Watching Jacen run up the ramp into the Lightning Rod, Tenel Ka felt a tug at her emotions she could not explain, even to herself Almost at the same moment, Jacen reappeared and stared at Tenel Ka with a serious expression. His face broke into a grin. "I"ll tell you a joke when we get back-a good one this time." Then he was gone again.
As Lowie fired up the T-23"s repulsorjets, Tenel Ka answered, though she knew he couldn"t hear her, "Yes, my friend Jacen, I would like to hear your joke. When we all get back."
^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I THE LIGHTNING ROD"S engines whined as the ship strained against gravity. Just after liftoff, the battered vessel gave a sharp jolt. Alarm bells went off inside Jacens head. "We"re hit!" he cried, not even bothering to check the readouts.
"Naw," old Peckhum answered. "Lightning Rod"s been doing" that ever since I switched out the power coupling to the rear repulsorjets. I guess I"ll have to take a look at that again one of these days."
The knot of panic in Jacens stomach eased a little-but only a little.
"Maybe Jaina can help you with it later," he said.
An energy bolt streaked by as a TIE fighter sang past them on its descent toward the Jedi academy. "Hey, that was a close one!" Jacen said.
"Too close," Peckhum agreed. "Hang on, young Solo-I"m gonna try some evasive maneuvers."
Lowie focused his full concentration on getting the T-23 to cover. With his peripheral vision he could see other Jedi students dodging fire from TIE fighters as they sprinted for the safety of the trees. When they reached the edge of the forest, the young Wookiee pulled his skyhopper into a sharp climb.
The dense network of leafy branches had always signified protection to Lowie, and he longed for a few peaceful moments in the treetops. But no peace awaited Lowie and Tenel Ka up there. Not this time.
Lowie clenched the steering controls tightly and zigzagged the flight path across the treetops, trying to throw off any pursuers who might be on their track. "Ibday trouble rained down on them from above, and he could flee to no safe height. His best bet lay in remaining among the trees.
An energy bolt spat past the T-23 and sent up a plume of dirt and singed turf behind them. "Let the Force guide you, Lowbacca, my friend," Tenel Ka said from the pa.s.senger seat in back.
Lowie rumbled an acknowledgment and took a deep calming breath. He flew onward, letting the Force control his weaving ^ and dodging. They headed toward the wide, greenish-brown river over which Tenel Ka and Lowbacca had seen the Nightsister"s sinister battle platform. Even from half a kilometer away, they could see lances of laser fire shoot out from the armored vessel, incinerating trees along the banks.
Suddenly, Tenel Ka gave a shout of surprise. "Look. There!"
From the sky above a group of figures descended like swooping birds of prey human forms. Dark Jedi dropped from the clouds in a dispersed attack pattern, lightsabers flashing as they controlled their direction with repulsorpacks.
A proximity alarm sounded the moment Lowbacca diverted his attention, and a laser cannon blast from a pa.s.sing TIE fighter struck them. A jet of smoke and sparks spewed from the T-23"s rear engines. The tiny skyhopper shimmied and bucked in the air. With a shriek of shearing metal, one of the att.i.tude-control fins gave way.
"Oh my," Em Teedee wailed. "I can"t bear to watch." Lowie, reacting with the instinct of his Jedi training, wrestled with the controls.
Directed by the Force, one of his sharpclawed hands flew across the control panel, ^ while his free hand guided their descent.
Smoke poured into the c.o.c.kpit, and the skyhopper sputtered and rocked.
Without knowing quite how he did it, Lowie cut the rear engines and bled off their momentum into a steep upward climb. Then, letting the little ship fall back toward the treetops, he used one final burst from the repulsorjets to slow their , he hoped.
The T-23 crashed onto the jungle canopy.
With every breath, Tenel Ka drew fire into her aching lungs. Nearby a Wookiee groaned, but she could not make sense of the growled words. She could see nothing.
"Mistress Tenel Ka!" A strident electronic voice broke into her foggy consciousness.
