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The final installment in the epic Natchez Burning trilogy by Greg Iles “Natchez Burning is extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down; as long as it is, I wished it were longer. This is an amazing work of popular fiction.” — Stephen King. Oryx and Crake is a 2003 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.She has described the novel as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not deal with things 'we can't yet do or begin to do', yet goes beyond the amount of realism she associates with the novel form. It focuses on a lone character called Snowman, who finds himself in a bleak.

Chapter Eighteen: Caverns and Clouds

Leia drifted up from consciousness slowly and became aware of a diffuse, gentle pink light. She forced her heavy lids open and stared up at a mildly arching ceiling glittering with refracted sunlight from a set of hanging crystals by the floor-to-ceiling window taking up the majority of the wall to her right. With effort, she managed to sit up and found Raynor sitting on a chair float at the end of the bed. He had three armed guards behind him.

'Princess,' he said cordially. 'I have informed Lord Vader that you were enjoying my hospitality. He expressed his eagerness to meet you.'

'I'm sure he has,' she whispered in a dry throat.

'I also told him Colonel Solo was dead.'

Leia became very still, and then reached out with the Force until she felt him, alive and safe. 'You're lying.'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

Raynor smiled. 'My time is limited here, Princess. The guild has been trying to remove me as administrator for at least two years now. With the Empire coming, I find I now wish to absent myself from this city as much as they wish me to. But I am not an evil man. Han and I were once comrades, if not friends. By telling Lord Vader he was dead, it is my hope that he at least will be spared. But such a ruse would not work with you, would it?'

'No, Lord Vader can sense me almost anywhere.'

'Because he is your father?' Raynor smiled at her expression. 'I understand the Alliance's efforts to keep your relationship with Lord Vader a private affair. I have no interest in spreading rumors myself. I wish only to be allowed to leave in peace.'

'I'm not stopping you.'

'In a way, you are. The Empire arrived minutes ago. They are circling this planet—nearly thirty ships. Lord Vader is on his way down now. I'm sorry.'

Leia jumped to her feet. She was surprised to find her lightsaber still on her hip. Raynor studied her and smiled again. 'I have been told it is very difficult to stop a Jedi.'

'Then why take me under custody in the first place?'

The door to the beautiful room opened, and a newcomer stepped in. Leia caught her breath as the visored helmet studied her. 'For me,' a harsh voice said.

'I understand you have met Boba Fett before?' Raynor asked.

'Enough of this, Raynor,' the bounty hunter snarled. 'Get out while you can.'

The former Baron Administrator of Bespin City stood and bowed to Leia. 'Princess. I would wish you well, but fate it seems has other ideas.' Then he and his guards left.

Leia stared down the notorious bounty hunter with her lightsaber in hand.

'Try it, Jedi,' Boba Fett said. 'I've been hunting and killing your kind for twenty years. It might provide some fun before Darth Daddy…'

Leia Force-pulled the bounty hunter through the room while simultaneously igniting her saber and cutting a hole in the transparisteel window. With a startled roar Boba Fett went flying outside as a gust of wind rushed into the suddenly de-pressurized room. She knew with the bulky jetpack he was wearing it wouldn't hold him for long, but it was enough to give her a head start. She darted out of the room just as an organic-seeking missile struck the spot she was just standing in.

The explosion threw her from her feet into the wide, mostly empty hall. Nearby doors opened and people looked out to see what was happening before quickly ducking back in. She scrambled back to her feet and ran as fast as her feet would take her to the nearest turbolift.

~~Empire~~

~~Empire~~

'Raynor has left the city,' Lobot suddenly said. Lando and Han both turned and stared at him. 'Imperial troops have landed in the East and West quarters and are starting to secure the facility,' the cyborg continued. 'Should I order security forces to resist?'

'Would they have a chance?' Calrissian asked.

'No. The Imperials have landed in overwhelming force.'

'Then tell them not to resist. Send out a general alarm to the city as a whole that the Empire has arrived.'

Lando looked at Han. 'Well, Colonel, any ideas?'

'Yeah, we get Leia and get the hell out of this city.'

'You have a ship?' Lando asked.

'I do now, if the hyperdrive was fixed.'

'It was not,' Lobot said. 'However, I have ordered a crew to attend to it. It should be fixed within the hour.'

The two other men shared a glance. 'A lot can happen in an hour.'

'You're telling me.'

~~Empire~~

~~Empire~~

'Here, little Jedi,' Boba Fett called, as if to a recalcitrant pet. Their chase had moved down into the bowels of the city, in a maze of darkened oval halls and strange vents that funneled the thin layer of breathable atmosphere in Bespin through the city.

