Star Wars_ Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor - Matthew Woodring Stover [114]
But—
The Melters were at the core of this. Everything came back to them somehow. Meltmassif was their body, or bodies, or the medium in which they lived; meltmassif was the active ingredient in the Pawn Crowns. It was the control crystals and the deadly interlock inside each Pawn’s brain. It was the underlying structure of Blackhole’s entire base. It was the shadow web that Blackhole had used to infect Luke with despair.
It was what he would use to steal Leia’s body.
It was dark where they were. Not just dark, but Dark.
And he was afraid.
Afraid that the Dark really was the truth. The only real truth. That everything else everyone pretended was important was only a deception, a distraction, a game to keep your mind off the eternal oblivion to come. He had spent aeons in the Dark and he knew its awful power.
Everything dies, it would whisper forever in his heart. Even stars burn out.
But if his nerve failed him now, he’d be leaving Leia in that Dark. Alone. Forever. The Dark would swallow her as if she’d never existed. What chance would she have to escape? She wasn’t even a Jedi. How would she find light?
Because that’s what Jedi do, isn’t it? Luke thought. That’s what we’re for.
We’re the ones who bring the light.
So he gathered his courage and focused his mind to open a channel into the Force, because if he was going to dive into the absolute negation of light, he’d better bring along some of his own.
He allowed his consciousness to touch the event horizon of the shadow web’s black hole, and let himself slip across the threshold and fall forever into the Dark.
NICK KEPT GRIMACING AS HE SHED THE SHADOWSPAWN robe and tried to stuff his aching body into a spare flight suit. Aeona watched him, wincing in sympathy at each grimace. “Hey, are you hurt?”
“Huh?”
“You look like you’re in pain. Do you need bacta?”
“Depends,” Nick said. “Can bacta cure a bad case of Too Old for This Crud?”
“Awww.” She slipped an arm around his shoulders. “You’re just a kid.”
“Yeah. A kid who’s spent a few days getting clubbed by a pack of drunken Gamorreans.”
She nodded fractionally toward where Skywalker knelt, his left hand half-buried in the stone. “When are you going to tell him?” she said softly.
“Tell him what?”
“About Kar,” she said. “You heard what Solo said about the man who took Princess Kissy-Face. It was Kar. It had to be.”
Nick frowned. “It wasn’t Kar. It was Blackhole.”
“Using Kar’s body.”
Nick looked away. “Yeah.”
“I wouldn’t put even a Jedi up against Kar.”
“Me, neither,” Nick said. “If I had a choice.”
“So?”
“So I’m trying to figure my play,” he said. “Telling the truth might be the wrong move here. Skywalker—he’s not like his dad. Kindhearted, you know? If I let him know Kar’s another one of Blackhole’s victims, he might hold back. Going in soft against Kar will just get him killed.”
“Again: So? Is he one of our favorite people?”
Nick looked her in the eye. “He’s saved both our lives two or three times already, and we haven’t known him three hours. You think the galaxy will be a better place without him in it?”
Aeona shook her head, just a bit, then nodded over at the kneeling young Jedi. “Okay, sure. He’s a great guy. But Kar’s your family. He’s the closest thing to family you’ve got left.”
“Yeah. But Kar is—well, you know him. He’s not exactly a good guy.”
“Neither are you.”
Nick nodded. “And if I could get Anakin Skywalker’s children out of here alive? Even one of them? That’s worth Kar’s life. Mine, too.”
“Not to me it isn’t. And I bet not to little Jedi Pretty-Boy, either.”
“That’s why I’m not leaving it up to him.”
“Oh, sure, you’re doing him a big favor: making him kill an innocent man.”
“Kar? Innocent? You’re kidding, right?”
“If Skywalker was gonna kill him for Haruun Kal, or Kessel, or Nar Shadaa, I could see it. I wouldn’t lift a finger to save him. But Kar’s not the villain here. He’s a victim.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.