Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 02_ Omen - Christie Golden [101]
And then she felt … something else.
She couldn’t figure out what it was—a jolt, an unsettling in the Force, like a stone being thrown into a pond. It was nothing negative, but—very powerful.
Lady Rhea gasped, her fingers digging into the arm of her command chair. Her face had gone white, and her eyes were enormous and unseeing. Vestara glanced at her in concern, then left her station to go to her Master and kneel beside her.
“Lady Rhea—what it is?”
For another moment, Lady Rhea simply stared, wide-eyed, at nothing. Then she blinked and seemed to come to her senses.
“I—felt someone very powerful in the Force,” she said, her voice slightly shaky and laced with an uncertainty that Vestara had never before heard from her. It made her stomach clench. “Strong in the power of the light side. A Jedi … a great Master.”
And Vestara felt a surge from Ship and a name was placed in her head: Skywalker.
* * *
“DAD?”
Ben’s voice seemed to come to Luke from far away, floating to reach him. It was only his son’s touch on his arm that finally brought Luke out of his Force-induced reverie.
“What just happened? You all right?”
Luke shook his head, staring at the item in his hand, and then gently placed it back down on the pile. Once he had ceased to be in physical contact with it, the strange tingling in the Force ceased.
“I—yes. I’m all right.”
“What was that?” Ben looked warily at the object, clearly deeply reluctant to touch it himself.
“It’s called the Codex,” Luke said, knowing this was true but not remembering getting the knowledge. “It seemed to … enhance my Force powers. Augment them, make them much stronger.”
Ben lifted an eyebrow and looked with new respect and curiosity at the item.
“That’s kinda astral. What is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s old … it’s powerful. And—” Luke hesitated. “It felt …”
Ben frowned. “Dark? Is it dark-side technology?”
“No, no.” Luke shook his head. “But it … while it enhanced my Force abilities, it also—” He groped for words, unused to being unable to articulate what he needed to convey. “I felt vulnerable. As if my ability to resist the temptations of the dark side was being tested. But it’s not dark-side technology in and of itself, it’s just … there’s a price for that kind of power.”
Ben nodded slowly.
“And there’s something else. I sensed a disturbance in the Force.”
“That’s … hardly ever a good thing,” Ben said.
“Agreed. But it wasn’t violent, or tragic. Just … there was a kind of wrongness out there. Something’s amiss. Out of harmony.”
“Could you tell where? Or who it affects?”
Luke turned to Ben and looked at him searchingly “It’s coming from the Maw.”
THE AING-TII HOMEWORLD
TADAR’RO WAS WAITING FOR LUKE AND BEN WHEN THEY FINALLY emerged, blinking slightly at the change from the comforting dimness of the Force stones to the harsh sunlight of the Aing-Tii homeworld.
Luke was willing to bet that Tadar’Ro had not moved at all during the entire time he and Ben had been inside, testing all the artifacts. The Aing-Tii teacher had curled up like a boulder, and now as they emerged he slowly uncurled and stood to face them. His tongues flickered, and his yearning flooded the Force.
“Do you have an answer for us from Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil?”
Luke and Ben exchanged glances. Luke nodded. “I do. But I feel strongly that what I have to say should be told to all the Aing-Tii together.”
Tadar’Ro was disappointed, but he also understood. He nodded, the gesture seeming to come to him more naturally now. “Very well. But let us make all haste now to return to them. I am sure that they are as anxious as I to discover what Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil wish