Playlist:

❶ "Battle of the Heroes"—Revenge of the Sith OST

⊘ Silence

❷ "Yoda and the Force"—The Empire Strikes Back OST

Naluma jolted awake as the sub-light alarm activated. She groaned. ETA Two minutes. Yawning, her mind struggled through the landing procedures before pulling down the landing gear.

She grimaced as she remembered the time she landed without the shuttle gear during training. No harm done, but Luke was so— She cut off that train of thought. Focus on the miss—

As the geometric planes transformed to long streaks of blue light and then to pinpoints of stars in the black canvas of space, Naluma directed the ship to the behemoth Republic Cruiser Freedom. Without a helmet, she was unable to communicate with the ships. She just hoped Captain Antilles would assume that she was a Republic fighter pilot who had lost her way.

❶ The squadron of X-wing fighters launching dispelled all hopes of a Republic welcome. Knowing that the cruiser's shields would close as soon as the fighters had cleared the perimeter, Naluma maxed-out her sub-lights and raced toward the open bay.

The fighters engaged her head-to-head. Naluma took evasive action. After flipping off the artificial gravity to prevent nausea, she rolled her craft into a Split-S before coming out in a Pitchback loop.

The maneuver edged her closer to the landing bay. Realizing if she did not make a dash for the hangar now she would die out here fighting the squadron, she turned her craft to the bay and accelerated at attack speed toward the cruiser. As the shield closed the intervening space, Naluma sliced her X-wing into the tiny space between the bulkhead and the shield.

The port-side S-foils sheared off, and the ship slammed into the deck. The landing gear snapped off and sparks flew from under the craft while the metal-on-metal whine shrieked through the enormous hanger. When Naluma tried to activate the reverse thrusters to slow the fighter, her engines stalled.

Propelled with inertia alone and leaning precariously to starboard, Naluma popped her canopy and jumped out with lightsaber activated. While the fighter continued through the bay and the starboard-side S-foils dug a trench into the deck, two squads of marines fired on Naluma. Deflecting each bolt with quick movements of her blade, she tried to orient herself with the ship's layout.

The soldiers fired, and she deflected. Come on, guys, we're on the same team. Not wishing to hurt the crew, she aimed her lightsaber to strike the blasts against the port-side bulkheads. Neither made any progress.

Naluma shoved out her hand, Force-pushing the squads against the upper bulkheads and crashing them to the floor. Sorry. She rushed through the main hatch into the ship.

Jannah! Where are you? she sent, hoping the girl was close enough to hear her.

Before Jannah could reply, Naluma met more resistance when she turned a corner. A quartet of soldiers lined the corridor and fired at her. With quick flicks of her lightsaber, she deflected their bolts and ran straight through the guards.

But more soldiers waited around the next corridor. Extending her hand to Force-push them into the corridor, a chilling voice came over the loudspeaker. "Stand down. All troops, stand down. This is Captain Wedge Antilles. All troops, stand down. Jedi Fau, welcome to the Freedom."

Panting from her exertions, Naluma deactivated her lightsaber while the troops shouldered their blasters. "What now?" she asked.

A corporal said, "We wait for further instructions."

Naluma glared at the man. "Sorry. Can't wait." She sped off down the corridor, heading toward Jannah's pulsing aura.

⊘ After ten minutes of twisting through corridors and climbing ladders, Naluma arrived at sickbay. She smoothed her hair back and retied her chignon before striding into the medical facility.

The single room housed eight beds and one bacta tank. Three soldiers occupied three of the beds, but the bacta tank stood empty.

Naluma felt around her with the Force for Jannah and Tandolleau. They're in the next room. But where's Luke? Are they hurt, too? Ah, must be a private room for officers or something. She headed toward the rear of the medbay, looking for a hatch or opening to enter the other chamber.

After shoving cabinets and beds aside, she discovered the hatch behind a privacy curtain. She waved her hand in front of the panel. When the hatch did not open, Naluma activated her lightsaber to slice through the door.

As she poised her purple blade to cut through the metal hatch, the door slid open to reveal a single gurney holding a blue Luke. Jannah and Tandolleau, as well as Captain Antilles, stood nearby as medical droids and doctors attended the lifeless body. Tubes stuck in and came out of his body as monitors beeped and whirred.

Jannah ran to Naluma as the door opened and enfolded the Jedi in her arms. "Naluma."

The older Jedi hugged the young woman as her eyes held steady on the Jedi Master. "Tell me what happened."

Wedge asked, "You didn't get my message?"

Naluma shook her head. "Colonel Keelu destroyed it before I could hear it."

"That's against regulations."

