Star Wars: Lodestar

Shattered Souls

CHAPTER 2

Secret Jedi Base, Shedu Maad, Transitory Mists in the Hapes Cluster

Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, Luke Skywalker, took no notice of his meager surroundings. The dust gray walls of poured plastoid and the few yellow-aged sturdiplast bits of furniture that sufficed to provide him with living quarters in the abandoned mine turned secret base deep in the Transitory Mist of the Hapes Cluster might as well have not existed. Luke was too immersed in the Force.

He spent more and more time there now…ever since Mara, his beloved wife…had died…been murdered by Darth Caedus. In part, it was out of necessity as he probed the future actively seeking to be within the Force at the same time Caedus was, to see what he saw and then cloud it, influence what the Sith Lord who had once been his beloved nephew believed the future to be in an effort to keep him from seeing the real one. The one where it was his twin sister, Jaina, who would pursue him and not Luke in a bid for revenge as Luke was leading him to believe.

Luke knew that of all the Jedi, it was he alone that had the power to stop Caedus. But every time he searched out through the Force, any path that began with Luke pursuing him…ended in perpetually darkness…for him…for the galaxy. No matter how well intentioned he began his visions always ended with him killing Caedus, not to save the galaxy from the war that he was already raining down on it and the complete devastation he would bring if he remained alive, but out of revenge for Mara's death.

Mara. His darling, beloved, spitfire. Wife. Mother of his son. The one person he'd given his entire soul to and now all he had left were a few trinkets and a hole where his heart used to be.

He had been in far worse shape than he was now. Before he hadn't even been able to move, to breathe, to make any sort of choice—frozen by heartache too profound to ever be defined. Luke had lost and done much in the years since he'd been the naïve wet-behind-the-ears farm boy from Tatooine plucked up by the 'crazy' old hermit Ben Kenobi and whisked off to a life he could never have imagined. The toll of it was written in the deeply shadowed eyes, the hollow cheeks and hints of gray at his temples that stared back at him in the mirror every day, especially of late, reminding him he was no longer the young man he had been-able to carry any weight regardless of how crushing. Before he'd lost loves, family, friends, homes, been tempted by and for a time turned to the darkside, faced dangers that defied belief or reason and always he had bounced back. But Caedus had found the one thing that could destroy him and done it. Killing Mara.

Luke hadn't just fallen apart…he'd given up…he'd wanted to die to be with her, to become one with the Force..and Mara.

He had been able to let go of his grief, after his son, Ben-named for that same old hermit, had taken up his mother's mantle and verbally abused him into realizing that not only would Mara have not wanted him to fall apart as he had done, that she would have beaten him about the head for leaving the Order and the galaxy without the Grand Master they so desperately needed right now, that she'd have beat him senseless for wanting to die. Had reminded him of the one thing that had been as strong a driving force in his life as his love for Mara…his sense of duty. The same sense of duty that had molded the course of his existence and had, more times than he could count, saved his life.

He'd been able to step from under the grief, to not let it consume him but it was still there. To be who everyone needed him to be. Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi, Republic Legend and Master of the Impossible. Perhaps he could be Luke Skywalker, human—later.

Caedus had long withdrawn himself from his probing of the future and still Luke sat on the floor of his chamber, legs folded beneath him, hands resting placidly in his lap in meditation as he reached out through the Force, touched it, caressed it, let it flow through him out past the bounds of the starless Transitory Mists that made Shedu Maad feel like it existed mournfully alone in the universe to the greater galaxy beyond—to the life and energy that flowed through everything, seeking the serenity it had once been so easy for him to reach. He still could. He still must. But it took him a great deal longer to accomplish after his sessions of 'jamming' Caedus's perception of the future. He didn't search for more than that.

The Force had ceased to reveal anything to him anymore, beyond the immediate moment, since Mara's death, as though it was refusing to answer him out of a deep disappointment. Perhaps it was. He had lashed out when he had believed—when everything had seemed to prove-it had been Lumiya who had killed Mara, had killed her, succumbing to his desire for revenge in the very moment he had cut her down. He'd fallen blindly into the trap she'd laid for him, sacrificing her own life to spur him to it under false pretenses and damned him…and possibly the entire Order…in the process.

