1 SHARING THE SAME FACE JASON FRY YODA HAD VISITED MANY PLANETS DURING more than eight centuries serving the Jedi Order Back in his first years as a Padawan he could have named them all Now he couldn't even remember how many he'd seen All he knew was the number had to be in the tens of thousands But no matter how urgent the mission when he visited visited a new world Yoda would take a moment to open himself completely to the Force He'd let his senses be flooded by the life energies around him And everywhere he visited he found beauty and wonder Sometimes he had to look for them look hard even but they were always there and over the centuries he had decided they must be products of life two more expressions of the ever changing Force
JASON FRY He didn't have to look hard to find beauty and wonder on Rugosa They were all around him from the moment his escape pod came to rest on the sandy soil Coral fans spread red yellow and purple branches into the air from atop tall pillars while bulbous coral growths dotted the sand reminding Yoda of giant fruit The air was briny the smell of the ocean on a moon that no longer had one Above him in the colorful branches the gossamer wings of tiny creatures flashed in the watery yellow sunlight As Yoda leaned on his stick and looked around three clone troopers carried rifles and equipment out of the escape pod Yoda wondered if Thire Rys and Jek had noticed the little flying creatures or studied the coral forest surrounding them If so did the three clones see it differently Or were their perceptions as identical as the genetic code they shared Clone troopers were new to Yoda as was the idea that he was their general and they were under his command That idea was also not entirely welcome But it was his duty to command them now that the galaxy had 2
SHARING THE SAME FACE been plunged into war Katuunko the Toydarian king was somewhere nearby awaiting them beneath a great treelike formation of coral Yoda's mission was to negotiate negotiate a treaty with Katuunko to establish a Republic base on Toydaria The Separatists had learned of that mission and sent a task force to intercept Yoda's ship and drive it away They'd succeeded but the mission wasn't a failure yet Yoda and the three clones had ejected in an escape pod determined to keep the promised rendezvous with Katuunko Lieutenant Yoda said and Thire stood up straight and saluted Contact with King Katuunko I wish you to make Speak with him I must Right away General said Thire and Yoda could feel his eagerness as a pulse of emotion in the Force Eagerness radiated from all three clones in fact They'd been assigned to diplomatic escort duty and sent to Coruscant but the galactic capital was far from the war's front lines and they wanted desperately to prove 3
