Apocalypse (53 page)

Kyp’s eyes widened at the admiral’s harsh tone, but he accepted the
admonition with a graceful nod. “Valid points, Admiral. I yield to your wisdom … and Master Skywalker’s orders.”

“I agree with Admiral Bwua’tu,” Luke said. “I’ve had my fill of walking into Abeloth’s traps. We need to finish this briefing and come up with a plan.”

Luke nodded to Tekli, who was standing at the table, barely tall enough for her short-snouted face to appear above the edge. Behind her, Lowbacca loomed over the entire group like the furred giant he was, holding an oversized datapad in his hands.

Tekli cleared her throat, then said, “Given the time constraints, this will be a brief summary of what we have learned. See-Threepio is currently loading a full videographic account of everything we discovered into the Jedi Archives.”

“Thank you,” Luke said. “I’m sure that will be helpful if we need to explore Abeloth’s history in more detail.”

Tekli looked up at him out of a single eye. “Trust me, Master Skywalker, you
will
need to explore it.”

She snapped her fingers, and a panel of carved stone, done in low relief, appeared on the display. The image depicted a jungle paradise, with a steep valley wall in the background and a swamp in the foreground. In the middle ground was a clearing with an erupting geyser. Three ghostly figures were floating in the vapor cloud: a luminous-looking woman, a craggy warrior type, and a gaunt, bearded man with a fatherly bearing.

“This is a panel from the Histories of Thuruht,” Tekli explained. “The Histories detail—among many other things—the birth of a family of Force entities whom the Killiks call the Ones. The young woman, they call the Daughter.”

As Tekli spoke, Lowbacca changed the image to another panel. This one depicted a pale-haired woman running through a forest in full bloom, followed by clouds of butterflies and swarms of Killiks.

“The Daughter seems to be associated with the light side of the Force,” Tekli explained. “The Killiks could not explain the exact nature of the association, but my best guess is that she is an embodiment of its nature.”

Lowbacca changed the image again, this time to a panel depicting a powerful-looking man in dark armor, marching through a dead forest.

“The Son is associated with the dark side of the Force,” Tekli continued. “Again, the Killiks were unable to explain exactly what this means. But it seems obvious that he embodies its devouring, deadly nature.”

Lowbacca tapped a key, and the datapad showed a panel with a river meandering down its center, dividing the luminous forest on one bank from the dark forest on the other. In the back of the image, a gaunt man was standing on the balcony of a cliffside monastery. He was looking out over both forests, his arms spread so that one hand was suspended above the dark aspect and one over the luminous.

“The Father is the Keeper of the Balance,” Tekli said. “There were several other panels showing him trying to keep the peace between the Son and the Daughter.”

“I see,” Luke said. “And these beings—the Ones—are they the Celestials the Killiks claim to have served in the past?”

Tekli shook her head. “I don’t believe so, at least not the way you mean,” she said. “Thuruht says they are what the Celestials
become
.”

“And what does Thuruht say the Celestials are?” Corran asked.

“They don’t, really,” Tekli replied. “They claim it’s impossible to explain the Celestials, because no mortal mind can grasp their true nature.”

With a long groan, Lowbacca noted that the Killiks believed the Celestials were
in
the Force. But they were adamant about saying that the Ones didn’t
emerge
from the Force, because the Force was all around us, in us, and
was
us—and any being with two brains could clearly see that it was impossible to emerge from what one
was
. Tekli translated for those who didn’t understand Shryiiwook.

“Soooo …” Kyp sighed. “The usual Killik mugwump.”

“Well, it did make some sense at the time,” Tekli replied. “Perhaps it will seem more logical in the video record.”

“No doubt,” Kyle said. “But you said this would help explain Abeloth. Are we to take it that she is this Daughter? That the Son was able to draw her over to the dark side?”

“Not at all,” Tekli replied. “To understand Abeloth, you need to think about what’s missing from the family.”

“You mean the Mother, of course,” Luke said. “Abeloth is the other parent?”

Tekli snapped her fingers again, and Lowbacca changed the image on the datapad. This time, the panel contained a new figure, a young woman barely older than the Daughter, with long flowing hair, a wide smile, and twinkling eyes. She was obviously supposed to be some sort of servant, for the Son and the Daughter were looking away while they held glasses up to be filled from an ewer in her hands. But the Father was looking at her with obvious warmth, returning her smile as she poured for him.