Naluma squelched the anger rising in her core. Colonel Keelu would have to wait. She moved to the bed, laying her hand on Luke's cold skin. When she touched him, she felt his life-force. He was alive, barely, but alive. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Tell me what happened."

"We're not sure. When he arrived in system, life support systems had failed. His body temperature had dipped to twenty-five degrees," Tandolleau said while looking on.

Thinking through her field medicine training, she said, "That might be the thing that saved him." She glanced at the monitors. His temperature had climbed to twenty-seven degrees—still extreme hypothermia, but it was rising. "How long has he been like this?"

Tandolleau said with a scowl, "Twenty hours."

"What are these machines doing for him?" Naluma asked one of the droids.

In his metallic voice, the 21-B medical droid said, "Pumping his heart, ventilating his lungs, and operating his kidneys. The bypass machine transfers his blood, warms it a few degrees, and returns it to his heart."

"And he's been like this for twenty hours?"

Wedge said as he moved next to Naluma, "Almost. Took a few minutes to get him in here."

Naluma shook her head. "How's his mind? Any brain damage?"

The medical droid said, "His central nervous system is not functioning. The brain is still too cold to ascertain his other mental functions. The odds of his survival are 4,173 to 1."

"How long until a decision is made?"

Wedge said, "We were waiting for you to arrive."

"That wasn't my question." Naluma hyperventilated as the medical droid reached toward the power switch. "No, stop. Please, not yet. I can feel him. He's alive." It healed his mind. The Force can heal is body. I know it can. Tears welled in her eyes. I just don't know how.

Jannah and Tandolleau moved beside the Jedi Knight and took her hands, leading her away from Luke. "It's time to say good-bye, Naluma."

❷ She shook her arms free from them. "No! I'm not giving up on him."

She placed her hands on Luke and grabbed the Force with all her might, sending it to him in a flood. The monitors spiked as his heart rate and breathing increased. But Naluma could only keep it up for a few minutes before she felt herself waning.

"Naluma, don't. He's too far gone, and we need you," Jannah said, grabbing onto the Jedi's arm.

Wedge asked, "What's she doing?"

Tandolleau said, "Emptying herself of her own life-force for him."

"You can do that?"

Tandolleau said, "Only the healers can."

"Let her try, then."

"He's too far gone." Jannah pulled Naluma away as the Jedi all but collapsed from exertion. "You're not helping him, Naluma, and you're killing yourself. Think about the Order. We need you to lead us. Where would we be if you both died?"

Naluma wiped the tears from her face. "I'm not giving up. There must be a way." She stared out beyond Jannah at the bulkhead wall as she cried, "Anakin! Anakin, your son needs you. We need you."

Tandolleau stepped back as the glowing form of Anakin Skywalker appeared. As they did during the dual saber training session a few days earlier, Tandolleau reached out with the Force to hold the ghost here.

"Anakin, how can I heal him? I don't have enough power."

The Force-ghost looked at his son's frozen body and shook his head. "I don't know."

"He's going to die if we don't do something. Where will the Jedi Order be, then?" Naluma said.

Anakin said, "If it's his time to join the Force, it's his time. Nothing can stop that now."

"It's not his time," Naluma pleaded. "Please."

"You must learn to let go of everything you fear to lose," Anakin said. "It's his time, Naluma. Let him go."

Tears streamed down Naluma's face as she grasped his words. She shook her head at Anakin and then turned it to Jannah and Tandolleau.

"Let him go, Naluma," Jannah echoed.

"I won't. Not if there's a chance he'll survive." Naluma returned her focus to Anakin. She narrowed her eyes and pointed at him. "You go and tell all those Force-ghosts wherever they are that if they don't come back and help, I'm quitting the Jedi. I will disband the Order. And where will that leave any of you?"

Anakin sighed. He looked at the other Jedi.

Tandolleau grabbed Jannah's hand. "If she leaves, we all leave." Jannah nodded her agreement.

"Are you sure this is the step you want to take? It may not end the way you think."

"I would rather die than let him go like this."

"You just may." Anakin inhaled deeply, his eyes ablaze with determination. He nodded. "Very well. I will return."

As Anakin's Force-ghost disappeared, Wedge asked, "What was that all about? Who were you talking to?"

Jannah said, "Anakin Skywalker. His Force-ghost. He went to get help."

Tandolleau jumped when Force-ghosts appeared all over the room. One was a tiny green creature with pointed ears and a gnarled stick in his hand. Another was an old man with gray hair and matching scruffy beard. Still another was a dark, bald man. And another yet was a middle-aged man with graying hair and graying beard.