He could still feel the taint of the darkside in his soul from it and that—along with the distant darkness that existed beyond Caedus—that he brought down on the galaxy that Luke could not describe or define-above all else swayed him back to action, to being the person everyone needed him to be, regardless of the personal costs to himself and away from any attempt against Caedus himself…the temptation would be too great….even for him.

Mara would have been mortified. Not that he had been grief-stricken enough to want revenge for her death but that he'd touched the darkside in doing so. He would carry the guilt and regret-and the taint-of that for the rest of his life.

Luke reached a bit further, seeking, searching and found what he sought. The serenity he sought came to him. It seeped into his being and filled the places that trembled with uncertainty and turmoil. The Force might not give him what he wanted, but it always gave him what he needed. That he had learned long ago.

Luke allowed himself a quiet, inaudible sigh as he regained his center and began to withdraw from the meditation, pulling back his Force sense within himself. Only to be struck with violent suddenness by a wave of disturbance so great it made him physically reel back despite the fact he was firmly planted on the floor. He caught himself on one hand, gasping for air. Something was beyond terribly wrong. He hadn't felt a disturbance in the Force that great since….never. Not once in his entire life had he been struck that fiercely with the shockwave a great disturbance in the Force caused.

He knew immediately it wasn't death. Nothing had died, it wasn't destruction. It was…impossible as it seemed...birth? But birth of what? Whatever it was it was as though the Force had exploded in the same nanosecond with something that was both immensely darkside and lightside. If Luke were ever asked to describe it to a non-Force User he'd have had to explain it as a white fountain and a black hole coming into existence at the same time, in the same place, with equal, massive intensity.

Luke wasn't the only one who had felt it. He could feel every force-sensitive on Shedu Maad come boiling out of the mining facility's hastily converted chambers like a nest of upset lizard-ants. It was no surprise. Every Force sensitive in the galaxy would have felt it.

Luke forced himself to get control, to regulate his breathing and stand up off the floor even though his equilibrium and his spinning head would have been much happier if he'd stayed down there. His stomach tried to turn inside out on him and he fought it as he made his feet behave and stick to the floor because at the moment they very much wanted not to.

He made an attempt to shuffle toward the rusted door, fingers reaching to hit the release when the second wave hit. As strong as the first but different. The first had been overwhelming force power. This one had one defining feature. Pain.

Luke felt it tear through him like a lightning strike and he cried out, collapsing to his knees. He heard others who had been stirred by the disturbance scream in agony, unable to stave off the worse of the onslaught. Han's strident and mildly angry when he was worried cry of alarm cut through the inarticulate wails of pain that wracked the Force sensitives somewhere out in the corridors as he tried to figure out what was going on—blessedly unable to feel what they felt. Others, the raised voices of other non-force sensitives in the complex, families or those allied with the Jedi in exile added themselves to Han's.

Luke fought against the pain. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. And Luke had faced down everything from Ancient disembodied Sith Lords like Exar Kun and the Emperor himself to the Yuuzhan Vong. He would have had an easier time of suppressing the sense of pain if didn't come with the greatest sense of dread and doom Luke had ever felt. Not the darkness he had seen beyond Caedus (though it was somehow connected to Caedus of that he was certain) something else, something born of pure evil. And it was viciously assaulting the lightside presence that had burst into existence with it. But on the heels of that pain came something more, something totally unexpected and so desperately needed, wanted, sought after that Luke's entire spirit felt electrified even as it was ravaged by agony.

A shaft of such profound hope that how every corner of the galaxy was not blazing with light was beyond his comprehension. It called to mind something Master Yoda had once said to him during his training on Dagobah…luminous beings are we.

Wave after wave of pain washed over him as he hauled himself off his knees and struggled out the door and into the corridor, focusing instead through the pain on that brilliant beam of hope. Luke had wanted the Force to answer him, to give him more than simply the ability to press on. It had answered…profoundly.

