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. “I don’t like this, Soldier,” she said.
“It’s all right,” he said. He could feel her flesh moving under his touch.
Power gathered in the chamber. The lights in the walls flared and flashed wildly.
“Heal them, Mother,” Soldier said. “Please.”
The floor around Seer formed lines and cleaved open. She knelt on a circle of the floor, an island. Thin filaments emerged from the opening that surrounded her. They waved in the air, glowing red and green. Seer looked at them, smiling, rapturous.
Soldier, too, was smiling. The filaments would heal Seer, then Grace.
The filaments extended upward until they towered over Seer, until she was surrounded by them.
“I feel it, Soldier,” she said. “It’s happening!”
All at once the filaments descended toward Seer, covering her in a gentle wave. Lights flashed along their length. Seer laughed, held up her arms. The filaments twisted around her arms, her torso, her legs. Her laughter suddenly took on a questioning tone.
The filaments flared red, twisted tightly around her, snaked up her neck, and covered her face. Her laughtered died.
“Mother!” she said. “Mother!”
In moments, Seer was cocooned in the filaments, her form squirming desperately in their grasp. The filaments turned from red to green to yellow, the light pulsing. Seer’s body spasmed, and Soldier realized that the filaments were pumping something into her. Her body swelled and roiled until it was barely recognizable as human. Pustules formed on her skin, burst, bleeding sparks.
“What is happening?” Grace cried.
Soldier had no idea, but it clearly was not what Seer had expected. He activated his lightsaber and advanced toward her. The walls and floor flared angry red, bolts of energy shot from all directions, and a blast of power lifted Soldier from his feet and blew him from the room. He slammed into the wall of the corridor outside, his breath knocked from him in a whoosh. Grace ran to his side, her eyes filled with fear.
“Soldier!” Seer screamed, pawing at the filaments that covered her mouth … that went into her mouth and down her throat. “Soldier!”
More filaments squirmed out of the floor and covered her, wrapped her entirely, except for one eye and her open, screaming mouth. They glowed red, green, yellow, the current of light pulsing as more and more energy poured into her form. They pulled her down into the hole in the floor, and Grace screamed.
Halfway under, Seer reached a hand in Soldier’s direction, terror in her visible eye. Her lips, engorged with power, fumbled over the words, but Soldier recognized them nevertheless.
“Help me! Help!”
He used the Force to pull his lightsaber hilt to his hand and ignited it. Fear for Seer, anger at Mother’s betrayal—both gave him power. The dark side surged in him.
As he stood, the door to Mother’s chamber closed like a curtain, with not even a seam visible. He could hear Seer’s muffled, panicked screams coming from within. He could cut his way through. He took his blade in a two-handed grip.
“Soldier,” Grace said, her tone surprisingly calm.
Her voice cut through his anger, his fear, cut through all the clutter in his mind. He looked at her, his breath coming hard. Her flesh sagged in places, bulged in others. He could barely recognize her. Only her eyes remained unaffected, and they pleaded with him for help.
“I want to go home,” she said.
“We don’t have a home,” he spat, and hated himself for the despair he heard in his voice. He had spent himself, all his hopes, on Seer’s dream. And Seer had been wrong, her faith a lie, his belief in her a fool’s errand.
“Please, Soldier,” Grace said.
Before he could answer, a sound carried from deep in the station, a visceral scream that sent shock waves throughout the floors, walls, and ceiling. The filaments flared so bright he had to cover his eyes. Searing energy seeped from the walls, leaving blackened gashes behind. Touch panels exploded out from the wall and hung loose on dimly glowing filaments that looked like entrails. Smoke leaked into the air. An alarm began to sound and everything went dark.
“Soldier, I’m scared,” Grace said.
Soldier ignited his lightsaber and used its red light to find her. She huddled against one of the walls, her eyes wide, fearful. He knelt, hugged her, decided that he still had at least one purpose. He lifted her to