Convergence (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Zoraida Córdova

Gella raised her free hand and extended it forward. She calmed her mind of the events that day—the moon, the dogfight, the long travel through hyperspace. And beyond that, hidden in the recesses of her heart, the doubt and fear that tested every Jedi. Mistakes that lingered like smoke long after a fire had been snuffed out. Choices she could not take back. All of it was set aside to fix the problem in front of her. She felt Enya’s bright aura through the Force, a heady feeling that reminded her of the first ray of sun after a storm. Together they guided the debris field away from the silver astromech rolling its way across the ship’s panels. Gella shut her eyes, slowed her breathing. There was resistance as the objects in motion fought against her. She was among them. She was weightless. She was strong enough to do this. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Oshi murmured. It was the awe in their voice that made her look. The astromech was already returning toward the air lock, task completed. When Gella and Enya let go, the metal scraps rushed back in, only pelting the deflector shield before drifting back into the space corridor. Gella smiled, truly smiled, at her fellow Jedi, then caught a movement at the corner of her eye. She shuffled closer to the viewport. Where E’ronoh’s atmosphere had been still moments before, it was shifting. White whorls of clouds ruptured like bloody cysts as six massive ships emerged into orbit. Hulking metal beasts nothing like the starfighters she’d seen...