Chapter 10 Resolutions
Bob was amazed such a little thing – and an old-looking little thing at that – could move so quickly. He was in pretty good shape, but he was panting after only a few minutes of chasing the whatever it was. Jump, duck, run, then jump and duck at the same time and run some more. Bob was concentrating too hard on not tripping to even think of accessing the Force. Beside him, Luke panted just as heavily. As if things weren't bad enough, the fog began to give way to a downpour.
A strange baroque mud house sitting on a moss-covered knoll on the edge of a small lagoon loomed up before them. The creature slowed and ducked inside. Bob and Luke exchanged glances and 'what-have-we-got-to-lose?' shrugs and followed.
It was a very plain, but cozy dwelling with everything in the same small scale as the creature. Bob and Luke had to duck to keep from banging their heads on the four-foot ceiling. Muttering to himself, the creature began to cook in a frenzy, chopping this, shredding that, and showering everything with exotic herbs and spices. He rushed back and forth putting platters on the table in front of Luke and Bob.
"Look, I'm sure it's delicious. I just don't understand why we can't see Yoda now." Luke said impatiently.
"Patience! For the Jedi it is time to eat as well. Eat, eat. Hot. Good food, hm? Good, hmm?"
Bob and Luke once more exchanged glances, this time impatient ones. But neither of them felt brave enough to contradict the little creature. Bob was sensing something powerful radiating from it. But he was too hungry to contemplate it very long. He helped himself to some kind of stewed meat from a pot – probably salamander, he reflected – and tasted it. It was amazingly good, salamander or not.
"How far away is Yoda? Will it take us long to get there?" Luke didn't try the food.
"Not far. Yoda not far. Patience. Soon you will be with him."
Bob wondered what Lark would say if she were here. She would probably tell Luke to shut up and eat and then tell Bob not to chew with his mouth open. He wondered what she would say to the creature. She'd probably ask him just who Yoda was.
The creature tasted something from another pot. "Rootleaf, I cook. Why wish you become Jedi? Hm?"
"Mostly because of my father, I guess." Luke answered.
"Ah, your father. Powerful Jedi was he, powerful Jedi, mmm."
Bob was beginning to feel a bit invisible. He put more food in his mouth. At least he could eat without having to answer any questions.
"Oh, come on. How could you know my father? You don't even know who I am." Luke stood and banged his head on the ceiling. "Ow! I don't even know what I'm doing here. We're wasting our time."
The creature turned away from look and seemed to be looking at someone who wasn't there. "I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience."
Bob and Luke both glanced at the corner where the creature was looking and then back at it. It hit them at the same moment that this was Yoda.
"He will learn patience." The voice came from out of nowhere. Bob jumped up and ducked just in time to avoid hitting his won head.
"Obi-Wan!"
"Hmmm. Much anger in him, like his father." Yoda said.
"Was I any different when you taught me?" Obi-Wan was still no where to be seen.
"Hah. He is not ready." Yoda insisted.
It finally Registered to Luke that they were talking about him. "Yoda! I am ready. I...Ben! I can be a Jedi. Ben, tell him I'm ready." Luke swiveled his head around looking for Obi-Wan.
"Ready, are you?" Yoda tapped Luke with his stick. "What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!"
Luke looked down. He knew it was true.
"So was I, if you'll remember." Obi-Wan said gently.
"He is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training."
Luke looked up at the subtle softening in Yoda's voice.
"But I've learned so much." His voice took on a pleading tone. Bob watched and wondered about himself. Had he only come here to watch Luke get the training that he wanted – no that he needed? The same training that Bob himself needed as well?
Yoda turned his piercing gaze on Luke, as though his huge eyes could somehow determine how much Luke had learned. After a long moment, the Jedi turned toward where he alone saw Obi-Wan. He sighed.
"Will he finish what he begins?"
"I won't fail you - I'm not afraid." Luke said desperately.
"Oh, you will be. You will be. And you." Suddenly Bob found himself looking into the depths of the Jedi Master's eyes. He felt himself being drowned, swallowed up whole. In the eyes he saw pain and suffering of a hundred lifetimes and power, power to stop it, but also power to create it. A power so great that bob shivered. What if he failed? It wasn't just a gift; it was also a burden that the Jedi must carry. Could he live up to it?
