Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [184]
I hit the button, allowing the slow trickle of energy to fill the battery. I opened myself to the Force and with the hand I had touching the lightsaber’s hilt, I bathed the lightsaber with the Force. As I did so subtle transformations took place in the weapon. Elemental bonds shifted, allowing more and more energy to flow into the cell and throughout the weapon. I was not certain how the changes were being made, but I knew that at the same time as they were being made in the lightsaber, they were being made in me as well.
In becoming a conduit for the Force for this purpose, the final integration of the people I’d been occurred. The fusion became the person I would be forever after. I was still a pilot: a little bit arrogant, with a healthy ego and a willingness to tackle difficult missions. I was still CorSec: an investigator and a buffer between the innocents in the galaxy and the slime that would consume them.
And I was Jedi. I was heir to a tradition that extended back tens of thousands of years. Jedi had been the foundation of stability in the galaxy. They had always opposed those who reveled in evil and sought power for the sake of power. People like Exar Kun and Palpatine, Darth Vader and Thrawn, Isard and Tavira; these were the plagues on society that the Jedi cured. In the absence of the Jedi, evil thrived.
In the presence of just one Jedi, evil evaporated.
Just as with the lightsaber, the changes being made in me were not without cost. What the Force allowed me to do also conferred upon me great burdens. To act without forethought and due deliberation was no longer possible. I had to be very certain of what I was doing, for a single misstep could be a disaster. While I knew I would make mistakes, I had to do everything I could to minimize their impact. It was not enough to do the greatest good for the greatest number, I had to do the best for everyone.
There was no walking away from the new responsibility I accepted. Like my grandfather I might well choose when and where to reveal who and what I was, but there was no forgetting, no leaving that responsibility at the office. My commitment to others had to be total and complete. I was an agent of life every day, every hour, every second; for as long as I lived, and then some.
I heard a click and looked up, blinking my eyes. “Elegos?”
Elegos stood over me, offering me a glass of water. “It’s done.”
I blinked, then took the water and greedily sucked it down. I lowered the glass and felt water dribbling down around my goatee. I swiped at it with my right hand and felt the stubble of beard on my cheeks. “How long?”
“Two and a half days.” The Caamasi smiled and took the glass back from me. “Not as fast as your grandfather, but acceptable.”
“Anyone notice I was missing?”
“Several people inquired, but I told them you were down with the brandy ague. They said they could understand your celebrating your change in fortune.” He set the glass on my dresser, then walked back into the suite’s parlor. “While you were engaged in here, I found something else to do, and made good use of one of Tavira’s gifts to you. I estimated the pattern based on my memnis of your grandfather.”
He held up a green Jedi robe, with a black belt and black overrobe. “I think it should fit you well.”
I nodded and brandished the lightsaber. I punched the button under my thumb, giving birth to the silver blade 133 centimeters in length. “A lightsaber and robes. Looks like a little justice has arrived on Courkrus, and it’s about time.”
FORTY-THREE
I decided to build upon the excuse Elegos had fashioned for me by spending more time drinking—or, at least, appearing to be drunk. A little Savareen brandy spilled on a tunic will leave you reeking of the stuff, and if you keep swirling it around and are sloppy when you drink it—spilling more on yourself in the process—folks notice. The people I was spending my time around had no trouble believing I was three jumps from sober at all times.
Being drunk gave me far more freedom because, as long as I was not obnoxious, lost at sabacc, and