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Luke sat up.

"Who are you?" Soresh asked.

Luke opened his mouth—then hesitated. He looked confused. "I don't know."

"What is your purpose?" Soresh asked.

When the answer came, it was slow and halting, but it was correct. "To serve you."

"And who am I?"

"My Master." Luke's voice was blank, his eyes dull.

"Where do you come from?" Soresh asked.

"I don't know," Luke said. "Do you know?"

"You come from nowhere," Soresh prompted him. "You are no one."

Luke nodded. "I come from nowhere. I am no one."

"What do you remember of your past? Think hard."

Luke shook his head. "Nothing."

"Very good." Soresh patted him on the shoulder again. This had gone even better than he'd expected. Perhaps there was something about the Jedi that made their minds particularly weak. Or perhaps this one was just eager to give up. "Lie down again, relax, sleep. Soon you'll be ready for another treatment, and we'll begin again."

CHAPTER NINE

Luke's lightsaber sliced the air, a blur of motion. He whirled and spun, slashing at anything that moved. Training droids bobbed awkwardly through the training room, trying to dodge the glowing blade. But it was useless. Luke was everywhere at once. Severed mechanical limbs, joint couplings, servomotors, and broken antennas flew across the room, dislodged by the whirling lightsaber. It was as if the blade was the living thing, and Luke its servant.

The blade danced with deadly grace, and one droid after another clattered to the floor.

Still, Luke pushed on, hacking, slicing, killing.

Exactly as he'd been ordered to do.

"Enough!" Soresh shouted.

Abruptly, Luke froze. His arm dropped to his side, deactivating the lightsaber.

"Return your weapon to me," Soresh ordered.

Luke surrendered it without hesitation.

Soresh surveyed the broken droids strewn across the training room, and the Jedi standing in the middle, seemingly unaware of the destruction he'd wrought.

My Jedi, Soresh thought, pleased. He had been slightly worried that his control over Luke would interfere with the Jedi's ability to use the Force. But so far, there had been no such problems. After several days of testing, Luke hadn't failed to complete a single challenge. Soresh had never had a new subject this obedient—or this powerful. A ring of armed guards surrounded him at all times, ready to step in if the prisoner got out of control. But Luke never got out of control. Control was the only thing his empty mind had left.

"I believe you're ready for your final test," Soresh told Luke. "Would you like that?" It often entertained him to treat the subjects as if they could still form opinions of their own.

"Does it please you?" Luke asked. There was no curiosity in his voice, or any emotion at all.

"It does." It was true. Once he ensured Luke's absolute obedience and loyalty, he could move forward with the final phase of his plan.

"Then it pleases me," Luke said flatly.

"Good." Soresh turned to his guards. "We'll meet you on the surface," he ordered them. "Bring the prisoners."

* * *

"This can't be good," Leia muttered, as the guards shackled the prisoners together with heavy chains and marched them out of the cell.

"Cheer up, Princess," Han said. "Maybe they've seen the errors of their ways and they're taking us back to our ship."

But she didn't smile at the weak joke, and neither did he. Durasteel shackles seemed an odd way of saying, "Sorry for locking you in a dungeon for two weeks."

"Where do you think they're taking us, Han?" Leia asked.

He detected only the faintest quiver of fear in her voice. But it was enough to make him lie. "No idea, Princess. Your guess is as good as mine."

In fact, he had a pretty good guess. His gut was telling him that once they left this cell, they wouldn't be coming back. In fact, he was beginning to think they wouldn't be going much of anywhere, unless it was in a box. He reached forward and squeezed Leia's hand, just once.

The surface was even more arid and empty than Han remembered. But it felt good to feel the wind on his face again—even if it would be for the last time.