by Murasaki99
“The trail is clear today Lieutenant,” Corporal Goric Buian reported as Gorseth approached with four of his troopers following. Goric and two of his fellows carried long, thoroughly primitive devices known as “brooms”, which they used to sweep anything unhealthy off the trail to the meadow. The dark creatures or remnants of creatures they had dubbed “shadow crawlers” would sometimes try to creep up the trail toward the meadow, and the storm troopers refused to give them access.
Every morning the platoon would rise early, eat breakfast, and then split up into four squads. Each squad would check a known route into the high meadow and forest, fending off those beings unready to walk the trail and escorting those who could walk to the house of the Lady. Gorseth had a feeling that the Lady did not really require guards for her borders, but she didn’t object to their pastime, either, and Gorseth and his men felt more comfortable performing something resembling soldierly work.
The first day when they assembled to make their patrol, she had quietly passed brooms out to all of them, saying, “Take these. They are all the defense you will need.” Tenno Rui had waited until they were out of earshot of the house to wonder aloud about the effectiveness of a wood-handled sweeper against crawling creatures. He lost his distrust of the device the first time he easily swept an unwholesome entity into the canyon. It vanished in a flash of blue sparkles, leaving the trail clean and open.
“OK, so it isn’t my standard-issue Blastech, but I suppose it will do.” Tenno shouldered the broom like a long-barreled blaster and looked happy.
After a few days, Gorseth discovered there were places where one could sit and see far into the surrounding lands, enabling them to post a lookout capable of sending a squad to meet and guide wandering people up the misty trail. Visitors tended to be children, some of them frozen like Frith, and some who had no idea how they had ended up in this otherplace. The Lady took them all in. He and his men also found they could navigate around the forest and meadow either by simply walking or by walking and thinking of where they wished to be. The latter method could carry them very quickly to their destination, a technique which Gorseth thought would have come in handy in the real world.
By evening, the platoon would return to the house in the forest, there to take dinner with the Lady and finally to sleep in whatever room she gave them. It was a different room every night; some of them fairly ordinary, and some, like the room over the sea, very different. But in all of the rooms, Gorseth and his men slept in safety and peace and found themselves able to reenter the house in the morning, well-rested and alert.
At some point Gorseth noticed he had stopped worrying about how much time had passed with them trapped in cryofreeze, nor could he remember how many days they had been in the house of the Lady. His wound had disappeared without a trace. The somewhat troubling knowledge that he had lost track of time did not last beyond the evening’s rest, and their days turned over in quiet succession, filled with activities that the Imperial troopers found useful and enjoyable.
*****
“Mom! I went out in my sleep again! It was fun!” Anakin made this excited declaration as he sprang up from his nap, tossing his tousled hair out of his eyes.
“And where did you go, dear?” Leia asked as she handed him a clean shirt. Anakin had the Force in natural abundance and in his sleep would sometimes walk about in the great energy field that permeated the universe.
“I went to the forest near the mountain. It’s pretty there. I played with Frith - she’s new. An’ I met Frith’s uncles, the men in black - they’re new, too.” Anakin smiled at the memory. “They’re all so nice.”
“Men in black?” Leia looked at her youngest son curiously. “You mean they dress like Uncle Luke does sometimes?”
“Uh-uh.” Anakin gave his head a negative shake. “They dress like that.” He pointed at the small holovid, which had been left playing with the sound off. “Only in black.” The holo was now showing a newscast about Imperial representatives visiting a sector Moff for high-level meetings. A number of Imperial officers accompanied the politicians and it was at them that the boy pointed. Leia felt her mouth go dry. The only Imperials who usually wore the black versions of the standard uniform were storm troopers and various special services. Trying to keep her voice casual and suppress that initial surge of fear, she asked her son. “They were in the Force, you say?”
“Um, at the forest. With Frith. You ok, Mommy?”
“I’m, I’m fine dear, just a bit surprised.” She managed to sound almost normal now. “How many of these men in black did you see?”
Anakin considered for a moment, his four-year-old face assuming a thoughtful frown. Holding up both hands he said. “Ten, I think. Uncle Anam calls them a ‘platoon’.” He smiled in triumph at producing the unfamiliar term. Spying Threepio passing by in the hall outside his bedroom, he charged off with a gleeful cry, the attraction of robotics far stronger than his naptime memories.
Leia sank down on the edge of her son’s bed, staring at the Imperial uniforms on the holovid, her hands clenched into fists. “A platoon of storm troopers in the Force.” It sounded to her like a sick joke, but her son could not have made such a thing up, she knew that. “I think it’s time to call Luke.”
She rose and moved through the house to the comm center and began the process of transmitting a coded message to her brother on Yavin 4. Her husband Han, and their faithful friend the Wookie Chewbacca, were wonderful at dealing with the problems of the physical world, but when something came up that had to do with the esoteric ways of the Force, it entered the pervue of the only Jedi master currently available, her brother, Luke Skywalker.
His answer, received a day later, Coruscant time, was not entirely satisfactory. “Leia, greetings from the Praxeum,” he began, his smile belying the formality of his words. Luke had started an academy for Jedi on the former rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin and was now engaged in teaching a diverse and talented group of students of all ages. “So Anakin says there are storm troopers in the Force? I haven’t felt anything amiss.” His holographic image gazed at her with a thoughtful expression, as if he could really see her. “There are beings who exist there. They clothe themselves with shape and form to better interact with those of us who need such references. It could be that he met some of these on his wanderings. He’s of an age where I don’t think he could find something dangerous while he’s sleeping, but it wouldn’t hurt to check on him and see where he’s going.” He gave her an impish smile. “This will be good for you, Leia. You can use the practice.”
“Oh, great!” muttered Leia, glowering at the image of Luke, who continued his instructions undisturbed.
“Take a nap with Anakin and get him to show you where he goes. That should do. If you need any help, call and I’ll come at once.” His smiled broadened. “Enjoy your nap.” Luke’s holo flickered and went out, leaving Leia alone with her unwelcome assignment. She sighed loudly.
“A nap. Right.” Such was the level of her concern, however, that she arranged her busy schedule so she could lie down with her son the very next day. Anakin was delighted with the entire idea, and for some time was so excited he couldn’t sleep. Finally, during the third repetition of a favorite nursery-song, he dropped off, and Leia, who by this time was quite tired from worry, followed him into sleep soon after.
For an unknown time, she was aware of nothing. A familiar voice echoed into her mind. “Mother! Mom! I’m over here! This way!”
