Riptide (novel)

Riptide is a paperback novel by Paul S. Kemp. It follows Crosscurrent, also by Kemp, as its sequel, and was released on October 25, 2011.

Publisher's summary

When a ship carrying Sith warriors entered Galactic Alliance space, the battle to destroy it accidentally revealed a deadly threat: a long-hidden group of clones, secretly engineered as insidious weapons able to wield the Force and oblivious to the distinction between the light side and the dark side. Now the clones have escaped—and evidence indicates that genetic disease and violent madness have left them flawed.

Jedi Knight Jaden Korr hunts the clones, hoping to heal them while remaining ready to destroy them. Unbeknownst to him, Sith agents are close behind, intent not only on reclaiming the clones for their Master but also on seizing Jaden for their own dark-side purposes. In a life-or-death confrontation, Jaden will face a shocking reality that will shake him to his core and force him to confront what makes a man... and a Jedi.

Plot summary

The novel opens with Jaden Korr awakening aboard an unfamiliar station and wondering where his friends, Khedryn Faal and Marr Idi-Shael, are. He soon realizes that he is about to face something truly monstrous.

The narrative then moves approximately two days earlier, aboard the Junker, shortly after the events of Crosscurrent. Jaden and Khedryn discuss Marr's future, as Jaden is considering having him join the Jedi Order as an apprentice. They also discuss the ship carrying Jedi-Sith clones that escaped from the unknown frozen moon where Alpha and Kell Douro died.

Aboard the Predator, the escaped Jedi-Sith clones are suffering from a collective illness that was accelerated after they flew through the fiery remains of the Harbinger from the previous novel. This resulted from the Force-enhancing Lignan contained in the Harbinger. The sole exception is Soldier, the last clone created by the dead scientists on the frozen moon and the least faithful in the clones' belief that Mother will save them. According to the clones' prophet, Seer, Mother is an entity who will deliver them all from the illness, and they are traveling to her. Mother, who genuinely exists, meanwhile waits at home for the Jedi-Sith clones to arrive.

On the One Sith world of Korriban, Darth Wyyrlok meets privately with Nyss Nenn, while his sister, Syll Nenn, secretly watches. The two mysterious Umbaran siblings, although not necessarily Force-sensitive, can somehow suppress Force-users through their own power. Wyyrlok shows Nyss Nenn a recording inadvertently captured by Kell Douro through optic nerves secretly installed with the One Sith's help. The footage depicts Jaden Korr fighting Alpha, and Wyyrlok and Nyss notice that Jaden used green Force lightning on his fingers, summoned by fear or anger, indicating that he is falling to the dark side. They conclude that it is too soon for Korr to turn to the dark side, after which Syal Nenn reveals herself. The siblings agree to do what they can to delay Jaden's fall, and Darth Wyyrlok gives them two mindspears, pieces of ancient Rakatan biotechnology used for mind transfer. He also instructs them to take the Iteration, a clone of Jaden, with them.

After Jaden tells Grand Master Luke Skywalker about the events in the unidentified system, Skywalker agrees to send help to track down the Jedi-Sith clones. However, it will not arrive for quite some time, leaving Jaden to handle the situation with Khedryn and Marr. Skywalker also permits Jaden to train Marr as a Jedi. Later, Jaden and Khedryn discuss how Marr's training will affect his place aboard the Junker, but the Cerean firmly insists that he will remain, even as a Jedi. His training with Jaden then begins, while they succeed in locating the Jedi-Sith clones at Fhost.

On Fhost, most of the clones, including Maker, Scar, and Two-Blade, along with two of their children, Blessing and Gift, have already died from the illness. This leaves Soldier, Seer, Hunter, Runner, and Grace to depart the Predator and continue their journey. The clones travel to Farpoint to hijack a medical shuttle and obtain the medication that has so far allowed the surviving clones to endure the illness. When they reach the medical station, however, their actions have caused considerable trouble, alerting the city's authorities just as Jaden and his party, along with the Nenns, arrive to confront them.

Jaden confronts the clones and is surprised to learn that Seer is a clone of the late Lumiya, Runner is a clone of Jaden's own Master Kyle Katarn, and Soldier is his clone. Jaden battles Soldier and Runner but is defeated, enabling the clones to reach the hospital roof. Despite Khedryn's attempt to stop them, they hijack the shuttle and leave the world, taking Khedryn with them so he can explain how Jaden tracked them down. He cannot answer immediately because Runner knocked him unconscious. Nyss, meanwhile, had already stowed away aboard the shuttle.

