“Right. Don’t push yourself.” Ben backed out of the cabin and its door slid shut.
S E V E R A L D A Y S L A T E R
J a d e S h a d o w , I n H i g h D a t h o m i r O r b i t Luke stared at the mottled, multicolored world of Dathomir through the forward viewport. He nodded, feeling slightly abashed. Of courseit was Dathomir.
Ben, seated to Luke’s left in the pilot’s seat, peered at him. “What is it, Dad?”
“I’m just feeling a little stupid. There’s no world better suited to be the home of this new Sith order than Dathomir. I should have realized it long before we were on our final leg here.”
“How so?”
“There are a lot of Force- sensitives in the population, most of whom are trained in the so- called witchcraft of Dathomir. There’s not a lot of government oversight to detect a growing order within the population. There are lots of individual, secretive tribes.” Luke paused to consider. “Jacen was here for a while on his five- year travels. I wonder what he learned and whether it relates to the Maw . . . And there are mentions in ancient records that there was a Sith academy here long, long ago.”
Ben nodded. “Well, I’ll prep Mom’s Headhunter and get down there. I’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground.”
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Luke gave his son a confused look. “I’m not going down with you? I’m feeling much better. Much more rested.”
“Yeah, but there’s a Jedi school down there. The terms of your exile say that you can’t—”
Luke grinned and held up a hand, cutting off his son’s words. “You’re a little bit behind the times, Ben.
Maybe you need your own galactic map updated.
More than two years ago, when the Jedi turned against Jacen at Kuat—”
“Yeah, and we set up shop on Endor for a while.
What about it?”
“We pulled everyone out of the Dathomir school at the time. Jacen’s government shut the school down. The Jedi have yet to reopen it.”
Comprehension dawned on Ben’s face. “So there’s no school, and it’s legal for you to visit.”
“Yes.”
“That’s kind of getting by on a technicality, isn’t it?”
“All law is technicality, Ben. Get authorization for landing.”
D A T H O M I R
Half an hour later, Luke had to admit that he was wrong. Mostof law was technicality. The rest was special cases, and he, apparently, was a special case.
He stood on the parking field of the Dathomiri spaceport. Perhaps “spaceport” was too generous a term. It was a broad, sunny field, grassy in some spots, muddy in others, with thruster scorch marks here and there. Dull gray permacrete domes, most of them clearly prefabricated, dotted the field; the largest was some sort of administrative building, the smaller ones hangars for vehicles no larger than shuttles and starfighters. A tall mesh durasteel fence surrounded the mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5
44
Aaron Allston
complex, elevated watchtowers dotting its length, and Luke could see the wiring leading to one of the permacrete domes that marked it as electrified. The spaceport facilities offered little shade, so the Skywalkers stood in the darkness cast by Jade Shadow,but even without the heat of direct sunlight, the moist, windless air was still as oppressive as a blanket.
Luke poured thoughts of helpfulness and reasonability into the Force, but it was no use. The man before him, nearly two skinny meters of red- headed obstruc-tiveness, would not yield a centimeter.
The man, who had given his name as Tarth Vames, again waved his datapad beneath Luke’s nose. “It’s simple. That vehicle—” His wave indicated Jade Shadow.
“Neither it, nor anything with an enclosed or enclos-able interior, can be inland under your control or your kid’s.” He turned his attention to Ben, who stood, arms folded across his chest, beside his father. Ben glared but did not reply.
Luke sighed. “Is any other visitor to Dathomir oper-ating under that restriction?”
“Don’t think so, no.”
“Then why us?”
Vames thumbed the datapad keyboard so that the message scrolled downward several screens. “Here, right here. An enclosed vehicle, according to these precedents—there’s about eight screens of legal precedents—can be interpreted as a mobile school, especially if you’rein it, especially if its presence constitutes a continuation of a school that’s been here in the past.”
“This is harassment.” Ben’s words were quiet, but loud enough for Vames to hear.
The tall man glowered at Ben. “Of course it’s not harassment. The order came specifically from Chief of State Daala’s office. Public officials at that level don’t harass.”
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Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
“Ben.” Luke added a chiding tone to his voice. “No point in arguing. Vames, are you also prohibited from answering a few questions?”
“Always happy to help. So long as it’s within lati-tudes permitted by the regulations.”
“Within the last couple of days, have you seen any sign of a dilapidated yacht called She’s a Chancer?”
Luke knew the yacht had to be here; he had run his blood trail to ground on Dathomir, and the girl had not departed this world. But anything this man could add to his meager store of knowledge might help.
Vames entered the ship name in his datapad, then shook his head. “No vehicle under that name made legal landfall.”
“Ah.”
“Dilapidated, you say? A yacht?”
“That’s right.”
Vames keyed in some more information. “Last night, shortly after dusk, local time, a vehicle with the operational characteristics of a SoroSuub yacht made a sudden descent from orbit, overflew the spaceport here, and headed north. There was some comm chatter from the pilot about engines on runaway, that she couldn’t cut them or bring her repulsors online for landing.”
Ben frowned at that. “Last night? And you didn’t send out a rescue party?”
“Of course we did. As per regulation. Couldn’t find the crash site. No further communication from the vehicle. We still have searchers up there. But no luck.”
“Actually, that ishelpful.” Luke turned to his son.
“Ben, no enclosed vehicles.”
“Yeah?”
“Rent us a couple of speeder bikes, would you?”
Ben grinned. “Yes, sir.”
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STAR WARS:
FATE OF THE JEDI: BACKLASH
by Aaron Allston
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter F our