No, but leaving them here, where a four-thousand-year-old Dark Lord of the Sith is turning apprentices into puppets isn't much of a choice, either." I shook my head. "You don't know any of us. How can you trust all of us with your kids'?"

  "I can't trust all of you." She poked a finger square in my chest. "I'm trusting you." "What?"

  Her expression sharpened as the lift doors opened and she started down the hall to her room. "When my husband left here, he said I could trust you. Not an easy man to earn trust from, my husband. That got me wondering and you'd be sur-prised what the president of the New Republic can learn when she's curious and has got a HoloNet connection. The fact that my brother picked you to be here counts a lot in your favor, but the rest of your record doesn't hurt at all. I think my children are safe with Corran Horn."

  "Look, since you know who I am, let me fly you to Mon Calamari. I'm a hot hand with a fighter. I can help when you oct to Anoth."

  She shook her head. "Can't do it-and that's because I do know who you are. I know that if you wanted to be my chauf-feur, you'd not have come to me privately. You want something else, and I'm willing to bet that something else means you're going to be staying here. Let me have it."

  I nodded as she started shoving clothes into a satchel. "First, I think the apprentices who are vulnerable to Exar Kun are those who have had some brush with the dark side in the past. Streen once asked me about something I considered minor, but it might be the vector in for Exar Kun. Can't confirm that about Gantoris or Kyp, but it would make sense since those who have fallen once can more easily be lured back to old paths of behav-ior."

  Leia paused for a moment. "That would put Kam at risk." "He's pretty tough, but, yes, there's a chance." I
glanced down. "Streen remains a risk. Can't pinpoint any others, though Brakiss has an Imperial background that would make him prey."

  "Right. What else?"

  "We have a basic problem if we're going to figure out a way to deal with Exar Kun. If we exclude everyone who is suspect, he could know something is afoot because of that fact."

  "And he could use any paranoia that develops as a way into those who aren't yet tainted." She zipped up her bag. "So is there a solution to this problem, or do we evac Yavin?"

  "With Kyp running around in an invincible ship? No way. We're all that can stand between him and his returning with a way to move Exar Kun off this ball."

  "Evac is out. The problem still stands then." She watched a smile grow on my face. "I hate it when a Corellian smiles like that. Usually means Han's about to lose the Falcon to Lando in some sabacc game."

  "Well, it's Exar Kun's chance to lose this time, because he overplayed his hand." My smile broadened. "Your brother identified an ability in me, one to project thoughts into others. How well I know them, the degree of contact I feel for them, determines how much I can pump through. Exar Kun came to me last night, after I helped take Streen down by projecting into him the idea that he'd succeeded at what he tried to do. Kun tried to bring me over to his side, but I resisted. He got a good read on me and tried to play me."

  Leia smiled and it became easy for me to see why thousands of Rebel hearts had been broken when she married Han Solo. "And while he was playing you, you got a good read on him.

  You can track him, when he's active?"

  "I think so. I also think these displays take a lot out of him. I think he'll be keeping a low profile, probably tapping in on Streen, to find out what we're doing."

  She nodded. "And you can feed enough back through that connection to deceive him?"

  I nodded. "Giving us time to find a way to deal with him." "Good, very good." Her eyes sharpened. "I can't leave you in charge-he'd notice the change in routine and spot you as a danger."

  "Right. I'll have to keep a low profile, too. I'll keep quiet unless things aren't going to work or start going really badly." I moved from the doorway as she headed out toward the turbolift. "I know I can buy us time, but not much. At the rate he recovers, Kun should be ready for something tomorrow, maybe tonight."

  "I know you'll do what you can." She stopped at the turbolift and offered me her hand. "May the Force be with you." "And you."

  "I hope so." She smiled at me grimly as the turbolift doors closed. "I have a feeling we'll both need it."

  spent the rest of the day work-ing on tile Headhunter, finishing the repairs. I asked Streen to help me. I didn't need the help, I just wanted to keep him close. Some of the other students were shunning him, and given what had happened, that came as no surprise. By having him help me I could keep an eye on him and gently monitor him in case Exar Kun tried to influence him again.

  I also offered Kun the Headhunter as bait through Streen. The old gas prospector knew enough about flying a ship that he was able to hover the fighter and bring it into the hangar proper from the landing pad, but he didn't seem able to work the weapons. Mara's ship no longer had the standard weapons package it had been built with. The concussion missile launch-ers had been scrapped and replaced with a center-mounted ion-cannon. Each wing still sported a triple-blaster, but they were hardwired for dual-fire mode, which isn't a choice I'd have made.

