Aboard the jade shadow

"I've…got a strange feeling," Ben said as they moved slowly through the Maw. He frowned slightly.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

"As if…as if I've been here before!"

"If I weren't such a tolerant parent I'd box your ears," Luke said. Ben grinned.

"I'll do it," Vestara offered.

"You would," Ben said. Vestara smiled with mocking sweetness that melted into a genuine smile.

The banter was weak, but Luke did not discourage it. Communication had been spotty since they entered the Maw, and everyone, including himself, was on edge. To call this alliance "uneasy" was an understatement, and he did not like being incommunicado with nearly a dozen Sith frigates and the Rockhound.

Information had been exchanged. Everyone had the same star charts of the area; everyone had the course plotted and explained. The Rockhound hovered over all of them like some extraordinarily ugly mother hen with its chicks, ready to latch on to the Jade Shadow or the frigates if any of them showed signs of drifting. Or, Luke had told Lando privately, signs of veering off with possible hostile intent.

Up ahead loomed the twin black holes, looking, as Ben had described, uncomfortably like eyes. Ben was in the pilot's seat, and Luke made no move to take his place. He'd done a fine job taking them through this once before; Luke had confidence Ben could do so a second time.

"All the caranaks in a row?" Luke asked.

"All present and accounted for. We're a little ahead of the flock, and judging by the Rockhound's pace she's going to drop a bit behind in case there are stragglers."

Luke nodded. "Take her in, son."

Ben closed his eyes for a moment, breathing steadily. His instruments were practically useless for this maneuver, and the Force would be a much more reliable guide. Vestara leaned forward in her seat expectantly.

Ben swore softly. "Stang. It's not there. Never thought I'd be happy to say I didn't feel that tentacle, but it's not there."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

Ben's blue eyes flickered to Vestara. Luke felt him weighing the merits of explaining or staying silent. Ben chose to speak. Luke approved; at this juncture, the more information they shared, the better. At least about this.

"I used the Force to bring the Jade Shadow between the black holes through Stable Zone One. To Sinkhole Station. I felt a weird dark tentacle thing reaching out to me. I recognized it from when I'd lived in the Maw before, as a kid. It was needy. It wanted to find me—keep me safe, with it. And instead of shutting down, I kind of used it as a rope to guide the Shadow in."

"And it's not there now," Luke said, nodding. "She doesn't want Us to sense her. I'm not surprised that she's able to hide herself in the Force so well, as powerful as she is."

"Well, it doesn't make my job any easier," said Ben. "I can try, but I have to tell you, Dad, I don't feel at all certain about navigating the Shadow, let alone guiding the way for the whole fleet."

"That's understandable," Luke said. "Let me take the helm."

"I can get us there," Vestara said abruptly, surprising them both. "I know the way."

Luke and Ben exchanged glances. "You got to Dathomir on a rickety vessel," Luke said, "but I don't think you can handle this."

"Perhaps I'm not as skilled as Ben or you, but good enough. I learn fast."

"Learn fast?" Ben said, instantly alert. Luke was, too—did she mean she hadn't had much training? But she had shut down and had now turned to the console.

"You are very strong in the Force, Master Luke."

"Thank you."

"It is not a compliment to accurately assess one's en—allies," Vestara said. "You stand the best chance of getting us there in one piece. I ask to be allowed to plot the course and copilot."

"Fair enough," Luke said, slipping into the pilot's seat. Vestara threw him a quick glance, as if reading his thoughts, then sat beside Luke. Her fingers, long and elegant, flew over the console deftly, as if she were playing an instrument, and her smooth brow furrowed in concentration.

"Here," she said. "This is…" Her voice trailed off.

Luke had to fight to keep his shock from registering strongly in the Force. The star map she called up was exactly what he had seen at Sinkhole Station, when he had entered the room with the white cabinets and seen several holographic representatives of other places, the station itself, and what seemed to be a complete map of the entire Maw cluster.

There had been a crescent-shaped gap on the map. When Luke had touched it, an outline had appeared of a long crack in the shell of black holes. And it was into this void, this crescent, that Vestara was taking them. He and Ben had come this way, but not so far as to see this. In the center of the crescent was a pinpoint of brightness—a blue star.

Except it had changed since the last time Luke had seen it displayed at Sinkhole Station. And apparently, judging from her reaction, it had changed since Vestara had seen it. The crescent had been a sliver, like a few-days-old moon. Now it was a semicircle, like a half-moon.

"It's grown," Vestara said. "This area here," and she pointed to the half-moon of darkness, "used to just be a crescent. It's gotten larger."

"I saw a map of this area at Sinkhole Station, and you're right," Luke said.

