brought him a steamed bugdillo to eat. Luke poked at the glossy black shell
of the crustacean, splitting open the cracks in its multiply segmented body
to get at the pinkish meat. That afternoon a boy had been killed trying to
spear these small creatures. ...
At any time Luke could leave the battered module, walk to the passenger
shuttle on the far side of the geyser field, and retrieve his own rations;
but he didn't want to leave, not until Gantoris agreed to come with him.
Luke ate the sour-tasting meat, chewing in silence.
"Come with me." Gantoris stood silhouetted in the square doorway of Luke's
quarters.
Luke blinked and came out of his trance, refreshed and surprised to see the
gray morning light shining through cracks in the module. Without a word, he
stood up and stepped outside.
Gantoris wore the faded uniform of a trader captain. It fit him poorly, but
he carried himself with pride. The uniform must have been passed down from
generation to generation as the hopeful colonists waited for the ramjet gas
miners to return and make their settlement a booming town.
"Where are we going?" Luke asked.
Gantoris handed him a woven pouch, then slung a similar one over his own
shoulder. "To get food." Tossing his thick black braid behind him, he
marched toward the geyser field.
Luke followed across the rugged terrain, sidestepping the lime-encrusted
network of geysers and steam vents. The planet of Eol Sha hummed with the
tidal strain, like fading vibrations from a struck gong.
Gantoris moved with outward confidence, but Luke sensed trepidation, an
uncertainty in him. Luke decided this might be a good time to talk about the
Force and its powers. "You must have learned something about the order of
Jedi Knights," he began. "For a thousand generations they served the Old
Republic as guardians and keepers of order. I believe one of your own
ancestors--Ta'ania--was the daughter of a Jedi. That is why I've come to
you. She was among the people who established this colony on Eol Sha.
"The Emperor hunted down and killed all the Jedi Knights his assassins could
find, but I don't believe he could have traced every descendant, every
bloodline. Now the Empire has fallen and the New Republic needs to
reestablish the Jedi Knights." He paused. "I want you to be one of them."
He gripped Gantoris's shoulder. The other man flinched, and pushed Luke's
hand away. Luke's voice took on a more pleading tone. "I want to show you
the powers of the Force, the infinite doors it can open. With this new
strength you'll be able to help hold the entire galaxy together. I promise
we'll take your people and move them to a safe planet, one that will seem
like a paradise after Eol Sha."
Luke realized he was proselytizing.
Gantoris looked at him with dark, unfathomable eyes. "Empires and republics
mean nothing to me. What have they cared for us before? My universe is here,
on this world."
He stopped in front of the wide opening to a geyser and peered into it's
depths. The creeping stink of rotten eggs wafted into the morning air. From
his hip pouch Gantoris withdrew a battered old datapad and consulted a
column of numbers that looked to be some sort of timetable. "Here. We will
go inside the geyser and harvest."
Luke blinked. "Harvest what?"
Without answering Gantoris lowered himself over the lip of the geyser hole.
Luke shrugged off his Jedi cloak and left it beside the geyser rim, then
followed the other man underground. Was Gantoris just trying to see if Luke
would follow him down into the belly of the geyser?
The shaft was a narrow, winding chimney through porous rock, a pipeline to
gush superheated water. Colorful mineral deposits sparkled white and tan and
blue, powdery in his hand. Luke found plenty of footholds as he followed
Gantoris into the honeycombed passages. The rock felt warm and slimy. Acrid
vapors rising from below stung his eyes.
Gantoris worked his way into a side crevice. Luke asked, "What do you want
me to do?"
In answer Gantoris wedged himself deeper into a crack and shrugged the woven
pouch off his shoulder. "Look in the dark pockets, the ones protected from
the scalding water." Gantoris dug his fingers into a crevice, felt around,
and pulled out a handful of rubbery tendrils. "With the heat and the mineral
deposits, the lichens have a rich growing ground. It takes a great deal of
processing, but we can make something edible out of this. On our world we
don't have many choices. My people must take what we can find."
Luke likewise removed his pouch and began to search in the cracks, probing
with his prosthetic hand. What if something poisonous lurked in the crevices
to sting him? He could read ominous intentions from Gantoris but couldn't
pinpoint them. Was Gantoris looking for a simple way to kill the "dark man"
from his dreams? On his third try Luke found a mass of spongy growth and
yanked it out.
Gantoris looked over his shoulder at Luke. "It would be better if we split
up. If you stay by me, you will find only my leavings. I can never feed our
people that way." Gantoris's voice changed to a mocking tone, and his
forehead crinkled, raising his shaven eyebrows. "Unless your Force can
miraculously create a banquet?"