She pushed in the direction of Anakin’s calls and found the boy waiting impatiently for her in clouds of pearly mist. He grabbed her hand and towed her along briskly. “C’mon, it’s this way. You’ll like it!”
They emerged from the mist onto the grass of a broad meadow, bordered by a grand old forest that instantly made her homesick for Alderaan.
“Did you make this place, dear?” she asked, looking around in wonder at the beautiful landscape.
“Oh, no. This’s always been here.” He led her through the tall grass and wildflowers towards the woods. “Look! There’s Frith! Hey!” Anakin’s shout brought a young girl running from the forest with a cry of delight.
“Anakin! C’mon and play!”
Leia held her child’s hand tightly. “Wait. Is it safe?”
“Mom, everything’s safe here. It’s fine.” He looked up at her in puzzlement. “Nothing bad comes here.”
Leia took a deep breath. “That’s right. I forgot where we are.” She smiled at Anakin. “Before you go and play, show me the men in black. I need to see them.” She still held his hand, but relaxed her grip somewhat.
“Sure. Hey, Frith, where’s Uncle Anam?” he called to his friend.
Frith slid to a graceful stop and looked at Leia. “Who’s that?”
“My Mom,” he replied.
“Oh. Hullo.” Frith regarded Leia shyly. “You’re lucky. Wish my Mom was here.”
“But your uncle is here?” Leia asked.
“Oh yeah, Uncle Anam is here.” Frith smiled at her. “He watches out for me.”
“And where is your uncle?” Leia prompted the girl.
“Uncle Anam is at the edge of the forest. C’mon, I’ll take you there.” She grabbed Anakin’s free hand and the two of them began skipping vigorously, leaving Leia to trot along with them as best she could. The ways of the Force were strange, and she felt her lack of advanced training severely now. It was not as if Luke had not tried to teach her, but her obligations to the New Republic government had held her back from committing all her time to the depth of study it took to achieve mastery. She was a Jedi indeed, but now she wished she’d taken the time to learn more. The inky sky above was startling to see, given that they walked abroad in what appeared to be daylight. The flowers of the meadow were luminous and beautiful. Everything in this place probably means something, if I had the knowledge to understand, she thought.
Frith brought them to a halt at the forest’s verge. Sitting on the bole of an enormous fallen tree was indeed a ‘man in black’. “This’s my Uncle,” Frith said, pointing at the man. “Now can Anakin come an’ play?”
Leia released her son’s hand. “Yes, you two go ahead and play. I need to speak to your uncle.” The children ran off with shouts of laughter, leaving her with the object of her search. He sat quietly, gazing out across the meadow, and remained still as she approached to speaking distance. Now that she was closer, she could take in the details of his face and clothing. The uniform he wore was that of an Imperial storm trooper, and his rank plaque declared him a lieutenant. His face was calm and his hands were clasped loosely in his lap. He gave no sign of having noticed her arrival, continuing to stare intently at whatever held his attention.
Leia frowned. The sight of the black uniform brought back a host of nightmarish memories of the Death Star and the destruction of Alderaan. The storm trooper did not seem to be armed, which gave her some measure of relief, but finding him here in the Force was most unwelcome. She would have preferred to find a Hutt sitting in the forest rather than the human soldier. When he made no effort to look at her, Leia cleared her throat. “Excuse me. I need to talk to you.”
The officer closed his eyes for an instant and shook his head as if to clear it. “No new ones coming from that direction.” He turned his head toward Leia and seemed finally to see her. His eyes were clear gray in color and his face was still young.
He’s younger than Luke , she thought. How can he be a Force-adept? The thought made her skin crawl.
“Well, hello.” He stood and greeted her politely. “You came with young Anakin, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I’m his mother. I asked him to bring me.” At least he sounded fairly normal to her. “I needed to speak to you.”
“Very well. You are speaking to me now, Princess Leia Organa-Solo. What have you to say to an officer of the Empire?”
Leia blinked at his simple directness. After dealing with politicians for years she had become unused to people who spoke plainly.
“You should not be here,” she said, deciding to match that directness. Her voice conveyed some of her annoyance that such people as storm troopers were in a place normally occupied, to her limited knowledge, by advanced spirits and Jedi masters. “You should leave.”
As he digested her statements, the lieutenant gave her a puzzled look; he smiled as if at a private joke. “Princess, nothing would please me more then to take my troops and go. If it were possible, we’d be gone in heartbeat. But we can’t leave.” He produced a rueful chuckle. “I find it amusing that you should come here demanding that we leave, when you New Republic people are the reason we’re here in the first place!” He shook his head in disbelief at the silliness of the situation.
“We put you here? What do you mean?” Now it was Leia’s turn to look confused. “Neither Luke, nor I, nor any of his Jedi students would do such a thing.”
“It was not done by any of you personally, but by the government you are a part of.”
“I still don’t understand.”
He stood up and assumed a formal posture, clicking his boot heels together gently in the forest duff. “I am Lieutenant Anam Gorseth, commanding the 35 th Platoon of the 5 th Batallion of the Emperor’s Storm Troopers. My surviving men and I were taken prisoner after an engagement and brought to Coruscant. Your New Republic High Council decided to place us in cryofreeze for the great crime of being clones. We were taken away, tortured, stunned, and, I assume, frozen. We woke up here - wherever here is - and have been living here ever since. We cannot leave until our bodies are thawed and revived. Until that occurs, we wait and pass the time as best we can.”
“Gorseth. Gorseth.” Leia stared at the lieutenant, her face intent with concentration. The name was vaguely familiar, sparking distant memories of some unpleasantness that still caused problems even now. Scenes of fighting and pain, viewed through a tridee lens, flashed across her mind’s eye. Her face changed as the memories returned in more detail. “I remember now - the Council voted to freeze all captured clones. The freezing of the prisoners was broadcast on the news. That was you!” She looked at him in guilty wonder. “How did this happen? You shouldn’t even be conscious, let alone trapped in the Force!”
“Is that where we are?” Gorseth shrugged. “I don’t know what happened or how. Some of the other people who were frozen have also come here, like Frith, but not all of them. Mostly it’s just children. I don’t know how it all works. I only know that we are here and have been here for several days.”
“Days?!” Leia swallowed tightly, realizing that Gorseth and his men had no way to relate the time they spent in the Force to the passage of time in the physical universe. “It’s - it’s been several years, Lieutenant. Right after the news broke, I tried to get the High Council to rescind their orders, but they would not. It was politically impossible. Since then, we’ve struggled with other problems and we…” She stopped herself.
