Star Wars, page 21
Amadeo was relieved. This would be easier than expected. Yet another new world for him to visit that, inevitably, he would leave behind. Every conflict they walked into, Master Lox and Amadeo left it neater than it was before. Perhaps he was becoming more like his master: nothing fazing him, ever.
But inwardly, he sighed. All the small towns, the border skirmishes, the minor trade disputes were becoming a blur. Just when he began to get a feel for a place or people on his missions, he and Master Lox were immediately sent on another one. He pondered what it would be like to sit at the table of a friend and share dozens of meals together. Not just one or two. In fact, he didn’t even think he could quite use the term friend with respect to anyone he’d met since his days as a youngling. It seemed to Amadeo that being a Jedi meant never having roots that kept you in one place. After all, attachment led to loss and fear and anger. And yet he had noted within himself a nugget of longing to put down the tendril of a root. He had yet to admit this to Master Lox.
They all stood before their ship as Master Lox opened the hatch.
“That sounds reasonable,” Gria said. “I am glad that Master Lox and Jedi Azzazzo are here to witness this. Shall we?”
She entered the ship, followed by Lor Botho. It was not a large craft, but big enough to have a hyperdrive. There was enough room in the central body of the craft for a handful of people to hold a meeting. Amadeo followed Lor Botho, and Master Lox was close behind. The moment they were all inside, he felt it.
Just as Master Lox felt it, too.
“Amadeo!” Master Lox yelled.
Amadeo’s hand went to his waist and grabbed his lightsaber. Lor Botho was no longer in sight in the short corridor of the ship that led to the central cabin. Amadeo ran forward, his green lightsaber shining, and saw Gria Cappo lying facedown a few meters ahead. Something smoky was roiling along the floor, and Amadeo held his breath as he moved forward. The door behind him had not yet shut, and he could hear hollering, the hum and swish of his master’s blue lightsaber, and blaster bolts hitting the outside of their ship.
Amadeo had let the soothing words of Lor Botho fool him into believing what he wanted to believe—that there would be a peaceful resolution to the destruction on Charbana. He kneeled by Gria’s side, turning her onto her back. Gria’s eyes were rolling upward, and her mouth was frothing. She was still breathing but probably not for long. He had to get her out of there, but first—Lor Botho.
“You can only hold your breath for so long, Jedi,” Lor Botho said somewhere ahead. His voice sounded muffled, like he was breathing through a respirator.
A blaster bolt hit the interior wall of the ship, centimeters from Amadeo’s face.
Focus, Amadeo, he thought. Find Lor Botho. End this before Gria dies.
“You thought we would leave Mikkia without a fight? That mine is worth more than a million lives.”
Apparently, Lor Botho liked to hear himself talk. He must be enjoying the fact that Amadeo couldn’t speak. A captive and quiet audience. Perhaps Master Lox would come help Amadeo soon. His chest began to feel tight and restricted. He was nervous—and his body was consuming oxygen quickly as a result. And he was frustrated with himself. He had heard Botho’s lies. He had wanted that answer. The easy one. How wrong he’d been.
Likely, Lor Botho wanted the easy way, too. It gave Amadeo an idea.
He extinguished his lightsaber and threw himself to the floor, making a loud noise. He wheezed an exhalation of the breath he’d been holding—a gamble, but worth it. He made his body shake and tremble. Then he lay still and waited. He could faintly smell the odor of the smoky poison in the air, and his abdominal muscles began to cramp.
He could sense Lor Botho carefully walking closer. His breathing through the respirator was audible.
“A young Jedi. So green, and so stupid,” Lor Botho muttered to himself. “Best be safe.”
Amadeo heard him pause and sensed the danger. Amadeo pushed off the ground, igniting his light-green blade and striking away the blaster bolt before it could touch him. He reached out his hand and yanked the mask off Lor Botho with the Force, placing it on his own face. Lor Botho shot at Amadeo in quick succession, but Amadeo deflected the bolts easily. As Lor Botho began to choke on the gas, Amadeo ran back toward Gria. Stars, he hoped she wasn’t dead. But she wasn’t there. He ran to exit the ship and burst out onto the grassy ground, throwing off the respirator.
