The landing bay, illuminated with lights around its perimeter, yawned ahead of them, the mouth of a beast. In moments they would be swallowed.
"We are near enough to hit the deflectors," Marr said, his voice still filled with the wonder caused by his first conscious use of the Force.
As Marr steered Junker through the hole carved by the power crystal, Relin felt as if he were going down a drain.
Flotsam's belly hit the moon's upper atmosphere and the entire ship vibrated in the turbulence like shaken dice. Flames formed around the heat shield, licked up the sides, sheathing the ship in fire. Jaden could see nothing but orange out the cockpit window as the ship skidded through the atmosphere. In his mind, he heard the repetitious call of the beacon. He found himself staring at his fingertips, the fingertips on which his anger or fear sometimes formed Force lightning.
He did not trust himself anymore, he realized. Doubt was the fundamental core of his being. Relin had sensed it in him.
"Twenty seconds," Khedryn said. "Switching to repulsors."
Jaden leaned forward in his seat, wanting to see the surface the moment the fires dissipated, hoping that something on the moon would dispel his doubt, return him to certainty.
The orange gave way to a thick swirl of clouds. As they descended and the air thickened, the stresses on the ship changed from the steady, intense vibration of atmospheric entry into the irregular buffeting of powerful winds. Snow and ice streaked past the cockpit transparisteel, frosting its exterior.
Jaden recalled his Force vision, remembered the feel of the wind against his skin, the frost collecting in his beard, the surface under his feet.
"Winds upward of ninety kilometers per hour," Khedryn observed as gusts rocked Flotsam.
Jaden stared through the swirl, heart thumping madly. They broke through the clouds, but the blowing snow and the ice-covered surface allowed him to distinguish nothing. All he saw was a blur of white. There was no revelation in sight.
"Get a fix on the beacon," he said to Khedryn.
"Triangulating," Khedryn said. He tapped a button and the beacon sounded on the interior speakers, louder than ever.
Jaden leveled Flotsam off at 150 meters and slowed its speed. Topographic scans showed vast, frozen plateaus, oceans of ice, bordered by enormous mountains.
"Got it," Khedryn said, and the words put a flutter in Jaden's stomach. "South-southwest, a quarter hour out. Near the moon's equator."
When Khedryn had linked the location of the signal to the navicomp, Jaden adjusted course accordingly. He realized that he was sweating. He accelerated to full in-atmosphere speed, and Flotsam cut like a knife through the wind, ice, and snow.
"Like following bread crumbs," Khedryn said, nodding at the speaker through which the beacon's call carried.
Jaden nodded. The hairs on the nape of his neck stood on end. He felt as if he were being watched. Before he could trace the source of the feeling, Khedryn asked, "What do you hope to find here, Jaden?"
Jaden did not hesitate. "An answer."
He needed one. He could not continue as he had. He ran a sensor scan to ensure they were not being followed. Nothing.
Khedryn stared blankly out of the cockpit. "What is the question?"
Jaden smiled, thinking how close the words cut to his own thoughts.
When Jaden did not answer, Khedryn said, "I hope Marr and Relin are all right."
"The Force is with them both," Jaden said.
Khedryn nodded, absently reading the topographic scans, meteorological reports, atmospheric readouts.
"Trace elements in the atmosphere suggest volcanic activity here," he said.
Jaden imagined hot spots on the surface of the planet where heat and magma leaked up to turn ice into bathing water. He imagined, too, that the oceans under the ice could be thronged with life.
"Air is frigid but breathable," Khedryn said. "We'll still need envirosuits, though."
Jaden only partially heard Khedryn. The navicomp showed them closing on the coordinates from which the distress signal originated. He leaned forward in his seat, straining to see through the weather.
He could not breathe when it emerged from the static of the weather like a lost city.
Khedryn squinted, staring through the cockpit transparisteel. "What is that?"
Junker coasted, dark and cold, through the hole made by the power crystal.
Relin stared into the tunnel of the landing bay, remembering the last time he had entered it, five thousand years ago, riding the back of a shuttlecraft. Then, he'd had a comlink connection to Drev. Now he would enter it alone, unconnected to anyone, centered not in a sense of duty but in a sense of rage.
Content with that, he drank the power of the Lignan the way Junker's crew drank caf.
"We are through," Marr said, blowing out the words as if he had been holding his breath. "Powering up."
Light returned to the cockpit, and the instrumentation went live with an audible hum.
"Junker is live," Marr said.
"If they haven't already, Harbinger will certainly pick us up now," Relin said, not caring.
Marr nodded. "Engaging repulsors. In we go."
Saes sat in meditation on the floor of his chambers, lost in the Force, trying to plan a role for himself in the new time. His comlink beeped to life, disturbing his calm. Ordinarily he removed it when meditating, but under the circumstances he had not wanted to be out of contact for even a moment.
Llerd's voice carried over the frequency, barely controlled tension in the tone. Saes heard the bleat of an alarm in the background, the proximity alert.
"Captain, a ship jumped directly under us, and coasted through our deflectors into the landing bay."
Saes opened his eyes, inhaled deeply. "A ship? What ship?"
"I have dispatched all available security teams and isolated the area should the craft prove to be loaded with explosives."
"What ship, Lieutenant?"
A pause, then, "I believe it is the ship we pursued into the planet's rings, sir."
"Our pilots reported that ship destroyed," Saes said. He stood and threw on his robes, his anger building, narrowing down to a point.
"Yes, sir," Llerd said. "It appears they were… incorrect."
"They were duped," Saes said.
"Yes, sir."
In ordinary times, Saes might have executed the Blade pilots, but the times were not ordinary. He needed his crew, at least for the time being. He would devise a suitable, non-lethal punishment later.
"I will speak with the pilots later," he said.
"Yes, sir."
Saes cut off the connection to Llerd and opened another, through the Force. He reached out, but tentatively, the way he might have gingerly touched a fingertip on an object that he feared might be too hot.
Immediately he felt a familiar presence.
"Welcome back, Relin," he whispered, surprised to find himself pleased.
He went to one of the display cases built into the wall of his quarters. Five ancient Kaleesh hunting masks leered out from behind the glass, each of them hand carved from the bones of an erkush, a fierce reptilian predator native to Kalee. Shamanic runes covered the brow and cheeks of each mask, invoking the spirits to lend the wearer strength, speed, skill.
Saes opened the case, took a familiar, age-yellowed face from the ancient gallery, fitted it over his own face, and tied it on. He felt himself transformed in that single act, reconnected to the wondrous, faceless savagery of his ancestors.
He would confront Relin while wearing the mask he had worn when he had been Relin's Padawan. It seemed fitting that things end just so. He strode from his chamber, hunting a Jedi.