Leia crouched atop one of a dozen chutes looking over a huge, open oval space that dropped down into the city core below. Every few seconds, an energy field appeared at different intervals to force air up into the city itself. On the far side of the massive opening, which was at the very least two hundred meters wide, she could see a lift platform.

The bounty hunter stepped onto the edge of the platform and looked around. He showed no fear of the terrifying drop just centimeters from his boots. 'Where are you, little Jedi?'

The energy field on their level blinked on. She counted…..eight, nine, ten…. It went off. She counted again. One, two, three, four…

She dropped down on top of the bounty hunter's head, knocking him flat for a second. She swung at his backpack as he spun away and ignited a flame thrower. The flame caught Leia by surprise and forced her to jump back, but not before she was able to grab him with the Force and shove him over the edge.

The field came on. Leia gathered the Force within herself and shot over the field itself, her feet finding purchase against it as if it were a solid floor. She counted in her mind as she used the Force to propel her even faster. Eight…Nine… She launched herself into a Force-driven leap just as the field disappeared under her and landed with a thud and a huff of breath in the opposite platform. She climbed onto the lift and watched as a small spot of flame rose up from the center of the passage.

The next level's energy field activated. She ran across again, and again leapt to safety just as the field deactivated and boarded that side's lift. She both felt and heard Fett approaching; he launched another rocket. Leia spun around and pushed with the Force. The rocket turned in mid-flight back toward the bounty hunter as the next level's field activated and she once again sped to the opposite side and the lift that would take her to the final level.

Fett was below the field, shadowing her movement while waiting for an opening. He chose the moment she had to leap to fire his repeating blaster. In mid-leap, Leia spun around and batted the bolts back at Boba. One struck the armor of his shoulder and spun him around, giving Leia enough time to land and make it to the last lift.

By the time the upper field activated, she was able to run into the maintenance chute without further molestation. She came into a massive, darkly lit space with a strange pit in the center of it. Next to the pit stood a shadow she hoped never to see again.

'It is good to see you again, my daughter,' Darth Vader said. 'You have indeed grown powerful, just as the Emperor foresaw.'

~~Empire~~

~~Empire~~

Han and Lando ran through a hangar bay on their way to a turbolift that would take them to the executive towers when Han slowed and grabbed Lando's sleeve. He pointed at an oddly shaped craft that looked almost like an alien snout projecting from an oval base. 'I know that ship,' he said. 'That's Boba Fett's ship.'

'Boba Fett?' Lando asked. 'You mean the bounty hunter?'

'Yeah. He must have managed to get off the Tantive IV before it blew. I bet he was the one that figured out where I was going.'

'So what?'

'So, I owe him. Come on, it won't take long.'

The ramp to the Firespray-class ship was down. Han looked around and ran quickly up the ramp five steps before he froze. 'Hello, Solo,' the bounty hunter's recorded voice said. 'I didn't believe Raynor when he said you were dead. I also suspected you might try something with my ship. Did you know you're worth nearly 20,000 credits to the Empire? Treason tends to make them mad.' The ramp started to rise. Han dove for the opening, only to be struck and knocked back inside by another door swinging down from the projecting nose of the weapons platform.

Lando watched hopelessly. 'Can we get that open?' he asked Lobot.

'The ship is extensively booby-trapped,' the Cyborg said, studying the ship not just with his eyes but also the city's security sensors. 'Any attempt to open it would likely destroy the ship.'

Suddenly stormtroopers rushed into the hangar on the far side. 'Well, we have other things to worry about,' Lando decided. 'So long, Solo. Good luck with that treason thing.' He and the cyborg turned and ran for their lives.

~~Empire~~

~~Empire~~

A three hundred meter-wide piece of debris from the Dagger's demise struck the mountain side with the kinetic force of a missile. The mountain cracked at the base with a deep, reverberating groan as if the planet itself were suffering under the barrage of debris.

An object 15 kilometers long that exploded in orbit was going to have consequences for the planet below. As Kyle, Jan, Winter and Kale trudged along the narrow bank just above a raging, torrential river, they knew the falling mountain was the least of the problems they would face—not all of the contrails in the sky were from falling debris.

'That's a lot of drop ships,' Kyle noticed, wincing as the mountain crumbled into the river. He knew the debris would form a massive dam that would affect the water distribution through the whole region, they just couldn't do anything about it.

'How are you?' Winter asked as Kale rested an arm around her shoulder.