“Abeloth is the servant who
became
the Mother,” Tekli said. “At first, she seemed to bring joy and harmony to the family.”

As Tekli spoke, Lowbacca ran through a series of images depicting Abeloth keeping the Son and the Daughter busy with games and chores, doting on the Father, even stepping in to channel the Son’s destructive energies into useful tasks. Before long, she seemed to be a full member of the family, eating at the Father’s side and holding her glass for the
Son
to fill.

“But as time passed, Abeloth seemed to age while the rest of the family stayed young,” Tekli explained.

The image on Lowbacca’s datapad showed a much older Abeloth, one who appeared old enough to be a proper wife to the Father. The next panel portrayed an aged and wrinkled Abeloth, standing at one end of a small temple complex—a complex that resembled
exactly
the one in Jaina’s dream of Ben and Vestara fighting.

The Force roiled beneath a powerful wave of astonishment and shock, and Jaina looked over to find Luke and all of the other Masters studying first the image, then one another, and she realized that she was not the only one who had experienced the dream. Whether they had all seen the same fight was impossible to say, but it was very clear that every Master present recognized the temple complex.

Jaina felt Luke reaching out in the Force, radiating a sense of calmness and patience, and she quickly understood the message.
Say nothing until the meaning grows clear
.

The images on Lowbacca’s datapad continued to advance, now showing the Father arguing with the Son and the Daughter, gesturing wildly while boulders and six-legged lizards whirled through the air around them.

“As Abeloth aged, she appears to have become a disruptive influence,”
Tekli said. “We think she may have been growing resentful of her mortality, since the rest of the family never seems to age.”

Lowbacca changed the image on the datapad, to a panel that showed an elderly Abeloth sneaking a drink from the Font of Power while the Father hurled Force lightning at both the Son and Daughter. In the next image, a much younger-looking Abeloth was swimming in the Pool of Knowledge, looking sly and defiant as the Father used the Force to pull her from the water.

“In her desire to remain with her immortal family, she did the Forbidden—and paid a terrible price.”

Lowbacca tapped a key, and a new panel appeared on the datapad. In the heart of the temple’s courtyard stood a much-changed Abeloth, her hair now coarse and long, her nose flattened, and her once sparkling eyes so sunken and dark that all that could be seen of them were two pinpoints of light. She was raising her arms toward a cowering Daughter and a glowering Son, with long tentacles lashing out from where her fingers should have been. A furious Father was stepping forward to shield them, one hand pointing toward the open end of the temple and the other reaching out to intercept her tentacled fingers.

“The Killiks call Abeloth the Bringer of Chaos,” Tekli said, motioning for Lowbacca to lower the datapad. “They seem to view her as the counterpart to the Father’s role as Keeper of the Balance, and associate her with strife and violence.”

“Am I understanding you correctly?” Eramuth Bwua’tu asked. “Are you saying that Abeloth is some sort of war goddess?”

“That would be a great oversimplification,” Tekli replied. “The Killiks claim that war is part of the galaxy’s cycle of change. As they explain it, sometimes war grows
too
powerful, and that’s when Abeloth comes—to destroy the old order and make room for a new one.”

“So you’re saying Coruscant’s destruction is part of some Celestial Plan?” Dorvan asked. He looked pointedly out the viewport. The smoke rising through the crevices around the Galactic Justice Center had grown so thick that it was starting to drift across Fellowship Plaza, obscuring even the majestic pyramid of the Jedi Temple. Then he glared back across the table at Luke. “That the Galactic Alliance has no choice but to accept its destruction?”

“There’s
always
a choice,” Luke said. “Remember, this is the Killiks’ view of the galaxy. And we know that Abeloth has been imprisoned before.” He looked back to Tekli. “Why don’t we move ahead to what we know about stopping her.”

Tekli’s tiny ears pivoted slightly outward. “Unfortunately, Master Skywalker, I don’t believe the Killiks are going to be much help in that regard,” she said. “At least not to us.”

