Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [59]
“And avoid the easy solutions offered by the dark side.”
“Exactly.”
The Jedi Master thought for a moment, then nodded. “And the other thing?”
“In this dream you said you saw the Massassi and the pyramids the way they were millennia ago. I think we might want to do some investigating to see what we can learn about Yavin 4 and the Temples. The Holocron might well be able to give us information. If we can put a face and name to this dark man, or figure out what he’s after here, we’ll have a better chance of stopping him.”
“Both plans seem to make sense.” Luke smiled at me grimly. “I shall work on the first. Tionne is spending a lot of time pulling legends from the Holocron, so she can help me. With your background as an investigator, you should handle the gathering of information about our dark man.”
“I’ll build a profile on him. If we can figure out what he wants and how he thinks, we have him.”
“Good.” Luke glanced back down at Gantoris’ body, then up at me. “If the New Republic is to thrive, we can’t allow the Jedi to be destroyed.”
There was no returning to sleep that night, so I made my way to the small library where we studied the Jedi Holocron. I really didn’t feel up to beginning any investigation at the moment, but playing around with the Holocron and learning how it worked seemed to be something I could handle. The greenish glow making its way out into the corridor told me someone else was using the device, and my curiosity carried me right into the room.
There, bathed in the green glow from Bodo Baas, sat Tionne. She looked long and lean and lovely, with the greenish tint the light gave her hair looking far better on her than it ever did on me. She would have been unarguably gorgeous, except that her hands covered her face and her shoulders shook with sobs.
Bodo Baas’ image reached a clawed limb toward her. “For a Jedi, there is no emotion, there is only peace.”
Tionne looked up, her face wet with tears. “It was more horrible than you could imagine.”
The Jedi simulacrum bobbed its head. “But are the tears for your fallen comrade, or for you?”
“What?” Shock rode through her voice. She swiped at her tears and pointed a finger at the hologram, then caught sight of me in the corner of her eye. My presence cut off whatever she would have said to him. Instead of replying, she bowed her head toward me and shivered. “How could anyone do that to Gantoris?”
I nodded toward Bodo Baas, then knelt by Tionne’s side. I gathered her into my arms and held her, letting her tears stain my emerald tunic. She clung to me fiercely at first, burying her head against my neck. I stroked her hair and resisted the impulse to kiss the crown of her head.
“Take it easy, Tionne. What happened to Gantoris was hideous, but it’s not going to happen to anyone else.”
Bodo Baas’ inhuman gaze caught and held my own. “You speak of certainties, Jedi, where there are many unknowns.”
I quoted back a piece of the Jedi Code. “There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.”
“Yes,” the gatekeeper hissed. “Do you have a question for me?”
“One moment.” I eased my hands down onto Tionne’s shoulders and pulled back away from her a bit. “Can you help me with the Holocron? You know more about it than I do.”
She sniffed and wiped tears away with delicately long fingers. “How can you be so calm after what you have seen?”
For just a second I wasn’t holding her in my arms, but holding my father’s lifeless body. “The past prepares us for the present. I hate to say it, but I’ve seen other bodies that were just as horrible. What I saw in Gantoris’ room was awful. It scares me, too, but I’m doing my best to keep things under control.”
Tionne sniffed again and sat back against the cold stone wall of the small room. She folded her arms across