'I'm getting better,' Kale said. Already his wounds were healing, but much slower than normal. 'It must be the legacy of my home world. Krypton's sun was red too.' He concentrated and for a moment lifted a few inches off the ground before returning to the surface. 'I think I could fly if I needed to,' he said. 'But I don't think I could carry anyone.'

'That's alright, Kid,' Kyle said. 'We're getting closer to the coordinates for the valley. It's looking like it's going to be underground, though. We may have a fight getting to it.'

'We'll do what we have to,' Kale said with a determined look in his eyes.

The valley narrowed as they approached the still unstable dam. The walls shook with residual quakes from the impact and seismic shock of the mountain's collapse. 'Well, according to the coordinates it's just over that mess,' Kyle said. 'Not surprising. Any suggestions?'

Kale looked down at the river and narrowed his eyes in concentration. It took more effort than he was accustomed to, but eventually he was able to pierce the layers of rock and sand until he saw the passage he was looking for.

'We can get there through the river bottom,' he said.

'Through the water?' Winter was not exactly tan, but looking down at the river she looked absolutely pale.

'What water?'

They looked down and saw that the flow of the river had slowed to a mere stream. Odd, wiggling animals struggled in the muddy river bottom as the water that sustained them pooled on the other side of the dam.

'Not sure that mountain will hold for long,' Kyle said.

'Then we'd better move,' Kale said.

'You just said….' Winter started when Kale gathered the three of them in his long arms and stepped off the cliff. Winter screamed while Jan cursed using several colorful Huttese phrases Kale had only heard from Han Solo.

They fell down the thirty meter cliff until with a grunt at the effort Kale slowed their fall. They all sank up to their knees in the muddy river basin.

'Eeewww,' Jan said. 'What is that smell?'

Winter still looked petrified as she stared down at the sickly green slime sucking at her thighs. 'Kale,' she whispered, 'don't you ever do that to me again!'

'Sorry,' he said, ducking his head. He pointed to a crack in the valley wall a few dozen feet away.

Kyle tried taking a step, but the mud held him like cement. That's when they heard the grunting; all four looked to see a massive, gelatinous blob rolling across the muddy river bottom with an array of tentacles waving at them. 'Water cyc,' Kyle muttered. 'Mr. Invincible, do we have any suggestions?'

'Uh, Mr. Wizard, do you have a blaster?' Jan said as she pulled hers.

'Oh, yeah,' Kyle muttered. The two took aim and started firing until the blob suddenly burst and a sticky green fluid spilled out along the muddy river bed.

'That was disgusting,' Winter said.

The ground suddenly rumbled, and a few hundred meters away, one of the boulders from the collapsed mountain fell from the top of the pile and sank into the river bed. A thin stream of water, barely visible, shot out like a spout.

'Hmmm,' Kyle said. 'Jan, can we get worried now?'

'Oh yeah,' Jan said.

Kale pulled his legs out, but was simply too weak to fly. But there were other ways, he realized. He took as deep a breath as he could and blew.

'Holy mother of Sith,' Kyle whispered in wide-eyed shock.

Where Kale's breath touched, the surface of the river bottom froze solid. 'A trick I learned on Hoth,' he said, gasping, when he had solidified the surface all the way to the crack. There was another rumble, and they turned to see another large boulder fall, exposing yet another stream of water. Around their thighs, a slight trickle of the river began to flow again.

'I'm still stuck,' Kyle said.

Kale slurped through the mud, grabbed the mercenary, and threw him like a ball onto the smooth, frozen path. 'Aaarrrgghhh,' Kyle yelled as he slid down the narrow lane until he disappeared into the crack. From the distance, he heard the man yell, 'I did not like that, Kale!'

'Get ready to catch Jan!' Kale said.

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'No!' Jan said.

'No!' Kyle shouted from behind the crack.

Jan screamed as she slid across the river bottom. Down the valley, the dam cracked. What had been two spouts of water became a torrent.

'Kale,' Winter whispered.

'You saved my life,' he said. 'You've been my best friend for three years. I'll die before I let anything happen to you.' He took her hands, pulled her from the mud, and then with his arm around her waist the two of them shot down the frozen alley into a narrow crevasse, where Kyle and Jan were waiting. Both looked put out.

'We have to hurry!' Kale urged. 'We go down and then up. If we don't get past the water trap, we'll end up drowning.'

Deciding staying alive was more important than berating an eighteen-year-old, the four of them scrambled down the crevasse until they came to a series of large steps leading up into shadow. By the time they reached the base, water was already spilling around their feet.

Kyle jumped up and then helped Jan. Kale simply lifted Winter up before climbing up himself. The trickle of water became a flood and quickly rose up around their feet even on the first step.

