The breeze died, and that little bit of additional cooling it provided vanished. There was nothing more he could do. It was over.

Avar Kriss continued to use the Force to help the young man hold back his panic. It wasn’t easy. Keven Tarr wanted to spiral out of control. He felt guilt, shame, frustration…none of which were fair or earned, probably, but emotions were rarely logical.

She looked at Elzar. “Any ideas?”

“He needs to cool everything down?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Okay,” Elzar said, his tone thoughtful. “I might have an idea. I’ve never tried it, but the theory is sound. You’ll be able to sense what I’m doing. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. I can’t imagine I’ll be able to do this alone.”

Elzar seated himself on the ground, folding his legs together, then lifted his arms and closed his eyes. Avar reached out, trying to follow what he was doing. He was calling on the Force…but to do what?

She suspected this was one of his…refinements. Ideas were constantly popping into his head, ways the Force might be used to do new things, new ways the light side might answer his call. He failed, all the time, but she found his commitment to bringing new ideas to the Jedi inspiring. To Elzar Mann, what the Jedi were was nowhere near as interesting as what they could be.

Avar listened to the song of the Force…and suddenly she understood what Elzar was trying to do.

Impossible, she sent to him, a concept basic enough to be conveyed through the very loose emotional linkage the Force could give them.

He smiled, not opening his eyes.

Help me, he sent back.

Elzar Mann was talking to the air. It was hot here at the surface, above the furiously working droids, but much cooler high above. The hot air was rising, as it liked to do, but slowly. Not fast enough.

He asked the Force to help with that, and it responded, though sluggishly. Air was heavier than it looked.

Then, an easing, and he knew Avar was with him. That was good. Everything was easier when she was at his side. Literally, in fact—he opened his eyes briefly to see that she had knelt next to him, her forearms resting loosely on her thighs, her palms facing upward and her eyes closed, her face tilted up toward the sky.

The small patch of heated air rose higher, both Jedi creating currents to waft it into the sky above the plateau. This did very little to cool the navidroid array, though that was not really the idea here.

As the hot air rose, it reached cooler zones higher in the atmosphere. The heated air carried moisture with it, evaporated from the surface. Those tiny molecules of water found one another, touched, connected.