Star Wars_ Darksaber - Kevin J. Anderson [47]
He drew back, lifted his blade, and swung at her. She raised her lightsaber to parry, easing into the contest. “These are deadly weapons,” Luke said, “but they’re also fine tests of your skill.”
Callista struck back, and her face lit with an impish grin as she took the challenge. Luke had to move fast to counter her blows. He laughed and increased his offense. Callista matched him, move for move.
Fencing with Callista challenged Luke as well, because in any other foe, he could use the Force to sense emotional states, to detect subtle changes that foreshadowed impending moves, unexpected attacks, vicious tricks. But Callista was a disconcerting blank to him, an empty spot—which made her a worthy opponent. Although she could not sense his moves or his plans, he couldn’t detect hers either.
They dueled, feeling their muscles sing with the effort, the unleashed energy and emotions, the joy of testing each other. Luke chuckled, and they continued, bright lights flashing, weapons hissing as he and Callista pressed each other. The mock battle went on for the better part of an hour.
Callista had an open, enthralled expression on her face, overjoyed to recapture some part of her former Jedi identity. She had not used a lightsaber since she had come back to life in this new body, and now—though Luke could sense no more of the Force touching her—she had regained an important piece of self-confidence.
Energy blades crossed, they looked into each other’s eyes, pressing with all their strength, neither yielding. A complete stalemate. Sweat beaded on Luke’s forehead, and he finally broke their locked gaze and stepped back, switching off his lightsaber. Callista also shut hers down.
Then, laughing, they came together and held each other for a long time.
Callista took her shift in the pilot seat as they both strapped in and watched the diagnostics. Luke kept glancing over at her. “We’re about ready to leave hyperspace,” he said.
She rubbed a fingertip along her chin. “I can’t wait to see this mysterious place you’re taking me.”
The counter ran down on the navicomputer, and the swirling colors snapped into crystal focus, funneling down into bright starpoints on the black curtain of space. Nearby hung an orange sun of average size. Several bright planets cruised along their orbital paths in the gravity well.
“Over here,” Luke said, pointing.
He watched Callista’s expression as she noticed the swollen form of a periodic comet, its gases evaporating into space, shedding a coma and a long fuzzy tail as it approached the sun.
“A comet?” Callista said. “We’re awfully close.”
Luke nodded with a secretive smile. “Yes, Callista,” he answered. “That’s where we’re going.”
CHAPTER 16
As Callista watched him, her gray eyes bright with curiosity, Luke maneuvered the space yacht closer to the wandering comet. He entered the wispy coma where gas particles and ion trails scintillated against their shields, causing static over the comm system.
“This is the Mulako Corporation Primordial Water Quarry,” Luke said. “A long-term periodic comet that comes back every century or so. Right now it’s near its closest approach to the sun, and we’re at high tourist season.”
The space yacht approached the irregular lump swathed in a mane of frozen steam. Luke pointed out squarish machines crawling over the tarnished surface, strip-mining the ice. Gas geysers blasted volatiles into space where the comet’s meager gravity could not hold them, trailing a tenuous tail along the comet’s orbit.
“But what do they do here?” Callista asked. “I’ve never heard of this system.”
“Hey, you’ve been stuck inside a computer for decades,” Luke said.
“Don’t remind me,” Callista said.
“For much of the comet’s orbit,” he explained, “the mining corporation chops away water ice, storing and distilling it. They sell it at