[Last Of The Jedi] - 06(25)
“So Toma set up this meeting? He sent you?” Ferus knew Trever well by now. He saw the lie beginning to form on the boy’s face. “Toma didn’t send you. You came yourself.”
“Well, they weren’t about to consider me. But it was too dangerous for any of them. So I I…”
“You …”
“Took the ship,” Trever mumbled. “And came here.”
“You left them without a ship?”
“So? They didn’t have one before!”
“Where is the ship now’?”
“In the Crystal Forest.”
“All right. As soon as we finish here, I want you to get back there, get the ship, and go back to the base.”
“Yessir, General Ferus-Wan, sir,” Trever said. “Except for one thing. There’s no more ship.”
Ferus closed his eyes. “No more ship?”
“I sort of crashed it.”
Ferus didn’t want to believe it, but could. “Did anyone see you?”
“Just a couple of stormtroopers. But I got away in Flame’s speeder. It was one incredible ride, let me tell you. And this idea of the central funding of resistance groups she’s got all these plans to mobilize, and find other investors … we’ve got to bring her to the resistance here so that they can join Moonstrike.”
“I’m not taking her to the resistance.”
“Why not?”
“Trever, she could be anyone.”
“But Toma knows her!”
“What you told me was that she contacted Toma. He doesn’t know if she’s for real, either. I can’t endanger the resistance by bringing a stranger to them.”
“She’s not a stranger!”
“I’ll bring them her message, that’s all.” Ferus looked at Trever carefully. “Did you tell her about the secret base?”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t do that I’m not completely stupid. But I do think she could help. We need more supplies there. Toma and Raina have been having a hard time. She could fund the base, fund your search. This could be our chance to really build something, riot just a base for a couple of Jedi.”
Ferus shook his head through Trever’s speech. “If the base is to succeed, it has to be small. And the fewer beings who know about it, the better. Even if Flame checks out, I don’t want to link the base to a galaxy-wide resistance movement not yet, anyway.”
“But that’s the only way we’ll defeat the Empire.”
“I know that. But moving prematurely could endanger all of us. I created the base in order to gather Jedi. Period. If we get too ambitious, we could risk everything. The base must remain a secret.”
“You’ve got some weird wacky Jedi obsession, that’s your problem,” Trever grumbled. “They kicked you out, so now you have to prove that you’re worthy or something.”
“They didn’t kick me out,” Ferus said. “I left. And this search has nothing to do with me. It has to do with saving anything that might be left.” Ferus struggled with his own annoyance at what the boy had said. “An alliance of resistance groups is necessary, I agree. But I am beginning to understand this: In the end, only the Force will defeat the Emperor.”
Obi-Wan had tried to tell him that. He hadn’t been ready to listen. He thought of Obi-Wan now, in self-imposed exile on Tatooine. The hardest thing to do, Obi-Wan had said, is to wait.
What was Obi-Wan waiting for’? Ferus had thought that it had to do with waiting in the abstract. Waiting for luck, waiting for chance, waiting for the galaxy to begin to rise up. Now he realized something: Obi-Wan was waiting for something specific. Ferns didn’t know what. He wasn’t meant to know. Obi-Wan couldn’t tell him. But somehow, Obi-Wan had hope.
“Look, I’ve seen the Force work,” Trever said. “I know it’s full-moon amazing and all that. But it isn’t everything. It’s just a part of what can bring them down. You aren’t giving Flame a chance.”
“I will give her a chance,” Ferus said. “But not with the base. I’ll bring her message to the resistance.”
“Take me with you.”
“No. You know how a resistance works. A resistance can only operate if the fewest people possible know who is in the group.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“Of course I trust you. But this is the best way, Trever. Now let me figure out how to get you another ship. You’ve got to get off-planet. There might be an Imperial crackdown on air traffic very soon. You’re lucky you weren’t blasted out of the sky.”
“Is this what you were like as a Jedi Padawan? No wonder no one liked you,” Trever burst out.