Yoda nodded. "You will be." He repeated.
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Bob watched Luke run through the thick vines and branches with Yoda strapped to his back. He was on his eighteenth lap by now, which meant only two more laps and then it would be Bob's turn. Bob groaned and turned back to his meditation. Somehow Yoda managed to know the instant either one of them broke their concentration. He tried to imagine using the Force as naturally as Yoda did, but it was hard. He remembered when he was sparring with Jesse that day. Then he had felt the Force flowing through him as easily as his own blood. He had practically been breathing it instead of oxygen it had been so real. But the feeling was fleeting. Closing his eyes, Bob refocused and sank deeper into his semi consciousness, the place where the Force lurked ever elusive as he tried to calm his breathing and mind at the same time.
It was a place he didn't really like to go. In it hid his innermost thoughts, his annoyance at being treated like a second fiddle, his insecurity of never knowing who his really family was, and his fear of the unknown. He kept them locked up tight, and they usually never bothered him. But today they were managing to slip out into the stream of his other thoughts.
He looked up when Luke stopped beside him, letting Yoda down. Breathing heavily, he took his shirt from a nearby tree branch and pulled it on. As he turned, he glanced at the huge, dead, black tree nearby that had been bothering Bob for the past half hour or so. Luke stared at the tree, trembling.
"There's something not right here." He finally said. "I feel cold, death."
"That place...is strong with the dark side of the Force." Yoda said. "A domain of evil it is. In you must go."
Bob looked up, but this time he was grateful Yoda was addressing Luke instead of him. Just sitting next to the tree gave Bob the willies.
"What's in there?" Luke asked.
"Only what you take with you."
Now Bob was really glad he didn't have to go in there, but he tried not to show it – or think it. Yoda sometimes seemed to be able to read minds.
Luke nodded and strapped on his weapon belt.
"Your weapons...you will not need them."
Luke gave the tree a long look and then shook his head. Yoda shrugged, and Luke slowly walked toward the tree, pushed some hanging vines aside and entered.
Bob watched him go silently. Yoda closed his eyes, and Bob wondered if he could see what was happening. He looked away and studied his lightsaber, as he always did when he felt small.
"The weapon of the Jedi Knight, a lightsaber is." Yoda said from beside him. "A Jedi's life, his weapon is."
Bob looked up and asked a question he'd been thinking for a while now. "With all do respect Master Yoda, why don't Jedi just use blasters?"
"A symbol, the lightsaber is."
"A symbol? What kind of Symbol?"
Yoda sighed as Bob yet again badgered the 900-year old Jedi Master with questions about lightsabers and the seven different forms of lightsaber combat, something he'd been doing all night last night. To Bob, knowledge was power. It was all very good to know how to use something, but if you knew its origin and makeup, you could come up with other uses pf your own. Yoda appreciated that, even if it did get a bit tiring answering Bob's questions.
"Of the small, faint line between life and death, a symbol the lightsaber is. Great training in the Force, required it is for a Jedi to use a lightsaber."
"Can anything stop a lightsaber blade?"
"Stopped only by water, cortosis, or the blade of another lightsaber, can it be. But, remember you must, only draw his weapon as a last resort, a Jedi Knight should. Jedi use their powers for knowledge and defense, never for attack and personal gain."
Bob looked over at where Luke had disappeared. "Master Yoda, can the Emperor be defeated?"
"Fought Palpatine once, I did; and lost."
"You fought the Emperor? When? Where..."
Bob stopped talking as everything started to spin. Then, in amazement, he wasn't on Dagohbah any more, but on Coruscant, the capital of the Empire. However, everything looked different; younger. He was in what appeared to be the Senate building, in an office that was the style of the Emperor. He watched as Yoda knocked out a couple of red guards, soon followed by Master Yoda getting hit with some errie looking blue lightning, then Yoda getting up, pushing Palpatine with the Force, the two drawing blades, and then fighting as the dias raised up into the Senate chamber itself. Then, in the middle, he watched as the two figures fought. Green clashed against red. Bob realized with surprise that the wielder of the green lightsaber was a vibrant Yoda himself, which meant that his opponent was the Emperor.