'The third step should be safe,' Kale said. Kyle and Jan were already on the second.

By the time they made it to the top of the third step, the swirling water stopped rising in the middle of the second step. Jan pulled a small glow rod from her pocket and found the passage Kale had seen from above. 'Which way?'

'Right,' he said with certainty. He noticed then that Winter was still holding tight to him, shivering in the cold as she rested her head against his chest. 'Are you okay?' he asked.

'You're warm,' she answered. He held her a little closer and the four of them started down the passageway.

No one could say for sure how long they walked. In the darkness it seemed to take forever, but when they arrived into the valley it seemed as if they had only been walking for minutes.

'Wow,' Kyle whispered.

'Wow is right,' Jan said. 'How could this place have been forgotten?'

Kale ignored them both and stared at the massive cavern. Statues of unbelievable size rose in relief against the walls, while surrounding a central hemisphere of black stone in the very center he could see six robed statues holding staffs before them in seeming salute to the rock.

'This place is throbbing,' Kyle said. 'Do you hear it?'

Winter and Jan both shook their heads. Kale said nothing, but he also could not hear anything. He was as deaf to the Force as the women beside him. He followed Kyle down the center until they stood before the stone.

Kyle placed a hand on it and bowed his head. 'This is incredible,' he whispered. Nodding with sudden understanding, he held up a hand and with the Force pushed. One of the statues moved back with a grinding of stone on stone.

'We need to move them all back,' he explained.

Kale didn't dare use the Force for fear of bringing down the whole cavern. He used brute muscle instead, and between the two of them had all six statues moved back away from the black stone.

Instantly the ground began to shake. Bright white light shone from the black stone as suddenly a tower exploded from the rock and shot toward the roof of the massive enclosed cavern.

It stopped midway there, and at the very top of the tower they could all see a glinting crystal, while along the length of it was a column of brilliant, flickering light. 'By the Force,' Winter said.

Without hesitating a second, Kyle started walking toward the beam of light. 'Wait!' Jan called.

Kyle turned and smiled, then leaned over and kissed her. 'It's okay. I was meant for this!'

He resumed his steps and paused before the pillar of light. 'This is incredible!' he said. A second later he cried out in agony as a green spear of light burned through his stomach and stuck out his back in plain sight of Jan Ors.

'Kyle!' Jan screamed.

The mercenary flew back into Jan's waiting arms and sent both tumbling to the ground. Where Kyle once was now stood Mara Jade, her right hand wrapped in a bacta patch, her left wielding the lightsaber with just as much sureness as that of her missing appendage.

'This place isn't for you, Kale,' she said. 'It's for me!'

She stepped back into the pillar of light and suddenly flew up the tower toward the crystal at the top.

'You saved her again,' Winter said as she knelt down by Jan. She looked up at Kale with an agonized expression. 'You saved Mara again, didn't you? Kale, how could you do that? How could you put us all in danger for her?'

Kale opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't. There were no words. He put them all at risk because of his infatuation with a murderer. With nothing to say, Kale pulled his golden lightsaber and ran toward the light and stepped in.

An unseen force pushed him up along the length of the tower as the light pulsed around his body. It did not go through him, though, as he had seen it go through Mara. Rather, the light flowed around his body like water.

Still, it lifted him to a platform at the very top. In the center of the beam on the platform Kale saw a huge white adegan crystal, the kind used to make lightsabers. On the other side of this crystal, he saw Mara Jade staring at him with eyes that were not her own. Harnessing his own powers, Kale drifted across the gap between the two separate sides of the tower until he stood by her side. Her lightsaber hung deactivated from her belt.

'You are the Palawan,' she said in a voice that sounded like a rippling chorus of thousands of singers projecting their music through a waterfall.

'I am Kryptonian.'

'You seek the power of the Force.'

'I do. Who are you? Where is Mara?'

'We are the Force,' the voice said. 'There is no death. There is only the Force. We died here. We are the Force.'

Kale felt his breath catch. 'The spirits of the Jedi.'

'There are no Jedi. There are no Sith. There is only the Force.'

She reached for the crystal in the center of the beam, and it came to her obediently. 'The Force is shaped by the life that creates it. From darkness to darkness. From light to light. Evil begets evil, goodness begets good. In this place darkness and light fought and died as one. Now there is only the Force.'

The crystal, easily as large as Kale's head, hung in the air above her palm. 'You are not of this galaxy. You are not of the Force. The Force does not flow through you. The Force does not flow from you. Why do you seek the Force?'