"Master @wbacca urgently requests your a.s.sistance removing the T-23s canopy."
Tenel Ka tried to look around. She saw only roiling, changing shapes of light and dark. The shifting patterns stung her eyes, and she squeezed them tightly shut.
A voice loud enough to wake a Jedi Master from a healing trance wailed in Tenel Ka"s ears. "Oh, curse my sluggish processor, I"m too late. She"s dead!"
Lowbacca bellowed a loud denial. At the same time, something reached out and gave her a sharp nudge.
"No," Tenel Ka managed to croak. "I"m alive."
Lowbacca gave a few crisp barks, and Tenel Ka found herself responding to his instructions even before Em Teedee could clarify, "Master Lowbacca asks you to push against the canopy with all your might whilst throwing your weight toward the port side-to the left, you know."
Tenel Ka knew. She pushed and rocked.
Despite the choking clouds of smoke from the burning engines, she grew calm enough to let the Force flow through her.
Even through her closed eyelids, Tenel Ka could tell when Em Teedee switched on the bright yellow beams of his optical sensors to cut through the smoke. "It would seem," the little droid went on, "that the T-23s canopy is wedged against a tree branch. Oh, we"re doomed!" Then, just as the little droid finished his lament, the skyhopper"s canopy popped free, and fresh air flooded the c.o.c.kpit. Both Tenel Ka and Lowbacca stripped out of their crash webbing and scrambled free of the wreckage. As they moved away from the smoldering craft, panting for breath and waiting for their vision to clear, Tenel Ka"s hand went automatically to her hghtsaber to be sure it was still clipped firmly at her waist. It was.
"Oh dear," Em Teedee exclaimed in a tinny voice. "Now we"ll most likely become lost in the jungle and captured by woolamanders. Do be careful, Master Lowbacca. I should hate to repeat that dreadful experience."
Balancing on a tree limb beside Tenel Ka, Lowbacca turned to gaze at the crashed T-23 and uttered a low, mournful note. Tenel Ka could see that his distress came not from the thought of jungle creatures, but from the loss of his beloved vehicle. The warrior girl understood loss. She reached out her single hand to touch Lowbacca"s arm briefly and let the strength of the Force comfort him. Then, as one, they turned to seek out their destination: the giant battle platform and the evil Nightsister.
To Kenel Ka"s relief and surprise, Lowbacca had managed to crash-land barely two hundred meters from where the battle platform hovered above the crowns of the Ma.s.sa.s.si trees. Before she could speak, though, her Wookiee friend gave a low woof of warning and pointed downward toward cover.
Tenel Ka understood immediately and scrambled down into the leaves and branches until she was hidden. If they could see the giant battle platform, then they themselves could be seen. They would need to make their way to the battle platform beneath the rippling green leaves, like swimmers below the surface of an ocean.
With only one arm to help her balance and pull herself along, Tenel Ka had to trust the Force to place her feet securely at each step. She even welcomed Lowbacca"s help when he offered it in crossing weak branches or broad gaps.
Tenel Ka wasn"t sure why she felt compelled to speak. Perhaps it was the air of sadness that hung about her Wookiee friend.
"We will spend many enjoyable days repairing your T-23, Lowbacca my fiiend-you, Jacen, Jaina, and I. After this battle is over."
The Wookiee stopped, looked at her quizzically for a moment, then chuffed with laughter. After a series of woofs, Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca adds that Master Jacen will most likely be delighted to have a captive audience to entertain with his jokes." Tenel Ka felt her own spirits brighten at that thought, and they moved forward at a more rapid pace.
Her mind focused on the goal of defeating the Second Imperium once and for all.
Suddenly, she felt a tingle run up her spine. "Halt!" she said. A TIE fighter swooped low across the leaves, rippling the canopy around them with its hot exhaust as it circled to inspect the crashed skyhopper.
Lowbacca growled, and Tenel Ka held his arm to restrain him from any rash action.