Keeping his handholds, Luke edged over to another crack as Gantoris worked
deeper into his own fissure, turning a jagged corner. A flurry of uneasiness
shot through him, but Luke began to search among the crevices.
The lichen wasn't difficult to find, and Luke quickly filled his pouch,
crawling through narrow openings. Perhaps Gantoris had expected him to get
lost among the fissures. But even disoriented underground, Luke could always
retrace his path. He had heard nothing from the other man, and, deciding
that he had fulfilled his obligation, Luke began to work his way back to
where they had split up.
When he reached the joined passage, Luke saw that Gantoris was no longer
there. He crawled deeper into the fissure, looking for the other man, all
the while expecting a trap but confident he could deal with it. He would
have to impress Gantoris with his Jedi abilities.
The passage ended in a blocked wall of eroded stone. The smells of sulfurous
smoke grew stronger, engendering a deep sense of claustrophobia in him. Luke
recalled the two children buried under the avalanche, bright blood splashed
on the bottoms of the fallen rocks. The ground around him hummed with barely
contained murderous energy--what if another earthquake happened while he was
wedged in the narrow cracks underground?
Gantoris was nowhere in sight. "Gantoris!" he called, but heard no answer.
Looking up the shaft of daylight poking through from the surface, Luke
finally saw the man's silhouette nearly at the top. Gantoris scrambled up
the jagged walls, climbing as fast as he could manage, leaving Luke behind.
He was fleeing something.
Luke sensed rather than heard the buildup of pressure deep within the
planet, the water table heated against magma crouching near the surface,
; coming to a boil, rising up, finding the most direct way to escape.
Gantoris had carried his own timetable. The geysers must erupt at regular
intervals. He intended to trap Luke underground, where he would be cooked to
the bone by curtains of superheated steam.
Luke grabbed for a handhold and hauled himself up, scrabbling with his boot
for a place to rest his foot. He clambered up the bumps and corners of the
chimney leading up. The heat increased around him, making it difficult to
breathe. He gasped and blinked burning tears out of his eyes. Steam curled
upward, as if seeping out of the very rocks.
His foot slipped and he nearly plunged downward, but his prosthetic hand
flashed out, grabbing on to an outcropping and refusing to let go. When he
finally regained his balance, the outcropping crumbled to pieces.
Luke had lost precious seconds. The light above shone brighter, urging him
on. He held on to another corner, crawled up another few feet, reached out
again.
Briefly he saw a shadowed head peer down into the geyser chimney, watching
him. Gantoris. But he offered no help.
Luke clawed his way up, ignoring his torn flightsuit, climbing as fast as
his limbs could carry him. Then he ran out of time.
He heard the explosion deep beneath him, the rumbling roar of a plume of
boiling water rushing to the surface. Luke braced himself and knew he had
one chance.
He had done this in Cloud City on Bespin, and during his training with Yoda,
and other times. As the jet of steam and deadly water blasted toward him,
Luke gathered his strength, his concentration, and sprang straight up,
hurling his body out of the geyser shaft. He used the Force as a springboard
to throw himself high and free, just as if he were lifting an inanimate
object.
Luke shot out of the geyser chimney, flailing his arms as he dropped to the
rugged ground. He tucked his shoulder and rolled, striking with enough force
to knock the breath from him.
A second after he hit the ground, a wall of steam and superheated water
belched from the geyser. Luke shielded his exposed flesh from the scalding
droplets and waited for the blast to dwindle.
The geyser eruption lasted several minutes. When Luke finally crawled to his
knees, he saw Gantoris and the other people of Eol Sha walking toward him,
their faces grim, as usual. They had set him up, trapped him, tried to kill
him.
But the anger faded quickly. Hadn't Luke challenged Gantoris to test him, to
let him prove his intentions? Luke gathered his drenched Jedi cloak from the
geyser rim and waited for them.
Gantoris crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. His face looked wide
and bleak without eyebrows or eyelashes. "You passed my first test, dark
man." Luke sensed both eagerness and terror from the man. "Now come and face
your last trial."
As the people stepped forward to take him again, Luke did not resist. He had
decided to take whatever risks proved necessary to rebuild the Jedi Knights.
He hoped the risks would be worth it.
* * *
It was like a religious procession. With Gantoris in the lead, the people of
Eol Sha began a long march up the slope to the cracks of lava. Luke walked
straight and proud, determined not to show fear, though the people had
already proved their murderous intentions. Despite his Jedi training, he was
in very real danger. The oppressive moon hung overhead like a gigantic fist.