“You forgot about us.” He finished the thought for her, his face set in a quiet mask. “I feared as much would happen, so I can’t say I’m surprised. But I am surprised that you say it has been years. How many?”
“Four. About four, I think,” Leia said. Then as an afterthought she added. “I’m sorry.”
“Princess. Have the courtesy to say what you feel.” He frowned. “Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it.”
Leia blinked at the rebuke. “You’re wrong,” she began, but Gorseth cut her off with a severe expression on his face.
“Princess, in this place I have come to understand one truth. Here you can see the heart of things. You may be able to lie to yourself, but you cannot lie to me. We, my men and I, are nothing to you but an annoyance or perhaps a danger to be dealt with.” He made no move to threaten her, nor did he raise his voice, yet she found herself stepping back from the sensation of his honest anger, which burned as pure and bright as a lightsaber’s blade. As she moved away, she observed several other Imperials in the uniforms of storm troopers approaching at a run. They formed up near their officer and saluted.
“Sir, are you all right? We felt…”
“I’m fine, Corporal Buian, Corporal Rui,” Gorseth replied, returning their salutes.
“They feel you?” she asked in disbelief.
“Yes. We’re together.” To his soldiers, he said. “All quiet on the lower pass?”
“Yes, sir. Nothing to report.”
“Very good. Let’s take a squad and check the eastern border, then we’ll return for the night.”
“Yes, sir!” Tef Buian received this news with a cheerful expression. He glanced at Leia curiously. “Sir, that kind of looks like Princess Leia, only smaller.”
Gorseth chuckled softly and turned away from her. “Come on, fall in.” He began to lead his troops off.
“Wait!” Leia cried after him. “We’re not finished! You can’t go!”
“Can’t I just?” he said calmly. He paused to face her, letting his men move ahead. “You Jedi have power over the living, but we’re not exactly living, are we? If you could have banished us from here, you would’ve done so. We’re stuck here and here we shall remain until such time as my men are revived and free and safe. Until that happens I have nothing more to say to you. Farewell.” He performed a precise salute, turned and marched briskly off after his men, leaving her alone with her tangled skein of emotions.
“It isn’t so easy, is it child, when the people you think of as enemies have no hate in them?” The quiet voice made her jump. Leia whirled to see a tall woman of advanced years watching her with an understanding expression.
“They’re storm troopers! They don’t belong here, in the heart of the Force!” Spurred by guilt, her words came out harshly.
“My dear, only children and the innocent of spirit can come to this place. If your son had not guided you, you would not be here. It is you who are out of place. Return to the waking and leave these men to wait in peace. They’ve had little enough of that.”
“But they’re things bred by Thrawn to kill for the Empire!” she protested. “How can they be innocent?!”
The woman gave her a measuring stare, which put Leia uncomfortably in mind of an old Camaasi professor of ethics she’d had in school. “Be very careful what you say, daughter of Darth Vader.” Leia flinched at the icy tone. “Do you truly believe that your breeding dictates your destiny? If so, you have much to learn, much to learn.” She gave her head a shake as if disappointed.
Leia was speechless for a time while she attempted to digest this, then she asked. “Who are you?”
“It is a little late to be asking that, child. Go back to the waking and learn.” She turned away. “You are not yet fit company for the children in my care.” Before Leia could object, the lady had vanished behind a wall of mist, which soon obscured the forest entirely.
“Wait! Wait!!” Leia shouted. Running forward, she tripped on an unseen object and fell into what felt like an infinite space, waking with a start beside her sleeping son.
***
Leaving Anakin to his rest, or perhaps his play, Leia rose and padded quietly to the comm center. This time, she requested a live holographic session with her brother, and to her relief, he was able to answer her call. It was early morning on Yavin 4. With his image to reinforce the idea of his presence, she could feel his curiosity reach out to her. It’s as if the light years between Coruscant and Yavin were nothing, she thought.
“They are nothing, you know that,” he chided her gently with a smile.
Leia was in no mood to take Jedi instruction, but she held in a sharp retort in favor of getting directly to the point. “Luke, I went with Anakin.”
“And?”
“There are storm troopers in the Force. They’re the ones the Council had frozen four years ago. For some reason, they didn’t stay unconscious, but were dumped into the Force as if they had died. Except they aren’t dead. According to their Lieutenant, they can’t leave.” Leia stopped, reluctant to admit her guilt at forgetting them.
“The ones put in cryofreeze by the Council? I didn’t think that would be a good thing. Crushed into oblivion at the height of their pain and fear? No wonder they can’t rest.” Luke frowned slightly. “Are they angry? Dangerous?”
Leia sighed and dropped her gaze. “No. They aren’t. I was sure they would be, but I found out differently. They are confused, perhaps, and their officer is distressed on their behalf, and protective of his men, but none of them are dangerous. That was made quite plain to me by their guardian, who also let me know that while Anakin and the storm troopers were welcome, I was not.”
“Ah, the place has one of the advanced ones looking after it.” His expression changed to one of relief. “That’s very good. They’re all quite safe, you know. Anakin and the rest.”
“But why…?”
“They’ve found or been drawn to a place for children; it’s where they belong.”
“The Lady who lives there said the place was for the ‘innocent of spirit’. I still don’t see how she can include storm troopers in with children.”
“Leia, we’re adults. We’ve both seen and done things that give us the outlook and responsibility of adults, for good and for ill. There’s no easy way to reverse that. It could be that the clones, being only a few years of age, are basically at the level of infants or very young children, and so have an innocent outlook that suits them to that state of being.” The Jedi looked almost wistful. “Actually, they’re rather lucky. Most of us cannot reach adulthood and preserve that state of spirit.”
“I don’t know about that. They’re still frozen, and unless we can get them out, they’ll stay where they are for who know how long.”
“That’s easily remedied, then. Have them revived.”
“Luke,” she growled at him. “It’s not as easy as that. I don’t have the keys to the hospital cryofreeze unit. It’s not as if Han and I can go down there right now, thaw them overnight, and turn them loose. The High Council put them in and somehow I need to get the Council to agree to take them out,” she sighed. “I can’t circumvent the political process just because it’s slow and cumbersome.”
“Leia, a terrible injustice has been committed. How long will you make them wait for their freedom?”
“I might have to make them wait. I’ll bring the matter up at the next session, but feelings are still running high against the Empire. In that, the Empire hasn’t helped matters much.” She gave her brother a serious look. “We’ve got to be careful, Luke. If I push too hard, the Council may just have them destroyed rather than give them up. Somehow, I’ve got to think of a way where the Council will see some sort of advantage to reviving them and returning them to the Empire. What would be the point of waking them if the High Council only has them imprisoned for the rest of their lives? Or executed?”