A male Nautolan, a male Cerean, a female Tholothia, a female Mirialan, a female Togrutan, a male Kel Dor, and a male Iktotchi rounded out the group. Anakin stood in the middle behind the small green creature.

Anakin said with a wave of his hand, "I present to you Master Yoda and the Jedi Council."

The living Jedi Knights bowed in reverence to their predecessors.

Master Yoda waved his gimer stick. "Jedi Fau, recommend our intervention I do not ."

"Why?" Naluma asked. "Without him, the Jedi will fail."

"No, no, on one does not the Order depend. The Force is within you all. Guide you it will." 

Naluma's bloodshot eyes glared at the little creature. She didn't care if he was the revered Grand Jedi Master of yesteryear. "If Luke does not survive, I will quit the Order."

"Violate your vows will you?"

Her mouth gaped as she thought through that question. She nodded. "Yes. I can't go on without him. I can't live without him, Master Yoda." Her voice cracked.

The gimer stick aimed at her heart. "Selfish you are. A Jedi clings to no one. You must let go of all you fear to lose." The ghost hobbled forward and peered in her eyes. "Save him we can, but it will not be without cost. Here, he dies peacefully and joins the Force with us. Your way, a life of heartache and sorrow he'll live. Suffer and die you will, long before your time."

"I'll give my life for him right now if it will save him, Master Yoda."

Yoda tut-tutted. "So certain are you that this sacrifice is yours to make. Your death will—"

"I don't care. We need him. The Order needs him. Look at me, Master Yoda, I'm not ready to lead the Order. No one else is either. It is better that I die that he may live."

The green Jedi Master cleared his throat. "Think you we cannot train? Think you impossible this is?"

"No. But I know this is not my path. This is not what the Force has called me to." Naluma moved to Luke's head and stroked it. "If you won't heal him, then I will join him in death." She laid her hand on Luke's chest and channeled the Force through her, allowing it to drain her, to fry her channels.

"Enough of this, Master Yoda." Anakin stepped behind Naluma peered over her, placing a ghost hand on her shoulder. "I stand with Jedi Fau. The darkness is looming. The Jedi Order will fail without the Chosen One to lead it."

"Hmm." Yoda hobbled over to Naluma and Anakin. "Consent to this, knowing suffering and death will it bring you?"

Naluma nodded. "Yes." The two locked eyes, studying each other. "Please, Master Yoda. Please."

"Through you will I work, though dangerous this may be." 

Naluma nodded. "Thank you, Master Yoda."

Tandolleau asked, "What shall we do?" 

"Hold us here, you will," Yoda said. "On this, all depends."

Jannah and Tandolleau moved together, joining their efforts in holding the great complement of Force-ghosts. If holding Anakin for the training session was hard, this was even more exhausting.

Yoda said, "The meddroids, remove them."

Naluma said with a look to Wedge, "Master Yoda wants the meddroids out of the way."

Wedge asked, "Master Yoda? Another Force-ghost?"

Naluma nodded. "And not the only one."

Wedge programmed the meddroids to step away from the bed as the Force-ghosts surrounded Luke. Each linked arms while Anakin and Obi-Wan rested their hands on Master Yoda. Master Yoda stepped through Naluma, so that their bodies worked as one.

Power coursed through Naluma—power fed by the Force-ghosts through Yoda to her. Yoda guided her, showing her how to apply the Force-healing to the vital organs first—the heart, the lungs, the brain, the kidneys, the liver.

At a steady pace, the monitors recorded the changes in Master Skywalker's vital signs. His temperature rose one degree, then another. The Force sent out streams of healing to each cell in his body, allowing them to take the accelerated warming without further damage.

After fifteen minutes, Naluma sighed in relief as Luke opened his eyes. "Master Yoda? Ben? Father? I don't understand."

The Force-ghosts disappeared one-by-one, except Master Yoda. He pulled himself out of Naluma and spoke to the Jedi. "Attachment leads to fear. Fear to anger. Anger to aggression. Against it guard. Your undoing will it be. Warned you I have."

Luke stared around the room, at the meddroids along a wall, at his confused friend Wedge, at the drained Jannah and Tandolleau, and at Naluma. He reached up to her and grabbed her head, drawing it close for a kiss.

Naluma pulled away. "Luke, what about Master Yoda?"

"I don't care. Life's too short."

Did you know ...

● I conducted a lot of research on dogfighting, including watching World War II films, Top Gun, and Iron Eagle. 

Tell me what you think ...

● What does Luke's refusal to give up Naluma, even when warned by Yoda to do so, indicate of his recent near-death experience?

● What do you think Wedge knows about Naluma and Luke that he waited for Naluma to arrive before letting the meddroids pull the plug on Luke?