• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

He fixed his eyes forward, watching the streaming white lights of the asteroid field clustered around the construction site, hoping against hope that at this last minute he would spot an oncoming fleet of rescue ships. But he saw only the rocky ruins of a planet that had broken apart millennia ago. He decided not to give Durga the satisfaction of begging for his life.

The Hutt pointed the blaster pistol at Madine and fiddled with the controls until he finally figured out how to set the weapon to KILL.

“Any last words?” Durga said.

Madine lifted his bearded chin. “Not to you.” Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the brief, white-light flicker of approaching ships. His heart swelled. They were coming to rescue him!

Durga’s fleshy, smooth shoulders rippled in a shrug. “All right.”

Guards scattered out of the way.

Durga fired the blaster pistol, letting loose a long blast of deadly energy.

Madine was thrown backward into the metal wall as the killing beam burned through to his heart. His entire life evaporated in a brief flash of pain.

And then blackness.

YAVIN 4

CHAPTER 50

Heading back toward Yavin 4 aboard the Millennium Falcon, Luke Skywalker and Callista recovered rapidly from their ordeal in space. They looked forward to a long and well-deserved rest at the Jedi academy.

Han, Leia, and Chewbacca tried to cheer them up, but Luke and Callista both felt a brooding sense of failure and frustration. Threepio’s pestering ministrations failed to help, though the golden protocol droid meant well. Artoo-Detoo hovered protectively beside Luke, whistling and guarding his master like a faithful pet.

When they were alone together, Luke looked into Callista’s open gray eyes; even without Jedi powers they could share some thoughts.

“It isn’t going to work, is it, Luke?” Callista asked him. “I’m never going to get my Jedi powers back.”

“There’s always a chance—” he said.

“Don’t coddle me,” she snapped, then flicked her gaze away, though the muscles beneath her cheeks flinched as if she wanted—longed—to look back at him, but didn’t dare risk it.

“We’ve tried everything,” Callista said. “We’ve worked all this time, but accomplished nothing. The Force has abandoned me. Its currents are diverted around me, so that I can’t touch them.”

“But you did touch them,” Luke said. “On Dagobah. I felt it.”

“That was the dark side,” Callista said.

“But it might be the key to regaining your powers,” Luke insisted, unwilling to give up all hope.

“The dark side is never the key to the light,” Callista said. “You would never teach that to your students at the praxeum, so don’t give it to me now as a platitude.”

“What are we going to do, then?” Luke said. “Just give up?”

“I can’t give up. I love you too much. But I have to make my own decisions,” Callista said.

Luke leaned forward, took her hands, and held them until she finally looked at him. “You can,” he said softly. “But I’d like to be part of them.”

Her expression softened, and she lowered her voice. “You will be, Luke—if I can find any way to make it so.”

They held each other tightly for a brief moment until Threepio bustled in to the common room. “Master Luke! Master Luke!” he said. “We’ve almost reached the Yavin system, and Captain Solo thought you might wish to join us in the cockpit.”

Luke and Callista continued to hold each other, and the protocol droid suddenly stammered and stepped back. “Oh dear, have I intruded at an inconvenient time again? I do beg your pardon. I’m afraid I’m dreadful at that sort of thing.”

“No, Threepio,” Luke said, standing up and holding out his hand to help Callista climb to her feet. “We were finished talking.”

Arm in arm, Luke and Callista followed Threepio along the corridor to the Falcon’s glassed-in cockpit where Leia sat just behind Han, leaning over and watching as Chewbacca worked the controls.

“Glad you could join us, kid,” Han said. “Time to get back to work.”

Artoo warbled at the navigation console, and Han yanked