Part 9 (1/2)
”I can't be certain but I think they have a Jedi with them... and he knows we're here.”
Jan looked alarmed.
”Then where are the TIE fighters? How come we're alive?”
Kyle shook his head.
”I have no idea.”
”So we go in?”
”That's what we came for.”
”Yeah,” Jan said thoughtfully. ”That's what we came for.”
The first of three moons popped over the eastern horizon and threw light across the land.
The Rebels put the Crow down about five klicks from the target. It was dark, and the maneuver called for some fancy flying. The kind Jan had perfected over the last few years. It was a long way from the Valley - but as close as they dared come. The area was crawling with troops, attack droids, and AT-STs. By landing in a canyon, and covering the s.h.i.+p with camouflage netting, they hoped to escape detection.
Wee Gee beeped forlornly when ordered to remain behind, but Kyle was adamant.
The droid would be a liability when it came to mountain climbing - and they had enough problems already. The scouting party consisted of Kyle, Jan, Grif, and the bouncer called Floater. Once the s.h.i.+p was secured, they set off in what Kyle knew to be a southerly direction. Floater led them through a labyrinth of twisting, turning canyons. How the bouncer managed to navigate through the maze was a mystery.
Kyle was surprised by the ease with which the native managed the mountainous terrain.
Especially given the extent to which his species had adapted to life in the open desert. The seemingly fragile, balloon-like body and tentacle-style arms were deceiving though. Thanks to his negligible body weight and multiple limbs, Floater climbed with ease. And, while the humans were forced to rappel down the face of vertical cliffs, the bouncer loved to fling himself out into the void and float to the ground.
The darkness made the trek even more treacherous, and if it hadn't been for their night-vision goggles, the humans would have been unable to proceed.
All went well, very well, until the Rebels were half a klick from the Valley. Dawn saw the group ascending the nearly vertical slope of a brittle ravine. Floater had the lead, and Grif came next with Kyle and Jan strung out on ropes below. Grif had just scrambled up onto a broad shelf when he heard the unmistakeable sound of jets firing. An attack droid, now alerted to the Rebel's presence, rose from a dark cleft in the ledge to Grif's left, who did the first thing that came to mind - he charged.
The attack droid had two sometimes countervailing objectives: to gather intelligence and kill intruders. The second imperative took momentary precedence over the first.
That being the case, the machine met charge with charge. There was no time to pull his blaster, so Grif opened his arms and swore as the machine slammed into his body.
Kyle heard a noise and looked up just in time to see the attack droid, Grif plastered across the front of its casing, sail out over the abyss. It would have been comical if the droid hadn't seized one of the colonist's legs and crushed it with a pair of powerful pincers. Grif roared in pain, pulled his half-meter-long hunting knife, and rammed it through the robot's thin alloy skin. The blade, which had been fas.h.i.+oned from diamond-hard hull metal, sliced through the machine's wiring harness and shorted the guidance system.
Jan locked herself in place and waited for a shot. The droid spun on its axis and took Grif for a ride. Jan wanted to fire but was afraid to do so. The odds of hitting Grif were way too high - not to mention the fact that her rope had started to sway.
The outposter was furious now, stabbing the machine over and over, and screaming his hatred.
”This is for Katie, this is for Carole, and this is for me!” The settler hit something critical, and the attack droid staggered and then accelerated away. There was a momentary flash of light as it hit the canyon wall and fell to the rocks below.
Kyle felt Grif's death via the Force, and Jan bit her lip. But there was nothing they could do - nothing but turn back or go on. Kyle scrambled onto the ledge and waited for Jan to join him. Common sense argued that they go back - but the importance of the mission urged him on.
They were close, so close, and there was no a.s.surance that conditions would improve later. In fact, it seemed logical to suppose that the Imperials would tighten their grip, making any sort of incursion that much more difficult. Still, there were other lives at stake, and Kyle had no right to make decisions for Jan or Floater. Kyle waited until Jan was on the ledge and held a brief council of war.
”There's no way to know if the droid sent some sort of report, but we should a.s.sume it did. The Imperials will send out a patrol - and it will find the wreckage.”
”And Grif's body,” Jan said soberly.
”And Grif's body,” Kyle agreed. ”But what will they conclude when they find it? That he was part of a group? Looking to penetrate the Valley? Or a loner who wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
”We can hope for the second possibility,” Jan said judiciously, ”but the first seems more likely. Smart people would leave in a hurry.”
