Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [66]
“No, she’s—” he began.
“I’m here, Eppie.” Gaeri sat down on a furry repulsor footstool.
“You’re—?” Madam Belden stared from Luke to Gaeri, shaking her head helplessly. “I’m—?” She shut her eyes and set her chin.
Gaeriel shrugged. “You’re fine, Eppie. Would a nap feel good?”
“Nap,” repeated the woman in a tired voice.
Luke followed Gaeriel back toward the door. “Tell me about Madam Belden. How long has she been like this?”
“Three years.” Gaeri shook her head sadly. “Unfortunately, she was deeply involved in resistance to the Empire. She broke down when Roviden died. It … destroyed her.”
“Maybe that’s why they let her live,” he guessed.
Gaeri’s sharp chin tilted angrily. “You can’t—”
Madam Belden thrashed in her chair. “Don’t leave without saying good-bye,” she cried.
Wedged too tightly into the awkwardness to run away, Luke hurried back and knelt beside Madam Belden. He cleansed his mind of concern and desires and focused inward, examining Madam Belden’s deep presence. It pulsed too powerfully for someone who needed full-time care. The mind remained, affecting the Force … creating a life pulse so strong that Luke guessed she had untrained strength of her own. But some of the links connecting mind to senses and communication didn’t operate. They’d been severed. The Empire did this, he guessed.
He blinked up into sad, watery eyes. Gaeriel was watching him from behind. If he used the Force, she might throw him out. Or she might begin to respect his abilities.
Regardless of what Gaeriel wanted, Eppie Belden needed healing. Luke stroked the spotted, bony hand. Should he go on pretending to be her son? That seemed like a dangerous dishonesty, using the Force. “I want to show you something,” he murmured, ignoring Gaeriel. That was hard. “If you can do this, you may be able to heal yourself.”
Her sense brightened and became eager.
“No,” he directed. “Be calm and still. Listen deep.” He pressed into her awareness and showed her how he had healed himself, traveling in hyperspace … the silence, the focus, the strength … and he made certain she saw, even if she didn’t understand, that he hadn’t been able to do it perfectly. Then he turned her focus inward. Something has been damaged, he told her. I think the Empire did it. Find it. Heal it. Fight back, Eppie. May the Force be with you. Yoda would’ve called her “too old for training,” but this wasn’t training. Not exactly. And, Yoda, she’s not going to go off chasing trouble like I did.
A wave of her gratitude washed him out of her mind. He inhaled deeply and pushed up off his knees. Eppie Belden rested against her cushions, eyes closed, breathing tranquilly.
“What did you do?” Gaeriel stood in an unconscious fighting stance.
Luke studied her eyes. Somehow the gray one calculated while the green one looked angry. “There’s still a very sharp awareness in there,” he murmured. “I don’t think her problem is natural. I really think she was harmed.”
Gaeriel hesitated. “Deliberately?”
Luke nodded. Feeling her hostility swing away from him, he stayed silent a moment longer and let her process the implications. Someone had harmed her. Who but the Empire? Then he elaborated, “I know a little about self-healing. I showed her something she might try. That’s all.”
“Is that so little for you?” she asked bitterly.
A non-Jedi couldn’t do that much. “I did nothing to her. My word as a … as an honorable man.”
At last she shrugged, dismissing the matter. “Come out here. Sit down.” She strode through a door arch into a white-tiled dining room, both hands brushing her long vest as she walked. She motioned him past a fragrant, simmering tea warmer toward a seat at a transparent table. “If you can do so much with the Force,” she said, “why don’t you simply get into a fighter, blast your way onto the Ssi-ruuvi flagship, and get rid of them?”
I might try it, if you told me to. He sighed away the impulse and explained, “If I used my powers in anger or aggression instead of for knowledge and defense, the dark side would take me. It took …” He strangled a terrible