He watched as Palpatine used the Force to throw platform after platform at Yoda, who dodged all of them and actually threw the last one back at Palpatine. The Emperor dodge just in time and fell, only to be met by Yoda. Blue lightning shot out at Yoda, who in turn shot it right back.
Yoda fell and retreated, realizing he had lost...
Bob looked around to see the vision was over, and Yoda was looking at him, his head lowered.
"A rare power of the Force, it is, to be able to see visions of the past. Means strong, very strong in the Force, you are."
"Master Yoda, Palpatine, how did he use the Force..."
"A Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine is. Darth Sidious and Palpatine, the same person, they are. Now, no more talk of this for now, shall there be. Concentrate on your saber skills, you should. Noticed I have, that favor Vappad, you do."
"Vappad?" Bob remembered Kimmy using that word. She hadn't really explained it though, not the way he wanted. Just given him more questions.
"The seventh form of lightsaber combat, it is. Created by an old friend and fellow member of the Jedi Council, it was."
"Who?"
"Jedi Master Mace Windu."
"Master Yoda, I want to learn Vappad." Bob said, suddenly determined.
"Teach you much, I can. And when gone am I, look to Jedi Jesse Ryenae you should. Mace Windu's apprentice was he. Knows Vappad well he does." Yoda nodded, deep in thought.
Bob nodded and got back to work on meditating, now more determined than ever. This time, the darkness stayed in its locked box where it belonged.
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"That was close." Leia said, smiling thinly in relief. Behind the, the giant space worm they'd been inside disappeared back into its hole.
"We aren't out of this yet, sweetheart." Han said.
The Falcon shuddered as it sped along, making Lark wonder how much longer it would last.
"Oh, thank goodness we're coming out of the asteroid field." Threepio said.
"Thank goodness." Lark muttered, jerking the ship to the left as the star destroyer sent a blast at them. Threepio wailed as they were hit hard by another bolt. They tilted steeply and then the ship righted itself.
"Let's get out of here. Ready for light-speed? One...two...three!" Han pulsed back on the hyperspace throttle, and they tensed expectantly. Nothing happened. Flak bursts continued to rock the ship.
"It's not fair!" Han frantically began hitting switches.
"If life was fair…" Lark stopped. "Never mind."
"The transfer circuits are working. It's not my fault!" Han snapped at a howling Chewie.
"No light-speed?" Leia said dryly.
"It's not my fault." Han repeated.
"Sir, we just lost the main rear deflector shield. One more direct hit on the back quarter and we're done for." Threepio announced.
Lark looked to Han, who without hesitation pulled back on a lever. "Turn her around."
Lark paused.
"I said turn her around! I'm going to put all power in the front shield."
"You're going to attack them?!" Leia shrieked.
Lark started to spin the ship. I sure hope this isn't the last order I obey.
"Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer..."
"Shut up!" Leia, Lark, and Han snapped at the same time.
Lark cringed at straightened the Falcon as it raced head on toward the star destroyer. Better than to be blasted from the back. Better to go down fighting.
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" Kimmy, where are you going?"
Kimmy looked up defiantly at Major Derlin approached her X-wing. "I'm going to find my husband."
"You can't do that."
"Why not?" she put her hands on her hips.
"In the first place we can't spare the ship, and in the second place we can't spare you. Sorry."
"You spared him." She pointed out.
"Kimmy, we have two resident Jedi and one resident trainee, or whatever you call it."
"Apprentice."
"Right. Two are gone. Do you think we're going to let the other one just fly out of here? Aren't you supposed to protect and defend?"
He had a point. Kimmy sighed and rubbed her eyes. She couldn't just leave. "You're right."
He looked at her sympathetically. "He'll be fine. In the meantime, why don't you get some sleep? There's a meeting at o-one hundred we need you to be at."
Kimmy nodded and smiled as he walked away. She didn't tell him that she hadn't been able to sleep since their fight, even with the Force. It seemed to have forsaken her just like everything and everyone else.
She couldn't let Jesse forsake her. She would give him two more days. Then she would go after him no matter what.
Is that better? It's longer. See I can be nice.