Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights III_ Patterns of Force - Michael Reaves [65]
“You realize those words are still scary even coming from a droid,” Jax replied. “You’d think a Jedi would be impervious to such things.”
“Why so?”
“We’re supposed to be centered, brave, in tune with the universe …”
“None of which supposes that you’re also numb or uncaring. Have you thought about it?”
Jax nodded. He had, mostly while he was supposed to be sleeping. Somehow the thought of I-Five assassinating the Emperor made him think of the bota. And he wasn’t comfortable thinking about the bota. It suggested another course to him altogether—one that was fraught with ambiguity and peril.
“I’m torn,” was all he said—though he was much more than that, he realized with a jolt. Ambivalence flooded him as if from an unseen cloud. He shook himself. I must have been too caught up in everything else that was going on to let it get to me.
That didn’t quite ring true. He’d thought about it whenever he’d lain on his bed in an attempt to sleep. It just hadn’t penetrated him until now. Not like this.
“I promise I’ll give it more concentrated thought. I know I need to. Can I ask what your thoughts are at this point?”
“You can ask,” said I-Five, then turned and went to join the others for the Whiplash mission.
Alone with Kaj and Laranth, Jax set his mind to learning the ins and outs of the photonic field generators in Ves Volette’s kinetic art. The boy watched, obviously impressed with the ability of the two Jedi to tinker with the devices’ mechanics.
“Is that part of your Jedi training?” he asked at one point.
“As a matter of fact, yes.” His attention on the guts of the sculpture, Jax moved a fibrous light-emitter array slightly and noted the corresponding movement of a fan of pulsing light in the air above his head.
Laranth said, “It looks as if aiming them is easy enough, but what about increasing the frequency of the pulses?”
“Why would you need to do that?” Kaj asked.
“The more frequent the pulses, the more solid the wall. It’s like weaving a net. The more frequent or closer together the fibers of the net, the less gets through.”
Glancing at Kaj, Jax saw the light of comprehension dawn in his eyes. “I understood that,” he said. “So you worked on stuff like this in Jedi school?”
Jax and Laranth exchanged glances. “Every Jedi has to build and maintain his or her own lightsaber,” Jax told Kaj. “So we learn all the mechanics and physics of it. That’s everything from fashioning a hilt to selecting a crystal to putting it together with a field generator not unlike this one.” He nodded at the innards of the sculpture’s low, bowl-like duraluminum stand.
“But you didn’t build that lightsaber.”
Jax glanced down at the weapon hanging at the belt of his tunic. “No.”
“Doesn’t it make you feel strange to use that one? I mean, it’s red.”
Jax glanced at Laranth’s deadpan expression, then smiled wryly. “You mean because it’s what the Inquisitors use?”
“Well … yeah.”
“It does make me feel strange. I’ve been meaning to finish the one I started to build myself, but …”
But what?
“What’s stopped you?” Laranth asked. Her attention was on the selection of tools in Volette’s kit.
Good question. What had stopped him? “I didn’t have a power source that would resonate with the Ilum crystal to generate a coherent field.”
Kaj pointed at the open console on the light bowl. “Isn’t that one?”
The kid was quick, he had to give him that. Jax blinked at the core of the light sculpture. The circuit board Kaj indicated was indeed a resonating power source, and he’d known it for some time. He’d also known that these sculptures and their component parts were just sitting here, waiting. Why hadn’t he asked Dejah if he could use one of them? She’d offered to sell them for upkeep, let him tinker with them for Kaj’s sake, so why not a power source for his lightsaber?
“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll have to ask about that.” He sensed Laranth’s bemusement and pointedly ignored it.
“What’ll you do with the old one?