Hydra had her back to the door. “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed.”
Astri put a blaster against her back. “So sorry.” She reached around and took Hydra’s blaster from her utility belt.
“Do you mind?” Clive gestured toward his stun cuffs. Astri pointed the security device and released the locking mechanism.
Hydra gave a small, chilling smile. “You won’t get away with this.”
Astri activated the stun net launcher. The stun net wrapped around Hydra, forcing her to the floor and imprisoning her, unable to move or speak.
“Correction,” Astri said. “We are getting away with it.”
“We’d love to stay and chat, but you don’t seem to be in the mood for talking,” Clive took Astri’s hand and squeezed. “Ready to take me prisoner, my beauty?”
Astri gestured with her blaster. “Get in front and I’ll march you out.”
She unlocked the detainment cell door, and they slipped out...but not before Clive rigged it so nobody would be using the door anytime soon.
Astri kept her blaster on Clive. She marched him out to the outer office.
“I’m taking the prisoner to Lord Vader,” Astri said. “Institute full clearances for my ship.”
“Right away.”
Astri felt sweat snake down her sides as she marched Clive toward the ship. At every step she expected to be called back. But they made the ramp and climbed aboard. She threw herself into the pilot seat and started the pre-flight check.
Clive kept his gaze out the viewport. “So far, so good. Aren’t you going to compliment my genius?”
“We’re not gone yet.” Astri spoke into the comm, “Clearance requested.”
“Clearance granted.”
She pushed the engines, and the cruiser shot into the air. They left the spaceport behind.
“Okay,” Astri said. “It was a genius plan.”
Clive settled back into the copilot’s seat. “Better late than never.”
Ferus saw the Jedi turn to him in astonishment. He didn’t care. He felt as though he were looking at them from a distance.
Trever’s eyes...He couldn’t quite meet Trever’s eyes.
“You can’t!” Flame’s voice was shrill. “You can’t just...do that!”
The resistance leaders, tired of waiting and knowing something bad was going on, had climbed out of the cruisers, and now surrounded Flame and the Jedi in a tight knot.
“She is an Imperial spy?”
“This is outrageous!”
“You promised us safety!”
“We are safe,” Solace said sharply. “So let’s focus on what to do next.”
“Ferus Olin is right.” Boar spoke up. “I don’t countenance this, but we have no choice. She can identify all of us. There’s too much at stake. We must execute her.”
“Wait.” Flame licked her lips. “We can bargain.”
“We don’t make bargains with traitors!” one of the leaders said.
“There is a backup device aboard my ship,” Flame said. “It will lead the Empire to you if you don’t dismantle it. Trust me, you won’t find it. Only I know where it is. It is tracking you right now.”
“It could be a trick,” someone said.
“All right,” Ferus said. “We give you your life if you dismantle the device.”
Flame nodded nervously. Followed closely by the others, she headed toward her ship.
“Did you mean that?” Trever asked Ferus.
Ferus wasn’t sure. The voice inside him said, Why should you keep your word?
“Ferus, the dark side is working on you,” Ry-Gaul said. “Solace and I can feel it. You must tell us what’s happening to you. You’ve been a double agent for too long. Has the Emperor given you something to hold for him?”
“No.” No, I am holding it for me.
“You said you would execute her,” Ry-Gaul continued. “That is not the Jedi way. If you are struggling, let us know.”
“Don’t think we can’t understand,” Solace said. “We’ve wandered the galaxy since Order 66. We’ve seen and done plenty. I was a bounty hunter, remember?”
“We both drifted away from the Force and came back again,” Ry-Gaul said. “Just connect with the Force. It will show you the path. Just connect.”
Ferus saw compassion in their eyes, not worry. Some of the veil lifted from him. He felt himself coming back. He felt the Force flowing from Ry-Gaul and Solace.
He was spared from answering when Flame returned with the others.
