Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [18]
“Can you understand anything from that, Luke?” Admiral Ackbar said, peering closer.
“Let’s get another one for comparison.” This time Luke pointed the paddles at Wedge, who flinched as the coppery scan line ran up and down his uniform. When his wire-frame holo appeared beside Leia’s, most of the color-coded details were similar—but his image showed no blue corona.
“Now let’s try you, Admiral.” He extended the paddles toward the Mon Calamarian, adjusting the control pack to take Ackbar’s alien physiology into account. When his scanned image appeared, it too lacked the blue aura.
“Leia, would you do it to me, just so we can be more sure?”
Leia handled the equipment reluctantly, as if uneasy to touch a device that had been used by those who had designed the interrogation droid. But she operated the scanner easily, holding the sheet-crystal paddles on either side of Luke.
His image bore the bright corona.
“This is very valuable,” Luke said. “You don’t need any particular skill with the Force to use this equipment. We can find people with Jedi potential just by scanning them. It will be a great help in finding candidates for my academy. Maybe some good will come of this device after all these years.”
“Very good, Luke,” Ackbar said.
Luke pursed his lips. “Wedge, I want to try something. Would you relax for a minute and let me do a mind touch on you?”
“Uh,” Wedge said, then saw his team members looking at him. He straightened. “Whatever you say, Luke.”
Luke wasted no time, reaching out to touch Wedge’s temples, running a mental probe over the surface of his mind, back to the primitive area, the surprising nub in the contour of thoughts—
But when Luke touched it, nothing happened. Wedge probably didn’t even know he was being probed. Luke pushed harder, but he triggered no reflexive counteraction, no uncontrolled push as Leia had given him.
“What was that all about?” Wedge asked. “Did you do anything?”
Luke smiled. “I just strengthened a theory of mine. We have gotten a lot closer to bringing back the Jedi Knights.”
4
At least the ship didn’t explode on impact.
That was the first thing Han Solo thought as painful consciousness returned. He blinked his eyes, listened to the hissing of atmosphere streaming through breaches in the Millennium Falcon’s hull. Somehow they had survived a crash landing. He wondered what planet he was on.
Kessel!
His eyes widened as he saw red splashes across the control panels. His own blood. His leg felt as if it were on fire, and he tasted liquid tin in his mouth. As he coughed, more blood splashed out. Han had not managed to strap himself in before the crash. It was a good thing he had not stayed up in the gun well. From his skewed vantage he could see that the ship had spun on impact, with the top gun well crushed beneath them.
He hoped Chewbacca had fared better. Turning his head, Han felt as if shards of ground glass were rubbing his spine. In the copilot’s chair, the Wookiee lay motionless, his pelt matted with discolored blood oozing from wounds hidden by his shaggy fur.
“Chewie!” he managed to croak. “Say something, okay?”
Han heard the thud of a small explosive charge on the primary hatch; then someone from outside managed to hot-wire the ramp. The rest of the Falcon’s air spurted into Kessel’s thin atmosphere. “Great,” he mumbled. With the shattering pain in his ribs, it had already been hard enough to breathe.
Heavy footsteps marched up the ramp. Han wanted to pull out his blaster or at least knock a few enemies down in a fistfight. But he could barely raise his eyes, expecting to see an orderly column of white-armored stormtroopers. That would be an appropriate end to a day like this.
Instead, the intruders wore a hodgepodge of armor, some parts modified from prison-guard uniforms, other plates adapted from stormtrooper