Luke shook his head. “Don’t let the Council kill them. That would set the New Republic down the same dark path the Empire has taken for so many years. Even freezing them was a step into the dark.” He looked away for a moment, thinking. “The troopers are safe enough where they are, both in body and in spirit. If it seems too dangerous to push for their revival now, let it wait for a time. But they shouldn’t wait forever. If no one brings a light, the darkness grows.” He smiled at her and Leia felt the warmth of his affection. “Do what you think is right… and if it gets to the point where the right needs a little extra help, you know you can call me or my students. Give my love to everyone.”
“I will, Luke. Good-bye.” Leia cut the connection.
Luke’s image flickered and vanished as the holotransmission ended.
“Why is doing the right thing so difficult?” Leia asked of the empty air. Council reconvenes next tenday, she thought, pulling out her datapad and making notes in preparation for the favor she was prepared to request of the politicians of the New Republic.
*****
The predawn singing of birds woke Gorseth. He sat up; yawning and stretching in the bunk of a fairly normal-looking bed in the large room he had shared with his men this past night. They were all sleeping in bunks stacked three high, which was enough like the barracks of their old ship’s quarters to seem very “homey” indeed. Rank had its privileges and Gorseth was able to exit his bottom bunk without disturbing his men. Quietly he made his way down the hall to the bathing facilities to wash up. As he performed this routine task, he thought back over the events of yesterday. On the edge of the evening, they had found a new child on the eastern trail, had brought him in, and given him into the custody of the Lady. The borders they had checked showed no sign of intrusion. On the day before, Anakin had visited to play with Frith. Anakin’s mother had come along as well. Gorseth frowned as he combed his hair into something resembling order. The visit of Anakin’s mother had caused him an echo of that old pain he’d once suffered, but the reason for his discomfort had vanished with the dreams of the night, along with any shards of pain.
Never mind , he told himself as he finished dressing, if it’s that important you’ll remember eventually. He dismissed the tenuous fragments of worry with an internal shrug and strode off cheerfully to wake his platoon.
***
“Anam. Have you plans this morning for yourself and your men?” The Lady asked of the lieutenant as they cleared away the breakfast dishes.
“No, Lady. I hadn’t given it much thought just yet.” Gorseth watched his men as they washed, dried, and put away the china. Amazingly enough, no one had broken any of the delicate stuff despite their initial unfamiliarity with the rituals of dining in company. He still worried a bit about breakage, but had stopped holding his breath during the cleanup operation, at least.
“I have an errand that wants doing, but I find I’m unable to go myself. Will you take your men and perform it in my place?” She regarded him steadily.
“Certainly, my Lady. What would you have us do?” Gorseth, being savvy in the ways of the military, would normally have given a carefully-worded answer, having learned to shield himself and his men from the whims and incompetence of the higher ranks, but now he found he could answer easily.
The Lady smiled, which gave him a warm sensation in his heart. “Come with me. I must give you a tool which you will need.”
She led the way through the house to the gathering area she called a ‘hall’. One end of the hall was walled in stone. In a great niche in the stone burned a real fire of wood, the smoke from the burning trailing up and away through a cleverly-wrought pipe in the stone. The Lady called the arrangement a ‘fireplace’, and Gorseth thought it most amazing and dangerous and beautiful to have a live fire burning in one’s home. She walked the length of the hall to the front of the fireplace, knelt, and extracted a piece of wood about one meter in length from the fire. The end of the piece burned merrily. She handed it to Gorseth by the cool end and he held it gingerly away from his body.
“Keep this with you. It is called a torch and you will need it in the place where I will send you. It will not burn out, but do not drop it, lest you cause a fire. It will burn or melt anything you touch with it.”
“Very good,” he said, eyeing the thing with respect. His men entered the hall at his unspoken summons.
“We going hunting, Lieutenant?” asked Tenno Rui with sudden intuition.
“Yes, my dears,” said the Lady. “Hunting for the living. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, ma’am.” Khefret Osman gave her a bow. “It’s been pretty quiet here for the last few days, anyway. A bit of excitement is welcome.”
“Well, I hope it won’t be too exciting.” She smiled at them. “This way.” The men followed their hostess through the hall, down a corridor, through a room full of ancient texts, down yet another hall, and finally found themselves before a door of carved dark wood.
“This looks like Alderaanian work.” Tenno touched the door, running his fingers over the interlaced carvings.
“So it is. This doorway leads to Alderaan, which is where I need you to go.”
“Alderaan!” exclaimed Tef Buian, giving her an alarmed look. “But Alderaan doesn’t exist anymore!”
“My good Tef, everything true exists. You don’t think the actions of evil people can erase a true thing from the universe, do you? You are here, after all, the efforts of your captors to the contrary.”
“Um. Well,” he muttered, not at all sure he understood the analogy. Finally he asserted, “if you say it’s there, Ma’am, then that’s good enough for me.”
“Good fellow. It is indeed there. I need you to go through this door, and follow the torch your Lieutenant carries. When it burns low, you are going away from your destination. When it burns high, you are heading in the correct direction.”
“And what are we to do when we get there?” Tene Osman asked.
“There will be a person who needs help. That person may even need rescue, which is why I’m sending all of you. This may be tiring for you, but it is important.” Her face was serious as she explained. “There may be more than one person who needs help. Gather them all up and bring them here to me. You can return home the same way you usually do, just walk and think of here, and you will come to my house eventually.”
Gorseth nodded, committing her instructions to memory. “Everyone ready?” he asked his men.
“Yes sir!” came the eager chorus. The Lady opened the door, revealing a vast expanse of cold blue-green glaciers. A chill gust of arctic air sang into the hallway.
“All right, here we go, forward!” Holding the torch out, Gorseth sprang over the threshold and landed on the ice, skidded a bit and caught himself. His men followed in sequence and as soon as the last one was through, the door vanished. Once everyone had landed safely, he gave the brief commands necessary to sort them out into formal patrol order.
Gorseth turned in a slow circle, watching the torch. When it flared brightly, he marched off briskly and his men followed.
“Hmm, looks like Hoth,” Goric Buian observed, eyeing the jagged spires of ice as they crunched over more of the same. The air was cold, but no one felt overly chilled by it.
“Ice is a different color from Hoth,” said Kristof Osman, waving at a pale emerald mountain as they hiked along, antlike in the landscape of towering crags. “Does your original remember anything about this place?” He aimed this question at Rui’s set.
