Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 11_ Dark Journey - Elaine Cunningham [90]
“I agree. One thing I learned long ago is that you can’t fix a ship without getting your hands dirty,” Jaina said softly.
For a moment they regarded each other, in complete accord.
A small voice in the back of Kyp’s mind warned him that this was Han Solo’s daughter, reminded him of the enormous debt he owed his old friend, and what he owed to Luke Skywalker. What he had in mind for Jaina would be regarded as yet another betrayal, and there would be no forgiveness for him this time.
Kyp understood full well the dangers of the path he was walking, and he knew that Jaina’s capitulation ought to bother him. But if truth be told, he welcomed her slide from conventional Jedi thought.
Anakin Solo was dead, and gone with him was Kyp’s best hope for a new and more inclusive understanding of the Force. Perhaps Jaina would be the one to have the larger vision. He’d seen the way she automatically took charge, the way other young Jedi followed her confident lead. Maybe she had both the power and the credibility to stir the Jedi out of their complacency.
And if not, at least there would be two Jedi who had the satisfaction of knowing they’d given everything they had, used every resource at their disposal, without stopping to count the personal cost.
In Kyp’s opinion, no true guardian could do any less.
Gallinore, famous for its rainbow gems, was a verdant world with stunningly diverse plant and animal life. The rainbow gems, living creatures that took thousands of years to mature, were only one of the many marvels to be found in the fields and forests. And many of these living things had been created or altered in the labs of the planet’s sole city.
While Tenel Ka went to deal with the city officials and Kyp kept watch over the “baggage,” Jaina and Lowbacca headed to the sprawling research district.
Ta’a Chume’s letter of introduction earned them full cooperation and unquestioned access to the facility. Within moments, Lowbacca was seated before a terminal, his furry digits flying as he sifted through computerized records of the Gallinore research, looking for anything that might provide a link between a technology that he and Jaina could understand and the secrets of the Trickster, their stolen Yuuzhan Vong ship.
Jaina turned to the technician who hovered at the Wookiee’s shoulder. “I need to speak with Sinsor Khal. Can you show me where I might find him?”
A peculiar expression crossed the young woman’s face, but she pulled out a comlink and relayed Jaina’s request. In moments an armed escort arrived and guided her through a maze of pristine white halls. They left her before a large door, nodded toward a palm reader mounted beside the door, and left at a much faster pace than that which had brought them.
Jaina shrugged, then placed her hand against the device. The door irised open. It snapped shut behind her with a clang like that of a prison door.
She stepped into a large room, one crowded with so much equipment, all of it in such disarray, that for a moment Jaina suspected she was viewing the result of a head-on collision between two large ships.
Jaina crept through the room, surveying it as she might a battlefield. When she knew all she needed, she slipped out the way she came, retraced her steps through the corridors, and made her way back to their ship.
She quickly described the situation to Kyp. He listened intently, his expression inscrutable. His eyes flickered, once, when she concluded her proposal by noting, “You asked me to be your apprentice. Here’s where it starts.”
“So this is your price,” he observed. “You have a high opinion of your value.”
Jaina spread both hands. “I’m the last of the Solos. That’s got to be worth something. Do you want me or not?”
For a long moment the two Jedi locked stares. “You