Star Wars - Lost Tribe of the Sith 02 - Skyborn

down a black hole.”
    “No, not
down
one.”
    There was just enough anxiety in Luke’s voice to make Ben glance into the mirrored section again. His father was frowning out at the two black holes, staring into the fiery cloud between them and looking just worried enough to twist Ben’s stomach into a cold knot.
    “
Between
them?” Ben could see what his father was thinking, and it didn’t make him happy. In any system of two large bodies, there were five areas where the centrifugal and gravitational forces would neutralize each other and hold a smaller body—such as a satellite or asteroid—in perpetual equilibrium. Of those five locations, only one was directly
between
the two bodies. “You mean Stable Zone One?”
    Luke nodded. “The Chasm of Perfect Darkness is an ancient Ashla parable referring to the twin perils of ego and ignorance,” he explained. “The Tythonians spoke of it as a deep dark canyon flanked by high, ever-crumbling cliffs.”
    “So life is the chasm, darkness is falling all around,” Ben said, taking an educated guess as to the parable’s meaning, “and the only way to stay in the light is to go down the middle.”
    Luke smiled. “You’ve got a real feeling for mystic guidance.” He lifted his hands away from the yoke. “You have the ship, son.”
    “Me? Now?”
Ben considered pointing out that his father was by far the better pilot—but that wasn’t the issue, of course. If Ben was going to face his fears, he needed to handle the flying himself. He swallowed hard, squared his shoulders, then confirmed, “I have the ship.”
    Ben deactivated the mirror panel and accelerated toward the black holes. As the
Shadow
drew closer, their dark orbs rapidly began to swell and drift toward opposite sides of the cockpit, until all that could be seen of them were tall slivers of darkness hanging along the rear edges of the canopy. Ahead lay a fiery confluence of superheated gas, swirling in from two different directions and so bright it hurt Ben’s eyes even through the
Shadow
’s blast-tinting.
    He checked the primary display and found only bright static; the navigation sensors were awash in electromagnetic blast from compressing gas. The
Shadow
’s internal sensors were working just fine, however, and they showed the ship’s hull temperature rising rapidly as they penetrated the cloud. It wouldn’t take long for that to become dangerous, Ben knew. Soon the fierce heat inside the accretion disk would start fouling guidance systems and control relays. Eventually, it would compromise hull integrity.
    “Dad, how about doing something with those sensor filters?” Ben asked. “My navigational readings are snow.”
    “Adjusting the filters won’t change anything,” Luke said calmly. “We’re flying between a pair of black holes, remember?”
    Ben exhaled in exasperation, then cursed under his breath and continued to stare out into the fiery ribbons ahead. At best, he could make out a confluence zone where the two accretion disks were brushing against each other, and the painful brilliance made it difficult to tell even that much.
    “How am I supposed to navigate?” Ben complained. “I can’t see anything.”
    Luke remained silent.
    Ben felt the hint of disapproval in his father’s Force aura and experienced a flash of rebellion. He let out acleansing breath, allowing the feeling to run its course and depart on a cushion of stale air, then saw how he had been blinded by his anxiety over the navigation difficulties.
    “Oh … right,” Ben said, feeling more than a little foolish. “Trust the Force.”
    “No worries,” Luke said, sounding amused. “The first time I tried something this crazy, I had to be reminded, too.”
    “Well, at least
I
have an excuse.” Ben took the navigation sensors offline so the static wouldn’t interfere with his concentration. “It’s hard to focus with your dad looking over your shoulder.”
    Luke’s crash webbing clicked open. “In that case, maybe I should get some—”
    “Who are you kidding?” Ben shoved the yoke over, flipping the
Shadow
into a tight barrel roll. “You just want to bite your nails in private.”
    “The thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” Luke said, dropping back into his seat. “Until
now
, ungrateful offspring.”
    Ben laughed, then leveled out and checked the hull temperature. It was climbing even faster than he had feared. He closed his eyes and—hoping the gas was not so thick that friction would