Crosscurrent - 02 - Riptide by Star Wars

Author:Star Wars
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

THE MOMENT SOLDIER OPENED THE DOOR, A BLAST OF dark-side energy blew outward in a gust, as if it had been pent up for centuries. Soldier tucked Grace behind him and leaned into it as he might a strong wind.

“We’re here,” Seer said, quiet awe in her tone.

A large oval chamber stretched out before them, its high ceiling lost in the darkness. Filaments glowed in the walls and floor: white, green, red, and yellow, the lines of color packed so densely that the entire surface seemed aflame. The lines all converged on a cylindrical mound that sat in the center of the chamber. It stood twice as tall as Soldier and expanded and shrank at regular intervals, like a lung. Glowing filaments, these as thick as ropes, coiled around it and sank into the floor. Soldier felt the intelligence in it, and the reality of the situation hit him all at once.

Mother was not a person or thing in the station. Mother was the station. And they were staring at her heart.

“Do you feel her?” Seer said, grinning wildly. “Do you feel her, Soldier?”

Seer’s flesh, her sick, afflicted flesh, pulsed in answer to the heaves of the cylinder. So, too, did Grace’s. Soldier put a protective hand on the girl. He put his other hand on his lightsaber.

Soldier did not feel Mother, but Seer’s ecstatic rush of emotion pushed against his mind, threatening to catch him up in it. He resisted, as much out of habit as will.

Still, he realized that they had made it. After all they had endured, they had made it. Seer had been right. Mother would heal Seer and Grace, would give Soldier purpose. His eyes welled.

“We made it,” he said to Seer.

She looked over at him, smiling, her eyes, too, filled with tears of joy. “We did.”

“Can she … heal us?” he asked.

She touched his cheek, then turned and moved into the chamber. Soldier held his ground with Grace, feeling unworthy to enter.

“What is it, Soldier?” Grace asked.

“It’s Mother,” Soldier answered.

In response to Seer’s approach, the filaments in the walls glowed in organized curtains of red, white, green, and yellow, cascading down the walls and across the floor.

Soldier found them hypnotic.

Grace gasped in wonder. “So pretty.”

Soldier felt Grace’s awe, her wonder, and was pleased he had been able to bring her to Mother. If nothing else, he had done that, and it was of worth.

With each step Seer took, a splash of color formed under feet, so that she walked to Mother on circles of light. The ropelike filaments around the cylinder squirmed like serpents as Seer drew near.

Seer fell to her knees before Mother’s heart and bowed her head.

“We heard your call and traveled far to reach you, Mother.”

The filaments in the walls and floor answered with starbursts of red, green, and yellow. Seer looked around, exaltation in her eyes.

“It’s beautiful, Soldier! Beautiful!”

The flesh of her face formed lumps, appeared to bubble, made her expression a grotesque distortion of a smile.

Grace pulled back from Soldier.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.