Abyss

Ahri Raas; Sith apprentice (Keshiri male)

Ben Skywalker; Jedi Knight (human male)

Han Solo; Captain,
Millennium Falcon
(human male)

Jagged Fel; Head of State, Galactic Empire (human male)

Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)

Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (human female)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (human male)

Olaris Rhea; Sith Lord (human female)

Vestara Khai; Sith appentice (human female)

Yuvar Xal; Sith Master (human male)

Buried deep inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was the Asylum Block, a transparisteel cube standing in its own hidden atrium, bathed in artificial blue light and surrounded by tidy rows of potted olbio trees. Peering up through the leaves to a second-story wall, Leia Solo could see Seff Hellin kneeling in his cell. He was in the near corner, staring at his bloody knuckles as though surprised that hours of hammering at a fusion-welded seam might actually have damaged them. In the adjacent cell, Natua Wan was endlessly scratching at her door lock, trying to slip her splintered talons into a magnetic seal that a nanoscalpel could not have breached.

Seeing the pair in such a state made Leia’s heart ache. It also terrified her, for both of Corran Horn’s children had fallen victim to the same condition. Now, with Temple scientists no closer to identifying a cause, she was beginning to fear that this strange insanity might claim an entire generation of Jedi Knights. And that was something she would not allow—not when every new case reminded her of how
confused and helpless she had felt losing Jacen to the madness of the Sith.

The golden outline of an access portal appeared in the invisible barrier field that enclosed the atrium. With Han and C-3PO following behind, Leia stepped into the leafy-smelling interior. She was not surprised to feel a subtle pang of loss and isolation. The olbio trees were filled with ysalamiri, small white reptiles that hid from predators by creating voids in the Force. The adaptation was an invaluable tool for anyone who wished to incarcerate rogue Force-users—and all too often lately, that included the Jedi themselves.

As the portal crackled shut behind them, Han leaned close and warmed Leia’s ear with a whisper. “I don’t think cutting them off from the Force is helping. They look crazier than ever.”

“Seff and Natua are not crazy,” Leia reprimanded. “They’re ill, and they need our understanding.”

“Hey, nobody understands crazy better than me.” Han gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “People are
always
calling me crazy.”

“Captain Solo is quite right,” C-3PO agreed. The golden protocol droid was standing close behind the Solos, his metallic breastplate pressing cold against Leia’s left shoulder. “During our association, Captain Solo’s sanity has been questioned an average of three times per month. By the psychiatric care standards of many conformist societies, that fact alone would qualify him for a cell in the Asylum Block.”

Han shot a frown back at the droid, then turned to Leia with his best smirk of reassurance. “You see? I’m probably the only one in the whole Temple who receives on their channel.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that,” Leia said. She gave him a wry smile, then patted the hand grasping her arm. “All joking aside, I just wish you really
did
know what’s going on with them.”

Now it was Han who grew serious. “Yeah. Seeing ’em slip away like this brings bad memories.
Really
bad memories.”

“It does,” Leia acknowledged. “But it’s not the same thing. By the time anyone realized what was going on with Jacen, he was
running
the Galactic Alliance.”

“Yeah, and we were the enemy,” Han agreed. “I just wish we could have stuck Jacen in a deten—”

“We
would
have, had there been some way to take him alive,” Leia interrupted. They didn’t turn down this lane often, but when they did, it devastated her, and she couldn’t let herself be devastated now. “Let’s just focus on the Jedi we
can
save.”

Han nodded. “Count me in. I don’t need anybody else’s family getting caught in the kind of plasma blast we did.”

Han was still speaking when Master Cilghal and her assistant Tekli appeared, walking between two rows of potted olbios. In their white medical robes, the pair made a somber impression: Cilghal a longheaded Mon Calamari with sad bulbous eyes, Tekli a diminutive Chadra-Fan with her flap-like ears pulled tight against her head fur.