After the chaos in Farpoint, Jaden and Marr collect Jaden's R6 astromech droid and track the shuttle using a beacon Jaden placed on it before fighting the clones. As they follow the stolen shuttle into space, Syll follows it because of her brother's signal there.

After the clones drop the shuttle out of hyperspace in a random system to question Khedryn, who has awakened, about how Jaden found them on Fhost. Khedryn says it was merely happenstance during their search for the clones, so Seer orders Runner to eject him into the vacuum of space. Nyss uses the opportunity to shut off the shuttle's lights and attack Runner, defeating him by killing the clone. He restrains Khedryn, intending to use him as leverage against Jaden, then kills Hunter. He battles Soldier, who is revealed to be the Jaden clone also sought by the One Sith. Although Soldier is partly immune to Nyss's Force-repressing ability, the Umbaran defeats him before Jaden and Marr arrive, with Syll arriving shortly afterward. Nyss blackmails Jaden over communications, offering to exchange himself for Khedryn. Jaden has no choice but to agree, suiting up in a hardsuit and rocketing toward the medical shuttle. Khedryn, however, had earlier been briefly and reluctantly freed by Grace. He allies with Soldier and cuts him free of Nyss's restraints, beginning another fight between Soldier and Nyss while Khedryn flees to one of the shuttle's escape pods. Unwilling to kill Soldier because of Darth Wyyrlok's orders, Nyss also withdraws, allowing the surviving clones to regain control of the medical shuttle. As Syll reels him onto their ship, he orders her to fire on Khedryn's escape pod, even as Jaden rockets toward it. Jaden uses his lightsaber and his power in the Force to deflect the laser blasts back at the ship, killing Syll. Marr rescues Jaden, whose hardsuit has two leaks caused by Syll, as well as Khedryn. Grieving his sister's death, Nyss then vows to kill everyone connected with Jaden and Soldier after capturing them for the One Sith.

The medical shuttle enters an irradiated system, where the clones find Mother, an entity imprisoned in a space station probably built by the ancient Rakatan Infinite Empire. The Junker and Nyss track the shuttle there as the clones encounter Mother. She proves to be a false promise, taking control of Seer's body and using her as a vessel to escape into the galaxy. Meanwhile, Jaden and Marr confront Nyss again. After the Umbaran knocks Marr unconscious, Jaden kills Nyss by strangling him. However, the fight leaves Jaden unconscious, allowing the Iteration to use a mindspear to remove Jaden's mind from his body, effectively killing him while preserving his memories and personality in the device. Marr fights the Iteration and defeats him, but refrains from killing him so he can use the mindspear to transfer everything that was Jaden into the Iteration. Jaden is reborn in his own clone body without realizing it and staggers toward Mother, just as he did at the novel's beginning. Marr hides Jaden's former body so that he will not discover what happened, but Soldier captures Marr. With Mother now posing an imminent threat, they agree to become allies, particularly after Jaden learns that Soldier, who had personally caused none of the trouble on Fhost, simply wants to save Grace from the illness. Jaden, Marr, and Soldier fight Mother, but she proves too powerful for them, so they decide to flee with Grace. Jaden instructs Khedryn, who encounters them elsewhere aboard the station, to load the docked medical shuttle's power core to blow up, destroying much of the space station. Soldier, however, chooses to take himself and Grace to the medical shuttle and obtain whatever medication he can to help her, while Jaden, Marr, and Khedryn continue toward the Junker. The ship cannot free them from the station's hold, even as numerous explosions follow the medical shuttle's destruction, causing the station to fall onto the planet it orbits. Despite Mother's power, Junker breaks free and shoots into space as the station, with Mother aboard, crashes in a fiery explosion and kills the entity.

As Junker returns to Fhost, Jaden notices that a scar he has had all his life has disappeared. He begins to grow suspicious, while Marr starts behaving strangely because he knows Jaden is no longer in his original body.

The novel ends with Soldier and Grace escaping in Nyss' ship after collecting the medication from the destroyed medical shuttle in time. They fly into the Unknown Regions to begin a new life together.

Continuity

On page 41, Lassin is incorrectly spelled Lessin.
The second chapter states that Relin Druur was brought from four thousand years in the past. However, every other source that specifies when he came from, including Paul's earlier novel Crosscurrent, gives five thousand years, which is correct because the current year is 41 ABY and Relin came from 5000 BBY.
In the ninth chapter, Marr curses when he sees Khedryn's condition. The book then says it was "the first time Jaden had ever heard the Cerean curse." However, earlier, in the eighth chapter, Jaden and Marr are together in the cockpit of the Junker when they are contacted by Nyss, and after hearing what Nyss says, the book states "Frustration almost pulled a curse from Jaden. It did pull a curse from Marr."