Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [203]
I also sent a message to Booster, telling him that I’d located Mirax and was going after her. I didn’t give him even as much detail as we gave Cracken, but I did note I expected to have her safe and sound within a couple of days. The message said I’d bring her to the Errant Venture for rest and recovery first thing.
We’d wanted to leave Elegos behind, but he insisted on traveling with us. He and Ooryl had begun to get along famously—a trend I found profoundly disturbing—meaning that the two of them bonded while comparing experiences of sharing quarters with me. Elegos pointed out that the small ship which Luke and Ooryl had brought to Courkrus was notoriously difficult to handle with one pilot, and since he could fly, he should back Ooryl up, just for appearance’s sake if nothing else.
Luke or I could have easily filled the second-seat role, but we were going into Susevfi within the protective bubble of the ysalamiri’s Force repulsion. It would effectively hide all traces of us from any of the Jensaarai Defenders stationed in the planetary ring, as well as those on the ground. The Ring Defenders regularly used their Force powers to get a sense of incoming ships and to subtly direct them away from noticing the faint sensor phantoms of a Star Destroyer hidden in the rings. Even without the Jensaarai hiding the ship, the Invidious would have been tough to pick out of the rings. With the Jensaarai in place such spotting was all but impossible.
Luke stretched out on a padded bench in the small ship’s lounge and draped an arm across his eyes. “If we had more Jedi, we could have accompanied survey ships and probably have picked up on the Jensaarai efforts to hide the Invidious.”
“Could be, but I only noticed them when they were at close range and trying to probe me. When I contacted Tycho at the battle of Xa Fel, they picked me up and I never even detected their presence.” I stood and walked over to the food prep station. I pulled a prepackaged zureber syrup container from the chiller unit. “Want something to drink?”
Luke peeked out at me and nodded. “Sure, toss it.”
I lofted it toward him and it landed with a plop on his belly. He whuffed loudly.
I smiled. “You’re supposed to catch it.”
He sat up, nipped the corner of the package off and spat it out. “I was trying to, but inside the field the ysalamiri puts out, my effort failed.”
I tore open the corner of my syrup container and sipped. “Tough being normal again, isn’t it?”
Luke sighed heavily. “First eighteen years of my life I didn’t have a clue about the Force. I was just a farm boy who liked to fly. I wanted to join the Imperial service and become a pilot. Jedi Knights were ancient history, and old Uncle Owen didn’t encourage me to study that history.”
“I know, it was kind of the same in my house.” I dropped onto the bench at Luke’s feet. “Just didn’t talk about the Jedi that much. I knew my grandfather had known one, worked with one once, but it was kind of like mentioning an ex-wife at a family gathering.”
“Of your new wife’s family, right?”
I laughed. “Yeah, there you go. You know, when I saw my grandfather several months ago and could see the pride he’d taken in helping hide Nejaa Halcyon’s wife and child, I learned how difficult it had to have been for him to keep all this stuff hidden for so long. I think I disappointed him when I rejected my Jedi heritage to pursue the Invids on my own. I’ll have to let him know I’ve reconsidered.”
“I’m glad you did.” Luke sat up and patted me on the shoulder. “Hard to tell what felt worse: having a student turn to the dark side or having someone just walk away because of my teaching.”
I shrugged. “You know us Corellian