Many of those affected were not as lucky as he, a number were sprawled unconscious in the corridor and Luke suspected more still had been struck dumb before they'd ever made it out of their rooms. The sound of crying younglings, the force-sensitive children too young to truly begin training but just as vulnerable to the disturbance in the Force as the most seasoned of the Jedi echoed off the plastoid walls. The corridor was chaos as the non-sensitives tried to contain their panic and help the force-sensitives, unsure what to do…and helpless to assist. There was nothing any of them could do but ride it out.

He felt a welter of deep concern for his son, Ben, whose extraordinary gift of Force Empath was so strong that he'd been unable to bear the pain and suffering of the victims of the Yuuzhan Vong war and withdrawn from the Force completely as a small child. It had taken years to draw him back to it and teach him to shield himself against it. This—whatever it was—would affect him incredibly.

Another wave of agony struck Luke, almost pitching him back to his knees even as Han barked demandingly, "Luke what the hell is going on!?," only to cry "Leia!" as Luke's twin sister—now a Jedi in her own right-yelled in pain beside him, hit by the same waves of agony the rest of the Jedi were being pummeled under. Her knees buckled and Han scrambled to catch his falling wife, pulling her close against him protectively. Luke kept his feet…barely.

"A disturbance…in…the Force," Luke managed to pant out to his best friend and brother in law by way of some sort of explanation. "Great power. Dark. Light." He couldn't manage more than that, words failed him.

Such pain. Such unimaginable pain. As though the lightside presence were being ripped apart from the inside, from the spirit out. Not by the darkside one though its assault against it was not helping….something…had happened when they erupted into the Force. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong...it was dying.

It took every lesson of control Luke had ever learned not to fly into panic. To have that radiant flash of hope blaze into existence and then realize it was being torn away to leave only the crushing darkness that had come with it, in the same moment was almost more than he could take.

"It's dying," Leia muttered despairingly, holding on to her husband for support. Luke knew she would have felt the soul bolstering hope that came with the deep dread just as he did.

"What's dying?" Han demanded to know. He knew 'Jedi Trouble' as he put it when he saw it… but what the trouble was he couldn't comprehend. For that matter neither could Luke.

Abruptly the waves of agony cut off. All sense of the lightside presence disappeared like a snuffed candle flame, disappearing from his sense of the Force completely. Leaving Luke feeling utterly bereft. The darkside presence however remained, terrifyingly dark and foreboding. Someone, Cilghal—the Mon Calamari Jedi Master and healer, one of his first students-Luke realized, gasped, "No!" vocalizing what he felt.

Luke refused to believe what his senses were telling him. It couldn't be, The Force wouldn't produce something full of such light only to allow it to be snuffed out an instant later. But he couldn't quantify the sudden existence of such a massive force of darkness either. The Force did not create things that were of the darkside, the darkside was a corruption of the light. It made no sense to him.

"Luke?" Han insisted again even as Kyp Durron came, all but dragging himself as he used the wall for support, toward them.

"What was that? It. Them," he wanted to know. Luke didn't have an answer. He leaned against the wall, letting it hold him up and shook his head, waving one hand for silence, for everyone to stop asking questions to which he had no answers so that he could find some.

"Them? It went from an 'it' to a 'them'?" Han asked worriedly, eyes casting about for someone who'd give him an answer.

"Shhh," Leia urged getting her legs wobbly beneath her again though she still leaned into her husband for support. "Luke is trying to concentrate."

Han impatiently obeyed, clamping his lips together in a thin line.

"I will begin collecting the unconscious and badly shaken and move them to the medbay to come around," Cilghal said. "There is no injury to anyone. Except perhaps bumps and bruises from falling. It was only the intensity that overwhelmed."

"I'll help," Kyp offered as he started shuffling his shaky way in her direction.

One large black fish eye swiveled to survey him critically. "You will not help, you will be the first I collect." It only got the salmon pink Calamarian a look of ire and stubbornness daring her to try.

Luke ignored them all confident in Kyp and Cilghal's ability to deal with the ruckus around them. He shut his eyes, reaching out through the Force probing for the lightside presence that had suddenly disappeared, carefully and meticulously searching for it. But he got nothing. No matter how hard he tried, it was like the presence had simply ceased to exist.