  I told Streen enough about the weapons to make him think he could work them, but I didn't tell him about having installed a command override code that was required to use them. If weapons were engaged without the code, the Headhunter would cut thrust to zero, click in the repulsorlift coils, and hover. The onboard computers also had the Great Temple des-ignated as a passive flight zone: there would be no running it up to speed and slamming into the Temple. The navicomp would just take over and land the ship in the face of such an obvious pilot error.

  My thinking was that Kun, still taxed from his having fun-neled enough power through Streen to create that cyclone, would take the chance at having Streen use the Headhunter to kill Luke. I tried to make it easy for him by giving Streen little flying tips and telling him Rebellion pilot stories, but Exar Kun never took the bait. I felt a bit disappointed in him at that, but didn't push the issue for fear of tipping him to our connection.

  It wasn't until that evening, as I was trying to drop off to sleep, that I realized Kun wasn't quite as sophisticated as I had expected. Alarms triggered by Artoo, who was stationed in the Grand Audience Chamber, jolted me out of bed. I stretched out my senses and caught spiky impressions of creatures that just felt wrong up at the ziggurat's pinnacle.

  I didn't even think about hitting the stairs or waiting for the turbolift. I sprinted to the Headhunter, punched in the ignition code and enabled the weapons. I overrode the passive flight directives and cruised out of the hangar into the orange twilight of the night. I looped and rolled the fighter and took a pass above the Temple, but all I could see was the hint of a triangu-lar wingtip slipping through one of the skylights.

  Frustration rippled through me, but I shoved it away. Those c'rcatures are not rny problem right now. Exar Kun is. Stretching out my senses, I discovered slender ebon threads of influence, three of them, linked to the creatures the Dark Lord had sent to kill Luke Skywalker. The creatures were mindless beasts, far easier to control than Streen, affording Kun maximum destruc-tion with a minimal amount of energy expended.

  I overshot the Temple, then killed my thrust and cut in the repulsorlift coils. This left me hovering four hundred meters above the ground. Using the Headhunter's etheric rudder, I twitched the ship around until the nose pointed off toward where I felt Kun's influence originating. I hit a button on my console, locking in that heading.

  Nudging the throttle forward, I rolled to starboard and cruised back past the Great Temple by a kilometer. I killed thrust again, hovered and pointed the nose off in the direction I felt Kun's influence coming from. I logged those coordinates in the navicomp.

  My comm unit beeped and an "all-clear" signal from Artoo appeared on my main screen. I smiled and felt the little link tendrils withering and retreating back to Exar Kun. I pushed my feelings, focusing them tightly, hoping to pick up a flash of anger or disappointment from him, but I got nothing of the sort. Instead I found four more of the anomalous lifeforms winging their way to tile Great Temple from deep in the jungle.

  I allowed myself a low laugh. The one problem with starfighter targeting systems is that they are built around a sen-sor package that recognizes the durasteel and other compo-nents that make up other starfighters or ships or anything else that can legitimately be classed as a target. Additional software uploads can define new targets, allowing systems to be updated as new foes and new equipment come online. And while these creatures did have metal claws, they actually had less metal content than the average civilian strolling around on Coruscant. As far as the Headhunter was concerned, they just weren't really targets.

  As a Jedi, I found them to be big fat targets.

  They flew in toward the Temple, no more able to recognize the Headhunter as a threat than it was able to recognize them. The huge creatures were easily as tall in body as a man, with a huge wingspan of ugly, fleshy wings. They had two heads, each with a low enough cranium to only be sporting a cubic centime-ter of brains. They also each had a muscular tail that ended in a nasty crystalline stinger. Decidedly scary and lethal. Unless you're a pilot in a starfighter.

  My first shot crisscrossed twin blaster bolts in the thorax of the lead creature. Flesh boiled and scales melted, then the bolts burst out of its back and flew on only slightly spent. The crea-ture's heads curled inward, looking down at the smoking hole in its chest, then the wings collapsed. The creature dropped to the ground with the speed of a droid ejected from a fighter. It impaled itself on the branches of a massive Massassi tree be-low.

  My shot at the next beastie came fast and much sloppier- only one bolt hit. The single e
nergy projectile did the job, how-ever. It burned a wing off the one it hit. The creature flapped furiously with the one good wing, but to no discernible benefit. Screaming, the beast spiraled down and smashed into the Tem-ple's stone base.

  For the last two monsters I switched to the ion cannon. The initial shot from it caught the third monster in the pelvis. The blue ion bolt shattered into hundreds of little lightning tendrils. The bolt fired all of the creature's nerves at once, making the creature's limbs spasm. Its tail jerked backward and forward so violently that it stabbed itself. The creature's heads struck at its own tail, tearing great jagged hunks out of it, then its wings folded in on it and the falling beast splattered itself down the pyramid's north side.