Vernestra took a deep breath and let it out, trying to meditate. She could feel the nervous energy coming from Imri as he watched her, hoping that somehow, some way her ability to see other parts of the galaxy while she was in hyperspace would lead them to Avon. Vernestra wanted the same thing. She was worried, more than she was letting on to Imri. The Nihil were killers and scoundrels. If they’d taken Avon there was nothing good that could come of it.

But Vernestra didn’t have time for all those worries and wayward thoughts. If she wanted to find Avon she had to focus, on sensing the girl and figuring out just what had become of her.

Vernestra took another deep breath, letting it out slowly. She imagined herself as a small, burbling brook, babbling and twisting across a peaceful landscape, flowing into a stream and then a river, a wide, vast body of water that grew and grew until it was an ocean of possibility—cool, blue, refreshing. This was how Vernestra perceived the Force. While the Force was not a truly physical thing, but more a field of energy linking all living things, it was most helpful for Vernestra to visualize it as water. Water flowed and twisted; it conformed to its container and sometimes changed its form altogether. If Vernestra wanted to find Avon, she needed to do so through the Force.

The Force would know where Avon was. Now, whether Vernestra would be able to find a single brown-skinned human girl within the mass of all the living things in the galaxy was the real question.

Vernestra was floating within the Force, drifting, when she heard a voice. It sounded like Avon’s, but Vernestra didn’t want to break the connection by trying too hard. Sometimes reaching for the Force was the worst thing one could do. It was in those moments that a Jedi could lose their connection, focusing too much on the problems of their physical form and not enough on letting the Force do as it pleased. The living Force might be one of action and movement, but it was the cosmic Force that Vernestra strained toward now. The vast consciousness would know where Avon had got to, and whether or not she was safe.

“Avon…Sunvale.”

“Kara Xoo.”

There was a slight bump, and Vernestra was jolted out of the vision. She hadn’t seen anything, but she had heard Avon! She’d know her voice anywhere. It wasn’t what Vernestra had been aiming for, but it was better than flying around the galaxy hoping they were heading in the right direction.


Star Wars The High Republic Mission to Disaster Chapter 8