Sadly Luke ceased his probing, and gave a quiet sigh.

"It's not…" Leia asked.

"I can't find it," he admitted.

"Then the darkness won," Leia said softly.

Luke shook his head again. "No. That's not the impression I got. The darkness was attacking it but it wasn't what was causing the most…damage." 'Damage' seemed too small a word for what had been happening to the lightside presence but it was the only word he knew to use for it.

"What 'it'? What darkness?" Han demanded again.

"I don't…" Luke stumbled for a way to explain what he did know which was precious little. "All of a sudden there was a disturbance in the Force. A light and a dark side presence, each of incredible power that just….came into being… out of nowhere…like the Force itself suddenly created them….or unleashed them." 'Unleashed' somehow sounded more appropriate. But how either presences could have existed prior to the moment Luke had felt them and him or any of the other Jedi not have known before now seemed…impossible. "I don't know why. I don't know where. I don't even know what. They were just there and then something went horribly wrong with the lightside one. The darkside attacked the light but it wasn't what was killing it." He hesitated for a moment before he added the rest of his scant knowledge. "I don't know how or why but Caedus is connected to it."

"I felt it too," Leia said mournfully as Han's face contorted into a visage of betrayed anger and pain. If Luke had been devastated by the things Caedus had done, Leia and Han were equally as hurt by it. Caedus had once been their son Jacen after all. They'd already lost one son and now they had lost another and might lose their daughter in the effort to stop the former. The entire Skywalker clan was being torn apart.

"You'd think the Force could be a little more specific!" Han bit.

"The light is gone but that darkness. It's still there," Leia whispered burying her face against her husband's chest, who tightened his arms around her further in protection. "It so…terrible. What has he done? How could even he do something like this?"

It broke Luke's heart that his sister couldn't even bring herself to say her eldest son's name, either of them.

"I don't think he did," he said. For some reason he felt that Caedus was involved but not that he had done this. He didn't say that it immediately occurred to Luke that even if Caedus had not done this that he had somehow been the one to…open the door, directly or indirectly.

"Then what did?" Han asked. Luke shook his head again about to repeat that he didn't know but he was sharply cut off as a Force Call of extreme power and focus came roaring through the Force aimed with laser bolt accuracy at anything that could even remotely be considered 'of the light'.

A new round of crys and yells broke out from the Jedi and younglings. Luke included. But these were of hopeful urgency.

"Now what?" Han said in exasperation.

The Call rushed through Luke and away, rippling out like the sonic echoes of a deep space low band transponder and then doubled back as though being pulled and as it was pulled back toward him like a ship in hyperspace he was pulled toward it, like two magnets that had gotten too close to each other. It recognized him as the strongest lightside prescense it had come in contact with and it would not be denied, could not be.

All of them were spurred to action by it but Luke wasn't just compelled to obey it… he got the entire message as an inarticulate pulse of information. The call was both desperate confused distress cry and screaming warning that made Luke's blood freeze in his veins.

The lightside presence—confused to the point of mindlessness Luke realized and reacting on pure instinct-was alive…barely…but quickly dying. It had used the same technique that Luke had, ironically, learned from his son Ben who had learned it from Jacen before he had become Caedus, to hide itself within the Force. More over it was a person and he knew exactly where it was. And it wanted him…and every other lightsider in the galaxy to know that the darkness that had come with it wasn't just terrible danger. It was complete oblivion with will and intent. One planet wasn't in danger, not just one planetary system, not even just the New Republic. Every living thing in the galaxy down to the last cell was in imminent danger of utter destruction.

Then the presence disappeared into the Force, hiding itself once more from the darkside entity …. and Caedus.

The Force itself responded to the Call filling Luke not only with the overwhelming compulsion for him go to the lightside being that the Call itself had wrought but giving him crystal clear clarity. It had to be him that heeded the lightside being's Call and quickly. Their hope was still alive…if Luke could get there in time. Furthermore, he knew with complete certainty—for good or ill-everything had changed…forever.

