Naluma inhaled deeply and panted through Wei'ahtt's pain. She wanted to be with him, but she'd only be in the way. She couldn't even give him her life-Force, not while she was pregnant. 

She glanced over at Luke in the pilot's seat. How can he be so ca— A hitch of his breath interrupted her thought.

He closed his eyes and took even breaths. She laid a hand on his arm. Touch was all they needed. He opened his eyes and lowered the landing gear as he brought the shuttle into the landing bay. The white craft sped across the gleaming black deck before settling on it like a Hutt nestling in the sands of the Dune Sea.

Luke turned to his wife, biting back his tears. He clasped her forearm and helped her to stand, pulling her into an embrace.

As she tucked her head into his shoulder, the tears flowed freely down his black woolen tunic. His tears landed in her hair and trailed down the back of her neck.

The grief they shared through their Force-bond at once overwhelmed and strengthened them. Together they took cleansing breaths and meditated on the Light of the Force before joining the Jedi in the main cabin.

The sight of the wounded Jedi staggered her once more. Not our kids. Please. Not our kids. Please let them live.

Luke had already moved to Jannah, helping them unclip her backboard from the bench-turned-med-bed.

Naluma's eyes connected with Ben's at the other end of the cabin. Emotions she had never witnessed before crossed his face—a swirl of darkness and light in the Force. She didn't know what to make of it.

She averted her gaze to the injured Jedi Knights. Pilar, the only Jedi besides Naluma to master Force-healing, abided deep in the healing trance. The young woman sent tendrils of the Force into Jannah, holding the ruptured lung together.

Zeke and Benae had already freed Wei'ahtt's stretcher while Kallay fed her life-Force into him. Every Jedi could give their own life-Force to another. Naluma just hoped she would stop before she gave it all.

Master Fau shuffled toward the cockpit to allow them to carry his still form down the loading ramp. A sharp kick in her ribs elicited a gasp from her.

Following Wei'ahtt's stretcher, Naluma wobbled down the loading ramp. She inhaled a cleansing breath and began her meditation chant to calm her Youngling. "I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one . . ."

In the foggy consciousness of her meditation, the peace of the Force permeated her being, calming her son.  

When she focused on the stretcher once more, she recognized Dr. Halter Kalonia rushing to Wei'ahtt. The middle-aged woman with short brown hair ordered her crew as Zeke and Benae carried Wei'ahtt's stretcher toward her. "Get two Bacta beds prepped."

The doctor waved her body scanner across Wei'ahtt's sliced arm. Lights flashed as the unit beeped in binary. "What got him?" She touched the device's port to his wound to take a blood sample.

Holding her stomach, Master Fau waddled to her. "Gorax."

Kalonia said, "Jain, go see if we have any anti-venom." Her scanner beeped. "He's fibrillating!"

A Kel-Dor med tech in the med corps black uniform pushed her way through to Wei'ahtt. A human med tech pulled the thermal blanket from the patient's body and ripped his shirt open.

"Clear!" the human said as she brought the defibrillator paddles in. Wei'ahtt's body spasmed under the jolt of electricity. 

Naluma quaked as the pain raced through Wei'ahtt and then through the Force to her. She moaned as the charge lit her nerves afire. She grabbed her abdomen as Anakin kicked and hit at her.

Kalonia studied her scanner. "No change. Kriff!" She disengaged and ordered, "Another charge."

When the defibrillator reached full power, it squealed. The med tech yelled, "Clear!" She activated the paddles once more.

"Ah!" The pregnant Jedi Master doubled over with this charge.

The doctor said, "Sinus rhythm! Get him into cardiac care stat. We'll have to wait on Bacta until we're sure he won't regress."

Kalonia turned to Naluma who was holding her stomach and huffing from the second defibrillation. "What are you doing here?" She turned back to Wei'ahtt and administered a hypospray before the med techs took him away.

"Don't you have enough sense to stay home this far along?" She ran her scanner over Naluma's belly. "He's rotated into position and ready to go. Got a lot of movement right now."

"Tell me about it," Naluma said as she puffed through the pain.

Kalonia ran her scanner across her underbelly. "No contractions yet, but if you don't want this baby arriving right now, get off your feet. I've got enough to deal with right now."

Naluma nodded. "Just save him."

"That's what I'm trying to do." The doctor pushed her toward the shuttle. "Now get out of here."

Jedi Fau stepped aside and leaned against the shuttle as Kalder and Tandolleau carried Jannah's backboard down the ramp. Luke, Pilar, and Kallay pressed their hands to her chest, assisting her breathing and holding her ribs in place.

The Jedi Master nodded his head toward his wife. She nodded back and headed up the ramp.

Kalonia ran her scanner down the new patient's crumpled body. "Uh-huh. Hm." She analyzed the device's data. "Get her up to med bay—prep the surgery. And I want droids TeeBeeThreeAte and TeeBeeFourOne attending. We've got a punctured lung."

The med techs jogged alongside the hover stretcher while the Jedi sustained the positions of Jannah's ribs. The medics and the Jedi squeezed into the nearest lift with their critical patient.

Master Fau tottered back up the shuttle ramp to await the news. Naluma just hoped she wouldn't feel it first. Just the thought of losing Jannah or Wei'ahtt stabbed at her heart. Oh, Force, not them. Not our kids.

When Naluma reached the shuttle, Ben waited on deck in his hover chair. The boy stared at her without the normal animosity. She felt something in him that she had never felt before.

He finally spoke in a low voice. "Are they going to make it?"

She sat beside him on a jump seat and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "I don't know, Ben."

He strangled a sob and rubbed a tear away. "I don't want to care." Tears dribbled down his cheeks. "Why do I care? I can feel them dying, Aunt Naluma."

"That's the burden of a Jedi, Ben." She wiped the tears from his cheek. "If we feel the life the Force gives, we also feel the life it takes." She sniffed back her own tears. 

His lip quivered as more tears dripped from his face. His body shivered. A normal Padawan never connected with life and death at such deep levels, but Ben had never been normal—not with that Skywalker blood running through him.

Insight stung her in the heart. It's not that he doesn't feel—it's that he feels too much. She wrung her hands, silently berating herself.

He hung his head and studied his boots. "They were protecting me. I—I—"

"It's okay, Ben. They were doing their duty."

He shook off her arm. "You don't understand. I did nothing. I ran away. I could have helped, and I did nothing." He gasped a few breaths and dissolved into wracking sobs for a minute.

Naluma allowed him time to control himself, ready to console when he was ready to receive it.

He staved off the hyperventilation and pushed back the tears. "I'm a coward."

She whispered, "We all have to face our moments of failure, Ben."

"Not you. Not Master Skywalker." His trademark sneer crept onto his visage.

Naluma nodded. "Especially Jedi Masters. We fail every time you have a setback." She grabbed his hand and smiled at him. "But don't let these setbacks be your stumbling blocks. Make them your stepping stones."

"I guess."

She shook her head. "You must believe, Ben—in the Force that gives you power and in yourself." She grasped his hand and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Otherwise, you will fail."

Did you know . . .

● I really disliked Kylo Ren from the moment he appeared on screen in TFA. I thought he was a whiny, spoiled brat. But I knew there had to be more to him. I did a lot of research of how he would have ended up like that. I hope I finally nailed it with the way the Force is so strong in him. I think it's one thing he shares with Grandpa Anakin.

Tell me what you think . . .

● What tells you Ben is sincere or insincere in his reactions right now?