Master Lox was crouched down, his arm around Gria, who was coughing but very clearly not dead. The four miners were lying askew, scattered around their craft, and several blaster scorch marks marred its surface.
“Is she okay?” Amadeo asked, running to Gria’s other side.
“She will be.” Master Lox stood up, turning his head to the sound of shouts of distress. Several Mikkians were running toward them from the village. They quickly surrounded the fallen Gria, who was helped up and carried back toward the river. Amadeo explained what happened, and the Mikkians tied up the fallen Lor Botho, who was not dead but fairly incapacitated, coughing up frothy blood. Lor Botho’s eyes were wide when Master Lox spoke to him.
“The Jedi Council and Chancellor Soh will be informed of this incident. You’ll leave peacefully, unless you want a Jedi and Republic escort off Mikkia. Understood?”
Lor Botho nodded vigorously before falling into another fit of coughs. Mikkian guards quickly took him and the knocked-out Red Mine team away, speaking to the angry villagers about following their local justice protocols. Amadeo and Master Lox double-checked that everyone in the village was evacuated, surveying the damage. On the way back, Master Lox paused, watching a teenage Mikkian girl soothing a crying child, perhaps a sibling. She was singing a lullaby, a tune that was sad yet soporific.
“Shrii ka rai ka rai. . .shrii ka rai ka rai . . .”
Amadeo thought it sounded like gibberish, a bunch of random syllables strung together. But Master Lox was listening intently, transfixed by the tune.
“Master?” Amadeo stopped nearby, wondering if his master was looking at something else. “Is everything okay?”
Master Lox pulled himself out of his reverie when his comlink buzzed. “We’re getting a message from Coruscant. Come.”
Amadeo glanced back at the girl who’d been singing the tune. Her bright green eyes met Amadeo’s and she smiled. Such a welcoming smile. He smiled back, wondering who she was. What her life was like. He imagined talking about their lives over a long meal, with her family and Master Lox. Spending weeks together and enjoying the countless extraordinary moments of an ordinary life.
Amadeo had to forcefully turn away from her. He reluctantly boarded their ship.
In the cockpit, Master Lox was seated with his hands on the communications console. “This is Jedi Master Lox, on Mikkia,” he said.
“Master Lox. This is Jedi Master Maia Tsoo. There’s been a terrible incident. Starlight Beacon . . .” Master Tsoo paused for a breath. “It’s been destroyed. Half of the Beacon plummeted to the planet Eiram, causing extensive damage. The casualties have been significant. We are recalling all available Jedi to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant immediately for further instructions.”
Mirro Lox sat frozen inside the cockpit of their small ship.
Starlight Beacon? Destroyed?
He hadn’t seen the space station in person yet, wanting to visit it when he and his Padawan had a bit of reprieve from their work. But there had always been so much to do. So many in need. And Amadeo—at a mere seventeen years old—was learning quickly, taking in lessons like a gravity well of information. He was so eager to help, a veritable beacon of hope.
The thought made Mirro close his eyes tightly.
He thought of Avar Kriss, Stellan Gios, and Elzar Mann, the three Jedi Masters he had seen only briefly in passing over the previous decades. They had trained together and had been friends as Padawans, before they were inevitably separated by time and training. Avar, Stellan, and Elzar had worked closely to bring Chancellor Soh’s vision together. He had looked forward to seeing them again someday. But now?
He could feel the disruption in the Force so far away. The loss echoed within his very bones. The trio of Avar, Stellan, and Elzar was irrevocably broken. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but one of them had died. He just knew it.
“Amadeo,” he said quietly, opening his eyes. “We leave for Coruscant immediately.”
Amadeo hesitated slightly before nodding and taking the copilot seat. They departed Mikkia quickly, sending in their report on the Red Mine to the Office of the Chancellor and the Jedi Council ahead of their arrival. He let Amadeo pilot their ship back to Coruscant. As the blue swirls of the hyperlane glowed through the viewport, Mirro left the cockpit to sit in the central cabin of the small ship, thinking. After some time, Amadeo joined him and broke the silence.