"Hey! Where is everybody going?" Han yelled as Luke shook himself back to the present moment. No one heeded him. The force-sensitives were all in varying degrees of compelled flight, all of them driven by the Force Call to act on it with an almost irresistible urgency. Even without the Force's insistence that it had to be him to answer the Call, Luke seriously doubted he could have resisted for any length of time. The Call had been too powerful.

"Stop them," he called to anyone who would heed him. Han gaped. "They don't realize what they're doing."

"Neither do you!" he said seizing Luke's arm and dragging him backward. He already had a durasteel grip on his wife who was blindly attempting to wriggle free and insisting vehemently. "I have to go. It's alive." It was only then that Luke realized he was following the others who were being herded back away from the exits by the non-force sensitives of the Order to prevent them doing something reckless—bent on only one objective. Get there. Now. So much for resisting long enough to get his head on straight.

The only thing that stalled him long enough to realize he had to get control of himself was how he had unconsciously intended to get there. He had been about to rush to the lightside being's call, to board one of the ground shuttles and arrow straight for The Jade Shadow out of instinct… his deceased wife's beloved ship. The ship he hadn't yet been capable of stepping foot on for fear of coming apart at the seams. The Jade Shadow had been all put a part of her.

Luke fiercely fought the compulsion and willed himself mightily to stay put, to think and focus. Yoda would have whacked him soundly on the skull with his walking stick for losing control like this. Luke's will won by a slim margin, assuaged only because Luke knew he was going just as soon as he had a grip on himself.

Luke could Force Call and had in the past, to call a conclave of the Order when they had been scattered across half the galaxy by battle. He knew how powerful it's influence was. It was an exceptionally hard skill to master and took a massive amount of energy to accomplish, directing it instead of just flinging it out into the universe at anything that could hear it took great skill.

That the lightside being had managed it, while on the brink of death, confused, mindless and using Force Stealth—another exceedingly taxing skill only a few Jedi were capable of mastering and fewer still could wield with such skill that it hid them from everyone but the select few they wanted to be visible to—was a testament to the being's sheer power in the Force. Not potential, power.

Whoever, whatever, they were…they were at the very least a match for Luke himself and they knew exactly how to use it but the use had been raw and wild out of desperation, a blast instead of a gentle current and the effect continued, rippling out like rings in a disturbed pool. The others would not be able to get control without help.

When he had gotten himself firmly under control Luke gathered his wits about him, pushing aside the compulsion and projected his will and his voice with the Force over the still fervently determined force-sensitives.

"Control," he called, firmly. "Be calm". His voice rang out like a clarion call, washing over the rest of them in a gentle, calm wave. Luke disliked doing it since it bent them to his will, removing their ability to choose but it was necessary…just as the Force Call had been necessary however forceful it had been. "Focus." The wave reached the least force call affected first, the ones strongest in the Force, forcibly cooling their fervent desire to go and allowing them to regain control. They in turn picked it up and projected their own will and calming auras to those around them, magnifying the effect until people stopped trying to go and stood still if anxious and confused. Luke didn't blame them, that had been an intense experience even for him.

"Now would someone tell me what is going on?" Han pipped up loudly, his expression one of confused annoyance as he slowly released his hold on Leia, who had calmed and was in control again.

Luke could feel her embarrassment at herself. He came closer to them and placed his hand on his sister's shoulder and squeezed gently in understanding.

"It's okay. I felt it too. We all did," he consoled her. Leia gave him a small smile and the sense of embarrassment abated.

"I didn't!" Han protested.

"We've been…I've been called," Luke explained in brief.

"You've been…by who?" Han pressed.

"Gather everyone outside," Luke said. "I'll explain…everything I can."

"Now wait just a minute…" Han began but Luke cut him off.

"You wanted the Force to be more specific. You got it, Han. Profoundly."

Han hesitated as though he were going to protest again about having to wait for an answer. Patience had never been one of Han's virtues. Persistence however was.

"Go," Luke insisted. "We haven't much time."