Kyle scanned her face.
”And?”
She shrugged. ”We have a mission to carry out. Let's get on with it.”
Kyle nodded, looked for Floater, and couldn't find him. He pulled the night-vision goggles down over his eyes and tried again. The native was high above - still climbing. The Rebel grinned and pointed upward.
”Well, if actions speak louder than words, then we know what Floater thinks... Let's go.”
The next few hours were difficult, because of both the physical demands involved and the constant threat of discovery. A shuttle rumbled over their heads on one occasion - and a speeder-bike-mounted patrol pa.s.sed through an intersecting arroyo on another. The Imperials were so thick, in fact, that Kyle was about to look for a hiding place when Floater led them to the aqueduct. It was about ten meters across and six high.
Unlike the open irrigation ca.n.a.ls common on many planets, the aqueduct incorporated a lid designed to limit the amount of water lost through evaporation. A lid that hid the Rebels from s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sing above. The fact that the ancient waterway followed the contour of the land and led toward the Valley of the Jedi made it perfect. Kyle gave Floater an approving pat and followed the native into the darkness.
Jerec stood, hands clasped behind his back, and stared out through the transparisteel window. Or that's the way it appeared, given that the Jedi was blind. However, ”seeing” involves as many dimensions as ”knowing,” and Jerec saw many things that were hidden from others, not the least of which was the metaphysical storm that raged around the Valley below and the power imprisoned there. The thought brought a smile to Jerec's lips.
The Valley was everything he had hoped for and more... By tapping the power resident there and shaping it to his will, the Dark Jedi would control the Empire. No, not the pathetic remains of what Palpatine and others had frittered away, but something new, something glorious, something never seen before.
An Empire that reached beyond the accomplishments of the past, beyond the surrounding star systems, beyond neighboring galaxies to include all that was or would ever be - now that was a goal! That was an empire. He would have to be careful, however, very careful, since the forces that prevented the Jedi spirits from leaving the Valley had weakened with the pa.s.sage of time and needed to be strengthened. An escape would be disastrous, since the power he required flowed from the prisoners.
No need to worry, though, since repairs had begun and would soon be complete. The thought pleased him, and the Jedi frowned as a voice sounded from behind him.
”Lord Jerec?”
”Yes? What now?”
The officer, a relatively junior lieutenant, swallowed nervously.
”A report, sir... from Attack Droid AD-43. A party of three humans and an uncla.s.sified alien pa.s.sed through Perimeter Two and are headed this way.”
”Current status?”
”We aren't sure. AD-43 was destroyed. Other a.s.sets have been dispatched but haven't arrived yet.”
The Jedi considered the officer's words. Now that the Valley was under his control, Jerec was in no particular hurry. He needed time to prepare, but more than that, time in which to savor that which destiny had placed before him, much as a gourmet might linger over a rare and carefully prepared dessert. There was leakage, though - leakage that could double or even triple his ability - and whet his appet.i.te for more.
The Jedi Master directed a thought outward, steered a circle around the cauldron of churning energy, and located a place where a steady stream of pitch-black energy had broken through the protective sh.e.l.l and strobed into s.p.a.ce. Jerec chose a single shaft of negative energy, drew on its power, and felt himself expand. Bigger and bigger until his mind was everywhere, until he was one with the dark inner fabric of the Force itself, until he stood on the very brink of what he perceived as being all-powerful.
Not the state of enlightenment that so many prattled on about, but a state in which power could be accessed, shaped, and applied - all without the years of tedious meditation, study, and apprentices.h.i.+p that proponents of the light side considered so necessary.
Even better was the next step, the step beyond Jedi Mastery, into which Jerec now pa.s.sed. And it was there, in a state approaching all-knowingness, that he swept the ethers for signs of life.
Thousands appeared, each instantly identifiable, each distinct from all the rest. He felt the lieutenant, only meters away, frightened and eager to leave; his bodyguards, their minds blank with boredom; Sariss, seething with plans; Boc, relis.h.i.+ng someone else's discomfort; Yun, confused and unsure; Maw, looking to express his rage; animals, following the dictates of their genetic programming; and there, closer than he would have thought, the intruders.
And not just any intruders - but Kyle Katarn! But wait - the boy had changed, had grown into more than an annoyance: a Jedi Knight! Not entirely unexpected, since Jerec had been aware of the boy's potential before he had, but surprising nonetheless. A self-taught Jedi was nearly unheard of - unless!