“She did it,” Boar said. “There was a device hidden in the cargo hold. Impossible to find, as she said. So now we must spare her life.”
“We’ll leave you here with survival equipment,” Solace said. “This moon isn’t so far out of the way. There are plans to map this quadrant. Someone will find you eventually.”
“You’re really going to leave me here?” Flame asked. “I can’t be here alone! Trever, don’t let them!”
Trever turned away.
The three Jedi walked toward the ships. “Solace had a good idea,” Ry-Gaul said. “I’ll take Ferus’s ship and activate the tracer beacon. I’ll leave it at a crowded spaceport and transfer to Solace’s ship. Then we can head for the asteroid.”
Ferus felt his head clear. The distance between him and the others didn’t feel as wide. He drew strength from the living Force he could feel in Ry-Gaul and Solace. He shook his head, trying to remain with them, all of him, his heart and mind. He tried to grasp the knowledge he felt he’d gained without letting it suck him in. He had seen into the mind of a Sith, and he felt he knew better how it worked.
“Vader will have a backup,” he said. “Not just the one on Flame’s ship. He would have something else, some other way to track us. Solace, you told us that Clive said Vader was heading to an emergency drop. I think Flame left Vader a message there. She is only acting afraid now. She knows Vader will find her. I have to get to that message before he does. So don’t go to the asteroid until you receive the all clear from me.”
“But how do you know where the secret drop is?” Trever asked.
“The Bespin system?” Solace asked doubtfully. “That’s an awfully big place.”
Ferus shook his head. “The place has to be more central than that. She wouldn’t have had time to get to Bespin and back to Coruscant to leave him a message. I have an idea.”
“I want to come with you,” Trever said.
Ferus hesitated. Part of him didn’t want Trever with him. He couldn’t forget the look on Trever’s face when he thought Ferus would execute Flame. If he had to access the dark side of the Force again, he didn’t want Trever to see it.
Still, he couldn’t think of a reason to refuse. And part of him, the part that was still a Jedi, wanted Trever with him. Maybe if he went too far, Trever could save him from himself.
He nodded shortly.
“Where are we going, anyway?” Trever asked.
“Back to Coruscant.”
They said their good-byes. Ferus could see the worry in Ry-Gaul’s and Solace’s eyes when he took his leave. He turned his back on them, not wanting to see it there.
Then he turned again. He didn’t want to leave them this way. Their gazes still rested on him.
“I won’t fail you,” he said. “You must trust me.”
“Trust in the Force,” Ry-Gaul said. “It will hold you. Connect.”
In deep space, stars burned and fell. Trever felt as though the future was rushing toward him. Whatever was going to happen seemed inevitable. It seemed he couldn’t turn away. He was bound to accompany Ferus, no matter where he was going. No matter what he would do.
Looking at Ferus’s face, he felt the difference in him. It wasn’t just that the humor was missing. Something that used to flow between them now was stopped up. It came through at odd times, odd moments. Trever wished he could take Ferus by the shoulders and shake the old Ferus out of him again.
“So are you going to fill me in?” Trever as
ked. “Where’s the secret drop?”
“Do you remember that day you told me you saw the ruined Temple, and how sad it made you feel?” Ferus asked.
Trever nodded. “Now that I know Jedi, it’s the ultimate new moon bummer.”
“You saw Flame that day, too.”
“That’s right. She was surprised to see me. She’d just been to see Bail Organa, she said. Or she sorta said it.”
“Bail Organa was on his way to Alderaan that morning,” Ferus said. “He might have been there already.”
“After Dex’s hideout was raided...when I thought everyone was dead...Ry-Gaul and I saw her sitting in a café. When she saw us, she said how relieved she was. But...when I think about it, I don’t remember relief. Only surprise.” Trever felt the strain in his voice. “Do you think she meant for me to die that day?”
“I think it’s possible. Certainly the raid was meant to hit Ry-Gaul. Flame had no way of knowing the two of you were rescuing Linna Naltree.”