Han huffed. "Alright fine," he assented and, his arm still hovering protectively in the vicinity of his wife, turned to go. Leia cast a questioning glance back at her brother, asking if she should stay or go with Han. Luke gave a brief nod and nudged his chin after Han. Leia smiled faintly at him again and let Han herd her along protectively.

"Dad!" came a cry from out in the crowd. Luke turned to see his fourteen year old son, Ben, flame red hair to match his mother's setting him apart easily as he slipped and wove around people to get to Luke.

"Ben!" Luke called to alert him to his location in the crowd though he didn't need to, they could have found each other in a hurricane with ease.

"Dad, what happened? What was that?" his young son asked, punching through the crowd to reach them finally.

"First, are you alright?" he asked worriedly as he transferred the hand that had been on Leia's shoulder to Ben's, concerned that with his powerful Force Empathy gifts that the experience might have disturbed him more than the others. The pain alone had almost consumed Luke's ability to control his response to it.

"I'm fine Dad. I blocked most of it, the way Jac….the way I was taught," Ben promised him and only narrowly avoiding saying 'Jacen'. Once Ben had been apprenticed to his cousin, who had been the only one that seemed able to lead the boy back to his connection with the Force. Jacen's betrayal and the knowledge that it had been he who had killed his mother—which Ben had been the one to discover—had struck him deeply. "What was that?"

"Be calm, son. Go join the others outside and I will explain," Luke assured him. "The Force is with us."

That seemed to mollify both Ben and he needn't explain what he meant, Ben like all other Jedi, understood. The younger Skywalker breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, confident in his father's ability to handle whatever it was that was happening, Luke just hoped he was right. Ben started to turn to go and then stopped.

"Dad?" he asked. "Everything is about to change isn't it? I can feel it."

Luke leveled a weary smile at his son proud of his son's astuteness. "Yes. I believe it already has."

Ben gave a short nod, accepting Luke's agreement but his face and his feelings betrayed what Luke wouldn't show. The worry that the change wouldn't be for the better. But whatever came, they'd face it together…all of them.

Then Ben blinked and tilted his head a little and his worry seemed to fade for no discernible reason to Luke. In fact his worry had taken the copilot's seat to…quiet but happy relief? He smiled , and it was a brighter smile than Luke had seen his son give since Mara had died.

"What is it Ben?" Luke urged curious to know what had provoked the emotional flip-flop. Ben quickly shook his head.

"Later Dad," he promised. "It's not important right now. We're running out of time."

He was right of course and so Luke didn't press the issue but he still wondered about it as he fell in step behind his son to go explain what even he wasn't exactly sure of to the rest of the Order.

"Luke, this is insane," Han insisted as he sat in the pilot's seat flipping switches as he warmed up the Millennium Falcon for takeoff in direct contradiction of his words. "Look I get it. The will of the Force and all that but hopping over to Centax-2 and not expecting," his voice hitched briefly, "…Caedus… to rip you apart as soon as he knows you're there?"

Luke spared hardly a glance for his old friend, he could feel the worry coming from Han over what Luke planned to do but he couldn't and wouldn't let it sway him. He'd explained all he knew to the Order and calmed their concerns as best he could but he had not been willing to waste any time arguing the risk of Luke being the one to answer the call. Their answers lay with the one who had sent it and they had very little time. The Force had demanded it of him, not of anyone else.

"He won't notice," Luke assured him as he moved to sit down in the co-pilot's seat. There was a half-second pause before he did it, the old memory of who should have been sitting in that chair, roaring complaints at both of them, would always be a part of him. It had been years and still Chewbacca's loss stayed with them, the pain of it had ebbed but he was still deeply missed.

"Yeah, yeah I know. You'll hide us in the Force. But don't forget he can do the same thing."

"I haven't, I assure you," Luke promised and he hadn't. On the contrary, that was foremost on his mind. He had no illusions that he would be the only one looking for the person who had called to them. Caedus would be too. The dark entity, at least for now, would not. It loomed in the back of Luke's senses forebodingly but it was too wounded itself to do more than retreat and recoupe. After that however….

Artoo came into the cockpit with a sharp whistle and trundled to Luke's side. "System check done short round?" Han asked of the little loyal droid.

