Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [209]
Luke led the way. “Need to be careful. The stormtroopers we can pick out with the Force, but the Jensaarai, they’re more difficult.”
“Difficult, that’s an understatement.” Mirax tossed the blaster’s old powerpack aside and jammed the new one home. “Their leader, this woman they call the Saarai-kaar, somehow thinks holding me is preventing her family from being destroyed. When she spoke to me, when she fed me—and I know I was sleeping for a long time between meals—she would speak in past and present and future. She said a Halcyon was her doom or destiny, but wouldn’t go into details. It was confusing, but I never thought she was insane.”
Luke shook his head. “She probably didn’t understand it any better than you did, or than Keiran—Corran—did when he lost contact with you. He didn’t have the mental framework in place to make it make sense.”
“I’m still not sure I do.”
“No, but neither do the Jensaarai.” Luke frowned. “They have training, but it’s skewed and things have been added. It’s not an independent Force tradition like the Dathomiri witches, but it’s unlike anything else I know of.” He shrugged. “That’s not saying much.”
“You!” The shouted words came angry, though the speakers in the comm unit at the hallway juncture couldn’t quite produce all the outrage they were meant to convey. I glanced to my left and saw a hologram of Tavira standing there, just shy of life-size, her hands on her hips. “You were the Jedi at Courkrus.”
I nodded. “At your service.” Shifting my lightsaber to my left hand, I gestured with my right to Luke and Mirax. “I’d like to introduce Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, and Mirax Terrik and … but, wait, we’re on our way up to see you. Introductions are so much nicer in person.”
“How dare you!”
“Oh, I dare.” I pointed to the sky. “New Republic will be here in no time. The days of the Invidious are over.”
“Never!”
I laughed. “By the way, the month’s not up, but the answer is no.”
“Arrgghhh! When I get my hands on you …”
“In your dreams, deary.” Mirax shot the comm unit. “Empire’s been dead for years, and still she relies on those limping Imperial threats. ‘When I get my hands on you!’ Get with the times, woman.…”
“I like your Mirax a whole bunch, Corran.” Luke smiled. “And you’re right, she and Mara should never meet.”
We picked up the pace, racing into the main building and began working our way up. The staircase that wound around the inside of the building’s tall atrium had a thick enough balustrade to provide some cover, of which we took advantage, as did those individuals trying to stop us. Blaster bolts, red and blue, whined and streaked, ricocheted and smoked as they burned into white marble pillars or black wall tiles. The stairs’ gradual slope meant they wound around endlessly, it seemed, but was not sufficient to slow us down that much. They didn’t have landings per se, so no easy points to defend, and our opponents had to put up with one unbelievably annoying problem: two of their targets bore these archaic weapons and were swatting blaster bolts out of the air. Luke was even able to redirect his at our enemies, knocking them down or making them break cover long enough for Ooryl, Elegos or Mirax to shoot them from a flanking position.
As we climbed toward the building’s upper reaches, we felt a tremor course through it. “A shuttle’s going up.”
Elegos frowned. “Tavira must be running.”
Ooryl and I exchanged glances. “That, or someone else is off carrying orders for her.” I tried to push my senses to see if I could find Tavira in the shuttle or still in the building above us, but I got nothing. “Something is blocking me.”
Luke nodded, “Me, too. The Jensaarai.”
“Must be.”
We pushed on, clearing the last length of corridor, then topped several steps that opened onto the