Managing the Shadows (Star Wars Legacy - AK, After Krayt, Part 1)

Chapter 2: An Anchor in the Dark

AN ANCHOR IN THE DARK

"Cade." Blue waited for a response. Cade had been sitting on the bed in their cabin, staring intensely at a small, mangled root in his hand, for nearly an hour now. She was finally getting nervous.

"Cade?" Still no response. "Cade!" she finally shouted.

Cade looked up, "Sorry, sorry. What's up, Blue? What's on your mind?"

"I could ask you the same, Cade. You've been staring at that root for almost an hour now."

He looked once more at the root in his hand. It was a gray color, and had strange bone-like growths protruding from it in various jagged angles.

"I can't feel it."

Blue looked inquisitively at Cade. "What do you mean?"

"In the force. I can't feel it in the force."

Blue could tell that whatever was on Cade's mind, it was deeply troubling him. "It is dead though, isn't it? Doesn't something have to be alive to exist in the Force?"

"Not quite." Cade turned the root around slightly and held it out to show it to Deliah more closely. She reached a hand out and gently touched it.

"Look at this moss here, and this lichen here." Cade began. "The branch itself is dead, but there should be a mini-ecosystem of life surrounding it- moss, bacteria, and yet- I cannot feel any of it in the Force. Nothing at all."

Blue paused, these conversations always made her anxious, especially when Cade seemed uncertain. When it came to hyperspace drives or catalyzers Blue could go toe to toe with Cade any day of the week, if anything he was usually trying to catch up to her, but the Force?

The simple truth was, as much as she tried, it always felt like Cade, even amongst Jedi, had a particularly intuitive understanding of the Force. She often felt like she really didn't have anything to offer Cade, when topics of the Force came about. When she met Cade, they were mercenaries for hire. Guns and ships, that was all they needed. When she had first met Cade he had completely rejected the Jedi, using Death Sticks to numb his connection to the Force.

It had taken years for Cade to accept his Jedi heritage, particularly being a Skywalker. Blue loved the man he had become, but sometimes the Force created a certain separation between them.

Machines were her portion bread and bantha butter. When there was a problem on the ship she could see it and fix it. She loved the feel of a wrench in her hand, tightening the last bolt on a new trivalve assembly. She found these puzzles easy and straightforward, but the Force. There was nothing straightforward about the Force.

Yet she loved Cade, and since he was a Jedi it often helped her to help him when she had some knowledge about the Force. So she tried her best to learn it for him.

"Well, the Yuuzhan Vong exist outside the Force. Is it possible somehow the root is connected to them?"

Cade shook his head, "these plants and species are native to Wayland. Even if they were shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong, there shouldn't be a complete hole where they exist. It's almost as if it's hiding its presence."

Cade continued manipulating the root in his fingers. "It shouldn't be possible and yet," he threw the root into the air as he often did with objects before floating them midair. However, the root simply fell back into his hand. He looked up at Deliah. "Nothing."

Blue sat beside Cade on their cot and wrapped her arm around him. "You'll figure it out, Pateesa. I have faith in you."

Cade gently brushed her hand off his shoulder and began aggressively pacing in their quarters.

"Blue, this root is from one of the trees on Wayland."

"I know..."

"One of the trees I can't fix." Cade's volume was growing louder.

"I made a promise to the Myneyrshi." Cade was still pacing. "A promise to complete the work of my father!" Cade was yelling now, "a promise-"

"Babe!" Cade had been so engrossed in his thinking, he hadn't even noticed Deliah had stood up and walked over to him. She firmly put both her hands on either side of his head. She held him sweetly. He could feel himself calming.

Cade tried to look away, but Deliah pulled him close until their foreheads rested upon each other.

"I made a promise." Cade continued, but calmly now. "To them. In my father's name." Deliah waited. "What if I can't fix it?" Blue sighed.

She then moved one of her hands from the side of his head and wiped a tear from his eye. "I know you, my love. You're brilliant and strong, and your compassion knows no bounds. I know-" she held his head tightly now and pressed their foreheads together more intensely now to drive home the point, "I know you will find a way..."

She waited until his breathing had leveled out before pulling away.

She waited a moment, and then headed out of their cabin. "We should be arriving in Wayland soon." Cade looked at her and smiled.

"What?" She asked.

"I just can't believe how kriffing lucky I am to have you."

"Damn right you are," she said with a giggle, blew him a kiss, and darted to prepare for their exit from hyperspace.