The Imperial ship circled again over the wreckage, as if looking for survivors. Tenel Ka hoped the pilot wouldn"t blast the alreadydowned craft into a smoldering lump of slag and debris. After a tense moment, the enemy ship roared away in search of new prey.
She and Lowbacca pressed on through the trees toward where the battle platform waited.
It seemed like no time at all before Em Teedee said, "Unless my senses have become completely uncalibrated by the crash, we should be directly below the leading edge of the battle platform right now."
Lowbacca held out a hand, motioning for Tenel Ka to wait, and scrambled up a few branches to check their location. At his low bark of triumph, she climbed after him and pushed her head above the leafy canopy.
There, hovering ten meters over the treetops, was the underside of the giant battle platform, ma.s.sive and threatening, armored for a.s.sault, bristling with weapons.
"It should be a simple enough task to destroy it," Tenel Ka said.
The sounds of shouted orders and clomping booted feet carried down to them. Lowbacca pointed upward and then shrugged as if to say, What next?
The platform was too high above the trees to make a jump, and they had no repulsorpacks of their own.
Tenel Ka reached for the grappling hook and fibercord she kept at her belt.
"We"ll have to climb for it," she said.
The platform hovered higher than Tenel Ka was accustomed to aiming, but the grappling hook caught firmly on the armored edge on her second throw.
Tenel Ka tested her weight on the fibercord. The grappling hook did not budge. Then, wrapping her arm and her legs around the cord, she began to climb, using the Force to help levitate her when her single arm couldn"t provide enough support.
Above on the platform waited Imperial stormtroopers, heavy armaments, and a Nightsister from Dathomir.
Tenel Ka swallowed hard. She knew that although the Force was with them, the odds definitely were not.
THE GREEN-BROWN RIVER that flowed sluggishly through the primeval forest was broad and powerful, yet outwardly calm. The current showed not the least bit of disturbance from the t.i.tanic struggle of good and evil taking place on Yavin 4.
The river hosted numerous life-forms: invisible plankton and carnivorous protozoans, water plants, trees that dangled sharp roots into the flow, and camouflaged predators that disguised themselves as innocuous parts of the landscape.
But as blaster shots rang out and the buzz of lightsabers droned through the jungle, other creatures moved in the thick branches over the river and in the water itself... creatures trained in using the Force.
Rounded reptilian snouts broke the surface of the murky river. Breathing slits rose up, nostrils flaring to draw in welcome oxygen. The three scaly creatures moved slowly enough that only slight ripples whispered across the water. Settling into position deep in the mud, they sniffed and lay in wait near the path at the river"s edge.
Their enemies would come soon.
Moving stealthily yet radiating a Supremely confident power, three of the Dark Jedi trainees from the Shadow Academy strode through the underbrush, hacking away the dense vines and branches with their lightsaber blades.
They reached the riverbank and paused to consult with each other, still searching for their opponents" "Skywalker"s Jedi trainees are cowards,"
one said. "Why don"t they come out and fight? They all hide in the jungle like terrified rodents." "How can they not be afraid of us?" another one said. "They know the power of the dark side."
Consulting silently, with only a faint stream of bubble for communication, three of Luke Skywalker"s reptilian Cha"a trainees lunged out of the river, spewing a stream of water at their enemies. They used the Force to summon a hammering flow of the river, a colunm of drenching wetness that reared up like a snake, then splashed down. The Dark Jedi lightsaber blades sizzled and steamed.
The three Cha"a hissed and chattered with laughter as they summoned up more and more water.
The waterlogged Dark Jedi sputtered and thrashed from side to side as they attempted to summon up dark-side powers with which to strike back at their reptilian opponents.
Just then, from the dense shelter of the trees above, a trio of feathered avians left their perches and plunged down. They let out a high, fluting whistle of a battle cry.
The Dark Jedi were distracted for a moment, torn between two enemies.
Then the avians landed on top of them, driving them to the ground and knocking them unconscious. The avians chirped and screeched in victory as the Cha"a hauled themselves dripping out of the river mud and slogged toward the three new captives.