"That star is the sup of Abeloth's world," Vestara continued, recovering from her shock. "The light is blue. It's quite lovely. The world is very hostile, completely unnatural. The animals thrive by photosynthesis, and the plants prey upon them." She gave Ben and Luke a half-smile. "Keeps you on your toes."

"And Abeloth controls everything," Luke surmised.

"She does."

"Great," said Ben.

Luke did not reply. More than ever, he was convinced that Sinkhole Station's job was to keep this being in line—keep the black holes surrounding her world, so that she couldn't escape. When he and Ben had been there, the station had clearly been falling into disrepair and it looked like the situation had worsened just in the short time they had been away. Now the area to which Abeloth had been confined had shifted ominously, and this bright blue star burned like a defiant flag run up a pole, daring them to come and get her.

Which, Luke mused, they would.

"We will likely encounter Ship," Vestara said, as if she were just making conversation.

"Yeah," Ben said. "Probably."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "You know about Ship?"

"I know more than about him, I piloted him for a while."

"I'm impressed," Vestara said. She attempted to relay the information about the crescent to the other ships in this most peculiar of fleets. "Ship is strong. It takes a powerful will to command him."

"I take it you have?"

She did not look back at Ben, but replied, "Ship contacted me first when he arrived on our world."

Luke hid a smile. Vestara was intelligent, cunning, and surprisingly strong in the Force. But she clearly was attracted to Ben, as unfortunately his son was to her, and she wanted to impress him. And in so doing, in bragging about her connection with Ship, she had revealed that it had been the strange vessel that had come to them, not the other way around. He didn't know what that signified, not yet, but it was an important piece of the puzzle that was the Lost Tribe's history.

"Once we got close," Vestara continued, "we felt a presence other than Ship's. It was…cold. It…squirmed its way into you. It was very needy." She glanced over her shoulder. "Like, oh, I don't know. A dark tentacle, perhaps?"

"You, too?"

"It is definitely Abeloth," Luke said. "Interesting that it feels the same to both Sith and Jedi."

"I guess a tentacle's a tentacle, no matter who it's poking or prodding," Ben said.

"It makes our task of finding her that much more challenging," Luke said. "But challenges are what make one grow."

"You sound like my father," Vestara said.

"Sith or Jedi, I suppose fathers read the same handbook," Luke said. "Any response?"

"No. It's doubtful it got through. They'll have to just follow us closely."

"But I'm sure you told them about Abeloth's world and how to find it."

Vestara regarded him levelly, her brown eyes cool. "Of course I did. Would you not do the same for your Jedi?"

"I would. Then let's hope we don't lose any stragglers."

And he moved in.

Luke had always loved his son. In recent years, Ben had grown into a young man whom Luke respected as well as loved. As Luke maneuvered the Jade Shadow through the "Chasm of Perfect Darkness," the way was indeed "narrow and treacherous," as the Aing-Tii had told them, and he appreciated what a good job Ben had done the first time. Even with Abeloth's Force presence to hold on to, it had to have been challenging. Luke found himself taxed as he cleared his mind and focused on the Force. Again, as it had the first time, the primary display offered only bright static. Turbulence caused the yacht to shudder, although the protective hovering of the Rockhound offered stability that Ben hadn't had access to. He hoped that the other vessels were negotiating the difficult crossing as well as or better than the Jade Shadow.

The hull temperature climbed as they entered Stable Zone One. Smoothly, with skill borne of long practice, Luke slowed the vessel. All was going as well as could be expected, but there was something wrong. Something was not as it had been the first time. Abeloth's presence was of course hidden from them, but Luke knew that. Something else…

And then he knew.

The last time they had come this way, both of them had sensed what they first assumed to be a hive-mind. Later, of course, they realized it was the Mind Drinkers, or Mind Walkers as they called themselves, on Sinkhole Station. Their connectedness had initially made them seem to be more akin to Killiks than individual beings. But now, Luke could sense nothing. Was Abeloth so powerful she could cloak their presences in the Force as well? They were in thrall to her. It was not impossible.

The only other explanation was one Luke did not want to consider.

"Dad," Ben said. "The Mind Walkers—I'm not sensing them."

"I know," Luke said quietly. The silence filled the cabin. Luke continued to extend his senses in the Force, trying to find any hints of life from the station that was now not far.

He found none. But his danger sense began to tickle at the back of his neck. Instantly he dove, throwing himself, Ben, and Vestara back against their crash webbing. With only centimeters to spare, the Jade Shadow slipped under a huge chunk of something that had not been there the last time they were here.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ben murmured.

Luke brought the navigation sensors back up, turning on the floodlights, and instantly realized why they had not been able to sense any life emanating from Sinkhole Station.

Sinkhole Station had been destroyed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE