Chapter 55

A battered T-6 Jedi shuttle, after wobbling through the atmosphere of Carnelion IV for a while, finally went down. Two ejection seats blasted out of the shuttle and landed on a snow-blanketed peak.

“Master—you did everything you possibly could!” young Anakin Skywalker shouted into the wind and snow from downwind. “I’ve never seen a planet surrounded by such a dense belt of space junk—no one can fly through that debris field unscathed—Master Plo Koon couldn’t do it either!”

“I think so too, Anakin.” The warmth in his apprentice’s words swept away Obi-Wan Kenobi’s frustration from the crash. He pulled his gaze away from the wreckage nearby. “That’s probably one of the two reasons no one comes here.”