“You don’t usually meditate with your eyes open, unless there’s a lesson to be learned here.”
Mirro turned to his Padawan, smiling. “I’m not meditating. Just thinking.”
“About what?” Amadeo asked, leaning back. “If I may ask, Master.”
“About how time goes by so fast. About old friends. And I was thinking, it’s too bad we weren’t able to visit Starlight Beacon, before . . .”
“I was thinking the same. And realizing its selfish to consider, when there’s been so much loss.”
“It’s important to reconcile these things, Padawan,” Mirro said. “But we must prepare. I feel there will be challenges coming our way that we’ve never faced before.”
Mirro was used to confronting the unknown, but this felt different. But first, Coruscant.
“You spent nearly all your time as a youngling on Coruscant within the confines of the Jedi Temple,” Mirro said. “Any questions about the rest of it, before we land? I usually prepare you a little better before we arrive on a new world. There are cultural considerations and dangers wherever we go. But I don’t think of Coruscant as being a new place, so . . .”
“Are you worried I might get lost, or take a wrong turn and end up in a gambling den?” Amadeo said. His amber eyes twinkled.
“You’re looking forward to seeing the planet?” Mirro asked.
“I am. We’ve been going to these Outer Rim worlds for the last few years. Places that aren’t terribly. . .urban.” He smiled. “It’ll be a nice change of pace. Outside of the Temple, I don’t remember Coruscant very well at all.”
“Well, don’t get too comfortable. We’re only there to learn more about what happened, and how we can help. We shall likely leave not long after we arrive.” He noted a look of worry on his Padawan’s face. “What is it?”
Amadeo shook his head. “I haven’t really been around other Jedi, or Padawans, since I was a youngling. I haven’t spent time with people my age, really.”
“What are you worried about? You’ve been learning so much, Amadeo. You’ve come a long way.”
The Padawan shrugged. With his wide eyes and slightly curly brown hair, some days Mirro thought he still looked like a youngling.
Amadeo said, “It’s not my skills I’m worried about.”
Mirro waited.
“I don’t know what I’m worried about, I guess. It’s going to feel new. And different.”
“You go to a new world almost every week, Amadeo.”
Amadeo smiled uncertainly. The answer didn’t seem to satisfy him.
“I’d better get back to the controls, Master. We’re exiting the hyperlane soon.”
Mirro watched his Padawan leave the cabin. He’d grown so much in the past year alone. Now he was slightly taller than Mirro. Before Mirro knew it, Amadeo would be going through his trials and would be a Jedi Knight, and their relationship as Padawan and master would be over.
Unless, stars forbid, something parted them before that could happen.
They arrived at Coruscant amid a lot of traffic outside the planet, which was not unusual. But Amadeo had never really experienced an ecumenopolis—an entire planet covered in a cityscape. The vast, shining globe was truly foreign to him. He must not have remembered leaving the planet after he’d become a Padawan. Amadeo’s eyes were fixed on the viewports, mouth slightly open, as he took in Coruscant. Even from space, it shone like a metallic bauble with several cloud formations, reflecting the light of Coruscant Prime, while two of its four moons hung in the darkness nearby like sentries. The surface of the planet showed intersecting lines of light, with its congruent cityscapes arrayed in crisscrossing sectors.
After all the various places they’d seen in the Outer Rim over the years, Mirro had never witnessed the awe on Amadeo’s face he saw now. For a brief moment, Mirro wondered if Coruscant was more a lure for Amadeo’s attention than the urgent call from the Jedi.
They descended onto the circular pad that led to the Jedi Temple. As they approached, Amadeo craned his neck to look at the spires reaching into the sky, before spinning slowly to watch transports whizzing by in perpendicular patterns. A Jedi Temple Guard approached them, and Mirro gently elbowed Amadeo to attention.
“Welcome, Jedi Master Mirro Lox and Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo,” the guard said, their face covered in a mask typical of the Temple Guards. “Please, follow me.”
