angle of deflection,” Jaden said. “You control the angle of incidence.”
He fired again, again, and by the third shot Marr sent the bolts right back at Jaden. Jaden deflected them into the floor with the lightsaber he held in his off hand. He fired more rapidly, moved as he fired, and Marr kept blocking, kept returning the shots at Jaden.
“Enough,” Jaden said, and deactivated his lightsaber. “Excellent, Marr. Well done.”
Marr opened his eyes, nodded, and deactivated his saber. “Thank you, Master.”
Khedryn walked into the cargo bay. “If you two are done dinging up my cargo bay, we can make the jump to Fhost.” He patted the bulkhead. “She’s ready to move.”
“I will help with the pre-jump,” Marr said, and hurried past Jaden. He caught himself, turned, and said, “That is, if we’re done, Master?”
“We are. Go.”
Marr smiled and offered Jaden the hilt of his lightsaber. Jaden stared at it for a long moment. For years, its purple line had been the string that wove together his past and his present. It was time to move away from the past.
“Keep it, Marr. It’s yours until you build your own.”
“But … this is yours, Master. You’ll have no weapon.”
Jaden held up the hilt of Alpha’s weapon. “I have this.”
“That is a Sith weapon.”
“Not for long,” Jaden said, and buckled it to his belt. He looked Marr in the eye. “Today was a good day. You learned a lot. But if things get hot, don’t hesitate to use your blaster.”
“Seconded,” Khedryn said.
“You’re feeling accomplished,” Jaden said. “And you should. But were you to face a trained lightsaber combatant you’d be cut in half before you took a first step. You’ve got a long way to go. Do not forgo good sense in an effort to prove something to me, yourself, or anyone else.”
Marr held his gaze. “I understand.”
Jaden smiled. “Nicely done, Apprentice.”
“Also seconded,” Khedryn said. “You could’ve saved us a lot of grief if you’d learned this a few years ago.”
Marr grinned, slapped Khedryn on the shoulder, and bowed his head to Jaden. Then he and Khedryn headed for the cockpit, chatting about star charts, coordinates, and various components of Junker’s engines. Jaden watched them go, thoughtful.
He was responsible for Marr, and the weight of the responsibility surprised him. He’d have to put Marr in danger. Repeatedly. Just as Master Katarn had done with him.
He thought Marr understood the risks, but he wasn’t sure Marr was ready.
That was the awful burden of taking on an apprentice. One lapse in judgment, and the person who depended on him, the person who trusted him, could die.
Jaden knew that would be hard to bear.
He thought of Relin, who’d begun his descent to the dark side when an ancient Sith had killed his apprentice. The loss had been too much for Relin to carry.
Jaden decided that he would chart a different course—he would not suffer the loss in the first place.
He hefted the hilt of Alpha’s lightsaber, eyed it as he might an enemy.
“You and I have an appointment.”
Jaden returned to the small stateroom that served as his quarters aboard Junker. He sat at the small metal desk in one corner and rapidly disassembled Alpha’s lightsaber. His missing fingers caused him to fumble a bit, but he managed.
He stared at the stumps, pondering the possibility of prosthetics. He’d lost all but the thumb and forefinger on his left hand—so he could still wield his lightsaber in his left. Probably he’d leave his hand as it was, maimed, a constant reminder to him that doubt—doubt over his actions, his relationship to the Force, his role in the Order—was the price he paid, and would always pay, to be who he was.
He left off his musings and returned to the disassembly. He had expected the clone’s lightsaber construction technique to be crude, but instead found it clean and utilitarian, if inelegant.
He laid out the pieces before him. The crystal that powered the weapon, a crimson rhomboid, glittered in the overhead lights. Fine black lines veined the facets, some impurity the clone had not eliminated. Jaden stared at it, transfixed, feeling its connection to the dark side, the way it contained, in microcosm, Alpha’s rage.
Khedryn’s voice over the ship’s comm brought him out of his reverie.
“Jumping into hyperspace in five seconds.”
Jaden ticked off the moments and looked out the viewport as the black turned blue. Junker was under way to Fhost and whatever fate awaited them.
Jaden turned away from the maddening blue churn of hyperspace and toward the maddening crimson