Read Online Star Wars: Crosscurrent by Paul S. Kemp - Free Book Online Page B

you sought to teach. You should not have come here, Relin. But then you always were the fool."
    "There are many things I should not have done."
    Saes's eyes narrowed at that.
    Shouts carried from three of the corridors that opened onto the chamber.
    Relin said, "Your servants will arrive soon."
    Saes raised a clawed hand and the blast doors closed, one after another, blocking the corridors from which Relin had heard the sounds of pursuit.
    "This is between us, and is long overdue. Do you agree?"
    They approached each other, circled at four paces, lightsabers blazing. Saes was the taller between them, the physically stronger, but Relin was faster.
    "I do."
    Relin's chrono continued its countdown. Thirty-three seconds.
    "I have missed your company from time to time," Saes said, and Relin heard sincerity in the words.
    "You have chosen a lonely path, Saes. It is never too late to turn away."
    Saes smiled around his horns, an expression that did not reach his eyes, and the hollowness of the expression reminded Relin of the gulf between the natures of his first Padawan and his second.
    " You have chosen the lonely path. The Jedi teach denial of self. That is their weakness. No sentient can long abide that. The Sith embrace the self, and therein lies their strength."
    "You understand so little," Relin said. "The Jedi teach the interdependence of life. The understanding that all is connected."
    A flash of anger animated Saes's eyes, and he spit at Relin's feet. "A lie. You tried to steal what is best in me, to make me as empty as you."
    Relin sneered, but Saes bored deeper.
    "When is the last time you felt anything with passion? When is the last time you laughed, Relin? Felt a woman's touch? When?"
    The words cut close to bone, echoing, as they did, Relin's own thoughts about his training of Drev.
    Saes must have seen it in Relin's expression. "Ah, I see you've thought of these matters yourself. And you were right to think them. It is never too late for you to learn wisdom. Join me, Relin. I will present you to Master Sadow myself."
    "I think not," Relin said.
    "Very well," Saes answered. He reached down to a pouch at his belt. "May I?"
    Relin knew what he would draw forth and nodded.
    Saes removed a white memory mask from the pouch, placed it before his face. It adhered, shaping itself into a likeness of the skull of an erkush, one of the largest predators on Kalee.
    "You used to wear a mask of real bone," Relin said.
    "I reserve that now for only special prey," Saes said, and attacked.
     
     
    THE PRESENT:
    41.5 YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF YAVIN
     
    Jaden's ship emerged from hyperspace and the navicomp automatically removed the tint of his cockpit window while R6 confirmed coordinates. Jaden checked the readout. They'd had a good jump and re-entered realspace at the edge of the Unknown Regions.
    "Well done, Arsix."
    Ahead, Fhost spun through space, night side facing out. He saw only an old weathersat and commsat in orbit. Like many planets so far out on the Rim, Fhost had no orbital dock and processing station, no planetary defenses, no sign of Galactic Alliance bureaucracy at all. The population of Fhost was on its own.
    He felt a sudden, overwhelming impulse to throw away everything and start anew on some wild, independent backworld like Fhost, free of rules and obligations, but he had enough self-awareness to recognize the feeling for what it was: a desire to run away from his old life, not a desire to run to a new one.
    He engaged the ion engines on his customized Z-95 and sped around the planet, outpacing its spin, chasing the day, until he saw the system's star crest the horizon line.
    "Put us in geosynchronous orbit, Arsix," he said, and the droid complied.
    Jaden stared out the cockpit's window as the planet rotated into day. Light filled his cockpit and washed over the planet's surface by increments, unveiling a quilt of clouds floating over the red, orange, and tan of vast deserts, the blue smear of an ocean, the spine of