Working together, Skywalker"s alien Jedi trainees removed whiplike vines from the underbrush and lashed the arms and legs of their prisoners together. One of the Cha"a picked up the discarded Shadow Academy lightsabers, studied the poor construction and unimaginative workmanship.
One by one, he tossed the tainted weapons into the never. They splashed, and sank without a trace.
Meanwhile, the avians crouched over the unconscious captives and used their Jedi powers to probe the minds of Brakiss"s students. They added strong Force suggestions to make sure their enemies would continue to sleep for a long time....
Tionne tossed her long silvery-white hair behind her to get it out of the way. She would need her vision un.o.bstructed, with no distractions.
She looked at the other Jedi students with her gleaming mother-of-pearl eyes. Master Skywalker frequently entrusted her with training these students, and now Tionne would do battle. The Yavin 4 academy had often been a target of the forces of evil-but the true Jedi Knights had won before, and she had no doubt they would win again.
She and her students stood around the flat marble slab and broken columns of what had once been an open-air Ma.s.sa.s.si temple before it was swallowed up by the jungle. This was the place at which they had chosen to make their stand.
"Are you all ready?" Tionne said. "Remember what ou have been taught.
There is no try. We must succeed in defeating the warriors of the dark side."
Her students shouted their agreement, looking at her with eyes full of confidence in their abilities and her plan. One of the young women nodded to Tionne, took a deep breath, then ran off into the forest in search of the invading Dark Jedi. Within only moments the young woman cried out, shouting, challenging the trainees of the Shadow Academy.
Tionne heard a lightsaber sizzle. Branches fell... and then came the sound of footsteps crashing through the forest as her student hurried back toward the trap they had set. Tionne gestured silently for the others to prepare lemse. ves.
"Come back here, Jedi vermin!" one of the enemy called, hidden by the thickets.
Four Dark Jedi came plunging through the jungles, bursting into the temple clearing where the panting student stood on the other side of a flat marble slab hanging above their heads. Tionne"s student looked defeated.
The invaders stepped forward. "We will crush your mind with the dark side!" one said.
"Now!" Tionne shouted. From their shadowy hiding places, four of her special students reached out with the Force: in an unexpected, irresistible move, they s.n.a.t.c.hed the four hghtsabers from enemy hands.
The Dark Jedi cried out in alarm and surprise at losing their weapons.
Then "Bonne and her students emerged from the underbrush and surrounded them.
"We don"t need our lightsabers to defeat you. We can still flatten you with our power!"
????? said the first overconfident opponent. The power of the dark side!"
All four of the enemy Jedi stood in a tight cl.u.s.ter, back to back, raising their hands.
"I wouldn"t do that if I were you," Tionne said calmly, letting her pale lips show a brief smile. "You wouldn"t want to distract us-a brief fluctuation in our concentration might become a crushing defeat for you."
She glanced upward. Her four students remained motionless with their eyes closed, focused on their task.
The Dark Jedi looked up and saw that the marble slab they had thought to be the ceiling of a crumbling temple was completely unsupported, a hovering rectangle of rock weighing many tons, balanced over their heads.
It floated, held up by nothing but the power of the Force. honne"s students maintained their concentration.
The Dark Jedi swallowed hard.
"You can try to escape if you like," Tionne said. "Maybe you have enough power to subdue all of us with enough left over to catch that block of stone before it falls down on your heads. Maybe." She shrugged. "It"s your choice, of course. But I wouldn"t risk it." The four Dark Jedi exchanged glances, unable to find words. Finally, one by one, they lowered their clenched hands and surrendered.
Tionne heaved a quiet but heartfelt sigh of relief.
Another tree stood in the forest, short and stunted, with a thick trunk.
Branches extended out in such a way that, if looked at in a certain light, it had an almost humanoid appearance: one of Master Skywalker"s Jedi, a slow-moving, long-lived plantlike creature.
She often went out to spend days in the sunlight, using photosynthesis to drink in nourishment, absorbing minerals from the soil, water from the river, and carbon dioxide from the air.