Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 04_ Lightsabers - Kevin J. Anderson [20]
I remember thinking that maybe I had just taken another step toward becoming more like my father, like Darth Vader-partly alive, but partly a machine. Tenel Ka will have to face the same decision herself. When her lightsaber exploded, it destroyed any chance we had of reattaching that arm."
"Uncle Luke, I need to see her," Jacen pleaded. "I have to apologize."
Luke squeezed his shoulder. "I promise to call you the moment she's ready to talk. Try to get some rest now."
Jacen slept fitfully, tossing and turning as images of a wounded Tenel Ka haunted his dreams.
"We are opponentv, " he heard her say.
"No. I'm yourfriend, " Jacen tried to answer, but his voice was trapped in his throat; he could make no sound. He felt again the sickening jolt as her lightsaber dissolved beneath his and the sizzling green energy blade sliced through her arm.
The smell of singed flesh clawed at his nostrils.
The sound of her exploding rancor-tooth weapon crashed against his eardrums, and his vision filled with the image of Tenel Ka's cool gray eyes, clouded with accusation.
"We are opponents...." Jacen felt something push at his mind, and he woke drenched in sweat, his single light blanket damp and tangled around his legs. He wasn't quite certain what had awakened him, but he knew it was somehow urgent. It's Tenel Ka. She needs us. The thought came unbidden to his mind. Through his open window, from the direction of the jungle he heard the faint ululating howl of a Wookiee.
Jumping from his sleeping pallet, he hurriedly fastened the front of the rumpled orange flight suit he had never quite bothered to take off when he'd lain on his bed. The distant howl came again, and Jacen could sense that Lowie, meditating at the top of a high Massassi tree, must be trying to tell him something. Without bothering to put on a pair of boots, he bolted out of his room and called at his sister's doorway.
"Jaina, wake up. Something's wrong." He raced on Crown the hallway, not waiting for her reply.
But something-perhaps Lowie's call-had already wakened his sister, because he hadn't even turned the corner before he heard Jaina running down the hall after him. He didn't slow, though.
Bare feet slapping against the cold flagstones, he rushed out the nearest exit and down one of the Great Temple's external stairways, taking the torchlit steps three at a time. He felt the nudge against his mind again and headed in the direction it had come from:the landing pad.
Ashe rounded the corner of the temple, with Jainahard on his heels, he was surprised to see Lowie coming toward them from the jungle, where eerie night mists blanketed the ground with translucent white. On the landing field, though, Jacen saw something that surprised him even more.
A small, sleek shuttle, about half the size of the Millennium Falcon, lifted off the grassy stubble of the landing pad, blasting away wisps of ground fog.
And there, bathed in the blue glow from the landing lights, his hair whipping wildly in the breeze, stood Luke Skywalker.
The Jedi Master was facing the shuttle, one arm raised as if in farewell, as the three young Jedi Knights raced up to him. Jacen and Jaina spoke at the same moment.
"Who was that?"
"What's going on?"
The tall, gangly Wookiee added a questioning bark of his own.
Luke Skywalker lowered his eyes to look at his Jedi students.
"It was Tenel Ka, wasn't it?" Jacen persisted, without really needing to hear the answer. In the dimness, his gaze locked with his uncle's, and the Jedi Master nodded.
"Her family insisted on coming immediately to pick her up. She should be in good hands nowdon't worry."
Jacen felt as if a bantha had just stepped on his chest. He struggled for enough breath to speak. He felt betrayed. "She's gone! You said you'd call us when Tenel Ka was ready to see us."
Luke Skywalker cleared his throat. "She wasn't ready."
Lowie gave a despairing groan.
"But we didn't even get a chance to say