Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy_ Champions of the Force - Kevin J. Anderson [8]
As rippling waves from the second hurricane of energy struck Carida and cracked the planet open, the Sun Crusher accelerated far beyond its red lines along the preprogrammed escape route.
Kyp felt gravity stretching his face into a grimace. His eyelids squeezed closed, and anguished tears flowed backward across his temples with the pull of acceleration.
The Sun Crusher blasted out of the atmosphere and entered hyperspace. As starlines formed around him and the supernova made one last grab with hands of flame, Kyp let out a long anguished cry of despair at what he had done.
His scream vanished with him into hyperspace.
2
Leia Organa Solo emerged from the Millennium Falcon on Yavin 4, ducking her head as she walked down the landing ramp. She looked toward the towering edifice of the Great Massassi Temple.
It was a cool morning on the jungle moon, and mist rose from the ground, clinging to the low treetops and brushing against the stone ziggurat like a thin white shroud. A funeral shroud, she thought. For Luke.
It had been a week since the trainees at the Jedi academy had found Luke Skywalker’s motionless body atop the temple. They had brought him inside, done their best to care for him—but they did not know what to do. The best New Republic medics had found no physical damage. They agreed that Luke still lived, but he lay in complete stasis. He responded to none of their tests or probes.
Leia had little hope of doing anything herself, but she could at least be with her brother.
The twins came clomping down the Falcon’s ramp, seeing who could make the loudest banging noises with their small boots. Han stood between Jacen and Jaina, holding their hands. “Be quiet, you two,” he said.
“Are we going to see Uncle Luke?” Jaina asked.
“Yes,” Han answered, “but he’s sick. He won’t be able to talk to you.”
“Is he dead?” Jacen asked.
“No!” Leia answered sharply. “Come on. Let’s get into the temple.” The twins scampered ahead down the ramp.
The sharp jungle smells brought warm and fresh memories to Leia as she walked across the clearing. Fallen trees, decaying leaves, and flowers mixed into a potent brew of scents. She had proposed the empty ruins as a site for Luke’s academy, but Leia had never managed to visit—and now she had come only to see her brother lying in state.
“I’m not looking forward to this,” Han mumbled. “Not at all.” Leia reached over to squeeze his hand; he gripped hers, holding tighter and longer than she expected him to.
Robed figures emerged from the temple, drifting out of the early-morning shadows. She quickly counted a dozen. In the lead she recognized the rusty-orange face of a Calamarian female, Cilghal. Leia herself had seen Jedi potential in the fishlike woman and had urged her to join Luke’s academy. Cilghal had managed to use her proven ambassadorial skills to hold the twelve students together in the terrible days following the fall of their Jedi Master.
Leia recognized other candidates gliding across the dew-damp ground: Streen, an older man with wild hair tucked haphazardly beneath a Jedi hood; he had been a gas prospector on Bespin, a hermit hiding from the voices he heard in his head. She saw tall Kirana Ti, one of the witches of Dathomir whom Leia and Han had encountered during their whirlwind courtship. Kirana Ti stepped forward, flashing a bright smile at the twins; she had a daughter of her own, only a year or so older than the twins, who remained in the care of others back on her homeworld.
Leia also identified Tionne, with long silvery hair that flowed down the back of her robe. Tionne was a student of Jedi history who wanted desperately to be a Jedi herself.
Then came hard-bitten Kam Solusar, a once-corrupted Jedi whom Luke had dragged back to the light side. And Dorsk 81, a streamlined,