Gorseth hesitated as a great crevasse blocked their pathway. After turning the torch this way and that, he chose a route that took them parallel to the chasm until it narrowed enough for them to leap it.
“I remember that Alderaan had an enormous ring of polar ice caps. They never melted; they just got deeper and deeper with each snow.” Tenno answered.
“Y’mean it just piles up?” asked Khefret. “What happens to it if it never melts?”
Tenno shrugged. “Turns into ice like this. Glaciers, that’s what they’re called, I think. Kilometers deep, some of them.”
“Blue ice?” Tef kicked at a lump as he marched.
“It turns color as it ages. Stuff like this that looks green or blue is really old.”
“Did people live here?” Gorseth asked Tenno.
His trooper shook his head. “Uh-uh. No, sir. Too cold, and the wind can strip the flesh from your bones during the season of winter storms. We’re lucky, looks like the Lady sent us here in early summer, when the days are very long, and there’s almost no wind. People would sometimes come here during this time of year, to vacation and sightsee. They’d stay in temporary resorts, which would be packed up and moved come the storm season.”
“Don’t see anybody now,” said Tir Buian. His breath smoked in the cold air.
“We may not.” Tenno held his arms out, hands open. “This place is huge, an entire continent of ice. You could get lost here forever if you wanted to.”
“Not a comforting thought,” Khefret grunted.
Gorseth looked at the torch, which flared a bit brighter in his hand. He adjusted their course accordingly, leaping over another narrow crevasse. “Well, someone is lost out here, and it’s up to us to find him, hopefully before he freezes to death. Careful,” he added, putting out his free hand to block Tef, who was just about to step on a strangely translucent patch of ice. Gorseth poked the spot with his toe, and it shattered like glass, revealing a deep blue chimney which plunged away into a vast depth. “Watch out for thin spots. You fall in there and I don’t know how we’ll get you out.”
“Nobody brought a rope?!” All of Osman looked quite unhappy at their state of unreadiness.
“If you don’t fall in, we won’t need it, will we?” Gorseth spoke evenly, but he shuddered when he thought about what they would do if indeed one of his men fell. Leaving him trapped was out of the question. “Just be careful through this area. Step in each other’s boot prints like we do for mine drill. Tenno, any other dangers of ice-walking we ought to know about now?”
“Crevasses and chimneys are all that I know of, sir. And sun-rotting, but I don’t see any of that here. Too bad we don’t have any snowtroopers in our company, they’d know lots more.”
“Well, we’ll have to make do. Stay sharp.” Gorseth moved onward with his men marching warily behind.
They eased their way through the treacherous area and were relieved to emerge at last onto an open plain of solid ice. Here they made better time, marching for an unknown length of time in the watery sunlight. Like the Lady’s meadow, time in this place seemed to have a dreamlike quality, augmented by the strange light and reflections from the ice. At last they saw a ridgeline of upthrust glaciers ahead which grew larger and larger as they approached, growing into towering monoliths in cold shades of blue and pale green.
The torch Gorseth held dimmed. He held up a hand and halted the men and walked backward along their line. It flared brightly, then dimmed again as he retraced his steps. “Looks like we’re here.” The lieutenant turned about, watching the flame carefully. “Any direction I turn now, it gets dimmer.”
‘Here’ was the face of a glacier which loomed hundreds of feet above their heads. The front of the glacier had riven into dry canyons, like the channels of old rivers, with the canyon walls of the glacier ascending to dizzying heights. These channels offered a maze for exploration, each channel more than wide enough to permit several humans to walk abreast.
“So where’s the person we’re supposed to help?” Tef scanned around, but no one presented themselves, and the only sounds to be heard were the soft sigh of the breeze and their own voices. “I don’t see anyone. Do we have to wait for ‘em to show up?” He cast a dubious glance at the glacier. “Won’t be comfortable to sleep here, come nightfall.”
“We shouldn’t have to sleep here, although we’ve slept in stranger places before. The person can’t be far, probably just inside one of these channels in the ice.” Gorseth eyed the torch. “Seems like the torch can only give us proximity, not a precise reading. Standard search formation, each squad take a channel and go twenty paces max. Search around carefully. The person we were sent to find may be unable to call out to us.”
The group of troopers broke into four squads and moved away slowly, spreading into a formal search pattern and looking for footprints, artifacts, any clues as to the whereabouts of their quarry. The squad Gorseth led took the rightmost channel, walking gingerly into the claustrophobic fissure in the ice.
After a few minutes, a strange color caught Gorseth’s eyes as he traversed a stretch of ice as clear as glass. The color was red, as out of place in the cool tones of the ice as a Wookie at a human dance. He knelt to examine the thing closer. “Khefret, come here. Take a look at this.” He pointed at his discovery. “Someone has been here, and fairly recently.” Khefret and his fellows approached to peer over his shoulder. The thing which had attracted the lieutenant’s attention was a handprint, palm and five fingers marked onto the surface of the ice.
“Red dye?” asked Tef.
Gorseth touched the mark gently. “No. Blood.”
“The Lady said he might be wounded.” Tef glanced around again at the icy corridor in which they stood. “Couldn’t have gotten too far if he was bleeding, so where’d he go?”
Tenno clutched his comrade’s shoulder and pointed at the wall of blue ice to his left. “There. He’s right there!” Tenno’s voice came out as a choked cry and everyone quickly turned to look.
A man was embedded in the glacial ice, caught in mid-stride as if he had been walking toward them when the glacier had somehow snared him in its frigid embrace. In his arms he held the body of a dark-haired young boy not much older than Anakin. They were about six inches away from the surface of the ice. The tattered remnants of an Imperial Admiral’s uniform clung to his tall frame and his skin was bluer than the ice around him.
The lieutenant clutched the torch as he stared at the impossible sight. “It can’t be! How could this happen?”
“Dunno how it happened, but that sure looks like Grand Admiral Thrawn, don’t it?” asked Tef, practically pressing his face against the ice, hands pushing at the coldness as if he could part the substance like a curtain. “Gods of the Sith! How’d he get himself stuck in there?” He glared at the ice angrily.
“More to the point how are we to get him out?” Khefret looked at the Admiral’s icy prison in dread.
Gorseth sent his thoughts after the rest of his platoon and his scattered squads soon converged on their find. They gathered around to stare at the Admiral in awe and dismay.
“Never mind forgetting a rope. We need a vibro-cutter.” Tef assessed the situation with a scowl, scratching at the ice with his fingernails. He made little progress and after a moment he put his fingers in his mouth to warm them.
“It’s as if he was walking through it and got stuck somehow,” Korion Osman picked at the mystery.