“So do you think the secret drop is at the Temple?” Trever asked. “Why?”
Ferus spun in his chair to face Trever. The ship was on autpilot now. “There was a fellow student at the Temple when I was there. I knew him well, though we weren’t friends. One of his favorite places to retreat to was the Map Room. Everyone knew that about him.”
“Okay,” Trever said. “But the Temple is destroyed. And what does that have to do with Vader?”
“The Map Room is still intact,” Ferus said. “I saw it when we broke into the Temple. And that Padawan became a great Jedi. And then he became Darth Vader.”
“You mean you knew Vader when he was young?”
Ferus nodded. “Now that I know that, I know other things about him. Things I can use.”
“Whoa, let’s revert to normal speed. You’re going too fast for me. Are you saying you’re going to fight him again?”
Instead of answering, Ferus turned back to the instrument panel. “Right now I’m focusing on keeping Moonstrike on track. The best revenge would be to turn this all around. Start a rebellion from a snare the Empire created to destroy one.”
Trever settled back into his seat with an ease he didn’t feel. “Back there, on that moon...when we found out that Flame was an Imperial agent...you said to execute her because you were trying to pressure her. I mean, you wouldn’t have done it, right?”
Ferus turned away, not answering. He heard the question as a rhythm in his blood. What would he do, how far would he go?
Could he have killed Flame?
Was this what happened to you, Anakin? Did you feel yourself splitting? Did the faces of those you cared about seem to be talking to you from a distance? Did you feel your anger growing, and did it feel good to have it grow? Did you think you were right...and they were standing in your way?
Did you hear a Sith’s voice in your head and think it was yours?
The ruined Temple filled his vision. Ferus felt oddly calm. It had started here, his life’s journey. He had come here as a baby. He had left here as a young man, sick at heart. He had returned to find everything he’d loved had been destroyed.
And now here he was again. He could feel the Force here as though it was carried on the wind. But the wind was part of the Force, as much as the clouds and the sun and the millions of beings who inhabited this planet. He mustn’t forget that. He mustn’t only see corruption and decay. That was what the Emperor wanted him to see.
“I want to go in with you.”
“No, Trever. I’m going alone.” Ferus didn’t even lean on the words. There was no way he was bringing Trever into danger.
At least I can spare him this.
“The security isn’t as tight now that the Empire isn’t using the Temple,” he said. “I’ll go in, see if I’m right, see if there’s a message. Then I’m out.” He turned to Trever. “No arguments. Just wait here for me.”
He left Trever and circled around to the base of the Temple. He saw the crumbling stone of the ruined terraces. There—just above him—what once had been transparisteel had been shattered. Plastoid had been adhered to the opening as a clumsy fix, but there was room there to sneak in. With the help of a lightsaber.
The plastoid peeled back silently. He slipped inside. He knew where he was immediately. The Temple was part of him, every chamber, every hallway.
He stood in the center of the ruined room. For a moment he allowed himself the luxury of remembering. The breakfast room. A smaller, more intimate space where sometimes the Padawans were allowed to share the morning meal with the Jedi Masters who were in residence. It was chosen for its morning light, of course. And the light—Ferus closed his eyes, remembering. As thick and golden as the butter on their plates, streaming in to warm fingers still cold from the chill of morning exercises. On fine days the transparisteel rose into the ceilings and the room became filled with fresh air.
He remembered his fingers curling around a thick mug of steaming tea. The smells of thick slices of bread fried in sweet butter and syrup. Fruit heaped on serving plates. The Jedi Masters, relaxed in this setting, smiling at their students. And the day ahead, filled with study and activity, with meditation, with play.
This was what they had destroyed.
He walked through, cinders crunching under his boots.
Outside in the hallway he turned a corner and found himself in the grand atrium, stories high. The huge windows were boarded over. The stones were blackened and pitted. Still, as different as it was, he knew the way, even in the darkness.