Lowbacca contributed a long rumble, explaining that while Thuruht’s entire purpose of existence seemed to be imprisoning Abeloth, they needed the Ones to guide their efforts. From what he and Tekli had surmised, the Son and the Daughter agreed on only one thing—that it angered them to see Abeloth destroy civilizations they had spent millennia cultivating in their own image. Eventually, the pair would form a pact and emerge from seclusion to stop her, and Thuruht expected to spend the next century or so building up its numbers so the hive would be ready when it was called into service.

“So it’s really the Ones who imprisoned Abeloth the last time?” Kyle asked. “And also created Centerpoint Station?”

“That is how the Killiks remember it,” Tekli said. “But only the Son and the Daughter are involved. They seem to take more of an interest in the state of the galaxy than the Father.”

“
Took
, I’m afraid,” Luke said. “If Thuruht can’t imprison Abeloth without the Son and the Daughter, the hive will be waiting a lot longer than a century for a call to service.”

Tekli’s nose twitched in confusion. “Then you have heard of the Ones, Master Skywalker?”

“Not by that name,” Luke replied. “But when Yoda was training me in the swamps of Dagobah, he told me about a strange mission that Obi-Wan and my father had undertaken during the Clone Wars. Apparently, they were drawn to a free-floating artifact called the Mortis monolith and transported to a world very much like the one depicted in the Histories of Thuruht.”

“You’re saying that
they
met the Ones?” Kyp asked. “Are you sure?”

Luke shot him an impatient look. “It’s very hard to be sure of
anything
involving the Celestials, Master Durron,” he said. “But yes, I do believe the trio Yoda described were the Ones.”

“And?”
Kyp demanded.

“At the time, I thought he was just making up a story, trying to make a point about not refusing my destiny.” Luke paused, then said, “But now …”

“You think he may have glimpsed something in your future,” Kyle said. “Something to do with Abeloth?”

Luke shrugged. “That might be a stretch,” he said. “But Yoda must have sensed that I would need to know about Mortis someday.”

“So are you going to tell us what Master Yoda said?” Jaina asked. She couldn’t contain herself, and she wasn’t the only one—every Jedi in the room was leaning toward Luke. “I mean, that
is
the reason you mentioned it, isn’t it?”

Luke nodded. “Of course,” he said. “But there isn’t a lot to tell. In Yoda’s story, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker encountered the Father when he was dying. The Son and the Daughter were at odds because the Son wanted to take the Father’s place. The Father told Anakin that
he
had been chosen to assume the Father’s place—and keep the balance between the two siblings. When Anakin refused, matters came to a head. The Ones fought, all three were slain, and their world died with them.”

“And you didn’t think
that
was important?” Corran asked.

“I didn’t know Yoda was talking about the Ones,” Luke said, a bit defensively. “Or even what the Ones
were
.”

“It
does
sound more like a parable than an action report,” Kyle agreed. “I’m sure I would have assumed the same thing.”

“Are we sure it
isn’t
just a parable?” Kyp asked. He looked to Tekli and Lowbacca. “No offense, but we all know how muddled the Killik sense of history is.”

Saba slapped both palms on the table. “
This
one is certain. It explainz too much—why there is so much darknesz and change in the galaxy, why war comes so often and nothing stayz certain.” She glanced around the table, meeting the gaze of each Master in turn, then said, “The Force has no Balance.”

Jaina nodded, then said, “And it also explains what Abeloth wants with Ben.”

An uneasy silence fell over the table, and she realized that many of the other Jedi had not yet made the connection between the loss of the only family Abeloth had ever known—the Ones—and the terrible longing and loneliness that had made an imprisoned Force entity
reach out to Ben and the other younglings who had been hidden at Shelter.

But Luke understood. That much was clear in the way his face had paled—and in the care he was taking to keep his Force presence damped down, lest his fear reverberate through the room like a thunderclap.

When the faces of most of the other Masters remained puzzled, he nodded to Jaina. “You said it first,” he said. “You explain.”

“It’s still just a guess,” she said. “I could be wrong.”

“
Are
you?” Luke asked.

Jaina thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I’m not.” She took a deep breath and addressed the others at the table. “Abeloth took Ben because she intends to re-create the … well, the Family of the Ones, for lack of a better name … on her own terms.”