Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [67]
“What happened?”
“While we had one thing in common, we had all sorts of things that weren’t. I was with CorSec, which meant I couldn’t take off and hit a spa on Selonia, or travel to Imperial Center for the opening of an art exhibit in the Galactic Museum. The gulf between us proved insurmountable. We parted friends, but we both knew that what we’d had while together was a supernova that was collapsing in on itself. We might have generated a lot of heat and light, but eventually the black hole would have torn us apart.”
Wedge nodded, but stared past me. “You’ll allow me to plot my own course through this?”
“I can’t stop you.”
“But I thought you Jedi could easily influence weak minds.”
I laughed lightly along with him. “This Jedi knows better than to think of your mind as weak, and I’ve no desire to go mucking about without good reason. You’re a big boy. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, you’ve got friends. I imagine my wife would give you an earful on this.”
“Yeah, and Mirax can be a mite more persuasive than you can.” He tipped his chair forward onto all four feet. “No word yet from Han and any of his contacts about Mirax. Sorry.”
I sighed heavily. “I didn’t expect he would have much to say, given that he’s been on Kessel recently. Booster’s not been talking to you?”
“I’ve been hard to find, but I’ve had no messages.”
“Best to let sleeping Hutts snore.” I felt anger gathering, but I dissipated it with a quick calming breath. “You’ll let me know if you do hear anything, right?”
“As soon as I do get word, you’ll know.” Wedge smiled solemnly. “It’s the least I can do for a friend.”
Wedge and Xux left in the evening and I felt sorry to see them go. The one truly difficult aspect of the Jedi academy for me was isolation from news of the outside world. Han Solo’s adventure on Kessel and the theft of the Sun Crusher had been presented to us as asides—sidebars to lessons Master Skywalker taught us. More information came out now that Kyp Durron was with us as a student, but even that was tantalizingly spare.
Even more spare was any word on the Invids.
Kyp’s presence seemed to put a spark back into Master Skywalker—the spark that had been diminished since Gantoris’ death. Kyp proved almost immediately to be the greatest of the apprentices gathered here. With only a minimum of training, he blasted on past all of us in terms of what he could do. Supporting himself on one hand only, he could balance rocks and fallen tree boles with ease. Given my lack of ability in that area, I found his skills somewhat intimidating.
Master Skywalker found Kyp’s abilities all but mesmerizing and devoted a lot of time to directing his studies. I guess that made sense in a variety of ways. I suspected that Luke saw a lot of himself in Kyp. They both came from brutal worlds—Tatooine and Kessel respectively. Kyp had received initial instruction from the fallen Jedi female Vima-Da-Boda much as Obi-Wan had taught Luke. Kyp had also proved adept at piloting a ship and had saved Han Solo’s life—a positive endorsement, to be sure. Lastly, Kyp’s power dwarfed that of Gantoris, making him the perfect candidate to eclipse the memory of the academy’s first failure.
Of course, no one stated that directly, nor did we think of Gantoris in that way. Gantoris’ remains had been interred in the midst of a beautiful grove, and Master Skywalker himself had driven a grey plinth into the ground to mark the spot. We knew it was the sort of paradisiacal place Gantoris would have wanted for himself and his people. Several of us noted that we wouldn’t mind being buried there when we fell, but none of us hoped that would be soon. Still, the spectre of Gantoris’ failure haunted us all to a greater or lesser extent.
Luke turned much of the instruction of the other apprentices over to Kam Solusar, and Kam did a good job. As a taskmaster he was fair