He walked softly, making no sound. He could feel no trace of the Living Force here. He allowed his anger to build, let it rest inside his chest. He could pull it out when he needed it. The Emperor had taught him that.
The turbolifts had been shut down, so he had to climb the staircase that curved through one of the spires, all the way up to the Map Room. The walls were half-destroyed. The floor was uneven, with deep holes blasted out of the stone. Ferus looked into one and saw the floor of the atrium hundreds of meters below. Yet when he waved his hand over the sensor the holographic map of the galaxy sprang to life.
Anakin had sat in here for hours sometimes. They’d all known it, and they’d all left him alone. He had the ability to send whole systems spinning, memorize details of language, atmosphere, minerals, history, geography...and then send another system spinning, then another, then another and another and another...and keep all the facts in his head, and remember them.
He had been so gifted.
The Chosen One.
Ferus walked through the holographic maps, through curtains of information, schematics, words and images. Pale blue, red, gold, green...the whole galaxy whirled around his head. He walked through the display to the Bespin system. He accessed the planet with its gaseous atmosphere.
Facts appeared: language, geography, chemical properties. He touched the thick gas cloud with his finger. The message appeared.
No coordinates on asteroid. Tracer beacon installed on two ships. Three ships total. Will be on comm silence. Emergency beacon in boot. Will activate if needed.
And then the blinking coordinates of where Flame waited. He’d been right. She’d had one last trick up her sleeve. Knowing Vader would come here and see where she was. He erased the coordinates.
His worst fear—that somehow she had discovered the location of the asteroid, had passed it along—was unfounded. The meeting could proceed.
He shut down the system.
Vader hadn’t been here yet. He’d beaten him here. Vader would have erased the message.
Ferus took the stairway back down to the main level, curving around the spire until he reached the main floor. He walked out into the grand hallway, his hand on his comlink, ready to send the message to Solace.
He felt him an instant before he saw him, striding down the center hall, as though the Temple was still standing as it had been, as if what surrounded him was still noble, still beautiful. His boots rang on the pitted, blackened stone. He walked as t
hough he owned the Temple.
He thinks he does own it.
Vader saw him.
They stopped. From one end of the vast hallway, full of echoes of the past, they faced each other.
Solace lurked on the edges of the atmospheric storm. It was a good place to hide. Gravity shifts were tossing small asteroids about like stones from a child’s hand. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it would be once she flew into the center of the storm, but it kept things interesting while they waited. Ry-Gaul sat in the copilot seat. They’d left Ferus’s ship at a planet in the Mid Rim. She hoped the Imperial forces were heading there now.
Things were coming to a close. She had joined Ferus reluctantly. After her colony on the surface of Coruscant had been raided, she’d felt no more purpose in her life. Ferus had offered her a cause, and that had been irresistible. After Order 66, she had vowed never to trust again. Yet Ferus had drawn her in. It had felt familiar to fall into this group, heroes in her mind, Dex Jettster, Curran, Keets, Oryon, and of course Trever. Not so much participating—she wasn’t much of a talker—as simply being.
Now their objective had been reached. They had a hand in the beginning of a rebellion. Solace felt sure that Ferus would have a new challenge after this one.
Ferus. She was worried about him, and she didn’t like to worry about anyone. Ferus had lost something. His work as a double agent had compromised him. Both she and Ry-Gaul could feel it. She hoped he would find his way back again.
The emergency channel flashed. Solace leaned forward, her heart racing, and accessed the comm unit. It was Toma.
“Ferus got a message out. He gave the all clear. You can bring in the resistance leaders. Stormtracker says the storm will increase in intensity in a few hours. Enough to break up a ship. Come immediately.”
“Copy that,” Solace said. “Leaving now.”
She walked back to the stateroom, crowded with the passengers. They looked up expectantly, their expressions calm. They’d been through plenty already. They knew how to wait.