In classic Star Wars fashion, the Jedi of the High Republic novels – who have now made the leap to live-action in the form of The acolyte – have led much of the past few years toward disaster. In the midst of the ‘Great Disaster’, which provided an explosive opening for that of Charles Soule The Light of the Jedi, they were first responders. The Cataclysmic Events of Claudia Gray The fallen star made them victims. Now, after a prequel outing in Phase 2 of The High Republic, Phase 3 is in full swing with the second adult novel in the series, Tessa Gratton’s Temptation of the force, in which the Jedi finally fight back.
Following George Mann The eye of darkness, Temptation of the force reunites the Jedi of the High Republic era after the marauder terrorist group known as the Nihil orchestrates a violent takeover of a portion of the Outer Rim known as the Occlusion Zone. Focusing on the reunion of star-crossed Jedi Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann, Temptation of the force promises to shed some long-dormant character work as we ramp up to what should be an explosive conclusion this coming spring Trials of the Jedi by Charles Soulé.
In this exclusive excerpt from Temptation of the forceahead of its debut on June 11, we see the beginning of the Jedi offensive against the Nihil – an offensive that involves not weapons of war, but words of inspiration.
As the Jedi take the battle straight to Nihil, a group of freedom fighters within the Occlusion Zone work to support the planets trapped in Nihil space, spreading a message of hope and freedom.
RILIAS II, WITHIN THE OCCLUSION ZONE
Cair San Tekka had been many things in his relatively short life: a spy, a musician, a secret husband, a security assistant, a secretary, a punk kid, a troublemaker, a pilot, and now a smuggler and freedom fighter. He wasn’t the only one leading several rebellions in Nihil space, and several such rebel groups had found ways to access the ever-changing anti-scav codes to allow for safer travel here on the border, as well as a communications subroutine channel that survived the Nihil communications embargo. Cair took care of those things too. But what he had that no one else had was someone who provided him with regularly updated, time-phased Path codes that could be used by the Jedi to penetrate the Stormwall.
And allies with their own ships.
Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Those ships allowed Cair to find themselves in the central water garden of Rilias II, huddled in the bowl of their foris alloy funnel. The funnel had been built a few generations ago as a decorative fountain the size of a small building, from metal mined on one of their moons that allowed for an exact resonance with the minerals found in their permanent scattering clouds. The funnel collected thin trickles of water from the water garden day and night, and on most days of the year at dawn and dusk, as the light filtered through the clouds, it hit the aluminum funnel. The reflection from the funnel caused particles in the air to vibrate into tiny rainbow stars.
It also boosted certain audio frequencies.
Cair adjusted the strap of his harness to better reach the small panel that was part of the controls at the bottom of the funnel. Balancing his feet against the sloping, smooth wall, he worked quickly to remove a data chip and replace it with his cut frequency transmitter.
This would be the fifth Morale Fall he had personally led, but the first to include a visual component.
Ever since he met Rhil Dairo last month, she had been looking for a way to incorporate visuals into their drops. Symbols and smiles, she had emphasized again and again. Cair didn’t disagree with the sentiment, just the practicality of it.
But today they had resources and opportunities.
It was a three-way setup: Cair down here cutting the funnel to match the frequencies needed, Rhil in orbit Brightbird– or as it was known in these parts, the Nihil transport Blood vulture– and Belin ready in his ship on the other side of the glittering felsic cliffs on the edge of town. Rhil had dropped the refitted communications buoy with her latest transmission, active on the frequencies Cair matched the funnel, and Belin would fly over the city and release a hydrospray to activate the clouds prematurely. Then their show would begin.
Cair finished his piece and pressed the countdown monitor he had brought with him. It was in sync with the similar countdown embedded in his artificial hand. He grinned. So far, so good.
It took some time to climb out of the funnel, but Cair hooked his legs over the edge and found a seat on a wide, ruffled lily pad. He leaned back on the soft moss and held his head high. The blue-green sky was streaked with thin blushing clouds, and occasionally a personal shuttle raced past.
Rilias II had been hit hard by the Nihil, but the central government had capitulated faster than many, giving in to demands for total surrender and allowing regular Nihil riot missions under the guise of ‘tax collection’. Neighborhoods were razed to the ground and anyone who fought back was taken into custody or killed. It was a terribly typical story of the past year in the Occlusion Zone, but thanks to quick thinking and cowardly leaders, enough of the population and wealth had been sacrificed to alleviate the Nihil somewhat.
