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Kyp’s reproduction hung in the air, bathed with the pale-blue corona Luke had found on the others with genuine Jedi potential. But the aura waxed and waned, knotting itself, turning darker, growing brighter, streaked with red, then becoming tangled.

“What does that mean?” Kyp said.

“He’s okay, isn’t he?” Han seemed eager to have his protegé accepted.

Luke wondered at the anomalous mapping, disturbed because he didn’t know how to interpret it. The shimmer could be a result of faulty scanning equipment, since the instrument had been roughly treated and could no longer be calibrated—or it could be that because of the strain and pressure on Kyp for so many years, he hadn’t quite sprung back to his full potential yet.

“I see a lot of power there. A lot,” Luke said, and Kyp sighed at the reassurance. “Let me try one other test.”

Luke stretched out his hands to touch the curly black hair on Kyp’s head. “Let him do what he needs to,” Han whispered to the young man. “Trust him.”

Luke closed his eyes and sent a tendril of thought to the back of Kyp’s mind where the deep primal memories hid, leaving little room for conscious thought. Luke touched inward to the isolated nub in his subconscious. He pushed—

—and suddenly found himself hurled backward, tossed aside like a piece of fluff in a Bespin wind storm. He landed flat on his back on the other side of the room, gasping.

Han and Kyp ran toward him as he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows. Luke shook the daze from his head.

“I’m sorry!” Kyp said. “I don’t know what I did! I didn’t try to. Honest!”

“What happened?” Han said. “What does that mean for Kyp?”

Luke blinked, then smiled at the others. “Don’t worry about me. I triggered that myself.” He shook his head. “Kyp, you have amazing power!”

Luke stood up and gripped the young man’s hand. “You’re definitely welcome to train at my academy. I just hope I know how to handle it when you come into full control of your abilities!”

EPILOGUE

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, stood atop the Great Temple on the fourth moon of Yavin.

Below his feet lay the empty throne room and grand audience chamber with skylights open to the sun. Garbed in a new Jedi cloak, wearing his lightsaber at his side, Luke felt warmth bathing him. Spicy, lingering scents rose as steam from the lush rain forest below.

The ancient ruins left behind by the vanished Massassi race sprawled out in great geometrical edifices, now overgrown by voracious jungles. Luke stood on top of the ziggurat that had once been a towering lookout station when the Rebel base had been housed on Yavin 4.

In the sky a swollen sphere of pale orange filled most of his view, the looming planet Yavin. The bloated gas giant had been a shield for the Rebel base as the first Death Star orbited into position to fire with its planet-destroying superlaser. The Yavin base had been abandoned by the Rebels years before. But many of the broken stone structures were still serviceable.

With the unleashed might of the Maw fleet, and the expected depredations of Admiral Daala, the New Republic desperately needed a strong force beyond pure military might, a group of guardians to maintain order in the galaxy.

Luke intended to bring together everyone he could, immediately—not just Gantoris and Streen, but also Kyp Durron, Mara Jade, several of the witches of Dathomir, Kam Solusar, and others he had encountered since the Battle of Endor. And the search for new people with Jedi potential would have to be intensified. He needed candidates, as many as possible.

The top levels of some of the flat-roofed Massassi structures had been clear enough for Luke to land his ship. On the broad courtyard once used as a launching pad by the Alliance, Luke’s old X-wing fighter lay cooling in the rising mists from the Yavin jungles.

When Mon Mothma and Leia had offered Luke the abandoned Rebel base, he had jumped at the chance.

To begin his actual training, Luke tried to recreate all the exercises