34

With the morning coolness of Yavin 4, Ambassador Cilghal rose in her austere quarters and basked in the shadowy dampness of the stone temple.

She had been at the Jedi praxeum for only a few days, but already she felt as if the whole universe had opened for her. Master Skywalker’s exercises in attuning her mind to the Force had shown her how to turn her gaze in a new direction, to see things in full view that she had previously only glimpsed out of the corners of her eyes. He had given her a nudge down a long, smooth slope of discovery; the more she learned, the easier it was to learn more.

She splashed tepid water across her face, moistening her rubbery skin, scrubbing the delicate tendrils that hung beneath her slit of a mouth. Though the air of the jungle moon was thick with humidity, she still felt more comfortable when she could keep her exposed skin moist.

Cilghal left her quarters and moved to join the dozen other Jedi candidates in the dining hall, where each would consume a small breakfast of fruits or meats compatible with his or her biochemistry.

Dorsk 81 sat at a table contemplating colored rectangles of processed nutrients. Because he had lived for so long on a self-contained, environmentally controlled world, the cloned Jedi trainee could not digest foods that had not been heavily processed.

The gaunt, hardened Jedi Kam Solusar attempted to talk to wild-haired Streen, who kept flicking his gaze from side to side as if distracted.

The rest of the Jedi trainees sat by themselves or in small groups, talking uneasily. Cilghal did not see Master Skywalker among them. He was usually the first to enter the dining hall, waiting for his students to join him. The other Jedi trainees seemed disconcerted by the change of routine.

Cilghal worked the food-processing unit to prepare a breakfast of diced smoked fish and a pungent-tasting grain mash she enjoyed. Finally she asked the students in general, “Where is Master Skywalker?”

The trainees looked at each other as if they had been wanting to ask the same question.

Streen stood up and looked around in alarm. “It’s too quiet,” he said. “Too quiet. I wanted it quiet, but this is too much. I can’t hear Master Skywalker. I could always sense voices in my head. I hear all of yours. It’s too quiet.” He sat down again as if embarrassed. “Too quiet.”

Tionne rushed into the dining hall, clutching her twin-boxed musical instrument. Her silvery hair streamed behind her in a wild mass, and her pearly eyes were wide and panic-stricken. “Come quickly! I’ve found Master Skywalker.”

Without question, without confusion, all the Jedi trainees rose in a coordinated, flowing movement. They moved together and sprinted after Tionne as she ran down the winding moss-grown halls. Cilghal attempted to keep up with the more athletic members, such as Kirana Ti and Tionne.

They ran through the echoing grand audience chamber where vines covered the walls and the long polished seats stood empty in shafts of sunlight.

“This way,” Tionne said. “I don’t know what’s happened to him.”

They reached a back staircase of worn stone steps that led to the observation platform at the top of the ziggurat.

Cilghal drew up short as she noticed the robed figure sprawled on the flagstones under the sky. His hands were thrown back as if to defend against something.

“Master Skywalker!” she called. The other trainees rushed forward. Cilghal pushed through the gathered students and knelt beside the fallen man.

Luke’s face seemed curdled in an outcry of pain or fear. His eyes were squeezed shut, his lips were curled back in a grimace.

On the stone floor beside him lay his lightsaber, as if it had proved useless against whatever enemy he had fought.

Cilghal propped Luke’s head up, touching his pale-brown hair. Rivulets of cold sweat glistened on his face, but she felt no warmth on his skin. She probed, using her newfound abilities in the Force, desperately searching.

“What happened to him?” Dorsk 81 said in great alarm.

“Is he alive?” Streen asked. “I can’t hear him.”

Cilghal probed with her sensing abilities and shook her orange and muddy-green head. “He’s breathing. I can sense very little heartbeat, just the faintest pulse. But I can’t find him inside. When I touch him with the Force, all I find is a great empty spot.…”

She turned to look at the others with her sad round Calamarian eyes. “It’s as if he has left us.”

“What can we do?” Kirana Ti asked.

Cilghal cradled Luke’s motionless head in her lap and blinked her huge Calamarian eyes, unable to speak for a long moment.

“We are all alone now,” she finally said.