“They used to put people here, a long time ago,” Tenno said slowly. The entire group of his series closed their eyes as they pursued the memories inherited from their original template. Their spokesman continued, “I remember. It was before cryofreeze was perfected. They would sometimes bring the sick here and the doctors would put them into the ice to keep them. Like Frith. Like us. It’s so cold here; the ice never melts, so the people were safe.” He opened his eyes and shrugged. His face was paler than usual and the rest of Rui echoed the movement. “At least, they were safe till the Death Star.”
“Don’t think about that. Think about a way to get him out of this stuff. We can get the details later.” Khefret looked at his fellows. “Anybody got a knife or anything we can dig with?”
Gorseth shook his head. “No, even if we had tools for digging, it wouldn’t do. He’s frozen into the ice, if we shatter it with tools, we risk shattering his body as well.” He touched the blue wall before him and the coldness against his fingertips sent a shock straight into his heart. He snatched his hand away with a gasp, scowling at the barrier. The Grand Admiral’s eyes were half-open. Gorseth leaned forward to get a better look. He had been told Thrawn had glowing red eyes, but the man imprisoned in the ice had eyes of a strange, soft, warm color he had never seen before. They were still and dull and gazed out sightlessly at him. Gorseth could feel no awareness in the Grand Admiral. As he stared, trying desperately to think of some plan, his feet slipped on the icy footing and he flung his arms forward to catch himself against the ice wall. He was still holding the torch and it touched the ice before he could stop it. With a soft hiss, a large section of the ice steamed and vanished, exposing the head and shoulders of the Admiral to the air.
“Brilliant, Lieutenant! You’ve got it!” Haru Rui exclaimed. He motioned toward the wall. “Here, sir, put it a bit lower and we’ll have him out of this stuff in an instant!” Gorseth complied, moving the torch to touch it against the ice that remained. In less than a minute, the Admiral was free and many hands were reaching to lift him out of the glacier. To their amazement, the child in his arms dissipated into sparkling mist and vanished, leaving behind a sensation of happiness.
“Thank the gods, you’ve got him out!” An unfamiliar voice made Gorseth turn. A tall young woman in red and black armor had materialized out of thin air perhaps thirty paces away from his platoon. Her long silver-gray hair hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail. She ran up to them, her face showing obvious relief. 
“Here, now, where did you come from?” asked Khefret.
The newcomer glanced at him in obvious confusion. “I came from the ship, of course, following the Grand Admiral.”
“I don’t recognize the armor, but it looks like a variant of our own stuff.” Tef put in as he looked at her curiosly.
“I’m Major Shir Kinoha, formerly of the 107 th Wing of 5 th TIE fighter squadron aboard the Chimaera.” At this formal courtesy, the group of them exchanged salutes. “I’ve been the Grand Admiral’s pilot and aide-de-camp for about two years now. Thank you for freeing him.” She gave them a look of profound gratitude. Moving closer, she touched the Admiral. “He’s so cold!”
“I shouldn’t wonder, Major, he’s been stuck in that ice and we just pulled him out.” Khefret and the rest carried the Admiral away from the face of the glacier and held him off the equally-icy ground. “Pardon me for asking, but what’s happened with him? We thought he was dead, killed by his bodyguard or somesuch.”
Shir placed her hands against the Admiral’s chest through the torn fabric of his uniform. “The original IS dead.”
“The original?” Tenno pondered her words then likewise reached to place his hand against the Admiral’s freezing skin. His face changed. “He’s a clone! He’s like us! Feel!” In an instant every member of the various series had touched the Admiral, their expressions showing wonder.
“He is! The resonance is there.” Khefret closed his eyes in concentration.
“It’s different from our human series. Sharper, brighter,” said Tenno, trying to put names to certain indefinable sensations.
Gorseth could share the feelings from his men. “It could be because he’s an alien rather than an entirely human clone.”
“He’s got almost no energy left, though,” added Khefret.
“Well, we’d better all give him some, unless you want him drifting off like that kid,” said Tef. The trooper was not terribly sensitive, but he was enormously practical.
“No! Don’t let him die. I’ll give him everything I have, if that will help.” Shir held onto the unconscious alien with a fierce protectiveness. In her case, the thought was the deed, and in a few moments the Admiral was visibly breathing, while his companion staggered and slumped. Gorseth caught Shir and pulled her away, wrapping her right arm over his shoulder so he could keep her upright. She leaned against the support he offered as if utterly drained of strength.
“Brave. Crazy brave.” Tir Buian looked at the female fighter pilot respectfully. “Seems to me I’ve seen some people like her before.”
“You have. On our old ship. You’re Harlekki, right, Ma’am?” Tenno directed the question at Shir, who nodded, unable to speak.
“Oh, they’re the ones who think dying is fun,” said Tef.
“It’s not that,” corrected Gorseth. “They just have no sense of fear and don’t much care if they live or die.”
“There’s little difference between the two states of being, at least for us.” Shir managed to say with an effort.
“Like he said, crazy brave,” Tef repeated his brother’s opinion. “You’d’ve made a good storm trooper, Ma’am. Too bad they didn’t clone you while they had the chance.”
Shir smiled strangely. “They thought they would, but the scientists decided they didn’t want to clone Harlekki. Our lifespans are too short to make it worth their while.”
“Too short?! Ha! That’s a joke!” Buian collectively laughed at the thought of scientists concerned over the longevity of Imperial soldiers.
“Still, it wasn’t for naught. If I hadn’t been sent to Mount Tantiss, I’d never have been able to help the Admiral escape from the mad Jedi C’baoth.” Shir stopped speaking, still visibly tired.
“You can tell us the whole story later,” said Gorseth. “You rest for the moment and let us do what we can for you both.” He looked at his troops. “We can all feel him, right? How about if we each give him some energy? That ought to keep him going till we get to the Lady’s house.”
“Yes, sir. We can do that.” Khefret looked at his comrades. “C’mon everyone, get close and synch up.” The storm troopers gathered around the Admiral’s cold body and held him in their midst, pressing inward to encircle him with a tight rampart of warm bodies. Energy rippled and flowed into the man they held. Gorseth had joined them while still supporting Shir, and the shifting of energy seemed to help her as well. She raised her head and looked more alert. The Admiral’s breathing steadied and he no longer felt so insubstantial to those holding him.
“Everyone all right?” asked Gorseth, feeling an odd heaviness in the othersense.
“We’re a bit tired, but we’re not about to die, Lieutenant,” Khefret answered for the group.