It was a question he did not expect, and was unsure how to answer. Literally, he sought the Force because Ben and then Yoda told him to. He wouldn't have been there if Yoda hadn't told him to come. But he knew this thing in front of him that wasn't Mara wanted more than that. The Force did not flow from him…. He was not of this galaxy. He remembered something his biological father said on Hoth. Perhaps if Pal-awa had been raised a Jedi, he would not have been unwelcome in your galaxy, Jor-el had said.

'I seek the Force so that I will belong in this galaxy,' Kale said. 'It is the only home I've known. I wish to be a part of it. To serve it.'

She nodded. 'To become one with the Force will require great sacrifice. Are you willing to give your life to the Force?'

Kale didn't understand what that meant, but he knew there could only be one answer. 'I am.'

'Then you must die, last son of Krypton,' the Force said.

The green lightsaber lit and flashed forward with speed greater even than Kale could stop. The searing agony of the blade once again burned through his chest.

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Mara deactivated the blade and held the white crystal before his eyes. 'Let the Force flow through you, Kryptonian. Become one with the Force and feel its fire burn!'

In the valley below, Winter looked up as she heard Kale's scream. It was stronger and more intense than anything she had heard since that day three years ago when she pulled him into her ship after he had lost his entire family. It was a pain of overwhelming physical agony and mental anguish. She felt tears well in her eyes.

'What's happening?' Kyle whispered.

'You're dead,' Jan said. 'You got stabbed through the heart by a lightsaber.'

'Then why am I talking?'

'Because you're stubborn,' she said as she cradled his head, leaned down and kissed him. 'And if you live through this, I'm going to kick your butt for letting that witch stab you in the first place.'

'Kick her butt,' Kyle said weakly.

'That too.'

On the top of the tower, Kale looked down and saw the white light no longer flowing around his body, but plunging into the hole Mara's lightsaber made in his chest. Every pore of his skin tingled, every hair on his body stood on end. He felt the sheer power of it lifting him as it filled his body.

Suddenly it seemed as if the world exploded. The statues suddenly came alive with alien voices speaking to him of wars long past, while ghosts of dead Jedi and Sith bounced around the valley like reflected blaster bolts. And just off the edge of the platform, floating freely in the air, he saw Ben Kenobi smiling gently at him.

'Welcome home, my son,' the Jedi whispered. 'The Force will be with you now, always.'

And suddenly it was over. Kale fell to his knees gasping for breath as his body continued to tingle. He looked up, expecting to see Mara still standing over him, but the Imperial agent was curled up in the corner of the platform, her hands over her head, crying.

'Mara, is that you?'

She looked at him, her eyes red, her teeth bared. 'What did you do to me?'

'What do you mean?'

'He's gone!' she moaned. 'I can't hear my master's voice.' She covered her face again and cried. 'I'm nothing,' she muttered to herself. 'I'm nothing.'

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Kale crawled to her side. 'You don't have to be nothing.'

She shoved the stump of her hand in his face. 'You did this to me! You took my hand, you took my connection to the Emperor. You've taken everything that mattered to me away.'

'Like you took my family?'

She stopped and blinked. 'I hate you,' she whispered.

'I wish I could say the same,' Kale admitted. 'Maybe my friend would not be dying down there if I had let you die on the star destroyer. There's a woman down there who loves me and wants to be with me. But I just can't get you out of my mind.'

He saw her lightsaber then, and so did she. It jumped obligingly to his hand as Mara watched, wide-eyed. The saber felt odd to him, and he realized quickly what had happened.

'I can't keep doing this,' Kale whispered. 'I can't keep saving you and putting my friends in danger. I can't let you keep coming after me. It has to stop.'

Mara closed her eyes, waiting. She was not expecting the feel of a cold cylinder in her hand. She opened it and stared down at her weapon, then up at Kale's face. 'I love you, Mara Jade. I have no right to, but I do. I can't kill you, especially not now.' He gently lifted her left hand until the emitter of the lightsaber rested under his chin. Around him, he sensed the Jedi howling in denial. He thought he saw the glittering shades of Ben and Yoda both looking on in despair, but he paid them no heed.

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'If you turn it on now,' he said as he looked her in the eyes, 'I'll die. But just tell me before you do it. Tell me the truth. Did you ever love me? On that day on Naboo we spent together. Did you love me as much as I loved you?'

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Tears rolled down her cheeks. 'Kale,' she whispered. 'I must obey my master.'

'And what does he tell you to do right now?'

She ground her teeth and stared into his eyes. He saw her thumb hovering over the activation switch. 'I am a servant of the Empire,' she said through her tears as she thumbed the switch on.