Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [21]
Luke straightened up and sipped his chocolate. His eyes grew distant for a moment and his face became a dark mask. “Very curious.”
“What is?”
“Having the memories fade.” He looked at me again with an intensity in his eyes. “I’d like to try something, if you don’t mind.”
I glanced at Wedge, who gave me a reassuring nod. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”
Luke smiled easily. “Just open your mind to me. I want to probe you. You’ll feel something—a little pressure. It might even tickle.”
“Okay.”
He drew in a deep breath and as he exhaled I felt a wave of peace wash out over me. I did my best to relax as the Jedi’s eyes half-closed. I felt something in my mind, something gentle yet firm, like a reassuring pat on the back, press against my consciousness. It grew more intense and shifted from point to point—if something as ethereal as a mind can be said to have points. I felt different angles of attack and an increase in pressure that verged on painful, then it evaporated and Luke sat back.
I looked at him expectantly. “What?”
He grinned boyishly. “Very interesting. Were you trying to resist me?”
I shook my head. “Not at all. Was there a problem?”
“A bit. I could pull off some surface impressions, but you were locked up pretty tightly.” He frowned for a moment. “Let me try it a different way. Wedge, I want you to start talking. What about doesn’t really matter. Something simple. Maybe a joke. Corran, focus on Wedge’s voice and what you feel about him. I’ll do the same thing, which ought to bring our thoughts on roughly parallel courses. That might provide me an opening.”
I shrugged. “Worth a shot, I guess.”
We both looked at Wedge. “I’m not very good with jokes.”
Luke nodded. “The sound of your voice is the focus here, not making us laugh.”
“Okay. So there was this Bothan who walked into a tapcaf with a gornt under his arm.…”
I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of Wedge’s voice. I thought back on all the times I had heard it, and all the advice and congratulations he’d given me, all the danger we’d shared, and the good times as well. I marveled at how we’d managed to scrape through impossible situations, winning against odds longer than even a Corellian would have bet on. I thought about the people we’d helped, the lives we’d saved, and even the shared pain of comrades lost in our battles along the way.
The whole of that time I only caught a hint of Luke’s probing. This time instead of coming in directly, he allowed his exploration to begin flowing along in the same direction as my thoughts. The current of his sensing melded with me and whatever mental defenses I had in place failed to fully recognize this other presence in my mind. Luke’s inquiry slipped past them, still bumping along my memories of Wedge, then, when he hit upon a memory in which both Wedge and Mirax appeared, he veered off sharply and I felt as if a transparisteel fang had been driven deep into my brain.
I must have blacked out for a second because the next thing I saw was Wedge standing over me. I blinked away tears and found myself staring up at the ceiling, with my chair having toppled over onto its back. I clutched at the arms so hard my hands hurt. My legs had wrapped themselves around the chair’s legs so tightly I heard the fiberplast creak and snap. I felt a burning in my lungs and realized I needed to remind myself to breathe.
Wedge dropped to a knee beside me. “Are you okay, Corran? Luke, how are you doing?”
“A bit better than he is, I suspect.” Luke appeared on the other side of me and pressed his left hand to my shoulder. I felt something flow from him into me and my quaking limbs slackened. “Easy now, Corran. I know that was a shock. I’m sorry.”
I slowly snaked my left hand over to wipe my mouth and came away with a bit of blood from a bit lip. Pain still echoed within my brain and the hollowness in the pit of my stomach made me happy I’d not drunk anything. I coughed and forced a weak smile. “Not what you were planning?”
“Not at all.”
Luke and Wedge disentangled my limbs