That only made Cair’s work even more important. He had to remind people that they had to fight. And they could survive. There was hope. It was worth reaching out, worth a try. Everyone had to try it.
The water garden trembled beneath him as the city’s inner mechanisms opened the underground rivers. It was almost time.
Cair tried not to think too deeply about the moment of peace. Waiting was the only rest he got these days. The peace between planning and action.
As always, he pretended to feel the Force flowing through everything, connecting him to the lily pad and the water, to the sky and the atmosphere, to his allies in their positions, to the stars beyond, to his family – all in the there were problems. Republic space now, thank the Force. Cair wasn’t strong with the Force at all, but he had been raised to trust it anyway. Sometimes he acted so well as if he could even feel it in his bones.
The countdown alarm let him know he had one minute left, and Cair stood up. He stood at the edge of the funnel as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Security teams – the local police now indebted to the Nihil and oppressed by them – could see him if they looked. If Cair was seen, he could be shot on the spot. Or he might be applauded.
But Cair felt deeply that he needed to be seen. Someone would tell the story: there had been a human who had caused this disruption. Not from space, not from far beyond the Stormwall. Anybody here. In the flesh. They risk death and torture to bring them this message.
Cair stood up, ignoring the fear. This was worth being afraid of. Worthy of death. It had to. He’d spent too much of his life solely trying to benefit his family, making underhanded business deals instead of music, dabbling in industrial espionage instead of finding new avenues for his dulcimer. He was good at causing trouble and espionage, and he had never regretted prioritizing what his uncles and parents urged him to do. Until he met someone even better at such games and married him.
Of course, with the Nihil occupation, nothing was a game anymore. Cair had done his best to lay low, help whoever he could, and keep himself from putting a target on his man’s back. He didn’t know what else Unpleasant Doing.
Now he knew.
He had seen people sacrifice everything to keep their families alive. He had witnessed San Tekkas ignore profits and research, and everything Cair thought made San Tekkas San Tekkas just to save a handful of people in danger. They had been beyond courageous, risking everything and leaving everything behind, not for glory or profit, but for… heap. He had lost his hand when he had to make the same choice.
It still wasn’t easy to do. But every time Cair chose hope, it became a little less scary.
The warm wind blew tufts of messy black hair across his face. He allowed himself to smile. That would be the last thing he did, if it was the last thing he did. His dramatic husband would say: Running should be the last thing you do, idiot.
Cair heard the high-pitched scream of Belin’s engine before he saw the glint of the ship on the line of felsic cliffs.
It was time.
Cair turned a small red dial on his black metal hand and it clicked with frequency. The funnel buzzed in response.
The rest was up to Rhil and Belin.
Suddenly, Rhil’s voice rang through the air: “Greetings, free citizens of the border! This is your friend and ally Rhil Dairo, and today we have a message from a hero you all know!
Cair laughed. Rhil’s transmission would move from buoy to buoy until the Nihil managed to stop it.
The funnel banged harder and here came Belin, shooting through the air in his sharp-nosed shuttle. A sheen hovered behind him as the hydrospray clung to the lower atmosphere, ready.
Cair raised a hand to Belin, who disappeared over the distant horizon.
The spray caught the sunlight and the funnel flickered.
“Hello, this is Jedi Master Avar Kriss,” came the Jedi’s voice.
Everywhere in this system, and hopefully in the neighboring system as well, and in every Nihil ship and city with communications reachable, Avar Kriss spoke to those who listened.
But here on Rilias II, held in shape by the rainbow frequencies of the alloy funnel, Avar Kriss’ face looked down like a god.
If Cair knew Jedi at all, he knew she would hate the comparison. But Cair enjoyed it. He grinned and laughed again. And before he had brought it to its destination to be hastily picked up, he stood there watching and listening.
“I bring a message of hope, even if it is difficult to hear. But please listen. Even I know despair. I know. That feeling when everything is too much, when the pressure to look for something in the future is overwhelming. It hurts. I know it too. In times like these, just remember who you are, who you want to be. Who you can be. Focus on that. Fight me, if that’s who you can be. But if you can’t, you don’t have to fight. I won’t ask that of you. There are already people fighting for you. For all of us. All I ask of you today is that you live. Live today and try to find hope tomorrow. This is Jedi Master Avar Kriss. Help is on the way.”
Reprinted from Star Wars: The High Republic: Seduction of the Force by Tessa Gratton. © 2024 by Lucasfilm Ltd. Published by Random House Worlds, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.