Light of the Jedi(75)

He had distributed the older droids throughout the array in an attempt at load balancing, but inevitably, some sections ended up with a few more of the less-capable machines. Node Five was one of those. The heat was rising quickly, and it was just a matter of time until—

A shower of sparks shot up from the array, and Keven didn’t have to look at it to know it was coming from Node Five. One of the older navidroids had blown its circuits, the heat essentially frying its computational matrix to sludge.

“Blast it,” he said.

“What’s happening, Tarr?” he heard Senator Noor call over.

Keven didn’t answer. He didn’t have time. If Node Five went down, then the whole simulation would have to start over, and he knew they probably wouldn’t let him do that. This was most likely his only shot. Fortunately, he had anticipated the problem—at least to some degree.

A phalanx of pill droids floated off to one side of the array, all equipped with cooling units able to send out blasts of wintry air wherever they might be needed. Keven had kept them in reserve until now, but it was clear that the time had come.

He tapped his datapad, and several of the pill droids zoomed over to Node Five, shooting out cold air from their vent attachments that immediately brought the temperature down. Fine. It was fine.

As long as the pill droids’ coolant held out, and as long as he didn’t lose too many more navidroids. Fifty-seven thousand, seven hundred and twelve, now—and he really shouldn’t have even tried this with less than seventy-five thousand.

Node Seven was starting to run hot, and Keven had learned his lesson. He sent another few pill droids in that direction to cool it down before anything went wrong.



This can work, he thought. I can do this.

Node Fourteen came online, modeling the nineteenth Emergence, and it overloaded immediately, hard, fifty droids at once shooting the same set of sparks Node Five had just produced. Maybe an error in the linkage, maybe that was just a particularly complex part of the simulation.

“No!” Keven shouted.

He was dimly aware of voices in his vicinity, asking questions, offering advice, concern…he couldn’t spare time for them, not even a moment. The array was on the verge of a cascading failure.

Twenty pill droids whipped over to Node Fourteen—half of what he had left, and they were barely two-thirds of the way through the simulation.

They’re going to blame me, he thought. They’re going to say it was my fault. I was just trying to help. I did my best. I did my—

A hand touched his arm, and Keven jumped. He looked—it was the Jedi, Avar Kriss. A few steps behind her, the other one, Elzar Mann—they always seemed to be together.

“Be calm,” she said, and he was. He felt better, just having her there.

“What’s happening?” Avar asked.

“The array’s producing too much heat, but I can’t stop the simulation now. Either it runs to the end, or there was no point to any of this. We haven’t learned anything new yet, either. If we stop now, it’s all a waste.”



Another rain of sparks—Node Eleven. Three hundred and eighty-two droids gone, all at once. Fifty-seven thousand, two hundred and eighty-five left.

Keven sent the rest of his pill droids to cool down that section, which would work for a bit, but a glance at the datapad showed him at least four more nodes in serious trouble.

Nodes Three and Eight blew. Fifty-three thousand, four hundred and twelve. If they got below fifty thousand, it was over. No amount of reshuffling and load balancing would create processing power where it didn’t exist.



The breeze died, and that little bit of additional cooling it provided vanished. There was nothing more he could do. It was over.



* * *





Avar Kriss continued to use the Force to help the young man hold back his panic. It wasn’t easy. Keven Tarr wanted to spiral out of control. He felt guilt, shame, frustration…none of which were fair or earned, probably, but emotions were rarely logical.

She looked at Elzar. “Any ideas?”

“He needs to cool everything down?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Okay,” Elzar said, his tone thoughtful. “I might have an idea. I’ve never tried it, but the theory is sound. You’ll be able to sense what I’m doing. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. I can’t imagine I’ll be able to do this alone.”

Elzar seated himself on the ground, folding his legs together, then lifted his arms and closed his eyes. Avar reached out, trying to follow what he was doing. He was calling on the Force…but to do what?

She suspected this was one of his…refinements. Ideas were constantly popping into his head, ways the Force might be used to do new things, new ways the light side might answer his call. He failed, all the time, but she found his commitment to bringing new ideas to the Jedi inspiring. To Elzar Mann, what the Jedi were was nowhere near as interesting as what they could be.

Avar listened to the song of the Force…and suddenly she understood what Elzar was trying to do.

Impossible, she sent to him, a concept basic enough to be conveyed through the very loose emotional linkage the Force could give them.

He smiled, not opening his eyes.

Help me, he sent back.