Artoo let out a string of indignant whirrs that suggested that he was insulted that Han had even had to ask and then swiveled his optical sensor toward Luke and gave him a low soft beep. The loyal little astromech had been with Luke so long that it wasn't much effort to figure out what was distressing him even without Threepio to translate. But then Luke had never really needed the protocol droid to tell him what Artoo was saying, he'd always been able to tell what the little droid meant even if he didn't know the exact words.

"Don't worry Artoo. We'll be careful," he promised, absent-mindedly reaching out and patting him on the dome affectionately. The astromech answered with a series of accepting chirps but he was still worried.

"I'm with him Luke," Han said, fingers ticking over controls without Han consciously looking out of intimate familiarity. "This is an insane mission. I know you've gotta do it but it's still crazy."

"You didn't have to come," Luke pointed out. And he hadn't, Luke had been willing to steel himself and take The Jade Shadow, had fully intended to until Han had insisted that they take the Falcon instead. Luke knew he'd done as much out of practicality as a desire to spare Luke the pain of stepping on that ship and seeing Mara in every line and curve. For that, Luke was immeasurably grateful. He just wasn't ready. One day….but not today.

That the Falcon lacked as much by way of medical equipment was of little concern. Luke was a skilled force-healer in his own right, though he fully admitted Cilghal excelled at it far better—for her it was as natural as breathing-and there was a collapsible Bacta tank, stored in one of the storage compartments for emergencies. If all else failed Han had a cryogenic hibernation tube for last-ditch efforts…even if he'd used it to store perishable contraband in his smuggling days. If they couldn't keep the person they were going to save alive with all that…they couldn't keep them alive.

"Sure I did. Someone's got to make sure you don't get yourself killed playing hero," Han said jokingly though the dangers to him were no less serious than to Luke. Caedus wanted to kill Luke certainly but Han and Leia both had warrants out for their arrests, warrants issued by their son in retribution for their interference with his plans. If they were caught, Luke didn't want to think about what Caedus would do to his father. "You can't possibly think this is going to work. You said it yourself. All the Jedi felt it. Whatever that lightside thing…"

"Person," Luke corrected automatically. "It's a person."

"Alright…whatever this person is….they're dying. It will take a day to navigate your way out of the Mists and another two in hyperspace to get there. You can't believe you are going to get there in time."

"I can pilot us out of the Mist in half that," Luke reminded him. Han knew it and Luke knew he knew it. "The Force is…"

"…With you. I know. But shouldn't we be more worried about the dark thing that came with it? You know the one you so calmly said this person warned you about that wants to destroy everything in existence? And don't you think Caedus is going to be looking for this person too?"

"I know he will. Which is another reason why I have to get there first," Luke said. "We don't know what that darkside entity is. That person laying somewhere on Centax-2 dying has those answers."

"You hope," Han countered. He sighed but he never lost step with Luke. "And I still say you're crazy."

"If I'm crazy and you're going with me what does that make you?" Luke countered.

"Just as crazy as you. Just like old times," Han answered. It elicited a chuckle from Luke despite himself.

"Did you actually just laugh?" Han asked in surprise. Luke hadn't laughed in a very long time. Not even a little.

Luke blinked. He hadn't expected to. "I guess I did."

Han let his hands drop into his lap and all but stared at Luke, narrowing his eyes shrewdly.

"You're excited about this aren't you?"

Luke raised his eyebrows. How Han had come to that conclusion was beyond him but still he was reminded of Ben's odd remark earlier. What were they seeing that he wasn't?

"I don't think excited is the right word."

"Yes, you are. You don't need Jedi senses to see it either."

"Alright," Luke conceded. "I suppose I am eager to get underway. We have a person to save and you didn't feel it Han. The pain that person is in… it's indescribable."

"You're not exactly the type who gets excited about people dying and in pain. That's not it. There's something else isn't there? Something you didn't tell everyone else?"

"I didn't have to, they felt it too, Han."

Han gave him a pointed look. Luke sighed and relented.

