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“They’ll be here,” Kirana Ti said with grim confidence. She held the deactivated lightsaber in her grip. This was the weapon that had been built by one of the other Jedi trainees, Gantoris, a year earlier … back when the trainees had encountered the dark spirit of Exar Kun. In fact, in this very war room the Jedi trainees—again without Luke Skywalker—had met to plan the defeat of Kun and free their Jedi Master.

“But will the reinforcements be here soon enough?” Kam Solusar said skeptically.

Kyp Durron paced the enclosed room. “The Star Destroyers in orbit are the primary threat,” he said, gesturing upward. “Though we’re being attacked by TIE fighters and ground assault machinery, we’re seeing only a fraction of the complement those Star Destroyers carry. Tionne, were you able to determine how many ships there are in orbit?”

She looked at him with her quicksilver eyes. “Seventeen, I believe. Imperial-class.”

Some of the newer trainees gasped, but Kyp stood straighter. He placed his hands on the tabletop, pressing down with his fingernails until his knuckles turned white. “Right now we feel strong because of all those ships we smashed over at the other temple—but no matter how good we are, no matter how many of their ground forces we successfully take out, those Star Destroyers will keep sending ship after ship. We can’t succeed if we fight them on such a limited scale.”

“But how else can we fight a Star Destroyer from here?” Kirana Ti said.

Kyp looked around hopefully. “I don’t suppose anybody has an idea?”

Dorsk 81 sat in turmoil, rigid, his hands clasped on the table as thoughts whirled around him. He remembered how easy it had been to smash the AT-ST walker, how he had used the Force to shove it away. If only …

“I have a suggestion,” Dorsk 81 said. His lips were a thin line; his olive green face was blotched as his emotions roiled beneath his skin.

Kyp looked at his friend, and Dorsk 81 could feel the sudden upsurge of anticipation from the gathered students. He had to give them something to cling to. He swallowed. “We cannot succeed if we fight small battles individually,” Dorsk 81 said. “But together we are more powerful than the sum of our parts. We can join our abilities.”

Kirana Ti and Kam Solusar looked at him, musing. He leaned over the table and gestured to the other trainees. “Some of you were there when we finally defeated Exar Kun. We pooled our strengths, we joined as one, as champions of the Force—and, united, we unlocked a greater reservoir of strength than any of us could have imagined.”

“But what can we do?” the young reptilian trainee said, her voice thin and hissing from the back of her throat, her blue frill still raised.

Dorsk 81 hesitated for a moment. The suggestion was preposterous … but right now the situation was so grim they would take even an impossible idea seriously. He kept his voice flat. “We can use the Force to … move the Star Destroyers away.”

The collective gasp among the trainees was a mixture of disbelief and delight. “It’s too much,” Kam Solusar said. “There are too many. Seventeen Imperial-class Star Destroyers!”

Dorsk 81 was not flustered. “Size matters not,” he said. “How many times has Master Skywalker told us that? At first many of us didn’t believe we could lift a pebble or a leaf. A little while ago we hurled giant boulders at ships flying high above our heads. Streen just knocked four TIE fighters together with nothing more than wind. All this was without planning, without preparation, and without help.

“The Force is in all things,” Dorsk 81 continued. “There is no fundamental difference between a pebble and a Star Destroyer. Besides, the ships have no way to prepare against an attack such as this.”

As others began to mutter, Kyp hammered his fist down. “Hey! Haven’t you listened to Master Skywalker’s teachings?” he said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to find something else—but I think we should do this.”

That stopped further discussion. Dorsk 81 rose to his feet.