They entered the cavernous temple, which was busy with Jedi of all stations, including some younglings being led by a Jedi in a neat line down a grand hallway. The guard took them up a turbolift and then to a large meeting room with transparisteel windows displaying Coruscant at an elevation. Inside the room, a single person waited.
Jedi Master Maia Tsoo. The Pantoran was petite, with long black hair worn in a braid over her shoulder. She rose and bowed. Mirro and Amadeo bowed in turn before Mirro walked forward with his hands outstretched in welcome. Master Tsoo took them in hers and smiled.
“It’s been ages, Mirro. So good to see you.”
“And so good to see you, too, Maia. Last we met I think you’d only just become a Knight. And here you are, a Jedi Master! How did you end up in the Jedi Temple?”
“I train Jedi in the Medical Corps here. Though that’s not my job, of late. I’m helping with the Jedi recall right now.” Her face turned sorrowful. “How much do you know about what happened with Starlight Beacon?”
“Only what we heard when you reached out,” Mirro said. They all sat at a table while a silver protocol droid brought tea. Mirro cupped a hot mug in his hand but couldn’t drink. “It was destroyed. Along with a lot of good people. Why?”
“It was a Nihil attack,” Maia said.
Mirro looked at Amadeo. They knew of the Nihil but had never encountered them. Until now, the skirmishes between the Nihil and the Republic had always been elsewhere, simmering but never quite boiling over.
“I didn’t realize they were capable of something this enormous,” Amadeo said.
“They are. And things have escalated. We believe they’re operating in a large area between the Rimma Trade Route and the Corellian Run. It could mean complete control if we don’t act. No safe communications. No safe hyperspace routes.”
“Wait,” Mirro said, holding up a hand. “The planets—Utapau, Pantora—”
“They are all at great risk of falling under Nihil control,” Maia said, her face grave. “And Ryloth and Lasan and more. Entire civilizations at the mercy of a merciless power. This is why we need your help.”
“Of course,” Mirro said without missing a beat. “Any way we can.”
“Tomorrow will be a longer and more in-depth information session. But, Mirro—there’s something else you need to know about. Something that never came up in our training, or our lives as Jedi. There’s a rumor of these large creatures. . . .They have some terrifying effect on Force-sensitive people.”
“What kind of effect?” Amadeo asked, eyes narrowing.
“I don’t want to say. That is . . .” Maia took a deep breath. “It isn’t a firm fact. But I heard they could turn a Jedi to dust.”
Shrii ka rai ka rai. . .shrii ka rai ka rai . . .
The lullaby arose from his memory again. Mirro’s eyes met Maia’s. She was one of the toughest Jedi he’d ever met and had never displayed a twinge of worry or dismay. But Mirro could see in her eyes the unmistakable expression of fear. It was only for a moment, but the sentiment imprinted on his mind.
This is bad.
“These creatures, they belong to the Nihil?” Mirro asked.
“We think so, but again, there isn’t much information. We’re having trouble reaching all the Jedi. It could be interference from the Nihil in this area of concern.”
“And that’s where we’re headed?” Mirro said.
“Yes,” Maia said, folding her delicate blue hands in her lap.
“How long before we leave?” Mirro said.
“We’ll do an assessment of our forces and start sending people out as soon as tomorrow. Be ready, Mirro. Amadeo Azzazzo, it was good to meet you.”
They all stood, and Maia walked them out of the meeting room. She and Mirro embraced like the old friends they were, but Maia held on for a millisecond too long—as if it were a last goodbye.
Amadeo didn’t know what to think about that meeting, except that it was the weirdest one he’d ever had. Creatures? The Nihil? This was so different from anything they’d dealt with before. The creatures seemed more lore than truth at this point. And yet he’d never seen his own master react with such a pall of worry.
As the protocol droid led them to their quarters in the Temple, Master Lox was uncharacteristically silent. The droid chattered merrily the whole while, gesturing left, right, up, and down.
“You’ll find down this corridor our holographic training room. Lightsaber crafting can be found on the level above. The Meditation Chapel is on one of the lowest floors, and you must fit in a visit to the Kyber Arch. . . .”
