[Dark Nest] - 1(40)

Luke had to slide his glance past the following scene three times before he could be sure of what he was seeing. The mosaic showed only Raynar’s face, surrounded by the walls of a much smaller cell, his neck craned back and his mouth gaping open to accept a meal from a nearby insect.

“After a time, Raynar Thul was no more.”

The picture he pointed to next showed Raynar rising from the cell much as he was now, a knobby, faceless, melted memory of a man, arms crossed across his chest, feet together and pointed downward, eyes shining beneath his heavy brow like a pair of cold blue moons.

“A new Yoggoy arose.”

The following image showed Raynar splinting the leg of a wounded insect, and the one after that showed several Yoggoy tending to an entire chamber of sick and injured nest members.

“We learned to care for the infirm.”

Several pictures showed the Yoggoy nest expanding and growing, with Raynar supervising the construction of irrigation aqueducts and a drying oven.

“Before, only the nest mattered. But Yoggoy is smart. Yoggoy learned the value of the individual, and Yoggoy grew stronger.”

Then came the crucial set of images. The first showed Raynar trading with other nests for food and equipment, the second depicted several insects from different nests gathered around listening to him, and in the third he was leading an even larger group of insects-all different in color, size, and shape-off to start their own nest.

“The Unu was created,” Raynar said.

Before he could point to another mosaic, Leia asked, “What exactly is the Unu? The governing nest?”

Raynar tilted his head and gave a short, negative click. “Not in the way you think. It the nest of the nests, so that Yoggoy may share our gift with all of the Kind.”

“Yeah?” Han asked. “And how’s that work?”

“You would not understand,” Raynar said. “No Other would.”

There was more, an attack by a disapproving nest, a time of starvation as the flourishing nests stripped their worlds bare, the beginning of the Colony as the Kind began to spread across local space. But Luke paid little attention. He was struggling with what he had learned already, with the fear that Raynar remained as lost to them as ever, and that Jaina and the others would soon be just as lost-and with the growing alarm he felt over what the young Jedi Knight had become. Jedi should not be leaders of galactic civilizations; it was too easy to abuse the power they wielded, too easy to use the Force to impose their will on others.

He felt Mara touching him through their Force-bond, urging him to keep his disapproval in check.

To Raynar, she said, “What happened to the Dark Jedi who abducted you? “

Raynar lowered his fused brow. “The Dark Jedi?”

“Lomi and Welk,” Luke prompted. He was careful to keep his disapproval well buried within himself, in case Raynar could sense his feelings better than he could Raynar’s. “The Jedi whom you rescued on the Myrkr mission.”

“Lomi and Welk…” Raynar’s eyes grew restless. “They were… trouble. You say they abducted us?”

“They stole the Flier with you aboard,” Mara said. “You must have figured this out by now. They tricked Lowbacca into leaving the ship, then stole it while you were unconscious inside.”

As Mara spoke, Raynar’s gaze kept sliding away from her face, then back again, and his presence in the Force grew confused as well. The familiar part, the part Luke recognized, rose repeatedly to the surface, only to be swallowed a moment later by the murkier, more powerful essence that confronted him every time he tried to probe a Colony member.

After a few moments, Raynar said, “We remember the Crash, but not the Dark Jedi. We think they… they must be dead.”

“You don’t remember them on the Flier at all?” Luke asked. “You must have seen them before you crashed.”

The murky presence rose inside Raynar and pushed Luke out with such power that he felt as though he were falling.

“We remember the Crash,” Raynar said. “We remember flames and pain and smoke, we remember fear and loneliness and despair.”

The finality in Raynar’s voice brought a tense silence to the dais-a silence that Han broke almost instantly when he whirled on Raynar with an outstretched finger.

“What about Jaina and the others?” he demanded. “Do you remember them? “

“Of course,” Raynar said. “They were our friends. That is why we called them.”

“Were?” Han stepped toward Raynar. “Has something happened? If you’re trying to make Joiners of them-“

“Han!” Leia stopped Han with a gesture-she was probably the one person in the galaxy who could do that-then turned to Raynar. “Well?”