“Good. Follow me, we’ll return to the Lady. Use a shoulder-carry for the Admiral and let’s march.” At his direction, the soldiers lined up two abreast and lifted the Admiral up onto their shoulders between them. His body spanned five troopers quite nicely.
Shir swallowed at the sight, her face grim. “That’s how we carry out the dead.”
“Well, it’s how we’ve got to carry the living, since we don’t have a repulsor sled, or even an old-fashioned stretcher.” Tef shrugged. “At this point, we can’t be choosy.”
“You’re right.” She nodded in acceptance. “Thank you for your help. I can’t tell you how good it is to see friendly faces here in this cold place.”
“How’d the Admiral get hurt? You been fighting the Rebellion?” asked Haru Rui as they marched rhythmically over the ice.
“No, actually, it was another Imperial Moff hurt him.”
“Imperial Admirals fighting with each other? What’s going on with the Empire?” Gorseth looked alarmed at the thought. He knew that the upper ranks indulged in politics, but he had never considered that they’d actually come to blows over their differences.
“The Empire is coming apart.” Shir looked unhappy at the thought. “He’s our best hope of salvaging something decent, if we can keep him alive.”
“Trust us for that, Ma’am,” said Khefret stoutly. “He feels better, now that we’ve shared with him.”
“But how’d he get in the ice?” Tenno waved at the frozen landscape. “We’ve been here for awhile, and we’re not stuck in the ice like he was.”
“I don’t know how that happened,” Shir admitted with a frown, stumbling a little over some rough patches. “Princess Leia brought him here and left him…”
“Princess Leia?! What? What was he doing with her?”
“They were sharing a cell for a time, courtesy of that same Moff. The Admiral was bleeding to death, so she brought his spirit here to Alderaan in the Force in hopes the cold would slow his life processes down and keep him alive until he could be given medical help. She said she had recently learned of such a thing.” Shir stopped speaking as she stumbled again, obviously weakened.
“That’s enough talk.” Gorseth looked at Tenno, who joined him in supporting the Major between them until she had regained her stride. “You’ve got quite a story to tell, but it can wait till we get home.”
“Home,” Shir murmured as she walked carefully with her escort. “Home in the Force? Very strange. Someone told me I ought to be a Jedi, once. I thought they were joking. Never thought I’d end up here.”
“Neither did we.” Gorseth looked ahead and was relieved to see the mists marking the boundaries of the alpine meadow of the Lady gathering ahead. He hastened on, his men following almost on his heels. They plunged into the mist and continued to march, the men singing a soldier’s tune, passing the verses around between them. The song was by turns bawdy and rollicking and fit perfectly with the tramp of marching boots.
“I am in the afterlife, and it sounds like a barracks. It is not at all what I expected,” said a calm, dry voice from above. The troopers were so astonished they nearly dropped their burden, startling, then steadying up.
Shir called out, “It’s all right, sir! You’re with us.”
“Shir? Then you are dead as well. I’m very sorry.”
Gorseth walked Shir closer, placing the two of them alongside his formation of troops. “Sir, I’m not dead and you aren’t dead either,” said Shir. She paused as she considered their situation. “At least, not yet. We’re with a platoon of storm troopers.”
The Grand Admiral kept his eyes closed, but he smiled at her words.
“Now I truly did not expect that.” He lay in silence for a time. “I thought I was in the ice? It was cold.”
“You were. Lieutenant Gorseth and his men found you. I arrived shortly after they pulled you out.”
“And the child? I remember he was the last one.”
“Gone, sir. He vanished as soon as you were free of the ice,” said Gorseth.
“It’s good. They are all free now.” Thrawn lay still, breathing slowly. “Where are we then? Not waking - it doesn’t have the same feel.”
“Where?” Shir looked about in confusion. The Harlekki existed in the moment and it had never occurred to her to consider where she really was. The mists thinned away to reveal the meadow and forest that had been Gorseth’s destination. “We’re on the side of a mountain. There’s a forest nearby and it looks like early evening.”
With an effort, Thrawn opened his eyes at her description to see for himself. He took in the scene out of eyes that were a little brighter then they had been since Gorseth had last seen them.
“Very beautiful.” He looked now at Shir for the first time. Reaching out with a shaky hand he grasped her arm, his face showing confusion as he tapped at the armored pauldrons covering her shoulders. “Shir,” he murmured. “When did you join the Imperial Guard?”
“What? I didn’t!” She looked surprised at his question.
“I knew I’d seen that armor somewhere!” Tenno exclaimed triumphantly. “It’s usually covered up by their red robes, but I saw it once when a Guard drove off a Nekria flyer-beast on Talkin 3.”
“Those’re big,” said Tef. “Did he win?”
“Oh yes, he did. I’m a good fighter, but he was the best I’d ever seen.”
“He should’ve been. The Emperor himself hand-picked them and I’m told their training was second to none,” said Khefret. “Not the sort of thing I’d volunteer for though. I’m not that ambitious.”
“So did you beat one and take his armor?” asked Tef.
“No, not at all, they gave it to me.” Shir rapped at the breastplate with her knuckles.
“What? They don’t give away their armor. Not ever.” Gorseth and Thrawn said simultaneously. Gorseth added. “The only ones who wear that armor are those who have earned it.”
“I don’t know about that part, but they stunned me after I had killed a number of troops loyal to the rebellious Moff, and I woke up wearing it. Their leader said they had given it to me so I could march with them down to the hangar bay, take a shuttle and leave to find you. They could have killed me, but chose to help me instead.”
“Did they extract any promises from you?” Thrawn asked, obviously concerned by the strange turn of events.
“No sir. They did not ask for anything. But their leader did want to know about the way of the sword and I said I would be willing to teach him.”
“Teach an Imperial Guard to use a sword?! Major!” Tenno looked appalled, as did Gorseth and the rest of the troops.
“Why not? We are all of the Empire.” Shir shrugged. “If he wants to learn, I am willing to teach. Such is the Way of the Warrior.”
“Like I said before, crazy brave,” said Tir Buian with a crooked smile. “She won’t care when he cuts her head off.”
“No, I won’t,” replied Shir seriously, then she too smiled in a way that implied some close-held secret. “But first, he’ll have to get good enough to do so.”
“Brave, but maybe not stupid,” said Tenno, looking relieved.
“The Guards are a law unto themselves, especially with the death of the Emperor,” said Thrawn. He stared skyward, lost in thought. “A group of them carried me to my cell after I was injured. I spoke to them of the Empire’s future. I could not tell if my words had any meaning for them.”
