“Imri, focus,” she said, closing her eyes and reaching out to him through the Force. This kind of connection was mostly passive; joining with the Force was natural and right. They were all part of the living Force, as well as the cosmic Force, and reaching out to the living energy actually quieted some of Vernestra’s exhaustion. It could sometimes be too easy for Jedi to get lost in the great possibilities of the Force, and younglings were often taught to remember their own body’s needs as a way to anchor their thoughts. Spending too long in the Force could feel luminous, but bodies were crude matter that needed care and feeding, and those physical needs had to be kept in mind to tether the Jedi to their forms.

Imri settled, and Vernestra felt him searching for a way to call out to any nearby life. She didn’t try to guide him but rather watched as her master might have when she first became a Padawan, letting Imri figure it out. She could sense the moment he began to quest for life, each living being illuminated by its connection to the Force. Honesty and Avon glowed brightly, but beyond that was only darkness, except for a few faint flickering images on the far edges of what they could sense.

Imri turned back the way they had come, toward where the Steady Wing had been destroyed. Vernestra wanted to point him away from the site of the catastrophe, but she sensed that he’d turned that way many times before and she gave him the opportunity to look one last time at the remnants of the ship.

There was no sign of life.

There were no other shuttles, either, and Imri ranged out farther and farther. There was nothing, none of that heat and emotion, hunger and gladness, exhaustion and fear that characterized life throughout the galaxy. Imri began to despair as he tested the limits of how far he could reach and found not a single spark of life.

“Just a little more,” Vernestra said. She loaned Imri some of her strength, the same way she had added her abilities to Douglas’s back in the dining room on the Steady Wing. No, don’t think of the Steady Wing, she thought. Focus on life and moving forward.

But there was nothing.

Vernestra opened her eyes to find Avon and Honesty watching them. J-6 seemed otherwise occupied, looking for a port to charge herself. Avon tilted her head, her full lips pressed into a thin line.

“No luck?”

Vernestra shook her head, and Imri sighed. “Sorry,” he said. “But there’s nothing out there. We’re all alone.”

Vernestra patted his hand. “It isn’t your fault, Imri. We’re still moving, and we can try again later.”

Star Wars The High Republic A Test of Courage Chapter 9