“Call Etain,” Niner suggested. “She always cheers you up.”
But Darman didn’t want to call her just to rage about how unfair things were. He settled down with a holozine so no-body would talk to him for a while, and the others played blades, throwing knives into a target board divided into rings and quadrants. When he’d come to terms with this, he’d have something more positive to say to her. They could talk about where they’d go when they got some leave together. I can’t imagine a mission without Fi now. The doors opened. Skirata wandered in dressed in his civvies-brown bantha leather jacket-with Ordo, Vau, and Mird behind, and simply walked up to each of the squad in turn and hugged them in silence. Then Jusik came in, and everyone turned to stare.
“I thought you were still with Delta when I spoke to you.” Skirata said, and it was obvious he hadn’t planned to meet him here. “What happened?”
“Delta can handle Dorumaa without me.” Jusik didn’t look his old self, either: he was usually the essence of calm good humor however bad things got, but he didn’t seem remotely serene or accepting now. His face looked hard rather than thin; he was all rigid determination. “I was only there to slow them down last time. Fi needs me more.”
“What d’you mean, Fi needs you more?”
“I’m going to try healing him.”
Nobody said a word. Jedi could heal, but they didn’t do miracles. Skirata lowered his voice in that way he had when things were going badly wrong and he needed to break the news gently.
“Okay, son,” he said. “But Zey’s going to skin you alive. He sent you back to do the Dorumaa job again. He won’t take kindly to you going off like this.”
“With respect, Zey can shove it.”
“You sure about that, Bard’ika? When the war’s over, you’ll still be a Jedi, and he’ll still be your boss.”
“Ah, no, that’s where we differ, Kal. We’ve forgotten what it is to be Jedi. So I’m going to do some real Jedi work now, and help someone in trouble rather than talk big concepts and run errands for politicians. Where’s Fi?”
“Jailer’s found a safe place for him.” Skirata turned to the squad. “You never heard this conversation. Things got a bit hairy at the medcenter, and Besany had to … well, blasters were involved. And Jailer. And half the ATU lads.”
It was the point at which Fi would have made some witty observation had he been there. The silence was painful.
“Sooner I start, the better chance I have,” Jusik said. “Take me there, Kal. Please.”
“They’ll kick you out of the Order, son. As long as you can face that, fine.”
“Look, if you won’t take me, I’ll find him on my own, because I’m really good at that, aren’t I? One of my uses. Scanning by Jedi.”
“Okay, okay.” Skirata got a look from Vau that Darman could only describe as disappointment. He probably thought that Skirata was being soft on Jusik. “Let’s go, then. Ordo, you too.”
“I’ll wait here,” said Vau. “Anything you want me to do to stall Zey if he shows?”
“I don’t know. Delta’s not going to tell him Jusik’s gone AWOL, are they? And they could be gone weeks.”
“It’ll be a brief conversation, then.” Skirata, Ordo, and Jusik left as quickly as they’d come in. Barman fought not to get his hopes up; he couldn’t help thinking that nobody really understood what Jedi could do-least of all Jedi, it seemed-and Skirata might simply have been placating Jusik. The general badly wanted to emulate Skirata, except with the Jedi bits added like some kind of first-aid kit and early-warning system. Avoidance of attachment and anger didn’t get a look-in these days.
But that was the challenge, wasn’t it? If you had powers like that, standing apart from the messy business of life was just avoiding the hard decisions. Jusik confronted his.
“Fierfek,” said Corr, sharpening the throwing knives on the durasteel sections of his fingers, “is it always like that in this squad? And how much transit time do you guys clock up?”
Vau laughed. “Ah, the clarity of the newcomer.”
“What did he mean, he was only there to slow Delta down?” Darman asked.
“You know how self-deprecating he is.” Vau fed Mird a cookie. “A modest man.”
It hadn’t sounded like that, but then Darman accepted he wasn’t at his most detached today. It was a pity Etain wasn’t here: he missed her, as always, but she could also have given Jusik a hand with the healing, as she had when Jinart was shot.