Shir nodded at his statement. “Perhaps they did. Perhaps that is why they chose to aid me. They are warriors of honor; that much was obvious to me.”
They had by now reached the forest with the house of the Lady beyond, lights glowing in its many windows. “I know this place! I, or rather my original, saw a painting like this once by an Alderaanian master. I thought it was quite splendid. I - he - knew it held meaning, but did not understand it. Now that I see this place, I at know the artist must have seen the same landscape when he created his painting.”
He smiled at Shir over Khefret’s shoulder. “However, I still don’t understand it.”
“And that, child, is the beginning of wisdom.” The Lady stood before the door of her house, the light from inside pushing back the darkness that had gathered as the evening deepened. The platoon had made good time. The men who had borne the Admiral on their shoulders reached up and carefully lifted him down, two of them supporting him when it became obvious he could not stand on his own. Gorseth brought Shir up behind them.
The Admiral gazed at the Lady without speaking, his face grave, but Shir sucked in her breath and sighed. “Beautiful.”
“As are you, Shir of the Bright People.” The Lady held her gaze and Shir met that deep regard without fear. The Lady smiled at her. “Your folk pass through here so quickly. They are like the wind, light and carefree, bound for their own destinations. You are one of the first to bide here for a time. You are welcome.”
Shir offered her an abbreviated bow, constrained by Gorseth holding her up. “Please, Lady, if you would be so kind as to see to the Admiral?”
“That I will do, and to yourself as well.” The Lady turned now to Thrawn, who still watched her with an expression of utter amazement.
As if suddenly aware that he was staring, he dropped his gaze and said. “I beg your pardon.”
“There’s no need to ask for my pardon, child of Thrawn,” she replied. “You need not fear me. I am the one who asked these men to go forth and bring you here, where you can rest in safety.”
“Rest?”
“Yes indeed. You need it badly. So does your faithful companion.”
Shir pulled herself up and declared. “I’m not so bad.”
“Compared to your Admiral, perhaps not, but both of you need to rest.” The Lady looked at Shir. “He has spent himself rescuing the trapped people of Alderaan. He needs to rest and regain his strength. For that, I have prepared a place that will help to restore both of you.”
“I apologize for the trouble,” said Thrawn. To his surprise the Lady came and stood before him, her eyes shining so brightly he had to look away.
“You mustn’t be sorry. You have won a great victory and the joy of that will be with me for long ages to come. I honor you and the gifts you gave, and now freely share with you what is mine to give.” Reaching around the troopers, she took the Admiral from them and lifted him in her arms as if he were weightless. Somehow, his tall frame fit in her arms as if he were as small as a child. Dreamily, Gorseth wondered if she had somehow grown, or if the Admiral had shrunk. Her face became serious. “You have wounds that pain you like the ones that Anam carried in his heart, but that is not all that troubles you. Child, you hide it well, but you are very afraid. What do you fear?”
Thrawn coughed a little and took a deep, slow breath. His face went very pale. “Lady, I believe that I am dying or dead. My body that is, and that being so, you will now take me to the War Hammer, to share the fate of my original, who is even now experiencing all the deaths for which he was responsible. You are being very polite about it, but since that is where I went before in my ah, earlier excursions, I know that is where I must be sent now that my time is done.” Shir’s alarmed expression made him close his eyes as he continued. “I would ask that you not take Shir there; it is not a place for her.”
Shir cried out in protest, but the Lady silenced her with a calm look. Arranging Thrawn so his head lay against her chest, she cradled him in her arms and rocked him gently, almost as if she were soothing a colicky infant. “And what have you done, child, to earn yourself a place in such a harsh classroom?”
“Done?” he asked in confusion. “But… I… we…”
“There is no we, good man. There is your original and his deeds, and there is yourself and your doings. You are two separate people.”
“But, my memories, my dreams. I saw the War Hammer. I remember killing the people, I felt their pain.”
“You dreamed the sad dreams of the lessons your original needed. He was still alive at that point. You have not murdered anyone. Your original, your parent if you will, has his work that he must perform. You cannot do it for him. Even if I were to take you to the War Hammer now, you would pass through it as if it were air. It cannot hold you; it is not part of you.” She smiled down at Thrawn. “Your mind, heart, and deeds have carried you far beyond your original. He may with much effort catch up with you some day, but you certainly do not have to catch up with him.”
“I do not understand. I have only done what is proper.”
“And that is what makes you different from the first Admiral Thrawn, so very different.”
“Sir, if we ever get out of here in time enough to be of use, allow us to serve you,” Gorseth said to the Admiral.
“I would be honored, Lieutenant.” Thrawn still sounded thoroughly mystified by the Lady’s words. The Admiral’s face relaxed, he closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, as if he were only now remembering to breathe normally.
“Stars, he’s tough,” said Buian in admiration.
“That’s better. The sleep will help to restore him,” said the Lady. She turned and carried Thrawn into her house, Shir and Gorseth following unbidden. She halted before a door in the main corridor. “This one.”
Gorseth opened it and saw a simple room with a wide bed. The dark forest was faintly visible through the window, which like everything else in the house, was very old-fashioned with actual glass in the window panes. He pulled back the coverlet, drew the curtains, and the Lady placed Thrawn on the bed. He did not wake. She looked at Shir, who immediately lay down beside the Admiral, armor and all. The Lady arranged the covers over them both. “Rest well. Sleep and heal. The fears and pains of today will be gone when next you wake. When you can, return to me someday and I will receive you gladly.”
“Our thanks, Lady,” said Shir, answering for them both. Her voice sounded muzzy from sleepiness.
Gorseth gave them a salute as he and the Lady left the room, closing the door gently behind them. “Will he be all right? Will he heal?” he asked as they returned to the hall. He paused before the crackling fire, letting the warmth drive back the chill that had invaded his bones during the journey to the glaciers of Alderaan. Tiredness began to replace the chill.
“He will certainly be all right, Anam.” She closed her eyes and was still for a minute as if consulting some internal source of information. “It will be well with them both, I feel. They will heal and wake in their physical bodies. Beyond that I cannot say for certain, but I think it will all work out for the best.”
“That’s good. I had worried a little.” Gorseth staggered, catching himself against the warm mantel of the fireplace. The Lady placed a hand under his elbow to steady him.
“You and your men need to sleep as well. You gave of your life energy to sustain your Admiral. It can be dangerous not to rest. Come along, we’ll get all of you something to eat and then to bed with you.”
“That sounds excellent,” he agreed, not quite managing to stifle a yawn as he allowed himself to be led away. POW Part 4
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