"There was this moment, during all of it, that broke though the agony and confusion," he struggled to put it into words Han would understand. "It felt like being electrified." Han gave him a dubious look. No, Luke supposed being electrified didn't sound like a good thing to someone who hadn't felt it. "I don't know how to describe it. It was like….being lost in a dark maze with no way to find the way out and suddenly someone floods the whole thing with light."

"You mean hope? This thing filled you with hope even though you were being wracked with unspeakable agony at the same time? I'm not even going to mention the level of weird that approaches."

"Yes. It was hope and right now that hope is laying on a dead moon, dying themselves so let's get going."

Han shook his head. "You seemed to get more of whatever this person was trying to communicate. What do you think it means? Are they going to somehow pull us out of this mess we're in with Caedus and the Galactic Alliance? That doesn't seem real likely with that 'dark entity' that came along for the ride but…"

Luke almost flinched. He hadn't said that and he didn't want Han to get his hopes up. "End the war you mean? You know the Force isn't a magic cure all, Han. I honestly don't know. But… there's something…"

"At this point I'll take something over nothing," Han answered as he moved from the pilot's seat and waved possession of the controls over to Luke. "She's all yours hotshot. Just don't scratch the paint."

Luke slipped into Han's place and reached for the com button to request departure clearance.

"This is the Falcon, requesting clearance for takeoff."

Once a haven of Hapan Pirates, the Transitory Mists were so thick and confusing, littered with planetoids and derelict hulks in the vision obscuring gas clouds that it made the use of hyperspace…or a preplanned flight plan…impossible. You had to fly by sight and in realspace or risk ending up bashed to bits or becoming one with a mass of rock and metal. It was why Luke had chosen this location as the safe haven for the Order when Caedus had intended to whip them out if they would not obey… you couldn't sneak up on them here. They'd have advance warning...something they hadn't had on Ossus or Endor.

But if Caedus ever found the location… he'd have a strike team ready to pounce on them before they could evacuate. They would just know he was coming. Such was the depth of the corner Caedus had backed them into. Frankly, the only thing Shedu Madd had going for it was that Caedus didn't know about it….yet.

But now this new development..Luke didn't even dare to consider how things were changing not yet. Not now. He couldn't let his emotions or his desire for a light in the dark to cloud his judgment…or he might miss the very thing he was looking for. And despite that flare of hope Luke knew from long experience…it was never that easy.

The voice of one of the flight controller's on board the Errant Venture, the repurposed Imperial Star Destroyer that served as the Jedi Coalition's capital ship, who was monitoring the little traffic there was from surface to space crackled over the comm system. "We read you Master Skywalker. You're cleared for takeoff. Be careful out there. You too Captain Solo."

"We will be," Luke promised. "May the Force be with you."

"And you," the voice answered and then the comm clicked off. Luke pulled the landing gear up and sent the Falcon rising into Shedu Maad's starless sky with one smooth motion of the controls. As the freighter rose skyward he settled back in the pilot's chair and glanced at Han who sat down awkwardly in the co-pilot's seat. Han didn't like relinquishing the pilot's chair and he was still worried.

"Tr…" Luke began to offer.

"Trust you. I know. I do, kid. I do. I always have. Just… the next time I wish for the Force to be more specific… hit me," Han mumbled sheepishly. Luke grinned at him. After all these years, Luke was still 'kid' to him. It didn't matter that he was approaching sixty, though he didn't look it, was a father and Grand Master of the Jedi Order. To Han, in some small way, he'd always be that farmboy from Tatooine. That had annoyed him once. It didn't anymore. Hadn't in many years. Now he drew some measure of comfort from it. Everyone else might see him as the infalliable Jedi Master…but he could always count on Han and his sister, and most recently his own son, to knock him down a peg or two if he ever got too big for his britches. They grounded him when nothing else could.

He felt a little of the farmboy he had been prod him. "Don't worry. I won't have to… the Force can do that fine all by itself."

Han smiled at him and leaned over to clap him on the shoulder. "Don't remind me," Han said as the Falcon broke the atmosphere and Luke sent it out toward the Mists. Silently, Luke willed the dying person on Centax-2 to hear him, though he doubted they were in any condition to hear, to hang in there. We're coming.