Spires of lava rock jutted out of the hillside like rotten teeth. Gantoris
did not slow his pace when the slope took a steep turn, but he stopped when
they reached a sheltered opening in the volcano wall. Overhead a pall of
smoke and ash hung in the air.
"Follow me inside," Gantoris told Luke. The others filed past, continuing
along the rugged path. Luke stepped after him. He needed to earn Gantoris's
respect, if not trust. In this circumstance Gantoris was making all the
rules.
Gantoris strode confidently down the narrow passage into the dense shadows,
a lava tube blasted through the side of the cone to ease pressure from an
ancient eruption. Up ahead a fiery orange glow lit their way. Luke felt
growing anticipation mixed with dread with each step they took.
The lava tube spread out, revealing a boiling lake of fire. Though the
fissure opened to the sky, and other openings let in gusting cross-drafts,
the chamber felt like the blast of an oven. Luke ducked his head, trying to
shield his face with the damp Jedi hood, but Gantoris seemed unaffected.
Squinting through noxious gases belching from the lava, Luke watched the
other people arrive on the far side of the chamber, lining up and waiting.
All faces turned toward him.
Gantoris had to raise his voice over the growling sounds of the churning
magma. "Walk across the fire, dark man. If you reach the other side safely,
I will allow you to teach me whatever you wish." Without waiting for a reply
Gantoris disappeared back into the darkness of the lava tube.
Luke stared after him for a moment, wondering if Gantoris could be
serious--but then he noticed dark objects in the blaze of bright lava. Hard
stepping stones of denser rock that did not melt but made a precarious path
across the lake of fire.
Was Gantoris testing his courage? What did the man want, and what did his
dreams of a demonic "dark man" portend?
Luke swallowed, but his throat was dry as parchment. He stepped to the edge
of the simmering lava. The stones beckoned, but common sense warned him to
go back, to return to his shuttle and fly away. He could find other
candidates for his Jedi academy. Threepio and Artoo must have uncovered some
leads by now, and he himself had another possibility on Bespin. Luke hadn't
even tested Gantoris yet; why should he risk his life for someone who might
or might not actually have Jedi potential?
Because he had to. Forming a new order of Jedi Knights would be difficult,
and if he flinched from the first test of his own powers, how could he
consider himself worthy of attempting such a task?
Impossible heat swirled around him. Stepping to the edge of the fire, Luke
looked at the broken sky above him. Then he set his foot down on the first
stepping stone.
It supported his weight. Luke looked ahead, fixing his gaze on the opposite
side. The gathered people kept watching.
Lava bubbled around him, belching noxious gases into the air. He tried to
breathe in shallow gasps. He took another step. The other side seemed very
far away.
Blinking irritated tears from his eyes, he counted the stones ahead of him.
Fourteen more. Luke stepped to the next one.
Gantoris appeared on the far side, joining the other refugees of Eol Sha.
Luke didn't expect them to cheer him on, but they remained too eerily
silent.
Another step. Around him the lava gurgled like the belly of a giant beast, a
hungry beast.
Luke moved to another step, then another. A tendril of euphoria began to
rise within him. This wasn't as difficult as he had feared. He would be able
to pass
this test. With reckless courage and speed, he strode to the halfway
point.
Then the lava began to bubble and hiss more forcefully, gushing as something
stirred below. The volcanic chamber throbbed with a sound that drummed from
just below his range of hearing, but enough to vibrate his teeth. He felt
his stomach plunge with apprehension. He tensed, waiting to see what horror
awaited him. Something lived within the lake of lava. Something moved.
Suddenly a serpent-like creature burst above the surface, hissing like
rocket fuel caught on fire.
The fireworm had a triangular head and pointed ear tufts. Crystalline scales
armored every inch of its body. Its wide eyes were jewels glowing with a
fire of their own. Insulated air intakes sucked in the hot atmosphere,
filling bladders deep within the creature's core and making it rise to the
surface of the lava pool, huge and fierce. The silicon armor plates
glittered like mirrors in the firelight.
Luke kept his precarious balance on the stepping stone, avoiding sudden
death in the molten rock, then leaped to the next rock. As the fireworm rose
and coiled above him, he knew he could never outrun the monster. He stopped
and found secure footing. Instinctively, he drew his lightsaber, igniting it
with a snap-hiss. The green glow of his blade fought against the fiery
orange of the lava chamber.
On the far side of the lava lake, the gathered people of Eol Sha watched in
silence, unmoving.
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